World dance to his beat !!

Its yet another post about this music maestro A R Rahman. What a moment it was when he got the most coveted Oscar awards. I'm speechless. Lot has been said about Slumdog Millionaire(SM). Whether its a movie that won accolades by showing the darker side of India to the not-so-familiar west audience or is it Rahman's best ever album or does it deserved to get hyped by the media of this magnitude. what ever it is or whatever sides you take, its simply an undeniable point to praise what SM has done to India. 3 Oscars and the mumbai slum kids walking down the red carpet along with Brangelina, Kate Winslet, Steven Spielberg . Aren't these enuf to put an end to all your pessimistic questions?

SM has definitely shown the poor side of India. So what.. Isnt that the truth? So why do we feel so hard to digest it. But as Rahman told on the stage, the movie was all about 'Hope' and with the western audience so crazy about that word (thanks to Obama) this movie was really meant to be there. 

But what a week it has been for the ARR and particularly to the Indian Music Industry. Yes there have been so many composers better than ARR. My dad tells me Mohd. Rafi was the best, my mom chooses Illayaraja and i pick ARR. One thing that i noticed when ARR was on stage was the humbleness and the kind of calm and composure (thankfully he dint cry.) he displayed holding the 2 oscars was simply out of the world. (Oru intra-department level college competition la fake panni jeyichaale naanga elaam antha alavuku aatam poduvom) And the best of his short speech came when he uttered the word 'elaa pugazhum oruvanuke'. I was on heaven. It's so beautiful to hear someone to spk in tamil when the whole world is watching and I had goosebumps all over. 

ARR was shrewd enuf to include hindi also in his speech to make sure that the so-called 24*7 news channels dont go ga-ga over it and organize shows such as 'Why A R Rahman spoke only in Tamil but not Hindi during the Oscars' with some less-known celebrities joining from Chennai and Mumbai.

yes. the award has come off late for him. but i feel its good for him and for all of us. if he had been awarded Oscars long ago, he might have concentrated more on his hollywood projects and there by we might have missed some of his best compositions.. (jashne bahara for e.g)

All said I'm very excited for him. Looking forward to the kind of celebration and welcome he is gonna get coming over here.

Way to go ARR !!!!

PS:BTW does anyone know what's his next project ? is it 'Sultan-the warrior?' 

Delhi 6 - A disappointment for a A R Rahman fan

After the stupendous success of RDB, Rakesh OmPrakash Mehra(ROM) is back with his latest 'Masakali' Dellhi 6. The theme of the movie is not something extraordinary. Its what we have seen in a lot of Indian movies. Probably a mix of Anbe Sivam's 'You are the God' theme and Bombay's 'Muslim- Hindu culture terrorism'. 

Roshan comes from America with his grandma so that she can spend the final leg of her life in the Indian soil. He comes here and as any other foreigner feels the difference the moment he lands  in the Delhi airport. He watches the news channel in the airport telecasting a Breaking News of a 'Monkey man running amok in Chandi Chowk'. This Monkey(Kala Bandher) episode doesnt stop there. You believe it or not, that's the heart of the story !!!! !!! 

He meets up with Sonam Kapoor who wants to be the next indian idol. How this 'Kala Bandher' creates a cultural divide between the muslims and the hindus and how Abhishek ends the  whole episode (you guessed it right with a good emoting dialogue in the climax. C

mon thats how it should be at the climax.)  and joins with Sonam Kapoor forms the story. 

Now for some review from my side. Sonam Kapoor has very less to do in Delhi-6. Looks great in some scenes especially the Masakalli Number. She is gorgeous except for a little over-sized nose. Abhishek as usual carries him well through out the movie, but after seeing his performance in 'Dostana' I think I expected a bit more from him. The other characters , Rishi Kapoor, Atul kulkarni have done well as they've very little to do.

But .. But.. But.. All these said there are in fact a lot of disappointments, particularly for people like me who dont understand Hindi fully but still go for a Hindi movie because of one man called 'A R Rahman'. Would you believe of all the tracks in the album only 3 songs where in full in the movie. My personal favourite 'Rehna Tu' was just for over one minute. !!! Or the title track 'Delhi 6' sung by Blaaze and Tanvi was also for just over a  minute. With some of the best songs composed by Rahman (I would rate this much better than the oscar nominated SlumDog Millionaire) in recent times, its really unfair to cut short these songs.  But the good thing was 'Masakalli' was there in full. A lot has been said about this song, but its my turn to tell it. What lyrics, what singing and mainly what kind of music by the genius. Particularly the humming that starts off the song is mind-blowing. Its very unique. I dont know if any of you have noticed this, in the last stanza of the song there is a sound very similar to the sound that comes when someone pings u in gtalk. Everytime i hear that, i would check whether someone had pinged me !!!!!! Believe me i'm nt exaggerating. As I said all the songs are trimmed and you've almost 6 songs in the first half(including Masakalli).  

The next most disappointing was the number of minutes given for the 'Ramayan' drama tat was staged. That was pretty too much. I almost felt like watching the full 'Ramayan' serial. the editor could have included some songs for those scenes.  All said the first half of the movie is quite boring but the second half is ok..

So would give **1/2 out of 5 for 'Delhi 6'. Dont go with high expectations and come out with satisfaction.

It's all because of Andhra Mess !!! :(

After having a ton of white rice and curd at the Andhra Mess, its almost an impossible task to sit down, think of y ur code is not working. But stil thats my situation here.. I suddenly forget what is the difference <> the If.. else and For Each loops.. The code i've written seems to be the most ugliest piece of code u would ever c.. i myself can't understand what those 100 such loops are doing in that function(now that's Maintainablity... thank God, its working but.)

My eyelids are almost shut, but the camera just above my head keeps me awake. It's really difficult to sleep when u know someone is grabbing a video of you sleeping, you know... i dont know what they're gonna do with that video... probably upload it in YouTube and put some slides like 'Software Engineer caught sleeping in office'..!!Then, the URL just spreads like the BushFires in Australia and will finally find a place in your office mail inbox i guess.. (Hope you all see me soon there)

I've 5 issues to fix today and I know I'm not gonna finish it off in anytime soon.. Coding while sleeping may end up leading to more issues. So y take chances.. So right now am gonna sleep off with my Visual Studio running in the debugging mode(thats the way to indirectly tell someone that you are really WORKING..)

Good Night all..

Varanam Aayiram Music Review

After a record 38 hrs in the office and watching my code failing all the time, I was searching for some good songs to keep myself pumped up.

With varanam aayiram songs releasing last week, it was time i got to get used to like the songs. Gautham has always been one of the directors I've faith on. thou his last venture with sarath kumar bombed, i stil have the liking with Gautam. I'm a music freak and any good song(preferrably Tamil) is bound to get it's highest number of hit counts in my iTunes. So do varanam aayiram songs fit in there.? Lets find out song by song.(in chronological order of my hearing on the first time)


1. Yethi Yethi: This song really sucked when i heard the first time. i felt like Harris was very particular with trying something new with his Western beats and failed. but hearing on again and again during my 38 hrs tenure, this song just achieved the pass mark. A 60/100 for Yethi Yethi..
Benny is at his career best. And he does his bit with the song. Rating: 2/5 (Guess this is the introduction song for the 17 yr old surya in the movie)

2. Ava Enna: I don't know why they've tried out a gaana song!!! Gautam and Gaana ? Doesnt get along. So i hated this song. These were the first 2 songs and probably the 2 poorest songs of the album. and i got to hear them the first time itself :( Harris has nt been the best in this genre(take it in 'satyam' for eg. )but stil he tries out his hand in this kuthu genre.After consecutive failures, Karthik has sung this song. Dunno whether this song ll churn out to be a hit. Probably with the B and C audience ?
No idea really boss !!! Rating: 1.5/5

3. Nenjukkul:Hariharan is back. A slow melody this song had that Harris touch which the above two songs dint possess. some good music and great vocals from hariharan(as usual) . but the song is not a great one as his other melody types. but surely good when u keep listening to it.
Rating:2.5/5

4. Adiye kolluthey: The song that was released 8 months back on the net(as a 4 min song). Some really good guitar stuff. And great vocals from Krish. This song was a bit boring the first time because i've already heard it on the net 'n' times. but the final 1 min of the song which was nt released was very different. the finishing lines where krish moves into another pitch is really good. and u've Shruthihasan also play back singing in this song. Rating: 3/5

5. Oh Shanthi!! : The faster version of Nenjukkul with SPB charan lending his voice. this song is the typical harris jayaraj genre.even if u hear this song playing a kilometer far, u ll tel that the music composer is harris. harris has this typical 'cliched' music(but stil they are very good when u hear them) Rating: 3/5

6. Annul Meale:(this song review by my mom) a melody sung by Carnatic vocalist 'Sudha Ragunathan'. my mom gave a thumbs up after hearing to the song. the song could have been even better if harris had chosen his favourite singer 'Bombay jayashree' instead. i reckon harris wantedly kept bombay jayashree out of this song, as he had been making her sing for each and every album of his. but stil a really good number from harris. Rating:3.5/5

7. Mundhinam: by far the best song of the album. thanks to ARR for using a lot of strings in his songs. a lot of ppl(including harris) has started to use them very well. the voice of nareshiyer is simply awesome. the huskiness in his voice really strikes u when u r hearing to the song. the first stanza where naresh sings the most is scintillating. this one has topped my charts in iTunes.
A easy 4/5 rating. (1 for harris + 2 for naresh + 1 more for harris choosing naresh)

ARR has a really one differentiating factor from other music directors. the voice casting by ARR is simply brilliant. no other music director uses the singer so well as ARR. i had never liked Madhusree singing a song. her song in 'pachaikili ... '(unakul naane) wasn't good either. but ARR used her to the best in 'Marudhaani' in which I loved her voice.

All said songs are good in Varanam, if u keep listening to them. but would they become chartbusters like 'Taxi Taxi','Kangal Irundal' .?? ?

New Rules in India

I was thinking about our great motherland 'India' yesterday nite. How good, bad, ugly it has become in time. how we escape to US or someother country for studies, work, etc(including me) .. i feel kalam's dream would be a dream with the likes of sibhusoren, our own great grandfather M Karunanidhi and all those MP's waving crores on the parliment. never know where we are going to end up... 'Change.. We believe in' is the tag we are also waiting for. A decade from now, there is stil nothing u see on the greener side for india. may be from grayer it may become blacker.. ive some rules that should be put forth by the Indian government to make ourselves better for the next gen atleast.

Rule No 1:. In my company, we have a policy. our top management's families will not make into the company. doing so may stop raising some eyebrows like 'he is the son of ... '. similarly, we should have something like no politicians family should foray into politics. (mainly targetted on karunanidhis family.)

Rule No 2: A minimum qualification of Master's should be there. And it should be from a valid univ. its not like if u have a doctrate from kalasailingam college u ll make it. or a doctrate awarded by Jeppiar will make it..

Rule No 3: Reduce the tenure of holding the office. 5 years is a long time.

Rule No 4: No on road travelling for any minister. he might be eligible enough for a helicopter either. when we have the CM or any minister on road, u ve unbelievable traffic, security and more than that u've all the sideroads illuminated with tubelights and party flags( keata, current ey illannu solla veandiyathu... ungaluke ipade panrathuku asingama illa!!) i was travelling from guindy to adyar last week when the whole stretch from guindy to Anna Univ was lit up with tubelights as our beloved CM was in Anna univ for some felicitation. that made me add this rule. Ministers vara traffic-a reduce paninaale pothum. no need for unnecessary bridges.

Rule 5: Any rowdyism will lead to non-bailable arrests and if a ruling party is proved responsible for that, the ministry should be dissolved with immediate effect and voting should take place for the next election.

Rule 6: Derived from Rule 5. All cases in court should have the end date before commencing the case. this is made to ensure that we dont have to wait for 9 years for a hit and run case or wait for 2 decades to find who killed Rajiv Gandhi. And importantly, if a terrorist is caught he should be killed then and there, not waiting for him to appear in the court and have indefinite talks with Pakistan or someother country on whether to release him or not.

Rule 7: If a judge is unfair, his immediate senior wil have the license to do whatever he wants. if he does some mistake, his sr will have the license to do anything and so on.. this hierarchy should go till the CM. if the CM himself is found with fault, it should be to the open public to decide. people are not mere puppets who vote once in 5 yrs. people should get more involved. and during this time no party should seek the support of the voters. it should not be like the elections where parties persude ppl.

Rule 8: There should be no walking out from the assembly/ parliment. those who violate should be dismissed with immediate effect and should nt take part in the next upcoming election. even if it is boring they had to stay in the assembly. We guys have been sitting in professors classroom sessions for more than 15 years, why the hell u want to leave the assembly. hear to wat the opposition had to say and place ur arguments opposing or supporting them.

Frankly however rules we make, we need the officials to be honest and fair.

I know there are a lot more that just these 8 rules. I myself have some more. will add those on course. Try adding ur thoughts too and if u think pass on the blog address to ur frnds.Lets atleast see what all ideas others have(even if doesnot get implemented).

I'm least bothered even if there are 0 comments on this post but stil lets c how many ppl comment on this.


"Lets make the rules stronger so that no one breaks them" - Sridhar :)

Dhaam Dhoom !!

When u enter the theatre, u have the thought this is one last time u r going to have a feel of Jeeva's cinematography. And he proves that too .. But does the movie really live up to its hype? Ok.. Let me analyze.

Story:
Gautam(Ravi) goes to Russia to attend a medical conference with just a couple of weeks for his marriage with Shenba(Kankana Raut). He goes there and finds himself involved in a murder of a famous Russian model. He gets caught by the 'Siripu' police of Russia( wherever it is , be it India or Russia police ll keep on chasing the hero and never gets him caught !! but this time the hero rides a bicycle with his hands cuffed and the police chase him in Ninja bikes and still cant catch him !! Tamil cinema vaazhga !) There comes the advocate ... (Forgot her name in the movie. Lakshmi Rai) to save him from this along with Jayaram (from Indian Embassy). The mystery unravels and Gautam finds that it was Jayaram who is the mastermind of the murder of the model. And there ends the story.

My Review:
1. The first half of the movie is a kind of good. with his love with shenba and a hot song !! (Azhiyile Mutkulikum... ) The first 30 mins in the movie and u ve 3 songs. Kankana looks good in certain scenes but at times overplays her role( Thank God.. its not as annoying as Genelia's in Santhosh Subramaniam)
2. Ravi does some good action sequences but still u've all those gravity defying stunts. i don no why directors still prefer impractical stunts. people have become more educated and ppl need a movie that is more realistic. Gone are those days where rajni used to jump like gold-medal olympic gymnast and ppl still yell at them. The highlight stunt is the intermission frame where Ravi is shot by a bullet and he keeps on flying as a hydrogen gas balloon. To be very frank how much ever crores the directors have, they're used to making these idiotic chasing sequences(Dasavatharam for eg.)
3. When u hear that jayaram is the villain, u think there is a twist(if u don know that he is the villain) but he never suits for the role. having seen him in panchathantram and more of a comic role, u r not able to accept this role. probably prakashraj would ve fit in much better.
4. The worst part is the climax where u don no whats happening and suddenly u ve the title song appearing on the screen and ppl moving out of the theatre when u realize that the movie is over. had jeeva been there he might have conceived it in a different and better way.
5. The best thing about the movie is the Music(i don mean the BGM. BGM is ok. not very good. it gets too noisy sometimes.) The songs are really good and good that they avoided the Uiyalo song in the movie. particulary the 'Anbe Anbe' song is picturised great. there u see Jeeva at his best.

All said, the movie is worth watching once(atleast for Jeeva and songs) as u see the cinematographer's visuals on the theatre screen for one last time.


Stars: 2/5 (Watchable once)

*@#%$^& !!!!

A lot of us have felt it. blogged about it. spoke about it to our frnds. how the life has suddenly made a U-turn and now heading towards the worst days our lives. its been one year in the s/w industry and i m hating it to the Core.. 'TO THE CORE'... !!!!

Cliched life, boring characters as PM's , over enthusiastic colleagues in the fun club of our organization trying to create some kind of joyous environment. I hate it. Fun should come by itself. You don't have to create fun. College. !! There was no special committee for fun. it just happened.. thats it. it was fun when someone failed in the mid-term exams. it was fun when we bunked the classes and roamed. it was fun when someone was chucked out of the class by the professor. it was fun when there during the celebration for someone's bday. it was fun during the exams, fun during the placement preparations. fun even when our performance in the culturals was declared the Worst.

Company has made me sick. the first thot when my cell phone alarm starts to buzz at 5 45 in the morning is, 'F**k!!' .. Life has become so monotonous. Much worse than when i wrote 'Just another day'.. Projects, deadlines, build failures, testcasesl, .... I feel like shouting 'Give me some break'. Just feel like resigning the job.. But the next moment, the question arises 'And then wat r u going to do??'.

Many of my frnds hate the Software Industry. As far as my knowledge, atleast all the guys with whom i ve met told me that 'I dont feel like working here'. The survey results when i queried them whether they hated sortware industry was 100%. Believe me.!! Its a cent percent. The survey includes ppl from TCS till Oracle... So wat are these chunk of ppl(including me) doing here. Living a life for the society. Thats all about it.

I never want to show off that i m a software engineer. i regret being a SE. Hours of peeping into the monitor screen with the green, blue, pink-colored codes in Visual Studio makes me dull. one fine day, a Business Analyst comes and tells, "Project with no specific requirements, design, technology needs to be completed in 2 months. " ..WTF man !! Boring. Boring. Boring. I've changed completely. I've become so silent at home nowadays. Im too tired even to speak. The FM and the Music Player in my Cell Phone are my best companions. And Bosskey's show in FM in the evening is the one that brings some smile in my face.

At last, thanks for reading a cliched post about a thoroughly boring life..