We Indians should say No

I am not sure why we are what we are. Are we really a submissive people? Why are we not voicing out our opinions. Why are we not yelling out our concern. We must say No we need this to do this. We need this to live like this. No I want the road to be laid. No I will not vote unless you do what your supposed to do. I said no to my Boss when I understood we are being exploited outright by the customer for crumbs. I will not come on Holidays or weekends. This is not possible and this is not right. I said this and I am happy I said this. I don't regret it. I never will.

Uryiadi - Marana Adi

Its been 2 months since I returned home from the UK. And I was excited about the movies I was planning to watch amazed by the teasers and trailers during my stay overseas. My friend who is as crazy enough as me for cinemas, food and travel had a big list to cover once I came back. The first film on that list to check out was Uriyadi.

The week before

After nearly 3 years of waiting, the team somehow is relieved with a release date after the state elections. My friend tried his best to book a ticket during the first few weeks but unfortunately our timings didn't really go through for a mutual meet up. One fine week when he booked for Independence day 2, he asked me if I can book uriyadi 7.35 at Sathyam. I booked it under 2 minutes on the App excitedly. 

4.15 pm

The day came. We went for Independence Day 2 and the only message I could get after laughing through even serious scenes was that America, President of the United States of America, a chinese girl, a former president and his daughter with her boyfriend saving the world. And there will be a sequel where America will save the universe. Hilarious!! 

6.30 pm

A quick dinner at Fatoosh across the street opposite to Sathyam. 

7.15

I rush my friend who frequents the urinal hinting that the show is at 7.15 and we climb the stairs anxiously to be only entering the Studio-5 with an embarrassed smirk on my face after checking the actual time(7.35) on the ticket. Nevertheless the ads were in when we sat down. To our dumbfounded surprise we saw a sensor certificate with another name on it when the movie started. Then I settled in understanding that they usually have another name on the certificate owing to sensor trouble and self proclaimed public policing people causing issues. But they project the original name on posters and tickets.

The movie set in the end of 90s starts with an omnipresent caste group in a small town outside Trichy discussing about erecting a statue to commemorate their dead leader. The usual political fuss where there is another caste group who have a statue somewhere and this group wants to show off their supremacy. On another line, a bunch of new faces and Vijay Kumar leading this pack of college chaps doing their engineering at a remote govt college on the outskirts of Trichy. Stereotypical students who have no ambition as such except girls, booze and smokes get drunk in a local dhaba almost every day. 

The students pick up a fight with the Dhaba owner who denies a low caste old man who wanted to buy dinner. The owner finally gives in owing to the pressure of the students. While leaving, the students mock the caste freaks which infuriates a group belonging to the caste who inturn try to bash up one of the chaps. The students in turn beat up while the remaining members from the bar joins them. The bar owner who is the secretary of the Caste community quickly drives in and splits them up and settles the issue. The caste group's ambitions of opening up the statue comes to a halt when the govt shuts it out obviously pushed by the local MLA who is from the opposition caste group.

The movie takes a small turn by concentrating on the Lead character Vijay's infatuation driven love track. This story line crosses with the bar's illicit liquor supplier who is a sex maniac and is attracted towards the girl and attempts to molest her on bus causing a commotion. Quarter(Vijay's friend) and a eunuch thrash him on the bus. The movie's first half ends with a high frequency clash and deafening background music between Ramanathan(Bar's liquor supplier) goons surprised by the college students.

Post interval, after being awed by the screenplay, we waited for the movie to resume desperately. The college students try to hit out at Ramanathan again but awkwardly defacing the opposition caste's statue. A short scuffle follows but settles. Ramanathan plans out by targeting Quarter through a beggar. The next few scenes where in the beggar running off with the cigarette and a foiled murder on the hostel terrace are breathtakingly thrillsome. But the beggar gets the better of Quarter by planning and murdering him in the hostel by covering up as a drug abuse suicide. These scenes are crafted brilliantly by the cinematographer and the director. Vijay and the other friend remain though the College management orders a shutdown of hostels for study leave. They plan a perfect revenge murder of Ramanathan and the beggar. These were the best scenes in the film though violent and bloody which Vijay understands is unavoidable. Instances like the police guy entering the lodge for an one night stand, Ramanathan tactfully beating up the eunuch are subtly captured. The fantastic final scenes gives the emotional audience a sense of surrealistic hope that will kindle some real life bad memories of students murdered in small towns. Reminded me of Madurai! 

10.10

The second half is where the sets, screenplay, editing and dialogues are perfectly weaved culminating to a thrilling finale. I would say the songs were not required though minimal. But this is sure to turn into a cult Classic and must be preserved for years to come. I am confident that Vijay will become a top class film maker and will look back at this gem and reminisce the hardships he faced to release this piece of art. No wonder Vijay did see this in reality when he was in college. A creative real life inspiration. Quentin Tarantino will be happy!! :)

The imitation game - A walk down history's secret lane

I was casually browsing over the net and found that this movie was based on Alan turing's real life story. I read about an article a few years ago about the british monarchy apologizing for castigating the world war hero and mathematical genius. And moreover what really caught my attention is that benedict cumberbatch is playing Alan in the movie. I was excited as I was fervently following Sherlock and wanted to see something different apart from the hysterical Mr Holmes enactment and the voice over for the dragon in Hobbit 2. So I bookmark this movie on my mental diary and finally get an opportunity to watch it somehow.
The movie is more like a back and forth playback of his Homosexual childhood, his assignment as an elite mathematician of team formed to break the German Enigma machine in the Second world and his present misfortune. It all starts with him working on the Turning's machine which he calls Christopher post the world war when the police come investigating about a break-in. The screen play zooms back to the period of the world war when he joins a secret team of code breakers formed to break the engima code. Typical of Alan's behavior benedict plays it to the core in an eccentric proud geek way. In the background Germany's supremacy and advancement. The sets, aura and the classic war tapes mixed and edited produces the effect of Britian in the 1940s and the designers have to be appreciated thoroughly. Alan keeps getting clashed with the other team members as he is too proud and feels superior to everyone and finally ends up leading the team himself by impressing the prime minister himself. He recruits Clarke played by keira Knightley. Alan sits to create the machine all by himself while the other team members irritatingly work manually to break the codes falling short of a team member and failing multiple times missing the deadline a day. The team joins together with him though when Denniston plans to destroy the machine and fire Alan. That's when Clarke plans to leave on pressure from her parents and Alan ends up proposing and marrying her. The scene where in bar when one of Clarke's friends talks about messages and Alan getting an epiphany that there will be repetitive words through which they can break the code arises is neatly caught in the screenplay. What follows is the War shortened by a lot of years and the Allies winning.
The team is dispersed with orders to destroy all work and to keep it a secret forever. All the while, his relationship with his friend at school and the current investigation in the 1950s about his secretive work flashes on and off. He is ordered to either imprisonment or chemical castration and ends up opting for the latter. In the final few scenes Clarke comes back to him to support his severe depression and inability to work on any codes as he undergoes severe side effects due to the medication. That's when his attachment to the machine which he names after his school boyfriend Christopher is highlighted well. The movie ends with the team back after the end of the world war buring all the work. The movie may not be historically correct in the depictions of the machine, his relationship with Clarke and the team. But on the outlook it is one of the best fictional biographies to watch out for.
Rating - 3.9/5

Pizza kaaaarnaaarrrru

Went to this hideous place assuming it would be like Pizza Hut! This is what happened

We went in. The aura was beyond ugly with just 4 tables inside and a stereotypical Hindi song channel. A short dumb utterly uninterested waiter approached us and guided us to a table which was farther from the only AC which seemed to running on high temperature. I said no and took the table close to the AC.

Took a look at the pretentiously colourful menu and planned to not take a risk and ordered the mint drink, cheese garlic bread & chicken fingers! Again chicken fingers were not there hence we went for chicken wings!

The man took the order and came back after 10 minutes with the garlic bread instead of the starter mint drink! I asked him Where is the mint drink! He said he will get it! And he brings this iced glass with just a lemon in it! I stared at him for a while and asked him where the hell is the mint! He said OH and took back the glass and came back with a few dried mint leaves in it! I gave up totally!

Next we took a careful look at the garlic bread and took a few bites! My friend positively said its fine! But I found it very hard to bite it and hence forcefully inserted in and chewed it off! 

I got this premonition of a disaster in case I order the pizzas! And it turned out to be true when we got the half cooked raw sauce dripping wings! 

I felt very embarrassed as I picked this stupid place! Please stay away!! I pray to god it's time this pizza corner branch gets closed! Either ways people won't care even if its still open coz people would have learnt by now! Beware!

Queen - A Royal Treat to watch

Queen? Come on! Another expensive Bollywood showbiz show off to make quick money? Not at
all.
I was randomly browsing through a theater's site and I found this Hindi movie Queen a few weeks ago. My first impression(aided by pretentious Hindi movies which barely contains Hindi and of course shot always out of India obviously with a senseless script and high paid actors) was Hopeless. But I kept getting rave feedback from almost everyone. And my colleagues happened to plan for a movie and picked this one. Initially I was quite apprehensive. So I start to watch it. The initial nuptial start up fizz gave me a nostalgia of the Englis Vinglis ending. But there was something different. The bgm was nice and catchy and surprisingly no lengthy songs with unrelated dance moves. Kangana Ranaut has perfectly played the naive conservative middle class girl who accepts everything her boy friend restricts and professes. Rani leaves on her honeymoon after her boy friend calls of the wedding in the last moment. And that is when the movie takes a different turn from the run of the mill trash. Rani goes to Paris and puts up in the hotel booked for her honeymoon. The director has vividly captured her innocence and change when she utters her name to the hotel's service desk and changes to Mr & Mrs name to clarify. The "Vijaylakshmi" character was when I felt "not again". But the movie doesn't disappoint at all. Vijayalakshmi takes Rani out after she gets almost mugged going alone. That's when Rani gets into different instances of the Cultural Shock phenomenon. Vikas tends to bring the sudden idiosyncrasies which especially when a woman sees totally new culturally unsound things in her perspective. The way her Dad and brother pop out their eyeballs on seeing Vijayalakshmi over Skype is brilliant. Rani gets memory flashes once in a while reminding of her fiance patronizing her on not doing certain things. After an emotional adieu to Vijayalakshmi she starts off to Amsterdam just to find that she is going to share her room with three guys(Russian, French & Japanese). I have no idea how come all 3 end up together just for the Japanese boy's cause. She gains confidence and begins a journey of a lifetime with them, learning certain things are socially acceptable in that place. The Italian cook moments are totally hilarious. She suddenly meets her fiance and he tries to apologize and enforce his rules again. Rani tells him that she will discuss everything else in Delhi and joins the guys party. And the movie ends with Rani breaking her chains and returning the ring to Vijay at his house and walks off thanking him. The movie's big plus is a totally out of box script and the concept of "Transition of Women in India". Strongly recommended for Women. A must watch for chauvinistic Men as a grim reminder that the world is changing.

mankatha podaanga_____

Enna koduma sir ithu.. Exactly. Thats how I felt when I was done watching some 20 odd minutes of the movie.

AARANYA KAANDAM - ANIMA & PERSONA - ITHU ELLAN SAPPA MATTERU!!!!!

I saw a movie's yellowish black poster with a man pulling a dead body of another man who has a gun tightly gripped in this hand. An image of a don kind of guy with an extremely thick mush sporting a cigarette while the smoke forms a yellow curve on the black background. I felt it might be another pretentious attempt by a bollywood filmmaker trying to make some quick cash in town with a lifted script from a critically acclaimed hollywood gangster film. Guess what? i was terribly misconstrued. I was actually shocked to find the story of how the film was made through newspapers. The director is a virtually unknown Thiyagarajan Kumararaja, a loyala college VisCom drop out who worked as a copywriter and a photographer. He is a  famous advertisement filmmaker who seems to have written those fantastic lines of dialogue in OramPo. After Oram Po he wrote a song for Quarter Cutting. He was introduced to S P Charan. That is when TK narrated this amazing script to Charan which he wrote in 2006. Charan accepts and the rest is History. One of the best ever movies made in tamil/Indian cinema. Neo-Noir enters tamil cinema. Yes. The movie has a high dose of expletives and brutal violence written all over it. I feel it needs these elements to portray the reality which exists in day to day life. What is so special about the movie? Everything is.

Firstly the screenplay written is brilliant. The characters are neatly sketched. Let me express how i felt when i watched the movie for the first time.

My friend called me up and told me Aaranya kandam is stupendous. I have already went through some reviews and most of them were promising enough for a show. There is one particular review in Hindu where the reviewer has described that the scenes in some places are protracted and annoyingly lengthy. I felt she has no idea what neo-noir or torontino is like. And i couldn't stop imagining Rathacharithara's irritating camera work and editing. So we both went to the theater with heavy hopes. And was i shocked. I couldn't hold my breath for a moment. Right from scene one i was glued. Jackie sheroff's acting though dumb in dubbing was commendable. No wonder the Censor board howled loud over the language used in the film. But as mentioned the movie needs it desperately. The long talks and sudden thrusts of adrenaline are typical Tarantino. And of course not to forget the humor mixed up with the script. This is the only movie which has faced 52 cuts in censor. Even Murder movie has faced only 20-30 cuts. Pasupathy's(Sampath Vijay) idea going wild and changing the entire movie's ride is out of the box. Somasundaram has done a splendid job of enacting kaalayan. I am speechless for Master Vasanth. And TK himself has accepted that he has written Sappai's role keeping ravikrishna on mind. The epiphany which pasupathy gets during a chase changes the entire story line.  The cockfight was well made too(better than AAdukalam,coz no graphics has been used here). Kaalayan's drunken master style has been noted.  Subbu's acting is not that high as it should be but still it doesn't hurt the movie much. I don't want to spoil the suspense. Well written by TK. I feel Charan has given full leverage for TK to do make the movie in his own way. Charan has enormous courage to have taken up this project provided the risk in formulas like these. But he has not been let down by TK. Hats off to Thiyagarajan kumararaja for etching out a beginner masterpiece and for retaining his name on screen unlike other directors. This movie is going places.