Kaadhal Yaanai of Anniyan is the latest buzz in kollywood. Srikanth has a good technical review of Anniyan. Prabhu, the kadhal mannan of Chennai Blogosphere get a niche area to review. He reviews the Anniyan lyrics. Great going. I ain't writing any reviews for Anniyan music. Not too inspiring to write about. However I'm glued to acid looping[ as Srikanth says] of Kaadhal Yaanai. Rest, let's watch with the movie.

Chenthil blogs about Madras Book Club function felicitating Jeyakanthan for being awarded the Jnanpith Award. Makes me miss Chennai again.

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani ? is a great read. This short story which is a sublime commentary of the current social mindset by using the history, was awarded First Prize in Thinnai Sci-fi shortstory contest, judged by Sujatha. Another one which I liked was Bhimba Uyirgal by Arun Vaidhyanathan. The one by Karthikesu on Kofi Anan was an intelligent thought.

Tiger should be out by today. The latest OS offerring from Apple for Mac seems promising. The most talked about feature is like Google to the Mac. Spotlight, a feature in the Tiger Mac OS can search just about anything in the computer with the text you type. They have also added a Robot to the OS, Automator.

After sometime, the competition starts getting annoying. It was as though Yahoo was waiting for Google's release of personal search, their release of My Web just tailgated Google's release. Peace to both the dudes !!

Finally, over the weekend, they predict a little sunshine in Seattle. Planning an outdoor party on the shores of Lake Washington in Mercer Island. Sunshine, I hope.

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Paatezhuthi paerr vaangum pulavargal irukiraargal, Kutram kandupidithey paer vaangum pulavargalum irukiraargal, reads a dialogue in Thiruvilayaadal. You know what I am talking about. I could spot some really gross paradoxes which he has created himself in this article, Critics...Rascals. Having read his book on Lagaan and the caste system, which was cynical in my opinion, I hate to waste time in de-mystifying the facts which the article advocates. Judge it yourself.

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For an aathu payyan like me, there aren't many choices on the Subway. Either I go with the foot long bread stuffed with cheese and other vegetables about which I have no clue or I end up drinking just Pepsi producing countless burps. Been eating on this sub-way for a while on what was recommended to me. This time I had a special recommendtion from a friend and it worked well. So if you are sub-beginner trying to catch hold of the rocket science behind a Subway Footlong [Salad Sandwich], here's the formula -

Roasted Garlic bread
Provolone Cheese
Olives
Onions
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Capsicum aka green pepper
Cucumbers
Honey Mustard Sauce
Oil & Vinegar Sauce
Parmesan Cheese powder
and finally
Salt & Pepper

This makes up for a delicious veggie footlong and when combined with a Lays onion sour cream chips + Pepsi, works well. Still, when I came back home I had some sambaar saadham with vendakka curry. Mega Delicious.

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Kann Emaikkum Nodiyill Ada Ethuvum Nadakkum
Ithu Enakku Therium Naalai Unakku Puriyum
Hey!! Anjukkulla Naala Vaiyu
Aazham Paathu Kaala Vaiyu

reads the lyrics of the superhit song Annanoda Paatu in Chandramukhi. You might wonder if they were written based on the Baba's lessons learnt document. May or May not be. Baba wasn't the first of Rajini's movie that failed in box-office. Yet it was a notable fall because the media was on all-time high about Rajini. It wasn't the be a crucial time in Rajini's career. He wasn't in one of those if-this-fails-i'm-lost-forever times of his film career. Still, Rajini tasted the failure gracefully and refunded the financial loss to his distributors. What about his diehard fans ? He deceived them with Baba. He never repaid them nor even reassured them. Was completely out of the movie scene for more than 3 years after the Baba disaster. He probably wanted to go by his own dialogue, Sonnathaium Seivaen Sollathathaiyum Seivaen. Comes back with bang in Chandramukhi providing wholesome entertainment for the entire family. He treads in the most popular and the most safest roads of movie making that encompasses entertainment values for the masses.

Just like any AVM flick, Chandramukhi has an amazing proportion of commercial cinema for everyone. There is a 'story', some suspense, comedy, super hit songs, stunts and hey as a bonus it also has Rajini in it. Instead of the story getting twined around Rajini, for a change, Rajini ties all the elements together. If only it was the other way, he had to do more gimmicks and adhere to the silly formulas. More of this a little later.

Chandramukhi premise is ripped-off from a wonderful Malayalam classic, Manichitrathazhu. A haunting and a realistic movie directed by Fazhil has become a suspense thriller with lots of exaggeration[the graphical anaconda snake] and commercial compromises. I would hate to compare Chandramukhi to Manichitrathazhu because they just have the same story premise but the intention behind making them are a lot different. Apples and Oranges. The video shops are going to be haunted for Manichitrathazhu video allowing more people to understand the taste of malayalam movies.

Chandramukhi is a story of a girl suffering from multiple personality disorder also known as split personality. A curious urban girl comes in contact with a ancient story of a dancer Chandrmukhi, becomes interested in her and in the process of knowing more about her, gets affected with MPD. Before she gets too dangerous for others to handle, a psychiatrist treats her appropriately by risking his life. I didn't want to write even this storyline but it's just to show the point in which Rajinikanth's character gets importance. It's only in the last 20 minutes Rajinikanth does something closer to his character. Until then he just there to provide fun time for his viewers.

Jyothika the wonder girl does a great job in the title role. It's probably the movie for which she will be talked about. Even though there is just too much kajal in her eyes, trying to dub her as a ghost, she gives a performance that will be rewarding. For someone so charming and fun filled even in the movies, a ferocious role must have been a challenge. She walks away with full marks for the acting sequence in the final scenes and her version of tounge twisting flirt, Laka..Laka..Laka. If only they would have downplayed her make-up and didn't glare her eyes with those extra lights, the role would have been remembered for a long time. Nevertheless it's her movie and she emerges as a grand winner.

Going by the popular mis-conception that there weren't many punch dialogues for a Rajini movie, Rajinikanth's tightrope walk in Chandramukhi paid-off well. If only there were many of the so-called-punch-dialogues, they would be analysed in every possible angle by the media and they would wage a virtual battle between him and some unassuming political star. Rajinikanth's huge fan club must be having a great time watching their Thalaivar coming back to the Rajathi Raja type comedy where the story dictates comedy dialogues and not the other way.

With that Matrix stlye introduction Rajini's character gets pulled into the movie real quick. But his character stands out for a long time until he starts to unleash the Chandramukhi mystery. It's true that his voice has lost quite a bit of it's grace. Still he has a powerful on-screen presence and has a fairly good sense of humour. Though it's mostly of the slapstick genre, we enjoy it thoroughly. While he comes in the disguise of the king in the final scenes, he reminds the villainy roles he played during the yesteryears.

Rajini probably wanted to get out of the political blackhole into which he was drawn into with/without his consent. He probably wanted to relive his good ol'e days of Super Star. In that manner, even though Chandramukhi doesn't showcase or boast the superstar status with magnificent BGMs or Vishk...Vishk sounds, Rajini comes back full swing. Choosing a story for his re-launch after Baba was so important for him. Chandramukhi which had a perfect script for an entertainment movie, was also successful in Malayalam and in Kannada which must have pushed him to use the script in his favour. It worked magic for him. While there could arguments as to how the movie could/might have been taken, with the given output it brings back the Super star as he was celebrated in the late 80's. Welcome back !!

Prabhu, a very good actor gets very little chance to make an impact. He was probably very worried about the business of Chandramukhi being the producer and didn't wanted so much on-screen presence. Vadivelu is on the track. While I would have still preferred to have Janakaraj as Rajini's sidekick, Vadivelu was also comical. Nayanthara does her part neatly. But she was over-hyped during the pre-release promos. Good artists like Nasser and Sheila get wasted in the not-so-important roles.

Vidyasagar would get a second chance with Rajini for his next film. His BGMs thrills and keeps the tempo of the movie, high. Annanoda Pattu is the 'once more' type. Raa Raa is a melodious song and everyone watch it just for the Lakka Lakka sequence. My personal favorite is the Athinthom song which had shades of Illayaraja as mentioned in the music review. Some fine piece of artistry by Thotta Tharani. However it could have been avoided which would have made the film more realistic. But a Rajini film requies this grandeur. Director Vasu would be a happy man from Chandramukhi's success. He has did a good job of bringing the best out of the crew except that he could have reduced the hyperboles to the story.

Leaving all the pre-concieved notions of recent Rajini flicks, if only you could be open, Chandramukhi is a paisa vasool. If you are the nitpicky type, trying to grip on the loopholes of the movie, Chandramukhi isn't for you. Truly, not many are criticizing with a Rajini movie. For this is even more a special film, announcing the second coming of the Super Star. If only Rajini would stick to same film-making rules as of Chandramukhi, his fans would be the luckiest of all. For this way, instead of falling for the image trap, Rajini can play roles of his age which would be readily welcomed by kollywood. Hate being cliched but then this could just a beginning. There is a definetly a long way for him to go.

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Ironically it was only here, I was able to grab a DVD of Kakkha Kakkha. A lot of my friends pushed me to watch the DVD version for the reason that it had Gautam Menon's directors commentary. I think it is the first time for a tamil feature film, a DVD comes with a director's commentary. An opportunity missed by many including Mani Ratnam, KB, Kamal Hassan and a others. They still have time to release the next versions of DVDs with director's commentary. Let's talk about that later.

At first came the biggest disappointment. Gautam's directors commentary was in English. He probably wanted Kakkha Kakkha to reach a wider audience. Appreciate that thinking but it would have more interesting and more grounded if only he had done it in tamil itself. Gautam was able to skim through the movie so easily that he had made a year back. Except that he kept saying, a-whole-lot-of, repeatedly through out the commentary.

We know that Kakkha Kakkha was made out of a shoe-string budget of 2.40 crores on first-copy basis to Thanu. And when the budget exceeded Gautam had shelled in 40 lakhs to complete the movie and carry it to the screens. During the commentary, he kept re-instating as to how the budget constraint hindered them from making it a better production. Atleast he should be happy now that his next movie with Kamal, Vettayaadu Villayadu is sporting a huge producer. Gautam could have elaborated more on the Kakkha Kakkha story and what prompted him to pen a story like that[Other than Fugitive and other cop flicks from hollywood, about which they was a huge argument in the blog a week back]. The whole commentary was about how the movie was shot. Instead of saying, we shot this at a crowded Nesapakkam and we had hundreds of onlookers, Gautam could have taken time to talk about the Cop called Anbu Selvan. There is always a next time. Probably it would happen with the Kamal flick, I hope. All said and done, hats off to Gautam to kick start the trend.

A director's commentary is not a feature for everyone. For fans and movie buffs, a director's commentary is a treasure. It's only yesterday, I watched Steven Spielberg's first film(tele film for ABC) Duelon the DVD. It had a half-hour interview with Spielberg about making of the movie. He was able to recall his mindset when he shot duel and he spoke with an entusiasm of a first-timer. His director's commentary for Saving Private Ryan and E.T are still my favorites.

How about our kollywood legends like Mani Ratnam, KB, Bharathiraja dub a commentary for their movies. Not only they enable us to see what went on inside their heads, it also would give them the pleasure of re-living 'those' days. Twenty years from now when they will be long gone, their movies will talk their genius, no doubts. If only they sit for a good three months and strech themselves to a commentary for all their movies, it would nothing but a jackpot for the future movie-makers. Imagine Mani Ratnam talking about Nayagan and why he was so moved by Coppola's Godfather script that he I only wish all Bheemsingh & Sridhar movies had such commentaries. I only wish, I get a chance to see KB talking about Server Sundaram, Bharathi Raja about Muthal Mariyaadhai, Kamal on Raja Paarvai, Hey Ram & Virumandi. I wish.

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Vettayadu Vilayadu Gallery *ing '40ish' Kamal, here and here[requires user/pwd].

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Picture the blog world as the biggest coffeehouse on Earth. Hunched over their laptops at one table sit six or seven experts in nanotechnology. Right across from them are teenage goths dressed in black and thoroughly pierced. Not too many links between those two tables. But the café goes on and on. Saudi women here, Labradoodle lovers there, a huge table of people fooling around with cell phones. Those are the mobile-photo crowd, busily sending camera-phone pictures up to their blogs.

Business Week gives a huge plug for the blogging community. This well researched/written cover story, Blogs Will Change Your Business, was an awesome read, especially for a blogger. After reading this article, I am sure, a blogger must be walking on air. I did. Stephen Baker and Heather Green who have co-written this article have a reason to paint a rosy picture of the blogosphere. They are also the bloggers of Business Weeks' new blog Blogspotting. Blogspotting in their own words was kicked off to cover the business drama ahead, as blogging spreads into companies and redefines media.

From Statistics to History to Business of blogosphere this one says it all. If you are non-blogger, read this and join the blogging gang. Don't be left behind.

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Looks like Vikram's Coke Podu Ad should be already out on the cable. Directed by Rajiv Menon this should like the Coke Kudi daa Ad he did with Vijay. The Coke Ad really did wonders for Vijay to bring him close to collegiates. I am not sure how it fared for coke. The silly thing was that in ever other movie Vijay appeared with a Coke on his hand. I hope Vikram doesn't drink only Coke in Anniyan. Some reality please.

A R Rahman is on another world tour starting this year. Also talks about his plans for Tamil films in the coming year.

Gautam Menon talks on Vettayadu Vilayadu. Says Kamal is a 40ish cop. Thats cool.

Google is all set to gather your personal search history. Like A9. A long awaited feature is here finally.

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Never get these free internet access deals. I did that over a month back. But after that I got a Comcast Cable Internet moved on.

Today, when I had to call them up to get the free deal disconnected, it was a big pain. I had to talk my way out. Whatever I had said they had some plan or the other which was literally forced to be taken. When I said 'No' to everything saying my Cable internet actually gives 4mbps download speed and I may not need any better internet connection, the voice from the other side just threw a cancellation number on me and hanged up. I was pretty polite to tell them why I may not need their connection anymore.

All these customer services are just a humbug. I feel a big letdown.

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a) During today's Seattle Pallavan journey, was catching up with a friend, who stays in the same community, about the weekend that went by. I have to say that we just met a month back, in the same bus. He was aware that I went to Mumbai Xpress and asked me about it. When I said it was OK but not as expected, he pointed out to various reviews on the net and said Chandramukhi wasn't better than Mumbai Xpress. Cut here.

After few more minutes of discussion as to why Mumbai Xpress was only OK and not great, he dropped a surprise bomb. He remarked,"Even in lazygeek site 'they' said it was not that good". Read again, 'they' said. I was stumped. Missing bails. Curiously I asked him how he got to 'that' site. He said he got through Google and was not a regular reader. He wasn't aware of too many details which I had asked only to drive him to the fact that it was my blog. He wasn't too sure and I left it there. I am sure he would read this in a day or two and then kick me up for the dig. Funny though.

b) It was Ram Ganesh who picked me up for Mumbai Xpress movie. But thats not the reason why I am writing this. I knew Ram Ganesh only through email that he sent me with regards to screenplays in tamil. He sent the mail long before I came to Seattle. He was also from Seattle. So when saw the note on the blog that I was at Seattle he sent an email asking if I needed some help to move around and some help. I did reply him back that the local bus is keeping me mobile. For a night show of Mumbai Xpress, he came over to pick me up. When co-ordinating for this, we sent a series of emails. One of his email, he sent me his blog address which he never sent before on his emails to me. It was his personal email address and it contained the blog address in his signature.

I was throughly impressed by his photo blog, Point and Shoot. They were full of realistic pictures with blurred backgrounds making his subject's emotion being expressed very well. And while running through his lbog I found that he was the top finalist for the Grand Prize in the prestigious National Geographic Celebrate Photography Contest. This was my favorite picture. Much to my surprise he also passed me a PDF file containing a script. It was copyrighted with the Writers Guild of America and was a unique one. Could be made into a good 10 minute short film.

c) Balaji from Singapore was a stranger and became an acquaintance to me only through this blog. An ardent Kamal fan who would IM me in Yahoo messenger to find out about the Kamal movie/music review. We were chatting today on IM when we started discussing about European films and their sheer greatness when compared to Hollywood. As he works at Singapore, he gets to see a lot of them and made some worthy suggestions of European films which I have queued in my personal 'must-see' list. He also said European film had much superior screenplays which were atleast a decade ahead of these Hollywood ones.

From Malena to Facing Windows to 5*2 his list of European films kept growing.

Three different people, three different situtations and full of surprises. No yaps, just a joy.

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Started to read Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie this tuesday. I did get a chance to read this book when it released in '97. A friend passed me this book in when the book actually released in India and I took too much time sitting on the book and finally had to give it back without reading it.

Last year, after watching interviews of Mitch Albom on the cable, I was impressed by the book and did a exhaustible search for the book at the library. Either it was on hold by some damned book lover or it was rented out. Last week at the library, I digged it out from book shelf and picked it without much hesitation. Now after the first few chapters, I have to admit that I feel to have missed reading it then. Even knowledge acquisition has a destiny tied to it.

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The camera refuses to move. Stops panning and stands uptight on Vaiyaapuri's face as he comically remarks about the kidnap plan to the deaf Kamal Hassan. Half an inch more and Vaiyaapuri's nose would brush the camera lenses. What is an unrestrained close-up like this doing in this comedy film. Out-of-place, you would feel. So did I. As more-and-more similar shots came more-and-more closer to the characters, you know it's different. And by that definition of different, Mumbai Xpress is very different from the comedies that we have had before. It's an offshoot of on-the-road movie genre. By a unwritten rule, we have had on-the-road movies either being thriller or serious types. Mumbai Xpress tries to explore the arena of on-the-road comedies. It tries.

Even as Pasupathi(codenamed as A) etches the kidnap plan of a rich business magnet's son, to his sidekicks, the movie takes-off in a high speed. From then on, it runs express speed to hire Kamal Hassan in the kidnap plan and execute it. All of this told in a way that makes you think the movie was truly shot in a single day. Singeetham's directorial experience comes to play in executing this kidnap sequence with a professional touch. The Kidnap plan which looks like the plot of the story gets done with half hour with top class comical twists, turns from the top of a crane. The Vande Matharam sequence in the school being the best of all sequence in the movie.

While the first half completes with a bike chase, one is left to wonder how Kamal & Singeetham would manage to drag this rather simple story into the next half. The second half occupies the commercial aspects for the film. A rushed-up romance that wouldn't gel with the plot, introduction of new characters and new confusions in the aftermaths of kidnap and resolving these knots make up for a dragging second half. Even as I say that the second half goes dragging, there are scenes which make you laugh, like a typical Kamal Hassan comedy flick. Kamal chooses to end the film with a fiesta similar to Shrek.

A kidnap plan gone wrong, an innocent circus bike driver and a bunch of foolish amateur kidnappers gives enough time and space for an adept actor like Kamal Hassan to carve a niche for himself in the film. While acting as an innocent dude is something that Kamal does in most of his comedy flicks, also irritates a viewer who would expect assortment. With that Asterix type knot around his head and colorful bike, Kamal Hassan is all out for fun throughout.

Pasupathi is one who would be the most profited from the movie. Its his character that walks away with the cake, like the Gemini Ganesan of Avvai Shanmughi. Pasupathi talks a natural Tamil slang that just rocks. His voice modulation and his facial expressions just suits the 'Boss' role he plays. The scene where he tackles the traffic police alongwith Kamal, WOW. Manisha looks pale and is a misfit for the role. Naaser and Santhana Bharathi take similar roles they played in Anbe Sivam.

Sidharath's camera needs to lauded for the angels and some amazing free-flowing shots. But then, blame it on the digital movie-making that most of the effort gets wasted and overlooked. Its understandable that the crew is trying to use a movie-making which is even debated in the Hollywood but the audience were just not told of all these. An unassuming viewer would think that it's just an act of irresponsibility to have a movie show-up grains and poor picture clarity.

Illayaraja needn't have been there in the film. The songs needn't be hyped so much. The film would have managed well without songs too. Yelle Nee Ettippo which plays at the background has neat music in the album. All that got lost in the film and makes one feel that Illayaraja's efforts weren't paid-off properly.

As said its a beginning of a breed of movies in Tamil and could not pushed aside by overlooking. I don't seem to recall many on-the-road comedies atleast in Tamil. Thiruda Thiruda was a little adventurous than being a riot fare. Mamootty and Arvind Swamy's starrer Puthayal was of a similar type but Mumbai Xpress is out-right comedy with more logistics than logic. You may not be inspired to watch it again and again like Michael Madana Kama Rajan or Pesum Padam but you would certainly relish the moments of Mumbai Xpress.

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Discman is a dangerous instrument.

For that reason, any mobile music instrument that pops music only to your ears is dodgy. On a rather dull day, in the middle of a morning bus journey, when you listen to Illayaraja on discman, especially during a very enjoyable song like Andhi Mazhai[Raaja Paarvai], you might loose track of what's happening around you. Ecstatic. That very moment, you get a sudden irresistible urge to get up from your seats and just shout that song with arms wide open. Man, It would have been out of senses today, to do that.

Kettana Iravugal Suttana Kanavugal
Emaigalum Sumyadi Illamayiley !!.... Discman is a dangerous instrument, I tell you.

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Ram Murali was lucky enough to catch a preview of Mumbai Xpress. Also has put up a cool review on it. The first review of this movie. BTW, Mumbai Xpress gets red carpet welcome. Big-time marketing.

An amazing application of Google Maps and Craigslist. Try it out if you know what Craigslist is all about.

Didn't I tell you that this will happen, sooner or later. Adipolli Chetta !!

Schumacher races through Mount Road. In the future. Patience required.

Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi completes 1000 shows. Now Radhika has a new target to reach. Anyone watching mega serials ?

Anyone with a camcorder/ internet connection is now a film maker. The buzz last week on Google Video is now gone live. Upload your videos to Google. Great News to independent and short film-makers.

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Rajini's fans[which is obvious] with their hairstlye adapting Chandramukhi release.

[Pic:thatstamil]

Chandramukhi Ticket Pooja by my friends at Chennai.

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[Pic : Galatta]

Atleast Kamal was discussed fiercely in this blog recently. Gautam wasn't even in the scene. Just when I started to write a blogpost on his Kakkha Kakkha DVD commentary, Nitin commented about Gautam's new movie with Kamal named Vettayadu Vilayadu which was kicked off today in Chennai.

The last time when I was in a seminar, Gautam Menon who was one of the key speakers of the seminar went on to ask the audience what kind of story did they wanted him to make for Kamal. Many of what they said had really wonderful themes and roles for Kamal. But they said in an unified voice that they didn't want a police movie again from Gautam. Looks like he finally settled for a cop-in-racy-thriller.

From what Sify's article underlines this movie runs from New York to some village deep inside Tamil Nadu. Seems ver exciting for a tamil flick. I firmly believe Gautam can deliver it with Kamal Hassan on his league. Gautam can do better with Kamal like what Shankar did in Indian. He probably is one of the directors to watch out for. This is a very early break for him and looks like he wouldn't be turning back anymore. Instead of settling down with Harris, Gautam could have pursued A R Rahman to key in the tunes.

We already have Surya's Gajini with a slick look and Vettayaadu Villayaadu will also join the list of slick films expected next year. BTW, Surya's hair makeover for Gajini makes him look very tough and classy.

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I contested that it was a popular mis-quote to say Dalapathi/Guna was the last Rajini/Kamal release - Correct that as Devar Mahan/Pandiyan - A dozen movie-lovers contest me saying that I was also 'Popularly Mis-quoting'- Correct me that it was Muthu/Kurudhippunal - I wander around for facts - Thanks to IMDB I say - Add a P.S to the blog entry that the IMDB entries convey Muthu released during 1995 and Kurudhippunal on 1996 - Another dozen of fierce movie-lovers join hands with the existing lot to fight the my mis-quoting spree - Kick me up with facts and their nostalgic memoirs - I give up and accept - Stand Corrected - Write this entry - Thinking how stupid it was to believe IMDB - I eat my own humble pie.

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[Pic: rediff]

This is an one-off situtation. I am not sure if we would get to encounter this situation again in Tamil cine history. It can happen, I'm not sure. Just like now when most of us had decided that the joy of having a Rajini and Kamal film released on the same day would never come again. And as popularly mis-quoted everywhere, it's wasn't Dalapathi and Guna which went head-on together for the last time. It was Devar Mahan and Paandiyan Kurudhi Punal and Muthu. I've had really good memories about that Diwali. To recollect, I and a group of friends went to Pandiyan in a suburb theatre at St. Thomas Mount. Came back truly upset. Took a 'J' bus to Tambaram to watch Devar Mahan immediately. Came out and went in again to watch it again. Devar Mahan rocked. Paandiyan fell flat to Devar Mahan.

Dalapathi/Guna was another story, not-so-good to re-collect. It's again a diwali day, when a few mad group of people set fire to Guna's banner at the theatre complex. I had watched Dalapathi the day before on a premiere show, at EGA theatre. Wanted to see it again and took off to Udhayam. Guna and Dalapathi were poised on the same complex and the hell-broke-loose. That was the time when I thought, that's it. There were rumors that Kamal/Rajini went on a arrangement not release their movies on the same day. It's profitable for them this way.

All these aren't re-collected to sensationalize the whole issue of Chandramukhi and Mumbai Xpress releasing together. But just to be aware of the fact that this may not happen again. I am not writing it off but then I give this fact a benefit of the doubt. Last time during Devar Mahan-Pandiyan this fact didn't even strike me. It happened that way and after close to a decade their movies are releasing together.

Now, you could argue that they are just movies of two heroes and why hero worship them and make a blogpost as a prelude to the movies. Come on guys, let's be free thinking. Growing up in India, you have to love cricket and movies. Everyone in India has a favorite cricketer and a fave actor/actress. Back in Tamil Nadu, there is a Kollywood that's as popular and as dreamy as the Hollywood. If you grew up there, chances are you would definitely take sides with these two gentlemen, Kamal Hassan and Rajini, for they have a huge impact on the Tamil entertainment industry.

For every Rajini film that releases, Kodambakkam decorates itself. Rajini's movies may not be classy but it pays off commercially. People come in hundreds to watch Rajini send giggles through their spines. They love to watch his stunts, style and believe him to be a part of their family. Accepted that he is not. But what would you and me do. They love him. He is the Super Star and there is no compromises to it. He holds on this title for more than two decades. Period.

For ever Kamal Hassan film releasing, Kodambakkam cleanses itself from the sins of silly movies produced. They expect him to raise the bars of Tamil films. Film Critics wake-up from their long sleep and roll-up the sleeves to checkout for the silly loopholes that they could harp on their so-called-reviews[mostly re-telling the stories]. People want to see what's the difference in his movies. Which diguise he has on-screen, which costume he wears, which slang of tamil[Don't put word in my mouths- PKS] he talks like real and what not. They expect Kamal to do the change. At the sametime they expect Rajini to do the same thing over and over. People power. And that's the way entertainment life goes on, at Tamil Nadu.

Sit for a first-day-first-show Rajini movie. But a highly priced ticket, Boo, make cat-calls, shout Thalaiva, throw lotteries, yell like mad, get you vocal chords screwed-up and enjoy completely. That's Rajini for you.

Sit for a Kamal movie, whichever show on the first day. Allow yourself to be shocked, be moved to the edge of tears, enjoy his new techniques of film-making, appreciate his smart-thinking, understand romancing a girl, chew gum, watch the movie in silence and come back home hoping that your thinking was elevated by 20%. That's Kamal Hassan.

These dudes have given bad and good movies from time to time. Having enjoyed both of them, this April 14th could be( I say 'could be') your last chance to witness posters of their movies on Chennai walls being pasted together. All those Chennaites, live through the time. Enjoy. Envy You.

P.S:
a) For those who wondered how a Kamal post followed a Rajini post un-intentionally, here is a post with them, together.

b) BTW, What's Vijay doing in this Gladiator battlefield inbetween Kamal/Rajini. I'm just keeping tight because who knows Sachin(Sachein) might become a winner. None can say.

c) (Apr 10th) - There's a little mis-quote issue going on, in the comments section. Someone said the last time when Rajini/Kamal movie released together was Muthu/Kurudhi Punal. Have a look Muthu entry and Kurudhi Punal entry on IMDB. Muthu was on 1995 diwali and Kurudhi Punal was on 1996[Summer, I suppose]. Gotcha !!

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So the article on Cinema Weblogs, featuring this blog, is on Hindu's chennai edition today. That's comforting. Also they added a bunch of blogs to the tail piece. They missed Anand this time too. Anti, Vijay, Ram and our Madras Blogger Meet blog got a mention. Thanks to Anti for passing on the message.

Is Kodambakkam reading ? Please do.

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[Pic: sprout.org]

The moment anything is reported or written, truth suffers. This is one of the most fundamental points in reporting news. The eye witness narrative is the most sought out at such times. At all possibility, the eye witness brings his perspective of the news. The moment a perspective is brought in, subjectivity creeps in. He selects which part of the news has to be told, which part of the news he remembers, which part he forgets and which part he compels himself to hide. Thus selection of the scene from eye witness becomes inevitable. Finally, the truth suffers. So what happens when truth suffers?

I copy pasted the above paragraph from my Virumandi movie review without any changed. And that suits Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. Rather it's the other way. But blame it on me watching Rashomon only now. Rashomon can be celebrated as one of the best all-time movies. I would personally say it's the most simplest movie ever taken. With the story, screenplay, camera, sets, costumes and all being so simple, the movie was terrific. It was a quaintly gripping. Rashomon is certainly a tour-de-france in it's own way. For a B &W movie, it had elements of international cinema which could be referenced and debated even now.

Rashmon, a place of workship which was once a building of faith is in shambles. Three men discuss on a extra-ordinary event which two of them witnessed. Eachone has a version of the story. Where the heck is truth. It's said that the story of Rashomon was built from a shortstory called, In the Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. But it was Kurosawa's dealing with it made it a evergreen classic. Even in such a negative thread that runs throughout the movie it's Kurosawa's brilliance that made all them seem positive at the end. The last scene where the wood cutter walks with
the newborn talks volumes about the gist of the movie. The woodcutter with his heads raised, walks away from Rashomon, carrying the kid in his hand and the sun shining behind him. Metaphorically, the promise for a better future lies only with such altruistic random acts of people, at times of emergency. Class act !!.

I am not sure if the building Rashomon was an erected set or not but it was completely realistic and the rain was perfect. It brought in the required tension without any 360 degree panned jimmy-jip angles. The chasing scenes had some amazing shots with the camera rushing down a bushy slope. Something I got to see for the first time only in Mani Ratnam's Pagal Nilavu song. Akira Kurosawa must have been an expert even before he shot Rashomon to have such clarity in the scene sequencing techniques. The protagonist Toshirô Mifune as Tajomoru just walked with best actor award.

For those who haven't seen, watch it without expectations. You can be positive that you will be rewarded in the end.

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Someone with a smiling face approached me at a grocery store when I was busily hunting for a three way lamp. It was a desi. That was unusual. For a desi to smile at you in US, it should comply with these rules, either he knows you or he needs something done by you. I don't know him. My 7 to the power 12th sense alerted me.

"Hey howyodo?", says he.
"Doing good, You ?", reading seriously the carton of GE's three-way lamp.
"So you work here ?"
"You mean this grocery store, No !!". I thought he believed me to a cart push-boy there.
"That was funny.... I meant in Seattle", says he with an instant laugh.
"Yeah", answering and reading the same lamp carton again. Get lost, dude.
"Want to work on free time ?. I've got couple-a guys workin on part-time for me ".
I took three bulbs and said,"My hands are already full, like this". Was curious on what area where those couple-a guys were working.
He continues without listening, "Its an e-commerce business that they are working on. Good Money".
I googled my brain and sensed what he was upto. Asked,"And whats it called ?"
He said,"It's called q..............."

I know. I know I know. Vudu Joot. BTW, goto pickup those three-way lamps tomorrow.

P:S - It's only after this post, I realized I am so bad at writing direct speech. Punctuation sucks big time. Dialogue writing is a great art and not my cup of tea, atleast now. But don't worry Mani Ratnam, I can improve ;-)

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It's been quite a while since Allirajan, a senior editor of Hindu, had mailed me asking about weblogs on Tamil Cinema. A blog reader Ratnavel had pointed him to this blog and he had a list of questions on cinema blogs. I wrote back to him with my responses and also pointed to other cinema based weblogs like Teakada and Mdeii Anand. Allirajan came back after few weeks to know more about Blogger meet. I replied back with a commentary of a recent blogger meet and few pictures taken during the meet.

This happened more than 6 months back and I had completely forgotten about it. Today the column about cinema weblogs, The World of Reel Time Weblogs, is on The Hindu's Metro Plus Coimbatore section and it features this blog. Ofcourse there are a few spell mistakes[THEY mis-spelled Teakada as Taekada] and a mistake that there was a cinema bloggers meet that I had organised. I did organise blogger meet but it was a general one and not specific to cinema blogs.

As said rightly, though it's my personal space and I write on what I like to discuss, it's the readers who make/break a blog post with their comments. The recent post on Kamal Hassan did have the least of my participation and it was an amazing gathering of thoughts. No, No it's isn't a cliched filmfare speech where our hero says, "Thanks to all fans who supported me thoroughout". The damn our hero would actually bother.

Forget all that it's cool to have your blog featuring on Hindu, I say.

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[click on the pic to enlarge]

Damn Funny!!. Via Venki.

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Business Standard has a well analyzed column, Southern ditty, on the new kollywood music directors.

Podcasting proves popular. The minute Blogger founder EvHead's ODEO is on BETA, I'm trying it out just to checkout even if I may have no listeners.

What's latest in realityTV, you ask. Britney documents her love life with Kevin Federline as a six part series for UPN Channel. Who's watching ?

How is GMAIL's storage counter still running. Simple, they have added one more digit to the decimal part and hence seems like it's running fast but it is actually slow. It's kind of irritating to see a number running always at the side of GMAIL homepage. Urges me shout, WILL YOU STOP THAT CLOCKING !!

Chat with Amit Sana, the Indian Idol runner-up, today. BTW, my post on Indian Idol turned into a discussion board and there are already more 500 comments on it. Looking at the flood of comments, I closed the comments for this blogpost. After getting a few emails asking to re-open the comments section, I opened it up again. I ain't sure when my backend dB would crash because of this.

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Thalaivar movie in Redmond.

I don't say that. Seattle Tamil Sangam's website says it all. When the you say, you know the amount of enthusiasm behind that. Looks like they had issues in getting the Chandramukhi potti over the weekend. And so it's on a weekday, a Wednesday/Thursday. It's already a week late from the release and on a weekday. Still, appreciate the people working behind to get the show premiered.

It's on the Bella Botega Theatres, Redmond on Wednesday 20 April - 7:30 PM and also on Thursday 21 April 7:00 PM. Sulekha comes to use, finally. You can book tickets here on Sulekha. All thalaivar fans are requested to come with a poster of Rajini to make the place feel like home. I'm not sure if I can make it though. Though Redmond isn't far away, I'm not mobile to move around. Anyone promising a pickup/drop for me to the movie, will hopefully, by god's grace, get a year long project extension and their green card approved through PERM.

For more on movie premeire at Seattle contact, Sujatha Rajarajan[sujatharajarajan@hotmail.com] at 425-557-8337. Via Raj.

Disclaimer - If the next post is on Kamal, please don't blame me. It isn't intentional.

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It's a pain. I meant the phone cards. There are good ones and then there are bad ones. Some steal money and some steal minutes. Either way, you stand to loose those precious quarters and cents. If you are a desi, you would have succumbed to the diabolic world of phone cards. It's only through a phone card you might communicate, Amma Sowkiyama, Appa Bankla Check pottaachaa, Ammamma eppidi irukka in a single breath to reduce your the minutes running out of a phone card. When you do this a phone card would stay for longer days, allowing you to say more Sowkiyamas for 10 days. There are also cards with which you call up on a sunday and talk all the 45 minutes in one full stretch. I prefer the former. The later might carry a potential problem. You would have nothing to talk for more than 20 minutes and just to evaporate the remaining minutes, you even ask for, What happened to Mettiyoli's Bose mama ? or gossip about Pakkath aathu Gaachu aunty. That's boring.

Starting from 5c a minute or less there are all types of phone cards which rarely connect, usually disconnects abruptly and would round-off for 6 minutes making to blink with jaws wide open. Whatsoever, you just can get out of the clutches of these rectangular credit card sized telephone cards which have flashy colors and a rani-mukherjee-on-her-mobile-phone picture on the corner.

When someone told me Reliance Infocomm has a pre-paid option to India, I discounted it thinking about the state of Reliance telephones in India. Reliance in India has become junta's mobilephone. And you know what happens when you go-public. The rich and the poor buy it while the middle-class fearing misuse is still hanging around with Aircel/tel/whatever types. While Reliance's market is so huge the customer service is pathetic. They have definitely improved their billing system but it might take a few years to reach corporates and upper-middle class.

While I was busy typing a toll-free, a pin number and an Indian telephone number before I could hear someone say Hello, my friends were calling India without too much hassle using Reliance Call India. I set to try out Reliance. Reliance India Call really rocks, I should say. After tons of bitter experiences with the 10c phone cards, Reliance charging 12c a minute just doesn't matter. They don't eat minutes, steal money in the name of rounding-off or make you embarassed by disconnecting on the middle of the call with your In-laws. All you do is sign-up, give your plastic money details and then just register you US home/mobile number. Pickup a $5 card option or whatever that suits of your talking capacity!! From the registered phone, call up the toll-free Reliance number, it automatically recognizes your number and you just dial-up the India number. Vrooooom. Before you could lift you fingers from the number pad, Amma says, Ennada Kanna Saaptaacha. I love it.

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[GMAIL's Bottomless Graph]

This is old news if you have already checked your GMAIL today. So go-getters, skip it and move onto the next blog on your list.

You get an online storage space from Gmail as Google's engineers keep increasing the space to the undefinable capacity of infinity + 1. Now if that sounds like an exaggeration and if you are looking for a number in terms of storage space, make it 2GB. Can you see the impression of the Gmail's bottomless glass up on the image. That's the plan.

As of now you see a running number on the GMAIL page. If you haven't see, check that out. That means, you GMAIL account will have a storage space of the interger part of the number. As of now my GMAIL screen shows a running total of 1139.xxxxxx MB. That means, if you login to your account now and see the storage space available, it would be 1138 MB. It keeps increasing and isn't that an amazing way to say the speed of increase of storage space. Well crafted marketing strategy. Way to go, GMAIL.

As GMAIL completes a year since they thought a 1GB email account was a joke of the year on the same day of April 1st, GMAIL team kept adding features onboard such that they are close to what other email providers deliver. Just today, the rich text features have arrived making GMAIL richer. However, I still prefer to use gmail using plain text. Some people don't change.

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