Variety is the spice of life

 When i was watching Marmadesam, one thing that stuck me was the greenery in the city 3 decades back, especially the "Ambalakkaala kadigai" portions!! Either they had shot extensively in and around Besant Nagar or inside some studio with wide open spaces and gardens!! It is hard to believe that Chennai was this green a few years before. And the lack of traffic on roads that go deadly empty in late evenings or even those traffic that they show during day time is hardly comparable to what we witness on daily basis. Of course the population increase of both people and their vehicles has been humungous in the last 2 decades. But still, to realize that we had actually lived through such times as well, when things were green and traffic was lean is hard to believe!! One thing that stands out common and in fact has increased like everything else is the heat!! In most of the scenes the actors are drenched in sweat, especially the out door shots with huge blobs of sweat covering most ...

This is one movie, that has been raking in good reviews and great word of mouth publicity in recent times. After "Labber pandhu" this is the next movie that has gained immensely true genuine appreciation by movie watchers and has become a blockbuster hit. When i started watching the movie, the initial few scenes made me wonder, if all of those comments on the movie were biased. But the moment the little boy steps in, the tone of the movie became clear.  The srilankan family of Sasikumar, Simran and their 2 boys, who illegally enter India (something to ponder in the age of Trump) get settled in a residential area in chennai through their relative Yogi babu, who strictly advises them not to indulge with neighbours for they may get caught by their tamil slang, which will reveal their nationality. The ease with which he arranges aadhar till voter id for them, makes one wonder, how easy it is to get identification proof's for illegals while the resident citizen struggle to get...

Whenever i encounter near miss situations, i often think of the timelines where that miss might've actually happened and how that stream would've progressed. A weirdly wicked thought of a wandering mind, but still considering all those multiverse, alternate realities, parallel world concepts abound, an alternate timeline triggering from a road not taken or an incident that happened or otherwise is something that i often think. What if is my favorite dream scenario where in i keep wondering what would've happened, had i stayed in the same school beyond my 5th standard. That school had sections only till primary and eventually i would've had to move out is a different story. What would've happened if i had not moved to CBSE but continued in state board? what if we had moved to a different house instead of the one where i spent most of my childhood till the time i went to college? what if i was not the elder sibling and had someone to look upto? would i've actually...