The Cup Of Joy

          What if the 2011 Cricket World Cup was made into a film?

        

THE CUP OF JOY (2011)

| 43 Days|  Action, Adventure|19 Feb 2011 (IND,SRI,BAN)

It’s been 28 years since the last world cup victory. Can Dhoni’s Devils live up to the challenge and bring home the cup that counts?

             Writers:

             MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and the Indian Team

               CAST & CREW:

               Main Cast

            India, Australia, South Africa, England, Pakistan, West Indies, Sri-Lanka, New-Zealand

            With Cameos From

            Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Canada, Kenya, Ireland, Netherlands and Sreesanth

            

            Director: Gary Kirsten

            

            Production : BCCI

            Cinematography : ESPN-STAR Network

            

            Music : Harsha Bhogle, and the team of commentators (Danny Morrison excluded).

   

            Storyline :

             28 years after the Indian victory led by Kapil Dev, the Indian team faces an uphill task of winning the worldcup on home                    soil. In comes M S Dhoni-The Man with the Midas Touch. How Dhoni, along with Yuvraj Singh ,Zaheer Khan and co. lead                    Team India to glory forms the rest of the storyline.  

            

            Taglines:

              The Cup that Counts

            

            Genres:

               Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi (Unless you count the DRS out!)

            Details

            Official Sites:

               www.bcci.tv

            Language:

               Cricket

            Release Date:

               19th February 2011

            Proposed Sequel :

                  T20 Cup of Joy (Expected to release in Summer of 2016)

            Also Known As:

               The Cricket World Cup 

            Filming Locations:

                India, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh

            

           Box Office

            Budget:

               $50 Million (estimated)

    

           Company Credits

            Production Co:

                 BCCI Production for the International Cricket Council.

            Technical Specs            

            Runtime:

              43 days

Soft Skills!

Anyone who watches cricket with more than a passing interest would be aware of the term ‘soft hands’ employed by the commentators. This term is, at present, associated with the batsmen and I expect it to be extended to bowlers in the future. Soft fingers would be more apt then, wouldn’t it?

Dravid is a fine exponent in the use of soft hands. Domestic competitions in India are played on matting wickets or on rank-turners that the batsmen eventually become masters of front-foot play. The same cannot be said of the back-foot. How can you expect that when the bouncers barely rise above the navel? Soft hands are vital to prolong your stay at the wicket. The wicket-keeper and the slips place themselves in relation to the bowler’s pace. The batsmen negate this carry by using soft hands which ensures that the ball lands short. This is perfectly understandable in case of front-foot play. But how do soft hands affect back-foot play? It has to do with the behaviour of the ball after impact. Imagine this scenario: you throw a ball against a big sponge and against the wall. The sponge absorbs the ball’s kinetic energy while the wall does not have any influence on it. If anything, the wall might increase it, very marginally. The same happens in cricket. Here, the bat held with soft hands acts as a sponge and that held with hard hands acts as a wall. The ball could balloon to the nearest fielder when defending a bouncer with hard hands. The bat should be left loose and hanging to absorb the ball’s energy thereby making it ‘drop dead’. The important aspect here is to rise above the ball’s bounce though. The ball has to hit the bat, and not your gloves. 

All of us are not fond of reading explanations, right? If all this matter-of-fact stuff flowed right across your brain, never mind. Just play the following video and notice his bottom-hand closely during shot-making.

I did mention 'Soft fingers'. If you had tried bowling, you would have experience with this idea. The ball when held hard in your hands at the time of delivery hampers your release-point and your release-time. You will end up pitching it halfway and if the surface is fast and bouncy, you might just get away with it. I wouldn't say the same for any other surface. You will get pulled and cut quite often! With soft handling, these errors could be corrected. Handle it too soft and you will be gifting the batsman an easy-to-score-off full-toss, or you could even hurt him!

I developed this concept and though I have no proof, I have personal experience. If you think of this concept as being flawed, I would very much like an explanation to this effect in the comment section.

Nebulae

Not many know that the stars in our sky start as tiny clouds of energy called Nebulae. Aggregation of nebulae eventually causes the formation of a star.

Similarly, not many know that our present-day stars were tiny nebulae in yesteryear films. Enlighten yourselves.

1. Ilayathalapathy Vijay:

We know Vijay as the mass action hero today. Little do we know that he began his career as a child artiste in the Vijaykanth-starrer Vettri (1984).

                             

2. R.Madhavan:

He is every girl's perfect boyfriend. Before he made that persona his own with Alaipayuthey (2000), he acted in a Hollywood film titled Inferno aka Operation Cobra (1997), as Ravi,Inspector of Police.

3. VTV Ganesh:

You might have seen him in Vettaiyadu Vilayadu (2006) as a henchman. Before his big break in Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya(both being Gautham Vasudev Menon-directed films),  VTV Ganesh debuted in the role of Madurai District Collector in the Ajith-starrer Red (2002).

Heard them somewhere!

While listening to a song,have you ever had the feeling "Hey ! I've heard this lyric somewhere!!! ". Well, if you did, that's because some of the Tamil song lyrics today have been inspired from dialogues from Tamil films.

Does that mean today's so called modern lyricists lack creativity?
You be the judge.

Here are a few songs to start with...

0.What a Karuvaad-  Vellai Illa Pattadhari

The title of the song is inspired by the dialogue - "Wow.. What a karvaad.." from the movie Singaravelan, starring Kamal Hassan and Khusboo.

 1. Saroja Samaan Nikalo-Chennai 600028

The director of the film -Venkat Prabhu himself revealed that this opening line of the famous song was inspired by the dialogue "Sushma, samaan nikalo" from the film Mudhalvan, starring Arjun and Manisha Koirala.

2. Nee Enna Periya Appatakara-Ennamo Yeadho

This here is kind of a double whammy! The name of the film by itself is inspired from the song "Ennamo Yeadho " from the film Ko. The line Nee Enna Periya Appatakara in the movie is inspired by the famous dialogue of the same name from the movie Boss Engira Baskaran.