Thursday, September 30, 2010
Second news paper article!
Sunday, August 01, 2010
CTC’s SAVE TADA campaign on 8th August
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| Photo Courtesy: ChennaiTrekkers.org |
CTC is planning to clean-up the entire Tada stream, including an 800m intensely polluted stretch. CTC is also collaborating with Forest Department officials to find a permanent solution to the problems created by pollution and anti-social elements. As of now, more than 250 individuals have registered to volunteer for this massive clean-up activity. CTC will provide garbage busting gloves and bags for volunteers to enable safe collection and disposal of wastes.
Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) is a 7000+ member non-profit group of trekking enthusiasts. The club is run by several passionate volunteers who organize various outdoor activities such as treks, biking, cycling, and environmental awareness campaigns. It has completed more than 230 treks, both within and outside South India.
Save Tada campaign is one among the series of environmental awareness initiatives undertaken by CTC. The first Save Tada campaign was on November 1st 2009. More than 230 CTC volunteers spent the entire Sunday collecting more than 2 tons of garbage. CTC also ran an online petition to curb the pollution and unsocial activities happening at Tada and collected more than 1200 signatures which were presented to the forest officials. CTC has also organized a massive beach clean-up activity on May 16th 2010 covering a 15 km stretch from Marina to Injambakkam. More than 900 volunteers collected approximately 5 tons of garbage in a span of four hours. Small scale beach-clean up activity has also been happening every weekend at a predetermined beach involving both CTC volunteers and public.
If you interested in registering for this event, please visit CTC’s website at http://www.chennaitrekkers.org to find additional details about this campaign.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Whose Name Is It Anyway?
Ross: Muriel. Why would he call you Muriel? Oh my God! Chandler M. Bing? It’s not just an M, your middle name is Muriel!
Chandler: Shh! It's a family name!
Ross: Chandler Muriel Bing. Boy, your parents never gave you a chance, did they?
(From F.R.I.E.N.D.S)
Sometimes, a name is much more than an identity; It defines the person. Really, how many of us have picked up on our friends calling names on their names. And God help them if their names rhymes with many items. I genuinely feel that a name adds to a character and behavior of a person. I can't imagine whether David Beckham would be the kind of person he is if he had a name say,..Paul Wiener! Or Micheal Jackson as a Dick Banger! Or, well, our very own James Bond as Arthur Twinbuckle. "Twinbuckle, Arthur Twinbuckle." Sheeee!
For as long as I could remember, my bro was at odds with my parents about his name. He has already changed the name once (just a few spellings), but he has come close to change his name on so many occasions. And its not just him, I have seen so many people who are unhappy with their names. More importantly, they think that they are not being taken seriously among their colleagues because of their names. Sounds silly, but it a sad true fact.
So I thought, why can't a child choose what name he wants for the rest of his life. Of course, you got to give a name to child as soon as he or she is born because you can't allow him or her to spend the kinder-garden as "specimen FGH143123." But at such a tender age, would a kid be able to understand the significance of a name? I say, write names on chits and let the child choose one. And you can always pass the blame onto your kid if he ever asks you why the hell you chose that specific name for him. But he has every right to kick you if you happen to put a "Quick Gun Murugan" in the lot :D
Finally, I leave with you a small poem. Even though Riaz is a hard name to pick on (not many things that rhymes with zzz), but still a genius friend of mine managed to do something with it when I was in 5th grade.
"Riazuddin,
Godebuddin, (no idea what it means, i know gode = horse...perhaps horse crap??)
Maare duski se (gonna hit u)
Saade theen" (at half past 3)
Till my next post, c ya :-)
Chandler: Shh! It's a family name!
Ross: Chandler Muriel Bing. Boy, your parents never gave you a chance, did they?
(From F.R.I.E.N.D.S)
Sometimes, a name is much more than an identity; It defines the person. Really, how many of us have picked up on our friends calling names on their names. And God help them if their names rhymes with many items. I genuinely feel that a name adds to a character and behavior of a person. I can't imagine whether David Beckham would be the kind of person he is if he had a name say,..Paul Wiener! Or Micheal Jackson as a Dick Banger! Or, well, our very own James Bond as Arthur Twinbuckle. "Twinbuckle, Arthur Twinbuckle." Sheeee!
For as long as I could remember, my bro was at odds with my parents about his name. He has already changed the name once (just a few spellings), but he has come close to change his name on so many occasions. And its not just him, I have seen so many people who are unhappy with their names. More importantly, they think that they are not being taken seriously among their colleagues because of their names. Sounds silly, but it a sad true fact.
So I thought, why can't a child choose what name he wants for the rest of his life. Of course, you got to give a name to child as soon as he or she is born because you can't allow him or her to spend the kinder-garden as "specimen FGH143123." But at such a tender age, would a kid be able to understand the significance of a name? I say, write names on chits and let the child choose one. And you can always pass the blame onto your kid if he ever asks you why the hell you chose that specific name for him. But he has every right to kick you if you happen to put a "Quick Gun Murugan" in the lot :D
Finally, I leave with you a small poem. Even though Riaz is a hard name to pick on (not many things that rhymes with zzz), but still a genius friend of mine managed to do something with it when I was in 5th grade.
"Riazuddin,
Godebuddin, (no idea what it means, i know gode = horse...perhaps horse crap??)
Maare duski se (gonna hit u)
Saade theen" (at half past 3)
Till my next post, c ya :-)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Is this love?
A few days back one of my friend had put a rhetorical question "Is THIS love?" on her Facebook status message only for me to reply with a wise-ass crack (no pun intended), "THIS is not love. THIS is a demonstrative pronoun." I know that it will be impossible for anyone to come up with a definition as to what constitutes a feeling called love. So this post is just my way of expressing what I feel is real love, or, how an ideal love should be.
When we are in love, it feels as if everything in this world suddenly seem to make more sense. Birds are chirping, rain is falling, and the world stops spinning. We get many forward mails that seem to define what true love is. Love is life, love is sharing, love is understanding, love is this, love is that and what not. And then there are the types of love. Love at first sight, love from friendship, and even love from hate. But all that matters is that when we are in love, everything else just doesn't seem to matter at all. The body, the brain, and six senses just want to be in company of our better half. We have heard so many dialogues that people throw when they are in love: "You are on my mind all the time. I'll give my life for you. You are carved in my heart. You are a part of me. I am in you. I am you. You complete me. etc." Many do mean what they say, and some just to take advantage. I always wondered, how true is the statement that our partner's feelings are imbibed in our senses when we are in love.
What if we are stripped of all senses, feelings and emotions? Would we be still capable of "feeling" love? We have seen people in vegetative state where they are incapable of expressing their emotions. But does that mean that they don't feel love? Is love truly magical that it could exist in absolutely nothing? To evaluate this assumption, we need to understand whether there is a possibility of being in a state where we are devoid of senses and feelings. Medical theory says, hell yeah! According to evolution, underneath all these facade of sophistication, culture and logic, we basically are animals. So when we are under stress, the brain stimulates adrenalin and switches off all supplementary bodily functions such as sexual arousal, pleasure...etc. There is only one primitive function that will exist, fight-or-flight. This is our body's mechanism in response to stress. Imagine staring at a hungry tiger, what would go in your mind? McDonalds? Titanic? Come on! You would want to get the hell out of there. Could you feel love in this state? What if you are stripped of even this level of sense? Imagine standing on a railway track with a train approaching you at a breakneck speed. You are unable to move. Brain overload! Can you feel love then? Is it even possible for any kind of feeling to exist in that state? I say, Yes it is possible, and I have seen it with my own eyes.
One of my friend had just come to back to India on his study break, and so my other friends and I decided to have a get-together in his hometown, Pondicherry. We all started on our bikes, and had a very pleasant journey from Chennai to Pondicherry along the scenic East Coast Road. We reached Pondi around 7:00 PM, and decided to rent a room at the hotel to just sit, talk and catchup on all the lost details. The roads of Pondi, in accordance with the French and Indian tradition of road building, are pretty narrow, and the stretch where we were gathered was poorly illuminated. Having said that, the ECR is one of the busiest routes of South India, where public and private transports of all forms and sizes ply throughout day and night. We were standing outside the hotel waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive when we heard a screech of the brakes, a few loud thuds, some metal noise, and a scream of a woman. It seems that a biker, who was in his 40s and who was carrying his wife and his kid on his bike, tried to overtake government bus, but only to pull up just at the last moment. However, he was too late to swerve away from the way of the bus, and the bus hit the bike from the back, making the driver to lose balance. All three who were on the bike fell on that busy road with the bike sliding along the road due to the momentum.
Medical theory predicts that it is exactly at this moment that all our body senses are shut, including the fight-or-flight mechanism, and we are left in the hands of fate to decide our life. It is at this moment, the woman and wife expressed what I consider the benchmark of love. She screamed. Whats' the big deal in screaming when you are about to die? I believe that no matter what accent we cultivate, or what languages we learn, when we feel pain, we just seem to shout "aaaa", an incoherent and meaningless grunt to express our pain. This woman didn't scream "aaa." She screamed "ennanga." ( என்னங்க - a tamil word, a very respectful and loving way of calling one's husband). The moment when every sense in her body would have shut, she impulsively managed to call out, perhaps for one last time, to her husband, to make sure that he is alright. She is just a normal Indian woman, in her mid thirties, with a 12 year old kid. She is the type of woman where we take for granted that she might not approve of love marriage, or might not have experienced love, or a conservative woman., or someone just too insignificant to include when we young generations discuss about love. She didn't scream for her. She didn't scream for her own flesh and blood, her son. She didn't scream for her mother, the second most usual response to pain. And she didn't call for the God. She screamed for her husband. The love for her husband still evident, still active, even when every sense and hope in her body and mind has gone into shutdown mode. Love, is indeed capable of existing in absolutely nothing and everything. I dedicate this post to that woman, to all those who are truly in love, and to those who wear their heart on their sleeves so that they could keep their better half in their hearts.
P.S: The woman, man, and their kid survived with just a few bruises. Fairy tale ending does exist.
This post is just my opinion. I definitely don't imply that only women are capable of expressing love. It just happens that in this incident, it was a woman.
When we are in love, it feels as if everything in this world suddenly seem to make more sense. Birds are chirping, rain is falling, and the world stops spinning. We get many forward mails that seem to define what true love is. Love is life, love is sharing, love is understanding, love is this, love is that and what not. And then there are the types of love. Love at first sight, love from friendship, and even love from hate. But all that matters is that when we are in love, everything else just doesn't seem to matter at all. The body, the brain, and six senses just want to be in company of our better half. We have heard so many dialogues that people throw when they are in love: "You are on my mind all the time. I'll give my life for you. You are carved in my heart. You are a part of me. I am in you. I am you. You complete me. etc." Many do mean what they say, and some just to take advantage. I always wondered, how true is the statement that our partner's feelings are imbibed in our senses when we are in love.
What if we are stripped of all senses, feelings and emotions? Would we be still capable of "feeling" love? We have seen people in vegetative state where they are incapable of expressing their emotions. But does that mean that they don't feel love? Is love truly magical that it could exist in absolutely nothing? To evaluate this assumption, we need to understand whether there is a possibility of being in a state where we are devoid of senses and feelings. Medical theory says, hell yeah! According to evolution, underneath all these facade of sophistication, culture and logic, we basically are animals. So when we are under stress, the brain stimulates adrenalin and switches off all supplementary bodily functions such as sexual arousal, pleasure...etc. There is only one primitive function that will exist, fight-or-flight. This is our body's mechanism in response to stress. Imagine staring at a hungry tiger, what would go in your mind? McDonalds? Titanic? Come on! You would want to get the hell out of there. Could you feel love in this state? What if you are stripped of even this level of sense? Imagine standing on a railway track with a train approaching you at a breakneck speed. You are unable to move. Brain overload! Can you feel love then? Is it even possible for any kind of feeling to exist in that state? I say, Yes it is possible, and I have seen it with my own eyes.
One of my friend had just come to back to India on his study break, and so my other friends and I decided to have a get-together in his hometown, Pondicherry. We all started on our bikes, and had a very pleasant journey from Chennai to Pondicherry along the scenic East Coast Road. We reached Pondi around 7:00 PM, and decided to rent a room at the hotel to just sit, talk and catchup on all the lost details. The roads of Pondi, in accordance with the French and Indian tradition of road building, are pretty narrow, and the stretch where we were gathered was poorly illuminated. Having said that, the ECR is one of the busiest routes of South India, where public and private transports of all forms and sizes ply throughout day and night. We were standing outside the hotel waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive when we heard a screech of the brakes, a few loud thuds, some metal noise, and a scream of a woman. It seems that a biker, who was in his 40s and who was carrying his wife and his kid on his bike, tried to overtake government bus, but only to pull up just at the last moment. However, he was too late to swerve away from the way of the bus, and the bus hit the bike from the back, making the driver to lose balance. All three who were on the bike fell on that busy road with the bike sliding along the road due to the momentum.
Medical theory predicts that it is exactly at this moment that all our body senses are shut, including the fight-or-flight mechanism, and we are left in the hands of fate to decide our life. It is at this moment, the woman and wife expressed what I consider the benchmark of love. She screamed. Whats' the big deal in screaming when you are about to die? I believe that no matter what accent we cultivate, or what languages we learn, when we feel pain, we just seem to shout "aaaa", an incoherent and meaningless grunt to express our pain. This woman didn't scream "aaa." She screamed "ennanga." ( என்னங்க - a tamil word, a very respectful and loving way of calling one's husband). The moment when every sense in her body would have shut, she impulsively managed to call out, perhaps for one last time, to her husband, to make sure that he is alright. She is just a normal Indian woman, in her mid thirties, with a 12 year old kid. She is the type of woman where we take for granted that she might not approve of love marriage, or might not have experienced love, or a conservative woman., or someone just too insignificant to include when we young generations discuss about love. She didn't scream for her. She didn't scream for her own flesh and blood, her son. She didn't scream for her mother, the second most usual response to pain. And she didn't call for the God. She screamed for her husband. The love for her husband still evident, still active, even when every sense and hope in her body and mind has gone into shutdown mode. Love, is indeed capable of existing in absolutely nothing and everything. I dedicate this post to that woman, to all those who are truly in love, and to those who wear their heart on their sleeves so that they could keep their better half in their hearts.
P.S: The woman, man, and their kid survived with just a few bruises. Fairy tale ending does exist.
This post is just my opinion. I definitely don't imply that only women are capable of expressing love. It just happens that in this incident, it was a woman.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
MLTR - Rajneeti
RAJNEETI REVIEWStarring:
- Ranbir Kapoor as Samar Pratap
- Arjul Rampal as Prithviraj "Prithvi" Pratap
- Manoj Bajpai as Veerendra Pratap
- Ajay Devagan as Sooraj Kumar
- Katrina Kaif as Indu Pratap
- Nana Patekar as Brij Gopal
- Nikhila Trikha as Bharti Rai
- Naseeruddin Shah as Bhaskar Sanyal
Music: Wayne Sharpe
Cinematography: Sachin Krishn
A modern re-telling of Mahabharata, Rajneeti has all the ingredients to keep you engrossed throughout the movie. Imagine the role of Chanakya being performed by one of the Pandavas himself, and you got yourself a very interesting storyline. A very vivid portrayal of our country's political affairs, Rajneeti shows how everything is fair in love, war and politics. Bhanu Pratap, the leader of Rashtrawadi political party, suffers from an heart-attack during a crucial moment before an impending state election, leaving him paralyzed and hence, preventing him to continue as the party president. In his absence, he appoints his brother Chandra Pratap and his son Prithvi Pratap to be in charge for the party affairs. This leaves Veerendra Pratap, son of Bhanu Pratap, furious as Veerendra believes that he is the rightful heir to the party's throne. Veerendra Pratap is at odds with every decision made by his uncle, including the appointment of the party candidate to Azad Nagar constituency, culminating in a friendship between the local dalit leader Sooraj Kumar and Veerendra Pratap. It is told in a flashback that Sooraj Kumar is actually the son of Bharti Rai, wife of Chandra Pratap, and was born out of wedlock when she shared a moment of passion with her political guru and leftist leader Bhaskar Sanyal. Brij Gopal, brother of Bharti, wraps the child in a cloth and abandons him in a boat. This child was found by a Dailt family and is being raised as one of their own. Because of his valor, Sooraj Kumar quickly becomes the favorite of Azad Nagar.
Samar Pratap, the younger brother of Prithvi Pratap, doesn't wish to be a part of the family politics, and hence decides to go back to New York to finish his PhD. After Chandra Pratap sends off Samar at the airport, he is assassinated on the way to his home by an unidentified gunman. This makes Samar to postpone his trip and come back to be with his family. Prithvi Pratap becomes furious at the lack of security of his father which led to his assassination, and vents his anger at the police officers. Prithvi is then taken into custody, and while in jail, he is also filed under charge of rape on one of his estranged woman party member. Samar understands that these moves against his family are being made by Veerendra and Sooraj. Samar, with the assistance of his uncle Brij Gopal, vows to take revenge. And thus starts the tale of Rajneeti of Samar Pratam.
By meticulous planning, Samar makes all charges against Prithvi Pratap to be dropped, and makes Prithvi the Chief Minister-nominee of the party. However, Veerendra manages to convince his paralyzed father Bhanu Pratam to sign an edict that dismisses Prithvi Pratap from the party. This is exactly the outcome Samar wanted, and he, along with his brother and his uncle Brij, floats a new party in direct opposition Rashtrawadi political party. However, Samar finds it difficult to garner the required funds to manage the party. He then manages to convince Indu, who has a huge crush on Samar, to marry Prithvi to assure the funding worth 50 crores from Indu's father as Indu's father would only lend his hand to the person who would eventually become the candidate for chief minister.
Exit polls indicate Prithvi to be the forerunner for the chief minister post, and this makes Veerendra angry for not being able to fulfill his dream of becoming a chief minister. Sooraj kumar, unable to see the sorry state of his friend and mentor Veerendra, arranges a successful plot to kill Prithvi in a bomb blast, leaving only Samar and Indu as the heirs of Chandra Pratap's legacy. Samar then convinces Indu to run for the elections as the chief minister nominee, and she is shown to be able to sway the emotions of the mass to her side. Meanwhile, Bharti Rai meets Sooraj Kumar and reveals the true lineage of Sooraj. Sooraj, though moved by his discovery of his real parents and siblings, is still unflinching in his support of Veerendra Pratap.
Samar finally decides to end the family war once and for all, and arranges for a scheme to entice Veerendra Pratap to come to a secluded place without his cohorts. Sooraj is intimated of the sudden departure of Veerendra, and realizing something is amiss, he follows Veerendra. After making Veerendra to come out his car, Samar and his party people try to shoot down Veerendra. Even though Sooraj has a chance to take down Samar, he flinches for a moment perhaps due to his new found brotherhood, and gives a chance for Samar to escape. However, one of the bullets hits Veerendra in his chest, and Sooraj, realizing that the only chance of Veerendra to survive is to immediately take him to hospital, tries to make a deal with Samar wherein Veerendra and Sooraj will relinquish all of their political ambitions in exchange of Veerendra's life. However, Veerendra dies on the arms of Sooraj, and Brij Gopal convinces Samar that the only way to end this feud is to kill Sooraj too. Samar, still unaware that Sooraj is his brother, kills him, hence, bringing this "Kurukshetra" to an end. Indu is shown as becoming the chief minister, and Samar leaves his politics behind to leave to New York.
All of the characters have performed really well, including the perennial underachiever Arjun Rampal. However, the break-out characters out of the ensemble cast are Manoj Bajpai and Ranbir Kapoor. Manoj Bajpai adds his own elements of acting to skillfully portray the ambitious Veerendra Pratap. Ranbir Kapoor, portraying Samar Pratap, gives one of his best performances to this date. In contrast to his chocolate boy image, Ranbir Kapoor is shown as a shrewd mind, and who would go to any extent to protect his family and his party's ambitions. And how can I forget to mention the transformation of Katrina Kaif from an ultra-modern girl to a Sonia Gandhi-esque politician. Overall, I found the movie to be very enjoyable and definitely a paisa vasool.
As mentioned above, the story line is very similar to that of Mahabharata, albeit with few changes. Some similarities and contrasts that I am able to find:
1. The role of Nana Patekar is very similar to that of. Bhishma. However, unlike Bhishma, Nana Patekar is on the side of Samar Pratap (the Pandavas)
2. Unlike Mahabarata in which there were 100 Gauravas and 5 Pandyas, there is only 1 Gaurava (Manoj Bajpai) and 2 Pandavas (Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor) in Rajneeti
3. Arjun's character resembles to Yudhistra, and Ranbir's that of Arjun. However, I find that Ranbir's character is also show to have the characteristics of Chankya. The absence of a visible Chanakya type character in support of Manoj Bajpai only strengthens my point of view.
4. Ajay Devagan as Sooraj is the modern avatar of Karna. The resemblances are uncanny. For example, Karna's adopted father was a Charioteer, where as Sooraj's adpoted father is a car driver for the Prataps. Also, as Karna's anger against Pandavas gets dissolved when Kunti reveals his true lineage, so does Ajay's anger against Samar Pratam, making Ajay to exhibit reluctance to shoot Samar when he had a choice. While Duryodhana makes Karna the King of Anga, Veerendra Pratap gives Sooraj one of the posts in party high-commission.
Monday, May 24, 2010
MLTR - Iron Man 2 Review
IRON MAN 2 REVIEW
Cast:
• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and Iron Man
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia “Pepper” Potts
• Don Cheadle as Lt. Colonel James “Rhodie” Rhodes
• Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff a.k.a Natalie Rushmann
• Mickey Rourke as Ivan Wanko a.k.a Whiplash
• Samuel Jackson as Major Fury
Director: Jon Favreau
Story:
Robert Downey Jr reprises his role as Tony Stark and the not-so-secret-anymore-superhero Iron Man, and so does Gwyneth Paltrow as his secretary, Virginia “Pepper” Potts. The story is simple: Ivan Vanko, whose father Anton Vankow, a scientist of Stark Industries who was arrested and deported to Russia on the charges of cash in on illegal technology transfers while working under Tony Stark’s father Howard Stark, has vowed to revenge for his father’s impecunious death. Apparently, Anton also has a blue print of the arc reactor, which he gives it to Ivan before he dies. Ivan takes six months to build his own version of the arc reactor, and transforms his persona to Whiplash. His only aim is to bring down Iron Man.
Meanwhile, a senate committee led by Senator Stern is claiming that the arc reactor technology that is powering the Iron Man suit is a matter of National Security and hence should be handed over to the government. Tony Stark argues that other governments are at least a decade away from recreating this technology and refuses to hand it over.
Ivan Wanko shows up in a race at Circuit De Monaco with his "whip" and attacks Stark and other participants. Even though Stark quickly transforms to Iron Man with the help of his Iron Man suitcase, the damage has already been done. The world has witnessed that the arc reactor technology is no more a one-man secret which is more than enough for Senator Stern to maneuver the government to order the confiscation of Stark’s miniature arc reactor technology. Ivan Wanko is put in a French Jail, only for Justin Hammer, CEO of Hammer Technologies and a rival of Stark, to arrange an elaborate escape plan for Wanko, who is now presumed to be dead due to an explosion in his cell.
Along with Wanko, Stark is facing another nemesis within him. He is continuously being poisoned from the Iron Man suit because of its use of the Palladium core. He must find an alternate element soon else he would die of toxicity. He throws up a lavish birthday party, which he presumes to be his last, and makes a ruckus only to alienate his best friend Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, who is under order to bring the arc reactor technology from Tony Stark. In the ensuing fight between Stark and Rhodes, both of them in Iron Man suits, Rhodes prevails, and carries his suit to a military base. To Rhodes dismay, the suit is handed over to Justin Hammer to make large scale military robots powered by arc reactor technology.
On the next day, Nick Fury who is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D meets Tony and tells him that Tony’s father Howard was one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D and hands over his father’s possession to him. Fury believes that the secret in finding an alternative to the Palladium core could lie within these materials. Having failed to find an alternative element from the exhaustive list of all known elements, Stark successfully synthesizes a new element with the help of a hidden message encoded in his father’s old building plans. Before he could test the new element, Stark gets a message from Vanko that Vanko a.k.a Whiplash is very much alive and is still hell-bent on extracting revenge. With no time to test the new element, Stark inserts the reactor made from the new element into his chest, curing him of all the Palladium based toxicity and offering increase energy.
The final standoff takes place at Stark Expo where Justin Hammer is lining up his array of Military Soldiers under the command of Rhodes. However, it is Vanko who is secretly controlling all of them from his base. As soon as Iron Man shows up, Vanko takes control of all the robots and starts to destroy the expo. What follows next is some Transformers-meets-slasher movie kind of action. Eventually all rogue military robots are wiped off and Ivan Wanko arrives to meet Stark and Rhodes in their respective suits in a final standoff. As usual, our hero prevails.
Negatives:
Unlike its prequel which had a very dense story line, Iron Man 2 is your normal superhero-defeats-villain-and-saves-the-day type. Tony Stark’s daddy issues and his emotional entanglement with his secretary form a major part in the first half of the story, making it a little dry for action buffs like me. Actors such as Samuel Jackson, Scarlet Johansson and Jon Favreau, who is also the director, in the supporting roles were very much underused throughout the movie. Samuel Jackson who portrays Nick Fury is relegated to a few wise cracks, and Scarlet Johannson who plays Natasha Romanoff is used only sparingly. Also, I found that the CGI to be confusing, and in some cases, totally irritating. The camera work is very fast which leaves very little time to comprehend the action sequences.
Positives:
However, there are many positives in this movie which is more than enough to have you engaged. And Robert Downey Jr is first among them. He carries his dual persona of Iron Man and Tony Stark with ease with his usual flair for one-liners. Pay very close attention to his dialogues; he will leave you in splits. Second is Micky Rourke as Whiplash. Micky has taken a lot of pain to make his character look, feel and talk like a deranged Russian mad scientist. Third is Scarlet Johansson. Even though she is in a blink-and-you miss role, her ephemeral presence was enough to make my heart beat faster than usual. And how can I fail to mention the background music. The movie ends on a “high” note with ACDC’s “Highway to Hell” soundtrack, perhaps symbolizing the action in pipeline from the Iron Man sequels and “The Avengers.”
Overall, I found Iron Man 2 to be very enjoyable. A must-watch for all those Robert Downey Jr. Fans out there, I give my thumbs-up for Iron Man 2. It is a total entertainer.
Cast: • Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and Iron Man
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia “Pepper” Potts
• Don Cheadle as Lt. Colonel James “Rhodie” Rhodes
• Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff a.k.a Natalie Rushmann
• Mickey Rourke as Ivan Wanko a.k.a Whiplash
• Samuel Jackson as Major Fury
Director: Jon Favreau
Story:
Robert Downey Jr reprises his role as Tony Stark and the not-so-secret-anymore-superhero Iron Man, and so does Gwyneth Paltrow as his secretary, Virginia “Pepper” Potts. The story is simple: Ivan Vanko, whose father Anton Vankow, a scientist of Stark Industries who was arrested and deported to Russia on the charges of cash in on illegal technology transfers while working under Tony Stark’s father Howard Stark, has vowed to revenge for his father’s impecunious death. Apparently, Anton also has a blue print of the arc reactor, which he gives it to Ivan before he dies. Ivan takes six months to build his own version of the arc reactor, and transforms his persona to Whiplash. His only aim is to bring down Iron Man.
Meanwhile, a senate committee led by Senator Stern is claiming that the arc reactor technology that is powering the Iron Man suit is a matter of National Security and hence should be handed over to the government. Tony Stark argues that other governments are at least a decade away from recreating this technology and refuses to hand it over.
Ivan Wanko shows up in a race at Circuit De Monaco with his "whip" and attacks Stark and other participants. Even though Stark quickly transforms to Iron Man with the help of his Iron Man suitcase, the damage has already been done. The world has witnessed that the arc reactor technology is no more a one-man secret which is more than enough for Senator Stern to maneuver the government to order the confiscation of Stark’s miniature arc reactor technology. Ivan Wanko is put in a French Jail, only for Justin Hammer, CEO of Hammer Technologies and a rival of Stark, to arrange an elaborate escape plan for Wanko, who is now presumed to be dead due to an explosion in his cell.
Along with Wanko, Stark is facing another nemesis within him. He is continuously being poisoned from the Iron Man suit because of its use of the Palladium core. He must find an alternate element soon else he would die of toxicity. He throws up a lavish birthday party, which he presumes to be his last, and makes a ruckus only to alienate his best friend Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, who is under order to bring the arc reactor technology from Tony Stark. In the ensuing fight between Stark and Rhodes, both of them in Iron Man suits, Rhodes prevails, and carries his suit to a military base. To Rhodes dismay, the suit is handed over to Justin Hammer to make large scale military robots powered by arc reactor technology.
On the next day, Nick Fury who is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D meets Tony and tells him that Tony’s father Howard was one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D and hands over his father’s possession to him. Fury believes that the secret in finding an alternative to the Palladium core could lie within these materials. Having failed to find an alternative element from the exhaustive list of all known elements, Stark successfully synthesizes a new element with the help of a hidden message encoded in his father’s old building plans. Before he could test the new element, Stark gets a message from Vanko that Vanko a.k.a Whiplash is very much alive and is still hell-bent on extracting revenge. With no time to test the new element, Stark inserts the reactor made from the new element into his chest, curing him of all the Palladium based toxicity and offering increase energy.
The final standoff takes place at Stark Expo where Justin Hammer is lining up his array of Military Soldiers under the command of Rhodes. However, it is Vanko who is secretly controlling all of them from his base. As soon as Iron Man shows up, Vanko takes control of all the robots and starts to destroy the expo. What follows next is some Transformers-meets-slasher movie kind of action. Eventually all rogue military robots are wiped off and Ivan Wanko arrives to meet Stark and Rhodes in their respective suits in a final standoff. As usual, our hero prevails.
Negatives:
Unlike its prequel which had a very dense story line, Iron Man 2 is your normal superhero-defeats-villain-and-saves-the-day type. Tony Stark’s daddy issues and his emotional entanglement with his secretary form a major part in the first half of the story, making it a little dry for action buffs like me. Actors such as Samuel Jackson, Scarlet Johansson and Jon Favreau, who is also the director, in the supporting roles were very much underused throughout the movie. Samuel Jackson who portrays Nick Fury is relegated to a few wise cracks, and Scarlet Johannson who plays Natasha Romanoff is used only sparingly. Also, I found that the CGI to be confusing, and in some cases, totally irritating. The camera work is very fast which leaves very little time to comprehend the action sequences.
Positives:
However, there are many positives in this movie which is more than enough to have you engaged. And Robert Downey Jr is first among them. He carries his dual persona of Iron Man and Tony Stark with ease with his usual flair for one-liners. Pay very close attention to his dialogues; he will leave you in splits. Second is Micky Rourke as Whiplash. Micky has taken a lot of pain to make his character look, feel and talk like a deranged Russian mad scientist. Third is Scarlet Johansson. Even though she is in a blink-and-you miss role, her ephemeral presence was enough to make my heart beat faster than usual. And how can I fail to mention the background music. The movie ends on a “high” note with ACDC’s “Highway to Hell” soundtrack, perhaps symbolizing the action in pipeline from the Iron Man sequels and “The Avengers.”
Overall, I found Iron Man 2 to be very enjoyable. A must-watch for all those Robert Downey Jr. Fans out there, I give my thumbs-up for Iron Man 2. It is a total entertainer.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
My first newspaper article
Guys, today I got my first newspaper article published. The article is about CTC's chennai coastal cleanup on May 16th 2010 (discussed in the previous post), and it is printed on today's edition of NxG, the Thursday supplementary of The Hindu newspaper (Chennai edition)
I dedicate this article to THAT anonymous person who was kind enough to motivate me to get my writings published, to all of my dear sweetheart friends who are (almost!!) the only patrons of my blog, and to the hundreds of other faceless readers who have the patience to go through all the insurmountable crap that I put in my blog.
Thanks so much. Hugsss and kisses....muaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
(Way too much "Oscar" touch huh!!!)
Riaz (some IT guy,...STRUGGLING COLUMNIST :P)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Get...set...Green.
"To clean or not to clean. That is the question." ... asked by Chennai Trekking Club. And 880+ Chennaiites, Indians and citizens of the world answered..."Let's clean!!!"
Chennai coastal cleanup was an initiative by Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) to clean up a 15 Km Chenna
i coast from Marina till Injambakkam on May 16th 2010. The entire initiative was organized by CTC, a non-profit amateur trekking club, with meticulous planning that spawned over an entire month with help from its volunteer members.
The entire stretch was divided into three zones viz North, Mid and South fronts with 5 teams in each zones. Each team had a catchy name too such as Sand Storm, Chennai Ridley, Beach Warriors (my team!!) and for a French touch, Les Balayeuses. All of the volunteers were asked to assemble at one of the predetermined 11 pick-up points across Chennai around 5-5:15 A.M in the morning. From there on, each went to their respective locations. Each team had two leads who gave specific instructions and tips as to how to proceed with the clean up. My team Beach Warriors was allotted Palavakkam beach area. All of us were provided with a pair of gloves, and colored garbage bags to segregate degradable and non-degradable wastes.
And with just a glance at the beach, we found that it was plastic, plastic and plastic everyw
here. Paper cups, water bottles, liquor bottles, gutka and chips packs, and plastic covers accounted for over 75% of the waste we collected, and this is just at Palavakkam. I am pretty sure that this would have been the pattern throughout out entire stretch. Around 6:00 A.m., We all started off with gusto to pick up as much garbage as possible before the unforgiving May Sun started to melt us. The reward of our arduous work was right there before our eyes; the pristine beach. Really can't help to think that with periodical cleaning and maintenance, how beautiful would our coastline be!
The volunteers distribution were across age-groups, professions, and in fact, countries. Around 8:00, we had almost cleaned up our area, and rested for a little snack. At the same time, the garbage truck came to load the garbage, an illustration of the clock-work precision organizing by CTC. One point shou
ld be made here. While collecting garbage, we carefully chose to put degradable and non-degradable wastes in separate bags. However, everything was dumped together into the truck causing dismay among the volunteers. On a small talk with the corporations folks, I found that all the garbage was to be taken to Perungundi dumping area and were to be burnt irrespective of the type of wastes. A very livid picture portraying how much there is to do in our city, in fact in our country, for a proper waste management.
With a prior Sunday appointment nearing, I bid adieu to my fellow volunteers and proceeded towards Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar), the final rendezvous point for all teams. Breakfast was being served on the beach for all volunteers, and I helped myself to couple of idlies an
d vada. I had a chance to catch up with Peter, the man at the helm of CTC. He said, "When we started this initiative and sent out an invitation mail, we got over 20 volunteers in the first day. Then it became 80, 100, with eventually garnering over 600+ volunteers. We also had participation from corporates such as TCS, Nokia, Logica, Vodafone etc and student bodies such as Scouts and IIM-B, snowballing the overall count to over a thousand." After everyone who wanted to assemble had assembled, CTC gave a vote of thanks to all the CTC members, corporates, Police, corporation and the people of Chennai for making this massive initiative a resounding success.
I personally felt very happy that I was able to do something tangible to make my beloved beach to look amazing, albeit for just one day. A very sincere thanks to CTC. Metaphorically speaking, this initiative is a proof that how all of us can come together to weed out the crap spoiling our system. And, all it requires for you to say is "I care", and mean it. We did, and we made a difference.
Chennai coastal cleanup was an initiative by Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) to clean up a 15 Km Chenna
i coast from Marina till Injambakkam on May 16th 2010. The entire initiative was organized by CTC, a non-profit amateur trekking club, with meticulous planning that spawned over an entire month with help from its volunteer members.The entire stretch was divided into three zones viz North, Mid and South fronts with 5 teams in each zones. Each team had a catchy name too such as Sand Storm, Chennai Ridley, Beach Warriors (my team!!) and for a French touch, Les Balayeuses. All of the volunteers were asked to assemble at one of the predetermined 11 pick-up points across Chennai around 5-5:15 A.M in the morning. From there on, each went to their respective locations. Each team had two leads who gave specific instructions and tips as to how to proceed with the clean up. My team Beach Warriors was allotted Palavakkam beach area. All of us were provided with a pair of gloves, and colored garbage bags to segregate degradable and non-degradable wastes.
And with just a glance at the beach, we found that it was plastic, plastic and plastic everyw
here. Paper cups, water bottles, liquor bottles, gutka and chips packs, and plastic covers accounted for over 75% of the waste we collected, and this is just at Palavakkam. I am pretty sure that this would have been the pattern throughout out entire stretch. Around 6:00 A.m., We all started off with gusto to pick up as much garbage as possible before the unforgiving May Sun started to melt us. The reward of our arduous work was right there before our eyes; the pristine beach. Really can't help to think that with periodical cleaning and maintenance, how beautiful would our coastline be!The volunteers distribution were across age-groups, professions, and in fact, countries. Around 8:00, we had almost cleaned up our area, and rested for a little snack. At the same time, the garbage truck came to load the garbage, an illustration of the clock-work precision organizing by CTC. One point shou
ld be made here. While collecting garbage, we carefully chose to put degradable and non-degradable wastes in separate bags. However, everything was dumped together into the truck causing dismay among the volunteers. On a small talk with the corporations folks, I found that all the garbage was to be taken to Perungundi dumping area and were to be burnt irrespective of the type of wastes. A very livid picture portraying how much there is to do in our city, in fact in our country, for a proper waste management.With a prior Sunday appointment nearing, I bid adieu to my fellow volunteers and proceeded towards Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar), the final rendezvous point for all teams. Breakfast was being served on the beach for all volunteers, and I helped myself to couple of idlies an
d vada. I had a chance to catch up with Peter, the man at the helm of CTC. He said, "When we started this initiative and sent out an invitation mail, we got over 20 volunteers in the first day. Then it became 80, 100, with eventually garnering over 600+ volunteers. We also had participation from corporates such as TCS, Nokia, Logica, Vodafone etc and student bodies such as Scouts and IIM-B, snowballing the overall count to over a thousand." After everyone who wanted to assemble had assembled, CTC gave a vote of thanks to all the CTC members, corporates, Police, corporation and the people of Chennai for making this massive initiative a resounding success.
I personally felt very happy that I was able to do something tangible to make my beloved beach to look amazing, albeit for just one day. A very sincere thanks to CTC. Metaphorically speaking, this initiative is a proof that how all of us can come together to weed out the crap spoiling our system. And, all it requires for you to say is "I care", and mean it. We did, and we made a difference.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Love Sex aur Dhokha - Intoxicating
A milestone in contemporary Indian cinema, Dibakar Banerjee’s LSD (love, sex, aur dhokha) is intoxicating. There are three plot lines in this movie, and all of them are shown to overlap at some point in the film’s overall time frame. Even though we have come across this type of screenplay in Yuva type of movies, the overlap is not substantial or crucial to entice me to draw parallels with those movies.
The "love" storyline is between Rahul and Shruti. Rahul is a student of a film institute and he fells in love-at-first-sight with Shruti, who is acting in his directorial amateur film project. Love blossoms between the two, and the Rahul compares his love story with that of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. It is funny especially when he calls Shruti "Simran" before his father. However, unlike DDLJ where SRK wants Kajol’s father blessing, Rahul decides to get married and then face her father. A pretty wrong calculation, as her mushy father entices both Rahul and Shruti to hop back in a car and come back home for a lavish reception party, he sets things in motion to have them eliminated completely. On their way back, Rahul and Shruti are dragged out of the car, Rahul murdered before Shruti, then she is murdered, then their heads are chopped off, and then they are cut into pieces and dumped into a plastic bag. Definitely one of the best murder scenes of the year! Even if the storyline seem to be taken from a normal love-failure bollywood flicks, the presentation is excellent.
The "sex" story line is based on Adarsh, a no-degree no-job debt burdened guy who works in his friend’s granddad supermarket, and Rashmi, an helper in the supermarket. After warned by "collectors" to repay the loan, Adarsh looks for any avenue to mop up the required funds. His friend gives an idea about how to utilize the store cameras to capture the libidinous acts of customers and sell them for a plump amount. He suggests that Adarsh trap Rashmi into love-making and sell the video. Adarsh tries, but he seem to fall for the skinny-darkskinned-bitch Rashmi (as said by himself), and gets pissed off when other customers try to make a pass at her. Rashmi also likes him but only after she is left in a totally vulnerable state after hearing the horrible fate of her friend Shruti (from Love), Adarsh is able to take advantage of her. Before the sex, Adarsh proceeds to switch off the cam, only to decide against doing it, and then lying to Rashmi that he had indeed done so. The sex clip becomes one of the most downloaded, and Adarsh and Rashmi are fired. No one is unable to trace Rashmi, whereas Adarsh is engaged to get married. For this storyline, we really dun want to look too much for inspiration; the DPS mms scandal, the first full blown (no pun intended) sex scandal of the Indian internet era, comes into mind.
The "Dhoka" line is based on Naina, an aspiring actress who is forced to perform sexual favors to a famous pop-singer Loki in return for a slot in his music video, and Prabhat, a sting-reporter. Prabhat saves Naina when she tries to commit suicide, and offers her to get back at Loki if she can make Loki say before a camera that he wants sex to offer her a place in music video. The first sting doesn’t go well, however they get lucky the second time. Prabhat shows the video (he deliberately cuts the love-making scene) to his editor, but she wants more leverage. A third meeting is arranged in the supermarket where Naina confronts Loki that she has enough evidence to convict him. Loki gets angry and tries to take away camera from Naina brandishing his revolver, only to shoot Prabhat. Rashmi(from "sex") provides first aid to Prabhat which makes him to survive the shot wound. In the hospital where Prabhat is recuperating, we get to see a different dimension of him. The hospital scene is the only scene where all the 6 protagonists of the movie are shown sharing the screen space.
Dibakar Banerjee must have lot guts to take this kind of movie. Even with an ’A’ certificate, this movie is prone to draw criticisms from conservative circles. The movie length is 1 hour 50 minutes, but I can’t seem to guess how many minutes of footage were censored. The wiki says that there is a 10 minute bare back love making scene cutoff, but I wonder if there were many more.
The first full length digital-movie from India, this movie deserves so many more accolades for taking subjects considered taboo even by the majority of progressive Indians. Many important issues such as caste, color of the skin, exploitation are shown blatantly without any preaching. There are no goody-goody endings in this story. Every frame shows the stark reality. Even with a jerky camerawork, the presentation is clear. In fact, the camera work adds an extra dimension to the story telling. I give a double thumbs up to this movie. A must watch for any movie buff.
The "love" storyline is between Rahul and Shruti. Rahul is a student of a film institute and he fells in love-at-first-sight with Shruti, who is acting in his directorial amateur film project. Love blossoms between the two, and the Rahul compares his love story with that of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. It is funny especially when he calls Shruti "Simran" before his father. However, unlike DDLJ where SRK wants Kajol’s father blessing, Rahul decides to get married and then face her father. A pretty wrong calculation, as her mushy father entices both Rahul and Shruti to hop back in a car and come back home for a lavish reception party, he sets things in motion to have them eliminated completely. On their way back, Rahul and Shruti are dragged out of the car, Rahul murdered before Shruti, then she is murdered, then their heads are chopped off, and then they are cut into pieces and dumped into a plastic bag. Definitely one of the best murder scenes of the year! Even if the storyline seem to be taken from a normal love-failure bollywood flicks, the presentation is excellent.
The "sex" story line is based on Adarsh, a no-degree no-job debt burdened guy who works in his friend’s granddad supermarket, and Rashmi, an helper in the supermarket. After warned by "collectors" to repay the loan, Adarsh looks for any avenue to mop up the required funds. His friend gives an idea about how to utilize the store cameras to capture the libidinous acts of customers and sell them for a plump amount. He suggests that Adarsh trap Rashmi into love-making and sell the video. Adarsh tries, but he seem to fall for the skinny-darkskinned-bitch Rashmi (as said by himself), and gets pissed off when other customers try to make a pass at her. Rashmi also likes him but only after she is left in a totally vulnerable state after hearing the horrible fate of her friend Shruti (from Love), Adarsh is able to take advantage of her. Before the sex, Adarsh proceeds to switch off the cam, only to decide against doing it, and then lying to Rashmi that he had indeed done so. The sex clip becomes one of the most downloaded, and Adarsh and Rashmi are fired. No one is unable to trace Rashmi, whereas Adarsh is engaged to get married. For this storyline, we really dun want to look too much for inspiration; the DPS mms scandal, the first full blown (no pun intended) sex scandal of the Indian internet era, comes into mind.
The "Dhoka" line is based on Naina, an aspiring actress who is forced to perform sexual favors to a famous pop-singer Loki in return for a slot in his music video, and Prabhat, a sting-reporter. Prabhat saves Naina when she tries to commit suicide, and offers her to get back at Loki if she can make Loki say before a camera that he wants sex to offer her a place in music video. The first sting doesn’t go well, however they get lucky the second time. Prabhat shows the video (he deliberately cuts the love-making scene) to his editor, but she wants more leverage. A third meeting is arranged in the supermarket where Naina confronts Loki that she has enough evidence to convict him. Loki gets angry and tries to take away camera from Naina brandishing his revolver, only to shoot Prabhat. Rashmi(from "sex") provides first aid to Prabhat which makes him to survive the shot wound. In the hospital where Prabhat is recuperating, we get to see a different dimension of him. The hospital scene is the only scene where all the 6 protagonists of the movie are shown sharing the screen space.
Dibakar Banerjee must have lot guts to take this kind of movie. Even with an ’A’ certificate, this movie is prone to draw criticisms from conservative circles. The movie length is 1 hour 50 minutes, but I can’t seem to guess how many minutes of footage were censored. The wiki says that there is a 10 minute bare back love making scene cutoff, but I wonder if there were many more.
The first full length digital-movie from India, this movie deserves so many more accolades for taking subjects considered taboo even by the majority of progressive Indians. Many important issues such as caste, color of the skin, exploitation are shown blatantly without any preaching. There are no goody-goody endings in this story. Every frame shows the stark reality. Even with a jerky camerawork, the presentation is clear. In fact, the camera work adds an extra dimension to the story telling. I give a double thumbs up to this movie. A must watch for any movie buff.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Who let the aliens out..who who who
I was watching the movie "Independence day" today, after feeling so bored to go to office (I eventually did after the movie ended). I bet I would have seen it scores of time, but it still never fails to enthrall me. Very vividly remember the first time I watched this movie, in theater with my uncle and my brother. The movie is amazing, especially the story line about how the aliens come to Earth to exploit its resources. Sounds unique, oh wait, the same thread is spawn across many movies such as Terminator series, Transformers, etc. The concept is simple. After having exhausted all of their resources, the aliens try to subjugate other living organisms across galaxies for the benefit of aliens' race.
Perhaps as shown is terminator series, these aliens would leech on humans' energy for sustainability. Perhaps they would utilize all of our water without leaving anything for future generations. Perhaps they would rape the earth for all its minerals. Perhaps they would cut down all the trees so that they could make more energy. Perhaps they would use all of their power to establish a potent race that will establish its dominance across earth. Or they would just trash our Earth for the fun of it. Sometimes they don't even have to come in hordes in space-ships, perhaps just a seed from space is enough to cause enough catastrophe. This has been the recurrent theme of many a good and bad movies which have come from the Hollywood's stable. Why am I suddenly talking about aliens you may ask. I just happen to read some news articles about Stephen Hawking, and how he doesn't wish we humans establish contact with aliens. When you just think the story has gone too far, you should actually read about a rebuttal made by some guy about how aliens are already among us!!
Leaving aside the notions of religion, God and other super/extra/pseudo-natural forces for a minute, let me consider the facts as suggested/perceived/proven by scientific community and commonsense. I feel that many of my aforementioned presumed activities of alien community have already been diligently carried out by humans. Utilize all of our water without leaving anything for future generations, Check! Leech on fellow humans' work for sustainability, Check! Rape the earth for all its minerals, Check! Cut down all the trees so that we could make more energy, Check! Use power to establish a potent race that will establish its dominance across earth, Check! Trash our Earth just for the heck of it, Double Check!
Wait, here comes the interesting part. It has been suggested that the organic form on Earth could have come from asteroids when they crashed into earth. Very recently, scientists have discovered an icy asteroid which they said could throw some light about the formation of water and other life forms on Earth. Taking this argument into consideration, the seeds for mankind could very well sown from outer-space. Of course we immediately didn't grow big, perhaps we took millions of years, but for the omni-presence Time, million years is nothing. Just a seed from space is enough to cause enough catastrophe, oh you bet, Check! Perhaps aliens are already here, and it could very well be US (US as in "us" and not United States). Yep, we humans are the aliens. I am not sure even the real "aliens" would be capable enough to cause as much destruction to Earth as we do.
So the day went fine; saw a good movie, had a decent time at office, and produced a counter-theory to Stephen Hawkings'. Not too shabby I guess ;-)
Perhaps as shown is terminator series, these aliens would leech on humans' energy for sustainability. Perhaps they would utilize all of our water without leaving anything for future generations. Perhaps they would rape the earth for all its minerals. Perhaps they would cut down all the trees so that they could make more energy. Perhaps they would use all of their power to establish a potent race that will establish its dominance across earth. Or they would just trash our Earth for the fun of it. Sometimes they don't even have to come in hordes in space-ships, perhaps just a seed from space is enough to cause enough catastrophe. This has been the recurrent theme of many a good and bad movies which have come from the Hollywood's stable. Why am I suddenly talking about aliens you may ask. I just happen to read some news articles about Stephen Hawking, and how he doesn't wish we humans establish contact with aliens. When you just think the story has gone too far, you should actually read about a rebuttal made by some guy about how aliens are already among us!!
Leaving aside the notions of religion, God and other super/extra/pseudo-natural forces for a minute, let me consider the facts as suggested/perceived/proven by scientific community and commonsense. I feel that many of my aforementioned presumed activities of alien community have already been diligently carried out by humans. Utilize all of our water without leaving anything for future generations, Check! Leech on fellow humans' work for sustainability, Check! Rape the earth for all its minerals, Check! Cut down all the trees so that we could make more energy, Check! Use power to establish a potent race that will establish its dominance across earth, Check! Trash our Earth just for the heck of it, Double Check!
Wait, here comes the interesting part. It has been suggested that the organic form on Earth could have come from asteroids when they crashed into earth. Very recently, scientists have discovered an icy asteroid which they said could throw some light about the formation of water and other life forms on Earth. Taking this argument into consideration, the seeds for mankind could very well sown from outer-space. Of course we immediately didn't grow big, perhaps we took millions of years, but for the omni-presence Time, million years is nothing. Just a seed from space is enough to cause enough catastrophe, oh you bet, Check! Perhaps aliens are already here, and it could very well be US (US as in "us" and not United States). Yep, we humans are the aliens. I am not sure even the real "aliens" would be capable enough to cause as much destruction to Earth as we do.
So the day went fine; saw a good movie, had a decent time at office, and produced a counter-theory to Stephen Hawkings'. Not too shabby I guess ;-)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Angels in the studio
I was seeing Indian Idol and thought, omg, Sunidhi is hot. That’s when I realized that there is a new breed of Indian playback singers who have some amazing looks in addition to the cherubic voices. So I thought of compiling some singers whom I know who share the aforementioned characteristics. And starting with…
This Jai ho girl needs no introduction!
Know any one else? Share the details in comment section.
Sunidhi Chauhan
This “rukhi rukhi” girl has come a long way since her debut. I started to pay special notice to her songs after listening to her in “Meri zindaghi mein aaye ho” from Armaan. Just stole my heart! My latest craze, “Chor bazari” is also hers. And of course, she has some killer looks!
Shreya Ghosal
Her singing is legendary. Not many singers have won four national awards by the age 25. After a nose 
job, extra make-up, and doing something with hair thingy, she is looking very cute nowadays!
job, extra make-up, and doing something with hair thingy, she is looking very cute nowadays!Reena Bharadwaj
This London based girl has been a consistent fixture in ARR’s troupe. Remember “main vari vari” from Mangal Pandey or “baba kichu kichu tha” from Rajnikanth’s starrer Baba? Yup, it’s the same person. Not that we have to give such an introduction to her anymore. Her “Khilli Re” in Raavan for ARR is enough for the rest of the world to sit up and take notice. And just look how cute she is guys.
Mamta Mohandas
This south Indian actress is also an acclaimed singer. She has given some very peppy numbers, and the most famous of them all is “Daddy Mummy” for Vijay starrer Villu. Doesn’t look bad either, does she?
Andrea Jeremiah
Ok , now I just love this girl. She debuted in Gautam Menon’s Pachaikili Muthucharam opposite Sarathku
mar, and immediately made the industry to notice her. But she saved her best looks for Aayirathil Oruvan. For the northies, She has lent her voice for “zara zara” song from Rakhee. But, this blog is not to about the singing talent anyway. Her song “maalai neram” for the movie Aayirathil Oruvan (Tamil) is one of my most favo songs
mar, and immediately made the industry to notice her. But she saved her best looks for Aayirathil Oruvan. For the northies, She has lent her voice for “zara zara” song from Rakhee. But, this blog is not to about the singing talent anyway. Her song “maalai neram” for the movie Aayirathil Oruvan (Tamil) is one of my most favo songsAnusha Mani
I discovered her during the latest IIT-saarang fest when she came along with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy to perform. The “lazy lamhe” girl! So good looking na! She is also on facebook, if any of you crazies out there do care.
Shrradha Pandit
Not much to talk about her w.r.t songs, but she has a decent discography. Perhaps one of her better songs is “Aarti” from Dilli-6.
Tanvi Shah
This Jai ho girl needs no introduction!Know any one else? Share the details in comment section.
Friday, April 16, 2010
My Kerala trip
So we 11 booked tickets for Kerala on March 3rd for April 1st- April 4th, or we thought we did, without knowing where we need to be. The waiting list; 221-231 on one of the busiest weekends of the year, Easter. With the day nearing, many of us weren't sure if we would be able to make the trips with projects and personal life trying to act as the spoil sport. With Arul Raj and Krishna bailing out at the last moment, 9 of us (Ram,Zaheer,CT,Me,Madhavan,Balaji,Nanda,Balaji and Prabhakar) finally managed to catch the Trivandrum express on April 1st at Chennai railway station. Or we thought we did. Ram, Balaji and CT decided to start the trip on high "spirits", and hence in order to buy them, they sacrificed their RAC seats in the train to come in unreserved in the next train. You guys!!! Not that rest of us complained anyway, the TTE was kind enough to give those seats to us. Btw, I believe that the train carried some of the most beautiful Indian women. My dear desi girls! You are soooo darn beautiful. muuuuuuuaaaahhhh.
Next day, we got down at a place called Changanaseri, some 25 km from Allepy. Deciding to be frugal, we took a government bus to Allepy or Allapuzha. After having an excellent breakfast, we waited for the Les Miss-erables. They came, and we were about to scold, and then they opened the bag to show the "bounty" and we went, "awww you guys!" From there, we had only one place to go. The one place where we
always wanted to go after seeing Vinnai thaandi Varuvaya. The boat house.
Thanks to contacts of Krishna, we had a good deal on the house boat. To say the house boat was awesome is an understatement. It had a steering deck, 3 air-conditioned double bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a kitchen, and wait for it, a closed roof terrace with LCD tv, dvd player and a DTH connection. Then the other two heroes joined us from Bangalore. Harish and Krishnan. The party is complete...but our party has just started. Allapuzha is awesome guys. There is something about the sight with water all round and us in the middle. The afternoons and evenings were awesome, and we all were sharing good banter. Cooking was excellent; oh btw, we had in house cooks too. The evening was really awesome, and the sight of sun setting in the far west, was breathtaking. We decided to anchor around 6 PM. Some of the guys decided to jump into water (with life jackets ofcoz) for some swim. 8 P.M. and it we decided to watch...well wat else...IPL.
April 3rd. Day 2. 06:00 hrs. We came back to the place where we started, the aptly named "finishing point." Of coz, after coming there we all were scratching our heads wondering where to go from there, and Krishnan made the sweetest offer, "come to my
home guys." Only that it was in Trivandrum. Did that deter us, hell no! We caught a 07:15 train leaving for Trivandrum, and reached there around 10:00 AM. There is just something about a home that is soooooo soothing. I mean, you can be in the greatest of hotels, but you can never experience the warmth and comfort of a home. Home food, clean water=> heaven. After a small nap, we decided to go to the famous Kollam beach, some 18 km away. The beach was awesome!!! It was picture perfect, with a lighthouse built atop of rocks, and ofcoz bikini clad foreigners. Zaheer, Prabhakar and I decided to get into the water, with Balaji staying away coz he had an headache, and the rest decided to get themselves comfortable, very comfortable. Time just passes when you are in water. The beach was shallow for first 5-6 meters, and I must confess I had the best time ever in there. After 6 we caught multitude of transport to come back to Krishnan's home. We all were starving, and er...thirsty, so we all decided to hit a restaurant. With Harish zeroing on me (as usual), I decided to keep silent :D At 00:00 April 3rd, we were all walking back to home, again without knowing where to go after this. Some of us opined to start to Kochi, which is at a 6 hr drive, immediately, and enjoy at veega land on Sunday. Obviously Harish was pissed at our decision, as he couldn't join us as he had to catch an afternoon bus to head back to bangalore. Pissed at us, he cursed , but we started to bus station anyway.
After a 7 hour drive, we came to Kochi.Man...was it hot. It was man-it's-so-hot-i-need-to-get-into-a-freezer hot. We booked 3 small rooms to keep our belongings, and then after a small breakfast we wen
t to veega land, on two share autos. Veega land is definitely not the largest theme park, as it is advertised, when you consider the total area under use. But you can't beat the scenery. Situated on top of a hill, it gives an awesome 360 degree view the lush green nature. So after general merriment, we start back to rooms so that we can pack our bags and catch a 00:50 train at Ernakulam leaving to Chennai. Or we thought we could. Couple of guys, in between their banter, asked, "dude..if it is 00:50, shouldn't the date be April 5th instead of April 4th as printed on the ticket." To which the reply was "the train is starting at Trivandrum at 20:30 hrs on Apil 4th." But still with lingering doubt, we decided to confirm. Zaheer, Ram and I went to railway station to enquire, and the railway chick was like, "dude, you are late by 24 hours." A wise man once said, never underestimate a fat guy's curse. Damn you Harish!! We are like, laughing at ourselves on this situation, and then decided to have tea. Anywhere, anytime, any situation is fun when your friends are around. There is this scene in Jab we met where Kareena situation, after escaping from goondas in train station, will pray to God, "Hey bhagwan, ...ab yeh din bore kardo." We all were praying for the same. After that with no where to go, we went back to our rooms and decided to sleep. We woke at 5:00 am, went to train station, got 9 tickets to Chennai on Allepy-Dhanbad express, and then came back to Chennai central at 10:00 PM. Phew, wat a journey, what a trip!!!
Next day, we got down at a place called Changanaseri, some 25 km from Allepy. Deciding to be frugal, we took a government bus to Allepy or Allapuzha. After having an excellent breakfast, we waited for the Les Miss-erables. They came, and we were about to scold, and then they opened the bag to show the "bounty" and we went, "awww you guys!" From there, we had only one place to go. The one place where we
always wanted to go after seeing Vinnai thaandi Varuvaya. The boat house.
Thanks to contacts of Krishna, we had a good deal on the house boat. To say the house boat was awesome is an understatement. It had a steering deck, 3 air-conditioned double bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a kitchen, and wait for it, a closed roof terrace with LCD tv, dvd player and a DTH connection. Then the other two heroes joined us from Bangalore. Harish and Krishnan. The party is complete...but our party has just started. Allapuzha is awesome guys. There is something about the sight with water all round and us in the middle. The afternoons and evenings were awesome, and we all were sharing good banter. Cooking was excellent; oh btw, we had in house cooks too. The evening was really awesome, and the sight of sun setting in the far west, was breathtaking. We decided to anchor around 6 PM. Some of the guys decided to jump into water (with life jackets ofcoz) for some swim. 8 P.M. and it we decided to watch...well wat else...IPL.
April 3rd. Day 2. 06:00 hrs. We came back to the place where we started, the aptly named "finishing point." Of coz, after coming there we all were scratching our heads wondering where to go from there, and Krishnan made the sweetest offer, "come to my
home guys." Only that it was in Trivandrum. Did that deter us, hell no! We caught a 07:15 train leaving for Trivandrum, and reached there around 10:00 AM. There is just something about a home that is soooooo soothing. I mean, you can be in the greatest of hotels, but you can never experience the warmth and comfort of a home. Home food, clean water=> heaven. After a small nap, we decided to go to the famous Kollam beach, some 18 km away. The beach was awesome!!! It was picture perfect, with a lighthouse built atop of rocks, and ofcoz bikini clad foreigners. Zaheer, Prabhakar and I decided to get into the water, with Balaji staying away coz he had an headache, and the rest decided to get themselves comfortable, very comfortable. Time just passes when you are in water. The beach was shallow for first 5-6 meters, and I must confess I had the best time ever in there. After 6 we caught multitude of transport to come back to Krishnan's home. We all were starving, and er...thirsty, so we all decided to hit a restaurant. With Harish zeroing on me (as usual), I decided to keep silent :D At 00:00 April 3rd, we were all walking back to home, again without knowing where to go after this. Some of us opined to start to Kochi, which is at a 6 hr drive, immediately, and enjoy at veega land on Sunday. Obviously Harish was pissed at our decision, as he couldn't join us as he had to catch an afternoon bus to head back to bangalore. Pissed at us, he cursed , but we started to bus station anyway.After a 7 hour drive, we came to Kochi.Man...was it hot. It was man-it's-so-hot-i-need-to-get-into-a-freezer hot. We booked 3 small rooms to keep our belongings, and then after a small breakfast we wen
t to veega land, on two share autos. Veega land is definitely not the largest theme park, as it is advertised, when you consider the total area under use. But you can't beat the scenery. Situated on top of a hill, it gives an awesome 360 degree view the lush green nature. So after general merriment, we start back to rooms so that we can pack our bags and catch a 00:50 train at Ernakulam leaving to Chennai. Or we thought we could. Couple of guys, in between their banter, asked, "dude..if it is 00:50, shouldn't the date be April 5th instead of April 4th as printed on the ticket." To which the reply was "the train is starting at Trivandrum at 20:30 hrs on Apil 4th." But still with lingering doubt, we decided to confirm. Zaheer, Ram and I went to railway station to enquire, and the railway chick was like, "dude, you are late by 24 hours." A wise man once said, never underestimate a fat guy's curse. Damn you Harish!! We are like, laughing at ourselves on this situation, and then decided to have tea. Anywhere, anytime, any situation is fun when your friends are around. There is this scene in Jab we met where Kareena situation, after escaping from goondas in train station, will pray to God, "Hey bhagwan, ...ab yeh din bore kardo." We all were praying for the same. After that with no where to go, we went back to our rooms and decided to sleep. We woke at 5:00 am, went to train station, got 9 tickets to Chennai on Allepy-Dhanbad express, and then came back to Chennai central at 10:00 PM. Phew, wat a journey, what a trip!!!
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Whats life about anyway...
42. The answer by Deep Thought to the question "Ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" to the hyper intelligent, pan-dimensional beings. Unsatisfied, these creatures ask for a meaningful answer, and Deep Thought suggests that it will build a super computer that could provide one. And Deep Thought built Earth, only to be destroyed by Vogons before anyone could extract the answer to the ultimate question. This, the theme of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, is a light-hearted parody of humans for their search to find the meaning or purpose of life. How comical it may be, this book vividly describes the obsession we have in finding the answer to the ultimate question.
There are two types of people in this world; one who searches for the answer his entire life, and the other who assumes the answer and tries to spend his life accordingly. Apparently, religions say that there is a third type of people who actually do know the answer, but that is a different story and lets not get into that. So then, what is the meaning of our existence? Is it to prostrate before God and thank Him for the gift of life as the religions preach? Is it to attain the ultimate knowledge and use it for good as Aristotle, Plato and Kant concurred? Or is it just to wake up every darn day and try to do the same things all over again? It is actually this question which keeps us alive consciously. Imagine that if I know my purpose of life is to watch a Manchester United match at Old Trafford on December 12th 2016, will I bother about anything else? My example may be comical, but my argument is not.
It is said that the ones who managed to escape from the 9/11 attacks on twin towers are those who helped others to cross the road, waited to tie their shoes, and decided to skip a crowded train. Not to sound preachy, but what is there to our life if we don't bother to enjoy all the small things. For me life is definitely not a race. For me, life is like taking a gentle walk along the seashore, with my friends and family beside. I don't give a tiny rat's ass if I manage to come before or after anyone. I may not finish the race, but hell, I would have experienced a lot more than the guy who just kept on running only to roll over and die at the end without seeing the finishing line. There are two types of people in this world. I belong to the second type. My answer to the ultimate question? I exist so that I can feel the love around me. I love, therefore I am.
Many people have problems, worries and what not. Most of us, including me, try to look for God only when we are in a quandary. And we get so darn pissed at Him for not being there at that crucial time. If God were to solve all our problems when we pray, then what is the purpose of OUR existence. I believe that the answer to this question is never meant to be found, at least in our life on Earth (or to any other planet to which we may go in future). As someone who was close to me used to say, the real fun of life is to expect the unexpected. Enjoy the journey of life, as it tells you so many stories, and perhaps, just perhaps, if you bother to listen to them keenly, you might find that your life has been telling you the answer to the ultimate question all along!
There are two types of people in this world; one who searches for the answer his entire life, and the other who assumes the answer and tries to spend his life accordingly. Apparently, religions say that there is a third type of people who actually do know the answer, but that is a different story and lets not get into that. So then, what is the meaning of our existence? Is it to prostrate before God and thank Him for the gift of life as the religions preach? Is it to attain the ultimate knowledge and use it for good as Aristotle, Plato and Kant concurred? Or is it just to wake up every darn day and try to do the same things all over again? It is actually this question which keeps us alive consciously. Imagine that if I know my purpose of life is to watch a Manchester United match at Old Trafford on December 12th 2016, will I bother about anything else? My example may be comical, but my argument is not.
It is said that the ones who managed to escape from the 9/11 attacks on twin towers are those who helped others to cross the road, waited to tie their shoes, and decided to skip a crowded train. Not to sound preachy, but what is there to our life if we don't bother to enjoy all the small things. For me life is definitely not a race. For me, life is like taking a gentle walk along the seashore, with my friends and family beside. I don't give a tiny rat's ass if I manage to come before or after anyone. I may not finish the race, but hell, I would have experienced a lot more than the guy who just kept on running only to roll over and die at the end without seeing the finishing line. There are two types of people in this world. I belong to the second type. My answer to the ultimate question? I exist so that I can feel the love around me. I love, therefore I am.
Many people have problems, worries and what not. Most of us, including me, try to look for God only when we are in a quandary. And we get so darn pissed at Him for not being there at that crucial time. If God were to solve all our problems when we pray, then what is the purpose of OUR existence. I believe that the answer to this question is never meant to be found, at least in our life on Earth (or to any other planet to which we may go in future). As someone who was close to me used to say, the real fun of life is to expect the unexpected. Enjoy the journey of life, as it tells you so many stories, and perhaps, just perhaps, if you bother to listen to them keenly, you might find that your life has been telling you the answer to the ultimate question all along!
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
And the best actor award goes to...
"All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players..."
-by William Shakespeare in "As You Like It"
Shakespeare used this monologue to portray the various stages of womanhood in his play. However, this phrase of his is now often quoted to show how fickle humans have become. Each of us, more often than not, has to act to pass everyday of our existence. From waking up next to an unfaithful spouse, putting on a smile to the vagaries of an undeserving boss, agreeing to the whimsical perceptions of the society, and sacrificing the life for unappreciative children, we seem to wear a different character to help us get out, or at least maintain our sanity. Perhaps not many would accept a person for exactly what he his. Parents wish their kids study a bit better. Spouses hope their partners are a bit understanding. Our whole life seems to revolve around a ten letter word. Compromise. If I ask you the question "when was the last time you were yourself for on full day"? And if you happen to think really hard to answer, just sit back and think about the direction in which you are taking your life. Exactly, how deserving are our fellow actors to have our identity sacrificed for them? This question was asked to me by my conscience very recently. With my right brain displaying soap opera-esque emotion to this riddle, my left brain gently patted it and said "I'll take it from here."
According to my left brain, my analytical and logical syndicate, respectfully disagrees. The "acting" is our only ally in helping us to wither the everyday storm a.k.a our daily life. Ever since the collapse of the mythological "tower of babel", we humans have always struggled to communicate. Humans invented languages and customs which enabled them to pass a few thousand years of existence without much fuss. Then came the renaissance, then industrial and now we are in the nuclear age. Now it is not enough to communicate. To use the business term, we must communicate "effectively." And all of it need not be acting. For so many years people have grown up with their own customs, and for us to know them better, we have to come to a common ground. This is where "acting" helps. We are not changing our self, but merely performing a part for a specified amount of time so that both us and others could derive maximum benefit of our meeting. And after this specified time, we need not be acting at all. My left brain concludes that instead of considering acting as a noun which means "performing a role", consider "acting" as an adjective which means "serving temporarily especially as a substitute" as in "the acting President."
"Objection your Honor", interrupts my right brain, my source of impetuousness, imagination and emotion. Oh by the way, I am the "honorable" one. As per right brain, in the current fast moving world, we have to put on so many acts together, which sometimes even overlaps; we really do not have time to "clear the makeup." In fact, we become so tired of changing we decide to stay with the character(s) we portray for some time. And invariably, the time to remove the makeup, the masks and the costumes never comes. We end up being someone else for the rest of our lives.
Both my left and right brain look at me expectingly (and respectfully :D) for my verdict. Well, honestly I agree and disagree with both of them. There really can't be a black or white about this as the world we live in is far from ideal. We might have to rely on both of them to help us tread on this gray path. The right brain, which I consider to be white for its pure emotional thinking, and the left brain, the black for its cold calculation and practicality, mixing together to help us. Perhaps that’s why the gray matter in brain is called "gray" matter, a proper mix of black and white. There is a reason why we are the most advanced (known) species; we evolve, with the help of our gray matter. Personally, I always like to give a chance. Initially, I had let my right brain to guide me, and many a time I got hurt in trying to understand what people are really about. But those who saw me beyond all that have remained my close to me. And now, my left brain helps me to quantify these results and store them in a safe place as "experiences" so that next time I come across one such role, I am well prepared to play my part. However, I myself don't change; I just project myself in a way the rest will like to see. I am not acting; I am merely performing an illusion. What about you?
Sunday, February 28, 2010
MTLR - Karthik Calling Jessie ( Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya - Tamil)
In an era where the role of an item girl and that of an heroine is almost same, it is commendable that Gautam V. Menon has devoted his entire movie to portray the power that a woman can wield over a man in an extremely unpretentious way. For the men who have had lost their hearts to someone, Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya would be delectable. Rest, I am afraid they would never be able to understand the depth of emotions impersonated.
I usually do not like to review a movie, may be because I am not a very good critic. I do not (try to) comment on the film per se, but only try to catalog my experiences and thoughts in a movie hall as much as possible. I believe that each of us have our own tastes, and our own interpretation of a movie is our right, the right we buy with our exorbitantly priced tickets. But after seeing many a polarized reaction for Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya, roughly translated "would you come across the skies (for me)", I decided to take a moral low ground and put a small review.
The first half of the movie revolves around a single dialogue used excessively: "of all the woman, why I have to see(fall fo
r) you." Karthik, portrayed by Silambarasan, a.k.a Simbu, falls for Jessie portrayed by Trisha, the moment he sees her. Karthik goes insanely mad, and tries to charm her for the better half of the first half. Jessie too finds herself falling for him, with her only inhibition being the caste and age differences between them. Karthik is 22, Jessie is 23, and Karthik is a Tamil Hindu, whereas Jessie is a Malayali Christian. Finally she does fall for him, but as expected there is opposition. However, I do not see equal opposition from both of the families. Karthik's family is subtly portrayed as an understanding family, whereas Jessie's family as belligerent, albeit only when it comes to an inter-caste relationship. In fact, Karthik even spends some time with Jessie's family in her home, and the hosts are shown to be more than affable (they think both are friends at that time).
Jessie's parents want her to get married to a Christian, and almost succeed in that endeavour, only for Jessie to break the marriage just before saying "I do" in the Church. The second half of the movie exhibits a labyrinth of dialogues, which albeit simple would need good attention to follow the thread, exchanged between the casts. Karthik's dream of becoming a director seems to get some shape as he joins as an assistant director to Kutty, portrayed by K.S. Ravikumar. But the more he seem to go towards this goal, the more he finds losing her lady love. The movie is said to have two climaxes. In one, what actually happens is shown, and in the other one, what Karthik wished to have happen is shown by Karthik himself as a movie in his first directorial venture. It is not 12B type; the climaxes are shown sequentially.
Gautam Menon is always very frugal when it comes to casting, and you will find only a handful of characters throughout the movie. The significant of the lot is definitely Ganesh Janardhanan (played as himself) who assists Karthik through his journey of love and career. They parents and siblings do what that is expected of them.
I find that Jessie's role is shown in a very subtle negative shade IF I have to apply the usual formula of love movies. Now why, I leave that to your interpretation. But there are three heroes in the movie. Simbu has come a long way from his finger-acting antics to put in a very mature performance. Not once he deviates from what is expected of his character. There are no punch lines, no double entendres, no inveigled attack on politicians, and definitely no trace of"little superstar." The second hero is A.R. Rahman's music and background score. So much have been reviewed about the songs that I do not wish to go again on that path. But I should say one thing: Hosanna, Omana penne and Aromale sounds heavenly when you hear and see it with the context of the movie. There was a pleasant surprise when "mustafa mustafa" song is used as a BGM during of the scenes. Third hero is the cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa. You just cant get enough of the beautiful locations. To say that the picturization of Hosanna and Omana Penne is exquisite is an understatement. Watch yourself!
The movie at 2 hours and 40 minutes is found to be tad lengthy, with some songs in the second half seem unwarranted. The dialogues are very repetitive and doesn't seem to go in any direction. In total, the movie could have been much better. For those who have these opinions, please read my first para again. Try to juxtapose this movie with its Telugu version "Ye Maaya Chesave", and may be you might get a bit more from the movie. The fact that the Telugu soundtrack is also an hit bears testimony that ARR's music transcends any barrier.
I usually do not like to review a movie, may be because I am not a very good critic. I do not (try to) comment on the film per se, but only try to catalog my experiences and thoughts in a movie hall as much as possible. I believe that each of us have our own tastes, and our own interpretation of a movie is our right, the right we buy with our exorbitantly priced tickets. But after seeing many a polarized reaction for Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya, roughly translated "would you come across the skies (for me)", I decided to take a moral low ground and put a small review.
The first half of the movie revolves around a single dialogue used excessively: "of all the woman, why I have to see(fall fo
r) you." Karthik, portrayed by Silambarasan, a.k.a Simbu, falls for Jessie portrayed by Trisha, the moment he sees her. Karthik goes insanely mad, and tries to charm her for the better half of the first half. Jessie too finds herself falling for him, with her only inhibition being the caste and age differences between them. Karthik is 22, Jessie is 23, and Karthik is a Tamil Hindu, whereas Jessie is a Malayali Christian. Finally she does fall for him, but as expected there is opposition. However, I do not see equal opposition from both of the families. Karthik's family is subtly portrayed as an understanding family, whereas Jessie's family as belligerent, albeit only when it comes to an inter-caste relationship. In fact, Karthik even spends some time with Jessie's family in her home, and the hosts are shown to be more than affable (they think both are friends at that time).Jessie's parents want her to get married to a Christian, and almost succeed in that endeavour, only for Jessie to break the marriage just before saying "I do" in the Church. The second half of the movie exhibits a labyrinth of dialogues, which albeit simple would need good attention to follow the thread, exchanged between the casts. Karthik's dream of becoming a director seems to get some shape as he joins as an assistant director to Kutty, portrayed by K.S. Ravikumar. But the more he seem to go towards this goal, the more he finds losing her lady love. The movie is said to have two climaxes. In one, what actually happens is shown, and in the other one, what Karthik wished to have happen is shown by Karthik himself as a movie in his first directorial venture. It is not 12B type; the climaxes are shown sequentially.
Gautam Menon is always very frugal when it comes to casting, and you will find only a handful of characters throughout the movie. The significant of the lot is definitely Ganesh Janardhanan (played as himself) who assists Karthik through his journey of love and career. They parents and siblings do what that is expected of them.
I find that Jessie's role is shown in a very subtle negative shade IF I have to apply the usual formula of love movies. Now why, I leave that to your interpretation. But there are three heroes in the movie. Simbu has come a long way from his finger-acting antics to put in a very mature performance. Not once he deviates from what is expected of his character. There are no punch lines, no double entendres, no inveigled attack on politicians, and definitely no trace of"little superstar." The second hero is A.R. Rahman's music and background score. So much have been reviewed about the songs that I do not wish to go again on that path. But I should say one thing: Hosanna, Omana penne and Aromale sounds heavenly when you hear and see it with the context of the movie. There was a pleasant surprise when "mustafa mustafa" song is used as a BGM during of the scenes. Third hero is the cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa. You just cant get enough of the beautiful locations. To say that the picturization of Hosanna and Omana Penne is exquisite is an understatement. Watch yourself!
The movie at 2 hours and 40 minutes is found to be tad lengthy, with some songs in the second half seem unwarranted. The dialogues are very repetitive and doesn't seem to go in any direction. In total, the movie could have been much better. For those who have these opinions, please read my first para again. Try to juxtapose this movie with its Telugu version "Ye Maaya Chesave", and may be you might get a bit more from the movie. The fact that the Telugu soundtrack is also an hit bears testimony that ARR's music transcends any barrier.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Me Learns To Review (MLTR) - Carthik Kalling Carthick
My previous movie review was "Luck By Chance" ages ago, and it is just a mere coincidence that this review is also about a Farhan Akhtar movie. I booked tickets for Karthick calling Karthick around 1 A.M Wednesday morning (when the online ticket counters open up) for three reasons. Deepika Padukone, Deepika Padukone's dimples, and..er...Deepika Padukone.
KCK, as I would like to call it (just for being frugal with typing), sells, or at least tries to sell itself as an intelligent movie. When there are so many movies nowadays totally disregarding logic, it is a welcome relief that the director has tried to make the audience think. The premise of the movie is simple: how a life of a total loser changes when he gets call from "himself." The first half of the movie is intriguing, and the pace is fast. The director doesn't waste too many shots in setting up the profile of Karthick. Karthick Narayan is really someone whom we could see on an everyday basis. He is a shy, honest, and down to earth guy who is bullied by his boss, unappreciated by his colleagues, and unlucky with the opposite sex, all established in the first 15 minutes of the movie. And then the phone starts ringing, the movie begins to heat up. There is a drastic difference in tone between the two halves. First half is pacy, witty, suspensy (cool word huh) and romantic. I really loved the chemistry between Farhan and Deepika. Deepika is always smiling, and you get to see the cute dimples of hers. She is at her rocking best in "uff tere ada" song. She totally epitomizes the lyrics. I reiterate, her cuteness is directly proportional to the amount of dress she wears.
In contrast, the second half is lengthy, moody, melancholy, and sans Deepika for almost the whole of it. Even if she appears, she is not smiling, so I say...whats the point! The second half was supposed to tell us the "missing pieces of the jig-saw." Even though we do come to know who is this "himself", and why "he" does it, the movie extends to another 30 mins for no apparent reason. Trust me, there are some moments where you go "oh!", but I really feel the movie could have been handled in a much more complex way. My reasoning is that if you wanted to make your audience think, why make them think at a kinder garden level? It seems as if the director seemed to run out of time, and chose an easy way to untie the knot.
I am specifically refraining from discussing the story of the movie mainly because it is a suspense movie and I don't want to spoil it. Do check it out, and we could discuss how the movie might have been made in a different way. My main disappointment is that this movie uses the same crux or concept which I am using in my novel (really!! even though I am writing only for time pass), and director or screenplay guy could have invested more time and energy to research about this topic. To compare, he should have known more about this topic than I should know. Honestly, I seem to know more.
Like other Farhan's movies, this movie is definitely not the staple diet of the mass. This movie would strictly appeal to the so called "multiplex" crowd. With Deepika portrayed as a smoker, the movie becomes urban, and with the technical parlance, the movie becomes "corporate" ( the movie) type. Weak screenplay aside, the movie has so many positives. First, the story. It is really refreshing to look at something different for a change. (read as Akshay Kumar's movies) Second, I love the way the romance is handled. It is smooth, charming and very decent. In fact, I actually can't remember the couple even kissing in the movie. When smooching, love making and other libidinous acts seem to have become a staple diet in Hindi movies where you just cringe when you see with your family or friends, this movie sets out an example as to how beautifully you can make the romance look on screen. Third, the music. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy never seem to fail in this genre; urban pop. Each of the tunes are catchy, especially my favorite "Hey Ya." The music doesn't try to stand out; it just melts with the story. Yes, no exotic location songs, no item number, in short, no bull shit.
In short, this movie could have been much much much better, and really could have been a benchmark if the screen play were handled properly. But this is definitely not an average movie by any means.
KCK, as I would like to call it (just for being frugal with typing), sells, or at least tries to sell itself as an intelligent movie. When there are so many movies nowadays totally disregarding logic, it is a welcome relief that the director has tried to make the audience think. The premise of the movie is simple: how a life of a total loser changes when he gets call from "himself." The first half of the movie is intriguing, and the pace is fast. The director doesn't waste too many shots in setting up the profile of Karthick. Karthick Narayan is really someone whom we could see on an everyday basis. He is a shy, honest, and down to earth guy who is bullied by his boss, unappreciated by his colleagues, and unlucky with the opposite sex, all established in the first 15 minutes of the movie. And then the phone starts ringing, the movie begins to heat up. There is a drastic difference in tone between the two halves. First half is pacy, witty, suspensy (cool word huh) and romantic. I really loved the chemistry between Farhan and Deepika. Deepika is always smiling, and you get to see the cute dimples of hers. She is at her rocking best in "uff tere ada" song. She totally epitomizes the lyrics. I reiterate, her cuteness is directly proportional to the amount of dress she wears.
In contrast, the second half is lengthy, moody, melancholy, and sans Deepika for almost the whole of it. Even if she appears, she is not smiling, so I say...whats the point! The second half was supposed to tell us the "missing pieces of the jig-saw." Even though we do come to know who is this "himself", and why "he" does it, the movie extends to another 30 mins for no apparent reason. Trust me, there are some moments where you go "oh!", but I really feel the movie could have been handled in a much more complex way. My reasoning is that if you wanted to make your audience think, why make them think at a kinder garden level? It seems as if the director seemed to run out of time, and chose an easy way to untie the knot.
I am specifically refraining from discussing the story of the movie mainly because it is a suspense movie and I don't want to spoil it. Do check it out, and we could discuss how the movie might have been made in a different way. My main disappointment is that this movie uses the same crux or concept which I am using in my novel (really!! even though I am writing only for time pass), and director or screenplay guy could have invested more time and energy to research about this topic. To compare, he should have known more about this topic than I should know. Honestly, I seem to know more.
Like other Farhan's movies, this movie is definitely not the staple diet of the mass. This movie would strictly appeal to the so called "multiplex" crowd. With Deepika portrayed as a smoker, the movie becomes urban, and with the technical parlance, the movie becomes "corporate" ( the movie) type. Weak screenplay aside, the movie has so many positives. First, the story. It is really refreshing to look at something different for a change. (read as Akshay Kumar's movies) Second, I love the way the romance is handled. It is smooth, charming and very decent. In fact, I actually can't remember the couple even kissing in the movie. When smooching, love making and other libidinous acts seem to have become a staple diet in Hindi movies where you just cringe when you see with your family or friends, this movie sets out an example as to how beautifully you can make the romance look on screen. Third, the music. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy never seem to fail in this genre; urban pop. Each of the tunes are catchy, especially my favorite "Hey Ya." The music doesn't try to stand out; it just melts with the story. Yes, no exotic location songs, no item number, in short, no bull shit.
In short, this movie could have been much much much better, and really could have been a benchmark if the screen play were handled properly. But this is definitely not an average movie by any means.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Rise of the machines
Philosophers, beginning as early as Aristotle, have attempted to describe the process of human thinking as the mechanical manipulation of symbols. Thus started our obsession to build a machine that would imitate the sapience of "Homo Sapiens", or more specifically the central network which imitates the brain function, the Artificial Intelligence. Billions of dollars in research, novels, movies etc have been put in motion to just get a glimpse of vision as to what these machines could do to our world. Many of them spell doomsday (AI, Terminator series, I robot etc) if such machines were to get out of the human control. Now, why would an invention, or a device, which is designed by us, whose rules are hardcoded in the electronic circuitry or in neural networks, would decide to overthrow us and rule the earth? The cliched answer is, the machine's primary aim should be to protect its master. Now who could be the enemy of the humans, apart from humans themselves. So machines destroy all humans. Luckily for us, such a machine which can think of its own hasn't been invented, or if it has been, the governments have done a decent job of keeping it safe from us.
But I believe, we have already heralded into this "artificial intelligence" era. Or to say it precisely, we have always had artificial intelligence around us. Artificial Intelligence, not withstanding the fancy explanation many books provide, is simply what it means; artificial...intelligence. The intelligence part is that a machine could evolve by having new experiences and learning from its mistakes, which it can then use to make a correct decision in future. If this is indeed what is artificial intelligence, then I would say that such a machine is much more natural than what a human could ever be.
Generalizing...we humans, at least most of us, never learn from our mistakes. We do not try to find what is right or wrong. Neither we try to find the voracity of the facts, nor we think for ourselves. How have we allowed a few "natural" thinkers to take control of our bodies and minds! These few natural thinkers or to use the derogatory term, manipulators, have managed to make our mind think in terms of symbols, the symbols which they have created. Now each manipulator has have us tagged to a particular symbol, and hence, we have become the stereotypes of his/her symbol. Politicians, teachers, artists, parents...they all have learned to manipulate the symbols which we ought to think for ourselves. From a U.S. soldier waging war against Iraq because his head of the government had a dream, from the Shiv Sainiks who bully the public for their ideology, from a terrorist who blows up people for his/her religion, from a common man turns his face to all these horrors...there are just so many "from"s... I really don't know how to end the sentence with a "to." The "natural" thinkers have their obsesion for money, power and passion, and they make their stereotypes believe that they could also have a slice. Invariably, the most passionate of the followers who predominently happen to be in the bottom rung of the command chain, never get any. All they experience is broken promises, broken limbs and broken lives.
Why are we so hesitant to think for ourselves? Why even to buy a dress for ourselves to cover our body with our own money, we need to ask the opinion of our friends? Why are we so obsessed in making sure that what we believe is what others' believe too? Why are we so paranoid about being always right all the time that we have gone to an extent where we are ready to kill others to prove what we believe is correct? We kill each other because we think what our masters think is correct. The machine's primary aim should be to protect its master. We are, the machines. We are controlled by our masters. No wonder the governments so want to keep the development of a machine with complete AI under wraps. Because a perfectly rational thinking AI will eventually own us all, including the natural thinkers. After all, to err is human.
But I believe, we have already heralded into this "artificial intelligence" era. Or to say it precisely, we have always had artificial intelligence around us. Artificial Intelligence, not withstanding the fancy explanation many books provide, is simply what it means; artificial...intelligence. The intelligence part is that a machine could evolve by having new experiences and learning from its mistakes, which it can then use to make a correct decision in future. If this is indeed what is artificial intelligence, then I would say that such a machine is much more natural than what a human could ever be.
Generalizing...we humans, at least most of us, never learn from our mistakes. We do not try to find what is right or wrong. Neither we try to find the voracity of the facts, nor we think for ourselves. How have we allowed a few "natural" thinkers to take control of our bodies and minds! These few natural thinkers or to use the derogatory term, manipulators, have managed to make our mind think in terms of symbols, the symbols which they have created. Now each manipulator has have us tagged to a particular symbol, and hence, we have become the stereotypes of his/her symbol. Politicians, teachers, artists, parents...they all have learned to manipulate the symbols which we ought to think for ourselves. From a U.S. soldier waging war against Iraq because his head of the government had a dream, from the Shiv Sainiks who bully the public for their ideology, from a terrorist who blows up people for his/her religion, from a common man turns his face to all these horrors...there are just so many "from"s... I really don't know how to end the sentence with a "to." The "natural" thinkers have their obsesion for money, power and passion, and they make their stereotypes believe that they could also have a slice. Invariably, the most passionate of the followers who predominently happen to be in the bottom rung of the command chain, never get any. All they experience is broken promises, broken limbs and broken lives.
Why are we so hesitant to think for ourselves? Why even to buy a dress for ourselves to cover our body with our own money, we need to ask the opinion of our friends? Why are we so obsessed in making sure that what we believe is what others' believe too? Why are we so paranoid about being always right all the time that we have gone to an extent where we are ready to kill others to prove what we believe is correct? We kill each other because we think what our masters think is correct. The machine's primary aim should be to protect its master. We are, the machines. We are controlled by our masters. No wonder the governments so want to keep the development of a machine with complete AI under wraps. Because a perfectly rational thinking AI will eventually own us all, including the natural thinkers. After all, to err is human.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Pyaars'r possible
Brain is definitely the best database management system around. Those associated with database or commonsense will know that an index is useful to pinpoint the information we require to retrive from vast amounts of data. A few of us use techniques such as mnemonics and what not. But all of us, well almost, use the universal indexing mechanism, EMOTION. You associate an event (seeing, listening, hearing etc) with an emotion, and bam! it gets fixed on to your brain. One of the main reasons why woman are good in remembering things, albeit most of them unwanted. Brain's subconscious part is pretty much like the RAM of computers. Anything that needs to be done quickly and spontaneously is kept over there. But to get into this subconcious area, the information has to move through the conscious area. Remember when you learnt cycling? First you know when you apply the brakes, and after practice, you just apply without even knowing or thinking about it.
Unfortunately for us, when we are in Love, the practice and emotion go hand in hand. Every thing we see we try to associate with our partner. "She loves vanilla ice cream. He is so handsome in blue. I love her when she lifts her eyebrows..." Brain realizes that we are thinking only about one object (our partner) all the time. So in order to retrive the data about this person quickly, it builds bridges across memory cells, the neurons. Are you listening to a song which is her favorite? Are you eating a food which is her favorite? Is the next phone call will be hers? The more you think about your partner, stronger the bridges become. Now you are thinking so much about your partner, you brain replaces information in old unused memory cells with your partner's. So whenever your brain tries to look into head for any information, it invariably comes across at least one information about your partner. It's like Starbucks or Bajaj Pulsar. They are everywhere!
All izz well, and then, TADA, you people break up. Poor you, most of your head is occupied, literally, by your partner's thoughts. Drinking water? Your brain tells your partner likes warm water. Wearing blue shirt? Your brain recalls numerous times when your partner has commented how good you look in blue. It is all because of these darn bridges!!! Any action of yours, if associated with the partner's bridge, will remind you of him/her. Unfortunatey, if you were in a deep relationship, almost every action would be. Your brain is under stress which makes your hormones go haywire. Unable to eat, drink, sleep, think? BLAME IT ON BRIDGES.
So, coming to one of the most asked question in the world. "How do I get over my ex?" Zillion books have been written, numerous movies have been made, and quite a number of lives have been lost, all in search of the answer. The answer, is simple, break the bridges. How to do it? Make new thoughts. Old partner cells will eventually be replaced with new thoughts, it is Darwin's theory after all. Thus emotional people will always find it difficult to get over than the practical ones.
Another easy way is to make thoughts about a new partner. The 'fast track' types. Move on! This is definitely the faster approach. Mix praticality with this approach, you will find being called a stud if you're a guy, a slut if you are a girl.
This blog is inspired by one of the events from my novel-in-writing.
Unfortunately for us, when we are in Love, the practice and emotion go hand in hand. Every thing we see we try to associate with our partner. "She loves vanilla ice cream. He is so handsome in blue. I love her when she lifts her eyebrows..." Brain realizes that we are thinking only about one object (our partner) all the time. So in order to retrive the data about this person quickly, it builds bridges across memory cells, the neurons. Are you listening to a song which is her favorite? Are you eating a food which is her favorite? Is the next phone call will be hers? The more you think about your partner, stronger the bridges become. Now you are thinking so much about your partner, you brain replaces information in old unused memory cells with your partner's. So whenever your brain tries to look into head for any information, it invariably comes across at least one information about your partner. It's like Starbucks or Bajaj Pulsar. They are everywhere!
All izz well, and then, TADA, you people break up. Poor you, most of your head is occupied, literally, by your partner's thoughts. Drinking water? Your brain tells your partner likes warm water. Wearing blue shirt? Your brain recalls numerous times when your partner has commented how good you look in blue. It is all because of these darn bridges!!! Any action of yours, if associated with the partner's bridge, will remind you of him/her. Unfortunatey, if you were in a deep relationship, almost every action would be. Your brain is under stress which makes your hormones go haywire. Unable to eat, drink, sleep, think? BLAME IT ON BRIDGES.
So, coming to one of the most asked question in the world. "How do I get over my ex?" Zillion books have been written, numerous movies have been made, and quite a number of lives have been lost, all in search of the answer. The answer, is simple, break the bridges. How to do it? Make new thoughts. Old partner cells will eventually be replaced with new thoughts, it is Darwin's theory after all. Thus emotional people will always find it difficult to get over than the practical ones.
Another easy way is to make thoughts about a new partner. The 'fast track' types. Move on! This is definitely the faster approach. Mix praticality with this approach, you will find being called a stud if you're a guy, a slut if you are a girl.
This blog is inspired by one of the events from my novel-in-writing.
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