Movie Review - Raavanan

After more than a year, an event has finally happened which made me revive this blog. A new Maniratnam movie. Oh Yea, there are some things in life that HAVE to be talked about.

"Opinions are like you-know-whats; Everybody has one", the saying goes. And everybody has an opinion about Raavanan. Anecdotal evidence suggests that reviews by Indian viewers are more critical than the forgiving NRI gumbal that is desperate for any form of entertainment.

So yea, the movie is not all that bad. It is most definitely not boring. But, if all of Mani's creations were ranked from 1 to n, this would land at the very bottom of the heap. Why? Well, i'll dwell on the pluses before the minuses

Pluses -

- Vikram's dynamite performance: From the "saavu melam" that he beats in the opening sequence, to his shy proposal to Ash, Vikram is world class. If i were Raagini, I would have texted Dev asking him to get on with his life and lived happily ever after with hottie Ravan!

- Camera -OK, read all the other reviews to learn more about this

Minuses -

- Ash - She had her hey days, and sadly, those days are long past. And no, I am not referring to her age here. She looks jaded, far beyond her years. OK, so she does look watchable on the big screen, but if you were to take away her skin and make her eyes look black rather than green, would she still be the lead in such a big budget movie?

- A.R Rahman - Dude, yea, you did win the Oscar, but did you leave your sruthi potti behind in LA? The "chandthiranum sooriyanum" line in Usure pogudhe is the most egregious example of abaswaram. And the Keda curry song? No wonder Mani didn't give a shit about song picturizations in this movie

- Dialogues - Mani's movies have always been lauded/laughed at for the dialogues. They have always been uniquely weird - all the characters speak in crazy clipped sentences like "Vittudu.. ...Ellathayom....Ellathayom vittudu...". Nobody talks like that in real life, but somehow, they kinda made sense in the universe Mani created in his earlier movies. Here, Suhasini's dialogues are more verbose, and yea, everything goes to hell. I cannot write anymore on this topic, i am still tired from the onslaught of gramathu thamizh that is probably not spoken in any gramam on this planet. See, there is NOBODY more boat-club-road-chic and urbane than Suhasini and Mani, so WHY O WHY do they insist on doing something they really don't have a clue about?

And then, here is the biggest biggest flaw in the movie....Dev's character. The problem does not lie with the fact that Mani tried to create a positive Raavanan and imbibe shades of negativity into his Ram. He has done this before and succeeded - remember Mammooty in Thalapathi? He played Duryodhana's character and he was portrayed as this modern day Robinhood who Rajni (Karna) would give his life for. Nobody had a problem with that movie, and it remains one of Rajni's best. That movie succeeded because Arjun's character (played by Arvind Sami), served as a perfect counter point to Karna and Duryodhana. And the audience took sides with both the good guys and the "bad" guys (at least in the eyes of the law). Dev is no Arjun, and the movie suffers for it. Mani should have had the guts to make him either perfectly good, or super bad. He does neither. Dev ends up looking like a boring A***le. You neither like him, nor can you bother taking the effort to dislike him. What a cop-out.

And speaking of cop outs, is Mani being paid to make movies for Ash and Abhi?

So really, the movie is not bad, but that isnt saying much; anybody can rehash a famous epic, and draw plenty of inspiration from earlier epics they already adapted into cinema (even Thalapati was about a Robinhood that an honest government official wanted to arrest)

Mani, we really expected so much more from you......

PS: There is a very bright silver lining here; Remember Dil Se? Yea, everybody likes it today, but 10 years ago, it was universally panned by critics and flopped. And then, Mani quit messing around with bollywood (atleast for a brief while), totally went back to his roots, and gave us..sigh...Alaipayuthy. Hope history repeats itself.

Movie Review - Guna

Did I hear you say this review is 17 years too late? Well, blogs did not exist during my 8th std days (thats when the movie was released and yes, I am OLD). Anyway, isnt it always better late than never?

I had time to kill during the weekend, and I had to feed my Thamizh cinema cravings. I absolutely could not watch another movie starring self proclaimed "little" superstars, "megastars", "thalapathis" etc. So I decided to go back to the real deal, to a time when there were two real superstars. I watched Guna again.

Kamal is always guilty of making movies far ahead of their time (recent examples - Hey Ram, Anbe Sivam) and the box office punishes him for his efforts. Guna is one such movie - very few people appreciated it when it was released, plus, the timing was really bad. Guna was released the same day as Maniratnam's classic Thalapathi with Rajnikanth. However, commercial success or not, Guna is a brilliant movie, and its small flaws can be forgiven.

The story:
Its about Guna - an "obsessive psycho neurotic". He is totally delusional. He somehows believes that under his scarred exterior lies pure divine goodness, and he is no different from Siva himself. And he believes that he will meet his Abirami (Parvathi) someday and she will elevate him from the squalor of his surroundings and it will be a divine union of souls. He does end up meeting a girl, convinces himself that she is his Abirami and abducts her. Many plot twists later, does she end up reciprocating his love? Do they live happily every after?

The performances:
Kamal is the God of acting. He makes you fall in love with his character...Guna is annoying, endearing, childlike, and mostly nuts, and he still makes you root for him. You want the heroine to fall in love with him and your heart breaks for him in the final scenes. The heroine Roshini is very pretty. There is a certain innocence to her face, and you can see why Kamal so readily falls for her. She didnt really act in any movies after that did she?

The music:
1992 was Illayaraja's last golden year (Rahman's Roja was released the next year). I remember traveling to Ooty and Coimbatore before Diwali that year, and literally, every patti thotti was playing Thalapathi and Guna endlessly. Guna's songs were mostly situational - you would not really want to play them in your car stereo, but watched along with the movie, his songs are brilliant.

Though Kanmani anbodu is everybody's favorite, I loved Partha vizhi paartha padi. The whole movie is about this concept of divine, other-worldly love, and this song totally nails it. The percussion sequence towards the end of the song for the Shiva Parvathi thaandavam is brilliant. Even more divine is the background score in Raagam Hamsanadham, just before the song starts. This is when Kamal falls in love with his "Abirami" and this tune is repeated throughout the rest of the movie whenever Kamal is overwhelmed by his emotions. The chorus during the movie's ending is especially haunting. If not for anything else, Ilayaraja's back ground score is a good enough reason to watch the movie.

The classic scenes:
Despite being a commercial failure, Guna has found a place in the history of Thamizh cinema for some fantastic scenes.

- Kamal in his doctor's office during a therapy session - He whips himself into a frenzy, rapidly pacing round and round a tiny room, describing his fantasy of living on a cold moutain with the smell of his medicine and his Abirami. The camera picks up dizzying speed, your heart beats in tandem, and the scene comes to an abrupt end with Kamal crashing into the room's door. Brilliant!

- Another beautiful scene is when Kamal thinks his mother is dead, and then finds her hale and hearty. He cries with relief, love and anger (at being lied to), and you cry because he didnt get an Oscar for that scene!

- "Manidhar unarndhu kolla idhu manidha kaadhal alla...." Kamal's voice, the Guna caves in Kodaikanal, the wonderful camera work...sigh...

- "Abirami sonna pournami dhaan" - The heroine wants Kamal to marry her, he insists they wait till the full moon. She does not want to wait and she tells him that it is Pournami. He immediately agrees and says "Abirami sonna pournami dhaan" (if Abirami says so, it is the full moon then). The dialogue ends there, but I really like the reference to the Abirami Andhadhi here. The scene alludes to the events surrounding Abirami Battar - a saint who was a true devotee of the Goddess. In response to his pleas, when he was singing the verses of Abirami andhadhi, the goddess flung her earring into the sky and the new moon night turned into a full moon night. The movie has other references to Abirami Andhadhi - the songs Partha vizhi has a few lines (Idam kondu vimmi..) and Kamal repeats these same lines in the climax. Thamizh vaazhga, adhai valartha Kamal vaazhga!

Ofcourse, the movie does have flaws. It is too long, there is a lot of crying, SPB's coughing and wheezing is plain annoying and the Unnai naan ariven song is way too long and depressing. These flaws aside, the movie is a brave attempt and stays true to its story - about love that is beyond the understanding of mere mortals. The movie also ended up beyond the understanding of most Thamizh audiences. Sigh....

Want to get around? Leave your car at home!

Departing from our Thanksgiving tradition of a Vegas trip, I insisted we go either to San Fran or Napa. Really, with the kind of rents and taxes we pay here in the bay area, coughing up air fare and car rental fees is really painful. So, we decided to have a short and sweet night out in the big city. Parking at the Sunnyvale caltrain station was cheap, just 2 dollars for 24 hours.

The train ride was painful though - a really long hour and fifteen minutes. However, after we reached San Francisco, I realized the true bliss that comes with being a backpacker. We did not have to worry about traffic, or maps, or finding parking, or dodging crazy bicyclists. Of course, on the sidewalks, we did have to contend with a lot of second hand cigarette smoke and spitting (oh yea, they do that here as well...ewww...)

But the beauty of the city eclipsed all the grubbiness around us. San Francisco derives much of its character from the various hills that the city is built on, giving a quaint old world feel to the city streets. Amidst the boring sky scrapers, flashes of beautiful architecture still remain. The city's population is incredibly diverse, and much to my chagrin, there were a lot of incredibly good looking women around, intent on giving me a complex.

We contained ourselves to the Union square area for this trip. It is a lot of fun, and a shopper's mecca, surrounded by immense flagship stores (Macys, Armani, Tiffany etc etc). I paid for not doing my due diligence as a tourist by missing the Macy's Christmas tree lighting ceremony by ten minutes. Still, we managed to find our way to the base of the tree squeezing past milling crowds that you would normally find only in Ranganathan street.

A short trek past Union Square took us past several fancy art galleries. Of course, most of them had their doors shut to ward off pesky tourists (self included). One art gallery seemed welcoming enough, and we were rewarded with glimpses of rare prints of Renoir and Rembrandt. We then made our way to the Millennium restaurant for a spectacular meal (and it deserves an entire blog post, so more on this later).

After a lazy morning with lots of shopping (I now consider it my patriotic duty as an American resident to stimulate the economy with my hard earned dollars), we finally made our way back to the oh-so-dull bay area. I cannot wait for our next day trip - I really want to relive the sixties and its magical flower power in the legendary Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

Trying to get my life back...

The details are a tad too personal for me to write here. Lets just say, I had the fortune and misfortune of experiencing the highest of highs and lowest of lows that any person can experience. The high point lasted all too briefly, and I am now trying to pick up the pieces of my life.

I briefly considered deleting this blog completely. Everything really seemed pointless. But, after wandering around my newly rented apartment, with truly nowhere to go and nothing to do, this silent space was all that I could turn to. There was a time when I had a life right? When I read books, cooked, traveled, had an opinion about things? Maybe its time to be myself again. Writing is a start.

Bay area veggie - Rajjot

K now has a big reprieve from my anti-California/pro-midwest tirade. The reason? My new job, or more specifically, the location of my new workplace. I am now just a mile away from "little India" in Sunnyvale and this translates into some really cool vegetarian lunch choices (and no more subway!! yaay!!!)

One of the best places in the bay area to get vegetarian food, especially if you like home style cooking is Rajjot. Located at the intersection of El camino and Wolfe road in Sunnyvale, it is hard to miss. Don't let the lack of decor or mismatched furniture put you off. The food is seriously good, at extemely reasonable rates (a piping hot desi lunch for about 6 bucks!). I've tasted almost all the vegetarian dishes in the menu (except the sweets), so here are some of my favorites dishes:

1) Samosa with channa - The potato stuffing in the samosas is perfectly seasoned, and you get more channa than you can finish in one sitting

2) Rajma/Dal makhani/Yellow dhal and rotis - This is one of my lunch staples. For $2.50, you get a generous serving of rajma or dal (or any other veggie side dish). The rotis are piping hot, and served with mixed vegetable pickle and sliced onions (very dhaba-ish)

3) Saag - There is no paneer, but the saag by itself is creamy and flavorful

4) Malai kofta - Sure, it is sinful with waaay too much cream. But, with the flavor of ghee and a sweetish tinge, just a tablespoon sized serving is good enough to spice up your meal

5) Gobi/Masala/Paneer/Aloo paratha - These massive parathas paired with raita and pickle are filling and satisfying

Unless you are eating by yourself, Rajjot is not really a sit-down kinda restaurant to take your family to. But, it is the perfect place for takeout. During lunch, anytime after 12:15 pm, the place could get crowded, so do try to get there earlier. You can phone in your order, and don't let the rather gruff staff turn you off. They have tons of customers, and i guess, they believe in giving customers an authentic indian experience in more ways than one!

Movie Review - Kuselan

Whats up with malayalam movies? Well, atleast the ones they remake into Thamizh superhits? Their first two and a half hours plod along, at a pace that would give snails major superiority complex. Then bam! The final thirty minutes of the movie end up being absolutely incredible. Cases in point? Kathalukku mariyathai, Chandramukhi, and now, Kuselan.

It would be a blessing for the audience if the moviemakers would spare us the ordeal of the first 2.5 hours and just cut to the chase. But then, nobody on this planet can get away with a forty five minute movie. So, we are forced to endure an interminable number of puerile Vadivelu jokes, haphazardly thrown together montages of Thamizh cinema, and all the mandatory shots about a poor but peaceful family holding hands and prancing along the shores of a lake where dolphins leap out every now and then (yes, really, dolphins!!!! In Thamizhnadu!). And then we get to see Nayanthara, a lot of her in fact. The pleasantly plump fresh faced actress of Chandramukhi has now morphed into this entirely different person thanks to seriously thinned eyebrows, rebonded hair, and God knows what combination of diet and liposuction. The innocence is all gone, and she frankly seems rather angry that her nutritionist took her lunch away.

The still chubby and natural Meena is a welcome contrast, with her trademark wide-eyed charm and a subdued, gentle performance. Pasupathi shines with his sincere portrayal. G.V Prakash's musical score does not rise above the ordinary. Cinematographer Aravind Krishnan does a superb job, especially with his extreme closeups of Rajni's face; every single emotion is captured, while the Superstar's age is miraculously masked.

After patiently waiting out all the barber jokes and other "comedy", us loyal fans are finally rewarded with a truly brilliant performance by Rajnikanth. Sorry, calling it a performance is inaccurate. The Superstar does not act. He simply plays himself. It is as though he listened to all our complaints post Sivaji - the boss. Sure, even in this movie, he romances a young heroine, and appears in a number of super hero get-ups, but these are just for the movie shoot around which the entire film's plot revolves. He good naturedly spoofs himself, and appears to genuinely enjoy doing it.

In every scene, he makes the audience hang on to each word he utters. There is a lot to be said about the movie's climax, but then, that would be unfair to the reader who has not watched the movie yet. Rajni moves the audience with a never seen before display of real emotion. I can only say this - if you are the Superstar's fan already, you will worship him after watching Kuselan. Even if you are not a believer yet, you will be converted. In Kuselan, Rajni's soul shines through. And how!!!

The 'grinding' lady

My childhood days revolved around a plethora of gentle souls popping in and out of our home everyday. Their regular visits were interrupted only during the most intense cyclone, that would promptly render all roads virtually impassable.

We never really needed to look at a clock to check out the time. The paalkari's (milk lady) early morning cry meant that only 30 more minutes of blessed sleep remained before we had to face another grueling day at school. At 9:00 am, it was Sakunthala's turn, feeding my mom with the day's gossip along with menu ideas when supplying the day's veggies. The 'poo' kari (flower lady) would show up just as the evening lamps were being lit, with a face as cheerful as the blooms in her basket. My mom would passionately swear that she was robbing us by gradually reducing the number of jasmine flowers per foot of twine, and the pookari would defend her trade like her family's honor depended on it and magnanimously give us a 'free' 2 inches of threaded jasmine.

The lady who fascinated me the most was our 'araikara mami' ('the aunty who grinds' being a literal and rather weird translation). Impossibly tall and skinny, she would show up every week. After patiently making small talk with my paati, she would sprinkle a few drops of water on our old fashioned grinding stone. Then, she would magically transform soaked rice and dhal into fluffy dosa and idli batter. I would sit next to her, utterly fascinated. Somehow, I could never comprehend how, in the abscence of sharp blades, just a dull stone appliance could work so effectively. I would often playfully drag my fingers along the batter's surface, and mami would never say a word; smilingly, she would simply maneouver the grinding stone away from my fingers.

I took her presence for granted. Now looking back, I can only remember the haunting sadness in her eyes, even as she quietly smiled at me. Was she unwell? What financial troubles prompted a lady like her to take up such physically intense work for a livelihood? In this day of instant dosa and idli batter, what does she now do for a living? Or, has God been kind to her...maybe her son now earns a good paycheck and takes care of her?

After I moved to the USA (its now exactly eight years since), I miss all of them immensely - the milk lady, the watchman, the flower lady, and the grinding lady. I really do. They have always been there for us - even spending many hours with my ailing grandmother, giving her the company that she yearned for. I am now too far away to return their affection - I can only thank them with all my heart.

Movie Review - The Dark Knight

Rare is the movie that lives up to its pre-release hype. Rarer still is the movie which blows away all expectations, exceeding even the highest hopes held by its franchise's loyalists. The Dark Knight belongs to the latter category. Calling it a movie, especially a super hero movie does it great injustice. It is a cinematic event. A benchmark that all future movie makers can only aspire to attain.

The Dark Knight's central theme is not really too different from other super hero movies. The secretive protagonist cannot reveal his true identity; his biggest fear is the fact that his loved ones are exposed to great danger. He struggles with a love/hate relationship with the public. Ultimately, he is forced into a massive showdown by the villain, and defends his city putting himself at great peril. Sure, this story reads a bit like Spiderman 3. Heck, even the rather pathetic Hancock had similar story elements. However, the storyline forms only a tiny portion of what The Dark Knight has to offer. The movie's zing comes from the unrelentingly dark screenplay.

The comicky feel of super hero movies can often be attributed to caricatured villains (remember Spidey's wussy dialogue "oh green goblin, what have you done....") These traditional villains have something logical (at least to their twisted minds) to fight for. And that is where The Dark Knight makes a radical shift from its genre. Batman's nemesis is the Joker. And the Joker wreaks havoc for one simple reason - because he can. As the movie progresses, the Joker's antics become increasingly terrifying - even Gotham's conventional villains (the mobsters) cannot survive. The Joker does not really want to destroy Batman - he needs Batman's good to contrast with his evil.

Much has been said and written by Heath Ledger's performance. He deserves every accolade and then some more. With his greasy hair, chilling voice, mirthless laughter, macabre makeup and scars across his cheeks (a tiny hint into the horrors he suffered as a child), Heath takes method acting to heights never before scaled by any other actor on this planet. I would love to watch this movie again, just to experience Heath's spine chilling performance.

While The Dark Knight belongs to Heath all the way, it would be a shame to ignore the supporting cast - Christian Bale as Batman, and Aaron Eckhart as the city's district attorney shine. Maggie Gyllenhal replaces Katie Holmes. I found her performance a tad disappointing - there was at least some chemistry between Katie and Christian. She also did bring some urgency and earnestness to her character.

The musical score by Hans Zimmer is simply brilliant. Also notable is the gritty action - there is very little use of CGI. Every stunt has been painstakingly executed. Even the heart stopping 18 wheeler chase was shot using actual vehicles, right in the narrow streets of Chicago. And speaking of Chicago, the director makes splendid use of the grand old city, transforming it into Gotham just by using strategic art direction and muted camera work.

Watch The Dark Knight. It is brilliant. Thank you Heath. We sure will miss you.

Some awesome television after a long time

Like a true blue desi, I get a little excited whenever there is any mention of India, or Indians in regular American TV programs. So, imagine my surprise when I started watching Heroes.

I never had a chance to catch this much acclaimed hit television series when it first started airing in NBC. Recently, K and I discovered the incredible watch-instantly feature of Netflix. All we needed was an HDMI cable to connect the computer to our HDTV and voila, the entire first and second seasons of Heroes was at our finger tips.

One of the lead characters in Heroes is Dr.Mohinder Suresh, played by Indian-American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy. In the series, he is shown teaching at "Chennai University", and later travels to the USA to pursue answers to the mysterious research performed by his murdered Dad. The scope of Heroes is sweeping and global- there are characters from Mexico, Ireland, Japan etc. I was pleasantly surprised by Mohinder's character, and more so by Senthil's performance -he comes across as intelligent and rather cute.

However, the set design is a let down. Sure, I did not expect NBC's cast and crew to fly to Madras and shoot in the thannithorai market, but, there is very little authenticity - you see sari clad women - albeit with sarees tied in the gujarathi style; Ok maybe they were trying to recreate Sowcarpet, but there are two towering temple gopurams (almost side by side) in the background. Huh??? And then, there is a sequence set in Kanyakumari. Looks like it was shot in a beach in California, which is ok given budget constraints. The Valluvar statue is shown in one shot, but, the next shot shows a Varnasi style temple structure right there in the seashore!

Well, I guess I am needlessly nitpicking. I am totally enjoying the idea of a mainstream Indian character not being reduced to a caricature. The series is genuinely good - it is entertaining, suspenseful, and sentimental (without being cheesy). The third season premiers in September. I cannot wait!

Movie Review - Dasavatharam

Warning*** Some spoilers below...

Seldom have I felt such conflicting emotions after watching a movie - do I love it or hate it? Well, after much thought - here is my verdict; the movie offered tantalizing glimpses into the immense potential that Thamizh and Indian cinema has; however, its impact is marred by innumerable gimmicks, dreadful makeup, and needless/endless hero-worshipping that much of Kollywood feels compelled to indulge in.

To state that Kamal is a great actor is like saying that the sun rises in the east. It is that obvious, and that indisputable. He does not act - he simply becomes the character. In the eighties, perhaps bored by simple "hero" roles, Kamal began experimenting with various avatars. And thus began the string of movies where the handsome actor intentionally disfigured and/or disguised himself, playing old men, midgets, etc etc. It just took a few eyebrow pencil lines on his forehead, a little talcum powder on his hair, a wig and some false teeth (and yea, the occasionally bound up legs or water bags tied around his stomach too)

Then sadly, Kamal discovered the "art"(?) of prosthetic makeup. Painfully enduring hours of application, and then many hours more for removal, Kamal transformed himself into an elderly vigilante for Shankar's Indian. Sure, he won a national award for the movie, but frankly, the makeup stuff (bearing scary resemblance to chapathi dough) ended up masking all his facial expressions (and Kamal is the most expressive actor I have ever seen). If one Indian-thatha was hard to watch, imagine the plight of the audience when asked to endure another eight such atta-masked characters in Dasavatharam.

Ironically, the only characters that leave a lasting impression on the viewer are the ones where Kamal allows his real face to show without the distractions of makeup (the scientist, and the 12th century Vaishnavite) or minimal makeup (the hilarious RAW agent). Watching the movie, you come to the quick conclusion that Kamal plays ten roles, just so that the movie could be called "Dasavatharam" and he could enter all the record books. Some of the characters do nothing to help move the story forward (Avatar Singh, the Japanese person), while the makeup on some other characters (the tall guy, the 95 year old paati) is so grotesque, you scratch your head wondering "what were Kamal and K.S Ravikumar thinking?"

Also, despite the seeming novelty of Kamal's multiple avatars, each role has a stale been-there-done-that feel. The Old lady? Yea, Avvai Shanmugi. Humanitarian guy pushing aside conventional religion? Kamal already did that in Anbe Sivam. Pious Vaishnavite? Remember Hey Ram? Suave foreign returned dude? the Madan character in MMKR....Hey, Kamal has even portrayed a japanese character already in the Kalyanaraman series.

Without the avatars, the movie would have been truly brilliant. A scientist participates in the creation of a bio weapon that could kill millions of people if released in the air. The bad guys want to get a hold of it. How he tries to save the weapon, dodging a ruthless ex-CIA agent forms the rest of the plot. Beautiful Asin reaches the pinnacle of her career with a fabulous performance as an orthodox Agraharam girl.

Kamal's Balaram Naidu character can easily be ranked the best, with laugh-out-loud funny dialogues. If you can forgive the bad makeup, Kamal has also excelled as the 95 year old lady and George Bush. The CIA officer would have been cool, but I could not look past the disproportionately sized head.

The biggest letdown however happens right in the beginning of the movie; There is a perfect sub plot set in 12th century Thamizhnadu - the tussle between a Chola king and a pious temple priest. Everything about this sequence was mind boggling - the special effects, majestic performances by Kamal and Napoleon, unparalleled art direction, lush cinematography and special effects hitherto never seen before in Indian cinema. I really thought the movie was going to evolve into a wonderful historical/supernatural/philosophical/religious/paranormal adventure. However, this sub-plot ends, without tying into the main script, and the rest of the movie is fairly mundane. What was the significance of this opening sequence? Was it to show that Kamal and Asin's souls are reincarnated and they unite in a later avatar? So?

Like it or hate it, the movie cannot be ignored. The special effects, while imperfect, are still truly commendable. The tremendous effort put in by the actors, and crew shows literally in every frame. Arggh....if only they had not bothered with the avatars and the makeup......

Here is the bottom line- Kamal is arguably the greatest actor in the world. A wonderful performer like him, does NOT need stuff plastered on his face. He has already set all the records he needs to in his illustrious career - he does not need any more gimmicks. As a movie buff, with a lifelong crush on Kamal, I can only hope that he goes back to his roots and leverages his talent and immense brainpower to make some seriously good cinema.

Mr. Kamal Haasan, you ARE the greatest. We already know that. So please, can we see the real you and nothing but your true face in your next movie? Please?

Image source: http://www.indiaglitz.com/

Book Review - The 10 year nap

Forgive me for an unimaginative tag line, but really, this book can even make a chronic insomniac fall into a deep, 10 year nap!

As a woman intentionally stepping away from the rat race to focus on my personal life, I was very interested in reading this book as its concept was intriguing - a detailed study into the lives of women who have quit their jobs to look after their kids and contrasting the current generation of women with the feminists of the 60s and the 70s.

This subject carries so much potential, but the author sadly builds a one dimensional tale around four uninspiring protagonists. The women are perennially unhappy, they do not know what to say when people ask them the dreaded "what do you do?" question (why not just let people know that they are stay-at-home-moms? what is wrong with that?). They take little interest in managing their family's finances, or building a happy home for their children. They wage a constant mental war against working women.

Books like these perform a serious injustice against women - promoting the age old cliches about working women and home makers. Is it really that complicated? As a working woman, I look at my non-working friends and cousins and envy them for the following -
* They get to see the sun rise and set (instead of going into an office at dawn and re-emerging 12 hours later after sun set)
* They spend their day loving and nurturing children
* They are always there for family and friends
* They do not need to face nasty egoistic people, and engage in thankless tasks

My non-working friends look at me and envy me for the following -
* My freedom (what freedom? I ask....anyway, that's what they think)
* My ability to just pack a couple of bags and travel around the world with K (we can never get the time off from work to do it)
* My ability to make money (but is it not the law of the world that as your paychecks increase, your expenses also increase?)

So bottom line, there is no perfect scenario - there are good and not so good things with choosing either path. The author Meg Wolitzer could have at least attempted to explore both sides of the equation. However, she chooses to fill 368 tedious pages with elaborate character sketches, not just of the four women, but their moms, and then, for some inexplicable reason, Margaret Thatcher. A basic plot and some heartfelt empathy are both conspicuous by their absence. Geez, I could have just taken a nap.

Media matters...or does it anymore?

No, its not a tween bitching about her hotter classmate on Myspace - its Maureen Dowd writing for the New York times. And is there any difference between said tween and Pulitzer prize winning Maureen? Not really, if the barometer for judging is Maureen's columns over the past few months.

Check out the titles of some of her recent columns - "Watch Out, Meryl Streep! She’s a Master Thespian', "All about Eve", "Is she a Trojan rabbit", "Surrender already Dorothy". Oh yea, the terms Trojan rabbit, Master Thespian etc etc applies to a woman who is a former first lady, currently powerful senator, and almost won the democratic primaries (till the establishment chose to bury her)

If this is the kind of trash talk from a female journalist, you can imagine the nature of the commentary from male journalists. Seldom have I seen any character assasination to the scale of what has happened in the recent past. Mike Huckabee did exactly the same thing as Hillary - he chose to stay in the race, till McCain reached the requisite majority of delegates. Was there even a whimper of protest? Not really.

And if you still do not buy into my rant against misogyny, do check out this youtube montage that Judith Warner mentioned in her blog in NY times (she is my new favorite now).

If the tables were turned - if it had been Barack who had won all the major states like California, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and a claim to the popular vote majority, and if he had been asked by Hillary's supporters to get out of the race, can you imagine the backlash and accusations of racism?

After obsessively following the primaries (I have been a rabid Obama supporter from 2004), I completely stopped following any of the races after March 18. My reason was simple - the only response the mainstream media could come up with for Obama's historical speech on race was this - "Did he throw his grandma under the bus?".

I gave up then, and did I miss a thing? Absolutely not. And by not listening to the news or reading political blogs, I got back two whole hours back every day; I could easily stay informed by skimming the headlines for a few minutes and listening to NPR radio on my way in to work.

The pathetic primary season ends...no wait...the media will still extract as much viewership as possible from speculation about the vice presidential candidates. Does anyone have any inside information or the ability to accurately predict who the Veep candidate from either party will be? Absolutely not - but do expect to see endless speculation and tripe from "panelists" who speak with more certainty about Barack's intentions than he himself would.

Will we see any real debate by the media on the pros and cons of the candidates' views on economic reform, education, national defense, and the environment? I am not going to hold my breath. But at least, I can delete Maureen's feed from my google reader page. Thank God for Paul Krugman, and NPR!

Spending .....is it all destiny?

After many years of careful financial planning and frugal living, K and I have painfully realized that no matter what, we always end up with a certain credit card balance every month. Trust me, we are not partying every weekend, or shopping at Calvin Klein. We rarely eat out, have no kids, and watch a movie in the theatre maybe once a month or so. We still run up a balance, larger than what we like. It could be due to an unplanned medical emergency, or a car related repair, or some other unanticipated home repair expense.

I am now leaning towards a very unscientific explanation - maybe, it is my karma to have a certain "varavu" (income) and a certain "selavu" (expense) every month? I feel powerless before it. I could just pay my rent and not climb out of bed for the next month all weekends, but somehow, the check engine light in my car will start flashing and before I know it, the auto mechanic gets richer by a few hundred bucks.

So, when spending is your karma, is it just better to go shoe shopping? Am I crazy for thinking this?

Movie Review - Sex and the City, the movie

I feel like I just survived a really bad date...wait...I feel even worse....

There is no gentle way to say it, so I'll go right ahead - the movie was vastly disappointing, just a poor shadow of the series. Sure, there were a few bright spots, but just a few. While the series was all about the girls, and the clothes were a surprising bonus, the movie becomes a pathetic exercise in over the top fashion and product placement. And not good products at that. The Louis Vuitton bag is hideous. And Carrie's beautiful wedding dress is ruined by the bird perched on top of her head (yes really, a bird)

Harsh? Yes. As I learnt from Carrie, life is all about the heartache and the heartbreak. And Carrie broke our hearts with this one.

(PS: I just cannot type anymore. Check out more reviews here)

Top 5 SATC episodes - A woman's right to shoes

Disclaimer - Almost every fabulous woman that I know is a mom. I am full of admiration and respect for mommies, and aspire to be one someday....

And with all that being said....one of my favorite SATC episodes is "A woman's right to shoes"!!!!

Most exceptional fashion statement - What else? The fabulous silver Manolos that the episode revolves around

Favorite quotes -

"I am getting married, to myself....and oh by the way, I am registered at Manolo Blahnik" - Carrie

"Where is the hallmark card for "congratulations...you did not marry the wrong guy?" - Carrie

Central premise -

Mothers are deified in every culture in this planet (and they deserve it for sure). However, the sad downside is, women without kids are often looked down upon, their lifestyle choices are seriously questioned, somehow, their passions and feelings are considered a little less important, and to Carrie's point, there really IS no occasion in which a single/childless woman's life is celebrated.

Here is the episode's storyline (and I would love to hear your thoughts on this) - Carrie is forced to take off her expensive shoes during a friend's child's birthday party. Naturally, the shoes are stolen. Carrie expects her friend to show a little sympathy, but her friend is simply callous. She accuses Carrie of having way too much time on her hands, while she, as a mom, has a real life. An angry Carrie requests compensation from her friend (her lawyer friend Miranda tells her this is legal), but her friend "shoe-shames" her by saying that she has real responsibilities and does not have to pay for Carrie's frivolous lifestyle choices.

A heartbroken Carrie does the math, and figures out that she has spent nearly 3000 dollars celebrating her married friend's lifestyle choices, and protests the fact that as a single childless woman, nobody considers her life worth celebrating. She announces that she is getting married, to herself. She registers for a single gift - the lost shoes in the Manolo Blahnik store gift registry, and her friend finally coughs up the cash (+tax by the way) and gifts Carrie the shoes

At first, I found the concept of Carrie requesting her friend to pay for her lost shoes a little odd. Miranda (who is a lawyer) thinks its fine, and legal, as it was the friend who forced Carrie to take off her expensive shoes. If I were in such a situation, would I make my friend pay? Never. But then, my real friends would NEVER ever trivialize my lifestyle choices just because I am childless.

But, if a person I considered a friend "shoe-shamed" me and somehow considered her life a lot more important than mine.....would I really accept defeat and walk away that easily? ...and then, would I even consider her a real friend? Would you??????

The Lean Veggie - Strawberries and sunshine (and some cream ofcourse)

Its my favorite time of the year - the three wonderful months between Memorial Day and Labor day. Whichever part of the nation you may find yourself in, the days keep getting longer and longer. Drenched with brilliant sunshine, bright flowers dress up even the most dreary sidewalks. Fresh produce and farmer's markets everywhere delight even the most ardent carnivores. Heck, K even managed to purchase some delightful strawberries from the big neighborhood warehouse discount store.

I rarely eat fruit, but this recipe is decadent enough to tempt even me. I love the simplicity.
The cream complements the slight tartness of the berries. I barely added any sugar to the recipe - the richness of the cream and the natural syrup from the macerated berries were good enough by themselves.

Summer also brings with it birthdays and celebrations galore (yes, including mine!) K gifted me this wonderful SLR camera that I'm still trying to figure out. Do let me know if you have some photography tips to share.

Recipe -

1) Prepare one cup of sliced strawberries (wash them and cut the green tops off before slicing)

2) Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over the berries and toss. Then cover with cling film and set aside for about 30 minutes. You will see a rich red syrup collect in the pan

3) Lightly whip a third of a cup of cream (lightly with a fork)

4) Pour the cream over the berries, add a teaspoon of honey and toss. Add a little more sugar if needed

NOTE:
Toss in sliced mango, or nectarines if you like. Any strawberries would work, but try some fresh locally grown produce if you can.

Top SATC least favorite episodes - Number 4

Episode title - The entire first season

Thats right...this much loved series actually had a rather weak first season, taking its title rather too literally. There were gimmicks galore.....characters looking at the camera and talking, Carrie's "nude" dress, unnatural dialogues like "abso-^&*^^-lutely", and all the ladies seeming a little too desperate.

Ofcourse, the biggest redeeming factor of season 1 was who else...Mr.Big (sorry, couldn't resist the big pun).

Most annoying moment - When Charlotte dumps a guy (who is miraculously perfect and the marrying kind) because their tastes in China do not match! (Episode- Bay of Married pigs)

The Fashion - Hmm.....maybe Carrie's giant fur coat or the chic sunglasses all the girls sported when driving to their formerly-wild-now-soccer-mom friend's babby shower....The clothes did not really stick to my mind, i think the style evolved in the later seasons. Remember, even the famous Carrie necklace showed up only in season 2.

Top 5 SATC Least Favorite episodes - Number 5

Episode title: I love a charade

Central premise: Can a relationship still be a relationship without the zsa zsa zsu?

Exceptional fashion statement: Carrie's green umbrella with Indian style embroidery

Best directed shot: Miranda enjoys the fragrance of lilacs, and baby Brady reaches out and grabs the flowers too (the scene signifies how the two are missing Steve)

This episode was the finale of Season 5 - also known as the least satisfying of all SATC seasons. The season had fewer episodes, due to Sarah Jessica Parker's real life pregnancy.

This episode does have some bright spots - politically incorrect Samantha refuses to get all baby friendly and bans little smelly-pants-Brady from her "A-list party", Steve and Miranda rekindle their relationship, and Miranda begins to fall in love with Steve again.

However, just when we thought wise-cracking writer Jack Berger was out of the scene as he had a girlfriend, he bumps into Carrie on the way to the Hamptons. The first of many unfunny banters begins (and continues till the two break up a painful few episodes later). I guess Michael Patrick King (the director) wanted to show how the two had an easy going, "clever" relationship, for, this was the first time Carrie was actually dating a fellow writer. But the chemistry was solely lacking between the two. And Carrie seemed way too eager to please, and for some weird reason, she overacted all through the Berger episodes, with exaggerated facial expressions and annoying gestures. I'm not sure if this was intentional - did the director want us to dislike the idea of Carrie and Berger together, or show that Carrie was not being natural, and somehow fooling herself?

Tomorrow's post is all about my favorite episodes - number 5 in my top 5 list!

(Image source: www.hbo.com)

Welcoming this decade's Big movie event

I'm going to type out a sentence that may seem crazy to some, but I genuinely mean it: Sex and the City (SATC) changed my life.

Three years ago, I was floundering a little in my personal life. I'm not sure why, but I kept moving away from the real me, and tried to fit into the stereotype of what I thought was a "good girl". Obviously, it was a bad idea, and it SO did not work. Then, one lazy weekend, my husband rented the boxed DVD set of SATC 's third season. (yea, you read right - its probably the worst kept secret in North America; men LOVE watching SATC, and most definitely NOT for the Samantha-scenes which give the series much of its notoriety and its R-rating)

It took a while for me to get hooked, but then there was no turning back. I found the message so tremendously liberating and joyful.....I realized there is a beautiful wide world out there, I realized my girlfriends were so precious to me, I discovered the fun in dressing up and being a girl, most importantly, I started being myself.

So, to celebrate this wonderful series, and welcome Sex and the city - the movie, I am going to write about my most favorite and least favorite episodes. Look forward to hearing your take on these!

Book Review - Why women should rule the world

Ok...ok....you guys...hang in there. The author Dee Dee Myers (DD for the rest of this blog post) does NOT say that all men should stay at home while women rule the planet. Infact, the misandry-filled title does little justice to what in reality, is a very interesting book.

While I attack fiction books with the gusto reserved for devouring idli-dosa-coffee breakfasts at Komala Vilas (ah....that is another blog post in itself), I usually borrow non-fiction, and return them barely read to the library. This book proved to be a different read.

DD explores three topics in very great detail throughout the book. She quotes from many research sources, simultaneously contrasting the research findings with her actual experience in the White house where she was sometimes marginalized. I could not have agreed more with her viewpoint. There are many chapters where I actually put the book down and laughed with relief as I realized that I was not alone when I found myself in many frustratingly unfair situations.

1) Why are there so few women leaders?

When you look at schools and colleges, there appears to be equal numbers of men and women. However, in many professional fields, in every ascending level of corporate power, there are fewer and fewer women as you get closer to the top. Previously, it was thought that if enough women are educated, sooner or later, you will see women in every echelon of the corporate world. In reality? This has not happened to the desired extent. Whats worse, the only jobs where women are paid equal to men, are the minimum wage ones. As you examine the more highly "valued" professions, the salary gap becomes glaring. While many women choose to step away from the rat race or at least slow down for their family, many find it increasing difficult to get back into the game when they are ready to do so. The few women who do get ahead, are held to much higher standards, and have often had to work twice as hard as their male peers

2) Why should we care anyways?

Equal opportunity for women is not just some politically correct BS. The question is not whether women can be "as good as men". Rather, the real question is, what are the unique feminine skills that women bring to the table? Read the book for the full list, but, there were so many things that DD wrote, which I could identify with; women are collaborative, oriented towards the common good as opposed to personal aggrandizement, detail oriented, and compassionate. Corporations and nations solve problems more effectively when women and men play equal roles in making key decisions. DD's examples of women in the middle east and war torn African nations is especially heart rending.

3) What should we do?

Well, when we talk about women rulers, people immediately bring up examples of women in major leadership roles who seemed to channelize all the worst qualities of men. DD offers a compelling argument to explain this. When there is one woman in a room with twenty other men, she tries to act like a man, because that is the only way she can survive. When there are, say ten women and ten men, suddenly, the gender pressures are gone. Women do not have to try and do the "tough" thing; they are free to do the right thing. DD talks about critical mass, role models...and many such more measures.

And I kept nodding my head furiously (in agreement, that is) as I read all this. I work in a male dominated industry, and have had to work ferociously hard in order for people to get over my gender, my looks, my physical stature, and my ethnicity. Eventually, I earn their respect; but do i have to go through a trial by fire every time?

Fear not, this is no feminist propaganda. It a simple cost-benefit analysis, in book form. So sisters (and brothers) try to read this. I greeted my work day with a little extra spring in my step the next morning.

(Image source: Barnes and Noble website)