Microsoft is tooting its horn that first week sales of its new Halo 3 video game has crossed $300 million making it the fastest selling game ever.

Released on September 25, Halo 3 is the final version of a popular trilogy developed exclusively for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game console.

In the first 24 hours of its launch, Halo 3 sales in the U.S. reportedly reached $170 million.

Microsoft executives say over 20 million copies of the games in the Halo trilogy have been sold worldwide.

Xbox 360 sales are also supposedly seeing a surge since the release of Halo 3, with Microsoft claiming a doubling in the weekly average sales of the consoles.

Believe it or not, Bollywood has come out with a nice thriller.

In Johnny Gaddaar, our Bollywood folks have put out a rewarding entertainer that keeps you engrossed almost for the entire duration of the film.

Unlike recent Hollywood lifts like Heyy Babyy or Partner, Johnny Gaddaar seems like an original effort by director Sriram Raghavan.

What makes the success of Johnny Gaddaar even more special is that except for yesteryear hero Dharmendra, most of the other actors are virtual unknowns.

Read the full review of Johnny Gaddaar here.

Much as we love Jamie Foxx, it was the Israeli actor Ashraf Barhom who commanded our attention in Peter Berg’s new action flick The Kingdom.

As the Saudi colonel Faris Al Ghazi responsible for guarding a bunch of FBI Special Agents investigating a horrific attack in Saudi Arabia in which many American lives were lost including an FBI colleague, Ashraf Barhom brings an intensity to his character that Foxx - who plays an FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury here - never seems to achieve.

I suspect we’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more of Ashraf Barhom in Hollywood productions.

A geopolitical action thriller with car chases and its twin siblings bombings and kidnappings, The Kingdom is not in the same league as that edge of the seat, steroid-laced thriller of this summer Bourne Ultimatum.

Simply put, former CIA operative Jason Bourne trumps FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury in every department - story, action and pace.

But don’t get us wrong.

The Kingdom is still a decent movie compared to any of the currently running Bollywood nightmares at the Indian theatres in New York, New Jersey or California.

Against the wishes of the wimpy Attorney General Gideon Young (Danny Huston) and the State Department, four FBI agents land in Saudi Arabia to investigate a deadly attack.

With just five days to complete their difficult mission, the FBI agents led by Foxx meet with a hostile reception in Saudi Arabia both from the local U.S. State Department fellow Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) as well as from their Saudi hosts.

Saudi colonel Faris Al Ghazi is responsible for their security and also for ensuring that the FBI agents do not step out of line in a country where for much of the local population Osama bin Laden is the hero and the Americans are the villains.

Saudi Arabia is a harsh terrain in every way - language, culture, anti-American sentiments and other prejudices stymie the FBI agents at every turn.

Although the story is not gripping in its entirety, The Kingdom has a lot of good moments.

Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper as the other FBI agents and particularly Ali Suliman as the Saudi Sergeant Haytham do an adequate job.

Much of this geopolitical thriller was actually shot - literally and figuratively in this case - in Arizona though it’d hard to figure that out if you didn’t know it already.

Indian TV viewers have never had it so good or so bad (depending on the viewer).

Some 100 TV channels are supposed to be launched over the next 12 months with more to come.

While this huge expansion in TV channels means so much more choice for viewers, it also portends intense competition for ad dollars.

Coming as this TV expansion does amidst growing Internet usage, the battle for ad dollars is bound to be unprecedented and may also cause ripples over the Internet advertising and the print markets as well.

A Reuters story highlights the opportunities and challenges in the expansion of TV channels in India:

With the total number of channels on air set to hit 700 by 2009, broadcasters will be forced to slash advertising rates and spend heavily on improving technology to ensure their channels are carried into homes, or face the prospect of being swallowed up by rivals.

For now anyway, everyone is just scrambling to launch more TV channels.

The Prannoy Roy-headed NDTV is launching several new channels including an entertainment channel soon and gearing up to expand its presence in the U.S. as well to target the diaspora.

Some 31 odd years back, we watched Sholay for the first time in a small town in the hinterlands of south India.

Sholay was like nothing we’d ever seen before. It had a fearsome villain who quickly became a household name, fine music, moving romance and above all non-stop action that kept us glued to the screen.

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag 

We were spellbound by Sholay’s villain Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), laughed at the antics of Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), mesemerized by the beauty of Basanti (Hema Malini) and almost cried when Jai died in a hail of bullets at the end.

Though we were too young to realize it then, Sholay was a work of art.

When we heard that Sholay was being remade by Ram Gopal Varma, we were shocked at the sheer effrontery of the idea. Our first thought was that it’d be like remaking Casablanca without Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Can you imagine that?

So, how can you have Sholay without Amjad Khan or Sanjeev Kumar, both long dead now and Hema Malini, now too old.

Our initial unease was confirmed after watching Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag this evening.

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag is a piece of trash combining all of the worst elements of Hindi cinema.

A pathetic screenplay, poor acting, miscasting, disgraceful music and above all incompetent direction come together in the dismal ensemble

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