Lost in Tranquility

Moving On..

2010-05-15T01:53:00.003+05:30

After some not-so-serious thinking and as a result of a self-conscious decision on my part to shell out some cash for a self-hosted website, I have moved my blog to Lost in Tranquility. The new site, where I have given a brief thought on the move, should be more of a permanent placeholder for my thoughts than my past two blogs have proven to be.

Thanks for visiting and see you on the other side.

Things to look forward to in 2010

2010-03-10T23:27:00.006+05:30

In my last post I looked back on the best of 2009, and in this one, I will briefly look forward to 2010 on the major releases that have got me excited to the skin of my teeth.

Tamil Cinema

It has been a great start to 2010 with four very different movies already hitting their mark with both the critics and the public. On the one hand, we had the unique take on the fantasy-epic genre from Selvaraghavan, Aayirathil Oruvan, which was as good as the hype it got and certainly one of my favorites in this young year; and, on the other, we had a first-time spoof in Tamil cinema not surprisingly called Thamizh Padam which was one of the intelligent funnier movies in recent memory. We also got Goa, which was all about the fun and, of course, Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, which has especially struck a chord with most people though it did not make as much an impression on me as I thought it would. So, with the exception of some high-profile disappointments like Asal and Kutty, it already looks like 2010 will be a better year than 2009 for Tamil movies.

English Cinema

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island has already hit the theatres in the western world to mixed reviews. But, c’mon, it’s from Scorsese, so it should be good. Iron Man 2 and the long awaited third movie in the Toy Story series should hit in the summer. Add to that The Expendables – the first movie featuring Schwarzenegger and Stallone together (Legendary, huh!) - not to mention Jason Statham, Jet Li and Bruce Willis - it looks to be heaven for action movie fans; Inception from Chris Nolan – if it is even half as good as Dark Knight, I will be happy – and, of course, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, in which I hope to God the threesome of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have finally learned to act so that they can at least try to match and provide us with some of the emotions we felt in the closing chapter in the Harry Potter saga.

Music

Vampire Weekend’s sophomore effort, Contra, is already out and sounds as good as their eponymous debut. U2 have promised Songs of Ascent which should feature more spiritual leftovers from No Line on the Horizon, and sound sick for sure. To add to that, the year also features an album from Arcade Fire (Dude, Funeral and Neon Bible were stunning and probably some of the best debuts and sophomore albums ever), Murder by Death (Red of Tooth and Claw was the best album of 2008, by far); Fleet Foxes’ sophomore effort (their eponymous debut was the second-best of 2008), another Hold Steady album, and I heard Radiohead are also recording. Makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?

Videogames

Again, a great start already to 2010 with the sequel to Bioshock and Mass Effect already in store shelves (and my collection, by the way) and being received with rave reviews. Assassin’s Creed II for the PC is just around the corner and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 looks like it will be a PC first-person shooter in just about every way Modern Warfare 2 was not a PC first-person shooter. Not to mention Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising and Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening in a few weeks, Splinter Cell: Conviction in April, Civilization V due for Spring, Mafia II and the recently announced Portal 2 out in Winter and much more. 2009 already looks like history.

There’s certainly a lot to look forward to in 2010. As always, we hope the end-products match with the above very high expectations, but if they come anywhere near close to that mark, 2010 will be an awesome year for entertainment.

Best of 2009

2010-03-08T11:10:00.005+05:30

The subtitle of this post is: I am lazy.

While I would have loved to do a separate “Best of 2009” entry for each of my favourite entertainment formats, I realized I have not seen/experienced enough of each of them to come up with a proper list and, of course, I am too lazy. So, without further ado, here is a consolidated list of my favourites from games, movies and music for the year 2009.

Best Tamil Film

There were a large number of really good movies in 2009 like Yaavarum Nalam, Eeram, Ayan, Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru and some others, but no movie stood out more from the crowd than Unnaipol Oruvan.

Well, obviously, any movie that boasts of a cast that includes Kamal Hassan and Mohan Lal is surely going to stand out, but that wasn’t what made the movie so special. The fact that it was released after the 26/11 attacks, at a time when the country was still coming to grips with the terror threat certainly made it one for the times and the movie put that aspect to good use. Kamal Hassan, his director Chakri Toleti and dialogue write Ee. Ra. Murugan left no stone unturned in conveying their message. The movie criticized everyone right from politicians who look out for their own position of power, to the headlines seeking nature of the news-channels, to the judicial system which takes forever to convict an obvious terrorist and, of course, the general public, whose largely ignorant attitude is one of the prime reasons for our current state.

To close it out, I would like to bring up what I wrote in my review - “With a star-studded cast, dialogues that hit the nail on the head and a very meaningful message, Unnaipol Oruvan is a must-watch for any Tamil viewer.” And it most certainly is the best Tamil Movie of 2009.

Best English Film

Quentin Tarantino may have been snubbed at the Oscars (except for the obvious Best Supporting Actor win for Christopher Waltz), but in my opinion, he directed and wrote the best movie of 2009 in Inglourious Basterds. Don’t mistake me, The Hurt Locker was certainly a pulsating movie in its own right, and most definitely better than Avatar which was the other movie considered for top honours, but the amount of pure entertainment that Tarantino offered in IB has remained unmatched for the rest of the year.

To take a genre that has been beaten to death in Hollywood, and present it in a fresh manner, and to do it while also stamping his own style and authority in each frame certainly takes some doing. But, like me, if you’ve been a Tarantino fan since Pulp Fiction, you wouldn’t be surprised. Although Kill Bill was a great action movie which oozed style, it lacked the one thing that we fans identified with Tarantino: the dialogues. And Basterds was in many ways a return to form for him, with almost every line being memorable and delivered juicily by every cast member in pitch perfect fashion.

It also showed him in his top writing form. In true Tarantino fashion, the movie was presented as several disjointed episodes until he finally brought them together in glorious fashion. He also managed to re-write actual history, but not only that, he made his version of World War II feel authentic and stand on its own apart from the events that actually occurred during the years leading up to the end in 1945. If that didn’t warrant a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, I don’t know what does. But, I digress.

Inglourious Basterds is most certainly my favourite movie from 2009, and one that I know I will watch and re-watch until Quentin Tarantino entertains us with his next masterpiece.

Best Album

This is probably the easiest pick of the lot for me, but it is also going to be my most partial pick. The best album of 2009 for me will be No Line on the Horizon from U2.

I certainly don’t confess to be a long-time U2 fan. Actually, I started listening to their music just over 3 years back I think, but it feels like it’s been longer than that. Maybe that’s part of the reason why they sound so special and why they are possibly the biggest band in the world today. And after the quality of their last two albums, I expected an album that would take it safe and follow their same style, and that thought did not improve after I heard “Get on Your Boots”, the first single from the album.

However, I got the album and started listening and got over the first 2 tracks and, for sure, my thinking continued along the same lines because they were not highlights (at least on the first listen, they have grown on me over time). The titular track sounded pretty good and Magnificent was U2 being U2 by providing one high-spirited song in the album. Then, I heard Moment of Surrender, and I was not on Earth anymore. Bono’s voice has never sounded better. For God’s sake, the man is nearly 50 and is giving every young singer a run for his money. It was like they had taken everything good about the band - every perfect strum of the guitar by The Edge and Adam Clayton, and every perfect beating of the drum by Larry Muller Jr. and Brian Eno had mastered it into a song that was perfect in just about every way imaginable. Hell, I sound like a fanboy, but that is what I am and if this song does not touch you on some level, then I don’t know what to say.

Nearly every song on the album is a winner – Breathe is awesome and the second best track on the album, the aforementioned Magnificent is also good and the rest come together perfectly in what is most definitely my favourite album from 2009. (Although I do have to give honourable mentions to It’s Blitz! from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Merriweather Post Pavilion from Animal Collective – both were the first albums I listened to from the respective bands and both did run U2 close for their money.)

Best Videogame

2009 was not a great year for PC gaming by any means. On the one hand, almost all expected AAA titles like Splinter Cell: Conviction, Assasssin’s Creed II (PC) and Mafia II were delayed; and, on the other, we got what was the most disappointing high-profile console port in a long time in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – a game whose single-player campaign was a measly 6 hours and which did not even incorporate dedicated servers for the PC. This kind of game, from a developer who are what they are because of their dedicated PC fans, was most certainly the biggest disappointment of 2009 apart from the large number of delays. Again, I digress from the actual topic.

However, have no fear when Bioware are here. (God that sounded so cheesy!) Yes, the developer of countless PC classics like Baldur’s Gate II and Neverwinter Nights returned to form with a game that was for the PC first and foremost – Dragon Age: Origins. Although, it appeared on both consoles, the experience of playing it on the PC was much better thanks to a superior battle system, higher resolution graphics and the joy of playing it with a keyboard & mouse. For the first time in a long time, PC gamers were not the sufferers and boy did it feel ever so good.

But that is not the reason why Dragon Age is the best game of 2009. It was also home to the best story, dialogues, voice-acting and music of 2009. Bioware outdid their previous RPG Mass Effect by presenting a world which -- though it was obviously inspired by countless fantasy epics, most notably The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Fire & Ice – felt entirely fresh and original with characters as three-dimensional and complex as any you would ever encounter in a videogame and decisions that actually mattered in the context of the game world. They also gave PC gamers with the most complex battle-system seen on a PC RPG in quite a while. In true Bioware fashion, you could pause the action, survey the surroundings, queue up orders (though I am still waiting on a patch to allow me to queue up multiple orders per party character) and unpause to see the effects in all their glory. But, not only that, you could also assign tactics to each of your squad members to act on their own when a particular event occurred, like heal a party member when their health reached below 50% or protect a mage who was surrounded by melee warriors, and so on. That gave the action a large amount of flexibility that had been missing on the PC for a long time.

Combine all that together and it truly felt like the return of the prodigal son to their throne on top of the of PC developer pile. With a pure-fantasy world rich with lore to be discovered in every corner, three-dimensional and fully-realized characters that populate an epic tale, fantastic dialogues and voice-acting, and a complex battle system that makes strategizing battles an art-form, Dragon Age: Origins is the best game of 2009. (Sorry, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2, which was a very close second.)

So, that’s it as far as 2009 is concerned, but there is a lot to look forward in 2010, which I will do briefly in my next entry.

Aadhavan (2009)

2009-10-21T01:28:00.004+05:30

Over the course of a fairly high-profile career, K.S. Ravikumar has helmed a variety of entertaining features and, in the process, created a basic formula that he adheres to. This formula is fairly straightforward – lots of laugh-out-loud funny sequences, a few decent action scenes, songs inserted wherever required, and just a pinch of emotion to keep things moving. With Aadhavan, he follows the same template to a certain extent and also proves he can keep up with the latest trends with some energetic action and modern, impressive CGI work. However, while the first half has enough to hold our interest in the proceedings, starting from the beginning of the second half – where things start going downhill – he loses control and the movie moves too far into melodrama toward the end that any interest generated initially is all but lost.

The film opens with the Damakku Damakku... song followed by Aadhavan (Surya) taking out his high-profile target from underwater, leading to a variety of similar targets, making him one of the best assassins around. Aadhavan’s gang consists of mentor and father, Ibrahim Rowther (Shayaji Shinde) and elder brother, Tharani (Anandh Babu making his first big-screen appearance in quite a while). Abdul Kulkarni (Rahul Dev) approaches them with another prominent target in Judge Subramaniam (Murali), who has been poking around in the former’s business involving the kidnapping and murder of children across eastern India. Surprisingly, Aadhavan misses his target and is forced to move into the Judge’s household – which includes Bannerjee (Vadivelu), Thara (Nayanthara), Subramaniam’s mother (Saroja Devi) and the rest of the family – to finish his job. But, his reactions suggest that he wants the latter dead on a more personal level, and is not only in it for the money.

Like Ayan, Aadhavan hits its highest point, in terms of generating adrenaline, in the initial sequences itself. The foot chase that follows the failed assassination attempt is definitely as good as the African one in Surya’s blockbuster from earlier this year. Though it shows an obvious inspiration from the first sequence inside the under-construction building in Casino Royale – the fact becomes more obvious when one notes that the location is of the same type –, Surya performs most of his stunts which enables the level of awe to be maintained on our part. Since I said that this is the apex as far as stunt sequences are concerned, it should follow that the rest of the movie’s action is fairly ordinary and generic failing to involve us like this one.

It should also come as no surprise that Aadhavan is best when in comedy-mode because, time and again, Ravikumar has proved that making people laugh is his forte. This movie also gives Vadivelu a chance to redeem himself after the disappointment of his track in Kanthaswamy, and he doesn’t disappoint. Nearly every scene in which he appears succeeds in making us laugh and though it is fairly standard in terms of what we expect from the comedian – the slightly stuttered speech to show his fear, for example –, it is impossible not to laugh as his attempts at proving Aadhavan’s real identity become increasingly futile. In fact, it would be easy to argue that without Vadivelu many people might have been heading for the exit doors in the first half itself, which they might anyway be doing as we proceed into the second half.

As far as Ravikumar is concerned, I have been entertained to a variety of degrees by each of his movies, but never have I been as bored and disinterested as I was towards the end of this one. The CGI effects used to depict Surya as a 10-year old are definitely high standard for a Tamil movie, in spite of the gimmicky nature of their appearance. (Couldn’t the same sequence have been told with “any” 10-year old in it?) Though not awe-inspiring because we always “know” this is Surya (he also voices these portions), the fact that a lot of effort has clearly gone into integrating it makes us overlook the obvious flaws. However, the flashback sequence itself is so dragging that even the special effects cannot force us to think of it any differently. The amount of people sneering in the theatre when this sequence ended should be proof enough of how languid it actually is. And, the movie drags on for quite some time in order to tie up a lot of the loose ends, eventually culminating in an action sequence that makes us laugh for all the wrong reasons (including a “sticky” rocket launcher, if there is even such a weapon). It wouldn’t be any stretch to say that, by the end, I wanted to forget the entire experience.

With the career path Surya is taking, it is obvious that he is trying to emulate Kamalhassan; which is the reason for Ayan, and now Aadhavan, after the heavier Vaaranam Aayiram. The problem with Surya is that he has not yet perfected the art of “acting” in these kinds of casual, formulaic roles. So, even though he can make the comedy portions work, he fails in the serious sequences because he always wants to “act” instead of simply going along with the flow of the movie. It also doesn’t help that the respect built up for his off-screen image takes a hit when Vadivelu compares him with yesteryear greats ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan, M.G.R, Rajinikanth, and Kamalhassan.

The supporting cast is mostly expected to run through the motions. Nayanthara looks very simple and jaded, and is expected to play the standard Tamil cinema heroine, which she can adequately. Shayaji Shinde and Murali (in what sadly turned out to be his last role) are veterans in their own right and are solid, with the latter being especially impressive. Rahul Dev joins the long list of generic Tamil cinema villains. With all the hype surrounding Saroja Devi’s return, she is more or less only used as a tool for comedy, with her now famous tendency to wear too much make-up providing a lot of mileage. Anandh Babu’s return definitely did not generate as much interest as the former’s; and with good reason, because it is definitely not noteworthy. Ramesh Khanna, whose story this is, appears as Nayanthara’s would-be, and proves a decent sidekick to Vadivelu in his comedy.

Harris Jeyaraj’s songs have become very popular, but almost all of them fall into the forgettable category. Hasile Fisile... and Yeno Yeno Panithuli... are great to look at by virtue of the breathtaking locations of South Africa and Iceland on display. Vaarayo Vaarayo... and Maasi Maasi... are largely at fault for the movie’s pacing problems, though Saroja Devi’s decked up appearance as a tribal at the end of the latter will evoke a lot of guffaws. Ganesh’s cinematography deserves some mention for the former two song sequences and also for the initial action sequences.

Usually, any K.S. Ravikumar movie has a certain charm that makes it worth for television viewing, if not for a visit to the theatre. However, it is hard to imagine Aadhavan joining that category. The comedy is certainly laugh-out-loud, but is only prevalent in the first half, and what makes up the rest of the movie largely veers into the “unwatchable” territory that even a TV viewing is hard to recommend, let alone paying money for a theatrical viewing.

Thiruvilayadal (1965)

2009-10-11T02:04:00.008+05:30

A.P. Nagarajan is mostly famous as the director of various epics based on historical/mythological characters or Hindu Gods that are often characterized by riveting performances, spellbinding music, and by virtue of them being based on well-known history/religion. Arguably the most popular of his movies, certainly the most entertaining, is Thiruvilayadal, which provides an account of Lord Shiva’s grace in helping his devotees through a series of episodes. Starting with ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan’s arresting performance, K.V. Mahadevan’s timeless music, and Nagesh’s legendary comedy to name a few, I would be amazed if there is an aspect that can be used to qualify film masterpieces absent here. The film has been telecasted on TV every now and then, but it has still lost none of its charm and remains one of the greatest movies in Tamil cinema history.

As the director kindly informs us through a background voice heard during the beginning, Lord Shiva’s benign and kindly nature toward his devotees has been widely written about in the form of various epics, ithihasas, and puranas. This film borrows some of the most prominent episodes from such writings and tries to recapture the same playful nature of the Lord on-screen, and is entirely successful in doing so. Throughout the course of these four episodes, which see Lord Shiva appear in various forms, the film is highly entertaining, while also conveying a variety of messages through each of them.

The film opens with an introduction for Lord Shiva (‘Sivaji’ Ganesan), followed by the fabled “wisdom-fruit” sequence. The ever-mischievous Naradha provides the God with what he calls a unique “wisdom-fruit.” The God, playing along with the former, hands it over to Goddess Parvathi (Savithri), who decides to test her two sons and give the winner the prize. The test is who can complete a round-trip around the world first. Lord Murugan takes his trusted peacock and “actually” completes the task, while Lord Ganesha completes a circle around his parents and equates it to completing a trip around the world, thereby winning the prize. Murugan gets angered on his return as he sees this as his parents favouring their first child, and abandons them without heeding calls from his mother or avvaiyar (K.B. Sundarambal) that this is also one of his father’s playful acts.

If there is a single downside in the entire film, it is that these initial sequences can be inordinately slow by any standard. The elaborate set-design and dances that accompany the Sambo Mahadeva... song which introduces Lord Shiva are good, but this sequence itself is quite long and drawn-out. And, three songs immediately follow the “wisdom-fruit” sequence, further slowing down everything to a degree where we want the actual episodes to start. However, once the “movie” itself kicks off, with Parvathi recounting Lord Shiva’s playfulness to a very furious Murugan, it never flags and keeps things moving at a decent pace.

The first episode will be the most instantly recognizable to even people who have not seen the movie. The King of the Pandya land, Shenbaga Pandyan (Muthuraman), announces a flattering amount of gold to anyone who can solve his puzzle relating to the scent emanating from a woman’s hair (in this case, his wife, played by Devika). Inspired by the prize amount, a poverty-stricken poet, Dharumi (Nagesh), does what any person in his situation with his level of talent would: pray to God - who as usual solves his troubles by appearing in humane form. The highlight of this episode (or the movie, for that matter) is of course the verbal duel between Sivaji and Nagesh which has become the stuff of legend, with many a modern movie paying homage to it in its own way. And the “Nettrikkan Thirappinum Kuttram Kuttrame” dialogue is probably one of the most famous quotes in Tamil cinema and popular culture. Notwithstanding the other episodes, the movie touches its apex inarguably in this sequence.

The second and third episodes stand to be the weakest of the four, not because they are not entertaining (which they certainly are), but because they obviously lack the visual energy that pervades both the other episodes. The former sees Dakshan (Parvathi’s father) start a yaagam without inviting Shiva, which angers his daughter. Parvathi doesn’t heed Shiva’s calls and still visits her father requesting him to put an end to this madness. When it proves to be futile, she returns to her Lord, but the difference of opinion still remains. This is probably the only episode which doesn’t have any noteworthy aspect except, possibly, Lord Shiva’s “thaandavam” which serves the singular purpose of highlighting Sivaji’s weak dancing capabilities.

The third episode, in comparison, is definitely much stronger, and sees Parvathi forget her origins and be born as a fisherman chieftain’s daughter. Though it starts off slowly with another song, Sivaji’s reappearance as a fisherman provides some much-needed energy, and the episode itself concludes with an imaginatively picturized fight sequence in water, as Sivaji fights off and defeats a killer whale to win back Parvathi.

Finally, the fourth episode has Lord Shiva return back to Madurai, this time under the rule of Varaguna Pandyan. Hemanatha Bhagavathar (T.S. Balaiah), a carnatic singer of worldwide fame, has finally made his way to Madurai to sing in the King’s presence and prove his superiority once and for all. He poses a challenge to the King that if somebody from Madurai can defeat him, his voice and talent will be laid at the city’s feet and he will never sing again. However, if that person loses, then every man in the Pandya kingdom should henceforth refrain from singing. After everybody in the King’s court refuses to oblige, Baanapathrar (T.R. Mahalingam), who sings devotional compositions in the temple is chosen. The latter, realizing that he is no match in a straight battle with the famous out-of-town singer, prays to God to find a way out of this trouble. Of course, Lord Shiva appears as a woodcutter and rewards his devotee, while also teaching a lesson to Hemanathar.

Regardless of all the movie’s minor problems or for that matter its high points, it can be watched and re-watched any number of times just for ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan’s acting alone, whose radiant screen presence and majestic voice are aptly suited for such a role. Ever since its release, much has been written and said about this portrayal, so I would like to highlight my personal favourite sequence from the movie in order to demonstrate just how good a performance this is: The Paatum Naane, Baavamum Naane song.

Sivaji was one of the very few actors who could make us believe he was actually singing the song. Though T.M. Sounderarajan’s voice and its resemblance to Sivaji’s had a big say in this, the actor’s lip movements and genuine throbbing of the throat are the main reasons. The aforementioned sequence is the perfect example of both this fact and Sivaji’s acting talent. The twinkle in the eye as he gives a fleeting look at the room in which Hemanathar is staying when he sings “Paadum Unai Naan Paadavaithene,” or the rolling of the eyes accompanied by the inimitable smile when he utters “Naan Asainthal Asaiyum Agilam Ellame,” or even the ease with which his various forms handle the Veena, the Flute, and the Mridangam – all provide ample proof as to why he is arguably the greatest actor in Tamil cinema history and why this is decidedly one his best ever portrayals.

With such a commanding performance, the only other actors who make any sort of impact are Nagesh and Balaiah. As Dharumi, the former creates what is easily one of his most memorable on-screen characters. A variety of accolades has already been heaped on the role, but what I find most impressive about it is the consummate ease with which Nagesh accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of making us take our eyes of Sivaji and fixating them on Dharumi. A hard task in any of Sivaji’s roles, but to achieve it in this movie, and to a degree where we find ourselves incapable of removing our eyes off Dharumi, is proof enough of the late character actor/comedian’s greatness. Balaiah can generally be considered as a much underrated supporting actor who can leave a mark in any movie. As the egoistic singer who thinks the whole world is beneath his talent, he puts in a terrific shift, which injects a lot of energy to the movie, especially after the slower middle episodes.

With the exception of Sivaji, Savithri has the largest amount of screen time. However, this is definitely not one of the actress’ memorable performances, though she is quite suited and adequate for the role. (It has to be mentioned that this owes a great deal to Sivaji, with whom she shares much of the screen during the movie.) Director A.P. Nagarajan makes a cameo appearance as Nakkiran in the first episode and delivers the one critical dialogue with enough zest to firmly etch the role in our minds. Muthuraman, Devika, and Manorama all have minor appearances which further serves to the highlight the significance of the lack-of-ego argument I mentioned in my review of Saraswathi Sabatham.

As is a given in all of A.P. Nagarajan’s movies, the combination of K.V. Mahadevan’s music and Kannadasan’s lyrics stands him in good stead throughout, delivering a truly outstanding soundtrack. The standouts definitely are Paatum Naane Baavamum Naane..., Isai Thamizh Nee Seitha..., and Indroru Naal Podhuma..., all from the last episode. Of special note is the latter in which Balamuralikrishna’s voice and Balaiah’s expressions contribute effectively to craft an all-time great song. The other songs that have become very popular are Pazham Neeyappa... and Gnana Pazhathai Puzhindhu... from the first episode, which sing Murugan’s praise. Podhigai Malai... is also a very melodious number, while Sivaji has a lot of fun in Paarthal Pasumaram. The other songs work well within context of the movie, but are definitely not suited for casual listening on the Ipod.

Looking back at the history of Tamil cinema, few movies would come close to providing the same level of entertainment offered by this one. In a career that has seen him direct such movies as Kandan Karunai, Thillana Mohanambal, Thiruvarutchelvar, and Saraswathi Sabatham, just to name a few, this movie can be argued to be A.P. Nagarajan’s greatest movie. If not, then it is certainly close to the top. And, combined with what can be undeniably termed as a tour-de-force performance from Sivaji at the height of his craft, Thiruvilayadal is certainly one of Tamil cinema’s long standing masterpieces.

Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru (2009)

2009-09-30T22:49:00.006+05:30

Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru has been unwittingly billed as a romantic comedy by some, but that is not the case. Yes, there is a cute couple at the core of this film, but for almost its entire running time, their relationship is portrayed as something very less. Love rarely enters the picture save for a couple of songs and a few scenes sprinkled throughout, both of which are worked out to provide some sparks and make us believe their pairing. However, the comedy portion of the film works, for the most part. Whether or not that it due to the lack of a traditional romance (something which was the downfall of this year’s Siva Manasula Sakthi), I cannot tell. Still, the light tone of the movie comes as a good welcome relief to the heavier fare we have had recently.

Thiru Thiru... is also director Nandhini’s first film, but she doesn’t bring anything new to the table. She follows the template set by V. Priya, with whom she has worked as Assistant Director, in her two movies so far – Kanda Naal Mudhal & Kannamoochi Yenada. Like the former movie, the lead pair in this film too bicker at each other and engage in meaningless fights (this is traditional in any rom-com), only to realize their true feelings at the very end. And, like both of the aforementioned films, there is an involvement of senior actors (in this case, only one) which undoubtedly works to the movie’s favour. Apart from that, the story is nothing to write home about and the way it is structured, we always know what we are in for right from the beginning.

Arjun (Ajmal Amir) works as an art director in Srinivasan’s (Mouli) ad-film company. He is very close to his boss, almost like a son; he constantly arrives late to office, lies for fun, is irresponsible in serious situations, and is irregular in almost every respect. Archana (Rupa Manjari), who works in the same company, is his polar opposite, i.e. perfect in every sense. When asked the amount of time remaining till a meeting starts, she replies with the exact time right to the minute; she likes everything to be kept organized and has hardly lied to her parents in all her life. With a lead pair like that, there is no surprise in how the film ends. So, what we have left is the situation these two are put in to provide some comic relief.

Their company is about to gain a big contract, which will definitely boost their status and also alleviate some of the boss’ problems. Obviously, trouble occurs when the baby supposed to act in the ads catches a fever forcing them to look for an alternative, or risk losing the contract. Arjun finds the perfect choice in the middle of the road, but as he is requesting the mother, she meets with an accident. It is not after everything is finalized that he finds out that the mother is missing from the hospital. Now, he, along with Archana who joins in on this seemingly wild ride, has to take care of the baby and find the parents in order to obtain their signature on the agreement.

By any measure, the film would have been very hard to recommend if not for Mouli’s involvement. A veteran of stage and film, his comic aptitude and versatility is known to everyone. As the absent-minded boss who has a hard time remembering names more than anything else, he gets the best lines and his delivery extracts every bit of comic juice out of them. In comparison, Ajmal and Rupa, as the lead pair, are more straightforward when playing their characters. I never could agree with popular opinion that Ajmal deserved his Best Supporting Actor filmfare award for Anjaathey. The complaint I had against him in that film was he was wooden in quite a few scenes. In this movie, he changes that opinion somewhat; and although the main requirement is good looks which he has, he shows a marked improvement in general, which is a good sign. Rupa shows none of the first-time jitters that plague new faces on-screen and is less inhibited than most others. For a newcomer, that is definitely heartening to see even though she isn't stressed too much.

Thiru Thiru... has also been dubbed as one of the first fully digital Tamil films, shot completely using the Red One camera. If that is truly the case, then its effect remains largely unnoticeable to the naked eye; but the cinematographer goes a long way in maintaining the light tone of the film with bright and crisp colours. The picturization of the Jillena Veesum... song is quite good mainly due to the colourful locations on display. Mani Sharma’s music is largely forgettable, and his background score is more or less a full-on assault on our senses.

Like many similar movies, Thiru Thiru... is not going to win any awards or have an impact on the viewer. Though not all of the comedy hits the mark, and the movie shows a tendency to fall into slapstick on more than one occasion, it achieves what it sets out to do and packs a decent level of comic punch that makes for light viewing. If you have nothing else to do and decide to watch a movie for time-pass, it should be this one.

Saraswathi Sabatham (1966)

2009-09-29T02:50:00.006+05:30

Saraswathi Sabatham is the kind of movie that will make us reminisce about the grand old age of Tamil movies, for a variety of very different reasons. For one, it is based on the Hindu Goddesses, but doesn’t involve a child falling into a ‘hundial’ or an evil wizard trying to overpower God. It is also basically a “message” movie about the elementary qualities of life, but, unlike today’s movies, that message comes about only because of the interesting premise set up by the movie’s story. And most importantly, it features an ensemble of cast of actors and actresses who were probably in the prime of their careers at the time. Since that is something which will never happen in today’s climate, this movie works as a great reminder of a time where our top actors worked together without a hint of ego on display.

The film’s underlying premise is very simple. Which is better: knowledge, wealth or strength? In the opening sequences, we see the mischievous sage Naradha (‘Sivaji’ Ganesan) visit Saraswathi (Savithri, as the Goddess of Knowledge), Lakshmi (Devika, as the Goddess of Wealth) and Parvathi (Padmini, as the Goddess of Strength), and pose each of them with the above question. This sets up the clash between the three to see which quality is more essential. To this effect, Saraswathi provides Vidyapathi (‘Sivaji’ again), who is dumb by birth, with a voice and intelligence making him wise and all-knowing. Lakshmi makes the poorest girl in the country as the next queen to the throne, Naachiya (K.R. Vijaya), providing her with unquestionable wealth and fame. Parvathi transforms one of the biggest cowards into Veeramallar (‘Gemini’ Ganesan), the bravest and strongest man in the land, who also goes on to become Naachiya’s commander-in-chief. As the three come to grips with their new God-given gifts, they also battle each other to prove their superiority (obviously the Goddesses’ hands are involved in this also).

Notwithstanding the interesting set-up and story, the film’s biggest attraction is, of course, the cast. Not only does the movie feature two of Tamil cinema’s acting greats in ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan and ‘Gemini’ Ganesan, but also the most famous actresses of the time in Savithri, Padmini, K.R. Vijaya and Devika. When you think of the last time in recent memory that anything close has been attempted, you would probably go back to 1999’s Suyamvaram, but even that was mainly put together in order to obtain the world record. When combined with the fact that this movie is considered an ensemble for its female leads (with today’s heroines being used only for eye-candy, this is another thing to remember fondly) coming together as much as its male leads, it further drives home the fact that our yesteryear actors had little or no ego clashes coming in the way of sharing screen space.

Even with such a cast, the acting honours would obviously have to go to ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan. Of all the people who have played Naradha on-screen (and there are quite a few), none would probably come close to matching Sivaji. The mischievous glint is obviously visible in his eyes as he plays around with the three goddesses in order to obtain the obvious answer to the question. (Note him especially in the single sequence with the three in tandem.) As Vidyapathi, he also brings the dignity and ego of the knowledgeable character to life. Although K.R. Vijaya and ‘Gemini’ Ganesan are legends in their own right, the pride seen in Sivaji’s face and body language as he talks about the power of knowledge is unmatched by the former two. (In fact, such a comparison will be deemed unfair on all three by many; I just felt it is worth mentioning in the context of the movie.)

The above statement aside, K.R. Vijaya and ‘Gemini’ Ganesan are perfect for their respective roles. The self-importance of the queen, with all her wealth and fame, is skilfully depicted by the former. And since good screen-presence is the main pre-requisite for Veeramallar, the latter fits the bill perfectly. Savithri, Devika and Padmini are essentially in the background, but their sequences with each other and Naradha serve as special highlights. Nagesh and Manorama raise quite a few laughs with their separate comedy track (though it does fit in with the other characters in the movie). The actors playing Lord Shiva and Brahma are largely unknown to me, while a very young Sivakumar appears as Lord Vishnu.

Another major highlight of the film is K.V. Mahadevan’s music combined with Kannadasan’s lyrics. Agara Muthala Ezhuthellam... is the best song with each line starting from each of the Tamil alphabets in sequence, but the other songs don’t lag behind either. Kalviya Selvama Veerama... features great lyrics from Kannadasan underlining the significance of each of these qualities in life. Dheivam Iruppadhu Enge... is sung in praise of the wealth of knowledge and also sets up the straight head-to-head between knowledge and wealth. Thai Thandha Pichaiyile... has become the staple for a variety of beggary-related comedy scenes over the years, while Gomatha Engal Kulamatha... is a perfect song for the "Mattu Pongal" festival. Uruvathai Kaatidum Kannadi... and Rani Maharani... are mostly obscure remaining largely unheard outside the movie. T.M. Sounderarajan and P.Susheela are the only two voices heard in all the songs, and are the main reason why it is considered such a stellar soundtrack to begin with.

Despite all the high-praise accorded to the film, there are a few elements that can be off-putting for some viewers. Some sequences in the film do move quite slowly, but that is essentially a quality shared by all movies released at the time. The set design and costumes will also feel more akin to a stage-play than a movie; again, another aspect that is not unique to this movie alone. However, these are only worth mentioning for what they are: minor nitpicks.

Saraswathi Sabatham has become a staple for TV viewing on Saraswathi Pooja and Vijayadasami days. (In fact, I wrote this review the very next day after Vijayadasami.) And though not as good as director A.P. Nagarajan’s certain other films (Kandan Karunai and Thiruvilaiyadal, for starters), it is still a very entertaining film in its own right and is worth a watch on TV or by finding yourself a VCD.

Unnaipol Oruvan (2009)

2009-09-19T02:22:00.022+05:30

Excuse me for a moment while I ponder over the reality of the situation: Last week I walked into a theatre to watch a little movie called Eeram with a relatively unknown cast and crew, only to come away stunned and satisfied that Tamil cinema could still surprise me with such variety sans any masala. This week I went to watch Unnaipol Oruvan, which admittedly had an all-star cast and was already a proven hit in Hindi, so there was considerably more expectation than in the former case. What surprises me about this scenario is that we can have two very good (and meaningful, especially in the latter case) movies in two vastly different genres within the span of a week. But that is exactly what Kamalhassan has provided with this film which, along with Eeram, provides the one-two punch that Tamil cinema so badly needed.

Having not seen the original Hindi film “A Wednesday,” I will refrain from commenting on how faithful this remake is. (Though two of my friends who had already watched the Hindi original acknowledged that this is a frame-by-frame remake, which is certainly good news.) Taken on its own, Unnaipol Oruvan is definitely one of the best films of the year so far and while it would be right to classify it as a thriller, to pigeonhole this movie into a particular category is to ignore what Kamal (and, to a very large extent, the director of the original Neeraj Pandey) has achieved with it.

The film begins on a seemingly casual note as it tries to establish the main players in this convoluted plot. Commissioner of Police Raghavan Maraar (Mohan Lal) is having as boring a day as any other, trying to answer queries relating to a police protection request from superstar Aravind (Sriman, in a role which has a very obvious resemblance to ‘Ilayathalapthy’ Vijay). Natasha Rajkumar (Anuja Iyer, who appeared as the whitely ghost in Sivi) is a trademark Indian journalist conducting a TV satire on Former Pakistani and American Presidents, General Pervez Musharraf and George Bush. All this (and more) happens while we also see the prime character of the movie (Kamalhassan) move around the city placing black bags in common places like trains, buses etc., and set up his comfortable perch on top of one of the city’s under-construction buildings. What happens afterward should be known to most people who have seen the trailer; the Commissioner receives a phone call from said character stating that he has placed in various locations across the city, all of which are ready to blow unless his demands are met. Watching the movie without knowing the rest of the plot is one of its biggest pleasures, so needless to say it one of the best edge-of-the-seat thrillers in recent memory.

Much of the first half is spent in a similar note to how the film starts. A host of more characters is introduced, from the Chief Minister’s Chief Secretary (Lakshmi) to a rough-and-tough cop Arif Khan (Ganesh Venkatram). Although the film moves ever-so-slowly in these sequences, they are absolutely necessary in making us relate to these characters, given the breakneck speed at which the plot moves post-intermission. As the movie reaches its final quarter of running time, we are hit in the face with a genuine twist. I would advise anybody to read as little about this movie (or “A Wednesday!”) as possible before watching, because knowing certain aspects of the movie may lead the viewer to accidentally guess (sadly, this happened to me) what happens in this key moment. However, having said that, this pivotal moment will definitely have such an impact on anybody that there is no danger of its effectiveness being diluted by accidental guesses. The twist more or less only acts as a means in making us understand the very powerful message the film is trying to convey, which is certainly very effective.

When somebody assembles a cast of this calibre, it is going to be very hard to speak about how they go about their roles, but I am going to try and do that anyway. As Raghavan Maraar, I had my own doubts about how effective Mohan Lal will be with his Malayali accent (his talent, I have no right to question). But, he comes out with a very understated and dignified performance that I could not help but vent at myself for my initial fears. His verbal trade-offs with Lakshmi are such a pleasure to watch, both within the context of the movie and in India’s political system in general, that it is now hard to imagine anyone else coming with such a subtle portrayal. Kamalhassan returns to being himself rather than being buried under sheets of make-up (though, here he is buried under a somewhat unkempt beard). Initially, he is quite soft when making his threats and demands, and remains so for much of the first half. His passion and rage constantly build up during the second half, and he peaks in the final sequences with a stunning monologue that will make everybody in the audience sit-up and listen intently. Much has been said about Naseerudin Shah’s superlative performance in “A Wednesday,” and although comparisons are unfair, I can safely that Kamal has definitely provided for a Tamil person what (I have been told) Shah did for a Hindi one. Lakshmi never fails to impress me even in small appearances and her role here is nothing more than a glorified cameo, but one she pulls off perfectly. The rest of the actors are perfectly cast (of note is Ganesh Venkatram as Arif Khan) as is required for this movie to hit all the right notes throughout.

Cinematographer Manoj Soni and dialogue writer Ee. Ra. Murugan are two of the film’s biggest strengths. The former provides some stunning shots of the entire city as seen from Kamal’s top-level perch and hardly puts a foot wrong during the entire running time. The impact of the entire film hinges on the latter, who (one would assume with inputs from Kamal) writes some of best lines I have heard in Tamil recently. Much of the impact the later sequences have on us is as much due to the dialogues as the person delivering them and for that, Murugan deserves high praise. Shruthi Hassan is making her debut as music director with this movie. The first time I heard the entire soundtrack, I was genuinely induced a headache. I am not a big fan of Indian music trying to imitate western rock and that is what Shruti tried to do. Thankfully, the two songs remain largely in the background, heard only in bits and pieces. She also does not try to upstage the onscreen happenings with her score. Neither does it make us notice her as the next big thing, nor is it too subpar that it brings down the quality of the presentation, which is a good sign.

In the end, Unnaipol Oruvan speaks with the same voice “A Wednesday” spoke with. The impact here may not be the same because we Chennaiites have been living in relative obscurity when it comes to our position as one of the top Indian cities. However, in a post 26-11 era where the whole of India is trying to come to grips with the terror threat facing the nation, that voice is very powerful. The film leaves no stone untouched with its constant thought-provoking comments. It makes us wonder why Ajmal Amir Qasab is allowed to make a public mockery of the Indian judicial system when he was obviously one of the perpetrators of terrorism in India. Also present is an obvious swipe at the headlines grabbing nature of Indian journalists which will be similar to anyone who watched any of the major news channels on that horrifying date. (Kamal also takes a thinly veiled jab at the Electoral system, which is sure to bring a smile out of anyone who followed what happened in the city on Lok Sabha Election Day.)

Whether that voice will be heard is largely in doubt. One thing that is of no doubt is the quality of this movie. Kamal has efficiently adapted for the Tamil milieu, what has been heralded as a modern Hindi classic to begin with. And, with a star-studded cast, dialogues that hit the nail on the head and a very meaningful message, Unnaipol Oruvan is a must-watch for any Tamil viewer.

Eeram (2009)

2009-09-11T20:32:00.015+05:30

Horror has been a very on-off genre in Tamil movies, largely neglected in favour of more commercial subjects. Recently, however, there has been much cause for optimism. 2007’s Sivi laid the seeds for the slow return to the spotlight for this kind of movie, and it has been on a full bloom this year with Yaavarum Nalam, Arundhatee and the dubbed-from-Hindi Bommayi. (Not to mention Naan Aval Adhu whose promo appeared quite a while ago on TV, but is yet to be released.)

Apart from the supernatural element being common in all the aforementioned movies, the treatment of the subject has been widely different. Arundhatee (and, from the look of it, Bommayi) focused on a traditional examination of the subject using grand visual effects and bodily reincarnations to grab (and spook) the viewer with on-screen images. While Yaavarum Nalam dealt with the subject in a more subtle manner, focusing on the psychological aspects of spirits and their unfulfilled desires, instead of only spooking the viewer. Eeram firmly establishes itself in the latter category and though similar to Yaavarum Nalam (and, to a slight extent, Adhu), it is still a good horror/thriller in its own right.

As the movie opens, we see the watchman complete his rounds for the night and get ready to take a breather only to be stopped by the sound of flooding water coming from one of the upper floors. He goes to investigate it and after figuring out that it is coming from the E5 home, he knocks heavily on the door to no avail. The camera at this point moves outward. Although this is only a small sequence and plays as the opening credits are rolled on-screen, it is quite important in that it establishes the emphasis of water and how big a part it is going to play in the rest of movie.

In the next scene, we are treated to a police investigation regarding the death of Ramya Balakrishnan (Sindhu Menon) who apparently drowned herself in the bathroom tub by closing the drain hole (leading to the flooding water mentioned above). The suicide note tagged to her body states that no one is responsible for her death. (Rumours around the apartment suggest the involvement of an extra-marital relationship.) Moorthy, the officer on-hand, calls for help from his police friend Vasudevan (Aadhi), who happens to be Ramya’s one-time true love from college. Vasu takes up the case immediately after it is closed as suicide. And, from this moment, the movie moves back and forth between the past and the present.

The flashbacks focus on a lightweight college romance between Vasu and Ramya which, not surprisingly, involves love at first sight. Despite the contrived nature of the beginning of this love, there is some practicality in it and I thought there were some cute scenes, which made accepting it easier. Obviously, the plot progression involves the requirement of a split between these two -- which is again clichéd with the opposing father -- leading to the marriage of Ramya with Balakrishnan (Nandha).

In between all that, what we get in the present day is a standard police procedural with Vasu enquiring about the truth behind the rumours surrounding Ramya. Moorthy is highly sceptical of his friend’s motives behind pursuing a seemingly dead case and suspects it is only because of his prior romantic relationship. But, a string of more deaths of people from the same apartment forces everyone involved to rethink their perspective. Especially since water seems to be the common tool of death in all of them.

Eeram has a very strong first half. The flashbacks do a decent enough job of establishing Vasu and Ramya’s characters and their relationship. This makes it easy to accept that the latter’s death could not have been a suicide and lends support to Vasu’s single-minded pursuit of disproving the same. Each of the subsequent deaths is built up very well and the usage of water in each of them is quite thrilling. However, the movie loses some of its focus in the second half.

In a movie like this, the moment of revealing the key plot point should come as late as possible, with the scenes before establishing all the suspense. Eeram does a good job with the establishment part of it in the second half in the portions depicting Ramya’s marriage life in the apartment. But, instead of closing everything quickly after the revelation, it dwells on some minor issues far too long. This effectively destroys the initial surprise one might have when everything is revealed. Not only that, the movie tries to provide a lot of cheap “boo” moments in these sequences, which only felt like concessions made by the director (not to mention that none of the them scared me one bit). Nevertheless, the director achieves a certain sense of closure at the end that, while not completely satisfying, is well worked out in the context of the movie.

Aadhi gets first billing and more of the screen time but only does an adequate job with it. He seems to have toned down from Mirugam and has a good body presence as is required when one dons the cop uniform, but when it really comes to emoting, he desperately falls short. It didn’t help that his face and voice reminded me of Vishal more than I would have wanted. Sindhu Menon is naturally the heart of the movie, since how much one likes the movie is dependent on how effective her character is. She looks very pretty in the romantic portions, and also provides a really strong performance in the sequences leading to her death, which makes the viewer sympathize with her character. Saranya Mohan is decent while Nandha, who should be seen more often, really improves upon his reputation as a strong actor.

With the importance this movie places on water, the weight of its success entirely falls on the shoulder of the cinematographer. Manoj Paramahamsa really proves his mettle and shows why he was picked by Gautham as the cameraman for his next movie. He neatly desaturates the screen during a majority of the movie (except the college portions), which is very effective, and also captures water in its various forms – flowing, still, falling as droplets -- quite breathtakingly. I was really surprised to find out that the plump drummer in Boys (Thaman) was the music director for this movie. Thankfully, there is only one traditional song (in addition to another which plays in some scenes) in the movie which is very average. The background score, on the other hand, is quite effective in raising the tension at quite a few places. The art director is Rembon who impressed me very much in Subramaniapuram, and again shows his efficiency in the interior scenes especially.

Clearly, this is another winner for Shankar’s ‘S’ Pictures following the success of Kaadhal, Imsai Arasan and Veyyil. (I am ignoring the existence of the very disappointing Kallori and Arai En 305’il Kadavul.) Though it just falls short of the standard set by Yaavarum Nalam for this kind of horror/thriller, it is infinitely better than this season’s most bloated and hyped movie about a non-existent superhero.

An Overdose of "Special Titles"

2009-09-07T00:34:00.010+05:30

One thing that has always annoyed me about the culture of Tamil cinema is how quick people are in providing heroes with “special” titles. While this may seem warranted for our more established actors, it gets a little out of hand when a relatively new hero with arguably very few hits to his name is tagged with one. This is one of those issues about Tamil cinema that has been building up in my mind for quite some time now. And it reached a boiling point recently when I read that Surya has been handed the title of “Narpani Nayagan” which has directly lead to this entry (which can very much be considered a “rant”).

Although the issue I talk about in this post may make me seem like a person who hates the whole culture of handing out titles, my feelings are exactly the opposite. And, in my defence, I am going to provide some examples of when this whole “title” thing was done right.

“Nadigar Thilagam” Sivaji Ganesan – Firstly, let’s address the elephant in the room. ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan is widely acknowledged as one of the finest method actors in our country and his performances have directly influenced countless subsequent Tamil actors including Kamalhassan. The “Nadigar Thilagam” title is but a small example to show that he really was (and still is) the pinnacle of acting in Tamil cinema.

“Puratchi Thalaivar” M.G.R – Another easy enough example to prove my point. As a politician, M.G.R’s success in an era which was dominated by the DMK can be considered slightly revolutionary. And as an actor, he introduced certain novel action sequences (most importantly fencing, which I have not seen done better anywhere else than in his movies) and concepts (like in Ulagam Suttrum Vaaliban), all of which firmly establish that the “Puratchi Thalaivar” tagline is pretty apt.

“Superstar” Rajnikanth – The biggest of them all – If ever there was a title that was more befitting of the star, I haven’t seen it. The word Superstar has become synonymous with Rajni and vice versa. With the title appearing in specially designed fonts before Rajni’s name, one could argue that its popularity is probably the biggest reason why more people are considering taking on such titles to improve their fan base (which in turn has directly lead to its deterioration).

“Ulaganayagan” Kamalhassan – Finally, we come to the master of all trades in Tamil cinema. Whether as an actor, singer, choreographer, producer or director, Kamalhassan has tasted success in any role he has undertaken in the world of cinema. And, more importantly, he has been excellent in each one of those roles in a manner no person before or after has. “Ulaganayagan” (roughly translated to “Hero of the World”) is a title Tamil cinema can be proud of providing to one of its greatest sons.

With the four biggies out of the way, we can move on to the next crop of actors, and this is where the line started to become really fuzzy. One of the most famous titles from this set is “Puratchi Kalaignar” Vijayakanth. Though I don’t recall any special meaning for providing our Captain with this title, it has stuck with him ever since, and has proven pretty useful in his political campaigning (which sees him described as Karuppu M.G.R, hence the usage of the Puratchi part of the title) recently. Apart from that, it has been pretty senseless and ill-conceived for the most part. With the likes of “Navarasa Nayagan” Karthik, “Super Hero” Sarathkumar, “Action King” Arjun (though there is a slight case to make for this one) just to name a few, the downhill slide for the ‘cool’ factor of such titles started in this era.

The popularity of adding these titles has really continued into my generation as well. “Ilayathalapthy” was seemingly added to Vijay in an effort to showcase him as the Thalapathy, i.e. Rajnikanth, for the youngsters. While it has become really popular, I have never really bought it. “Ultimate Star” Ajith Kumar is another whose fame should be attributed to the repeated usage even though it bears no special meaning to the actor in question. I could go on mentioning about how meaningless “Chiyaan” is for Vikram, or how irritated I have been about people calling Silambarasan “Little Supertar” and how adding the “Puratchi Thalapathy” title to Vishal was the last nail in the coffin for the custom of tagging our heroes with memorable titles; but, you get the point.

If you think this entire post is pretty unnecessary, it is partly true on some level. Why should I get into a hissy fit over somebody tagging a hero with a title? I remember myself mentioning somewhere in this post about the ‘cool’ factor of the special titles, and I am pretty sure that is the reason why I wrote this entry in the first place. There was always something cool about using “Nadigar Thilagam”, “Superstar” or any of the biggies in conversations about those particular actors that has been all but lost with the current generation. I recall countless talks I have had without mentioning “Rajnikanth” in a single sentence and that is mainly due to the coolness of the title that goes along with the star. I am afraid I cannot say the same of any of the later examples. No way am I going to interchange “Ilayathalapthy” or “Ultimate Star” or, God forbid, “Narpani Nayagan,” in place of Vijay, Ajith or Surya, and that is my point. (And I don’t even want to get into the taglines we associates with some of our actresses or comedians; that deserves a different topic altogether.)

In the end, all I want is a certain dignity and ‘coolness’ (yes, I am overusing it for lack of a better word) returned to what is one of Tamil cinema’s earliest traditional customs when it comes to idolizing our heroes. //End Rant//

Manchester United Summer Transfers - Thoughts

2009-09-02T02:35:00.010+05:30

Now that the transfer window is closed for the beginning of the season, I wanted to post some long delayed thoughts on Manchester United’s summer signings. The reason I waited till the window shut down was to make sure I did not miss any late signings (though I was quite sure that there won’t be a repeat of last year’s tension) and gave my thoughts on the entire squad as it will be for the rest of the season.

Also I won’t be talking about the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Both of them parted ways from United for different reasons and while I don’t agree with the latter’s reasoning behind his moving on, I have since come to grips with a Man Utd squad minus both of them. Plus, I won’t be talking about any of the people that remain in the squad because we already know what they are capable of. Rather I wanted to cool my nerves (and that of other United fans like me) by talking about the potential in our signings along with some really cool videos of them in action.

Michael Owen (Free from Newcastle Untied)

Imagine waking up very late on a summer’s day only to find you have quite a few missed calls from your father and sister. You return the calls hoping that nothing is wrong and you are told that some footballer named Michael Owen is at Manchester tying up a deal with Manchester United. You are so stunned beyond belief that you visit every site in the whole goddamn world to make sure it is not a joke. (And by God it was not.)

The above paragraph pretty much summed up what I felt when I first heard about this most shocking of all deals I have seen Sir Alex pull off. Just a few days before Owen put pen to paper, he was being linked to Stoke City, and it looked like he was moving from one failure to another. And just like that Sir Alex had swooped to complete one of the transfers of the summer and, in doing so, resurrected the careers of one of England’s most storied strikers.

While I certainly don’t think Michael will be able to produce the kind of goal he scored against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup R16, he is still one of the best goal poachers in the country. What’s more, nearly everyone has something good to say about him as a person and how a move to one of those smaller clubs would have been the last nail in the coffin of a great Liverpool career (something that fortunately did not happen). I certainly was (and still am) a very big fan of Owen from his Liverpool days and the past 4 years have been very hard on him playing in a very poor Newcastle side amidst some really bad injuries. So when you put all that together, this move could not have come at a better time in his career. He is going to be playing for one of the best clubs in the world during World Cup year, with probably the best club medical team in the world (which should curb his injuries to a minimum) and with England’s No. 1 striker (Wayne Rooney), which is going to further his chances of making England’s final World Cup 2010 squad.

But enough of that, we all want to know how he will perform in the Red of United. And, from what I’ve seen of him in said red shirt (and from before when he wore a red we all very much hate), I am confident of him producing the goods. And, by that, I mean we can all expect a minimum of 15 to 20 goals from him this season in a very substitute-oriented role. With the kind of service he is going to be having from Carrick, Scholes, Rooney, Berbatov, Nani, Valencia and Obertan, all he needs to do is make his kind of runs (the kind which he showcased against Wigan in the 5-0 drubbing), and he has just guaranteed himself a ticket to South Africa next year.

Luis Antonio Valencia (From Wigan Athletic for 16 million pounds)

This capture was not nearly as surprising as Owen’s because we always knew it was going to happen when Ronaldo vacated the right-winger spot. Still, it would be worthwhile to see what he brings to the table at Man Utd, along with a video showcasing his talents playing for both Wigan and Ecuador.

So far, what I’ve seen of him at United has been pretty underwhelming. And that is a big understatement. For someone who has been playing in the EPL for the past two years, I expected him to get some basics right, but it has looked like he is a cat amongst lions. However, I don’t think he has quite gotten used to life at a club as big as United. The fact that he doesn’t know the language is also a factor and from what I read at the ROM blog, he has only Anderson for company outside of football, which is a bad thing to happen for a new boy. In time, I think he will be a very good signing and take his game to the next level playing for us.

Looking at his video (and I have seen him in action for Wigan quite a lot so this is just a small sample), we can take note of a lot of positives. And don’t expect him to be the next Ronaldo; that is just an insult to both their widely different abilities. He looks to be very strongly built which means he will use that upper-body strength to good use to get past players easily and will also be very effective in the air, making those long balls from Van Der Sar to the wings possible. By now, we pretty much know that he is one of the best crossers in the EPL; so with Owen, Rooney, Berbatov and Macheda latching onto his balls, our source of goals is going to change from when Ronaldo was here. Finally, he isn’t one to shirk off his defensive duties and tracks back after every possession, so Rooney no longer needs to be deployed wide left, which is going to make for a much more lethal Wazza up front.

Gabriel Obertan (From Bordeaux for 3 million pounds)

First of all, I haven’t seen enough of this guy to make long-winding statements about his usefulness to us. However, I am going to let this video do the talking and show that Sir Alex could have produced one of the coups of the summer, and made one of his best young buys in a long time. By the way, watching this video was the final proof I needed to confirm Sir Alex’s statement that we don’t need any more players.

A few things to note from the video: He has very good dribbling skills and is fast like hell and can play on either wing. That pretty much screams to me like he is a perfect match for us because we have always been about fluidity and the ability of a winger to switch sides is critical to that (Ronaldo was best at it). Like Valencia, he is no pushover and demonstrates some good upper-body strength in getting past players which is a necessity in the EPL. In a way he reminds me of youngsters our rivals have – Theo Walcott at Arsenal and Aaron Lennon at Spurs – and much more certainly of a little known footballer called Thierry Henry. He is also going be receiving tutelage from the best manager in the league which is going to make a big difference. It wouldn’t surprise me in a few years if he is where Ronaldo is at right now, top of the world. Yes, it is a very bold statement but we are allowed one of those once in a while and this boy certainly has the potential. I cannot wait to see him in action in October when he returns from injury.

Owen Hargreaves (From “injury” for free)

I promise I will keep this one short. The main reason why I believe Sir Alex did not plunge into the transfer market with the remains of Ronaldo’s 80 million (and whatever newspapers say, it has nothing to do with the Glazers’ debts) is because of the progress (we all hope) Hargreaves has made in his rehabilitation from a dual knee surgery. Insider thoughts from ManUtd.com pretty much confirms this fact and I cannot argue much. We all know what he is capable of and if anyone wants their memory refreshed, watch the videos of the 2008 Champions League semi-finals and finals to remember how much important he was in our European conquest that year. The sooner he returns (fully fit), the better.

In addition, we also have the likes of Adam Ljajic, Zoran Tosic (both of whom have skills but need to really develop on the physical side) and Mame Biram Diouf who looks to be an interesting proposition when he returns in the January transfer window. I don’t see a lot of reason to argue with Sir Alex’s assessment that he has got all the players he needs to go for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Barclays Premier League title (19th overall topping the scousers), a third consecutive Champions League final appearance (with the trophy to add certainly) and a few more trophies to the cabinet.

Let’s prove all the doubters wrong again (remember when Van Nistelrooy left in 2006, we weren’t given a chance, but we have won 3 consecutive league titles since then) and show that the Manchester United bus always moves forward no matter what happens.

And I keep coming back...

2009-08-31T00:30:00.007+05:30

As you can probably see, I am back to blogger again. After moving around for quite some time between Blogger and Wordpress, I found it surprising that I could not make up my mind on where to reside permanently.

While there were lots of positives for Wordpress such as the ability to have any number of separate pages, the possibility to add numerous widgets (some of which are unavailable here) and so on, I also found myself hindered by some of its limitations. Firstly, the default Wordpress blog site has only a handful of decent themes that I found to be to my liking. Moreover, the ability to edit the CSS for themes required an upgrade which costs money, severely curbing my enthusiastic attempts to modify the default template. And finally, there is no way to add any custom themes you come across on the web which again was not suited to my taste.

In moving back to blogger, I found all those abilites that I had overlooked available to me. Adding custom themes is as easy as downloading it from a third-party site and uploading it in the CSS Editor here. Similarly, the ability to edit CSS allowed me to modify the font-size, face etc. and generally the overall appearance to my liking. And finally, one of the features I had overlooked in my previous stay here was the ability to add labels to our posts - the "Categories" ability in Wordpress was one of the reasons for my move - which made categorization of posts very easy.

On the plus side, I have been coming up with posts on a more regular basis in recent times. Though much of that is attributed to the fact that I have not yet joined the company in which I was selected in a campus interview during my final year. And in the current financial climate, it looks like it may be a few more months before I join up. Until then, I hope to continue producing posts regularly.

Xbox 360 Wired Controller (PC) – Thoughts

2009-08-25T16:47:00.003+05:30

Ever since I bought the Xbox 360 Wired Controller for the PC, I have been playing around with it in a variety of games (not always to satisfaction) and wanted to post some surprising thoughts from someone who is PC gaming through and through.

One of the main reasons I bought it in the first place was for Action-Adventure games and it has entirely replaced my KB/Mouse setup for such games. Ideally, these games are best played comfortably leaning back on your chair and taking in the atmosphere and I find the X360 controller perfect for that. I played Assassin’s Creed, Chaos Theory, Prototype, Arkham Asylum demo and quite a number of other games and had a blast in all of them. Though I had completed AC before with the KB/Mouse setup, the X360 controller made free-running just more of a joy to pull off. Same goes for moving Sam around in Chaos Theory (gave a few tries with KB/Mouse but the sheer number of key mappings in this game is overwhelming). And using the left analog stick instead of mouse-wheel to control Sam’s speed greatly adds to the tension when sneaking up on enemies which I absolutely love to do. I could go on adding to the list but you get the idea.

Then, I moved on to games (sports/racing) that are obviously suited to the controller. Again, another game that pushed me towards buying one is Burnout Paradise. I initially played it with a KB/Mouse but it just wasn’t fun to do those crashes in Road Rage/Marked Man and I stopped for a while. The 360 controller with the rumble made pulling off those insane crashes even more awesome and provided the adrenaline rush that the previous setup clearly lacked. I also played around with the Grid demo (having previously played it with KB/Mouse) and got the same feeling. When it comes to sports games, one thing I always find unintuitive about Fifa is the WASD key mapping for shooting/blocking/passing and I have never really gotten into them because of that. Playing the Fifa 09 demo (in anticipation of Fifa 10) opened my eyes on just how much the KB/Mouse lacks when it comes to this type of games.

Another reason in going for the gamepad was GTA-IV. I have played both Vice City and San Andreas and never had a problem with driving, but with this game, driving became really unsatisfying with the KB/Mouse. And GTA-IV is one of those games I mentioned earlier which is played best leaning back and taking in all the joys of Liberty City. After playing around for a while, I decided to use the controller for the shooting portions also. It became boring to put the pad down and move on to the KB/Mouse for shooting. Although shooting with the KB/Mouse is still better; the way availability of ammo/weapons in this game is worked out, it just made more sense to go for the comfort of the pad/auto-aim versus the KB/Mouse because shooting is nearly not as important as a standard FPS.

Finally, I moved on to the acid-test, that of playing a standard fast FPS with the controller and this is where I thought it failed for me personally. I tried out Escape from Butcher Bay with it and the initial portions were decent and the melee combat was actually more satisfying with a controller. But once I picked up a gun and got into some actual firefights the shortcomings of the analog stick/aiming became blatantly evident. I know this may just be because I am so used to the KB/Mouse setup and gave it some time. Sadly, I couldn’t do it as even on Easy difficulty, getting past the first proper firefight without getting reduced to one stick health (or worse, dying) was nearly impossible. Switching to the KB/Mouse setup, I realized how much better FPS still are with this setup. I am sure some people will disagree but, you know, I got past all the initial firefights (and this time on Hard) without breaking a sweat.

But this is still one of the best buys for me in a long time. Combined with a nifty little software called the Pinnacle Game Profiler, it makes playing even older games without 360 controller support a very simple process. Download one of the pre-defined game profiles (or better create one yourself) and you’re good to go on games like Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow and even Oblivion. And all the newer Games for Windows titles come with built-in support for the Xbox 360 controller. Even though Microsoft’s driver software still sucks, it is amazing when you press a button on the pad, all on-screen instructions are delivered in that format and moving on the KB/Mouse immediately switches them over to that setup (this applies for all recent games like GTA-IV, Fallout 3, Prototype, Arkham Asylum etc.).

I still don’t think I will be able to play any kind of first-person shooter (including similar games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age) with the 360 gamepad and it is obviously unsuitable for strategy games, but I can safely say that it has taken over a large majority of my gaming time for pretty much all other types of games.

Kanthaswamy (2009)

2009-08-22T18:44:00.010+05:30

There is little doubt that Vikram is in the most critical stage of his recent film career. While his nearly one and a half year wait for Anniyan in 2005 proved worthwhile with the movie becoming a box office success, his later movies have not fared well. Majaa released in the same year was average and Bheema, his collaboration with commercial director Lingusamy, released early last year was a critical and commercial flop. With no movie befitting his place in the top-tier of Tamil actors in the past 4 years, he has put all his hopes on Kanthaswamy to restore his share of the Tamil market.

Unfortunately, that faith has proved to be misplaced. Director Susi Ganesan’s previous movies were not exactly what one could call commercial and his last movie, Thiruttu Payale, had an interesting protagonist, though the movie itself was average at best. With Kanthaswamy he has tried to move into mainstream commercial cinema with a mega-star and I have to say he is very unsuccessful in the attempt. Kanthaswamy’s story of the hero taking money from the rich and giving to the poor in order to solve their troubles is similar to every vigilante movie that has appeared before. It actually borrows liberally from a variety of similar movies like Ramana, Anniyan and Sivaji. While that itself would not have been a bad thing had the director been able to serve the old wine in a new bottle (yes it is a cliché but one that fits right in here). However, with a very uneven screenplay and an insanely long running time, the movie has very few things going for it and I definitely left the theatre feeling very underwhelmed at the end.

The plot is very basic and threadbare to say the least. By day, Kanthaswamy (Vikram) is a CBI officer working in the finance wing. His job allows him to track the financial records of almost all big-wigs in the state and conduct raids on their properties to see where their illegal money is stashed. By night, he is also a superhero taking said illegal money from big-wigs and delivering it to the needy and the poor. The people in turn believing that God is helping them write their problems on a letter and tie them up in a tree in Lord Kanthaswamy’s temple, from where our hero retrieves them and solves their troubles. This rubs the police the wrong way and the DIG (Prabhu) wants to prove that this is the work of a mortal man and no God.

Meanwhile, the CBI persona of Kanthaswamy also traps a state big-wig, PPP (Aashish Vidhyarthi), for stashing illegal money which sets him up for a direct confrontation with the latter’s daughter, Subbulakshmi (Shriya). Subbulakshmi, aiming for revenge on the person who humiliated her father, tries to woo the hero into falling for her, while the hero realizing this makes sure not to get caught in her web of love and deceit. This sets up a battle of wits between the two which looks like it will be interesting for a while, but ends up conventionally with the hero taming the heroine’s ego.

Arguably the most disappointing aspect of the movie for me was how little screen-time the Kokkarokko super-hero persona had. For a movie that had the superhero tagline during the opening sequence and has been touted as the first superhero movie in Tamil cinema, the actual character was very poorly etched and failed to give us the yearning for such a hero in our real lives (which is the ultimate success for any superhero character). The fact that the real-life Kanthaswamy had more to do than his alter-ego made me feel like I was cheated at all the hype that the movie had generated for itself and the character especially.

Still, all the movie’s flaws could have been forgiven easily had Susi Ganesan been able to narrate the story swiftly and entertainingly. However, new characters and villains are introduced at regular intervals and it feels like he is unable to keep a tight hold of proceedings as the screenplay takes weird directions. Vadivelu’s comedy track and songs arrive at all the wrong times further interrupting the pace. Yet, had the movie provided a nice conclusion and climax, the movie would have worked out better, but, with a message that feels tacked on and a rushed climax just for the sake of wrapping up everything, the director fails there too. And with a running time of 3 hours and 20 minutes, all the movie’s flaws appear magnified which make for a very incoherent and wholly unsatisfying movie.

I cannot help but pity Vikram in the movie. With the movie being as important as it is, he does look to have put a lot of effort in getting his character right. Still, his sincerity is largely wasted in a role which does nothing to bring out his talents and is pretty much like any commercial-hero type character. As I mentioned earlier, with the superhero character having such a small time on-screen, he is unable to do anything worthwhile with that too. Also the much hyped multiple roles of a woman and an old man have inconsequential (I mean they are really small, like tiny) side appearances to make any kind of impact on us.

After nearly 3 years in Tamil cinema, Shriya still cannot deliver one complete sentence without going out-of-sync with the voice-overs and that is just one minor problem I have with her. It also looks like she wants to “show” her way to the top of the Tamil cinema heroine ladder. In every song — almost nearly every scene — she appears skimpily clad in an effort to bring out her curves to the forefront and it does get boring after a while. When combined with the fact that she absolutely, positively cannot emote, her appearance does not make for a good viewing. Prabhu and Aashish Vidhyarthi sleepwalk through roles they have probably played in countless movies before. Vadivelu provides what is easily his most unfunny comedy track in recent memory and Susi Ganesan’s cameo appearance as a supporting character at the end is as forgettable as his movie.

Technically, the film is again a mixed bag. Cinematography is excellent throughout and is especially highlighted in the sequences in Mexico and in the usage of innovative camera angles during the superhero appearances. The film editor is largely responsible for the movie’s problems with sudden cuts from songs to comedy tracks to Vikram’s grand appearances. It is almost as if he cut everything and pasted them together in any way he pleased. I didn’t think too highly of Devi Sri Prasad’s songs (with Vikram’s voice to accompany it) before the movie and watching them onscreen didn’t change that opinion. The Kanthaswamy theme is pretty decent but excessive usage robs almost all of the shine from it.

Kanthaswamy follows other big-name movies with megastars in failing to live up to the pre-release hype, while we were hoping for the exact opposite thing to happen. Here’s hoping that Aayirathil Oruvan at least bucks the trend and turns out to be every bit as good as the hype it seems to be getting now.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

2009-08-12T17:42:00.004+05:30

NOTE: While I try to avoid any major plot points or spoilers in this review, for people looking for a fresh and uninitiated viewing of this complex thriller, it would be wise to read this post after watching the movie.

For any film noir/murder mystery/thriller movie to work and be successful, it has to have the following elements going for it. First of all, it has to have strong plot which draws the viewers attention to the film never letting go of it till the final credits roll on-screen. Secondly, it has to have strong characterization with a set of central characters which the viewer can identify with and care for. Thirdly, and most importantly, it has to have a very strong and cohesive screenplay which brings all the elements of the movie together and ties up all the loose ends successfully. Though it is nearly impossible to pull off all the above elements to perfection, any movie which can do so even with a certain degree of success is surely going to be a very engaging thriller. L.A. Confidential (1997) is one such movie and is probably one of the best examples of a movie where all the elements are worked out to near perfection and, for that reason, it is one of the best crime thrillers that I have ever seen.

L.A. Confidential can be primarily classified as a film noir thriller but, in my opinion, that would be desperately selling it short. Sure all the elements needed for such a movie are present such as drugs, sex, multiple homicides, prostitution etc. complete with cinematography full of diluted hues and a background score that will distinctly remind you of older noir thrillers. However, by setting the story against the backdrop of 1950’s Los Angeles, the director also explores some elements of the city we are now familiar with but were just starting out in that time period such as police & political corruption and sensationalist journalism while also focusing on the glitz and glamour of the city. This gives the movie a sense of character that few other movies have because the city is an integral part of the movie and parts of the complex story are woven directly around it.

The movie opens as the city’s biggest crime lord, Mickey Cohen, is arrested and jailed for income tax evasion leaving the spot vacant for anyone to take over. This small sequence is narrated by Hush-Hush magazine chief editor Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) which leads us to suspect that possibly the entire movie could be narrated by him. However, those suspicions are immediately laid to rest as the movie moves its focus to Bud White (Russell Crowe), Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) and Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce) who are going to be the three principal protagonists in the movie.

Bud White is possibly the most intensely likable character of the three even though he is also the most violent. He is the kind of person who acts first and thinks later (something which certain people use against him) and is not afraid to deliver his own brand of justice if he sees it fit. He especially has a deep hatred for men who abuse women and these guys get to see him in all his fury. Jack Vincennes is the most glamorous and sleazy of the three who also works as technical advisor for Badge of Honour which is a cop-based TV show. He also cuts win-win deals with the aforementioned Sid Hudgens, wherein the reporter provides information on celebrities doing drugs and he gets to arrest them in the act while also getting his photo on the cover of Hush-Hush boosting magazine sales in the process. Ed Exley is the extremely intelligent son of a decorated ex-cop who wants to play everything by the book even if it means he is going to be an outcast in the department’s homicide division. He is the kind of politically-correct person who does most things right and follows all the rules but still can end up in the viewers’ bad books in the process.

The entire story is built around an incident called the Nite Owl Massacre, where six people (including Bud’s ex-partner) are killed in the Nite Owl Coffee Shop. The department opens up investigations in which all three are involved to varying degrees which culminates with the case getting closed and the primary accused being killed while trying to escape. However, something doesn’t feel right and each of the three open up separate investigations. Bud follows an angle involving his run-in with one of the women who was killed in the massacre. Jack is set up for arrest of the district D.A. by Sid which ends up with a budding actor being murdered forcing him to get involved while Ed Exley just has a gut feeling that he got the medal of valour for the wrong reasons and that the case is still open.

Each of their investigations also connects to a multitude of subplots prevalent throughout the course of the movie. Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn) is a rich businessman on the outside who also runs a high-class call-girl service by turning girls into Hollywood actress look-alikes. One of these is Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), a Veronica Lake look-alike, who was friends with one of the Nite Owl victims and who also becomes romantically involved with Bud White. Another subplot involves Captain Dudley Smith (Jack Cromwell) who uses muscle cops like Bud to rough-up gangsters from out-of-town forcing them to flee from the city.

Curtis Hanson (serving as Director and Screenwriter), along with co-writer Brian Helgeland, deserves all of the praise for a truly amazing screenplay. With so much going on, it would have been overwhelming for the viewers if we had been forced to think about them during the movie, but, by focusing our entire attention on the characters right from the first scene, the director makes sure that we don’t think much about the subplots until he is ready to tie them all together. The only thing we as viewers care about is what happens to the three main protagonists. And when the screenplay does tie up everything together neatly, with no deus ex machina or other plot contrivances of any sort, the only thing left for us to do is stand up and applaud the depth and complexity of it all.

Although Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce have become famous because of their appearances in blockbusters (Crowe in Gladiator and Pearce in Memento), both of them were relative unknowns in Hollywood in 1997; still, their acting quality shines through in this movie. With nary a hint of their Australian accent in show, their performances are one of the main reasons we are drawn into the movie and relate with their characters in the first place. Crowe certainly looks the part of the rough-n-tough cop with a bulky body and delivers a solid portrayal which allows us to sympathize with Bud White. Pearce’s intense performance is very effective in showing that Ed Exley means business in the department. Kevin Spacey was the most famous of the three in 97, yet he is also stuck with the least screen time. He still develops Jack into a charismatic person who still has some honor left in him to go and find the truth even if it means moving out his comfort zone as the slick and famous celebrity cop.

Of the supporting performances, Kim Basinger’s is the most effective, for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She portrays Lynn as a sympathetic individual who is immediately attracted to Bud White because of his kindness towards women which overshadows his rough-cop appearance. One of the best scenes in the movie is Lynn’s monologue to Ed Exley on why she fell for Bud in the first place. Senior actors Jack Cromwell, David Strathairn and Danny DeVito all provide solid and credible supporting performances.

It is hard to find fault with a movie of the quality of L.A. Confidential. All the elements required for a great movie in general are on full display here with a complex plot, a multi-layered screenplay and top-class performances. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to watch one of the finest thrillers in recent memory.

Goodfellas (1990)

2009-07-16T22:38:00.007+05:30

There is a personal classification of movies I always maintain in my mind and it usually depends on the following three rules (except the case where the movie is truly bad or awful). If I keep talking about a movie for a day or two after I watch it and then forget about, I consider the movie to be average or good and worth a watch maybe once. Secondly, if I keep mentioning the movie in talks for quite a number of days or even a month, then I consider it to be very good and worth repeated viewings. On the other hand, there are quite a number of handful cases where I simply cannot forget a movie for a long time. Thinking about scenes from these movies always brings a smile to my face even months or years after I have seen them. The most recent movie I saw, Goodfellas (1990), definitely belongs in the latter category. The experience of watching the movie is one I will never forget and that is why I now consider it to be one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Ever since I saw Martin Scorsese’s recent movies — most notably The Departed in 2006 — I wanted to catch up with his older classics and, to be precise, his collaborations with Robert De Niro. And since I had already seen Taxi Driver quite a while ago on TV, I decided to watch Raging Bull and Goodfellas. The kind of synergy that exists between these two masters of their craft has to be seen to be understood. Taxi Driver was the beginning of their relationship and Raging Bull was arguably the most accomplished and lauded of their efforts and Goodfellas further demonstrates what is so good when the two of them combine together.

Goodfellas follows the story of Henry Hill (based on real-life gangster Henry Hill and portrayed by Ray Liotta) from a period of 1955 to 1980 depicting his rise inside the mafia family under the control of Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino). The movie opens with Henry saying, “To me being a gangster is better than being President of the United States” and then goes on to show how even as a 13-year old kid he wanted to be in the mafia family enjoying the respect and power that comes with it. During this period he also learns the two most important creeds of the mafia world — “Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouths shut” — which is what the entire story is built upon.

As he is gradually accepted within the family as one of their own and starts getting their support in his personal life, he meets up with Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy De Vito (Joe Pesci), two people with whom he is going to be spending the rest of his gangster life with. Jimmy is not a “made man” or one of the top bosses (since he is Irish like Henry) but is generally well respected within the family. Tommy is on the same level of the gangster food-chain as Henry but is very hot-headed and nearly psychotic who can switch between being jovial to being absolutely pissed off in a matter of seconds. And thanks to the latter he also meets up with Karen (Lorraine Bracco) and ends up marrying her.

The first half of the movie is essentially a smaller version of The Godfather. It shows all the good things that can come with being a gangster and glamorizes the life much like its esteemed predecessor. However, the similarities end right there as the second half is all about how it can push you right to the edge of paranoia. The second half is set up with a killing that, while not providing the biggest jolt, is arguably the most important story-wise. Trouble starts brewing within the family subsequently and Henry and his best friends start becoming wary of each other. By the end of the movie, a lot more people have been killed and the entire foundation of the mafia world (and its two most important creeds) is brought into question.

At its heart, Goodfellas is much closer to Scorsese’s previous Raging Bull than The Godfather. That is to say, it is more of a character drama than a gangster film since almost all characters are fully-realized and not one is entirely likable for the duration of the film. Although the narrative is provided by Henry and Karen Hill and these are the two characters Scorsese want us to sympathize with, even they have shades of grey as Henry keeps a mistress and disregards his family for a while and Karen takes some not so pleasing decisions to keep her husband to herself. The actual voice-overs themselves never hinder with the movie and helps Scorsese take us into the minds of his main characters. Henry’s voice-overs are arguably the life of the movie and give us an insight into what is going through his head with each of the actions he commits for his “family”. While Karen’s voice-overs (though very little in number) serve as an interesting look into how she settles into the family as a newcomer and how by the end of the film she is almost one of them helping her husband in business matters.

Even with such a strong script and screenplay, there is only so much Martin Scorsese can do to make Goodfellas the masterpiece that it is. The main responsibility, however, falls squarely on the shoulders of the entire cast. The scene-stealing performance is definitely from Joe Pesci as Tommy for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His depiction of the split second that it takes to change Tommy’s character from being comical to purely homicidal is probably one of the main reasons why we can accept such a character in the first place. It almost feels as if Tommy has multiple personality disorder at times and Pesci does it perfectly. Ray Liotta plays it safe as Henry Hill. He is definitely very good in some scenes which require him to show Henry’s moral issues and though his performance for the part is perfect, it is not as noticeable as Pesci’s. Lorraine Bracco is especially good in scenes where she is required to battle against her husband’s attitude.

The reason I saved Robert De Niro’s performance for the last is because after seeing this movie, I have concluded that he is probably my favorite actor of my generation (something which had been on my mind long before). This performance is again very typical of De Niro. He is there in nearly as much frames as Pesci or Liotta but you don’t notice him unless he wants to be noticed. He underplays his part perfectly and that is the reason why it is such a good performance and it is what makes him such a great actor. There are quite a few scenes especially towards the end of the movie which show him in top form.

Another thing I need to mention is Martin Scorsese’s usage of pop songs instead of generic background scores in many scenes. I first read about this in Roger Ebert’s and James Berardinelli’s reviews of Goodfellas. Both had mentioned about this particular aspect in the movie and when I saw it I understood why. There are quite a few scenes in the movie where a regular instrumental score would have sufficed but by using pop songs that fit in with the scene, Scorsese draws the viewer’s attention further into the film. This is even true for some of the killing scenes where a song could be considered a hindrance but that is not the case since Scorsese meshes it perfectly with the actions on-screen.

Finally, I think what drew me into the movie most was that it is based on a real-life story. That almost all the characters in the movie shared first names with their real-life counterparts only served to further drive home that fact. Even though I mostly speak for me when I say this but deep inside us, most of us would have thought about the power and respect that comes with being a gangster, maybe not consciously but subconsciously at least. This movie serves like the anti-thesis of all that has been built by watching The Godfather and its sequel. It depicts the brutality of the mob especially in the lower parts of the food chain and is probably one of the main reasons why I was engrossed in it so much.

For those of you who have already seen it, I hope my tribute in the form of a review helped you reminisce what is so great about the movie. For those who haven’t I suggest you do so right away and watch what is surely one of the best films in the history of cinema.

Subramaniapuram (2008)

2008-10-26T01:25:00.036+05:30

Recently we have seen Kollywood produce some very good young directors who have come out with movies that aren’t your typical run-of-the mill entertainment. Last year it was Venkat Prabhu with Chennai 600028 and the Pushkar-Gayathri duo with Oram Po. These movies were not what you would have expected from Tamil cinema, say, 10 years ago. With today’s producers being ready to take risks with such “independent” films sans big stars, we are starting to see some unknown names from Kodambakkam making it big. This year, it is the turn of M. Sasi Kumar, who has provided us with the year’s biggest surprise in the form of Subramaniapuram.

Subramaniapuram begins in the year 2008 with scenes showing the Madurai Central Prison. As a man is released from jail, he is met by someone with a knife and stabbed. We are not shown who both these persons are. The movie then flashbacks to 1980 with Kasi (‘Ganja’ Karuppu) meeting ex-councilor Somu and his brother, Kanugu (Samudhirakkani) requesting help to get his friends Azhagar (Jai) and Paraman (Sasi Kumar) out of jail. They do the needful and both of them are let out. The importance of these initial scenes is that the former scene is always on the back of our minds as we constantly think about who the person released from jail is and who stabbed him and the latter scene does the important job of establishing the dependency that the three friends have on the men with all the power that make us understand their actions later on.

The movie then goes on to show the day-to-day activities of all of them. Somu is not in any kind of authority anymore and the only people who show him any kind of respect anymore are Azhagar, Paraman, Kasi and their friends. Azhagar and Somu’s daughter Thulasi (Swathi) have feelings for each other which Paraman disapproves of regularly. Soon it comes to the time when another important political position has to be handed out by Somu’s party and it goes to a rival politician which infuriates Kanugu, who then uses his goodwill with the three friends to manipulate them into killing the rival so that the route gets cleared for Somu to come back to power. It is not until Azhagar and Paraman are put in jail that they realize they have essentially been tricked in one big political game and how they exact their revenge forms the rest of the story.

The story has shades of all the recent gangster films like Pattiyal and Pudhupettai. However, while his contemporaries have chosen more modern locales with guns as the platform for gangster films, Sasi Kumar elects to take us back in time to the 1980s to tell his violent tale. It proves to be a very wise decision because that is what elevates Subramaniapuram above most other films. The authentic depiction of 80’s Madurai provides the best platform visually for such a movie with every aspect right from the slang to the dressing and especially the village locales being brought on screen vividly and wonderfully.

Another big difference between the aforementioned gangster movies and Subramaniapuram is the realization of the main protagonists. Pattiyal created a pair of gangsters that we neither cared for nor related with, while Pudhupettai chose to completely antagonize its gangster. In choosing three average Joes, Sasi Kumar has made it sure that we get connected with his heroes. The first half is largely responsible for this with scenes showing the friends looking out for each other and immediately coming to one another’s aid in case of trouble. This helps us empathize with them when they decide to take revenge for the wrongs that have been committed against them. A few dialogues also bring this to the forefront where we realize that this violent life was not one of their choosing and instead has been thrust upon them and they have to live with it if they want to survive in this brutal world.

With every other aspect of the movie falling into place perfectly, the biggest burden falls on the main actors to perform their roles well and while there are no screen-stealing performances, they do get the job done effectively. Jai shows that he still has a long way to go to reach the top with a mixed performance. He overdoes the smile in the romantic portions quite a bit and while his face isn’t suited for the role of the tough guy, he certainly produces a competent and believable performance in the second half. Sasi Kumar is as good on the screen as he is off it and comes out with a very strong performance as the guy with the soft heart inside the rough exterior. ‘Ganja’ Karuppu, whose comedy has been becoming stale recently, shows that there is more to him than just funny one-liners. Samudhirakkani’s solid performance plays a major role in realizing a truly detestable and manipulative villain. Swathi is mostly expected to look innocent with a shy smile which she provides adequately. However, a few scenes near the end of the second half show that she can emote quite well actually which is certainly heartening to see in a new heroine. The actors rounding out the group of friends also come up with decent performances and no member of the overall supporting cast is left wanting.

The off-screen crew (which contains quite a number of new names) provides wonderful support to Sasi Kumar. Cinematographer Kadhir with his effective usage of natural lighting for most of the movie is largely responsible for bringing the 1980s world to life before our eyes. Some newcomers in the form of costume designer K. Natarajan and Art Director B. Rembon are also critical in preserving the overall 80s feel of the movie and are certainly ones to watch out for in the future. Debutante music director James Vasanthan delivers one of the best melodies of recent times in Kangal Irandaal… and the picturization on Jai and Swathi with scenes accompanying the lyrics does not disappoint. Kadhal Siluvayil… contains some good lyrics toying with one’s belief in love and plays right after Jai has been imprisoned. The background score is responsible for elevating the effectiveness of the scene during many places.

In this present day where almost every movie that releases contains some well-known Tamil cinema cliché, it is surprising to note that this film almost contains none and is probably the better for it. With its unflinching portrayal of violence, wonderfully realized characters, strong lead performances and great support from the entire crew, Subramaniapuram is the best movie of the year so far and is worth a watch for anyone who likes entertaining and engrossing cinema.

Aegan (2008)

2008-10-25T21:10:00.014+05:30

NOTE: Since Aegan is obviously inspired by Main Hoon Na, I will make certain references to the latter and comparisons in the vastly different qualities of both movies. So, there might be some minor spoilers when these comparisons are made, not that it matters anyway.

Ajith is on a comeback run after a few years when all his movies were quite average really. After the blockbuster success of last year’s Billa, he has decided to put his trust on new director Raju Sundaram to keep his box office run going. Aegan borrows the basic script of a cop going undercover as a student from the Hindi Shah Rukh Khan starrer Main Hoon Na and provides Ajith ample scope for comedy and action and he doesn’t disappoint. However, Ajith’s casting is about the only thing that Aegan gets right and almost everything else about the movie is below-average at best and it is not quite the diwali entertainment that was promised.

John Chinnappa (Suman) is a dreaded criminal who is wanted by the police on a number of crimes. Ram Prasad (Devan) is his right-hand man and best friend and knows everything about John. Ram Prasad decides to split with John after the latter chooses to put the lives of innocent people in danger and surrenders to the police and becomes an approver. However, when the police are escorting Ram to the court, their convoy is attacked and Ram runs on the loose fearing for his life. A short introduction about Shiva (Ajith) follows showing his ruthless streak in dispatching criminals. Shiva is then sent undercover as a student to St John’s College where Ram Prasad’s daughter Pooja (Piaa) is studying in order to protect her as well as keep tabs on Ram if he comes to visit her.

Once undercover Shiva finds it difficult to overcome his gruff exterior and befriend Pooja and her boyfriend Narain (Navadeep). He also falls for new chemistry teacher Mallika (Nayanthara) and tries to woo her. Giving him company inside the college are the principal (Jayaram), the peon (Sathyan) and his police aide (V.M.C. Haneefa). How he tracks Ram Prasad and brings John Chinnappa to justice forms the rest of the story. Oh and did I mention that there is a side track featuring Shiva’s attempt to reunite his father (Nasser) and his separated wife (Suhasini).

What Main Hoon Na did was merge all the above elements into a wonderful whole that provided great entertainment with lots of comedy, over-the-top action and just the slightest amount of sentiment to keep the proceedings interesting. Aegan delivers only in the comedy aspect. The scenes inside the campus with Ajith trying to blend into his new surroundings and get into Piaa’s good books to keep an easy eye on her and his wooing of Nayanthara are certainly funny with Ajith proving to have wonderful timing. Even though these sequences are directly inspired by Main Hoon Na with the funny principal trying to do his best to assist the undercover cop in his mission and Ajith going into dream mode every time Nayanthara passes by, they are still funny nonetheless and certain dialogues and scenes are sure to please Ajith fans.

One of the main aspects in which Aegan doesn't deliver is with its villain. Sunil Shetty’s solid performance provided a cool and chilling villain in Main Hoon Na. Suman’s John Chinnappa is a bit of a caricature in comparison. The role has been made into a one-dimensional regular Tamil villain with unwanted comedy inserted and it is probably single-handedly responsible for bringing down the overall quality of the movie. Sriman as Suman’s right hand man does not do the movie any favors and is another big minus.

Raju Sundaram also fails miserably in tying all the loose ends up in the climax. In Main Hoon Na, the track involving Shahrukh’s quest to make his half-brother and stepmother understand his father was integrated neatly with the main storyline and added some nice sentiments to the mix. In Aegan, the track has been brought very late on in the movie and it is absolutely unnecessary and only the director can explain his decision in bringing such an angle to the movie. The story and screenplay falters horribly in the final twenty minutes of the movie and as a result, everything built up during the college sequences are wasted.

As I stated in the beginning, Ajith’s casting is spot on for the role. There are some obvious references to his past movies and usage of the world “thala” during apt sequences is intended solely to please his fans. Ajith gets to enjoy himself after a long time and his scenes with Jayaram and Haneefa are a lot of fun. Nayanthara certainly doesn’t dress like she is a college professor but looks quite hot really and that is all is required of her. Navadeep looks like he has not improved his acting from Arindhum Ariyaamalum and is not stressed too much. Piaa manages to impress as the girl who is not too fond of her father’s profession. Nasser and Suhasini are wasted in miniscule roles. Jayaram, Haneefa and Sathyan all produce decent performances to maintain the light tone of the movie throughout.

Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is quite average really but the Aegan background score accompanying Ajith’s entry and fight sequences is good thankfully. Ajith has managed to improve his dance skills greatly and it is evident in Hey Saala… and Odum Varaiyil… both of which provide him with some fast movements and he doesn’t falter at all. Raju Sundaram has unsuccessfully tried to capture the group dance spirit of the initial college song from Main Hoon Na in Yahoo.... The stunt sequences are quite underwhelming and the climax fight especially contains some grainy shots which I am not sure Raju Sundaram intended to signify style but they are not good-looking in all honesty.

Rocky Balboa (2006)

2008-10-18T19:36:00.010+05:30

Rocky Balboa is a kind of nostalgic trip down memory lane for Sylvester Stallone. It is reminiscent of the 1976 evergreen classic Rocky in more ways than one and by Stallone’s own admission, it is the final movie in the long-running Rocky series which apparently overstayed its welcome with movies Rocky III, IV and V.

I first saw the original 1976 Rocky a few years ago and being a fan of uplifting motion pictures, I loved it. The story of a relative unknown in Rocky Balboa being given a shot at becoming world-champion by holder Apollo Creed and lasting 15 rounds and almost winning the match is still as inspiring as ever. Of course, the movie is now heralded as a classic by everyone alike and if you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do right away.

I decided to stay away from sequels Rocky III, IV and V when I heard they were nothing like Rocky and Rocky II. So, why make a sequel for a long-forgotten series 16 years after the last one was universally regarded as a failure and made even hardcore fans detest the series. I tend to think Stallone wanted a proper send off (as was suggested by his reaction to the reception of Rocky V) for the series and the character -- one which people will remember for all the right reasons instead of wondering why Stallone did not stop with I and II.

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) starts with the title character living a lonely life in 2006 following the death of Adrian in 2002. His son, Robert Balboa (Milo Ventimiglia), has distanced himself from Rocky in an effort to make a life of his own instead of forever being in his father’s shadow. Rocky now runs a successful Italian restaurant, Adrian’s, telling tales of his boxing bouts and letting everyday pass by. Paulie (Burt Young) still visits his restaurant from time to time sharing fond memories of Adrian. Rocky comes across Marie (Geraldine Hughes) one day as he casually tours Philadelphia and finds someone in a very similar situation to himself. He befriends Marie and takes her son into his care and even offers her a position in his restaurant.

In the meantime, the current heavyweight champion of the world is Mason “The Line” Dixon (Antonio Tarver). And TV ads are about as to who is the better champion in his prime, Dixon or Balboa. They even go as far as to create a computerized bout between the two to see who wins. Dixon is not at all impressed with people calling Balboa a better fighter who fought through much better opponents and had the tougher bouts.

Rocky, however, cannot stop thinking about Adrian and constantly keeps visiting her grave. He realizes he has to do something he loves to take his mind off his late wife and plans of coming out of retirement and is actually granted a boxing license. Mason Dixon’s manager takes hold of the opportunity and arranges for an exhibition match between Rocky and Dixon which he sees would generate ample money and boost Dixon’s popularity in general. Of course, as is a given in Rocky movies, what follows is a rousing match where winning isn’t everything.

The movie features some of the best acting and writing Stallone has come up with in recent memory. The scene where he tells his son that he should be responsible for making his own life and not put the blame on others is a prime example of this featuring wonderful dialogues and acting. In fact, Stallone’s performance is so good that it makes you wonder why he did not choose to play more performance-oriented roles like this in his career instead of the more adrenaline-fueled action roles which we have come to associate with him. Burt Young returns as Paulie and is solid as ever. Geraldine Hughes and Milo Ventimiglia are the newcomers in Rocky’s family and provide good performances as Marie and Robert. Antonio Tarver’s Mason Dixon does remind one of Carl Weathers’ Apollo Creed; however, it is still a decent performance by the actor who is a pro boxer in life.

Rocky Balboa contains more than one nod to the 1976 classic. The scene where Balboa starts training for his final bout could have probably been lifted directly from Rocky had it not been for the fact that both Stallone and his character have aged considerably. Bill Conti’s “Gonna Fly - Theme for Rocky” is still as rousing as it was the first time the world heard it in 1976 and you cannot help but sit up and cheer as it plays in the background to Rocky’s latest training sessions. The final battle is also reminiscent of the Rocky vs. Creed match from Rocky.

Overall, Sylvester Stallone has achieved what he set out to do with this movie. As everyone (including Stallone) says a final goodbye to The Italian Stallion, Stallone has made sure that Rocky’s character remains firmly etched in our hearts. Rocky Balboa will evoke wonderful images of the path that the title character has taken from 1976 to 2006 and serves as a fitting send off to one of cinema’s most loved heroes.

Dasaavathaaram (2008)

2008-06-21T22:27:00.009+05:30

To start with, if you want an entirely unbiased review of this movie that highlights all its pluses and minuses, go read this review from fellow blogger Balaji Balasubramainum. I am a very ardent Kamalhasan fan and have been expecting this movie for quite some time, so don’t expect my review to be devoid of bias.

First of all, a word to casual movie-goers: The movie has been getting a lot of mixed reviews around the web from various sources. Most of these sources are highly respected, so I am not bringing into question their worth or somesuch. All I want to convey is a regular moviegoer’s perspective. Once an online friend of mine -- who was also a movie critic for sometime -- told me that the problem with being a critic is that you watch a truckload of movies and begin to note each of them with a critical eye. He also went on to add that you go in to the theatre to get the whole view of the film and, thus, find all its flaws and somehow, sometimes could forget that moviegoing is just about having fun. Maybe Dasaavathaaram is getting hammered by critics for the same reason. It has been hyped a lot and has disappointed in some of these aspects, but, overall, it provides lots of fun.

The problem with Kamalhasan is that he can never create a movie to please both critics and regular moviegoers alike. When he released Aalavandhan, Hey Ram and Anbe Sivam, all wonderful pieces of cinema, critics praised him and the movies were critically appraised but all those movies bombed at the BO. People called him self-indulgent and that he created those movies only to appease himself (even the same critics who praised such films mentioned these flaws too). So, he comes out with Dasavatharam, a movie that is critically getting only mixed reviews but is a hit with the general public. Its story is a bit light and the screenplay is not tightly paced, but since the movie is taken with commercial intentions, it is so entertaining that the general public is having a fun time. Maybe after taking many movies where he pleased critics, this is Kamal’s time to please his devoted fans and provide some entertainment to the masses. Because that is what watching movies is all about – Entertainment. When you pay Rs. 150 of your hard-earned money, you want to come out thinking you have eaten a full-course meal, not thinking you have had only appetizers; a fact which is especially true for the B & C centers of Tamil cinema. I can certainly say that my money was absolutely well spent.

Now that the "rant" is over, we can get on with talking something about the movie itself. The story starts off in the 12^th century in the middle of an era where the Shaivites were discriminating against Vaishnavites. The King of the land, who is a Shaivite, asks Rangarajan Nambi (Kamal) to say Lord Shiva’s name to which he doesn’t oblige and ends up inside the sea along with an idol of Lord Vishnu. This sequence has no real connection to the rest of the story but still ends up being enthralling with the Kallai Mattum Kandal… song to add to it.

The movie then moves forward to the present day and follows the story of Govindarajan (Kamal), a scientist working in America in the research for biological weapons. When he finds out that a vial containing the chemical that his team has researched is extremely dangerous and is about to fall into the wrong hands, he steals it and goes on the run being chased by ex-CIA agent, Christian Fletcher(Kamal again). Revealing further details might spoil some of the fun, so it best left undisclosed. However, the way the screenplay does tie some interesting aspects together at the end is particularly satisfying.

However, since I am a Kamal fan, I could not get myself to be bothered about these aspects of the film. Since the movie does feature him in 10 different roles, that was one of the main reasons for most of the press hype (as well as personal hype). And I can safely say that the actor in Kamalhasan has not disappointed at all. He has done his bit to bring out every difference about the 10 different roles right from voice modulation to walking style to general body language to even minute details like the way the lip moves and such. There is just so much painstaking effort visible in each frame of the movie that I found it hard not to overlook certain other flaws that the movie had. So, if you are like me and were hoping that Kamalhasan has gotten the 10 roles right, then by all means go ahead and watch the movie because he certainly has.

Asin doesn’t have a whole lot do in terms of bringing out her acting talent but her great comedy timing (which one could see in Ghajini) is put to good use in the second half. However, towards the end of the movie some of her antics did get so irritating that I wanted to reach into the screen and just give her one tight slap, at the same time wondering why the hero was not doing the same (even though that is a lot of exaggeration, it does tell you how annoying the character is). And only Kamal can explain why he chose Mallika Sherawat to play a part in this movie -- a very minor one at that. As Balaji’s review aptly put it, “She does her bit (pun unintended)”. All the other actors perform their roles quite well and, overall, the acting department does not leave anything wanting.

However, the same cannot be said for the visual effects department. Even early on in the movie, in the 12^th century scenes, you can see certain aspects of the scene as being graphics clearly. The movie was hyped up to be up to Hollywood standards but fails to capture the same sense of awe and splendor. In most scenes, you can clearly make out what part of it was the responsibility of the visual effects department. With that being said, the tsunami scenes do provide a visual spectacle for the average Tamil viewer who will be used to crappy graphics in half-baked God movies and the visual effects can be forgiven for that.

There are other quirks with the film as well. The overall music is quite average saved only by Oh Oh Sanam… and the final Ulaganayagane… song which unabashedly sings Kamal’s praise. Also, in most of the getups when Kamal appears, you can make out that he is in the scene because he will be so visible because of his makeup. However, these are just minor quirks. If you want to see a great actor in top form in a good movie and want to get entertained for about 165 minutes, you could do a lot worse than Dasavatharam.

Finally, on a more personal note: Watching Kamal in 10 different roles in an above-average film is thousand times better than watching a mediocre actor in one role in a decent film. At least, that is the way it is for me.

Assassin's Creed - Final Impressions

2008-06-11T17:14:00.009+05:30

When I picked up Assassin’s Creed last week, it was only because I had to play something till the release of Mass Effect. To be honest, I was not even intending to buy it because of all the negative press it got, what with repetition and all that. But I did go ahead and buy it and, in the end, ended up enjoying it a lot. Free-running is one of the best innovations in recent times. Obviously, the game has borrowed a lot of concepts from the new Prince of Persia series – even more so because both games come from the same development teams – but still Assassin’s Creed took the concept of free-running to a whole new level and it kept me quite involved with the game till the end even though there were lots of other flaws in the game. The game’s presentation really made free-running as fun as it was. I loved the way citizens would pause and say stuff like, “He is going to get hurt and when he does, I won’t help him” and so on which made the whole world very immersive and realistic.

Apart from free-running, I loved the game’s story and was absolutely pissed with the ending which blatantly leaves it open for the, as of yet unannounced, sequel. I really liked the unique two-faceted approach to storytelling and the game did quite a commendable job in keeping me interested in the plights of both Desmond Miles and Altair. Albeit, the main focus was obviously on Altair and I did become quite attached to him over the course of the game. Even more impressive was Altair’s characterization. Altair starts off as an arrogant, over-the-head sort of guy who thinks the assassin’s “creed” is below him and this gets him in trouble. However, as he completes each assassination and hears the confessions of his victims, he gradually becomes softer and it felt as if he was constantly maturing throughout the course of the game. I cannot wait for the inevitable sequel to move the story forward. The ending does pose some interesting questions as to Desmond’s bigger role in the sequel and it will be interesting to see what Ubisoft can pull off with it.

I found the missions themselves to be quite interesting. The investigating to be done before the assassination was fun for a bit but it got repetitive and boring by the end of the game. However, I did like doing these missions just for the heck of it. Following the victim to a secluded place before beating the heck out of him to get the info and then silently doing off with him was intensely satisfying each time. I also liked pickpocketing because it was always funny to watch the people’s reactions after they have been picked off. The assassinations were a bit of a disappointment for me personally. What was a bit of a downer was that you always had to move through the crowd and fight the battle, there was no means for silent killing. In 2 or 3 missions, I got on buildings and waited for a few minutes for my target to show up before realizing that you had to be within the crowds before the memory actually began. That being said, I did have a few surprises. In one of the missions, the vigilantes that appeared when I saved a citizen took hold of my target and I took a big leap before driving my hidden sword into his neck which was intensely satisfying. I also did quite a bit of planning as to which escape route to take back to the Assassin’s Headquarters which was also a lot of fun and helped me overlook the game’s repetitive nature.

The extras were also fun to achieve but it was also sad that they did not have any bonuses attached to them. I did not go out of my way to collect all the flags or kill all the templars. Both of those, I did whenever they appeared in the place I had run to. Still, jumping inside a narrow street after becoming anonymous only to find a templar waiting was quite satisfying. I did, however, try to save all the citizens and did visit almost all the view points in each of the cities, which was also a lot of fun to do. It was pretty sad that even the architecture of the viewpoints started to repeat over time and even across cities as well which took away from the immersion a bit.

There were other issues with the PC version such as an overly-long exit process (thankfully, Atl+F4 worked fine for me) and the fact that the game was always displayed in 16:9 aspect ratio. The aspect ratio issue was more annoying for me because it caused a lot of letterboxing at my resolution (1280x1024). There was an unofficial fix for this but it started crashing with the 1.02 patch, so I played without it. However, I did not really notice these issues once I really got into the game and, overall, I found Assassin’s Creed to be one heck of a fun game. It was not without its flaws but then what game is. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it to anybody who is looking for a quick way to pass time and run riot within three cities during the crusades for the Holy Land. For more, I have posted a review on the Gamespot reader-review pages here.

To finish it, here are a few screenshots of my favorite viewpoint in the game. I really liked climbing this one, mostly because it was very different from the rest of them and it offered a wonderful view of the whole city of Acre.

Champions League Final 2008

2008-05-27T23:46:00.008+05:30

The 2008 Champions League final is one of the most nerve wracking football matches I have watched since I became a Manchester United fan. Of course, the last time United won Europe's most prized title in 1999 was thanks to a brilliant comeback as we left it until the final two minutes to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. I was not a footie fan then, but even watching Youtube videos of that amazing night gives me the goosebumps. The 2008 final was not as tense but being an all English final gave it some much needed spice and it turned out into an amazing football game besting the previous all-Spanish and all-Italian finals.

United dominated the entire first half and turned in a wonderful attacking display which gave us the lead through Ronaldo on 26 minutes. A brilliant counterattack ended with a Tevez header being saved by Cech and the Carrick follow-up also tipped over by the Czech Republic stopper. It really hurt because it was a wonderful move with Rooney picking up the ball near the United penalty area and producing a majestic cross-field pass to Ronaldo who crossed to Tevez before Cech produced those stunning saves. Eventually, a couple of missed chances by Tevez meant that Chelsea still had a chance to level things which they took and went into half time 1-1 thanks to a (lucky!) Lampard goal.

Second half domination by Chelsea ensued as Drogba struck the post and Essien and Ballack wasted good opportunities to seal Chelsea their first Champions League title. United yet again produced a gritty defensive display to keep the Blues at bay. Extra time followed, in which the game again see-sawed between both teams. Lampard struck the post again with a wonderful strike and Mr. Chelsea, Terry cleared a Giggs stub off the line to keep the match at 1-1. Extra time ended up with a display of insanity by Chelsea striker Drogba as he slapped Vidic right under the referee’s nose to get himself sent off in his most important (and possibly final!) appearance for Chelsea.

The teams finished even after 120 minutes – though some would say Chelsea deserved to win in normal time given their two post hits (I obviously disagree!). The penalty shootout that followed gave me quite a few scares. The first two penalties were converted by both teams. Ronaldo’s brilliant season was to be underlined by another penalty miss as Chelsea took hold of the title 3-2. With the teams tied 4-4, Mr. Chelsea stepped up with the Champions League title only a kick away. However, his slip meant that the ball struck the post again and the teams remained tied at 4-4. Another round of penalties were converted to make it 5-5. Giggs marking his 759^th appearance for United converted his penalty to make it 6-5 and Van Der Sar saved Anelka’s penalty giving United their 3^rd European triumph on the 50^th anniversary year of that dreaded Munich air disaster.

And now, personally, I am telling you there is no better feeling than watching Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs lifting the Champions League trophy high in the air. In hindsight, it was destiny that led to United winning the European title. It was really heart-wrenching to see Terry in tears after the match because he is a player I really admire. However, Chelsea struck the post 3 times – so, in reality, maybe fate did play its part and maybe the spirits of those legendary players who passed away in Munich were watching over this similarly young side in their quest for European glory.

It is going to be hard matching up to such a successful season in 2008-09 (only a treble could be better than an European double). But this young side has a wonderful collection of talent which could go a long way yet. Add to that, we have experience in the form of Giggs, Scholes and Neville as well as strong shoulders in Ferdinand, Hargreaves and Rooney – it really does look like anything is possible. And if Sir Alex does add a few players in some positions to the squad, then God bless the Premier League.

Again, thanks Sir Alex for another memorable season!

Manchester United - Season in Review 07-08

2008-05-26T21:15:00.007+05:30

After a two month layoff due to exams and other stuff, I am finally going to start posting again regularly, hopefully.

I wanted to write on and on (like I did last year) about how Manchester United remained the best team in England by retaining their Barclay’s Premier League title and how they proved that they are almost the best team in the whole of Europe by winning the Champions League title. However, I realized that there are already many articles in the net covering another magnificent season for us and so, decided to only point out some key moments in the season that ultimately led to United’s double delight.

Vs Tottenham at Old Trafford – 26 Aug, 2007
After struggling in the first 3 games, Nani’s wonderful goal saved the game for United handing us our first win of the new season.

Vs Chelsea at Old Trafford – 23 Sep, 2007
Chelsea’s newly appointed manager, Avram Grant could not do enough to spark the Blues and United ended up winning the match 2-0 with considerable ease providing moral higher ground against title rivals.

Vs Liverpool at Anfield – 16 Dec, 2007
A match in which United were expected to slip-up turned out into a brilliant defensive display as we won the match 1-0 thanks to a solitary Tevez goal on 43 minutes.

Vs Newcastle at Old Trafford – 12 Jan, 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo’s first hat-trick (after having 11 double-goal performances) for the Red Devils added spice to a wonderful performance by the whole team that saw Newcastle United (who were notably very poor) being humiliated 6-0 in front of a packed Old Trafford crowd. Not a wholly significant game in terms of our chase for the title but still one that added a huge deal to our superior goal difference.

Vs Arsenal at Old Trafford (FA Cup) – 16 Feb, 2008
After two poor performances in the 1-1 draw at Spurs and a painful derby defeat to Man City at home on the 50^th anniversary of the Munich disaster, United were faced with a difficult 5^th round tie against Arsenal. But United’s powerhouse performance not only led to a 4-0 defeat for the Gunners but also proved crucial in wrecking their pole position in the league ultimately paving way for our 17^th league title.

Vs Liverpool at Old Trafford – 23 Mar, 2008
After Mascherano's determination to get himself sent off ended up with the exact same thing happening, United cruised to a 3-0 victory in what, before half time, looked like a very close game with a good performance by the scousers. The same day Arsenal lost at Chelsea 2-1, which meant Chelsea became United’s primary challengers for the title.

Vs Roma (Champions League quarterfinals) – 1 and 9 April, 2008
A clinical performance at the Stadio Olimpico with goals from Rooney and Ronaldo meant that United had a considerably easy progression to the semifinals provided no surprises occurred at home. As it turned out, a penalty miss by De Rossi for Roma (minus star man Totti) and a Tevez header on 70 minutes helped United to a 3-0 aggregate win setting up a semifinal clash with Barcelona.

Vs Arsenal at Old Trafford – 13 April, 2008
Arsenal – like much of their performance towards the end of the season – took the lead through Adebayor on 48 minutes but gave up a penalty less than 6 minutes later which Ronaldo duly converted to put United level. A wonderful Hargreaves free-kick on 72 minutes sealed the victory and also meant that United had a great chance of retaining their title.

Vs Barcelona (Champions League semifinals) – 23 and 29 April, 2008
When Ronaldo missed the penalty in the 3^rd minute which would have destroyed Barca’s morale, I feared the worst and memories of AC Milan a year ago began to creep in. But a wonderful defensive display even without Vidic led to a 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp – the lack of an away goal was still a bugging factor. Ultimately, a wonderful Scholes goal on 14 minutes in the home tie combined with another gritty defensive performance (keeping Messi, Deco and company at bay) led to an 1-0 aggregate win over the Catalans setting up the first all English Champions League final against Chelsea on 21^st May at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

Vs Chelsea at Stamford Bridge – 26 April, 2008
Sandwiched in between those two ties was a fixture where United could have sealed the BPL title (albeit not mathematically). However, two Ballack goals with the second one coming on 84 minutes led to a 2-1 victory for the Blues landing them right on par with United on the points table. However, United’s attacking spirit led to them having a much superior goal difference which meant the destiny of the title was still in our hands.

Vs West Ham and Wigan – 3 and 11 May, 2008
United came good in the home game against West Ham winning 4-1 even though only 10 men finished the game. The final day of the season was wonderful since the title was not yet decided. But a Ronaldo penalty and a Giggs goal – on the day he equaled Sir Bobby’s record of 758 appearences – led to United sealing their 17^th League title. With Chelsea ending with a 1-1 draw, United also won the title with a gap of 2 points and not on goal difference as had been anticipated.

Another wonderful BPL performance by the Red Devils. But they added to wonderful season by winning the Champions League title also, the final of which I look at in my next post.

Grand Slam Sunday

2008-03-23T10:32:00.012+05:30

The weekend that could have a pretty important bearing on the outcome of the title race is upon us. With all of the big 4 facing each other in two very important matches, today, the 23rd of March promises to be a Grand Slam Sunday.

Manchester United vs Liverpool

If you could say one match was less important than the other, then it would be this one. No matter what Liverpudlians or Rafa Benitez say, Liverpool are out of the title race. They are 11 points behind Manchester United whom they are facing and even if they win this fixture, it will still be quite impossible for them to get back 8 points with the form the other 3 are in.

Man Utd are arguably the strongest performers in contests featuring them against any of the top 4. With wins against Chelsea at home, Liverpool away and a near-win against Arsenal at The Emirates as well as 4-0 thrashing of Arsenal at home, we always get ourselves up for the big ones. So, I am hoping this one will be no different.

Liverpool are on a great run with Torres firing on all cylinders and Gerrard once again manning the middle of midfield and they come to Old Trafford with 7 continuous wins in all competitions. But, so are United. With Ronaldo’s fiery goalscoring streak helping United eek out wins even when the performance is not upto expected levels and with important players returning from injuries, things are looking all too good for us.

Man Utd have the added incentive of putting pressure on Chelsea and Arsenal (who face later today) by going 6 points ahead of closest competitor Arsenal by beating Liverpool. I am hoping United win today because, as the stats prove, when United face any of the top 4 and both teams play to their best, United will always come out on top. The only problem United will have is if Ferdinand does not play (which looks highly likely), in which case we would have lost someone who could have handled the mobility of Torres with ease. Even then, Vidic and Brown/Pique would be a nice central defensive partnership capable of handling Torres. If all goes well, I think United will go 6 points ahead for a short period of time, at least.

Chelsea vs Arsenal

Arguably the more important of the two matches being played today. Featuring two of the three title contenders, this match could have a bigger say on where the BPL title ends up. A draw would be ideal for Man Utd fans like me, of course, as that would put both teams further behind us. With great pressure on both teams to not let United out of their sights, this is one mouthwatering fixture.

Arsenal are on a very poor run by their standards and that run is the reason they see themselves 3 points behind United. With 4 continuous draws after the match in which Eduardo got injured, the incentive is bigger for Arsenal to prove that they are no pushovers when it comes to the big games during the business end of the season.

They have thier task cut out for them, however. Chelsea have not lost a game at Stamford Bridge for over 4 years. With 57 wins and 20 draws in 77 matches, Chelsea are the strongest of the top 4 when it comes to home fixtures. But, Chelsea themselves come into this fixture on the back of a 4-4 draw with Spurs, a match they would have expected to come out on top. Spurs got their tactics right in that match, keeping two up front in Keane and Bent and withdrawing Berbatov to a free role behind them. That decision made the Chelsea backline go haywire and, for one time, we saw Chelsea’s defense not knowing what to do. Knowing Arsene Wenger, he would’ve noted the problems Chelsea faced in that match and would have something similar lined up. Arsenal, however, have only one main fit striker in Adebayor and he is going to have a difficult time beating Terry’s Chelsea defence.

Taking all that into consideration, Chelsea have the upper hand in this fixture mostly because of their home advantage. Add to that, Arsenal also don’t have anybody to take the physical battle to Chelsea, it does look grim for the Gunners in this fixture. I am still hoping for a draw to give United some more breathing space at the top of the table.

Whatever happens in those two fixtures, there is no denying the impact it will have on the title race. This is arguably one of the best title run-ins in years and the best I have experienced since I started watching football. It can only get better as we near the finish line and with United getting their act together at just the right time, I am hoping this season proves to be just as successful as the pervious for the Red Devils.

The Command and Conquer Saga

2008-03-20T23:24:00.006+05:30

The compilation includes all the 12 Command and Conquer games till 2006 (i.e. the First Decade DVD) as well as last year’s Tiberium Wars. It also includes a bonus DVD of the first decade which contains a lot of background information into the origins of Westwood studios, the Command and Conquer franchise, who came up with the crazy idea for Kane and so on and, in general, is a very good bonus over what you already get with the main two game DVDs.

Anyways, I went to the store on sunday with plans of picking up Sins of a Solar Empire (which I have been searching here for over a month) and I find The Command and Conquer Saga on sale for only Rs. 999 (which if you do a straight conversion comes to about 25 USD) which is the same price as OB and I thought that was a great deal.

For anyone who has played any of the previous C&C games, this may not sound like much of a deal but for someone like me, who has not played any C&C game (yeah, sue me!), this is one of the best deals I have ever picked up. And swear at EA all you want but they have done a lot for third-world countries like mine where gaming is on the rise. They were one of the first publishers to set up a nice base of operations here (it did help that they had a cricket franchise which is the craze here) and recently decided to offer all their PC games for the price of Rs.999 which is awesome. In a country like India where piracy is full-fledged, those kind of deals make it worth your while to buy original games.

I started playing with C&C: Red Alert 2 which came highly recommended and so far am loving what I am getting to play even though I am not a lot into the game. I love how fast-paced the gameplay is - never letting you slow down for a bit and always giving you something to think about and something to get your hands dirty with which is what I want from my RTS. I also started playing a bit of C&C: Generals which I was told is a separate thread of storyline altogether and I am also liking what I am getting from it so far.

After tinkering around with those two games for a bit, I decided to try to play Red Alert and the original Command & Conquer but realized that the 2-D graphics were too much to look past and get to the superlative gameplay (at the time) underneath. So, I decided to start playing Tiberian Sun which is the oldest CnC game with passable 2-D graphics and I am totally hooked into it so far.

The reason I decided to start playing older games instead of the newer Tiberium Wars, Generals and Red Alert 2 is that I knew the newer and more advanced graphics in those games would spoil me into not playing the older games which I don’t want. And also I wanted to see how the basic CnC gameplay has progressed from older games right into Tiberium Wars.

As I stated I got totally hooked to the basic CnC gameplay right from the word go. The best aspect is how much little base building there is in CnC. In other RTS, I would have to spend the initial third of the game gathering resources and making technological advancements before getting into all the action. But in CnC, it is action from the get go and if you spend too much time on gathering resources and building up the right units, then you are sure to get yourself killed. That is the primary aspect which has got me loving the games so far and I am sure it can only get better as I find more and more strategies and other advanced units to play with. The campy full motion videos in between missions are also awesome and, in a weird way, they add a great deal of immersion and personality to the games. I am also liking the music which includes a lot of heavy metal which suits the hardcore action perfectly.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with this purchase. It was one of those impulse buys which I am not used to a lot - I always plan my purchases a few days in advance so buying this was a pleasant surprise for me. Anyone who has not played C&C or does not own the entire collection and wishes to do so cannot go wrong with this one. Anyways, I am planning to do individual reviews of each of the games in the package separately, so look out for those in the coming weeks.

Taare Zameen Par… in Tamil?

2008-03-14T11:27:00.006+05:30

Recently, there have been lots of rumours that last year’s smash Bollywood blockbuster Taare Zameen Par is going to be remade in Tamil. This is not in the least surprising because the story and message in TZP is universal and it can be remade with ease in any language and, in fact, such a move was expected. What will be interesting to see is the cast and crew since a movie like TZP practically rides on the shoulders of the entire cast. With Aamir Khan proposed to be producer, we can expect him to make all the right decisions to make TZP a hit in tamil just as he did with the Hindi version. Before any official announcements are made, I wanted to take a closer look at who the cast and crew for the Tamil version of TZP should be comprised of.

The whole business of a remake started with a rumoured meeting between Aamir and Cheran in Mumbai, so no second guesses as to who the director will be. I guess Cheran fits the bill perfectly. There are a lot of subtle emotions in Taare Zameen Par and with the way Cheran has handled such movies in the past with Autograph and Thavamaai Thavamirindhu, he should have no problems dealing with the emotional depth present in the movie and presenting it in a realistic way.

Arguably the second most important character in TZP was that of Aamir Khan’s and it has been rumoured that it would be either Vikram or Surya in that role. Being a Surya fan myself I would definitely like to see him in that role. But Surya’s already got his hands full with Vaaranam Aayiram after which he moves on to do an AVM film and also a film rumoured to be with Murugadoss. However, even from a neutral perspective I think Surya would work better for this role than Vikram for a number of reasons. Plus, Aamir owes Surya for Ghajini, so I think he would be keen to return the favour.

The other important characters are that of the mother and the father. I have already raved about the splendid performance given by Tisca Chopra as the mother in various places so I think it would be quite a task to fill her shoes. The name that immediatly comes to mind is Charanya. She would be a nice choice for the role given that she has played mother roles in both Thavamaai Thavamirindhu and Emttan Magan. The role of the father is slightly more difficult, however. Vipin Sharma played it ideally being tough and rude in the earlier portions of the movie and bringing out his emotions ideally when he noticed his son’s transformation in the later parts of the movie. Again, Rajkiran crops up in mind when thinking about a father figure since he has played such roles in the past. I also heard that Nasser’s performance in Emmtan Magan was very good and it was very similar to this role, so he would also be a good choice.

Most important of all, I think the role played by Darsheel Safary is being lost in the news about Surya or Vikram playing Aamir’s role. There is not a single child actor currently in tamil cinema who can play that role as well as Darsheel did. I have seen very few great child performances in the past — Kamal in Kalathur Kannama, Baby Shyamili in Anjali, Keerthana in Kannathil Muthamittal and the child who played deaf and dumb in Poovizhi Vaasalile (would’ve been ideal for this movie) are a few that immediatly come to mind. Darsheel’s performance was as good if not better than any of those roles and it would take a lot of effort to extract such a performance from another child actor. My choice would be for Darsheel to act in the Tamil version as well, though my guess is as good as anyone else’s at the moment.

Rounding it off, there are still many gaps left to be filled if Taare Zameen Par has to reach to both the classes and the masses. The music director is very important given how good Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music was in the original and that combined with soulful lyrics from Prasson Joshi made the songs a treat to listen to. Another important but unsung hero in the original was the dialogue writer who should have been given the filmfare award for his excellent dialogues. All these roles have to be cast perfectly in order to get the combination just right.

Of course, all of these are just my ideal choices and as I said, they are all wild guesses at the moment. The idea of remaking Taare Zameen Par in Tamil is a very good one. Cheran himself stated that the message is universal and such a movie in Tamil would take a message intended for the class audience and give it a wider reach by bringing it to towns and villages which wouldn’t be bad at all. Now, the long wait begins for the official announcement to be made.

BPL Officials - On a downhill slide

2008-03-11T00:22:00.005+05:30

If you thought United’s exit from the FA cup (thus bringing to an end their treble dreams) was the most shocking aspect of Saturday’s game at Old Trafford, think again! Martin Atkinson’s performance as the match official was the stuff nightmares were made of (especially for Man Utd fans like me). From the opening whistle to practically the last kick of the match, he got most of his decisions wrong and thus ended up earning Sir Alex Ferguson’s ire. What is even more irritating is that, thus far, no action has been taken against Martin Atkinson whereas both Sir Alex and his assistant, Carlos Queiroz, have been sent letters asking them to explain their post match comments on refereeing standards which is bullshit if you ask me.

To begin with the decision that started it all was the penalty appeal against Ronaldo which was not given at about the 7th minute. Ronaldo’s reputation as a diver precedes him wherever he goes and therefore he ends up not getting most decisions which he should be getting. Harry Redknapp referred to Distin’s challenge as a casual shoulder barge and stated that he would have been disappointed had the penalty been given. From my minimal understanding of the game of football, a shoulder barge is when you use a little upper body strength to cover the attacker from the ball, not when you bash into someone inside the penalty box who is running full speed towards the goal and that is what exactly happened. So, I fail to see Harry Redknapp’s logic behind his and the referee’s reasoning.

It is hardly worth getting frustrated over one such decision especially when your team goes on to dominate the entire match but when you see your stand-in goalkeeper sent off unjustly for a foul and when pretty much every other kick of the ball is not going your way, then the anger will definitely go to your head. I have seen referees like Howard Webb and Alan Wiley think many times and confer with the linesmen before making the decision to send off a player even on the most obvious red card decisions. But the immediateness of the red card shown to Kuszack was what got on my nerve the most, especially when Rooney was on the goal line and Tevez was just behind Kuszack to stop Baros. That decision arguably had the most impact on the game. With our stand-in goalkeeper sent off, Ferdinand took his place and when you lose your most mobile defender just like that, it is difficult to get back into the game even when you are the world’s best team playing at home and United ended up losing the game 1-0.

None of these are excuses for United’s exit from the cup by no means; United had ample opportunities to put the game to bed with three shots cleared off the line and two shots off the post, so saying that refereeing decisions are the reason for the loss is by no means true. But it is true that such decisions are becoming commonplace especially in English football and it is surprising that neither the Chief of Reefrees, Keith Hackett nor the FA is doing anything about it.

Ronaldo’s post-match comments summed up the state of refereeing perfectly. With techinally skilled players not given enough protection by match officials, players like Ronaldo, Rooney etc. might have to change their styles a lot to prevent getting kicked because that is the only way to stop them. One of Arsene Wenger’s previous comments also comes to mind in this situation. During one of his post-match interviews (probably the one in which Eduardo suffered his horrendous injury), he stated that the opposition have finally figured out the only the way to stop Arsenal is to kick Arsenal. The same holds true for any team that plays entertaining and attacking football.

The FA definitely need to make a firm stand in situations like these. While it was nice to see Rob Styles suspended for a weekend for his unbelievable penalty for Chelsea against Liverpool early in the season, those kind of hard and strict punishments need to be enforced more often to make match officials understand the importance of their role on the field. Other officials should look up to people like Howard Webb and Alan Wiley who are content to let the game flow and give out as few cards as possible and take their example in making informed, proper decisions even if a few seconds are wasted in the process. Officiating a football match is by no means an easy job and I do understand that but the way the current situation is falling on a downhill slide (especially in the BPL), the future does look a lot less brighter for football in general.

Bollywood Filmfare Awards 2008

2008-03-06T20:38:00.013+05:30

A two week delayed post about the Bollywood Filmfare awards that was conducted on February 23^rd. To mention all that happened at the show is pointless so I am going to stick to what I though of the awards and which of the award choices were questionable to say the least. To start with, the ceremony itself was a nice occasion and, as usual, King Shahrukh Khan and his able partner in crime Saif Ali Khan were present to keep the ceremony a light-hearted affair throughout. Their Na-Real awards was just icing on the cake when added to their on-stage antics and funny conversations.

Well, enough of that go here for a list of all the awards. As I mentioned above, a few of the awards that I thought were questionable were:

Best Supporting Actress – Konkona Sen Sharma for Life in a Metro
Personal choice – Tisca Chopra for Taare Zameen Par

I have not seen Konkona Sen’s performance in Life in a Metro but I thought this award should have gone to Tisca Chopra for Taare Zameen Par. The whole point of such awards is to encourage new talent and Tisca Chopra was one of the finds of last year (anybody remember any of her previous movies). As I stated in my review, she was nothing short of outstanding in her role as the loving mother of Ishaan Awasti.

Best Music – A.R. Rahman for Guru
Personal Choice – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for Taare Zameen Par

This is one of those awards that I think was presented for the popularity of the composer rather than for actual music. Don’t take it the wrong way, Guru had some great music but best of 2007, I am not so sure. I though Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s wonderful music in Taare Zameen Par deserved that award. To come out with such great music in such an off-beat film and to make that music gel with the film takes a work of genius and that is exactly what the trio proved they are with TZP.

Best Dialogue – Imtiaz Ali for Jab We Met
Personal Choice – Taare Zameen Par

Not yet seen JWM also but if I have to take my sister’s word for it, she says the dialogue is nothing out of the ordinary, standard love story stuff. I though the dialogue writer of Taare Zameen Par (name anyone?) definitely deserved this award. In most movies like TZP, dialogues tend to be preachy and I expected TZP to be the same. To my surprise, I found all the dialogues straight out of life and some of them like in scenes when Aamir visits Darsheel’s house had an almost immediate impact on me.

Also, I have no idea why there were no Best Villain and Best Comedian awards. Maybe due to the lack of enough nominations but still there were many people who deserved those awards. Well, truly only one deserved the award for Best Villain (a no-brainer really!) and that was Arjun Rampal for Om Shanti Om. Anybody who watched the film would have come out feeling detested at his character and that is what the goal of the Villain in the film is. As far as the Best Comedian award is concerned, the whole cast of Dhamaal contributed to the film being a laugh riot but Jaaved Jaffrey had all the best dialogues and some of the funniest scenes, so I thought he should have been given that honor.

Other awards that got under my skin were Lifetime Achievement for Rishi Kapoor (what is his contribution to Hindi cinema anyway) and Best Male Newcomer for Ranbir Kapoor -- yeah right, his only claim to fame being Rishi Kapoor’s son. Apart from that he imitated Hrithik Roshan every frame of the movie right from voice tone to body language.

The happiest news for me was King Khan winning Best Actor for Chak De India. To be honest, I think he has been given awards for movies that maybe he did not deserve like for his chocolate lover boy roles and such. However if there was ever an award he deserved it would be for Chak De India. Shahrukh was simply awesome in a role where he had to be subdued and understated for long periods of time. I think it is one of his best performances ever since he came out of being an anti-hero and became a full hero.

And of course young Darsheel Safary winning the Critic’s Best Actor award was also great news. I have had many arguments with my sister over Darsheel being nominated for Best Actor. I think there is a reason the Best Child Performance award is there and it is to commemorate performances like his in Taare Zameen Par (but that is an entirely different discussion altogether). However, Darsheel’s performance in TZP deserved something more than a Child Artist award (because he was the hero of the movie after all) and it was fitting that he got such an award.

Other deserved awards were Best Lyricist to Prasoon Joshi, Best Story to Amol Gupte and, of course, Best Director to Aamir Khan all for Taare Zameen Par. It was interesting to note that most of the awards were neatly (and deservedly) split between two of the best movies in recent times, Chak De India and Taare Zameen Par.

Bollywood had a great year last time around. With movies like Chak De India, Om Shanti Om, Dhamaal, Namastey London, Guru and the icing on the cake, Taare Zameen Par, there is a lot to live up to. 2008 looks promising with movies like The Name is Khan, the hindi remake of Ghajini and others lined up for release in the coming months. I can only hope that 2008 turns out to be as good an year as 2007, if not better.

PC Gaming Alliance Founded

2008-02-21T13:30:00.004+05:30

For quite some time now long time PC gamers have been sounding off at various places about the decline of the PC as a gaming platform. While I certainly don’t think PC gaming is dying which is what most people seem to be getting it, there is a very noticeable decline in the general sales of PC titles evident from sales of games such as Crysis last year. It seems to have hit the ears of most of the people connected with the PC market as companies such as Acer, Dell, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, Activision etc. have banded together and formed the PC Gaming Alliance – a non-profit organization focused on “coordinated marketing and promotion of PC gaming…”.

When I first heard about the PCGA, all I could hear in my head was “PR Stunt”. Each of the companies that are part of the alliance has something to gain from it. Microsoft could sell more copies of the underselling Vista as well as increase market for their Games for Windows Live initiative; AMD, Intel, Nvidia all have the advantage of being able to sell more of their respective hardware; and of course all other publishers get to sell more of their games. The word “non-profit” seemed like a blatant lie to me and while I still think of the PCGA along the same lines, I am more positive of the overall outcome of the newly founded body. Instead of reiterating what has already been said by most PC gamers at various places, I think it would be wiser concentrating on what the PCGA should do to set right all that is wrong with the PC.

The most talked about aspect is, of course, piracy. No matter what the PCGA or anybody else does, piracy can never be fully curbed as long as there are people who are intent on doing such stuff (and there will always be dickheads like that). The optimist in me hopes for the usage of Steam to better curb piracy. Steam is a natural choice because of the forced serial key validation required even on boxed copies and as far as I know there are very little options to circumvent this check. Apart from Steam and the amazing Steamworks, something along the line of what Stardock achieved with Galactic Civilizations II would also be a positive move. The one thing that would ruin gaming experiences is adding third-party intrusive anti-piracy systems like Starforce or Securom which will only end up frustrating people who have bought legitimate copies of the game.

With piracy out of the way, the other major hurdle for modern PC games is the Hardware Requirements. What certainly would be bad is a “standardization of requirements” - forcing developers to adhere to a certain standard of PC requirements which would mean lesser games like Crysis that push the boundaries of gaming to the maximum extent. What would be positive to see is a clear explanation of the requirements and the different game settings out of the box so as to help even complete newcomers adapt quickly to the nuances of PC gaming. Standardization in the naming of graphics cards wouldn’t be too bad also.

Games that require patches out of the box to work properly also have to be minimized. This is a trend that has started very recently with many games being delivered to the factory to get it out to stores as quickly as possible only to require a patch on day 1 because they are not coded properly and contain several bugs out of the box. Such a trend does nothing to help PC gaming and has to be stopped at the earliest as it only increases frustration for all parties involved including developers and consumers.

These are some of the major problems as highlighted by the PC Gaming Alliance themselves and are ones that I know, if set right, would kick PC gaming up the hill again. The PCGA is definitely an interesting move. On the one hand, while it certainly seems like a PR stunt, it also has a lot of potential because it provides a common forum through which all these amazing companies can share their thoughts and opinions. Whether the PCGA actually goes somewhere and fixes a few of the aforementioned problems remains to be seen.

Crysis - Final Impressions

2008-02-17T15:55:00.010+05:30

When I upgraded my almost-dead computer last December, I was thinking of only one game in mind when I did it and that was Crysis. Apart from being able to experience the loads of games that are going to be released this year in their entire graphical splendor, Crysis was one game that convinced me that a new computer was in order. Of course, soon after buying said system, I also bought Crysis and after steadily progressing through it, I was finally able to beat it today.

Most of the initial screenshots and videos suggested the game would be set on a tropical island in a very similar setting to Crytek’s debut effort Far Cry. But what I did not expect was the amount of variety in gameplay the combination of the setting and the game’s nanosuit would offer. The Nanosuit is one of the best new gimmicks I have experienced in a game in a long time. Apart from serving to enhance the gameplay there were some situations where I would have ended up dying if not for the special abilities that the suit offers.

The levels featuring large open-ended areas and difficult battles against the Koreans were clearly the best. The enemy AI was very good and I was surprised quite a few times by Korean Soldiers flanking me when hiding amongst the bushes. The game rewarded slow and steady gameplay making you think like a Special Ops soldier stranded in the middle of nowhere. The later levels featuring the aliens, though linear, were very good and inserted a great deal of urgency into the proceedings making the action very fast and frenetic in contrary to the slow pace of earlier levels. The final battles against the huge aliens were awesome and had my adrenaline pumping the whole way through to the final cutscene.

Even though I had the ending spoiled for me, it was still surprising. Recent news suggests that the next game from Crytek is a few years away and I hope that they are talking about a new IP. The main story line in Crysis needs some finishing and I hope that they release the next one sooner rather than later.

Crysis is a game that made me feel proud of the fact that I play games and the last time I felt like that was when I finished Half Life 2 and Knights of the Old Republic. Before this game, there was only one developer whose games I could buy with my eyes closed and end up not getting disappointed and that was Valve. With Crysis, Crytek has been added to the list and I urge anyone with a system capable of handling it to give this game a go.

Taare Zameen Par (2007)

2008-02-13T23:54:00.025+05:30

Amidst all the chaos that is attempting to get decent marks in my unit test, I finally caught up with the much hyped Taare Zameen Par. Of course, it came highly recommended from my sister who said she could not resist crying and my college friends who said they were brought to tears even though they don’t know Hindi. So in the end I finally gave up and saw the movie and for once, in a long time, I can definitely say the hype is truly deserved.

Taare Zameen Par is a movie that will force its way into the deepest and darkest corners of your heart and firmly find for itself a place there. It is riddled with wonderful performances literally from each cast member and even the ones who appear in the smallest of roles end up touching our hearts. It is arguably one of the best movies of 2007 (if not the best) and any person – whether parent or child – would do themselves good by experiencing it.

Taare Zameen Par follows the story of Ishaan Awasti (Darsheel Safary), a 9 year old dyslexic boy who cannot understand studies how much ever he tries. His father, however, thinks that he is just a stubborn boy who does not want to study and after getting angered by the increase in complaints against him decides to put him into a boarding school against the wishes of his wife, elder son (who is a topper in school) and of course, Ishaan himself. How Ishaan overcomes his condition with the help of recently appointed art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan) and realizes his true potential as an artist forms the rest of the story.

You’d be hard pressed to convince anyone after watching the film that this is Aamir Khan’s first directorial venture. Aamir has cleverly sidestepped showing us what cool directorial tricks he has up his sleeves (this being his first movie and all) and instead given us a true, non-cinematic look at the life of Ishaan Awasti and his family. The movie works out more like an experience (similar to reading a great book) than a movie and in the process helps us identify with the main characters a lot better.

Story and Screenplay from Amol Gupte (who was initially supposed to direct the film also) is top notch. Apart from the initial sequences (which give us a look into the life of Ishaan and his family) which are a bit slow moving, the movie keeps you gripped and never lets you go right from the sequence where Ishaan is dropped off in the boarding school to the climax. The dialogue writer also deserves a lot of praise in making the movie feel realistic and a lot of the dialogues really hit the nail on the head without venturing into the preachy territory which would have felt out of place in the movie. The scene where Aamir Khan visits Darsheel’s house and the one where Darsheel’s father visits Aamir at school are fine examples of the dialogue writer’s excellence.

With all the applause Darsheel Safary has been getting, it is really a moot point discussing his performance but I am going to do it anyway. Being cast as the central character, the movie had a lot riding on Darsheel’s performance and it is worth reiterating that he delivers on all accounts. Whether with his facial expressions or body language, he really brings the character of Ishaan Awasti to life and is truly the hero of the film. Aamir Khan shines in a role that expects him to underplay a lot but he gets to deliver all the best lines in the movie and, as expected, does full justice to them. Tisca Chopra comes out with an outstanding performance whether as the mother who loves her son too much to let him go or as the wife who cannot go against her husband’s wish when the latter decides that a boarding school is the best choice for his son. Vipin Sharma as Ishaan’s father is dignified in a role that requires him to be stern and sentimental in equal parts. Other notable performances come from Sachet Engineer as Ishaan’s elder brother and Tanay Chada as Ishaan’s best friend at school.

If movies like Jhoom Barabar Jhoom led you the believe that the trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy can come up only with foot-tapping peppy dance numbers, then with wonderful music in an offbeat film like this one they have proved that they really have become the complete package when it comes to Bollywood music. Shankar Mahadevan’s wonderfully sung Taare Zameen Par… and the haunting Maa… are clearly the pick of the lot with beautiful lyrics from Prasoon Joshi. However, other songs like Jame Raho… which plays in the background to scenes presenting the family’s morning routine or Bum Bum Bole... which has the entire class room up and dancing really prove the trio’s superiority and all of this while never feeling out of sync with the movie. The movie’s animated sequences also deserve a special mention for bringing the quirky thoughts that play in Ishaan’s mind to life.

The Capello Era begins

2008-02-08T21:49:00.004+05:30

Fabio Capello’s appointment as England’s manager came as a huge surprise to me when it was announced late last year. I was banking on the FA to get hold of Mourinho given his credentials in handling big names with huge egos at Chelsea (of which there are quite a few in the English team). I have since come to grips with Capello’s appointment and think it will work out well for England in the long run (in fact, I am pretty sure of this since watching Wednesday’s match).

The one thing that irked me about his appointment was that he never seemed like the kind of guy (he looked too soft spoken to me) who could manage a team full of big players. Juventus and Real Madrid had a few players like that and he seemed to manage them well but given the big heads in the English side, Mourinho seemed like the perfect choice and I thought it was a done deal when he left Chelsea. And since the Sven Goran Eriksson debacle I thought it was wiser for England to go for an English manager who would understand better the expectations of the English fans when it comes to football. With both Harry Redknapp’s and Martin O’ Neill’s (two names that would have been an instant hit with fans) denial of the post, the FA looked elsewhere and finally appointed Capello given his resume was one that would make other English managers hide inside their homes.

Wednesday night was the big day as far as Capello was concerned with his first international match (albeit, a friendly against the Swiss). Given all the hype before the match it was only natural that he delayed announcing the first team till the last minute. If absolutely anything at all had gone wrong on that night, I am pretty sure the English press would have lapped it up and ripped him apart to pieces. Thankfully, the team on display did a fine job and dispatched the Swiss army 2 to 1.

Capello’s first team sheet had quite a few surprises in it. His master stroke was in giving the captain’s arm band to a natural leader like Steven Gerrard (who also wears the famed No. 10 jersey nowadays) which looks like it will stay in his arm for quite a while. The defense looked very solid and balanced with two left footers in Upson and Cole on the left and two players who know each other well in Ferdinand and Brown on the right. Jenas in the center of mid field was a surprise to me, though that was merited based on his Tottenham form. Rooney up front was a natural choice given that is the role he is deployed in for Manchester United and Cole playing off him was also a good decision. From the team sheet, at least Capello looked to have gotten his tactics right from the word go which is what Steve McLaren was poor at.

The game itself was more entertaining than the qualifier in which England lost to Croatia which, even though it produced 5 goals, was quite boring in reality. Joe Cole was arguably man of the match in my perspective. He was quite lively from the time the whistle was blown and looked like creating chances for others every time he got the ball on his feet. Rooney was slightly subdued (like he has been for United off late) but got to play his natural role just off the striker in the second half and clearly had a better game there. David Bentley left me quite impressed with his workmanlike performance and great crossing ability. It seems like there will be quite a battle between him and Aaron Lennon as to who will be successor to David Beckham on the right side of mid field for England. The rest of the team came up with the trumps and barring Gary Neville and John Terry, this would make quite a first team against any opponent.

Capello clearly has to move forward from here and he seems to have gotten a big green light from the English press based on early reactions. With a decent win under his belt, he has got 2 years before the next big tournament which will be the 2010 World Cup (now that England are not playing any part in Euro 2008 after the disaster in the qualifiers) and he clearly looks like he is capable of putting out a team which will have each player playing to their strengths and which will play with the sort of passion that is on display in the Premier League week in and week out. He also has a natural penchant for success which he again proved as recently as last year in taking a poor Real Madrid side and making them regain lost glory in the form the La Liga title. Whether he can bring this clearly demoralized English side together and lead them to lost glory in 2010 (there is still a long way to go) remains to be seen.

Getting back on track

2008-02-04T20:21:00.005+05:30

One of the qualities I pride in myself is that I enjoy all forms of entertainment. Whether it be movies, books, music, video games or even art (though to a much lesser extent), I enjoy getting myself engrossed in the amazing worlds they offer. Each one of them is unique in its own right and choosing any one over the other would be nearly impossible for me.

However, very recently I noticed a distinct lack of book-reading from myself (and yes, this is including study books also). I am pretty much sure the new computer has spoiled me. Apart from getting myself immersed in the beautiful islands of Crysis and listening to the indie rock of Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse and, of course, roaming around with friends (a part of every college guy's life), I have been pretty much neglecting books for many months now. You know it's drastic when the last book you read was Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows way back in July.

I did realize that I have about an hour's spare time during the time I take to reach college by bus and all of it is spent sleeping while listening to music. In order to utilize that time more effectively, I decided to get back on track as far as my reading habit was concerned. Last year, at almost the same time, I discovered about the magical world of Hogwarts and the rest as they say is history. This year my infusion into reading is going to begin on a more varied note with the following books:

Split Second - I started reading David Baldacci novels based on reading reviews from fellow blogger, Balaji Balasubramanium. Having read The Camel Club and Collectors from the Camel Club series, I went into the library today with the idea of picking up Stone Cold -- the latest book in that series -- only to find out it had been borrowed by someone. So, I ended up picking up Split Second which is the first book in the Sean King & Michelle Maxwell series and from a quick glance on the back cover, I hope it will be intriguing to say the least.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - I remember reading the title in Balaji's blog and when I saw it at the library, I checked out the synopsis and even though the book does seem to be aimed at children, I think I will find it a very interesting read.

I also have the aforementioned Stone Cold and The Five People You Meet in Heaven (both of which had been borrowed from my local library) lined up after I am done with the above books. I also hope that this time my latest foray into books actually lasts quite some while unlike the last time.

Indiralokathil Na Azhagappan (2007)

2008-02-02T16:47:00.018+05:30

Indiralokathil Na Azhagappan has a lot of expectation behind it. For one, Vadivelu is just coming off the huge success of Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi which turned out to be a huge blockbuster and has to prove that Imsai… was not just a one-off show and that he can pull of two hits in a row -- something which is even eluding many of our top heroes. And we are still expecting our first huge hit of 2008 with all the pongal releases turning out to be complete duds and as mentioned with Imsai… behind him, it is not surprising to expect Vadivelu to give us our first huge hit of 2008. Sadly, INA does not fulfill any of our expectations. With a threadbare, incoherent storyline and even weaker screenplay, INA gets its foundation all wrong and expects Vadivelu to carry the movie solely on his own shoulders which he cannot since the movie fails in the comedy aspect as well and ends up being a total snoozefest.

Summarizing whatever little story the movie has is pretty easy. Azhagappan (Vadivelu) is a stage actor who lives a pretty ordinary life with his mother and a few friends who are part of his stage acting crew. His mother, however, drops a bombshell that he will have two marriages and his first wife will die. He marries a statue as his first wife to get rid of the curse but that statue ends up being Rambha (Suja) from Indiralogam who has come to be in such a state because she could not return to heaven in time. Azhagappan is then taken to Indiralogam and Yamalogam where he gets to see all the wonders first hand and realizes how messed up the situation up there really is. How he sets right all that is wrong in both heaven and hell and what consequences he and Rambha face forms the rest of the story.

It is really a moot point discussing about the story anyway. Whatever I mentioned in the previous paragraph is pretty much all there is to it. However, what little there is has also not been scripted properly and the screenplay is all over the place and the pacing of the movie is really slack. Logic also falls short at many places such as how nobody thinks about following Vadivelu to check out where he really disappears to at night. Bad sentiments have been inserted in places near the interval and the climax but they seem overly artificial and we end up squirming in our seat because of them rather than connecting to any of these characters.

What is really pitiful is that the movie ends up having some really good messages underneath such as how a completely evil man ends up doing some good deeds and lives a short term in heaven for it and is destined for hell after that or how the opposite is true for really good people who end up in heaven after serving a short term in hell in the afterlife. A few other stuff like how even the worst of people can listen to reason if somebody just puts it to them in the proper way are all lost in the sea of mess that is the movie’s scripting.

Thotta Tharani’s sets really do a lot to make the movie watchable for its duration. He has recreated the vision of heaven and especially hell nearly perfectly and it is fascinating to watch all the sets and the art direction is top notch in almost every way. Music is really average and even the much hyped about Shriya’s item number is big letdown both in audio and picturization. Costumes are another one the movie’s few pluses and fit in with the art direction neatly.

One cannot help but pity Vadivelu in the movie. Apart from donning three roles he also carries the movie entirely on his shoulders. As Azhagappan he does not do anything different from other comic roles he has done in a variety of movies. His Indira role does not get enough screen time but whatever little there is adequate. It is as Yama, however, that he really shines. Although the God of Death has been portrayed as a brutal murderer, Vadivelu has done well to make the character funny and a bit likeable. The new girl Suja, as Rambha does not have much to do but does get a few good lines and she does justice to them. From the supporting cast, it is only Nasser who impresses as Naradha.

Overall, Indiralokathil Na Azhagappan falls flat and does not live upto any of the huge expectations. With unfunny dialogue, an incoherent storyline and weak screenplay, INA will bore you to death and actually make you feel relieved when the misery finally ends.

Tamil Movies of the Year - 2007

2008-01-12T01:07:00.004+05:30

In my first look back at the year 2007, I take a look at my personal top 5 of movies that I liked throughout the course of the year. Please note that this list is not based on box office collections or on how different they were from the set formula for Tamil movies, it is just based on how much I liked all of these movies. So without further ado, my list is as follows:

5 - Kattradhu Thamizh - I honestly have very few words to describe this movie. It could be considered a deep love story beginning at the ripe age with fantasy and ending with tragedy, it could also be considered as an anti-social film about how our first language gets little to no respect at all in this day and age. Whatever it was based on, it did have a deep impact on me with Jeeva’s and Anjali’s wonderful performances at the centre of it all. Surely one to catch up on if you haven’t yet seen it.

4 - Oram Po - Coming from the same school of film-making like Vishnuvardhan, something different from the usual was to be expected from Pushkar and Gayathri and they delivered with the highly, to put it in the Chennai-slang, “local” film. John Vijay could probably be one of the finds of the year with his natural village-slang and timing for comedy, everything he did brought the house down. Most aspects of the street-racing shown did remind one of the Fast and the Furious series but still giving it a highly Chennai look and taking an inside look at the auto driver’s life deserve a thumbs up.

3 - Chennai 600028 - Very rarely do sports movies become a hit in Kollywood probably because of the deviation that is required from the generic Tamil movie. With Chennai 600028, Venkat Prabhu proved that a sports-based movie can be made within the framework of commercial cinema combined with all the glitz and gloss to appeal to the urban audience also. Probably the best aspect of the movie was how natural the whole movie felt; from the comedy of Premji Amaran to the usual fights arising when gangs (or people) from two different areas collide were picturized with such energy and rawness, almost every aspect felt life-like in this highly commercial film. With wonderful numbers like Jalsa..., Un Paarvai..., Veedu Veedu... and a highly energetic soundtrack from Premji Amaran, I can only hope that Venkat Prabhu continues in the same trend with his next movie, Saroja.

2 - Billa - Remaking any old classic is a difficult task in itself but taking a movie that made Rajinikanth a superstar and, in total, has already been made three different times and make it look as if it is an entirely new movie is a colossal task and that is what Vishnuvardhan achieved with Billa. In a nutshell, Billa has already set a benchmark on which future Tamil films that want to be slick and stylish will be judged. Ajith’s natural smart looks and urban demeanour were utilized to the maximum potential and that, combined with a pulsating soundtrack by Yuvan Shankar Raja, near-perfect western style cinematography by Nirav Shah and wrapped up in a two and a half hour jaw-dropping package by Vishnuvardhan made Billa one of the best movies of 2007.

1 - Mozhi - If there was one spot in my top 5 (or top 10 for that matter) that was never in doubt since the moment I decided to make a list, it was the top spot and that goes to Mozhi. This movie, to me, proved that a director doesn’t need to go all sad and teary-eyed on viewers to make a realistic movie. And make no doubt about it Mozhi was as realistic a movie as any released last year without having the dreary aspect mentioned above that is assocaited with most "realistic" Tamil movies. With fantastic performances from the entire lead cast especially Jothika and Prakash Raj backed up by melodious music by Vidyasagar and top-notch screen play and direction by Radha Mohan, Mozhi is undoubtedly the best movie of 2007.

Sivaji - The only reason I did not make a top 10 was I could not find a place to insert this movie in it. So, I ended up doing a top 5 and giving Sivaji a special place of sorts. Honestly, had this movie been made with anyone but Rajinikanth as the hero, it probably would have been a complete dud at the BO. Shankar’s usual trademark touches make their appearances here too – the lavish sets for songs and their beautiful picturizations, an overall message that forms the crux of the story etc. – but it is Rajini who really stood up and made this movie the blockbuster it was. Looking half his age, Rajini along with Vivek looked at home in the comedy sequences and looked amazingly smart in the song sequences and looked every bit of the Sivaji we had imagined him to be when fighting the baddies against Suman. Shriya got her big break with this movie that has led her to being paired opposite Vijay, Vikram and, recently rumored, also with Ajith. Shankar wrapped it in a neat package that, although not at all meeting any of my expectations, did turn out to be quite a good entertainer.

So that’s it people, movies like Pokkiri, Paruthi Veeran, Evano Oruvan, Kireedom, Kallori etc. were also some which I really enjoyed watching a lot and would’ve made it to a top 10 had I made one but since this is the first time I am doing this sort of a list, I stuck with the easier top 5. And since I did not watch most of the diwali releases especially Polladhavan, I thought it was safer to do a top 5. Hope you had a good time reading it.

Couple of impressive TV series

2008-01-02T18:52:00.003+05:30

First off, the truth; I have never actually sat down in front of the TV and watched a series that "I" actually liked. My favorite TV show so far is the Friends and I became a fan of that because my sister was a big fan of that. Other than that I have occasionally sat down and watched Jag, X-Files, Everybody Loves Raymond and again all of those have been series that my sister had been watching for quite some time. But very recently I sat down and decided to give a few shows a try of my own and from then on have been very impressed by two of them.

The first one and the one that has me riveted each time is House. The series is into its 3^rd season here (4^th in the US) and I started watching it only from about the end of the second season. To be honest, I have never watched a medical drama before. The closest I ever came was something known as Medical Investigations or somesuch in the Discovery Channel. The episode that actually got me terrifically interested was House vs God. I imagined it as being dark and serious but it turned out to be a mixture of everything including comedy which I did not expect to find. Hugh Laurie was not uncommon to me, I had heard about him and seen him in Stuart Little but here he has just lapped it up so much that I cannot imagine anyone else as House especially his comedy timing, dialogue delivery and body language are spot on. The supporting cast does its job pretty well and this is one show I hope goes till the 10^th season like Friends. I am actually going to buy the 1^st and 2^nd season DVDs sometime in the near future since I have not watched them yet.

And the second one is Numbers. I am a math geek, I love math and if it hadn’t been for my even greater interest in Computer Science, my future would have definitely been related to math. The first time I saw an ad for Numbers on TV, I told myself “I have got to check this out!” but as always I never did. I actually only started watching the show when I was casually flicking channels and getting bored with nothing else to watch. It was about the 19^th episode of season 1 and had something to do with using math to calculate human efficiency and I digged it. From then on I have watched the show regularly and it actually just completed its 3^rd season here. Though I did miss much of the first season and a good number of episodes in the third, the actual math used to solve each case is highly intriguing. Of course, the show does have low quality production values evident from the highly graphical explosions but still the main cast is wonderful and does a great job especially Rob Morrow as Don Eppes, David Krumholtz as his brother Charlie and Judd Hirsch as their father, Alan. Again this is one show I hope does go a long way because the way math is used in each episode is pretty brilliant.

Apart from these I actually did start watching Top Chef but that is only because of the awesome dishes that are put on display in that show. So, really the only two series that I have actually become interested for myself are House and Numbers. Any of you interested in these or found a few shows that have captured your mind, post ‘em here.

Neverwinter Nights

2007-11-16T00:55:00.004+05:30

So, I completed Neverwinter Nights recently and I have to say I was amazed by how well it played considering its age. The main reason I played it was that I am getting a new computer in December and I know I will be busy playing The Orange Box, Crysis, Oblivion and almost every other great game from the past three years, so I will have no time to play this. But I am glad I chose to do it because it gets added to Planescape Torment, KOTOR, KOTOR2 in the list of amazing RPGs I have played.

Although I completed it over the course of about 6 months (WOW!) it never stopped getting better from time to time. And part of it is the story. To be honest at about the middle of chapter 2, I was not much impressed and incredibly many of the sidequests had better substories than the main one itself. But the twist at the end of the second chapter really hit me in the face. And from then on I thought it was really epic with quite a bit of history of the gameworld and so on. Though it was not as complex as Planescape Torment I felt it was awesome and quite epic in its own right.

I played KOTOR before this and at the beginning I was a bit put off by the graphics and gameplay. But since I stuck up to it, I was able to overlook the graphics and the gameplay got really interesting one I started leveling up and the amount of exotic items we can find in this game is incredible and some of it really helped in certain sidequests which would have been difficult without these items. I would suggest anyone who plays the game to atleast put up until the end of the first chapter because the gameplay and story of the later chapters is well worth some of the turn offs of the earlier ones.

Overall, I really enjoyed Neverwinter Nights and it ranks as one of the gaming experiences I most enjoyed. On other notes, since my exams have started no gaming for about 15 days after which it is going to be gaming marathon and madness with the new system and The Orange Box, Crysis and others and I hope to bring certain impressions of those games like this one in my own quest to keep this blog alive.

For people who care, here is my full review of the game over at Gamespot.

The Deathly Hallows

2007-07-23T20:25:00.004+05:30

The last time we met our favorite young wizard, he was left all alone after the death of Dumbledore with no one but two other 17-year olds with the impossible task of seeking out Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes, destroying them and then seeking out The Dark Lord himself and finishing him and hopefully making out of it alive. As if that wasn’t enough, Dumbledore was killed by none other than Snape in whom he trusted and Rowling unimaginably made Severus Snape the most important character in the Deathly Hallows after probably the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione and Voldemort. So, Rowling has numerous questions to answer and to finish off the series in a fitting way so as to leave all its fans satisfied. So, does she? In my opinion, The Deathly Hallows is possibly my favorite in the series as a whole and yes, the conclusion is superb and Rowling leaves absolutely no stone unturned.

The book begins before Harry’s 17^th birthday when we know his protection against Voldemort given by his mother breaks and the Order of the Phoenix realizing this are trying to move Harry to a safer place. Saying absolutely what happens anymore in the book would be spoiling it for fans but suffice it to say the story twists and turns until the climax.

Ron and Hermione of course accompany Harry on the journey to secure the remaining Horcruxes and destroy them. There are numerous verbal fights, emotional sequences and then reunions as Rowling spins one heck of a magical yarn. She leads us on a nostalgic trip where everything from the Snitch Harry first caught to Dumbledore’s light-snatcher to Sirius’s mirror make a return and it almost seems as if she does not want to forget many of these amazing characters and sequences herself and in turn we do not want to forget this series that has captivated our hearts for many years.

However, after reading about a third of the book I found myself utterly confused. Here, she was with a plate full of questions to answer yet Rowling seemed to be happy to posing more and more questions and I must accept I was slightly nervous that the ending might not tie up all the loose ends or might be unsatisfying. But all my fears were washed away in the amazing last third of the book in which there are numerous goosebump sequences, sequences and dialogues where you will sit tight in your chair and every hair on your body will be pointing skywards. Rowling yet again has proven that she is truly a mistress of story-telling and while some of these sequences may seem too convenient as things fall firmly into place, there is no doubt about the emotions we feel when we read them.

So, in the end everything about The Deathly Hallows will leave you satisfied from its amazing action set-pieces to the complexity of the emotions underneath all the action and of course a finale that is befitting to the series as a whole. In the opening tribute, Rowling thanks all her fans for sticking with Harry till the end. And that is what exactly every fan has done, their love for Harry and his friends has only grown warmer and stronger with each of his adventures and in this final adventure Rowling makes sure that even as we – along with her – say one final wet-eyed (in my case) and heart-warming goodbye to the series, it will remain etched in our hearts and minds for all eternity and there in lies the true magic of Harry Potter and Rowling’s writing and not in the spells and enchantments that appear inside the book.

Harry Potter - A Tribute (Part II)

2007-07-18T22:53:00.004+05:30

PS: Minor spoilers regarding the Harry Potter books. So, stay clear if you haven't read any of the books from the series.

The Goblet of Fire marked a change in tone for the series as a whole, one which has not changed since. The opening sequences really set it up, a very tired Voldemort instantly killing an eavesdropper or a number of death-eaters casually tossing muggles up and down and we instantly realized that much of the humor from the previous books may never show up again; this was most evident when Dumbledore who had been shown as having a benign smile and caring face was first shown in all his fury as he attacks the fake Alastor Moody and then casually turns his face with his feet to check whether he is knocked out. It also marked Voldemort’s return to complete power and Harry’s first face-to-face meeting with a full strength Voldemort which he faced with all the bravery that was expected of him. When Dumbledore spoke the words “Any time you have a choice between good and evil, remember what happened to Cedric Diggory”, we were one of the many people mourning the loss of this fictional character and we realized that even though the tone had changed from humor to darkness, much of the love and underlying warmth were still intact.

Then The Order of the Phoenix came about and Harry was shown as being left fully alone by his friends and we got the first glimpse of Harry’s anger at being The Chosen One. We also realized that no matter what happens Ron and Hermione would be firmly by his sides. And the story fully opened up with the Prophecy being revealed and Harry being shown as the person to overthrow Voldemort and his evil. Of course, Harry’s burden was further increased with the death of his only remaining family of sorts in Sirius Black. OOTP also featured the best duel to so far grace Harry Potter with the amazing confrontation between Dumbledore and Voldemort during the climax. And we realized that the true weapon Harry has over Voldemort in spite of clearly being the lesser in terms of wizardry is his heart; the only question remaining being how it plays a part in book 7.

I have personally said to myself many times that instead of being called Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, it should have been called HP and Severus Snape because that is what the book exactly is. THBP firmly establishes Snape as the most important character in book 7 after Voldemort and Harry himself. A large part of book 7 is dependant on whether Snape is double agent working for the good side or evil side. And of course all THBP does is set up for the conclusion. We get to know more about Voldemort’s past, his true inherent cruelty in the way he kills his father’s family and of course his Horcruxes which are the source of his immortality. The whole story finally falls into place with Harry and Ginny (and in a way Ron and Hermione) unmasking their feelings for each other and with Dumbledore’s death which meant Harry’s last protector was gone and he was left all alone (Again!). It also featured some of my favorite lines from all the books like when Dumbledore says, “I am not worried Harry! I am with you” and when Ron and Hermione firmly say they will accompany Harry wherever he goes.

Phew! It has been quite a ride even though it took me less than a month to finish all 6 books and in reality I have been waiting only for about 5 months now whereas some of you have been drooling for years together for book 7. But it feels like I have been part of this world for a longer time than I really have. I know I have forgotten many important characters/events in the above tribute. Hagrid is a wonderful character as is Draco as are most of the people in the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore’s army like Luna, Neville, The Weasleys and more and to start mentioning everyone is something I don’t intend to do.

I don’t want to start speculating about The Deathly Hallows but am definitely going to say that it is going to be the best book of the lot. Of course, the humor will not be there and the book will be all dark as Harry first goes after the remaining horcruxes and then after Voldemort himself. It is still unclear whether Ron and Hermione will accompany Harry which I hope they will. And of course unfinished plot points like the life debt owed by Wormtail, Ron, Ginny and Mr. Weasley will definitely rear their head. And Rowling must give a strong explanation as to why she killed Sirius and Dumbledore and also round off Snape’s character.

I am completely going to shut myself away for the next few days from anything related to Harry Potter – news, forum topics etc. – no leaked press news is going to spoil it for me and I am sure The Deathly Hallows will be the finale everyone expects it to be and hopefully it will be just that.

Harry Potter - A Tribute (Part I)

2007-07-16T21:27:00.004+05:30

PS: Minor spoilers regarding the Harry Potter books. So, stay clear if you haven't read any of the books from the series.

On July 21^st, the magical world of Harry Potter created by J.K. Rowling comes to an end. And while I am glad that it is finally getting over and we can get to read what happens to our favorite boy wizard and his friends, I am depressed that we will not be getting to read any more about Harry’s adventures as he attempts to conquer Voldemort. Here, I am going to share how Harry Potter has engulfed me right from the moment I started reading The Sorcerer’s Stone.

A long time ago, I was completely adamant I will not fall into the Harry Potter hype. I had taken a silent vow that I will not read any of the books or watch any of the movies no matter how hyped to death they were. But on Jan 19^th, 2007, Harry Potter joined another great world (namely, Star Wars) to have captured my imagination after I had loathed it at some point of time. I was well informed about Harry Potter around the time of the release of The Half-Blood Prince but even then I never got on the bandwagon, something just kept me away from it. But with all the hype The Deathly Hallows (which I knew was going to be a fitting finale), I decided to give it a go to see what there is and boy am I glad I decided to do it.

The first impression I got when I read The Sorcerer’s Stone was the world created by Rowling is possibly the best fictional world ever invented with the possible exception of Star Wars. And while there are many parallels that can be draw between both Harry Potter and Star Wars – like a young boy relatively inexperienced in their worlds being forced to take on people who have mastered the arts (namely, Luke and Harry forced to take on Vader and Voldemort) and the eternal battle of good vs evil – both worlds are the results of wonderful imagination on the part of their respective authors. I realized Hogwarts was a fun place filled with lots of magic, booby traps and wonderful monsters that were captured beautifully by Rowling’s bewitching writing and funny dialogues. The Sorcerer’s Stone really set the base for all of the main characters – like portraying Dumbledore’s warmth for Harry, the beautiful friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione and Snape’s hatred for Harry and Harry’s rivalry with Draco – as well as proving that Rowling can come up with some amazing twists in the plot.

The Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban really had more of the same funny dialogues, character building, Hogwarts’ exploration and more twists to satisfy fans. Chamber of Secrets was also an important book to the series as a whole because it was in that book that we first got a glimpse of Voldemort’s past and the genius he was capable of at a young age as well as showing similarities shared by Voldemort and Harry. The Prisoner of Azkaban was the book in which we got to know more about Harry’s past, his father’s school life as well as his friends and getting warmth from the fact that Harry had a family of sorts in the form of his Godfather, Sirius Black. But the first 3 books never really opened up the story in any real form. The writing was at its best in the first 3 books to tell the truth, it combined all emotions into one, fun, sorrow, happiness and when Harry rode the Firebolt or when he realized the Firebolt had been given by Sirius, it was not only he who felt the warmth and happiness, rather as readers we shared every emotion he perceived.

In the next part, I look at the next 3 books in the series and also somewhat into The Deathly Hallows.

Manchester United - Season Review - Part II

2007-05-18T22:27:00.003+05:30

The Champions League again kick-started with the 2^nd round in which United beat Lille under controversial circumstances. Giggs scored the only goal of the match from a free kick on 84 minutes but the Lille players were not ready and they threatened to walk off the pitch if the goal was allowed which it was and Lille were heavily fined for their antics as United claimed a crucial victory. Two weekends of Premiership football proved to me that the title was United’s this season. On 24^th Feb, United were drawing 1-1 with Fulham after Brian McBride had cancelled out Giggs’ first half volley. But, Ronaldo, who has undoubtedly been United’s player of the season, broke Fulham – and Chelsea – hearts as he scored a brilliant individual goal on 88 minutes to give United the victory. On 3^rd March, in another game in which United were expected to slip up (and should have) United beat Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield. Liverpool dominated the entire game and should have had the match done and dusted if not for United’s brilliant goal-keeper Edwin Van Der Sar who blocked efforts from both Bellamy and Crouch. United should have been awarded a penalty after it clearly looked like Saha had been caught by Daniel Agger in the box on 76 minutes but referee Martin Atkinson dismissed the claims. 3 minutes from time United were a man down as Scholes was sent off for flinging his arm against Xabi Alonso. Just as it looked like United were about to drop points, John O’Shea scored in the 92^nd minute after a Ronaldo free kick had been fumbled by Liverpool keeper Jose Reina to give United the most unlikely of victories.

In between those two late victories United also progressed to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup after a 3-2 victory at Reading and United deservedly qualified also for the quarterfinals of the Champions League after beating Lille 1-0 on 7^th March. After a 2-2 draw away to Middlesborough left United facing a replay at Old Trafford for the FA Cup QF, United routed Bolton 4-1 at home to maintain their lead. Cristiano Ronaldo again proved to be the hero as United beat Middlesborough through his penalty at Old Trafford in the replay to set up a semifinal date with Watford at Villa Park. United ended the month of March with both bad and good news, with both influential captain Neville and Vidic, who had been the best defender in the team out with long-term injuries, it seemed as if United’s injury worries were beginning to show but it was Chelsea who still looked like faltering as United routed Blackburn 4-1 only for Chelsea to maintain the gap at 6-points with a late, later winner at Watford.

Manchester United began the month of April badly as they lost away to Roma 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the CL in a match where they played a major portion with 10-men after Scholes was sent off for two bad tackles. The following weekend came United’s major slip up as they lost at Portsmouth 2-1 after two calamitous mistakes from keep Van Der Sar and Chelsea who had beaten Spurs 1-0 at home previously in the day closed the gap to 3 points and the critics again murmured that United will eventually lose it because of their injuries. But United bounced back in style in an European night which will be remembered by everyone for a long time and in which Roma wished they had never played. Roma, who finished second in the Italian League, were demolished, humiliated and left in shambles by a Manchester United team with a point to prove. The match started with Roma in control of the tie, 2-1 ahead on aggregate but within 20 minutes, that situation changed as a Carrick lob, a delightful finish from Alan Smith (who proved crucial after Larsson’s departure and Saha’s injury) and a Rooney goal left United 3-0 ahead but United were not finished as Ronaldo’s first CL goal of the season helped United to end the first half 4-0 up and almost into the semis of the CL. 3 goals in the second half from Carrick, Rooney and Evra and a solitary goal for Roma from De Rossi saw the match end 7-1 for United which sent United through to the semis of the CL for a date with AC Milan and also sent shockwaves through Europe.

United made little of Watford in the FA Cup semifinal as they beat them 4-1 in Villa park to set up a final clash with Chelsea, who beat Blackburn 2-1 in extra time at Old Trafford (ironically) the following day, in the newly renovated Wembley stadium on 19^th May. In a weekend where Chelsea should have closed the gap within 1 point, United drew at home 1-1 with Boro on 21^st April because of a rare lackluster attacking display after Ferdinand was injured with a recurring groin injury but Chelsea failed to capitalize again as they drew 0-0 away at Newcastle in a match where they just seemed like they did not want to win. The Champions League semis began on 24^th April with United fielding a weakened defense against AC Milan at Old Trafford. The match began well for United with a header from Ronaldo tipped over the ball by Milan goalie Dida to give United the lead. But the chinks in United’s armour were spotted by Milan’s wonderful Brazilian Kaka as he scored within the space of 15 minutes to give Milan two crucial away goals. United went into half time 2-1 down. But a double from Rooney with the winner coming in injury time helped United to a 3-2 victory in the second half and United holding a minor advantage for the return leg at the San Siro.

The following weekend both the title contenders kicked off at the same time against Bolton at home for Chelsea and Everton away for (United on Saturday, 28^th April and the title race fluctuated over the course of 90 minutes finally ending with United having one hand on the trophy. Alan Stubbs’ free kick left United trailing at half time whereas Chelsea had come back after going a goal down to Bolton to lead 2-1 at half time and it seemed both teams would be level at the end of 90. Everton went 2-0 ahead through a wonderful strike by Manuel Fernandez and Bolton equalized through Kevin Davies in a wonderful seesaw of events. But United decided that this was their season and in a remarkable comeback won the match 4-2 helped along the way by Everton goalie Ian Turner whose howler led to the first United goal and former Red Phil Neville whose own goal was United’s equalizer. As Chelsea ended their game with only a point to show for it, they fell 5-points behind United and in doing so almost conceded the league to Manchester United.

The following mid-week that should have been sweet turned bitter as United were out-classed and out-played by AC Milan in every department when we lost 3-0 away from home which destroyed our hopes of a repeat of the 1999 treble in a match I don’t want to elaborate. The only good news out of that was Chelsea lost in their semi against Liverpool on penalties which ended their quadruple hopes and also the fact that the title could be clinched the following weekend. As it happened, in the following weekend a very tired United team scraped a 1-0 victory away at Manchester City in the Manchester Derby which meant they were 8-points ahead of Chelsea and which also meant Chelsea had to win away at Arsenal to keep the title alive. In a wonderful match at the Emirates Stadium, Chelsea went a goal and a man behind at the end of the first half when Boulahrouz was sent off for fowling Baptista in the box and Gilberto converted the following penalty to give Arsenal the lead. Chelsea played a brilliant second half with 10-men and scored through Michael Essien on 75 minutes to level and should have won it through a fierce Kalou shot which was tipped over by Arsenal goal-keeper Jens Lehmann. But the 1-1 draw meant that Manchester United FC had been crowned English Premier League Champions for the 9^th time and had won their 16^th English top-flight title.

The last two matches against Chelsea which they drew 0-0 after fielding a reserve team and West Ham which they lost 1-0 at home helping the Hammers stay up were a mere formality as United lifted their 9^th English Premier League title, all under Sir Alex Ferguson on 13^th May. And Sir Alex Ferguson deserves it more than anybody as in the past three years where the fans and even some of the players lost their belief that we could win the title again, he was the only person who insisted that this team would go places after they mature and that they have done. I could not have asked for a better season when we went to the semis of the CL and put up a good fight with a depleted squad, have finished as Champions of England and are hoping to complete the Double (which incidentally would be our 4^th) of the League and FA Cup the coming Saturday against Chelsea in the New Wembley.

As a British newspaper put it,
“Sir Alex and his Manchester United have proved that footballing beauty can conquer the relentless beast”, the ‘relentless beast’ meaning Chelsea’s style of boring football.

Thanks Sir Alex and the Team for a truly wonderful season for Manchester United fans. Go win the Champions League next time around.

TinTin Movie Trilogy - Bring it On!

2007-05-16T23:27:00.004+05:30

The announcement of a TinTin trilogy in the works has left me drooling with anticipation. The announcement came a few months back from head of Herge Studios head, Nick Rodwell but the news that filtered in yesterday that two of the best directors in Hollywood in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson will be co-producing the trilogy and will be at the helm for two of the three has left me elated and to be honest, a bit confused (for lack of a better word).

The first time I heard the announcement, I was worried really because the faces of TinTin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and especially the Simpson brothers are so well etched my mind that it will be difficult for me (and most TinTin fans) to digest any actor, however good he may be, performing these roles. But those fears were washed away with news that TinTin will be a computer animated movie and one of the best at that. And Spielberg rightly said that shooting the movie in live-action format would not honour the look of the characters that Herge created. And Jackson has gone one better and said that the characters will look photo-realistic rather than cartoonish which makes it all the more better as had they made it cartoonish it would have been like watching a cartoon rather than an animated movie.

The news about animation is what left me a bit confused, though I am sure it will go away once a few trailers and videos start to come about. The confusion arises from the fact that even though both Jackson and Spielberg are the best at what they do and have given us classics like LOTR, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and so on, neither of them to my knowledge has ever directed an animated movie and I don't want that fact to stick out like a sore thumb once the movie eventually does hit the screens.

I remember seeing a bunch of TinTin cartoons on Cartoon Network a long time back and though they were just moving images from the book, they worked really well for me. And the major reason for that was the selection of the voice actors. I don’t remember – nor do I know – any of the actors from those roles but I do remember appreciating how much they fit the roles of the main characters, especially TinTin and Captain Haddock. I have no idea who they are going to call for the trilogy but I feel it would be great if they could rope in the actors from these cartoons.

I cannot wait for these movies to hit the theaters although the initial work has not even begun. The truth is I began my foray into the world of reading with TinTin. I had read a few Enid Blyton books but TinTin (thanks to my mom who introduced me to him) is what captured my imagination when I was about 8 to 10. I read the whole series and re-read and read them again and again and it never got boring. Even today, sometimes I find myself going to the library, picking one of my favourites and sifting through them bringing back some old memories. It was one of my favourite comic books and still remains to this day. The writing is wonderfully witty and the book tends to be funny even in some real tension scenes. Captain Haddock who is one of my favourite characters has all the best lines as his wonderfully written character is brought to life through some witty dialogue and swearing that not only show his aggressive nature but also his kind and caring heart. Some of my personal favourites include Destination Moon and its sequel Explorers of the Moon (a book which led me to take up the career path of an astronaut which I need not say died out quickly) and The Seven Crystal Balls and its sequel Prisoners of the Sun, though the whole lot of them are still some of the best comics out there.

So is anybody else excited at this announcement and when the movie does hit the theaters it is going to be “Blistering Barnacles” and “Thundering Typhoons”.

Manchester United - Season Review - Part I

2007-05-15T23:55:00.004+05:30

The noise from the 76000 and odd crowd is deafening, you would not hear an all mighty loudspeaker amidst this clamor. This is the last day of the English Premier League season at Old Trafford, home to Manchester United FC. The players on the grass all have medals around their necks which is their personal trophy for a season of hard work. Two legends of the club hold aloft the piece of silverware with the crown, the English Premier League trophy. And the fireworks begin in Manchester. Yet few would have predicted these events unfolding on 13^th May, 2007 when the season (at least from a Manchester United point of view) began in controversy on 20^th August, 2006.

I certainly did not believe it possible that United would be crowned champions at the end of the season. The problems surrounding two of the best young players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are well documented. Ronaldo was seen winking to his team-mates after Rooney was sent off in England’s WC exit against Portugal and was almost destined to end up with the ‘Galacticos’ of Real Madrid after that incident. Yet again – as has always been the case with Manchester United – Sir Alex Ferguson came to the rescue. He sent his right-hand man, United’s assistant coach, Carlos Queiroz to Portugal to have a friendly chat with Ronaldo and his family and Ronaldo decided to stay, still the cloud surrounding him did not move and he was public enemy No.1 wherever he went in England for the entire season. That, coupled with the off-loading of the prolific Dutchman Ruud Van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid and I personally laboured many doubts about United’s goal scoring abilities as well as our ability to pip a dominant Chelsea – who had further strengthened their already strong squad with German mid-fielder Michael Ballack and AC Milan’s goal poacher Andiry Shevchenko – to the EPL crown. Yet, pip they did with one of the best seasons I have personally had as a Manchester United fan scoring an amazing 83 goals (in the EPL alone) in the process.

The opening match of the season pushed out any lingering doubts on Ronaldo and Rooney’s friendship and of the United fans’ suspicious eye on Ronaldo, as Rooney and Ronaldo set each other up for goals in a 5-1 rout of Fulham, and the 76000 strong crowd cheered Ronaldo’s every touch. The Wednesday following that, United were handed a gift as Chelsea (then Champions) lost to Middlesborough away and United beat Charlton 3-0 away from home. And the winning run continued as United beat Watford, Tottenham and Celtic (Champions League) and then came the first blow. United were expected to beat an Arsenal side minus their star Theirry Henry at Old Trafford but Emmanuel Adebayor’s 76^th minute strike sunk United hearts and with Chelsea beating Liverpool 1-0, both the teams were level and United fell further behind when they failed to beat newcomers Reading away from home as they were only able to salvage a 1-1 draw with Ronaldo’s leveler on 73 minutes. In the past 2 seasons, United’s lack of consistency has been shown as Chelsea whose form never seemed to dip were able to comfortably outclass United. A defeat and a draw back-to-back left United 2 points behind Chelsea and these old thoughts began to creep in.

A magnificent European night at Benfica and United bounced back with a gritty display and were able to beat the opponents 1-0. Wins against Newcastle – in the same weekend where Chelsea drew at Aston Villa 1-1 – Wigan, Copenhagen (CL), a brilliant performance in a 2-0 victory against an out of form Liverpool and a 4-0 rout at Bolton with a special Rooney hat-trick meant United were level on points but ahead on goal difference at the end of October. With Chelsea’s primary goal-keeper, Petr Cech, in doubt for the rest of the season, Chelsea’s defenses began to fall apart.

At the beginning of November, United were dumped out the Carling Cup by no lesser a team than Southend United, who play first division football, after they lost 1-0 away from home but that also meant one less diversion for United as a team. A win against Portsmouth, a gritty performance at Blackburn for a 1-0 victory and another victory away at Sheffield coupled with Chelsea’s loss at Tottenham on 5^th November meant United went into their game with Chelsea 3 points ahead of their rivals. While the match at Old Trafford was a brilliant spectacle to watch with both teams trading attacks and counter-attacks, the result itself did nothing the show which way the title was headed as the match ended 1-1 and United blew a chance to open a 6-point lead at the top.

Losses away to Celtic and Copenhagen in the Champions League meant United had to win their home match against Benfica on 6^th December to qualify, which they duly did to qualify in the enviable position on top of their group. Everything seemed well in the league as United beat Everton, Middlesborough and Manchester City (in the Manchester Derby) to open up a 8-point lead over Chelsea who still had a game in hand but had failed to beat fellow Londoners Arsenal on a controversial night at Stamford Bridge. Then came the big surprise as West Ham under the newly appointed Alan Curbishly (who took over from Alan Pardew) beat United 1-0 at Upton Park but a comfortable 3-0 victory away to Aston Villa meant that, with half the season gone United were leading Chelsea by 2 points. Still, with half the season remaining and having had an injury-free season so far, I had my own doubts as to whether United could keep that position till the end of the season. And with Chelsea scoring several last gasp victories against Wigan and Everton in spite of injuries to captain John Terry and goalie Petr Cech, I did wonder whether this could yet be Chelsea’s season.

Chelsea’s defensive frailties began to show and their late-goal luck began to wear out as a draw against Reading on Boxing day at home coupled with United’s victory against Wigan left the former trailing the latter by 4. And Chelsea fell further behind as they were again held at home to a 2-2 draw by Fulham as United defeated Reading 3-2 and opened up a 6-point gap at the top. On New Year’s day Manchester United drew 2-2 away to Newcastle at St. James’ Park and gave Chelsea a sniff at closing the gap. Though a Scholes double had given United the lead, a deflected shot from David Edgar off Scholes leveled it for Newcastle and United dropped two points in a match which they should have won. Chelsea (again without goalie Cech and influential captain Terry) failed to capitalize on United’s slip-up as they drew at home to Aston Villa in a lackluster attacking display.

The FA cup began in full swing on 7^th January as on-loan striker Henrik Larsson got his first start against Aston Villa in the 3^rd round at home in which United proved they could come up with late winners of their own as Solskjaer scored in injury time in the second half to help United progress to the 4^th round. In a weekend that should have had a major say in the title race, United and Chelsea traveled to Arsenal and Liverpool, both of whom had fallen far behind the top two due to inconsistency in the opening months. After Chelsea, devoid of Terry, had been outclassed by Liverpool 2-0 in the early kick-off on Saturday, 20^th Jan, it was up to United to beat Arsenal to put the destiny of the league in little doubt. An United victory looked on course as Rooney scored a fantastic header on 53 minutes to give United the lead. But a costly give-away of possession of the ball by Scholes near the edge of his own box led to Arsenal leveling on 83 minutes. Yet, it seemed United would end the weekend with a 7-point lead but some horrendous defending on their part left Henry free in the centre of the penalty box in injury time and the French striker duly converted Eboue’s cross to leave the EPL race at the end of the “crunch weekend” as it was before, with United having a 6-point lead.

A Rooney double helped United secure a 5^th round place in the FA Cup as they beat Portsmouth 2-1 at home and a victory against Watford the next weekend saw United maintaining their form. As United prepared for an away match to Spurs at White Hart Lane, murmurs were about that this could be the match where United drop crucial points as Chelsea had. But United silenced any critics with a stunning display of attacking football as they routed Spurs 4-0 and left them in tatters. Reading blocked United’s progress in the 5^th round of the FA Cup as they were able to salvage a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford which left United facing an extra trip to Reading.

And more follows in part 2 where I continue to take a look at this fantastic season for Manchester United.

Spiderman 3 (2007)

2007-05-08T00:59:00.004+05:30

Superhero movies always have a certain flair to them, there is something about seeing our superhero soar the air and defeat the villain using his superpowers that never gets boring how much ever we see it. Taken at face value, Spiderman 3 keeps all these essential ingredients for a superhero movie intact and certainly has enough action sequences to satisfy purists. However, there is quite a big emotional web woven around the central characters that – even though confusing as it seems – adds a bit extra to keep the Spiderman franchise on top of its other superhero counterparts as far as the silver screen is concerned.

If Spiderman 1 was about a nerdy little high school boy (Peter Parker) gaining superpowers and mastering them to save his city and Spiderman 2 was about the same boy not being able to cope with his double act and then realizing how much his other role means to the city and also succeeding in the little matter of love, Spiderman 3 is about him getting a little over his head and enjoying all the publicity he gets as Spiderman.

Spiderman 3 begins where the last one left, as our hero meets success both as Spiderman who defeats his foes with relative ease and as Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) who finally gains the love of his life in Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), the story continues in much of the same vein. Peter’s friendship with his first foe, the Green Goblin’s son lies in tatters after the latter realizes (at the end of the second movie) that his best friend is actually the invincible Spiderman. This third movie also introduces an angle of revenge after Peter realizes that the man who killed his uncle has just escaped from jail and is out on the loose. As all these emotions begin to play in Spiderman’s mind, more deadly evils await in the form of an alien symbiote which has chosen Spidy as its host and increases these dangerous emotions to perilous levels. Peter also gets competition in the form Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) who joins the Daily Bugle as a freelance photographer challenging Peter in capturing Spidy for the Bugle.

As Peter Parker/Spiderman 3 battles his inner demons, his enemies grow in number as his uncle’s killer (Thomas Haden Church) is fused moleculary with sand and becomes the Sandman. And, understandably enough, he chooses to kill Spiderman since he thinks the latter is the only person stopping him from stealing the money required for his daughter’s operation.

The action sequences are as exhilarating as is to be expected from a Spiderman movie. With death-defying stunts that will get even the most weakest of pulses racing, the movie has enough action in it to satisfy even the most hardened of action purists. Some of the sequences, however, are captured in close-up that it is difficult to tell who is hitting who. However, the complexity of the emotions overshadows the action and at times it gets really confusing. The romance of the lead pair is quite good especially because the onscreen chemistry shared by Maguire and Dunst is spot on. On the contrary the movie loses some of its class in scenes which are particularly loaded with heavy emotions reaching dramatic proportions like the sequences of sandman visiting his home in quest to restore his daughter to full health.

I have always adhered to the fact that Tobey Maguire is one lucky boy. His face suits the role of Peter Parker to a T and since he is under the mask as Spiderman and the graphics does most of the work in action set-pieces, he can escape without particularly emoting which is not the same for other superhero stars like, say, Christian Bale in Batman Begins or Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. He also goes slightly over the top in scenes where he is playing host to the symbiote. Kirsten Dunst plays her usual role but she is especially good in scenes where she tries to hide her envy at Peter hogging all the limelight as Spiderman. James Franco plays the role of Harry Osborn who is fighting Peter/Spiderman for killing his father and who is caught in between contrasting emotions of friendship and revenge particularly well and he does full justice to quite a complex role. The rest of the supporting cast does what is expected of them. J. K. Simmons in particular deserves credit for his role as the Director of the Daily Bugle and he is responsible for all the laughs in this otherwise pretty quiet superhero movie.

Spiderman 3 will surely satisfy fans of the previous 2 movies and they will certainly understand the necessity of the emotions underneath the white-knuckle action. And while purists mights argue at the backseat that the action seemingly takes to the emotions, the undeniable fact is that the Spiderman franchise is still the benchmark as far as superhero movies are concerned.

Hogwarts "IS" Good!

2007-02-19T00:02:00.004+05:30

NOTE: I am guessing by now most of you would've read The Sorcerer's Stone but if you haven't, this post does contain spoilers for the first Potter book.

I once said to myself I will never understand what all this craze of Harry Potter is about. But, today, I realize how wrong I was and have joined all these people in their craze. As you would remember, a few days ago I posted "Is Potter really good?" but now I have found out the answer myself. Harry Potter is really good and Hogwarts is a fun place to be in.

Now I am not going to bore you over plot points or a reviews of this book because I am sure you would've read many of them. I am just going to point out some of my best moments (in no particular order) from the book.

Quirrell is evil, not Snape - I have to tell this must be one of the best twists I have read because I definitely didn't see it coming. When Harry opened the door, I expected either Snape or Voldemort to be in there but it was Quirrell. One of the best moments in the book for me. I also have to say that I was more shocked at Snape helping Potter than at Squirrell being evil.

Gryffindor wins the House Cup - This, for me, was the best moment in the book. I was sure Slytherin had won it but when Dumbledore started awarding points I almost jumped out my bed in joy. I, however, expected a tie but did not expect Neville to be awarded points and win it for Gryffindor.

Hagrid's entry - Right from the moment Hagrid comes to meet Harry to them leaving on the boat, this was one of the best sequences in the book. The way Hagrid tells Harry he always had the "Wizard" in him and Harry thinking over the events that happened when he had been angry was splendid.

Those moments are just off the top of my head. It is hard to sum up a book which is full of great sequences. The whole sequence leading up to Harry's showdown with Voldemort is superb - Ron using his ability to win the chess game, Hermione using her ability to get past the puzzle and Harry using his flying ability to get the key. Just for the record I read the last 160 and odd pages straight for about 3 hours.

This post should give you an idea of how worked up I am of Harry Potter. My next goal is to finish the next five books as quickly as possible. I want to join the other fans in their wait for The Deathly Hallows. The reason being if I finish The Half Blood Prince with just a few days to go for the last book then I wouldn't be able to feel the excitement or join the others in the speculation and rumors surrounding it. I will definitely be going to the library tomorrow to rent The Chamber of Secrets as excited as I ever was before reading any book and hoping to finish it sooner than ever.

The Last Juror

2007-02-09T19:13:00.004+05:30

My reading habit has been slowly deteriorating lately due to various commitments (especially to studies). So, when my last semester exams finished on December 13th, I decided I would get back on track as far as books were concerned and start reading books regularly. One of my friends said that John Grisham books were really good, posed several law-related problems and then used the law in ways we would never imagine to solve them. I decided that John Grisham it will be and went to the local library and picked up the first book I laid my eyes upon, The Last Juror. It took me a whole month to finish the book (again disturbed because of various commitments) but I can definitely say that this will not be my last John Grisham book.

The Last Juror follows the story of William Traynor (and is a first-person narrative from his perspetive), a dropout from Syracuse after having studied Journalism for 5 years. He joins The Ford County Times, a weekly newspaper in Ford County, Mississippi as an intern to pursue his interest in journalism. After the paper goes bankrupt in 1970, he takes money from his grandmother and buys the paper and becomes its Owner and Editor-in-Chief. He soon befriends a local, well-educated, married and God-fearing black woman named Callie Ruffin and even runs a humanity article about her in his paper.

The book takes place from 1969 to nearly 1980 and Grisham has done a good job in capturing many important things that happened in America during these years. Many things like the integration of black and white schools, the entry of shopping malls in local towns have all been given due attention. But these portions do not have anything to do with the main story and had they not been there, the main story would still remain unchanged.

The main story is itself very satisfying and has law as its focus (as is usual in Grisham books or so I am told). A young widow and mother to two (Rhoda Kassellaw) has been murdered by Danny Padgitt. Danny, however, comes from the Padgitt family, local drug dealers and mafia gang, who have connections going up till the town mayor. Punishment is out of the question but The Ford County times publishes all the grim details of the murder that makes the whole town believe Danny is the accused. Danny is sentenced to life by a special jury selected from all citizens who have the right to vote (of which, one is Callie Ruffin). However, Danny is paroled in 1978 and his revenge begins.

The best thing John Grisham has done is not to heavily fictionalize any of the characters in the book. The bond that forms between William and Callie is portrayed beautifully and so is the townsfolk change of attitude towards William as his paper grows in reputation. Even though some sequences in the middle don't do a whole lot in terms of the story, they still help in moving the story forward and helps us identify with the main characters better. Even William getting bored of living in a small town has been portrayed naturally.

There is a small twist in the end though anybody who pays enough attention will immediately guess it. The conclusion, while not satisfying, is good in the context of the story and ties everything up neatly together though it unfolds only in the last 100 or so pages.

Overall, I can safely say that this is definitely not Grisham's best work but it is definitely is worth a read for anyone who is a Grisham fan and will also offer a nice experience for those who are not.

On the topic of books, "Is Potter really good?". I have not read a single book and was never really interested in Potter, wizards in school never caught my eye but still, because of all the hype The Deathly Hallows is getting, I went out and rented The Sorcerer's Stone but have not yet started reading it. Now, I can take that swearing you just gave me and the mouse you threw at me, but please tell me, is it worth reading the six books in order before the seventh is released this July.

The Journey Begins....

2007-02-01T20:39:00.004+05:30

... and I started playing The Longest Journey. This game has been dwelling in my collection for as long as I can remember but because of commitments to present games I have never gotten around to playing it. However, after playing a game with memorable story and characters in Planescape Torment, I decided to play this game as I had heard it also features one of the most memorable stories and character casts.

I have just gotten to Arcadia and the game seems very interesting and engaging so far. The first thing I noticed about the game is the amount of effort put in to character development. The developers could have just showed a few bad dreams as cutscenes and then made the jump to Arcadia but they clearly wanted us, the players, to feel for the main character and put in extra effort to make it so. The graphics are mediocre to me, the lighting is good but it is all in low resolution, so it does look bad compared to recent games. Still, I have a feeling that, similar to Torment, I will start to ignore the low-quality graphics because of the story. And from intial impressions I feel that will definitely happen.

On other notes, the second part of my Best Plot Twists will come only later. That is because I feel some current games and books I am reading may make it into that list. As mentioned TLJ looks like it will have a great story and I am currently reading The Last Juror from John Grisham which is also taking great turns in its story. And on my backlog of books, I have read The Da Vinci Code but many suggest that Angels and Demons is better, so that is going to be my next read. And after all of these are completed, I will most probably get around to the second part of Best Plot Twists.

What can change the nature of a man?

2007-01-26T00:34:00.004+05:30

From that title most of you would have easily guessed what this post is about. Yes, I finally played Planescape Torment and finally realized what a fool I had been for missing it all these years. Yes, I was late in playing the game, but I guess "Better late than never".

When I got the game from one of my cousins, he said he had never played it but heard many good things about it. In my experience here at GS and many other sites, most people considered it one of the greatest games of all time. So, I finally installed the game and was immediatly struck with the feeling that this would be something special as soon as I saw the opening movie.

About my character, I had not played many RPGs but in the ones I had played, I had always chosen to be a fighter so I wanted to be different. I decided I would be a Mage and it was a decision I would begin to regret until I finished the game. Some of the earlier parts were getting difficult but I finally found Dakkon who made things easier for me. I soon assemble my party and I thought it would get easier as the game progressed but I found myself running from most battles because I would get finished easily and respawning and trying to kill was too much for me.

Especially, some of the battles on Baator with the Abhishais and in the final level with the Greater Shadows (which most people would have run from), I found myself trembling with fear as to whether I would be able to finish the game or not. When I finally did see the Transcendent One, because I had such high intelligence (about 24 I think) and I had gotten the Blade of the Immortal from the Siege Tower (thanks to a FAQ), the end game was easy and when the final movie finally rolled on and I saw The Nameless One take the weapon to fight in the Blood War and the voice in the background said "What can change the nature of a man?", to my surprise I fould myself questioning every decision I had made in the game.

In the end, my experience playing Torment ranks with among the best gaming experiences I have ever had. I am almost sure I will definitely play it more than once again, try to be evil and finally meet the Lady of Pain (in my quest to complete the game, I didn't have time to meet The Lady in my first experience) and of course see whats all there is to see in the world of Planescape.

Finally, my full review can be found here.

Best Plot Twists - Part 1

2007-01-04T23:35:00.003+05:30

In a few posts I will look into some of the best plot twists I have encountered in Movies, Games and Books. The first part will look at the movies. And just for good measure, I have not watched lots of movies or read lots of books or played lots of games with twists but I have encountered some of the best in what I have experienced. Be waned, this post may contain many spoilers, so proceed with caution.

The Sixth Sense
The mother of all plot twists and my favorite in all movies I have watched is The Sixth Sense. The best thing about the twist (as my sister pointed out to me) is that you don't make any accidental guesses because you don't know that there is a twist. The only time you realize there is a twist in the movie is when the twist actually unfolds. For me, it is not only the twist but the way it is revealed. The whole sequence where Bruce Willis realizes he is dead and thinks back what happened unfolds beautifully with brilliant subtle acting by Willis. So the honor of the best plot twist according to me goes to The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan.

The Usual Suspects
The twist in The Usual Suspects is slightly different than The Sixth Sense. The difference being you can accidentally guess that Verbal is in face Keyser Soze. But in my experience of watching the movie, I couldn't for one minuted guess that he was Soze. Throughout the movie, I made two guesses, it had to be either Keaton or somebody else but when the twist was actually revealed I was stunned because in no amount of guessing could I have guessed that Verbal was Soze. After it was revealed till the climax, I didn't remember anything that happened until I rewinded and saw it a second time. Again similar to The Sixth Sense, the actual revelation is picturized beautifully with Spacey's chilling voice and dialogues playing in the background and the cop's stunned face just adds up to a satisfying twist. Especially the broken china showing the name Kobayashi and Verbal's walk gradually becoming normal, where he places a cigarette in his mouth and lights up and the voice says "Poof! He's Gone" make this one of the best plot twist I have experienced.

The Shawshank Redemption
While not as satisfying and hard hitting as either The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects, The Shawshank Redemption does have a very well written plot and a good twist and it is one of those movies that made me feel very good and in a high mood when it finished. There is no major twist in the plot as such because most people would make guesses that Andy Duffresne will actually escape the jail but how he does and what happens later is the actual twist. When the only person who could prove that Andy is not the criminal is shot dead, I kept pondering at how he would actually pull off the escape. The unfolding here is again top class with Morgan's effective and subtle dialogues playing in the background, the whole scene that begins with the warden finding out the hole to Andy assuming the imaginary name and retrieving his cash at the bank is revealed wonderfully and you can't help but cheer when Freeman and Robbins hug near the boat at the end.

Honorable Mentions
Some of the other movies that have had good twists but I have never been captivated as much are Secret Window and Arlington Road. The minus about the twist in Secret Window is that it never hits you in the face like the previously mentioned movies and is actually very weakly picturized though Depp's acting somewhat makes up for it. My sister actually guessed the twist and told to me but still the revelation was never very satisfying but good nonetheless. Arlington Road didn't have much of a plot twist in the exact sense in my opinion. I did realize there had to be a bomb somewhere but the twist was that it is actually in Faraday's car and by the time he himself realizes that it explodes. It was a good movie with a good cast but never as strong as some others but it deserves an Honorable Mention anyway.

In part 2, I will look at some of the best twists I have encountered in games and books.

Historic win in South Africa

2006-12-18T23:48:00.003+05:30

The Indian team’s performance in South Africa has been well below par to what they are capable of playing. But in the first test match, they proved everyone (including yours truly) wrong with an amazing display of defiant batting, wonderful seam bowling and good fielding. Believe me when I say I am always the first one to criticize the Indian team when it comes to their performance. I always say they are over-hyped and lack the kind of team work that, for example, the Australians have.

India contains a bunch of very talented individuals in Dravid, Tendulkar, Kumble and the list goes on and on. But the best thing that could have happened to Indian cricket is the appointment of Greg Chappel as the coach. His record(and to a large extent Dravid’s as captain) as coach in tests affirms that with 7 wins, only 2 losses and 7 draws in 16 matches. With a win percentage of 43 and two away test series victories already (at a time when India was struggling to win even a test match away from home), you can’t ask for more from a coach. That said there are a few things he needs to get right like experimentation with the batting order especially with Pathan and specifically the opening slot needs to be tidied up. I would automatically drop Sehwag for a test or two and bring in Gambhir. We now have the effects of what happens when someone is dropped with some terrific performances from both Ganguly and Zaheer after their comebacks, same should be the case for Sehwag, Sachin and whoever is not playing to their potential or at least not giving a 100% effort.

And Chappel needs to be praised again for sticking with Sreesanth and not going the safe route by picking Pathan and Harbhajan in the first test. Because that was one amazing display of seam bowling from Sreesanth. And the refreshing thing about him was his character, he always did something to entertain and was always exuberant. Don’t believe me!, watch his reaction following the six he hit of Nel’s ball just after the latter had stared at him and asked him to show some heart. That kind of performance is never boring to watch but he has to curb some of it in order not to get in trouble with the match referee.

So, all in all, a very committed and energetic display from the Indian team after being murdered in the one day series. It was a good all around performance in all departments of the game. Now, the important thing to do is not to get carried away as Indians and their fans always do. Given that this is a historic win (the first in South Africa), focus should be on winning the next game as much as possible and winning the series. And repairing a few problems like the opening slot and the balance between spinners and seamers in bowling. But all said and done, this is a great moment to savor for any Indian cricket fan and any Indian in general. A first test victory is South Africa and today is one day I feel proud that I am an Indian cricket fan.

Welcome to my blogspace!

2006-12-18T23:47:00.005+05:30

So, like almost everybody these days, I got on to the blog bandwagon. You can expect everything from video games, sports, movies, books and anything that is on my mind at any particular instant of time. Though, if my past history is anything to go by, I often tend to procrastinate and when anything comes up on my mind it will come up in this blog only after quite sometime. Having said that, I will try to come up with regular posts from time to time.