hmmmmm...8-)

Think brain think...

Male fruit flies will vibrate one of their wings to produce a barely audible song, explained Professor Miesenboeck.

"And if the female likes that sound, she'll surrender to his advances."

I have a t-shirt which says-- "SSH I am hiding from the Stupid people"

Come on..

India Shining

Go India Go-- arjun singh says he been vindicated...

What merits publication..

The follow-up news item for this w(sh)ould be:
'24 Students receive their joining date' which is in turn to be followed within a few weeks by ' 2 refuse the offer'

Joke of the Week-3

Morally high hannded society!

On the sets of the film Horn Ok Please, Tanushree was to make some physical contact with Patekar during the item number, which she refused.


Her refusal was seen as an insult to the actor.


The protesters surrounded her car outside Filmistan Studios seeking an apology from her, but she refused to leave her car.


Even her father reportedly got involved in a scuffle with the protesters.


The film's producer has removed her from the movie

Joke of the week!-2

Aagaagaaga-


ICC president-elect David Morgan confirmed that the decision had been a unanimous one.

"Darrell Hair is a good, competent umpire and his position will be reviewed after March 31, 2009 as is the case with other umpires at the end of their contracts," he added.

Joke of the week!

Epitome of people preaching to be righteous and moral:

In a brief resignation statement, Mr Spitzer said: "Over the course of my public life I have insisted, I believe correctly, that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct.

"I can and will ask no less of myself."

He added: "I go forward with the belief, as others have said, that as human beings our greatest glory consists not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."

Aussies Vs Indians??..:D

Ist innings- aussies in the field

2nd innings..:D

Charlie Wilsons War

Why is Charlie Wilson's war such a good movie? Why should I go watch a movie which showcases a political situation created by the cold war that has in no way affected anybody whom I have never known? Those were the questions that at some unknown level to myself and some other random facts that kept me from seeing this sort of biopic.

I have always wondered why the Americans had to arm the mujahedeen in Afghanistan when their government was more than a thousand miles away... let alone share a border. Having never really bothered to even look at facts or having real interest in political history, I just assumed what every middle class Indian whom I have ever come across and conversed at an intellectual level has told me- it’s just their mother in law attitude. Somehow biased I never really questioned the soviet presence just because they shared borders or could even imagine any war crimes being committed in the region.

Coming back to why is Charlie Wilsons war such a good movie? It’s not only a good movie but a brilliant movie. Though told through an American perspective- it is a non biased perspective (unlike a movie called air force one- if you look at it as a neutral. Yes at some points of the film when they show the Russian atrocities that were being committed in the region-- it was just in saying that communism is evil. But then that much artistic leeway must be given to the filmmaker purely because he does not show the Americans as god sent heroes fighting that evil.

Tom Hanks certainly provides us with a powerhouse performance as usual. As Charlie Wilson you would think that Tom Hanks was brought up in Texas. I know it is difficult for folks back home to understand that but it is the same as watching a performance of say Aamir Khan as some iyer boy brought up in rural tamil nadu and pulling that off with the audience coming out of the theatre saying he must have been brought up there for sure. But overshadowing even Hanks performance was another brilliant actor who was stellar- Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I have seen three of his movies in the last three weeks- Before the devil knows you are dead, the savages and then this- all three performances magnificent. Mike Nichols direction and camera angles is as is his legendary sense. From an artistic stand point a scene that I loved was when Charlie talks to an important contributor from Texas regarding an issue. And the director shoots the scene from below the table. As hanks talks he lifts his legs onto the table and we see him wearing boots as does the contributor. And one character actor that I cannot miss mentioning is Om Puri as General Zia ul Haq- simply brilliant in what little role he has to play.

The movie based on real facts is taken as a movie and is not a documentary or one man’s struggle or anything like that. What keeps the audience on the edge of their seats is the quirky screenplay. You need to listen hard to get some of the sarcasm. For example- in one scene when Charlie is meeting Zia for the first time- Zia asks him what he would like. He says with his American\Texan swagger a glass of whisky and ice. Everybody around him is offended and Zia looks at him and says no alcoholic beverages are served in the presidential palace with a smile. Charlie says- of course, I am sorry I am sure a lot of people make that mistake. Om puri smiles at him and simply says- NO. It had me smiling alright. Cause in that it showed an American swagger or mentality when dealing with a different culture- not in an arrogant way but in a beseeching way. Om puri looks at him as the conversation continues and says – Mr.Wilson you are known to be a man with many character flaws ---- as the scene finishes and Charlie walks out he tells his assistant on being asked how the meeting went .. He says, “I was told I was a man with many character flaws from a man who killed his predecessor in a military coup...”

The ending was just as powerful to me. A realistic view/ an eye-opener in some ways. All in all a really good movie. Rating—4.5/5

Battle Royale

That the BCCI is rattled by ICL's moves is evident from its knee-jerk reactions. Not content with stunting the growth of the game for decades , it now wants to snuff out any competition fromits territory.Apart from mismanaging the sport and nipping many promising careers in the bud, the BCCI has dedicated itself only to mint money. If there is one institution that does not deserve the money it makes, it has to be the BCCI.Worse, it saves most of that money by leaving important decisions to the courts.

Subash Chandra promoted Zee is not an angel. It wants its share of the cake and it would be naive to believe that Zee has cricket development as its primary agenda.However,the very effort to challenge BCCI's monopoly is welcome and praiseworthy. How can a bunch of partisan selectors decide that only 11 are fit to play international cricket? If the BCCI thinks certain players are 'unfit' to play for the country, why should it ban them from playing for a rival league?





The BCCI's shameless double standards have hit a new low. It warns players joining ICL with a ban, but has no qualms in welcoming Brian Lara to its fold. When it can accept Lara, why can't it accept others?

The game thrives in competition not only on the field but also off it. No institution must be allowed to use its financial muscle to arm twist others into submission. The ICL has as much rights , if not more, as the BCCI to "develop" the game. By being a poor loser and whining aloud, the BCCI is only making a mockery of itself. Instead, it must try and stem the exodus by instilling a semblance of professionalism in running the sport in this cricket crazy country.

The Wild Wild West

The Searchers

A movie I saw recently -The man who shot Liberty Valence piqued or rather rekindled my interest in westerns. I then saw another timeless classic – High Noon mesmerised by a constrained performance of Gary Cooper and a concept of the movie happening in real time. Extremely fast paced and not the typical good versus evil movie High noon kept my interest in a movie marathon going. And perhaps as fate would have it the best movie was reserved for the last- The Searchers.
The Searchers like many of the movies I like to review was not considered by the critics at the time of release (1956) to be a John ford classic. Indeed it was overlooked by the academy at the time. But as time has progressed it has found its way into the twenty greatest movies ever made almost every decade since. The searchers is again not the typical western where in the characters are either good or evil. There is a deep conviction in character portrayal and Ford shows us why he is considered to be one of the greatest directors of the century.
The plot outline is as follows- Ethan Edwards, returned from the Civil War to the Texas ranch of his brother, hopes to find a home with his family and to be near the woman he obviously but secretly loves. But a Comanche raid destroys these plans, and Ethan sets out, along with his 1/8 Indian nephew Martin, on a years-long journey to find the niece kidnapped by the Indians under Chief Scar. But as the quest goes on, Martin begins to realize that his uncle's hatred for the Indians is beginning to spill over onto his now-assimilated niece. Martin becomes uncertain whether Ethan plans to rescue Debbie...or kill her
The movie examines the deep racism at different levels that was/Is imbibed in the American society. John Wayne ( I must say here another one of style icons having watched him Hatari all those years ago and having grown up on his black and white westerns on Star tv every Sunday in third standard) as Ethan Edwards is outstanding and it is a pity that it was not recognized at the time of release. The conviction with which he played the role almost made me think as to what the character was going through. The movie achieves greatness not because it was a breakthrough movie to even adress the issues of racism but to have shown what the west was at the time and sheer blunt way of putting it forward. Unlike High noon- in where the movie takes place between 11am and 12.15 pm of a day the searchers takes place over 5 years. Its one of those movies that you feel you grow with ( the first movie that I felt this emotion with a movie was James Cameroon’s- the abyss).
Another reason that I would put this movie at such a high pedestal is that in showing the blatant racism Ford does not try to justify his characters heroes or for that matter “the Villains” which I feel is what progressive cinema should be about- Cinema that makes you think of an issue that you have never thought about before and to form an opinion on that issue without being guided to the opinion of the maker of the film. All of these issues aren't dealt in a conventional way of film making as being part of the mainstream story but is inherent which again just adds to the shear brilliance of the movie. A five star rating in all departments of film making!

There’s no news such as bad news!

I have been watching a lot of movies lately. It’s not something new some might say. But circumstances are such that my only refuge has been good movies that help me take my mind of things. For as always whenever I have let my mind wander on things that weigh heavily on my mind I find better ways of feeling sorrow and sympathy at a self that basically does not need that. The movie I chose to write up from all these movies I have been watching is- Ace in the hole

Kirk Douglas is one of my favorite style icons from the fifties. Having watched Spartacus all those years ago (probably when I was in second standard) I had become an instant fan. And hence when I found ace in the hole playing on turner classic movies.. having nothing else pressing to do .. I decided to park my hyde on me sofa and started to be enthralled by an age gone. The movie was written and directed by Billy Wilder known more so for a number of academy award winning movies. This though wasn’t one. The movie when it was released had such a poor response that the movie studio re-released the movie with a new name- The big Carnival in order to create more mass appeal. It was one of those movies that isn’t talked of as a classic that has even played a number of times on television. It was apparently gathering dust till TCM picked it to screen.

The story and screenplay seems way ahead of its time and probably a reason as to not appeal to the public. The story goes like this- there is reporter who comes and offers his services to a small town newspaper because he has been kicked out of large newspapers and media bigwigs for one reason or the other. The owner of the newspaper who is an idealist in a sense hires him to give him a chance under a few regulations that he believe in the ideals on which his newspaper was founded. Douglas agrees. He is soon sent to a neighboring town to report on a certain local event of standing. He has a rookie kid that is his acting photographer. They stop on the way at a gas station which happens to be in the summit of an old Indian ( native American) mountain tomb. On not getting service they look around and find the few people who are there buzzing at a cave-in in the tomb. The owner of the gas station they find out to be trapped in a cave-in. Douglas volunteers to find his way through the cave in to check on the trapped individual and give him a blanket and hope that he is going to be eventually rescued. He smells a story in it that would help resurrect his career. Though his manipulation of reporting by the next day the whole nation knows of the fate that he individual trapped in the cave-in under a headlines that reads- exclusive- the curse of the Indian tomb strikes!

What follows is a story of media manipulation and attention .that you could compare to the –“the big carnival”. The ending I thought was predictable and not as bold as the movie itself. But then to think that 55 years ago somebody could already see what the media was degrading into! The characterization and “how manipulative a reporter can get” is shown in brilliant light. A must watch – wouldn’t hesitate to give it a five star rating for ingenuity!

On Sandy’s special request

I saw this movie Stardust recently. I was feeling a bit blue and wanted something to perk me up. For once all of my other friends had seen this highly rated movie before I had. So I decided to spend another lonely Friday night at the theatre watching Stardust. The movie was excellently made with a great production value. The story though simple and probably based of so many fairytales put together ( I sure a lot of you will end up saying it is copied from hindi or tam cinema) but it was refreshing all the same. The movie had Claire Dane in the lead role with Michelle Pfieffer playing a witch, At 50 you couldn’t tell her apart from a blossoming 25 yr old. The surprise element in the movie for me was Robert Di Nero for I did not know he was in the movie. He was a touch brilliant ( as usual!!) playing an eccentric hip captain. The movie was so cleanly taken with no swear words or even a nipple shown and yet managed to keep me enthralled. All in all a mut watch at a theatre near you!

Seriously you must be Joking!

Been following this story for the fun of it over the last few days. I know by now all you guys must know what I am going to say but here goes.How much more can the media stoop to. Its like they are "breaking barriers" each day! For those few of you wondering it turns out that the "sting reporter" and the "traficked girl" were both hired by a person who had some grudge against the poor teacher. In the meantime the damage has been done and her reputation is not comin back and neither is the fact that she was beaten brutally in public. Really even if there was a case which there dosnt seem to be whatevr happened to Innocent until proven guilty? The police seem to have acted on media reports rather than do their job which is carry out an "in-ves-ti-ga-tion". Their policy in most of this seems to " abhey saale angraze mat jadho"... Really even if she was traficking women and she might be .. she might be no paragon of virtue.. I dont know .. but its a democracy for godsake.. why dont ppl go to Laloo prasad yadav or "K" s house and beat them up! Now I am just day dreaming.. but seriously do any of you guys see a way out of this hole we have dug ourselves into or are we just tunneling to china!

1947- A Love Story

It's official. The country's first Prime Minister was in love with the wife of the last viceroy general.That there was more to the Nehru- Edwina Mountbatten saga than meets the eye was common knowledge. But now there is a stamp of legitimacy to what was till now a rumour. Lady Pamela Mountbatten, the daughter of Lord Mountbatten, writes in her book about the affair her mother had with Nehru.

She says

"The love Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had for Lady Edwina Mountbatten was chivalric and it was not physical"

If it had not been for a damning revelation, this could have been yet another extra-marital affair between two consenting adults, though it involves a Prime Minister.

In an interview to CNNIBN,Lady Pamela says

"My father trusted her decisions implicitly... and of course, her special relationship with Pandit Nehru was very useful for him ever the pragmatist — because there were moments towards the end of our time in India when the Kashmir problem was extremely difficult.Pandit Nehru was a Kashmiri himself, so he was emotional about the problem. If things were particularly tricky my father would say to my mother, 'Do try to get Jawaharlal to see that this is terribly important..."

In other words, the 'weakness' of Nehru was exploited by Mountbaten to have his way in political issues, especially the Kashmir issue. The move to refer the Kashmir issue to the UN is seen by many as a tactical blunder.A full 60 years later, we know get an idea of what transpired behind the scenes.

It is shocking to note that a Prime Minister can be influenced thus. And even more shocking is the deafening silence of the media and the Congress camp.

You expect a PM to be a model citizen- not only in Public life, but alsoin his/her private life. It is a huge embarrasment that a PM compromised on strategic national issues at the behest of his 'lover'.

Nehru might be a statesman. But this reveleation makes me wonder if there were more skeletons in the cupboard.

Chennai Masala

Introducing CBCNN!!!

No, this is not a new news channel to rival CNNIBN, but a blog dedicated to 'Hindu' bashing. CBCNN expands to Chennai based Chinese National Newspaper and describes 'The Hindu' as a comunist rag and N Ram ,a Chinese mercenary. The blog dubs the paper 'Chindu' and appears to have a heavy right wing leaning, but nevertheless exposes the blatant left leanings and shocking double standards of the paper I once respected. What a fall from grace for the Mount Road Marx.


Potter Mania

If it was Sivaji frenzy last month, Harry potter is this month's media fodder.When I swiched on the TV this morning, all I got was Potter, Potter and more of potter as if nothing else on earth is happening. Agreed, its a book loved by many and the
last in the series is releasing. So what? You dont expect news stations to call up correspondents across the country to ask if the milkman has deliverd milk or newspaper boy has delivered the paper in your area. Do you? Then why do the same for a book release? What is preventing them from just giving the news that the final book is relasing today and is expected to fly off the shelves?Haven't better books ever got released? Did they all get this attention?All this makes me yearn for the good old DD days when news was just that - news.

I'm Back

I was surprised to see so much of activity on Sivaji and could not resist adding one more to the pile.Let me tell you my Sivji experience.

In the run up to the release there was an unprecedented publicity glitz and Sivaji was on everyone's lips so much that a friend of mine, whose visa got rejected saw a silver lining in the fact that he could watch thaialvar in action on day 1.
I thought all this hype and hoopla was crazy and did not want to get carried away and hence got to see the movie only last week. I can hear santhosh saying "Shame on you!!!".

I must say I enjoyed the movie , but was this their best effort?. As I walked out of the theater,I asked a friend , who is a die hard RK fan, Whether this was his best movie? Understanding the implied meaning, he said" You go and watch a spidey/superman to see someone play larger than life and enjoy. Thalaivar films are of that genre.". This is an oft repeated explanation and an acceptable one.Opinion on whether the movie was worth the hype and the budget is divided. But no one can
deny the fact that it did entertain every section of the audience.

Now, there were quite a few logical gaps in the movie, but the ones listed in the previous posts were a little unreasonable I thought.

The CPR scene- RK I thought only worked in America and I am not sure whether the film mentions about his graduation.And the CPR scene should be seen in the context of a later scene in which the same procedure is used to breathe life into RK. The first scene was to let the audience know that something called CPR exists. And , I must add that I did not know what CPR was.

And the second issue was with hiring the lawyers to execute his plans. What difference would it have made? The system would still have posed problems(there is a scene in which various officials ask for various forms) and without cutting corners
nothing would have moved. And the villan would have ensured that hurdles are created at every step. I dont think lawyers would have made any difference.

And the line.. rich get richer is again not a sweeping statement to pander to the masses. It should be seen in the light of the previous statement in which RK talks about tax evasion and the consequent loss to the government and the resulting
inflation that makes the poor poorer.

And most importantly, where in the film is the tit shot???? :)-I felt shreya was too groovy and way too young for RK.The villan did a fantanstic job and Vivek need not have been thrust into every frame of the movie.

All said and done, I felt the movie was as good(or as bad?) as any other RK film and asssuming that the producers have done their math right,must be a profitable one for AVM.

Wake up call for all Tamilians

With the announcement of the New Seven Wonders of the World, every Indian has a reason to smile. Our Taj Mahal has fought a tough 'competition' and has been elected as one of the New Seven Wonders. One thing I have been wondering about is what makes something a wonder. Is it the sheer architectural brilliance or the popularity among the voters? Take the Christ Redeemer as an example. It neither has the 'beauty of the Taj' (Which every Indian swears to or atleast that is what the media says. Moreover, I am sure that half the Indians who had voted for the Taj had never seen been to it.) nor is it as long as the Great Wall of China (its length overshadowed probably only by the number of nominations it would have received from the Word's most populated nation). If the Christ Redeemer could be a finalist, then I am sure we can nominate many more from India that can match it stone-by-stone, unless otherwise the event organizers had a rule that there has to be only one entry from each nation.

India, I am sure, can offer few more architectural wonders than the stereotyped image of the Mausoleum named the Taj Mahal (RSS might beg to differ though, especially with a section of the society claiming that the Taj Mahal was not built by Shah Jahan but rather acquired by him from a Hindu King Jai Singh, and that the Taj originally was a Vedic temple). For example, take the majestic Thiruvalluvar statue at Kanyakumari. I wonder in what way this statue is inferior compared to the Christ Redeemer. In fact, it matches up to it in many ways and even overshadows it in many aspects.

	Christ Redeemer	Thiruvalluvar Statue
Statue Height	30m	29m (95 ft)
Pedestal Height	8m	11.5 m(38 ft)
Total Height	38m	40.5 m (133 ft)
Weight	700 tonnes	7000 tonnes
Cost	$250,000 (in the year 1931)	$1,519,097 (INR 6.14 crores)

The Thiruvalluvar statue is 2 meters taller, weighs ten times more and considering the inflation over 70 years from the time the Christ Redeemer was constructed, it has costed us less. I am not sure what are the ideologies the Redeemer stands for (if that ever is a reason for being nominated as a World Wonder), but our Thiruvalluvar statue stands for a lot as one gathers from this article.

I visited Kanyakumari last September and I was awestruck by the Thriuvalluvar statue (No, I am not kiddding here). I admit that I was not poignantly moved by the statue per se. But the location was breath taking. The point where it stands is probably one of the roughest seas you will encounter in life. One can get to see beautiful sunsets with the statue in the foreground. And the winds are so strong that one has to be careful so as not to be blown away. After all this structure had withstood the monstrosity of the Tsunami in 2004.

I am sure not many are aware of the fact that our very own Madurai Meenakshi Temple was nominated in the preliminary rounds. Had every Tamilian voted atleast twice for Madurai Meenakshi Temple, we would have easily got more than 14 crore votes for it and we would be having it in the final list now.
So it stands to conclude that we Tamils have lost out due to our inaction. The Champion of the Tamil Classes Dr.Kalaignar has to take up the cause of Tamils and ensure that Tamils do not lose out on this parade of pride on the Global front. Such assertations of Tamilian superiority can only facilitate the declaration of Tamil not only as a national language but also as a Global Language.

Disclaimers:
1. The author has nothing personally against the Christ Redeemer or the Taj Mahal. He belongs to the group of people who have never been to any of the Wonders.
2. The author does not claim to be a Tamil partisan and disassociates himself from any hardcore groups.
3. The author refuses to have the honour of giving the 'Champions of Tamilians' title to our beloved Chief Minister. The media has already done that and deserves full praise for it.

sivaji-the third review......

well....just went through your transformers....hey all that u say 'bout trans....exactly what quite a few of the "seth"kids say about rajini and his movie...the coin toss...fights a lot....neway i havent seen the transformers so will reserve my judgement only to sivaji....well since a lot has been written about this movie ill keep this short( ill try)....
pluses-rajini movie.....awesome shriya(biggest plus if u ask me), comedy is good in parts(i would watch the movie again(on dvd in parts) for kalivitu vandhenna chumma kamal hassan madri irrupein).....and rajini looks really young..awesome makeup..though looks a lil overdone in a few scenes...
now the music.....i actually found it very avg...two songs r good (style and one after the mgr spoof..) rest r really avg i mean u just will not remember them 10 yrs down the line like u do a naa autokaaren or yen pair padayapa..u get the picture right....

bad stuff-too long could have been trimmed by 30 mins....the climax actually drags with the mottai boss comin and all....looks like shankar wanted a new get up so he goes on to drag the story...
not much of a new story but that is excused because u r an idiot if u expect one esp for a "mass" hero...but this also means he has reduced the repeat audience because if there are any it will be only the fans and not the "family crowds"that thronged CM....this actually is visible on crouds in AP, KAR and even semi rural and rural areas where crouds have started thinning....

i actually found the music shop fight lame...bad thread work.....these fights r getting too repetetive in almost all movies.

neway one thing i agree with prashant is nothin in the movie makes it worth the estimated 60cr budget...yeah the sets in the songs r grand but hey i expect more for that kinda money......and yeah i would like to add this....Shankar if you r listening uve got to drop the lame village turns city graphics man..or atleast get more realistic stuff....this bloody thing looks exactly the same as from mudhalvan.....use the money here...on computer graphics.....for all the hype..except for the white look the other CG r rather ordinary.....

Transformers-Waste-formers

Transformers - Wasteformers


As I lay deep in thought on my recliner ,wondering the frequency at which I have been goin to theatres and the more I would in the imminent future a sudden thought of no-nonsense movies yet stuck me. I have been pretty pleased with my movie selection over the past 2 months or so be it goin to theatres or renting dvd's. Well if I were to go by my picks forever I might just bite my tongue for lack of discretion, which by the way I have after tonight's most insensible and shittest movie I have seen. 'Transformers'. No words to describe the hatred I have developed towards Michael Bay. Seriously Steven Spielberg's banner ,though not his directorial venture, ought to have been thought better. If I were to watch this movie some 20 years back, back in the days of He-Man I would have had my money on He Man cartoons still. Such is the quality of this movie. Special effects apart the movie is just a waste of time. The dialogues are inexplicably bad. Scenes like the introduction of Magnytron (some crap) saying " I am Magnytron with its posture " are just beyond my digestion. And the conclusive elocution by Octotron (not sure) was bringing out the lack of maturity in the director. Though one might argue for its effects and 'the made to look good music' it might just steal the show among the kids for a while. A man with perfect senses would despise this 'over usage of money' completely. The intended comedy at regular intervals, Shia's performance, the hot Megan Fox were the only exceptions from an otherwise awful movie. I never in the past had felt so funnier after watching a movie ,when people started clapping in the theater. Though this particular version of ET movies was thought out differently (atleast thought so b4 watchin it) sparring the ugly aliens it might have just been better off with some thought to the dialogues. Seriously the storyline would not have been that bad afterall. The dialogues were so badly written that even a boy scout could have done a better job. It was a shocker and clearly lacked application. The next time I get onto one of the big construction machines for my testing all I would think of is changing to a robot. Bull shit. I wish I had my eclipse turned into a Ferrari. That was the only positive thought I drew from this otherwise bullshit of a movie. Please do not waste $8 or watever the money is.