Sanjha Chulha: A complete mismatch

This review is on the Punjabi style restaurant that is located off outer ring road, Bangalore.

I had been to this place yesterday, i.e., 25^th  Dec 2011 with friends. the food is really good. We had ordered for a paneer starter, bread basket, a couple of gravies like Dal and channa masala, and a jeera rice that we shared. Total bill came to Rs. 800. The dal tadka or Dal makhani alone costs around Rs. 175. Quantity is not all that great. But I must admit that the taste, though little spicy, was good enough.

The service was also prompt. We got the food within 10 minutes of ordering.

But what worries us is the ambience. When we get similar tasty food at other places, why do we go to such expensive places?   its for the ambience.

The chairs, tables, bowls, plates, menu card, the server’s uniforms are all very average, and just like an Andhra mess..(Except for the uniform part).

It looks like a very tacky place, and not an ideal place for a get-together or treats or parties..

I’m a person who doesn’t mind to pay extra money for quality food. But when I can get better food in the city for less than half the price, why do i visit such places.. There is no motivating factor to attract us to dine-in in such restaurants.

They also had a New Year/ Christmas buffet and a normal weekday buffet that costs Rs. 450 + taxes. But we were not hungry enough to try it.

So, for bachelors who will be interested for a simple thali meal on a daily basis, this will not suit. And for people who want to spend time with friends, relatives or colleagues, the ambience will be lacking. For corporate events like team lunch etc., the place will look small and uncomfortable. that is the issue.

You see, food can’t be the only focus if you want to run a successful business in an IT corridor like outer ring road.

இவங்க எல்லாம் எந்த நெனப்புல கடைய  தொறந்து வியாபாரம் பண்ண வந்துட்டாங்க ??

The next time your manager or some senior level person wants to take you or your team out for lunch, or if you have a team outing (or team eating rather..) make sure you choose the venue carefully such that its worth the money. Even if YOU are not spending the money, why not enjoy a better service and ambience for the same money (or rather budget..!! - if some one else is spending)..

At times of treat or party, don't ever go to a place based on it's price list , thinking that you can try a costly dish in "O.C" (Slang for Other's Cost). There are much more things to consider.

Hope this atleast opens half an eye of one IT fellow..!!

Rajapaattai: Vikram's worst movie till date?

By the time I’m writing this review, I'm that sure that there are plenty of theatres showing a houseful board.. But are they running houseful shows?

The reason - hype... Starring ’chiyan’ Vikram...!

Vikram appears as a junior artist whose ambition is to become a great villain in Tamil cine industry. He meets an old man whose life is in danger from the old man’s own son and a few political personalities over a land owned by the old man where he runs an orphanage. How vikram fights for justice for the old man and the orphans is the story.

As it is, not a great script that, nothing new.

The movie begins in a good way with a few witty one liners, but soon loses its way. Usual masala movies have the first half filled with introductions, comedy, songs and sentiments. Second half usually contains some cat and moyse game between hero and villain, and an action packed climax.

But this movie is a horror in the first half where they try to evoke comedy from the old man. Romancing scenes are not that interesting too. So the heroine hardly gets a chance to show her skills, even glamour skills.

Songs are not at all pleasant to hear. Neither foot tapping, nor peppy, nor youthful. It can be said that Yuvan has ended the year at a low.

Second half of the movie is filled with a very lengthy fight scene and the much hyped vikram-get ups.

That is one of the primary reason this movie was hyped to this extent that Vikram is appearing in different get-ups... But none of those roles exceed even 30 seconds.. I personally prefer Ajith’s roles in citizen over this, because Ajith at least appeared in those roes for more than 2 minutes.

What to watch out for: The song at the end of the movie where Vikram dances with the cameo stars Shreya and Reema Sen. But you don’t have to watch the entire movie to see that song, it should be easily available in YouTube..

Honestly, i dint find anything interesting in this movie, and would advice you to stay away from it.

It’s a crap movie.

Sorry Mr.Vikram, but your script selection is again wrong this time. I hope this stays as the worst movie of your career and hope you get to choose different scripts that supplement your wonderfull acting talents.

7aum Arivu : Makes India Proud (and makes Tamilians prouder)

It’s been a while that I wrote a movie review, and I simply couldn’t resist continuing that trend after watching 7aum Arivu. And as usual, this is not the place where you will find the story, but a detailed analysis of what I feel about the movie.
Once again, The Tamil film Industry has shown why they are the masters of providing varieties in movies and this time it has come from none other than A.R.Murugadoss, whose Ghajini had previously created a revolution in K’wood & B’wood.
Jumping on to a new field this time, he talks about a Genetic Engineering Student doing a DNA research to bring back a historical hero. I prefer to present my analysis via positives & negatives.
Positives:
1) First of all, the selection of the primary character - Bodhi Dharman. Not many people knew that such a historic character actually existed. In a country where all the historic heroes were covered in super hit movies in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam etc., I wonder how come such a character was left out. It was embarrassing that during the survey (in the movie) , Indians (more specifically Tamilians) were not at all aware of this character, whereas people from China easily identified his name. Infact, Bodhi Dharman’s wiki pages have enough information for it to be considered for a full length period movie.
2) Smart direction by Murugadoss made sure that there were very few dialogues in the flashback that he didn’t have to bother about the language used at that period. (The Tamil spoken in Ayirathil Oruvan by Parthiban was much different from the one spoken by Shivaji Ganesan in his historic movies, though both of them enacted the same character!!; Many people still don’t know what exactly was the language spoken by the kings).
3) Excellent screenplay and editing through out the movie. Though the end is obviously predictable, the road to the end was superb.
4) Selection of Johnny Tri Nguyen to play the villain. This guy has some serious stunts. Tamil cinema, which has seen villains who are womanizers, Roudies, etc., has now seen a villain who is clam by looks, and terror by action. The moment he is on screen, there is some change of pace in the movie and the ambience is heated up.
5) BGM – Harris Jeyaraj’s BGM adds more weight to the movie. Each and every scene has been carefully dealt with. For ex: When Shruthi enlarges the photo on her phone and finds Suriya on each photo, the back ground is very comical; The climax flight scene brings more terror effect because of the BGM.
6) A role for the Heroine!! – So, after some time, a Tamil cinema heroine had a role to play. Whether she did it well or not, is a different question. J
7) Crispy dialogues and not punch dialogues. Especially when the argument is on Tamil & Tamil History.
8) That Chinese song in the first half is very emotional. - A person who was chased and not allowed in to a village finds the entire village falling at his feat, yet calmly help them - This couldn’t have got better.
9) How can I not say about Suriya, who is growing with every movie? His efforts have well supported the looks that he has been given. The 6 pack body that he reveals during the climax is simply stunning. He IS indeed a director’s actor. I’m eager to see how he will be, when he attains the age/experience of Kamal Hassan or Aamir Khan or Amitabh Bachan and such legends, given the kind of varieties and skills he has displayed at this age.

Now let’s see what the problem is:
1) Songs, Songs & Songs – I’m not a big fan of Harris Jeyaraj even though a few of his songs are still among my favourites. His songs are becoming very repetitive and there is nothing new or fresh to enjoy. This is when we get a feeling that his stock is over. “O Ringa Ringa..” is the only catchy song, but I have already heard it in Dhaam Dhoom. The singers who sing for him, his instruments etc., have all been tried time and again, and its only boring now. The song “Yamma yamma” was the most needless / least impressive song of the movie. Till then, the movie was going at a good pace with the plot thickening and that love failure song was totally needless. Probably a 15-20 seconds melody tune would have sufficed. The second half too had a couple of songs that was not that greatly timed.
2) Shruthi Hassan’s Tamil: Being her debut movie (in Tamil), it would have been better if she had gone for a dubbing voice, than trying out her own voice. She got a role to play, and the movie is all about Tamil & Tamil Nadu’s history. She shouldn’t have tried her own Tamil so early in her career. Why do these kids want to spoil their dad’s name??? But anyways, her Tamil was better than SRK’s Tamil in Ra.One! Consolation price – Shruthi!!
3) Hypnotism all the way – Well, in the first 10 minute, we were introduced to Hypnotism and how the villain kills people with that trick. Then, he kills 9 police men- ok.. He kills more police officers the same way – oookkkk…. And there’s another hell of a fight on the main road, when he     controls the minds of auto driver, lorry driver, a girl, a biker.. Come on… and then a drainage cleaner comes out and does some kumphu Stunts.. Hypnotism is not even 5 % of the Shaolin tricks, and there are more and more dangerous ways, which could have been told. The villain was depicted as some Hypnotism specialist.
4)        For the above, the villain was almost depicted as a super dooper power man, who can control anybody’s mind and direct them to kill anybody else. Now, if this is the case, why did he release a Virus in India? He could have simply killed all the people using Hypnotism.
5)        Suriya’s songs in his last 4-5 movies are becoming repetitive too.. Dancing some hip-hop steps with spiked hairs, in the middle of roads - we saw it in Ayan, Aadhavan , Singam and now here as well..

But, overall, I feel that the negatives are something that we can forget, when we have such a wonderful plot , gripping screen play and an action packed climax.

The main drawback for this movie has been the songs, and the love failure song was the one where the audience started to get irritated as that was like a 180 seconds traffic signal between 2 empty highways.

If we need to sell our Indian movies in International markets, it should not only reflect in the plot or subject, but also in the presentation. If a script doesn’t need song, then it really doesn’t deserve one. When you try and insert a song here and there, this is when a ‘classic’ becomes a ‘commercial’!

Overall, 7aum Arivu is one of THE best History based movie that I have ever watched and it has taken Tamil cinema & thereby Indian cinema to new heights. Just as A.R.Murugadoss mentioned during the audio release, this movie will make every Tamilian , very proud.

Hail the KING.! - Vishwanathan Anand

Today, the 11th of May 2010 goes into the History as one of biggest ever achievement by an Indian. Vishwanathan Anand does it again, retaining his World Chess Title for the 4th time.

This time, it was an adventure, a Drama, a story and finally an EPIC.

An Adventure: A Drama

The May 2010 Tornado outbreak, volcanic Ash emissions and poor weather across several american and european countries meant that several flighs were delayed or cancelled. One of those flights for the route "Frankfurt to Sofia" had a ticket reserved for a passenger "Anand Viswanathan " who was travelling for his world Chess Championship.

With his request to postpone the tournament opener by 3 days being rejected, 40 hours of land journey is what Anand had to manage to get there for the opening ceremony of the World Championship.  Anand reached Sofia on 20th April and the opener had to be delayed a day.!

That was an added advantage for Topalov, or so would be for any player when the opponent is not in the best of his health or fitness.

While a 12 hour overnight bus journey puts most of us to dose on a Monday morning in Office (mostly Chennai - Bangalore or Coimbatore - Bangalore travels), imagine the condition of this poor champ..!!

Preparation / The army:

Well.. This is an interesting one.. Ever since IBM's Deep blue machine sent GM Gary Kasparov packing, it was widely regarded that Machines are unbeatable. But our Hero proves that a human cluster can quite easily challenge any machine cluster, afterall,  behind every sucessful machine, there is a human brain..!!

See below a picture :

This is not a scene from any of the action-movies or Sci-fi program like "Captain Vyom" , or "Mr.India" climax scene, or some "Jadoo" movie like "Koi Milgaya", or some terrorist planting a bomb types.

This is a 52 core processor computer cluster. Topalov's team had access to four twelve-core machines and eight eight-core systems all connected into a cluster of 112 processors. And the rumours said that he spent EUR 100,000 to secure this system. 

And he also had the chess programing software Rybka v4 which was not available to anyone at that time, as the Poland Government decided to hold that advanced Chess software until the championship games were over..!

And what did Anand have with him? A human cluster..!!!

The Victorious "Team Anand"

An Epic Battle:

Now starts the battle: 12 games to be played, with each player having 6 games with white and 6 games with black.

Quite the usual start to a tournament with both players securing win, and displaying the fact they are interested in a result game rather than a draw.

Comments, discussions, arguments, debates, suggestions, opinions and blames! all started to progress along with the tournament. But it was the 9th game where it all peaked and went against Anand when he missed a number of winning opportunities, resulting in an unconvincing and undeserving draw that again saw the scores level.

The History:

Then came the history, rather His'story: After two more drawn games, the scores read 5.5-5.5, preparations for the final game was in progress. The floor boys were arranging for the tie-breakers to be played the day after, assuming this too would end in a draw.

STOP THEM..! Anand has WON.. This time, with the black pieces, in 56 moves. He has once again silenced his critics who keep complaining about the age criteria. That is now a common practice - to abuse people that they are ageing and not fit for the sport anymore..

Also to say, some useful tips and support from GM Gary Kasparov and GM Vladimir Kramnik ensured that the computer cluster was easily outplayed by the human brains.

More than winning the title, it is retaining the title that is critical and tougher. That is what you call as  “CLASS” and one who does it as “CHAMPION”.

And for me, what more can I ask for: Being an ardent Chess fan, I managed some technical stuffs whereby I could bring the live transmission of the final match , from my laptop, to my LCD TV.. and on the big screen , watch Topalov surrendering his king to a “King of Chess”..!! Hail the King..! What more do you want me to say ??

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya: Varamaaten.!

It was very apt for me as I set out to watch this movie on Feb 28th, which was a full-moon day..what a co-incidence..!! That incredibly beautiful moon increased my anxiousness to watch the movie.

The plot is the same old grandfather time’s story where a hindu boy loves a christian girl and due to religion & some misunderstandings, they suffer to unite.  Gowtham Menon has offered some twists and turns in this tale to give us VTV. Thats’ all.

Coming to the review:

Introducing "Young Super Star" Silambarasan , who has changed his body language and styles totally and is available as a fresh new "actor"..!  Trisha looks adorable with her saree looks.  (Caution: Keep your wife away when Trisha comes in Saree..!!)  The on-screen chemistry between Trisha and Simbu has worked out very well and the romance factor is well shown with their acting, dialogues & their mannerisms. The costumes selection is also very good.. both of them wear real-life simple costumes.

Ganesh , who is also one of the producers, appears as Simbu’s mentor, as he fills the humor role with some "timing-comedies".

Gowtham Menon’s themes like the dialogue delivery styles, camera angles.. and his romance Mannnerisms , like Surya pumping his chest on seeing Sameera reddy in Vaaranam Aayiram.. is all there.

Songs & background music by AR Rehman rocks. He has once again shown why he is the academy award winner. But somehow, his music does not go in sync with the storyline. Maybe because we have seen more of Gowtham Menon - Harris Jeyaraj combination work out wonders, that, it may take us time to adjust to it..

Cinematography is excellent with beautiful song locations. Manoj’s camera work is brilliant & Antony’s editing is good too.

But, it is the narration and the script movement in the 2nd half where the concerns rise .

All that Gowtham Menon wants to say is that Reality is different from wishes.  What we wish to happen is different from what exactly happens.

The First-half shows us a cute, straight forward love story and the second half just messes it, drags it and spoils it. There are too many songs and they spoil the continuity. Come on Guys, there is no law that a movie should have more than 5 songs.  Seems like, if a movie like 2012 is made in Tamil, the lead pair will go for singing a duet when Newyork is under earthquake.. funny..!!

Though Trisha accepts in the movie that her character is full of fluctuations and indecisiveness, till the end, we are not sure if she really loved Simbu. At times, she hugs and kisses him, and at times, she chases him away saying "there’s nothing between us, its all over"..!!   The title "Jessy oru kelvikuri" would have suited even better.

Throughout the movie, Simbu keeps asking a question.. " there are several girls, why did i love Jessy (Trisha) ? ".. Nobody knows the answer..  At the end of the movie.. number of audiences were asking a question to themselves.. " there are several movies, why did i come to see VTV"..!!

May be that, after Vaaranam Aayiram, our expectations tripled and hence I'm not liking this VTV.. But still, this one’s not quite what one expects from Gowtham Menon .. let him better start directing police stories. that suits him better.

So, another Tamil movie with nothing new (except the songs).

Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya -   paaka pona, Theatre’a thaandi varuvaaya..!!

WATCH IT IF YOU MUST - BUT DO LISTEN TO THE SONGS WITHOUT FAIL.