IIT Madras has this yearly event, Saarang, that brings together the best of talents from colleges all over India. Even if you are a student or not, this one is a must-go, if you are in Chennai. From quizzers to fine arts performers to the geeks, there is something for everyone in this show.
This serving of Saarang’s Pro Shows include Violin-fame Ganesh / Kumaresh’s carnatic show, Shankar Mahadevan’s Light Music Show and the custom rock show performed by Led-Zepplica & Parikrama. Personally I’ve been to both Ganesh / Kumaresh’s carnatic show and Shankar Mahadevan’s music show. Shankar Mahadevan, came over to IIT 3-4 years back and it was fun riot. Given Shankar’s zest for experimenting, I was in for a true music show. Of course, Dil Chahta Hai tracks proved to be the best in the show but it was for the folk number Uppu Karuvaadu, the whole stadium jumped in frenzy. Shankar has this amazing spirit that gets on to you, during his shows. One performer who makes his presence felt heavily.
Sulekha arranged a Sulekha Saarang Blog Fest in 2004. This year, they seem to have come out with three different categories in the Saarang Blogathon Contest. Of course there is this classical blogging contest but mobile blogging contest seem to exciting. This way, the spirit of Saarang could be caught on camera. There is also an official Saarang Blog out there.
The knife on my neck would be drilled-in, if I wouldn’t link to the most famous Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadutrailer. More than 10 emails and a bunch of comments on this blog is good enough to ensure the expectations on this movie.
First Impression. Very mediocre. Maybe I expected more, but that rap for the trailer is a grave mistake. Kamal looks and walks with extra firmness. The shots don’t appeal too much. They didn’t create a ‘wow’ factor. And those tag lines like A Cop From India are starting to get on the nerves. Maybe I haven’t got back from the Kakka Kakka hangover.
Its good to restraint from over-analysing a mere trailer which could be the bad twin of a wonderful flick. This is kamal rasigan in me, hoping/talking.
Update - Looks like this video is dated more than a year back. It’s old stuff. Still, the contents could hold right even today. Watch this if you haven’t seen it before. Thanks to Tambram/Vasant.
Yeah !! Yeah !! It’s about making fun on the Indian Call Centers. Nevertheless the guy who goes to one of Hyderbad’s call center is comical, especially while he flirts with the girl in the call center. This video was a part of Conan O’ Brien talk show on NBC.
Watch out, this video is lengthy. Should be accompanied with speakers and 8 minutes of your time.
One of the best column in Tamil print media, Writer Sujatha’s Katrathum Petrathum in Ananda Vikatan, has stopped again. Sujatha has decided to take a break and continue it later. Katrathum Petrathum has had 3 three servings until now. All the three times, the column has appeared atleast 54 weeks before it ended. And every time, I couldn’t wait for Sujatha to start it again.
This old man is a heap of intelligence, who at times is mistaken for being a pseudo intellectual. It’s his immense popularity that make his contemporaries corner his writing as popular writing and not include him in the so called ’serious literature writing’. They don’t get that popular writing is as much literature as a ’serious literature’ attempt. Sometimes though he makes couple of superficial statements like this, his column has been a quintessential read. This 3rd serving of Katrathum Petrathum has been in action for over 90 weeks now.
In this final week of Katrathum Petrathum, Sujatha writes about the new year party hosted by Kamalhassan. The party is supposed to include Kollywood’s Who’s Who and many other top stars of Indian cinema. Thats when Kamal chose to discuss the Dasavatharam storyline by remarking to Sujatha, Bruce Arasuvoda Naaiya Konudaraan, Sir. And now people would go bonker bonks on guessing who would be Bruce and Arasu. I think, both are two of the 10 characters enacted by Kamal Hassan himself.
If not for such teasers of Kamal and Shankar flicks, Katrathum Petrathum had in itself a gamut of topics from Sci-Fi, Haiku, Tamil books/writers, Contemporary Literature and the most famous Best of Year columns. It had become a sort of weekly dose of all the topics I would love to read. And a habit of reading it, similar to drinking filter coffee, couldn’t be stopped so easily. More than other weekly columns it had a tinge cynical humor that makes you relate to every single issue, so easily. Until such time, when Sujatha prefers to start it again, we will wait. Rather I would.
After graciously failing in attempts to get Sun & Vijay TV, the only option was to get connected to Chennai was through Jaya TV. So I subscribed to Jaya TV through Num TV. Sometime back, Uma and few others recommended Jaya TV but I wanted to watch the tamil channel on a television. So I didn’t pursue that seriously. Left with no options, I succumbed to watching TV on the PC.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t a bad deal. The streaming video is at 300 kbps with good clarity, good enough for comfortable viewing. It doesn’t match the TV-on-TV quality yet it ain’t bad. The good news for me is that kollywood has moved nearer to me through Jaya TV. And I could see Kushboo and the jacket design on Jack..Jack..Jack…Jackpot. So much for missing Tamil Channels. Anything written here in relation to satellite channel, hereafter refers to Jaya TV, unless otherwise specified. So if you start smelling too much of kollywood here, you know why.
This morning, I got see Simbhu’s pongal special program, with clippings from his latest flick, Saravana where he was trying to acting like Rajini and even like Vijay. He claims to have done comedy for the first time. Deja Vu or is it me. He said the same stuff during his movie Trisha named Alai. Alai never got to see even 25 days in theatres and this ‘i’m doing comedy for the first time’ seems to be coming around. This whole thing seems to be a big comedy itself. For the kind of opening he go and the oppurtunity he gets, Simbhu should just act for the character given instead of developing his ‘own’ style. Given KS Ravikumar and Jothika in the movie, I’m hoping Saravana would be a bearable watch. Or is it not ?
there is no idea of closing down this blog even though the votes were much against the wishes. Truly, its overwhelming, year after year, to win an award where people who read the blog, vote for it. Makkal Shakthi wins. Checkout the winners of Indibloggies 2005.
Life Time Indibloggies Achiever 2005 is just a recognition from those who read the blog. Thanks. More coming this way…keep coming.
This is the 23rd consecutive day of rain in Seattle. The record is 33 days, set in 1953, reads the headline in Seattle PI. Another 10 more days of rain and Seattle will break its own record which is set to 33 consecutive days of rain in 1953. CNN has more on this marathon rain.
And now you know why there is not much spice in the blog. Before I could tackle the windy downtown rains and reach home, a Netflix DVD awaits me. So there goes the blogging spirit. Jokes apart, coming from chennai(I mean the Chennai before the monsoon of 2005), this Seattle rain was like heaven, when I first reached here. I still enjoy the drizzlings especially the early evening drizzles are a cheer to the bored souls. Last saturday, while walking to Subway, my umbrella just broke due to heavy winds. Its then I realized that the rains have started to be a daily affair.
Being locked in the house, due to this rain, I planned to get the ‘amusing’ SUN TV via Dish network. Guess what. No Signal. Two trees standing right in front of my apt are blocking Sapthaswarangal and Selvi entering my home. DirectTV broadcasts Vijay TV but I’m not sure if the trees would allow its signal. So I went ahead and booked the suite of HBO channels today combined with a digital box. With the 8 HBO channels and numerous On-Demand movies through Comcast, I hope to wade through the rainy days. I hope.
