Variety is the spice of life

Couple of weeks back, towards the beginning of this month, we were at war with our notorious neighbor country. Ever since the attack on the tourists happened, it was an inevitable scenario that was waiting to happen. In this era, where every leader worth their salt, wants to shoot out not just from their mouth but also from their arsenal, there is no country in the world that wants to just buy missiles and other arms for deterrence alone, but to use them for any eventuality.  When the first news of our Airforce bombarding the terror targets came out, the next immediate thought was on the retaliation from their end. Last time when the surgical strike happened, despite the entire world being aware of the targets they had the guts to retaliate and even capture one of our pilots who by god's grace came back. Wars, especially with those who don't follow any rules, are never ending. When the rouge nation has openly declared that they would bleed India by waging a battle of thousand c...

 I've often mentioned about one mokka game that me and junior play. We play act stories with a gang of companions - namely, Teddy the bear, Elly the elephant, Mangu the monkey, Chotta bheem as himself and few other folks who make adhoc appearances as per junior's wish. The thing is, he has to compulsorily play at least one "episode" each night before going to sleep and as many times as i can fit in during the day time when he is free. He is so fond of these "episodes" as he has named them after watching all those cartoons that he has a photo of himself along with his gang members stuck on our bedroom door, which has been renamed as the episode gang room. Whomever hears us play act those "scenes" would be wondering for sure what is wrong with these guys, playing with toys after all these years!! At times i feel it has become too tedious and an addiction of an activity that junior should come out of but making him laugh is something that i love and d...

When i saw a few episodes from the earlier seasons it was nauseatingly gory and alarming instead of Dystopian. The Black Mirror series, i felt, was meant to scare people on how irresponsible use of technology will destroy the fabric of humanity. The latest season seems to be a much-diluted version when it comes to the disturbing reality of the future and has a lot of human emotion mixed in as the base theme. The very first episode made me wonder at how realistic the possibility of such a scenario happening and, in some cases, how it is already happening!! There is a happy couple, an engineer husband and a schoolteacher wife, who are trying hard to get pregnant and suddenly the wife is diagnosed with a fatal disease, which is albeit uncurable by present day medication. There is an up-and-coming startup who offers an experimental treatment at a limited cost which the husband readily agrees to. Initially, the monthly subscription for the treatment is a bit manageable, but the side effects...

 For those who grew up with Sun TV, Marmadesam would be synonymous with great story telling and riveting weekly thrill ritual. It was one series that played a great part in establishing Sun TV as not just a credible replacement but a very strong opponent to DoorDarshan, which later waned into oblivion with its proud spot as the defacto (being the only option) channel for the masses. While DD was known for identifying gem of talents, Sun TV cashed in on their creativity with unhindered freedom. Indira soundararajan, the author of the books on which the marmadesam series were made, became quite popular after the series. I've seen Vidaathu karuppu, Rudra veenai when i was abroad and was amazed at the production values and the kind of casting alongside brisk story telling , which has made those series as fresh today as the day they were made. Never had a chance to watch Ragasiyam and by luck stumbled on an Youtube channel, who are playing these series. Thanks to them for bringing these...

For a long time i've wondered how directors convince producers to fund their films. When someone shares their experiences during their interviews i used to find it unconvincing. How can some guy, especially if he is a first-time director, convince someone to spare crores of rupees to fund a story!! How convincing that guy had to be in effectively making the other person part with their hard-earned money!! And how gullible they sound if they are throwing good money after bad at some guy who had narrated a story, how much ever interesting it may be!! And to top it all, most of the time the producers borrow money at cutthroat interest rates to fund those projects, more often than not ending up with debt that has proved fatal in many a case!! And imagine the skill of those story tellers who doesn't just make you fund their dreams but also push you to the extent that you borrow money to pay you!!! And despite knowing that 9 out of ten movies fail miserably, there are still so many p...