Tuesday, June 24, 2008

FILs love for teetotalers

So, one of the parents (perhaps a future father in law), who called my home, told - We went through your son's profile on Orkut and it says Drinking : Occasionally.

My dad who was never internet savvy, a little surprised and with a quizzical expression - obviously, it took him some time to understand that orkut profile was something like a matrimony site profile. He told - Its his profile. So I really don't know

Then the guy on the other side goes You told us that your son was a very disciplined person and we saw this on his profile. What does occasionally mean? Is it every week, month or year. You see, we can't make those assumptions

My dad was like - Okay, I don't interfere in all of this. Finally what do you have to say?

From the other side - We discussed this with our family members and we have decided that we will not take this forward

The conversation ended somewhere there.

Whatever it was. What's this big love that some dad's and their daughter's have, for teetotalers?

And what is the goddamn connection between drinking and being disciplined? Then, what do we call people in the armed forces as? Indisciplined fighters for the nation just because a good majority of them have a few drinks when they get together?

I was like, to whoever that ignorant parent was - Dude, do you know the meaning of being disciplined?

And then you tell me that you discussed this with your entire family!!! Me having one or two pegs every 2-3 months or so, is a subject of discussion for your entire family?

Gracious God, what is this you are getting me into?


Uff, there are a lot of supposedly educated parents in this world who think that if someone drinks, then he will beat up their daughter in the middle of the night or maybe make her life miserable. Thanks to the mega serials, the rickshaw-wallah and the bricklayer.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Dasavatharam - typical hero worship

Seeing Shivaji Rao Gaekwad on screen - first day first show always gives you a great feeling. Its the distinct quality rather style that he brings to the forefront. Hey, I am talking about Superstar, if you didn't know who.

With Kamal, its different. The first day phenomenon doesn't work too well with him. He is more of an artist and there is more to observe from his movies than to sit back, relax and enjoy. I pretty much got the same feeling when I started seeing this movie today.

To begin with, I would say that DASA is yet another movie made JUST FOR KAMAL BY KAMAL. We have seen many movies like that in the past. Kamal uses the producers money to make a movie that is totally influenced by his views. I never say that is bad. Point is - most of the other top names would end up being a namesake. Anyway, lets come back to the movie.



Kamal's 10 roles in the movie occupy almost 90% of the movie. If you saw one avatar getting off the screen, then within seconds, another one joins the story. From the 12th century Rangarajan to Govind in the US, CIA Agent Fletcher, US President George Bush, a Japanese, Officer Naidu, Old woman Krishnaveni, Avatar Singh, the uneducated Annachi, and the Afghan. Click on the image to see the characters clearly.

Its a great effort on creating the 10 avatars. I believe that a lot of time has been spent on changing between one avatar and the other, which in itself is a commendable job by the make-up artist.

DASA is quite an extraordinary movie. The movie begins with the 12 century and then goes on to end in 21st century. One theme of the movie is biological warfare. The other one is what Kamal already questioned in Anbe Sivam - the existence of an entity called God. An atheistic attitude is evident, but at the end Kamal finishes safe by saying that he did not say God didn't exist but believed that if God existed, it would be nice. Kamal's mission is to save the world from a deadly vial. The vial reminds you a bit about Mission Impossible and a few other Hollywood flicks. The hunt for the vial takes Kamal from the US to India and all along this journey, we meet more Kamal characters who join the joy ride.

The final tsunami scene takes a lot of credit - amazing effort. The graphics have come out really well. Spending time on figuring out what NaCl (sodium chloride) means, is interesting too. Especially showing that Bush doesn't know what it is, is perhaps a clear indicator that Bush doesn't know so many things and this is just one.

Asin who plays two roles - one in the 12th century and one in the 21st, does not have any scope. In the first role, all she did was speak three lines and then cry. In the second role, she keeps running with Kamal, to escape from the cops and the bad guys. Throughout the movie, she is only worried about God. So, every other minute she keeps calling PERUMAL and keeps whining.



Mallika Sherawat - oh she definitely had a better role than Asin. Although she her total screen presence did not cross 15-20 minutes, she did a very good job of whatever was expected from her.

KS Ravikumar - the director who lent his name for the titles in the beginning and then makes a cameo towards the end of the movie. I doubt if he had much to do in the middle. With Kamal controlling the story and screenplay, Ravi probably ran a few errands.

Oscar Ravichandran, oops its Aascar Ravichandran now - a name change. Numerology and Kollywood is perhaps the best combination. The industry here does not lay emphasis on talent. If I change my name, I'll be lucky is what most think. Anyway, producer claims that he has recovered his money. I seriously think he is bluffing.

Himesh Reshamaiyya is another let down. I don't know what to say about his music. My only question to whoever chose him - Did you actually listen to his previous compositions? Or it could be like this. Himesh would have given the producer one or two crores to score in this movie. Producer gets some money and Himesh gets some mileage.

Overall: Can watch once to see Kamal in different roles.

Link 1 for Hawkeye's review.
Link 2 for Neha's review.
Link 3 for another review.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Santosh and Me

Being in the market, you get to witness many interesting events. I finally decided to blog about one.

So, the astrologer tells the girls dad(we got to hear about it later) - this horoscope is an excellent match. everyone in the family is well known to me. you can blindly give your daughter's hand to their son.

wait - i thought, love was blind. nowadays even astrologer-confirmed-arranged-marriages have become blind!!! anyway, sometimes i feel that love is not just blind, but its deaf and dumb too.

Few phone calls happened between the concerned parties - talks about family, ancestors, cities they have lived in and people they know etc etc. This is the background check. Then an email id was given.

Not being able to handle the daily rants, I finally decided to take the next step. So you know, the usual process begins. Introduction. And this is also like your "Expression of Interest" letter when you apply for your mba job application. Even though your skill sets are not going to change, you have to customize certain aspects so that it doesn't look like a cut and paste job. That was done.

No reply for about a week. Usually if I don't get any communication within a day or two, I give up. In this case, I was like - No way, even if I get a reply anytime later. I was thinking - after hours of random conversations on the phone between the families and trying to connect too many grey haired men and women that they could possibly know, what could be wrong? Or is it really taking this person a week to respond? Sometimes people write in installments you see.

Anyway, I gave my judgment on this case and closed the file from my side. Defense's (mom) objections were overruled.

Two days back, we got a call from the dad on the other side. It seems that he had told his daughter not to email until he told her to or something in those lines.

Instantly, the movie Santosh Subramaniam came to my mind. Its an arranged marriage situation and the girl says - "Appa sonnaarunga, neenga romba nallavaru, ongala kalyanam pannikitta en life romba santhoshama irukkumnu"(my dad told me that you are nice guy and if i get married to you, my life will be good)

I replayed that for my situation.

"Appa sonnaarunga, naan sollara varaikkum email pannaathae" (my dad told me that he will come and tell me whether to email or not)

"Appa sonnaarunga, neenga romba nalla payyan nu."
(my dad told me that you are a very good person)

It was absolutely HILARIOUS. I was happy that I had already decided against this. Coming to think of it, its actually scary. If parents make the decision for the girl (its not just this one, but i have come across a few more) - oh my god!