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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

In Bruges




I spotted this movie while randomly flipping through msn.uk and instantly liked the premise.
The article quoted it bore similarities to Harold Pinter's Dumb Waiter.
I was curious and the next time I stopped by Velachery Videos, I picked up the DVD, films like these will never release in India.
A dark comedy, with such wonderful dialogues last seen perhaps in Pulp Fiction and you finally realise that Colin Farrel is Irish!
The three leads are super in their roles, but it has to be Ralph Fiennes as the foul mouthed Harry who comes out on top.
There's a smart little scene in the deleted scenes section of the DVD, one in which Harry is traveling by train and a co-passengers tries to initiate a conversation with him.
Lol! And the nod to Nicholas Roeg is definitely there
As for the similarities with Dumb Waiter, yes, but just the key plot, I would say it takes heavy inspiration from another chilling film, Nicholas Roeg's Don't look now, more than Pinter's play. And that's saying enough about the film without giving out spoilers.
A must watch and yes, shot beautifully, in fcuking Bruges :)
P.S: The academy actually noticed this, the blind idiots finally did, and gave it a nomination for best (adapted?) screenplay. But seriously I'd have been all teary eyed if either of it's leads had secured an acting nom.

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Posted by Sat at 11:18 AM

59 comments

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

For the directionally challenged



The recently released movie, Naan Kadavul, a majorly hyped project, allegedly dealing in isolated and bold themes, brought in many curious viewers. I am surely not one among them. Honestly, I like dark cinema, but not depressing cinema. And that's why I have consciously stayed away from Requiem for a dream, no matter how groun breaking it is supposed to be. But again, it's hard to take Naan Kadavul that seriously too, much because of it's phony filmmaking. It's more like a sham of a film really, that tries too hard to be different that the director keeps going back to his own stereotypes time and again throughout the movie.
It could have been something, but Bala is an amateur and a wannabe and in his hands, what could have been a powerful film goes completely flat largely due to lack of direction. The movie fails to stick to one thing, and tries to cram in one shocking 'reality' after another that it ends up being quite a bitter and hasty concoction.
While it provides a promising start featuring a naïve father and daughter roaming Kasi in search of a long lost son who has in fact turned into an Agori, you know you are in for nothing different from the run of the mill masala, only a bit disguised, when the camera pans and zooms in on the man doing seershasan with a swelling theme to back it. Okay.
And sooner than later, the poor father, daughter and thankfully and annoying mother are shunned and enter a group of crippled and twisted beggars. At this point, you are left wondering, what’s the point…but not so soon! The film takes a complete turn towards the begging Mafia and then soon abandons it to lurk a little bit into human trafficking. Again it goes back midway to the Agori, lest we should forget him in the middle of all this rigmarole, and then finishes with a highly spiritual message of Karma and Mukti. What the? Like a I said before the director is in no urge to stick to one plot element or even a central character, really, the blind girl has more to do that the phony kite-high Sadhu. And he wants to shock you so much that he keeps trying to invent more depressing and gruesome plot points one after another that he forgets what he started out to do in the first place.

As for the acting chops, if someone out there still thinks huffing, puffing and grumpily mouthing hoarse words equals intensity, they be damned, after Vikram, Arya takes this hamming to a repelling new level. The blind girl is plain okay, with a character that makes the performance handicapped as the actress herself is quite adequate, just that the character is poorly fleshed out, being the weakest and most hapless of the lot. The supporting cast of beggars, apart from their physical disabilities are not entirely new to us, we have seen these before. The only freshness lies in the main antagonist, the tall, lean and mean bad guy with a face that would make you think, this guy looks evil, but then not seriously threatening, but he turns out to be much more than that.
As for the director returning to his stereotypes, the scene in which the blind girl coaxes the agori to go back to his family, irksome, straight out of Nanda where Laila confronts Surya about finding him in the mortuary. The irrelevant and out of place song and dance sequence in the police station, the Simran outing in Pithamagan. And the fact that Arya, much like Vikram in ugghhh inducing Pithamagan, claims he is god, an avatar of Shiva. yeah right.
So is this one any good. Nope, movies like these come along every now and then disguised under layers of phony subjects, and are strictly made for awards only. For a jury much like that of the academy awards really, just check a few boxes of melodrama, weirdness, handicapped and they’ll give you the award

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Posted by Sat at 11:57 AM

3 comments

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Top 10 movies that made you laugh


There were so many top 10, 20 30 lists by new year time, I thought of composing such lists for Tamil movies too. Normally turn to the imdb top 250 for a pick of a classic for a nice evening, but then, there hardly were any such rankings for Tamil movies. The only critics that were worth mentioning used to be in Vikatan and most of them should be dead or retired by now, making the magazine just as worthless...So here goes nothing, and if you choose to disagree we always have the comment section!


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by sathya_t


1. Michael Madana Kamarajan - True, from the moment Kameshawaran appears on screen, it explodes, he's absolute dynamite.

And the climax itself, no matter how illogical, ridiculous or crazy the setting, was cherry on the cake, one of the best in Tamil Cinema, and this was long before a certain copy cat called Priyadarshan assembled all his cast for a run-amok climax for ALL his films!
Kamal and Crazy Mohan kicked ass and the Thiruttu Paati was pure rock star material.The 2 henchmen, while are wrong men for their job, keep you in splits'
Small funny bits, that you might miss the first time, but notice after repeated viewing, liek the one where Kushboo is drenched following the brake failure during their drive to Bangalore and Kamal says'Aiyya Nanjuteengala' which is quickly 'corrected to 'Aiyyo nanjuteengala'
Priceless! I watched this movie a few years back with a marathi friend of mine, who couldn't speak or understand a word of tamil, at the Kamal-Khushboo duet before climax, she was rolling with laughter.



2. Aan Paavam - It would be a crime to leave this one out. A personal favourite, this movie has still not been topped for the effortless way in which it made you laugh.

Paandiyarajan was never half as good again. V.K.Ramasamy was pure genius and Janakaraj made you laugh with merely close ups of his frustrated face.
And the dialogue so fast and witty. When Pandiarajan complains to his father V.K.Ramasamy for not getting him married, he states that one day he will marry his granny (an adorable Kunnakudi Karupaayee). At which VKR admonishes him, to which he retorts with a 'Nee mattum en ammava kalyanam pannikalaam, naa un ammava kalyanam pannika koodathu'
Yeah, it's that crazy!



3. It's a close call between which of the two should feature on this list, Saroja or Chennai 28, the ending of the latter positively lands the ball in Chennai 28's court. During the last cricket world cup, a brilliant Nike commercial was aired, glorifying the crude and ballsy gully cricket. It was an instant hit with a soundtrack so infectious it had you humming it though you didn't get a darn word of it! Sadly it was taken off air following India's early exit. Perhaps gully cricket is one such thing that rubs on it's energy to anything that brushes it, Chennai 28 is a cult film that would define this generation, just like Agni Nakshatram or Kathalikka Neram Illai did. The bet match on the beach with the school kids has you in splits and the film has one of the best endings ever!



4. The 2 heroes were pretty much sidelined, Balayya and Nagesh truly rocked and stole the show. Kathalikka Neramillai, like it's predecessor in this list is a favourite for the older generation. Shot mostly at the Aaliyar dam, the movie has awesome pieces which will make you laugh out loud. Be it the famous story telling sequence between Nagesh and Balayya or the scene where Nagesh teaches Sachu to act. Sure they didn't have time to fall in love, they were busy laughing their heads off!



5. 23-am Pulikesi - Boy, was it good to hear good old tamil again. Hell, it was great! Yeah it came with a contemporary feel, but who cares when it is this good.

Hurling the Choicest of abuses at his sub-ordinates, the weakling King has you rolling on the aisles.
And he is well supported by his 'manguni amaichar'. Just typing about this movie has me in splits!
The second half dulls a bit with the other Vadivel, but the loony king keeps coming back to keep things going.
It has a number of funny scenes, the pulavar paalapatra onaandi reciting his poem to the irked King, the kollan forgetting to weld the swords, the king pleading to escape from the cellar. But the best has to be the part when an enemy comes knocking on his doors for war.
'Suthi vilayadivatharku ithu tharunam alla' rotfl!



6. Madras to Pondicherry - Long before the hollywood buddy films, long before on the road comedies like Dumb and the Dumber, this mad caper is a timeless classic.
With a crazy conductor and driver (Nagesh and Karunanidhi) and passengers loonier than them, it's an absolute delight. Worth a repeat, the Baggoda Kadar sequence.
It was so good that years later Mahmood copied it bit by bit, the only thing good about that movie, Amitabh singing 'Dekha na hai re socha na'



7. Bale Pandiya - Screwball comedy. 3 Sivaji Ganesans, 2 M.R.Radhas. Nothing can go wrong. Boy, they sure don't make it as good as those oldies now.
A plot that could have driven you bonkers with the identity swapping thing, but it was deftly handled. Highlights for this one, M.R.Radha combing his hair,it's lifted yeah and though all logic is tossed out of window, it's a must watch just to see the badass Radha.


And of course the way he goes beserk in the 'Neeye unakku endrum nigar aanavan' song.



8.Panchathanthiram - Another Kamal and Crazy gem, packed with so many witty dialogues that if you are busy laughing for one joke, you'd probably miss the next. And Ramya, her cool self, honestly padayappa was too far fetched, but this was pure fun!
The movie has more than one of it's moments; the 'munnadi-pinnadi' with the 5some with Nagesh in the car, Kamal artfully weaving a story around Ramya in Sriman's party. 'Enna solrathune therila...(his friends panic)....Illa ethathu solliruven', But my personal favourite is the one where the otherwise teary eyed tragedy queen and dull Devayani does a superb turn as a suicidal dumped girl friend.



9. Rajini, cast as a pervert. Only KB could have done something so ballsy when Rajini had already become 'the super star'. And it's a pity Rajini hasn't played a character with grey shades in a long time now because being bad comes so naturally to him! And this is perhaps his best comic role, even better than thillu mullu, he plays an old incorridgible cassanova with no moral values what so ever, completely dominating his devoted wife. And the kind of rapport he shares with Goundamani is terrific. You almost forgot there were others too in this movie including another Rajini. The old one was such a rock star!



10. Kanni raasi -In spite of a tragic ending, this has to be mentioned just because I can't leave Goundamani from this list. He is kick ass as the quick witted sarcastic guy who reluctantly agrees for his brother in law's stay in his house.
But personally I would pick the All-in-all Alagu Raaja act, but Vaithegi Kaathu irunthaal was to heavy to feature in this list.
But the petromax light and the lunch scene in Kanni Raasi in which Goundamani scrambles his brother in law's plate and finds half a dozen eggs buried in rice and then franctically does the same to the rice in his plate, stuff of legends.



I had to leave out;

Ethir Neechal, the iconic pattu maami, Sowcar Janaki rocked in a role that later became cliched in Tamil cinema, but this is the best talkative, good humoured pakkathaathu maami we have ever seen.


Thillu Mullu, Sure it wasn't original, the movie was a remake of the hillarious Golmal. But this was fun to watch nevertheless.

Rajini is at ease with comedy, and the whole rendevouz with his mooch was just too good not to be there in this list, but had to make way for better fare.


And Sowcar again, the socialite passing off for Rajini's mother, this woman had top class timing for comedy yet she was cast majorly in tearjerkers


Inru Poi Naalai Vaa - Three guys, one girl, a potpourri family. It's a potent mix and is magic! The tactics and the extent to which the guys go to woo the girl are rip roaring. You think of this movie you can't help remembering 'Ek Gaun mein ek kisaan raghu thaatha' which became synonymous with the Tamil speaking population's tussle at trying to speak Hindi!


Sathi Leelavathi - Watch it for 2 things. Kamal Hasan. Kovai Sarala. Peroid.
This unlikely pair rocks the coimmbatore accent and the movie well out of Visu-ish territory and uses the one liners so effectively, the way only Kongu Tamil can.
It's perhaps the one movie to have fully banked on the 'Coimbatore Kusumbu'


Manal Kayiru - You can't like Visu's all-knowing shmuck act all the time. But you won't complain in this one. The rest of the cast is so good, you can sit through it.

Manorama, Kishmu, S.Ve Sekhar and the guy playing the heroine's brother make this otherwise preachy film far beyond worth watching.

The middle class appeal, kittumani's 8 conditions, Kishmu's slightly 'sarka-hua' but crazy about his wife act. and it's a delight to watch S.Ve Sekhar's face everytime he discovers another one of his conditions crumble
The scene in which he finds out his wife is a plus 2 drop out, awesome!


Meendum Kokila; Long before Kopurangal saivathillai and sathi leelavathi, this one has an adorable Sridevi draped in madisar. Though it is laced with drama, this movie never actually gets too serious thanks to the lead pair's comic timing


Shimla Special, laugh riot.

This list forces one to include only full length comic films, which leaves out a lot of gems,
Thangavelu in Arivaali, teaching his wife how to make pooris,
Goundamani-Senthil in Karakattakaran (dreadful movie, brilliant comedy),
Surli Rajan's miser act, Manorama and Balayya's tracks in Thillana Mohanambal,
a brilliant Nagesh as tharumi in thiruvilayadal (this could be the single funniest sequence in Tamil Cinema),
A thumping rummaging Savitri in Mayabajaar,
The karuvaadu interlude in Singaravelan, Sathyaraj Goundamni comedies in numerous films in late 80-s and early 90s,
NSK's numerous movies left out simply because I can't recollect them including one in which the master's turban is set on fire because he angrily dismisses the servant telling him to put the burning paper on his head (en thalaila podu!),
Memory is a cruel thing and it might have failed me again
so if you think I might have missed out some gems which ought to have been there...hit back!

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Posted by Sat at 1:38 PM

15 comments

Monday, November 10, 2008

Never Shaken, Never Stirred


If bond was back to basics in Casino Royale, he hits the ground; rolling in dirt in Quantum of Solace.
Craig looks dirty for most of the parts, or is out there in rugged terrain
I hugely anticipated this movie but was sort of let down because while this proved to be a good action movie, is not 'Bond' enough
Yes, the silhouettes of shapely women in the title cards make a comeback in this one, and an elaborate breakdown of Bond's martini but save that, this guy could have been anyone.
No one liners, not enough wit, no gadgets (thankfully, I thought they took it too far with the later Brosnan flicks making the whole franchise campy!) and bond is not his smooth self save on a few delightful occasions. This bond hardly cracks a smile and is one angry guy whose path you don't dare cross

The opening few minutes of the movie are filmed fantastically and look racy to set the tempo for what is to follow.
But halfway through the movie, the director takes far too long setting the stage and the film starts to drag a wee bit. Proof of it, well my hubby dear was slumped in his seat, asleep. I had to shake him awake, 'For God’s sake, this is a bond film!'....
That is until the 'Goldfinger' (spoiler: this scene has now been named 'Oilfinger') moment which truly shocks and get things back on track
The action is plenty but a few of those scenes are filmed in such a way you don't know what's going on. Especially an aerial chase, you realise might have been fantastic after it is over, because you couldn't make out anything while the scene was unfolding!

Craig is angered, more reckless than ever and charms, may be for just a microsecond, when he seduces Fields. Otherwise it's kick, punch, shoot and swerve all through. I expected more after seeing what he could do in Casino Royale. Overall he makes a great Bond nevertheless, meaner than we have seen him of late. I hope they bring back a bit of that charm though, it didn't have to totally go, coz it's hard to like Bond when he's this angry and messed up!

Amongst those who surround Bond, the bond girl looks almost as rugged as Bond himself, and as usual is stunning. She bears a remarkable resemblance to Sophie Marceau. While she does quite decently well on her own, her back story is bit of a turn off and looks a tad bit out of place for a Bond movie. But then Bond is in revenge mode himself, so I guess we can give her a leeway!
The villain, I love! Mathieu Amalric was impressive in the short screen time he had in Munich (I haven't watched the Diving Bell and the Butterfly yet so can't comment!). He's the clean shaven businessman and lacks any of those unique physical disfigurement, a la bleeding eye or a bullet in the brain or acne ridden face. And perhaps that makes him more identifiable as just any other guy out to do some bad. And he does a cool job of it. He doesn't have the best fighting tactics or a threatening voice (when he charges at Bond, his voice made me go...Oh, you can't be serious, but it felt just as intimidating that this fellow is mad enough to do damage). But really, he could have been given more stuff to do.

The movie is a definite sequel to Casino Royale, so be sure to watch it before you watch this one. But that might be a mistake again, drawing no comparisons with it's predecessor, this is a good film in it's own right. But once you know what Casino Royale was about, this one tends to pale in comparison. It's a good movie, but could have been better, way better.

P.S: Watch it once, in theatres, your TV will only make it worse for you :)
P.P.S: The Bond theme by Alicia Keys and Jack White has come in for quite some criticism, but frankly I think it makes a good bond song. With Jack white's riffs giving the perfect Bond feel, this one goes the rock way, like You know my name from the previous movie did. Common, we once had Madonna do the theme, compared to THAT, this is a revelation!

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Posted by Sat at 2:10 PM

3 comments

Monday, September 29, 2008

5 Minutes



It's an uphill task, but Radhi braced herself for it. She had tried every trick in the book to make it happen, but it wasn't looking up at all. In fact everytime she made an effort, it backfired and the inevitable signal went up, delaying it further. Time was ticking fast, there were deadlines to be met, and she had to get over with this one chore, but then how on earth does she kick start this one? And then something stuck her, she shed the goody goody image, raised her leg, aimed her foot and sent a sharp kick on her daughter's butt, and I was up with a startled scream.
'There, I should have done that long back to get you out of that bed' and my mother rushed out of the room rubbing her hands as though congratulating herself on a deed well done. And I sat dazed, wondering if asking that eternal question 'mom, 5 minutes more please!' again could get me killed?

P.S: No this never happened, my mother actually tortured me to wake up by tickling me. eeeek! But really, my mom oughtta have done this for real. I can see how hard it must have been digesting this one antic, now that I have another lazy bugger to 'kick start' every morning!
Song On: Flashing Lights
Mood: Lazy

Gourmet Updated!

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Posted by Sat at 8:21 PM

13 comments

Friday, September 19, 2008

Gourmet



After having dabbled in almost anything in my blog, ranging from movies to poems (!!!) I decided to branch out and dedicate space to something I love most :DFood of course ;) I know I can see my nutritionist waving that finger menacingly at me, but then this is one temptation that I succumb to, many a times. And this love for food was enhanced ever since I moved base to Chennai, this place has to have the most varied offerings, in terms of both cuisines and pricing...So I intend mostly to talk about the eat outs in Chennai that I love, some signature dishes and a rare recipe too...wooo bonus. Of course that might come with the necessary precautions; 'Do not try at home'/'Statutory Warning: Self-cooking is injurious to health', so you can't possibly hold me responsible for a badly burnt and disfigured wok or a stomach that forces you to blow hot and cold (hehehe...might I add pungent?)

Welcome to Gourmet, and I shall try to help you stay bloated :)

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Posted by Sat at 8:31 PM

6 comments

Monday, September 01, 2008

ROCK ON




I saw the promos of the movie 'Rock on' on TV recently
Somehow it swept me off to those dreamy days post college
I was fresh out of college, not in a hurry to do anything
I knew I was to get though to one of those big wig companies everyone was talking about, yep, that much arrogant I was ;)
So now that my game was set, I spent most of my time idling in my sister's tiny apartment (if you could call that one :P) in Bangalore
The day time was when I slept, ate, pretended to skim through news paper for job ops
But life usually came alive post sunset, roaming about Jayanagar fourth block, munching roast butta, hanging out at planet M, buying nothing but browsing through the catalogs endlessly and listening to radio non stop well past mid night, much to my mother's chagrin!
Bangalore has been quite the place for headbangers...next only to perhaps Kolkata? (but it's all that jazz really)...
Really, Thank god, coz in this place, rock is a little more than Bon Jovi (forget the fact that Bryan Adams keeps returning to haunt the city year after year!)
But I wonder at the same time, how many out there are aware of those rock gems that keep springing up from the north east....Manipur, Nagaland, Shillong...anyone?
Getting back to the point of course, it seems a real long time back, a different time, different life, a different person, almost...
It's as if you think, you have grown out of that kind of life...but then you cant help leaning back and smiling out of the window during that rare moment when an old Creedence track leaks out of your car's stereo.

P.S: BTW, the one thing that did take me back to days of yonder, the movie Rock On, has mediocre music, may be because of that VOICE. Farhan Akhtar....why?! scream man....this isn't deep enough!
P.P.S: I'm gonna catch this movie on wednesday. And that's not only because I've always had a monster crush on Arjun Rampal ;)

If in a mood to touch base with rock....try Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival / Poison by Alice Cooper

Mood: Nostalgic
Song On: Pichle saat dino mein

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Posted by Sat at 4:32 PM

7 comments

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Conspiracy Theory


You know those days, when you step out of the house thinking this would be one good day, but it turns out to be entirely otherwise?
You have to go through almost every atrocious and ridiculous situation that your crooked mind can conjure up in it's wildest of day dreams, all your worst fears come to life and taunt you with that question, what if all of it descended on you, once and for all, what could you possibly do.
It could start with picking out the starched white kurta and churidhar, freshly ironed (after return trips to the dhobhi for the crease marks that were still visible under a lab microscope) and feeling undeniably crisp in it's sun dried freshness, paired with the perfect sandals only to step out into a rain that was ready to pour when you were five minutes from your office.
But you brave it with the thought that it's going to be a short dash before you reach the safe confines of your air conditioned office, but you are about to step onto that concrete after having jumped over and meticulously avoided the slush ponds between the unnecessary barricades on the road, and here comes superman on his bike, to save the day, but not your kurta and dips his bikes front wheel slowly into the little puddle beside the office gate just when you are close enough to get the slush splattered on your bright white churidhar and your sandals. He rolls off with an apology and you think what else could he have done, ridden on piles of gravel? He had nowhere to go but for that puddle. My bad luck really!
And then you rush to the office loo hopes of washing and drying your legs off with that dryer that is actually meant for your hand.
But you brave being stared at and after wiping off the dirt with a little water and tissue, lift your leg to the dryer and strike the awkward Ballerina pose, just to have the door of a cubicle open and reveal a startled, confused and amused, all at once, girl exiting, suppressing a giggle over what she just saw. And sigh helplessly, the leg still held up to the not-hot enough rush of air from the drier, while the girl rushes hastily to brag to her colleagues about it, or worse blog it!
You clean up and return to your seat wishing never to see that girl again for as long as you live and find that she sits, horror of horror 2 rows behind your seat.
You say, and all I wanted was a decent day! After much whiling away, scrolling documents you know nothing about up and down, it's lunch time. You grab your lunch and walk to the cafeteria, wave out to your gang of girls, they smile warmly back but the holmes in you just can't stop telling you 'May be they know of the dancing queen debacle?' You brush it aside and mumble a hello before settling down to eat. And one of them promptly points out, Wrong season for a white eh?
Yeah, the word has spread! And the other one whines continuously about the state of her visa application, to which you just have to be comforting. Another calls your most revered films 'dud', 'boring'...but it infuriates you more when they call it slow and worse confusing. And now you can't keep your mouth shut and say hey, that's a cult classic and is actually a most appreciated work. They stare. Oh Dear! And then impassively ask; 'Where?'. You say 'Here and there and around' (hoping they realise that you are quoting one such film), how were you supposed to be prepared to answer that?? 'Yeah right!' They drawl. Oh God! here it comes....'You know I can never get why she likes some movies that she likes'. You force yourself to shut up time and again, but then it does explode on their faces, 'Hey, it's a free country people!'. They laugh. 'hehehahahhohoho'. Ok, you've done enough damage to yourself, now just join in and laugh at yourself, we all know you are the one who runs the entire imdb, but just laugh now , please...will you? 'hehehahahhohoho'. Attagirl!
Then you get back to stalking wikipedias, music stations and again scrolling of documents. Finally, it's 5 and you start getting ready to leave, start saying your ta-ta bye-byes over the im, When your boss whom you wanted to put on the ignore list pings you and informs you that you have a call with some xyz at 6, 'can you take it today?'. You know she knows how jobless you are ad you can't possibly turn down the only little bit that is vaguely related to work, even if it is to arrive the moment you are about to step into the elevator. So you say, of course I would, as if you were born to do this. And stay back, putting your status as invisible on the im, just in case the coterie that you just bade ta tas found out. And finally when everything's done and dusted, it' 7, the house keeping folks want you to leave your cubicle, they want your dustbin that you have inverted and been abusing as a footrest. You see, they change the cover everyday, just in case you decided to miraculously drop some garbage in it. Of course they didn't know enough to collect the garbage from your drawer instead.
And when you finally when you are in the elevator, the workaholic, bespectacled guy enters (yeah one of those whom you said ta ta to over the im about 2 hours back) and smiles you a 'Isn;t that too late for someone as jobless as you? Why don't you get a broadband connection at home instead?'
uggghhh!
Okay, you take a deep breath, tell yourself, 'there's a whole 5 more hours of the day left. No worries!'
Your husband is there to pick you up. Sweet! You gladly sit at the backseat, and speed off, no puddles this time, the sun has been out all day long! You near home, and then there are these few heavy droplets on your hand. Oh Dear! It soon turns into a downpour. Oh God! 'You had to get the bloody bike. Whatever happened to that bloody car??' 'Stop swearing, we're almost there'. Shut up shut up....5 hours, just 5 more hours!
You are at the gate, you dog gleefully puts a paw on your dress, leaving a nice brown print, you scream at him. Hubby is in tow, says 'Open the door, I got him.'
You are finally in the safety of your house. Read the fridge for what could be the quickest dinner that can be made in...let's say 10 minutes?
he he, You ask hubby dear; 'Upma and sugar' 'Will do' God I love this man!
You chop up onions a la greased lightning, light the stove, put the wok and start frying the onions. You have the rava out into the container (it was a bit wet right, what the heck, we'll stir it in minutes anyway, no worries' And just when you thought everything was fine, the last remaining cylinder in the house runs out of gas. Damn!

'If anything can go wrong, it will'. Yeah, but sometimes everything seems to go awry, to an extent that you think the whole world is conspiring against you, wanting to bring you down, having that cruel last laugh. Everything, everyone, the weatherman, the biker, the blower, the girl from the cubicle, your 'friends', your boss, the nerd, your pooch and now good old LPG. It looks like it has been carefully plotted. But you tell yourself, don't be stupid. ha!

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Posted by Sat at 1:12 PM

91 comments

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Sawan ka Mahina ;)




This phrase is the most abused in bollywood, mostly an excuse to show the hero and heroine getting all kinky…hehehe But this is no such post. So if you thought that this post is going to be like those B grade movies, shady TV channels play after the normal world goes to sleep, you can put those notions to rest!
Having said that…this is all about Chennai’s most welcome showers. Think the months of March, April, May; it means endless roasting in the searing heat of Chennai’s merciless ‘Agninakshatram’. (The nerves of mister Mani to name a cool movie after this..!). You have to find umpteen number of ways to save your skin, well literally. At first when I saw a ponytailed girl vrooming away in her scooty wearing a white version of those long gloves that Audery Hepburn last wore with her Givenchy gown in Breakfast at Tiffany, I couldn’t help wondering at the girl’s audacity to pair it with a kurti and chudithar. But my husband quickly clarified that it was to protection from the almighty sun! Cool! In fact I carry a long blue umbrella with me be it any day, rain or shine. And the only good thin about Chennai’s summer is mangoes and they bring in more heat anyway. Such is the cursed life of Chennai-ites and then….’Ghanan Ghanan, Ghan Ghanan Ghanan’; in true Lagan fashion there’s a whole colony of clouds in the sky; and the shower with so much glee…Oh is there anything else we can ask for. And then, like I said, in true Lagaan style, all that disappears after a brief drizzle, long enough to wet all the clothes our maid had meticulously hung for drying in our backyard! Uggghhhh! God sure’s a trickster; at least his weather man is. And they both chose this oven of a city to play their tricks on. I shall write again about the true blue sawan ka mahina, complete with pakodas and boats; you ask me what that is. You’ll have to wait my dears J

Music On: Superfreak
Mood: Lazy
P.S: I know I have been absent for an unreasonably long time. Too much Aani :’(
P.P.S: By the way it’s my 100th post ;)

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Posted by Sat at 8:09 PM

254 comments

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

B(r)an(d)ished



An ode to good old DD….the brands, ads, serials that used to be

An ode to good old brands and ads that are no more to be seen….to those good old days that they allude to :)
Shampoos meant velvette or halo; but we stuck to good old ‘Seeyakkai’ which were the least merciful to our eyes!
Rasna had a rival…trinka! So did Lays in uncle chips
The first TV to have graced our living room was a black and white Solidaire followed by the first colour TV we got; Dyanora
Premier Padmini was what the upper middle class drove and Contessa secured you the seat among elites. Maruti was more like the new kid on the block
Coca cola’s Fanta was not around. Goldspot’s polka dots were
Forhans, Binaca, Cibacca, Babool (much of them are still around but have their days of glory are obviously gone)
Bhool na jaana ECE bulb lana…

Hamdard Ka Sinkara….The tag line ‘Yeh bechara kaam ke bhoj ka maara’ is still very much in use though
The kids going ‘Mummy Maltova please!’
Natraj pencil ads showing the cartoon of kids playing cricket

Radio used to scream out commercials of Nijam Pakku, A1 cleaning powder, Ponvandu soap(my sis actually danced on stage to this one’s commercial…there I said it! She’s going to kill me now!!!), Narasus coffee, Shantha tilting wetgrinder

The special ads telecast by DD from time to time…
Mile sur mera tumhara, the no smoking ads, Ek Chidiya anek chidiya/ek, anek aur ekta…scripted and directed by Vijaya Mulay (boy, was this cute? :) …seriously one look at this video and you are back to your childhood)

Never understood most of what they said; but I thought these folks looked and sounded damn smart. Sumit Tandon, Neethi Ravindran, Minu (though a bit irritating with her Karnatak, Keral, Kannad etc.), Kaveri Mukherji,
Usha Albuquerque. And their regional counterparts, Shobana Ravi, Fatima, Sandhya Rajagopalan

Sunday ke Sunday
Sundays were special. You got up early not to finish your home work or to rush to school; but to catch Rangoli on time
And then hurry through your bath, breakfast to be right on time for he-man and the masters of the Universe at 9. 9:30 was for Ramayana/Mahabharata (it later shifted to 10 and also to weekdays primetime). Then at 11-ish you had ‘potli baba ki’.
There were a few more short lived series like glo friends, stone boy(loved it) etc.
Afternoons were regional language movies; don’t think I would watch an assamese/Bengali/oriya movie ever now.
Somewhere around 3 or 4, just before the Sunday evening movie, came Spidey swinging his way into the drawing room….and we used to dart from just about anywhere to watch that show.

Other bygone, long forgotten TV favourties
Oshin, Malgudi days (directed by late Shankar Nag…a cult to this day!), Wagle ki Duniya (one of the funniest!), Duck tales, Mr. Yogi, Byomkesh Bakshi, Flop Show, Mungeri lal ke haseen sapne, Surbhi, Bharat ek khoj, Street Hawk, Circus (One mister SRK was in this. So was Ashutosh Gowarikar!), Tandoori Nights, Jungle Book, Disney Show, Vikram Aur Vetal, Vishwamitra, Alif Laila, Chanakya, chitrahar, Chitramala, Gul Gulshan Gulfam, Saanjha Chulha, Tehkikaat (feat. The late director Vijay Anand, brother of Dev Anand), The Sword of Tipu Sultan, Hum panchi ek chawl ke……..


Seriously, whatever happened to DD?!
P.S: Its been long time since I posted anything... it is not the writers block... but Nandoo is hopeless in getting an internet connection at home and... my new opees doesnt allow me to blog :(
P.S.S: Nothing just like that! :P
Song: Aint no sunshine....
Mood: Cool

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Posted by Sat at 3:17 PM

7 comments








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Location: Bangalore, India

I'm a loose cannon!!!



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