TK #134

Who is featuring in this album cover?

Answer: Irish Mickey Ward

The Secret Behind Oscars

Ever wondered how the Academy Awards work? What are the factors in deciding the best movie for each year? Here is a detailed analysis on why these movies were given the Best Picture award from the year 2000. Behold! The factors that are considered are unimaginable and everyone is bound to feel wowed after discovering the secret behind Oscars.


72nd Academy Awards: American Beauty
There was no hesitation in handing this movie the Best Picture right from the day it released. Despite the movie's brilliant narration and excellent acting by the entire cast, the movie won the Best Picture for an entirely different reason. The movie had the word "American" in it. Especially after The English Patient won in 1997, the jury was bent on giving the best picture to a movie which had the word "American" in it ; hence, proving that American is better than English . Unfortunately, American Pie missed the award for unknown reasons.


73rd Academy Awards: Gladiator
The jury members decided the Best Picture for the 73rd Academy Awards while they were having Pizzas in Pizza Hut. One member is said to have quoted " We should give the Oscars to something Italian just as a tribute to these Pizzas". Another member replied " I heard the movie Gladiator has got something to do with Rome...we should give it to Gladiator". While few member agreed, few argued that Pizza originated in Italy and not in Rome.


74th Academy Awards: A Beautiful Mind
The jury members were aware that if they do not give the award to a movie,which is based on the life of an American Mathematician,they will be ridiculed for their poor knowledge. They had no choice but gift the award to A Beautiful Mind.


75th Academy Awards: Chicago
Despite brilliant movies such as The Pianist and LOTR 2 , the race was between two American cities : Chicago and Gangs of New York. The Award was finally decided over a game of Stone, Paper and Scissor between two representatives from each city.


76th Academy Awards: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The third movie of LOTR evoked sympathy from the jury as the first two movies didn't win the Best Picture. The sympathy shown was very evident as The Return of the King bagged 11 Awards equaling an epic movie and a not so epic ship movie.


77th Academy Awards: Million Dollar Baby
It is believed that Clint Eastwood found out the secret behind Oscars and threatened that he would take a movie about it if the jury doesn't hand him the Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. However, the jury refuted such claims and said that the movie was a masterpiece.


78th Academy Awards: Crash
This was the first time the Best Picture was decided by lots. Voila! Crash was lucky.


79th Academy Awards: The Departed
Sympathy came into play again. The jury felt that it was high time they give the poor bloke, Scorsese, some award to acknowledge his contribution to cinema. Once again,Clint Eastwood blackmailed the jury but Scorsese employed De Niro and Pesci to shut Clint's mouth. 


80th Academy Awards: No Country for Old Men
Since there are no interesting stories behind this award, it can be safely concluded that this movie probably deserved the award.


81st Academy Awards: Slumdog Millionaire
Obviously the jury members didn't want to be branded as racists. As Slumdog Millionaire was entirely based in India with Indian actors, there was no other winner. However, if a dark African movie with an entire dark colored cast had released, then the story would have been different. 


82nd Academy Awards: The Hurt Locker
Having proved that the jury members weren't racist, it was time they proved they weren't sexists. Hence, they snubbed a Tarantino's masterpiece, a Cameron's Blue film ,a Vulcan movie (which wasn't even nominated) and presented the award to The Hurt Locker. James Cameron was inconsolable for obvious reasons. 


83rd Academy Awards: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Mystery to be unfolded soon....

TK #133

Put Funda.

TK #132

Identify the painting. Why did this painting cause a minor stir in the Museum of Modern Art in the year 1961?

Check the comments for the answer.

TK #131

Whose art work? (Move your mouse on the pictures if you don't know the answers)

TK #130

X was named after this 18th Century English aristocrat (Y) even though he wasn't the inventor of  X. It is said that he ordered his valet to bring him _______________________, and others began to order "the same as X!"
X and Y?

Answer: Sandwich and John Montage, Fourth Earl of Sandwich

TK #129

Id both and give pop culture reference.

Answers: Julia Child and Julie Powell. Julie and Julia - The movie.

TK #128

Identify the movie. The hero uses two names in the movie: X and Y. On a totally different account unrelated to the movie, X is the inventor of Y. X and Y? 

Answer: Nacho Libre Y- Nacho X- Ignacio. The characters were named in honour of the inventor of Nachos, Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya

TK #127

X was founded as a restaurant by Parampalli Yajnanarayana Maiya and his brothers in the year 1924.In the mid 1970s when India was under emergency, a Food Control Act was introduced which mandated that food was to be sold at very low prices. This move made it difficult for X to maintain high standards in its restaurant business and forced it to diversify into the instant food business. X also claims to have invented Y, a delicious dish. During World War II, when rice which is the staple item used in ___1___ was in short supply, they experimented in making __1__ using ___2___ and created Y. X and Y? 




Answer: X- MTR Y- Rava Idly

TK #126

Part 1: The following are examples of the X effect. Id X and put funda why it is named so. 

• The Apu trilogy films of Satyajit Ray, which were flops in India before they were given prizes in western countries and re-evaluated as classics in India.
• The popularity in India of movements like those of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and ISKCON based on their popularity in the west.
• The exalted status of the Bhagavad Gita in Hinduism, where, although it was always highly regarded, it gained its current prominence only following Western attempts to identify a single canonical "Hindu Bible".

Part 2: Once you have figured out what X is, how will this lady below connect to X?

Answer: X is Pizza Effect. The lady is Margherita of Savoy. For more info read this

S.M.A.R.T Goals for 2011

Who would have thought corporate life would haunt me enough to write a post titled "S.M.A.R.T Goals"?! But here it is! For the uninitiated, S.M.A.R.T is a mnemonic used in performance management. Well, that is all I know about S.M.A.R.T  and hence, I smartly provide a wiki link for the same. However, there is an alternate expansion for S.M.A.R.T according to ISO Document No. 999 and my goals for 2011 are solely based on it and nothing else. The alternate expansion for S.M.A.R.T is and I quote document No. 999:

"S - Senseless, M- Mundane, A - Awful, R - Ridiculous, T - Terrific "

So here are my S.M.A.R.T goals:

Goal #1 Become a Liverpool football player

Goal Description: Get the book called " How to Play Flawless Football in 16 Days" by Greek God Kyrgiakos. Mug all rules and instructions in the book and go for Liverpool selections. Since the book promises that no one has failed to become a top class player after reading it, I confidently say I will become a Liverpool player. 

Back page of  "How to Play Flawless Football in 16 Days"
featuring the most successful player thanks to the book.

Degree of Difficulty: Very Easy.

Goal #2: Become a Comic Artist.
Goal Description: Instead of describing it in words, I shall exhibit my skill (or the lack of it) with my own comic called CKSD: A web comic of debauchery and poor humor.

"Human waste is injurious to health. Sharks' is better than human's" by Fish School Headmaster

Degree of Difficulty: Demanding

Goal #3: Date a Sheila or Munni.

Goal Description: A picture is worth a gazillion words.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooooo!

Degree of Difficulty: Very Demanding

Goal #4: Talk to TR on Kural TV

Goal Description: More of a dream than a goal. Imagine the pleasure you  get when Sir TR challenge ah talks with his ultimate, unimaginable,spontaneous punch dialogs.  

Sir TR challenge ah talking. 

Degree of Difficulty: Cannot be Measured.

Goal  #5:  Resurrect Dr. Vijay's career.
Goal Description: I am planning to remake the cult classic Karagatakaran with Dr. Vijay and Namitha in the lead. I sincerely hope the remake will be a super hit and Ilayathalapathy will be back to his best.

Dr. Vijay in Karagatakaran photo shoot. Costume courtesy: Ramarajan

Degree of Difficulty: Very very very very Difficult.

Anyone performing pagan worship or playing with Voodoo dolls to hinder my progress will be subjected to severe punishment which will range from watching a Liverpool match to listening to Justin Beiber sing for a good 24 hours.

TK #125

1. Identify the sorcerer's name and who he has been modeled after. 

2. This video is based on whose work? 

PS: I have uploaded the full video. Watch it if interested. For the question only 1 min will do. 

Answer: This is Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia. Sorcerer's name is Yen Sid (Disney in reverse) modeled after Disney himself. Based on Goethe's  Der Zauberlehrling

Cracked by Rohit, Avinash,Nithin, Deepak and half cracks by Pinko,Mod,Arjun,Govind,Chan,Sen Krish &Guru.

TK#124

Shown below is the cover of an anime film (Y) based on a manga of the same name by X. The manga itself is loosely based on a cult classic movie of the same name by Z. However, X claimed that he was inspired only by a still image from Z's movie and X hadn't even seen the classic movie when he created the manga. X,Y & Z?

Answer: X- Osamu Tezuka : Y - Metropolis : Z- Fritz Lang

Cracked by Pinko, Mod, Chan, Comedy,Sticky and Arjun.

TK#123

Shown below is a commemorative tin of a hard candy (Y) from Japan featuring a character from a movie (X), which is based on a semi-autobiographical of the same name. Y is a prominent motif in the film. Roger Ebert considers X  to be one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made. Identify X. And Y for Brownie points.

Answer: X- Grave of the Fireflies Y- Sakuma Drops

TK#122

Shown below is a scene from Finding Nemo. Identify the sound track which is heard when Darla [the girl] opens the door. [A Sitter]

Answer: BGM of  the murder in the shower scene from Psycho

TK#121

Which movie's main character is primarily based on a combination of these two people, because, according to the director of the movie, there was "something sweet about these grumpy old guys"?

PS: TK 1-100 is available on request. TK 101-120 is available here. TK#121 is above.                                              

Answer: The old guy Carl from Up inspired from Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau.