Tagged encore

Tagged by Sriram

Tag #1

1.What is your current obsession?

I dont have any obsessions in particular. May be of late fitness is one and yeah creative writing has been other.

2. What are you wearing today?

My school t shirt and informal tamilian men's home wear.

3. What’s the last thing you bought?

Chocolates.

4. What are you listening to right now?

Nothing. Silence i can hear my fan's noise.

5. Which language do you want to learn?

Hindi.

6. Favourite quotes?

"It doesnt matter how many time you fall,

It only matters how quickly you get up."

Quoted by Steve Waugh

"To love oneself is a journey of life long romance"

- Oscar Wilde

7. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?

For men - tucked in shirt without belt. It looks odd.

8. What are you going to do after this?

Saturday afternoon sleep.

9. What inspires you?

Motivation,honesty,trust and modesty. Even very ordinary people do extraoridnary things if they are motivated.

10. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?

Silence.

11. What is the meaning of your name?

Nirmal means Clean/Pure. Do you know ASIN also means the same?

12. What do you love most about yourself?

I like to try and keep trying without the focus on result. Though it sounds philosophical about the result part but i like to try and keep trying and may be give up finally but not without trying. because even if you dont get what you wanted in the end there is an immense satisfaction of trying.

13.Why did you do this tag?

Sriram has tagged me.

#Tag 2,

I think i have written a tag similar to this some time back, I leave it to the labels of this blog.

I recently changed the LABELs of some blog posts. Labels pretty much define my blog's theme "C'est Ma Vie"

Thanks Sriram for the tag.

I would leave it open for people/friends to complete this tag.

Devil Called Angel - Part 2

Sequel post to Devil Called Angel

Guest Post By Karthik Sriram

Sudharsan was walking fast to make it to the subway if he had make it to the day care in time. He panted down the stairs and was at the platform at the right time to make it into the subway. He walked to the quiet zone - after all, he was not a big talker. His use for his cell phone was only for the emergency situations concerning Dhruv, his 5 year old son who suffered from chronic wheezing. Otherwise he ended up with quite a number of unused minutes at the end of the month. Life had been made simple for him ever since his family had moved to New York from Santa Rosa, CA. He had sold their car, gotten himself a good road bike that had been his passion for the last 2 years. The biking to the subway station and the weekend trail racing made him look younger than he actually was. He switched on his iPod and the Rahman song that came out flooded his senses. Another half hour to his station and Sudharsan was swept into a semi-conscious state by his tiredness and the Rahman's sweet music being channeled to this ears.

He woke up with a jolt, half afraid that he has missed the station - but found he was still good and that he had slept for only 5 minutes and that 25 minutes of travel still remained. It was funny how time seems to be relativistic in nature. He thought about the weekends that he and Avantika used to go to the Golden Gate Bridge or the scenic US Route 101 with amazing scenery. Weekends used to flit past like they were seconds. Avantika had been the one true love of his life, he thought to himself, more reassuring himself than reminding as she was a subconscious part of him.

He was walking to the day care when he remembered that they had run out of the hot salsa that was sold at the Organic food store at 13th Street and Washington Avenue. He went in and asked for the salsa and could help remember the first time Avantika had reacted to the salsa's taste. Sudharsan always believed that it was the small things in life that make life spectacular. Well, it was such small things which made him like, rather, love Avantika. And its been 5 years and his love for her has been still the same.

He was outside the Day Care Center; he walked up the stairs and Dhruv was already waiting for him at the door step and pounced on Sudharsan. Sudharsan kissed him and started his walk back to their home. It was cold for November and quite cold at that. Dhruv was cold and demanded that he get Sudharshan's scarf. Sudharshan could not help, but smile. Typical Avantika. She had always been easy to react to cold. And in times of cold, she used to demand that Sudharsan either switch on the car seat heater or not turn on the AC - as if the weather being cold was Sudharshan's doing. But Sudharsan had liked her being that way. It kind of gave him a pleasant feeling that she took that liberty with him. And it was in Dhruv doing all this over again, which made Sudharsan love Dhruv and of course, Avantika more.

Sudharsan and Dhruv opened the door and Dhruv pounced on the mail that had been slotted in to their home - and picked up an envelope - From the distance he was at, Sudharsan recognized the font on the envelope and literally tore the mail from his son's hand and put it into his pocket, for later read. The he fed Dhruv, they both saw some TV - of course, he had given up seeing Family Guy and the Jay Leno Show (which were Avantika and so, his) favorite shows. They were now limited to stuff that Dhruv can see - so it was Sponge Bob Square Pants, Sesame Street and Fox and Friends. Dhruv was immersed in the TV show which had some of his favorite characters prancing about. Sudharsan knew that the show would be for another 15 more minutes and after that Dhruv would be fatigued enough to sleep on the couch. That gave Sudharsan the gap he was looking for, to read 'that' mail.

He opened the mail, from India, postmarked Tiruvannamalai:

Dear Mr. Sudharsan,

Hope you are doing well and the baby boy who adopted on Nov. 4th, 2006 are doing well now.

As you might remember, since at the time of adopting the baby boy, you were unmarried and so had your parents signing as custodians of the baby boy, we are obligated to send you this form (enclosed) that you need to fill in, with the latest photo of the baby boy and send it to us as soon your goodselves finds some time. This is purely a formality for single parent adoptions and does not reflect any misigivings on our part on your care and affection for the kid. We appreciate the fact that you adopted a kid who would have otherwise been resigned to a life in poverty and charity.

We have also enclosed another form for you to make any contributions to our ashram, if you would like to do so. As always, every dollar that you send from America feeds a kid for 2 days here.

Your's Faithfully,

(Signed, Correspondent)

Note from Guest Blogger:

1. For those of you who do not like this ending, I wanted to emphasize the fact that Sudharsan was still in love with Avantika, but did not believe that love to deserve a gory ending as either wasting his life in emptiness or committing suicide. He just chose to transfer his love for Avantika to another entity, who in his mind was representative of Avantika.

2. If you liked this ending, touche!

===========================

About Karthik Sriram:
Karthik Sriram , my college, different branch a very good friend of mine. He has done is masters in BioMed and is based out of Florida currently.I asked Karthik Sriram sometime back whether he would be interested to take up my old blog post titled Devil Called Angel and complete it.He gave inputs when the first part was written and He is more like my twin soul in sense we have and we share a lots of common interests and whatever he likes is pretty much what i like too. However we don't blindly agree to everything and we respect the differences we have in views. He has been of late dormant in blogs so i requested him whether he would consider completing it. Karthik Sriram also shares interests in creative writing. He used to write short stories in category Takkunu Oru Tale.

Thanks Karthik Sriram.

Kandein Tammanavai

Just watched Kandein Kadhalai in Sangam. We3 decided to catch up the movie on a afternoon when it poured so heavily outside and to sit in AC hall drenched is a different experience. Perhaps guys were ok to get drenched in rain and watch a Tamaanaaa movie J.

More than Kandein Kadhalai, I think everyone who has watched the original hindi version has spoken very high of the movie. Not even one has said that movie was ok kinds and everyone said “excellent movie and one of the best”. So that was the expectation for me to watch this movie. Sun Pictures promotion makes me think twice before i watch their movies because of they hype up very ordinary movies into super duper hits. For once Sun Pictures has distributed a good movie.

It seems to be a clean/neat enjoyable movie. I haven’t watched the hindi version and many who watched the hindi version say the hindi version is better. Yes definitely you cant compare both the movies. Tamil version is pretty good actually. Imtiaz Ali must be given credit for the success because the story is simple and realistic.

More than Bharath, I liked Tammana in this movie and she has done her role very well in the character Anjali. Though she claims it to be a carbon copy of Kareena’s role but it is difficult to copy some one performance too. Anjali character is very well etched and I really doubt whether there are characters like that in real world. It is more like Hasini (all time Genelia’s best character performance till date). Thank God they dint caste Genelia because tamil audience would be reminded of her Santhosh Subramaniam performance. Tamana has done well in acting in sense there are very few movies in Tamil Cinema which gives the heroine the scope for acting. Tamana is definitely going to be the NEXT BIG heroine in Tamil Cinema after Trisha/Simran.

Songs are ok kinds. Not worth downloads either. Santhanam has done a good job. For once he has avoided double meaning/dirty jokes in a family entertainer. He is an excellent comedian (me a big fan of him since lollu sabha days). Directors must use him well and Kandein Kadhalai sans Santhanam would be a very ordinary movie.

In second half the movie slightly drags and crowd gets impatient at times.It is a feel good happy ending movies and the climax part was very much like Minnale (in sense being reminded about Bharath instead of her guy....reema sen gets reminded about Maddy when Abbas asks her who is in her heart)

Oh a whole a neat family entertainer with a central theme.

“Two broken hearts together make a beautiful heart”

Verdict – Must Watch !! (if you havent seen the hindi version)

Having watched the remake,I am also planning to catch up the hindi version soon!!!

Magic Number 25-27-29

These numbers may not be as attractive as the ones you might think of. A year back, couple of my batch people got engaged/married and that made write a blog called Early Marriages for guys. One year later, i find more and more of my batch mates have crossed the 25 landmark and are getting married. A good friend from work, turned father few months back and i was excited to hear the news.

I met my cousin in a family function. I was meeting him after a long time here. I had to take leave just to be part the function. As we were discussing, i knew my uncle and aunt have started to look out for him a year back. I asked him what was the status. He turned 29 a few weeks back and his parents still couldn't find a match for him. Since he has crossed 29, his parents are aggressive mode to get him married before he turns 30. Because post 30 some girl's don't prefer guys who has crossed 30. They have been searching for him since he turned 27 and it has been the same story.

What puzzled me was whether he had huge expectations? Knowing him well, he wasn't expecting some beauty contest winner kinds any day. Most of profiles whom he liked, horrorscope dint match and the ones he wasnt keen, horrorscope claims to be a perfect match. I have been in situations when my resume dint match with requirements at work. It would be irking if you are in situations when you want to work for some role but when managers get back saying you dont fit here because of your resume skill sets. I have been in the receiving end for the skill set match so i know how it feels if you dont get selected. But horrorscope match is even worse. What could he do if the ones he liked doesnt go further because of this?

I am not here to claim , lets ditch the horrorscope part and get along. But the truth is the people who see this jadhagam are not correct always. How many times, I have heard when two different josiyars say 2 diagonally opposite things for the same set of horrorscope. Even worse it the cost and these guys charge something like 100 to 300 for seeing the match and one of my colleagues at work who is very much interested in astrology said if recession hits, i will become a kalyana josiyar. If all horrorscope matches are true then why would there be so many divorces? Lets leave it here.

I asked him whether he has any matrimony profile in online sites. He said he has one and there was not much requests until he updated his salary stack. Bitter truth that is. Not all matrimony profiles are fake but some are very hilarious. X,i knew had claims complexion as fair. I was quite shocked actually because i hv seen X in real life and our ppl put the best picture (taken under tubelight - you will look brighter) with picasa's help. Some profiles wanted preferences of living in countries like Australia, America and some countries in Europe. Looks like some wants to be live in foreign countries. I was telling him how that a search for soul mate or better half has ended up among 500 or 600 profiles in these matrimony sites based on caste.Well, everyone has their own choices. Doctors marry Doctors, same caste marry same caste, h1bs marry h1bs so this is not new. If your preferences matches and common interests matches then its a blissful ending. My friend Karthik, has such a strong view against arranged marriages and he feels they are quite fake as in the whole process and he believes in love marriages or better be single for life kinds.

As me and my cousin were speaking couple of my relatives were speaking, "evalo time agudha...pesama edhavidhu love pannirkalam...evalo kastha pada thevailla"

I looked at my cousin and smiled and i could hear his mind voice

"Edha minnadi sollirunda atleast endha anglela yoschirkallam...late agirchuey..."

Ellam Thala Vidhi Padi Dan Nadakum

Few weeks back, I and my good friend here went for a classmates reception.I like attending these receptions. For last two year, i have attended many receptions of friends, colleagues, friend's (sister/brother) etc etc. Somehow it is a nice feeling to go to reception/wedding. I have a collection of receptions pics i have attended over last from years in my comp. As always, i went there before time and was listening to musical show by kids. My friend joined later and after giving gifts,I was sarcastically telling him "By the time you get married, this girl (must be 5 years) will be contestant in Airtel Super Singer Senior series."He hit back saying "By the time you get married, she will be the judge for the show."

Aadhavan

I watched Aadhavan today in a nearby theatre. Since it is third day from release and a weekday (I am off today, thanks to optional holiday) I was expecting less crowd and to my surprise it was HOUSE FULL. The theatre I watched has a seating capacity as big as Satyam and generally I dont expect suburb theatres running house full shows. A good women crowd (school girls,college girls, just married to elder women) have turned up to watch this movie. I strongly felt that crowd was for KS Ravikumar (he is one of the best directors with high success rate) + Suriya combination.

Honestly, I dint find anything new or exciting in this movie. Story is very predictable and perhaps if you can think of some old movies and draw inspiration you can deduce this story. Despite being so predicable, it is only because of KS Ravikumar and his direction skills, he makes you sit for 2.45 hours patiently. What if he had a better story? I am sure many Suriya fans would be slightly disappointed with his movie. He has decided to venture into these typical masala movies which has Vijay's forte( how long can he do movies like V1000 or Kaka Kaka may be he is too tired to do such roles repeatedly) and these kinda movies are to his potential easy kinds. I strongly feel Suriya should not overdo his 6 packs and tight t shirts because beyond a point people would not appreciate it and they would feel bored and it would come ah another scene with 6 packs. (if you want guys with 6 packs, you can go to nearest gyms and see there are plenty of people who are crazy for this stuff).

First action sequence( some would say a repeat of Ayan congo chase) is more like Prince game which I played in schools in sense people jump walls, buildings effortlessly. Last climax fight the BGM was very close to James Bond Flick (quantum of Solace (car chase sequence)). How often does the police come after the final climax fight in old movies, same here. A superhero saving his dad and girl friend by doing a foot board stuff in helicopter. I leave it here and rest you watch it in theatre.

Varayo Varayo was nicely shot and rich in costumes and Hasile Fisle is my favorite track in the album. Album of this movie doesnt look it is from HJ.9thara – nothing to say, less dress, less scenes and yes less scope for acting. Some songs are fillers the intro song was one. Vadivel has done a good job in this movie.

Me and My friend (Karthik Sriram)once had a chat that bloggers are very critical about movies especially some actors. I am sure you would have read enough about movies not living to expectations . Sometimes the same bloggers are slightly soft on their favorite actors ( I can never write a honest review of Ajith movies because I like him) and very popularly accepted actors like Rajnikanth and I just get a feel Suriya has joined the list. Even if his movies arent great i am sure people would give a thumbs up. My only wish is online critics be fair to all movies which includes movies like Kandasamy or Nadodigal or some by new directors which arent worse any day. Also one thing i found interesting is Suriya's stage talks about his movies. I am glad a Tamil Cinema forum reminded me that for every of his movies he speaks on stage.

"neriya pudhusa try pannirkom"

"chinna chinna alagana vishyam neriya irruku enda padathula"

etc etc.... anybody who watched Ayan or Adhavan will wonder what was new or beautiful in those movies. His next flick Singam, hoping for a Samy and not Aarul.

KS Ravikumar has just pulled it in the end. KS Ravikumar's experience is perhaps the difference between Kuruvi and commercial succes of Adhavan.

Adhavan – Watchable Once*.

* if you are a Suriya fan !!!

Toothy Problems

There are certain things in our life which when we see makes our mind to go back in time and relive those moments. Every self help book would recommend having good mind patterns. I am a lover of nostalgia. I like to go back in time and always try my best to cherish the best moments of the past. I am reminded of my journey to school in MTC buses whenever I board that number MTC bus, yellow college buses remind me of my college bus etc .I had a similar theory on some people of present who remind you indirectly of someone in the past called reverse resemblance theory.

Other day, I was eating in canteen and saw an employee infront of me struggling to eat. I couldn’t find out what his problem was. When I went to wash my hands, just had a glimpse of him and he was wearing braces on his teeth. I had to rewind my life back to 10 years. I must be in 11th std and my parents decided that I have to correct my teeth alignment. Since childhood, I had a problem with teeth alignment.In tamil they would say “ethu pal” meaning the upper jaw of teeth is slightly projected over the lower jaw and in such cases it is very difficult to close the mouth normally. I had a horror time and mostly in all my childhood pictures,I was unable to keep my mouth closed naturally. It wasn’t a typical bugs bunny teeth either.

For 2 years, I had braces to correct my teeth alignment. First permanent then followed by temporary. I am sure anyone who wore a permanent clip would know pain and problems. Dentist decided to take 3 teeth off to create space in the upper jaw and by wired metal with plastic bands which puts pressure on teeth 24/7 and finally it pulls the teeth inside and fills the spaces created by upper jaw. If plucking teeth was painful the worst was yet to follow which was taking the jaw structure. They apply a paste which you feel like vomiting. The person who took my upper jaw size was a fresher I guess. She took it 3 times because she dint get proper measurement. Another big head ache is one has to be very careful with wired teeth especially while eating. I was asked to skip chappathi, chicken (I used to take non veg then), anything hard to eat as it might cause problems. Thankfully pizza phenomenon was not there then.The tooth brush was different. Just when I completed 12th std and before I joined college this physical torture was over and dentist finally declared it was a 95% success.(in sense he achieved 95% of teeth alignment)

Looking back, I regret I shouldn’t have gone for that treatment and left it to natural way. My grand ma once said only girl child needs to correct her teeth and not me. Society always makes it a thumb rule….girls should be good looking and guys should be money making. There are certain things which are beautiful when they are natural. Some people when they smile dimple appears, some people have Lion Canine teeth (these people are very attractive when they smile) and some people have slightest squint eyes. We all must have seen people who make up with all sorts of cosmetics to look attractive/appealing but I personally hate those with red lipsticks or strong perfumes especially.

Certain thoughts are subjective and beauty is one. What is attractive to me need not be attractive to others. One of my childhood close buddy once said, that I have a bad taste when it comes to appreciating beauty. It seems that those whom I thought were attractive were very ordinary to them. It reminds me of old blog post from my good friend, Stranger in Transit titled.

"La beauté est dans les yeux de celui qui regarde! ! ! !" He writes short stories and the lead character is named Lokesh.

Happy Diwali :)

Hopefully thala diwali next year!!!!

ps-I meant Ajith 50th movie release

Seducing Mr Perfect

"love is a game... its a game of power. its all about manipulation of emotions to control human mind"

- Seducing Mr Perfect

Not often you read a friend's blog about a movie and you get tempted to watch it. I have read Srini's review about a Korean Movie Seducing Mr Perfect !!! I meet him at work other day and requested him to pass on the movie to me and watched it today!

I have not watched many English movies till date. I go by suggestion of my friends especially when it comes to watch English movies. I love watching typical action films (Enter the Dragon,Bond, Independence Day, Armageddon kinds), entertainers/romantic comedies (Terminal, Hitch Kinds) and the ones which focus on human relationships (dad-son, friendship, love,feel good happy ending movies etc). I was moved when i watched Pursuit of Happyness to me which is till date one of the best movies, I have ever watched. I dont like watching any thriller or scary movies.

Seducing Mr Perfect falls in human relationship category. This movie is simple and very realistic. It is all about events which happen when a hearty girl meets a heady guy.It is all about a girl who believes in TRUE LOVE and goes for searching but sadly she gets dumped third time. She is emotional and sensitive. She reacts to people. She meets her boss, who happens to be hero. He is strongly headed person. He keeps telling her unless she changes her attitude she will be dumped by men forever. He tells her LOVE is nothing but a game with manipulation of emotions. He tells here there are certain rules for the game and she doesnt know them. He talks about love with self respect. It is a game of power. He insults her couple of times (even calling her brain is like 386 and cant be upgraded to Pentium) and she tries to seduce him but she fails. She strikes a deal with him and asks him help to her out in finding TRUE LOVE. He teaches her the rules of love and asks her treat men (her old boy friend) the way the he treats women. Later she tells him, she is happy being herself and how she was earlier and she doesnt want to manipulate with people and their emotions as it is unnatural. Later towards the end part we come to know the reason why the hero is so heady.

The entire plot falls with a main story where the hero plans to take over a company in Korea and heroine works as an analyst under him. Finally like any happy ending movie he takes over the company and also wins her heart.

What i really like about the movie is the dialogues. The style of delivery is different. Hero speaks in English but the heroine speaks Korean. So throughout the movie most of the times she speaks in Korean (we get the English subtitles) and Hero responds in English. Some dialogues are really catchy especially the scenes where he advices her how to treat men. (That part of the movie reminded me of movie hitch where Will Smith plays the LOVE DOCTOR)

I am very glad i watched it.

One thing which amazed me is some Korean words were very similar to Tamil. First i thought i heard it wrong especially when heroine calls her dad 'appa' but i checked up this site and I find that Tamil and Korean have similar sounding words for dad and mom !!!

PS-

This is my 200th blog post since my first post in December 2004!!!

Coincidentally my 100th blog was also about a romantic movie. :)

Thinking with Heart !!!

This is my first guest post on Vetri's blog.

ps:-
Vetri has been very kind to me in sharing his creative writing posts in my blog in guest tag.

Leelai

Guys, Just happened to download the entire album,it is a decent album no doubt and I missed mentioning about this song sung by Shreya Goshal, her tamil pronunciation is incredible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7BRAXVY4Jc

This movie stars Shiv (Sprite Ad, IPL Season 1 host), Manasi and Santhanam. It is produced by Aascar Ravichandran and there has been no noise about the songs as well. Jillendru Oru Kalavaram is good and intro musical part is the bgm in the below trailer.

The trailer is very impressive. The dialogues reminds me of Unnale Unnale or Jeeva style of film making.It appears to be one of the typical office romance stories. Lead pair has awesome chemistry! Another friend of mine once forwarded an email stating this movie was shot in HCL campus in Chennai.

There are many movies where the trailor was very impressive (like SMS or Tamana Thandvam)but the movie dint live up to the expectations. I have expectations for VTV but for this one,me and my friends have decided to watch this with principle of least expectations !!!

Thalaivan Irrukiran

I watched this movie today @ Abirami. Thanks to Saravanan for booking tickets a week ago even before the official plans open date.

This is one of the shortest films i have watched in theatre more like an English film. I haven't watched the Hindi version of the movie so for me the suspense of plot was there till the last moment.

Well directed, excellent screenplay ( movie runs for only 11 reels) so there aren't any dragging scenes, good music (shruthi hasan has done a good job) of course a very good story. Mohan lal fitted the IG role the best, one of my friends felt if that role was played by Prakash Raj it would have spoilt the role and Mohan lal's voice modulation and he shows his class as IG. Lakshmi's role seems to be confused as she herself is not sure what she has to do and she doesn't have the charm or decision making skills of Chief Secretary and she is more like PA of Ayya (apparently Kalaigar's with his voice modulation). I think other 2 main police officers were excellent. That guy Arif (Ganesh who played Trisha's bf in Abiyum) is like one of those typical 6 pack hunks with a typical gym body which seems to order of display of every other ACP in movies these days. (Surya started this trend and now he will regret for sure that every other guy has a 6 pack appearance for Police).

Kamal Hassan is prima donna of the entire movie. What i love about Kamal Hassan is ability to play different characters in ease. As an hi-tech terrorist, he does the same. There is one scene towards the climax where he would make you weep. There is also one scene where he vents his anger about his name not included in the voter list and apart from that there is no heroism designed for him. Story demands him to be a common man and he does the same!

Tamil Cinema will benefit a lot if movies like these are accepted by the public and become a hit. Directors will start making movies which are short and sweet and not necessarily add an intro number in the start and an item number in the end with the context of making a family entertainer. I always have a feel that good movies need not box office hit, best example would be Anbe Sivam where as some masala movies ran for 175 days in that period.

Recently i was watching a TV show in Vijay TV which celebrates 50 years of Kamal Hassan in Tamil Cinema. I happened to see this wiki entry of his awards. 4 national awards , 18 film fare awards and is still counting.

There was an forward which talks about Kamal Hassan's movie themes linked to some real life incidents which happened later.Mahanadhi (Chit company fraud), Anbe Sivam (Tsunami), Dasa (some virus that spreads in air/SWINE flu) and i sincerely hope this theme doesnt happen in real life.

Shruthi Hassan and Blaaze in promotional song for this movie!!

After the climax, there was a huge applause for the movie.

I liked it !!

Verdict - Must Watch (once with friends may be second time with parents).

ps- Thalaivan Irrukiran was the first name given to the movie later it was changed to Unnaipol Oruvan