Thuppakki - Quiet and Racy

It takes so much time in Melbourne to get an opportunity to watch a Diwali release. Gosh two weeks!

Anyways, I guess the wait was definitely worth it. AR Murugadoss proves that he is not a director who can be taken for granted. And yes, there is hope in Tamil cinema for good movies.

Thuppakki is a very quiet yet racy film. For once, the commercial aspects of a mass hero film has been played down very efficiently and the presentation of the rest of the screenplay has moved up a few notches without heavy damage. The theme of the movie is based on eliminating terrorist sleeper cells operating within the country. Maybe the theme by itself was a reason for the director to keep the extravagance under wraps. Good decision indeed. Execution becomes a key element of such movies and I should give the director a big salute. Scenes did not seem stretched at all.

In a year when most other superstars of Kollywood have wasted their talent and screen space on delivering over senseless scripts, Vijay has stolen the opportunity to shed his mass hero appeal from the likes of Sivakasi, Thiruppachi etc etc and play it down, a bit mellowed is the right word. No punch dialogues in high intensity and measured usage of words makes his character more believable in a number of instances.

With everything going right with the script, someone got drunk and introduced two characters to waste time. Kajal Agarwal and Jayaram.

Kajal Agarwal was hopeless. For a movie of this kind, she was zero value add. I would have been happy if she was kidnapped by the villain, like the typical Tamil movie climax but that didn't happen too. Am sure someone gave her a voice over and that was pathetic.

Jayaram - an actor whose talent was made worthless by the script.

Sathyan, as Vijay's friend, plays a very good role in the movie. His reactions and sense of comedy was more than enough for screen. The director didn't have to experiment another side-track with Jayaram and Vijay which turned out be a fiasco.

Oh yes, music. Harris J. He should have stuck to background score. Every song in the movie was just another loo break opportunity.

Tamil cinema can never end without bloopers. The climax was the best here. A bomb had been set to blast in 15 mins. And there was exactly 15 mins left for the whole movie to end. And in that time, the hero fights the villain, jumps out of the ship, the ship blasts and later he also manages a tearful send off from his family. This was hilarious. When people say, cut the crap, they really mean it. So, in future, please cut the crap.

Overall: Thuppakki entertains

Coldplay

So, I attended the Coldplay concert today at the Etihad Stadium in Docklands, Melbourne. I was new to the band. I had heard of them but hadn't heard their songs at all. I started listening only after I landed in Melbourne. Only a few of their songs registered in my mind and thankfully, they performed the ones I had heard a number of times (Paradise, Charlie Brown and Princess of China). The concert had some great pyrotechnics and the stadium was packed. It was a great experience but I never knew that it was going to be the experience I would never want to recollect again in my life.

Turns out that she also wanted to come to the concert. When the tickets came up for purchase, I asked many times and I got answers like "I may not be in town, so let's not buy". The first batch of tickets sold out. Then my friends who were attending the concert, asked us to buy. I looked up again. Tickets were available. I asked if I could buy. I got the same answer. Tickets were not cheap. 100 dollars each and I had no interest in buying a ticket and letting it go waste. I asked many many time before booking my ticket. I got the same response. So, I went ahead and booked my tickets; and by doing that I paved way for an atomic bomb to burst.

All the dialog about not wanting to spend more money, unsure of not being in town, Diwali and wanting to stay at home to prepare a sweet dish was all a big sham? In the bigger scheme of things, these were ideas that were planted in my mind to try and create a deviation so as to see if I steered back and said "its okay, I want you to be there with me". Obviously, it had no impact. Rather, I had no idea. Its like the Melbourne weather. It could rain, hail, shine and be windy on the same day. What would you do? Not listen to anyone and just walk like its a normal day.

I could have surprised her, she says. But why? Why should I surprise? Didn't I ask whether I can buy tickets? Didn't I plan for it in advance? During all those times, I never got an answer that told me - go and buy it. It was always signals to not buy.

I just don't get it. Why can't things be straight and simple in life. Why are women so complicated? If you want to go, then why don't you just say it?

I can't handle surprises. In fact, I am the last one who could think of anything of that sort. My rules in life are very simple. There is no instinct. Its rule driven and basic yes or no. I cannot work with something that is lying on the back of the mind and infer the same. It simply doesn't work that way for me.

So today's concert has gone down in my books as one of those days that will come back and haunt me forever. Every time I listen to a Coldplay song or someone talk to me about the band, I am going to have a nasty time.

And the husbands who book surprise holidays for your wives - if I see you anywhere, I am going to kick you in the nuts.

Maattrraan: The Milk Powder Conspiracy

History: Director Vijay decided to make a bad movie with Vikram and approached a few producers. He said he will shoot in London. Producers were not happy. Hearing this, KV Anand announced that he will team up with Suriya and shoot a movie in Ukraine which will not just be bad but be called the WORST MOVIE of 2012. That was the beginning of Maattrraan.

Maattrraan is about conjoined twins tangled in a milk powder conspiracy. The screenplay has a huge marquee titled SHIT running everywhere.

Director KV Anand has lost it completely. He was his best in KO, which was also copied from a Ben Affleck movie. After that its just downhill mister. Although his concept of having the conjoined twins is a novel idea, it totally misses the point. And then selling a genetically modified product to the Russian Olympic Athletes; and selling the same stuff in India. Ridiculous. WADA Officials please note, there is someone who is giving ideas to escape the doping tests.

For all the drama you did, shouldn't you atleast get the medals tally right. You claim in the movie that because of consuming this GM stuff, the athletes broke world records and Russia beat United States. And in the medals tally, China is number one. Russia is not even in the Top 10!!! What a genius you are. And hence I am not going to talk about direction. You have got a Razzie Nomination.

Gosh Suriya. Looking smart and young is not enough. Please choose good scripts. Did you even read this before signing up? Does it even make sense? Anyway, the scenes with the twins are marvelous. That fight around half-time was even longer than a SUN TV Mega Serial. And there isn't much to say about acting because too many things are happening at the same time. The director managed to fool you too.

Kajal Agarwal does manage to get some credit in the movie. Thankfully she is not the glam girl who smiles and romances when required. She does more than that, acting I mean. Good for you girl.

The first half is good because its has all the commercial elements of Tamil cinema. Ideally, the movie should have stopped there. It would have made money in the box office if the audience were shown just the first half. The second half is just trash.

Harris Jayaraj - for the past 12 years, you have ensured that you will always stick to 6 tunes. Hashing and rehashing for every movie.

The only person who has done a commendable job in the movie is the dad of the twins. He is fantastic. A very good choice for the script. Having been around in the industry for many years, he presents himself as a quite yet powerful character throughout the movie.

Overall: Maattrraan is a movie that should have been shelved during the story discussions.

Suited politicians are no better

A talk about politics always leaves you with a bad taste in the mouth. For years, I have been exposed to the Indian scenario and I have had enough. There is a new scam every year and then there is the typical Indian mentality to forgive and forget.

By the time I moved to the Great Southern Land, I had seen politicians and parties from around the world. And then, I began to realize that politicians are no different.

The ones in the UK, USA and Australia are all well-read lawyers or graduates from one of the best institutions. They are all suit-clad and dapper. That's one major difference from how it is in India where there is no importance to education and presentation.

At the end of the day, even education didn't turn these guys in developed nations into better individuals. The smear-my-face campaign is on full swing.

Someone here dug up a story about Julia G's employer from god knows when. Apparently she didn't perform well or whatever and there was some stuff about she creating a trust on her boyfriend's name. The Opposition started talking about this for days connecting that to present day political decisions. It was so ridiculous.

The next target was the Opposition. News got out that Tony A was quite a rough guy in school. It seems he punched a wall just next to a girl's face. Again an attempt on his character. He got on press saying that he didn't remember anything of that sort. Days later, he comes back and says such an incident never happened. Every one in the parliament had to talk about this for a week.

I was like - you guys are so lame and low. Don't you have better things to do than run such smear campaigns. Whoever they are - politicians, media, publicists, lobbyists, jobless people etc. How are you any different from the parties in Tamil Nadu that shout dirty stuff against each other or the national parties like BJP and Congress. You guys here give more polished nonsense whereas your counterparts in India are a little more rustic and ruthless.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone in the Republican Party finds out that Barack Obama didn't pay the bill or tip the waiter on his first date with Michelle.

Thaandavam : Movie Review

 What's with movies hitting the screens on similar themes within a short span of time? Just now Salman Khan finished being a RAW Agent and then Vikram follows suit. And can we please end the India-UK relationship for sometime? Why should all conspiracies end up creating problems in the UK or around that area, when you can stage better things around Eastern Europe. Yes, in the latter case, there is no guarantee of just shooting the movie and getting away. Someone would use the script in reality. HA HA

Thaandavam is yet another RAW Agent story. Vikram plays the role and he comes across as a revenge agent more.

Comedy - doesn't make you laugh at all. I began to think why spend so much money; get our comedians to London and abuse Britishers? Is that some sort of a post independence rage?

Music -  GV Prakash is also becoming predictable like Harris J. There seems to be a lack of experimentation and thought in the compositions. The first song reminded me of a Michael Jackson number. The second one was like one of George Michael's. The third song in the village was similar to one from a Rajkiran movie and the fourth sounded like a Harris J. I lost it after that.

Direction - this movie isn't like any of Vijay's previous movies, which did very well at the awards arena. Directors are always stretched between intelligent action films and commercial aspects. This is not a thin line but a choice and scripts get twisted because the Chennai audience doesn't appreciate a tight story-line. Research well done on the echolocation science but the movie doesn't tell much. Vijay seems to be happy with his team of GV, Vikram, Anushka and Nirav Shah from his previous movie but I hope it doesn't become a comfort zone with less experimentation. The script weakens in a lot of places and then picks up pace. The scene just before the intermission and the use of Ledex as a courier service was REALLY LAME.

There is a landslide of characters in the movie. Big names every where and simply not required. Anushka looks good but age is catching up lady! You need to get back to some serious yoga and fitness. Amy Jackson was wasted. If I removed her from the script, it would still work with very minor tweaks and hold better. Characters from the village are again sort of reminding you of the scenes from Surya-Jothika's Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. Was there a need for Nasser to be a Sri Lankan police officer? Or was it the multi-cultural and diversity aspect? And Lakshmi Rai as well. Why does everyone have to be in this movie? Don't get me started about voice-overs.

Vikram's desperate measures for a success after the Rajapaattai fiasco seems to have helped. The script is around him and he delivers. Romance between Vikram and Anushka is very mature and subtle. Thankfully, for a such a movie, absolutely didn't go overboard.

Thaandavam would have been a better action movie sans the comedy, songs and procession of characters. And with this, I hope to return to blogging. Thanks for reading.

Leaving Maximum City

So, all of this happened way back in January and I was really lazy to write about this.

Towards the end of December, I decided that it was time to leave. I may have stayed around for maximum another year. Dont think I could have managed beyond that. But life had to take a different track.

Quitting was actually not easy. This was not the first time but it was very tough this time. And for the first time - Totally unplanned.

On a not so fine morning (which I realized a little later), I entered the office. As usual, I was one of the few people to get in that early. I opened my inbox and I saw an email from my boss. He had written to find out what I was working on and wanted to have a status update. I was totally shocked when I read that email. I had already planned to quit sometime in December but this email put me in a spot. I had to take a quick decision. If I were to meet him as if nothing was going to happen, started something to work on and then later told him (in less than a week), he would be really furious as to why I didn't bring that up during my earlier meeting with him. It was quite natural. So, the only option that was left was to quit that very moment. I took some time and waited for my friend, had a chat with him and then composed the email. This time, I almost started shivering. I still can't explain why, but yes I did shiver. Maybe because I was not sure what my boss would tell me or rather how he would react. Nevertheless, I wrote that email and stepped out to have a cup of tea.

I got a call from an another person who works for my boss and asked me to meet with the CIO. It was my first meeting with him and also my last meeting. Over a cup of coffee, I gave him my reasons to leave. He was very understanding and he told me that he will do his best to get me relieved.

I tried to meet my boss that day. He told me that he was busy and he will call me. I waited for 2 days. No response. I tried to meet him again. Same answer. Then I decided to write an email to keep things on record. I got a response that something will be decided in a few days time. A few days passed. Suddenly, one fine morning, I got an email from the HR that it was my last day and I had to pay up the notice period if I wanted to leave. No discussion nothing at all. Decision taken without consent. I was partially bankrupt and had no option but to tell them that I was prepared to serve the full notice period instead of paying the shortfall. Now, this went into another discussion. My boss was probably irritated with all this and he asked me to move desk to somewhere close to his cabin. I moved and he was out of office the next few days, busy with meetings. As usual, I kept calling HR frantically trying to find out what was happening. Meanwhile, the guys who were responsible to get me relieved from the company were never aware of these happenings. They already started processing everything based on my previously mentioned last day. I had to tell them to take a break.

At one point, everyone was okay with me serving the notice period. I tried to meet my boss again. There were many failed attempts and one day I got through to him. He told me that he was going to speak to the HR. I told him that I could wait. Meanwhile, it was already New Years. Everyone in my friends circle at the office was eager to find out what was happening. Things were not moving. That's all.

Finally, the surprise came. The HR discussion was done and they decided to relieve me. Again, this was told to me all of a sudden. I had like few hours left in the day to pack up and leave. I finished all the formalities in quite a jiffy and left.

I can still remember those 2-3 weeks after I submitted my resignation. I was literally wasting time in the office. Everyone who came up to talk to me would ask me the same question - when is your last date? and I would say "nice question, but simply no answer"

Camp 3 to Summit

We reached Camp 3 and there was some surprise for sure.

The environmentalist did not need aspirin. He actually needed the inhaler, but he managed to borrow one from some other team who decided to help (this happened on its own and was not part of the simulation).

The photographer and environmentalist were at critical health. Everyone else was at weak health. Satellite communication went for a toss. All weather predictions had to be done manually. Every team member had been given a set of data that could be used to calculate the weather range, windchill factor and windspeed. Based on this information, the team could decide whether to move to Camp 4 or stay put for another day.

The team got into action. All data was collected and using traditional temperature formulae and windchill tables, the weather forecasting was done. We found out that we risk a frost-bite within 5 minutes of ascent. That was the last thing we wanted.

The biggest decision was made. To stay back, stay alive and stay healthy.

The decision helped us. It was the 4th day and the sherpas delivered the oxygen cannisters. Our next job was to divide the oxygen cannisters among the team members. Health status has improved and everyone was good to climb. Weather was fantastic and there was no point in waiting. Again, everyone had relevant information on the oxygen cannisters. The number of cannisters were to be decided based on the hours taken to summit and back, from Camp 4, and the rate at which oxygen was being consumed by each person.

We did some calculations and then split the cannisters. As we were doing that, we also figured out that there was a cost associated to with the cannisters. So we were quite careful about allocating extra. We were also mindful about the weight that it would add to the backpack. This was a big mistake on our part.

None of us needed medicines. We put our footsteps forward. Camp 4 seemed to be a tough place. Icy winds and troubling temperatures. Health had come down. The environmentalist was not very sure now. He had an incentive to stay here and collect some browny points. So, he started suggesting us to think about leaving him at Camp 4. The leader was not too keen on doing that. The other question was to decide whether we need to administer medicine or not.

After prolonged discussions, we decided that if we were going to leave the environmentalist behind, then we will not give any medicine to him. Our other option was to give him the medicine and move to summit. The photographer was also weak and he needed aspirin too. We administered the medicine and decided to Summit.

The worst happened. The marathoner, environmentalist and physician could not summit and they were rescued.

Camp 1 and 2

After the brief was sent out, I had a break for close to 10 days. Our first meeting happened after I was back. Some groups had already finished the simulation by the time I was back.

Our first meeting was quite a breeze. We were at Base Camp. We sat through and introduced ourselves, stating what we look forward to during this simulation. As everyone was in great health, we decided to proceed to Camp 1. We reached the camp without any problem at all.

The next decision was to move to Camp 2. The photographer had some issues because he had an incentive to stay at Camp 1 for one extra day. None of the others had any motivation. There was a restriction to have only one rest day during the six day trip. The environmentalist wanted to spend an extra day at Camp 4. The leader wanted everyone to stick together. Seeing all this happening, the photographer decided to move to Camp 2. He thought that if things did not go well, he could stay in Camp 2 for an extra day and then get back to Camp 1; basically not summit at all.

Everyone ascended to Camp 2. This place was first sight of how things could go awry. Everyone's health had come down. The environmentalist was critical. Anyone could contract asthma or AMS. The physician did have the medical equipment (inhaler, aspirin, blood pressure monitor) to administer to one of the team members at a time. The important decision was to know what medicine to give and see how we can progress.

The photographer was in a fix. Now he had to decide. He was the only one who had a different motive - "Stay back". The discussion began. The leader was quite clear. He didnt want to keep anyone back. The overall team objectives were at stake. The photographer decided to take a call. If he didnt stay back, he would lose only 25% from his overall goals; but the team as a whole would achieve more, perhaps more than 30%. He decided to let go of his personal interest.

The team took a call to administer the aspirin to the environmentalist and move to Camp 3. The marathoner played the very important role of gauging the temperature at every stage. We were at Camp 3 now.

Mt Everest

Mt Everest is a simulation exercise that focuses mostly on team work, leadership, and conflict resolution. As part of the training program, its being administered here.

We have been divided into teams of 5. There is one leader. Every person on the team has a defined role to play.

The Team needs to progress from Base Camp to Summit. In between there are 3-4 camps to cross. Moving from one camp to another is a decision that the team needs to make. This decision could be based on individual interest, climatic conditions, individual health, availability of supplies, need to rescue etc.

Yesterday we got the first email about the simulation. Immediately one of the teams called for a meeting and I got to know about that. I had just logged into the system to see my role and my goals and within that short period of time, a team meeting had been called.

Anyways, the team met and this is what happened. As a given rule, everyone could access the system through the same password, which means, I could use my friend's email id and know what his role in the team is (which I think is a big flaw in the administration of the simulation). So, this team actually logged into the system for everyone on their team, copied all the details and sent out a single document containing all the information for each team member. Now, this means that every team member knows what the other's role in the group is. They also get to know more details about each role such as individual goals against group goals and scoring patterns for all the individual goals.

The simulation is rigged now. This will not give rise to any conflict as the leader knows what the other team members want and he will know what to answer without any reason for negotiation. The game will be staged rather than being simulated.

Now, the team says that they did this because they want to be the number one in this game; whatever it takes. 'What does that mean' when they were asked back. They said 'They would get points as a team and every individual would also get points'. So yes, now you got all the points that you need and you also won the first place. So What??

Nothing happens. This is an office and you don't get a performance bonus to win this game. This is just a simulation to know how teams work and how they resolve conflicts. If the most ideal and healthy situation was simulated, then  there is no need for a team. The leader can himself see everyone's strengths from the simulation screen and make a decision. HA HA HA

While I was writing this, I got an email from the organizer that its okay to share information (even with unique passwords, team members could still share information). The most important thing is if that can be converted into actions. Let's see what happens next.

Fiction: Separation

They were good friends. Absolutely no strings attached. He'd been observing her for sometime now. There was something strange about her. He didn't know what. She was smiling and sounded normal from the outside, but deep within, she had locked herself into the room of dark secrets.

He imagined there was pain. The good person in him didn't give away. There was an urge to help. He wanted to help her break free and smile. He thought about it - really hard. It wasn't easy getting into someone else's life. There were risks. It could affect him as well.

He asked her. Told her that he felt strong about seeing her happy. She didn't respond. He was persistent. He was not the kind who would just walk away from anything. In him, he had already decided that he wanted to do this and he wasn't going to change his mind for the world. She suddenly sounded stronger than him. She wasn't giving him a chance to intrude and for a moment he felt that he was losing the battle. While this happened, he noticed her full eyes. He couldn't say more. He walked away.

 

Months passed and one fine day she had gone, untold. He looked terribly pained and there was no one to hear. As time passed he realized why she had hesitated, in the very beginning. It was the pain of SEPARATION she was afraid of.

PS: Something I had written years back and I don't even know if this makes sense but it was lying in the archives; so decided to give it a little polishing.

Mayakkam Enna

A group of friends are always fun to be with - drinking, gossip, dinners, lying around the house drunk, late nights at the beach. Your friends are your best judge and sometimes your worst enemy. Nevertheless, its only your friends who can forgive and forget because they have seen you every moment. They understand what you are going through; your toughest moments are easy when they are around. You can do what you want when you are with them and not bother about consequences.

Love happens. You don't know when it hits you. It could be your friend's girlfriend too but she doesn't care. 'She was never serious the first time' she says. You try to resist the feeling but this time, it hits you like a hurricane. And this is when life gets complicated. You are torn between the most cherished parts of your life - your true friends and your new love. The weirdness begins. You want to be lonely. Its not the loneliness but the fear that makes you run away from believing the truth. You don't want to accept. You tend to think that running away would solve all the problems, rather that creates the most uncomfortable situations.

Amidst all the chaos, life begins in a modest way. Being a part of the middle-class you have your own share of difficulties in life. There is pain, struggle, betrayal, frustration, alcohol, bruises, blood, tears and definitely lack of power. With so many negatives in your life, there is nothing much to look forward to except for that simple reason called hope which emanates from the love that you originally had, to begin that life. 

Selvaraghavan lets us walk into the life of an aspiring photographer Dhanush who neither has the education (atleast we don't know this part) or professional support to be successful. The meek and submissive character that he is, although he bosses around with his friends, he is mentally affected by failures. Success comes his way in a big way, but life has taken the toughest turns until then.

Mayakkam Enna is a true director's movie with the least "masala" elements available in the typical tamil movie package. The movie has Selvaraghavan written all over it without any doubt. The hilarious first half makes you wonder what's going to happen in the second and that's when he decides to give you a high voltage shock.

Overall: Fantastic movie. Would be a great script for a malayalam movie sans   the songs. Tamil cinema lovers may hate this.

Sadda Haq

The first time I walked into a movie hall in Bombay (mid September), I was totally floored by the trailer. Every movie I saw after that, I used to wish for the trailer to come back again.

Every musical note in this movie was magical and that is the only reason why no one other than AR Rahman could have done this. ROCKSTAR is all credit to ARR. If there is one thing that someone should talk about after seeing this movie is the power of Rahman's music. Music maketh the movie. Rahman got Orianthi Panagaris to play the lead guitar (she used to play for Michael Jackson). Orianthi breaks all barriers and strikes gold right from the first minute. Rockstar is character driven and guitar is the predominant portion of the whole movie. The smashing hit song "Sadda Haq is only proof to that. Not just this one, but every other song represents the mood the character moulds into; be it a fun song in Prague or the qawwali inside Hazra Nizamuddin.

Janardhan Jakhar aka Jordan, dreams of making it big in music while his family wants him to join their business. He idolises Jim Morrison and when we look at the posters and the graphics we get the same feeling as well. He is surprised that fans were so thrilled when JM walked into the crowd and showed a middle finger while he was being slapped by a police officer for making sensible music at the bus stop. His closest aide tells him that the power of music relies in feeling the pain of love, loneliness, betrayal and the journey begins there; but Jordan is simple, clueless and is always confused all the way.

 Ranbir Kapoor has proved himself all through the film. Right fron blending into the costumes, showing the serious attitude and making us feel that the voice lent by Mohit Chauhan (Dooba Dooba fame) is almost his; Ranbir pulls it off quite well. Of course, there are some problems with the guitar and serious guitarists would laugh at that, but we can forget it.

Nargis Fakhri as the Kashmiri lass Heer brings more beauty to the script. Frame after frame, she brings a ravishing touch to the screenplay. Although a lot of things that she does reminds us of Katrina Kaif in a good number of movies in the past, Nargis steals the show being happy-go-lucky. Performance needs a lot of boost and I hope she can do better in forthcoming films, if any. Bollywood is quite open to debuting women beyond 30, which is a really good sign.

Visuals are a treat - streets of Delhi, snow clad mountains and roads, lakes, locales of Prague, Rome, Hazrat Nizamuddin; the choices seem perfect. The film starts off with a concert in Rome - flashes back to Jordan's story and keeps coming back when required. Imtiaz Ali weaves the story aptly to make it interesting till the end.

Overall: Rockstar is a must watch. If not for the script, definitely for the music.

7-Aum Arivu

What was Murugadoss thinking when he decided to make this film? I still havent figured out that. Sometimes I think that he was partly inspired by Michael Moore.

7AA is a commercial documentary. The first 20 mins of the film is a technologically advanced version of the usual videos that films division used to show in cinema halls years back. Remember the video about Nehru; this was no different. This is where Bodhi Dharma is introduced. ARM goes on to tell us that whatever we saw in Crouching Tiger and other films - I mean flying swords, people and stuff that we saw in Shaolin soccer; is closely related to what Bodhi Dharma taught the Chinese.

The present day Chinese Military begin Operation Red whose only objective is to kill a girl in Chennai.

Suriya plays a circus performer in this film. I still can't figure out why he agreed to do that part because it didnt go well with the script of the film. I wonder if it was done to help the script where Shruti is looking to experiment with a monkey or ride an elephant (this scene is horrible), it still doesnt convince at all. We definitely know that a connection needs to be established between Bodhi Dharma and Suriya but not through a circus.

Coming to the main plot - The Chinese want to kill Shruti Hassan because they think she has done some research that would make India, some kind of a superpower. What I dont get from all this is the depth. Its never there at all. If it were such a research, then how come the Indian scientists are not bothered? And there are a bunch of people fighting about Tamil and English. Gimme a break director!!! There is a lot of cross-border tension between India and China, but China sending someone to India to kill Shruti is like watching a cartoon. The chinese villain using hynotic techniques to use people to his advantage is quite weird and at times very irritating as well.

Shruti Hassan has a very long way to go. I doubt if she will be very successful in the movies. She is awesome on the screen but dialogue delivery needs a lot of work. It feels like watching some US return tamilian on screen. We cannot put the heavy weight on her shoulder that she is Kamal's daughter. She is super talented but I am not sure if this film has done the magic for her.

I cant speak much about the new chinese villain who we have seen in many other hollywood movies. I dont remember doing anything other than staring.

The movie tells us that our traditions and superstitions have scientific reasons behind and we should understand the science and not blindly believe everything. And some of the examples are very effective. What I cant get to grips is when Shruti starts a scientific experiment on Suriya for 12 days; the villain manages to kill the experiment on the penultimate day and miraculously Suriya is still in great form. Suddenly, there is a superhero who has broken the scientific laws. Did I watch a Science Fiction?

What can I say about the songs. Same Harris style. He reminds you that every new song will remind you of his previous compositions. The SPB song in this movie reminded me of the 'Kanne Kalaimaane' sung by Yesudas but a few beats faster in the former. Most other songs are typical and sometimes the beat feels like a lift-off from ARR too.

The movie definitely lacks a good script and depth. Sometimes it looks as if the scenes were just put in place to make some logical sequence. I am supportive of the fact that ARM took up a different subject and exlpored a lot, but converting that into a bio-war is again like venturing into the lines of Dasavatharam. All of a sudden, the film starts wrapping up. The last 30 mins has all the prime content and I wonder why it was only for 30 mins. Romantic sequences were just time wasting tactics getting nowhere and only becoming script spoilers.

One piece of information I got from this movie is that the Chinese definitely have a great idea to eliminate the stray dogs in India but we never want them to help us do that.

Poem: The Untold

silent dinners
late nite walks
lake side views
lying under the stars


deep dark lines
shaping her eyes
without a word amidst
the fish smiles


lost in her
in the untold
he revels
silence still prevails


lips dont move
with words waiting
she knows
he knows


a strange feeling
yes its a feeling
only the beginning
it has a fragrance


fragrance not known
not to anyone
just the two


brings a breeze
lends a voice
never stays quiet
never stays hidden
still remains untold
the secret of life
the secret of love

The way they work

My boss here is quite a big guy. Atleast that's what I can figure out. We really don't have a place/site where we can see hierarchies of roles; hence I cannot make any conclusion. My previous company used to have defined roles and all that used to be visible on Outlook. Here, the whole outlook of Outlook is different.

Anyways, in between, I must also tell you that its Diwali season here and the whole office is in bright colors (of course I am not. I didnt wish to wear kurta and enter a suburban train). Diwali here is as big as Christmas in the United States. People take off for more than a week. Literally no one is working in the office today. Most of them are preparing for the festive evening get-together for their respective departments and let me not tell anything about Monday and Tuesday next week. Work is out of question as the office will just be having a few faces here and there.

My boss is a very technically sound person. He has great ideas. I dont know how he has the time to know a lot of things but he does. Also, he has a lot of people reporting to him. By a lot, I mean really a lot, like hundreds. I am sure all these hundred don't meet him everyday, but it does make things complicated. For example, if I need to meet him, I need to go and find out where he is first and then fix up a time to meet him. This is because he would always be in other meetings all day.

This brings me to another juncture. People hardly use meeting requests here. All my meetings have been confirmed on the phone. Whenever I ask anyone for a time to meet, they say ' come anytime today ', which is a very ridiculous answer according to me. Nevertheless, I haven't been requested by anyone for a meeting. If they did, then I'd ask them to send a meeting request for sure. I wonder if there is any meeting agenda that is circulated at all.

Also, when you are discussing with another person inside a meeting room, someone would knock. They would come in and start talking to that other person. Once they are done, your conversation would continue. Nor the person you were meeting with or the person knocking the door takes the decision to postpone the second conversation. Bottomline: 'different meetings happen in parallel'. And because there is a good chance that another party is waiting for a discussion in the same meeting room while yours is happening, they may give their free unwanted advice to you when they hear your conversation.

I think there is more to come on this. Most of this is rather very funny to witness.

Bounce - Book Review

Matthew Syed is a British journalist and broadcaster, who was once a table tennis champion. He was the English number one for quite a while, then three times the Men's Singles Champion at the Commonwealth and also played on the GB Olympics team.

Bounce - written by Syed is a book that focuses on excellence in sports. Syed keeps you entertained from the beginning of the book by not focusing on the science of sports but gives anecdotes from his own table tennis days; about how it matters to indulge in sports at the right time and have the right ingredients like the coach and facilities to practise.

Syed comes across as very gentle, clear and authoritative as you flip the pages. He starts talking about the ten thousand hours (remember Gladwell's Outliers.. and there is a lot of mention about that in this book) and that's when you tend to believe in the effort that great sportsman that we hear of today - Roger Federer, David Beckham, Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar, Shizuka Arakawa; would have taken. Most of the top ranking sportsmen started playing when they were roughly about 6 or 8 yrs old. Ten years of focus, meaningful practice and performance improvement at each level elevates them and they are what we see today.

Syed also talks about different experiments carried out by people across the world. The research on the West Berlin Music Academy; the research on strange distribution of birthdates of Canadian ice-hockey players; incredible working memory of SF who can remember more than 40 digits sometimes and the experiment on how we control the mindset of people.

Bounce also has a good selection of information about how top players in various fields started off initially. Syed takes us through the lives of Shaquille O'Neal, Williams Sisters, Mozart. He also discusses about the sudden increase in South Korean women golfers in the LPGA circuit.

Every human being, be it in sports or not; is always affected by certain sparks in their life. This may be like jolt out of the blue and that is it. Its such a powerful effect that it becomes a life changing moment.

As you read through, you also tend to understand why high performers sometimes dont perform at all. He very simply calls it choking and its quite evident when you pull up the facts. Top sportsmen havent always done well when it was required. And this not because they didnt practise well. Its only because their mind is choking with all the facts about the game.

After getting very serious on experiments and choking, Syed starts talking about sentiments in sports. And I would totally agree to this. Even if it doesnt make any difference, I too have such sentiments when I play frisbee locally in my city. Yes, its not even a championship but I still believe. So I could very much relate to what he says.

The next part of the book is about attentional blindness and the example is a plane crash. It is a very good insight into how people use only a part of their attention skills to focus on something they are very familiar with and then work on the remaining. The section on anti-doping and the effects of doping; followed by arguments about genetically enhanced genes for mutual benefits gets you thinking about the role of advanced science and whether we need such evils/boons in our life or not.

The gene research extends a bit and goes on to understand how Blacks dominate atheletics (sprints and marathons). The American and Jamaican atheletes are the sprint champions with the Kenyan and Ethiopians taking the marathons.

Bounce is a great book for people who are interested in sports and knowing about excellence in sports. It gives scientific insights into sports that were never known before. Any coach who wants to keep his students motivated should read this book.

Life changing experiences

About 10 people are seated in a small conference room. Everyone is wearing a white shirt and a black trouser, some sort of a uniform I think. Some of them have their laptops open and the others are chatting up about when is the latest they could leave from that place. A few others were already making calls to the local cab.

All of a sudden, the boss walks in and starts a discussion with everyone. Each one of them quotes a line or two and then its time for him to talk.

And this is what they heard

" We heard all of your thoughts now and today I am going to tell you my story and let me tell you.. this was a life changing experience for me.

About 10 yrs back, I joined the workforce at this place. Prior to that I had about 12 yrs experience. When I joined, I was given a cabin. For the first week, I really couldn't meet my boss. I didnt like my cabin and hence I requested to be seated outside with everyone. They didnt give me that option. So, I decided to sit outside along with the others and started mingling with everyone. Another week was also passing by and I had no work. My boss was very busy in meetings all day.

One day, he came by and told me to work with someone sitting in another town and help that team with some infrastructure. I did that and came back. Again, there was really not much to do.

Slowly, I began to notice that my boss used to leave very late from the office.. roughly around 11pm. I didnt know what he was doing but I wanted to know. There was no way to find out. I decided to stay late and leave only after he left. I used to spend roughly 5 hours at my desk, mostly doing nothing or at the max read some articles on technology. One fine day, the boss noticed me and asked me why I was staying up late. I told him that I wanted to know what he was doing this late and hence stayed. The boss then invited him to late night dinner with a vendor. From then on, the boss would always call him whenever he went out for dinners. During the day, the interactions used to be very minimal.

The opportunity came when my boss gave me the job to take care of vendors. I arranged for all vendor meetings (which probably meant hospitality, food, meeting rooms etc) and ensured everything went fine.

There was no looking back after this. I was always with my boss. Seeing my with my boss, people used to think that I was someone very senior in the company. They used to ask my questions about projects that happened prior to my joining; and I used to confidently answer them like I was there when it happened. To make people in other departments do some work, I used to take my boss' name and even sometimes the names of few other big people in the organization. That ensured that work was always completed.

Sooner, the guy who I worked with first in another city for a small project was reporting to me.

So, friends, all this has been the most important part of my journey in this company and I urge you to take similar steps to chalk out your future here."

Atleast half of the audience was super-shocked. They hadn't expected to hear such a story. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.

The meeting

Let's get there by 11am was the latest message on Thursday night. I was not sure if I heard it right. Why get to a place by 11am for a 2.45pm meeting? But these guys never want to take chances when it comes to the Chairman.

We were at Makers on Nariman Point by quarter past 11 or so. Our team was sitting in a small conference room preparing for the afternoon meeting. My slides had pretty much nothing to say as I had spent the least time here - just about a month and my work started early this week.

The feeling had not sunk it until it was 2.30pm. I was going to meet the man behind the new Reliance. The son who made all of this happen. The person who is in the news almost everyday. I had not imagined that this would ever happen. Absolutely not.

As we were seated in the room, MDA comes in and meets everyone personally for a few seconds. Then our presentation begins. We present all our slides - few mins each. He asks a few questions to everyone to get a feel of whats happening.

The meeting in whole was quite interesting. I wouldn't say it was very empowering but there were some key messages. MDA expects this new bunch of people to take up good leadership roles within the company. He mentioned to us about the need visualize to the future and create the path to excellence.

There was a mention of the concept of Generational Peace. He kept talking about the fact that the older set of leaders needed to shed some of their key responsibilities and believe in the idea of young blood taking the reins. For this to happen, the new set needs to step up a little.

At the end, he told us to think about the end state and then work backwards. Overall, it was ok but there could the other side to this. And that will be my next post.

Signed up for this?

Moments of loneliness inside a less than 550sqft apartment perched in between hundreds of similar ones sometimes makes you think hard about the choices that you make and whether they seem relevant.

Life in Chennai was peaceful and fun but work was boring. It never seemed to get better and no one seemed to bother about it. That was the reason to quit and do something else.

Bombay seems way out of place. Its not about the new place and adjustments that you need, to get settled. Its more about what you really want.

I get up everyday before 7am. Uncertainities in my life didnt allow me to buy even a refrigerator. So, I have to walk up to the nearest store everyday to buy a packet of milk. Now, I need to finish the half litre pack because it would get bad by evening. Bombay - the city where everyone wants to be, has power cuts everyday. The power goes off at 7.30am pretty much every day and comes back after 4 hrs. So, if I get up late, then I have to drink cold milk (i dont have a gas stove, only induction). Under rising temperatures of the morning, I shower and still keep sweating until the breeze hits my face when the auto makes a rush to the railway station. A 20 minute train ride in a not-so crowded train. The moment you get down, you need to make a quick rush to get into the free shutle to the office. If you don't rush, you will still make the next one but you may have to bear the heat as the driver wont leave until the bus gets full.

Even if you reached office as early as 9.30am, the official work timings begin at 10.30am. Thats when people start walking in. The day goes by and then you wait till 6pm as you can get out only then. Another rush to for the free shuttle. Then the train ride and an evening walk to the apartment; if possible a dinner somewhere in between.

Yes, its a bachelor life in all, but a little too demanding. Even in Pilani, there used to be a guy who'd come and get your clothes, wash and iron, and deliver it back to your room. Finding a maid here is become the most difficult task. The Lokpal Bill may be passed but I may not find a maid.

They always say that you should look at ways to elevate yourself when you move into doing anything new. Yes, I have obtained the elevation in terms on being on the 4th floor; but nothing beyond that. I never imagined before that, at 31, I would wash all my clothes, mop the house and worry about cockroaches/moths/other insects entering my house.

Like Thalaivar Simbu says in Vaanam "Enna Vaazhka da ithu"

Sountrack

Finally, I get to do some work and its sounds very interesting. Although, I cant discuss what I will be doing; its definitely close to what I have been doing before - except that playing ultimate and working from home is not part of the job description now.

I happened to see this awful film called SOUNDTRACK. Its about this music obsessed hero who wants to make it big in Bollywood and first starts off being a DJ in a club. I didnt know that DJ's in India had so much perks - this guy gets to drink litres of alcohol, smokes up all kinds of stuff and also gets to bed the hottest women in the club. AND he gets paid to do all of that!!! Whatever, the movie had no sense of script and direction. It was a mess. Post interval, our man becomes completely deaf and goes into alternative therapy.

The websites are flooding with research articles about pancreatic cancer. The newspapers in India have also started publishing front page articles with stats about the p.cancer scene in India.

The best news I read today was about SIRI - the talking iphone app for 4S. I was stunned when I saw the video demonstration. It can reply to ur SMS, fix appointments on your phone, lookup restaurants near you and can even give you suggestions on life!!! Everytime I keep thinking what Apple can add to an already feature friendly exotic phone is when they come out with something that you can never imagine.

I started reading a book by name BOUNCE, written by Matthew Syed. The book is fantastic. I think I will be writing a post about the book very soon.