The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Movie Review

Hi Guys,

A movie review after a very long time. And that too a review of a newly released movie after a very very long time. I generally don’t risk reviewing a new movie as I’m not a very good reviewer. Let me try something this time.

Christopher Nolan – My most favourite director. He designs his movies very intricately. After the amazing success of The Dark Knight and the Inception, I was wondering how he is going to meet with the expectations. But he has made the movie in such a way that our expectations increase further for his future movies.

The Dark Knight Rises – the concluding part of the Batman Trilogy. The setting is perfect. Batman is considered to be a criminal in Gotham. The Joker is dead and Harvey Dent is celebrated as hero. So, we are pretty clear that the movie can’t continue without new characters and Nolan has filled the space with some interesting characters.

A new masked man enters the scene. He is Bane (Tom Hardy). His main aim is to destroy the city with his aides. Meanwhile, there is this Cat Woman (Anne Hathaway) who is a small time burglar. She helps Bane by taking Wayne’s fingerprint and demolishing his wealth.

There is also Blake (Joesph Gordon-Lewitt) who is a patrol officer and deep believer of Batman. He discovers that Batman is Wayne. He grew up by means of orphanage funded by Wayne (Christian Bale). Meanwhile Comissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is unable to reveal the truth of Batman and Harvey Dent.

Wayne locks himself in his house and after all the years, when Bane comes to the city, the city needs him. Gordon is shot down by Bane and is in hospital. He promotes Blake to Detective. Wayne is not as strong as he was. He loses his power in the company. He makes sure that the nuclear power is not used for the wrong purpose, but Bane attains control. Meanwhile, Fox designs a new flying vehicle for Batman.

Wayne meets Bane due to the tricky works of Cat Woman. The Cat Woman realises her mistake by then. He takes Batman to a prison from which escape is nearly impossible. Bane plans to destroy the city soon. He brings out Gordon’s secret notes and hands over power to prisoners, whom he calls the people of Gotham.

How Batman comes back strong? Who is Bane? Why does he want to destroy the city? How does Batman prevent that? Watch the movie!

You can find lot of Nolan’s signatures in the movie. There is one scene is the concluding part where good becomes bad and bad becomes good and the motive is explained. Nolan likes have his previous cast members in the new movie. Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard are also main actors in Inception. Needless to say, most of the crew is same as The Dark Knight. There are many other signatures which Nolan fans would recognize.

Background Score is one the biggest advantages of the movie. Hans Zimmer is splendid with the background as usual.

The first two series were mostly filmed in Chicago. In order to avoid repetitions, this time they moved to Pittsburgh. Some of the scenes have been taken in Jodhpur (easy to find out).

Chris Nolan wasn’t interested in doing this part and he accepted to do this only after some hesitation. And he has created yet another Masterpiece.

This makes me wonder how Nolan will bear all the pressure to produce a similar movie next time. As far as now, sit back and enjoy the movie.

Happy Reading!!!

Is Flipkart losing its path?

Hi Guys,

Two or three days back, there were many angry views on Flipkart in Twitter. The reason was Flipkart increased the minimum price for Free Home Delivery from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300. There were already a few murmurs here and there and this announcement made e-shoppers fuming.

I still remember my first purchase on Flipkart. How I came to know about the site was far more interesting. It was nearly three years back or might be a little less than that. My dad was searching for a book that was a detailed city map of Chennai. He was not able to get it at most of the shops. A few days before this incident I read one of the Chetan Bhagat’s books and went to his website to see more details about him. That’s when I saw the link for Online Purchase. And so when my dad was searching, I thought why not try it online.

Of the two or three sites (that were actually referring to Chetan Bhagat’s books) Flipkart had the book my dad wanted and that was the first purchase. Its value was Rs.240. No discount was given for the book. Anyway we were impressed with the packing and my dad was not able to believe the service.

Days went by and I bought quite a lot of books at Flipkart. I started referring the site to my friends too (Flipkart was not advertising then). My classmates turned out to be a big customer for Flipkart in the following time (particularly during the Placement season). The free home delivery price was Rs. 100 then.

Next story is How I moved out of Flipkart. I can’t say I moved out completely, but then I detached myself from Flipkart Books service. The reasons were simple. I was able to find books at a cheaper price in some other sites. Sites such as Junglee, provided a comparison and gave the best offer. There were sites which gave Free Home Delivery for literally everything they sold.

Still, I made my brother buy his mobile phone through Flipkart and recently I too got it via Flipkart. In terms of mobile phones or electronic gadgets, I think Flipkart is still a very competitive one.

But in terms of books, which was their starting point, I think they are slowly losing their path. Most of the books cost below Rs. 300, so who will buy the books from Flipkart. The price might be cheaper than the book at a bookstore, but still to a customer, Rs. 30 seems to be a big value. And most of the other e-stores offer at a very less price.

And there has been many other complaints too. Some of the goods, they display as In Stock are actually Out of Stock. After making the order, someone calls you after a week and say that it is unavailable. How terrible will it be? It is happening particularly in the case of highly expensive low moving products. This makes the higher end customers move out.

On the whole, it seems like the biggest online store of India, that set example for many others is slowly losing its path. With competition coming in from various other sites in many parameters, if Flipkart doesn’t respond there is a huge chance of the company being overtaken by some other e-store.

Happy Reading!!!

Roger Federer - Back in the Top!

Hi Guys,

It was an interesting Sunday evening. Being in a lecture hall, seeking for different channels on net to see the Wimbledon finals live and then finding out a foreign channel whose language was unidentifiable. Then we had the rain stoppage and a nice interaction with a professor at 10 pm and then finally watching the match with English commentary. Roger Federer was back in form and back in the top.

The first set was a very tight one till 4-4 and then Federer lost his serve game poorly and it allowed Murray to conquer the first set easily. The second set was just superb. I thought it was heading for the tie breaker when the scores were 5-6 and Murray was 30-0 in his last game. Federer made a wonderful comeback and the way he took the set from 30-30 to 50-30 was just amazing.

Rain spoiled the play in the third set and as it has been happening in this Wimbledon, the rain stoppage went advantageous to Federer who won both the third and fourth sets very easily.

So, Federer won his 17th Grandslam and has become the Number 1 player once again setting into his 285th week as the top ranked player, just short of his hero Pete Samprass. He is all set to create record in the next few weeks.

It was a magnanimous effort from Federer, particularly after suffering from the back pain in the early stages of the tournament. After that the last three matches were just fantastic. He crushed all the opponents. Nadal’s exit was also an important factor. Many may wonder what it is between Nadal’s exit in second round and Federer’s win. Might be if Nadal had stayed and if it was Federer vs Nadal in the finals, the game could have been different. Nadal always had the psychological edge over Federer.

Looking ahead, the season looks to be interesting. Rafael bowed out in the second round. It was a shock defeat, but then you can’t say he is in bad form. He just won his favourite French Open. Djokovic is not as good as he was in the previous season, but still he is in the top. Murray has been a wonderful player, but the sad thing is he hasn’t got any luck and buckles in the finals.

We need to wait ahead to see if Federer is really back in his great old form. Anyway it is great achievement to bounce back and claim the number one spot after quite a long time.

We have two interesting tournaments ahead. The Olympic Tennis which is again at Wimbledon and then the US open. Let’s see how the matches progress and who is really in form.

Happy Reading!!!