300 - The Movie

As mentioned in my earlier Blog, I recently saw the much in talk movie 300. Although I wanted to see it on Imax, the tickets and shows were far and between leading me to settle for the normal screen. As a pre-cursor to the hype related to the movie, I read up the wikipedia posts related to it. This movie has been made from a graphic novel also known by the same name. As a good History student in school, (for those of you who did not know me back then, I had once contemplated a career in archeology) I was intrigued by the amazing quality of the post and how it got me involved in this 'against the odds' fight.

Having said that, my reading exercise also let me form my expectations for the movie to be a fantasy kind of a historic and not an out and out historical account of the battle. The one thing that came out of the comments made by the makers was that It was a literal conversion of the graphic novel. So those of you who are wanting a gripping authentic account of the battle and era, you would be disappointed. For the real account refer this

Now lets get to the real deal, the movie itself. For a person who likes action movies, this one does not let you down. Even if you leave out the rest of the movie and watch the battle scenes, you would be treated to your money's worth or more. The skill of the Spartan soldiers is hyped to super human proportions and the 6 packs on each one of them, holds testimony to this claim. (btw if you felt this was done using special effects, think again.... Look at this routine for the actors who played Spartan soldiers). The movie seems more like an opera than a movie and has the same kind of aura about it. This is established by the over-emphasized dialogues like 'This is Sparta' or 'Remember Us' or 'Tonight we dine in Hell'....They are loud and spine chilling in some cases. King Leonidus has a distinct Maximus (of gladiator fame) hangover and lives up to the comparison.
There is nothing that really surprised me in the movie as the story is small and predictable. The best scene for me was the war scene with the Immortals wherein the Spartans use the dead bodies of the earlier parts of the Persian contingent. (Well the sight of the Oracle comes close to being my favorite too...ah what a sight!!!)

Now lets get to the flip side! The war depicted against the Persian Empire or the 1000 Kingdoms of Asia seems like a bit of a deja vu in the reverse chronology considering the current state of the world. And I hope it doesn't give the viewers the wrong view of the people from that region. Also, the battle scenes though spell-binding, do not get you emotionally attached to the Spartan soldiers. And as said earlier, there wasn't any attempt at making this a realistic tale. The 'Lord of the Rings' kind of effects and characters are entertaining and eeeky at different moments in the movie. All in all a movie worth watching once. Not a collectible though.

300 vs The Immortals

Yesterday was a day of coincidences....I saw a movie called 300 about a handful of Spartans fighting the Immortal Persian army.....At the same time India was given a propah Whoopass by 'minnows' Bangladesh.....Well I know the Indians are not the immortals.....and the Bangladeshis are not the best cricketers in the world...Ironically they say India has the best batting lineup....the most experienced cricketers...the most well paid team...and the BEST batsman in the world...(you know who....and whoever says anything against the man is damned to eternity for saying he is human and in my opinion....he may be the best player on a ball to ball basis...BUT...when in a pressure situation when its a Do or Die, he would be ranked 10th or 15th in the world and 3rd or 4th in India)...So what went wrong???

For one drawing a parallel from the movie 300, the Spartans made the Persians charge at them in a narrow corridor and that meant it was a level playing field for them. For Bangladesh, that narrow corridor was the width of the 3 stumps...wicket to wicket bowling and like the Spartans they defended their turf by brilliant fielding. Another parallel though its the opposite of what was done in 300...the Spartan king refused the services of a deficient fighter coz he was not in sync with the team...The King of Team India refused logic and fielded the 'Nawab of Najafgarh' (who comes up with these titles anyways?) despite the fact that he was dragging the team down since the past 6 months or more...(My honest opinion about Sehwag...He is exciting to watch and a 'Lucky go Happy' one at it...you heard it right...He wouldn't score half his centuries or half centuries if it wasnt for the shoddy fielding namely the dropped catches by the opposing team...look back at the stats and let me know)...Another rule of battle to be learnt from 300...Don't give your opposing team the advantage of knowing you know they can beat you...the Indian captain in his interview before the match said "We will not take Bangladesh lightly...We know they have beaten us before" (I mean 'Duh!' thats like saying we know you can beat us...and giving them self belief...Don't have to say "We will crush them"...all that needs to be said is we will take this on a match to match basis and face them like we would face any other team in the competition)
I will leave the other mistakes made to the other cricket critics (90 million Indians...hehehe) Lets get to the lessons which were learnt...oops I mean lessons that ought to be learnt...(you ll get it from the 1st lesson)
1. India like to repeat their mistakes. India have a penchant for making their own life difficult and making someones day or should I say tournament. In 1999, India helped Zimbabwe to have a great world cup by losing to them...they repeat this with Bangladesh.
2. Field players on their current form and not past performances....why in the name of god did Sehwag play instead of an in form Dinesh Kartik or even for that matter Irfan Pathan
3. Who is your best One day player on current form and performances in the past 3 yrs?...Yuvraj Singh (notwithstanding the almost yr long injury)...and which position does he play at?...Number 6...dont you feel thats plain stupid???
4. Theres no harm in putting up a surprise or change your strategies mid way.... Remember the pinch hitter magic of the 96 world cup? Well you have a lousy run rate at the 20th over and you need to get some quick runs...why not send someone like Agarkar (my opinion on Agarkar...he is a good batsman...underrated and does not perform to his potential...and he needs a thwack on the hindside for not doing that) to try and hit the attack...Theres nothing the lose as he is not a batter who you can depend on anyways...
5. Get the basics right...When you cant hit the boundaries...run like your life depended on it...Look at your last 2 players and the way they scored an almost life-saving last wicket partnership

Lets look at the possibilities now....
1. Bangladesh beats Sri Lanka: (Highly unlikely) We will go through by just beating Sri Lanka and Bermuda
2. Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh: We need to beat Sri Lanka and Bermuda by a very good margin...be sure to chase against Sri Lanka....coz we would probably have to chase in 40 odd overs....that would certainly show us which one of our paper tigers is capable of growling and hunting.

Consolation Prize for India??? Pakistan are out!!!
Consolation Prize for Pakistan??? India have a good chance of not making it as well!!!
Oh you know how brains work on either side!!! So don't say you guys did not enjoy the others defeat....

Kindly refrain from throwing stones or harming a family member of the Indian cricketers....wait for them to come back...hehehehe