Chenthil is presently the most linked man in the Indian Blogosphere. With his blogpost on the moral policing happening at Chennai, the blogosphere seems afresh and there is so much of linking and debating going on in this issue. I have my own crib on the Tamil media/matter/morality issue. Nilu is calling for a Lagaan team to show what bloggers are for the system. Check out, you might be interested.

Ammani's recent quick tale a.k.a fast fiction[as I like to call it], Death of a Friend, was fantastic. We are such humongous hypocrites !!

They wouldn't allow a 'good' director to stay in shape. Ab Tak Chhappan's Shimit Amin signs-up for a Yash Chopra banner starring Shahrukh. Rule No.1 in B(K)ollywood - If anyone makes meaningful cinema, make him direct an outright masala as his next movie and he will become one among equals. Huh !!

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara could be a masterpiece but Urmila, like Kamalhassan, talks too much about the subject during the release of the film. The dudes at Rediff title the interview as Meet Urmila, Gandhian Thinker. Give me a break !!. I am eager to watch it, however.

Oli Oviyar(!!) Thankar Bachan's Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy takes a beating from The Hindu. Update - Get appreciated by Vikatan [44/100].

The ban over the on-screen smoking in television is pushed to Jan 1, 2006. Inimey vaithaaa vaithaa vaithaa thaan. Read previous cribs on the ban here and here.

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[Image - RSKworld]

With the ideal husband / lovable loverboy looks, Arvind Swamy was the perfect drool over material of 90's. Now, sports a tiny french beard and seems like a Pritish Nandy wannabe. Via Sneha.

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Update - Usually an update is done at the end of a post. This is to show that I do budge for the dynamic comments that are springing-up on this post and those 3 long-time friends who wrote emails about this blog post.

One - I am not sure after seeing the movie, if I will agree/dis-agree with this 'comment-turned-review'. I could be wrong enough to put the review but wasn't it rightly named as Breaking news quick review and not a Roeper-Ebert's Analyzed review.
Two - It's pasted here as a review not because I don't like the movie. I was probably the first on the blogosphere to show love(!!) on Ghajini, when the movie was announced and my adoration towards Murugadoss' skills. Read this blogpost dated Feb 12, 2005, Surya and Murugadas join hands for Gajini. BTW, where is this breaking news dude, a lot of them are searching for him desperately. Deivamey(!!) enga poiteenga ??

Alert If you really want to read the quick review after all this hungama, click the link below. Else join the fun by reading only the comments here.

Breaking News Balaraman has a quick review of Gajini on the comments section. Thought it would be worth pasting here.

My sevudaa ponna ears are just limping back to Normal after watching Gajini @MayaJaal.

* The background music is horrible - Why is it that Music Directors, even good ones like HJ, seem to produce their best only when the director is also good ? The extremely loud bg music is very jarring, esp with sound system in the hands of the guy who seems to be the cousin of the sound operator at Satyam ;-). Even the songs that sound good are jarring in the theatre.

* Whatever happened to villains who can actually speak in Tamil ? or act for that matter ?They seem to be going the way of actresses. Double villain combo + Villain himself - not very convincing.

* I heard a couple of college students discussing the level of Violence in the movie and wondering if it had a 'A' rating for violence. It's pretty violent in places.

* First half is pretty is a bit of drag and the college crowd had a field day finishing the lines ahead of the actors, with their wise cracks etc. Very loose and noticeably sags, esp with the dumb story line about Asin not knowing who Sanjay Ramasamy is. During the interval that all the college students were cracking short-term-memory loss jokes.

* Good bubbly performace from Asin - I just saw Ullam Ketkume two days back. The difference from her first movie is obvious, especially the amount of work that has gone into re-doing her face :-D

* Surya despite attempts by Murugadoss to screw him, turns in a good performance - After Ayidha Ezhuthu, Madan (cartoonist + madan's thirai paarvai) said that Surya can never over act again. I am surprised by how well he underplays his role and with good effect. Poor guy just needs a good break.

* I haven't seen Memento. Not sure how much was copied/inspired. Murugadoss tries to go back and forth with flashbacks - but it is not very cogently done as in AE. Looseness - that's what I would say characterises the whole effort. Take the songs for instance - most of them just start off when you are not expecting them. It's very obvious that the director decided there would be n songs in this movie - nothing wrong with that, except that he doesn't know how to do it. Pathetic editing as well. Pathetic and amateurish usage of Graphics in some of the fight sequences.

Verdict: Murugadoss - You spent eight crores on this ?

Note to Tamil Film Industry: Don't blame thiruttu VCDs for all your problems. You guys are "the" problem.

Best watched at home where you have more control over the sound.

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[Image - Google Video and Photographic Channel]

No, I'm not blowing my anger here for the hack attempt. Its the name of a tamil movie trailer.

Google Video is already up and googling through it yesterday, when my blog was under siege, I discovered a bunch of Tamil videos uploaded there. From Ah Aha TV trailer to a full song from a recent tamil movie February 14 to UNICEF's report on Tsunami. I've now idea how Google is going to tackle the rights issues of these videos. Most film videos seem to be submitted by individuals and the producing corporations are going to be tad angry on these video releases.

This movie trailer, Poda Un Moonjila En Kaiya Veikka is supposed to be a parody on tamil films. Though it seems like a bunch of college dudes doing some funny-like-stuff on tamil movies, its been mixed and titled so well that it can be called as a parody itself. However amateur it seems, we are going to witness such home videos and amateurish small movies on video offerings the online world offers. As Mani Ratnam quoted in a recent interview, Filmmaking will become a lot more personal. It will become like writing. Anybody will be able to make a film. There are not only Kollywood parodies, Bollywood is no exception. Dont Stop Till You Get To Bollywood is a music video like parody on bollywood dance sequences.

I did bump on finally something gripping and more serious attempt in Google Video. Jonathan Torgovnik's Bollywood Dreams attempts to document Indian Film Industry as a bunch of picture postcards. The image above is from Bollywood Dreams short film and it somehow went so well with the title of the post.

This short documentary runs a little more than 5 mins and has been produced by the Photographic Channel. It is one man's observation on the Indian Film industry. Jonathan has travelled around India to capture photographs about India cinema both in the sets and in theatres. He is particularly amazed about the cinema posters. He says South India sports the cut-out culture and he is so fascinated by them. To add why I loved this documentary is that it captures on my interests, the cinema posters. I've clicked tons of pictures on posters, cutouts, banners, DVD covers and whatever assosiated with cinema advertisement. Some of them are also on the photoblog. Coming back, the documetary also briefly touches upon the touring talkies and the economics of a touring talkies. Good one. Don't miss it and keep Googlling for videos.

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[Image - Sound Wizard]

These guys at Sound Wizard are professional designers of acoustic systems and architectural acoustics. Their clients list boasts of a super superstar.

A R Rahman's music recording studio was designed and erected by these guys. It's been something that many of us enjoy to peek into. The pictures and tech details about the studio will do the rest of talking. Thanks to RadhaKrish for the pointer.

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So if you thought the suspension of account was because I stopped paying the hosting bills, I wasn't. The account was suspended without my knowledge. Yesterday morning, when I clicked laygeek.com bookmark even before brushing my teeth, I saw the account suspended message. So what did I do? Went over and brushed my teeth. Very funny.

I logged a ticket and the friends at TCH replied that the abuse department is looking into it as they suspected some Movable Type & comments abuse. I had no clue of the abuse so I was assuming all the 'junk' that was written is long gone. Much to the wrath of the abuser, the blog content a.k.a junk is all back. Anyway, its not worth blowing into a big issue. But if only the data was also gone, I would have been angered.

The reply from the TCH friends is soothing and they kind of say that the blog is being fetched more than enough times a day that it deserves a dedicated server. FYi, A dedicated server costs $79 a month !! I am not sure if dedicated server would be an immediate solution but I know that I lodge the blog content on blogger and Google would take care of it. So I'm looking to go back to Blogger and this is the probably the fourth time that I'm ranting on the moveback to Blogger. Until such day, there is a choice to upgrade Movable Type 2.61 to the free version of Movable Type 3.

Though it took the hosting company some time, I'm happy that they got things back in shape. Thanks. I am still pursuing to get more details on the 'abuse'. But then things are back and so cool. Here's the reply that I got from the hosters.

Your account is back online.

At some point in the near future you may need to consider a fully dedicated server. As your account grows more and more, it consumes more and more resources. As in the case of your site, your blog is growing fast and this is great. However, with success sometimes comes costs.

For now we will do our best to continue to serve your site.

I am very sorry for the way this ticket was handled. Several of our technicians are off this week with vacation time and sick leave, so we are a tad short staffed.

If there is anything I can do to help you transition into a dedicated server, please let me know.

Romba Nandri guys for writing-in, sending snapshots of suspended blog page, commenting on someone else's blog about this blog's status and g-talking with me on the death of a blog. Prabhu even offered space to write until the blog is back. Didn't want to do show that philim. I am sure no one would be starving if the blog was down for a day. And ofcourse, it was like a compulsory vacation.

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They are not allowing me to stop ranting on this subject. Just when I was about to close the Fox on Fire[FireFox..hee hee] and catch some sleep, I see this link on Sri Hari's movie lane and that's enough to blow my sleep.

The last sin they commited was to give Page 3 a national award and now they are selection a bunch of sloppy movies to go to the Oscars. I have been shouting lonely here, here and here on the comedy of sending Indian films to Oscars and to baffle me they have considered nominating films like Anniyan and Sachein. Probably someone's making a mock of Oscar nominations from India.

First of all I don't agree with this joke and even in the wildest of my dreams, if I agree, Swades and Black are two good contenders for the nomination. I know Amol Palekar as a great actor but haven't watched any of his films including Paheli so gub-chup.

Anway for all of you to enjoy, I have selected text from the reviews of Sachein and Anniyan. You could relax on your seat and take a trip back to these movies !!

Sachein was horrendous. When the movie was announced, from the posters, I sensed that it was a going to be a 3 hour long advertisement like Minsara Kanavu. It ended up just as expected and was also hugely non-interesting. Yet another good example of how a movie can bore you to the core because of bad/no screenplay.

Sometimes tributes end up as screw-ups. Though being inspired and inspired again by his movies, Shankar fails poorly to display his tact in handling social subjects with proficient ease. Anniyan ends up being a bad exercise in execution and is undoubtedly a defective tribute to his own classics. I was sold even during the first 15 minutes of the movie. After that, just like a bad one day cricket match, the movie treads into an unrealistic path with a face mask of realism, only to bore you and me to the core.

Comedy Time-pa !!

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Google's official birthday is on Sep 7th of every year. Even last year it was on the same date. Donno why they have this birthday logo on their homepage today. It's probably on 28th Sep, 1998 that they opened their first office at Menlo Park, California. With the buzz happening everyday around Google, one would assume Googleplex must be the most happening place for geeks. I may not agree with that. With all the buzz that's happening, these guys continue to strive hard to innovate ways that could tackle the ever-expanding web. And that's why we have apps springing-up from Google, every friday, like a Jaishankar movie.

A friend had a good question, "These dudes are creating word-class applications and giving it away for free. How the heck will a business model that supports such give-away decisions be firm ?". We know that the main source of revenue for Google is through Ads other than other smaller sources of income like the corporate licensing of search engine etc. With $3.7 billion at their pockets this year, I am sure a considerable amount of money would eb spent on market research to study the market conditions. And these guys aren't oblivious to the fact that there are numerous dudes who have lost sleep because of them and they are over-working to throw Google away. Even if what I said could be wrong, these guys may be set to break the rule, that they create world-class apps, give it for free and still prosper in business.

Just today, I read Marissa Mayer's profile at Business Week. Marrisa Mayer is a product manager at Google and is said to be the brain behind the new innovations at Google. And more than her profile, the column, though not-so-well-written, talks about how fresh ideas are inspired and nutured till the end at Google. Here's how Google innovates.

Sergey and Larry didn't know HTML[Via] when they started Google. I am not joking. It's only because of that Google doesn't have a cluttered interface. Ignorance is bliss. As you notice the Google page today, the no of indexed pages count is dropped and it looks more cleaner than every before.

With the recent rumor about Google providing free wi-fi across US of A, as Buzz Machine calls it the Googlopoly may be named as United States of Google.

Anyway, if you are tad against what I have to say on Google here, do login to GMAIL and see what a killer app it is. Despite the fact that EMAIL had existed every since Sabeer Bhatia chose to call it Hotmail. And thats just one reason why we should agree Google can see beyond the horizon of internet.

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Even as I am contemplating to include myself in the workaholics list, I hate Sundays. The only reason is that they have a following Monday, week after week. And that's pretty irritating.

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In a superbly written post, Anand deals with infinite possibilites of making Ponniyin Selvan and why he wants to make it into a "diachronic superstory".

Virumandi and Human Genome Project. What a connection ? Tilotamma thinks there exists a genetic marker.

Keerthi says Chandramukhi 175. Now wait for Sivaji.

SJ Surya and Superstar's Wishk Whisk. Sudhish lists why Ah Aha was never a Haa Haa !!

Chenthil pitches his arguments against Pa. Raghavan's Vikatan column. Arun has a detailed commentary on the same column, in Tamil.

Bharath has well written post on Ganguly, Greg and Stats Guru. I couldn't agree with him on the stats issue but was quite hilarious.

Finally, the Handbook For Bloggers is available as PDF and Kiruba points it to be here.

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[Click for a bigger image]

Seattle was busy this weekend. The main newsmaker was that Seattle Tunnel which was closed yesterday. Seattle's tunnel unlike the one in other cities doesn't feature tubes. Once the buses from the suburb entered the downtown, most of them go via the tunnel. Starting yesterday, they sealed it for the next two years when it will be equipped to run tubes as well as buses. And there were celebrations through out last week, arranged by the King County travel department. Some pictures that were shot using my mobile camera are on the Seattle photoblog.

The downtown traffic would just get heavier from the coming week with all the underground traffic moving above and I am expecting that it wouldn't cause any delays. Throughout the last weekend, people were flicking pictures all along the tunnel that they are going to miss for the next two years. It was certainly a sight to watch and reminded me of people who took their last journey on the Old Chennai electric train a year back. Wherever you go, the cities & its people may be different but the emotion is all the same. An universal truth that is.

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I am going to enjoy the new yahoo mail. No doubt about it. The new Yahoo mail which has added Ajax technology to make the mail app look like desktop mail application. Many of us who are used to Outlook's look and feel are going to enjoy the virtual Outlook through Yahoo Mail.

But this review on WSJ by Walter Mossberg is certainly biased to a large extent. From the review -

Similarly, Gmail forces you to view ads alongside your emails. Unlike Yahoo, it offers no paid option to avoid the ads.

I'm sure Gmail will get better and better, and will eventually adopt the new programming techniques that allow desktop-like ease of use. But I'm not sure Google's arrogance will ever make room for user preferences on things like folders or ads, or how emails are grouped.

Yahoo's new email program would blow Gmail away if it were widely released today. That's partly due to its features, but also to its respect for user choice.

GMAIL, when it was introduced last year, it was appreciated for being radical in approach and not following the boring and conventional method of email maintenance. The replacement of folders to labels was similar to Web 2.0's tagging. And if someone doesn't understand what tagging is all about, cribbing about GMAIL changing folders to label doesn't stand up to the levels of WSJ's reputation.

I googled, googled and googled throughout the review to see if there was a mention of free POP access that GMAIL give. Yahoo was giving free access and then took it back few years back. I am not sure which user doesn't want POP access which GMAIL gives. Not everyone might need it but the idea of re-opening POP was done only by GMAIL. And the stingy 4 MB limit of yahoo mail was raised to 1 GB only to counter GMAIL 1 GB storage. This news of yahoo raising its limits after being forced by GMAIL indirectly is comfortably forgotten in the review.

And what an dramatically sweeping statement that is to say Yahoo's new email program would blow Gmail away. I have to say NO WAY. Yahoo may be the top notch on webmail as of today and may introduce the Oddpost way of email to the online community. But it's because of GMAIL that the email revolution 2 started and I assume its the first product to be used by millions of people even when its in BETA. So there goes the Yahoo pride !!

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Now you know why they said it could be Memento. Anyway, seems like Gajini aka Ghajini would be out by 29th. Not just us, even the Hindu is waiting for Gajini. Check out IndiaGlitz's Ghajini website. Don't miss the trailer that explains it all.

Alongwith Murugadoss and Surya there are Kakkha Kakkha fame cinematographer RD Rajasekar and Editor Antony to add value. All the best team !!

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[Pic - Dhanush and his 'team' in Pudhupettai. Thanks Vikatan]

7G Rainbow Colony made me think, this dude has understood the language of screen than many other seniors of the Tamil film industry. Though I didn't vibe exactly with what Selvaraghavan tried to convey in 7G Rainbow Colony, I thought it was a much superior and a matured effort than the 'Guna'ish Kadhal Konden.

Selvaraghavan mostly dwells (from the 3 movies he has made/contributed) on the yuppie side of adolescence with a thin line of pathos running throughout the movie. It�s this thin line that�s developed into a much larger issue at the climax. The major focus when the movie starts is usually shifted to this under developed sub-plot by the time the movie progresses into the first hour. Now what does this mean? Kadhal Konden started with a happy note on college and what seemed like a college romance suddenly turned into a nail-biting thriller and the guy who seemed as a hero-of-the-friend was developed into a sort of semi-hero. The movie has its own share of silly college comedy and inspirations from several films. I for once certainly didn't expect Dhanush to turn into a psycho. It came as a sweet shock to me.

7G Rainbow Colony was a complete effort and had Selvaraghavan sparkling as a director. It may not have had the unexpected twists and turns like Kadhal Konden but it had an honest depiction of mediocrity. Infact, it is one of those movies that celebrates mediocrity. Except for that abrupt ending which was a thorn, I enjoyed most part of it.

Selvaraghavan like some of the best directors knows what audience love to see on screen. Even if they don't like what he shows he knows to brain-wash them with those fabulous set of images [shot by Arvind Krishna, always] to his way of thinking. He knows how to convert a set of ASCII characters of the shooting script into moving images that resemble real life. I enjoyed his series in Vikatan called Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal.

If we were listing the future architects of kollywood, Selvaraghavan definitely has a pole position. And in the movies to come, I would expect him to capture life as-it-is with more vivid images and compelling stories.

So why would I hate him when one is all praises for him. It�s his personality that one can see in every character he shapes. A writer certainly has his personality in some form or other, whether he consciously does it or not, in his characters. A lot of Sujatha's character can be seen in his characters. Actually it�s tough to write a book/script by hiding your inherent smartness/dumbness. Selvaraghavan has his personality, his body language hidden in both of his protagonists. What we thought to be Dhanush's body language and dialogue delivery skills in Kadhal Konden was replicated by Ravi Krishna in 7G Rainbow colony. And it's irritating. Annoying to know it wasn't Dhanush's own talent for which we can take back the accolades given to him on the Kadhal Konden reviews. Also annoying to know that Selva is also like his guru Balachander. And this crib of Balachander's way to dialogue delivery is imbibed with all his heroines. From Sujatha to Suhasini to Geetha to the girl in Premi, I hate when that body language is repetitive. All of them are radical protagonists like the Sidney Sheldon girls but it�s truly an over-kill when they walk, talk and act like Balachander himself.

Anyway, I was so impressed by the stills of his next movie Pudupet which stars his famous combo Dhanush-Sonia Agarwal (my fave). His interview[userid/pass required] to Vikatan tells that the movie is a about North Madras and it deals with people as they are. The picture of Sonia Agarwal as a girl from the kuppam seems too good to make me await the movie. I am sure Selvaraghavan would Chennai as it is. Sitting here in Seattle that's one thing I would love to see.

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It was Moondraampirai played in a loop. It was 50 First Dates. It had Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore starring. It had some pathetic dialogues like You are the girl for me and I'm the man for you. Still, it wasn't boring. It was a light-hearted comedy. And above all it would make a great tamil film, if made without introducing anymore thaali sentiment.

The E.T kid is now a babe and she does the role with a perfect ease and full of grace. Though annoyingly loud, Adam Sandler does his Waterboy thing again. They only thing that didn't gel with the movie is the Hawaiian backdrop for the movie. Its evident that the director chose a background like that to make the audience believe that the girl really didn't have a chance to knwo the truth. On a city like Manhattan or even SFO, she could easily bump onto the truth of dates with the TV or the people around. Making her world smaller in this small countryside village, he was able to convince the audience. But the truth is that we aren't used for a countryside romance from Hollywood. The last movie that I enjoyed with a similar setup was A Walk in the Clouds and it was nice then.

Not the kind of movie I would love to watch everytime but certainly more laughs per hour. Taking a guess on who would be flicking this movie in Tamil, I would say Charan(from his Jay Jay - Serendipity combo). And you ?

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The Chennaites crib of not being able to watch the Best of Hollywood from being in Chennai. Cinema Paradiso and Tik Tak are two good stores that I know which rent DVDs. Sadly they both are located at Abiramapuram. I am not sure it there is a better shop somewhere at Adyar or Egmore.

They may not supply all of the best but its a good start. When they opened up they charged more than 100 bucks as a single DVD's rent. Seems like they have reduced the rental since then and they have also expanded to Hyderabad and Bangalore. I am not sure of what prompted them to expand in Calcutta instead of Mumbai where they might get some good market.

Santhosh, the guy who, alongwith Vaan Nila Tharum fame Richard started Cinema Paradiso talks to The Telegraph on their recent expansion to Calcutta and also drops few names here and there. From the interview -

“Kamal Haasan, (A.R.) Rahman and I used to exchange DVDs, before I started off my parlour with just 300 titles from a tiny place in Chennai’s Alwarpet in 2003 along with my partner Richard,” recalls the 32-year-old software engineer from Trichy.

Collecting DVDs went hand-in-hand with his camera cameos, first during a stint with Mani Ratnam’s cinematographer P.C. Shriram, and then with Hungarian lens ace Vilmos Zsigmond, who had worked with Spielberg in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. “I collaborated with Zsigmond in Rush Hour in Hollywood and then also worked in Playing by Heart, starring Sean Connery and directed by Willard Carrol,” says Santhosh, who is set to return with his camera to the Ratnam stable soon. Cinema Paradiso has remained a parallel passion, though.

With DVDs rental lowering down to Rs.50, I am happy chennaites would crib too much and Nilu doesn't have to travel so far to watch Mulholland Dr.

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Business Week carries a series of articles on Best of New Web aka Web 2.0.

Along with a bunch of Web Picks there are article on Blogs, Taggin' and ofcourse the very impressive AJAX. If you are a newbie to Web 2.0, they are a must read.

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The show is all set. The tickets are on sale for the Bangalore venue. Click on the image above for a bigger version of the poster and ticket details. If you are in need of tickets, there have a bunch of Rahmaniacs from bangalore co-ordinating the effort. Email Radha for tickets and you can rock to Rahman's Humma Humma.

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[Pic - Amazon

First Off, I haven't read this book. Infact, the book itself hasn't released yet. So you know this is no book review of The Physics of Superheroes.

I heard James Kakalios' interview on NPR and got instantly interested. Being a huge comics addict during my teens[except for archie and jughead], anything on comic heroes puts on the interests. Just like how The Unbreakable and Incredibles used super heroes to explore deeper into the human mind, seems like this book explains theories of phyiscs using super heroes and their nifty equipments/tricks.

Pretty Impressive way to explain physics. If only my physics madam[classy dressed with a bob cut hair] at school tried to teach physics this way, I would have been writing like James Kakalios by now. Anyway, I hope she still teaches how to experiment ohm's law in the lab. It would never work for me especially on the day of final examination at school. Physics, huh !!

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Hemanth recommended Crash as we were sipping mocha at bucks. I went straight and added it to the top of my flix queue. Took it over to Ram's place to project it over a big screen and watched the crash happening one after another.

Crash has a fascinating screenplay. It isn't unique. But still fascinating. 13 peoples' life come in and go out of each others life on an unassuming day in LA. Most of the 'come in and go out' happen unexpectedly and that's the screenwriter's skill. Even as the movie runs as bits and pieces of incidents, its put together with absolute continuity and perfect harmony with other scenes such that no single incident seems better/worse than the other. These people who crash onto each other's life are perfect strangers and belong to different races.

The movie talks about racism and post 9/11 anxiety issues which common people face in everyday life. An old meticulous Farsi shopkeeper who wants a gun to safeguard, a powerful attorney's paranoid wife, a perfectly loving father who is victimized just because of his race, a chinaman caught under a truck for no reason and many more such good and bad people bump onto each others life. Scripting this movie could have been a tight rope walk. It's easy with so much happening at the same time, the movie could seem like a collection of trailers. Paul Haggis, the writer-director of Crash seems to be a reputed TV series guy. I found that while reading about him after I watched the movie.

All the characters seem as important as the other and each one's life changing event has been dramatised enough for the audience to relate with. The dialogues are provocative and blatant as required. With a studio producing the movie, these dialogues would have been dumped even during the pre-production. But it's the same dialogues that makes one relate to the movie better. Independent films like these ensures a hope that movies can also be used for better purposes than entertainment. Movies needn't propogate social 'messages' only through dialogues. They can be strong, subtle and might end-up on you as some kind of revelation. Someone watching the movie heart-of-heart will walk around their neighborhood looking for positives within people. And that's a success for Paul Haggis.

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Sivapaana Aangal Ingey Sila Kodi Undu
Karupaana Ennai Kandu Kan Vaithathenna
Kadal Vannam Vaanin Vannam Karuvannam Thaaney
Kadal Vaanam Kaanum Podum Unnai Kanden Naaney

Korava Meenu Kudhikkira Aaththukkulla
Koarappullu Molakkira Saethukkulla
En Kooda Sagathikkoothu Aadu Thai Thai Thai Thai Thai
Adi Othath Thuni Uduthik Kulipoamaa Vekkam Thalli Vai Vai

The dream team now has all the players. Let the jugalbandhi begin. I am truly thrilled !!

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There are a lot of stories about our famous hostility but there is nothing in it. We are good friends and Pearasu who has directed two of my films is directing Ajt this time, says Vijay on AVM-Ajith's Thirupathi pooja. Thoda Hero !!

BTW, the already crowded and sweaty Kodambakkam must have shaken today. With 4 Poojas, the Chennai traffic jam would have been hectic, much to the irritation of office goers. Read the not-at-all important details on which movies kicked off and who's who in kollywood.

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Google Maps is such a darling of a tool that people look to hack around with. First it was Housing Maps which hacks Google Maps and Craigslist.org entries to show "Homes for sale" at various locations of a city.

Then it was Chicago Crime which lists are-wise crime on a Chicago map. Personally, Bus Monster[Via JK] was a such a useful site combining Google Maps with real-time bus schedules to create a useful app for seattle bus travellers.

In days like these, a year's spending on oil might end up higher than the cost of the car, you need to be prudent of gas prices. I bumped across this Cheap Gas site which hacks Google maps to list cheap gas available in your city with full drill-down by cross street.

BTW, if you truly want to save money on gas, take a bus :)

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Meebo is the newest addition to the online community using the hot hot Ajax[Asynchronous JavaScript and XML] technology. With Meebo you aren't contrained of a firewall blocking access to your Instant messaging. It's the kind of silent browser which were around sometime back where you have a browser inside another one and the sites that are blocked by the firewall can still be accessed. Seems like Meebo is just out of their Dev labs and is still in Alpha. When you login to yahoo client you have a toned-down version of messenger with which you can chat with your IM friends bypassing the firewall.

Meebo uses the Ajax technology to simulate Yahoo or MSN's IM client as a light-weight tool. I am using it and its truly awesome. I read about Meebo in Om Malik's blog and someone raised a question of giving away passwords to a start-up firm's website. I wasn't thinking about it when I was using it. And now that I'm making a recommendation, I thought I should also be adding the word of caution and leave it to your own judgement. As online world goes through Web 2.0 a.k.a programmable Web, we have to start trusting websites and online community. How else did the net prosper over the years ?

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Yet another Google release. This one will certainly impress the bloggers and blog readers. The Google's Blog Search and Blogger Blog Search are one expcept for their URLs and User interface. This is one really long awaited search capability from Google and it has been finally out just today.

The snapshot above shows this blog listing with the blog update time. It's truly after 46 minutes I searched the blog search and was surprised at the real-time blog indexing done at Google. All that the blog pings is blogrolling blo.gs and weblogs.com. Google should be taking the real-time data and indexing the blogs accordingly. And as Search Engine watch says, Google defines blogs as sites that use RSS and other structured feeds and update content on a regular basis.

With this a major issue of blog search can be met with ends and many more such blog search capabilities await the blogging community.

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Been a little busy at work and unable to catch up with reading blogs, forget writing them. Another half week and things might slow down giving way to more time on blogs. After writing the above sentences, I feel like an astrologer writing jyothish on a weekly. Don't you smell astrological grammar?

I have to be a little curt here. Someone has been mailing me with a link that Microsoft chief vows to Kill Google using my email-ID as sender's name. GMAIL categorised it as spam but still I need to blow out my anger. Mavaney, kaila kedacha kaima panniduven !!

Google goes to college with a splash of cool banners. Old wine in a hep bottle!! BTW, have you ever seen a black screen at Google. Check this out !!

So it might become whatever@googlemail.com instead of the cool whatever@gmail.com. Looks like the legal controversy over GMAIL is proving to be of some merit to the Google contenders who claim intellectual property rights over GMAIL. What a USP @gmail.com is. I am upset to see it go away.

Wonder whatever happened to Tamil cinema. It’s probably on a long leave or something. Not so interesting releases that inspires me to go and watch a film. Worse, I don't even bother to look at the Tamil films aisle in the Indian store. Ponniyin Selvan sounds a little interesting comparing to others. Certainly not the Vetti Jaya [via Hemanth].

Stree Samanya [Kannada] - Vettayadu Villayadu [Tamil] - KS Ravi Kumar film [Tamil] - Rama Naidu's film [Telugu]. There goes Kamal Hassan's schedule for the next half year or so. So the only missing link for Kamal is a mallu film and that will complete a round of South Indian films. Basically this is a just a link but I hyped it on the account of consciously continuing the Kamal-Rajini post. Hee Hee!!

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[Pic - ebay.in]

They are selling Chandramukhi's properties online. Not that Chandramukhi is bankrupt but this is the right time to bank on Rajini and the movie's popularity. So Sivaji Productions alongwith Galatta.com are auctioneering Rajini and Jyothika's Chandramukhi costumes and its selling hot cakes already. Seems like the proceed from the auction are routed to Sivaji Prabhu Charities trust.

Not just the costumes, the winners of the auction will recieve their winning costume from Rajini himself on October 1st in Chennai. Writes Hindu -

Sivaji Production and Galatta.com along with ebay.in sold the sunglasses worn by superstar Rajnikant to a buyer in France for Rs. 25,000.

I searched Ebay and found the series of Chandramukhi costumes listing. The costume shown above is the placed at Rs.100,000 outright buy. Wanna drive to office with that costume and tell your manager Laka Laka Laka, go for it baby !!.

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Its about Ben Stiller and his girlfriend's dad Robert De Niro in Meet the parents. I found the movie to have enough silly laughs. Thinking about it, I felt so sorry for Ben Stiller to have been caught by his GF's dad who is a nerd and a detective. Ben Stiller has a wonderful timing for humor and I hope he gets some better roles than these to prove his mettle.

Ben Stiller - Oh, dear god, thank you, you are such a good god to us. A kind and gentle and accommodating god, and we thank you oh sweet, sweet lord of hosts for the smorgasbord you have so aptly laid at our table this day, and each day, by day, day by day, by day oh dear lord three things we pray to love thee more dearly, to see thee more clearly, to follow thee more nearly, day, by day, by day. Amen.

I think I forgot to mention the crux of the post. In Bold, In Italics and Underlined - Girl friends' dads are the toughest to handle !!

P.S - Due to heavy pressure, here is an additional statement. They are the nicest of people.

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[Pic - N Vivek of Vikatan]

Simbu and Dhanush/Aishwarya on Prashanth's marriage. I hear you saying, ' mamey !! build-up kudukatha'. I agree but its certainly an interesting snap. Vikatan has a story on the unexpected meeting.

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[Pic - Preston Keres -- The Washington Post Photo]

Srikanth's music album H1Bees which is releasing today has Washington Post coverage.

"H1Bees," an album recorded in a Gaithersburg basement-turned-studio, will be released today, its music a mix of Indian and Western beats with lyrics exploring the high-tech immigrant's experience in the United States. The troupe remains unnamed, giving composer Srikanth Devarajan top billing and referring to the remaining artists as "playback singers," which is customary on many Indian albums.

And the lyrics go as an everyday desi talk-

"Standing in line, papers in my hand,
All my answers, practiced and planned,
He asked, would ya ever come back home?
(Incredulous laughter)
Yes sir, I will, but first give me that H-1B!"

Way to go Srikanth & team !!

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``Photography goes with realism, we struggle to make it surreal.'' If poetry inheres in what lies between the words, the cinematographer's task is to capture the unsaid. He must make the film so spectacular as to entice viewers to abandon television and come to the theatre. The camera must go beyond the functional aspects of replicating period and location.

Three Ace Cinematographers. Three view points. Three philosophies of movie making. They talk too few things which make perfect sense in their own ways. Rajeev Menon, Madhu Ambhat[Anjali] and ofcourse Balu Mahendra talk about cinema through their cameras. Read more, Through a lens, brightly.

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Whoever stayed awake last night for the US Open are blessed. That old mottai played a game of his life. Even as his opponent Blake was serving for match at 5-4, he came to back to win a thriller. Remembered the '92 finals between him and the ace master Ivanisevic.

Can't believe he is actually the one or is he the split personality of Steffi. Agassi they call him. Wow !!

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Vint Cerf, who co-designed the TCP/IP protocols(TCP/IP dudes !!) for the internet has joined Google. This isn't just one more on Google's payroll. It's a leap.

TCP/IP designer, VOIP plans, Free wireless internet, Mobile numbers for GMAIL sign-up. All these when cohesively brought together leaves a blue-print of Google's future plan.

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Looks like Mumbai govt is already 'looking into the matter' but they stopped Farhad Wadia's Independence Rock happening in the last hour. The rock concert was organised at the Gateway of India and it was stopped because the kind of music & sound will damage the monument. Laughing stock, right !!

In an open letter to his fans, Farhad Wadia leaves six questions to be answered by them -

1.) Are we going to let the Police decide what type of Music can be played at a National Monument?
2.) Are we going to have one set of Rules for Jazz, Indian Classical, & Fusion and a different set of rules for Rock?
3.) Are we still suffering from a Post Colonial Hangover that Foreign / White Bands can perform at National Monuments & Indian Bands don’t have the same Rights ?
4.) Are we going to have Separate rules for Big Newspapers & TV Organizations , & Politicians and different ones for ordinary citizens like me ?
5.) Are we going to let Government officials whose Salaries get paid by taxes that we pay cause irreparable Loss of money Time & effort to citizens like me?
6.) Are we going to let shows get cancelled after 14 different Government Departments have okayed it, just because someone did not like the idea of the Gateway of India to be used for a Rock Concert ?

Also he comments on the aftermath of the announcement that the rock show was cancelled -

Rock Fans who have been stereotyped as violent & abusive & other unflattering adjectives by the Police quietly left the venue . Had this been a Ganesh Utsav, Durga Pooja , Or Navratri Celebration there would have surely been a riot there !

How True !! Link Via Amit Varma.

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Not exactly the right title. But there are a couple of interesting stuff happening.

Srikanth's new album, H1Bees, is all set to release on the 10th September, 2005. Apart from being a blogger Srikanth is an avid musician and has already released music albums including his own invention, Curry Rock, a genre that brings back nostalgic memoirs of Chennai. I have enjoyed listening to his previous albums. The best per me is his album on Bharathiyaar songs named Mahaakavi. Do listen to the sample clip and let him know your views. He will be more than interested in listening to you.

Evam's new theatre release, Biloxi Blues, is currently being staged in Chennai. Going back to their roots of Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical play, EVAM is back in news. After their superhit play, Badal Sircar's Indrajit, Biloxi Blues, is also set to become a gate-crasher. Read Hindu's review here.

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You must be lucky to be a monkey. Consciousness is an evil curse. I think, I feel..... I suffer. - John Cusack to the Chimp sitting beside him in Being John Malkovich.

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[Image - Walmart]

That red thingy on the right corner of the picture is supposed to be a mp3 player/cube. Also its boasting to be the world's smallest MP3 player.

Some things loose their charm if they are SMALL. This is one of those.

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If an infinite number of monkeys are given typewriters for an infinite amount of time, they will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare.

More from the interesting Infinite Monkey Theorem and ofcourse The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator. Any interesting analogies to blogs, appreciated.

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Director Bala's next movie may not be Naan Kadavul. With Ajith signing up for AVM's Thirupathi, Bala might be doing for a movie before Naan Kadavul. For the new movie, Bala and his team at 'B' Studios are in lookout for a female star.

I am posting this on a special request from a friend in Bala's camp. This Ad has been published on the Friday Features section of today's Hindu. The advertisement is not online though.

Spread the word and let's see if we can spot a face whom we like to see(!!) on Bala's film.

Bala & team, Best of luck !!

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I didn't know what the fish symbolised, until Ram explained me over the weekend. He glanced my car and asked if I was an atheist. Spontaneously I said NO [Note the point, your honor]. My car had an empty fish emblem like the picture above, stuck to its trunk. Until he told me about the Darwin fish, I had no clue except reading Darwin's theory of evolution during high school. For starters [like me], Darwin Fish is a symbol of atheism and belief on the science of evolution that Darwin advocated. So having the Darwin Fish on the rear of your car means tom-toming the world that the driver is a believer of no-god philosophy.

It's tough to write this post as it calls for self inquiry. Am I a believer of god or not? Answering in Nayagan Kamal's tone, I should be saying, Theriliyepaa. Have read enough science like most of us - traveled around the mountain of Thiruvannamalai several times - agreed to the Bagath Singh argument on why he is an atheist - tasted Margazhi's suda suda vaen pongal in perumal koil with the prabandams reverberating in the temple - read quite a bit of periyaar's philosophies - argued about it with enough confused friends - carried the smallest idol of chandikeshwarar on my shoulders during urchavams - understood the essence of Bhagavath Gita - read enough Indian mythologies in Amar Chitra Katha - frantically followed Sujatha's Kadavul Irukiraara series in Vin Nayagan and many more such ironies. The asynchronous mix of everything confuse me more than anything. Is god there or is it just a way to tame the animal inside ? I have searched/am searching many a place for a definitive answer. Both internal and external. The people whom I turned for answers never could answer me to my agreement. Neither could they make me fully believe/disbelieve god.

Am being a middle class here too. One among that middle class group which is neither able to believe or dis-believe god. A group that has read science but still changes the sacred thread every Aavini Aavittam. That’s where the pressure lies. Sometimes the intellectual geek in you suggests, enough dude!! life came from what Stephen Hawking defines as big bang and that theory is directly against the laws of Hinduism. At times, the poonal pops up and reminds, Ambi !! the creation and destruction of universe according to Hinduism is one day of Brahma’s life and we are just living when Brahman let out a breath of fresh air from his nose.

Whatsoever, I may not go ahead and tear out the Darwin fish from my car. Free speech.

I wrote this last night but didn't hit the publish button. After shutting down my computer, I went to apply a blotch of vibuthi on my forehead and prayed, Nalam Tharum Sollai Kandukondain Narayana Enum Naamam, twelve times before I went to bed. Thinking whether god exists or not, I went into deep sleep.

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