Variety is the spice of life

There are certain movies which are a delight to watch and are even more delightful to write about. Any one who watched Kaakkaa muttai ( Crow's egg) would want to write about it and go ga-ga all about the movie. Its that kind of movie that wants you to relish writing about it as much as watching it. Ennathaan chandelier strewn five star, seven star hotels and restaurants ponaalum, nothing beats the romance of a candle light dinner illaya. At times, the simplest form of anything charms everyone. Fact that, as compared against big budget releases with mega production values, this movie standa heads and shoulders above them in box office collections is a phenomenon in itself. Touted as an art movie, for its mere mistake that it won a bunch of awards in international circuits before its release in TN, it donned the obvious yet unwanted image of being a sob story or emotional knocker ala other movies which are based on the life of slum people. The same kind of happiness that one gets b...

A while back i had posted a review about this movie which i hadnt seen at that time and had mentioned that it was a comment on the lifestyle prescribed by the story rather than on the movie itself. Now that i've seen that movie, after numerous pauses and breaks, padatha pathiyum oru naalu vaarthai post panalaamnu thaan :) Shabbba....innuma mudialaaa...was the feeling when the movie was nearing climax, if at all it had one!! Motha padamum name roll scrollerla vara cartoon solliduthu. Rest of the scenes are mere fillers. Romantic stories are mostly fantasies where the cutest looking heroine falls for the hottest guy. The kind of conversations they've are possible only in la la land. Kandathum Kaadhal ok. Kondathum Koodal is stretching the non existent logical thread a wee bit too far. Even in Romedy now movies, they take a while before jumping into bed. A commitment phobic couple starts a live in relation on a rented accomodation, run by a ultra committed elderly couple and fi...

Of the few subjects that i really liked in my school days, history topped the chart followed by Tamil. To read about wars and battles and stories of valour courage and wealth, it was refreshing a change from the other dull subjects which were primed for competition. Be it any board, no one bothers about  your score on these two subjects. Infact, if you score less on these two as compared to maths and sciences, you are right on track to achieve your life's ambition of securing top honours in public exam. History na "hi" story ..apdinu enjoy panni padikalam. Little did i realize then how true that anagram was. With every change in government, history the subject, is under constant assault. Each ruling party wanting to project their own leaders as the ones who won freedom for India, students are forever in confusion. More than a plus b whole square formulae, more than bivalent chemical bonding involving molecular and molar mass, more than inertia,mass, momentum riddles, i fe...

Avvvv...epdilaam title vachu kadaiya oatta vendirukku. Trigger for this post originated from "Great zoo of China" book by Matthew Reilly - an author who is a shameless masala story writer. All his novels will have adrenalin pumping action sequences and even nukes can't kill his lead characters..seriously!!! Two chapters into the novel it was clear that its a cheap take on Jurassic park. Replace dinosaus with dragon the rest of the story fills by itself. Infact, in the QnA section at the end, he himself had confessed the same and had pointed out how different his novel is from Crichton's version by highlighting the variance. To his credit, he was openly critical about China and its policies and was never ambiguous in his remarks. One such remark triggered the cue for this post - the reason why China would be the right country to form the dragon zoo and his justifications. Its common knowledge that whatever US does China wants to do it, cheaper if not better. They h...

The sky blinked. At least to the onlookers that's how it looked. It was as if a ferry wheel had gone horizontal in space with serial lights abound. Some of the colours emanating from the light source didn't even had any names in known human history. It drew all kinds of crowd of onlookers, those who were spooked with curiosity, adventure, thrill and sheer fear of what's going to happen next. Science station call desks were ringing non stop and all government agencies were on high alert. The space craft hovered across the continents and decided to send their alien representative to make an assessment of which country to make the landing. After a short while the representatives gathered back with their feedback. The alien that went to America had a transporter software malfunction and it landed in a movie theatre. It was surprised to find that the Americans had already predicted its arrival and had in fact made a movie out of it!! That alien character in the movie ...

What is the definition of a standard horror thriller movie? Bunch of friends, including a couple, who in all probability will be the lead pair. There will be one haughty and arrogant character who would be forever at odds with a meek one of the group. No one would know why such an arrogant ass whom no one likes sticks to the group, yet he would be the last but one person to die in the end. There would be an annoying female who would be there just to bring up the glam quotient in the movie and to die in the most horrible and inventive of ways. There would be one mysterious personality who would be forever carrying some dubba secret, only to reveal it in the end and die or incase if he is the lead character would outwit the ghost, only to be killed by a screaming truck as the name rolls begin on the screen. And yes, there would be rain. Somehow, its not a horror movie, if not copious amount of precipitation happens, either in the form of rain or blood or sweat or whatever else you are t...

If at all there was ever a movie made with countries formation as subject, these two would give any of Manmohan Desai's seperated at birth stories a run for their bollywood money. Both the countries were born out of bloodshed and partition. Almost at around same time. Both the countries are surrounded by oil rich nations while in a cruel luck of fate they barely have any source of Crude in their own land. Both countries have been involved in so many wars since formation. While one has been victorious in almost all its wars, the other has officially never been declared a winner. Both are involved in proxy war with their neighbours. While one of them is officially branded a terrorist state by international community unanimously, the other, despite following a similar approach towards fellow nations, has often been pardoned by the world community, if not by heart, atleast in letter. Both share generous patronage of Uncle Sam. Both are forever prone to terror attacks and s...