New Year/Avatar/Kokum

Compared to last year’s New Year Eve in Kathmandu, this year’s celebration in Chennai was more comfortable and enjoyable. First off, we got the official go ahead to bunk half a day’s office – my colleagues at work along with their families descended on Sathyam for the matinee show of Avatar-3D. The chaos called “corporate booking” with Sathyam was a different matter altogether. However, thanks to a complete team effort we did manage it pull it off.


The movie itself was quite spectacular: the visual imagery, as written in every quarter, is breathtaking in the first half and the second half is more action and some loosely scripted plot and dialogues (remember “300” – all that bravado backed by some inept acting and very poor speeches). The toddlers in the audience were awestruck and weren’t scared, and hence made it easier for their dads to watch the movie in whole. Even though, as is my custom, I missed the first few minutes, I picked up the futuristic plot (whatever there was) which talks about a distant planet – Pandora – habituated by Na’vi people. The US armed forces led by Col.Miles (Stephen Lang) is commissioned to extract a mineral – Unobtainium, from that planet. He enlists a paraplegic ex-marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) to aid Dr.Augustine (Cameron favorite – Sigourney Weaver) and her team, with the intention of persuading the Na’vis eventually to settle for a negotiation with humans with regards to the giving up their sacred place which houses the mineral. So Jake and Augustine’s minds take on the incarnation (aka Matrix) of Na’vis to befriend and gain their trust in an effort to avoid the potential mayhem. The love angle is provided in the form of Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who is entrusted with the job of training Jake in hopping trees and taming wild aerial dragon-like creatures in Pandora. As love blossoms between Jake and Neytiri, Col.Miles runs out of patience and calls for bombarding Pandora and usurping Unobtainium. But Jake and Augustine by now are totally against the military showdown and try their level best to persuade the Colonel against it, but to no avail. The second half is all about flying battleships, dragons, warriors on horses, big elephant like creatures stampeding and some very badly written call-for-war dialogues. As one would expect, its triumph of good over evil, albeit the loss of precious human and Na’vi lives. Cameron is the big bad splurge master, equivalent of our own Kollywood Shankar, when it comes to spending a fortune in film-making. But at the end of it all, Avatar-3D is an enjoyable fantasy laden action adventure, set in a Utopian planet.


Post the movie, a splinter group (8 out of 38) made its way to ID in Sathyam. I had my share of pre-dinner appetizers, while majority had their full-dinner. I had few other friends to catch up for dinner and after some serious thought in deciding the dining place, we settled for Kokum (Another oriental group specialty restaurant). The restaurant is located in MRC Nagar and is pretty cut-off from the city’s hum-drum. The restaurant specializes in predominantly Kerala cuisine, but had fair share of Goan and Mangalorean delicacies as well. Buffet, priced at a princely sum of 545INR, is a very rare feature of this place and they had one, owing to the New Year ’s Eve. I checked out their ala carte menu and figured that the buffet had a representation of the main dishes from that menu. So the eventual price of the buffet works out to be cheaper if one were to try out those dishes from the menu. The place is a well decorated (just like any other oriental group restaurant ), the food is authentic and really good, and has luxury apartment complexes in its vicinity. Apparently Hotel Leela, being constructed there, is set to be inaugurated by Dec 2010. We also met few third party acquaintances who happened to work for Nila ventures (holding company of Hotel Leela) and were currently residing in the apartment opposite to that of Dhoni’s (he bought that flat for Rs 2.crore).

Post dinner, it was drive back home at around 10 PM, by when the roads were already being battered by few crazy drivers in bikes and cars in spite of the heavy patrolling (in numbers alone, not by their ability to chase down the offenders). Back home, I popped in the “Eagle has landed” DVD……

Happy New Year to everyone !!

3 Idiots - Not too close to the script, but pretty decent..

Chetan Bhagat might have had more heartburn than just for not being credited at the beginning of the movie (he apparently took umbrage at being mentioned in the end credits). The essence of "Five Point Someone" novella has been diluted to a big extent in "3 Idiots". However, this movie belongs to the category of films that are to be watched for the director, cast, and marketing blitz.

I can’t comment on the first few minutes (including the ragging scene which is now the raison d’être for someone to slap a notice on the movie producers) which as usual, I missed. Farhan (Madhavan) is the voice over for the narrative sequences in the movie, which chronicles the lives of 3 Idiots (Farhan, Raju-Sharman Joshi and Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad - Aamir) predominantly in their college (ICE and not IIT) and a little bit post their graduation. Professor Viru Sahastrabudhhe (Boman Irani), the head of the college, gives an exaggerated, but likeable, performance as a strict custodian of the exam-cram methodology. Aamir, along with Maddy and Sharman, predictably, tries to foster a feel-good factor and emphasize the importance of seeking knowledge without mugging up the textbooks. Some of the gags in the movie are genuinely funny, the most notable one being the time when Aamir outsmarts a random supervisor who declines to accept his answer sheets. But as many people have noted, majority of the antics are predictable and the cloying goodness is far removed from one what sees in real life. Pia (Kareena), Prof Viru's daughter, comes as a fresh addition to the rather overgrown college-goers.

Rajkumar Hirani has tried real hard to keep the goodness of his reputation intact, while also striving hard to do to justice to the original book. Aamir, quite surprisingly, and Sharman are made to look the part of the college crowd, while Maddy tries to muscle his way in. The song "All Izz Well" looks much better with the visuals, but the other songs are rather insipid. The plot involving Aamir's growing up, his achievements at the end of the movie, and Prof Viru's elder daughter giving birth in the college premises, seem forced and at times impractical. The message of the movie pretty mocks at the mentality of our education system and does succeed to a very small extent. After all the movie is intended to follow the Munnabhai franchise. Watch it for the laughs, Aamir, Kareena and reminiscing college days.

Vettaikkaran - The Vettai has truly begun

Watching a Vijay movie on the 2nd day of release doesn’t equate to the euphoria one feels when watching a Rajini movie even on the 2nd week of its release. However, I went to the movie wanting to experience the hoots and whistles, which duly unfolded when "Ilaya Thalapathi's name" flashed on the screen. The excitement moved up by few notches when Vijay's clear image gradually emerged from his hazy silhouette. And the 7:15 AM start on a Saturday and Rs.100 ticket was money well spent, just for the decibel levels inside the theatre.

The story gains rapid pace as Vijay sets off running behind a corrupt and drunken cop's police vehicle and just as when we think he has given up, we find him resuming the chase with a Stetson hat on a horse - the most widely advertised poster of "Vettaikaran". As expected, he confronts the cop and dishes out a rather short and sans overtly jarring punch dialogues (Compared to his recent duds, he has reduced the punches). He plays the role of "Police" Ravi - a struggling student (he apparently has tried scaling XII exam thrice with no luck) who aspires to emulate his idol Devaraj IPS (Sri Hari) in becoming an upright police aapicer. The introductory song of Vijay received maniacal response from the audience and the peppy number also features his son towards the end. The introduction of Delhi Ganesh as his father in the movie evoked muted peals of laughter, for reasons known to our gang.

After somehow scaling XII, Vijay goes to Chennai to enroll in a college and opts to drive an auto-rickshaw to fund his studies. On his way to Chennai he encounters Susheela (Anushka) and her grandmother (Sukumari), and is bewitched by the heroine's beauty. Now comes the time to expose the scary looking villains one-by-one. Chella (Ravi Shankar) looks really menacing and gets his way with whichever lady he sets his eyes on. Unfortunately, he lusts after Vijay's college mate and so follows the first action sequence between the hero and villain. After being beaten to pulp, the villain's dad (Salim Ghouse - of Vetrivizha and Chinna Kounder fame) takes over spilling evil on screen. What follows is Vettaikaran (Vijay)'s quest for hunting down the Mirugam (Salim Ghouse). There is a clear explanation on these lines to justify the title - "Vettaikaran".

The dialogues are preachy only in places and the punch dialogues seem to have been inserted to spur the massive hysteria he commands with his huge fan base. Vijay Antony has sensed the pulse of what Vijay means to his fans, and the peppy numbers have accentuated the hero's reputation. One should find the costume designer and stylist for Vijay in the pleasant duet - "Chinna Thamirai, and ask in all earnest, the reason for the outrageous makeup.”Puli Urumudhu" and "Karigalan" (He has added some really astounding moves in this song) are the other good numbers. Vijay has managed to carry the movie with his screen-presence, action and dance sequences, and even the lighter moments. Anushka literally dwarfs her co-stars with her height, and hence her contrived dance movements appear magnified. Sayaji Shinde - the bad cop with comic timing, and VM Hanifa and Sathyan - Vijay's sidekicks, and Srinath - the dude from Vijay's college, add to the comedy track.

On pure entertainment quotient - this movie scores over Aadhavan and with Sun Picture's astute marketing should most likely help Vijay lose the bad reputation he has gained at the box office and with the masses too (The email forwards relating to Vettaikaran are testimony to this). Apparently the "Vettai" runs for 2 hr 54 mins, and the second half hurtles towards a predictable and violent climax. The villains and stuntmen in Tamil movies sporting those full white veshtis folded up to their knees, with aruvals and similar hacking weapons appear to be way too menacing for family audiences. Guess its high time the directors and casting group take note of this.

Verdict - Definitely worth watching (Provided one sets aside any positive expectations about the movie, and just goes only with the intention of getting entertained. That means, be ready to suspend your disbelief)

High on Caffeine

High on Caffeine ( HoC ) is probably an apt place to go, when most of the time one feels sleep deprived. And then comes an article in IBN stating that traditionally 93% of us Indians are short on quality snooze. But, HoC is tucked away neatly into the Mitsubishi showroom on LB Road Adyar, opposite Globus. One cant miss the advert board craving for attention, just before the Indian Oil petrol pump.

The western world's influence on Indian coffee shops are quite noticeable, and this one is no exception. The sport bar/coffee theme has been generously borrowed from the quaint one-off sports bars in the US, especially with the motor sport logo graffiti at the entrance. The day I went, there wasnt much crowd to be seen around, and few youngistan junta had plopped onto the generous sized bean-bags, sipping away to glory. There are couple of pool and foose ball tables, nintendo and playstation consoles, few neolithic white/gray leather lined chairs alongwith the centerpiece tables, and ample space. There is also a separate enclosure for the mild-mannered folks who wouldnt prefer the din of people going crazy over sport on the big screen. The biggest USP of this place could be the really good quality giant screen, which incidentally was broadcasting the T20 between India and Srilanka. It was just a happenchance that we dropped into this place, and given the smattering of crowd seen around, looks like word hasnt gone around about this relatively new-in-town coffee abode. We ordered cappuccinos ( the first drink to evaluate if we would return to a coffee shop ) and some kind of cheese loaded crouton type bread which came with few potato chips. The coffee cost Rs.50 while the crouton order cost around Rs.90. HoC lived upto its name with the cappuccino being pretty strong without we asking for it be so, but was little thin in the density aspect. The end result was that it was not too great a serving of the caffeine, but made up for it with the salivating prospect of watching more cricket games at this place. Would surely recommend for sports fans who prefer to see the big and bad games with friends to argue and cheer collectively.

P.S : Few short quips on the movies
Kurbaan - Rensil D'Silva's commendable movie on terrorism and love. Good music score, backed by strong performances from the lead pair and the supporting cast. Good watch, wont be disppointed.

Inglorious Basterds - Slash fest coupled with trigger fest. Oodles of bullet piercing the bodies and generous spurts of blood. Smug and cocky portrayal of a nazi slayer by Brad Pitt. Eli Roth ( "Hostel" director ), in a meaty role that sure looks like tailor made to suit his thought, action and direction of evil. Must see for Tarantino fans.

Vettai - Its in a league of its own, even before the release. Slated for an early morning show at Sathyam this Saturday. Watch out this space for an "objective" review ( trust me on this one ).

Dad's 60th Birthday and Thirukadaiyur

28-29 Nov 2009:

It is dad's 60th birthday and we set out on our way to Thirukadaiyur, which is where Lord Shiva apparently saved Markandeya from Yama's noose of death. The bus journey from Tambaram to Mayiladhurai was agonizing, thanks to the Ultra-Deluxe's (UD)late departure and then the magnificent stink of the pillow covers. We were so relieved to reach Moogambigai Residency in Thirukadayur after hopping onto another transit bus under the cover of early morning rain. I bought the Trichy edition of Hindu, which I spread out on the dining table at the hotel's attached restaurant. I settled for a modest plain dosa, a set of puris and a coffee. It felt good to just read the Sunday Hindu with a cup of coffee with rain splattering outside. Soon after, I flopped onto the hotel bed to snooze for a while even as the rest of the family had their breakfast. We took an auto to go the main Abirami temple to keep up the time with the usual abhishekams and archanais.

The overall experience at the temple could have been better if only the priests and the devotees had showed little more patience and consideration. Everyone seemed to be fighting for vantage spots, while the priests recited the mantras in an seemingly disinterested way and appeared to be too keen on winding up the entire process. We took few photos of dad and mom with their garlands and new attire within the temple premises, which normally is prohibited in majority of the temples. After about 2.5 hrs of activity within Lord Shiva's abode, we proceeded to the nearest hotel for a sumptous lunch ( sumptuous more because of the prolonged gap between breakfast and lunch ). Even though I was full to the brim, I checked out the prasadams after returning to the hotel room and another disappointment was in store. Of late, many temples disperse prasadams more as a rote and show no genuine interest in making the bhojanam tastier. There might be few detractors who might think prasadams are not meant for satisfying the taste buds, but I beg to differ. If someone makes and offers any kind of food in any of the holy places, it is a reflection of the mindset of the people in charge of those places. The heavy lunch ensured that we got decent rest, before we packed our things and headed to the bus stop to take us to Thiruvarur. Bro set on what turned out to be a long journey of close to 13 hours, from Thirukadaiyur to Erode. Man, he has some patience and perseverence, be it at work or travelling:-) The government UD bus back from Thiruvarur to Chennai was very comfortable and we reached Tambaram bus station on time at 4:30 in the morning. For all the humid climate in Chennai, the bus ride was unusually pretty chilly. To drive away those chills we had piping hot coffee at the long standing Bhats hotel in Tambaram junction. But for the hot beverages ( read as coffee, T and masala milk ) the rest of the hotel is in absolute dumps.

Update for 4th Dec - A morning visit to the temple followed up with rava kesari and ven pongal :-). An afternoon siesta, Indian batting collapse of sorts against SL on teletube, and a long drive to Sathyam for Kandaen Kaadhalai. To round it off, 3 aloo parathas and one samosa and then a bite into the butterscoth cake bro got home for dad' s bday. Wasnt that a fruitful day ? ( Had a banana and a guava as well :-))

P.S : I was clueless when my supervisor at work asked about the significance of the temple at Thirukadaiyur, so for ignorants such as truly yours -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirukadaiyur
http://www.pariharam.com/TempleAbiramiAmman,Thirukadaiyur.aspx?

2 States - Chetan Bhagat

This is pop-corn fiction, modelled on a bolly/kollywood movie. The book costs the usual Rs.95 ( so wouldn’t have to worry buying pirated copies ) for its 269 pages. It’s a quick read with a very simple plotline, with dollops of humour, mostly at the expense of Madrasis ( verbatim...as used in the book ). Not to cause much consternation, there is self-deprecating humour in the form of the so called over-the-top lifestyle of Punjabis :-)

The book apparently is inspired by Bhagat's real life and takes off from the time how the two protagonists ( Krish-the Punjabi thambi and Ananya Swaminathan-the Madrasi kudi ) meet at IIM-A's mess. Bhagat doesn’t spend too much real estate on developing the romance between Krish and Ananya, since the expected plot is how the two families are going to play a big role in this love saga. There is the usual muted profanity and some Un-Indian ( as claimed in the book ) behavioral pattern to remind us that our society is in the midst of a major westernization flux. Krish and Ananya land their dream jobs and the next step is to figure out how to convince their respective families.

The hero opts Chennai as his Citi posting in order to befriend the austere tam-brahm family of Ananya's. His IIT brains are put to test by the typical nerdy younger bro of the heroine, while the Tamil maami-mom is a budding carnatic singer. And of course, the dad is a devout Hindu reading "The Hindu" which he can’t do without. To complement this Tamil family caricature, Krish's side has a retired army officer for dad ( in his chauvinistic best ) and a loud blink-i-will-cry mom who loves food and is always on the lookout for more dowry and status show-offs. There are the usual Punjabi names and the mandatory family wedding and similar such predictable references. After all machinations, Krish does end up getting the consent of Ananya's family and soon after Ananya goes to Krish's house in Delhi for a week at HLL's expense. After some tear-jerker contest between the Krish's mom and Ananya, and one wonderful act of persuasive talk by Ananya at a Punjabi wedding, Ananya wins over Krish's mom.

Not to be satisfied, the lead pair decide to force the two families to like each other. Out comes the overbeaten rivalry between Northies Vs Southies, and one must say that this part could have been played down without the crude references. However, after much ado, the families try to reach a common ground by catering to each other's preferred lifestyles. The desi drama has a happy ending with lead pair getting married in Chennai in a deliberately chosen "Arulmigu Kapaleeswarar Karpagambal Thirumana Mandapam". C’mon, it’s that not difficult to pronounce...

What carries the book are some heavy doses of humour involving Krish's first tamil boss-Bala and the loud mouthed Rajji mama from Krish's family and some sensitive moments involving Krish's dad's sudden change of heart ( cant explain what caused it though ), and a short dip into philosophy with a Pondicherry saint. Chetan Bhagat says he doesnt want to be remembered as a paragon of high pedestal english literature and so he keeps the sentences simple, and the narration just flows through. One doesnt have to wrack his/her brains to keep up with the pace of the plot. Would rate this just below "5 point someone" and definitely way above "3 mistakes of my life".

Pondy - The first official road trip in India

Nov 21-22/Chennai-Pondicherry/ECR :



Notorious for planning dime-a-dozen trips, I should thank "bangalore se aaya mera dost" for what turned out to be the high-octane cruise on the bump-free and beautiful ECR. OK, that is not true, not possible with a 2000 model Maruti Zen loaded with 4 not-so-size-zero-guys.

Sudhi (tamilian in the guise of a kannadiga) and me set-off to first replace the wiper blades and have our bat-mobile checked for any major performance barriers. After a mathematical mess-up of epic proportions at the spare parts shop, we picked up the ever-so-popular Raghav and the new kid on the block-Narasimhan, from the latest addition to Chennai city maps - Tambaram. Never one to keep up the sanctity of punctuality, we were behind our schedule by a mere one hour.

The recent rains ensured that we bumped our way to the ECR road and then in a yahoo moment, pressed on the accelerator and the engine cried out loud for some mercy. Every trip of ours ( dating back to the US days ) has centered around food, and so I took a U-turn after we missed Don-Pepe" by a whisker, only to order some "kewl" cool drinks and a chimichanga and enchilada. Satiated, I laboured into the driving seat and hit a steady 80kmph. Mamallapuram looked not so appealing in the hot sun, but to showcase Chennai to Sudhi, we did the mandatory pit-stop. To ask directions, we could not recollect the historical monuments in local lingo and it was a comedy of sorts trying to explain arjuna's penance, and I blurted out "rocks".



We reached Pondy and checked into GINGER - a TATA enterprise. The hotel offers a freshness not to be seen in the more pricey options or cheaper ones - thanks to the "citrus" theme. We had our dose of caffeine from the in-house coffee day and I couldnt help buying India Today and Sports Illustrated from the miniature landmark. The rooms were very convenient for the Rs.1800 tariff. After stretching our legs, we hit the streets and navigated through the chaotic JN street ( we wanted to shop even in Pondy...for a pair of Cargos to ease the pain of wearing trousers ) without much success. The beach front reminded us of the Besant Nagar stretch, and the slight drizzle made our distant gazes across the dark waters more special. Soon after, we wandered off to the Asian House and then to Le Terrasse for our dinner. We retired to our rooms for a well-deserved rest and Raghav was very adamant that we witness the sunrise the next day.

Sudhi, is the epitome of perfection and so he woke up by 5 AM and surprisingly Raghav came into our room hoping to beat the daylights out of me. Luckily I was awake by then and we started off to witness a bright start to the day. Well, the clouds played spoil sport, but we still had a great time just sitting on the rocks with umbrellas to give us cover from rains ( Narasi....under the umbrella...hmm...he wandered off in his thoughts... ). It was very calming and refreshing to see the waves hit the rocks under the cover of dense clouds, which I preferred over a bright orange circle arising out of distant horizons. Food - we never forget food. So back at GINGER, we were as usual pestering the hospitality boys for the buffet breakfast, and not surprisingly we did the honours in inaugurating the rather conservative buffet( Rs.99 ). I went back to my room and deciding to rejuvenate my aching muscles and sore back to take the trip back home. The trio visited Auroville meanwhile and just came back in time to check-out by the customary deadline of 12 Noon.

We bought quite a few "Off-beat" printed casual Tees, before heading to "Promenade" for our buffet lunch(Our motto - more the buffet, the better ). Priced at 575 per head, the food was as good as the beautiful view of the ocean side. We felt that the overall lunch experience was awesome, which meant my job as a driver was that much more difficult ( for obvious reasons ). The return trip was very pleasant - en route we stopped for a tender coconut drink. The next drink for us was coffee/T at besant nagar CCD. Overall, it was a very welcome break from the hum-drum of city roads and the constant chaos. The best part is that we proved people wrong by proving that we can execute our plans as well as we plan them ;-)