Bachelor Of Social Service

Regular readers of this blog and my friends know that I easily get excited by anything remotely associated with Thalaivar. Given that, just imagine how my hysteric reactions would have been on seeing this completely unbelievable trailer. I was literally jumping and screaming in joy on seeing the trailer. With the Thalaivar fan in him overwhelming the director in him, Shankar has simply created magic on-screen. I am sure every fan of Thalaivar will have their own dream of how Thalaivar should be portrayed on-screen. And if the trailer is any indication of what is in store, I am sure that the dreams of every single Thalaivar fan have been answered with Sivaji.

What a style...what an action...What a dialog delivery...Thalaivar is simply electrifying. My favorite moments from the trailer:

1) Rich get richer. Poor get poorer.
2) Idhu thaan en ooru. Idhukku nalladhu seiyyaama vida maatten.
3) Yaaru...Kaun Hai...Yaar nee and Thalaivar saying Boss. Wow...Thalaivar rocks when he says Boss.
4) Of course, Bachelor Of Social Service and the way Vivek says it.
5) Thalaivar's trademark walk with the helicopter in the background. There is simply nobody who can match Thalaivar in the way he walks. Enna oru gethu.
6) The shoe with the awesome looking knife at the bottom.
7) Saagura naal therinju pOchunnaa, vaazhura naalum naragam ayidum. Sandhosham thaanga mukkiyam.
8) Thalaivar signing a document with pens in both the hands
9) Thalaivar swishing his finger before the camera and making a line with his finger
10) The way Thalaivar sways away from the guy trying to hit him from the back with a guitar and also stylishly catching the bubble gum in his mouth while doing so

There is a very fine line that directors directing Thalaivar should be very careful in when it comes to portraying Thalaivar's style. In the sense that, Thalaivar's stunts and actions should be unbelievable in some way but care should also be taken so that it does not end up looking ridiculous. For example, let us look back for a moment at that volleyball fight in Baba. I am sure most of us disliked that fight scene. But here, every single style of Thalaivar is rocking and above all, walks that fine line quite admirably.

The comedy scenes look so much better with the following joke bound to go down as one of the best jokes ever in all of Thalaivar movies.

Thalaivar: Yaenmaa ennaiya karuppaa petha?
Vadivukkarasi: Vellaiya irundhaa azhukka aagiduva-nnu thaanpa karuppaa pethen
Thalaivar: Sweet mummy

This is how comedy should be. Clean, hilarious and so much enjoyable. Watch Vivek's reaction to what Vadivukkarasi says. That elevates the scene to ROTFL levels :) Though Chandramukhi had some really funny moments with Vadivelu, I completely detested the double meaning jokes in that movie. I mean, why does a Thalaivar movie even need jokes like that? Not for nothing that Thalaivar has fans right from 5 year olds to folks in their 50s and 60s. I am really happy that Shankar has made sure that comedy is enjoyable and not something which makes a section of the crowd uncomfortable and frown.

For folks who want to download a copy of the trailer, the download links are here and here (the second one is a flash file but the quality of that is the best among all the formats currently available)

We often come across phases like 'feels like an eternity', 'can not wait to happen' but I am (and so is every Thalaivar fan around the globe) literally experiencing each and every bit of that right now. June 15th seems to be light years away. Like one Thalaivar fan had commented, if I were given the power, I would advance the time by 2 weeks so that June 15th is today and now.

Thalaivar varraar...paraak paraak

Road Rage

I am generally considered a very patient guy (my friends say that :)) but while driving, I am an altogether different person, for I get tensed easily at the slightest opportunity. My friends even say that I should properly take up an anger management course or something. It has always been the case with me. Even while I was back in India, I used to get enraged when someone breaks the traffic rules.

There was once this incident that happened during one of my trips to Kodaikanal with my friends. Since its a hilly region, almost all the roads are narrow and not more than 2 vehicles can occupy the road at any given point of time. One time, as a result of an accident, there is this huge traffic backlog in one of the roads, me & my friends were driving in and there was this long line of vehicles as a result of this backlog. So, I dutifully took my spot in the queue. It was then the thing I hate the most started happening. Cars and vans started overtaking folks like me who are waiting in the line and started driving on the wrong side of the road, thus blocking the road for the oncoming vehicles. This is something that we can see it happen anytime a backlog like this happens back in India. But it was all the more horrible here bcos of the fact that the chaos it will cause, are just manifold. We started cursing those stupid morons with the worst possible expletives that we could conjure up but right as were doing that, we saw all of those vehicles coming backwards. Those useless idiots were basically reversing their vehicles. We were surprised on what brought about this sudden change of mind in those guys. It was when the first of such vehicles crossed us that we realized the reason for them making a retreat like that. It was the much-aligned Tamil Nadu police. Looks like the cops who were at the accident site were driving these jerks back and it was not until the cops crossed our car that we heard all the choicest expletives that the cops were using. (Please recall the Vettri Kodi Kattu scene where Vadivelu's maapla uses all defined and undefined bad words on Vadivelu) I was so glad that the cops were doing that bcos those senseless idiots deserved every bit of the verbal thrashing that they were receiving. This incident still remains fresh in my mind bcos of the fact that the cops were doing something I wish I was able to do to those drivers.

Anyway, coming back to the subject of the post - you do not see such blatant violation of the law and the traffic rules here in the US. Thus the reasons for my rage while driving here are completely different and I thought it will be a good idea to compile them in the form of a post. So, here are the top 6 reasons on why I get a road rage:

1) Say, it is a 4-lane highway (2 lanes in each direction) and there is a 60 MPH speed limit. It drives me crazy if someone is driving at 55 mph on the left lane, while the right lane is free and can easily be moved over to. Most of the times, I move over to the right lane and overtake them & then get back on the left lane. But this does not happen all the time bcos the right lane is mostly occupied by drivers who tend to drive slow. I do not blame them for they are not doing anything wrong. So, we are left with 2 slow drivers basically blocking both the lanes leaving me with no other option than to feel enraged and start cursing them. What is beyond my comprehension is why don't they understand the simple logic that the left lane is supposed to be the lane for the faster drivers and the right lane is all theirs for the taking.

2) The second case is slightly different. It is a freeway with 2 lanes for normal traffic and one lane for HOV traffic. I completely hate it when I see a car with just a single passenger, on the HOV lane. In this case, I do more than just getting enraged and cursing to myself. Here in Seattle (I am sure this is there in all the major cities), you can call a number and report the crime. So, the very moment I see someone committing the crime, I call the number and report it.

3) You know what drives me even more crazy - same situation as above. I am driving in the normal lane but I see a car with 3 passengers in it, also driving in the normal lane. This is something that drives me crazy too since why would someone not take advantage of the HOV lane that is being offered to people who carpool. More than a concern for them, it is the fact that cars like these which would have otherwise traveled faster in the HOV lane, slows down the normal lanes, of which I am part of, that much more which irritates me to no ends.

4) You are driving in a 2 lane road (not a freeway) and as usual the person in front of you is driving 5-10 miles below speed limit. As always they are driving in the left lane and refuse to move over to the right lane. I am unable to overtake them by going to the right lane bcos there is an equally slower car on the right lane. And I get mad the most when this car in front of me gets through a signal while I am stuck in it, just bcos that useless driver was driving slow, well below the speed limit. You know what happens most of the times? These folks who keep driving so slowly, on seeing the light turn from green to yellow, suddenly start driving fast and even jump the red light in trying to beat the signal and I am totally pissed off, bcos not only did they block me all these time, but they also make me stuck in the signal.

5) This again has got to do with slow drivers. From the above points you would have understood how much I hate it when these slow drivers block the traffic behind them by driving on the left lane. You know what irritates me even more? While driving, these drivers talking on the cell phone. This is probably the heights. By nature, these folks are slow drivers and on top of that, talking on their cell phone, makes them drive even more slower and no points for guessing my reaction on seeing this unfold before my eyes.

6) The other thing that irritates me (this one is not on the road) is the way people park. When I see a compact car like Hyundai Accent/ Toyota Corolla/ Dodge Neon, parked in the most irresponsible of ways, my anger level just shoots up. I mean, one of the 4 tires would be in the adjacent parking lot or so close to the dividing line, that the person from the adjacent car can not open their doors properly. I mean, how callous can they be. It is not the fact that they have not parked correctly that irks me the most. Nobody is expecting them to park their cars perfectly at the first try. They see that they have not parked properly but they do not take the effort to spend a few extra seconds and park it correctly. Most of the times, if my car is cordoned off by such an improperly parked car, I need to be extra careful and go out of my way to take my car out of the parking lot without inflicting damage to both my car and the other car. Sometimes I am so enraged that I say to myself 'Let me just take my car out of the parking lot the normal way and if it results in a damage, I am fine with it'. But then the state of my new car pegs me back from actually doing so.

So, there goes my reasons for a road rage. I am sure each one of us have their own reasons like this which ticks us off while driving. Would be ears to listen to them.

Weekend movies - Unnaale Unnale & Chennai 600028

Unnaale Unnale - I was having a discussion with couple of my friends at the local Indian store. It was the time when Unnaale Unnaale had just been released and there were some positive reviews for the movie (but they were from websites which never give negative reviews for any movie). I was like "I do not have much hope on Jeeva. His first 2 movies were good at best but nothing spectacular" and they were like "Ullam Kaetkkume was a hit, even after lying in the cans for close to 2 years. That shows the stuff he has and the trailer for U2 is very promising, needless to say about the songs". But finally, we agreed to disagree and concluded that we will meet again after we all have seen the movie. Though the supposed meeting hasn't taken place yet, I am eagerly looking forward to it, just to say "I told you so".

Man, what a crapfest this movie turned out to be. This has to be the dumbest, silliest and most ridiculous movie that I have seen recently. Even movies like Chennai Kaadhal & Deepavali (movies that I hated to the hilt) did not pretend to dwell in detail about relationships. This one while asking itself to be taken seriously in terms of how the relationship called love between 2 people needs to be handled, Jeeva makes a complete joke of himself.

Vinay thinks he can be an actor just bcos he looks good and is tall. Raju Sundaram thinks he can be a comedian just bcos he thinks he speaks Tamil in a funny way. Jeeva thinks that he can make a movie just bcos he has a producer to fund the movie, Harris Jeyaraj to compose some awesome songs and he got permission to shoot in Australia.

Raju Sundaram is one irritating character (it was partly bcos of him that I so disliked Jeans) and I sincerely feel he should be added to the list of folks who should be banned from appearing on screen. Perarasu, Pradeep Rawat, TR - that is one awful list and it is high time we add Raju Sundaram to that list. Many people might dislike different aspects in the movies. Some might not like the romance, some might not like the way the songs were picturized, some might not like Sada. But if there is one thing that everyone would dislike in the movie, it should be the comedy track. Simply disgusting. I really don't know how Jeeva even thought that these supposedly funny scenes would invoke laughter among the public. And there is one scene in the 2nd half that is simply puke-worthy.

If there is one thing in the movie that I would appreciate Jeeva for, it would be the fact that he did not commit the ultimate harakiri of including a fight sequence in the movie. Better movies with better directors have fallen to that temptation but thankfully, Jeeva saves us from that. Cinematographers who take up direction are like wicketkeeper-batsmen that Indian cricket has produced. If we ask ourselves the question, have we ever produced a wicket-keeper batsman who could be included in the team, based on his batting skills alone? the answer would be NO. The ilk of these cinematographers-cum-directors are something similar to that. Jeeva will never be a great director, same would be the case with folks like K.V.Anand, Vijay Milton, Rajeev Menon, P.C.Sriram, Thangar Bachan. They are masters of their field - cinematography but when it comes to direction, they end up being awfully short on quality.

Short advice to Jeeva - Get back to what you do best. And even if you venture into directing a movie, please stay away from dealing with something as intricate as a relationship between a guy and a girl. You stink at it and stop torturing us. Easily my worst movie of the year.

Chennai 600028 - Wow...what a movie. Just blew me away. This was one movie which I did not have high hopes on bcos I kind of had a gut instinct that, in trying to come up with a movie catering to the youth, these guys will just spoil it or at best, come up with a half-baked movie (after all, even the veteran Shankar faltered with Boys). But the movie turned out to be one where I loved everything about the movie. (But I will have to say that I was not entirely surprised bcos I watched the movie after reading reviews from 2 trust-worthy people - Balaji and Zero)

Seriously, I have not enjoyed any movie as much as I did Chennai 600028 in the last few years. The movie oozes of freshness & realism all along and the entertainment value the movie provides is just unparalleled. Be it the awesome songs or the timing jokes or the serious scenes or the cricket matches or Premji's seshtaigal, I simply loved everything. The comedy that has been interwoven into the screenplay is easily the highlight of the movie. One sample is this haikoo that Aravind comes up with for his lover:

Marathula irukkudhu kaai
Thoonga theva paai
Nee mattum OK sonnaa
Indha Karthi unkaaladi naai

I was literally ROTFL on after seeing him utter this and also after it was revealed whom he was talking to. The conversations and arattais that the guys have among themselves are just so natural. Like when the Rockers teammates call Raghu to come for a match and he refuses, the guy on the phone says to his friends "Sema gaandula irukkaan machi". That is something that you will see in every other conversation among our guys. Other thing that is so easy to miss bcos of the fact that the film is so realistic is the costumes for the guys. Every single guy in the movie comes in dresses that we, as normal guys, wear in our day to day life. I am sure they did not even have a costume designer for the movie and Venkat Prabhu just asked the guys to come to shooting in their own dresses :)

There were so many little things that I loved about the movie - Raghu's friends addressing his mother as amma (that is something which many of us do but has never been shown in movies), Premgi refusing to hand the bat over after getting out hit-wicket & fighting with his friends, when a guy tries to erect the stumps up by hitting the top of the stump with the body of the bat, another guy comes and stops him by showing the correct way to do it - hitting it with the handle of the bat, using the Pothi vacha malliga mottu song in the most hilarious of ways, The list is just so endless. Venkat Prabhu just keeps the screenplay so simple and uncomplicated. And that is the biggest plus of the movie. There is a track where 2 friends get into a fight bcos one guy is in love with the other guy's sister but Venkat Prabhu makes sure that that track does not take up so much time and right when it is solved, we are ready to face the climax of the movie. Same with the track where one of the guys is stabbed. We do not have the usual cinematic finish where the stabbed guy is shown coming out of his hospital bed and playing in the crucial match.

A post about Chennai 600028 would be incomplete without a mention of Premgi Amaran and the unforgettable climax. If we had not known that Vadivelu is a comedian, I am not sure if we would laugh at merely looking at him. But Premji Amaran is in a different league altogether. The mere sight of him (and needless to say, his antics) is sure to evoke uncontrollable laughter in you. And then that sweet climax - just makes you want more and brings a smile to your lips, days after you are done watching the movie.

Background score by Premji Amaran was such a plus. You can literally feel the effect of the BGM in raising the impact of each and every scene. If I were to add something about the songs, then it would be that some songs which I did not like that much when the album was released, gelled oh-so-perfectly with the flow of the movie. For example, when the audio was released, Yuvan's singing in the Natpukkulle song was such a big minus but while seeing it with the movie, it did not really stand out. Even the Jalsa Pannungadaa song was neatly picturized and the song exactly fit in to the mood of the scene. Something I liked in the 2 dance numbers in the movie - Jalsa Pannungada and Saroja Saamaan Nikaalo – was that unlike other directors who try their best to make sure that the choreography is spot on, here Venkat Prabhu makes sure that the fun factor is not missing in their dance steps. In other words, he has avoided the typical dance formation (in the way the dancers stand, all in perfectly drawn rows & columns) we see in all choreographed songs. But the dance steps are so much enjoyable.

The movie is not without its shortcomings. An unnecessary song and fight sequence towards the end of the 2nd half are something which when removed could have made me call this movie PERFECT. Though I did not feel that the Ennannamo pannudhu song was unnecessary, I thought that if the mood of the song had been changed to something other than a sensuous number, it would not have stuck out like a sore thumb, as it does now. The cricket scenes could have been shot definitely better and more gripping. For example, after each ball is bowled, the whole team is shown as converging at the middle of the field to egg the bowler on. I know it is very trivial and something that can be (and should be) overlooked. But I am still mentioning it here bcos when you like a movie to the extent to which I liked Chennai 600028, you want it to be perfect in every possible way and that is the reason for this silly rant.

When it was time for me to return the DVD back to the Indian store, I really did not want to part with it :) Watched it couple of more of times before returning the DVD. This one will definitely go into my DVD collection. My verdict will be - Not just 'Go, watch it' but 'Go, Own it' :)

The new Rbk Run Easy commercial

Noticed this commercial doing the rounds from the beginning of this week on TV. What first got me curious about this commercial where popular athletes are shown running together in pairs was a pair of our Indian athletes. I was wondering who they were and why those 2 random guys were shown. And it was only reading this Rediff article today morning, did I realize that those 2 guys were actually Dravid and Dhoni. To my credit, I will have to say that the voice did sound very familiar when I watched the ad for the first time :)

This post, by the way, is not be part of my Most Favorite commercials series. But I wanted to post this one here, just bcos of the fact that this is for the first time that Indian cricketers have appeared along with international players in a commercial and also bcos I am sure there are many like me out there who could not figure out that it was Dravid and Dhoni who were featured in that ad.

Weekend movies - Koodal Nagar, SP3 and Nallavanukku Nallavan

Koodal Nagar- There are good movies. There are bad movies. Then, there are "Don't know what to say about" movies. Koodal Nagar unfortunately falls into the last category. You can't definitely discard the movie into an utterly useless movie but it also will never make it to the list of good movies released this year. The problem with such movies is that it makes the viewer disinterested. Even when a movie is abject bad (like say Chennai Kaadhal or Deepavali), I try not to miss a single scene from the movie bcos of the reason that it helps me in bashing the movie here in my blog:) But I did not even bother losing my concentration during a bunch of scenes while watching Koodal Nagar. This one scene in the movie kind of explains what I thought about the movie. The scene where Bhavana is introduced. She is shown as carrying a glass fish tank and Bharath is shown driving his TVS50 on a street. 99% of us would have easily guessed what was going to happen next. Yes, you are right. Bharath collides with Bhavana and the fish tank breaks. But wait, next comes the part of the scene which brings a smile to your lips - Bharath leaves his bike (if you can call that a bike) and sprints somewhere. When he returns, he has a small bowl with water into which he puts the fishes and saves them. That is what the movie actually is - handful of realistic, memorable & gripping scenes amidst a deluge of very predictable and beaten to death scenes.

If there was ever one movie where the songs and the background score could have lifted the movie to watchable heights, then this is it. Srikanth Deva's effort in this movie was simply pathetic. Whenever we watch a movie, we used to maintain a count of the number of scenes that we were able to predict in advance. For example, when it is shown that Bhavana's school principal forgives Bharath after catching him in the balcony of her hostel, myself and my friend correctly predicted the reason behind it even before it was revealed in the movie. That was count 1. Such count for this movie stood at 5 and the more the count, the less favorite it becomes of mine. The performances of all the 3 lead actors were actually very good, though Bharath could have put in some effort to differentiate between his 2 roles. Little bit of advice for the director - just bcos you have shot the movie in Madurai and just bcos you have the Bharath- Sandhya pair in the movie, it does not mean that you are recreating the magic of Kaadhal. One-time watch movie.

Spider man 3- I have never been a fan of super hero movies (except of course, the ultimate superhero - Thalaivar) and so watching SP3 was not on my priority list. But my friends who are big time Spider man fans compelled me to go to the movie and I was not a happy guy when I came out of the theater. When die-hard Spiderman fans could not enjoy the movie, then just imagine my plight. One thing though - going to the movie game me a chance to see in person on the crowd at the theaters on opening night. It was simply unbelievable. All the shows for that day were sold out and people were waiting for close to 2 hours to get into the theater so that they can get some good seats (we weren't that lucky as we had to watch the movie from the 3rd row from the screen). The movie was a big let-down. The movie has everything that we see in a typical masala movie in Tamil, only that the production values are at an altogether different level. The movie even has something we all have seen in Tamil cinema recently - memory loss, which is handled just like getting into and out of your clothes, in this movie. I am someone who do not get awed by the fights in a superhero movie like this bcos you know that each and every single frame is an effect of some CGI work. The other complaint I had with the movie was the lack of not enough action scenes. Action seemed to have taken a backseat with the romance between the lead pair taking the front seat in the movie and needless to say, that was reason enough for me to dislike the movie even more. Unless you are a superhero movie fan, tough to sit through this one.

Nallavanukku Nallavan- I (and millions of Thalaivar fans across the globe) have been waiting to hear from AVM on the official release date of The Boss and then start my countdown to the big day by watching one movie of Thalaivar every single day leading upto the release date. But with no release date announced yet and everybody kept in the dark (it is being said that even Thalaivar does not know when the movie is releasing :)) on when the movie is going to release, I gave my resolution up and started watching Thalaivar movies. This is one movie that I have not watched in the last few years. So, was excited when the local Indian store bought this DVD just last month. Before going into the movie, here are some details about the movie:

Movie release year: Oct 1984
Music: Maestro
Screenplay & Dialog: Visu
Direction: S.P.Muthuraman

Though the movie religiously follows the template that every single Thalaivar movie in the 80s have (an intro fight, then an intro song, a local rowdy who doubles up as the villain, Thalaivar fighting against the corruption affecting the poor, etc), things get a lot interesting in the second half when Thalaivar becomes the father of a teenage daughter. Those sequences were actually very enjoyable. The way how Radhika as the mother prohibits their daughter from going out with her boyfriend (Karthik) and the way how Thalaivar finds some way to get her out & supports their love was all very well done. But once Thalaivar finds who the guy is, we see a different Thalaivar and after a series of some interesting tiffs between them, the film finally ends with a very predictable 80-ish climax. The most popular song in the movie Unnai thaane thanjam endru nambi vandhen song was thankfully picturized in a very pleasing manner. Awesome melody and should easily find its way into the Best of Maestro & Superstar combo - 80s. Thalaivar just looks amazing in that song and he gets even more majestic during the second half when he sports an aged look. Radhika actually turns in a very commendable performance in the movie. She just shows how natural an actor she is, in almost every single scene of the movie. There are numerous Thalaivar movies from the 80s which, even with Thalaivar, a die-hard fan like me can't sit through but this movie is not one. Definitely worth a watch, for Thalaivar & Radhika (she is that good, to include her as one of the reasons).

BTW, this new still from The Boss has silently made its way to a hoarding near the Anna fly-over in Chennai. Wonder why the Sivaji crew did not release this still too along with the set of stills that were released during the audio launch. Dashing is the word that comes to my mind instantly.

(Please click on the image for a bigger & better view)

Photo courtesy: Sundar of Rajnifans

Oru pon maalai pozhudhu

No, this post is not about that immortal classic by the Maestro but about a musical weekend that myself and few of my friends here in Seattle had few weekends back. This 4-hour musical orchestra program was organized by the Seattle-based orchestra called Geetanjali. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings of my Desi life. The entire proceeds of the evening went towards one of the projects that Asha of Seattle was sponsoring in 2 small villages back in AP and Tamil Nadu and so it was doubly satisfying that we were doing our bit to charity, while having fun at the same time. Anyway, the list of songs from the evening included:

Kannukkulle keluthi
Oru maalai ila veyil neram
Vennilave velli velli nilave
Dailamore dailamore
Aalankuyil koovum mayil
Karuppu thaan enakku pidicha color-u
Madai thirandhu
Thaaye Yasodhaa from Morning Raaga
Sippi irukkudhu muthum irukkudhu
Poove sempoove
Vellai pookkal

Some of the highlights from the evening

- Easily the best song of the night was rendered by one Preethi who sang the Aalankuyil song from Parthiban Kanavu. We were just blown away at her rendition. She sang that song ever so casually without straining a bit. Her voice resembled Harini's to the dot and hence she made us feel that we were listening to Harini herself. The biggest surprise waited for us until the end of the song when it was revealed that she was all of 13 years old. Wow...If she is in India, I am sure she would be singing for some music director by now.

- Two of the Maestro's most popular hits lived up to their expectations and everyone in the auditorium just lapped them up. First came the Madai Thirandhu number for which the response was terrific with the audience clapping in unison almost throughout the song (Having said all this, I felt that with the Yogi B remix version getting so much popular with all of us, they would have tried some similar rapping in between the charanams of the number). The next was one of Raaja's most melodious songs - Poove Sempoove to which the response was more mellowed down and in tune with the melancholic mood of the song.

- The MCs were one big bore. Every time he came on stage, there was a loud boo for him to get away and bring the next song in. He kind of sensed that too but the reason I am mentioning about him here is one remark he revealed. When the troupe was getting ready to play the 'Karuppu thaan enakku pidicha coloru' song, he was talking something about himself being dark. He said that he always says to his friends that Karuppaa irundhaalum naan kaLaiyaa irukken to which one of his friends commented back Nee kaLaiyaa irundhaalum karuppaa thaana-da irukka. That comment just brought the house down.

- Every time the MC was boring us to death with his unwitting remarks and kadi jokes, one of the guys from the back was using Thalaivar's oft-used punch dialog from Baatshaa to some very good effect with an applauding response from the audience "Ulle pO"

- The music band also consisted of 3 Americans and they played the flute, shenai and saxophone. Particularly impressive was the lady who played the flute and we started clapping even before the song started when she played the flute bit in the Poove Sempoove prelude.

- When the evergreen Sippi irukkudhu muthum irukkudhu song was sung, the video of the song was simultaneously played on a giant screen which kind of formed the backdrop for the singers. It was fun to watch the singers talk and sing like Kamal and Sridevi actually did in the movie. Except at a couple of points, they managed to pull off the impossible feat of not lagging or leading the actors in the video. Personally, I enjoyed this one the most, next only to the Aalankuyil song.

On the whole, it was an evening of fun and frolic. We all enjoyed it immensely and easily had one of the best times of my stay here in the US. Folks in Seattle (if anybody is reading this) who missed out on this lovely evening, please make sure to attend next year. This was one evening I will start looking forward to and no wonder that the storied House-full board was hanging outside the ticket counter of the auditorium, well before the show started.

Monthly Sports Round-up - April 2007

Florida does a repeat
3 national titles in 12 months. No wonder ESPN.com called Gainesville as Titletown, FL. The whole athletic department of the Gators deserve all the praise they are getting for putting together this Championship run in these days of so much competition where there is little to choose between the top tier college teams in terms of talent and effort. In a game where the Buckeyes never really had a chance, the Gators pulled away for a 84-75 victory to win their second consecutive national championship. I am no big SEC fan and definitely not a Gator fan. So, it wasn't a pleasant watching the Gators win. Every time the Buckeyes pulled to within 5 to 8 points of the Gators, Humphrey will sink in a 3 and effectively douse all their hopes. The Buckeyes were one tired team and with Billy Donovan wisely rotating his players, this was as good as a no-contest mid-way through the 2nd half.

Zach Johnson wins the Masters
Tiger flops in the most prestigious of golf tournaments as he fails to reach par in any of the 4 rounds and finally ends up 3 shots behind the eventual winner Zach Johnson. Tiger's quest for an incredible 5th Master's championship victory thus came to an abrupt halt. He could not get his driving right all week long and he ended up finishing 46th in the field when it came to the number of fairways that were made during the week. It was a bad weekend in the office for all the big-name players and so it was indeed a minor consolation for Tiger fans in that he finished runner-up.

Australia completes a hat-trick
So, my prayers of Australia not winning a 3rd consecutive World Cup were not answered, as the Aussies completed a clinical demolition of the Lankans in the finals of the 2007 ICC World Cup. Though the Aussies were head and shoulders ahead of any other team in the tournament, I was still hoping for a miracle where the Lankans would pull off a surprise. But it was not to be. Gilchrit's 149 will find its place in the list of unforgettable knocks ever produced in a World cup. Even after Australia put together 281 on the board, as long as Jayasuriya and Sangakkara were knitting their little partnership, I was carrying faint hopes that we might be in for something special. But ultimately, the target of 282 in 38 overs proved to be just too much. The way Gilchrist bulldozed through the Sri Lankan bowlers, I was really looking forward to the Aussies breaking the 300 run mark but somehow they did not go for the whole hog in the final overs bcos may be they thought a score of 280 is more than enough for these Lankans.

End of a forgettable World Cup
What a chaotic ending to an already uninteresting World Cup. I really thought that this world cup almost deserved such a rain shorted game in the finals and absolute chaos towards the end of the game. To me, this World Cup has to be THE most forgettable world cup, ever since I started following cricket in the early 90s. The most obvious reason is the fact that India was knocked out in the first round. Looking beyond that, the other reason why this World Cup will be forgotten by me in a matter of weeks is the fact that apart from couple of games (one of them being a dead rubber), there were no real close games and last-over nail-biters that are usually what World cups are remembered for (South Africa – Australia semifinal in the 1999 WC, anyone?). Add on top of this the literally empty stands that watched the games, day in and day out. But if there is one thing this World Cup will be remembered for (apart from the unfortunate murder of Bob Woolmer) is the fact quite a few legends of the game called it quits at or after the World Cup. Lara, Inzamam, Kumble and McGrath - that is quite a list.

Russell goes first
Jamarcus Russell, the heavily built LSU quarterback who led his team to last year's Sugar Bowl victory, was drafted as the number 1 overall pick by the Oakland Raiders, ending months of speculation as to who among Russell or Quinn would be the number 1 overall pick. Brady Quinn fell all the way to the 22nd pick where the Browns traded a pick to draft him, after failing to draft him with their 3rd overall pick. Other than Brady Quinn, there were very few surprises in the draft and going by popular consensus, it is the Carolina Panthers who emerged as the clear winners with them stealing among others, WR Dwayne Jarrett and center Kalil from USC with their late 2nd round picks. Though the Seahawks did not reach out and draft any big-name college player, they did what they had said they will do - take players they had on the board that they liked. They added 4 players each on both sides of the football, also making sure they drafted players at positions which cost us games last year.

Moss goes to New England
Bill Belichick is just not done as he made the biggest of his off-season moves to sign Randy Moss from the Raiders. Though talks of Moss going to New England (or to the Packer nation) were doing the rounds during the free agency market frenzy couple of months back, it did come as a surprise when the Patriots, after completely revamping their receiving core earlier by signing folks like Daunte Stallworth and Wes Walker, chose to further strengthen their receiving core and decided to rope in Moss. If Belichick with his debilitated offense of last year could take the team to the AFC Championship game where they gave the Colts a close call, imagine what the Patriots can do with such a star-studded and healthy looking team. It is safe to say that the Patriots will start as the pre-season favorites of the 2007-08 NFL season.

Nadal's unbeaten streak continues
It is a well-known fact that when it comes to clay court tennis, Nadal is simply the king. So, him winning a 3rd straight Barcelona Open on clay is not really news. But what about his streak of unbeaten matches on clay court that stretched to 72 with the win, isn't that something to rave about? After upstaging Federer in last year's French Open's finals, many believed that they had their someone-please-stop-Federer prayers answered but he kind of withered off in the subsequent Grand Slams, failing to make it to the semifinals of the 2006 US and 2007 Australian Opens. But that was until now when he started playing on his favorite surface. My only wish is that he carries this form of his into the upcoming French Open and further stretch his streak.