Author Archives: Lakshmi Rajan

If you thought Neeraj Pandey is a one film wonder, the man proves you wrong with his second film ‘Sepcial 26′. After much acclaimed Wednesday released way back in 2008, the director took his own sweet time to come with this heist-thriller starring Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher,  Jimmy Shergill, Manoj Bajpai and Kajal Aggarwal and does a  desi con-giri thriller to perfection.

The film is set in 80s and is said to be based on real incidents. A group of men  goes on a perfect con-jobs across India posing as CBI officers. The victims? businessmen and even politicians, who remain silent  so that their shady black money  is not exposed to media and Income tax departments. As a final heist, they plan big but by this time the real CBI manages to sniff them and trails them to make a perfect red-handed arrests. So who gets the perfect final job done? The asli CBI or nakli CBI?

The movie opens with pencil-thin moustached Akshay and Anupam Kher along with two other accomplice ‘raiding’ a politician’s house after informing local police. As the politician gapes in shock and sweats out his fear, the four men uncovers the hidden black money and ‘confiscates’ them. As the police stands in awe at the ‘integrity’ and ‘honesty’ of the ‘officials’, they make an exit telling the cops to wait till further orders. A perfect job done. The opening con-job sets the pace of the movie peppered with light humour and brilliant acting that is to continue throughout the remaining reels.

Akshay Kumar happens to be one of my favourite actor in Bollywood and it annoys me when he chooses ‘joker’ of roles oflate. Among the Bollwyood superstars, he is one who could do with better guidance on his choice of movies and credit should g to Neeraj for his faith on Akshay and the actor himself for the accomplished acting. What a changed Akshay we see on-screen! Posing with thin moustache and controlled expressions, he along with the rest of the cast bring more realistic mood to the film and keeps us enthralled. Talking about acting, the entire casting of the film does a perfect job. Anupam Kher is simply brilliant, so is Jimmy Shergill and Manoj Bajpai both of them as policeman and CBI officer respectively on the trails of the four con men.

The screenplay is tight and if at all any flaw is there, you would never realize it. Was there any flaw? Well, I am not sure I was just sucked into the mire of sheer cinematic pleasure.

Special 26 is a perfect Indian con-giri job. Don’t miss the heist.

Aviyal basically is prepared of  assorted vegetables steam cooked with addition of minimal masala and coconut. The dish is unique to Kerala and Tamil cuisine and each region might have a different versions to it but the basic principles remain the same. The choice of vegetables can vary and it’s also a convenient way to round off the left over vegetables in your kitchen.

The avial recipe am sharing here is how my mom makes it.

Ingredients for Aviyal:

Cucumber – 1 small

Brinjal (regular) – 1 medium size

Long green brinjal – 1 small

Raw banana – 1 small

Drumstick – 1

Beans – 3

Carrot – 1 small

Yam – 50 gm (optional)

Mango (raw) – 1 small

(if not available can be substituted with lemon and curd)

Coconut – 1/2 shredded

Green chilly – 3 0r 4

Curry leaves

Jeera – 1 tsp

Tamarind powder -

Salt – to taste

curd – 1 tbsp

Coconut oil or any cooking oil – 1 tbsp

How to make Aviyal

Step 1

Cut all the vegetables finger-size long

Step 2:

Coarsely grind green chillies, few strands of curry leaves, jeera and turmeric powder and keep aside. Grate the coconut.

Step 3:

Add the vegetables in the cooking pan, the coarsely ground green chilly mixture, salt as per taste, 1 spoon oil and sprinkle little water.

Step 4:

Cover with a lid and steam cook it in low flame. Keep stirring in between and if required sprinkle water during the process.

Step 5:

The vegetables getting cooked …

Step 6

When the vegetables are cooked, add the coconut, few curry leaves and 1/2 spoon oil

Step 7

And mix well… Optionally you can add little curd to the mixture while removing from pan.

Step 8

Aviyal is ready to be served. Traditionally it is served with rice but it also goes well with roti, dosa especially ada dosa (dal dosa)

Like the 2008 hit film Race, its sequel Race 2 too is all about mokka, dhokka and plan pakka with twists pe twists.

Armaan Malik (John Abraham) is a street fighter turned top Asian mafia who runs many casinos  in the picturesque city of Istanbul along with his co-sister, Elena (Deepika Padukone).  Enter the race ka original khilladi, Ranveer Singh (Saif Ali Khan) who manages to win the goodwill of Armaan Malik but with a sinister plan on his mind. Armaan comes to know about it through twists pe twists played by his girl friend, Omisha (Jacqueline Fernandez) and the fruit and nut combination of Anil Kapoor and his new secretary, Amisha Patel. With each one playing their own part in the maze of twists, the story sets the pace for a racy action-thriller with abundance of what I said in the begining, mokka, dhokka and plan pakka  but low on substance, logic and energy.

To set the adrenalin racing, Race  franchise relies on showcasing the bodies, glitz and glamour and double meaning dialogies along with convoluted twists.

We have abundance of all with John and Saif flaunting their beefcakes, the trio of leading ladies moving around in skimpy clothes and the fruit and nutty combination of Anil kapoor and Amisha Patel dishing out double meaning salads ridiculously.

Only racy element in the movie is the action sequences by Peter Hain, which has been executed very well although the lead up to the action sequences are sloppy.

Istanbul makes a pleasant backdrop for the movie and Ravi Yadav’s camera captures it well. One can only wish the directors had added dollops of creativity into the script.

So do you want to Race? Depends on the kind of movie buff you are. The movie to its credit has a decent pace but relies more on glitz, glamour and dizzy deliberate twists. Two and half hours of race with couple of yawn inducing pit-stops, might interest you if action, overdose of glamour, crude double meaning jokes and script lacking logic can excite you.

Aamir Khan returns to screen after 3 years and naturally Talaash generates huge expectations. This time he choses a suspense thriller directed by Reema Kagti, the big question is will the movie justify the 3 year wait especially after his super-sucessfull last outing 3 Idiots? Does his faith on Reema Kagti, whose debut movie as well as the last movie was Honeymoon Travels Pvt Limited released way back in 2007 be justified? Lets find the answer within this review.

The movie begins with a seemingly open-and-shut case of accident but explores if it could be a case of  ‘perfect’ murder instead? Inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan), who battles a personal crisis at home, having lost his son in an accident which results in a disconnected marriage life, handles the accident case which opens up to discordant leads and couple of deaths. In between the incidents, the inspector befriends during the process of investigation Rosy (Kareena Kapoor), a sex worker. How Surjan Singh cracks the case? If it is really an incident or has a sinister angle to it? Does he and his wife (Rani Mukherji) manage to see through their marital discord? Talaash finds the answer for all this questions with a super-natural element woven into the drama.

To begin with Talaash is a decent suspense thriller with a super-natural angle to it but the main point is it worth Aamir Khan’s 3 years? The answer is sadly a big NO. Yes, Aamir has shed his super-star image and has true to his acting calibre gone deep into the character to give a flawless performance but Talaash is no exceptional package but ends up as an average movie if not mediocre. All the actors especially Rani Mukheri, Nawazuddin Siddiqui apart from Amir have done a brilliantly controlled act and lift the movie which sags a bit at many places.

So to sum it up?

Is it an Aamir Khan movie? Sadly no. As an actor as expected Aamir does justice to his role. If you expect a superstar’s movie, you would be disappointed. For 3 years wait, the movie fails miserably.

For a suspense thriller, it scores an average. Yes, Reema Kagti does has an intruiging script but sadly it is not gripping enough. It was well executed but could have been more intense and crispier. Still the movie works due to the unexpected climax and the personal crisis the Shekhawat’s faces. The personal crisis the Shekhawats goes through adds to the emotional appeal to the movie and surprisingly few people I spoke to after the movie felt it struck the chord better. We are an emotional bunch of movie-goers I suppose.

The final answer, Talaash fails as an Aamir Khan movie. Pluck the ‘Aamir khan’ factor and the baggage of expectations out of the movie, it passes as a decent mystery-thriller.

Want to be part of a world record attempt? Join the ongoing Samsung India’s ‘The Incredible Art Piece Guinness World Records’ Attempt. The initiative attempts to set a new world d record for digital art piece that will break the Guinness World Records title for the most artists contributing to a single art piece. The current record is held by Great Britain set in April 2012.  The existing record is made of  self portraits by over 200,000 children from across the UK projected onto Buckingham Palace as part of Children & the Arts’ self portraiture project. Samsung’s The Incredible Art Piece initiative aims to break this record and at this point of publishing this post has registered 59,216 artists so far, still a long way to go to beat the record 201948 artists. The initiative was kickstarted by internationally acclaimed artist duo  Thukral and Tagra along with the bollywood actor Genelia D’Souza on Nov 16,2012.

How to participate in Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – The Incredible Art Piece?

There are multiple options to participate in the world record attempt.

• You can visit the microsite in Samsung India Website and contribute. Click Here
• Visit Samsung India facebook page and engage with the online app created for this attempt.
• Visit any of the Samsung Digital Plazas, Samsung Smartphone Café’s and Samsung Experience Zones, where they can use a Samsung Galaxy Note II to create their digital art piece and submit online.
• For all those who would like to use the traditional pen and sketch, you can scan and email it to Samsung India.

As an added bonanza, you can also stand a chance to win Samsung Galaxy Note 2 as well as other merchandise as part of the initiative.

For more details CLICK > HERE

Do check our Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Videos:

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – Air View Feature

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – Best Face Feature

Yann Martel’s best-selling 2001 novel ‘Life Of Pi’  that went on to sell more than 7 million copies was considered ‘unfilmable’ after many directors including Manoj Night Shyamalan backed out of the directorial ship. Finally it took the Taiwanese born American director, Ang Lee to come on board, steady the ship and sail it through. As you watch the movie on 3D on-screen, you would admire and agree it has been a magnificent sail and a visual extravaganza high on emotional and humane values.

The film begins with a writer (Rafe Spall – remember Prometheus?) asking the now mid-aged, Piscine  Molitor ‘Pi’ Patel (Irrfan Khan) about an incredible story he has that would make him believe in God. As Pi Patel unfolds his past from his childhood beginnings in the serene coastal city of Pondicherry, the extra ordinarily incredible yet emotional and intense journey begins. Pi Patel, who humorously inherits a bizarre french name Piscine Molitor Patel,  grows up inquisitive to spirituality and adopts three religions – Hinduism, Christianity and Islam in his childhood for his different spiritual reasonings. Loved and cared by his affectionate Tamilian mother Tabu and a father who prefers science over religion who also runs a private zoo, he grows up to charming teen. At one point of time, their family decides to shift to Canada and they along with their wild animals sail in a Japanese freighter. Storm hits the freighter and Pi Patel gets ship wrecked with a zebra, orangutan, hyena and a massive royal bengal Tiger as company. Stranded in the vast Pacific ocean with the wild animals, Pi Patel learns to survive even as the wildness surrounding him begins to reveal their myriad characters, thus endures a long journey captured in a remarkable at times  surreal and magical animated graphics that also unravels the man’s survival tendencies, his place in the animal kingdom and test of faith and survival.

Ang Lee and his team scouted across India auditioning for the young Pi and after going through 3000 faces, the chosen one was Suraj Sharma and what an emotionally and physically demanding yet remarkable debut he has had. To act for most part in a small ship wreck on a watery expanse with only an animated Tiger for a company is not an easy task especially when your character also has to reflect the gradual physical duress it undergoes. I read Suraj has to gain 15 Kg in the beginning and by the time the character hits the shores he has to lose some 30 Kg, for an non-artist it has to be one hell of an experience and the boy needs a big round of applause for his performance. The other star cast that includes ever-youthful and graceful, Tabu, Gautam Belur and Ayush Tandon who plays the childhood versions of Pi all impresses in their brief role. It’s a pleasure to watch Irrfaan Khan who recounts his past amidst a dose of humour and thoughtfulness.

At the helm of the screenplay as well as literally on-screen is the magnificent Royal Bengal Tiger created digitally that commands our attention, paws into our senses as Pi learns to live with this carnivorous co-passenger in his long arduous journey in sea slowly developing a mutual relationship amidst a sense of fear, compulsion and compassion.

Unlike many heavily CGI skimmed movies that pushes on to us the animated wizardry just to show the might, Ang Lee’s first 3D directorial work weaves the animations like a poetry floating us in the magical and at times surreal graphics that brings the vast sea into a wonderful canvas on-screen.

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is a definite must-watch told in a magnificent and remarkable manner, don’t miss out this potential multiple Oscar bagger.

Having read all of Ravi Subramanian’s financial crime thrillers, both as a reader and a reviewer he remains one of my favourite Indian writers. So I was waiting eagerly for ‘The Bankster’ and the title name itself was quiet catchy. As soon as it hit the stores, I caught hold of a copy. Did the bankster manage to live up to my expectations? Here is my performance appraisal of Ravi Subramanian’s latest thriller. Read on.

If you have read all his four books, you  might find it getting bit monotonous and bit predictive in certain areas but he nevertheless has a knack to deftly navigate into the murky waters of banking world clouded by scams and fuelled by ambitions, greed and power struggle.  Being a banker himself, helps Ravi and thus If God was a Banker, Devil in PinStripes and Incredible Banker went on to be a best seller.  While in the first two books, Ravi confined himself to the push and pulls within the Banking world, in Incredible Banker he came out of the banking closet and touched upon the terror funding through misuse of banking system. While reading Incredible Banker, I felt the author was bit apprehensive and it reflected in the writing style probably because Ravi was delving into broader areas of crime involving Naxalism. In The Bankster there is more maturity and confidence in handling a bigger stage of global conspiracy and crime.

His latest novel, The Bankster still has his banking DNA intact but it also marks a more articulate waddling into serious crime thriller by the author.  He connects three dots – different characters and events and converge them into a nail-biting saga that is worth all the time you pour into the book.

So the bank in picture is the familiar Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2), which Ravi fictionalized in his previous book Incredible Banker. So if you have read the IB, you would be familiar with Karan Panjabi, the banker turned financial journalist who also plays the key role in this book too.  The plot begins in the African country of Angola and with Joseph Bragnanza, a CIA covert agent involved in blood diamonds and arms dealing. From there it switches to a small town in Kerala, Devikullam and a 75-year-old man fighting the government in Gandhian way for clarity in the nuclear program being commissioned in his area and then we have our GB2 where the banking rigour, manipulations and power struggle brings out the various shades of the bankers. The storyline wades us  alternatively through the three dots spanning continents, various characters and finally how all the streams converges into a murkier plot that also sniffs out three banker’s life during the course.

What could be the connecting point of an international CIA agent and events happening in Kerala and the tragic deaths of Greater Boston Global bank employees? There is a global conspiracy to undermine the nation’s growth and how does it get muddier in cognisance with certain bankers? How the financial crime gets unravelled and does it shake the foundation of the multinational bank? It’s for you to read and trust me Ravi keeps you glued to the pages till the end and makes a compelling read on one go.

The Bankster for me is a more accomplished work of the author so far wherein he exudes more confidence and control over the plot and the course of it. Do grab a copy if you are a fan of crime thrillers, The Bankster is sure to cast his tight grip on you.

With Student Of The Year, his fifth directorial in a career spanning almost 15 years, Karan Johar turns a full circle and whips the nostalgia of his debut movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Though the trio of his latest campus candy floss, Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt don’t match the magic of SRK, Kajol and Rani Mukherjee, they still manage to whip the celluloid dreams by flaunting their flawless bodies, designer attire and led by the pied piper, K Jo and his over-the-top boutique world in all fineness! All this happens to K Jo’s perfection in a story that is way too antique but still manages to keep you entertained for those happily get sucked into it.

Welcome to St. Teresas, a supposedly India’s premier academic institution that could exist only in a teenager’s fantasies. The impossibly luxurious campus is full of hot bods, designer tags and fun and frolic. The dean of the institution ofcourse is an eccentric and a closet gay, Yoginder Vasisht played by Rishi Kapoor who has a hidden weakness for the sports coach of the campus, Ronit Roy that even a rival principal mocks him about a coach coach hota hai rumour! Amidst this are the three central characters – Abhimanyu Singh (Siddharth Malhotra) an ambitious  middle class boy, Rohan (Varun Dhawan) a musically inclined, rich brat who is constantly at logger heads with his industrialist father who always belittles him and his childhood sweetheart and the girl in prada, Shanaya (Aliya Bhatt). What begins with a rough weather between Abhi and Rohan, expectedly blooms into best friendship and again expectedly sours when jealousy and anger creeps in when the love changes tracks. When the Student of the year competition kicks in, everyone turns against every other for the coveted title. Who wins the Student of Year title and who wins the girl’s heart becomes the climax of the story, the narration of which is reminiscent of Jaane Tu Jaane Na and Dil Chahta Hai.

So with a stale story one might wonder what could work for the movie? The answer  is Karan Johar and his avant grade settings and his deft handling of the otherwise sweet nothings story.  He does not let the momentum go down or give us a time to wear the critics hat or to yawn and crib. You are sucked into a pop corn entertainment, if you have even a slight inclination towards it and like a breeze the movie begins and ends without any hiccups or faltering on the thin story line.  For those who are purely into meaninful movies, sorry don’t ever think about this. It works for those who watches movie like window shopping with their friends.

Then you have the hunks in the movie especially Siddharth who got the maximum whistles from the girls in the movie hall. Needless to say, 95% of the hall bustling was school and college kids and going by their reactions the newcomers of the movie gets a rousey welcome. For new comers, they do handle it adeptly largely due to K Jo’s immaculate handling of them like a super models on-screen.

My two picks from the movie. A wordless sequence with a very good background score during a marriage ceremony when a friend finds his soft spot for his best friend’s girl friend. But the best scene of the movie belongs to Kayoze Irani (son of Bomman Irani) who steals the show in a scene when he takes on Rishi Kapoor after getting drunk.

Student Of The Year is the Candy Floss Of The Year that only Karan Johar could make it click in box office.

When the promos of the movie Aiyyaa hit the YouTube, it was immediately noticed and promised an entertaining film. A story of a simple middle class Marathi female full of dreams falling in love with a Tamil boy and her eccentric family who parade her before many potential grooms in the marriage market could have been hilarious, wakda chaotic ride full of fun. But this Friday when Aiyyaa hit the theatres I realized the moment of  Dreamum Wakeuppam and the reality when Aiyyaa turned to be Aiyoo! Bachao!

First 20 minutes into the movie, you know that all that glitters are not gold and the next 2 hours is going to be suffocating. Still, there are occasional ‘aiyyaa’ moments that  gives us the false hope but they are very few and far.  On a final recall of the movie, I felt it might have been actually a 2 hours of a deodorant advertisement. After all, Rani keeps sniffing the body fragrance of  the hero, Prithivi Raj and keeps following his fragrance. It is rather love-at-first-sniff!

Meenaxi Deshpande (Rani Mukerji) often slips into her own world of dreams and fantasies filled with Maduri, Sridevi and Juhi Bollywood numbers and escapes from the mundane reality of her life. Her eccentric family that include typical caricature characters – a goofy brother, sun glass wearing, wheel chair wheeling granny, a loud mother and lost in cigarettes and his collection of antique phones father. While her mother parades her tirelessly before potential grooms, Meenaxi wants to fall and get lost in love. She gets a job at an arts college and her love-at-first-sniff ‘aiyyaa’ moment begins there when she meets an elusive artist student Surya Iyer. a south Indian character played by Malayalam actor Prithivi Raj. How the Marathi girl proposes to the Tamil guy while her parents have finalized her marriage to a marathi guy makes for the rest of the story in a much slowed, dragged manner that lets you sigh ‘Aiyooooo’

Love-at-first-sniff is ‘aiyyaa’ the first time. Second time when she does, we can manage. Third time, forgiven. But when the entire movie, she keeps sniffing, drooling and lost in the hero’s fragrance (body odour or whatever Oh ya, in the climax it’s revealed too I will keep it a suspense *wicked grin*) and stalks him everywhere, it becomes a tortorous 2 hours of ‘Axe Effect’.

Though Aiyyaa is Sachin Kundalkar’s debut Hindi movie, he is no newbie when it comes to direction. He has won national awards for his Marathi films both as director as well as screenplay writer. So it is surprising that his debut Hindi movie suffers from lack of imagination and a tacky screenplay. An otherwise potential wakda story that could have been a Meenaxi’s rollercoaster ride of love and marriage is marred by an unenthusiastic, half-baked screenplay that dulls and halts the entire movie barring few scenes.

Rani’s supposed to be a comeback movie suffers inspite of her best effort to lift it. It’s Rani’s show all the way but what can an actor do if the screen play does not infuse confidence and at its yawning best. As far as Prithvi Raj, one of a hottest star in Malayalam films is silenced literally and sports a red-eyed, cold face the entire length, mumbling few tamil words and few hindi sentences in the climax. Apart from that he does the Rani’s body-candy in the Dreamum wakeupum song. Though the surprise musical number is the naughty, raunchy What To Do with Amey Waguh and Anita Date having all the fun.

Aiyyaa could have been a memorable movie but unfortunately you come out Aiyyoo, Bachao!

The very next day Samsung kicked off the global launch of Galaxy Note 2 in South Korea, the company rolled out the Galaxy Note II in India on 27th September at a launch event held in Hyderabad, India.

Galaxy Note 2, the smartphone-tablet hybrid or ‘phablet’ which was recently unveiled in IFA event, Berlin is the next-generation successor to the Note 1 that was launched a year back. We had an invitation for the launch event and had a hands-on experience with the device and we were completely awed and noted by the device, which to put in the words of Asim Warsi, Vice President, Samsung India is a smart device for the ‘expressionist’

The phone is a laudable upgradation to the Note 1 and running on the latest Android OS ‘Jelly Bean’ and upgraded S-Pen, Galaxy Note 2 packs in lots of magical wizardry  that awes you.

The launch event kicked off with Mr.B D Park,President & CEO, South West Asia, Samsung Electronics giving a brief talk on  the Galaxy Note II and the Note portfolio that includes the recently launched Galaxy Note 800, the 10.1 inch tablet enhanced with S-Pen functionality.

A quick and short acrobatic performance preceded the unveiling of the Galaxy Note II launch…

The moment for Galaxy Note II unveiling and noted film maker Imitiaz Ali took to the stage alongside BD Park and Asim Warsi, VP, Samsung India…

Imitiaz Ali had been given the Galaxy Note II device and been toying with it and shared his user experience and how he felt as a film maker, the phablet gave a perfect viewing experience and also how he was charmed by its unique features like Air View etc…

Asim Warzi, Vice President, Samsung India continued to explain the unique features of Galaxy Note II…

Galaxy Note II sports a 5.5″ Super HD Amoled screen along with a 16:9 aspect ratio it provides for a perfect viewing experience clearly and vividly.

Galaxy Note II is more ergonomically designed to fit well on your palms and is also thinner and lighter. Weighing 180 gm and thinner at 9.4 mm. It also packs in an amazing 3100 mAh battery an almost 25 percent bigger capacity than the first Note for a longer performance.

Powering the device is a 1.6 GHz quad core processor with a 2 GB RAM, running on Android 4.1, Jelly Bean OS which is buttery smooth and enhanced with wonderful features.

One of the unique feature of Galaxy Note II that impressed me and everyone who fiddled with the device is Air View, which enabled the S-Pen to react to the device even without touching it. So what this feature does is, it allows you to hover the S-Pen over an email, S Planner, Image gallery or video to preview the content without having to open it. It works neat, saves time, gives quick access to search and view information detail without having to get into multiple tabs or screens. More on this feature, we will come up with a detailed review shortly.

The upgraded S-Pen packs in a lot of surprises. It is almost a magical wand that does a lot of interesting things.. (keep tuned to us for detailed post on the S-Pen functionality very soon)

The S-Pen now comes with a dedicated S Pen button to enhance its functionality. Just press the button, the S Pen understands that  you want to clip or edit the selected content on the screen. The Easy Clip feature allows you to instantly outline and crop any content on the screen in any shape to save, share or paste, even from a browser. The cropped image can be edited through coloring, sharing, or add handwritten annotations and not just that it is mighty easy to share the clip with your friends.

Remember the Popup play in Galaxy S3? Well, it allows the video to pop out to any screen and allows you to multi task. You can pinch zoom the video to any size and keep it on-screen while you read mail or sms or whatever. In addition to Popup play, Galaxy Note II also comes with a Popup Note. Similar to the Popup play video, the S-Note can be popped up anywhere on-screen and allows or multi-tasking. So while watching a movie you can paint, while on hands free talk, you can note down on S note and much more.

Galaxy Note II also has more exclusive S Pen App that makes best use of the S Pen functionality. The one app we had a hands-on Paper Artist was quiet a fun to fiddle with the images. One can also expect more developers to use the open API of S-Pen to come up with more and more S Pen Apps.

Galaxy Note II also carries forward the good features we have seen in Galaxy S3 like Smart Stay, AllShare Play, AllShare cast etc.

Oh yes, there are more and more to talk about Galaxy Note II but we will do all the talking with photos, videos and comprehensive reviews in the coming days.

Galaxy Note II has been priced at Rs. 39,900 and is available in two colors – Marble White and Titanium Gray color options. Currently in India only 16 GB model is available though it has an expandable memory of 64 GB.

Begining next week, Galaxy Note II will retail at Samsung Smartphone cafes, Samsung Plazas and selected large format stores and gradually will be available in other mobile outlets.

The company also offers a zero percent finance option available at Samsung Smartphone cafes and Samsung plazas.

At the end of the event, Samsung surprised with its own ‘one more thing’ surprise for the Indian market – Samsung Camera. It gave the audience a brief intro about the Android Jelly Bean OS powered camera with impressive features – where the smartphone features meets the camera. Ofcourse, we had a hands-on the device and we will update you all about it very soon.