Variety is the spice of life

Self peethals time again with this space scoring another milestone mark of 600 thousand hits.  With the last 100 thousand coming in this year alone, makes it one of the most traffic prone time for this blog. The credit for all and everything goes to one man you all know by now and he is none other than our dear Thala, who with his continuous words of encouragement, ensures that this kodumai continues for all of you who happened to stop by this place. Thanks once again and several times again thala for your positive words and comments. I look out for your comments more than the post themselves, which happens to be just a medium for cashing in on your wise words. And for all saga prayaanis who took their time in reading out the contents, thank you so much for pushing the needle further.

 Getting haircut is nothing short of a great incident in every kids life. Some may have good experiences and pleasant while for majority of them, the barber with their scissors, making that tickety-ticket sound and the half blade razor that makes a scary appearance towards the end, scratching the skin behind the ears and right over the backside of the neck, above all one cutting plier like contraption that is used for plucking out hair to its lowest root (also called as summer cut) - to even think of those days makes me shudder. Odeon saloon, which was right at the entrance of our street, used to be the venue for so many of those painful memories. It was a 10 by 10 room with two rolling chairs, that rivalled the hot seat in KBC. The elderly man who cut our hair (i am particular in not mentioning it as styling for every single one of us who ever had hair cut during our school days ended up being commented as having had our hair cut in a rats hole (eli bondhu)) was quite scary and wo...

 I thought i had mentioned about this series when the first season went live but apparently haven't. This series on Netflix has an interesting premise of a lady stalker who is after her guy and even manages to marry him, only to find herself in a terrible situation at the end of season 1, which was a cliffhanger of sorts leading into the next season. We've seen innumerable number of stories where, typically it is the guy who does all these - chasing behind his childhood crush, despite knowing she has set her heart on someone else, terrorizing the boy friend and his family into submission, with the girl's dad conveniently in the employment of the stalker guy and giving into his adamant demands, his all powerful and otherwise ruthless dad ensures the marriage happens, all this while the lady in pursuit conniving with her boy friend on how to escape the clutches of her maniacal lover, eventually getting married and in some cases, even settling into a domestic arrangement with ...

I had almost forgotten about this book, but the one thing i remembered was i hated it when i read it the first time. The sequence in which Dan Brown's books happened for me was "Angels and Demons" was the first, followed by Digital Fortress and then only i read Davinci code i guess. Basis the fantastic premises on all three of them, with Digital fortress being my first favorite (but for its ending, because of which Angels and demons pips it down to second). Since almost all his other books are from the religious symbolism premise based on Robert Langdon, these two books have a space of their own amongst his collections as odd ones out. I was curious to figure out what was that thing about Deception point that made me feel so strongly against it and began reading it again. To my surprise, and to be honest had anyone given me this book without the wrapper carrying the author's name, i would never have believed that this was written by Dan Brown. Ditto goes for digital f...

Since there aren't any kids of his age in our apartment me and junior are our playmates. Be it board games or any other games, more often than not we are the partners and competitors. Instead of just forming the regular rules, i often try to make it "funny" (also read as antics that will make wifey mad with rage). Since junior is keen to study about geography (guess it comes with this age) we will play mock quiz with each other on countries/capitals, sobriquets and whatever little else i played with my friends during school days. Wifey likes abbreviations and remembering their full forms. Apparently, one day she was asking for the expansion of DRDO for which junior has responded "Dr.Dolittle"!!! Sathiyama idhu naan solli tharala. But the moment he started laughing at his own version of the full form, wifey turned beet red in color and started scolding (not him...but me). She started complaining that junior is not taking anything serious and is always trying to m...

 Ever since i started watching the third season of the Lincoln Lawyer, have wanted to read the novels by Michael Connelly, who is the creator of the series. The best part about the series being, not just the legal aspects which are demonstrated in a simplistic manner, but the cleverness behind those arguments and the situations that are setup for those deliberations. Even though the lead character is defence counsel, the author doesn't show any undue bias towards the defence (obviously there has to be some tilt for the hero has to win in the end), but he presents both the sides with good points. The reason for picking this one up, after watching 3 seasons of the show being the cliffhanger ending, where Mick Haller (the lawyer who roams around in his Lincoln car and hence the tag) is arrested by a traffic cop, who also identifies a blood soaked body cramped in the trunk of his car. This book, begins to describe the "what happened next" portions of the story. The story begi...

 If i've to start this post as fast as how this series goes, then the first line would be the closing sentence!! Despite each episode running close to 45 mins, this is one of the fastest series i've binge watched ever!! The after effects of the series is more like aftermath of Deepavali. A day early, you would've had the rush of crackers bursting, fire and sound and lights and smoke and high on energy. The next day is more of a revelation with all those dusts and burnt papers flowing around the streets in waves, making you wonder are these the very things that were fun yesterday!! Like any racy book or movie or any ride in amusement park for that matter, the success of them all lies in not making the audience to think while the performance is on. When asked for the feedback, while still in the adrenaline rush, inevitably, every one will gush good about the same. But when they take a breath and start to recollect, they may wonder, what was all that fuss about!!This series is...

I've mentioned about "Chai with Chitra" youtube interview show, conducted by Chitra lakshmanan, a few times in this space. During early days of Covid, i had started watching his interviews, which were predominantly with movie people, from yesteryears and some recent as well. The specialty of the show being, the openness with which people spoke and how he made them felt at ease. His memory power is something phenomenal and even when the guest struggles a bit to recollect the names he would immediately step in with that data. Probably the fact that the interviewer knows everything about what they were kind of disarmed the guests that they can't brow beat this guy or bluff to his face!! Almost all of those interviews will have a standard template - the guest will start with their intro and how they came into movies. Depending on their age, Chitra will ask them about their interactions with Sivaji/MGR, Rajini/Kamal, Vijay/Ajith and also about the famous directors at that ...

 It has been a really long while we saw a movie together as a family. Ever since Meiyazhagan got released in OTT, i've been asking my mom to watch it for it is based on her native places and she would enjoy hearing about them on screen. We finally managed to make her sit for the movie and she watched few portions of it. She was happy to hear about her native village being mentioned and the conductor listing out nearby places as well where the bus will stop made her mention few titbits about those places. There is a scene where Rajkiran (who plays uncle to Arvindswamy) hugs him and cries, wishing that he would visit them more often. It made us all realize how my mom's dad, used to hug us whenever we visited him and how he would cry to my mom, asking her to visit him soon the next time. He was over 80 at that time and was almost deaf. I remember playing with his hearing aid, not knowing how it works. His vision was also very blurry and he used to spend most of his day time, sitti...

 I often think about the houses where we were staying when i was a kid, trying to remember my life as a school going kid. Somehow, like the characters from "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind", i have either blanked out those memories clean, or considering that i am never a good observer nor great at remembering incidents or for my lack of any appetite for doing new things, might've not had any thing that stands out as memory. At least that was how i used to convince myself, whenever i hear people go ga-ga about their childhood memories. Being an introvert whose world existed only inside the square tiled pages of comics, didn't help either. But after watching "Meiyazhagan" movie. feels like there is hope for cases like me as well!!! Konjam..illa..rombavay too muchaana expectation to imagine me like Arvindsamy, looks la solaleenga..character in that movie wise. I am quite sure there are several characters like Karthi in the movie, who re-live and masticate...

I always have an issue with people who, even though have been in Chennai for decades, never have good things to say about Chennai. They complain about pollution, crowd, noise, disrespecting culture or the lack of it, pace of life and the everything that is a daily way of life will have some and more points of criticism from them. Like any "blue blooded" kannadiga who will take offence at similar such things being mentioned about Bangalore and will retort with "who asked you to come here" i am tempted to throw the same dart for such comments. Recently there were two instances that made me look back at the origin of such comments and possibly made me relook at my own potential responses as well. Fact that each of those instances couldn't have been more diverse in nature is the reason behind this post! Build up panniyaaachha...now to the actual topic. There was a red alert weather situation recently and as per the norm, social media was swarming with several dozen ...

"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 persona...

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 for...

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 ...

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...