Majarkeun

Lost Odyssey Xbox 360 Review

Lost Odyssey is a J-RPG (japanese role playing game) released on the Xbox 360 system. With the involvement of famous Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series), this game sets the bar high for turn based role playing games.
Seeing as it has the magical touch from Hironobu Sakaguchi, the game features all the similar things that a Final Fantasy game would include.

The main character of the story is Kaim, an immortal who has lost his memories. Kaim meets other immortals who have also lost their memories and together they try to unravel the mystery behind it all. He also meets mortals who join up and form a party in which they adventure through various lands. We quickly learn at the beginning that the evil character in this game, Gangora, is plotting to destroy the world and gain vast amounts of power in the process. It is then up to Kaim and his gang of travelers to try and stop Gangora.

The story in this game is told through various means. It is mainly told through cutscenes (ingame and FMVs), as well as dream sequences. Dream sequences are when the immortal characters remember fragments of their past and have dreams which tells them a little more about their story. The dreams are told in text fashion where text appears slowly on the screen with nice sound effects and touching music.

The music throughout the game is astonishing. From the start until the end, the music plays a key role in making the game a more epic experience. Each city, each battle, and each cutscene features a remarkable music score which really sets the tone within the game.

The characters are controlled individually in the game, with the ability to control most of the characters. In fact, the game forces us to control different characters in the game through different scenes. This normally happens on multiple occasions where the characters are split up into small groups and all must reach the same destination. The game features the normal RPG touch, which includes the ability to save using save points, buy items in shops, equip armor, and speak to a large amount of NPCs in the game.

Graphically the game is very beautiful. For a game that was produced in 2008, it still holds up till this date in terms of graphics and visual attraction. Each cutscene features a sharp graphical display of rendered CGI. There are couple of spots where the game has blurring but that is not noticed much especially when we are in the heat of battle.

The battle system used in this game is turn-based. Meaning that each move an enemy or player makes happens after another move and never at the same time. Just think of Final Fantasy 7 and you will know what the expect from this game as well.

There are two main drawbacks to Lost Odyssey which many have complained about in the past. The first thing is that the battles in the game can stretch for too long. Even when fighting normal monsters it can sometimes feel a lot of time is getting wasted when we could be focusing on the main story. Sometimes you will find yourself stuck in a battle or even lose the battle, which feels strange as this is expected normally in boss battles.

The second drawback is the puzzles in the game. There are times during the game when we are not fighting where we have to solve mini puzzles to proceed to the next part of the game. Things such as going back and forth from one end of the area to another and turning valves to open the main gate. After some trial and error this can be overcome, albeit a lot of time is put into it, but the battles are what causes the game to lose some of its enjoyment.

Puzzles aside, the game requires us to grind to be at the correct level cap to fight the monsters. This is not the type of game where you can whiz past to the end without doing a fair bit of battling along the way. This however is expected in most J-RPGs, so it is of no surprise to us that it happens in this game as well.

Another annoying part of the battles is the randomness. Often times you will expect your character to perform a spell or skill but it will miss, giving the enemy an advantage that can cost you the faith of the entire battle. If you are over-leveled this should not be an issue, so we recommend a bit of grinding along the way. There are areas in the game where you can save and reset the game and keep battling spawned enemies until you are leveled accordingly.

The two type of character classes in the game are melee (close combat) and casters (distant combat). Similar to other RPGs we can play as swordsmen who can get close to the enemy and perform their primary skill based attacks, and then mage type classes who cast spells from a distance. Generally the mage type classes are weak in terms of armor so the melee classes have to stay in front in the party formation. There is also a hunter based class but we see this much later on in the game.

It is to be noted that this game is a Xbox 360 exclusive and comes on 4 discs. For the best experience we recommend installing each disc on the system before playing. You will still be required to insert each disc to play the game.

Overall Lost Odyssey is a very good game. If you are a fan of RPGs like the Final Fantasy games and enjoy good storyline based games, then Lost Odyssey is highly recommended!

Overall Score: 9 / 10

Available link for download

Los Angeles in Theatre Dangal Movie Release Date And Review

Address: 17200 Ventura Blvd #121, Encino, CA 91316, USA 
Phone: +1 818-981-9811

Dangal (English: Wrestling competition) is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari. It stars Aamir Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat, who taught wrestling to his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari. The former is Indias first female wrestler to win at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where she won the gold medal (55 kg). Her sister Babita Kumari won the silver (51 kg). "Dangal" is the Hindi term for "a wrestling competition".
The music for Dangal was composed by Pritam, while the lyrics were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Kripa Shankar Bishnoi, a coach with the Indian womens wrestling team, trained Aamir Khan and the entire crew for the wrestling sequences.
Dangal is scheduled for release on 23 December 2016.



Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) is a former champion wrestler. He is married to Shobha Kaur (Sakshi Tanwar). Phogats dream is to win a gold medal for India in wrestling. He is unable to do this. He promises that his son will do what he couldnt do. However, although he loves them dearly, Phogat is disappointed when Shobha gives birth to four daughters. He does not believe girls can wrestle well. However, when two of his daughters, Geeta and Babita, come home after beating up two boys, Phogat realises how wrong he has been and begins to train his daughters in wrestling. The film is the story of how Phogat trained his daughters to become professional wrestlers.

DANGAL FILM TRAILER REVIEW

Aamir Khan had a sleepless night on Thursday wondering how the world will react to his Dangal trailer. He need not have bothered - Dangal trailer is a winner. But with a minor tweak - this film belongs to actors who are playing Aamir’s daughters. Don’t get us wrong, Aamir Khan is perfection in Dangal, just the way he always is - the man who challenges and reinvents himself with every role he does.
And like every role, he is no longer Aamir when he is in front of the camera. This time, he is Mahaveer Singh Phogat in this 3.25-minute trailer. A man hungering for a son who can fulfil his unfinished dream of winning a gold for the country. Why a son? Because wrestling is a man’s sport and in Haryana, who would ever think a girl can play this sport? That is till we see the two girls who are Aamir Khan’s daughters - Zaira Wasim as child Geeta Phogat and Suhani Bhatnagar as child Babita Kumari. And with all respect Mr Khan, Dangal belongs to the girls. Zaira and Suhani as well as Fatima Sana Sheikh and Sanya Malhotra who play the older Babita and Geeta.
They crash every stereotype in the book, they prove that issue is not the gender but our beliefs. The moment when Aamir’s character realises this and the play of emotions on his face is a masterclass in acting.
They are hungry and committed and you can see it in their eyes. Their wrestling moves or the way they announce, “Pehelwani bahut ho gayi, ab dangal ka time hai,” wants you to stand up and applaud. With the trailer itself, we can promise you this will be as unlike Salman Khan’s Sultan as you can imagine. A women’s empowerment tale, a real-life story and tale of a man finding his metier in life - Dangal is a package we can’t wait to unwrap.
And then, the trailer gives us that final striking moment before it ends - a buffed-up young Aamir flexing his muscles before he enters the wrestling arena. Now that is what we call a dhobi pachchad!
The film has been directed by Nitesh Tiwari.

BEFORE DANGAL TRAILER LANDED

While Aamir had talked about his sleepless night in this message, “Tonight is going to be a sleepless night. 12 hours to go before I launch our trailer of Dangal on Twitter and Facebook. Can’t wait for your response. Hope you like it,” film’s producer UTV had this power-packed announcement about Dangal, “Ladaai se peeche hatne walo mein se nahi hai mhaari choriyaan. #Dangal trailer releasing tomorrow. #Dangalvaar @aamir_khan @niteshtiwari22.”
For all his cliche-breaking roles, Aamir Khan is a traditionalist. The actor always releases his film in December and his trailers closer to Diwali, whether it is 3 Idiots (2009) or PK (2014). With Dangal too, he has continued this practice. A spokesperson earlier said about Dangal’s trailer release, “Aamir is going to treat his audience once again with a trailer of his movie on Diwali. He wants to uphold the tradition of releasing his trailers during the festive season.”

BEFORE DANGAL TRAILER, WHAT CELEBS SAID ABOUT AAMIR KHAN’S FILM

Although, even before Dangal trailer came out, Aamir held special screenings for his friends. Among those who have watched the film are Shabana Azmi, Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Ayan Mukerji and Kunal Kapoor. And after watching the film, we know the guests were suitably impressed. But nobody was more so than Karan who took to Twitter and wrote, “Just saw DANGAL…haven’t seen a better film in a decade…… speechless!!!!”

KNOW MORE ABOUT AAMIR KHAN’S DANGAL CHARACTER MAHAVIR SINGH PHOGAT

Born in a small village in Haryana, Mahavir trained his daughters Babita Kumari and Geeta Phogat and helped establish them as world-class wrestlers. He broke conventions and made his daughters wrestle boys in an akhaada. For this, he had to face objections of his fellow villagers but he refused to budge. Geeta Phogat went on to win gold in 2010 Commonwealth Games while Babita won a gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Geeta also qualified for the Olympics, first Indian female wrestler to do so. Mahavir has coached many top Indian wrestlers and has been nominated for the Dronacharya Award.

PRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT

In 2012 Divya Rao, a member of Disneys creative team, read an article in a newspaper about Mahavir Singh Phogat, who trained his daughters to become world class champions. She thought this would make for a great film, and spoke about this to Siddharth Roy Kapoor and other Disney personnel. Disney approached Nitesh Tiwari to write and direct the story. Tiwari met Mahavir Singh Phogat and his daughters, who instantly agreed to tell the story.
In 2013 Siddharth Roy Kapoor and Nitesh Tiwari went to Aamir Khan with the story, and Khan loved it in its first narration. Khan had just finished Dhoom 3 and started shooting for PK. Khan wanted to do the film after 5-10 years when he would be turning 60, because the script of the film demanded Khan to be 55 years old and he was still doing younger roles. But somewhere the story remained in his mind. After a few months he called up Nitesh Tiwari and asked him to narrate the script once again.
In 2014, after the release of PK, Aamir Khan announced that he would play the role of a wrestler in his next film titled Dangal directed by Nitesh Tiwari, a cinematographic biography of the former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. It would be produced by Khan himself and Disneys India. Khan said to reporters, "Nitesh has written a wonderful story. The topic is very important, its very dramatic. It highlights the discrimination that is meted out to the girl child in India. The best part is that he has done it in a very entertaining manner. The heart of the story is emotional, but it also has a lot of humour. Raju Hirani has this unique way to tell a story where he says something socially very relevant but he tells his story in a very entertaining manner. Similarly Nitesh has written a very entertaining lovely script, the dialogues are very entertaining. Each time I listen to the dialogues, I laugh a lot. I cry as well as laugh."
In March 2015, Junior Indian womens wrestling team coach Kripa Shankar Patel Bishnoi was approached by Aamir Khan Productions to train Khan and the entire crew of Dangal. Bishnoi said about the film in a Hindustan Times interview, "Very few Indians encourage women for wrestling, especially because of the uniform. This film will change that perception too. People would hopefully want to see their daughters taking up wrestling as a sport."
Khan lost some weight and took Haryanvi lessons and dialect training for the film. He played two distinct roles in the film: the 60-year-old wrestler Mahavir Phogat, and the 20-year-old version of Phogat.Khan reportedly gained 30 kg and weighs 98 kg to play the role of the older Phogat, then lost the weight to play the younger role in Dangal.

Casting

In March 2015 Taapsee Pannu, Deeksha Seth and Akshara Haasan were being considered for the roles of Khans on-screen daughters. In April 2015, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra were cast as the daughters, who hailed from the Jat community of Balali village of Bhiwani, Haryana.  Geeta Phogat had participated in the London Olympics in 2012. Babita won gold in 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. In June 2015, child actors Zaira Wasim (from Kashmir) and Suhani Bhatnagar (from Delhi) were roped in for Dangal. Ayushmann Khurranas brother Aparshakti Khurrana was also cast.Mukesh Chhabra was the casting director of Dangal. Vikram Singh was recruited to play the role of the villain. Aamir Khans nephew Pablo (son of Mansoor Khan) was the films assistant director. Mallika Sherawat auditioned for a role. In August 2015, Rajkumar Rao, who previously worked with Aamir Khan in Talaash, was approached for an important role in Dangal. Finally, after auditioning 70 actresses for the role, Sakshi Tanwar was brought on as Daya Kaur, the wife of Mahavir Singh Phogat. Ananya was chosen to play Sarita, the youngest daughter of Mahavir Phogat. In October 2015, Vivan Bhatena was selected to play a negative role in the film.

FILMING

The shooting schedule of Dangal began on 1 September 2015. The villages of Ludhiana were given a Haryanvi transformation. The shooting took place in the villages of Gujjarwal, Narangwal, Kila Raipur, Dango and Leel in Punjab and Haryana. Interestingly, the village of Dango, which is in the Pakhowal Tehsil in Ludhiana, is veteran actor Dharmendras ancestral village.
From September 2015 to December 2015, Aamir Khan gained 9% fat, weighing around 98 kg for Dangal, and from January 2016 to April 2016, he regained the shape that he had opted for in Dhoom 3 and will hear the script for next future films, halting shooting of Dangal for said period.
The first scene was taken on 21 September 2015 in Ludhiana with the presences of Mahavir Singh Phogat and his both daughters Geeta Phogat, Babita Kumari.
On 14 November 2015, while shooting in Ludhiana, Khan suffered minor injuries resulting in muscle spasms in his back.
On November 20, 2015, Khan collapsed after sustaining a shoulder injury on the set.[45] After suffering an injury Aamir Khan resumes shooting in Pune on 9 December 2015.
The team filmed in and around stadiums at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune. At the time, the complex hosted the 2015 Rollball World Cup, and athletes of the Netherlands national rollball team and Slovenia womens national rollball team were recruited to play background athletes in the film. The team also shot some portions of the film in Symbiosis International University, Pune.
On 19 January 2016, Khan and the entire crew of the film shot in Delhi, at Talkatora Stadium, to film wrestling sequences. The crew then moved to Thyagaraj Stadium to shoot sequences of Commonwealth Games and National Games. The first schedule of shooting was also done in schools and in Dango village, located in Pakhowal Tehsil in Ludhiana.
The second schedule of the film started on 16 June 2016 at the Akhada Leel near Toosa village, in Ludhiana district. It is one of the largest villages in Punjab, India. Khan said, "When I came to Ludhiana, I was very fat. At that time, we shot for the scenes where Mahavir has become old. 85 per cent of the film is about his old look only. Now we are shooting for the portion when Mahavir was young."

RELEASE

Dangal is scheduled to be released on December 23, 2016.

ACTOR/ACTRESS

Mr perfactionist Aamir Khan will be seen playing the lead role in the film. Two fresh faces Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra have been finalised to play Aamirs daughters in the film. After months of talent scouting, casting director Mukesh Chhabria finally decided on these two girls. Sakshi Tanwar will play the role as Daya Kaur, wife of Aamir Khan in the movie.

AAMIR KHANS ROLE

Aamir has started preparing for the film, in which he will play as a wrestler. It will be interesting to see Aamir khans avatar in this film since he is known to undergo rigorous training for his role. He has got some extra packs of abdomen muscles and build his biceps more. He has gone through extensive training by Hollywood fitness experts for his role.

FIRST LOOK/POSTER

The new poster of the movie Dangal has been revealed. It features Mr perfactionist along with his daughters and son.

SOUNDTRACK

The films music is composed by Pritam with lyrics are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya. It was reported that Daler Mehndi has sung a song in the movie.

Available link for download

Mass Effect 3 Review The Ending Before and After!

The ending of the Mass Effect series has been discussed a lot. A LOT. Its kind of an unprecedented situation. 

BioWare, a company known for awesome video game storytelling, creates a trilogy of games in one of the most well-realized imaginary worlds ever created in the medium. People love this world. Passionately. Then BioWare fails to stick the landing. Deafening rage and butthurt echo across the Internets, who have nothing more important to worry about. So BioWare, at what Im sure was considerable expense, makes a free patch to expand the ending. It makes things kind of better. Life, somehow, continues.

(By the way, this whole sorry incident is excellent proof that their IS such a thing as bad publicity. BioWares reputation for good storytelling is invaluable. They saw it threatened. They reacted appropriately. But I dont think anyone working there is happy this happened.)

What the ending screams to me is that the developers didnt have the time and budget to do the ending they wanted to do. ME3 is SO ambitious and covers SO much ground that they didnt have time to give the Reaper issue the attention it needed. But this isnt the end of the world. The Reapers were never very multi-dimensional. The Krogan and Geth and even Cerberus were far more interesting.

So, if this is the case, piling onto the ending seems a little mean. Making a video game requires doing much with limited resources. You cant afford to do everything.

But, then again, after three games of this size, we have an expectation that the writers will end it well. I want to talk about my two problems with the ending- one which the patch fixes, one it doesnt. I aim to discuss game storytelling in general and what does and doesnt work.

(Please be assured that the following has no spoilers for Mass Effect 3 whatsoever!!!! If, for some reason, you dont believe me, leave immediately!)

What Is NOT a Problem

Some criticized the ending for creating some plot inconsistencies with things learned in the DLC for Mass Effect 2. (Namely, that blowing up a mass relay destroyed the solar system before and now it doesnt.) The horrors.

DOES ANYONE REALLY ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THIS!?!? IF SO, RAISE YOUR HAND.

(Pause.)

I didnt think so.

Also, some put a lot of time into proving Shepherd was actually under Reaper control and the last game was a dream or something. (The famed Indoctrination Theory.) Of course this wasnt true. This was a AAA mega-million dollar game series that had always approached everything in a reasonably sane manner. They werent going to end it with goofy Sixth Sense trickery.

And many thought that you didnt find out enough about what happened to your friends and to all the races you helped. I can buy this as a complaint, but its a judgment call. I honestly felt Id learned enough about what was going on and where things were heading to have closure. Bloody, unrelentingly gruesome closure.

So what are the problems?

Problem 1 - The Incredible Grimness

The unpatched ending of Mass Effect 3, unless you do a ton of side-quest farming and multiplayer, is awe-inspiringly grim. Everyone dies. Shepherd dies. The mass relays are destroyed. The Normandy is a wreck. The Earth is a cinder, surrounded by fleets of aliens stranded far from home. (Including the notoriously peaceful and easy-going krogan.) Space travel is over for, well, a very long time, if not forever.

Dude. And I thought the ending to The Sopranos was a poke in the eye.

But heres the thing. This aspect of the ending is legit. People dont generally like unhappy endings, but this is a subjective judgment. Unhappy endings are legal. They are allowed. Its not where I would go as the default ending for a series of this magnitude, and it is a HUGE change in tone from what came before it. But it is not technically wrong.

And, just between you, me, and these four walls? I admire their balls for going so dark. I wish more developers did it. Unless you believe things can go really wrong, there is no real sense of achievement or relief when they go right. One of the reasons Law & Order was such a compelling show is that the bad guys frequently won.

But the patch changed this. Its less bleak. Gives more hopeful details of the future. I can live with it either way.

But what really bugs me is the main element of the ending.

Problem 2 - The Star Child. Or Whatever.

My biggest disappointment in the ending of Mass Effect is this: It was a cheap deus ex machina. I didnt get to make the WIN for the team.

Look. The galaxy was invaded by the horde of horrible bug creatures. I wanted to FIGHT them. I wanted to figure out their weaknesses. I wanted to use the cunning and resources of the peoples of the galaxy to figure out how to kill them, and DO THAT. I wanted the ending of the story to be a celebration of courage and general badassery.

What did I get? You take some weird spaceship and stick it into some other spaceship. And then baby SpaceJesus (tm) appears from somewhere and uses StarMagic (tm) in the way you tell him, and this makes everything different forever.

Now, lets set aside the ookyness of having the fate of the whole galaxy be decided on a whim by one bloodthirsty gun guy who happened to be at the right place at the right time. I think the ending was perfunctory, non-sensical, and a true wasted opportunity.

At the end, you push a button to choose the fate of the galaxy. It did not provide a fraction of the joy I would have felt at actually finding a way for humanity to take down those stupid Reaper ships ourselves. The ending, as written, was the space opera equivalent of giving the last place soccer team a trophy for Trying Very Hard.

Whew. I Should Take a Pill.

I generally love BioWare games and write nice things about them, so much so that I have been accused of sucking up to them to try to get a job. (I have a job, thanks. And, believe me, if BioWare wanted me, theyd have said something to me by now. They know I exist.)

Its a great series, full of fond memories. My wife and I spent an enormous amount of time in their world, and I dont regret it. I still recommend it, especially ME1 and ME2. And then ME3 with the patched ending.

So. Any news about Dragon Age 3 yet?

Available link for download

Mass Effect 3 Review The Good Stuff

Since I write so much in this space about fantasy role-playing games in general and Bioware stuff in particular, I feel kind of lame for saying nothing of note so far about Mass Effect 3 (ME3). The Mass Effect series is one of the best series in the genre, written by one of the best development houses, and BioWare has long been a huge influence on my work.

(Note I picked female Shepherd for the image above. Because FemShep is just better.)

People really care about this series. Perhaps a bit overmuch. If we as a people could give to real problems the same focus and energy we expended on arguing about the ME3 ending, the world would be a better place.

I played Mass Effect 1 and 2 obsessively. All side quests, all everything. I played Mass Effect 3 front to back (skipping a lot of the side quests, which sort of telegraphs how I felt about the experience), experienced the ending, and then watched the recently patched new endings on YouTube. Theres a lot of good stuff here for game geeks to argue about, though, before I get too cranky about it, I wanted to say what I liked.

The Setting

I think the Mass Effect setting is one of the best in computer games. BioWare has this stuff down to a science. It was only when I was playing ME3 and revisited all the great conflicts in the series: Salarian vs. Krogan. Geth vs. Quarian. Humans vs. Everybody, that I really started to realize how much stuff there is. How complex and nuanced the issues facing the characters are. How interesting the setting is and how that, in turn, leads to interesting stories.

Between Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I personally think that BioWare is the best maker of computer game settings. I hope they keep doing it.

The Gameplay

Tight as a drum. Except for occasional problems finding walls my character could hide behind, the game plays well. Its fast paced, fun, and full of exploding things.

I do wish that there was more variety in what you could do. I desperately miss the vehicle sections in Mass Effect, which were great for breaking up gameplay. They had their problems, but, honestly, I think the game would be much better if those sections had been improved instead of dropped entirely.

The Ambition

The world of Mass Effect is a huge epic full of intractable conflicts. There were a lot of them left at the end of Mass Effect 2. The developers decided that, in ME3, they would all be settled. This makes the story of ME3 one of the most ambitious and far-reaching of any game Ive ever played. Its a very generous gesture to players, a bit of fan-service to make sure that no lingering issues, even ones that could easily support a whole full game on their own, remained.

This choice was a little problematic in the execution. The ways these plots were settled felt a bit perfunctory. By the end of the game, there was no problem so enduring and thorny that it couldnt be solved by one guy fighting his way down two long corridors littered with chest-high walls. Still, the game wanted people to leave the series content, and it did its best to give the fans what they desired.

Its a great series. I hope these dialogue and story-rich single-player experiences still have a place in the gaming industry. I truly enjoyed it (especially the first two). Im grateful to Bioware for making it and hope they keep making games like these.

Now that this is done, I have another article to write about the ending. I hope I can come up with something fresh to add to the countless gallons of virtual ink that have been spilled on the issue.

Available link for download

Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks Halloween is Here review and interview!

Ive been a big fan of Lonesome Wyatts work for years now.  Whether its through his goth-country outings with Those Poor Bastards or his stripped down solo work, I can honestly say the man has never made a bad record.  When I heard he was working on a Halloween themed album I was pretty excited.  If theres any artist who can faithfully recreate the aesthetics of some of the Halloween story and sound effects albums of the past its Lonesome Wyatt.



CR: Can you tell us a bit about the upcoming Those Poor Bastards album?
LW: Its like gazing into a big black hole of hopelessness. 

CR: With six full length albums and a number of EPs under your belt, has the creative process changed at all with this new album?
LW: Not really. Jesus tells me what to sing and I sing it.
CR: Behold the Abyss was a bit of a concept album that also tied into a book, was this a one time thing or can fans look forward to more multi-layered projects in the future?
LW: Probably a one time thing but nobody knows for sure.

CR: With Halloween is Here and past Those Poor Bastards albums youve proven you can create the perfect dreadful and gloomy soundscape, have any filmmakers contacted you regarding a film score? If not, is this something youd be open to?
LW: No they havent. I guess it would depend upon if the film had werewolves in it or not. 

CR: Last question, as this is a horror website and Halloween is quickly approaching I feel obligated to ask, what are some of your favorite horror films to watch during this time of year?
LW: Im awful partial to Gremlins and Vincent Price movies.

Available link for download

Los Angeles Dangal Movie Release Date And Review

Dangal (English: Wrestling competition) is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari. It stars Aamir Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat, who taught wrestling to his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari. The former is Indias first female wrestler to win at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where she won the gold medal (55 kg). Her sister Babita Kumari won the silver (51 kg). "Dangal" is the Hindi term for "a wrestling competition".
The music for Dangal was composed by Pritam, while the lyrics were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Kripa Shankar Bishnoi, a coach with the Indian womens wrestling team, trained Aamir Khan and the entire crew for the wrestling sequences.
Dangal is scheduled for release on 23 December 2016.





Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) is a former champion wrestler. He is married to Shobha Kaur (Sakshi Tanwar). Phogats dream is to win a gold medal for India in wrestling. He is unable to do this. He promises that his son will do what he couldnt do. However, although he loves them dearly, Phogat is disappointed when Shobha gives birth to four daughters. He does not believe girls can wrestle well. However, when two of his daughters, Geeta and Babita, come home after beating up two boys, Phogat realises how wrong he has been and begins to train his daughters in wrestling. The film is the story of how Phogat trained his daughters to become professional wrestlers.

DANGAL FILM TRAILER REVIEW

Aamir Khan had a sleepless night on Thursday wondering how the world will react to his Dangal trailer. He need not have bothered - Dangal trailer is a winner. But with a minor tweak - this film belongs to actors who are playing Aamir’s daughters. Don’t get us wrong, Aamir Khan is perfection in Dangal, just the way he always is - the man who challenges and reinvents himself with every role he does.
And like every role, he is no longer Aamir when he is in front of the camera. This time, he is Mahaveer Singh Phogat in this 3.25-minute trailer. A man hungering for a son who can fulfil his unfinished dream of winning a gold for the country. Why a son? Because wrestling is a man’s sport and in Haryana, who would ever think a girl can play this sport? That is till we see the two girls who are Aamir Khan’s daughters - Zaira Wasim as child Geeta Phogat and Suhani Bhatnagar as child Babita Kumari. And with all respect Mr Khan, Dangal belongs to the girls. Zaira and Suhani as well as Fatima Sana Sheikh and Sanya Malhotra who play the older Babita and Geeta.
They crash every stereotype in the book, they prove that issue is not the gender but our beliefs. The moment when Aamir’s character realises this and the play of emotions on his face is a masterclass in acting.
They are hungry and committed and you can see it in their eyes. Their wrestling moves or the way they announce, “Pehelwani bahut ho gayi, ab dangal ka time hai,” wants you to stand up and applaud. With the trailer itself, we can promise you this will be as unlike Salman Khan’s Sultan as you can imagine. A women’s empowerment tale, a real-life story and tale of a man finding his metier in life - Dangal is a package we can’t wait to unwrap.
And then, the trailer gives us that final striking moment before it ends - a buffed-up young Aamir flexing his muscles before he enters the wrestling arena. Now that is what we call a dhobi pachchad!
The film has been directed by Nitesh Tiwari.

BEFORE DANGAL TRAILER LANDED

While Aamir had talked about his sleepless night in this message, “Tonight is going to be a sleepless night. 12 hours to go before I launch our trailer of Dangal on Twitter and Facebook. Can’t wait for your response. Hope you like it,” film’s producer UTV had this power-packed announcement about Dangal, “Ladaai se peeche hatne walo mein se nahi hai mhaari choriyaan. #Dangal trailer releasing tomorrow. #Dangalvaar @aamir_khan @niteshtiwari22.”
For all his cliche-breaking roles, Aamir Khan is a traditionalist. The actor always releases his film in December and his trailers closer to Diwali, whether it is 3 Idiots (2009) or PK (2014). With Dangal too, he has continued this practice. A spokesperson earlier said about Dangal’s trailer release, “Aamir is going to treat his audience once again with a trailer of his movie on Diwali. He wants to uphold the tradition of releasing his trailers during the festive season.”

BEFORE DANGAL TRAILER, WHAT CELEBS SAID ABOUT AAMIR KHAN’S FILM

Although, even before Dangal trailer came out, Aamir held special screenings for his friends. Among those who have watched the film are Shabana Azmi, Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Ayan Mukerji and Kunal Kapoor. And after watching the film, we know the guests were suitably impressed. But nobody was more so than Karan who took to Twitter and wrote, “Just saw DANGAL…haven’t seen a better film in a decade…… speechless!!!!”

KNOW MORE ABOUT AAMIR KHAN’S DANGAL CHARACTER MAHAVIR SINGH PHOGAT

Born in a small village in Haryana, Mahavir trained his daughters Babita Kumari and Geeta Phogat and helped establish them as world-class wrestlers. He broke conventions and made his daughters wrestle boys in an akhaada. For this, he had to face objections of his fellow villagers but he refused to budge. Geeta Phogat went on to win gold in 2010 Commonwealth Games while Babita won a gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Geeta also qualified for the Olympics, first Indian female wrestler to do so. Mahavir has coached many top Indian wrestlers and has been nominated for the Dronacharya Award.

PRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT

In 2012 Divya Rao, a member of Disneys creative team, read an article in a newspaper about Mahavir Singh Phogat, who trained his daughters to become world class champions. She thought this would make for a great film, and spoke about this to Siddharth Roy Kapoor and other Disney personnel. Disney approached Nitesh Tiwari to write and direct the story. Tiwari met Mahavir Singh Phogat and his daughters, who instantly agreed to tell the story.
In 2013 Siddharth Roy Kapoor and Nitesh Tiwari went to Aamir Khan with the story, and Khan loved it in its first narration. Khan had just finished Dhoom 3 and started shooting for PK. Khan wanted to do the film after 5-10 years when he would be turning 60, because the script of the film demanded Khan to be 55 years old and he was still doing younger roles. But somewhere the story remained in his mind. After a few months he called up Nitesh Tiwari and asked him to narrate the script once again.
In 2014, after the release of PK, Aamir Khan announced that he would play the role of a wrestler in his next film titled Dangal directed by Nitesh Tiwari, a cinematographic biography of the former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. It would be produced by Khan himself and Disneys India. Khan said to reporters, "Nitesh has written a wonderful story. The topic is very important, its very dramatic. It highlights the discrimination that is meted out to the girl child in India. The best part is that he has done it in a very entertaining manner. The heart of the story is emotional, but it also has a lot of humour. Raju Hirani has this unique way to tell a story where he says something socially very relevant but he tells his story in a very entertaining manner. Similarly Nitesh has written a very entertaining lovely script, the dialogues are very entertaining. Each time I listen to the dialogues, I laugh a lot. I cry as well as laugh."
In March 2015, Junior Indian womens wrestling team coach Kripa Shankar Patel Bishnoi was approached by Aamir Khan Productions to train Khan and the entire crew of Dangal. Bishnoi said about the film in a Hindustan Times interview, "Very few Indians encourage women for wrestling, especially because of the uniform. This film will change that perception too. People would hopefully want to see their daughters taking up wrestling as a sport."
Khan lost some weight and took Haryanvi lessons and dialect training for the film. He played two distinct roles in the film: the 60-year-old wrestler Mahavir Phogat, and the 20-year-old version of Phogat.Khan reportedly gained 30 kg and weighs 98 kg to play the role of the older Phogat, then lost the weight to play the younger role in Dangal.

Casting

In March 2015 Taapsee Pannu, Deeksha Seth and Akshara Haasan were being considered for the roles of Khans on-screen daughters. In April 2015, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra were cast as the daughters, who hailed from the Jat community of Balali village of Bhiwani, Haryana.  Geeta Phogat had participated in the London Olympics in 2012. Babita won gold in 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. In June 2015, child actors Zaira Wasim (from Kashmir) and Suhani Bhatnagar (from Delhi) were roped in for Dangal. Ayushmann Khurranas brother Aparshakti Khurrana was also cast.Mukesh Chhabra was the casting director of Dangal. Vikram Singh was recruited to play the role of the villain. Aamir Khans nephew Pablo (son of Mansoor Khan) was the films assistant director. Mallika Sherawat auditioned for a role. In August 2015, Rajkumar Rao, who previously worked with Aamir Khan in Talaash, was approached for an important role in Dangal. Finally, after auditioning 70 actresses for the role, Sakshi Tanwar was brought on as Daya Kaur, the wife of Mahavir Singh Phogat. Ananya was chosen to play Sarita, the youngest daughter of Mahavir Phogat. In October 2015, Vivan Bhatena was selected to play a negative role in the film.

FILMING

The shooting schedule of Dangal began on 1 September 2015. The villages of Ludhiana were given a Haryanvi transformation. The shooting took place in the villages of Gujjarwal, Narangwal, Kila Raipur, Dango and Leel in Punjab and Haryana. Interestingly, the village of Dango, which is in the Pakhowal Tehsil in Ludhiana, is veteran actor Dharmendras ancestral village.
From September 2015 to December 2015, Aamir Khan gained 9% fat, weighing around 98 kg for Dangal, and from January 2016 to April 2016, he regained the shape that he had opted for in Dhoom 3 and will hear the script for next future films, halting shooting of Dangal for said period.
The first scene was taken on 21 September 2015 in Ludhiana with the presences of Mahavir Singh Phogat and his both daughters Geeta Phogat, Babita Kumari.
On 14 November 2015, while shooting in Ludhiana, Khan suffered minor injuries resulting in muscle spasms in his back.
On November 20, 2015, Khan collapsed after sustaining a shoulder injury on the set.[45] After suffering an injury Aamir Khan resumes shooting in Pune on 9 December 2015.
The team filmed in and around stadiums at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune. At the time, the complex hosted the 2015 Rollball World Cup, and athletes of the Netherlands national rollball team and Slovenia womens national rollball team were recruited to play background athletes in the film. The team also shot some portions of the film in Symbiosis International University, Pune.
On 19 January 2016, Khan and the entire crew of the film shot in Delhi, at Talkatora Stadium, to film wrestling sequences. The crew then moved to Thyagaraj Stadium to shoot sequences of Commonwealth Games and National Games. The first schedule of shooting was also done in schools and in Dango village, located in Pakhowal Tehsil in Ludhiana.
The second schedule of the film started on 16 June 2016 at the Akhada Leel near Toosa village, in Ludhiana district. It is one of the largest villages in Punjab, India. Khan said, "When I came to Ludhiana, I was very fat. At that time, we shot for the scenes where Mahavir has become old. 85 per cent of the film is about his old look only. Now we are shooting for the portion when Mahavir was young."

RELEASE

Dangal is scheduled to be released on December 23, 2016.

ACTOR/ACTRESS

Mr perfactionist Aamir Khan will be seen playing the lead role in the film. Two fresh faces Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra have been finalised to play Aamirs daughters in the film. After months of talent scouting, casting director Mukesh Chhabria finally decided on these two girls. Sakshi Tanwar will play the role as Daya Kaur, wife of Aamir Khan in the movie.

AAMIR KHANS ROLE

Aamir has started preparing for the film, in which he will play as a wrestler. It will be interesting to see Aamir khans avatar in this film since he is known to undergo rigorous training for his role. He has got some extra packs of abdomen muscles and build his biceps more. He has gone through extensive training by Hollywood fitness experts for his role.

FIRST LOOK/POSTER

The new poster of the movie Dangal has been revealed. It features Mr perfactionist along with his daughters and son.

SOUNDTRACK

The films music is composed by Pritam with lyrics are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya. It was reported that Daler Mehndi has sung a song in the movie.

Available link for download