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I have always enjoyed watching movies alone. Does not mean that I do not enjoy in groups, of course I enjoy in groups too. But when I say I went to watch it alone, people look at me as

• I am a big loser,
• I am a big anti-social guy
• I am a maniac/crazy about movies
• I have too much spare time on my hand.

I feel only one of the above is marginally true. I watch because I want to watch. Period.

Here is a post that thinks on the same lines as I do

Everytime I tell a friend that I watched a movie the previous day in one of the 21,000 malls beside my house in Gurgaon, the first question eventually is, “with whom?” If I manage to utter the unmentionable, that I watched it by myself, he looks at me like I watched the a rakhi sawant anchored “great indian laugher show” in loop six times.

I have always failed to understand our obsession with the society. The society must approve. The society must accompany. The society must not think you are crazy. I think this spirit has made us miss one of the greatest joys of the 21st century: watching a movie by yourself

He then analyses both the situations.

You want to watch a movie. You walk down to the nearest mall. You catch the movie. You appreciate it thoroughly, because the movie is now an experience between you and the movie-maker. You can connect with the soul of the movie, without popcorn or coke to ruin the experience. You finish in time for dinner. You get back home, eat and sleep peacefully. Its work the next day. 3 hours. Thats all it took.

You must try it sometime: A lot of fun

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Playing chess the virtual way.

More videos here. Bill Gates shows Surface. Official site with demos

More than the touch screen (which we had already seen earlier) what impressed me was the way the devices interact. Placing a credit card would enable to make payment from it, placing a camera would get those pictures, communicating with phones/music player - that was super cool.

Many times, I feel so good when I read something that is so close to what I would have said otherwise. I will link to certain such items.

Last few days/months, I felt I am spending too much time online, and too much online-time is spent at Orkut, Chatting, Reader, Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, Desipundit, Blogbharti, Indianpad, putvote - you got it. My reader itself not only has too many feeds, but also too many updates. I feel guilty to mark it as read without reading it and to catch up would take enormous time. There are also days where I literally get fed up of catching up. After hours of spending on the net (browsing, chatting, orkutting), the net gain is so less and I feel I haven’t done anything all that time !

As Prof Sadagopan said,

Reading is deep, involves the brain and leads to learning. Browse can often be very shallow with very little learning.

Anyways, coming back to the topic, I have almost stopped orkutting and chatting. I can not stop reader - but will clean up the feeds to include only feeds of friends and important news. I am liking this utility which will combine many feeds into one so that I can mark “mark all as read” in one shot

Coming back to where I started, I liked this post, for it conveys what I wanted to say a lot better. Excerpts:

My next activity would be to do away with Orkut as well. I’ve been on it for 4 years, but all of a sudden I feel so sucked into it. Making new friends aren’t really worth it and I just will have to show my attitude. A stinking one at it, like one of the readers whom I’ve never met, told me on chat sometime ago. It helps. People come and they GO too. They say good things. They throw crap. They are opinionated. I do all that too. But then it will have to just stop someday. …

It is just a phase. Will life be more exciting if I’m away from Internet? Away from all the Information overload.

Of course one difference is that I am still not fed up with “my own” blog or blogging. I would let this continue and I have always seen that blogging does not interrupt my life.
I have to continue, because it is my ranting ground.

Wasn’t life simpler when I was way back in college? When mobile phones were a luxury. When surfing the internet would cost a bomb. When your needs were less. When you had more time to read and watch good TV shows. When you had more quality time with family and friends. When your life was within a circle that you ran around it oblivious to all the filth outside the circle. When the words “best friends” really meant something. When you just have ten bucks in your pocket, yet go and eat with your friends, order for one chilli parotta and share it, order one pepsi and fight for it. When long drives meant, riding a two-wheeler against the wind and feeling so accomplished. When branded clothes were just for commercials, while you can wear anything off the street that makes you look like super star. When library meant book library and not DVD library. When piggy bank meant saving up for summer holidays. When temple visits meant something divine and not a formality. When street cricket and seven stones were religious rituals in the evening, while Playstations and Xboxes were for the westerners. When treats for friends meant tea shops and bakeries. When the rains were the best time to sit and chat outside the classrooms, getting drenched, and staying home complaining of sickness. When the nights were meant for dreamless deep sleeps. When early to wake up and early to sleep was order of the day. When I wrote stories in college notebooks and not on computer. When I painted using oil paint and not Photoshop.

Life was much better, then. With little in life. With more happiness.

Little meant more. Amen.

Fireflies Music Festival:
Attended the whole night music festival. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was good to get a chance to look at and hear various instruments – one standing tall at 7-8 feet, another instrument whose playing is declining. The different varieties of music – jazz , bawl, nadaswaram, classical, western classical, qawwali etc were a joy to ears. If only I had learnt music, I could have enjoyed it even more. Few of them got once-more requests and they continued much more than their allotted time. Overall, a different, good experience.
Courtesy:Jace.
Last year’s report and photos. This year’s report and photos

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Posts of other few events I attended would follow.

Heegadre hege - A play.:
This is a funny play formed after putting together 3 different stories of T. Sunandamma. One talks about the Kannada vs English, one dream about winning the lottery, another about the life of writers, life after retirement. All make us look at the situation in light fashion. Lakshmi Chandrashekar and Sundar performed.
Since the play was sponsored by Kannada station on WorldSpace “Sparsha” , there was half an hour long introduction about the shows being aired in that station. It sounded pretty impressive.
A good review is found here.

Courtesy
A visit to Mocha: It was a plan come true after almost 1 year. When the office was near to the place, we planned several times but none materialised. Finally, had to change the company (no, not the meaning that strikes first) and it finally worked out.

We went around 10 to the place. The place was simply very different than the ones I usually frequent. It was all laid back, albeit with posh people - mostly teenagers and some foreigners. It almost looked like a lazy bar but was vibrant with colours and energy (not a measurable description, but explanation given on request).

There were two kinds of locations available. One in the outside garden-like-setup, where a family crowd or a formal get-together could hang out. The bushes all around and with unconventional seating arrangement - stone benches, wooden benches, a swing, bamboo (betta) chairs. A closed hut like structures (like in Dhaba) or an open umbrella (like in juice corners) were also available. There were other forms of seats like auto rickshaw’s , car’s put around a table on one end. (Rangashankara had lot of such items) A small stream of water flowing added to the look of a setting in nature. Colourful lights around was a plus along with the natural wind. Due to the fear of mosquitoes we instead went inside.

There it was more of a typical hukka joint. The red curtains, the dress of waiters and the dark place looked like a setting in a Mahal. The seating here was casual - one could either sit on mattresses on the floor or one could use the more formal chairs. A big group of teenagers sat on each other and occupied half the space that otherwise was required. They had roaring fun but they quit gracefully after their time (which was quite less considering we were there for more time). Along with the lack of light (intentional), the place was quite smoky - one thing I did not enjoy- which could have been avoided with better ventilation (or some other technique). A nice soft music was being played (both outside and inside) which was non-intrusive and added to the overall ambiance.

We had a flavoured one and man didn’t it taste good! I was new to it but the fragrance remained with me even days after.

And “the kick” eluded me, as always. (I guess it wasn’t supposed to kick in the first place).

Thanks AB for a memorable evening (and few additions to this report!)

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Classic ! Vinay Pathak gives a lifetime performance in the role of –Bharat Bushan. He is a budding singer- who loves himself and his talents . Thadani(Rajat kapoor) is a music industry guy whose Friday night dinners are like Indian idol first round – making fun of people – but in this he along with his friends have fun without letting know the victim – that much decency they have. His wife one day walks out of him the day he had called Vinay Pathak for dinner. The same day, he has got his back terribly hurt. With his good intentions and superb body language, Vinay steals the show. He has right intentions but what ever he does or says results in more damage for Nandani. He turns the table around and the whole world laughs (the audience) at the nandani. Vinay, though very irritating is very amicable – one enjoys his actions. Even his wife has walked out on him. But how he has handled is different from how nandani is handling the issues. Meanwhile Milind soman, who was ex-friend of Nandani’s wife enters the scene. Another IT officer (Ranvir) also enters the scene. Together they manage to create a laugh riot.

This movie could have been set up as a play and I think that could have been better for it could have continued to reach people much after – not like these movies which get pulled out of theaters once the big ones arrive. Secondly the movie entirely relies on the dialogues and body language so much that, anything else is of little importance.

If tried it is possible to point out minor things which could have been corrected (like the pun on Bappi Da was unnecessary) but there is quite a lot to be enjoyed – even small actions from Vinay like closing the briefcase, or folding the cover in which he carries his “kahani suron ki zubani” or “its ringing” are quite fun to watch – that other things could be forgotten.

There is one important reason why this movie is terrific – all the characters around us have been made into characters in movies but the Bharat Bushans that roam around us were never shown on screen. A small attempt was made in DCH in the character of Timetable but this is the first one where complete attention is given. These Bheja-fry-bharat-bhushan characters are absolute fun in their absence and total headache in their presence. I have had many such acquaintances. The movie ends when the audience is still thinking there is more to it, that’s the best way to end rather than elongate

And guess what ..I could come away with a quote too -

Paap se door raho lekin paapiyon se nahin - Bharat Bhushan

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People think publishing is a business, but it’s a casino.

[via India Uncut]

“A blog isn’t a publication. It’s a person.”

[via Emergic]

And my favorite :

Blogging too is an act of love - the heart posted awaiting comment.- Falstaff, here

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“Kelo rasika” is a non-profit team of volunteers interested in making good art reach the people. They have several programmes like “poetry reading”, “screening movies” etc. Suchitra Film Academy is partnering with them for some events. One such event of screening of Alfred Hitchcock movies, I attended to see ‘Vertigo’. I have heard about the director but have not seen any of his movies.
The programme started with Sridhar Murthy (editor of Mallige) giving a small speech about “Tradition of Suspence-thrillers in Kannada Movie industry” (”kannadadalli pattedari cinemagala parampare”). He begun with the meanings of words like “pattedari” “parampare” and how they fit the Kannada cinema context. He explained the difference between what we consider as “suspence” or rather “bond films” and that of the idea of Hollywood cinemakers. He narrated the advent of such movies in Kannada and chronologically took us through what he called 3 stages/generations of such movies. I dont even remember the names of first generation movies but second generation movies had those bond movies by Rajkumar/Kalyankumar and third by SunilKumarDesai. He aslo put an analysis of suspence novels/novelists in Kannada and how some of them were made into movies. He explained the reasons why some suspence movies failed and how SunilKDesai tried to emulate/give tribute to Hitchcock. There were lot of details (and many names of movies that I have totally forgotten) in the interesting speech and what I liked about it was how he “stuck” to the topic (except for a small deviation when he talked about the suspense novelists whose novels were “not” made into movies).

This was followed by the movie. Since this is an old movie, I don’t mind talking about the entire story. Its about a famous detective who is adviced retirement as he gets scared of heights following an incident that happens during the job. While relaxing himself, he meets up with his old friend who had just come to the town. His friend’s wife, he explains, is acting very strange these days and he thinks, some dead person’s soul has possessed her. He explains things like she staring into something, going somewhere etc and asks his friend just to follow her and find out what it is after which he could take her to the hospital.
At first detective dismisses the idea of soul etc, but decides to give it a try. He follows her. She visits a museum and stares at a painting, goes to a hotel whose owner was once the lady in the painting, goes near a tree, goes to a cemetery and stares at the same lady’s tomb, goes to a forest and stares at a tree. This happens for few days and the detective collects enough details for him to confirm that that dead lady has possessed this girl. He meets his friend and explains him these findings and his friend tells - he had a doubt. Because that lady is none other than great grand mother of his wife, but he says they both had not communicated and also that his wife has started using her jewels - further proof to the wandering spirit. Next day the lady visits some water spot and jumps into it, our detective saves her and after that they become quite good friends. Detective tries to know things from her but she claims she does not remember anything. Over the time, the detective starts liking her and promises to cure her. Once suddenly she explains a dream and the details of the spot resembles to an actual location.They both go there and she starts running towards the top of the church where the bell is hung. He due to fear of heights fails to follow her and in between sees her body falling along with her scream. She falls down and dies.
After investigation, police/judge decide that she had tendencies of suicide and due to the valid fear of heights, even the detective could not save her. Judges do not believe about the spirit story but does not punish anyone and the case is closed. Detective is very distrubed again and he sees that girl in every other girl he encounters. He visits the places, hotels etc they had visited together. He can not come out of her memories. One day he finds a girl almost similar looking one and follows her. She gives all proof that she is a newcomer to the town. He convinces/forces her to spend more time with him. At this point the audience is told the truth that both the ladies are same. When she climbs up, the culprit - detective’s friend - was ready with his wife’s dead body and he throws that instead of the actual girl. The fact that they looked remotely similar was made use to fool everyone and the fact that detective was afraid of heights was exploited by his friend and he wanted respected detective to be the witness to the suicide scam to be safe.
Now our detective tries to change everything the lady does - from her dresses to the hair coulr and style - and it gets little dragged. He finally wants to take her to the same spot so that he can get over the fear and to confirm that he has lost her, so he asks her to get ready - at which point he sees her necklace - this is the same necklace he had earlier seen on the statue in the museum! Now he is clear of everything and now forces her to go to the same spot almost in anger that she is now afraid that he might kill her and she confesses the truth while climbing up. But she also tells him that she loves him and thats why she did not run away when he has found her the second time. However she is at the same spot from where she had supposedly fallen down and suddenly a sister comes from nowhere and says something. In the fear, shock and confusion the girl slips, falls and dies.

Once the screening was over, people were asked to talk about it. Many people shied away from talking and those who did (except for one - a prajavani cine-journalist) didn’t articulate their thoughts well - they spent most of the time thanking the organisers for giving us a chance to see the movie or they talked how great Hitchcock was - not why - and about Hitchcock making an appearance in his movies. Those were all right, but inconsequential. Only one interesting trivia was mentioned that “zoom” was first introduced in this movie.

There were two important points that got discussed after the movie but I am sure not many had understood it. First, everyone thought the ship-builder pushed down the doll of his wife, while I think it was “the wife” herself was pushed. Since the investigators went and saw the body soon after, throwing a doll would have got ship-builder under the scanner immediately. Second, not all were clear why the lady jumps off(it wasnt clear whether she jumped off herself or if she was pushed) - actually she does not jump off - she falls by accident. Why ? Because she saw a lady coming from the dark and speaking which was unexpected. In sudden shock she lost the balance and falls. Another way of explaining this (this was told by another person in the audience) is that sinners need to be punished so in the story she is made to fall off.
Also, if only the audience were not told the secret so early in the story it would have been even more better. After knowing the suspense, it kind of got slower and we just waited for the inevitable to happen - that of detective finding out the truth. Another point is if the detective did not know that girl is the same one till he sees her necklace, why does he forces her to do everything - to dress etc. Also, there is no detective intelligence - he does not try to find out some leads, does not put effort to find out if something went wrong, just forces her to look like earlier again, it just so accidentally happens that he sees her necklace. I felt these two points could have been improved upon.

However it was a good watch, the audience’s interest is kept till the end, audience is kept guessing what would happen next. There is another Hitchcock show on May 27th, planning to go for that.

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This was an awesome play, one of the best ones I have seen. This is a Hindi play translated to Kannada and directed by S.Surendranath - director of “Nodi swami navirode heege” movie. The play also marks the return (or debut ??) of Girija Lokesh to stage after many years.

Its quite easy to see why I like this very much because it was so easy for me to identify with it. The stage setting is white everywhere¹ - one white painted stool, a white painted chair and table, one white cloth on the floor. There is a table fan sitting idle at the corner of the stool and there is only one time it is ever used - and what a stunning impact it leaves. There is a light bulb hung and just like the fan, this is lit up only once.

My intepretation about the usage of white so prominently - other than to depict widow’s saree for a cultural reason or to show simplicity in the father’s character - is that, it suggests how only one sided their views are. No black and white - no two possibilities, no two explanations - just one -and one’s own - belief.

There are three characters in the stage - but they never come on stage at once (except for a second, mother and son come together) and I can easily call it a collection of three mono-acts and monologues. But the acts are tightly coupled.

The intent is actually to show how one’s actions are in this family, why according to him his actions are like the way they are and how another person in the family views it differently. Some views and counter-views like that, slightly highlighting generation gap.

The first scene is that of a widow, cleaning the cotton, describes how her husband has been admitted to hospital, how he died. In next few scenes with the mother, she recalls how her husband had reacted at his retirement and going a little back how he had dreamt and built his house and few other smaller details. She also narrates how her son behaved earlier and how he reacted in hospital.

In between her many appearances are present one stellar performance by SihiKahiChandru in the role of the father. It was the longest monologue - almost an hour and one should see to believe it. There were plenty of opportunities to go out of sequence, or to use our own lines as long as it made sense (but I doubt he did that !), but still it was one superb show.

Then comes that of son’s, acted by Manjunath Hegde, another class act. During his part is the success of the play, for the very same audience who had accepted and clapped to every action of father as right, claps and agrees again to that of son’s. At this point director had clearly succeded in making the audience realize how different the viewpoint is and how both can be right.

Both father and son, though rant and talk seriously, have audience in split, or rather in crack. Yes, even the issue is not fun, it is shown in the lighter vein giving the audience great comic relief.

Mother’s is not very strong character for the drama. She appears few times but with shorter durations compared to other two. Also I failed to understand why her part is set in the present while the son’s and father’s are actually set in the past. Though the mother’s role adds sorrow, sympathy and also it shows her as a strong person. She keeps calm when her husband dies and she was calm earlier too - somehow managing both polarities in son and husband. This is so very typical.

Many incidents like the collection-repair of locks, lazy-irresponsible son, wearing pant only after reaching college, house repair issues and various various other things are so very common in normal household - which is the reason audience too enjoyed it! Keeping the door open, not switching off the lights, lock , returning home early etc were some of the very very real life scenarios. Nicely captured and presented. One of the superb funny lines is when son is questioning his father’s direction to return home because of the increasing crimes in the city. Son ponders “If I return home earlier, will the crime outside reduce? “ So tongue-in-cheek !

Even though the son’s views are totally opposite to that of father’s, once his father expires he follows his father’s actions in a hyper-active or maniac fashion. There is the irony, there is the highest point for the play and there is so much untold meaning in those small actions and thats where the play ends. (Audience expected more but it made perfect sense to end!)

No music (except water dropping sound in the background), no lighting effects, no changes in the sets, it is the most simplest arrangement for a play I have seen!

Overall it is a combination of vyangya, tarka, vidambane and haasya.

After having told all this, I still haven’t told you anything. This play is a must watch according to me and you can watch it at Rangashankara on 26th May 7:30.

27th May 7:30

27th May 3:30

Misc:
1. One old couple talking was loud enough to hear to entire audi and of course to observation of artists too. Even continued stares from the neighbours did not discourage them from talking loud. Another lady, yawned making audible sound, which was too another irritant.
2. In another play too, there were two ladies who laughed almost hysterically and sometimes when not needed. RS people take enough care to silence/switch off the mobile phones, what could be done to these throats ?

1. Tide could utilize the oppurtunity (just like they did to few movies) and sponsor the play so that more people could watch it! [back]

Warning - Spoilers: Story and Ending revealed.
Story:
The story, in a broad sense, is like any other gangster movie which has this protagonist who is forced into the underworld due to poverty/helplessness etc. Like Jogi, this movie also has two threads running in parallel – or even more than Jogi here the emotional line is quite strong. What is impressing is that both the parts are given equal footage and both run without hurting the flow of the other. What stands out in this movie is the honest performance by Vijay. His dialog rendering is so simple and natural that it feels we are actually watching a live act rather than a show in the hall. I would not say Vijay has amazing acting skills as this movie did not require him to experiment or to depict something different – it just required him to be honest. It would be interesting to see how he would suit in a comedy or some other kind of roles. Talking of comedy, his many dialogues do invoke laughter – though unintended from the character. To that extent he seems to have good timing to click in a comedy role. Rashmi manages well to look innocent, look confused and cries well. And a special mention to the newly found supporting role – he reminds me of someone, but not able to remember.

Coming back the story, Vijay is an innocent village guy, due to some circumstances happens to come to city and comes in touch with underworld guys. He does not know them /their illegal work but joins theand beats . The story is quite complicated to narrate. How Vijay gets into the gang, how he gets beaten to get money, how – there are so many characters ! Someone is waiting to is waiting to fix up /take revenge on the other and how Vijay fits in the scene. Quite complex things and interwoven events to narrate.

In between this, he saves the girl from kidnappers, she has no place to go, so both of them start living in a s bus-turned-house. He tries to earn money for himself and help her study. Bothe develop a liking for each other but meanwhile the sword is ready above Vijay’s head.

Ending revealed ahead:
Caught between the gangsters and between police, both for the acts he didn’t do, Vijay faces danger of getting killed. Rashmi decides to end both their lives.

The supporting cast of friend is good. Also inspector in his tough cop act sends shivers down the spine. Some open ends remain – Inspector had first agreed to save him but later suggests to shoot him down as soon as he is seen. Inconsistent. But again at the end he says he would not have taken action – there clearly was a way director could have saved the protagonist from killing himself when he had done no crime. But for cinematic effects and to evoke sympathy, he is made to die and then later inspector too shows signs of mercy. Another open end is about her preparation to write exams but that is not completed.

Minus points include – same old story framework – innocent man with a machchu¹. The highlights of the movie include fast pace, songs, picturisation, lyrics², sharp dialogues and performances. Clever usage of additional characters to the plot. And of course good acting and direction - quite a few things like romance, actions are packed well but yet nothing is over done.

1. success of this has resulted in a parade of other such ones like masti by upendra, shivraj kumar again, sudip and who not. The posters tell half the story – man with a machchu. [back]
2. I am not impressed by what these VJs, RJs say about the song “Kariya I love you” that it has given confidence to people in town with dark complexion. It is one of the nonsenses I have heard – how do they know the confidence has increased, why if in a song of a movie a girl’s role says I love you, the confidence should rise for other dark people – that says nothing – first of all did she love him because he “was” dark etc arguments suddenly show how silly the claim is. I am not saying movies/songs shouldn’t mean something to people, for eg what can inspire people or increase confidence is like a song in My Autograph – araluva hoovugale neev alukadiri or say a song like – aagadu yendu kailagadu yendu kai katti kulitare sagadu kelasavu munde. This kariya song lacks any intent and is just created for rhyming.
   When I come to lyrics, first when heard this song I cringed – usage of English words , use of words simply to help rhyming – who have you seen swearing on Karunadu when he is expressing his love or worst since when did people start swearing on “bili moda” – Gods will really get angry for having forgotten them in this swearing game. But this song’s music – especially the flute – is quite catchy and later lyrics mean something when seen from the context of the movie – like he says he is an illiterate and she is like mother to him – after losing his mother he treats this girl as a companion just like his mother was and lyrics catches it quite well. And when I saw the movie, I was totally awestruck with some of the lyrics – especially the simple, rhyming and meaningful songs like nodayya kwaate lingave sung amazingly well by MD Pallavi. The other songs like “preeti maaye husharu” or even “ee paapi duniya” or “saala madiyadru tuppa tinnu” – a new proverb coined by our lyricist ?! score surprisingly well on lyrics scale. They are set to good music too but what is more important is that these songs perfectly fit in the story like hand-in-glove.
   [back]

Yes, its more than 100 days since the release and almost everything that had to be said about the movie must have been said. But should that be a reason to stop me from writing on my blog ? ( After all its my blog and there are few regular readers, who too will skip through this, so why bother ? ).

First of all the movie is near to me for it invoked DDLJ feelings. I can not clearly mention what it was, but that DDLJ magic was the prime reason that I kept going back to the movie. (Even though the movie was already a hit by the time I had watched it, for me it did not matter - one I was far away in Chennai not being aware of various talks about the movie second I kept myself from reading anything related to it, so it was still fine. Also I am very clear of not taking any prejudices with me to watch a movie). By DDLJ, I do not remark about the striking similarity - almost a love at first sight, girl being wary of the boy initially, girl starting liking the boy, boy showing his good-boy image to girl’s parents while preparations for girl’s wedding is going on, boy re-affirming girl that he would carry her away, entry of the bride-groom and that scene where hero takes heroine’s father on a walk - I could almost see a SRK-Amrish Puri in white dhotis trying to feed nuts to kabootars. The similarities might not be striking for others but it was for me. And due to all this, I had thought I know how this is going to end. At one point I thought the rabbit was there to do some sort of magic like the dog in HAHK. Hero’s father is left out after first few scenes (I had expected him to return like Anupam Kher in DDLJ). ¹ I kept waiting for the hero to impress the girl’s parents and to take her away. And at first I was disappointed it did not happen. I do not know whether it was a conscious deviation and I do not see anything against that climax too (I mean I believe even that would have worked out in the box office but since now people have seen this version they claim this is the biggest factor for the success). On the second thoughts, I like this climax too though the cine-freak in me was expecting yet another climax - that of him jumping off the cliff. One is a decisive happy ending, other a decisive sad ending and one more indecisive one where people are free to attach their own philosophical meaning - and that is the one which has worked !

Before I get into my commentary² let me say movie works for me.

Flow:
At the first look, nothing (nothing dramatic, actually) actually happens in the movie for the most part. Just like DDLJ. We see them romancing but nothing looks like progressing on that front. No other event like the “turning point in cricket” happens so that we can expect this is how it is going to proceed. There is no drama. Contrast this with eg Nenapirali and you probably get what I mean. Yet, this movie works. Just like DDLJ did. Only one reason can be attributed to it is the consistent flow and the narration.

Songs and lyrics : I had listened to songs many times before I saw the movie. The lyrics as everyone knows by now are just excellent. I was in awe after listening to the words but once I knew it was from a poet - Kaykini - my surprise ceased. He has affirmed one of my beliefs that “rhyme” is not “the most” or “the only” thing that makes songs good. I have seen some go out to create rhyme but somehow trading the simplicity of the meaning in the process. In this case, the meaning and simplicity was given the most importance and how! Set to brilliant music by Mano Murthy, the songs of this movie have been the propulsion for the success. I say, propulsion, because however good they were, they only got the people into theaters and later made them relive the movie by listening to songs but that should not take away any credit from what happened in between. Some observations - in one of the songs, there is “saavinallu naguvuda balla” which made me assume that hero would die andit would turn to be a tragedy. I was prepared to see the hero die and in part this spoiled a little of my experience - the actual tragedy is on a different level to his death, second since I was expecting that to happen every other time and anytime. The lyrics should have actually read “novinallu naguvuda balla”. And “anisutide yeko indu neenene nannavalendu..mayada lokadinda nanagage bandavalendu” immediately reminded me of “kabhie kabhie mere dil mein khayal aata hai ..ki aise tujhko banaya gaya hai mere liye..sitaron mein bas rahi thi kahi..zamein pe aye ho mere liye”. I am not saying its copied or even inspired but I strongly feel this might be an intentional tribute to that song which is anyone’s favourite ! Two more ingredients to songs that get a kudos are picturisation and choreography. Talking of choreography I didn’t quite expect “punjabi” set-up for “suvvi suvvali” song.

Picturisation:
When it comes to picturisation, there is no two ways about it. Its just as excellent as it could get. With the backdrop of rain, scenic beauty looks almost competing with the colourful costumes people have worn.
Performances and dialogues :
‘Comedy time Ganesh’, the household name it is by now, is one single element without whom it is difficult to think about the movie. True, all departments have shown results but its on Ganesh’s shoulders the screen magic had lied entirely. And how he manages ! With his next-door-boy looks, with his honest acting, that ever present smile which alone must have won him all female fans and most importantly, for me - dialogue delivery skills with good timing. He has the qualities that make a good hero though it would be interesting to see him in a real sorrow role. Heroine Sanjana Gandhi was effective in few scenes and complimented well in others. Though, an extra-ordinary performance was not expected by that role anyways. The supporting cast were not bad too -Anant Nag donning an important role - gave a natural performance. The dialogues were quite refreshing - they were bereft of cliches or used analogies. In fact that drunken dialogue -”tale na kerdu, gaya aagi cancer etc” was very unexpected!!³ But some jokes - like the one he uses to lighten her mood - did not work for me.

And for the sake of completion

Preetham is a kiddo with no near future goal. He falls in love with Nandini at the first sight. He decides to search for her. Accidentally they keep coming across each other. When he finds her he shares his feelings for her. But she refuses. He warns her if he finds her next time then he will marry her. He feels disturbed when he comes to know she is getting married. He decides to go away from her. If that was the case the movie would have said to end, but it doesn’t! Must watch movie.

That was an extract from my bro - who has been too happy for the number of comments and hits his posts on this movie are attracting.

This post is already so long and I haven’t even started to talk about how the climax does make sense and how I realized it even better after I saw almost a replica of these events unfold in front of my eyes. I haven’t even talked about the romance/love part of the story – after all it was “hani hani prem kahani” - how their “falling in love” , expressions were different and different feelings/attitudes of hero, the villain, the girl and I haven’t also commented how sudden & illogical for the girl to get carried away at the end – she should have tried to know the truth and how better it would have been if she was made a conscious partner in the decision rather than making her a scapegoat and making her take the result not understanding the whole picture/point. I just made a mention to say that I do see “the movie” not just the “its ingredients, making and execution”.

And finally kudos to the director who has managed to put together good pieces of work into one great piece of work.

1. You need not tell me I am too much into DDLJ, I know it [back]
2. yes thats what I would call my reviews from now on, as “commentary” makes more sense than “reviews”. [back]
3. Though this talking matters of heart only after getting drunk has been used quite a lot of times in movies like HDDCS, DTPH. I can’t help thinking - Help of liquor is taken even to start telling and when one doesn’t get the girl, he again drinks - Whats with lovers and drinks ?! [back]

Many (like here) are of the opinion that she might be good at only item songs. My opinion will be biased Anyways below is the song which is little musical. Also don’t forget she has done a Bhajan album too.

Mauli, with her brother Omkar had her first Bhajan album (CD) titled “Prabhu Tare Pagathiye” released in September 2006.

Yand here is “Lag ja gale” by Mauli Dave.

So what do you think ?

Asha too felt Mouli could sing some other kind of song to exploit her talent completely, other songs like romantic or sad. I am not convinced about romantic songs but sad songs, yes. (romantic-sad songs, double yes!).

Here is Bahon Main Chale Aaon:

For more songs like Kaisi Paheli, Deeda de check out here

If BappiDa you are reading this blog, I want you to suggest her sing “aap ki nazaron ne samja”, “baharon phool barsao”, “choti si asha”, “barso re”. Or even “tere bin” of Atif

Just wondering why she did not take part in American Idol. If Malakar
could produce so much of noise, this girl surely could have done better ?!

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Ever since I went to Chennai, I constantly faced questions about my relocation - How is the place, how hot is the weather, how is the crowd, how am I able to manage the language problem, how are the people.

In the beginning, I was almost unable to give good answers. Then I made a habit of looking for these things so that I could answer better. So to some at least I could give interesting answers. But frankly, I wasn’t quite comfortable answering these questions. Because none of these bothered me in the first place.

Since I am also asked about my experiences in the city, let me club both in this post itself.

How is the place - I did not see anything that should have made me give a straight answer (talking of straight answers, I now realize this lack of ability to answer descriptively any question that does not have a straight answer, must have cost me marks in the exams. But it is surprising now that I can write a post on most silliest of events as if that event has been the best thing to have happened. May be I should have started blogging earlier - like in school days!).

However after making some specific observations, I noted these : Public transport buses were inexpensive but terribly crowded for short distances or during office hours. They were crowded in some cases even if they were frequent. The less said the better about the infamous auto-wallah’s pricing strategy or the bargaining power that is required to achieve a fair deal. The number of vehicles on road is not any less than expected for a metro, but thanks to the broad, well maintained roads, there is no great congestion at many places. However exceptions are there. Also, Chennai was blessed with some great forethought planning, otherwise how do I explain the construction of Grant Road which connects most of the city. Another notable example is that of the Gemini flyover which must have been constructed ages ago. Though the city is also connected with local trains, it is not that well connected and used as it is in Mumbai.(Or may be this is just my observation).

I noted that city has many restaurant chains - Saravana, Sangeetha, etc. The prices at middle-class (and above) were generally expensive. The service was below expectation/satisfaction at most of the places. Of these hotels Saravana was the most interesting. Its pricing strategy depends on its locations too. And the one near thousand lights will be dear to my memory as it had this extensive buffet for Rs120 - the very ideal one for treats. I with a visitor friend once spent close to 4 hours there just to use the A/c and to avoid the heat outside. Saravana Bhavan is present in international locations like Dubai, London etc. The number of outlets is equal to the number of years in service - 23. The price, though is higher than others, is not complained about because of the cleanliness and taste. I also noted that it is not present in Bangalore and how I wish I take up that franchise ;-). Among the other restaurants I ate at, Kumarkaum (again a chain) gave me some memorable moments. The food was tasty and got to eat in Kerala cuisine style. There were more options if I were non-veg. A passionate singer who sings melodious Malayalam-Hindi songs (over the karaoke music) adds to create an experience of an otherwise mundane eating event.

Among my other noted observations, people just throng the shopping outlets - mostly of dresses - in the weekends. During festival times sales, which is during most times, the shops in TNagar would be as crowded as a Mumbai suburban central railway compartment during peak hours. And even otherwise, it is only slightly better. The price and quality of cloth is marginally better than Bangalore (this is a very random personal observation/opinion made on a very small sample and also considering my vision for such issues). Rightly so, the advertisements during intervals in halls were mostly of only two things – one of sari, another r of jewelery – and both used the theme of marriages.
If the graph is drawn as to where my time was spent these would come in the order, roughly. Office, house, traveling (b/n SBC,MAS), hotels, movie halls.

So how can I not mention about my probably most missed thing about Chennai - Satyam theater. It was my favorite for many reasons. Firstly it was very close to my earlier location of the office and to my house. The tickets were not sold in black - so there was very good chance of getting one if planned properly. And since it was a multiplex, if preferred one was not available there was always possible to watch another good one. Then comes good sound effects, seating and snacks. And when it comes to innovation, Satyam are probably the front runners. They have a good website to book tickets online and initially (2 yrs ago itself) it just took a proof of credit card to get the tickets at the special counters meant for this. Seat selection (at a cost) was then introduced in the online ticket booking process followed by buying the snacks online too - snacks were served to our seats 10 min before the interval. Damn convenient. They also introduced their own rechargeable “fuel” card for those who do not have credit cards (Some concession for using these cards would have been a very good idea). On the lines of irctc, they then made it possible for the printing of tickets by overselves. Also was introduced a blind-date sort of show where audience will not know the movie before its start, screened on Thursday nights. (Of course, only good classics were screened but am not sure if it became a success or not).

One related experience that deserves a mention is that the city is quite safe I felt. I roamed around alone in the nights – 1am or 2am and not once did I fear getting robbed or anything like that.

Beach is a major attraction for me whenever I tour, but while I was in Chennai, I hardly visited. Only a couple of visits that too when I had visitors. Talking of visits, a visit to Parthasarathy temple stands out in the memory. Though it was very near I had reserved it for a special day and thus have made it memorable. The one reason I liked the place was because it was spacious.

About weather - the “hot” weather was not much of an issue to me at all. Because the day time in weekdays were spent in office and evenings were manageable with a fan. Summer weekends was only a bother and during that I was either in office or in Blore or at theaters. Also my house was not very hot.

Language. I was irritated many times when even the technical talk happened in the local language but I never had to face “problem” because of the language. I hardly went shopping, had my vehicle for commute, ordering in hotel was easy and thus I hardly interacted with local people - apart from those at office.

And people at office, apart from minor irritants, were very good. I had a cordial relationship with everyone because my professional interactions were only with US counterparts only, mostly.

One thing I regret very much was not having joined the Kannada Sangha which was quite near to my place. Joining would have given me more friends and some good activities for weekends.

Thanks to Kiruba, I attended a bloggers meet and a proto.in. I also saw few movies and Sudhish kamath in Chennai Film Fest.

That pretty much sums up my observation and about my experiences in the city. Some events like visiting a 24 hour coffee shop at midnight, several other night-out plans, weekend picnics to places like DakshinaChitra etc never worked out.

Overall, I liked my stay there and did not have any major complaints.

Today I met an interesting person. He smiled to me as if we have known for years and talked to me quite nicely. I was asked my background details - to an extent about what my mother does, whether the house is rented or owned - the kind of details people normally don’t ask on the first or second meeting. A very friendly person, I thought.

We bumped into each other quite a few times in the day. I was asked about my interests and my career goal. As he had seen me reading Kalam’s book in the morning and due to the further talks regarding how India should do progress etc , the natural progress of the talk made me say I would be doing something different than coding. When asked when would I start on own, I was cautious - because once earlier I had told someone else - like in 5 yrs - which is already over for a matter of fact - and he had asked me various questions about my plan, ideas, strategies, path etc to none of which I had any clear answer to give. Also he showed me the reasons why I can’t achieve whatever I wanted. He was true, he was practical. So this time, I said may be 15 years later - and this again worked negative. This person said why so late , motivated people dont wait for things to happen and other such things. He also gave examples of Suresh Kamath starting with Rs200 (incidentally he worked there earlier) or that of Narayana Murthy. Lot of talk happened regarding the evils of working and that we should become self-sufficient and blah blah.

Later again in the evening we met again. He now enquired what I would be doing at home. I was very pumped up with Ubuntu installation and tweaks and I told about it enthusiastically. This was met with cold reaction. Computer here in office, computer at home, he sighed. How many years technical work, he asked. I was suddenly feeling inferior and my enthusiastic bubble had burst.¹. I said I don’t watch TV and I should do something to pass my time. He said “Time _pass_ ?! Don’t tell like that. I don’t have free time.”. I felt that he is asking me to ask him what does he do. I asked, though something inside me told me not to.

He said “I run a business”. I got very curious and asked him what business. He said “he would tell me some other time in detail.” I felt uncomfortable but did not show that. We left in bus and I did not want to ask anything further.

I thought about lot of things. How people have different priorities. How few people succeed and how others fail. How some people strive to get somewhere but some people just get lucky to be dashed by opportunities. Also about failures on the same line. Don’t know when I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I just looked back at everything. Suddenly, I have a strong suspicion about his business. It would be “viral marketing” Amway. Everything fits. Including the hesitation to talk about it.

Will update this post later.

1. No this does not affect me in long term but I keep meeting people who have totally opposite views and what bothers me is that they look down upon other activities..what puts me off is incoherent trivialisation - like when I said I would like to buy an iPhone a moron said “Why iphone, instead go trekking like me”. You don’t believe me, do you. I’ve met such characters. Even after days later, I will be dumbfounded at their nitwittism [back]

This girl totally rocks. Her voice, body-language, variation of voice, selection of songs. Sure finalist and may be a winner too.

More info was found here.

* She was finalist in ‘Boogie Woogie, Chalo America’. dance competition organized by Sony TV in the year 2003.

* In August, 2006, during participation in NRI Antakshari organized by Annu Kapoor, Mauli’s singing talent was much appreciated by all the visiting members from Mumbai. Annu Kapoor expressed that she has lots of potential and deserves better platform.

Mayya mayya:

Rasiya :

I have been thinking about the blogs getting orphaned after the owner’s death. Am sure, readers do not have any type of personal contact with most of the bloggers they read. So they would not come to know about any sad happening. They might keep checking on the site or the empty feed might remain in the reader. Sad.

In our embedded systems, we have a concept called “Watch Dog timer“.

A watchdog timer is a computer hardware timing device that triggers a system reset if the main program, due to some fault condition, such as a hang, neglects to regularly service the watchdog (writing a “service pulse” to it, also referred to as “petting the dog”).

Unfortunately, there is no way to reset the human life. However I found an analogy to this in Wordpress and a variation of this concept would let me achieve what I want - To announce my death to my blog readers.

It works like this. Wordpress has “post timestamp” feature, where if you set the time in future and publish the post, the post automatically gets posted at that time. So I can do a post called

“Hello Readers, I think I have left on a journey to heaven. Unless there is internet access from there, it is unlikely that this blog is going to be updated Be good. Cya soon “

or anything you would want to tell your blog readers. And set the date to say a week or a month in future depending on how frequently (for sure) you are going to access your blog. So, like watchdog servicing, before that time, pet this timer - change the time to next interval and publish. In the unlikely event of your death, after the interval, you would be announcing the news of your death in an unique way. Blog can thus serve a purpose even after your death.

There are few risks :
1. If the server is down and you can not re-schedule the time and server wakes up. Then you would be getting to hear condolences and reactions to your death !
2. If you estimate/usually access the site within a normal time frame but unfortunately if you could not do it.

PS: I expected to get dugg for this wise idea, alas.

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