Variety is the spice of life

I've been noticing this more recently, possibly because the pattern is repeating across almost every movie or drama series, but it seems to be only getting worse with every other release. The directors are hell bent in proving a point that they are not just making dark themed movies/series but literally want to stamp that message across every frame on screen. The species called light boy is long extinct i guess, for every shot and frame and screen time is filled with nothing but darkness!!! In fact, this approach comes with lot of advantages for the producer and director for they don't have to budge to any threats from actors. All they need to do is set the scene in some dark corner and have a body double perform the scene or just dub it out!! Another advantage is cost wise, there is no need to spend on any light and all those electricity and all the money (pittance actually) they may need to pay for light boys and their association. With more darkness, it forces the audience t...

I can say with all confidence that when it comes to cine music, my generation(!!) was the blessed one, for they were able to witness magic made live by great music directors of previous generations who were masters of melody, like MSV, KV, supposedly newbie, like Ilayaraja who successfully managed to bridge classical with western blending it with local dappankuthu, and his famed "assistant" ARR, who literally swayed the nation to his techno tunes and his peers who came after him like Harris Jayaraj, if you add Deva, Shankar Ganesh, and several other small players who had their moments in the sun, these giants literally ruled the movie music world and most of them are still active, even though their best of days are long behind them.  The taste in music is one clear parameter that defines ageing is my strong belief. The more one dislikes the music of the next generation, the faster they are becoming old is "Gils law". My dad never really liked Ilayaraja for he rarely...

 I always wondered what would be the exact equivalent for the term "Rasika" in English. Connoisseur sounds more French than common English and kind of sounds too complicated, if not pompous. The tamil word sounds bit closer to heart and feels it is applicable to even laymen. Just like how you don't have to be an expert cook to enjoy a good food, it applies across all disciplines of art where in your ability to enjoy something good need not necessarily means you are completely aware of the nuances of that particular art or an expert to pass on any comment. Enjoyment, though is shown as synonym for "Rasanai" feels more generic. "Taste" was another option that google threw as possible equivalent which i felt was bit closer to what i was looking for. It might sound dumbed down a bit too much but my quest towards finding a good English equivalent for the word Rasanai ended there. I have often marveled at the devotion level explanation given by fans of respe...

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...

 I am not able to recall the exact series, but guess it was surely after Steve Waugh's retirement, for i remember him sharing his views on cricket coverage. Whether it was part of a commentary or an interview, that i am not sure, but the point he made was, how advertisements have began to eat up on the coverage.  It was an ODI series where India was playing Australia i guess, where either the first ball of the over or the last ball of the over would be overlapped by ads!! If it happens to be a wicket taking delivery they would force a replay else it would be more of a match with 250+ deliveries rather than the standard 300!! And even during the rest of the over, the screen space would be shrunk to a smaller square with a "L" shaped window being used for ads!! It felt more like watching cricket in between ads, literally and when Waugh made those comments, there were criticism as well, saying the Westerners are jealous of the growing clout of BCCI. Cut to circa IPL (well, I...

 I often used to wonder why our drama series fare relatively less when compared to the ones made by Western production houses. Budget is an obvious reason  which not just gives a much needed punch to the production values of those series, but also helps in getting popular faces to play key roles. And the setup being something that is already established with their audiences, the production houses don't have to oversell any series beyond regular advertisement methods. Even though some of the series, especially those produced by Netflix/Amazon kinds, have similar budget scope, the main area where i feel our series falls short being dialogues and screenplay. Some of the stories that come up on Amazon and Netflix are quite good and as intriguing as any Korean or English series. For example, Kala Paani on Netflix was awesome and felt as Hollywood-ish as any series made. The situations, dialogues, screen play every aspect about those series was spot on to say the least. Amazon tries...

It was several years ago when I read an article about the most good-looking man in the world for that year. It was my first experience with such metrics and never had I came across such labels and tags, which became quite common place in last decade or so. The man in picture was Denzel Washington who hadn’t won his Oscar then and was featuring on many a hit movie. “Crimson tide” was the first movie that I saw featuring Denzel, which was spoken about well at that time. I saw the movie a good ten years after it was released, but the persona which he carried on screen lingered for a while. He came across as an irritated frustrated soul who was literally a moment away from punching his captain, still managing to control his emotions and do his duty to the best of his ability. The next movie that I saw of him was “Training day” that I happened to see on IIT Madras Amphitheatre. It was the only movie that I saw on IIT campus and contrary to the previous one, was not so impressed with Denzel ...

The more I write on these introspection series, the more I realize how confusing it becomes how I often end up admonishing myself for over thinking even minute details. The process by which you can draw a line on how much is too much is very difficult to identify and maintain for any action, leave alone thinking. And if I am not thinking about things that impact me, who else will!! Be it on professional or personal circumstances, I often find myself at odds with my own thoughts and how others deal with such similar situations. At the outset, people easily tag me as an overthinker who is very sensitive and reactive. But when they go through similar situations, they feel their responses are more measured. From my observations, I find that, the very people with whom I open up, often end up being those who tag me as such. Maybe I am bad in identifying people that I can confide in or to get clarity or advice. When I try to segregate my thoughts as those that I can action and those that are ...

Off late the hot topic on moviewood across India is, why are the megastars of Bollywood flopping big time, whereas relatively small scale superstars from Tollywood and down under are raking in the moolah. Possibly “Pan Indian” would be the word of the year on movie world, which in turn could arguably be one of the most confusing term as well. What is pan Indian? One which is acceptable to people all over India is the direct meaning right? If a telugu or tamil movie dubbed or made in hindi as bi-lingual, how come hindi movies are never termed so? Is it accepted by default that hindi is defacto pan india language? If that is the case, I fail to understand why all the noise over common language for India by the very same group, who have no problem in accepting their creations being labeled as Pan India, only after they are made in hindi!! “Hindi theriyathu poda” “hindi pesatha tamizhan” nu tee shirt poatukitu pose kudupom aana hindi la release panra padatha thaan pan India padam nu sonna ...

Couple of months back, wifey had actually registered for some exams related to her work. There were 3 papers that she had to take in one go, with individual pass mark of 45 and overall pass mark of 50. Her colleagues and friends who had taken those exams prior had warned her of the difficulty level and extent of preparation needed, alongside mentioning about the pass percentage of people who clear the exam in the first attempt. Just like justice, the more delayed more denied, information related exams also, should be relegated under same category. If not provided timely they only serve the purpose of putting the fear of god in people, making them doubt if they would be able to clear the exams. Had those trivia about those exams been told to her much earlier, chances of her not taking them would’ve been bit high. But having already registered, that too with just a month to go, she had no choice but to give it an honest try and honest try it was!! In between we had a temple run long dela...

Certain things, how much ever logical, they may sound to be, are quite difficult to follow in real time. Networking, is one such thing. Of all the skills one needs to inculcate, the art of keeping touch is becoming the most essential life skill, across all spheres of life and business. Those who excel in not just making relationships but maintaining them, come up trumps more easily than others. For those who claim to be introverts/timid or shy, the world is fast spinning away from them. Not that it is a catastrophe or end of world scenario for that group, because, end of the day, this is the group who comprises of the “Do-ers”, if at all the other group can be called as “getting it done-ers”. While those with good networking skills often are on the super highway, the “other” category often lag behind. Stretching beyond professional domain, even in personal sphere, the art of networking plays an immensely important role. I vaguely remember a quote that after certain age it is very diffi...

How are heroes made? Does heroism come as an inborn gift from time of birth? Is it something one inculcate growing up? Or is it something that is sheerly manufactured and with continuous assault on the senses, forcing people to accept? You might’ve got the drift behind this post with the last question.  If you tell the same lie enough number of times, people will believe it. Bigger the lie, the better. This is a quote from Dark knight, the second movie of the Batman trilogy by Christopher Nolan. If at all there was one movie, where the villain made absolute sense and scaringly true, that was the one. Ironically, the actor who played that role, breathed his last after such a monumental performance. May be it was fate or destiny that he never lived to act on any other movie and sully the ever lasting image, he burnt on the minds of every movie watcher, who wasn’t just thrilled by his performance, but were actually rooting for him. Of course, as a thumb rule good always triumphs evil ...

There was a conversation with one colleague couple of years back that I keeps ringing in mind. He was mentioning about a mutual friend who had quit his regular job and had taken up independent consulting offer with an European client. He was relocating to that nation and his remuneration was somewhere around 6 to 10 crores INR per year factoring the then exchange rate!! That colleague coolly mentioned that we don’t know what might happen the next minute while we keep planning for the future. He was philosophical about the uncertainty of life and not knowing when the end will come, quoting texts from Bhagavad gita and from one guruji whom he was following with all his heart. The fact that his rants sounded more out of jealousy apart (sic) it kind of did turn prophetical with pandemic letting loose its wings in couple of months. On a side note that European friend received his European salary on India currency was a happy story altogether different. But the reason I keep remembering that...

If given sufficient time to speak on any topic, I would end up contradicting the same point with which I might’ve started the speech. It doesn’t always come with the territory of being unprepared and being extempore, but more of not having a sense of absoluteness about anything. In this very space I had mentioned some of the highlights of OTT providers and how they bring variety content to your living room from across the world. In fact, some of the big shot directors, who were silently plagiarizing content from other languages are now hard pressed for good stories as most of their sources stand revealed. The translation activity has become an industry of its own with sub title, audio (dubbing) being most needed skill in a fast paced OTT  setup.  All said and done, there are some obvious “evils” that have come along with OTT – profanity being the topmost along with vulgarity and obscenity. The kind of languages that are spoken on OTT platform would put a sailor to shame. And t...

Nepotism. Couple of years back, Bollywood was getting beaten black and blue with this word. Especially Karan johar and all those star kids that he had introduced and continuing to do so till date. The death of Sushant singh, by suicide, resulted in a vertical split and every person who otherwise were keeping quiet, suddenly found their voice. Favoritism, nepotism whatever other name you call it, takes you to the door step and possibly open the door as well. But the travel or the journey beyond the first step, is still determined by talent. Agreed that, as compared to someone with no background, there is a definite cushion all the way to hand hold the star kids to success. But despite best efforts, not many of them succeed as well. The inherent talent or the lack of it will eventually come out and beyond a point no amount of gold plating or padding from their supporting angels can help. There are possibly more star kids who fail and fall hard do they!! Of the lot who succeeds, nothing c...

I am very fond of interviews, especially by people on media. That industry and its people fascinate me for the simple reason that, most of them are driven by passion and dream of getting a foothold. They go through any extent of suffering, challenges, humiliation and difficulties to achieve their dream of appearing on screen or bare minimal get themselves associated with that industry. Looking at their matinee idols on screen at an impressionable age, many drop whatever their original plans or proposed ones by their parents and relatives, to chase the glory on silver screen. Some run away from their home, while some set challenging goals of achieving fame within specific timeline. Some don’t reach out to their kith and kin even in cases of extreme poverty, while there does remain a few who accept defeat half-heartedly, return back to their village, only to come back again in couple of years to try their luck. There are several common factors amongst all these aspirants, the most basic ...

I have mentioned before as well the purpose of beginning this blog. It was very famous when it came up and many of my schoolmates and college mates where bloggers. Along with Orkut, blog spot ruled the social media sphere for a while and posting their thoughts was the “in” thing. I wanted to reach out to them through their posts and opened this account. Gradually I started browsing blogs by others who were frequented and became big time fan of their writing style. At one point, I had blog rolled myself into more than a dozen blogs, each of them as varied in content as possible. Some of them had their own signature style of writing which I shamelessly copied and when I read my older posts, at times I wonder if it was guest written or did I even really wrote them. After a while, I began to use this space as a storehouse for recording my thoughts and perceptions. Gradually, it has become the space for me to vent out or open up about my own self and now its in a place which is more of a re...

Before the boom of social media, where the minute movie is launched, comments and review pour in, both in favor and against, about every aspect of the making and presenting, a while back, reviews where restricted to specialist (!) reviewers of media community. Of course some where paid reviews and some were biased, but there was a standard and a template in reviewing movies. The review would cover, performances of the lead pair, comedians, editors to some extent if in case of any new technique and  music director. Along with this list, songs used to occupy a respectable section where the lyrical quality would be reviewed and in specific cases, dissected as a separate article itself!! I vividly remember one article, where they had discussed about how the word “Love” has undergone a transformation in getting representation from lyricists across ages. In one movie the lyricist, guess it was Vaali, mentioned love as a bad word. In another it was being mentioned as a ghost. They became ...

When I read the movie review of Badhaai Do, I felt nauseated a bit at how it might have been portrayed on screen. For long, movie-wood, across all of those regional woods and beyond, have depicted people from LGBT community, either as weirdos or enjoyed many a slap stick comic scenes on their cost. Do we really know how to recognize someone as belonging to this community on face? Unless some one comes out, is it even possible to know? If without knowing or revealed to us, if they can gel in the crowd, at least superficially to others if not themselves, what difference it makes once their identity is known? At the outset, it looks more like a trust issue, if someone after all those years suddenly reveals themselves as different from how others perceived them. But if they themselves weren’t aware and has to go through lot of emotional upheavals to understand their orientation, how can others expect an early or truthful portrayal? Logically and for all practical purposes, orientation of a...

It has been 14 years since my dad passed away. Every now and then a thought will come to mind, imagining how it would be had he been alive now. My kid would’ve been the luckiest one ever to have had him around and possibly the most pampered one on the planet. I often think of him whenever something happens new or for the first time in our life. Be it the first flight travel, first time when we bought a laptop home, when we had inverter setup, when junior started going school and every time when IPL kickstarts a fresh season. He was an avid cricket fan and just couple of days before the launch of the first season he passed away. It was all a blur and before I could realize and grasp the depth of it, already couple of years had passed. He was someone who wanted to enjoy the thrills of life and would’ve loved to travel by flight. He would’ve been secretly nervous, now that I slowly understand how he would’ve felt at a similar stage in his life, but would’ve been proud of having travelled ...