kirukkal.com

May 6, 2008

Be a Lendbee !!

Venkat sent me an email about a site, lendbee.com, that allows you to share books and DVDs, for free. This idea seems to have caught on at Chennai with employees of different companies forming groups at a company level and exchanging books/DVDs.

While it isn’t a revolutionary idea, someone has to do the work of designing and hosting a site for this purpose. Whoever designed it did a good job of user interfaces. I’m sure its pretty useful for intra-company or intra-city interactions. These social services turn out to be fun and useful as more people jump in. Jump in.
May 3, 2008

Sujathalogy – Remembering Sujatha

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-4022128335437486396&hl=en

This is possibly the only full length video interview with Writer Sujatha Rangarajan that’s available in the public domain. A friend of mine(also a frequent commenter in this blog) sent this video file two years ago, immediately after this interview was broadcasted on Vijay TV. Though watched this interview on Vijay TV, I loved to hold onto this. I watched it numerous times and I can now literally talk the entire text of the interview without watching it. I also ripped the video to make it into a mp3 version to accompany me in the car.

The reason to brag about this is due to the fact that I lost this video file sometime last year. I later found that I uploaded a copy of this video on Google and forgot about it totally. This video was also played during the condolence meeting that was arranged by Uyirrmai team.

It’s clichéd to say I couldn’t believe that Sujatha is no more with us but honestly for last two months I haven’t read much(actually any) of Sujatha’s writings. Whenever I try to pick up his book, its tough to forget my little interactions with him and the sheer magical spell he had on me/millions of us through his writings.

I booked sujathalogy.com, a site about Sujatha and his writings sometime last year and also informed Sujatha about it. But I was too late on taking this site live, before which he passed away. The plan now is to slowly add content to this site and make it as a full-fledged fan site of Writer Sujatha.

A prolific writer that he was is making my my job tougher to list every single book/movie with a short synopsis. I would certainly need help from his fans and friends. Desikan has already accepted to help me with this. By next year, this site will have enough content. As of now, it only has a tribute page. Many thanks to Keerthi for designing the start page. More to come. Stay Tuned.

And before I forget, Happy Birthday Sujatha. You’re still alive in our memories and in your writings. We miss you.
May 1, 2008

Borudi Nee Mohini

Just like Santhosh Subramaniam, I haven’t seen the original Telugu version. But I couldn’t believe that Selvaraghavan can get so damn boring with his screenplays.

The first half of YNM literally begs for a good screenplay writer. It just drags and drags and starts to sleep midway. The second half of this family-romance is where they teach audience the proven effective ways of kaalai kadan.

The trio, Dhanush, Karthik Kumar and Nayan are boring thanks to their bad characterization and pathetic dialogues. Udit Narayan’s rendering of Yengeyo Paartha Nyabhagam and Nenjai Kasakki is sprinkled with bad Tamil pronunciation, though the songs are very tuneful.

The only good thing about the movie is that is starts very naturally and ends in a similar fashion. Everything in-between is a huge heap of mess. Tamil Cinema still awaits a realistic portrayal of a software engineer’s life.
May 1, 2008

Romba thanks da, ambi !!

For all the help with Dasavathaaram soundtrack. Romba thanks.
April 29, 2008

Santosh Subramaniam – The Romance is back

I didn’t have any hope for the film knowing that it was a re-make from the remake king Raja. But it turned out to be the exact opposite. It was fun, pure fun and clean entertainment for a genre that’s out of fashion in Tamil cinema. Priya’s Kannamochi Yennada couldn’t bring back that classic romance-family combo. Yaaradi Nee Mohini attempted to do that and failed badly. Not only Santhosh Subramaniam kept me awake for the entire span of the movie but it also brought back memories of yesteryear films that were mere theater plays made for the big screen.

In what seems like an acting competition between Prakash Raj, Geetha and Boys fame Genelia D’Souza, Genelia wins hands-down. She will probably walk away with the heroine of the year award, if Asin wouldn’t match her performance with Dasavathaaram. Genelia seems very natural and the major part of her success in this movie should go to Savitha, the dubbing artist. Genelia is becoming a talent to watch-out for. Watch out.

Prakash Raj wasn’t spontaneous in Mozhi and even in Vellithirai. He probably takes too much of importance in films he produces and I didn’t like his performance in those movies. But in SS, he rocks. Thanks to his controlled act as a strict father, I am starting to like his performance, again.

Geetha, one of my all time favorites in Tamil cinema and a much under-rated actress makes an impact with her stereotyped Kamala Kamesh role as the Kollywood mom. Everyone including Balachander[Azhagan] to Mani Ratnam[Thalapathi] under utilized this great performer and its one of the many shames of Kollywood.

Jeyam Ravi delivers a better performance than what one expects from him. And that’s good for his career. Santhanam cracks a dozen wordplay jokes on others. Another talent to watch out for. I’ve saying this from the days of Sagalai Vs Ragalai. And what was Sadagopan Ramesh doing there as the brother. Dude, aren’t you supposed to play cricket ?

The editing by Mohan(father of director Raja) is just perfect. He has to be thanked for the crisp climax, just like Chennai 600 028. T Kannan’s camera and combined with Mohan’s editing makes the film an easy watch. Two neat tunes by Devi Sri Prasad.

I haven’t watched the original Telugu movie, Bommarillu and so I am not sure if this is a scene-by-scene remake. But I’m sure Raja has sense of the big screen. He brings back Kollywood’s classic formula of bubbly romance mixed with family drama in a perfect fashion. This is a perfect rich-family-boy falling in love with single-parent-middle-class-talkative-girl story. For the fun filled first half, thanks to Genelia and Director Raja. Paisa Vasool !!

Be a Lendbee !!

Sujathalogy – Remembering Sujatha

Borudi Nee Mohini

Romba thanks da, ambi !!

Santosh Subramaniam – The Romance is back