The retention game

It's been 3 yrs since the IPL started. 2 more teams were supposed to be joining the league and the players are going to be auctioned off again. But the current teams (the final number is not decided yet) are being allowed to retain 4 players from their squad . Read somewhere that Chennai insisted the most on retention. If it's true, it has to be the MSD factor.


So here is a small write-up on the list of players who could possibly be retained by the teams.

CSK

Possibilities: Dhoni, Raina, Bollinger, Morkel, Murali, Hussey

So, who would be worth the $1.8 million retention fee for the 1st player? Few might say Dougie. But he wouldnt be a costly miss even if left out. There are other good (n also better) pacemen in the pool like Parnell, Tait, Steyn, Nannes etc who could be available (their franchise permitting) for selection.
Same goes for Morkel n Hussey too. Though they are good, they are not one of a kind. So they may not be retained. Murali would be an interesting choice. But given his age and not-so-match-winning contribution, he just might not be worth the huge compromise.
The only player I can see being readily taken is Dhoni. CSK has grown in such a way that the team has been built around this guy. So losing him would be like losing the axle/pivot of the team. He should be retained. Also Raina. He is the highest run getter across all IPL seasons and a worthy fit in the Indian-International slot.

Final cut: Dhoni and Raina

MI

Possibilities: Sachin, Pollard, Malinga, Zaheer/Bhajji

Sachin is in by default. For me, there is no MI without Sachin, plain and simple. As for others, it would be a tough choice. There would be a tempation to retain Pollard for obvious reasons. But this guy is a gamble. Malinga is one of the best T20 bowlers I have ever seen. And for me, he is more worthy than Pollard.
Bhajji has not been impressive compared to the success of fellow spinners in CSK (Ashwin and Murali). Zaheer has been a little rusty too after his injury. But he seems to have found his form recently. But I doubt whether the franchise wud b ready to spend such big money on him

Final cut: Sachin, Malinga/Pollard

DD

Possibilities: Viru, Gauti, Nannes, Collingwood

Again Viru is pivotal in the scheme of things for Delhi. So he could be there. Other than him I don't see anyone who have high chances of being retained. Gauti could make the cut, for his recent form in IPL. Nannes is one of the best bowlers in T20 but there are others too. There would be a temptation to retain Collingwood, the English T20 caption and a wonderful all-rounder.

Final cut: Sehwag

RCB

Possibilities: Kumble, Dravid, Kallis, Steyn, KP, Taylor, Cam White

It's one hell of a star-studded line up. Frankly, a very tough call to decide as who can be retained / let go. Reportedly the owners did a lot of ground work to form a succesful team after their poor show in Season1. So, wont be surprised if as much as 4 are retained.
Steyn is arguably one of the best bowlers now (any form of the game). KP has had a form slump. Kallis is ageing. Same with Kumble and Dravid too. It would be interesting to see whether they retain their captain Kumble. Taylor is an asset to any side

Final cut: Steyn, Taylor

DC

Possibilities: Gilly
Yes, you read it right. The one player who could be retained. But remember even this guy is over 38 yrs old

KKR

Possibilities: Ganguly, Gayle, Mathews

KXIP

Possibilities: Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Yuvraj
If they had been allowed to participate, players listed above might have been considered.

RR

Possibilities: Warne, Tait, Smith, Y Pathan
Same goes here too.

All said and done, hope IPL is able to stay ahead of all the problems and issues being faced now. Now, like all Cricket fans, waiting for the dust to settle down and the auction to start (last announced to be held on Jan 8/9).

Been Endhiraned yet?

Been there, done that! A movie that was total fun. Everything that you would expect from a Shankar + Rajini combo (Not the usual finger flicking Rajini though). Visual effects were one of the best in Indian cinema considering that while a Matrix cost $200 million, this was made for $30 million. And the finale was amazing. Grand and Jaw dropping!

Rajini was amazing and awesome especially in the second half. He portrays the darker shade better. You cant help but remember his iconic role of Alex Pandian from Moondru mugam.
One small problem was that the screenplay was sagging at a few places. Some unwanted scenes and a couple of misplaced songs slowed down the pace a little. But Shankar and Rajini make you forget all that

Picturisation of the songs were excellent. All of them grandiose. The dialogues were very smartly written and well executed. Rahman's BGM n re-recording help the narration. Ash does a decent job too. Good thing is that she is not just for the songs. She is in the movie through out.

As for the comic relief, Chitti (Robot Rajini) did a better job than Santhanam and Karunas. But again, I wondered why they were both billed. They had such a small role to play. In a couple of days you will forget that they were a part of the movie.
Shankar's imagination and conceptualization of the idea were laudable.
Rajini completely overshadows his co-stars. His Robot avatar scores on both halves of the movie.
And Rajini can dance.. Man!! He is no Prabhu Deva, but was so nice to see him try so much.

The man and his charisma! The movie is a must watch for everyone, more so if you are his fan.

Who knows this could be one of his last movies if not The last. He and his larger than life character would be sorely missed!

Twitter vs Blog

I and @Kesavan had a small discussion (kind of) on twitter as whose greatest enemy was Twitter? I had posted as how my usage of Twitter had affected my blogging frequency.
The argument was that Twitter can't be a Blog's rival. Both are different arena with different players and spectators.

I agree, but the competition there is between equals (sort of) its like two good T20 matches being played in parallel in a couple of channels and which is better. Whichever provides better entertainment wins.
But what am talking about is that Twitter is a lazy man's blog and once you start using it extensively, your blogging definitely takes a hit. I feel it’s like a T20 vs ODI/Test. When you can put your point across in a few words, people might not want to take the effort of posting it in a blog which takes much more time.

The impact may not be direct, but bloggers usually develop small ideas into an article and post them. But here on Twitter, you tend to post the idea and be done with it. So the idea never gets to be made into a blog post.
That said, few things do make it to the blog, if the user feels that enough can't be said about them in 140 chars (this post for example)

This is what i felt after being on Twitter for more than a year. If you use both or rather all 3 (Buzz included) may be you can comment as how it has been for you.
But I have seen a few people like Nirmal and Zeno who just don’t seem to be affected by anything else. They just keep bloooggggging :-)

Endhiran (The Robot) Teasers/Trailers

I came across these 3 teasers online and it would be a blasphemy if I don't post them in my blog :-)
I prefer calling them 'teasers' as they are relatively small (around 1 min) for a trailer and I hope that the actual trailers are yet to come

So here they go..

1. This was the 1st trailer that was up I guess. It's more about the Robot Rajini and a few action sequences



2. This seems to be more about the actual Rajini with romance, songs, a little more of Ash too.



3. This one's supposed to be a techno-teaser. It's more visually appealing and a mixture of the above two.



I hope u enjoyed them as much as I did. Can't wait for Sep 3 (allegedly the movie's release date)
Thanks to fightclub for the video source

Dogs - More than a man's best friend

I have never had a pet and so have never had a chance to be close to any animal. The closest I ever got to a pet is when my bro-in-law got a German Shepherd puppy for my sister. My in-law was an absolute dog-lover and my sister who was pretty much like me till then, got close to Vincy as the dog grew and became very much part of the family.

Then they moved onto a bigger independent house and the most obvious happened. There were more dogs. They bought a Great Dane pup (Britney) and also started taking care of a Boxer (Tara) and a Miniature Pinscher from known friends. They were as awesome and lovely as much as they were naughty. I used to visit them frequently during holidays and my love for dogs kept growing little day by day. I used to be very reluctant to even go near them, but then they used to recognise me very well and started playing around and then we used to take pictures with them too. They were never just pets and more of a part of the family.

All was well until they had to plan for shifting their house. These days, independent houses are a rarity and they decided to move on to an apartment somewhere closer to their offices. But there, its impossible to have so many dogs with you. So, they had to take a hard decision of giving the dogs away (except Vincy as it was their very first dog). Britney like all Great Danes is very reserved and doesn't move well with people so easily. She is so fond of my sister and wasnt so close with anyone else. A family in AP was ready to adopt them and today they took the dogs with them. Really felt so bad. It was like parting ways with a member of the family. If someone like me who wasnt so close to the dogs, could feel so much, I can understand how sad it must be for my sister and bro-in-law. Feeling very sad for them. I sincerely hope that the dogs are in good health and stay happy wherever they go. Am sure they will stay so as they are very smart and intelligent creatures.

Pets are wonderful. Pets like dogs are not just Man's best friend but more of a companion and an integral part of the family. Hopefully I shall adopt a pet soon. But the difficult thing is when they have to leave you, either due to death or due to some circumstances like the one above.

Vincy (German Shepherd)

Tara (Boxer)

Britney (Great Dane)

Raavanan - Dus sar wale

It is Mani Ratnam's modern day reproduction of one of the most epic mythological stories.
Having said that, I was a touch disappointed towards the end but we will come back to it later. For one, I felt Mani Ratnam need not have to so strictly stick to the Ramayan story through out like the nose reference to Surpanaka (Priya mani) and Monkey like behavior of Karthik (reference to Hanuman) At least I was happy seeing a slight deviation towards the end.

Vikram really proved as why he was worth the billing. He was splendid throughout. Even though you feel that the movie might fall apart, you can never stop enjoying watching this guy act. He grunts, he shouts, he howls, he says that 'buck buck buck'. He does everything in this movie to make that character work. I can't wait to watch his performance as Dev in the Hindi version.

Prithivi does a decent enough job as a tough cop. No one seems white/black in this movie. Everyone seem to have a gray shade to their character. Dev is not all-good and Veera is definitely not as bad as Raavanan (from the Mythology). Aishwarya justified her role.

One more disappointment was that few songs were never fully shown. Veera veera was part of the initial credits. Kaatu sirukki only had an old lady humming it once in the movie. I wanted to hear Shankar Mahadevan/Anuradha Sriram's version. Only three songs Kodu poatta, Kedakkari and Kalvare had some screen presence. Usire Poghudey had a couple of dialogues in between.

The big plus of the movie was the Cinematography and the camera work (V. Manikandan and Santosh Sivan) which were ably supported by the splendid background score by Rahman.
I have definitely heard a lot of bad reviews for this movie and know that many people felt cheated and disappointed at Mani's work. As I said earlier, it could have been better. But I guess it works for some and doesn't for the rest. Whatever it is, it was definitely worth a watch for Vikram's acting and the way in which a bright and green rural India was shown through out.

And namma makkal inum thirunthavey illa, do you know who got the loudest cheer in the movie? No, not Vikram, not Prithvi, nor Ash. It was Ranjitha!!

Paranormal Activity - Movie review

There has been a lot of hype for the movie. Tags like "Don't see it alone" "Nightmares are guaranteed" have been generously thrown around.


Well, the movie never gave me nightmares, actually not even made me think about it again.
I read that the movie gave the chills to a director who made one of the best horror movies till date, the Poltergiest.
May be watching it alone might have had some effect. It had a few scary moments and the climax was little disturbing.
Towards the end of the movie, you get a little tired of the lead pairs that you actually want the demon/ghost to thrash them so that at least then they would abandon the house or do something really solid to get rid of that thing.

The ghost psychic who runs away saying that this is the work of a Demon and he is not a demon expert was funny and frustrating. He could have been of a little more help for sure being in the Paranormal business for so long. He says that his presence in the house angers the spirit more and more. They could have very well met somewhere outside and discussed about this. I don't understand why they want to do everything inside the damn house.

Couple of moments were really creepy like when Katie wakes up and keeps staring at Micah for hours together at night.
The movie might not work so well with the Indian audiences as we do not come across such situations frequently. A couple of people all alone in big house. House fully made of wood where you can hear a lot of squeaky noises. And for sure if it happened in India, first thing in your mind would be to vacate the house and go and stay with family with more people around. Not sure how much this would work but at least the demon would have had more people to scare this way.
We really don't know the background history about the pair. Katie's family survived the inferno when she was young and shifted to a new home. I guess there must have been more people out there to support them.
Overall it was a decent movie with few scares. And would work more if you were a couple like that leaving alone in an almost deserted home somewhere in the US.
Watch it alone at night and check if it works for you :-)

Hot, Hotter and Hottest

You guessed it right. It's about the Chennai weather.
Its an irony that am writing this post on a relatively cooler day this summer thanks to Laila. Laila seems to have had a short stint and could last only for a couple of days. But that has definitely brought some respite to the fried Chennai crowd.
Due to the effects of global warming, the summers could get only warmer each year. Can't imagine how life would be some 5 yrs down the lane. May be people would walk around with Air conditioned suits similar to what MJ had.
Everyone of us can do something about this heat.

• Plant more trees.
• Water your plants daily, don't let them dry out.
• Save water as much as you can.
• Whenever you see a leaking tap, take steps to repair it immediately even though it may not be your home.
• Make sure your home has proper rain water harvesting system (one mighty helpful thing that Jayalalitha did during her tenure) Might be helpful if Laila returns or Bandu visits.
• There are more small things than you can do as part of your daily life without spending much time or effort. Awareness is the most important thing.

My Dream Fantasy team - IPL 3

As with the last IPL, here is a composition of my Dream team of 11. It consists of players who have impressed me in one way or the other this season.
First the list of players, then a little about my selection and those who almost made it and then the final line-up.

Batsmen:
The only Orange cap contenders (Sachin and Kallis) throughout the tournament earn their place right at the top of the order. Sachin is the only player to have scored 600+ in a single IPL so far. Well we can always keep talking abt this guy day in n out.
Surprisingly Kallis wont be opening the innings. It will be Sachin's mate Dada who scored nearly 500 this season @ 47 opening for KKR.
Raina, the best ever IPL batsmen earns the call after scoring 520 @ a SR of 140+
Pollard and Symmo have been the pick of the all-rounders this season with Symmo failing in small patches and Pollard being excellent towards the end of the tournament.
Those who almost made it:
M Vijay (huge transition from tests to T20s), Jayawardene and S Tiwary were in close contention. Rohit Sharma and I Pathan were the next best as all-rounders.
Bowling:
Ojha, the Purple cap holder is an automatic choice. Mishra is a tough omission, but Bhaji had the edge with a little help in batting, not to mention his 17 wickets this season @ an economy of 7
Fast bowling is not complete without 'Slinga' Malings these days. The choice of next pacer was very tough. It was a toss-up between Dougie and Harris. Bollinger makes it coz of his better Econ rate (6.6)
That said Kallis, Raina, Pollard and Symmo should be pretty handy with the ball too.
Those who almost made it:
Fast: Harris should have made it. Others were Zaheer, Vinay kumar (a good young talent) and Steyn (little patchy this season).
Spin: Mishra, Kumble and CSK's find of the season Ashwin. He has it in him but just that he has to play more games.
Wicket-Keeper:
Dhoni is the only guy who came to my mind. He doubles up as my Captain too :) (No.. am not being partial here. Seriously considered Sachin/Ganguly for the role. But Dhoni has that lucky charm to lead the sides)
Those who were a bit close were Sangakkara, Gilly and Uthappa (only for his batting)

Here is the batting line-up with the 2 stalwarts opening


It's quite odd that only Raina and Malinga made it to the current team from last year. Biggest disappointments from last year were Yuvi, Hayden, Gilly and ABD
Lets see how the season is, next year with more teams and more players :-)

The Cup of Joy!!

It was The Judgment Day at the IPL season 3 yesterday which decided who is gonna have the last laugh (Ok.. enough of the Clichés)

It's no secret anymore. It was Chennai who came out in flying colors :) CSK entered the finals as the under-dogs given Mumbai's consistent performance through out the tournament. They were the side to beat and hence the pressure of winning was obviously on them and this proved decisive when they had to chase a decent enough score on a tricky pitch.

The eve of the match rendered a slight blow to CSK's camp. The news was that Sachin was fit and will be playing in finals and leading his team to win the ever elusive Championship. It was bad news for Kallis too as his Orange cap was under threat (eventually Sachin scored much more than those 2 runs reqd to pluck the cap out of Jack's head)
Raina's innnings was a cherry topping to his already illustrious carreer at the IPL so far and he along with able support from others made sure Chennai reached a score that was defend'able.
When Mumbai came to bat and were struggling for the 1st half scoring at less than 6 r.p.o, they still had hope in the form of the man of the tournament 'Sachin'. But when he was gone and when MI were busy deciding whether to send Pollard ahead of Malinga or after him, you know the game was done and it was too late even for the big hitter.
CSK's fairytale ending was amazing and I was absolutely speechless and spell-bound after the match. Just think that we had to score 44 runs off 3 overs even to make to the semis exactly a week ago at Dharamsala. The BIG turnaround for CSK was Chennai's (or rather Dhoni's) last over win against Punjab. That set the tone and the rest is history!! :-) It has been a long way from there.
Feel sorry for Sachin.. but he lacks that eeny weeny bit of luck required to grab a big trophy. On the other hand, Mahi has been CSK's lucky charm. Winning both the Championship and the Fair Play Award (We had a perfect 10/10 for all the 14 matches) just goes on to show the kind of hard and fair cricket this team has been playing throughout.
And needless to say Chennai has been the most consistent team across all the IPL seasons. Here are a few numbers to drive home the point.

No.	Teams	IPL '08	IPL '09	IPL '10	Net worth
1	CSK	7	5	8	20
2	DD	5	6	4	15
3	RCB	2	7	6	15
4	DC	1	8	5	14
5	MI	4	2	7	13
6	RR	8	3	2	13
7	KXIP	6	4	1	11
8	KKR	3	1	3	7

The points are allocated as below:
8 pts for the Tournament Winners
7 pts for the Runners-up
6 for the winner of 3rd place play-off or the one higher on the Points Table
5 for the other losing Semi-finalist
4, 3, 2 and 1 for the rest of the teams according to their positions in Points table
The Net Worth will be the summation of points across the IPL seasons

Numbers speak for themselves.. Do I need to say anything?
Hoping for more success for the Lions in the forthcoming seasons too :-) Fingers Xd.

PVR | Be there

Well, at last its here in Chennai after such a long time. It's quite weird as how long it took for them to start screening in one of the metropolitans whereas they have screens in almost all of the prominent cities around the country. Well, am not complaining, better late than never.
We now have a nice alternative to the biggies of Chennai (Sathyam and Inox). So coming back to the question 'Does it live upto its biggest competitors?'. I would say, Yes it does, at last it appears to do so at the first look.
Location: It's a 7 screen multiplex located at a pretty nice spot, the Skywalk mall in Aminjikarai. Its easily accessible from Annanagar, Shenoynagar, MMDA, Valluvar kottam n many other residential/commercial places.
Picture/Sound: The picture quality of the screen was very good. The screen seemed little smaller compared to others. But the auditoriums are somewhat small and you cant have screens any bigger. Sound was pretty good too. The surround effect was predominant. Ppl actually turned back a couple of times hearing music at the background :)
Ambiance/Seating: The trademark red provides a nice ambiance to the movie hall. The seats are well-cushioned and all have nice push-backs. The leg space is just enough (could been a little wider for people have grown a little more than the normal like me ;)
To improve: One worrying thing would the pagal kollai at the parking lot. Usually malls that have movie screens charge a different flat rate for movie goers. But, here they charge on a hourly basis and I had to shell out 30 bucks for a 2-wheeler parking. That's 25% of the movie ticket cost. Too bad. Hope they do something about it.
Also they don't have the Gold class tickets, as TN govt has a cap of Rs. 120 as a max for movie tickets. So we Chennaites may not get a chance to check that out at all.

Overall, it was fine movie watching experience for me at the PVR and I would say that the PVR is here to stay.

IPL season 3

So the season 3 of the mad man's game is here. So is it Back? Bigger? Better?

Bigger- it might be next year with 2 more teams to join the party

Better- is what we could decide over the next 1 month of action

But, its definitely back.. ya back to India after almost 2 yrs. That's definitely a reason to celebrate.. Yay!! :P

So what's new this IPL? Let's have a look what each of the franchises have in store this season

1. Chennai Super Kings

Its my home side :) and I hope we win this time after a couple of fairly good outings in the past 2 seasons. We made it to the semis on both occasions. CSK will be as ever blessed with the presence of one of the best captains of the IPL, Dhoni. Couldn't agree with Director of CSK more when he says, he s a 3-in-1 performer whose contribution can never go without a mention.

Haydos is back and we might get a chance to see him with his Mongoose bat. The one that looks like a Dhobi walla's. Kemp is in the side too and we might have to wait for sometime to c the blazing opening pair of Hussey and Hayden.

Now putting the other teams in perspective in the order of my backing them :)

2. Mumbai Indians

+ Sachin leading from the front and in the midst of an amazing purple patch

+ The Caribbean explosive duo of Bravo and Pollard.

+ They will hope that the Indian Spin and Pace spearheads Bhaji and Zaheer fire along with Malinga's unorthodox bowling

3. Delhi Daredevils

+ The awesome Delhi opening pair of Viru and his Ranji team mate Gauti. Warner could only add to the woes of the opposition.

+ SA's ABD and SL's Dilshan were well worth their money last time. ABD might not be the same on Indian tracks.

+ Nannes and Parnell will form a nice bowling pair

No more favorites.. Listing others in some random order

4. Bangalore Royal Challengers

+ My 3rd fav captain after Dhoni and Sachin. Kumble can trouble any side with balls landing on their seam

+ Kallis couldn't have hit a good form in anyother better time. Being an excellent all-rounder he comes as a nice package

+ The young Indian contingent of Praveen, Pandey and Vinay kumar should make their presence felt.

5. Kolkata Knight Riders

+ Supposed to be the most glamorous team of the IPL. But the glamour usually limits itself to just SRK. Hope Dada leads them to a decent position this time.

+ Gayle's flamboyant batting, Mathew's all-round abilities and Bond's fiery bowling should come good for them to spell success this season

6. King XI Punjab

+ Much will depend on how good Sangakkara handles the additional responsibility of Captaincy with batting and wicket keeping.

+ Jayawardene, UV and Bopara's batting will be things to look out for.

+ The Australian pair of Lee and Marsh would be eagerly awaited.

7. Deccan Chargers

+ Gilly Gilly.. all the way. He s one another Batsman-Wicketkeeper-Captain package after Dhoni and Sangakkara. And a main cog in the wheel for the Deccan.

+ The out of form talented-Rohit and lasttime-purplecap-holder RP Singh need to come good.

+ Big man Symmo has been good with both bat and the ball. Vaas seems to be going back to his good old days with some amazing opening bowling spells. Look out!!

8. Rajasthan Royals

+ Royals = Shane Warne. The equation couldn't get any simpler.

+ Smith's and Dimma's injuries have really hurt them. Should more than be compensated by Shane Watson's return in April.

+ Warne lead a team of underdogs to an emphatic win once. Can he do it again? Wait and watch.

Oscar 2010 Predictions

Its that part of the year again, where movies from the Hollywood are screened, rated, reviewed, nominated and finally selected for the most prestigious movie awards on the planet Earth. Yes, its time for the Oscar festival.

This year the nominations are being announced on Feb 2
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will co-host the awards this year on Sunday, March 7

So here are the nominees.. rather, possible nominees :) and winners

BEST PICTURE

Avatar
The Hurt locker
Up in the Air
Precious
District 9
Inglorious Basterds

It should be between Avatar and The Hurt Locker. With Slumdog winning it last time for the mass appeal, Avatar could very well make the cut this time.

BEST DIRECTOR

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

Usually this category gets tagged along with the favourite picture. So it could be either James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)

Jeff Bridges won at the Golden Globes. George Clooney is not a distant second.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Gabby Sidibe (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)

It should be between Sandra and Meryl. My guess would be Sandra Bullock

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)

Other nominees need not even turn up. I can give this one in the writing ;)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Mo'Nique (Precious)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)

Must be Mo'Nique. She won the favour at the Golden Globes too.

BEST SCREENPLAY (Adapted + Original)

Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Pete Doctor and Bob Petersen (Up)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

There are seperate categories for Adapated and Original. Here I have clubbed them up. It should be a 3 way tough fight between UITA, Avatar and IB.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Up
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Up, Up and Away!!!!

Keep ur fingers crossed. Lets have a look at my hit rate once the nominees are announced this Tuesday :)

[Updated on Feb 02, 2010]

So, its Feb 2 and the much awaited nominations are finally out. Avatar and The Hurt Locker get the most with 9 noms. Inglourious Basterds - 8. Precious and Up in the Air - 6. Up - 5

And coming back to my predictions, I got 26 of the 27 noms right. Not bad really :)

Only thing I had missed was, I thot Avatar wud be nominated for Best Screenplay. But unfortunately it didn't.

Anyways, lets wait for the big day when the winners r announced