Thaamirabharani -- Movie review

Statutory warning: Hari, the director of the movie & Bharath Reddy, the producer of the movie have issued a notice in the interest of the public. The notice says that they cannot be held responsible for any acts of violence that the audience commit after watching this movie.

Trivia: Hari & Bharath Reddy have asked for 'Z Class' security from the 'Films Division of India' (They are 'experienced' in handling these kind of situations & movies) as they perceive a threat to their life's by fans frustrated after watching this movie & wanting to take out their agony on either the director or the producer.

Story: The story is so complex & full of sub-plots that narrating "Mahabharatha" would appear to be child's play. The story is so long winded that at one point in the story, we have a flashback within a flashback!!!!! It is not just the circle that is spinning whenever a flashback begins. It is our heads that is left spinning in all the directions while the story is narrated. If your are one of those guys who decides to ignore the frustration of having such a long story by 'watching' the heroine, you will be even more disappointed at that. The heroine should be some relative of the producer or a popular MLA. There is no other way the girl could have been chosen for the role of a heroine. If a screen test had been taken, she would have failed to qualify even for Doordarshan's serials.

Performance: How do you waste the talent of an accomplished actress like Nathiya? How do you make Vijayakumar all the more irritating in his 'old man from village' role? How do you ineffectively use a performer like Nasser? Watch this movie to get a 'live demo' for doing all the above stated things & more. Then there is Prabhu, Rohini, Nizhalgal Ravi, Manorama making up the long list of people who have 'appeared' on screen at some point in the movie. Special mention is to be made of the hero Vishal. Apparently, someone forgot to tell him that playing a hero is not just about doing well in action & dance routines but also about 'acting'. Please pay particular attention to the climax scene (Assuming you are still alive & sane) where he plays kabbadi exceptionally well. If he had been in the Tamilnadu Kabbadi team, we would have won a gold medal in the just concluded Asian games. Alas! What a waste of talent as Vishal has chosen to do something that he is so inept at doing.

Other aspects: During the times that I remained calm and in my senses, two of the songs sounded decent. Just decent & nothing great. One another song was a blatant lift of the tune of the popular Amman song "Karpura Nayagiye". SHAME ON YOU, YUVAN. The background score was decent & showed Yuvan's growth as a music director. If the BGM's were one step forward in his musical career, the blatant lift is a 5 step fall. The camera & editing were pretty decent considering how lousy the movie turned out to be.

Positives: Thankfully, I am just an amateur movie reviewer. If only I had been a full-time reviewer, I would have resigned my job & gone to the Himalayas for doing penance for being asked to view & review such horrendous & stupid movies.

Final Cut: Do not even venture anywhere near the theaters screening this movie.

Rating: 3/10

Guru (Hindi) -- Movie Review

Introduction: Whenever Tendulkar descends on the field to bat, people expect him to score a century. Anything less than a century does not satiate the audience. Same is the case with the ace director Manirathnam. He is not judged by the general standards that is applicable for the other directors but is judged by the standard that he set for himself in his last venture. Overcoming a benchmark set by your own work is a daunting task for most of the people but Mani is one person who has shown consistently that he can live up to that task exceptionally well. With the 'Guru' movie, did Mani raise the bar once again for himself?

Story: Rumored to be the biopic of Dhirubhai Ambani, the movie is about a young man from Gujarat called Guru(Abhishek Bachan) who has high & lofty business plans. After spending some time earning money in Istanbul, he returns to India to start his own business. With no support forthcoming from his father, he decides to marry Sujatha(Aishwarya Rai) so that he can use the money that Sujatha's father has saved for her. He comes to Bombay with his brother-in-law as the partner & finds a system that is not very conducive for the smooth conducting of business. Nanaji(Mithun Chakravarthi), the editor of the newspaper 'The Independent', takes an instant liking to Guru because of the drive & fire that he exhibits. The story revolves around how Gurubhai becomes a successful industrialist and the problems that he faces during his ascent to the top.

Performances: As Guru, Abhishek Bachan proves that he is indeed a "chip of the old block". Be it showing the anger at not being able to achieve what he wants to do, the subtle but yet deep love that he shows for his wife, the affection that he showers on Vidya Balan (She plays the grand daughter of Nanaji), he elevates himself to be considered as a 'Top Class' actor. Mithun as Nanaji proves why he is so highly rated as an actor. Do watch out for the scene where he lashes out at his employees for printing 'fabricated' news. As is the case with any Mani movie, every character has a well-defined role & they play it out to perfection. Madhavan (as a journalist) and Vidya Balan are two notable performers who get to exhibit their histrionic skills. Also of worthy mention is the person who plays the role of Gurubhai's father. Aishwarya Rai's performance could be considered as the weakest link of all the commendable performances in the movie. It is not that she doesn't act well but it is just that she fails to do justice to such an important role.

Other aspects: The music director, A.R.Rahman, does what he is known to do well to perfection. Be it the lovely "Tere Bina" or the sweet "Barso Re" or the haunting "Jaage Hein", Rahman shows he is a great 'song' composer. Sadly, that is what he proves out to be in this movie as the background music is mesmerizing at places and pathetic at others. The repeated use of the "Tere Bina" tune whenever Aishwarya & Abhishek come together on screen or the use of the "Jaage Hein" tune for any emotion packed scene starts to soon get to your nerves. The BGM in the climax was one place where I was left desiring for a better score.

Rajiv Menon, the noted Ad films maker & the director of two movies, wields the camera with so much panache that you are left spell-bound at his 'creations'. The fields & mountains of Gujarat, the mosques of Istanbul, the streets of Bombay come alive in his camera. The art direction (Not sure on who the art director is) is also a noteworthy aspect of the movie. Vividly creating the India of the 1970's through his art work, the art director plays a hidden but an all important role in making the movie look authentic. The editing by Sreekar Prasad is adequate as the story & screenplay does not offer much scope for the use of the latest editing techniques.

Final Cut: Manirathnam raises the benchmark for himself once again with this movie. An absolute "Must Watch" for any lover of good & 'meaningful' cinema.

Rating: 8/10

Thiruvilayadal Aarambam -- Movie Review

Introduction: I am not known for watching movies that doesn't have a well known director or a star cast on which you can put your hard earned money. 'Thiruvilayadal Aarambam' was an exception for the simple reason that I was hearing some good reviews and Dhanush & Prakash Raj are good actors who can be relied upon to give a decent performance. Did the movie meet my expectations?

Story: Thiru (Dhanush) is a young guy who is in search of a job. He is interested in starting his business for which he seeks the help of his father (played by Mouli). During this time, he falls in love with Guru's (Prakash Raj) sister (Shreya). As is the 'normal' trend, Guru is a rich guy & he doesn't want to marry his sister to a poor guy like Thiru. Whether Thiru is able to win the acceptance of Guru & take his sister's hand with his permission forms the rest of the story.

First Cut: This is 'supposed' to be a comedy movie and it does satisfy that tag to an extent. But, only to an extent. One of its major shortcomings is the lack of a good screenplay. Comedy movies can have the most craziest of stories or even lack a story and still could make for interesting viewing if the screenplay is interesting & fast-paced. This is one area where the director leaves us longing for more. The director seems to have decided in the beginning itself on where the climax should take place and the dialogue for each of the character. When he could not do that with his originally decided story, he invents new situations and adjusts the screenplay to match those situations. This proves to be the undoing for this movie. There are indeed a lot of scenes where the director is able to bring instant laughter with his witty dialogues. Sadly, witty dialogues here & there does not transform a lousy movie into a good watch.

Performances: Sadly, the acting talents of Dhanush & Prakash Raj have been wasted as the screenplay moves from one scene to the next without building up any scope for these people to show their histrionic capabilities. Shreya does what I expected her to do. Look dumb with sub-zero acting skills & bad dialogue synchronization. Also, the low budget of the movie left Shreya with very little to wear on screen :-) . Mouli & Saranya (She plays the mother of Dhanush) just make up the numbers & have very less to do in terms of acting.

Other aspects: Imaan scores two brilliant melodies in "Vizhigalil vizhigalil" & "Kannukul enno". The remixed song "Ennama kannu" is also decent enough. The blatant use of tunes from songs of other movies(instrumental) could have been avoided for it sticks out like a sour thumb. The "Vizhigalil Vizhigalil" song has been picturized beautifully (Especially note the blue tinge that is present throughout this song). Editing is decent enough but there were a few places where the story seems to jump suddenly as if the editor slept while doing his work.

Final Cut: You would be better off watching the comedy clippings when they show it in the TV channels than going for this movie.

Rating: 4/10

Ohhh....... What a score

Just happened to see the scoreboard of the Mumbai (vs) Baroda ranji trophy semifinal match. What interested me in this news is the fact that the score card read 5-0 during Mumbai's second innings. Anyone who follows cricket would understand that it is normal to have a score of five for no loss at the beginning of an innings. The interesting part is that it is actually zero for five wickets. The top 5 batsmen of Mumbai scored a duck!!!! The other fascinating thing is that Mumbai went on to win this match. Is it that the ranji matches have become so competitive or is it because the standards have fallen so much? Knowledgeable folks, please help me out.

Book Exhibition -- My hauls!!!!

There was this book exhibition in Chennai & I happened to go there with my mother. We had a good haul of books from there. Given below is the photo of the books that we got. A book by Balakumaran is missing from this photo as my grandmother immediately started reading it!!! And yeah, I am not sure on when I would get the time to read all this as my project is entering its final phase............

Essentials: Leadership -- Book review

Introduction: This book caught my attention in the British Council Library immediately for the impressive color of the front cover. And once I completed the book, I found out that it is not just the cover that is colorful. Tom Peter's comes up with a short & succinct book on the qualities that is essential for the 'modern' day leader.

Analysis: Whenever someone proposes something that asks people to throw away all their old paradigms & to create new paradigms, the presentation of that idea becomes a challenge in itself. Tom proposes ideas for the 'Chaotic' new world that are sometimes brilliant & sometimes outrageously arrogant. Some of his ideas that immediately caught my attention:

• Hire people who have been doing weird & yet wonderful stuff. Tom even goes to the extent of asking people to not hire 4.0 GPA's for he feels that they would not have had much time to do anything else other than studying!!!! (This irritated me quite a bit............... Some of my friends can easily tell why)
• Women will rule the world. According to Tom, the chaotic new world requires people who can do many things at the same time and women are inherently capable of doing this. (Sorry guys, I am not 'inventing' this on my own)
• Value-added service is no more an additional service but a necessity. It is something that every company should do for its own survival.
  

Writing Style: The author follows a writing style that is informal, free flowing and simply astounding. The "To do" lists at the end of each chapter beautifully summarizes the way leadership has been thinking presently & the way it should be thinking for the changing world.

Book Design: One of the highlights of this book is the beautiful design of the book. The color combinations and the appropriately placed photographs make this book such an interesting read. The small anecdotes at the sides & bottom of the pages along with interesting statistics is another highlight of this book.

Bottom Line: This is an absolute 'Must-read' for all people aspiring to lead a team at some point of time in their career. Buy a book & keep it in your desk as a quick reference.

Being Freddie - My story so far -- Book Review

Introduction: It is an irony that I get to read the autobiography of Flintoff and his accounts of the 2005 Ashes series triumph when the England team led by him just suffered the ignominy of suffering a white wash in their 2006 Ashes series. Andrew Flintoff (popularly known as 'Freddie') should have been eager to capitalize on the popularity of the ashes triumph and seems to have come up with this book for just that purpose.

Narration Style: At the beginning of the book when Freddie says that things like bowling, batting & playing chess came naturally to him, I felt that he was trying to blow his own trumpets a bit too much. As the book progressed, I understood that he was very candid & the initial statements were more of a direct way of putting things across. The frankness with which he admits some of his mistakes on & off the field make Freddie very endearing. If you weren't a big fan of Freddie already, you would surely become one after reading this book. He gives us accounts of his cricket playing days from the age of six and his phenomenal rise till the ashes series where he won the man-of-the-series award in a lively & humorous manner.

Negatives: One of the major problems of the book is the lack of a personal touch. The book, at best, appears to be a tour diary than an autobiography. Freddie never deals with the emotional turmoils that he has surmounted during his off-days & also during the emotionally draining ashes series. I can understand when he doesn't talk about his family to a great extent but what beats me is the lack of description of the inner battles that he has won during his rise to the stature of a superstar in England. His openness and some interesting anecdotes prevent the book from becoming an absolute waste of time.

Bottomline: You would probably be better of reading various cricket news in the net & in the paper than reading this book. They would give you as much or maybe more information about cricket at the highest level than this book.

Trivia: Do not miss out on what Freddie has to say about Ganguly. You can read about it here.

Flintoff on Ganguly

Just completed the book "Being Freddie -- by Andrew Flintoff" and he has some really harsh comments on Ganguly. The exact text on how Flintoff feels about Ganguly is given below. (I have removed stuff that were more of a general observation & just quoted the lines pertaining to Ganguly)

After that one day series I returned to Lancashire where it was clear Ganguly was not settling in at Old Trafford....... Ganguly just didn't work out at all. You can accept a player not playing well, because we all have our ups & downs in our career, but he just didn't want to get involved. He wasn't interested in the other players and it became a situation where it was ten players & Ganguly in the team. He turned up as if he was royalty - it was like having Prince Charles on your side. There were rumors he was asking people to carry his coffin (The cricket kit) for him, although he never asked me...........

His first game was at Kent and he got out first ball lbw to Mark Ealham. He came in not looking that bothered and we heard that Paul Nixon, the Kent wicket-keeper, had said something to him along the lines of 'hard luck, first ball and all that'. Ganguly turned around and told him, 'I'm not going to waste my runs on these games. I'll save them for when it matters'. That's fine if he wants to be like that, but then why bother coming to Lancashire - he doesn't need the money......... I don't dislike the bloke, but it's a struggle with him.

The rather surprising thing for me is that "The Hindu" has this article but has blissfully ignored the comments made by Ganguly to Ealham probably for the fear of inciting the public.

To be fair to Ganguly, here is an article saying the exact opposite of what Flintoff had to say. I guess it is up to each one of us to believe what we 'want' to believe!!!

Music all way.........

The new year couldn't have begun in a much better way. I have got back the interest to do some thing that I used to do so frequently some time back. Before you let your imagination go WILD, let me stop it and tell you what it is. It is about downloading(Oops..... I still continue doing this 'abominable' thing) & listening to the latest movie songs. One another good thing that has happened in this year is that a couple of good songs have got released & the year promises to only get better as it goes on. Some of the albums that have excited me are :

• Unnale Unnale by Harris Jeyaraj
• Deepavali by Yuvan
• Periyar by Vidyasagar (Check out the lyrics of this movie. Vairamuthu shows why he is so highly rated)
• Pori by Dheena (One song had good lyrics & decent singing)
• Oram Po by G.V.Prakash Kumar (Not yet listened to this. Hoping to do it sometime this weekend)

Photos -- At home

Photo: 1

Photo #1: I was too bored today evening & went about taking some photos. The only thing that I did with this photo is to crop it a little bit to remove the background building from it

Photo: 2

Photo #2: This is the photo of the house opposite to mine. I especially liked this photo for the varied colors that it has in it.

Photo: 3

Photo #3: A closeup of the coconut tree in full bloom. I must have taken close to a 20 photos before I got what I wanted.......... (The best thing about Digital photography :-) )

Photo :4

Photo #4: This is the lamp post just beside my house. It has some creeper surrounding it & when taken with the natural light, this is how it looked. Again, the color & the lighting are something that I really liked about this photo.

Ganguly Revisited

Ohh well............ Eating my own words is not something that I really fancy doing but I am left with no other choice. With Ganguly turning out to be the 'Highest' run getter and proving his worth (On his commitment, the jury is still out), I am forced to take back my previous comments on his inclusion to the test side.


The debate would invariably now start on having Ganguly for the one-dayers & especially for the world cup. At the risk of having to eat my own words at a later point of time, I do not want him in the side. Assuming that Yuvraj singh would be back in the squad & Kaif also 'Re-discovering' his form soon, I am not able to fit Ganguly in the scheme of things for the world cup & beyond.

I have one another reason for not having him in the side for the world cup. It is the rather sad fact that India doesn't have a realistic chance of winning the coveted trophy this time around. I would be happily surprised if we even make it to the semifinals. Having said that, it would be wise on the part of the selectors to start grooming the side for the future. With the future world cup's in mind, the selectors can start picking up people who can make use of this world cup as a learning experience.

India, Way to GO.................

Thank God. I was following the cricket score on cricinfo & luckily was not watching the match in TV. Irrespective of whether we win the 3rd test or not against South Africa, there are quite a few points that did leave me wondering whether we are good enough to win this series (Whether SA is good enough is another story altogether!!!)

1. The rationale behind sending Sehwag to open the innings with Jaffer. If Dravid & Co. thought that Sehwag had regained his 'form' because of his first innings score, how mistaken they were. It shouldn't be forgotten that when Sehwag was batting, the ball was not new & he could easily score his runs
2. If the rationale for the above was that of playing 'Positive' cricket, what was it all about with Dravid & Sachin playing as though they were playing to save the side from a irrecoverable defeat. Beats my thinking
3. Run-out in a test match is considered a crime. And 2 run-outs in an innings is simply blasphemous
   

Here is someone who has captured my 'feelings' in a much much better way. And yeah, I still hope that 'Jumbo' Kumble would come up with 'The' spell of his lifetime and take India to an improbable victory. So much for my 'Positive' attitude.