Good Trailers I came across..

I leave the stories for the trailers to tell...:)

Pandorum

Capitalism

Law Abiding Citizen

The Men Who Stare at Goats

En Thaai Pirandha Desam

I have known this song for a long time and its one of the songs close to my heart. When I listened to this now, I can relate this to the lost cause. I have just given the verses which I felt were directly related to the lost cause. The movie is Siraichalai (Kalapaani in Hindi) and music by Ilayaraja. The songs starts as 'Idhu Thaai Pirandha Desam...'

வீரனை குண்டுகள் துளைக்காது
வீரத்தை சரித்திரம் புதைக்காது

நாட்டை நினைக்கும் நெஞ்சங்கள்
வாடகை மூச்சில் வாழாது

இறந்த உயிர்களோ கணக்கில்லை
இருமி சாவதில் சிறப்பில்லை

இன்னும் என்னடா விளையாட்டு
எதிரி நரம்பிலே கொடி ஏத்து!

நிலத்தடியில் புதைந்திருக்கும்
பிணங்களுக்கும் மனம் துடிக்கும்

தாயோ பத்தே மாசம் தான்
அதிகம் சுமந்தது தேசம் தான்

உயிரும் உடலும் யார் தந்தார்?
உணர்ந்து பார்த்தால் தேசம் தான்

இந்த புழுதி தான் உடல் ஆச்சு
இந்த காற்று தான் உயிர் மூச்சு

இன்று இரண்டுமே பறி போச்சு
இன்னும் என்னடா வெறும் பேச்சு?

Religious Rants

If you are an atheist, there is just one religion for you. If you are a theist, then God save you! Half the problems in today's world are either through religion or religious men.

I am a theist. I am not religious.

I do not want to get into whether Religions came through God(s). All I make out is that there were some very clever men behind the framework of each religion. Generation after generation, these men moulded the framework. They thought of all the problems in society at that point of time and tried to address them in the framework. They also thought of all the natural disasters and calamities they did not understand then and again fit them in the framework. Add to it, things they did not like happening in the society and lo! they are the most important part of the framework.

The end products, as we see today, is the work of so many people. But what we fail to understand, across religions, is that they were still human made. Tell me one product made by humans which is infallible and irrefutable?

The question is not whether I need to follow a religion. The question to ask is whether I, as a human, need to follow another human blindly? If some human, who just by living a few thousand years before me has the advantage of giving a path to God, why can't I find my own new path to reach my God? What makes someone who lived before special and me ordinary? Nothing!

So, are religions bad? No. Are there good things in religious? Yes. But can they be better? Certainly!

I don't care about people who practice their weirdest path as long as they do not harm others.

More importantly, my heart bleeds for a few people caught in some religion who cannot break the shackles. They are those who hate some customs in their religions but can never come out or talk about it. What wrong did they do? Can't they have their freedom?

God made Man. Man made religion. What is religion fast making? End of Earth.

Am back..

whewww...it took three weeks to get back to blogging. Am still caught in my day to day things. Guess, back here in India, you have more things to do, more friends to catch up with, etc. Time flies....:)

Ramya is doing fine. Still in Tanjore. Am busy hunting a home in Bangalore. I suddenly realize that I have more friends in office in Bangalore than Chennai. :)

Will start writing very soon...

:)

Back to India

will be in by 25th......out of internet for 2 weeks....:)

my mobile num will be +91-9941684251

Muncie's Thiruvalluvar

You read the title right...thats how I call him. And boy...look at his beard....how else can I call him?

But it was not just the beard that is fascinating about Stan......He owns the Heorots Bar....He owns two wolves as pets....He has a beer named after him and with his figure on its label...(see inset)....the beer is called ard ri...

It was a pleasure to meet him.

Tamil Street Dance aka Kuthu dance

Here's a You Tube Playlist of Tamil Street Dance...This dance is done at any place and every place...whether its a marriage or a death.....we just love this dance...:))...I will try to give a few words on the situation in each song...so that you can appreciate better...i have written it down in the order they come up in the playlist...

Saro's Kuthu Playlist

1) Anjale song

This song is where the guy is all drunk and sings about his lost love (the girl dies earlier in an accident)......the dance is casual....Chennai is captured nice in night....

2) Padichu Pathen song
This song is where friends go and dance about in one of their friend's sister marriage.....the dance is full of energy and life....look out for the dance bit at 2:02...rocks!

3) Kathale Kanale song

This is like a bar song with an amazing choreography......the rhythm is simple and catchy.....the moves are good!...the girl dancer has a real charm!....

4) Kannadasan song

I call this Brian's song....he liked it when I played it on my car audio....:)....again, a bar song with a simple rhythm...the dance movements are slow (as it is all drunkards!)....there is one line which when translated goes like this "Drinking is like snake's poison...but when u do it with all others, it becomes socialism'....now, hows that?...:)

5) Nakka Mukka song

This was so popular among our youth last year.....it was like their anthem.....nice beat.....and amazing dance!.

:))

Aadi 28

Here's a collage of Aadi 28.

Now, the name will sound different to non-tamilians. The name means 28th day of the tamil month of 'Aadi'. Usually comes around 13 or 14 August.

Its an all exclusive family festival in our village Mettupatti in Trichy. Its been happening for 3-4 generations before us. All our family members come together and feast! I missed it this time though Ramya went and had fun.

As Sivaji says in Devar Magan, "5000 varusham munaadi vetri vel, veera vel'nu vel kambu veecharuvanu thookitu suthuna kaatu payyaga dhaan naanga" (we are still the same in spirit like our ancestor nomads who went about with spears and sickles 5000 years before)..

:))

Chicken Curry and Chicken Biriyani Recipes

Here are my own recipes on Chicken Curry and Biriyani. ...:)

Chicken Curry Recipe

Chicken Biriyani Recipe

And I fully understand that cooking is all about improvisations. So, if you find something that you can tweak and make better, do let me know.

:))

Cookout at Tim's place

Keeping up a promise to Tim and Karen, I went down there this Saturday and cooked two South Indian dishes. Chicken Curry and Chicken Biriyani. It was such a fun filled and satisfying experience. I learnt a lot from Karen on parenting and keeping the family happy and fit.

Both the dishes turned out well and left the Scofield family hot while eating!...:)

District 9

Aliens.

This is as real as it gets.

No second thoughts.

Watch the movie wherever you are.

Not recommended for girls and kids.

50 years to the legend Kamal!

Today (Aug 12th), Kamal completes 50 years of on-screen acting. Below was my take on Dasavatharam movie when it released in 2008. To a person who has been a trend setter always, here's my salute:

Off late, Kamal is always racing against himself. None seem to be up there racing with him. When a man has seen so much in his field, I wonder how is thought process will be. Will he be thinking cinema even in his dreams? Maybe. But as my better half quipped "When he can 'act' in ten different ways, why does he don ten different make ups?". I had no answer to that question. But this question very well could be the answer to how Dasavatharam fares (how is when you watch the movie). Not that the man himself would worry about. The box office hype and marketing strategies (something he missed out for Aalavandhan) will certainly carry the film across.

But as a fan, what do I get?

Kamal in all his brilliance. Period.

The body language and dialogue delivery of all the ten roles will blow you out. The tremendous effort put in for each role are evidently seen and will be appreciated. There is subtle humour around every corner and the constant poking of Kamal's atheist-in-him is beautifully done (aka Anbe Sivam's character). The graphics are good. Background score is done well.

Maybe they did this film in a hurry but some of the make ups could have been done better. They seem way out of place and artificial. The story is loosely based on Chaos theory and is woven beautifully to accomodate the Tsunami in a way we would not have imagined. But some of the characters that Kamal plays seem thrusted upon the story. Its almost like 'heyyy...i am done with 8 characters.....now, where do i fit the 9th one...'.

All said and done, its worth a watch once to see the greatest actor of our times to put himself in unfamiliar grounds once more and come out with his glory intact (albeit with a few scars).

Hairy Tales!

See Chris Rock (a stand up comedian in US) get to Chennai in quest of ....he he he..

(its a Youtube Video link)

http://tinyurl.com/mlx9jm

Now, that's a hair raising tale!...:))

At least Chennai gets its due ...:)

Jagermeister

Am from the school of thought..sorry...'bar' of thought that Tequila is the drink for instant kick! Until, I tried Jagermeister (pronounced 'YAY-gur-MAIST-ur').

Its a shot drink from Germany tasting like a cough syrup (ughh!). One shot in a bar made all the girls/ladies around me look so beautiful! he he he.....

So, ...:)

Wooo...

Now, in Freak Teaky Friday, there was a person walking around with a German Shepherd (albeit a close cropped one with very less hair and a gray/black one at that). It was very obedient and playing with onlookers. When the band stopped playing, I was watching it play around and suddenly noticed that something was not right.

It's eyes.

They were different.

Mel looked at me gaping and said "That's not a dog....it's a wolf'.

That moment, I dropped all ideas of going near it.

Freaky Tiki Friday

Last Friday, on an invite, went down to downtown for Freak Tiki Friday. Local bands play to a crowd in front of the bars. The bars alternately sponsor this event to attract crowds and hence its free to the people. I call this the 'Follow the Money' business model. Nothing is free in this world. You just got to follow the money.

Anyways, Mike and Mel had invited me over and I got introduced to a couple of their friends. Mel was my boss' sis. After a couple of beers, I found that there was no college crowd around. One of the persons at my table was a former bartender and she gave an interesting insight. College kids hit the bars around their campus only. There, everything comes cheaper than anywhere outside. Hmm..

The band was good and I personally met the lady singing. Mike had actually been a former drummer and had helped compose some of the songs the band was playing. After that, we hit another late night bar; another band. It was like 12 midnight when I left.

MIT Moments - 1

Today's conf call with my college friends triggered something else in me. I was laughing aloud when I was narrating it to Ramya. Here it is:

It was the first year, I think. We were in NSS camp somewhere near Chengalpattu (behind those small hills that neatly line up along GST). Murali, Pyma, Dhana and me used to stick around those days. Mornings will pass with doing some activities in the village and the evenings will go with some fun games and stuff. We were like 80 people and divided into groups. Each group took turns in staying back at the camp and helping with cooking and serving food.

Now, there was a girl that I used to 'sight' those days. She was in Pyma's group (I think). So, when it was their turn to serve food, it was all arranged that Pyma will make her take the exact food that Murali or I wanted or atleast note what she has. So, she was all the time at our end serving something or the other. She suddenly got wind of it and went the other side. As you know, in a South Indian meal, you eat curd/buttermilk rice after rasam rice. So, we were like in the curd rice and she was having the rasam bucket with her. Thats when I became extra bold and called 'Rasam, please'. She came with a frown on and asked 'heyy...think you are already having curd rice'. I still don't know how I did that. But I simply pointed to Murali and said 'he likes rasam in his curd rice, you know. So, if you can...'. She just poured the rasam hastily and left in a huff.

:)

Offbeat movies 2 - Apocalypse Now

At the end of this, some people might say that am talking blasphemy here. But I will stick to it neverthless. I consider Apolcalypse Now to be the greatest movie made than Godfather. Yeah..you heard it right.

Francis Ford Coppola made this movie (as he did Godfather) in 1979 (the year I was born!). Its about a US captain going in search of a colonel in the Vietnam war. His mission is to get into Cambodia up the Nung river and get to him. The boat crew is as bizzare as the captain and the happenings along the way (in the height of Vietnam war) and their journey to find the colonel makes up the movie.

Its a fairly long movie. A very intense and depressing one. The real picture of war opens up before you. The landscape is amazing and the camera work/direction is astounding. To think that this movie was made in 1979 beats me! I would recommend this movie to all who enjoy war movies. Not for people who get easily depressed or upset. If you can, try to catch the redux version of the movie (made in 1991) which adds extra scenes (and hence extra time) and gives an altogether more intense view. To see this movie, I would suggest that you free a day in advance; get the DVD and watch it in the morning itself. Plan some outdoor activity in the evening with friends. This will give you enough time to get over it by night. I watched it some night and ended up depressed the next day!

Some moments will just take you away. As you get deeper and deeper into the movie, you will agree more and more on how the crew feels and what the captain undergoes. By the end, Marlon Brando's appearance will freak you out and you would just wish you were away somewhere else!

As I said, I consider this the greatest work of Francis Ford Coppola. I met a Vietnam war veteran in US and asked him whether he has seen this movie. He said he sat for 10 min in this movie and walked out.

As the movie begins and ends, The horror...The horror..

Humour at office - 1

Was talking with my boss today and he said 'Saro, do you know the only word which will fit in almost every grammatical position in a sentence? Like a verb, noun, adjective, adverb, etc....'

I did not.

f**k!

:)

Ughh...

Am a guy who totally gets into all psycho movies with glee (along with panki and biku). Anything crazy works with us. But man....did I hit the limit yesterday? Saw a movie with one of my favorites Naomi Watts (ohhh...i love her!). And boy.. was I sick!

There was nothing remotely pleasant about the movie where a family (husband, wife and child) are taken hostage by two teenagers (within the first 10 min). The whole movie was about how each one is killed in their own sweet time.

And the sick part was when the lady takes a gun and shoots one of them down. The other teenager searches for the TV remote. And while I was wondering why the hell should he be searching for the tv remote, the director comes up with a blinder! The guy presses the rewind button and the whole movie rolls back to the point when the wife shoots. When it replays, the guy pulls away the gun from her just before she shoots! sigh....

I wish the director dies in the exact same way in real life.