Arsenal - Never count them off

Arsenal are an amazing side...Though they have been a little inconsistent in the English Premier League this season, but the form that they have shown in some of the matches and in all the matches of other competitions including the UEFA champions league has been truly magnificent...
Last night they were up against Wigan Athletic in the Carling Cup.And as always Wenger fielded his second string side, making 11 changes from the side that played against Manchester United at the weekend...The average age of the side was 19 years.And again as expected, the young guns didn't let him down and won fairly comfortably 3-0... The win even made Wenger say that he is tempted to field some of these players in the EPL...
Arsenal have an amazing style of football, which is very different from what the other teams show in EPL... And the way they attack and counter attack at times, its really remarkable to say the least... One team that comes close to showing their way of playing is Barcelona...
In last Saturday's big match against ManU, all odds were against them...But the way the came back showed that you cant write them off any time... Even when they were 2-0 up, they didn't stop attacking...It was a spectacular display of football...With 5 minutes remaining and the scoreline favouring them, they still had 5 players moving towards the ManU goal line which is a rare sight anywhere.... Though they conceded a goal in playing such superb football, but still it was magnificent to watch them play like that...
I really hope that they don't slump this season like they did last season...And with Rosicky and Eduardo slated to come back soon,hope that they show the same kind of football like they showed last Saturday more consistently...

VIVA ARSENAL

The Democratic CHANGE

Today, Senator Barack Obama was elected as the president of the United Stated of America. And he has many firsts to his name. He is the first black president and also the first African American president of the most powerful nation of the world. And this speaks for itself...

People around the world have an image set on their minds of America being a racist nation. And the riots that broke out after the assassination of Martin Luther King was a good testimony of this. So the same nation voting for a black president just 40 years after that, looks quite amazing. The elections were very closely followed everywhere around the world. And one thing looks certain "America voted for a change"...

And the change was needed after eight long years of Bush administration. The country's image has derogated ever since. The economic crisis also happened at the worst possible time for the Republican party. Also America's failure in Iraq was due to take its toll.
People always like change....Or to say in other words people don't like the same to go on for longer than necessary. And this is true not just on the political front but also in any other case. If the change looks even slightly better than what is current, people certainly go for the change. And I believe this was a major factor which led Obama to such a landslide victory over McCain.

I just hope that the much needed CHANGE also comes to India sooner than later. Also whatever the change is, be it in America or elsewhere, the change always remain better.

Fashion is not so fashionable

I saw the movie "Fashion" on the day of its release...And believe me it was a complete waste of money and time...We had great expectations from Madhur Bhandarkar, especially after his two previous films, Page 3 and Corporate got such wide acclaims from the critics as well as the public...

"Fashion" was meant to throw some light on the fashion industry which for most people is a very dangerous industry. Dangerous in the sense that most of the conservative Indian people don't approve of the skin show in the modelling industry and consider it against the morals. Also most people have a thinking that people have to go to any heights in order to establish a name in this field.
The film does go on to show all the harsh realities of the industry...But a movie has to get the audiences grooved to it till the end. Unfortunately, this movie fails to do so...And being a 3hr 15 min long movie, audiences were bound to get bored. And the main point that was missing in this movie as compared to Bhandarkar's earlier movies was that there were absolutely no surprises in this particular flick, no twists and turns as you had expect from an artist of his genre.
The story is about a small town girl coming to Mumbai to live her dreams of becoming a super-model. She does become a super model but in the process of doing so, loses her morality and eventually the friends also leave her...Later, she comes to realize her mistakes and comes back again in the industry and again makes her mark and achieves greater success as a model than earlier... The movie gets very boring at the end...Audiences keep expecting that there would be some twist in the story at some point, but unfortunately they don't get even one....
My personal view on the movie is that it could have been a lot better. There were certain characters included in the film that were absolutely unnecessary which made the film a little longer. So go and watch the film at your own risk. And do stop expecting a lot from Madhur Bhandarkar...