நான் ஆட்சிப் பொறுப்புக்கு வருவ தற்கு முன்பும், பின்பும் என் பெயரில் வாங்கப்பட்ட சொத்து என்று பார்த் தால்கோபாலபுரத்தில் நான் வசிக்கும் ஒரு வீடும் (இந்த வீட்டின் இப் போதைய சந்தை மதிப்பு ரூ. 8 கோடி), திருவாரூக்கு அருகில் காட்டூர் கிராமத்தில் 14 ஏக்கர் நிலமும் தான் உள்ளது. இந்தியாவிலேயே தனி பங்களா என்று இல்லாமல், தெரு விலே உள்ள பல வீடுகளில் ஒன்றாக ஒரு முதல் அமைச்சரின் வீடு இருப் பது என்று எடுத்துக் கொண்டால், அது என்னுடைய வீடாகத்தான் இருக்குமென்று நினைக்கிறேன்.

Thalaivar vaazhga!!

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Movie Marathon

I had a movie marathon in the last few days and here are some reviews.

Aathi: Either my taste has gone bad or my immunity has reached sky levels because I watched Aathi and I liked it. I admit it is masala movie. There is an intro scene for Vijay where he saves a guy from suicide just to let him rattle off a few punch dialogues. It has lots of stereotypes unique to Tamil cinemas and Vijay. There is hyper irritating phrase that is more common nowadays in Vijay's movies: 'Nee enna periya Gilli'aa?' Still it is a good time pass.

Vijay and Trisha are from the same family. She is like a mora ponnu to Vijay. They are in a big joint family whose head is the irritating Vijayakumar. Vijay's dad is the honest police officer Prakash Raj. Their entire family gets killed by the villain after Prakash Raj has a run-in with him. Trisha escapes with her Dad played by Nasser while Vijay escapes alone. Their paths are separated. Vijay is adopted by Manivannan and his wife and they raise him in Delhi. Vijay comes to Chennai for college and starts killing off the Villains one by one and the climax scenes include how Vijay and Trisha discover each other to be related (Not as anna-thangai though as this will render all duet songs redundant) and they kill the villain.

Happy Days: I saw this Telugu movie after a friend recommended it. I watched it with subtitles of course. The movie is about a group of students who get into college in Hyderabad. The movie takes us through their 4 years together as they start out as freshers, experience ragging, fall in love, struggle through friendships, lessons etc. It is a neat, feel-good movie and has the same main theme as Ullam Kekume. Ullam Kekume was a director's movie. It had some subtle nuances and touches. It carries a distinct heaviness throughtout the movie (well captured in that single song 'Mazhai mazhai').

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince: Generally for movies which are based on books, such as this, I give the director some leeway. Mainly because of the inevitable comparison that ensues which usually ends the same way: the book was much better than the movie. Even with Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code, I actually enjoyed the movie when many people did not. They accused that the movie took on a softer stand, left out crucial details etc.

Similarly, I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book. It had lots of magic, action and other good scenes. So I went to the movie with good expectations. But about 2hours into the movie I was squinting at my watch in the darkness and thought "What the hell? the movie is only half hour more and they showed nothing till now. When are they going to get the Horcrux, when will Dumbledore die, etc." And as I feared they were more like passing references. The bulk of the movie was focused on how pink could Hermione's cheeks get from crying and feeling jealous and for how long could Ginny stay away from giving Harry that inevitable kiss. I felt like watching a teenage drama. My friend argues rather pedantically that these scenes were very much a part of the book. But, I say, it had much more in the book than blooming love.

So, anyway, it was a total yawn fest.

The Hangover: It is a good movie. A bridegroom-to-be is given a bachelor party at Las Vegas by 3 guys. They get drunk and drugged and have a wild night about which they have no recollections on the next morning. But the problem is the bridegroom is missing. So the rest of the movie is about how they find the guy. The plot takes us through some funny scenes. But I didn't find them too funny. I think American Pie was more hilarious, given that both movies dealt with slapstick humor of the same level.

Weekends are good!

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Sarvam

It is good to see Tamil cinema veer away from stereotypical love themed movies. There were many off the beat stories in the last few months and most of them were made with a serious intent and with real talents. Some directors like Sasi Kumar used love subtly as the central theme around which the movie progresses and others like Venkat Prabhu chose to ignore it altogether. Some were good like Subramaniyapuram and some were bad like Dasavatharam. The director of Sarvam, Vishnuvardan, apparently got inspired by these movies and wanted to direct such a movie. He must have been one of those idiots who liked Dasavatharam's fate, chaos theory blah blah blah but still couldn't totally write a script without love and instead ended up making a chaotic movie.

Sarvam feels raw. It feels like watching the unedited version straight out of the cinematographer's camera. There is no continuity between scenes. There is a serious scene followed by a mind numbing scene of supposed comedy and then a song. These drastic changes keep occuring till the end of the movie and rather jarred my nerves.

The movie starts off with some buildup by showing a phrase from the Upanishad that states 'with every death, there begins a new life' or something to that effect. Karthik, played by Arya (who is wasted in this movie and appears like a novice in acting mostly thanks to the director) is an architect who falls in love with Trisha (who is a doctor). Meanwhile, Naushad is a Software engineer who while driving a Mahindra Scorpio, accidentally loses control of his car and hits two pedestrians: a woman and her son. Ishwar, the guy who loses his wife and son is traumatized and sets out for revenge with his Rottweiler dog. He threatens Naushad that he will kill his son so that he can understand his pain. The movie progresses with generous intermixing of romance, repetitive scenes of Ishwar threatening Naushad and amateurish comedy. Naushad relocates to different places with his son to escape from the psychotic killer-to-be. Just when things seems to settle down, Trisha gets killed even before the interval. The directorial touch should be noted here. Imaan, the son of Naushad, is flying a kite with friends in the terrace of a a building. Naushad warns his son not to fly kite because it has maanja in it which could his cut his fingers. So his son looks up at the kite yearningly and suddenly collapses. It is later revealed that he has a heart condition called Cardiomyopathy which essentially means he could die soon if he doesn't have a heart transplant. As Imaan collapses his friends are shocked and let go of the kite and rush to his side. The kite flies away towards the road and falls on a lamp post and dangles down. Nearby, Karthik is racing with Sandhya on bicycles. Sandhya is leading the race when themaanja kayiru of the dangling kite slits her throat and she dies. Ofcourse, predictably the directorial touch is to have the heart from Sandhya given to Imaan who survives that terrible disease.

So Karthik who is deep in sorrow suddenly livens up on hearing his lover's heart is living inside a person. Here comes the never-before-seen moment of tamil cinema. We have seen sorrowful songs after lover dies where the guy thinks of his girl doing mundane things and relishes those moments while singing in despair. We have seen ghosts of the girl descend down to sing a mournful high pitched rendition while the lover looks dejected. But in this movie Vishnuvardan has excelled really with his imagination. Karthik, on hearing that Sandhya's heart is beating somewhere else, sings a duet with her (which is the Siragugal Vandhadhu song). Then the movie rolls on. Ishwar chases the kid to kill him. Imaan steps in, protects the kid in the process of eliminating Ishwar. But in the last scene the director shows the viewer that Ishwar is not dead but is recuperating in a hospital (Oh my God no! Please don't think of a sequel!).

Apparently, its a new kind of emotion that the director shows through Ishwar. He wants to cry out aloud in anguish but doesn't. Instead, he keeps a straight, emotionless face that is supposed to convey the pent-up feelings. But he looks more like a drug addict floating in ethereal world. Trisha should stop acting in roles where she gets killed (like Bheema). Already, her roles are getting dumber atleast we could have the pleasure of seeing her till the end (because that is why I saw the movie anyway). And Yuvan could use some imagination instead of re-recording his father's yesteryear BGMs throughout the movie.

And thank God, the dog gets killed!

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Beware! But no worries. India has issued another Joint statement with Pakistan. So all is well.

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I am a genius (all consultancies please note)

I can't help but indulge in braggadocio. Because nothing is greater in the egocentric world than getting a chance to say 'I told you so!'. I predicted long back that this was coming, albeit in a lighter vein. But atleast its good to see the ICC getting their act together before cricket gets 'Modi'fied. I have no idea why the ICC would need a consultancy to tell them to have a World Championship. Seriously, it is pathetic that a group of people who administer the game can't think of something so simple by themselves.

Also, it is rather irritating to see the amount of importance attached to the Ashes. It is supposedly a marquee event. What the hell? England has a sucker of a batting lineup and nobody other than Pieterson creates a flutter when they come to the crease. I believe that noway are they going to win this tournament. Flintoff is a useless player and they can't stop talking about what he did in 2005 (Yeah, who cares that he actually did nothing since then). Idiots.

Come on NDTV and CNN-IBN! Make an analysis of how the Indian team has challenged the Australians the most in the last few years and have a panel discussion on why Border-Gavaskar trophy is more valued than some dumb urn probably having burned stumps.

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