Paa - Music Review

Just got to listen Ilayaraja's new hindi film album "Paa". This guy never stops surprising us.. The remix version of the theme music sounds new age and breathtaking. Mudhi.. Mudhi.. is an another breezy number. It will linger in your mind for a while especially the "Ninnukori.." tinge from Agni Nakshatram. Also there is a clever rehash of Mood Kaapi/Thumbi Vaa number .

But my heart yearns more of the remixed theme piece. Go get yourself drenched in another raja's stunner musical rain that hits you like a train.

Unnaipol Oruvan

Am writing this review after a night of thoughts about the movie I watched last evening at Satyam cinemas, Chennai. Yes I am talking about Kama's Haasan's new release 'Unnaipol Oruvan'. I must accept that it was a riveting watch. Unfortunately I had seen the original movie 'A wednesday' by Neeraj Pandey way back and is a fav on my list.

Dont expect a masala entertainer but go with an open mind to spend some quality time (1 hour and 45 minutes) at the movies. The film has been largely faithful to its original except for the star cast of Kamal & Mohan Lal. The screen presence of these 2 legends by itself is a treat.

I can sum up the story in one line as a common man's extreme act over a few hours on a given day holding a city on its edge. Few minor errors in the original such as the blast sequence have been rectified in this remake. Technology is top-notch with the use Red camera in 4k resolution.

A friend of mine at Prasad Labs was telling me that the foreign crew that came with the camera had problems with the temperature in Hyderabad (where the film was shot). They weren't prepared of this situation and the camera hung up frequently and finally they found a solution by placing ice packs around the camera. This led to re-shoot of few days of Kamal's work and he understood and co-operated with the crew being the tech-savvy guy he is.

Although Manoj Soni (cinematographer) had a limited canvas to work, he has made judicious use of the technology which takes the movie to the next level. Shruti Haasan's re-recording is adequate but don't expect to hear or see the songs of the audio album. Era. Muragan and Kamal's dialogues are sharp and thought provoking although a tinge verbose towards the end. Chakri Toleti has proved Kamal's chosing him as the director. Almost perfect spring board for a debut.

Kamal is perfect as usual and Lal gives his full as always. Ganesh Venkatram as Arif Khan is the surprise package while Lakshmi as the Chief Secretary proves her mettle for appearing in the title credits along Kamal and Lal. Rest of cast includes the usual Kamal favourites such as RS Sivaji, MS Baskar and Santhanabarathi. Tamil audience will be surprised and pleased to see the scene outside Chief Minister's residence in Gopalapuram and the voice over telephone. Smart!

You should watch Unnaipol Oruvan for the following reasons

• a must watch if you have not seen 'A Wednesday'
• watch it if you are a fan of Kamal or Lal
• watch it if you cant' stand the usual masala fare
• edge of the seat thriller

BTW I was left yearning for more of Lal & Kamal (in the order I specified) as the the end credits rolled on.

Chocobar - a rookie attempt at Short-story telling

Chocobar

Evening 5 PM on Marina beach.

Harish walks on the sidewalk tearing the bus tickets he just traveled in with his family. He is dressed up in an expensive shirt that has not been pressed for a while and left un-tucked with a matching pair of trousers and battered sandals. Rupa his wife walks beside him holding their 4 year old daughter Ananya in the middle.

The cool evening breeze from the sea cruises through their bodies flapping their clothes merrily. They all walked towards string of shops on the edge of the service road.
Shopkeepers were trying to attract the beach goers with their colorful shops-on-wheels.
Adding to the carnival atmosphere were the street performances such as freak shows in tents playing mysterious sounds.

Just then a couple of swanky cars pass by and are parked nearby. Seeing those cars reminds Harish of his own car which was seized by the bankers along with his new flat a few months back. He lost his high flying IT job due to the recession and the right sizing exercise by the firm he worked for turned wrong for him. Being unable to pay house rent, they have to move into hi in-laws place. Just the thought was causing a piercing pain to his stomach more than his hunger. This evening he has come to get some inexpensive entertainment for his family.

Suddenly Ananya starts to run in the direction of an ice cream van. Harish and Rupa run to catch up with her. Ananya shows the ice cream shop and says "Dad. I want a Chocobar"

Rupa with a serious face and a stern voice says “baby... don’t bother papa.. I will cook something for you at home”. Harish unable to face Ananya feels his pockets for money.
After a thoughtful moment, he says to Rupa "just keep walking towards the beach... will join u ladies in few minutes...”. Rupa after an curious expression holds Ananya's hand and starts to walk towards the beach which is a good 200 metres away.

After some 20 minutes, Harish comes running with a chocobar in his hand.
Wiping the sweat on his forehead with his left hand, he hands over the chocobar to Ananya. Ananya happily takes it with a huge smile. Mission accomplished for a loving papa.

"How did you..." asks Rupa to which Harish responds with an evasive wink.

As Ananya happily devours her chocobar, the occupants of those swanky cars they saw on the service lane come towards them. The big man grins and says "Boss you really did a fine job of cleaning my car. Would you mind helping with my friend's car too? He is willing to pay you 30 bucks" pointing to a man next to him.

Rupa feels a mixed emotion of anger, pain and shame overcome her. Like that of residual hot lead from a bullet shot off a 303 rifle straight through her chest. Her eyes become watery and she stares at Harish with a sense of disbelief.

"No boss... thanks anyway" says Harish rejecting the offer from the big man. He keeps his head bowed down unable do face Rupa.

Just then Ananya throws the chocobar away and says "its not like what grandpa buys me" Hurt by the kid’s innocent behavior, Rupa tries to slap the kid with her right hand.
Swiftly Harish carries Ananya away from her mom and resumes walking towards shore lifting her to his shoulder. Wiping her tears, Rupa walks behind them.

Whatever entertainment that was left for them that evening was at their feet. The foaming waters of the sea touch their feet with a welcoming splash.

KANDHASAMY - Review

KANDHA(L) SAMY

A confused script with an oddly old vigilante subject and truckloads of money Kalaipuli Thanu managed to spend on this production.Stay away from this painfully long 3 hours and thirty minutes of stylishlishly shot collection of garb.

I missed the following when I watched this film..

• Susi Ganesan's wonderful narrating skills seen in his debut vehicle Virumbugiren
• Vikram's wide range of histrionics. He is seen wearing a cocky outfit in a vigilante role.
• Shriya's dancing skills given her ballet background

The story is about Kandasamy (Vikram) a CBI officer and his friends who start a crusade for bringing all the black money stashed in foreign countries (stale isn't it?). The motive is damn weak and the unnecessary cat fight betweek vikram and Shreya (daughter of the clicked villain) is atrocious.
Shreya has been done injustice in this film by making her dance to some really bad dance steps and the "Meow Meow" song was laughable. Songs didn't impress me even with visuals. But I have to confess that I loved the final song with some beautiful dance movements by Mumaith Khan who looks steaming hot delicious :-)

Dont even ask me about breaking the suspense of the story. Its got none. Ya..I forgot to tell you that Vikram appears in 2 more get ups. One as a lady (for comedy) and the other as an old man (dont even ask me why). I have to mention that technicaly film is top notch. Especially cinematography, the edits and the overall look of the film. It looks like the film travels to exotic locations such as Mexico just for this reason.
On the whole this film might earn loads of money within few weeks of release. This is due to the no. of shows being (100 in Chennai alone) screened and the prints made (900 copies i
suppose) like so many popular films lately. But if given a chance I would like to erase this one from the filmography of Vikram and Susi Ganesan. My 200 bucks went to drain :-(

Belated birthday wishes to a 62 year old young lady

Here is a lady with a beautiful posture with a literary book on her left.
She was born with beautiful features throughout her body. She even has few parts outside her body in bits. She is an aromatic mix of spices (say cultures) in various hues and flavors. These spices are in unrelenting effort for preservation of old and innovating modern ones

Unfortunately her body parts are being chipped and harmed by some red and green infections. Most of her body parts have troublesome infections that wan't to have a life of their own. These part don't realize the fact that they will consumed by infections (mean the green and red ones) if left alone by their mother. Its mother's love that’s stopping her from letting these parts to go alone I suppose.

These parts are all over the body. Many such parts on her left hand area and few even on the way down. Most unfortunate is the head that has a heart of its own. This is due to a surgery gone wrong when she was born. A bad English surgeon. This is an area where a few lice want to move on to another green lady. There are some nefarious designs by her neighbors who want to chop her and gobble her up like a pie.

All said she has been enviously intact through all these 62 years and will continue to be so in the millennia to come.

I Love Pain

Nope this aint a philosophical rattle mate! Its truth in the most painful (yet painless) sense. Here it is..

Just imagine yourself walking on a lonely road with no one around. You suddenly step on a sharp knife which cuts through your foot. But you don't realize this and keep. After a mile are so you feel dizzy and you fall down dead!

Only one thing can explain this above scenario... you have no sense of pain and you didn't notice the blood coming from your foot.

Trust me this is a medical condition that exists among us. This is referred as "congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis" in medical terms.

It really pained me a lot when I came to know how dangerous and stressful these patients and their caretakers have.
Taste this..
- babies with this disorder cannot even feel hunger
- imagine a baby gnawing its tongue and lips to a bloody mess without realizing
- can feel sharp objects hurting the body
- cannot feel heat and so doesn't sweat which leads to heat strokes
- cannot feel cold and might go into a state of hypothermia
- you can't even hug these patients as they absorb the heat from your body and make you dehydrated
- you can perform surgery to these patients without any anesthetics.

This is a genetic disorder that affects the a vital section of the nervous system that leads to the above problems. This seems to be due to a mutated gene that affects the sensory nerve cells.

One family in Pakistan has 3 members with this disorder. One of them has put this disorder to use by staging street performances in which he drives knives through his body.

This is a very rare phenomenon and only few hundred cases are known across the world. Researchers are trying to use this phenomenon to induce painless state for medical uses such as surgery or combat situations.

Even plants release ethylene (not sure if its pain as they don't have a nervous system) when they are cut. Hope they find a cure for this terrible disorder.

Rice Pulling

Sounds like a unfinished phrase. But there have been examples of such phrases in our vocabulary (ever heard of bureau pulling?? forget it..).Now this cheesy phrase is a complete rage in Tamil Nadu and other southern states.
Let me introducte it to you with simple words - Rice pulling refers to charateristic of a mysterious iridium-copper alloy that can attract rice (you heard it right) like a magnet attracts iron.So there are literally hundreds(may be thousands!) of secret meetings happening in cheap lodges, bars and even remote villages about this.
So I set out to understand what this fuss is all about.By chance I got to talk to few known people who say they are in this secret business.I was astonished to see how secretive talk and bodylanguage was during this chat with me.Fine let me lay down the facts I learnt from these people

Source-There are 2 kinds of rice pulling items. One is something called 1616 coins minted by British in colonial times with iridium alloys from meteorites found only in south India.Other kind is metals from temple kalasams that have been struck by lightning.

Tests for verification:

- Place rice within 15 inches of the RP metal and it immediately pulls the rice towards it. Few minutes later the rice turns brown in colour

- If you place a watch near the RP metal it stops working

- Torch light bulb will fuse out when brought in proximity of RP metal - A flame bends towards the direction of the RP metal at close proximity

Effects : - Can black out a whole electricity grid if placed in contact

Handling : - Has to be wrapped in rubber sheets and placed in thermocol boxes

Buyers : - German companies are buying to extract the unbelievalble power these metals can generate

Price :- Transactions I heard where anywhere between 10 to 5000 crores (you heard it right!)
So what has happenend is this has created mass hysteria where people such as businessmen, lawyers, home makers. etc are spending lots of personal money, time and energy in closing these spurious deals.

I tried digging details on the internet and couldn't find one transaction that was completed. So these middlemen have been making money in the name of processing and testing fees. A person I know has lost lakhs of rupees running around this RP metal in the dream of earning few crores. I leave it to you to infer yourselves from whatever I have spoken here.