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Serial lighted marriage hall, Madisar mamis, Diamond studs, Silver Vessels, Cousins and Cousins, Friends, Close friends, Known friends, Unknown friends, Long-time-since-we-met dialogues, You-have-become-double-the-size-yaar realtives, Kiddos running around, Sowkiyamas exchanged, Nudging Athais, Talkative Athimbers, Huge blankets, Dirty pillow covers, Close-circuit televisions, Bride with butterflies in stomach, Coffee, Coffee, Coffee, Disarrayed chairs, Click click photos, Flower baskets, Flowing light from video cameras, Unmanned fans, Cellphone Pandits, Crowd everywhere, Paan mouthed grandpas, High decibel mantras, Welcoming siblings, Time ticking away to muhurtham, Crowd around the sacred stage, Groom in position, On your march, Bride walking shyly, Sits on her father’s lap, All eyes fixed, Get set, Maangalyam Thanthuna, Go, Go, Go, Mangal sutra tied, Congrats shared, Hands shook, Mom sheds a happy tear as I take a deep breath.

And so my sister’s marriage went off well last week. It was the joyous week in my life. My sister got married and is now off to her in-law’s place. It was a 4 day south-indian brahmin marriage and I was stressed out at the end of it. But looking back, I’m pretty happy that whatever we were planned, went extra smooth. Some more…

It was a handful of old, rusted, brownish B&W photographs that my sister showed me as I entered the house. An assorted collection of our family pictures which were taken at several occasions of the last 24 years. She is planning to take those selective pictures along with her to her in-laws house as fond memories of our family. A couple of them were really enthralling pics which my dad shot durng our childhood. It brought back some great times we had during the childhood. Especially a pic where she tries to hold our pet cat in her hand. I was so scared to pose with holding the same cat in the hand. She keeps saying, even being a elder brother, I didn’t have ‘guts’ to hold a cat while she was very gutsy. More on these memoirs, still to come.

Why is it that always the two-wheeler driver recieves a call on his mobile when driving. While he is busy yapping on the phone, the poor pillion rider stares elsewhere and tries to pretend that he isn’t listening.

Boys are here to rock :

Just listened to the Shankar’s Boys music samples through a link sent by my friend. The first one called Boom Boom (not the Vengaboys…this is simply Boys) rendered by Adnan Sami and Sadhana Sargam. Boom Boom has a fresh new feel. The second one is the Theme of Boys. This one is fully instrumental and is with hard beats. The song Girl Friend rendered by Karthik seems very much inspired but it is very catchy. It’s tough to judge based on these samples.

Lets hope Rahman rocks!!

Writer Sujatha, in his column Katrathum Petrathum for Anandha Vikatan, remarks that it’s been 25 years since he and Kamalhassan had met first. He briefs about his recent chat with Kamal about the digital cinema happenings for Tamil films. Kamal’s latest movie Sandiyar, which is now put on hold due to the opposition from caste based politics, was supposed to be shot as a digital film only. Already P.C.Sriram, the ace cinematographer, is shooting his latest flick Vaanam Vasappadum as a digital film. This film is based on a Sujatha’s novel.

Kamalhassan’s forethought extends to a time when there would be many small cinema interest clubs, which will feature movies that are based on the common interest. And there wouldn’t be this normal formula of songs, comedy and fight into the same movie. Instead movies will become diversified by genre. And each genre of movies will cater to a small section of this large cinema-going crowd.

Kamalhassan who was recently in Cannes film festival had released few of his movies in Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) format. This format is becoming more popular in the west as it makes cinema watching a less tedious one. As he remembers, when the steady cam was introduced there weren’t many who were ready to use it. Steady cam, as we know is a camera that could be tied to one’s body and would help him to move around and film. This would make the shots more realistic when compared to a fixed camera. Kamal and Sujatha’s joint effort Vikram, which flopped in the box- office, was the first movie to use the steady cam technology. But now after those experimental films, every movie uses steady cam technology. He is very confident that similarly, digital films will also become the need to the day in near future.