TV18 Gets it

I have been watching the consumer internet space in India with some interest for a while now. VCs are exercising reasonable caution when it comes to putting money in an Indian startup in the space (which is different from the situation in silicon valley where too much money is chasing few good ideas).
That aside, I couldn't help notice how good a job TV18 is doing with a whole bunch of initiatives. They are hardly innovative ideas: cricketnext, compareindia, homeshop18, tech2.0, indiwo or their bread and butter moneycontrol. But there's clearly a thrust on building communities which shows that they have taken a long term view. A diversified set of web assets, presence in the content side (being a media company) give TV18 an edge. If it's not already doing so, this is one company which will give indiatimes and rediff a run for their money.
I would buy their stocks, but a lil expensive right now. So I have it on my shopping list. Hoping for the markets to cool off before june/july.

Bheja Fry - Laugh it out.

Last weekend, my wife - Neha, called me up to ask if I was interested in watching 'Bheja Fry'. Now, I am not a big fan of hindi movies and I wasn't particularly impressed with the promos I had already seen but I reluctantly agreed .. mostly to avoid being alone on a Friday evening. (She threatened to go alone on this one, if I persisted with my love for dark ones like the departed, 300, Apolcalypto).

The movie is appartenly unoriginal (I read that it's 'inspired' by Le Diner De Cons - The Dinner Game).

I couldn't care less - as long as it made me laugh. And it did. It was after a long time that I saw such a good work on comedy from bollywood. I might have missed the funny ones in recent years, but after the times of Golmaal, bollywood comedies have centered around poor jokes, double meaning dialogues and overly complicated situations.

Vinay Pathak did a great job but I would want to give credit to the script writers (the french guys basically) for the character maintained remarkable consistency throughout the movie.

Sarika had too insignificant a role to impact the movie. Rajat Kapoor seemed very comfortable. Ranveer's character kept a strange face and a body language that was not needed at all. His character and situation was funny enough without it.

So its a copy and some of it could be done better but overall, its worth watching in beautiful company. Especially, if she insists on a hindi movie...