FixMyIndia.org - Post your Grievances!

Check this out.

FixMyIndia.Org

A site, pointing to Government of Indias, Grievance logging site (http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/).

Interesting fact is, grievances are getting addressed.

Response is slow, but it does work!

Use it responsibly!

Sivaji - Tamil Movie - Hot Survey

Sivaji Sivaji Sivaji.

Its a magic buzzword in Tamil speaking places.
Rajnikanths' latest movie, predicted to be a super duper hit.

Are you affected by the craze? What is your take on it?



:)

can read Tamil? Check this out?

Googles Free wireless to all parts of the world

We all know how good Google is in inventing new stuff.

The much awaited 'FREE wireless' is now available through Google, to all parts of the world.

Thanks to the great invention by Googlers titled TiSP.

Setting up and getting online just takes 60 minutes and its free for life.

Details are here - http://www.google.com/tisp/

How to install is here - http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html

FAQ's are here - http://www.google.com/tisp/faq.html

Thank you Google :)

Movies I watched recently (1 hindi, 2 tamil, 1 malayalam)

For us Indians, watching movies is the Numero~Uno way to spend our free time.
Our hobbies revolve around movies, movies, more movies and movie related other stuff.
I am not sure, if we are 'made' this way, or this is something forced into us by some media desparado's.

I believe, the movie watching phenomenon is predominant, because most of us lack other opportunities to spend our time in a better way.
Some of us, who do have fairly better opps, neglect to pursue them, due to our inbuilt lackluster attitude towards 'quality' life.

I lie among the lackluster crowd with lazy couch-potato skills, who take pride in spending every minute I have, in watching movies.
I do this movie watching with a zest and with the pace I am in right now, I will probably saturate watching all the (good) movies ever made (that gives a chill :) ).

I will dwelve in to the details of the kind of movies I like and hate in a separate post. For this post, I will briefly comment (not a full review) on a few recently watched movies.

1) Eklavya - The Royal Gaurd (2006)

I usually decide to watch a movie in a big theater if the movie had received raving reviews. Very few times, I do a blind-watch for my favourite director/actors. ( my recent blind-watch was GURU, and it was worth the watch).

as for Eklavya, I decided to spend my $10 to watch the movie in a theater, after reading some positive reviews about the film.
I was also thrilled by the trailor of this movie.
Unfortunately, the 2 minutes movie trailor was made by hand picking ALL the good scenes in the movie and the left over movie was not as thrilling.

The movie quality was good (cinematography, sets, acting, ..), but it lacked an overall appeal.

Eklavya (Amitab) was about a royal gaurd who thinks his dharma was to safegaurd the royal castle and everything within. The king, saddened for many years by the 'Eklavya secret' kills the queen and also plots to kill Eklavya. Prince (Saif-Ali-Khan) arrives, learns about the 'Eklavya secret', voes his ex-girlfriend (Vidya Balan), and engulfs himself in sadness throughout. King has a evil brother (Jackie Shroff). King was killed by someone, Eklavya decides to avenge.

Amitab aced his part. Saif-ali-khan has no screen presence for this type of role. Vidya Balan was Ok.

well, watch it in a theater, if you absolutely have to.
for the rest, you can wait for the DVD.

2) Pachaikili Muthucharam - Tamil (2006)


Gautham Menon (director) has proved his cine-making skills again. He has evolved a new template of movie making since Minnale. He is pruning the template and shines better and better each year.

Pachaikili Muthucharam, is a nice drama about a married middle aged male (Sarath Kumar) who his overpowered by the charms of his train-mate Jyothika. The story revolves around the extra-marital affairs between Sarath and Jyothika for a while and takes a nice twist when Milind Soman steps in as the villain.

I dont like Sarath much, but his presence in this movie was fitting.
Jyothika was awesome to watch and so was Andrea(?), Saraths wife.

The only negative was, Milind Somans dubbing (Gautams) voice. Gautam should stay behind the camera and not do any more dubbing for his villains. Enough of that!

well, watch it in theaters. It will be a good movie watching experience.

3) Deepavali - Tamil (2006)


reminded me of 'Moonram pirai', though this movie is not a lift from 'Moonram pirai'.
what happens when your beloved, suddenly forgets you one day?
This happens to our hero (Jeyam Ravi), and the movie is about how he gets her (Bhavana) back.
Movie was nicely done. The chennai slang tamil which is filled in the movie was a irritant in the beginning, but then it flows well and adds up to the beauty of the film.
Bhavna is cute and bubbly. Ravi has acted well.

for me, watching a movie in a theater will usually require a good proven director/actor or atleast a good review. Rarely a movie like 'Kadhal' comes in and pushes me to spend my $10. Deepavali is not one among them, but a can-watch, not-boring movie.

4) Perumazakalam - Malayalam (2004)



I enjoy malayalam movies - and I believe some of the very best movies are 'made in Kerala'. I watched Perumazakalam (directed by Kamal) on DVD a few weeks back.
Its been a while since I have seen a subtle and touching movie and Perumazakalam was a feast for the eyes, ears and the heart.

Meera Jasmine, a typical muslim wife with a kid, lives in some corner of Calicut near a big lake (or backwaters?). Like most keralite husbands, Meera Jasmines' husband (Dilip) works in Saudi Arabia to make a living.
Movie unfolds with the news that Dilip was arrested and was sentenced to death for killing a fellow Keralite (Vineeth).
To save Dilip from the gallows, Meera has to convince Kavya Madhavan (Vineeths wife) and have Kavya provide a clemency.

What a movie! vow!! Back waters, monsoon, rain, cinematography, background score, songs - everything fits very well!

The actors lived their part - every one of them.

Perumazakalam gave the best movie watching experience. If you like watching good movies, this is a must watch for you!

Happy Oscars!! lets celeberate the movies!

more to come (Iranian movies)... later..

to be continued...

Vote for the best photo (tomatoe, potato, onion )

Click here to view the contestants and pick your choice in 'vote box' (in the middle of the page)
Click the link below the vote box to send your vote.

Here is a sample of the list of pictures from the contest. Do vote using the link above!

Photo Contest for Amateurs

If you can read tamil and if you like taking pictures with your digi cam and if you are an amateur at that, try out the photo contest in this link:

சிறந்த புகைப்பட வித்தகர் போட்டி


have fun!

Windows Vista Launch - Bill Gates

testing 1 2 3...

testing 1 2 3...

Guru - Movie Review

Like all Mani Ratnams earlier movies, GURU created a big wave of expectation right from the day of its conception.

The expectations grew wider when the rumour mills churned that the story line of GURU is drawing a parallel with the life of industrial Guru Dhirubai Ambani.

Ambani, the industrial mogul who started off as a polyester merchant selling 'saadis', grew his business from a few thousand rupees outfit to a multi-billion dollar empire. Baring, the bad publicity over the 'methods' he used, he was a true champion, the likes of whom helped shape industrial India.

That being said, was GURU just a biographical depiction? No. not at all.
You could call the 'Aviator' a biographical depiction of Hughes. Not GURU.

Manis one-liner for the story could have been 'A poor villager, who grew up and became a big industrialist, like Ambani'.



Abhishek Bachan has turned out to be a true star and GURU will be a milestone in his career, just like how Nayagan was for Kamal Hasan.

Abhishek does the job well. Be it the young Guru who rocks with Mallika in a Turkey club, or the married Guru who romanticizes with Ash in a Bombay apartment, or even the aged Guru bai who is confronted by Mithun about his business ethics. Abhishek gives a stellar performance.
It is a joy to watch him perform Guru bai.

Aishwarya Rai's magic is missing in this movie. She is not suitable to act in an old-age role, yet.
Mani should have fed her well and made her a little plump before shooting the old aged scenes.
Mani may have missed the boat on this one.

Cinematography (Rajiv Menon) was spotless in every frame - Aishwaryas rain dance in a village among the paddy fields and the song celeberating the twins arrival was nicely done.
Mani has a keen eye for song picturisation and with Rajiv as his wing man, GURUs songs were very delightfully done.

Some of the choreography wasn't fresh and not catchy as it should have been.

Enough has been said about A.R.Rahmans scores for GURU. Yes, the songs were brilliant and the backround score was apt. 'Guru bai Guru bai' chant through out the film adds the tempo of the film.
Hariharans 'Eh Hairathe ashiqui' (Gazal type) sprinkled as a background score on many occassions was a good one. Tere Bina (with a cute dhamthana dhamthana chime in the lines of a sufi love song) was a new style song.

Madhavan does his part, but in front of Abhishek's performance he fades away.

Mithun is a very good addition, as Nanaji.

Some supporting actors were amateurish in certain scenes shot in Turkey and some shots in the final moments of the film.

The 2 3/4 hours movie has no 'dull lag'. But, at the same time the details of Guru bai's business growth and all the accusations thrown at him were very cinematic.
It looks like Mani wasn't keen on showing the business nuances of Guru bai to his audiences. Who wants those things anyway?

The final moments where Guru bai defends his motives against harsh allegations with a 4+ minutes dialogue contains the essence of the movie.

Dialogues like 'I am the public' and Guru bais speech, about how he helps the middleclass, to own and grow with his business empire, leaves one with a positive allure towards the man.

GURU will stand out from the crowd and is a mass entertainer.
Is this Manis best ever? arguably, No.
The best is probably yet to come.

What is your take on the movie (if you have watched it)?