Cyriac George

Simply the B.E.S.T.

I dont have anything other than that for Slumdog Millionaire. First of all let me make a request to you guys, I made a mistake by watching this on my laptop. This is one of the very few films that you must watch in the movie halls. So please dont spoil the fun and do watch it in theaters.

What is so special about Slumdog Millionaire? Forget the awards and those big names you hear. It is simply an awesome movie. It has many thing which the films now-a-days lacks. Orginiality, Drama, Perfection, Suspense, Touch from real lives, Direction, Entertaining, Locations, Sets, Cast (!), Camera… the list goes on. Am not a serious film watcher or a genius in the film world, so i dont know the technical terms that is out there, which actually should be in the list above. So please bear that.

Slumdog Millionaire, basically is a story of a poor, uneducated village boy from the slums of Mumbai, who gets on a TV show;, “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and the bags the jackpot with correct answers. This is the outer skin of the movie, but beneath that it is the whole life (well not whole) story of the boy, right from his childhood, and the events he undergoes, about his love life and all.

Danny Boyle; the director of the movie, has done a wonderful job. I beleive its due to this English director the movie is this good, else any other traditional Indian director (there are good director, I said typical) would have stuffed un-necessary emotions and drama. Danny has done a perfect job by blending the right amount of drama and emotions throughout the film.

Orginiality

Story seems so original, and believable. I had only one part which I couldnt swallow; the brothers (the protagonist and his brother) were real slum boys and as they grew up, they suddenly start speaking English. But then i remembered about this guy. If he can do this, then why cant they do it!

The same kid after one year (now he knows he is famous)

Perfection

Not a single time during the 120 minutes, I felt the director is throwing BS at me. He did it all with great perfection. The various shots in the movie, they are so realistic that it gives you another image of Mumbai.

Direction

As i said the English director did his magic. The movie’s base line is the TV show, Who wants to be a millionaire. Its a show in which the player is asked a series of questions and for each right answer he is rewarded. The movie begins when the show has finished one day. Then its flash back time. We are taken through each question and how he knew the answer to all those questions. Its from his core life-experiences that he learned the answers. We have all heard experience is the best teacher. Here is the perfect example for that.

Cast

Forget the big shots, forget Anil Kapoor. Jamal Malik (the hero) played Dev Patel, is the guy in the spot light here. From the begining itself, i feel Dev is really the character, because he is so perfect for the role. Okay looks are good, but what about acting ? Simply awesome. I cant believe he pulled this off without any big shots in the movie to help him out. He has done very well his role. So did the other musketeers too. Oh i didnt mention that before. In the film, it shows the life of Jamal, his brother Salim and their friend Latika, whom the plot calls “The Three Musketeers”. The entire casting is perfect and everybody did their part very well. As i told the movie shows the life of those three lads from childhood, we see total 9 new comers in the movie, playing each characters childhood, adolescence, adulthood. The child playing Jamal’s childhood did his job pretty well that we feel his emotions sometimes in the film (@those who watched the film, remember the Amitabh Bachchan’s helicopter scene)

Camera

Something different. After a long time of BS movies out there, showing same old stories, with nothing fresh and new, Slumdog Millionaire is an eye-freshener. It gives a treat for your eyes with the exotic sets and locations. Dont misunderstand when i say “exotic”. Even though they show slums in the movie, it is shown in such a way that you love what you see.

So I have praised the movie pretty long, so is there is nothing wrong with the movie ?

YES. I felt something wrong with this movie. Just one thing. Its actually not a part of the movie. The last song, which A R Rahman bagged an award, is totally in-appropriate. I dont understand how does the songs fits or even appropriate for a movie like Slumdog Millionaire.

But dont worry that, this song is going to spoil your movie. Just stop watching when the movie is over, dont wait for the credits.

Till now, the movie has bagged 40 awards, 37 nominations and 10 Oscar nomination. No wonder why this movie bagged that much awards, its such a marvel. I truly wish that this movie bags this years oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

So go ahead and watch the movie (in the halls) and come back here and let us know,

How did you enjoy the film?

What do you see unique in this film?

Why did you like the film?

The organizers conceived the idea of Shaurya Puraskar as an encouragement to the
bravery of the people facing challenges in life or challenges in their particular field of expertise. The award ceremony is slated for 17th January 2009 at 7PM, at the Shanmukhanand Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Auditorium, Sion Mumbai. 40 channels are supposedly airing it live, so you can watch it from home.
The award winners are selected from all fields of life.

1. Shruti Bhatla and Gore Bhatla- the twin sisters from Kanpur who live their life to the fullest and spread smiles among all whom they meet.
2. Prince and the Indian Army Jawans- the brave boy who was trapped deep down in a borewell for 74 hours.
3. Vandana and the Indian Army Jawans- the brave little girl who got in the borewell and was saved by the Indian Army Jawans.
4. Swami Ashutoshji Maharaj- transformed hard core criminals from Tihar jails and gave their lives a new spiritual direction.
5. Sudha Chandran-the classical dancer who loses her legs in an accident, but fought against all odds and stands up again to pursue a career in dance and movies.
6. Ravindra Jain- the music maestro lived his life for the seven notes of music.
7. Jitendra Soni- a dynamic editor of Lokswami, who continued writing against terrorism and terrorists despite getting many threats. He exposed Nagori and SIMI activities.
8. Supratim Dutta- had met with an accident and got an iron bar impaled through his chest and abdomen.
9. Arun Sharma- the man who got his heart broken but still has it beating because of Dr. Biplab Mishra.
10. Dr. Biplab Mishra,Dr. Sushma Sagar and the team of AIIMS-operated on Supratim and Arun and saved them.
11. Palak Muchchal- Palash Muchchal- the prodigy sibling who perform on stage as a singer and perform synthesizer in a unique way and donate money 1.6 crore to noble cause such as sponsoring 323 operations all over India.
12. Vijendra Singh- won bronze medal for boxing, Olympics 2008.
13. Sushil Kumar- bronze winner- wrestling, Olympics 2008.
14. Late Shri Nanak Chand- SI Delhi Police, Late Shri Vijender Singh- SI Delhi Police,Late Shri Vikram Bhist- a cameraman from ANI, Late Shri J P Yadav-security wing Parliament, Smt Kamlesh Kumari- constable CRPF. Sacrificed their lives for the sake of nation while doing their duty, Parliament attacks on 13 December 2001.
15. Kuldeep Singh- the DTC driver who saved many lives but lost his own eyesight and palm in a bombblast in Delhi.
16. Antara Raju Shrivastava- a small girl who saved her mother and self when three burglers barged into her home and got them arrested.
17. The ATS top ranking officers who lost their lives during the attack on 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks, NSG & Maharashtra police jawans would be awarded Krantiveer- Puraskar.

The award function is organized by HR entertainment in association with KBJ group and Laxmi group. The sponsors include VDC, St Angelo’s computer education, Marshalls, Sahara Star & Bright outdoor media.

I am proud to say that, Dr. Biplab Mishra is my brother-in-law, who is living in Delhi with his family. He is currently working in AIIMS and he is also the co-author of DoctorForHelp.com -The Complete Online Medical Reference

By popular request , I have prepared an article on,

The 22 must have wordpress plugins for your blog

The list is not prioritized, its just a comprehensive list. Plugins are sorted into various categories for easy navigation. But I have prioritized plugins in each category.

Comments

Subscribe to comments :- Very useful and must have plugin. It displays a simple check box in the comment box (where you place it). So when someone leaves a comment with the check box ticked, they will be notified via email when someone leaves a comment on that article.

WP Grins :- Yet another useful plugin where readers will have graphic smileys to use in their comment. This brings life to the conversation they are having.

WP Ajax Edit Comments :- This plugin gives the readers the power to edit the comments they just have made. It is helpful when a reader made a comment, but he would like to change something or he recognizes a mistake and would like to correct it, this plugin would come very handy. It only let the original commenter to modify the comment, also one can edit their comment for 15minutes only. After that it is permanent (there on editable by admin only)
I have been experiencing some problems with this plugin, there are some others too complaining about it. So am de-lisiting it.

Show Top Commentators :- This plugin displays a list of top commentators in your blog. This can help your blog to get number of comments if the readers are interested in being displayed in your blog, there by getting a link !!!

@ reply :- This is just a show plugin. By enabling this plugin, it will show a small image right next to the commenter’s name and just by clicking it, the plugin will add the commentator’s name in the comment box. So with this plugin you no longer need to type “@Cyriac” any more.

Search Engine Optimization

Google XML Sitemap Generator :- Those who own a blog should register and avail Google’s webmaster tools service. In that you can add sitemap of your site to Google. But to do that you need to generate one. This plugin easily and automatically does that whenever you update the site. So this is a must have.

All In One SEO Pack :- Another must have plugin, if your blog is based on a particular niche (topic). This will help you to add meta keywords, description, title specific to each individual topic. I suggest you spend extra time to fill those forms once it is enabled, because its worth it.

Publicize

Share This :- This is a super cool plugin which places a small link “Share This” after every post (even pages) and when clicked it will give the reader plenty of options to publicize your article. It even has an option to send articles as emails. I have installed this plugin and try sending this article to someone you know.

WP-Email / WP-Email Widget :- This plugin will display a small link where you place and it lets users to send the article as email to someone (Mine is placed under the article title, try it now). We already get this function from “Share This” plugin, so what’s the big deal. The big deal is that, it contains a widget which displays the top articles which are send as emails.

WP-Postratings / WP-Postratings Widget :- This plugin gives your readers a chance to rate your article. Mine is just under the article title. Try it now.

WP-Postviews / WP-Postviews Widget :- This plugin displays the number of times that particular article is viewed. It also contains a widget which displays the most viewed article in your blog.

Anti-Spam

Akismet :- I would say, the most useful plugin for you blog. Because it blocks spam comments with such ease so that you dont have to worry about your inbox being flooded with spam comments. For this plugin to work properly you need to have an API key, which you can obtain by registering in wordpress.

Back End

WP-DB Backup :- Another useful and must have plugin, because you never know, when your blog….

Tip: It’s always a safe practice to take periodic backup of your database so that you don’t lose your hardwork due to a server glitch.

WP-Cache / WP-Super Cache :- To be frank I donno what’s the exact difference between the two (Would love it if someone who knows it, could share with us below). I know WP-Super Cache is more powerful than WP-Cache, so am using that plugin. Installing and enabling it is easy and same as any other plugin, but the configuring part can give head ache to some guys out there, because it might involve CHMOD’ing and accessing/editing .htaccess files (I hate to play with those options). But lucky for me its all working fine. One thing you should note is, after enabling it, sometimes after posting an article, the article might not be correctly updated in the blog. It is due to the cache not being refreshed. To solve this, just go to WP-Cache / WP-Super Cache options and delete cache. Then it will rebuild the cache the next time you load the site (expect some delay for loading, since new cache is being created) – (Thanks to Abeymon for this tip)

Miscellaneous

Adsense Deluxe :- Very good plugin to integrate your adsense blocks inside your posts, and exactly where you want too. Only Google adsense can be integrated (i don’t see it as a limitation). What’s unique with this plugin is, it is all manual, not automatic. NO that does’nt mean that its tedious, it means it gives you more power. I know another plugin which randomly places your adsense code in your articles, it also supports YPN. Although it is automatic, I dont feel it is going with the flow. While with this plugin you can specifically tell where the ads to come inside an article. You can also the code (default <!–adsense–>) inside your template files instead of adding the entire code to display ads wherever you want.

EasyTube :- Although i don’t use it in this blog, it is very helpful to those guys who uploads lots of youtube/google videos in their blog. With this plugin, you no longer need to add their UGLY embed code, you just need the URL to the video and use EasyTube’s short code to embed the video.

Breadcrumb NavXT :- A very useful plugin who have a blog based on some niche. It displays “you are here” type links when their readers are viewing the innermost pages. It gives readers more and simple navigation options, according to categories (or tags may be). What it actually does is, it displays a series of links showing the hierarchy of the page you are viewing, ie,

Home>>Tips & Tricks>>The 22 must have wordpress plugins for your blog

PageNavi :- Useful to those guys who are having lots of posts and want their readers to navigate easily through their blog.

7hide :- Its just a fun plugin which enables you to publish sealed content like the one below.

Buy Me a Beer :- Its another fun plugin that i found interesting. It displays an image and text which is clickable and interested readers can donate for your contributions through paypal. It has so many options which can display a link after every post if you want, or display in the sidebar (look at mine, and buy me a beer if you like )

WOW…I just finished my longest quality article in my blog till date. Am i exhausted? You just guess. So am winding the post now. Please go through the plugins you find interesting and install them. Share your experiences here. Also did I miss something that you actually like or would like to add something more to the list? Share all those as comments. I would be happy to add them after testing (Oh BTW all of the above plugins are tested by me, so am not just recommending for the sake of it!)

Update 1: I forgot to add two things.

1. Do integrate Google Analytics in your blog. It gives great analysis of lot of parameters (like traffic, sources, bounce rate, landing page, time spend, visitor trends, geographic location and many more ) for your site.
2. If you want to make one post appear on the top, even if you update the blog, you can do that in two ways. Earlier you should use a plugin to do it. But now its an inbuilt function in wordpress 2.7. So upgrade to wordpress 2.7 and make use of the feature

Update 2: I forgot to add one IMPORTANT plugin, Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. How useful this is, just try the links that come right after this text. It is very useful to encourage your readers to stay on your site and explore the site further. Actually while initial research I had this plugin in mind, but i forgot to add it. Now thanks to Abey, he reminded me to add it.