As Indians, movies and music are never far from us.

Indians, whether in the homeland or in distant lands like U.S., Canada, Australia or New Zealand spend countless hours either listening to songs or watching movies. And we are no different from the herd.

Here are some of the songs we are listening to/watching these days on our iPhone, PC or TV:

English
Cyanide (from Metallica’s new album Death Magnetic) – a new discovery
Teenager in Love (Donny Osmond) – an old favorite
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Hindi
Achcha To Hum Chalte Hain (Singer: Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar; Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal) – A hauntingly beautiful song from the 1970 blockbuster Aan Milo Sajna that we never tire of listening, particularly when the Black Dog seizes us. See Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh gambol around the park in this song. Say what you will, but we think Rajesh Khanna was a better actor compared to Amitabh Bachchan.

Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana (Kishore Kumar) – A classic from the 1971 Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Shammi Kapoor film Andaz. Watch Rajesh Khanna and a very pretty Hema Malini riding on a bike on Bombay roads in this song. There’s a Asha Bhosle version of this song too.

Cheeni Kum (Shreya Ghoshal; Music – Illaiyaraja) – A lovely song from the 2007 romantic comedy Cheeni Kum starring one of Bollywood’s most talented actresses Tabu and that Bollywood budda Amitabh Bachchan.

Yeh Ishq Hai (Shreya Ghoshal) – from the Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapur blockbuster Jab We Met (2007). Nice chemistry between the two stars.
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Tamil:
Sollaththan Ninaikkiren (M.S.Viswanathan, S.Janaki) – Awesome song from the 1973 K.Balachandar movie Sollaththan Ninaikkiren (Kamal Haasan, Jayachitra). This song is simply lovely and has a timeless appeal.

Uyirin Uyire (Kay Kay, Suchitra) – From the 2003 superhit Kakka Kakka starring Surya and Jyothika. Superb picturization of the song has led us to watch this scene more times than we can remember.
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Kannada:
Endendhu Ninnanu Maratu (P.B.Srinivas, Vani Jayaram) – One of the

Our favorite Gabriel Garcia Marquez character Florentino Ariza was not the only one to worry about losing hair and to try every potion and pomade in a futile battle against that great scourge of men everywhere – baldness.

Indians through the ages have done the same and when all else fails resort to wigs.

Here are some Indian personalities famous for their wigs:

Rajinikanth – This balding grandpa and Tamil movie superstar wears a wig when he acts with girls who are young enough to be his great-grand daughters. Like his Sivaji co-star Shriya Saran, for instance.

Raaj Kumar – The late Bollywood actor of Jaani fame was known to wear a wig.

Rajkumar – Kannada film star Rajkumar (1929-2006) used to wear a wig in some of his movies.

Rakesh Roshan – In his forgettable days as an actor, Rakesh Roshan (better known as father of Hrithik Roshan) used to wear a wig to cover up

UK software company Softalk Ltd has put out what it claims is the first spreadsheet application for Apple’s iPhone mobile phone.

Priced at $7.99, the spreadsheet application is being sold via the Apple App Store.

The spreadsheet is said to feature over 50 functions and allows users to e-mail spreadsheets created on the iPhone to a mailbox for subsequent opening in Microsoft Excel 2003 or later versions.

Yaar Yaar Sivam…Nee Naan Sivam…Anbe Sivam.

That even lobotomized dinosaurs once made dazzlingly beautiful movies is easily apparent after watching Anbe Sivam.

Featuring the dinosaur Kamal Haasan and the nai-kutty faced Madhavan in key roles, Anbe Sivam is that rare gem of a Tamil movie, the bewitching aberration that makes its welcome appearance in the cooum hellhole of Kollywood once in a decade if we are lucky.

The highlight of Anbe Sivam is of course Kamal Haasan’s electrifying performance and a moving story that rarely flags, both elements conspicuously absent in this dinosaur’s recent repelling freakshow Dasavatharam (if you are wondering what happened to Kamal Haasan between 2003, when Anbe Sivam was released, and 2008, when Dasavatharam debuted, take it from us  - either this dinosaur pawned his brains in the interregnum or the noxious Cooum gases short-circuited the synapses in his brain).

Besides Kamal Haasan’s non pareil performance and a compelling tale, Anbe Sivam owes its well deserved reputation as one of the highpoints of Kamal’s looong career to a tight screenplay that treats its audience with respect and outstanding execution overall by director C.Sundar.

What’s not to like about Anbe Sivam?

Speak now or forever hold your tongue.

Acting, story, screenplay, music, decent photography, enough display of skin in the fair-skinned Kiran Rathod to keep our flagpoles up – Anbe Sivam has ‘em all and more.

C.Sundar, Kamal, Madhavan, Nasser et al have

Bomb blasts rocked parts of western India Saturday evening (21:30 IST) leaving five persons dead and another 80 injured.

The latest wave of violence struck the communal tinderbox town of Malegaon in the state of Maharashtra and Modasa in Gujarat.

Bomb blasts are becoming a sad fact of life in India.

Last week, bomb blasts in Delhi took the life of a young boy.

Who having heard the hauntingly beautiful song Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si from the 1973 Hindi film Anamika (Sanjeev Kumar, Jaya Bhaduri now Jaya Bachchan) once can ever forget it.

We drew as much pleasure from viewing Anamika last week as we did when we first watched it in a different age, different country and a different continent.

As a distraught Sanjeev Kumar (Kishore Kumar actually) sings the song Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si, his muse and the source of his sorrow Jaya Bhaduri stands close by, looking angelically beautiful as never before in a pale white saree with a golden border.

In this scene, Guddi girl Jaya was a radiant vision.

Jaya Bhaduri had oodles of acting talent and an endearing – and enduring – appeal, factors completely missing in her pretty daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, who is all sizzle and no steak.

Our protagonist in Anamika Devendar Dutt (Sanjeev Kumar), a popular novelist, is an embittered misogynist