Variety is the spice of life

"Nee yenna periya Tata va Birla va" used to be a common quote to put someone in place if they are trying to show off and possibly that was the first time i had heard about that famous surname. So much so that there is even a tamil movie by the name "We are not Tata Birla". Yesterday was a sad day for India business world with passing away of Ratan Tata. A person who hardly had any haters (not sure about a mystery mistry though!!) and was wholesomely loved by anyone. Some how the mob mentality, i believe, has a big role to play in the life of public figures. I wonder how many would post such touchy feely posts after Mukesh Ambani or a Birla or even Godrej for that matter!! Not that they were bad people, but they are often painted or projected as the typical rich who bandy about their wealth and show off at every possible opportunity. Again. Nothing wrong and no comments against such acts. Pallu irukaravan pakoda saapdraan has long been my standing dictum for such pra

When i was a school kid, i remember my dad, taking me to watch Republic day parade in Marina. He used to be very enthused about the military parade that they show on TV, for that would be the only program for the whole day which would be telecasted Live. Except for knowing about new missiles and their replicas, it never felt much exciting, but for the fly past. The fighter jets and those magnificent flying machines never fails to impress and becoming a pilot would be the dream job for many school going kids. When the jets began their practice fly pasts since last week, for the air show in chennai, it was quite exciting to say the least. Having been at a touching distance of old airport in Bangalore, the noise of airplanes, especially the air force fighter jets are nothing new for me. But looking at those stunts from the terrace of our house was quite something. We decided to visit our relatives place, who stay very close to the beach to have a clear view of the whole show. But much to

A lady who belongs to an elite family of bureaucrats, who have made their career in Foreign office department, follows in her father's footsteps and finds herself promoted as the Deputy head of Indian embassy in UK, much to the surprise of her own relatives and chagrin of her colleagues. She finds both support and animosity in equal measure at her new place. She meets a charming guy who takes her out for fancy dinner and is found to be the chef of her favorite restaurant. She falls for him and the next day when she meets him at an embassy party, he begins to blackmail her with videos of their intimate moments. She is torn apart between duty for her country, bad name for her family that will eventually screw up her dad's career as well in the ministry and fear of getting caught. She obliges to the threats made and ends up getting two of her colleagues killed and several other spy members exposed in foreign land. Some how she gains some perspective when all of water goes over hea

 At times i wonder, how certain english movies makes us so involved while watching only to realize the wafer thin plot and so many logical loop holes as after thought, long after the movie is over. I used to think, it was because of the performances of the actors who make it look so genuine and sincere. Many  a times i watch those movies without any sound for late night is usually my movie watching time and i wouldn't want to disturb anyone. That became a practice and even though i watch movies over weekend during day time, i still forget to switch the sound on and just go by subtitles . Even with such reduced option to create an impact, some movies leave you spell bound throughout. Many of Tom Hanks movies are like that for me and he is my most favorite actor. Some how even without any dialogue, he can convey the scene's emotions. Someone who looks good even when he cries and genuinely warm when he laughs and when that guy looks serious, you know situation is grim!! I personal

One thing that always fascinates in novels by Jeffrey Archer is, how he treats or introduces his lead characters. They are given equal space and almost similar introductions. How they respond to such situations clearly tells the viewers who is the protagonist and who is the villain. In fact, for most of the first half of the novel, both will be right in their own terms and when they do cross swords with each other, from then on its a clear course on who will win in the end. There would always be a mid second half sequence where the hero will falter badly and the villain will be triumphant. The end climax will involve some nail biting situations where the villain will loose in a quirky way or by some rebellious act from one of his own that paves the way for heroic comeback by the lead character. Be it Matter of Honour, Kane & Abel, Prodigal daughter (the second half), Fourth estate, Honour amongst theives and in multiple times across the whole book of First amongst equals, you can s

Just like how you need something sweet or sour to save your tastebuds after a really bad meal, i started reading Jeffrey archer to make up for some bit of sanity that got permanently wiped off after reading "Extinction". That author is not to be blamed though. He gave enough and more clues but when you are on a deathly spiral, before you realize, you are already stuck between rock, hard place, with several layers of muck. Archer has been my maanaseega english teacher who taught me about an utopian world where people always knew what to say, how to say and how best to say. Initially i was so smitten by his works that i sometimes used to quote his quips as jokes but sadly none of the recipients picked it or i was that bad in presenting them (which sounds more plausible). When i started reading "Shall we tell the president" which was my most favorite thriller novel ever and remains so till date by a long margin unless someone suggests a better book, i was surprised to

I am fond of genres that deal with doomsday weapon and how the good guys race up to thwart the attempts by villain group. While the ending is always positive with good triumphing over bad, despite knowing the ending, its the kind of weapon, how it is developed, its back story or historical significance, how it impacted any past event or geography, such trivia makes this genre interesting, with a liberal mix of fact and fiction. When you have relatable or recognizable events thrown in the mix, it makes it all the more interesting, trying to decode which is real and which is not. With this backdrop i started with this book. My initial target was "Origin" by the same author which had decent reviews but ended up with this one. One of the person who had reviewed about this had wondered out "thought they had stopped writing these kind of books". You see the problem with written statements as against oral being, the modulation with which they are conveyed. You dont get the

 Arkangel happens to be the latest edition in the sigma series, one of the most prolific novel series ever with almost over a dozen stories on the ultra secret US government agency, whose job is to protect the world from unfathomable dangers and challenges presented to the very existence of human life and not just American (for a change).  The core strength of all of those stories being the unbelievingly original plot involving famous personalities or places or characters or situations, that get dragged into the plot, which unless thwarted by the Sigma team, and in the hands of the villain team, may potentially get weaponized and lead to global destruction or human extinction. In fact almost all of the stories in the series could be snuck into this plot and yet he manages to churn novel after novel into best sellers says about the skill of the author. Arkangel, fails miserably in this aspect for it already has that hook plot to keep the viewers interested. This time, Sigma force is in

Na. Muthukumar, is one of the favorite lyricists of many tamil film fans, who loved his creations even off screen as standalone presentations. Be it his poem collections or his song lyrics as a collection, most of them are rich in fantastic imaginations and sheer poetry that lasts longer and linger in your mind for much long. As many claim his best efforts, movie wise, was with Selvaragavan directed films and with Yuvan shankar raja as the music director. The trio worked magic on screen and churned out several chartbusters that were not just lilting melodies but quite rich in lyrical content as well. I happened to read about one such song which was my longtime favorite and when i read the reasoning behind the song and how it was constructed as a question-response kind of a word play i was astonished to say the least. It is one of the saddest songs in scripted in tamil movies ever and makes heart breaking viewing. But the sheer poetry behind that song made me write this post, which is a

 I dont the remember the last time i saw a decent comedy movie in tamil. With the advent of mega serials and with their ever growing reach, well into those domains that were considered fit only for big screen viewing, the opportunity for comedy in movies have shrunk drastically. If you make a family subject, which offers good scope for humor, it is branded as mega serial and people feel they get more than their money's worth in tv itself for such stories and refuse their patronage. And you can hardly have laughter unless it is maniacal for the villain, amidst all those blood and gore that rule the mainstream movies. Amidst such trauma/drama comes this movie which has its own laugh out loud moments and some genuinely funny screenplay. Basil Thomas, i was stunned to read that he was the director of Minnal Murali, looks like a kid just out of school and has so many box office wins under his belt. He plays the hero in the movie and has as much screen time as Prithviraj, the real sellin

 In my few decades of existence i've witnessed very few global situations that have spooked the world as much as the current situation might have. There are certain spots that are never quite devoid of conflicts, like the middle east, several places in Africa and the not so economically prosperous regions of Europe like the Balkans. As a kid, gulf war was the first major war that i saw on TV with all those scuds and patriot missiles, glowing green on screen and bursting like diwali crackers. I was more curious to see how those cruise missiles were launched from ships, hardly having the maturity to realize what was happening on the other side. Bosnia-Serbia war was the next big one, that was mostly followed on newspaper. I am not sure chronologically which one came first but remember that one was filled with much more gore and lead rise to several movies. Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnia Herzegovina would've made as much difficult words to ace on a typing exam as much as verbal. But t

There is a long standing belief in tamil movies that sequels of movies that were superhits usually tend to bring bad name to its illustrious predecessor and flop big time. There is always additional pressure on movies that are brought up as sequels right from day one because, they have to live up to the success of the previous version, which is the catalyst to its creation. The additional challenges being, how to make the already set storyline, revealed to the audience, more interesting and entertaining. It is like a magician trying to go one up on his trick after revealing his hand and it is never easy. The obvious weaknesses listed here are the potential pluses because of which the sequels garner more attention. The ease of relatability for the audience, time save in introducing the backstory for the characters, the familiarity of what happened previously which feeds on to the frenzy of what is coming next in the sequel are all the pluses which will become its own negatives if not ha

When i saw the ad for this series, Trisha was the primary reason that hooked us onto this. She looked very old despite the best effort from her make up team and i started watching the series with literally no hope after getting to know that she was playing a police inspector. The first episode ended in an intriguing note and the series literally took off from the next episode onwards. For starters more than the individuals, it is the work that has gone behind the story board in making the investigation process interesting, has lent more teeth to the storyline. The way each of the murders are linked and how it keeps on getting extrapolating makes interesting viewing for sure. What starts as a serial killer case, becomes a major case of mass murderer and the reasoning behind all those killings is quite novel to be honest. The director does a tight rope walk on a knife's edge in many cases where religion is involved and makes sure that he is not branded as favoring any one in particul

 Junior trips with questions that really sets me scrambling for a response many a times. Whenever he comes across some new word or a character or a concept he will ask about it with his own perspective added as basis behind that question. Recently he came across the word dictator and his immediate thought was it describes school teacher, for they do the dictation in classes. When i told him it is quite different in concept even though the words kind of meant the same, he asked follow up queries. Possibly the way i explained about dictatorship led to the confusion, but his queries made me wonder how to give a response that is convincing for me first up. I told him that, dictators are kind of bad people, who try to rule everyone with their power. He asked why they are bad and i was stumped for a response. For he had equated dictator to king and since kings rule over their subjects and its their will that is carried out by the people, he wanted to know why dictators are bad but kings are

Recently i saw promotions for movie "Aranmanai 4" where the director was mentioned about the franchise. The fact that audience already knew what to expect from the movie - be it the horror element, that happens in an aranmanai, with revenge being the usual reason why the ghost is haunting the place, culminating in good forces take divine help and destroy evil, only makes every other installment in the franchise all the more difficult to deliver. He used a good catch phrase that the audience knew what to expect, he has to retain the scope for their expectation at the same time, ensure its novel enough across each installment. In other words - old wine in new bottle. Same goes for Peter swanson's books, especially those involving Lily as the prime character. All of his novels have a POV perspective to the story where each chapter is delivered from the perspective of the narrator, where almost all the main characters in the novel, take turns to take the story forward. It is

"When you want something with all your heart the universe conspires to get it for you" has long been my favorite quote and at times belief as well. The quirky mind will immediately think, why don't we get those millions that we anyway aspire even in our dreams. But rhetoric thoughts apart, i personally have realized and seen, certain things happen exactly the way it was dreamt of, the way it came in my mind. It could be the song that i was humming in my mind, a passing dialogue on some random channel that could be a response to thoughts clouding my mind or a movie scene about which i might've thought of in random. Indha mathiri mokka thanama yosikama world peace, poverty, hunger pathiya yosikka poren!!! Overaalaam expect pannapdaathu. Simple C word to describe these is - Coincidence. It comes in different flavors basis the recipient and their mind state or the nature of the incident or the situation it presents itself. It could be a boon or curse, depending on the out

During my childhood days, there was a Telerad radio box in our house. When you open that box, it will have funky looking setup with all kinds and colors of capacitors and other electrical related stuff, half of which i don't know by name. When it gets repaired, the repair person often will solder something in and it will being to sing. Nalla maatukku oru soodo illaio nalla radiokku oru solder was quite true!! It never played FM for it must've been the prototype used by Marconi. That radio was probably the oldest thing in our house and my grandpa was in his sixties at that time!! Forget about FM, even vividh bharathi was a luxury to hear from that box. For some reason, it rarely worked when good songs where being aired and will only play news and that too in the dullest drab voice possible. But when it comes to playing ads, it will be in full josh. Be it Gopal pal podi, Rathna fan house shiva complex pondi bazaar (for long i thought it was the full name of that shop!!), bison ba

There seems to be a new kind of humor on the rise - the art of degrading. As per the social conventions or societal norms of the past 2 decades, nothing is sacrilige or nothing is sacred. And this is subjected to the terms and conditions of who is offending and who gets offends, basis which the interpretation will vary. With social media, everyone with a phone and data connection is judge jury and executioner across every topic and every personality under the sun. It has been the case since last couple of decades, but with SM replacing Mainstream media as defacto news channel for many nowadays, the problems arising out of such uncensored adaptation or aping of western culture breeds to several powder keg situation in countries like India where libel laws are at best non-existent or un deployable or used less. The thing with comedians being, they can degrade, make fun of in their words, anyone and anything from god to godmen to conmen to politicians (and i repeat myself) to personalitie

There are certain movies that leave an invisible mark in your mind that you, even without realizing your mind keep going back to things that struck you when you first saw the movie and possibly over repeat watches as well. 2012, Final destination are two such movies that have literally scared the wits out of me and even though the scenes are quite familiar, they keep haunting the mind, whenever i come across any news or event that are remotely related. When 2012 was launched, the doomsday-end of the world-apocalypse news items were quite popular and that December was supposed to be the end of the world as predicted or left unmentioned per Mayan calendar. In the movie, even though the graphics are quite low level as compared to what we have now and what we had even then, the tsunamis that engulf the regions, the violent land slides and volcanic explosions and earth quakes all scared me with nightmares for several months to follow. I often get dreams about me surrounded by flood water an

 As mentioned in previous other posts, there are few authors i diligently follow for their latest releases. James Rollins, Matthew Reilley, Peter Swanson, Jo Nesbo and above all Keigo Higashino. In case of Keigo, i believe his books are already released in Japanese and its the English translations that are finding their way to the market now. Nevertheless, any book that i get to read of Keigo is an happy occasion for he is one author who rarely disappoints.  For someone who writes murder mysteries, by the time the plot unravels, the first time reader may mistake it for a mega serial transcript. In my limited exposure to books of this genre, seldom i've come across plots that are so full of human emotions and love playing a prominent role. In fact, the more you delve deep you will end up supporting the perpetrator as much as the police, who go about as careful and as meticulous in dealing with case, as if taking dealing with a delicate flower that may crumble if pursued any harder.

 This is possibly the oldest english movie i've ever seen. Except for Shirley Mclaine, whose name i've come across in couple of novels as some reference, none of the other cast are even vaguely familiar. Billy wilder, the director, name does ring a bell, but again quite sure not because of this movies and mostly from any reference on articles or posts about some movie. How i ended up watching this movie is all thanks to an interview by a tamil director who was mentioning "It's a mad mad mad mad world" as his favorite comedy movie and luckily it was available on Prime. Even within the first few scenes it became quite familiar for the number of times the movie has been plagiarized, remade officially, scenes lifted left right and center across all possible languages. While looking at similar movies, ended up with "Apartment". Again, within first few scenes, i was drawn to it because of a favorite hindi movie of mine "Life in a metro". The director

Few days before my mom was talking to her elder sister on phone and they were reminiscing about their childhood days, like how they used to walk for several kilometers to reach their school, their lunch boxes, how risky it would be during rainy days when the river would be overflowing, how terrified she would be to cross the cemetery on the way, the different kinds of fruits that were freely available on the way that are no longer available now even in shops. She used to mention often about power cuts or lack of electricity to be precise, during night times, which used to scare the wits out of them. There were problems of robbers as well it seems, who would remove the tiles on top of their house during the night and would steal whatever was there in kitchen. The menace of monkeys who wouldn't just make a mess of the food cooked for the entire family but also would defecate there and make a mess of the whole kitchen. She would also mention about their garden at their backyard and th

 Resident alien is a new drama series launched in Netflix. It begins as yet another sci-fi series where aliens crash land on earth and except for that part, they have tried to go against every other situation that are previously seen in any series or stories involving extra terrestrials. This alien, takes the shape/structure/body of a human whom it kills by accident. The mission of that alien is to destroy all human kind on earth and when i crash landed on earth, it looses track of its ship and also the killer device. While searching for that device, it tries to adapt itself to the town where it crash landed, as the town's doctor. What follows is several quirky situations that it somehow manages to escape. Even though it has taken human form, there is a kid whose mutative power makes him see the alien in its true form. Initially, the kid and the alien are at loggerheads with the alien trying to "eliminate" the kid in several inventive ways. Eventually they form an allianc

 It has been exactly 100 days since i had that fateful discussion. Life has gone through quite a churn in past couple of months with almost every day being an emotional rollercoaster. It feels as if i have had a near death scenario or some severely strong scenario that has released all pent up thoughts that lay hidden in some remote corners of mind, waiting for their turn to occupy the thought space. Mind has been wondering and wandering a lot about "what if" scenarios a lot off late and it has been a virtual pattimandram happening inside pondering over the "if's" and "buts". On one hand it feels too arrogant to even think about long term when situations are so dynamic and become volatile at the click of a trigger. In this particular case it was more of wishing against reality, that was clearly visible from long for a while, just delaying the inevitable in mind while refusing to prepare oneself for it. On the other hand, we can't live everyday thin

 Happened to see one interview after another of Mohan (Mike Mohan of Kollywood) across several YouTube channels, who was promoting his upcoming movie, after almost 2 decades. I had never been a big fan of his movies, but they were supposedly super duper hits. I always felt he was more of a "Oliyum Oliyum" actor, who primarily scored success solely because of wonderful songs that adorned his movies and more importantly the comedy tracks that were raging success. Goundamani and Senthil combo would've played as much role in bringing repeat audiences for his movies as much as Ilayaraja and other music directors who had a soft corner for Mohan, reserving their best for him. SPB seemed to enjoy extra while singing playback for his songs and Mohan's mannerisms and actions almost mimicked the voice (be it for songs or dubbing). It was a perfect amalgamation of everything in right quantities that contributed to his movies being superhits. The best part of all of this being, in

 Its been a while since i finished reading the book but had been away from blogsphere for quite a while. Hence the delay. The previous book Echo burning was a literal disappointment and hence no review for that book. Without fail was slightly more engaging when compared to the previous one. It starts as a typical Reacher novel, now i can use this phrase i guess after 6 books into the series, with Reacher being outsourced with the task of analysing the security cover for the next potential VP of USA. His job is to figure out gaps in the setup provided by the secret service. When he digs further he realizes that there are credible threat to the VP's life per the several threat mails that appear one after another, right at the desk of the head of security. What follows next is an investigative analysis, that is as tedious as it comes, with Reacher making several lucky guesses and hitting jackpot each time. The final reveal about the perps was a terrible let down when compared to the e

What forms the basis for ones personality - is it inborn or inculcated? is it based on the environment where one grows or is it inherent in their genes? If yes for either or both of the facts, what is the split? How much percent is attributed to each fact? Guess this question is omnipresent since psychology started spreading its wings and has always been a subject of interest for story tellers as well, right from the times of kings and kingdoms to modern day Manmohan desai's. I always think about my formative years and how different it was as compared to my friend's or how similar. What were the few things that were easily available for them which wasn't in my case, that ended up shaping their personality in a huge way down the line? The other question that runs in my mind being, when did i began to be so conformist? in the sense that i rarely argued with what my parents told me and if they shouted at me or got angry over me doing something, i seldom repeated the same thing

 First thing that attracted me to this movie was its title - very cute and easy to say. But was bit hesitant to watch it for almost every single member of the cast were new except for the inspector. But wow. If there ever were a crop of new bunch of actors who are so apt and super natural to watch, this crew would be it. Each person are so apt and perfect for their role that, it felt like a candid camera of real life personalities. The mousy vulnerable yet pure at heart village guy who is so smitten in love with his newly wed wife, of whom he had only shared couple of sideways glance during the wedding rituals, the unbelievable-that-such-kind-of-innocent-girls-still-exist kind of a character performed by one of the leading ladies who looks so innocent and vulnerable on screen that one actually wants to help her somehow, the sharp witted other bride who gets mixed up with the innocent one, the casting has been so perfect that, even on mute you can make out from their expressions. Lovely