on a sabbatical.

p.s - commenting system disabled to tackle spammers, while being away.

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On Mani Ratnam's Guru -

I have scripted the first 20 scenes of Guru. Mani bought me a ticket and asked me to go to England, where my sister lives. He sent me blank paper and some ideas, so it was a paid holiday. Mani grew up in the city, whereas I am from a small village even though my family was full of lawyers. I went to a government school and know the nuances of village life better. Guru is a village film in the beginning, before it shifts to the city.

On working with Mani Ratnam -

Mani wanted me to work in Anjali, but he thought even that wasn't good enough for me. He wanted to have something substantial to cast me. I would like to be directed by Mani Ratnam but, of course, it is not a big deal. I know the man. I think Balachander will make me act better. Mani's characters will be good but, when it comes to performance, I think Balachander is even better; or, for that matter, Bharati Raja, Mahendran or Kranti Kumar. Mani has considered me for many of his films -- Mouna Ragam, Nayagan (for the daughter's role). He is a good director -- he does not need a co-director. He just needs help with writing so he can concentrate on the making. I wrote the dialogues for Iruvar.

Read more from the Rediff's interview with Suhasini Maniratnam.

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T.S. Narasimhan, the producer of the hit 80's television version of R K Narayan's Malgudi Days is back with the next installment. Shankar Nag who directed the 80's show, has passed away. The 'new' Malgudi Day will be directed by Kavitha Lankesh. And I first read it on rediff, in an interview with Kavitha Lankesh.

To select 15 stories was quite challenging. I had to select new stories, as tales from Swamy and Friends had been done by Shankar Nag. So, I had to read all the works of Narayan again and took stories like Lawley Road, Snake Song, Salt and Sawdust.

I am getting a positive response. You should know that, when Shankar Nag directed the serial, there were more black and while TV sets and no private channels to compete with Doordarshan. Of course, Nag's efforts were also classy. Things are different now, yet the reactions I have been getting are wonderful. I think my efforts have been widely appreciated.

From the interview, it seems like the broadcast has already begun. I'm sure it will be interesting to watch the post-2K Malgudi Days.

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In this week's Vijay TV Super Singer, the lifeline round brought in 5 contestants who were eliminated or who dropped-off due to personal reasons. It included Harish, Sowmya, Archana Iyer, Nitinraj and Vijay. Vijay seems to be the most luckiest than anyone in this competition. He was eliminated thrice in the prelims but managed to get back into competition because someone else dropped off. Also his singing gets better as the rounds proceed. Couple of weeks back when he sang, Illamai Itho with an intonation of a drunkard, I whistled from the living room.

The lifeline round was judged by the public voting method. So each contestant were given a number, and the viewers dialed-in or sms-ed to register their vote. One out of these five contestant was to be selected and others would get eliminated. Here's what happened -

- Sowmya sang her best song to date, Konjam Nilavu. And she rocked. Personally after Swathi, Anitha and Maya, Sowmya is also one of my favorite among the females. Earlier to this round she was eliminated and was brought-in by voting system of the previous round. Konjam Nilavu is a tough song to sing on stage. I dont know if Anupama also sang it in one shot during the recording. Neverthless its a song that allows you to travel through your pitches. Especially the lines, Enn Pirandhen Endra Kaelvi Vaarathu. Ingu Nee Irundhaal Athu Konjam Meerathu. Vandu Naaaan..., calls for a versatile singer. And I think Sowmya did a fairly good job. The most important thing was that her lyrics were clearer than the original version rendered by Anupama.

- Harish Sivaramkrishnan, who dropped off due to his official work came back with a wildcard entry. He sang the Ennavaley Adi Ennavaley. Ofcourse Unnikrishnan was there judging him. And did a very good job by singing it one pitch lesser than the original. In the original version, Unni Krishnan picks it up at a higher pitch, making the words sound lighter and also resembling a female intonation. But I loved Harish's version. And I'm sure he is going to be tough to compete with if he enters the finals.

- Vijay, who stormed back into the contest with his drunkard version of Illami Itho, took a melodious number this time. He sang Nilaave Vaa from Mouna Raagam. Except for some places where he experimented he sang exactly the SPB version. And he did it perfectly well. Some place I thought they played a back-up tape of the original for him. While he was fine, I think he has strong competition from Sowmya and Harish to reach the finals.

- Archana Iyer, who also dropped-off in the previous rounds due to her exams came back with her favorite, Thoodhu Varuma. And yeah an OK job. Ofcourse, she sang it in her own style which is appreciative but the flavor of the song suffered because of that. Neverthless it was a decent attempt with original style.

- Nitinraj, whom I thought didn't have enough versatality did a super job yesterday with his version of Kanaa Kandenadi from Parthiban Kanavu. And he did it really well that I had to change my opinion on him. He might be a strong contender for the finals.

The finals team has 4 contestants - Anitha, Maya, Nikil and Goutam. One out of these 5 lifeline contestants will join them. And its going to be huge show for the rest of the weeks at Vijay TV's Super Singer.

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Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water is taking a bad hit. Has just 22% of approval rate in Rotten Tomatoes. And that's not good.

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I don't think you should miss Aaraamthinai's two-part interview[Part 1 and 2] with Badri Seshadri. It's been sometime since the interview was published and it was only today I was able to read it.

Badri's reply to the straight forward questions were as usual, very logical. He was spot-on about non-existence of competition in Tamil publishing circles and govt's help for books publishers. Except that he was a little aggressive about the questions on tamil literature books. I wasn't expecting Badri to be blunt with those answers, rather I should say it was a little shocking to hear that from Badri.

On a different note, recently Badri has become the face of Tamil Blogging. Whenever there is a snippet news or a covery story on Tamil blogging, they must be saying, "Call Badri". Part of the reason is that he is Chennai and is easily reachable. Just like how Kribs [No comparison though] was there in every single blogging meeting or roadshow. While for someone new to blogging, it may be interesting but for bloggers who read stuff day in and out, it gets pretty boring to keep hearing the same person talk about blogging in main stream media.

In any case, if you have been watching the Tamil Publishing scene for the last couple of years, you couldn't avoid but notice Kizhakku Pathippagam's birth and growth. They came in with a bang. Especially with Tamil blogging picking up and people who were involved in Kizhakku were bloggers, they had a good word-of-the-blog publicity. Also their marketing and quality of books were impressive. More impressive were line-up of books they got in. They published the entire list of Ashokamitran and Aathavan, sparing a couple of books. And they already published around 150 books to their credit. And that's good going.

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Sujatha details his friendship with Balu Mahendra in a recent Ambalam article, Baluvin Kanaakaalam. Very importantly he mentions two things about Balu Mahendra's Kathai Neram serial.

Those who had watched Kathai Neram can vouch that it was one of the best serial ever made for television. Each episode was a seperate shortstory. And as Sujatha says it was a perfect example of adapting a shortstory for the screen. He also goes on to say that Balu Mahendra was able to tell a shortstory in 20 minutes without making it embarassingly loud or terribly boring. And as someone who saw most of those episodes, I have to say that Sujatha's words aren't an exaggeration.

Sa.Kandasaamy's Tholaindhu Ponavargal was my other favorite serial. If I could re-collect it right, it was broadcasted on Thursdays from 10 - 10:30 pm. In Channel 2. Remember, Channel 2 of DD ?

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This is a sticky post. Regular programming continues below.

If you encounter these lines in a blog, please close the browser and move onto the next one. That blogpost would be a pure collection of some mindless posts, which even the blogger who linked to it hasn't read completely. Why in this world would you want to read something that hasn't been even read by the blogger, in the first place ?

The more the number of updates to the post, the more it gets linked. It would stand a big chance of becoming the reference point for that whole issue. Plus it might get insta-pundited or mentioned in some mainstream media.

Apologize my swearing but what the heck is "regular programming" ?

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Spirit of the Desi blogworld

Its amazing how quickly we've all moved on from the emotions of mumbai blasts which only happened a few days ago, its odd that none of have shed any tears for the Tsunami victims in Indonesia, its odd none of us have been reminded of the TN tsunami when reading about the recent Indonesian one. Its odd that all of us have now moved on to the Indian Government's pathetic decision to stop people accessing blogspots within India. The in thing now for all us bloggers is to get on our high horses and scream at the top of our voices about freedom of speech and democracy etc etc until the next big thing hits the headline. Some might say that we are a stoic bunch of bloggers.

This post named, Spirit of the Desi Blogworld, isn't a unique thought. But its the right way and the right time that WA chose to post it. I feel like locating the Wicked Angel and getting her/him a handful of Baskin Robbins. What say ?

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Just after completing the Silvia series, Sujatha is back with the next serving of Katrathum Petrathum. This is 4th part of Katrathum Petrathum and it starts with a Sujatha style analysis of the tamil world.

KP is turning out to be the biggest of series that Sujatha has ever written. While it started as an autobiographical column, it continues as an extended version of Kanayazhiyin Kadaisi Pakkam. Even Sujatha haters have been strong followers of Kanayazhiyin Kadaisi Pakkam in the 80's. While KKP had more of literary stuff, KP is sort of a weekly blog. And I might right in saying that KP is slowly over-taking KKP's fame.

Just in case, if you haven't read Katrathum Petrathum Part 1, 2 and 3, you could get a compiled book version in the stores. And I hope someday after KP stops for good, there will be consolidated version. But for now, it KP Part 4.

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Association for India's Development – San Diego Chapter
proudly presents
Indian Ocean - An evening of rich indian music infused with western rock and jazz

When:
Aug 13th Sunday, 5:00pm-7:30pm

Where:
East County Performing Arts Center
210 East Main Street,
El Cajon 92020
Google Directions

Tickets:
Advance : $20,$30,$50
At the gate: $25, $35, $55
Donor Tickets: Suggested minimum $100
Tickets available online

Contact :
Sandiego Aid India
concert_aidsd@yahoo.com
858-437-1423

Indian Ocean is a contemporary fusion music band of Northern India. Some music critics describe the Indian Ocean music as "Indo-rock fusion with jazz-spiced rhythms that integrates, Sufism, shlokas, environmentalism, mythology and revolution". Their music blends with different cultural boundaries and echoes the distant folk music that still prevails in rural India. The lyrics celebrate individuals journey to transform the self and collective struggles to change the world to a better place.

Indian Ocean has performed over 250 accomplished concerts across the globe in the past 15 years. In 1999, the band was honoured to perform for the President of India at Khajuraho Millennium Concert. They were selected " Pick of the Fringe" at 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They have successfully toured across the globe and have performed at India Festival in Singapore, Melborne Arts Festival, New Zealand International Festival, Folklife Festival at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, Trafalgar Square in London and Indo-Pakistan Amity Concert at MIT.

Indian Ocean, Kandisa, Desert Rain, Jhini and sound track for Black Friday are their recorded albums. Jhini received AV Max award for the Best Produced Album in India. The group also featured as Artists of the Month on MTV in May 2006.

AID is a US based non-profit volunteer movement committed to promoting sustainable, equitable and just development in India. Donations to AID are tax-deductible in the USA where it is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. For more information, visit www.aidindia.org

All concert proceeds go towards developmental activities in India.

[Invite sent to me by Capriciously Me].

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Last time around it was a strenuous search for two whole months. And as other fellow desis adviced I ended up with a 90's Toyota Carolla.

Just today when I was thinking to car shop, I ended up in a Honda showroom. I was looking to buy the post-2002 Honda Accord in it's magentic grey color. And I found one with moon roof and stuff. So that was a used one and costed more than some of the new ones they had in stock. Confused with the dynamics of US car market, I wanted to really look-out few more places before I nailed down on something. On the way home, I decided to drop into a Toyota showroom.

Driving the Corolla for a year, I started liking the Toyota brand and their service. And they are much flexible in terms of accessories than the Honda guys. But the dark greyish honda accord was mesmerizing me on the another end. The latest 2007 model of Camry was in the showroom. Though I didn't have a big liking for Camrys, the latest model had some of the best curves and an affordable price tag to it.

So I found a magnetic grey Camry. Unfortunately(!!) it was loaded with some amazing accesories which I wouldn't like to pay for. It had moon-roof, surrond sound bluetooth, 8 speakers which spilled 440 watts and mp3/wma compatible 6 CD changer. I made no sense to me to have mp3 and 6 CD changer together. Being the latest version, released just over a month back, they didn't have enough of the metallic grey that I liked. They convinced me with a loan option. What else ? I bought it and drove home listening to Kaathal Ithuthaan Athuthaan Endru Ketkumaa.

Was it a good decision or not ? Let me see what I feel like tomorrow morning.

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Two weeks back, the tamil world went bonker bonks with two back-to-back murders. The wifes killed their respective husbands. Not because their husbands didn't buy them chicken briyani or they didn't take their wifes to Azhagai Irukiraai Bhayamai Irukirathu movie. Adultery. One of them was marred for nearly 12 years and had two kids. the second one killed her husband on the third day after marriage, while they were off for a honeymoon. And that was shocking to many.

Passing moral judgements would be the stupidest idea. But atleast someone could actually look through these and discover what really went wrong. Connected to these two incidents, Anuradha Ramanan's column on Vikatan named, Enna Aachu Namma Ponungalukku ?, hits the nail on the head. She explores the mindset of contemporary society and then derives reasoning as to how extra-marital affairs branch out. The concluding part of this column will be on the next issue but this is Anuradha Ramanan in her own style.

Couple of month's back, I was reading Sujatha's Katrathum Petrathum Part 1 where he writes a one page story named Thirai. Thirai starts off as any normal shortstory and within just one page, explores the issue of adultery so subtely that it shocks you just on it's concluding line. One of Sujatha's best shortstories. Infact, the shortest.

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Today, Mumbai is back to business. People suffered a lot on Tuesday evening, but only after 12 to 15 hours they are back to their duties/business without any fear, travelling in the same crowded trains. This is the spirit of Mumbai. Terrorists can explode bombs in trains or even at strategic locations, but they cannot break the Mumbai spirit.

This spirit is sufficient to frustrate the evil design of terror-mongers. They can draw satisfaction from material damage but they are unable to break the moral, courage and spirit of Mumbaikars.

Despite the jamming of all telecommunication and transportation hurdles on Tuesday evening, Mumbaikars rose to the occasion. They helped each other; passed well-being messages through incoming STD calls; provided food, water and shelter to stranded fellow Mumbaikars; donated blood; helped the administration in traffic control and at blast sites.

Seems like RD got it all wrong. I've never been up at Mumbai. I don't know what it feels be a mumbaiite. But when all the media is going ga-ga over it's spirit, I couldn't stop getting amazed. I want to stay at Mumbai for atleast twenty hours.

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It's been sometime since the previous one. So here you go.

Usual Stuff - For starters, guess the movie and the sequence. There is a clue available in every(well, mostly) kollywood car quiz. This is important - If you are planning to guess the answer, don't open the comments box and spoil the fun yourself. Once you have guessed go straight ahead and comment it without looking for answers. All Kollywood Cars.

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It's a mystery to me
The game commences
For the usual fee
Plus expenses
Confidential information
It's in a diary
This is my investigation
It's not a public inquiry

I go checking out the report
Digging up the dirt
You get to meet all sorts
In this line of work
Treachery and treason
There's always an excuse for it
And when I find the reason
I still can't get used to it

And what have you got at the end of the day ?
What have you got to take away ?
A bottle of whisky and a new set of lies
blinds on the window and a pain behind the eyes

Scarred for life
No compensation
Private investigations

Mark Knopfler, is genius thy middle name ?

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Couple of weeks back, yet another nice soul, got a bunch of books from Chennai. This bunch didn't contain any Sujatha books except for Katrathum Petrathum 3.

Ashokamithran's Ottran was the highlight of this bunch and I'm currently at the fag end of this book. I think its a great book. One of the finest from Ashokamitran. Ottran is partly fiction, partly memoir. Ottran chronicles seven months of Ashokamitran's stay in the Iowa University during the 70's. He was invited to stay there as a part of global writers program. Ashokamitran makes some fantastic-yet-simple observations of the desi life in the US which hasn't been registered in tamil literature until now. Being written in the first person style, this is a gripping and down-to-earth slice of a writer's life.

The other books included two more from Ashokamitran. Karaindha Nizhalgal - a novel based on Chennai filmdom and Azhivatrathu, collection of Ashokamitran shortstories written after the millennium. This bunch also included two of S. Ramakrishnan's series, Thunnaiezhuthu and Kathavilasam that were published by Vikatan. Ra. Ki Rangarajan's Naalu Moolai was also one of them.

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Watched Superman Returns in the IMAX with selected scenes on 3D. It's an 85 foot screen with some fabulous sound system. And its probably the biggest screen a cinephile gets to watch in his lifetime. Still...Read ahead.

Kevin Spacey did disappoint. Why did he ever accepted to do the movie in first place ? That tells you I didn't expect too much out Brandon Routh, in the first place. He has the perfect nose of a superman and he fits into the role. Atleast physically. More than helping the plotpoint of the movie, he serves as Mr.Droolover for the chicks. You could hears Wows and Aahs in the theatre.

Didn't impress me much like Spidey 2.

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[Source - Vikatan]

Usualy a quiet guy, PC Sreeram, in this small interview to Vikatan, actually talks.

And to my joy(!!), he also reflects his worries on the information overload thats prevalent in the contemporary society. Boy, I'm just about too convinced that information overload should be curbed. Starting from this blog.

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How would write a two-minute review for a short film that only runs for six minutes and two seconds, to be exact ? You could. If the movie is well made. Not just because the maker is your friend. This isn't written because I know Arun for sometime now. Arun's The Seance is truly a good shortfilm. Like many other shortfilms, at the first viweing, there is a chance that you might not understand the story behind this movie. Any shortstory or shortfilm should considered as a slice of life. So there can't be a three act structure for a shorty. Even with a single act, you could bring in the formulaic movie structure. Arun does it convincingly well.

The Seance could be classified as a horror shorty. It has superb production values and it doesn't look or feel like an amateur film. Not even for a moment. The lighting and cinematography are just about immaculate. There is enough darkness as much as the available light. The music goes with the mood of the movie and is very scary at 'that' single moment. The actors are spot on. BTW, there are only two actors[Tom Cappadona and Rick Pisarro] in the whole movie. Bearing few shots where one would feel that the editor could have sliced just an extra frame, the editing puts up a neat show.

The execution of the script is the highlight. Honestly, superb direction. This is probably the best of Arun till date and it will go a long way in showcasing his talent. Having a great product on-hand, it's now with Arun and his team to take this movie to film festivals and see how it fares. For that's the only way for an independent movie can get noticed. The Seance is already getting rave reviews in Kevin Spacey's Triggerstreet. I think you could watch the movie online if you register there. I got a high quality version sent from Arun but that shouldn't matter. Do mail Arun[arun[dot]filmmaker[at]gmail.com] on your views. He is all ears now.

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Has anyone turned a listening ear to Yuvan's remix of Kalyanaraman's Ahaa Vandurichu for Vallavan. While its a so-so remix it's spiced up with 50 Cent's In Da Club and folky dandanakka that reminds of Rahman's Errani Kurrani Gopala. Above that what makes this remix interesting is the original song. Reminds us of how we much we miss Illayaraja. Instead of Malayasia Vasudevan who performed the original, this remix version is sung by Simbhu himself. I should say I'm impressed more than what I expected.

Loose Pennae...Loose Pennae is also well sung and orchestrated. This one reminds me of KK's rendering of Kaathal Valarthen in Manmadhan. There is an original and remix version for this number. The original version is slow and is probably the best of all the numbers in the movie. This one is also rendered by Simbhu. Again, a good number with some naive lyrics. It's actually those naive lyrics that adds color to this song. Blazee is becoming stereotypical. But atleast in this his number, his rap actually gels with the song.

You gotta listen to both the numbers to believe what I just said. Here you go.

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Share the pain. When people around you are losing their jobs, you can share the pain too. Take a smaller office. Turn in the company car. Reassign your personal assistant to a revenue generating position. Fly coach. Stay in motels. Sell the box tickets to the ball game. Give your thirty-inch, flat-panel display to a programmer who could use it to debug faster. Do something, however symbolic.

Guy Kawasaki writes this post, The Art of the Layoff, in a worry that the knowledge would be lost if undocumented. Its a good post. Its a bad post. Depends on your perspective.

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Last night, atleast half of the America public, lifted their heads to stare the twilight sky as 4th of July fireworks drew interesting geometric shapes. It was only then I had myself looking at the American sky for such a long time. The Independence day celebrations at the eastside of Seattle, is one of the popular ones. Its the biggest community gathering in Seattle. Other than fireworks, there was a fair and a live music show going on.

While the fireworks was on, The Bellevue Philharmonic played the theme of Mission Impossible. And yeah, it was so cool. Enjoyed the fireworks, had some elephant ears topped with cinnamon sugar and came back home.

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Do you see Vijay here ? I see Prabhu Deva.

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Aedhoa Onraith Thaedum Nenjam Ingae Kandadhae
Aengum Kannil Thoanrum Inbam Ingae Endrathey
Pen Malaiyaruvi Panneer Thoovi
Pon Malaizhagin Sugam Aerkaadhoa
Ivai Yaavum Paadangal
Inidhaana Nerangal
Ivaigal Ilamaalai Pookkalae
Pudhuch Choalai Pookkalae

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K.V Bharat's portal on A R Rahman named Rahman Times is up and running from today. Do grab a look. Via Radha Krish.

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