I watched the movie "Shoot-out at Lokhwandwala" @ Innovative Multiplex with Agni and his friends on Saturday night. I fully agree with the review of the movie by the critic "Nikhat Kazmi" in "Times of India" who has awarded it a 4 1/2 star rating.

The movie opens with blood stained stair-cases, walls riddled with bullets, and couple of bodies lying on the ground. A sweeper uses the broom to clear the empty bullet shells lying on the ground. A T.V journalist played by Diya Mirza narrates what happened the day before. Over 3000 rounds of ammunition was fired and more than 120 police personnel (if I am correct) were deployed to smoke out 5 hardened underworld gangsters holed up in the residential building @ Lokhandwala.

Heading the police operations is the top cop Khan (Sanjay Dutt) ably assisted by his two trusted lieutantants Kaviraj Patil (Suniel Shetty) and Jawed Sheikh (Arbaaz Khan). Khan is the chief of ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad) which is modelled on the lines of the elite U.S police force S.W.A.T (Special Weapons and Tactics). The movie is based on a true incident which happened @ Lokhandwala in the 90's when underworld gangsters had a free run. Bollywood films are getting slicker by the day. The relentless action is thankfully punctuated only by a couple of songs. Credit goes to the Director "Apoorva Lakhia" for the way he has made the film and handled the big star cast.

Abhishek leaves his mark in a small cameo. Amitabh Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Amrita Singh, Tushar Kapoor, Ronit Roy, Shabbir Ahluwalia and others play their roles well. Aarti Chabbria as the bar dancer provides the glamour quotient.

In the light of the recent stage-managed encounters of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauserbi by the Gujarat Police and the encounters in Kashmir by the security forces, the movie does raise a lot of disturbing questions. How do you bring the hardened criminals to justice without taking recourse to encounters to them bump off when the judicial system is slow and corrupt notwithstanding the nexus between cops, criminals and politicians.

Sunday morning I took off along with one of my friend to Barachukki water falls which is about 160 kms from Bangalore. Unfortunately the place which was supposed to be scenic with water streaming down the hills had a barren look and you could see just rocks all over the place.

Ostensibly I got the timing wrong by visiting it during the wrong season :) Driving down the 4 lane Bangalore - Mysore highway was a experience to cherish, however much to my surprise there was not even a single restaurant on the highway except the one where I stopped for my breakfast on the outskirts of Bangalore. We had no other option than to go hungry during the lunch time. The road was also in a bad shape for around 30 kms.

I had purchased a new digital camera Sony Cyber Shot (7.2 mega pixels resolution) on Saturday and got a few snaps clicked. On my way back home, it rained quite heavily but thanfully I managed to reach home safely.

Monday morning it's back to work, however I am not expecting much work coz our U.S counterparts have a holiday today.