Dhoda!

Endhiran - Let's get interactive 2

2010-10-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Karthik a.k.a. Sundar,

First of all, congratulations on coming up with a well written post. I really liked the style of your writing. My only problem is with the content.

It's amazing how you have almost analyzed all critical elements from the movie and the only good things that you can come up with the movie is the absence of intro song and பூசணிக்காய், this is like முழு பூசணிகாயை சோத்துல மறைக்கராமாதிரி. Why do you want to introspect in to how a male lead could have possibly fallen in love with a female lead? Relationships are a bit "touchy" in both real and reel life, to find a reason for them is silly. I agree to the unethical method employed to pass an exam, but I am not going to a movie theater to learn ethics in life. On the constable scene, it came across as basic human instinct to run away from danger especially if you know you are the root cause for the situation.

So you expected an Indian movie - biggest budget ever, targeted at more than 1 billion people of all ages across the globe, simul-released in several languages and countries - to explain the laws of robotics so everyone can understand? Good luck! I can see why Shankar's first choice for this film was not Kamal.

Robotics conference being in Tamil, I had no problems at all with everyone in the room speaking Tamil. This is way better than "வசீகரன் நீங்க இன்ன சொல்லுது.." or someone disguised as foreigner with thick accent. This is like watching Ramayana in different languages and asking what was Rama's mother tongue. This type of shot making is way better than Tamil films that comes with generous sprinkle of English.

On super natural robots not being used by Vasee - remember, this is Tamil movie with Rajini as lead. It is a great risk not to have usual cinematic elements, especially in a much hyped Rajini movie ever. Movies are all about packaging and marketing - Shankar had to sell this to audience, hence the low tech, presence of Karunaas and Santhaanam. It is silly for some high tech folks, but hey, my 6 year old daughter was thrilled to see robots giving flowers. My 70 year old mom could enjoy robot doing mehndhi designs.

I have problems when filmy characters do something super "intelligent" that is beyond human. In those situations, most of the time a super scene or act will get "யார் காதுல பூவ சுத்தறான்..". Imagine robot explaining how cancer can be cured using...yeah right! There is a problem here. If a director is intelligent, that's great. But if the director tries to show he is intelligent through his movies, it has more often than not failed or came across as cheap antics. I can quote several Kamal's experiments here.

Oh, the great Terminator. For Indian cinema, we are still struggling - and will always due to our diversity on everything - to classify a movie as a particular genre. For some of us, we are totally ok watching summer comic flicks and disney pixar movies and accept them because we know what to expect when you watch a particular genre.

You are an intelligent person and you are insulted? Sorry bro, I am an intelligent person and I like it. You know what, I know a few other intelligent people and they like it too. I have a few moderately intelligent foreign friends (no offense intended) and they were perfectly fine with Avatar, which in my mind is a 300 million dollars spent on a movie that had a storyline that is no different than several age old Indian movies where a city bred goes to village (or vice-versa) and become part of that place and never returns to his old life.

Shankar had taken a contemporary situation and created a parallel sci-fi track with robots to come up with an INDIAN entertainer that can be marketed and will also be appealing for most people. I think he succeeded in that for most part. dot.

P.S. Thanks once again for bringing me back to blogging! I AM BAACK!!!!

Endhiran - Let's get interactive

2010-10-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a well documented post from my nephew on Endhiran:

http://apdipodu.blogspot.com/2010/10/endhiran-paarvai-written-by-karthik.html

Thanks to Karthik (I am used to calling him Sundar), I finally got the "kick" needed to start writing again after about 7 months hiatus, blame it on laziness.

Now, on to the interactive part - Watch out for my reply soon! I am sure it will not stop there.

Cochin Cowboys

2010-03-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

This post is purely a work of fiction and any likenesses to real life are purely coincidental. Also, all the disclaimers that have ever been created/documented/undocumented by anyone in this universe applies to this post. You are responsible for anything and everything that you get /not get after reading this post. Read at your own risk.

Ever since IPL picked 2 additional franchises, one of the team and the franchise team members (FTM) got together and started to layout plans for next year IPL.

FTM#1: What should be name of our team? ideas உண்டோ ?

FTM#2: ஆலப்புழா ஆண்டவாஸ்? Trivandrum Titans? Cochin Cowboys? வேஷ்டி Whales?

FTM#1: நன்னாயிட்டு உண்டு. Let's pick Cochin Cowboys.

FTM#3: Brand ambassador யாரானு?

FTM#1: Mohan....

FTM#2: Team song choice guess செய்யும்?

FTM#4: கடலை நக்கர போனோரே..

FTM#2: Correct.

FTM#5: What is the Jersey களர்?

FTM#3: வல்லிய half whiteல், brown, ஜரி வெச்சு, பஷு மாடு logo?

FTM#1: டாப்-ஆயிட்டு உண்டு.

FTM#2: Who are the ஸ்போன்சொர்ஸ்?

FTM#1: Kerala Jewellers, Ramraj வேஷ்டி...

FTM#4: Cheerleaders அல்லாம் வேண்டா. நம்ம கதகளி, மேளம் போதுமாணு.

FTM#2: Gra-eat idea!

When the FTM went to the new site where they planned to build a new stadium, they were surprised to see 2-3 டீகடா that have already started the business there. They promised those shop keepers a contract when the stadium is complete. The whole FTM team is working over time to be ready for IPL 4.

IPL 3 - Day One

2010-03-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

Here's my initial thoughts on IPL 3 after day 1 and match 1.

- Not a full house, could be due to the fact that there is no local team involved.

- Commericals in between balls in the scoreboard - Pathetic. I am not a big fan of commentators these days, but this trend will totally take them out of picture soon. In between DLF maximum, Citi moment of success, MRF sky cam, how great this tournament is and bunch of other meanderings, they speak Cricket. Special note to Sunny Gavaskar: Please retire from your commentary job. I had great respect for you as a player, and I still do. I am tired of your Ranjit Singhji leg glance story every time someone plays a fine leg glance.

- It is very clear that only Superstars of Indian cricket and foreign players will be able to make this tournament attractive. Example: Vaas chiming in with early wickets, Matthews and Shah having a huge partnership, Gilchrist's 50 and more to come, which goes to show the importance of Test cricket and ODI existence and competition between national teams, so it will be easy to market T20. I am hearing 90+ games next season, Modi needs to be very careful with overkill.

If I were to bet/guess on 4 teams that will make it to semi-final (which looks so so far away), here it is:

Delhi - They are my favorites since IPL 1 and they really look a strong team even this season.

Chennai - Dhoni as captain & Hayden as a player are very capable of dominating any team and hence they are my favorites too.

Mumbai -Though I don't believe in Sachin's leadership, I strongly believe they will perform well this season to make it to top 4.

Bangalore - They have some very talented in-form youngsters in their side. Once they have all foreign players available, they will be a strong team.

Double Standards

2010-03-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

Watch this first: Gambhir Watson Incident

and then watch this: Johnson Styris Incident

Gambhir gets one test ban - International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Chris Broad charged Gambhir with a level-two offence of not conducting play “within the spirit of the game as well as within the laws of cricket”.International Cricket Council (ICC) appointed commissioner Justice Sachs reached his verdict after studying video footage, documentary records and written submissions. “I am prepared to accept that he (Gambhir) had been the victim of prolonged and persistent verbal abuse by members of the Australian team, culminating in a moment of anger that led to his unfortunate lapse,” Sachs said.

Johnson was fined 60% match fee - Johnson, who was charged with a Level 2 offence, pleaded guilty at an early stage to avoid a full hearing. The umpires felt Styris contributed to the verbal exchange that preceded the physical contact and that his actions contravened clause 2.1.8 which covers actions that are contrary to the spirit of cricket or bring the game into disrepute. "Sometimes in the heat of competition players cross over the line of what is acceptable behaviour and that has clearly happened in this case," Madugalle said. "I made it clear to them that as role models it's important that they conduct themselves not only within the laws of cricket but also in keeping with the spirit of the game."

This is clearly a case of double standards that sub-continent ex-players, commentators and even public are complaining about for several years. The above scenarios are near identical and they both are breach of code of conduct and they both deserve punishments. Concerned players were punished, however the punishments were different. There is very little or no hope on the hearing process and how ICC would handle a situation.

Day/Night Test Cricket

2010-03-02T15:53:00.000-08:00

Mr. T20 genius came up with this new idea - "Test cricket must go day and night", if not he warned that test cricket will die.

Here's my take:

- What do we do with the ball? Seeing a RED ball under lights is difficult not only for the players but also for the spectators. Changing it to white will NOT work since they already cannot keep the white ball white for 50 overs in ODI. So we need a change in law to make this happen.

- What about the pitch and outfield? It gets wet due to fog in most of the countries and in some of the countries, even summer is cold during night time. The dew and cold weather could dramatically favor batting team or bowling team.

- Spectators in the stadium - Though ticket sales does not impact the revenue in a big way these days, spectators in the stand is crucial. Thinking people will show up after work for a test match is a huge assumption. (BTW, claiming that people have work to do during day time hence cannot watch a game is an useless comment. People in the nineties had to go for work too.)

- Claiming broadcasters run the game - This is such a shameless comment. The game should be bigger than anything. Regardless of commercial interests, passion for sport should be the prime reason for playing a sport. The same should be the case for administrators too.

When ODI was introduced everyone thought test cricket is waste of time, now everyone hates ODI. T20 is new and people seem to like it for now. I am sure money motive people, the one dimensional nature of the format and the overkill of number of tournaments will make this format boring soon. T20 organizers have successfully shortened the career for bowlers, made batsman more greedy and demoted spectators, especially young ones, from being involved to impatient.

Don't worry about test cricket and leave it alone, it will survive and people who loved test cricket will always love it.

(Dis)Connected..

2010-03-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

"I have more than 200 friends"
"Wow! so many friends..so what are you doing this Saturday evening?"
"I will be in front of the computer"

This funny, yet eye opening dialog from the movie "Funny People" on social network is the inspiration for this imaginary post.

Raj - Son
Dia - Daughter
Mom and Dad

Raj: Hi Mom, sorry I woke up late, good to catch u on IM, what do we have for dinner?

Mom: I am late to a meeting, the menu and sample pictures of the food for the entire week is posted on my Facebook, your Dad sent a text to me and trying to reach you. love u Raj, c u later.

Raj: Great, I will check it out and comment on the changes I want. I will also call Dad.

Raj calling Dad: Pop, I need cash.

Dad: I will wire transfer to your checking later today. We need to catch up on arrangements for Dia's wedding.

Raj: Don't worry Dad, I have high level plans almost finalized and I will send you the PPT when it is ready.

Dad: Thanks Raj! Buzz me and I will check the PPT. love u, talk to you later.

Slide 1 - Invitation: Raj logged in to Geni, Facebook, LinkedIn contacts and created an invitation distribution list. He also roughly calculated the invitation numbers based on other family member's social network contacts. Once Raj had the headcount, he selected eVite, Facebook and Twitter updates for sending invitations and updates.

Slide 2 - Photos/Video: Raj Google'd photo/video broadcast professionals in the area and short listed a few. He planned on podcasting the event live and later make it available on YouTube. Twitter updates will be posted every 5 minutes during the marriage ceremony.

Slide 3 - Food: Raj short listed Pizza Hut, Saravana Bhavan and Jamba Juice with Salad as the possible options for food ordering. The attendees will either get a food coupon that they can redeem on the marriage day or get rain check for later use.

Slide 4 - Thaamboolam: Once the attendees successfully login and attend the function, they will get album of their choice as free download from iTunes as thaamboolam.

Slide 5 - Gifts: Attendees can send their gift via Fedex (prepaid free shipping) or choose to use Paypal for cash gifts.

Raj emailed the PPT to Mom, Dad and Dia and sent an Outlook invitation for video conference call later that day and hoped every one can attend.

If we continue our passion and craze for social connections through technology, who knows, we might end up like this soon.

Are we really connected?

Kollywood Trends

2010-02-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

All Ajith has to do is speak his mind and pass a comment to get wrath of everyone in our home state. Our mindset has become so narrow we cannot even take a simple comment with true spirit.

I read elsewhere that a stuntman filed a compliant on Ajith and his fans, availability of pirated DVD on his latest movie அசல் right after the release of the movie, Ajith not being mentioned in any of the Kalai TV's promo on the grand CM function, demanding unconditional apology from Ajith for his comments, Ajith visiting CM in the last few days and there will be few more in the coming weeks. Why so much hate on one man? God knows what will happen to his upcoming movies? Remember the delays that வேட்டைக்காரன் had to go through, just because Vijay had a casual meet with Rahul Gandhi?

Movies like தமிழ் படம் are good for the Tamil industry, however they are accepted not just because they are good. Producers and directors, though angry, have kept quiet for wrong reasons. Kollywood is slowly playing in to the hands of one family that runs meetings, functions and now movie production. This is a dangerous trend developing in the Tamil movie production. Even AVM had to go through a "process" to have their movies released. Very soon stand alone film producers will become thing of the past.

Nagpur Nadir

2010-02-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Right after the end of fourth day defeat, the team management and the board set up a conference call to discuss the situation.

MS: We are in to the 7th minute of the call and why is everyone quiet. OK, let me start. I can go to public and say this is one off bad test and we will be back for the next test and ask them to be Pepsi cool. But we need help from selectors.

Cheeka: What can I do man, pehale hi bolna chaahiye, if everyone is injured how do I know unless you guys tell us. Yuvi was always injured, but he was always in the team-na?

MS: I never thought I would say this in my life, but why did you guys not pick Dinesh Karthik?

Cheeka: Don't ask me, ask other selectors. Since we already picked Vijay and Badri, I was forced to maintain balance on city, state, region and zonal policies, hence the exclusion.

Ravi: Why not pick 16 or 17 players and send them home after we start the first days play?

Cheeka: Machaan, this is not comm box. If Rohit gets injured five minutes before the start of the test and if team physio could not send actual assessment report on Laxman soon enough, what can we do? I told everyone that we don't need a full strength team for Bangladesh tour, look what happened now.

Modi: Excuse me please. I just wanted to know if Australia is cleared to play IPL in Mumbai next month. (before someone could answer, he gets 2 cell phone calls and he answers both of them simultaneously with one phone on each ear)

Ravi: But why did we pick four fast bowlers when we have always used only 2?

Cheeka: Did you forget what Nagpur board did to our team when Australia was here? Though it was not the first time, they even made Ganguly fall sick right before the start of the test match.

MS: Alright, I will pick team for next test. Dump Saha and bring back Karthik, Kohli and Raina in the line up. Hopefully Yuvi will not be close to 50% fit, otherwise he will play. I promised my bowlers that they will play regardless of winning, losing. Anyways there is not much we can do with the reserves.

Cheeka: Do you also want to talk to the curator @ Eden, just checking.

Ravi: I can take care of PR from the comm box. Just make sure you guys show some fight and spring in the stride.

Pres: I asked for bataata vada, meeting is almost over, still did not get it. What's going on?

விண்ணைத்தாண்டி வருவாயா - Music Review

2010-01-28T09:13:00.000-08:00

Expectations were sky high (at least for me) since this is Rahman's first tamil album since Oscar and he teams up with Gautham for the first time. There was some pre-release talks and interviews from Rahman on his unconventional approach to songs on this album and you will realize what he was talking about after hearing the album.

Omana Pennae - Benny Dayal excels and once again came up with nice variations within a song that has some interesting and subtle musical notes like the nathaswaram in the background that comes and goes right through the song. Kalyani Menon's malayalam portion is mixed well in this heavy instrument dominated song.

Anbil Avan - Heavy use of synthesizers in this joyful number sung by Devan and Chinmayi definitely creates the happy mood. Chinmayi's intentional nassaly rendition with thick accent to sound western gels well with Devan's voice. The highlight of the song is the intelligent use of "Anantham Anantham.." instrumentals in the middle to go with the mood of the song.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya - This song is unconventional and the use of electric guitars and keyboards make this song sound like an unplugged jazz. The music is quite loud in some places but Karthik's soulful singing with lots of expression is brilliant.

Hosanna - This is my favorite song of the album. Tune is so fresh and Vijay Prakash's voice blends very well with the orchestration that flows like a beautiful stream and Thamarai's lyrics is probably the best of the album. This song is one of those that you will remember and hum after hearing just once. A masterpiece that will become an instant hit with everyone.

Kannukul Kannai - This song starts of with a beautiful violin bit followed by Naresh Iyer 's beautiful voice. There are quite a few intelligent violin interludes right through this westernized song that has shades of Maramkothiye.

Mannipaaya - A melody rendered by Shreya Goshal and Rahman is very good to hear. The Thirukkural in christian style chorus is intelligent. Different styles and types of மன்னிப்பாயா sung by both singers gives you the real feel and mood of the song. This song brings காதல் ஒன்றல்லவா from Taj Anthem to my mind.

Aaromale - This is my another favorite from the album. This song starts slowly with a country style guitar music and hits you at full steam soon. The singer has typical mallu voice and accent and this song is a good fusion of western and south asian music and it is a very new style of song for Tamil films.

No set pallavi, charanam pattern for any of the songs, some interesting western/south asian and Tamil/Malayalam fusion, intelligent use of Thirukkural, marriage songs, nadhaswaram, guitar etc, this album has so many new and good things. It was a long wait to get a Rahman album in Tamil since Sakkarakatti, but it was worth a wait. Hope Gautham Menon does not disappoint with the movie.

Watching TV in India..

2010-01-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

In US, we are stuck with just 2 satellite service providers and what we watch is pretty much determined/dictated by local channels (if you want to know more, just YouTube Family Guy FCC).

During my recent trip to India, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many satellite companies and choices for TV viewing. Tata Sky, Big TV, AirTel TV, Dish TV, Sun Direct.. the list goes on when it comes to satellite television in India. The problem though is the content in channels and how programming is rendered. Too many commercials and they come at inappropriate times. This is similar to சமையல் மாமா serving மோர் குழம்பு on top of your சாம்பார் சாதம் without your consent during marriage lunch. Too many things happening too quickly during the shows and you get a feeling that you are watching the actual program between the commercials, when it should be the other way around.

Watching cricket was awful since there is always a side bar or a pop up between every ball and tons of commercials between overs (most of the time you miss the first ball of the over). The worst part is there is no time for replays when a batsman is out, you have to watch it live, if not you just have to wait for quite a while.

What's with big hero movies dominating the TV channel commercials and programs. வேட்டைக்காரன் commercials and promos were popping every other second, between the programs and sometimes the talk show on movie itself was the program. I heard they did the same with ஆதவன் and படிக்காதவன்.

TV commercials used to be intelligent before, but was a huge let down recently. Except for a few, most of them were silly. Fill it, shut it Honda guy may look cute for some college girls, but he came across as a person who is naive to SMS. Why would an elephant not let the boy eat a banana when all he needs is one banana?

You can name a Tamil channel for every single alphabet and there is a Tamil serial on every girl name that you can think of. I saw a new role/title called "Head of Creatives" during the shows. I can see the hunger for new titles, but it is silly to call "Creative Head" as "Head of Creatives". We definitely need parental controls on TV serials and comedy channels that expose Vadivelu's back and portions of Vivek's crass comedy.

You can browse through all the channels without watching any and still spend about 30 minutes on TV. Is that not a huge plus?

Back from Vacation..

2010-01-26T08:34:00.000-08:00

Phew.. after a hectic work schedule followed by an excellent five week vacation, I am back to my routine, more or less. Here's some of the items that I want to write about in the next few weeks:

- Commercials and TV watching in India
- So much of வேட்டைக்காரன் in Tamil channels, I want to write one line tweet jokes on the movie/promo, may be I should call it Tweetaikaaran
- Brilliant music once again from ARR in his latest album விண்ணைத்தாண்டி வருவாயா (some one tell Simbu to stop saying நான் ரொம்ப அழகா இருக்கேன் on every single interview about the movie, தாங்க முடியல)
- IPL auctions and Pakistan's outcry

Let me see how it goes next few days.. too much caffeine in the system.

Money Taking Tricks

2009-10-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

How do you carry cash and carry it safely? தொன்று தொட்ட காலத்திலேர்ந்து நிறைய வழிகள் கையாளபட்டிருக்கிறது. Here's one stop shop on some of the popular methods.

Some of us have almost moved totally away from carrying cash and started using plastic - Visa power, கடன்காரன் cover (monthly statement), நாம poor - others can follow some of these good old methods that are still prevalent and effective.

Disclaimer: Methods mentioned here are for reference only and you are responsible for your/your belongings safety. The author does not necessarily vouch/prefer any methods mentioned below.

Method #1. This one is applicable for guys only and in the last decade or so this is followed only by a selected few. First thing you need is to buy several கோடு போட்ட, நாடா வெச்ச underwear. If you are unclear on how this looks like, watch ராஜ்கிரண் movies. These underwear come with pockets on both sides, so it doesn't matter if you are a lefty or right hander. This is considered one of the safest method to carry cash in the 70s and 80s when men used to wear வேஷ்டி all the time. The way you take money out of the underwear pocket is as follows:

Lift your leg (right or left depending on where money is) so your chest all the way to your stomach and your thighs are at 90 degrees and your leg is forming a shape like number 7.
When you do the step above, your வேஷ்டி, if tied properly, will slide on either side of your leg.

Tip: If you are showing your தொடை to others, you have done the above 2 steps correctly.

Method #2: This one is also applicable for guys only, however there is a derivative method that is applicable to ladies only, which is not discussed here. This method requires some planning and is applicable to only those who still have not transitioned to ready made shirts and still buy shirt piece at Kumaran silks and go to local tailor for காஜா and stitching. Before the tailor starts his work, you need to let him know that you need a உள் pocket. This உள் pocket is stitched on the inner side of the shirt right behind the outer pocket. IMO, this method is effective only for carrying cash from one place to another. If you actually want to use the money in உள் pocket outside, there are a few constraints like you should be wearing a உள் பனியன் and make sure that உள் பனியன் does not have any ரவா தோசை style holes to avoid any embarrassment.

Method #3: This method is applicable mostly for ladies, however this can also be applicable for guys who still uses leather office bags and carry cash in them. As with all methods, this requires some planning too. When you buy a handbag, make sure you check for an inner chamber and most importantly the inner chamber should have a zipper for open and close. This is in addition to the zipper that takes care of the bag's main opening. If there is no inner chamber, it's a no-go. The cash carried in the inner chamber is considered extremely safe and thief proof and this popular belief is due to the following reasons:

the thief does not always snatch the whole bag or it is difficult for thief to snatch the whole bag that has an overall dimension of ஒரு அடி நீளம், முக்கா அடி அங்குலம் .
Even if the thief opens the bag somehow, he always looks for cash inside the main chamber and if he does not find any valubles tells himself "Oh my God, no cash, wrong bag" and simply moves on without checking the inner chamber.

Method #4: This one is again applicable mostly for guys who carry a rectangular bag (about the length of a toothbrush and height of medium size powder டப்பா). This bag is usually carried in கஷ்கம் which is considered a hard place to snatch a bag. This method is not so popular since it requires some arm power and armpit deodorant. This method was the most popular method employed by "cash" மாமா in the 70's and 80's கல்யாணங்கள். The easiest ways to identify these மாமாs in the கல்யாணம் are as follows:

மேல் துண்டு, கஷ்கத்துல பை, அலைபாயும் கண்கள், ஒரு நிரந்தர tension
He will be the only மாமா who will take his bag to the restroom

Method #5: This method is perhaps the mother of all methods mentioned above and is universally regarded as the safest method for carrying cash, jewels etc by both men and women. Our good old மஞ்ச பை. If you are going to bank locker, மஞ்ச பை எடுத்துண்டு போ. If you are bringing cash from the bank, மஞ்ச பை எடுத்துண்டு போ. This is really the one and only thief proof device to carry valubles that man has ever made. These bags are cheap and have built in thief repellents. The thief somehow gets mesmerized by these மஞ்ச பை and never attempt to steal the person.

So what's the purpose of this post? அட்வைஸ் and blog free-ங்கறதால எல்லோரும் குடுக்கறோம்/எழுதறோம். How about both in one package:

In this economy, we need money making tricks, since I don't have a magic pill for that, here's a piece of advice. சம்பாதிக்கரதோட, சம்பாதிச்ச பணத்த காப்பாத்தறது ரொம்ப கஷ்டம். Hence the post. வுடு ஜூட்.

சாதாரண மனிதனின் சில சாதாரண கேள்விகள்...

2009-10-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

நானும் மெனக்கெட்டு positive and open mind-உடன் தான் பார்க்க நினைத்தேன், ஆனால் நானும் சாதாரண மனிதன்தானே, அதனால் எனக்குள் எழுந்த சில சாதாரண கேள்விகள். I am talking about Mr. உலக நாயகனின் recent interview on Vijay TV.

படத்தில் தாடி எதற்கு என்று யாரோ கேட்க - மக்களிடையே தாடி வைத்தவர்கள் எல்லாம் ஒரு மதத்தை சார்ந்தவர்கள் என்றும், தீவிரவாதிகள் என்றும் ஒரு பொதுவான கருத்து இருப்பதால், அது தவறு என்று சுட்டிக்காட்டவும், கண்டிக்கவுமே தாடி வைக்கப்பட்டது என்று உணர்ச்சி பூர்வமாக பதிலளித்தார். Brilliant and excellent reply. Here's my small problem - the same உலக நாயகன் was ok generalizing that theists are slave drivers (read Rs.910) and would go to any extent to even kill a person.

அடுத்த கேள்வி - உலக தரத்திற்கு தமிழ் சினிமா எடுக்கவேண்டும் என்றால் என்ன? - உலகத்தரம் என்றால் என்ன? அமெரிக்கர்கள் ஒரு தரம் வைத்தால் அதை அமெரிக்கா தரம் என்று சொல்லுங்கள், இந்தியர் ஒரு தரம் வைத்தால் அதை இந்திய தரம் என்று சொல்லுங்கள். உலக தரம் என்று எதையும் சொல்ல முடியாது. Ok Mr. UNK, உலக தரம் என்று ஒன்று இல்லையென்றால், உலக நாயகன் என்ற பட்டத்திற்கு என்ன அர்த்தம்?

Next question was on "Saving தமிழ்"- சில பார்ப்பன பெண்மணிகள் சாப்டாச்சா என்பதை ஷாப்டாச்சா என்று பேசுவது போல... - very nice Mr.UNK, பார்ப்பன பெண்மணிகள் உங்கள் மீது கோபிக்க மாட்டார்கள், கோபித்தாலும் கவலை இல்லை என்று தானே இப்படி ஒரு பதில்? "ல்" மற்றும் "ள்" பேச கஷ்டப்படும் உங்கள் திரை உலக சகோதரிகளை ஏன் உதாரணத்திற்கு எடுத்து கொள்ள வில்லை?

On belief in different things in life - I believe in a few institutions like family which will never go away since family means unconditional love, but marriage comes with conditions, it's not like love from father, mother, brother etc - Alright, I am confused, முட்டை இல்லாமல் கோழி எப்படி and vice-versa?

Dhoda, உனக்கேன் இவ்ளோ கேள்வி என்று என்னை கேட்பவர்களுக்கு - நானும் ஒரு Common Man, ஒரு Common Man கேட்க நினைக்கும் கேள்விகளை தான் நான் கேட்கிறேன், என்னை போல் நிறைய Common Man இருக்கிறார்கள், எனக்கு கேட்க தோணியது, நான் கேட்டேன். அவ்வளவுதான். Wait a second, this style of answering looks familiar.. Oh my God, I need a break.

Look at me...

2009-10-09T09:47:00.001-07:00

Disclaimer: I am NOT against Facebook or it's authors, I am just sharing my experience on some of the crazy things that people do using Facebook.

Recently, I have received quite a few invites from friends and families to join Facebook. This is the only thing that I am still hesitant to take a plunge. I could be wrong, but most of the Facebook that I am reading are aimed mostly at one thing, pictures and self proclaimed message "I am cute/cool" or "I did this". For the most part, the daily Facebook updates are almost always aimed at sending the same message mentioned above over and over again.

I guess for starters, you should be an ardent fan of talking about yourself and more importantly very interested in others knowing about you. Have you seen நம்ம வீட்டு கல்யாணம் in Vijay TV, where TV stars were so thrilled and all enthusiastic to talk about their marriage in front of the camera? One should have a lots of eagerness and high optimism on viewers to show that kind of enthusiasm. Most of the Facebook entries fall in this category, "My trip to Niagara", "Lovely London" types.

My wife, though doesn't post any in Facebook, is a big fan of logging in every now and then to check out on her friends who live in other continents. One of the entry that she shared with me was from her friend who wrote "My cute little son is so sick today and I don't feel like doing anything" with a picture of sick child. I mean, how artificial that is? First of all, the person had the time to take a picture of her sick baby, spend time online to post the message etc. She probably have not heard காக்கைக்கு தன் குஞ்சு பொன் குஞ்சு.

The other entry that I read recently was how my friend was so busy with his project that he couldn't take a break for a week. Apparently he had the time to update his Facebook with a looong post. The immediate feeling you get is "Dhoda!"

To be honest, all of us like spotlight, virtual வம்பு through Facebook, vent outs through blog etc, but posting pictures everyday and Facebook தற்பெருமை will get people bored after a while.

Unnaipol Oruvan - Movie Review

2009-10-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

I have seen A WEDNESDAY at least 3 times and I still have the movie in my DVR for easy/quick view again. When I read Kamal was going to remake Munna Bhai MBBS, I chose NOT to watch Sanjay's Dutt's movie and waited for Kamal's Vasool Raja MBBS and it was worth a wait, for me at least. Unnaipol Oruvan though was a huge expectation and I always had the fear that the original will be hard to beat.
The core part of the movie and vast majority of the scenes are direct lift from the original. There are a few changes made for the local audience and most of them fit well. Mohan Lal is possibly one of the best choice for the Marar role and how well he played the role to perfection. His dialogs are peppy and his acting brings an immediate respect for the role. The 2 dedicated policemen under Marar were absolutely brilliant. Lakshmi's character started off well, but turned into an unnecessary intervention later. The movie's biggest plus is the punchy dialogs . Shruti Hasan's music is just adequate.

Now to Kamal and his role as common man. As always, this role is cooked too much to make it look perfect and in the process the "common man" looked way too much artificial. Kamal's super fluent accent English, tech-savvy behavior and his detailed explanation on his plans does not go well with the "common man" image. Even some of his body language like the scene where he wipes his tears with the pistol is not something that you will see a common man do. I guess there are ways you can argue and define a "common man" to defend Kamal's portrayal. Naseerudin Shah brought simplicity to his role and did not depend on too much antics to keep the audience interested. His dialog delivery though purposeful had a little bit of stutter and natural hesitation. Also, the little flashback in the Hindi version helped us to connect with the true emotions of the character. IMHO, it was hard for me to connect and empathize the "common man" in Unnaipol Oruvan.

Finally on the movie itself - I think this is an honest attempt in doing something different from the usual masala that Tamil cinema is so heavily dependent on. Kuselan was a sincere attempt by Rajini to go away from the norm, but it failed miserably due to it's reluctance to stick to the original (and P Vasu too), but Unnaipol Oruvan comes across as a brand new concept for Tamil cinema and hopefully our younger stars follow Kamal and cut down on heroism and punch dialogs. Unnaipol Oruvan is a rarity for Tamil cinema and is probably one of the best movies in the recent past.

Another Lost Opportunity

2009-09-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

One loss, one washout, another lost opportunity for India to make it to the knock out stage in a premier tournament. I think we will hear Indian team captain and management will blame it on luck for their exit, however I see some of things that were fundamentally wrong to start with. Here's a few:

1. What's Ishant Sharma doing in an ODI team. His form has been awful, he is clueless whether he should be a wicket taking bowler or should just focus on maintaining line and length and contain runs and in the process did neither. Tell this guy to take a break and have him play only tests in the next couple of years.

2. Why bring back Rahul Dravid? Two to three years back, BCCI wanted to field young guns and look in to the future. What happened to all the talk on building a team for next World Cup? Dravid had one decent knock in the lost match and his running between the wickets was pathetic and he was instrumental in Gambhir's run out. Is BCCI going to keep him that much longer so he can play next World Cup? Raina should be the one coming in at #3 regardless of the situation of the match.

3. What's the role of Yusuf Pathan? He is not bowling his full quota of 10 overs in most of the matches and his economy rate is over 5.5. When batting he is not used as pinch hitter, he floats around different batting positions and he is averaging 20. He is at best, fit only for T20.

4. Players like Harbhajan and RP Singh have played enough at the international level to be called established cricketers, yet they don't come up with inspiring performances when the team needs. Harbhajan is extremely inconsistent and get defensive the moment opposition attacks.

5. India cannot call themselves and stay as #1 team unless they improve dramatically on their ground fielding. Except for Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli & Karthik (if they play) , fielding has been dismal for the last several years.

Let's see what BCCI does for the next tournament. Hopefully Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer Khan will all be fit by then.

My Music "Autograph"

2009-09-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Apple had a major event today to launch some of it's new line of iPods. There was so much media attention including live blogging of the event and Apple stocks was fluctuating all the time. The range of iPod/Mp3 players that Apple had come up with till date is mind blowing. The revolution that Apple was able to bring in to this market is unimaginable and the sales numbers will be hard to surpass - 220+million units sold till date since it's initial launch and iPod holds the biggest slice of portable media player market share, currently at 73.8%

The new players are loaded with so many features, it's hard for me to imagine going back to one of the players that I owned and lived with not so long time ago. Here's my compilation of devices that I have owned/used and fond memories using those devices.

In the late 70's, when I was a kid, I have seen radios in only a few places and they almost always looked the same - BIG. In the early 80s, my father bought a new black Philips radio which was very nice and sleek. That was also the time FM started broadcasting cine songs for an hour in the night. So the radio became an instant hit at home.

We used to wait for உங்கள் விருப்பம் religiously every morning and evening and for occasional cine songs from சென்னை வானொலி நிலையம். Then in mid-80s came the big leap forward in music listening when my father brought home a National Panasonic 2-in-1 that plays a single cassette and also radio with recording capabilities. Good old Philips was immediately ignored, except when we lose power for 2-3 days due to rain, which is when we buy red colored evereaday batteries to listen to radio.

National Panasonic 2-in-1 also opened avenues for some mini projects with recording. I used to listen to விவித பாரதி in the morning when they will announce the names of the movies from which they play songs during the day. Everyone at home almost developed flash memories to remember the names of the movies and when they will be played during the day. My dad used to get good quality TDK cassettes (both 60min and 90min versions) and we keep them for recording songs from radio. You have to wait for the RJ to announce all the details on the song and press the black and red recording buttons simultaneously at the appropriate time. You also need to record a 3-4 sec blanks/silence at the end of the song so there is a gap between the songs. I still remember the days when we made our own cassette album with neatly organized paper cover sleeve that displayed all the songs in the cassette. National Panasonic remained favorite player till mid-90s.

In the late 90s I got my own cassette walkman. This is when getting music was little easy. You make a list of 18-20 songs in a piece of paper and drop it at the music store along with the blank cassette (Dad's good old TDK) and within a day or two you have your collection, ready to listen. When I moved to U.S. one of the first thing that I bought was a Sony CD/Cassette/Radio boombox. By then, buying cassettes came down tremendously since digital CD was on the up. I also ended up buying a couple of CD-Walkman. In couple of years, I managed to buy/collect around 200 CDs of varying genres.

Then came the biggest revolutionary change in 2004 when I first got my iShuffle which could hold around 300 songs. All of sudden my CD rack looked silly but I still had to keep them since my car only had a CD player. When I got my iPod 30GB in 2005 and transferred all my music content to it, the use for CDs dimished almost fully. Now I have iPod dock at home and iPod connector in car and it has become my only and preferred option for music.

I know there will be something else in the next decade or so, but I think I will keep some version of an iPod for a while.

Pictures Courtesy: Web

Congrats Prakash Raj!!

2009-09-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Prakash Raj on winning national award for his stunning performance in the movie Kanchivaram. I saw this movie recently in Star Vijay and I thought the movie was made brilliantly. Sabu Cyril's artwork and Thiru's camerawork needs a special mention and great job by the entire crew. The film truly deserves the awards and recognition it is getting. IMHO, Prakash Raj is one of the most talented and versatile artist in the last decade or so, yet he is not getting the full recognition and appreciation that he deserves. Anyways, congratulations and good luck to him.

There is also another award for Best Special Effects for the movie Sivaji - The Boss. I wrote about director Shankar and how he is able to bring something special on to his movies couple of weeks back and I had a serious follow up chat with my brother who felt I am too biased towards Shankar. I wanted to point out that Oru Koodai Sunlight probably is one of the main reason for this Best Special Effects national award. In a movie that was made for pure fun, the amount of work that went in to this 41/2 minute song goes on to show the effort and commitment that goes in to each and every frame in his movies. I am in fact planning on writing another post on silly scenes and most obvious logical errors (I know there are plenty and I can only mention a few) in Tamil movies soon and that should hopefully create some new found respect for directors like Shankar.

In a world where we have an award/ceremony for every single satellite channel or cine magazine, national awards still remains the most prestigious and meaningful award, so congratulations to every single artist who is getting this national recognition.

RIP Mr.YSR!

2009-09-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Madhavrao Scindia, Balayogi and now YSR. What a tragic end to one of the popular Indian politician in recent times? Mr.YSR, may your soul rest in peace.

P.S. I was watching NDTV and here's the excerpts from the news anchor person when chopper was found yesterday:

"We are showing you live picture of the crash spot where the chopper crashed and you can see the crashed chopper in the crash spot and all the debris due to the crashed chopper in the crashed spot"

I can understand their need to fill in some news for 24/7 channel, but this is way too much convoluted. Reminds me of my childhood days when somebody asks you மூக்க எப்படி தொடுவ every time you do a simple thing in a complicated way.

நூறு...100...One Hundred

2009-08-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I completed 100 posts (excluding my short stories collection) since starting the blog in November 2007. Each blogger has their own reason for writing and maintaining the blog. Here's some of mine:

I like writing
A place to document my thoughts
Medium to share my thoughts with others
Chance to do something new - edit HTML, update layouts etc
Simple "Kick" that I get knowing there are others out there who is following my blog - about 3200+ hits in about 22 months, not much, but something that keeps me interested.

Thanks to each and everyone who visit my blog and also for your support, love, hate or whatever that you have shown directly or indirectly.

அனு அளவுக்கு பயம் இல்ல...

2009-08-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here's my disclaimer upfront: I am not a MCP (popular வார்த்தை among girls) and my wife can confirm that. This program was so funny and எனக்கும் கொஞ்சம் சமூக பொறுப்பு இருக்கறதால, here's a post dedicated to all fun loving people.

Promo - The scene is set in the same old Binny mills. Dashing cars and a lady who is wearing an all leather black suit, jacket, goggles drives a mobike and make a dashing stop right in front of the camera. In comes Anu. Snakes, fire, ropes to climb wall etc flashes and we see around 6-7 girls all posing the camera and showing some sort of வீரம் and கம்பீரம். You guessed it right, wife is already impressed and wants to Tivo the show.

Episode #1 - அக்கா அனு starts the show with some energy and power packed shpeel, most of it was in English. You kinda got the sense of what the show is about. The participants show up in all kinds of costumes, something that you will not associate with physical exercise. They all made sure their make up is intact and smile to the camera. அனு tells the participants that they will go through some drills in preparation for the tough ordeal ahead of them. She also calls on a person to give them an orientation on physical fitness, energy and bravery. In comes a person who definitely needs assistance to button, at least the last 2-3 in the bottom half of his shirt, and to tie his shoe lace. Popular Vivek joke comes to my mind - உங்க தொப்பைய பாத்தவொடனே நெனச்சேன் , நீங்க I.G. யாதான் இருப்பீங்கன்னு. An inspector walks in and delivers an உணர்ச்சி பூர்வமான பேச்சு. அவ்வளவு தான் அவரால முடிஞ்சது. He calls his fit and young assistants to teach some P.E for the girls. Most of them backed out and some of them tried a few exercises.

One of the participants, Pooja, who was so happy eating குச்சி ஐஸ் in the promo is all of a sudden shivering and sweating when asked to perform a stunt. The same bubbly Pooja that everyone liked 2-3 years back suddenly has become a laughing stock.

Lack of preparation clearly showed on almost all of the participants. What a disastrous start? Again you gueesed it right, wife was little disappointed after the first episode. Not only that, she had to endure all my comments right through the show.

I was able to watch only parts of episode #2 (absolutely no வருத்தம் at all for missing the whole show). As always, Anu was cheering and giving expert commentary and even tips (?!) right after every stunt from the participants. Most of the participants performed the stunts with snakes and showed no enthusiasm at all. It was like participants saying பயம் இருக்கு ஆனா அனு அளவுக்கு பயம் இல்லை.

I am done. ததாஸ்து.

Big Budget Rage

2009-08-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Thank God, I resisted my temptation to watch கந்தசாமி on Day 1 or even for that matter Week 1. From what I read and hear, the movie is silly and nothing but a disaster. Susi Ganesan in my books is NOT a big budget or mass director and I was surprised to see the promos and hype that was built up for this movie when Vikram is the only one in the entire crew who deserves such a hype.

Awesome locales, stylish dresses, big hero, pretty actress, slick camerawork etc does not always translate to a hit movie. I think the film directors in Tamil cinema is caught up with this "big budget" rage recently. Producers and directors think they can build the hype through big budgets and aggressive marketing and pull off a Sivaji or Dasa. This is where I believe Shankar is in a league of his own. His attention to details and his ability to bring some sort of grandeur on to his movies is exceptional. Of course, there will be some flaws and errors in his movies, but at least you wouldn't notice it or think about it till you are out of the movie hall.

Hindi cinema was caught up with this big budget rage for a while, but at least they have moved away from hero worships and chocolate boys and they are able to produce a lot more different and interesting movies recently.

Tamil cinema is at an all time low for this year with very few decent hits. Movies like பசங்க, யாவரும் நலம், நாடோடிகள் are good hits and are required for Tamil industry but they are not enough to cater the huge Tamil movie following audience. Hopefully, we will see some good movies before the end of the year.

பட்டணம்தான் போகலாமோடி... Part II

2009-08-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

I was still driving and பாச்சா and I exchanged information on our families. பாச்சா seemed to be a nice person and easy to get along with. But sometimes too easy too soon leads to uneasiness.

நான் - அப்பறம் எங்கேயாவது சுத்தி பாத்தீங்களா?
பாச்சா - சொல்ல மறந்துட்டேனே, இன்னிக்கு morning JCPENNEY-ல early bird sale போட்டிருந்தான், 8 to 11, I was fortunate to be there to make some purchase.
Dhoda - மயிலாபூர் ராசி சில்க்ஸ் ஆடி தள்ளுபடி போல் நெனசுண்டார் போல, அமெரிக்காவில் தேசி மக்கள் தினம் தினம் அதிகமாய் உபயோகிக்கும் வார்த்தைகள் Sale, Deal, Mall. இங்கே நித்யம் sale தான்.
நான் - ரொம்ப நல்லது. ஆத்துக்கு எல்லாம் வாங்கியாச்சு இல்லையா?
பாச்சா - இல்லாமயா? அப்பறம் இங்கே ரோடெல்லாம் நம்பர் போட்டிருக்கே, பேரு கெடயாதா?
நான் - ஆமாம் சார், இங்கே எல்லாமே நம்பர் தான். Traffic rules follow பண்ணறது ரொம்ப அவசியம், especially school zone பாருங்க இங்க, பசங்க வந்து போறச்சே நிறுத்தி வழிவிடணும்.
பாச்சா - அது சரி, road cross பண்ணற பய்யன் school-லதான் படிக்கறான்னு எப்படி தெரியும்? என்று சொல்லி பாச்சா சிரிக்க, dhoda என்று நானும் சிரித்து வைத்தேன்.

பேசிக்கொண்டிருந்ததில் வீடு வந்துவிட்டது. சாட்டிலைட்டில் Star Vijay பாத்ததும் ரொம்ப குஷியானார் பாச்சா.

பாச்சா - இந்த மாதிரி 47 inch LCD ஒன்னு இங்கேர்ந்து இந்தியா வாங்கிண்டு போகணும் சார், முடியுமா?
Dhoda - NTSC/PAL conversion, 110-220 volts வித்தியாசங்களை விவரிக்க திராணி இல்லாமல், "அங்கெல்லாம் இந்த TV வேல செய்யாது" என்று பொதுவாக சொன்னேன்.

அமெரிக்காவில் microwave, cell phone waves, cane sugar, Subway சாண்ட்விச்சில் கடைக்காரன் மாற்றாத gloves போன்ற பயங்களை பகிர்ந்து கொண்டார், லால்குடியிலிருந்து நேராக Los Angeles வந்திருக்கும் பாச்சா.

என் மனைவி சமைத்திருந்த வத்தகுழம்பும், கத்திரிக்காய் வதக்கலையும் நன்றாக ஒரு பிடி பிடித்தார் பாச்சா. கண்ணில் கண்ணீர் வராத குறையாக சொன்னார் "அப்படியே ஆத்து சாப்பாடு மாதிரியே இருக்கு, நாக்கு செத்துடுத்து".

Dhoda - ஆத்துல பண்ணது ஆத்து சாப்பாடு மாதிரி இல்லாம எப்படி இருக்கும் என்பதுபோல என் மனைவி என்னை முறைத்தாள். ஒரு வாரம் வீட்டு சாப்பாடு சாப்டாததுக்கு இது கொஞ்சம் over reaction என்று நினைத்துக்கொண்டேன். ஒரு வழியாக பாச்சாவை ஒன்பது மணிக்கு drop செய்து வீடு திரும்பினேன்.

அடுத்த முறை மயில் போன் செய்த போது நான் கேட்ட முதல் கேள்வி "எப்பிடிரா சமாளிக்கரே?"

பட்டணம்தான் போகலாமோடி - Modern Version

2009-07-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

We have seen/read enough of பட்டிக்காட்டான் coming to Chennai and all the antics that he does in the new place or the funny things that people around him experience. I went through a slightly modern version of the same when one of my friend's friend visited US on a short trip. I have changed the names and writing this post purely for fun. ஆங்காங்கே மானே தேனே பொன்மானே போல் - dhoda போட்டுக்கணும். You are totally responsible for your own பீலிங்ஸ் (including silly பீலிங்கு) that you get after reading this.

மயில் (mayilsubban) - மச்சான், என் friend பாச்சா (parthsaarathy) 2 weeks Los Angeles வர்றான், கொஞ்சம் பாத்துக்கோ, உன் செல்லு குடுத்துருக்கேன்.
நான் - No problem. நா பாத்துக்கறேன்.
மூன்று நாள் கழித்து போன் வந்தது.
பாச்சா - Hello,
நான் - This is Chendraa.
பாச்சா - Hello Sir, my name is Paarthsaarathy, I am from சென்னை. I am friend of Mr. Mayilsubban, he gave me your mobile number.
நான் - ஒ, சொல்லுங்கோ Mr.பார்த்தசாரதி, நேத்து தான் மயில் போன் பண்ணான். எப்பிடி இருக்கீங்க?
பாச்சா - நல்லாருக்கேன்....
நான் -எங்கே இருக்கீங்க?
பாச்சா - இங்கதான் மக்டோனல்டு ஏத்தாப்ல ஹோட்டல்.
dhoda - அமெரிக்காவில் 50000 McD இருக்கிறது, இதில் எதை போய் தேடறது.
நான் - Mr.Parthasarathy, ஒங்க full address குடுங்க, நீங்க free-னா, Saturday மூணு மணிக்கு pickup பண்ணிக்கறேன்.
பாச்சா - சாட்டடே பிரீதான், அட்ரஸ்....

I went to pick him up on Saturday @ 3 PM. After customary introduction, I started driving and we started chatting.

நான் - அமெரிக்கா பிடிச்சிருக்கா?
பாச்சா - என்ன சார், surroundings எவ்ளோ சூப்பரா இருக்கு, I am enjoying very much sir.
நான் - என்ன company? என்ன project?
பாச்சா - சாரி சார், confidential agreement sign பண்ணிருக்கேன், சொல்ல கூடாது.
(dhoda) நான் - இல்லல்ல, SAP, C++ அந்த மாதிரி, என்ன platform?
பாச்சா - ஒ அதுவா, Java programming. If you don't mind, நீங்க என்ன வேல பாக்கறேள்?
Confidential agreement-படி சொல்ல முடியாது என்று சொல்ல நினைத்து - "CRM Sales Force Automation" என்றேன்.

To be continued...

What else one can do...

2009-07-24T15:04:00.001-07:00

I just realized I could not blog for over a month because I was busy Twittering and reading Facebook and expanding social network @ Orkut, updating my LinkedIn profiles and Yammer at work and getting family updates in Geni and trying GV for call/SMS and waiting for Waves invite and wondering how I can use myspace. All of this on top of work and family. Phew.. it's like going to buffet table for every meal in a day and asked to eat 20 times a day.

It's all about connectivity and networking!!

It's over, I think.. may be not.. we have to wait and see..

2009-06-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

It's over, I think.. may be not.. we have to wait and see.. it's official and over. Yes, I am talking about Airtel Super Singer. The program reminded me of a MSV dialog from one of my all time favorite movie "காதலா காதலா"

"நான் என் பையன்னு சொன்னேனே, அவன் என் பையன் இல்ல, நான் என் மாப்ளன்னு சொன்னேனே அவன் என் மாப்ளே இல்ல, என் பேரன்னு சொன்னேனே, அவன் என் பேரன் இல்ல.."When they eliminated someone, the person was actually not eliminated (Vijay, Raagini coming back right after getting eliminated). When they selected someone, the person actually got eliminated subsequently (Ranjani getting eliminated ahead of Prasanna). The show was stretched so much, it was a relief for everyone including the participants when it was finally over. The worst part of the show was the elimination of Ranjani after her brilliant performances in the finals (which was actually not a final) which brought rich accolades from the great MSV and Sudha Raghunathan.

The winner was always a toss up between Ajeesh and Ravi. Though personally I thought Ravi became a much more improved singer on all genres as the show progressed and even sang a rap towards the end of the show (the one I thought was the end). The noticeable issue with Ajeesh is his nasally voice (at times) and his pronunciation of some of the tamil words that has அ sound and ம sound. Srinivas was critical about this initially and gave up after some point. But overall, Ajeesh showed enough promise right through the competition and deserve to be a winner.

If you are wondering when this post will end, here it is. But, before I end, listen to this master piece and tell me if any of our Super Singer finalists would stand a chance in front of this little genius Parvathy Kutty.

And Finally...

2009-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

And finally...the great Rafael Nadal is beaten at Roland Garros. What a moment for Robin Soderling! He played brilliantly firing so many aces and no double faults in the entire match. The highlight of the match was Robin's forehand which was so effective against possibly the best defensive player on this surface.

I have always felt that you need more than one of the following to beat Nadal on clay:

1. Very strong ground strokes and reasonable back hand to keep Nadal in defensive position
2. Good net play and volleys to cut short the number of shots played to win a point
3. Reasonably tall player to combat short balls, which will come in plenty - Remember Federer playing most of the balls about shoulder high or above (most of them on the back hand side too) in the last few finals?
4. Smaller court (not an option @ French Open since Nadal always plays on main court)
5. Dry and sunny weather, so the court plays a lot harder

Robin had so many things going in his favor yesterday and he played a blinder to win an epic match. Nadal will now understand the difficulties and pressure that comes with #1 ranking.

Nadal was dominating so much @ French Open that everyone almost failed to understand what a good player Roger Federer is on this surface (Losing finalist in the last 3 editions). Now, the ball is in your court Roger!

American Idol Season 8 Thoughts

2009-05-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

When Kris Allen was declared winner of the American Idol 2009 couple of nights ago, there was more than a few who were surprised. While there will always be surprises when it comes to winner, especially the competitions of this magnitude, this one was a total surprise even for the winner who said "Adam deserves this” right after winning.

Not that Kris is a bad singer, Adam Lambert, the other finalist, was just too good not only through the rounds leading up to the final, but more importantly in the final. Two of the three performances for the final from Kris was just average. In fact, the judges underplayed a little bit by saying "America should vote for you not just based on today's performance but based on the performances you gave right through the season".

Apparently there is no real acceptable way of selecting a winner. While judges pick could lead to favoritism, voting/text over phone could lead to duplicate votes and winner getting picked for reasons outside the competition. Kris, IMHO, was picked because of his "boy next door" look and attitude, come across as family loving, soft spoken person with good talent to sing. Adam for some reason came across as over confident, try something new always, take it easy attitude person and sporting colorful attire (remember Carly from last season, who in spite of her singing talent was still not a popular choice with public) and nail polishes did not go well with TV watching public at all, I guess. Some of the news and pictures on the internet did not help him much either.

This will probably be the best thing to happen for Adam, who now is not constrained on what he has to do next. He is on his own in terms of next project and can sign up with any band.

IPL 2 - Biggest Flop of the Season

2009-05-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

When I look back at my IPL initial thoughts written couple of days right after the start of IPL season 2, I am happy now at the team standings (more or less) and it matches pretty much what I anticipated initially.

Delhi and Chennai emerged strong after league phase, Bangalore and Deccan looking good in this edition compared to previous season, Rajasthan and Punjab just couldn't cope up with the absence of key players and alien conditions and KKR just managed to win 3 games as predicted.

The biggest flop of this season IMHO is... (no it's not someone connected to KKR - enough on Bhooka bashing and FIP) Sachin Tendulkar, the captain. He just couldn't handle the job effectively and surprisingly there is no mention on this from anyone including ex-cricketers and media. Every single move/decision that he took back fired. From dropping Jayasuriya in a crucial match and then moving him to middle order to promoting Duminy as opener and demoting himself as opener(how come he always gets (and even adamant at times) opener slot in ODI for team India and Gambhir had to play #3) and bringing himself on as bowler (and conceding crucial 19 runs in an over) against Delhi to not able to chase a smallish target against Punjab to losing wickets in heap against Rajasthan..the list goes on. Not to mention the chat that he has with his bowlers after every ball and looking visibly disappointed/dejected when his team is down. Mumbai Indians need to think about the role of on field leader carefully at least for the next season. They goofed up big time last year with captaincy and looks like their losses this year could be attributed to some poor decision making.

On a final note, I am predicting Chennai Vs Delhi finals and as last year, I will be rooting for my home team Chennai to win the trophy.

Quotes of the week

2009-05-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, in the process of hitting back at his opponent captain, Andrew Strauss, may have crossed the line. "I wouldn't be so sad," said Gayle on Test cricket's possible death". Thanks to "money is my only motive" Modi, we will soon have players getting greedy and care less about the game in general.

How would you describe a front foot drive played on a ball that was pitched up? Here's Arun Lal version "The batsman drove that ball up front".

Imran's quote on T20 "I don't watch Twenty20 cricket because it is just Toolah (chance) cricket. It is not about skills or talent. That is why I think any team can win the World Cup". What's his point? Did we not see teams in IPL showing enough skills to win a game even though they were low on talent or vice-versa?

Here's another gem (on a rainy day when covers are on before the match) from Arun Lal that will make you speechless:

“When the covers are on, there happens the unique phenomenon of ‘internal rain’ , moisture from the ground gets vapourised , gets condensed within the surface of the covers and it starts raining within the enclosed space even though the skies are clear”

IPL - Initial Thoughts

2009-04-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

IPL Round 2 began this week and one can already feel it's not the same as last year. Here's some initial thoughts.

- Most glaring was the crowd and crowd behavior; South Africa will never be able to match Indian crowds.
- Timeout at the end of 10 overs (or 6 overs in Punjab's case) is sheer stupidity. IPL has already given enough hints that indicates their priority for money (quite openly in this edition) over game. They should realize that they are able to make money due to the game and they don't cross the line too much.
- Mumbai, Bangalore and Deccan looks more determined and looks a different side due to the addition of some key players and also due to the SA conditions.
- Chennai and Delhi will probably maintain the same intensity as last time and they both look good both on paper and reputation.
- Kolkata had so much off field activities right before the game and it reflected on their on field performance. Between Buchanan, Ganguly & Gayle they will have some serious attitude problems and I will be extremely surprised if they manage to win more than 2-3 games.
- Punjab and more importantly Rajasthan looks a totally different side due to alien conditions and absence of some key foreign players.

Catch the action if you can in between Citi moment of success and DLF maximums and timeouts and bunch of other commericials.

Yuvraj will never become Maharaj!

2009-04-03T06:58:00.001-07:00

Last time I wrote about Yuvraj and his woeful form in tests, he managed a match winning innings (@ home) and I also got a couple of calls from my friends saying it's too soon to write off Yuvraj in tests. After the recent NZ series, We have almost come to a point where we can tell Yuvraj, you will play in all ODIs for India for the next 8 years regardless of your form, but your test career is all but over. Here's an interesting stats on Yuvraj's record in tests outside subcontinent in the last several years.

This week's classics!

2009-03-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

Do you remember Mudhalvan's Arjun-Raghuvaran interview? There was one such show on air this past week. Jon Stewart's show with Jim Cramer was real and brilliant. Here's where you can catch all action in case you missed the live show. No wonder the show had amazing viewership.

Here's more HOT headlines. Read these stories ONE and TWO and attach these pictures to those stories.

வாழ்க ஜனநாயகம்! Jai Hind!

தமிழ் தெரியுமா?

2009-03-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have told my 5 year old daughter to speak தமிழ் as much as possible , when at home. Also, I told her to always reply in தமிழ் regardless of whether a question is asked in English or தமிழ். Recently I gave her a task to rip one page at a time (from right to left) on a notepad. She ripped the first one nicely.

Me: பேப்பரை சரியா கிழிச்சியா?
Reply: கிழிச்சிட்டேன்.

I was impressed to get an answer in தமிழ். She tried to rip the second page and it was a disaster. The page did not come off nicely.

Me: Did you do it the right way?
Reply: செம்மையா சொதப்பிட்டேன்.
Me: ?!

Terrorists attacks Srilankan cricketers

2009-03-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Alright, it finally happened. All along every cricketing nation was hesitant on traveling to Pakistan and we now found the reason why. Srilankan team played brilliant cricket in the series and it's unfortunate that Mahela's farewell series as captain should end this way.

Here's what Rameez Raja said when asked "On whether this threatens Pakistan's chances of co-hosting the 2011 World Cup:"
I also think it will be very unfortunate if Pakistan is the only country that is targeted. I know that this is a horrific incident but let's not forget that the entire subcontinent is caught in this wave of madness and this unfortunate incident can be replicated anywhere else. In fact there have been examples in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and in India recently so no place is safe.

It's the most idiotic comment you could ever expect from anyone. While it's true that every country in the subcontinent had some incidents recently, but that does not mean that every country is almost as insecure as Pakistan is. Even after the horrendous 11/26 attacks, India did manage to host England cricket team without any incidents. India did tour Srilanka recently without any security hiccups.

Imran Khan, back in December 2008, lambasted Indians when they decided not to tour Pakistan and even went on to say "Sportsmen are in absolutely no danger from terrorist attacks, I've always maintained that, Remember terrorists rely on public opinion and winning the hearts and minds of the people. They want to be considered freedom fighters rather than terrorists. If they are perceived as terrorists by the masses, then they have lost." Where is he now? Any comments Mr.Khan?

This horrible incident proved everyone who supported touring Pakistan wrong. Kamran Abbasi summed it up perfectly in his column "This is the end".

Untouchables..

2009-02-26T08:29:00.000-08:00

This will be a nice dram a for us to follow and see what's the climax that BCCI would come up with. For BCCI, Hamish Marshall and Sachin Tendulkar are both untouchables for contrasting reasons and it will be interesting to see how this unfolds. I am certain if it is just Dinesh Karthik who played this match, BCCI bosses will be over him for blood.

On a different note, it was pathetic to watch Indian team play like millionaires other day. It was the first game of the tour, smallish ground, but still you don't back yourself to blast every single delivery. Hopefully, they apply themselves and play more sensibly today.

and the Oscar goes to...

2009-02-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

Congragulations to A R Rahman, Resul Pookutty, Gulzar for winning awards for their performance in the film Slumdog Millionnaire. Great moment for every Indian.

P.S: For the first time in life, I got to the recorded Oprah show in DVR right after I came back from work. A R Rahman (pronounced as Reeman before the song by Oprah) performed the magical "Jai Ho" again at Kodak Theater and gave the meaning for the term after the show at which point Oprah corrected herself and pronounced the name almost correctly.

History Books in 2090

2009-02-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

History Books in 2090: Exclusively for our unborn grand/great grand children

Sanju the super hero:

Our netha Sanju was initially arrested and convicted for holding illegal weapon, but was later released and even contested in elections.

Ajju the warrior:

Ajju bhai was banned from playing for country due to alleged match-fixing, but later joined the nation's leading party and even contested in elections.

Moral of the stories: You can do whatever you want as long as you know how to get out of jail (literally).

P.S: Sallu bhai is working hard to get in to our future history books as well.

$4000 for Lump of Shit!!!!

2009-01-28T21:21:00.001-08:00

You go on air and call someone "lump of shit" and get out of jail with a $4000 fine, which is probably less than what Symonds spent on "X" per day that is keeping him out of game. If I am McCullum, I will give Symonds the exact same words back and then give an apology and pay him $4000. Shame on hearing committee.

Ponting has been a big supporter of Symonds and he is extending every bit of his support to bring Symonds back to the national team. With so many retirements lately, Australia has been losing even the home series and they are trying to do everything to get back to winning ways. Even with Symonds (assuming he will be in full form), Australia will find it hard to beat South Africa in SA.

Oh BTW, did you hear Healy, Slater in the commentary box? Somebody tell them they are not spokesperson for the team and more importantly they need to wake up to the fact that Aussies are NOT invincibles anymore.

டயம் இருக்கா?

2009-01-22T08:48:00.000-08:00

டயம் இருக்கா?, டயமே இல்ல - How many times do we use these in a day/week/year?

"என்ன சார், உங்ககிட்டேர்ந்து ரொம்ப நாளா போனே இல்ல?" - ரொம்ப பிஸி, டயமே இல்ல.
நேத்திக்கு match பாத்தேள்ளா? செம்ம win இல்ல? - இருக்கற வேலைல match பாக்க டயம் எங்க இருக்கு?

I guess blaming it on time is the escape route for all of us for not doing a thing. In reality, we all have the same amount of time and we perform X number of tasks during that time. The number X may vary depending on the complexity of the tasks or due to our laziness to execute more tasks. Of course we have more than X number of tasks to perform, but we shuffle and prioritize them and make sure we stay close to the number X most often. What we do this week with great interest may not even feature in what we might do a week or month after.

Sometimes when we had a little extra leisure time we tend to think that everyone is going through the same. When I called my Mom last Saturday, she was like "என்ன ரொம்ப நாளா போனையே காணும், ரொம்ப பிசியா?". I called her only last Sunday! She probably had a relaxing 2-3 days of Pongal celebration and in the process forgot that I don't get time off for Pongal. For my part, I could have called and wished a customary "Happy Pongal", but as usual I gave டயமே இல்ல excuse.

But when we are extremely busy we tend to think that others are always free and we think we are the most busiest person on earth. Often in this situation we pass some pretty negative comments. When I called my friend last week, I wanted to talk about Hindi-Tamil GHAJINI and how great SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was, but he probably was so busy last couple of weeks, he shot back "How do you even find time to watch crappy movies?". First of all, he has no clue on whether the movies were crappy, secondly, he thinks he is too busy doing meaningful things while others have time to do all-so-not important things in life. For my part I replied "Relax and call me back when you find time" and hang up. I got the call back immediately with an apology.

The point is we have a few things that are important in life for us and we tend to forget that others have their own set of important things to do in their life.

Now, thanks for reading this and for your time!

Fallible Satyam - Raju Ban Gaya Badman!

2009-01-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

The name of the company is Satyam, but this is what their outgoing chairman said

B. Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.- said in a letter of resignation that he overstated profits for the past several years, overstated the amount of debt owed to the company and understated its liabilities.

This reminds me of a scene from Muthalvan where one of the fraud's name is Neethi Manikkam.

Singh is NOT King!

2008-12-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

One brilliant test series and immediately you become an automatic choice for one day series. That used to be the story of VVS Laxman. Not any more. However, one brilliant one day series and immediately you become an automatic choice for test. That's the story of Yuvraj Singh. Did selectors not learn their lesson?

Though I hate Australian cricketers, I have always admired their selection process. One of the greatest one day player of all time, Micheal Bevan was consistently omitted from test cricket (though I believe he would have been a great test player too) and one of the most attacking test opening batsman, Micheal Slater was consistently omitted fron one day cricket.

If Sachin Tendulkar can walk in to the one day side and take his opening spot, leaving Gambhir, who was in red hot form, to either move to #3 position and even worst, sit out for a game in name of rotation, why not apply the same in test cricket. M Vijay must be wondering what he did wrong to not find a place in playing XI after that brilliant debut against one of the toughest opposition. Should I talk about why Rahul Dravid still thinks he can play test cricket? I guess that deserves a post on its own.

Picture Courtesy: AFP

Quotes of the week

2008-12-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

While everyone moaned for the death of our heroes in the recent Mumbai terror attacks, Kerala CM did not bother to participate or send anyone to Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's funeral. To top that he made some pretty inappropriate comments.
My quote: Even a common man will not dare to say such words to his worst of enemies. Way to go Mr. CM. Your son or someone in your family is not dead during the attack, you can make any comments.

Sourav Ganguly recently said "We in India make the mistake of thinking only good boys make good captains."
My quote: Is he claiming he is a bad boy but still was a successful captain? Or is he saying he was annoyed that Sachin captained India for a while? Rumor has it, he is going to do cricket commentary soon. Get ready for the high end version of Arun lal. "We in India make the mistake of thinking (sometimes) good cricketers make good commentators".

Ford CEO says he'll work for $1 per year to get govt. loans.
My quote: Looks like these type of stunts are not just confined to India.

November 19th

2008-11-19T16:21:00.000-08:00

Today is International Men's day and also World Toilet day.

We cannot even have a day for our own sake, we are sharing the spotlight with a toilet:-)

Shut Up Mr. Ian Chappell!

2008-11-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

End of Day 3 at Nagpur and India lead by 86 runs. I thought there was some shrewd captaincy from both sides. Ponting, by bowling Krejza, played on Indian's mind and confidence and drew Indian batsmen to a point they became over confident and start playing recklessly. Dhoni for his part, employed an one-sided field and dried up runs for Australia to a point where they were frustrated and started losing wickets and gave India the lead eventually.

Ian Chappell in his column makes this point "It is not the sort of cricket I like to see. Administrators have got to think about suggesting that perhaps no more than two-thirds of the fielders can be on one side of the wicket. It really isn't a lot of fun watching the bowlers bowling well wide of the stumps and batsmen putting their bats on their shoulders. " As a spectator, I agree, it was boring to watch at times, but you cannot complain the way test cricket is played. If you are going to make changes to every single rule (like one-day and T20) to make it more batsman friendly, it will truly kill the essence of test cricket.

On an another note he writes "The over-rates were appalling again. The Indians really showed the true colour of cricketers. They are just not bothered by fines. They were quite prepared to slow the over-rate in the morning and even use it as a tactic. That is ridiculous. You shouldn't be allowed to use it as a tactic. Until the administrators suspend the captain for a couple of Tests, they are not going to get anywhere with over rates. They haven't got anywhere with fines because fines don't work. They need to start suspending the captain. " and I have no idea why he is complaining now. If you look at the last 3 tests, when Australia bowled, they did not complete the alloted overs in a session on almost all the occasions (even worse they used 30 extra minutes in the evening and still not completed the stipulated 90 overs) and no one cried foul on Ponting. Ponting was guilty of over rate even during the last series back in Australia.

Shut Up Mr. Ian, the fact is Dhoni did come with a plan to put Australia on a defensive mode and then purchased wickets by playing on Aussies patience and he executed his plan to perfection. Now it remains to be seen if India can stay positive tactically and win the series.

(Thanks Getty Images)

Cricket Notes

2008-10-31T10:11:00.000-07:00

* Enough said and written about Stanford and his attitude in the last few weeks. But on the positive side, he is trying to do something that ICC never ever thought of doing: tap the market in North America and other untouched areas that has a huge potential. ICC had always overlooked and even failed when it comes to globalizing the game. Even the established markets like NZ, Kenya, Zimbabwe are suffering due to lack of pro-active attitude from ICC. Pakistan and Sri lanka are struggling too due to IPL-ICL war. Looks like ICC has no control over BCCI and by NOT imposing strict regulations on T20 matches/tournaments, cricket as a game will suffer in the long run.

* Autobiography books from ex-cricketers has become a joke, and I am afraid Gilchrist might have joined that list. As a player, I really rate Gilchrist very high when it comes to being ethical, most of the times (he is human after all), but if his intention is to talk truth about Sydney test, why NOT write about Ponting's behavior or Clarke's stupid antics from the same test? I did not get a chance to read his book and I am sure our media had distorted facts and blown this out of proportion, but I am almost positive, Gilchrist did not write the whole story.

* Chris Broad had slapped a one test ban on Gambhir and I think it's a fair decision. But why ONLY 10% fine for Watson (Zaheer was fined 80% @ Mohali) who clearly seems to have started the whole issue and almost hit Gambhir by poking his hand out while the batsman was trying to take a run. Also, why there is NO warning or punishment for Katich who was very animated and uncontrollable? Something is wrong, right?

RIP - Director Sridhar

2008-10-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest director from tamil cinema passed away. To me he was a brilliant story teller who was extremely talented, who came up with several "new" and "first time" in Tamil cinema.

His attention to details in his movies is amazing and he always had many surprises in all of his movies. His song picturizations are fantastic. Watch the song சொன்னது நீதானா from நெஞ்சில் ஓர் ஆலயம் where the camera zooms out of Devika, goes right behind Muthuraman and then zoom in on Devika again. The other song that comes to my mind is பூமாலையில் ஓர் மல்லிகை from ஊட்டி வரை உறவு. We usually see "continuity" in scenes but you can see continuity from scene to scene in this duet.

When it comes to comedy, who can forget டணால் தங்கவேலு in கல்யாண பரிசு. His evergreen காதலிக்க நேரமில்லை is still the benchmark for full time comedy movies.

His long list of new faces introduced to film industry includes J Jayalalitha, Kanchana, Venniraadai Murthy and Nirmala, Devika, Ravichandran, Srikanth, Vikram and may others.

May his soul rest in peace!

Office Space

2008-10-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Me: I need to know how far we are in terms of automating the tasks.

Developer: We are almost there, we have semi-automated the whole process.
Me: Could you please explain in simple terms so that I can update our clients appropriately.
Developer comes up with the following picture.

We had an issue with our restroom flush and there were notices/signs (with additional funny comments) to keep the place functional.

வாரணம் ஆயிரம் - Music

2008-10-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

One of the popular director-music director duo, Gautham Menon and Harris Jeyaraj teams up again in வாரணம் ஆயிரம். Looks like the theme of the album is youth and Harris had leaned heavily towards rock music.

Adiye Kolluthe - This is typical rock number with some jarring instrumentals. The song sounds very western and reaches different levels due to change in tempo at different stages of the song. Shruthi Hassan's voice is different and the male duo Benny & Krish blends well together.

Ava Enna - Karthik is back (I don't hear him a lot these days) with a very versatile performance in this செம்ம local song. Very nice டப்பாங்குத்து considering the number of similar songs that have come in recent times. This will definitely be popular among all and will be a sure hit.

Mundhinam - This is my favorite song of the album even though it reminds me of Mutham Mutham from 12B and beats/instrumentals from 1942-LS. This song has too many good things going like Naresh Aiyer's youthful voice and the ease with which he sings high notes, Prashanthini's brilliant voice that keeps up with Naresh. This is probably one of the best orchestered song of the album.

Yethi Yethi - This is a very average number and reminds us of several latest hip-hops. Harris's use of Na.Muthukumar and Benny for this song doesn't help much and reminds us a lot of Taxi Taxi from Sakkarakatti.

Anal Mele - Typically, this song would have been sung by Bombay Jayashree, but this song has the beautiful voice of Sudha Raghunathan and she gives a fresh breathe of life to the song. Again, this song reminds us of some of the older songs composed by the same music director, especially the instrumentals in the middle portion.

Oh Shanthi, Shanthi - This song has a very nice rhythm and the voices of Clinton and SPB Charan sounds great in another typical rock style song. This is really short and sweet.

Nenjukkul Peidhidum - This is one of the sofy melody in this movie and in spite of Hariharan's magical voice, heavy chorus and Thamarai's catchy lyrics, the song is not so appealing. I am not sure if this song is an attempt to compose an "Unplugged" style melody or a "Typical" melody, but it ended up being neither.

All in all, this is another typical Harris Jeyaraj album that has a few surprises and lots of old songs reminiscence.

Pact on Catches

2008-09-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

I am more than surprised to see Ponting still trying to sell his pact on catches after all the incidents during the last series between India and Australia. As a team in that series, Australia played bad sport by claiming everything as a catch. While batting, their batsman stood their ground even after the catch was taken cleanly at waist level. In the recent past, Australian team is the one that benefited most when it came to umpiring decisions and match referee verdicts. For opposing captains, it's essentially choosing between umpiring errors vs. Australian fielder's word when comes to close catching. No wonder they choose NOT to sign the pact to minimize damage to their team.

Bell the Cat.. Somebody..

2008-09-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

The tamil movie screenings in different parts of USA is mostly managed by a group of individuals or by some locally formed club. But in recent times, especially after the huge marketing success of Sivaji - The Boss, some of the big names are entering the movie screening business in USA. While this may be good in terms of bringing professionalism, it has led to lack of personal touch and customer service. Some of these big names (Reliance, Sulekha etc) are going to run this like business which means they will try to maximize profit at any cost. What this means for regular filmgoer is higher ticket prices, fewer and even no shows in some of the areas. The recent incidents include cancellation of preview shows in some of the states for the movie Kuselan, very low collections for ATM, Kuselan and even Dasavatharam due to very high ticket price - $21 per ticket (it used to be $12 before "Sivaji - The Boss" days). The movie SAROJA is getting released this week here, which is very very late for a movie release. Since this movie has no big hero names, the corporates probably waited enough to make sure the movie is a hit before releasing the movie. Bad idea and this type of attitude will never fly with the audience here.

This is exactly what happened with satellite channels and cricket in USA. The satellite networks started showing cricket on TV and slowly the prices started going up and at one point they were charging as much as $300 for a 5 match one day series against Pakistan. What it led to is total boycott and viewers found other alternatives like internet.

As such it is easy to get DVD version of the movie relatively quickly here and given the current economy, we will have fewer families going to cinema hall if this trend continues.

Reality Shows

2008-09-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

Reality shows are often fun to watch, not so much for the actual performance, but for the unusual situations and unintentional comedy that comes out at some weird random moment. Here are 2 examples from popular Vijay TV shows.

Super Singer 2008 - One of participant rendered a female duet and she had so much shrill in her voice it was hard to enjoy the whole song. She should have kept quiet with the judges. Right after she completed, she explained how she can sing high-pitch notes well and how she curbed her voice to accomodate and adjust to the other person's voice in the duet. The other person (who in fact sang the high notes really well) promptly got selected. The judges could have (IMO, should have) rejected this singer, instead they were so nice with all their advise and waitlisted her.

உங்களில் யார் அடுத்த Prabhudeva - This is more of a laughter show than a talent show. The person to watch is one of the judge "Sridhar Master". If Super singer judges are extremely humble, this guy is opposite. He is serious, rude and never say a sorry. This is how he gave his verdict to one of the participant. The participant was wearing a jacket with the hood on and also had sunglasses on and performed for a good 3 minutes. His dance was mediocre, but this was only an initial screening. Right after that performance, Sridhar asked him if he ever considered himself a dancer and the guy replied passionately "Yes". Sridhar followed it up with "Ok, எதுக்கு hood போட்டுருக்கீங்க, அத எடுங்க, எதுக்கு கருப்பு கண்ணாடி போட்டுருக்கீங்க, அத எடுங்க. The participant does everything in anticipation of good verdict. Then comes the clincher from Sridhar "இப்ப எல்லாருக்கும் ஒங்க மூஞ்சி தெரியும், you are rejected". Seriously, this Sridhar guy should never be in front of the camera.

Congratulations M(Master) S(Strategist) Dhoni!!

2008-08-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Congratulations MS Dhoni on being conferred with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award!!

Though I am little against giving him Khel Ratna award, which IMHO is too soon and for too little achievement, I still love this shrewd guy and his street smartness. He appears to be a very good leader and he is able to get what he wanted from his team. He is able to get his teammates respect without much of a fuss something that past captains did not get all the time.

- Tendulkar is probably the worst captain India had produced in the last decade or so. He always looked tensed as a captain and it showed up on the team performance under his captaincy.
- Dravid was too timid and too conventional. Even though India had the most number of consecutive successful run chases under his captaincy, he still falls short when it comes to thinking out of the box.
- Ganguly is probably a better captain (compared to Tendulkar and Dravid) but his team's failure in the "FINALS" outweigh the overall success he had as a captain. He was also responsible for nurturing some abrasive characters during his tenure.

In the short span, Dhoni is able to get the players he wanted and he always seem to know the right team combination for a game. Getting Raina (and even Badrinath) and using Praveen Kumar as a front line bowler and sticking with Harbhajan are a few examples. Getting rid of Yusuf Pathan, Sreesanth (although I believe BCCI politics has a BIG role to play in his exclusion and that of Robin Uthappa) from ODI side are other good examples. Even in IPL, he was able to take his team to finals in spite of having limited bowling resources.

I recently wrote on FAB four's shelf life and I stick to it. Even though Dhoni's success has come only in the shorter version of the game and that too not so consistently, he has shown good early signs and positive indications to be a very successful leader.

Singh is Kinng - It's a poetry

2008-08-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

Singh is Kinng - The Gang of Punjab will arrive with a bang!

Talk about inspiration - Movies and titles like this inspire you to do new things in life, Singh is Kinng made me a poet. Strong word of caution - This is my first attempt to write a poem. If Singh is Kinng is considered a blockbuster (At the end of first weekend, it's gross (no pun intended) is Rs. 29 crores ), then this should be considered poem.

Singh is Kinng, Singh is Kinng,
Movie is agonizing.

Akshay'a name is happy,
His acting is as usual crappy.

Katrina is paired opposite hero,
Her expression in the important scenes is close to zero.

There are a lot of characters in the movie that goes with male lead,
Most of them resemble a woodenhead.

Javed Jaffrey who is deaf and blind is the villian who is homegrown,
And he is not the only abscind clown.

Kiron Kher comes in as poor mother,
Her acting is better and character in the movie is a banter.

The movie has lots of singhs and handgun,
Watching them was not a lot of fun.

The movie is supposed to be funny,
But most of the sequences and events is phony.

Looks like they have spent more than hundred crore,
In the end the movie turned out to be a bore.

Singh is Kinng, Singh is Kinng,
Movie is agonizing.

சுப்ரமணியபுரம் - Quick Review

2008-08-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a movie that touches the same old theme of youngsters falling prey to politicians and being used as pawns. But the execution of story by the director is brilliant. There is enough drama and improvisation right through the entire film that keep you interested in the film till the very end.

Actors - Jai is good but he needs to learn to modulate his voice otherwise he will sound the same in all of his movies. Sasikumar underplays his role quite well and it is difficult to judge him as an actor with just this one performance. Ganja Karuppu is a real surprise and he shows that he can do more than just comedy. The new heroine Swathi looks good but I have never seen any actress show so much வெக்கம் in one movie. Little overdose.

Camera & Music - Brilliant camerawork and lights right through the movie. I heard that this cameraman rejected an offer to do Dhanush's பொல்லாதவன் since he was already committed to this movie and badly wanted to do this movie. Great job. Music by James Vasanthan is a decent effort for a debutant. Kangal Iranda is very catchy (though it reminds us of several old songs) and BGM is adequate.

Director Sasikumar - Here's a new director who understands what cinema is and what's needed to make a film successful. His attempt in setting a story in 1980s and his attention to details is commendable. From fiat, ambassador cars to Dyanora tv to மாந்தோப்பு கிளியே poster to public buses (did you notice a man with glasses in the background chatting or waiting for a girl in all the bus stop scenes?) to background songs from 80s shows a lot of homework to get everything right. I loved the climax and the way it was executed.

We hear a lot of directors/actors talking about hollywood style movies and end up with cheesy CGI and plastic music. Subramaniapuram has no major commercial elements or hitech gimmicks, but the quality and execution of the movie can be compared to a hollywood movie.

Olympics TV Coverage

2008-08-10T09:26:00.000-07:00

NBC did it again for west coast viewers. The LIVE coverage of Olympics shown for viewers in California and other west coast states is actually the recorded tape showing the already concluded event. They do this every year during Wimbledon where they would show the match during what they call "Prime Time" coverage. West coast is the worst hit when it comes to any LIVE coverage of any show. From weekly reality shows to annual sport events, most of the shows are actually telecasted late. You have to avoid all possible human contacts and internet to maintain secrecy if you want to enjoy the show on TV. I am reading that NBC paid close to 900 million for the exclusive TV coverage and if they continue this policy for west coast viewers, they are going to end up with unhappy viewers, sponsors and bad ratings. It makes absolutely no sense to watch the tape knowing that LIVE is not actually LIVE.

FAB Four

2008-08-08T13:51:00.001-07:00

I think time has come for FAB four of Indian cricket team to move on and retire from active test match cricket and this includes Sachin Tendulkar. Look at how pathetic they are in the on going test series. Die hard FAB FOUR fans don't even think about saying "Don't judge by one series" or "this is just a bad patch" or "look at their contribution in the last 10-15 years". At the moment, they can neither negotiate experienced bowler like Muralitharan nor dominate rookies like Mendis or Prasad. If selectors were brave enough to send an inexperienced one-day side to Australia last year and say "baptism by fire", why not do the same for home test series this year against Australia?

THANKS SO MUCH to all the four players for all the memories over last several years. Time for new faces.

குசேலன் - திரை விமர்சனம்

2008-08-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

Another much anticipated movie of தலைவர் was released yesterday and the movie had the usual hype and marketing that you will normally associate with Rajini films. Kuselan is an attempt to blend commercial elements and real-life emotions in equal proportion and still provide a family entertainer. Did P.Vasu succeed in doing that?

The movie kick-off in a beautiful village setting trying to establish Pasupathy's approach, attitude, social status - all in one letter that he writes to the local government officer. The first few scenes of the movie revolve around Pasupathy and his family and immediately you get an idea on his whole state of affairs. Right after that, too many characters gets introduced and finally after 20 minutes or so, you get to see Rajini with a very promising intro song.

What really follows after that is pesky screenplay and a lot of loose end events. The rest of the movie revolves around Pasupathy's several attempts to reach his old friend and how other characters flip-flop their attitude towards Pasupathy and his family.

Superstar as always excel on screen but he has only a handful of scenes in the entire movie . His only scene with Vadivelu creates enough laughter and the scene where he confront R.Sundarrajan really shows his versatility.

Pasupathy plays the simpleton quite admirably. Nayanthara was "effectively" used by P Vasu. Some of the camera angles and scenes picturized on her are atrocious. Meena as Pasupathy's wife fits in her role perfectly. Vadivelu's comedy is pathetic and talented actors like Livingston and Santhanabharathy are made to look like jokers in the movie. There are a whole bunch of stars who gets an appearance in the movie either as "real" or "reel" characters.

Now to the much hyped climax of the movie. Was it emotional? - Yes. Did Rajini and Pasupathy excel? - Absolutely yes. Did it justify watching the whole movie just to understand Rajini-Pasupathy's friendship? - Heck NO. What's the big deal in keeping the width and depth of friendship as suspense till the end? I really feel that the movie would have worked if they had established deep friendship upfront and then give a gap and then re-establish the friendship in the climax.

P Vasu had let everyone down with his shoddy screenplay and not so great dialogues. This movie equals his earlier offense "Seenu" (remake of "Bharatham") when it comes to Malayalam movie remakes. If you are a Rajini fan and watch the movie either as a typical or a non-typical Rajini fan, you will be little disappointed. You will be even more disappointed if you are a regular filmgoer.

Los Angeles Earthquake

2008-07-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

It was around 11:40 AM and I was stepping out of my office and driving for lunch. As I approached the signal I noticed the whole pole that had signal lights was shaking and swaying quite vigorously. Then I realized my car waiting in the signal started to sway left to right and back. Having lived in Southern California for over 6 years now, I immediately realized it's the earthquake that's shaking the whole place up. On previous occasions there was very little or nothing to react since the quake shake was either too short or too mild. But this time around it was well over 15-20 seconds and it was pretty heavily felt. Meanwhile the lights turned green and I started driving but could still feel the shake. For the whole time, I had no clue what I should be doing. It was one of the weird experience I have ever had and fortunately there is no major damage reported yet.

Sakkarakatti - Music Review

2008-07-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

When I saw the promo pictures of the movie, it looked really fresh and youthful. My expectations on the music was very high since this is the first time after "Boys", Rahman is composing for a "much hyped" movie that has a lot of newcomers.

I Miss You is a very different number sung by Chinmayi. She had shown another variation in her voice and I guess ARR likes experimenting with her voice (Like Tere Bina in GURU and Sahana in SIVAJI). The song has some interesting lyrics by Na.Muthukumar that will create fever among youth.

Marudhaani is a very sofy melody that has shades of Sahana Saaral but you will definitely get awed the first time you hear the song. Madhushree has come a long way in terms of tamil pronunciation. Her accent is much better and ARR's interlude in the middle of the song is brilliant. Vaali continues to amaze everyone with his youthful poetry in this song.

Chinnamma is tamil version of ARR's similar song from MEENAXI. This song has a good mix of chorus blended with Benny Dayal's voice that touches some height. The flute notes is reminiscent of old songs, but overall the song has a very good feel.

Taxi Taxi is a typical fast youth number with lots of energy. This song has generous sprinkle of rap & thanglish from Blaaze and Benny once again shows his talent with some bold voice. This will surely be a popular hit in college circles.

Naan Eppodhu is another tamil version of hindi song from MEENAXI and this one is sung by Reena Bharadwaj who also sang the original hindi version. The song sounds very "north indian" due to the heavy use of dholak drum. The lyrics by Pa. Vijay is brilliant and the singer has beautiful voice but she perfectly fills the void that Madhushree has left in terms of awful Tamil accent.

Elay Neram by Krish and Naresh Iyer is very soothing and the highlight of the song is the wonderful orchestration. This song reminds a lot of Roobaroo from RANG DE BASANTI since it has the same youthful chorus and very serene flow. Na. Muthukumar is very impressive with lines like "காற்றின் மூஞ்சியில் கரி பூசவேண்டாம்" and "டௌரி மாப்பிள்ளைக்கு காதல் சொல்லி தருவோம்"

Overall, ARR did not disappoint by delivering a fresh breath of highly energetic youthful music.

Pasupathy

2008-07-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

I am a die-hard Rajini fan eagerly awaiting the release of Kuselan, but I cannot stop wondering why Pasupathy, supposedly playing the title role, is not featuring in a big way in any of the major promo pictures that are circulating. I remember seeing initial movie stills of Virumandi, which was so impressive, and seeing Pasupathy along side Kamal made everyone curious. Pasupathy was not so popular back then and for him to get such marketing at that stage of the career was huge. Rumor has it, Rajini has only 20-30 minutes of screen time in the entire movie. If that's true, Pasupathy probably has a very big role in the movie and his nonexistence in the movie promo is clearly unfair.

சாமி மாமி - Pre-Marriage Talk

2008-07-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

சாமி - Eligible "software engineer" bachelor who is living in America for the last four years.
மாமி - Eligible, beautiful, "movie & TV" loving "Tambram" waiting for an American மாபிள்ளை.

ஜாதகம் செம்மையா ஒத்து போக, photo exchange செய்து பிடித்து போக, சாமி-மாமி இருவருக்கும் இடையே மிகுந்த வெட்கத்துடனும் எதிர்ப்பார்புடனும் காதலுடனும் நடக்கும் phone chat.

சாமி - Howz it going?
மாமி - நன்னா இருக்கேன். இவ்ளோ சீக்கரம் எழுந்தாச்சா?
சாமி - I spend less time in sleep mode and I am usually up and running early in the morning. How about you?
மாமி - எனக்கு தூக்கமே வரல..இது ஒரு கனா காணும் காலம் இல்லையா? மனசு அலைபாயுதே, அது சரி, Breakfast-க்கு என்ன சாப்டேள்?
சாமி - My breakfast window is very small, I usually save some cookies and food in the office storage. BTW, I forgot to ask.. If this is the right time, Else I will call later.
மாமி - சேச்சே, நீங்க கால் பண்ணறதே Jackpot அடிச்சாமாதிரி. அது சரி உங்களுக்கு என்னை பிடிச்சிருக்கா? ஜோடி பொருத்தம் எப்படி? எப்படி என்னை select பண்ணேள்?
சாமி - I searched a lot initially and I was not sure about my requirements, but after I saw your picture and spoke with you, I developed love for you and felt you will be compatible with my family. Finally, I decided to commit myself. But that is history now, you tell me what do you think of me?
மாமி - என்ன சொல்லறது, உங்களோட அரசி மாதிரி வாழுவேன்னு நம்பிக்கை இருக்கு. நாம ரெண்டு பேரும் ஜோடி நம்பர் ஒன்னா இருக்கணும்கறதுதான் என் கனவே.
சாமி - Wow... You speak really good home tamil, it's hard for me to decrypt. But I love it, our conversations are cached in my memory forever. What else?
மாமி - நான் இங்க இருக்க, நீங்க அங்க இருக்க காதலிக்க நேரமில்லை.
சாமி - Don't bother, people tell me that there has to be proper settings for love, but I am telling you, this phone chat really recharge my battery ahead of my busy day at office. What do you think?
மாமி - உங்களோட பேசும்போது ஆனந்தமா இருக்கு, பின்னாலே யோசிச்சு பாத்தா எல்லாமே சிரிப்புதான், மொத்ததுல இது ஒரு லாஜிக் இல்லா மாஜிக்.
சாமி - Alright, I got to go, will ping you again tomorrow.

PAPA CJ

2008-07-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

Who is PAPA CJ? He's one of the semi finalist in the NBC's most popular reality show "Last Comic Standing" (American version of கலக்க போவது யாரு). He bowed out of the competition yesterday after a tough semi final elimination. PAPA CJ is from New Delhi and he was performing stand up comedy. He was one of the very few "foreign" performers who qualified for semi finals for this show where a winner gets $250K .

I thought PAPA CJ was funny in the beginning but as he progressed from initial screening to next rounds, he became a little repetitive. Most of his jokes revolved around "IT outsourcing & Call centers", "Reincarnation" & "KS". But I thought he competed well. What he could have avoided is picking a person in audience and start making comedy using that guy. Also, I thought he lacked the very basic ingredients "body language" and "dramatization", which is very critical in the American reality TV shows. In American television, even a 5 year old kid behave differently by showing emotion or being funny when on camera and people here like it. In India it is opposite, when on camera most of the guys pretend they are very quite and composed and show lots of humility, even though they have different personalities. The most recent example is the behavior of some of the kids in the show SUPER SINGER JUNIOR.

Overall it was pretty interesting to watch PAPA CJ's journey in this show and guess what he said when he bowed out..something along the lines of .."I don't care if people don't remember me as PAPA CJ as long as they know that a guy from India came here and competed in semifinals..". I seriously love "Mera Bharath Mahaan" style statements from our Indian stars and performers.

BCCI Gods

2008-07-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Niranjan Shah, BCCI secretary, told Cricinfo that its contracted players - including VVS Laxman, Piyush Chawla and Ajit Agarkar - who have signed or are in the process of signing with English counties this season are being "advised" to pull out if the county has ICL players on its rolls.

What's BCCI thinking? They are God and can do anything? For some of the players it is hard to get county contracts and even if they manage to get it, with this new rule, they should get permission from BCCI. Ridiculous. If BCCI has problems with ECB and ICL they better take firm decisions at the management level and not kill players with annoying rules. The following subclause to the above rule from Niranjan Shah is classic:

Shah, however, clarified that "non-ICL" players from these county teams will be allowed to take part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) - Hampshire's Dimitri Mascarenhas had played for Rajasthan Royals in the tournament's first season.

What's next? Advice players not to talk and take some useful tips from Sandip Patil or Dean Jones or Micheal Bevan because they are associated with ICL. BCCI's act can only be associated with the dirty games that we see in politics.

Kuselan - Music Review

2008-07-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

Another much anticipated music album of the year was released last week. For a young music director like G V Prakash, to get to compose Superstar's movie so early in his career, this is like a golden dream opportunity to take his career to next level. Was he successful?

The first thing I thought the music director got it right for the most part is the choice of singers for songs. Hariharan-Sujata were beautiful in Sollamma, Shreya Goshal is good in the solo number Chaaral, Shankar Mahadevan is bold in Cinema Cinema (though I would have prefered SPB considering the sentiment of the song), Daler sounded differently in Om Zaarare and Kailash Kher & Prasanna blended well as a pair in Perinba. I really feel happy for Prasanna who got a chance in such a big movie. He is one of the few young singers (like Vijay Yesudas) who has got terriffic depth in voice and still maintain melody.

Sollamma is a very nice melody number and probably the best song of the movie. Cinema Cinema is nice to hear with some interesting voice-sound mix. Om Zaarare sounds different but there's nothing great about the song. Chaaral looks like 2008 remix of 80's Ilayaraaja song. Perinba is "Veyilodu Vilayaadi" revisited. The instrumentals used in the songs sounds Rahmanish and some of them are direct lifts from old songs.

In terms of lyrics, looks like we are back to நீதான் இவனே, நீதான் அவனே mode again. Too much hero worship, hopefully it is in tune with the tone of the movie.

Now back to the question, did G V Prakash grab the opportunity? May be yes, may be not. The songs are peppy enough to keep the listeners interested, but not outstanding to tag G V as "big movie" music director yet.

அறை எண் 305-ல்....குருவி

2008-06-22T21:55:00.001-07:00

டைரக்டர் - டாக்டர் சார்... ஒரு நல்ல கதை இருக்கு, கேக்கரீங்களா?
டாக்டர் - நான் சூப்பர் ஹீரோதானே?
டைரக்டர் - கண்டிப்பா, நீங்கதான் கடவுள்..
டாக்டர் - ஓகே, படம் பேரு என்ன?
டைரக்டர் - அறை எண் 305-ல்....குருவி.
டாக்டர் - intro சீன் எப்படி?
டைரக்டர் - வானத்துலேர்ந்து குருவியா பறந்து வரீங்க.. land ஆகறதுக்கு முன்னாடி ரெண்டு ரெக்கையும் ஒடஞ்சு கீழே விழுந்துடுது, அப்ப நீங்க ரெண்டு கையையும் நீட்டி, தலையை ஆட்டி, காதலுக்கு மரியாதை ஸ்டைல்ல land ஆகரீங்க.
டாக்டர் - பன்ச் dialog?
டைரக்டர் - ரெண்டு கை இருக்கும் போது, குருவிக்கு எதுக்குடா ரெக்கை ?
கடவுளா வந்தாலும், போடுவாண்டா குருவி மொக்கை.
டாக்டர் - கடவுளா வந்தாலும் சில யதார்த்தமான சீன்ஸ் வேணுமே?
டைரக்டர் - இருக்கு சார், படத்துல நீங்க London-ஐ clean பண்ணறீங்க.
டாக்டர் - போன மாசம் இங்கிலாந்து போயிருந்தேன் லண்டன் கிளீனா தான் இருக்கு, புதுசா ஏதாவது சொல்லுயா.
டைரக்டர் - நான் சொல்லறது நம்ம ஊரு லண்டன், toilet.
டாக்டர் - என்ன வெளயாடுரியா, வேற ஏதாவது சொல்லு.
டைரக்டர் - கொசு மருந்து அடிச்சு 2000 கொசு சாக போவுது அது உங்களுக்கு முன்னாடியே தெரியுது.
டாக்டர் - நான் இருக்கும்போது கொசுகூட சாவாது, கொசு மருந்த வாயால அப்படியே உரியறேன், திரும்பி வேற பக்கம் ஊதறேன், அங்க வில்லன் மயக்கம் போட்டு விழறான், எப்படி? கிளைமாக்ஸ் சீன் சொல்லு.
டைரக்டர் - ரெண்டு aeroplane நடு வானத்துல பறக்குது நீங்க ஒரு விமானத்துல இருக்கீங்க, இன்னொரு விமானத்துல வில்லன் உங்க அம்மா, ஹீரோயின், தங்கச்சி, இந்த விமானத்துல இருந்து அந்த விமானத்துக்கு பறந்து போயி ஒரு bomb போட்டுட்டு, உங்க அம்மா, ஹீரோயின், தங்கச்சி மூணு பேரையும் உப்பு மூட்ட தூக்கிட்டு உங்க விமானத்துக்கே வந்துடறீங்க.
டாக்டர் - இது கொஞ்சம் பரவாயில்ல. நீங்க போயி என்னோட மத்த படத்த பாத்து இன்னும் நல்ல மசாலாவா கதை பண்ணிட்டுவாங்க intro and climax அப்படியே வெச்சுக்கலாம்.
டைரக்டர் நொந்துபோய் வானத்தை பார்த்து "அட கடவுளே " என்று கூற
டாக்டர் - என்னய்யா கூப்பிட்டியா?
டைரக்டர் - என்ன சார் சொல்லறீங்க?
டாக்டர் - ஆமாயா கடவுள் கதையா கேட்டு அந்த characterஆவே மாறிட்டேன்.
டைரக்டர் - ?????

அறை 305-ல் கடவுள் - கடவுள் கூட ஒரு யதார்த்தமான மனிதனாய் வந்து அசத்தும் low budget அற்புதம்.

குருவி - சாதாரண மனிதன் கடவுளே மூக்கில் விரல் வைக்கும் அளவிற்கு போலி சாகசம் காட்டும் high budget அபத்தம்.

Dasa Impacts - Just won't go away..

2008-06-17T18:43:00.000-07:00

There's some frantic activity on the number of posts/reading on Dasa for the last couple of weeks. Even I managed to get about 160+ hits in my blog in the last 2 days, thanks largely to auto search & post tamil websites.

While browsing through other blogs/websites I came across several interesting notes which I have compiled in to one logical piece. These are some of the interesting(?!) observations on Kamal's names in the movie.

Most of the names, for instance, were based on the actual Dasavatars..Govind Ramaswamy (has a monkey called Hanu - he should be Rama avatharam), 'Balram' Naidu, 'Krishna'veni, Rangarajan (matsya or may even be Koorma since he drowned in sea), 'Avtar' Singh, Boo'varaghan', Kalif Ullah was the opposite of Vamana Avatharam (Tall vs Short) and the coolest name of the lot..Shinghen Narahasi, the Japenese guy. The word Fletcher means ‘arrows’ or the ‘maker of arrows’. Though Parasurama wielded an axe, Fletcher is modern Parasurama because he is angry and kills everyone in sight.

I also found several posts on Chaos Theory and Butterfly effect thats incorporated in the movie. These are not new to cinema, they are very well known and popular entities that was used in several movies and stories in the past. Last year, I tried my own version based on these theories in one of my short story விதிமுறைகள். The story was a huge inspiration from movies like 'Crash' and 'Babel'.

One thing is for sure, either Kamal & Co did all the research to come up with all subtle details in this movie or it could just be that fans are going overboard to find logic and relevance on just about everything from the movie.

Final note on Dasa: New year's day is not coming anytime soon, but I have taken a personal mid-year vow to not read/write on Dasa for the next several weeks at least. Personally it's been an "overdosavatharam".

தசாவதாரம் - திரை விமர்சனம்

2008-06-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

Good start, surprise, interesting, laugh, dragging, finally over. This is the sequence of emotions I got when I watched Dasavatharam. The movie starts with a 12th Century episode which was a good start. The plot around bio-terrorism was a huge surprise for a tamil movie and the events that unfolds right after that was interesting. The whole Naidu episode and parts of Govind & Andal ride was laughable. The sequence and the characters in the later half of the movie to cover 10 avatars was a bit dragging. After several doses of Kamal's personal agenda, when the end comes in this 3 hour plus movie, you get a sigh of relief, it's finally over.

I think the whole movie was made with just one goal in mind - பத்து அவதாரம். Kamal was brilliant as Naidu and Rangarajan. Fletcher and Krishnaveni are good attempts. President Bush was technically correct, but for some reason, the character invokes a lots of laugh and not enough seriousness. Young Govinda looks old and there was nothing special about Avtar Singh. Japanese & other characters are just fillers to make up the numbers.

Asin has quite a bit of scope for acting and comedy, but there's nothing new in her acting (Madhan once said "Asin is like அளவு சாப்பாடு", how true?). Mallika Sherawat (she is gorgeous), Jayapradha, Raghuram, P Vasu, Nagesh, KR Vijaya and bunch of other Kamal movie regulars like Santhana Bharathi, Vayyapuri, Ramesh Khanna etc forms the rest of the cast.

The screenplay could have been stronger for this 'one line story' movie. I personally believe that both Kamal and KB miss Ananthu when it comes to fine tuning screenplay. Kamal has shown great improvement since Mumbai Express (which I thought was a disaster) in the comedy portions of the dialogues. CGI was cheesy for the most part and could have been much better, and the songs in this movie was a huge letdown.

Kamal has tried to dish out this scientific thriller with a good mix of religion and comedy. He also gets enormous help from K S Ravikumar's direction and his usual commerical success formula. The end result is a good masala movie.

தசாவதாரம் - வருது வருது

2008-06-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

What would be the best betting ticket at the moment for Tamil movie fans? தசாவதாரம் - வருது வருது...

What are the odds on Dasavatharam releasing on 6/13/2008? Your guess is as good as mine. In the superstition driven Kollywood world, I am surprised that they picked Friday, the 13th as the release date. Who cares, at this point, all that the Kamal fans want will be the actual movie release, period.

Meanwhile, the movie is getting huge publicity in US just ahead of the release date. Chicago fans did their own celebration ahead of the release by arranging for a தோசாவதாரம், more here.

A special preview show is scheduled in the Los Angeles area to screen this movie on June/12/2008, ahead of the actual release date, similar to the one we had for Sivaji - the Boss. I am not as excited for this movie as I did for Sivaji (paid extra bucks to watch the special preview show) so I am planning to watch the movie either on June 13th or 14th. The lack in enthusiasm can be attributed to several reasons: the annoying delay in release (from music to actual movie), not so impressive music to name a few. I am just hoping this doesn't turn out to be Kamal's "BABA". I am hoping for K.S.Ravikumar's magic more than Kamal's brilliance.

Hopefully it will be a good entertainer!

IPL Wrap up

2008-05-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

The IPL semi-finals are due to start tomorrow and with the matches being knock-outs from this point on, the championship could be anybody's. Rajasthan played well as a team, Punjab looks solid, Chennai was good in patches, Delhi seems to have a good blend of batting and bowling resources. I am going to root for my home team Chennai and I won't be surprised if Dhoni pulls a trick or two as a captain.

Hyderabad Deccan Chargers - This is the team that started as real hot favorites before the tournament, but still ended up at the bottom of the table. They probably went with the theory that "T20 is batsman's game" by not picking good front line bowlers and that clearly let the team down. They need to get some quality bowlers in their line up before the next IPL edition to have any chance of putting up a decent show.

Bangalore Royal Challengers - This is the first team to show signs of jitters both on and off the field, and rightly so. I really feel bad for Dravid, who inspite of finishing in the top 10 in terms of scoring most number of runs at the end of league stage, is almost looked at as "the culprit" for RC's debacle. He probably had a bigger learning curve as a captain in this format and that coupled with poor final playing XI selections probably let his team down.

Kolkata Knight Riders - This team went with "Star Value" when it came to team selection, did not bother to even test some of the players before sending them back home mid-way through the tournament. IMHO, KKR had no control on any of the matches they played after the initial flurry of wins. The performances of Ishant Sharma, David Hussey, Ricky Ponting clearly showed that the star value does not always automatically deserve the super heavy price tag.

Mumbai Indians - If this team wants to have any serious chance of winning IPL next time around, they should let Shaun Pollock lead the team and have Tendulkar concentrate only on his batting. They really should have won both against Punjab and Rajasthan and I am convinced that Tendulkar's captaincy had a huge role to play in the defeat against Rajasthan. He seems to talk too much to his bowlers and looks panicky at the first instance of pressure.

Delhi Daredevils - This is one of my favorite teams and as I said earlier they appear to have a good mix of bowling and batting options. I thought they were unlucky on couple of occassions (rain/DL method against Punjab and too close a match against Chennai), but overall you cannot complain too much about this team.

Chennai Super Kings - This team started as hot favorites along with Deccan Chargers and they deserve to be in semi-finals because they played the high pressure close games better and finished as winners. They did not have big names in bowling department (except for Murali), but they managed to find stars in Gony & back from injury Balaji. Dhoni is very impressive as captain and this team will be really strong next year if all the players are available for the entire tournament.

Punjab Kings XI - Yuvraj should feel really lucky for having Jayawardene, Sangakkara & Tom Moody in his team for strategy. Shaun Marsh is unbelieveable talent and their bowling seems fairly decent. Yuvraj does not impress me as a captain and if he continues his "hit or miss" batting form, he will soon lose his credibility as a player.

Rajasthan Royals - This team was not even in headlines after the team auction where they did not spend even minimum amount at the end of first round. Shane Warne is magical as player and more importantly as leader. The way this team performed clearly shows what shrewd leadership can do. Unfortunately this attribute was clearly missing on even some of our established icons. This team totally deserves all the praise and I think no one will complain even if they go on to win this tournament.

Sports Thriller - Double Bill

2008-05-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

I didn't mean to start a double bill series, oscar last week and sports this week, but the 2 classic games played on same day - 5/21/2008 deserves a double bill column. In the morning it was Punjab who sneaked a last ball one run win against Mumbai in the IPL league match. In the evening, thanks to ESPN's delayed relay, I was able to watch the UEFA champions league final that Man UTD won.

IPL Match #45 - Punjab Kings XI vs. Mumbai Indians

We often hear or read pundits saying "the defining moments" in cricket. Though Mumbai's defeat can be largely attributed to the way they choked at death, I thought the defining moment was the 17th over that Irfan Pathan bowled. Uthappa had just come to bat and Irfan served him a beautiful bouncer that hit Uthappa on his helmet. Uthappa tried to blast Pathan off the next ball and all he could do is to hit that straight to mid-wicket. At this point Uthappa was clearly rattled and probably was not thinking clearly that resulted in a needless, confusion laden run out of well set Tendulkar. Later, I thought Yuvraj almost blew the chance by bringing in off-color VRV Singh for the last over and in the end, it took a brilliant youtube moment to clinch the last ball thriller.

UEFA Champions League - Manchester United vs. Chelsea

The local sports broadcasting here in US is mostly dominated by NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. I was shocked to see the delayed relay of UEFA finals in the evening and I couldn't move an inch during the entire match. Man UTD dominated almost the entire first half and were leading 1-0, only to let Chelsea even the game at almost the last minute of the half. Chelsea clearly dominated the second half and I thought they were extremely unlucky to hit the goal bars on at least two occassions before the shoot outs. Watching penalty shoot out was extremely thrilling and the end must be heart breaking for Chelsea fans.

Truly an overwhelming day!

Oscar - Double Bill

2008-05-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

Inspite of the hectic last 10 days, I still managed to watch couple of movies, that had Oscar nominations, over the weekend.

Charlie Wilson's War - I picked this one for sheer star cast and reputation. Tom Hanks was his usual best, Seymour Hoffman was funny as ever and Julia Roberts was good. The movie inspite of brillaint star cast lacked intensity that you would usually associate with political dramas. That probably could be the reason for Oscar nomination but no win.

Juno - This is one of those type of movie that I would normally decide not to watch by just looking at DVD cover. This one had two Oscar nominations and of course has beautiful looking Jennifer Garner and Ellen Page, it was difficult to pass. The movie was average, the over hyped dialogues (the writer actually won the Oscar) are not so witty, the movie turned out to be very boring even for my wife.

தசாவதாரம் - Music Review

2008-04-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

I always feel some kinda alienness in music when I hear tamil music composed by a predominantly Hindi music director. Bappi Lahari, Laxmikanth-Pyarelal, R D Burman had composed music for a few tamil movies before and they have been reasonable hits at that time. Himesh Reshammiya's music for தசாவதாரம் is not too bad an attempt.

Vaali and Vairamuthu's lyrics are effective and there is a new singer Vinith (at least I have not heard of this guy) who had sung உலக நாயகனே, probably the intro song for one of the Kamal. Vinith's voice sound really fresh but the song is average. Hariharan has tried something new with his vocal in கல்லை மட்டும் and it is very impressive. கருப்பனுக்கும் is a mediocre disco style number rendered by Shalini Singh.

As always, Kamal himself had sung 2 songs in the movie. I was almost surprised to see Kamal's name in the song முகுந்தா முகுந்தா because I heard only Sadhana Sargam's beautiful voice till almost the end of the song. I almost felt, like பத்து வேஷம், Kamal changed his voice and sang like Sadhana. Kamal was his usual self in the other song Oh Ho Sanam and this is one of the better song of the movie.

Not sure who decided on selecting the music director for such a high profile movie, I am afraid the album is not so ecstatic.

Where is our "culture" bodyguards?

2008-04-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

I read this very sorry story in Hindustan Times and was wondering where's our culture bodyguards and why they haven't crowed foul yet on IPL cheerleaders. When Shriya's attire was inappropriate (according to some attire police), they made a meal out of it. Similar fate for Shilpa Shetty when she got kissed publicly by Richard Gere.

We have incidents on women being attacked, even though they have not provoked anyone even a bit. In such a country, why would you make these half naked girls dance in public, when our countrymen until recently are used to seeing these type of dances only in rated movies. I was wondering how comfortable it will be for parents to take their pre-teen kids to these matches.

I have no idea as to why we need to copy western culture on everything. I don't want to sound like an oldie baldie, but we have seen on numerous occasions, our cricket fans show up for any "tamasha" match in large numbers in almost every single venue even without cheerleaders, supported their teams inspite of scorching heat, poor stadium facilities including food courts and toilets.

"ஆஹா" moments in music

2008-04-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this quote in Chinmayi's blog:

"Though a lot of us have grown up listening to old songs, it sometimes requires some kind of an 'aha' moment for a song to come to us, in a rush and its surprising how we suddenly perceive a certain magic in it that we had previously failed to notice. "

I think that is almost perfect explanation on how we comprehend the true feel of a song at some random moment. I have had similar moments on several songs, not just the old ones but on several recent ones that I have heard multiple times. There are also instances when you hear a tamil version of popular other language song and get "wow"d about it. "முழுமதி அவளது" by Srinivas is one such song. This is the tamil version of "Jashn-E-Bahara" sung by Javed Ali in the movie Jodhaa Akbar. Outstanding melody by Srinivas.

I have also felt that when a male singer render a female version of a popular song (and vice-versa), the transformation is most often phenomenal. I don't know if the singer gets some distinct advantage in such situations or it's truly different perception of the listener or if it is combination of both.

Couple of months back I was watching Vijay Tv's "பாடும் Office" and one of the girls sang 'இசையில் தொடங்குதம்மா' from Hey Ram (Orginally sung by A Chakraburthy). I am not sure what her musical background is, but she sang so well and outclassed everyone else in that show with that performance.

This week I was watching American Idol and one of the contestant, David Cook rendered his own version of Mariah Carey's "you will always be my baby". It sounded absolutely brilliant.

My all-time favorite in this category (male singing female number) is the one from movie "கேளடி கண்மணி" and this one is not even a regular soundtrack in the album. There is this scene where SPB sings "கற்பூர பொம்மை" for his daughter and he will only sing a few lines in that scene.... truly magical!!!

"Kublai Khan Paw Paw Chow Chow Chow" and "Hatch-chan"

2008-04-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

If you are wondering who is "Kublai Khan Paw Paw Chow Chow Chow" and "Hatch-chan" and why they merit being in the news, here's the scoop.

Kublai Khan Paw Paw Chow Chow Chow is the popular Martha Stewart's dog who died recently (I have no idea as to why CNN.com would carry this in their homepage) due to renal failure. I can only imagine what if an Indian celebrity have a pet with this name and how our "esteemed" political parties and organizations would have staged protests.

Hatch-Chan is six-year old cat, who has his own blog (I know what you are thinking, someone actually owns the blog) that gets 50000 hits a day per this website. The cat must be busy everyday posing for the pictures to keep the blog going.

Imaginary dialog between the two:

Chow Chow: உடம்பு சரியில்லாததிலேர்ந்து வீட்டுக்குள்ளேயே பூனை மாதிரி சுத்தி சுத்தி வரவேண்டிருக்கு!

Hatch-Chan: அட நீ வேற, தேனோம் photo-க்கு pose குடுத்து குடுத்து என் வேலையே நாய் பொழப்பாயிடுத்து!!

Cookie Cutter

2008-04-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

On one Friday morning, one of my co-worker dropped by my office and said "Hey, I am quitting in 2 weeks and I going to become a fire fighter. It's my long time dream". I didn't get it immediately. Here's a guy who is Senior Manager for one of the sales division in one of the largest company in the world, earning what most of the americans can only dream of, and he wants to drop all that in 2 weeks to pursue his passion. Mind you, fire fighters are paid well in this country, but their life is very risky and they will be out of home for at least 18 FULL days in a month.

For a person like me, who was born and brought up in a country where MOST of the people start their career by getting some job, work vigorously to move vertically and almost retire in the same company or similar job, I seriously didn't get it immediately. Some of us do chase our dreams partially, but I have seen only very few people who have pursued 2 different careers in life (not by default) and still be successful and more importantly happy.

Forget one or multiple careers, I always think about what my friend Suresh once told me "Do whatever you want, but make sure that you do things that make you happy". I guess the tough part is finding what makes you happy, right?

How easy is it to be an Indian Cricket Fan?

2008-04-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

- Jaffer failed the whole series in Australia and continue to fail in home series and there is no talk on his performance or replacement.

- Physio says Tendulkar is not fit, but he declares himself fit, but does not show up for fielding for most part in first test and scores a duck. Guess what, he is indeed not fit and ruled out of series. He probably realized that all he needs is a few weeks rest to be ready for IPL, so played @ Chennai inspite of being not fit.

- RP singh was pathetic and not fit for first test, but played first test and performed badly, got a chance to play second test and bowled pathetically under helpful conditions.

- While RP singh is finally dropped, his place was taken by Munaf, which is even more surprising. Munaf has always either been unfit or whenever he played, his bowling was average and his fielding was always awful and have shown no signs of improvement in any area.

- Ramesh Powar in tests ahead of other spinners? Well, the less you say the better it is.

- Irfan Pathan in tests is a huge luxury and it has been proved on several occasions. We need a bowler who can bat a bit. Unfortunately Pathan looks like a batsman who cannot bowl.

- Kumble appears to be not fit either and he played in the second test too. He might play third as well since he is the captain.

- Kaif is included in the squad (huge surprise in first place) and might not get a chance before getting dropped again.

- Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Gambhir, Badrinath, Praveen Kumar, Rohit Sharma and bunch of others must be wondering what they need to do to get in to the squad.

- Modi and Bindra are busy trying to get every dollar added to the BCCI treasury, Pawar is not concerned about anything happening locally and looks either incompetent to solve issues or looks too keen to take over ICC, Vengsarkar is only busy promoting Mumbai players and not ready to accept any blame.

Meanwhile Indian fans are confused with all these questions, still trying to post mortem Ahmedabad defeat, anticipate Kanpur test and IPL and hope India wins inspite of all goof ups.

அஞ்சாதே - திரை விமர்சனம்

2008-04-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

சமீபத்தில் அதிக எதிர்ப்பார்ப்புகளுடன் பார்த்த சில படங்களில் ஒரு படம் "அஞ்சாதே" . எதிர்பார்த்ததை விட அதிகம் impress செய்த படம் இது.

தமிழ் சினிமாக்களில் போலீஸ்காரர்கள் படம் என்றாலே, ஹீரோ வருவார், நாலு பேர் சல்யூட் அடிப்பார்கள், சட்டை கசங்காமல் எதிரிகளை பந்தாடுவார். அப்படித்தான் தன்னுடைய Inspector வாழ்க்கை இருக்கும் என்று நினைத்துக்கொண்டு நரேன் போலீஸ் ஸ்டேஷன் நுழைய, யாருமே
கண்டுக்கொள்ளாமல் இருப்பது ஒரு புதுமை, அதை விட புதுமை ஹீரோ சந்திக்கும் முதல் கேஸ் - ஒரு கட்டை பையில் ஒரு தலையை கொண்டு வரும் மனிதனும் அதை அடுத்து வரும் காட்சிகளும்.

பாண்டியராஜன் மற்றும் பிரசன்னாவின் காரெக்டர்கள் பெரிய surprise. இப்படி ஒரு வில்லன் காரெக்டருக்கு ஒத்துக்கொண்டு நடித்த பிரசன்னாவின் தைரியத்திற்கு பெரிய பாராட்டு (அந்த wig-ஐ தவிர்த்திருக்கலாம்).

படத்தில் ஆங்காங்கே வரும் கேமரா angle-கள் வித்தியாசம். குறிப்பாக, வெறும் கால்களை மட்டுமே காட்டி, கடைசியில் வில்லனின் சின்ன புத்தியை காட்டும் இடம் பிரமாதம்.

பெரிய நட்சத்திர பட்டாளம், முன்னணி/கவர்ச்சி நாயகி, அதிக செலவில் foreign பிரம்மாண்டம், ஹீரோயிசம், தாதயிசம் இப்படி எதுவும் இல்லாமல், வெறும் வேகமான திரைக்கதை, யதார்த்தமான காட்சி அமைப்பு வைத்து ஒரு நல்ல, விறுவிறுப்பான க்ரைம் ஆக்க்ஷன் படத்தை எடுத்திருக்கும் டைரக்டர் மிஷ்கின்னுக்கு ஒரு பெரிய சபாஷ்.

Don't miss it!!

RACE - Movie Review

2008-04-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

As a kid, if you have lived in major metros in India you definitely must have experienced waiting along with other vehicles in front of railway crossing. While waiting, usually you would have played the train guessing game (either by yourself or with another friend or brother/sister if you are travelling with them). The game is to predict from which side the train would come and pass. You play this for a couple of times while waiting and after a while you wonder why you are waiting so long and you start to get frustrated about everything that happens around you like waiting, other vehicle noise etc. and the whole game becomes a huge irritation. Race is a movie that starts of well with enough promise and twist in the first half. The later half has too may twists to the original twist and you end up as a person waiting just too long in the railway crossing.

Saif Khan looks like a matured actor, Anil Kapoor looks like an old actor and Akshay Khanna looks old with no maturity and acting. Bipasha and Katrina switch between sides and at one point you get so confused that you begin to wonder who is with who. Sameera Reddy comes as a dumb assistant to Anil and she does justice to her role:-) Of course, all the three heroines have item numbers.

Technical aspects of almost all the recent movies are always good and this movie is no exception.

Inspite of all the sloppiness with the screenplay and never ending climax (in fact climax starts from second half) and lack of logic (South African police's absence, Saif joining one of the heroine in the end etc), I would still like to give some credit to the directors Abbas Mastan for their effort to come up with a different thriller movie.

The movie is actually watchable for most part if you start with no expectation.

தூண்டில் - திரை விமர்சனம்

2008-03-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

பாச சங்கிலிகள்
சிவகங்கை பக்கத்தில் ஒரு கிராமத்தில் பெரிய Bank-ல் சிவகுமார் மேனேஜராக வேலை பார்க்க, அவருடைய புது மனைவி லக்ஷ்மியுடன் சந்தோஷமாக வாழ்கிறார். லக்ஷ்மிக்கு குழந்தை என்றால் கொள்ளை பிரியம். இந்நிலையில் ஒரு நாள் சிவகுமார் லக்ஷ்மி போய்க்கொண்டிருந்த ஸ்கூட்டர் விபத்தாக, லக்ஷ்மிக்கு மனநிலை பாதிக்கப்பட்டு amnesiaவில் போய்விடுகிறார். அதிர்ஷ்டவசமாக சிவகுமார் தப்பித்து விடுகிறார். இந்நிலையில் சிவகுமார் வேலை விஷயமாக சென்னை வர அங்கே நடிகை ஸ்ரீப்ரியாவை சந்திக்கிறார். அவர்களுக்குள் எதிர்பாராதவிதமாக காதல் முளைக்க ஸ்ரீப்ரியா கர்பமாகிறார். தன் தாய்மாமன் சிவச்சந்தரனுக்கு பயந்து, டாக்டர் விஜயகுமாரியின் உதவியோடு, ரகசியமாக குழந்தையை பெற்று அதை சிவகுமாரிடம் குடுத்துவிடுகிறார். இதற்குள் லக்ஷ்மி குணமடைய சிவகுமார் லக்ஷ்மியிடம் தங்களுக்கு குழந்தை பிறந்ததாக கூறிவிடுகிறார். இதற்குள் தன் தாய்மாமனின் அக்கிரமத்தை தாங்கமுடியாமல் ஸ்ரீப்ரியா அவரை விட்டு பிரிந்து வந்து தன் குழந்தையை லக்ஷ்மியிடமிரிந்து பிரித்துவிடுகிறார்.

துன்பம் தாங்கமுடியாமல் சிவகுமார் லக்ஷ்மி திரும்ப சிவகங்கை போக தீர்மானிக்கிறார்கள். டாக்டர் விஜயகுமாரி ஸ்ரீப்ரியாவிடம் உணர்ச்சி வசனம் பேசி அவர் தப்பை உணர்த்துகிறார். தன் தாய்மாமன் சிவச்சந்தரன் மீண்டும் தொல்லை குடுக்க, எதிர்பாராதவிதமாக ஸ்ரீப்ரியா சிவச்சந்தரனை கொன்றுவிடுகிறார். சிவகுமார் லக்ஷ்மி செல்லும் சிவகங்கை train கிளம்ப, சங்கிலியை இழுத்து train-ஐ நிறுத்தி குழந்தையை குடுத்துவிட்டு ஸ்ரீப்ரியா ஜெயிலுக்கு செல்கிறார்.

1982-ல் அதியமான் இப்படி ஒரு கதையை எழுத தயாரிப்பாளர்கள் யாரும் முன் வராததால் காத்திருந்து காத்திருந்து 2007-ல் கிடைத்த ஏமாளி தயாரிப்பாளர் ஒருவரிடம் இந்த கதையை சொல்ல அவரும் படத்தை எடுக்க ஒற்றுக்கொள்ள, அதியமான் கதையை காலத்திற்கு ஏற்ப சற்றே மற்ற முடிவு செய்தார்.

மாற்றங்கள்:
பாச சங்கிலிகள் - தூண்டில்
சிவகுமார் - ஷாம்
லக்ஷ்மி - சந்தியா
ஸ்ரீப்ரியா - பெயர் தெரியாத ஒரு ......

விஜயகுமாரி - ரேவதி
சிவச்சந்தரன் - பெயர் தெரியாத ஒரு வெட்டி வில்லன்
ஸ்கூட்டர் - BMW Convertible
Amnesia - Egg Transplant
சென்னை - லண்டன்
climax-ல் வரும் train - airplane & airport
climax-ல் வரும் train சங்கிலி - airport runway

புதிதாக சேர்த்த item-கள்:
விவேக் காமெடி - சூப்பர் (படம் வெட்டி, அதனால்தான் என்று நினைக்கிறேன்)
Camera & Editing - Really Super!!

தூண்டில் - மாட்டிக்கிட்டது நாம.

- ?????

சாமி மாமி Random Talk

2008-03-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

சாமி மாமி (newly married) & மாதவன் மாதவி (Friends) are all going to a party to celebrate சாமி மாமி marriage.

மாதவன் - எங்களையும் கொஞ்சம் பாக்கலாம், பேசலாம்..

சாமி - "சும்மா இருடா" என்றான் மாமியை பார்த்துக்கொண்டே..

மாதவன் - சரி சரி உனக்கு Fosters ஆர்டர் பண்ணிருக்கேன் எனக்கு vodka தான்.

மாமி - North Indian டிஷ்ஷா?

மாதவி - கிண்டலா.. பியர் தெரியாதா உங்களுக்கு?

மாமி - (பதரிபோய்) தண்ணி அடிப்பேளா?

சாமி - ஏன் பயப்படற.. எப்பவாவதுதான்.. பியர் வந்து வெல்ல தண்ணி மாதிரி.. alcohol content ரொம்ப கம்மி..

மாமி - எனக்கு ஒண்ணுமே புரியல..

மாதவன் - நான் சொல்லறேன் புரியறா மாதிரி.. vodka வந்து தெரட்டி பால்ன்னா, Beer வந்து பால் பாயசம்.

சாமி - ரொம்ப அவசியம்..

மாதவன் - Gold Flake சொல்லிடட்டுமா?

மாமி அழவே துவங்கிவிட்டாள்..

சாமி - ஐயோ அவன் சும்மா விளையாட்டுக்கு சொல்லறான். சும்மா இருடா மாதவா.

மாமி - என்ன மாதவி இது?

மாதவி - எல்லாம் செரியா போயிடும் கொஞ்ச நாள்ல..

சாமி - என்ன எல்லோரும்? நான் மொடா குடியன் மாதிரி பேசிண்டுருக்கேள்..?

மாமி - கவலை படாதீங்கோ தோளுல கை தாங்கலா நான் கூட்டிண்டு போறேன்..

சாமி - தோளுல..? ஹேய்.. ஒரு பாட்டில் குடிச்சா தள்ளாடமாட்டா.. நெறைய சினிமா பாப்பியா நீ ?

ஒரு வழியாக பார்ட்டி முடிந்து ஆட்டோவில் கிளம்பினார்கள் சாமியும் மாமியும். "என்னவோ எங்கப்பா விசாரிக்காமல் அவசரப்பட்டுட்டார்" என்று புலம்பிக்கொண்டே வந்தாள் மாமி. வீடு வந்து மாமியை சமாளிப்பதர்க்குள் போதும் போதும் என்றாகிவிட்டது சாமிக்கு.

நான் செஞ்சுக்கிட்டேன்! நீங்க எப்போ?

2008-03-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

"நான் செஞ்சுக்கிட்டேன்! நீங்க எப்போ'' - இத படிங்க மொதல்ல

I read the following user comment under the same news
"ஹூம்.. டாக்டருக்கே ஆபரேஷனா?"

Future India

2008-03-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

I came across this shocking news today and the news made me wonder where India is heading. The back to back New Year eve incidents, SMS scandals that we hear and read everyday and news like this should really be considered serious and made sure they are not repeated. I feel that India has not just embraced western culture but has started worshipping it. The problem with that is, if a teenager delivers a baby in US, she only will have the financial issues (if any) to raise a baby but socially everyone (including the new born) will be fine. But in India, spare a thought for the innocent new born. I am not trying to argue east vs west and which one is best, but my question is do we really have social protection in India? Any thoughts..feedback..?

ரகுவரன் passes away!!

2008-03-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

I was shocked to hear this news this morning. Such a versatile actor, a brilliant villian died at the age of 49. Though he had his share of health and other problems, he recovered well in the 1990s and even had a meaningful married life with actress Rohini for a while. He got really spiritual in the later part of life and was a strong follower of Sai Baba.

He almost featured in all of Rajini's movies in the last 2 decades. Along with Satyaraj, he probably brought a new dimension in villianism in Tamil cinema. There is this scene in பூவிழி வாசலிலே where Satyaraj will try to escape in the climax from villian Raghuvaran. The other villians in such a situation would have given a weird laugh and uttered something big, instead Raghuvaran will show extreme cool in that scene and deliver an even more logical and cool dialogue "என்ன ஜீவா, விளையாடறியா, என் கையில குழந்தை, பக்கத்துல நெருப்பு..." Simply amazing!!

How about "I Know.. I Know.. I Know..."?

Who can forget his role in முதல்வன் where he totally did justice to Sujatha's dialogues.. "அகலாது அணுகாது..." , "நல்லா டப்பிங் பண்ணிருகீங்க.." to name a few in that classic interview and in the climax "என்ன சமாளிக்க முடியல இல்ல" with a smile.. Oh..my... we will miss him.

May his soul rest in peace.

Update: 3/20/2008 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghuvaran was showing Raghuvaran's DOB as 1948 as of 3/19/2008, which was my source for his age, looks like they have updated his DOB today. How we wish if we have capability to change his death date.

Contessa Car

2008-03-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

In the late 1980s and early 1990s when credit card and Contessa was getting extremely popular in India, Mr. Bantu singh started a dealership on Contessa cars and also struck a deal with a major bank in India that allowed buyers to get this luxury vehicle using a credit card. In India it was thought as a revelation. There were tons and tons of car purchase, but soon he realized that people were actually NOT paying their credit card dues, so the bank and Mr. Singh started acquiring all the cars back from the customers. Having done that, Mr.Singh found himself in a weird situation where he was having too many used cars for sale. He thought long and hard and couldn't come up with any idea on how he can sell these cars, so he decided to sell them at half price. To his surprise, the response was overwhelming. He took the first customer to the garage and showed him all the cars and spent almost 2 hours. Finally the customer decided on buying a beautiful red contessa.

Bantu Singh - "It was great having your business. Since you are the first customer I will give you some deep discount. This car will cost you only Rs.200k"

Customer - "Great.. Visa or Mastercard?"

சாமி மாமி Talk

2008-03-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

வீட்டில் ஸ்ரீகாந்த், சினேஹா நடித்த "பாத்திபன் கனவு" படம் ஓடிக்கொண்டிருந்தது.

சாமி - இதுதான் உன்னோட feel good படமா?
மாமி - பேசாம பாருங்கோ. நல்ல படம்.
சாமி - பாக்கரதுக்கு என்ன இருக்கு, அவள ரோட்ல பாக்கறான், அதே பொண்ண எதிர் பாராம பொண்ணு பாக்கபோறான்.
மாமி - அதான் இல்ல.. பாத்துண்டே இருங்கோ, அந்த பொண்ணு வேற, இந்த பொண்ணு வேற.
சாமி- அதான் உனக்கு தெரியறதே, பின்ன ஏன் பாக்கறே?
மாமி - சும்மா இருங்கோ.

எதிர் பாத்தபடியே இரண்டு சினேஹா-வும் வெவ்வேறு.

மாமி - நான் அப்பவே சொன்னே இல்ல..
சாமி - சரிதான்.. ஹூம்
மாமி - என்ன பெருமூச்சு?
சாமி - ஒண்ணும் இல்ல, அவனவனுக்கு கனவு கன்னியாதான் சினேஹா வருவா, நிஜ வாழ்க்கையில ஒரு கனகாவோ, ஜலஜாவோ பொண்டாட்டியா வருவா, ஸ்ரீகாந்த் குடுத்து வெச்சவன், கனவுலயும் சரி நிஜத்துலயும் சரி சினேஹாவே பொண்டாட்டியா வந்துட்டா..
மாமி - !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Roger Federer - What can he do next?

2008-03-07T09:21:00.000-08:00

Two losses in this year so far - one in the first round recently & another in Aus open - there is already a talk that Federer is getting predictable and can be beaten by many other players. Almost all the champions face this dull, lull period of slump before they resurge to gain glory again. So what can he do next? Obviously a true champion he is, he'll find a way to come back and be on top again. What he can also do is hire a full time professional coach. He's playing tennis without a coach since parting with Tony Roche last May. With all due respect to Tony Roche, he truly is not the type of coach that modern players would opt for. Jimmy Connors has just resigned as Roddick's coach and IMHO, he could be the ideal coach for Federer. Connors had great many success with Andy and even though there are not many wins to show for, he truly brought Andy out of slump, fine tuned him and brought him back at the top level. Connors could be the guy who could provide solution to the unresolved lefty mystery that is haunting Federer at French open for the last several years.

ஆசை யாரை விட்டது !!!

2008-03-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

Check out these amazing pictures.. (especially the first couple of pictures)

http://movies.sulekha.com/tamil/thai-kaviyam/pictures/1.htm

Seriously, ஆசை யாரை விட்டது !!!

Bite your tongue

2008-02-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

Why on earth would someone say this knowing that his saying would only make an already bad situation even worse. Also, the fact that India won their last league match comfortably and Aussie lost theirs quite badly right after these incidents is only going to put additional pressure on Aussies. It looks as though they clearly don't like the fact that the Indians are ready to reciprocate and dish out the same crap that Aussies were doing for ages.

The following quote from Peter Roebuck is a spot on observation:

The players have formed a unit answerable only to itself. Lucrative contracts to play in India, tensions over the series in Pakistan - a tour they are reluctant to undertake and a country some are loath to visit - and banned columns have affected the mood. Now players are retiring left, right and centre. It has been the summer of discontent. But the Indians have also changed. Australia had been the working man's team bound by a common purpose. India had their hierarchies and complications. Now the Indians play with the same fervour as their hosts, and with the same disregard for niceties.
Although fabulously wealthy these days, cricketers such as Mahendra Dhoni and Ishant come from hungry, thirsty streets. They are not answerable to tradition, owe no allegiance to England, are not deferential towards Australians, were not raised in polite gymkhanas but in tough schoolyards. Accordingly, cricket can rely more on their fighting spirit than their goodwill.

Here's a really funny "bite your tongue" situation:

I had this friend who went to the grocery store and bought Charmin toilet papers and when he was doing the check-out, counter person was so surprised to see just one item being checked out (going to a store for just buying one item is not a norm in US). My friend should have kept quiet, instead he looked at the store person and asked "What?" He promptly got the reply "Is this for here or to go?" LOL!!!!!!!!

Tribute to a genius

2008-02-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

Writer Sujatha is no more. It's hard to believe that this genius will not be with us to provide anymore of his ever refreshing writings. I remember as a kid, how I used to go to state government library in Adyar and Besant nagar and search for hours to get his books (mind you, the libraries are huge and his books are very hard to find). His style of writing is unparalled and his depth of knowledge on things was amazing. Here's a sample:

ராகவாசாரி கணேஷிடம் "இந்த form-ஐ ரொப்பிடுங்கோ" என்றார் . கணேஷ் form-ஐ நிரப்பினான்.

His use of "மெலிதாக சிரித்தான்" for smile, was first of it's kind in tamil writing.

Reading the first few chapters of "நில்லுங்கள் ராஜாவே" was more intriguing than watching an actual thriller movie.

He has created a benchmark for writing and with his death there is going to be a void. I doubt if someone will ever be able to fill this void. My heart felt condolences to his family members.

Jodhaa Akbar - Movie Review

2008-02-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Ashutosh Gowarikar's "Jodhaa Akbar" is a well made movie by a technician, with very strong star cast and ably assisted by some excellent music.

Hrithik is brilliant and his on screen chemistry with Aishwarya is very good. His composed yet powerful performance shows his maturity as an actor. Aishwarya is good and she gives the feeling that seems to know what she is doing. There is a whole gang of other stars in the movie that support the main cast well.

Khwaja mere Khwaja and Shehensha songs are not only good but were picturized quite brilliantly. The directors attention to details, from sets to costume, lights and colors etc is commendable in this very long three and a half hour movie.

My problem is not so much so about the movie itself but about the history behind this historical movie. The director himself admits that the movie itself is only 30% original, our censor board only cares about explicit obscene and not willing to scissor any fact that is distorted. The fact is Akbar is an emperor who had at least seven wives and the whole Jodhaa marriage is nothing but a transaction to strenghten political tie. Just google AKBAR and you will have truck full of actual facts and not just someone's imagination or interpretation.

I don't believe in "history is open for everyone's own interpretation". Imagine making Lagaan with "Vaanjinathan" or "Bhagat Singh" as hero who played cricket match against British to get independence. Are we ready to talk rubbish or create stories about our own grand father or great grand father?

Our film makers have a social responsibility when they are delivering something historical. Any message that is delivered is as sensitive as "no smoking" or "anti corruption" campaign. Jodhaa Akbar is an imaginary love story delivered using Akbar as marketing catalyst.

Pictures Courtesy: www.jodhaaakbar.com

Blu-Ray sends Toshiba packing

2008-02-21T16:11:00.000-08:00

Toshiba has officially declared that it will not be running the technology race for future HD DVD. While the news may not be a big surprise since the Sony's Blu-Ray has been gaining the market steadily, the timing is surely a surprise. The popular consumer sentiment was that both the technology would co-exist given the pros and cons of both the disks, so most of them went ahead and bought the HD-DVD (which is relatively cheap) over the US holiday season, when the decision on one or the other was still neutral. Now that Toshiba will NOT be making any more players or disks for HD DVD, those who have already bought these are left with no choice of using them as coasters or as paper waits. Too bad the technology changes too soon. Remember the failed laser disks (LD) that came out in 90s.

Hello Help!

2008-02-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

Does the following ""ring a bell"?

"Hello, May I talk to an agent please!"
"Sure, Let me know exactly what the problem is?"
"I have a problem with my Bill"
"Good. Billing issue, as of today, your latest balance...Is there anthing I may assist you with today?"
"sure, I have a question on my bill"
"Good. Billing issue, as of today....."
Most of us go through this IVR pain every week and wondered if there is a way to by pass this or at least get a better option. Here's the solution, or at least that's what these guys claim.

I have not given a shot on this one yet, but will defintely check soon. But again, these tricks will only take you to a live agent, the service or solution is still not guaranteed.

Virtual ஜோசியர்

2008-02-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

I recently read this interesting post on how online dating and match making services are gaining popularity around the world. While South eastern countries are trying to embrace western culture on dating and secret love marriages, it's amazing to find how the sites like match.com is gaining popularity in the western world for serious long-term relationships. I remember how some of my American friends got surprised when I explained to them on how my marriage was "arranged". They even made fun of the guy who matched my ஜாதகம் with my wife's as a "Dating specialist". The online concept in some fashion introduces the virtual ஜோதிடர் model which people are more than willing to accept. You could still go wrong in any of the methods, but I think the majority of us would agree that for a serious long term relationships you need some kind of mediator to make the process fast and less risky.

Who is the real husband?

2008-02-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

While there is no doubt that Aishwarya is Abhishek's wife and not Hrithik's, there seems to have some questions and debate arising on who is Jodha's (played by Aishwarya in the movie "Jodhaa Akbar") real husband. Here's the scoop:

Jodhaa Akbar, a tale of love between Akbar and Jodha Bai, played by Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, a section of Rajputs in Rajasthan has protested that the film is historically inaccurate and threatened to block its screening in the state.

Factually at least, they are on solid ground. Akbar never married Jodha Bai. It was his son, Prince Salim who did. Salim became Emperor Jehangir. And his son from Jodha Bai, Prince Khurram, succeeded his father as Emperor Shah Jahan. “All this goes to show that history is not settled business,” says Mahmood Farooqui, who is currently writing a book on 1857 but is better known as a dastango who has single-handedly revived dastangoi or the traditional art of oral storytelling in Delhi. “It is almost as if each generation has its own myths about the past.” “Those protesting the movie have two specific objections,” says Dilbag Singh, professor of Mughal history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “That a different person was married to Akbar. And, that there was no love affair between the two.” Iqtidar Alam Khan, the noted historian and authority on Akbar who teaches at Aligarh Muslim University, points out that Akbar did marry a Rajput princess but she was Harka Bai, daughter of the Kachwaha ruler of Amber, Raja Bharmal. “The erroneous tradition that Akbar was married to Jodha Bai can be traced back at least to the 18th century. That is when we find the first written reference to it,” he says.

Intersting reading. Also, I have never read so much history on Akbar in my entire life until I stumbled on this story.

Davis Cup

2008-02-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

India beats Uzbek in the Davis cup to advance to the next round after a thriller played by Prakash, son of Vijay Amritraj. It was almost unnoticed and not so well documented in any of the major Indian websites, goes to show the non-popularity of the sport in India. The win should have got the same attention that Ishant Sharma was getting in the last couple of days, if not more. Inspite of friction between Leander, Mahesh and Prakash, the team came out victorious. Kudos to the Indian team.

Real Vs. Fantasy

2008-01-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

Some men cannot keep their mouth shut (actual news),

here's Ponting's latest outburst & Sreesanth's not so recent statement (booooo)

while others never want to make friends (imaginary from Web)

Symonds after all the recent sleazy incidents wanted to set things straight with Bhajji. After a rigorous net session at Melbourne before the T20 match, he saw Bhajji sitting in the pavilion. Symonds went straight to Bhajji and asked quite friendly - “Are you relaxing?”

Bhajji really got pissed and replied back - “No, I am Harbhajan Singh”

What will ICC do now?

2008-01-29T09:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the headlines in sydney morning herald after the Harbhajan verdict:

"Cricket's day of shame"
"ICC hit for a six as India shows whose running game"

Here's my point:

1. Why all this outcry if there is no strong evidence to prove a point?

There's also this quote:

"The thing that pisses us off is that it shows how much power India has," the anonymous contracted player told the paper. "The Aussie guys aren't going to make it [the accusation] up. The players are frustrated because this shows how much influence India has, because of the wealth they generate. Money talks."

What's Australia's point? Take their words as is and ignore what Indians say? Are they saying that would be a fair trial? Are they accusing Indians as liar and they would make up a story?

2. What does ICC do now to Mike Procter? Do they have enough guts to clean their own house by starting an inquiry on one of its own official because he gave a wrong verdict?

3. Why did Channel 9 stopped the stump mic feed to ESPN effective from 3rd day of Sydney test? Is it mere coincidence that the event happened exactly on that very same day?

4. What did Symonds actually said to Harbhajan that started the whole issue?

5. What's ICC stance on India, now that Aussies have opened a can of worms by openly accusing (sacking Bucknor, Harbhajan's ban revoke) that India's money power runs ICC? Are they going to tell Cricket Australia - "Shut Up, we are under control and we run the show"?

ICC by not conducting and controlling the game will have long term issues that will pose a serious threat to the game itself. They need to define clearly the rules and regulations on how the game will be conducted, how it will use the technology, how it's officials (umpiring, referees) will be selected, rewarded, monitored and if necessary even sacked. If they don't, ICC's annual calendar will definitely include fiascos like "Oval Test" or "The World cup finals" or "Sydney woes".