Some thoughts on Breaking Bad ! *spoilers beware*

Breaking Bad is over !

There has been no other TV show that has left me spellbound as much as Breaking Bad. I have watched a fair bit of TV series (Sherlock, Homeland, 4 seasons of Fringe, 4 seasons of Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, House of Cards to name a few) and I think Breaking Bad is not only better in terms of casting but is superbly supported by the script, content and direction.

There is no rooting for one in Breaking Bad - This is what makes it totally, totally special. I mean with GoT you take sides (Starks are good, Lannisters are evil, Khaleesi should win cos well she is Khaleesi etc.), but with Breaking Bad your take on the characters keep swaying from one episode to another. You wish Walter was dead when he points to the hiding Jesse, but then you feel sad when he is ready to pay 10,000$ for one hour of time of a total stranger just cos he feels so alone (this was my most saddening moment of the entire series). You are emotionally tied to those characters, thanks to some brilliant writing/directing and the characters portraying the pain with such reality.

Humor at intense moments - I mean who would have thought Skinny Pete and Badger would make a special appearance in the finale or Huell going shit scared looking at Jesse's brain all over or those countless Saul moments (belize, rabid dog, 2 steps away from sainthood etc.) when Walt/Jesse is in dire need of help. Brilliant stuff this from Vince and the writers. This dark humor quotient was there all along the series - the ignorant Jesse at the beginning of the series, Skinny Pete & Badger adding to the madness and finally followed by Saul and Huell..

I think the main success of Breaking Bad lies in how simple it was for the audience to connect with the characters. For instance, in Sopranos, with italian-sque mafia story, it was pretty difficult to follow the lines. you tend to lose what they are trying to convey. I think House of Cards has all it takes to equal Breaking Bad in terms of quality and may even better it.

All said, I think the excitement of waiting a week to know what lies ahead and watching it with the whole world added another dimension to the excitement. I feel as someone who is going to start watching the series now at one go, he/she might not feel the same excitement as those who watched it first. Monday mornings are going to be dull again..

With Breaking Bad done, I can't wait for the spin-off series on Saul Goodman "Better Call Saul" to begin. Bring it on, bitch !!

Some of my fav lines by some of the characters -

Walt - "I am the one who knocks", "Say my name", "Heisenberg", "We are family", "Tread lightly"
Jesse - "Magnets, bitch", "Science, bitch", "Yo!, Mr. White", "Say the words"
Skyler - "I fucked Ted" (this was giving back to White where it hurts)
Saul - This list is endless. I love almost all the scenes of Saul. "Better call Saul", "Send him to Belize", "this guy is punctual, with a captial P", "I didn't know you were a big moose lover (when Jesse says he would choose Alaska)"
Hank - "I am ASAC Schrader and you can go fuck yourself", "I don't know who I am talking to (when he discovers White as Heisenberg)", "You are the smartest man I have seen, but you are too stupid to see. He has made up his mind 10 mins ago", "Jesus Christ, Marie"
Flynn - "Have an A1 day", "Why are you still alive", "You asshole (addressed at Walt)"
Uncle Jack - "Heart wants what the heart wants", "cry baby rat", "That fancy phone of yours, where does it say this exactly", "it looks blue to me"


finally, last but not the least -
Holly - "Momma"

This is definitely the last -
Salamanca - "Ting Ting Ting" :)

iLoveSteve - An Ode to the iCon - Steve Jobs - Episode #1

The earliest I could recollect my memories with Apple was when an event organized by our department gave away iPod Shuffle 2 GB for the first prize winner. That was in 2005 or 2006. A friend of mine who had an iPod Shuffle 1 GB then exchanged it for the new 2GB shuffle and we wrapped the old 1 GB and gave it to the winner! I thought my friend has gone really mad and crazy. Come 2010 and I am one such crazy Apple fan/devotee/aficionado/fanboy.

I have a very bad memory. I can hardly remember my school pals, so I don't really know when I started reading a lot about Apple and Steve Jobs. May be I found there is a sense of prestige/status when my friends discussed about Apple/Steve and I wanted to be a part of that elite group.

The book 'The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs' explains how Steve cleverly pitches for each of his new products. Steve first introduces the "Villain"(the status-quo) and then introduces the "Hero"(the Apple Products) to create a spell-binding impact on the audience. His life story has been one such. The "Villain" being John Sculley who drove Steve out of Apple and the "Hero" Steve himself!

People have always loved comeback stories. Be it the rags-to-riches of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ or the innumerous number of Rajnikanth movies where he becomes a multi-billionaire in a 5-minute song, we have adored them. Steve’s story was one such. But does that explain the blindfolded following of Apple? Not really. When I started reading the first book on Apple, ‘Revolution in the Valley - The Insanely Great Story of how a Mac was made’, I understood the other side of Steve. He was steadfast in his approach, ridicules the effort of the development team till he achieves the desired quality, harsh in dealing with people that made him a fearful manager. This made me feel that he should have been one manager whom no one would have wanted to work with. But then there was this other side of him where he can go to any length for the team. Sample these.

"During one fine night, the fire alarm suddenly broke out at Apple. Steve asked his team about the alarm and they claimed that the alarm often goes blaring. Steve shouted “Can someone stop that alarm?” and the next moment he was seen with a huge hammer and smashed the alarm into pieces."

"There were two main divisions at Apple during the late 70s: The Lisa division and the Macintosh division. Steve headed the Macintosh division and the two divisions were always at loggerheads. When Andy Hertzfeld, one of the new engineers who joined Apple during the late 70s (Author of Revolution in the Valley) wanted to move to Macintosh division from the Lisa Development team, Steve came to Andy’s cabin and asked him to move to Macintosh. Andy who was in the midst of a Lisa work said Steve he would need atleast 2 weeks to move to Macintosh as there was still some unfinished business in Lisa. Steve, without a second thought, pulled the power-cord of Andy’s computer and without a word took all his belongings (along with Andy’s computer) to the Macintosh division."

There were very many such instances such as these. If you get a chance, try reading this book. A book that might convert you to the Apple religion. Forever.
When Steve rejoined Apple in 1997, he was far more flexible and easy to work with. But if there was one quality that never left Steve and might never leave him is his “PASSION”. A Passion to build amazing products. It is this Passion that has made him a Visionary, that differentiated him from everyone else, that has made Steve what he is today. His resignation was imminent. Apple has a brilliant roadmap and succession plan that might still make Apple an unmatched organization for the next few years, but just the thought that Steve is no more at helm leaves a void.

The next blog in the series ‘iLoveSteve - An Ode to the iCon – Steve Jobs’ would commemorate the brilliant phrases/impactful speeches of Steve. The Steve that we all know, see on stage with the blue jean and black T-shirt, a Salesman who could sell a vacum.

From,
An iFan

Ko - Music Review

The 'Ayan' combo is back and with the teasers it looked like 'Ko' is going to be a musical treat. Have been listening to the songs for the last 3 days and in a position to review.

1. Ennamo Edho

Whatyaaa song ! The moment I heard the song in the trailers, I fell madly with the song. The fresh lyric and the catchy tunes for 30 sec were enough for me to fall in love with the song. The rendition of Alaap Raju and the really catchy lyric by Madhan Karky adds just the right mix to the song and makes me wait more from the album. Madhan Karky has been a wonderful find. Have been appreciating his work in 'Irumbile', 'Nenjil Nenjil' from Engeyum Kadhal and this song is just the best of his work yet.

2. Amali Thumali
Setting the expectation with Ennamo Edho comes a very easily findable Harris Tune in Amali Thumali. Sung by Hariharan and with the initial lyric looking very similar to Hasili fisile, the song never takes off. Not a great follow-up to Ennamo Edho

3. Netri Pottil
The song that tries to wake up the youth of today, the lyric department is again entrusted with Madhan Karky. Naresh Iyer at his best yet again and with just 2 mins of running time, the song fills the mood rightly. A good work by Harris trying to claw his way back and let us know that the all isn't over yet.

4. Venpaniye
Harris's fav singer is back. Bombay Jayashree it is. A soothing number by her and Sriram Parthasarathy sounds more like Vaarayo in terms of the melody. Simple arrangements of beats and nothing that gets you on the high. Both the singers try to provide the husky feel to the song and the soothes you. I feel melody has been Harri's space and he proves time and again why he is so good at them. A wonderful number

5. Gala Gala
I have always felt party kind of songs aren't Harris' cup of tea. He proved that with 'Adagada' from Sathyam movie. Gala Gala is sung by the youth brigade of singers. Krish, Haricharan, Tippu. I guess this is the song where all celebrities including Surya make an appearance. A normal track in the album and grows on you to an extent when u keep listening to it.

6. Aga Naga
A hip-hop genre of song which I personally dont like. Not a great finish to the album. Too many singers and too many variations make it a not so fav track to me. This is the poorest track of the entire album.


All said, the expectations that Harris sets with the first track "Ennamo Edho" never happens again in the album. Netri Potil and Venpaniye are 2 other good tracks to the album. On the whole a 3/5 for KO. Hope the visuals add better effect to the songs. A good follow-up to Ayan though !

Endhiran Movie Review

So the much anticipated Tamil movie of the year releases. Rajni movies are a craze and for someone born in Tamil Nadu, its imbibed in your DNA to shout out yourself when you see the "S U P E R S T A R" on the screen. And here comes a Rajni movie after 3 long years and it's festival time for all Tamil fans all over the world with 'Endhiran'.

What Rocked
1. The thing that rocked the most was the final 40 mins of the movie. Rajni was at his scintillating best with Chitti 2.0 :) How I wish he were a Villain throughout his career !! Whoooodaaa performance !! Especially, the scene where he tells Ash that there is a black sheep within the Robots. Awesomeeee !! Just fantastic. Thalaivaaaaaa !!!!

2. The conceptualization of the final 40 mins were just brilliant. The formations that the 100 Rajnis do were simply mindblowing. Be it the snake, or the drill, or the gun, or the final "ONE" Robo(with all Rajnis), the imagination is very good. I am not sure who to be credited with this. Whether it is Shankar's imagination or it is people at Stan Winston studio. But hats off!! Great final 40 mins and brilliant visual efx.

3. The initial few scenes with the Chitti 1.0 are quite good. The way he interprets blindly the commands did tickle your funny bone now and then. The action sequences with Chitti in the train, the 'Kaali' avatar that Rajni takes in the slum you feel like Shankar has got into the groove and its going to be a roller-coaster ride only to find that you have to wait some more time :(


Now, Now.. The hard part to swallow

1. What happened to the Rajni introduction scenes !! ? Whether it is kissing the snake in padayappa, or the camera spanning from his running legs to his face in baasha/annaamalai (and so many other movies of his), it shoots up your adrenaline. What the hell happened to Shankar!! ? Where is the slow-mo editing !! :( An introduction with Rajni screwing up a Robo isn't the best!! :( May be Shankar had wanted the introduction to be subtle, but when will we fans get a chance to throw the torn tickets up in the air and shout at our pitch !

2. The first half was extremely noise-less !! Am i watching a Rajni movie on the Second day in Chennai and that too in a low-class theatre sandwiched between Rajni fans ?!?? Sadly didn't feel so..

3. Shankar is a commercial masala director. Accepted. But if you thot first half was bad, the second half starts with something even worse. A 10 min scene where Chitti talks to Mosquitoes !! WTF !! Felt embarrassed seeing it. Toooo lengthy. May be the editor Antony dint edit it for the visual effects people have put into. But sadly, really bad.

4. With a 150 crore budget, there is no one else who could have given such an opening. I read a statistic somewhere. 2250 prints * 4 shows a day * 500 people per show * 150 Rs per tkt ~= 75 Crores a day !! But even then, Rajni is just tooo old to be accepted as a scientist :( be it the shrinking skin, or an overdone make-up to hide it, just doesn't fit in the bill !! But the Villain Rajni rocked ! He looked more chic and was oozing with style as Chitti 2.0.


All said as Shankar said this movie is an "experience". but don't go with an expectation of a "Rajni experience". No intro scene, no mass introduction song, no punch dialogues, no swinging of his coolers.

Final verdict:
Book for the 9:00 AM show and go to the theatre at 11:00 AM to enjoy this Shankar's dream project.

3/5

Raavanan - Movie Review

Its the most expected movie of this year and the promotional campaigns by the entire team of Raavanan has been going on and on in "News" Channels in the last fortnight. And where there is much hype(which indirectly signifies that's the only way to get back the money invested on the film) the film is to be made of poor quality. But in Raavanan the crux of the story, casting and almost everything is top-class but it fails to hit the audience.

Highlights
1. First things first. Stunning Visuals.. Probably one of the best cinematography in recent times. you could get from the trailer, the quality of the camerawork and believe me its absolutely fantastic. Go and watch it in theater/get the best quality DVD to feel it(I would prefer going to theater). Santhosh Sivan has been a brilliant cameraman and I wonder why he hasn't been used so much in the industry. Particularly the Usire poguthey song and climax sequences were canned superbly. Part of the credit should go to those who chose such wonderful locations with lush green landscapes, waterfalls etc.

2. Aishwarya Rai's performance. Though she has a lesser physical activity compared to Vikram, she does her best in emoting for the scenes. I feel she has done by far her best performance in Raavanan. The movie revolves around her and she does a neat job. She has less dialogues but her eyes are made to talk more. Mani is best here.

3. Vikram as ever is at his best. Great dialogue delivery, body language. He proves he is a good actor but wasting 2 years for just a single project makes me question his choice of roles. He does what the character requires him to do.

Apart from these, no more highlights quite a lot of things that went horribly wrong.
May be Mani thought he could mesmerize the audience with just the visuals bombed badly. Story is a very predictable one. Vikram kidnaps Ash (Prithvi's wife) and Prithvi comes in search of her and he wins.. There is a twist in the climax which also becomes predictable (so should I call that a "twist"? ;) ) Prithvi has nothing much to do he keeps following Vikram throughout and wins over him.

Priyamani talked so much in the interviews and her character comes a mere 15 mins and that includes a 5 min song!!! I think Mani, after seeing Priyamani in Paruthiveeran thot she acts well in a gang rape scene and gives her a similar such sequence and she does well here too :)

Biggest let down was ARRs BGM .. Songs were not upto the standards(let alone Usire poguthey, kalvare) and his BGM was even poorer. This could probably be his worst ever composition for a Mani movie.

The climax was a little confusing. Is Ash falling in love with Vikram? Is Vikram in love with Aishwarya Rai? or probably is Mani also confused on this and thought that it would be best for the audience to decide?

Though the movie runs for over 2 hrs and 15 mins you feel as if you have watched a 3 hr movie. Very slow/poor screenplay, very cliched story, very predictable scenes makes you feel its not worth even a watch but I still recommend you to go for it just for the stunning visuals by Santhosh Sivan and for Aishwarya Rai.

2/5 for Mani's Raavanan..

P.S: I have not watched 'Raavan' yet but am sure AB would have definitely not performed as Vikram. So I guess, it should be still worse :)

The new flavour for "IPL 4"

DISCLAIMER:
This post was supposed to be published on the final day of IPL 3. But as a perfect S/W professional, the deadline got missed due to some poor planning.. So please spare me for posting this so late. I know all of you are so engrossed with the news on the T20 debacle, the pub brawl, Kirsten's comments on the fitness , but lets take sometime to look at IPL 4, the "most successful IPL" (term already coined by IPL Governing Council)

Lalit Modi may not be the official commissioner for the next IPL, but he has already jot down some new rules for next year's IPL to make it more interesting and more nail-biting. And here are those. (Note: A little bit of this already made rounds in Cricinfo :(, but believe me I m not plagiarizing, I had these things on my mind but couldnt post it before)


1. From next year, there will be no one-sided matches. All of 94 matches will, as Ravi Shastri would say, "Will go down the wire" (*Whistle**Whistle*). This is done keeping in mind the interest of the public watching the match at the stadium and those watching it on SET MAX. The maximum run difference with which a the side batting first can beat the side chasing is within 10 runs and all matches will be played atleast played till the 19th over. Similarly the maximum wicket difference for a win would be utmost 3. So even if a side (with all of 10 wickets in hand) need 6 runs from 1 over to win, they would end up as losers as they should have lost atleast 7 wickets. Speaking on this Lalit Modi said "We have always heard people talking about keeping wickets in hand to win a match, but now with this new rule the sides should have a strategy to lose a wicket at the right time. This would make a more mental competition between sides apart from Cricket".

2. Considering the kind of entertainment that Sreesanth provides on the field, Lalit Modi has added a clause especially for Sreesanth. A new rule applicable only for Sreesanth. According to this rule, Sreesanth will be "The Player for all Teams" . More on this rule, Lalit Modi said," Sreesanth is a unique character. its fun to have him on the field and we have discussed with SET MAX and they report that the TRP ratings go off the roof when he plays for Kings XI Punjab. So we ll have him as permanent member in all IPL Matches". Asked about what will happen if both the teams playing on a particular day prefer not to have Sreesanth in the side, Mr Modi said, "There will be an auction for not having him in the side. Whichever team bids higher, they will be declared winner and Sreesanth will have to play for the other team". On hearing this none of the teams felt happy apart from the MI.

3. With a completely new auction for all players in the next years IPL, Modi was excited and said, "this is going to be the most profitable revenue generating auction for the IPL. No other sport, NBA, EPL, nothing comes close to our auction". He also added that, "the maximum cap for a single player will be $7m and anything over it will go to IPL(which invariably means it goes to Lalit Modi's personal account)

4. "A Greener IPL 4" :Next year the IPL is gonna be greener than this year. We will be having 2 stupid green tips instead of one(which no one is gonna understand) and at the end of the match there will be twice the amount of firecrackers to celebrate the win and pollute the environment. When asked whether the firecrackers are contradicting the Green IPL theme, Lalit said, "in IPL 3 we did the same. we got tremendous response on the use of firecrackers from some eminent personalities like Shilpa Shetty. So we are gonna continue this year as well. Its our interest to keep our franchises happy as well as give some Green tips for others to follow".

5. IPL 4 on Twitter!! : If it was YouTube this year, the next year it is going to be Twitter. You have to follow Lalit Modi to keep updated with the scores. He said, "I will be posting the updates on the scores for every 5 overs. The Live telecast from the stadium will be delayed by 5 mins. So you can keep updated with the latest score by following me. "

6. After the amount of media attention that Lalit Modi got post the Sashi Tharoor controversy, Mr Modi has decided to rope in one politician to play the role of a spoiler like Mr Tharoor to keep the events off-the-field also very interesting in the next IPL. "With Mr Tharoor,we never really rehearsed to have such events. It just happened. It was wonderful to keep some news about IPL to be telecasted on the News channels. So we are planning to rope in Lalu Prasad Yadav for next year's IPL to be our "Controversy Politician". He is funny and a great critic. So you guys will be enjoying a lot more next year on the off-the-field events. My team has prepared some great controversial stuffs over which me and Mr Yadav would be fighting on the last few weeks of IPL 4. I assure you that" said Mr. Modi

7. Next years commentary team to talk sensible. As people criticized the commentary team's poor vocabulary this year, the IPL has decided to give coaching to the commentators. Modi said "This is one area which we would definitely like to improve. We have a very strong commentary team, but its unfortunate to hear such comments about them. So we are planning to have the coaching done by Ramiz Raja to our commentary team who would give expert advice on the use of English language and the cricket jargons. I listened to one of the best ever lines by Ramiz during the ongoing t20 wc which made him the inimitable commentator to seek advice from. And this was the line which made me a fan of him.'Everything on the on side, nothing on the leg side... and all the runs have been on the on side'. Also, since we know the results of each and every ball of the match, we would have Ramiz to write down and the commentary team will just have to read it out during the Live telecast. " But Sivaramakrishnan has strongly opposed this by saying he has done dumber commentary than Ramiz but amazed by why Lalit preferred Ramiz. (Probably they had an auction for that too!!! )

This is all what Lalit Modi had to say when asked about IPL 4, but since he was busy preparing the 9000 page defence document to BCCI, he signed off from us in typical Rajni style saying "this is just a trailer. Await more news"

Watch this space for more guys !!

Story of Vijay's next thriller movie - Sura

Source: Indiaglitz

"The story is about the power of youth. Usually most of the youth wants to play safe when they see atrocities happen in front of them. They feel insecure and tries to escape out of the situation fearing many factors. But Vijay having all the courage tries to put things right by using all right means including politics. But when all fail he becomes a one man army to weed out social crimes without fearing for anything just like a shark would hunt its prey alone. With sufficient political overtones ‘Sura’ will also have its share of punch dialogues. "


Verdict: In Goundamani's voice
"iruvanthanju varushama ne ithaye thaana da solitu irukka.. makkale intha maathiri naaingala elaam neengale adichu thorathidunga"



--Edited post the release

Sorry guys, this was not the original story. The movie sucked much more than this :)
I believe even the above story could have been better
:)

I m planning to sue Indiaglitz for giving us the wrong story

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya - An Honest Review

After waiting weeks for the audio to release and after weeks of waiting for the movie to release, got a chance to watch VTV today. Ok, Lets make this straight. It's not a movie that is action-packed, has hero delivering punch dialogues, has unconnected and illogical scenes. All said, its not a movie that is an edge-of-the-seat thriller that have you hooked to it. There are times in the movie where you feel you could go and grab a Coke from the canteen or think of your TL advising you for not meeting your expectations. But all said this is one beautiful, sensible, practical love story between Karthik and Jessi.

I've always had my love for Gautam for 2 things, one, even his promotions for his films are classy and two, his take on romance is unbeatable.

Some highlights:
1. I love the initial credits :) and the final ending scene leading up the final credits as well :) Sounds stupid? seriously.. I just love the way the names roll over on the water.. I think Vignesh can take us in detail if he liked it :)

2. Simbhu grabs his role-of-a-lifetime with ease. I have hated him when he does some stupid things with his fingers and I've cursed Gautam for choosing him in this project. But he fits in the bill perfectly. He looks fit and he looks smart(I never thot i would tell this in my life :( ) and plays his role to perfection.

3. Trisha looks stunning in certain scenes and the romance between the two looked so real on the screen. And yeah, they shared a good chemistry, physics, biology, whatever.

4. ARR !! Thalaivar rocks with the BG score and no need to tell about the chartbuster songs.

5. Cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa(of 'Eeram' fame)'s lens captures Chennai, NY, Kerala, Malta as never before. This movie is definitely classy just because of this man whose visuals are a treat.

6. Gautam Menon chooses to have a breezy first half and tries to make a feel-good second half.. The first half has Simbhu and Ganesh going behind Trisha. Ganesh gives the humor quotient and believe me they're so good with no double meanings. The second half staggers a bit and Gautam tries to revive himself with the screenplay at the end. The songs are placed to perfection and you don't feel so bad to sit through them.

This movie is of typical Gautam's style and is definitely not for the B and C centers. People hate Gautam for having English dialogues in Tamil films(and he criticizes himself in the movie with this) and he has chosen to have Malayalam a little bit as well in the movie. Overall, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya is a slow, poignant, sensible love story that may not be considered as Gautam's best. And if you ask did it meet my expectations, the answer is YES !!

Watchable once..

3 out of 5 stars for Gautam's love-story-yet-again Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya

Tamil Padam - An uniquely cliched story

One of the movies I've been looking forward in 2010 released and I should say it definitely met my expectations, if not exceeded. Making a spoof isn't a difficult task but entertaining people with a spoof is quite a work. During my coll days, we did a spoof of the movie 'Arul'(Can I call that a spoof) and nobody even gave a smile and the judges were hoping(/praying) that we finish it much ahead of the scheduled 10 min slot !!

To understand the nuances of 'Tamizh Padam'(TP) you must have been a movie buff who has watched quite a lot of Tamil blockbusters from the 90s. The movie kick starts with a take on Simbhu. And after that no one is spared from the Tamil industry. From Rajni, Kamal, A R Rahman to Vikram, Vijay, Raghuvaran, Ramarajan, TP leaves no one. The first half runs just over an hour and its a complete interlink of scenes from Thalapathy, Baasha, Ghajini, Run and believe me the spoof of every scene was just bang on.

Some of the highlights of the movie:
1. First half as i said a laugh riot. Each and every scene is a treat to watch.

2. The killing sequence of 'Delhi' Ganesh using the technique of Aboorva Sagotharagal was just amazing. The body language of Shiva is just irreplaceable. Shiva tries a 'Aboorva Sagotharargal' Kamal and uses a marble to kill 'Delhi' Ganesh only to find that his target gets missed each time. And after trying for more than 5 times he goes to 'Delhi' Ganesh and says "enna sir. unaku oru interestey ila. yean ne aadite iruka. oru edathula nillu sir. miss aaite iruku paaru"..

3. The 'Pachcha' song and 'O Maha Zeeya' song are definitely a perfect Tamil movie number. Dont forget to note Shiva's reaction when he sings 'Lalaaku Dol Tabi ma' in the 'O Maha Zeeya' song.

4. The scene where he meets the heroines father and challenges him that he would marry his daughter only after becoming a multi-millionaire. After this dialogue, the heroine's dad asks his servant to bring a cup of coffee. Followed by A song sequence where Shiva becomes a millionaire in 2 mins and comes back to the Heroine's house in a BMW and says "ipo naan unna vida kodeesvaran". The servant brings the coffee and the heroine's dad says "coffee kondu varathukulla epadi da ivan periya aala aanan"

5. The Bharathanatyam sequence by Shiva is yet another highlight. Watch out for the scene and the manner in which this scene ends. 2 words "JUST AWESOME"

Having said all these, there are so many scenes where I had great laugh. Be it the 'Mouna Ragam', 'Run', 'Anniyan' spoof it was an entertaining 2.5 hrs. On the whole, it's a different experience after having seen decades of cliched Tamil movies. The second half of the movie is a lil slow, but I would say its worth it. After all, its a different attempt and Shiva proves to be a revelation.

4 stars out of 5 for TP and a must watch..

Aayirathil Oruvan - Aayirathil Oru Padam

With two and a half years of effort by the whole crew of AO it all comes down to this. A movie that had a concept that could've taken the whole industry by a storm and could've easily been the "movie of a lifetime" marred by profane dialogues mostly towards woman, horrible scenes tat sometimes makes you feel "why the hell I'm watching this movie", unbearable background score, graphics work that makes it look like a cartoon movie, a completely lost polt at the end and finally after the 3.5 hr so-called "epic" you think how the censor board cleared this movie for release!!

Here's the story:
A group of archeologists headed by Reema Sen with Andrea in the team head to a dense forest in Vietnam where the Cholas supposedly escaped during the war, hid there and made their last footprint. Karthi joins the team to help them. To reach the place they had to cross thru some 7 traps(or should i call Crap). And at the end of the first half, as you can expect, just Reema, Andrea and Karthi get into the place and then they stare at the world of Black Magic ... Tadaan.. !! Interval..

The trio get into the world of Cholas.. Yes .. Literally.. The Cholas still live in that same place and they do have a King. And that is Parthiban.. and what an entry for Parthiban.. Parthiban climbs down the chariot and while he walks down he walks only on the blood of his own people.. everytime he climbs down, 4-5 heads get chopped and he walks on the blood spilled out of it. and then he goes near a woman and she shows her breast and presses it and blood oozes out of it.. I am not exaggerating that's wat is portrayed.. ok..back to the movie.. so these 3 enter the world of 'dark' cholas and they're about to be punished when suddenly Reema uses her black magic power and tells the Cholas that she is a Chola Messenger and come a long way just to tell that war is over and Cholas can get back to their place.. Listening to this everyone in the Cholan empire give her a warm welcome like asking her to urinate standing !!

Meanwhile there is flashback. Reema is a Pandia descendent and has come to get a God's idol that the Cholas robbed from the Pandias.So she dances with parthiban, has sex with him and gets to see the idol and by this time you would know that Karthi is the actual messenger. and then there is a confusing climax where there is a war between the Indian Army and the Cholas !! I think Selvaraghavan forgot that we've got Indian AirForce to drop bombs from the sky. They go along with fighting against the Cholas and capture everyone including the Cholan Queen. And Cholan queen is made to dance to 'apadi podu' song and is urinated by the army .. Seeing this Parthiban and all his people get into water and die.. Karthi saves one kid of the Cholan dynasty and you get "Cholan payanam thodarum" and the credits..

Don't ask me what I wrote in the last para, "enakum oru mayirum puriyala da dei"..
Reema is hot but the vulgarity is too much that you can't withstand it and worse if you are with the family you would've to leave the theatre midway to prove that you are good guy.! Selva can claim that for the first time in the history of cinema more than 1,00,00,000 heads have been beheaded and 10,00,000 liters of blood has been used and there are more beep sounds to censor the bad words than the original dialgoues ! The second half is full of loopholes. why is Reema not using the black magic power to fight against them, what the hell is Andrea for in the movie, why the hell is the movie titled 'aayirathil oruvan' but you better forget all these and go home and take rest to get back to normal.


The stunt scenes were completely copied from 300, Gladiator but lets not compare, after all he has given such a wonderful movie for all of us to see. I hope this movie fails bigtime in the BO so that we don't see anymore of this kind..

1 star out of 10 for this movie just for the effort that thousand people who have put in for the movie. Refrain from watching this movie.Especially children, women and those with a faint-heart

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya - Music Review

After having waited for more than a month and a half for this album and at times frustrated for not getting the album as promised on Dec 18th, the moment finally came down to listen to VTV.. Here's a lil review of mine on VTV. This movie is at the top of my "most expected movies for 2010"(Followed closely by Goa and Tamil Padam)

1. O Manna Penne
Sung by Benny, this song is surely a 'top-of-the chart' material. Interesting beats, superb lyrics by Thamarai and beautifully crooned by Benny.. The Malayali lyrics in between make it unique. The album opens up with this wonderful number and you can't wait to listen to other songs.. Just can't get my mind out of the chorus 'O Manna Penne' and the last stanza where benny sings "podiyan".. My Rank : 1

2. Anbil Avan
A decent number by Chinmayi and Devan.. The natasvaram bit after the first stanza is simply superb and the fast lines in between stanzas makes it more interesting. A Not-so-great song but you'll definitely love it if you keep listening to this song. My Rank: 3

3. Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya

My favorite singer Karthik is back to rock with ARR but this time for a wrong song. A very slow number that makes you switch over to the next track soon.. Just 3 min song but it's sooooo lengthy.. Probably the song might go well with the movie, but definitely not a great number.. As i said, this is a song that you would love to skip.. My Rank: 6

4. Hosanna
The 'leaked' song.. The leaked version and this one is a lil different with ARR using so many instruments at the background. But amazing lyrics by Thamarai yet again. Never knew so many

tamil words sound so good.. Great rendition by Vijay Prakash and rap by Blaaze.. This is definitely "the" song that is gonna be played on all FM Stations for the next couple of months..
The rap part especially by Blaaze couldn't have gelled with the song better.. My Rank: 2

5. Kannukul Kannil
A song that sounded similar to "Karu karu" atleast for the beats when i heard for the first time. Sung by Naresh Iyer this is the only fast number in the entire album.. Great percussion and the final few seconds is just mindblowing.. My Rank: 4

6. Mannipaaya
ARR and Shreya Ghosal get-together to give us this yet-another-slow number. SG as usual is at her usual best and the moment ARR starts singing you think you're gonna have a great song. But not so great.. :( a 6 min song which is far better than the 3 min Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya track.. The bgm of the song at certain places like the one before the start of the second stanza is brilliant.. May be if you are on a train journey you would love this song.. slow and soothing.. My Rank: 5

7. Aaromale
A full Malayalam song sung by Alphonse.. I heard many ppl telling tat ARR has copied "Pink Floyd".. i've not heard Pink Floyd, so i am not sure.. Its a decent number with a great guitar intro, excepting the last portion where Alphonse shouts "Aaromaleeeeee".. that time u feel like u shd take the headphones of your ears for sometime .. A "OK" number... Probably i need to listen it for some more time before coming into any conclusion on this one. but currently, My Rank: 6

Being an ardent fan of both ARR and Gautam this review might be a little bit biased but still the album is not that bad as many claim(one of my team mate said it Sucks..!!). I would rate this album way ahead of 'Sivaji' , 'Blue'. This may not be a trendsetter of sorts but definitely a beautiful melodious album.. If you ask me if its Gautam-Harris or Gautam-ARR combo that works out, I would still go ahead with Gautam-Harris simply cos they've given 5 great blockbuster albums.. I am quite unsure how commercially VTV will be accepted by the audience.

Whatever said, I can't wait for Feb 14 for the movie to hit the screens.. !!

Independence day with News Channel

i've never been "the" partiotic citizen of India. its been 62 years since independence and wat status have we got apart from being called "corrupt nation", "polluted nation", "most populated". there is nothing for which india can be really proud of. atleast to my knowledge. Foreigners come over here just to click a pic of this poor country. the heritage/culture comes secondary to them and we give a damn about all these.

was watching tv today morning and i was really happy to see this program called "jai jawan" in NDTV. the program showed the life of army ppl at kargil and a chat with the jawans who were involved in the kargil war. i sit here happily blogging because of some one who i never knew/who i might even never meet in my life fighting for my safety. when i was watching that program came a breaking news "SRK detained at US airport" and the program ended soon and the news reporters got a good piece of commerical news with which they can keep up the TRP ratings of their channel. and then the reported suddenly shifted gears and started "breaking news coming in just now. King khan is detained at the US airport because of his surname".. and then we have the whole set of jobless bollywood fraternity in front of the media mikes shouting at their pitch of why US shouldnt have dont it.

Grow up, guys. whats your problem. as if no other person in the whole world have ever been questioned in such a manner. if it was not for King Khan and if Mr.AAA Khan was questioned by the US, would the media be following them as well. ?? whats so spl about this person who knows nothing other than crying on screen. and what i hated most was that SRK himself called each and every news channel and started sharing his 2 hrs interrogation. and the news channel had their day. "SRK spoke exclusively to Headlines Today". "CNN-IBN Exclusive: Is real imitating Reel for SRK". and worst is this "Share your thoughts of what we should do for questioning SRK-Times Now".. Thanks guys you are all doing a great job,. !!

Then we have the director who knew nothing other than shootin at NY.. Yeah, Karan Johar. It was time for him to share his thots. and he said "SRK is a global icon. you cant do anything like this"..a couple of weeks back Abdul kalam was detained by some airline company. did he do anything like these? then why the hell did SRK make it such a big scene. I know that his yet-to-be-released "My Name is Khan" has a plot similar to this. and I'm 200% confident that this bloody SRK and Karan Johar are doing this to publicize the movie. because they know that the movie cant do a s**t in the box-office. and from now till tonite this is the topic in all news channel. and Times Now has a spl show at 8 30 wit Arnab(one-of-the-worst TV anchors I ve ever seen in my life) on this i believe.

India independence, Swine flu are all second priority when compared to SRK being detained at the airport. !@#&%$^ ..

If this is how we are gonna be, then we can better forget about being a developed nation by 2020. not 2020, even at 4040 we wont be a developed one. !!

First day at T.I.M.E

Joined T.I.M.E recently and you smart guy, you guessed it right !! For my CAT .. Yesterday was the first day at T.I.M.E and it was my favorite class 'Quants'. I've always loved Maths from my school days. Not sure whether i inherited that love from my dad who is a Math Genius himself.. Still remember the last time i got beatings from him for wrongly solving a differential equation during my X holidays !! Yeah ..!! He made me study my XI subjects when I was thinking off enjoying my X holidays. !! I dont know what all I cursed him tat time, but now all those fond memories bring a wide smile on my face and wish that I never got older !!! Back to the Karnataka Sangha School(T.Nagar. thats where my T.I.M.E coaching happens), where I was a stranger to everyone around. The watchman, the aaya and to the hundreds of wanna-be IIM-ites.

Not knowing where to go from the entrance and as a perfect tamilian of not liking to ask anyone else too (!!) was giving a thought of what i should do. And then there came a good-looking gal wearing a t-shirt with a wordlist printed on it. Not to waste any more time, i started going through the wordlist, [:)] and followed her. After finding that she belongs to a senior batch, i found that my classroom was C11. After searching the whole building(even went to the terrace not knowing that there were only 2 floors), found that the class room was actually G1 and not C11.

Settled in the Vth standard classroom(last bench again!) and waited for the staff to come. A small built guy,looked like he was a teacher for the XIth Math teacher, came in and introduced himself as Murali. Everyone in the class stood up !! Found utterly weird to me .. In the company you never do such things, but almost everyone in the room were college students. So that explains it all.

On the big black board, he wrote 'Simple Equations' wrote the following

2x=8

3y=9

5z=20

"Can someone tell me whats the value of x,y,z ?" The first question stunned me completely. Is it for this ive paid 16k !!! Everyone else in the room were perplexed like me, and no one was sure whether to answer him or not. With no one ready to answer such a difficult set of questions, Mr. Murali taught us "Take the 2 onto the right side.. What ll you get?? Its 8/2 = 4. Hence x=4". So similarly you get y=(9/3)=3 and z=(20/5)=4 .. Thought he was going a little overboard. Everyone in the room were atleast Engineers and dont they know this !!

Then comes the second difficult question

if x=1, y=1 what is x+2y ?

I thought this class was gonna be a total waste of time and even thought of doing something useful back home like watching Isaiaruvi and Sun Music. !!

But after sometime I found that he was trying to gauge the level of Math knowledge of the class and I found he was quite interesting !! He gave some really cool and complicated problems and the class was on the whole interesting. Couple of problems were really a problem to me.

At the end of the class, he asked everyone of us to introduce themselves. And the whole class was a bunch of engineering students and a guy from TCS. As I was sitting in the last bench, I was the last one to introduce. I told "Sridhar. Working for MindTree Limited". The whole class(including Mr.Murali) went like "Ooooh.. MindTree uh.. !! "

The whole hush meant something like "He is working with MindTree. So he is sure to get into an IIM !! "

"Dei. MindTree nalla company thaan !! Athukum ithukum enna da sammantham!!.Sathyama puriyala. Think I should have told i m working for Kekkaran Bekkaran Company " !!

It's the second day today and the expectations from me have already gone sky high !! Don't know what's gonna happen !! :(

The song that made me cry !!

Having updated my SE with a lil of old-cum-favorite Tamil songs, i knew i was gonna ve a good time in the 2 hr train journey (how many times i am gonna say "2 hr train journey".!! But i feel good when i vent out my frustration) And being an ARR maniac i was happy being partial to load most of ARRs old collection.  I had no idea of what I am copying on to my mobile. Just loaded it til my windows warned me of "no more memory space"

Next day evening, when I was on the way back home, a song started to play with light drum beats in the background.. I was not sure of what song it was and I wanted to keep the surprise till i actually found it.. And then the voice of MSV kicked off the song.. yeah ! most of you, you might have guessed it rite.. It was 'vidai kodu engal naade'  from Kannathil muthamitaal.. I've not heard this song for a long time, in fact couldnt think off when i heard it last.. so i just left the song continue.. but what was actually there was simply unbelievable.. 

The lyrics of the song was so mesmerizing and i had no option but to leave this song in loop for atleast 10 times.. !!  The song which absolutely suited the present Srilankan scenario made me emotionally attach myself without my conscience. The line that brought tears was this

"Kann thirantha desam ange, kann moodum desam inge !! "

The voice of MSV and the magic of ARR(leaving the bgm as simple as possible and letting the lyric do the work)  was at its best.

Many of my frnds(Illayaraja maniacs of course) ve told me that ARR doesnt give classic hits as Illayaraja.. And for all those guys, this one song is the answer.. This song, exactly of 6 mins is an absolute pleasure to listen.. 

PS  : When I started thinking off writing this as a post,  I dint want to write about this, as I've already written a post on the SL scene. But I felt this was a post that i  was emotionally attached to and so continued with the same

PPS : Guys, if you've not listened to it for a long time, please give a try now.. its on my "must-hear" list

Cheers !!! 

Listening to IPL ..

It was this time of last year when cricket just stormed to every nook and corner of India. TV showrooms were mobbed, people had their a** glued to their sofa, SET MAX enjoyed a plump of profit, actors made their publicity stunt even on the stadium. But this year.. ??? Nah, Mr. Lalit Modi.. Though the tournament is wide open, and a series of good cricket is about to follow. there is the X-factor that's missing out this year. Probably the crowd in the stadium .?? May be.. 

Consider the commentary in this year's IPL.. Hilarious.. What comedy.. And you've even Kishan Kahaniyan(KK) (Ravi Shastri.. impressed by FakeIPLPlayer :) ) blabbering.. Yesterday's match between Chennai and Jaipur. KK was there at the toss and as usual started yelling with the mike !! This is what he said, if i could remember correctly.. "Kimberley, are you ready for yet another fascinating game of cricket".. (No response from the crowd, and the camera man himself had to shout a big 'yes').. "So, we've Javagal Srinath, the match refree and we have the two captains.. MS Dhoni of the Chennai Super Kings and Shane Warne of the 'Kings Royals of Rajasthan' " .. WTF .. You are on air and you make a cent percent blunder with the Team name of Rajasthan Royals !!  I couldnt stop laughing.. Even Shane Warne and MSD had a good chuckle.

Then we've the Sandy Mandy Babe(Mandira Bedi, again impressed by FakeIPLPlayer :) ) with a player of a team who lost the toss. (Couldnt gather which team and who the player was).. Her question "Are you happy that your team lost the toss " ..  What !! :) who would be happy losing a toss. The player was out of the team and the best question comes on now .. "Are you happy that you are not in the team ".. Give me some break. Got to jot down all these, but it keeps on coming and I'm losing track of them..  Who would not agree to sit in the bench and get paid a hefty sum. !!. She is distracting the viewers from these stupid questions by showing her off .... So the next time you see her dressed up like that, dont fall in her trap but be ready for some great comedy questions.. 

Then you've Ranjit Fernando,.. Yesterday's match between Punjab and Hyderabad. Jayawardene was playing well.. and you know what his commentary would've been.. Even a mere push to long-on at 30Kph for a single is hyped as if he has hit six sixers in one over. And the commentary ---> "Thats a beautiful, elegant,classic shot on the front foot and the ball races to the long-on who desperately tries to stop the ball ".. Even before he completes the word "classic" the bowler would've been ready for the next ball.. 

Lakshman SivaRamakrishnan.. How can I forget him.. I think even if he is in the commentary box, he used to watch it on TV.. There would be a fielder at third man and the batsman would ve nudget it down for a single, and as soon as the batsman strikes the ball "thats a brilliant shot for a boundary.. " and when he sees third man fielding at it, he would change.. "but there is a fielder at third man and thats smart captaincy. it would ve been four if he has not been there ".. 

As if no one knows that if there is no fielder, it would reach the boundary. 

With Harsha Bhogle coming up, there could be some respite to the appalling commentary.. But let's see. With Rameez Raja coming up, we've got a Pakistan flavor to the tournament. Have to chk out what he's gonna tell.. Throw in Aamir Sohail into this team and the commentary would rock .. !! 

I think Set Max made a smart move by buying all of them for a mere Rs. 10,000 for the whole tournament !!! 

@guys : Check this out.. Absolute Comedy .. http://content.cricinfo.com/iplpage2/content/site/iplpage2/hearhear.html

Cheers !!

"T.Nagar, SriLanka"

how many "yet another day" posts i m gonna write. !! i myself have got no idea. its been pretty boring as always and to work on a saturday was even boring. the heat in chennai is unbearable. 35+ deg cel always..( from morning 6 am to midnight. )

was just catching up some action with "The Big Fight" on NDTV. Topic: SriLanka issue. I hardly have any idea of the history of the tamil's sufferings in this emerald island(thou there was a lil' bit of an eye-opener by means of 'Kannathil muththamitaal'), but to see the papers with headlines "6,500 civilians killed in the last 3 months" was something that pissed me off. whether it is tamils or kannadigas or sikhs, these kind of killings need to be STOPPED.its a difficult debate to come up with a conclusion on who is responsible for all these, but i feel the govt could ve acted better with approaching this issue. A truly emotional one and these ****ing political parties have made it into a political issue and started begging for votes. *****rds !!! i m not in support of LTTE or the SL military, but if its the LTTE behind all these there is no question of destroying them completely without a trace. but if its the SL military who are on the wrong side of these ?? .... No answers !! 

Back home:

Its been close to 3 months since i moved to this so-called place called "THE T.Nagar". and for the last 3 months(or should i call it the 'Quarter' !! ) ve tortured with the noise here. living in one of the porchest areas in chennai(Adyar) for more than 8 years, it was a hard job to mentally adjust myself to this place. but truly this place really sucks.. Noise, Noise, Noises.!! People here have a 

high-decible voice and they scream for almost everything. and my family too have increased the voice level too.. to speak to my mom in the next room, i should shout at my throat to atleast have her attention !! More than the noise, the crowd that comes over here, !!  OMG !! Unbelievable !!.. and to walk thru 'the most crowded streets in the world' (wat else, Ranganathan street) daily is no joke. my first day to office from T.Nagar happened like this. 

6:00AM.. Got up, dressed neatly, polished the shoes(a big mistake ?) and stepped in the Ranganathan street. then a young north-indian guy stamped right on my feet. ..! ! WTF man !! took 5 mins for me to polish and this bloody guy took a micro-second to spoil tat 5 min effort .. and u no wat i asked 'Sorry'.. never knew why.. Professionalism?? u could call it like that. and it was that day i decided, that i shd never polish my shoes and have successfully kept my promise till date.. then i started to play a game of how many people i stamp on every day. it used to be in the negative during my early days, which typically means ppl stamp on my feet more than i do on them.. but for the past few weeks i m improving and i m becoming a 'seasoned stamper' !!!!! 

Planning to start a summer coaching camp on that. Any takers ?

Will be right back soon.!

Cheers !! 

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' .?? ?