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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...

End of an era

This is it... it has been a search, rather a marathon run that I have been running over the first stage of my life. To continuously challenge myself and arrive at a stage where I think - I belong, drained a lot of time. Men and their material wants. What is it with Indians and higher education, don't ask me - but it seems to be a common attribute or aspiration.

Was chatting over the internet to my friend other day. About things over commitments, responsibilities and what time takes away. People change, for the better, for the times or for the situations presented. One thing is never ending: change.

Encountered lots of things to record over this past 12 months. First flight, new country, masters, international friends, Singlish, travel aided by google maps, cooking, college reunion,  friends reunion in Singapore, Rat fever, Cousin's marriage, Girivalam, more cooking, construction of property, transfer of mortgage of existing property, semesters, combined studies, the list goes on...

In the meanwhile, caught up with friends. Setup skype in my TV for my mom, so that she can read in a 32" TV- monitor. Did a part -time stint with a healthcare company and on track to join back with them full time. Waiting for a few interview results. Is this a blog or a compilation of an advertisement - I dono, but the past one year had been a roller coaster really. It opened my eyes to new faces and characters. But wait, there is still one more scene in the climax of this year, wait up for it.

Deepavali 2010

Blogging is not an addiction, but a netizen's way of rethinking where he is heading. While socializing got restricted to an online activity, real life doesn't. So to take one's boredom, repetition and loneliness; people choose to call their loved ones, indulge in activities like traveling, visit to temples, meditate or get lost amidst all this. You see, it is not about propaganda or the page count that matters, it is just that people lent you their ears to your current state of mind. Sometimes, things don't make sense to the subscriber. The vivid descriptions are not painted the same way to the audience. This warrants a disconnect between the blogger and reader. Unlike writing a book, the blogger is not restricted to the constraints of the characters or the plot. You often find a blogger, floating around various topics under one heading. It goes on to tell you that, "the mind is a monkey" and even though it is staring at a wall, it doesn't stay on that frame.

Deepavali 2010 was a unique experience. My conception of deepavali, is waking up early. Sneaking out snacks before poojai. Bursting crackers, lots of''em and settling down to watch the newly released movies' songs. Having brought up in the bronx of Chennai - Royapuram. Deepavali always has some fights. Simple ones like kite-fights, hurling crackers at people and verbal spats. The new clothes were very special in those days. We have to wait for Pongal, birthday and Deepavali to earn those new clothes. Not anymore with a thriving Indian economy!!

This year was different. For starters I wished my mom happy deepavali through Skype. Wore a dhoti and went to a Murugan temple in Jurong, Singapore. Just looking at so many tamilians wearing new clothes and Indian music in background gives you a festive feel. Got back home, spent the afternoon cooking up biryani, prawns, sambar, dhalcha, carrot halwa. Yup, we did it!. The sleep after that meal is priceless. Woke up at 6:30 in the evening.

Deepavali is not complete without a dose of movies. So downloaded "Social network" and saw it to end the day. Nice movie, good screenplay and nice characterization - must watch!!. Chatted throughout the evening to various friends all over the world. Ended the day at around 2:00 AM into the next day. The huge pile of vessels left to be cleaned was laughing at me, the next day. Sighs. Another Deepavali has gone by. Happy Deepavali

Commonwealth games 2010

I did not know what to expect of commonwealth games. A few years back I heard the news that New Delhi is gonna bid for Olympics 2020 and is gonna build a sports village. Having won the bid for CWG, 2010 - the capital has a farsighted vision of going for the olympics. I shrugged off and said to myself "what is the big deal, if the medal tally is not going to go up from single digits?". As with any Indian - growing up in a crowd could hold you down. There are always doubters and lack of recognition, which percolates deep into the minds questioning whether sports is worth as a career?

When I heard there were issues with CWG, I honestly felt that media is blowing up the issue and piggy backing on a few minor issues. On the flip side, I did not believe the organizers as well. As they say "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". When it came to a point where CWG were about to be called of, I thought there will be some money transfers here and there to make it happen.To my surprise and to my cognition, the govt. was hell bent on making the event a success. The presence of Dr. Man Mohan Singh overseeing the happenings, made me rest assured that things are in full swing. Still, I was not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

Like many, I didn't catch the opening ceremony live. The next day, I saw pictures of the ceremony as a netizen. Reading through the article, I was consumed in by the list of acts put together for the ceremony. I searched all over, and with help of my online co-ordinator in Las Vegas and facebook - I got the recorded version of the ceremony. The sounds of Indian drums filled my mind. The young tabla maestro at the epicentre of the drum blast, enjoying the beats of India - gave me goosebumps and bliss. The events were well thought off, though for a little jag in line formation from top, all seemed fantastic. To top it up, performances by Hariharan, AR Rahman. What more can you ask for?

I thought, ok, now the fun ends. Tomorrow onwards is the boring part. We are gonna get delirious coverage of media from England, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada et al. For a change, India's time has arrived. They said the focus of organizing this event is to make India as a sport conscious nation. I could not understand what they meant by that, by then. Personally I like to follow tennis, table-tennis, boxing and wrestling. India was primed in all these sports and that made a hint to my perception on the notion of "sports-consciousness". Over the course of the CWG, listening to raucous cheers, live coverage, fist-pumping and adrenaline rush - the event was more than an administrative success for me. For it upheld its objective. The sight of athletes feeding off from crowd-support and oppositions wilting with the pressure made it even more appalling to watch.

I often hear people say, "Sachin makes me a proud Indian". WTF, I say to myself. As a sports lover, I want to see the tussle, team tactics ,the sweat, the hunger and "never say die" attitude - not just talent. Cricket is a team game, and we can't be proud for having individual brilliance. If not just for the medals, I can see better support-system for the athletes these a days and crowd-recognition. Hope the sponsors are listening.

The infrastructure, the outlook of Indian sports have really moved on from family tradition to individual expression. I am hoping that these are signs of days to come. bfn

Endhiran

The hype is unavoidable, partly by the developers but mostly by the hardcore fans all over the world. Was sincerely looking forward to it and shouting like hell, and whistling made us deaf through the titles. Movie starts in the research center, but wait a minute what in the hell are Karunas and Santhaanam doing in the lab. Ok, accepted, they are computer graduates specializing in robotics working as apprentices to thalaivar. Moving on, they are working on the final stages of a decade long work of Rajini (Vasi endra vaseegaran) in hope of building the perfect android humanoid. What is an android humanoid, android refers to mimicking human appearance to a robot and humanoids are ones that are modeled on human skeletal movement system. 

Vasi manages to come up with the perfect humanoid, capable to live in real –world which is a draconian ask for the best of robots today. Chitti, the robot seems to be on the learning curve, learning human emotions like “Why people lie, why people cry, etc”. As usual, Shankar throws science here and there to make the movie from a part of his PhD work. He tries to explain the absence of human rational behavior in Chitti. So Vasi is forced to add human psychology, emotions and other feelings into the routines of Chitti. From the camera’s eye the skin of Chitti is just molded plastic so how he feels the wind or a kiss is left to our own perception. Love the larger than life fighting, style and maassu of chitti in his fights and innocent nakkal nickel over the first half.

Chitti learns everything from medicine to martial arts. He is a built in electro magnet, able to communicate in any protocol through infrared, wifi, radio frequency and what not. I have to take the plot of Chitti reasoning with mosquitoes as a joke, even though he speaks in the bzzzt language. But all this from just a few units of electricity, you have to be kidding me. Terminator thought better by using a mini-nuclear reactor powered fuel-cell to charge the robot. Traditional battery storage, ha ha haa. Ok for motor movements, but for vision projection, communication and electromagnetic force, you ought to have though better.

I don’t go into the plot of the movie, but the songs seem to be loosely intertwined in the picture. You feel like suddenly you have changed the channel to MTV, listen to the music and come back. For beginners they should have at least used some part of the music in the background, the BGM seems to be empty for me.

Don’t kill me with the concept of human-robot hybrids, intra-species mating is observed to be a common factor like the case of Liger. This is through fluid exchange, in captivity. I would have agreed to any sort of bio-fusion, even spiderman for heaven’s sake. What about robot and human, the screw will impregnate an ovum, ROFL. Even if you are able to synthesize a fertilized egg, that could be conceivable in a woman, it grows with “oxygen, water and blood” or “current, silicon chips, nickel”. Please let us leave it here.

With regards to cinema making, Rajini looks awesome in the movie. Can’t dance to his own standards, but the performer juggernaut rolls on. Music is awesome, camera and photography is cool, the locations are exotic, but no life in the movie. The characters just make up for the number and hardly use up the screen space, meaning there is no scope for others in the film except Rajinis and Aish.

When there is a force, there should be a similar force to tackle it. Battle of transformers, terminators, aliens VS Predators. If not there should be extreme outwitting from humans to win it over the much able robots. Nopes, the Goliath fells over and got his head cut off by David. It makes a good fairy tale but doesn’t warrant a movie.

I felt a big headache after the second half of the movie. Though have to say majority of the scenes look good. I have my fair share of doubts which I have posted above. Can watch once for the Rajini factor, but not worth to watch it over an over.

P.S: In reality, robots are doing a fantastic job in precision cutting, painting, load handling which means they are larger or shorter in size and need not necessarily have to mimic human movements. Advanced robots do a dance or play a game of football, covering a few issues like getting up from a fall, in built AI to track opponent behavior and realization of a goal state, yes GOAL state. A concept of a complete android robot is way beyond today's technology.

Terminator, Bicentennial man, AI and Wall-E are a few of my favorites in this genre. Wall-E is more of a fun and watch with kids movie. Terminator explores the destructive capability of an intelligent android. Bicentennial man is the learning curve of a robot over the issues of humanity, slavery, prejudice, maturity, intellectual freedom, conformity, sex, love, and death. A.I defines how tough it is to train a robot human emotions. Shankar seems to have found and lost a match with all the above concepts

Rest In Peace

நான் எப்படி வளர்ந்தேன் ,
இந்த உலகில் தனியா நடந்தேன்
நீ விலகி இருந்தும்
அந்த உறவில் மகிழ்ந்து நினைந்தோம்

துறுவம் பிளக்க , அவரவர் பாதை விலக
பாசம் மறக்க, உன் மதியில், நம் விதி என்பது கசந்து போனதோ !!

நான் உறைந்த பொழுது
நீ இந்த உலகை பிரிந்தபோது
ஓர் நொடியில் என் உலகம்
உடைந்து மீண்டும் பிறந்த தருணம்

காலம் கடக்க, நம் வீட்டில் மீண்டும் உறவு உயிர்க்க
பிரிந்து கிடந்தும், உன் உறவை உறைந்து போன மனட்சுவற்றில் காண்கிறோம்.

Back to Bachelors

Back to Singapore

    People keep asking me, "wow, 3 months. Didn't you get bored? What did you do?". Well those 3 months were what I call my last academic summer vacations, remember the fun filled ones we had during our school days. It was not exactly like that. To begin with my friends were either married or out out station or simply busy. Managed to visit a few and share a few jokes but it was not exactly a vacation. It was a period to regroup and restart my next period in life. At this moment with all my friends getting married, and my greys increasing ever so often; my mom has started what we call bajji-sojji stuff.
   
    The vacations were about going to car-driving sessions, attending marriage, funerals, visiting friends, watching movies, going places, falling sick and finally a lot EATING and SLEEPING. Managed to spend some time with my mom discussing about a few family stuff and permutations. Had a few hot headed arguments and a few light hearted sessions as well. She said "Who will I now fight with?" when I was about to leave Chennai to Singapore but managed to put up a brave face when sending me off at the airport.

    Back to college, it embraced me with smiling faces and hi5's. Lost sleep in the first few days at my flat and consequentially eased into this place where I am put up with 4 more friends from NUS whom I met the previous semester. Life as bachelors is lots of fun, you manage to invent something new at food everyday. Not that we are that bad, but things go weird sometimes at cooking. Thank god, internet came about and we stay connected to the entire world within the reality of cyberspace. Recommending books and music happens over facebook. I found "The story of two states - Chethan Bhagat" as a very interesting read recommended by "several likes" in facebook.

    So another 4 months of college, self-cooking, downloaded movies and I would end up with my masters, Insha Allah!!. Interestingly I am enjoying this phase and I am beginning to miss it before it is about to get over as well. For the first time in life, I am not looking at tomorrow as a better day and enjoying and celebrating today. That is to do with myself rather than the place or people around me.

Madraasapatinam review

Chennai has found a new liking to shopping malls, well not quite even 10 years back Spencer's was a popular hang out spot for all genders and T.Nagar continues to be a female-magnet. With IT-fication of the nation Chennai has attracted many families from all over the state and has grown from what it was to what it is now.

So "express avenue" and "Sky walker" are the latest shopping blocks infused in to its today's lifestyle. I've been to Sky walker around January when many of its outlets were yet to be open and awed at its great interior decors. I knew it will be put to a stern test of countless window-shoppers and people who just want to hang out. Well I have to say its holding up pretty good after 6 months of its inception.

This complex also houses the famous PVR cinemas. Having got there I found it to be world class and was really astounded at the quality especially of my screen. The design was something straight from a futuristic decor book. Royal red all over with blue LED lights setting up the way. Ok..Now to the movie review.

The movie is set in Chennai of 1940s. The concept of an uptown girl taking a liking to a backstreet boy is explored. Arya is portrayed as a wrestler, looks authentic. The grapples and the counters that he performs are well researched. The traditional villain approach is cut off and people are conceived as righteous characters within their own frames. This is the best part - characterization. Music is OK, but has a bit of old Rahmania in it. The movie flows well but overall seems very slow. It is easy on the eyes and mind on a weekend night for a slow romantic movie but in the climax with a loud fast paced song to its back drop - the slow pace is irritating. The celebrated editor Antony could have done a better job by infusing the music into the background carefully.

Amy Jackson does a great job for her first movie that too in a foreign language. The director has put a lot of thought in preparing the script and working with the art directors. It shows in the movie's detail especially so when the Asst. Commissioner tracks the escapades with an old Chennai map (Mint street, Walltax road, Central and Buckingham canal). I stood up around 2-3 minutes before the end of the movie and found about 15 rows behind me still glued to their seats. That's an interesting scale to gauge the movie's reach.