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Paul Hansen Wins 2012 World Press Photo of the Year:

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo of the Year for an image that shows a group of men carrying the bodies of two dead children in Gaza City, Palestine. The World Press Organization announced the winners of the 56th annual contest at a press conference on February 15 in Amsterdam.

Hansen, who is a photographer for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, shot the winning photograph last November after an Israeli missile attack destroyed the family’s home. This year’s chair of the jury was Santiago Lyon, vice president and director of photography at The Associated Press. In an announcement released by World Press Photo, fellow juror member Mayu Mohanna, a photographer and curator based in Peru, said about Hansen’s winning photo: “The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children. It’s a picture I will not forget.”

Hansen will receive a 10,000 euro award and other prizes at a ceremony to be held in Amsterdam in April.

The World Press Photo Contest honors outstanding photojournalism, both single pictures and photo stories, in several categories, including Spot News, General News, People in the News, Sports, Contemporary Issues, Daily Life, Arts and Entertainment, Portraits, and Nature.

Hansen’s winning image also placed first in the Spot News Singles category. Coverage of the Syria took many of the other top news prizes. Rodrigo Abd, an Associated Press photographer, won first in the General News/Singles category for his photo of a woman injured by shelling in Syria. Alessio Romenzi’s coverage of the war in Syria won first in General News/Stories.

Other first-place winners include Paul Nicklen, who won first place in Nature Stories for images on Emperor penguins. Nadav Kander won first in Staged Portraits for a black-and-white photo of actor Daniel Kaluuya. Jan Grarup’s story on a women’s basketball team in Mogadishu, Somalia, won first place in Sports Features.

Escape from Planet Earth:

Critics rating: 

Escape from Planet Earth is the first theatrical release for computer animation company Rainmaker Entertainment, the Canadian studio behind the direct-to-video Barbie fairy tale series. It’s also the third full-length 3D cartoon distributed by the Weinstein Company banner, after the Hoodwinked! movies. Development has been ongoing since 2007, culminating with the film opening in the middle of February to a wide release (over 3,000 theaters) but little-to-no significant marketing.

The Escape from Planet Earth voice cast includes Rob Corddry (Warm Bodies) as Gary Supernova, a resident of the distant planet Baab who works for the organization BASA, which specializes in rescue missions, and is the brains behind his brother Scorch (Brendan Fraser), a dim-witted hunk admired as a lone hero by the blue-skinned public. When Scorch is captured on a notoriously dangerous world known as “The Dark Planet” (spoiler: it’s Earth), his scrawny nerdy sibling must step up and save the day.

In some ways, Escape from Planet Earth represents the epitome of junky children’s entertainment. It cynically aims the majority of jokes at adults, stringing together a menagerie of pop culture references and satire that will pass right over the heads of many viewers belonging to the juice box crowd; hence, it does not even qualify for the “It’s meant for kids!” defense. On the other hand, the underlying messages and lessons inherent to the story are worthwhile. The problem is, they are presented in such a muddled and emotionally-unsatisfactory fashion that many a discerning adult will probably struggle to appreciate them (much less, kids still learning to read between the lines of a film’s narrative).

Director and co-writer Cal Brunker served as a storyboard artist on Horton Hears a Who!, Despicable Me and Ice Age: Continental Drift, and you get the feeling he was aiming to tell a tender, funny and meaningful story with his feature-length directing debut. Indeed, Escape from Planet Earth examines the continued importance of the nuclear family structure in the 21st century and how every member of that unit is valuable. However, the majority of the characters are either poorly written or just saddled with flat arcs – with exceptions, such as Gary’s career woman-turned stay at home wife Kira (Sarah Jessica Parker). Meanwhile, the conflict involving Gary’s son Kip (Jonathan Morgan Heit) not looking up to his dad because he’s, y’know, a NERD, feels outdated and doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Part of the reason the story and character elements feel so disorganized and weak can be chalked up to seven different writers landing credit on the movie (including Brunker), while a lawsuit filed by the story co-writer Tony Leech and producer Brian Inerfeld asserts the Weinsteins forced 17 rewrites on the script total. That also explains why the editing feels so choppy (with pop song excerpts often stuck in uncomfortably here and there), while the humor includes weird targets like the Best Picture-winner The Artist – which was distributed by the Weinstein Company, no coincidence – and the Beatles, along with other gags that most adults should find too lame to enjoy (and kids will neither understand nor care about).

The supporting cast is rounded out by Star Trek icon William Shatner, Jessica Alba (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), Craig Robinson (The Office), Sofia Vergara (Modern Family), Jane Lynch (Glee) and comedians George Lopez and Ricky Gervais. Much like the main cast members, their performances are fine but cannot overcome being attached to uninteresting characters. Similarly, the computer-animation fails to compensate for shortcomings elsewhere; it’s not all that expressive, nor are the various designs and backgrounds fitting caricatures of reality (and the 3D effect is negligible, save for a scene or two). Pixar and DreamWorks, this ain’t.

However, at the end of the day, all of these flaws would be more forgivable if the film offered better fun for younger viewers and presented its themes in a coherent manner. As it stands, though, Escape from Planet Earth isn’t the sort of movie that will please either parents or their kids beyond serving as a mindless distraction for a couple hours.

Escape from Planet Earth is 89 minutes long and Rated PG for for action and some mild rude humor. It is currently playing in 2D and 3D theaters.

BlackBerry Q10:

Cost: Approx 30,000/-INR

Expected launch date: 10 Apr 2013

Specifications

Processor: Dual-Core 1.5GHz - Snapdragon S4 Plus

Display: 3.1”, SuperAMOLED display, 720 x 720 resolution at 330 PPI, Touch On Lens

Camera: 8MP rear facing camera, Auto Focus, 5X digital zoom,

1080p HD video recording ・2MP front facing camera, 3X digital zoom,

720p HD video recording

Memory: 2GB RAM ・16GB Internal Storage ・Hot Swappable microSD Slot up to 64GB

WiFi: Dual Band 802.11 a/b/g/n ・2.4/5GHz ・4G Mobile Hotspot

GPS: Assisted, Autonomous, and Simultaneous GPS

Battery: BlackBerry NS1, 2100mAh Removable Battery

Sensors: Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Proximity, Gyroscope, Ambient light sensor

Connectivity: NFC ・microUSB ・microHDMI-Out ・Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy

・4G LTE

Dimensions (LxWxD): 119.6mm x 66.8mm x 10.35mm

Talk Time / Standby: Upto 10hrs

BlackBerry Z10:

Cost: Approx 30,000/-INR

Expected launch date: 20 Feb 2013

Introduction:

The BlackBerry Z10 heralds the rebirth of a fallen leader in the smartphone market. It's a clean break from the past with a big touchscreen and novel OS, but the same business mentality that made it the favorite of office dwellers around the world. Except, this time BlackBerry has also added a dash of fun.

BlackBerry Z10 official images

BlackBerry's previous generation of touch-driven smartphones felt a lot like Nokia's early attempts to knock Symbian into shape for touchscreen. With the Z10, however, the company threw everything out and started fresh.

BlackBerry 10 that powers the phone is a modern operating system with a brand new gesture-based interface and support for powerful dual-core CPUs. If you think dual-core Krait is old news on Android, you'd be right, but the Z10 is closer to the iPhone in this regard - the OS has been optimized to run on very few devices (just one right now, one more on the way), allowing for maximum efficiency.

Then BlackBerry equipped the Z10 with a 4.2" WXGA screen - slightly bigger and sharper than the iPhone 5's retina display - but kept the package more compact than certain massive droids. Then came all the connectivity features, hardware ports and slots.

Here's what they ended up with, the good and the bad of it:

Key features:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, tri/quad-band UMTS/HSPA, optional 100 Mbps LTE
• 4.2" 16M-color WXGA (768 x 1280 pixels) capacitive touchscreen TFT
• Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait, 2GB RAM, Adreno 225
• BlackBerry 10 OS; advanced on-screen keyboard; Office document editor
• BlackBerry Hub with extensive social networking connectivity
• BBM with video chat and screen sharing
• 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection and Time Shift; LED flash, 2MP front facing camera
• Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps; 720p recording with front-facing camera
• 16GB storage, microSD card slot; built-in Dropbox and Box integration
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot; Wi-Fi sync
• Bluetooth 4.0
• NFC
• standard microUSB port, microHDMI
• 3.5mm audio jack
• GPS receiver with A-GPS

Main disadvantages:

• Brand new UI has a steep learning curve
• Occasional crashes and unstable behavior
• BlackBerry World missing key apps
• BlackBerry Maps are even worse than Apple Maps
• Camera offers little control over image quality

As with any newborn platform, there will be growing pains - sparse app market and iffy maps for one. The biggest concern is whether the sleek new interface will put people off (both current and new BB users). It's fast and intuitive once you get used to it, but doesn't have the level of familiarity of the iOS or Android (which honestly took years cultivating).

That's the mission ahead of the BlackBerry Z10. It can't single-handedly recapture the market and bring BlackBerry to its former RIM glory, instead it sets the stage for future devices (the Q10 is a couple of months away).

Let's not to say that the Z10 won't achieve popularity - with quality hardware and software, the Z10 can easily net both people who need a BlackBerry but are tired of the aging BB OS 7 devices and new users who are equally tired of iOS and Android.

Samsung Galaxy SIV to be Released in April:

Lately we have heard about the possibility of a new touch technology on the Samsung Galaxy SIV. Recent rumored specifications include 4.99-inch full HD display, 2GB of RAM, a 2GHz Exynos 5 Octa processor, 3100 mAh battery and wireless charging.

It seems very likely for the operating system to be Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, although I'm hoping for 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Maybe the most important fact is that the phone will feature a Qualcomm processor, which has caused a certain amount of interest on the web.

We are getting closer to the release date of the new Galaxy smartphone, rumored to happen in April, this year.

I also expect to see a new design from Samsung. The leaked specs have already given some overall idea of what to expect, but of course nothing is confirmed yet.

Sources have suggested that the new Galaxy SIV would come with the amazing Samsung S Pen stylus - a must-feature with the Galaxy Note smartphones. The latest news from a Korean online trusted publication is that the company has decided in the last moment that the Galaxy S4 will not now feature the S Pen stylus, but this remains unclear.

Other news from the same source mentions that its home button will not be present on this version, although it seems that Samsung has decided to keep the home button, according to another leaked draft. The report also mentions that the production will begin in March, this year, with a release no later than April.

What I know for sure is that we will have an 8 core smartphone coming from the Korean firm, as it was announced at CES 2013, which will be complete with 4 big cores and 4 smaller cores, as part of ARM's complex and powerful architecture.

The support for the 8-core SIV version is one of the best to run the Android 4.2.1. and will sport a 1.8GHz Octa processor.

The April launch event is expected by at least 600,000 new Samsung customers, eager to buy the new smartphone.

Special 26:

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpayee, Jimmy Sheirgill, Kajal Aggarwal, Divya Dutta

Direction: Neeraj Pandey

Genre: Thriller

Duration: 2 hours 24 minutes

Story:

Four feisty heroes posing as a CBI team, fifty heists and one real CBI officer on the prowl to nab them.

Review:

Ready for a fake 'Foursome', with some 'real' stuff. Here it goes. With cool conmen, cops, chases, mind, matter and maal. But first, meet the members of the con-club. The asli khiladi Ajay (Akshay), quick-witted, daring and strong-willed - he's the master-planner. Sharmaji (Kher), a wee-bit weak-hearted, but the real 'loin of Punjab' (with 8 bachchas and going strong). Add in, Iqbal (Kishore Kadam) and Joginder (Rajesh Sharma) - who add muscle to the master-mind. In the late 1980's these conmen pose as CBI officers and raid malaamal matris, business magnates and jewellers.

With no records or FIRs - they escape after every heist with a clean (white) conscience and loads of black money. A (real) CBI inspector, Waseem (Manoj) along with sub-inspector Ranveer (Jimmy) get on a deadly chase to nab them while they're faking it. Well, if you want to figure out con-asli, con-nakli, go ahead, wear Sherlock's (Holmes) suit and crack this one.

With an ingeniously layered role and a brilliant act, Anupam Kher truly 'steals' the show. Akshay hits hard, with pure, unadulterated acting, minus action. Manoj is always in command, fiery and fantastic. Jimmy lends strong support; Kajal Aggarwal (Ajay's love-interest) flashes smiles in interludes, and Divya Dutta throws in laughs.

Inspired by a real incident, Neeraj Pandey cuts to the chor-police chase and weaves an intelligent, mind-racing thriller, keeping you tightly strapped to your seats. It captures the 80's era beautifully; and the cinematography ( Bobby Singh) is a cut above (special mention: scenes in Connaught Place, Delhi, and Kolkata streets). The powerful background score enthuses the pace. The only place he loses momentum is the romantic track and dance number, kinda unwarranted, we must say.

Interestingly, this con-job story is not superbly-stylish or stealthily serious. It doesn't stun you with a social message like Pandey's 'A Wednesday', but it grips, excites and ahh...climaxes too! And no ... you can't fake this one!

ABCD - Any Body Can Dance:

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Prabhudeva, Ganesh Acharya, Kay Kay Menon, Lauren Gottlieb, Salman Yusuff Khan, Dharmesh Yelande, Punit Pathak

Direction: Remo D’Souza

Genre: Dance Film

Duration: 2 hours 23 minutes

Story:

 A dance teacher takes on the challenge of mentoring a group of untrained dancers to set-up the best dance squad in the country.

Review:

Let's get jiggy with it right away. And groove to beats of the alphabets of dance. Vishnu (Prabhudeva), a choreographer with an elite dance academy is unceremoniously ousted by the ambitious and artistically inept head honcho, Jehangir (Kay Kay).

The reason is simple. Their ideologies are out of sync - Vishnu believes in true talent, Jehangir trades talent for trophies and TRPs. The former says it's about 'performance', the latter claims it's about 'packaging'. Vishnu is on the verge of giving up, until he spots a gang of footloose street-dancers performing at a Ganesh Utsav. He tangos with chaddi-buddy Gopi (Ganesh) to train them to compete in a dance reality show. They set the dance floor on fire, but not without their grooves, greed, lifts, let-downs, flip-ups and fragile egos. And of course, some 'hip-hop'-hurrays too!

In the film, Prabhudeva says, "Dance apne aap mein ek nasha hai. Jab yeh nasha ho, aur koi nasha nahin ho sakta!" Bingo! And when he takes centerstage, your jaw drops and heart leaps. He acts a bit, emotes in parts, but dances in a rhapsodic high.

Ganesh Acharya lends support but is overbearing at times. Kay Kay moonwalks through his part; spewing arrogance and attitude in style. The film introduces a host of new faces (in a kickass chase sequence), of them Salman, Dharmesh, Punit and Lauren are show-stoppers.

With India's first 3D Dance film, Remo puts his best foot forward. The film lacks dramatic-density, but the minute dance breaks in, all hell breaks loose. This isn't a 'step-up' from anything you've seen before. The 3D impresses in parts with predictable routines, but he pitches the emotional tempo towards the end. The grand finale act is spectacular, better than all reality shows strung together.

This movie isn't about the A-to-Z of dance; but if there's rhythm in your body this one will move you. To the nearest floor.

Murder 3:

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Randeep Hooda, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sara Loren

Direction: Vishesh Bhatt

Genre: Thriller

Duration: 2 hours 1 minute

Story:

A wildlife photographer's girl mysteriously goes missing. He's quick to move his new love into his eerie home. One who holds the key to the mystery.

Review:

Love, always, is a question of life and death. And if it's a Bhatt enterprise - Death it is! Swifter and slicker! Devoid of remorse, regret or redemption. Exposing the obsessive in the romantic; the fear in fantasy. Love bloodied with lust and lingerie, sin and satin. With bare bodies caught between hot-beds and cold coffins. So there, the 'Murder' franchise is back - to kill love the third time over.

Vikram (Randeep) a hotshot wildlife photographer (shoots 'wild'-live women too) woes and seduces a waitress Nisha, (Sara) who moves into his huge, haunting home. He's passionate by night and philosophical by day, brooding and bedding with intensity. Nisha, the damsel-in-daze, is flustered by Vikram's cryptic conversations and supernatural sights and sounds in the house. The vital signs are cliches, like windows clattering, strange vibrations, and flickering lights. More often, the bathroom scenes steams up the suspense and waters it down just as quickly. But there's a bigger mystery lying here. Vikram's ex-girlfriend, Roshni's (Aditi) sudden disappearance makes him the prime suspect in the case, with cops tracing the 'body of evidence'.

With more mystery than grisly murders, debutant Vishesh Bhatt works around a story (a remake of a Spanish thriller) that's 'fleshy' enough (minus the sex and eroticism of a 'Murderesque' series) creating an eerie setting, with sombre moods and suspicious characters. He solely relies on the strength of the story without glossed-over effects and style, which is commendable. The first half ghost-walks into a comfort zone (with songs, romance et al); while the second half terrifyingly twists, with raging emotions and shuddering shock value.

Randeep smoothly builds tension with his silent and mysterious performance. Aditi's deranged act and traumatic breakdown at betrayal is impressive. Sara only adds beauty to the horror. The lilting music (Pritam) intonates the thriller. 'Murder 3' is a decent remake, the story stands out in this genre. It thrills in spurts but bleeds in parts.

This one's no bloody Valentine, but watch it if you like it twisted.

Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story:

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Neha Sharma, Nasser

Direction: Vinnil Markan

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Duration: 2 hours 5 minutes

Story:

Damsel in distress, moves into bad neighbourhood and is bailed out by a golden-hearted, lovelorn don. Of course, with a few lessons in 'bhai-ology' and romantic chemistry.

Review:

Bhai-log and behno, here's another 'Don' film and it's daringly different. Yes, it has un(don)e the deadly Don and given us an all new, improved, purified soul. Bole toh, a bhai with a big-heart; who does more bhaichara than bhaigiri. He has a sense of 'humours' (bhai style), says 'ladies first' (chivalrous, alright) and is a master in 'bhai-ology'.

Meet Jayantabhai (Vivek), a small-time Mumbai gangster, who's more Munnabhai than Jayantabhai, really. While JB tries to win over his big boss Altaf bhai and become his right-hand hench, he bumps into his friendly and feisty neighbour Simran (Neha) - struggling to find a foothold in big, bad Mumbai. Over anda-bhurji and endless banter in bhai-bhasha (refer to dialect dictionary for Dons) he falls in love with his pretty 'English Vinglish' padosan. Simran grapples with 'single-girl-in-big-city' issues like roti and makaan; as far as kapda goes, she's somehow impeccably dressed at all times (huh!). They develop an endearing bond (with lovable chemistry); and Don suddenly turns into dilwala, and a new chapter on luv-shuv is introduced in 'bhai-ology'.

Vivek is cool, confident and in his 'fulltoo' element. He's donned the bhai role several times, but Jayantabhai is total jhakaas. He adds zest to his character, with 'donnisms', punctuating it with bang-on comic-timing. Neha is a delight onscreen; looking stunning as 'bubblegum' or 'babe'. She shows immense spark, performing with spunk and style.

Vinnil Markan's 'feel-good' goofy 'gangsta' story is told with simplicity and modesty. It's not a slick, stylized gang-fest with shootouts and shenanigans, but an uncomplicated story of a good-goonda who wears his heart (instead of his gun) on his sleeve.

The screenplay is average and it waits a while to take-off. And we wish it had a bit more 'Ram Leela' (read: drama in bhai lingo), but overall it entertains.

Moral of the story: Even bhais make good boyfriends. Got it, bhai saab?

Actor and director Kamal Haasan said on Saturday his next production 'Vishwaroopam-2' will be launched in a few days and release this year.

Speaking to reporters at a meet organised by Raj Kamal Enterprises, along with film distributor H.D. Gangaraj, Kamal Haasan said he would ensure that there will be no delay in the release of the new film as he has been making preparations in right earnestness.

The actor said that many Tamil film personalities advised him to continue making films at least once a year.

Haasan also announced that he has also been involved in another script titled "Moo".

The actor's latest espionage thriller "Vishwaroopam" ran into trouble after some Muslim groups sought certain modifications. The actor agreed for the changes before its release Feb 7.

The Rs.95 crore film narrates the story of a Muslim Indian agent living in the US in disguise, on a secret assignment to stop a probable terror attack. It stars Kamal Haasan, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah, Shekhar Kapur, Rahul Bose and Jaideep Ahlawat.

"My fans in Tamil Nadu are overwhelmingly supporting my movie and it has already been talked as my biggest carrier hit after it opened with a humongous response for three days," he said.

"Now, that the Tamil version of 'Vishwaroopam' has been released in Tamil Nadu, I am happy that I will not be questioned by my brother and co-producer Chandra Haasan," said the actor, indicating that the film may collect nearly Rs.100 crore.