Weekend movies - Anukokunda Oka Roju and Azhwar

Anukokunda Oka Roju - This was a movie that has been in my to-be-watched list for a while. I first read about the movie in Teakada where it had gotten a glowing review. Then, one of my Telugu friends, when I asked him to suggest a couple of good Telugu movies to watch, he mentioned Athadu and this one. Athadu did not disappoint me, since I loved the rich production quality of the movie and Prince Mahesh Babu's action in it. So, when I started watching this one, I was in my 'this is going to be a great movie' mood and after watching it, this movie had blown me away. This movie had everything that I love about watching a movie. Highest quality in every aspect of film-making, catchy music, commendable acting by everyone involved, tightly knit screenplay and well-defined characterizations. The last point in particular was what I loved the movie, more than anything. There is this huge plethora of characters in the movie but every single character has been so well etched out that every single character remained consistent throughout the movie. The suspense in the movie is beautifully handled almost till the final shot in the movie, which also ends with a short message. Not the usual in your face message but a subtle reminder to the audience that the whole plot of the movie was bcos of that one issue of drugs. The screenplay belongs to the ones we have seen in movies like Flavors and Crash where there are parallel threads going on simultaneously in the movie and at the end of it all, each one of the dots are connected in a very convincing manner. The songs in the movie were another plus. Except for one song, all the others were neatly woven into the screenplay. Simply loved them. Charmi does a great job, except in the scenes where she acts drunk in which she is absolutely mediocre. The guy who comes in as the Police inspector is such an interesting character, what with himself carrying juice packs all through the movie. Cinematography is excellent, with the mood of the scenes captured brilliantly by the cameraman. On the whole, a highly satisfying movie and As far as I am concerned, this is one movie whose DVD will go surely go into my DVD collection. So, if you are a non-Telugu speaking person like me on the lookout for some good Telugu movies, then this is a good one to start with.

Azhwar - Well, we all have our differences of opinion when it comes to a movie. Some of us like a given movie while some of us don't. For example, most of us liked 7GRC whereas there are some of us (like me) who simply hated the movie. The same can be said about a whole list of movies where people's opinion on a movie has differed. But rarely has it happened that the only 2 opinions that all of us have about a particular movie are these – bad and very very bad. Azhwar bags the coveted prize of being such a movie. The movie is a complete joke, rivaling even of some our captain's movies on the entertainment value scale. Ajith could have stopped this movie so much before the shooting of the movie actually started. For example, had he asked the simple question to the director as to why the movie has been named so, the director's answer should have been reason enough to abandon the movie. OK, so he didn’t ask that question and the shooting of the movie started. Ajith gets to wear the God make-up. If he had only seen himself in the mirror, he would have had another opportunity to stop the movie, right then and there. OK, lets take it that he didn’t see himself in the mirror. What next? If he had gone through the so-called script which has downright funny dialogues like Namma oor-la irukka ellaa maaru vesham pottavangaluyam pidichittu vaanga, he could have stopped the movie then. I seriously can’t understand how Ajith was unable to realize what a disaster of a movie this will turn out to be. Asin walks away with the most stupidest, irritating and annoying role ever done by her. Again can't understand the logic behind her agreeing to do this role. The film was so bad that Vivek's below-par comedy was the only relief now and then. One good (and bad) thing about Ajith is that he gives chances to a lot of debut directors to direct him. Though it has produced a Murugadoss here and Durai there, most of the other attempts have resulted in utterly pointless movies (like this one). Well, Ajith can do something better to help these debut directors – stop giving offers to directors like this guy who are clearly not ready to make a movie of their own, so that they can go back to the drawing board as an assistant director and learn more about the basic things in film-making before returning to making films on their own. By not doing that and accepting stupid movies like these, he is only ruining the careers of some of these budding directors bcos the first movie of any director is their litmus test and if they fail that, it is going to be one uphill battle from then on. Bottom-line – watch it with friends to get the most laughs out of this supposedly serious movie. Worst movie in recent times, beating Vallavan and Chennai Kaadhal

Seattle, the beautiful

This is one post that has been long overdue. Ever since I moved to Seattle close to 3 years back, I have been wanting to blog about this beautiful city, a city which I have come to love so much. I have lived in 3 other cities (Arlington,TX, Toledo,OH and Mobile,AL) before moving here and from my experience of visiting so many other cities, I can easily say that Seattle is my most favorite and the most beautiful city of the places. So, I thought it would be a good idea to blog something about this lovely place. This city has to offer something for everybody, be it hikers, skiers, coffee-lovers, or techies. Anyways, here are the top things that I thought someone has to know about the city

• Seattle, if not for anything, is home to the most popular software company on earth - Microsoft
• Seattle is also home to the popular coffee chain - Starbucks, with the first ever Starbucks store in the US opened in downtown Seattle in 1967. That store is a must-see if you are ever visiting Seattle.
• Seattle is the 21st biggest and 23rd most populous city in the US with a population of 573,000
• Though Seattle has almost become synonymous with rain, there is something that I need to clear things about. Although on an average Seattle is cloudy 227 days a year, the rainfall that Seattle receives is way less than many cities in the US. For example, both NYC (42 inches) and Miami (60 inches) receive more annual rainfall than Seattle (39 inches). But the problem in Seattle is that the number of days it rains in a year is higher than any of these cities bcos it does not really rain here, it rather drizzles.
• Some of the popular films that were shot in and around Seattle - Sleepless in Seattle, Assassins, Disclosure and the latest Harrison Ford starrer, Firewall. This website here has the complete list of movies that were shot in all the major cities in the US. (Wouldn't it be awesome to have a similar site for Tamil/ Indian movies?)
• Some of the celebrities who are from Seattle -Bill Gates, (Microsoft founder), Fred Couples (golfer), Gail Devers (athlete), Jimmie Hendrix (guitarist), Bruce Lee, (actor - both he and his son have been buried here), Michael Chang (tennis player - he in fact is a regular to a church one of my friends attends), Dave Mathews (musician), Jason Terry (NBA player), Ed Viesturs (professional climber who became the first American to climb each one of the tallest 14 peaks in the world)
• Other popular companies that have their headquarters in and around Seattle - Amazon, Boeing, Expedia, T-Mobile, Real networks, eBay, Accenture. In fact, the Wired Magazine has ranked Seattle as one of the top 10 techie cities in the US, along with the likes of Bay Area and NYC. For the remaining cities in the list, go here.
• A big fire (called the Great Seattle Fire) burned the entire business district back in 1889. But the city was quickly built over the remains left by the fire and thus Seattle rose from a destruction of such a magnitude to be the city that it is now. And even today, there is an underground tour which takes you through the destruction left by the fire. For details about the fire and the tour, click here and here.
• Seattle is the most literate city in the US and also the 3rd most ethnically-diverse city in the US.
• Though the official nickname for Seattle is the Emerald City, it also goes by the following names: Rainy City, Jet city, Space City, Gateway to Alaska and Queen City.
• One of the best things about Seattle is that there are numerous attractions in and around the city, which can be accessed from Seattle on single day trips. Some of the attractions that are must see if you are visiting Seattle are Mt. Rainier, Olympic national park, Mt. St. Helens, Lake Chelan, Snoqualmie falls and pass, San Juan Islands, Cape Flattery (the north-western most point in Continental US). The best times to visit the city would be anytime between May and September.

So, if you any of you reading this blog haven’t been Seattle yet, please add Seattle to the list of places that you want to see and do remember that you have a ready host in here. Folks in Seattle can add more points to this list if I have left out anything important about this beautiful city.

Weekend movies - Sivappathigaaram and Children of Men

Sivappathigaaram - Another telling after-effect of the Shankar era in Tamil cinema. This movie faithfully follows what we have seen in each of Shankar's 4 vigilante movie - series of unlawful incidents committed by the hero, he has another personality to the outer world (in this case, the role of a folk songs researcher), a godfather/ mentor who helps the hero focus his anger (Raghuvaran here, in the place of Nambiyar in Gentleman) , a smart police officer investigating the murders (Charan Raj's role in Gentleman/ Nedumudi Venu's role in Indian) and last but not the least, the flashback which justifies the whole revenge seeking that the hero is going about doing. I didn’t really understand the whole folk song research part in the whole movie. At the end of the movie when we get to know what the movie is all about, I kind of felt cheated bcos the whole researching naattuppura paattu veil that they used was completely unnecessary and took up so much of unnecessary screen-time. Vishal is OK. I am not sure very sure if these are the kind of movies he should be casting himself in. There is a certain inhibition in his dialogue delivery that it makes us uncomfortable when he starts lecturing on naattupura paattu. The less said about the heroine, the better. The articifical romance between her and Vishal just gets on our nerves. Raghuvaran as always does his part well, without going overboard at any point and in addition to the music, is the only saving grace of the movie. The way Vishal goes about killing people is actually very funny. He kills the target in broad day-light with a maximum of 20-30 people around the target. He kills the target with a long knife and then walks off coolly with nobody around the target, not even making an effort to see how the target was killed. The director makes sure that one of the best songs of last year finds a place in one of the worst picturized songs of last year, by doing a horrible job of picturizing the Attrai thingal vaanile song. Vidyasagar need not have toiled so hard to come up with the kind of awesome tunes he ultimately did for a pointless movie like this. Though the film crew need to be appreciated for the way they have captured the Madurai Azhagar festival real-time, I hated it at the same time bcos there was completely no need for doing that in the movie. It is only when you watch half-baked movies like these that you realize the true value of Shankar and why he has attained the position he finds himself in. I really expected a lot from the director who gave us Parthiban Kanavu but the director just proves that this kind of a stereo-typical vigilante movie is not really his forte.

Children of Men - I usually do not write reviews for English movies, simply bcos I can't rant and rave about an English movie like the way I do for a Tamil or Hindi movie. But I decided to write about this movie bcos I simply did not understand the movie and I just wanted to write something about my viewing experience. The director continually keeps you in a sense of confusion during the course of the movie. After coming home from watching the movie, I spent a good 2 hours reading the various reviews from the Rotten Tomatoes site to understand fully what the movie means. The Rotten Tomatoes site had given a 91% overall rating which is why we decided to go to this movie in the first place. The good thing we found out after reading all the reviews was even some of the professional reviewers who write reviews for newspapers and websites, had some of the same questions that I had at the end of the movie. The movie is set in England in the year 2027 when the world is in complete shambles and no woman in the whole word has been able to conceive in the last 18 years. So, the youngest baby in the world is 18 years and few months old. The film starts when this baby is killed in a scuffle with the media. Clive Owen, the hero who used to be a revolutionary before resigning to a mundane life, comes across a girl who has become pregnant and the whole film is about how he takes her across the border of England to the neighboring country bcos the girl who gives birth to the baby does not want to be in England. The whole movie is one big cycle of one confusing sequence after another. Nothing is explained as to why something is happening. For example, there is no reasoning given behind the fact that no woman has been able to conceive in the last 18 years. The director leaves everything to our imagination and lets the task of deciphering to us, bcos there are loads and loads of clues throughout the movie. For example, there is a TV news clip which says that the siege of Seattle enters its 1000th day. But he doesn’t care to explain who exactly is laying siege. Same with a newspaper snippet which talks about nuclear bomb in Africa and no explanation once again on what really happened or even a passing reference to the same. The movie is neither racy nor clear and at the end of it all, just leaves you with more questions than answers. Overall, this movie is not even worth watching it on rented DVD.

Cool read(s)

Got nothing worthwhile to write. So, thought of posting couple of interesting articles I came across today.

The game's most bizarre injuries

This article in Cricinfo about the weirdest injury stories of cricketers is a good one. Some of the 'interesting' injuries include Jimmy Adams cutting the tendons of his right hand while trying to slice through a bread (making him miss an entire tour) and Chris Lewis practicing in the sunny Caribbean weather without a hat, after shaving his head. Read on...

Why is U.S. always last in line for new phones?

This MSNBC article explores the reasons behind why the phones we get to use here in the US are anything but path-breaking. Of all the reasons he lists, the one that stood out to me was this - the widespread progress of the PC evolution over here whereas in the countries where the latest & greatest cellphones are introduced, the spread of the PC culture has generally been slow, when compared to the US.

Maestro random playlist

There are so many things that are hard in life. But if you ask me, what is the hardest thing in life, I would say that it is the hardest to come up with a set of audio CDs of Ilaiyaraja's collections. Seriously, I have tried it so many times in so many different ways and still havent come up with a solid collection of CDs yet. During times like that when I couldn't come to a decision on what I wanted, I would just randomly pick up some songs to burn a CD and even that CD would be like treasure, full of amazing songs.

I have tried to come up with collections like Maestro with different actors, different directors, different kind of movies. But the problem is say, if you try to come up with a CD of Maestro with Thalaivar, there are just too many good songs in the list, that you will probably end up with 3-4 CDs for just that combination.

Anyway, after thinking in vain for a long time, I just decided to come up with a CD of relatively unknown songs from the Maestro. So, I imposed the following conditions for myself:

1) The movies should have been released somewhere between the late 80s and early 90s.
2) The songs should fit into a single 80-min CD
3) The songs shall not be very popular :)
4) The songs shall not be from the following movies:

movies directed by - Mani Rathnam, Balu Mahendra, Bharathiraja, KB, Fazil, R.K.Selvamani, Raj Kiran, P. Vasu, R.V.Udhaya Kumar, Nasser, Priyadharshan
movies starring - Thalaivar, Kamal, Ramarajan
movies - Devadhai, Time, Raasaiyya, Poomani, Poovarasan, Mounam Sammadham

So, here goes my list based on the above conditions:

1) Kungumam manjalukku from Enga Mudhalaali - This song used to be telecast so many times in DD those days, that I vividly remember almost the whole song even now
2) Adho andha nadhiyoram from Ezhai Jaadhi - Besides the fiesty Liakat Ali Khan dialogues & Jayapradha, this movie is also remembered for this awesome song.
3) Manjal poosum from Sakkarai thevan - One obscure Vijayakanth movie where all the songs were popular back then
4) Maane maragathame from Enga Thambi - Another obscure Prashanth movie with super-hit songs.
5) Muthumani muthumani from Adharmam - This movie was actually a good movie but this song is what stood out
6) Ival oru ilankuruvi from Bramma - One of my friends who is a big Ilaiyaraja fan always says that this is one of his most favorite Ilaiyaraja song
7) Kaadhoram lolaakku from Chinna Maappillai - This Sandhanabarathi directed movie is a laugh riot but almost all the songs were hummable
8) Ninaikkindra paadhaiyil from Aathma - Kannaale kaadhal kavidhai from this movie is the more popular song but I love this song equally
9) Oru kola kili sonnadhe from Pon vilangu - Vaguely remember this movie as being good but I have carried this song in my heart ever since
10) Indha maamanoda manasu from Uthama Raasa - A song from one of those umpteen Prabhu-Kushboo starrers but I simply loved this song
11) Ninaitha varum kaettu from Kaadhal Rojaave - I don't even know if this movie was ever released but the songs became hugely popular
12) Vaa Kaathirukka neramillai from Kaathirukka Neramillai - I remember this Karthik movie for Sivaranjani who was the heroine :) Songs were very good, as usual
13) Manikkuyil isaikkudhadi from Thanga Manasukkaaran - this one from the Junior Mike Mohan movie
14) Oru mandhaarappoo from Chinna Jameen - A movie known again for all the wrong reasons but Mottai again had done his job admirably well
15) Mayilaadum thoppil from Chinna Pasanga Naanga -Enna manamulla ponnu innu was the more popular song from the movie but this song is the one which stands out
16) Kaattru poovai from I Love India - This much-hyped Sarath Kumar movie ended up being a dud but again, the songs were awesome.

So, there goes my list. Have I missed out any good song from any good movie during that time? Let me know...

This is beautiful

The above is the photo of a couple who were buried 5000 - 6000 years ago, embracing each other. Archaeologists in Italy discovered these remains recently and the Yahoo news article I read about this, aptly called this as eternal embrace. How true...

Monthly Sports Round-up - January, 2007

Nope, I am not going to write about the joke of a game that was last night (If you still want to know what I felt last night after watching the letdown unravel, read this and this). Instead, here is my usual monthly sports round-up.

1) Buckeyes buckle under Gator pressure
This was a game that the Buckeyes were expected to just bulldoze through. I am a big Michigan fan and naturally I have to hate the Buckeyes. But I was actually rooting for the Buckeyes bcos I completely detest any team form the SEC, which keeps boasting that they are the best conference in college football. The Gators coach Urban Meyer is a known tactician but everyone thought the Gators would be no match to the overwhelming talents present on both side of the football for the Buckeyes. But what happened during the game was something nobody was prepared for. The Gators completely dominated the Buckeyes, scoring at will and also not letting the famed Buckeye offense get into any sense of rhythm. The Heisman trophy winner, Troy Smith, was made to look pedestrian and he easily had the worst game of his college career. The pressure the Gator defense brought on Troy Smith was relentless and except for the one drive when the Buckeyes looked comfortable, it was Gators all the way. After so many years, the Gators become the first school to hold on to the 2 most prestigious achievements in college football - National Champions in both football and basketball.

2) India squander lead and lose to South Africa in the test series
This was our best chance of winning a test series against a really good quality side (FYI, I do not count WI among the good test teams of today) and I had even predicted an Indian victory in the test series. And how badly did we screw it up. All they had to do was to bat sensibly on the 4th day of the final test and we could have made sure that we atleast came out with a draw. Instead, our batsmen, including Sachin, bungled in a dramatic fashion and finally, South Africa wins the series quite easily on the 5th day.

3) Australia whitewashes England
I knew this one was coming. Ever since the defeat at the hands of the Englishmen in the last Ashes series, you can sense the fire and the hurt in the eyes of every single member of the Australian team. And when McGrath talked about a whitewash much before the series actually began, many did not take that comment seriously. But I always had a bad feeling that this Ashes series is going to be one of the most one-sided series in recent memory and it was exactly what it turned out to be. The phenomenal collapse of the English batsmen in the 2nd innings of the 2nd test is where it all began and it only went downhill from that point on. England is literally down in the dumps right now, having lost whatsoever credibility they had with an abysmal performance in the ODI series too.

4) Beckham signs with LA Galaxy
Clearly aimed at increasing the popularity of the sport here in the US, the Englishman has been signed to an astonishing 5 year 250 million USD deal, which many say is actually more than the combined salaries of players from 5 MLS franchises. Looks like Pele was brought to do the same many years back, in which he was partially successful. But over the years interest in the sport dwindled and now it is the turn of Beckham to try doing the same. It remains to be seen if he will be successful to revive interest in the sport here in the US. A not-so-impressive performance at last year's soccer world cup by the US team does not help matters.

5) Serena wins Australian Open in style
Serena wins her 8th Grand Slam championship of her career in an unbelievable fashion. In a tournament which she entered ranked 81st in the world and in which nobody gave her a chance, she improved with each passing round and knocked off one seeded player after another, finally getting to the biggest of them all, Maria Sharapova, in the final. It was easily the most lop-sided Grand Slam final that I have seen in a long time, a game in which Serena just conceded 3 games. It was immaculate tennis from the American woman who had gone out of the radar of women's tennis for the last 2 years. She says she is here to say and that she is more determined in her comeback this time around. Lets just hope that she means it, which would only be a great news for tennis fans in the US

6) Federer completes another fortnight in office
OK, this is getting ridiculously monotonous. Federer wins his 10th Grand Slam in the Australian Open. It sucks. Period.

7) Tiger does what he knows best
Tiger begins his 2007 season in right earnest as he registers a come-from-behind victory in the Buick International PGA tournament. This was Tiger's 7th straight PGA tournament victory, which started all the way back in the US Open, last September. There has been this comparison between Tiger and Federer on how these 2 guys are dominating their respective fields. But I frankly believe that Tiger, for all his accomplishments, is not as dominating as Federer. Watching Federer win tournament after tournament, grand slam after grand slam is becoming plain boring, while Tiger's victory in all of his 7 consecutive victories (save for the British Open where he ran away from the field right from day 1) has provided us some great entertainment in the form of the important aspect that sport offers called 'competition', something that is sorely missing in men's tennis right now.

8) Team India back on track
After months of frustration when questions were raised as to how good the Indian team really was, the Men in Blue finally overcame their latest nemesis, West Indies, in a dominating fashion. I was particularly impressed with the way India won the 2nd ODI, when they defended a sub-200 total. That is where the character of a team really stands out and I was glad that we won it. I am no Sourav Ganguly fan (alright, I should word that better - I belong to the Ganguly haters club) but nevertheless, it was good to see him bat the way the used to bat during his glory years. This was clearly not the Ganguly we all saw during the days when India were winning under his captaincy and clearly not the Ganguly who got on our nerves with his repeated failures to go his callous attitude. Apart form that, the biggest news for me was Sachin's coming back to form and his innings in the 4th ODI. He was batting on 85 with just 8 balls remaining and it was gratifying to see him get his century off the last ball of the innings. Perfect script. It was also great to see him win the Man-of-the-match and Man-of-the-series awards at the same time, after so long. Like Dravid said in his post-match press conference, everyone can breathe easy and not talk about Sachin's run of low scores for a while.

Super Bowl XLI - Preview

This time last year, the Seattle Seahawks were in the Super Bowl and I was in India, unable to relish the whole Super Bowl experience. This year, I am here in Seattle but the Seahawks are not in the Super Bowl and it is only now I realize how much fun I have missed last year. Anyway, enough of my rambling. If you are someone who talks to me quite often about football, you would know that the Colts are not my most favorite team. It is the Patriots whom I admire (obviously, after the Seahawks). I have great respect for the Colts team but being a fan, no. When the Patriots blew a 18 point lead to lose to the Colts 2 weeks back, I was naturally dejected and lost interest in the Super Bowl. But hey, after all it is the Super Bowl and as a football fan, there is nothing like this and so, I wanted to write down my thoughts on the big game.

Just like what happened before the College football national championship game, this Super Bowl title has already been given to the Colts even before the game has actually started. It does not surprise anyone bcos of the glaring and telling difference between the players playing the all important Quarterback position in the 2 teams - Peyton Manning vs. Rex Grossman. While Peyton already holds a long list of NFL records and is sure to end up in the NFL Hall of Fame even if he were to hang his boots today, Rex Grossman is being unfortunately billed as the worst quarterback ever to lead his side to the Super Bowl.

To me, I would like the Bears to win, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost - I hate this media hype about how the AFC is far better than the NFC. Whenever I read an article which talks about the difference in quality between the teams in the NFC and AFC, it just drives me crazy. Of course, the NFC teams have been indifferent this season. While 4 teams in the AFC had a 12-4 or better record, only 1 NFC team had a record better than 12-4. But somehow I
think that Bears, when their offense is on song, are one of the toughest teams to beat in the league and Bears, being the NFC representative in the Super Bowl, I would like to see them win.

Other reason is the upset that happened in the Buckeyes - Gators national championship, where the Buckeyes after holding on to the number 1 ranking in college football right from the pre-season, saw nothing going their way in the Championship game, in the face of a spirited performance by the underdogs, the Florida Gators and ultimately lost rather badly. So, something keeps telling me that history might repeat itself in the Super Bowl too.

Anyway, apart from my hunches and instincts, I sincerely feel that the Bears have a very realistic chance of upstaging the Colts, if and only if, Grossman does not commit the sort of turnovers that he has become (in)famous for. I believe that the Colts haven’t faced a defense, that is even close to being as powerful and strong as the Bears defense, all season long. I would say that the Baltimore defense was the toughest defense they played all year and we all saw how the Colts won that game - not by Peyton's arm, but by Vinatieri's right foot. The Bears offense is a lot better than the Ravens, with a formidable running game. Except for Larry Johnson, the other running backs the Colts have faced this post-season - Jamal Lewis and Corey Dillon - are clearly over-the-moon players. So, the Colts’ much-improved rush defense will have their hands full with Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. On the offensive side, the whole world knows what Peyton Manning can do. But the Bears are known for their big plays and if Grossman connects couple of long passes to Muhsin Muhammad or Bernard Berrian, the Bears will be able to come back rather quickly into the game even if they were down in a big way. Then, there is also the looming threat of Devin Hester who hasn’t done much in the post-season after returning 6 punt, FG & kickoff for TDs during the regular season and thus will be raring to go. So, if Grossman's stats at the end of the game look something like 14-20, 172 yards, 1 TD, O INT, the Bears are in good shape to win this one.

Fingers crossed. Go NFC Champs...