Separation is such a sweet sorrow. brb !!

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When I saw Shobhaa Dé, last week on the cable, she was extemporizing an interview. I thought it was yet-another-talk-show where they ask questions of national importance like this, So what's your advice for teenagers or Why men hate feminists. It wasn't. A little better.

Shobhaa Dé spoke in length about marriage, infidelity, love, sex and what not. Only today, when I saw this page on rediff that her latest book in five years, Spouse - The truth about marriage, has been released on the Valentines day and that cable interview was a marketing effort. Rediff report describes the book as, Spouse is a personal and insightful take on the institution of marriage and offers special love tips to make your marriage strong.

Even as a teenager and much later too, I liked Shobhaa Dé. I thought she was probably the most daring writer about sex in India. The hidden agenda is that you could rightfully read a Shobhaa Dé book at home without being mistaken for reading a porn magazine and yet manage to read all the vivid sex in it. As I found better writers, I mean in the real sense, I had given up reading Shobhaa Dé. She doesn't even feature in my list of favorite authors. The last I read of her was a book called, Shooting from the hip. I stopped reading it after the first twenty pages and threw it from the balcony.

What makes Shobhaa Dé stay in limelight even after some not-so-indepth-writing ? Probably the arena she chose to write about. Her columns are mostly targetted for the urban lot and their issues of life. My only crib here is that those are shallow. If you are an urban man/woman living in the corner of some metro of India, this writing would appeal to you. You can write tons pages about love and sex life and generalise it. It may not be completely right but readers would still not crib as you are treading down an unmanned path. Easy job. Imagine, if you get a VIP ticket to those Page 3 people's wild parties, you could just write about the true world inside dream factory and still be politically write. Easy job again.

I have this good/bad habit of watching a film even after the reviews say it is bad. This time the reviews for her latest book says, It's good. I am not doubting the reviews but I am going to read it for myself to get some tips on, How to write a superfluous and successful book ?

P.S - Rediff did a 'better' marketing effort. Shobhaa Dé's love tips -SMS SHO to 7333. Rediff guys, give me a break. Stop such SMS gimmicks.

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While Chennai, around me, was buzzing around me with marathon activity, I was busy shouting at a Saravana Bhavan on charging 5 bucks extra for a masala dosa. Sure the masala dosa was tasty but I was so hungry to hog 2 dosas and get done with my hunger.

After a strong filter coffee, while crossing the road, I saw a gentle man with Temenos Chennai Marathon TShirt on his way back home. Excuse me, I burped. Thats being lazy, for you.

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Sania Mirza is the latest matinee idol. I don't say that. But having got more than 6 email forwards, just today alone, filled up with images of Sania Mirza, I accept. No pics of Sania in this post just to beat that.

Anyway, let's not have another Anna Kournikova in making.

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Chennai is getting ready for yet-another-hot-summer. Today was even worse. With the sun hitting hard, a chap was pushing his cylinder filled tri-cycle with barefoot, up the Doraiswamy subway. Life moves on.

Had to do some good amount of packing/unpacking stuff today, at home. A R Rahman gave a helping hand. You probably got that wrong. With a CD playing assorted Rahman songs, packing became a joyous occasion even for a lazy one like me. Music the life giver, reads a Rajinikanth t-shirt in the movie Johnny. How true.

Hanuman Chalisa[pdf] is probably MS Subbulakshmi's best devotional music rendering, I've heard. We know MS sings from her heart, this one comes deep down from the heart. Not a day passes by without listening to it and I unconsciously keep humming it throughout. Thanks to Tulasidas for the ever-faithful lyrics and also to Latha for recommending this one. Do listen if you get a chance.

These guys at Grab A Geek, just got spidered in Google News as a news source and they are out with an article, One Ring to Google them all, that's partly informal and partly informational about Google's Behind-the-scenes.

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Athu Andha Kaalam, a book by S.V Ramakrishnan, that talks about 'those days', was on the Uyirmmai stall in the Chennai Book Fair and I just overlooked the author for S.Ramakrishnan. While talking with Desikan, he said it was S.V.R and no S.R. He also promised on Mettioli to publish an SVR essay on his blog. He has now posted an extract from this S.V. Ramakrishnan's book.

The essay(extract) talks about 10 years of railway history, from 1945-1955. SVR recalls the times and conditions of a third class travel during 'those days' clearly communicating the lifestyle of people in the early 1940s. This short essay doesn't have sensational stuff but still is a gripping read(atleast for me). The flow of words and usage of ancient words adds flavour the essay, thereby making SVR a writer of sheer quality.

Adding creme to coffee is Ashokamitran, who after reading this essay in Uyrimmai, was inspired to pen his thoughts on the Indian railway. And he gives due credit to SVR for bringing out his memoris of the railway. And he, for his part, details a bit of railway history from 1935. This Ashokamitran column was published on Uyirmmai as a follow-up column to SVR essay. It's happy to see if such noble gestures happen in the contemporary literary world. These days, if one writes a comentary on an issue, the so-called-opposites, write the opposite of that or try to eclipse the better ideas. That's the evil world of publishing for you. I only wish we have much more writers like SVR and Ashokamitran and ofcourse magazines like Uyirmmai which give time and space for such writings of 'those days'. I loved it and earning to buy the book, ASAP.

BTW, Chenthil's account on Ashokamitran 50, was a nice read especially for the unfortunates like me, who missed the function. Do read. Thanks Chenthil.

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Blogger's latest release includes updates to their commenting system, which I think is one of the most ought update from the bloggers.

Now you can have your Blogger powered blog with pop up comments and profile image on the comments. This narrows down the gap between Blogger and other Blog software providers like Movable Type and Word Press.

I am eagerly waiting for their next update and I expect it to be blogposts import/export option. If only they provide it in their next release, I will be the first one to move from Movable Type to Blogger. I promise.

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[Click on the image for a bigger version]

That's the Surya's Gajini banner that I was referring to in the Gajini post. This one is put up opp. to Panagal Park, T.Nagar and did attract me on the first glimpse.

Same picture from a longshot on my Flickr Photoblog, here and here.

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[Pic : vikatan]

S. Ramakrishnan's Kathaavilaasam may not be as sensational as his previous series, Thunnaiezhuthu, that he wrote for Vikatan. But Kathaavilaasam is important. For Ramakrishnan tries to throw to throw light on the great but not-so-well-known tamil writers, every week after week. This effort is infact very noble than Thunnaiezhuthu or any of his previous works.

Ramakrishnan first starts off with a true-life experience(there is little fiction involved here) and then draws a parallel between his experience and a writer's story. All this being fine, the information about the writer gets shortened to a caricature and a paragraph. A much aspiring column would be to detail the writer's work and dissect them very closely. I do understand by writing too much about the writer and his stories, Ramakrishnan may not able to sustain an audience for this weekly column. The majority of the readers are philistines and are not very anxious to know about a writer as much as they aspire to know about Namitha's love affairs. It's a pity state-of-affairs here with the tamil magazines.

Last week, Aathavan featured in Kathaavilaasam. Aathavan known for his path breaking Enn Peyar Ramseshan, writes just about the urban youth's mind. At times he provokes you, makes you laugh at yourself and also feel upset about the 'real' you. If Mani Ratnam made movies about the upper middle class, Aathavan, much before him[in 1970s] made stories for/on them. I recently read his Kaakitha Malargal offlate and fell in love with his writings. Aathavan died in a river floods when he went to Sriungeri alongwith his friend. If only he had lived longer to cross the millenium, I am sure he must have made stories that would reflect us like mirrors. He is probably one of the three tamil writers whom I wanted to bring back alive. The first two being Bharati and Kalki.

This week, the writer in Kathaavilaasam is Ashokamithran.

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Nope, that's not Van Damme. Surya. Our Kakkha Kakkha Surya. Looks classy right. One more example that tamil cinema has come off age. Gajini to be directed by Murugadas is being starred by Surya and Asin(Hasin). Surya, the latest household name of Tamilnadu and Asin, the offlate dreambaby of Kollywood, is just a lovely combination for Murugadas to capture in Gajini.

From thursday, the city has been decorated with huge poster's of Surya in a black winter cap, shot in three angles. Near panagal park, the huge banner displays Surya smoking with his hardboots, just like a cowboy action movie. Will defintely click it tomorow on my digicam.

This is Murugadoss's third venture. Infact fourth, including the dropped venture of Mirattal (*ing Ajit). I loved his first flick, Dheena. Though Ramana, his second flick was impressive, was a little over-rated. Still, Murugadas is one of my beliefs in Kollywood and I firmly believe this dude is one of future pillars of Kollywood. I just couldn't believe that Dheena was his first flick. Though it had a little slips in screenplay, was mostly engrossing, especially the romance between Ajith and Laila was well told, on-screen. If only he could make Gajini with the same class of Dheena and also Ramana, it would take him to heights.

[Pic : Vikatan.com]

Vikatan reports, that Gajini is an action movie with Surya as Sanjay Ramaswamy, one of the top 5 rich people in the world. There is more story told in the report. I have no clue why would they reveal so much of a movie even when it is pre-production stage. But then, it does increase the curiosity levels in the kollywood. Before Gajini releases we will have few flicks where the protagonist is one of the top 5 businessmen in the world, 1 of the top 5 beggars in the world, 1 of top 5 nutcracks in the world and so on. Murugadas will be astonished to see such co-incidence with his contemporaries. All due to this story leak even before the movie is shot. Follow, the Mani Ratnam stlye dudes. Make people wait for storyline and see the hype during the movie release.

Anyway, here's wishing all the very best for the Gajini team.

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Bought lazygeek.com, finally, I mean finally, after a long long wait. Intially when I was looking for a domain two years back, lazygeek.com was booked by someone so I had to settle down with lazygeek.net. Then the domain got released but was locked by the registrar. I had to talk with the registrar and bought it for an inflated price. Thanks to enom for that.

If only IE never had a control+enter shortcut key for .com domains, .com would never be felt as the lovable single child of internet domains. Other domains are now made to look as orphans. I am prey to that shortcut key.

For time being, I'm planning to re-direct lazygeek.com to the current site [lazygeek.net] itself. You don't have change bookmarks from your blog at all. To do a permanent switch, I am searching for tools that can change the links on this blog and repoint appropriately to lazygeek.com. Do let me know if you are aware of such tools.

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With all the hungama swirling around, Mark Jen chose to talk yesterday about his termination from Google. Mark Jen's termination came from his blog posts relating to Google's financial information and future products. Though he took them out when he realised it was classified, it was all over.

From Mark's entry on his blog, Ninenty Nine Zeros,

i was just too excited. i felt like i was joining a small start-up family; i thought i was going to start new initiatives and improve existing ones; i thought i could jump in the deep end and immerse myself in the revolutionary development environment; i thought i could make connections to real people in the outside world and get first hand feedback; i thought google would love it. i thought wrong.

Personally, I think Google should have given him a chance but then their recent IPO and their quarter offerings have made analysts sensitive to any information about them. And Google probably wanted to show their stand on blogging-about-work policy. It's definetly shocking for this news came from a company that promotes the number one blogging software, Blogger.

After all, didn't some one say, Google after the IPO isn't the same venture capitalists funded company run by a couple of young dudes who love technology, as it was a couple of years back. Now, they are answerable to their share holders and those who have stakes in them. We are getting to see that coming right.

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[Pic : SALRP]

Ashokamitran, the writer's writer, has a simple elegant style of writing. Be it a social novel, a movie review or a commentary on various contemporary issues, he writes without any pretence or exaggerations. So if you are reading a Ashokamitran article you can be rest assured that there are no play of words.

Being with Kannayazhi magazine for a long time, Ashokamitran's contributions to the tamil literary world is higher than what's known. Now after 50 years, since he started his invaluable writing career, Kadavu Literary circle and Kizhakku Pathippagam are celebrating it as a gala festival, tomorrow [12th Feb 2005]. Kizhakku Pathippagam recent released compilations of Ashokamitran's Shortstories and Columns during the recent Chennai Book Fair.

Ashokamitran 50 happens at Film Chamber hall, Anna Salai. Time - 6:30 pm on 12th February 2005.

Sundara Ramaswamy talks about the short stories of Ashokamitran, Gnana Koothan on Ashokamitran columns, I.Ra. Venkatachalapathy on the novels and Paal Sakkariya about the translations of Ashokamitran. There is also a screening of Amshan Kumar's short film on Ashokamitran. Check out Badri's tamil weblog for more.

Being a big time fan of Ashokamitran's writings, I love to be there. It is for sure that I may not be able to make it. Blame my friend to have his marriage tomorrow at the same time. I am sure Chenthil and Ramnath, fellow bloggers and fans of Ashokamitran would be there to give me an update.

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Google Code Jam 2005 comes to India. Java and C++ geeks, fold up you sleeves and get-set-go.

Google Maps [Beta, ofcourse] was out yesterday. And as expected it must have taken other map providers [yahoo and mapquest] by a huge surprise with it's draggable maps. For Google users in the US it's a huge welcome as Google maps is well integrated with Google Local. Even if you are outside US, give it a shot by typing in your very distant cousin's address who lives in either Dallas or the Bay Area. You would appreciate. I am hoping it would get better.

With 50 email invites to everyone, the assumption of GMAIL going live very soon, gets thicker. More.

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Tata Telefilms ties up with Sivaji Films on the Chandramukhi marketing. The similar effort by Pepsi for Rajini's BABA which costed nearly 25 lakhs(?). 75,000 Sq Ft of hoarding space in Chennai alone. I never heard anything like this. the biggest effort until now was for Kamal Hassan's Aalavandan. Pity the Chennai traffic.

Did watch Lingusaamy-Ajith's Ji trailer on the cable. Gripping and ofcourse there is Trisha. But we need to wait and see if Lingusaamy can strike hatrick. If he can it might prove to be a moral booster for Ajith. Pray Ajith Pray.

Kollywood's summer releases are set to be out by April 14th. There is illayraja [Mumbai Xpress], Harris Jayaraj [Anniyan] and Vidyasagar [Chandramukhi]. None except Chandrmukhi have announced music release dates. End of February would be right time to release soundtrack and allow the music to sink in. Are they listening ?

Watch Anniyan while it's still on the sets.

Mayaavi is set to release on 25th Feb. Produced by Bala's B Studios and starred by Surya-Jothika, it could possibly keep theatres enagaged until the summer release films. If only proves to be a laugh riot, nothing like it.

Page 3 people on the premiere of Bhansali's Black.

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The screen dissolves into black. A little androglossian strained voice starts to speak-out, feebly. It narrates a story as a first-person account. A story that is nothing but a state-of-mind. A story that transforms the mind and vision of blackness into white. All this transformation accompanied with a lot of trouble, anguish, agony and zillion other words that you relate to the word PAIN. Cut.

Film Fare Awards 2005 - And the filmfare award for the best - film, screenplay, direction, camera, back ground music, actor, actress and child artist goes to the cast and crew of BLACK. Will sport a moustache if this doesn't come true. Sometimes, even if you are stiff emotionsless critic, you fall shaken with emotions when a movie moves so deeply from the heart. Black is one such gem. A classic that can stand over gimmicks and modernities of film techniques. Cut.

A Hellenkellrish story that carves lives of two people, where both become teacher and student to the other, at various points of the thorn-filled garden of life. A story that could well be complained for being straightly copied / stollen or even inspired from the life of Hellen Keller, known to us from the english textbooks of 4th grade.

Take a vivid look into the black, non-imaged, non-pixelated, muted life of Michelle McNally [Rani Mukherjee], living in Shimla. Take a detailed view into the life of the humane, adorable and angry old Debraj Sahai [Amitabh Bachchan] who is losing his worthy life and it's memories to Alzheimer's diesease. Their lives gets inter-twined when Debraj comes to hand-hold the blind 'n' deaf Michele. And what would you teach to a child who has no idea about the world around her, except for the sense of smell, taste and touch. All Michelle knows is her maa who has a hand that is soft that touches her cheeks. Any other hand and Michelle reveals her ultra famous emotion, anger. It is this anger that when postively charged gets her moving in her life to the heights, she never had imagined even in the wildest of dreams.

The movie moves firmly for a two and half hours without a single boring frame. Not only it makes you cry, laugh and applaud but also it teaches you that a movie needn't pronounce a message. A movie can just arouse plethora of emotions in you. The physically challenged have a zest for life. A thirst to know more and know it completely. Shallow knowledge gets them upset. Their anger is sharp and uncontrolled for they are the ones who react appropriately at situations than the normal mortals who are numb with emotions. Michelle gets angered when Sahai slaps her for not typing as fast as expected. She reacts immediately. From 10 words a minute, she types 30 a minute. She bursts out when her sister makes a miunderstands her on the engagement day. Proves that she has much more to offer than what's known to the outisde world. Also she becomes a patient teacher to her ex-teacher only to create a miracle on him.

For the first time, one would understand the demon behind Alzheimers disease. You could forget to carry a pen, forget to meet someone at four o' clock. But what if you forget yourself, your past and every single thing around you. Terrible.

As Debraj Sahai, Amitabh Bachchan carries the entire movie on him. With the intonation so accurate and expressions very classy he takes away the cake in the movie. I've never seen such a spell binding male performance in a bollywood flick before. With those wide-open eyes and that stupendous acting performance, I see Kamal Hassan. As a south Indian, I've known Amitabh as a bollywood hero compared to the Rajinikanth of south. Being a Rajinikanth admirer, I hated Amitabh for a reason because some of Rajinikanth's earlier flicks were remakes of Amithabh's bollywood hits. And I hated to believe this fact. As a carorepathi host, Amitabh was convicing but did not catch my fancy. Many bollywood films that featured after that used him as a brand ambassador for their films. This one is a killer effort. A perfect way for Amitabh to prove he is truly the the BIG B. As he catches the young Michelle with strands of her hair to control the blind kid's anger, as he slaps her when she could never type more than 10 words a minute, as he walks effortlessly with his head shaking of aging and being suffered with Alzheimers, Amitabh creates magic. He adds color to this rather black movie. A true champion.

Rani Mukherjee. WOW. No exaggerations but this is far most one the best performances by any actress in recent times. As a grown Michelle McNally, she occupies the second half of the movie ans stays throughout in the heart. She has this amazing voice that brings in reality to the movie. It's her voice that narrates the entire movie. A swaggering gait with a walking stick on her hand, she sometimes reminds the Chaplin walk. And not only that but also dances so rapturously. She listens to the college lecture by feeling the lip movement of her mentor. What everyone does in 3 years, she does it in a two decades withstanding all the pains of being blind and earing impaired. And yeah, even as a blind woman, she wants to know how it feels to be kissed by a man on her lips. She has just her teacher to help her with that. Afterall, isn't he the one who teached her life, maa, papa, water, cry, snow and every other damned thing of life. She asks. He teaches. A classy scene that brings out gross realities of life as they are without exaggerations. Rani Mukerjee can be announced as the Indian actress of the decade, undoubtedly.

Ayesha Kapur, as the young Michelle grabs the first half with her lovely debut performance. With a movie full of scope for performance, it is the casting department which needs to be appreciated to have casted Ayesha Kapur as young Michelle. Hats off.

Ironically, for a movie that details the life of a blind and deaf girl, the images and the sound stand out first class. Ravi K Chandran, known for his stylish modern camerawork in Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal and Aayitha Ezhuthu goes in for a conservative yet astonishing camera work. It is through his lens that we look into the life of Michelle and Sahai. The lighting is modern but the camera angles are truly old fashioned. And probably thats what Bhansali drove Ravi K Chandran to do. If only the movie was shot and edited as modern as Aayitha Ezhuthu, it would have failed to impress. This slow movie requires patient camera movements but yet needs to touch the audience. Pre-dominantly colored with black, wherever possible, the color tone itself is rich, lavish and conveys what the movie is upto. I could devote a paragraph for the music by Monty. It would be right to do that. The music and camera are inter-weaved in the movie. So is the review. If only we get to watch the movie with either one of this(visual and sound), it wouldn't make any sense . The camera pitches the emotion while the music accompanies and heightens it ten fold. There are no songs however and hence the distractions are reduced largely.

The editing and the sets adds more value. The sets of the bungalow as situated in Shimla are realistic and to re-create them after a fire accident must have been a great effort for the entire team. From the title card, it looks like most of the movie was shot in Himachal Pradesh.

Bhansali did a great job in Khamoshi but it was just not reaching there. His efforts that followed in Hum Dil De Chukke Sanam and Devdas were lavish and were heavily commercialised. With Black, Bhansali proves that he is the bollywood master of melodrama and blacks out the better movies of Bollwood. Black is a picture postcard movie. Any single shot can be blown out into a poster and to this Bhansali has compromised to heavlily exaggerate at some places. By making the story revolve around an Anglo-Indian family situated in a a hill-station, Bhansali tries to show places, people and their costumes which a normal middle class Indian, couldn't relate so easily. That gives you a feel that the movie happens far away from India. You can shirk these off for the kind of movie Black is. Am sure this effort of Bhansali wouldn't go unnoticed. If only the reviews/reactions to Black turn-out the otherway it could be because of the prepossessed mind-set on Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his movies.

Black is an effort that needs to be showcased inside and also outside India. While outside India, people would definetly see Black, it needs to be taken to places deep inside India. The best way would be to dub them in many regional languages without affecting the moments of the movie. If you don't want the rest-of-the-world to dub bollywood from looking at the colorful Monsoon Wedding and Bride and Prejudice, represent Black to the world as an ideal Bollywood flick and articulate the fact that we are one of the movie super stars. For it takes a huge effort to create a movie of this excellence. Whatever it takes, beg-borrow-steal, watch BLACK.

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Gartner known for it's research insights, outlined 7 'Fatal Flaws' of Business Intelligence leading to a failure of a Business Intelligence implementation in enterprise. Also with suggestions to avoid them. This and much more were discussed in the Gartner's Business Intelligence Summit in London this week.

Though some flaws are discussed as lessons learnt at the Business Intelligence circles, the enterprises still skip them as a joke. High time, the BI installations start making sense to senior management of the enterprise. Have added the 7 seven flaws here as points with my bullets. Do read the article, Gartner: The 7 'Fatal Flaws' of Business Intelligence, How to Avoid Them, the flaws and suggestions to avoid are expanded.

Seven Flaws of Business Intelligence -

Flaw 1 - "If we build it, they will come"
Flaw 2 - "Managers need to negotiate the numbers" (it happens)
Flaw 3 - "Data quality problem...we don't have one" (*** Alert Alert, Critical Issue)
Flaw 4 - "Our enterprise applications vendor will deliver the best solution" (* Just a dream)
Flaw 5 - "Darwin was right - BI projects need to evolve" (** True Gartner, We love you for this)
Flaw 6 - "We can outsource the whole thing"
Flaw 7 - "Just give me a dashboard!"

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New York Times has a question, Is the Internet bubble half empty or half full ?. Wonder Why ? Google's ever rising stock and it's augmenting quarter revenues are the reasons. Again, Wonder Why ? The revenue from Google Adwords program, has just increased 122 percent from the previous year's fourth quarter. Even in the increasing threat of competition for search on the internet, Google is a true wonder. Am not just talking as a Google admirer but the numbers talk for themselves.

Google does a review of Adwords program during 2004. These slides not only talk about the improvements in Adwords but also about the people behind them. Interesting read. Do read.

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Dreams became a nightmare. Devadhaiyai Kanden might just make it to the 50 day mark. Dhanush still has a fall back mechanism. As Selvaraghavan - Dhanush - Sonia - Yuvan - Arvind Krishna join hands(again !) for Pudhupet [not Oru Naal Oru Kanavu], this could probably be Dhanush's ladyluck for 2005. All the best mappilla.

Cheran would probably change back his new flicks' name from Thavamai Thavam Irundhu back to Touring Talkies. Or he may not but gets the movie rolling at Kaaraikudi.

Don't tell me Karan Johar is directing, again. Believe me he is. I thought he might just stop with his Star World show, Koffee with Karan, where he interviews all his friends and make a lumpsum out of it. And predictably, there is Shahrukh Khan with whom Karan has a blanket call sheet. Call Shahrukh anyday for Karan Johar's movie, Shahrukh might just come down. The news is Abishek Bachchan is also roped for the new unnamed venture. Here too, there will be a typical maa(not jaya bachchan this time too!) who will stand in a corner for a mushy mushy song with the tears just waiting to roll of from her eyes. Wow !!

Not always I love the way Sanjay Leela Bhansali yaps about his movie. Except for some sensational sequences of Devdas, I am not a big fan of Bhansali. Probably his love for music is what I expect from every filmmaker. But something tells me, Black could be Bhansali's best, till date. I would have opted for someone except the Big B on the lead role, however. Let's see.

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[Click the image for a bigger version]

A friend of mine, Karthi, did forward the above pic with a subject - Mani Ratnam's New Film, Aalayam.

I probably wanted to verify the source and then post this. Am not posting this to make a scoop out of it or to bring in a speculation. Infact, going by previous instances this isn't the way Mani Ratnam unleashes his new movie. Because I believe the movie shooting hasn't started yet and many a time such teaser posters get released only when post-production works are in progress.

This could be true on one reason. K Sera Sera production house's name is there on the list. Maybe K Sera Sera is co-producing the film alongwith Madras Talkies. But be it a spoof or a scoop, am posting it just because I am happy for the way the poster is designed. He/She must have been a Mani Ratnam fan. The font and the collage of pics at the background just makes it for a Mani Ratnam flick. Just couple of small mistakes, Mani Ratnam usually makes sure that he has the crew names written in tamil when its a poster for tamil movie. Also silly statements like With an International Cast never happen on a Mani Ratnam flick banners. I am sure.

Anyone with the details on the source of this so-called-Mani-Ratnam-poster gets a warm applause in the next post.

Update 1 - Koushik, got inspired by this poster above, created one more using the same poster. Check it out here.

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MSN has a new look, from yesterday. Just incase you haven't had a look at them. But here's the interesting news, Gates personally clicked open the upgraded version of MSN Search. Gates also writes a letter to the msn surfers about the re-designed msn site and msn search. The re-designed msn is powered with msn news, msn desktop search and ofcourse the normal search.

MSN has also planned a heavy showdown of Ads to promote the new MSN Search. There might be an MSN Ad on the Superbowl broadcast this sunday. Interestingly, all this and more on a day when Google posted it's sevenfold increased fourth quarter results. Looks like search arena is becoming a tougher sport.

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[Pic: johnnymercer.com]

Prasanna, my friend, who directed the short film Ini Bhayam Illai(which was reviewed here before), has now joined the Evam theatre group and had invited us for a special screening of the film Barefoot in the Park. The film was originally a Broadway play by Neil Simon. Evam, who have stormed into the theatre scene for a year or so in Chennai, are staging this same play in February. As a curtain raiser and a marketing move, we bloggers including Kiruba, Chandrachoodan, Chenthil and Narsi were invited for the screening of the flick Barefoot in the Park, in The Park Hotel.

Keeping other details to the fag end, here is all about what the play/movie about. Neil Simon, known for his sensibly humorous plays, scripts Barefoot in the park as a gag that happens in a small brownstone apartment of New York. What starts with the romantic musings of a newly wed couple runs into hilarious family affair and ends up barefoot in the park. This Broadway play was adapted as a movie with the same name in 1967. Robert Redford, who played the role of Mr.Paul Bratter in the movie, also starred for the same role in the play.

Jane Fonda as Mrs.Corie Bratter simply rocks. And it's on her the movie rests upon. It is her innocence and her free spirited character that gets their family life in ruins. Those tight French kisses and romantic intonations would have made her a demi-goddess back in 1967. So romantic and hilarious when she says, "For a lawyer you are some good kisser". Similarly, in the beginning, after five continuous days in the honeymoon suite of a hotel, the newly wed husband starts to his work. Wife Corie, walks with just a slick small shirt to the elevator where her husband boards the crowded elevator, says "Thank you, Mr. Dooley. Next time you're in New York, just call me up". That clueless expression on Robert Redford's face was amazing. Yo!! We just burst out with laughter and from then on the same tempo gets maintained till the end.

As the couple's apartment is situated on the fifth floor of an elevator less apartment, the gag is about the people coming up with lack of breath to the couple's apartment. The telephone guy who comes up to the newly rented house, gets frustrated by the walking up five floors and says, "My name's Harry Pepper if you ever have any trouble with line, do me a favor, don't ask for Harry Pepper." Corie's mom who comes to visit her daughter newly rented apartment, literally has a stroke and replies annoyingly, "If only there was a knife shop in the apartment basement, I would have killed myself instead of climbing all these stairs". Charles Boyer as Victor Velasco adds more flavor to the humor. The climax is of course dramticised and comical, similar to that of Michael Madhana Kamarajan. Barefoot in the park is a feel good movie and even watched nearly 38 years of it's release it seems convincingly relevant.

I did think, before the movie, that if only I watched the movie, I may not be pushed to watch the play. I got it all wrong. Those complex sequences of stairs and the witty remarks make me curious to see how EVAM would unleash the play on stage. I am also extra curious to see the act of the heroine, Corie Bratter, for its around her the play is twined. Looks like the part would be played by a member of Girish Karnad's theatre group.

Though I haven't seen any of Evam's plays till date, I have known them by their publicity which hit my office notice boards during their performance of Woody Allen's Death. Combined with their prime sponsors, Royal Sundaram group, they have put together a wonderful marketing effort to get back the awareness of theatre among the Chennaites. Karthik Kumar [remember the Alai Payuthey's American mappillai] and Sunil started Evam after their course at Mudra Institute of Communications. They are probably trying to take back the theatre from the Jollna-n-Jibba clad, self-proclaimed cerebral groups and give it to the yuppie MNC guys who do nothing big than watching numerous nameless Hollywood flicks in multiplexes. That by itself is a noble virtue and I am personally interested to watch their play even if they haven't screened the movie for us. If only they keep level-headed with this motive for a couple of years, Chennai would get the grasp of theatre and we will see more theatre groups emerging which would pump up the theatre business.

Here's the commercial info - Barefoot in the Park is staged at Sivagami Pethachi auditorium near the TTK road on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd weekends of this month. To pick up tickets call 98842 77338.

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