Thillalangadi - Movie Review

I am a movie buff. I love watching movies that are entertaining at the same makes you think a little bit. So when I entered this movie, my expectations were almost zilch. The track record of the most original copy-cats (The brothers Raja- Ravi's 5ht remake from gult flicks.) of tamil cinema has been simply awesome. They are yet to taste sour grapes. The movies they selected for remakes have also been very sensible. But for once they have erred. This is an inspired scene to scene remake of the telugu movie "kick" by Ravi teja. This movie is devoid of all the basic logic. Normally, Raja is very careful about the remakes he chooses for Ravi, as he knows his brother’s pluses and minuses, like the back of his hand. However this is the weakest film of the brothers to date.

Story is as dumb as a person with an IQ of 30. A guy and girl meet in the train to discuss abt their possible nuptial bond. They talk abt their life. (Possibly the dumbest ever dialogues you could ever hear in a movie.) They as usual tlk aout the same person. For nisha (Tammanna ) he was an eccentric lover who broke her heart. And for Krishna kumar (Poor Shaam ) its a con man whom he is not able to catch not becas shaam is incompetent or Krishana (Jayam Ravi ) is ET, its because our protagonist is hero and the writer wanted him to win :P. They decide to marry each other.

And as usual our super hero ends up in Malaysia, where the crap had been happening. And this hero is the nth portrayal of Robin hood, n tending to infinity wins back his gal and finally ends up being a cop. U are confused. U are sure to be. To be entirely honest, we don’t quite understand what the film was trying to say in the first place. Is the hero justified by his activities for the simple reason that he does it for the kick of it? Ok, you want to establish the hero as a Robin Hood who robs from rich politicians and help poor children in need of medical attention. Nothing wrong in it, but make it a little more convincing. The humour is ordinary, and the climax heist that the hero attempts is the most embarrassing one you can remember in recent times.

There is a huge cast in this movie. and the only person who makes this watchable is Mansoor ali khan as the inspector. His sequences are truely hilarious. Vadivelu is at his irritating best, while poor santhanam and shaam have no clue what they are doing!. Ravi has tried hard. But every time he says kick, u feel that he deserves a hard punch right in his nose. Tammana with every passing film has opted to reduce the surface area of her dress. At this rate she would be a baywatch star by her 30th film. Other than being eye candy she is useless. Also for three hours it tests ur patience.

But on the positive side the comedy is good in the first half. Not sure why stalwarts like Prabu and suhasini accepted to do their roles. But I do have a feeling, whether this movie can be treated a spoof movie? If so its a better spoof than "Tamil Padam" . Songs are Terrible. Length is a yawning 3 hours. Man its a movie I would rate as 1/5 just for mansoor ali khan.

An Ode Of Respect to the mastreo

There was a time when I never listened to any sort of music. Every time I watched a movie and a song came, I invariably used to change channels. I somehow never understood the need of songs. I went to music class for 5 years. They say if you are trained in something at a very young age, you master it. But even the most trivial of the adages have exceptions and I sure was one. I went to music classes only to enjoy the play after classes. Testimony to that was I was still in Varnam ( something similar to II level in learning the carnatic music to which people graduate in about 8 months :P) after 5 years of torturing 2 different music teachers. So what made a Gyanasuniam (devoid of a scent of talent) a good listener. There was this song from the film jhonny. "En Vaniley" a beautiful song of a genre I dont know, but with such soulful music , coupled with a soulful voice of Jency (she sang only ard 20 songs),made me listen to a full song in a movie for the first time.U can also listen it here. And it was a different sensation all together. An experience that all of us have gone through and I, for the first time :).

It was composed by my all time favorite composer, the ascetic Illayraja. I wanted to write about him for a long time. I was actually afraid that whatever I write would never befit a man of such herculean persona and musical talent. I can never appreciate the nuances of his musical brilliance. But I had to write whatever I felt about him. Every known emotion to me is associated with a raaja song. It has been just a previlage to be his fan. One of the best things to come out of his music is that I started enjoying my solitude. Leave me to my raaja collection and I can live through worst of times with ease.  For me raaja is just synonyms with music and emotions.

 He is one of the few who comes from a back ground that is different from music. He hails from a family of communists. Once in an interview, SPB had told about how he and illayraja had struggled in their formative years. Like any other musician of his era, he was overshadowed by the shear brilliance of his contemporary MS Vishwanathan, another legendary composer. But instead of waiting for his big breaks, he used his time to to learn about music. He studied western music in the Madras Music college. He also worked as assistant to many music directors through out India. He got his big break courtesy the producer Panchu Arunachalam. And as they say the rest is history.

So what is different in illayraaja that makes him unique? His humility. His dedication to work.  For composing music to any movie, he makes sure that he listens to the entire plot before composing. Another brilliant aspect of his music is the importance he gives to the lyrics. His combo with lyricist vaali is electric. Its sad that nowadays there are very few nowadays who give importance to lyrics. For those who are interested how the combo works, you can listen to a track in "Oru naan oru kanavu" on how the duo came up with the composition and lyrics for the song, "Kaartril varum geetham". Another testimony of the importance he gives to lyrics is the movie "Bommu Kutti Ammavuku". "Uyire Uyirin" song from that movie could compared with the very best of international music. Another one is "kalyana malai" from "puthuthu puthu arthangal". And the list is quite a huge one.

Yes he does have his own negatives. Like sticking to a small group singers, Not venturing out of his comfort zone and doing many solo albums etc. Like many others he has also copied a few songs. Like "kanavu kanum vazkai" was from "Kasme vaade pyar" or the famous "Neer Veezhchi Thee Mootudhae" is used multiple number of times over 10 yrs. Also the Mouna Ragam BGM is inspired from "love theme" by Georgio Moroder.

He is a very private person who rarely interacts with the media. He has admitted that he was an atheist to begin with later to become a staunch believer in his latter years. In one of his recent interviews, he was quizzed what thinks about the new trend of songs that are being dished out! His retorted back saying that if he feels that the new trend is bad and not good, his mind is obsolete and he has no right to compete. His admiration of MSV is well documented. Here is an extract from the Hindu, on the evening when MSV was honored. I cam across a very rare interview of illayraja with the frontline that I am sharing. What ever I write would never suffice a complete testimony. But for me he is someone who made me a good music listener and opened up a whole new world for me to cherish. The Debates like MSV vs Illayraja, Illayraaja vs ARR are all futile and all are great composers. We are lucky to have been contemporaries to them.

The Girl/lady in the pink nite pant.

Our eclectic group of friends and former classmates went to a movie. Being a small town movie theater, there was hardly the comfort and the exorbitance of a metro multi-plex. But that is compensated by the fact that you invariably see one of your long lost friends there every time you visit. Yesterday night we went to a movie 'Madrasapattinam'. It was an ok movie at best with blistering art and camera work and a petty story. So we went for the night show. We were one the first people to enter the cinema hall. I stood in the queue waiting for the my turn to get the tickets. Since I had a few friends with me it was good time pass. We were just making random comments and enjoying the moment. As it was looking like another normal night in the theater, everything was about to change. The night was made momentous by the entry of someone whom I had never seen before.

Wearing a nice white T-shirt, a pink night dress a combination that I would have instantly linked to ramarajan, ( a legendary tamil actor known for him atrocious on screen color combinations, something like bright green shirts and golden bottoms!! somebody match that!!!! ) and crack a sarcastic pj. But today I was simply awed by what she was draped in! I was disappointed that there are separate queues for males and females. She walked closer and closer and stood in the not so crowded line. Initially I did not see anybody with her. But I knew for sure that no girl in neyveli would would come alone to the theater that too for the night show. She was no extraordinary beauty, but had the elegance to captivate the beholders. I was talking to a friend who was standing next to me, but my yearning to catch a sight of her. Songs like "aval apadi onrum azhagilai and "khudha jaane" we begining to ring inside my head. I was paying great attention to what she was doing. I was keenly observing each of her movements, her mood as well as her body language. For once I felt like Ridley Scot.

Just as I was enjoying the picturesque sight in front of me, people started leaving the hall from the previous show. The ticket counter situated in the entrance, was the first place where the commotion hit after people a few happy and a few frustrated descended the steps and started moving to the adjacent vehicle stand. I was badly cursing those who were blocking my view though only momentarily. I wanted no one to disturb me. There are few things that u can ill afford to miss. And for me she was one.

But alas tragedy struck finally (as usual). I found sindhur in her scalp, in between two combed parts of her hair locks. The way usually married women keep in our place. For a moment I was dumbfounded. I could not believe my eyes. I checked and rechecked, once, twice and I dont know how many times. I saw a hefty man coming and holding her hands, after she got the tickets. They happily chatting went inside unaware that a heart had been broken. Knock out punch done and dusted. Why should all the girls I like be out of my reach? Why on earth this women so beautiful marry so soon. Why did that ********* marry her so soon!! From khudha janne it was "You are beautiful" by James Blunt ringing in my mind now. What a transformation!

My shoulders drooped, my poise dashed. I found couple of my friends standing next to me sharing the same feeling. We all so hoped that we would be competitors only to find that we had been disqualified even before the competition began.

As we were in the nadir of our disappointment, suddenly it was spring time again. It was once again time for khuda jaane. Another beauty in a green-white chuddidar was walking right in front of us. Remorse was rejoice now. Only we were unaware that we for long have been part of a never ending vicious circle.

My new Suit

I was a fascinating couple of days. Nice bit of travel. Had my license to enter a new country sanctioned. But to crown everything, I bought my first suit. Long back I decided to buy one iff I Buy it with my own earnings. But man the the lure of getting it (at 70% discount) one won over me in no time. It has been my dream the own one. Atleast the when I wear my suit, it will be mine. Right from my teens, it was a fascination for me to wear one and every time I see one of my favorite actors scorching (:P seriously) with a suit, I just let my imagination do all the talking. The grace that it brings to your personality is just amazing. I entered the Brand Factory at Matharalli in Bangalore. Its one of the biggest showrooms that I have visited. I have always prided myself in making very swift shopping. But once I entered there I knew its gonna be one long evening(I almost missed my bus). My size 44 spoilt some fun. I had very few designs to choose from. Pity that connoisseur like me had very few to choose from. Even the salesman understood my enthu and patiently was commenting on my petty remarks. It was the first time I took an hour to buy something. But when I made my final choice, I was very happy.

My new pet is black in colour, with slight glodish wide stripes that blends into the black perfectly. The moment I wore it, I knew that I had sated my long standing lust. The sleek stitches, perfect fit and just my love for those kind of dresses excited me very much. A timeless addition to any stylish man's wardrobe, these great attires are beautiful, timeless, and absolutely elegant. The matching trouser simply made me feel incredible. Its something that will never go out of fashion. It made me look very mature. Man I pray I had a good digital camera. So all my friends who are earning, i think you must have got the clue by now. My birthday is round the corner :P.

First time I really noticed the blazers/suit was when sachin wore one in Sir Don Bradman's greatest XI. Shadowing his youthful charm, he looked a man. Like every other Indian, I have adored him through out my childhood, like getting the same MRF at and many other quirks that I can imitate. But the moment I looked at him along with those cricketing greats, he sure did not look out of place. And I respected him a notch higher. Also there are many famous characters that has constantly reminded me of the appeal of this attire. Like the Sean Connery of Dr.No or Marlon rando of the godfather or the gracious Liam nieson of the Schindler's list or our own amithab ji in KBC all these and many more have just invigorated my lust for possessing one.

For me the coats/blazers/suits/tuxedos all mean the same. There could be subtle differences between them that I dont know and dont care to know. All I know at this moment I am loving mine. but the next set I will buy is only when I earn. I am just waiting patiently to wear it on some formal occasion. And I sure will enjoy and treasure that moment.

The writer's block

The other day I was reading a few pages from the Oscar wild Classic "The picture of dorian Gray". After reading just a couple of pages I realized my language was nothing compared to his. His mastery of the English language is simply unbelievable. I sighed, I should have read this before my GRE EXAM!!!! The inferiority complex sunk in after reading this classic. Add to that I got a realistic criticism after my last post.(negative ofcourse!) So I was seriously wondering whether I should write more and bore others. I was teemed with a plethora of nonsense to write about rather once again crib about. Every time I took a topic I was not sure if I could do justice to the topic I choose. Being pretty much pragmatic, I wanted to dig deep and assess myself and find out what had gone berserk and brought inside me a fear that suddenly I had no teeth to face. I have had something faithful readers of my blog, mostly thrust upon by me. So a question started lingering - SHOULD I WRITE AND ASK OTHERS READ? Thats when I realised I have just had a writer's block!! What the heck, break the block by writing about the block.

Everyone is a coward from inside. The fear of death is something we all have and fight to polish off. We look up to idols like Mandela, Eastwood to push ourselves and keep fighting till the very end. The brave are those who can rush aside the fear and chase their dreams.Writer's block is something not so dissimilar. It basically arises because we compare ourselves to some great legend and think that we are no match to him or some other petty reason that will make us look creatively impotent. There can never be dearth of ideas. Our mind is the most picturesque of locations you can ever visit. The thought that someone reading our writing and criticizing/ not liking can tarnish our thought process to the extent that we in a moment travel from Kashmir to the Thar desert.

In fact, don’t be hard on yourself at all while writing. Anna Quindlin wrote, “People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.” Turn the critical brain off. We have many clichéd movies that are made in our country that are arise from a single line story and are decorated to the extent that we have 3 wonderful hours. Other reason could be our lack of expertise in the language. It is believed that limited vocabulary acts as a very big impediment in effectively communicating our thoughts. But again we should realise that we should have our limitations but also our strengths.Look at what you’re writing and why. Are you writing what you love, or what you think you should be writing? The writing that feels most like play will end up delighting you the most, and this is the writing your readers will instinctively connect with. At the end of the day, writing is too hard to do it for any other reason. If you continue to touch base with the joy you first felt in writing, it will sustain you, not only through your current block, but through whatever the future holds.

How do you overcome this fear? Simply by writing more and reading more. There is never a better medicine. You can play with the language and write poems. If you are not able to, you can just join a subject and predicate and finish a sentence. As simple as that. Always compare with yourself only. Every time you write, you must have a satisfaction that you have evolved and you are now able to connect with those who read in a better way. Surely there will be someone who can connect with what you are trying to say. Writing is a way of expressing yourself, waking up a trait in you that already exits and is dormant. Not necessarily everybody is comfortable with writing. They have different ways of expressing themselves. Obviously writers' block comes only for people who like to write :P.

Writing helps you share your small joys and sorrows with many, some of whom we might never meet in person. We always have a part of ourselves in what we write. With the advent of the modern technology and advances in communication the concept of 'pen-pal' has become obsolete. But we have a 'blog-pal' or a 'email-pal'. We should also change with time. After all at the end of the day we should just enjoy what we are doing and if we enjoy and really like writing nothing should stop us. Writer's lock is one of many manifestations of our fear of failure. But if you get one, dont worry. because when you over come it, you will experience the purest form of a feelong called "Happiness".

With great power comes great responsibility!

There are many apparent truths that hits us hard when we hear it spoken by our favorite reel life characters. The dark knight had innumerable such quotes uttered by the Batman and more by the antagonist Joker! But another quote that had affected me a lot was the one by uncle Ben to Peter Paker in the Spider man movie/comics.( I credit the title to Stan lee). When I heard it first, I sought to disagree with the statement. This was because i had a strong feeling that if I were true to myself and did no harm to others, I would have trouble. I used to undermine the importance of a regulatory system. But when I entered the real world no more protected by the safety hood of my parents, gosh I learnt the bitter learn. With great power comes not only great responsibility but also an attitude.

What happens when individuals have great power who mis-use that power? Corruption, disregard for human rights, criminal acts of war, genocide, destruction of ethnic cultures and races of humans, oppression, enslavement, disregard for the law, acts of injustice, cruelty, greed.

If these things are not enough to demand that those who are in power be held accountable, what then will it take for you to understand? Perhaps, if the secret police showed up on YOUR doorstep and dragged YOU away to a concentration camp where you were tortured, beaten, enslaved, starved and worked to death, maybe you would understand then why those with great power must use it responsibly.

The irresponsible use of power, is the single greatest source of human suffering in the world, the greatest source of CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY itself. Power must always be checked against itself with a counterbalance. For every action, there must be an equal and opposite reaction. That is why the Govt of India has multiple sublayers and power distributed so that all the power cannot be exclusively held by one individual or group of individuals. The entire idea is to check, unchecked power. No single person or group has ultimate priviledge. This is to prevent the establishment of dictators, tyrants and kings who are the historical criminals who abuse power.

But after all what can I do? I am just an arm chair critic who can do nothing but flow along with the system as if I am shouting with my hands behind my head, "do whatever you want to do, Just leave my life alone". The angry young man thing that is portrayed in the movies are all crap. The young men like me have to no stomach the truth, to dip in the system and clean the weeds. After all we are the future, this country eagerly awaits to explode and make something happen. But all I can hope is, show some prudence when we are in a position of power.

The Religion called sports!

Having watched the Brazil-holland game, I am writing this post. The unknown quantity that sports is, the feeling, the passion, the adrenaline, the camaraderie, wow is for all for us experience. As a small kid, I used to play hours together, not worrying about what is in store for the day. Every time you play what ever game it may be, at whatever level it may be, it just sweeps you off your feet. Entertainment is all personified when we spend hours unaware that time is fleeting all along. I have personally seen eclectic groups being formed based on only the passion of sports forgetting their multitude of differences. Its the primal instinct of a human to do something that makes him forget the passing of time and sports is certainly something that helps him accomplish this. Even when you are in the Nadir of your gloom, you see your favorite team win something, or you win something personally, you simply forget the morose part of you. The passion that any sport imparts is unbelievable. You can vent out your emotions in your quest to win by just pushing you to the limit and do not make others feel the side effects of your emotion. The sportsmanship you develop, will be an invaluable attribute for you day today existence.

The scenes in my hostel after Sachin 'THE GOD' Tendulkar scored the first double century was simply unbelievable. Ppl did not know who were standing next to them they simply starting hugging each other. There were almost 150 people in a 10*40 room watching the proceedings from every corner of the room, literally. Also who can forget the way the security personals celebrated with everyone at the EDEN GARDENS after India came back from following on to beat the Aussies. Cricket is the most followed game in my country. It has also been used as a bridge in the ongoing peace talks between India and Pakistan. I am sure many people wont know who their constituency's MP is, but wil instantly worship Scahin. Its not only my country, but through out the world. Think of Brazil and and it football crazy nation, US and Basketball, China and all sports :P, and the list is enormous. Sports like music is a universal language that could be understood by everyone.

Just think how Steven Gerrard would have been feeling after scoring that scorcher against olympiakos. Its a feeling worth living for. There are many rags to riches stories in sports and they inspire the people more than any other source. Sports has often lifted the sagging spirits of nations. Ethiopia for example with a 70 % malnourished population, has won maximum number of golds in the olympic games for athletics. Its economy is in the verge of obliteration. Sports sure lifts its spirits. Nobody personifies it better than Haile Gebrselassie, the champion long distance runner who ruled the 5000 and 10000 meters for a good part of 2 decades. Even now after retirement from Olympic games, he is dominating the Marathon circle. Lance Amstrong has inspired many in their fight against the cancer. There are many more inspiring sports personalities. And also every coin has two sides. Lets just concentrate on the positives here. And the way Nelson Mandela used sports (Rugby world cup 1995) to avert a major civil discontent and mend the ties between ethnically volatile people should serve as an invaluable precedent for the politicians through out the world.

So what if you don't have the ability/skill to play at a professional level! You need not build the Taj Mahal to enjoy it. You will always find people with similar skill sets, to play the game if you want to. Winning or losing is immaterial. But what saddens me is the way sports is being turned into a business. When the people in power make a mockery of the the faithful fan following, it does hurt. So just respect the spirit of the game whatever it may be. After all when we are good and make the right choices, we are called 'SPORTive'. I think the most apt way to end this article is with Mandela's message for the FIFA World cup 2010 at South Africa. "The generosity of human spirit can overcome all adversity. Through compassion and caring, we create ... HOPE". And no better way to do it than being SPORT-ive.

What is creativity?

In the recent times I have seen 3 movies that made me think about the question! what is creativity. The movies I am talking about are Wake up sid, Rock on, Three Idiots. The media and movies have created an image that a creative person is one who has very long curls,(trying to copy einstien) has a rugged look with a rustic beard, or a frenchie, wears odd looking spectacles, is either a painter, sculptor, dancer, stylist or a movie director, keeps blabbering sense on every issue etc etc. For example the protagonist sid in the movie hates wearing formals, thinks that going to his dad's office which is into the production of bathroom accessories is very boring and not even worth a BMW. So he ends up as a photographer enjoying the sceneries and works with a bunch of "different" people who publish a very high class time pass magazine with rich photographs in it. They do all this for me to say that - "yes this useless fellow is very sensitive and creative". So his father played by brilliant Anupam kher is a big fat loser who zipped his creative serum only to build what? A useless boring business empire. Come on give a break.

And in Rock on our hero whose life is made redundant by a fat paying investment banker job rediscovers himself by taking up his passion! Music. That lets him trigger the his brain and look people as people. And he understands his supportive wife prachi only when he was "CREATIVE". In 3 Idiots, our wangudu/rancho is termed very creative. Finally an engineer has come in that category :), but after what? 400 PATENTS!. My question is how do you quantify a person as creative? Say I am writing this parody on some of the cult classic movies. I am basically a engineer who s still studying. Mind you for the creative geniuses engineering is one of the most boring things to do. How can I be creative? or am I creative? Will people just about include me in that list as I vent out my creative vacuum in this blog? Load of bullshit.

Creativity raises out of how we think. This lists out the characteristics of the creative person. So my question is can a common man with limited skill set clouded by lust and materialistic needs be creative? Yes ofcourse. We can be creative in every walk of life. Creativity is the bringing into being of something which did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought.In fact, we are all creative every day because we are constantly changing the ideas which we hold about the world about us. Creativity does not have to be about developing something new to the world, it is more to do with developing something new to ourselves. When we change ourselves, the world changes with us, both in the way that the world is affected by our changed actions and in the changed way that we experience the world.
Our mind is a canvass that is never ending. Use it to make your day today happenings interesting. If you are creative, do something different, however minuscule it is, you have a sense of satisfaction that cannot be put in words. Like solving a sudoku, use a small innovation to reduce ur mom's work in kitchen, making a person laugh in the most dolorous of situations and many more small things.But doing that you will never come in this list . But who cares? We have sated our hunger for innovation. thats it.
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Our life in earth is very special. We have a brilliant processing unit inside our skull that works non stop. So don't worry if you are not as brilliant as rancho, cant understand physics as good as Einstien, as eloquent as Obama, free spirit like Richard Branson, suck @painting, no so good vocabulary, you dont look as stunning as ash or hrithik, still we can be as creative as da vinci in our own way. Only down side is others cant realize that. But who the heck cares? Our "mona lisa" is totally different from his!