My Movie Quiz Series!

Hi fellas

I have been a movie quiz series for IQL on their quiz-blog.

This is the link:

http://iquiz.wordpress.com/movie-quiz/

On the right side, you can check the sub-pages and in that you will find the quiz for this month under "April, 2009". One question daily, 24 hours to answer it!

Do attempt it!

Varun Reddy.

"Hollywood and TV Shows" theme!

Hi friends

It's been such a long long time since I actually made a quiz I almost forgot that I was a part of quizzing at all!

Please find some questions that I made for a quiz in my college. The theme is Hollywood and TV Shows. Please send the replies in a week i.e. before 3rd January, 2009 EOD to the email vrs_nitk@yahoo.com with the subject as "Re: "Hollywood and TV Shows" theme!" Answers and scores will be posted in the comments section and also sent to the quiz groups (Quiznet and Quizkrieg) on January 5th.

Each question carries 1 point each. No partial marks will be given.

Please do not leave it as comments to this post.

Questions:

1) Cast of which classic TV Show.

2) One of the good movies starring Tom Cruise in a very unconventional role. Name the movie.

3) Identify this movie. (Hint: It was made into a Bollywood movie too, which flopped)

4) Before Mel Gibson walked in and told him/her what the movie was actually about, X thought that the movie was a laid back, surfing film. X was accidentally whipped twice during the filming of that movie and this has left a 14-inch scar on his/her back. X has also admitted to being struck by lightning while filming a scene and during the “death scene”, he/she is said to have experienced hypothermia during the dead of winter in Italy. Who is X?

5) Identify the two characters shown below.

6) "X" played three different roles in the same movie. Identify X and the movie. (He is shown below in the 3 different roles that he played in that movie)

7) At the time during which the movie "The Matrix" was being conceptualized, X was quickly becoming one of America's favorite movie stars and was offered the lead role. X declined, instead doing another sci-fi flick Y in the same year (1999), which perhaps became one of the biggest disappointments in Hollywood. You can call it fate, but X’s wife had a good role in the two Matrix sequels. Who is X and which movie was Y?

8) Easy as it goes - Identify the actor on the right.


9) This scene is from one of the final clips from the last episode of which cult-classic TV Series?

10) Ending with an easy one. This TV show was perhaps one of the most popular shows that had a female actor as its lead role. It is listed in TIME 100 best TV shows of all time. Which show?

Regards

Varun Reddy Sevva
PGDM, 2nd Year
IIM Lucknow.

Conglomerate of quizzers...

Hi Friends

This website, namely http://www.quizblogs.com/ is a one-shot quiz blog. It has links to all famous quiz blogs (including mine!). Do visit it for the ultimate quizzing experience.

And do visit my personal blog - http://varunslife.blogspot.com when you are free.

Varun Reddy.

General Quiz 2...

Hi

Another instalment of the quiz series... Hope you like it... Again based on current affairs and a bit of Trivia...

1) Identify this person very much in the news recently.

2) "As long as I am still on this earth, as long as I am still breathing, the country shall never be a colony again", X said, responding to comments that the country was in danger of being recolonized by Britain. Who is X? He is pictured below...

3) "We're going to handle this the best we can, one client at a time", said Barbara Walther, the district judge of this state, on the legal fate of the 416 children swept up in a raid on a polygamous sect in the western area of this US State. In which state this this raid take place?

4) "As Tony Blair said, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the American people and with President Bush", says X on the fight against terrorism. Who is X (pictured below with Mr. Bush)

5) So I asked my wife recently if it bothered her that people call me Darth Vadar. She said, 'No, it humanizes you.' says DC, joking at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in Washington D.C. Who is DC? (pictured below)

6) "The country C is just a graveyard for airplanes", says Jim Durbin, of the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation, on the large number of aging aircraft in Africa. A 31-year-old DC-9 jetliner crashed in that nation earlier last week. Which country?

7) "It takes seasoned maturity to ensure this nation is never second-rated in the international arena and Mr. K is not there yet," Brown said. "We are not the 51st state of the US and Mr Ks salute carried a subservient connotation many of our countrymen won't like." Who is K and which country is in the news here? (Picture shown below)

8) "You don't have to psychoanalyze or patronize people to conclude that we have problems" says Ms. Y on Mr. Xs description of working-class people being "bitter" and "clinging to guns and religion". If you know onw name, can guess the other easily. Name X and Y.

9) This has been the ultimate rollercoaster ride, and I hate rollercoasters", says a 28-year old Trevor Immelman recently. In December 2007, doctors discovered a lesion approximately the size of a golf ball on his diaphragm. It was diagnosed as a calcified fibrosis tumor. After more tests they discovered that it was benign. In an interview the following week, Immelman remarked at how ironic it was that the lesion was the size of a golf ball!! Why is he in the news recently?

10) This is perhaps the best news this week. When this European country announced its list of 17 ministers recently, 9 of them were women, making the PM live upto his lasting commitment towards gender equality. Carme Chacon was sworn in Monday as this nations first woman defense minister. Chacon is 37 and is presently 7-months pregnant. She had served as housing minister in this PMs first government, and was described by him as "one of the major new stars of the Socialist Party." Which country am I talking about? (Her picture is given below, while inspecting the troops at the swearing-in ceremony)

Answers in a week in the comments section...

Varun Reddy

IIM Lucknow.

Movie+TV Quiz...

Hi Friends

Here is a quiz taken from a website on the Internet. I have reproduced some of the questions below. Enjoy!

1) Name the first Indian sponsored programme in the National Network.

Hum Log

2) What was the name of the most popular rural programme on DD?

Krishi Jagat

3) What was the name of the first colour film telecast by DD, made by Satyajit Ray?

Shatranj Ke Khiladi

4) Name the first Indian Soap Opera which consisted of 156 episodes and was telecast twice a week.

Hum Log

5) Name the prolific Soap Opera writer who wrote 104 episodes of Buniyaad.

Manohar Shyam Joshi

6) Name the serial which commanded maximum viewership and was telecast on Sunday mornings when life virtually came to a standstill?

Mahabharata

7) Which was the biggest advertiser of DD in the 1990s?

HLL

8) What is the name of the video news magazine launched by TV Today?

Eyewitness

9) Multichannel produced the first Hindi Video film magazine. Name it.

Lehren

10) Who was the director of Anand?

Hrishikesh Mukherjee

11) Which film was based on the sensational Nanavati murder case?

Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke

Cheers!!!

General Quiz...

Hi friends

This quiz I compiled out of the news I managed to read in the last few weeks. It may actually be boring, so please bear with me.

1) "This is the end game of the end game. Checkmate already happened on the 29th of March" says Tendai Biti. What is he talking about?

2) The name of this country comes from the Taino word for the entire island of Hispaniola, Ayiti, which reportedly means "Mountainous Land." The French staked their claim on the entire island based on the settlement of Tortuga and Gonave Islands by French pirates in the 15th and 16th centuries. During the French colonial period, the colony earned the name “La Perle des Antilles” ("The Pearl of the Antilles") due to its economic importance. It is one of the most impoverished nations on earth and the least-developed in the Americas, largely due to political instability and repeated episodes of violence. It now ranks 146th of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index (2006). It is the only country in the Americas on the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries. Which country am I talking about?

3) This term is more commonly used as a political metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents or campaign contributors. This usage originated in American English with reference to gifts of salted ____ in a ____ by slave-owners to their slaves. Which term?

4) "This is a really big deal. A Peabody is like an Oscar wrapped in an Emmy inside a Pulitzer. It's the Turducken of awards", said the famous comedian X on winning the international Peabody Award for excellence in radio and television broadcasting . Who is X?

5) "I was worried I wasn't going to make it... I was pinned down by sniper fire at the Burbank airport", was how Y put her visit to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. Who is Y and what was she jokingly referring to in that statement?

6) "Enough is enough", said Z, father of C, stating that he will not pursue further legal action following the jury's ruling in the inquest into the death of his son and a very famous English lady. Who are Z and C?

7) "P's great career therefore ended with a virtual performance, something sad but inevitable", says Leone Magiera, P's longtime pianist and conductor, revealing that P lip-synched his final public performance at the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Who is P?

8) October 10, 2006 was declared "___ ______ Day" in Japan; the Japan Memorial Day Association said that he was awarded with a special day because he has made more trips to Japan than any other Hollywood star. The actor has paid more visits to the country than any other major Hollywood star and spends hours on end with fans in the country. His public relations tour of Japan last spring to promote one of his action flicks included a trip on the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo, during which he had his photo taken with more than 100 fans. During that trip, he told the press he wanted to shoot the next installment in the action series in Japan. The Association noted that he is the first Hollywood star to receive this honor. Who is this jumpy star?

9) During the 2008 Democratic Presidential primary election, a prominent member of the Democratic party labeled Hillary Clinton's tactic of using negative politics against rival Barack Obama as the "Tonya Harding" option. I gave out the name as I felt it would make things easy. The question is - Who is Tonya Harding and what is her claim to fame/infamy?

10) This movie is a 2008 short film by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. The film explores Qur'anic motivation for terrorism, Islamic universalism, and Islam in the Netherlands. The film's title comes from the Arabic word which is used to describe "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial". Which movie is this?

11) A particular 10 seconds of the French folksong "Au Clair De La Lune" recorded on April 9, 1860, was in the news recently. This was declared to the oldest recording of a noise/voice ever made. This recording predated the 19 recordings that Edison made in 1878 (These were the olsest ones so far). Edison and his associates created the recordings to study a particular noise, and the Edison National Historic Site in New Jersey has stored themso far. What did Edison record?

12) This logo had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston. The creator of the logo, Gerald Holtom, says about it "I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad". He persuaded the campaigners that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. And this baby was born! Question: How do we know this symbol better? (It is shown below)

13) Gun fu is the style of sophisticated close-quarters gunplay seen in Hong Kong action cinema and in Western films influenced by it. It often resembles a martial arts battle played out with firearms instead of traditional weapons. It may also be described by other terms such as bullet ballet or gymnastic gunplay. Question: This director originated this style in the Hong Kong film "A Better Tomorrow" in 1986? He continued to make several classic heroic bloodshed films, all featuring gun fu, and all starring the same leading man. That hero, wielding a gun in each hand became an iconic cinema image around the world. Who is the director and the famous hero?


14) “Russia will take steps aimed at ensuring its interests along its borders”, said Sergei Lavrov, the present Russian Foreign Minister. Why was he threatening this way?


15) “I really feel very sad the government demonizes me. I am just a human, I am not a demon”, said X about the way the Chinese government has been treating him for the last 50 years. Who is he?


16) This 79-year-old British physicist posited the existence of a subatomic particle nicknamed "the God particle" 40 years ago. He now says its discovery will come within two years and says in jest, “I'll just have to ask my general practitioner to keep me alive a bit longer”. Who is this?

Hope you enjoy the quiz. Answers will be posted in the comments section in a few days. Please do not reply to it in my mail or anything. I will inform when the answers are put up.


Varun.

Mixed Bag Quiz - 2

Friends,

Another one of my oldies. Answers as usual are in the comments section.

1) This is a concept introduced in recent films and computer games whereby the “passage of time” is displayed as extremely slow or frozen moments in order to allow a viewer to observe really fast events (such as flying bullets). It is often used to create a dramatic effect, as in the film “The Matrix”. Technical and historical variations of this effect have been referred to as time slicing, view morphing, flo mo, temps mort and virtual cinematography. Give me the name of the concept.

2) After its official showing at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, the movie was given what has been called 'the longest standing ovation in the history of the festival.' Although the exact length of the applause is a matter of debate, journalists at the screening have reported it being in the area of 15 to 25 minutes. Which movie am I talking about.

3) Prior to its release in the Philippines, local celebrities and moralists blasted the movie stressing that it was too violent, too brutal, and "irrelevant to Filipinos". While the pre-release criticism was widely publicized, the film was released with an R rating and was played totally uncut. The film was an instant blockbuster in the Philippines as locals anticipated its release and largely ignored the early critics. Some analysts believed that the main reason why local celebrities spoke against Spielberg's film was because the Philippine film industry was already declining as local film producers simply could not come up with competitive films. At the same time, Filipino action films faded away from the industry, which let the door wide open for foreign blockbusters. Which famous movie was this?

4) Give me the movies for the following taglines:

He doesn't play golf... he destroys it.
Imagine having to win over the girl of your dreams... every friggin' day.
One Ring To Rule Them All.
Life's greatest adventure is finding your place in the Circle of Life.

5) This word is used to describe the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase, such that it acquires a new meaning. This term was originally coined by author Sylvia Wright. As a child, Wright heard the lyrics of a Scottish ballad, The Bonny Earl of Murray as:
Ye highlands and ye lowlandsOh where hae you been?Thou hae slay the Earl of MurrayAnd Lady _________.

It eventually transpired that the heroic Lady _________ existed only in the mind of Sylvia Wright. The actual lyrics said that they "slay the Earl of Murray and laid him on the green." What is the term?

6) Connect the following soundtracks:

a) "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)" from the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
b) "Star" from the Robin Williams film “Jack”
c) "Heaven" in 1982 for the film “A Night in Heaven”

7) I’m sure many of you must have seen “ The Lion King”. We know that Simba’s spiritual guide and Mufasa’s good friend was the monkey Rafiki.

A sitter: What does Rafiki mean in the Swahili language?

8) This cartoon series is set in the fictional city of Cape Suzette , a harbor town protected by giant cliffs (through which only a small opening exists). The opening in the cliffs is guarded by artillery, preventing flying rabble-rousers or air pirates from entering the city.. The timeframe of the series is never specifically addressed, but appears to be in the mid to late 1930’s. The series centered on the adventures of the pilot “Baloo” the bear, whose air cargo freight business is bought out by Rebecca Cunningham, and renamed 'Higher for Hire'. An orphan boy and former air pirate, Kit Cloudkicker, attaches to Baloo and becomes his navigator. Together, they are the crew of Higher for Hire's only aircraft, a flying boat named the “Seaduck”. Their adventures often involve encounters with a gang of air pirates led by the histrionic Don Karnage, or with representatives of Thembria. Which series is this? (I’m sorry for this real easy one, but it is one of my favorite cartoon series!!)


9) What are these really funny errors?

Error 01: Brainwaves received in analog. Please re-think in digital.
Error 005: Searching on this topic is prohibited under international law.
Error 144: That information was lost with the Martian Lander. Please try again.
Error 008: Interference detected. Remove aluminum foil and remote control devices.
Error 8P: Unclear on whether your search is about money or monkeys. Please try again.
Error 006: Query is unclear. Try again after removing hat, glasses and shoes.
(The underlined error may have a clue!!)

10) Connect : Huebert, Deuteronomy and Louis with cartoon characters (A real sitter!!)

Ciao

Varun Reddy.

Mixed-Bag Quiz - 1

Friends,

This was one of my earliest quizzes on the yahoogroups. Please find the answers in the comments section.

1) An easy one: Why was Yuri Gagarin mobbed by scared villagers when he returned back to Earth from his historic journey to space?


2) Which famous tennis player’s grandmother was Susan Billington- The last woman to serve underarm, mother who played junior Wimbledon and a grandfather who reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon in 1948? (Clue: Wimbledon!)

3) What was the name given to Italian directed/financed westerns, which became popular in the 1960’s? One of the most famous movies of this kind is Sergio Leone’s “A fistful of dollars” which made a star of Clint Eastwood.

4) Give me the meaning of the following words: (Do not refer to your dictionaries)

a) Ullage

b) Hallux

c) Chad

5) When Shane Warne taunted this South African batsman by saying “I’ve been waiting for two years to have another bowl at you”, the batsman replied “Looks like you spent most of it eating”. Who is this guy? (I do not know in which year this incident took place)

6) In which island do people greet each other by saying “A Kent’annos”, meaning “To 100 years” because of the huge population ratio of old people there (more than 3 times the world average)?

7) Which famous comedian remarked: “We use only 10% of our brains. Imagine how much we could accomplish if we use the other 60%”? (She also was the centre square for a week in the show “Hollywood Squares”, one of my favourite game shows, and has her own comedy show)

8) John Walker, in 1826, mixed Antimony Sulphide and Potassium Chlorate. He found that this mixture stuck to the stick he used to mix them. When he tried to scrape it off on a stone hearth, the mixture burst into flames. He, hence, sold the first Friction Matches under what name? (Not under the name of “Match Sticks” atleast; the mane was a very catchy phrase)

9) What word, mainly used by Americans while jumping, traces its origin to 1940, when a US army paratrooper Aubrey Eberhardt shouted this word during a jump to prove that he wasn’t scared? He was inspired by a movie (having the same name as the word) about fierce 10th century Red Indian Leader of the same name.

10) Connect: The book “Playboy”, Paul Allen, George Soros, Bill Gates, Andrew McKelvey, Charles Schwab, Steven Spielberg, Martha Stewart, Abraham Abdullah and Michael Fabozzi (I want a specific answer!)

11) In which TV series would one find a Coffee Bar called ‘Central Perk’ as a favourite meeting spot for the characters? (A Sitter!!)

12) Which famous comedian, host of “The Tonight Show” remarked “I looked at the word POLITICS in the dictionary. It’s actually a combination of two words- POLI meaning ‘many’ and TICS meaning ‘blood-suckers’?

Name the people who made the following comments (fairly guessable)

13) Whether you are a man or not comes from your heart, not how much hair you have on your head (Hint: A Hollywood actor, not Sean Connery)

14) An army marches on its stomach (Hint: A famous dictator)

15) It’s great to be a blonde. With low expectations, it’s very easy to surprise people. (Hint: A ‘voluptuous’ blonde)

Ciao

Varun Reddy.

Bollywood Quiz...

Hi friends

I have been dealing with many Hollywood movies as Hollywood is my passion and forte. But one person, whose name I fail to recollect, wanted a Bollywood quiz. So I tried to compile some questions - perhaps some of them are repeats from my earlier quizzes... Please forgive me for that!!some of the questions are real easy ones for the Bollywood buffs!!

Replies to be sent to vrs_nitk@yahoo.com. I don't know if I'll have the time, but I will try to report the scores also

Please do not post the replies as comments to this post...

Here goes:

1) This classic movie made by the legendary filmmaker V. Shantaram, was inspired by the ‘open-prison’ experiment in the princely state of Oundh near Pune. It is said that the progressive rulers carried out prison reforms with an Irish psychiatrist. One famous song of this movie is “Aye Maalik, Tere Bande Hum”. Which movie?

2) This Indian Actress went to Barcelona to anchor the 2006 Laureus World Sports Awards. Mika Hakkinen (the former F1 champion) asked her to accompany him on a drive in the fast lane when they met there. She stepped into his AMG-Mercedes for a spin on the F1 racetrack. Who is this lovely lady?

3) Producer: Imperial Movietone
Director: Ardeshir Irani
Cast: Master Vithal, Zubeida, Prithviraj Kapur, L V Prasad
Year: 1931
Colour: Black and White
Time: 124 minutes, 7 songs

Which movie?

4) She is the step-daughter in law of Helen. She started as a model and was part of a controversial ad with future husband Arbaaz Khan. She is more famous for dancing atop a moving train in “Dil Se”. She was a vee-jay with MTV. She is the mom of a 3-year old and is a judge on the celebrity dance show Nach Baliye.

“She is getting hotter with age. If you thought she was hot earlier, she is even hotter after the baby”, says Farah Khan (choreographer) on the woman with a body to die for. Who?

5) Connect these three movies and give me the fourth in the list: Reshma Aur Shera (1971), Rocky (1982), Kshatriya (1993).

6) Which was the first Indian movie to be shot entirely in Australia?

7) Which was the first Bollywood film to be shot in Rio de Janerio?

8) If this hadn't been a Bollywood quiz, it would have been really tough to crack this question. Identify the circled face. Take an educated guess...

9) Identify the movie shown in this poster.

10) Identify the cult movie shown in this poster.

Happy quizzing...

Varun Reddy.

Hi friends...

Hello friends!

I have read many many quiz blogs and decided that it is high time that I also start my own quizzing blog. I have been very selfish in sharing my knowledge with others and hence, I have decided that all my quizzing knowledge will be made public.

I will start by posting some new quizzes and try to revisit some of my old quizzes also. The old quizzes will not be posted on the quizgroups, but they will be posted here. I will make a mention of all the archives that I posted in between the quizzes that I post on the groups on Yahoo!

I hope this blog marks a new chapter in my quizzing profile. Hope to get many visitors who can utilize my meagre knowledge in the ocean of quizzing that is present in this vast-world.

Varun.