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May 18, 2005

Namma Chennai

And you know how I would feel for this title on an Hindu article, Namma Chennai.

The green buses, occasional smell of filter coffee, the cursing in Tamil on the roads, and the roads themselves impart to Chennai a rare flavour. The youth are relatively uncorrupted. Branded clothes and video cameras are still not too visible. But Mylapore and Mandaveli – they are too ancient, dude!

While I parltly agree to the line of youth being relatively uncorrupt, this paragraph roughly sums up Chennai. Man I miss this city badly. Thanks Andy for the link.

Hugh Hewitt‘s book, Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing Your World wasn’t a very inspiring read. I probably read it with a perspective of a blogger while Hewitt summarizes the advent and growth of Blogs as history. You would love to read it especially if you wanted to know how Blogs revolutionized the information spread and how the popular acronym MSM[Mainstream Media] was used and sometimes abused in the blogosphere. It also talks on how CNN’s popularity was came tumbling while FOX News was starting to be accepted by the American people. Hewitt’s earlier writing on Blogs given in the Appendix are lucid with a strong passion for blogs.

If you are looking for a good book to understand the mechanics and practical ways of maintaining a blog, I would recommend Rebecca Blood‘s The Weblog Handbook. Above all if you are looking for some suggestions on blogs, do it the classical way. There are no suggestions, Just Blog.

I have no clue why Rediff is so bold over by Aishwarya’s presence in Cannes festival. Someone’s is fetish.

Illayaraja‘s tunes for Adhu Oru Kanaa Kaalam hasn’t come out with flying colors. Except for Andha Naal Nyaabagam rendered by Vijay Yesudas/Shreya Goshal and the Bhavatharini song, the rest of songs can missed without creating a sin. The moment you hear the first song you know it has Balu Mahendra + Illayaraja combo. But no classics here.
May 16, 2005

Over the weekend

[More on Flickr]

Other than polishing my monday shoes and watching three flicks in a row, I did some nice tripping around the suburbs of Seattle to glimpse the forever beauty they had in themselves. The state of Washington is called as the evergreen state and every inch of that is goddamn true. Lush green trees around you would make your ride a comfortable one. Especially if your headphones sing Illayaraja, Rahman or Dire ‘Sultans of Swing’ Straits, your drive would be certainly memorable.

Seattle is the the kind of place you would aspire to plan a honeymoon. Often, honeymoons settle down to be moneymoons. Thats a different story though. If you live in Seattle, you could enjoy that same atmosphere day in and out. I wished to take a trip to Alaska to enjoy it’s natural beauty. But after glimpsing Seattle, I’m certainly happy that I saved bigbucks on that trip. It appears exactly like the Dehraduns and Mussories as described by Ruskin Bond in his lovable stories.

Lake Washington seperates Seattle from the town of Kirkland. And that provides a great view of the Seattle landscape from Kirkland. Kirkland has the smallest of roads and cross flags planted on crossings. Yet it consists of the costliest of condos and a hugely priced real estate. Kirkland and Mercer Island are the small heavens of Seattle.

The Argosy Cruise which takes off either from Seattle downtown or Kirkland, takes you through the long strech of Lake Washington for an hour and half. There is a live running commentary about what we see on the shores, throughout the trip. Lake Washington’s shores are filled up with the homes of rich and famous. You encounter the ultra famous home of Bill Gates, the neo designed house of the Author of Excel/Word and others. So the interesting commentary sounds like a stock quote with number droppings quite often. You also travel beneath the hanging bridge of Seattle which is a freeway called IWA-520. Other than the sour cream and onion chips packets, I heard(?!) they serve good cocktails.

While the cruise was exciting and refreshing just like greenery you see around, it is also a must-go for the visitors. Some pictures of the Kirkland Cruise on the Flickr.
May 13, 2005

Iruvar; A Schindler’s List ?

Watching the Steven Spielberg‘s extended interview in The Directors DVD set me thinking wildly. While talking about Schindler’s List, Spielberg says, When my kids ask me “What did you do dad ?”, I didn’t want show them the big gothic movies which I made. I wanted to show them something that truly happened. Something that happened to our people.

When Iruvar released, this is what I remember Mani Ratnam stating for an interview. Iruvar was a film for the next generation to come. For them to look back at the history of their Tamil Nadu and have an unbiased view of it. He went on to say that when entered the movie making business, he had in mind the kind of movies he enjoyed making. Unfortunately due to commercial pressures, the lanes departed and he was soon making run-of-the-mill movies, according to himself. Iruvar was comeback to his path, style and love of movie making.

Though I am just quoting what I remember from the interviews, these are not exact statements that they had shared in the interview. If you look deep into these lines, they sound similar by idea. Both movies are the best of each of them. Schindler’s List touched millions of people with it’s moving images of holocaust. Iruvar didn’t do a similar thing but it talked about how the political history in the state shaped up in an unbiased manner.

For me they are strikingly same. If Spielberg was talking about his Jewish history, a born Tamilian like Mani Ratnam can only talk about the making of Tamil Nadu. He probably could have talked about Indian Independence you might think. But a movie maker should probably be making what he can relate to the most than what others want him to. Mani Ratnam did exactly the same. With the available resource, technology, cast and crew Iruvar was an exemplary movie of Kollywood. Something that only movies like Uthiri Pookal, Mundraam Pirai or Nayakan can come close to. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List was arguably his best movie till date. Not because it was shot in B&W and it gave a sense of a classic film. It’s because he was able to tie down 25 of us watching the movie in a lonely Sathyam theatre. Twenty days after Iruvar released, there were hardly 20 people in the ultra-cold Woodlands Theatre. And I was there watching the classic with 10 other friends who slept half the way through. Classics don’t show up as classics the first time around. A pity.
May 10, 2005

Ab Tak 56 – Count on Cops

Well, I’m late. But it is never too late to watch a good movie. Especially to discover a good movie when you watch it with no expectations. Ab Tak 56 could be Ab Tak 156 by now but it’s only today I got to see Nana Patekar lighten up the screens. Ab Tak Chhappan released more than a year back but would be talked about for the years to come.

It’s not a cop’s saga nor some brave attempt of a single man fighting against all odds. Sadhu Aghase is a normal no-nonsense-cop and if you try to brag him with sentiments, he might not budge. Though he is special. He has mastered the art of encounters and can make great South Indian sambhar. Not just that but he demands grammatically right English. In the life of a cop, he gets into a special crime branch and heads a special division thats is formulated to wipe out long-time criminals by encounters. Though he doesn’t keep count of his encounters, someone keeps reminding him of the count. When things go hayward, things change drastically, but for him it is Ab Tak 56 and still counting….

I hated Ram Gopal Varma’s hyped-up movies. I certainly loved Satya. More than liking it terrorised me about a city called Mumbai. But the so-called on-the-road movies that followed were nothing but hype. Even Company wasn’t great. But with a debutant director, Shimit Amin, Ram Gopal Varma produces a movie that more classier and more stylistic than his earlier movies. I wonder how cop movies are made slicker than the romantic ones. Both Kakkha Kakkha and Ab Tak 56 have great BGMs, camera and more importantly some great piece of editing. Not only Shimit Amin gets us into the plot very soon, he also manages to take the movie without a drag. Until the final 20 minutes, I never felt a need to getup and get myself a cup of coffee. The cop story also encompasses the affairs of internal politics in the police department.

Even with a bad supporting cast, the movie would have survived. Shoulder courtesy; Nana Patekar. As Sadhu Aghase, Nana Patekar is at an all-time ease. He isn’t roaming around like someone dipped in starch like most of the cop movies, smokes too many cigarettes than all the Rajini movie put together and utters Saala and Chutiyaa more number of times than any other hindi movie. Performs like a true spirited actor. Nana Patekar has immense talent thats been under-utilized by stuffing him with pyscho roles with an alto voice. I am unable to stop comparing him to Prakash Raj in Tamil film industry. He can also be on the likes of Nasser if used appropriately.

While I was assuming that Revathi was in there because there was a huge role ahead of her in the movie, her miniscule character gets a bullet in the midway. She was probably there to represent the South Indian wife of Sadhu Aghase. Ram Gopal Varma could have probably gone with the humpteen stand-like-a-doll actresses available in dozens in the Bollywood. Kunal Vijaykar gets a role that demands enough eating as much as acting. A role that he would have waited for a long time. Great show.

What a theme of Ab Tak 56 that was. Salim and Sulaiman well known as Salim Sulaiman just took Ab Tak 56 to great heights. With no songs and pelvic-3D-thrust dances, they have used their music positively in the BGM that grips. If only I was worried that I missed the movie in theatres, it was because of the background score. The titles read Murad Siddiqi as the editor. I don’t know anything about him but his job in the movie is a commendable effort.

Shimit Amin chooses to take the reality path in movie making and emerges as a winner. With no unwanted situations and scenes, the movie has a tight screenplay. Except for the lastpart when the movie begins to loose away from the track and treads on the revenge mode, it has been well made. All these exceptions are however handled in the final conversation that ends by saying, Once a Cop, Always a Cop. Watch it, if you haven’t yet for it’s just 56 as of now.
May 10, 2005

Sujatha replies

Sujatha replies to the previous blogpost on his Katrathum Petrathum article, in the comments section of the blogpost itself. Here.

dear friend
Rarely I answer blog references One of the greatest pleasures in wriring is perceptive readers like you are reading every line and its echo is loud and clear
It was a general essay I wrote on turning seventy It had a global response The purpose is not to scare people about growing old and dying but to inspire a sense of urgency in whatever one wants to pursue in life and in its wake revise and simplify the targets
Sujatha
Posted by Sujatha at May 10, 2005 12:48 PM

Wow !! It made up my day. Thank a Ton.

Namma Chennai

Over the weekend

Iruvar; A Schindler’s List ?

Ab Tak 56 – Count on Cops

Sujatha replies