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August 27, 2007

Shoo !!

Can't stand the comment spammers. Closing all the comments and synching the stylesheet with kirukkal.com.

Spammers get the hell out of this place. Shoo !!

P.S - Hee Hee.. !! The comments are enabled again. A dear friend vows that a captcha will prevent all the spambots. I am skeptical if a captcha will eradicate all of them, given the fact there are 100s of comment spams here everyday.

Have plugged in a captcha provider. Take more pain and type in two more extra words when you make a comment. Let's see how this thingy works.

August 17, 2007

एक गाव में एक किसान रहता था !!

google_indic_transliteration.gif

Do that Hindi typing with Google - Indic Transliteration. Classy.

We want it for Tamil. We want it for Tamil, இல்லனா மவனே பகிலு பிகிலுட்டுக்கும்.

August 16, 2007

Spot the reflector

spot the reflector

and also Shankar's denim. No Brainer !!

August 15, 2007

Blockbusted

netflix download_movies.jpg

Blockbuster killed enough of Netflix's market share by introducing Total Access feature with which one could exchange the movie packet obtained through mail for an in-store movie. This means, technically you can double the number of movies you watch for the same price.

Though being a Netflix fan, I moved to Blockbuster, lured by the double whammy offer. It's been smooth since then. I moved to the 1 dvd at-a-time scheme and was able to watch atleast 15 movies a month. I have to accept that its overwhelming sometimes to watch 15 movies a month.

After pulling enough of marketshare from Netflix through this plan, Blockbuster recently started to grandfather existing subscribers to their unlimited in-store exchange plan while it moved others to a new plan which limited in-store exhanges. Depedning on how heavily you use their Total Access feature, the plan to retain your account under the the old plan was made.

Luckily I have a blockbuster right across the street and was able to use the in-store exchange every time. Hence I think, my account is now retained under the old scheme. And the account page reads this -

BLOCKBUSTER Total Access Premium $9.99 / month (plus taxes). 1 at-a-time, unlimited mailings, unlimited in-store free movie/discounted game exchanges +1 FREE bonus Movie or Game Rental E-Coupon / Month

It's a pity that some of the existing subscribers were moved to the new 'blockbusted' plan. Meanwhile Netflix began offering DVD quality downloads of movies, in addition to the DVD by mail option which seem to interest me.

Atleast a good percentage of 'blockbusted' subscribers will now move to this super lazy Netflix plan. No more store exchanges for them as they can just click on their computers to watch DVD movies. And ofcourse, there is Apple TV to stream movies to your TV, if you hate watching movies on a 19 inch monitor.

You Tube Streaming Now ?

One of my complaints when Google bought You tube was that Google Video's player was supremely advanced than the crappy bulk download of You Tube. Though the red line moving on a You Tube player was a make believe, at the back-end it was only bulk downloading the file which took the fun of watching a video by clicking randomly in the timeline.

On Google Video, you actually load an one hour video and as you click on the 5th minute into the video, it starts running instantly. You can't do the same in a you tube video. You would have to wait for the video to load until the 5th minute is loaded, to start watching it.

This morning when I was watching Aish yakka's trailer of The Last Legion, I wanted to move to the fag end of the trailer where yakka battles with a sword, heroinically. And suprisingly, it worked. I am thinking it was a slient move by Google - You Tube to make their videos streaming. If this isn't official, they are randomly testing this feature out.Hope this goes live, soon.

Update - 4 out of 5 videos are now streaming on You Tube. This feature should go live pretty soon.

August 11, 2007

Films, Faith and Friendship

Now that Google Video's Pay-to-Play store is closed, I was searching the Charlie Rose interview and found this gem. Though, I watched this interview before on Pan's Labryinth DVD, thought it would be a great pointer for film buffs.

Charlie Rose interviews three mexican directors who are shaping hollywood with their films. Alphonso Cuaron (director of Y tu mamá también and Children of Men), the fantasy whiz Guillermo del Toro (director of Hell Boy and Pan's Labryinth) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (director of Amores Perros(inspiration for Mani's Aayitha Ezhuthu) and Babel) are three friends, who are also incidentally film makers.

This interview talks about their faith on each other and also how their appreciation and criticism on other's work, elevates all three of them. While my personal favorite is Alphonso Cuaron, I also enjoy del Toro's work. Alejandro was simply astounding in Babel which I think it one of best movies of last year. Cuaron's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is the most stylish Potter movie in that series.

With tons of humor and some sneak peaks into their film-making process, this is a great interview. I wish it was longer.

Inside Men

It's second time around and still loving it, the movie and ofcourse the men behind the song. Men ? The man who asked for it and the man who actually made it happen.

Was surrounded by mountains

Olympic National Park

Was surrounded by mountains at the Olympic National Park. Inspiring !!

August 7, 2007

Vaaranam Aayiram aka Forrest Gump ?

vaaranamaayiram gautham menon surya

From the official site - A unique story of a unique individual. Motivated and driven, a go-getter. Like Vaaranamaayiram, the strength of a thousand elephants – strong of mind and body. Shooting starts December 2006.

Yeah, Dec 2006. Atleast that's what the official website says. We know it started long after that. But it is slated to release for the pongal of 2008.

After a much derailed effort, Pachaikilli Muthucharam, Gautham Menon goes back to his legendary hero, Surya. And ofcourse, it's his same old team except for the cinematographer. Sethu fame R. Ratnavelu takes on the lens department and this is the fourth change of cinematographer for Gautham. After RD Rajasekhar in Kakkha Kakkha, it was Ravi Varman in Vettaiyaadu Villaiyaadu and for Pachaikilli Muthucharam it was Arvind Krishna for Selvaraghavan's camp. Now Ratnavelu comes from the Bala camp and is known for his realistic cinematography.

Vaaranam Aayiram is a great title for the movie and there should be a sub-text to it, other than the obvious strength-of-thousand-elephants message.

In Nov 2006, Sify reported that the movie was named Udal Porul Aavi and it was gossiped to be a super natural thriller(!!). The wiki page states that this could be kodambakkam's version of Forrest Gump. Hopefully Gautham didn't gulp vodka on the rocks before watching Hrithik's Krrish and Hank's Forrest Gump, back to back. Good Luck !!

August 6, 2007

The end or what ?

The online version of Katrathum Petrathum says "முற்றும்" at the end. Not sure if it was a typo or if the series has ended for good. This one was the fifth serving that started last July.

Even on the saturday ambalam chat with Writer Sujatha, nobody talked about this. Since I hadn't read this week's serving of Katrathum Petrathum by then, I was also talking about En Iniya Iyanthira and other things.

Can someone verfiy this from the print edition ?

August 2, 2007

Perfumaniac

perfume_movie.jpg

Perfume is passionately made, vividly colorful, sinfully sensuous but slightly slow and terribly long. An authentic book-to-screen story, directed by Tom Tykwer(Run Lola Run) and originally written as a hugely popular novel[Das Parfum] by Patrick Suskind.

It talks about a French orphan boy with a superhuman sense for smell. As he grows, he meets a perfume maker, displays his sense of smell talent, learns the art of perfume making but unfortunately turns into a schizophrenic. The ending has to be seen to be enjoyed.

The whole movie is crowded with amazing frame compositions, great cinematography and lovely BGMs. But what's more attractive is the acute talent of the director to bring the sense of smell into the movie and still make the audience relate to it.

Ben Wishaw as Genouille, the passionate perfume maker is every man's dream of following ones passion. Passionate enough to even turn into a solid schizo. As he runs behind the chariot in the final scenes, with a handful of "special" perfumes, one would understand his perfume passion. A career high role for Ben and he has done an amazing job of making the best of it.

Dustin Hoffman does a cameo as the perfume master. I wish someone else played the role. It didn't fit him too well.

Even as the movie starts with the story ending, you know that it isn't going to be the actual one. After a long wait of 2 hours and 15 minutes, the final scenes arrive and they are totally unbelievable, conceived and captured on camera extremely well. The whole movie rests in that final sequence and you can clearly see, a normal psycho movie turning into a beautiful one right at that moment. Good Experience.