kirukkal.com

August 18, 2004

Vasool Raja MBBS – A lovable don…doctor…don

[Pic: vasoolrajambbs.com]

Who would require a movie review for Vasool Raja MBBS? Actually it’s a crime to write a review for a movie like this. Wait. Read the next line before you think of firing me. You don’t actually need to read/write a review for this movie. The primary aim of the movie, I believe, is not to do any lifetime achievement in cinema. Rather the aim (other than cinema business) is to deliver laughs. And Vasool Raja does it royally and rightfully. Are you convinced now. Take a breather. Among the numerous laughs the movie gives, there is also an obvious kind pat to the doctors reminding them that patients need to be treated as humans and not as just cases.

Crazy Mohan known for this indomitable verbal and situational comic sense, has done a fantastic job for Vasool Raja. The only point is that, this movie is like Kathala Kathala has innumerous verbal jokes. Not the kind of comedy that you can remember until weekend and yap with him/her on the beach and laugh again with them. They are ephemeral in nature. Jokes like Dim Dip Dim and Manamirundhaal Marghabhandu are absolute crackers. Crazy is the uncrowned king of Tamil film comedy. Let Mouli forgive me for that statement. He wasn’t all that comical in his latest Nalla Damayanthi.

Not much with Kamalhassan. He has not makeup stunt [except for the first few scenes]. No huge dialogues and no persistent pathos that would allow him to make a loud cry throughout. It seems that he has had his breakfast, took a walk around his house, saw the shooting spot and came inside to enact a role called Vasool Raja. Very casual like what we have seen before in Pammal K Sampantham, Michael Madana Blah Blah, Tenali and of course Panchathanthiram. It is an accepted fact that he has a flamboyant comic sense. He just underlines one more time.

Let this not make you think I’m fastidious, but Bharathwaj hasn’t been upto the expectations. Though he isn’t fully to be blamed for the not-so-good songs and their picturisation, he could have taken his time in the composition. I have really loved his music for his previous films and thought he could weave a magic, having Kamal as the cast.

I hate to compare the Hindi Bhai and the Tamil Thambi but it seems impossible. One reason, why I Munnabhai MBBS was because I saw a song clip in MTV. That song in the hospital where Sanjay Dutt expresses his romantic encounters completely blew me away with the music and the performance of Sanjay dutt. I was placing my bid on Kamal’s performance of the same song in the Tamil version. Instead of a similar song, it was replaced with a silly song called Azhwarpettai Aandava which sounds/resembles like that Kandasaamy song in PKS. A true let down. Also that belly dance song looked like a cheap insert unlike the hindi version.

We know that Airtel is the prime sponsor for the movie but every time anyone’s cell phone rings onscreen it has a loud AirTel tone. Annoying and the height of embedded advertising. It is very clear that the movie was super produced in two-three months. Kamal’s next film cop haircut is visible from that Switzerland duet. If only Kamal can ditch those absurd looking coolers that he keeps wearing in every duet of every comedy film, how nice.

Blessed are those who haven’t seen the original version. Yeah, if you haven’t seen the original, watch Vasool Raja for the sheer Crazy Mohan and Kamal combo. They deliver. If you are the unfortunate one like me, watch it still, for the Kamal version of the don-turned-doctor-turned-don. Limited Feast assured, still.
August 17, 2004

Takeovers/Consolidations – Order of the day

We walk through the dark corridors of time, as the software industry gets on with it’s midlife crisis. Now, who doesn’t talk about the hostile takeovers? At a point of time in 1995 to be exact, IBM’s hostile takeover of Lotus was considered a sin, the reason being it was the first hostile takeover ever in the software industry. But now, as the bubble starts to burst, IT companies have no more options but to get consolidated. Consolidation is too polite a name to be given for the hostile takeovers of bigger corporations on smaller or their contemporary competitors. Be it the Oracle’s hostile takeover offer of Peoplesoft or the Microsoft/Sap merger and Sun’s plans on buying out Novell, consolidation is everywhere.

This statement of Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Inc reflects how the bigger corporations suffer from the merger syndrome “We wanted to be a survivor and a consolidator, and we felt the only way to survive and prosper was through acquisition,” Ellison said this in June.

An article in ZDNet called Survival of software’s fittest, by Martin LaMonica triggered me to write this post. A passage from the article says, “The worst job in the world right now is a software salesman–there are too many software companies fighting for too few dollars in the marketplace.”

I just loved the article for the facts that it reflected. Read it fully if you in anyway related to the software industry.
August 16, 2004

Lifestyle Show – A hole in your wallet

[some more pics on lazygeek photoblog]

Wanting to have a good detailed look the show, though I had no intentions of buying anything, I did wander around the Hindu sponsored Lifestyle Show like a kid lost in some festival. I made it on the Friday evening itself, to avoid the weekend rush hungama. Someone who went on Sunday complained that he didn’t even get a full coconut poli to eat in the food court, not to mention the very very overcrowded exhibition center.

Even as you enter the show, you shell out forty bucks as an entrance fee. Forty bucks. That’s a huge amount for an exhibition. Unlike other lifestyle shows which are organized in the little kalyana mandapams, this one was organized in the spacious trade centre. Each store had it’s ample space which was very appreciable. Worth the money that I paid on the entrance.

The Hindu had it’s own display right in one corner of the show where they had vintage pictures of Olympics. Their VIP lounge was as small as their ads on weekend classifieds. People had to bump on each other to see what’s going on inside. And when I tried the stunt, I saw someone like Pepsi Uma chatting with someone like Prashant. Before I could confirm their existence, an excited teenager was already trying to stand on my shoulders and peek inside, so I withdrew, swearing against the organizers.

The automobile stores had real cars parked inside and a family was seriously inspecting a Ford car for more than 45 minutes. I did a whole glance of the show and came back to the same store to see the father was doing something with the steering and the mom inspecting the headlights very meticulously. When I went it was the vice versa. The salesman was already sweating was having a panicked look of having troublesome customers. I did give him a friendly laugh and I think he got the sense.

All the homemakers (inclusive of grandmas, aunties and moms) who were accustomed to watch the evening Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin did take a leave and assembled for the show. There were northies than the southies. The crowd was only in the pakistani choli shop and in the carpet/mats shops. With a huge variety of shops, it was a real entertainment for them, especially.

If there is one shop were everyone bought things, including me, was the one dollar shop. Deriving the idea from the US where $1 shops are primarily used only by desis to buy toiletries and gifts for the Indian relatives (that’s what they do and it’s a fact), this one dollar shop was also damn interesting. Cheap look-alikes of Nivea and St.Ives were also found. Bu interestingly they had some real nice coffee mugs for a throw away price.

Finally the food zone, which had some real good restaurants like Copper Chimney (where you pay through your nose) and China Town were present. But with their usual speed of serving dishes, I only thought, they would have tough time coping up with the rush on weekends.

If you are a yuppie, earning big bucks from a MNC firm and a little spendthrift, you can loose thousands in such shows. While such shows display the luxuries in life than what you actually have now, they are definitely a hole in someone’s wallet. If you were present on the weekend to this lifestyle show, the first thing you do on the monday is to walk into your boss’s room asking for him for a hike.
August 14, 2004

David VS Goliath and the spirit of August 15th

Guest Blog #29 – Anand C

I love the underdog. Among the few Biblical stories I know, one of my favorites is David VS Goliath… it never ceases to inspire.

As if reminding me of a religion I know nothing about, two little independent shops in the Northern California area keep emphasizing on the concept of the little guy – the underdog. Sheer inspiration in just their audacity in taking on the 600 pound gorillas of their industries… drumroll please…

Megabooks in University Avenue – located right next to a more than 50,000 ft. Borders bookstore and still surviving. Very aptly named, and rumor has it that one of the owners is called David.

Red Rock Cafe – located two blocks from a Starbucks and catering to those who still care about the spirit of an independence of the shop as much as they care about the aroma of their coffee.

In their own little way, these two little icons are thematic of this blog, and fitting reminders of the spirit of August 15, no?
August 14, 2004

Blogging the Olympics

Two niche blogs on Olympics. One from the living room and another from Scripps Howard News Service that takes you behind the scenes of Athens Olympics. But if only what boing boing states is true, it’s a pity that the blogging recognition hasn’t come yet.

Vasool Raja MBBS – A lovable don…doctor…don

Takeovers/Consolidations – Order of the day

Lifestyle Show – A hole in your wallet

David VS Goliath and the spirit of August 15th

Blogging the Olympics