Hill Stations and Homemade Chocolates

With a bag hanging on his shoulder, he reached the main market place. A few of his friends were there with him too. They looked around. Tourists everywhere. Shopkeepers busy trying to attract the crowd. It was the peak season of the year.

Every second shop in that one square kilometer area sold homemade chocolates. He was astonished. He wondered why!

What was it with homemade chocolates and hill-stations? What's the damn connection?

- Is it because of fresh and organic milk? The cows do not have to eat treated food. They get to graze on the greener pastures of the mountains. No one is there to control their movement. With freedom, they eat better and live healthy. Hence, the milk is full of energy and natural nutrients. (Hmmm... is this the same milk that Arjun's mom used to give him? Don't know)

- Chocolate doesn't melt in cool weather. Now that's a scientific thought. But all the people who buy these chocolates, are from the hot plains. So what's the point in buying chocolates and then taking it back as one molded piece?

- Or is it cocoa beans? Possible, cocoa beans can grow in places that are 20 degrees to the north and south of the equator. Kodaikanal is probably one of those places.

- Homemade chocolates provide unadulterated nutritional value, which might be required in the hills. I mean, you'll need more and will also burn more.

- Chocolate contains chemical mood filters associated with feelings of love and passion. In India, hill-stations are a common attraction for lovers. You know where I am getting to. Also, Aztec emperor Montezuma drank 50 golden goblets of chocolate a day to boost his virility before visiting his harem of 600 women. Isn't that enough proof?

Now I need a kilo of that banana cream filled chocolate. Right Now !!!

Santosh Subramaniam - Love makes life beautiful

The Subramaniams have a very organized life. Mr.Subramaniam - the breadwinner of the family, goes out of his way to manage the needs of everyone in his family. He decides everything at home and no one thinks otherwise.

Santosh Subramaniam - our hero and the son, is not able to take this overpowering affection and control over his personal life.

That's where the movie, the re-make of a Telugu super-hit Bommarillu, begins.



Father is the ultimate authority. He even goes to the extent of deciding whom his son needs to marry, without even finding out whether the son is prepared to get married. While sincerely trying to decide how to break this arranged wedding is when Santosh meets Haasini - an extremely bubbly and live-life-for-this-moment girl.

Okay, at this point, we can definitely say that this movie is all about how Santosh manages to convince his family to accept his love. There is little more.

Jeyam Ravi - the tamil hero who has benefited from Telugu scripts, more than any other tamil hero, is back again with a bang. He is not bad at all. Ian Fleming described James Bond as the perfect man - 6ft tall, 76kgs, slim. Ravi qualifies in most aspects. His screen presence is good. I am not going to make a comparison with the Telugu movie. Ravi has made best use of his strength - dancing. In every song, he has performed a different style - folk, disco, hip-hop. Its all there. As an actor, I am not sure, maybe that was the scope of this movie. As a son whose actions are controlled by his dad, his emotions in the movie are quite reflective of his thoughts. The final emotional outburst and part-monologue is quite good.

Genelia, Harini - Haasini in the movie, brings a lot of LIFE to the screenplay. The SCRUNCH HAIR is totally cute. It compliments her character. Her belief in giving everything, even for an iota of happiness, not worrying about what others would think, not wearing different shoes in different settings, trying to be just one person all through the movie, is what changes the tempo of the movie and keeps you interested.



Prakash Raj as the dad has done a neat job. He is not loud. His attitude and strong dialogs make him powerful. He strongly believes that he needs to shape the life of his children. He is like most dad's you see around yourself. In fact, I see my dad doing the same with me, especially with the wedding issue. Even my parents think that they should have a big say in deciding what I need to do. That's ingrained, but when I say NO, they do listen.

The main theme of this movie is the dad-son relationship. As the movie progresses, you can slowly feel the power-influence graph shifting from the dad to the family and finally the son. The lady love is the independent variable who comes in between and changes the dynamics of the this equation.

Gita, Sayaji Shinde, Keerat, Vijayakumar, Sadagopan Ramesh, Kausalya are part of this movie, but have very less part to play.

Comedy from Santhanam and team blends into the movie. Although it doesn't make you roll on the floor, there is reasonable scope for a laugh or two.

Devisri Prasad - good job with the music. Anyway, its a copy from the Telugu. Somehow, after hearing to all the songs, I kind of get this feeling that a good percentage of the songs have the same base raaga. A little change in the tempo and you get another song. That's all. So no extraordinary work. Very efficient.

Overall: Cute movie.

A connection

Although this song is from the 2007 movies, its still a nice reminder of those wonderful days in school or college.

There was always this cute girl in school, on whom you had a big crush. Nothing happened because you never got up and told her anything. You were shy and afraid of what your friends would tell. Your friends take her trip everyday for the most common things, but you can't say a word. If you did that, then you are in deep shit. Far away from her, you still imagine her as your best companion.

Its the same with this video. It brings back those one-day excursions. Its only that day when the girls and the boys sit in the same bus. Your friends make noise, sing and trouble everyone around, but you try and play the nice guy. Or totally the opposite. You try and be the centre of attention. Still no impression made. Displays of chivalry grow in leaps and bounds. You secretly take pictures of your favorite girl. Once in a while, cross her path and try to make an eye contact. If it was a place with fun-rides, then you somehow manage to get a seat just behind her to watch her react.

Entertainment

This is the worst level to which Tamil Nadu politics could get to. Even GOOGLE NEWS classifies this piece of news as Entertainment rather than anything related to serious politics or government. This problem of opposition accusing the ruling party has become such a repetitive and idiotic act that even a harmless and unbiased search engine company's software decided to play sport.

Check the photograph on the right and the first news item.

Yaaradi Nee Mohini

Maybe it was Dhanush's dream to do a movie where he plays a software professional. I wouldn't blame him but the director for having placed very less importance on doing proper groundwork for the role.

A guy who doesn't even know the J of Java decides to find himself a job inside a software firm just because he runs into a pretty girl on the road who apparently is one of the project managers with that firm. He learns Java in a day, sorry, its just one night, just by memorising that "java is an object oriented language", cracks the written test, group discussion and personal interview.



Dhanush plays the irresponsible son of Raguvaran who is a school teacher. Dad keeps scolding his son endlessly. I wonder why Dhanush always ends up in a role where he gets tongue-lashed by his family. Or is it because of Selvaraghavan? Did he think that Dhanush was a spoilt child in his family and so he decided to take revenge on screen? Haha.. whatever!

So we know that our hero lands up in an IT firm. Without much PLANNING, he did a REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS and got the job. When it came to DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT, he screwed up. The server crashed. What an insane IT firm!! They don't even have a back up of the code. Hero learns the remaining of Java in the next few hours and starts coding. In the morning, when people come to office, he hands them the code printed in paper. Guys - gimme a break. Did you know that there is something called EMAIL? And then we see this funny message "CODE ACTIVATED" on the screen. Come on dude, ever since vacuum tubes were in existence, you guys have been showing us the same thing. Can't you get more creative and sensible?

IMPLEMENTATION goes for another toss. As our hero tries to convey his love to Nayantara, she rejects him totally.

Raguvaran does an amazing role in the movie. What is so shocking is his on-screen death because of getting drunk, which soon turns out to be a real life incident. Painful. What a tragic co-incidence.

Nayantara is JUST BEAUTIFUL in the movie. In the beginning, she is an angry project manager but towards the second half, she transforms completely. Selection of half-sari's for her costume is definitely worth a mention.



Karthik Kumar - yes, the EVAM Guy. Again ends up in a role where he has to let go of the girl he is supposed to marry. Oops, if that gives you any clue. But, amazing scope of role. He has a very important and meaningful role in the movie. His screen presence is very good. Some of his scenes and dialogs could have been avoided - especially the one where he asks a third person (here its a friend) to sing about his future wife. I'd blame the Selvaraghavan and team here. Would you ask your friend to sing and describe your girl-friend. Absolute stupidity. Third-rate behavior. Selva - please think. It doesn't cost much.

Anandavalli alias Pooja. Don't know her real name. She is one helluva pretty girl who is going to make waves. She has a crush on Dhanush and she gets a song with him too.

Nayantara - did she act at all? Nothing evident. Dhanush - tried to act but didnt work out well.

Music - nothing worth mentioning or reviewing. Since the movie is a re-make of a Telugu version there wouldn't have been any difficulty in knowing the mood at every point. Having known that much before, the compositions are still bad.

Overall Rating - Still worth a big laugh. Can see it once.

He Says She Says

She: Honey, can you trim my toe nail. I seem to have some difficulty to bend.

He: Do you know the reason Honey! its only because of saturated fat.

She: ##$$ OFF

Poem: Your innermost desire

when i asked you,
you told me no
i refused to believe
coz' it was not you

i was sure
you didnt want that
your heart told yes
the lips told no

now tell me yes
tell me what i want
really really
tell me what you want

Office Conversations

So every office has N number of systems passing data here and there. Half the time we dont even know why there are so many systems, why do they follow redundant processes and why can't things be simplified.

But, with an ever expanding office, these questions sometimes just go unheard of. While I was caught amidst the demands of these painful systems to input the information that it required, a funny incident happened.

I had to add a location by the name Luxembourg into a peoplesoft system because one member from my team was travelling. Since that location was not available in the list of places, I had to place a request. I wonder why they have some strange policies for adding a location onto a system. They asked me too many questions - most of which was unwanted.



Anyway, so I dropped an email to the helpdesk guys to add the location. A day later I got a call back from the helpdesk guy(H).

H: Which project? (And I give him the project details)

H: Let me get into the project details screen.

Me: Ok (thinking that this guy knows what he is doing)

H: Ok, so what is the service order?

Me: (i got confused now. why did he need the service order? this was nowhere connected to that? but then i still decided to give him the answer) Let me tell you where it is (and i walked him through a few screens and brought him to the service order screen)

Me: Can you see the number 1215078? That is the service order.

H: Oh yeah I see it now.

(There is some silence now. Still wondering why this number connected to the problem I reported, I thought he was thinking about the solution. Maybe something innovative.)

H:(suddenly) But this service order is attached to a resource called Praveen and not Luxembourg

Me: (totally shocked, I didn't know what this guy meant. After a few seconds, I realized that this guy had actually thought that Luxembourg was the name of a resource within the company. Controlling my laughter burst, I decided to explain the problem to him)
See, thats not the problem. Let me tell you what needs to be done
(and I showed him the right place to fix the problem)

H: Oh, you mean this one! For this, you have to ask the Database Team in Calcutta. This is not controlled by us.

Me: (Oh yeah, when Luxembourg becomes a employee name for you, I am quite sure you wouldn't have any clue) THANKS, please forward my request to them.

(By the way, Luxembourg has still not been added into the system. Those guys have contacted the European Head to get some approvals. God only knows!!!)