Hugo: Pure magic!

'Hugo', from director Martin Scorsese, is pure magic!

It's a work of pure passion, and an unadulterated love for cinema.

'Hugo' boasts of an impressive cast - from the likes of Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Ray Winstone to Sacha Baron Cohen, Jude Law, and Emily Mortimer. But the one who shone the brightest and stole my heart was Asa Butterfield, in the title role. And I must also mention the youthful Chloë Grace Moretz. These two naturally gifted young performers are definitely to watch out for.

Friendship to Love: Ek Main Aur Ek Tu

Ek Main Aur Ek Tu is the new film from Karan Johar's production house.

It's the perfect Valentine's Day movie.

Or, is it? Well, it offers the age-old poser: Friendship or Love?

Which is dearer? Aren't friendship and love overlapping emotions?

Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor play the lead pair in this rom-com.

The on-screen chemistry between Imran and Kareena is fantastic.

By a twist of fate, they start wrong, and need to get an annulment of their marriage!

Kareena plays the bubbly extrovert, and Imran is the shy guy.

The old-premise-packaged-smart product gets a major boost from the lead, I must say.

Plus, the screenplay is up-tempo and smooth. And the dialogues are witty.

The debutant director, Shakun Batra, has used the American setting to his advantage.

The goings on resemble American sitcoms. The ending too has a bit of freshness.

Amit Trivedi's music is a delight, and works perfectly in tandem with Amitabh Bhattacharya's lyrics. The supporting cast (Ratna Pathak Shah, Boman Irani, Ram Kapoor, Zenobia Shroff, Nikhil Kapoor, Mukul Chaddha, Manasi Scott) complements the lead pair's performance brilliantly. I am sure the urban, young-at-heart viewers would especially like the film.

Feels great to be awarded!

Thank you, Anirban, for giving sakagaze the award!

It is very kind and generous of you.

You blog is a personal favorite of mine.

I list here 5 of my favorite blogs, including yours (Kolkata Curry).

Here they are:

kolkatacurry

banglachhobi

arunimasen

whohasmyraisins

inktoast

[The Liebster Blog Award is actually a token of appreciation by fellow bloggers in the global blogosphere.

Do claim your award and share it on your blogs.

Keep up the good work, folks.

Here's what you have to do to claim the award:

Copy and paste the blog award (image) on your blog.

Also link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.

You also can
 Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.
 Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog to check out your award-giving blog post.

Any other blogger who is reading this can do the above too to show the appreciation to the blogs he / she like the most.]

Whitney, rest in peace!

Whitney Houston was one of my all-time favorites. My love for her songs and her singing dates back to my school days. I remember being fascinated with her vocal range and power-packed performances. I literally grew up with her songs. Back then I didn't know much about gospel music and gospel-oriented pop music was quite a revelation for me, it opened up a whole new world of music to appreciate and love. I remember listening to the soundtracks of her films, 'The Bodyguard', 'Waiting to Exhale', and 'The Preacher's Wife' again and again. I was easily charmed by the first two films as well, and mostly because of her. I remember watching 'The Bodyguard' and even falling in love with her on-screen character. Later, when I used to read about her troubled marriage and embittered love-life, it would break my heart, but I always believed that she would be able to fight back eventually and emerge triumphant. I cannot believe that she is no more.

Her rendition of "I will always love you" shall always be dear to me. There are several favorite songs of hers that I would keep returning to, and so would all her fans and music-lovers. And they would obviously include: "Greatest love of all", "I have nothing", "I'm every woman", "One moment in time", "I wanna dance with somebody..... with somebody who loves me", "When you believe" (with Mariah Carey), and "Could I have this kiss forever" (with Enrique Iglesias).

Rest in peace, Whitney. You were a diva, and you shall always reign with your songs.

'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'

Had been hearing about the best-selling series by Stieg Larsson for quite some time, and had then been hearing some of cinephile friends talk excitedly about the Swedish film trilogy, and then came the news of David Fincher - one of my favorite directors - directing the American version of the same, but as luck would have it - or as was evident going by the moral policing and the double standards that prevail in these parts of the world - the film was prevented from reaching the Indian screens because of the graphic content. But, thanks to the internet, I was finally able to see the David Fincher film last night. It was a handsomely rewarding experience. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is shocking, disturbing, riveting, thrilling, and highly entertaining.

And Rooney Mara rightly deserves the Oscar nomination. She is simply stunning.