Greetings my Well Wishers

Its after a very long time that I’ve blogged. I really appologise for my long absence. But I promise you that the stuff I’m gonna bombard you with will leave you gobsmacked.

Okie enough of exaggeration, this post of mine is about one of the most underrated Rock Bands in the world today and one of my personal favourites, LOSTPROPHETS.

I don’t know how many of you are interested in Rock music these days, coz we’r living in the age of Hip-Hop & Trance music (the age of Himesh for most of my native Indians). But I can always vouch for Rock music being one of the most Feel Good & Melancholy Eradicating forms of music in the world. And especially if it comes from the heartland of Rock – the United Kingdom.

Lostprophets is one hell of an amazing band. They are a gropu of 20- something Welsh boys, all from very humble backgrounds. The gropu comprises of Ian Watkins (Lead Vocals), Jamie Oliver (Keyboard, Synthesiser & Addt. Vocals), Lee Gaze (Lead Guitar), Mike Lewis (Guitar & Addt. Vocals), Stuart Richardson (Bassist) and Ilan Rubin (Drums & Percussion). They juggle with Genres from Hard Rock,  Punk Rock, Alternative Rock & Alternative Metal. I must say they are far better than the overrated and not so memorable French -Canadian Band  Simple Plan.

Lostprophets have given us some ming boggling Tracks such as “Rooftops, Last Train Home, Everyday Combat, Burn Burn, Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja & Last Summer”.

But “A Town Called Hypocrisy” is in my opinion their best track ever, and perhaps the best British Rock Song in the 21st Century (okie, Coldplay’s Speed of Sound & Viva La Vida are equally good).

And when a Kick Ass Rock Song gets complimented by an equally awesome Music Video, its purely icing on the Cake.

Heres the Music Video for you to view and enjoy. Its completely hilarious. Its set in the late 70s Britain and features the Band’s lead Vocalist ‘Ian Watkins’ as the Host of an Educational Kids Show where he teaches the lesson of the day being ‘Sharing & Oral Hygeine’. Now thats a lot of Double meaning stuff going on here, which makes the whole video a treat to watch. And plus Ian Watkin’s acting is 1st rate, he sure gives Jon Bon Jovi competition when it comes to making sarcastic and raunchy expressions.

I’m sure you all have loved both the song and the video. I guess I’ve made Lostprophets win some new fans. In case some of you have any suspicions about the band, let me clear the Air.  These guys are not Weirdo Goths like Marilyn Manson or Bad Hair Day Cribbing Emos like the band KISS.

Despite being a North Indian myself, I don’t watch most of Bollywood movies. I used to watch them as a kid but since the past 7 years, after being exposed to lots of Hollywood Cult Masterpieces as well some brilliant New Wave French, Spanish, Korean & Persian movies and even some Bengali and Malyaalam movies, I now stand by the fact that 95% of Bollywood movies suck big time. They are a disgrace to world Cinema. These days, I only watch 2 or 3 Avant-Grade Bollywood movies (Stuff like Johnny Gaddaar, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Tahaan etc) in a year as compared to about 50 International movies.

Greetings my well wishers

In my opinion, The Joker (not any circus clown or court jester but the psychotic criminal from “Batman” series) is the Greatest Fictional Supervillain of all time, and even the Batman comics never give a reason to his nature.

He is an absolute, there is no origin story to him. Even his entry into the comics was out of nowhere; he just enters their world and commits gruesome murders.

Joker is ultra evil personified. He’s not just evil, he’s menacing, diabolical, tripple crossing, merciless psycopath. He has ZERO compassion or sympathy for anyone, not even himself.

While other villians like Hannibal Lector, Norman Bates, Darth Vader and the Green Goblin were not evil, they became evil as a result of hostile circumstances. The Joker on the other hand has always been evil from the beginning to the end.

Whats the best thing about the Joker is that without any special superpowers (in case of Darth Vader) or without any armoured bodysuit (Dr. Doom and Green Goblin) or without any special weapon (Kryptonite in case of Luthor), The Joker succeeds big time in unleashing maximum fear and chaos among the people of Gotham City. In fact Batman has never been able to eliminate The Joker in any of the comic books or cartoons.

The Joker is not just psychotic and insane. He’s funny, crazy, weird, whacky, wild and at the same time equally creepy, wicked, menacing, diabolical and revengeful. Bollywood villains like Gabbar Singh from Sholay, Mogambo from Mr. India and Shakaal from Shaan can anyday be easily eliminated by The Joker. (Now please don’t call me an unpatriotic Indian)

Its not a piece of cake to portray a character as multi dimensional as The Joker and on planet earth, not more than Half a Dozen actors are capable of doing so.

No wonder when the two Batman movies were made featuring Joker as the villain, the studio bosses had chosen the most competent actors of their times to play such a role, or should I say live the character.

In 1989, when Warner Brothers released the first Batman movie titled “Batman” with maestro director Tim Burton calling the shots, the role of the Joker went to the only actor at that time who had the balls and the acting chops to be Joker, i.e. Jack Nicholson.

Left – Jack Nicholson as Joker in Batman (1989). Right – Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight

Jack Nicholson is one of the greatest and one of the most profound influences on me, first as a movie-goer and more importantly as a person. Though he’s no Al Pacino or Daniel Day-Lewis or Robert De Niro or Johnny Depp, Jack has consistently been a fantastic performer from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest to Anger Management to the recent Bucket List. Jack can do wonderful things, he is a trickster who is fantastic to look at, like in The Departed or in The Shining, and he is someone who could affect you at a personal level. You’ll laugh with him, you’ll see how wonderfully he delivers a line, and you would have him create a character that is going to influence you forever.

As the 1989 Batman was made at a time when the Batman comics creator and perhaps the greatest legend in comic book history “Bob Kane” was alive, that movie was not as spine chilling edge of the seat thriller like this year’s Blockbuster “Dark Knight“, rather it was more of a comic book adaptation of a movie.

Jack Nicholson’s Joker was of the Slapstick kind, a goofy maniac. However Jack Nicholson never let his Joker become a buffoon or a stereotyped caricature like Jim Carrey and Tommy-Lee Jones beacme as The Riddler and Two Face respectively in the disappointing 1994 sequel Batman Forever.

Here’s an extraodianry scene from the Batman (1989) where Jack Nicholson as The Joker crashes a meeting of Mafia King Pins. Watch out for the Joker’s brilliant and witty one liners – “You are my Number one Guy” and “I’m Glad You’r Dead“.

Fast Forward to the year 2008. Warner Brothers had a successfull collaboration with the revival of the Batman series with another Maestro Director Christopher Nolan calling the shots. Their 2005 venture “Batman Begins” was a blockbuster and a critics favourite as well and hence the 2008 sequel “The Dark Knight” had to be obviously better in all departments and hence much darker.

When Jack Nicholson heard that Christopher Nolan is bringing back the Joker in this movie, Jack requested Nolan to cast him so that Jack could reprise his iconic act that he had perfected. But Jack is 77 now, plus as this version was not slapstick comic book stuff, but a dark gruesome death defying one, like all characters, The Joker deserved a younger and a highly competent actor to pull it off.

Jim Carrey cannot do it (He can be either funny or evil, but not both at the same time, remember the hammy Riddler in Batman Forever). Vince Vaughn also can never pull it off. (Remember his third rate performance as Norman Bates in the remake of Psycho). Sacha Baron Cohen, oh forget it. (Borat is a saint infront of Joker). Will Farell (He’s only funny, he will look funnier if he acts evil). Adam Sandler (No, not much acting potential). Edward Norton could do it. (But after what Jack Nicholson did in 1989, the standards were too high)

I thought maybe the studio bosses & Nolan would settle for Daniel Day-Lewis or Kevin Spacey. When it was announced that the now Late Heath Ledger is playing the new Joker, I doubted his acting abilities. I’d not seen much of him except in the action comedy “A Knight’s Tale” and the awful Gay Cowboy Drama “Brokeback Mountain“. At that time I’d thought of Heath as a Good actor, but in my wildest of  dreams had I ever imagined that Heath could do justice to the character of Joker. After all Jack Nicholson had played immortal characters in films like Chinatown and The Shining before Batman was released in 1989, but Heath hadn’t done anything of such high magnitude.

But when I saw The Dark Knight, I was spellbound and Heath’s performance left me speechless in all the viewings of the movie. For not only Heath became The Joker, he raised the bar so high that no matter how many legendary and competent actors come and go, no one and I believe no one can ever play The Joker even half as SUPERB as Heath Ledger did in The Dark Knight.

Unlike Darth Vader or Hannibal Lector, Heath Ledger’s Joker is something else. Those monsters succeeded in merely eroding the belief for men in the world surrounding them. This one here destroys the very moral foundation upon which the same men base that belief. Pay attention to every line of his. There’s great meaning and a great method to all of them. It is one of the greatest written characters of our times since Michael Corleone (The Godfather), Edward Scissorhands, Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver), Raju Guide (Guide) and Tyler Durden (Fight Club).

The Late Heath Ledger has created something of a flawless masterpiece of mannerisms and chewy larger-than-life supervillain. It is a colossal performance, and it is built with great precision upon what seems like a million parts. You have to watch the film at least three times to even get a complete hold of that performance alone. So yes, IT IS THAT GOOD. Consider a moment where one of the crime bosses interrupts his sentence and calls him a freak. Ledger’s Joker is visibly distracted but still completes what he’s saying. And then he looks at the boss and hits them back with a statement that is much more verbally insulting than any usage of an insult like ‘freak’ can be. Ledger’s Joker is not insane; he’s so brilliant he looks insane.  This here is the definitive version of the greatest villain of all time. It makes me immensely sad because there’s great tragedy when an artist isn’t there when his achievement receives such universal praise. I wish to God he was here to see all of this. May his soul rest in peace.

Heath Ledger made the Joker exude such immense class and virtue and made him the coolest villian ever shown on screen. It was for the first time that while watching a movie, me and all my friends were rooting for a villian throughout the movie (that too an ultra evil one) rather than the hero, or in this case, The Superhero.

Below is a scene from the Dark Knight which contains the best catchphrases of the movie, “Why So Serious” and “Lets Put a Smile on that Face“.

So now that you have read my analysis on both the Jokers (Jack Nicholson & Heath Ledger) and most of you must have watched both the thespians perform their act in the videos above, it must not have been easy for anyone of you to compare the two and come with a conclusion that which is the better Joker. As both actors belong to different generations and different schools of acting, its unfair to say which one is better.

I’ll end this up by saying that as far as movie villians are concerned, “The Joker” has been a treat for all cinema lovers in both the Batman movies. I wonder which other actor in the future can be more competent than Heath Ledger to elevate The Joker to the next level as its already at the highest level.

Greetings my well wishers

Deviating from the usually serious topics on philosophy, social issues, patriortism and also my obsession with World Cinema, I’m sharing with you guys another interest of mine. No, no its not a chick or a High Society PYT, its stand up comedy.

We all know about the healing powers of laughter, and some of these stand up comedians are the Real embellishments of entertainment who have dedicated their lives to entertain us and hence improve our health.

In this monotonous world raucous hostility,a smile has become a rarity. These comedians are doing the stupendously laudable job of bringing smile on people’s faces!

And one such comical genius whose die hard fan I’ve recently become is Pakistani Punjabi comedian & classical singer from Lahore ”Amanullah Khan.“ Although not as popular as Pakistan’s other comical genius Omar Sharrif, Amanullah Khan cracks me up with his major awesome stand up comedy, and this is because he is a cracker.

This man is a powerhouse. He never does any mimicry. He only talks about real things in life , all stupid & dumb things we humans do and presents it in extremely funny way. And he also makes fun of himself, which very few comedians do. His USP is his body language which he utilises Perfectly. He looks like a Creepy Freak, because of his weird hairstyle but when it comes to comedy he is giving competition to even Raju Srivastava.

Watch Amanullah perform in the video below, the laughter is Guaranteed.