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?

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 for) 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.

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.

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.