Variety is the spice of life

Recently happened to attend a seminar on Career "path-ing". It was interestingly worded for such an important topic, for i wasn't sure if "pathing" was a right term in first place. It was a sell out session nevertheless and many interesting points where shared. Primarily it was about, the concept of career - does anyone ever really perceive or understand the concept of it and even if they do, what efforts do they take towards achieving it or setting things right. There was a loaded question which triggered the whole session - what we perceive as a good career and who has them. There were some obvious answers and the more it got drilled down from there, eventually it ended in a stage where, even the ones who had answered as what they perceived to be pointers for having a great career, where either not sure how many of those pointers where applicable to them or whether they had any plans to address the gaps, which they themselves were aware. It threw open an int...

Junior has this habit of enacting things. Possibly because he watches and observes lots and lots of videos. But he doesn’t just stop at enacting them, but would also go on to direct the rest of his “cast”. He would give dialogues for us and would ask us to say them in a tone he prefers. If we try something on our own he would admonish “Naan enna soneen” or “apdi illada” and when he is satisfied with our “performance” he would show two thumbs up sign and would say good job. He has picked it all from “Blippi” educational videos and off late “Blippi” has become his teacher cum friend and anything Blippi says is vedha vaaku for him. It is amazing how people come up with stuff like this where in they make a goof up video, try to act clownish or clumsy in a funny way attractive to children and make money as well, alongside teaching them good things. Junior loves attention and would literally turn our neck to watch him perform his dance moves or “pose” as he likes to call them. If we forget t...

Ever since was reading reviews about this movie, was on two minds whether to watch it or not. The reviews were making it sound like an art movie and some even pronounced it as a trendsetter. With politicians also digging into the aura around it, was almost certain it is yet another over hyped one and wouldn’t worth risking a watch. When it came up on Amazon Prime, with no other interesting movies watch, was thinking of giving it a try. One thing that became evident post watching it was that none of the reviews were honest and in all probability were all paid ones. Not that this is an earth shattering revelation that was inferred only after watching this movie. But off late I get a feel that irrespective of how his movies are, Danush movies are never panned by reviewers. They find something noteworthy or good to mention about the movie and if not anything else, his performances are always there to accolade. In this movie, he has donned the role of a 40 plus guy, father of two kids, one ...

Been a really long while since a movie came in tamil, that truly stuck to its genre, without any compromise. Kaidhi belongs to that unique set of movies. Right from word go, within first 20 minutes of the movie, the base is set and the directions in which the story is going to flow and how it is all going to converge. Probably the most tightly packed initial half hour ever witnessed in a tamil movie in recent times. But again, for those seeing the movie for the first time, pretty sure there are going to be repeat audiences for this movie, it may be confusing a bit. But since the events are riveting, it helps to an extent. Karthi looks like the modern avatar of where he left from Aairathil Oruvan. His introduction scene is quiet, but his presence has a looming sense of things to follow. The way he eats the biriyani on a taambaalam of a plate reminds of Raj kiran. Naren as the upright, hand in sling inspector, has only one emotion to convey in that limited span of 4 hours that all events...

With a name like Bigil, what else can you expect from a movie, which at trailer release itself, made it amply clear of its intentions. The movie gives fan made videos a run for their production money and is a three hour long record of hero worship. Vijay dons dual role of dad and son and has two mass hero entry, one each per character. There are so many scenes cramped into the running time that, right from initial name reels till end name reels its one scene after another. Wonder if anyone would’ve left the theater had they included blooper reels and making videos, which I believe would be one and the same. The plight of women’s football could actually be worse in reality, but the movie makes literal mockery of the procedures and practices. As expected, the core theme of the movie, which is supposedly women’s football and about the challenges faced by women players, it obviously takes a back seat and with Vijay’s adulation occupying 3/4th of the running time, it is a miracle that even ...

With the dust settling down on the poor kid’s grave, all opportunistic knives are now out of their shameless sheaths. Why the hell a minister whose entire department is on strike, is camped at a site which is outside of his jurisdiction? Why the NDRF wasn’t brought in earlier? So many whining why’s and not a single person is willing to chide the parents for their apathy or the person who dug the damn borewell in first place of callousness in covering it up. Some are even suggesting to have better drillers and diggers for future rescue ops and are already suggesting technology upgrades. While some cynics have started comparing India’s space program and its futility while people on ground are suffering without proper rescue machines!! Adaigala..adangavay maateengala. Edhula than politics panrathu nu ilia. Unga aadhayam thedra ennathula theeye vaikka. A banner death resulted in ban on banners, albeit temporarily. Hope this poor kid, wakes up the slumbering government machinery in identify...

“Kanmani..anbodu..kadhalan..naan” Just these starting lines, in the nasal voice of kamal are enough to trigger the entire song. What an awesome composition by IR and amazing lyrics by the evergreen vaali !! Such is the magic of the song that, even after 3 decades, some of the catch phrases from the song have become regular every day dialogues, like, including “maaney theney” for fillers and the best of all being “manidhar unarndhu kolla” which is used to describe anything that is unmatchable in feel – parody or otherwise. Everything about that song oozes with uniqueness and wow. The location, which was till then known as devils kitchen, became renamed as “guna caves”. And such was the craze to visit those 500 plus feet deep cave that, the government actually had to ban tourists from flocking those dangerous locations. Wonder, how in the world, they moved camera and crew, in and out of that place!! Kudos to the technical team. Guess the song algorithm, that picked this song, must’ve m...