Variety is the spice of life

As mentioned on the previous post, “Sangili bungili kadhava thora” lived up to its expectation. It’s a done and dusted ghost genre with comedy theme but the presentation and the screen play is pretty neat and for a change there is a story with a message from the ghost itself and above everything it’s a positive message. Probably the director would’ve felt, ippolaam karuthu solanumna pei ye vanthu sonna thaan undu and considering the karuthu being that of supporting join family, which is as current a concept as that of black and white TV. Other than being the usual mish-mash of CG driven ghosts plus some comic scenes, there was a settled base of a family in search of its own house and their sufferings in addition to the concept of family staying together at all costs makes it a decent watch. Though the activities of Jeeva and Soori are kiddish, the scene where multiple Suri’s take form and Jeeva identifying the right one amidst all those ghosts by asking for his favorite dish was really...

Last weekend we saw Maragatha Nanayam movie. With almost every single review going ga-ga over the movie, I was tempted to believe that not all of that could’ve been paid review. But movie wasn’t worth the hype is what I felt. It wasn’t a bad movie at all. With the USP of the movie, weighing on mimicry (Yes. You read that right) of the heroine being dubbed with a male voice and same characters speaking in multiple voices, it “sounds” novel. But wish the screenplay could’ve been more engaging. Felt like, the director would’ve selected the last few hits of horror comedy genre and removed all the common elements to add this USP and created a movie out of it. There is no romantic track or duet songs. Tick one. No special effects or CG driven ghosts. Tick two. But he has retained the comic portions to a greater extent, which works in parts with major chunk of the credit going to Nikki Kalrani (heroine) for the spunk with which she has donned the role and her body language of that of a row...

The recent news of layoffs in IT companies raised much hulla-bullao across all circles. For it was the only golden goose in job sector which paid good money upfront from fresher onwards, that lured grads from across all engineering and management streams to join IT. Till 2 years back, its common knowledge that, clear 12th, join any stream in BE and get into IT after 4 years of UG study, was the society norm. With engineering colleges mushrooming across, even, empty terraces, past year has seen several scores of those colleges shutting shop due to lack of patronage. Surprisingly, the younger sibling of ITI study, which had been given step motherly treatment all this while seems to have picked up steam this year with their admission coffers crying full. Why suddenly the golden industry has lost its sheen. The answer lies in one of the 7 sins – greed. When I say greed, i don’t just mean the promoters and major shareholders, but every single shareholder of those companies, who have been cr...

Romba kadupula edachum karuthu solalamnu paatha..aaru varusham munnalaye same karuthu told. Was listening to the song from Mayakkam enna movie and thought of doing a translation. Thedi paatha already postiruken!!! Original song “Ennenna seithom inge” from the movie. The things we do.. The places we go.. Blaming it all on fate Living a life full of hate Drowning in the sea of sadness Loosing calm mind to madness In search of a safety pod To reach the lotus feet of God Amidst reality so gory Seeking the divine glory To cross the sea of pain The destiny we strive to attain Searching for the meaning of life Living on the edge of a knife Lost in the concrete Jungle Where good and bad mingle Longing for elusive freedom To reach thy divine kingdom Where fire breathes coolness and air relishes its stillness Where smoke settles and solidifies and falls, that gravity defies Throwing the key in the dark Hoping it would reach its lock Forgetting the helping hands Joini...

Ithey ratela pona aduthu "chakrathari" ' Shantha sakkubai" "Saarangadhara" padamlaam reviewku varumna nu kekara unga mind voice I also the hear. But enna seyya..topic patraakurai. Plus this theme has really caught up with me. The movie 12B, I guess is the second movie for Harris Jayaraj after the immensely successful "Minnale". There used to be rumours (considering his current albums makes one wonder if it was true) that he came out of ARR's troupe, stealing some good tunes and wouldn't last more than few movies. But that was the time when all of Harri's albums were super duper hits with every single song becoming chartbusters. I keep mentioning the deathbed playlist . If the song "Poove vaai pesum poathu" is missing from it, intha kattai vegaathu. From a slow whistle sound of a flute, the song is all lazy elegance and special award should've been given to the choreographer for making this song a visual delight as wel...

This series is growing at an intriguing pace!! Vera topic edhuvum kedaikala reason apart, thought this was one movie, Kabhi na Kabhi, which didn’t had its due from songs perspective. The movie starred Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Pooja Bhatt. Story wise it was one of the mokkaiest. But songs by ARR were pretty good to say the least. My personal favorite and probably the best of the album is the “Shukriya” song. I first saw the video in MTV(??) with a somber Jackie mouthing lines belted out by SPB. Probably that was even the reason which caught my attention as the picturisation was nothing fancy. SPB voicing out for Jackie!! Couldn’t think of a odder combination. But the simplicity of the lyrics and the tune was pretty catchy and till date I couldn’t get a better version of the song in mp3 version. But this song has forever been there on my special songs playlist. The lyrics, technically being a birthday situation song, thanks the lady for being there for the guy in his times of tro...

“Ji..chillara vaangiteengala ” “Ji..lunchuku polama” “Ji..vandiya thalli park pannunga” “ji..movieku polama” Not sure when this epidemic started but my best guess would be around the time “Itharkuthane asaipatai Balakumara” movie, with the lead character quoting everything and everyone with a “ji”. A while back, it was ”thala” fever with everyone addressing everyone else as “Thala” and it even had several variants – “Route thala”, “area thala” and so went the list. This “ji” thing has fast replaced “inga” as word of respect, like “You” in English which is for addressing both elders and youngsters alike and unlike “Nee” and “Neenga” differentiation in tamil. It used to feel irksome at the beginning, but nowadays it has reached levels of harrowing with everyone addressing everyone else as “Ji”. Yesterday our network admin came to my team mate’s desk and asked “ji..what is your issue ji..ticket raise paniruntheengalay” That lady responded that “illa ji..VPN connect aaga matenguthu ...

Wow!!! To even think of writing a review for so many songs looks a Herculean task. Imagine picturising them, writing, sequencing and acting for all of them!!! A movie, which adorns grandeur, right from its title to every single second of its running time, across all aspects of movie making. A movie, which can stand in its own right for its story (much borrowed theme) and lead stars performances and as much for its songs. Probably one movie of Salman that I can say for sure, would be many people’s favorite for saner reasons, unlike the mad craze and hype at present. In fact, he was voted the second or third most desirable person on the planet during its release I guess. And now to the man of the post – Ismail Darbar. I hated this guy the most for a really long while, for he denied ARR of a trophy for Taal, by winning it for this movie. But if at all there was a worthy winner, it was never in doubt that it would be him. Wonder why he never composed much, considering the blockbuster hit...

To be honest, this is one book that is impossible to review without spoilers!! Anything you say about the story would give it away and with a running commentary kind of a post, alongside reading would only invite more spoilers. So be at your own alert. Have tried to space out the previous post on this book to avoid any further spoilers on the plot. The beginning of the book has all the ingredients of a ghost story, only to be looped into a murder mystery. There is a murder, alright and more and more and a little more of them. Till almost half a dozen chapters way into the book, there is no description of the introductory murder scene or on how the victim died. People just keep talking and in the course of conversation, so many motives and back stories on the victim turn up that, it’s almost like you overhearing some gossip about the incident yourself. Such is the casual way with which the murder incident is handled and it slowly builds on the tension with a variety of caricature kind...

Looks like this would be a running series for me as well J Next in line is Anbe sivam - A movie, which is a classic of its own for its memorable storyline and amazingly witty dialogues between the lead characters, but the songs from this movie are a show stealer in their own right. I vividly remember the comment made by my friend when we first heard the “Naatukoru sedhi” song. With Kamal going hyper, read (normal for him), with the beginning portions of the song, as if a horse has gone wild and neighing, he was pretty sure the movie would bomb. Though the prediction on movie did come true, the song was a master class nevertheless. It brought a new term to tamil lingo, “Vyabaara Kaantham”, which is explained during the course of the song itself. To call it a song alone would be robbing it of its multi-faceted nature as much of its beauty lie in its free flow format. It starts as a typical song and has dramatic interludes and the lyrics are top of the rack stuff by Vairamuthu. The way ...

I saw one series of post titled “oru pada paadal” – “All songs review from a single movie”. Thought it sounded like a program script from any local music channel. But was wondering are there any movies that I’ve seen where I like the entire album. Surprisingly, quite a few turned up and thought why not a post on them. So here goes the first one – Taal. Symbolically, setting context wise, quality and aesthetics perspective, whichever angle one can consider, I find this master piece by Allah Rakha Rahman to fit the bill. The very first song I heard from the movie was “Ishq Bina” from the trailer. Guess Windows 95 OS was the rage then and I couldn’t recollect any desktop not having Aish’s pic from the movie as the wall paper. In fact collecting Aish’s pics for wallpapers was a raging hobby for many of my friends, who even visited browsing centers to download the pics. NetCafe’s where pretty expensive then and still the craze over Aish trumped the cash. With her world famous eyes, she ma...