Thursday, December 27, 2012

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom - NKPK - Movie Review

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom NKPK - Movie Review

One truly enjoyable movie it has been. It happened to come out in 6 words for me. That's sweet...!!  If that is all I had to say, I would have rather posted on my FB wall. As I keep maintaining, FB is the death nail on my blogging....I used to blog instinctively in the past, now I FB for instinctive aspects. I AM AN OLD SKOOL GUY and still love blogging, just I don't follow my passion....

I'll stop drifting off topic and steer back to Review land...!

NKPK - Started off with an intriguing title. Many a films have had interesting titles, but there ends interests in most films (like KSY - Kathalil Sothapuvathu Yeppadi)...this wasn't to be so.. The title is as intriguing to me as the interpretations of Matrix and Inception. I still have atleast 3-4 versions of justification that churn up in my mind even after watching the movie. FYI. I had atleast 7 versions before the movie.!

The introduction of the characters via the title song, was by far...standard....just that the hero (s) of the movie each had their intro songs..!!! Nice touch to talk about all the protagonists of the movie upfront (reminds me of Thalaivar Sujatha's definition of nice screenplay - in Thiraikathai Yezthuvathu eppadi)....

I strongly believe in Director Cheran's words in an interview...சினிமாவை வெளியில தேடாதீங்க, உங்க வாழ்கைல இருந்து எடுங்க ...the director seems to have drawn more than a leaf from this. Very evident from the Cricket Match scenes. Very much a possibility. A very nice plot to actually enthuse and draw the attention of the audience...! (Lets forget the last scene revelation of the director for sometime..!!)

The main stay of the movie seems to have landed plum roles in offbeat stories one after other. Thenmerku Paruvkaatru, Pizza and NKPK....a decent actor with good restraint....

The subject, Medula Oblongata and temporary memory loss...seems to have received a make-over after the Sanjay Ramasamy era....a completely feel good flavour which has grim realities otherwise. Mr. AR Murugadoss, ippadiyum edukalam antha kathaiya..!!!

Goes to show that...its all in the making ( I mean the pudding called movie..!) The movie at times made me feel I am in a goods train...slow...real slow....but makes you relish that by serving dishes of comedy one after the other to keep you busy laughing while taking its time to establish the real plot of the movie, which you kind of keep guessing all through that initial 30 mins or so...

A good % of the movie was predictable, might have been a spoiler in a Thriller movie, but not here...the more and more you predict, you keep getting drawn to the story and its characters...

Slowly but steadily, by the time the guys freak out of GH, you get into the characters, their differences, their nuances...their fallacies, their bonding and ultimately the plot...

The firm base for the movie's success is in its script. I can imagine how much of hard work should have gone in to make a flawless logic based script...excellent work! I only see a Hard Working Director / Screenplay Writer stand out for me...that's me...:D...

I hear that the dialogue writer for the movie was required only part-time ?!!! Dialogues in majority were only repeats....Enna aachu; Peyu mathiri irukaa, Sathiskku kalyanam...hahaha...hilarious track of plot lines..!!

IMO, the guy playing the Bajji character deserves the maximum applause, next comes Saras (though Saras is the hero of sorts!!), then Prem...!! Bajji character had streaks of realism, naivity, stupidity, comic sense, presence of mind, blinking(!!!)....probably the director chose the right guy to play his part..?! much like ARR and Illayaraja, picking the best tracks of their album for their voices...!!!

Mid-way through the movie, I was very firm that the inspiration for the movie must have been real life characters, lest the thoughts of Saras, Baks and Bajji would match if it was a conned story...they having individual thought lines on how to handle the situation at the GH on the day of the incident is ample proof...I was telling my wife that this should have been an inspiration of some sort for a wonderful output like this...Little did I realize that the end title card of the movie would clear that like Mr. Ramanan's Prediction for Tamil Nadu Weather...!!!

One very good aspect of Screenplay I loved watching was - when Saras leaves the Reception dias and Bajji takes over and as expected the commotion rises on the dias and in our senses, Prem suddenly corrects the course with a ullolalaikku dialogue and we are stunned...the screenplay deftly teases and suggests in a figurative manner when Prem looks up his head to ask his friend something....suggesting that Saras has come back to the dias and Bajji stepped back...this is only for a moment before Saras is shown on screen standing between Bajji and Prem....i thought this was a nice touch to Screen Writing..!!!

By now, you should have realized that this was more of my outpour on what I loved in the movie in a review like un-review...but I strongly believe that the makers had great passion about the story and its impact on their personal lives..! As goes the famous saying, *If you love what you are doing, you will not be 'working' even for a day*... the makers, am sure wouldn't have felt the burden of the daunting task of a commercially viable movie, as their output clearly shows their passion and their strong belief in the story / Screenplay.

Good Luck guys!!! We want another movie like this...but you don't have to pelt a stone on somebody's head   next time for a realistic story line...hahaha...!!!

-Rajesh

Friday, May 27, 2011

Growing Older...

mmm...this is a constraint / limitation of life one has to face and inevitably at that!! This is more so getting evident in multiple walks of life...

Family: kids I have seen running around the house my knee-cap height when I was in college are in college now, which invariably means I am no more a college goer...:)

Family 1: Rewind Raagam, a show on Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, chennai version is a show for retro songs which fit into those good old days!! songs from movies like Amarkalam, Alaipayuthe, Yuva get played in those making me feel that we are part of a legacy now....!! Definetely makes me feel OLD....

Net-life: My blog, this one, is in itself close to 8 years old...and if I read my first few posts, that bangalore boy who started his career in Slash Support flashes by and I am reminded I am OLD....

Professional: When people you recruit and mentor and train as part of their out-of-college life at work grow up and start going to onsite as coordinator, you cannot deny the fact that you are OLD....

Public Places: Going into Malls and Multiplexes in Chennai, definetely makes me feel out of place now, purely because, my visits to a mall will be for picking up a dress for my wife, or to Odyssey / Landmark to collect stationery / CD collectible rather than for *just the heck of it*...all I mean is, I visit a mall / store only for a purpose, which is a far cry from the days I used to visit The Forum, in Koramangala, Bangalore, every weekend (both days included) without a purpose!..I am definetely OLD now...

Technology: Motorola as a smartphone maker came to prominence with its Linux powered devices like A780, A1200 and ruled the roost with Q9 and other mobiles and BIT the dust as a smart phone maker, stopped production of smartphones, have resurrected them selves via Andriod mobiles and are back in the business as a leader...almost like a fresh generation of motorola and pity is I have see all of this as a grown-up, which says I AM OLD now...:)

Confirmations for getting OLDER:

a) I used to roll-over my mobile phones in less than 18 months since my first mobile in 2004. I have been religiously doing this, but the last 2 mobiles have been more than 24 months and the current one, a Nokia E63 is more than 26 months and still in my possession, simply for the reason that it doesnt have any problem to be replaced. Same was the case with all my previous mobiles, but all of them saw change...Change in mindsets is a key attributer...and also lessons of value for moeny from Wife...I am OLD now...:)

b) I have a few strands of grey hair in my temple and 1 also cropped up in my moustache sometime back...oof...enough of my brooding, LOCK kardiya jaaye...I AM OLD...

but OLD isnt that bad...!!! see tthe following,

a)I get to advice people based on my experience...which is a really cool thing!
b) I am sought advice by people for my experience in life and professional career...again cool....
c) I get to enjoy life as a Family...a loving wife...a lovely boy...really COOL...
d) I get to prioritize my day at work, because of the accountability i have at work, rather than being set tasks for the day!
e) I can boast of movies from the 1990-2000's as ones the younger kids couldnt get to see
f) I can get to bloat abouot how Gentleman, Kadhalan and Roja created waves when they were released in 1990's...!!!
g) I get to talk about Jim Courier and Pete Sampras to newer kids..:)...

so...MORAL of the story is.....OLD IS BAD...but OLD IS ALSO GOLD...and we know how much 1 gram of gold costed then and how much it costs now...;)

Godspeed...Shabba Khair...

Thursday, April 21, 2011

My Post Cup-win Musings on Facebook

Saturday at 22:47 Dhoni seems to have chosen the day to peak!! Smart Guy!! Now we know why he is the most successful Indian Cricket Captain ever!! Jai Ho!!

Saturday at 22:49 Wow!!!

Saturday at 23:12 Just realized that my TV remote was lost for the last 3 hours and I just realized it was lost!! So has been today’s power play by India!! What heartened me is we have chased 260 & 275 effortlessly… No flash in the pan of First batting scores! Jai Ho!!

Saturday at 23:22 Kumar Sangakara’s upbringing really showed!! EVen Ricky Ponting wouldn’t have made it so professional!! Captain Cool!!

Saturday at 23:25 I wish I could tell You!! - Yuvraj knows how to celebrate!!

Saturday at 23:29 Man… What a presentation ceremony talk by Dhoni…candid talk… my respect for Dhoni is sky-rocketting…:)

Saturday at 23:33 Kaun banega Crorepati ? - all the 15 world champions from India!!

Saturday at 23:34 What a majestic photograph of champions!!

Saturday at 23:39 We are going Down Under 4 years from now…! Shane warne better get to coaching Oz, if they really what to be the 2nd team to win as Hosts!!

Saturday at 23:44 Now I feel the grip of the Ghumake song by Shankar-eshan-loy…worthy!! Meaty!! Desi Mirchi !!

Saturday at 23:49 Surprising that my facebook timeline has posts only from me…afterall all of India is celebrating!! And I am doing it the reticent style reflecting my thoughts on Facebook!!!!

Saturday at 23:57 That cover flick of Dhoni for a flat 6 is one of the beauties of this day and the world cup!!

Sunday at 00:02 T20 worldcup, Test No.1 spot and 2011 ODI world cup - will an Indian Cricket Captain’s resume ever better that… Not for sometime to come….Infact no other country’s captain can boast of this….not even the punter… :)

Sunday at 00:14 I am getting sick of Sidhu-isms… Ian chappell and Dermott Reeve Shd be embarrassed to be around and just staring at Sidhu… Tough job to harsha handling Sidhu and trying to even it out between the expert panel… :)

Sunday at 00:21 NDTV anchor caught on TV saying - We don’t have to depend on our fathers to tell us how it was a momentous occasion, any more!!

Sunday at 00:32 I am frustrated why Thalaivar - Vaseegaran - Rajnikanth was not interviewed / aired when he was in the same VIP box as Aamir, Ambanis & Pretty (!) zinta.Age old South India neglect.Be reminded… The real champion today was the Chennai Super Kings boy..;)

Sunday at 00:35 Thanking Nuwan Kulasekara in Hindsight… Dropping Gauti on 30 and that dream over of 11 runs in P3… Thanks Mate!!

Sunday at 00:43 A charismatic Harsha Bhogle comment-Dhoni trying to kill the leather off the ball, while one other batsman tried to protect it-Mahela Jeyawardena.I should hand it out on this day of Indian cricket history-India’s best cricket commentator - Harsha Bhogle!!

Sunday at 00:54 I would love to possess an archive DVD copy of the Vodafone 3G moments of all of the WC2011 from Star Cricket - Wonderful reality of how the cup rolled out!!

Sunday at 00:57 Wouldn’t mind if Star Cricket also releases the closing Montage of each match of the WC 2011… That’s the real joy of watching cricket - the emotion!! Star Cricket - are you hearing? I am waiting at a Landmark / Odyssey store near me…;)

Sunday at 01:03 Now for the first time in 4 years Lalit Modi&his brainchild IPL will definitely lose a% of its charisma as handful thousands of Indian fans would be tired of cricket in itself&maybe sparse crowds in stadiums?Am I underestimating cricket appetite of India?

Sunday at 01:13 Murali Karthik caught on CNN IBN noting the fact that Gary Kirsten was lifted on the shoulders post cup!! Silent Tribute to one of the real hero attributes of this champion team!! I second it!!

Sunday at 01:19 A Montage shot that is a first entrant into TOP 10 India moments of 2011, surely is the towering six of Dhoni and his conqueror looks till the ball landed back in the crowds!!

Sunday at 01:23 My wifey’s question to me yesterday - So is Muralitharan coming back to Malar Hospital, Adyar, Chennai after the world cup???? Murali Sir, pls come to your homeland-in-law… Welcome!!

Sunday at 01:27 Just seen on TV-Hrithik Roshan flummoxed in front of a celebrating crowd in Bandra, Mumbai, seated in a car, sporting a V hand symbol & requesting people to clear the way for his car to move to no yield!! And pleasant at that!! That’s Cricket crazy India!

Sunday at 01:35 Ironies of reality-lets face it!! Neither Murali nor the God really had a fitting finale!! I Shd eat my words-The God, as I see is not retiring any soon.atleast not before his 100th hundred which Iam he would get in english shores!! Few more IPLs? God?

Sunday at 01:37 Ajay Jadeja slipping in a message in NDTV abt evangelising Cricket in schools using WC 2011 victory and the IPL 4 hype!!

Sunday at 01:49 Dhoni is much like-I dare say - Mike Brearly/Allan Border/Arjuna Ranatunga / Hansie Cronje / Martin Crowe. A thinking captain and gut feel strategist who loves having the whip in his hand rather than let the selectors and managers come in with decisions!

Sunday at 01:54 And I missed to note, Krishnamachari Srikanth will get 25 Lakh rupees for his role as chairman of selectors!!! Hahaha Shd be Srikanth’s chuckle knowing the man!!… :)

Sunday at 01:59 Ajay Jadeja hitting the nail, the real hero is Gary Kirsten, in the 3 years he has been with India, has taken them to world no 1 in test, ODIs…AND… a World Cup win!! Gary will be a hot coach, sought after by all cricket countries!!

Sunday at 02:07 Now, more than 3 hours after Dhoni’s Winning Six, I am thinking if I should call it quits for the championship day!! And hit the pillows!!

Sunday at 02:11 All those commercializers - like we have umpteen of those ridiculous day of the year - why don’t u declare Apr 2 as ‘ India Cricket Day ‘….!!! U might as well invest in some annuity revenue rather losing out to just a week of celebration!!!…What say?!

Sunday at 02:14 One ironic point to note… No Celebrative Home Coming for this Indian Cricket Team… sad u see..?!… All the previous 9 world cup winning teams have had this!!

Sunday at 02:22 Now the 2G scams, assembly elections, Wikileaks Hindu expose, ugly One-Day breaking news will resume spot light for News Channels and pls spare the Cricket Commentators to Espn/star/ten sports/neo cricket/ set max for their bread n butter… Phew…

Sunday at 02:29 Unexpectedly, a first of its kind social networking experience for me… Live messaging my thoughts on FB, uncannily, only from the last over of the worldcup to the wee hours of Sunday, 03 April 2011, thanks to FB, Snaptu and my Nokia E63!!

Sunday at 02:32 Signing off, Guys n Gals !! Good Night, Good Day!! where ever you are in the world! Glad I followed today’s final at the most of when it mattered… Much like zipping to the last few pages of a gripping novel!! Godspeed !

Sunday at 02:48 One last message for the day, Please!!… Like God of Cricket!, God of Indian Cinema graced today’s final… All India Superstar Rajnikanth!! His simplistic looks today beats handsdown, George Clooney+Antonio Banderas+Tom Cruise+Rishi Kapoor+Aamir looks!!

if you wish to follow me on facebook, do check for rajeshprakasam

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Nandhalala - Movie Review

Am brimming with the energy to type down all of my observations...rarely has a movie done this to me except for the compulsive blogging disorder that I was going through until 2007!

Nandhalala - the Myshkin movie has met 100 % of my expectations and as a matter of fact is exactly like what Myshkin quoted in an interview. Here's the quote - " A director can probably make 2 or 3 good movies in his career, Nandhalala is definitely one of mine". IT IS EXACTLY the best movie he could have made and I wouldn't shy away from quoting this to be one of the best movies made on Indian-wood land...! Some people might feel this is a tad taller order for a tamil movie, but I would strongly urge them to watch this movie without prejudice, and they would come out beaming with atleast a couple of tears welling up their eyeballs, I could see a few when I came out of the theater!

Nandhalala as a movie is a genuine answer to India's search for that elusive best foreign feature film award at The Oscars. Now dont catch me on the mis-interpreted foot, I aint behind that craze, but this is a wish that I have had for long to say that India on its own, without any English or Western collaboration can still make movies that make short work of movies of Hollywood land...This is genuinely one such attempt and wish the jury board of this year's oscar nomination committee in India make note of this!!

Exceptionally crafted as a emotional roller coaster, this oozes Myshkin's passion for cinema in every frame, every dialogue, every shot, every character, every bit of sound on screen. Man, can I stop..?! As far as I can remember, this evoked so much of an overwhelming emotion in my heart as much as The Matrix did for its sheer concept novelty! I think Myshkin is justified in casting himself or rather an unknown face to this character. Any other actor known as a hero would have ruined the genuinety of this sketch!

Myshkin,as far as I can see has bridged that elusive gap of an Art film that can gross commercially! This is the true divide that other creators can try and emulate and still make commercially viable projects! The deft sequencing of scenes, the crisp and getting-ever-crisper dialogues vieing for the top dialogue title if there was one for a movie are ample testimony to the hard work Myshkin has tasked himself to - to make this movie a commercially interesting one. It is easy to get lost in the passion of such a story and make it look like an art film, which it would have probably been if not for the genuine comedy and near-to-life characterisation of the lead roles.

As far as I know this is the ideal road movie that could have happened to Tamil Cinema and makes *Paiyyaa* a supposedly road-ish movie look like a comedy-piece according to Vadivelu!! Each character team that the boy and the larger-boy (myshkin) meet enroute to *annavel* and *thaivasal* are as genuine that you would meet in any road journey out of madras! Kudos to the director to have sketched a never ending set of vehicles to make them reach the destination and all the while making all of them look completely plausible!!

There is this set of directors that I am loving in Tamil Cinema from Parthiban to Cheran to Vasantha Balan to Myshkin who make lovely movies out of an ordinary strand of life and make it look larger than the *Red-giant*, *Cloud-nine*, *Mohana Movies*, *Sun Pictures - kalanidhi maran* backed movies. Unfortunately, Tamil Cinema is led to experience only these power-houses powered movies as *real cinema*...:(

The movie starts of with a school-boy who badly misses his mother and another boy-ish man in an asylum who badly wants to slap his mom for having left in the asylum. The definetly takes its time to settle into the groove and the first 10-15 look like an art movie and thats the only trace of this aspect in the movie. Once Myshkin and Agi hit the road, the story narration actually picks top-gear and each acquaintance en-route is a Story-in-Story, be it the Auto Driver, the lady with the kid, the limp guy, the old man selling tender-coconuts, the jumbo twins and most importantly the Lorry driver with the horn and the call-girl who definetely make a serious impact to the entire movie.

I loved the sequences where the Lorry driver ends up with a tussle with Myshkin and then they get-together and then that *Das-anna* song, wow what a moment in the movie. Infact, I would rate that as the best sequence in the movie. So much for the feel, because it was coming from the roughie-like-lorry driver akin to the *Irumbile oru irudhayam mulaithathe*. to me, this sequence scores better than the call-girl story though this had ZERO dialogues!!!

I can visualize the maker in Myshkin to have put in *umpteen* versions of the script before it passed *re-recording* and reached the silver screen, because every scene looks complete and poised and has the finesse of story on its own. Trust me, Very very rarely do we get to see scripts like this and it would be a pity if the audiences dont acknowledge it!

Apart from the script and the story which are absolutely fab!, there are so many more elements that make the movie look so competent such it puts to shame so many movies which touted themselves as *realistic cinemas* and one way or the other has masala items.

Some of the other key aspects of the movie demand a group of accolades, and here goes the credit list,

* absolute brilliance in titling all of the behind-the-scenes technicians before the actors, goes a long way to let us peek into the director's deep thought process!!
* The fact that Myshkin did not include his name in the cast titles and left it only to *Ezhuthu - Iyakam* slide is a great gesture!
* the *12 nodikalukku Nasser* title card, I consider a great respect showered on Nasser!
* the *Thaiyai Thedi* interval card was placed at such a beautiful moment that for a split second, i expected the movie to have ended (!! - trust me - I did go and ask the food counter if the movie was still on post the break!!) the reason I mention this is the fact that the movie was not made for the audience perspective but from the perspective of a story. If it were an english docu movie, it could have well ended with the Interval card!!!
* the music of the movie. Myshkin is completely justified in crediting *Ilayaraja* with the first title in the movie and rightly so! the background score definetely tells a story on its own and trust me, if one just listens to the movie as a *oli-chititram* (audio-version that was once famous in All-India Radio), 90 % of the movie's effectiveness would be perceivable in the air
* the Das-anna song was superb, if i was to use a solitary word!!
* the reason I mentioned 90 % effectiveness in an audio is because of the amazing action both of the kid (agi) and myshkin show on-screen. I should say, there was not scene where their acting looked amateur-ish!! hatz-off to myshkin to have made every single actor be as natural as you would expect on a highway in souther india
* Rohini though having a very little space in the movie, didnt look out of place at all!

It was definetely refreshing to see the progression of the characters once they face the reality of the situation! be it the boy accepting the girl-on-the-highway as his mother after noticing that his real mother is elsewhere; be it myshkin maturing in his composure once he realizes his mother's state and admitting her into the asylum.
Much better when their lifes turn for the better and the mental-boy-turning-into Bhaskar Mani mama and the kid taking the lady as his mom to home!!

Lovely and positive ending as opposed to cliched remorse ending that we are used to in such genres in India and elsewhere.

To sum-up, this must have been the most non-coherent post of my blogging career since 2004 and i really dont care if it did not follow a structure, because I am as dead-passionate to record my thoughts of this movie as Myshkin has been to make this movie caring like hell when it came to conventions / stereotypes wrt characters, actors, story telling flow, yada yada yada

If I were to leave a parting note,

Nandhalala is a glowing example of technical finesse, directorial brilliance, to-the-story acting, lilting background score and what a story!!! I doubt if Myshkin himself can match this effort in the future, leave alone others.

Lets all watch this magnum-opus on-screen and feel Nandhalala touching our senses in the movie hall!!

C Ya,
Rajesh

Saturday, July 31, 2010

First Impressions - Endhiran

mmm...this is the most interesting aspect for a movie buff like me...deciphering information about the movie with just a sneak-peak at the movie album and the photos, teasers and the track lyrics...


i am back at that for Endhiran - Audio released today - and I had my share at The Odyssey - Adyar, where a sales personnel greeted me with a Thalaivar Autographed Endhiran poster...! would I disapprove?!!

Now the mega movie..what would it look like?

* One of the stock posters where Super Star has a metallic finish look-alike overcoat on...gives the impression of a machine man - ala - The Terminator
* looking at the first track lyrics and the images associated with it, i see traces of the Al Pacino starrer - S1m0ne - where Al Pacino creates a new avatar of his own!!
* the eternal story rounds that this movie is an adaptation of En Iniya Iyandhira - by the legendary (late) Sujatha Sir...which I was also believing until seeing the credit for Story going to Shankar in the audio CD..!!!

Onto the tracks,

a) Pudhiya Manitha - the snaps looks like this mostly a background song like the *vetri nichayam* song from Annamalai!! The bearded looks of Thalaivar is making him look erudite..nice persona selection!

b) Kadhal Anukkal - wow! I dont know where Mr. Shankar was able to find such a large oasis and a desert!! Looks to be a song for the Scientist Dr. Vaseegaran. Stunning and Glossy visuals I should say!

c) Irumbile Oru Idhayam - Wow! Familiar yet enterprising Shankar Trade like *Azhagana Ratchasiye*, *Randakka Randakka*, but the only difference is, this is the uber cool version of the same and Thalaivar looks stunning and atleast 10-15 years younger....Shankar should have directed Thalaivar atleast 10 years back and would have made him look like a college goer..:)

d) Arima Arima - I suppose is the signature song where the sequence of the stock audio cover comes up. As glossy and inline with the budget of the movie I should say!!

e) Kilimanjaro - Shot in the latest wonder of the world featuring on the agreed wonders of the world...(Aishwarya!) is the Uppu Karuvaadu version as far as I see...:D

whatever the movie says and does, i believe this is a landmark movie in Indian cinema ala THE AVATAR of the Hollywood. Pathbreaking is my impression!!

I have consciously avoided my Audio review of the album in this as I wanted to dedicate this post only to the maker and the product....

Audio review of THE MASTER's composition is coming soon...:D

C Ya,
Rajesh

Saturday, March 13, 2010

My take on Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya

I was genuinely disappointed inspite of judiciously avoiding pre-judice…and I felt

a) VTV took a plaintiff story and made it look even more plaintiff thinking *yet another love story* tagline would work!

b) And VTV sucked-up the viewer’s patience big time with a huge hole after 2/3rd of the movie and I was literally counting for the climax!

I am neither biased against love stories nor against Gautham Vasudevan Menon (GVM). I can explain!

The movie starts off with usual boy meets girl stuff. We think, okay, this is fine, nothing overboard or askance…let it go!...

The movie continues to be the same…we still are fine…just that some of the dialogues under the guise of falling for the girl looking 3rd grade…though it is simbu who utters them, I can see GVM behind each of them. This I thought is not what you expect from a director of GVM’s caliber. This was exactly like how Shankar posed himself as *youth* and did stuff in Boyz…which wasn’t warranted for a Shankar film, leave along a youth film…!

There is no major substantiation/reason to say why Simbu falls for Trisha except the *attractive girl* logic…which doesn’t make it look like the Love that the movie advertises that it portrays! I for the little cinema that I know of, would have expected substantiation of the love factor with prudent scenes or instances which were missing!

Onto the next irritating piece in the puzzle…Trisha…I feel it an irony when people say Trisha is good looking. Bull waste! Good looking aint just good costume. It is personality, attitude, the character weight… If it was not for character depths / attitude / personality, Mallika / Gopika wouldn’t have even made a mark in the movie *Autograph*. Their characters are stil vivid in memory 6 years on now, without Nalini Sriram’s costumes…J…Agreed Nalini shouldn’t be credited with this folly. It is the Invoicer. When Shankar could invoice so well from Nalini for Sivaji – The Boss, we tend to feel GVM played a tad too deep on the good looks aspect. Even so, the half-straight, half normal hair looks completely unkempt, a diagonally opposite personality feel for what Jessie is portrayed to be!...Instead there could have been a half normal and half curly hair which would have suited the oomph factor which seems to completely surreal…!

On the dialogues again, they have been the biggest down-ing factor for this movie… they are sooo long and so draft-verison-ish. I always got the feel that it was the first cut version of dialogues that it made it to the re-recording…because, I for most of the scenes felt the dialogues except for a countable few lacked finesse and the crispness of *potato chips*!!! This costed dearly for the movie’s feel good factor as you always end up irritated what with few 3rd grade lines interspersed!

Music as perceived on screen…my goodness…the less spoken the better! Music, per se has been reviewed at length in my previous blog entry – simply put – it is godly, except for the comment that I had earlier on – there could have been more variety in the music that was invoiced..! I stand by that. I also read in some place that ARR should have been on hurry to catch a plane on his way to completing the re-recording. I would second that. Where are the beautiful interludes juxtaposed in the story, that would tell a story on its own!!...If re-recording was second-class, the song picturisation was definitely third grade.

For the lovely song that Hosanna is and for the lovely impact it had on your ears, it seldom is remembered in the movie primarily due to a basic cinematic fact that viewers are less attentive in the first 20 mins or so and that’s why screenplay pundits clearly demarcate the lighter stuff and intro stuff for this time. What was the logic to put the best song of your album in the first 10 mins?!!! Man…criminal waste, according to me..:(

Omana penne – Simbu’s attire never fitted the hats / hoods he had on…! I thought the hat never fitted with the rest of the costume, neither did the hooded visuals of the song which also looked very casual. It is 300 % more responsibility on the director to ensure that such master piece sound tracks are given due supporting credit by way of fitting visuals. Because master piece sound tracks have their powerful / potent story telling capacity, if the movie differs from the initial feel that the audio release brings in, the viewer is disappointed and is beginning to get disinterested. And boy, that final Malayalam interlude of Kalyani Menon, who on earth would shoot a bathing scene that too on some exotic western world beach for an authentic Malayalam lyric replete with fitting instrumentation. If it was any solace, trisha emerges with a bath robe that is Malayalam looking silk! That’s the remotest close encounter that this song had with God’s own country other than the verse – Omana penne!

Oru Naal Sirithen – what a number it was shaping up to be on headphones…The song was completely misplaced wrt feel. Any sane person who listens to the audio can figure out the feel the song conveys… that too on a platter. Angst, a lightly haunting feel, painful at that! Alas, the song is placed at an exactly opposite sequence in the movie when Simbu successfully meets up with Trisha in her house after the marriage and they kind of formally complement the love they have for each other – mutually. Rahman’s passionate rendition fitted Simbu’s lips only the first time when Simbu reacts with a lot of zeal on the tiny boat which is almost rocked by his enthusiasm! For whatever little knowledge that I have of cinema, if I can churn up so much of filmi gyan, I would expect that GVM knows this on Day 1 ! Why am I having to key such long statements for so basic an aspect!

Un Nanban illai – I thought the song did not have contrasting aspects like the ARR song nor did it have anything great to rave about! I don’t remember a thing about that song now…hahaha…J. Good for GVM!

Aromale – I thought this song was pretty nicely fit into the scheme of things in the movie…! For a moment if I can juxtapose this with the fact that GVM mentioned in the audio release that this was a Free supplement volunteered by ARR, I wonder how this aspect would have been shown on screen by GVM without this song! Anyways, what is good should definitely be appreciated! And GVM deserves a pat for this song and it picturization

Anbil Avan – equally fitting was the placement of the song in the movie and it was very obvious that it should have been the marriage song like my comment in my audio review. What irked in this piece though was the dance by people on the park. How many more movies would GVM use the same clichéd technique. Sir, please improvise!

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya – the feel of the song was snugly captured in the sequence and the song / video did mutual justice!

I have endeavour-ed a music-video review above purely, because this was touted to be a *Academy award winner’s musical, fitting rewarded with a genuine love story*! I now feel tired of this!...and few more milstones to comment on before I retire on this topic///

If there were a few good things in this mediocre love story it was
a) Simbu – Simbu has been stellar in his performance, the least to say! rightly like GVM’s comment in one of run-up shows, Simbu walks away with more than 2/3rds of the credit in the movie. I would have to admit that 1/3 of this 2/3rds credit should be GVM’s for etching the character, but the bigger aspect of essaying the same needs mention. TR’s blood is alive and kicking (!!) in simbu who has been able to bring in a fierce yet completely subtle performance on-screen. Appreciate it!

b) Climax – This is probably where I realized I am watching the movie of a film maker who gave us Vettaiyadu Vilayadu / Vaaranam Aayiram / Pachai Killi Muthu Charam. None of that wizardy was evident until the fag-end of the movie when he played us upside down with the Real Life – Reel Life mix-match, though it was predictable at the Brooklyn bridge sequence!! Hatz off GVM!

Sorry, I was long and hard here, but so many mistakes cannot happen in a critically acclaimed director’s movie. Most of my comments are not my observations (which could be questioned, btw)…but are basic aspects any movie maker should care to cover!

Good Luck with *the* Asal Hero movie next! Hope we don’t have as many things to feed-back to you on!!

Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya - Vinnai Thaandi Varamudiyavillai !!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya - Sound Track Review

The double-bill kid kept the home crowd waiting for close to a year before he could unleash some of the Oscar magic. Quite frankly, Jai Ho is surely a parody to identify the master's musical prowess. There have been much much classier and maestro-personified compositions even in 2008, but then it requires that missing link of Kamal Haasan's movies...THE ENGLISH FACTOR that sealed a couple of pages in Indian Cinema History to the credit of ARR. Yeah, understand, bragging abt ARR and Oscars will need a bigger platform, lets get back to what I intended here....

terse, the album is neat and has the Grand stamp that one recognizes as *an ARR musical*, nevertheless, not delving into details of the individual sound tracks means I am doing injustice to my feelings. So here is justice to my feelings and injustice to your time...!

Omana Penne: Benny Dayal at his usual best and i believe he becomes more pepped up when the composition is of the Master. He has done hara-kiri with his voice and all of that sounds very good though digitized at places...the malayalam interlude in the song though not fitting into the groove the first time you listen to it, finally nails the song to its glory. Maybe all of this is an expectation from the script penned by Gautham Vasudevan Menon (GVM, hence forth here), but still trying to drive-away the sheen would be far-cry when it comes to The Boss. Instrumentation is gala in this song and I believe this is one of the personal favourites of mine. 4/5 for this song according to me.

Anbil Avan: Have been reading about this song from @chinmayi and was expecting Chinmayi to sound differently here as well as has been her pattern in ARR's songs. But to my pleasant surprise, she sounded 100 % herself and it does sound cool...with an aura of western tint and contemporary appeal! The orchestration in this song sounds like a marriage song and Devan's voice jels very well with Chinmayi's and makes for a good duet. The best part for me in this song is the place where the Christian choir music slowly transforms itself into the Murhurtham music of Hindu marriages. Again, though this seems to be the theme of the song, setting such high standards for musical genius is hard to ignore wrt credit! I for all of my gumption reward this song as well to the Mastery of ARR rather than to GVM who has pitched for this in the first place!! Super is just an understatement for this song and I wouldn't hesitate a 5/5 for this song. Excellent!

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya: Maybe I am ill-equipped from a musical perspective to appreciate this title song which typical bodes to be a constant background score rather than an individual track, however I haven't been able to appreciate this track one bit, Sorry! 2/5 is benefit of doubt for the musicality that is un-perceivable to the simpleton that I am in music!!

Hosana: Wow! That should have summed up my thought about this song. Probably the most popular song of the year as yet and should be a chart-buster (as if the other tracks aren't going to be...:)...) Though the first lines in the song remind you of a *Vaaname Yellai* song of the yesteryear, it quickly fades out when you hear it again. The orchestration here again comes to the fore and I can assure you a trip to Pandora if you listen to this song (start-to-finish) with your eyes closed and with a good set of headphones. I did that and can see how Pandora looks alluring though I havent had a dash with AVATAR yet!! The Blaazee's bit is his usual and has contributed on the positives for the track. Can I say, 4.5/5 for this song. Yes, it is! And of-course, enroute, Thamarai's excellent lyrics have been eclipsed!

Nee Nanban Illai: A very Robaroo-Rehna Tu kind of a composition (I thought!) so typical of Rahman and so fresh I should say. Nacchunnu irukku...vera enna solla?! Some of the orchestration reminded me of similar stuff in *Good-Bye Nanba* of Ayutha Ezhuthu, anyways that was only for the first time and you get lost into the maya of the contemporary. Stuffy song I should quote. Def. 4/5

Oru Naal: With the little musical knowledge I have, I believe this song fits the bill for the word *QUIRKY MUSIC* as used / uttered by the master himself in the Audio Launch function. I thought this was a nice experiment. The male and female tracks crooning to different genres of music, but still keeping up the same overall integrity in the song, I thought was excellent finesse! As usual ARR picks a winner of a song to sing in any album, and this sure is one!... Quirky is the factor that makes me feel a 3/5 for this song, though I believe it to be outstanding!

Aromale: The Boss has graduated from debut-ing singers and is now debut-ing Music Directors as singers!! I heard ARR say that GVM had shot this song in a very subtle way on-screen and hence ARR thought it would even out if the music score is exotically extreme! It certainly is even by Alphonse's passionate rendition. Add on the chorus by the leading singers and you have a true winner of a song in hand. This exotic mix is the oomph factor i should say in AR Rahman's music. I wouldn't hesitate a 5/5 purely for the passion and energy the song carries in addition to being closely knit to the storyline (seemingly so!!!)

As an aside, I am RT-ing a tweet that I posted recently on my twitter account. - Here it goes,
@prakasr - my wife complains - ARR undermines the lyrics in any song with superlative music. Proof... Thamarai's usually glowing lyrics, are hard to notice in the soulful music of VTV. I tend to agree.Boss, talent does draw such flak.:)

this should explain how things are slated when it comes to brushing with such himalayan talent and its more of a trade-off for people to get to work with the maestro!! I think GVM has been damn lucky and smart enough to cash-in on the Academy Award winner tagline for the sound track credits. But I thought GVM should have ordered for some variety in the stock he invoiced from the Academy Award Winner. Almost all songs, get the same feel and I only pity GVM for going overboard with the love feel. I personally would have expected some variety in the album, but that puerly my take, maybe the movie demanded this, lets wait and watch the stuff unfold on the screen. I am reminded of how bold GVM has used the tag line - * love story... Yet another time *...

Keep hooked on you guys! Yet another medal onto the captain's uniform!!!

P.S.: I wouldn't feel embarrassed for this thingy being branded as a Rahman Glorifier and my praises being unwarranted. If that's what you call, so be it...I would simply smile and say, Sir Ji / Mademoiselle - please get hold of Jodhaa Akbar's sound track and listen to all of the tracks if time permits and if you are really struck for time and have to rush, just listen to *Khwaja mere Khwaja*. There ends the argument in my favour...:)....:)...!

Monday, November 30, 2009

Way to Wave - welcome NexGen!

Just an hour into the 1 hr 20 min presentation and 5-10 mins into fiddling around with Google Wave, tells me that Google has ushered in a new era which other tools and 2.0 apps seem to be aiming at...but never were!...

Wave is a new definition of doing productive work and for the first time I would say, has a large potential corporate market rather than an internet audience by way of Wave....

let me go with the wave and see some more tides before I can wave about it....:)

Bye for now...and happy waving!
Rajesh

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A dash with the mystic

I should say i have always been circumspect with mystics and *Saamiyaars* due to obvious reasons....but went into Isha Yoga centre with an open mind and just to improve by physical self....it was a packaged 7 day course and we had a very good dash at the Master fondly called *Satguru*, known to the world as *Satguru Jaggi Vasudev*...!!

I should say I am amazed at the credibility he brings to his talks....purely because he has experienced it. There is a lot of science in his thought process and he exuberates them in each of his musings!!

I should say the world of inner-self is very profound and unfathomable for the un-altered person..!! One should experience the Isha yoga courses for the dive with-in...

You can talk to me if you want a first hand experience of how this initiator course *Sambhavi Maha Mudra* was...upfront Answer is excellent!!...

-Rajesh

Saturday, August 08, 2009

truly a rage! - twitter...by an old-skool guy

initially I was all cynicism about twitter for it microblogging purely because I was an old skool guy and a blogger since 2004!

I thought *why wouldn't I blog 20 times a day but choose twitter to do the same?*

yeah. there is a difference! nobody has the time in the world to compose a blog post and tell a storyline! all they have time is to impress their feelings in some social web 2.0 medium..

and blogging even when integrated in god-knows-where applications/widegts isnt followed that efficiently as you would have expected....

but stuff ala twitter are designed with minute-made tracking at the unit level. Why twitter has become popular is parallel to why orkut became more popular than something like Hi5. Because more people are on Orkut, its easy to network. Same is the case with tweeter.

plus one more point i have observed is that there are a lot more credible celeb accounts in Twitter than in orkut, dont catch me saying I am reviewing twitter with orkut, just a similar line note...thats it....

i think more credible accounts is mainly due to the nature of usage that people envisage out of twitter!

I just read through Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Shashi Tharoor, Rasmus Lerdorf and a hand full of opensource geeks around the world!!! its real and you feel you are in striking distance of getting a peek at the lives of these people!!

i am actually getting engrossed into twitter much like how i spent 6 hours a day in orkut back in 2005!!!

at the same time, I dont think blogging the old-skool way (through blogger, live journal, word press) would lose its sheen. a proof is I can express so much of what I think about twitter, only in my blog and not through a tweet....hahaha... i like the way I put this!!!

twitter to its credit is also doing a lot of simplification to make tweet-ing much like a *sipping a glass of water*....and mobile technologies and mobile versions of twitter make life-infiltration more prominent!!...

web 2.0 is right here for our grabs! lets enjoy!

Godspeed.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

KA vs KL

My proficiency and the influential infiltration of the kannada language into me displayed itself in its full foray this weekend when I visited Kerala. For the fact, my understanding of the malayalam language is pretty decent and the thought of phrases in malayalam in my thinkbox is quite natural I thought until now....but when I tried to blurt out / ask anything to the all-helpful public in Kottayam district, all I could think of, in my mind was kannada phrases like 'illva', 'hege hogbeku?', 'elli idhiya ?'.... For once I thought I should have toured in kannada heartland rather than God's Own Country....but is there an equal to plush green upholstery that God flaunts in his courtyard...! All that in a dedicated push!... For now I am going to bask in the glory of my kannada prowess and memory power which has stood a test of more than 2 years!!!

Godspeed & Shabba khair!!!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Digest for May 2009!


A lot of news has flown into my head over this month for no particular reason (I suppose) because,

a) I listen to FM Radio regualrly now!

b) I also *regularly* peek at slashdot and CNET news for technology updates which was previously like the frequency of australian cricket team losing matches

c) plus a lil less pressuring situation @ my work place!!!

A few stuff which I definetely wanted to share are,

a) Google is launching Google Wave a next generation collaboration app, whcih combines, email, chat, file share and a few more things. I read that this is touted to gain attention as much as iPhone launch!!

b) Microsoft is launching *bing* a purportedly serious contender to Google Search. MS Live Search fell flat on face in comparison to Google I remember searching my name in livesearch and google. Google in addition to giving every detail about my online presence, delivered 55 relevant results, while live search could muster up only 5 results, and none of them being a direct link to my blogspot (my most prominent online presence)... such performance has triggered MS to buy acquire a search company and do a serious soul searching, I should say! And having read previews about bing, it is definetely encouraging!!! lets see if my name returns atleast 50 of those entries that Google could figure out!

c) I curse myself for being lazy...which has become a daily aspect of my life of-late. I should have registered online, and would have atleast had a shot at getting selected for the workshop called *Thiraikathai Ezhuthuvathu eppadi*..conducted by none-other than Mr. Kamalhaasan! and a couple of other people!! starting yesterday for 4 days in Madras!

and a few more news items I wanted to share but dont remember ontop of my head now!!lets see if they can form another digest.

C Ya, Rajesh Prakasam

Friday, May 08, 2009

My Salute to Mr.Dhoni!!

First time ever, do I feel that Dhoni had captaincy talent!...all along I strongly beleived it was lady luck that smiled on him non-stop, 24x7....I still maintain that, but i also add that he definetely has picked up a trick or two from smart people...

he bringing on Suresh Raina in the Match 34 of IPL v2 in the match against KXI from over n. 15 of the chase was smart....or should it be called gut?!

either way, it was beneficial, lucky or smarty....

but my conscience still stays it was luck that made Dhoni look smarter today!

anyways thats my take! the cynical me....:)

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Khwaja Mere Khwaja!!

Untitled
எல்லா புகழும் இறைவன் ஒருவனுக்கே !! 
 
இது நம்ம அல்லா ரக்கா ரஹ்மான் சொன்னது, ஆஸ்கர் விருது வாங்கினபோ. மனுசனுக்கு எவ்வ்ளோ humbleness!!! 
 
ஷால் வீ லர்ந் ஃப்ரம் ARR ? 
Blogged with the Flock Browser

Saturday, January 31, 2009

அக்ஷாராபியாசம்

தமிழில் என் முதல் இணை பதிவு. உண்மையில் நான் சில பல வருடங்களாக தமிழில் இணை பதிவு செய்ய வேண்டும் என்று ஆசை பட்டிருக்கிறேன், ஆனால் முடிந்தததிலை..ஏனென்றால் இந்த http://www.quillpad.com/tamil/ இருந்ததில்லை.

என் தாய் மொழியாம் தமிழில் படித்து பரவசம் அடைந்த இணைய பதிவுகள் இரண்டு.

http://vanthithevan.blogspot.com
http://www.vettipayal.com/

இவ்விரண்டு பதிவுகளும் என்னை ஏங்க வைத்தன. நானும் தமிழில் ப்ளாக் செய்ய வேண்டும் என்று. ஆனால் அது இன்று தான் *tangible stuff* ஆகா மாறி இருக்கிறது.

விரைவில் எதிர்பாருங்கள் உங்கள் கணினி திரையில் *.* வின் புலம்பல்களை.

வழம் பெருக


பின்னுரை: இப்பதிவில் குற்றம் குறை இருந்தால் மன்னிக்கவும். நான் சிறுவன்

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Who the save Super Singer???

A hopeless Airtel Super Singer for the first time ever according to me...

I felt for once that along with the hostess, the creative head of the SUper Singer team as well swapped loyalties....

The latest of the triplet show of Super SInger in the first week after CHinmayi's exit was the worst orchestrated of all...sadly the stalwarts (tridevs of Super Singer lately) had also taken a stroll in the park and three listless judges...I wouldnt comment on their personalities.....but their judgement...I would say was listless...

I would have expected that CHinmayi atleast hosted this episode as a tribute to her master...but was it also the part of the plot??....we wouldnt know forever....

But what we know for sure....is that Chinmayi will always be missed for her suave compere-ing, Sujatha, Srinivas and Unnikrishnan are actually keeping the show alive rather than the singers...:)...which I realized yesterday!!....even the singers are egged onto perform at their best in front of the best of the judges..

It was a rude realization for Super SInger viewers like me...and I couldnt believe my hands that they tuned to a different channel mid-way the show....goes to show how boring yday's part was!!!!!

God Help Super Singer..

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A Letter to Padmhasini

This is addressing Padmhasini (as a fall-out to Chinmayee's post on her blog)

You have been very prolific in your show (Airtel Super Singer)!! And you have built a special niche spot for yourself in the show particularly when the show is all about abundance of talent...contestants, judges....where the level of talent is of the next level. I think you have kick started a new clan of MC / Compere / on the tele who are suave, swift in reaction based on the mood of the show, very very competent with the stuff that you are appointed for!!

We appreciate all of this and have started to expect more of this professional MCing from other so-called comperes / glam girls and felt sorry for them. Similar shows in other teles have sloppy compereing....which made me feel that you though being an amateur in Compereing; have brought a breeze of professionalism to this art, be it dress-sense; be it cheering the contestants; be it franchising the tag-line of the show in different tones in differing situations to suit the mood of the show!!; be it jelling well along with the contestants and singing along with them, playing pranks with the terror trio!!; be it the minimum amount of interference with the judgement inspite of being an authority in music yourself; be it the quality of being leastly jarring by way of an MC; be it the poise with which you have been using your bi-linguistic skills equally competent; be it the use of godspeed and shabba khair!!

All of this are the ones that we have felt along the journey called Airtel Super Singer along with you in the past year or so!!!

Its a shame that you are having to part with the show at this peaking part of the show..We will miss you....and yes, needless to say the remaining 8 contestants would miss you as well!!!

Wishing you good luck and we look forward to seeing you in some other show very soon!!!

-Rajesh Prakasam

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Blogging Reloaded.....

This has been the longest break I remember to have taken from the Internet since I first took the tide. More so of a Sabbatical!!!

I believe its definitely


6 months now since I last blogged.
7-8 months since I orkutted
6 months since I last used Flock
Flickr, Slashdot, are long forgotten incidents in my life...

Wonder why..???

Its because, I have had a bigger, rather the biggest commitment one should and can pick up in life....Marriage..!!!

Yep...I have been married to Gayathri since June 25, 2007.

http://25june2007.googlepages.com gives you some fall-back of the details!!!
(at least that kept the blogger in me grinning for the last few months, for the quantity that has gone into the page!!!!)

I believe only things of such magnitude can pull me out of the web...and I am *for the record*, assorted a way to get back into this viscious web of blogging inspite of my commitments...after all blogging and  all other netizen stuff were so dear to me once upon a time...and are still !!!!

Me would continue this lost trade...let me see if I am able to pick it up frm where I left...!!!

have definetely lost the  audience, which in originality was like finding an Oasis in Thar Desert!!!!

Shd build back with renewed vigour...and I hope I can catch up...

Good for a comeback blog I suppose!!!!...:-)

Cheers,
Rajesh

Blogged with Flock

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Yaro Yuvan-ukkul Raja-voo!!!!!

This is my version of the popular Chennai-600028 song...Yaro Yaroukkul Ingu Yaaro...!!!!

It aint NEWS when I say that Yuvan Shankar Raja is one of my all-time favourite musicians....coz...thats an established fact....yeap...and you should have noticed me telling that Yuvan is fast becoming a benchmark for Like Father--Like Son....and time's up it seems for the apprentice-ship....

I dare say that Yuvan has indeed graduated to the standards of his father.....People may say that this is controversial...but put this in perspective....And lets try answering a few questions and may be we figure out the fact...

a) Is it because Yuvan is a major-hit like what his Dad used to be in his Heydays..???
Agreed Yuvan has been a hit with every movie of his..!!!! and mass-hits at that ...plus critical acclaim...not the typical remarks you associate with a millenia music director in Tamil Cinema.... but does just that propel him to Dad-dom...which is as elusive and not even ARR has reached at... NO...not the reason for Yuvan -> Raja transition...

b) Is it because of the family-blood...???
Partly YES...:)...Should be hereditary I thought..without which such talent is hard-to-come-by and genius personified....

c) Is it because of the class of music...that Yuvan churns out movie after movie...???

YES...this is the reason...I would say, that he graduated to his father's place...not just hereditary...but on pure merit....Reasons you might be interested...??!!!!

Answer: Have you heard the 4 songs in Chennai-600028, ??!!! *Vazhkaiyai Yosingada*, *Vazhkaiyai Yosingada - Remix*, *Yaaro Yarukkul Ingu - Version 1*, *Yaaro Yaarukkul Ingu - Version 2*....

when I first got to hear those songs....which was by the way pretty late after the song release....*I* for the first time felt that I was indeed listening to The Master(Maestro) instead of his musical-heir....

yes...the instrumentation...the melody component....the SPB -ism....the SPB Charan-ism....and the chitra-ism....the haunt factor...all made all the four songs a Illayaraja treat to me rather than a Yuvan roll-out...

I have enjoyed these songs for the *whole* of last week...and I know how enjoyable...and heavenly they have been and I still relish the experience...and the feel I went through after relishing them....I would wish everybody had that oppurtunity...time...and the eye for detail...that I enjoyed in that last week....

The raison d’être for this blog...is to
a) Sensitize people of the exhilaration I went through with these songs...
b) Wish everybody goes through
c) Self-declare unofficialy that the heir is well...already there....and the music world wouldnt repent throning the heir with the crown that the Maestro Illayaraja held proudly...and one we for sometime in between felt would be un-occupied for a generation at-least...

YES...this is it...Yuvan is the true;worthy;logical;biological heir/successor to the Master/Maestro Illayaraja....and

detractors/disapprovers/aruguers...please..please listen to those four songs...*with a pair of good quality headphones*...then you know what I am blah-blahing....:-)

Saturday, May 05, 2007

*Sivaji - The Boss* -> An Audio Review

<>This originally was started on Apr 8 and then I left it to rest...and wanted ARR's tunes to set in..sink in...to give quality review...so here it is...more than a month from the day the audio was released!!!! <>

The Boss driving the Boss....dancing to the tunes of yet another Boss...might sound as a sure shot anti-therapy and as a recipe/treatise for the *Too many Bosses Spoil the broth* idiom.....but hold on....

naaah....that's not happening with Sivaji....that too when the Big Boss Shankar drives Bigger Boss Rajinikanth....both dancing to the tunes of yet another Big Boss AR Rahman....SuperStar Rajinikanth, the mass-man is pipped to succeed the umpteenth time....if the tunes are any indication....this Sivaji....is expected to be the boss in collections as well...a truly mass mania of an album I should say...very enjoyable if u r a true tamil cinema fan!!!!....

not withstanding the insider-leak of three songs, half a week before the audio release....(actually adding to the curiosity of the actual product....)...the audio sales was frantic on day 1....and I was personal witness to that....

the best part of any shankar movie audio release is the audio CD cover which has the song lyrics....and a snapshot of what each song has in store for us...and that's the current trend of biggies like Mani, Shankar, et all.....and Shankar didn't disappoint one bit with his visuals....breathtaking I should say....I was glad to see the lyrics sheet...but not so glad with the cover design...which was at best looking AVMish...rather thaan Shankar-like or atleast Superstar alike....it was plain...SUN TV serial look-alike....I mean how could one think such a plain looking cover suit a movie of such a stature....anyways..,.I could attribute only AVM for this folly....ok...lets move on.... :-)

One refreshing aspect if you had noticed... is that the entirety of the album indicates more of a Shankar SHOW rather than a SuperStar SHOW...the latter was the case for most of his yesteryear films. Except for the first song...which is more like a GREEK tradition or so to say!!!.....hahaha...and rightly like the movies...lets get started with the *Intro* song review....

1) Balleilakka - SP Balasubramaniam, Raihanah, Benny & Chorus

My first reaction to the song, was it seemed a look-alike to *Devuda Devuda* of Chandramukhi , also an intro song, I was disappointed....a bit....but that vanished much before the song actually finished its first run of 06:06 run.....ARR showed what a master he is ...as the tempo of the song picked up quite remarkably....and reaches a class of its own....though the content quotient of the song is straight forward...there was a whiff of fresh thought in Kavignar Na. Muthukumar's lyrics...interestingly talking about Ideal Tamilians....and for the first time not an encomium for our thalaivar's deeds.....interesting lyrics...actually adding to the appeal of the song...

two stand out lyrics that I loved here were....a) Aadu Maadu mela ulla paasam, veetu Ration Card-il serka solli ketkum and b) Pangaali.... Pakkathu veetukkum Serthu samaikira anbu ingu vaaazhum...

commendable...that too confidently plugging them into a SuperStar song...and an intro song at that....

I guess this song shd serve as the Intro...when our Thalaivar returns from America...if the lyrics are any indication to go by!!!!

My personal best rating is reserved for this song... though this might not be the purist's bet....:)

2) Style - Rags, Tanvi, Suresh Peters, Blaaze

The old horse for ARR has returned with style, I should say...I am referring to Suresh Peters here...how many songs have we heard from the vocal chord of Suresh Peters in the formative years of ARR, the legendary Chikku Bukku Rayile...and helluva songs....good to hear him back...:)

What do I say about this song...the current lip-catcher of the youth...(not necessarily Thailaivar fans!!!!)...u instantly feel this song is meant to tear the chart-buster lists...what with the picturization being nothing less than sparking...

I believe Shankar wanted to do a tribute to Rajni's Style...albeit in his and ARR's style...so here comes the brain-child of Shankar and ARR....which is so apt for Rajini....in the lines of *Alagu...nee nadanthaal Nadai Alagu*...

Paa.Vijay can seriously start looking at advanced english courses...cuz...If he wants to continue this way of writing English poems...;)...interspersed...with GOD-KNOWS-SPANISH..he would benefit from a lil more of english...;)....I wonder how this *vithaga kavignar* is churning such stuff....multi-faceted..value add for his employer...:))...hahaha....

truly the song is too kewl if you want to indulge with the passion it was made...no point in complaining that the song looks alike present genre of songs...wait for the picturization...you will be blown over by the master shankar...rest assured... :-)

Stand out lyrics here are a) the male voice saying *Oh, let me say something*..:-)...and b) *Eiffel Tower ithaythil Nattai*...:))

3) Vaaji Vaaji - Hariharan, Madhusree & Chorus

The theme-catcher...and the primary duet song of the movie I suppose...in the likes of *Ayyengar Veetu Azhage* and *Mudhalvane..Mudhalvane*....has the traditional setup...and matching lyrics which is at best.. classical tamil...from none other than a master himself...Kavignar Vairamuthu...

super melody should be a gross understatement for this song...and I believe this guy HariHaran reserves his best for the master ARR...I have not seen Hariharan's voice so good in any other creator's product.....An instant hit with the masses....and also with the RJ-mania crowd....radio stations would compete within to get it on air...

the lyrics are of a high-class is just another complement to vairamuthu and not *the* complement..the standout lyrics for me were a) Anbaaa Vaalai Yedu...Alagai Saanai yidu... b) Muranpaatu Mootai nee... c) Seyyal Puyal Naanadi...

4) Athiradee - A R Rahman, Sayanora

Uff....does the start raise your BP..??? Yes...the pick-up tempo is super fast..as if ARR is out to prove that he is still as young as in Kadhalan, when you got that *Muqqabula* from the then wonder-whiz kid....:)....

Again a typical youth flick...and suprised at the *Balls of Steel* that Shankar has to bring in two (rather three such songs) in a thalaivar film...when he is groping at getting to fatherly-elderly roles...ala the Big B...ohmigod... I love such guts...and the attitude of *NOT* to be a Roman in Rome....;-)...

Lyrics from our eternal Dev Anand of Tamil lyricists....you definetely can't ASS U ME his age with his lyrics for 'Athiradee'. If you were held captive in Zion all through and just been taught Tamil and then u get to listen to this song and if you are queried to predict the age of the gentleman who wrote this piece-meal thing...you would be shocked to that you just listened to a gentle-old-man...who is just 76 years young...:-)...

And the grapevine/Page 3 has it that Vaali has been offered Rupee 1 Lakh for this non-tamil song...:-)...maybe that required more effort from Vaali to string in Eddie Murphy / Sten Gun / Roger Moore / Love Fun / Naughty / Man / N.R.I. / Cuba / James Bond / Spy / Spider Man / Pistol / Shock / Flataaa / Don / MidNight / Superman / eye / Tension / fast / Castro / Maestro / First Night / Waste / Sweet Bun / Butter Jam / My Fair Lady into a 5 minute 45 second song....which by now you should understand requires herculean effort from a Master tamil Lyricst who could write Krishna Vijayam....Such is the versatility of the man...:)....Amazed is just the word...

I believe the song atleast at the Audio stage is all-about Vaali...Only the Visuals are expected to bring the real master Rajini Kanth to the forefront....:-).... A peppy number with ARR at this crooning best!!!!!....pretty normal and enjoyable stuff for the 2007 guys..:)

5) Sahana - Udit Narayanan, Chinmayi

First things first....Mr.Udit Narayanan please pat your back on my behalf...you have come a long way from the *Coimbatore Maapilaikku Ponnu Kedaichaaa* days...(arguably one of his first songs....)...the lyrics have been delivered admirably..in close-to-authentic pronunciation....which is commendable..for both Udit and ARR.....

To be frank...on the first run, I was disappointed with ARR for having chosen Udit for such a classical outpour from the class-act Vairamuthu...the song had so much of feel and soul....I felt, a better tamil renderer would have done great energy levels for the song, just like what Vijay Yesudas does to the Pathos (or rather the derivative)....but on repeated runs, I realized that Udit has used the language with great meticulousness..and his diction was event-free...so to say...:-)....

Again, the contender for the TOP slot out of the album...even after 30 days of listening to these songs....I am unable to choose the best song of the album...Balleilakka, Vaaji and Sahana....reach up there for various reasons....

Melody wise...I should say the best...of the album....soul-searching music and the tempo is equally supported by the vocalists Udit and Chinmayi....I believe Chinmayi should be on top of this world...she seems to get the best numbers out of ARR's albums recently...and I know how she would feel...knowing her reasonably - as a blogger-friend-cum-orkutter....:-)....Good Luck Chinmayi....YOU ROCK in Sahana...!!!!...

I am not sure how this young-looking-feeling song would fit-in with the stature of our thalaivar...but we are missing the linchpin in the equation....Director Shankar...who has already spiced up and made RajiniKanth look atleast 10 years younger...so expect something special for this rather special piece of the Album...:)

Striking lyrics here for me are a) Orayiram Aandugal Semitha Kaathal ithu b) Noorayiram Aandugal Thaandiyum Vaazhumithu

6) The Boss - Blaaze, Naresh Iyer, Raqueeb Alam

mmmm....I believe this is for the next-generation youth....that is present-generation kids...:-)...yeah...atleast the lyrics indicate that....I expect this to be used as an interlude to thalaivaar's entry into a scene...or might be used as a clever intersperse within other background score....or who knows...maybe a full-fledged song...but more of the yawning stuff this song...I loved *B-A-B-A...Baba thats what they say* than this....Sega Fightaaaa thing.....looks kinda cheap....but anyways....a thrusti pottu for the whole album...with sick lyrics....almost looked like a song from an Ajith film...:)...okok...not much....

next....

7) Sahara - Vijay Yesudas, Gomathi Sree & Chorus

wooww...is just the word for Vijay Yesudas' lilting voice...true inheritance from his father...;-)....Doesn't really look like a pathos song, contrary to public expectations....

cuz...the tempo is as equal to the original Udit-Chinmayi number..just that Sahara Pookal Poothatho...precedes Sahana Saaral Thoovuthoo....which I believe is the crux of the song....which might be unravelled to the onlooker only in the movie....

A classic remix atleast....:-)....

Overall....An excellent winner material from A R Rahman....if Guru was stellar for the instrumentation.....Sivaji is a true commercial winner albeit not degrading to the levels of a potboiler...Its classical....and Illustratable SHANKAR material.....:-)

Friday, May 04, 2007

Happy Birthday Trisha!!!

Here's wishing Trisha Krishnan a very happy birthday...and let this year bring you



more of popularity and less of notoriety.....

more of tamil movies & more and more of telugu movies...

more of news and less of controversies...

more & more of your art form for die-hard fans like me...!!!!



Happy Birthday Trisha...!!!!!



Cheers,

Rajesh




Technorati Tags: , , ,



Powered by ScribeFire.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

UBUNTU for DELL-ians

"oh...yeah....its been there for long...."...I hear people grunting...!!! but nevertheless this news piece i thought needed a feature in my blog at least...considering DELL's widespread audience...and UBUNTU's recent success...



DELL...as you all know is this sturdy notebook provider, proof *yours truly*....who has been using a DELL inspiron for close to 2 years now...and its battered to the most at my hands....and has traveled a hell lot more than what business executives do.....and has also hosted tea-parties....for ant families...and other smaller reptile families for last two years in its keyboard!!!!....and motherboard...is rock-sturdy and executes commands as good as a faithful servant..!!!! I am lovin' it!!!!...



UBUNTU is this *Linux for Human Beings* thing that became popular by mid 2005 or so I suppose -at first I scorned this tingy....as I felt it was more of an insult for all linux users all-along (the fraternity I have also been part of since 2003) -...and people were ordering free copies of UBUNTU 5.01 in bulk...me included...and surprisingly, I got 10 DVDs...and gave off 9 sets to my friends...the true spirit of Linux, I was practising at that instant..I was proud...and little did I know that this UBUNTU thingy would pick up so much steam that it is touted to be the easiest to set-up and use Linux, closely on the heels of SuSE Linux (after Novell Acquisition)..Ironically, SuSE picked up and also lost steam because of Novell...(picked up becuz Novell pepped up the UI, lost because of the MS-Novell deal many were skeptic about!!!!)..so UBUNTU was again the fore-runner for pure linux distros....in usuability... ...and man u should admit, UBUNTU has indeed come a long way from the 5.01 days...I hear, its a breeze to setup and use, faring up on ease of setup and use to Vista....so you know people don't fudge data when they talk in terms of Vista comparison...;-)....



so...UBUNTU being endorsed by DELL...will actually work out better for DELL rather than UBUNTU....:-)...surprising u might say..but the fact is YES....ubuntu is already there as a popular distro for quite some time now....and when DELL endorses, it really doesn't add face-value as far as corporate usage is concerned....*after all, when has Linux community been concerned about corporate or brand endorsements..???*....its always self-existent among the nerds, geeks...and lesser mortals like me who stick to the idealism it proposes rather than anything else..!!!!! so DELL branding would do lil in terms of raise in ubuntu popularity.....but the other way out pretty damn YES.....



DELL, I suppose will benefit and cash-in on the following segment....people who want to buy a laptop and use linux on it...(there are hordes of people who want to and are doing that already...)..and when u know that *LINUX WORKS FOR SURE* on DELL....(borrowing M$ terminology)...people will be all the more ready to go for DELL..knowing well the reliability thing I told earlier...that is already a factor for siding with DELL...



so its more of a popularity puller...and a marketing stunt to up the DELL force in this MATRIX rather than anything else...



and as usual...this gladdens the grey cells...and the hearts of so many linux believers...and we know we will win the war...finally, just like Morpheus believes in the ZION's freedom and victory...;-)



cheers,

Rajesh




Technorati Tags: , , , ,



Powered by ScribeFire.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Amazed...is not the word!!!!!

seriously.....this incident has forced me to wield my fingers back to blogging, inspite of the pressure-cooker situation I am in currently at workplace....!!!!!!



On a normal, eagerly awaited friday morning...I was at my normal self, reached office, had breakfast, and was reaching down to the ICICI ATM @ office to withdraw cash....



There wasn't a queue as such, with one ATM kiosk unmanned!!!!...so reached the spot, did the rituals....and entered the amount to be withdrawn.....



and the machine was dutifully counting the notes to be dispatched and I was waiting....and suddenly my mobile beeped for the familiar SMS tone...



and I being a person who hates calls / intrusions when I am at something else which is more time-constrainted....like getting down a bus, or auto, paying the auto-wallah, talking to somebody in office even leisurely.....and I thought.....who the f*&k is sending me an SMS this morning morning!!!!!.....



and all this happening before the notes arrived at the gateway of the ATM machine....and as soon as it arrived....I was all the more pissed off...as the machine, as dumb as ever, disposed all the 100 rupee notes it had for the 5K cash that I requested....and I was bulked-out with fifty 100 rupee notes.....sulked....I picked up the notes, side-stepped and started counting the notes...and once I was done, I picked up my mobile to see who that gifted soul on earth is... to get my blessings early morning!!!!.....



and to stun me up, and rev up the day for me and make me do my favourite act (blog)...was this Short Text Message that I received.....It was from ICICI bank, to alert me on the CASH WITHDRAWAL that I made moments ago..!!!!!!



agreed that it was close to 2 mins since I withdrew cash from the ATM, but think of this, my mobile beeped for the SMS, even before the machine finished counting the notes...leave alone pushing all those 100 rupee notes to me..!!!!!!



thats why I said...AMAZED is not THE WORD!!!!!......



if you can analyze this situation a lil deeper, you understand....that....



a) its not the ATM machine which sent me a line-of-sight communication SMS...!!!!! straight to my mobile!!!!



b) Who says ICICI bank's processes sucks..!!!!!



c) Who says HUTCH doesn't deliver SMS messages on time...can somebody get better at all ??? for ON-TIME definition....!!!! that too at the remotest of places for HUTCH-TamilNadu -- Chengalpet!!!!!....which was until very recently considered a ROAMING network for Hutch-Chennai.....wowww.....I am proud to use HUTCH...!!!!! ;-)...



Again...as a side-story....:-)

a) Amazed at my blogging ability to churn out so much of junk with just a 1 minute issue...

b) Amazed at people's benevolence and patronage on me to read through this junkie with ultimate patience...expecting some *amazing experience*....!!!!! Thanks a lot, Homo Sapiens!!!!! You Rock!!!!



-Bye,

Rajesh



Technorati Tags: , , ,

Powered by ScribeFire.



Powered by ScribeFire.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

WoUSB (World over USB)

ohmigod....this USB never ceases to fascinate...



the other day...I heard my manager complain...that the USB ports that he has in his lappie isnt enough...and needs a USB hub...to fill-in things....



that set me thinking...I know...I use quite a few USB devices...and when I connect my IPOD, Web camera, Bluetooth Dongle, and 80 GB USB harddisk, I am also running out of ports in my Inspiron...but that complaint of his set me thinking....as if to, if this USB device freaky world is taking over our senses....I mean its so convenient, fast and plug-and-play...too easy to ignore...



I have been fascinated by the design creativity with which USB devices have been made in China...My friend carried a Make-up kit like box, when he came back from china...and he had a box full of USB devices each half-a-thumb size...solving various purposes....and it was sleek and sexy to look at....USB memory card readers, flash drives, bluetooth dongles, MP3 players, huh....and to add to all this, even charging mobile phones is USB enabled....u know this last thing is f_____ing convenient....super cool....u dont have to run around for electric sockets...which strangely seem to be diminishing in office interiors nowadays...(maybe the decors are too smart and tech-savvy that they figure USB is the next coolest thing, even before DELL / IBM figure out and add more USB ports to their PCs...;-)....)



and with all this in perspective, this news bit that you are going to read is least surprising but nevertheless worth a moment's extrapolation as to what all will this USBed world could do???....and thats what I call WoUSB (World over USB)...hear some synonyms...yeah...it was meant to be...hahaha....:-))...



http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/gadgetbuzz/0,39041749,61954501,00.htm



-Rajesh





Powered by ScribeFire.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

*Sivaji* Vaaaram

This has been a week full of Sivaji-ness for me...knowing fully well the me....you would understand why I am so pepped up on Sivaji....why not u would ask..???? "The world of tamils is anyways pepped up...whats the big deal in U" .....Yes...The tamil-speaking lore is pepped up I know...but I have a couple of personal reasons...


a) Shankar - the eternal perfectionist...is the director...backed by his Anniyan Success...( u know what... Shankar steels thoughts from minds of people like me...who are hardcore cinema fans...(not the entertainment ilk...who goto movies for their entertainment quota)...people like me go with the same vigour what people like shankar share on cinema...!!!!) )....

b) Haaa...the Thalaivar effect...definitely...this one is enough reason for the whole of Tamil Nadu to be ebullient...yep...thats reason two...and the DON-Down South is ravishing in all visuals one can see...and me being as hardcore a Reality Cinema fan....am a fan of fantasy...and ready to handover my logicspace for rent to the movie maker....if and only if he can draw confidence on me in the dark-room called *theatre*....and I would love to delve in such fantasy...truly and fully.....and Rajinikanth is fantasy fantastic...again courtesy the master called Shankar....so....u see reason two is also different from the Rest of the World XI....;-).....


so....why is it Sivaji Vaaram for me...???? Yep...it started off with the rumour of Sivaji songs released on the Internet....which I was frantically searching for the songs on the internet
...(now...now....dont catch me on the wrong foot....I am not the guy who sits up late night and scouts for downloads from P2P sites ....and relishes in illegal music....I always believe in original CDs for songs and movies....)......my gumption not withstanding, I downloaded the songs, three in number....(U C... temptation to have a first cut before the D-Day took the better decision..!!!)...and as usual fell for the music...though I was skeptical of the life of these songs in the original CD and the film eventually.....Cut the Songs for RingTones...had them on my mobile as well....saw a few faces go askance in the office lift when my mobile went out free of inhibitions...singing *Vaaa Jee Vaa Jee Vaa Jee...En Jeevan Nee Sivaji...* in the voice of MadhuShree....hahaha...*thats the effect I have on the peoples...*.. :-)...

This illegal copy of the songs did the round and filled my personality for three days.....and when this excitement was up in the Air.....I saw *Kumkumam* ( the best kanna best... book....)...flashing a front pages story of a Rajini Interview....and before I could realize...I had bought the book.....and when I opened...the first facing page of the book rightly had the rajini cover story...and i was surprised...and by the time I finished reading the page....was pleasantly angry at the Kumkumam team...for they have made the whole of TamilNadu APRIL FOOL...by running this thing...when they didn't have a story to go with it....now...with a pleasing and reasonable explanation....was amused and laughed at myself...and was pleased...instead of being pissed offf at spending 10 bucks for being an April Fool....SO One more day of Sivaji for me in this weeek....:)

This Sivaji craze failed to die down on me....and I was waiting for the audio CD release of April 4....and to make matters easy on me....the AVM Management and Shankar seem to have decided on an earlier date...as Apr 2...and I was restless @ office...the whole day....and was desperate to get into the first bus back home in the evening....and was longingly looking at the posters of the Audio Release....and when I reached city limits...started looking for shops selling the CDs... from the bus....and people around me in the bus..unaware ( or maybe restrained emotions, basically)...of the turmoil within...were thinking that I am acting sheepishly...and to the extent of looking childish...but I didnt mind....I was high on octane....to the state of being inebriated..when u don't know what happens around you....(Shankar has that effect on me...unfailingly though with his last three releases...huh....)


so the next two days went with the songs and me....and innumerable thoughts about how each song will be a visual candy....so....a well rounded week of Sivaji Dose...( an audio review of Sivaji is impending here though!!!)

*I wonder what I see* when I get to the movie hall in a couple of weeks time....somebody please take care!!!!

Cheers,
Rajesh

Powered by ScribeFire