memories

The Love of My Life

2012-02-11T16:45:00.002+05:30

The love of my life - Brownie - her name was suggested by a special friend and the name stuck! All my free time goes in pampering Brownie and playing with her!

More pictures soon :)

FOREVER FOURTEEN - A POEM BY LITTLE BOHRA

2012-02-06T13:10:00.000+05:30

We keep trumpeting our own talents but we never realize that there are equally if not more talented persons who are too shy to display their hidden talents to others. This is a special poem by a special friend and a great human being! Keep writing Little :)

People say i have grown up!
But no - I say I have not grown up!
I still hold my Dad's hand, while crossing the road,
Because it gives me a sense of security.

I still like to put my head on my mother's lap,
And listen to her lilting lullaby,
That puts me to sleep.
For me that's the world's best bed and music ever.

I still like to argue with my sister,
Over the choice of my clothing accessories.
It's gentle sisterly bickering, and that's how-
We care and love each other.

I still cry after fighting with my brother!
And then wait for him to come and comfort me.
Because I know in spite of all our differences,
He is the world's best brother!

I still chase butterflies in the garden,
And am scared of cockroaches and creepy lizards.
I love dressing up my Barbie dolls,
And playing with my cookery=set toys.

I love getting drenched in the rain,
And eating lollipops and ice-creams and blowing up flavoured bubblegum.
I love sketch-pens and colouring books!

I love playing with my doggie Miku-
And hug her when I feel lonely and sad!
I still judge people on the basis of the birthday gifts that they give me!
I crave for the same dress and hair-pin that my friend has!

I still like to do all these things,
That I did when I was a kid.
So I conclude - that although others may call me a grown-up -
I want to remain fourteen - FOREVER!

Team India Collapse

2011-12-30T16:53:00.004+05:30

The year has not ended on a positive note for Team India. After having Oz on the mat for 4 down for less than 30 runs allowing the remaining players to set a 290 runs-target shows the lack of killer instinct and immature captaincy. The bowlers bowled their hearts out and it was the batsmen who let us down.

Time for some serious introspection. Dhoni cannot perform outside the sub-continent and he is a liability to the team in a test match. Let Dhoni just focus on the shorter format of the game where his sledge-hammer style batting can win games. Test-matches are a test of character and skill as well, Dhoni is all heart and his records outside the sub-continent in the longest format of the game speak volumes about his ability.

Let Dinesh Karthik be flown in he is a better keeper and is solid in technique. The two tests that took place this boxing-day share a weird connection - guess - Both Kallis and Laxman had a rarest of rare test when they failed in both innings and eventually their respective teams lost the match.

Sri Lanka have finally won a test in South Africa - and Herath had a whale of a time baffling the Proteas.

The KFC Big Bash is on in full-swing and it pains to see the likes of Chris Gayle reduced to a mercenary playing in such leagues when he should be leading West Indies - a sad state of affairs.

Hope that in 2012 better sense prevails as we see him back in the international arena!

Team India come on!!!!

2011 - HITLIST

2011-12-26T16:03:00.002+05:30

This was not exactly a great year for cinema as one turkey after the other was unleashed on the unsuspecting cinema-goer. Monstrosities like ‘Bodyguard, Ra-One, 7 Am Arivu, Kaavalan, Ready’ all backed by huge stars made money but left a lot to be desired. With the increased penetration of TV channels like NDTV Lumiere, UTV World Movies, etc. one can no longer say that the middle class Indian is not aware of the scenario prevailing in cinema being made abroad. Shameless rip-offs with cosmetic changes, mindless item-numbers and inane comedy tracks dished out as adaptations will no longer be accepted by the intelligent film-goer.

KOLLYWOOD

Yudham Sei
Cheran playing the cop uncovering a trail of chopped body-parts, while also searching for his missing sister. Myshkin’s taut screenplay, excellent background score and good all-round performances by all actors ensured that this was a must-watch.

Mankatha
Rip-off of numerous heist movies, pathetic songs but a zestful performance by Ajith in his fiftieth knock on the silver-screen, Premji Amaren playing the hacker and Arjun as a suave cop. More than the movie - the out-take montage in Jackie Chan style that showed the cast and crew having fun was excellent.

Aranya Kandam
Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie land in Kollywood – that sums up Aranya kandam, a mind-blowing script, great performance by Jackie Shroff as the ageing don, Ravikrishna as Sappai, the Chennai underworld in its raw energy!

Veppam
Directed by a debutante set again in Chennai’s underworld amidst drugs and human trafficking a decent effort with good performances by all.

Mayakkam Enna
Selvaraghavan reserves the best for his kid brother Dhanush as is evident by the script and the direction. Following the travails of a wannabe wildlife photographer, the movie truly belongs to Richa and her dubbing artiste.

Mounaguru
I am yet to catch this movie; but every single friend who has seen this movie has just praise for the director and the cast, especially Uma Riyaz Khan playing a pregnant cop.

MOLLYWOOD

Unconventional scripts, debutante directors, new faces and melodious music held sway over the masses. The ageing superstars delivered turkeys but also a couple of stand-out performances.

Pranayam
Mohanlal as a paraplegic, Anupam Kher as a heart patient and Jayapradha as the lady who is now married to the former but was first married to the latter. A movie that tugs at one’s heart and is sure to bring a tear to anyone who has loved and lost. Melodious music, lovely performances and excellent direction by Blessy.

Salt’n Pepper
A love story that starts with an order for dosa and garlic chutney! Sounds implausible? Watch this delightful movie with nice performances by Lal, Shweta Menon, Meenakshi and Abu Asif. ‘Premikkumbol neeyum njanum’ became the rage of Kerala.

Chappa Kurishu
Inspired by the Korean movie ‘Handphone,’ this became a surprise hit not just due to a steamy lip-lock by Ramya Nembisan but because of a brilliant role by Vineeth Sreenivasan as the loser department store cleaner who gets an iphone belonging to a rich spoilt engineer. Great performances and some realistic punches and kicks in the movie.

Indian Rupee
Thilakan as the wise old real estate agent shows why he is the best living actor in Malayalam cinema. Prithviraj in a realistic role and mimic Tiny Tom gets a lovely role in Ranjit’s masterpiece on the current state of the youth in Kerala. Ee puzhayum was a well-tuned melody!

Beautiful
Anoop Menon’s script and lyrics – powerful performances by Jayasurya as a wheelchair bound millionaire and Annop as a struggling singer. Comparisons to Guzaarish were inevitable but Beautiful was indeed beautiful. Mazhaineer thuliggal was one of the stand-out melodies of the year.

Melvilassom
Based on a Malayalam play, which was inspired by a Hindi play – Melvilassom is a courtroom drama shot in real time albeit a military court-martial. There are no gimmicks as Suresh Gopi the defendant unravels why the accused Parthiban shot at two of his superior officers. With the accused pleading guilty and the viewer knowing that the accused will be hanged for sure the interest is held as we learn why the army-man shot the superior officers. In an era of dumb Hindi / Tamil / Telugu-inspired clones this movie was indeed a refreshing experience and I was immediately reminded of 12 Angry Men an all-time classic.

Best Actor
Mammooty in a power-packed role of a teacher aspiring to be an actor, with a film within a film set-up a nice tale told with conviction.

BOLLYWOOD

I said this last year and say this again Ranbir Kapoor is the one who has the acting chops to take on the Khan trinity. Akshay Kumar has steadily gone downhill from Chandini Chowk to China without being able to deliver a solo hit. Saif cannot play the dalit - an absolute disaster of casting in Aarakshan, Abhishek Bachchan needs a hit and should get it with the official remake of The Italian Job – Players releasing next year.

Rockstar
Ranbir as Janardhan – Jordan is on-track to receive the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in a leading role – need I say more. A.R. Rahman’s mind-blowing tracks and Sada Haq and Faya Kun on track for best songs of the year. Narghis Fakhri cannot emote but looks like a million bucks. The ending was lame but Imtiaz Ali take a bow!

Chillar Party
Salman’s maiden production was a movie for kids with lots of - kids a nice tale clean no vulgarity with a cute little dog.

Delhi Belly
Swear words in multiple languages, D.K. Bose, drugs, stool samples, underworld, Imran Khan and Vijay Raaz. Quirky, fun and a song that became an anthem till Sada Haq came in to the picture.

Stanley ka Dabba
Amole Gupte and his son Partho in a nice little movie about kids which ended up a bit preachy at the end. A lovely performance by Partho!

HOLLYWOOD

This is a very tough list to chart as many movies on this list are yet to officially release in India. It is the Internet and Torrents that help lovers of world cinema and Hollywood to satisfy the cineaste in me.

The Devil’s Double
I love Iraq, I love God, I love my Dad but above all I like cunt and I get what I love!

How’s that for a line to define a person, based on the alleged life of Latif Fahia the fidai-body double of Saddam Hussein’s younger son Uday this is one performance of a life-time by Dominic Cooper an actor whom I have never ever heard of before. Boy was I awe-struck by the double-role - one as the psychotic Uday and the other as the troubled fidai Latif. Raw energy and an intensity in his eyes, he reminded me of Al Pacino in Scarface – perhaps because of the coke-snorting scene. Must-watch – alert - Nudity and Profanity in generous doses.

Margin Call
A starcast that includes Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci and Jeremy Irons this movie is set in an investment firm that’s 107 years old and starts on a day when many senior employees are handed the pink slip. Stanley Tucci hands a file to a member of his team and asks him to complete the risk-analysis that he had initiated. Peter Sullivan is the whiz-kid who enters the right variables and discovers that the ‘party is over’ and the company’s assets are much less than their liabilities. As a hurried board meeting is initiated late into the night – the big boss Tuld played by Jeremy Irons flies in and in a series of tense meetings the firm decides to liquidate all its stock to tide over the crisis. This is a real-time presentation of the crisis that initiated the economic recession in the USA three years ago. No special-effects, no explosions and high-speed car chases or star-crossed lovers making out on the couch. This is a serious movie about how the cookie crumbled and how billions of dollars belonging to gullible citizens were lost. Excellent acting, taut screenplay and powerful dialogue.

Tree of Life
Terrence Malik in a movie that many awaited - but very few had the patience to sit through fully. Brad Pitt and Sean Penn and all about life - a movie made for the awards-circuit - will never be a hit in India. The scene depicting the origin of life was well executed.

Super-8
JJ Abrams’ homage to Steven Spielberg – set in the 70s the movie is about a bunch of kids who plan to shoot a movie and end up filming a horrible train derailment. As news spreads the army comes in and cordons the area the movie-clip shows a strange creature. What creature is this? Why did the science teacher drive his car onto the tracks and cause the derailment? Watch the movie for answers.

The Adventures of Tintin
After years of waiting to see my boy-hood hero and Snowy on big-screen the experience of the movie in 3D with more blokes in the thirties than 10-year olds, I was slightly disappointed. But I realized that the current generation of kids with their Harry Potters and vampires and werewolves are just not into Tintin anymore. Coming back to the movie shot in motion-capture animation, the frames are surreal there are fantastic chase sequences, there is Captain Haddock and the bumbling Thompson twins but sadly no Professor Calculus. Spielberg and Peter Jackson have invested a considerable amount of money, time and energy into this but I really wonder if the box-office receipts will merit a sequel to this effort. All I can say is that with the greenbacks that you have spent on this effort could we not have a live-action motion picture – please! Perhaps Tintin in America or Tintin in Tibet!

At the dentist's

2011-12-13T17:44:00.002+05:30

Hectic day with a minor dental surgery for mom travelling to another doctor for general check-up for mom, multiple pharmacists, cooking cleaning all done!

Mom sleeps under the strength of sedatives, with a strange smile of contentment on her face.

That one moment of calm and peace made my day!

Life goes on as a prospect of another day sets in...

This too shall pass!

For Your Eyes Only

2011-11-27T19:11:00.001+05:30

How long have I known you?
A month or a year?
Does it even matter!

Yesterday, when I looked,
Looked into your eyes.
Your eyes only!

I discovered – A golden glow,
A glow in your hazel eyes.
As I spoke to you,
Only my lips moved.
But I was lost in the glow
The glow of your eyes.

Do I have the will,
The will to confess,
To confess and profess,
My feelings for you.
For you only!

I fear that my foolishness,
Might cause me to lose you,
Lose you - forever!
I fear that, I will never,
Ever be able to see you,
See you smile again,
And share your laughter.

Your joyous smile,
That lights up,
Lights up my heart.

Will I ever be able,
Able to stare deep,
Deep into your hazel eyes.
Take a deep breath,
Smile at you, and
Hold your hands, and say –
My lady, you mean the world to me!

Will that day ever come?
I don’t know,
Don’t know at all!

Every morning is an experience,
A refreshing experience,
As I walk past you.
Hoping that you would smile,
Smile at me, so that –
I can smile at you too.

Even as I write this,
I cherish that golden glow,
In your hazel eyes.

And I wish – my eyes,
Could tell your eyes,
What my heart wants.

This my dear is – For your eyes only!

Two movies

2011-11-23T17:51:00.001+05:30

7am arivu - First 15 minutes is all that's worth watching. Look forward to a proper movie describing Bodhidharman's adventures on his travels from Kanchipuram to China.

Shruti Hassan cannot act. Her Tamil is heavily accented and sounds like Sowcarpet-Tamil spoken by the lovely ladies studying at M.O.P. Vaishnav :)

Hypnotising people instantly and teaching them Kung fu in an instant too much of nonsense.

DNA splicing and reintroducing all the strengths into the circus-artiste Suriya putting him in a huge glass jar a-la The Matrix. Well... don't know. Great potential of a story idea that got wasted. None of the songs linger in the mind as well.

The one part that Shruti showed traces of her paternal genes was when her friend Imran is killed by Dong Lee's hypnosis and Shruti starts howling uncontrollably :)

The fight in the climax does not befit all the build-up that went into it.

A movie which I had hoped would be awesome turns out boresome!

As said earlier a saga of Bodhidharman's adventures would be great!

Murugadoss ji Salman is not going to act if you try remaking this movie in Hindi. Please choose a realistic sensible script for your next attempt. Really liked 'Ramanna'.

Rockstar - Ranbir Kapoor is slowly proving his mettle. The saga of a wannabe singer/guitarist who becomes a world-famous 'rockstar' has its share of flaws. But the movie is worth watching on the big screen for the mind-blowing soundtrack by A.R. Rahman and amazing vocals by Mohit Chauhan. Faya Kun and Sada Haq in-line for best songs of the year.

Narghis Fakhri looks curiously like Linda Arsenio who acted in a few Tamil and Hindi movies. The movie is let down by the ending!

Kumud Mishra and Piyush Mishra are awesome as well in the supporting cast.

On movie-watching in theatres

A chap behind me was going on translating the Hindi dialogues in Tamil to his girl-friend. Another row - a group of four were going on passing comments on Nargi's Fakhri's vital stats. The movie has its fair share of lip-locks and each time the lead pair came on screen there would be hoots.

Some families had brought in three-year and four year old kids. The kids were happily singing nursery rhymes :)

Total collapse :)

Rain

2011-11-03T14:07:00.001+05:30

I guess even the skies are sad as they are pouring out buckets of rain!!!!!

A strange image

2011-10-30T14:27:00.004+05:30

So many memories,
Triggered by a single image.
An image that we had imagined,
Together - hadn't we.

In the not too distant past.
A past of lazy afternoons.
Conversations, walks and some movies.
Of laughter, shared joys and happy memories.

Where did I go wrong?
That you drifted away,
Away from me.
Lost forever!

When i saw the image,
There was a tinge of jealousy,
Lots of pain and anger.
Last time when we spoke,

You said that - 'We can still be friends'.
And you stressed that I was your best friend.
Then why did you think that I was an alien and an outcast;
Who did not deserve to be at your wedding!

Was it your guilt?
Anger,ego, or did you just-
Expunge me from your memories?
I will never know the answers to these questions!

But as I always wished,
And loved you.
May God bless you
As you begin a new innings in your life!

Farewell my dear!!

Notes on a Pilgrimage

2011-10-17T10:15:00.003+05:30

A culmination of my mother's long pending wish of having me weighed at Guruvayur.

The 'thulabharam' were I sat on a giant weighing-scale and was weighed with flowers.

Guruvayur now looks like a Malayali version of Tirupati with the admin staff saying 'Poru Poru' (Go-go) instead of the 'Jaragandi'that you hear at Tirupati.

Chotanikkara has always fascinated me. The Bhagavathi is extremely powerful and the evening pujas are a great experience.

The temple is renowned for curing people with psychological problems. As the evening prayer ceremony is conducted, one can see 'the possessed" moving about as the Goddess cures the ill. The rising crescendo of the tantri's prayers eventually cause the 'patient/possessed' to calm down.

Mannur Kavu - Kaiman Kunnath Bhagavathy temple is located in Mannur a sleepy little village about 15 kms from Palakkad. One more devi temple and amongst the few temples in Kerala where men can wear trousers and enter the temple premises.

Trivandrum visit started with a couple of false notes; I lost my phone in an auto, but thankfully realized that my trouser pocket was empty and got the phone before the auto left. Then we were informed that the train we planned to take was cancelled.

We went to Kochi bus terminus and took a direct bus to Trivandrum. Six solid hours of travel through narrow by-lanes, wide highways, scenic back-waters, paddy fields in shades of green and lots of palatial houses built mostly by Gulf-returnees. With just one scheduled stop for 10 mins at Kollam, the journey was completed in 6.5 hours.

Reached a distant uncles's house which was located in a quaint little agraharam (a community of Brahmin priests). A quick coffee and a bath later we proceeded to pay our respects to Sri Anantha Padmanabhaswamy, now famous for the multiple vaults of treasures of the Raja of Travancore.

Excellent architecture, lovely murals on the walls, a dark sanctum sanctorum only lit buy oil-lamps and a darshan of the lord through three doors. Head, torso and feet each through a successive door. Truly exhilarating.

A group of Gujaratis and Bengalis struggled to wear the mundu/dhoti properly and kept stumbling as the mundu kept dropping off their waists :)

The souvenir counter had the Gujjus haggling with the staff over the price of photos of the Lord and key-chains and small statues. One of the staff knew Hindi.He said "Bargaining ke liye yeh Big Bazaar nahin, mandir hai" (This is not Big Bazaar to bargain for prices this is a temple). That silenced the Gujjus.

Also visited the famed Pazhvangadi Ganapathy temple, had a chance to witness the evening puja and was allowed to ring one among the many bells tied to the ceiling when the arati was performed.

The next day visited the Srikandeshwarar temple (Lord Shiva). Really marvellous, got pal-payasam as part of an offering that I made. Truly sumptuous.

This was the pilgrimage part. The next post will talk about the other interesting things that happened :)

Indian Fiction

2011-09-29T16:21:00.002+05:30

Read three books recently.

Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghvi has two plots running in tandem. One Chanakya's revenge and how he instals Chandragupta maurya as the ruler of India. The second is set in the modern political scenario where one wise man installs a young woman as the prime minister of India. All the pulp needed to make a political Bollywood mishmash. Will like to see Prakash Jha or Sudhir Mishra adapting this for the big screen.

The Shiva Trilogy by Amish. Two books by a bored investment banker that struck gold. The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas. It pits the ancient Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis against each other and brings the great warrior Shiva from the tribal snow clad plateau of Tibet. This Shiva transforms into Rudravatar the chosen one - Mahadev and chronicles his adventures and how he discovers his destiny.

Great stuff look forward to reading the final piece in the trilogy.

Folks the Landmark Sale starts on October-1 loads of discounts additional 10% off on purchases of Rs 1000 plus made using an Axis bank debit card/credit card.

Defeat Again

2011-09-01T15:23:00.002+05:30

160 plus and it was still not enough. Rahane seems a good prospect hope he remains in the ODI squad instead of Ravindra jadeja.

Eoin Morgan and Jade Dernbach shined with bat and ball respectively to take England to safety.

In Sri Lanka the Aussies crumbled to 270 plus yesterday. Sri Lanka outdid them today and crumbled for much lesser.

Aussie dominance will be back in form by the time we reach there for the Boxing-Day Tests.

A Fresh Start for Team India

2011-08-30T14:45:00.002+05:30

The Test Series is done and dusted with India losing its number-one ranking. No bones about it but India was outplayed in all departments by England. The Enforcer - Stuart Broad and Ian Bell with his great knocks ensured that whenever India had a slight edge, the edge would blunt and rust.

India won all three of its practice matches courtesy some good knocks by the young ones in the team.

The single T:20 tomorrow may swing either way. With the list of injured players in the Indian team going up like the price of gold in the international market it needs to be seen how the team manages to perform in the ODIs.

Varun Aaron India's fastest bowler comes in with a lot of hype, not sure how much pace he will generate. Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar together with R.Ashwin hold the key.

Let us see how the matches progress.

Wake-up call for DHoni & Co

2011-08-02T14:35:00.002+05:30

A familiar sight of the team crumbling and Sachin waging a lone battle. Indian bowlers being hammered all around the park the last two test matched in England have been like a rude flashback from the 1990s.

Unless some drastic measures are taken and a few 'made it large' players are dropped, there is no hope for victory.

Assuming Viru is back for the next test, expecting him to fire right away will be foolish.

Let us see what happens!

Quick Movie Reviews

2011-07-30T20:27:00.004+05:30

Three Kings – Malayalam
A multi-starrer comedy with Jayasurya, Kunchako Boban, Jayasurya, Ann Augustine (the new heart-throb of Kerala), Samvrutha Sunil and ‘Kaadhal’Sandhya who needs a new costumer desperately. She looks hideous in some sequences, don’t know what happened to the young and innocent school-girl who fell in love with Bharath in ‘Kaadhal.’

The movie is about three cousins of a royal family who are on hard times. One is an aspiring cricketer, the other a reality-show participant and the third one an actor. The ‘Paara’ song that keeps playing in the background when each brother tries to foil the others plans to become rich is funny and foot-tapping. The movie ends in a treasure search/reality show. Watch the movie to find out if the ‘paaras’ get the girls. This is one movie were each heroine tries to be dumber than the other-Samvrutha is a mega-serial maniac, Sandhya is besotted by Indrajith and Ann keeps asking stupid questions?

Verdict - Time-pass no brainer for the masses!

Arjunan Sakshi – Arjunan – The Witness – Malayalam
Passenger was a surprise super-hit with a great script. The director’s sophomore offering does not disappoint as a case of mistaken identity and assumed identity are brought out well by Prithviraj who plays an architect who lands in Kochi to take a new job. He is mistaken to be Arjunan the lone witness to the former collector of Kochi (Mukesh’s) murder. Ann Augustine plays a reporter with ‘Mathrubhumi’ who receives the anonymous letter from Arjunan. The story progresses well with the mystery behind the murder linked to the scrapped Kochi Metro Rail project. A bit-overboard with the hero unmasking the villains, but it is more believable when one hero overpowers four villains instead of one hero bashing up 20 villains with flying kicks and CGI.

Verdict – Good script, mystery element runs for a while! Prithvi on his way to challenge the superstars.

Janapriyan – Man of the Masses/Man loved by All – Malayalam
With its heart in the right place a feel-good movie starring Jayasurya, Remya Nambeesan and Manoj K Jayan. Manoj plays a director who keeps trying to get Jagathy to finance his movies with half-bakes scripts and is on perennial leave from his government job. Jayasurya comes in as his replacement and wins hearts of everyone including Remya’s who is the rich man’s daughter fooling Jayasurya as a housemaid Complications arise when Manoj accepts failure and wants to return to his job. Jayasurya starts writing a new script and persuades Jagathy to produce a movie. Rifts arise between Manoj and Jayasurya through Jagathy’s offer to make Jayasurya the director. All things are sorted out at the end and everyone goes home happy.

Verdict – Feel-good movie, simple comedy scenes. Jayasurya still in hunt of that one career-defining blockbuster!

The Velveteen Rabbit – English
The simple joy of discovering a great movie that one has never heard of before from the usual bunch of ‘hit-movies’ is something that cannot be explained easily. Velveteen Rabbit is based on a popular children’s story. It is about the fable of a love that a child has for toys, which brings the toys to life. Directed by Michael Landon and a mix of animation and real cinema. The story narrates how a young boy is left at his grandmother’s (played by Jane Seymour – The Bond girl in Live and Let Die). Grandmom looks elegant and some ladies do age with grace! The child longs for love as his mother is dead and his father too busy to bother. The boy discovers his father’s old toys in the attic and chances upon a velveteen rabbit. The boy creates his own fantasy world with the rabbit, a swan and an old horse. His grandmother also softens and bestows her affection on him.

The boy falls ill with scarlet fever and the doctor orders all old clothes and toys to be burnt. The boy tries to save his beloved rabbit but of no avail as his father bundles all the old clothes and the rabbit in a bonfire. As the flames build slowly, surprise of surprises the old fable comes true as the velveteen rabbit comes to life and runs into the wild.

Verdict – Love makes all things true and everyone deserves our love – A truly lovely movie made with great skill and passion a must-watch for both kids and adults.

X-Men First Class - English
Based on the Cuban missile crisis the X-Men series goes back to the story of how the popular mutants joined together and how the good and the bad mutants were polarised against each other! Magneto and the Professor and how their rivalry began!

Verdict - CGI – CGI and more CGI!!!!!

Fire of Conscience – Mandarin
A cop who is lost his wife and mourning her death, another cop who has something shady on, a prostitute who is dead, a robbery, a terrorist outfit who plan bombings, 100 kgs of cocaine confiscated by the police, an innocent man whose pregnant wife is kidnapped; all these threads merge into a fitting climax. Chases, shootouts, interrogation scenes, bomb-blasts and fights – all there!

Verdict – Enough potential for someone in Bollywood to rip it with an item song by Munni, Sheila or Jalebi Bai:)

Terror Strikes Again

2011-07-14T13:32:00.003+05:30

Yet another series of bomb blasts,some more innocent lives lost, yet another round of blame games between police, security agencies, state and central governments. Television channels going mad with the same sickening visuals of death, destruction, blood and media-persons shouting themselves hoarse about Islam, RSS, terrorists, Pakistan... Is there no end to this? When we all know very clearly who the damn villain in the piece is? Pakistan!

Cannot the Indian government take a firm stand and hang the sole terrorist Kasab who was captured during the horrifying attacks in Mumbai orchestrated by Pakistan. Is the government so ashamed and impotent that it continues to treat terrorists with food, shelter and clothing in a high-security prison on tax-payers money.

When are we going to take a stand about anything at all?

As innocent lives are lost, a section of the country only worries about aging superstars, pregnant movie divas and why Dhoni did not chase down the last innings target with 15 overs to spare.

We cannot nuke-out our neighbouring country, but can't we attempt an operation similar to the U.S. Operation Geronimo to destroy terror-camps in Pakistan?

Too far-fetched, we don't even bother to hang Pakistani terrorists in India, who is going to hunt out radicals in the Hindukush mountains!

God save this country and my prayers to the people who were injured and lost their lives in yesterday's bomb explosions in Mumbai!

MBA

2011-07-13T10:21:00.003+05:30

Well folks after two years of hard work, classes on weekends, studying on the train journey back and forth to office, lots of internet research, and spending some money on management books instead of fiction and comics I am a certified MBA-degree holder now.

MBA in Project Management with a first-class(score of above 60%).

Now let me see if prospective brides and their family members are interested in my horoscope :)

Image source - The internet!

Till Yesterday

2011-06-30T16:30:00.002+05:30

Till yesterday, I hoped,
Hoped that I still,
Still had a chance,
A chance to secure-
A place in your heart.

But today I know,
I know for sure -
That I am no where near -
Near your heart.

A fool have I been,
All this while.
To have chased you
With childish passion.

Harbouring desire in my heart.
Well now I know you shall never be mine.
All I can wish you is -
Good Luck and Good Bye.

As I recollect those days
Days in the past,
Where I would wait for you
To speak to me

The many conversations,
That we had about
A 100 different things
Music, Books, Life.

Now all reduced to memories
Of a yesterday
That's lost forever!
Farewell!!!

Shopping, Blood, Cinema and Marriage

2011-06-19T19:19:00.003+05:30

It has been a while since I wrote something on the blog. Lot of events have taken place, a short visit by sister and my nephew, shopping for them till late into the night a mid-night drive to reach home at 2 AM, taking my mother to Express Avenue and Citi Centre - my mother's absolute surprise at seeing obscenely-priced shirts and sarees, lots of stuff.

In between, I had time to fall seriously ill with the doctor not able to diagnose my condition properly. I spat blood for a couple of days and ended up with complete bed-rest for four days effectively ruining a weekend and taking sick-leave for two days. By God's grace I am better now and back to work albeit still weak.

A huge good news is my classmate from college Ashwin getting engaged in Bengaluru! As I propheised on his blog earlier this year my friend is hitched and will be getting married early next year. Congrats Ashwin :)

Being ill and lying down in bed gave me time to see some movies.

Bodyguard - Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in a romantic movie with some good songs thrown in - timepass stuff.

Unknown - Liam Neeson ages like fine wine and after the phenomenal success of "Taken" last year returns as a professor facing memory-loss in Berlin. Great stuff with an interesting twist. Good car-chase sequences shot in Berlin's busy streets.

Urumi - Prithviraj's maiden production venture is an absolute mess of history, but is good fun with special appearance songs by Tabu who continues to entice another generation of movie-goers. Prithvi and Prabhudeva play friends who plan to kill Vasco da Gama. Amole Gupte as Thampuran and Jagadhi as the effeminate minister excel in their roles. Genelia as warrior princess Ayesha does a good job too.

404 - A medical college hostel - a room which witnessed a suicide, ragging by seniors, spirits and ghosts, a professor who researches on the paranormal, a student who is haunted by the spirit. Good movie, no gimmicks, script-driven and great performances. Worth a watch!

Last Tango in Paris - Sick and nauseating, porn disguised as art-house cinema - Marlon Brando whom movie-lovers can only view as the Godfather reduced to a middle-aged sex-maniac of sorts. Hated the movie for its nudity and titillation!

KO - Jeeva gets a hit. K.V. Anand packages stunning visuals, well-shot songs, fight sequences to give a blockbuster, but personally I felt the movie was just average. Ajmal gets a good role as the idealistic young politician who is the real villain.

Limitless - What would you do if you got a magic-pill that would let you use the full capacity of your brain? Bradley Cooper and Robert de Niro in a decent comedy. Nothing exceptional! Wish Bradley Cooper gets to play a homicidal villain of sorts in his upcoming movies. He has the dramatic potential and is not experimenting enough with his roles all stuck in a comic-rut.

Rango - A fascinating revisionist Western in animated form with Johnny Depp voicing Rango a chameleon who saves a desert town from the unscrupulous Mayor who diverts the town's water supply. Great fun!

Animals United - Animation not on par with Pixar and co. but a good story-line about man's uncontrollable greed for developing forests into tourist resorts and how animals unite and reclaim their land and water.

The Lincoln Lawyer - Nothing great Matthew Mc Connaughey plays the wise-cracking lawyer who defends a murder-accused. Is the accused guilty? Watch the movie for answers. Run-of-the mill movie nothing great.

Job-opening for content editor/writer

2011-05-31T12:04:00.001+05:30

Hello folks there is a job-opening for a reputed UK based-company operating a number of websites in the educational/higher-studies domain. The requirement and job-description are as follows:

• This role provides an exciting opportunity for someone who has experience in content writing, journalism and third media.
• Candidate will work across a portfolio of over 20 websites, liaising with educational institutions and advertising agencies in UK, USA, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand to create content and provide an excellent standard of customer care.
• Working in our friendly and outgoing team, candidate will be responsible for writing content to a high-standard and loading interactive web media on our websites which would in turn lead to generating the highest possible number of enquiries to institutions who are our customers.
• If the candidate has studied abroad then that would be a distinct advantage.
• Excellent communication and organisation skills are a must along with a good eye for detail, an excellent grasp of the English language and a confident telephone manner.
• Experience of managing a small team and knowledge of html and Photoshop would be useful.

If you are interested do fill in the comments box with your email id and contact number and I will get in touch with you at the earliest. Please note that the company is looking for people with at least two years of relevant writing experience and applicants should have completed their graduation. This is a full-time job and the job-location is CHennai. Please note no shifts, regular working hours from 9:30 AM to 6:OO PM.

Colleagues at work - Ethnic Day

2011-05-03T15:59:00.003+05:30

Ampa Skywalk Mall

2011-03-29T15:30:00.003+05:30

This was a long-pending visit!

Managed to make it to Ampa last Sunday.

Spent a couple of hours in the mall and was impressed. Spencers Plaza has been my hunting ground for books, chats and "hanging out" for a long time. City Centre and Express Avenue brought in a refreshing change with the added benefit of a movie-experience!

In all the noise on development, "big-is-huge syndrome", mega-brands, parking-space and all that, the developers and promoters forgot the common man. Remember Irrfan Khan in "Mumbai Meri Jaan", what is it that one gets without paying for in a mall?

I know "eye-candy", window-shopping and the occassional glimpse of a B-grade heroine or a forgotten cricket-star etc can be optional answers. How about the basic need "A glass of clean and cold purified drinking water" - the elixir of Life.

Ampa and the folks behind it, a salute to you!

Ampa offers purified drinking water and clean well-maintained rest-rooms with signs for a wet-floor. The big brands are there - Landmark, Westside and the usual electronics and designer boutiques. Great dining area with a number of brands selling their food. PVR with its movie-screens seems to be exciting!

Star Bazaar, Tata's answer to retail stores seems to be a huge success with seemingly endless rows of stuff from fruits, vegetables, food and provisions, clothes, cosmetics and perfumes. They definitely seem to be better organized than Big Bazaar.

All-in-all a great Sunday at the mall! Looking forward to seeing more outlets which can cater to the lower middle-class income group.

600 and counting

2011-03-09T16:47:00.004+05:30

600 posts and a number of friends who continue to read and post comments, have lost out on a few who have distanced themselves away from me, but I am sure they still read the blog but their massive ego prevents them from emailing me or posting a comment on my blog.

I thank each and everyone who still continue to spend some time and read my blog, SMS me asking when is the next post, or suggest ideas about potential topics to write.

Thanks to everyone:

Ashwin - college-mate and dear friend.
Antony - Social networking king :)
Priya - former colleague and friend who writes on a wide variety of topics.
Kavitha - former colleague and friend whose blog is a delight for food and photography lovers.
Rajesh - former colleague and very good friend.
Neha - former colleague and a very good friend - do post comments :)
Nithin - Who's blog sparked this pursuit.
Shiva & Sudha happily wedded in matrimonial bliss now.
Revathi & Sukumari at SFY whose early reviews and encouragement were of great help.

Life goes on and I hope I get the time and energy to maintain and monitor this blog.

Thanks again to everyone !!!

A splendid tie

2011-03-02T13:11:00.003+05:30

Any team that does not manage to defend a total of 338 runs in an ODI match, has some serious soul-searching to do. Dhoni's captaincy was absolutely pathetic. Two wickets when Dhoni simply forgot to appeal. UDRS decision that was over-turned. A lot of pedestrian fielding, too many negatives for India.

Sachin's century and Yuvraj's batting form where the only positives. Piyush Chawla bowling the 49th over was a wrong decision. Why did not Pathan get more overs to bowl? Munaf is a new-ball bowler and his quota should have been completed in the first 30 overs.

I hope Ashwin gets to play the next match and opens the bowling with Munaf at the other end. Team India - buck up or you will be bowled out by the real opposition not the minnows.

All credit to Strauss and Beresnan and Shahzad's six!

The Oscars for 2010

2011-02-27T18:51:00.004+05:30

An interesting choice of movies this year. "The Social Network," "The King's Speech," and "True Grit" lead the race. Can "The Fighter" and "The Winter's Bone" make a surprise win. "Black Swan" is a bit gloomy but Natalie Portman end up all smiles with a Best Actress trophy. Or will "The Kids are all Right" throw a big surprise?

David Fincher is my bet for Best Director. Though Christopher Nolan deserved a nomination for Inception.

Christian Bale is not likely to win an Oscar for his crack-devouring Boxing Trainer role in "The Fighter". Geoffrey Rush as the language and speech therapist deserves the Best Supporting Actor award. Colin Firth is also likely to win the Best Actor award for "The King's Speech".

India's connection A.R. Rahman is highly unlikely to win an award for his song for 127 hours. Let us wait and watch.

India start on a winning note

2011-02-20T17:32:00.003+05:30

Sehwag's heroics and Kohli's cool-headed performance ensured that India's loss at WC 2007 to Bangladesh was avenged.

175 runs from Sehwag and 100 by Kohli and a 4-wicket haul by Munaf Patel and India have a great beginning.

Let us hope for the best.

In the Shadow of Gotham - Book Review

2011-01-28T13:26:00.004+05:30

In my earlier post, I had written that I picked up two books from Odyssey. I finished reading one of them.

"In the Shadow of Gotham" by Stefanie Pintoff

The book won the Edgar Award for the "Best First Novel" by an American. It is set in 1905 in New York.

The protagonist, detective inspector Ziele is assigned the task of solving the murder of Sarah Wingate a doctoral student of Mathematics, who is working on the Riemann Hypothesis.

Who murdered her?

Ziele is assisted by Alistair Sinclair a researcher who analyses what drives people to commit crimes. He says that one of his case-studies Michael Fromley might have committed the crime.

The story progresses as more mysterious happenings take place and Fromley's dead body is discovered.

Read the novel to discover who the real villain is?

A good mix of history and crime. Interesting and definitely a good read.

Pongal, shopping, books and malls

2011-01-16T13:21:00.007+05:30

Well Murphy's Law really worked for me this Pongal!

First the water purifier stopped working, then the Tata Indicom Walky's battery died, the gas cylinder delivery rules have changed and the delivery van stops 100 metres away from our house. Imagine carrying one empty cylinder down the stairs and then carrying a full one up the stairs. The biceps really cracked:)

The Tata Indicom helpline was an absolute mess as I did not get any reply at all. Guess all the folks at the call-centre or support centre were relishing hot sakkarai pongal.

The water-purifier repair guy came in at 10 AM thankfully and after examining the purifier said that the internal purifying chambers had to be replaced. Rs 3000 washed away right in the morning!

Because of a couple of deaths in the family none of the usual celebrations were there! I had already visited this year's book fair; even worse than last year! Same complaints - I want more translated Tamil fiction or at least audio books in Tamil. Not everyone can read Tamil. The massive English-reading public should not be deprived of the literary genius of Kalki, Sujatha, Jayakanthan,and many more giants of Tamil literature.

I spotted an English translation of the scripts of Parashakhti and Manohara by our dear CM M.Karunanidhi. But Rs. 350 was a bit to steep for a badly printed book without any photos from the films. So I skipped it.

When are the publishers going to wake up!

Arrangement of the stalls was haphazard. In the past 10 years that I have visited the book-fair I have never ever won the daily lucky draw. This year was no exception!!! God knows if it is a sham:)

I then decided to visit the Express Avenue Mall at Royapettah.It has been close to two years since the mall has been opened but I had not visited it so far.

The mall is massive, parking area needs to be made smarter. Approach roads and pavements are filthy with dogs and humans making a mess of the area! Pan juice, gutkha stains, human and animal shit! All kinds of filth! Once again proof of the massive difference between the haves and have-nots? No, probably it's more to do with civic sense and lack of public lavatories in the country!

There are a number of international brands and ample space to window-shop! There are a number of toilets and specially designed toilets for the physically handicapped. Unfortunately a number of them are locked. You know its festive shopping time and nearly 30,000 to 45,000 people are expected to enter the mall, why are the damn lavatories closed?

Girls, girls and more girls, dressed in bright fluorescent colours,figure-hugging jeans and high-heels, in groups giggling away to glory! Guys in tight jeans and tee-shirts showing of their muscles, harried husbands tagging behind wives carrying shopping bags from Marks and Spencers and Westside, young kids with their parents pestering their parents to buy icecream and chocolates. An entire cross-section of society. Tatooed foreigners buying Tantra tee-shirts and organic food, a couple of blokes in full formals probably part of some international delegation digging into pizzas at Pizza Hut.

Odyssey store with its 15% discount on all books; had Rs. 500 earmarked for books and I spent an hour trying to get two books by authors whom I had never read so far. Found two books, reviews to come soon!

Big Bazaar with its discount on fashion was fun. Picked up a couple of tees for Rs 249. By now I was famished and I visited Pit-stop in the basement area. Rs 109 for a small Garden-Margherita pizza (6 inches) an orange soda-slush drink for Rs 65 (absolute mess, will never waste my money on such indiscretions again) Pizza was undercooked and not warm enough! Service was poor, 25 minutes to serve an undercooked, luke-warm pizza with two pieces of onion, two pieces of capsicum and one olive sliced into bits-daylight robbery!

Overall a hectic day, expensive day but fun and satisfying! I still wonder why that girl in the pink tee and black jeans kept staring at me in Odyssey and hung around the same book-shelves as me!

Hmmm!!!! :)

New Year 2011

2011-01-04T20:06:00.003+05:30

Folks hope all of you had a great new year!

You might have spent your new year at a temple, with friends and family, at a pub or discotheque. Lucky folks:)

I was banging my head in frustration looking at my project management question paper in the exam hall.

1 more paper to go in this semester. Hope I clear the papers :)

So folks may God bless you and provide a safe, fun-filled and prosperous New Year 2011 to all of you.

Cheers :)

Can India win the second test at Durban?

2010-12-28T18:22:00.003+05:30

Laxman's pain-stakingly crafted 96, is it enough?

A target of 303 and the Proteas are 70 for 1 when I type this.

Can India win this match???

Down Under Trott's marvellous knock and an Aussie batting collapse ensure that the Poms will retain the Ashes tomorrow.

X-mas cake

2010-12-27T18:59:00.004+05:30

Inspired by kavitha's marvellous images and cooking my humble attempt at baking a cake.

A combination of refined flour, drinking chocolate powder, milk, a bit of orange pulp and peels, cashew nuts and cherries topped with strawberry wafers.

Came out brilliantly. 12 minutes in the microwave and great fun to eat.

Merry Christmas!!!

Hitlist 2010

2010-12-23T15:39:00.008+05:30

So folks it's that time of the year again when I make a list of the movies, which I enjoyed watching this year. So here's the list without much further ado:

The English Club

Shutter Island and Inception
Power-packed roles from Leo, one helmed by the old master Martin Scorcese and the other by the modern genius Christopher Nolan. From playing a psychologically disturbed cop to a thief who implanted dreams and stole stuff from you mind absolute mind-benders.

The Social Network
David Fincher's take on the creation of a modern phenomenon that the world's hooked on - Facebook. Pre-dominantly dialogue but still interesting. The truth behind intellectual property theft, how an idea got modified, stolen and became a billion-dollar brand.

Despicable Me
The world's greatest villain plans to steal the moon and is assisted by three little girls and an army of small yellow creatures. Excellent animation and a good story.

The Ghost Writer
A thriller of a different sort, Pierce Brosnan playing a disgraced British PM, Ewan Mc Gregor a failed novelist, war-crimes and death. Excellent stuff from Roman Polanski.

Toy-Story-3
With Woody and Buzz and Andy a lovely saga that sadly got over. An overdose of emotions but one of Pixar's most loved creations comes to an end.

The American
Slow, moody and a look into the mind and actions of a specialist gun-smith and assassin. Splendidly shot with a lovely actress in tow George Clooney shines.

Salt
Angelina Jolie kicks bad ass in a role originally written for Tom Cruise. Possibilities of a sequel in tow.

Tamil Hits

Nandalala
Mysskin's take on Takeshi Kitano's Kikujiro. A heart-warming tale of a mentally unstable man and a young boy's road-trip in search of their respective mothers. Excellent stuff and it takes lot of courage to make a movie like this.

Angadi Theru
Visiting and shopping in T. Nagar will never ever be the same again. A tale of dreams and the struggle, which the thousands of young men and woman face while working in the huge super-stores of TN's shopping capital.

Aayirathil Oruvan
Selvaraghavan remains the rebel with his mix of history, Mackenna's Gold and a metaphor on the plight of Sri Lankan tamils. Splendid acting by Parthiban, good job by Karthi and Reema. Movie could have been edited better to make it more interesting. A truly different attempt.

Irumbukottai Murattu Singam
Tamil cowboy Lawrence, funny adventure with liberal spoofing from Simbudevan. Clint Eastwood beware, Singam is here.

Nan Mahan Alla
A revenge movie shot unconventionally with four menacing villains. One being the kid who played junior Surya in "Nanda". Karthi does a great job and excellent chemistry with Kajal Agarwal.

Vamsam
Vilage-setting, revenge and a sweet love-story. Great debut by Arulnidhi.Nice comedy by ganja Karuppu and Arulnidhi too. Imposing role by Jayaprakash and Kishore.

Vinnaithandi Varuvaya
Gautam Menon resurrects Simbhu's career and image with a love-story with great songs. I enjoyed the songs not a great fan of the movie though.

Enthiran
Money, money, explosions, robots and a fantastic looking Aishwarya under layers of make-up. Rajnikanth the phenomenon under Shankar's direction makes a lot of money for distributors and theatre-owners.

Mynaa
Super-stuff, a romance, a village tale told with passion, excellent cinematography, decent inspired-music score, great acting. Amala Paul a name to watch out for in the future.

Boss engira bhaskaran and Madrasapattinam
One a light-hearted comic-caper, the other a period saga. Arya shone in both roles. Santhanam's comedy in Boss with his "Nanben da" and "Thala Thalapathi Saloon" was excellent. Nayanthara for a change looked good in her salwars and sarees instead of her idiotic skimpy outfits. Amy Jackson had a great debut with Madrasapattinam and is acting in Gautam's Hindi remake of VTV.

Hindi Hits

Peepli Live
Aamir Khan's production, a black comedy about politics and farmer suicides. Nathu's travails and a song on rising costs that became a chartbuster.

Dabanng
Salman as Robinhood Chulbul Pandey, gorgeous Sonakshi Sinha in a dream debut and of course "Munni Badnaam Hui". Sphagetti Western meets Indian cop saga. Funny stuff, great fights, foot-tapping numbers. The biggest hit of the year.

Do Dooni Char

Rishi Kappor and Neetu Singh on screen in a heart-warming comedy of Laxmanesque proportions. A Maths teacher who almost accepts a bribe from a rich student to buy a Maruti car. Disney's Bollywood venture won many hearts with its simple tale.

An update I would also like to add Udaan, Rajneeti and Ishqiya to the list.

So folks wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Praying for sensible, interesting and original movies in the coming year.

Kiwis cut a sorry figure

2010-12-13T11:41:00.004+05:30

The demoralizing defeat, a 5-0 whitewash by an Indian team without Dhoni, Sachin, Harbhajan, Viru and Co. Daniel Vettori and his beleaguered team have a lot of soul-searching to do.

This comes at the end of a similar white-wash at the hands of Bangladesh.

Once considered to be a strong ODI team which consistently defeated higher-ranked teams, New Zealand cricket is at an all-time low.

Let's hope the Kiwis get in-shape for the World Cup 2011.

Mynaa - Movie review

2010-11-30T15:27:00.002+05:30

Directed by Prabhu Solomon, Mynaa starts interestingly with the preparations being made in a huge joint family for celebrating Diwali. We are shown various women speaking with another woman regarding the saree they plan to wear. We realize that the youngest daughter of the family would arrive to celebrate her "Thala Diwali".

From here the scene shifts to the woman's husband a police inspector who leaves for duty assuring his newly-wed wife that he would come in the afternoon.

Then we are introduced to an unkempt bearded youth - Suruli in a jail-cell who reminsces about his childhood - a gambler for a father, a loud-mouthed aunt and the love of his life Mynaa(played by Amala Paul). A girl whom he rescues and falls in love in childhood itself.

A visitor a 12-13 year old boy visits Suruli and gives him a message. Suruli escapes from jail. The senior inspector and his subordinates are put into a tizzy and leave in pursuit of Suruli.

The rest of the movie is about Suruli's love for Mynaa, his arrest by the policemen and the journey of all four back to the police station.

Excellent photography, good performances, a Braveheart-inspired music score and a couple of good songs ensure a fairly enjoyable movie.

The movie is let down by its climax. I am not revealing it.

Watch the movie to find out if Suruli succeeds in marrying Mynaa.

2010-11-27T15:50:00.002+05:30

Folks its been a long time since I published a short story on this blog. So without any further excuses a short story for my readers.

A TALE OF LOVE

It was the last day of college, April 23, 1993. Two weeks of study-leave then the final exams; and we would be stepping out in to the world, finding a job and hoping to make it big financially.

Reeta, Sri, Mukul and me; we were students of a deemed university. Reeta and Sri were engineering students. Mukul studied Chemistry and I studied English Literature. Mukul, Sri and me shared a room in the boys hostel. Reeta’s dad was a professor in the Music College, which was a part of our huge campus. The four of us had chosen Music as part of our compulsory elective credits. From day-1 we gelled together and we were nicknamed Trixie and Trio. Reeta had short hair and someone called her Trixie jestfully and the name stuck.

Mukul was an athlete in the true sense of the word. Standing tall at 6 feet 4 inches, he was selected to represent the University’s basketball team. In our second year of college, he was the team’s captain. It was laurel after laurel and our team won the inter-University Basketball Tournament, three years in a row.

Sri was the perfect student the dream of every professor and lecturer. A brilliant orator and a top academic, he won the gold medal for being the best engineering student in the Electronics & Communications stream.

Reeta was simple, sweet and shy. She was about 5 feet 4 inches and was what you might call a girl whom all the guys admired. Patient, calm and always nearby to help a friend. All the professors liked her.

I was well like any average student; but really passionate about books, music and cinema.

As the months quickly flew by, I realized that both my roommates had fallen in love with Reeta. It would be funny because both of them would come to me and ask me to write poems for her. This went on for about four months and then one evening in January 1992, Reeta cornered me in the canteen, showed me the letters and asked for an explanation. “Max, what is this tamasha? I do not know what to say, we are just in the third year of college, life lies ahead, there is so much to do, and I really like both Mukul and Sri. It is just that I cannot choose among the two of them. Can’t all of us be friends forever?”

I looked at her amused and slightly worried—“Trixie, just wait till one of them makes a formal proposal; you decide who is going to be the one with whom you intend to spend the rest of your life.”

She replied—“Max both of them dote on me. They go out of their way in trying to please me. I just don’t know; Mukul is an adventurer, a daredevil; you never know what he is going to do next—totally unpredictable. Sri is steady, confident and dependable, but he is not exciting and adventurous.

I said—“trixie, whatever you decide, think carefully and then make a commitment!”

Mukul finished his BSc. Chemistry and enrolled in an advanced diploma in Bio-Chemistry. I completed my B.A. Lit. course and took up a diploma course in Journalism.

We continued to move about as a group, but there was a definite feeling of insecurity in the minds of Sri and Mukul with Respect to Reeta. As Reeta and Sri’s practicals got over and the dates for the engineering finals were announced; Farewell-Day arrived.

April 23, 1993

I was worried as I knew that both Sri and Mukul had decided to try their luck one last time. I had secured a job with a newspaper based out of Calcutta and Sri had been placed on-campus with a leading telecommunications company based in Dubai. Mukul was yet to find a job and Reeta had no immediate plans to find a job.

That evening at about 6 ‘o clock, Mukul walked in to our room. One look at his face and I realized that his gamble had failed and he had lost Reeta. He stuffed all his belongings in to a duffel bag and set next to me on the couch. He said—“Max, so that’s it! It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I tried but I couldn’t win her heart. I am leaving this city man, too many memories.” It took me by surprise when he gave me a small box. “Max, this is for you my friend; I shall miss you a lot. Take care and good night.” He got up and walked out in to the darkness.

I opened the box; it contained a beautiful fountain pen crafted in silver. The box held a short note saying—“Max, promise me that you will write our story one day. Best of luck from the loser, your buddy-Mukul.”

At 7:15, Sri and Reeta walked in to my room. Both of them were happy and made a pretty picture together. I congratulated them and wish them luck.

Sri married Reeta in December 1993. In January 1994, they moved to Dubai were Sri’s job was based. I would receive a card for New Year and we would occasionally exchange e-mails. By 1999, I had made a name for myself as a journalist. In early 2000, I received an offer to join a leading newspaper in Muscat in oman. I joined “Al-Razeel Times” in Muscat in March 2000. I finally met Sri and Reeta in May 2000. They had two children, twins, a boy called Rahul and a girl called Mridula.

Sri had risen to the post of Operations Manager and Reeta had started a small online art auctioning business that was making money. After all these years I felt that Reeta had made the right choice on that fateful April evening.There was not much news about Mukul.

In August 2000, I received a phone call from Reeta, she said that there had been a bomb explosion in Sri’s office ad she was extremely worried. She asked me to come to Dubai. Slowly news trickled in from our reporters in Dubai and the first T.V. reports showed pictures of the blast site.

A series of bomb blasts had rocked the Ahmadiya Business Centre in Dubai, which housed fifteen different companies including Sri’s firm. The chief-editor interrupted my thoughts and spoke in an urgent tone—“Max, I need you to rush to Dubai, a chartered flight leaves in an hour from the airport. I need you to cover the incident and send reports. This is a matter of serious concern. Dubai has never been the target of terrorists. Hurry Max you have got a flight to catch.

I called Reeta and told her not to worry. At 3 PM I was at the blast site. The police officers were having a tough time to cordon the area and the rescue teams and doctors were working at a feverish pitch as bodies were being excavated from the rubble. Reeta stood along with other worried members of the public whose friends and family members were trapped in the debris of the bombed building.

As I coordinated with the rescue staff, I noticed someone; it was Mukul. He was wearing the uniform of the rescue personnel and was supervising the excavation and relief work. As I walked up to him there was another blast. This time the right atrium of the complex collapsed and there was fire all around.

Mukul rushed towards the area and the fire tenders sprayed water on the burning building. There was sheer confusion and mayhem all around. By 6:30 PM the fire had been contained. 180 dead bodies had been recovered and 60 injured people had been admitted to the hospital.

Sri was still missing. I finally spoke to Mukul, there was just a firm handshake and “Got work to do…..every second counts.” I told him—“Mukul, somewhere in that rubble Sri lies buried. We need to find him.” Mukul handed me a jacket, a helmet and a flash-light and asked me to join the rescue team. He went about like a man possessed digging through the rubble. We recovered the bodies of four more people. Below a mound of concrete and a fallen pillar we saw a hand. It was moving, Mukul spotted the moving hand, and with the help of another man we tried to lift the pillar. As the moans from the injured person increased we realized that the injured person was none other than Sri. Mukul used a lever to move the pillar slowly to avoid injuring Sri any further. A nerve-wracking 20 minutes later we managed to pull Sri out. He was unconscious and had received a serious injury on his head. He was rushed to the hospital as Mukul went back to the blast site to search for the remaining survivors.

I accompanied Reeta to the hospital. The doctors treating the injured were under stress and the Critical Care Unit was bustling with activity. The doctor Mr. Mansur said that Sri had suffered serious damage and surgery was to be performed without delay to save his life. As Reeta signed a couple of forms; I noticed Mukul walking towards us. He was tired but his worried looks showed how much he cared for Reeta. As soon as Reeta returned from the doctor and saw the two of us she broke in to tears. I tried to pacify her but she continued to sob. Mukul suddenly went up to her and hugged her, he said-“Trixie, don’t worry the doctors are doing their best.”

The act startled me but it had the desired effect. Reeta stopped crying and managed to smile. As the surgery continued inside, the three of us sat together. She held our hands sitting in nervous tension. An awkward silence, which was broken by Mukul. He said how he had joined a shipping company and finally landed up in Dubai as part of a security firm.

It was 7:45 PM now, almost ninety minutes since the surgery had begun. I went up to the cafeteria and bought coffee and doughnuts for the three of us. We had to coax Reeta to eat her doughnut. At 8:30 PM the doctor came out and spoke-“The loss of blood in his brain and the injuries to his ribs are serious. We have tried our best. It will be a miracle if he lives for more than a week. He is in a coma now. You can stay beside him. All you can do is pray.”

To be continued...

Well folks I have an ending in mind and have it written in my notebook. I am looking for suggestions from my readers for a more powerful ending/climax. So folks let those creative juices flow send me your ideas.

Life

2010-11-22T11:41:00.003+05:30

Sivankutty was tired and sad. Acchhan after a long silence of two years had called to say that Apoopan had died in his sleep.

Sivankutty was never close to his Apoopan having hardly met him thrice in his life-time. After Acchhan had left home after the big-fight with Ammachi, Sivan never bothered about Acchhan.

The sudden news was shocking and spoiled his mood!!!

All Sivan could do was pray as Ammachi lit a lamp facing the south.

Harbjajan is the new saviour

2010-11-18T16:07:00.001+05:30

Harbhajan with two successive centuries against the Kiwis is turning out to be the new batting saviour. Wish he started taking wickets with more regularity. In the absence of Anil Kumble he is India's mainstream spinner now.

Bhajji should stop his on-field and off-field antics and start focusing on his bowling. The World Cup is a few months away, blind slogging of the ball is just not acceptable when the World Cup is at stake.

Come on Bhajji!!!!

Battling cold and fever

2010-11-07T15:57:00.002+05:30

This has been an extremely tiring Diwali as I battle fever, throat infection and a blasted cold. It is raining profusely with a cyclone centred near the TN and AP coast.

Hope I can make it to work tomorrow.

Inception

2010-11-06T19:51:00.002+05:30

Finally saw Inception today. To be honest I did not understand most of it. There were phrases like "dream within a dream", "implanting ideas", "mind architecture" etc.

Great background score, superb performance by Leo. Stunning photography and slick editing.

If time permits I will watch the movie again. May be a detailed review will follow if I understand the movie.

Pages from My Diary

2010-11-06T19:47:00.001+05:30

It’s been a couple of years now since I realized that she never looked at me in the same vein that I saw her. At that juncture she was supposed to get engaged to one of her classmates. Later I came to know that things did not work out and the engagement was cancelled. She never calls me or sends me a message; did her ego get bruised or did she find someone else; I will never know. Surprisingly my affections for her continue to remain in the same vein.

My only comfort is that I let her know how much I loved her. As I continue to meander about performing my duties as a son, a brother, a friend, a disciple and so on and so forth; I wonder if I will ever find someone to call my ‘own’. Even if I do will I be able to erase ‘her’ memories from my mind and heart.

Everywhere around me there are people bursting fire crackers, celebrating the “Festival of Lights” – Diwali. I wonder as I sit alone and write this – “Will someone light up my heart?” or to put it more accurately – “Will I be able to light up someone’s heart?” – Ever?

And on that pensive note, life goes on….

Happy Diwali

2010-11-03T13:10:00.000+05:30

With Diwali just a couple of days away, here's wishing all everyone a "HAPPY DIWALI".

While bursting crackers spare a thought for the elderly, ill and the animals on the road.

Be safe, be happy, opt for a noise-free Diwali!

Death

2010-10-14T10:36:00.001+05:30

Loved ones are leaving me.

One more death of someone whom I respected a lot.

Uncle R.I.P.

A Great Victory

2010-10-13T15:37:00.001+05:30

A fantastic victory for Team India.

A new star Cheteshwar Pujara is born.

The hockey team walloped England 5-4 in a penalty shootout to qualify for the finals of the Commonwealth Games hockey tournament.

Can an inspired team defeat Australia in the finals?

Let us hope for the best.

Come on India!!!!!

Sachin

2010-10-12T13:19:00.002+05:30

Sachin cracks a double hundred, Murali Vijay gets a maiden test hundred. North shows his talents for Australia. Will the match show a result.

Knight & Day

2010-09-30T17:05:00.004+05:30

Image source - Wikipedia

Jolly good fun!

Good chemistry between Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

Tom Cruise is Roy Miller a rogue CIA agent who holds a zephyr a pocket-sized battery that can power an entire city!

He meets June (Diaz) a car modelling expert on her way to her sister's wedding and uses her to get the zephyr passed through the checking counter at the airport.

The movie has its share of twists, chases, humour, shoot-outs and is shot in Austria, Germany and Mexico.

Roy and June are chased by CIA agents, the police and an assassin hired by a Mexican weapons dealer. Watch the movie to find out how Roy outwits everyone.

Rating - 2.5 stars.

Chennai Super Kings are the Champions

2010-09-28T15:53:00.003+05:30

Many considered the crowning of Chennai Super Kings as IPL-3 champions to be a fluke.
Dhoni has proved his critics to be wrong by leading his team to victory in the Champions League in South Africa.

Murali Vijay, Bollinger, Michel Hussey, Raina, Ashwin and Muralitharan have been instrumental in CSK's success. Obviously getting a place in Group-A was an added bonus with the weaker teams from Sri Lanka and New Zealand being present in it.

There was heart break in the match against Victoria, which CSK lost in the Superover. A remarkable victory defending a meagre total in the last group match against the warriors moved CSK into the semifinals. A rain curtailed semi against Royal Challengers Bangalore was made memorable as Suresh Raina went all hammer and tongs against the RCB bowlers. An injury to Dale Steyn while attempting a catch and a top-order batting failure 13/4 brought CSK into the finals.

Disciplined bowling and excellent fielding resulted in CSK defeating the South African Warriors. All-in-all a great performance by the men in yellow. The next edition of IPL with two more teams will see many members moving to other teams. This victory should boost Dhoni's confidence and help him face the Australians in the home series that will start in a few days.

As the theme song goes Dhoni Chennai Super Kings kku Whistle Podu

Prince of Persia

2010-09-28T12:00:00.002+05:30

Image source-Internet

Jake Gyllenhal goes into six-pack mode and comes out as a convincing Prince Dastan. The boy who was picked from the streets of Persia and became a prince. The movie is based on one of the most successful video games of all time and has excellent production values.

The story is about the King of Persia who is poisoned and killed by his brother Nizam played by Ben Kingsley. Dastan is falsely accused of killing the king and is chased by the rightful sons of the king Tus and Garvis.

How Dastan proves his innoccence is linked with a magical dagger, which allows its holder to control time. The dagger is safeguarded Princess Tamina played by Gema Arterton. The chemistry between Dastan and Tamina is forced but has its share of laughs. There is a slavetrader and his faithful African slave as a side-plot.

Great timepass but not an adventure of epic proportions. The biggest problem is how does a supposed Persian speak with a prim and proper British accent:) Children will enjoy the movie.

I am still waiting to see Inception.

Hope to see it soon.

The CWG - A Mess beyond Redemption

2010-09-24T17:46:00.002+05:30

All this while when corruption was rampant, the general public had no other choice but suffer. Years of being left disappointed has brought in a stoic calm to the psyche of the common Indian when it comes to politicians and bureaucrats.

The Commonwealth Games in comparison is a national spectacle of great proportions. What was to be India's moment of pride in replicating China's successful Olympic Games has ended up in a matter of shame for the country.

Everyday there are reports about a ceiling falling down, roads in bad condition, uninhabitable residences for players, the list goes on. When the CWG scam came to the spotlight the news that caught my attention was "Toilet Paper Scam". Apparently each roll of toilet paper was purchased for Rs. 4000. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Scams for the purchase of treadmills, toiler cleaners, there is a whole list. Everyone has a share in the pie.

Things are moving on at breakneck speed and at the eleventh hour our PM Manmohan Singh is leading the operations. I hope for the sake of the country that things are put in place. Already top athletes have pulled out citing various reasons. I guess in an unfair sense it will give an option for lesser known athletes and players to reach the podium and win medals.

Once the games end a thorough investigation regarding the financial irregularities concerning CWG should be conducted and the guilty should be punished. But knowing the way how things work in our great land it will be one long case with hearings and additional hearings, cases getting transferred, one more mess the judicial system of which I will blog later.

As of now I hope the CWG goes on smoothly and that there are no terrorist attacks. Security has been lax as shown by some Australian journalists who went about with semi-explosives without being questioned.

As they say - "May the games begin" and punish the guilty in the Organising Committee.

Back on Track

2010-09-22T13:21:00.000+05:30

Thankfully the break was short.

Life is back on track and I am at work.

God has been kind and merciful in answering my prayers.

Now I need to work with patience and stick to this job.

On Staying at Home

2010-09-15T20:03:00.004+05:30

What does one say?
When people ask you,
Hey aren't you leaving yet?

How do I tell them,
I'm jobless at the moment.
Dusting all my books,
My music and movie collection.

I get endless calls a day.
Some from HR personnel,
Some from friends,
And some from relatives.
Sympathetic folks, angry folks, folks who say!

You deserved it!
I always told you don't quit SFY!
Another chap says "Man, you shouldn't have refused those KPO offers!
It's the curse of that angry HR bloke.
Well reasons may be many, excuses even more.
What to do?

Helping mom wash and cook and clean the house.
Updating my resume across job portals.
Shooting e-mails to companies across the country.
Life goes on at its own pace.
So folks till something worth posting comes up!
Or till I find something I love,
Or well if I find someone to love!

Well that was cheeky:)

It's ADIEU!

One more chapter closes

2010-09-07T20:41:00.001+05:30

Life is falling in to a strange routine, where in every six to seven months, I join a new firm, make friends, and then am forced to say adieu.

So the quest begins all over again.

Don't know how I am going to manage.

Very very scary future.

SALT

2010-09-02T16:42:00.005+05:30

Tom Cruise missed a chance to belt out a blockbuster. Yes, the role portrayed by Angelina Jolie in SALT was originally written for Tom Cruise.

The story is about how a section of Russia's KGB trains children to become spies and sends them to the U.S. In addition, to children they also replace American adults with look-alike Russian spies.

Angelina plays a CIA agent Evelyn Salt who is accused of planning to assassinate the American President. This info is provided by a Russian defector. How Evelyn goes about escaping from the CIA and proves her innocence forms the crux of the story.

Chases, shoot-outs, plot-twists; it's all there.

The climax proves that there is room for a sequel and SALT might well end up becoming a franchise like the Mission Impossible series.

With Knight & Day tanking at the U.S. box-office, Tom Cruise might be regretting his decision of skipping SALT.

Need Help

2010-08-23T16:29:00.005+05:30

Folks need help.

If there is a job opening for content writers / copy writers / copy editors.

Please send me an e-mail with the details of the company at rmaheshiyer@hotmail.com

You can also add the details through the comments section.

Thanks in advance.

HAPPY ONAM

2010-08-23T12:44:00.002+05:30

May King Mahabali bless you with joy and riches.

Wishing everyone a HAPPY ONAM

The Wolfman

2010-08-16T15:08:00.004+05:30

Image courtesy Google Images

Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Benico Del Toro, the movie is a remake of the 1941 classic with the same name.

The story starts on a dark night in the woods of Blackmoor. A man seems to be chasing someone when he is mauled by something. The next scene shows a performance of Hamlet. A woman Miss Gwen approaches Lawrence (Benico) and says that her fiancee Ben is missing.

We learn that the person mauled at the beginning is Lawrence's brother, Ben. During the train journey to Blackmoor, Lawrence is given a cane with the head of a silver wolf by an old man.

The old castle holds many secrets, we learn that Lawrence found his mother dying in his father - Sir John(Anthony Hopkin's arms)many years ago. This resulted in young Lawrence losing his sanity and being admitted to an lunatic asylum.

Lawrence investigates his brother's death. He sees his corpse and is shocked by the mutilated body. He discovers a medallion in his brother's belongings, which leads him to the gypsies. It is a full moon night and again the strange creature attacks the gypsy camp. In trying to save a young boy the creature bites Lawrence.

The gypsy-woman nurses Lawrence and stitches his wounds despit others asking her to let Lawrence die. The woman answers "He can die only at the hands of someone who loves him."

Lawrence finds out that his father is the werewolf. He realises his father killed his mother many years ago and is now tormenting the people of Blackmoor. Circumstances cause people to suspect Lawrence to be the werewolf and he is once again sent to the lunatic asylum.

Lawrence escapes from the asylum seeking revenge.

What happens? Does he become human? Is he killed? Does he kill Sir John?

Watch the movie to find answers.

The movie moves between slow suspense and super quick CGI action. The fight between the two werewolves brilliant. The cinematography and music catch the essence of the dark theme of the movie. Acting is good. Worth watching once.

Team India's Moment of Truth

2010-08-11T14:57:00.003+05:30

India's mammoth loss by 200 runs to New Zealand has brought to the fore-front the inability of our batsmen to tackle the short-pitched ball.

It was practically fielding practice for New Zealand as catches kept coming.

Dhoni's run-out was brilliantly executed.

What was MSD thinking when he started on that run?

Can somebody please explain why is Ravindra Jadeja still there in the team?

It was his spell that initiated the onslaught from Styris and Taylor.

Team India buck up for the remaining matches!!!

Book Fairs in Chennai

2010-08-11T13:27:00.003+05:30

Folks two minor book fairs or exhibitions are happening in Chennai.

One is at the Guild of Service in Egmore, Chennai. All new books on display.

The other one is at Chetpet in the premises of the Women's Hostel located near Palimar Hotel and parallel to Sparky's Diner. For exact directions...

Walk past the Palimar Hotel, cross the fuel-station and you will notice banners announcing the "Book Sale".

A mix of new and used books. There are fabulous discounts n the used ones.

It is a treasure trove for comic-book lovers as lots of old comics are available. In addition picture books for children, coffee table books on cuisine, architecture, music, well pretty much every topic are on display.

New books get a 10% discount.

I picked up some real comic-book gems. I got a 1987 Dennis the Menace Annual comic for Rs. 50. 5 lucky Luke comics and 4 Iznogoud comics for Rs. 99 each. The big surprise was the complete illustrated Panchatantra by noted Indian cartoonist Bujjai for Rs. 99. Believe me it is a real treasure and a book that every child should read.

I got two novels based on the 24 TV Series, a Pink Panther novel based on the Steve Martin movie and some old Tinkle digests.

Folks do not miss this, you never know what treasure you might find for a real good bargain. This "book-sale" at Chennai is been on for quite some time and will continue for a few more months as per the organisers. Open from 10 AM to 9 PM on all days.

The Ghost Writer

2010-08-03T11:04:00.004+05:30

Image Courtesy-Wikipedia

You are an ex-prime minister (Pierce Brosnan, living in a foreign land. Your auto-biography is being written by a ghost-writer, who is found dead. A new ghost-writer played by Ewan Mc Gregor is appointed to complete the auto-biography.

Tension builds slowly and we realise that things are not correct. Was the death of the earlier ghost-writer an accident or a murder? As Ewan tries to find out the truth allegations of war-crimes are thrust upon Pierce Brosnan. He becomes the centre of media attention and a bitter war of words starts.

Ewan digs in to the PM's past as skeletons slowly tumble out regarding the PM's college days. Ewan rummages the belongings of the earlier ghost-writer and discovers photos and a telephone number. As he tracks his predecessor's activities many secrets are revealed. Ewan realises that the PM was a CIA agent and helping USA.

He confronts the PM with his findings. Pierce is shot dead as he steps out of a plane. The autobiography is published and becomes a best-seller.

I am not revealing the climax!

It is a minor twist and somehow the movie is let down by it.

Do watch the movie for an old-fashioned cloak and dagger kind of thriller.

Roman Polanski's direction is great, Pierce and Ewan excel in their roles.

Background music is restrained and the visuals of the sea and the rain are well shot.

Raavanan

2010-08-02T10:51:00.005+05:30

An unintentional comedy:)

Aish manages to track down Vikram's hideout without any troubles.
While the police and special commandos could never find him.

Loved seeing Karthik as the drunken forest guard.

Songs were good.

The climax-fight on the wooden bridge was executed well.

The Karate Kid

2010-07-20T17:30:00.006+05:30

Jaden Smith does a great job.The presence of a legend Jackie Chan does not bother him at all and the kid proves he is a worthy son to Will Smith.

The kid plays Dre who lands up in Beijing with his mom after his father's death.

The first day in Beijing, results in a visit to a park, a crush in true Hindi film fashion and a beating up by the local teen bully.

School has surprises as both the girl practicing for a violin concert and the bully training for a Wushu tournament study there.

Jackie Chan works as Han the maintenance man in the apartment block where Dre and his mother stay.

One day Han saves Dre from the bullies. A few scenes later the trainer of the bullies challenges the kid to participate in the Wushu tournament.

Training starts and Dre is disappointed when Han asks him to remove his jacket, put it down, pick it and put it on a hanger.

This continues for a while along with some friendly banter between Dre and the Chinese girl.

The training sequences are well shot. A journey to the Dragon Well atop a mountain looks good. Jaden has worked hard for this role and his sparring sessions with Jackie Chan are a treat to watch.The tournament climax is predictable and executed well. Dre wins it by beating the bully. The bully and his compatriots become the students of Jackie Chan to learn Kung Fu under him.

Jaden has a great future and is sure to do well.

Rating ***/5.

A Triple Movie Treat

2010-07-14T18:47:00.002+05:30

Saw three Malayalam movies over the weekend:

Ividam Swargam Aaanu

The Mohanlal starrer was slow to pick up its pace. Directed by Roshan Andrews, the movie is about a farmer's fight against the land mafia.

Innocent, Thilakan, Srinivasan, Jagathy and all the usual stars were there.

With three heroines, Laksmi Gopalaswamy (bank manager), Priyanka (TV reporter) and Lakshmi Rai (lawyer), Lalettan has a tough choice to make.

Lalu Alex as the scheming land-grabber - Aluva Chandy does a splendid job.

The last thirty minutes remind one of Khosla ka Ghosla.

Good movie to be enjoyed with the whole family.

Nayakan

No not the Kamal starrer. This movie surprisingly went unnoticed. Stylishly shot with an awesome performance by Indrajith and Thilakan, this is a revenge saga with a difference.

Indrajith is a Kathakali dancer. Thilakan plays Vincent Karanavar, an old don kind of person, a protector of a small community of people living in an old part of Kochi.

Indrajith's father and sister are killed by Siddique a magician who became a rich political kingmaker. He is beaten by Siddique's goons and left to die.

Thilakan rescues him and plans a revenge saga.

The movie unfolds at a quick pace and some great shots of Malaysia and a twist in the climax increase the suspense.

Kerala Cafe

This collection of ten short movies produced by Ranjit uniting ten of the most popular directors in Malayalam cinema is a great effort.

This movie will be reviewed in a separate post.

Spain Win

2010-07-12T11:45:00.001+05:30

The Orange Squad failed to win as a goal by Inivestas in the 116th minute ensured that Spain lifted the FIFA World Cup 2010 title.

Heart-break for Holland.

The octopus Paul was right again.

Spanish Armada Sinks German Juggernaut

2010-07-08T17:18:00.003+05:30

The psychic octopus had predicted a Spanish victory.

True to the predictions a late goal by Spain helped them end Germany's World Cup dreams.

An exciting clash is on the cards on Sunday when Spain take on Netherlands in the finals.

Let us see who wins!

I will be rooting for Netherlands, but I have a strange feeling that David Villa & Co. might take the glittering Jules Rimet Trophy to Spain this year.

If you look at my predictions made in the post dated June 11, they match the finalists.

Let us see what happens.

World Cup Updates

2010-07-07T14:07:00.001+05:30

Netherlands make it to the finals.

Will the German brigade win or will the Spanish Armada emerge victorious?

Illness

2010-06-28T13:19:00.003+05:30

Folks just back from a long bout of illness - Typhoid.

Two weeks of fever, puking away to glory and severe body pain.

I am still weak and somehow pulled myself to type this.

Folks need all your prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery!

Bye for now.

The Cup of Joy

2010-06-11T10:01:00.002+05:30

In a few hours from now the FIFA World Cup 2010 will start. For a cricket-crazy nation, football holds its sway in pockets in Kerala, Goa, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

This year the core favourites remain the same - Brazil and Germany.

My dark-horse bets are on the Netherlands the team that deserves the Cup for its consistent fair-play and "total football".

The second bet is on Spain who have been the most consistent team during the qualifiers and in recent months.

Argentina under the highly psychotic and unpredictable Diego Maradona might throw a surprise or too.

England, Portugal, the U.S.A., Cameroon, Italy, Mexico, Australia, Greece and Ivory Coast are likely to enter the quarter-finals.

Let us wait as the magic unfolds.

May the best team win!

The House of Fear

2010-06-08T15:57:00.003+05:30

Ibn-e-Safi was a famous Urdu novelist born in India who settled in Pakistan after partition. He was famous for his detective Imran and the Jasoosi Duniya series thathe created.

The English translation from random House carries two novellas - The House of Fear and Shootout at the Rocks. Translated by Bilal Tanweer the book is a big disappointment for me.

The cover looks shabby and the book looks to have been printed on poor quality paper. Mind you the book costs Rs. 195 and is pretty slim.

The first story is about murders occurring in an old mansion. The second one is about a drug-trafficking ring.

Translation is crude with the couplets of Ghalib used in extremely odd circumstances. It would have been good if the couplets had been transliterated from Urdu to English along with the English translations.

The hero Imran is an MSc Phd. from Oxford University and the son of the head of intelligence. He pretends to be a fool and keeps muttering nonsense. This is a facade and his calculating mind solves problems.

Truly disappointed with Random House. I am awaiting Blaft's translations of the Jasoosi Duniya series.

Conversations on Matrimony

2010-06-07T14:46:00.004+05:30

Sunday saw me at the betrothal ceremony of a cousin. The chap is just 22 and the bride is 20. As usual the conversation petered towards my marriage. "Ennada Meshu, Amma iniyum evalo naal thaniya kashta padanum?" "What Meshu, how many more days does your mother have to suffer alone?"

I wonder why they start the conversation with an emphasis on loneliness and suffering. None of these mamas and mamis are willing to marry off their daughters to me. So why do they keep asking the question at every damn opportunity they get.

They come, eat the feast, bless the poor chap and bride, give a small monetary gift and go home commenting -"Aanalum Srini kalyana sappadu alavukku illai" "The feast wasn't as delicious as the one served during Srini's marriage."

Now in this case the chap Venky has an elder brother who is 26 years old, his face was a picture of misery. His horoscope was a bit perplexing and the chap had not secured an IT job. He was working in an electronics store as an accountant. He told me "Anna Ab Mera Kya Hoga?"

I told him -"Dei Seshu, why to worry if we had studied Maths and Science properly we would have also become IT engineers and got marriage proposals from Infosys and Wipro "ponnus". Ellam vidhi!"

So life goes on as one more cousin gets entangled into "Grihastashram".

Horoscopes are shuttling and nothing is materializing. Everyone wants at least a Rs 50000 p.m. salary for their "sweet, god-fearing and good-natured girls". The mind wanders like a monkey, some cousins who are much younger than me are married and settled with kids in tow. Looks like this innings is going to go on for a long time without a partner.

What worries me, is my mother's persistence in wanting a working girl. I would prefer a girl who would take care of my mother.

So folks if you know any good-natured Iyer-girl let me know!

Best wishes to Venky and his bride and the bride-hunt continues for Seshu, Meshu and the many other non-IT-Iyer bachelors.

Team India Crash Out

2010-06-07T10:41:00.002+05:30

Team India crashed out of the tri-nation series in Zimbabwe with just one victory to their name from the four matches that they played. Consecutive defeats against Zimbabwe, one victory and one loss against Sri Lanka.

Raina's first series as a captain will be a big learning experience, unfortunately the collective failure of the team, horrendous batting, disastrous running between the wickets and below par bowling have let the fans down.

The Asia Cup will be extremely challenging with Pakistan fielding its most powerful side in recent times. With an announcement ruling out Sachin's participation can Dhoni inspire his team to victory?

Time will tell!

SURA

2010-06-04T16:27:00.002+05:30

Vijay's fiftieth movie is a golden bomb. The movie which released with very little pre-publicity appears to have been made in a hurry. Listless acting by Vijay, same boring expressions by Tamannah voiced by singer Chinmayee, the buffoonery of Vadivelu make this an absolute mess.

Vijay's list of flops is as follows now--Azhagiya Tamizh Magan, Aadhi, Kuruvi, Villu, Vettaikaran and Sura.

In Sura, Vijay plays the titular role of a fisherman who works for the upliftment of his colony of fisher-folk.

An evil minister Dev Gill intends to destroy the colony to build a theme park. Sura manages to botch up the minister's smuggling operations and uses the money to build houses, schools and improve the living conditions in the colony.

What could have been presented as an interesting cat-and-mouse game between the hero and villain ends up as insufferable idiocy.

The fights, the dance, the plot, everything looks like if the movie is made on a Vijay template.

Vijay is working with Asin in Malayalam director Siddique's Kaavalkaran the remake of the Dileep-Nayanthara average grosser Bodyguard.

If and only if the movie hits the mark can Vijay rescue his career now.

I have enjoyed his earlier movies like Priyamudan, Kadhalikku Mariyadhai and Kannukul Nilavu. Mass hero movie Pokkiri was enjoyable in bits and pieces, since then is a downward journey.

The powerful theatre distributor owners of Tamil Nadu have asked Vijay to act in a film free of cost to help them recover their losses.

I am sure Vijay will bounce back with Kaavalkaran. With Ajith firmly moving in to racing and unlikely to act in a movie any time in the near future, Vijay has a chance to redeem himself with some good author-backed roles that break away from the mould in which he has been typecast in to. Surya is the actor who has benefitted the most because of Vijay's debacles.

Let us see what the future brings for lovers of Tamil cinema.

Suresh Raina Clueless

2010-06-04T14:08:00.001+05:30

Zimbabwe's victory over India was a resounding slap on the face of Indian cricket. For the first time Zimbabwe has defeated India twice in a row.

India needs to defeat Sri Lanka convincingly to reach the finals.

Suresh Raina & CO. have lot of soul-searching to do now.

2010-06-04T13:23:00.003+05:30

Image courtesy-Flipkart.com

Fast-paced, quick, a steady mix of pulp fiction, kitsch and a good measure of ancient Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Karan Bajaj in his second novel takes the reader on a ride from a graduation ceremony in MIT, to Cambodia, Thailand, Brazil, back to the U.S. and finally to Delhi.

The protagonist Nikhil and his friend Sam visit Cambodia after graduating from MIT. Sam has an offer from GE and Nikhil has been selected to work in NASA. They land in Cambodia right in the middle of the Khmer Rogue revolution. Nick sacrifices his passport to help save the life of his friend Sam. Nick is captured by the revolutionaries and imprisoned for two years. He is pronounced a CIA spy and is about to be executed. While travelling on a jeep through the forest he seeks his chance and escapes. In the process he is injured and somehow manages to reach Thailand where he is rescued by a monk. In the monk he recovers and wakes up to see that he has lost one of his arms. Ten years in the monastery and with a new name - Monk Namche he lands up in Brazil to set up a Vipassana Centre. On the flight he is enamoured by a beautiful model Lara.

Once the centre is built he obtains permission to leave the monastery. He walks through the streets of Rio de Janerio, finally reaching a slum. Here walks in to a restaurant where some folks are sitting and drinking beer. Suddenly he notices a person about to fire a gun from the road. Namche protects the person who is targeted. He is none other than Marco a local don and cocaine distributor. Marco provides a roof and a new identity to Nick.

The story goes through many twists and turns tracking the ups and downs of Nick's life. He undergoes many more adventures, which I do not intend to reveal here.

The book just costs Rs. 99 and has great potential for conversion as a film.

The book is a powerful punch on the Chetan Bhagat School of Writing.

A Prayer

2010-05-26T10:37:00.003+05:30

A prayer for all the victims for the ill-fated Dubai-Mangalore flight that crashed.
158 people dead and eight survivors.
A crash that occurred due to pilot error!
Was the pilot stressed and over-worked?

No one knows!

Kasargod in Kerala mourns the death of 30 people who died in that ill-fated crash.

More than 20 children in the flight died!

Let us hope the black box reveals what exactly happened!

The families of the victims are in shock and grief as many bodies are charred beyond recognition.

May God give strength to the families in this time of sorrow!

I Wonder Why!

2010-05-21T16:34:00.002+05:30

I wonder why!

We as a nation are still to learn how to use a Western Toilet!

We wear flashy coats, suits, ties; carry laptops and blackberries, talk of overtaking America as a superpower and so on....

But 90% of corporate India is still low on toilet etiquette!

No one flushes the toilet after use, tissues are left scattered, the seat remains wet.

Life goes on.....

May be they should start putting posters within the toilet:

Do unto the toilet as you expect others to do unto it :)

Laila Wreaks Havoc in Chennai

2010-05-19T11:36:00.000+05:30

Cyclone Laila centred of the coast of Vishakapatnam is wreaking havoc, with heavy rains and winds. Most of Chennai is flooded with all low-lying roads flooded with knee-deep water.

More rains have been predicted for the next couple of days.

England Lift the T:20 World Cup

2010-05-18T15:27:00.001+05:30

England lifted the ICC T:20 World Cup by defeating Australia.

The English finally have a reason to rejoice and have broken the jinx

Collingwood has led his team from the front and coupled with Pietersen's heroics the team has the potential to lift the 2011 50-overs World Cup!

England Lift the T:20 World Cup

2010-05-18T15:27:00.000+05:30

Free Willy-4

2010-05-17T16:35:00.003+05:30

Thoroughly enjoyed this movie about a young girl Kirra, played by Bindi Irwin, helping a young orca return to its family in the ocean.

Bindi is the daughter of crocodile-hunter Steve Irwin. The movie starts in Australia, where Kirra's father a vet is injured and hospitalized.

She lands up at her grandfather's amusement park in South Africa till her father is discharged from hospital.

The banter between grandpa and Kirra is fun.

The amusement park has a lagoon in which an orca is washed up after a storm.

The orca becomes the star attraction in the park and loads of people start visiting it. Kirra tries to convince her grandpa to free the orca who is named Willy. During all this the owner of another amusement park offers to buy Willy for 500000 dollars.

Watch the movie to find out the fate of Willy!

A simple, well-made movie with two good songs. Great photography combined with animatronics and underwater effects. The scene where the pod of orcas swim after a school of smaller fish during a storm is shot well.

My rating-***/5.

I am Back!

2010-05-12T17:28:00.002+05:30

A hectic week of exams!

As usual the Maths-based paper was a gamble!

The remaining papers were also tough with an unpredictable pattern of essay-type questions.

God help me!

India have been licked by Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies.

Our campaign in the West Indies has come to a bitter disappointing end.

Loads of movies to watch, bunch of books to read and well bride-hunting on in full swing, while the heart still pines for the lost chance.

The future does have a chance for some interesting surprises, while I am planning a couple of things!

All in good time.

Folks wish me luck:)

India thru' to the Super-Eights

2010-05-03T10:19:00.000+05:30

India defeated Afghanistan on Saturday.

On Sunday, Suresh Raina hit a fantastic knock of 101 that set up a mammoth target of 187 for South Africa.

Tight bowling by Nehra and Harbhajan ensured that India won the match despite a valiant 73 run knock by Kallis.

In another match Australia defeated Pakistan.

Dog-catchers

2010-04-30T10:47:00.001+05:30

Yesterday was an extremely sad one for me.

The municipal dog-catchers came and caught all the stray dogs in our locality. This happened yesterday afternoon.

The streets are empty. Tiger and Brownie the two dogs near my house will be missed.

The municipality does not fix broken lights, bad roads or open drains but they are ready to capture the dogs.

A bigger menace are the huge black pigs that roam about. No one captures them.

The Lovely Bones

2010-04-28T13:13:00.002+05:30

A fascinating movie.
Detailed review coming soon.
Do not miss this movie!

2010-04-26T14:15:00.005+05:30

"Catches win Matches"

Mumbai Indians learned this the hard way. Suresh Raina was dropped twice once when he was on 13 and then when he was on 28. The mistakes proved to be costly as he went on to score a match-winning fifty.

CSK won the toss and batted first. A steady start saw the opening pair cross 40 runs in the sixth over. Hayden and Murali Vijay fell in quick succession and at one stage CSK were 68 for 3 in 12 overs. Then Raina and Dhoni blasted the ball to all corners of the park. The last 8 overs yielded 100 runs and CSK set a target of 169.

Ashwin started the proceedings by bowling a maiden over. As wickets fell at regular intervals courtesy a strange shuffling of batting positions as Harbhajan was promoted above Pollard, Sachin tried to bring stability. Run-outs were aplenty and in spite of a counter-attack by Pollard where he plundered 20 odd runs of an over Mumbai Indians lost the finals.

Dhoni found form when it mattered most-the match at Dharamshala against Kings XI Punjab. Under his inspiring, cool and calm leadership CSK XI have been crowned champions of IPL-3.

The ICC World T:20 Championship starts in another five days in the West Indies. Can Dhoni inspire Team India to lift the trophy?

Time will tell and a lot depends on Yuvaraj Singh's form!

Bollinger's Charge Discharges the Deccan Chargers

2010-04-23T10:14:00.000+05:30

In a low scoring match CSK defended a target of 143 and bowled out DC for 104.
The finals against Mumbai Indians will be tough and let us see if Dhoni can manage to lift the trophy.

Batting is a big cause of worry and the one-day rest will have Stephen Fleming wondering what to do?

Will Hayden be dropped for the finals?

Sachin is highly unlikely to play in the finals.

Let us see what happens!

Kailash Parbat-Restaurant Review

2010-04-22T15:26:00.007+05:30

Kailash Parbat is a famous chain of restaurants from Mumbai. It has made its entry in Chennai courtesy the Oriental Cuisine, which runs The French Loaf, Wang's Kitchen, Planet Yumm, among many other famous restaurants.

My friends from Mumbai always raved about this place and I was planning to visit this place for some time now. Today I thought OK lets go check this place out. I reached the restaurant at about 1:15 PM the place is located near Lady Andal School on Harrington Road in Chetpet above The French Loaf. Spacious restaurant with lots of glass decor, natural light and courteous attendants dressed in chocolate brown shirts.

The restaurant had about 10 people dining in it, may be the crowds come in for dinner and on weekends! The waiter asked me if I wanted a bottle of mineral water? I said I was OK with the normal water from the purifier:) The menu card was detailed, well-designed and without any visible spelling errors.

Everything is priced slightly on the higher side. I settled for a Shaad Manna Thali.

The thali arrived in ten minutes. The contents:

One huge gulab jamun.
Two chappatis (big)
One paneer dish (gravy)
One potato-okra curry
One curry that was a mixture of cabbabge and mashed chappatis.
A sambar like concoction with okra, potatoes and drum-stick.
A bowl of white steamed Basmati Rice
A bowl of vegetable pulao (Basmati Rice)
Two small pakodas made of besan and onions
One pappad.
One slice of carrot and one slice of cucumber.
One glass of spiced-tangy buttermilk.

The price on the menu card - Rs. 160.
Price on the bill plus taxes - Rs. 171.

The food was good but not great. Just a slice of cucumber and carrot does not do justice to a salad. The sambar was sweet. The gulab jamun was simply out-of-this-world, neither too syrupy and soft nor hard, just perfect. The pakodas were great and the paneer dish was usual stuff not a match for the ones served at Punjabi Dhabha.

Overall Rating-4 out of 5 . The staff are courteous and polite and ask you before taking the plates away. I guess the chaats are the big sellers that need to be tasted once. But paying Rs 70 odd for chaats when Gangotri or Sweet Corner or the other small shops provide tasty ones for Rs. 20 to Rs. 25 is a bit too much. Well ambience and brand value command a premium price :)

So if you want to catch up with old friends have a filling meal, or need a cosy get-together with your girl-friend/boy-friend and enjoy contemporary Hindi Music-Kailash Parbat is the place for you.

Carry enough cash or have a couple of credit cards and enjoy your meal.

Pollard Seals Royal Challengers' Fate

2010-04-22T10:17:00.000+05:30

Pollard's all round performance with bat and ball ensured that the Mumbai Indians entered the finals of IPL-3.

Today's match between Chennai and Hyderabad will determine the other finalist.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Omar Mukhtar-The Lion of the Desert

2010-04-20T15:30:00.002+05:30

Fantastic movie, with a great performance by Anthony Quinn in the titular role. Based on a real character who tried fighting Mussolini's Fascist army in Africa during WW-II.

Authentic shooting locations, a good technical crew and a racy narration make the movie interesting.

Definitely worth watching.

IPL-3 Semi-finalists announced

2010-04-19T10:20:00.002+05:30

Mumbai Indians sit pretty on top of the table and were confirmed semi-finalists more than a week back.

The remaining three teams to make it to the semi finals are:

Chennai Super Kings
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Deccan Chargers Hyderabad.

In a spectacular finish at Dharamshala yesterday, aided by Dhoni's blistering knock CSK overcame a stiff target of 193 posted by Kings XI Punjab.

Going in to their last match Deccan Chargers defended a sub-150 run total and defeated the much-fancied Delhi Daredevils team.

Bangalore meet Mumbai and Chennai meet Hyderabad in the semis which have been shifted to the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

With regard to the Kochi franchise controversy, Shashi Tharoor has been forced to resign from his post as MOS External Affairs.

The semis take place on April 21 and 22.

May the best teams win.

I have a surprising feeling that Mumbai will lift the glittering IPL trophy this time, with a special knock by Sachin in the finals.

CSK lose to Daredevils

2010-04-16T10:38:00.000+05:30

CSK lost to Delhi Daredevils after an absolutely dismal batting performance.
This means that CSK need to win their final match by a comfortable margin to ensure a semi-final place.

Let us see what happens!

Paiyaa

2010-04-15T17:27:00.002+05:30

Waste of money!
Songs were OK!
Lingusamy needs to break out of his RUN days and present a better script!

Movie is making money because of Tamannah dancing in the rain.

Milind Somani is wasted as the villain!

Happy Tamil New Year and Happy Vishu

2010-04-15T11:00:00.000+05:30

For the folks who celebrated Tamil New Year on Chitirai Thirunal on April 14, Happy Tamil New Year.

For folks who are celebrating Vishu today, Happy Vishu.

The controversy regarding celebration of Tamil New Year on April 14 is unwarranted.

Let the individual decide when one wants to do what:)

24

2010-04-13T14:41:00.002+05:30

Got season 1 to 7 of 24 the series on DVD.
Let me see if it lives up to the hype.

Harry Brown

2010-04-12T14:27:00.004+05:30

Harry Brown starring Michael Caine is another example of a vigilante popularised by the Death Wish series of movies.

Image courtesy-Filmshaft

Caine plays the titular character Harry Brown, an ex-marine, who stays in an estate in London. The area is notorious for its teen gangs who terrorize women and the elderly people.

One night Harry's best friend and chess playmate Len is killed.

How Harry avenges the death and cleanses the area of its hooligans forms the crux of the movie.

Michael Caine is as elegant and classy as ever and delivers a superb performance.

My rating-***/5.

My latest Acquisition

2010-04-10T15:50:00.008+05:30

Folks after lots of saving up and planning I have bought a netbook. The HP Mini 210
I am posting this topic from it.

Still need to learn a lot about using this netbook. Its loaded with features.

Shutter Island-The Novel

2010-04-07T17:04:00.002+05:30

This is the first Dennis Lehane book that I have read. I have seen two movies based on his novels "Mystic River" and "Gone Baby Gone" and liked them both to a certain extent.
The curiosity factor was heightened when I learned that Martin Scorcese has adapted this novel into a movie starring Leonardo di Caprio and Ben Kingsley.

The novel starts with two U.S. Marshalls Teddy and Chuck arriving on a secluded island which serves as an institution for violent prisoners with psychological problems. They have come to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a woman patient Rosalin Solando.

The novel starts like a mystery, but slowly we realize that things are not right!

I am not revealing the twist:)

Is Rosalin found?

What exactly is taking place in the institution?

What is the secret?

Read the novel to find answers.

I am waiting for the movie to release!

Maoist Attack

2010-04-07T10:52:00.002+05:30

In one of the bloodiest attacks on the paramilitary forces in independent India. Nearly 80 CRPF personnel were killed in a landmine blast rigged by Maoists in Dhantewada, in Chattisgarh.

The Red-Menace is a matter of great concern. With pseudo-intellectuals including award-winning novelists and so-called political thinkers supporting the Maoists, there is something definitely very very wrong.

With some of the most backward districts in the country and thousands of tribals involved no clear solution is visible. The Green-Hunt launched by P.C. Chidambaram claims that 3 years would be enough to wipe out the Maoists. At the current rate with which Maoists are striking the Indian para-military forces will be wiped out in 2 years.

The government has a big problem on its hands! Let us see what unfolds in the next few weeks.

Karthik Calling Karthik

2010-04-05T10:40:00.003+05:30

Fascinating but not mind-blowing.

Farhan Akhtar gives a stellar performance of a man with behavioral problems. I am not going to elaborate a lot on the plot as the movie deserves a watch. 25 minutes into the movie you realize that Karthik has some psychological problem. The beauty of the movie lies in its presentation where the reason for this problem unveils slowly.

Deepika Padukone who plays the role of Shonali has nothing much to do except looking pretty, sipping juice and vodka and smoking cigarettes.

The movie has a decent sound-track. A good performance by Farhan, proves that he is not a one-film wonder.

A spoiler-The telephone plays a major role in the movie.

My rating-***/5.

Marriage News

2010-04-03T14:49:00.001+05:30

Well the horoscopes were fine!
The girl and the boy were OK with each other!
The girl's dad did not like the boy!
So the story continues.....

The game is afoot!

CSK Break the Jinx

2010-04-01T10:45:00.002+05:30

CSK finally returned to winning ways with a power-packed knock by Murali Vijay.
CSK defeated RCB and chased down 163.
If CSK win all their remaining matches it will boil down to net run rate to place the fourth semi finalist.

Delhi Daredevils defeated Rajasthan Royals in another match courtesy a good knock by Dinesh Karthik.

Armored

2010-03-31T10:29:00.002+05:30

Image courtesy-Wikipedia

Armored-Starring Jean Reno, Lawrence Fishburne, Matt Dillon, Amaury Nolasco and others.

Directed by Nimrod Antal.

Interesting premise!

Exploring the gamut of emotions among men when a huge amount of money is involved.

A story about a group of federal officers who transport money from the main office to the banks. A cross-section of American cultures, there is the Hispanic, the Italian and the Afro-American and the white-guy.

They decide to rob the two vans divide the money amongst themselves and flee.

Complications arise when the group hides the money present in one van in an old abandoned factory.

An old man sees the group and is shot dead.

One man among the officers is aghast at the killing and locks himself up in the second van with the remaining money.

Now begins a cat and mouse game between a single man who listens to his conscience and the remaining gang-members.

Narrated in a believable manner it describes the lengths to which we stoop down when large sums of money are involved.

What happens? Is the lone-man killed? Does the gang get all the money?

Watch the movie for answers.