The King

Ilayaraja's path breaking Thiruvachagam is releasing on June 30th. It is a devotional album, with the songs of Manickavasagar. All the compositions except one have been sung by Ilayaraja himself. According to Ilayaraja, his life's purpose on this earth has been fulfilled because of this body of work!! Here is his interview in the hindu.

Ilayaraja composed and sang the Janani Janani song in a divinely beautiful way. I cannot wait to listen to a full fledged devotional album from him.

I truly wish i could meet Ilayaraja just for a second, and say "thank you for your music". Ilayaraja's lilting compositions have enriched my life so much.

I could have had a dead-boring day at work, with a lonely evening at home ahead. I can get caught in the middle of a 5 mile traffic backup on the highway. But, all that I need to do is play an Ilayaraja song on the car stereo, and I am transported instantly. My spirit soars high above the backed up cars and I am instantly transported right to the heart of beautiful Tamizhnadu and I am home!

The true Anniyan Review

Is Anniyan a good movie? Sorry, no. It is mediocre. It could have been a good movie .. if Indian and Chandramukhi had never been made. However, they were; So the psycho Anniyan character keeps reminding the viewer of Indian thatha and because he also has multiple personality disorder, you almost expect him to sing ra ra sarasaku ra ra!!

Ok, the movie is not that bad. Vikram's Ambi is irritating at first, but his character slowly grows on you. He is hilarious in the TTR sequence in the train, and he is way too cute when he gives a love letter to Sada's parents. Vikram may end up getting flak for the Remo character - but I personally think he manages to pull it off too. Anniyan is the weakest link - his voice is weird, the eye darting is freaky and the hair-in-front effect makes you want to tear your hair out!

On the positive side, the theme of the movie is extremely thought provoking. Are we all not guilty of poor civic sense when in India? Hasnt public apathy become a way of life? Shankar needs to be applauded for talking about issues that people no longer think of as issues. However, after establishing a good solid story, and signing on one of the most talented actors, Shankar gets lazy, and copies Indian's screen play, mixes in concepts from the movie Seven and finally draws inspiration from Sidney Sheldon.

To top it all, there is a frame by frame remake of Matrix 3's big fight sequence (where neo fights hundreds of Mr.Smiths). This fight sequence has been picturized extremely well, showing us what Tamizh cinema is technically capable of - unfortunately, all of us have already watched the Matrix, and even from a story perspective, this sequence is absolutely contrived.

Of the supporting cast, Prakashraj is brilliant as always and Vivek reaches his peak! Sada? She carries on the tradition of totally mediocre Shankar movie heroines (remember not-so-pretty Ash in Jeans, overweight manisha in indian, jaded manisha in mudhalvan?....Genelia was an exception).

The songs are a big disappointment - they have been picturized poorly and are a big drag on the screenplay. Iyengar veetu has been totally wasted. It could have been imaginatively picturized, instead you have big gaudy indoor sets, lots of extras, and Vikram dressed in Raja costumes.

Ok, it is not entirely fair to say Anniyan copies Chandramukhi. Anniyan was probably launched even before CM. However, the two movies even use the same lighting techniques when the protagonist shifts from personality to another.

Shankar cheats when showing the alternating personality shifts between Anniyan and Remo. The shots have not been taken continuosly, Vikram's hair length and texture changes every 2 seconds. Vikram is a fabulous actor, Shankar need not have employed make up and lighting tricks to highlight the personality differences. Vikram could have just shown it through his acting.

There is another major gaffe. Sada does not recognize Remo's face; she does not even suspect once that he is Ambi. She does not realize his identity when he turns into Anniyan, but the second he talks about rules, she immediately knows its Ambi!! Also, Anniyan is smart enough to learn Java and HTML and makes his super hi tech website, but then he logs into his website from his home computer, making his ip address totally traceable. Is he not even smart enough to log in from a net cafe?

Sorry Shankar, I still dont get it. Where did you spend the 26 crores?

Crazy T.Nagar!

Here is a hilarious blog about the perils of shopping in T.Nagar. It is a must read!

Being a resident of Thirumylai for 21 years, i always prefer Luz corner over Ranganathan street. However, luz has no nagai kadais worth mentioning. So, during my visit to Madras, a week before my wedding, I decided to brave the heat and headed to Prince Jewellery in Panagal park. I entered the store, and it was a good 25 minutes before I could even get to within a foot of the sales counter. I could not believe the kind of crowds, and that too, at a shop selling gold!! (and people say India is not shining?)

Turns out it was Akshaya thrithi - a concept that has become the new craze. Its a day in the last week of april, and its supposed to be a nalla naal; if you buy jewellery that day, you get riches all through the year I suppose! Over the past few years, jewellery stores have ads with pious looking josiakaarargal advising people to buy atleast a gundumani worth of gold that day (or what happens i wonder??!!). Dont even get me started about the Adi Kazhivu sales!

Its only a matter of time before the memorial day, thanksgiving day, mother's day, father's day, secretary's day, increase-your-greeting-card-store's-revenue day plague hits India (if it hasnt already)

Move over Starbucks - Krispy Kreme rocks

Starbucks has hundreds of new stores opening, and many more scheduled. Target stores have them, coffee carts inside offices sell overpriced stale cups (my office cafetaria made crappy coffee so that we were forced to head to the cart!) and so on. People stop at their drive throughs every morning, spending atleast $2.00 (assuming they just get a plain coffee) every single morning! With 52 weeks a year, 5 working days a week, thats $520 a year!

I can never understand the Starbucks concept. I can give the laptop show-offs the benefit of doubt; they may be business travelers or people new to town who do not have internet connections yet, or people on vacation who have to desperately check their email. But, why do so many people sit there and just read books and old newspapers? why won't they go home? Students bring their books and "study"!!??! (the height was even desi students in my university would do this in the coffee shop at the Borders bookstores - would they sit in saravana bhavan and do assignments? edhukku indha vetti vilambaram?!!)



For some genuinely good coffee, try Krispy Kreme's coffee next time. Get the smallest size; as they fill the cup to the brim with black coffee, pour away 1/4 of the cup and fill it to the top with half-half and add 1.5 packets of sweetener. Its almost as good as madras coffee (and it better be, they claim their coffee is as good as their doughnuts)

Jagadhanandhakaraka Lyrics

You can find detailed lyrics (with meaning) and swarams here

Kanaa Kanden - Tamizh cinema for grownups

Intelligent tamizh cinema! There used to be a time when every year, there were gems from Manirathnam, KB, and Vasanth. A new generation of directors in tamizh cinema may just be in the process of bringing the golden years back!

Kanaa Kanden is path breaking in many ways - an intelligent scientist for a hero (ofcourse, he still resorts to adi dhadi, but hey, the producer has to make his money). I still cannot get over the heroine (Gopika) - She has the nerve to walk out of her arranged marriage. When the mapillai and her rowdy anna try to threaten her, instead of hiding behind the hero crying, she fights back and says "nee enna force panni thaali kattarapodhu naa enna summa irupena?" etc etc. Srikanth and Gopika are first roommates, and then.. hold your breath.. they actually have a live in relationship, and finally take their time to get married! No big lectures on whats right and whats wrong here.

There is no thangachi sentiment, and no small town hero beating up all the rowdies of Chennai. Instead the hero wants to establish his own salt water desalination plant and they get trapped by a ruthless "kandhu vaddi" lender - Prithviraj. Prithviraj is another big plus point of the movie. He is the perfect villain - smart, savvy, and infuriating enough. His "hey it hurts" dialogue rocks! Vivek is hilarious as usual (but dont watch it with your kids or your parents).

Watch Kana kanden! its truly different cinema.

Turn back time?

My sister sent me a link to this article in the Hindu regarding entrance exams.

JJ has taken the really controversial decision of abolishing improvement exams and common entrance exams. From now, only 12th marks will be considered for entrance to engineering, medicine etc in Tamilnadu.

Parents will argue the merits/demerits of this decision for the next 10 years (and 11 std and younger students all over will be rejoicing). Whatever people may say, I think this is a fabulous decision. The entrance exams have always been way too difficult and not applicable to real life professional skills at all (what is the logic in making an overworked student choose between a)0.0000495 or b)0.00000495 or c) 0.0000945)??

On a personal note, my super padips sis scored more than 98% in 12th exams and ranked 23rd in the state. But, thanks to the entrance tests and the reservation policy, she went through hell before getting a medical college seat (she finally got into a private medical college via the waiting list). If the common entrance tests had been abolished a few years back, my sister would have been in MMC. The lives of many deserving students would have been totally different (would you believe it, many students scored less because of the graphite pencil grading concept - you got screwed if you tried to erase and redo an answer).

Anyway, better late than never. Thanks CM! (and goodbye Excel tutorials!)

The power of Google Maps

Google introduced its google maps about four months ago. After years of getting lost thanks to yahoo maps and mapquest, google maps is a great invention. Plug in the directions, and the map that you see is interactive (so is mapquest, but google maps is a lot more user friendly). Its like laying hands on a big paper map and having a magnifying glass zooming in every street. Also cool is the ability to do local searches (type in an intersection and the type of cuisine you want and google maps out all the restaurants) nearby.



CNN had this really good article today about how developers (not the google guys) use data from outside databases and combine it with google's mapping technology to give users really useful information.

I find this concept fascinating. Thanks to this website, you can actually enter a location type, and district in chicago, and know which bar or car wash to avoid because of its crime history!

With the Housing maps site, which combines data from craig's list with google maps to identify houses/rentals on a map based on your criteria.

Right now, these sites have been developed by people not officially affiliated with google - many actually do it out of their own interest for developing new sites, and as a service for their community. However, many companies have expressed interest in combining data with google maps.

Chinmayi's blog

Chinmayi's Blog: With a good classical background, Chinmayi has a refreshingly different voice. I listen to her Noodhana song everyday on my drive to work and I kept wondering which raagam it is based on (cinema songs are rarely based on one single raagam). I found the answer in her blog - Nalinakanthi for the most part. Endhan nenjil neengadha and Manam virumbudhe unnai are other songs in this raagam (manam virumbudhe's pallavi is in turn is based on manavyalakim - for more on copied songs, check out this link). As a bonus, there is a detailed analysis of an Ilayaraja song by Chinmayi's mom (who appears to have a lot of carnatic music knowledge)

Sudhish Kamat's blog::
Copied and pasted the following from my friend's email:
Sudhish kamath writes for hindu regularly. This is his personal blog site. He gives an insight about working for a newspaper. He gets paid for watching movies and travelling (and ofcourse writing a review on them)!!

The greatest bookstore

Here is the post that inspired me to write this: Tilotamma's blog

For two years, I lived in Luz corner in Mylapore, a block away from the beautiful Luz Church. In the sidewalk opposite my apartment, there was a huge used books "shop" - there were no walls, no billing counters - just mountains of books on the sidewalk, guarded by old pieces of plastic sheets (luckily for the books, it almost never rains in Madras!)

For a long time, in all my ignorance, I thought of it as just a big dump. When I started college, I heard people mention a famous used books store in Mylapore. I realized that it was Azhwar kadai, the "dump" opposite my apartment. I was still sceptical, but I went there anyway to get an engineering book.

I tried to find the store owner. There was an elderly man sitting on an old chair. He had a long white flowing beard, and was wearing an old white veshti. At first I ignored him, looking for someone else (ignorant me). He finally offered to help me. Turns out, he was Azhwar himself. I reeled out the name of the book, and he gave me a choice of two different authors for that subject. I was absolutely shocked.

The book was not for any popular beginner's engineering subject. It was for a course that few people take (in production engineering). If he could immediately recognize the name of the book, and list all the authors in that subject, he HAD to be the greatest librarian. He did not need any dewey decimal system - he just disappeared into the book pile for a few minutes and found it.

I saved Rs 350 that day (by not buying a new book) and had a profoundly humbling experience. How quick was I to dismiss someone just because his appearance did not fit into the narrow definitions of what we generally think is sophisticated?

There are many stories about all the rare books that can be miraculously found in Azhwar kadai. It is truly a Madras treasure. I just hope that the Madras Corporation does not do away with this gem in an attempt to "beautify" the city.

The Nayakan Controversy

(Picture source: www.vikatan.com)

Time magazine listed Nayakan and Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy in its top 100 movies list - the response from Bollywood? They are protesting!!!! This really drives me crazy. Instead of taking pride in the recognition of one of the best Indian movies of all time (Nayakan), the age old north-Vs-south indian divide has set in, with Bollywood questioning why their "great" movies were not included.

When someone compiles a list of good movies, they just include the ones they have seen. There are thousands of good movies made all around the world - you can only rate the handful that you watch. For example, rediff interviewed Subhash Ghai (!!does he really know what good cinema is?) and Vipul Shah and published their favorites. Both their lists are called "INDIA's best films" - and neither has a single non-hindi film. Do both the directors think that the best Indian movies are all hindi? Are there no good movies in Malayalam, Tamil or Bengali? When hindi directors cannot even list one indian movie outside hindi cinema, how can bollywood criticize Time magazine's list for not being comprehensive enough, and for not including hindi movies?

Also, I cannot digest the fact that Bollywood is actually trying to talk about good cinema. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, some great movies were made. And Richard Corliss should watch the Guide - not including Dev Anand's masterpiece is really a glaring omission. However, after the great promise in the mid nineties with movies like Hum apke hain koun and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Bollywood has never risen above mediocre fare (no, Lagaan was NOT a classic).
And Mr.Subhash Ghai, do you really think Taal is one of the top 10 movies of indian cinema?????!!!! Perhaps you could learn about both movie making and modesty from Manirathnam?