kirukkal.com

December 9, 2004

There are very few

There are very few musical compositions which can drive you crazy on the first listening. With no clue of how the music would sound, I landed in Subash Ghai’s Kisna website. There were sounds of horses galloping and then an animated sword flies in and gets stuck into the battlefield mud, followed by a flute. Starts the the single high pitched flute and goes on and on getting accompanied with few distant drums.

Flute is a magical instrument. With just a flow of air directed across the hole bounces in and creates magic. Can literally take a plunge into your soul and can wade through it like a fresh breeze. This composition is one just a sample of the enormous possibilities, flute encompasses.

If you are reading this and heading for the website, you may probably not get the similar goosebumps like me. Even I may not have it for the next time. I went with no clues/expectations/blocks. It took me by a sweet shock. Try out your luck, anyway.

Kisna’s music is not just by one but two, of the best hindi music directors, A R Rahman and Ismail Durbar. Now, will I be allowed to compare this combo with Mella Thirandhathu Kathavu / Senthamizh Paattu music composed by Illayaraja and MS Viswanathan.

Am heading this evening to buy myself a CD of Kisna. Sure.
December 7, 2004

Fusion goes full throttle

Had been to My Best Friend’s Wedding at Hotel Palmgrove. Not the movie, a true wedding. While the Palmgrove at Nungambakkam is the toughest place to reach given the traffic that surrounds the place, it is a place for a good decent wedding. The only crib I have is that you may get lost among the many weddings that happen in the many wedding halls of Palmgrove.

During the wedding reception, three guys on the stage who called themselves a band, pulled up a great carnatic fusion instrumental show. While it was surprising to see a three member band, their quality of music was completely devastating. One was with a violin, one on a electronical pad that gave out drum sounds and the other with the synthesizer. Though its been couple of years since I started getting bored over the synthesized music, this one was a true experience. And the quaint manner they played Kurai ondrum illai was mind blowing. As a breath of fresh breeze, I think one should also listen to such nice fusion music to understand the spectrum of carnatic music, that is. I know understand why people outside India celebrate artists like Violinist L. Subramaniam and Guitarist Prasanna[Am a great fan of Prasanna]. The foreigners probably understand their musical notes and when carnatic gets transformed to western style, they appreciate the amazing notes of carnatic. In Indian carnatic circles, fusion is a sin. I vouch it isn’t. Any takers ?

On the way back, we had pull up a cab to return home and the cab driver seemed to be full of josh today. The reason, Super Star had travelled in the same cab today. He said that Rajinikanth’s Chandramukhi shooting is on at the MGM resort and for the shooting 50 of his company’s cab were hired. Luckily, the car he drove was the one Rajini was travelling in the movie. And you know why he was full kush. He may probably not sleep today and tomorrow. It was the last place someone would look for such a gossipy news. So here you go journos, Rajini shoots Chandramukhi at MGM resorts with 50 cars. A saleable headline for tomorrow.
December 7, 2004

LIC’s freaking Insurance Data Warehouse

This note on moneycontrol.com says that Life Insurance Corporation of India is planning to implement the largest insurance datawarehouse in the world by 2007. LIC is looking at a 60 terabyte DWH size in the first phase. USs largest insurance data warehouse is understood to be deployed by Nationwide which is in the region of 20 terabytes.

The article however states the largest datawarehouse in the world as of now is Walmart‘s DWH with 300 terabytes. Thats not appropriate. I have no clue from where did they get a number thats just 75% of the original volume. Per New York Times, Walmart’s datawarehousing capabilities are 460 terrabytes big. Thats a blooming number to match.

The application provided by Teradata a division of NCR, will enable LIC to study trends not only among customers but also its 1 million strong agency force. The project will be implemented by Wipro and is estimated around Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million), to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million).

More than 10% of the country’s population are the customers of LIC. Just 10% percent and we have the biggest Insurance Datawarehouse in the world. The kind of mining that could be done with this datawarehouse would be countless. A real worthy datawarehouse to build.
December 6, 2004

Kamal – Ananthu – Jean Claude Carriere

Hurray !! This was what I was looking for.

In an interview, after Ananthu‘s demise, Kamal Hassan recollected his thoughts on Ananthu, his mentor, very effusively. While he agreed that its time to move on with Ananthu’s memories, he remarked about his recent friendship with a french playwright who helped him with the French version of Marudhanayagam’s screenplay. I did blog this on my Marudhanayagam blogpost. I did miss that French playwright’s name when it was mentioned by Kamal. From then on, I was on lookout for the playwright’s name and unfortunately Kamal didn’t talk about him in media.

Now, in his recent Vikatan column, Love Pannuda Mavaney, he writes about his acquaintance with that french playwright. Jean Claude Carriere. And he details the meetings and the passionate discussions on cinema that he shared alongwith Carriere for 3 weeks in London. Kamal Hassan describes about the initial meeting with Carriere and how Carriere was impressed with the English version of Marudhanayagam’s screenplay which lead to Carriere accepting to script the French version for a throwaway price.

After Virumandi, when Kamal called up on Carriere, he was introduced by Carriere to Milos Forman, the director of hits like Amadeus[on the genius of Mozart] and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The column is in Tamil and its a must read, especially if you have heard the name Kamal Hassan.
December 5, 2004

Marghazhi Kutcheri Season 2004 takes off

[Sanjay Subramaniam in a kutcheri. Pic: hindu]

From Aalapanaas to Thukadas to silk sarees, canteen bajjis, sabhas, raskias and season tickets, everything is on for this December Carnatic Music Season 2004 in Chennai.

One of the biggest joys of being in Chennai, the cultural head of South India is this December kutcheri season also known as the Marghazhi Music Festival. With more 20 sabhas and an array of kutcheris(musical performances) happening all around the day, one would have to be lucky to glimpse the best of performers and the best of fine-arts. This Kutcheri season doesn’t carry just carnatic music, it also embeds the best of dance, drama and other artistic expressions.

Come december and Chennai is already in the festive mood. Be it the Isphani Plaza which is decorated with jingle bells, welcoming teenagers and the new year or be it Narada Gana Sabha welcoming the music performers with the huge garlands. It is a pleasure to be in Chennai, especially during the Marghazhi month.

Kutcheri Buzz, an online kutcheri site which chronicles the musical performances during the season is all set for the music season 2004. Carnatic singers Sowmya and Shashikiran’s Carnatica is already rolling commentaries on this season’s performances.

Music Academy of Chennai, the most happening place of music kutcheris is unfortunately not conducting the music season this time.

Going by the schedules, Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha has some of the best performances lined up. Ofcourse, there are other nice sabhas which showcase the best of carnatic musical talent. Some kutcheris that I am looking forward will have Mandolin U. Srinivas‘s fusion show, performances of Sanjay Subramaniam, Aruna Sayeeram and Sikkil Gurucharan.

We are going to have a huge crowd of people coming down from the USA to sing, enjoy and watch the Kutcheris. It’s going to be a month of celebrations and they have already begun.

There are very few

Fusion goes full throttle

LIC’s freaking Insurance Data Warehouse

Kamal – Ananthu – Jean Claude Carriere

Marghazhi Kutcheri Season 2004 takes off