Review & Spoiler -> Mayakkam enna

Ask anybody about happy times. They always talk about their preformative years, be it college or with friends near home. Without commitments but with goals,passion and high times, ofcourse!!. The movie starts off from such a point of wanderings. Karthick(Dhanush) and his friends enjoy the kinship of/like siblings."Voda voda" song talks about Karthick's passion and how he keeps chasing his dreams. Just around this time, Sundar - Karthick's friend introduces Yamini to the gang as his girlfriend. Yamini comes across as a bold, strong and sensitive character. Sensitive -"have a heightened awareness of subtleties in your environment".

Karthick find things unusual around Yamini, by that he means that there is some attraction going between them. From Karthick's perspective he sees Yamini as a person getting under his skin in an emotional way. Yamini sees a person with genuine passion and appreciates his ethics passively. She tries to help him out by arranging for a advertisement photo shoot. Karthick's real passion being wildlife photography flops the chance - can also be put down to nerves. The vibes they share gets passed on the audience when they come close to each other.

Karthick's professional role model is Madhesh Krishnaswamy(Ravi Prasad). He manages to hussle and find a shot towards being his assistant. Sundar wants to accompany him and also invites Yamini, Yamini in turn agrees since Karthick is coming. The assignment is about birds. Karthick chases for the perfect shot and manages to capture many good clicks. A perfect shot happens, while taking this shot a leaf swirls and falls on Karthick's face from the bird's perch. It is an artistic way of telling that the shot is not his pro skils but accident/destiny/meant-to-be. Out of the blue. "Kaathal en Kaathal" happens, didn't have any meaning to the mood around it. Maybe the director wanted to have a SOUP song for the sake of it.

Madhesh classifies Karthick's photos as shit, and throws him out. Heartbroken Dhanush finds warmth in the company of Yamini. Having kissed his friend's girlfriend he runs away for a few days from guilt/ to get his head straight / just to escape his failed endeavor. After a couple of days, Karthick realises that his photos were used by Madhesh as his own and shoots up to even more fame. When he finally comes back home, he finds Yamini in love with him and himself sharing a crave for her.

They get married and have a period of bliss - "Nan sonnadhum mazha vanthucha" happens. Yamini merges with Karthick's lifestyle. As a freelance photographer and herself a working woman they put together a decent living. One day, Karthick's signature photo - now Madhesh's, finds frontpage in the newspaper. Heartbroken Karthick falls down and suffers an accident.

He wakes upto a reality where he feels that his future has been torn down and hopes dashed. He still loves his camera but doesn't want to be acknowledged by the world. Just the artist and stage, no audience. The spoilers from here on would kill Selva's wonderful work. So I'd cut it short here. From here on the story revolves around the characters of Karthick (an enraged artist - with himself and the world), Yamini (the fighter, willing to go through all 12 rounds) and the world around them.

The movie shares some elements of "A beautiful mind", Selva's audience is different therefore I appreciate he has given some entertainment quotient along with storytelling. Catch this in theatres ( 4 on 5).

Pillion rider 2 - The Reception

Oru vazhiya chennai vanthu saenthen. Vara vaendiya nerathukku, oru mani neram late. Yaro, romba kovamaa irunthaanga. Phone panna udaney, "eri malai eppadi vedikkum" ringtone pora mathiri irunthuchu. Sorry, delay, ok, seri, sorry, ok, thirupee call panren nu status update panitu. Luggage collect panitu velila vantha akka + amma + aaya wait panittu irunthaanga. Goods vandila nilakari allik pottu vantha mathiri iruntha akka, seems her journey was so tiring. While mom and aaya were waiting for Ashok mama. Akka had a set of things to do and I had a special person to meet.

Appuram ena, electric train pidichi Mambalam poitom(TNagar) - the shopping hub of Chennai. Fact that Omana was coming with me made someone to take extra time to get ready. Chennai as usual felt like home. Akka kooda shopping nu vanthutta, watch kazhati vechidanum. Anaiku athisayamaa shopping 2 hours la mudinjiduchu. Omana got her bling and stuff, we grazed around pondy bazaar and decided to have lunch at GN Chetty road.

Having got seated, I was glancing at the door whenever it was opened. Mathu didn't keep me waiting much as well by walking in about 5 mins. She came with Sham, while we were munching on some starters. Can see that she was excited and a bit nervous, supremely confident on the outside though. Bouquets to her machi, how thoughtful and chweet. That evening fizzed away quite rapidly. Bought a kurtha for the reception next day.

Rightu, neramaachu, phone vanthaachu, maama calling, met maama+aaya. Vazhakkam polave maama assertive comedy try panitu iruntharu. Government bus kooda seekiram poyee irukkum, enga driver 55-60 la urutti, pondy vanthu serave oru evening 7 aaiduchu. Usualaa nadakkura last minute kelambura scene laam mudinju,  big beach(Mahindra resorts) ku finally kelambinom. Oru 25-30 pola makkal iruppaanga. Nan ethir paathatha vida, anga iruntha elaarukkum ena therinju irukku. Was not a blast, but had a nice time. Came back drunk but not high. Bacardi Limone was smooth.

Next-u day, ootukaarama ku phone, night sarakku la, so konjam dose. Konjam alachal, resort ku poyee - bill settle panittu vanthom. Then Isha+Anand mama+Legha vanthirunthaanga, mathiyam poora Isha paapa koodave pochu, rombave kova padra, adam pidikkala but enna venum/venaam ndrathula clearaa iruka. Kedacha gapla, took Omi out for shopping, and went with Anand mama for buying some fruits. Innum konja nerathula, bus from Chennai.

Pillion Rider 1

"முதல் கோணல் முற்றிலும்  கோணல்" nu சொல்வாங்க. Pothuva oru velayaa kelambum bothum, koodave, athu mukkiyamaana matter na, enna ariyaamaley, chinna vishayangalaam correct-a seiyanum nu aasa paduven. Seri athukkaaga10 nimisham munaadiyae kelambuvena nu ketta - illa, timing correctaa irukanum. Engeyum wait panaama appadiye smooth-a ellaam nadakkanum nu nenaipen.

Annaikku, chennai-ku kelamburen: September 30. Munthiya naale, elaamey pack panniten. Chocolates for home, gifts for relatives + lots of excitement. Myself and Mathu were discussing about this get together for a while and it seemed a long time since Jul 3.

7:45 flight ku - veetla irunthu 5:30 ku kelambanum. First train miss panitenna, total timing collapse aagidum. Correct-a 1 mani neram aagum, from my place to the train - terminal, from there I have to take another 10 mins bus-transit to the budget terminal. Adichi pidichi, first train-a pidichen. Still had enough time to casually check-in. Not to be, Annaikku- at the airport, epothum vida koottam jaasthi. flight check-in pannave 7:30 aagiduchu. "The flight TR2632 bound to chennai is about to leave, calling all passengers, Mr. Naveen Mahendran", nu announce panna arambichitaanga. Boarding gates, thaandi flight yaerum bothu: thooral poda arambichuduchu. The rain gathered pace, 40 mins delay, kelambave late agiduchu.

Amidst all of this, my head was inclined - holding my phone to my shoulders. For most part of the trip, I was speaking to Mathu, giving updates about the situation.

Intha thadava oorukku varathu rombave special. Sathaaranamaa oru vacation illaati holiday ndra mood la irukkum but this time its all about my family. Intha murai, nothing on my to-do list except to spend time with my loved ones. Flight oru vazhiya kelambiduchu, bye bye Singapore, hello! Chennai...

Bally technologies

Nostalgia

Been a year since I have started naveen-mahendran.com, my blogspot.com link has been active much before that. Anyways what better way to celebrate it than a post of nostalgia.

With my shadow

It is easy, to encase oneself with the words "I am complicated" but are we?. It is just a matter of time and allowing a person to enter your life. Relationship convert over this, you let a person share your life with. That person becomes special because a part of your life is etched with them. Like a reason to work for, a reason to live, even.

For most part of our life, we stay to ourselves - there are friends, family, but we prefer to keep things to ourselves. This is not in design but because we are constrained, because we are the first person who had the experience. It definitely can't be translated or put across that easily to another person. The pain / happiness can be shared but the experience is definitely ours.

Gradually it shapes you, your speech patterns, your attitude, your sense of humor and everything you are. Experiences are like a river shaping a canyon over time. It created profound impact over time. Suddenly a character is born, unique to the world. Voila ! work of God.

But there also comes a phase where you want to unlearn what you learnt and rethink your life. For everything seems to be in balance but it doesn't give you satisfaction over life. It definitely is not material wants or luxury / it definitely is  not a sense of security ( financial or otherwise). It is all about bonding, it is about how you relate to the world. It is about giving and the best place to start that is with your family.

Giving is - to give your ears, heart, mind and time!!. Of course, the mind retrieves knowledge from the deep pockets of the already shaped canyons but it is not rigid. This is where the learning and unlearning comes in. It is like a work of art in progress. You shape it, you paint it, you let it talk to you and allow it to be itself rather than constraining a mould around it. For each creation shaped by us, shared with us has its purpose and freedom to live.

You are designed to see your oneness with the universe but your part in the entire summation of the series which makes up the world as it is, seems so negligible. So tiny, but hey!! isn't that a relative word. As they say in idol worship, you need a medium which you can relate to, in order to connect to God. A lingam, a cross, a tree, such things when viewed with bhakthi seems to connect us to Him. Similarly to view our oneness with the world as it is, we need another person to whom we can relate to. One who understand us, one who lives with us and one who completes us. I believe I have found mine

Chennai Premier League

It seems yesterday I was writing a blog about CSK's 2010 victory. I did so on my return flight to Chennai.Such a fairytale it was, this season though they played much consistent cricket. The one thing you can be rest assured is that, there is always a good match when CSK takes field. People complain about having a spin friendly bowling pitch in chepauk that did the trick for the CSK. I wonder why, because almost all teams are strongly equipped with spinners. We have Johan Botha, Warne, Muralitharan , Harbhajan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha along with impressive uncapped players like Rahul Sharma, Iqbal abdulla, Syed Mohammad spread across all teams except for delhi daredevils maybe. People talk about Dhoni getting lucky, well if luck makes a player to perform better on the field - than I don't call it luck. CSK is not a team of champions but a champion team. They proved it over several editions, where the sum of the series is much more higher than sum of peaks.

People who watched the mighty ducks will understand how a champion team was forged. The first season was all about self-belief and perseverance. The second season was evolution/rebirth, where the team developed roles for individual players and got to know what to expect of the team. The third season was talent, aggression and heart. Looking back, the addition of Bollinger to CSK has made the team look complete. Now Tim Southee / Hilfenhaus could take that mantle from Doug the rug, if needed.

Having seen the team over the years, the team has been mediocre for about two years. It is very strange because those ordinary players seem to have become stalwarts over this period. Albie can't get into the all-rounder slot for South Africa, Bollinger is not the first choice bowler for Australia, Ashwin is looked down to Harbhajan, Jakati can't make it past Murali Kartik, Pragyan Ojha. Nevertheless they form a formidable bowling line-up along with Bravo.
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When you look back at high scoring matches against CSK. The team batting card never had individual performances. Similarly when you look at low scoring matches against CSK, the bowling burden is equally spread as well. Then if a situation demands a hero, Chennai often unearthed a player for the occassion.

Now that is what I wanted from my team, agreed, they are not perfect, but they are closest to perfect.

Related articles

• Camaraderie and commitment are CSK's hallmark (hindu.com)
• IPL4 - CSK defend their crown easily (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
• IPL4 Match 64 - CSK unearth a new hero Saha (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)

Rage series 3: Celebrating CSK win

ComedyPeaze - UI crazy bosses

Kattada vela paaka vaendiyavan laam IT manager aana ipadithaan. Naarayanaaa, kosu tholla thaanga mudiyala!!!

ComedyPeaze

Mixed doubles gold in NUHS

Intense focus, check out the score 9-7. We came back to take the set and match 12-14. Having won the first set, won the match: 7-11, 12-14.

World cup 2011

I promised a light blog. Well, of course: After a world cup victory, my blog is not far too behind. I am not going to write a review about the players or the support staff, just some great moments and how as a fan it struck to me.

As a fantasy league player, I am naturally attracted to everyday matches - but then I should have known

1. Fierce fast men like the minnows.

2. When you have a feeling that either one of two players are gonna perform, choose both rather than betting on one.

3. The scrappy players get man of the match in clash of big teams, so choose your resources wisely.

Anyways, after scoring just 7500 points along the 1.5 month tournament there is always IPL to go to. There were lots of moments for me in this world cup. It also made March and April a good passage of time for me. First there was the Ireland VS Bangladesh match, where Ireland who seemed to be cruising through lost the plot. Then India VS England, where it seemed very clear that India was playing in the second gear with their bowling and when notched up at the final stages it was enough to end with a draw. Munaf should have stuck to the offstump line rather than setting it up at a yorker length for Shehzad. England VS Ireland was the match of the world cup. It was from the books of Yusuf Pathan, who hit close to 300 to win it off for Baroda chasing a very big total. But beyond the big hitting, there was unusual steel shown by their lower order batsmen. South africa VS India seemed to be a very good match, and was poised well and I din't expect Faff du Plessis to play spin or rotate strike that well during those stages. Eventually Nehra was nailed by Robin Peterson twice over long off. India was playing catch up SA for most part of the second innings and managed to take it very close, good show indeed.

Shahid Afridi was showing enormous skill in the other group. I know he is a good leggie, but he was very attacking with his bowling . He definitely spun the wrong one more and enticed the batsmen into their demise. Malinga's toe crushers got him his second hat trick. Kemar Roach helped to fizz past Bangladesh as well. It seemed that the star players had some fun with the minnows, boosting up their averages. Hiral Patel shined for Canada and so did Cheema, but Kenya disappointed a lot. Zimbabwe should be deprived of their test status. They could have stayed back in Harare.

By the quarter finals, there were a few exciting matches and pea-brain predictions. SL made a joke of England bowling, Pakistan tore into West Indies the other two were intense matches. India VS Australia was the toughest match India faced in the tournament, because India and Australia did most things right and the match never had an outright winner before 90 overs. On the other side, a fancy shot caught in deep midwicket for Kallis and run out of AB: just the recipe for another famous SA choke.

India - Pakistan always had a different script than the usual matches. I was ok wrt to 260 as the target. I know there will be huge performances, turnarounds, pressure , but letting off Sachin 6-7 times in the match - you can't expect anything else.

The match never tilted towards Pakistan in the second half, every now and then where Pak seemed to reach towards a point of advantage they lost a wicket. Some of the wickets were well earned and some of the others had the batsman to be blamed for. A special thanks to Misbah who pressurized his team mates to hit out and get out. In the other semi, it showed how brittle that SL middle order is. Well it is not that their middle order is weak or something, but there is a huge buzz in SL that it is so. It showed in the thought process for the final and it back fired. I always believed that a new spinner always enjoys better success against India, but ultimately end up as pie-chuckers. Randiv found that in the final.

On the day of the final, the usual troubles of internet streaming din't happen - it was like watching TV without a remote. We five of us were glued to their seats for most part of the day. When SL ended up with that many runs, if it had been the SL of yesteryears they would have won it - even if it was India of yesteryears they would have won it as well. Nopes. It is a new Indian team which puts up team performances in a long time of India cricket. Of course I lost my mind when Sachin and Sehwag where both in the hut. I even shut myself out and concentrated on some other work for about 1 hour to follow. It was about 110 for 1, where I gingerly walked out to watch the match. I said to myself another partnership and we are through. Eventually Kohli got out, MSD walked in. The make or break moment. After watching how confidently he played Murali, I eased myself into sanity. At 220/3, the match was truly India's. SL just gave it up after that. Getting to see so much emotions made myself feel lighter and to take a few giggles as well.

Jai Ho!

27 years on

Been a while since I have blogged, more than a month. I have several decisions to make and several chickens to count before they hatched. What to do boss, I am a project manager - occupational hazards. Behold the power of randomness as they spiral you towards a dimension allowing you a glimpse through your alternate universe existence. What ifs and buts were all along those last two months. Anyways nothing to complain about and the travel has been steady amidst a rough sea.

Its been about a month, since I came back to Singapore and yeah, it took me a while to get used to the inertia within a relative motion around me. Nothing calms you like the present, its the future that looks bothering but as soon as you hit it - you feel like you were ready for it yesterday. Else it just was not meant to be, shrug it off and move on.

Back to being a bachelor and the simple of joys of cooking, chatting, and getting to see different characters stuck in a common space - just living it out. In between got to celebrate my 27th birthday and nice to have people around you on such an occasion, though it is just another day. Feels like a microworld. Been a while, since I have dished out some philosophical and deep blogs, but these are reflections of the state that I am. Can't deviate much from what I am and connect to something light/witty or popular.

The adventure part rolls on in 2 weeks, or am I again doing the same mistake of envisioning something that I have not much control over. Anyways, the next blog though opinionated will be about something else...