Never Ending Dreams.....

Its’ official…

2007-04-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Thought about it for a while…

This blog which was started 2 yrs back, exactly on this Tamil New year day, has been pushed down in my priority list for some reasons. The proof is the no. of posts contributed by me between this post of last TNY day and today.

No point in reiterating that I'm still there, since I couldn't allocate time to make the blog posts interesting. Anyhow, thanks for your visits during the so-called lean period of the last one year…

Not sure, if I’ll make a come back… If it happens, will drop a message to you guys…

You can still access some of those interesting categorical posts here….
Movies Movies…
Personal & General
தமிழே தமிழ்..

Signing off.. now.

Bye Bye...

Enjoy & continue blogging....

291st post

Loathing to Exciting!!!

2006-12-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

This applies to those topics of interest during my academic years and career days.

History & Geography were among the subjects which I never touched willingly, during my school days. But when I was forced to go around to different places, I started liking the same subjects which I loathed earlier. It has become a habit of collecting historical background before visiting a place… Wikipedia and the local guide books serve a lot from that perspective.

The same logic applies to English Literature as well… I knew there was a guy with this name 'Shakesphere'. I had come across discussions with which Shakesphere’s works were attached. Even then, I was not inclined to know more about his works.

However, when the hindi movie ’Omkara’ got released with an open fact that it was an adaptation of ‘Othello’, the name struck me. Till then, I never knew what that story was about.

This time, the same thing happened to ‘Hamlet’.....

I would not have put efforts to visit wikipedia to know more about Shakesphere’s ‘Hamlet’.... if I had not planned to visit this Kronborg Castle, which is also called 'Hamlet’s castle'.

Seems the novel on the Danish Prince Hamlet was set around this castle.

Kronborg Castle is located at Helsingor (‘Elsinore’ in English) at the corner of Zealand. It is only 4 kms away from the other side of Sweden and hence it was supposed to be at a strategic location in those olden days, to face enemies from the neighbouring kingdom.

Seems, ‘Hamlet’ was performed for the first time in this real castle to mark the author’s 200th death anniversary.

After the visit to that enormous structure, we wanted to have a free ride…

Being a Sunday, we were offered the same by Scandlines ferry services to cross the 4kms stretch between Helsingor (Denmark) and Helsinborg (Sweden). The ferry ride took only 20 minutes to get into the neigbouring country once again.

Currently, this is the only ferry route between the two countries. Seems they had cancelled all other services between these two nations, after opening the Oresund bridge to Malmo.

Nothing was exciting in Helsinborg, since we ended up seeing some more Forts, Chapels & Town halls…

However, this angel at the tip of the harbour was different….

This one, reminded me of Robert Langdon’s look outs for Angels, in Dan Brown’s ‘Angels & Demons’.

My quest for different structures within Copenhagen, didn’t stop… with what I had visited earlier.

I found the structure of this Grundtvig Church unique, which made me to visit the place last weekend. Seems this was constructed in remembrance of one Mr.N.F.S.Grundtvig who was a priest, poet and politician & had a vast influence on the Danish culture.

Built after the first world war, this front tower reaches 50metres upwards..

The structure looked enormous… which you could easily observe from those miniscule people coming from the church’s side…

Even though, the city centric Rosenborg Castle was one more addition to the castles which I visited here...., its yet another picture perfect castle.

Plus lots of valuables, jewels, Danish crown are at display here …

Not sure whether I would cover anything more interestingly in and around Copenhagen…. to satisfy my new found interests on History & Geography.

Keep the fingers crossed..... :-) :-)

My other Copenhagen Posts:
Getting Colder….
Can we adapt one more day?
That entertaining one hour…?
Sea side, Lake side and what else?
A visit to the Traditional & Modern city…(Malmo, Sweden)
290th post

A visit to the Traditional & Modern city…

2006-11-25T02:49:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, the decision which was eluding me for couple of previous weekends (due to bad weather) was finally taken.

The visit to Malmo (one of the biggest Swedish city) just across the Oresund strait….

The earlier reason for avoiding it…. was to experience the journey on the Oresund Bridge by bus (not by train) when the sky is clear.

This bridge-tunnel seems to be the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe. On the Danish side, a tunnel has been constructed under the sea starting from Kastrup Airport (Copenhagen) upto the reclaimed land in the middle of the sea. Then the bridge starts…

Pic courtesy: Wikipedia

I didn’t have the infrastructure to fly up and snap this :-(

Even though the climate was still hazy, the trip was exciting… Seems, the bridge has one of the longest cable-stayed main spans in the world at 490 metres. The total length of the bridge is around 8 kms.

The height of the pillars are around 200 metres…..

(Somehow, this structure reminded me of the Penang Bridge, the length of which is longer than this by another 6 kms connecting the Penang town with the Mainland Malaysia)

The road lanes are on the top of the bridge and the rail tracks beneath them… Now, you know my reasoning for the bus option… :-)

Indeed, the design was extraordinary....

Pic courtesy: Malmo Tourism

I went around couple of places in the Malmo city, like the city square and shopping district.. which were more or less like what I experienced in any other European city.

But the main attraction was this Turning Torso, which seemed to be unique to this region…

Isn't it a perfect Desktop picture?

Sometimes, my digicam does some good job :-) :-)

Designed by one Mr.Santiago Calatrava and opened a year back (Aug-05), this claims to be the second tallest apartment building in Europe. [Pl. note.... this is not a commercial building; So,obviously the place around the building was very calm]

The tower has 54 stories with a height of 190 metres…

The twisting is too much….. isn’t it..

The top-most segment appears to have a twist of ninety degrees clockwise with respect to the ground floor.

Since I had visited couple of other castles in Denmark by then, decided to skip The Malmöhus Castle.

However the park around the castle was beautiful … So, had a pleasant stroll around the park.

I liked those yellowish/brownish leaves… which were ready to fall anytime.

This traditional wind mill in that park, reminded me of the one which Bharathi Raaja showcased in ‘Captain Magal’…

Whatever be the post, I couldn't resist myself from linking something or the other to a movie, which I had seen... :-)

The tiring but wonderful day ended with those ducks in the canal.....

and some more subsequent shopping :-)

My other Copenhagen Posts:
Getting Colder….
Can we adapt one more day?
That entertaining one hour…?
Sea side, Lake side and what else?
289th post

Sky is the Limit - வானமே எல்லை

2006-11-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

Seems Tamizh Muthalvar has decided to shower concessions on the film industry without any limits….

Couple of weeks back, I mentioned about the latest trend of chasing for attractive tamil titles, to cover the audience in a different way. Almost 100% of the movies which are being announced nowadays, are following the trend. Obviously, they don’t want to miss the concession bus.

Few days back, the Muthalvar announced concessions for old movies too… the film community was happy with this as well.

The point which was always irking me was the thin line which they may draw on couple of titles. For example, take the titles with some personalities’ names. How do they judge the origin of a name, now that the names have become universal by adapting from different cultures?

As it was lingering in my mind, the gossips have started coming out as to whether the two top movies of the Tamil new year will go for name change. They are none other than Sivaji & Dasavatharam. After so much of publicity around them, if they go for a name change because of the interpretations of the new rules, it will definitely sound funnier to the outside states.

In the near future, there will be some good demand for the tamil scholars to vouch the authenticity & origin of certain titles like ‘Mahesh’ or ‘Ramesh’…. Once they are dried up, we may end up having some more interesting titles like ‘Kuppan’ ‘Suppan’ … the day is not very far.

Anyhow, we can wait and watch how far it goes on like this….

BTW.. how come Minister Stalin is not going for a name change still?
288th post

Increasing expectation for a rural outing …

2006-11-21T03:34:00.000-08:00

Even though, Ameer-Surya’s ‘Mounam Pesiyadhae’ was not a commercial hit, it brought out a director with a different calibre under the lights. His next venture ‘Raam’ proved that his recognition for his debut movie was not a fluke. In addition he revealed his ability to bring out an actor out of Jeeva. We know the current standings of Surya and Jeeva in the market.

Now, even before the release of his next movie ‘Paruthi Veeran’, his debutant hero Karthi’s stock has soared up. It is a known fact that Karthi has signed up for ‘Ithu Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam’ with Selvaraghavan. That’s a noticeable achievement for a debutant. Credit needs to go to Ameer, for the confidence he reposed on Karthi and making him into a saleable stock, so soon.

Now lets go back to Ameer-YSR combination. YSR delivered some memorable numbers in both their earlier outings – ‘Mounam Pesiyadhae’ and ‘Raam’. The latest album in not an exception. ‘Paruthi Veeran’ has also couple of noticeable rural melodies, which are sure to stay on top of the chart for a long time.

It’s a good break from YSR’s regular peppy songs and some of them bring back those memorable numbers of his Dad in ‘Alaigal Oaivathillai’ ‘ Muthal Mariyathai’ etc.,

‘Aiyaiyo..’ by Shreya & Krishnaraj tops the album with the romantic rural tunes & the mood of the lead roles expressed thru the lyrics. The song brings out the characters of a rough macho hero and a soft rural belle, perfectly.

Maestro Ilayaraja has once again expressed the lead pair’s mood very well in the ‘Ariyatha vayasu..’ number. Reminded me of some of his numbers of yesteryears.

‘Sari kama…’ by Madhumitha, will capture your attention even though it plays for less than 3 min only. You may enjoy the confrontation between the older & newer generation of the rural area, delivered in it.

Apart from the above, YSR has included two more folk songs to fit the rural background of the movie. Delivered by the real drama artists, you may feel like sitting in front of a 'koothu'[drama] which is part of the rural festivals, most of the time.

This latest offering by Yuvan is definitely adding value to the rural product and increases the expectations for the content.

Ameer has so much confidence on his output, that he has now taken over the project from Surya’s home banner ‘Studio green’. Hope he delivers something different rather than the regular rural confrontations which we had seen 'n' no. of times...

It is likely to compete with Ajith’s ‘Aalwaar’ and Vijay’s ‘Pokiri’ during their Pongal Outing. If it does so, let us wish Ameer to get his confidence paid off...
287th post

Sea side, Lake side and what else?

2006-11-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

It would be hard to stay in the hotel, if the weekend begins with a fantastic weather outside. You hardly see a day like that during this winter season. So, I never let the chance go away, if it appears to be a day with less rain and little bit of Sun.

That way, I ended up seeing couple of interesting Tourist attractions. Indeed they were unique with some Danish flavour…

Den Lille Havfrue

The Little Mermaid

The main character created by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, 2 centuries ago, is occupying the harbour side nowadays. Even though I had come across similar fairy tales, I have never read about the exact one behind this Little Mermaid.

For its height of approx 1m plus, it was surprising to notice its crown as one of the major attractions in the city. May be the curiosity to visit their fairy tale heroine, pulls in so much crowd.. from across the globe.

The statue seems to have been vandalized several times during the last couple of decades. Head / arm sawn off few times, dynamite blast attacks, graffitis… blah blah.

Incidentally, the last attack was on 11-Sep-2003..

Still she is surviving and pulling in more crowd…

The canal ride which I had afterwards, should have been impressive if it was during a summer season. Due to high tides and water rise, couldn’t enjoy the canal ride much.

One more weekend arrived…..

Decided to visit something exciting and big.

Since the day was bright, Frederiksborg Castle was shortlisted.

Frederiksborg Palace is located in Hillerod [40kms away from the city] in the middle of a lake and can be dated back to 16th century. Seems this is the largest Renaissance palace in Scandinavia and preserves lot of royal arts collections and plenty of historical events behind it.

“The Great Hall” [a typical Durbar style hall] resembled couple of interesting palace halls which are still existing in India, with some glittering work.

Looked like yesteryears’ Elevator…

Since there were no guides and the descriptions were in Danish, this is what I presumed.. :-) :-)

The view of the garden behind the palace, was fantastic as captured from within the Palace.

The weather appears to be supporting the authorities very well to maintain the gardens around the Castle, in this fabulous form.

A Pic of the Castle from the Garden…..

This is considered to be a splendid castle in Denmark. And indeed, it looked so…

Impressive.

Way back to the entrance, I had plenty of opportunities to shoot some exciting pictures… This was one of my favourite

Even though the above castle satisfied my appetite for some exciting locations, I was looking for something more on the same day.

I was told that Fredensborg Castle which is located some where closely, will remain open for the public only in the month of July. Being the current residence of Prince Frederik & his family, public are restricted from visiting the palace.

Still I wanted to visit the castle, since I was mislead by some brochures with an attractive top angle picture of the castle.

Even though it was not that massive as I expected, the location appeared to be peaceful, appropriate to its so-called name of ‘Castle of Peace’ [The name 'Fredens Borg' dates back to an historic event, when Denmark & Sweden entered into a peace treaty here, way back in 1700s].

This palace had some wonderful gardens around it and I enjoyed walking thru them.

This pathway was too good to walk thru, when the day was sunny with a temperature of around 6 degrees. On top of it, no rain… :-) :-) :-)

Few more weekend pics are yet to come… watch this space.

My other Copenhagen Posts:
Getting Colder….
Can we adapt one more day?
That entertaining one hour…?
286th post

Poor soul awaiting rescue…

2006-11-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

It is a pathetic situation that Bharath has been trapped in between two strong producers Shankar & ‘Kalaipuli’ Thanu.

Seems, both the producers would like to release their movies [Veyil & Chennai Kathal] featuring Bharath in the lead role on the same day – December 8th. Looks like Shankar is postponing his movie to Dec-8th for known reasons [lucky day, being the ‘Kathal’ release date].

If ‘Chennai Kathal’ gets released at a later stage, atleast it can ride on the success (assuming!!) of ‘Veyil’. Now, there is a possibility of getting burnt for ‘Chennai Kathal’, since soft romantic movies are new to Vikraman and he is back after few years. ‘Veyil’ will have good opening definitely, since the movie is from Shankar’s production house with some good tunes by GV.Prakash.

Hope the Producers’ association or Distibutors/Theatre Owners’ association will intervene to sort out the panchayat between the producers and rescue the poor soul… Bharath.

Given a chance, I would prefer to experience the ‘Veyil’ effects, in spite of Genelia’s presence in ‘Chennai Kathal’ :-) :-)
285th post

Will it be another memorable one?

2006-11-12T13:26:00.000-08:00

Most of the recent headlines on Satyaraj are more or less related to his role in ‘Periyar’….

As you all know, Gnana Rajasekaran is recreating the history of the Dravidian movement’s pioneer in his third movie. Many of us may not know much about Periyar except his thoughts as an atheist, as spread out by his movement and disciples. Ironically, those atheist thoughts seem to be the main reason for Ilayaraja to decline the offer for this movie.

It was a surprising development when the news was out that Satyaraj will be enacting Periyar’s role. I don’t remember him doing any serious roles with heavy subject in the recent past….. I mean, for the last couple of years.

It’s also news to me that he has completed 175 plus movies. I could hardly count memorable movies from his lot. As a matter of fact, it has been a long time since I watched his movie completely.

I could recollect only the following movies, where he had done something people could remember.

Nooravathu Naal – For that Cameo henchman role.

Kaaki Chattai – For that ‘Thagadu Thagadu’ and funny dialogues. As mentioned in ‘The Hindu’ interview, he might be the pioneer in mixing the villain characters with some humorous stuff.

Mr.Bharath – For the ‘Ennamma Kannu’ style confrontations with the hero..

Mudhal Mariyathai – For that Cameo role as the lover of Vadivukarasi…

Pagal Nilavu – For the soft spoken villain role, in this Maniratnam’s debut tamil movie..

Vedham pudhithu – For the characterization of ‘Balu Thevar’

Kadalorak kavithaigal – Surprise portrayal as a full stream hero..

Kadamai Kanniyam Kattupaadu – A different movie in that period, from Kamal’s production house..

Paalaivana Rojakkal – Different portrayal once again, with Kalaingar’s dialogues..

Poovizhi Vaasalilae – Fazil made this one memorable to Satyaraj with the screenplay

Nadigan – Must be a starting point for his humor blended hero roles

Vaalter Vetrivel – Even though he tried to emulate ‘Thangapathakam’ Sivaji, he was still distinct.

Amaithi Padai – For the politician character…

In some other movies like Brahmaa, Saavi, Ennamaa Kannu, Adithadi also he had delivered something different from the run-of-the-mill stories.

Irrespective of the proportion of memorable ones to his total, he has not failed his producers much because of his knowledge on the pulse of his audience. That's how he could deliver successful stuff like Looty, Englishkaran etc., even though they are just other entertainers.

However, the stills of ‘Periyar’ seem to be different & promising. Whether it is worth watching, depends on the director's presentation. Let us wait and wach… whether Satyaraj could include this movie also into his list of memorable?

Btw… what kind of songs are they shooting in Malaysia for a theme like ‘Periyar’? Had Periyar been there in Malaysia? I hope the director is placing the song perfectly into the movie, which is not like the commercial movies.. where they fit any type of song anywhere!!!!

Pic Courtesy: The Hindu & Tamilgallery
284th post

That entertaining one hour…

2006-11-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

Got an email couple of days back with a message…..

“Ok Guys, let us go for a Car race with some Carlsberg & Tuborg at 4 PM on……....”

The mail was received by all those who were working on the project with me.… Danes, Germans, Swedish…. Since, I had never participated in any car race (never had an intention to damage a car!!), I was eagerly waiting for that day. Several posters (in A3 paper!!) were pasted everywhere visibly in the office hall, with the picture of a crowded outdoor car racing track.

The day arrived… I was waiting for the other guys to call me, to leave the office. My expectation was that I will be taken for a nice drive to the location of those racing tracks. Didn’t want to miss it…

Till 3:50 pm, nothing happened. Then a guy came down with a big box, plus lots of Carlsberg/Tuborg cans.

Cleared some tables in the hall and made enough space.. for what?

To build the car race tracks!!! Hmmm…. So much build up for that..

The track which I anticipated very eagerly was finally ready!!!
The list of those willing to participate was ready…

Oops; my name was included for the first race with a Norwegian.

Everyone of them had some nick names....

I was given the remote of the Blue car… Nice color, though.

Few guys were ready to help those in the race, in case the cars get out of the track…

This guy was there to help me!!

The white car was racing ahead… We had 20 laps to complete and I was in the 17th lap, when my opponent completed his 20th lap. :-( :-(

Then, I really felt the lack of training with these toy cars!!

We had lot of other interruptions, organized by the project leader, disrupting the racing!!

Finally, the winner with the Champagne….

All these stuff were nothing but to motivate the team, to achieve the project goals. But I never expected to have these things during office timings, even though I enjoyed the break. [For them, after the race, the day was over….. It was already getting darker outside!!]

My other Copenhagen Posts:
Getting Colder….
Can we adapt one more day?
283rd post

Are those few seconds worthier than the life?

2006-11-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Most of you would have received lots of forwards about those people who achieve / miss to achieve some remarkable things, in a matter of few seconds’ intervals.

One nano-second miss..
One second miss…
Ten seconds’ miss… etc.,

Let me not repeat them again.

But, definitely it is worthier to wait for few more seconds for the train to cross, rather than risking the life.. as captured in this video, which is floating around the Desi mailboxes for the last one week.

It is a crazy crossing…

282nd post

Can we adapt one more day?

2006-11-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

Seems it’s the season to adopt all International days in Indian soil. Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day etc., have already found roots in our cities.

Now, the next one has started to emerge and being celebrated in few schools. I am talking about Halloween Day. Seems last Tuesday, My son had some celebrations (!!) in his Bangalore school for Halloween Day.

What’s next? ‘Thanksgiving day’…..!!!
[Even though, we have a similar one in January every year!!]

It is not only Indians. Seems, Danes are also getting obsessed with US culture. Last week, I visited a theme park here in Copenhagen. The Theme was nothing but ‘Halloween’ adapted for few weeks. My son could have enjoyed that environment, a lot. Missed him… :-( :-(

Entrance of Tivoli…

Only Beauty among the beasts

Seems, they do have the right to enjoy all these rides…

When you see so many pumpkins in one place, the color becomes more attractive… inspite of the one kept on the centre for ‘thirusti’…

One more lesson to the kid..

The final product… of another kid.

My other Copenhagen Posts:
Getting Colder….
281st post

Titles are becoming attractive, though….

2006-11-04T00:17:00.000-08:00

the contents are yet to…

It is a well known fact that Tamil movies are benefiting with the concessions showered by the Tamilnadu Government and eating the collections of Hindi & English movies. Read somewhere recently, that non-tamil movies are not getting enough theatres due to those concessions.

However, an interesting play field has been created for those vying for some attractive Tamil titles, to avail those concessions. Just check out the following titles of upcoming movies and the new movies yet to be started… Really seem to be interesting, isn’t it?

Pachai Kili Muthu Saram (titled earlier as ‘Silanthi’)

Udal Porul Aavi

Sivappu, Manjal, Pachai

Desiya Nedunchalai

However, the same topic on which we debated earlier comes to the fore again?
280th post

Feeling Nostalgic….

2006-10-31T13:36:00.000-08:00

Now that the Deepavali releases are competing vigorously, the focus shifts to the upcoming November releases which are likely to eat away their collections. Sundar.C - Madhavan combo’s ‘Rendu’ and Karu.Palaniappan – Vishal combo’s ‘Sivapathigaram’ may be the movies to notice in that November lot. ‘Rendu’ seems to be a comedy movie with the latter being a hot action movie.

My expectations are more on Karu. Palaniappan’s ‘Sivapathigaram’. Somehow, I feel Vidyasagar’s music won’t help much to woo the audience for this movie, even though the album is a mixed bag of melody & folk songs.

‘Atrai thingal vaanidam’ sung by Sujatha & Madhoo Balakrishnan is very soothing and pick of the lot. ‘Chitiraiyil yenna..’ by Karthik & Swarnalatha is one more typical Vidyasagar melody reminding me of some of his tunes of ‘Varnajalam’.

Out of the folk songs ‘Mannarkudi Kala kalakka’ by Manickam Vinayagam & Rajalakshmi tops the list, which is likely to be the absolute treat for the folk song lovers. ‘Adi Chandira Sooriya..’ fits in the list as one more proper folk song. Not sure, how it is placed in the movie…

Much depends on Karu. Palaniappan’s screenplay, which was his strength in his debut ‘Parthiban Kanavu’. I have not watched Vishal’s ‘Thimiru’ yet. But, his selection of scripts are really interesting. However, I’m not sure as to how KP is packaging the folk songs in to the story. Trust this combo may deliver some interesting stuff, which is also a comeback vehicle for Raghuvaran.

It should be interesting to wait and see… their output.

One more reason for me to watch this movie, is that this movie has been shot in OUR COLLEGE, where movie shootings are absolutely rare. I don’t remember seeing any movies shot in our campus. Each and every picture reminds me of my college days. It should have reminded Karu. Palaniappan as well who is an alumni of the college.

Looks like Washburn hall (hostel), where I stayed for sometime. I have a similar shot taken at this place.

Somewhere near the Principal’s office….

Near our Department staff room…

Near the Bell tower… I believe still they use this manual system, without using the electronic systems..

Pic Courtesy: Sify & Indiaglitz
279th post

Getting colder..…

2006-10-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

In spite of the weather getting colder everyday, I had to visit this part of the world this time… for official purposes.

Yeah… first blogpost from Copenhagen has arrived. The main reason for missing my Deepavali and movie hall visits is this … :-( :-(

When the flight started descending, I expected the outside weather to be bad, unsuitable for me. But, it was not that bad as I expected. Hope it won’t become worse, soon.

For a long time, I wanted to capture some good shots from my window sheet. This time, I could satisfy my wish to some extent.

Slowly, we were descending…

Just nearer to them…. and felt like it was going to be a soft landing on the bed of clouds.

Kavidhai, Kavidhai.. varamatengudhu…ipponu parthu..

I liked this because of the reflection of our flight on the clouds.. just before getting into those clouds. Double click…

Could feel the outside weather from my hotel room…

The Town hall square, across the city roads..

The 100 year old Town Hall (Radhus), seems to be the 6th town hall of the city, with the previous ones being destroyed by fire.

An artistic performance in front of the Town hall square…

On my way back to the hotel…

The Danish capital Copenhagen city, which lies on the Oresund Strait, is just a few kilometers across the water from Sweden. So, I am getting another chance to land on another country, soon!!! Till then, you will get to see some more interesting posts from this city of harbour.
278th post

Deepavali Crackers…

2006-10-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

The festive mood could be felt everywhere, with a matter of few days for the movies to hit the cinema halls. The new release fever has gripped the industry, never like before. Why not? The stake is high with so many star films (7, as per the last count) getting released at the same time. It should have been a tough time for the distributors to finalize theatres and Cinema hall owners in terms of priority for the first few days…

I just thought of having a short preview on those getting released for this season… I have categorized them into three categories.

1) Star value
2) Social issues
3) Masala Entertainment

Star value

‘Vallavan’ and ‘Varalaaru’ fit into this category.

‘Varalaaru’ (Godfather) has the distinct record of a “Movie with too much of expectations” in the CAN for a long time. This follows the earlier records of ‘Ullam Ketkumae’, ‘Vettaiyaadu Villayaadu’ & ‘Perarasu’. Since these movies had not failed the distributors, ‘Varalaaru’ also would have given a comfortable feeling for them. However, does it worth the hype? Recently, I read its story line in Vikatan as narrated by the movie camp, which doesn’t have anything unique. Ajith in his triple roles has plenty of opportunities to perform. However, the B.O. results depend on the magician K.S.Ravikumar’s screenplay touch. Since, the distributors are behind the strategy of ‘Better now than never’, they may have to pray for their luck to click.

Even though, ‘Vallavan’ seemed to have put PL.Thennappan (producer) under a high tension for the last one year, the “Ever-confident” Simbu is confident this time as well, with the way movie has shaped out. In the initial days, there was news that Simbu is doing triple roles in this movie. According to the facts gathered, dual roles are definite. Whether the third role will be a mystery role? Need to wait & watch from the Director’s official debut movie… With YSR’s musical support, Simbu may strike a winner yet again.

Social Issues

I could classify ‘E’ and ‘Thalai Magan’ in this category.

After a long gap, national award film director Jananathan (of ‘Iyarkai’ fame) is coming out with his second movie ‘E’ titled after his hero’s name ‘Easwaran’. Nowadays, directors are more focused on the titles to woo the audience. I assume that the director would have scripted an attractive screenplay as well, which is supposed to be on the Bio-war elements and the related social issues. With Jeeva in yet another different role, we can expect this to be a dark horse in this festival race.

Another directorial debut, by a Journo-turned Producer-turned actor-turned Sarathkumar thru his wife’s production house ‘Radaan’. ‘Thalaimagan’ was supposed to be directed by directors like Venkatesh, Balaji etc., and finally Sarath had stepped in to wield the megaphone. Since Sarath is dwelling upon the water problem of the future world, in his Journalist’s role, I believe there would be lot of scope for him in emotional & action scenes. There is every possibility that Distributors can feel comfortable with this movie as a safe bet.

Masala Entertainment

We can classify the following three easily into this category.

Producer-Director Saran is coming out with yet another city based heroic subject ‘Vattaram’, after his previous hits of ‘Amarkalam’, ‘Gemini’, ‘Attagasam’ (average) etc., Arya is assumed to be a safe bet and Bharadwaj’s music is OK to listen, even though it cannot be classified as excellent. Since his last ‘Ithaya Thirudan’ didn’t click well with the audience, I hope Saran would have taken almost care to make this ‘Vattaram’ a complete commercial entertainment. Need to keep the fingers crossed…

Most of the time, AM.Ratnam’s touches turn to be lucky. But I won’t bet much on his new venture to be released for this festival. Director Perarasu - ‘Captain’ Vijaykanth combo’s ‘Dharmapuri’ seem to have all the masala elements of both the personalities. Being targeted purely for ‘B’ & ‘C’ centre audience, it is a big question if it can become a hit like captain’s last release ‘Perarasu’.

Director Venkatesh is somewhat like early days’ KS.Ravikumar. He is very clear on the formula stories and what he is supposed to deliver. He has neither delivered any memorable movies nor delivered any loss making movies for the producers and distributors. All his earlier releases with Sarath, Simbu etc., are masala entertainers with glamour for the mass audience. This time, Arjun has decided to join Venkatesh for the movie ‘Vaathiyar’ which is also clearly for ‘B’ & ‘C’ audience. I don’t have much to comment or bet on this movie.

Now that distributors are praying that none of the movies should lose money, I can’t comment as to who would be the loser. My gut feeling is that the competition will be between ‘Vallavan’ ‘Thalaimagan’ & ‘Vattaram’ in the initial days with the dark horses being ‘E’ & ‘Varalaaru’.

‘Dharmapuri’ & ‘Vaathiyaar’ are not my cups of tea.

Anyhow, I’m going to miss the Deepavali action this time, since I’m neither in India nor in Singapore. So, I’ll definitely miss opportunity of viewing some of these movies immediately. Will catch up later.
277th post

Stuck at…

2006-10-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

couple of places here, regularly…

This would be a common experience for anyone who lives in Bangalore.

Luckily the distance between my house and office is around 7-8 kms. For me, except certain areas, most of the other parts of the roads will be relatively easy to commute in an Auto (not a car!!!). But it may not be the same case for others – who commute in Airport Road or Hosur Road, which connect them with Whitefield and Electronic city.

Recently I met a guy working with an IT firm in Electronic city, who is traveling for nearly 1.5-2 hours morning and evening. His problem is due to his stay at his own house at Malleswaram. He couldn’t avoid it and most of the commuters end up like this. One of my relative also does the same thing.

I wondered as to how these cartoonists (Mr.Chetan & Mr.X) would have experienced the Hosur Road trip to EC. These cartoons which I got thru email forwards clearly show the anguish and pain which they would have suffered.

Even though I enjoyed their comical sense & I don’t travel much in those routes, I’m stuck with the reality this time. :-( :o( :0(

If you couldn’t read those printed words in the cartoons, just blow it up…

276th post

Survival toolkit

2006-09-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

When Ajith did the magic of weight reduction, it was an incredible news in the media.

Now check out this guy who weighed 100+kgs when ‘Boys’ got released… Nakul, Devayani’s brother, is having such a slim look for the lead role in a new movie titled ‘Kaadhalil Vizhundhaen’. Now that two of his ‘Boys’ mates have gone up in their ladders, he might have decided to survive in the industry by reducing his weight to this extent. If this heroic look really helps him to hit the bull's eye, he should thank his slimming instructor for that.

This makes me to believe some of those Slimming outfit ads, in which they proclaim obese weight shedding by their beautiful ambassadors :-) :-) :-)
275th post

Sillunu Oru Kathal - Review

2006-09-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

This is the first time, it has happened during these last 18 months of my blogging. I didn’t post my movie review immediately after watching the movie.

It happened so, that I didn’t want to spend time for writing on this movie, amidst my tight schedule. After the hype surrounding the star couple’s wedding, the movie might have been over booked during the first week. However, debutant director Krishna has not provided a strong screenplay to keep that momentum going.

The director has started the movie in the style of ‘Roja’ and ‘Dum Dum Dum’. The village belle gets married to the hero and leads a happy life. After couple of years, she gets to know about his past and decides to fulfill his forgotten wish [to spend atleast a day with his former lover]. Krishna ends the story with a traditional ending.

Surya and Jyothika had done their best, to uplift the movie, eventhough Bhumika Chaawla couldn’t help much. She reminded me about my previous post, when she replaced Asin for this role. I doubt, whether Asin would have done a better job in this role, since the characterization is not that touchy.

Strengths:
1) AR.Rahman’s music and some good picturisation by RD.Rajasekhar.

Weaknesses:
1) Screenplay [especially, the weak love blossoming scenes and lot more…]
2) Vadivelu’s unnecessary presence and humour which don’t evoke much laughter

So, the movie has proved that ‘Melting titles’ need not make the movie a cool sweet one, as we had discussed it before.

My Earlier Reviews - Limited edition (munch them, if you hvn't)
Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu / Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi / Thavamai Thavamirundhu / Majaa / Ghajini / Anniyan / Ullam Ketkumae / Sachein
274thpost

Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu - Review

2006-08-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Another movie, which was not in my list, came up for viewing so soon after its release…. Just a passing remark from my colleague, made me to accompany him to the nearby theatre.

Since I had observed many movies of Kamal Haasan, failing in the box office after initial hypes, I didn’t have much expectation before entering the hall. Except that, it was Gautam’s third tamil directorial venture.

The narration of the story line is very simple. If you had read some good crime novels of Sujatha, Rajesh Kumar, Subha or ‘Pattukottai’ Prabhakar, you will feel like patting Gautam on his back for the screenplay. For a long time, I have not seen a nicely woven Tamil racy thriller.

DSP Raghavan gets involved in the investigation of his mentor’s (Prakashraj) daughter’s brutal murder. Later, he is forced to go to US to co-ordinate in the investigation of his mentor’s murder as well. By co-incidence, he meets Aaradhana (Jyothika) and moves around with her. The way, he is tracking the killers and the subsequent follow up in India, has been narrated in a tightly knitted screenplay.

Kamal fits the stone faced police officer’s role to the core. This has resulted in his dominance thru out the movie. He doesn’t have much scope for his emotional expressions, except at the time of his ex-wife’s death. Balaji, who appeared as the police officer friend of Surya in ‘KK’, has violently taken up the role of the maniac killer. He fits the role perfectly. Jo & Prakashraj make their presence felt in this hero dominant subject.

Even though Gautam has specifically mentioned that it is another page of a police officer’s life, he has taken more care to ensure that the hangover of ‘Kaaka Kaaka’ is not revealing anywhere in the movie. The impact of that treatment could be observed in the lack of romantic encounters with Jo, which was felt very much in his earlier venture.

In a thriller movie where you could see less romantic scenes , it would be hard to find comedy. It’s the same story here. I could observe only two passing comments, which made me to smile. One, when Raghavan was wondering on a beggar’s remarks about policemen taking bribe from him and another, when he corrects Jo that he is not a software guy, but a police officer “alias hardware guy”.

Harris Jeyaraj’s re-recording is excellent and the songs have been picturised very well thru Ravi Varman’s lens.

’Karka Karka..’ title song starts the proceedings with a bang.

Kamalinee Mukerjee is very cute & expressive in the ‘Paartha Muthal Naale’ song, with the only odd factor of Kamal’s oversized body in the frames. If some technical expertise had helped Kamal to portray a slim / young body in the flashback scenes of 8 years back, it would have been great.

Newyork’s night life has excellently been captured in that ‘Manjal veiyal..’ song, even though the Goan song of ‘Sikki Muki..’ is not at all required.

The movie appears to be very long (2hr 45 min). But Gautam’s favourite editor Antony has made it interesting to watch like a close one-day cricket match or like Federer Vs Nadal’s Wimbledon’06 finals. Ravi Varman’s camera work is excellent. You could observe an international excellence thru his lens, while observing the American cities, towns and suburbs.

Strengths:
1) The Technical excellence of the team - Tight Screenplay of Gautam, Crisp editing of Antony, Excellent Camera work of Ravi Varman, Catchy tunes & re-recording work of Harris Jayaraj
2) Kamal’s screen presence through out the movie

Weaknesses:
1) Too much of realistic brutal murders, may make someone sick

The movie is a Slick, Crisp, Racy Entertainer… which can raise up the B.O. collections in ‘A’ centres, since it is more of an urban oriented subject. For those, who love to watch a racy movie with an excellent crew, it would be a treat to watch this for its technical excellence in all departments.

But, I could sense that the family audience, especially ladies, may keep away from the halls, because of the realistic portrayals of gory attitudes of maniac killers. It was not the case of ‘KK’ in which a sensual line of romance was running till the end of the movie.

My Earlier Reviews - Limited edition (munch them, if you hvn't)
Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi / Thavamai Thavamirundhu / Majaa / Ghajini / Anniyan / Ullam Ketkumae / Sachein
273rd post

Hello, Bangalore….!!!

2006-08-21T02:53:00.000-07:00

That was a hard decision to make… But, I finally made it. One of the reason for my long abstinence from blogworld.

Two weeks are over, after I stepped into Bangalore. When I got this assignment with this reputed technological leader, I couldn’t decide whether to take it or not. Lots of questions cropped up regarding the viability, comparability, the relocation factors etc.

The first one to be struck off was the comparison factor. Life & the associated rewards are always different in various parts of the world. However, I found it hard to convince various parties who were around me. Different quarters had different opinions. Some felt that I was making a hasty decision leaving behind the $ earnings, Standard of living etc., which were comparably better than the Desi ones. However, some realized and accepted the fact that the move which I was making an appropriate at this point of my career, to achieve an expected growth and elevation. Anyhow, the final decision was ours (mine & my wife’s).

Even though, there were lots of loose ends left pending in Singapore, I arrived here exactly two weeks back…

My experience over the past two weeks can be summarized like this…

@ Good office environment meeting my expectations.

@ Known traffic congestion on the Bangalore roads (since I’m used to the Chennai’s Kodambakkam/ T.Nagar/ Teynampet mad rush).

@ Horrible pot-hole roads at important junctions and Roads. Nothing is going to happen, just because I’m mentioning it, since so many IT-gurus have highlighted this earlier.

I had a chance to go thru Sarjapur Road, where one of the campuses of Wipro is located. I could understand why Azim Premji is repeatedly reiterating for improvement in the road infrastructure. Check out this exclusive POTHOLE site for this city famous for potholes nowadays, rather than the gardens.

Couple of things are sure, if we travel in that Sarjapur road…
a) Pregnant ladies can be assured of a normal delivery
b) If you have a back ache, it will go away. If you don’t have one, you will get it.
c) Children (going to those international schools in the rural villages there) will have enjoyable bumpy rides.
d) Auto Drivers, in which we are commuting, are sure to ask for compensation for the auto parts which would come off during the ride. Next time, I should try for a good car and check out the impact…

More will continue soon… on my subsequent hunts.
272nd post

Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi – Review

2006-07-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

Didn’t expect this to happen…… since my plan for the evening was to watch the Wimbledon final between Henin & Mauresmo.

But it happened on our friends’ insistence, even after a doubtful article like this . I myself had my own apprehensions earlier .

When Shankar had decided to invest so much on a new director, what could have been his expectations. May be, that the novel idea will click if the known story is packaged with timely comedy. Now, I believe his risk taking ability may be rewarded adequately. I could realize it when I saw the crowd on the first day. Even some super star films would not have attracted such a full house on the very first day, here in Singapore.

The story is nothing new. Most of the tamil movie goers would have seen similar stories ‘n’ number of times from the historical season to the latest rap-song season. But the way it has been packaged, it can pull in more crowd (irrespective of the school reopening).

The story has been set during the Initial British era. The twin sons of the king get separated by their Villainous Uncle (Nasser) who is also the Rajaguru, based on the astrologer’s predictions. The elder one christened as 23rd Pulikesi has been portrayed as a fun loving King without caring about the citizens, against his Mother’s (Manorama) good wishes. The second one, Ukkirabuddhan, replaces Pulikesi at an appropriate time, to do good deeds during the Rajaguru’s absence in the country. At the end, the kingdom gets a good government of Pulikesi.

The entire first half is full of comical scenes, some evoking great laughter. Eventhough there are few sagging moments in the screenplay immediately after the intermission, the debutant director Simbudevan had taken utmost care to ensure that majority of the scenes evoke some laughter every now and then.

Along with the comedy scenes, the director had combined lots of scenario from the current political arena. You can take any issues like Child labour, Illegal award of contracts, Caste fights. Unworthy Arms deal, Govt employees lethargic attitude and you can add on. In addition certain punch dialogues poke fun on the usage of Rainwater savings scheme, and so on.

Monica (‘Indira’s ‘Nila kaaikiradhu…’ girl) & Tejashree fit the bill as the heroines.

Music by Sabesh-Murali fits the movie for its period story, eventhough it doesn’t add any special attraction. But some song sequences evoke laugther especially the first one ‘Aah adi Va’ with a group of dancers in the Anthapuram and ‘Panju methai Kaniyae’ a duet with Tejashree.

Strengths:
1) Vadivelu’s performance is as expected and you can’t find any fault with his expressions & timing sense. Ilavarasu has done a good job as the chief minister of the King. Eventhough Director Manobala appears in a cameo as the corrupt arms maker, his presence could be well remembered with a big laugh at the climax scene.
2) The screenplay doesn’t let the audience down, irrespective of the few minutes slackness after intermission. Even the messages which the director wanted to tell the audience, have been inserted appropriately.

Weaknesses:
1) Eventhough Vadivelu’s tummy is Ok for the Pulikesi role, it doesn’t suit the heroic Ukkirabuddhan role. Since we were not used to watching him preaching in subdued voice, certain portions of the movie don’t gel well with the comical portion.

Worth watching, provided you like funny (but clean) comedy like ‘Muhamad-Bin-Thuklaq’ and still you like to read the comical stories.

My Earlier Reviews - Limited edition (munch them, if you hvn't)
Thavamai Thavamirundhu / Majaa / Ghajini / Anniyan / Ullam Ketkumae / Sachein
271st post

After a long break…

2006-06-27T03:01:00.000-07:00

Its long time, since I had entered this area… As I replied to some of our blogger friends, got tied up with several issues and in between had a short trip to India as well. Eventhough it was short, was able to visit couple of temples in and around Kumbakonam and Tanjavur. A good trip..

Since I had stayed in Madurai for a long time and had been to the Meenakshi Amman temple regularly, I used to have an urge to visit Tanjavur Periya Koil at the earliest. This time we specifically planned & included it in our route. Some of those pics are here..

Eventhough the height of the tower didn’t excite me that much [overshadowed by the tall buildings I had seen of late], the efforts put were visible. I could recall a recent Discovery channel episode on this temple, detailing the efforts behind this massive structure in those days. The Lingam which was erected in the main shrine was huge, the size of which I had not seen earlier anywhere. I need to admit.

Looks like, the temple is undergoing renovation. Eventhough the campus looked old, revealing its age, I thought that the restoration could have started long back. The tourist arrivals were less visible, due to which the surroundings looked neat.

Italians and French are talking so much about the paintings of Michelangelo and others in their museums. It is a pity that we didn’t take care of our paintings at an appropriate time. Even if we want to do it now, it would be difficult to get back to the images closer to the original. That’s what I could realize when I observed these paintings.
Few of those 1008 nandhis erected on the Outer wall.

Visited couple of other noted temples as well including one in Papanasam (near Kumbakonam) with 108 Lingams. Seems the story could be dated back to Sri Ramar & Anjaneyar’s return from Lanka, to absolve from the war sins.

Hope to come back to this arena soon, with continuous posts.

Keep visiting.... :-) :-)
270th post

Rs.2000 Vs Rs.200 crores

2006-05-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

Rs.2000 & Rs.2 have beaten Rs.200 crores….

The election results are proving that ………

the money promised out of public funds to the ultimate public, is favoring positive results to the concerned parties,

rather than the money spent on top film stars and politicians, out of “hard earned” own money.

I believe, Amma will adopt a new strategy next time.
269th post

A good reason to have a pet name….

2006-04-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Seshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman ....

ஹப்பா..... மூச்சு வாங்குது....

Now, I know the reason for such a short name as Blaaze..

Blaaze – Sivamani during the ARR concert in Singapore

268th post

A Day to celebrate….

2006-04-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

Completion of a year…. Hmmm.

Just like that, it was dreamt & started on this Tamil New year day…… and one year had gone. It was an enjoyable experience of making so many friends thru the net within a short period of time. Thanks for visiting very often. Keep visiting…

As you could have observed the no. of posts in the recent months have come down a lot which have in turn pulled down the visitors too. What to do? Tied up too much on the work. Still happy that I was able to make 260plus posts during this period.

Anyhow, it is a matter of some more time, before I turn aggressive once again. Till then, keep visiting….267th post

‘Yaali’ for sale

2006-04-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

We might have observed these sort of creatures in mythological movies or some crazy comic stories where the Scientists give life to odd creatures, to destruct or save the world. In our Indian mythology, we have seen so many mixed creatures like Kamadhenu, Yaali etc., We normally brush them aside as story characters..

Pic Courtesy: Art & Archaelogy

Just think about seeing these mythological creatures (Dragon, Unicorn, Gryphon, etc) LIVE ….. in front of your eyes. Some people welcome that idea.. some may vehemently oppose it.

Not anymore, since people are spending so much efforts to create these creatures…

If Mr.Paolo Fril of GeneDupe succeeds in creating them, then you may take one of them to your house….

“…PAOLO FRIL, chairman and chief scientific officer of GeneDupe, based in San Melito, California, is a man with a dream. That dream is a dragon in every home….. Making a mythical creature real is not easy. But GeneDupe's team of biologists and computer scientists reckon they are equal to the task. Their secret is a new field, which they call “virtual cell biology”. …..

Each computer starts with a search image (dragon, unicorn, gryphon, etc), and the genome of the real animal most closely resembling it (a lizard for the dragon, a horse for the unicorn and, most taxingly, the spliced genomes of a lion and an eagle for the gryphon). The virtual genomes of these real animals are then tweaked by random electronic mutations. When they have matured, the virtual adults most closely resembling the targets are picked and cross-bred, while the others are culled.

Using this rapid evolutionary process, GeneDupe's scientists have arrived at genomes for a range of mythological creatures—in a computer, at least. The next stage, on which they are just embarking, is to do it for real…..”

Seems, he was in the news 6 years back, when he was about to introduce a real Gold fish , in which he couldn’t succeed and that project was scrapped.

If this team’s new efforts succeed, will it be for a Good cause or Bad one???

Just reconsider once again, availability of ‘Yaali’ for sale in your nearby pet shop…..
266th post

When the reality strikes..

2006-04-07T01:02:00.000-07:00

Suicide * Burnt * Crushed * Hacked

Sometimes, when all the prominent headlines of the news portals have these messages, you may get mixed feelings. That’s what I got when I saw yesterday’s headlines in the evening paper, News Today. [Double click the pic to see what I’m trying to highlight].

Eventhough it is painful to face the reality which had struck those people, the thoughts which struck me immediately are....

1) Life fragility.
2) News portals’ tactics to woo the readers by hook or crook… either with a negative shade or with a positive shade [India booming or Sensex to touch 16000 etc.,]
3) Switching over to a cine web portal – which doesn’t affect me by heart.

Cannot blame them also..

In the world of Dhina Thanthi, Maalai Malar & Tamil Murasu , this guy also needs to survive. Isn’t it?

Atleast, can’t they bring out some positive news as well on the top?
265th post

Amma everywhere….

2006-04-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

Now that Election Commission has restricted political graffiti on the walls, our kazhaga thondar has squeezed his head and given the entire space of his two wheeler registration plate for Amma.

Normally the RTO officials restrict, hiding the vehicle registration numbers in the number plates. It is a known rule that the number plate must be made visible both in the front and back of any vehicle…

Seems, the officials may ignore this, considering the political attachment of the vehicle owner.

Pic Courtesy: Tamil Murasu
264th post

Tips from an unexpected visitor

2006-03-29T18:03:00.000-08:00

Normally we can expect the TV crew in the midst of a riot or political sensational issue, very quickly. We can expect that the TV crew might have been tipped by some body else in advance.

I had a doubt, after seeing the following picture…

Has the photographer (whether TamilMurasu employee or somebody else) expected that the dog will come into the class room on that day? Looks like, the dog might have tipped him/her…

Pic Courtesy: Tamil Murasu
263rd post

EC to tackle SMS

2006-03-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

Normally the Election propaganda should be concluded 24 hours prior to the start of the election day. Isn’t it?

In the modern era, with SMS propaganda happening, what would be the Election Commission’s stand if these SMS are sent out during those 24 hours prior to & on the Election Day. Will they be considered as violation of Model code of Poll Conduct like this?

Believe, they may have to strike a deal with the Mobile service providers, to arrest these type of SMS.. That may be the only way. Isn’t it?

Other side of the coin… Will that be considered as violation of basic human rights [of sending SMS]?

Pic Courtesy: Tamil Murasu
262nd post

To make migration, easy…

2006-03-23T23:01:00.000-08:00

Another way to migrate to rich countries… as these players have done it.

Ok.. that’s a long report. To make it short…

“… War-ravaged Sierra Leone has now lost half of its team after another four of its competitors vanished. Boxers Gibrilla Kanu and Alie Kargbo and two cyclists, believed to be Alhassan Bangura and Mohamed Sesay, became the latest to go missing.

Seven vanished on Wednesday -- a weightlifter and six members of the athletics team. That takes the total to 11 missing from a delegation of 22. Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest and most corrupt countries and 21 of its team of 30 went missing at the last Games in Manchester four years ago.

They have visas until April 26 and will not be considered illegal aliens until then, police have said…”

Seems these guys have exploited, this opportunity to visit the country and mix in the ocean of illegal immigrants. I am assuming that they will stay even after Apr-26 without a valid visa. Difficult to blame them as well, considering their economy’s situation. This has become an inherent problem all over the world, in the ‘so-called’ rich countries.

Consequences of being ‘Rich’…. !!!

[Nowadays, I am observing lot of African nationals in Singapore Little India area also (behind Mustafa) .... Not sure, if they belong to the above category!!]
261st post

Isn’t it too early?

2006-03-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

Isn’t it too early to compare Vishnuvardhan with Manirathnam?

Eventhough most of the websites claim his ‘Arinthum Ariyaamalum’ as his debut movie, his original debut ‘Kurumbu’ can easily be ignored. Being a remake of a telugu movie of its hero Naresh, it had so much of Andhra shade. Luckily, Vishnu changed his track in ‘A..A..’ and presented a different relationship between Prakash Raj & Arya and showed that we could expect something out of him in the next movie. Now, he has proved that he can present a hit in the form of ‘Pattiyal’ realistically with a known story plot.

Kudos to the boy, who is being compared with Mani, the person who made him to dance in ‘Anjali’ for few songs.

I would say that Mani’s earlier movies were also not outstanding movies, eventhough they were different from the normal movies of those days. Take for example, ‘Pagal Nilavu’. I remember Satyaraj quoting to another actor, ‘Whether this director knows how to survive in the industry?’ during the shooting of the movie. But Mani proved with his subsequent movies, that he was there to stay for a long period.

But still, I feel that it is too early to compare Vishnu with Mani.

However, it is a healthier sign for the industry, if I refer to my earlier post again. Let us hope more, to get interesting outputs from this guy.
260th post

Photogenic pic … A Substance of deception

2006-03-19T23:30:00.000-08:00

Sometimes photographs give us a rosy picture. Am not sure, if that logic applies to this picture also, attracting Chennai residents with promotional offers for this summer.

During most of my travel time, I never used to be impressed with the real location compared to the pictures what I had seen elsewhere. They always used to have a nice photo finish in the pics compared to the real location, as a marketing strategy. So, whenever I visit a place --- I used to go with a discounted expectation.

Sometimes, I do get 100% satisfaction compared to my expectation, eventhough it doesn’t happen always… Hope, this resort won’t fail to impress the visitors.

BTW.. does it apply to ‘Photogenic’ faces also? I have observed in many cases that the personal look and the photo image contradict a lot, including _____ :-) :-) :-)
259th post

Wanted: Fresh air, not a polluted one

2006-03-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

When we look into these type of marriages , it makes us to think as to why they need a separate party, first of all?

We can list down ‘n’ no. of guys who started their own party and later either dismantled or merged with some other party. I could recall few of them, as below…

Vai Ko (still surviving with different alliances)
P. Chidambaram
S.Thirunavakarasu
S.Kannappan (in the nearby picture)
Sivaji Ganesan
K.Bhagyaraj
T. (Vijaya) Rajendar

Now, our CAPTAIN….

They always make a mistake of judgment thinking that they can do what MGR did. Even, Jayalalitha could win back the mass support only after her faction’s merger with Janaki’s faction. MGR had such a huge support, due to his cine hero (well-wisher) image, which made him to start his own party, after his exit from DMK.

Eventhough the above politicians / actors have support of the people of a small section, it may be due to their caste or for professional glamour. Definitely, not for other issues which they claim to eradicate / solve.

If we need a new political party to uproot the Dravidian parties from power, it needs lot of work from the grass root level and it may take even another 10 years to come to the power. May be Vai Ko has the ability to do it… But it depends, whether the corruption & mismanagement skills of the existing parties will be carried to the new party as well. In that case, induction of a new team won’t bring a change in the system.

Am not sure still, if we will be able to see a new refreshing team soon, free of the existing political evils.
258th post

Risk taking – Who will be the victim?

2006-03-13T19:55:00.000-08:00

Will it be Parthipan or Namitha? This is the question which came to my mind, when I observed that Parthipan is making her to act in his ‘Pachakuthirai’

After staying there for quiet a while as a glamour girl, Namitha is testing the waters with a different getup in this movie. So far, the directors might not have tried to portray her in a different makeup other than the glamorous one. As usual, Parthipan is trying to take the risk of investing money on this project with additional risk of giving an actress role to Namitha. But, I’m sure he will use all his mischievous tricks of his earlier day movies.

Is Namitha trying this, to stay in the market? Has she realized that, she need to act as well to face competition? All depends on the outcome of this movie.

This picture reminds me of Sujatha in KB’s ‘Avargal’. Definitely, this ‘Pachakuthirai’ may not come nearer to that classic. Let us wait and see, what more is in this movie for us.

Some more images here….
257th post

Expecting a revamp…

2006-03-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

Is there a Panic among our stars?

Looks like… the way they are scrambling for stories. Instead, I should put it as Screenplay.

This raises the question which was hidden underneath….. during the recent days.

Whether the Rs.1000 crore plus (annual) industry needs a revamp as the Bollywood got in the recent past?

Just have a glance, on the proportion. Compared to yesteryears, the proportionate no. of quality movies have increased in Bollywood during the last 2 years.

Ek Hasina Thi,
Khakee,
Aitraaz,
Hulchul,
Raincoat,
Page-3,
Black,
My Brother Nikhil,
Parineeta,
My wife’s Murder,
Salaam Namaste,
Bluff Master,
15 Park Avenue,
Rang De Basanti…..

Compared to Bollywood, Tamil Industry (I despise calling it ‘Kollywood’) used to churn out more quality movies always, in proportion to its total output. However, in the recent years the outputs are getting burnt due to poorly conceived screenplays, which has resulted in the drop of quality movies' proportion compared to previous years… Just take a look into the well conceived movies of last two years, in my perception.

Pithamagan,
Chellame,
Azaghiya Theeyae,
Virumandi,
Autograph,
7G Rainbow colony,
Manmadhan,
Ram,
Kana Kandein,
Anniyan,
Ghajini,
Thavamai Thavamirundhu,
Kanda Naal Mudhal

It is a generally acceptable theory that there are only few story knots on which the screenplay can be built.

Romance
Family
Revenge
Musical
Social consciousness / Political
Generic / mixed

Even though, the knots are less, the industry was surviving for the last 8 decades merely based on the screenplay and the performance of the starcast. Now the real danger is coming up due to the economical reforms [opening of several industries] and the results. More international products (I mean, movies) are made available to the audience, in the local language itself. In addition, the satellite channels are providing the entertainment in a full swing on the same knots.

All these issues have definitely put the industry under pressure, in addition to the recent Producers' council fights. So, definitely it needs a makeover with some quality deliveries. Already the younger brother (I mean, Satellite channels) has beaten the elder brother by attracting more audience.

Unless the Elder bro wakes up and do something, the following would be the likely scenarios, as happening in other Industries…
1) Shrinking business volume
2) Less no. of players
3) Less no. of years of stay for the players

Already, we are experiencing the last scenario, due to disappearance of more no. of yesteryear stars.

The first two may be avoided most likely, with the emergence of the last scenario in a big way. Net net, if we get good deliveries we should be happy.
256th post

AMMA on the cover

2006-03-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

Apt time for a report on AMMA, when the election fever is spreading...

Read out this article and the reasoning given by the authors of this book

Will actor Senthil talk on the stage like this? 'Englishkaaranga kuuda AMMA-ava pugazraanga!!!' Who knows? It may happen...

Pic Courtesy: The HINDU
255th post

Is it a real coup?

2006-02-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

By now, people should be aware of Sarath's website....

Eventhough, I watch his movies very rarely, I would say that the ratio is better than watching Vijaykanth's movies. [Say, atleast a dozen Sarath movies in the last decade compared to 1 or 2 of captain's movies].

Considering the fact that 'Thalaimagan' is his 100th movie, I would expect a grand promotion in the media, by Radaan movies. The pictures and Nayanthara's journalist role, convinced me that it would be another patriotic, action packed racie movie. Unless the screenplay is really unique, it may not be my cup of tea.

[Another fact to note is that, 100th movies had been released with hype always, like Prabhu's 'Rajakumaran', Rajini's 'Sri Ragavendra' etc., without yielding much results]

However, this news on his next likely movie, is a real coup.. Gautam & Sarath, with Harris Jeyaraj.

Will it be like a 'Ramana' style movie? Fingers to be crossed..

Normally when the glamour is less in Sarath's movie, the story content used to be attractive to most of the centres. Hope Gautam has come out with such a script & cast. If it really happens to be a different one, I may meet Sarath in this movie again.
254th post

Another lift...

2006-02-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

Looks like another lift...

I was expecting a lift on 'Collateral' long before. Now it seems to be happening in the form of 'Taxi no.9211'.

'The Hindu' says

"Two of Bollywood's most popular actors Nana Patekar and John Abraham come together in "Taxi No: 9211", a film which is creating a lot of buzz in the trade. The film, directed by Milind Luthra, is about how two guys with a different outlook meet in a taxi in Mumbai. Raghu, played by Nana Patekar, is a short-tempered cabbie who needs Rs. 30,000 by the end of the day. Jay is a sarcastic young man and an heir to a business empire. He is on his way to court to stake his claim to Rs. 300 crores! Raghu and Jay meet by chance and the fun starts. Sameera Reddy plays the heroine."

During the last two years, I sensed a fresh air in the Bollywood region different from a typical masala / sentiment oriented movies. Hope this movie may also fall in that line and be different... eventhough it looks like a gentle lift.
253rd post

Thai Pusam 2006

2006-02-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

Every year, Thai Pusam would be celebrated with more awareness in Singapore & Malaysia (Penang). In India, I believe - only the traditional Pusam goers will be aware of that and only certain belts follow the walks upto Palani.

Thai Pusam is observed on the full moon day of the Tamil Month Thai (Jan-Feb). This time it was on Saturday 11-Feb-06. Being a Saturday, the roads from Serangoon Road to Tank Road were full of devotees. The estimated arrivals to the Murugan (Sri Thendayuthapani) temple at Tank road, would have touched 20000 people. That's my guess.

The 'Paal Kudam' (Milk Pots) and 'Kavadi's which started to arrive @ 00.00 hrs on 11-Feb (Friday midnight) ended at 2.00 hrs on 12-Feb (Saturday midnight). Even on Friday evening, the temple was crowded a lot.

The following has been mentioned in the brochures issued for Thai Pusam, by the temple.

"There are many types of offerings made to Lord Muruga. But carrying Kavadi is considered the best offering. The practice of carrying Kavadi is explained in the Puranas. The great saint Agastya, while at Mount Pothikai, instructed one of his disciples, Idumban to bring two hills, Sivagiri and Shaktigiri, from Mount Kailai Range. Having arrived at the Mount Kailai, Idumban picked up both the hills, tied them at both ends of a long pole and carried them across his shoulders.

However, Lord Muruga had intended that the two hills be placed at Thiruvavinankudi (Palani). At the same time he wanted to test the devotion and tenacity of the purpose of Idumban. After placing the two hills at Thiruvavinankudi, Idumbam rested for a while. When he tried to carry the two hills again he found that he could not do so. The perplexed Idumbam looked up and saw a child in loin clothes standing one of the hills, who claimed that the hills belonged to him.

The furious Idumban then attempted to attack the child but found himself falling like an uprooted tree, which made Idumban's wife & saint Agastya to appeal to the child (Lord Muruga) to spare Idumban. Lord Muruga was pleased with Idumban's devotion to his guru Agastya and his mission and thus made Idumban his guardian.

After that, it is believed that those who bring sandal, milk, flowers etc., in a Kavadi to His shrine, like Idumban who had brought the hills carrying across his shoulders, will be blessed by him"

Am sharing some of the pictures taken on this Saturday.

Entrance of the temple, crowded with Devotees

'Paal Kudam' (Milk Pots) & 'Kavadi's during the morning session

'Spike Kavadi's which are famous here. Heard that Penang also receives so many devotees like this.

Two of the many westeners who visited the temple on that day...
The devotees crowded at the entrance outside the temple...
and inside the temple...
Another spike kavadi..

Evening crowd....

Looks like some North Indians... [Even Chinese carry Kavadis and visit the temple on this day. I missed to capture a pic]

The arrival of final Kavadis... Saturday midnight.

One more... in the night.

252nd post

More breeze on the air

2006-02-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

With more professional institutions like this, I hope we can see a lot more professionalism in our Airlines sector.

Sometimes, I had observed Air hostess getting upset with passengers' behaviours and revert in the same manner {particularly, Indian Airlines flights between Singapore & Chennai}. That attitude is not only towards those who are the root cause of it, but other passengers as well.

Hope these type of attitudes will slowly change, when there is an influx of more professionally trained airhostesses.

Pic courtesy: The Hindu
251st post

Age - No problem, even for Direction...

2006-02-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

This industry is like a honeycomb which attracts so many people irrespective of the age. We have come across debut of Chockalinga Bhaagavadar or Manickam Vinayagam @ 60 plus and many young child artistes from the age of 1 year onwards.

But normally, to go behind the camera and instruct the actors, it takes ages for people. Sometimes, they achieve it after a long stint in the industry as assistants like our Balaji Sakthivel, Bala etc.,. Some directors like Maniratham, Gnana.Rajasekaran (Mohamul / Bharathi...), Selvaraghavan were able to join this band at a reasonable age, without any prior experience as assistants.

Only few get the break at an early stage (I mean, at the age of late 20's or early 30's), after their small stint as assistants. But only, few of them make it big.. few go under the carpet as assistants once again, like Balaji Sakthivel (after 'Samurai'), Vasanthabalan (after 'Album', now directing Shankar's 'Veyil') etc.,

Rarely, we get directors at 20plus under the limelight. Recently, I could name Simbu who had taken up the director's role for 'Vallavan'. For a person, who was brought up with 'Cinema' as the nutrient in-take everyday, it is not a big deal. Siddharth who started his career as assistant director to Maniratnam, had gone into acting suddenly. Hope he achieves his ambition as a director at the earliest. We can name a few like this, at this age group...

In other languages also, the above trend continues.. Only recently, we have started getting more youngsters in this role.

But the news is not about all these youngsters...It is is about this Kishan.

".......Ten-year-old Kishan is all set to enter the Guinness Book as the youngest film director ever.... When boys of his age are busy taking notes in class, Kishan is juggling frenetic shooting schedules and dashing off notes to his crew on the sets. Kishan, launched the shooting of his full-length feature film "C/o Footpath," that has Bollywood star Jackie Shroff, Kannada artiste and National Award winner Tara and others in the cast. He is an experienced actor with about two-dozen films to his credit.....

The film is shot in Kannada and will be remade in Tamil and Hindi... The youngest director of professionally made feature film as per Guinness Book Of World Records is Sydney Ling, from Netherlands, who directed the film "Lex the Wonderdog" in his 13th year..."

I could say that, beyond luck, his talent would also have favoured him, in such a competitive industry. Trust this boy has done his homework well, that the exam result will be in his favour.. Let us welcome this kid, to give some quality output.

It is refreshing & rare to see professionals at this age. Eventhough, we cannot expect more directors of his age (!!) very frequently, hope we can get some more reasonably young blood with fresh ideas without being assistant for more than 10 years....

Pic Courtesy: The Hindu
250th post

GONG XI FA CAI....

2006-01-29T15:54:00.000-08:00

GONG XI FA CAI

he.. he... learnt these things to greet our neighbours.

'Wish you a happy Chinese New year'

The Dog year has come... So, let us welcome, even if it is the second day of the new year....

Some more info here....

249th post

Will it be a fresh Vijay, after the break?

2006-01-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

Guys.. this is not an anti-Vijay post... So, pl. read it from that perspective :-) :-)

Finally, the hot star of 2005 has taken a break..

A Well deserved one, from his & his family's point of view. May be, for his fans this may be a surprising news since he was continuously feeding them with movies in the last 1 year plus. From my point of view, I already felt that the numbers which he did was too much.

5 movies in a gap of 15 months..with a super hero status. Seems to be incredible.

However, considering his previous years runs, I would expect him to be cautious in future. He might have thought to reap the benefits when the wind blows on his side. He might have decided to churn out so many commercial movies continuously, due to intense competition for the top slots. Inspite of those numbers, he was able to give two super hits, one confirmed average, another seeming to be an average and the left alone survived due to his cameo role.

Need to agree that he has worked hard, to gain the current stardom which he is holding. At his age of 30 plus, his urge to give more hits are understandable. 5 songs (with one Item number) + 4 fights + some 'Ennanganna...' dialogues, may do that trick for sometime. I believe the fans like that part of Vijay very much. Will it continue?

I feel that he needs to change his strategy now. We don't want Satyaraj style of movies from Vijay. He can possibly reduce the numbers per year, which may raise expectations among the audience. The industry's bet on his movies are very high at Rs.20 crores plus level. So, if some of the movies flop, it would affect his subsequent movies trade.

A decade back, when Gautami did 12 movies in a year or when Rama Narayanan directed 12 movies in a year [real fact, folks...] people accepted them. However, nowadays people are observing so much of cine-data disseminated thru media. So, they really keep track of the performance. Probably, after sometime, the result may be felt - in terms of their acceptance of his movies.

Let us check out the list of the movies which he churned out in the last few years..

Aathi / Sivakasi / Sachein / Sukran
Thirupaachi / Madurae / Ghillie / Udhaya
Thirumalai / Pudhiya Geethai / Vaseegara / Bhagavathi
Youth / Thamizhan / Shaajahan / Badri

Honestly speaking, I have seen only 'Vaseegara' (accidentally), 'Sachein' (expectations were high due to John Mahendra direction) & and the real super-hit Dharani's 'Ghillie'.

Why?

May be, I could sense what his film contents were... due to which I am trying to avoid. I accept that he is not doing movies for audience like me. But, soon more may turn out to be like me.

Now much awaited, SJ.Suryah's 'Puli' has also been dropped. So, a chance of getting another refreshing (!!) movie has been scrapped. At the same time, you could have observed these rumours that Gautam Menon may direct Vijay & Vikram together. If it works out, it may be a different movie. But, it is unlikely to happen immediately since Gautam has to finish Kamal's 'V..V..'. first.

Prior to that, Vijay may accept another masala movie with a young new chap, who may have ready scripts to suit his star status of today. In that case, I feel those scripts would be most likely in the same line as the last few predictable action movies of him.

Let's hope his upcoming movies this year and following years keep him as one among the top heroes. He needs to consolidate his top slot with some better movies to name and not in numbers.

Normally, Vijay tries different combination of heroines & directors for most of his movies. This time, I hope he would add some "interesting story content" also as a variable to that equation...
248th post

As usual, Hectic.. bear with my absence

2006-01-24T14:11:00.000-08:00

My aggressiveness has come down... Still, finding out the reason.

Not sure..

May be I am unable to find time. Too much of work to do.. Too much of Tennis. I mean, Australian Open. It was an awesome QF match yesterday between Cypriot Baghdatis & Croatian Ivan Ljubicic which was won by the former eventually.

Anyhow, thanks for those who reminded me of this entertainment.. I mean, blogging. Will join you folks in the next few days, for continuous blogging like before. Other priorities are pushing this blogging, two steps down. That's the reason.
247th post

பால் பொங்கியாச்சா?

2006-01-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

பால் பொங்கியாச்சா?

When we were kids, We used ask the above among our relatives and neighbours when we meet on the Pongal day. We asked even today. Same question to you.... :-)

Those days are still memorable... Traditionally, we know, people prepare pongal in a mud pot under the sun, as in Villages even nowdays. However, my mom used to cook Pongal under the sun, but in silverwares. The event of the day, used to be a tough competition to finish off the entire sugarcane first.

Time has changed now, due to modern flat culture everywhere. Pongal on gas stoves...

Eventhough, most of us miss those traditional scenario, I'm still happy that the momentum is kept alive. Thru TV reminders. Shopping in Little India and a some-what traditional Pongal cooking. Better than, the Pongal cooked in the rice-cooker...

So.....

அனைவருக்கும் தமிழர்த் திருநாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள்.....
246th post

Can a Cave lure you so much?

2006-01-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

Yes, it can...

For a long time, we wanted to explore something unique in India.

After visiting couple of exotic overseas locations, we wanted to give a try in India this time....

Several destinations were considered, including Amritsar. Finally, we zeroed in on Ellora & Ajanta. One of the main reasons, is my Son's newly developed interests in visiting those places which he is studying currently. Both the places are located near Aurangabad.

So, we started our enquiries with several agents in Vashi (Navi Mumbai) area and everybody offered the same tour arrangement.. 3 days - including one free day in Aurangabad. Since, we were not impressed with the tourist attractions in the city - we wanted to avoid the free day and pack it in two days.

Finally, one guy accepted.. but the figures overshot the budget. So, we decided to hire a Toyota Qualis - to accomodate more people. The additional info which we got during our Agent hunt - helped us to schedule it in a better way [the info that, Ajanta is closed on Monday and Ellora is closed on Tuesday].

6 hours trip to Aurangabad (400 kms) in a Qualis, with kids was really tiresome. Even then, without even entering the city, we landed at Ellora - which is 30kms away from Aurangabad.

Basically, sculptures of 3 different religions were present there - Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism - all dated back to 6th century AD to 11th century AD. Compared to Ajantha caves, Ellora was never considered 'lost', due to its proximity to Aurangabad city. It seemed to have been visited by travellers, Geographers, Archeologists frequently. Still, they are protected very well.

Out of 34 caves, 12 are Buddhist, 17 Hindu and 5 Jain caves. Most of the caves resembled either temples or monasteries.

This was the first one (Cave no.12) which we visited among the Buddisht caves. Nicely carved three floors with traditional stairs, made us to wonder.... about the efforts gone behind that Marvellous structure.

Buddhas sitting in a row...

Closer view of another Buddha, in the next cave..

Front entrance of the next Buddhist cave

Initially, this reminded me of a dining hall - due to these built-in rows. Later, I realised that this is a learning centre and students used to sit and learn things here....

After this cave, we visited couple of more Buddhist caves, which are not claimed to be exceptional.

Then we landed at Hindu cave no.16 - which housed a traditional Hindu temple of a huge Shivalingam [Kailasa temple]. There were more sculptures carved around this temple, including.....

Sri Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar ThiruKalyanam

Narasimha avatharam and the incarnation's fulfillment

a traditional pillar

Ramayana Epic

Later we visited the Jain cave no.32, which is also called as Indrasabha... Immediately after seeing Mahaveer's posture, my son and my niece started questioning the posture without dress. I started explaining the spiritual reasons of foregoing all the materialisitic interests and Penance. I hope that they understood a bit.

After our return to Aurangabad in the dark evening, we visited Bibi-Ka-Maqbara (the clone of Taj Mahal). Built by Aurangazeb's son for his mother, it remained unimpressive to me, since I had visited Taj mahal earlier. Since it was dark at that time, I couldn't capture the Building very well in my digicam.

Next day, we started our visit to Ajanta.. which was 100kms plus away from the city.

It seems Ajanta caves were carved by Buddhist monks who themselves painted so many wonderful pictures. They had aptly selected the mountain near the Waghora river which should have flown vigourously in those days. The oldest cave are dated back to 200 BC and the latest being 15 centuries back.

The caves seemed to have been discovered back only 2 centuries ago, during a British hunting party. In 1819, the officers who stumbled upon this horse-shoe shaped cliff, had discovered the painstaking efforts of Buddhist monks of those earlier centuries. Since the religion lost it significance thereafter, these carvings also seemed to have been forgotten, before they were found again.

I need to really appreciate the Tourism board's idea to stop the tourists 4 kms away from the caves. All the tourist vehicles were stopped down the hill and we were taken by Maharastra tourism board's bus to the location [No shops as well, near the spot]. I felt that it will definitely protect the surroundings - unlike Ellora, where we can park our vehicles closer to the caves.

It seemed to me that the monks built them near the river, for their prayers and learning, without disturbances from the city life.

Two different schools of Buddhist thoughts (Hinayana & Mahayana) were said to be behind these marvellous works. The older Hinayana school's thoughts were that the Buddha was represented only in symbols like the stupa, a set of footprints or a throne. However, the later Mahayana school had given the Lord a human face. The paintings and sculptures talk about Buddha's lives in his previous births and the related Jataka tales. We could observe several scenes thru the paintings.

the dried up river....

This is the famous picture of 'Boddhistiva Vajrapani'

Eventhough couple of websites claim the paintings to be Fresco paintings, certain tourist guide books published and circulated near this place - claim them to be 'Tempera' and not 'Fresco' technically. The artists claimed to have extracted all the colors from minerals.

Flash photographs are prohibited inside the major caves to protect the life of the paintings and sculptures. However, certain Hi-tech cameras set in 'Auto' mode flashed automatically during our visit, which infuriated the guards. One of them literally snatched a tourist's camera.

An Unique Sthupa inside a cave temple..

And finally, the entrance of a Cave temple... which resembled a Hindu temple.

At the end of the trip, had an wonderful feeling within me and was proud that India has so many exotic places created 2 millenium back. Still to cover a lot more....

After this trip, I really missed the Elephanta caves near Mumbai.. which I should have visited during my stay there (but, couldn't make it). Not sure, when I am going to visit it next....
245th post

அள்ளித் தரும் ம(இய)ந்திரம்

2006-01-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

Just try to write the above in English....

Allith Tharum Ma(Ye)ndhiram.... or Allith Tharum Machine....

Aren't we getting ATM?

That's the literal meaning which my son perceived for ATMs, when I accessed them in India for my requirements. Eventhough he had accompanied me to ATMs in Singapore, he had never raised any queries earlier. This time in India, he exclaimed "Wow! how are you getting free cash from ATM, Dad? It is very good, isn't it?". Probably, he would have expressed that way due to the denomination of notes, which I might have withdrawn. For him, drawing 1000Rs. seemed to be greater than 40S$.

The same way, when he wanted to buy something which I refused, he would suggest me to use the credit card. His impression was that if we don't want to spend money, we can use Card and escape(!!). ['So, what if it is expensive, you can pay by card, isn't it?']

Since we have never got replies to this sort of queries from our parents, it took some time for me to explain the banking functions... I hope he realised the facts, that its our own money.

But, still it would be wonderful.. if someone pays for your spending, isn't it? That would be a fantasy dream, which I may want to be fulfilled (after totalling up my shopping bills)... :-( :-(
244th post

A Trip to Maha......... gani

2006-01-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a very Happy new year, friends..... before I step into the first post for this year.

Mahabaleshwar.....

Situated in the heart Of Sahyadri Hills in Satara District, Maharashtra. It is also known as 'Queen of all Hill Stations'.

We were dropped there at around 5 AM in the dark, amidst a shivering weather. Due to the weather, we got out of the hotel only in the late morning -- after ensuring that the sun was over our head. The environment was more or less similar to Ooty / Yercaud.

The strawberry vendor....
The market place...
Naive(!!) villagers...

The market place reminded me of Madurai old markets and my grandma's village markets. Something similar to a Bharathiraja movie too....

The same day evening, we had an interesting trip to Tapola, which is also called Mini Kashmir. I haven't yet visited Kashmir.. so "no comments" on this so-called name.

Still, the time we had in the backwaters of Koyna dam, was excellent. We had a boat ride there which is said to be of 250 ft deep.. Don't ask me, how I felt while I was sitting on the waters.

Next day we went to Panchgani, where Aamir Khan & Kiran Rao hosted their wedding party recently. Unfortunately, we were not invited, similar to the other non-invitees Shah Rukh Khan/Salman Khan / Karan Johar etc. So, I couldn't extend my stay there at Panchgani. :-( :-(

Panchgani - derives its name from the five plateaus/hills surrounding the village. One of the plateau - "Table Land" is said to be one of the largest plateau in Asia. I could realise that when I observed several budding cricketers playing in a group of several teams. We were told that a small plane can land there easily...

One of these kids may be a future celebrity kid. Reason... this village houses several celebrity schools, where film stars and famous personalities' kids are studying. [Courtesy: Britishers, similar to Ooty concept]

Seems, several hindi movies have captured these locations earlier.. including Aamir Khan's 'Raja Hindustani'. Hmmmm.. now I could understand his passion towards this place.

Was able to capture some of our ancestors' family members. Too much of concentration to her kid.

Next day, we went around Mahabaleshwar.. few temples and several viewpoints, named after Britishers like Wilson point, Connaught Peak, Arthur's seat, Elphinston point etc., in addition to one Indianized Savitri point.
Had a beautiful view of the valley and the surrounding hills.

On the top of one of the hills, tourists are being attracted towards a "tap" of spring water. It has been named as "Tiger Springs", since they were supposed to attract so many tigers in olden days!!!

Another attraction of my favour was the nicely burnt corns.. reason.. the chilli powder spread over them using a lemon... I heard that, in Chennai also, these type of corns are being served with lemon / chilli quoting.

Hmmm...

It should have been an enjoyable trip. However, we were tensed a bit on the last day, since my son was sick of vomitting & diarrhea (due to food poisoning). Eventhough we were suggested to admit him in a local Govt. hospital, help came thru a privately practising experienced doctor. He arrested the problem with an injection...

Another interesting but usual thing, which we observed was too many newly married couples.....

One more Interesting Trip is pending to be posted... will make it asap!!! Currently too busy in clearing my mails.

SOME MORE LINKS
Tourist attractions of Mahabaleshwar - Link-1
Tourist attractions of Mahabaleshwar - Link-2
243rd post

Those who carried me...!!!!

2005-12-23T05:47:00.000-08:00

"....." wheeler
Eventhough the Jet Airlines' services seemed to be OK, I couldn't fit myself in those economy class seat gaps comfortably...

Reason.. my long legs, as I mentioned in one of my earlier tag posts. Somehow, I managed those 5 hours with a book ("............" more on this later) which I bought in Changi Airport before departure.

4 Wheeler
My brother-in-law was in the Airport to pick me up. It took an hour's drive to Navi Mumbai. I have always heard about the traffic in Mumbai. But I have never experienced to this extent....

Eventhough, I am not comfortable with Indian driving these days (after my Singapore experience), my B-I-L drove thru the traffic with ease.... cutting the traffic in the same way as the auto drivers did. First day, I couldn't swallow the experience.... eventhough I was not the driver. Now I am OK with whoever driving the vehicle.

3 Wheeler
The surprising element is the Auto Charges, which I have paid so far. Compared to Chennai, we are finding this place more straight forward. I am not sure if Chennai Auto drivers are charging what is appearing on the meter. ('suudu' illaama..)

Here, we were charged 11Rs. per KM, while the meters were showing the no. of KMs driven by them... precisely, as 7.40 km etc., If they don't expect any "return passenger" from the destination, they tell us upfront that we will be charged with a 'published table' rate for the KMs driven.. which is 150% of the original rate. Eventhough, it sounded more or like Chennai way of charging, I still found them better to handle... :-) :-)

Multi Wheeler
I am commuting currently within Navi Mumbai area. So, there are no "crowd issues" in the trains upto Vashi. Hopefully next week, I may undergo the experience of visiting (old) Mumbai too... Since my wife arrived in Mumbai, 2 weeks earlier than me, she had briefed me about her experience in the crowded trains (even if it is ladies compartment) particularly in junctions like Kurla, Dadar, etc., I am scared already..... :-( :-(

Next likely post
Expect soon......... some more on my (completed) trips to, Mahabaleshwar & Panchgani (where Aamir Khan & Kiran Rao are hosting their wedding party next week)
242nd post

Jet-ting away from the stress....

2005-12-17T01:46:00.000-08:00

Will be away for 2 weeks.. Going to Mumbai. :-) :-)

This is the third time I am landing there.

First time, for an interview - just for 2 days

Second time, while on an onward trip to Delhi - just for 2 hours

This time, just for a relief from the hectic office schedule. To catch up with some interesting things around the Business capital. If possible, I'll catch up with you guys.. Otherwise, U may have to excuse me... :-) :-)

Musical Count Down....

2005-12-15T05:59:00.000-08:00

Year end has approached already... and it is time to evaluate.

Not my performance... but the journey thru the 2005's cine music extravaganza.

Already bloggers have started rating this year's releases, where I had even voted for my favourites. So, I have decided to skip all those ratings and wanted to bring out those songs which had mesmerized me & made me to listen to them repeatedly.

As I had mentioned, I am rating only those mesmerized me.. I might have excluded your favourites, inadvertently. If I had done so, pl. let me know...

10) "Kanmoodi Thirakkum Podhu..." from Sachein scored & sung by Sri Devi Prasad, was a nice song which didn't get the attention that much, since the movie was supposed to be a flop. Since, I liked the lyrics & the picturisation, it has been recognised into my final 10.

9) Eventhough "Unnai Saranadainthen ..." sung by Kalyani & Prasanna (or Piranna?) was not placed in the already lengthy Thavamai Thavamirundhu, I liked the tunes of Sabesh / Murali.

Initially, when I listened to it, I felt like listening to one of ARR's earlier compositions. Later, when I watched the movie, I could find only 'Nanae Tholaintha Kathai...' with the same tunes, still likeable. Other notable songs, which I liked in this movie were the romantic 'Enna Parkirai..' and the emotional 'Oru murai thaan..'. You should listen to the lyrics of 'Oru Murai thaan..' Reality may strike you.

8) I believe 'Uyire En Uyire...' from 'Thotti Jaya' by Haris Jeyaraj went unnoticed due to the violent theme of the movie. Still an interesting song to listen, sung by Karthik, Bombay Jayashree & Anuradha Sriram. Another interesting number from this movie was, 'Yaaridamum...' which was very much likeable.

7) 'Raa Raa..' from 'Chandramukhi' [Binni Krishnakumar - Thippu], has come into the list mainly because of the different presentation. I heard that these tunes had been borrowed by Vidyasagar from Kannada 'Apthamithra'. I felt that other songs had become hits, just because of Rajini. Nothing else.... Otherwise, they were not great numbers from Vidyasagar.

6) 'Theepidikka Theepidikka...' sung by Anushka & Premji (Gangai Amaran's son) in 'Arindhum Ariyaamalum' had made Arya an instant star. Kudos to YSR and the husky voice of Anushka. Another song which impressed me very much was 'En Kannodum...' sung by YSR himself. Beautiful picturisation too....

5) The only album by ARR during this year, was not capitalised very well by our great SJ.Suryah. Out of this, I would rate 'Mayileragae.. ' as a better one than others, due to the soothing voice of Madhushree & Naresh. An interesting observation by one of our blogger was that when you hear this song in a fast forward mode, you may get the rhythm of 'Maramkothiyea, Maramkothiyea...' song of the same movie. That's how I also felt.

Another interesting song from this movie 'Aararai kodi..' which I missed in the Great ARR Singapore show , was a comical song in the movie... still my son used to enjoy SJ.Suryah's comical movements in this song.

4) Without 'Iyengar Veetu azaghe...' from Anniyan the list won't end. Haris Jeyaraj with Hariharan & Harini in this song, really impressed the mass.. and also with all his other numbers. [I still like 'Rendakka' for its colorful presentation & 'Kumari' for Amsterdam]

3) Eventhough 'Andha Naal Nyabagam..' ('Athu Oru Kana Kalam') resembled one of Ilayaraja's old classic, the soothing voice of Vijay Jesudoss & Shreya Ghoshal had pushed it to greater heights. Unfortunately, the individual performances of everyone involved in this project didn't make it to click in BO. Lucky next time...

2) Jeeva had a lucky deal with Ameer, when they came out with 'Raam'. An excellent collection of songs from YSR, had also helped them to get an instant recognition for this movie --- in addition to the screenplay. The soothing voice of KJ.Jesudoss in his 'Arariraro..' and the emotional shots had made this song to get this slot. Another number which impressed me a lot in this movie was 'Nizhalinai nijamum..' sung by Vijay Jesudoss.

1) What else can snatch the first place, other than 'Suttum Vizhi Sudare...' from Ghajini. An attractive song of the year from Harris Jeyaraj, sung by Sriram Parthasarathy & Bombay Jayashree, made me to make a maiden attempt during the deepavali season.

The way it was shot, along with those acceptable lyrics & superb performance by Surya & Asin had pushed it up in the ladder to this height. ['Oru malai..' was another favourite of mine in this movie, in which Surya's dance had revealed his improved performances]. Kudos to the team.... :-) :-) It is unfortunate that Asin had not signed any movies still.... :-( :-(

The other numbers which I considered before short listing the above were the following numbers.

Noothana - Karka Kasadara - Prayok [Haris Raghavendar - Chinmayi]
Chinna Chinna - Kana Kandein - Vidyasagar [Thippu - Sunitha Sarathy]
Khajiraho - Oru naal Oru Kanavu - IR [Hariharan & Shreya Ghoshal]
Pani Thulli - Kanda Naal Mudhal - YSR [Shreya Ghoshal, Kay Kay & Thanvi]
Saami Kitta - Daas - YSR [Hariharan & Shreya Ghoshal]

Some notable /intentional misses are from Maayaavi, Oru Kalluriyin Kathai, Sivakasi, Majaa, Mumbai Express and new releases like Sandaikozhi, Kalvanin Kadhali, Dishoom etc.,

What do you think?
240th post

Declining growth rate

2005-12-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

"According to one UN estimate cited by DCAF, between 113m and 200m women are now demographically “missing”. This gender gap is a result of the aborting of girl foetuses and infanticide in countries where boys are preferred; lack of food and medical attention that goes instead to brothers, fathers, husbands and sons; so-called “honour killings” and dowry deaths; and other sorts of domestic violence. It implies that each year between 1.5m and 3m women and girls are lost to gender-based violence. In other words, every two to four years the world looks away from a victim count on the scale of Hitler's Holocaust." - The Economist

The above article is an alarm on the dangerous drop in women growth rate, which is already creating issues all over and may aggrevate them.

If they are low in number - as in certain asian cities in Philipines, China, India etc., (the ratio varies between 1 : 1.2 and an alarming 1 : 1.4), they will be the most likely targets of assault. More Men Vs Less women -- You can visualise the chaotic situation. However, the general public is still not aware of this equation and prefer to have more boys.. who they feel as supportive at the elder age.

I believe this trend is changing slowly, but not at a pace required by the nature to balance the imbalance. I feel the regional Governments have to take intiative in this regard to educate people to prevent the decline in women growth rate. This would be more or less similar to the family planning initiatives promoted by them few decades back.

Now itself, I could hear from my family circles / friends that there are less no. of girls to get married eventhough we have enough would-be grooms. I hope this demand for girls would reduce the dowry issues as well - which is prevalent in many asian nations, not only in India.

Just a positive hope....
239th post

Thavamai Thavamirundhu - Review

2005-12-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

I used to always appreciate Cheran for the way he conceives the screenplay based on a simple known social message.

Caste in 'Bharathi Kannamma", Handicap support in "Porkaalam", Politics in 'Dheesiya Geetham', Self-employment in 'Vetri Kodi Kattu', Rural life in "Paandavar Bhoomi'.. etc., He deviated in 'Autograph' with love as the main focus and succeeded. So, obviously people might have built up their expectations on his next movie.

He hasn't failed us. This time the crux of the movie is a Dad's expectation that "his children shouldn't think at a later stage that he didn't bring them up / educate them properly". It tends to happen when the child talks back after he has grown up, that he would have prospered well, provided his Dad had given enough opportunities in life. I have heard those words personally. So, I got impressed immediately.

The way the movie starts, may remind us of 'Autograph' since the story goes on a flashback mode here also. Luckily, he stops with that similarity.

The story revolves on the efforts of Muthiah (Rajkiran) to bring up his 2 sons, inspite of his cash crunch. At one point of time, the elder son (FM DJ Senthil) goes out of the joint family with his wife. While the family is going thru those emotional moments, the second son (Cheran) takes an important decision to support his lover. The emotional moments following that decision and subsequent reunion with parents have been beautifully narrated.

Rajkiran and Saranya, as his wife, are excellently portrayed in their roles and the former gets more opportunities. After Cheran's earlier 'Paandavar Bhoomi', Rajkiran has been used properly by the same director once again. He is excellent thru out the movie.

Padmapriya is too good as the lover (with her matured look) and an appreciable homely housewife. She fits in the emotional scenes with ease - when the story moves around in Chennai / in the village / in the climax. She has lived in as the character thru out the movie. Cheran has improved a lot compared to his earlier 'Solla marandha kathai' and 'Autograph', eventhough certain expressions are still the same (particulary, the emotional ones).

Only 3 more main characters remain in the movie - played by Senthil (FM DJ) as Cheran's brother, his wife and Ilavarasu as Rajkiran's assistant. They have also done commendably.

Eventhough the intial moments of the lovers in Chennai reminded me of 'Kathal' movie, locations are aptly selected thru out the movie - whether it is Chettinad-karaikudi or Chennai or Madurai.

I liked those two numbers of Sabesh-Murali (Deva's brothers). Eventhough I expected to see the song 'Unnai Saran Adaintheen' in the movie, it has been replaced by 'Naane Tholaindha kathai...' with the same tunes. Still it is OK. 'Enna Parkirai..' shot along with the first twist of the story has been captured well. Few other numbers appreciating the Dad & Son's emotional thoughts were well written too.

Strengths:
1) The casting, particularly of Rajkiran, Saranya & Padmapriya.
2) Eventhough you may need a hanky at times, the scenes are not dramatic. They are required for the strength of the movie. I was really moved in few scenes, particularly when the couple apologize to their parents and when they realise their lonely situation in Chennai.
3) As usual, the message which the movies carries with it. Worth mentioning plot.

Weaknesses:
1) Too long - 3 hrs 20 minutes, with some slow momemts. Eventhough Cheran tried to trim down in few places, he had good scope to cut some more - like those younger days when they go for excursion with a song. Still he has tightly woven most of them.

Worth watching, provided you have allocated some good time for it and you love emotional (not dramatic) flicks.

My Earlier Reviews - Limited edition (munch them, if you hvn't)
Majaa / Ghajini / Anniyan / Ullam Ketkumae / Sachein
238th post

Pramatham...

2005-12-09T06:41:00.000-08:00

Education Qualification: MBA from Kirloskar Institute

Previous Career: Risk Consultant in GE Bangalore / Gurgoan

Present Career: Actress - paired with Mamooty in 'Kazcha' & 'Rajamanikyam' now with Cheran in "T..T..."

Projects on hand: 'Pattiyal' in tamil with Arya and 'Vadakumnathan' in Malayalam with Mohanlal.

Pramatham... ...

That was an impressive(!!) bio-data of Padmapriya. But, I was just wondering about the trigger, which had pulled her into the cine industry. Her reply is 'Nothing but Passion'

Of late, we are able to see more no. of professionals into the acting career. Gone are the days, when we would have seen many famous stars who entered the industry passionately without spending much time on education. I can qualify most of the heroes in that category. I could remember Arvindsamy, Dr.Rajasekar as exceptional ones. May be, some of the young breeds too are exceptions. What about Madhavan??

However, I found it hard to locate any heroines with an educational / entrepreneurial skills at their initial stage of career itself. Probably they might have thought those skills as a waste of time. Or they might have been pulled in early by the creators for their youthful faces...

Eventhough, Padmapriya looks very matured, she seems to be very impressive in acting. However, with the influx of so many talented mallu actresses in the last one year - like Asin, Navya Nair, Gopika, Nayanthara (Yet to be exploited!!), Meera Jasmine - I feel there would be a tough competition to get offers. Need to wait and see if she climbs up in this career ladder as well.

Titbits: Normally, all the new movies will be released in Singapore on the same day as in Chennai or one/two day(s) prior to Chennai release. This time, I'm disappointed that "Thavamai Thavamirunthu" has not yet been released here. Am not sure, if Cheran couldn't release due to the Producers issue.
237th post

Katta Panchayathu

2005-12-08T01:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday for the first time in the MRT (train), I observed this ad given by the "Community Mediation Centre" which was formed here under an act.

Two neighbours have heated arguments on some issues and then decide to go to CMC. Based on an informal counselling over there, they get settled down with the opinion differences and become adjustable neighbours.

Liked the concept and the purpose for which CMC was formed. It seems it was formed in 1998 for all amicable out of court settlements for minor squabbles like this.

I knew, in India all sorts of these things are sorted by "kattai panchayats" amicably... and law doesn't have much time to sort all these things. However, I'm just wondering as to how many CMCs we may need, if a similar concept is implemented?

May be a million or "n" million?? Any guess!!!And what about other countries?

In India, there is another side to it... Some may ask "How dare can an outsider enter our squabbles?"
236th post

Scanning

2005-12-06T14:05:00.000-08:00

Our family friends were blessed with a baby last week and we went to meet them in the hospital. Their case was a special one to mention.

Eventhough, they have daughters already, they were longing for a boy baby for a long time and this kid has joined their world nearly after 13 years of their marriage. The thrilling part was that they didn't want to scan and get upset, if they had realised it as a girl [the preference of boy, was due to the fact that they have daughters already]. Eventhough the thrill had put the mother under lot of mental stress, they were blessed with a boy baby finally.. Their daughters were also happy to receive a brother.

After coming back home, my wife was talking about one of her friend's experience with scanning.

It seems her friend was taking care of her elder sister, during the pregnancy time. When they went for scanning, they had been advised that it would be a boy. However, when the time arrived, the mother delivered a girl. When her sister (my wife's friend) and her husband were informed about this, it seems they refused to accept the fact that it was a girl. They feared that the hospital authorities might have swapped the babies.

Finally, after seeing the baby, they got convinced and swallowed the fact, it seems (eventhough there were disappointments, since their expectations had failed them).

Both were different sides of the coin, isn't it?
235th post

How long does it take, to mould an artiste?

2005-12-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

It was a surprising unexpected news.. that Asin is out of much talked about 'Jillendru Oru Kaathal' and Bhumika is replacing her. Eventhough Asin worked on a strategy to quit the project, it may be hard to consider Bhumika as a replacement. Unlike Asin, who emoted well in her initial movies itself, Bhumika is still learning to express thru her face.

Bhumika who got introduced in 'Roja Kootam' and continued with Vijay's 'Badri', was recongised instantly due to her attractive face. However, acting wise she never got improved. Even recently, I saw one of her Hindi movies in which she retained a face without much emotion, even when the situation demanded it. Not sure, if she can show an improved perfomance in 'J..O..K..', to compete with talented(!!) Jothika and Surya.

If you take actors like Surya, Vijay etc., I agree that their performances improved only in their subsequent movies. However, they tried to manage in the interim movies with fighting sequences and dances without emoting much. However, heroines are required to show some emotions to remain in the field. Otherwise, they need to quit the field quickly like Kiran. They cannot depend only on the glamour...

Consider some of our heroines, who gained experience over a period of time. "Kizakke Pogum Rail" Radhika and "Kizakku Cheemaiyilae" Radhika are poles apart. Take Sulakshna of 'Thuural Ninnu Pocchu' and Sulakshna of "Sindhu Bhairavi". The way they had moulded their careers was amazing.

Consider Tara, who got introduced in Manivannan's 'Ingeyum Oru Gangai'. Eventhough she didn't get much break in Tamil, she showed a considerable improvement in 'Nayagan' as Kamal's sister. Her performances in her homeland (Kannada), had gone beyond heights and recently she got the national award for the 'best actress'.

Nowadays, our small screens are changing them a lot. Take Devayani. Her film career and the present career are completely different, in terms of performance.

Eventhough experience counts, some artistes remain same even after a couple of movies training. In my perception, Bhumika belongs to this cateogory. Some of you may disagree. Still, I would be glad if she does justice to the important role which she has bagged in 'J..O..K..'. Hope, director Krishna too does justice to the valuable resources which he has got now.. Surya, Jothika, AR.Rahman...

Titbit: Initial rumours that Nila will be the leading lady with Vijay in SJ.Suryah's 'Puli' has been thwarted with the latest news that Asin will do the role (as confirmed by her in the Sify interview). So, will Nila play a second fiddle in the movie, which is likely to be an action packed movie with Vijay's first ever Cop role? Let us wait and see...
234th post
Pic Courtesy: Sify.com

தன் முயற்சி

2005-11-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

ஓர் புது உலகம்..

தன் முயற்சியால்
வெற்றி இலக்கை
நிர்ணயிக்கும்
ஒருவன்

இன்றைய உலகம்..

அவன் வெற்றியை
உறுதி செய்து
பின் பற்றும்
நூறு பேர்
233rd post

After thoughts.. Genuine or not?

2005-11-28T14:18:00.000-08:00

Compared to the weekends, the crowd would be less on a weekday in Little India. Last Friday, I had taken off from my work and was there with my wife.

While we were walking on the platform, this guy stopped me. My first impression was that it was a normal address query. He asked me if I have few minutes to spare. OK..that didn't seem to be an address query, as I thought. I nodded, inspite of my wife waiting for me.

It seems he was from Trichur, Kerala. In a mixed accent of Malayalam & English, he mentioned that he arrived here few weeks back and had got a job in a Chinese Finance Co. He expected to get his Employment Pass within a week's time, since it has been applied for already. He added further that he was from a poor family and the money he had, had completely drained, with none of the shoppers giving him temp jobs during his visit visa period.

He hesitantly asked (with moistured eyes) if I could help him to survive for few days. That was a tricky situation for me. By the look of it, he seemed genuine. But, I didn't know how to help and was not fully convinced. I could have suggested him to approach the nearby temples, since there was a possibility for them to help. But they might also be seeing 'n' no. of people like this regularly. So, I didn't suggest that idea.

When I suggested him to approach that Chinese Finance Co. (his prospective employer) to get an advance for his survival, he mentioned that he didn't approach them since no Indian faces were there. Since I was hesitant to come forward, he offered to show his passport to prove his genuineness. He showered me with some jargons saying that my face looked so helpful(!!) and that's why he approached me. He added further with an innocent face, that it would be OK even if I don't trust & help him.

Now, I didn't want to go further on that talk, since my wife was waiting. So, I just managed to pass on some money to survive for two days. He just accepted it and left the place, thankfully.

Normally, this type of situation used to happen in India very often - when people migrate from villages to cities. Sometimes, it would put us in an awkward situation to evaluate the genuineness of those persons. This was the first time, I had encountered a similar situation on the Singapore roads.

After leaving that place, I had several unanswered questions -

Was he genuine?
Should I have enquired more about his educational background and checked his passport?
Did I encourage him to go around like this further, to earn more?
232nd post

An Enchanting Odyssey

2005-11-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

That was the name of the programme, presented as a part of my son's School Annual Day function. The evening's event was organised @ the UCC hall of NUS, on Saturday.

To everyone's surprise, the schedule was followed on dot. All sorts of welcome address and prize distribution were over, within the scheduled time. Followed them, was a Play which lasted for 2 hours.

The conceptualisation of the Play was too good.

6 kids get lost in the jungle during their trekking. Then, they just try eating some mushrooms which makes them to faint. After some time, some tribal people surround them and bring them to their senses. They decide to sacrifice the kids, to get favours from a Witch.

However, the witch doesn't want to devour the kids and promise to take them back to their homeland. Since the kids had eaten the strange mushrooms, they couldn't recollect their country's name. So, based on the clues given by them the witch takes them to different countries.

First, they visit China, because they could recollect "Lion dance & shopping". They get a treat of lion dance.

Then, "Fashion & Pastry shops" take them to Paris - where they see some wonderful French dance.

The kids realise, their homeland's Indian delicacies like "Naan / other stuff, with some good Indian dancing". So, the witch takes them to India. They land up during the harvest festival and get to see Rajasthani 'Ghumar', Assamese 'Bihu', Keralite 'Onam' & Punjabi 'Bhangra'.

One of the kids recalls her "Ballet sessions" in her homeland, which helps the witch to land them in Russia - to see some wonderful ballet.

Another kid's passionate recall of "Football craze fans & beach" lands them in Brazil to get entertained with a Salsa dance.

Then, the kids realise that the Witch takes them to wrong destinations purposefully, eventhough she is aware of their homeland. They come to an agreement, by which the Witch asks for a favour. To fulfill that, the kids are taken to Middle east, where they get treated with a dance of "Arabian beauties".

Finally, as agreed the Witch brings them back to "Singapore" where they are able to see the multicultural society, to which they belong.

That was the end of the play..... :-) :-)

All credits need to go to the director of the play, Dr.Golam Ashraf. He is currently a professor in NUS and had shown all his skills and expertise in managing the 200+ students who perfomed that evening. The one month long practice presented a fabulous evening.

The content lived upto the title of the programme.. "The Enchanting Odyssey" for us too, not only those kids who were lost in that jungle.
231st post

'S Pictures' ventures

2005-11-22T20:11:00.000-08:00

Can we build a hype around the new ventures of 'S Pictures'?

Since, most of you guys in this blogworld are aware that Shankar's 'S Pictures' has announced two of their proposed ventures and one is expected anytime soon.

#1 Veyil

Cast: Bharath, Bhavna (mallu) & Pasupathy
Music: G V Prakash
Director: Vasanthabalan

Bharath has an interesting line up already with his 'A..I..B..I..' and 'Pattiyal'. Hope the director of 'Album' who couldn't create a magic earlier, will succeed with a different presentation this time, like his predecessor Balaji Sakthivel. With the introduction of another mallu girl Bhavna and ARR's nephew GV Prakash, I believe Shankar is betting on something unique.

Would be glad if a different movie is delivered to us.

#2 Imsai Arasan 23-aam Pulikesi

Cast: Vadivelu, Nanditha, Monica, Nasser....
Music: Sabesh-Murali
Director: Simbhudevan

Eventhough the promo's poster reveals it as a historic story, as reiterated by Shankar himself, I doubt whether it would be a historic movie. Going by the title, I doubt whether Shankar would spend so much money to present a realistic historic comedy.

There are two possibilities in this scenario.

1) Either it must be similar to Cho's 'Muhamad-Bin-Thuglak' full of funny comedy
(or)
2) It must be a promotional gimmick to just woo the press and audience. It may be a normal comedy subject, with an unique title.

Sabesh-Murali's combination has not produced any magical numbers so far in the industry, except those melodies in 'Thavamai Thavam Irundhu'. Need to wait and watch, if they could exploit this opportunity to show their potential.

#3 "Yet to be titled"

Cast: ??
Music: ??
Director: Balaji Sakthivel

Can we expect some announcement on this venture either this week or the next week - before the big bang announcement of AVM's 'Sivaji'? Fingers crossed....X

Following the footsteps of Ram Gopal Varma, Shankar is promoting different genre of directors. That is a welcome move. Looks like he is wisely investing his earlier harvests into different baskets, instead of putting all into his own child. Would be glad if this model succeeds, since it makes the field more competitive.
230th post

Dating

2005-11-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

During yesterday's coffee break, the crux of my chat with a recently engaged Colleague, was his "phone bills.."

Method: Using Calling cards
Nature: Midnight daily conversation with his Fiance
Effect: 300$/month hole in his wallet

A guy who was never comfortable with too much of spending is currently swallowing these bills. He is unsure whether he will have the same enthu after marriage (trying to be realistic!!). Irrespective of his reasoning, I blessed(!!) him to continue on his phone-dating without talking too much on the bills.

Two reasons....

1) I knew guys, who had spent $1000-$1500/month, before the flooding of calling cards here. Compared to those, this budgeted calls looked miniscule.

2) I missed that thrill... even thru phone :-( :-( Don't ask me, why?
229th post

Real 'Ghajini'

2005-11-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

That's what I felt, when the Argentine won yesterday's Tennis Masters Cup Finals held at Shanghai.

2 sets down against World no.1

Level @ 2-2

Lead at 4-1 in the last set

Again the cycle changed, with the come back of No.1. It became 5-5 and the World no.1 went up once again to 6-5 and started serving for the championship. Still the Argentine didn't want to give up and pulled that game to make it 6-6. Finally, they entered the tie-break which the Argentine won with style.

That was a fabulous score of 6-7 6-7 6-2 6-1 7-6, a result of 4 1/2 hours of play, for the biggest title of his career.

Another contrasting statistics - Federer's fourth defeat all year - Nalbandian's fourth of his career.

I have seen him so many times near the victory post, only to lose it to the opponent. During the final moments of yesterday's match, we wished him to win and he did. With style...

Pic Courtesy: Rediff.com
228th post

Too many things...

2005-11-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Too many things at the same time... Unable to visit others' blogs too :-( :-(

Anyhow, Happy Children's Day, to those kids who felt as "newly born" while expressing their views for this NAYAN post
227th post

Different arena to play around...

2005-11-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

This is how (the title), I will term the current scenario where in we are getting successful novelists / journalists into Cine field. Earlier, you might have observed adaptation of hit novels / stories into movies. In those type of movies, the main stories were tweaked mostly to suit the cine audience mood. Sometimes, the original plot alone had been kept with more commercial elements added, to make them hits.

I could remember some of those novels, which were adapted so...

SUJATHA's - 'Gayathri' & 'Priya' [In 'Priya' you could have observed several tweaks compared to the original plot & characters]. Two years back, one of his interesting novel 'Nila kaalam' was directed by Gandhi Krishna [director of 'Chellame'] Eventhough, this movie didn't run well commercially, it got a recognition among critics. There was a news few months back, that he had accepted for adaptation of his 'Pirivom.. Santhipom' too.
RAJENDRAKUMAR's - 'Vanakathukuriya Kaathaliyee' (Sridevi)
JAYAKANTHAN's - 'Sila Nerangalil Sila Manitharkal' & 'Oru Nadigai Nadagam Paarkiraal' [I believe, the second one also had Lakshmi in the lead]
SIVASANKARI's - '47 Natkal' (by K.B. with Chiranjeevi & Jayapratha), 'Nandu' (by Mahendran), 'Kutty' (a simple story well made by Janaki Viswanathan)
Pushpa THANGADURAI's - 'Oru Oothappoo Kan Simitukirathu'
T.JANAKIRAMAN's - 'Moga mul' (directed by Gnana Rajasekaran)

and may be some more, which I might have missed.. like Writer Lakhsmi's works (help, please...)

Of late, that trend has changed. Now our novelists & journalists have been lured with attractive returns, to have better involvement in the cine field. You could have observed several novel stories & punch dialogues in the last couple of years by some of these well known personalities led by Sujatha.

Our DBI team takes you thru the path for few mintues....

SUJATHA, who is celebrating his silver jubilee in film industry, has been associated with the leading directors for a long time. His association with the industry was so thick that, he led PentaMedia for sometime into various film ventures. His involvement stretches from story discussions, dialogues till the end of the movie, which is an inspirational one to the youth of these days.

His work which got started with K.B.'s 'Ninaithaale Inikkum', had fueled many other leading directors in the last two decades. Couple of his interesting ventures were - with Maniratnam (Roja), Bharathi Raja (Nadodi Thendral), Shankar (Indian, Mudhalvan, Boys, Anniyan) Ravichandran (if I'm not wrong, it was 'Kannethire thondrinaal', pl.correct me if not), Jeeva (Ullam Ketkumae) and the list goes on...

As everybody is aware, now he is completely into 'Sivaji' discussions. During an interview in our local FM 96.8 last week, he was very cautious in delivering project details of that movie. He admitted that he & Shankar's team need to be careful, since more hype is surrounding this mega venture. There was another interesting revelation during that interview. It seems, when Rajini approached him for 'Baba', he refused since the movie required contributions for its spiritual part which was ultimately taken up by Balakumaran. [he honestly said that he could not have justified his role].

His relationship which seemed to have started with Kamal 2 decades back, continued with 'Vikram' and couple of other movies which followed it. As a friend, it seems he got involved in many of Kamal's movies. Now he is also involved with Kamal-KSR-Crazy Mohan team for 'Dasavatharam', eventhough this movie is not portrayed as a comedy movie (inspite of those 10 roles, publicized). Trust this successful team presents another interesting stuff to the audience.

BALA KUMAARAN - I was so impressed with his 'Thaayumaanavan' novel (televised for DD in the early 90s), that I became his hardcore fan and started reading all his novels.. Eventhough, I have lost touch with his writings of late, I had come across several works of him thru movies. Eventhough his novels were not converted into celluloid packages, his involvement in dialogues had brought out several interesting movies to the front.

Some of his involvements were with Maniratnam (Nayagan), Shankar (Kaadhalan, Jeans) and several other directors for Guna, Mugavari, King, Citizen, Baba, Athu, Jananam, Manmathan, Thotti Jaya etc., His upcoming movies too have interesting directors / actors.. Selvaraghavan / Dhanush's 'Pudhupet', Simbu's 'Vallavan', Arya's 'Kalaba Kaathalan', SPB's 'En uyirilum Melana' etc.,

The famous duo writers SU-BA (Suresh-Bala) are expected to join KV.Anand once again for his new venture, after their previous successful involvement (Story/dialogues) in 'Kana kandein'. I could recollect Sarath's 'Chanakya' as well, as another plot requiring some sharp dialogues in which they were reportedly successful. Hope to see many more interesting plots from these Duo writers.

As far as I know 'Pattukottai' PRABHAKAR had penned for movies like Balaji Sakthivel/Vikram Combo's 'Samurai', Satyaraj's 'Maaran' and Prasanna's 'Kaathal dot com'. Still some striking movies are yet to come from him. I heard he is busy involving in couple of movie projects currently.

Cartoonist / Journalist MADAN showed his knowledge on several issues thru his involvement in Kamal's 'Anbe Sivam' [including those famous 'Tsunami' dialogues, well ahead of our Dec-26 incident]. I have also understood that he was involved in the recent thriller 'Aayul regai'. {probably BALAJI can confirm this, being the only person in my known circle who had seen this movie}. Trust he would pen for some more interesting movies.. Let us wait and see.

Definitely this arrival of more number of specialised novelists / journalists have brought in fresh air in the area of "story / screenplay / dialogues", which used to be typically occupied with masala stuff. Hope this continues and we get to view more watchable stuff from our energetic youth directors and artists.
226th post

Unbelievable 16

2005-11-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

In a recent interview, when Nayan had been asked if she will be campaigning for any political party, she had reportedly replied.. 'I can't, for I am just 16 and don't even have the right to vote'.

I don't want to get into her DOB and check whether it is correct or not. It may be a twist given by the reporter also.

But I have observed that, people are very happy to claim their age as "Sweet 16" for a long time.. [Given a chance, I may also do it..]

However, it becomes very hard to believe, sometimes. It just turns out to be another entertaining news. I felt so this time, when I read this :-) :-)225th post

Chennaiyin Mazhai Kaalam

2005-11-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

It seems, after last week's rain 'Amma' had told that 'See.. I told you earlier, that we are going to get good rain... Now you have got it'.

Need to appreciate 'Amma's predictions.. but alas, Chennai had to still cope up with the heavy rain's effects.

"Learning is a big ocean!!!"
"Kadamai Thavaraa uuzhiyar.. See the crowd inside, still"
"It seems, it was an urgent issue to go out and address"
"Guys recalling yesteryear swimming practice in village ponds"
"Pothy's advertisement near Niagara"
224th post

Surprising Divorce

2005-11-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

I got two different types of feelings, when I read this press release of yesterday.

Let us talk about the positive side. Kalaingar Karunanithi has stated that he is delinking from SUN TV & Kungumam from now on and has sold out his family stake in those organisations. Does it mean that he won't appear everyday on the small screen giving his opinion on earthquake / rain etc.,? I assume so...

On the negative side, SUN TV is reducing the entertainment elements for bloggers (like KAPS), eventhough they are still running the serials which will feed us for a long time. Isn't it?

If you could observe, the missing of Key personalities (I mean, long term associates) is happening slowly in SUN TV... earlier it was AV.Ramanan, then 'Nirmala Periyasaamy' (you can read as 'Niirmalaaa PeriiiiyaSaaaamy'), now it is Kalaingar Karunanithi. I am eagerly waiting for the turn of the Iron(!!) lady who used to be showered with "Neenga romba azhagaa irukiinga, madam?" comments... nagara mattengraangalee... :o( :o( :o(
223rd post

Survey time...

2005-11-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

I was explaining something to my son on a particular topic, for it was a fruitful chatting. At that time, there was a knock on the front door... and somebody was outside with a Survey form. The survey, which was on the usage of Cable tv and Broadband services of the local providers, went on for few minutes. In the meantime, I got a prompt from my better-half that it was getting late, to wrap up the work with my son. Still I continued, till the completion of the survey.

It used to happen sometimes over phone as well. Last month, it so happened that a survey call which started with "5min only" guarantee, extended upto 15 minutes with nearly 50 questions. By the end of that call, my energy level had dried up fully. Even then, I had a satisfaction.

What's the need to undergo that?

Because, I could understand their job nature.. I heard some of them do it as a part time job for specific companies like this. I had experienced it once, personally.... :-)

During my college days in Madurai, our professor introduced a Marketing guy (from Madras), who was there to do a survey among the teenagers on Ice cream trends. The agenda was like this.. He gave 20 survey forms to each one of us and asked us to visit different residential colonies targetting equal no. of boys and girls. Each successful / genuinely (!!) completed form carried a "X" amount as a reward. Since, it was an interesting assignment earning money for us, we accepted it gladly.

But it was not that easy, as we thought.

In certain houses the Moms (of teen girls) didn't entertain us.. we were stopped just near the doorsteps and the girls replied to our survey questions from the half-closed doors. Some people didn't entertain us completely, due to lack of time.

I did visit some of my friends' houses to fill up the survey forms thru their sisters. That was also tricky, since I had never spoken to them freely earlier. Somehow, I managed. Few of my friends gathered the results in front of girls' schools and colleges. [the reason, why I am talking about the girls alone, is that we found it trickier only there]

As usual, to complete the forms quickly, few in our friends' circle filled in the Survey forms on their own, without even visiting anyone's house. ['aasai'... to earn quickly]. That Madras guy caught them red-handed [thru cross-verifying] and refused to accept those survey forms, threatening to forfeit all they had earned so far. That approach of our friends, got amended immediately.

By the end of two days, I was so happy to earn my first pocket money - by exploiting my own(!!) abilities....

That experience, resulted in a decision. Not to refuse answering any surveys, unless it becomes too personal or due to lack of spare time.
222nd post

Majaa - Review

2005-11-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

Being a holiday today (for Ramzan), we decided suddenly to venture out for a movie... the immediate choice was 'Majaa'.

It must be the obvious selection, since I'm not for a typical Vijay action masala (my son's favourite) & a sensual BaluMahendra flick (eventhough 'AOKK' was my favourite, it may not be suitable to watch with my son).

'Majaa' scored better than these two for those reasons... a decent masala with less action, apt to watch with children.

Eventhough, the promotions were more focussed on Vikram & Asin, equal importance were given to the characters of Pasupathy, Manivannan & Vadivelu also. Eventhough that approach keeps the movie going at a regular pace, while coming out you may compare Ghajini's 'Kalpana' with this 'Seethalakshmi' and will realise something lesser here.

Being a remake of the malayalam hit "Thommanum Makkalum", the story is a very simple & known one. The father & 2 sons (erstwhile thieves) decide to give up their profession and move to a new village. How the sons settle down with the local belles, are shown in a lighter vein. Definitely, it would have been a simpler task for Mamooty or Vikram to do the lead role in a light hearted comedy like this. Vikram has done his part with ease.

Pasupathy & Vadivelu steal the show with their expressions and situational comedies. Asin doesn't have much scope to show up her acting skills and it is yet another movie to her credit. That's all. Murali is not that impressive as Asin's dad. [his best portrayal was in 'Dum Dum Dum']

The songs are filling the gaps as usual, with the first 'Majaa..' song reminding the 'Dhool...' song sequence of 'Dhool' (including the Lorry and the fields). Asin was gorgeous in that 'Che Che Che ' song with her costumes and dance movements. In that 'Sollith tharava...' song shot in Austria, Vikram's get-up didn't suit the melodious mood of the song. When they tried to use designer type of costumes (You chk out the song, you will know!!), they could have avoided showing Vikram in that village get-up too..

Strengths:
- The clean stuff with several hilarious moments in the screenplay.
- Pasupathy & Vadivelu, eventhough Vadivelu's part reminded some of his previous movies.

Weaknesses:
- Lack of the "required pull" to sit thru the whole movie.
- Vidyasagar. He could have come out with better numbers, than what he delivered.

Not being a high budget movie, will be an advantage for the profitability of this venture. Eventhough, it may not be an impressive feather on Vikram & Asin's hats, it is not a failure definitely.

My Earlier Reviews - Limited edition (munch them, if you hvn't)
Ghajini / Anniyan / Ullam Ketkumae / Sachein
221st post

New dress...

2005-11-02T17:32:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all your personalised wishes and thru comments section for Deepavali.. Once again, I hope you all would have enjoyed the day well.

For us, the day had gone very quickly... :-) with the visit to crowded temples, meeting a lot of friends, exchanging wishes, etc., Received the usual comments on the dresses.... :-) :-)

But yesterday, I didn't have any mood to go to the office. If it is in India, we would be very glad to visit the school / college / office in new dresses with high spirit (Isn't it??). But, it was just another day in my office yesterday. Nobody looked into my new shirt and commented :-( :-(

Atleast I was glad that my new shirt received attention on Deepavali day... among my friends in the temple.
220th post

Deepavali wishes.....

2005-10-31T15:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all your Deepavali wishes... Let me reciprocate the same from Little India... Wish you all a Happy & Enjoyable Deepavali day...

Little India Shopping!!!

219th post

My Maiden attempt...

2005-10-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

It was an interesting Deepavali nite, out of those which I had attended so far.

Reason.. my maiden attempt... (of what??)

Yesterday's Deepavali nite was organised in a good gathering, the purpose of which was to extract the talents of adults and also to provide ultimate fun to the audience.

The evening started with Arattai Arangam [Separate post on this, will follow], followed by a music programme delivered by a group of NUS/NTU students. The music programme was combined with a hilarious 'Super Jodi' event, in between the songs. This fusion was planned, just to tie the audience to their seats thru out those 3.5 hours. The idea was perfect.. eventhough during the later part, people started fizzling out for their dinner.

And why was it memorable? We (myself/my wife) were also part of that 'SJ' programme.

Eventhough the participants would have come prepared [like us :0) :0)] with some known questions about their spouse's likes/dislikes, 100% of the questions were not on that basis. More questions were on situational ones..... and I need to appreciate the persons who were behind those questions. A set of 5 printed questions were given to each partner (different set). Later, the same questions were fielded to the spouse to check the correctness.

Some interesting questions which we goofed up were:

The shampoo which my wife uses regularly??? I mentioned a body foam's name instead of a Shampoo. Didn't get the question correctly. My wife's look... com'n, how can you miss it?
The job which my wife does for me, even if she doesn't like to do??? I didn't remember forcing her for anything. So, I had mentioned that it was a difficult Q to answer. My partner's answer was different, which was true as well. "Watching a movie on the first day with me, even if she doesn't like to do it". [it struck me then, that I missed to see 'Majaa's first show today in Singapore]
Best friend of my wife, whom I like???? Since she has many, some of whom were present there in the audience, it was difficult for me to name one. What she had written down in the sheet, didn't match with what I said.....

The other notable questions where we scored were:

- The issue on which I got angry recently, with my wife???
- The type of Jewellery, which my wife likes..?
- Whether I will buy a dress for her, if she had not accepted my earlier selections? Or will I take her along with me always??
- Will my wife be supportive for my brother / sister's marriage/career advancements??

The couples were also expected to perform something in addition, to score bonus points. Eventhough most of them preferred to act for a 'Dumb Charades' question, one couple preferred dancing for a MGR song and one preferred for a small skit.

Our preference was a Song.

Believe me guys, for the first time I was singing on the stage. So, I cautioned the audience and asked them to ensure that they will be present even after those 3 minutes.... And the song which we selected (& practised for the last couple of days) was this fantastic number from 'Ghajini'.

சுட்டும் விழி சுடரே, சுட்டும் விழி சுடரே
என் உலகம் உன்னைச் சுற்றுதே
சட்டைப் பையில் உன் படம், தொட்டுத் தொட்டு உரச
என் இதயம் பற்றிக் கொள்ளுதே

உன் விழியில் விழுந்தேன், விண்வெளியில் பறந்தேன்
கண் விழித்து சொப்பனம் கண்டேன்
உன்னாலே, கண் விழித்து சொப்பனம் கண்டேன்

மெல்லினம் குரலில் கண்டேன்,வல்லினம் விழியில் கண்டேன்
இடையினம் தேடி இல்லை என்றேன்

தூக்கத்தில் உளறக் கொண்டேன், தூறலில் விரும்பி நின்றேன்
தும்மல் வந்தால் உன் நினைவைக் கொண்டேன்

கருப்பு வெள்ளை பூக்கள் உண்டா?, உன் கண்ணில் நான் கண்டேன்
உன் கண்கள், வண்டை உண்ணும் பூக்கள் என்பேன்
உன் கண்கள், வண்டை உண்ணும் பூக்கள் என்பேன்

மரங்கொத்தி பறவை ஒன்று, மனங்கொத்தி போன தென்று
உடல் முதல் உயிர் வரை தந்தேன்

தீ இன்றி திரியும் இன்றி, தேகங்கள் எரியும் என்று
இன்று தானே நானும் கண்டு கொண்டேன்

மழை அழகா? வெயில் அழகா? கொஞ்சும் போது மழை அழகு
கண்ணா நீ, கோபப் பட்டால் வெயில் அழகு
கண்ணா நீ, கோபப் பட்டால் வெயில் அழகு

Since this was the first time for me, it seems I had a tightened face on the stage (as commented by our friends). My wife didn't bother much, since she had done it couple of times earlier.

This adventure had helped us to score the required bonus points. With that help, we got the "Second best SJ" title. It was good, since we didn't go there with any expectations. My only worry earlier, was not to goof up during the song. Luckily, I didn't..... Eventhough my wife scored better than me in terms of modulation and expressions, I had a good start today [presumably!!!].
218th post

Understanding A..B.. concept

2005-10-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

While having a causal chat, my Colleague was talking about his friend, both of whom entered the industry at the same time. It seems his friend had gone up in IBM ladder now and currently in the interview panel. Just because he moved to Singapore, my colleague believes that he couldn't see the growth blah blah....

I couldn't blame him for his attitude. He is one among the many people who complain about the reverse of fortunes inspite of their abilities. I had seen different people with different perceptions from time to time. For simplicity, let us consider those who feel left out as 'B' while comparing with another 'A' in the following scenario. You can assume that my colleague is 'B' and his friend is 'A'. [Caution: Don't put me in the position of 'A' or 'B'. It is my General observation among a group of people. Pl. look into this generally]

Case#1
======
A & B were collegemates, during which time 'B's intellectual qualities were utilised well by 'A'. After few years, 'B' moved out of the country on an overseas assignment and loses his job motivation due to various reasons. When he returned back, he observed that 'A' is in a Vice-President position of a start-up growing company. 'B' is still wondering whether he made a wrong decision in moving out of India....

Case#2
======
A & B were introduced to each other in a party. As usual our 'B' has got several distinctions in a professional course and our 'A' had come to that level after several years of struggle. When 'B' looked into the career path of 'A', he got amazed. The job profile which 'B' is targetting for the last few years, thru hard work and sweat with his distinctive qualities, had fallen into 'A's laps without much efforts. 'B' is still working hard to get a recognition for his quailities...

Case#3
======
A & B, being relatives, are constantly compared for their achievements from time to time - at school level / college level / career level etc.,. Those comparision made by their parents, had passed on to them later. Being a Senior person, 'B' didn't expect 'A' to beat him in terms of career achievement & monetary terms. But, that cannot happen always when each person's abilities differ and are rewarded on their own merits. Now 'B' has got settled down with the reality slowly, waiting for his turn to come up...

Case#4
======
A & B are no way related. 'B' is much elder, that his son is younger than 'A' by few years. Eventhough 'B' is affluent, he ignored that fact and started wondering as to how 'A' has made so much money at this younger age. The hilarious part is when 'B' got worried about his son (a college student) as to whether he can earn as much as 'A'. They don't consider the fact, that they are already sitting on huge wealth which 'A' cannot earn immediately!!!

Case#5
======
'A' is serving in a particular industry and is in a good earning position. If it is in India, that much earnings may not be possible for the same profile.Eventhough 'B' cannot be matched with 'A' in terms of age, 'B' is still wondering about 'A's earning capacity with that profile - which may not fetch so much money in India.

Most of the above cases, boil down to a personal perception of "you lucky" type of feelings. There are two factors which play the major roles in these type of situations.

1) 'Luck' - Definitely, the fortune wheel stops at different places, the timing of which may not be known to the persons involved.
2) 'Efforts' put in by 'A' which 'B' fails to recognise

My perception is that the person who has the feelings of 'Left behind' should put in more efforts and should wait for the 'Lady Luck's smile at him. Eventhough, it may not happen in an easy way for 'B' as it had happened for 'A', the reality has to be faced. Isn't it?
217th post

The holy words "Belief - Trust - Hope - Faith..."

2005-10-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

A SMS lottery scam had hit Singaporeans with more frequency in the recent past. Either thru SMS or thru missed call tricks, these conmen make the victims to fall into their traps and ask them to advance some amount to claim a bigger prize money [something similar to the Nigeria type of email frauds]. Last year, one of my friend had a similar experience of getting a mail from a Spannish Lottery agency, saying that he had won 500,000 Euro and has to pay some deposit to claim the winnings. He ignored it, after some background check.

When I look into the victims generally, I could observe that the reasons behind their plight are either too much of trust/faith or greediness. Let me not take the greediness part to discuss much. However, some naive people are tricked just because of their trust or faith on some system [which overshadows their failure to check the authenticity].

When a question is posted as to 'Why they acted like this?', the possible words which may be uttered are ' .. belief / trust / hope / faith..'.

Yes, several things on Life goes based on certain assumptions. However, whatever we hope/believe may not happen as we think it would happen. It goes on the other side unexpectedly. You can take any of these practical situations which I had listed down here... and you can relate it with 'n' no. of personalities known to you.

- Getting married to a 'Seem-to be' nice person, becoming a hell.
- Placement into a 'so-called nice pretty' job, landing you in problems with colleagues.
- Bringing up the Kids into a nice environment, hitting the rock unexpectedly in terms of their behaviours.
- Healthy one's thoughts that 'Nothing will affect me', getting shattered due to some diagnosis.
- Investing into some known Chitfunds or New ventures (including Films), getting bombed.
- Facing the dust, after trying to become big in politics.

Eventhough most of the assumptions / calculations are due to some sort of belief / trust on a system, there is a possibility for things to go in a different way.

This seems to be a test for anyone's willpower. Those who survive this becomes stronger and more focussed on their future ventures. They prepare themselves for any aftermaths of their future beliefs. If we have the mental strength, then we are the kings who can face any situation....

Life goes on with these type of positive thoughts only, to face the consequences of our beliefs / hopes. Isn't it?
216th post

Birthday wishes to a cute girl....

2005-10-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Today must be one of her memorable birthdays, with so much of wishes pouring from everywhere.

Really Cute, isn't it?

Asin....

The variation which she has shown from Malabar (MKSM) to Priya to Kalpana was awesome. Very expressive face....My favourite facial expression of hers was while delivering this 'Antha Sanjay Ramasamiya Naan luv pannaleppa...' and the final moments when she departs.

Wish kollywood uses this talented girl, properly!!!. Eventhough, I am not sure if she has got a real chance to 'act' in 'Sivakasi'...I'm confident that she may continue her form in 'Majaa'.

You can visit this page also to wish her, if you want to. [this is her own guestbook maintained by her in her website WWW.ASINONLINE.COM --- an actress who has also got time to maintain her own website... hmmm, times are changing!!!!]
215th post

Continuity of festive season...

2005-10-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here in Singapore, the festive season starts with Navarathiri. This makes me always, to feel that I'm nearing the year-end and going to enjoy few more holidays. Immediately after Saraswathi Pooja & Vijaya dhasami, you can observe 'Fire walking' festival, Deepavali, Ramzan (Hari Raya Haji), Christmas, New-year, Pongal, Thai Poosam, Chinese New year, Bakrid (Hari Raya Pusa) etc., eventhough we may get holidays only for few of these :-( :-(

Last week, it was 'Fire walking' festival....

The 10 day long 'Fire walking' festival takes place in Sri Mariamman temple, located in China town. This is one of the oldest Hindu moument in Singapore, which can be dated back to 1820s. (almost 2 centuries...). Being administered by the 'Hindu Endowment Board' (Govt. organisation), this is not only one of the favourite temples of the residents, but also one of the main attractions for the overseas tourists. [Sometime back, The Hindu covered it extensively]

Eventhough I termed the event as a '10 day long Fire walking' festival, the actual 'Fire walking' happens only on the last day. During this event, the devotees cross a four-metre bed of glowing coals in the courtyard of the temple. The hot stroll recreates a scene from “The Mahabharata”, our epic poem, in which the goddess Draupadi proves her innocence by walking over burning coals.

During the first 9 days, lots of offerings will be carried out by the devotees like 'paal kudam', 'anga pirathachanam' etc., Normally, it starts in the midnight (1:30 or 3 am) and ends by 9 - 10 am in the morning, to avoid the scorching sun. The number of devotees who used to visit during these days, are always enormous. Sometimes, few westeners also used to participate in those offerings. It makes us to feel that we are somewhere in Tirunelveli or Madurai during a festival event.

We, a few member volunteers group, used to go to the temple during the night time to man the ticket counters ... but not every night, since we take turns [just to relieve the temple staff, who used to work round the clock during these 10 days ]. For the last couple of years, we are visiting them like this, which makes us light mentally, eventhough half-day's official work may be affected (during the weekdays). We did visit last week, as usual...

Incidentally, this morning being the 10th day (2am-8am), the 'Fire-walking' event would have taken place... Eventhough I got an opportunity to visit this event today morning, I didn't go due to various reasons.. one being, the pressure to face Monday morning office hours :-(:-( Eventhough it falls on Monday morning always, hope I would be able to catch up with the event atleast next year...

Some more on this event...... Writeup #1, Writeup #2
214th post

Risky moves by tinsel town designers....

2005-10-21T01:22:00.000-07:00

When a designer wants to spend his own money, to convert his thoughts into a final product.. the result may be either abundant benefits or a long stay under a shell. This is what is happening in Kodambakkam, nowadays. Each and every director is adding another role to their credit... as a producer.

A news of this week, made my team to do some interesting digging....

Director Shakthi Chidambaram is going into the Producer's mould, after tasting success in several of his earlier ventures. Since those ventures like Ennamma Kannu, Charlie Chaplin, Mahanadigan, Englishkaaran etc., had a decent run in B&C centres, he would have decided to reap the profits himself out of his next venture titled 'Kovai brothers'. I think, he may make more money than the earlier ones in B&C centres, considering some of the pictures released earlier this week. [chk out yourself...... Courtesy: Tring Tring]

Few weeks back, director-turned-comedian Manobala wanted to try out the new role as producer. Few months earlier, K.Bhagyaraj's assistant Mr.Sivakumar (director of Arjun's 'Ayutha Poojai') wished to produce a new movie with his mentor in the key role as director and actor. Will they all be lucky like their predecessors who took up this additional role? Time will tell them...

I believe, most of them take up this new role, due to several reasons... (1) to encash their abilities (2) to strengthen their market (3) if they are unable to find any scapegoats (4) if they are confident of their juniors

Our DBI team made some interesting search, to pull out some of those existing directors who don the producer's role as well.. successfully or otherwise!!!

Let me start with 'Iyakunar Sigaram' K.Balachandar, whose production house 'Kavithaalaya' has carved a place in the industry with a lot of quality movies to its credit. [Was it called 'Kamalaalaya' or 'Kalaalaya' earlier? Something similar to that...]

I remember that in those earlier days, he used to direct most of them produced under this banner. Later, the house's trend of supporting other directors, had definitely converted it into a leading production house. Most of them were hits and I don't remember many flops from this house..

Some of them which I could recollect are Netrikann, Poovilangu, Sigaram, Velaikaaran, Keladi Kanmani, few family dramas of Visu, Roja, Rojavanam, Saami, Thirumalai, Vidukathai, Ayyah etc., Upcoming 'Ithaya Thirudan' (Directed by Saran) with 'Jayam' Ravi in the lead, is also from their house. I'm confident that they will come out with more clean entertainers like they did earlier.

Bharathiraja has rarely produced movies for outside directors, under his home banner 'Manoj creations'. Most of them from his house like Mudhal Mariyathai, Kodi Parakuthu etc., were directed by him. [a lot more, which I'm missing here!!]. 'Alli Arjuna' was the exceptional one, directed by Saran, eventhough the reason behind was known to everyone [BR's son Manoj as the hero]. With a limited scope of making himself & his son successful, he couldn't convert this into a big production house, as everyone is aware.

Maniratnam's houses produced some memorable movies directed not only by him, but also by some other young directors. His initial involvement with 'Aalayam Productions' had churned out Bombay & few more., and subsequent one thru 'Madras talkies' released movies likes Iruvar, Uyirae, Alai Payuthe, Kannathil Muthamittal, Ayutha Ezuthu etc., Those movies directed by outsiders include movies like Chatriyan, Nerukku Ner, Dum Dum Dum, Fivestar etc., I could even recall some of those TV serials like 'Anbulla snehidhiye' 'Punnagai' which were presented well.

Hope we are going to see a lot more quality movies from his house, as I heard recently that he is planning to produce movies for his former assistants like Susi Ganesan & Azhagam Perumal once again.

K.Bhagyaraj had mostly tried only his abilities thru his Saranya Cine Creations. Eventhough this production house had many movies to its credit like Ithu namma aalu,Veetle Vishesanga, Sundara Gandam, Vetiya Madichu Kattu etc., it couldn't make it big. The latest buzz, is that he is behind his daughter's debut movie 'Paarijaatham' as a producer. Probably if it succeeds, I hope he will support new directors to make more money. Otherwise, his house may not become a big one.

Ve.Sekar was one of the low profile directors who ventured into the production arena thru his 'Thiruvalluvar kalai Koodam', which has churned out so many family dramas like 'Pondatti sonna Ketukkanum' 'Varavu Ettana Selavu Pathana' 'Kaalam Maari Pocchu' etc. Of late this production house has started entertaining outside directors as well like Venkatesh for 'Aei' (Sarath/Namitha), Shakthi Chidambaram for his under-production 'Pattasu' (Vikranth / Sibiraj !!) etc., Low Budget, decent returns has become the motto of this house, as I could observe.

Shankar initialised his efforts with 'Mudhalvan' jointly with R.Madesh (director of 'Chocolate' & 'Madurey'), eventhough he didn't continue his own high budget ambitions. However, his support to his former assistant Balaji Sakthivel has definitely yielded a fine movie in 'Kaathal'. Heard that he is going to produce 3 more movies to be directed by his former assistants (including one for Balaji sakthivel). Indeed a clever move with good marketing skills... finding outside producer for his costly ventures and making profits out of his low budget movies. Very smart....

As we all know, SJ.Suryah wanted to have all the credits & debits to him, for his last two ventures 'New' and 'Ah Aah..' Just because, he was able to rake in more money, I pray that he won't produce some more unwatchable 'B' grade movies. He had already gained a name as 'sleaze king'. Hope he comes out clean atleast in his future movies.

Other interesting personalities, who did venture into this new role and are still continuing in the field as most of you know, are ...

R.Parthiban [Several strange attempts like Sarigamapathanee, Housefull, Ivan, Kudaikul Mazhai etc.,]
Rama.Narayanan [His 'Thenandal films' had supported many living creatures in Tamilnadu.. thru several spiritual ventures.]
K.S.Ravikumar [with his hilarious 'Thenali']
Kadhir[With a B.O. bomb 'Kaathal Virus'.. Assume, he couldn't come out of that debacle still]
Cheran [Well crafted 'Autograph' and Vijay Milton directed 'Azhagai Irukirai Payamai Irukirathu' which is under production]
Saran ['Aaru' being directed by Hari]
Bala [Thru his 'B' movies - Surya's 'Maayavi', Ajith's 'Paramasivan' under production]
Thankar Bacchan [A successful attempt in 'Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy' when he couldn't find a producer. Heard that he is planning not to produce his next venture]

If you can observe, only those production houses which are commercial enough to support outside directors had made it big. That's the lesson which most of the young directors had learnt nowadays and profiting out of it.... Smart guys...

Report Courtesy: Our DBI Team

Related - "Let me do it" series posts
Actors turned producers
Cinematographer turned Directors
Singer turned actors
213rd post

Some funny moments..

2005-10-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Most of us have this Monday morning blues, as I had observed in many of the blog posts. Does this scenario reflect your mood of Monday morning? If so, you will definitely enjoy this joy of upcoming weekend and long holidays (particularly those Friday moments)!!!

Sometime back, I remember seeing this in 'Kumudham' weekly who shared it with the TN makkal. Most of you would have watched this already. Eventhough it looks funny, I thought it targets a specific sector of people. What do you say about the reality?
212th post

Id(o)le worship

2005-10-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

You could have seen all sorts of cine star worships like these... [apart from traditional 'falling on feet' style]

- Builiding Temples for Actresses
- 'Paal Abishegam' for actor's cut-outs
- Tatooing the film personalities names
- Chanting or Printing posters as 'future CM / PM /President etc'

Have you seen this type of hero worship?

The Gist is this...

It seems, after failing to meet his favourite idol couple of times, our hardcore fan had put up posters everywhere in Chennai to make it visible to the hero. It might have worked out for this fan, that finally his idol might have seen him.

But these type of hardcore fans are going berserk with their idol worship. We can have film entertainment as 'supplement meals' to relax ourself, but not as a 'main course'. But our fans don't realise that and don't know where to draw the line.

Once Cheran had criticised this attitude of hero worship in his earlier venture 'Porkaalam', in which he cast himself as a cine hero [on the posters]. My take is that it will take a long time for this idle (oops.. Idol!!) worship to change tracks.

Luckily, I am not in the circle of these idol worshippers... even if it is Rajini or Vijay. Is there anyone from idol worshippers club, against my stand? Welcome... :-) :-)
211th post

MBA from IBM

2005-10-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

You need to believe that I didn't intend to watch even a glimpse of 'Malargal' (First episode yesterday). I swear... honestly :-) :-) However, it so happened that I had to cross the living hall and got to see a scene.

This was the situation at that time...

An industrialist and his wife are talking about marriage alliances for their daughter. While going thru the photos, the girl's dad selects a picture and decides to visit them to finalise the alliance. The girl's Mom doesn't like the idea... she tells, "Indha sambandham ellam vendanga, IBM-la MBA padikkira en ponnukku ithellam sariyaa varaathu..." and it goes on. [In English: "Let us not go for this alliance. This may not suit our daughter studying MBA in IBM...."]

Got Shocked.... My wife also got confused [that means, I heard it correctly]. I didn't know that IBM has started MBA courses.

Was it an inadvertent error by the script writer (mixing it with IIM) or are they portraying the girl's Mom as an innocent lady [which doesn't seem to be, for me]? Or is there any 'Institute of Business Management' (IBM) which the script writer might have wanted to use in the script?

Definitely, 'Thaaikulangkal' may not mind {notice} all these type of silly errors, while getting engrossed with sensational and sentimental stories!!!

Anyhow, I don't intend to watch it anymore expecting some rare comedies like this, packaged in the sentimental stuff.... :-) :-)
210th post

Expressions & talks.... differ!!!

2005-10-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

During the weekend outing, met one of my colleague in the MRT (local train). Eventhough, I don't have constant touch with him and not in my regular email groups, I used to interact with him on certain technical issues from time to time.

The discussions went on as usual on official front, since we didn't have any other topic to talk about. His approach on the subject which we were broaching on, made a Desi girl standing beside us to throw a strange look on us. Reason... 'I know everything...' type of deliveries which he had made. His added comments on certain process oriented work, which I used to carry out in my way, irked me a bit.

However, I am used to these type of talks nowadays. Whenever I used to meet up these people who talk this way, I simply smile and approve whatever they talk and go ahead... unless, it affects me directly where I may want to return back to them. During my school days / college days, I didn't know how to differentiate these sort of talks. The journey thru the last couple of years and experience of meeting people of different races and countries, made it amusing to watch them talk.

Some people talk openly that 'their Organisation depends on them completely and nothing will move without them'. Possibly, true. The way they deliver it, may put us in an awkward postion. You may end up hearing some sarcastic comments too about others' abilities. But hearing it directly from the horse's mouth may make us uncomfortable.

However, these talks are better than those pessimistic ones. Whatever they talk may bring in unwanted jitters at that moment. I used to avoid them as much as possible or try to put their perspectives positively. If they keep on continuing, I simply close my ears.. and keep on nodding for whatever they talk... Best way to handle them :-) :-)

The best hilarious part is when someone talks in Muthulakshmi's way. [??? the way she talks with Thangavelu in 'Arivaali' ... prior to making Chappathis]. When they ask you a query and when you start explaining it, they used to continue 'ah.. I know this, I know this.. ' etc., After sometime, when you ask 'what will you do next?'.. you get reply 'that's what I don't know'. To realise the intensity of this hilarious part, you should have enjoyed that comedy scene from 'Arivaali'.

You may happen to see some more facially expressive people - who smiles at you simpy. You may have to work hard to pull out words from them. The output may generally be short and sweet.

However, the best & ideal way of talk which you don't get to see 100% of the time is this.

'... I'm confident that it may happen. Let us see what happens.. It is OK, even if doesn't happen.. Let us put some additional efforts again, to achieve the same' etc.,

This seems to be Practical and Positive. But you don't get to see this approach with everyone you meet.

Would always be glad to be ideal as well as to move with ideal personalities as close as possible... to make my life and surroundings better. One of my ideal dreams... on which I work on constantly.
209th post

Beware ATA, the next war starts....

2005-10-15T01:09:00.000-07:00

Satellite TVs are proceeding against the wishes of ATA's motto... BTW, if you are unaware of ATA, it is nothing but Anti Teleserial Alliance created by some of our friends online.

A new soap is being launched on Oct-17th (coming Monday) in SUN TV 7:30pm slot, pushing the existing 'Muhurtham' one hour behind. Named as 'Malargal', it is supposed to follow the footsteps of 'Metti Oli' with the same 'Delhi' Kumar in the lead, but with 5 sons instead of 5 daughters... Long live those souls who have decided to strengthen the motto of ATA.

Pic courtesy: The Hindu

If you had escaped seeing Nila in 'Ah Aah' (I envy you, guys), you are getting a chance to see her today (saturday) in Vijay TV, 19.30 IST... Luckily or otherwise, I don't have the chance to watch it... Will she be talking in thanglish? Any guess...
208th post

Handle with Care - Glamoured Relationships

2005-10-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

Blogfire is spreading everywhere.. so bloggers might not have had time to concentrate on certin issues like this broken relationship.

Of late, the trend in the marital relationship & pre-marital relationships are going sour in the film indsutry too often. Reasons are the common ones, which instigate the separation generally. However, due to the glamour associated to the industry they are normally getting blown up in a big way.

First is the Gossiping media business. Even, if people are just friends, the media network start writing about them in other words. Sometimes these kind of rumours make those persons involved to consider a relationship as rumoured and try to fall in the trap. But these sort of forced relationships don't last for a long time. These rumoured relationships fizzle out once the market is down, for one of the person involved. Classic example was Srikanth-Sneha case.

Let us assume that they pass off the gossiping corner and are really inclined to continue with the relationship. The next hurlde which they face is 'Expectation'. Do they realise what they expect? Sometimes, no.... Reality strikes once the glamour which was keeping them afloat fades away. Too much of devotion to the work, which was ignored before their relationship may be considered as a villain subsequently. In certain cases, the revenue starts dripping down or monetary pressure piles up, due to some bad moves (movies).. Many people fail in these tests & wake up suddenly to the reality. 'Let us cut it off' happens...

Ego may be one of the additional keys forcing a breakup. In this industry, there are lots of possibilities for people being driven to the corner due to this reason.

Atleast, if these breakups happen before marriage as in Selva-Sonia's case, the wound inflicted may heal off soon. Sometimes, the darling couples of the industry take decisions after leading an enviable life with kids.. for reasons known to them. I can name a few high profile couples who had broken up, like Sulakshana-Gopikrishna (MSV's son), Seetha-Parthiban, Nalini-Ramarajan, Sarika-Kamal, Rohini-Raghuvaran, Priya Raman-Ranjith... [If you notice, several of those affected ladies are in front of the cameras again, even if it is small screen].

Doesn't mean that all the glamoured relationships fail. You may observe certain ships sailing smoothly.. like Saranya-Ponvannan, Poornima-Bhagyaraj, Jayaram-Parvathi, Rajasekar-Jeevitha, Mukesh-Saritha, Maniratnam-Suhashini etc.,

We may not know the reasons behind this new development between Selva & Sonia. However, I felt that it was good for Selva & Sonia to split now, eventhough they were on the headlines when she accompanied the bride (Selva's sister) along with Aishwarya Dhanush. Personally, it looked odd for me at that time itself. Anyhow, better to face the reality now, rather than after having family life & kids.
207th post

'அவதாரம்' - ஒரு காலணியின் கதை

2005-10-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

(thanglish format in the comments section)

நேற்று, தணித்தேன்
உன் தாகத்தை..

இன்று, பூரித்தேன்
என் அவதாரத்தை (எண்ணி)...

இருந்து இறந்த யானை
பொன்னென்பது இது தானோ?

சமீபத்திய The Economist வார இதழில் ஆப்பிரிக்காவிற்கான IMF கடனுதவி பற்றிய ஒரு செய்தியில் வெளியான இப்படத்தின் உந்துதலே காரணம். இக்கால்களுக்கு வெயில் சுடுவது போல, நமக்கும் உண்மை சுடுகிறது, இல்லையா?
206th post

Fight or Give up(!!) for a Cause

2005-10-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

When you have only one Idiot Box and multiple programmes in different channels to watch simultaneously, you can expect a commotion in the living hall. During the Pre-Satellite TV era, when we were in Chennai - there used to be similar arguments with my brothers to watch certain programmes in DD1 & DD Metro. Obviously, preferences differ and you may tend to experience it very often...

Last sunday, similar situation arose. While I was into 'Sapthaswarangal', my son started pestering me. He wanted to change & view one of his favourite programmes 'Power Rangers' in the local channel. He tried in vain to get hold of the remote.. to realise later that he can't. He couldn't hide his frustration, since the continuity of the series has been missed out. [Note..Kids too prefer continuity in serials, not only tamizh thaaikulam]. Anyhow, he left the place finally....

Fortunately, my wife doesn't record 'Kolangal' (late night serial!!) nowadays since she is fed up of the never ending 'Abi' saga. Otherwise, I may have to unnecessarily give up(!!) some other interesting programmes in other channels. [Note.. No arguments here, just give up.... :-)]

Hope the above issues will be solved once this solution comes up.., which is expected to hit us soon.

This facility proposed by our local Cable company, allows us to record two programmes at the same time simultaneously. I believe there will be a price tag attached to it.. and hope it won't pinch me. I think, I can avoid the above situations, atleast thru this new facility.....
205th post

Golu Raathiri

2005-10-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Happened to visit my friend's house over the weekend. And there were some amazing work done by his retired Dad for 'Golu'. It seems this was one of the smallest, out of his regular'Golu' displays back in India.

Most of them made out of thermacool stuff, looked very realistic.. some of those, which I liked were captured for your eyes too.

204th post

Melting titles, but the movies...

2005-10-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

And the much awaited news has been released... the movie for which AR.Rahman will be composing next, is having the hottest pair of today in the lead roles. Yes, U are right. The Poetic title 'Jilendru Oru Kathal' is the one which I am talking about.

This movie has Surya and Asin in the lead roles. Don't leave out Jothika too. She is also playing the key role in this triangular love story. Debutant Director Krishna (an assistant of Gowtham Menon) is opening his account in this movie.

I love these type of poetic titles always. I even loved that 'Chennaiyil Oru Malaikaalam' title selected by Gowtham Menon. Unfortunately, he has scrapped it after a long gap. I am not sure if he will be using this title again for the new movie in which he is planning to venture with Arya & Jothika in the lead (After his 'V..V..' completion).

But most of the time, these directors fail to impress with their screenplay, eventhough the titles impress a lot. You expect something different from these strange titles. Most of them had flaunted the rules of a nice, sweet movie.

Some of those movies with melting titles, which I had observed are...

Sridhar's 'Azhage Unnai Aarathikireen' (Vijayakumar & Latha) which had some nice songs from Ilayaraja, eventhough I forgot whether it was a hit or an average movie.. any idea?

Un Kannil Neer Vazinthaal - What a poetic title? But it didn't help BaluMahendra much. Probably the audience would have expected an action oriented subjected in this Rajini-Madhavi flick and weren't impressed much with what was presented....

Yeh, Nee Romba Azhagaa Irukka? - Supposed to be one of the long titles after 'Aayiram Thalai Vaangiya Apoorva Sinthamani', the movie directed by Vasanth flopped dramatically in the BO. Eventhough he tried with 5 music directors for this movie, his screenplay failed to impress audience. Shaam, Sneha & Jaya Ray also couldn't help much with their performance. Bad luck....

Kangalaal Kaithu Sei - Nothing much to talk about this failed venture of Bharathi Raja. He, who tried to arrest the audience with the title, failed to arrest them with a tight screenplay. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier post, AR.Rahman's efforts didn't yield the desired results. I believe still BR is chewing its failure...

Enge Enathu Kavithai? - Just taken from the popular song (as mentioned in this post) of 'Kandukondein Kandukondein', had a poor casting (Kunal & ....) and went into the cans very quickly. (before you open and close your eyes)

Now I wonder whether the following movies will do some wonders in the BO or not.....

Azhagai Irukkirai, Payamai Irukkirathu - The movie being produced by Cheran, is directed by cameraman Vijay Milton. (captured in my earlier 'Let me do it..' series post). Will the Ladyluck who smiled on Bharath for the first 3 movies, smile at him for this movie - in which he is pairing with Mallika Kapoor? Need to wait and see if Vijay Milton can repeat what KV.Anand did in 'Kana Kandein'. Who knows? It may be a different movie from the failure trend of poetic titles..

Ezuthiyathaaradi - Ramana is acting in this low profile movie.. Any bets?

Nee Venumadi Enakku - Eventhough this cannot be classified as a poetic one, it looked strange to me. Not sure if this 'Jithan'Ramesh & Gajala starrer.. will do some business?

Ithu Thaan Kaathal Enbadha? - The director of this movie might have realised that titles won't do magics. So, instead of making it difficult for the audience to repeat such a lengthy title, he changed it to 'Jerry' recently. Will this change in title, do favours to 'Jithan'Ramesh & Meera Vasudevan? Fingers crossed...

BTW, Meera Vasudevan is supposed to marry Cinematographer Ashok Kumar's son? Why suddenly into a new movie????

In the last edition of A.Vikatan, I read that Director GandhiKrishna (of 'Nilakaalam' and 'Chellame') has got Writer Sujatha's acceptance, to direct one of his novel 'Aathalinaal Kaathal Seyveer'. A poetic name and indeed, the novel was a also neat love story. Gandhikrishna has experienced a lot in this tinseltown.. including scrapping of one of his project 'Engineer' (in which Arvindswamy & Madhuri Dixit acted). So, hope he will make use of his next opportunity to prove his skills again... which he proved in his two other movies.

Hope you will be blowing the dreambubbles with some more nice titles, which really succeeded in the B.O......

Other posts of 'Naming the film' Series
Recycle the Old names, again...
Listen.. Pick.. Name
Name the month - Decide your film name
A Naming convention with difference - Teaching Basics
203rd post

New avataar

2005-10-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Whenever an actor needs a break, he may decide 'Ok.. let me change my getup for the next character. Probably, it may click...'. Finally they endup tonsuring their head....

Like these following guys did....

Kamal - Sathya, Aalavandhan
Sarath - Sooriyan, Khakki
Satyaraj - Nooraavathu Naal, Jallikattu
Ajith - Red
Arunkumar - Jananam
Madhavan - Ayutha Ezuthu
Surya - Nandha, Ghajini

And a related tonsured look of Srikanth in 'Sathurangam' (yet to be released) and Dhanush in 'Athu oru Kanaa Kaalam' (yet to be released)

Some of these movies have not clicked as well. That's why some of our heroes never tried those looks..like Prashanth, Vijay, Vijaykanth etc.,

But do you know the reasons behind the following get up of the prominent businessman in the Indian BPO industry? I don't know whether it is a real one or doctored picture (looks like a real one to me)

Still the guy looks charming, eventhough he had put on some weight, compared to 13 years back!!!! Isn't it?
202nd post

தொலையா நினைவுகள்...

2005-10-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

(thanglish format in the comments section)

சல சலக்கும் ஓடை
கல கலக்கும் மணியோசை
இவற்றின் நடுவே

பச்சை பசேலென ஒரு
வயல் வெளியில், நிதானமான
காலைப் பொழுது

ஹ்ம்ம்ம்...

வாழ்வில் தொலைந்து
போன அப்பள்ளி
விடுமுறையை எண்ணியே

நாட்களைக் கழிக்கும்
ஒரு நகரவாசியின்
பெருமூச்சு...

(அச்சிறு விஷயங்களைத் தேடி ஒரு சில வெளியூர் பயணங்கள் மேற்கொள்வது, வேறு விஷயம்!!! இருந்தாலும் அந்த சுகம் தனி சுகம் தான்....)

படத்தைப் பெரிதாக்கி ரசிக்கவும்
பட உதவி: கார்த்தியின் வலைப்பதிவு
201st post

The Day for ADs....

2005-10-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Enlarge them and enjoy...

200th post

Following 'Harichandra' rules...

2005-10-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

While preaching / advising the kids, we approach an issue in a particular way. But when it falls on us, the approach seems to differ (at times, diagonally opposite too). We do it most of the times, whatever be the reasons like 'to be practical' or 'to educate them' etc.,

Last week, my son was called for by his school Principal to her room, along with 2 other kids. Once he returned from school, he started sobbing and told that he was called for and got advices. The reasoning provided by him was that he was amidst two fighting kids and incidentally got caught.Further queries revealed that he also beat one of those kids. Later he revealed somemore.. So, all of them together had done something and was sent to her room. The initial intention was to prove that he didn't do anything... a Kid's attitude!!!!

Advising session started.. that he should not hide things like this, blah blah.

But honestly speaking, we do hide or misrepresent certain facts in our day-to-day life due to circumstances.... Some may be obvious, some may not be.. all depends on the individual's perceptions, as to whether it is right or wrong. Few of those instances, where either I was in the receiving end or at the delivering end......

1) Hiding some actual facts from relatives or friends, assuming that they won't like it or will be hurt.
2) Hiding an achievement(!!) or acquisition of an object/asset, from those who may look into those with different eyes.. I mean jealousy ones.
3) When one of your colleague, asks you to give good opinion about him to a Job agent - by acting as his 'Project manager' or 'Project lead' eventhough your relationship with him is not as such.

The following are strange things, which you might or might not have encountered....
4) Not revealing the place of the next career move or misrepresent it. [Read this related post of mine.. You may get to know more]
5) Hiding a proposed holiday plan, to those who are not close to you.. even when they ask so many questions. [similar to (2) above]
6) Misrepresenting or hiding facts for business reasons... justifying them as business rules.

So, in today's practical scenario we don't follow 'Harichandra' rules. The situational demand (of hiding or misrepresentation) has become the norm of the day. In that case, how forcefully can we advise the next generation? I could realise that it would be upto some extent only. Till, they realise the trick of manipulation and cannot withstand our advices(!!).

Do you have some other similar scenario, where you were in the middle?
199th post

Ghajini - Review

2005-09-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

The first show experience, after a long gap.... and an evening show on a working day, for the first time. It was a different risk, eventhough we knew the synopsis of the movie. The faith reposed on AR.Murugadoss-Surya combination was the reason behind that attempt.

The pair didn't fail me. The Rs.8 crore project starts in a gripping pace.

You like it or not, you need to start with Nayanthara, the medical student, only. Her intention of taking up the case of a STML (Short term Memory Loss) patient for her project gets thwarted by her superior, citing several reasons.

There he enters... our hero Sanjay (Surya) afflicted with STML - who remembers incidents only for the next 15 minutes. The past & the reasons behind his current status, unfold thru Sanjay's diaries of few years back.

Sanjay Ramasamy, the multi billionaire and the model Kalpana (Asin) meet in a comical situation. Without even knowing his true status, she starts loving him when he proposes. Each & every meeting of theirs was a hilarious - romantic - sentimental - gripping ones. Due to some revealing facts, Kalpana becomes a target for the villain Pradeep Ravath. Result.. Sanjay gets hit badly, while Kalpana gets killed.

With his ST memory and the photos which he carries, he kills his targets, behind his ladylove's death except the main villain. There is another twist brought out here in the form of Villain's dual role, which is new to Kollywood. And the climax, is as everybody knows.. But after their death, Sanjay is let loose and goes on his way...

Surya lives as Sanjay, both as a billionaire (with that simple smile) and as a violent patient with STML. The romantic scenes with Asin are very touchy and Asin has impressed us a lot. Even at the final moment, her eyes talk. She shares the credit with Surya for both their excellent performances. She gets killed without even knowing Sanjay's actual status, which is one of the highlights in the screenplay.

Nayanthara needs to look after her weight. She has become the potential candidate to beat Namitha. Her attire and makeup in 'X macchi' were glaring so much and at times her expressions are scary to us - managable, since the movie is a thriller(!!). I am just wondering about her pairing with Simbu in 'Vallavan' and Jeeva in 'E'. For her weight and height, they may look like her younger brothers.

Pradeep Ravath is menacing in his role.

Filming of Harris Jeyaraj's songs are good. 'Ragathulla..' comes just as an introductory song (MTV style) to Asin in which she fails to impress. But later, she was convincing in the story and the other 3 songs.

'Oru maalai ...' sung by Karthik has been beautifully picturised with a nice choreography. Wow.. there is such a big difference between Surya's dance movement in 'Nerukku Ner' and in 'Ghajini'. However his dance movements in my favourite number 'Suttum vizhi sudare..' looked funny at times. For this melody, the lead pair could have simply walked instead of dance movements.

The placement of the filler song 'Rangola..' should have happened earlier than where they had fit in. Eventhough it is a dream song, we realise the danger awaiting her (Kalpana - Asin). So, that tension may not allow you to enjoy the song fully.

Strengths
1) The pace of the movie. Slick Editing by Antony and the cinematography by R.D.Rajasekar is keeping up the fast pace. (Both were part of Goutam Menon's 'Kakka Kakka' as well)
2) Surya and Asin are too good in their roles and they have lived as Sanjay & Kalpana. Most of their meetings are fun-filled / romantic except the last tensed moments.
3) Nice picturisation of songs.
4) Since I have not seen 'Memento', I wasn't under any influence and could see it from a layman's angle. Murugadoss' screenplay has made the story simplified inspite of some glitches, with only five characters - Surya, Asin, Nayanthara, PS Ravath and Manobala (as Asin's modelling director)
5) Less violent shots (eventhough more stunts by Kanal Kannan) and less glamour would make it watchable for all ages.

Weaknesses
1) Couldn't believe that Kalpana or her boss, are unaware of such a big shot Sanjay from Tamilnadu, till the last moment of hers.
2) Except, the investigating police officer Riyaz khan (who dies later accidentally), no other police officers' help is sought after in the movie. Especially, when there was a tensed moment in the climax hostel campus. [inspite of today's mobile era. Probably the director would have extended the Anna university ban to the medical college hostel also... :-) :-)]
3) There is no justification for the twist created in the Villain's dual role. Just a screenplay twist... The director could have exploited this twist in a better way for the story.
4) The climax could have been little more convincing.

Inspite of my perception as above, this movie seems to be a hat-trick from Murugadoss (after 'Dheena' & 'Ramana') and a good break for Surya. Asin has proved her place in this part of the world. I believe, Surya who had taken the Chennai distributorship and telugu rights, would definitely make a killing with this action packed flick.

While coming out of the hall, my son asked for the logic of naming the movie as 'Ghajini'. I couldn't find any, from the storyline. Can someone help?

Ghajini Review by SIFY & Indiaglitz are also linked. Glad that this time all of us had reviewed on the same lines, which was not in case of 'Anniyan'.

My Earlier Reviews - Limited edition (munch it, if you hvn't)
Anniyan / Ullam Ketkumae / Sachein
198th post

Enjoy..Laugh... don't miss the moments

2005-09-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

Scene#1
It was another year which had gone by.. and I moved into the next year, this week. Every year it comes and goes, so what's the speciality this year? Ok.. this time, I have more people to share some of my views.

It was an occasion which I had never noticed or realised so much during my school days / college days. It was just like any other day. Only at the time of filling up some application for some purpose, I bring it out of my mind. Even going to the temples on this day was rare.

But it has changed during the last couple of years. It has become a day on which you feel that some people are aware of it - family / friends (I should definitely include my Credit card co., Insurance co., Automobile Association etc). Greeting cards, SMS, Special cake offers blah blah.... some special gifts occasionally.

This time, my son blushed while giving me a self-made B'day card and a small key chain. When my better-half gave me a wrapped box, he got very curious to open it instantly. Since I wasn't that curious to open it immediately, my wife insisted on it. Her words, 'Be curious to open your gift.. Be a kid'. I obliged.. hey, it was a cute Laughing Buddha. There was an instant laugh from my son on seeing his belly.

There is a general belief that rubbing his belly brings wealth, good luck, prosperity. I hope I don't rub his belly too much. I don't want him to become lean.. :-) :-)

Scene#2
Another aspect which I could observe was the smiling face. It's not even a smile.. a big laugh. It insists on enjoying the life every moment and laugh at good things instantly, not only smile. I don't laugh out loudly.. just a Chuckle. Aren't we supposed to laugh at good things to make ourselves light? I have learnt it in the recent days.... to laugh like a kid.

Eventhough I don't crack nice jokes, I made it a practice to enjoy the moments... No silly feelings...(Goundamani stylela)Even some silly jokes had made me to laugh out loudly, whether it is out of movies or forwarded mails. Few used to be rib-tickling ones..like these..

#1
What do you think the gangster's son would have told his dad, when he failed his examination?
"Dad they questioned me for 3 hours but I never told them anything."

#2
A little boy went up to his father and asked, "Dad, where did all of my intelligence come from?"
His father replied, "Well, son, you must have gotten it from your mother, because I still have mine."

#3
Sunny's teacher sent a note home to his Mother saying, "Sunny seems to be a very bright boy, but spends too much of his time thinking about girls."
The Mother wrote back the next day, "If you find a solution, please advise. I have the same problem with his Father".

Laughter is the best medicine for many ills... so better LOL and enjoy each and every moment of the life... :-) :-)
197th post

அழகே ஒரு பிழையோ?

2005-09-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

(thanglish format in the comments section)

சில நாட்கள் முன் மின்மடலில் வந்த 'யாரிவர்?' மடலைப் பார்த்ததும் தோன்றிய சில வரிகள் இவை....

ப்ரம்மா ....
உன் 'தீடீர்' பூவுலக
விஜயத்தின் பின்னணி?

ஓ.... நீ செதுக்கிய
இப்பதுமையை கவர்ந்து
வந்தோரைத் தேடியோ?

யாரென்று தெரிவிக்க சில மணித் துளிகளுக்கு பின் வந்த மின்மடல் தாங்கிய செய்தி இது தான்.. பெரிதாக்கிப் பர்க்கவும்.

அக அழகைப் பற்றி சென்ற வாரம் சிந்தித்த எனக்கு, புற அழகே ஆபத்து என தோன்றச் செய்தது இந்த இரண்டாம் மடல்...

இருந்தும் எமது துப்பறியும் குழுவிற்கு வேலை வேண்டுமே?

Google மூலம் அறிந்தது இது தான். ஆந்திர நட்சத்திரமான Tamannaவுக்கும் பம்பாய் Tarannum Khanக்கும் ஏற்பட்ட ஒரு சில எழுத்து உச்சரிப்புப் பிழையே இதற்கு காரணம். வலைப்பதிவாளர் ஒருவரும் பல நூறு பேருக்கு மடல் அனுப்பி வைத்து விட்டு, தன் வலைப்பதிவில் வருத்தப்பட்டுள்ளார்.. நிறையவே....

ஹ்ம்ம்ம்.. இதுவே வேறு நாடாய் இருந்திருந்தால் இந்நேரம் பல வழக்குகள் பதிவாகியிருக்கும்னு நினைக்கிறேன். என்ன சொல்லுறீங்க..?
196th post

The Electrifying pictures ....

2005-09-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

Those who have not seen my earlier post can scroll down further for a detailed field report.... These pictures are for those who wished to see more of the event. Luckily Blogger.com was very helpful today.. it just took fraction of minutes to upload all these pictures, compared to my struggle of 3-4 hours for the previous post. Enjoy... this as well.

ARR on the big screen
Hariharan comparing Sadhana's voice with Telephone ring.. for 'Indian' (Hindustani) song
Eventhough the picture is not clear, this has been uploaded for Sayesha. Karthik with a colorful combination of dress looking for his girlfriend ['Enakoru girlfriend..' from 'Boys']
Romancing pair of Hariharan & Sadhana calling the Moon [for 'Vennilave...' of Minsara Kanavu/ 'Chanda re..' of Sapne]. Look out for the background dancers..
ARR with Kailash Kher for 'nachu re Nachu re..' (Am I spelling correctly?) - the hindi version of 'Rhythm's 'Thanniye Thannanth thaniye..'. Another fast number from K.Kher
'Sa Ri Ga Me...' pulling the audience & making the audience to dance to their tunes - Blazee & Karthik
Another casual one from 'Mustafa, Mustafa.. ' song, with Naresh
ARR joining Kailash Kher for the 'Chayya Chayya..' number
ARR starting with 'Azadi...' (Bose) continued with 'Vandhematharam..' song.
Amidst the 'V..M..' song
Karthik looking for a mike to join the team
The team saying 'goodbye' to the crowd..

195th post

An Electrifying Evening....

2005-09-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

[The longest post of mine, so far. I am glad that I am making it for a subject of my interest as well as of most of your interest. Hope you will enjoy as if you were in the show. Sorry for the delay.. I hope I have done my best to prove your wait a worthy one.. :-) :-)]

[As promised I am posting within the stipulated 24 hours... Feel free to double click the picture to have a better feel of the event]

The evening we were awaiting for a long time had finally arrived... on 24th Sep, Saturday. Eventhough, we had attended a couple of shows in the last one year (of Vidyasagar and Bharadwaj), we knew AR.Rahman is the man who could make the difference. And yes it was...

The sponsorship of Mediacorp TV is prestigious one which normally goes to some big international pop stars - for the hype and infrastructure provided by them. Everything was provided for ARR's show as well. Their presence was felt throughout, with the lightings and the stage settings in a fantastic way.

Since, we were prompted from the beginning of the day (in the local radio FM 96.8) that the show will start exactly by 6:30 PM, we reached our seats exactly by time. However, due to some reason or the other, it got delayed and finally two local TV presenters Dharshana & Ilamaran appeared. They could have stopped their presentation in few minutes.. But they didn't.

Since it was officially sponsored by Mediacorp TV, Ilamaran started introducing 12 finalists of the local TV show 'Vasantham Star'. Right or wrong, the crowd got irritated since they didn't want to wait further to see ARR. The self-introduction of those finalists which started with 2 minutes per person, ended up with introduction of the last 4 person in 2 seconds.. Ilamaran was under so much pressure to wrap it up quickly, eventhough he did it very nicely.

Then we got to see that grand entry... of the genius in front of the crowd of 9000 people over there. Such a humble, smiling face.. started singing with a bang announcing the arrival. The first one was from 'Yuva' ('Fanaa' if I am not wrong) and immediately the environment got electrifying. The way it was sung and delivered by that Chubby face was amazing.

When Sadhana Sargam appeared next and started the intial humming for 'Telephone Mani..' of 'Indian' ('Hindustani'), people started looking for the male counterpart.. There, he entered from the front entrance of the hall. Hariharan, with the security guards around him and throwing some beach balls among the audiences (like our politicians do), by showing off his dancing abilities. They started mixing the tamil version and hindi version to satisfy the music lovers of both the songs.

Now the treat for the youth.. Entered Karthik with one of the electrifying song 'Oh Humdum Suniyo Re..' (Saathiya) - the hindi version of 'Engengum Punnagai..' (Alai Payuthe). Everytime he appears in Singapore, the crowd is getting more crazier about him. Till the start of the day, we were not sure if he is going to come or not, since we didn't listen to the local Radio. We were so glad that he was there at last.

Next, the entry of a person unknown to me.. he was Kailash Kher. Since I used to always listen the tamil versions of ARR I had not noticed the Hindi singers. K.Kher made it notably different with his 'Mangal..' song from 'The Rising'. His dresses were also of unique combination thru out the show. With a embroidered dhoti and different colors of tops. The high pitch of his voice was too good while delivering certain songs.

Another unknown song.. entered Udit Narayan and Madhushree with 'Hum hain is pal yahan' from 'Kisna'. Since I had not listened to it earlier, it didn't strike me that much. I should have listened to it couple of times earlier, to realise the strengths of this song.

Eventhough I missed SP.B's presence (for 'Kathal Rojave...' of 'Roja'), Hariharan filled the vaccum beautifully by mixing the tamil version and the hindi 'Roja Jaane Maan...' in a romantic way. Another beautiful melody followed it - 'Chupke se...' from 'Saathiya' by Sadhana Sargam. It was beautifully blended with the tamil version 'Snehidhiyee..' (Alai Payuthae') in between.

We got the variety again, from the Bosnian singer Ms.Alma with an English number from 'Warriors of Heaven and Earth', the chinese movie for which ARR had composed the music. The movie's war sequences started popping up in the background screen, showing off the big production value of that movie.Karthik followed it with 'Enakoru Girlfriend vendumada...' from 'Boys'. As usual I was able to see the crowd dancing with him.

The missing piece was found then. The show was complete with 'Chinnakuyil' entering the stage.. yes, Chitra entered with her 'Kannaalane...' (Bombay) mixed with some parts of the hindi version 'Kehna Hi Kya..'. Whatever be the language, her soothing voice took us to some level. Great one.. indeed.

Once again the romantic pair entered asking for a favour from the moon.. Hariharan and Sadhana Sargam, calling 'Vennilave.. Vennilave..'(Minsara Kanavu) blended with 'Chanda re..'(Sapne). And two young dancers started appearing behind ARR with nicely choreographed movements. The dance aptly suited the mood of the song.

'Kabhi Neem Neem...' (Yuva) was the next one from Madhushreee. As was the trend of the evening, she mixed it with 'Sandaikozhi kozhi..' (Ayutha Ezuthu) and delivered it beautifully, with some dance movements too.. Hariharan followed suit with another meoldy from 'Alai Payuthae' which was duly supported by lightings and the illuminated screen behind. And the song was 'Pachchai nirame.. Pachchai nirame..'

Another excellent number followed in 'Taal se Taal..' sung by Madhushree and Udit Narayan. She replaced Alka Yagnik (the original singer) beautifully with her voice. There was also a dancer delivering some classical dance movements aptly for the song, behind ARR and after somtime on the main stage itself.

At that time we got what we wanted.. ARR prepraed himself to join Blazee, who started coming from the main entrance of the hall. And it was the electrifying number of the show 'Humma Humma..' of 'Bombay' (hindi version), sung by both of them. There was no limit for the crowd's joy.

A lot of audience started dancing, waving the hands and the song ended with a style different to ARR. He stepped down the stage and started walking on the path in front of the stage till the middle of the hall. Fully guarded with securities... eventhough he was still humming 'Humma humma...'. My wife who was just standing nearer to him, when he passed us, exclaimed that he was looking too young and so chubby. I didn't mind... afterall he is the genius who deserves it.

And then came the much awaited break - which was completely given to the acclaimed percussionist Sivamani. Oh... the way he played with his drums and instruments was so excellent that his other western counterparts (Mr.Levon with Guitar and Mr.Attila with Keyboard) were mesmerised completely along with the audience.

A Surprise visitor was also there.. he was Abdul Hameed (of the yester year 'Lalitha'vin 'pattukku pattu') even though the purpose was to greet ARR with a memonto, shawl and a garland by the local sponsors GMT Jewellers. The Genius accepted all these things in a humble way and immediately brushed them aside.

Now I am giving you some break, since we have crossed only half...

Let me change the gear now..

ARR and Blazee restarted the session after the break with their number, composed specifically for UN's efforts for the poverty struck world. The audience were so mesmerised that I observed so many colorful butterflies flying everywhere.. I mean the audience waving their hands with their lighted up mobile phones.. everywhere those lightening butterflies were flying.

When ARR started singing 'Dil Se Re..' I started noticing his sister Rehena in the Chorus. she aptly supported him with her voice in that song. This number was followed by another English number from the Bosnian Ms.Alma which was blended with 'Ishq Bena Kya..'(Taal) by ARR and Madhushree.

Then there was an excellent piece from the team of Hariharan, Sadhana and Chitra, which he claimed as 'Unplugged'. During this session, they combined certain melody numbers beautifully with few variations. All the songs which were selected for this piece were excellent ones from ARR's collections.. They were 'Nila Kaikiradhu..' (Indira), 'Enge enathu Kavidhai...' (Kandukondein KK), 'Uyirae.. uyirae..'(Bombay) and 'Udhaya.. Udhaya..' (Udhaya).

Follwed them were 'Thee Thee Thithikkum thee..' (Thiruda Thiruda) by Sadhana Sargam, 'Jiya Jale Jaan jale...'(Dil se) by Chitra, 'Ale Ale..' (Boys) by Karthik & ARR's sister Irshath, 'Hai Rama Kya Hua..' (Rangeela) by Hariharan & Madhushree and 'Nachu Re...Nachu Re...' by Kailash Kher & ARR. I don't know the movie of the last number, eventhough I realised that it was the hindi version of 'Thaniye Thannanth Thaniye...' from 'Rhythm' sung by Shankar Mahadevan. Hariharan & Madhushree were the next with all sorts of dance movements for 'Varugiraai..' of 'Ah AAh'.

Till that moment, I was struggling with the batteries of my Digicam that I missed couple of nice pics. Then I decided that I shouldn't wait anymore. Immediately I ran out and bought the required batteries, eventhough they were expensive there... This enabled me to cover the balance numbers to my satisfaction.

Another fast one came out from the team of karthik and Blazee - for 'Sa Ri Ga me..' of 'Boys'. This was another song with an electrifying feel which ended up with a colorful bang from the flower pot lightings... chk out the next picture...

ARR came down again from his seat for the next number 'Mustafa.. Mustafa..' with Naresh.. another good one.

Again the hall got electrified with the next one from his sister Rehena and Kailash kher. The song was nothing but the 'Chayya Chayya..' of 'Dil Se'. You cannot judge based on the look and actions. Looked like a quiet lady, the song & her matching high pitched voice with K.K's brought the stadium down with the clappings and dances. ARR too joined them finally.. with his matching voice.

As expected, he finished the concert with the 'Vandhe Madharam..' number and made the people to move in a different way. Most of the audience started standing to chant the 'Vandhe madharam..' words to fulfill the purpose of the song. The unity in diversity. I could feel it with his mixture of techinicians & Singers (of different countries) and the audience who were present including lot of chinese... It was amazing. The following were some of the pictures taken during that last piece.

Alma - Sadhana Sargam - Chitra - Madhushree - Karthik - Kailash Kher
Chitra-Madhushree-Kailash Kher-Karthik-Udit
Alma wondering the way the genius was singing, with Chitra & Madhushree
Karthik - Udit Narayan - Hariharan, with the full attention to the song
Blazee - Sivamani

When the show ended 4 hours after the continuous thunder & lightening, I didn't have the mood to leave the place. I was just wondering why these concerts are always conducted for less no. of hours..

I still missed some of my favourites like

'Anbe Anbe..' and 'Poovukkul olinthrikkum...' from 'Jeans' (surprisingly none from this movie)
'Aararai kodi..' from 'Ah Aah' (the latest hit sung by ARR himself)
'Thirakkatha kattukulee...' and 'kaathal nayagara..' from 'En Swasa Katre'
'Chinna Chinna Aasaai...' from 'Roja'
'katre en Vaasal vandhai...' from 'Rhythm'

However, the notable and appreciable portion of this show was that there were no interruptions by the presenters or comedians, like it happened in the previus shows. ARR himself didn't have time to deliver all his hits, as I mentioned above. How can he allow those interruptions? We were so glad that the show was fully packed with songs, songs and songs.........

By the end of the night, when we came back home my wife made some remarks that I had changed a lot, compared to the previous shows... in terms of my involvement in the shows. I just smiled at her... Hey.. that was the power of the magical music from this Genius.

Note:
1) Some of my fellow bloggers have beaten me already in bringing up their posts in their blogs... earlier this day. Here are their posts ----> Sayesha & Vidya. Enjoy them as well...

2) Due to some Blogger.com errors, it took 4 hours for me to upload these pictures. Due to the delay, I even dropped some more pictures. Whatever it is, by end of the night I was satisfied with those which got loaded successfully.

Some more pictures here.. enjoy

194th post

A Memorable Night... Preview

2005-09-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

The wait was over... It was a fantastic evening and a life-long memorable one..

A detailed post (may be, a pretty long one....) can be seen here within 24 hours.. I want to do it now.. but now it is already midnight... :-):-) Pl. bear with me for some more hours....
193rd post