The Guessing Game Begins!

With August coming to a close tonight and September starting tomorrow-- the guessing game begins!

Wonder not!

It is with regard to the payment of salary.
Last month it was the tenth or eleventh of August!

Hope pay gets credited at least by fifth of September!

Keeping my fingers crossed.

A Change is Promised

The culmination of various frustrations led to a colleague tendering his resignation. What followed was a long e-mail to the VP of the company detailing all the problems.

Some subtle changes can be seen since then. Things have been promised. Let us see how things shape out.

Wishing Big-heart all the best in his future endeavours!

Independence Day?

Happy Independence Day to all Indians.

The update is one still has to work from home on I'Day to avoid traveling for four hours to and from work.

Now that is Independence!

Damn! If they had Form V-A we could have claimed double wages!

Life continues to go in all it's monotony!

Cheers!

Earthquake in Chennai

Woke up to an urgent call from sis' enquiring about an earthquake. The TV news items added the suspense with reports of trmors in Thiruvanmiyur and Velachery. Tremors were felt in Cuddalore and Kanyakumari too.

I did not feel a thing and thank God for that!

There is a tsunami warning too!

Let us see what happens!

Old Movies on a Sunday

Hectic work, frustrations at work and a strange feeling of emptiness within were all forgotten on Sunday as yours truly went on a cinematic voyage through some classics.

I saw the following movies yesterday:

Wages of Fear-French

Branded to Kill-Japanese

Rebel without a Cause-English

Singin' the Rain-English.

Each movie in the list deserves a separate blog post as a review. Currently I am limiting myself to brief summaries.

Wages of Fear-Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck, William Tubbs, Véra Clouzot.

Directed by-Henry James Clouzot.

The movie directed by Henry James Clouzot is a slow haunting psychological case-study of the fears and unfulfilled desires of mankind, coupled with lust for money and women. An unnamed Lain American country, an oil-field operated by an American conglomerate, a rag-tag bunch of vagabond-like characters, two truckloads of nitroglycerine. How is that for a plot? The movie is shot in monochrome and the first hour progresses in introducing us to the characters. Then the challenge of transporting two truckloads of nitroglycerine across 300 miles of rugged terrain. Two drivers for each truck. You have got to see the movie to experience the fears, tensions, courage that the actors portray. A scene where a truck almost falls into a ravine as a wooden bridge breaks is brilliantly shot. Do both trucks reach their destination? Do all the four drivers survive? Watch the movie for answers. The movie deserves five stars!

Branded to Kill-Jo Shishido, Mariko Ogawa, Koji Nanbara, Mari Annu

Directed by-Seijun Suzuki

This was indeed a special movie. I had purchased this dvd almost a year ago, inexplicably I never viewed it. The movie is a real treat for its visual appeal, symbolism-imagery and slick editing. The striking aspect is that the visual appeal holds greater value as the movie was shot in monochrome. You have obsessed women, disturbed-assassins, thrilling chases and shootouts, strange imagery of dead butterflies and birds, a couple of explicit sexual encounters with abundant nudity. An anti-hero who sniffs boiled rice for sexual arousal. The movie is a bit difficult to understand but never loses its tempo. Condemned in Japan on release the movie has since built a cult-following and served as inspiration to many directors like John Woo. Deserves 5 stars but I was put off by the nudity and I guess language is a barrier. So I give it 4 stars.

Rebel without a Cause-James Dean, Natalie Wood, Corey Allen, Sal Mineo, Dennis Hopper

Directed by-Nicholas Ray

James Dean why did you die so young? The movie showcases the acting skills of James as a teenager who tries hard to fit in the scheme of normal American life. Shot in colour the movie serves as a mirror of American society in the fifties. Life was about status in society, how to present and conduct oneself so that society would look up to you. The movie is set in a time-frame of 24 hours. from getting arrested for drunkenness, to joining a new high-school, a fight, a racing challenge, an inadvertent death, fleeing from home and once again another inadvertent death.

Frustrations in society that are universal. A must-watch for all teenagers and their parents. Sometimes parents never understand kids and many a time kids end up living a life that their parents envisage for them! Five stars for James and the gang!

Singin' in the Rain-Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell

Directed by-Stanley Donnen and Gene Kelly

The all-time favourite seen long back on TNT. The movie describes the transition of Hollywood from the silent era to the musical talkie. A sweet little movie with elaborate sets, songs and dance. A romance woven into it. A star who falls for small-time artiste. Great lines, beautiful songs, awesome tap-dancing, some really funny lines. Watch this on a rainy day with your beloved beside you. Five stars again!

Murali Leaves Us

Talented actor Murali passed away this morning in Kerala. He was 55. An actor par excellence, a lawyer by profession whose first love was theatre. Murali had the depth and power to reign supreme in Malayalam cinema. There are many rumours that Mammooty tried to sabotage Murali's career as a hero. Such accusations are common in all the various "woods" when character actors give the so-called heroes a run for their money.

Murali has played the cold-blooded villain, the friend, father, honest police inspector and countless other roles. His performance in Pulijanmam won him an award. He had won accolades for many other movies too. Of late he appeared in some Tamil movies too. He also appeared in the Deccan Air ad of a small town villager who ends up travelling in an aeroplane.

On par with Thilakan for his powerful dialogue delivery and magnetic gaze-Malayalam cinema has lost another good actor.

State of My Mind

Life sometimes is cruel,
But when the cruelties,
Strike one after the other,
Without a break in between.
When prayers that come,
From a devout heart,
Get lost in the confines-
Of space and time,
What does one do?

When the folks-
Who always stood by you.
Stand helpless and weak.
How does one provide support and solace?
Is this the cruel joke!
That was in store for me!

I cried when I realised-
That I had lost her.
That I could no longer call her-"Dearest."
I was sad but then I quickly recovered!
And wished her the best.

But now-
I am lost for words.
Lost on every count!
And in spite of everything that I tried.
I ended up as a loser!
Not just in love.
But in life too.

As I continue this dreary monotonous existence and fall into new depths of depression with each passing day. I continue to hope that the light would shine out of the gloomy depths.

Avani Avittam without Father

The yearly ritual of changing the sacred thread, went without a hitch. Managed to get a day's leave for the ritual. It is good to have an Iyengar/Iyer as the boss. They know the importance of the day and do not ask silly questions. This year holds special significance as I performed the ritual in the absence of my father. The Lord knows what he is doing. For all practical purposes I guess he has fled the state. I spoke to some staff at his office and they said that he comes to office irregularly.

I try not to worry or think about him. But my work keeps getting disrupted as my mind wanders back to the past when I thought I was a part of a happy family-20 years back in a block of flats in Pune. Never did my child's mind realize that Fate would play such a curious trick on me and I would end up like this.

For 11 years when the three of us stayed together and tried to build a rapport, cracks kept appearing and disappearing in the bonds of affection. Finally as the proverbial final blow that struck, I was surprised to see how happily my father washed his hands off all responsibilities and left us.

All these years of prayers, meditation and devout belief have resulted in this. Perhaps the Good Lord wanted things to be like this. I made a choice to chart a career again in Instructional Design and I will be honest when I say that I am failing in my quest. An environment that is filled with self-created pressure does not help things.

If things go on at this pace and tempo-I am definitely calling it quits. Salary being delayed again and again, lame excuses of a strike that started today when pay was promised on the fourth of every month(maximum by the fifth!). This blog started with a definite purpose of providing insights into cinema, literature, my poems and short stories. Now it has turned in to my cribbing/crying/ranting notebook. I have lost my follower too.

Nadodigal and Meiporul

Finally I managed to see two movies.

Nadodigal and Meiporul

Nadodigal
Directed by Samudrakani starring Sasikumar, Ganja Karupopu and others.

Sasikumar is turning out to be the man with the Midas touch. He has found success as a director, producer and actor. Nadodigal is about a group of friends who help another friend marry the girl he loves. The impact of this action and how this changes the lives of the original group of friends forms the crux of the story. Good energetic feel in the movie, one unwanted gaana-item by a buxom lady, decent comedy track and a foot-tapping mood-setter "Shambo-Shiva Shambo."

The movie becomes preachy at the end and suddenly Sasi reminds one of T. Rajendar but the movie is a superhit in all centres and the producers are laughing all the way to the bank.

Meiporul

Shot in the U.S. and made by a bunch of non-filmi software professionals this movie deserved a better run. There is a doctor and his wife( a reporter for a Tamil magazine). They are friends with another couple. The doctor is an atheist and he befriends a man who predicts the future. He says that the doctor would be killed by his wife.

What happpens? Does the doctor get killed? Who is this strange man who predicts the future? Who is the American who shadows the doctor?

Watch the movie for answers!