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• The Internet’s Biggest Google Whores « John Chow dot Com
  Ever wondered just how much money can Adsense make ?
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My first reaction was “Damn, I can almost imagine Kads weeping through out “.¹
Could not resist mailing few pals once I saw this on rediff. Arun replied and what followed was immense fun. Take a look.

1. Reminds me of Sitayana animation, take a look [back]

• DailyLit
  This sends out periodic mails for the novels/poems selected.
  (tags: Books)

From

The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that? (Click on image for larger view)

[image]

Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. What a time saver!

That one place where your RSS list is created is called an RSS Reader, and it gathers all the headlines from all the websites and blogs you have subscribed to. In a moment, I will describe how to get an RSS Reader.

Subscribing to RSS feeds
But first, to “subscribe” to a website or blog’s RSS feed simply means that you are telling that website or blog, “Yes please. Send me your story headlines.” It’s like subscribing to a magazine or newsletter. Instead of getting a magazine or email, you will just get a list of headlines sent to your RSS reader. If the headline looks interesting to you, all you have to do is click on the headline and you’ll be sent to the whole story.

In order to subscribe to a website or blog’s RSS, all you have to do is click on an RSS symbol like one of those shown in the diagram above, or a text link of the words “Subscribe to our RSS feed” on the website or blog. Typically, you can find these RSS symbols or text links in your browser window, on the sides of the website page, or on the bottom of the page. The publishers of the websites and blogs really want people to subscribe to their RSS, so they will make it very easy for you to find the subscription links.

Oh just our suffer, one Sara waitings
Sun sad comings, is giving man zeal of loves (Kiski Tea)

ae mere humsafar, ik zara intezaar
sun sadaayen, de rahi hain, man-zil pyaar ki

I am not in my own public transport.
Deal is somewhere and I am somwhere.
Coin a stop heart’s Hindi serial
The pickle is gone
ah ah aaa haaa aah (MisGuide)

apne hi bas mein nahin main
dil hain kahin aur hoon kahin main
koi-na roko dil ki Udaan ko
dil voh chala
ah ah aa haaa aah

My Daughter-In-Law is a moon, You are a bar in Mumbai
door is next to Daughter-In-Law, sridevi told (gvenum)

chaand mera dil, chandni ho tum
chaand se hai door, chandni kahaan

Such and more fun cometh here. A 30 word odd post of out-of-the-world creativity gets 174 comments. Anybody can beat that ?

Arun @ 70mm :

Pyar Ke Side/ Effects (PKSE) may have ventured into a familiar territory that was explored earlier by Nagesh Kukunoor in Hyderabad Blues -1 & 2 but it still smells oven fresh. Cynics may want to write it off as a wannabe Hollywood movie or the one trying to wander in the lanes of Meet the Parents, but its infectious charm is undeniable. Its like an old story narrated in a refreshingly funny way, ofcourse with the occasional cliches, keeping the contemporary world in mind.

Rangan on Dor

As the film unfolds, you see that, just as with Iqbal, Kukunoor seems to do his best work while walking on the middle of the road – not pandering especially to either commercial or art-house considerations. The impression I got with Dor was that of watching something like Majid Majidi’s Baran filtered through a Bollywood-lite sensibility. Like Iranian cinema, this is a heartwarmingly simple story, simply told, but with dialogues and music and melodrama taken from our cinema.
[...]
This dialogue-baazi is all us, but the thunder and lightning dramatics that you would assume would follow is missing. And that’s wonderful because there are a lot of us who don’t want to give up entirely our moviemaking conventions, but would also like, at times, to see our films transcend them. We want it both ways, and like Hrishikesh Mukherjee before him, Kukunoor seems to have hit upon the golden mean.

Chitra about Dor

For the contrast in the reaction/ response of the protagonists to the obstacles in their lives…….

For the breath-taking cinematography capturing the colours of Rajasthan and the locales of Himachal Pradesh…..

Oz on Desi train makes a strong request to watch and encourage new movies which are different, fresh. Just like few of the sentences above, I strongly agree with his statements.

It’s time to sit up and recognize the struggles and efforts this first generation of Bollywood writers in the 21st century are going through, just to bring out positive, meaningful cinema – cinema they believe in, you believe in, I believe in.

Jaideep Sahni, Anurag Kashyap, Abbas Tyrewala, Sriram Raghavan, Imtiaz Ali, Jahnu Barua, Nagesh Kukunoor, Anurag Basu, Sandeep Shrivastav and a few others that I may have missed in this Gen 21 that make you jump off your seat and do a Balle Balle.

Yet this Gen 21 may quickly disappear into the fast setting sun, if you and I don’t accept our responsibility as an audience. The responsibility to go out and support such positive cinema, so the producers can recover their money, thereby fortifying their trust in such scripts, such stories, and such cinema.

The period between 1984 to 1995 must have been the worst in Bollywood, in terms of quality. Whereas in this year of 2006, in about 9 months, there are at least 5 movies that have just been amazing, in the period between 1984 to 1995 there must have been hardly 5 - 10 movies that you would have bothered to give a nod to.

And we may soon move to that moronic phase if you don’t get up, walk out and drive to the nearest theater that is showing Khosla ka Ghosla and such amazing movies (I hear Dor is masterpiece, though it hasn’t released here in Los Angeles) that emits nothing but pure sincerity and meaning. Movies that tell a good story.
[...]
Southern California is about one third the size of the Indian state of Maharashtra. And Khosla ka Ghosla (as far as I know) is running in just one theater in the entire region. On Saturday at the 1pm show, there was a huge crowd (Telugu) at the theater to watch a Telugu movie (some Nagarjuna or Chiranjeevi movie). The screen where the Telugu movie was being shown was completely packed.

I stepped into Screen number 3, where KKG was being shown. We were three people in the entire hall watching the movie. Three supporters of a good movie in an area one third the size of Maharashtra. Three people. Me. And two others who found it hard to get off their cell phones while watching the movie (if I had a baseball bat they both would have been in the hospital by now). So that left just one person, who seriously watched the entire movie. One. Me.
[...]
A Minus. No gimmicks. No million dollar sets. No lavish song and dance sequences. No over the top emotional vomit. No special effects. No Swiss or New Zealand scenes. It’s just a pure story. Pulled right out of your life and mine. Simply said, funnily told. Khosla ka Ghosla is the golden needle that hits your heart. Right at that sweet spot.

He goes on to review Khosla ka ghosla which I have resisted to read.(Will do after watching, if possible)

You know whats saddening, that I am sitting and compiling this post rather than run and watch them myself first hand. Dor runs one show at an unheard of awful show timing (for a single show) at 3:30PM and the other two nowhere to be seen. Suddenly I feel I am in a different planet.
I do not like this.

This year has really been good for Bollywood both in terms of quality and box-office (Krish,Kank,Fanaa,Omkara,RDB,LRM to name a few) and as Oz says

The period between 1984 to 1995 must have been the worst in Bollywood, in terms of quality. Whereas in this year of 2006, in about 9 months, there are at least 5 movies that have just been amazing, in the period between 1984 to 1995 there must have been hardly 5 - 10 movies that you would have bothered to give a nod to.

These days I am playing the snake game on my mobile. I knew about it earlier but had never played. Mostly I play it during waiting - for order in hotel, for bus, for someone, whem I am lonely and during other freetime (guess when!). It is a simple game alright, but a small lapse of action(keypress) or concentration or foresight can end the game and thus the effort so far. Though it can be played passively, I play it actively, so that no other thought bothers me. With a timelimit, it could have been made even more difficult.

Well, the post is not to discuss as simple a game as that. Recently someone¹ observed that “Hey why are you playing that game always..isn’t that too simple..there are many other interesting games …”
To which I involuntarily replied “This game is present in my mobile and however it its, I believe in playing well the games I have instead of worrying myself about the games that are not in my mobile”. It tangentially was an answer to something else in a subtle way, which I am sure did not reach him.

Later when I recalled that impromptu statement, I feel that is very true with me², naturally.³ I have had undesirable times with my health, friends, relationships, career and every thing else and each time I just swallowed it. Initially I had to that with the help of thoughts and decision, now it comes naturally to me.

As long as I have this game I will try to play it in a best way possible and will enjoy it. It does not mean I will not buy a new mobile with more challenging and enriching games⁴.

1. a whiner, about whom a book can be written and who takes, these days, all the credit for the fun I have,in his absense [back]
2. reminds me of a quote from IISc Prof who taught us Transmission and Switching - damn I forgot his namethanks to anon in comment, his name is Prof Ashok Rao- he had said “These days every one says ‘I want to do good projects’ no body says ‘I want to do the project good [back]
3. There is a huge difference between ambition/need to complaints/cribbing. My ambition has sometimes been misunderstood as complaint by many [back]
4. While at it, I will make sure to have Chess on my mobile, Like snake it will be best companion during lonely times [back]

What do you discuss during lunch time ? (Especially in office..?)

• Paper-based storage device - Deccan Herald
  Named as ‘Rainbow Technology’, the new technique is the brainchild of Sainul Abideen, who has just finished his MCA from MES Engineering College in Kuttipuram in Kerala’s Malappuram district. And a dis
  (tags: Innovation)
• TechCrunch’s Arrington shares his winners and losers
  Shared attributes of winners
  * Passion for what they are doing
  * Do something extraordinary
  * Remove serious friction
  * Great founder dynamics
  * Never raise big money or raise it after you have won
  * Perfect revenue model is
  (tags: web2.0)
• Upload, Download and Share Files for Free. GigaSize the easiest one-click file hoster.
  (tags: online)
• The Next Industrial Giant Is … India? - New York Times
  India’s economic advancement no longer rests on telephone call centers and computer programmers.
  (tags: India)

From

“I wasn’t sure how the doll would look? Would it be a caricature? Would it look like what I’d want it to look? But when I saw the package I was happy. It wasn’t like someone was making a joke of it,”

I am not sure if the doll looks so good. I would have preferred a cute getup from Sapnay over this green one.

Don’t they look great together ? ¹

Image courtesy: Amazon,bollyvista.com, kajol-boards.net

1. how I wished to have got a better photo without the writing on it [back]

Greatbong is rightly upset the way India is treated in foriegn media, and more so by the “Indians” themselves.

But what about Indians themselves ? Why do Indians, the moment they write for a foreign media outlet, start pandering to the stereotype rather than trying to puncture it? Why don’t they define their own vocabulary instead of talking in the language of condescension? Mind you, India has many problems and highlighting them is essential. A post about the power problem in India (a fair one, not suggesting that it is abysmal compared to other regions of the world) would be fine.

While at it, check out the comment space.

In a similar vein, Crystal blur is confirms that with worse situations, those people will too throw “order” out of the window.

It was nothing short of spectacular to see these 60-somethings dressed in gowns and suits trample over each to get to the shuttle. The queues quickly went from endangered to extinct. My advisor was appalled to say the least. I was just amused to see politeness tossed out of the window as chaos took charge to unleash blatant disregard to fellow passengers.

At the end of the day, we are all the same. They have their blonde jokes while we mock the sardarjis. We have our Bajrang Dal and they have their Bible thumpers.

Shruthi writes about the only known Indian ultra marathon runner Arun Kumar Bharadwaj and his comment (which was his bio and a list of achievements) :

Typical training: It varies but normally 160 - 200 km/week. I sleep 4 hours only i.e. 12 mid night to 4 am and one night sleepless per week.

Injury history: None relating to running. Have undergone four major surgeries of Parotid Tumor between 14 and 17 years of age. I was very weak from my childhood, from the age of 6 to 19 yrs, I was a victim of malaria every year in rainy season. My body weight was only 26 kg when I was 14 years of age and 35 kg at 17 yrs. I, always, was the weakest boy of the class in my school time.

Favourite ultra foods: Totally vegetarian & teetotaler. Honey, fruit juice, banana and sugar cane.

Things I like most about ultra: Traveling, getting to make new friends. It gives opportunity to explore the unknown inner world and give spiritual ecstasy. I like my tears most during my ultras, I love them.

His own experience is found here. His email id is a_runrunrun

• Online maths textbooks
  (tags: ebooks Maths)

Naksha

Turns out that pesky inner voice was right – for soon after, there’s a noisy dance number with Ms. Reddy in what looks like a sequined langot, as Mr. Oberoi goads from the sidelines: “Shake what your mama gave you!” Oh, the horror, the horror. And the scene that follows is worse. This performance was apparently for someone’s bachelor party; Sameera is revealed to be a friend of the fiancée, and she shook what her mama gave her simply to expose the groom-to-be as a skirt chaser. And when Viveik comments that she’s a strip dancer, she retorts, “Main yahaan strip karne aayi thi. Lekin mere kapde nahin. Sirf tumhare is plan ko.” With spectacle like this and with dialogue like that, I didn’t know whether to cover my eyes or my ears as the first hour went about its apparent task of desecrating every single movie memory of mine.

Times like these, I pity the professional movie reviewer’s job. He heh!

Munnabhai

IFRang De Basanti were to become a whimsical, fairy-dusted comedy, I guess it would look like Lage Raho Munnabhai. The Aamir Khan blockbuster told us that we’ve forgotten those who fought for our freedom, and this one zooms in on one particular man who fought for our freedom – it tells us that Gandhi-ism is such a thing of the past that adhering to his ideals today will get you branded a crackpot.

The similarities don’t end there. In both Rang De Basanti and Lage Raho Munnabhai, a key sequence involves the commandeering of a radio station, both films depict a reenactment of phases of our struggle for Independence (here, it’s satyagraha), and both coast along the messagey undercurrent that there is a way to draw today’s generation out of its cynical apathy. Only, Rang De Basanti went about it through shock treatment, while Lage Raho Munnabhai advocates a cuddly equivalent of the jadoo ki jhappi, this time rather cheekily labelled Gandhigiri.

Everywhere I went looking for passion, talent and excitement I found myself surrounded only by politics that would make a Roman Senator shrivel in fear, and programmers whose only goal in life was to make it from pay check to pay check. Design patterns- what are they? Extreme Programming what? You mean you actually write ‘tests’ in code? What’s a delegate? Why learn that version of the language – I don’t even know this one too well!!

But, by and large I found myself in the same situation over and over. I was like that female friend or relative that we all have that seems to continually find themselves in love with abusive partners. Over and over I’d be lambasted for being too passionate (a condition muppets refer to as arrogance). Time and again I’d find myself explaining basics of programming to people that should know better, people with years of experience under their belts, people that really didn’t care. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve taken abuse (real and faux-comedic) for being dedicated to the pursuit of beauty in code and technology.

A person removing MS from his career, life.

How do you update the status :

Like this :

I wanted to build a house. First I bought land. I had some plan. But I was not confident, hired a consultant. He gave me a plan. I worked on the plan. I then went to an Engineer and carpenter. I told my plans. I then bought the required materials……

It developed a crack. I had to redo the work. With better quality materials, I did that……

I was confused about the colours for the painting. Tried few colours, they were not pleasant. Finally zeroed in on few……

I had finally run out of budget and the room’s work unfinished. Actually materials have to be bought again, plan to be remade. I plan to do it today.

Or like this:

I built a good bunglow.

And why ?

Here Too hilarious, if you have been following those bloggers’ blogs.
Samples :

Me: “I’ll be back guys. Gotta go pee.” Comes back in five minutes. “So did I miss anything?”

Bloggerb: “Umm.. not much. Megha got 18 more comments. Manish wrote four posts at UltraBrown, and made 3 releases of RocketPost. Amit made 11 posts on his blog, and wrote an article each for Cricinfo and the Wall Street Journal.”

Kiru: “If Himesh Reshammaiya can be the most popular music director in India, why can’t I be the number one blogger?”

Me: “Why are you guys here? Who invited you? Jai, is your DVD player broke or something? Chandrahas, don’t you have a book to review or a mattress to buy? Ammani, what about quick tale 156? Who’ll write it if you are here? Please leave.”

Unidentified Young Man: “This confusion arose because of the unfamiliarity of this gentleman with the word podcasting. Since he didn’t know the word, he assumed it meant something dirty.”

Me: “Dude, why do you keep stating the obvious all the time? Who are you?”

Unidentified Young Man: “My name is Patrix. I run Desipundit.”

Dilip: “What a thought provoking statement. That makes you a fine journalist.”

GreatBong: Clears throat.

Bloggerathruzandsomeothers: “Ha, Ha, Ha. Hilarious.”

GreatBong: “Shut up guys, this is serious stuff. So, Dilip, tell us how calling all men morons makes one a fine journalist?”

Dilip: “Oh a difficult question. How I wish this was my blog - I could’ve buried this one under a deluge of posts.”

GreatBong: “So ?”

Dilip: “Goodbye!”

And not to miss, Falstaff’s comment!

By Pleiades. Another post is also thought provoking.

What a surprise packet. I hadn’t caught any promotional clips nor had observed the poster carefully and man, I was overwhelmed. Anyone who saw, kept saying, go watch yourself. I will concur that.

Hope you watched. When I had lost all hope on a sequel, after the debacle of the year Phir Hera Pheri, this resurrects the hope. In fact, this is as original as the first part.

Munna bhai is madly in love with a Radio Jockey and just like the first part, to impress her, he lies that he knows about Gandhiji and he follows Gandhi’s principles - which gets a new phrase from this movie - Gandhigiri. “How” he follows the principles and “how” he succeeds is what the movie tells us. There is a message and there is loads of laughter.

Random thoughts and minor spoilers ahead.

Of course at one point of time, I doubted how the story can win. There is no way by sending roses you can change one’s heart. Thats where the sub plot enters and I was convinced that, it works.

I expected in the beginning, Munna’s role, in realizing everybody’s dreams of those in Second innings house.

Jokes were not sms jokes, as is the usually case these days and they were very original, unheard of before.. But, it will take no time before Munna Bhai jokes going around in sms.

Full marks to most underrated performer of the decade - Arshad Warsi - what an impeccable comic timing this guy has. Everytime he said, “hey uthna, sorry bolneka hai”, I cracked up in laughter. His dialogue in jail explaining that he never went to jail after doing many crimes but went when he said sorry once , is my another favorite scene. And his facial expressions while searching for Bapu is great.

Vidya Balan chips in with cute looks and reasonable performance. Sanju babu is at his best. His listening to Bapu’s story of theft is my fav scene. And of course, “chemical locha” scene. See how he cries when he apologizes to circuit. Such innocent looks adds great value to the character. “Put me back in jail” near the wedding scene is a touchy one. Similarly, his shout about the corrupt bureaucracy. His all earlier work might be forgotten, but Munna will remain in every one’s hearts for ever. If Vaastav had given him second birth, Munna bhai has made him immortal. Munna and circuit together will go down as iconic characters from Hindi cinema on the lines of Gabbar Singh.

Bapu’s acting was touching.

Two things could have been kept from the first part - Lucky Singh should have been laughing/grinning whenever he gets angry. That used to crack me up in 1st part with Dean’s character. Second, there should have been a “jadu ki jappi” somewhere

After laughing for nearly 3 hours continuously, things look so good. Hopes on Bollywood resurrected. Am looking forward for sequels, remakes and what ever. Don, Ghayal - bring them on…

5-6 Fm channels in Bangalore, radio scene is great. Was hooked to it for few days when I was there. Particularly liked Radio one. Hit mele hit mele hit mele hit Actually they do play wonderful Kannada songs. And alternate soulful Kannada and Hindi songs is just right recipe for a person like me.

A note on the RJs..Pavitra has the ability to switch 3 languages- English Kannada Hindi - in the same sentence !! But Pallavi is the one I like. She has thrown the punctuations to air and these TV readers should learn a bit from her - they are so desperate to highlight the full stop. And this girl goes

ನಾ..ನ್ ಪಲ್ಲವಿ ನೀ..ವ್ ಕೇಳ್ತಾ ಇದೀರ ರೇಡಿಯೋ ಒನ್, ನಾ..ನ್ ನಿಮ್ ಜೊತೆ ಇರ್ತೀನಿ ೧೦ ಘಂಟೆವರೆಗೆ ಈಗ ಕುನಾಲ್ ಗಂಜವಾಲ ನಿಮ್ ಗೋಸ್ಕರ ಹಾಡ್ತಾರೆ ನೀವ್ ಕೇಳ್ತಾ ಇರಿ ನಮ್ಮ್ ಚಾನಲ್ …(naaan pallavi neev keLta iddira radio one naan nim jote irtini 10 ghante varege iiga kunal nimgoskara hadtare neev kelta iri nam channel..

oh man, cool

And I like this shouting too…

radio one nalli pallaviiiiii , pallaviiii….housefullo

Here is one of the purest of all love stories, and we are privileged to be alive to see it unfolding before our eyes, in air-conditioned multiplexes. Johar’s adoration of Shah Rukh, the way he lovingly places him at the centre of every frame and gives him God-like status, is truly marvelous to behold.

Jai elaborates

But I’m now convinced that KJ is in love with SRK. I don’t know what kind of love this is – platonic, sexual, unrequited, whatever – but there’s no mistaking it….Karan Johar’s last three films have been gorgeous love letters penned to SRK, even though at least two of them have been mediocre films. As studies of adulation, of the immortalizing of one person by another, they will live forever, longer perhaps than all those sonnets Shakespeare addressed to his Muse.

In a different post, he likens SRK to Godzilla

the principle of gradually revealing parts of SRK’s (leather-clad) anatomy while keeping his face out of sight, or shadowed. It was like those multi-part Godzilla trailers where you caught tantalizing glimpses of a giant eye or foot or tail, but never the whole lizard at once.

Check the posters of both (in the same post), I was in for a surprise!

Rangan on Kank

KARAN JOHAR’S plots can typically be summed up with a one-liner question: Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with X? Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with Kajol (in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai)? Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with his estranged family (in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham)? And so, as Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna – or KANK, as it’s come to be known – began to unfold, and I saw that its one-line plot is whether Shah Rukh Khan (playing Dev) will get together with Rani Mukerji (as Maya)

And finally we have, Greatbong, a fun review. Must read.
I burst out laughing after reading this second sentence

Not to speak of the ridiculous side-plot of the ‘Black Beast’—-a child-kidnapper who is introduced as someone who could be either a man or a woman. Which I presumed was the context for Karan Johar to make a guest appearance.

He later reviews Kabhi Aage …in Taran Adarsh’s style. Hilarious.

Team outing which was getting postponed for nearly an year finally happened on Aug 5th. A brief minutes of meeting.
Except for the last minute drop outs, most of us arrived on time and prepared (with gifts, pots etc). We left for Muttukadu in 2 vehicles. In groups we went boating. for half an hour or so.

Had tea and left for TTDC Beach Resort. Now all of us were in the same bus, enthu picked up, ppl sung and danced.Noise was made.

It was the beginning of play time. Dog and bone was played first. Just playing for the participation sake is passe, now its the era of fierce competition and only winning matters. Teams , named as Bow-bow and Hijackers, fought for each point, confused others, got confused, won, lost - all in the game’s name. Finally posed for photos with coveted trophies (chocolates). I was the scorer.

That was followed by another game - to hit the hanging pot, blind folded. The on-lookers had the maximum fun at the expense of blind folded participants who were always misguided by the crowd. Sensing that the prizes will remain unclaimed, some of them were then guided to the pots.

A brief display of team members’ musical talents followed. To the beats, some danced. Next on the list was much awaited dine-wine session. Food and drinks were had to heart’s content.

Two professional musicians were the invited surprise guests of the afternoon. They enthralled the team with drums. Some talents in the team took up the sticks and to their background music, some other hidden talents picked up the mic and lent their voices to the songs. Audio team was now “creating” music.

People then left to swimming pool/ beach. On their return, housie-housie was played.(I was co-organizer of the event). After two rounds of the game and after decorated prizes were given away, it was time to present the newly married couples with gifts. They thanked and praised the day-out.

The team’s energy reserve and enthu was at display again during the return journey. They danced and sang all the way back.
Click on the images for clarity.

Nenapirali is a debut effort from Engg graduates Ratnaja (director) and Ajay Gouda (Producer). It has flashes of brilliance - both at technical level and at artistic level. More about that later.

Story Overview: Ekanth and Indu are seeing each other for sometime. But practically Ekanth is too busy to see Indu on a regular basis. This forces Indu to lie Ekanth that her parents might oppose their marriage. Her plan backfires when Ekanth devises a plan - according to which Prakash, his friend should go around Indu, which should unease Indu’s parents and they should be readily accepting Ekanth!
Due to this, Prakash spends more time with Indu and she starts liking him for he is naturally likeable. Prakash clarifies that he lacks any such feelings for her. And Ekanth marries Indu.
You guessed an end ? Its just the interval. That is one of the highlights - this packs so many events in just 2 and half hour that bollywood revolving around the same confusion for over 3 and half hours is pitiable. Lets go back to the story. Now Bindu, Indu’s sister heads off to assist Prakash in Mangalore where they slowly fall in love with each other.
Till now everything was fine, but movies can’t just be fine. So there is a twist and then some more crisis. To be fair to the story-writer, after some thoughts myself, it is really difficult at that point not to introduce a turn and make it proceed and finish on a note. Also to the team’s credit, the developments are in sync to prove the subtitle/tagline - its about hearts.

Now to other points. Technically it is a fine product. Crisp editing, fast pace, clear characters, an unbelievable cinematography, attractive costume designing, experimental choreography, meaningful-but-not-heavy dialogues and tight direction.
The one department that disappoints* is the lyrics that are like dialogues. Hamsalekha, the lyricist fails but the music is refreshing. Repeated listening has softened my stand on this but still….

Due to the youth behind, there is a infectious freshness feel to the whole of the film.
Prem is faithful to the character. He shows lot of promise. Except during his dancing, I liked him otherwise.(If this is remade to Tamil, Sidharth is ideal fit) Both the girls (Vidya and Varsha) have good potential. Indu’s oppurtunistic role didn’t have much to offer to Vidya but she has done well. Ananth Nag, as a cool father, lights up the screen. With some more flesh to the character, this could have been the perfect supporting role that is both meaningful and required to the plot. It looked little hurried at the end, as the family members were left out of the context.

But, almost till the end, the movie is like a peom recited dearly from the very poet. Narration is what stands out, drama has been dumbed down to nothing and punctuated with songs, flow is super. If there is one thing that is worth applauding than the poetic narration, it is the locales. Picturesque. The scenic beauty, music and performances make it a beautiful movie.

* Disappoints “me” - because I heard/read it to be great. I know the reason for that feeling though- given the Kanglish lyrics these days, given the fast food lyrics by the likes who churn out bin ladenu, maza maadu, etc…But I accept that it was Hamsalekha who was the pioneer of that generation)

On books:
Not reading much these days. But here is a small update.
After a long long time, I finished reading A Man who knew infinity, a biography on Ramanujan. A well researched book and a nice narrative - some explanations like the eating on a banana leaf etc (I now forgot, there were many such descriptive narrations) were examples of visualizations brought by language. Some buildups are too nicely done. I was shocked to know that Ramanujan had attempted suicide. Among many factors that drove him, like - English weather, lonliness, lack of good food, one surprising and major contributor was “family tension”. Damn, even a genius could not escape from the wrath of pitiable human quarrles of saas-bahu, I just felt “yuck”.

Toofan Mail by Jayant Kaykini:
A good collection of short stories. Some very abstract, some very abrupt. Could not understand the intent of some stories.
Abachurina Post office by K P Poornachandra Tejaswi
Another collection of stories in almost above lines. Was curious to know how the “story” was of Tabarana Kathe that was adapted to big screen and got awards. That time, kid I was then, for me, Tabarana Kathe had formed a benchmark for art cinema and to win National Awards and to be telecast on DD. And it was the synonym for boring films. I dont remember the details of it now, but story was also not any descriptive/ narrative compared to few other stories in the book. I wonder if Tabarana Kathe had got that treatment, many ohter stories from this book can get much better ! It is a collection of stories written over many eyears and the last story is very very difficult to comprehend.(Just like the foreword).

But both the books were rich/lucid in language, descriptive, and opened up (for me) a new world of alternate way of stories. Now I feel, why do we still come across run of the mill story telling when such alternate paths have already been treaded long ago!

Krrish
There was no real temptation to watch this one but for the 3 hour A/C relief we (I & Sriram) wanted to get. There is nothing much to write apart from that it was a TP film. Targeted at children, let such films come and save the kids from disgusting things happening in other movies. I have pretty much forgotten about the movie but for this - Does gas cylinder “deflect” bullets ?

Cyanide
As many have already said, narration and cinematography were highlights of this movie. So were the performances. Tara was excellent; it was such a delicate role that it was too easy to have gone overboard with it. Overacted. But Tara. She bordered on exaggaration but carefully maintained it within the line. Malavika had very few scences to her credit but does well. An added advantage is her expressive eyes. As Shivarasan, Ravi Kale leaves impression.

As soon as I had heard about the movie, I was reminded of “Harakeya Kuri”. In an age when I used to dislike anything remotely “art cinema”, I had found this one likeable.

The advantage to Cyanide is that the story is real but it also had enough dramatic moments. Though it did drag somewhere in second half, the editing and flow was good enough.

Trivia:
After watching, it was surprising to note that director is real life friend of Ranganath and scenes of Onake Obavva and Shivrasan’s confession that crime was wrong, were real happenings. Also came to know that Mridula is now separated from her husband (who is now a hard-core activist) and that she reacieved 25 lakhs from govt for giving information about culprits.

Omkara
I attempting to write about this should be a joke - for thanks to an unfinished theater’s bad sound effects and thanks to UP dialect I hardly understood the dialogues. And only after reading reviews did I realize that my concentration was also amiss. However 2 points about it. Loved the editing and pace. Saif has furthered his own limits (pls don’t go back to metrosexual salaam namaste roles, pls, leave them to our lux model - SRK) in one scene he is unbelievable(his change in facial expression when Kesu was named Bahubali). Liked the vareity of songs. And listening the slow songs over and again.
If you haven’t but interested, I suggest you go through these two brilliant reviews/analysis. By Rangan and by Falstaff One day, I aspire to dissect a movie with such depth, understanding, conviction, command and knowledge.

Something, Something, Unakkum Enakkum: Well, the story is as old as wine.It seems highly “influenced” by Maine Pyar Kiya types. Yeah, so old. But it is still watchable for these reasons : honest performances, the happenings keep the audience engaged, the colourful costumes and controlled humour entertain. At one point, that kiss-slap sequence in a wedding, reminded me of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam so much that I thought, it would most certainly take that path. Was it a slap on HDDCS thought flow about how such small things can be corrected and life can go on ?
Btw, it has dropped the something from the title after TN govt announced goodies for films with only Tamil in title. Heh!

Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu: Frankly did not like the movie much. New york is shot beautifully.Music is very good. Songs are being continuously in my system.The performance from lead pair is great. Even though it moved fast, had surprises, finally bogs down to stereotype. Mindless voilence plus the loudness is just not my taste.
I felt sad not to have been able to follow the conversation between Kamal and Jyothika. Somehow I felt, there was potential for a beautiful complete love story, like Gajini also had, which in present form is somehow lost in the voilence, again like Gajini.