Staying home

I hate going out. Seriously. Why do people find pleasure in dressing up, getting into the car, pulling a map out, driving for half an hour, and then battling huge crowds at shopping malls or stand in endless lines at various tourist attractions or go to a restaurant that does not even make good food?

I call myself a home bird. My husband thinks I'm plain lazy. Theres also tremendous pressure at my workplace. Friday afternoon at work, everyone wants to know what I plan to do during the weekend. And if I dare say "nothing much", my over zealous colleague will do internet searches and give me printouts of boring things to do. And ofcourse, she has to follow up monday!

By the time its saturday afternoon, I run out of excuses to stay home (lunch is done, laundry done, no movies left to see). So I try to be a sport and suggest "fun things" (while my inner voice silently chants "just watch food tv and sleep all afternoon")

Anyway, cnn.com totally vindicated my stance. 76% of people surveyed are planning to spend memorial day weekend at home. Guess i'm not the only home bird around.

Sorry Ash fans

Picture source: http://www.aishwaryaworld.com/ashattimedinner.html

This post is not for Ash fans for sure. The past few months saw a big publicity blitz for Aishwarya Rai in the USA. Appearing on the David Letterman show, CBS's 60 minutes and Oprah, Ash's publicity machine tried to tout her as the world's most beautiful woman. Turns out that People magazine did not think so, and she is not listed in their 50 most beautiful list.

Dont get me wrong, I AM a patriotic Indian. I do feel happy when indian talent is recognized in the USA or UK, but I do feel there is more to our national pride than Ash (complete with a fake accent, plastic smile, exaggerated hand gestures and lots of eye rolling).

There are fabulous movies being made in India, and I wish people would continue appreciating those movies, instead of trying to push the "most beautiful woman" idea to people whose concept of beauty is very different. Also, the big bollywood musical fantasy (that Andrew Lloyd Weber and Gurindher Chadha so desperately tried to promote) does not do any justice to real indian cinema.

Fraud alert - Blockbuster

A few months back, Blockbuster video announced with much fan fare that they abolished late fees. Turns out that you only have a seven day grace period. After that, you will be charged a 1.25 restocking fee, and after 30 days, the full retail price of the video minus the rental charges!

True, Blockbuster cannot afford to have customers rent and keep videos for ever. But, the advertising really made it look that way. This was not disclosed anywhere in the advertising, and if there was fine print, it must have appeared for one nano second. Thankfully, New Jersey has filed a law suit. Check the details for here:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/18/news/midcaps/blockbuster_suit/?cnn=yes

As for me, after paying $9 ($4.50 for renting and $4.50 for being late by a day) to Blockbuster, I will never rent there again. Netflix rocks!

Nayakan - all time best

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,nayakan,00.html



Tamizh movie fans rejoice! Time magazine has included Nayakan in its list of 100 all time great movies. All the critics who dismissed Nayakan as a Godfather clone have been silenced! Here is my 2 cents on one of the best films Tamizh cinema has ever made.

Nayakan saw the coming together of the three kings- Manirathnam, Kamal and Ilayaraja (sadly, the three of them never made another movie together again, and none of their later movies were on par with Nayakan either)

I dont need to write a lot about the story - runaway boy becomes angry young man, who becomes the super cool don, who then ages into a sad soul who cannot figure out if he is "nallavanaa illa kettavanaa".

Nayakan can easily be counted among Kamal's best movies. True, Kamal was "inspired" by the lead stars of Godfather. But, he played the roles of both Al Pacino and Marlon Brando (something which neither of them could have done). Hollywood lore has it that Marlon Brando stuffed pieces of tissue paper into his cheeks to achieve the jowly Italian patriarch look. Kamal faithfully copied this and chewed vethalai throughout the second half of the movie to make similar facial expressions. As the angry young man, Kamal looked both vulnerable and extremely believable. And, was he hot!!!

Ilayaraja's music.....no words can do justice...he is the greatest!

Time magazine critic Richard Corliss gives Maniratnam his due credit in his write up:
"His movies, often dramatizing social unrest and political terrorism, churn with narrative tension and camera energy that would be the envy of Hollywood directors, if they were ever to see them".

The screenplay is racy, and manages to retain its sensitivity even in violent scenes. Maniratnam has been criticized for his clipped artificial dialogues. Actually, he thinks in english and then literally translates them into tamizh. There are many dialogues that have become classics like - "neenga nallavara illa kettavara?", "naalu per nalla irukanumna ..." etc.

Many of the scenes are so well taken, the movie should be prescribed viewing for any film making course. Here are some of the best:
- When Kamal's son dies, and he does the famous "uhaa haaaha... " cry
- Kamal getting mad at the doctors and nurses in the hospital because they refuse to take care of a poor child
- Kamal and his daughter fighting because she disagrees with him (kamal really slapped the actress during the shooting!)
- Kamal and his daughter meeting in Nasser's house

I could write another 1000 words - just get the video and watch it!

Beautiful Chicago

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96015646@N00/sets/364789/show/

Spring flowers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96015646@N00/sets/364794/show/

Madras Pictures

Dont miss these realistic photos of Mylapore, swamimalai etc.
http://www.rajeshkrishnamurthy.com/plog/archives/cat_india.html

Movie Review - The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

The house of wax may end up being a bigger hit, but this movie is by far one of the most delightful that I have seen this year. Delightful is the right term for this movie - the story is sci-fi, but absolutely whacky!

Story in a line:
Arthur thinks the biggest problem in his life is his house being demolished as the city council wants to build an expressway. Turns out his life is going to turn more complicated - the planet is demolished to make way for an inter-stellar expressway. He and his ET friend hitchhike rides and try to make their way about the galaxy with some help from the eponymous guide to the galaxy and a seriously depressed robot.

The verdict:
The humor in many scenes is subtle. Some seemingly funny lines actually have deeper philosophical undertones (like the scene where the voice-over describes the life of the whale that is falling towards the ground). The story is full of irony - the Vogans are powerful enough to demolish the earth but they are bureaucracy obsessed (they need a form signed by the galactic president to proceed with the demolition) - the galactic president has a secret second head for himself in which hides the smarter part of his brain, so that he can appeal to all kinds of people and look presidential!!! (familiar?!)

Worth the 9 bucks?
Unfortunately, I do not know how many people will actually get this movie (the house of wax is a bigger hit) and this movie may probably not be successful enough to become another mega franchise. If you are a sci-fi fan and if you are ready to watch a truly different movie, this is well worth the 9 bucks and the pop corn. This is neither star wars nor the matrix. Its just a genuinely funny wild ride.

Lollu Express is back ...well, almost

The site was in hibernation mode for a while, but i saw two recent movie reviews - for Kadhal and M.Kumaran. The Kadhal review with the description of madurai dads and their leather belts is too funny. Check this link out:

http://www.lolluexpress.com

Anniyan Rocks! - The music review

(image source: www.anniyan.com)

I have not heard all the songs yet. I cant move past Iyengar veetu azhagey. It starts out with one of the best keerthanais Jagadhanandhaka, recorded typical Thiruvaiyaru style, and then blends into a really romantic number in a Naatai/Gambeera naatai. Hariharan and Vairamuthu compete for the top honors. Vairamuthu is going to win tons of praise for these superb lyrics:

"un pol azhagi pirakkavum illai, inimel pirandhaal adhu nam pillai!"
"un pol chamathu ulaginil illai, kadhalan chamathu kaadhalil thollai!"

Hariharan is in top form, especially in the "kadhalin vaguppil maanavan dhaan pandidhane!" He fully leverages his ghazal expertise (yes, in a traditional carnatic song!). Harini is good too.

(Here is the link to MS's Jagadhanandhaka. http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/1/m/artist.14/)

Sukumari.... Its ok... (and i say that with some effort). It should probably grow on you. Shankar Mahadevan is really good in this song, he gets the brahmin accent perfectly. I dont know how the tamizh makkal will accept this style of pronounciation in this day and age (even my grandmother doesnt speak with this accent!). There is some weird chorus before this song, and so we have one more addition to Harris Jeyaraj's dictionary of weird words! (omohoseeyaa is still number 1! even my one year old niece used to burst out laughing each time she heard this!)

Speaking of weird words, what does Rendaka mean? The song is pretty catchy though. Shreya Goshal reaches impossibly high notes and sounds fabulous. Maybe Harris could have just used the beat in the beginning of the song in all the places where he used the chorus?

As for the other songs, I half-heard them once and only caught a bunch of english words stuffed into the songs to make them sound "modern" for the "youth". Another song sounded like a big ad jingle for nokia (i do hope theres no product placement) with lyrics likening the guy to an america varaipadam (is that really hot!!???!)

Anyway, who cares? I'm listening to iyengar veetu for the 25th time!