kirukkal.com

February 17, 2010

And that’s how

Picked up a dozen packs of Milk Bikis from the local Indian store. It was in a new wrapper. I was shocked. While tripping in Chennai, I bought a Milk Bikis pack in a totally new packaging and found the design of biscuit completely changed. Instead of Britannia embossed in the middle and surrounded by flower patterns, it had squares all over the biscuit. That wasn’t the biscuit design thats imprinted in me. After all its probably the only biscuit of choice on any given day followed by Bourbon by the same company. Even though it had the same taste, it felt like a different biscuit.

So I was indeed shocked looking at the new pack today. When opened, to my relief, I found it had the same design. Somehow they haven’t changed the design, atleast yet, for the exports. So that’s good. And that’s how I got my biscuit back.

More Biki love, here and here.
February 10, 2010

log, logout

Crude and Cheesy post ahead.

I get the internet democracy and all but reading everyone’s opinion on the new social networking overload seems like a complete waste of time. I know one wants to try everything thats new and free on the net but one doesn’t have to always start acting like a tech guru on each .x version release of a software.

Let me ask a question. When was the last time, you picked a piece of log aka dead wood book and read it start to finish including the blurb. I know you have Brown’s The Last Symbol hidden under your pillow for two weeks now. That paperback copy of Twlight saga is lying on your bookshelf for twelve days and 24 minutes and 16.5 seconds now. The first edition copy of recently passed away Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is crying to be read for months now. The recently bought Agam Puram Anthapuram is enjoying some good shelf life in your bedroom. Last week’s Vikatan and India Today are folded and left unread on the couch. It doesnt matter that you dont like to read literary works of Jorge Luis Borges or Pablo Neruda. You like to read just ‘normal’ books. I get that. But when will you read them?

When can you actually close the browser, shut down your laptop and actually read the first page of Seth Godin’s latest best seller? When will you be free of not having to login to the social .coms, miss all the carefully created online personas’ effing status updates and not be nervous about it? Its not important to just have a shelf full of carefully selected coffee table books. To read without any interupptions is an act of freedom in the contemporary society. How about today ? Say yes to the Log. Now, Logout. Thanks.
February 6, 2010

How to shoot a music video?

If you havent watched the movie, no issues, go ahead and watch the video. It doesn’t give out anything and it can raise brows/curiosity. This song is interrupts the movie at a correct time. It couldn’t be placed any better. The lead to this song is impeccable and song actually goes out of the way to capture the direstraits of the film’s characters without compromising of the video.

Right from the release of the audio, this was indeed my favorite(1, 2, 3) number of the film. Vijay Yesudaas’ number was actually an achievement with vocal chords on tamil cinema but still, this stole the thunder with the mix of mysticism and pop music.

This one is more like a feverously shot and religiously edited music video. Watch it full screen and as said before, just don’t talk yet.
February 1, 2010

500 days of Hosanna

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9123828&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=4f3f33&fullscreen=1

Fanboy version of Rahman’s Hosanna mixed with the dance sequence from the bubbly 500 days of Summer.
January 30, 2010

Nasty Dynasty

First, a pedestal for Selvaraghavan’s Aayirathil Oruvan just like the one put up here for Peter Jackson’s King Kong.

Fantasy genre is a very special one. Just like Harry Potter lineup, if you don’t get into the movie, your brain starts questioning how Harry Potter didn’t hit on the brick wall when trying to walk through a pillar in the train station. Not all of us are hardwired for such instant leap of faith. Cutting down such crap with which reviews usually begin and starts to bore us with such psychological theories that the reviewer referred to before writing the review, Aayirathil Oruvan is a kickass film that should be enjoyed in a full screen without uttering a single word to the next seater. All you might know, he might have already taken the leap of faith and immersed in the movie and you are just thinking, how the hell can lightning strike on karthi while being blessed.

In any case, AO has stupendous writing, great pace, wonderful camera, immaculate art and costumes and ofcourse an apt finish to the neat start. The movie hasnt been pulled off just by the different landscape or thoughtful subtexts in screenplay but by the actors who have made us believe that the movie could be a true story.

And yes, the critics say that it has tinges of Gladiator and every other historical fantasy they have seen so far. Sure. For that matter, King Kong had big influences from Titanic and Jurassic Park. It was still considered as a herculean effort. And Selvaraghavan needs to be lauded for pulling it off with limited resources.

Above all that the movie kept me glued to the screen throughout the length of the movie. It was paisa vasool and I felt I should have paid a few more bucks for entertaining me thoroughly. Not a single movie after Virumandi had me tied up so badly. If you are crazy enough, you would love Aayirathil Oruvan. I pity the ones who hated it. You just missed an interesting piece of Tamil Cinema for who knows how long you would have to wait for another movie as gripping as this. SORRY!

And that’s how

log, logout

How to shoot a music video?

500 days of Hosanna

Nasty Dynasty