Rock & Roll with Amit Paul

When I found out that Amit Paul was coming to Atlanta for a concert. I was sooo excited. I actually watched *most* of Indian Idol - Season 3. Hey, it was mostly spoken in Hindi and very different from American Idol, even though I don't watch much of it either, so I didn't know what to expect. Funny thing is I only have seen season 3. Mainly watched it for Meiyang Chang, Prashant Tamang, and Amit Paul. Now, I like Prashant too (the winner of Indian Idol 3) and would've went to his concert but I found out after he came. I wasn't going to miss my chance to see Amit Paul. He's so talented and cute!

So I bought my tickets two months in advance online. The prices were reasonable. I decided to get VIP. Hey, why not? A few more extra dollars and I get to be closer to the stage and have a meet/greet with Amit Paul. Plus it is not far from my house at all!

I tweeted about watching Luck By Chance. That was such a good movie! (Should I blog about it? And make lots of caps?) Forget the "Baaware" song. Yes, Hrithik is cute and can dance. But the best song on the soundtrack is sung by Amit Paul - "Pyaar Ki Daastan."



Did the concert start "Indian Standard Time"?
Well, it did *not* start on time. However, I didn't have to wait that long.

I'm an early bird. Blame it on my parents. When they say 3 pm, what they meant is be there before 3 pm, not be there at 3 pm. So I got to the venue around 2:20 pm. Early, huh? I was okay. I was waiting for one of my friends.

Originally, I bought two VIP tickets for the concert. One for me; the other one for my daughter. However, my daughter's friend had a birthday party that day. The friend's party had to be re-scheduled for the day of the concert. The week before, there were floods in Atlanta. It was sooo hard for my daughter to choose but I told her that I know she wants to go to the birthday party so go ahead. I will find someone else. And I did.

My friend is not a hardcore movie bluff like me. She watches some, ranging from Thai and Bollywood films. Plus she is an aspiring photographer so these pictures will be great for her portfolio.

When it got closer to 3 pm, we walked inside and waited. I asked someone about the Amit Paul concert because looks like everyone was busy with Durga Puja. Then I learn that Amit hasn't even arrived yet.

We just waited and took pictures of the lovely ceremonial traditional. The women were dressed beautifully with their colorful sarees paying tribute.



Once the ceremony was over, it was 3:30 pm. We saw Amit arrive. Then 5 minutes afterwards, we went to the theater. We had second row seats! Yah! And we sat in the middle too!

The Atlanta Bengali Form introduced Amit Paul.



He performed for 2.5 hours. Ranging from Bengali songs to Bollywood classics to Bollywood hits. In addition, he asked the audience what they wanted to hear.

A few songs I am able to remember are Om Shanti Om songs - "Om Shanti Om" & "Dard-E- Disco," Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar - "Pehla Nasha," Mann - "Nasha Yeh Pyar Ka Nasha Hai," Saawariya - "Saawariya," Jab We Met - "Tum Se Hi," and of course his song from Luck By Chance - "Pyaar Ki Dastan."



Besides Amit's amazing voice, what I love about Amit is his interaction with the audience. He would ask the audience what they wanted to hear. If he didn't have the music, he sang acapella to at least the chorus. He brought people on the stage to dance with him.

People just got up and started dancing from their seats. A few times he said he was done for the night, but the audience wanted him to continue. And he did. He sang more songs for them. How sweet is that!



Since my friend is an aspiring photographer, she definitely had a much better camera than me. The following two are pictures from camera.



Told you it looks better than my pictures, lol.



After the concert was over, we were able to meet/greet with Amit. We went backstage and waited in line. The sponsers were nice and let us go to the front and told us to go ahead.

I told my friend to go ahead and take the picture first with Amit. Once it was my turn and before taking pictures, I brought two photos of Amit I wanted him to sign.

Ever since I met Jay Sean, I just have to stars' autograph. Hey, it has worked so far. Autographs I received - Jay Sean, Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel, John Abraham, Salman Khan, Dev Anand.

One photo, I got from the Internet. I don't know who to credit but thanks so much. It was Amit's Indian Idol picture. When Amit saw it, he blushed and chuckled. He couldn't believe I actually watch Indian Idol. He asked where we were from.

My friend answered, "Laos." My friend I are both Hmong. I usually tell people that I am from Thailand because I was born there. But since it's so complicated explaining to people who Hmong people are, I left it at that.

Then he saw the other photo that I just put together. It was simple but I absolutely love the outfit he had one. I told him that that outfit is similar to my culture. He then asked what my ethnicity was and I told him HMONG. He was impressed and sweet.



I debated and debated to share my picture with Amit. I look horrible. But Amit looked adorable. Now, just don't be scared off with my pic.



After my friend and I got our meet/greet with Amit, we walked to the parking lot. Since we took separate cars, we just stood outside and started chatting about how much fun we had. Even though we kept seeing so many people come by and leave, we didn't realize the time.

All of a sudden we saw Amit pass by us with the sponsors. He was sweet enough to talk to us! He asked why we were still there and said it was great meeting us. Aaaawwwww! Love him even more.

I took several videos of Amit singing. However, I'm having problems with them. On my desktop computer, the videos won't play. I even tried on my laptop, the videos play but the audio doesn't work. Whenever I get it working, I will share with everyone. He is awesome, sweet, good-looking, and talented. Gotta love that!

Update, or no?

School re-starts again for me this week. I will have little time again to do cap and do reviews...but I will try to do one at least once a week.

Those who have been following me on Twitter know about me going to the Amit Paul concert yesterday.



It was fun and still waiting for the pictures from my friend. For those who may or may not know, Amit Paul was Indian Idol's Season 3, runner up. He also sang the song, "Pyaar Ki Daastan" from Luck By Chance (Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Sharvani). Will blog more about the experience soon :) Hint - got a pic with him and two autographs :)

I have deleted the website I had for the films I have. Instead, I am adding it to blogger to keep track of it and share with others. There are still a handful that I haven't seen yet, even though I own it.

Right now, I am working on the Hindi/Bollywood films I have since I obviously have more of films in that collection.

Then I went ahead and bought some Telugu films too. I couldn't help it. Allu Arjun's Parugu finally hit dvd!!!



I've been waiting for so long for it!

List of Tamil/Kollywood films I have

List of Telugu/Tollywood films I have

List of Other/Indian-related films I have

ETA - List of Hindi/Bollywood films I have

99 - Kunal Khemu is just too darn cute and underrated

Kunal, Kunal, Kunal.

Kunal Khemu, that is. Please do not think I'm talking about Kunal Kapoor (I don't even find him that attracted, sorry fans).

Loving the new look, makes him look even more drooliable (is that even a word?).

Since I first saw him in Kalyug, I was wondering, who is this cutie-pie? Little did I know it's the same child star in Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke, Raja Hindustani, and Zakhm! I was sooo shocked. And not in that way. I was more amused at the fact I saw him grow up and now think he's sooo cute. He's the same age as my brother, hahaha.

Also check him out in Super Star. Major cutie!



Yes, yes. I mainly watched 99 because of Kunal Khemu.



Okay, let me get it together and get to storyline ;P

Based on true events? Maybe?



99 is set in the year 1999 in Mumbai.



Two crooks, Sachin (Kunal Khemu) & Zaramud (Cyrus Broacha), run an illegal SIM card duplicating business.





Meet Crook #1 aka Cutie #1, Sachin
He is the smart one, the one with the brains, the smooth talker. Oh yeah, the adorable cutie!!

What more can I say about Kunal that I already haven't?



Meet Crook #2 aka Funny man, Zaramud
Sweet, cool, but doesn't come up with all the bright ideas. Always makes you laugh and don't realize it :)

Making his acting debut in 99, Cyrus Broacha is already a well-known guy. He is most famous for being a prankster in the MTV show, Bakra. Just knowing he is naturally funny is a plus to see him in 99 because he lights up the screen with his humor.

When the cops get notified about it, they run and ends up stealing a car and getting into an accident.



Making matters worse, the car that they stole belongs to a bookie-gangster, AGM (Mahesh Manjrekar). Not being able to pay up, they work to pay-off their debt for AGM.









Meet the bookie-gangster, AGM
People come to him to borrow money but many cannot pay back. Don't mess with him. Be scared of him, be very scared.

Mahesh Manjrekar is perfect for the role. He's no stranger to films. If you don't remember him, lemme remind you - Slumdog Millionare, Astiva, Vaastav, Zinda, Kaante, etc.



Four months later, it's March 2000.





The guys end up going to Dehli to collect debt from others owing AGM.



Even Bill Clinton welcomes you to Dehli :)



On the way to Delhi, Sachin says every girl he meets will be named either Pooja or Nisha.

I spy a Kajol picture in the taxi behind Sachin



Sachin is right. He did meet a Pooja and Nisha. However, he is smitten by a girl name Pooja (S0ha Ali Khan)

I'm no fan of Soha. I find her cute and an okay actress. Sometimes she impress me; sometimes she don't. In 99, she doesn't have a huge role but does good at what is given. To me, her best performance is Rang De Basanti (everyone was sooo good in that film though)

Obeying AGM, Sachin & Zaramud must collect debt from Rahul (Boman Irani). No secret. Rahul doesn't have the cash to re-pay back.





Rahul has a gambling addiction, which separates him from his lovely wife, Jahnavi (Simone Singh).

Boman Irani never disappoints. It's always a pleasure to see him on screen. He's very versatile in the roles he chooses and gets into his character every time.



Beautiful Jahnavi. She loves her husband so much but is fed up with his gambling habits.

Simone Singh usually play a supporting role. I like her and would like to see her tackle bigger roles.



Guess what? Not only does Rahul owe money to AGM. He owes money to Kuber (Amit Mistry)

Amit Mistry is really funny. I don't know the guy who plays Dimple, who is his sidekick.





Kewal is another guy who owes AGM. He borrowed money and now he's an actor, yet he has not paid AGM back yet.

I'm not sure who the actor who plays Kewal is. However, I was wondering what his purpose was in the film. Towards the ending, he showed up again. Now, I understand.



Rahul teams up with Sachin & Zaramud to cash in money to help pay their debts off together to AGM.

He thought about his gambling, cricket match-fixer friendemy [no, didn't misspell (see this post)], JC (Vinod Khanna)

Honestly, I did not know Vinod Khanna was in the film. He looked very different. When I found out that he played JC, I could see it now. But really. I would have never thought that when watching 99. He is definitely a memorable veteran actor -- Qurbani, Chandni, The Burning Train, etc



Rahul wants to find out which team JC will bet on - India or South Africa cricket match

The rest of the film focus on whether or not, any of the guys ever pay back AGM.

For some reason, I thought 99 would be a dark film. It was based on true events. Yes, it really was. However, the director added humor and made it lighter.



There were only a three songs in the film. Two of them were background music. One of them is the ending credits. All three were catchy and good to listen to.



Song #1 - "Delhi Destiny"
Sachin, Zaramud, & Pooja hanging out in Dehli













Song #2 - "Soch Mat Dobara"
AGM wants his money







Song #3 - "What's Up"
Ending credits







Watch Below





I wanted to see more of Kunal Khemu. Okay, I made caps of him...yes, I have a huge crush on him...

























Okay, I'm done. Okay, not really. Took a few caps of him shirtless. Didn't know he was that fit.







99 is definitely worth a watch. It is a good-paced film filled with fast-paced excitement and funny comedy, not stupid, with a multi-star cast.