Maestro

Illayaraja, the acclaimed music director of South India is fondly called as Maestro. The fete achieved by him is unbeatable and will be so for long time to come. He is celebrated music director among masses as well as from classical music world. He has used classical Carnatic music ragas, composed music in pure form and popularized the music among the masses.  A tip of the Iceberg, an example of cinema music in pure classical raga is this song. It is based on 'Shamugapriya' raga.

The raga in classical form is available here

And a tail piece, a recent song from another music director is based on this song (not in same tempo or tone or shruthi) but disguised version of the same song. This info is hear-say. I tried to relate both, but couldn't.

Anyway Illayaraja's piece is the best of them.  I enjoyed the song, music fiesta in the song. The song's opening tempo makes the huge impact. SPB's voice is heavenly. 

The lyrics for the first song....

கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவா! இது ஒரு கனவா!
கைக்குட்டைக் காதல் கடிதம் எழுதிய உறவா!
கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவா! இது ஒரு கனவா!
கைக்குட்டைக் காதல் கடிதம் எழுதிய உறவா!

நாணம் விடவில்லை தொடவில்லை
ஏனோ விடை இன்னும் வரவில்லை!
ஐயர் வந்து சொல்லும் தேதியில்தான் வார்த்தை வருமா!
ஐயர் வந்து சொல்லும் தேதியில்தான் வார்த்தை வருமா!

கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவா! இது ஒரு கனவா!
கைக்குட்டைக் காதல் கடிதம் எழுதிய உறவா!

அம்பா சாம்பவி சந்திரமௌலி ரகளா அக்னா உமா பார்வதி
காளி ஹமவதி சிவாத்திர நயானா கார்த்தியாயனி பைரவி
சாவித்திரி நவயுக்கயான சுபஹரி சாம்ராஜ லக்குமிபிரதா!

தென்றல் தொட்டதும் மொட்டு வெடித்தால்
கொடிகள் என்ன குற்றம் சொல்லுமா!
கொல்லைத் துளசி எல்லைக் கடந்தால்
வேதம் சொன்ன சட்டங்கள் விட்டுவிடுமா!
வானுக்கு எல்லை யார் போட்டது!
வாழ்க்கைக்கு எல்லை நாம் போட்டது!
சாஸ்திரம் தான்டி தப்பி செல்வது ஏது!

கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவா! இது ஒரு கனவா!
கைக்குட்டைக் காதல் கடிதம் எழுதிய உறவா!

பூவே! பெண் பூவே!
இதில் என்ன அதிசயம்,
இளமையின் அவசியம்
இனி என்ன ரகசியம்!
இவன் மனம் புரியலையா!

ஆணின் தவிப்பு அடங்கிவிடும்
பெண்ணின் தவிப்பு தொடர்ந்துவிடும்
உள்ளம் என்பது உள்ள வரைக்கும்
இன்ப துன்ப எல்லாமே இருவருக்கும்
என்னுள்ளே ஏதோ உண்டானது
பெண்ணுள்ளம் இன்று இரண்டானது
இரண்டா எது ஒன்று பட்டப்போது!

கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவா! இது ஒரு கனவா!
கைக்குட்டைக் காதல் கடிதம் எழுதிய உறவா!

 

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Unnai Kandane...

This is review for one of my favorite song. "Unnai Kandane" from the movie Parijatham (2005). A lovely musical piece from relatively unknown singers and music director.

A stark contrast of slow and fast rhythm is mixed throughout the song. Pallavi (opening stanza in any song that gets repeated often) starts with slow 'pop-style' rhythm with female voice.  It continues into 'rap-style' rhythm from male voice and again the female voice mixes towards the end in her slow rhythm.  Saranam (are filler part of the song)is composed with intercepting male and female voice for every line to take the song in same pep.

The lyrics are intriguing. Poems about love never satiates. During male part of Pallavi, the lyrics are filled with oxymoron (ironies and contrasts) . I tried translating them to English to give you an example, but couldn't do a fair job.  The lyrics/poem appears like written first and  music director designed the tune to match the words and meaning.

The visualization of the song carries forward this stark contrast further with slow and regular actions of actors in the song.  The choreography isn't something grammatical (like regular dance styles). Dance steps are choreographed to portray the emotions of lovers. The pinnacle is usage of rain in the song. The water drops shot at slow motion comes alive in the song and add to glamour. The blue tone used in the songs gives the cool effect.  And in the middle, heroine come with a bright red dress  that beautifully breaks in monotonous visualization towards the end. The cute actions from actors are also worth mentioning.

It's a wonderful example of creativity for a duet song in movie. It is sticky from the day I saw/heard it and it is still my rejuvenator.

Now here is the video

and here is the lyrics. Enjoy the song!

உன்னைக் கண்டேனே முதல்முறை
நான் என்னைத் தொலைத்தேனே முற்றிலுமாய் தான்
உன்னைக் கண்டேனே முதல்முறை
நான் என்னைத் தொலைத்தேனே முற்றிலுமாய் தான்

காதல் பூதமே, என்னை நீயும் தொட்டால்
அய்யோ அய்யயோ அச்சம் வருதே
தப்பிச் செல்லவே வழிகளில்லை இங்கே
அய்யோ அய்யயோ சீ என்னோவோப் பண்ணியாய் நீ!

உன்னைக் கண்டேனே முதல்முறை
நான் என்னைத் தொலைத்தேனே முற்றிலுமாய் தான்

எரிக்கர மழையிது! குளிருகிற வெயிலிது!
கொதிக்கற நீரிது! அனைக்கிற தீ இது!
இனிக்கிற வலியிது! இனமுள்ள பூவிது!
இதயத்தில் மலர்வது! ஓ! பெண்ணே!

நிஜமுள்ள பொய்யிது! நிறமுள்ள இருட்டிது!
மௌனத்தின் மொழியிது! மரணத்தின் வாழ்விது!
அந்தரத்தின் கடலிது! கட்டிவந்த கனவிது!
ஐந்தில் சொல்வது! கேள் பெண்ணே!

ஏங்கினேன்! நான் தேங்கினேன்!
ஏனடா போதும் இம்மைசகள்!
வானமுமிந்த பூமியும் உந்தன் தோற்றமே
உன் பேர் சொன்னாலே உள்ளே தித்திக்குமே!

காதல் கடிதம் அது கொஞ்சம் பேசும்!
கண்ணோடு இருக்கும் பல கடிதம்! கடிதம்!
பேண்ணே நானும் உன் கண்ணைப் படித்தேன்! புரியாமல் தவித்தேன்!
பொய்ச் சொல்லுதோ மெய்ச் சொல்லுதோ!
ஓ! காதல் என்னைத் தாக்கிடுதே!
சரிதான்! எனையுமது சாய்த்திடுதே!
இரவில் கனவும் எனைச் சாப்பிடுதே!
பொதுவாய் வயதில் இதில் தப்பிக்க யாருமில்லையே!

உன்னைக் கண்டேனே முதல்முறை
நான் என்னைத் தொலைத்தேனே முற்றிலுமாய் தான்

ஏனோ இரவில் ஓரு பாடல் கேட்டால்
உடனே என் உள்ளே நீ வருவாய்!
கோயில் உள்ளே கண் மூடிநின்றால்
உன் உருவம் தானே என் நெஞ்சில் தோன்றுமே!
நான் உன்னால் தான் சுவாசிக்கிறேன்!
நான் உன் பேர் தினம் வாசிக்கிறேன்!
உயிரை விடவும் உனை நேசிக்கிறேன்!
கடுவுள் நிலையை நம் கண்ணிலே காட்டிடும் காதல்!

உன்னைக் கண்டேனே முதல்முறை
நான் என்னைத் தொலைத்தேனே முற்றிலுமாய் தான்
காதல் பூதமே ...

மனசுக்குள் ஏதோ சொல் சொல்!
எதிரினில் வந்து நில் நில்!
உயிருக்குள் எதோ ஜல் ஜல்!
இது சரிதானா நீ சொல்!
மனசுக்குள் ஏதோ சொல் சொல்!
எதிரினில் வந்து நில் நில்!
உயிருக்குள் எதோ ஜல் ஜல்!
இது சரிதானா நீ சொல் சொல்!

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Hats off to Vijay TV!

Most of Tamil satellite TV channels were / are wasting their airtime with stupid soaps. Sick! Why on the world do these producers expect us to waste our time in these? Vijay TV is a real face saver among the crowd. This channel encourages and spends most of their prime-time in interesting shows that are not 'tear-centric' ;) I don't know whether these shows really boost up in their TRP ratings (consumers care a damn about the TRP ratings, that's another facet!), but Vijay TV has brought the necessary change for Tamil entertainment world.

Have you seen this show? Show for stand-up comedians...

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Stumblers!

I heard about this site in a Business quiz program, http://www.stumbleupon.com/. Just curious; checked out what it is all about. It's one more creative idea in Web 2.0 space.

The funda is, Internet is filled with lot of interesting web sites and web pages. And we don't even see 1% of Internet. Stumble Upon is a creative idea to expose interesting web sites to users. The users of this tool are called 'Stumblers'.  The site offers a toolbar that is to be installed with our browsers. It has a "Stumble Upon" button in its toolbar; while clicking, it will show a random page of your interests. While We browse through the web, we can vote  for any site we visit (Say "I like it" or "I don't like it"). The Stumble upon maintains these preferences.

It is a random search of web pages in our interests. The results thrown by the 'stumble upon' surprises us all the time. It quite addictive too and we may lose count of hours we spend in Internet. We can tweak our preferences with stumble upon at any time based on the web results with voting utility.

How it works?

While registering for the site, it takes our fields of interest. Similarly lot of people share their interests with the site. Then it will create a pool of people who share common interests. And the site takes subjective votes for the web sites from the users. And as a Stumbler suggest a site in the any field say 'Science', it will keep showing the page to all other Stumblers and refine its notion about the site's subjective quality based on users votes. This iteration takes a long time, needs lot of users. That is now possible with Web 2.0. But after sometime, Stumble upon will create a huge repository of interesting web sites in any subject. 

'Stumbling' will not replace searching. It can't answer to any question in any field. It suggests interesting quality web sites in your field in a random manner. 'Stumble upon' takes us in a quick tour of Internet to lot of places where we would not have gone before.

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Thinking Blogger Award

Hola! Thanks dear for giving this award to me.  I am pleasantly surprised. Now my turn to give this prestigious award to bloggers whom I admire and for whom I am an ardent fan.

Poetry-

GP, Ghosty needs no introduction.  His blog will bag awards in many categories, yet I love his poems. His blog is full of emotions; never hidden his darkest emotions from his writing.

Mystic Rose, Mysty's poems are classical pieces. I love her writing.

Photography-

Visi- real pro photographer.   Her picture are poetic too! Her narrations of daily life incidents are simple yet attractive. Undoubtedly a classy blog!

Expression of emotions -

Thooya- Her words and memories adds the missing meaning to millions of martyrs who yielded their life for the mother land.  She is a great girl with immense potential to contribute significantly to Tamil Elam struggles

Creativity-

RanjHith. Creativity and innovation should be his second name. Lovely whiz kid with tons of ideas loaded on his head.

Modesty, subtle mockery on real life incidents -

Das- Not lot of people can mock at various meaningless incidents happening around with ease, Das can do.  I enjoy his writings.

Variety, optimism, inspiration -

Jeevz - His blog has never run out of varieties. Poems, movie reviews, inspirational words, stories, pictures, chennai happenings.... always bubbling with lot of energy

 

CONGRATULATIONS buddies!

You deserve this special mention!

And thanks Marutham once again for tagging me and giving me a meaningful topic to write on for my 300th post! Yeah, I can't believe that I wrote 300 posts for my blog!

And a tamil rap song from Yogi, Dr.Burn...

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Windows Live Writer Rocks!!

I am evaluating windows live writer tool as my blog offline editor.  So far so good.....hope my search for good blog offline editor ends with this tool. It has all features necessary for blog writing and it's flexible too. And don't get bugged by random subjects in this post.

 

This image is from my sitemeter stats page.  Just missing visitors from Africa and Antarctica!! ;)

This is one more colorful image from sitemeter showing visitors from different countries.

 

And iPhone fever grips the world these days! And here is a breaking news. iPhone out before the official launch date....Can't believe. check here!

 

And what else,

I wanted to write in tamil for long time. I found one useful tool (www.baraha.com) barahapad.  I can type offline in the pad and copy those into live writer. Rocks!!

sentimental first start in tamil typing with thirukural! ;)

அகர முதல எழுத்தெல்லாம் ஆதி
பகவன் முதற்றே உலகு

(Thanks Ranjhith for instant feedback on tamil fonts. I pasted this as Text unicode. Hope it works!)

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Wow...Taj!

Did you vote? New 7 wonder. They have an official song!!!

My vote is for these

And ofcourse honorary new 7 wonders candidate; Pyramids of Giza

[Ignore Read More link below]

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sivaji!

Sometime it feels good to be in small town than in a city. I got chance/tickets to see 'Sivaji' movie here in my hometown. Wow! Can't believe that we got tickets so easily out here. We had a slight doubt whether movie is dragging towards a flop show...Nay. This is an ultimate entertainer. Good to see a commerical Rajni movie after so many years, it's full blown fantasy movie with distinct Shankar's touch. Action, songs, comedy, story, sentimental scenes, interesting 'technical' twists, sivaji-MGR style mimes, costumes, nice heroine, height of all heroism- Rajni movie can't get any better.

Koncham serious logical doubts?

Building an university and hospital for poor is hero's is long time dream. "25 years dream, 20 years hardwork" in his own dialogues. Does that mean hero's age is 45+? Appa intha vayasula love avasiyama??

Hero is a software system architect working in USA (!!). And he returns home with 250 crores. Can a 20 years of career give so much money? Well, where is that company?

Hero runs a private government helping poor people. Rajni's previous years' bitter experience with politics brought this change. Does that mean Rajni got a solution to his political indecision imbroglio? Way to help poor without stepping in politics?

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Borat!

If you don't get offended by vulgar dialogue and portrayals, here is one nice comedy flick "Borat - Cultural Learnings from America for the benefit of Kazakastan". This is a runaway hit movie on last year end. The hero is fictional TV journalist in Kazakastan. He goes to America as his country decided to learn good things from US and A. The mockumentary laughs at lot of popular incidents and stars, like Bush, american war of Iraq, gay pride show, Pameela Anderson and Bay watch, american slang, Kazaks life, Kazak peeps hatred towards jew, hookers...

In his own words, the moral of story is" If you have a dream and when you run behind it especially when it is one made up of plastic chest, you fail to notice the real beauty before your eyes" I hope you understand what was he referring to ;) There are lot of lawsuits pending on him because of this mockumentary. This movie is mother of all candid camera live shows.

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Ads

There are quite a few catchy ads rolling on television media. I am listing here the ads that caught my attention.

Hutch Eskimo Search.
The concept isn't something new. Technically feasible by any operator. Yet gets thumbs-up for creativity, humour, and a nice different jingle.

Nivea Care for Men Whitening
The background music scores high for this advertisment. Quality Ad. No bullshits. Clear Thumbs-up!

Colgate Tooth Paste with Active Salt
The highly competitive toothpaste market makes all advertisement makers invent and reinvent themselves and their products to increase the sales. Here is an another attempt. The concept didn't get conveyed with elegance. The sense of urgency in that girl's dialogues didn't give a positive impression about the advertisement. Thumbs down for the ad and not for the product- It can be sold nicely than this. This article about this toothpaste is very impressive indeed.

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A Vagabond Strolls On - 8

China being a communist state, never had an accounting system in place. The revenue estimates of business houses are approximate version from the data available. The industries are run by government, funded by government and the government measures its efficiency on basis of people's feedback, rather than capitalist idea of profit of the company. Off late, the chinese government has taken steps to account the entire business cycle. The sales tax vouchers are one among them. When we buy a product or utilise a service from an organisation, a company or a local store, we can demand for this sales tax vouchers. These are coupons printed by chinese government available in all shops. The attraction in those vouchers is that it can get your money back. They are more like lotteries; they have a column, in bottom right side corner, masked by silver coating that determines our luck. Either 'Thank you' or 'You are lucky' is written in the masked column. If you are lucky with your voucher, you can get your money back.

In initial days, the government has returned lot of money through these sales tax coupons. The people got attracted by the offers, started demanding "Fai peah" (name of these coupons in chinese). Now the government stopped giving away lot of money, but still those carrot paradigm left in mind of people works; I had seen almost everyone including foreigners demand for it. It has two advantages: It helps people in giving part of their money back. It helps government to know the exact trade volume in every store and shop. This is what I call creativity. Tail piece: I had won five yuan back when I paid my hotel charges. Hurray! Didn't I tell you how lucky I am.

I enjoyed the journey in Singapore Airlines and transit hours in Singapore Airport. Airlines crew members were awesome and friendly. I heard some famous fashion designer has designed their exclusive wardrobe. I remember singapore as an exotic place, will go back there with my family for a vacation. I felt very comfortable in Singapore, as If am back in home. The in-flight entertainment is great, it has on-demand movies, television channels... We missed the transit tour on singapore by 10 minutes. The transit tour is being arranged by SIA if the transit hours are more than five hours. We reached the tour counter just 10 minutes after they closed the gate for that tour batch.

The path-for-blind in streets of Xi'an caught my attention. These are part of pedesterian platform with a special tile pattern. Any blind person can walk around the city with ease, by sticking to this lane and following the tile pattern. These pathways are not even present in most of the so-called developed western countries. China and Xi'an rocks man! I love the place and infrastructure.

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Cupid Week!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

[+] Hola folks! I am away on business travel to Xi'an for a week. So here is the advanced valentine's day wishes for you folks!

[+] The latest dark sensation Vishal's 'Tha *mira * bha * rani' movie was a visual treat for all his fans. The director Hari is known for giving pakka commercial movies with minimum guarantee for entertainment. This movie is no different. We (me and my friends) enjoyed in Devi Paradise cinema in chennai last week.

Ammu and Visi, Ithu Unga Padam! Your dream hero has got a mighty role in the movie. You will really enjoy it. Dont miss it!

[+] If you are looking for filmi entertainment, go for 'Tra* ffic*Sig *nal' movie by Mad*hu * Bhan*dhar *kar. It's a classic movie, a much shorter one. Not much of pathos. The characters are so real, that you would have seen them day-in-and-day-out. The other movie 'Salaam-E-Ishq' has some catchy songs, it's a good entertainer. Don't go with an expectation for story line in this movie. It's a masala movie with potpourri of stars.

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Love for mother land!

We have more than 180 countries in the world;
India has 28 states and 7 union territories;
Tamilnadu has more than 39 districts and numerous sub districts, towns and villages.
If we assign a probability for a child to be born in a particular town in a particular district in a country in this world, it will be a miniscule fraction 0.000005085… I am quoting these numbers to stress on the randomness associated with our place of birth.

Have you ever wondered?
Why did we born in this country with myriad language and mighty culture?
How could we express our complex emotional attachments towards our mother land?
How could we repay to the country which nurtured our dreams?
Can we live forever happily in some foreign land?
How could we express the psychic excitement when we go back to our home town?

Love for mother land is an inherent character. The patriotic feeling can’t be pushed into an individual’s mind. I was seeing the movie ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’ today. It is a legendary Tamil movie by director Mani Ratnam. The movie’s plot revolves around a kid’s search for her identity & her birth-mother, a mother’s love for her country & her patriotism. The background of the story is Tamil Elam fights in Srilanka.

Few thoughts on Tamil Elam fights:
The chaos prevalent in Srilanka is because of miscalculated political moves by yesteryear’s Sinhalese racists
The war can’t be the final solution to Tamil Elam. Wars offer an intermediate passage towards the amicable solution.
Any racist oppression on minorities will have huge repercussions on mainland.

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Thalaivaa!

'Pokiri' film is a great treat for all vijay fans! I watched it on first day itself.
Thalaivaa! Pokiri padam kalakkals!

The story plot is perfect fit for vijay. All song sequences has some similarities with the old hit songs of vijay. We could sense Prabhu deva's unique dance style in choreography. Vadivelu had left an indelible comedy touch in the movie; in one sequence, he mocks at actor surya by enacting Surya-Asin fame dance 'Suttum vizhi sudarey'. It is a masala movie; don't expect a big logical story sequence in it. It is very much for light hearted, not much senti'mental' scenes. This movie is in par with Ghilli, the previous block buster from Vijay.

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iPhone!

Wow! I love this!

Apple's Steve Jobs has unveiled the most awaited gizmo today. This ultimate digital device is the convergence of various multimedia applications with iPod. iPhone is the name of the new avatar from Apple family. I am not a gizmo freak, but even then I love to own this.

Photos Link; More photos
News Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News.com

Why I like iPhone?

It is very sleek and stylish
It has 2MP camera
It runs on Mac OS X. We have an apple OS fans club here in my office.
It has 'magical' multi-touch interface. Apple's rockin in user interfaces dude.

Waiting to see it hit the market soon! Isn't it tempting? How do you like this?

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Safe bloggin!

We all love our blogs. While publishing a blogpost, we take few things for granted. Those can potentially fall under prevention of copyright infringement laws. I was embedding lot of images/ youtube videos from internet to fit the theme of the post. But my sole intention while doing so is not to infringe those artist's or creator's copyright and it is purely for non-commerical purposes. Few brickbats I had received now and then made me realise these mistakes.

Here are few do's and dont's for safe blogging.

Don't embed an image available in internet into your post. If you want to do so, please read that site's copyright notice. Usually web admins allow embedding their images with conditions to give them a link and a note of credit for images. If you want to use those images in your homepage, you got to download them, upload to your image server and use it in your post.

Youtube is becoming the most popular entertainment option for netizens. But youtube videos are big copyright infringement violations bomb waiting to explode anytime. When you embed a youtube video into your blog, you are indirectly broadcasting the original video without the content owner's prior information/permission. Do you know, if someone use film songs as background music in their youtube videos, then the music company which has copyright for those audios can sue them.

Don't give links to business corporate houses unnecessarily. And better don't mention their names explicitly when you want to write about them. It is good manners not to write about their business models explicitly. Don't mention any names in your posts, unless you want them to be indexed by google. We got to respect the views of lot of people who don't like to see critiques about them.

Don't publish your or your friends photos on your blog. There are lot of unethical hackers in this world who can use the images for wrong purposes. You can even see morphed version of your photos floating in web mocking at you.

Better have a separate online identity. It is not going to cost you anything more. And don't give out your contact details. Even incase you commit few mistakes, it can save your soul!

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A Vagabond Strolls On - 5

We went with lot of expectations for this movie; but ended up with frustration. The movie has an appropriate sub-title 'the pain'; it is really painful to see such movies with so much pathos. My friend and I walked out in the half of the movie. It started out well, the first song 'veyilodu villayadi' gave a great start. The song kindled all old memories of my childhood. Though I haven't had such a colorful childhood, I could relate to lot of scenes in the song; showing movie in home with lens, mirror, old and waste films which we had picked up from old shops in market. There were not much science involved in that kiddies film projection, but we were so much enthused to show off to friends. Period. The film story revolves around the life of two brothers; the elder one's life running into chaos was shown in detail throughout the movie. Pasupathi indeed has a great role to perform.

We were in madurai yesterday to attend my friend's marriage. We had done with the function in the morning, we couldn't find better way to spend the afternoon other than seeing the movie. We had a lengthy debate on what to look for: whether good cinema theatre with good AC or some theatre which shows good movie. Madurai isn't that hot yesterday, but we ended up choosing good theatre. The cinema hall isn't that bad, but the above boring movie made us feel our decisions are always wrong. Moral: choose good movie pal if you want to have good time.

In last week, my office was still not out of layoff hangovers. No motivation to work hard. Me and my friends gang here were trying our best to engage us with some entertainment. We went to sequel of Dhoom. My requirement from a movie has come down these days; the movie has to be light and entertaining, good songs, no pathos, no sentiments and no need for complex logics. Dhoom fits perfectly in that requirement. The movie plot isn't that complex, predictable. Hrithik has a good role, he undoubtedly steals the limelight from Abhishek. I didn't go with much expectation for this movie. It scores well in entertainment factor. The best thing about this movie is: It attracts lot of crowds in INOX, bangalore. The reasons may be: PVR cinemas are not showing this movie, there may be lot of jobless people like us in Bangalore now to see movies even on weekday afternoon. Yeah I mean it, Dhoom was shown on two screens on INOX for afternoon show that day, both halls was full!

On another day, we went for bowling in 'The Megabowl' in airport road, bangalore. The place was perfect, they even serve drinks to attract more people. It wasn't crowded that much. We weren't great snow bowling players; still we managed to have fun. I even won one game, beating my other two friends in the last throw. I was in second place before the throw, lagging behind the first friend by 13 points. In the first shot, I got nine pins, that left with one pin in the middle. Luckily I got it bowled out in the second shot. Hurray!! that gave a spare throw, I scored 8 points in the spare throw, which marked my win. It was very much like our Indian cricket team entry to semifinals in the last matches; they would have had a bad tournament till then, but Indian cricket team always win those do-or-die matches. Booh!

The other movie 'The Guardian' was also great. The story is about the coast guards, a legend and his student. The love plot added to the main story line gives out a different tinge for the movie. I hadn't seen the previous movies of this hero before, dunno whether he acted earlier or not. The training school scenes are scintillating. We couldn't avoid relating those motivational training scenes to software industry. The softies here too need a kind of training we motivates them about their job. The actions in the sea are inspiring. But more efforts could have been put forth in those night action scenes in rough sea. The climax was very much predictable. These days Hollywood movies are becoming more and more lengthy; this movie is running for three hours.

Wow! I could able to write about all the movies I had seen in the last week. I am warning that these are not professional movie reviews, it is my personal view about these. May be spoilers too. Before ending I am inserting the video of Green Day's song - Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The lyrics are here.

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A Vagabond Strolls On - 4

After blood bath, the headcount in my company came down drastically. You know what the problem is- the motivation for the rest of the guys to work is lacking badly. Hope things improve in forthcoming days here. I am happy that I am part of our new spinoff company which will work on embedded markets with much more vigour. On last friday, most of my colleagues were out to attend a conference. Me and my fren decided to show our presence in that conference and then scoot off for movie. We watched 'Casino Royale' on friday in Inox.

You would have heard enough people cribbing about the new bond movie that this is not like regular bond movies. My feedback is not cribbing, but go-green signal for it. I love the movie and James bond is more humane and real life guy in this movie. The new bond Daniel Craig has down to earth personality, more macho than Pierce Brosnan. Pierce did a fair deal for James Bond role in bedroom smooches and while giving poses for photographs. The stunts in this movie are more macho than any other before (though I have a grudge that there are not enough fights, thats the other side). I was very happy when Bond had a love break in the movie. Wow! thats fantastic story line you see. Bond shouting at Ms.M that 'She had left me' and then cooling down and understand her love for him was true. Wow! I love the movie for this story line. Bond girl is not sexy, but lovely. The next best thing about the movie is- the bond style of proposing his girl. He takes her out on a vacation in Bahamas, have a cold bath in beaches and takes rest under shining sun. While relaxing, Bond proposes in Ishytle...
"What I am left over is for you. I love you. Do you like to accept me with whatever I am left with?"
The funny part is -whatever movie it is, whenever they show casino, Hero ends up winning in the climax beating the villain even if he is expert in the game.The new bond movie also has this plot over the villain. The Austin Martin car would have felt disappointed for not getting used at all in the movie- it had a car chase, but ended up in flames after a freaky rollover.

Just started with Dream A Dream's new computer programmer for kids this weekend. These guys in DaD always start their session with some game, it is embarassing at times. But finally gives out a satisfaction that you had crossed some inhibitions of yours. Yesterday game was to write down 'what do you think about yourself. What did others thought about you in the first meet? From that what did you learn new about you today?'. We had been give a piece of paper to write down what we thought about ourselves and for others views. Here is mine:

I am reading the book 'The second sex' by Simon De Beauvoir now. It is one of legendary works on human psychology. My fren gave a good review for the book, which made me buy this. But the sad thing is it is much more bulkier than I expected. Can't avoid dozing off while reading this book :) Will write a review for this book If i could ever able to finish reading this.

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A Vagabond Strolls On - 3

There is nothing wrong in this Hutch sms Advertisement.
"Hutch launches limited period offer. Get 1yr validity on 299 RC. Local calls @ 30p to Hutch, 50p to other mobiles, 99p to landline. All STD@1.50/min."
The irony: This sms advertisement came on my Airtel mobile connection. Wow :)

I saw Alaipayuthey movie yesterday (may be nth time, lost track of count). The movie is awesome, it has all freshness of any latesht movie.Classic movies like this can be made only once, and magic can be given only by genius like Maniratnam. All characters are sweet darlings, the cast of best human beings. Even the fights between the couple are downplayed to a greater extent than what happens in real life (Are those fights also come under jurisdiction of new Domestic violence law?) . Mani had shown the necessary limits in expressing emotions in all scenes viz. depression of the couple when they seprate for first time, the fights between the couple, her father's death, the accident scene, fun with friends, the emotion of ideal couple (Mrs & Mr Ram)... All scenes would have crossed the thin border between interesting emotions to boredom, but the limits played by director saved them. The usage of silence in dialogues is much pronounced in Mani's movies. Silence observed by the couple in teasing times keeps the relationship going. Most of ugly fights are averted by that meaningful silence between the couples. The movie is a lesson for wannbe directors and wouldbe couples too. Classic song from the movie...

As heard from Radio Indigo
"Life will become more peaceful if you start accepting whatever your girl does is always right"

Ogden Nash's Aphorism with similar logic
"To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it; Whenever you're right, shut up."

I have a big doubt. Are all advertisement guys ran out of their mind? Why do they have to feature a beautiful girl with/without dress in some cool product advertisement? For ex...this is advt for copper tiles.

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More Reviews!

Bangalore's cosmopolitan people attract more restaurants. Most restaurants comes up with unique theme and/or unique cuisine. My friends gang here have a flavor for tasting different cuisines. Because of that interest, We ended up in two truly different restaurants. First one is authentic Korean restaurant and the second one is authentic middle east (jewish) restaurant here in Koramangala. The ambiance in both restaurants are set unique to the places that they hail from. Korean has wood in majority of interiors and middle east hotel has bright colors that symbolizes Jewish assertiveness. The food served here gave us an out of the world experience, thought not in good spirit ;) In Korean restaurant, the chef suggested us a special rice food with remarks "This is world famous Korean food, if you can eat this, you can eat any food in the world". True to her words, we couldn't even go near the food. It was smelling badly. Another dish we ordered was fish curry rice that also turned out to be an bad experiment. The fish was raw and was smelling. In the second restaurant, none of the food was good except French fries. Pita bread is their main course and is similar to unbaked pizza crust. Falafel is some food item similar to our 'Masala vadai'. One commonality in both restaurants are the side dishes are much more tastier than main course. The middle east restaurant comes with tag 'more than veggie'. I doubt how those guys in middle east survive with this food and my similar sympathies for Korean friends too :)

I saw this movie on sunday with my friends. I went with minimum expectations for this movie, as all movies released during diwali turned out to be flops. The story plot is as old as me. Yet I liked this movie. It is an ok-ok movie, though I couldn't avoid dozing off in few scenes. Shahrukh tried his best to impersonate the legendary don. But most of the time, his actions ended up as a comedy track. All female stars Isha, Priyanka, Kareens don't have much role to play, other than adding glamour to the movie. I still prefer seeing this type of movies from Bollywood as it comes with minimum entertainment guarantee with known story plot. Shankar mahadevan could have given some good flicks for this movie. 'The Symphoney' cinema hall had the worst acoustics too to add to our woes.

I saw this movie yesterday with my friend. Wow. The story plot is quite simple but enough for three hours movie. The heroine selection could have been done in better way, I didn't like her at all:) The dialogues has F**King problem, true, everyone has used this four letter word many times. We had hearty laugh on over hearing comments in cinema "Why the f**king hell we didn't see this movie before?" "What that f**king a**h*le doing in the screen?". It is good to go for hollywood movies these days as compared to Indian movies for two reasons 1) Most of the hollywood movies getting released here are no nonsense movies 2) they have a decent story plot or I don't understand the story at all, I don't get bored in either ways. The dialogues and accents of people are simple to understand in this movie. I couldn't even laugh at most of the jokes :)

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