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!
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!
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.
"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.
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 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.
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.
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.....
