Life is Beautiful

Where Was It Shot - cataloging filming locations

2010-05-28T07:32:00.001-07:00

Like most of you here, I have been a big fan of Tamil cinema all my life and one of the things that has always captured my attention about our movies is the filming locations that have been used in our movies. Frequently I would find myself googling for the name of a location that was used in some song or scene of a movie that I had just finished watching. So, naturally my thought veered towards coming up with a web site for the same. When (I & my friend Amar) we looked around to see if any such sites that already existed, we found none. There were a few sites that were dedicated to documenting the filming locations used in Hollywood movies (even they have not been well maintained) but absolutely none for those used in Indian movies in general and Tamil movies in particular.

So, this was the idea behind the site and thus was born www.wherewasitshot.com.

The problem here though is the sheer magnitude of information that we are looking at here. Hundreds and hundreds of movies released over the decades and thousands & thousands of locations that have been used in those movies. And here we are, just a couple of guys, attempting to catalog them in a site. That is where we are expecting co-operation of like minded movie buffs here.

We have launched the site with around 50 locations and we plan to keep adding new 1-2 locations every week. But like we said, it is just impossible for us to find & publish all those filming locations that have ever been used in our movies. That is the reason we are considering this whole effort as one big social media project that involves contribution from everybody around. And towards that end, we have also created a forum as part of the site.

We welcome everyone here to take a look at the site and if you like what you see, please contribute (in the form of comments, suggestions, pointing out inaccurate information, etc) and introduce the site to your friends as well.

Let me sign off by reproducing the contents of the ‘About Us’ page of our site:

Wait a second. That scene in the song that just played on TV. Where did they shoot it?

Hasn’t that question crossed our minds? Haven’t we all at some point of time thought ‘How cool it would be to have a web site dedicated to documenting locations where movies are shot?’? We heard you. This web site is our answer to all your calls to put together a comprehensive collection of movie locations on the internet. Having spent so much time on blogs, discussion forums, Orkut community forums, we realized that the movie buff in every one of us has always been curious about the locations where the movies we love, were shot. We have done the job for you, as we scoured through the bottomless abyss called the internet and have come up with this collection of Indian movie locations.

As you can see, this is strictly a Work In Progress site, which means only 1 thing – valuable inputs from users & visitors like you. We are considering this as a huge social media collaboration project. So, if you know of any movie shooting spot location that you don’t find it here or you notice an error in our records, shoot us an email – wherewasitshot@gmail.com.

The locations have been categorized based on languages (currently, only Tamil, Hindi & Telugu), geography (North America, Europe, India) and people (your favorite actors, directors). You can either browse through the entries or search for the entries with a query.

Don’t forget to check back, as we are constantly adding more entries to our collection of movie locations.

Looking forward to your enthusiastic participation and response to our humble effort!

Best songs of the year - 2009

2010-01-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

I know, we are in the 3rd week of 2010 but here I am publishing a post on the best songs of the year, 2009. This is one post that I kind of keep on editing throughout the course of the year and it is precisely for this reason that I do not want to miss out on publishing the same, even though it is coming about a month late.

My self defined 'rules' that I followed in coming up with this list haven't changed form the last 2 years and here they are, one more time:

1) All songs should fit in a 80 min audio CD

2) There shall be no more than 1 song from any given movie

3) The album should have been released in the year 2009.

So, here are the best songs of the year 2009 (in no particular order):

1) Kannil paarvai from Naan Kadavul

2) Mella oorndhu oorndhu from Nandhala

3) Kadaloram from Kunguma Puraavum Konju Puraavum

4) Ragala Kaara from Odippolaamaa

5) Vizhi moodi from Ayan

6) Kooda varuviyaa from Vaalmiki

7) Oru Chinna Thamarai from Vettaikkaaran

8) Rayilin Paadhaiyil from Appaavi

9) Kannil dhaagam from Achamundu Achamundu

10) Aval appadi ondrum from Angaadi Theru

11) Maalai neram from Aayirathil Oruvan

12) Oru vetkkam varudhe from Pasanga

13) Naan Pogiren mele from Naanaiyam

14) Thuli Thuli from Paiyyaa

15) YaarOru yaarO from Yogi

16) Tharai Erangiya from Eeram

17) Yogi theme music (filler)

Honorable mention or the second CD:

1) Onnukkonnu from Nandhala

2) Ading Ading from OdippOlaamaa

3) Oru nimisham from KPKP

4) Oru Kal Oru Kannaadi from SMS

5) Enge povadhu from Vaamanan

6) July maadhathil from Muthirai

7) Poo Sirikkudhu from Valmiki

8) Kadhaigalai pesum from Angaadi Theru

9) Adada Mazhaida from Paiyya

10) Karigaalan from Vettaikkaaran

11) Edho Seigiraai from Vaamanan

12) Latcham vaarthaigal from Modhi Vilaaiyadu

13) Nenje Nenje from Ayan

14) Mazhaiye Mazhaiye from Eeram

15) Nee Thaane from Sarvam

16) Yaaradhu Yaaro from Yaadhumaagi

17) Poove Poove from Sidhu +2 first attempt

Other awards:

Album of the year: Modhi Vilaiyaadu, Sarvam, Eeram, Ayan, KPKP, Aayirathil Oruvan were the contenders for me. My choices for the best songs and the best album usually go hand in hand with the most popular picks in their respective categories. But this time around, my choice might baffle a lot of people as Kunguma Poovum Konju Puraavum is my choice for the best album of the year. There was no other album where I loved almost every single song of the album like KPKP and that includes the 'Naan Dharman-da' song sung by SPB.

Music director of the year: Has to be Yuvan again. Except for KPKP & Sarvam, he didn't have any album that can be called oustanding. But even in the other albums he had (like Muthirai, Vaamanan, Yogi, SIva Manasula Sakthi and Paiyyaa), he had some very hummable & high quality numbers. For that and also for the lack of competition form other music directors (with James Vasanthan being the only one who came even remotely close to being considered), Yuvan is my pick for the music director of the year.

Aadhavan - mediocrity at its best

2009-12-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

Easily the worst movie that I have ever seen, which featured either Surya or KSR
Seriously, can't understand why an actor who has tried to do something different, signs to do a movie like this.
Makes you think you are better off watching a Vijay movie, given the fact that one is guaranteed to see some genuine & good looking dance movements that only he can do
Vadivelu's comedy, to an extent, was the sole saving grace of the movie. But there is only so much he can do, given the movie's mind-numbingly stupid screenplay
Surya's performance, for all the effort he has seemingly put in, falls flat and after a point, he becomes just unwatchable.
And Surya can now officially be called Salman Khan of Tamil cinema, as his directors come up with situations just to show off his well-toned body
We all know that the standard of Tamil cinema's special effects & graphics is just appalling but Aadhavan has done the impossible of pulling it down one notch further below.
The sheer stupidity of the underlying setup of the movie is mind boggling. Imagine this - a judge is about to submit a crucial report in 10 days but he has come to Kolkota with (literally) a truck load of family because they are on vacation and he wants to spend time with them too. What a boat load of crap?!
The tortured logic that goes behind the 'Vaaraayo vaaraayo' song will even give the worst director of Tamil cinema, P. Vasu a run for his money.
Saroja Devi is irritatingly bad and gets on your nerves, right from the get-go. Reminded me of MSV's 'cameo' roles in Kaadhala Kaadhala & Kaadhal Mannan.
Harris Jeyaraj needs to do something. I mean, how long is he planning to blurt out such songs that seem to have the same age-old template? And what was that English song in the background score all about?
We all have seen that even the best of directors age not so very aesthetically. And KSR, while cannot even be remotely called great, was a good director who could churn out watchable entertaining masalas in his sleep. But I think the day has come up for him to do some introspection and come up with a watchable movie, even if it takes a while longer for the movie to be made.

Surya takes a huge step backward with this crapfest called Aadhavan.

Khuda Ke Liye - Must-watch movie

2009-11-25T13:23:00.000-08:00

Again trying to just list out some thoughts on the movie instead of writing a full-fledged review where I will have to worry about some sort of coherence. So, here you go:

A movie whose makers should be appreciated for the kind of problem that the movie tries to tackle and the kind of message that it tries to convey.
A moderate Muslim family in Pakistan with 2 brothers, who love music but decide to go opposite ways, from the perspective of Islam;a Muslim girl born & brought up in London, her father who is apologetic for all that he had done against Islam and is attempting to clean up the mess that he feels he has created; an American girl who falls in love with one of the brothers who comes over to the US to live the American life.
The film is almost like an appeal by the moderates in the Muslim community to the extremists both inside & outside their religion, as it tries to tackle many of the misconceptions Westerners have about Islam. Most of this explaining though is done in one very long speech by Naseeruddin Shah towards the end of the movie.
Sheds some light on the kind of paranoid patriotism and panic that engulfed many of the Americans post 9-11 and how that resulted in the Americans compromising on many of the moral values they used to stand for (enhanced interrogation techniques and et al).
Couple of very hummable songs in the movie but the BGM was so inadequate that I was literally imagining how someone like the Maestro would have scored for a movie like this.
Apart from the length which could have definitely been much shorter, another thing that stood out to me was the very average acting, that does not get salvaged by a cameo by Naseeruddin Shah at the very end. The casting was great but the acting was bad.
At 160 mins, a slightly lengthy film but a very good film nevertheless.

If not for anything , this is one of those movies that the 'They hate us for our freedom' crowd must watch.

Weekend Hike - Mail Box Peak

2009-11-11T23:06:00.000-08:00

You are at a get-together with fellow hikers and you throw around something like 'I did Mail Box Peak over the weekend' and you will notice that your friends start looking at you with new found respect. That should tell everything one wants to know about this brutal hike.

It is as though the trail was designed & conceived by a hard task master who is mean and who was at his foulest of moods when he designed the trail. Bcos there is no other way you can explain the logic behind the way this trail has been designed. As it is frequently pointed out, it is like being on the stair-master for 2.5 hours straight (put in the number of hours it takes for one to get to the top). There is just no respite from the steepness throughout the hike. Each and every step you take, you gain some elevation. And there is one point in the hike almost 3/4ths of the way where I thought I had reached the summit only to be disappointed, bcos the summit was a good 45 mins away. Finally, after a lot of huffing & puffing, got to the top.

Though there is a 360 degrees view at the top, I wouldn't go far enough to say that it was all worth the pain getting there. There is indeed a mail box at the top (picture of which can be seen below) that has a registry, some dog tags and a few envelopes. Since it was October, it was way too cold at the top. Should have been in the high 20s. Since I had forgotten to take along any gloves, I couldn't stand the cold and after experiencing hypothermia for a few fleeting seconds, we started our descent.

The descent is equally painful. Beyond a point, it became so arduous & painful on the knees, that I started cursing but with no one else to blame for my decision to do this hike, the cursing did not go all too well. I surrendered myself to my fate and started looking forward to that trail head that I so badly wanted to get to.

I hike with one or 2 of my hiking buddies. And our usual routine is that we chit chat all the way during both our ascent and the descent. But was not the case with this hike as the only things we kept on repeating, after seeing switchback after switchback and one steep slope after another, were 'Are they serious?' or 'Is this hike for real?' After all, when every inch of your lower body is in unbearable pain, you can't really chit-chat, can you?

Some stats about the hike:

Distance: 6 miles RT
Elevation gain: 4000 feet
Time up: 4 hours
Time down: 2.5 hours
Difficulty level: Most difficult

Though my hike to the summit of St. Helens (done over a year ago) still remains the toughest of my hiking career, this one comes a close second. Overall, a memorable hike that you can be proud of yourself.

Unnai Pol Oruvan - A pale imitation

2009-09-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

When I heard the news that Kamal is going to remake 'A Wednesday', let me just say that I wasn't too thrilled. I mean, the biggest plus of the Hindi original was the way Naseeruddin Shah's character was shaped & portrayed, as a common man who was just taking out his frustrations on the inaction & indifferent attitude of the government to the specter of terrorist attacks unleashed on his city by terrorists. My biggest concern was this: even given how good an actor Kamal is, he can never be the 'common man' that was so central to the plot of the movie. And the moment I saw him mouth his heavily accented English dialogs in the trailer, I could see my fears coming true. And now after watching the entire movie, surprise, the movie just goes on to prove that my original fears were fully warranted.

I mean, I don't know. May be, I have the advantage of comparing his performance against Naseeruddin Shah's in the original but his heavily accented English & his frequent use of English dialogs only alienated me from the narrative. It's not like he always talks like this. In interviews that he gives to TV channels, his English comes across as more original. But when he starts talking in a movie, that fake desi accent comes into the picture and that irritates the hell out of me. And when it happens to be in a movie like this, it sticks out like a sore thumb even more.

Then in the most crucial scene of the movie a.k.a. the outburst/ justification scene, Kamal HAD to have that scene which was not there in the original, where there is a 60 second sequence of Kamal narrating a gory incident and more importantly, taking that as an opportunity to tell us one more time that 'Look, I can act great'. Well, we do know that you can act (and quite awesome at that) but was it really necessary in this movie? I didn't think so. It is in subtle things like this that UPO loses out to its original, to whom it stayed quite faithful other than these minor wanderings. Same can be said about Kamal's performance too - a rare occasion the actor in Kamal loses out to another great actor.

If you ask me to name 6 differences between the 2 movies, let me give you a couple that should tell you why I felt that the subtlety of the original was lost in this one. The scene in question is this one where Ganesh Venkatraman goes to the house of the informant to beat the constable who was sent for his family's protection but was flirting with the informant's sister. This (YouTube link) is how the scene plays out in the original whereas in UPO, the director HAD to show the sister coming out with a cup of coffee and the constable flirting with her, before Ganesh Venkatraman takes out his rage on the constable.

The second instance is almost similar to this one. This got to do with where Naseeruddin Shah places the bag with the bombs in the original (he places it in a crowded train terminal) whereas this one Kamal places in the same compartment where the wife of the police officer is traveling (& right next to her seat, at that). And just in case we missed it, they make sure to show the bag with the bomb one more time, sitting right above the seat where police officer's wife & kid are sitting

Some of the other issues/ grouses I had with this one:

- I am no big fan of Vijay but did they have to take that potshot at Vijay through that Sreeman character?
- Having someone to mimic Karunanidhi. Again, not a big fan of MK, but did they have to do that?
- Lakshmi. Enuf said.
- What was that all about showing the TV reporter smoking & Mohan Lal's not so subtle poke at the same?
- Mohan Lal's Hindi & Tamil accents, which just didn't sit easy on my ears. I mean, I am big lover of the Tamil accent of Malayalam actors but this one was a tough pill to swallow.

One might ask 'Aren't there anything noteworthy in this movie?' Yes, there definitely are some. Shruthi's BGM was a surprise, as in, she does so much better than expected for a debutant. It fit the mood of the movie, except for the scene where the twist happens. The dry humor in Era Murugan's dialogs were good, but some of them were lost in the confrontational scenes between Mohan Lal & Lakshmi, due to Mohan Lal's horrible Tamil & English accent.

Bottom line - If you have watched the Hindi original and if you are not a fan of Kamal, this is one below-par effort of remaking.

2009 NFL Season - Predictions

2009-09-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

So, its that exciting time of the year again when we are at the doorsteps of another NFL season (and the college football season). And this post is something that I have been planning to do, at the start of the season, for the last 2 years but just didn't get the time to do that. So, I am trying this one out now to see if I will be third time lucky.

What I am trying to do here is to just pick out the winners of each of the 8 divisions and also to pick the 2 wild cards for the 2 conferences and just stop at that. I am doing this based on the free agent acquisitions and the strength of the returning teams and not on the basis of their pre-season performances. Though I have been following the pre season games superficially, I do not think these carry any weightage once the actual season begins (the Lions were 4-0 in preseason last year and we all know how it went for them in the regular season) It is going to be too tough at this stage to predict the results of playoffs and thus ultimately who will make it to the Super Bowl & who will be holding the Vince Lombardi trophy at the end of it all. That is something I guess I can do at the end of the regular season. With that behind, let me get started with the division where the Seahawks are housed in.

NFC West

I am a big Seahawks fan but I do think they are a long way from getting back to the good old days when winning the division was taken for granted, and thus I predict the Cardinals to retain the division. Boldin wasn't traded and that makes a huge difference bcos Fitzgerald will be double teamed by opposition defenses which should leave Boldin relatively uncovered. Kurt Warner has atleast 1 more good year left in him. The 49ers and the Rams are still in the very early stages of their rebuilding process and they will thus make sure that for the 2nd year in a row, the NFC West will remain as one of the weakest divisions in the league.

NFC South

Now, this was a division which was one of the strongest in the league, couple of years back. Not so, anymore. I pick the Panthers to win this division again, inspite of Jake 'will-throw-5 Int-in-a-playoff game' Delhomme. As long as Bucs don't have a consistent QB, they are not going to be a factor. Saints still remain a middle-of-the-road team, inspite of Sean Payton & Drew Brees. I am not sure if Atlanta has it in them to repeat the season that they had last year, but they should still do decent as Matt Ryan is only bound to get better this year

NFC North

This will be the most watched division this year, because of Favre's umpteenth unretirement and Jay Cutler's trade to the Bears. Adrian Peterson with that O-line with Favre to back it up, the Vikings are definitely my pick to win this division. Bears will do better than the Packers, mainly bcos of Jay Cutler & Matt Forte. And Lions will live the 'Rome was not built in a day' lesson.

NFC East

This perennial powerhouse division has definitely lost some of its sheen because of TO's & Burress' departures. Giants suddenly do not look the potent team they once were. Redskins seem to be in perennial rebuilding mode, what with Jason Campbell at QB and an ageing Clinton Portis at RB. The Cowboys seem to be always 1 play/ game away form throwing it all away. So, the pick here becomes easier - Eagles. Though Jim Johnson's demise would be felt, the addition of Vick to their offense is going to make the defensive coordinators of their opponents scratching their heads.

NFC Wild cards - Atlanta, Cowboys

AFC West

This is the division where picking the winner should be the easiest job. The Broncos fired Shannahan and then traded Jay Cutler for Kyle Orton (seriously, what was that all about). That should say it all. Chiefs are bound to muddle in obscurity for seasons & reasons aplenty. The less said about the Raiders, the better. Jamarcus Russel has never inspired confidence at the QB position while their best player, CB Asomugha got injured and experts predicting few more weeks for him to get back to full form. So, that leaves us with the Chargers who should run away with the division. This is a make or break year for many in the team, including Rivers and LT.

AFC South

Tony Dungy & Marvin Harrison might have left but Peyton Manning is still there and that should be good enough for the Colts to win the division handily. The Texans might be everyone's favorite sleeper team of the season and I believe in that as well but that is not going to stop the Colts from winning the division. I predict a very pedestrian season for the Titans, one in which they might fail to make the playoffs. And the last team of the division, Jaguar's fall from glory of 2 years ago will be complete this year.

AFC North

The division with the defending champs, the Ravens and 2 other wannabe teams, in the Bengals & the Browns. I am (or any other Seattle resident for that matter) not big fan of the Steelers but I just don't see them not winning the division. The Ravens should be good enough to make it to the playoffs as a wild card but not good enough to stop the Steelers from clinching the division. The Bengals could suprise everyone with a much improved performance but that won't take them into the playoffs.

AFC East

Well, lets see what we have here, other than the Patriots. The Bills (even with TO, a decent team at best), the Jets (with a rookie QB and a new head coach, not expected to challenge the likes of Patriots) and the Dolphins (a resurgent team but with an offense still developing). That leaves us with the Patriots whom I expect to win this division rather easily. Tom Brady looks to be as hungry as ever and with Belichick determined to wipe away the bad memories of the last season when they didn't make the playoffs, the Patriots wrap up the division early on and then, expect them to go deep into the playoffs.

AFC Wild cards - Texans, Ravens

Yuvan's worst rendition - Your pick

2009-08-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

Twitter is taking up most of my free time and so it has become a rarity for me to post something here. But I really do not want this blog to die a slow death. So, trying my best to make sure that it does not happen.

Though I am a big fan of Yuvan, folks who read my posts & tweets know how much I hate him for spoiling some of the really good tunes that he composes. Every time, I listen to the Yedhedho song from Pattiyal, that is what comes to my mind: Why Yuvan, why? While I was listening to that song last night, the idea for this poll popped up and so here it is. Needless to say, the Edhedho song is my pick for the song where he killed the song with his awful singing (if you can call it that). One tip as you vote is: don't just give weightage to how badly Yuvan has sung but equal consideration should be given to how good the song is and how good it would have sounded with somebody else crooning for it.

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Here's looking forward to your votes and also hoping that my next post here would be a lot sooner than the gap between this & my last post.

Weekend movie - Sarvam

2009-06-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Like I said in my earlier post, I am spending most of my time on Twitter these days. But still did not want to leave this blog unattended for long. So, thought instead of writing my usual essay style posts on movie reviews, I will at the least try to post some short & crispy reviews like the one below. Let me see how far this goes.

Sarvam - Sarva mokkai

Plusses

Yuvan's music, both the songs and the BGM.
Nirav Shah - captures Moonar in all its glory.
Trisha - only bcos her role was a short-lived (pun intended) one
Can't think of anything else

Minuses

Arya - Lazy dance movements, poor dialog delivery and even poorer body language. Can't believe this guy can sleepwalk through a role as he does here, even after a 2-year course at the Bala school of acting.
Chakravarthy - After seeing this 'performance' of his, I am getting jittery about the fact that he is part of Endhiran
Terrible and boring screenplay. For a wannabe thriller movie like this, it drags beyond redemption.
Five Star Krishna. Seriously, someone should tell him to just stop. Cant stand his antics.

Vishnuvardhan has given enough reasons for us not to even consider him when coming up with a list of 2nd ring of most promising directors in Tamil.

p.s: For those of you who are still breaking their heads on what that song is which plays whenever Arya sees Trisha, it's this - Mella mella from an obscure movie called Vaazhkkai

The Best albums series - A.R.R.

2009-03-31T08:48:00.000-07:00

Have been pretty busy lately and so blogging has taken a backseat. Twitter is where I am spending most of my time these days. You can follow me in twitter here (ellaam oru vilambaram :) )

Anyway, this series is something I had thought about more than 2 years ago. As the title of the post says, this series is about what we all feel as the best album of each music director in Tamil. Towards that, I will list what I consider the top 5 albums of that MD and also, name another 5 albums that I considered (or in other words, honorary mention) and finally THE best album of that MD. Since this series is only for music directors in Tamil, I am only considering their Tamil albums, though some of them like in ARR, have done lot of work outside of the Tamil film industry. After that it is all yours as I would like to know what you guys feel about the list & eventually the best album of that director.

I was thinking that may be I should do this for the 4 leading MDs in tamil film music right now - Yuvan, Harris Jeyaraj, ARR, VidyaSagar. I had to leave out Mottai out of this whole equation bcos IMHO, it is just not possible to even go about listing the Top 50 albums of the Maestro. May be, I can do The Top 5 albums of the Maestro in every decade, from the 1970s to the 2000s. But thats for another day and time.

So, I am starting with this Rahman here (you know, him being the flavor of this season & all) and planning to post 1 entry of this series every week. So, here goes my top 5 albums for ARR.

Thiruda Thiruda
Rhythm
Kandukondein Kandukondein
Duet
Alaipayudhe

Other albums that I considered were:

Kaadhalan
Roja
Iruvar
En Swaasa Kaattrae
Minsara Kanavu

His best album - Thiruda Thiruda

Reasons for ranking Thiruda Thiruda as his best - even during those days when his genre of music was already popular, he kind of broke fresh ground with this album and the one expression everyone had on hearing the songs of this album - stunned. Among the 5, it was kind of a close fight between Duet & Thiruda Thiruda but finally had to give it to TT for the above said reason. Every song in the album was/ is a gem and Rahman showed a wide range in that album. From Chandralekha to Raaasaathi, this was one complete album from Rahman in every sense. 15 years removed from the date of the album's release, this album sounds as fresh as it sounded back then. That, in itself is a true testimony to the quality of the album.

So, what will be your choices for the top 5 albums and also, for his best album to-date? Let me know.

Weekend movies

2009-03-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

Was on this frenetic movie watching spree, couple of weeks ago. So, thought of jotting down some quick thoughts on all those movies:

Kaadhalil Vizhundhen - Just can't understand how this movie could go on to become a hit in India. Was atrocious and after the key plot point was revealed, it was a torture to sit through the movie. Thriller movies riding solely on a twist in the storyline should be taut and racy and when they fail on both those aspects, it becomes unbearable. Nakul, for all the image transformation that he has gone through, just can't act. Period. He was very unconvincing and started getting on my nerves beyond a point. I think all this movie proved by its success is that all you need for a movie to succeed at the BO are a song and Sun pictures. The choreography in the Nakka Mukka song was pretty good though I have to say that any kind of dancing cannot do justice to a song like that.

Ghajini (Hindi) - I belonged to the set of people who expected a lot out of Aamir, in that he would have given the movie a complete make-over and also not have the short-term memory loss as a gimmick. And that is why this movie disappointed me, way much more that the Tamil one did. Absence of the annoying Nayanthara (but a close-on-the-heels Jia Khan) and the stupid climax from the Tamil version made the Hindi version eminently watchable but then given the frequency at which Aamir Khan does a movie, this was a huge let-down. Couple of Rahman's songs were good but the re-recording was stale. Aamir himself was not as good as Surya, while watching Asin repeat her performance from the Tamil version was an eye sore. Looking forward to the next Aamir movie to get over this disappointment.

Johnny Gaddar - Another movie that has been on my to-be-watched movie for a very long time. Liked it a lot. The biggest strength of the movie was that inspite of us knowing all along who does all the murders, the movie still holds our rapt attention until the very end, though the ending was very predictable. Shankar Ehsaan Loy's music was a big highlight in the movie, both the songs and the background score. Among the 5 members of the gang, Vinay Pathak stood out, closely followed by Zakir Hussain (the one plays the Shardul character). The hero of the movie, Neil Mukesh, was strictly OK on the whole, as in many scenes, we expected him to hide his crime a little better than what he actually accomplishes.

Dasvidaniya - A movie not to be dismissed just bcos of the fact that it has a storyline similar to The Bucket List. Wouldn't call it a classic but definitely loved it, especially the climax which overwhelmed me. There was a phase in the movie which definitely dragged for a while but then the climax more than made up for it. Vinay Pathak was a perfect choice for the lead role.

Quick dieting tip

2009-02-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed this? If you go to do some grocery shopping with your stomach empty, you tend to buy lot more stuff than what you would normally buy when you are full. This has happened so many times over the last few months that I thought I should definitely post this one for folks like me who are on a perennial diet seeking mode.

I guess it is only natural that when we go to a grocery store when we are really hungry, we purchase so many stuff as though we are going to eat everything right then and there. Consider this against the case when you go shopping when you are full. Say, we go to a grocery store after a sumptuous buffet at an Indian restaurant - you will be so full that you will dislike the very sight of many of the eatables. And thus, you will end up buying only the bare minimum stuff (milk, cereals, frozen vegetables, Orange juice, etc) that you would buy during every other grocery purchase of others rather than an expansive buy (which in my case, would include chicken tortillas, ready-to-eat chicken wings, chips, bacon strips) if you had gone with an empty stomach.

So dieting folks, please take the clue. While you are hungry, don't stop at the grocery store. Closing this post with my favorite quote about dieting - Losing weight is not a destination but a journey. How true?!

Why Yuvan, why?

2009-02-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

நல்லதோர் tune போட்டு அதை தானே பாடி, நலம்கெட புழுதியில் எரிவாருண்டோ? சொல்லடா யுவன் ஷங்கர் ராஜா

Weekend Movies - Kireedom and Kadamai Kanniyam Kattupaadu

2009-01-20T13:17:00.000-08:00

Quick thoughts on these 2 movies that I had written a long time back right after watching these movies. Can't remember many scenes from both the movies but still wanted to post these here.

Kireedom - Well, after watching Kireedom, you just can not feel but sorry for Ajith, for he, as always, puts his everything into the movie but he is letdown big time by the director who in his efforts to appease his fans, spoils the entire show and makes the movie a complete bore. Making a movie like this is like preparing a meal, where if you falter at any point by adding more of the spices or salt, the entire meal becomes inedible and that is precisely what happens here. The director tries hard to make us empathize with the travails that Ajith goes through, but it just doesn't cut it, mainly bcos of all the other ingredients that are added to make the movie more appealing to his fan base. I could not even sit through even the supposedly good scenes in the movie - the scene at Ajith's house where Trisha & Ajith are talking in a water tank. It is hard, not to compare this movie with Dhil, an agmark masala movie which had an almost similar storyline and I can easily say that Dhil was miles ahead of this one. Dhil did not try to be a very serious & to-the-point movie. It had all the ingredients that you would expect in a masala movie but it still stayed faithful to the central theme of the movie - that of Vikram trying to become a sub-inspector of police. But here, the script goes haywire beyond a point and nothing could salvage the movie from that. Ajith, hmm...seeing his performance in movies like Godfather and this one, I would probably go to the extreme of saying that even Vijay, with his limited repertoire of expressions & acting, is eminently watchable than Ajith. I would not haven imagined in my wildest dreams that I would type something like this (bcos as many of you know, I am a big-time hater of the other guy) but Ajith does not do anything to change the opinion of sympathisers like yours truly. But then, Ajith was atleast watchable. If there is one person who is consistently irritating and gets on my nerves in every single movie that she appears in, it has to be Trisha. She is at her usual best - artificial in every single scene. The first 30 mins of the movie when Ajith & Trisha fall in love with each was absolutely unwatchable. Raj Kiran does a decent job, as always and delivers what was expected of him. G.V.Prakash's songs are awesome, easily one of the highlights of the movie. It is only when you see Ajith mangle in movies like these, you seriously wonder what if he had acted in Naan Kadavul as per the original plan. A sense of deja vu sets in, as I think I might have typed the same thing in my Godfather review too but that is what readily comes to my mind, every time I watch an Ajith movie.

Kadamai Kanniyam Kattupaadu - Have been wanting to watch this movie for a while mainly bcos of 2 reasons - 1) Kamal produced it with another actor in the lead and 2) the film is supposed to be the best of the 80s when it came to cop stories. With my dad in the Police department, he usually quotes this movie in our discussions. But afterwatching the movie, though I could kind of understand why Kamal came forward to producing this, the movie was a huge let-down. The only positive thing to take home about the movie is its length (just above 2 hours, I guess) and the fact that the movie had no songs. The most irritating thing about the movie was the number of parallel threads running at any given point of time. After a while, the number of such threads just grew too large that I began wondering how will it all be tied up at the end. And surprisingly, the director does not bother to tie some of the loose ends up. Sathyaraj is OK. One of my uncles always cites Sathyaraj's performance in this movie as one of the best. I did not even remotely think that way. He has performed way better than this in many of his movies and this is one over-the-top performance. Nothing much to write about this below average movie.

Conference Championships Preview

2009-01-16T18:57:00.000-08:00

So, it has come to 4 teams after such a topsy-turvy season. Here are my thoughts on the 2 games for the weekend:

Eagles Vs Cardinals: It would be an understatement to say that the Cardinals have stunned the NFL with their advancement to the conference championship game. Absolutely nobody gave them a chance against the Panthers last weekend but they not only beat them but also humiliated them in front of their home crowd (I was in Charlotte for new year and you should see the cockiness in most of their voices as to how the Panthers will for sure make it to the Super Bowl without any issues). If the Cardinals are the most surprising team to be left in the fray, the Eagles are probably the most expected as once the playoffs began, they were the team nobody wanted to play. They have lived up to their name with 2 outstanding victories, at the Vikings and at the Giants. After the Seahawks, the Eagles are my most favorite team and McNabb is my favorite NFL player. So, I am really happy for them.

As far the game, I think the Eagles will win it handily. When Kurt Warner is given all the time in the world, he is a great QB and when he is subjected to pressure that one expects the Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson is expected to bring, he is at best a mediocre quarterback. So, I expect him to have a game slightly better than the one he had against the Patriots where he threw for a mere 30 yards before being benched. The Eagles don't have a quarterback who makes poor decisions like Jake Delhomme did last weekend for the Panthers. Brian Westbrook is always just 1 play away from running away with the game. Good defense, solid running game, efficient passing game - the Eagles recipe for success.

Pick: Eagles by 7

Ravens vs Steelers - The Steelers are the team that everyone loves to hate and the Seattle folks certainly do that after our loss in the Super Bowl game 2 years back. Any time a rookie coach and a rookie quarterback take a team to the conference championship game, we should appreciate it. What the Ravens have done this season has been just short of remarkable. Their bloody good defense always keeps their offense in the game, no matter how badly they do. The Pittsburgh Steelers, on the other hand, statistically have the best defense in football and also have in their ranks the Defensive Player of the year, James Harrison. So, this should be a cat fight between the 2 leading defenses in the league in what is expected to be a low scoring game.

Given the fact that the Steelers won both the regular season match-ups and given the NFL reasoning that it is almost impossible to beat the same time 3 times in a season, I pick the Ravens in this one. Roethlisberger's tendency to hold on to the football, just that wee bit longer, is going to be a major factor as he either will be sacked or will be forced into a turnover of some sort by the ever hungry Ravens defense. Flacco hasn't been sacked even once in the playoffs nor has he thrown an interception. All that will be crucial in this match-up where the margin of error is going to be very small and will ultimately prove to be the deciding factor. As a loyal Seahawks fan, I will be rooting for the Ravens.

Pick: Ravens by 3

Villu - LOL

2009-01-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

So, it looks like Villu is the next product from Vijay's never ending staple of crappy movies. (No, I haven't watched the movie and I have no plans either). Looks like even Vijay fans can't withstand the torture that this movie has to offer. Neutral reviews say that this movie is not half as good as Pokkiri and I couldn't even sit through that one. I shudder to think how bad this movie could be.

Anyway, the reason for this post is about what I read in the Tamil Film Forum here. Couple of hubbers there had this to say about Villu's alleged storyline (that of a son taking revenge for his father's murder. Wow, now thats new)

Hubber 1:

Story: Villu's story starts and ends in the climax

Hubber 2: (he starts writing notes on individual items like comedy - padu mokkai, Vijay - dances well, Nayanthara - looks ugly, Songs - OK, Prakashraj - wasted and then this is what he has to say about the story)

Story: Not Applicable

I haven't laughed so much in a very long time. Simply hilarious. They say that one should share their happiness with others and so here I am promptly doing the same. Laugh along...

Best Songs of the year - 2008

2009-01-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, one of the ten commandments for a blogger who writes a lot about Tamil music & movies is this: "Thou shall list the annual post about the best of the year in Tamil film music". So, heeding to that commandment, here is my post.

The usual conditions that I set for such posts do exist:

1) All these songs should fit in a 80-minute audio CD
2) There should be only one song from any given album, no matter how good the album is.
3) The album should have been released in 2008 (that would eliminate albums like Vellithirai and Anjaadhey since they were released in 2007)

1) Endhan vaanamum from Vaazhthukkal - One of Yuvan's stand-out melodies of 2008.
2) Yaaro manadhile from Dhaam Dhoom - Harris Jeyaraj, Bombay Jayashree. Enuf said.
3) Yae unnidam from Chakkara Viyugam - Typical Karthik Raja melody, with his voice reminding us of his illustrious father's voice.
4) Kangal Irandaal from Subramaniyapuram- Will be a crime not to include this song in this list. James, where were you all these days?
5) Taxi Taxi from Sakkarakatti- one of my picks for the song of the year
6) Mazhai nindra pinbum from Raman Thediya Seethai - A standard Vidhyasagar melody but very enjoyable nevertheless
7) Adai Mazhaikkaalam from Jeyam Kondaan - Vidyasagar. Melody. They do go hand in hand, don't they?
8) Dosth Badaa Dosth from Saroja - Breezy song. Absolutely loved this song.
9) Nenjukkul Peidhidum maamazhai from Vaaranam Aayiram - One of the 6 gems from easily my pick for the album of the year.
10) Aavaaram Poo from Poo - A refreshing song by debutant composer S.S. Kumaran
11) Poovinai thirandhu from Aanandha Thaandavam - GVP finally arrives this year with his uncle-like melody.
12) Lesaa parakkudhu from Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu - This melody from another contestant to the album of the year award.
13) Anaikkindra thaagam from Nepaali - Srikanth Deva surprises us with this enchanting number where Bombay Jeyashree's vocals stand out.
14) Siru thoduthalile from Laadam - A song that makes us long for more from this young lad.

Honorable mentions (a.k.a. The Second CD)

1) Machaan machaan from Silambaattam
2) Marudhaani from Sakkarakatti
3) Uyiril edho from Vennila Kabadi kuzhu
4) Theneeril Snehitham from Subramaniyapuram
5) Hey baby baby from Aegan
6) Kodaana Kodi from Saroja
7) Chellame Chellame from Sathyam
8) Kaalathai vendra kalaignan ivan from Uliyin Osai
9) Unmela aasai pattu from Vaazhthukkal
10) Adiye kolludhe from Vaaranam Aayiram
11) Anbe En Anbe from Dhaam Dhoom
12) En idhayatha kaanom from Chakkraviyugam
13) Kallil aadum theeve from Anandha Thandavam
14) Thendralukku nee from Arai En 305-il Kadavul
15) Ippave Ippave from Raman Thediya Seethai

Album of the year - Vaaranam Aayiram
Honorable mentions - Poo, Vennila Kabadi kuzhu, Subramaniyapuram, Arai En 305-il Kadavul

One rule that NFL can do away with

2008-12-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

This has been that kind of year in the NFL where only 7 of the 12 playoff spots have been finalized going into the final week of the regular season. The bizarre tie between the Bengals & the Eagles, the potential perfectly imperfect season by the Lions, the improbable comeback of the Falcons (and most probably, the 1-15 Dolphins from a year back) back to the playoffs, the reigning MVP injured for the season a few minutes into the season, the defending champions looking good for a repeat unlike earlier seasons, rookie quarterbacks and rookie running backs outshining their more experienced colleagues, etc. The list is just never ending. But the reason I started to write this post was not to act as a round-up of the 2008 NFL regular season.

The reason behind this post is to lament the inherent flaws in the rules that exist due to which a team with 11 wins might not make it to the playoffs this year while a 8-win Arizona or a 8-win San Diego will make it. The AFC East and the NFC South have emerged as the powerhouse divisions of the season. (The perennial powerhouse division, the NFC East, shot one another in such a bad manner that we might just have the division winner from the NFC East in the playoffs.) That invariably means that teams with records better than other division winners might not make it to the playoffs.

The AFC East has been particularly harsh this year. The Patriots might end up with a 11-5 record but still might not make it to the playoffs. And if the Patriots win their game against the Bills and the Dolphins lose to the Jets, we might have 2 10-6 teams that will not make it to the playoffs. Same is the case with NFC South, where the Buccaneers with a 10-6 record might not make it to the playoffs.

On the one hand while we have such intense competition for playoff spots, we also have the winners of perennial weaklings of the NFL - AFC West and NFC West divisions, that makes this whole clamoring of playoff spots almost laugh-worthy or even, meaningless. Lets take the NFC West for example, Seattle is 4-11, San francisco is 6-9, St Louis is 2-13 and the division 'winner' is Arizona with a 8-7 record. The same goes for the AFC West too where Kansas City is 3-12, Oakland is 4-11, San Diego is 7-8 and current division leader Denver is 8-7. And San Diego can win the division with an 8-8 record by virtue of a win over denver this coming weekend. No team has been as inconsistent as Denver this season. They started off strongly when they were a lock for the divisional winner' title a few weeks back (when the Chargers were 5-8. & were, for all practical purposes, down & out of the playoff race.) But now, they are in a must-win situation to win the game against the same Chargers this Sunday night in a flex game.

I am strongly for the changing of rules where winning a division should not matter and instead the records alone should matter. Period. The worst thing about this rule is that the divisional winners, in addition to getting into the playoffs with an inferior record, also get to host the wild card game on top of that. That should definitely hurt all those teams with better records. Here is looking forward to all those undeserving divisional winners lose in the wild card round of the playoffs.

Worst Superhits of all time

2008-12-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

If you are a regular frequenter to Rediff, then this title might seem familiar. Basically, what they had done was to list out the movies which were huge box office hits but the movies themselves basically sucked. Gaddar, Devdas, were some in the list.

That immediately had me thinking "Why don't we do a post on the same topic about Tamil movies?" and this post is the result of the same. For this list, I have mostly come up with movies that were released roughly in the last decade or so. The reason why I did not dig deep into the movies that were released in 80s and 90s was that now years removed from their release date, we find most of them to be badly made. It is just a matter of us having moved on, that most of the superhits from those decades will suck when you watch it now save for some genuine gems like Mullum Malarum, Mahanadhi, Mani Rathnam's movies, etc.

Alright now over to the list.

Kushi - This was the movie after watching which I decided 'Alright I am not going to watch any more of his movies'. The songs of this movie were a raging hit back then and that was one of the reasons why I went to this movie. But the silly 'acting' by Vijay and Jyothika were all it required for me to add this movie to this list.

Vaanathai Pola - Any Vikraman directed superhit movie from those days can make it to this list. And this has to be one of the worse movies directed by him and I still could not digest the fact that the movie was a monstrous hit. I am never the one who walks out of a movie hall, no matter how bad they are. But this movie was an exception. Walked out during the interval and then had friends come over after watching the entire movie and say that I was lucky.

Suryavamsam - Another Vikraman directed super hit from the 90s. Devayani happened to be the one actress I detest the most. Add her to Sarath Kumar's awful looking artificial get-up and you get the perfect recipe for disaster. Though the songs from the movie were a big hit, the Rosappoo song was one of my least favorite songs back then and naturally, all of these reasons combined to make me add this movie to this list.

Anniyan - R E M O are 4 letters that helped this movie make it to the list. There were reasons aplenty why I hated the movie - the umpteen number of logical holes in the movies, Shankar's over indulgence at various places, espcially in the fight scenes and his stale old formula. But the Remo character easily took the cake as to why I consider this movie to be one of the worst superhits of the last decade.

Pokkiri - Well, the vow I took after watching Kushi was broken when one of my friends (who is a big time Vijay fan) compelled me to watch this movie. Here is the review I wrote after watching the movie. Plenty of reasons to add this movie to this list.

Chandramukhi - If not for Thalaivar, I am pretty sure this movie would not have even
run for 10 days. Vasu tortures us with some 3rd rate jokes, ridiculous logic and some 1980s acting. Still baffles me as to why this movie ran for that long.

Billa - I really can't think of any reason why this movie should have run. IMO, even the songs from this Yuvan - Vishnu combo movie were not their best. Ajith is just atrocious when it comes to oozing the style required for this role.

Dasavatharam - Well, the mental wounds from watching this movie haven't healed properly yet. Oh man, what a torture to sit through the 3 hours. Kamal's make-up and Asin were the top reasons why this movie sucked. Big time at that.

Honorable mentions: Ghajni, Thullaadha Manamum Thullum, Muthu, Godfather, Vettaiyaadu Velaiyaadu, Jayam, Ullam Kaetkkume

So, there goes my list. As always, invite your comments on any movie that you think should definitely find a place in the list.

The Final Missing Piece

2008-12-15T18:46:00.000-08:00

This is what I had written in my Twitter at the end of the 3rd day's play (Yes, not the 4th day's play when Sehwag had already tilted the game in India's favor).

Something tells me that India is gonna win the Chennai test. First true test of Dhoni's leadership skills.

But even while writing the post, I had not imagined it would be Sachin who would be behind this epic win. I went to bed last night when India still needed 174 runs in 2 sessions with 7 wickets in hand. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep peacefully and so, got up at around 4:45am to check the score and thus woke up to one of the most memorable days in the life of Sachin fans around the globe.

Today can easily be termed as one of my happiest days, as a Sachin fanatic. I mean, how long have we, the Sachin fans who have been with him through thick and thin, had to put up taunts by Sachin haters and critics alike, that he has never won a game for India. Yesterday's innings was as emphatic as it gets and I sincerely feel that Sachin's test resume has found its one last missing piece (We all know what his ODI resume still lacks - a world cup win)

If you had been someone like me who has followed Sachin's career the last 19 years and more importantly, defended him in endless arguments with friends and in discussion forums with strangers, you should be pretty much used to the following usual criticisms.

He scores glorious centuries after glorious centuries (that monumental 136 against Pak at the same Chepauk) but India loses the game at the end. And we hear the critics say "Will this man ever win a game for India?"
He makes half-centuries & centuries (his first test hundred against England, for example) and helps India secure a draw, from near certain defeat. And the critics go "Nah... he did not win the match for India"
He makes crucial centuries & half-centuries in the 3rd innings of tests and helps secure a victory for India (the 155 against the Aussies at the same Chepauk). But then, the nay sayers go "Look at his fourth innings average"

When you look at all these above accusations usually hurled at Sachin, what he achieved yesterday with a determined and resolute innings is much more significant than we actually think. This might not have been his best innings but it easily might have been his most important innings of his career when it comes to defining the greatness of the man, which some critics still question. He checked off everything in the following list with his century yesterday:

Has not single-handedly won a game for India
Has not scored a match winning century in the 4th innings of a test match
Has not done both the above against quality opposition
Has not done all of the above in a pressure-cooker situation

So, I am just ecstatic and more than that, relieved beyond measure that a huge and well-deserved full-stop can be placed on all such ridiculous and mostly undeserving criticisms. I was there in Chepauk when Sachin made that epic 136 against Pakistan and till date, it remains one of the best sports events that I have ever been witness to. How I wish I was there in Chennai yesterday. One of those days that makes you think about the futility of life in a country where you can't even go & watch your idol play probably one of his finest innings. Deep sigh...

Of course, when Sachin scores a century like this, you can trust Cricinfo to come up with an eulogy that only their writers seem to conjure up with :) The following is their tribute to the Master's effort yesterday. Goosebump alert!!

Superstar Tendulkar writes the perfect script

Nike does it again

2008-12-09T08:31:00.001-08:00

Have always been a huge fan of Nike's commercials. The latest one is no exception. Awesome is one word I would use to describe this commercial.

Weekend Movies - Vaaranam Aayiram and Saroja

2008-11-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

Vaaranam Aayiram - I have never been a big fan of Gautham Menon (like his style of film-making but not his movies in their entirety) and so it should come as a surprise when I say that this is one Gautham Menon movie that is hard for me to trash. Of his 5 movies, this one easily is his most honest effort, obviously bcos he is trying to pay homage to his deceased father. Yes, the movie was long to the point to boring you at some places and yes, it did not sound like a Tamil movie most of the time (my friend's wife cannot understand Tamil but she was able to understand the movie just fine) and yes, the zillion times that Surya uuters Daddy/ Dad irritated me to no end, but one thing that Gautham cannot be faulted is his noble intention behind this movie. But like we have seen umpteen number of times before, good intentions alone cannot make a great movie.

The problem with a movie like this, whose storyline is more biographical than a sequence of events resulting in a climax, is that unless you relate to the characters in the movie, you just won't be able to appreciate the movie, no matter how good it is. The moment the father Surya calls his son, kiddo, he lost me and the repeated usage of English dialogs only aggravated that aloofness I developed early on in the movie. But at the same time, its not like I could not relate to anything in the movie. The one I can remember right off the top is when the father Surya & Simran go to leave their son at the hostel for the first time. Though my dad did not sputter out dialogs like "You are on your own", the fact that I too cried when my mom & dad left me in the hostel for the first time ever made me go "Yeah, I know that feeling". But then again, those moments came few and far between, for me to completely imbibe or rather understand the feelings that were going through son Surya's mind, as he recalling all important moments of his life.

Loved every minute of the Surya - Sameera Reddy romantic track of the movie. While it lasted, I did not want to end, though I knew that something was going to happen which would cut-short their romance. Sameera Reddy was gorgeous and no wonder when the movie title rolled, her name got more applause than Surya. Romance is something that very few of our directors get it right and Gautham is one of them. The romance in Kaakka Kaakka and Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu are easily some of the best romances that have come out of Tamil movies in the last few years. But again, the same cannot be said of the Divya love angle which looked very forced and just didn't gel with the narrative of the second half.

Coming to performances, to say that Surya has turned in an exemplary performance would be an understatement. The sheer magnitude of the effort he has put into this role is mind boggling and deserves our appreciation just for that. The way he changed his appearance for about every 5 scenes in the movie talks so much about the dedication of this young actor. The only movie where I can recall the hero donning so many get-ups was Hey Ram. Kamal came in so many get-ups in that movie, that I easily lost count of how many such getups he came in. But having said all that, his portrayal of the father character was not very convincing. His body language in particular was, to say the least, artificial and labored. I have to say one thing about his 6 pack though - agreed, it belongs to the 'Owner's pride, neighbour's envy" category. But did Surya have to flaunt it shamelessly in that last scene before the climax fight?

Speaking of the climax, it looked as though it was included just bcos the movie will have climax fight. By then, nobody was interested what was going to happen in Surya's resuce mission or even, what the rescue mission was. But that fight did serve one purpose though - I caught the blink-and-you-will-miss cameo of Gautham Menon. Did anybody else notice?

I was already addicted to Harris Jeyarajs' songs and his BGM was cool in certain scenes. Loved the way the Adiye Kolluthey song was picturized, particularly the guitar strumming dance step and also the steps inside the library. Though the Anjala song comes out of nowhere (Surya suddenly starts saying 'Ava en Anjala-da"), loved the kuthu dance steps of the song.

Comparisons to another dad homage movies, Thavamaai thavam Irundhu, are inevitable and personally, for me, this one just did not have the emotional impact that Thavamaai Thavam irundhu had. Not even close. May be it was the English dialogs or may be, it was the screenplay in the second half that went nowhere or it was the story that was more of a biography than anything, I did not feel the proverbial lump in my throat as I walked out of the theater. And that unfortunately would be my verdict of the movie.

Saroja - This was one of the more eagerly awaited movies for obvious reasons. We all wanted to know if Chennai 600028 was a flash in the pan or if this guy really has the stuff to go a long way. But the unfortunate thing about the movie is that it does not really answer that question that was on our minds. To be very clear at the outset, the movie is a letdown and a half-baked attempt at best. I am going to try my best to compare Venkat Prabhu to a painter who knows only one way to paint. When he attempted his method on a light-hearted canvas like Chennai 600028, everything just magically clicked. But over here, he tries painting a canvas that is far more serious and thus just falls flat mostly. This can be clearly seen as the movie progresses where the fun & jolly scenes that the movie starts with, makes way for more drama in the 2nd half. And when you have Premji Amaran joking around when they were running for their lives, it just did not sit well with me. Having said that, I also have to admit that though most of Premgi Amaran's jokes were complete mokkai, I couldn't help laughing out loud for them. The references to Thalaivar's dialogs in Sivaji was way too funny. Same goes for the scene when he 'discovers' the Marudhanayagam DVD.

My second biggest grouse about the movie is the damn lighting. Most of the the scenes that were shot in that factory like place was just too dark to even figure out who was doing what. Brought me back bad memories from Mani Rathnam's movies from the 80s. The long and drawn out climax was such a yawn and I was screaming "Enough already!"

Yuvan's music was definitely a big plus to the movie. Loved his background score, including the much-panned piece that comes when the van capsizes. Even Yuvan's cameo appearance in the Cheeky Cheeky song was cool. I was expecting something really awkward but Venkat Prabhu just proves to be a cool customer, in the way the song was picturized. The Dosth badaa dosth song was picturized in his own imitable style. When I watched the title song in Om Shanthi Om, I was like 'Wouldn't it be cool if we do the same in Tamil?" And so needless to say, I was excited to see Venkat Prabhu take that idea and spin it in his own unique style by raking in the popular TV stars. Bottom line - this movie looked like a rushed up effort, either to cash in on the huge success of Chennai 600028 or to quell our doubts that he is not a one-hit wonder. It might have succeeded on the first reason but definitely did not provide any answers to the second one.

This is a too much

2008-11-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

It is probably to be used in situations like this that the phrase "This is a too much" was probably coined. I mean, how much more ridiculous this can get.

BCCI's complaint over Lloyd's comments

Clive Llyod, while on a private visit to Mumbai, while responding to a question, moots the idea that the ICC should find a way for the IPL and ICL to work together, for the betterment of both the players and the game.

What does the BCCI do? It shoots a complaint saying that the ICC should condone his statement bcos he works for the ICC in some capacity. This is what the BCCI does with the financial clout it enjoys over other ICC countries. All this muscling down of any disagreement , no matter how insignificant it is, is slowly and surely getting to all the constituent countries.

There was a time when I used to feel proud of India's dominance in the world of cricket administration. But more and more the BCCI acts as arrogant dictators who can't the slightest of criticisms, the more exasperating it becomes. What next? Kapil Dev should not comment on Indian cricketers bcos they represent the BCCI?

Flavor of the season - Obama

2008-11-20T17:16:00.000-08:00

Loved the mosaic/ collage below, that was made out of the first pages of newspapers from all over the world, after the historic victory. Courtesy - Obama News Mosaic. The size of the version I have uploaded here is around 5 MB while the higher resolution one is 58 MB big. Download it if you are a big-time Obama fan.

The one below is a laugh riot. My friend who came across this poster while traveling in a bus, wrote this and sent it out to us, since he could not get his camera out in time to capture the poster. The important thing to note about this poster is that this was created months before he actually became the President-elect !!

Weekend Movies

2008-11-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

Subramaniyapuram - After a year where we have been looking for quality movies with every single hyped-up release and then getting disappointed immensely, here comes a movie, that was almost unannounced and takes us by surprise, a la Sethu in many ways. Realistic movies with a tight screenplay work great, even if the storyline as such is nothing to rave about and Subramaniyapuram is the latest proof for the same. Can easily say that this is the best movie of the year and by many miles, if I might add. There is something about the directors from the Balu Mahendra school of direction that is so unique in the kind of movies they make. The portrayal of the heroine is one of the prime traits. Though the way she keeps looking & shying away at Azhagu kind of gets to us after a while, her performance in the climax scene just rocked and did remind me of Laila's performance in Pithamagan's climax. I loved the nonchalant acting of Sasi Kumar throughout the movie. And when the situation needed it, he brought the kind of expression to his face that was very convincing. Our Vijay look-alike from Chennai 28 was decent enough. Though in no way can be called a great performance, one could see the effort he has put into this performance and he needs all our appreciation. The care that the director has taken to bring the 80s environment was just perfect, down to the way the guys wore their lungis :) I could hardly notice any out of place item in the whole movie. And needless to say, it was an awesome experience noticing all the nuances that the director has brought about ,making sure that the 80s period has been recreated.

The biggest strength to the movie was James vasanthan's music. Ever since I heard the song Kangal Irandaal, I started listening to the other songs in the movie too and each one of them was just so addictive. His background score in the second half of the movie serves the movie brilliantly. The way he had used silence in many of the crucial scenes was just as captivating as any other background score he had produced for the movie. For a more detailed analysis of the background score of the movie, I recommend Suresh's detailed post on the same.

Looks like the path to success in Tamil films has to go through Madurai in some way or the other and nothing can make a Maduraikkaaran like yours truly more happy than that :) After Ameer and Bala, here comes another director who has made an amazing movie and in turn, make us sit up and pay attention. Welcome to the big league, Sasi Kumar.

Sarkar Raj - I have always been a fan of Ram Gopal Verma but I am not so sure if I can call myself one, after watching this movie. It is not that this is the movie that made me decide that way but some of his recent films made me start thinking about my fanship. To call the movie pointless would be a gross understatement. It has something in the form of story but fails to engross us. There are these usual highlights of an RGV directed movie - some cool camera angles, some different lighting. But that alone does not make for great cinema. Abhishek Bachan tries to be the that suave and cold-blooded heir apparent to a Godfather like Amitabh but he fails at it pretty miserable. His body language completely sucked. The gait that is so crucial to carry off a role like his in this movie, is completely missing in this guy and as a result the whole tone of the movie suffers.

Everyone in the movie utters every single dialog with so much seriousness as if that dialog could decide the fate of the universe. I mean, somebody would say something and then there would be this serious background music as though something very important was to be uttered by the next person who would in fact say "Phir?". Speaking of background score, RGV's movies have always had some haunting background scores but it is sadly missing in this one. They said that RGV, though not back to his old form, kind of regained some lost ground with this one, after the terrible RGV ki Aag. I didn't watch that movie but I shudder to think how bad it might have been, given the fact that I did not find this movie remotely entertaining.

Jodhaa Akbar - Finally got around to watching this movie, that I have been planning to for a long time. All the reviews that you might have read for JA would have in one way or the other praised the production quality and the art direction (the grandeur of the sets, costumes by leading actors, etc). But unfortunately for me, nothing of that sort excites me anymore. Add the 3 hour+ running time on top of the genre of the movie that is a turn-off for me, you get a movie that I found completely uninteresting & lengthy. Hrithik is one actor for whom I have very regards. He may not be the most talented actor in Bollywood (say, like a Nana Patekhar or an Aamir Khan) but I can easily vouch for the fact that he is the most sincere of all the actors around. You can almost sense the sincerity he brings to his performances, no matter how stupid his role in that movie might be (Dhoom 2 comes to my mind). But even he could not convincingly portray Akbar in this movie. May be, it has got to do with the fact that we are all used to our own vision/ version of Akbar in our minds and so when someone we know acts as Akbar, it just doesn't gel. That probably could be the biggest reason why I could not bring myself to admire the movie. Well, then there is Aishwarya Rai who is becoming more irritating in every movie of hers. Rahman's songs had some very delightful tunes. Somehow missed hearing the songs when they were released but got hooked to them big time after watching the movie. The way Ashutosh Gowariker had picturized the songs were entertaining and interesting and that is saying a lot considering the fact that this is a period movie. This was movie that did not excite me even by the time the movie was launched. The problem I have with movies like this is I am not sure why a director like AG decides to do a movie like this (the same anguish I had when Farhan Akhthar did Don). May be, the movie offered him directorial challenges that someone like me will not be able to understand. Or may be it was one of his long time wishes to make a movie about Jodhaa Akbar. But like many, I will quickly forget this movie and will look forward to AG's next venture.

I Did Not Know This Yesterday - 2

2008-11-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

The 'I did not know this yesterday' series I started a while ago just did not go anywhere. So, wanted to revive it with a new post. So, sometime back, there was this news article that was about a mountain in Wales that was not a hill anymore but a mountain. (The reasons they cite on why this is such a big news are very revealing)

So, that article also had the answer to one of my long time questions - what is the exact difference between a hill and a mountain. After some more googling, I confirmed that the following is the answer:

A mountain is a hill over 2000 feet (609.8m) in height. Anything under that is considered a hill.

The above is from Wiki Answers. Found it really interesting and became a ready-made candidate for a post that can be included in this series.

What just happened?

2008-10-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

No YouTube video has cracked me up, as much as this one has done to me, ever. Every time there is a need for some laughter at home, we turn to this video these days. There are 2 things about the video that is just too hilarious. First, is obviously the fact that a baby Panda can sneeze as hard as it does in the video and second & the more funny one, is the reaction of the hapless mom to her baby's sneeze. That look on the mom's face is just priceless.

Satyam movie review and a poll

2008-10-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Satyam - This is one of those movies that you watch inspite of all the bad reviews for the one and only reason: that is to rip the movie apart in your blog. After watching it, I was glad that my DVD rental did not go to waste as the movie was everything (and actually more) that all those reviews bashing the movie claimed it to be. This movie was an utter piece of crap., so bad you are not even motivated enough to trash it in your blog. The one thing that went through my mind as I watched the movie - how in the world did Vishal's dad agree to produce a movie like this? If the producer is someone who is not in your immediate family circle, it is somewhat understandable. But in this case with Vishal's dad/ brother being the producer, it is baffling. Vishal's voice is going to be a perennial problem just like in Ravi's case. And in his quest to sport a 6-pack ab, his face seems to have lost its original flair and he looks fatigued and odd. The only aspect of Vishal's movies I used to like were the stunts and even they looked very ordinary in this one.

But among all the negatives in the movie, if you were to ask me the one that irritated me the most, the scenes involving Nayanthara and Premji easily took the crown. The so-called pranks the kids play on her were downright silly. So, were her dance steps in the En Anbe song. This actually got me started to think about the most annoying roles by a leading actress in movies. My earliest memory of such a stupid role came in the movie Ninaithen Vandhaai by Devayani. I still vividly remember her shrieking voice from the movie which made me scratch my head every time she uttered a dialog. Jyothika was another actress who got on my nerves with her antics and thus every single movie with her in the lead role annoyed me to no ends, though I will have to call her 'performance' in Kushi as the one that annoyed me the most. So, dwelling further on this, I decided to come up with the following poll.

Which performance by a lead actress in a Tamil move annoyed you the most? Basically, got on your nerves the most and single-handedly brought down your opinion of the movie.

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Personally, it was a close call between Asin in Dasavatharam and Nayanthara in Ghajini. But then, the presence of some redeeming features in an otherwise decent Ghajini made me to vote for Asin in Dasavatharam.

The Real Maverick story

2008-10-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

All you need to know about John McCain's often quoted 'great' American story.

The Rolling Stone magazine presents Make-Believe maverick

Oh...the stupidity

2008-10-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Recently, a potential voter asked “Can I vote for Palin and Obama?” Sounds funny, right? This was bcos apparently she thinks running for VP and running for the President are two totally separate races and that depending on how the vote on Nov 4th goes, she could enjoy an Obama/Palin presidency.

The above voter is exactly the reason why McCain went against his wishes of selecting someone like Joe Lieberman and had to pick Palin as his running mate. And yeah, no wonder this country actually re-elected Bush for a second term!

Vaaranam Aayiram songs

2008-09-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

One more proof that Harris reserves his best for Gautham and also that his combination with Gautham Menon is one of the best in the tamil film industry. And this time around, he has pulled it off without his trademark Bombay Jeyashree number :)

Simply loved all the songs with Mundhinam Paarthene and Nenjukkul Peidhidum being my picks. I would go far enough to say that this is one of the best albums of the year, along with Poo and Subramaniyapuram. One person who has an equal share in the songs from this combo becoming huge hits and one who is often overlooked is Thamarai. She is definitely the life line for many of the songs in the albums of this combo and she has worked her magic again in Vaaranam Aayiram. (While on Thamarai, this interview with her back couple of years back makes for some good reading: There's no rhyme without reason)

Of course, there was also the typical Gautham style dialog at the beginning of the Mundhinam paarthene song which immediately doused any meager hopes I had for the movie. Some things just don't change, I guess and we should stop expecting the same. I was like "Gautham, please spare us this torture"

Including Vaaranam Aayiram, all the 5 albums by Harris for Gautham have been blockbusters and Rahman has an arduous task to match this track record with Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikkaalam.

Forgot Password? Forget logging in

2008-09-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

If you have not seen a single B2Csite on the WWW which does not have the Forgot Password? option, then I welcome you to the TrueRoots website. I use Reliance for my calls to India but also buy from TrueRoots from time to time. I heard they were running a promotion and so, went over there to recharge my account. Since it has been ages since the last time I logged in, I had forgotten my password and so, started my search for a Forgot password link in the site. None. My search returned zero results. I was just annoyed that they can have a customer facing website without a Forgot Password or Recover password option. Their FAQ & Help sections are pretty exhaustive about all the issues that a customer might face in their website but not a word about password retrieval even there.

And what happened was even more ridiculous. I sent an email to customer service stating the trouble I am having and this is what I get as a reply back from them:

Dear Filbert,

Thank you for taking the effort to write to us.

We request you to follow the below steps to reset your password:
1. Go to the website www.trueroots.us
2. First you need to login to your account, Click on "Account settings"
3. It will take you to the page where you'll find 3 options, select the third option "Reset Password" and Change the password of your choice.

If you want to reset your password without logging in to your account, you can call us at our customer service number.

How illogical is that? I was fed up and went back to Reliance for my next recharge.

When invincibles go down...

2008-09-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

I did my schooling at TVS Lakshmi in Madurai. The school, back then & I am assuming still is, very popular for the high number of students it churns out who score above the magical number of 1100 out of a possible 1200 in the higher secondary exams. The year after I passed out, I met a school junior on the way and asked him how much did he score. He said he had scored 1155 but is still ranked somewhere around 25th in the school. That statement best explained the amazing regularity with which our school used to produce 1100+ scores. But then there was a reason why our school was able to accomplish this: the students that the school admits in the 11th standard. What used to happen was most of the toppers in the 10th standard exams from other schools in Madurai would switch schools and join our school for 11standard, mainly bcos of the reputation our school enjoyed. Thus our school literally didn't have to do anything special to produce that kind of results. The students pretty much took care of the results themselves. And that exactly was why when people used to talk about my school in glowing terms, I used to feel uncomfortable bcos IMHO, the school just didn't deserve all the credit it was getting.

Reason I am bringing all that here, where I actually wanted to write about the USC loss yday is simple: USC pretty much does the same when it comes to recruiting for its football team. Many of the highly talked about football players coming out of high school in America end up signing for USA. I remember looking at the list of top 10 prospects in the country for each one of the positions in the Souts.com site (that ranks high school players across all sports) in 2005 and atleast 3-4 players (out of that 10) for each position had committed playing for USC. Thus is their dominance when it comes to recruiting. It is said that the 4th string running back of USC can start at RB at any other college in the US. That is how strong they are. And that is exactly the reason why I hate USC - they recruit the best players in the country and then proudly tout themselves as the best team in the nation.

Going to their game against Oregon State yday as 25-point favorites, nobody was expecting what ultimately happened last night. The Beavers just stunned the college football world with their victory over the Trojans and throwing the national championhip game wide open. And you could not have found a happier person than yours truly last night, as nothing gives me more pleasure than watching USC lose. Last night was exactly one reason why I love watching college football even more than I do watching NFL. The sheer unpredictability and the fact that all it takes is one game to screw up your entire season, like the way USC did to their 2008 season yday.

Mt. St. Helens - A climb like no other

2008-09-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

Climbing permit - 22$
Stay at motel close to trail head - 85$
Peeking into the crater from the summit of an active volcano - Priceless...

That's exactly how it felt when I completed this arduous 9-hour hike last weekend. I have been hiking here in the Seattle area for 3 years now and ever since I heard that we would be able to hike up to the rim of the St. Helens crater, I have been waiting for the day when I would be atop the summit of the mountain, standing at 8365 feet (The St. Helens Wiki is a good place to know about the mountain's eruption history). Last year, we had a very busy hiking season with close to 100 miles covered during summer. But we just didn't plan enough to finish the St. Helens hike before the hiking season ended.

But this year around, we had decided right when the hiking season started, that we should finish this season with this hike. Though we did not do as many hikes as we did last year, we still covered enough miles to keep us in shape to complete this hike. We knew that you have to register to climb this hike and so, when we started the process to register for this climb, we ran into a small snag - the forest service only distributes 100 climbing permits per day during the summer and almost all the weekends in summer usually get booked right when the online booking started back in February or something. So, when we started looking for dates with available permits, all the weekends & most of the Fridays in summer had been sold out and finally, we got one Friday towards the end of summer - on September 12.

Thus began our preparation & anticipation for the big climb. Many a time during the hiking season, this climb proved to be the motivation for the regular day hikes that we do in this area, bcos on days when we were not motivated enough to go on a hike, the thought that we had to be ready for St. Helens convinced us to go on the hike that we had planned for that day. The other preparation that I did for this hike was by making myself as the person who has read the maximum number of trip reports of people who have hiked the mountain :) I would frequently search for St. Helens trip reports, both on the hiking forums and in blogger and by the time the D-day was around, I would have read at least a good 50 trip reports. All trip reports basically said one thing: that the hike is not merely tough but it is brutal. Even professional hikers seemed to agree to that.

The terrain and nature of the hike is what makes this hike unique and a hike unlike no other: the first 2 miles through the forest is like most other trails but you only gain 1000 feet over those 2 miles. Trailhead is at 3800 feet and so, after the treeline is done, you are at 4800 feet. Then starts the first of 2 tough phases of the hike - the scramble through the rocks & stones over 2 miles where you gain a good 2200 feet. Then comes the 2nd tough section of the hike - walk up loose sand (it is actually lava ash and is almost like beach sand) for close to a mile over which you gain the last 1365 feet.

Then came the big day. Most hikers camp at the trail head on the night before the hiking day. But since we have never done camping before, we decided to book a motel 30 mins from the trail head. Left Seattle on Thursday evening, checked in at around 9pm and then went to bed rightaway as we had planned to get an early start. Woke up at 4:45 and were at the trail head at 6:30. The forecast for the day was just perfect hiking weather.

The first 2 miles were as I had mentioned before was almost like a stroll in the park. We finished the forest section of the trail at around 7:40.

Only when we came face to face with the rocky section of the hike, did we realize the magnitude of the task lying ahead of us. Then, we started the long hard hike up the rocks (some of them being as big as big as compact cars). Bcos of the rocks, there was no set trail. There were only tall white poles every 100 feet or so, that kind of acted as guide to the hikers, as to where they should be headed towards next. The rocky section was truly energy sapping, as we drank a good 60% of the water we had carried during this section. Often during this section, we would come across a really steep vertical section of rocks (like in the picture below) and we would think that should be the end of the rocky section.
But only after we get to that point, would we discover the next one. And this one went on for a good 7-8 times after which we were finally done with the rocky section (time at this point was 10:30)
There were couple of seismographic equipments at this point which I presume, were observing the mountain in some way.
After this, was the long hard climb up the lava ash. The only good thing about this section is that right after the rocky section is over, we were able to see the summit of the mountain and people sitting at the rim of the crater.
But this phase of the hike was easily the toughest and the fact that the rocky section of the hike had sapped all the energy out of us, only made things much more difficult than they already were. There is not even a good place to rest during this section and the hiking poles were our only source of rest. And finally, after a lot of huffing & puffing and countless number of stops and shouts of 'you can do it' among ourselves, we made it to the summit exactly at 12.

The feelings that went through my mind as I realized that I am looking into crater of an active volcano was just unbelievable. You can almost call that feeling spiritual. The size of the crater as such was huge and even looking at all those pictures from those umpteen trip reports had not prepared me for what I saw.
There were some gases that were fuming at a few places and since I have read before that they are normal activity, I didn't panic!!

From the summit, one gets amazing views of 5 of the tallest peaks in the area - Mt. Rainier, Mt. baker, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson (the last 2 in Oregon) We spent not more than 30 mins at the summit bcos of the high winds and the sand the winds were kicking up. So, took a lot of pictures and then it was ready for us to leave. We had originally planned to have our lunch up at the summit but then bcos of the winds & the sand, decided against it.

While we were at the summit, another cool thing happened. A hiking group had brought a golf club & a bunch of golf balls along with them and they were taking turns hitting the golf balls into the crater. That I thought was pretty cool and added to our list of unforgettable memories at the summit.

So, here are the vital stats:

Distance: 9.4 miles (Round trip)
Time: 9 hours (Ascent - 5.5 hours, descent - 3 hours and 30 mins at the summit)
Elevation gain: 4500 feet
Difficulty level: Most difficult

When I finished the hike and got back to the trail head, I looked back at the mountain we had just conquered and I was truly surprised that I had just climbed that towering mountain. This was easily the toughest hike that I have ever done and the unique terrain of the trail just makes this a hike unlike no other. I am even tempted to call this the biggest accomplishment of my life and when I do ponder about it now, a week removed from the hike, that line of thinking would not be way off the mark.

Endhiran - The Robot starts rolling

2008-09-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

So, here it is: the most awaited Shooting Starts Today ad for Robot. Well, have to say that I was a tad disappointed looking at the picture. It kind of looks weird and that picture does not even need Thalaivar. I mean, anybody could have just done some CG work and made that poster. The only thing cool about the picture is the font style of Enthiran. It is uber cool. Same with the way, the tag line The Robot has been added to the name of the movie (much like it was done for Sivaji - The Boss).

But if we were to go by Shankar's track record with Sivaji, we have got some good news. The still that was released when Sivaji was launched was never used in the movie and all the stills from the actual movie were far better than the one that was released at the time of launch. So, here is expecting another such work from Shankar.

The following picture is for the Telugu version where the name of the movie is just Robot and the tag line there is fantabulous :) speed: 1 TERRA HZ memory: 1 ZETTA BYTE

Sify reports that the shooting of Robot will start at the following 2 locations, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Iguassu Falls in Brazil. The 2 locations just look amazing. Trust Shankar to bring these awesome locations to our eyes in the best possible way in Robot.

So, thus it starts, for possibly the most hyped up movie ever in the history of Tamil cinema and lets just enjoy the ride for the next 2 years or so :)

Weekend Movies - Cheeni Kum & Satham Podaathey

2008-08-26T18:17:00.001-07:00

Have been extremely busy at work, the last couple of weeks and hence the absence of posts here. Watched these 2 movies a long time back and had written this back then, right after watching the movie. So, here goes my 2 cents worth on the 2 movies.

Cheeni Kum - This is one of those rare movies, where as the end credits start rolling, you realize the smile on your lips. That says so much about how much I liked the movie. When you are able to relate to the sensibilities of the lead pair and the kind of conversations they have & the way their relationship grows, it becomes so much easier for you to appreciate the movie. The subtle underlying comedy in most of the conversations between Amitabh and Tabu is just what they are supposed to be - subtle :) I am no big fan of the Big B but I did feel that this is one of those roles where I can not imagine any other Bollywood actor carrying off with the poise with which AB did in this movie. Though I have great regard for Tabu as an actress, there is something about her voice modulation which just does not let me appreciate her effort & her performance fully. This has been the case with all the Tabu movies that I have watched in the past and same happens in this case too. The camera work is just too neat and sets the perfect mood for the entire duration of the movie. Then, there was the Maestro who conducts a mini workshop on how background scores should be done and who also teaches the younger crop of composers that retuning of old classics can be good thing if they were done the right way. I just could not believe myself that I was admiring the re-tuned versions of the songs 'Kuzhaloodhum kannanukku' and 'Mandram vandha thendralukku', bcos these 2 songs are so much close to my heart that any attempt at retuning those songs might have cringed me. But the Maestro proves his stuff (that only legends like him are made of) as he has delightfully re-tuned the songs. There is a freshness in those songs that is just too good. I simply loved everything about the movie, even its ending something that was not liked many of the reviewers. Paresh Rawal was at his usual best and the little kid too did her job commendably well. Usually, characters like that of the little kid tend to go overboard as in Mani Rathnam movies where kids don't behave as kids. But there was something about this little kid and her characterization that did not annoy me a tiny bit. As long as Amitabh chooses to act in movies like these, I would definitely welcome it. A movie that I simply loved.

Satham Podaathey - Rusty is probably the best way to describe Vasanth's effort in this movie. May be it is the long gap between his last movie and this one, or may be he has just lost it, I don't know, but this movie was certainly a disappointment. When a thriller movie just doesn't have your adrenaline flowing and instead makes you check your watch every now & then, then there is something seriously wrong with the movie. Songs picturization is one department where I rank Vasanth very highly but he fails very badly in this one. Yuvan's songs and background were a big plus to the movie. The whole sequence of Padmapriya not finding out the difference between Prithviraj on the phone and Prithviraj in person was a bunch of bull. Some of Vasanth's movies will find a place in my list of all-time favorite movies but then no movie has been added to that list since Rhythm happened close to a decade ago. May be, its time to place Vasanth on the washed-up directors list. But I will be only glad to be proved wrong.

Quotable Quotes

2008-08-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

Few weeks back, the subject of the sermon at my church was "Freedom from Financial pain". During the course of his sermon, the pastor provided some quotable quotes and I wanted to share them with you guys here.

Where there is a will, there is a relative.

Lattes are a luxury.

Car payments are killers.

The next purchase will make me happier.

Though each one of them is true in some sense, the last one stood out for me, as the best among the 4. How many times have we thought of this and by the time that 'next purchase' is made, we start longing for our 'next purchase' on our never-ending list.

BTW, my order at Starbucks/ Tully's these days looks like this: Tall brewed coffee with room for cream :)

I Did Not Know This Yesterday - 1

2008-08-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

While I was googling for some information a while back, I came across this interesting blog called I did not know this yesterday, that was basically a collection of interesting trivia/ information on topics that we all might have questions about and a cool name to go along with it. More than the content of the blog, it was the name of the blog that captured my attention and inspired me to start this series.

During the course of our day to day life, we certainly come to know of some stuff like that and so I wanted to start my own series. To start the series, here is my first topic: Mule.

I have always known that mule is, though in some way related to horse, is not exactly a horse in its infant stages. But I was not exactly sure about it, at the same time. That was all until last week when I was watching some program in travel channel where they said what a mule was - it is the child of a female horse and a male donkey.

I know I could have started this series with something more interesting that this one but this is what I have for now :) I will be only glad if you can send me such trivia to post here as part of this series.

Kuselan - P.Vasu does not disappoint

2008-08-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

Before you guys start pouncing on me for making that statement, let me clear something. This was what I was expecting in the movie, after the experience of watching Chandramukhi and after watching the few scenes in the trailer & few pictures that were released:

1) A drama like feel throughout the film
2) A truck load of character artists and side artists
3) Cheap, third rated comedy
4) Incoherent and messy screenplay
5) Most importantly, bungling the few mins of screen time that Thalaivar allotted for this movie

And P.Vasu delivers on all these fronts without any disappointment, as the movie had all of the above. Even though the stills looked a lot better when they were released, the tone and acting of all the other actors in the movie was like watching a 2 hour long TV mega-serial with a long list of actors present in every single frame of the movie. I could have even stood all that but it is the cheap 3rd rated Vadivelu jokes with the camera focusing on Nayanthara and the other actress Sona at all the wrong places that got me so angry. I mean, a Thalaivar movie is not the place for stupid jokes like that. If someone calls this movie a clean family entertainer, then there can not be a more contradicting statement than that.

I guess most of the blame for this movie should go to Chandramukhi and Shankar (In fact, this was going to be my subject of this post: Kuselan - Blame it on Chandramukhi & Shankar). Why CM? Well, if Chandramukhi had not been this monstrous hit, P. Vasu would not have been directing this movie and dished out another of his messy movies. Why Shankar? Again, a pretty easy to guess reason. Shankar had raised the bar to such unbelievable heights with Sivaji that it is going to be hard for any director to follow. And given the fact that P.Vasu is the director here, the task was doubly difficult and it is no wonder that he faltered, big time.

Among the truck load of comedians, only Livingston, Santhanabarathi (in couple of scenes) and Santhanam worked for me. Except for the 1 scene, Vadivelu was hopeless and his make-up along with his gaudy costumes only made the experience of watching the comedy scenes a real torture. Among others, Pasupathy was not his usual self. It is not the Pasupathy we have seen in movies like Dhool & Virumaandi. That is the power of someone like P.Vasu who can single-handedly bring down the performance of even talented actors (like Pasupathy in this case).

Even the songs picturization were a disappointment. That was something P.Vasu had done decently in Chandramukhi. Every single frame in the Cinema Cinema song comes and goes so fast that you could easily miss so many of the actors who show their heads. I missed Dhanush and there were so many like me who missed others like Surya, GVP, Sneha, Kushboo. Though Thalaivar's costumes were just too good in this song, he appears in each of those get-ups for few fleeting seconds that makes it impossible for fans like us to fully relish them. Om Zaaraare was a tad better with Thalaivar's stylish steps and the setting in the backwaters of Kerala in those long boats but even there one gets a feeling that it could have been done a lot better. This is where the Sivaji factor kicks in. After the songs picturization that Shankar treated us to in Sivaji, everything looks ordinary now. Pre-Sivaji, we might have lapped up Om Zaaraare but not definitely in this post-Sivaji era. Chaaral was a needless number. What I dont understand is that why would someone have a solo song for Nayanthara in a Thalaivar movie. It is not like that the song is in anyway crucial to the flow of the movie. So, why not replace it with another song for Thalaivar which would have satiated the thirst of fans like me. The less said about GVP's background score, the better. It is to his 'credit' that he bungled big time in the one scene where the background music mattered the most.

It was not like there are no positives in the movie. Thalaivar is there. Every single scene involving Thalaivar was a treat to watch (except may be the Chandramukhi-2 scenes). Thalaivar's entry scene was good but the use of too much CG in the scene kind of killed my enthusiasm. (It is during times like this that you start yearning for intro scenes like the one we had in Annamalai) I think having to act as himself presents its own set of challenges, given the fact that it is Thalaivar who is doing it. There were few mannerisms and actions of Thalaivar that looked like they were not even shot for this movie. It could have been Thalaivar on the sets with the camera rolling without his knowledge. They were that authentic and Thalaivar looked so casual in them.

Obviously, the climax. Though I would not go to the extent of saying that it is one of his best performances, it did bring back the memories of the talented actor lying dormant inside him, for the last 15 - 20 years. The fact that inspite of the numerous 'Enna Kodumai Saravanan Idhu' moments throughout the movie, the audience clapped when the movie ended as the saying "நல்ல நண்பர்கள் அமைவதெல்லாம் இறைவன் கொடுத்த வரம்" was flashed on the screen. Many in the theater were indeed in tears as they were walking out. But that didn't include yours truly, who is easily overwhelmed on such scenes in movies. Thalaivar's speech in the school function, before he goes into his nostalgic trip back to his childhood days is the best that I have seen Thalaivar speak. There was so much clarity in his words. And more than the school speech, I liked what transpired at Pasupathy's house after that. Thalaivar's body language in those last moments were exemplary and the way he slapped him on the face before hugging him were just too good.

The whole Chinni jayanth sequence was very entertaining. More than the scene where Chinni Jayanth finally meets Thalaivar, the way the Nari kuravargal group was trying to get the attention of the film crew was quite hilarious. Though Vadivel's performance on the whole was disappointing, the scene where he meets Thalaivar had the whole theater ROTFL. I mean, it looked so authentic bcos anyone of us who adore him so much would react in the same way if we come to face Thalaivar in such an unexpected manner.

Like I had written earlier, even before the movie was released, I loved everything what Thalaivar did in deciding to act in this movie except the fact that P.Vasu is going to be directing it. This guy is so much stuck in the 80s that I I knew this is how he will finally end up giving a movie. Any other director (type in the name of your favorite masala film director in this place) would have done justice to this story which could have been adapted so much better to exploit Thalaivar's cult status among Tamilians across the globe and that is my biggest regret on this movie. And the best part was, this could have been done without spoiling the underlying theme of the movie.

Having said all this, I was really happy to see Thalaivar on the big-screen even though it lasted only a few precious minutes. Thank God for small mercies. Now, the really long wait for Robot stares us in the face. Shankar, please start work on Robot ASAP & keep the hopes of Thalaivar fans afloat and Thalaivaa, sincere request to you - lets ditch this P.Vasu guy once for all from the Tamil film industry. And if that means that this movie flops, then so be it. I know, I just couldn't believe that I just typed the previous statement but that is the result of my anger at Thalaivar for selecting one of the most ridiculous & archaic directors at the helm of this movie which clearly had scope for much larger things.

Fastest Man on Earth

2008-07-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

This post comes more than a month late but I still wanted to post it here, mainly bcos this is one sports event that I keep following fervently, though my general interest in track & field has come down drastically, after the hey days of Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson wound down. Anyway, now on to the new 100m record that was set recently.

Back in those days, experts used to believe that man can never run under 10 seconds. It was unbelievable when man first ran under 10 seconds and then slowly started chiseling off 1/100th of a second by 1/100th of a second, off the 100m record. But even then, the 100m record was stuck in the low 9.90s and high 9.80s for a while. That was when Ben Johnson ran that breath-taking 9.79 in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. When he recorded that time, many declared that was it; that was how fast man could ever run. Period.

The reason I am bringing in all this history is bcos of the fact that the record was broken just more than a month back by Usain Bolt of Jamaica. Though the number of scandals that have rocked the athletic world in the last few years have doused fan interest (or atleast, this fan's interest), this is one record that even the most cynical of them keep following religiously. So, the moment I saw this news where it said that he had done 9.72, I was just flabbergasted. And when the fact that this guy is not even a regular 100m runner and he runs 100m as a preparation for his pet event 200m, my jaws dropped.

While on this, this article talks about just how fast can man run. Check it out and you will be surprised at their findings:

How fast can we run?

As if to upstage Bolt, US sprinted Gay ran the fastest ever 100m dash ever at 9.68 secs. though it is not considered a world record bcos of the reason that there was a tail wind more than the allowed limits,.

With both Bolt and former record holder Asafa Powell scheduled to run in the Olympics, along with Gay, the most looked forward to event of the Olympics just got bigger and more spicier.

Mini reviews

2008-07-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to jot down some mini-reviews of some of the movies that I watched during the break when I was not posting anything here regularly.

Anjaathey - Though this is easily the best out of all the movies that have been released this year, I really do not want the year to end that way. That, I guess, should say everything as to what I felt about the movie. The movie was pretty good, though I still could not stand Naren's body language. His acting in the form of facial expressions has definitely improved vastly from his Chithiram Pesuthadi days. But his body language still stands out like a sore thumb. About the movie - Like I read somewhere, movies can have one or two scenes with directorial touches but Anjaathey is a movie that is one long directorial touch marathon. The camera angles, the endless list of characters who all seemed to have a role to play in the proceedings are couple of reasons why this movie stands out. The scene when Naren & the old lady sandwich the dead body while riding the bike is the one that I could remember right off the top of my head. The only thing that could have been better is the way the climax was shot. It was a pretty long & tedious climax. I am a big fan of these catchy kuthu songs and so I loved both the songs - Kannadsasan Karaikudi and KathaaLa kannaala and the simple but addictive choreography. This guy is so good at filming these kind of songs that his way of picturization of regular duets (the Manasukkul number) was such a sore to watch. Mysshkin's next movie that has the Maestro at the helm, is what he is calling his most ambitious movie. Here is already looking forward to a classic.

Taare Zameen Par - Was completely blown away by the movie. Had been wanting to watch this movie ever since many called this movie as the best movie of last year. I was kind of not very receptive to the movie (you might even call that feeling skeptical) when I started watching this, mainly bcos I did not expect anybody to do a better job than what Mani Rathnam did in Anjali. But then Aamir Khan just proved that he is an altogether different league. We often praise Kamal as the only actor who can also make good movies but Aamir Khan is just amazing here. I can't think of one single Kamal movie (that he made) which can stand against this one. Shankar Ehsaan Loy's music was such a big plus to the movie. Gelled so perfectly with the movie. Aamir underplayed his character so well and the kid was unbelievable. No unnecessary melodrama, no cliched scenes. Everyone of us who watched the movie were clearly overwhelmed as the movie ended, with many of us in tears. This is cinema as an educative medium at its very best. Can't remember the last Hindi movie that moved me as much as this one did.

Kalloori - They say, climax makes or breaks a movie and the latter is true in this case, as the ridiculous climax ended up being fatal to the movie's fate at the box office. The feeling that one gets at the end of this movie is not disappointment or tragedy, which is what I imagine the director would have wanted/ expected of the audience, but instead, one feels cheated at the end of the movie. I mean, the movie was so beautiful until that point when you get this ridiculous climax after which we all were nodding our heads in disbelief and then sank in the feeling of having been cheated. May be, he was trying to recreate his Kaadhal magic by going in for a tragic climax or may be, he wanted to show his anger against that real life incident that killed 6 girls in Dharmapuri, but it just did not work, atleast for me. Though Joshua Sridhar could not quite recreate his Kaadhal magic, the Unnarugaiyil varugaiyil song is as good as he has ever composed. Bottomline - even given how bad this movie ended, Balaji Shakthivel will be one director whose next movie I will be looking forward to very eagerly, bcos Kalloori is a pretty good movie except for the climax.

Pirivom Sandhippom - Well, we all have heard about feel good movies. This is one movie that takes the whole concept to an altogether new level, even making some of Vikraman's movies pale in comparison. It definitely takes guts to make a movie like this with no villain and where every character in the movie can be classified under 2 broad categories - nallavanga and romba nallavanga. I am no big fan of Cheran's histrionic abilities and his performance here was no different, though I should say that this is one character that might suit him the most. If there is one thing that might make folks like me (who just cannot stand him, as an actor) look at his performance in a kinder way, it should be that he should keep his romantic antics to a minimum or even better, just get rid of them. Watching Cheran romance is not a very good experience. Sneha, as always, does her role adequately. Jayaram's character is different but he looks jaded and this is not the Jayaram that we have seen in mvoies like Priyanka and Thenali. The real hero of the movie is Vidhyasagar's music. He is probably the only music director in Tamil who keeps on churning out melodies after melodies in every single movie of his. The cute little everyday things (as to why we should not have frightening wall hangings in the front of our homes) and the anecdotes that you see throughout the movie remind you of Mozhi director Radhamohan. Karu Pazhaniappan is not a director to whom you can associate subtlety with (even his best & only good work till date, Parthiban Kanavu is no exception) and he only continues that trend here. A movie that definitely cannot be termed as bad but at the same time, cannot sing praises for it, either.

Weekend Hikes - Lake Serene & Bridal Veil Falls

2008-07-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Summer is out in all its glory and that only means one thing - the hiking season has truly begun. Though avid hikers start their hiking season sometime during the first week of May, folks like me who hike for pleasure start their hikes only after all the snow has melted in most of the trails in this area. Thus, we started our hiking season with hikes to the easier hikes in the area - hike to Twin Falls and the Rattle Snake Ledge. But these were hikes that I have already done. So, I wanted to start the Weekend Hikes series for this year with my first hike that I have not done before.

Lake Serene in the Mt. Baker National Forest area is the one we chose. Though myself & my wife had done the previous hikes, since they both were pretty easy on the difficluty level, this was our first serious hike. The note at the trailhead says that the trail is for serious hikers only. That did not come as a surprise bcos before going on a hike, I usualy read a bunch of trip reports about the hike during the week leading upto the hike. So, I was kind of ready for it.

The first 1.5 miles of the hike is pretty easy as you only gain a total elevation of around 600 feet. There is a sign for a sub-trail that takes you to the Bridal Veil falls and we decided to do it on our way down. You also get a view of the falls (not in its entirety, though) on your way to the lake, just past that sign post. Once past the falls, the trail gets down to some serious business. The remaining 1500 feet of elevation is gained in the next 2 miles to the lake. So, needless to say, it left us panting real bad. Since this was our first tough hike of the season, both myself & my wife found it real hard. But there is one thing that always drives me during such hikes and it is the reward (in the form of a falls or a lake or a view point) that is waiting for us at the top. So, we finally made it to the lake and the lake was worth every calorie that was burnt and worth every foot that was hiked. Since this was early summer, the lake was frozen almost 90%. It was one beautiful sight.

We spent about 45 mins at the lake, had some light snacks and then started our descent back. It is usually the descent that I like most about these hikes but this one was an exception since it was almost as tough as coming up. While coming down, couple of hikers who weren't even close to the half-way mark, asked the often repeated question 'Are we there yet?' and I felt real bad to break them the bad news.

Date: June 28, 2008
Distance: 7.2 miles RT
Elevation gain: 2000 feet
Time: 5 hours (including 1 hour at the lake & the falls)
Directions: From Redmond, go north on I-405 and get off at State Route 522 off exit 23. SR 522 winds down and joins US 2 at Monroe. Drive east through Monroe and continue eight miles east of Gold Bar to the well-signed Mount Index Road on your right at milepost 35.
Notes: 23 switchbacks and a lot of wooden stairs through the hike. Most of the hike is under shades inside the woods with the last 3/4 of a mile that was over small & medium sized rocks.

Mission Accomplished

2008-07-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

The last few years, watching & following tennis has been reduced to an excercise in monotony. And if you have been reading my blog for a while, you would know the reason for the same :) Grand slam after grand slam, one could almost pencil in the winner even before the tournament started (except of course, in the case of the French Open). And it was not just us, the average tennis lovers, who had been lulled by this sense of predictability. Someone like Pete Sampras, who still holds the record for the most number of Grand slam titles, wasn't joking when he asked Federer to win the French Open so that he doesn't have to travel to Australia to watch history made, as he has said all along that he will be there on the court-side when his record is broken.

It is not like I don't appreciate Federer's awesome talent. He is talent in its most pristine form, for what else could one explain his achievements without a proper coach. It is just that the invincibility that he brings to the court that made me sick. People usually compare his dominance to Tiger's dominance in golf. Somehow, I don't agree to that as Tiger looks every bit vulnerable even in the majors that he wins. But that has never been the case with Federer (at least until this year) as he decimates all his opponents and that has made this whole history-making achievements a big boring spectacle.

That is exactly the reason why yesterday's final was like a breath of fresh air. Nadal finally was able to do what no man has ever done - win a 3rd set from Federer on grass court! Though both the players as such did not stick to the grass court tradition of serve-and-volley play, it was unparalleled in the sense that both of them matched each other miraculous shot for miraculous shot. It was may be Nadal's ploy, of not letting Federer play his natural serve-and-volley game, that is so much critical to Federer winning on grass. Coming back from 2 sets down in the Wimbledon finals, is not something many players can do and Federer, being Federer, just accomplished that. But then Nadal wasn't giving up either. Though Federer clearly had the edge in the serving department, it was Federer's serve that was broken more times than Nadal's and that to me, was the single most defining reason for his defeat. You can't go 1 out of 13 in break points conversion and hope to win against the most athletic player in the sport.

Every time Federer found himself in a hole (none more so than in the 4th set tie-breaker), he came up with an ace or a passing shot winner. As the game progressed beyond the 4 hour 30 mins mark, I started to think that Nadal would give up soon bcos of the two, Nadal looked the one who was getting tired. The fact that Federer served first in the last set did not help matters either. But Nadal clung on to his serve like his life depended on it and eventually broke Federer & then held serve to close out the match.

The way Nadal reacted after winning the last point said everything that we need to know about how much this win meant to him. Spaniards winning French Opens is like Australia winning the ICC World Cup. But a Spaniard lifting the Wimbledon crown is something this and the last generation have not seen. It was overwhelming to see him reach out to his parents by climbing on top of seats, like a small kid would do. Federer's dad clapping & appreciating Nadal's victory too was a sight to behold. Moments like these are what fans like us live for and watch sports for. It was an incredible feeling to see John McEnroe (of all people) almost in tears in the post-match interview when he thanked both Federer and Nadal for having treated us to probably the greatest and best tennis match in his career.

Experts/ critics/ analysts/ pundits are a much ridiculed species, these days in any field and particularly, in the field of sports & politics. With most of their predictions going wrong time & again, their 'expertnes', if you will, was in question. But this Wimbledon was a comeback of sorts for them, as most of them had picked Nadal to win the whole thing. From McEnroe to Borg to ESPN columnists, every single one of them had said that this Wimbledon was Nadal's to lose.

Though Nadal won this epic contest, I still believe that Federer is the man to beat at all the 3 grand slams. All the talk of passing of the proverbial torch or for that matter, the end of an era, are a bit pre-mature, in my opinion. The outcome of the last grand Slam of the season, the US Open in September, would bring us the answers that we are looking for. Until then, let us just celebrate the sublime spectacle that we were witness to last night.

Kuselan songs - GVP squanders golden opportunity

2008-07-01T23:56:00.000-07:00

When G.V.Prakash was signed up for Kuselan as the MD, it did not come as a surprise, for 2 reasons - 1) his good showing in most of his albums and 2) in keeping with the low profile nature & release date of the movie. But I was doubly sure of one thing - that the songs would somehow come out well. And today after listening to the songs, though that feeling of satisfaction comes through in patches, one can also not deny the fact that unfulfilled expectations is what one would describe about this album.

As a Thalaivar fan, more than the music, it is the lyrics that I look forward to, in all of his songs and in that aspect, Kuselan simply rocks. I can already visualize how Thalaivar fans would be during these songs. The music in all the songs are adequate, playing its role to perfection in highlighting the lyrics. Now, over to the songs.

Perinba pechukkaaran is easily the pick of the songs, for me, though the beats readily remind you of the Veyilodu uravaadu by the same composer. Again, it is the lyrics that made me go for it, as the pick of the album. Some of my favorite lines from the song:

பேரின்ப பேசுக்காரன் யாரு யாரு கூறப்பா
கைப்பிள்ளை கூட சொல்லும் Superstar தானப்பா

ஆனந்த மூச்சுக்காரன் கூறு கூறு யாரப்பா
கேக்காம நாடே சொல்லும் Superstar தானப்பா

Cinema Cinema - Thalaivar's supposed intro song starts off with the gradnuer that one has come to expect in a Thalaivar intro song. But then there is something missing. Call me old fashioned or someone who resists change, I just cannot take an intro song without SPB. Though Shankar Mahadevan has done a decent job, I still miss SPB. The song just goes into detail all the pain that is involved in making a movie and that is what I liked about this song. It has a central theme around which the lyrics of the entire song have been written. And even while doing that, it sings praises of Thalaivar, mentioning few of Thalaivar's film names in the process.

எவரும் உழைச்சா உயர்ந்திடலாம் என்று எடுத்து காட்டுவது Cinema தான்
அதுக்கு யாரு இங்க சாட்சியின்னா அது வேற யாரு நம்ம தலைவரு தான்

அவர் உருவம் பாரு எளிமை
அந்த எளிமை தான் அவருக்கு வலிமை

தலை கனத்த்திடாத தலைவன்
எங்கள் அண்ணன் மட்டும் தான்

The last 2 lines is sure to send any Thalaivar fan into uncontrollable bouts of frenzy.

Om zaaraare - given the length of the song, I am guessing this is the song that Thalaivar comes in 20 get-ups. Daler Mehendi sure does brings the energy into the song and his pronounciation is exactly what we have come to expect (& live with) from these North Indian singers. The notable aspect of this song is the mention of Thalaivar's movies in the lyrics. Some of my favorite lyrics from the song:

போக்கிரி ராஜா ராஜா பொல்லாதவன் நீ
அண்ணாந்து யாரும் பார்க்கும் அண்ணாமலை நீ
வீரா நீ மாவீரன் தான் பாயும் புலி

பெண்ணிடம் தில்லு முல்லு பண்ணாதவன் நீ
எப்பவும் தப்பு தாளம் போடாதவன் நீ
உன்னிடம் சொக்கிப்போனாள் சந்திரமுகி

என்ன திமிரு என்ன துடிப்பு
அட நீ தான் முரட்டு காளை
இந்த மாடத்திலே தான் எஜமான்

Sollammaa Chellammaa - A neat melody, supposedly picturized on Meena & Pasupathy. The tune feels adequate. Hariharan somehow sounds unlike him in this song. You can notice his uncle's influence in most of his songs and this song has too - Kurkukku siruthavale from Mudhalvan seems to have influenced him in this song.

Saaral mazhai thooral - this is the Nayanthara solo song. Not sure why the heroine needs a solo song in a Thalaivar movie (even if it is one where he comes in a shortened role). Hummable tune and I liked the guitar strumming that comes throughout the song.

Bottomline - This is not G.V.Prakash's best effort by a long way and given the wonderful chance that he got (to score music for a Superstar movie), one wishes he would have utilized it more. But then luckily for him, the songs will be raging hits, solely bcos of Thalaivar. And for us, Thalaivar fans, the lyrics of the 3 songs on Thalaivar, more than make up for the wait for this audio and raise our expectations for the movie's release in 3 week's time.

Son Of Sun

2008-06-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

The day I landed in Madurai during my wedding trip coincided with the bday celebrations of M.K.Azhagiri. Right when our car came out of the railway station, I started wondering if we were in Madurai or we were right at the heart of some huge political party conference. The
thondargal had completely transformed the city into their backyard with cutouts and arches of Azhagiri and his family wishing him on his birthday (How ironic is that his bday coincided with the Mahatma's death anniversary, the Martyr's day)

Anyway, the fun for the general public was in the way the party workers had competed against each other, in their game of one-upmanship in praising Azhagiri (& his family members) to sky high levels and in the process, give us some well unintended comedy. Since it has been more than 4 months this happened, I just could remember the following. But trust me, if you had been in Madurai during that time, you would have had a memorable time. There were the usual suspects that you would get to see in any party function - "Udhaya suriyane", "rathathin rathame", "Engal annane" but then things got interesting as some posters cried "En idhayame", "Manitharil punithane", "Happy birthday Chellam"

But the killer ones were the ones in English. They fascinated me to no ends and the fact that I
still remember these, after all these months, should be testimony to the fact that they stood
out :)

Braveheart
Godfather
The Boss
Kingmaker
Robot
Son of Sun (this one had me in splits)

I was really amazed on how much our guys get innovative & creative when it comes to something like this. Inspite of the fact that it was such a hassle for everyone around, I am actually hoping that my next India trip will coincide with his bday again, so that I will have more such fun!!

இளமை இனிமேல் போகாது...முதுமை உனக்கு வாராது

2008-06-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

I am simply dumbfounded as to what Vasu has been able to achieve here. Sure, Thalaivar looked better in Chandramukhi when compared to Baba. But then Shankar raised the bar to a never before seen level with Sivaji. Apart from the concern that what Vasu will do the screenplay of the original, the only other concern I had for Kuselan was this - will P. Vasu will be able to match Shankar and even come close to the way Thalaivar was shown in Sivaji, thanks to Shankar? The answer seems to be an emphatic YES. In fact, in some of the stills, Vasu has indeed outdone Shankar, in that, Thalaivar looks ever so young in those few pictures. The response from Thalaivar fans has been along wonderful with most of them going to the extent of saying Thalaivar looks better here than what he looked in Sivaji.

The fact that the date of the audio release (July 1) and the movie release (July 25) have been announced is another cause for celebration. To complete a movie that is being shot in 2 languages with completely different cast (except the 3 main characters) in 82 days is definitely praiseworthy. Vasu has delivered what was expected of him. Now, if he can match this accomplishment with a movie that does some justice to the original but while at the same time satisfy the expectations of Thalaivar's legions of fans, he would have delivered the unexpected. Here's hoping for the same.

Dasavatharam - A Disaster of Epic Proportions

2008-06-13T02:44:00.000-07:00

Let me see where I can start - right when the movie was announced where it was revealed that Kamal will come in 10 roles, I was never even remotely looking forward to this movie. I have never been a big fan of Kamal's make-up adventures. So, naturally, the very thought of Kamal in various prosthetic makeups completely put me off and I had already stopped looking forward to the movie. And when the audio & later the trailer was released a month back, I was like 'Seriously, is this what they could come up with after 2 years of filming?' To say the songs were terrible, would be an understatement. Kamal's movies usually have some pretty good songs and I can't recall the last movie of Kamal that had such awful songs. So, as I entered the movie hall tonight, I was going in with relatively less expectations since IMO, there has not been a perfect Kamal movie since Mahanadhi happened all those years ago.

The movie actually started off in an interesting fashion though one had to read the subtitles to understand what was going on. I couldn't decipher what most of them were talking. But after a few minutes into the movie as the other roles were introduced, it became such a pain to watch Kamal come in every single important role in the movie. Seriously, there was no reason for him to come in this many roles except of course, to fulfill his thirst for wasting another producer's hard-earned money. Plus, the terrible make-ups didn't help either. One had to cringe when some of the make-ups were shown in close-ups. If you thought Indian thaathaa was bad, get ready to face Kamal's version of George Bush & Fletcher. Indian was released more than a decade ago and if a movie that is released all these years later could not even match 50% of the makeup success that was accomplished in Indian, it speaks so badly about the main in charge - Kamal himself.

The biggest problem for me with the movie was that it does not fall under any genre. Is this another full-fledged comedy from the KSR-Kamal combination, much like Thenali & Panchathanthiram? NO. Is this an action thriller that keeps the viewer at the edge of his seat throughout the movie, with a crisp screenplay? NO. Is this some serious movie that conveys some sort of message to us, as to why and whether God exists? NO. Is this a movie that was made to fulfill Kamal's egoistic ambitions to be the first actor to don 10 roles? heck, YES.

The screenplay was terrible, to say the least. Characters and incidents come & go for no reason whatsoever. It looked like Kamal had watched movies like Babel and Crash, one too many times.There were times when there will be a sequence that will evince interest in us and make us look forward to the following scenes. But then, you will be left disappointed bcos Kamal had other important things to do - introduce the next of his 10 useless avathaars. The dialogs were pathetic with the conversation between Kamal & Asin in the climax taking the cake. The Balram Naidu character was the only one that had some funny dialogs but even they were lost in this huge mess that Kamal had created in the name of screenplay. The jokes just did not stick in the overall narrative of the movie. After seeing this, one only hoped that K.S.Ravikumar had been given a free hand in the making of this movie, for one can see Kamal's finger prints in just about anything and everything in the movie.

If this is what Kamal can conjure up after 2 years, there is only 1 conclusion that one can arrive at - he has completely lost it and he has become too egoistic to even put himself in the shoes of the Tamil film watching public. The song 'Ulaganaayagane' was such a turn-off for me with the song's lyrics going to ridiculous levels in praising the actor. I thought this amount of self-praise was only to be seen in Thalaivar's movies. I guess, I am wrong.

He did not have many opportunities to show off his acting skills but in the couple of scenes where he did get them, he did his job. When an actor invests so much energy and time into a movie, that has to be appreciated, no matter who it is. And here, it is pretty clear that he has put in so much effort into this movie but when the output is so bad, it hurts and eventually you start feeling sorry for the guy. As Kamal's make-up procedures were paraded as the end credits rolled, only one thought flashed my mind "All that hard work for this?"

Now to the rest of the cast - there is not much to write about if every freaking role after another is done by Kamal. Asin was plain annoying. When Asin uttered her first dialog as the 12th century Nambi's wife, the whole theater just erupted in laughter. Her voice was ridiculous. But if you thought her modern day avathar will fare better, you were wrong. Her antics became plain irritating as the movie progressed that it was a torture to sit through an already boring & long movie. Napolean, Jayapradha, Mallika Sherawat all came & went in some insignificant roles. Even Kamal's usual favorites like Nagesh, Santhana Bharathi come in miniscule roles that one will miss if you were not paying attention.

Technically, the movie is such a big letdown. That was one aspect I thought the movie will not disappoint, given the budget that went into the making of this movie. And boy, was I wrong. The CGI scenes that all the web sites were hyping about were pukeworthy. There is a scene that comes at the beginning of the movie where Kamal would be tied to Vishnu's idol and would be taken through a backwater into the sea. The backwater in that scene was done through CG and it looked so bad that even a child can make it out that CG had been used. The tsunami scene, that was so much talked about, turned out to be a damp squib. Most of the scenes where more than 1 Kamal was in the screen, they appeared so tacky and made-up. The fights were plain bad and stupid, with people walking out of some terrible car crashes as though nothing had happened. I know, we all have seen this in so many movies but in this movie, it has been taken to a whole new level to the point of making the viewer stupid. In all this mess, one has to point the few positives in the movie - Ravi Varman's camera work and the art direction. They both were really outstanding.

If you are a Thalaivar fan, I would say - go watch it!! Seriously, all those times when during the Thalaivar - Kamal fights, the Kamal fans ridiculed us about the illogical scenes in Thalaivar's movies. Take heart, as this movie has loads and loads of the very same stupid and illogical scenes, that would make even a Vijayakanth film look better. The scene where the bullet takes away the cancerous growth in the Sardar Kamal's throat is the hands down winner and brought the loudest cheers from the audience. So, again, I request you to watch this movie and when you do go, take along a few other Thalaivar fans. I can gaurantee pure fun in the screening, just like me as I went with 3 other Thalaivar fans.

For Kamal fans, I am sure this is one huge embarrassment and its every bit of their worst night mares coming true. I mean, to have waited for this bunch of crap for 2 long years, I am sure every one of his fans will be devastated.

If you thought Aalavandhaan was one of the worst movies of Kamal, wait till you watch this one. It is THAT bad. But unlike many who usually want their money back when a movie disappoints like this, I didn't care one bit, for I had fulsome entertainment ridiculing the movie, which it thoroughly deserves.

Kuselan and Robot

2008-05-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

What good it is to be a Thalaivar fan if I didn't write something about Thalaivar's new upcoming movies, one of which will probably end up as the most expensive Indian movie ever made. So, here are my 2 cents on both these movies:

Kuselan - Simply love what Thalaivar is doing here. He knows Shankar is going to take forever to complete Robot and in the meanwhile, decides to keep the fans interested with a movie that has a role which is tailor made for him. What more? He lets his guru & mentor KB produce the movie and thus doing his something towards helping him out financially. Hires a young music director and gives him an unbelievable chance to compose music for a Superstar film. He makes sure that the film is ready in a matter of few months. Everything until this point is just like a dream come true for a Thalaivar fan. But then comes the only sore point about the movie - P.Vasu directing it. Chandramukhi might have been this monstruous hit (solely bcos of Thalaivar) but I still don't have any respect for this man who clearly is still stuck in the late 80s. But even with him being at the helm, the very prospect of getting to watch Thalaivar on the big screen is good enough for me to place Kuselan as the most looked forward to movie right now. I am also so much excited about the fact that Thalaivar will appear in 20 get-ups in a song, reliving some of his famous roles in his hit movies. That is something I so much love. Actually, when I first heard the lyrics of the Athiradee song in Sivaji, I was hoping that Shankar had done something similar (it is another matter that Shankar made sure I did not even think about this possibility while watching the movie). Anyway, now that the film is almost done and ready to be released sometime between July & September, I just can not wait to see Thalaivar again, as Perinba pechukkaaraa (for starters, that is the starting line of one of the songs in Kuselan)

Robot - To me, Sivaji was like this grand buffet which had everything a Thalaivar fan would like for in a Thalaivar movie. So, having had this sumptuous lunch just now, I don't know how ready I am for another heavy meal a.k.a a Shankar movie with Thalaivar. It is just similar to food - right after you have had just had a good buffet, the very sight of food does not appeal to you and might even repel some. The after effects of the same would last for 1-2 days depending on your digestive system :) Similarly, I am in the after effects period of post-Sivaji (after the original DVD was released last month, I got together with 2 other Thalaivar fans - both of them who have seen the movie atleast a good 8 times and watched the movie again). So, that being the case, Robot just does not interest me, for now. Other than that, there are couple of other things about which I am not too much excited about - 1) what appears to be the genre of the movie, given the title and 2) Aishwarya Rai. I have never been a fan of her and thus can not stand to see her in a Thalaivar movie of this magnitude. I can understand the business reasons why Shankar wants to cast her in the lead role but I am completely against it. I don't know...I mean, if Thalaivar can't pull the crowds to the theater, nobody can. Period. But having said all this, I am sure, after Kuselan releases & the fever subsides down in a matter of 4-5 months, Robot will become the center of attraction for Thalaivar fans like me. And I will channel my thoughts & expectations towards Robot, then.

I know you guys will be wondering why I haven't included Sultan in this list. I don't know but there is something about this effort that just does not suck me in, as any movie featuring Thalaivar would do. Mistake me not, I am all for this first-time-in-the-history-of-Indian-cinema' effort of animating a real life actor and I am so proud that it is Thalaivar's daughter who is doing it (puli-kku pirandhadhu poonai aagumaa?). Also, I sincerely wish and hope that the novel effort will do exceedingly well, given the amount of money that has been channeled in for the movie. But my doubts stem from the fact how will Thalaivar's hard-core first generation fans take to it and also from the not-so-mind-blowing trailer of the movie that was released a while ago. So, I am going to keep my fingers crossed on Sultan. But one thing is for sure - you will definitely find me at the theater screening Sultan, screaming Thalaivaaa when an animated Superstar as Sultan appears on-screen :)

Pardon The Interruption

2008-05-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

As many of you who read this blog know by now, the big news was that I got married (and celebrated 100 days of our married life this past weekend) and so I guess that explains the reason for this long hibernation in my blogging. The wedding was on the 1st of Feb in Coimbatore and so was in India for a month. And after we both got back here to Seattle, it has been one hectic time. It is simply unbelievable how getting married completely changes your lifestyle and your priorities (I can see all those single guys among the readers grinning and the married folks nodding their heads in agreement. Anyway, should come up with a separate post on this, I guess).

The wedding was great, well-attended (what else would you expect out of a wedding back in India) and everything went on smoothly. The post-wedding lunches and dinners at both our relatives' places managed to accomplish what they are meant for - put on all the weight that I had so painstakingly lost prior to my wedding :) Since we both were from different cities (she from Coimbatore and me from Madurai), the constant traveling between the 2 cities made sure that we had one busy-like-hell trip. Add the visa procedure that we had to get it completed before our departure so that she could travel with me, it turned out to be the super-busy trip that I had expected fully.

In these few months, there have been just too much to write about, that I don't even know where to start: Thalaivar's new films - Robot & Kuselan, Team India's amazing win in the CB Series (not to forget the commendable showing in the test series), the Patriots's gigantic loss (pun intended) to the Giants at Super Bowl, the Hoganekkal fast, the IPL & the growing addiction of the cricket watching public to it in India, Kobe winning his first ever MVP award & helping the Lakers finish atop the Western conference, the Lakers - Spurs Western conference finals, .... Just like the Democratic primary, the list seems to be never ending.

One other reason for this delay was that I just wasn't sure as to when and where to start.I was like 'OK, let me start writing when this happens or from the first of the next month' and that day/ occasion never came. So, I finally gave up and decided that I will just go ahead and at least start posting before the break gets too long. Then as & when time permits, will try to blog here. I am not sure how often I will be able to post entries here but I will make sure that there is at least one post a week. It is at times like these your admiration for bloggers who are married & have kids go up in leaps & bounds. (Balaji, please take a bow). I mean, I always knew how tough it should be for someone who is married with kids to keep blogging so regularly. But now that I am married, I can clearly see how much motivation one should have to keep blogging at that pace.

Such prolonged breaks are really bad for your writing, for I find it so tough to even put together few paragraphs without thinking long and hard!! So, stopping this 'I am back' post right here. Here is hoping to write some posts as regularly as I have mentioned in the paragraph above!! Wish me good luck, both for our married life and my blogging :)

Where Amazing Happens

2008-01-09T22:05:00.000-08:00

The NBA is running a series of commercials called 'Where amazing happens', for promoting the 2008 season. Though I liked all 3 of them - this and this being the other 2, the following is the one that I loved the most and so, thought of posting it here.

Best Songs of the year 2007

2007-12-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

The fag end of the year means that everyone comes out with their favorite/ top songs of the year and I do not want to be left out. So, here goes my favorite songs of the year. As always, I prescribe to the following 3 conditions while coming up with the list:

1) All these songs should fit in a 80-minute audio CD
2) There should be only one song from any given movie, no matter how good the album is. (Deepavali, Bheema, Sivaji, Kattradhu tamizh, Mozhi, kannaamoochi yaenadaa are some albums that definitely deserved more than 1 song)
3) The album should have been released in 2007 (that would eliminate albums like Paruthiveeran and Unnaale Unnaale since they were released in 2006)

So, with these conditions set, here are the songs (as always, in no particular order) that I just fell in love during the year that was - 2007

1) Kaadhal vaithu from Deepavali
2) Unn sirippinil from PMC
3) Yaaro yaarukkul ingu from Chennai 600028 (Of course, the SPB - Chithra version)
4) Kaattrin mozhi from Mozhi
5) Sahana saaral thoovudho from Sivaji
6) Akkam pakkam from Kireedom
7) Manasu marugudhe from Pallikoodam
8) Pesugiren pesugiren from Satham Podaathey
9) Enadhuyire enadhuyire from Bheema
10) Sanjaaram veesum from Kannaamoochi Yaenadaa
11) Maayaavi Neeyaa from Sivi
12) Paravaiye engu irukkiraai from Kattradhu Tamizh
13) Valaiyal karangalai from Thottaal Poo Malarum
14) Minnalgal koothaadum from Pollaadhavan
15) Iru vizhiyO siragadikkum from Pirivom SandhippOm

Honorable mention(s):
I usually mention only a few but this year saw more than its usual share of some very good songs. Since this list again has a substantial number of songs, I guess this too can be written in a separate audio CD.

1) Pogaadhe from Deepavali
2) Perunthil Nee Enakku from Pori
3) Unakkul naane from Pachaikkili Muthucharam (The Bombay Jeyashree version)
4) Un parvai mele pattaal from Chennai 600028
5) Pesaa madandhaiye from Mozhi
6) Athiradee from Sivaji
7) Vizhiyil un vizhiyil from Kireedom
8) Arabu naade from Thottaal poo malarum
9) Idhu enna maayam from Oram Po
10) Nee Kavidhai from Naan Avan Illai
11) Indha Nimidam from Pallikkoodam
12) Mudhal mazhai from Bheema
13) Megam megam from Kannamoochi Yaneadaa
14) Oh Nenje from Sivi
15) Para para pattaampoochi from Kattradhu Tamizh
16) Unnarugil varugaiyil from Kalloori

Album of the year - There certainly were so many albums that could have run away with this award (!!). Kattradhu tamizh had such amazingly haunting tunes that just refuse to get out of your mind even after you are done with hearing the songs (& watching the movie). Kannaamoochi Yaenadaa was another delightful album where Yuvan's magic with Priya worked one more time, if not in as good a way as Kanda Naal Mudhal but definitely good enough to deserve mention in this list. Satham podaathey, though failing to live upto the lofty standards of a Vasanth movie album, still would easily rank among the best albums of the year. Sivi was another album in which every single song was amazing and personally for me, it is one album that would probably win the surprise pick of the year award, given the fact that I was no big fan of his debut album Paarijaatham. There was also Pachaikkili Muthucharam which saw the Harris Jeyaraj - Gautham Menon combination work wonders for the 4th straight album. I would not be doing justice if I were not to mention Sivaji in this mix, as it was the album which to me came closest to my pick of the year, for it lived upto the humongous pre-release hype & expectations and satisfied both Thalaivar & Rahman fans alike. Other albums that would also need a mention here would be Bheema, Kireedom, Pirivom Sandhippom and Chennai 600028. Now that I have listed down all my favorite albums of the year, I guess it is time to talk about my pick for the album of the year which would be Mozhi. Trust Vidyasagar to come up with an all-melody album and he delivers big time with Mozhi. Since the album was released at the starting of the year, every time a new album was released through the course of the year, it gave me a chance to compare it against Mozhi and since none of the albums lived upto Mozhi, I guess that will be my pick of the year.

MD of the year - it has to be Yuvan again. Just a mere listing of the films that he has done and the variety that he offered us in 2007 alone should be enough for him to be the MD of the year. Paruthiveeran, Kattradhu Tamizh, Chennai 600028, Satham Podaathey, Kannaamoochi yaneadaa, Billa, Vel, Machakkaaran (Oh yeah, amidst all these albums, he also delivered the thoroughly entertaining AMAV in Telugu with Selva). Save for Vel, that is one impressive list of albums to be delivered over a 2-3 year period, let alone in one calendar year. Great going, Yuvan and keep up the good work, as he has an impressive array of albums lined up 2008 too.

Happy Birthday, Thalaivaaa!!!

2007-12-11T19:23:00.000-08:00

It has been so hectic here at my end that should explain the absence of posts here. But then Thalaivar's birthday is too special a day to miss out on posting something. So, here is my Thalaivar bday post. I wanted this collage here to unique in the sense all the pictures should be in black & white and should not have pictures from any of the recent movies.

This past year, has been undoubtedly one of the best years for me, as a Thalaivar fan. There has never been so much fun, so much excitement and so much beautiful memories like this year and all was possible due to one man - The Boss. I will cherish each and every moment of the days leading upto the release of Sivaji and the days after the release when I watched the movie 5 times in a 6 day-span. Though a long & hard wait is staring at our faces as we are still unsure when we will get to see Thalaivar next on the silver screen, Sultan -The Warrior should quench our thirsts partially till we get to see the Man himself on screen. So, here's wishing the born entertainer who has been enthralling his fans for generations together, a very happy birthday and an awesome new year ahead.

Weekend Movies - Pallikkoodam & We Are Marshall

2007-11-18T20:12:00.001-08:00

I had been to India for a week long trip (separate post on that one later) and hence this absence of posts here. Wanted to watch atleast one Deepavali release movie (especially Kannamoochi Yaenadaa) but the mad rush for tickets over the Deepavali weekend and severe bad word-of-mouth reviews for most reviews put paid to my hopes. So, here I am continuing my regular weekend movies routine, with couple of movies that I watched way back.

Pallikkoodam - I guess Thangar Bachaan is going the Hari way, in that his best is clearly behind him. We all know how Hari remains a one-hit wonder whose every movie subsequent to Saami has been measured against Saami and obviously have failed up to the lofty standards that he set for himself with Saami, both at the box-office and in the quality of the movies. I am afraid we might have already seen the best of Thangar Bachan, with Azhagi to-date remaining the only credible movie he has delivered. The theme which he takes up in Pallikoodam is something that could have been executed so much better, than what he ended up finally doing, bcos the theme is so personal to many of us. May be, the schools that we went to might not be facing the problems that the school in the movie faces but deep down, I am sure all of us wish and long for that one get-together with all the friends from our school days. But like we have seen in so many movies, the intent alone does not make a movie watchable. The distractions along the way in conducting the final alumni get-together for the school dampen our energy when the climax finally comes up and we are already looking at our clocks, as to when this torture will end. Narain is one actor whom I was waiting to pass my judgment on (not that it is going to matter one bit) bcos I really thought that his performance in Chithiram Pesuthadi was average, at best, unlike many others who thought his was a very commendable performance. Now, after Pallikkoodam, I guess its time to pass judgment on him and I will simply and charitably say that he has to go a really LONG way when it comes to emoting. His acting (or non-acting in this case) along with the torture that Thankar Bachan himself serves up with his role, becomes a bit too much to tolerate as the movie progresses. Amidst all this, if there is one shining light, it is Sneha, who is as always so sincere and adequate in her performance. Other than that, the other thing I will carry forward from this movie are those 2 lovely songs by Bharadwaj - Indha nimidam and Manasu marugudhe. I somehow missed out on listening to this album when it was released but the moment I heard them on screen, I was hooked on to it and it would be a surprise if one of these 2 songs, the Manasu marugudhe song in particular, does not find a place in the list of best songs of the year (that is to say that I have already added Manasu marugudhe to my list :)) Thankar Bachan, one sincere piece of advice - If you can redirect the energy you spend on attacking others in the cine industry into your movie-making and give us a more complete product, I would look forward to that, more than such boring stuff that you keep serving up, last with Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy and now with Pallikkoodam.

We are Marshall - You can call me a sucker to sports movies but this is one of those rare movies which just didn't cut it for me. Given the story of the movie, this should have made for some riveting experience, particularly if you are a big sports fan like me and if you are someone who follows Marshall football quite closely. For those who do not know, the story of the movie (based on a real life incident) is this - the Marshall University loses its entire football team (the players, the coaching staff and their patrons) in a tragic plane accident and inspite of such a tragedy, the athletic director wants to put together a team for the very next season and the movie is about how the new head coach (Mathew McCounoghey) puts together a team and get them ready for the next season. The only good thing is that since this is a real life story, the director does not have the liberty of altering the script and so, the results of the newly formed football team are disastrous to say the least and nothing miraculous, which are usually the stuff that sports movies are made of. Instead, the climax of the movie focusses on their first victory of the season (they only won 1 more game after that), which was the only thing I loved. Apart from that, the movie has the entire gamut of cliched scenes that all these sports movies have and so after a point of time, I could clearly see what was coming in every single scene. An average movie that can be missed.

Usual Suspects of the Maestro

2007-10-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

Alright, I am not committing a sacrilege here, for coming up with a list of the best songs of the Maestro in a single CD is nothing but that. But I am still committing it, with a silly excuse to justify it. So, picture this scenario - you have your extensive collection of the Maestro CDs in your car. But right now, you are at your friend's place for a long weekend and you have a rental car. You guys are ready to start for a road trip but wait, you do not have a Maestro CD collection in your car. For me, there can never be a road trip without a Maestro CD in my car. So, get where I am going to. This situation is where this list will come in very handy. You got to get started on your trip and only have a few minutes left which means you have time to write only one CD. (It goes without saying that the rental car does not have an auxiliary input which rules out plugging your iPod in) This situation warrants a list like this, which will save the trouble of going through your overwhelming collection of the Maestro's 800+ albums. This is one such list where when each song starts playing, you will start running out of adjectives in praising the genius of the Maestro. And this situation BTW is something that I have faced numerous times (and I am sure some of you might have faced it as well) and that is the very reason I wanted to come up with this list.

As always, I have my own pre-set conditions in arriving at this list.

1) The songs should fit in a 80 min CD.
2) No album can have more than 1 song.
3) The list shall not contain a song from a movie that was released after 1990.
4) The list shall not contain a song from a movie that was released prior to 1980.

En Iniya Pon Nilaave from Moodu Pani
Edho mogam from Kozhi Koovudhu
Idhu Oru ponmaalai from Nizhalgal
Ilaiya Nilaa from Payanangal Mudivadhillai
Keeravaani from Paadum Paravaigal
Kodiyile Malligappoo from Kadalora Kavidhaigal
Mandram vandha from Mouna Raagam
Naan thedum from Dharma Pathini
Pani Vizhum Malarvanam from Ninaivellaam Nithya
Poojaikkketha poovidhu from Neethaana Andha Kuyil
Poove Sempoove from Solla Thudikkudhu Manasu
Raja Raja Chozhan from Rettai Vaal Kuruvi
Thendral vandhu ennai thodum from Thendrale Ennai Thodu
Enna satham indha neram from Punnagai Mannan
Thulli ezhundhadhu paattu from Geethanjali
Pothi vacha malliga mottu from Mann Vaasanai

So, there goes the proverbial drop in the ocean, IMO. How will your drop from the Maestro's ocean look like?

Difference a question mark can make

2007-10-23T21:41:00.001-07:00

Rediff is one site which is going from bad to worse, day after day. When you look up the site, it literally takes a while for you to identify actual news articles & links, amidst the deluge of online ads scattered all over the real estate. They come up with intelligent ways to increase the hit rate for certain pages and the screen-shots below just goes on to show the cunning strategy behind the same.

On the home page, you have a link that says "Rajni to join Tussads", on seeing which anybody (both fans and the general reading public alike) would click just bcos of the fact that it would be a huge news if that were to happen. And then when you go to the actual page, a question mark pops up from nowhere at the end of the title of the article. Just goes to show to what length these guys go to drive traffic to their site. Got to give it to these guys, though, for being so clever and deceptive...

Weekend Movies - Ammuvaagiya Naan & HNRAI

2007-10-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Ammuvaagiya Naan - Parthiban is one actor I admire (in fact, he is my favorite actor right after Thalaivar) and so I look forward to all his movies, even the ones he does not direct. And all the decent reviews that this movie got only made me more curious. While I was done watching it, I have to say that the movie did not let me down/ disappoint and kind of/ sort of lived up to the expectations that I had. If I were to describe the thoughts that came to my mind while watching the movie, it would be these 2 words - inconsistency and predictability. Inconsistent in the way the characters behaved during the course of the movie and predictable in the way the movie ended. The Parthiban that is introduced to us in a TV interview (eerily similar to the Madhavan character of Kannathil Muthamittaal) is not the Parthiban we get to see in the later portions of the movie. The heroine's performance & characterisation again was inconsistent. She definitely has done exceedingly well for a debutant and she is beautiful in a curious way (I have to borrow what my friend said about the way she looks - she does look like Meena and Isha Gopikkar rolled into one. I do agree with my friend's observation) Parthiban was his usual self, with his matter-of-fact, no non-sense and not-going-overboard acting. Music by Sabesh Murali was a highlight, both the songs and the re-recording. Overall, definitely an one-time watch movie and one of the good (as in utterly bad, bad, good, better and best) movies of the year.

Hey Nee Romba Azhagaa Irukka - This is one Vasanth movie that I had missed out on, during the time it was released few years ago. But have read some good reviews about the movie, though the movie itself was a flop. And Vasanth is one director whom I hold in very high regard and 2 of his movies - Keladi Kanmani & Rhythm - would find their place in my list of all-time favorite movies. But when I was done watching this movie, I was left ruing my decision to watch the movie and more importantly, the lofty perch on which I had placed Vasanth all these years came down crushing. I could rightaway say that this was easily Vasanth's worst movie ever (except Poovellaam Kaettu Paar, another movie that I have not seen). I mean, there was nothing in the movie that would make you think it was a Vasanth movie. Just bcos the theme the movie handles is different doesn't mean that we should appreciate the silly and totally ridiculous way the theme was conveyed. It all started with the casting - when you have Shaam doing the role of guy who is cool and mature, there can only be one thing in store for the audience - disaster. Add the completely unexpressive and totally artifical Jaya Ray to the equation, you have the perfect recipe for disaster. Fortunately for us, Sneha was there but even she could only hold the movie to only a certain extent. The other thing that stood out badly was the songs picturization, something I think Vasanth is as good as the best in the business. When it comes to innovation in songs picturization, not even a Mani Rathnam can hold an umbrella to vasanth and that is why when I saw some of the songs being picturized the way they were (ridiculous would be an understatement), my disappointment only doubled. Vivek was the other person who brought some relief from the totally stupid proceedings. Overall, a movie I still can not believe was made by Vasanth.

Sachin's last innings at Wankhede

2007-10-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Last hurrah
Tendulkar is always received with reverence here at the Wankhede Stadium - although even he cops a fair share of abuse from the infamous North Stand - but today was special in many ways. Not only was it likely to be Tendulkar's last international at the ground - it's set to be refurbished and will only be used for an international next in 2011 for the final of the World Cup - but it was exactly twenty years ago to the day when Tendulkar did duty here as a ball boy, returning the ball to the players from the ropes in an India-Zimbabwe match. Only 26,863 international runs have flowed from his bat since. Not bad, for a ball boy.

Reproduced from here. Instantly felt goosebumps on reading this and didn't want to miss out on posting it here.

BTW, what a victory the Indians just carved out!! I guess, Murali Karthik & Uthappa have sealed their places in the team for a long time to come, something they both fully deserve. The fact that the Australians fielded their best XI for this game should put all those "this came in a dead rubber" critics to rest. I was immediately reminded of that miracle victory that the local boys - Kumble & Srinath - pulled off, in 1996 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. And now for the eerie resemblance to that game - it was a 2 wicket victory too, like this one and more importantly, the 9th wicket partnership in both the games yielded the same - 52 runs. Wow!! What a coincidence....

Afghan Golf Course

2007-10-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

I am surprised that the Bush administration hasn't claimed this (establishing a golf course in Afghanistan) as another of their success stories. Afghan golf course - what an oxymoron!!!

Weekend Hikes - Rachel lake

2007-10-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

Date: July 29, 2007
Close By: Snoqualmie Pass, WA

Directions: From Seattle, drive East on I-90 and take exit 62. Turn left, following the signs for Lake Kachess Campground. After five miles on FS Road 49, turn on left on FS Road 4930, and follow about four miles to the trailhead parking lot. Around a quarter mile into the FS 4930 road, there is a fork. Take a right on that fork.

Things to remember: The hike started off in a rather steep way and after the initial ascent, the next 2-3 miles are mostly on level grounds. It was almost like a stroll in the park, kind of hike. But the trail passes through so much bushes which will have you keep your hands looking heaven wards. At the 3 mile point is when the trail gets to business. I had read before that the last mile of this hike is famously called the Mile From Hell. The reason was quite simple - during the first 3 miles of the hike, the elevation gained is a meager 700 feet and it is in the last 1 mile that the remaining 1300 feet of elevation is gained. The last mile was easily the toughest that I have ever encountered in my short hiking experience. Not only was it steep, but the trail too was ill-maintained with ourselves getting lost atleast a couple of times. The last mile is almost like climbing stairs, only that the stairs were made of the roots of the huge trees. Throughout the last mile, the longest stretch where we encountered flat terrain was probably 10 feet. At times, we were looking at nearly 40 degree slope. But the good news is that the lake is absolutely worth the tough hike. It is so pristine, calm and bcos of the tough hike, borrowing an often used phrase, it was not crowded at the top. It starting getting cold a bit (temperatures would have been in the high 40s) and as the clouds started engulfing the lake, it was as beautiful a sight one can get.

Distance (RT): 8 miles
Time (RT): 5 hours, including 30 mins at the lake
Elevation: 2000 feet
Difficulty Level: 3.25

Here are some pictures from the hike:

100 days reign of The Boss

2007-09-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty hectic here at my end and that is the reason for this scarcity of posts here. The fact that I was not able to post something even for the completion of 100 days of The Boss should bear testimony to the same. Anyway, got some time today and with the logic "Better late than never" at the back of my mind, decided to post about the 100th day celebrations of Sivaji, that we had in Seattle last Saturday.

Just like how I was apprehensive when the movie was screened during the 50th day weekend, I was a lot worried whether there will be decent enough crowd for my friend (who was the one screening the movie) to at least break even. He was screening the movie just for the sake of fans like me and I want o proudly disclose here that, it was just for the sake of me that he changed the timing of the show from the usual 1pm start to a 7pm start, just bcos I had something else going on during the afternoon. So, I was even more worried and I had in fact decided even before the movie that if my friend were to incur a loss bcos of the movie, I will share some of the loss. So, that was my mentality heading into the weekend.

On the way to the theater on the D-day, I get a call from my friend asking me if I still needed the 10 tickets that I had earmarked for my friends. I said "Yes, I do need that. But why are you even concerned about it?". He goes "The movie might be a sell-out and that is the reason why I want to make sure that all your friends get a ticket". I really thought that my friend was joking around. It was hard for me to believe when he first told me that bcos there was no way the movie could have had even sold half of the tickets.

I was one of the first to reach the theater and as time of the show neared, the crowd swelled and it was about 20 mins before the show did I realize that my friend was indeed serious. The theater was brim to the full and we still had people coming. Since we did not want family audience to go back without a ticket, fans like me (a good 15 of us) decided to relinquish our seats and watch the movie standing from the side (anything for Thalaivar J). Even after doing that, we had to send 30-40 folks back home bcos of the non-availability of tickets. During all this commotion, I was sporting a big smile, a smile of just having seen a miracle happen. A smile arising out of sheer pride being a fan of Thalaivar, the only man who can pull a crowd to the theater in this remote corner of the world. Like I had said a few posts before, it is hard for Tamil movies to attract the Seattle Tamil audience to the theater even for just 1 show. And The Boss was being screened for the 12th time here in Seattle and that too on the 100th day, by which time the movie would have been available for download from all web sites. In spite of all these obstacles, Thalaivar pulls off a miracle, thus proving his clout and hold over the Tamil folks, no matter which corner of the globe they reside.

At least half of the crowd consisted of fans like me and that only mean one thing - mayhem and celebrations inside the theater. It was almost as though we were watching the premier show on June 14th (a day I can never forget). As the movie progressed, Thalaivar fans who had been seated in various corners of the theater, started to group together in the place where we were sitting and the excitement naturally grew from then on. All the agmark Thalaivar scenes – Thalaivar intro, Vaaji song intro, Style song, Adhiradi song, Mottai Boss intro, to name a few – drew the maximum applause & whistles while some fans like me were busy at the front of the theater throwing up torn paper pieces before the screen.

Personally for me, I was starved - this was my first glimpse of Thalaivar on the big screen after close to 90 days and in spite of watching all those scenes and songs in the form of YouTube videos, the experience was just electric. I was way too excited and elated during the screening. This was my 7th time watching the movie and I simply wasn't bored for one sec. If ever there was one thing I felt during this watching (and if I were given a choice to make just ONE change to the movie, that would also be the thing), it was as the Adhiradi song was being played, when I really thought how good it would have been if only Lawrence had been made the choreographer for all the songs, instead of just one. Shankar who had made the movie as a Thalaivar fan for Thalaivar fans could have made this one more thing for us which would have made the movie even more memorable. The Adhiradi song is one song which I do not think I will ever get tired of watching. Everything about the song is just perfect, making it easily the best Thalaivar song of all time, when it comes to picturization.

I don’t know what else to say than "The Boss rocks!""

Weekend Hikes - Margaret Lake

2007-09-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

Date: July 08, 2007
Close By: Snoqualmie Pass, WA

Directions: From Seattle take I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass, get off on Exit 54 and turn left. Follow the frontage road for Gold Creek. At 3.9 miles turn left (uphill) on road 4934. Continue 0.3 miles to the Lake Lillian/Margaret trail head.

Things to remember: Toughest hike of the year (at least until that point). The first half of the hike just kills you. Almost like a staircase. Trail goes through a lot of bushes. But once it gets into the woods, the trail becomes normal. The single most remarkable thing about the trail is that it offers amazing views of Mt. Rainier and keechelus Lake that runs alongside I-90. Even at this time of the year, the way down to the lake was mostly covered with snow. As a result, the trail could not be located beyond a point. So, we just walked through the snow and got to the lake. The lake as such was a disappointment as it was very small and it was almost like a pond. But we will remember the hike for the awesome views of Mt. Rainier it offered on the way.

Distance (RT): 5.0 miles
Time (RT): 3 hours, with 15 mins at the lake
Elevation: 1500 feet in, 300 feet out Level: 2.75

Some photos from the hike:

Very funny commercial

2007-09-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Was watching a TV show that listed the 100 most funny commercials, from around the world and though they did not list the commercials in any particular order, this video above was listed as the grand finale and to me, this one was easily the most funniest among them all.

One little surprise was that there was no commercial from India. That was a surprise bcos commercials from even countries like Thailand had found their way to the list.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - August 2007

2007-09-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

India wins test series in England for the first time in 21 years

This was truly an achievement. Though Dravid's decision against enforcing the follow-on in the 3rd test would be a black mark on the otherwise perfect series for India, I was so excited about this victory. And more than anything else, I felt happy for Sachin bcos his cricketing resume now would include a series victory in England. Same goes for Dravid and Ganguly too. These 3 guys have really stuck together after the world cup debacle and have guided this team to an extraordinary achievement. Though umpiring errors cost Sachin 2 centuries in this series, I was very happy that Sachin was able to make some sizeable contribution in 2 of the 3 tests. Zaheer Khan deserves special appreciation bcos it was his spell in the second innings of the 2nd test that ultimately tilted the test & thus the series in India's favor. Way to go, Team India.

Barry Bonds breaks the all-time HR recordSo, there it happened. Barry Bonds finally broke the most significant record in all of team sports, as the ESPN analysts would say. Though it has been only the last 3-4 years that I have been following baseball, I can kind of get an idea what this record means, by watching all the ex-players and Hall of Famers dwell on it. It is definitely a remarkable achievement, given the fact that he has had to maintain his HR hitting practice over a period of well over 20 years. But the one thing you can find when you talk to folks here about Barry Bonds is this - he is an extremely polarizing figure. No matter what side of the fence you are, this is one heck of a record.

A-Rod reaches 500 HRs mark
It was a special week where 3 important milestones were reached - Bonds breaking the HR record, Tom Glavine becoming the 23rd pitcher in MLB history to record 300 wins and A-Rod breaking the 500 HR barrier. He is having a dream season and though I am not a big fan of him, I do follow each one his HRs. He becomes the youngest MLB player to break the 500 HR mark and in all probability, unless a major injury or some scandal impedes him, the experts expect him to break Barry Bonds' record in the year 2013.

Tiger gets one step closer to Jack
With the 13th Major victory of his stellar career, Tiger moved one closer to the most holiest of golf records that stands in the name of Jack Nicklaus. As many ESPN analysts point out, it is now a matter of when rather than if and they are already predicting the British Open in the year 2010 when he will ultimately break the record. Tiger came into this tournament 0-3 this year in majors and by winning it, made sure that 2007 won’t be year when he will go without winning one. The tournament as such was over when he shot a mind-boggling 7 under par in the 2nd round, after which others were merely playing catching up with him. Tiger's record of winning a major when he is leading or sharing the lead at the end of the 3rd round remains intact. This BTW was Tiger's first major victory after the birth of his daughter.

Is he the answer to our prayers?
In a span of 3 days when he beat the top 3 players in men's tennis (Nadal, Federer and Roddick), Novak Djokovic made many experts come out in the open with the very question we all have been asking ourselves the past few years: Have we finally found the answer who can break the monotony of the FedEx? May be it is too early to speak about it but he has done something for the first time in 13 years (since Boris Becker did it in 1994) - a player has beaten the top 3 players in the world enroute to an ATP tour championship. Though he is yet to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament, he has already gotten to the semis twice (at the French and Wimbledon) before losing to Nadal on both the opportunities. This US Open will serve as a perfect platform for him to put all the questions about his true talent & promise to rest. And Oh, BTW, he is all of 20 years old.

The US Open begins
The final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis calendar begins in New York city. Last year, this time around I was in NYC watching the matches, amidst all the rain delays and even as the Andre Agassi farewell story was unfolding. My only wish as far as this Open is concerned is that we should have a new men's champion whereas on the women's side, I would like to see Serena win it all. When the draw was released, there was a headline in ESPN saying that Federer could meet Roddick in the quarters. I was like 'So what?". Like Roddick has any chance against Federer. With the sport losing its ground in the US in terms of both popularity and the quality of up & coming players, the experts do all they can do summon up interest in the Open but then it makes for some awful media coverage when all you can write about is Roddick meeting Federer in the quarters where Federer is most likely to sweep him off without breaking a sweat.

Michael Vick pleads guilty
In a widely expected decision, Falcons star QB, the face of their franchise and one of the NFL's most exciting players, Michael Vick pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and involvement in the killing of 6 dogs. This incident kind of completely took me by surprise. I mean, why would anyone do that when they know it can cost them their whole life. Of course, news of professional athletes getting involved in petty crimes (you know, DUIs, marijuana possession, strip club fights, etc) have been doing the rounds. But then, none of the players involved in them were big time players. Here, the case was different though for Michael Vick is the highest paid NFL player. When you have that kind of money at stake (130 mil in 10 years), it just did not make sense for me as to how someone can risk all of that for something as trivial as this dog fighting? Weird are the ways these athletes behave. But amidst all this, there was something I really liked - when Vick addressed the media, he did not read a prepared statement but rather spoke from the heart. That was definitely rare and the media rightly picked on it. Now the question that is on everyone's mind is - will the NFL let the ban coincide with his jail term? Bcos that decision could well be the difference between his career taking off again or not.

It Sucks...

2007-08-31T17:24:00.000-07:00

Have been getting irritated with a bunch of stuff of late and so thought of just listing them.

1) Windows Vista
This is no surprise bcos there have been sites dedicated exclusively for this and so no surprise that I too felt this way. I had resisted efforts from many to install the Vista OS in my laptop until last week when I had to go in for a new laptop offered to me by the company and it came with Vista. And needless to say, it has been one bad week. Intermittent blank screens, too slow in spite of a 2 GB RAM and the dreaded pop-ups & a bunch of known issues. That is how my Vista experience has been this past one week and no wonder Vista finds its way in this list. And if rumors are to be believed, MS does not have plans to ship the first Vista service pack at least until the end of this year and may be well into next year.

2) Yahoo mail beta
I have been wanting to write about this yahoo mail beta for a while. When the option to try out the beta version of Yahoo came up a while back, I readily accepted it and as expected out of a beta version, there were a bunch of bugs whose number started reducing as weeks went by. But ever since they integrated the chat application into the mail application, I have started disliking it so much. In their effort to ape Google, the UI that Yahoo has come up with for this integrated chat application is pathetic and worse still, it has made the task of browsing through emails a pain.

3) Comcast's new TV guide & on-demand
Upgrades/ newer versions are supposed to give the customer a better user experience and more features. But somehow Comcast seems to think otherwise. The latest version of their on-demand UI was released amidst fanfare (there were promotions on TV about how the new version is so much better than the existing one and all the customers were contacted over phone & informed of the same) and ever since there have been issues galore. This simple issue should tell something: say, if you are watching a channel in the hundreds (173 is ESPNHD), you want to go back to watching MSNBC on channel 47, you won’t get there by simply pressing 4 and 7. I was totally annoyed when I faced this the first time and my tolerance levels shot up when I heard the solution to it. That, I have to press 0, 4 and 7 to get the 47th channel. This is just a small sample. The on-demand application which had few flaws in the earlier version has gone from bad to worse. I am sure folks who have Comcast on-demand at home will vouch for this statement of mine.

And for the final proof that life hasn't been good to me of late, check this out: The summer season is slowly making its way for the Fall season and though that is not something I am very fond of, having enjoyed summer to the hilt and Seattle in summer being one of the best places to be in summer, fall more than makes up for that with football taking center-stage. To me, the fall season is all about 2 things - football and the fantasy football that goes along with it. This year I am playing in 3 different leagues with 3 different set of friends and this past week saw the finalization of the draft order in all 3 of them. And guess what? In all 3 of the drafts, I got the last pick. It was completely unbelievable. I mean, what are the odds of this happening? In 3 completely unrelated drafts, I get the last pick in each one of them and the draft order was arrived in a random manner in each one of them. Truly sucks...

Weekend Hikes - Lake 22

2007-08-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Date: June 30, 2007
Close By: Granite Falls, WA (Mountain Loop Highway)
Directions: From Seattle, get to the city of Granite Falls (40 miles from Redmond). From Granite Falls, follow the Mountain Loop Highway for approximately 12 miles and the trail head is about 2 miles on the right, after you pass the Verlot Public Service Center. The trail head is in the Mt. Baker/ Snoqualmie National Forest.

Things to remember: The trail is not very steep but there are occasional rocky sections and thus the descent from the lake back to the parking lot is very tough on your feet, due to these rocky sections. We started the hike at about 7am in the morning and thus had the whole lake to ourselves almost the entire duration of time we spent there. The first group (after ours) got to the lake as we were about to start our descent. There is a very well laid out trail around the lake which gives us some strikingly different views of the lake. Too many bugs and since we were the only group at the lake, all of them seemed very intent to drive us away :) A neat and short hike.

Distance (RT): 5.0 miles
Time (RT): 4 hours, with 1 hour at the lake
Elevation: 1300 feet
Difficulty Level: 2.25

Some photos from the hike:

An assorted post

2007-08-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

Bheema album- What Harris Jeyaraj has been doing with each album of his is just mind-blowing. Music lovers have differing opinions on songs of different MDs but when it comes to songs tuned in by Harris, there are no two opinions. Inspite of all his shortcomings, nobody can say that they do not like the melodies churned out by Harris Jeyaraj. I am a big fan of Yuvan but I enjoy the songs of Harris Jeyaraj equally bcos of the simple reason - they are instantly catchy, the tunes are very simple and more importantly, all it takes for us to start loving the songs is couple of listenings. Of course his songs draw the usual complaints - they are not innovative, they all sound the same, the tune sounds oh-so familiar but guess what? The songs are so much enjoyable and that is what matters at the end. And Bheema is no different and it was only expected bcos it is Linguswamy who is the director of the movie and who has always been very good when it comes to extracting the best out of his MDs. Every song you hear in Bheema just brings a smile to your lips, as to how this guy can come up with such simple tunes album after album.

The moment you listen to the Ragasiya Kanavugal song, you are instantly hooked on to it. The only thing that is jarring in this song is Madhushree's voice & Tamil pronunciation. The 'irage irage' chorus is just too good. Very soothing tune to go along with some catchy beats. Easily my pick of the album. But equally soothing and melodious, are the Enadhuyire enadhuiyre and Mudhal mazhai songs. Somehow Sadhana Sargam's rendition of the Enadhuyire song was not easy on the ears. Other than that, it was almost a perfect melody. Hariharan is at his best in the mesmerizing Mudhal mazhai number where that female solo humming, though being something we have come to expect in Harris Jeyaraj's songs, is so enchanting. Oru mugamO is a very interesting hero introduction song, sans heavy beats which are usually the trademark of such songs. Naresh Iyer and Karthik just compliment each other well. Siru paarvaiyaale is the typical Harris folk-cum-kuthu song and it is as catchy as any of his previous such songs. And me being a big fan of Harini just makes the job of liking the song much more easier. Rangu rangamma is a decent song and will rank as my least favorite number of the album. Overall, Harris Jeyaraj serves up one more thoroughly enjoyable album.

Sivaji second release - This is too good a news not to share this info with you guys. Last weekend, Sivaji was re-released in Seattle (you know, owing to popular demand :D) and thus also becoming the first movie to do so in Seattle's history of screening Tamil movies. Kireedom that was released couple of weeks drew very average crowds (one of my friends actually co-released the movie and let me just say that he hurts his finances pretty badly) and Arya that was released last weekend (along with Sivaji) fared even worse and had all of 11 people watching it. But guess how many people turned up for Sivaji? 410. That’s just freaking unbelievable. Seriously, when I got the news that Sivaji was going to be released again, though I was excited, I was also apprehensive as to the guy who releases it should not incur any losses. Bcos Tamil movies usually run for 1-2 shows here in Seattle. And Sivaji had already run 9 shows during its first release and now it was releasing again. But The Boss proved his clout at the BO in no small measure and pulled out another near-houseful show at Seattle. Though I was out of town and thus could not increase my count (which still stands at 6), talks are already on to bring the movie back to Seattle to coincide with 100th day of the movie's release. I should increase my count during then :)

2008 Accord - Though the concept car of the 2008 Accord coupe was revealed last year at the Detroit auto show, the sedan was kept under the wraps until it was unveiled yesterday. Being an Accord owner myself, I closely follow the changes that the model go through over the years. One of my friends' friend who works at Honda who had a chance to look at the model ever since last year, had only glowing things to say about the car (like "it will blow your mind away"). But after watching the video yday, I will have to say that it did not exactly do it to me :) It definitely looks more stylish and it just does not blow your mind off, say how the 2007 Camry did to all of us when compared to the 06 version. I feel that the body of the car resembles more like a BMW 5-series and it also looks like the car has much more interior space than its previous versions. Here is the link to the Motor Trend video.

Trip to Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area

2007-08-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Had been to the Oregon Dunes National recreational area last weekend. This has been on my to-be-visited places list ever since I read about the adventures a fellow blogger had at those dunes sometime 2 years ago. So, we started from Seattle on Friday evening and stayed at my friend's place in Portland that night. Started our drive on Saturday morning for the destination via the 101 route.

I have heard about how driving on the 101 route is such an amazing experience. I got a first hand experience of the same only last weekend. It was so beautiful, all along and the perfect summer weather we had only made the drive all the more memorable. The first time you get to see the Pacific ocean and drive along it is truly memorable. There are too many beautiful view points along the way. So, if you are driving & have missed a good view point, do not worry. There is another one right around the corner.

But I am digressing her since the trip was all about the ATV ride on the sand dunes and it was the one that I was looking forward to the most. After talking with those who have already done it, one thing was clear - it is not going to be easy and enjoyable. Looks like it is quite easy to fall off the drifts in the dunes and thus the ATV gets toppled very easily. That was one reason why the insurance companies stopped covering these ATV rides. All these only made me apprehensive as we reached the ATV rental place.

At the rental place, there is a brief lesson on the do's and don'ts while riding an ATV. The one thing they tell you as one of the most important points is that while climbing uphill a dune, you should always do it in a straight line bcos otherwise, your vehicle will get stuck in the sand. The next important thing is that there is a lot of illusion in these drifts that you find in the sands. In other words, these sand dunes are more like snow. So, when you climb up a dune, you have to be extra careful to slow down right as you reach the top of the dune bcos the drop from the top can be very steep in some places. The part of this lesson which made us all wary is about the consequences that we have to face if we topple the ATV and damaging the vehicle & the accessories in the process. There were separate charges for each and every minor damage (all this bcos of there being no insurance coverage for these ATVs) and the cost of those repairs were anything between 20$ to 200$.

We took the 1-hour ride option for 45$. From the rental place, the guide leads you to the dunes and as with all these attractions, they take you through a crowded area completely covered with trees and then suddenly you are right into the middle of the dunes. The way you get to encounter the dunes does take you by shock & awe. Whichever way we turned, all we could see was the sand dunes. It was just too good. The guide led us through to the center of the dunes and that is when and where the fun begins. We found out quickly that whatever that was mentioned in the pre-ride lessons were very imperative and helpful. As with everything, we slowly got used to riding the ATV. It was way too fun riding our ATVs up those huge imposing dunes. Some dunes that are so steep and looking at which your first thought would be to skip them, are actually easily climbable. Like with every other adventurous activities that we get to do over here (skiing, rafting, sky diving, etc), the adrenaline rush that we experience during this ride was awesome.

The only downside to this whole experience was that the ATVs got stuck in the sands quite often and that obviously slowed us down. The biggest mistake we did that was in our eagerness to help our friends to get their ATVs out of the sand, we left our own ATVs in an uphill section of the dune from where we ourselves required help to get the ATV out.

Couple of advices if you plan on going there:

Take the 2 hour ATV ride. Though it costs double the price of an 1-hour ride, it should be worth it. The problem with the 1 hour rides (the ones which we all took) is that you start getting comfortable with the ATV & the dunes & the maneuvering it requires only after 40 mins and by that time, you are hardly left with 5-10mins to enjoy it bcos you have to get ready to go back to the rental place.
Do not ever stop the ATV while you are climbing uphill.

In the evening, after the individual ATV rides, we took the organized buggy tour ride. The buggy is something like a F1- race car that can seat anywhere between 6-20 people. This is where a professional driver rides the buggy along the dunes and this too was a lot of fun. He was liberally driving at 55 mph but it felt more like 70 mph bcos of the excessive winds. It is like a roller coaster ride only that there is no set path here and he just rides along the slopes of the various dunes. If you are not upto the challenge of the individual ATV ride, this one is the perfect fit for you to experience the dunes. The video below was shot by me as I was holding the camera as we were in the buggy ride.

So, if you are someone who is at a drivable distance of this place, you should give this place a visit. Its worth the drive and the beautiful & scenic 101 drive just makes the whole trip all the more worthier.

Top 10 Sivaji moments

2007-08-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

I had started writing this post much earlier but then wanted to post it on a day of significance and what better day than the 50th day of its release. Sivaji has been one movie which has almost become too tough to resist. Though I have watched it 6 times so far, I am still dying to watch it many more times. I keep saying to my friends that if I had been in India (or in some place where the movie is still running), I would have definitely watched it a minimum of 20 times. Seriously, I have not enjoyed a Thalaivar movie as much as I enjoyed Sivaji and more importantly, no Thalaivar movie has left me wanting for more, even after repeated viewings.

To quench my thirst for some Sivaji action, I surf around looking for You Tube videos of some scenes and songs. Since I do not download movies in general, there was no way I was going to download the movie and watch it in my laptop. Sivaji means so much to me and thus, anything less than watching it in a theater is unacceptable for me. I bought the audio CD, watched the movie in the theater for 6 times and will buy atleast 5 copies of the original DVD whenever it is released (Oh..the remaining copies are for friends as gifts).

As a Thalaivar fan, all I was concerned before the movie's release was that the movie should do well. And boy, has it done well. As every other site and news report says, the movie has already broken all existing records in Tamil cinema and I am sure when it is done running, it would have become the highest grossing movie in the history of Indian cinema. After Chandramukhi set all those collection records, movies like Anniyan did gross an amount which while remaining lesser than CM, was in the same league as CM. That is when Thalaivar probably thought that we should do a movie where the collections of the same should be in an altogether different league and Thalaivar's dream has come true in a big way with Sivaji. I am not sure if even Thalaivar's future movies can break the records set by Sivaji (though I will be the one who will be the happiest if that does happen).

Alright now to the top 10 Sivaji moments. Moments that took my breath away, moments that made me cry out loud, moments that made me leap from my seat, moments that got me excited way too much, moments that tingled my spine or to put it simply, moments that only Thalaivar can provide. I thought of ordering them but then, that would just not be fair. Though I like some of the moments listed below better than the others, there are atleast a good 3-4 moments which I simply can not put in any order bcos each one of them is just as stunning as another.

1) Sivaji-kku appuram evan-da
Sujatha had said in an interview before the movie was released on whether there will be any punch dialogs in Sivaji to which he replied We have made Vivek do the honors instead of the Superstar. Punch-kku punch. Dignity-kku dignity. I simply loved it even when I read the interview and when I saw that scene when Vivek says Six-kku appuram seven-da...Sivaji-kku appuram yeven-da, it was just too good to be true and we all shouted Yevenum illa-da

2) Singam..Single-aa thaan varum
I don't think I need to say anything about this scene as this scene and the dialog have become part of folk lore. I was completely speechless when I saw this scene for the first time. I simply loved the way how there is a gap in this dialog. He first says Kannaa, panninga thaan koottamaa varum and then hits the goondas who fly in the air and it is then as they are falling down like nine pins, he finishes the dialog by saying Singam, single-aa than varum That glitter in his eyes as he says this is so typical of Thalaivar

3) Thalaivar's mind-blowing intro in the Adhiradi song
Though I personally liked the way how Thalaivar lands on the ground after flying & picks up the guitar, many friends of mine liked the way he is shown lying on the bike with his face covered with that hat and with his feet crossed. Whichever is your pick, those few seconds when the Adhiradi song starts are simply out-of-the-world. (it is to be noted here that I have already run out of adjectives/ superlatives) I will have to add here that whatever follows (the whole song basically) deserves another entry in this list. But for the sake of repetition, I am leaving it out.

4) Thalaivar riding that bike in the Style song in that blue jacket.
I am not sure how many of you noticed this. To be very frank, this was the only hairdo in that Style song I was kind of apprehensive about when the stills were released (my personal favorite was the one he sports when he is wearing the orange overcoat and I was actually disappointed that Shankar did not give adequate screen time for that outfit). But once I saw that blue outfit on the screen, all my doubts evaporated into thin air. The way he nonchalantly chews the bubble gum while driving is breath-taking. While on the same dress, the following scene where Thalaivar's mirror image and Thalaivar do different things in slow-mo is equally awesome and thus has to be given its due recognition.

5) That walk back to the auto in THE teakada scene.
The whole teakada scene is spectacular & will rank way up there among the best Thalaivar scenes of all time. But the way the scene ends with this particular walk is just the crowning glory of the whole scene. Everything about that walk is mind-blowing - first the way he gets up from the bench after stylishly gets his right leg over the bench, then walks back by looking sideways without looking at the camera, all the time chewing the Bajji and then how he gets into the auto & says Polaam right, there can not be a better moment than this. It was no coincidence that Thalaivar’s daughter too cites the same scene as her most favorite scene of the movie. We (myself & my friends) all talk about how the shooting spot would have looked like on the day they canned this scene. Given the fact that Shankar himself is such a huge fan of Thalaivar, I am sure they all would have enjoyed this scene to the hilt even while filming it.

6) Thalaivar's entry in the Haneefa stabbing scene
You don't realize what hit you. That is how I felt when suddenly the doors open and Thalaivar strides into the room alongside the other goondas. As he answers Haneefa's question as to who it is, by saying Boss in how own magnetic voice and enters the room with that background by ARR is definitely one of the high moments of the movie.

7) Vaaji vaji song walk
Thalaivar's walk is something that leaves every Thalaivar fan in a trance and that midukku in his walk is simply unparalleled. Among all the walks in the movie, I actually loved this one in the Vaaji song. This actually comes for a few fleeting seconds. Right when the song starts, after Thalaivar gets out of that pallakku, he is first showered with rose petals & then he flashes his trademark smile, which instantly sent me into a daze already. And it is then that he is shown walking along the corridor with the sword in his hand. Amazing. Awestruck.

8) Music store fight scene close-up
Right in the middle of the musical store fight where the fight shifts from the main area of the store to a storage area full of guitars and drums, first, Thalaivar's eyes are shown in close-up and then his majestic walk, with the Power ranger jetix thaan-da Pathu viralum gimmicks thaan-da lines in the background. Another moment when Thalaivar just makes you scream out of pure adrenaline rush.

9) Helicopter backdrop walk
Well, there are 2 walks with the helicopter in the background and needless to say which among the 2 is more hair-rising than the others. The one in the all-white attire was the clear winner. (Its not that the one with the all-black outfit is bad but somehow, I have always liked when Thalaivar comes in a all-white dress , right from the Raajaadhi Raja days) This scene is a very unique one. First up showing a helicopter up-close & landing with the dirt flying is majestic in its own way. But as only he can, Thalaivar simply overshadows the presence of the helicopter in the background with his mere walk. A doubtless Wow moment for any die-hard Thalaivar fan.

10) Mottai boss intro
The less I write about the Mottai boss, the better bcos if I start my ranting, I just can not stop. Thalaivar's majesty in that get-up is truly unbelievable. It is for that one get-up alone I will say Sivaji is the best Thalaivar film ever. The moment he gets down from that helicopter and starts walking in never-before-seen style of walking, I was shouting Thalaivaa to the hilt. It is for moments like these that fans like me die for and Thalaivar fans have to thank Shankar for showing us all a facet of Thalaivar we would not have seen in our life times if not for him.

So, there goes my celebration of the successful 50th day completion of THE movie. As always, would like to hear any other goose-bump moments you guys feel would have made it to your list.

Weekend Hikes - Annette Lake

2007-08-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

After the first 2 hikes, this was another step up for me bcos the difficulty level of this hike was moderate. The site where we pick these hikes from grades each one of the hikes by their difficulty level and judgment is pretty darn accurate. On their scale this was a moderate one but to me, this was real strenuous. Though I have hiked tougher hikes since I did this one, I will always remember the Annette Lake hike as the first moderate level hike I ever did.

Date: June 23, 2007
Close By: Snoqualmie Pass, WA

Directions: From Seattle, drive east on I-90 to Exit 47 and turn right. Drive 0.2 miles to road 5590, turn left and drive 0.3 miles to the large parking lot and trail-head.

Things to remember: Starts off steep, becomes relatively easy for a while before gets steep again. Good part is that the last 1 mile or so is on level ground and there is no elevation. Trail is in good shape. You might want to take another 0.75 mile trail called Nature trail which is at the trailhead. The lake is beautiful. Lot of logs. Lot of bugs too, on the way and at the lake.

Distance (RT): 8.0 miles
Time (RT): 4 hours, with 30 minutes at the lake
Elevation: 1400 feet
Level: 3

Best Of T.Rajendar playlist

2007-07-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

Few months ago, I was doing a series of posts on playlists of some of the popular music directors in Tamil and keeping up with my tradition of consistency in being inconsistent, was unable to continue posting for all the music directors. But couple of weeks ago, I read somewhere that in his forthcoming film Kettavan, Simbhu is planning to remix the Raakkaala velaiyila song from Mythili Ennai Kaadhali and that is when I listened to that song, which I had completely forgotten, again and it was as catchy as it used to be when I listened to it all those years ago. That is when I thought I should definitely write a post on the best songs of the versatile T. Rajendar.

We have seen so many heroes/ directors who have gone from hero to zero in the Tamil film industry (R.V.Udhaya Kumar, Ramarajan come to my mind instantly) but here is one guy who has become from something of an icon to almost a laughing stock for the current Tamil film followers. It is actually sad to see him do movies like Veerasami and make himself a butt of ridicule of so many jokes & mockeries. I really feel that he is (or I should rather say, was) too talented to do movies like these. But his actions in both the fields - political & cinema - have made things only worse.

Anyway, his music (from that 80s, that is) is something that I have always loved. I have always felt that his music is the closest that has come to the Maestro's songs from the 80s. Some of the songs from his hey days, you would have trouble believing that they are by TR and not actually by the Maestro. Listen to the way the Vaigai karai kaattrae song starts or the guitar usage in Vasantham paadi vara and you will understand I am saying.

Like with all my playlist series, one of the conditions while coming up with this list is that they all should fit in a 80 min audio CD. I had to relax my other preset condition that there can be only one song from a movie since there are just few movies of TR (less than 10) that I have listened to. So, here is my best of T.Rajendar CD compilation.

Indira logathu sundari raathiri kanavil vandhaalo from Uyir Ullavarai Usha
Vaigai karai kaattrae nillu from Uyir Ullavarai Usha
Endhan paadalgalil nee neelaambari from Uravai Kaatha Kili
Noolumillai vaalumillai from RayilPayanangalil
Vasantha kaalangal isaindhu paadungal from RayilPayanangalil
Vasantham paadi vara from RayilPayanangalil
Salangai Ittal oru maadhu from Mythili Ennai Kaadhali
Kanneeril moozhgum odam from Mythili Ennai Kaadhali
Engum mythili edhilum mythili from Mythili Ennai Kaadhali
Idhu kuzhandhai paadum thaalaattu from Oru Thalai Raagam
Kadavul vaazhum koyilile from Oru Thalai Raagam
Vaasamillaa malaridhu from Oru Thalai Raagam
Pookkala thaan parikkaadheenga from Pookkalai Parikkaadheergal
Moongil kaattoram from Pookkal Vidum Thoodhu (Mellifluous song with SPB at his best)
Kadhiravanai paarthu from Pookkal Vidum Thoodhu
Sollaama thaane from Oru Thaayin Sabatham
Moongilile paattisaikkum from Raagam Thedum Pallavi

Honorable mentions:
Aazhkadalil thathiluthu from Raagam Thedum Pallavi
Vizhigal medaiyaam from Kilinjalgal
Raakaala velaiyila from Mythili Ennai Kaadhali
En Aasai Mythiliye from Mythili Ennai Kaadhali
Amaidhikki peyar thaan shaanthi from Rayil Payanangalil

As always will look forward to your comments on any gems that I might have missed out.

Cool YouTube video

2007-07-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest & most innovative YouTube videos I have ever come across. I am sure some of you would have seen this one before. Still wanted to share this for the sake of folks who haven't seen this before. Look at the number of views for this video - a staggering 20 million+ views :)

Incidentally, this video is also featured in the iPhone commercial where it talks about being able to watch YouTube videos in the iPhone.

Weekend Hikes - Wallace Falls

2007-07-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

This was our second hike of the summer. A lot tougher one than the first hike mainly bcos of the elevation gain. It was 500 feet in the first hike whereas the elevation gained in this one was 1200 feet. The one thing that I have learnt from doing these hikes is that the distance covered in a hike does not really matter. It is pretty easy to cover longer distances. I have done hikes that are as long as 5 miles one way and I have not been very tired. But once the elevation gained starts increasing even by a few hundred feet, the hike gets a lot tougher. I realized this the moment I started this hike and was literally panting like a dog at the end of the hike.

But the good thing about this hike was that the falls at the end of the hike was way too beautiful. The sense of accomplishment that we get when we complete a tough hike like this is just unparalleled and when the destination of the hike has something as beautiful as the Wallace Falls, it makes the accomplishment all the more sweeter.

So, here are the details and photos of the second hike of the season.

Name: Wallace Falls
Date: June 10, 2007
Close By: Gold Bar off of US-2
Directions: Drive US-2 east from Everett to milepost 27.9 in Gold Bar. Turn left (north) at the Wallace Falls State Park sign. From there it's 1.7 miles to the trailhead.
Things to remember: 3 falls. The Middle Falls is the most beautiful of the three. If you are extremely tired, skip the Upper Falls. Trail is extremely beautiful, like walking through a rain forest. Trail runs parallel to a creek and you can find benches to get some rest & get some good views.
Distance (RT): 5.5 miles
Time (RT): 3 hours
Elevation: 1200 feet
Difficulty level: 2

Satham Podaathey & Thottal Poo Malarum - Yuvan's good form continues

2007-07-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

Any 2-week stretch that sees the release of 2 albums from Yuvan is special and though this post comes late, I really did not want to not write anything about 2 good albums from Yuvan. The first thing that strikes you after listening to all the songs in these 2 albums is that Yuvan has not sung one song in its entirety in both the albums. He limits himself to a solo humming, a short rapping, joins the lead singer for a few lines and that is pretty much it. Usually whenever I start listening to any Yuvan album, I am anxious to find out whether Yuvan has spoiled a good song by his awful singing. So, with that major worry behind me, here is my take on the 2 new Yuvan albums:

Satham Podaathey - This is one of the Yuvan albums that I was looking forward to, ever since the project was announced sometime last year. Among all the contemporary directors, when it comes to extracting the best out of their music directors, I have always felt that Vasanth stands out clearly among everybody else. The reason why I rate him above the usual suspects like Mani Rathnam, Shankar, Selvaraghavan, Goutham Menon is very simple - all these directors have done it with mostly 1 or at the maximum, 2 different music directors. But Vasanth is one who gets the best out of any music director that he works with and that is his specialty. From the Maestro in Keladi Kanmani to the assorted composers in HNRAI, he has time & again gotten the best out of his MDs. Rhythm to me is definitely one of the best albums of Rahman whereas Aasai & Nerukku Naer (notwithstanding the lifts) are easily 2 of the best albums that Deva ever came up in his career. Even when Yuvan was just learning the ropes 7-8 years back, Vasanth got Yuvan to compose an amazing album - Poovellaam Kaettupar, which would surely rank among the top 5 albums from Yuvan. It is in this context that we need to judge Satham Podaathey, which IMHO falls definitely short of the expectations this album had generated among Yuvan fans.

It is not that the songs are mediocre. 4 out of the 5 songs are definitely good but except for Pesugiren and the Oh indha kaadhal songs, none of them can find their way into the awesome category and in an album of a Vasanth movie, that is precisely what one expects and definitely what a Yuvan fan like me expects. About the songs - Pesugiren pesugiren is easily my pick of the album. I am not sure who among the Viva girls has sung the Pesugiren song but it is too good. The saxophone bit in the interludes is amazing and soothing. And upon listening to the pallavi of the Oh indha kaadhal song, I was beginning to wonder sure why Adnan Saamy was roped in to sing this one. But it is in the charanams that Adnan Saami gets into his own and justifies Yuvan's decision. Anytime Yuvan uses some heavy beats, I love them. And here in this song, those heavy beats that he has used in the pallavi after the second charanam are just too good. Sudha Raghunathan's voice in Kaadhal periyadhaa is the only highlight. Endha Kudhiraiyil is a neatly-paced catchy song with Shreya Ghosal single-handedly carrying the song on her shoulders. That leaves us with Azhagu kutti chellam. The less said about it, the better. It could have been a way better song, if only the instruments that have been used were different. But something also tells me that this song might look good on-screen. We will have to wait on that one. Bottomline - Like I said earlier, definitely a let-down considering the pre-release expectations but nevertheless, an album whose CD will go into my Yuvan collection.

Thottaal poo malarum - I am not a big fan of P.Vasu (was in fact hating Thalaivar for selecting him as the director for Chandramukhi) and in spite of him being able to get some very good songs form the Maestro (& repeatedly at that), I was not looking forward to this album. Primary reason being the generation gap between Yuvan and P.Vasu. Vasu is one of the typical old school director who needs to stop directing movies (KB, Bharathiraja & even Balu Mahendra have joined the list long back). So, started listening to this album with no great expectations and will have to say that this album fulfills whatever expectations I had of this album. The Arabu Naade song is easily the best of this album. Just too good and rocks completely. One of those songs that will sweep you off the feet and leaves you wanting more. Haricharan is just mesmerizing. I simply loved the way he casually sings the lines 'Urudhu Kavignan Omar Khayyam-in kavidhaiyaa'. The lyrics gel perfectly with the tune of the song, with the lines 'Enakkirukkum sakthi..parasakhthi purinjukko' being my favorite. I should say that I was surprised that Vasu has been able to extract such a good song from Yuvan. Vittal sooriyani is a surprisingly good song, given the genre the song falls into - hero introduction number. It is groovy and Yuvan's rapping in between the charanams is pretty good. For me, I will carry these lines from the song - Meendum modhuvadhil Ghajni...Modhi velluvadhil Rajini. The prelude of Ennai pidicha is very curious but the song itself starts off very ordinarily but it is in the charanams where it gets beautiful. The oodallaa oodaa oodaa humming and the beautiful charanams more than make up for the rather ordinary tune of the song. Also, this is one of the songs which made me look up the name of female vocalist. Loved her voice. The Yuvan - Vijay Yesudoss combo is at it again in the Valaiyal karangal song. My second pick of the album and goes on to prove how Yuvan has mastered the knack of selecting songs perfectly suited for Vijay Yesudoss. His voice is so pristine and its a song that will grab your attention the very first time you listen to it. IMO, this song is actually as good as the Arabu Naade song. Kadathuren naan is your routine kuthu song. Definitely catchy but will go off your mind in a matter of days, rather than weeks. Vaadi vambu pennae song is actually good, without being great by any means. Overall, definitely a more-than-expected album from Yuvan, with the 2 songs in an endless repeat mode in my player.

Weekend Hikes - Twin Falls

2007-07-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

Summer is the best time of the year in Seattle and so folks here always advise anyone planning on visiting Seattle to try to make it here during summer. That is when the beauty of this city in particular and the pacific northwest area in general is brought out to the core.

Among several other activities that one can do during summer here (playing cricket, golf & soccer to name a few), hiking is one of my favorites. Reason being hiking serves 2 purposes - the obvious reason of letting you burn a few calories and the second reason, is that it lets you explore the beauty of these surrounding areas. There are just numerous hikes in this area that constitutes of about 30-50 miles from my place and most of these hikes end up either in a lake or a waterfalls. I got inspired by this very idea of hiking from a desi group from Microsoft who have been doing this hiking & such activities for the last few years. Picking up from them, myself along with my friends decided to go on hiking during the summer time. Last summer was when it started and we did a total of 3 hikes.

But this year, we decided that we will do a minimum of 5 hikes this summer. We pick the hikes from this site Washington Hikes and also refer to sites likeVTrail, Washington Trails Association, Cool Trails and Local Hikes for more detailed information about the hikes that we have picked from the first site. So far, this summer we have already met our target of 5 hikes and since a good portion of the summer is still before us, we have now increased the target to 10 hikes. The one good thing we have done consistently is that we have started the hikes quite early in the day - as early as 6 am in the morning. Most of the times, we were the first ones to arrive at the trailheads. Starting the hike early solves 2 problems - the crowd and the sun. The sun is very benign when we start the hikes and it is when we start our climb down do we usually see all the crowd making their way up.

And just like how I have been posting these Weekend Movies posts, I thought may be I should start posting Weekend Hikes posts. I kind of wanted to have these posts form a sort of travelogue. So, it might be boring for folks from other places (except may be for the photos that I am planning to post) but I am sure folks who are reading this in the Seattle area will find something useful in here.

So, here are the details and photos of the first hike of the season.

Name: Twin Falls
Date: June 9, 2007
Close By: I-90
Directions: From Seattle, drive east on I-90 and get off at Exit 34 (468th Avenue). Turn right on 468th Avenue Southeast, drive about a half-mile, then turn left on Southeast 159th Street. Continue a half-mile to road end, parking area and facilities
Things to remember: Lots of kids; pretty simple hike.
Distance (RT): 2.5 miles
Time (RT): 2.5 hours
Elevation: 600 feet
Difficulty Level: 1.5

Weekend movies

2007-07-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

Karuppasamy Kuthagaithaarar - We all wanted the first Tamil movie we were watching after Sivaji to be good and memorable. Well, KK did take care of the latter part but for all the wrong reasons, as it turned out to be one of most amateurish movies that I have watched in the near past. Even given that the intent of the movie is kind of new to Tamil cinema, it was a pure torture to sit through the movie. Every single actor in the movie (Karan included) just reeks of so much in-acting that it is hard to take it beyond a point. Case in point, the heroine's father who is a complete no show. It got too ridiculous beyond a point that I stopped focusing on the movie and instead started looking at the various Madurai spots that are being shown in the movie. The stage theater group just takes up too much unnecessary screen time. The first few minutes of showing their histrionics was mildly interesting but it soon became an overdose & pointless after a while. If you are from Madurai, if you are like me who is staying away from the city and if you want to watch different places from the Madurai city on the big screen & if you want to see actors speak some authentic Madurai slang, then give this a watch. Or else, stay away would be my suggestion.

12 Angry Men - This is one movie which you can find in the top 50 best movies of all time and a movie which has been in my to-watch list for a long time. Finally, got to watch it last weekend. Well, the movie just proved why it is considered so highly by everyone around. The whole movie is how a jury (of 12 men) deliberates among themselves on whether to convict a man accused of killing his own father. The vote of the jury has to be unanimous. When the discussion starts, save for 1 juror, everyone thinks that the accused should be sentenced to death. The lone crusader basically says that he is neither sure if the accused is innocent nor is he convinced with the evidences that were presented by the attorneys. As the film progresses, the way each one of the 11 jurors start getting convinced the other way around and then how it comes down to the last person whose ego rather than logic makes him disagree with all the other jurors have been beautifully portrayed. When some of the jurors who are shown as highly opinionated & egoistic and who think that the man is guilty, I was wondering how the director is going to manage their changing of opinion. It was very convincingly handled. Overall, a terrific movie and I am glad that I finally got a chance to take it off my to-watch list of movies.

Sivaji (Telugu) - Mainly wanted to watch the Telugu version for the 3 scenes that prelude the Adhiradi song bcos Thalaivar has imitated ANR, NTR and Chiranjeevi in the Telugu version. And needless to say, those 3 scenes did not disappoint and those 3 scenes were applauded the most by the Telugu audience. I personally liked the part where Thalaivar imitated ANR and the fact that the song used had the familiar Mazhaikkaala megam tune helped too. It was a laugh riot. During this watching, I was more into observing the reaction of the Telugu folks rather than myself watching the movie, bcos of 2 reasons - I do not understand Telugu (the obvious one) and secondly, this was my 6th time watching the movie and so almost every single scene in the movie was very familiar to me. One of my friends who watched the movie along with me is quite familiar with Telugu cinema and he was telling me that for them, they do not get this whole Thalaivar factor thing and thus, they either like or dislike the movie purely on the basis of its face value. That was actually a very interesting observation for me. Anyway, I did note that the Telugu folks laughed aloud a lot than what our folks did in a few of the comedy scenes in the first half. Also, wherever Tamil words are shown in the movie, care has been taken to replace them with Telugu words and letters. This was my first time watching a Telugu movie in the theater and I am happy that I did it with Sivaji. One trivia I recently came to know about Nayak and I am sure some of you might be unaware of this. The character name of Anil Kapoor in the movie is, hold your breath, Sivaji Rao Gaekwad :) I was totally surprised on hearing it. That shows how big a fan of Thalaivar Shankar is and that is exactly why we see so much of Thalaivar (than Shankar) in Sivaji. Shankar has put on his Thalaivar fan cap and given us all this memorable feast. My count still stands at 6 and badly want to watch it. Every bit of information about Sivaji that I read makes me want to watch the movie more and more. Looks like the film has been brought back for the second time in cities like Atlanta and Washington DC. We have a huge Thalaivar fan in our area who is doing all his to bring Sivaji back to Seattle in a month or two. I will have to wait till then to increase my count.

Cool Wedding Idea

2007-07-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

Had been to the wedding of my friend over the weekend and came across this candy wrap that caught my eyes instantly. Inside this wrap was an ordinary Hershey's milk chocolate bar. But whatever was on both sides of the wrap was what captured my attention.

On the front of the wrap was a beautiful picture of the couple along with their names and the wedding date. The image below is how the back side of the wrap looked like. I just loved it. I especially loved the bar code section of the wrap where the wedding date has been printed in a bar code style.

So, folks who are planning a wedding anytime in the near future, can take a cue from this, if you like it. BTW, bcos of the unique date that was this past Saturday (07-07-07), it is believed that the number of weddings that had been planned on that day throughout the US was an unbelievable 65000 :) TIME magazine calls the day The Most popular Wedding day ever. Wow, that is something. No wonder, Tony Parker & Eva Longoria decided to tie the knot on the special day.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - June 2007

2007-07-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Justin Henin wins third straight French Open
Justin Henin wins her third straight French Open title by defeating Ana Ivanovic in the finals in straight sets. My interest in the women's draw extinguished the moment my favorite Serena lost to Henin in the quarters. So, was only academically following the proceedings from then on. And I have to write something about this Ivanovic girl - though I have come across her name before this finals, it was only during this finals that I really did looked up her in Google and was surprised to see how gorgeous she looks. In fact, a poll says that she is the second hottest female tennis player, second only to you-know-who (No, not Anna Kournikova as she has retired from professional tennis). I am sure I will be catching up on news related to Ivanovic from now on :)

Nadal follows suit
Well, what else to say than the fact that I was overjoyed watching the French Open finals. Though the game failed to live upto the hype that was given with both players committing unforced error after unforced error, the outcome of the match left me grinning. So, the one Grand Slam that matters to Federer still eludes him and I am so excited, atleast we get one more year of breathing space before Federer attempts to accomplish the impossible. The game was a huge letdown, and definitely not worth getting up at 6 am in the morning. Federer had an unbelievable 59 unforced errors and no player, no matter how good he is, can win a match after committing that many number of unforced errors. More than the striking number of unforced errors that both players committed, the statistic that stood out for me and the statistic which decided the final outcome of the match - conversion rate (in %) of break points by Federer. And the magic number was 6%. He got a total of ,hold your breath, 17 break points and failed to convert all but one of them and to me that effectively sealed the deal. And yeah BTW, this was Nadal's 3rd straight French Open title and improved his record at Roland Garros to 21-0.

Woolmer was after all not murdered
Finally, after weeks of leaving everyone following cricket feeling bad about the sport and its malice, the Jamaican police comprehensively declared that Woolmer was after all not murdered and he died bcos of natural causes. Though the news would have brought relief to the Woolmer family, those who followed the case were still not convinced of the final observation. On top of this, the man who performed the first autopsy on behalf of the Caribbean police, still insists that Woolmer was indeed murdered by manual strangulation. An unconvincing end to a sordid saga.

Spurs sweep the Cavs
Well, nobody including yours truly gave the Cavs any realistic chance in this series. But even to the likes of us, the sweep of the NBA finals came as a complete surprise. I really thought that the Cavs will steal atleast one game at Cleveland and force a Game 5. But that was not to be. Though the Cavs have to be applauded and appreciated for the progress they have made every single year since they drafted LeBron, unless something drastic is done through player trade or free agency, the Cavs or for that any team in the East is going to find it real hard to overcome the likes of the Spurs, Suns & the Mavericks and thus prevent Western conference team from winning the NBA crown year after year. As for as the Spurs were concerned, they took care of business in a matter-of-fact way. I was glad that they did not end up giving the Finals MVP award to Duncan again and instead gave it to Parker who IMO completely deserved it. The trio of Parker, Ginobili and Duncan was simply terrific and coupled with the perimeter shooting of folks like Brent Barry and Thomas Horry along with the defense of Bruce Bowen, it was all a cakewalk for the Popovich coached Spurs, as they raced to their 4th championship in 9 years. Dynasty, anyone?

BCCI embarrassed
In what turned out to be most telling proof of how the BCCI functions, South African Graham Ford turned down the offer to coach the Indian cricket team, merely hours after the BCCI offered him the job. Though the BCCI's way of functioning is known to all sun and sundry, the manner in which the whole coach selection matter was handled left even the biggest supporter of the BCCI running for cover. From the moment when Dave Whatmore was approached in Dhaka to the point when he was ruled out as one of the contenders to the point when John Emburey's name cropped out of nowhere to the final list, the BCCI just made a big mess of the whole process and were finally left where they started with. So, the Indian team will go to the English tour without a proper coach and Chandu Borde as the manager. What amused was the way in which the BCCI came out with the announcement even before Ford has accepted the offer. Pathetic handling from the richest body in world cricket.

Tiger finishes second best again
Tiger Woods, for the second major in a row, finishes second best to Angel Cabrera at the tough US Open PGA championships as he loses by 1 stroke. There is this one statistic that experts bring out whenever Tigers wins a PGA championship - that he is 12-0 when he starts the final round of a major with the outright lead or atleast a share of the lead. This defeat by Tiger brings to light another statistic that is usually overlooked and that also proves that Tiger is after all human. He is 0-for-19 when he starts the final round of a championship, trailing the leader by a few surmountable strokes. As for Cabrera, he becomes the first Argentine man to win a PGA championship in nearly 40 years. And guess what he was doing before he became a pro? He was a caddy. When asked what was his secret behind winning the Open, the chain-smoker coolly says "Tobacco". It is amazing how every time Tiger comes a close second or third in a major, it is always about how he failed to win it rather than how the actual winner won it.

Oden goes number one
As widely expected, Greg Oden was picked by the Portland Trailblazers as the number one overall pick of the 2007 NBA draft, considered by many as the deepest drafts since 2003 when Dwayne Wade went at number 4. Though experts were talking in length both about Oden and Kevin Durrant, it was almost a given in the days leading upto the draft that Oden will be the number one pick. And thus the Seattle Supersonics landed with Kevin Durrant, in what as one ESPN analyst put it, the easiest draft decision that any team has had to make in the last few years. The Sonics in fact went in for a complete overhaul as they traded Ray Allen, arguably the player who was the face of the franchise, to the Boston Celtics, in what was considered as a not-too-smart move by the Celtics. Another first that happened during this draft was that 8 players from the Ohio State- Florida national championship game in April, were drafted in the first round of the draft. That’s a first in the NBA draft history. Yi Jianlian of China, who is touted as the next big thing to emerge out of China, after Yao Ming, was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks as the 6th overall pick.

Sachin crosses the 15000 run barrier
The world got to see some glimpse of the Sachin of the old days as Sachin scored a scintillating 93 off 106 balls, on his way to becoming the first player ever (and in all probability the only man ever) to cross the 15000 runs barrier. At times, records like these do not seem to matter much, just because it is being broken by Sachin, who has made breaking records a personal hobby in his last 10 years. But seriously, if you think what it takes to score 15000 runs over 18 exemplary years as the best batsmen in the world, it is simply amazing. How many players have we seen who have produced consistencies that can be even compared against Sachin? Sure, the likes of Ponting, Dravid, Inzamam, Mohammed Yousuf, Hayden, Gilchrist, Lara have had their 2-3 years of brilliance but none can even come close to the consistency that Sachin has maintained for close to 18 years now. The man has been criticized like no other player but he has just carried on and let his bat do the talking. What he said in the aftermath of the match said it all, about how he views his criticisms: t is their job to have opinions. When I hold a cricket bat in my hand it's a far tougher and bigger job. That is what I will concentrate on. Cannot be said in better words. Here's congratulating the master on yet another milestone achievement in his stellar career.

Thalaivar-in peter

2007-06-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

The one thing that definitely captures one’s attention in Sivaji is the numerous English words/ dialogs that Thalaivar speaks. I just thought that I will make a post, listing all of them. I have also tried my best to arrange the dialogs in the order they came in the movie. (For folks who come here looking for non-Sivaji related posts, trust me, this would be my last post (atleast for the time being) :))

See you there.

Software System Architect.

Is this our Chennai?

I feel shy, you know.

I feel embarrassed. I feel shy and uncomfortable when it comes to talking to strange women, you know

Assistant Electoral Enumeration officer from the Election Commission of India.

It is all a mistake.

Nuts.

Sweet mummy.

Let's rock, Baby.

Oh give me that color,ya.

Washroom, please.

Please do something, doctor.

You are great, doctor.

Remarkable, doctor.

I will follow all the rules. I will fill out a zillion forms.

You are a very very special guest for us.

Loafer.

Steel body.

Who do you think you are.

I was cornered. I was helpless.

It was coincidence. Damn it.

Shit.

Give me a break, yaar.

Rich get richer. Poor get poorer.

Professional ethics.

I am Sivaji buddy.

Sivaji was my good friend. But he is no more.

and last, but not the least,

Cool

Am I missing something?

Post Sivaji Trauma

2007-06-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Symptoms:

Feeling of euphoria (of having seen their Thalaivar after 2 years) and emptiness (bcos of the 2 year wait ahead that stares at them) at the same time
Ending every other sentence with the word 'Cool'
On being asked what their name is, the answer invariably ends with Pera kaetta udane chummaa adhiridhulla
Repeated & vain attempts to horizontally toss a coin.
Speak in husky tones bcos voice is so weak and coarse after hours together of shouting of Thalaivaaaaaaaaaa.
Trying to pop a bubble gum into the mouth, by hitting it against any solid surface, preferably the left hand or others' forehead
On being asked on why they have come alone (does not matter who is asking that question and where that question is being posed), they answer Kannaa...panninga thaan koottamaa varum. Singam...single-aa thaan varum
Severe neck pain as a result of trying to alternate their coolers/ goggles that is between their noses to behind their necks and vice-versa.

Victims:

Fans of an actor, affectionately called Thalaivar, who simply can't get enough of him
NRI fans in particular are the most affected as Sivaji does not run for more than 1-2 weeks in most centers.

Recommended Medication:

Sivaji DVD
Another viewing of THE BOSS

Sivaji - The Syle Samraat at his scintillating best

2007-06-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Thursday night's review was the Thalaivar fan in me writing it. So, now that I have seen the movie 4 times, I thought let me try writing a more balanced review, which is almost next to impossible. So, if there is anyone who is here expecting to read a unbiased review, then please do not read further :)

Hype kills is one of the most used phrases associated with anything and everything that is given even a wee bit of hype. This holds good for stars and events across all fields, be it politics or sports or movies. And when the hype surrounding such a thing is as huge as the one that surrounded Sivaji before the release, it becomes almost impossible to live upto the huge expectations. It is in this context that we need to look at what Shankar has accomplished with Sivaji. He has handled that expectations admirably and has given a movie that both Thalaivar fans and neutral fans alike would relish for years to come. Like I had said yday, IMHO this will go down as THE best Thalaivar movie of all time. No doubts about it. I might have gone overboard when I said that the movie is 100 times better than Baashaa but I still would say that this is the best Thalaivar film of all time, even beating Baashaa.

The first thing that stands out in the movie is Thalaivar's looks. Thalaivar looks ravishing throughout the movie. Thalaivar just oozes style all through the movie. I can not recall any movie where Thalaivar's style has been put to such extensive use and that is precisely one reason why I rate this movie so highly, as his best. If we take Annamalai and Baashaa (2 of Thalaivar's power movies in the last 15 years), we all could easily recall a good 3 scenes from each movie as standout scenes, where Thalaivar's style gave us goose bumps. But in Sivaji, there are just so many scenes that you will lose count of such scenes. The one scene which comes right after the interval is just too good and should be placed right up there in the best scenes of all time in a Thalaivar movie. So, if you are someone who spends a lot of time during the intervals in getting something to eat, you better hurry up inside the theater. You would not want to miss out a single second of action from that scene.

His voice is markedly better than what we heard him in Chandramukhi (and of course, Baba). It kind of takes a while for us to get adjusted to the Thalaivar voice that we are so used to during the pre-Baba days. The ganeer kural is back and is simply rocking. Costumes are mind-blowing. Shankar makes Thalaivar wear so many costumes that before we could even admire him in a good costume, he changes to the next awesome one. His suits are amazing with the matching ties adding to the effect.

About Thalaivar's energetic performance - One word to describe that would be Wow. Thalaivar has given his best performance since Baashaa happened more than 15 years ago. He rocks big time. Stupid & jealous politicians can stop Thalaivar from doing his trademark cigarette flip. But Thalaivar's style in this one - the way he tosses the chewing gum from his right hand to his left hand before the gum makes its way to his mouth is just terrific. And the way he does the same in the climax scene on Suman's forehead was simply brilliant. Equally stylish is the way he catches the Saraswathi vedi in his mouth and lights it. His walk in each and every scene is so majestic, particularly in the scene where he sends Suman to jail & walks back to his car. And finally what to say about the shaven head - how many heroes have done that in the history of Tamil cinema? Thalaivar has put all of their efforts to shame and I am sure anyone planning to do so in the future, will have second thoughts on doing the same. Thalaivar simply rocks in that get-up.

Frankly, Chandramukhi was a letdown for Thalaivar fans and no one still knows why the movie ran. Chandramukhi was basically a comeback vehicle for Thalaivar after the Baba debacle. So, Thalaivar has set out to satiate his fans' thirst & hunger with Sivaji and thus it is a feast for all Thalaivar fans. One of the frequently asked questions about Sivaji is "Is it worth the 2 year wait?" I would even wait 5 years for such a movie from Thalaivar. It is that good.

Coming to the picturization of songs - well, Shankar is the best in the business and he proves it again beyond doubt here in Sivaji. Like I had said in my post last night, the Adhiradi song will go down as one of the best ever picturized songs in the history of Tamil cinema. Shankar's imagination runs wild in this one. For many Thalaivar fans, the only silver lining in Baba was the Maaya Maaya song where Thalaivar's dancing was so good that it was actually a revelation for many fans. Reason I am mentioning here is bcos Lawrence who choreographed that song is the one who has done the magic in Adhiradi too. The reason behind why Lawrence alone is able to come up with such awesome steps for Thalaivar is actually quite simple - he is a Thalaivar fan first and a choreographer next. I was simply going crazy during the Adhiradi song, which is pure fantasy portrayed on silver screen. Thalaivar's costumes in this one are mind boggling.

Next comes the Style song. For all those morons who mocked when the Bilbao shooting shot stills were released more than a year ago, this song gives the perfect middle finger. What a grand picturization. Another example of what is possible when Shankar puts his creative thinking cap on. To even conceive the idea for this song, is something that no other director could have done. And then to go on & picturize the song the way it has been done, hats off to
Shankar. The location was awesome and Thalaivar's dance steps in this one are again priceless. Shreya's dancing in this one deserves special mention. After Ballelakka got over, I was having a minor gripe that Shankar did not show Thalaivar's walk enough for us to savor in that song. But that gripe was short-lived as Shankar makes sure that we get enough of Thalaivar's majestic walk in the Sahana song. Thalivar looks so handsome in that song. Thotta Tharani's set in this song and the Vaaji Vaaji song are unbelievable. I was saying to my friends When have we even seen such grandeur in Thalaivar movie before? Vaaji Vaaji song was very entertainingly picturized. Loved the way Shankar had used the dwarfs in the song. Particularly the one time when Thalaivar walks in, as they are dancing and the way he drives them away saying 'Hey'. Again a sincere request to other actors - please refrain from wearing the king/ emperor costumer in the future. No one can look as majestic as Thalaivar in those costumes and wearing those costumes after Sivaji is only going to make them look ridiculous. That leaves us with Ballellakka - easily my disappointment of the movie. The locations were awesome in this song. Shankar does his best to make the song look colorful. Nayanthara was amazing as she dances with all her enthusiasm. So, where does the song go wrong? Thalaivar's dance steps. They are very unconvincing and I wish, somehow they could have come up with better steps, that would have suited Thalaivar more.

In a Thalaivar movie, there is hardly any focus on the heroine and I usually do not write about the heroine. But Shreya was just too good to not write anything about. Shankar again proves why he is one of the best directors. His casting of Shreya is simply a brilliant idea. She is gorgeous and contrary to our fears, does not really look too young for Thalaivar. Her dancing in all the songs was amazing. Her acting was adequate. It is really an achievement if a heroine gets noticed in a Thalaivar movie and Shreya has just accomplished that in Sivaji.

About comedy and Vivek - like I had written in my trailer post, this is how comedy should be in a Thalaivar movie. Very clean and completely enjoyable. This is where Shankar scores. The 'vaanga pazhagalaam' sequence is such an enjoyable one and the very idea brought a smile to my lips. Also, the scenes where Thalaivar tries to become fair have been shot in a very humorous manner. Vivek probably comes up with his best performance yet, in a movie where he does not even have a separate comedy track. His one-liners in so many scenes make the otherwise ordinary scenes to memorable ones. Like when he says Take OK. Camera off, the theater just erupts.

Alright now to the tough part. Some things that I did not like in the movie. Stunt sequences were a let down. It was evident that Peter Heines and his team have put in so much effort into the fight scenes but they go overboard mostly and thus end up being a disappointment. But hey? If folks loved the Matrix style stunts in Anniyan and the getting-below-the-race-car fight in Indian, they will lap this one too. Though the way the drive in theater fight scene ends in a nice way with car going into King Kong's mouth, the way all those cars were flying around was a disappointment. The success of stunt scenes in Thalaivar movies lies in the fact that Thalaivar's face should be shown as he is hitting the bad guys, something that was never done in 2 of the stunts in Sivaji. Shankar has definitely missed a trick there. Thalaivar has put in a lot of hard work in the fight scenes. I only wish that was shown in a more clear way.

As far as the story & screenplay is concerned, Sivaji definitely is not water-tight and surely does not have the punch that we have seen in the Shankar vigilante movies before. But then there is a difference between those movies and this one. Shankar did not have a star big enough or even remotely close to Thalaivar in stature, in any of those movies. So, he had to take extra care in dwelling deep into the issue he took in his hand and spend enough time on that. But on this one, he probably thought that he has Thalaivar with him and so instead of spending a few more scenes on the actual issue at hand, he diverts his focus on some scenes that would satisfy Thalaivar's legion of fans. In every interview that he gave in the lead-up to the movie's release, Shankar kept saying that he has achieved that fine balance between a Superstar movie and a Shankar movie. I think that is an exaggerated claim. It was like saying Oru koodai Thalaivar, Oru Koodai Shankar, Ondraaga sErtha padam thaane Sivaji But after seeing the movie, it should be rather Rendu koodai Thalaivar, Oru koodai Shankar, ondraaga sErthaa padam thaane Sivaji That is the mix that Shankar has gone with. Shankar had a choice to make: He can make a movie in his own style with Thalaivar just playing the role of hero in it or he could make a movie exploiting Thalaivar's superstar image with his directorial specialties taking a back seat. No wonder that he has gone with the latter choice. Given the amount of money that was at stake in this movie, it was only logical that Shankar decided to play to the gallery i.e. the millions of Thalaivar fans across the globe.

The only other disappointment of the movie - ARR's background score, especially in the fight sequences. Except for the Sega fight-aa song (which was not even used fully) and the bit that is used whenever Suman comes on-screen, the re-recording was, to put it mildly, pathetic. May be he was just content that his job was done, after he had come up with a very good album satisfying everyone. He surely could have done so much better in the BGM department, for a movie of this magnitude. Though Thalaivar's mere presence lifted so many scenes where ARR failed, those very scenes could have actually been elevated to Himalayan heights if only ARR had done his job better. There have always been questions about his re-recording capabilities and they are only bound to get louder after his Sivaji bungling. BTW, the secret that Blaaze told me was the rap that comes in the climax when Mottai Boss appears. It was a surprise bcos that rap was not part of the original audio CD. If anybody comes across a link to download that rap, please pass it along.

Alright, so where does this leave me? Let me try answering a few questions.

Is this Shankar's best film ever? No, not by a long way

But, is this Shankar's most challenging movie ever? Oh yeah.

Is this Thalaivar's best film ever? No, Mullum Malarum will always be my pick for that.

But is this Thalaivar's best Superstar film ever? Yes and again, by a long way.

And does it live up to the gargantuan pre-release expectations? Most certainly Yes.

Overall, for non-Thalaivar fans Sivaji is a serving of full meals and for Thalaivar fans, it is a feast which has to be tasted a good 5 times to get the complete taste out of it.

Sivaji - Most complete Thalaivar movie ever

2007-06-15T01:21:00.000-07:00

Just got back from watching Sivaji. It is 1 am here and more importantly, Iam just too excited to write a coherent review. So, just penning down my random thoughts before I hopefully get to write a full-fledged review soon:

Thalaivar was wrong. He said that Sivaji is 10 times better than his most favorite film, Baashaa. But I have to disagree with him. Sorry Thalaivaa, Sivaji is 100 times better than Baashaa. With Sivaji, Thalaivar has a new problem at hand. Seriously, there is no way any other director can even think about making a movie that is remotely as electric and powerful as Sivaji. Post-Sivaji, Thalaivar is like a mountaineer who has climbed Mt. Everest. What other peak is there on the face of this earth that could challenge him? And most probably that would excite us watching him undertake that challenge?

The Adhiradi song along is 10 times the worth the price of your ticket. Shankar proves why he is the undisputed king when it comes to songs picturization. If you thought the picturization of Kannum kannum Nokia was mind-blowing, it is safe to say that you are not ready for Adhiradi yet. It will go down as one of the best picturized songs of Tamil cinema.

Thalaivar looks amazing throughout the movie. I loved the second half hairstyle better than the ones he sports in the first half. Mottai boss simply rocks.

I simply loved the first half. Comedy was so enjoyable. Vivek was at his hilarious best.

Shreya has done her role absolutely well. She looks gorgeous.

About Thalaivar - I think it is time the folks at Webster change the meaning of the word Style. What a style…what a power-packed performance. What a screen presence. There are just too many minute things in the movie that you will have to watch the movie a good 10 times to admire each one of them and also to appreciate how much thought Shankar (and his team) have put behind each one of them.

So, where do I place Sivaji? Dare I say it? Yes, I am going to say it. Sivaji is THE BEST Thalaivar film ever. Period. And I am sure there is absolutely no way that there can be a better Thalaivar film than Sivaji (unless of course Shankar decides to cast Thalaivar in)

Let the celebrations begin

2007-06-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

The hype is maddening.

The buzz is unbelievable.

The excitement level is touching dizzying heights.

The biggest movie of Tamil cinema is here, finally.

After more than 2 years of waiting during which every single piece of information was lapped up by Thalaivar fans and the general public alike, the movie is ready to hit the screens. I just can not believe that I would have watched Sivaji in another 30 hours from the time of writing this. Like they say, this almost has been a 2 year thavam.

Whatever has been happening these last few days, first when the audio of the movie was released and then, when the trailer was released, has been nothing short of phenomenal. Seriously, who else can make the following happen:

- The fact that the trailer will be available for viewing is being announced as a headline news in channels like CNN IBN and Sun TV. I mean, whose movie's trailer can even elicit such a response from the media?

- There were so many Thalaivar fans who went to the theaters just to watch the trailer. Once the trailer is telecast in the interval, they are making their way out of the theater and some are even shouting for Once more for trailer. Check this video out for the scene inside the theater when the trailer was shown.

- Folks froze the trailer frame by frame and ultimately found that Shankar gives us all a sneak peek of the Mottai boss get-up that Thalaivar sports in the movie.

The man's reach is just crazy.

- You login to Orkut and you see thousands of folks having their names changed to something about the movie with the Pera kaetta udane chumma adhirudhila being the favorite of many fans.

- I meet someone for the first time at his place and naturally when the topic of Sivaji comes up, the guy I was meeting says his mother-in-law who is in town for the holidays, is a huge Thalaivar fan and she is eagerly expecting the movie to be released. She is already collecting pennies to be thrown at the screen when Thalaivar appears on screen.

- One fan (yours truly) drove 14 hours all the way from Seattle to San Francisco all by himself, just so that he wanted to catch the movie on the first day of the release and did not want to wait for 5 long days, after which it was anyway releasing in Seattle.

- One friend of mine who had come to the US on an onsite deputation pestered his onsite manager to release him ahead of schedule from the project so that he can catch a glimpse of Thalaivar in his favorite Albert theater

- After a good day of cricket, I am chilling out with my friend and on hearing the word Thalaivar uttered by me, another Tamil guy stops by and he starts his rant. He is married and has 2 kids, a 5 year old and a 3 year old. He says he has been a Thalaivar fan for like 15 years and was a member of the local rasigar mandram back in Chennai and during his time in India, he has never missed a single FDFS in Albert. And he says that his son is as big a fan of Thalaivar as himself.

- Or take the case of another friend of mine - he says that we should record everything about the release of Sivaji. By that he means starting from the trivial act of going to the Indian store and getting the tickets. He wants to photograph it and keep it for the record.

I am sure there are thousands of stories like this, all across the globe. And if this was the case here in the US, imagine the response of fans back in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu. Paalaabishekam has already been performed on Thalaivar's cutouts, on the day when advance bookings started. Fans in Thirupparankundram are eating mannchOru as their way of praying for the success of the movie.

Seriously, everywhere you turn around, there is a Thalaivar fan to be found. At times, the love this man commands among his fans is just mind-blowing. I always say this to my friends: If you were to videotape me while I watched Chandramukhi and showed it to me a few days later, I would not believe that it is me That is so much true. He literally sends us all into a frenzy. I can try using every single adjective in the English dictionary that mean mind-blowing but I still will not make justice to what the man has been able to accomplish. We have seen fanatics for everything (cricket, star wars, Spiderman, to name a few) but I sincerely feel that this just beats everything hands down.

The following are some of the plans that myself and some Thalaivar fans in Seattle are planning to welcome The Boss:

- Yours truly and 5 others are watching 4 shows in 4 days. The original plan was to watch all the 6 shows that are being screened in Seattle but due to overlapping of show timings for 2 shows, I was unable to execute that plan. But even then, since the person who is screening the movie here in Seattle is a friend of my friend, he has given me something called Master pass which will substitute for tickets. So, after watching the 11am show on Saturday, I can go in and sit for the show that started at 1:30pm and watch the remaining scenes of that show.

- One Thalaivar fans has already tonsured his head to match Thalaivar's mottai boss make-up

- For the last 7 days, I have been only listening to songs from Thalaivar movies, whether it be at home, or at work or in my car. I started with Sivaji and worked my way backwards and I almost succeeded in listening to all the songs of Thalaivar that I have with me.

- Upon suggestion of a friend of mine, it has been decided that my car will be used to transport the film roll of the movie from the airport to the distributor's place, so that in the future, I can paste a sticker in my car saying Sivaji reel potti was here :)

- Then tomorrow, we have planned to use a caravan of like 10-20 cars to take the movie from the distributor's place to the theater.

- We have already prepared a 8 feet by 3 feet Vinyl poster with 4 of Thalaivar's photos from Sivaji in it. This poster will be hung outside the theater during all 4 days when the movie is screened.

- 50 t-shirts with Thalaivar's picture printed on it have been made and the premiere show tomorrow evening will see all hard core Thalaivar fans (like me) wearing the T-shirt while watching the movie

So, everything is set for Thalaivar's power & style to be unleashed on the silver screen. Can't wait to shout Thalaivaaaaaaaa when the man appears on screen, in a matter of hours from now.

p.s. Question for Thalaivar fans: How many times does SPB utters the word Mei in the sequence in Ballelakka song?