A New Hope

Season 2012

On May 8th, 2013, An Old man decided that winning needs to take a backseat and the victory jig needs to be put on hold. After overseeing 26 trophy laden successful years, he decided it is time to hang up his boots.

The man who motivated people to never give up (Not John Cena of course), who knocked some team named Liverpool off their perch, the one who unearthed some gems from the rough and the one who made ordinary looked extraordinary, called it a day. It was a shock to me and to most of the United family that day. I was in mourning for almost a week when the news broke out.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the man who lived and breathed Manchester United, bid his goodbye to the club and left a huge void in the footballing world.

He came.He won.He conquered.

Thank You, Sir Alex.

Season 2013

What came next, for the Manchester United supporters, were hard times, a fellow Scot, David Moyes, was appointed as manager of the club, whilst bringing a mid table mentality to the club and anguish among supporters. His time did not last long at the club, Ryan Giggs was appointed as a part-time manager but the board had different plans on appointing him as a full-time manager.

Clueless. As always !!!

Season 2014

Then came one of the masterminds of Tactical Football, Louis Van Gaal, and along with him came great expectations. He was then, the manager of the Dutch National Football team and his win against Spain during WC 2014 earned him more fans. However, he failed to win the fans during his stint with the club (apart from the dive in front of the refs in the match against Arsenal). Well, to be honest, he gave more to the club than he was given credit, he gave the youths a chance to flourish, won our first trophy (FA Cup) since Sir Alex's retirement. But, the philosophy and the quality of football he brought to the club was so rigid and devastating, it took the next manager nearly 14 months to fix it.

Thank you for the moments, Louie!

Season 2015

Enter, Jose Mourinho, A wanted man with a thing for notoriety was appointed as the Club's Manager. The supporters had divided opinions on whether he is the one to lead us to the promised land. The Board, Sir Bobby Charlton for sure, would have raised some flags when there would have been some noises on him being appointed.

A two-time Champions League Winner, numerous titles, and accolades across the European Continent, now it is his biggest and sternest task of leading a club back to where it actually belonged. He had to prove his critics and doubters wrong that he was sacked incorrectly in the midst of a player revolt in his old club. In the transfer front, we ended up buying Paul Labile Pogba for a then world record transfer of 89 million, eyebrows were raised. We also invested in a beast of a defender Eric Bailly that season and pulled a coup by signing God to the club. More eyebrows were raised when you especially go a mile further to sign an entertaining-charismatic-volatile 36-year-old striker.

Age is just a number!

We all had a lot of expectations from Mourinho and his players last season. Bringing the club back to the top was not an easy task, especially, when you had the additional burden of removing the dreaded LVG philosophy and mentality. And also there were clubs giving us competition in the transfer market, investing millions in reinforcing their squad. We did have a squad, but there were far from how they were supposed to perform and neither did we have depth.

Mourinho had one thing and only one thing in the mind, get the club back to where they belong, UEFA Champions League.

Our league position last year did not reflect our expectations. We were stranded in 6th position for more than 100 days last season, losing points by playing out to draws, giving teams a chance to have a go at us when the score was 1-0. 

Goalkeepers were on steroids when they played against us, we missed easy opportunities to score and were targeting the goal-posts as if we were competing in a FIFA Challenge (We still love you Paul Pogba). Not killing the game when leading 1-0 was also a pending issue that needed to be addressed. These came to bury us out of the picture for the necessary Top 4 finish for Champions League Qualification.

Now, we had one route and one route only, winning the UEFA Europa League. We played the final against a youthful Ajax side, and yes, we did win that with a remarkable team effort and gave us the much deserved Champions League automatic qualification spot.

Mission Accomplished

The game play has now improved and is much energetic than the past few years, there was this swagger from Paul Pogba, with a warrior of Ander Herrera supporting him. Zlatan, God of Manchester, gave us the goals and the much-needed arrogance and attitude to the team. Wayne Rooney broke the record of Sir Bobby Charlton, scoring the most number of goals in a Manchester United shirt. The ever present David De Gea and Carrick saved our blushes most of the time with Valencia and Mata supporting.

Engine

The performance of Manchester United last season was not a single handed effort, it was a team that did the talking on and off the field. And who else than Jose Mourinho, known for people management, ensuring that the chemistry and the performance coexisted with each other.

Season 2017

Yesterday, we played our first game this season against West Ham United, who are neither Barcelona nor Blackburn in defense, ended up conceding 4 goals against us at home.

But it was not the scoreline that emphasized the difference, it is the way of our play, the movement, the confidence and the intelligence United had on the field when the ball was with them that decided the outcome.

With a beast of a Striker Romelu Lukaku already signed with the help of our own Agent P, we shall probably end up with winning the "Steal Of the Season" award for getting Nemanja Matic from Chelsea. My sympathies and condolences to the Chelsea fan boys who are still pondering about the decisiveness of selling such an impact player.

Future Starts Now.

Yes, we are just one game into the season, but something tells me that I can look forward with optimism this year. After such a long time, I have this rejuvenated hope and expectations for this season. 

With the first team evolving with the new talents, and opportunities waiting for the rest of the squad, I cannot think of anything else but Manchester United slowly climbing back the ladders of success.

Special 1 with Number 1

This is Manchester United. And the Force is strong with this one.

GGMU.

Interstellar

The last movie I waited for to watch in this calendar year was here and as usual was filled with a lot of expectation and excitement. I purposefully booked the tickets for the second week so that I can wave off the wannabe know-it-all "Nolan-ites". That also coincided with the ticket exhaustion at the venues I actually wanted to see. To also be free of spoilers and the reviews before I get a first-hand experience of this film, I added the word "Interstellar" in my browser block filter, And also purposefully avoided appearances and activities in the Film Geeks group we share in the social media. You folks can do the same to let a review manipulate your thoughts about a movie.

Interstellar, I would call this as Jonathan Nolan's baby. Even-though the idea behind this was not his, but he grasped the idea and gave such a dedicated touch to the script, that he utilized 4 years of his life learning about relativity. We do not see that much dedication going on these days. Do we?

The movie has a great premise, great linkages, good performances in acting, visually beautiful sequences and seat crunching sound effects. The film, however, stumbles somewhere in the middle, gets negative with the flow and kicks in up again to give the ending he usually wouldn't give. He always lets the enduring with the perspective of the viewers and this time, he managed to guide the viewers towards the possibility of what is happening. When I watched the first teaser and the first trailer (links below), I expected this to be an emotional roller coaster ride than Inception. In contrast, I felt it less as compared to Inception.

Matthew McConaughey (Cooper): Where this guy has risen from? He is The Lazarus. From acting mindless Rom-Com movies to being the goofy-loyal agent for Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder, Then came Mud, and everyone started noticing this guy. And who can forget Rusty Cohle? Well, this guy has always been an under-rated actor and the way he takes up his role over here is worth to watch for. He expresses emotion and despair with a soulful performance that makes you feel bad for him. There are some scenes in this movie, which made me think that "I do not want to be in a situation like that". This is all because of this guy's acting and presence.

Mackenzie Foy ( Young Murph): This is a talented girl who had a couple of beautiful scenes and she pulled off with ease. Looking forward to seeing her act well in 10+ years and hope she does not become one of those Child Actors whose one shot to fame brings them back to darkness.

Anne Hathway (Amelia Brand): She had a very little scope to perform and showcase the acting she possess. But in the few scenes, she lets her eyes and expressions speak instead of the words and that defines a good actor. 

Micahel Caine (Professor): Where there is Nolan, there needs to be Michael Caine. The second most distinctive voice after Morgan Freeman. He still carries the charm through all these years and this is his 6th Movie with Nolan. Call it a lucky charm or call it Caine's charm. It is always a pleasure to watch you act and talk Sir !!!

Casey Affleck and Jessica Chastain: Two good and award winning actors and both have less screen space than I would want them to have. There is already a casting coup going between Batman and the Dawn of Justice Producers ;)

TARS and CASE: They stole the supporting actor credits for the movie. Two Artificially Intelligent Robots, with a human touch and honesty of about 90% (Chuckles). It was great to watch these two in the movie and this just builds the scope what Science can achieve in real life.

Now, that we are done with the casts. Let me elaborate the movie and technicals for you as much as possible without spoilers. :)

Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The first half of the movie keeps you engaging. The screenplay and the story and premise setting is all well paced and well directed. The visuals are all a spectacle and there are shades of 2001: A Space Odyssey you will find in the movie. The usage of miniatures instead of CGI for certain sequences gives you a deep-dive on the technicality involved in the movie. The music of the movie carries a lot of Church-Organ effects and this is something that Hans Zimmer has not encountered in his previous projects. From my personal perspective, this is Hans Zimmer's hiccup as compared to his music he has developed for a lot of Nolan's earlier movies.

The second half of the movie starts off well only to bring a 3-minute conversation between Amelia and Cooper about love which was not supposed to be happening at that juncture. They have just lost decades in an unsuccessful expedition and they were discussing something that does not involve a nerve to the story at that junction. That gives the screenplay a dip in form. Something I did not expect under the Nolan brother's expertise. The other part where I do not find it fulfilling was Dr. Mann's shades of villainy. That was not necessary to be part of the story. I guess that was mostly involved to get 15-20 minutes of extra film sequence and especially another thrilling launch and take off sequence. 

Nolan takes another stumble here where I guess he was pushed or cornered to give a good and happy ending for the movie. I always loved the way he ends his act without pulling the strings of his puppet. 

The movie is a trip to places where we had read about in our Science and Physics texts in school. So it is quite an achievement for the Nolan brothers to put something so distant and give it a face and linking it with a story. In that pretext, this movie is more than just "worth a watch". 

I can say that this movie is better than Gravity, as Gravity had a one-dimensional story. This one has more than just that. I would end this by saying that this was a good movie, but after dissecting and watching Nolan's earlier works, this could have been better.

Go, Watch it. And you will find yourself so insignificant in front of the universe.

Murphy's law doesn't mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever can happen, will happen.

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Like I wrote in my last review. The next movie I was looked forward to watching was Guardians of The Galaxy and Hell yeah... What a watch it was. Take a bow James Gunn and Nick Perlman. Guardians of Galaxy, an underrated comic book adaptation given the proper amount of marketing and hype could turn out to be the success story of the Summer.

The movie is filled with amazing soundtracks, witty dialog, an adorable tree and a proper sit back and relax moments. The film has a very least continuity from the last Marvel Movie. The Collector and Thanos were the only recurring characters from the end-credit scenes. If you are a newbie to the Guardians of Galaxy, you can still watch this as this will just make you crave more for them and you will then end up looking at their back-story once you are back from the movie. The film is fast paced and will always keep you in splits. 

I am Groot : You will love this line every-time it is uttered. Now for the character reviews.

Rocket never sounded like Bradley Cooper. Hilarious and Unpredictable. And that Hangover reference. Ha Ha.

Groot, like its first, peek in the first trailer that suggested. Adorable. He is the most adorable one of the lot. And the mini-Groot groove was fun. Vin Diesel -> FTW

Chris Pratt, came a long long way from getting his teeth broken from Wanted. Wow, this guy came up tops.

Zoe Saldana, Seems people have a kick in watching her in a color-painted body. That she is cast as a character that is of the same mold of the one she had in Avatar. Wild and Action packed.

Dave: This guy pulled off the cheeky lines with ease. Probably he is one wrestler who can pull of an act. Remember HHH in Blade 3? (surprised)

The villains did not have much of a development in the movie. All they cared for is the lust for power. 

The soundtrack timing is impeccable and what a treat to listen to these songs all over again. Plus the theater acoustics was one of the best in town.

Looking forward to seeing more of Thanos and Collector (Of course) after their blink and miss appearance. And As they said, Guardians of Galaxy will return.

It would be too unreal to bring them in Avengers: Age of the Ultron. But again, you never know.

Marvel, I am so much in Love with you.

Song of The Movie: Hooked on a Feeling - Blue Swede

PS: Go ahead and listen to all songs in the movie. Epic ones. Takes me back to the past. Also, the End Credit Scene may confuse you (winks)

Ain't no thing like me, except me!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I missed out watching the First Avenger in a theater when it got released. Well, Captain America will always remain as the sanest/sensible one among all the other heroes of the Marvel Universe in the Avenger Lineup.

The promos of the movie already gave the viewers a peek over the neck and neck dual between the Winter Soldier and the Cap. Now for the movie, it carries a good pace with itself and the story-line brings the gap closer to Avengers: Age of the Ultron.

Chris Evans as Cap Am gained some extra pounds and is well toned to look more huge, especially in 3D . Chris Evans has come a long way from playing a goofy Pyro in Fantastic Four. Good to see him back donning the American Colors. His action execution has improved, thanks to the wonderfully choreographed stunts and possible competition from Seb Stan.Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow continues her role with a mysterious past and an aging future. She looks terribly old in certain parts of the movie. In other areas, she performs her stunts with ease and shares a good rapport with Cap Am.Anthony Mackie as Falcon, in his debut "superhero" movie, dons the Stark Industries powered Wings and assists them in the final stages of the movie. I personally think he deserved some more fire power as he looks a bit vulnerable in that part. Tony... Could you help him with that?

Sam J as Nick Fury. There is nothing to describe his character. We all know how Sam J takes any role and how easily he fits into a character like Nick Fury. Robert Redford as Pierce. Good to see Redford back again in the universe. Even if it was only for one movie I guess.

Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier. Perfect match for the Cap's moves. A level higher than the Super-soldier sometimes. Playing a villain to a superhero is not easy especially when it's in the ratio of 3:1. Would love to see what the future holds for him. Also the future of Rumlov's.

Good to see the Russo brothers keep the continuity of the Captain America adventure. Let's hope they do continue as they are raising the bar for themselves.

Stunt Directors and VFX: You guys are the unsung heroes of almost every movie in 4. It is high time people start taking you seriously. Hats Off.

Do not forget to sit through the end credits. They are 2 of them.

PS: Also watch out for Stan Lee as usual in his hide and seek role.

Now, for Guardians of Galaxy... Ooga Chaka Ookha Ookha !!!

Dialog of the movie: On your left !!!

The price of freedom is high... and it's a price I'm willing to pay!

World War Z

I'm not a critic. I'm a fan. I see the glass half full. Not half empty.

This is a mainstream zombie movies(non zom-com) from Hollywood since I am Legend.

World War Z adapted from the book of the same name. I haven't read the book so it's pretty explicable that I'm not going in there to see the book in motion. It's pretty delusional to expect it.

The film brings the subject of the movie into the picture pretty quick. Doesn't make you wait with impatience. The pace of the movie is engaging.

The storyline is like one from the Bourne series where you just have to move from location to location and try to stay alive. The only difference is the apocalyptic world and the flesh eating zombies.

Now to the visual effects and the character presentation. The movie, post processed in 3D is a good attempt. You will get to see zombies landing on your face and the view from the chopper are a treat. The presentation and the acting of the zombies are close to scary and that's a very good attempt by those. Each scene where the zombies chase the humans and the epic zombie wall scene was worth it.

Acting. Well, Brad literally takes the movie on his shoulders as he is the one fighting against the zombie army and is mostly alone with a couple of side kicks helping him out now and then.

The movie is directed by Marc Forster, he directed the critically acclaimed Finding Neverland, Monsters Ball and The Kite Runners. Making a zombie movie would have been a different experience for him and it's a brave attempt.

The soundtrack of the movie is awesome. Especially the ones where the piano touched turn in a bit techno and eerie. You can sense that the composer is Hans Zimmer especially in the scenes where the USA is wiped out. But you would be sensing wrong as it's not Hans Zimmer.

The sound effects, the zombie growls and the echoes of their footsteps in empty corridors would make you feel uncomfortable.

PS: The multiplex I watched had a Atmos Sound system. And that was an amazing experience.

A game with more enhancing sound effects should be released and that would be a treat.

One thing I didn't like: The plane scene. I didn't expect people making alive from it. But they do. It's a bit illogical but that you should just move on from it.

Like a boss scene of the movie: Brad Pitt drinking Pepsi in front of the zombies and waiting for them to attack. If they attack.

Catch OST of the movie : 

Mother Nature is a serial killer. No one's better. More creative.

Oppressed and Depressed

Our country turns 65 today. 

65, in the eyes of William Shakespeare (in his work ”As You Like It” also known as “All the World’s a stage”), depicted as, Old age: He begins to lose his charm — both physical and mental. He begins to become the butt of others' jokes. He loses his firmness and assertiveness and shrinks in stature and personality.

The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound.

Now just impose this phrase on our country and it comes out to be politically correct and apt. Our land, India, now has lost its charm of being one of the greatest landscapes of art and architecture now has reduced to a land of scams and perpetual agitations from self-proclaimed saviours. What happened to land that gave birth to citizens with stern beliefs and leadership (not politicians I am mentioning of)? Now it has become a land of political gimmicks, underperforming individuals, Bollywood and Cricket. 

From Inflations to atrocities, this country is in the golden period for these things. Criminal minds and poor tactics from the ruling government has led shame and frustration. True, a set of people can’t do much in a constitutional way for a crippled nation. But taking advantage of the situations and robbing the nation of its wealth is the last thing its citizens want. What our country needs is a ruling that is determined to change the country and not to undermine the situation of our nation. The nation is Oppressed and its citizens are Depressed.

No matter who comes to power, it's the citizens who suffer...

Our nation has lost its charm, a charm of mystery and unprecedented desire to succeed in the fields we step in. Now, it has just become another nation going through a mid-life crisis. However, the mid-life crisis of our nation seems to be a continuous process. The personality of our nation has now diminished to that of a dacoit, one who robs men of money (Corruption) and women of their modesty (Rape/Domestic Abuse). 

The nation, including its citizens, needs a change. A change what our country deserves, a country with such a rich heritage and history. Change is not a single step procedure; it must be carved into detail like a monument. The monumental change should come; at least the foundations for a change must be embedded sooner before it’s too late. The nation waits… The nation hopes…

Reconstructing India.... Much needed....

Baby steps or giant leap ?

It's been nearly a month ever since I started packing for my new assignment regarding my career.
I had to go through the ordeal of packing stuffs that I require for the next 6 months. My new assignment is located in a different city and in the southern part of the country. So packing stuffs as per the climatic and regional ambiance is a tough task as its a shift for me from the north to the south region.

The options to leave stuffs were minimal and that made me pile up the luggage count. Once done, facing my mom who was going through her own bigger personal turmoil of staying with not much company around the house. Yes.... She was referring me.

After all that packing and farewell ... I left New Delhi for Chenna by train. Thinking... Whether its a baby step or a giant leap...

Step or Leap ?