Review of Madras Cafe

Immediately after writing a detail article( Lanka Dahanam ) on the Sri Lankan conflict, I find it very difficult to write something far less important, which is a movie review.

But I owe this movie a bit. It was while watching it that I was convinced that I should write about the genocide and now that I am finally through it I should just write the review.

The movie revolves around the basic plots surrounding the civil war in Sri Lanka and how India got entangled into it. Being the 4th largest military in the world and propelling towards being a regional power, India in those days was proactively monitoring and involved in the dynamics of Sri Lankan politics.

Through the eyes of an ex-RAW agent and paratrooper(never mentioned, but supposed to be so from the Red Beret), played by John Abraham, the story unfolds of how things went from bad to worse for India and Sri Lanka. Scripted as a commercial movie with some action scenes, suspense and romance this movie doesn't seem to hold back on the depth of research done on the topic. I was personally interested in the political involvements that were depicted.

The role played by Nargis seemed too cliche and badly written, and felt like forcibly added to keep the charm of beautiful models who speak British English in a war torn country of Tamils and Sinhalese and get prompt responses in .. Hindi! Speaking of which, the language was a major disappointment with the movie. Probably to keep the majority of Hindi speaking community in mind, the use of subtitles and local language has been limited and almost all characters speak Hindi, though broken. And the goof-ups showing the poster of Aashiqui-2 in a theatre scene which was supposed to happen in the 80s, and the shoots in Kochi where the modern container terminal too appears on frame shows that the camera department didn't do much homework to recreate the times when the story unfolded.

 Even John's attire and looks were largely metro-sexual, which wasn't the norm in those days. It looked like and old story remodeled to suit the sensibilities of the new crowd. But to give credit where it is due, the equipments used and some of the guns too were taken care to be those that were really available in those days.

Though there were some goof-ups and inaccurate facts, the story moves at a good pace through the solid lines keeping the balance between the story of the individual and the larger political and social aspect of the conflict.

Overall a entertaining political thriller that makes you think. 7.4/10

Ship of Theseus - A review

Ship of Theseus...

I had wanted to write many things about this movie in the initial two days after watching it. But now, when I finally got the time and setting to do it, I am trying to find what those thoughts were.

So here goes..

This movie has a lot to offer being of a different breed. It differs by miles from the mainstream movies anyway, and even from the parallel movies it differs in very subtle manners.

Outright, if you ask me if its an art movie, I would say yes and No. It does have the usual technicalities and stretching phenomenon common with all art movies. But then the packaging seems to have been done a bit differently to make it appear on the left side of the scroll bar of art films. The promotions and advertisements too have been done via social media, thereby taking away a portion of the anonymity that art movies usually get released under.

A proper promotion ensured that huge crowds of intellectuals,pseudo-intellectuals,art movie lovers, general movie lovers and general population also turned out to see what this movie is all about. The cities where the movie was to be released were selected based on social media voting on various platforms like Twitter and Facebook. A bonus for social media in generating the right image of the audience and their expectations.

140 minutes long, this movie seems quite long and unprocessed at parts, whereas many parts takes your breath away. Anyway, as with any movie which involves concepts and symbolization, the interpretation and level of enjoyment varies from person to person.

I would like to touch upon the general topic of the movie without giving any spoiler alert. Most of these you would get to know anyway from the trailers, so I believe I am not doing any injustice to the makers of the movie.

The movies is a stitch-up of three stories;stories of three different people in three different situations going through some life changing moments of their lives. The philosophical question underlying the movie is shared to the audience in the  beginning, probably to set them thinking on the same lines as the makers of the movie. There is no principle or concept, just a logical question which can be applied to anything in life and metamorphosed into various dimensions according to your intellectual interests.


The first story is of a girl who is blind from childhood who takes up photography after she loses sight. It is a mind blowing concept, watching her use voice recognition in her camera and photo editing tools to create amazing works of art. She is portrayed as being a famous photographer with her own exhibits, but is not at peace with the world. Her husband, who helps her by giving comments and reviews of her photos gets into constant arguments stemmed out of her frustration at something. Its a pleasure watching her figure out subjects around her just by using sound and clicking very profound images. Then we are told that she is getting her eyes operated and new implants from some donor are fit. She is dying with anxiety to see the works of her which she hated, but was appreciated by all. Like a child, she goes through all the works she has done from her childhood, breaking into tears realizing the enormity of the work she has done unwares. Soon she is on the same streets trying to recapture the same feelings and images, this time with eyes. But after many attempts, she realizes that something is missing and this breaks her down completely.
 
 She travels to get motivation for her work and the story ends when she finally comes to peace with the hard truth. That truth is something that I was personally able to relate to and I felt completely satisfied at her discovery.


The story moves onto Maitreya, a Jain monk who fights against cruelty to animals in various labs. He takes upon major cosmetic companies and is a champion of simple life. One fine day he is diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and it moves to an advanced stage soon. Doctors advice him to take medicines, but having seen the kind of animal testing done behind the medicines prescribed to him, he rejects medication and chooses to embrace death instead. The story slowly moves across various frames of his wandering, his followers, his daily life and so on. But the most engaging and interesting parts are his intellectual debates with a friend, even in his death bed. These exchanges cover all the philosophical reasoning and motivations that drive Maitreya while making the audience chuckle and laugh at the humorous puns and jibes. It keeps the movie away from the intellectual and philosophical boredom that affects such scenarios. The end of this story was questionable and left us in wonder and it took hours after the movie to be put aside.

The last story is more non exotic in nature. Its about a Marwadi stock broker who is shown as getting his kidney transplanted  He is shown as someone tied to his work, carrying his PC(mind it, not even a laptop) even to the hospital room to continue his work. His grandmother is a social activist who constantly prods him for his hunger to make money and lack of interest in being more humane. In the hospital premises he witnesses the plight of a poor family that discovers that the kidney of its sole bread earner has been stolen by some doctors in a previous surgery. Already hurt by the remarks of his grandmother, this sparks something in him to set out on a journey to track down the source of this theft and try to get the rightful owner his kidney back. His pursuit takes him to the nefarious underbelly of the medical mafia, crowded slums and even goes international to track down the massive mafia. He also has a stocky friend who keeps the humour flowing, keeping the audience's interest very much up. With some interesting moments of realizations and setbacks, his story is about the spark that  normal people get and how he reacted to it. An activist is born in him that day.

Overall the movie charms and makes up for some of its boring sequences,shots and dialogues when you consider the plot, the concept and the use of good humour to maintain the flow. The end has the answer to many questions, but raises far more questions for the audience to ruminate upon.  The other highlights of this movie is the attention given to the sounds, the depth of dialogues and the wonderful camera work. But in these days of amazing cinematography in mainstream movies, there is nothing remarkable in that department.

 I rate this movie 8.3/10. Go and watch it, you lovers of good quality movie. Let this spur on many such efforts.. Kudos to Anand Gandhi, Neeraj Kabi and Kiran Rao, among others..


Read the wiki link about the making of the movie
(all image copyrights are with their rightful owners, and images obtained from google images)

Amen: a not-so-short review

i was asleep at 7.30pm when I roommate took my confirmation to watch the movie Amen, the show being at 9.45pm. I was hungry and tired, so I forcibly woke myself up at 8.15pm and went to find some food, which turned out to be not such an easy task owing to Holi.

Anyway I returned in half an hour, and then we had to rush as the theatre was 17kms away, and it would take a good half an hour in car to reach there. After lots of rushing and missing stuff, we had to return half way through and go in bikes. Not knowing the route and riding one bike alone, I checked up the route with another guy and managed to reach in time for the title song, in spite of the 50kmph constant speed.

It was at this point that I got to clearly know the name of the movie.

The title song itself was really colourful and full of interesting characters. Not like the usual special effects titles we see nowadays. This was more like a musical drama, with lots of animated characters moving across the screen, depicting the theme and the backdrop of the story itself.

The story is set in an island village, occupied by Christian families and the entire story surrounds these families, the Church, and the music band of this village(Gee Varghese Band). I don't fancy narrating the story in detail as part of the review, because it is quite boring to do so, and gives too many spoilers to people who just want to know whether the movie is good enough to spend their time and money.

So there is this band, which was quite famous and brought lots of laurels to the village. Even the village was known by the name of the band during those days But now, the band was past its glory days owing to a boat accident which killed many of its stalwarts. The son of one such clarinet player is Solomon(Fahad Fasil), the hero of the story. But he hasn't been able to bring out the skills in him into public view yet.

Then there is Sosanna(Swati Reddy) who looks absolutely charming and docile in her role. But looks can be deceiving and she displays the other sides of her character, and that too in quite unexpected fashions that make the audience gasp at the sheer audacity and creativity involved in depicting such scenes. Obviously, she is in love with our hero. Her role and expressions are quite hilarious in many scenes.

Then we have the band falling apart against stiff competition, church politics and local opposition. Everything is wagered against one final competition and then the usual stuff follows.

Another major character is father Vincent Vattoli(Indrajith). His role was really impressive and more colourful than any others, and quite comparable to Sosanna's. He dances, he preaches, he fights, he cracks jokes, and does some wonderful things. He drives the story actively, while all other characters play supporting roles for sometime. Then each character gets to drive the story for sometime. I was impressed by this round-robin fashion. There is no scope for hero worship here.

As with such stories there is the usual angry family, supportive family and local people involved in this story. They all serve no special purpose other than anchoring the story line to a very common one. In spite of that, these characters have been given lots of screen time and punch dialogues, making them more richer than usual supporting roles. It is like how real life usually is. How many of you can say that in your daily life there have been only a handful of characters involved deeply? Especially so with family stories set in rural backgrounds, where everything and anything is shared by a large number of people. I really relished that the supporting roles weren't too cliche.

That's not it, there are still more and more characters coming in , each holding out on there own with individual styles, performances and punch dialogues. The main priest with his villainous expressions, the kappiyar with his cunningness, Davis and Mariamma(with chatta-mundu-shades) from the other band who owns the arch-rival band, the toddy "chethukaaran" who delivers quite a lot of punch dialogues, Clara(Solomon's sister), the French girl Michelle who comes to Kerala to learn music and finds love instead,and so on.. Even Makarant Deshpande of "Yuh Hi Chala" fame pitches in with a very good character and performance.  Its a rain of punch dialogues, funny camera works, intelligent BGM and interesting roles. There is even a song sung for Michelle in broken Malayalam. I consider that to be the zenith of storytelling which departs from the traditional style where everyone gets their song sung by the best background singer, irrespective of how odd it sounds. After all each character has a life, a story and a song in their hearts, sung in their own imperfect ways.

Now that's what I found interesting. There is no better way to entertain and excite people other than deceiving their ability to guess each scene. Maybe the beginning and the end would still fall under the category of the easily guessable ones. But with all these rich characters putting in all this content, you would never be bored, unless of course you are preoccupied with trying to look beyond these. There were some forced jokes,but I felt it was acceptable, given the nature of characters and dialogues already going on in the movie. It is usually when characters move out of their roles and try to produce jokes, that they feel very artificial.

Conclusion-

Positive
a) Awesome camera work. Though some might get mild headaches with the swaying and twisting shots. Quick movements and funny slow motions add a lot of punch into the scenes.
b) Good title song and climax music
c) Lots of awesome lighting effects
d) Characters are the highlight. Each one is fully developed and has their own effect on the story. Inclusion of  Swati Reddy,Makarant Deshpande and Natasha Sahgal(who is really a NatGeo writer..omg!!) helps to not limit the characters to just the usual cast.
e) Good selection of location and script
f) Hilarious punch dialogues
g) BGM was enchanting at times, fast paced and sometimes quite devotional and rhythmic

Negative
a) The attempt to make it a 'musical' comedy. It didn't work out well. The songs were mostly out of place, lengthy and not so inviting.
b) Some roles were not very well developed, and were meant for some jokes.That is actually not so bad either.
c) The devotional tones were over the edge at some points, though very limited.
d) The climax was questionable. There wasn't enough reason for such a twist!

Overall it is a very good "Divine Comedy", as the title claims. Watch it for some good humour, lots of wacky scenes and meaningful sarcasm against the authoritarian nature of religious bodies these days. I rate it 4.2/5.

From my movie collections..

Here I present a few selected movies from my Recommended and Must Watch folders, which I really classify in the same manner.

The Man from Earth. I got this from my friend Manu, tagged "GREAT MOVIE" in the folder itself. Readers have to take note that we are not the kind of people who mess up with our file names so easily. He atleast, is a master of TBs of data, so such a tag itself meant something special. In spite of my original plan to remove the tags after watching, what I did says all about my valuation of the movie. It was renamed to "GREATEST MOVIE". I couldn't say more about this lovely movie. I just finished another full round of it. Loved every bit of it.

Moving on..

"Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)". Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Many people out there are crazy about Kubrick's movies. But I found out the director's name much later, after having watched the movie and having fallen in love with it too. No other movie has depicted such a sarcastic and brilliant picture of the morals of the Americans(whom the world has learned to hate) during the Cold War. Each character has a meaning and a place in the script which has been played out well by the cast as well.

ah I just figured out that I have 63 movies in my Must Watch folder, just for the English language. There would be approximately the same number in various other languages, off which I value the ones from outside the reach of the Indian subcontinent very much due to the uniqueness and variety in their subjects and methods of portrayal of similar or dissimilar themes.

The recommended folder has 98 movies just for English...sigh I am sorry fellows.. I can't take up the task of sorting and bringing out even 5 favorites, because I would be doing gross injustice to at least a 100 great pieces of work which I value..

back to back bonanza

Yesterday Usthad Hotel - a beautiful sensation for the senses..
Today - Gangs of Wasseypur. A mindblowing movie of epic proportions.
And also I finish my 3 years in this industry..

altogether a very good time..

an oh yeah.. game of thrones season 2 is in my HDD .. :)) yo GOT and GOW FTW!!

a movie I just watched..

i am not an art critic. i am an admirer of story telling..

give me movie,books,pictures or even ideas.. I do a great job of admiring it..though mostly within myself.

such is the dilemma when facing a movie like the one just came back after watching.. Ustaad Hotel (malayalam).. get the details and images from google wilya?

I loved almost every aspect of the movie and most importantly I am not bothered about the 'almost' as it was enough to block my mind from even bothering if something is not right about the movie..

Cinematography, story, acting, dialogues, camera work, bgm, songs and the message(s) in the movie.. everything was too good for me.. I am content..

For the lovers of a good movie, I recommend.

Iron Sky - A review

I liked the film a lot. For the records, I am a world war 2 buff. My head is stuffed with data about weapons, history, tactics, profiles of important people, propaganda material, consequences and fallouts of the war etc etc

The movie goes like this. After the defeat in World War 2, the Nazis escape to the dark side of moon and settle there. They teach their offspring the philosophy of the Aryan supremacy and build up large military forces using a new fuel Helium-3. The kids believe that they will go back and teach peace and equality to the world. Also they are shown a short clipping of Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" , and are told how the great film captures the idea of the dictator saving the world.

Now, things go wrong when a black american model is sent to the moon as a part of.. a re-election campaign, and is caught by the Nazis. The president who sent him resembles none other than.. Sarah Palin, in terms of looks and intellect. The dialogues are funny and quite sarcastic in nature.

Even the UN, where each countries' representative is chided and sarcastically represented, makes a hilarious combination. No need to say, we have a turbaned fellow representing India.

All hell breaks loose when the Nazis decide to attack Earth. What follows is a hilarious warfare that would throw you off your seat if you can make connections to the real world scenarios.

I won't venture further for the fear of giving spoilers. The movie is good. A tad slow at the end, but interesting and hilarious throughout. Highly recommended. My rating is 8/10...

Oh yeah, if you watched the Untergang or the famous Hitler scene from it dubbed into umpteen things, you have something here..

Katyn - The Controversial story of a Massacre

This is a not a movie review.
It is my reflection of the contents of a movie and the real incidents linked to it.

The movie I am talking about is Katyn, a polish one released in 2007.

A movie poster

About the movie
The movie revolves around the massacre of nearly 20 thousand Polish officers and civilians in 1940 in the Katyn forest. The exact numbers are still not clear.

Unlike other movies I have seen which deal with similar topics, this one sticks to the lives of individual soldiers and their families who went through the ordeal. Though the story seems quite a bit like that of the Holocaust, it has various factors which make it different.

The very opening scene of the movie is as follows and sets the entire movie in perspective.

A large crowd of Polish civilians people rushing onto a bridge crying out loud that the Germans are behind them, as depicted in most of the European movies based on the themes of the holocaust or German occupation. They are met from the other side by another smaller group of Polish civilians calling out loudly that the Soviets have attacked Poland. The rest of the movie is all about the story of a nation caught between two aggressors whose fluctuating diplomatic stances only worsened the plight of it.

Many a brave Polish officers are depicted as choosing the captivity of the Russians as a symbol of loyalty to their duties. Later on these officers are deported to Russian camps. The story moves on with the struggle of their families to survive in a Poland divided between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. The story unfolds like a political conspiracy. Beaten on from both sides, the people hang in by threads of hope for the return of their loved ones(as it is promised by officials from time-to-time).

The officers in the prison camp

What follows is what is called the Katyn list which is read out in public in the German side. The list is of the names of officers who were 'executed by the Bolsheviks', accompanied by official news reels and visuals of German priests praying on the mass graves. Many grieve while some hold onto hopes as they didn't hear the names of their loved ones in the dreaded list.

After the war ends, Poland falls to the Russian rule, and the Katyn massacre becomes a hot topic. The Russians blame the Nazis for the massacre and display evidences for the same. People who knew otherwise, and tried to talk about it in public are 'taken care of' immediately by the NKVD(now known as KGB)

The movie touches upon various characters who are somehow related to the Katyn incident and how they try to cope up with hard Russian regime. Movie ends with the revelations from the diary of a captain which was maintained till the last minutes before he disembarks from the prison train carrying them to the execution spot. The systematic and brutal killings are shot to evoke an outcry and a question about the sanity of the political world.

Overall a brilliant  movie, w.r.t the technicalities as well as the handling of the content. No loud statements or vile propaganda against any of the aggressors, but just a silent note against one of the atrocious incidents of recent past that shook the morality of the world.

A gruesome image of the massacre

The IMDB page gives a lot of info about the movie itself. The movie won various awards and was nominated for many more.

About the incident
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this incident. It reveals the kind of foolery played by the Western powers against this incident in the post war era to appease their new found Soviet allies. The entire incident was strongly rejected by Russian until 1990 and in 2010, an official explanation blaming Stalin was given by the State Duma. What a pity.

All said and done, nothing will resurrect the dead. But all such incidents must help us look at ourselves and think whether knowingly or unknowingly we are accomplices to such atrocities in our times. The moral sanity of mankind is at present on a tipping point where intolerance is the way of the world. So beware, fear first the one within you, for that one might be the first to betray you to the vileness.

A favourite scene from the movie War Horse

In the movie 'War Horse', after almost an entire movie depicting the intense battle between the British and the German, there is an interesting scene.

Spoiler alert for those who haven't watched the movie yet and intend to, even though it is not a movie with suspense thrills.

The horse(the hero) makes a dash through the German lines to the British ones and unfortunately gets entangled in a the barbed wires covering the battlefield. It gets hurt and whinnies loudly. It happens in the middle of the night in the highly tense scenario of trench warfare during World War I. I think it was the battle of the Somme, which is notoriously famous for the deadly use of tanks and chemical weaponry.

The soldiers from both sides peep out of the trenches using periscopes and identify the horse in the middle of the battlefield. A British soldier tries making a ticking kind of sound to call the horse, on hearing which the entire British trench echoes with similar sounds as almost the entire line seems to call to the horse. Quite an amusing scene in the brutal battlefield. To add to it, a wise German soldier starts whistling to the horse, which his fellow soldiers follow. Now the two sides compete against each other by increasing the volume of these calls. The entire battle field is filled with the funny noises of men  who were poised to kill each other for months...

Further on, the simple humour and humanity displayed by soldiers of both the sides to free the horse and then decide on the quarrel of who takes it, in a very gentlemanly fashion is quite interesting.

The movie itself has a thread of such simple stories and lives of normal people touched by the atrocities of the war between rulers. The movie itself is a definite must watch. The above mentioned were just some amusing parts of it, especially to one used to lots of war movies intent on the violence of it.

7 AM Arrived and Departed!

A quick review of the movie Ezham Arivu (7th Sense or "7 AM Arrivu" as known to many) is my intention.

Not considering the technical side of the movie and the other stuff behind the scenes. You can find all such information and reviews elsewhere on the net. I am a bit short of time, so getting to the point.
And btw Spoiler Alert. Don't tell you weren't warned.

The story revolving around the historical figure, Bodhidharma who is known in some quarters as the father of Martial Arts in China, had a brilliant and vast set of plots to choose from. But the plot selected for the movie turned out to be half baked against the gigantic plot they could have used.

OK, Bodhidharma was a Tamilian, no Tamils ever heard of him, all Chinese know and worship him. This point is delivered at the very beginning. OK, where is the story?
Now, all that the plot could turn up was English speaking Chinese officials sending a one man army Dong-Lee (sounded like Donkey in many scenes) with hypnotic powers(seriously!) and superhuman strength, to start a bio war in India. Lets not forget the role of genetic engineering students played by the heroine and her pals who change the DNA of Aravind(Surya), who is from Bodhidharma's genealogy, to that of Bodhidharma.
OK, interesting so far leaving the questions regarding the capabilities of such students and the science itself.

But in the movie by the time these scenes unfold you would have been subjected to long sequences of suicides, and zombie attacks powered by Donkey Kong's eye power. You would be wishing to see some story or some real fight. Lets consider for a moment what Bodhidharma's DNA infusion can do to Aravind's. What I expected was that his natural strength, stamina, metabolic capacities and many more features of the body would be enhanced to the level of Bodhidharma. I didn't expect Bodhidharma to be reincarnated into Aravind. This fellow started fighting in sleep as if he were doing it for centuries. I didn't know DNA stores memory also!!!
Disappointed.

Another itching point of the story which is quite a political point is the comments regarding Malaysia and Srilanka. Aravind talks about how Tamils have been beaten everywhere and they couldn't hit back. He even praises the LTTE leader Prabhakaran for being a tiger. He encourages Tamil separatism even more. This seemed quite out of context except for maybe the political interests of the investors who are known political supporters. In Tamilnadu there is no differentiation between politics and movies, both are part of one other. Even the heroine lashes out at professors who are supposed to review her research with obscenities which are muted out when one mocks the Tamil traditions. Again, cheap way to promote the already sick idea of separatism.

Overall, the initial part where the story of Bodhidharma is depicted is the only interesting one in the movie. Rest everything is filled with cheesy stunts with thousands of vehicles launching kamikaze attacks on the untrained hero-heroine and both of escape with minor botches of red on their cheeks(heroine) and a torn shirt revealing muscles(hero). Not to mention the Dong Lee fellow getting his ass kicked by the modern Bodhidharma in a matter of seconds when he does his dry-leaf-wind-blow-attack. Disappointed is one word I have for these stuff.

Want to hear my alternative plot which I believed was more interesting? Instead of some silly students holding up a major research to protect against Chinese attack, the actual stuff is done with the full support of the central intelligence and secret labs. They let this girl collect samples, and get Aravind to agree for undergoing the transformation. After the DNA is transplanted, he is given extensive training on martial arts, medicines etc based on the Book of Pallavas. He slowly learns to use the qualities of Bodhidharma's DNA to invoke the superhuman strength and abilities of his body.

After Dong Lee attacks with a hopefully more sensible mode of attack, the training is hastened, which leaves the process incomplete by the time he is attacked by Dong Lee. Then by his will power, Aravind awakens the spirits of Bodhidharma within him to fight him a hitherto unknown technique which defeats the master Dong Lee. Throughout the movie, the officials and scientists who hail from all parts of India are awed by the rich knowledge of the Tamils, and greatly respects the people. Doesn't this suit the political needs of the investors, while making sense and putting focus on the hero properly too?. Sigh. I only wish Murugadoss had consulted me with his story before squandering it like he has!

Finally a Kannada Movie

In spite of being in Karnataka for the last two years, it is now that I finally watched a Kannada movie.
And that too... without subtitles!!! Yeah!
(I still wonder how I managed.)

But it did happen.










The movie was "Mungaru Male" or Monsoon Rain(2006), a hit Kannada movie or rather as per what I heard, the only one until recent times. The movie was quite good, with lots of picturesque locales and nice cinematography. I struggled a bit at points where heavy dialogues were delivered. I might re-watch those parts with subtitles later on. But for time being, I understood their feelings and moved on ;)

Frankly, I didn't expect the subtitles to be absent when I started watching. But then I just got along, and saw the entire movie.

The part where they show the Jog Falls was simply awesome, because they showed the exact spot me and my friends had sat when we went there last year. It is an AWESOME location.

Sort of like the cult Malayalam movie "Thoovanathumbikal", rain has a very important role in the romantic scene. I loved that part very much. Leaving out some complicated dialogue delivery, it all seemed like a normal Indian movie. So it was very pleasing to watch the movie sitting in my cubicle at office :D :D

Someone Killed Jessica

Just finished watching the movie 'No One Killed Jessica'. I didn't go to the theatre to watch it. I just downloaded a pirated copy and finished watching it in 2 days.

After seeing lots of praises and high ratings by my friends in various social networking tools, and directly been informed so by some of them, I decided that this will be the first Hindi movie I will watch this year.

And so, moving on to the verdict.

I, as a person was quite unaware about the details of the Jessica Lal murder case,until I watched this movie. So, it was informative in a way.

But what entertained me the most in the movie was Vidya Balan's role. She was not acting, but living the role of Sabrina, the sister of Jessica. My respect for this actress has gone up several rungs.

Another contributing factor to the movie's astounding effect, is of course the brutally true story behind it. I don't know how much of the real story has been shown in the movie and how much in the movie is made up.

On the negative side, some parts were dragging and uncalled for. For example, Rani's role which defines a modern successful woman as someone who uses expletives excessively and takes pride in being called a bitch, was utterly boring. I don't know if this was based on someone in real life, or just something cooked up for the entertainment.

The editing too was quite patchy and disturbing at certain points. That was the main reason why I quit watching the movie half way through it on the first day. But I came back because I had lots of trust in Vidya's character. But she didn't do much in the latter half, and it was Rani all the way, except at the last.

Overall , it is a wonderful movie worth watching for various reasons. Leave out some of the oddities and enjoy the performance of Vidya and lament with the crowd about the sad state of our establishments. If you have conscience, it will make you think and if you have a soft heart, it might even make u shed a few tears.

Angaadi Theru - A good Tamil Movie

I finished watching the Tamil move Angaadi Theru just now and felt like I should recommend and promote this movie.

The synopsis is simple. It is the story of two young lovers working in a Textile Showroom in the bustling Ranganathan Street of Chennai. The movie depicts the harsh conditions under which these people lead their lives. Not only does it serve to tell the story of those people, about whom not many of the 'normal' citizens care about, but it is also about the endearing human spirit. At many parts of the movie, we feel both sympathy and empathy towards the characters. But the part where they overcome all pain and difficulties with will power could very well be the highlight of the movie.

The plot and screenplay is very good and the debutant artistes more than excelled in bringing to life the characters they played. Also laudable is the music by Vijay Antony and G V Prakash Kumar.

This movie again strengthens my belief that it is not just the budget or the reputation of the artistes that makes a good movie. The other movie in Tamil that made me feel so was Subrahmanyapuram.

Please go and watch this movie at a theatre if possible, otherwise get a digital copy and watch it. Also, if possible recommend this to people who can't understand Tamil, but can enjoy a good movie( provide subtitles though ).

Check out this beautiful song titled 'Aval Appadi' from the movie

Life of hakuna matatas

Weird heading.. just came to mind..
I want to make up a write up about yesterday and today..I had promised myself on my way back home that I would.. so I am..

It all started with my usual lethargy to learn and stick to something for long time...ah..ok..I had CS-803 Industrial Organization and Management Examination today..so was trying hard to push in and keep stuff in my mind..finally leading me to doze off many times and caught a bad cold by evening..
All this made me sleep for two more hours,while I can continously telling myself that I have to learn this portion, restudy that etc..and when I woke up to study, the heavens opened up and it rained like cats and dogs, cutting off the power... :) plunging me into darkness...this somehow gave me the heart to sit and study in candle light for an hour or so(amazingly)..ending up in me sweating like a horse and finally couldn't sleep for 2-3 hours due to heat...

Next thing I remember is myself waking up at 7 am and somehow got ready and came to college and studied somethings here and there...went to exam hall..found a fairly simple paper..with some pitfalls here and there..in which I did dutifully fall ;)..but fairly I was glad and happy that it got over..and was excited about the group photo and all..and got chance to talk to pals of my class after some days..it all culminated in some photos.. and we decided to go for the second part of our childhood favourite movie "In Harihar Nagar" ...mallus need no more explanations...others can Google..so we went as a 'paltan' (platoon in english for u angrezis...)..with girls to stand in queue and take tickets..

Woah plans were many and complex..but all of that took hits one after the other when we came to know that the show was advanced by 1 hour and even after waiting for tickets a Little Shenoys(theatre), the tickets were sold out just as our friends reached the counter..bad luck and timing..we all sighed and some of the guys suggested to go for "Fast and Furious 4" ,the famed movie about machines and babes...(frankly thats what it is about). I half heartedly agreed coz I didn't want to kill the fun we were having.. and seriously all that turned out to be bad idea( I deeply trust my instincts now.. :))
We got advance tickets for the paltan of 9 and had lunch and stuff..and got ourselves in for some good starting action scenes...and then onwards...boring..sluggish dialogues and what not..only gaining life when a race happens..and the actions come in small amounts..entertaining only for short periods of time...the story being sketchy..I didn't understand much..and finally it got over..and we exited quickly..

On the way back it rained cats and dogs and I was caught unaware with no umbrella.."what a day"..tiredness of a sleepless night and boring film..thats when I decided to write this down..however long and boring it might become (:D..see..i can read ur minds..)
Then I got info on TCS offer letter in mail and all..and had a coffee with a pal(equally grieving on the movie) and on the way back to home..I saw it..the realization...the skies after the rains...it was clean...the road was clear..my mind showed a clear path in front of me..surprisingly soothing and calming..I found myself looking up at the sky and smiling..and good memories of my days at school and overall the days when my soul mixed with that of nature(rain in particular) came to me...and I turned quite poetic..words and tunes forming so clearly on my mind and asking me to look up at the sky..and find my source of happiness.. and as a way of pointing it..rain droplets fell on my head,face and heart...I felt pure bliss.no expressible in words or any blog..its my own feeling..let it rest in peace...
Finally I reached home,and now fixed some issues with Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood Map files and am going to finish my campaigns...sayanora...btw I created 5 new quotes and thoughtful phrases..which I am seriously considering to document atleast for my sake..if you seriously read this far..and enjoyed it..I would like to receive your comments.. :D and tell me if the heading makes sense to u now..it does a lil bit to me..(Below is a quote I made yesterday...check it out)

"Don't just SURVIVE:LIVE LIFE.... KING SIZE !!!"

Two Movies

Yesterday I saw Taare Zameen Par.I knew the story as heard from friends and from various reviews on the net.I was almost prepared to see the plight of a dyslexic boy.
What awaited me was something different.I am no interested in giving another review over here...
Just my view...

The movie was almost a flashback(almost)....especially the boy's behaviour and subsequent admission to Boarding School...I was watching the movie with my parents..they couldn't stop remarking how similar to Ishaan I was...daily bringing grasshoppers and tadpoles home dirtying the uniform.I used to sit watching the crows and clouds from the class and get punished for almost everything...in all means a true 'duffer'.I was very weak in Maths also..I simply couldn't understand how numbers add to give another and the concept of positive and negative numbers simply was too much...the load all came to my mother who took great pains and improvised many techniques to teach me to learn maths...I could manage only language classes and arts..the famous incidents for all my family members being me drawing and painting animals of unimaginable colours...


I now know that my memory and thinking patterns are image based and caused by me using very different and 'advanced' neuro techniques...all created out of my own need to remain normal...The lines of the music "Bum Bum Bole" are quite nostalgic....the one to think,visualise and find knowledge...I had done so to radically widen my viewpoint and attitude...


My parents also recollect how many times a day they used to say that they will send me to a Boarding School hehe...but then I guess it might be common in most households...
But then I felt very sorry for the boy..because I could see myself there...same behaviour....

Thankful to God,I didn't have dyslexia.I don't mean to emphasize on the problems of a dyslexic kid here,but rather like you (the reader) to read and remember this one thing that the film's title speaks..."Every Child is Special"!!!!!
As a message the line in the song "Bum Bum Bole" says.the world is the way you see it....adios amigos...think deeply about it....let it sit tight into your hearts and spread the light to all....


The movie is simply a emotional super duper hit...coz I know it made ppl cry out loud in public...its a really strong movie!!!

Another movie of similar theme is Mozhi in Tamil of Prithviraj and Jyothika
...music is the power that carries the heavy messge these movies contain...straight to ur souls....

May true knowledge shine upon you and enlighten your soul!!!!

The Last Samurai

A few words about one my really favorite film.
This is just an isolated posting,because if I start writing about each movie I wud need to .....sit for hours and days remembering scenes and thigns ....i will go mad.


OK.I want all people reading this to have seen the movie or see it soon.Its really nice.Its the story of West meeting East.The story revolves around Japan in the beginning of 20th century or end of 19th century I presume.The main hero of the story is a captain in the American army,Captain Nathan Algren(played by Tom Cruise).The guy has left his job behind and is conducting stage shows on his exploits during the skirmishes against the native Americans.
He seems a sensible man when people are enjoying the prepared narration of how he killed them,because he speaks his mind there.He describes the carnage and the savagery of the skirmish.

Algren is presented with an offer by Omura (Masato Harada), a rich and powerful Japanese businessman, to travel to Japan and “Westernize” their army in the ways of the new American warrior. Once there, Algren learns that his responsibility is to train the troops in order to defeat the Samurai, Japan’s ancient warriors who are opposed to the Emperor’s Westernization of Japan. During their first battle with the Samurai,Algren is taken prisoner, his life spared only because Samurai Leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) saw what he believed to be the courageous Captain in a vision. Taking refuge in the Samurai’s remote mountain village during the winter months, Katsumoto does not imprison Algren, but instead has his sister Taka (Koyuki) nurse the Captain back to health. During this time, Algren is allowed to roam (for the most part) free in the village, and in doing so, begins to see the honor and nobility in the way of the Samurai, which helps him come to terms with his own mental demons. Once he is returned to the Americans, Algren is torn between following what he knows in his heart to be honorable, and his military duty.




This leads to many fights and interesting twists.I liked the samurai fight and the way the western mind started viewing the power of the eastern ways.The strategies used in the numerous battles are worth mentioning,especially the one involving burning the haystacks.The superiorly armed foreign force(3-4 battalions) fight against a few battle hardened samurai warriors and lose out in terms of courage.The battle is breath taking and also heart breaking.The horrifying carnage involved the battles is also filmed perfectly.Altogether a perfect mix of action,melodrama and story with a moral.

One part I really liked was the last part when the Emperor comes to know of his mistake in allowing foreign countries to remove the trace of Japan's rich heritage.
The part "but we cannot forget who we are!!" in Japanese accent sounds heart rendering and I hear it in a corner of mind sometimes.hehe...call it aftereffects...

My favorite characters were Katsumoto,Algren and son of Katsumoto.

tats all for now.....

Internet Tools---Google wins

This can be seen as the continuation of my first post on Google!!!

This time I am posting coz I am overwhelmed by the range of tools that I am using as a netizen.

First among those are as usual Google tools only.


Gmail is my most trusted and fav mail service.I have a/cs in many major services,but only gmail prevailed,Yahoo! also prevails,but its interface is heavy.I like Yahoo! services now,they are luking gud and will make improvements.

As for groups,I had few groups in Yahoo!,now shifted to Google Groups 2.Its slick and easy interface that allows listing msgs together is rather cool,compared to Yahoo! provided.I am hoping for Yahoo! to follow suit and make rapid improvements in that field too,coz I noticed the implementation of msg stacking and complex listing methods they are trying,nice..Yahoo! keep it up.

I have this one blog and another tech one,so I am interested in keeping track of visitors,the sources and all kinda info.Google Analytics rock...truly.The plethora of tools and data that is provided by that single tool can leave u customizing ur pages and understanding possible trends.Yahoo or another service wont come near it.Sitemeter is kinda ok,but not near google's counterpart.

Google Webmasters tool is also looking great.I have added my sites there and will check how the crawling is happening and wat kind of optimisations can bring in more visitors to my content(wich i am trying to upgrade in terms of originality and frequency).

Now I have to refer to the page "My Account" to find the services I am using,such a long list.

aah..Orkut.What to say about this revolutionary social networking site.Its the news in every part of the world.The name and the brand google says it all for it.Compared to other services provided by Google,this lacks serious professional attitude from the designers,I have felt that for long.But now many steps have been taken to remove those "doughnut" things and speeds have increased.The idea to integrate flash videos and album customization has gone long way in bringing back old fans.The reply from ur scrap feature is really cool.The updates listing is something less expected at intial times of orkut,but now ppl have competitions of writing attractive profiles(though compared to other services,customization is at lowest point).Communities have also become more sensible and cool with polls and all..orkut is surely moving up the popularity and quality graph once again.Customization is quite a deterrent from making orkut superb compared to the likes of Facebook,Myspace etc..wich are really gr8 luking in terms of eye-candy and functionalities.The large Indian mass hanging onto Orkut has made it a place not many can leave forever as most of frndz and contacts prefer to stick to orkut(sigh...these ppl don't adapt to changes fast).

Another thing is the integration of one of my fav tools ,Yahoo! Answers with orkut.Though not integration,the similar service has started new time pass things.
Btw yahoo answers is a really cool thing,u learn and also enjoy the whole process.
Ppl refer to sites and compile data to make replies,that nice to get integrated answers,but then ur question shud catch the attraction of dedicated answerers(u must see their number of ans and best ans...u will wonder wat other jobs these guys/gals have!!)

I also use online photo albums,I had Yahoo! photos,now Flickr...really nice ....like I said Yahoo is upto gud things now.I am not so satisfied with Google Picasa that needs the tool to be present on the system.I am no-no for tat kinda service.

Another really great tool that I use quite often is Google Docs.This is simply revolutionary by all standards.C'mon how many services allow u to use Word,Excel like interfaces on the net,free of charge???Doc makes sharing my projects,seminar notes,and all kinds of things that an engg student needs,such a simple thing.Sharing with collaborators and also viewers..its really a cool thing all in all.

I am also a fan of gtalk while being in Windows and I rely on Pidgin messenger of Ubuntu to integrate my Yahoo and Google accounts.Nothing beats that!!Yahoo has started its messenger online,its ok,but i prefer tat on my system.

I have also signed up with Google Adsense.Though not much earning(abt $5 only),the idea is nice.I can atleast I earned tat much.:D

As far as the blogs are concerned,the wide variety of tool that blogger has provided after integration with google is simply breathtaking.This has allowed amateurs like me to venture into blogging.Videos,polls,adsense integration....really cool..the templates provided also are great luking.

Another new tool of Google:Google Image Labeler
Its a sort of game you play with another player in random.Both play at giving labels to the image they show.Matching causes u and partner to get points.This is meant to refine their search ability and also understand the possible sequence of thoughts that a user has on giving an image query.This is surely gonna be subject to Data Mining to obtain intelligent decisions for their algorithms..way to go Google.Try it at


Basically my net activities are like this:
1)Mail check(gmail and yahoo only)
2)Chatting(Gmail,gtalk or pidgin)
3)Tech probs(Digit forum,yahoo answers,google search which means all sites are open)
4)browsing all kinds of media and topics(google and wiki rock)
5)Online videos of songs,speech,games,trailers..etc.(google video and youtube also many new services)
6)Anime and game music(search galbadia hotel in Google)
7)Torrents activity--Mininova,Torrentz,isohunt,desitorrents(dead) and demonoid(dead??)..clients being utorrent,azureus,now fav is deluge.
8)P2P music downloading---Strictly Limewire
9)Blogging---only blogspot

After saying all this ,I must say one tool tat i use mostly is google search and all google products.Advanced searching in google is really powerful,thought the methods might be slight complex...the stuff is the best u get....

Its tough to just blog

Hm...the sequel to my last blog.

I really screwed up the exam today.I forgot even the simplest things.By god I was so furious.....
I don't know why I am behaving so.....irresponsible...
Coming to the topic....why blogging is so tough.
I get lots of topics while thinking(which is either done when I am sitting to study,lying on bed for sleep,sitting in veranda )...I even create plans to either write(formerly) or blog.But just as I enter the computer room and face the screen and sit..the creativity seems to have gone for tour or something..I never get a reply for all my calls for it.I feel the emissions from the screen could be the reason(wondering???I see such relations always) for this irritating phenomenon.

Writing also doesn't work because when I want to write...its hard to do so...and even if I do,to make changes I tear out pages and destroy whatever books I am writing on...so not much logic in doing that.

Or the reason for all this could be my introversion.I am quite alone at home and my senses have quite taught me to survive by observation and so I believe in the idea that there are lots of patterns in and around any object(don't ask for details...abstraction is my right!!) which might be spatial like a table or box or on a time axis(this is quite hard to explain).

I regard the example of people who have lost any particular sense using the remaining ones to a very high degree of precision and perfection.Its not quite possible for a normal person brought up in normal conditions to train and use his/her ears(mainly I like the idea of supreme sight that eyes don't give).It is said in many ancient texts that warriors who lose sight(or lack) in battles have supreme power of hearing,with which they can even guess and tackle their opponent's quick and complex moves.How they perform this,what they listen to...what pattern are these guys tuning themselves too???Ooh...these questions really energise and rise me up...I have been partially able to decode the energy flow of 'Chi' through our bodies on concentrated exercises done in perfect tandem with breathing.The breathing is supremely important as it seems to be co-ordinator,the manipulator of the power within.

Mallus may remember "Yodha",a super hit film of Lalettan....one of 'bestest' favorites....I simply love the mix...martial arts,mountains,orient and of course Lalettan.

Let me stop....patha hee nahi chala..kidhar sey kidhar pahoonch gaya mein..zindagi bhi tho aise hee hai...

INSHA ALLAH