The World Cup debacle

I did not want to write about the debacle of the Indian team since I was too disappointed and upset at what transpired in the Caribbean Islands. But I thought that if I don’t write it now, I would never do it and hence just jotting down my random thoughts.

The Indian team is never as good as it is made out to be when they win and they are not as bad as they are made out to be when they lose These are not my words (one Cricinfo writer wrote something meaning this) but these are words that I am completely in agreement with. The Indian team is not as bad as it looked like on the field when they lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. I am one of those thousands of fans who still could not come to terms with the fact that India are out of the world cup even before the actual fun has begun. 2 days of irresponsible cricket and we are out of the tournament. Now that the Super 8 stage of the competition has started, it is really painful to watch other teams play each other.

When we restricted Sri Lanka to 254 in the first innings, I was really looking forward to the Indian chase with the hope that they will easily chase this down. Uthappa started pretty strongly but as has been his wont, lost his wicket when trying to go for a shot one too many against the guile of Vaas. Ganguly was taking his own sweet time to get settled and thus was putting pressure of himself and then finally holed out to mid-off. I will have to write something about Ganguly here - Ever since he has gotten back to the team and has scored all those half-centuries, I personally thought that none of the innings meant anything to the team and I did not find him to be very convincing in even one single innings. His shots were clumsy and it looked more like he was trying to just stick around to keep his place in the side (and also prove his detractors wrong). Then came Sachin's dismissal. Got a really faster one and bowled through an inside edge and it was a sorry sight to watch Sachin walk back to the pavilion, what with the thought that this was Sachin's last World Cup innings lurking at the back of my head. But even after that, I thought we could have won the game, what with Sehwag sweetly timing his strokes and Dravid giving him great company. But once Sehwag and then Yuvraj departed, that is when the feeling that India are going to get out of the WC slowly started sinking in.

Looking back at the performances of the guys in the 2 games we lost, it is really hard to place the blame on one individual for the loss. May be, Dravid who as captain has to share most of the blame bcos I always think it is never a good idea to chase in a high pressure game and hence winning the toss & inserting the opposition in was not a very good decision. Coming to team composition - Dravid missed the point by having both Sehwag and Uthappa in the team. Both are identical in so many ways (their shot making, temperament, technique to name a few) and hence if we had played only one of the two, we could have played someone like Dinesh Karthik who could have been useful in the middle order. They say its no use crying over spilt milk and so let me stop my own post-mortem right here.

If there is one thing that we can also put some blame on, then it is the way the tournament structure has been designed. I thought that there was some merit in Dravid's statement that the structure of the World Cup was bad in that if a team has 1 bad day, then they are out of the tournament. I mean, look at the world cup winning expeditions of Pakistan in 1992 and Australia in 1999 where they both had lost 2 or more matches in their first 3 games. But they went on to advance to the next round and ultimately win the whole thing, bcos the tournament's structure during those editions was kind to teams which had couple of bad days. I am not saying that if the structure was different, India would have won the whole thing. But we would have had the chance to watch our team play for 6 more games. And it is the fact that we deprived ourselves of the chance to play those 6 games that is hurting us all so much (frankly, how many of us believed that Indian will go all the way) and trying to find some uncontrollable reasons to blame (like the tournament structure) for our exit.

Now, all eyes are on the BCCI meeting on April 6th and 7th. I am sure heads are going to roll, starting with Dravid being stripped of the ODI captaincy atleast. Greg Chappell most probably will be the next big casualty and will be relieved of his coaching duties. Then comes the big question mark - will Sachin be dropped? Being the big Sachin that I am, it pains to see that things have come to a point where we are discussing Sachin being dropped from the team. But I think the BCCI folks will not be taking such an extreme decision. Even if I were write as a neutral observer, I will say that Sachin is definitely good enough to be in the team bcos everybody in the team has been as inconsistent as Sachin in the past few months. Apart from that, he still has a good 2-3 years of cricket left in him. So, if you were to drop Sachin, everybody in the bating order should be dropped, for even Dravid has been very inconsistent in the last few months. While on this topic, this article is a good read. It exactly echoes my thoughts on the subject.

Other than that, folks like Harbhajan, Agarkar, Pathan and Sehwag will find themselves out of the team. Agarkar is decent most of the time and picks up important wickets but then he gives up runs at some really crucial points when we can ill afford to give them up. Plus, his batting is such a disappointment that he hurts us. When someone like Munaf or Zaheer do not score runs, we are not disappointed a bit. But this guy, who has feats like a test century at Lord's and fastest 50 by an Indian batsman to his credit, hurts us literally by batting in the most irresponsible of manners. Whatever happened to the Harbhajan of 2003, nobody knows. Though Sehwag looked to be in good touch in the game against SL, the Indian team has reached a point where we can not afford of the luxury of having Sehwag in the team, what with his 1 in a 10 hit rate.

Like many have written, this disastrous campaign might actually be good for the game of cricket in India. The euphoria around the cricket team was just a huge bubble waiting to burst. The only sad part is that this bursting of the bubble has happened at the most inopportune of moments. If our folks are really serious (which is evident from all the outpour of anger against the team and the players), then the unprecedented and undeserving hype surrounding the game & the cricketers will die down, which is always good. (Already there is talk that businesses are contemplating reworking their contracts with the cricketers whereby they will be paid a good 30% less than what they are getting right now) It might even lead us, as a nation, to treat cricket as just a sport, nothing more, nothing less. And more importantly, take victory and defeat in stride without resorting to passionate and extreme responses. I think the time for that has come and I sincerely wish that this world cup humiliation will help us achieve that.

Sivaji album's beta release - ARR finally gets it right, courtesy Shankar

Regular readers of this blog know how big a fan of Thalaivar I am and in fact, the name of this blog was named after the real boss, Sivaji. I was feeling bad that I wasn't writing anything about the movie after naming the blog after it. But the real culprit was Shankar and not myself. Until now, the release date of the movie has not been officially announced and all we know as of now is the audio release date of April 4th.

But today morning, I start browsing and come across the news that AVM has released some promo CDs with 3 songs to a select group of people and some folks from among them have taken the burden to upload the songs to a site from where we could download them. The tension in the air was almost unbearable as I was downloading the songs. After almost 15 months of waiting, these 3 songs were the first feel of how The Boss has shaped out. Shankar had successfully quarantined us from any news about the movie for these 15 months and I have been hating him for that. But all those thoughts vanished as I started listening to the songs. Though it is not a moral thing to download stuff from the net, I went ahead & did it bcos I know for sure that I will buy the audio CD of the movie whenever it comes out. So, no feelings of guilt in this.

First thing to note is that I am not going to review the songs. Being the Thalaivar fanatic that I am, I can not 'review' the songs. Rather, I will go about appreciating the highlights of the songs and that is what this post is. I mean, when it comes to anything associated with Thalaivar, rational thinking and reasoning just disappear. You get so much involved in it that its is difficult for me to pass a measured judgment.

Before I start writing my thoughts on those 3 songs, I have to mention that IMHO there has not been a better album for a Thalaivar album since Annamalai got released around 15 years ago. And ARR frankly has been a major disappointment in that regard with his first 3 albums for Thalaivar - Muthu, Padaiyappa and Baba. Except for the awesome intro music for the Oruvan oruvan mudhalaali song, ARR has nothing to show for. To bring in a cricket analogy, scoring music for a Thalaivar movie is to be able to be playing a Sehwag innings. Though his technique is suspect, not all of his shots are just wild slogs. Basically, his innings is a good mixture of textbook cricket shots and some wild slogs too. Same is the case when it comes to scoring for Thalaivar's movies and frankly nobody has it done better ever since Deva gave us Annamalai. Vandhendaa paalkaaran is still my favorite Thalaivar intro song (may be the way it was picturized too had something to do with). There are 2 melodies in Annamalai - Annamalai annamalai, Rekkai katti parakkudhaiyya annamalai cycle and I still love listening to them. Then comes the Thalaivar thathuva songs in Vettri nichayam and Oru penn puraa. And the album signs off with the song for the masses - Kondaiyil thaazhampoo. What an album it was...

But the problem with ARR is that he is someone like Dravid who only knows to play classic shots and so when ARR tries his hand at composing a Thalaivar-style mass song, he completely messes it up (say, the En peru padaiyappa song or the more notorious Baba…cinema cinema song). He is basically caught in the middle of nowhere when it comes to scoring music for Thalaivar songs. But that definitely appears to have been changed with Sivaji. And I feel that the man behind that change is none other than Shankar. He is clearly the one who is calling all the shots and all these 3 songs have Shankar written all over them. But to me the hero of the album so far has been Vairamuthu. He has come up with some awesome lyrics in all the 3 songs.

Oru koodai sunlight - Typical Shankar song. This is the song that was shot in Spain with Thalaivar in all those funny costumes and get-ups. Highly techno song. Only sore point is the presence of the beats which we have become familiar with the karu karu vizhiligalaal song from PMC. There is no tune as such in this song. There is someone smiling at couple of places in the song. Wonder if its Thalaivar. No matter who actually smiled, I am already looking forward to Thalaivar flashing his magnetic smile on-screen. The lyrics in the song sing Thalaivar praises all through. So, here is how it goes:

ada ada ada asathudhu un style
nada nada nada nadapadhu un style
gada gada gada siripadhu un style
pada pada pada pesuvadhu un style
suda suda suda thoduvadhu un style
thada thada thada adhiradi un style
adikadi mudi kalaivadhu style
vara vara ellamay style....

I loved the way the stanza ended - vara vara ellaamey un style. Awesome. Thalaivar is the epitome of style. Everything the man does is style and what better way to put it than this way. And then the songs ends with these 2 lines:

hero hero heraadhi hero
staro staro nee superstaro

Whenever the mention of Superstar is made in the lyrics, I just get so excited and it is no different here.

Sahana saaral thoovudho - I don’t get this. Looks like neither does ARR. What in the world makes him use Udit Narayanan for Thalaivar. We already have a bad experience in Muthu. I can't understand how Shankar let this happen. There is this 60 year old man called SPB who could have done a great job with this song. But the good thing is that we do not have too much of Udit sodhappalgal in this song. Awesome melody. Better than the Vaaji vaaji song. This truly is a vintage ARR melody. Easily the best melody that ARR has composed for Thalaivar. ARR pitches in the interludes for the theem thana thana na bit. I loved the female voice in this song. Don't know who it is. Would have enjoyed and appreciated this more if somebody else had sung this instead of Udit.

Vaaji vaaji Sivaaji - One of those rare ARR songs that is instantly likable. I wouldn't go as far as saying that this is a trademark ARR melody since the freshness is definitely missing. Charanams are rather average. But the plus side of this song is that ARR has got the Thalaivar factor right. This song will go down well with Thalaivar fans. Hariharan is perfect for this song. The aambal aambal...mouval mouval chorus is catchy. I am sure there will be a big research launched by Thalaivar fans as to what the words aambal and mouval mean :)

No matter how the songs are, we, the mighty army of Thalaivar fans, will lap it up and make the sure that the audio becomes the biggest hit in the history of Tamil cinema. I am sure that is going to happen with this album too. I have already listened to the songs almost 15 times. One thing is for sure though - the songs are sound so much better than the songs in Chandramukhi. There are reportedly 6 songs in the album and thus the SPB song and the song which Thalaivar has sung are still pending. Just can not wait for them to be released.

The Boss has started his reign ,starting with our ears, in style...

Weekend Movies - Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam & Pori

Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam - This was another movie that I was so eagerly expecting to watch, mainly bcos of all the good reviews it was getting. The wait for this movie actually ended up stretching to more than 3 months since the movie was released bcos of the fact the movie's DVD was constantly rented out at the local Indian store. This is probably the first movie for which I came back empty-handed atleast a good 10 times. Usually, the demand for a new movie's DVD at the local Indian store is high for the first couple of weeks and after that it should be easily available. But in this case, for some reason, the DVD was unavailable even nearly 5 weeks after it made its way to the Indian store. Anyway, enough of my experiences in trying to rent the DVD.

I found the movie to be very enjoyable. It was a laugh and fun riot. I heard both good and bad reviews about the movie from my friends. There were 2 reasons cited by my friends who did not like the movie - 1) lack of logic and 2) many scenes from Thalaivar's blockbuster movies found their place in this movie. Well, I had some easy arguments to counter both of them. As far as the lack of logic goes, since when did we start looking for logic in masala movies? When I start watching a masala movie, I take it for granted that logic will take a backseat in such a movie and hence I did not look too much into some illogical scenes in the movies. For the second reason for not liking the movie, I would ask "Who better suited to include Thalaivar's scenes than his own son-in-law?" ;) To me, this movie vaguely reminded me of Azhagiya Theeye (I am not committing the blasphemy of saying that this movie is as good as AT) bcos of the presence of funny and enjoyable one-liners sprinkled throughout the movie. Like when Dhanush asks his brother on how he looks while speeding in a bike chasing Shreya, his brother says Azhagaai Irukkiraai. Bayamaai Irukkiradhu. I thought that was cute. Dhanush was vibrant throughout the movie. This was a role tailor-made for him. When Shankar cast Shreya opposite Thalaivar in Sivaji, I was not too much impressed. Among other reasons which include my argument that Why do we even need a heroine in Thalaivar's movies? When we have Thalaivar in the movie, I look for nothing beyond him, I did not find her too attractive. But this is the first movie of her I am watching after Shankar signed her and I instantly liked her & understood why Shankar had signed her. If Boopathi Pandian could make Shreya look so good, I wonder what Shankar, the master director he is, can pull off? Prakash Raj is awesome as always. He brought in the required amount of seriousness and comic timing to his role. His was a role which had to be balanced, so that it is neither taken as a serious one nor as a comic one. I thought that was a fine line and Prakash Raj walked the line admirably. One of the more enjoyable movies I have watched in recent times. A fun movie, nothing more nothing less.

Pori - Rented this one out inspite of reading all the bad reviews it got. Reason being Jeeva and Pooja . He is one actor on whom I have a lot of faith and expectations among the younger crop of actors. But after watching this movie, I simply can't understand why he chose to do this lousy movie. Though he does his job reasonably well, the movie just did not have anything to showcase his talents. The way he utters his dialogs is so cool and natural that I would simply watch any movie starring him just bcos of that one reason. The story is weak and the way it is told is even weaker. Pooja is my favorite among the current set of actresses in Tamil (Asin, Bhavana all come after her). She looked awesome in the movie, though she did not have any meaningful role to play. Karunas was at his irritating best. Couldn't stand him. Nagesh was another saving grace of the movie. It is amazing to see how the veteran performs in even mediocre movies like this. Perunthil nee enakku is a beautiful melody by Dheena and I am sure when the Best Songs of 2007 is brought out at the end of the year, this song will find a place in such lists of most of us. I seriously wonder at times why they make movies like this and why would someone like Jeeva decide to cast himself in such a movie. They say some movies are made just for the sake of escaping from the clutches of paying enormous income tax (basically to convert some black money into legal money). Who knows, this movie is one of them. Got nothing else to write about this listless movie. Skip it, would be my suggestion.

Zip Codes and Pin Codes

I have always wondered what was the pattern based on which the zip codes here in the US and pin codes back in India were arrived at. And I have always wanted to blog about that bcos as far as these codes are concerned, there is a pattern which nobody could miss. Like here, all states on the west coast, for example, have their zip codes starting with a 9 whereas the ones in south east like Florida and Alabama have their zip codes start with a 3. Same is the case in India too where the Pin code for Delhi starts with a 1 whereas the pin code for our very own Tamil Nadu start with 6. So, I googled for that information and Wikipedia had all the details I wanted, both on the zip codes and the pin codes. So, here are some excerpts (basically the most interesting ones) from the Wiki entries:

ZIP codes are numbered with the first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states, the second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a large city) and the fourth and fifth digits representing more specific areas, such as small towns or regions of that city. The main town in a region (if applicable) often gets the first ZIP codes for that region; afterward, the numerical order often follows the alphabetical order.

Geographically, many of the lowest ZIP codes are in the New England region, since these begin with '0'. The numbers increase southward along the East Coast, such as 02115 (Boston), 10036 (New York City), 19103 (Philadelphia), 20008 (Washington, D.C.), 30303 (Atlanta) and 33130 (Miami). From there, the numbers increase heading westward and northward. For example, 40202 is in Louisville, 50309 in Des Moines, Iowa, 60601 in Chicago, 75201 in Dallas, 80202 in Denver, 94111 in San Francisco, 98101 in Seattle, and 99950 in Ketchikan, Alaska.

0 = Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), Maine (ME), New Hampshire (NH), New Jersey (NJ), Puerto Rico (PR), Rhode Island (RI), Vermont (VT), Virgin Islands (VI), APO Europe (AE), FPO Europe (AE)
1 = Delaware (DE), New York (NY), Pennsylvania (PA)
2 = District of Columbia (DC), Maryland (MD), North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC), Virginia (VA), West Virginia (WV)
3 = Alabama (AL), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), Mississippi (MS), Tennessee (TN), APO Americas (AA), FPO Americas (AA)
4 = Indiana (IN), Kentucky (KY), Michigan (MI), Ohio (OH)
5 = Iowa (IA), Minnesota (MN), Montana (MT), North Dakota (ND), South Dakota (SD), Wisconsin (WI)
6 = Illinois (IL), Kansas (KS), Missouri (MO), Nebraska (NE)
7 = Arkansas (AR), Louisiana (LA), Oklahoma (OK), Texas (TX)
8 = Arizona (AZ), Colorado (CO), Idaho (ID), New Mexico (NM), Nevada (NV), Utah (UT), Wyoming (WY)
9 = Alaska (AK), American Samoa (AS), California (CA), Guam (GU), Hawaii (HI), Northern Mariana Islands (MP), Oregon (OR), Washington (WA), APO Pacific (AP), FPO Pacific (AP)

And the following are the excerpts from the Wiki entry on Pin code:

There are 8 PIN regions in India. The first digit of the PIN code indicates the region in which a given post office falls in. The second digit indicates the sub-region, and the third digit indicates the sorting district within the region. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices.

The 8 PIN regions cover the Indian states and union territories as:

1 - Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh
2 - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
3 - Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli
4 - Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Goa
5 - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Yanam (district of Pondicherry)
6 - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry (except Yanam), Lakshadweep
7 - West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
8 - Bihar, Jharkhand

For trivia lovers, ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan and PIN stands for Postal Index Number. Now, when somebody asks you the reasoning behind the zipcodes in the US and pin codes in India, you know where to go (No, not the Wiki entries but this post :))

Weekend movies - Pachaikkili Muthucharam and Dhoom 2

Pachaikkili Muthucharam- 4 and counting. 4 is the number of movies that Gautham Menon has provided us as a director and IMO he is yet to produce one completely convincing movie. Obviously, Kaakka kaakka was the one that even came close to be convincing in all the aspects while all the others, including PMC, are half-baked movies at best. He is this wannabe Mani Rathnam and wannabe Bala all rolled into one but unfortunately is none of them. The problem with watching a remade movie after having already watched the original and that too for a suspense movie like this, is that you know what to expect and hence the twist in the story does not bring any surprise to you. So, when I read about Gautham's own new twist, I was really looking forward to it. But as it turned out, the final twist is what makes the movie go one step down from being good to 'not bad'. One more time, Harris Jeyaraj proves that without him, Gautham Menon would find the going very tough. Though he does not remotely provide anything in terms of variety, it is amazing how his songs are instantly catchy and melodious. That is a special talent and I guess Harris Jeyaraj is perfecting the art. But his skills in composing tunes does not translate into the background score department which was pretty ordinary. It could have been a lot better in many scenes. Sarath Kumar is one actor whom I have always thought had decent acting skills whose talent the Tamil film directors did not really fully utilize. So, I was kind of expecting a knock-out performance from him since he was an ideal fit for this character. But somehow, his performance was just OK. May be, I expected more out of him. Jyothika as always overacts and turns in a mediocre performance. I have never been a big fan of her and this movie does nothing to change my opinion. The combination of nose ring and kaajal in her face made the task of watching her up-close a not-so-comfortable experience. What’s up with all the close-up shots throughout the movie? If the 4 lead characters had been good performers, this would have been a good idea. But when you have someone like Andrea who is making her debut and for whom acting is still clearly No-Entry zone, Gautham could have done otherwise. I read in some reviews where they had appreciated the subdued response of Andrea when Sarath reveals the truth to her. But I think otherwise as that she simply didn't know how to react and may be Gautham just let it the way like that, after having tried his best. Milind Soman was the one who impressed me the most but even with him, since his dialogues & mannerisms reminded me so much of the villain characters from GM's earlier movies, started to get on my nerves. More than all these drawbacks, the first thing that stuck like a sore thumb throughout the movie were the dialogues. It is really high time that Gautham finds himself a good dialog writer. Gautham has this affinity towards using dialogues Tamil cinema has hitherto unseen like 'making love' but when Sarath Kumar utters it, it just does not gel. And what's up with Jyothika referring to her husband as en kanavar. I just can't understand how a working woman in Chennai is referring to her husband as kanavar. In fact, the first time she mentions about him, she uses the word husband but from then on, it became kanavar. Wonder why? The theater just went into bouts of laughter whenever stupid dialogues came on the screen. After their scuffle with the auto drivers, when Jyothika asks Sarath Kumar Enakkagava?, there was a muted and controlled laughter. But when she does that again some time later asking him Idhuvum enakkaagavaa?, there was a laugh riot in the theater. Even after watching PMC, I still feel that Gautham Menon has the wherewithal to give us far better movies than his last 2 efforts. Lets see if he provides us better fare with Vaaranam Aayiram.

Dhoom 2 - Hrithik. There is not a single actor in Bollywood who can match him in all-round talent. He acts so well that you can almost feel the sincerity in his performance. He outdoes his peers by miles when it comes to dancing. The first few steps he does when he is introduced in this movie are simply out-of-the-world. I had written a few weeks back how I think our Tamil heroes have caught up with their Bollywood counterparts when it comes to dancing. But here is one Bollywood actor whom we can't even get near. He is just too good. From Kaho naa pyaar hai to Dhoom 2, the one thing he has been very consistent in is his dancing. I am no big Aishwarya fan. It is a known fact that she can't act (may be except in Mani Rathnam movies) and that fact is only confirmed in this movie. She is so pathetic that she can't even kiss passionately (but this might be bcos of the presence of Abhishek in the sets :)). Her efforts to look sexy end up being funny. She was a total misfit in this movie. On the other hand, we have Bipasha Basu who is absolutely gorgeous and is so sexy. Ash can never be sexy like Bipasha and hence can stop trying to be like her. The heists in the movie are not only ridiculous but also completely unbelievable. It is OK to ape Hollywood movies but then there is some semblance of credibility in similar scenes in Hollywood movies but it is completely absent in Dhoom and that is what watching each theft unfold before you such a boring routine. You know somehow Hrithik is going to escape and the way he is going to get that done will be unbelievable. The film just meanders on with one sluggish & boring theft after another and comes to a highly predictable end, something we have seen in umpteen other cop chasing thief movies. Like everyone has said, watch it for Hrithik. Abject bad and listless movie, nevertheless.

The Apple iPhone commerial

I am sure everyone of us have our own list of favorite TV commercials and since my list of most favorite TV commercials is a pretty long one, I have always wanted to blog about them. So, thought of posting one personal favorite of mine once atleast every 2 weeks. (It has become so much more easy to post such commercials bcos of sites like YouTube from where you can simply embed the videos in the blog) And what better ad to start with than this latest one by Apple. I have always loved their ads (from their iPod nano ads to the recent PC vs Mac series). But the one that was premiered on Oscar night for the upcoming iPhone is easily one of their best. So, here it goes the first in the series of my most favorite commercials.





This is a commercial most of you in the US would have seen bcos it is being aired very frequently now-a-days. And BTW, there are uncofirmed rumors that the iPhone might actually end up costing less - 299$ for a 4 GB phone and 399$ for the 8 GB version. The site where I read the information explained that the reasoning behind this decision was bcos of the fact when people were asked in a survery whether they would buy an iPhone for 500$, not even 1 in 10 responded positively. If the price is indeed cut, it would be great news. Lets see.

Chennai 600028 album review - Hype kills!!

They say that Hype kills and that is what that has happened with the Chennai 600028 album. This is actually a pretty decent album from Yuvan. If only Indiaglitz had not hyped up the album to dizzying heights, this album would not have been a slight disappointment which is what it is right now. The fact that everybody involved with this film is an youngster in their 20s and mid thirties shows in the songs too, both in the lyrics (amatuerish at some places) and in the tunes. Now, to the songs...

Yaaro...yaarukkul yaaro - Both the versions of this song are outstanding but it is the SPB - Chithra version that is a lot better and easily my pick of the album. The kind of retro beats used in the SPB version are very interesting. But more than anything else, the veteran singer shows that 100s of singers might come and go, but SPB will stand forever. Chithra only adds to the magic created by the song. Only when we hear songs like these, we realize how much we miss these legends. This was one song that I was very much looking forward to ever since I read about it in Indiaglitz and the song sure lives upto the expectations. Totally addictive song.

Un Paarvai mele pattaal - Vijay Yesudoss seems to be fast becoming Yuvan's favorite. IMO the 2nd best song in the album. I loved everything about this song - the prelude, Vijay's rendition and the interludes too. The wordplay in the charanams is very interesting and catchy. Just like the Maestro - Yesudoss combo of yesteryears, we have this Yuvan - Vijay Yesudoss combo now and they are fast emerging as one to look forward to.

Natpukkulle - This is a song that the "Yuvan, please do not sing" brigade will be happy about bcos it has given them one more case to argue for. The guitar strumming with the which the song starts is stunning and all is well with the preludes too, until Yuvan starts singing, from where even the biggest Yuvan fan will shift uncomfortably in his seat. This could have been an awesome typical Yuvan short melody if only somebody else had sung this song.

World cup jeyikkapporom - The song starts with a neat rap. Yuvan's voice is not very bad in this one. The lines "roattula edhiriya adikkalaam ulla vaa...ground-la neeyum naan modhalaam ulle vaa" are very catchy. I think the rapping during the interludes has been done by the Yogi B Natchathira folks. The thing I loved in the song is that both the rapping and the lyrics in the song is completely on cricket. Decent song.

Saroja saamaan nikaalo - High energy song. Will be a huge hit if this is picturized aptly. Shankar Mahadevan is the perfect choice for this song. The tempo of the beats doesn't lag a bit from start to finish. I am a big fan of songs with beats like these and so this is my 4th best song of the album. But I feel that Yuvan should start trying different beats for fun songs like this. The beats in this song are identical to the ones that have already been used by Yuvan in songs like Ammaadi aathaadi from Vallavan and En aasai mythili remix from Manmadhan.

Jalsa pannungada is a rather ordinary song and the bad choice of singers by Yuvan does not help the song lift from its mediocrity. The remix version of the song is actually better. Oh oh ennammo by Anouska is probably my least favorite song of the album and naturally, I don’t want to delve on the negatives in the song, starting from the way she has sung this song to why should Yuvan always keep turning Anoushka's way for such sensuous songs.

Even given the fact that the album does not live upto its pre-release expectations, its a highly enjoyable album. And for Yuvan fans like me, this is an album that should go into the Yuvan CD collection.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - February 2007

Tiger loses at the Dubai Open
These days, anytime Tiger loses, it is news (and not the other way around). Hence this entry. Tiger loses in the Dubai Desert Classic, coming behind winner Henrik Stenson and second placed Ernie Els. Since the Dubai tournament is not officially part of the PGA tour (it is part of the European tour), Tiger's streak of 6 continuous wins on the PGA tour is still safe. The final day saw Tiger staging his popular comeback once again before poor putting let him down and as he fell short by 2 strokes at the end. The presence of stars like Federer and Schumacher at the tournament not only increased the glamour quotient but also was a telling proof of the growing popularity of the tournament in the desert.

Manning finally gets the monkey off his back
In a Superbowl that was as sloppy as the South Florida weather, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears to win their first Championship in 31 years and their first since moving over from Baltimore to Indianapolis. Critics and Nay-sayers had repeatedly asked questions if Peyton Manning, arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game, would be able to win the big one and Manning responded in kind with a MVP performance in the Super bowl. Though I will have to say that IMO the MVP award should have been given to the Colts RBs - Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai. The organizers just went with the more popular and emotional choice, that is Manning. Like I had written here, the way the game would be decided, depended heavily on one man - Rex Grossman. And unfortunately for the Bears and their fans, the terrible Rex showed up to work and once Dungy sensed that, the game was good as over. I mean, the guy couldn’t even collect the ball cleanly from the center. The Bears defense stayed on the field for a whopping 36 out of the 60 minutes and with no help from their team-mates on the offensive side, helped the Bears stay within 5 points until the 4th quarter but finally gave in. So, there it is - Manning & Dungy get the monkeys off their backs and the NFL has a new champion. (On a side note, if you are a NFL fan, this one is a good read)

Mumbai - Ranji trophy champions again
Well, Mumbai does it again. Ranji Trophy finals is something which we rarely talk about but not when a resurgent Sachin and comeback kid Ganguly are squaring off on the opposite sides. Sachin plays 2 crucial innings in both the innings, including a well-made century in the first innings for Mumbai while Ganguly, after falling prey to Zaheer Khan for a duck for the umpteenth time in domestic cricket, almost accomplishes 'Mission impossible' of helping Bengal chase an improbable 472 in the 4th innings. Ultimately, Bengal's first innings capitulation for 143 proved to be the decisive factor in the final outcome of the game and Zaheer with 9 wickets deservedly won the man-of-the-match award. It was a riveting game to follow and a game that surely lived up to the billing it received prior to the game. Fittingly, the channel that telecast the game saw it ratings take a huge jump for the game. It is amazing how Mumbai continues to dominate the domestic cricket scenario in India, with this 37th Ranji trophy championship in the tournament's 70+ year old history.

England salvage some pride
First time in 15 years, the Aussies have been beaten at the annual tri-series tournament where they have always dominated. That tri-series usually follows the test series where the Aussies in the last decade have made it a habit of decimating the opposition that the opposing teams would be already waiting to go home by the time the ODI series starts. Then, the Aussies provide the killer punch. The teams change - India, Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka but the scenarios have played perfectly to script. And that's how the 5-0 drubbed Englishmen started the ODI series too, in complete shambles. Things didn’t get better even half-way into the series. But in a remarkable transformation, they came back and won the last 3 games of the round robin phase and qualified for the finals. And it was the finals where they managed to do the impossible - sweep Australia 2-0 in the best of 3 finals. Even a 2-1 victory in the finals would have taken some gloss out of this victory. Beating Australia exactly the same way they have been beating all other teams (drubbing in the finals) was such a sweet thing to watch.

India warms up to the big dance with a series win over Sri Lanka
In a series that was billed as the warm-up to the World Cup, both the Lankans and the Indians played their hearts out. Inspite of a phenomenal collapse in the first ODI that handed the game on a platter to the Lankans, Team India came back rather strongly and finished off the series in style in the 3rd and final ODI. Almost all the missing pieces of the puzzle seem to have been solved and Chappell & Dravid should be happy men, as far as their mindset for the big one goes. Ganguly continued his dream return to the Indian side with a man-of-the-series performance. But personally to me, what was more heartening to see was the return to form of Yuvraj, who is going to be the mainstay of our lower-middle-order along with Dhoni. The World Cup squad that was announced mid-way through the series did not hold any surprises. The only thing that caught everybody’s attention was Kumble’s inclusion and Powar’s exclusion. But Powar’s failures with the bat haven’t helped his cause and Dravid’s affinity towards Kumble made sure that Kumble found a place in the squad. IMHO, the squad looks pretty balanced (atleast on paper). My starting XI would be something like this: Ganguly, Robin, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf and Harbhajan.

Longest tenure at number 1 for Federer
Another long held tennis record falls, as Federer's tenure atop the ATP men's ranking stretches to 161 straight weeks, thus beating the previous 30-year old record of 160 weeks that was conjured up by the legendary Jimmy Connors. As I read somewhere, if only Jimmy Connors had done a better job (of coaching Andy Roddick so that he could have beaten Federer), his record would have been safe. The way this guy is playing, it is only a matter of couple of years before every conceivable record in the tennis history books will be in his name, including the most treasured of them all - most number of Grand Slam victories, currently held by the inimitable Pete Sampras. Federer has 10 titles against 14 held by Sampras. Nobody is going to beat him at Wimbledon and even assuming he loses at the French Open, both this year and the next to Nadal (or some other Spanish player), the 2008 US Open will see him breaking Sampras's holy record. My prayers to God are only getting more earnest - Dear God, please send someone to stop this guy. It is getting plain boring to watch this disaster unfold.

NBA trade deadline passes away without incidents
This is not something I would be very excited about. Not certainly something I would write about in my monthly sports round-up. But I am writing about this here bcos of the potential trade between the Nets and the Lakers which would have sent Jason Kidd to the Lakers. I am a big Lakers fan and I seriously felt that Kidd would have filled in the last piece that the Lakers team is missing. Though many were skeptical about how Jason Kidd would have been beneficial to the Lakers with their triangle offense, I was so much looking forward to the spectacle of watching Jason Kidd feed off passes to Kobe. Even the other potential big trades didn’t go through - Kevin Garnett did not go anywhere and Mike Bibby stayed put at Sacramento. Overall, the NBA trade deadline turned out to be one big anti-climatic day.