Reading this In Conversation, this morning in Hindu, with Mahesh Dattani, the director of Morning Raga, I started to expect the film. For it promised a intact movie on a carnatic musician, played by Shabana Azmi. Most important, it had Nasser, the cinematographer was our own Rajeev Menon and edited by Shreekar Prasad. A dream team. You and me think. Here’s a little from the talk with Mahesh Dattani.

How does a convent educated Gujarati, writing and directing English plays, choose a Carnatic musician as protagonist in an English film he calls “Morning Raga”?

I’ve grown up in Bangalore. I’m more comfortable in the south Indian Kannadiga milieu. I got acquainted with Carnatic music when I learnt Bharatanatyam. These classical arts had a deep impact on me. Not that my gurus or I had any illusions about my becoming a great dancer! But I understood in some inexplicable way that when you work not just with your body and mind, but also with your spiritual self, art becomes a transformational experience.

Then eventually when I went off to rediff, I did read the Morning Raga review. I’m throughly disappointed after that. I’m still planning to take a spin to see atleast what went wrong in this dream team knowing the dream is becoming a nightmare.

With over 250 young aspiring film makers, television achors, news readers and all other available professions in media, the chennai version of Footprints 2004 was a roaring success, yesterday. Usually in such day-long seminars, either just one session would be the highlight or every other program is as boring as the other. But the dudes at Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication did bring in the variety at the seminar which made the whole day whiz past us in minutes.

K Balachander, who inaugrated the seminar said, did come with a written speech something our present day film makers lack. Though it was a short speech and he had to leave, he did give a good start by defining creativity and it’s spread. It would been a pleasure to listen to him, more.

Krishnan Menon from the advertising giant Ogilvy and Mather, started off the first session named Does creativity in advertising kill or build brands ? He started off with the Simon says game and did get to the crux of the issue soon. He was probably the one who stuck to the topic thoroughly. Attribute it to the industry he comes from, Krishnan, was able to get the attention of the crowds so easily. His presentation had more ads than slides which probably made it seem so lively. Who doesn’t love ads. It was with groups of such ads he distinguished between the good idea and bad idea, the strong idea and the weaker ones. Using the Hutch [Dog and The Kid] campaign, that O & M handled, he explained how a strong idea helps boost the brands. And finally, he did play a audio clip of clients abuse them in advertising through which he communicated, think before you jump. But jokes apart it was a session so gripping just like the ads.

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Vikatan Deepavali Malar 2004 is already out. Unlike the declining standards of Ananda Vikatan, this special diwali issue rocks. It has some of the best writers writing short stories and articles for it. From Sujatha to Karunanidhi, Ashokamithran, Balakumaran, S. Ramakrishnan, Pa. Raghavan, Thamarai and whole lot of celebrity writers. The last year’s Vikatan special issue was also a big hit.

Vikatan stopped publishing Deepavali special issues 25 years back and it was last year they got it back to existence. I’ve heard stories of people saying that those days, Vikatan Deepavali special issue was a part of Diwali itself. It would rest among the new dress and the cracker lot and once they are done with the customs on diwali morning, there would be a huge fight to get hold of the special Vikatan issue and read it thoroughly. I don’t see that race today. However Vikatan, with the kind of neat publishing, nice laminated pages does bring in the look and feel of a special issue. And we know it’s worth the 100 bucks you pay for it.

Coming back to the recent standards of Vikatan, it isn’t just my view. Many other who are vikatan fanatics have been completely annoyed with Vikatan’s quality over the last few months/years. Just because the other contemporary magazines are hanging onto the kollywood girls and their gossips, Vikatan doesn’t have to barge into those segments. One of Vikatan’s latest column Hollywood/Bollywood is nothing but a space given to show off the glamorous peek into the film industries. Also their story on how Chandramukhi evolved from Rajini’s fort was completely speculation and didn’t seem to impress someone who loved Vikatan for years. Vikatan has a set of readers who love it’s style and so I think it has no neccesity to ‘adjust’ to other contemporary magazines and their fickle reporting styles.

Will write more on this special issue once I complete reading it.

Last night, when I was at the Shakes & Creams, Adayar, noticied a poster called Footprints 2004. It said a day-long seminar named Creativity and Redundancy: The Two Sides of a Coin, would be held on October 30[tomorrow] at the GRT Grand Days Hotel. Conducted by Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication (SIMC) Pune, it is a series of lectures on creative trends in films/TV and advertising.

Interestingly, the guest speakers were media personalities. Most of them my favorites including, Gautam Menon [Kakkha Kakkha], Writer Sivasankari, Madan, Janaki Vishwanath [award winning movie Kutty] and our own K Balachander. Adding up the list was Krishnan Menon from Ogilvy & Mather and Anuradha Ananth. This article on Chennai Online adds more details.

I planning to check-in tomorrow and listen to these guys. BTW, here’s the number you should get in touch with for more details - 9841657841.

Was on impromptu trip to Madurai alongwith the rain and the winds. It’s raining cats and dogs in Madurai. You could see only a sample of that here in Chennai. The deepavali hungama in Madurai is already hot. From 50% discounts to Silk Sarees to 75% off on hankies, Madurai is on a high. However, they could improve the standards of the Madurai FM Radio. The afternoons are nothing but mere how-to-make-thakkali-briyani. Too bragging at times.

Actor Rajesh [remember his classic, Antha 7 Naatkal] has a hotel down the Ulunthurpet highway. All KPN buses do lodge there for a refreshment. And so both ways, I did have a chance to smack the food there. Other than the delicious tiffin they supply, the hotel has a nice decor. With wall hangings of the tamil cinema greats, they also feature potraits of hollywod greats like Marlon Brando, Roger Moore and many others. Probably they are some of Rajesh’s personal inspirations. In the middle of that lonely highway, it was a feel good to have dinner with a cinema taste.

During my return from Madurai, on A/C bus of KPN, we were just 6 people on the bus. Surprisingly they operated the bus and landed us on time. More Surprisingly, the A/C was working. I couldn’t have dreamt of such professionalism some years back.

On the way back via Trichy, the best thing happened. Know what, Cauvery has water. On the banks of Srirangam, Cauvery which was earlier a dry barren land, has atleast water that is moving, if not gushing. The sight of Cauvery running around made my day and the glimpse of Srirangam gopuram made it better.

After all this, I personally think, if you plan a impromptu trip(is that an oxymoron?), you are going to enjoy it. Sure.

Looks like Rajini has started shooting Chandramukhi. Interestingly, not a single poster or even an adv has appeared on the dailies. Except for this Chandramukhi official website which has links to exclusive pooja pictures. If only it was Mani Ratnam film, I could comprehend why. This one makes me inquisitive.

Here’s a another bonker bonks for you. Dhanush and Rajinikanth’s daughter Aishwarya are getting married on November 18th. So whats has been a rumour for sometime now, has come true[Thanks, Dhina Thanthi]. The Kadhal Konden guy is the mapillai of Super Star. Super Star a mapillai by himself. Aren’t you getting it ?

Always sunday mornings are either spent with a Hindu and filter coffee or they are shared along with sunday morning television. Today was a little different. A friend’s marriage in the early hours at Porur and a meet with Prabhu later at Barista. Prabhu had come down from Bangalore and suggested we would meet. For the first time. All along we have been talking through gmails and blog comments and now we did meet.

While we initally planned to meet in my fav joint of Woodlands Drive in, we feared the rain/traffic and thought we could make it to G.N.Chetty road Cafe Coffee day. At GN Chetty Road, I was surprised to see Barista replacing Cafe Coffee day, at the same place. So we barged in and I suspected that we would be the bonee [first business of the day] there. Already there was a kadalai kutchery there and we placed ourselves at a corner, ordering smoothies(don’t go by the name. it was a cold drink. hee hee).

We had a lively chat on tamil film music, cinema, blogs, doordarshan and finally about the paani-ka-panga at chennai. Prabhu has tons of neat ideas for blogs and will start a blog soon. A music/sports/mobile phone freak, he did amaze me saying that he visits my site from his ultra-pompus handheld Nokia darling. Was amazed by what that tiny little thing can do. It can take videos, pics(those pics above are from his Nokia), GPRS and what not. I am thinking hard of changing my stone aged mobile to this one and start clicking with that mobile camera.

After a while, Prabhu suggested we would checkout the bookshop located at the corner of Barista. A corner means a real corner. The store was as named as The Corner Book Store. With just 4 feet on the diagonals, this book store has an attitude. It had some of the best books of all time including Ayn Rand, Betrand Russell and Dilbert Omnibus to Alchemist, Da Vinci fiction which were best sellers.

Interestingly, the guy who was taking care of the shop did show us a book which was looking like a Anti-Da Vinci Code. He told that the book was released well before Da Vinci Code and was it was now making hay out of the Da Vinci popularity. Not just that but also he did started telling us about other books and it’s authors. I was completely taken back by his knowledge on books and authors. Asked him if he has any more book in shop that was left without being read by him. He said so politely that there are many and he is unable to keep in pace with them. Probably the first time, I did see a book store guy being such a passionate book-lover. We did take a pic of that guy as a respect for the fellow book lover. He is the one in the pic above. Later, I learnt even Prabhu shared a similar thought like me about the guy.

The Corner Book Store seems to be promising especially if they can hook on to such book worms. A true haunt for a book lover. Not forgetting the full mug of south indian flavored Cafe Latte at Barista. Not the usual coffee-bar music that plays noisy this thing that thing music. They only play the children channel POGO on the television with a mute. And on a sunday it was Barney and the kids on POGO. What a peace, it was !!

On the roads of Chennai, if you get to travel on this Aayudha Pooja festival weekend, here’s wishing you happy skidding. Many of us who commute using a two wheelers and even three wheeling auto rickshaws get a chance to slew/skid because of those pulpy pumpkins broken on the middle of the roads.

Breaking pumpkins, is believed to rush out bad omen from shops, vehicles and whatever stuff you believe to be affected by that omen. On this auspicious weekend, most of the shops break pumpkins alongwith the burning camphor in the middle of the road just opposite to their shop. Hence dudes, if you drive around Chennai and don’t notice the large white pumpkins on the road, boom. Drive safe and no skidding.

Even after repeated advice of the metropolitan management and the traffic police of Chennai, this superstition continues. And it will go on until pumpkins and bad omen co-exist. Probably every Chennaite is aware of the pitious story of a couple who died because of this pumpkin skid, some years back. Vijay, had been on Radio Mirchi and adviced in chennai slang about avoiding such incidents. Who cares.

P.S : Thanks to Praveen for these links.
This is why Mani Ratnam is a professional’s professional. Hats off !!
Sharukh Khan talks tamil, again [after Hey Ram], for the dubbing of Swades in tamil as Desam.

Mallika Sherawat, the controversial Khwaish girl, is running around publicizing her latest film Kis Kiski Kismat. Didn’t know if it was because of the movie name or something, the trailer was just filled with Kiss Kiss and Kiss. Hero’s Kismat.

BTW, on her Rediff chat, she sensationalises the movie Myth, in which she pairs with Jackie Chan. Also last night in the Zoom channel, she was talking about her latest movie. She said a song in Kis Kiski Kismat called Talk of the Town, was an Item Number. Also added that while making it, she was too inspired by that Item number. While they played the song it looked like a scaled down version of Hello Mister Ethirkatchi of Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar. If you get to see that number, do let me know, what’s so inspiring about it.

David Weinberger writes about Data and Meta data in the Third Age of Order. Something that I found very profound.

There used to be a difference between data and metadata. Data was the suitcase and metadata was the name tag on it. Data was the folder and metadata was its label. Data was the contents of the book and metadata was the Dewey Decimal number on its spine. But, in the Third Age of Order, everything is becoming metadata.

Why does this matter? It changes the primary job of information architects. It makes stores of information more useful to users. It enables research that otherwise would be difficult, thus making our culture smarter overall. But, most interestingly (at least to me), this does the ol’ Einsteinian reverse flip to Aristotle. Aristotle assumed that of the 10 categories by which one could understand a thing, one must be primary: Where that thing fits into the tree of knowledge. So, you could say that Alcibiades is made of flesh or lived in Greece, but if you really want to understand him, you have to say that he is an animal of a particular kind. But, now that everything is metadata, no particular way of understanding something is any more inherently valuable than any other; it all depends on what you’re trying to do. The old framework of knowledge — and authority — are getting a pretty good shake.

Interested. Read More. Link via Rajesh Jain.

A science fiction short story called Mudhivu[The End] by Writer Sujatha was published on Desikan’s blog. Interestingly, it has raised a wave of questions on how do we define science fiction.

Mudhivu was a short story which was left out in the Sujatha’s science fiction collection, Vingnana Chirukathaigal. The story by itself is a series of letter written by three different people, one being Writer Sujatha himself.

While, the format and the narrative style is typical of Sujatha’s style, the content might provoke you to ask the framework of science fiction. Sujatha doubles up and answers these questions in the story itself. Until finishing the entire story, don’t jump to conclusions, like me. I was able to see the science fiction in this normal story only when I finished it. It’s amazing.

Because of these various questions raised on science fiction’s grammar, Desikan is compiling a set of questions. So Sujatha will step into the blog scene and answer the questions related to science fiction posted by blog readers. By any chance, if you pondering on anything about science fiction, post them here by Saturday[23rd October]. This one is sure going to arouse interest around.