As the title suggests, i wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2010. May this year fulfill all your wishes and take you forward in life. May 2010 be a lot better than what 2009 ever was.
I wish you all the best, and most importantly, i encourage you to continue reading this blog...
cheers,
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Annual Round Up-2009
Its been quite a year. A year of war (the sri lankan war), promise for peace (Obama), the Nobel gaffe, a breakdown of the Nuke deal, the great Indian elections, Slumdog winning endless awards, a revolt filled west China, a tennis legend coming back to where he belonged, a cricketing genius entering his third decade of active play(also getting the most test runs), a colossal failure of rich nations-content with rescuing banks-to spend on climate change, swine flu doing the rounds, the fall of the pop king, the golf emperor scathed by all corners, a f1 legend announcing his return to the track, a mom winning the US open, Tarentino making a great comeback, Bhagat taking a dig at the whole of south India, Getting an Indian state with CM post just by fasting, India becoming the No 1 test nation in 77 years of cricket, Vijay's flop shows again, Kamal's golden year, the first ever strike by IITs, me beginning to blog, etc...etc...etc...(hopefully i have not missed something really huge).
Its been a big year for me as well. 2008 was a rather tumultuous year for me what with me getting an unlikely seat at IIT-M, those nervous months during summer, the first end sems and so on. At this backdrop 2009 has been a more of a stable year on the academic front, with steady inputs from different corners and a marginal increase in self belief. But on a personal front, it has been a year of loss. But, anyday, 2009 has been a good year overall.
Some of my firsts in 2009:
*Beginning to blog
*Witnessing Saarang-golden edition
*Travelled to colleges as a publicity coordinator
*A coordinator in Shaastra and Saarang
*A core member in Amalgam
*The utmost measures taken to correct the one big mistake of my life
*Breaking of important friendships
*Doing web operations
*Discussions on God
*A deeper delving in Metallurgy
*Reviewing movies
*Watching an A list of movies
*Setting foot on a land outside India
*Being busy
*Becoming a nine pointer
*Managing weeks without a cell phone
*Enjoying thorough solitude
*Being unusually depressed
*Long hours on telephone
*Driving a car
*Greatest insult in my life
*Watching a Vijay movie first day
*And finally, being the numero uno after 6 long years
I hope i didnt miss anything in the above list.
2009, despite its share of upsets has cheered me on to look further.These losses will teach me time and again that i need to improve further, that i need to motivate myself, that i need to hope more. And like most of you, i am waving a happy good bye to 2009 for all the good memories it has given me. They will egg me on forever in life.
Looking forward, i do see tougher times ahead with more responsibilities being forced on my tender shoulders, with a dark force looming large. I hope 2010 ends up being atleast as good as 2009 and hopefully a better year for you-my readers.
A very good bye, 2009.
cheers,
Its been a big year for me as well. 2008 was a rather tumultuous year for me what with me getting an unlikely seat at IIT-M, those nervous months during summer, the first end sems and so on. At this backdrop 2009 has been a more of a stable year on the academic front, with steady inputs from different corners and a marginal increase in self belief. But on a personal front, it has been a year of loss. But, anyday, 2009 has been a good year overall.
Some of my firsts in 2009:
*Beginning to blog
*Witnessing Saarang-golden edition
*Travelled to colleges as a publicity coordinator
*A coordinator in Shaastra and Saarang
*A core member in Amalgam
*The utmost measures taken to correct the one big mistake of my life
*Breaking of important friendships
*Doing web operations
*Discussions on God
*A deeper delving in Metallurgy
*Reviewing movies
*Watching an A list of movies
*Setting foot on a land outside India
*Being busy
*Becoming a nine pointer
*Managing weeks without a cell phone
*Enjoying thorough solitude
*Being unusually depressed
*Long hours on telephone
*Driving a car
*Greatest insult in my life
*Watching a Vijay movie first day
*And finally, being the numero uno after 6 long years
I hope i didnt miss anything in the above list.
2009, despite its share of upsets has cheered me on to look further.These losses will teach me time and again that i need to improve further, that i need to motivate myself, that i need to hope more. And like most of you, i am waving a happy good bye to 2009 for all the good memories it has given me. They will egg me on forever in life.
Looking forward, i do see tougher times ahead with more responsibilities being forced on my tender shoulders, with a dark force looming large. I hope 2010 ends up being atleast as good as 2009 and hopefully a better year for you-my readers.
A very good bye, 2009.
cheers,
Thursday, December 24, 2009
A legend on his own terms
There are actors.
There are performers.
There are legends.
And then there is Kamal.
From the days of being a six year old in "Kalathur Kannamma" to being the aam aadhmi in "Unnai pol oruvan" its been a journey extraordinaire. Kamal has travelled a full circle "thrice" i guess.
50 years is pretty much a long time in any field, let alone the movie industry. To survive for that long a period of time and to evolve continuously over the period of time, requires a genius of some measure.
For a guy who dropped out of school to learn Bharatanatyam, to have a knowledge of great depth in the latest technologies used in film industry takes some measure. To have the same depth of knowledge ranging from poetry to philosophy to screen-writing requires a special person.
Tamizh cinema is gifted to have an "all-rounder" like him. He has done everything from being an actor, to a director, to a screen-writer, a producer and a dialogue-writer. Even singing has not been left out. He is not a loner in cinema to do this multi-tasking though. People of false demeanour like T.Rajendar have done that too. But T.R is like "Coovum" when compared to the Ganges called Kamal.
In this special year, i would like to look back and recollect a few of my favorite movies that had him in its mix. A top 5 listing to be short.
5.Punnagai Mannan(1984)
With his mentor KB at the helm of affairs, Kamal delivered solid performances ranging from a depressed lover to a comedian. His dance was used well in this movie. I particularly like this movie for the way it dealt with subtle things, such as an estranged romance and a new found love (true KB style). A great tragedy told in the most comic way possible.
4.Kurudhi punal(1995)
Kamal was portrayed as a street smart cop for the first time, a far cry from the all-bash-no-brainer cop versions portrayed by Vijaykant of yore. With fantastic punch lines about fear and bravery, a dangerous villain in the name of Nasser and strong undercurrents of emotions running through, this film was one thrill ride. A milestone undoubted in the great man's career.
3.Virumaandi(2004)
This film was all Kamal from the start to the finish. Starting from the gory looking scenes of a jail to the neck biting kamal in the climax, this movie redefined the way screen writing was done in tamizh cinema. A two-tier screenplay was a successful experiment, i would say, as the film maintained heavy duty momentum till the end. A class act in tamizh cinema screen writing.
2.Nayagan(1987)
Its the only tamizh film in Time magazine's list of "ALL TIME 100 BEST MOVIES". Its also the only "remake" to feature in the list along with its original-The Godfather I and II. Needless to say about the film's magnitude and reach and appreciation world over. Though Kamal borrowed some acting methodologies from Marlon Brando (scratching the head) and Al pacino (dialogue delivery and hugging manners etc), he pumped in a lot of his own skills, as such, to win a National Award for acting. A masterclass, anyday.
1.Anbe Sivam(2003)
Its the only film I have seen till now that defines God to perfection. The most perfect movie ever made by Kamal. Despite its bombing at the box office, the screenplay, some of the conversations, the communist sub-text and the art work that went into creating the accident scenes left a huge mark amidst people. Once again, Kamal's greatest work till date.
Comedy: I would give a seperate nominee here because Kamal has done so many comedies as such (ranging from Micheal Madana Kama Rajan to Vasool Raja MBBS). Each comedy usurping the other in terms of dialogue delivery, the timing and the hilarious situations the protagonist had to handle. But if i should nominate one movie, it would go to Pancha Tantram for the remarkably hilarious dialogues, and racy screenplay (mind you, this over takes Avvai Shanmugi).
The above list has overridden many of Kamal's remarkable performances such as Moondram Pirai, Ninaithale Inikkum, Manamadha Leelai, Sigappu Rojakkal, 16 vayadhinile, Salangai Oli, Moondru Mudichu and so on... But this list is just my most favorite, the most i have enjoyed as a fan, the most complete of 'em all.
I fervently wish that Kamal lives on and on and on and gives legendary stuff from time and again.
A salute to the ever-6 year old-genius. May you live on!!!!
cheers,
There are performers.
There are legends.
And then there is Kamal.
From the days of being a six year old in "Kalathur Kannamma" to being the aam aadhmi in "Unnai pol oruvan" its been a journey extraordinaire. Kamal has travelled a full circle "thrice" i guess.
50 years is pretty much a long time in any field, let alone the movie industry. To survive for that long a period of time and to evolve continuously over the period of time, requires a genius of some measure.
For a guy who dropped out of school to learn Bharatanatyam, to have a knowledge of great depth in the latest technologies used in film industry takes some measure. To have the same depth of knowledge ranging from poetry to philosophy to screen-writing requires a special person.
Tamizh cinema is gifted to have an "all-rounder" like him. He has done everything from being an actor, to a director, to a screen-writer, a producer and a dialogue-writer. Even singing has not been left out. He is not a loner in cinema to do this multi-tasking though. People of false demeanour like T.Rajendar have done that too. But T.R is like "Coovum" when compared to the Ganges called Kamal.
In this special year, i would like to look back and recollect a few of my favorite movies that had him in its mix. A top 5 listing to be short.
5.Punnagai Mannan(1984)
With his mentor KB at the helm of affairs, Kamal delivered solid performances ranging from a depressed lover to a comedian. His dance was used well in this movie. I particularly like this movie for the way it dealt with subtle things, such as an estranged romance and a new found love (true KB style). A great tragedy told in the most comic way possible.
4.Kurudhi punal(1995)
Kamal was portrayed as a street smart cop for the first time, a far cry from the all-bash-no-brainer cop versions portrayed by Vijaykant of yore. With fantastic punch lines about fear and bravery, a dangerous villain in the name of Nasser and strong undercurrents of emotions running through, this film was one thrill ride. A milestone undoubted in the great man's career.
3.Virumaandi(2004)
This film was all Kamal from the start to the finish. Starting from the gory looking scenes of a jail to the neck biting kamal in the climax, this movie redefined the way screen writing was done in tamizh cinema. A two-tier screenplay was a successful experiment, i would say, as the film maintained heavy duty momentum till the end. A class act in tamizh cinema screen writing.
2.Nayagan(1987)
Its the only tamizh film in Time magazine's list of "ALL TIME 100 BEST MOVIES". Its also the only "remake" to feature in the list along with its original-The Godfather I and II. Needless to say about the film's magnitude and reach and appreciation world over. Though Kamal borrowed some acting methodologies from Marlon Brando (scratching the head) and Al pacino (dialogue delivery and hugging manners etc), he pumped in a lot of his own skills, as such, to win a National Award for acting. A masterclass, anyday.
1.Anbe Sivam(2003)
Its the only film I have seen till now that defines God to perfection. The most perfect movie ever made by Kamal. Despite its bombing at the box office, the screenplay, some of the conversations, the communist sub-text and the art work that went into creating the accident scenes left a huge mark amidst people. Once again, Kamal's greatest work till date.
Comedy: I would give a seperate nominee here because Kamal has done so many comedies as such (ranging from Micheal Madana Kama Rajan to Vasool Raja MBBS). Each comedy usurping the other in terms of dialogue delivery, the timing and the hilarious situations the protagonist had to handle. But if i should nominate one movie, it would go to Pancha Tantram for the remarkably hilarious dialogues, and racy screenplay (mind you, this over takes Avvai Shanmugi).
The above list has overridden many of Kamal's remarkable performances such as Moondram Pirai, Ninaithale Inikkum, Manamadha Leelai, Sigappu Rojakkal, 16 vayadhinile, Salangai Oli, Moondru Mudichu and so on... But this list is just my most favorite, the most i have enjoyed as a fan, the most complete of 'em all.
I fervently wish that Kamal lives on and on and on and gives legendary stuff from time and again.
A salute to the ever-6 year old-genius. May you live on!!!!
cheers,
A little master
It was a day in the November of 1989, Karachi when two young and talented players made cricketing debuts for their respective nations. One went on to be part of the famous pace attack that his national cricket team possessed and also captained his side later.
The other became a legend.
At 16, every cricketer who ever got to see him before had already noticed the genius within the kid. Yet it took time to blossom. And so it did in the many years to come, to be hailed the "greatest batsman" to have ever played the game. Even the Don, had that he saw what he was once, within this legend.
The kid was also known for his bravery in his very first international test series. He batted with a bleeding nose to help Navjot Sidhu and India draw the last test of the four test series in 1989, just enabling India a great achievement of not losing a test series in the neighbour's soil.
Yup, no price for guessing. Its Sachin Tendulkar that I am talking about. He has an experience in International cricket, which is older than my age. He began playing cricket at an age when i didnt know of a thing called a bat. Yet he has influenced so many generation of cricket viewers and players worldwide. His achievements can never be put to a scale. His talent unquestionable, and his charm-unmatchable.
So, I, as a simple fan of his, have attempted to list down my most favorite knocks of the legend in tests and ODIs respectively.
ODIs:
5.186* vs NZ, Hyderabad, 1999
His highest score in a ODI. Slayed the new zealand attack on a belter.
4.98 vs Pakistan, Centurion, 2003
High voltage tension. Shoaib Akhtar's bouncer in excess of 150kmph. Sachin's wrists rotate so that the bat is above his shoulder. The ball makes contact. Upper cut. The ball goes to the third man fence for a six. This small hit summed up his stunning world cup efforts.
3.175 vs Australia, Hyderabad, 2009
Too long, yet too short. Tendulkar made chasing 351 on a belter against a less potent australian attack too simple until he fell 17 runs short allowing India to choke(again).
2.117* vs Australia, Sydney, 2008
Couldnt have timed his first ODI century in Australia better. Led from the front to guide India to its first final victory against Australia in Australia. A stunning knock, to which he followed up with a 91 to lead India to its first ODI series triumph against the Aussies Down under.
1.143 vs Australia, Sharjah, 1998
Part one of the desert storm knocks. India, hit by a sand storm while chasing down 284, was given a reduced target of 276 runs(with 237 reqd to qualify for the final)in 46 overs. Then came Sachin, as he dismantled the Aussie bowling attack to all parts of the ground. Yet he couldnt win the match for India. But he compensated for that by hitting an unbeaten 134 in the final 2 days later to give India a famous win at Sharjah. This knock of 143 however, tilted the debate of the greatest batsman ever, in his favor. It still remains the best one day knock I have seen of this great man.
Tests:
5.241* vs Australia, Sydney,2004
Scored a mammoth double century at his favorite Australian ground as India piled on a massive 705. Yet, the aussies hung on for a draw to deny India's first series victory down under.
4.119* vs England, Old trafford, 1990
His first test century ever. One among his only three fourth innings test centuries. Needing to bat out a day for a draw, he played an attacking innings bringing India, sniffing distance to the actual target. India, though had to settle for a draw, had threatened England.
3.114 vs Australia, Perth, 1994
With all the other Indian batsman crumbling to the sheer bounce at the Perth wicket, Sachin stood up tall, put up a marathon ninth wicket, and attacked the bowlers from the backfoot. Some of the pulls and cuts were sheer genius. The way he attacked the bowlers is something that is admired even today. Yet, one man cant give a team a victory.
2.136 vs Pakistan, Chennai, 1999
So close, yet so far. Sachin made an almost match-winning knock of 136 against arch-rivals Pakistan braving back pain. He fell 17 short of victory. But the Indian tail collapsed leaving India a gasping 12 runs short of victory. This is probably his almost-greatest knock ever.
1.103* vs England, Chennai, 2008
On a crumbling wicket, with a belligerent start given by Sehwag, Sachin made chasing down 387 look easy. It was the highest target ever chased in the sub continent. And this is knock is till date, his only fourth innings century which won the match for India. And, personally, i have placed this knock at the top, comparing the 136(mentioned above) only because India won this match at the end.
Despite all the glories, Sachin still has many regrets. He has often not been able to win a match despite all his efforts. He hasnt won the world cup for India yet. And the regret list goes on. Yet he is a legend, the greatest batsman ever, and a God to cricket maniacs.
Salute to the legend.May be play on and on and on....
cheers,
The other became a legend.
At 16, every cricketer who ever got to see him before had already noticed the genius within the kid. Yet it took time to blossom. And so it did in the many years to come, to be hailed the "greatest batsman" to have ever played the game. Even the Don, had that he saw what he was once, within this legend.
The kid was also known for his bravery in his very first international test series. He batted with a bleeding nose to help Navjot Sidhu and India draw the last test of the four test series in 1989, just enabling India a great achievement of not losing a test series in the neighbour's soil.
Yup, no price for guessing. Its Sachin Tendulkar that I am talking about. He has an experience in International cricket, which is older than my age. He began playing cricket at an age when i didnt know of a thing called a bat. Yet he has influenced so many generation of cricket viewers and players worldwide. His achievements can never be put to a scale. His talent unquestionable, and his charm-unmatchable.
So, I, as a simple fan of his, have attempted to list down my most favorite knocks of the legend in tests and ODIs respectively.
ODIs:
5.186* vs NZ, Hyderabad, 1999
His highest score in a ODI. Slayed the new zealand attack on a belter.
4.98 vs Pakistan, Centurion, 2003
High voltage tension. Shoaib Akhtar's bouncer in excess of 150kmph. Sachin's wrists rotate so that the bat is above his shoulder. The ball makes contact. Upper cut. The ball goes to the third man fence for a six. This small hit summed up his stunning world cup efforts.
3.175 vs Australia, Hyderabad, 2009
Too long, yet too short. Tendulkar made chasing 351 on a belter against a less potent australian attack too simple until he fell 17 runs short allowing India to choke(again).
2.117* vs Australia, Sydney, 2008
Couldnt have timed his first ODI century in Australia better. Led from the front to guide India to its first final victory against Australia in Australia. A stunning knock, to which he followed up with a 91 to lead India to its first ODI series triumph against the Aussies Down under.
1.143 vs Australia, Sharjah, 1998
Part one of the desert storm knocks. India, hit by a sand storm while chasing down 284, was given a reduced target of 276 runs(with 237 reqd to qualify for the final)in 46 overs. Then came Sachin, as he dismantled the Aussie bowling attack to all parts of the ground. Yet he couldnt win the match for India. But he compensated for that by hitting an unbeaten 134 in the final 2 days later to give India a famous win at Sharjah. This knock of 143 however, tilted the debate of the greatest batsman ever, in his favor. It still remains the best one day knock I have seen of this great man.
Tests:
5.241* vs Australia, Sydney,2004
Scored a mammoth double century at his favorite Australian ground as India piled on a massive 705. Yet, the aussies hung on for a draw to deny India's first series victory down under.
4.119* vs England, Old trafford, 1990
His first test century ever. One among his only three fourth innings test centuries. Needing to bat out a day for a draw, he played an attacking innings bringing India, sniffing distance to the actual target. India, though had to settle for a draw, had threatened England.
3.114 vs Australia, Perth, 1994
With all the other Indian batsman crumbling to the sheer bounce at the Perth wicket, Sachin stood up tall, put up a marathon ninth wicket, and attacked the bowlers from the backfoot. Some of the pulls and cuts were sheer genius. The way he attacked the bowlers is something that is admired even today. Yet, one man cant give a team a victory.
2.136 vs Pakistan, Chennai, 1999
So close, yet so far. Sachin made an almost match-winning knock of 136 against arch-rivals Pakistan braving back pain. He fell 17 short of victory. But the Indian tail collapsed leaving India a gasping 12 runs short of victory. This is probably his almost-greatest knock ever.
1.103* vs England, Chennai, 2008
On a crumbling wicket, with a belligerent start given by Sehwag, Sachin made chasing down 387 look easy. It was the highest target ever chased in the sub continent. And this is knock is till date, his only fourth innings century which won the match for India. And, personally, i have placed this knock at the top, comparing the 136(mentioned above) only because India won this match at the end.
Despite all the glories, Sachin still has many regrets. He has often not been able to win a match despite all his efforts. He hasnt won the world cup for India yet. And the regret list goes on. Yet he is a legend, the greatest batsman ever, and a God to cricket maniacs.
Salute to the legend.May be play on and on and on....
cheers,
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Prestige-Special Review
Notes:
A friend of mine had requested that i review this movie. It seems he had liked the movie pretty much and also liked my way of reviewing(he he he). So here goes my review. Its been about two years since I last saw this movie. So, if there are inaccuracies in the detailing mentioned, sorry about those-human memory does hurt a lot.
The Review:
It was once upon a time in 2007 that i cashed in upon a DVD titled Prestige in my uncle's house. It was a sleepy afternoon which was drenched on the outside and i was pretty sleepy. The tagline said, "Are you watching closely?". I saw the director's name, it said "Christopher Nolan". I had heard of Nolan's name for the first time then. So i thought, if it was a boring tale it would aid me in sleeping(the thing is i was really tired, but i couldnt sleep. I needed a "driving force" for that :D). And hence i switched on the DVD.
The first five minutes were pretty confusing with multiple images showing entirely different setups, and the background sound explaining about the various stages in a magic trick-the pride, the act and the prestige respectively. And then Bale asked, "Are you watching closely?". I didnt.
I ended up staying awake at the edge of the sofa all afternoon. I just couldnt sleep. The tale was so absorbing that it woke me up from sleep(near sleep that is) and forced me to concentrate the entire sleepy afternoon.
So what made the drastic change??
read more
cheers,
A friend of mine had requested that i review this movie. It seems he had liked the movie pretty much and also liked my way of reviewing(he he he). So here goes my review. Its been about two years since I last saw this movie. So, if there are inaccuracies in the detailing mentioned, sorry about those-human memory does hurt a lot.
The Review:
It was once upon a time in 2007 that i cashed in upon a DVD titled Prestige in my uncle's house. It was a sleepy afternoon which was drenched on the outside and i was pretty sleepy. The tagline said, "Are you watching closely?". I saw the director's name, it said "Christopher Nolan". I had heard of Nolan's name for the first time then. So i thought, if it was a boring tale it would aid me in sleeping(the thing is i was really tired, but i couldnt sleep. I needed a "driving force" for that :D). And hence i switched on the DVD.
The first five minutes were pretty confusing with multiple images showing entirely different setups, and the background sound explaining about the various stages in a magic trick-the pride, the act and the prestige respectively. And then Bale asked, "Are you watching closely?". I didnt.
I ended up staying awake at the edge of the sofa all afternoon. I just couldnt sleep. The tale was so absorbing that it woke me up from sleep(near sleep that is) and forced me to concentrate the entire sleepy afternoon.
So what made the drastic change??
read more
Verdict 2009- Vol 3
This post will primarily deal with sports.
Cricket:
Test team of the year: India
-Undefeated this year. Year end numero uno
ODI team of the year:Australia
-Champions Trophy, Series win in England. Australia-B side winning India 4-2
T20 team of the year(International): Pakistan
-Champions in World T20
Test cricketer of the year:Gautam Gambhir
-Remarkable consistency this year
ODI cricketer of the year:Shane Watson
-Match winning knocks in the Champions Trophy
T20 cricketer of the year:Shahid Afridi
-Almost single handedly winning the T20 championship
F-1:
Driver: Sebastian Vettel (this guy drove better than the winner Jenson Button)
Team: Brawn(of course, they won close to 6 races in a row initially)
Tennis:
Player of the year(male): Roger Federer(obviously) :D
Player of the year(female): Serena Williams
Comeback of the year: Kim Clijsters
Players to watch out far: Juan Martin Del Potro, Caroline Wozniacki
Farewell: Marat Safin
If the above post looked more like an "award-listing", i guess i couldnt present it properly...suggestions??
It finally ends here :D
cheers,
Cricket:
Test team of the year: India
-Undefeated this year. Year end numero uno
ODI team of the year:Australia
-Champions Trophy, Series win in England. Australia-B side winning India 4-2
T20 team of the year(International): Pakistan
-Champions in World T20
Test cricketer of the year:Gautam Gambhir
-Remarkable consistency this year
ODI cricketer of the year:Shane Watson
-Match winning knocks in the Champions Trophy
T20 cricketer of the year:Shahid Afridi
-Almost single handedly winning the T20 championship
F-1:
Driver: Sebastian Vettel (this guy drove better than the winner Jenson Button)
Team: Brawn(of course, they won close to 6 races in a row initially)
Tennis:
Player of the year(male): Roger Federer(obviously) :D
Player of the year(female): Serena Williams
Comeback of the year: Kim Clijsters
Players to watch out far: Juan Martin Del Potro, Caroline Wozniacki
Farewell: Marat Safin
If the above post looked more like an "award-listing", i guess i couldnt present it properly...suggestions??
It finally ends here :D
cheers,
Verdict 2009- Vol 2
Funda:
Read the first volume of this series.
Movies:
Tamizh:
Top 5:
1.Nadodigal:
A revelation really. Fantastic tale of post love-joining friendship. Cheesy lines and good performances. Movie of the year.
2.Eeram:
I was personally pretty impressed with the screenplay and the characterisation of the lead characters. The supernatural element was dealt with beautifully(of course the climax didnt require that much of dramatisation, but thats usual in tam cinema)
3.Vennilla kabadi Kuzhu:
A nice theme on a nice game. The main strong point of this movie was the liveliness and the amount of comedy introduced in a serious tale. The climax, i thought, came out of an afterthought to the director. Anyways, this was a different movie and had a different ending.
4.Unnai pol oruvan:
Kamal+Mohan Lal+Fantastic dialogues=Wholesome entertainment. Needless to say, one of the better and crisper movies this year.
5.Yaavarum Nalam:
Supernatural thriller again. Though the screenplay speed was a tad low, i liked the fact that everything revolved around a serial (I hope atleast some people have stopped watching serials after seeing this movie).
Disasters:
Tam movies are known for disasters. I am gonna restrict myself to the biggest.
1.Villu:
Vijay-that one word says it all.
2.Sarvam:
An impressive original turned totally morbid with Trisha looking like a grandmom of Arya.
3.Kandhaswamy:
Read my post on it. I guess you kinda understand (if you had seen the movie that is).
4.Vettaikkaran:
Its not released yet. But i can tell its surely gonna be a new year disaster signaling the end of the world. There is vijay, horrible punch dialogues, shit songs and there is this waterfall jump. What more do you want for a disaster??
5.Aadhavan:
The fact that Surya starred in this movie was a big let down by itself. One of the actor's crappiest in his recent history.
A small value addition:
Tamil Cinema Music, Top 5 songs of the year '09, according to me that is
1.Vizhi Moodi-Harris Jeyaraj-Ayan
2.Yogi Yogi thaan-Yuvan Shankar Raja-Yogi
3.Yeno Yeno panithuli-Harris Jeyaraj-Aadhavan
4.Yeppadiyo maatikitten-Yuvan Shankar Raja-SMS
5.Aathichoodi-Vijay Antony-TN(blah blah)
To be continued,
cheers,
Read the first volume of this series.
Movies:
Tamizh:
Top 5:
1.Nadodigal:
A revelation really. Fantastic tale of post love-joining friendship. Cheesy lines and good performances. Movie of the year.
2.Eeram:
I was personally pretty impressed with the screenplay and the characterisation of the lead characters. The supernatural element was dealt with beautifully(of course the climax didnt require that much of dramatisation, but thats usual in tam cinema)
3.Vennilla kabadi Kuzhu:
A nice theme on a nice game. The main strong point of this movie was the liveliness and the amount of comedy introduced in a serious tale. The climax, i thought, came out of an afterthought to the director. Anyways, this was a different movie and had a different ending.
4.Unnai pol oruvan:
Kamal+Mohan Lal+Fantastic dialogues=Wholesome entertainment. Needless to say, one of the better and crisper movies this year.
5.Yaavarum Nalam:
Supernatural thriller again. Though the screenplay speed was a tad low, i liked the fact that everything revolved around a serial (I hope atleast some people have stopped watching serials after seeing this movie).
Disasters:
Tam movies are known for disasters. I am gonna restrict myself to the biggest.
1.Villu:
Vijay-that one word says it all.
2.Sarvam:
An impressive original turned totally morbid with Trisha looking like a grandmom of Arya.
3.Kandhaswamy:
Read my post on it. I guess you kinda understand (if you had seen the movie that is).
4.Vettaikkaran:
Its not released yet. But i can tell its surely gonna be a new year disaster signaling the end of the world. There is vijay, horrible punch dialogues, shit songs and there is this waterfall jump. What more do you want for a disaster??
5.Aadhavan:
The fact that Surya starred in this movie was a big let down by itself. One of the actor's crappiest in his recent history.
A small value addition:
Tamil Cinema Music, Top 5 songs of the year '09, according to me that is
1.Vizhi Moodi-Harris Jeyaraj-Ayan
2.Yogi Yogi thaan-Yuvan Shankar Raja-Yogi
3.Yeno Yeno panithuli-Harris Jeyaraj-Aadhavan
4.Yeppadiyo maatikitten-Yuvan Shankar Raja-SMS
5.Aathichoodi-Vijay Antony-TN(blah blah)
To be continued,
cheers,
Verdict 2009
This post is meant to list out "my" favorite incidents in sport and "my" favorite movies of the year. So, lets get started
Movies:
English:
1. Inglourious basterds:
Easily the best Tarentino movie i have seen after "reservoir dogs" (yup, it bet "pulp fiction" at the post). Excellent screenplay, superb sub-plots, cheesy lines (Pitt gets most of it--again) and excellent performances (from Pitt and Waltz and all the others), and you cant expect more for a good movie. Not to mention the excellent cinematography and the great start to the movie in the first ten minutes. "Monsieur La Pedite, this is your home. Make yourself comfortable"
2.Gran Torino(Indian Release-2009)
Vintage Eastwood. Good tale about life and death, and bonding between "americans" and "asians". The climax was a stunner.
3.Public Enemies:
Johney Depp lives the character of John Dillinger. Bale provides a powerful cameo, but is completely overshadowed by Depp (just like Heath Ledger in Dark Knight). But somehow, the movie lacks the punch to be called a "great" movie. "Bye bye, black bird"
4.Hangover:
One of the best comedies to come out off late. Rib tickling dialogues, and amazing re-mixes as background scores.
5.Watchmen:
I guess the director has a lot of hangover on "Fight club" and many tarentino movies. Some of the scenes and angles were pretty much reminiscent of the former and the sub plots reminded me a lot of Tarentino. But the film had a really absurd climax, and the character of Dr.Manhattan was not conceived properly. The length was another deterrent. I have not seen "milk" yet. May be it will beat this movie to this spot.
Animation:
Bolt:
Amazing animation, screenplay and a very good plot. The "acting" was pretty good. And miley cyrus rocked...:P
Disasters:
1.Twilight:
Yuck
2.Termination Salvation:
Please stop the terminator series
3.HP 6:
I never thought there could be a rom-com made out of the HP series...but they did exactly that in this movie. Yuck maxxxx...
Movies:
English:
1. Inglourious basterds:
Easily the best Tarentino movie i have seen after "reservoir dogs" (yup, it bet "pulp fiction" at the post). Excellent screenplay, superb sub-plots, cheesy lines (Pitt gets most of it--again) and excellent performances (from Pitt and Waltz and all the others), and you cant expect more for a good movie. Not to mention the excellent cinematography and the great start to the movie in the first ten minutes. "Monsieur La Pedite, this is your home. Make yourself comfortable"
2.Gran Torino(Indian Release-2009)
Vintage Eastwood. Good tale about life and death, and bonding between "americans" and "asians". The climax was a stunner.
3.Public Enemies:
Johney Depp lives the character of John Dillinger. Bale provides a powerful cameo, but is completely overshadowed by Depp (just like Heath Ledger in Dark Knight). But somehow, the movie lacks the punch to be called a "great" movie. "Bye bye, black bird"
4.Hangover:
One of the best comedies to come out off late. Rib tickling dialogues, and amazing re-mixes as background scores.
5.Watchmen:
I guess the director has a lot of hangover on "Fight club" and many tarentino movies. Some of the scenes and angles were pretty much reminiscent of the former and the sub plots reminded me a lot of Tarentino. But the film had a really absurd climax, and the character of Dr.Manhattan was not conceived properly. The length was another deterrent. I have not seen "milk" yet. May be it will beat this movie to this spot.
Animation:
Bolt:
Amazing animation, screenplay and a very good plot. The "acting" was pretty good. And miley cyrus rocked...:P
Disasters:
1.Twilight:
Yuck
2.Termination Salvation:
Please stop the terminator series
3.HP 6:
I never thought there could be a rom-com made out of the HP series...but they did exactly that in this movie. Yuck maxxxx...
To be continued,
cheers,
21 grams-An editing masterpiece
I was filled with apprehensions when i began watching this movie. I had already watched the tamizh version of it-"sarvam" and the tam version was real bad. The screenplay was sagging and the chemistry of the lead actors and the impact was just not there.
But seriously, what made the big difference between the english and the tam versions was the superb editing and the screenplay in the former. The screenplay moves backward and forward(of course one direction at a time :D) much like Nolan-ish movies. And essentially what makes this happen is the editing...
Right from the initial introduction of the characters to the narration of their "parellel stories" together, the screenplay was real razy. The best part was even the dialogues had a sense of continuity.
Sample this: Somewhere in the middle of the movie(its been a while since i saw the movie...so i dont know exactly the moment it happens), there is a talk about drinks and glasses, and cut, you see a tray of drinks aligned for a party that night. This party takes place in a different character's story and its in the past. Thats good editing for you.
Same follows in the gun shots that happen in a hotel room, and the continuity in dialogue between that scene and the scenes that happen in the past.
The accident, which is pretty much the turning point of the movie, wasnt shown one bit (sounds like "Reservoir dogs" right...ya, the accident scene was pretty much like it...but this movie is no way a match to Tarentino's masterpiece) and this accident was revealed pretty much late into the screenplay. (in the tam version however, for the purpose of dramatization of this accident, the director showed it infinite times during the first half itself, which meant you literally slept through those scenes in the second).
One thing which was pretty much a horn in the rose was the romance part. I mean, the main guy loses love for his wife who dedicated all her energies to him while he was sick, and goes after the wife of the guy who donated him his heart. I mean, come on guys, you need to show some respect to your god-damn wives. This sort of a romantic interlude was totally unwarrented. And the first scene in the movie only reinforced this (both the women sucked anyway).
Despite all the crispness and stuff, the climax, was a bit off a let down except for the cheesy lines and explanations about 21 grams. But who cares, just watch it for its technicalities, the screenplay and the editing.
I didnt lose 21 grams after I saw this movie, but i did after i saw "sarvam" :D
cheers,
But seriously, what made the big difference between the english and the tam versions was the superb editing and the screenplay in the former. The screenplay moves backward and forward(of course one direction at a time :D) much like Nolan-ish movies. And essentially what makes this happen is the editing...
Right from the initial introduction of the characters to the narration of their "parellel stories" together, the screenplay was real razy. The best part was even the dialogues had a sense of continuity.
Sample this: Somewhere in the middle of the movie(its been a while since i saw the movie...so i dont know exactly the moment it happens), there is a talk about drinks and glasses, and cut, you see a tray of drinks aligned for a party that night. This party takes place in a different character's story and its in the past. Thats good editing for you.
Same follows in the gun shots that happen in a hotel room, and the continuity in dialogue between that scene and the scenes that happen in the past.
The accident, which is pretty much the turning point of the movie, wasnt shown one bit (sounds like "Reservoir dogs" right...ya, the accident scene was pretty much like it...but this movie is no way a match to Tarentino's masterpiece) and this accident was revealed pretty much late into the screenplay. (in the tam version however, for the purpose of dramatization of this accident, the director showed it infinite times during the first half itself, which meant you literally slept through those scenes in the second).
One thing which was pretty much a horn in the rose was the romance part. I mean, the main guy loses love for his wife who dedicated all her energies to him while he was sick, and goes after the wife of the guy who donated him his heart. I mean, come on guys, you need to show some respect to your god-damn wives. This sort of a romantic interlude was totally unwarrented. And the first scene in the movie only reinforced this (both the women sucked anyway).
Despite all the crispness and stuff, the climax, was a bit off a let down except for the cheesy lines and explanations about 21 grams. But who cares, just watch it for its technicalities, the screenplay and the editing.
I didnt lose 21 grams after I saw this movie, but i did after i saw "sarvam" :D
cheers,
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Fight club-My review
Tyler Durden, the name still resonates in my ears.
Fight club-what an experience it was..
So what makes fight club tick??
When you have this fantastic plot with schizophrenia linked-joker type chaos creation-and a feminine interest with an amazing cast consisting of edward norton and brad pitt, you can expect a roller coaster of a movie which exactly is fight club
Plot:
Pretty simple. Our protagonist suffers from insomnia. Later suffers from schizophrenia(without his knowledge of course) which cures his insomnia. Later realizes that he actually suffered from schizo...and realises that he is too late...pretty simple right???
The Ups:
Cinematography:
The strength of any good movie. And the frames are amazing. Right from showing the sleepy face of edward norton first up, to the close-up of the "man-boobs" of Bob, to the sensual scenes of pitt and carter and the final apocalypse, an amazing set of frames just adores the movie. Each angle has been chosen with care.
Screenplay:
One of the best i have seen. The way in which the insomnia was dealt with first up and then the schizo under-current and the all revealing climax, there can be no better screenplay for this script. And to put a girl as a pivot for a plot with two mental illnesses is to put the icing on the cake.
Dialogues:
Though a bit Tarentino-ish, the lines were cheesy. Sample, the soap preparation and the film making tutorials. Even the "oath-taking" dialogues were pretty good. And dialogues, being the essential portion of any movie, this surely had things up and right.
Acting/Casting:
I have no rights to comment on this section. Amazing actors and amazing acting in short.
Music:
Above average music(according to my ears that is). But the music in the background carried the movie forward.
Errata:
I have a special affection towards the Tyler Durden character, because, he did what the legendary Joker could never do(In Dark Knight), despite suffering from schizo..which is that of creating chaos. I have a personal affinity towards chaos, and Durden just beat the Joker at the post!!! (of course, he didnt have the incorruptible Batman to handle, but YOU are always YOUR best enemy)
Some Negs:
The climax was a bit off the mark. The gun shot and all was exaggerated. Edward Norton's character could have as well been killed in the movie. It would have given a better impact.
More cheesy lines could have been included for Edward. Its Pitt who always gets the best lines.
I learnt a few things from this movie though:
1.Schizo is a very tough mental disease for anyone to handle
2.Creating chaos is rather easy
3.Follow fight club's guide to create your own blind following(if you want to that is) :D
anyways, great movie, great work Fincher and Uhls
cheers,
Fight club-what an experience it was..
So what makes fight club tick??
When you have this fantastic plot with schizophrenia linked-joker type chaos creation-and a feminine interest with an amazing cast consisting of edward norton and brad pitt, you can expect a roller coaster of a movie which exactly is fight club
Plot:
Pretty simple. Our protagonist suffers from insomnia. Later suffers from schizophrenia(without his knowledge of course) which cures his insomnia. Later realizes that he actually suffered from schizo...and realises that he is too late...pretty simple right???
The Ups:
Cinematography:
The strength of any good movie. And the frames are amazing. Right from showing the sleepy face of edward norton first up, to the close-up of the "man-boobs" of Bob, to the sensual scenes of pitt and carter and the final apocalypse, an amazing set of frames just adores the movie. Each angle has been chosen with care.
Screenplay:
One of the best i have seen. The way in which the insomnia was dealt with first up and then the schizo under-current and the all revealing climax, there can be no better screenplay for this script. And to put a girl as a pivot for a plot with two mental illnesses is to put the icing on the cake.
Dialogues:
Though a bit Tarentino-ish, the lines were cheesy. Sample, the soap preparation and the film making tutorials. Even the "oath-taking" dialogues were pretty good. And dialogues, being the essential portion of any movie, this surely had things up and right.
Acting/Casting:
I have no rights to comment on this section. Amazing actors and amazing acting in short.
Music:
Above average music(according to my ears that is). But the music in the background carried the movie forward.
Errata:
I have a special affection towards the Tyler Durden character, because, he did what the legendary Joker could never do(In Dark Knight), despite suffering from schizo..which is that of creating chaos. I have a personal affinity towards chaos, and Durden just beat the Joker at the post!!! (of course, he didnt have the incorruptible Batman to handle, but YOU are always YOUR best enemy)
Some Negs:
The climax was a bit off the mark. The gun shot and all was exaggerated. Edward Norton's character could have as well been killed in the movie. It would have given a better impact.
More cheesy lines could have been included for Edward. Its Pitt who always gets the best lines.
I learnt a few things from this movie though:
1.Schizo is a very tough mental disease for anyone to handle
2.Creating chaos is rather easy
3.Follow fight club's guide to create your own blind following(if you want to that is) :D
anyways, great movie, great work Fincher and Uhls
cheers,
Why Aadhavan killed me??
Aadhavan is supposed to be this tamizh(tam in short) movie which almost killed me this Diwali. No one other than Vijay has come this close to killing me!!
Reasons:
1.Story:The movie had the story of(ah..u call it a story huh??)"Ayan" which was "modified". Here the hero was an assassin, instead of a smuggler.
2.Surya: Look, this guy is more of an actor/performer. Not a rock star. No way. He cant even dance properly. So when you try and portray this guy as a rockstar...well...it sucks!!
3.Graphics: Just because the director had learnt some CG under Kamal's guidance in "Dasavataram", he shouldnt go about using it overtly and ineffectively.
Ex 1: The sniper scene in the beginning of the movie, where the hero shoots a guy miles..rather light years away,in another building from his building(the buildings were "part" of the graphics too)
Ex 2: The flashback scene where Surya's face was shrunk and morphed...horrible!!
4.The first kill: From underneath a pond!! with nobody noticing it...phew!!! I dont know how long tam cinema will survive these kinda murders
5.Nayantara: She always sucks. Doesnt dance, and she doesnt look good in bikinis and all(well...except the..hmmm...top parts of course :P )..But in this movie though, she looked a lot better than movies like "Villu" due to superb designing of her wears. But still...she sucked(except for the final shots of yeno panithuli song :P :P )
6.Flashback: Was it required?? I dont think so
7.Choreography: What happens when you have two people who can never shake a leg properly as the leads?? The choreography sucks right??? Thats what exactly happened
8.Cinematography: Bad cinematography for the songs especially
Ex 1: I heard the producer saying-"we wanted to shoot the song 'yeno yeno panithuli' in a snow filled region(due to the word 'panithuli' in the song), so we went to iceland". This clearly proves that the producer(and/or the cinematographer) have failed their respective geography exams at school. I mean, iceland is a region of hot springs, geysers, volcanoes, and fertile land. Consequently, they have got only one region of some sleet. So they shoot half of their song there-cups max. Second, they see a beautiful waterfall, show the same thing from infinite angles and bore the viewers.
Ex 2: In 'hasili fisiliye' song, nayan's half baked smile was shown for close to 10 secs, with the camera almost making a 270 degree turn corresponding to real peppy beats in the background. Now thats bad cinematography
Ex 3: all songs were shot really bad :D
Ex 4: In some scenes, the color wasnt maintained in the same tone. The boat scene in the 'yeno' song is a sample. In the same moving frame, i see different colors at different angles
9.Climax: I am too exhausted to write about it now, having written the above experience. So you know how was it right??
Saving graces:
Vadivelu's comedy in the first half
Harris' copied tunes
Hopefully Surya wakes up and gives sensible films from now on...
cheers,
Reasons:
1.Story:The movie had the story of(ah..u call it a story huh??)"Ayan" which was "modified". Here the hero was an assassin, instead of a smuggler.
2.Surya: Look, this guy is more of an actor/performer. Not a rock star. No way. He cant even dance properly. So when you try and portray this guy as a rockstar...well...it sucks!!
3.Graphics: Just because the director had learnt some CG under Kamal's guidance in "Dasavataram", he shouldnt go about using it overtly and ineffectively.
Ex 1: The sniper scene in the beginning of the movie, where the hero shoots a guy miles..rather light years away,in another building from his building(the buildings were "part" of the graphics too)
Ex 2: The flashback scene where Surya's face was shrunk and morphed...horrible!!
4.The first kill: From underneath a pond!! with nobody noticing it...phew!!! I dont know how long tam cinema will survive these kinda murders
5.Nayantara: She always sucks. Doesnt dance, and she doesnt look good in bikinis and all(well...except the..hmmm...top parts of course :P )..But in this movie though, she looked a lot better than movies like "Villu" due to superb designing of her wears. But still...she sucked(except for the final shots of yeno panithuli song :P :P )
6.Flashback: Was it required?? I dont think so
7.Choreography: What happens when you have two people who can never shake a leg properly as the leads?? The choreography sucks right??? Thats what exactly happened
8.Cinematography: Bad cinematography for the songs especially
Ex 1: I heard the producer saying-"we wanted to shoot the song 'yeno yeno panithuli' in a snow filled region(due to the word 'panithuli' in the song), so we went to iceland". This clearly proves that the producer(and/or the cinematographer) have failed their respective geography exams at school. I mean, iceland is a region of hot springs, geysers, volcanoes, and fertile land. Consequently, they have got only one region of some sleet. So they shoot half of their song there-cups max. Second, they see a beautiful waterfall, show the same thing from infinite angles and bore the viewers.
Ex 2: In 'hasili fisiliye' song, nayan's half baked smile was shown for close to 10 secs, with the camera almost making a 270 degree turn corresponding to real peppy beats in the background. Now thats bad cinematography
Ex 3: all songs were shot really bad :D
Ex 4: In some scenes, the color wasnt maintained in the same tone. The boat scene in the 'yeno' song is a sample. In the same moving frame, i see different colors at different angles
9.Climax: I am too exhausted to write about it now, having written the above experience. So you know how was it right??
Saving graces:
Vadivelu's comedy in the first half
Harris' copied tunes
Hopefully Surya wakes up and gives sensible films from now on...
cheers,
The Shaastra that wasnt
Funda:
1.If you dont know what Shaastra is, dont read further.
2.If you do know what Shaastra is, I dont have to explain you the funda right??
Why this title?
The answer is explained later in this...hmmm...hmmm....post???ok, whatever. I forgot the name.. Its been so looooonnnnngggg ago that i had written a full fledged "post" before.
Shaastra 2009:
The positives:
1.Had cleared a Shaastra quiz prelims for the first time
2.Had accomodated two of my friends in my room for the first time :D
3.Had a tough time during the 4 days, which taught me time management and "distance" management
4.Most importantly, I was a coordinator-for web operations that is. Learnt quite a lot from there.
5.Grub coupons(the extra that i got-thanks to my core :P) and the grub as such(it was superb)
The negs(obviously the bigger part):
1.This Shaastra wasn't as big as the previous one. Well, it got "recessed" i guess.
2.Due to bad planning, I ended up not doing a proper app for the hospi desk=>>hospi pain on all the four days.
3.I didnt apply for any of the "useful" workshops(like hackfest)
4.I applied for a workshop which was real dumb-the cinematography workshop
5.I flunked the first day fully.
6.I didnt win any event(last yr, i won chem x)
7.The standard of questions in SMQ and HTW was pathetic :(...(you see, i cleared the prelims...I!!!!!!)
8.My cycle cupped at the start of Shaastra=>>I had to walk all four days.
9.I was feeling real depressed through out the four days-dont know why
10.I couldnt give proper time to my friends who had come there solely to meet me-inter personal relationship cup(again :( :( :( )
11.Etc.
Hopefully, the next time around, it will be a lot better.
Thanks for everybody who either helped me/impeded me...You made a difference this Shaastra(I mean, I will remember this as a trough for sure :P )
so...looking forward to Shaastra 2010(and my role in it)
cheers,
1.If you dont know what Shaastra is, dont read further.
2.If you do know what Shaastra is, I dont have to explain you the funda right??
Why this title?
The answer is explained later in this...hmmm...hmmm....post???ok, whatever. I forgot the name.. Its been so looooonnnnngggg ago that i had written a full fledged "post" before.
Shaastra 2009:
The positives:
1.Had cleared a Shaastra quiz prelims for the first time
2.Had accomodated two of my friends in my room for the first time :D
3.Had a tough time during the 4 days, which taught me time management and "distance" management
4.Most importantly, I was a coordinator-for web operations that is. Learnt quite a lot from there.
5.Grub coupons(the extra that i got-thanks to my core :P) and the grub as such(it was superb)
The negs(obviously the bigger part):
1.This Shaastra wasn't as big as the previous one. Well, it got "recessed" i guess.
2.Due to bad planning, I ended up not doing a proper app for the hospi desk=>>hospi pain on all the four days.
3.I didnt apply for any of the "useful" workshops(like hackfest)
4.I applied for a workshop which was real dumb-the cinematography workshop
5.I flunked the first day fully.
6.I didnt win any event(last yr, i won chem x)
7.The standard of questions in SMQ and HTW was pathetic :(...(you see, i cleared the prelims...I!!!!!!)
8.My cycle cupped at the start of Shaastra=>>I had to walk all four days.
9.I was feeling real depressed through out the four days-dont know why
10.I couldnt give proper time to my friends who had come there solely to meet me-inter personal relationship cup(again :( :( :( )
11.Etc.
Hopefully, the next time around, it will be a lot better.
Thanks for everybody who either helped me/impeded me...You made a difference this Shaastra(I mean, I will remember this as a trough for sure :P )
so...looking forward to Shaastra 2010(and my role in it)
cheers,
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Dormancy
I guess i have tested the limits of your patience. I know my blog has been HIGHLY inactive and dormant for more than a while now.
I know you have waited much, in vain, for my reviews of this Shaastra, Fight Club and 21 grams. I know i have not done them yet. I know I have promises to be kept.
But patience is a virtue. There is a famous proverb in tamizh stating "One who is patient will rule the world"
So i guess i am providing you the ideal opportunity to become a world conquerer :D
So grab this opportunity, be patient and be the king. Be REWARDED.
But how long?? Not so long i say, only 2 and a half weeks more before this blog rises like a phoenix. The activities, the buzzing will all come back. The writings will all flow in.
So i REQUEST all my readers to be patient. Please stand by me. Please support me. I bank on you :P
In case you found the above post to be a hard core "mokkai"(aka poor joke), here is another:
Etymology of "mokkai":
The word "mokkai" was derived from the word "Mokkaiappar", the name of a king who was known for his poor jokes(or mokkais in short) :D
I WILL BE BACK...
cheers,
I know you have waited much, in vain, for my reviews of this Shaastra, Fight Club and 21 grams. I know i have not done them yet. I know I have promises to be kept.
But patience is a virtue. There is a famous proverb in tamizh stating "One who is patient will rule the world"
So i guess i am providing you the ideal opportunity to become a world conquerer :D
So grab this opportunity, be patient and be the king. Be REWARDED.
But how long?? Not so long i say, only 2 and a half weeks more before this blog rises like a phoenix. The activities, the buzzing will all come back. The writings will all flow in.
So i REQUEST all my readers to be patient. Please stand by me. Please support me. I bank on you :P
In case you found the above post to be a hard core "mokkai"(aka poor joke), here is another:
Etymology of "mokkai":
The word "mokkai" was derived from the word "Mokkaiappar", the name of a king who was known for his poor jokes(or mokkais in short) :D
I WILL BE BACK...
cheers,
Monday, October 12, 2009
What an idea!
Its time that i revved up changes in my blog.
There has been continuous cribbing, skepticism,negative feedback, etc,etc. And obviously i want to minimise the negativity surrounding the blog.
So this is what will be done.
*If the post is pretty big(exceeding two paragraphs on my scale) only summary will be posted and the entire post will be uploaded at my site here
*Smaller posts and all announcements(like this) would follow the main draft.
*All requests for the posts can be directed to goths_the1@yahoo.co.in/downloaded from the site
So hopefully, this change increases both the reading apetite as well as the number of readers.
cheers,
PS:Special mention for my friend Karthik(Aero) who came up with this suggestion
There has been continuous cribbing, skepticism,negative feedback, etc,etc. And obviously i want to minimise the negativity surrounding the blog.
So this is what will be done.
*If the post is pretty big(exceeding two paragraphs on my scale) only summary will be posted and the entire post will be uploaded at my site here
*Smaller posts and all announcements(like this) would follow the main draft.
*All requests for the posts can be directed to goths_the1@yahoo.co.in/downloaded from the site
So hopefully, this change increases both the reading apetite as well as the number of readers.
cheers,
PS:Special mention for my friend Karthik(Aero) who came up with this suggestion
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Coming not so soon
The Shaastra that wasn't
A discussion on God
Fight club-my review
21 grams-my review
And much more
I know its been a long time since my announcement of these topics. I just haven't found the time to write these things. The next few weeks are a bit of a crunch on my side. So will try to post on these topics by mid october.
cheers,
A discussion on God
Fight club-my review
21 grams-my review
And much more
I know its been a long time since my announcement of these topics. I just haven't found the time to write these things. The next few weeks are a bit of a crunch on my side. So will try to post on these topics by mid october.
cheers,
An Adventure with the Black Hole
Funda:
There was this event called the "online science fiction writing" that happened just before Shaastra-09. I wanted to write a story (it was a long time since i had written a story) and this is the one that i managed. This is the first draft that i wrote and no significant improvement has been made. The same was submitted to the contest as well. So i do agree there will be some flaws. But hopefully its good enough. And as of now, i don't know whether i have won any prize in the contest. Happy reading!
The story:
It was the same boring signal again. The red was stagnant, refusing to move. As the seconds trickled past, the boredom increased gradually. It was one of the worst moments of the day. But somehow, the past few weeks have been, kind of, boring. NO SLEEP........
To read more, click here
cheers,
There was this event called the "online science fiction writing" that happened just before Shaastra-09. I wanted to write a story (it was a long time since i had written a story) and this is the one that i managed. This is the first draft that i wrote and no significant improvement has been made. The same was submitted to the contest as well. So i do agree there will be some flaws. But hopefully its good enough. And as of now, i don't know whether i have won any prize in the contest. Happy reading!
The story:
It was the same boring signal again. The red was stagnant, refusing to move. As the seconds trickled past, the boredom increased gradually. It was one of the worst moments of the day. But somehow, the past few weeks have been, kind of, boring. NO SLEEP........
To read more, click here
cheers,
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The joker dialogues
I had wanted to put this up long back. I practically lost this file. But better late than never. So here is the compilation of the joker's dialogues that feature in the movie "Dark Knight"(2008). Enjoy!
Grumpy: I’m bettin’ The Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash.
The Joker: No, no. I kill the bus driver.
Grumpy: Bus driver? What bus driver?
The Joker: Oh, and by the way, the suit, it wasn’t cheap. You oughta know, you bought it.
Gotham National Bank Manager: The criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor. Respect. Look at you! What do you believe in? What do you believe in!
The Joker: I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you… stranger.
The Joker:Ha ha ha..hoo hoo.. ha ha.. And I thought my jokes were bad…
The Joker: I know what you’re afraid of. I know why you choose to have your little “group therapy sessions” in broad daylight.
The Joker: The Batman.
To read more, click here.
cheers,
Grumpy: I’m bettin’ The Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash.
The Joker: No, no. I kill the bus driver.
Grumpy: Bus driver? What bus driver?
The Joker: Oh, and by the way, the suit, it wasn’t cheap. You oughta know, you bought it.
Gotham National Bank Manager: The criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor. Respect. Look at you! What do you believe in? What do you believe in!
The Joker: I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you… stranger.
The Joker:Ha ha ha..hoo hoo.. ha ha.. And I thought my jokes were bad…
The Joker: I know what you’re afraid of. I know why you choose to have your little “group therapy sessions” in broad daylight.
The Joker: The Batman.
To read more, click here.
cheers,
Monday, September 21, 2009
Festember 2009
Funda:
I hate to write this part. But when i utter the word Festember, 99.99999% people react in the following manner: "Ah???!!! whats that???"
So to all those who dont know what Festember is, it has a very simple funda. Its just the so called cul-fest of NIT-Trichy. The dates were 17th Sept-20th Sept.
The content:
My friends and i had a prolonged discussion on whether or not to take pains to go to trichy and attend festember about ten days before the event went underway. Train tickets would be a problem. So if by any chance we were actually going there it was by the bus. And getting a bus on a friday night before a three day weekend to trichy is-to put it simply-a herculean task.
We were indeed getting mixed responses about the event. The "driving force" was the presence of friends over there and an exposure of events conducted by other colleges. The drawback was-the events were not supposed to be good, the quality of participation poor, and not to forget, the travelling and the wastage of a full weekend.
read more
I hate to write this part. But when i utter the word Festember, 99.99999% people react in the following manner: "Ah???!!! whats that???"
So to all those who dont know what Festember is, it has a very simple funda. Its just the so called cul-fest of NIT-Trichy. The dates were 17th Sept-20th Sept.
The content:
My friends and i had a prolonged discussion on whether or not to take pains to go to trichy and attend festember about ten days before the event went underway. Train tickets would be a problem. So if by any chance we were actually going there it was by the bus. And getting a bus on a friday night before a three day weekend to trichy is-to put it simply-a herculean task.
We were indeed getting mixed responses about the event. The "driving force" was the presence of friends over there and an exposure of events conducted by other colleges. The drawback was-the events were not supposed to be good, the quality of participation poor, and not to forget, the travelling and the wastage of a full weekend.
read more
Financial Entropy
Entropy:
Definition: Entropy is the quantitative measure of disorder in a system. The concept comes out of thermodynamics, which deals with the transfer of heat energy within a system. Instead of talking about some form of "absolute entropy," physicists generally talk about the change in entropy that takes place in a specific thermodynamic process.
-physics.about.com
Thus goes the famous definition of a famous thermodynamic function. I tried to "extend" this concept to the financial world using the feeble knowledge of economics that i posses.
A completely "ordered" system in terms of economics, or the idealised system can be considered as one in which every individual has the same financial potential. Each earns the same, can spend the same, and can invest the same amount. All financial powers are identical.
A completely disordered system is one in which no individual has the same financial potential. They differ by atleast one financial unit.
So, is a scenario possible where every individual possesses equal financial potential, is a "perfect idealised system" possible?
Intuition says, "its not spontaneous, but its worth trying out". My point is, its not even worth striving for.
Imagine a world where the prime minister earns an equal income as you. So both of you will have the same meal everyday and will go through the same transport mechanism everyday. Sounds cool right?? But that only leads to huge security uncertainity. So ultimately, to protect the PM's life, money will be spent on security. This money is not actually "earned" by the PM but he somehow spends it. So, this implies that his "financial power" has increased out of nowhere.(the assumption here is that the govt funds form a sink-any amount of money can be deposited and any amount can be spent).
So ultimately, the ideal world only leads to destabilization. Say the cost of a vegetable is made higher. Since everyone has the same potential, no one will buy it and hence the vegetable's cost is automatically lowered causing considerable loss to those who tried to sell the vegetable and those who cultivated it successfully. Meanwhile, there will be a huge demand for vegetables with lower prices causing abrupt changes in the economy of such vegetables and corresponding changes in their production industries(which in the case here is agriculture). Similar problems arise everywhere.
Nature only tries to increase the entropy. So when you create an idealised system, it becomes unstable, as entropy is stored up. A small disturbance and the system breaks down to chaos.
So, will it be worth a try??I guess not. But what can be done is, drilling in a sense of satisfaction in everyone's mind. This might seem a "retrogative" idea. But what is the ultimate cause for all problems is, as Buddha put it, desire. So as long as there are people wishing for more, none will be sufficient.(the grass is always greener on the other side).In my view the Chinese govt has done a decent job towards achieving this state.
And i do propose, to create an open environment, where anyone can progress and where anyone will not have a problem if they stagnate in the same financial position. Such a system is "create-able" and as i view it is the most stable ideal system that can be brought about.(The US, though on track, is far from reaching this state).
Hoping I can do something towards creating such an environment in India and elsewhere.
cheers,
Definition: Entropy is the quantitative measure of disorder in a system. The concept comes out of thermodynamics, which deals with the transfer of heat energy within a system. Instead of talking about some form of "absolute entropy," physicists generally talk about the change in entropy that takes place in a specific thermodynamic process.
-physics.about.com
Thus goes the famous definition of a famous thermodynamic function. I tried to "extend" this concept to the financial world using the feeble knowledge of economics that i posses.
A completely "ordered" system in terms of economics, or the idealised system can be considered as one in which every individual has the same financial potential. Each earns the same, can spend the same, and can invest the same amount. All financial powers are identical.
A completely disordered system is one in which no individual has the same financial potential. They differ by atleast one financial unit.
So, is a scenario possible where every individual possesses equal financial potential, is a "perfect idealised system" possible?
Intuition says, "its not spontaneous, but its worth trying out". My point is, its not even worth striving for.
Imagine a world where the prime minister earns an equal income as you. So both of you will have the same meal everyday and will go through the same transport mechanism everyday. Sounds cool right?? But that only leads to huge security uncertainity. So ultimately, to protect the PM's life, money will be spent on security. This money is not actually "earned" by the PM but he somehow spends it. So, this implies that his "financial power" has increased out of nowhere.(the assumption here is that the govt funds form a sink-any amount of money can be deposited and any amount can be spent).
So ultimately, the ideal world only leads to destabilization. Say the cost of a vegetable is made higher. Since everyone has the same potential, no one will buy it and hence the vegetable's cost is automatically lowered causing considerable loss to those who tried to sell the vegetable and those who cultivated it successfully. Meanwhile, there will be a huge demand for vegetables with lower prices causing abrupt changes in the economy of such vegetables and corresponding changes in their production industries(which in the case here is agriculture). Similar problems arise everywhere.
Nature only tries to increase the entropy. So when you create an idealised system, it becomes unstable, as entropy is stored up. A small disturbance and the system breaks down to chaos.
So, will it be worth a try??I guess not. But what can be done is, drilling in a sense of satisfaction in everyone's mind. This might seem a "retrogative" idea. But what is the ultimate cause for all problems is, as Buddha put it, desire. So as long as there are people wishing for more, none will be sufficient.(the grass is always greener on the other side).In my view the Chinese govt has done a decent job towards achieving this state.
And i do propose, to create an open environment, where anyone can progress and where anyone will not have a problem if they stagnate in the same financial position. Such a system is "create-able" and as i view it is the most stable ideal system that can be brought about.(The US, though on track, is far from reaching this state).
Hoping I can do something towards creating such an environment in India and elsewhere.
cheers,
Monday, September 7, 2009
Why Kandhasamy doesnt work
This was a very bad experience of mine. Having spent one hundred and twenty bucks to get a plush seat at the satyam cinemas and hammering myself to squeeze out three hours(plus two for travelling) during the middle of a horrible week only added salt to the wound. Here is my outline..
The + points:
1.Vikram-this guy's underplay is sensational. Breathes life into one hell of a crap movie. But this is an implicit minus point as well. Why did an actor of his calibre choose such a dumb project?
2.Mexico-the locations choosen in this swine flu land were wonderful. Pure eye candy.
The - points:
1.You can watch Batman Begins, Spiderman, Anniyan, Sivaji, Gentleman, etc, etc etc movies one at a time. Surely you cant watch all of them at the same time. Which is what kandhasamy desperately tries to do
2.Devi Sri Prasad-He has indeed run out of the telegu tunes of the 70s and 80s to provide hit rehashes. So, he opts for remixing his own copied tunes and other shit tunes in recent telegu movies. As a result all the songs hurt the ear. My advice: Devi, please retire!!!!!!
3.Lyrics-WTF!!!!I guess the director, trying to act as a means of communication/trying to write his own lyrics, interchanged his script pad with the lyrics pad. As a result all the songs are like dialogues. EKSI
4.Shreya-Pack her!!!Seriously i have seen enough of this "guy-calling-herself-girl's" hips and boobs and ass. Its too boring. And seriously i dont think she knows enough belly dance to try and match Shakira. Bad move!!
5.Vadivelu-EKSI to him too. I dont call this "KAAMEDI"...anyone who does so??
6.Prabhu-A bad choice by Prabhu to act in this movie. Seriously, he is shown as a stupid genius. Which cop in our country has enough rights to launch an investigation into the "power of God" suspecting some malpractice???Logic missing??
7.Villain number 1-Aashish vidyarthi as the PPP is shown to be too intelligent a villain for tamizh cinema. He figures out the real identity of our so called "super hero" in just two frames!!!!!!EKSI(again)
8.Villain number 2-Shear dumb villain to be the richest man to be in TN. When vikram breaks this guy's bus with a single sledge hammer, this guy-in his panties(the undies didnt fit him..so i call them panties :P) doesnt even bother to put on his clothes.
9.Stunts-Seriously Vijay's 2km jump in kuruvi was more logical than these guys' so called team work. Dont tell me you can setup a wired network capable of withstanding a guy's weight in an agricultural field without anyone noticing.
10.Cinematography-Too shaky(pun unindented) and too unsteady.
11.Art work-You dont call plates of aluminium piled together as art. Eg: the police station in which vadivelu is investigated
12.Romance-Fck it. Its more artificial than Yaarukku Yaaro stepnie.
13.2nd half-Mexico was not needed at all. But atleast it provided some good locales that is hard to see in a lifetime
14.Director-well..he is the epitome of everything bad this movie has to offer. My advice-Shankar was eight films old when he took Sivaji-and he had 7 hits in the list!!!
My advice to the director: You could have as well used up the 40crore-or so, money, pooled to making this bull shit, towards adopting villages and improving them. Sheer waste of time and money.
Moral:never trust big budget movies. This applies to all heroes.
cheers,
The + points:
1.Vikram-this guy's underplay is sensational. Breathes life into one hell of a crap movie. But this is an implicit minus point as well. Why did an actor of his calibre choose such a dumb project?
2.Mexico-the locations choosen in this swine flu land were wonderful. Pure eye candy.
The - points:
1.You can watch Batman Begins, Spiderman, Anniyan, Sivaji, Gentleman, etc, etc etc movies one at a time. Surely you cant watch all of them at the same time. Which is what kandhasamy desperately tries to do
2.Devi Sri Prasad-He has indeed run out of the telegu tunes of the 70s and 80s to provide hit rehashes. So, he opts for remixing his own copied tunes and other shit tunes in recent telegu movies. As a result all the songs hurt the ear. My advice: Devi, please retire!!!!!!
3.Lyrics-WTF!!!!I guess the director, trying to act as a means of communication/trying to write his own lyrics, interchanged his script pad with the lyrics pad. As a result all the songs are like dialogues. EKSI
4.Shreya-Pack her!!!Seriously i have seen enough of this "guy-calling-herself-girl's" hips and boobs and ass. Its too boring. And seriously i dont think she knows enough belly dance to try and match Shakira. Bad move!!
5.Vadivelu-EKSI to him too. I dont call this "KAAMEDI"...anyone who does so??
6.Prabhu-A bad choice by Prabhu to act in this movie. Seriously, he is shown as a stupid genius. Which cop in our country has enough rights to launch an investigation into the "power of God" suspecting some malpractice???Logic missing??
7.Villain number 1-Aashish vidyarthi as the PPP is shown to be too intelligent a villain for tamizh cinema. He figures out the real identity of our so called "super hero" in just two frames!!!!!!EKSI(again)
8.Villain number 2-Shear dumb villain to be the richest man to be in TN. When vikram breaks this guy's bus with a single sledge hammer, this guy-in his panties(the undies didnt fit him..so i call them panties :P) doesnt even bother to put on his clothes.
9.Stunts-Seriously Vijay's 2km jump in kuruvi was more logical than these guys' so called team work. Dont tell me you can setup a wired network capable of withstanding a guy's weight in an agricultural field without anyone noticing.
10.Cinematography-Too shaky(pun unindented) and too unsteady.
11.Art work-You dont call plates of aluminium piled together as art. Eg: the police station in which vadivelu is investigated
12.Romance-Fck it. Its more artificial than Yaarukku Yaaro stepnie.
13.2nd half-Mexico was not needed at all. But atleast it provided some good locales that is hard to see in a lifetime
14.Director-well..he is the epitome of everything bad this movie has to offer. My advice-Shankar was eight films old when he took Sivaji-and he had 7 hits in the list!!!
My advice to the director: You could have as well used up the 40crore-or so, money, pooled to making this bull shit, towards adopting villages and improving them. Sheer waste of time and money.
Moral:never trust big budget movies. This applies to all heroes.
cheers,
A Faint glimmer of hope
Funda:
The basic funda behind this post is that-i had attended the "aspiring co-ords meet" for Saarang-2010 and a number of depts had called for coordinators there. One such dept was the newsletter dept. In the application form that i had to fill in order to apply for the newsletter coordship, the question was-"Connect in about 300 words--ACM,JJ,Lays,Pluto,Pratibha patil,election,Saras,IITM,chinky chicks,42". Yup, the question was vague indeed and it was the first time that i had tried to write an article of this kind. The article didnt fetch me the coordship-but i didnt want it to be lost in the oblivion because it was the first time that i had attempted something like it. Here is the article-christened forever in cyber space. :D.
Feedbacks strongly welcomed for this article.
Article:
Fine evenings at IITM are hard to comeby, but I did get one on August 12,2009. A calm evening because I had spent the entire afternoon seeing LOTR 3. The movie really exhausted me. Wonder how people managed to retain high concentration levels during that epic. I was munching a packet of Lays(Spanish Tango flavour) and was browsing through the net when I received a post on gtalk from my friend who lives in Saras. He asked me to come there to discuss “our prospects for doing something useful this shaastra”. So, while leaving the hostel I saw an IP saying “ACM* today at 10”. Oh!!! So soon!!!
I rushed to the CLT at 9 30(for obvious reasons), but found a placard saying-“ACM cancelled”. So I returned to my room(not knowing that it was the one stuck for last week) and started listening to the nice melodies from the movie JJ. Ten minutes later one of my neighbours came rushing to my room saying “macha, we have ACM today!!”. So I packed my comp and reached CLT by 9 56 and luckily found a seat in the middle. Just before the show was about to start came a group of semi-hot 2nd year MA girls. Something has to be done to IITs, to improve the quality of girls here. It desperately reminded me of some awesome chinky chicks I saw at Singapore during the summer(ya…agree Bangkok is way better, but Singapore is not bad either).And Pratibha patil’s famous statement of “creating exclusive IITs for girls” came to my mind. I cursed her one more time adding to the infinite number of times I have done that in the past year.
The presentations began at I(nsti)ST. The projector was kinda weird giving a very “red” display of everything(red enhances aggresiveness-not good at AC halls :P). The cul-secs threw some “PJ”s and profoundly refused to apologise for the “red” projector. Starting with publicity and sales a slurry of presentations began to follow, each one claiming to be the “backbone”, “face”, “lungs”, “kidney” etc. of saarang. Thankfully no dept claimed any part of the human body below the backbone :D. It was evident that the cores wanted to take a dig at one another and also frustrate the audience with even more “PJ”s. In one of the presentations was mentioned the number “42”. I was caught napping as I didn’t have a clue to what it referred. My friend later explained the adage from the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.
Then came the Spons, PR and media team. Strangely two coincidences-Lays and JJ :D. The guys were joined by the only girl in the core team as well(What happened to male chauvenism??-but good in a way :D). I found a “faint glimmer of hope”(that explains the title right??)that I too can become a co-ord as they had asked for writing skills :D. So I had fixed it to be one of my choices. Then came Oops, the hospitality core who profoundly explained his becoming a core after losing insti elections(its an appreciable fact).I must thank this guy really-he has indeed helped me a lot.
Facilities, QMS, Security etc. soon followed and the presentation was culminated by web ops dept which offered a refuge to all the maggus. The population of maggus in any saarang team is like pluto occupying the solar system-non existent.
And so I finished off a fine day with the faint hope of becoming a newsletter co-ord.
*-Aspiring Co-ords Meet
The basic funda behind this post is that-i had attended the "aspiring co-ords meet" for Saarang-2010 and a number of depts had called for coordinators there. One such dept was the newsletter dept. In the application form that i had to fill in order to apply for the newsletter coordship, the question was-"Connect in about 300 words--ACM,JJ,Lays,Pluto,Pratibha patil,election,Saras,IITM,chinky chicks,42". Yup, the question was vague indeed and it was the first time that i had tried to write an article of this kind. The article didnt fetch me the coordship-but i didnt want it to be lost in the oblivion because it was the first time that i had attempted something like it. Here is the article-christened forever in cyber space. :D.
Feedbacks strongly welcomed for this article.
Article:
Fine evenings at IITM are hard to comeby, but I did get one on August 12,2009. A calm evening because I had spent the entire afternoon seeing LOTR 3. The movie really exhausted me. Wonder how people managed to retain high concentration levels during that epic. I was munching a packet of Lays(Spanish Tango flavour) and was browsing through the net when I received a post on gtalk from my friend who lives in Saras. He asked me to come there to discuss “our prospects for doing something useful this shaastra”. So, while leaving the hostel I saw an IP saying “ACM* today at 10”. Oh!!! So soon!!!
I rushed to the CLT at 9 30(for obvious reasons), but found a placard saying-“ACM cancelled”. So I returned to my room(not knowing that it was the one stuck for last week) and started listening to the nice melodies from the movie JJ. Ten minutes later one of my neighbours came rushing to my room saying “macha, we have ACM today!!”. So I packed my comp and reached CLT by 9 56 and luckily found a seat in the middle. Just before the show was about to start came a group of semi-hot 2nd year MA girls. Something has to be done to IITs, to improve the quality of girls here. It desperately reminded me of some awesome chinky chicks I saw at Singapore during the summer(ya…agree Bangkok is way better, but Singapore is not bad either).And Pratibha patil’s famous statement of “creating exclusive IITs for girls” came to my mind. I cursed her one more time adding to the infinite number of times I have done that in the past year.
The presentations began at I(nsti)ST. The projector was kinda weird giving a very “red” display of everything(red enhances aggresiveness-not good at AC halls :P). The cul-secs threw some “PJ”s and profoundly refused to apologise for the “red” projector. Starting with publicity and sales a slurry of presentations began to follow, each one claiming to be the “backbone”, “face”, “lungs”, “kidney” etc. of saarang. Thankfully no dept claimed any part of the human body below the backbone :D. It was evident that the cores wanted to take a dig at one another and also frustrate the audience with even more “PJ”s. In one of the presentations was mentioned the number “42”. I was caught napping as I didn’t have a clue to what it referred. My friend later explained the adage from the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.
Then came the Spons, PR and media team. Strangely two coincidences-Lays and JJ :D. The guys were joined by the only girl in the core team as well(What happened to male chauvenism??-but good in a way :D). I found a “faint glimmer of hope”(that explains the title right??)that I too can become a co-ord as they had asked for writing skills :D. So I had fixed it to be one of my choices. Then came Oops, the hospitality core who profoundly explained his becoming a core after losing insti elections(its an appreciable fact).I must thank this guy really-he has indeed helped me a lot.
Facilities, QMS, Security etc. soon followed and the presentation was culminated by web ops dept which offered a refuge to all the maggus. The population of maggus in any saarang team is like pluto occupying the solar system-non existent.
And so I finished off a fine day with the faint hope of becoming a newsletter co-ord.
*-Aspiring Co-ords Meet
Poll Results-2
Q:Honestly, Do you like this blog?
A:Yes-54%
B:No-0%
C:No opinion-46%
Primarily, I thank all those who voted. Your enthusiasm encourages me to explore further. Also, this poll saw an 83% percent jump in the number of votes polled, which indicates that the number of people who have started reading my posts have increased. For a small time blogger like me, this is surely an achievement. Thanks to all of you.
Secondarily, I would like to encourage all the readers to vote on the polls. It does help in judgments and determining tastes. And that influences to a certain extent the stuff about which i write.
No one voted corresponding to the "no" column of the blog. Its good in a way that atleast from those who voted, no one outrightly rejected my blog. Its bad in the sense that there arises a doubt in my mind whether people actually wanted to poll in a "no" and wanted rather to be a "softer" critic by polling on the "no opinion" column(which has got a whooping percentage of votes to its credit-the least i expected). Personally i am against this "softer" form of criticism. If you dont like it-say it. Atleast you may like the modifications. Also, i want all my leaders to be honest on my blog-while reading, writing comments and polling.
Another mention-do write comments. Blast me if you want to. I am a recipient of constructive criticisms and i take criticism and critics by my stride(i am a very bad critic myself). So i appeal to all my readers to constructively criticise my posts-it helps.
Special Mention-Many people complained about the length of articles on my blog-especially the "Does God exist??" post. My answer is-The post in mention is actually smaller when compared a few of my other posts and its lengthy only on the intellectual scale. Moreover i am a fan of long writing. So all my posts will be longer than the "average" post that you find elsewhere. And regarding the post in mention-i request you to read it fully to get the full impact and then take a decision on whether the time spent on it was useful.FULL READING=>>FULL IMPACT. Please read in full.
Hoping to write more and more..
cheers,
A:Yes-54%
B:No-0%
C:No opinion-46%
Primarily, I thank all those who voted. Your enthusiasm encourages me to explore further. Also, this poll saw an 83% percent jump in the number of votes polled, which indicates that the number of people who have started reading my posts have increased. For a small time blogger like me, this is surely an achievement. Thanks to all of you.
Secondarily, I would like to encourage all the readers to vote on the polls. It does help in judgments and determining tastes. And that influences to a certain extent the stuff about which i write.
No one voted corresponding to the "no" column of the blog. Its good in a way that atleast from those who voted, no one outrightly rejected my blog. Its bad in the sense that there arises a doubt in my mind whether people actually wanted to poll in a "no" and wanted rather to be a "softer" critic by polling on the "no opinion" column(which has got a whooping percentage of votes to its credit-the least i expected). Personally i am against this "softer" form of criticism. If you dont like it-say it. Atleast you may like the modifications. Also, i want all my leaders to be honest on my blog-while reading, writing comments and polling.
Another mention-do write comments. Blast me if you want to. I am a recipient of constructive criticisms and i take criticism and critics by my stride(i am a very bad critic myself). So i appeal to all my readers to constructively criticise my posts-it helps.
Special Mention-Many people complained about the length of articles on my blog-especially the "Does God exist??" post. My answer is-The post in mention is actually smaller when compared a few of my other posts and its lengthy only on the intellectual scale. Moreover i am a fan of long writing. So all my posts will be longer than the "average" post that you find elsewhere. And regarding the post in mention-i request you to read it fully to get the full impact and then take a decision on whether the time spent on it was useful.FULL READING=>>FULL IMPACT. Please read in full.
Hoping to write more and more..
cheers,
Saturday, August 29, 2009
An ode to a GIANT
The legends, the giants, the greats-and their synonyms-have always fascinated the quintessential ordinary guy. I am no exception on this account. Some people say great people are born, some say they are made, some say it is just an illusion created by the mind out of deep respect or reverence to the acts the “great” person has committed. But by all means, greatness is something that is always looked up to, something that inspires people, something that stands as a symbol for the times.
The greatest thing about greatness is that it keeps producing greats. Time and again some person just rises up from the rubble left behind by a legend, steals the occasion and becomes a great by his own standards. The legend I refer here is no different. He is a guy who rose up to the spot no one thought would rise to and how fast did he do it!
Tennis is such a fickle sport. It can create and destroy players at the drop of the hat. One injury can destroy a range of things from consistency to the whole career. The individuality of the sport is what brands the sport and both affects and elates the sport to a great extent. Tennis is often characterized by eras. One era after another, one great after another, one beautiful moment after another. And what is so special about the legends of this sport is that they have lived a dream career amidst so many people who generally struggle to have a satisfactory professional career.
The titans of the game include an exhaustive list of greats like Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson in the pre open era and Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the open era. Sampras was often considered the greatest in the earlier part of this decade and his numerous records were considered untouchable until one man stepped up his game and the standard of the game of tennis as a whole to an all new level. Roger Federer-the new king.
It is fascinating to note that the world of tennis has never allowed two emperors to rule simultaneously. The transition has always been made well. Borg didn’t come into the picture till Laver ruled. Lendl came after Borg left. Sampras came after Lendl. And Federer is no exception. Given that, the thing that makes him special is he has risen above all the above mentioned players- just like that.
I would say the strength of his game is simply the beauty of it. Elegancy in tennis reaches its pinnacle in his game. The way the forehand curves in from beyond the side lines, the arc of the backhand, the subtlety of the volley. His serve is the most underrated "vicious" serve in tennis circles right now. His attitude towards the sport is amazing-he sounds real humble in everything he does. (Sampras in his interview after Wimbledon 09 mentioned-“the guy is really humble”) – i e, he is not flamboyant in the absolute sense. His calm mentality on court is amazing. The best of the lot is, he is so emotional but appears on court as though nothing has happened at all.
Not many know of the difficulties faced by him in becoming what he is now. Faced with emotional inconsistencies, he used to lose more matches than win just because he got psyched up due to a bad shot. After winning the Wimbledon boys title in 98, it took him almost two years to reach his first ATP final at Marseilles in 2000, and one another year to win his first ATP title in 2001 at Milan. His not-to-be-big break came in the same year when he defeated the then reigning Wimbledon champion Sampras(many consider the famous match to be the “exchange of guards”, the passing of the baton). It took one more year to clinch his second ATP title at Hamburg.
In 2003, after all the training to achieve mental stability he won his first grand slam at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. There was no stopping from there. He became the number one in the world soon after winning the Australian open in February the following year. And he was going one way-up.
The pinnacle of his achievements came in the year 2007. From the start of 2008, he was going one way-down. Mononucleosis implied a below par Australian open. The rise of a Spanish Armada meant he fizzed out at the French open. Rain saved him the blushes and motivated him to fight a great match only to lose a brutal five setter one month later at Wimbledon. A quarter final exit at the Olympics meant he lost his number one ranking. Save a victory at the US open and a doubles gold at the olympics, he had a traumatizing year by his "own" standards-he won just three titles through the course of the year.
The thing special about 2008 is that, it is considered to be his worst year after escalating to the top of the tennis groupings. And his worst year consisted of one grand slam victory, two slam finals and a semi final and a world ranking of no 2. Any other player would have taken it hands down. But it is just that Federer has rised the level of expectations, level of playing standards and the level of results so high that people actually considered this as “bad”.
2009-no promising start. No titles in January culminating at a five set-third consecutive slam final defeat to the Spanish bull. Then no titles till late May when he beat a weary bull to clinch the Madrid title. People hardly gave him a chance at the French open that followed soon after. He was more of the “fourth” favorite to win the title. It can be considered only as divine intervention-but all the guys who were put ahead of him in the favorite list were eliminated during the course of the tournament implying that he didn’t have to beat them to clinch the revered clay grand slam that had eluded him all the years. And he did so, comprehensively, winning the French final in straight sets having survived two very close five set matches in due course of the tournament.
It suddenly changed the equation all of a sudden as some of the doubters were finally proved wrong with the musketeers’ cup in his possession. Then came up the mammoth Wimbledon victory, in the absence of the Spanish matador, in one hell of a final, sculpting Mt. Roger at 15 slams high, one step higher than Mt. Sampras. And presently, after the dramatic 2009, after some of the record books he has re-written, he is now revered as the “best-ever”.
He still has a few imperfections to his credit-proving that he is after all -ONLY HUMAN. He has an adverse head to head record against his arch rival, he doesn’t have an Olympics singles gold and a few such others. But all legends have imperfections. It’s the imperfections which make them so affable. Perfection should always be strived to achieve, but once achieved a perfect object loses the charm of an imperfect object, and closer the imperfect object to perfection, the more is its charm. And right now Roger is the closest to "the most perfect tennis player".
I wrote this short phrase like thing after his Wimbledon victory this year..
“It takes a below average human to give up during tough times.
It takes an average human to harbor hope during tough times.
It takes an above average person to endure and fight during tough times.
It takes a great person to come out winning through tough times.
It takes Roger Federer to rise from the ashes.”
To Federer, to tennis, to sport.
Cheers,
The greatest thing about greatness is that it keeps producing greats. Time and again some person just rises up from the rubble left behind by a legend, steals the occasion and becomes a great by his own standards. The legend I refer here is no different. He is a guy who rose up to the spot no one thought would rise to and how fast did he do it!
Tennis is such a fickle sport. It can create and destroy players at the drop of the hat. One injury can destroy a range of things from consistency to the whole career. The individuality of the sport is what brands the sport and both affects and elates the sport to a great extent. Tennis is often characterized by eras. One era after another, one great after another, one beautiful moment after another. And what is so special about the legends of this sport is that they have lived a dream career amidst so many people who generally struggle to have a satisfactory professional career.
The titans of the game include an exhaustive list of greats like Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson in the pre open era and Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the open era. Sampras was often considered the greatest in the earlier part of this decade and his numerous records were considered untouchable until one man stepped up his game and the standard of the game of tennis as a whole to an all new level. Roger Federer-the new king.
It is fascinating to note that the world of tennis has never allowed two emperors to rule simultaneously. The transition has always been made well. Borg didn’t come into the picture till Laver ruled. Lendl came after Borg left. Sampras came after Lendl. And Federer is no exception. Given that, the thing that makes him special is he has risen above all the above mentioned players- just like that.
I would say the strength of his game is simply the beauty of it. Elegancy in tennis reaches its pinnacle in his game. The way the forehand curves in from beyond the side lines, the arc of the backhand, the subtlety of the volley. His serve is the most underrated "vicious" serve in tennis circles right now. His attitude towards the sport is amazing-he sounds real humble in everything he does. (Sampras in his interview after Wimbledon 09 mentioned-“the guy is really humble”) – i e, he is not flamboyant in the absolute sense. His calm mentality on court is amazing. The best of the lot is, he is so emotional but appears on court as though nothing has happened at all.
Not many know of the difficulties faced by him in becoming what he is now. Faced with emotional inconsistencies, he used to lose more matches than win just because he got psyched up due to a bad shot. After winning the Wimbledon boys title in 98, it took him almost two years to reach his first ATP final at Marseilles in 2000, and one another year to win his first ATP title in 2001 at Milan. His not-to-be-big break came in the same year when he defeated the then reigning Wimbledon champion Sampras(many consider the famous match to be the “exchange of guards”, the passing of the baton). It took one more year to clinch his second ATP title at Hamburg.
In 2003, after all the training to achieve mental stability he won his first grand slam at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. There was no stopping from there. He became the number one in the world soon after winning the Australian open in February the following year. And he was going one way-up.
The pinnacle of his achievements came in the year 2007. From the start of 2008, he was going one way-down. Mononucleosis implied a below par Australian open. The rise of a Spanish Armada meant he fizzed out at the French open. Rain saved him the blushes and motivated him to fight a great match only to lose a brutal five setter one month later at Wimbledon. A quarter final exit at the Olympics meant he lost his number one ranking. Save a victory at the US open and a doubles gold at the olympics, he had a traumatizing year by his "own" standards-he won just three titles through the course of the year.
The thing special about 2008 is that, it is considered to be his worst year after escalating to the top of the tennis groupings. And his worst year consisted of one grand slam victory, two slam finals and a semi final and a world ranking of no 2. Any other player would have taken it hands down. But it is just that Federer has rised the level of expectations, level of playing standards and the level of results so high that people actually considered this as “bad”.
2009-no promising start. No titles in January culminating at a five set-third consecutive slam final defeat to the Spanish bull. Then no titles till late May when he beat a weary bull to clinch the Madrid title. People hardly gave him a chance at the French open that followed soon after. He was more of the “fourth” favorite to win the title. It can be considered only as divine intervention-but all the guys who were put ahead of him in the favorite list were eliminated during the course of the tournament implying that he didn’t have to beat them to clinch the revered clay grand slam that had eluded him all the years. And he did so, comprehensively, winning the French final in straight sets having survived two very close five set matches in due course of the tournament.
It suddenly changed the equation all of a sudden as some of the doubters were finally proved wrong with the musketeers’ cup in his possession. Then came up the mammoth Wimbledon victory, in the absence of the Spanish matador, in one hell of a final, sculpting Mt. Roger at 15 slams high, one step higher than Mt. Sampras. And presently, after the dramatic 2009, after some of the record books he has re-written, he is now revered as the “best-ever”.
He still has a few imperfections to his credit-proving that he is after all -ONLY HUMAN. He has an adverse head to head record against his arch rival, he doesn’t have an Olympics singles gold and a few such others. But all legends have imperfections. It’s the imperfections which make them so affable. Perfection should always be strived to achieve, but once achieved a perfect object loses the charm of an imperfect object, and closer the imperfect object to perfection, the more is its charm. And right now Roger is the closest to "the most perfect tennis player".
I wrote this short phrase like thing after his Wimbledon victory this year..
“It takes a below average human to give up during tough times.
It takes an average human to harbor hope during tough times.
It takes an above average person to endure and fight during tough times.
It takes a great person to come out winning through tough times.
It takes Roger Federer to rise from the ashes.”
To Federer, to tennis, to sport.
Cheers,
Monday, August 3, 2009
Does God exist????
Statutory Warning:
If you want to convince yourselves of something-this post wont help.
If you dont wanna believe in what i am gonna say here-i cant help you and i dont justify my statements either..
I have tried my best not to invoke any religious principles-sorry if i disappoint you with this..
I guess this debate on the Existence of God has been going on ever since man learned to think for himself. And as with all arguments, all debates and all coins, there are two sides to it. But the majority of the world believes in a superior power(atleast thats very true in my parts of the world) and the strong minority believes in the will of man. I belong to the majority.
You might think, why this guy ever wanted to put a post on a topic which he has an answer to. The purpose of this post is not exactly the answer to the above question, but to look beyond and maybe try and "understand" God..
read more
If you want to convince yourselves of something-this post wont help.
If you dont wanna believe in what i am gonna say here-i cant help you and i dont justify my statements either..
I have tried my best not to invoke any religious principles-sorry if i disappoint you with this..
I guess this debate on the Existence of God has been going on ever since man learned to think for himself. And as with all arguments, all debates and all coins, there are two sides to it. But the majority of the world believes in a superior power(atleast thats very true in my parts of the world) and the strong minority believes in the will of man. I belong to the majority.
You might think, why this guy ever wanted to put a post on a topic which he has an answer to. The purpose of this post is not exactly the answer to the above question, but to look beyond and maybe try and "understand" God..
read more
Poll Results-1
Q:Who, in your opinion is the greatest tennis player ever?
Results:
Roger Federer-83%
Rafael Nadal-17%
Others(incl sampras borg and laver)-0%
First and foremost, i thank all of those who voted on this poll..
Second..i do agree with the popular opinion of federer being the greatest player ever..
I congratulate the people who voted for nadal...it shows your intense passion for his kind of game...really appreciate it...tennis needs such fan following....and maybe one day nadal can beat all of federer's records justifying your opinion...time will tell...
Sampras and Borg, despite all their wonderful achievements...not getting a single vote is understandable...but i couldnt understand why a player like laver..who is the only person in tennis history to claim two calendar slams and who despite not playing for six years managed to collect 12 slams as a pro, couldnt manage a single vote...maybe its the lack of awareness...but in many tennis circles he is undoubtedly still a strong competitor with federer for that title...
And i do encourage all my blog readers to vote on the polls as and when they are up...your patronage will be deeply appreciated :D
if this post sounded too "formal"...he he he...let it be formal...
cheers,
Results:
Roger Federer-83%
Rafael Nadal-17%
Others(incl sampras borg and laver)-0%
First and foremost, i thank all of those who voted on this poll..
Second..i do agree with the popular opinion of federer being the greatest player ever..
I congratulate the people who voted for nadal...it shows your intense passion for his kind of game...really appreciate it...tennis needs such fan following....and maybe one day nadal can beat all of federer's records justifying your opinion...time will tell...
Sampras and Borg, despite all their wonderful achievements...not getting a single vote is understandable...but i couldnt understand why a player like laver..who is the only person in tennis history to claim two calendar slams and who despite not playing for six years managed to collect 12 slams as a pro, couldnt manage a single vote...maybe its the lack of awareness...but in many tennis circles he is undoubtedly still a strong competitor with federer for that title...
And i do encourage all my blog readers to vote on the polls as and when they are up...your patronage will be deeply appreciated :D
if this post sounded too "formal"...he he he...let it be formal...
cheers,
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Big Break
Movies-The realm of human imagination...its fascinating how drastic a turn the field of entertainment has taken in the last century(plus a decade)to turn human imagination into something so close to real...
Movies have always(and hopefully will always)fascinated me...its not the actors, technicians, the laborers or the amount of money that goes into a movie that has fascinated me, but how a simple human mind(in some cases a collection of minds)is able to turn something so abstract into something thats worth speculating and imagining..
Having written a review of a movie..i now consider myself a small time amateur critic of movies...i analyse movies just for my own satisfaction...its a kinda selfish motive only..its like each time i look at a still/frame i notice something new...each time i hear a dialogue repeated i kinda learn something new...guess i learn more from movies than from books...reading does exhaust me at times...but not watching..
It took a pretty long time for me to get propelled into analysing movies given the fact that i have a director within my family...but this propelling action was kinda restricted to tamizh movies only...it was like i didnt sorta "hear" the many brilliant other language movies that were made...and anyways i wasnt really old enough to see all genres of movies...
So what propelled me into movies...the faintest memory i have of first being awe struck seeing a movie is khakha khakha...i was kinda stunned after watching the movie...i dont mean to say it was the greatest movie i ever saw..it just kinda gave a beginning...
But the big break had to wait for some more years...i had finished tenth and i unassumingly caught hold of a dvd of the film "the Matrix" at my uncle's house...it was a combo dvd with the first two parts of the trilogy present...since i was jobless i just played it...
thankfully the movie was sub titled...i couldnt hear most of the dialogues even at full volume...the movie started of pretty slowly...exploded suddenly and finished off in an abstract...
frankly speaking, though i was awed by the movie...i didnt quite connect to the story...so i played it again the next day...and this time it hit me...
i had, before seeing the matrix, had seen a handful of hollywood movies...like gladiator, titanic...some other crap movies(some of which were put on vijay tv :D)...but not quite this...i hadnt seen a sci fi movie before...dealing with the future...man vs machine kinda thing(ya...i hadnt seen terminator then)...but the one real thing which caught me was the "maya" effect(aka illusions)...i had heard of this effect when i was a kid...but to see the effect transformed into a series of incidents and events(ie a movie)...i was quite awe struck by the director's imagination...and i saw the second part the same day...was very impressed by the stunts(till date...they are the best kind of stunts i have seen yet)...and a month later i caught hold of the third part..
i was pretty impressed with the trilogy...it was like the greatest movie i had seen then not realising what was to come..i did manage to see all the three movies atleast a coupla times more in the years to come...
so the basic crux is that...this movie opened the floodgates...i began to see a lot more hollywood and british movies...i read about famous story lines and screenplays and actors...like i began knowing more about cinema..
(if u did realise my nom-de-plume is The 1=the one which is a jumbled form of-"the neo"-the lead character's name in the matrix...thats my ode to the movie..my ode to the big break it gave)
and college has really played an important role in improving my knowledge of cinema...it has widened the horizons a bit...exposed me to newer thinking styles newer themes newer screenplays and an amazing list of actors...and now i do consider "dark knight" to be the greatest movie i have seen till now...but its possible i might see a better movie than that...
off late i have indeed realised one thing...there is no stopping to the process of learning in cinema...you just have to keep learning and keep growing...and i am trying the same...its been more of hollywood and kollywood all my life...in the future i do desire to expand my horizons to world movies...to movies which are made in different parts of the world..i think thats the ultimate place where a true "critic" will want to be...the pinnacle of film making...
the trouble with seeing movies made all over the world is...you cant relate to most of the themes...its pretty much a fair reason though considering you cant see the way of life of most people around the world...another complimenting reason would be "lack of resources"...there are not many people who follow world cinema as such and hence its tough to become a follower...the inspiration factor and the resources are lower(atleast in my nation)...but i do maintain this belief of mine.."if u need something...u need to seek it out"..
of course i am just an amateur yet and with divine help i have quite a few years of my life to become more than just an amateur...to be more imaginatively equipped and creatively enriched...
will put up reviews of some of the movies as and when i see of them...and hopefully you like my way of looking at things and my mode of analysing :D
jai ho cinema!!!!!!!
cheers,
Movies have always(and hopefully will always)fascinated me...its not the actors, technicians, the laborers or the amount of money that goes into a movie that has fascinated me, but how a simple human mind(in some cases a collection of minds)is able to turn something so abstract into something thats worth speculating and imagining..
Having written a review of a movie..i now consider myself a small time amateur critic of movies...i analyse movies just for my own satisfaction...its a kinda selfish motive only..its like each time i look at a still/frame i notice something new...each time i hear a dialogue repeated i kinda learn something new...guess i learn more from movies than from books...reading does exhaust me at times...but not watching..
It took a pretty long time for me to get propelled into analysing movies given the fact that i have a director within my family...but this propelling action was kinda restricted to tamizh movies only...it was like i didnt sorta "hear" the many brilliant other language movies that were made...and anyways i wasnt really old enough to see all genres of movies...
So what propelled me into movies...the faintest memory i have of first being awe struck seeing a movie is khakha khakha...i was kinda stunned after watching the movie...i dont mean to say it was the greatest movie i ever saw..it just kinda gave a beginning...
But the big break had to wait for some more years...i had finished tenth and i unassumingly caught hold of a dvd of the film "the Matrix" at my uncle's house...it was a combo dvd with the first two parts of the trilogy present...since i was jobless i just played it...
thankfully the movie was sub titled...i couldnt hear most of the dialogues even at full volume...the movie started of pretty slowly...exploded suddenly and finished off in an abstract...
frankly speaking, though i was awed by the movie...i didnt quite connect to the story...so i played it again the next day...and this time it hit me...
i had, before seeing the matrix, had seen a handful of hollywood movies...like gladiator, titanic...some other crap movies(some of which were put on vijay tv :D)...but not quite this...i hadnt seen a sci fi movie before...dealing with the future...man vs machine kinda thing(ya...i hadnt seen terminator then)...but the one real thing which caught me was the "maya" effect(aka illusions)...i had heard of this effect when i was a kid...but to see the effect transformed into a series of incidents and events(ie a movie)...i was quite awe struck by the director's imagination...and i saw the second part the same day...was very impressed by the stunts(till date...they are the best kind of stunts i have seen yet)...and a month later i caught hold of the third part..
i was pretty impressed with the trilogy...it was like the greatest movie i had seen then not realising what was to come..i did manage to see all the three movies atleast a coupla times more in the years to come...
so the basic crux is that...this movie opened the floodgates...i began to see a lot more hollywood and british movies...i read about famous story lines and screenplays and actors...like i began knowing more about cinema..
(if u did realise my nom-de-plume is The 1=the one which is a jumbled form of-"the neo"-the lead character's name in the matrix...thats my ode to the movie..my ode to the big break it gave)
and college has really played an important role in improving my knowledge of cinema...it has widened the horizons a bit...exposed me to newer thinking styles newer themes newer screenplays and an amazing list of actors...and now i do consider "dark knight" to be the greatest movie i have seen till now...but its possible i might see a better movie than that...
off late i have indeed realised one thing...there is no stopping to the process of learning in cinema...you just have to keep learning and keep growing...and i am trying the same...its been more of hollywood and kollywood all my life...in the future i do desire to expand my horizons to world movies...to movies which are made in different parts of the world..i think thats the ultimate place where a true "critic" will want to be...the pinnacle of film making...
the trouble with seeing movies made all over the world is...you cant relate to most of the themes...its pretty much a fair reason though considering you cant see the way of life of most people around the world...another complimenting reason would be "lack of resources"...there are not many people who follow world cinema as such and hence its tough to become a follower...the inspiration factor and the resources are lower(atleast in my nation)...but i do maintain this belief of mine.."if u need something...u need to seek it out"..
of course i am just an amateur yet and with divine help i have quite a few years of my life to become more than just an amateur...to be more imaginatively equipped and creatively enriched...
will put up reviews of some of the movies as and when i see of them...and hopefully you like my way of looking at things and my mode of analysing :D
jai ho cinema!!!!!!!
cheers,
Holidays: May-July,2009
April 30:
My first year at my college ended..And hence began the mammoth holidays of close to 90 days..
Travelogue:
May3:
Started off for a massive journey covering five places-Varanashi,Delhi,Genting,KL,Singapore...we had to go to varanashi(aka kasi)first and we did so by train..the next day fully was spent in the train(!!)..it wasnt bad anyway..
May5:
Had a wonderful bath in the holy river of ganges..and good "dharshans" at the three important temples..Viswanathar,Annaporni and visalakshi..we departed to delhi that evening
May6:
wonderful weather in Delhi..the heat was unusually pleasant...watched all the important places except akshar dham(ya..the new temple...was closed due to elections)
May7:
late afternoon flight....transit via colombo..stay in colombo for 6 hrs(that was the worst part really...no sleep)
May8:
Reached Genting by the afternoon..nice place...nice weather...good enjoyment...
May9:
we spent the morning at genting...afternoon at the Batu Caves(which house the famous murugan temple)..nice places...
May10:
KL and KL(visited the skybridge of the petronas towers and the KL tower too)
May11:
Reached singapore by the evening...night safari...was ok...i wasnt too thrilled by it
May12:
sentosa-the most exciting place at singapore...was pretty enjoyable..esp songs of sea..it was an engineering marvel more than anything..
May13:
Jurong bird park-very nice collection of birds(none of them are actually found on the island...all bred..thats the best part of it)..the shows were good too..
that afternoon we headed to sentosa again to catch some of the shows we missed :D
May14:
reached chennai by night...it was totally a wonderful journey...and chennai was hot!!!!!:P
It took me almost a week to settle down after the wonderful journey..began working(actually dozing off-my friend did all the work)as the web ops cord :D..also got my grades one by one...and it all added up to a gp of 9.3 in the second sem-target accomplished...i wanted to be a nine pointer :D...also started watching movies...should have watched close to ten movies till the end of may(many tarentino movies)..went out to a lot of movies with very few friends :(..
June:
the sun was hotter this month than it was during may!!..this was a month that i determined myself to do something useful...but hardly did anything useful..read two full books in da vinci code and the pilgrimage...since i am a pretty slow reader it took me about 15 days to complete them both..wanted to learn something productive..didnt do anything close to it..saw ten more movies in the first three weeks and ten more during the last week..i had gone to madurai during the last week of june and stayed there till start of july..watched wimbledon,lots of movies and had long chats with my cousin there(it was good sharing experiences..gave some happy moments)...it was nice coz there was physically absolutely no strain :D...the meenakshi temple was at its usual best..i do remember getting into a fierce fight with my friend one day...and so june went by..
July:
gave up on doing anything useful...saw 18 out of the 20 movies that i had left out to see(1 cupped and the other not watched yet)..have been reading the fountain head for about 20 days now...till about 150 pages to go :(..(i read like 25 pages a day on average)..learnt car driving to an extent(ya...i need lots of improvement to reach the level where i want to be)...and from the date of this post i hardly have a week to college...
Looking forward to a challenging second year..
If u did think the post was pretty dry...it was coz the days were pretty dry as well..nothing great was really happening..and so not much fun...
but this post was basically to illustrate how holidays can be boring too!!!!!!!!esp when there is no solid gang of friends available(all my friends had holidays at different times :(...)
so...hopefully the subsequent holidays turn out to be interesting...
cheers,
My first year at my college ended..And hence began the mammoth holidays of close to 90 days..
Travelogue:
May3:
Started off for a massive journey covering five places-Varanashi,Delhi,Genting,KL,Singapore...we had to go to varanashi(aka kasi)first and we did so by train..the next day fully was spent in the train(!!)..it wasnt bad anyway..
May5:
Had a wonderful bath in the holy river of ganges..and good "dharshans" at the three important temples..Viswanathar,Annaporni and visalakshi..we departed to delhi that evening
May6:
wonderful weather in Delhi..the heat was unusually pleasant...watched all the important places except akshar dham(ya..the new temple...was closed due to elections)
May7:
late afternoon flight....transit via colombo..stay in colombo for 6 hrs(that was the worst part really...no sleep)
May8:
Reached Genting by the afternoon..nice place...nice weather...good enjoyment...
May9:we spent the morning at genting...afternoon at the Batu Caves(which house the famous murugan temple)..nice places...
May10:
KL and KL(visited the skybridge of the petronas towers and the KL tower too)
May11:
Reached singapore by the evening...night safari...was ok...i wasnt too thrilled by it
May12:sentosa-the most exciting place at singapore...was pretty enjoyable..esp songs of sea..it was an engineering marvel more than anything..
May13:
Jurong bird park-very nice collection of birds(none of them are actually found on the island...all bred..thats the best part of it)..the shows were good too..
that afternoon we headed to sentosa again to catch some of the shows we missed :D
May14:
reached chennai by night...it was totally a wonderful journey...and chennai was hot!!!!!:P
It took me almost a week to settle down after the wonderful journey..began working(actually dozing off-my friend did all the work)as the web ops cord :D..also got my grades one by one...and it all added up to a gp of 9.3 in the second sem-target accomplished...i wanted to be a nine pointer :D...also started watching movies...should have watched close to ten movies till the end of may(many tarentino movies)..went out to a lot of movies with very few friends :(..
June:
the sun was hotter this month than it was during may!!..this was a month that i determined myself to do something useful...but hardly did anything useful..read two full books in da vinci code and the pilgrimage...since i am a pretty slow reader it took me about 15 days to complete them both..wanted to learn something productive..didnt do anything close to it..saw ten more movies in the first three weeks and ten more during the last week..i had gone to madurai during the last week of june and stayed there till start of july..watched wimbledon,lots of movies and had long chats with my cousin there(it was good sharing experiences..gave some happy moments)...it was nice coz there was physically absolutely no strain :D...the meenakshi temple was at its usual best..i do remember getting into a fierce fight with my friend one day...and so june went by..
July:
gave up on doing anything useful...saw 18 out of the 20 movies that i had left out to see(1 cupped and the other not watched yet)..have been reading the fountain head for about 20 days now...till about 150 pages to go :(..(i read like 25 pages a day on average)..learnt car driving to an extent(ya...i need lots of improvement to reach the level where i want to be)...and from the date of this post i hardly have a week to college...
Looking forward to a challenging second year..
If u did think the post was pretty dry...it was coz the days were pretty dry as well..nothing great was really happening..and so not much fun...
but this post was basically to illustrate how holidays can be boring too!!!!!!!!esp when there is no solid gang of friends available(all my friends had holidays at different times :(...)
so...hopefully the subsequent holidays turn out to be interesting...
cheers,
My Best Friend
Friend-What an important word in all our lifes...everybody has and loves their friends...Its pretty difficult to live without a friend really...if all that sounds a cliche to you,they sound to me too...but i just cant help it...the fundamental relationship on which this world(rather humanity)is built around is..of course friendship..
I would really be betraying myself if i say my mom is not my best friend..(actually she is)..but i am trying here to portray a person(rather incidents if u like to call it that way)outside my family who has had the greatest impact on me(outside my family as in excluding all brothers sisters and cousins)...personally i measure relationships based on their intensity(not on the incidents that take place or any other factor that you might use as a scale)...and hence when i say a person is my best friend, he/she has had the greatest impact on me...
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I would really be betraying myself if i say my mom is not my best friend..(actually she is)..but i am trying here to portray a person(rather incidents if u like to call it that way)outside my family who has had the greatest impact on me(outside my family as in excluding all brothers sisters and cousins)...personally i measure relationships based on their intensity(not on the incidents that take place or any other factor that you might use as a scale)...and hence when i say a person is my best friend, he/she has had the greatest impact on me...
read more
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