Oscars , 9 selected films and Rang De Basanti

The Official Oscar Selection is back . After last year's Paheli and the previous Lagaan won huge accolades at the award ceremony and made India oh-so proud , this year's Rang De Basanti is also going to go places.
Apparently , only 9 films were submitted , prominent ones being KANK , Yun Hota to Kya Hota , Lage Raho Munnabhai , Omkara , Corporate and...Krrish (which incidentally , had unintentional references to certain Hollywood movies). Great. If they were to extend this sending-to-the-Oscars ritual this year too , they could have atleast selected Bluffmaster...For record's sake , nothing more.

Anyway , Rediff's Raja Sen doesn't seem to have enough of Oscar talk. "It is surprising to have only 9 films submitted. The FFI invites all producers to send in their films if the makers feel the end-result is Oscar-worthy..." ->Rang De heads to the Oscars!
Cut the crap!

Rantings

Hugely Entertaining (for obvious reasons) :

The six and a quarter second appearance of Abhishek Bachchan in a twenty second "Umrao Jaan trailer"

Incomprehensibly Entertaining :

Orkut

Boring :

The Hindu Newspaper , both in Bangalore and Chennai



Mumbo-Jumbo :

Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy - a neverendingly fantastic family saga

The Forum , Bangalore and some entertainment

In Bangalore , it is almost impossible to travel anywhere. One , the god-forsaken traffic does not allow any more sightseeing than Spice Telecom ads featuring a super-thin Priyanka Chopra and Mitsubishi Lancers , Honda Cities , Tata Indicas and the drivers. Zzzzz...
Anyway , I hardly go out ,one because , i am ultra-lazy and two , there is no great 'tourist' spots around , other than the swanky Shopper's Stops , Globus(es) and Malls of Bathroom Accessories Exported Straight From Paris. Whew! And ofcourse , the temples. No comments.
Anyway , in the past few months i have lived in Bangalore , my only outing has been the stinkingly expensive Forum which is something like half an hour and ten minutes from my house and 'window-shopping worthy'.
The Forum does not even cover half the area of the Spencer Plaza in Chennai , yet it is entertaining , even if you visit it a dozen times like me. The Forum is less crowded than Spencers which allows some space for breathing and hoarding(s) of John Abraham , unshaved wearing Fast Track glasses. A 'drishti' at the entrance for the well-being of the mall.
Anyway , at the basement , there are only shops and restaurants and you wouldn't want to enter them unless you want to spend something like thirty rupees on a cup of Lipton Ice Tea and want to be as naive a shopper/buyer/customer as me.
One speciality of the Forum is that everything you have spotted on the Pondy Bazar street is branded as 'rare' and 'precious' here and sold for a 200 bucks.Ahem.
But my favourite of all the stores here is a particular 'soap-n-shampoo' shop. This store sells soaps which have most magnificent names (Karma Soap , Blue Clouds and White Moon Soap , Honey! I just washed the Kids!! Shampoo , Apple Pie and Red Cherry hair softener and things like that) and even more magnificent prices (50 grams at rupees 80 , 100 grams at rupees 180 , 200 grams at rupees...well, don't ask!). Why such sky-rocketing prices you ask? 'Cause these cosmetics are non-animal tested and have 'natural' ingredients! Yeah , right!
This is not the end of the surprises Forum displays , there are many more. But I , have unfortunately not gone beyond the Land Mark Book Shop (and ofcourse , the designer soap shop ;) ). Perhaps i will , one day , and that will amount to some more rantings and surprise , surprise! discoveries :-)