Four years - A lifetime

It had always been an ambition to study in IIT-Madras. Even before I got to know that IIT administered degrees in engineering. It is a shameful admission, that I got into IIT, of my own will yeah, but the driving force behind it was to see my mother happy, as she had wanted it possibly from the day I had started my education. So, when I came into IIT, I did not know what to expect. For someone, who had shifted school only once in his entire schooling career, that too with the first shift being some sort of a intermediate jump in class 5, I had never really experienced farewell. Leaving P.S.Senior was very, very difficult for me, for the memories it gave me. Then, I came into IITM. I always felt like I owned this place. The people coming in here, to be frank, was never really an intimidating factor, since I had a lot of friends here as I joined the place. Prasad, Rak, Baby, Sreeki, Srini, Srinath, Sivaram (now better known as Mosqui) were all friends from school, and IIT seemed just like one big reunion. On the other hand were friends from the same coaching class as mine, which in addition to these species, involved CJR, RK, Manda, to name a few. But there was one odd feeling about joining this place.

The first day I came here, I remember vividly, was spent in an orientation talk, followed by the entry into the legendary SGR mess. There, I met, someone I knew from class 8, who would go on to become one of my closest buddies at IITM, Karthikram. I really didn't know he was in here till then. Well, here was someone in addition to Jaichu, Dhari and Surya, the other three Vidya Mandir guys (P.S.Senior's rival in the school "business"). I really didn't hit off with him initially, but I guess our similarities brought us together. Playing cricket in the first sem, under Ayush's leadership, going home by bus every evening after practice in the first sem, and coming back by car the next morning, the infinite stories shared, the laughs and pains bartered, they'll remain in memory forever I guess. As a gang, we all had a chat session in CCD after the 'O' level orientation exam in English. I guess, that was the first real "meet-up" of the legendary tam-gang in insti. In CRC, where our classes in first semester used to happen, Prasad and I, two solitary 'h' batch guys used to while time away, until we realized another bird of the same feather was sheltering under the same roof. It was the mokka mannan of DAV, CJR, the guy who used to thulp KK sir's physics classes with considerable ease, co-Vijay fan, but more memorably remembered as the guy who cried on TV when his class 10 board results came (his principal forced him, he claims). We hit off instantly. If Ram added some kind of dynamism to our group, CJR added the flavor of mokka. There has to be a joker in every group. CJR was ours, but not just a joker, a very witty one he was. If there's someone with whom I've shared a million laughs in insti, it is CJR! The next stop was the elec dept. Here, I met many many people, lots who would become future friends. I knew very few though initially, and tried bonding with those I knew. There was this girl, muggu max, who I'd seen in the chemistry olympiad camp at HBCSE, and I knew she was the cousin of a friend of mine. I struck conversations randomly with her, when we met on the road, staircases and all, little realizing that she'd become someone who'd know my in-and-out someday. Vasuki, the snake girl, went on to soon become another of my closest buddies. She was the first person in insti, with whom I started vetti chats, and gossips, and that has somehow stuck on for four years now! Somewhere down the semester, there was this guy, who I had always visualized as armed with a sickle from the suburbs of Trichy, a math genius, and at that point of time, a physics freak, who started becoming extremely close to me. Today, apart from being a really good friend, he stands as one of my biggest inspirations with respect to a lot of stuff, one of the guys I know with the weirdest imaginations, and possibly the one I hold with maximum respect in insti, Shaileshh.

Apart from this gang, I had a lot of other friends too. My wing, consisting of Mallika and Midhun, predominantly my closest guys in here, and also Vishruth, who I earlier called Tantrik, Sappola,  Lohit, Shywhy, Bouncy, and Harsha. Later down the years, I made great friends with Tunu, through infinite shared interests and classes. There were people like Vedha, who I continued to greet throughout with a Vedha-the mass, and Kanu, who was my pseudo-neighbour for three years. There was Kadala, the musically inclined, and KS, my cricket team-mate.  I made friends at cricket practice too, like Prashanth, Prabhu, Lotion, Pratyush amongst others. Prabhu, or Dhev as I call him, went on to become a really really close friend of mine with time. We came very close during practice in our final year, and he went on to star in my short film in his last semester. There was Prasad's wing, the terrors as I call them, for there is no person/topic under the sun, which escapes their terrorizing scrutiny. This included Hari (Prasad's roommate), who eventually became on a personal note very close to me too, Prem, Ashok, mimicry talent, cricket sense and knowledge about Tamil movies are just beyond me, the afore-mentioned Dhev and Prashanth (BS), and finally, the honorary Tapti wing member, Zubair, alias Zuberman, who used to be found in compromising situations in Prem's room!

Then there were gangs I mingled with and got close to in patches. One was that of Glucon and KK. It was during this period that I got to know Psycho and 7f amongst others. Glucon, the math freak, was another guy I admired for his talents, but I despised him for the way I saw him wasting them.  KK was another talented guy, he was somehow the guy with the golden touch always.  Then there was the Jam gang. I got particularly close to them in my second year during sessions in CJR’s room where he was confined thanks to a broken leg. This gang included Jaichu, the Mech stud, ex-VMite as I had mentioned earlier, and a relative exponent of Sanskrit and philosophy. Another of those inspirations, with respect to a spiritual thought process. It also included Rajesh, (#face-palm for all those of you who understood this) the guy officially behind half the terror in the Jam gang, and others like Sahaj, someone who has been a good hi-bye casual chat friend for four years, Big Show with whom I spent a summer in IISc getting very close to, Shyam KJ, mech-to-elec BC putter, who had been in the ‘h’ batch with me right from my first year, and also people like Kannabiran, Rohit and PK.

The Ganga hostel always held special memories for me. It was where I dined for the first two years of my insti life, and the tam-gang at SGR became legendary in many senses. Apart from the gang, there lived Baby (partner in anything Math for the last 8 years, and a good good friend), Sreeki (curd from school, full bottle beer here, the propogand of the chappli ECR theory), Nishaanth (drunk calls prankster), Naveen (huge huge huge Yuvan fan) and Shiva (ji) (the CS terror). Another of those wings I enjoyed hanging out with from my first year was the Godav wing. The wing which contained of RK, Manda, Srini (ex-mokka putter, BT-to-CS branch changer), Sudha (fellow ARR fan, someone who has a brilliant taste in Indian movies), Jana (hero of my film, someone who became a friend over walks from ESB to Hostel zone), Surya (pseudo-drunkard, ex-VMite, someone with an opinion of his own all the time) and Nitin.G (novice) was always on fire. I watched my first group movie with this gang. RK had then recently bought a laptop, and we watched Ghajini which had released a day earlier after downloading it from LAN. This was on Jan 31, 2008. I still remember CJ’s imitation of VJK singing “Yeh teri adoori ... Guzaarish” the next day in class. There were others including Dhari, the man with the voice and the violin, Sai-G, eternal innocent cribber, BKa, Sai-G’s eternal companion in trust and life, etc. There was also the Quiz Club in which I meddled about every now and then in insti. That gave me another set of friends, memorable ones. I’d never forget the enthu with which PDF and I would go and sit in every new quiz only to come back disheartened with a “We will rock it next time”, for four straight years. I also got to know JoJo, old PSBB boy-rapist, Samadhi, the elec PJ putting godfather, who recently took over from an ex-godfather, Rakesh Misra, Tempo, Vinay, Bob and many others through this.
The department gave me a lot of friends too. I couldn’t thank the communication Dual degree group enough for they’ve been the ones who’ve spent a huge chunk of their academic time sitting in the same classes as me and adding so much to the memories. There’ve been DSP, MRB, NPS, Nishid, EF, Dilly, Pritesh, Varsha, Archana, Sadhana, and all others who I’d like to thank for all the memories I’ve endured in class hours with them. 

My life in IITM has encompassed many memorable incidents, FRP workshops, MK Jain’s classes, Sridhar Krishnan’s classes, Anjan’s classes, BRM’s classes, oops too many classes already, let’s get out of them, treats, b’day parties at 12 in the night and videos and gifts made for that purpose, chats in rooms, movies watched together, trips out, movies at Sathyam/Escape/Inox and even Jayanthi theatre, Elec nights, four Shaastras and four Saarangs, cricket matches, dept day outs, Guru fart sessions, concerts, running sessions, wolf sessions well into the night, attempted walks on the border road, sloka group meetings, visits to the shiva temple near the main gate, finding new cycling routes in insti, playing on arbitrary ducks in insti, mass fundae sessions – first attended and later put, Ascendas trips, the great Tam-Brahm meets/treats, and anything and everything that gave us so much fun here.

As for Shailu, Vasuki, Ram and CJ, I don’t really have to tell you how much I will miss you, you will know already. As for all of the others, I just don’t know how I’m going to get on with next year, in this place devoid of all of you. I will miss you’ll dearly. For wont of a better expression than this, I “kult” in true IITM style, and I totally mean, a quote of CJR’s
           “I couldn’t have possibly found a better place, or better people, to do a B.Tech with!”

The Artist

There are some movies which make you feel they were alright but something minor was missing. There are some movies which make you feel, how do these guys even come up with such ideas, its brilliant, but the effect is just exterior. Then, there are those, which transcend both these categories, and they speak right to your heart. The Artist, undoubtedly, belongs to the third category. In an era, where cinema is running ahead at the rate of knots, where dimensions are being added, and technology is impacting it in a way like never before, the sound effects are getting better every single day, this movie, a throwback to the 1920s silent era, might sound like an aberration, but it isn't one, it is more of an anomaly. I don't remember the last time I saw a film that impacted me so much.

The storyline is simple. George Valentin, played in an Academy Award winning performance by the very talented Jean Dujardin, is a silent movie star. While the world around him changes to talking, he is stubborn, and believes that talking is for the kids. A chip off the old block, the star finds his world crashing around him, but is not ready to change for the "better". After a while, his past begins to catch up with him. The story of the rise, and fall, and possibly rise again of a superstar, is something even the Indian audiences are used to. This is the story of a million films, like Fashion, Victory, Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal (Tamil), more recently The Dirty Picture and is a storyline which every classy director has toyed with in his or her own way. But, what stands out here, is the presentation. Firstly, it is a silent tribute to that era of films when talking was unknown commodity. This is more a silent film on the lines of the silent films of the 1920s era, in the sense that, there are dialogues conveyed through placards when the need arises, unlike other silent films of the modern era, for instance Kamal Haasan’s Pushpak, where the need to talk just doesn’t arise throughout the script. Considering the former is a biopic, it is impossible to rule out any dialogues in the script, and the director doesn’t display artificiality by trying to do the same.

The strongest aspect of the script is the symbolisms present throughout the movie. The movie lives on its symbolisms, to the extent that at some point of time you are just bored of catching them.  For instance, the place where he releases a silent movie he directs and produces, in parallel with a talkie starring an upcoming star, and his movie bombs, it is presented with his character in the movie caught in a quagmire, and slowly losing his life going right into it, and an End card pops up into the screen. Another example would be, when he sells all his stuff at an auction, and walks away, his once romantic interest, now a big star, sadly eyes him walk away from the place, and the shop right above his head, is called Lonely Man. There are just a couple of the million references the director has pushed into the movie.

Finally, the movie is nothing without Uggie. Uggie, the dog, is a star in its own right. It acts like a pro, and provides some of the most memorable moments of the watching. The blink-and-miss act in the pre-climax is out of the world. As Vasuki was saying, he definitely deserved an equivalent of the Oscar for the best supporting actor. I feared before watching the movie about sleeping mid-way, due to the absence of any talking. But, the movie doesn’t give any scope for that. Engages you through the 96 minutes of viewing, and leaves you with an indelible smile on the face when it gets over. The Academy presented Slumdog Millionaire, and The King’s Speech with Best Picture awards, in the last 3 years, both good films, but not really worth the best award of the night. I really don’t know how good or not Hugo is, but I’m sure giving the award to the Artist is something anyone would contemplate plainly for its innovation in a given old setup, new wine in old bottle rather. Artist – visual pleasure! 

Welcome 2k12

It took me quite a while to get on with blogging this year! I've had multiple moments of wanting to generally open this typing space, and start punching keys at my will. But then, my towering intellect would prevail, and the punching would happen on 30 minute constrained GRE practice essay session. Finally, after all that pain is over, I'm back to blogger, without a hint of guilt of having spent time here when I shouldn't have been here! Well, one thing I must admit, is that GRE is an exam I liked preparing for, since I learnt a lot of new words in the process. I don't know if that experience creeps in here somehow, but definitely it has been a good value addition to the vocabulary.

Life post-GRE suddenly seems very light, it is true that no chunk of my time went towards GRE preparation in any case, but since the exam has gotten done with, there is the feeling that there is a lot of time in hand. That, has always been there, in fact. But, suddenly, there has been an influx of time, for purposes such as thinking. I've been thinking about the most random stuff around, like why scars influence muscle pulls, and why Terence Tao doesn't come down to Chennai, about why MSD and Viru must be engaging in the war of words to take the media spotlight away from performances, and why insti elections are so immersed in Gult politics, and why insti politics, with its various subdivisions such as even Reddy politics is more filthy than even national politics. One thing took my fancy when I was going through the friends lists of a couple of friends of mine on Facebook. Friends, whose friendship I'd envied, were not friends on Facebook. Sounds trivial enough, but a friendship on Facebook not existing, can tell you a million more stories than a friendship on Facebook existing. I got to know that this had come to happen through a girl. It was not the first time I was encountering such a scenario, where

a friendship had taken a tong on the head thanks to a girl, but was definitely the most severe of those cases. I mean, can friendships really be that weak? Or maybe, weak is the right word, heartache does happen in such instances. But, is it strong enough a factor to distort a friendship, say harbored for over 12 years? One thing totally out of the reach of my mind is, how does a guy go behind a girl who he knows his friend already likes badly. I've never been able to answer that question, and I don't think I ever will. Maybe, love does strike without telling you and all that shit, but still, really? I mean, forget the ethics, what happened to friendship? Is getting that girl of your wishes, bigger than that friendship, that lovely bond that sustained you for so long? Maybe, I'm just a novice in these matters, but it is incomprehensible to me.


Maybe that's why I decided to base my next short film on this theme. It's something that I've thought about, and unable to come up with a satisfactory response, I've tried to gain one through the film. Oh, and because the topic of the post says so.. Welcome 2k12 :P :)

2011 - My year, in review

I like doing this thing. It's always fun to talk about stuff which define(d) specific periods of time for you, and a good time to review it is the year end. As in my case, I've been doing this post on my blog for the last few years. In fact this has happened every year since I started the blog in 2006, except in 2007 when I was on a 11 month hiatus from using the net. Each year has been different, in 2009, it was my 100th post, and I got my friends to write it for me, whereas 2008 and 2006 were very senti, and were typically me in the olden days. 2010 ironically didn't have a single '!' in spite of it being the period when my usage of exclamation marks was at a global maxima. This year I thought I'd make it a little different, by going on a month-wise review of events, which makes it simple for me, and probably more memorable as that year was quite a linear one for me.

January - So the year began with a bang. Early January was very memorable. I still remember a few incidents very vividly. Watching Aadukalam with Shaileshh, and discussing about how "cocky" the movie was for the remainder of the week. The same week, going to shop at Ritchie street with him, and ending up hogging big time at Pizza Hut! :P Vasuki went off to Hongkong, and gave a lot of stories from there. It was generally a very pleasant month. And then Saarang arrived! Saarang just gets better with every passing year. It did so this year too. KK was at his best. Putting kuthu for apdi podu with CJR, Shaileshh, Hari and co. will definitely be one of the best memories of my college life. Also, watching Virudhagiri with CJR, Sreeki and Webops "Jaichu" Core into 2.30 at night, after Tarang and Decibels finals got over, was insane. There was this slightly funny thing which I did, during Saarang, which almost had my friends in fits of laughter, but I'd refrain from posting more details about the same here.

February - February was more about monotony. One great thing was the news of acceptance to do an internship over summer at IISc Bangalore. But otherwise, it was quite a drag. I must admit, the wait for the world cup to begin was one long long long wait! Nevertheless, the world cup was enjoyed, and was one out-of-the-world feeling. The tie against England was frustrating, but things seldom go the way you want them to, right? Oh, and the t-shirt we presented CJR on his bday! :P :P

March - March, this year, was brilliant! The world cup boiled down to the final here. I got to watch 2 world cup matches at Chepauk, South 'chokers' Africa vs England & India vs West Indies. I forgot to mention the small matter of watching the latter from the players pavilion in the previous line. The India-Pakistan semi-final was telecast in OAT (Open Air Theatre @ IITM), which drew a full crowd. Screaming Thalaiva when Sachin appeared on the screen, gave the feel of a Rajni movie. The crazy celebrations when it was over, defined my day. March, also had, other things in its armory, such as an Elec 'batch' Day Out. We went to Mahabalipuram, and had great fun. Tambola, Intro sessions, Good lunch followed by a playing session in beach waters, it was a concept introduced, and is here to stay. There was also Sivaratri, where I spent the whole night in the temple and didn't sleep until the next night. Brilliant, brilliant experience! :)

April - India won the world cup. India won the world cup. India won the world cup. TamBrahm friends will get this. If Wankhede were a temple, and The World Cup, a thiruvizha, then Sachin was India's utsavamoorthy on April 2. It was such a brilliant sight seeing all his team-mates giving him a ride on their shoulders around the ground. I bet every single Indian choked at that. Following the world cup, was Vasuki's bday video. Shaileshh and I got our friends to make our first music video, was gen fun, and we had great laughs making it. The best part were the music and the guitar sections, where an impromptu guitar chord which Hari knew was modified to fit our needs :D Also, Elec Night happened. Something I am very proud of, this year's event was ahead on various counts from the previous year ones, and we are planning to make it bigger and better the next year. \m/

May - Holidays began. Summer internship in Bangalore also began. Friends started flying out of India on internships. It was the start of a very solo period. The birthday was a very home event this year, as its always been, the bane with being born in a holiday season. The good thing, no treats were handed out! :D It was a period when I also got onto writing Beyond the Stars, a small short story, inspired by Thalaivar (Rajinikant), probably the story I've enjoyed writing the most. You can read it here (http://byondthestars.blogspot.com/). The internship was very subdued, and as it was just the start, not much progress was done. The sober month, was though capped with some good news, of the birth of yet another nephew, another baby in the family => more fun! :)

June - Internship part II. I started getting used to Bangalore life. The food was awesome. I was a regular at Taco's Bells, Corner House (for Death By Chocolate) and the Italian joint near IISc. This was predominantly a period when I started making a lot of good friends from among people who were decent more-than-acquaintances up until then. I must admit, MRB, Big Show, Midhun, Purnima, Astha, Rajita and Aditya gave me a great time at IISc. Organizing Purnima's bday was fun, it was probably the last bday I would organize for quite a while after that. Batchmates from IITM in Bangalore for the summer, made a night trek trip to Skandagiri, and man, what a trip it was. It partly made my internship all by itself. A wonderful trip, and great experience. Then, there was a trip to Kolkata with family, a two-day trip, but great fun, and lots of good sweets. Also, this was the period when except during lunch (read gobi manchurian) at IISc, I was practically lonely. I used to have gen chats with only three people, Purnima, Shreyas and Shruthy, and travel chats with Big Show on the bus and sometimes Midhun. Other friends were in different time zones and chat times didn't match. I thank every person who found a minute here and there to talk to me, as only I know how much that meant to me then! :)

July - I became a workaholic! \m/ There were 4 lab nightouts, and they included periods of sitting in the lab for 35 hours and all, except for moving out for lunch. I loved those first 15 days in July, and working was really fun. I enjoyed what I was doing, and this was when my decision to pursue a research career became more firm. There was a small treat with Prof. Neelesh's (my intern guide) family, and also multiple treats with the other lab mates. I made some good friends among the lab junta, including Rajat, Salil, Sai, Shabbir and Karthik. Taco's Bells continued, so did the Dominos adventures. Also, my project report had begun, and the summer holidays were slowly drawing to a close.

August - I went back to Bangalore within a fortnight of my return, this time on a fun purpose, with my friends Prasad, Ram and CJR, for Vasuki's grihapravesam. This was also the time I got back to the cricket field after more than a year. It's always nice when you get back to do something you enjoy so much, as it brings so much of happiness into your life. Got to experience that first-hand.

September - The ARM-TI event got over early into the year. It was something I had been working on since late July, and it came out really good. Also, the event won E2A a lot of bonus points in the eye of our HOD. Airtel Super Singer got over! I was following it right until the end, and so it had to go up here! :P Veppam released, one of my favorite movies of the last year, with some great songs too. There was one quick confusion in between, and I put my head to it really soon to even let the idea erode my head. :-) Cricket went on. We once ran 10 rounds in Chemplast and it was a lot of fun (not really while running, but surely after that). BRM became IITMs Diro, and we were ecstatic, the next 2 months had the director running to ESB for that one A slot to take class for us! :D It was a quite month, but was surely the calm before the storm.

October - Just like how Januarys are associated with Saarang, every IITM student's Octobers are marked with Shaastra. My Shaastra was very good this year, with places in Math Modeling, Watts Up, and Puzzle Champ. The only saddening factor was that, this year's Math Modeling was probably my last math event with Baby, my collaborator with respect to math events for the last 8 years. We went on a Tam gang treat after ages. Eden, my favorite restaurant, was the destination! :) A few movies released for Diwali, and they were all bad :D I think though, that the best part of the year were Rockstar, and the Naga Trilogy. The Naga Trilogy is a brilliant brilliant series, something I loved reading, and the Rockstar was one very awaited album of Rahman, and it broke all expectations, and went miles ahead in the trends it established. Kun Faya Kun + Naadan Parindey + Sadda Haq \m/

November - This was the Kolaveri month. Also, when academics slowly crept back into the picture. The endsems were kind of peaced out, and hence gave me the feeling of an early holiday season. November was not really the month of many happenings. The best part of the month was the quarter marathon we ran at IITM. It was a wonderful experience, which we undertook as part of an initiative by Chennai Runners. It was a very freshening event, and it also made us feel good for a few days after it happened. November was also a month of heavy rains, and long night-outs in insti. There was a brunch treat at GRT, for the entire cricket team, and I think we have all realized that the cricket team is quite high on our agenda, and is something we are all proud of being a small speck in. I would like to thank all my friends in the team, right from   And after all that, another semester vacation began! :)

December - Another vacation month. The first half was filled with placements of friends. It was a long long process, but at the end of it, we were all devoid of any unfulfilled longings. It has been a fun month, with a three day temple trip to Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, and my native village, Ganapathy Agraharam. Then there was the usual December hanging out with Shre, Kau and others. Its in progress, and I'd not like to put a decisive review before the entire year is actually over. There has also been a revisit to spirituality, something I totally enjoy. Finally, it has also yielded me my best semester by miles at college in terms of a grade point average. It has been a good good year, a very memorable one, something which makes me wait in earnest for the next.

It reminds me that my next year end review will be drastically different, as a lot of my friends would have passed out, and will probably distances apart. So, it might be a difficult year for me, or I might just be good enough with everything around me. It's been a good sem, the last one, and there are just 3 more to go! GRE beckons, apps beckon, placements, and so does Sachin's 100th 100, which in all probability will come up next year.

Finally, "Kadaikkaradhu kadaikkama irukkadhu, kadaikkama irukkardhu kadaikkadhu", i.e. "That you are meant to obtain, you will not miss, and that you are meant to miss, you will not obtain", so live life happily and remember, that anything that happens is solely for the good. Wish you a happy, prosperous and successful new year! :-)

Random rants

There are a diverse set of emotions under which a blog post can be manufactured. Yes, I literally mean manufactured, because it does take some pain on one's part, and also a lot of mental willingness to be putting up a collage of ideas online, when actually the mind is racing ahead, playing with a myriad of emotions. I very truly believe, that the mind is way too faster than the speed of light, and thereby anything else, and so writing down stuff might just make ideas evaporate into thin air before you can even completely note them down. Maybe that is the reason, I do not record many of my emotional faces on the blog. Sometimes though, I just write as a means to venting out built-up frustration, and today's post perhaps is one such raw post!

 Something that has been disturbing me for quite a while now is the nagging feeling, of lacking something. For starters, it pisses me off big time, when people intrude into 'my space'. Well, this is something that happens with everybody, and it gets irritating when someone tries to influence your idea/decision, especially when you know what your doing is right in some aspect. Yeah yeah, I agree that everyone thinks his (in)action is right always, but sometimes on an ethical aspect, there is just no other way, when your ethically right and the other is ethically wrong, and both of you know that, then the debate of who's right just ceases to exist. So, it seems unjust when an unethical partner criticizes your action(s), and when you ignore too much of this, one day or the other, it just comes splashing out, like from a champagne bottle.

 Sometimes the questions are even more fundamental, simple right or wrong questions, where the line of judgement is very blurred, and choices are very hard to demarcate. In a world where efficiency, street-smartness and shrewdness is ruling the roost, what chance does straightforwardness stand? What people take for rudeness, is at times plain straightforwardness, and that gets you the boot. That makes it even the harder to be straightforward, to not disguise your face and its various expressions each time a conversation happens. Also, the various delicate situations involved in being straightforward, make it a luxury not affordable by the majority. A lot of the pain in life though, I believe, comes from the reluctance to be straightforward. Well, again, it's a choice for everyone to make, but truly, the feeling of getting skinned because of standing up to the truth, feels much more comfortable than the feeling of staying afloat on lies. Again, it's just a hypothesis.

 Sometimes, more out of an urge, than a need, we realize the zillion contacts, of people who were once very close to us, are no longer anywhere in our drawboard, and we want them back. It sometimes drives us to desperation, sometimes the same, for new contacts we want to make, it might sound crazy, but you never know when you set out on that crazy journey, but you do, everyone of you, at some point of time or the other, and that is the truth. The path, you go back on, to find them, takes you back on a journey of introspection, one which more so bold out your flaws, rather than your fine points, something we should be ready to take on the face, rather than hide from and keep away out of fear to face the truth. But do we do the needful? I leave it to you to introspect! Oh, and every human being has a threshold for everything, and I've met my ranting threshold. So, writing will happen sooner than later. Until then, introspect!

Why is originality being debated about?

One thing I've noticed always when movies are being discussed, is a good movie gets discarded completely by a lot of critics because originality is missing. What's worse, the director gets bashed up because a script isn't original. The latest movie in this bandwagon, with respect to Tamil cinema, I've noticed, is Mayakkam Enna, which has a strong semblance to A Beautiful Mind. I do not get the point of bashing the director up for that. For one, I could see both movies in their own light, and they hold their own proud place under the arclights!

Firstly, something which many people do not understand is, direction is about making actors act. It is NOT about writing a new script! Therefore, a copied or used script does not make an individual a bad director! PERIOD. In Indian cinema, for some reason, story and screenplay is intricately associated with direction. Gone are the days when directors were given adulation for just their director's touch, now a director is blamed for using stories, and sometimes even other factors. K.Balachander, a director I admire totally, and so will every Tamil movie buff who enjoys quality cinema, was one who could make get the emotions out of even a stone. I was particularly impressed with this line in Wikipedia which said, over the 70s, into the 80s, Kamal Haasan played De Niro to Balachander's Scorcese. KB and Kamal were an actor-director combination par excellence, because KB knew what exactly he wanted out of every frame, and there was no way sure as hell, that Kamal could goof up on even a single expectation of KB's. If only he did something different, it tended to be better than even expected! Testimonies in time stand Apoorva Ragankal, Aval Oru Thodarkathai, Varumaiyin Niram Sigappu, Avargal, Manmadha Leelai, Maro Charitra, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Unnal Mudiyum Thambi among others. Well, many of these scripts were inspired, some of them heavily, and a few of them remakes too, but each one of them stood out, and are considered strong pillars of Tamil cinema. For the fact, Kamal's biggest role, Velu Nayakar in Nayakan, though is based on Velu Mudaliar of the Bombay underworld, is a strong strong base in part of Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather! Another of his roles which won him a lot of acclaim, Avvai Shanmugi was almost a direct rip-off Mrs.Doubtfire, but nevertheless, he kicks Robin Williams' portrayal of the role. Getting back to KB, Thillu Mullu, widely considered one of Tamil cinema's best comedies, was a remake of a Hindi movie Gol Maal, but KB made it the way he wanted to see it, and it is by far a more successful venture than the original.

Again it is not that I am against the concept of having new storylines in cinema. It is definitely a necessity for any industry to stay running. But, it is unfair to outright disown somebody because his body of work isn't completely original! I mean, I'd prefer someone like A.L.Vijay whose movies are almost always inspired from some other film, but does a very good work with the direction, rather than someone like Perarasu, whose films are always original, but heaploads of bullshit, which doesn't give me any excitement to watch.

P.S: One of my posts these days definitely has to be about how I've totally started liking the kind of cinema Dhanush does. Simbu, though very talented, now has loads to learn from his rival, seriously!

Diwali and releases...

End of quizzes, and Diwali time, coupled with 3 new releases, and enthu junta on insti LAN means you end up catching all new releases on the release weekend itself. While the whole world is going about voicing its views about the releases, and a lot of verbal bashing up is going on, I thought I might as well jump on into the bandwagon! So, here goes my review of the three movies, if you’d want to call it that! Well, I do not have an enthu to list the entire story down, so it’s just a few comments about the three movies here.

7aum Arivu: First day, and technically, first show in the theatre I watched it. (Prarthana, so drive-in, evening show = first show! :P) The movie is about a Tamil Buddhist monk Bodhidharman, who is instrumental in the spread of Buddhism, the martial arts and also ancient medicinal techniques into ancient-day China. It deals with how modern day China tries to launch a bio-war on India, and how a genetically similar descendant of Bodhidharma is made to help rescue India by using atavistic techniques!

On the acting front, Suriya, Shruthi Haasan and Johnny Tri Nyugen, all come out trumps. Suriya does an easy, regular job as Aravind, the circus guy. But, as Bodhidharma, he really shows why he is such a versatile actor. For almost the entire period running upto 20 minutes, barring one scene, there are no dialogues, and his body language convey everything that needs to be put forward to the audience. The smiles, or the fierce stares, the Kalari practicing scene, and not to forget, the fight sequence where he singlehandedly chases the invaders away, just make you want to cheer for him! Shruthi Haasan shows where her genes come from! She does a good job, quite comfortably! Well, there were quite a few people who were cribbing about her putting up a deadpan expression and not being able to emote! I believe she was just trying to be natural. If acting in your context means, getting raped, and then wailing out loudly saying “Enna kedithitaan, machan enna konnudu da” and winning national awards for it (no offense meant to Priyamani), then I don’t want to take the argument further. The Johnny guy doesn’t need to really do anything, his eyes do the job! Now, onto the technical aspects of the film. A.R.Murugadoss directs fine, but man, he has forgotten the screenplay when he has been filming this on celluloid. In his previous outing Ghajini, the screenplay was out of the world until the end of the second flashback, and he lost track in the last half an hour which he made monotonous and hard to sit through. But in this case, he seems to have lost steam after the first 20 minutes. Maybe the Bodhidharma sequence could have been a flashback, and that could have somehow sustained audience interest in the first half. Many new directors need to learn lessons in screenplay, from someone who was not at all good with direction, but one could sit through his movies for sheer screenplay power, K.Bhagyaraj! The Kamal-Bharathiraja film Oru Kaidhiyin Diary had to be made in Hindi, with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead, and he decided to rope Bhagyaraj as director for screenplay power. Bhagyaraj made a single change to the script, including a new scene in the Hindi version, where the dad and son Bachchans meet, and the movie went several notches higher. Of late, the only such screenplay power I’ve noticed from, is Kamal Haasan, in films like Hey Ram, Virumaandi, or Dasavatharam, where screenplay was a big factor in making the movie a winner. In 7aum Arivu, many songs were unnecessary. The two best songs, Mun Andhi (special mention to Haasan jr. :P) and Yellae Lama, were ill-placed. Romance lacked intensity, and at some point the movie just got sleepy. If not for so much IIT Madras footage, maybe I’d not have liked the movie half as much as I did. Good, not worth the hype though!

Ra.One: Second day, insti LAN. Three movies released on Diwali day, and all three had heroes I like, one who was steadily climbing down the ranks, and one climbing up. SRK for one, has been a long time favourite, since the days of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Duplicate. I did expect a lot from Ra.One, and my respect for him increased exponentially after all his pro-Thalaivar dialogues before the release of the film. Also, I loved My Name is Khan, in spite of all the negative reviews around me, and was putting the debacle of Billu behind me! But, Ra.One, true to the name of the character in the film, comes along crushing all expectations. SRK, as Shekhar Subramaniam kills the shit out of you. You just can’t watch his craziness, it’s terribly majorly because he ends up portraying a TamBrahm. The only good thing about his character is he roots for the good, in spite of creating a game dominated by the bad for his totally stupid, I-would-have-slapped-him-if-he-were-my-kid type son. The guy Armaan, who plays his son, the lesser said about him, the better. Kareena Kapoor looks a billion bucks, but her role in the movie ends there. Oh ya, she is there to explain the significance of Karva Chauth to the good guy in the game, G.One. That reminds me, G.One is SRK in another forgettable performance. When did SRK get trained by Sivaji Ganesan (well, he’s a legend, but in some of later movies he really did cross the line) to overact? Also how can a robot overact? Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra throw in useless guest appearances. I’d like to say the same thing about Thalaivar. It’s quite a shame that he had to be part of this piece of epic-shit! Well, the one and a half minutes he is on screen oozes with style, but we could probably have done without it considering the output, after the hype it was given. Finally, Arjun Rampal does a guest appearance as villain. One definitely feels the hero is 0.01% as cool as the villain, but given the climax fight sequence, 0.01% as strong? Really?? Also, if the hero or villain could die only in the third level, why did we have the first two levels? Some kind of qualifiers before the actual chequered flag? #epic-fail-idea. Also keeping in tow with the previous release where delegates in China talk in English (come on dude, Chinese (Mandarin) is the world’s largest spoken language), here the delegates in an international gaming conference talk in Hindi. Chammak Challo is a face-saver, for the song is totally disconnected in some sense from the movie, and you can enjoy it like you watch a music video. The entire movie is a farce. Below the belt jokes rule in this child flick. All this movie has done to SRK is made him the face of a million other jokes, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if all the TR-Vijaykant-Vijay jokes are modified to suit SRK and sent around soon!

Velayudham: For someone who loved Ghilli and Pokkiri, and rooted for Vijay after them, the last few years were hell. It’s an insult to the Tamil industry to call Sura a film. Vettaikaaran, and Villu, though they scored on romance and style respectively, were nonsensical otherwise. Kaavalan was funny, but there was no real story until the last fifteen minutes. But, Velayutham comes to the rescue. For starters, thankfully it wasn’t hyped, and it had a terrible trailer. The movie is no different from other Vijay movies in the fact that it is a complete commercial entertainer, but the screenplay is taut for once. The film is funny, Santhanam tickles the bone often enough to keep you in splits throughout the film. Vijay is good. He as always can act, and can dance too, and thankfully doesn’t overdo either, and that makes the film very good to watch. Genelia does a pretty decent job with the acting. Hansika has all the potential to become the next Namitha of Tamil Cinema. She is fat, she is white, she can’t act to save her life, and her scenes are loaded with squirm-in-seat moments. Keeping in line with the previous two films, here there are Pakistani terrorists talking in Tamil. All that reminds me of is “Sher Khan, Sher ke bachche”, in the opening sequence of the epic terrorist catching film of Vijaykant, Narasimma. For a change, in a Vijay movie, you don’t feel stuff going haywire, and you don’t feel like thinking, “What’s this guy doing!”. Every action, and its corresponding reaction are natural, like the scene where Vijay talks about wanting to just be a loving brother to his sister, and not a super-hero to save the nation. The climax also makes a lot of sense, considering the theme of the film. If there is something that could have been toned down, they are Vijay’s political innuendos. The number of times he makes a reference to “Amma”, directly or indirectly, are ......, wait I lost count after the first three times. Well, it looks like things are brightening up again for Vijay. Post a decent outing in Kaavalan, and a blockbuster in Velayudham, I don’t see him going down anytime soon with Nanban with Shankar, A.R.Murugadoss’ next and Yohan Adhyayam Onru with Gautham Menon in the pipeline. As long as he does decent films, he definitely will be watchable.