PARADESI

I have to give due credit to Bala for having made such a movie which, only he could

make in Tamil film industry. Focussing only on the subject without any paraphernalia

which passes out as entertainment in other movies is the USP of this movie. As usual

he draws good performances from all his actors especially the conniving and ruthless

villain who employs people in the tea estate. When film people want us to believe

that nothing new or a novel can be told anymore in a film, Bala, as always springs a

surprise and this movie is another surprise from his staple. Only God or for an

aetheist like Bala; only he knows how many surprises he has in his kitty. My personal

favourite is the tone and colour of the movie. It aptly showcases the gloom and

barren lives of the people in it. In my opinion "art" per se has no limits and has

not rules. There is no one way or limited by a group of methods through which one has

to work or even has to perceive a piece of art. Bala in my opinion qualifies as an

artist. Of course one can argue over the quality of his work but not whether he is an

artist or not.

Having given due credit to the filmmaker, when I look at the movie I must admit I am

disappointed. First his characters in this movie like all his other movies with some

exceptions look the same. Especially the heroines who either seem to have lost a few

nuts & bolts holding their heads or grumpy and angry over something. Bala may claim

that's the requirement of the character for the movie. I won't deny the existence of

such characters but when you treat them the same way again and again I am afraid to

say that it speaks of his personal opinion about women. In addition to this his

contempt for religion and belief is well known and is again showcased in this movie.

Once again I do not disagree with what had been shown. In fact I also acknowledge the

facts stated in it. But my only concern is that here more than the facts or the

truth, his anger and loathing has come to the fore.

I agree that a film is a director's medium and he can choose to protray as per his

liking.But again, in my opinion the medium of expression, in this case the movie;

should have occupied the front stage instead of his personal choices. Some of the

scenes like the doctor and the english lady doing a song and dance number to convert

the hapless people into christianity is a result of that. Though it is a fact the

scene starts very very casually and ends as abrupty as it had begun. In order to

emphasise his personal beliefs, he made the movie a two dimensional entity without

any depth. All characters suffer and cry in the beginning of the movie, suffer and

cry a bit more during the middle and suffer and cry a lot in the end.

I have no complaints about crying while watching a movie, as I had wept a lot while

watching movies like "Schindler's list", "Tare zameen par", "Pithamagan" and recently

"Haridas". But where Paradesi fails is that, it has cried even on your behalf leaving

nothing to you. Technically speaking as far as my understanding goes, his wide angle

shots are great but unfrotunately the AGS theatre where I saw the movie was pathetic

as everything appeared out of focus. I guess that could have been a major contributor

to my disappointment. Anyway "Gatham gathaha".

VERDICT: A good and daring attempt worthy to be just grim and gloomy.

The thing that I did!

When was the last time you acutally did for the first time? This is actually the slogan of a mobile phone, I guess. So to avoid plagiarism charges or getting involved in any IP litigations, I'll change it. As a result the new one and my own line is "When was the last time you actually did after a long time? The answer is "just a while ago!". It may not be extraordinary but certainly is satisfactory, may not have given an adrenaline rush but certainly is refreshing, may not be life changing but certainly is rejuvenating. I can hear the audience shouting "Enough buildup. What's the God-damn thing that you did?" Either spit it out or just stop typing. We may be idle but not so much so that we have to keep on reading your prattle." So without any further delay let me disclose it for you. But before that let me tell you one thing. That thing that I actually did was not a planned one. It happened spontaneously and I myself wondered whether it was me who did that because I forgot how it would be to be spontaneous and to act instinctively because of my monotonous and dry routine life. Charlie chapline says in "The great dictator" that we think too much but feel too little. Well, this act of mine gave me a chance to feel something instead of thinking. It's a different matter altogether that even my thinking is haphazard. That story for some other time. For now let's agree that I felt something and like all other feelings this too is inexpressible. Audience: Dey..... Ok, ok. I am coming to the point. Actually I was lucky in a way because it was pure chance that I had to stay at home. Other wise I would have certainly missed out on this opportunity if I had gone to my office. This once again emphasised my opinion that one may earn his pay-check working in an office, but can live his life only at his home. Audience: Dey. #$#%#^ Wait, wait. You too should do this to reduce your frustration. It relaxes your mind and soothes your senses. Removes stress and tingles your spine. You could experience some or all of the above based on your willingness to let yourself go in this act. Audience: That's it, we are closing the window... Here it comes. It rained a while ago. I went to the roof and got drenched.

DARK KNIGHT RISES

When Bob Kane created Batman, he would not have imagined that some day a guy named Christopher Nolan with his cortege of actors, writers and technicians would come along and give a new meaning and identity to his super-hero so profound that it would be rated no less than the creation of the character itself! If reaching the top is difficult, staying there is furthermore difficult. Having scaled new peaks with his last two Batman movies I was under the impression that he had reached the top and if he just stays there with the current one, that itself would be a success. But as the quote of a car maker goes “Make the best car in the world. Then improve it!” he betters his own track record with his latest offering “Dark knight rises”. Having praised the movie, it doesn’t mean that it has unseen action sequences or eye popping CG works nor it has an entirely new story. But it has a new take on the Batman and his story, nice effort to link all the loose ends that arose due to the introduction of new characters and their back stories and a reemphasis on why Batman is, the way he is and why he does things that he does. If not for anything I admire the movie and its director for having brought a superhero subject to that of an intense drama where the protagonist is faced with all the dilemmas and confusions. A superhero is made only by the presence of a super villain and here there are two! The director makes us face them who are on the wrong side of moral and ideological turpitudes. As one of the line goes in the movie “any one can be the batman” and for a brief duration I was the batman! Yes, yes I know that your idea of batman doesn’t exactly match with a guy who is 5.6 with a paunch and of Indian origin. But hey! That’s the magic of the movies and I really felt it. Though the hero gets beaten, deceived, robbed, chased at and even mocked at he doesn’t waver from his sole objective, that of saving Gotham city. In one scene when the catwoman tells him that he has given everything to the city and need not bother about it anymore, for which Batman replies “Not everything, not yet”. This line pretty much sums up the movie. The same applies to the director as well. When I thought he had given everything in the first two installments, he comes up with this third movie and he says “not everything, not yet”. The one disappointment for me was, although the performances were top notch, their screen time was less due to infusion of new characters. But I think one can overlook this little blip. But on the positive side, the grave and imposing voice of the villain Bane, curves of Anne hathway, surprises in the form of Marion and Gordon lewitt and the last but certainly not the least; the music by Hans zimmer truly take the movie to a higher plane. It’s better to watch the prequels before you watch this movie as there are lot of references from its earlier stories. VERDICT: The dark knight rises and you better make way for him!

My thoughts on parenthood

The best way to make one understand the intricacies of a task or difficulties of a responsibility is to allot the task or to entrust him or her with that task or responsibility. The same person who had complained earlier will begin to appreciate those who preceded him while at the same time trying to make people understand who are about to follow him. This is what that has happened to me during the past one and half years of my life. Let me give you some rough statistics to give you an idea. 4 marriages of my close friends and cousins +1(Mine) 4 deaths in my relatives' circle. 3 new lives delivered into this world from my friends' & relatives' circle. +1(My own) Lot of movie watching. Numerous outings. Countless arguments and counter-arguments. Lots of moments of disappointments, happiness, sorrow and pure joy. No movie has ever and will ever showcase such multitude of scenes that blend seamlessly, and the best part is that you are the actor and the audience! During the course of the above events I had been the actor, going through the emotions, enacting my part(pretty badly :-)) I felt joy and sorrow to varying degrees. But now when I look back, amazingly I neither feel sorrow for my relatives' death nor, even to the birth of my own son. This doesn't mean that I have assumed the role of audience and enjoying the act. No I haven't reached that stage yet, but it simply means that I am a bit insensitive albeit with some help from the passage of "Time". Having strayed for a while, let me return to the first sentence of this blog. My idea of bringing up a child is, as you have rightly guessed "zero". Let's come to one understanding. Though almost all have or at-least had both parents, our knowledge or idea of how to be a parent falls well short of the finish line when one becomes a parent. Whatever changes or steps I wanted to take to my parenting style by looking at my own parents or others' turns out to be highly unimplementable. Let me give you one example. For once I decided not to show too much emotion; either joy or anxiety towards my kid. But when I tried to stick to it, the feedback was that I am not as happy as a typical father should be, that I don't love my kid as much as other fathers love their kids etc. To top it all, how could I manage to stay in Chennai, away from my kid for so long! Had it been someone else he would come to his kid every weekend (invariably some examples from the neighbourhood follows :-) ) So the situation made me partly understand the intricacies of being a parent. The result is that I consented to buy considerable number of dresses, one cradle for the kid. Added to that before I left for Chennai, I held him for a solid 15 minutes in my hands, played with him, made some funny faces and believe it or not, made him sleep. So I guess, that's how one evolves. Though my point of view is right for me, it doesn't seem to be appropriate for the situation. You can either create friction in the process of convincing others or you can simply assess the situation and adapt accordingly. Is this the solution? Well I don't have any answer for that. But one thing I am sure of is that it depends on the individual and the situation. It doesn't matter if you are a son, a husband or a father (For all those feminists! Please replace them with "a daughter, a wife or a mother) the situations are different and the contexts specific. Respecting the diversities, enduring the unintended or the unwanted, enjoying the pleasures of life like parenthood and last but not the least surrendering to your wife are keys to a happy life :-). If someday I can catch all this action by being an audience then my life's purpose is achieved. Tring, tring, tring... Guys get up! the boring monologue is over.

Need for a Guru

Information, knowledge & wisdom.
Our ancestors insisted on wisdom. Our previous generation insisted on knowledge but the current generation is neck deep in information if not already drowned in it.

As far as my understanding goes, information is just a means to a reach a particular point. I guess it can be named as knowledge, which in turn is another means to reach the destination called wisdom. The trick is to shift from the pursuit of information to the pursuit of knowledge and eventually to become wise as quickly as possible.
If information is writing on the waters, then knowledge is like writing on the papers. But wisdom is like writings on a stone tablet, I guess.

We are in an age where information is voluminous but at the same time access to it is instantaneous. Given this reality, there is a danger of getting lost in it if we don't know what we need exactly. We allow ourselves to be overawed by it, thus by losing sight of our actual goal.

Luckily if one gets past the stage of information gathering and steps into the realm of acquiring knowledge, there is another type of danger here. Once a person starts to acquire knowledge the result as most of the people think isn't confidence, but overconfidence and inflated ego. I guess the true purpose of knowledge is to realise how little you know and until then one has to engage in the pursuit of knowledge.

Miraculously if someone crosses even this hurdle too, then he or she can be considered to be on the threshold of wisdom. It is at this time a guru is needed. Recently I had the opportunity to hear a lecture by a swami emphasising the importance of a Guru. Following are some of the points that made some sense to me.

A Guru is neither a guide nor a teacher, though we usually use them one for the other. It's literal meaning is the destroyer of darkness or in other words the vanquisher of ignorance. There isn't any need for him to teach you because you already know everything, you are that very thing that you want to know. (Tatvam asi). Then why is he given so much importance even to the extent of being hailed as Brahma, Vishnu & Maheshwara? The answer is also equally convincing. The thing is that what we consider as real is just series of thoughts playing in our minds. For example when we think of a beautiful flower it's an act of creation(srishti). When we imagine its colour, fragrance etc, it's an act of existence(sthithi) and when that thought vanishes it's an act of destruction(laya). Thus the entire process of birth, existence & death are happening within our minds and a guru makes us realise just this. That's why he is being equated to the three Gods. Actually they are not Gods but three important manifestations of divinity.This he does in different ways depending on the maturity or readiness of the student. Moses from being a prince had to become a slave, roam around the desert for years before finally facing his Guru in the form of a burning bush. Swami Vivekananda though incredibly knowledgeable had to come to a normal priest called Ramakrishna. Shankara the proponent of Advaita had to kneel down before a hunter. A saint had to listen to a butcher's words which later became "Vyadhageetha". Sadguru in his memoirs says his guru met him only once and touched him not by hand but by a stick and still he considers him as his Guru. In all the above instances the Guru actually didn't teach anything, but they made the disciples realise that they know everything, that they are everything.

A guru breaks the endless cycle of maya and that cycle is
karma begets misery.
Desire begets karma.
Discontentment begets desire.
Ignorance begets discontentment.

PS: When Alexander was asked as to why he respects his teacher Aristotle more than his parents he says that he is greatful for this parents for giving him life but it's temporary and perishable whereas he is indebted to Aristotle as he had given him life eternal. In a sense we all have embarked on our own spiritual journeys. Hopefully a Guru comes our way and GU-RUs our ignorance.

Marital landmines!

Have you ever walked in a mine-field fully aware that it is a mine-field, but totally oblivious to the placement of the mines?

Well those who are married would have had the opportunity of being in a situation like that though not literally. If I am allowed to compare marriage to a mine-field (just a metaphor) then following are some of the mines that one might risk stepping upon.

Is this dress ok?
When can we go to my mother's home?
Will you buy me that ... (err,,whatever...)
Who is that girl in the photo standing beside you?
Did you drink? Did you smoke?
Do you drink now? Do you smoke now?
I think I have added more salt in the curry, haven't I?

Just like in our school days when we were informed about one sure shot question that would come in our exams, the following in my opinion is a sure shot question all the husbands would have been asked by their better halves.

"I have become fat, haven't I?"

Kindly observe the pattern of the question. It's not "Have I become fat?"
but "I have become fat, haven't I?"

You can simply give a no as an answer for the first question, but for the second one you can't simply give a "no" because you are contradicting her statement that she has become fat. That itself draws an angry look from her and the mine under your two legs will go off.
But on the other hand if you answer her with an "YES" then the highly destructive C4 explosive that's tied to your chest will just go off. Don't bother to ask me why I haven't informed you about the bomb. You have more important issues at hand :-)

Recently I had to counter one such situation and by God's grace (I started to believe in God after this incident), I managed to come out of it with flying colours.

The question was "The circles under my eyes are too dark, aren't they?" It was a catch22 and amazingly I managed to say this.
"I don't know if the circles are just dark or too dark, but they certainly seem tired with all the hard work you put in since early morning. Wash your face and take a nap"

This time I managed not to step on the mine. Let's see how it goes in this endless mine-field. :-)

Beat this configuration!!!!!

Recently I read a piece about the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) which I thought of sharing with you all. This is related to a previous post about particle physics which I posted on April-2010.

The LHC is a super machine in every sense. It is large, with tunnels of 27 km in circumference, but it is built with the precision of the finest of Swiss watches. A 100 megapixel camera at the junctures of two tunnels captures images of the collisions, taking 40 million pictures a second, each of them one megabyte in size. A processor farm of 50,000 cores processes these images and selects 200-300 each second. The pictures create 10 million gigabyte of data a year (enough to fill three million DVDs), and this data is processed by 1,00,000 computers in 34 countries. Then 10,000 scientists pore through this data. The four experiments at LHC together form the biggest collaboration in the history of science.

Now tell me if anything beats this configuration!

180

The movie 180 will be etched in my memory forever not because of its excellent cinematography or beautiful picturisation and not even for two beautiful damsels one can die for, but simply because this is my first movie with my wife and because she said so :-).

180 is a nice romantic drama. Sidharth who looks unbelievably charming throughout the movie gets proposed by two "out of the world beauties". But because of his medical condition, he runs away from Priya anand who is his wife; and avoids Nithya menon who is his friend. The film title makes sense in two ways to me. One as per the movie and the second is as per me; what happens when the course of one's life changes by an angle of 180 degrees? Though the performances and the feel of the movie are good, it falls short of making a deeper impact.How does Sidharth react to his medical condition is what the movie is all about. But to my surprise I don't understand why a character like Sidharth who is a doctor could react the way he reacts in the movie. Had it been any common person it's understandable, but a doctor?

The movie in the second part simply takes the oft treaded path of trying to invoke pity and there it becomes a bit dull. Anyone who has watched Maniratnam's "Geetanjali" in telugu or "Idhayathai thirudadae" in Tamil could find similarities with this movie. It seems that Jayendra the director couldn't come out of his mentor's shadow completely.

I heard that there's one movie called "Ikiru" by Akira kurosawa. In that the protagonist comes face to face with his mortality and in his remaining days he struggles with bureaucracy & society to get a playground so that the children could play there. I want to watch it someday mainly because it's simple and hits the nail on the head without any paraphernalia. "180" inspite of good performances and visual appeal lacks this simplicity. Otherwise it makes a good viewing with your loved ones :-)

Why marry?

It's not often that you find yourself married to a woman whom you are supposed to love and take care for the rest of your life. It normally happens once in our lifetimes and for some, more than once :-). For the later someone famously quipped that remarriage is the victory of hope over experience :-).

Coming back to my first line, I always questioned the logic behind it. If love is such a great thing, why should it be limited with one person or for that matter why should it be tied with anything at all?

Jokes apart, all married guys must have had the experience of facing an unavoidable question and an inescapable situation called marriage. I am no exception and was given lot of reasons as to why I should marry. I like to list some of them.

You have someone who cooks and takes care of you and the home.
You have someone to talk to.
You have someone to share your responsibilities.
You have someone to satisfy your physical and emotional needs.
You have respect in society. (We all know what look a house owner would give you if you are single trying to rent a house or how police would behave with you when there is just you instead a woman at the rear of your vehicle.) But still I couldn't buy these arguments.

It is undeniable that a woman brings respect and good status to a man in society. In other words she completes him. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpWAlvWNZj0)and the man cares for her and provides security to her. But still the reasons I was given didn't satisfy me and was about to give up when suddenly out of nowhere something struck and I formulated a theory of my own as to why one should marry. This certainly is not the ultimate reason, but for me it made some sense. Give it a read and find out if it makes any sense at all.

Remember the last time when you felt good about possessing something. It could be any household item, an electronic gadget, a car or even a home of your own. When I think why the act of owning something made me feel good I think it's because it satisfies my ego.It makes me feel like I am the master and in-charge of it, something which I can claim to be my own. If that's in great demand, then it pampers my ego because of the knowledge that not many possess that thing. But in time that feeling fades and before you know it one is in search of something else or at-least trying to upgrade the existing one.

Now think of owning a robot which listens to all your commands (only programmed commands) and executes them. It doesn't complain or even ask you to take it out during the evenings either. One may feel ok with this help in his daily chores, but the underlying fact is it's still a robot.

Now think of your family and friends. This is an interesting part because in here, one feels like being owned rather than owning them. You listen to your parents (ideally :-) ), you learn to give because of your siblings, you share almost everything with your friends and these are the things that define you as a person and prepares you for the world. But only in marriage does one feel like he/she owns and at the same time being owned by his/her spouse. You do things for your spouse and you get some things in return from your spouse. It's a two way and that too a dynamic relationship that's constantly evolving. Unlike in fantasies there are no "Happily everafters" in marriage, but only constant and also consistent effort to work on one's marriage. Your imperfections may not be the critical factor in your relationship with your family & friends as they tend to overlook them. But in marriage they are the key. You have to find your way through these imperfections and this makes it challenging and hence interesting. What's life without challenges and marriage is a perfect tool to make it interesting.

In the movie "Bicentennial man" the robot character played by Robin williams proposes to his beloved and she turns him down for the obvious reasons. She says though he does everything for her, she can not marry him because he is too perfect and predictable. Perfection is not a human trait but imperfection is. Predictability results in boredom, whereas unpredictability spices up things in our lives. The situation and the context through which the scene unfolds before us is fantastic. Watch it to understand it better.

NOTE: Watch the below scene in "Shall we dance" where Susan sarandon wonderfully says why one needs marriage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbsBV9v3TRo&feature=player_detailpage

A friend's stomachburn

Tonight one of our friends much to our dislike and contempt is leaving for USA. This being his second time to that country makes the occasion more irritating and inconsolable for the rest of us. As if spending 10 months isn't enough, this time he will be gone for about a year if not more.
What's wrong with this world? Why God is so blind? Why doesn't someone else get that opportunity? preferably me? I never said I won't go! I would never dream of refusing to go and still I am not going.
"USA; every Indian's dream". Indians may not have a dream girl but do have a dream country and that country is USA. People say that cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by England. Similarly USA is the home country of Indians but for some unknown reasons inhabited by Americans. There is even proof that Indians actually lived there before Europeans occupied it. They were called Indians, Red Indians! :-)
However bygones are bygones. As the famous line goes, the empire is about to strike back and India is about to conquer USA within few decades, not by force, not by coercion, not even by economic power but simply by going and settling in that country. Just like USA, which at present claims the piece of land called Alaska as its own though separated from its mainland, similarly India will lay claim on USA and will rename the country as USI. Wait one correction. When it comes to India there is no unity. So it should be CSI (not Crime Scene Investigation) but Chaotic States of India. The wheels are set in motion towards achieving that goal and our friend's departure tonight is going to be the curtain raiser.
I am sure that as soon as he touches the ground, its economy will cease its downward spiral and rocket towards the stars. All its people will disassociate from worldly pleasures and will associate with otherworldly endeavours. People will stop cursing, and will start blessing and more importantly Hollywood will stop churning out meaningless sequels and will bring out original stories.
Amidst all these positives one disconcerting fact is that my friend is going to earn insane amount of money and I am left with nothing to say except "Farewell my friend!" with a big sigh!. :-)

Mission Vellayangiri !!!

What I am about to write consists of all the elements fit to make a block buster of all times. To put it simply if Tom cruise is to star in the 5th installment of his MI franchise it can certainly be named as "MISSION VELLAYANGIRI" (play the theme music in your heads).

It's not often in a man's life, having taken an outrageous decision turns out to be one of his best decisions and this is one among those rarest of rare decisions. We have been planning eons for a trip like this and it took considerable time and good fortune in the form of the co-trekkers to materialise. People say travelling teaches more than a collection of books and that too in a short duration that lasts longer than anything that you could come across. This trip is the perfect example for it.

Vellayangiri is just a one hour drive from Coimbatore. One look at it, I consented to its reputation of Kailash of the south.(It doesn't matter even if I haven't seen the actual Kailash).

A few steps into the trekking and I realised it's not going to be just another difficult endeavour, but an impossible endeavour. All the doubts whether you can complete the trek in time, all the second thoughts to abandon the trip if the going gets tough(I guess subconsciously I wanted to fall sick so that I can return midway) popped in my head. An hour into the trip I began to ask some of the fundamental questions like "why was I born?, what's the purpose of my life?" and the most important of all "Why the heaven did I agree to come here?" They remained unanswered.

There are 7 hills to be trekked and at the end of the second hill with 3 to 4 short breaks in between we settled for our breakfast. We had bread and biscuits for breakfast and resumed our journey. It had been almost two and half hours since we started our journey at 5:30 am and most of it had been under trees and shade. Once we crossed the third mountain it was clear sky and bright Sun greeted us and reminded us of the gravity of the rest of the journey. 4th & 5th peaks by themselves are not draining but after you have crossed first three peaks you start to clamour for your breath. Standing straight becomes impossible partly because of the steepness of the terrain and mainly because your hips and back can't hold your body any longer.
It is at that moment of helplessness you arrive the 6th peak and there you will find a stream forming a small puddle. Drinking that water I would rather say is next to divinity. The location of the puddle and its purpose is nothing less than perfect. We even took a dip in that icy cold water and as soon as I got out believe it or not, pain in my legs vanished. It's amazing to know that you can feel refreshed and rejuvenated within minutes after four and half hours of arduous journey. That gave us the impetus to continue and complete the penultimate peak whose terrain is mainly dominated by descent. But our luck ran out at the foot of the seventh hill. One look at the seventh hill and I couldn't help but revere its beauty and and at the same time feel apprehended at the challenge it posed.

After enduring so much it felt that scaling the seventh peak alone is equivalent to scaling all the previous 6 peaks. It's very steep with no shade with a pathway that has no grass and a bit slippery if I might add. At that moment nothing else mattered. Pain is so much that senses stop working. It's like trying to measure the speed of a sports car with an instrument whose limit is just 60km. The car may be travelling at a speed of 200km/h but the instrument shows only 60km/h. My situation was similar to that.

But amazingly I made it to the top of the mountain. I did overcome the pain which I thought I couldn't bear. I did cross the sea of fear I had, about the condition of my health while climbing. I did get up whenever I slipped though I wanted to take rest. It was a constant battle between stronger me and a weaker me and to my surprise and disbelief stronger me prevailed over weaker me and in the end I was standing in front the three lingams. It's only then I felt like that moment is worth all the efforts.

In a way this journey through 7 peaks personifies the spiritual journey through 7 major chakras from "Mooladhara" to the "Sahasrara". More than just trekking it is the culmination of what one thinks as his optimal physical, mental and spiritual tendencies and then taking a step further. It may sound dramatic or you may even say that I assumed, but I wold still reiterate that it taught me many things.
Life just like this journey has many highs and lows but with a purpose.
Always have good people around you. That makes the journey interesting.
Always have less baggage i.e, minimal or no emotional attachments. This enables to sustain the energy for your journey.
Make hay while the sun shines or in other words make sure to complete major part of your journey during the night and plan to reach the ground in the morning hours. This way you can avoid the unforgiving Sun. :-)


EPILOGUE: In the end this experience is not meant to be known but it's meant to be felt and this is a feeling that surely will stay with you for at-least two days if not for a life time. (For, two days is the minimum duration for which the pain in your thighs lingers :-) ).

You can check out some of the photos in the link mentioned below.
https://picasaweb.google.com/prasad.che/Vellayangiri?authkey=Gv1sRgCKy76t-eu_KhJA#

Those who have missed the trip, just have a look at the unexpected trekker and our inspiration for the journey. :-)

Yudham sei

Why should one have friends? Of all the reasons I could imagine, the best that strikes me is that they will buy you the tickets for a movie on any given weekend. Topping it up with crunchy pop corn and icy cool drinks. What else does one need in life? :-). As a consequence I had a chance to watch "Yudham sei"; the latest flick from the staple of Myshkin.

The movie is a dark take on the sexual abuse and exploitation, the twin shackles today's teenage girls are fettered with. The director adds elements of mystery, drama, and tragedy in this crime investigation narrative and fairly succeeds in holding audience's attention for the major part of the movie. This movie appears to take off where his earlier film "Anjadhey" had left and in my opinion this could easily be called as "Anjadhey-2".

In my opinion Myshkin can be Kollywood's Anurag Kashyap. Anurag who is an acclaimed bollywood filmmaker reminisces one of his experiences with the censor board during the certification of his recent film "The woman in yellow boots" which as you might have guessed is again a dark movie with sexual overtones and wide use of expletives. He says that one of the censor board persons had asked him to get his mind checked for only a disturbed person can make this kind of movie. In the same breath he also says that when the movie was screened in an European country (the name I forgot)one filmmaker had actually asked him why the movie was so subdued and why had he made the film so polished despite the content being so raw.That's how our Myshkin too has treated this film.

If movie is a way to let people know something, then Myshkin surely lets us know that he is angry. Very angry over the way women are treated in our society. How decency and virtue are crushed under the juggernaut of power, corruption and muscle power. This movie though looks like a crime thriller on the outset the director emphasises on the emotional turmoil of the investigator the subject of investigation throughout the movie. All his usual touches like low angle shots, scene establishment through the movement of the feet, low light shots, wide angle shots, scenes sans dialogues etc, all are present. These make him one among the directors whom one can guess by just watching a few scenes in his movie. The performances especially that of the character "Judas", the police inspectors are top notch. In one scene Judas actually looks directly into the camera and justifies that it's not wrong to take law into one's own hands and weed out the scum breeding in this society and it's bound to become a reality if people are pushed to the edge. That's a highlight which reminds me of a similar scene from the classic "Rathakanner" in which M.R.Radha looks directly into the camera and justifies that it's not wrong for a married woman to remarry if the husband turns out to be a pain in the err... neck. Though dialogues are different, both scenes reflect the times and challenges of the society in which they are actually set.

Mainly on the flip side, the climax song at the end of the movie was totally unnecessary. It was so absurd that even the very beautiful and sensuous Neetu chandra bending and gyrating to the song actually made me cringe and at one point I thought of going out and have a fag to let out some steam.

Psychiatrists say that today's abominations of gender mistreatment are as a result of projecting women just as objects of sexual gratification and not as human beings with mind, intellect and bodies just like men. Though this movie shows the consequences of the tumour present in our society, when it comes to projecting women, in one single stroke or should I say in one single song, the director fails miserably. The song is so ridiculous that the guy even address the woman as paramour and the woman along with other group dancers go on with their pelvic thrusts unmindful of how they are addressed.

EPILOGUE: Nice movie depicting pain, suffering and deprivation albeit a bit violent. But a total waste because of the one song. Good attempt by the director but unfortunately he himself makes a mockery of his film and his characters with that one bullshit song.

DHOBHI GHAT

"Once upon a time there lived a king, a farmer, a merchant..." is the manner in which a story would normally begin and it never fails to grab my attention no matter how many times I might have heard the same story till then. The interesting part is that you would still come out of that experience with something new. That's how one feels or atleast that's how I felt after watching "Dhobi ghat".

This is neither a mainstream commercial bollywood potboiler nor a serious art cinema. It provides an alternative for those longing for something different and in my opinion it fairly serves the purpose.

With 95 minutes of running time, it was appropriate to not to have an intermission and this gives a sense of continuity which in my opinion is its USP. The debutant director Kiran rao has shown Mumbai in all its colours which is rare to see in a hindi movie. I guess she is more of a story teller than a movie maker for that's how I felt during the course of the film. I don't know how this film ranks on a scale of 10 on movie watching experience, but scores pretty high when it comes to her prowess of story telling skills.

Except for the character of Yasmin who is the personification of innocence and all that's good in this world, all the other characters have shades of grey. Just as it's almost impossible to come across an out and out good person in real life, the same applies to the character of Yasmin. She too isn't real and yet she is a prominent character in the story. You have to watch this movie to know what I am blabbering.

This movie exudes emotion subtly and in right proportions. The dynamics of human emotions has always been an enigma and it's difficult to answer why one person likes another person. The obsession of Aamir's character for Yasmin and how he undergoes transformation as a person is example of how people think and relate to others.

In terms of screen presence Monica dogra & Prateik have lion's share and hats off to them for their acting, which is nothing less than natural.Kriti Malhotra as a muslim girl named Yasmin and the diction of her lines deserves a special mention. Surprisingly Aamirkhan's performance except for few scenes looks just good which is not what we normally associate with him, "just good". In this movie Prateik's & Monica's & Kriti's importance and performances overshadows Aamir's which never happens in a bollywood movie with any of the top heroes. Poor chap he is even the producer of this movie. Well, the director Kiran rao happens to be his wife. Need I say more?

Jokes apart, if you are open to something different, something good that you want to feel inside watch this movie. Just like a flower which remains shut until one fine day it would have suddenly bloomed, this movie also seems normal until it reaches its climax.

How do you feel when you see a beautiful flower? That's how I felt at the end of this movie.

EPILOGUE: All of you would have listened to the background music of "Mouna raagam" in which Ilayaraja cast a spell. Get prepared for another such spell. I came to know that the music is by a two time oscar winner Gustao and you will agree why he got them in the first place. Well, I agreed.

All the best laid plans

Which is more difficult?
Planning or Executing?
Formulating or Implementing?
Thinking or Doing?
Learning or Performing?
Talking or Working? and on goes the questionnaire.

In my opinion, for any action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Ok. That was Newton's law. Let me try again. In my opinion for any action before it gets materialised something should have been ideated prior to it. Coming back to the initial question of which is more important, is the intellectual part more important or the gross and palpable part? Some would opine and rightly so, as there are two sides to a coin which are equally important so does the subtle and gross elements that are equally important. But the secret lies in the quality and the pace at which one makes the transition from the conception of an idea to its implementation.

Sometimes because the idea lacks the desired punch it falls apart. And sometimes getting absorbed too much in the nitty gritty of the practical aspects also causes the execution part to go haywire. Added to this there is one Murphy's law "If anything can go wrong it will go wrong". So what is one supposed to do amidst this seemingly inextricable maze called life?

We all had faced this dilemma in the past,are facing at present and I have no reason not to believe that it will happen in the future.
The topic in discussion is to have a party among friends. The usual barrage of questions like why, when, where, how and who, follows and we more often that not end up in the same square from where we had actually set forth. Democracy is good until every Tom, Dick and Harry comes up with a opinion of his own. Though one's friends doesn't consist of any of Toms, Dicks and Harrys each one will have his or her own opinion which makes it a challenging task to reconcile all these different opinions and to find a common ground.
However your woes won't end at the arrival of the decision. Only after it actually happens can one truly answer the question, which one is more difficult?
The planning or its execution? :-)

1st Anniversary

It's really amazing how time flies!

It's been exactly a year since I started blogging in the net and you started banging your head on the wall. It's said that all good things come to an end; but not my blogging, for obvious reasons. :-)

But if at all I have learned something by this year long experience, it is this. Though anybody can write not everybody can write. Not because someone lacks proficiency in language but rather lack of inclination to write. It's only when someone starts to write do they realise to their astonishment, how much they want to share their thoughts and feelings with the world. It doesn't matter even if no one in the world gives a damn to what you want to say as is the case. But what is important is the process of giving shape to the thoughts in your head through words. I guess it provides an emotional and intellectual(probably :-)) outlet atleast for the blogger(Not sure about the readers).

So with this spirit, my legacy continues and so is your torture.......

History and its lessons we ignore!

Today the nobel committee awarded this year's peace prize to one Chinese national "Lu Xiabao". This is the first time I am watching such a ceremony and unfortunately it was incomplete because of the absence of the prize winner himself. In other words he was conspicuous by his absence. None of his relatives and friends were present on the occasion. It seems that the Chinese government has put him in jail and imposed a 11 year sentence on him.
Here comes the interesting part. He did only one thing for which he was awarded nobel peace prize on one hand and a 11 year sentence on the other, and that one thing is to raise his voice against the Chinese government on behalf of the weak and downtrodden. One action and two extreme reactions.

In the award ceremony the person who addressed the gathering had rightly criticised China on its unwillingness to realise that peaceful protests and valid dissent is as important as discipline and compliance to the incumbent constitution. Just because a country is an economic and military super power it can not turn a blind eye to the indispensable needs of its citizens and human rights is an important part of it. If imprisoning Lu is not enough, it went ahead and decried the nobel committee's decision to give the prize to Lu and by influencing around 40 nations not to attend the ceremony, China has brought itself upon the ignominy of an immature state not withstanding its economic and military might.

The same kind of mistakes were committed by erstwhile USSR, and now a fading super power called USA. Both, during the course of history were blinded by pride and an insatiable greed to gain control over anything and everything they could lay their hands upon. Only now do they realise that ones stature is not based on GDP or military might but based on the extent of empowerment of its people. Both the nations taught us these lessons and we humans, the most intelligent species should have learned the lesson by now. But no, we don't learn our lessons as is shown by China and by thus doing so, history repeats itself. When a person begins to hate himself the road to degeneration has already begun and the same is true for a nation. When a country tries to suppress the voice of its people, though its economic curve may point northward in the short term, its social curve falls to depths pulling the entire nation down.

Once Abraham lincoln famously said "Anybody can stand adversity. But if you want to test the character give him power". China did struggle a lot and survived the last century to become a major player in this century. But the real test has only started now because it's only now that it has great power. If God has equipped us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out. So all the nations should at-least voice their opinions against this immature stance taken by China and hope that sanity prevails in the end.

Fifth stone

During the past two months a lot of events came and went, most of them without a trace and few of them leaving some memories. Teacher's day, Dussera, Deepawali, Obama's visit, Children's day etc, etc. And then there are other things Mumbai's Adarsh housing scam, CWG scam, Karnataka CMs land acquisition scam and the "raja" of all scams:the 2G scam.
To tell you the truth, I wonder why people are making so much noise for a mere scam. I guess it's because Indian media and public have forgotten the fifth and most influential corner stone (Oops! it's the central stone) of our democracy. Once people remind themselves of this undeniable fact and face it courageously all this brouhaha will continue forever. All the four cornerstones, the parliament, the constitution, the judiciary and the fourth estate, are taught in our schools, colleges and in some way or another we all would have come across few incidents that indicate their presence. But nothing is taught about this fifth one. Nowhere can you find it being mentioned in any of our books, institutions and it doesn't have any physical record whatsoever. But we all feel it. Just because we can not see it, it doesn't mean it isn't there. In fact it is as much a part of us that it's the building block of our DNA. It is "the message" that's transmitted by the billions of neurons in our brains.It's omniscient, ubiquitous and every word in the dictionary that represents infinity.

Wise men mention that soul is "சதயஸ்யா சதயம்" i.e, "the truth of the truths". But I am sure they said this before they actually became wise. They left out this fundamental entity which at least in Indians' case is "the truth" and that thing is "CORRUPTION".

It is an institution by itself and it's the central stone of our democracy which you would have figured it by now, is taller than the rest of the four corner stones which makes our democracy rest solely on this single most important pillar. Like in any institution there are rules and regulations for this institution too. They are

First and foremost is 1.when it comes to me there are no rules and regulations.
2. Rules are not meant to be followed but to be stretched and if not feasible to be broken.

3. Nepotism is a must.
4. There are no copyrights, because copying is our right.
5. There is no such a thing as bad or unethical or immoral. The things that matter are shamelessness, insensitivity, arrogance and how fervently you follow them.

I can go on and on but for beginners I guess, these are enough.

ROBOT

The long wait is over. It's time for thalaivar padam "Endhiran". Before I proceed any further let me make myself clear that this is definitely not a review of this movie and I'll tell you why.
In my opinion a review of any work of art like a cinema, by an individual is meant to explore good aspects and not so good aspects of that work. Though it's subject to that person's own interpretation, people who want to see that particular work of art can go through these reviews to have an idea of what's actually in store for them or more specifically whether it's worth the effort or not.

Having said this, it's not applicable to our thalaivar's padam. Reviews of his movies are irrelevant and can be dispensed with. It's like a big festival which comes once in two or three years and everybody wants to participate in it. They can not afford to be left behind without their share of fun and frolic. No matter where you are, what you do but when his movie releases you have to go and watch it, period. It's like devotees going to temples for no specific reason. Rajni's fans are devotees of a different kind. It doesn't matter who has directed the movie, whoever else has acted in the movie, and even if there isn't any story at all, it's just enough for them to have a glimpse at their movie idol on the big screen. Such is his charisma and magnetism towards which like everyone else I am also drawn. His style of acting, his style of dancing, his style of dialogue delivery and to top it all his style alone can make the fans go in a frenzy.

It's an enigma that when today's young, fair and handsome actors well trained in dance and sporting six pack bodies struggle to draw crowds, this sexagenarian actor has consistently drawn crowds of all classes, in all centres. Unlike popular belief that he is just a commercial star, if we go through his filmography one will surely be impressed with his work earlier in his career. Our current crop of actors would do well to emulate it. So that's the review of the move "ENDHIRAN". My sincere belief is that you would be going through this review having watched it already. If not I hope you would be leaving this midway to watch it.

For those who have already watched the movie and still going through this review, one wonderful insight.

When the entire country was tense awaiting the verdict of ayodhya, people of almost all other states were weary of any untoward incidents but people of Tamilnadu in my opinion weren't so concerned about it. The release of thalaivar padam is far more gripping, exciting and enticing than the fate of a temple for a poor chap known as Ram!

Friendship day!

Language is a beautiful revelation that man has experienced in his existence and still I find it woefully inadequate to express something as ------- as "friendship" (no adjective can be found to compare it with). It's said that a human being can attain unprecedented heights or fall to unimaginable depths when he is emotionally charged. Friendship is one such emotion that belongs to the former. In it there are no negatives just positives. No pressure, just relaxation. No jealousy, just joy. No betrayal just unflinching support. No feeling of being ignored but always making us feel that we are important.

It's said that one can tell about a person by the kind of friends he or she has. It emphasizes the influence of friends on an individual. The uniqueness of it is it's a dynamic relationship in which a person influences as well as gets influenced simultaneously and continuously. Such is its presence that there can be someone without a family, without a spouse, without anything but not without a friend. People say that love transcends everything but it is through friendship that it finds perfect expression. Without friendship it is impossible for people to grasp love. That's why we hear that parents should treat their children like friends beyond a certain age. Even in a marriage though husband and wife are the formal names given for the sake of recognition in a society, actually during the ceremony the couple owe to each other to remain a friend for the rest of their lives. Friendship is something which is self sustaining. It needs nothing special for its existence, but everything else needs friendship for their survival.


Considering the tectonic drifts in today's sociological setup where families becoming nuclear and relatives distant and relationships irrelevant, friends have come to fill up that void. In earlier days one's primary source of support had been family and relatives but nowadays it's friends and unlike relatives friends come with no strings attached.

In the end if one's present state is a sum total of all his successes and failures, pluses and minuses, good and bad then in my opinion one's personality is the sum total of his family and his friends. In my opinion there is not such thing as love failure. Only lack of friendliness. So let's try to maintain good friendship with our near and dear ones, love automatically follows!!!!

INCEPTION

When someone begins to read an exciting fast paced story, he or she will find it almost impossible to put the book down unless and until the book is completely read. Quality of the prose, the vocabulary, though enhances the experience are secondary when compared to the style of the story telling and the set up in which the story unfolds. Inception is one such movie where after watching, one feels like having taken a wild ride in a bobsleigh. Breathtaking pace, sharp twists and turns, intersecting subplots all combine to unveil a chaotic yet admirable movie.

Those who have watched the movie "Matrix", will certainly find similarities as far as the plot is concerned and that is the vacillation of human mind between conscious and the subconscious. But then the similarity ends there. Chris nolan the director picks up the story from that point and gives wings to his imagination and they are no ordinary wings, for the story did soar very high or rather very deep :-).

Imagine yourself playing against a master in a game of chess. The opponent is so ahead in terms of the moves that he would have actually check mated you even before you made the first move for he would have planned all his moves ahead against yours. You may think that you are playing well and giving him a tough fight, but in reality you have actually become a pawn in his hands and will be playing just like the way he wants you to play, to make the moves he wants you to make, only to find in the end that you have been checkmated. Though in retrospect you may think that you had all the possibilities in the world to have played differently, you realise that at that specific moment all your intelligence, logic was somehow shut itself down. That's the feeling one would get after he or she had watched this movie.

The director, a master of non linear story telling takes a leaf out of Hitchcock's book to sedate the audience's sense of logic. No time to ponder,no time to pause and proffers unfairly miniscule time to even think before the next scene grips your mind. After a point of time the images on the screen find no relevance simply because they would have transcended the screen and incepted your brain. The movie virtually starts rolling inside your brain and it's like watching a movie from within.

Watch this movie simply for the outrageously intriguing plot. The concept of exploring the different layers of consciousness of human mind is in itself enough to make us wonder. The special effects the performance of all the actors and top of it all: the background music perk up the overall experience.
I have seen people coming out after watching a movie. Mostly they would be talking about a few scenes and simply passing judgement about the movie. But in this case everybody were discussing about the movie emphasising that more than the entertainment, this movie has got cerebral appeal.

VERDICT: INCEPTION- A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.