Dham Dhoom

Dham Dhoom is one movie from which you can learn a lot. Such as:

1. Toyota Innova is a great car for sensual love and romance.
2. In a foreign land, everyone around you, even your own country man, is a stranger.
3. A pole dancing stage in a bar is usually for women strippers and not men.
4. Don't get carried away by pretty women in a new country. Known devil is better than unknown angel.
5. Gut feeling can do magic.

Gautam (Ravi) is selected to go to Russia for a medical conference. He gets into trouble there and how he manages to set himself free is all what this movie is about. Jeyam Ravi's performance is quite good. As a stranger in a new land, he acts well.


Late Director Jeeva, who had worked with Director Shankar for a lot of movies and also independently gave hit movies like Ullam Ketkume and Unnale Unnale, had begun this project and was later completed by his team due to his sudden demise during the journey of this movie.

The first 20 minutes or so has almost 3 songs. That was like a shocker. In a way, its good too because later we will not have songs to distract us from the pace of the movie. As the movie gets to Russia, one of the guys from the Indian doctors team shows extreme emphasis about being careful in a new place. This gives enough ideas that in the next few scenes, our hero is going to have big trouble.

What I wonder is how Russian Immigration allows the Indian team to just enter without clear immigration checks. Also, why would you want to help some random woman in a foreign land, when you know that you are going to get married in like 15 days. Why try last minute flirting.

Harris Jeyaraj is back again with some numbers that are melodious. Background score reminds you of the Bourne movies. Its quite a straight copy.

Kangana Raut as Gautam's ladylove, Senba, is extremely skinny for a village girl and its completely unacceptable for "Tamil Nadu Village Girl Standards". Some flesh, especially near the hips, is required. Also, lip sync is bad.

Lakshmi Rai, supporting actor, is the advocate who helps Ravi in Russia. After a few glamorous roles, Lakshmi is back with character and substance to prove herself.

Malayalam actor Jayaram plays a very important role in this movie as an official from the Indian Embassy. When you closely observe his dialog delivery in the beginning, you get a feeling as to why it lacks assurance or assertiveness. Later, when things unfold you understand this well.

Overall: Good time pass

Jeyam Kondaan - Doesnt Win

Satya Jyothi films is back again helping director Kannan make it big.

Jeyam Kondaan takes us through few incidents in an ambitious young man's life. At the outset, its a brother-sister movie. So, this movie is somewhat like a re-jig of the Mani movie Agni Natchathiram. Definitely not any close.

Vinay returns from London to start a venture in India. After he lands, he finds that the money he had sent to his dad is missing from the bank. His quest to find out what happened to the money and then solving all the problems connected is the rest of this movie. A group of close friends, a step-sister with whom the sibling rivalry begins, a house in Madurai and its tenants, a local goon, are the main characters that shape this movie.

Vinay, as the lead role, in this movie, has done his part quite well. Most of his expressions remind you of his previous movie Unnale Unnale. His work on the songs part is hopeless, but what can he do. You just have to blame the choreographer.

Lekha Washington is the pinion of this movie. This is her first here and she has performed like a seasoned actor. Her arrogant and adamant nature reflects the generation of headstrong people whom you'd come across. If there is anyone who deserves credit for this movie, its Lekha.

Bhavana's performance is nothing to mention. She is just a supporting actor in this movie. Yeah, she has a few songs with Vinay. Otherwise, her role is very restricted to cute talking and she has no scope. The director has tried a "Dum Dum Dum Jothika intro song" similar with Bhavana in this movie. It hasn't worked well.

Vidyasagar's music doesn't deserve a clap. Songs like "Athai Koodava" and "Adai Mazhaikaalam" are melodious but don't strike a chord with the audience. You wouldn't want to hear to these songs again. The background score isn't any effective either.

Comedy takes two separate tracks, one with Vivek in the city and another with Santhanam in the suburbs. Both do well. In a certain instance, Vivek travels into a serious note which is quite commendable.

The movie comes with a host of extra characters who try and make as much impact as possible. Thalaivasal Vijay, Nizhalgal Ravi, Megha Rajan, Cochin Haneefa are a few to name. Krishna, who is Vinay's friend in the movie, has given an excellent performance. I would also appreciate the director for showing some depth in Krishna's character.

Overall: Watch it only for Lekha

Learnt

THERE WAS A GIRL
WHO WAS
TALL THIN AND FAIR

HER HAIR
HER HAIR
WAS VERY VERY LONG

Invitation Fiasco

I suppose, the idea of a perfect wedding never works that well with the men.

So I spent like one or two weeks deciding how to send an engagement invitation to my friends - BCC them on an email or send them a prepared invitation from an external site. There was a need to know the numbers, so the best way was to get people to reply on a page that was available from a site. I started searching on the internet. Narrowed down a few sites, created login ids on all those sites and also got a few templates shortlisted.

As this needs suggestions and validations from you know who, I spent considerable amount of time on chat, discussing what needs to be done. My initial research was well appreciated. Then, she rejected two top priority sites of mine and came up with another site that she had seen. Later, she told me that all the templates that were available on the sites I suggested were hopeless. So she spent some time creating a new template. It came out really well. We spent a few days making some final changes. It was good to go.

She had decided how she wanted to send the invitation. She did that. In fact, she sent me a test invitation as well to see whether everything worked fine. Field Engineer's mind works with precision. Like everything you do on the rig is important as the operating cost is extremely high, same principles worked with the invitations. Extra care and attention was given.

I took extra time and finally realized that it was high time to send the email out. Last minute pressures. I created an account in a site that I liked (actually it was the one she had used. you know how easy it is to copy-paste) and started preparing the invite. While adding email ids to the address list, I did an overconfident import from my gmail account and 1500 plus email ids were added to the address list. Until then it was okay.

Something funny happened. I was on some screen on that website and then I saw a button which said "PREVIEW and SEND". I clicked that and then it started showing me an hour glass button on the screen. For about 10 seconds I didnt know what was happening. Suddenly it struck me. I knew something was going wrong and then I pressed the "CANCEL" button on the page.

By that time, the deed was almost done. The system had already started sending emails to my friends. Worst, it sent emails to some yahoo and google groups that I had subscribed to, as well.

Sometimes its typical IT Industry mentality. Do something called development and send it. When it bombs, we will do maintenance and support. And thats exactly what I have been doing. I have no clue as to how many people have got this invitation email. Every reply is like a support call now. I am answering back with thanks and letting them know about the incomplete invitation. I hope I dont spend the whole of tomorrow doing this.

What a fiasco !!!!
Enna Kodumai Saravanan Ithu

Trip to Rameswaram - Part 1

On a Friday evening; especially when the saturday is a no-moon day; you definitely don't want to take a train to Rameswaram from Chennai. The average age of the passengers is 50 or even more. All through the train, you get the smell of onion or tomato chutney. Let me not forget to mention the amount of home cooked food as well. These are some routes where the railway catering probably makes no money. And then you have a bunch of people singing songs in the name of God.

And fortunately or unfortunately; a bunch of us, office friends, boarded the Rameswaram Express at 5pm from Chennai Egmore station. 12 hours to reach the temple town. What a painful journey! And guess what, everybody on that train is going to be at the temple in the morning. Thats like a lill more than 1200 people. Dont forget the people who are going to take vans, buses and all other forms to transport to the town. Moreover, this weekend was after the no-moon day when the eclipse was also around. So according to some priests, there is more reason to crowd around Rameswaram.

At 5 in the morning, the typical smell of a fisherman's town woke me up. At that time, the train was just going to enter the Pamban Bridge. In about 25 mins, we reached the station. Our rooms were booked at the Tamilnadu tourism hotel which was near the sea shore. There arent too many hotels here. Only a few good ones. If you plan to be here during a festival or any important weekend like this one, you better book rooms. Otherwise no chance!

Agnitheertham is the point to start your tour of Rameswaram. This is the spot on the sea right opposite the east tower of the temple. You need to take a dip in the sea and then walk to the temple. There are 22 sacred wells inside the temple where you have to shower as well (not really shower, but a guy will pour some water from a bucket on your head). If you take the standard temple queue for this, then the rates are very nominal, around Rs.17 i think. If you use an agent; of course, they will come and find you, then it varies between Rs.50 and 75 a head. Definitely, an agent does a good job. So, dont mind the money at all. Once this is done, you have to get back to your room, change into dry clothes and come back for darshan. Ramanathaswamy (Lord Shiva) is the main deity here.

After darshan, you can go around the hallway of the temple and see the architecture and paintings. There is also a shrine for Parvathy, Lord Rama and Hanuman. This temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingam temples in India. Some of the other things about this temple is the Palliyarai Darshan you shouldnt miss. At around 8.15pm, the puja for the Lord ends and the lord is brought by the priest to the Palliyarai near the Devi Shrine. The Palliyarai has a golden cradle where the lord and the goddess rest. A special puja happens and then sandalwood paste is given as prasadam to every devotee present. At a Shiva temple, its usually Vibhuti (ash) and never sandalwood paste. So this is also different. Next day morning (5am to 6am) is the Spatika Linga Abhishekam. This is the only time when the Spatika Lingam is taken out and bathed with milk. Just before this happens, you can watch the priest bringing the Lord back from the Palliyarai to the main shrine.

This temple also has a nice legend associated with it. Click here to read about that.

After completing our morning dips, we went back to the lodge. I had my breakfast at a hotel near the temple. The roads on the east and west side of the temple are the only ones that have decent hotels. Don't expect great service. They serve good vegetarian food. Thats all.

Our next trip was to Dhanushkodi. We hired a jeep. A jeep can take 5 people and it will cost you Rs.950. This place is about 20 kms away from Rameswaram and its the point of confluence for the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The ride was extremely tiring, but the views we got of the seas was amazing. On this picture, you can see one of the islands. Jump a few of those islands and you are in Ceylon. On the way back, we visited the Kothandaramswamy Temple - the place where Lord Rama crowned Vibhishana.

Independence Day Frisbee

Chennai Ultimate Frisbee conducted an Independence Day bootcamp. We made a poster and invited people to join us at the beach.

Network 18 group was very keen on covering this event. Divya, an ultimate player, who also works with Network 18 covered our camp live from Besant Nagar Chennai at about 7am. Here is the video (not edited).

Ramadass attacks CII’s Chennai version 3.0

So, today, our ever-revolting friend Ramadass has opened his mouth again. Read that here

I have observed this for some time now. For anything that is aimed at development or industrialization, our man is the first person to protest.

This time its against Chennai 3.0 - the CII conference.

When some people are dreaming of making Chennai like one of the top cities in the world, this guy is speaking of driving away the middle class and the poor sections.

The last time I took a walk around Parrys Corner in Madras, I was thinking to myself - "Wow, Madras would be such a beautiful place if Parrys Corner was converted to look like Manhattan or Nariman Point. With high rise buildings on that side of the city, it will be a whole new transformation"

Obviously, when cities grow and become important for business, people will have to move out to the suburbs. We still cant have the same auto rickshaw guys loitering around and creating a traffic menace. Things have to get organized at least some day. To this day, when we speak of having visionaries and thought leaders amongst us, we have some thoughtless leaders like this one.

What are you?

So let me know what kind of a person you are - Left or Right? I am hoping to get some thoughts about this before I post more information.

By the way, an explanation for FONDU is available here

Sathyam - Tries Hard

I found some time yesterday evening. So I decided to catch up on the latest police based movie - Sathyam.

Sathyam - starring Vishal is what I would call as "yet another police story", but definitely not a very successful attempt.

The film begins by mocking a few themes portrayed by previous police movies - Kaakha Kaakha and Saami but still doesn't fare well. Even after seeing so many mature police movies through directors in the past, Sathyam's director still shows his IPS officer has a super hero, which is truly unbelievable.

Vishal has toned his body a lot, to look like a completely athletic police officer. The six pack craze has come to everyone now after King Khan displayed his. Sad, every other officer around him, sports a reasonable "tamil nadu police belly". Obviously, we know that Vishal cannot dance well. And that clearly shows in the song sequences. Dialogue delivery is okay but needs some clarity and thought. Vishal has performed quite well, otherwise. His portrayal of an honest police officer is quite commendable but that doesn't last for long.

We know that there are only some things that a policeman can do. There have been too many movies in the past and some have actually hit reality quite well. Sathyam is quite out of sync that way. Especially the fights. Totally insane. No police man can fight 20 plus people at a time. Its stupidity. I mean, why keep fighting. If you have to get them out of your way, then shoot below the waist and get going. Why waste your script on stunts.

Script and Screenplay takes a downward turn from the beginning. Encounters are done at gangsters or criminals not because politicians are bored of giving them cover. Its another way of eliminating people who repeatedly commit crime. We know that justice is in the favor of the advocate who argues convincingly. Encounter eliminates a chance for the advocate. That's all. And like they say in the movie Kaakha Kaakha, encounter is not done on any tom, dick and harry. When the criminals don't fear about shooting cops, why should the cops shoot below the knee? Sathyam movie takes you to a car chase. The background is the court near Egmore but the car chase happens on the highway to Andhra Pradesh. Vishal surviving and trying a monologue even after a bullet is fired at his chest. Too much love in a police movie kills the momentum. Sathyam does that as well. Finally, "mother sentiment". Can't we just get rid of this? Why do you have to portray heroes as "mamma's boy" - so loving, caring and all that bulshit. For god's sake, this is not a family story.

Upendra - the kannada hero, in his first tamil movie has done a wonderful role. Until a certain point in the movie, he keeps you wondering about why he is doing what he is doing. He definitely turns the movie around a bit. His thoughts in the movie totally reflect a resonably educated man and I do agree with him.

Nayantara - again, a waste of time. Her try with comedy is sick. Her moves in the songs are quite sexy. The introductory scene is quite interesting. After that the love scenes start dragging. In of the songs, it looks like Vishal and Nayantara are totally in love with each other. One police story in the past, with such scenes, ended in a wedding. Let's see if this one does too.

Harris Jayaraj's music hasn't lived upto the expectation. Background scores clearly show that he cannot try something new. Even the songs. The last one reminds you of "Kalyanam Thaan" from Saami. The rest also have deep connections with songs he has composed before and other tunes in the market. Composing music is a really tough job - agreed. Safe bet is to try an existing formula. Doing that again and again is a very bad idea.

Work on the camera is very good. For whatever script and screenplay was decided by the financiers and the director, the cameraman has done an amazing job. Scenes are very crisp and have a touch of perfection.

Overall: Moderate.

Insights

I ran into this piece of information on the web. And I was surprised.



If you think, you can give an explanation to this one, then please add your comments.

Kuselan - somehow friendly

What happens when a Malayalam movie is made in Tamil with a different set of actors and technicians? you'd rather call it a new Tamil movie.

I have strong reasons to believe that Katha Parayumbol - a great Malayalam movie starring Srinivasan got a similar treatment by the director P.Vasu. Commercialization. That's the only word to describe.

The story is about the life of a barber who lives in a town; and his superstar friend, with whom he had studied in school. The superstar comes to his village to shoot for a movie. The whole village is in a celebration spree to get a glimpse of the star. The moment they get to know about this connection, everyone in the village treats the barber and his family like how they see a person who has won the lottery. In that way, this film is a great representation of how behavior changes. But very soon, the movie starts focusing more on the superstar and the barber goes out of focus.
Pasupathy plays the role of a barber and Meena plays his wife. They try very hard to make ends meet. They don't have money to pay fees for their school going children; live in the most run-down house of the locality and don't even have food to eat, but Meena manages to wear starched saris and foundation / rouge for every scene.

Pasupathy does an excellent portrayal of a poor barber. His expression and dialog delivery is superb. I think he has studied Srinivasan's role from the original movie; in detail. But what to do, commercialization of the movie has erased the main theme and his presence. He gets sidelined and then the director suddenly remembers - oh my god, we forgot about this barber guy and then gets him back to focus again. This sequence keeps repeating.

Nayantara - total time pass I would say. No scope for acting. Actually she does nothing worthy in the whole movie. I wonder why she accepted to do this role. Too many close up shots on her body is definitely some eye candy. Rain dance and song is hot. Just before that song everyone wonders, rather they panic, where Nayantara is. Then they show the song. After that no one is bothered about Nayantara.

Coming to the comedy tracks. Vadivel - the vaigai puyal. Although he spends a lot of his screen time beating up his employees, his comedy concept is nice. Santhanam, Livingston, Santhanabharathi, Manobala and a lot others who are part of the comedy really keep you rolling in laughter. At least comedy is what sells in this movie through the first half. It really saves the movie.

Music by GV Prakash Kumar. Quite good but reminds you a lot about songs that you have heard before. One song (Perinba) reminds you about the title song in Veyil. Another song (Nayantara's rain dance song) looks like a slight lift off from a song that was composed by one of the bands in AR Rahman competition "Mirinda - Ooh La La La". The Shankar Mahadevan song about cinema, the way filmdom works and about Superstar, all in a song, is beautiful. The Egyptian theme based song sounds very much like "MJ's Remember the Time".

Last but not the least. Superstar. He is at his best. Apart from the usual scenes about fans and stardom, he comes across in the movie as such a simple person, which is highly commendable. If you've read the book, "The Name is Rajnikanth", then you'll be able to closely relate the last scene of this movie with superstar's life. There was actually a Kuselan in superstar's life; because of whom superstar managed to leave Bangalore and reach Madras in search of a future. But, what the hell. This movie still largely glorifies superstar and not Kuselan.

The message that comes out towards the end is about friendship. At the end, the producers could have made a witty remark saying "Happy Friendship Day" considering that the movie was released in August.

Overall: Good time pass for the family.

Friendship Day

NO greeting card 2 give, NO sweet flowers 2 send, No cute graphics 2 forward, Just a kind heart of an ever loving friend wishing u advance "HAPPY FRDSHIP DAY"

So thats the first SPAM I got today morning for Friendship Day. And then few more started coming in. But they weren't as funny as this one.

Anyway, I always believed that after a point in your life, you kinda feel weird rather funny about these things. I mean, there are so many other things to do than buying an elastic friendship band or some filigree stuff that you can tie to your wrist or pin up to your shirt or bag. God knows who came up these ideas.

You know what - Friendship Day and all those Days dedicated to Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Dog, Cat, Neighbors are all for the West. Ok, we have Rakshabandhan. That's a different story altogether. But why I connect this to the west is mainly because of the magnitude they attach to these relationships. Children are so independent at young age. They are left to decide what they want to do. They marry. Not once, but quite a number of times. Also do several other things that we may not do. So, for them, relationships are just like written on paper. Ok, I am not telling that the people in the west do not have values. Their bold thinking about what they want to do in their life takes more gets more preference. That's all. So, they need such days to periodically remind them. And during such moments, they do everything they can to make that day special for that person in their life.

We Indians are not like that. When our friend calls, we have all the time in the world to spend with him or her. Sometimes, we go over and above the limit to do anything. Same goes with the values that we attach towards our immediate family and relatives. At least its been like that. I don't know how much of this "me and my space" concept has influenced us lately.

So the one thing I remembered distinctly among several others about Friendship and Friendship Day was this video. Wait! don't go and click immediately. So, I managed to find this on You Tube.

Closely watch the dialog at 1:32 about Friendship. Now that's simply amazing I say.



But don't be surprised if I go ahead and write a poem on friendship or maybe an icky sticky mindlessly sentimental post on the essence of friendship. I am capable of doing that. Just for the sake of writing another post; fill space you could say. That's all.

Wonderful

I was super impressed after seeing this on the web. I really wish I could write stuff like this and send it to you know who.

I hope you like the video.

Swipe for lunch

From tomorrow, we have something different to look forward to, at the office. MEAL CARDS.

So, it used to be like this. We paid 15 rupees for lunch and the organization paid the same. Now that's not there anymore.

We got this new thing called a meal card. One more extra card. Amidst so many credit cards, debit cards, fuel cards, MTV card, dhaba express discount card, oh yeah, access card; now we have this card to used at the cafeteria.

Company will not pay that 15 rupees. They have brought this new scheme called Flexible Benefit Plan. I seriously don't know how flexible this is. If I end up paying more tax by July next year compared to this financial year, then I'll know about the inflexibility of this flexible plan. Company will top up a fixed amount every month on this card and then you can swipe this card for lunch.

Previously you just paid 15 rupees and it was the hassle for the accountants in the finance department and the guys from the access card department to figure out how many ate or how many swiped twice, whatever that maybe. Now all accounting headache has been shifted to the employee. Every time you swipe, you have to ensure that the person at the counter enters the right amount and if you need to track the account, then you need to keep the bills and later claim if you need to reconcile. There is also an online account tracker.

But you know what? Having been here for about a year, I am sure my company will tell me to scan the receipt and send it via email to a given email address and raise a query in a new system.

By the way, this card can be used in other retail outlets within the city as well. Other than the big names, I really don't know where else you can use the card.

One of the names I saw on the list of outlets in Chennai said "PADMA STORES" and that's it. That was effin crazy!!! I guess there are enough surprises like this.

Subramaniyapuram

A step back into the past - about 28 years. The year 1980. Think about what was in store then.

I went back to the old photo albums lying in the house to understand everything. The eighties. Wavy or curly hairdo, a rough look on the face sporting a thick beard or a nicely shaped mustache, bell bottom pants, colorful and kaleidoscopic designer shirts with an insanely long collar, wide belts with large buckles - thats the men. Now for the women - plaited hair (it was always black), jasmine flowers, half saris, eyeliner.

Subramaniyapuram (S.Puram) - set in the year 1980 was nothing different. Everything that you would possibly expect from a situation in the 80s was provided with utmost attention to detail. Even the motor vehicles - take the auto-rickshaws and the trucks - the registration number plate also reflected the 80s.

S.Puram is about the life of a few unemployed men who spend their lifetime living in a small town, working for a local wannabe politician, and how they end up becoming outlaws. S.Puram is also a story about living a life for today. Characters in the movie do not have great ambitions. They are very down-to-earth.

What I liked about the movie was the simplicity in the script. There was very clear emphasis on how friendship binds people, and the innocence among people that allows them to go to any extent to do what they want.

Swathi - the girl with the coy glances. She was just amazing. Without any glamor or style, in most of the romantic sequences, it was her big round eyes that did all the talking. Credit goes to the director for having delved into that direction of romance.

Love in the 80s wasn't any close to what we see in the movies nowadays. It was like running water on lotus petals, very much on the surface, brimming with emotions. No violent kisses or vulgarity. It brought in a divine feeling.

Jai - the bowler from the Rockers team in movie Chennai 28; has done an amazing job as Azhagar. Equal credit goes to his friend in the movie who plays this character called Parama. Imagine the angry young man of the 80s. Thats Parama for you. Azhagar is also on similar lines but partly enamored by Tulasi.

The movie lacked a forewarning of violence. There should have been a clear communication to the cinema halls telling them not to allow children for this movie. The second half of this movie deals only with blood filled violence and its quite shocking to see all that. Its comparable to the final scene in Paruthiveeran. If you;d scene that movie, then I am sure you wouldn't recommend watching that with your children or school going cousins. This is quite similar.

Overall: Great movie for a small budget.

If you knew or

BOY meets GIRL in college. They spend over 5 years together or whatever - don't remember the exact number of years. For convenience lets keep it 5. Start off as friends. Surrounded by a gang of common friends they together hang in cafes, cinema halls and parties.. and lots in that line.

One thing I don't understand is why BOY doesn't feel more than being just friends with the GIRL. This is absolutely unbelievable stuff. I mean, in the last 5 years that BOY had known GIRL, he should have had enough feelings for her. He should have felt more for her than being just a friend and let me tell you straight - at least once in that 5 yrs he would definitely fall in love with her.

BOY and GIRL can't remain JUST friends and keep doing the following - talking to each other everyday for hours, spending time with each other more than required, dinners, dance parties, dates blah blah blah.. all of that will lead just to one thing. LOVE.



Well, that's what Jaane Tu comes to tell you. And according to me, you don't really need another pretty girl and smart boy between BOY and GIRL to help them understand what they feel for each other. But you know what - the director is actually right. Most of the times, BOY or GIRL doesn't realize that they are actually in LOVE and they just keep denying it. And you always need that external catalyst to start off that new reaction. In that context, I would agree with Abbas Tyrewala.

Old wine in new case. Thats the only description about Jaane Tu. BOY is Jai and GIRL is Aditi.

Rahman's youthful music just makes you love the film. "Pappu can't dance" - a dig on Salman Khan totally. Even if Aamir Khan says NO in public, I wouldn't agree because everything about that song is a punch on Salman's face. Especially stuff like muscular, playing the guitar etc etc. "Kabhi Kabhi" - the song thats been around everyone's minds for a few months now, is another highlight. In the middle the background score and some other song reminded me of "Michael learns to rock". Anyway, musicians are influenced by some style or the other.

Coming to the narration part. Rotlu, Jiggy, Bombs and Shaleen (all friends) decide to tell Mala about Jai and Aditi's story. This way of narration is an exact copy of the Tamil movie Azhagiya Theeyae

Another theme in the whole story is about fulfilling the pre-requisites of being a Rathore family member. Naseerudin Shah as the photo dad keeps talking to Jai's mom and troubles her with his witty dialogs every now and then. Arbaaz and Sohail Khan do a cameo in the movie. They are fun to watch.



Genelia is as usual - the same in Tamil and Hindi. No change at all. I don't understand how every director gets her the same kind of role. Always bubbly and immature.

Imran - the new kid on the block. Looks very smart on screen and does his role quite well. I think Aamir has provided a good opening for his nephew.

If you find someone enjoying this movie in the cinema hall, then you can be rest assured that these are the college going kids because this movie is so damn predictable that someone who is a little more matured will never want to sit through this for more than an hour or so.

Overall: Colorful

21: The Movie

Hmm, I usually don't do a review for an English movie, but what the hell, a good friend of mine recommended this movie and asked me to write a post. So, here we go.

21 is a movie based on Ben Mezrich's 2003 bestseller Bringing Down the House - a tale of how brilliant MIT students supposedly took the Vegas casinos for millions of dollars at blackjack, using devilishly clever card-counting techniques, but somehow lost it all again.



Ben Campbell, a science genius needs about 300 grand USD to fund his education at the Harvard Medical School. He applies for a scholarship and the dean asks him for a challenging story that would help him get the scholarship. Ben doesn't have one and there starts his quest for a great story.

21 is an exciting movie packed with the right elements that would expect in movies that revolve around the life of 21yr olds.

Kevin Spacey (Micky) plays the professor who runs a team of card counting specialists. They fly to Vegas every weekend and literally plunder a casino.

Kate Bosworth is the college babe that everyone wants to hang around with. For 25, she looks sexy cool and pairs up really well with Sturgess who is just 21.

The movie is more about how observant you are whilst the game is in progress and what clues you pick up. So, there are keywords that you need to know and watch out for, signals, gestures and formulas for the cards that are being laid down. Another important part is the effect of emotion over your decision making power. Once you overcome the emotion, stay calm and composed, then you have a mathematical formula that takes you right close to the answer and you don't have to think twice about making that decision.



21 also shows how young and geeky college students yearn to date pretty women in the same college but never manage to get there easily. Very typical. And when the guy almost gets the girl, they try to act smart in front of their friends.

21 also emphasizes a lot on how to control your mind and thoughts as a person, how not to be greedy and not go overboard, loyalty, betrayal, camaraderie, team work, most importantly NEGOTIATION. The last part where Ben asks Micky to play one last game is a classic example of how he manages to turn the tables to his favor.

Overall: awesome movie for a night show. you'll definitely not sleep.

Kadhalikka Neramillai

Found this song on the internet




Listen carefully and you'll realize that the tune has references to so many Tamil film Songs.

Oops, for the people who don't understand tamil. The post title means - No time for love. Actually, this is the title for a soap that runs in VIJAY TV or STAR VIJAY.

Announcement

- More than 5000 profile hits in the Tamil matrimony website and a hole in my pocket because of the registration charges.

- Advertisements in the official Palghat Iyers matrimony publication for consecutive months.

- A ream of JK White copier paper wasted in printing out horoscopes of prospects and letters to parents across the country.

- Visits to the family astrologer's house every now and then to see which ones match. Discussions to find why it matches on the girl's side and not on ours.

- Seeking opinions from a third party astrologer - just to cross check. What if our own astrologer skipped a chapter while learning the theory behind the whole matching technique.

- Travel Expenses to meet the person for the first time, then meet again. And then repeating this again for more sample sets.

- Visits to new new temples every month. Applications to a new god every now and then. 40 rounds at one place. 17 at the other. Special ritual at the third. New prayer to be told 137 times every morning for 39 days.

- Trying to make implausible explanations to my parents and relatives about my expectations and being totally unsuccessful at it.

- Being in a completely fuddled state of mind about what i want in my life.

- Listening to questions ("when are you going to get married", "what is wrong with her" - i think i have heard these a zillion times) and opinions from anybody under the sun.

- Troubling parents beyond the point of resistance and control; leading to emotional drama and blackmail.

- Fights with folks at home about maintaining a good profile picture on the matrimony website.

- Answering weird questions from parents who call regarding an alliance

- Participating with friends in discussion forums about male-female ratios in the Palghat community.

Oh what a year it was!



Brothers, Sisters, Friends and everyone else,

I am done with all this now. I am off the singles list, preparing to start a memorable journey.

The dates have not been finalized. The wedding is planned around Q1 next year. Anyway, I'll let you know.

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.

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.

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!

Dow Bhopal Tragedy

I bumped into an article in Business week and I was surprised to note what's happening.

In 1984, Bhopal gas tragedy happened. Union Carbide was completely responsible for everything that happened and they were liable to make any clean up that's required. They paid some money to the victims and then everything was left as it is. Neither the government nor Union Carbide did anything more to address the environmental impact that the leak had created.

Dow Chemical bought whatever was left of the Union Carbide plant. They bought the company shares.

And now, a bunch of people are holding their hands, shouting at Dow Chemical to spend millions of dollars to clean the water table.

The law ministry is also sending wrong signals and supporting this stupid idea.

I seriously don't understand. Why are these people blaming Dow? Just because an international company decided to buy a rundown plant, can you just blame them for whatever happened before?

On top of this, some students at the IITs are objecting to an institutional tie-up with Dow Chemical. That's stupidity to the highest level. Don't these students ever think at all? This is what happens when respected institutions are influenced by reservation policies, the Ministry and a bunch of uneducated politicians.

There is also an NGO that is fighting against Dow Chemical. The Chemicals Ministry has told - "the polluter should pay". What a statement. Damn it! Everyone knows that the polluter was Union Carbide and they were supposed to do the clean up. All these people kept quiet, got bribes once in a while, and now when a renowned firm entered the country, they have decided to put the blame on it. Maybe, someone gave them an idea that if we blame an international firm, they will immediately do what's required to prevent any damage to their brand value at the world market.

Do any of these parties understand that its the responsibility of the government and Union Carbide officials to solve this problem?

If we told that going forward, Dow has to be responsible for whatever happens, then its okay. Why do we have to pass our own inefficiencies to someone who is quiet?

CUF on Times of India

Times of India covered Chennai Ultimate Frisbee last week. Nice article but I still don't understand the emphasis on ruthless work ethics, mentioned on the title. I know that this guy is referring to the abusive language on the field. Yes, we do shout at our own friends when they drop a disc or don't get a proper throw across to us. But that's part of the game. Even during our 5 minute break, we forget all that. Its just the intensity of the game that makes us behave that way when were on the field. Its a different kind of passion.

When you read the article, you'll see that the words "ruthless work ethics" are actually borrowed from someone who mentioned that on the field.

My point is - let it be that way, but why do you, as the press guy, go on to say "Chennai's professionals borrow from ruthless work ethics when flinging a disc around"

There were so many better quotes about Ultimate Frisbee that were given to you that day. Very inspirational ones. Ones that would actually get someone interested in taking up this sport. And what did you do with all that?

Is someone writing a paper titled "Why we hate PRESS" on the lines of "Why we hate HR"? I'd really like to contribute.

Arasangam - Truly Unusual

After I don't know how many years, I got to watch Captain's movie in a cinema hall. When I walked out of the hall, I was amazed.

Captain has moved to the next level in his 150th movie. In a world where even Hollywood is predominantly trying to show machine power, Captain and his team have zeroed in on the importance of the intellect.

A series of killings in different cities of famous industrialists and entrepreneurs marks the beginning of this super thriller. Captain's friend is summoned to investigate this case. Friend is missing. So Captain, who is a criminology expert at the police training college takes over. When we hear Captain talking about encryption and decryption techniques, the excitement continues.

Captain's role is a bit mellowed down in this movie. No punch dialogs at all. But the unbelievable stunts are still there. The best one is the last scene where Captain and the villain jump from a crane / bridge (I don't remember), then do a quick hop (like those triple jumps that athletes do) on a container truck and then get onto a train. Captain also needs to work on his double chin, its getting bigger by every movie and in this movie its a big disturbance.

Operation Bulu Thunder (well, its Blue but that's the way Captain says) is aimed at breaking the pillars that hold the economy. There is international interest in not allowing India to become a super power. In order to create a brain drain, a network of people decide to kill the best minds in India which will hamper the progress by at least 20 years.

The makers of this movie have done their homework. They have done Root Cause Analysis. They have also understood the power of social networks. There is more technology than muscle power.

The movie also reminds us of a number of other movies from the past - Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, Hannibal, Die Hard - Part Four.



Ceril Printo, Navneeth Kaur are the girls in Canada and India respectively. Kaur is the wife and Printo is an investigation associate and a part-time girlfriend as well.

Srikanth Deva's music is quite ok. Its not disturbing to the ear. Choreography is neat as well. No heavy steps for Captain.

In some ways, the movie looked like it was very producer friendly. In the first half, most parts of the movie has been done in natural settings. So no great setup cost. The second half in Canada isn't too extravagant as well.

The only message I got from this movie - Never spit out a bubble gum on the road. Always wrap it in a piece of paper and then throw it.

Comments Stealing

I found this set of comments on another blog that I frequently visit. once you start reading you'll understand the context of this huge debate. after reading through all this, i really wonder if educated people think like this? tradition, culture, religion is all apart. leaving all that, for all practical purposes, you'll still feel that this guy is all crap.

--------------------
raj, on May 20th, 2008 at 11:06 am Said:
woman are impure when they have ****. i own a travel agency, and we never allow the woman employees to take care of the ticketing needs. see so many people are going for teerth yaatra, or for imp journeys. if a woman with **** does their ticket, it could be very unlucky for them. even my wife agrees. i have seen myself pickles going bad when impure woman has touched. women are not bad, but they need to be careful to not give others bad luck. some precautions must be taken. you are wrong.

raj, on May 21st, 2008 at 5:19 pm Said:
hi neha - raj again. first of all i want to say that all of you are blindly following the western practice. their women don’t know how to control themselves - and that is why babies are born without mothers being married. that is why they are smoking, drinking and having sex without respect for anyone. following purity rules allows women to exercise self discipline. and to develop a pure mind. god has given woman **** so that she knows that she cannot do everything a man can…….. otherwise women forgets that she has to take care of babies. see, these rules remind even unmarried womens what their duties are…. that they must always sacrifice.

i am not scared of you women.. you can come and run after me.. but let’s see if you can run when you are having ****. i am betting you cannot. if you are a good hindu follower then you follow these rules, otherwise you can become a west person or convert even. why make hinduism impure with ur actions??

my wife agrees with me. not because she thinks i am mad. but because she knows that i am correct. our shastras say that wives must always obey husbands. but you are an impure so called hindu who is not really hindu, so you will never these understand these things.

raj, on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 am Said:
why are all you people so arrogant? what makes you think you are smarter than years of vedic knowledge and our forefathers. having a **** is natural, but it is naturally impure. why are you all laughing at me? tomorrow, when an impure women effects your luck and things become really bad for you, then i will laugh at you all.

raj, on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am Said:
ALSO - ankur, i think you are controlled by all womenin your life. that is why you say these things. a real man would stick to wisdom and not try to impress.

raj, on May 23rd, 2008 at 6:28 am Said:
how dare you all say i am only joking. this makes me very ANGRYYYY. your arrogance means you never listen to anyone, and think of people like me, as jokers? i am very much real. i am very much serious. WOMEN AND MEN ARE NOT EQUAL. men cannot have children. women have children and because of that, they must sacrifice a lot. it is a gift from god, and they have to show their appreciation for god by separating herself … like a sanyasi. THIS IS NOT FUNNY AT ALL. IT IS A serious issue. you are all fools.

--------------------
Ok the reason behind getting these absolutely stupid comments on to this page is because of the following links that I happened to read.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4

Poem: That moment

like a princess from neverland
in front of his eyes
she rested there
in deep thought

he looked at her
that pin drop silence
her eyelids opened
he imagined
lotus petals unfolding under the sun

their eyes met
no word spilled
still volumes were spoken
the magic had happened

clasping her body close
to himself
he felt her breath
warm and heavy

lifting her chin
she closed her eyes
his lips on hers
that first kiss
he stole her breath
a new journey of love began

Kuruvi - Will never fly

Vijay works for a courier service company. A smuggling group has been using this courier service to deliver goods. Unknowingly, Vijay delivers a packet to someone and gets caught. How he escapes from the hands of the police and brings the bad men to the light is the storyline.

Well, this is what I read from some random website when I was browsing about Kuruvi.

Anyway, even though the movie turned out to have a different storyline, it was equally bad.

Dharani-Vijay combination did not create the Ghilli impact this time. I still think that Ghilli was a much faster movie and kept your thoughts racing.

Vijay lives in a huge but dilapidated bungalow. From the information we have, its somewhere on the banks of the Buckingham canal. Vijay and whoever is living with him in that house is dependent on dad Manivannan who has supposedly gone to Singapore for work. But its surprising that with no news from dad, no one is bothered or worried. When someone knocks at their door for a hefty sum of money - everyone wakes up.


Kuruvi by name is a tribute to all those people who make day trips to Malaysia and Singapore to buy electronic goods - to sell the same back in the bazaars here. Vijay dons the role of a Kuruvi to find his dad.

Vijay - I wonder how he keeps getting younger by the movie. He has done amazing work on ensuring that he is the king of kollywood dance. Beginning from the first song, Dandaana, then Palanathu and a little bit in Mozha Mozhanu. Surprising how the dance masters come up with crazy steps tailor made for the Ilaya Thalapathi. All that keeps you engrossed to a great extent.

Acting - I am really sorry sir. Nothing is natural. The scenes in Cudappah - every artist in soaked in dust and dirt - its a quarry, whereas you are sparkling clean wearing timberland boots. Ok, I don't have any proof for the brand, but still!!! And trying a mask of Zorro act from the Petronas towers. Reminds me of the old MGR and Saroja Devi movies where they keep sitting in a chariot, shaking their heads and hands. The background keeps moving. All that is such a cartoon. Heroes are supposed to be larger than life. Agreed. But a reasonable attention to detail always helps.

When it comes to the storyline, its a huge let down. A son goes in search of his dad. That's all. During the second half of the movie, I felt as if someone was pulling a chewing gum for 3 miles. Totally frail and lacking believable content. We've had enough heroes missing an axe, spade or even the bullet. Why do directors still think that people will be fascinated by the same crap again and again?

Trisha - wow. This 83 born beauty will never stop. Her style is amazing and ever since Laysa Laysa she has been that cute damsel with sharp looks. Colors go well with Trisha. And she is not a totally fair skinned person. She sports a sexy light tan that makes her a perfect choice for Tamil cinema.

Vivek as the comedian. No great shakes. He imitates a whole lot of stars. That's interesting. Otherwise, he makes some kind of unnecessary punch dialogs that doesn't gel too well.

Suman and Ashish Vidhyarthi are the bad guys. Suman ends up being a comedian cum villain. Ashish is okay. Its hard to believe that someone owns a diamond mine / quarry in Cudappah without the knowledge of the government. That too, employing more than 200 people as bonded laborers. By the way, Kuruvi also gives you a hint about how you can upload files to the Central Bureau of Investigation India. You'll need to watch the movie to get that.

Vidyasagar's music - painful to the ears. I don't know what on earth is wrong with the music directors here. Just because a few confused Malaysians have landed up in chennai calling themselves tamil rappers, doesn't mean that you have to give them a chance to murder a song in every film that is getting released. Enough is enough. Lyrics is also equally bad. Almost every song sounds like a remix number.

Overall: Expect nothing.

And here's a cartoon on Kuruvi. Picked it up from the web. Click on the image to read it clearly.

Summer is back

Madras Summer. Anyone who has been living in madras for a very long time would be able to endlessly talk about the extremely HOT days and nights as well.

I have been observing and feeling the extremities of the weather and its simply unmanageable. Especially in a workplace like mine. You get into the office at 8.45am in the morning. Its quite hot at that time. The doors slide out and while you enter you smell jasmine in the air - that's the room freshener. The air conditioner is blowing air at sub 25 temperatures. You kinda feel the difference as you walk in. Once totally inside, you'll feel a sudden drop in temperature. Its really cool.

Obviously, the whole campus is not under a air conditioned roof. So, at around mid-day - lunch time, you HAVE to walk out. A walk for a minute or two would take you to the cafeteria. While you do this, the temperature suddenly of your body suddenly crests. And then when you come back in, it drops. This is such a bad thing to happen for your health. Sudden changes in body temperature would only result in viral fever and common cold.

On a different note, summer used to be such a beautiful phenomenon back in London. At 10 in the morning, most people would try and find themselves a place in one the large parks inside within the city. The very idea of lying on your chest and reading a book while the sun bakes your back. In between a cool breeze sweeps through and tickles your neck. You shrug and shiver a bit still enjoying the heat from that big star. Bright colors, short skirts, huge towels, cane baskets, broad hats - so lovely!

Anyway, I associate Madras summer always with this master piece. If you are a Madras fan, then you'd completely agree.

Slice of your life

I hope a good number of you would remember this ad, but I am not sure how many have seen the complete one.

The Mango season is right around the corner and it is time to revive and re-live those wonderful moments.

BONGULY

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

I found this while surfing on the web. Absolutely FILTHY but quite interesting.

DO NOT USE SPEAKERS

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.