"aila re ladki mast...". I heard this audio and I see a person looking like Vinod Kambli randomly swinging his barrel tummy and arms, much like having a fit alongside a skimpily dressed beautiful broad. After a few seconds into witnessing the horror unfold, I realized this was "one more" of the reality shows thats crowding channels breaching all linguistic barriers. The channel responsible for the attrocity of asking Kambli to dance (and with a damsel who seemed capable of performing trapeze) is colors, also broadcasting "Big Boss".
I managed to survive the performance of Kambli, firstly because I really wanted to see the "points" scored after a performance that I, who am terrible at dance, could out do blindfolded and secondly, see the unfortunate judges had to not just endure the performance, but also provide their valuable comments.
Turns out that one of the judges is Wasim Akram, the legend of toe-crushing yorkers, the sultan of swing. I recall that until recently, he still had his job on ESPN-Star as a commentator which I thought, he was doing a fair job. The other is the "dazzling beauty" Sushmita Sen, who was definitely not looking herself. Maybe the occasion or probably Olay, doesnt seem to fighting the 7 effects of aging.
Just as I was wondering why such an "odd" pair was chosen as judges, the next pair walks on stage and voila, enter Irfan Pathan! Didnt he have a bowling spot. I was shocked and continued to watching trying to force myself not to believe what I was seeing. The rest of the participants included Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan, Nikhil Chopra (really!) and of course, couldn't leave Sreesanth out of this.
I kind of understand the inclusion of Kambli & Chopra, who have pretty much lost the fizz of their career, but, the rest of the gang, oh really, is there no limit! Irfan Pathan seemed like he was asked to swallow a cricket bat, extremely uptight. Even the post-dance conversation with the judges seemed like a post match presentation, so much so that he actually said, "I could not perform to my potential as I had a slight injury. Not an injury as such, a niggle actually". God save these guys.
I wonder when our hockey stars are going to begin their protest because they dont get the chance to dance and get cozy with the damsels. But you guys on this show 'Ek Khiladi, Ek Haseena', think you guys better get ready for some nasty jokes, especially if you're going to goof up a forthcoming series.
Wednesday
Jurassic Park
What goes around comes around? Right now, I’d probably say yeah, sure it does.
I’m not sure what one might interpret on reading the title of this post. But never mind, some of you might just need a grey matter workout, so read on…
A couple of things that made me feel like a dinosaur (I do not connect with extinct, lets be very clear on that). Ganesha Pooja, one more of the days I look forward to because of the delicacies! This afternoon as I was having lunch at my aunts place, I realized, I no longer had the appetite for the kozhkattai’s (that’s a sweet, FYI) that I had a few years ago. It wasn’t to do with the fact that I had lost appetite but more to do with the fact that I had lost my appetite mentally. The fact that I’ve been doing a sort of roller coaster ride with respect to my weight, was weighing on my mind. (Maybe I could collate the data over the last 6 months on a bi-weekly basis, remove some numbers and send it to the IIM’s as a question for next year’s CAT!). First sign of aging, I’ve started worrying, about the signs of prosperity around the waistline (Oh yes, you will hear the groan of the dinosaur).
The arrival of several roars at once broke my reverie. My cousin and his horde of friends (spanning ages 6-8) came in brandishing their respective AK47’s (with mechanical & human audio effects) at god alone knows what. Right now, holidays such as this one are days that provide breakpoints the code of life constantly running in the system of the universe (Forgive the IT effect). Second sign of aging (where’s the parachute, I want to jump off this flight!), you look back at childhood as if it were a part of history lessons in classrooms today (Now, the dinosaurs even whipping its tail and raising dust off the ground). I love putting in these seemingly relevant statements like punctuation, only because I know fully well that in the time spent in trying to put them in context, you’d figure as a reader, that its simpler to assume them to be in context rather than figure it out (Boy, I read that a few times!).
What goes around comes around? Right now, I’d probably say yeah, sure it does.
Redundancy works eh? After the sumptuous meal, I settled before the idiot box flicking through the various Tamil channels (I wasn’t in the mood to watch Animal Planet, the dinosaur was still out there) trying to figure out what was worth a watch. I ended up watching BABA, one of the few abstractly sensible movies of Rajni that flopped because it was low on SQ (Stupidity Quotient).
As I was sipping my coffee, my cousin ran up to me to ring the bell a third time.
“Can you teach me Hindi?” I’m not sure if I’d have made my high school teachers proud or lead them into a state of eternal shock. I wasn’t a total dunce at Hindi (I can speak well, that’s for the ones sneering out there), but if there was anyone who could screw up grammar, with the small and big ki’s and all the hieroglyphic-like symbols, it was me. I cant recall the number of time’s my mom has tried to explain Hindi grammar, but it never got to me. Teaching my cousin this afternoon as I looked back, almost no one in a right state of mind would have had me teaching Hindi. But what the hell, what goes around comes around, just like the dinosaurs…
I’m not sure what one might interpret on reading the title of this post. But never mind, some of you might just need a grey matter workout, so read on…
A couple of things that made me feel like a dinosaur (I do not connect with extinct, lets be very clear on that). Ganesha Pooja, one more of the days I look forward to because of the delicacies! This afternoon as I was having lunch at my aunts place, I realized, I no longer had the appetite for the kozhkattai’s (that’s a sweet, FYI) that I had a few years ago. It wasn’t to do with the fact that I had lost appetite but more to do with the fact that I had lost my appetite mentally. The fact that I’ve been doing a sort of roller coaster ride with respect to my weight, was weighing on my mind. (Maybe I could collate the data over the last 6 months on a bi-weekly basis, remove some numbers and send it to the IIM’s as a question for next year’s CAT!). First sign of aging, I’ve started worrying, about the signs of prosperity around the waistline (Oh yes, you will hear the groan of the dinosaur).
The arrival of several roars at once broke my reverie. My cousin and his horde of friends (spanning ages 6-8) came in brandishing their respective AK47’s (with mechanical & human audio effects) at god alone knows what. Right now, holidays such as this one are days that provide breakpoints the code of life constantly running in the system of the universe (Forgive the IT effect). Second sign of aging (where’s the parachute, I want to jump off this flight!), you look back at childhood as if it were a part of history lessons in classrooms today (Now, the dinosaurs even whipping its tail and raising dust off the ground). I love putting in these seemingly relevant statements like punctuation, only because I know fully well that in the time spent in trying to put them in context, you’d figure as a reader, that its simpler to assume them to be in context rather than figure it out (Boy, I read that a few times!).
What goes around comes around? Right now, I’d probably say yeah, sure it does.
Redundancy works eh? After the sumptuous meal, I settled before the idiot box flicking through the various Tamil channels (I wasn’t in the mood to watch Animal Planet, the dinosaur was still out there) trying to figure out what was worth a watch. I ended up watching BABA, one of the few abstractly sensible movies of Rajni that flopped because it was low on SQ (Stupidity Quotient).
As I was sipping my coffee, my cousin ran up to me to ring the bell a third time.
“Can you teach me Hindi?” I’m not sure if I’d have made my high school teachers proud or lead them into a state of eternal shock. I wasn’t a total dunce at Hindi (I can speak well, that’s for the ones sneering out there), but if there was anyone who could screw up grammar, with the small and big ki’s and all the hieroglyphic-like symbols, it was me. I cant recall the number of time’s my mom has tried to explain Hindi grammar, but it never got to me. Teaching my cousin this afternoon as I looked back, almost no one in a right state of mind would have had me teaching Hindi. But what the hell, what goes around comes around, just like the dinosaurs…
Monday
CATatouille!
Today, I completed my annual ritual of submitting the CAT application seeking admission to the II of M's. As I stood in the queue at the Post Office for the speed post(trust me, there was one for a change!), I noticed that 5 CAT applications were submitted amongst the 8 persons in the queue. A CAT question with a statement of the sort like, "At most, 62.5% of the population in Bangalore gives the CAT examination in 2008". Typical sort of statements filled with at most's and at least's (punctuated by words that sometimes make me wonder when they were added to the dictionary) that are intended at bamboozling the candidate rather than provoke thinking of any sort.
Let me make a comparison here. Avani Avittam, this is the annual ceremony where brahmins change the 'sacred thread' or poonal. This happens once a year and brahmins congregate in small numbers world over to perform the "ritual" irrespective of whether they have been regular or not in performing the prayers that have be performed after having adorned the thread. See a similarity? I do! I do! The CAT exam, "candidates" congregate at centers across the country, irrespective of whether or not they have prepared or not, oh and did I mention, its once a year!
There was some talk recently that they IIMs wanted to make the CAT online, at the click of a mouse (he he he, forgive for that!). I'm not sure if thats ever possible considering the logistics of having over 1.5 lac people accessing simultaneously. Just imagine the investment needed, the bandwidth. If they do manage to make it online, the speed of the candidate will not be the only speed that matters. I doubt if that is possible in the next 5 or 10 years even, unless the bandwidth and internet capabilities grow enormously (which I'm sure will happen) and the number of candidates does not increase at the rate at which it has increased in the last 3 years, which I doubt is going to be the case, considering that in India, we have universities churning out engineers like mass production of ball-point pens. So, just not happening mate!
While I was in college, I felt only freshers should be given a chance at CAT. Being the hypocrite with "work-ex", I wish the freshers were banned. Eh, what the hell man, I do not have any intent of being politically right. Why should freshers be allowed (Think I'll take that separately, though I cant leave the curses out), Let them go and feel the real world of management, schedules, time lines and what not.
Anyways, to sort of set the icing on the cake, the exam itself is not an exercise to "identify" the manager in a person. Thats about as true as being able to spot a wart on an ants left butt. Considering that over a lac of people give the exam every year for a few thousand seats, this is the best way to eliminate people. Why change a system when it serves the purpose?
Let me make a comparison here. Avani Avittam, this is the annual ceremony where brahmins change the 'sacred thread' or poonal. This happens once a year and brahmins congregate in small numbers world over to perform the "ritual" irrespective of whether they have been regular or not in performing the prayers that have be performed after having adorned the thread. See a similarity? I do! I do! The CAT exam, "candidates" congregate at centers across the country, irrespective of whether or not they have prepared or not, oh and did I mention, its once a year!
There was some talk recently that they IIMs wanted to make the CAT online, at the click of a mouse (he he he, forgive for that!). I'm not sure if thats ever possible considering the logistics of having over 1.5 lac people accessing simultaneously. Just imagine the investment needed, the bandwidth. If they do manage to make it online, the speed of the candidate will not be the only speed that matters. I doubt if that is possible in the next 5 or 10 years even, unless the bandwidth and internet capabilities grow enormously (which I'm sure will happen) and the number of candidates does not increase at the rate at which it has increased in the last 3 years, which I doubt is going to be the case, considering that in India, we have universities churning out engineers like mass production of ball-point pens. So, just not happening mate!
While I was in college, I felt only freshers should be given a chance at CAT. Being the hypocrite with "work-ex", I wish the freshers were banned. Eh, what the hell man, I do not have any intent of being politically right. Why should freshers be allowed (Think I'll take that separately, though I cant leave the curses out), Let them go and feel the real world of management, schedules, time lines and what not.
Anyways, to sort of set the icing on the cake, the exam itself is not an exercise to "identify" the manager in a person. Thats about as true as being able to spot a wart on an ants left butt. Considering that over a lac of people give the exam every year for a few thousand seats, this is the best way to eliminate people. Why change a system when it serves the purpose?
Sunday
Masquerade
We live in a crazy, mixed up; mixed up, yet so beautiful world. The beauty of nature is the fact that it is natural. As human beings we have evolved to bring on the fantastic concept known as adaptability, which seems wonderful, almost obvious at the outset though unknowingly we become obsessed with it. Obsessed to such an extent that we lose our very identity or masking ourselves to suite society. Do we make society or does society make us...Wish the rain the washes the earth of its blemishes if any would wash these masks off...
Monday
The Great Indian Comedy Show!
The Manmohan Singh government faces a trust vote against the Left and the BJP. Déjà vu.
1993, the Narasimha Rao government faces a confidence against the Left and the BJP for not having protected the Babri Masjid. 1993 was possibly dirtier than now only because of the cause of the trust vote.
The word that’s been doing the rounds in the media for the last few days is “horse trading”. What horses? Jackasses would be more apt. In a period when there is rising inflation, the bunch of jokers in the Parliament (read as “Hall of Shame”), talk about whether they should go for elections or not. The jackass trading is going great, so much so that, jackasses that were convicted of heinous crimes are coming in vote because of the “Nuclear Deal” although the blundering freaks would not now even the spelling of “Nuclear”, let alone the damn impact of the Nuclear deal whether its good bad.
The Parliament has started serving soup everyday, did you know that? It’s a new variant that traces its roots to the English language and the number system. It’s called “The Alphanumeric soup”. It’s filled with the spice like BSP, SP, CPM, 368, 268, 271 and a lot more pieces. The chaos is no longer about the deal. It’s come down to just toppling the government. It’s pathetic yet on the sarcastically funny side that ALL our politicians can come together when it comes to creating chaos, confusion, and instability. It doesn’t matter whether an MP knows about the deal or not. There is no limit to which our politicians will stoop so as to not prevent the seat from being pulled away from their buttocks. They could all be patrons for a Fevicol advertisement.
In all the dry humor of a comedy show that the country has seen in the last few days, politicians have proved they create a politician out a genius like Mr. Manmohan Singh. One cannot help but feel sorry for the sardar who has been torn apart in an anticyclone of farcical jokers who have got their brain and political incorrect part of the anatomy severely misplaced.
1993, the Narasimha Rao government faces a confidence against the Left and the BJP for not having protected the Babri Masjid. 1993 was possibly dirtier than now only because of the cause of the trust vote.
The word that’s been doing the rounds in the media for the last few days is “horse trading”. What horses? Jackasses would be more apt. In a period when there is rising inflation, the bunch of jokers in the Parliament (read as “Hall of Shame”), talk about whether they should go for elections or not. The jackass trading is going great, so much so that, jackasses that were convicted of heinous crimes are coming in vote because of the “Nuclear Deal” although the blundering freaks would not now even the spelling of “Nuclear”, let alone the damn impact of the Nuclear deal whether its good bad.
The Parliament has started serving soup everyday, did you know that? It’s a new variant that traces its roots to the English language and the number system. It’s called “The Alphanumeric soup”. It’s filled with the spice like BSP, SP, CPM, 368, 268, 271 and a lot more pieces. The chaos is no longer about the deal. It’s come down to just toppling the government. It’s pathetic yet on the sarcastically funny side that ALL our politicians can come together when it comes to creating chaos, confusion, and instability. It doesn’t matter whether an MP knows about the deal or not. There is no limit to which our politicians will stoop so as to not prevent the seat from being pulled away from their buttocks. They could all be patrons for a Fevicol advertisement.
In all the dry humor of a comedy show that the country has seen in the last few days, politicians have proved they create a politician out a genius like Mr. Manmohan Singh. One cannot help but feel sorry for the sardar who has been torn apart in an anticyclone of farcical jokers who have got their brain and political incorrect part of the anatomy severely misplaced.
Wednesday
Left, Right, Left
Whats the big deal? Pathetic to see the Left desert the government during a crisis for the N-deal. The Left has shown the nation how preposterous they are. The so called Communists are still living in the aftermath of the cold war under the belief that the wrong side won! They struggle to get any ideology of any sort and have got their priorities severely mixed up!
I might have been almost proud of the CPI if they had pulled the plug for not having tackled inflation, lack of basic amenities to the poor etc. The best that they could do about inflation was to say "We're severely condemn the hike of prices(read as inflation) and expect the government(read as the Congress alone, and not the UPA) to aggressively tackle inflation".
What are the CPI, next door neighbors? Aren't they a part of the government? This is a simple case of denial of responsibility, which is so typical of communists in India. They would rather play the blame game, shove the responsibility of resolving issues on to others(similar to outsourcing) and create more chaos in any system that would make the disturbance of a bee hive look like a pleasant breeze.
The timing of the withdrawal was worse. The communists have been threatening for the last 2 months of withdrawing support. They have a been a pain in the wrong part of the anatomy and have only been a hurdle to growth if anything. They have insulted the PM and the country by withdrawing support at a time when the PM was representing the country on a global platform. Being rhetorical, is there any level cheaper that they could stoop to?
Take the example of China, they are supposedly the world largest Communist power. I cant compare the strides they have made in implementation with the efforts of our "Indian Communists" only because it would be too insulting to the real communism.
They have proved that they are a bunch of losers who are here to play politics in the name of communism putting the chances of re-election, party interests, vested interests well above the nation. What a farce they are, the only solution they have come up with in 4 years was to create more chaos and destabilize the government. Kudos to the Manmohan Singh government for having tolerated nonsense for what seemed like an eternity. They have proved that elastic is not infinitely stretchable.
I might have been almost proud of the CPI if they had pulled the plug for not having tackled inflation, lack of basic amenities to the poor etc. The best that they could do about inflation was to say "We're severely condemn the hike of prices(read as inflation) and expect the government(read as the Congress alone, and not the UPA) to aggressively tackle inflation".
What are the CPI, next door neighbors? Aren't they a part of the government? This is a simple case of denial of responsibility, which is so typical of communists in India. They would rather play the blame game, shove the responsibility of resolving issues on to others(similar to outsourcing) and create more chaos in any system that would make the disturbance of a bee hive look like a pleasant breeze.
The timing of the withdrawal was worse. The communists have been threatening for the last 2 months of withdrawing support. They have a been a pain in the wrong part of the anatomy and have only been a hurdle to growth if anything. They have insulted the PM and the country by withdrawing support at a time when the PM was representing the country on a global platform. Being rhetorical, is there any level cheaper that they could stoop to?
Take the example of China, they are supposedly the world largest Communist power. I cant compare the strides they have made in implementation with the efforts of our "Indian Communists" only because it would be too insulting to the real communism.
They have proved that they are a bunch of losers who are here to play politics in the name of communism putting the chances of re-election, party interests, vested interests well above the nation. What a farce they are, the only solution they have come up with in 4 years was to create more chaos and destabilize the government. Kudos to the Manmohan Singh government for having tolerated nonsense for what seemed like an eternity. They have proved that elastic is not infinitely stretchable.
Tuesday
Dasavatharam
Ten roles! All the hype, the money, was it worth it?
A big YES! Kamal has surpassed his best performance ever, not because of just the complexity of the script, but the effort needed to implement a fabulous idea. A repertoire of ideas represented in the movie ranging from belief to chaos theory to bio-weapons. One of the biggest concerns raised prior to release was whether or not the 10 characters were necessary. Looking at it in critical way, it would not be "needed". Yet an objective view of the whole story would clearly indicate that each of the ten roles were clearly defined and not nascent.
One the most impressing features of the movies was the extent of detail. The detail was cared for not just in the scenes depicting the 12th century, or the research center, or the Tsunami. Importance of detail was a perennial aspect of the movie. For example, the accent of the Govind, one of the Kamal's trying to save the world was not perfect American but the Indian settled in the US of A accent. On the other hand the accent of Fletcher, the ex-CIA agent was one of the many American accents. As an actor it must have been extremely challenging considering the make up effort, switching accents, characters, their mental approach and what not. It would supposedly take anywhere between 3-5 hours just for the make up! A marathon effort by Kamal. Kudos to his effort and few skeptics can deny that this is the greatest effort by any actor contemporary or history!
Ranging from the 12th to the 21st century, the movie is flawless in terms of the logical flow, which is not the case with most movies. Its a case of connecting the dots and once all the dots are connected and you see the full picture (Here, i mean the picture formed by connecting the dots, metaphorically), its brilliant. The essence of chaos theory that every single action of ours has its implication although we don't realize has been beautifully delivered in the span of 3 hours. For those of you who are chaos theory illiterate, I would suggest a bit of background reading to really put the movie in perspective.
In all the adulation for Kamal, one cannot miss out on crediting the artists, art directors etc who have done a fantastic job. Despite the small role, Napoleon who plays the Chola King in the 12th century has done a great job. Asin, as pretty as ever and did the role of Kamal's love interest in the best possible way. Mallika the vamp, though she manages to use the gun as well as land a few kicks at the right places.
Like every other of his movies, this too requires a certain level of understanding to really enjoy the movie and appreciate the effort. Unfortunately for Kamal, as always, this is limited to a small quantum (read as minuscule) of the population. Thats where a movie like Sivaji or Baasha or Padayappa (Its purely intentional that I quote Rajini's movies) beat movies like Dasavatharam or Anbe Sivam on economics of the mass that is used to classify as Blockbuster or not.
My favorite of the ten was the role of the Naidu. Comical in a serious situation was just spectacular and perfection in being a multi-linguist is the specialty of Kamal as he has proved in several of his earlier films. I'm not sure if any one can pick out a single entity that is the reason for Dasavatharam being what it is. Its the movie as a whole that was brilliant.
All in all, its one helluva movie and definitely worth watching whether you are a Kamal fan or not!
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