October 2004

Slug: Entertainment
Byline: Salman Siddiqui
Title: Top of the charts.
Blurb: SPIDER gleans the best of entertainment from the Web.

Movies
Rakht
www.rakht.com/
Cast: Bipasha Basu, Sanjay Dutt, Amrita Arora, Sharat Saxena, Dino Morea, Neha Dhupia, Suniel Shetty
Genre: Supernatural/Thriller/Mystery
Not exactly as enticing as Ram Gopal Varma’s Bhoot, this latest offering from Bollywood is nevertheless a notch above the common place in the category of supernatural movies. Rakht is the story of a tarot card reader Drishti (Bipasha Basu) who has a unique gift of sensing approaching danger and to foresee occurrences. When one night Natasha (Amrita Arora), the daughter of the Mayor (Sharat Saxena), vanishes mysteriously after a night out with her friends, her husband Rahul (Sanjay Dutt) approaches Drishti for help out of sheer desperation. Things take a drastic turn when the finger of suspicion points towards Sunny (Dino Morea), a man known to have a violent relationship with his wife Rhea (Neha Dhupia). Arrested and sentenced to imprisonment, the entire climax of the movie revolves around the question whether he is the real culprit or not. Heavily borrowed from Keanu Reeves earlier flick ‘The Gift’, the subject of this movie has a special appeal to Indian audiences where astrologers, palmists and tarot card readers are a part of the culture.
The official movie site is very professionally done where you can even buy the rights to screen the film in the trade enquiry section. There’s a wallpaper for each character of the film and although the screensaver size is a mammoth 2MB file, the download is worth it. Also while the flash version of the site is exciting, it isn’t recommended to people who don’t have a broadband connection; enjoy the goodies available from the homepage instead. Audio and video clips are available to preview the film online alongside a nice collection of movie stills.

Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa
www.dilnejiseapnakahaa.com/
Cast: Salman Khan, Bhumika Chawla, Preity Zinta
Genre: Romance
This is one of those dopey Bollywood love flicks where the entire story annoyingly centers on the importance of ‘pyaar’ between two crazy people and how it is the solution to all the problems of the world (imagine that!).
Rishabh (Salman Khan), a successful partner in a media company, and
Pari (Preity Zinta), a doctor, are a match made in heavens. However tragedy falls on the couple when Pari has a fatal accident that brings down the walls of their happiness with her untimely death. Devastated, Rishabh pledges to fulfill Pari’s last wish to build a charitable hospital for the poor. But while working towards this ‘noble’ cause, Rishabh meets the beautiful Dhani (Bhumika Chawla) and (surprise!) is drawn towards to her. The film portrays the emotional turmoil of Rishabh who is reminded every time of his loss each time he feels for Dhani.
The site loads up with a flash movie that shows Salman Khan emerging as a god from the blue sky with the following lines: “jo guzar gaya woh kal tha, jo anay wala hay who bhi kal hai, faisla tumhe kerna hay, tum kis kal mein jeena chahtay ho”. Unless you’re a diehard fan of Sallu, you really want to bang your head against the monitor after watching that 3 minute movie. The site is so heavily laden with flash that it takes eons to go just about anywhere there. Though you can stream seven original tracks from the movie, I would suggest that you play some online game instead.

Kyun Hogaya Na
www.kyunhogayana.com/
Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Tinnu Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Om Puri and Rati Agnihotri
Genre: Romance/Drama
One of the silliest titles that one can probably ever come up for a movie, Kyun Hogaya Na is another Bollywood love story that fails to make an impression in spite of its star studded cast.
Diya (Aishwarya Rai) is a beautiful girl committed to social welfare. She gets involved with the work of her dad’s friend Raj Chauhan (Amitabh Bachchan), who has dedicated his life to run a small orphanage at his home. Her life takes a new twist when she meets the fun loving Arjun (Vivek Oberoi). The film from there on is all about the mushy mushy romance between these two where the guy doesn’t muster enough courage to express his love for the chick until the very end of the movie.
The site has a very funky layout that kicks off with an interesting flash presentation of the movie. Although there aren’t many wallpapers or movie stills available for download, the site has detailed info on the story, cast and crew of the film

Gayab
www.gayab.com/
Cast: Rasika Joshi, Raghuveer Yadav, Antra Mali, Raman Trikha
Genre: Action/Drama
Vishnu Prasad (Tusshar Kapoor) is a loser lacking self-confidence and the attitude to lead a normal life. His family problems include a pesky mother (Rasika Joshi) who violently beats him up given the slightest opportunity and a petrified father (Raghuveer Yadav) who has always remained a silent spectator to his son’s misery. The love of his life Mohini (Antra Mali) doesn’t even know of his existence whereas her boyfriend (Raman Trikha) would box him to death if he ever got even near her. Dejected with his life he prays to god to make him invisible. And just like that one day he becomes Gayab.
The film hasn’t been well received by critics, one reason being that it isn’t an original piece of work that has loads of inspiration from the movie Hollow Man. Even though the official site opens up to a nauseating spiral of options, it is commendable with a very well designed layout. The best part is when you place the mouse pointer over the invisible man in the three piece suite and it slowly goes gayab. Trailers and songs from the movie are also available.

Music
Sukhbir
www.sukhbir.dircon.co.uk
Before mixing Bhangra with rap, techno, raaga and dance rhythms, Sukhbir was actually pursuing a career in Information Technology. Hitting instant stardom with his debut album ‘New Style’ in 1995, this Bhangra pop star credits his success to his father, who besides penning some lyrics for his musician son is also a priest at a Sikh temple in Kenya. Announcing the release of his new album ‘Dil Kare’ at his official site, the artist offers seven music videos for download and some ten hit tracks for online previewing to his fans. However unlike his music that has a unique sound and feel, the site has nothing special to offer.

Stereo Nation
www.stereonation.co.uk/
Stereo Nation is essentially the noise of the British born Asian Taz, who describes himself as a pioneer in pop fusion and futuristic dimension of cross-cultural music. Listing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Prince as his inspirations, Taz has a multi-platinum album ‘I’ve Been Waiting’ to his credit that features a hybrid of Punjabi dance grooves.
The Stereo Nation site is another example of a badly designed Indian pop star site. Although fans will find plenty of pictures of Taz from his world tours, the real meat such as mp3s or lyrics of the songs are missing.

Daler Mehndiwww.dalermehndi.com/
Daler is your famous rags to riches story where before driving his current latest Mercedes Benz SUV, he used to earn his living by driving a taxi. Today he earns around 16 lakh Indian rupees per show which is a far cry from the Rs.500 he used to get for playing the tabla at Gurdaspur as a teenager. Singing since the age of 5, Daler is known to have a huge heart and was also instrumental in raising funds for Imran Khan’s Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital. However this undisputed king of Bhangra music had his image tarnished recently when he was arrested in a human trafficking case. At his official site special mention of this episode is made, where Daler maintains that the entire allegation was fabricated by the police and that he never took money to take people illegally abroad as part of his entourage.
Like his personality the site too is very colorful and is by far the best Indian pop star site that SPIDER came across. From music videos to lyrics and pictures to an online forum, this site has it all. Fans will love the merchandise section where one can buy Daler shirts, stickers, post cards besides the CDs and cassettes of their idol.

Bombay Vikings
www.bombayvikings.com/
Though Indian born, the Sweden based composer and singer of Bombay Vikings Neeraj Shridhar, is more fluent in Swedish than Hindi or English. Claiming to have “made the West meet the East” through their music, the group specializes in remixing old Hindi film tunes by layering their own lyrics over them and still managing to retain the essence of the original tracks- a process which they proudly brag as ‘reverse mixing’. This experiment led to the bands global popularity with one hit album after another such as Woh Chali, Kya Soorat Hai and now Hawa Mein Udta Jaye.
Sadly however only three mp3s: Who Chali, Angel Eyes and Kya Soorat hay are available for download at the site along with lyrics for only a few songs. Also disappointingly, even though it boasts two awards from the International Webmasters Association, the horribly colored yellow and red site is very mediocre. No updates on the band or their upcoming gigs are available nor are there any pictures of the band. The only good thing is the option to create a free web based 6MB email account where one gets an ID like yourname@bombayvikings.com. But in this age of Gmail who would care for a 6MB account?

Anaida
www.anaida.com/
Anaida has to her credit of singing a Hindi version of the song ‘Hakuna matata’ from the soundtrack of the Walt Disney movie The Lion King. She also has the distinction of making the first fully 3D animated video of her song ‘Hoo Halla Hoo’ in India. Besides having the ability to sing songs in eight different languages, she’s an accomplished painter and dancer. Previews of tracks from her latest album Chori Chori are available online along with a detailed biography and a collection of the Eurasian artist’s pictures.
Ravi Shanker
www.ravishankar.org/
Revered the world over for his extraordinary sitar playing and composing skills, Ravi Shanker’s musical career spans over a vast period of sixty years. He is credited with introducing Indian music to the West and has the distinction of having fourteen honorary doctorate degrees amongst his many other awards. Following her father’s footsteps Anoushka Shanker too has made a name for herself whereas his other daughter Norah Jones, whom he doesn’t acknowledge, also made musical history when she won the highest number of Grammy awards.
Featured at the site are detailed biographies of the artist, photos, separate section on Indian music that also contains a list of the ragas composed by Ravi Shanker, and a segment on the development of the Ravi Shankar foundation where donations are accepted. Although useful in terms of information, the site offers nothing in downloads.

Euphoria
www.dhoom.com/
Euphoria are a six-member band comprising of Palash Sen on vocals, Gaurav Mishra on guitars, Debajyoti Bhaduri on bass, Benjamin Pinto on keyboards, Hitesh Madan on guitars and Christopher Powell on drums. These rock faces from India are actually quite scary that give the false impression of a death metal outfit when in reality their music is more inclined towards their traditional folk music. Naming their music territory as ‘Hindi rock’, Euphoria has been in the Indian music Industry since early 1989. With two only albums to their credit "Dhoom" and Phir Dhoom", all tracks are available online at the bands official site in streaming audio format. Interesting biographies of each band member also contain snaps from their childhood years.

Slug: GopherIT
Byline: Salman Siddiqui
Title: GopherIT


Howstrange.com
www.howstrange.com/
In these depressing times, everyone can use a laugh. And there’s no place better than Howstrange.com to get it online. With a nice collection of hilariously doctored pictures, this site is guaranteed to have you rolling on the floor if you have a sense of humor. From drunken cats smoking cigarettes to ostriches watching television when having their heads buried under the ground, these bizarre images are the courtesy of a British guy Dave who generously offers people to download his artwork free of cost. Don’t forget to check the links section where the artist also provides a useful list of Photoshop sites on the web.

Flyguy
www.trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/
Instead of sleeping with your eyes open, try Fly guy as a new tool of procrastination. This simple to play online game loads up quickly and will have you occupied for a good 15 minutes at any given time of the day. Just roam around the sky with Fly guy using your arrow keys and meet angels, god, birds amidst a number of other interesting characters on the way.

The Rabbit
andrius.esu.lt/10/go2.htm
Another simple yet absorbing online game, where this time one has to use the mouse buttons to fool around. Just bring the pointer near the rabbit which will cling to it until you jerk it off by banging it up and down the screen. The objective is to keep the mouse pointer away from the rabbit as much as possible. Happy Playing!

Stanford Prison Experiment
www.prisonexp.org/
Consider playing the role of a prisoner in a simulation game only to end up realizing that you’ve been framed in that position for life. That’s how the prisoners in Stanford’s prison experiment felt after they had voluntarily signed up for a two-week study on the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or a prison guard. From getting stripped naked to being forced to clean their toilet bowls in chains, the experiment turned as serious as real-life prison situations. Eventually the test had to be aborted only after six days when several of the prisoners suffered severe emotional trauma. Get a load of this horribly gone wrong experiment at the site where the consultant of this entire exercise gives his testimonial to what exactly happened. Warning: Children are advised to stay away.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
www.utm.edu/research/iep/
Knowledge of philosophy gives one insight into the meaning of life and existence. Besides gaining wisdom, it’s the next best trick in the trade to impress the opposite sex and is frequently used by Casanovas to jazz up conversations. So bookmark ‘The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’ where you’ll find a huge database of philosophical facts starting from pre-Socrates times to the present day. Use the site’s search engine to look for the desired theorist or browse the alphabetically arranged list. Even though the site could have been made livelier if some pictures of the great thinkers had been included, serious philosophers wouldn’t find this as a major turn off.