Pacem in terris

Requiscat in pace - Shri Shanmugham

2012-01-13T03:13:00.001-08:00

Udal mannirkku, uyir thamizhikku
Ithai urakkacholvom ulagirkku

Vairamuthu’s from the movie Iruvar would have remained just lines if not for Sweet Uncle’s influence in my life. Any attempt to translate the lines into English would be a vain effort in conveying what it means. I was homeschooled to read and write Tamil, my Father was my Guru. He taught me the alphabets and how they were strung together to form words and how words lined up together to make sentences. However I owe it to Sweet Uncle for sowing the seed of love for Tamil in me, literature, poetry, movies and culture.

Shri Shanmugham, an employee of the erstwhile Cheran Transport Corporation, anointed Sweet Uncle by some cousins and workers of a press my Father used to own in the late 70’s. He never used to come without a box of Nellai Lala sweets when he came visiting and hence the name. I’ve known him all my life. He was a noble person who sometimes came across as a trite impatient at the world and it’s machinations.

His knowledge was vast & varied, he could regale anyone with stories about the Dravidian movement, hollywood movies, trade unions, Clint Eastwood, Bud Spencer, MGR, Shivaji, Gregory Peck, Omar Sharief, Kannadasan or Kalki. My childhood is replete with movies he’s taken me along, the best being Thevar Magan, which was a bit too violent when I saw it, but later was a movie that moved me by the sheer power of the actors on screen.

He wasn’t my classmate or playmate. More than 40 years separated us but that didn’t stop us from being friends. My brother was ever his darling, affectionately called Renadi and pampered to no end. The distance kid bro took a walk with him in the Nilgiris when they went to attend Aunt’s wedding is a story he could narrate any day not to mention another detail around bro wanting to take a piss.

Sweet Uncle was a rare human being who was moved by human sorrow. He was a firm believer in the God and some saints, he was truly pluralistic in his religious outlook. His cycle was his prized possession and I vividly remember it took me many years to be able to get access to ride it. He was a collector, of books, magazines, paper cuttings and things like that. Sweet Uncle and Athai liked to serve food, to be kind and hospitable and no visit to their house was complete without more than a full stomach and heart.

As someone who urged me to read Kalki, more specifically Ponniyin Selvan, I owe it to him for having earned now the ability to appreciate Tamil and the vast literature that fills it. He could narrate a kural for any situation you ask. He could talk about the classic movies from the black and white era. I could never get him to say anything nice about the modern Tamil film music that I was exposed to, yet he had a liking for Kaviarasu but Kannadasan was his all time favourite.

The past few years have been harsh after been confined to the house all day and the loss of the grandson he doted so much on, life took a bitter turn. He recently was shifted back from the hospital to house after breaking a bone in the leg. This afternoon was a rude shock with the news coming in about his sad demise and a wave of images play in my head. Every single incident between us from the past. I on my part wasn’t able to make time for him as much as I would want and an impending change in the days ahead was going to help in that front but destiny had other plans.

RIP Sweet Uncle.

Inru un rojapoo mugathil muthamida ninaikiren,mudiyavillai
Mutti varum kanneerai moodivida ninaikiren, mudiyavillai
Poivaa nanba, poivaa
Un pakkathil enakkum oru padukkai virithu vei
Yendraenum orunaal unarugil naan varuvaen

*The lines above are Kaviarasu Vairamuthu’s from the movie Iruvar

The Sahara Force India Formula 1 team

2011-10-12T23:09:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Force India announced the sale of 42.5% of the team to the Sahara group. Dr Vijay Mallya retains 42.5% while Michel Moi keeps 15 % of the remaining shares. This would mean Dr Vijay Mallya has given up 7.5% of his shares while Moi’s family has given up 35% of theirs. The whole deal is valued at $100 million which is offloading equity for more than double the price it was purchased. In Sep 2007 the old Spyker F1 team became Force India F1 (FIF1), the deal then was rumoured to be around $80 million.

Dr Vijay Mallya vehemently denied reports in the media about a possible sale 5 days ago, his statement was cleverly worded in which he said “As Team Principal, I will continue to run the team and I have no plans whatsoever to exit.” He continues to remain Team Principal while Subrata Roy becomes Chairman of the team. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Sahara to continue making new inroads with it’s branding effort. It already has high brand recall and visibility being associated with sports in India, cricket being the biggest and with Formula 1 it gets to create a new identity in luring the motor racing fan and in creating a new fan base for the sport in the country.

Its well known that the aviation business of the UB group is in a crisis with the airline defaulting on many payments and looking for cash infusion to keep them afloat. The partial sale of equity in the formula 1 team could be part of a long term plan for the group in finding a honourable exit from the extremely cash hungry sport. It’s also a clear indication of the Moi family’s intentions, from being 50:50 partner to retaining just 15% stake.

The media in India has been more than glowing in its coverage of the Force India F1 team, probably because of the UB groups big advertisement budget and Dr Vijay Mallya’s cloud. In the past I’ve pointed out how the Force India F1 team wasn’t “indian” at all. Atleast that part changes a wee bit with the Sahara group’s entry. The media hasn’t bothered to question Dr Vijay Mallya when he loudly claims he brought the race to India. They won’t ask him how his team is Indian at all except for all the Kingfisher models who show up in the paddock on race weekends. Let’s hope more engineers, technicians and eventually at least one Indian driver gets to drive a Sahara Force India Formula 1 car. Until then … let’s wait and watch.

Geo’s talkies – Departures (Japanese)

2011-10-06T11:24:00.001-07:00

Departures was the winner in the best foreign film category at the Oscars in 1999. The movie is based on a novel titled Coffinman and was directed by Yojiro Takita and has English subtitles.

Daigo Kobayashi is a cellist with a modern Japanese orchestra which closes down due to lack of patronage. This leaves Daigo without a job and forces him to sell his costly and professional cello, move to the town he was born in to occupy the house left back by his deceased Mother. Daigo responds to an advertisement about a job with Sasaki and manages to bag it only to realize it wasn’t what he thought it to be. The job is to prepare dead bodies for burial, encoffination is the term used by some.

Reluctant Daigo learns the trade from his boss Sasaki, a man of few words but who portrays immense respect for the dead and living, who meticulously work on dead bodies with respect to wash, clean, clothe and make them look their best in the last few moments left on Earth. Daigo’s wife Mika doesn’t like his job when she get’s to know it, he becomes a pariah with the only other association he’s shown to have in the movie.

Daigo nurtures an almost perfect relationship with his boss and eventually learns to respect and practise his trade with art like precision. Having raised by a single mother, he nurses a grudge for his Father who deserted them while he was a child. His wife leaves him asking him to decide if he wants to continue the profession or live with her.

There isn’t too much dramatic tension in the narrative, all such setups are resolved before they can sink in. The movie has been shot very beautifully with classical or classical-like orchestral music to back up the shots. The third movement (popularly known as Ode to Joy) from Beethoven’s 9th plays in it’s full 6 track glory in the early section of the movie showing Daigo’s orchestra. Daigo find more music and looks inward as his learning of his trade progresses.

The ending reunites Daigo back with his wife and brings closure to his inner turmoil in a very nice way. The Japanese have made an art of folding paper, which goes by the name Origami. Even routine and mundane activities like manufacturing in an assembly line is practiced like an art in Japan. It’s hence not very surprising to see how much of a care and devotion is laid out to prepare dead people and give them a fitting farewell from this world.

There are many scenes that stand out due to content that’s emotional or soul stirring. A dead wife’s husband crying “Naomi”, Daigo’s boss Sasaki’s methods while working, Mika starting to take pride in her husband’s profession, the Japanese people’s liking for good food, all have been portrayed exquisitely. A scene depicting salmon trying to swim up a river while dead one’s float downstream is profound in meaning. The scene where Sasaki & Daigo show up 5 minutes late to be shouted at mirrors the fact that the Japanese are sticklers for punctuality.

Departures is a must watch on any movie lover’s list, for the way characters have been laid out and made to play; around the theme of mortal certainity, of death and loss, yet would make you exclaims “What a beautiful movie!” instead of anything negative.

Requiscat in pace – Malcolm & Carmel

2011-06-09T23:25:00.001-07:00

Malcolm Simmons & Carmel Simmons, two lively people who could put a smile on anyone’s face. Lively, humorous and one of the nicer folks we’ve known. A road accident ended their time on Earth, they’ll continue now under God’s care. RIP.

The Monaco GP of 2011 – McLaren’s story

2011-05-30T00:24:00.001-07:00

After making a good start Jenson Button did what a good driver would in keeping his position and setting himself up for an opportunity should one show up. He stopped slightly early for tyres, luck came in the form of a complete botch up of pit stops at Red Bull Racing and Jenson assumed race lead. By then the team appeared to have decided to run him on a 3 stop strategy. The second stop was one lap too early, getting onto super soft’s in hindsight seems to have contributed to what was in store there after.

Safety car was out, cars ran at speeds much lower than race levels saving tyres that much more and have tyres left for much more race distance and Jenson hadn’t use his primes yet. He had to pit one more time to change to primes which he did and caught up once again to the leader Vetter and Alonso who was frenetically chasing him down. A red flag, race restart and an unprecedented move of allowing cars repairs and tyre changes while they waited for the restart on the race track itself meant that Jenson would keep his 3rd position with no chance left remaining to give a go for the top podium spot.

Yesterday’s race might have given us different results if the two safety cars weren’t necessary. The other McLaren car has a different story to say. In the initial stages of the race Lewis was doing a good pace, he was on primes. An early brush with Michael caused some damage to his rear. He pulled off an excellent move on 5 time race winner Michael Schumacher. McLaren’s pit crew who usually do an excellent job let Lewis down at his stop, Lewis says he was asked to box and when he did the pit crew weren’t ready.

In the remaining period of the Lewis he demonstrated an abject lack of decorum and decency one would expect someone of his nature and calibre to have. Lewis tried to get into the inside of Felipe Massa entering Loews hairpin, Massa is no angel to go wide and allow him to pass, he’s racing too. Massa took his line and both cars brushed. They raced going into the tunnel fiercely and in the tunnel Lewis passed Massa who then loses control and rubs the walls coming out of the tunnel with a broken front wheel. Game over for him. Lewis said “I went up the inside and he turned in me on purpose” to his pit over radio, the message itself is baffling as if Lewis expected him to wait and let him pass. Lame that was.

On lap 74 Lewis tried to pull off another move on Pastor Maldonaldo who stood his line and turned at San Devote clipping Lewis off onto the kerbs and ramming into the barriers himself there. Maldonaldo’s race ended at that point, he was running 6th and would have brought home some much needed and deserved points. And then Lewis goes on to say “he turned in a good car length too early”, that’s absolutely ridiculous.

Lewis ought to know he’s racing people who are racing drivers too. Radioing to his pits or talking to the media about how everybody else is turning too early when he misses a chance to make a move and thereby causing an accident is the sour grapes story. The icing on the cake is attributing racist motives to the stewards’ decision, which of course he’s attributed to as a joke, Matt Bishop must have given him a lesson or two on what you say to the media.

This weekend is worrying for a McLaren fan, I’m sure it should be worse for the team. One is because if drivers go shooting their mouths off to the media in this fashion then where is the sport headed to. You got to accept defeat and mistakes with as much humility as you would take to success. Second is around some strategy decision the team have been making around pit stops and tyres. Third is Lewis Hamilton. It must be intensely frustrating being where he is, the pressure must be getting onto him, not to mention the girlfriend whose presence in the track almost certainly makes Lewis that much more aggressive. Don’t take my word for it, go to YouTube and see for yourself.

The red flag came in just moments before the McLaren pits said over radio to Lewis that he needs to drive back to the pits and retire because of the damage caused by the Torro Rosso to his rear wing was beyond repair. And then by some stroke of luck they are allowed to conduct repairs to the wing on the race track itself while being red flagged. Isn’t that a mighty stroke of luck ? Someone like Lewis shouldn’t forget the European GP of 2007 where a crane lifted him and put him onto the race track, check out 00:36 – 00:38 of the video link. There are lucky days, there are unlucky days. There are days when the machine behaves like it’s an extension of you and there are days when it’s a beast that doesn’t behave no matter how much you tame. We don’t need an English Fernando Alonso mate, we already have a Spaniard.

Martin Whitmarsh gives a measured response to the race to BBC, that eloquence and dignity is exactly what’s missing in Lewis’ ramblings. I hope the team talks to him and brings him back to the usually jolly fellow he is, the talented and aggressive racer, not this jerk that keeps ruining other people’s races and then says “these drivers are absolutely freaking ridiculous, stupid”. On the lighter side don’t miss this funny exchange between the Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard, Jake Humprey and a FIA official.

Note: This writer is a huge fan of Lewis Hamilton as his posts on this blog from the past would prove and has been following the McLaren Mercedes team’s Formula ONE races rather closely for over 1.5 decades.

Christmas Day

2010-12-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

Distant stars, at home up in the heavens.
Wonder what they see, are they watching me?
Christmas Star, you spin your strands of silver.
What a sight to see, are you there to guide me?
Star light, shine bright.
See me through the dark night.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day.
Midnight stars, they sail the sky in silence.
Hearing all they see, are they hearing me?
Christmas Star, you watch the world so wisely;
At my journey's end, will you be my true friend?
Star light, shine bright.
See me through the dark night.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day.
Christmas Star light,
See me on my way.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day.
(Composed by John Williams, Words by Leslie Bricusse, Featured in the movie Home Alone)

Formula 1 Season 2010 – Qualifying – Bahrain

2010-03-13T05:13:00.001-08:00

After qualifying today the one thing that strikes me hard is Force India’s pace. I’m a known FIF1 baiter and looks like I’m going to eat a lot of my own words this year, inflation be damned. The pace shown by Adrian and Vitantonio is stunning and I hope they have a nice race tomorrow.

The silence of the Ferraris was expected, their pace today is a result of a good design and excellent talent behind the wheels. I’m so glad Felipe Massa has out qualified Fernando Alonso. Despite not setting scorching pace in testing Sebastian Vettel has taken pole for RedBull and Mark is starting 6th, expect nothing less from an Adrian Newey design.

Jenson Button was seen caught with under steer more than once, the McLaren’s are losing some race pace in the medium speed sections of Sakhir. Lewis manages to start the race in row 2 while Jenson will start from P8. It’s going to be a classic shootout from the start line between Fernando and Lewis, I hope they don’t get wrought in emotions and lose the car on turn 1.

The pace Robert Kubica is showing with his Renault is surprising, let’s hope he has a good race tomorrow. The heat, no refuelling, tyre wear and the uncertainty of the new rules and regulations in play make tomorrow a day where anything can happen. Over to race day everyone, I’m missing the Iceman already.

Pos	Driver	Team
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault
2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd
6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault
7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd
8	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
9	Robert Kubica	Renault
10	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes
11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth
12	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth
14	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari
15	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari
16	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari
17	Vitaly Petrov	Renault
18	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari
19	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth
21	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth
22	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth
24	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth

Geo’s Talkies – Kerala Cafe

2010-03-07T05:09:00.001-08:00

Kerala Cafe is a collection of 10 short films filmed by different directors and technicians while Ranjith steers the overall idea and concept and also produces the film. I have to start this post with a disclaimer. The only other movies of similar nature I’ve seen are Paris, Je’ t aime & New York, I love you. Thanks to Joshua who made me see the former, the movie was very good while the latter wasn’t a laudable effort.

Ranjith is a prolific script writer and director who over the past decade or two exhibited expertise in writing scripts to cater to the masses and also scripts which tread the line between art and popularity rather carefully. Some stories he has written / adapted for the screen are lilting and poetic. The list of directors comprises people who direct popular mass entertainers and people who make sensible movies that appeal to the class audience. The central theme of Kerala Cafe is journey (yatra) and all short films incorporate this into their theme.

Nostalgia is the first short film starring Dileep, Navya Nair directed by M Padmakumar, shot by Anil Nair based on a poem Naaduvazhikal . Two minutes into this short film you are shaken by the contrast of feelings in the protagonist played by Dileep who is an NRI from Dubai visiting his hometown in Kerala. Navya Nair plays his wife is the cynic in the frame who sees through Dileep’s actions. Sudeesh plays the role of Dileep’s friend in his hometown who works as a waiter in Kerala Cafe.

Island Express written and directed by Shankar Ramakrishnan has been shot on film by S Kumar. Based on the derailment and loss of 100+ lives when the Island Express derailed from the Peruman bridge in Kollam district of Kerala, this film brings together characters who have lost a loved one on that ill fated night. Sukumari, Maniyan Pilla Raju, Jayasuriya, Prithviraj, Rahman, Geethu Christie and Kani play warm roles in this short, each one having lived through the loss visits the accident spot. Maniyanpilla Raju plays the role of the engine driver from the night of the accident, to even attempt to describe all the subtle emotions on his face would be an exercise in futility.

Lalitham Hiranmayam is the next short directed by Shaji Kailas, stars Suresh Gopi, Jyothirmayi & Dhanya Mary Varghese. Rajesh Jayaraman writes the story while GSujith Vasudev captures the visuals on film. Suresh Gopi and Jyothirmayi are a married couple with a girl child, disaster strikes in the form of a confession Suresh Gopi does to his wife about an affair he’s been having with Dhanya Mary Varghese. This short was the one big surprise to me personally, I never expected Shaji Kailas, known for mass masala entertainers, to demonstrate skill and craft in narrating the travails of a man torn between love in a manner that is poetic and subtle devoid of swooshes one is normally used to associate with his name.

Mritunjayam is a story by Ahmed Sidhique, directed by Uday Ananthan, shot by Hari Nair. It’s a thriller, an IB officer seeks the help of his half sister to crack a case of murder in a haunted old anchestral mansion. Thilakan as the custodian and Rima Kallingal as his granddaughter light up the screen. Anoop Menon plays the IB officer and Meera Nandhan plays his half sister. This short is full of solid thrills, be prepared to get spooked. Audiophiles can use this short to setup sound levels on their sub woofer.

Happy Journey stars Jagathy Sreekumar, Nithya Menon and Bindhu Panicker’s voice. Written and directed by Anjali Menon, this short has been shot by MJ Radhakrishnan. A lecherous co-passenger played by Jagathy get’s the experience of his life when the teenager he’s been feeling up on a journey from Ernakulam to Kozhikode (Calicut) turns out to be a suicide bomber or so she says. There is palpable tension if you don’t double guess the direction the narrative is going.

Aviraamam written and directed by B Unnikrishnan, shot by Shamdat is the story of Siddhique and Shwetha Menon. IT businessman Siddhique is neck deep in dept due to the the recession. One fine morning he decides to take his life after packing off his wife and two kids to their grandparents house. There has to raw sensuality when Shwetha Menon is on screen in a Ranjith production, there is. However at the end of this short the difference between a good and bad actor is shown when Siddhique and Shwetha are shown on screen, one excels in conveying remorse, pain and the other leaves us confused.

Off Season is directed by Shyamaprasad, written by Joshua Newton, shot by Azhagappan. Suraj Venjaaramood narrates the story of a Portuguese couple which sorts of gives out an accurate picture of the backpacking foreigners we keep bumping into on trains and buses, the types that dont drive into a 5 star hotel the moment they land. This short is the funniest in the whole bouquet.

Bridge is a story by TR Unni, shot by Suresh Rajan and directed by Anwar Rasheed. It takes us in parallel through the life of a kid and an old lady. The kid adores a kitten with whom he plays, his Dad throws the kitten out of the house causing heartbreak to the little fellow. On the other side of the bridge is Saleem Kumar and Kalpana, dhobis by profession. They struggle to make ends meet and Saleem Kumar’s mother is getting too old to manage in a poor man’s house. The title is probably an allusion to the connection it makes to two different strata or segments in society.

Makal directed by Revathi is a story by Deedi Damodaran. Canned by Madhu Ambat, this short is a story of adoption, exploitation of the girl child where the naive and gullible are taken for a ride by the well heeled. One cant have anything less when someone as capable as Revathi is wielding the megaphone I guess.

Puramkaazchakal is an adaptation of CV Sreeraman’s story by Lal Jose, Vijay Ulaganathan plays the role of cinematographer. Sreenivasan takes a bus to Chalakudy via Malakkapara. Midway through the journey joins Mammootty, who appears impatient and arrogant much to the irritation of the crew and passengers. Mammootty is the only superstar in India who doesn’t distract me from his role, any role he plays I see the character and not the star. In a master stroke of a narrative this is the best short in the whole collection to me.

A big thumbs up to Ranjith for this fine effort, this is a laudable effort and needs to be encouraged in the interest of good cinema.

Geo’s Talkies – Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya

2010-02-26T12:05:00.001-08:00

Almost a decade after “Minnale”, Gautam Menon’s debut movie as a director in Tamil cinema comes another love story. The movies Gautam directed after the first weren’t out and out romantic movies though romance played a nice part in the overall narrative.

Initially reported by the media as “Chennaiyil oru mazhaikaalam”, the movie took the title of “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya” when it was confirmed that Silambarasan was being cast to play the male lead. “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya” is a nice warm love story, it’s takes you through the life of Karthik and Jessie. The former is a Mechanical Engineer by education who aspires to become a filmmaker, the parallels one can draw to Gautam’s education and profession are just too obvious.

Karthik also plays cricket and practices boxing as a hobby, which really turns out to be an excuse to a superbly set action sequence in the middle of the movie. Jessie is a young IT professional in Chennai, loves mathematics and we don’t get to know anything more about her. Karthik is instantly smitten by her right from the first time he sees her. Of course, the fact that Karthik and his family live in the ground floor of Jessie’s house gives him ample opportunities to ogle at her every now and then.

So here’s the first act play out on screen, you have a premise and two smart, charming and beautiful people who inevitably have to fall for each other. What’s going to be different with this movie is that this is Gautam Menon’s story, someone who has fascinating attention for detail and can write at least some characters in 3 dimensions. So conflict comes in the form of 1) religion: Jessie is Syrian Catholic Malayali Christian and Karthik is Hindu, Vellalar; 2) age: Jessie’s a year older than Karthik; 3) will: Karthik is completely enamoured by Jessie while Jessie is slightly more of a realist.

Karthik get’s introduced to KS Ravikumar through Cinematographer Ganesh and get a shot at interning under him. How does Karthik convince Jessie about his love? Does Karthik break into the big league with his film making? These are core plot points whose resolution can’t be spelled out in a blog and spoil the experience for you.

Silambarasan as Karthik has tried his best to portray on screen his characters sans histrionics. He’s done a good job at emoting, however I still have bones to pick at his dialogue delivery. Trisha Krishnan as Jessie is a pretty sight, she emotes slightly better but has a long way to go in that department. I thought she looked awful in at least two close up shots.

Full credits should go to the director and the dress designer for dressing up Trisha in immaculate drapes of saris, superbly cut and fit salwars and some very elegant western attire. Babu Antony plays Jessie’s Father and Kittu plays Karthik’s Father.

The opening title sequences are innovative and appear to have been filmed on the Vembanad Lake, the same place where the Rajiv Gandhi snake boat race is held with much fanfare every year. Manoj Parahamsa has canned the backwaters of Kuttanad in all it’s splendour wonderfully for this movie, it can easily pass off as advertisement for God’s own country’s tourism department.

AR Rahman’s songs have already been a rage, this movie has one of his most complete background scores for Indian movies. I’m still not able to recollect a melody from the score however I remember enjoying their richness. They didn’t distract me from the narrative and they probably helped take the narrative forward. I got to mention about the 5.1 mix which wasn’t distractive even once, that’s rare for a Tamil movie and full credit for that should go to KJ Singh.

Finally kudos to Gautam Vasudev Menon on writing a nice warm love story which isn’t all sugary and fluffy and keeping it’s decent enough without the usual trappings of masala cinema like a parallel comedy track and an item number. “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya” is an honest effort, worth watching in the halls for it’s clean content, decent performances and a nice love story.

Trivia:

1) Clever references to Rahman’s hit music pieces from the past, “Mustafa Mustafa” plays on when a reference to friendship is made between the lead pair and “Pa sa ni sa” (sung by Shankar Mahadevan) from Bombay is talked about in a similar scene where lead pairs eyes meet.
2) The church that is featured in this movie is St Mary’s Forane Church, Pulinkunnu, Alapuzha district. One has to drive down the Alapuzha to Changanasserry road to reach this place, probably 20 or so kms away.
3) For a change “Amazing grace” is played when Jessie is ushered into the Church for her wedding, usually it’s Wagner’s wedding march. Mendelssohn’s wedding march features in the song “Anbil Avan” though.
4) In Syrian Catholic Churches the engagement or manasuchodhyam is mandatory before a wedding. In the movie Jessie directly get’s ready to be married which can be considered a cinematic liberty.
5) Gautam Menon himself has dubbed for Jerry, Jessie’s brother. Chinmayi Sripada has dubbed for Trisha. Chinmayi’s tamil is spot on, but Malayalam leaves a lot to be desired. Case in point: First time when Jessie talks Malayalam on screen and then the lines she says at her Granny’s place when Karthik is in police custody.
6) Silambarasan continue his Ajith reverance with a reference to the Thalai and Billa in a conversation with Ganesh.
7) I’m wondering if the difference in age thing in this movie is yet another attempt at portraying Silambarasan’s own dalliance with the superstar’s elder daughter in the past.
8) KS Ravikumar steals the show in every scene he is featured in. Also nice self deprecating humour when Ganesh says to Karthik that Gautam Menon makes movies over a long time and with English dialogues.
9) St Alphonsa is seen in the frame in the dining room of Jessie’s house and at a bus stop in Pulinkunnu. Is this an attempt to hint the time this scene is set in? In 2009 Blessed Alphonsa was declared a Saint and could be seen at every nook and corner in Central Kerala.
10) Naga Chaithanya & Samantha play the lead roles in Telugu version of this movie, they also play a cameo in Karthik’s movie in the Tamil version.

We are the world 25 for Haiti

2010-02-12T22:17:00.001-08:00

Fans of music have been stunned by “We are the world” written by Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the group USA for Africa. This song featured Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Rogers, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles to name a few.

25 years later the co-writer of the song and the producer team up yet again to re-create the magic, to help raise funds for Haiti. Michael Jackson is no more and Quincy Jones is probably a tad too old for today’s consoles, synthesizers and other equipments, I’m kidding, this man can still work his magic on a record.

RedOne, is a producer-songwriter who collaborates writes-produces works for Lionel Richie, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, produces the new version, Paul Haggis shoots the video. This song features a whole range of artists from across the world, almost 75 is what the official website says.

Jamie Foxx, Nicole Scherzinger (Lewis Hamilton’s ex girlfriend, Pussycat dolls), Celine Dion, Barbara Streissand, LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx, Miles Cyrus, Josh Groban, Janet Jackson, Usher, Lionel Richie, Carlos Santana, Michael Jackson, AR Rahman and a lot of other artists.

The new rendition is as good as the old one if not better, I’m glad it didn’t end up like the “Mile sur” experiment conducted in India, that was a disaster. Aishwarya Rai strutting on screen lip syncing to Shreya Ghosal’s voice is unacceptable, by any weird suspension of disbelief logic. Rahman on the continuum fingerboard was lovely and so were many of the real musicians featured in the video.

Coming back to world25, to compare how long an artist features in a collaborative track is debatable. However Nicole Scherzinger getting the most frames in this song is a little too boring. She’s pretty but is she the best vocalist? Hardly. Jamie Foxx however does a nice Ray Charles gig towards the end of the song.

Apart from the rap towards the end there isn’t anything new done to the music. AR Rahman is relegated to the choir, no solo act and even in the choir he’s lost despite being on the front row. I personally feel AR Rahman should have produced the track as a whole or co-produced.

I believe AR Rahman could have added that extra bit or charm and clever interludes or orchestrations if he was enlisted to join the production crew, paucity of time could be the reason. Doesn’t bode well for Rahmaniacs like me. I liked the inclusion of Michael Jackson’s footage and Janet Jackson singing a duet with him.

If you wants to show some concern for the tragedy in Haiti and contribute towards the relief effort do buy this song from iTunes, don’t download it for free. If some of us can stand up for celebrity no-brainer causes like MNIK we certainly should do our bit for worthy causes like this.

Dosas in Ernakulam / Cochin / Kochi?

2010-01-20T19:26:00.001-08:00

I can’t say how much I used to dread having to eat vegetarian food in Ernakulam (Cochin / Kochi) when it’s not the usual puttu, appam, idiyappam. Most hotels that have the Udupi tag in this city serve trash in the name of Dosa and hence when Benoy Chettan said “Let’s go to Pai thattu, they have a huge variety of dosas” I wasn’t quite enthused. Lijo Chettan came that night and said “Have you tried Pai thattu, I go there every night with Benoy, the dosas are amazing” and then I thought I should go there just once and see how the foods is.

Pai Brothers is on a small lane off MG Road, the lane is called Pai Brothers Lane and shows up within a kilometer of turning into MG Road from Banerji road. They’ve advertised that they have 36 types of dosas however their price list has more than double that number. There is no service at the table and guests are expected to pay first, get the bills and produce them at the cooking counter to be served piping hot dosa. Butter dosa, egg dosa, duck egg dosa, VOLVO dosa, family dosa, tomato onion dosa, kanchipuram dosa are some items which stood out from the usual masala dosa, onion dosa fare.

The dosas were tasty, the chutney wasn’t. The sambhar served with the dosas were very nice. A meal for two would cost anywhere from 150 to 300 bucks depending on if you want to eat 1 dosas each or 3. This eatery is open from 6 PM in the evening till 2 AM early morning, Benoy Chettan says that it’s actually open till 4 AM. So the next time you are driving through this city and dread eating the dosas served in all the Udupi places head to Pai Brothers, just make sure it’s in the evening. Their address is:

Pai Brothers, Pai Brothers Lane, MG Road, Ernakulam - 35

Formula ONE Season 2010 Preview

2010-01-20T03:11:00.001-08:00

McLaren get to retain number 1 & 2 on their cars this year by poaching Jenson Button. There’s no doubt that he’ll drive car number 1 while Lewis Hamilton will drive car number 2. Martin Whitmarsh takes additional responsibility as the Chairman of FOTA, the association of Formula 1 teams. Mercedes has taken over Brawn GP, Norbert Haug will get to play a larger role in the new team and Ross Brawn retains the role of Team Principal.

Michael Schumacher makes a return to active racing with Mercedes GP. Would anyone ever have imagined Michael S to don an apparel which had the silver arrows on it after such a long, passionate and successful sting in Maranello? The Tifosi are going to be disappointed, but I hear German pride will kick in this time. I feel sad for Felipe Massa, he earned his stars under the tutelage of Michael Schumacher and was blooming into an exquisite driver in his own right when fate intervened.

Felipe returns back to racing only to find Fernando Alonso as his teammate, this is the one big bit of ill luck I’d attribute to his career through out which he’s been denied a little luck. Though they won’t accept this, Felipe will be expected to play no 2 to double world champion Fernando otherwise we all know how it might end up given Fernando’s days with McLaren with a certain rookie named Lewis Hamilton who was making his debut in F1 in 2007.

12 teams are listed on Formula 1’s official website, which means we’ll see 24 drivers on the grid. A 13th team might just make it on to the tarmac eventually, and that’d most likely be Sauber who lost BMW’s backing and have been left to fend for themselves. The 2010 season will see the return of Cosworth as an engine supplier. Teams that commit themselves to the £40 million budget will get slightly more freedom technically and commercially. Lotus makes it’s return to F1, Campos and Virgin are the other two teams that will race in 2010.

Such teams will be allowed to run movable front and rear wings and also have an engine with no rev limit (current max is 18,000 rpm). Commercially there are more incentives like an annual payout of US$10 million, free transportation of two chassis and freight of up to 10,000 kgs in weight along with 20 air tickets for each event held outside Europe. These are certainly welcome moves which are bound to excite the new teams but will Ferrari or McLaren be enthused? That’s something we can all debate on.

The new season will also see a ban on refueling, cars will start with fuels to last a full race, I hope to see cars running out of fuel every now and then. The front tyres are slated to be made narrower, minimum weight of the car has been increased to 620 kgs (currently 605 kgs) and the points system has been revamped. 25, 20, 15, 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1 point wait to be awarded to I, II, III, IV …… X positions on the grid departing from the current system of awarding points to the top 8 drivers.

Another interesting move to encourage overtaking is to ban wheel fairings, this year you won’t see those wheel cover like things on McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari etc which have a vent to direct the hot air from the brakes escape in a particular direction which aids in increasing downforce making the air dirty for the car behind. Ron Dennis is expected to be seen more on the track now that Max Mosley isn’t at the top of the FIA, Jean Todt has already started discussions to find out ways to make Formula 1 more environment friendly.

Force India and RedBull haven’t change their driving line up and 19 drivers have been confirmed by the teams as off today:

McLaren	Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari	Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa
Mercedes GP	Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg
Red Bull	Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber
Williams	Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg
Renault	Robert Kubica, ???
Force India	Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi
Torro Rosso	Sebastian Buemi, ???
Lotus	Jarno Trulli, Heiki Kovalainen
Campos	Bruno Senna, ???
Virgin	Timo Glock, Luca di Grassi
???	???, ???

There’s also been a fair share of drama and outrageous ideas been exchanged. The czar who owns F1 wanted medals to be awarded instead of points and recently he was in the news for saying that cars should be allowed to use run off areas, alternate routes a certain number of times in each race to make up track positions. KERS is officially in the reckoning for 2010 however I believe the teams have mutually agreed to not use this system although the increased minimum weight should give sufficient leeway to teams with heavier drivers in trying this technology.

At the end of this year we’ll also know which direction Force India will tilt given the media attention this team gets in India. Will it be a productive year or will FIF1 end up in the also ran list? Currently they have a technical agreement with McLaren where Mercedes provides engines and McLaren supplies gearbox, electronics and other hydraulic systems. What’ll happen to this arrangement now that McLaren and Mercedes are two distinctly separate entities?

There is also news doing the rounds that double diffusers will be banned completely. Given the fact that Red Bull’s competitiveness is almost entirely due to Adrian Newey’s aerodynamics and a good part of that performance comes from it’s diffuser we’ll have to wait and see what the teams are going to do to play around the rules and try to squeeze that wee bit of performance from their respective cars. From next week we’ll start seeing new cars being unveiled.

I hope we get to see tons of good racing and at the end of a year have a worthy champion, over to Bahrain everyone, cheers !!!

Happy birthday - Roy J George

2010-01-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

Dearest RJG,

I’ve asked you many things and you have done each of them for me. I’ve spoken to you about many things and you’ve been the best listener I’ve had in my life. There’s a lot we haven’t spoken, we exchanged those amongst us through silence. I’m sure you’d remember the day I was born. When I was a toddler you’d always keep saying “Kuttan give me a kiss” and move your cheeks away till I can’t lean any further. I do that with your daughter’s today, it looks funny to you, I enjoy every moment I spend with them. History repeats !

Do you remember the first cricket bat you had? It was “SYMONDS” and do you remember how you used to stoop and lean while facing a bowler exactly like Krishnamachari Srikkanth. During my school days your commentaries about West Indian bowlers and batsmen were the one’s that kept us hooked to the early morning matches on DD. I vividly remember all the night’s you’d land up our doorstep in Coimbatore and leave by the Eratupetta bus the next evening.

While in Muvattupuzha or Avoly all the cricket matches I and Kanja have been spectators are very fresh in memory. We were barely as tall as the stumps back then and were allowed to bat. We’ve watched umpteen movies on rented video cassette players. One night we even drove an OMNI into a stream, parked the car in the middle of the stream and washed it. I’ve never seen Ammachi go wild except when you ask her permission to watch a movie and your skills in getting her consent to take us to Latha to watch a movie are incomparable.

The visit to Newman college in Thodupuzha to meet Sr. Kunjuorshi Ammayee and all the young women there who’d line up to take a look at you were copied later in Minsara Kanavu with Aravind Swami playing the lead role. Your anti-establishment stance in Nirmala College and later Rajagiri College but still being a good guy to the Teachers was a skill any student would give one hand and one leg to possess. Did you have an iota of idea of where the MSW from Rajagiri would take you when you passed out of college in the late 80’s?

After you moved to the North we did meet up in Delhi every summer holiday. After diploma Sabarish joined us once on a trip to Delhi and he used to say that he had the time of his life in your and Josthy’s company. Every person I’ve known who knows you holds you in such high regard – James, Ravi, Ganesh, Sam, Timmy, Hari, Stanley, Pradeep and the list goes on. There’s hardly anyone I’ve known who isn’t in awe of your down to earth nature and the incredibly humble air you carry around yourself.

Do you remember the first road trip you did from Madras to Coimbatore when I came down the previous night to do the driving? It’s another matter that we ended up doing many such trips all the way up to the last trip we did to Vailankanni in August 2009 last year. What about “CHINATOWN”? Do you know what we ordered the first time we went there? Soup and chicken lollipop, and that’s because you had very limited pocket money as a student those days. We even took Mia to this place once and she loved it. Kanja and I went back to this place last year before he left India but these chaps don’t seem to open anymore.

Do you remember that ill-fated night when Ammachi left this world and you drove down from Madras and I took over from Coimbatore? Do you still remember how close the tanker lorry came in front of you and Kanja before Kanja swerved to the side and avoided a head on collision? “Kanja is a super driver, if not for his reflex we’d all have been hit” is what you said when you got down from the mangled vehicle. How could you remain so cool, calm and composed?

How many times we’ve have discussed prospective business opportunities? You even served a deadline to us: April 2009, and we decided to extend that for a little time more considering the volatile nature of certain things in our personal lives. You persuaded me to get married and settle down but not once did you try to give me a sermon about it.

There’s a T-shirt with GEO written on it which I haven’t worn till now, I got that from you in June and I intend to keep it that way for a while. Our visits to Burma Bazaar, the DVDs we bought, the music system we installed, the road trips we did, all the tech doubts you asked me, the blackberry usage training I gave you, the endless talks we had about AR Rahman, the way you enjoyed Malayalam movies and some Tamil movies, your devotion towards Mother Mary, the way you adore Mia & Mishma, the way you call Josthy “Kuttu” and enjoy it when I mimic it, the way you and Kanja discussed HR practices (as someone from an alien background I used to listen with amazement at the ideas you two shared), the books you read, the course you did with IIM-A, I can go on and on about every little thing that inspires me however I can’t write everything in one big post here. Like our real lives we’ll leave most of it un-exchanged verbally and sync at the levels of our soul, what else can you call the way we connect?

I hope you get a sense of what I’m trying to convey, if you can’t then nobody one else in this world can. Here’s wishing you a happy birthday. Don’t worry about things back home, everyone is ok. Mia & Mishma are doing well in their studies, Josthy’s a star and effortlessly seems to juggle all her responsibilities efficiently. This year I’ll miss not being able to wish you in person; I’ll miss not getting a treat and not going to Church with you.Hhowever our time to catch up will come. Do keep an eye out for us and tons of prayers.

Yours lovingly,

Kuttan (HJG)

19^th Jan 2010

Geo's talkies - In the Loop, Eeram, State of Play

2009-11-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

"In the Loop" is a delightful British comedy on state of affairs in today's world which satirizes the machinations of world leaders and in the process provides solid laughs. This is a movie that highlights the complete ignorance, stupidity and pathetic levels of understanding that manifest bureaucrats in higher echelons of power.

A British minister who suffers from foot in the mouth syndrome, who thinks the war in Iraq is "unforeseeable". A Director of communications in the ministry who's got a vicious and profane tongue. Cross over to the US and you meet their counterparts who are scheming, silly and outright stupid at times and you have a sure fire recipe for laughter. This movie has a one line story, it's more about the actions that are weaved around it and the "impending war" a reference to the conflict in the middle east (Iraq). For the one's that like comedy that's not contrived or artificial this one is a must watch movie.

"Eeram" is a good movie to comes out from the stable of S Pictures directed by another newbie. All movies produced by this production house have had reasonably good content and neat execution and this movie is no different despite the paranormal tint in the story. A murder in an upper middle class dwelling raises eyebrows with the majortiy alluding to the woman's infidelity as the cause for it.

The fact that the investigating officer is a person who wanted to marry the woman murdered when he was in college adds to the intrigue and from there it becomes a case of 'whodunnit'. The ending is a tad disappointing however the movie is way better than most of the one's that get released every Friday.

"State of play" is a superb thriller which starts off with the murder of a staff in Senator Stephen Collins' office, this staff was the chief researcher for the committee which was reviewing a particular company's role in providing home land security, an example of in-sourcing if one could call it so. Things get murky when the senator's friend, a journalist with the Washington Globe investigates two murders and starts to see a link in them.

Things take a dramatic turn there and the movie hits out in many directions before reaching it's finale. This is a plot heavy movie which works incredibly well, a must watch for the one's that seeks thrills and suspense.

Geo's talkies - Kurbaan

2009-11-22T02:23:00.000-08:00

At the outset I have to confess, I'm not a fan of all the movies that have come out of Dharma Productions. I don't like to be treated like someone whose brain is in a deep freezer. I also have to confess that I went to watch "Kurbaan" with a lot of contempt, I even argued with a friend about the quality of content that could be on screen. I'm glad I was proven wrong, the movie turned out to be a surprise, a rather pleasant one at that.

Rensil D'Silva's directorial debut turned out to be an engaging thriller worth the money you pay to gain admission into the theaters. Previously credited for the screenplay of "Rang De Basanti" along with Rakesh Mehra, Rensil writes Karan Johar's story for the screen and does it respectably. Here's a movie Bollywood can be proud off, here's an effort from Karan Johar's production house that'll partly answer all the criticism he's been getting from many sources, the harshest being the folks at PFC.

I don't want to spell out the story, it's about a Muslim man and Hindu woman falling in love, both are professors in a college in Delhi. They move to the US, the man going abroad to get the woman to return back to her US university job. A murder in the asian neighbourhood they live in and suspicious characters of a particular religion get's the movie to speed up. There are moments when you lose a heart beat following on-screen action, there is a lot of suspense and all's well does not end well.

Saif Ali Khan plays the role of Ehsaan, he almost underplays his character to terrific effort. He looks slightly older than the age he portrays on screen though. Kareena plays her role of Avantika to perfection, from being subtle she moves to forceful in a sublime sort of a way towards the end. Vivek Oberoi excels in the role of Riyaz, a journalist with a news channel despite intermittently botching up the accent when he has to speak like an American citizen. Diya Mirza plays Rehana and sticks out like a sore thumb amidst these acting talents, she's wooden to say the least.

Salim - Sulaiman have delivered a rousing background score to the movie with loads of silence interspersed. There's a lovely piano that's played to highlight certain emotions and a very country-sounding guitar is employed for the lighter scenes. I liked the background score more than the soundtrack which is good despite having the characteristic KJo rhythm patterns. I'd like to call the editing lazy, despite being a thriller the transitions between scenes aren't abrupt, they are gradual, works in a very nice way.

Of course parallels might be drawn by some to "Fanaa", "New York", "Khuda Ke Liye" however the similarity would just be the backdrop of terrorism that these movies are set to. "Kurbaan" refreshingly avoids taking an over-simplistic view of the subject, it doesn't give you a long sermon in the end about good and bad, it doesn't take sides, I loved this aspect of the movie the most. Another aspect is the lack of dumbing down the film and the absence of flashbacks for every single plot point.

There's a scene in the movie where the camera focuses to Kiron Kher's (A regular in Dharma Productions) face while she speaks about incidents in her life and in that one minute, you paint a picture of what she's talking about in your mind to such dramatic effect that introducing a flashback scene there cannot match what your mind portrays to you in response to the acting on screen. Kiron Kher and Om Puri excel in the roles they have been assigned.

Nakul Kamte's sound design is minimalistic, I can say this simply because in the South we are used to turning once in a while to check what's going on because of the sound that emanates from the surround speakers. When Saif and Kareena are having a dialogue on the roof top of a building about moving to the US there is silence in the soundtrack, clear dialogues, birds chirping, a hint of a breeze and many such atmospheric elements, nice work.

Despite the lack of a water tight plot, despite not being an overtly intelligent movie, despite being able to guess the twists beforehand, "Kurbaan" is a must watch for it's content, top class acting (the best this year) and a decent screenplay.

How far can you go?

2009-09-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, this picture is the defining image of the relationship I shared with Roy J George, a brother of sorts. He was there in the hospital when I was born and I was there in the hospital when he died. He carried me from my Mother’s care when my life started and I carried him back to his Mother when his life had come to an end.

I can’t describe how it feels inside me to be gazing at this moment, to look ahead and stare at a vacuum of uncertainty, a void of nothingness. Who will talk sense to me when I meander? Who will I try to emulate? I cannot believe that he is no more, I cannot accept that he’s left to be cared for by God and his chosen angels. I can’t simply brush this off as a stroke of ill luck, destiny.

His was not an age to die, his was an age to achieve and he did achieve a lot. Laurels from his fraternity, continual education, the best Father the kids could have and most importantly the most humble, humane and emphatic human being I have ever known. I won’t say I miss you, you know how much I do. Till destiny brings us together again, keep watching over me my treasured friend and get the angels to guide my thoughts, actions and words.

There’s one place you always were, are and will be and no one can EVER steal you from there from me, not even destiny.

Erratum - Indians can win Oscars too - AR Rahman, Reesul Pookutty

2009-09-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

In this article written right after Rahman and Resul won Oscar's this year I went on to say "AR Rahman is the only Indian to have ever won two Oscar's at the same show". This statement is not true, James Horner won two Oscars for 'Best music' and 'Best original score' in 1998. Thanks due to all my friends who pointed out this discrepancy and to James (not James Horner) specifically.

Formula 1 - How did it turn around? - A response

2009-08-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

I usually try not to bother about how the press covers certain sporting events however this article in the Times of India is a good example of getting the facts wrong right from the word go.

The writer starts off by calling the erstwhile Spyker F1 team 'bedraggled and tardy'. Bedraggled they might have been but tardy, hardly. There's no space for tardy in the cut throat competition that exists in Formula 1. The writer should have known that Michiel Mol the co-owner of Force India also owned a part of the Spyker F1 team. Has he even heard about Mike Gascoyne who has worked with most of the F1 teams on the grid who was fired last year from FIF1?

The article goes on to say about the charm and convincing power of FIF1's team prinicipal. If McLaren were that convinced why was Simon Roberts taken aboard? Simon Roberts was McLaren's Operations Director at the time of being absorbed as COO in FIF1. Mercedes high performance engines was signed on as a engine supplier and McLaren would supply gearbox and hydraulic systems and also give on track support. KERS was available as an option which apparently FIF1 haven't exercised up till now.

The only area where FIF1 has had to do some R & D was in the wind tunnel in Brackley which has a Jordan legacy attached to it. Of course the work these guys have done in the aero package has paid rich dividends in the medium downforce circuit that is Spa. Any one who has a decent understanding of the sport would invest in a windtunnel, that needn't be a good idea injust in 'hindsight'. The writer goes on to state that "Force India obviously found that important piece of the puzzle", pray what puzzle I ask? Isn't that a basic requirement if you want to run an F1 car in a competition?

The writer stretches his ignorance further by calling KERS "Kinetic Energy Restoration System" and "an ex McLaren brain" "Simon Peters". KERS my friend stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems and the "ex McLaren brain" is Simon Roberts. A simple visit to FIF1's website would have helped the TOI writer to double check his facts. But that is just too much to ask isnt it because then he'd have also seen that not one name on 'the force' page is 'Indian' except the team prinicipal. In fact RIL (Reliance Industries) and the lovely women on Force TV (who apparently also double as pit babes) are what's only Indian in this Formula 1 team's website.

The icing on the cake is this statement -"Mallya has brought pride to a nation that has achieved a lot but has never been associated with this technology driven sport". Can someone please say what brings pride to a nation that doesn't have engineers this team thinks are talented enough to work for them, that doesn't have an F1 driver this team thinks is good enough to drive for them? As somone who has been following the sport since 1997 I take great interest in the sport. It's nice to see FIF1 make such a great improvement to their running, but to call it an achievement to India, to run cover story on our newspapers and to expect that all Indians should take great pride in it is simply stretching things a bit too far.

Imagine the amount of revenue a team can make if it converts even 1/3rd of the cricket crazy sports fans to watch F1. How much more sponsors will line up to support the live coverage of the sport? The bidding price for live coverage in Asia would run into billions of dollars, look at the broadcasters competing for cricketing rights. Force India is a Formula 1 team owned partly by an India but to paint the car in the colors of my national flag and to even expect me to applaud it's achievements only because it's 'supposedly' Indian is a fallacy.

Geo's Talkies - Kaminey

2009-08-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

This is going to a little difficult, trying to write about a movie I enjoyed completely without spelling out it's plot. 'Kaminey', the newest Vishal Bharadwaj movie comes with a lot of baggage. The man at the helm of affairs doesn't treat the audience with kid gloves and is adept at making movies for kids and adults with such aplomb that you wonder if he suffers from multiple personality disorder, and I'm not even talking about the fact that he writes his own music.

'Kaminey' is Vishal's take on the time tested hindi movie 'twin brother' plot. The movie is a roller coaster with lots of thrills, it's twisted and take off into various directions, however the grand finale comes across as fitting. Charlie and Guddu are identical twins who are opposites. The former has a speech impairment which makes him pronounce 's' as 'f' and the latter stammers. Charlie works for a group of Bengali Brothers who fix horse races while Guddu is associated with an NGO. Guddu is caught in a situation when he impregnates Sweety during an outing, the irony here is that the song just before this revelation is about protection, condoms and AIDS. Sweety is the sister of a linguistic chauvinist who mouths 'jai maharashtra', whose name is Bhope Bhau. Bhope cannot fathom the fact that his sister has fallen for a guy who is an outsider, another lovely piece of screenplay where Guddu's real name Sanjay Kumar Sharma (hails from UP) is portrayed on screen.

Any more of the story would really be a farce, the movie is best enjoyed on screen. It takes about half hour in which about ten or so characters are introduced on screen and you might end up wondering what's going on. But you got to let the movie play out and by the time it's interval you are almost familiar with everyone. This movie is infested with 'kamineys' in the form of drug lords, cops, politicians and what not.

This movie also is so grounded in today's world, the world where a guy from UP is perceived as an outsider in Maharashtra, a world where Trivandrum has become Thiruvananathapuram, Bombay, Mumbai, Calcutta, Kolkata and so on. There's a lovely scene between Sweety and Shahid on screen where she proclaims her love for him using the city names (read politically correct), Vishal can combine love and politics so subtly into the screen play. Charlie and Guddu's Father who hails from UP works for the Railways, the anti-narcotic squad cops who are hand in glove with the drug trafficking mafia are some examples.

Trains play an understated role in this movie, some of the sweeping moment in this movie are framed on screen with a train passing by or still which almost plays conscience or mirrors the flow of thought in the head of the character on screen at that particular time. Colours in the movie are muted to give it a noir feel I suppose. Most of the filming is done using the steadicam which transports you right into the action.

The writing is probably the star of 'Kaminey', every character get's his/her own time on screen and it takes a while to get used to this kind of exposition. Shahid has done a superb job of portraying Charlie & Guddu and almost makes us believe that they are two different people, Priyanka finally has done very good acting. I believe they've used sync sound in which case the work done capturing sounds and dialogues are amazing. Amole Gupte (hint: Taara Zameen Par) excels in the role of Bhope Bhau. There are many more people who have played their part to perfection.

Tassadaq Hussain's camera work is exquisite. Vishal's music is as much a star as the writing of this movie. The background score complements the narrative without screaming for attention, a quality that is rare. This is one of those movies where you have someone in charge who is sure of the direction he wants to go and comes out with flying colours in his effort. Vishal's fascination for Shakespeare is well known, he's done a brilliant job of adapting Shakespeare to the Indian milieu in two of his previous outings. On this one he's tried to incorporate some plot elements of the Bard along with screenplay elements of Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and the like. A nice song plays in the background during the gangster show down in the very end almost like the title song in 'Omkara' which was filmed with scenes of action and violence.

I'm not going to talk about the laconic black humour that is lined up in almost every scene, they keep the laughs coming. The result is an excellent movie which keeps the viewer enthralled during it's playing time and doesn't indulge in insulting the viewer's intelligence by playing out long drawn flashback sequences for every plot twist. Bravo Vishal, can't wait for the next movie which would complete his Shakespeare trilogy.

Timesheet - Coimbatore to Bangalore - A duet

2009-07-30T05:37:00.001-07:00

Coimbatore to Bangalore - A duet

2009-07-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

After posting the distance chart for the drive done on the 12th July I was compelled to repeat the same drive via Sathyamangalam and make another one. This time there was Kanja for company and we started after tea from Coimbatore. We chose to take the Sathyamangalam route to get to Mettur instead of the Avanashi to avoid getting stuck in the evening traffic. I finished 175 kms of my drive upto Mecheri in 2 hrs 56 mins, the average speed works out to a lacklustre 57 kmph. Kanja did 176 kms of his drive from Mecheri to Silk board in 2 hrs 15 kms, the average speed works out to a very admirable 73 kmph. Here are some quick facts:

Route: Coimbatore to Bangalore via Annur, Sathyamangalam, Anthiyur, Mettur, Thoppur, Krishnagiri, Hosur
Departure: 26th July 2009, 1713 IST (Sungam Bypass, Coimbatore)
Arrival: 26th july 2009, 2305 IST (Viveknagar, Bangalore)
Total distance: 357 kms
Time taken: 5 hours 52 minutes (includes a 10 minute stopover for tea at Mecheri)
Avg speed: 61 kmph
Avg speed after deducting break time: 63 kmph
Fastest sector: Thoppur to Krishnagiri (NH7) - 85 kmph
Slowest sector: Mettur dam to Mecheri - 37 kmph
Fuel consumed: 23 lts (Petrol)
Mileage: 15.5 kmpl

Silver arrows beginning to shimmer ...

2009-07-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

It was terrific to see a McLaren driver back on the podium after China last year. Lewis Hamilton drove a near perfect race after gaining lead when Fernando went to the pits for fuel. Mind you, he didn't set the fastest lap nor did he speed away from the rest of the pack, he controlled the race from the front without giving any heartache to his crew in the paddock. It was evident from Germany last weekend that McLaren's upgrades were starting to deliver the performance they so badly needed. However it's yet to be seen if it's the nature of these slow corner ciruits that is masking the inefficiency of the aerodynamics on the McLaren's care which would be obvious in high speed corners where the Brawn and RBR cars simply fly through.

This year the FOTA teams are following a compulsory 2 week closure of their factories to allow their staff take a break in the middle of the season. In Valencia we should see some more performance enhancements done on the McLaren. When everyone was losing their patience with KERS McLaren and Ferrari didn't trash their KERS programme and the result was amply evident for everyone to see. McLaren get's the distinction for being the first ever KERS equipped F1 car to win a race, having trashed KERS it's high time BMW looked into the whole package and see how they could use it to better their vehicle's performance.

In 2007 McLaren was at the center of a storm in Hungary which was later termed as 'pitlane-gate' by some journalists. Fernando caused a problem impeding Lewis' pitstop by staying put after refuelling thus causing a delay in refuelling Lewis' car. This season it was Felipe's turn albeit a ghastly one at that. A damper spring which fell off Rubens' car floated in the air and hit Felipe, who was about 4 seconds behind Rubens, on the left eyebrow causing him to ram into a tyre wall. It was scary to see the driver motionless in the car till the medics carried him out of it into an ambulance.

Fans of F1 are so used to see drivers get into worse accidents and walk out of the incident unscathed due to the extreme levels of stress on safety that this incident brought back the fact that in racing human's were involved. Timo Glock's crash in Aus 2008 was terrifying and when Timo walked out of the wreck without any injury it was a testimony to the high levels of safety that are enforced in F1. Felipe's accident could start off a debate about having a canopy to shield the driver, I hope better sense prevails when making a decision on this aspect.

I hope Felipe gets well soon and is racing fit without any delay and turns out terrific performances in the GPs he gets to participate this year. I hope Martin Whitmarsh, having tasted his first ever race win as team prinicipal goes on to lead the team into more successes this year and put in a superior development effort into next year's car. I hope Formula1 remains this pinnacle of automobile engineering and continues to break new grounds through innovation and persistence. Am I hoping for too much?

Timesheet - Coimbatore to Bangalore - Driving alone

2009-07-13T03:35:00.001-07:00

Coimbatore to Bangalore - Driving alone

2009-07-13T02:53:00.000-07:00

After almost a year I was going to drive from Coimbatore to Bangalore without a person for company. This time the vehicle was Maruti 800, the old warhorse which has clocked 1.5 lac kms in the odometer. Left home after tea in the evening hoping to get to Mettur by night fall. Got to Trichy road from home and took it to reach L&T toll gate in Chintamanipudur. Drove past the toll to Avanashi via Nilambur and Karumathampatti. Early evening traffic on the two laned NH-47 made the drive tight and packed though I got to Avanashi with 6 minutes to spare for an hour.

A block in the usual Mettupalayam road junction got the traffic stacked up in Avanashi town. After reaching Chengapally the drive was faster in comparison and it took just 30 minutes to cover 44 kms to reach Bhavani. The drive towards Mettur via Ammapettai was marred with shoddy roads and diminishing day light. The clock showed 19:12 IST when exiting Mettur dam and taking the road to Thoppur. The distance of 84 kms from Komarapalayam to Thoppur 4 landed road junction took 90 minutes, the average speed worked out to 56 kmph which is not bad given the heavy traffic and twilight conditions.

Joining the NH7 at Thoppur was relieving, the next 9 kms to Thoppur L&T toll gate took 10 mins and I stopped for a much deserved rest at Adyar Ananda Bhavan (AAB), the first stop coming after 198 kms. After a 30 mins dinner break I rejoined the road. The second leg of the journey was quicker due to NH7 and the general dislike for the night by most on the road helped speed the journey up, 44 minutes and 66 kms later I got to the NHAI toll booth in Krishnagiri. The clock showed 21:14 ISt and I had 87 kms to cover before calling it a day.

Driving to Hosur from here took 40 minutes (47 kms) and a small traffic holdup on the road in front of the inter city bus stand took a good 10 minutes to clear. After another 51 minutes I managed to cover the remaining 40 minutes of the journey to reach home and doze off into the night. Here's a quick stats cheat sheet.

Route: Coimbatore to Bangalore via Avanashi, Bhavani, Mettur, Thoppur, Krishnagiri, Hosur
Departure: 12th July 2009, 1634 IST (Sungam Bypass, Coimbatore)
Arrival: 12th July 2009, 2246 IST (Viveknagar, Bangalore)
Total distance - 351 kms
Time taken - 6 hours 12 minutes (includes a 30 min stopover for dinner at AAB, Thoppur)
Average speed - 56.6 kmph
Average speed after deducting break time - 61.6 kmph
Fastest sector - Thoppur to Krishnagiri (NH7) - 66 kms in 44 mins (Avg speed - 90 kmph)
Slowest sector - Hosur to Silk board - 34 kms in 37 mins (Avg speed - 55 kmph)
Max speed achieved - 140 kmph
Fuel consumed - 18 lts (Petrol)
Mileage - 19.5 kmpl

Requiscat in pace - Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

The undisputed 'King of Pop' and one of the largest selling artists in the history of modern pop music Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest in California today. The death of this star leaves a huge void in the minds of his fans. Michael Jackson was the undoubted leader in fan following whose life was very controversial but never his music. MJ is the winner of 13 Grammy awards and is rumoured to have sold 750 albums across the globe.

Bad, Thriller, Dangerous, Blood on the dance floor, History turned into record breaking albums as did Michael's popularity. With such great hits as 'Bad', 'Smooth Criminal', 'The way you make me feel', 'Beat it', 'Billie Jean', 'The girl is mine', 'Jam', 'Dangerous', 'Heal the world', 'Remember the time', 'Black or white', 'You are not alone', 'Scream', 'Stranger in moscow', 'Earth song', 'Cry', 'Speechless', Michael's knack for churning out lilting melodies and beat heavy songs earned him millions of fans.

My brother and I used to wonder if Michael would ever get back to his old self and give his fans one more best selling album despite the lacklustre sales of 'Invincible' which was released after MJ walked out of Sony over a dispute about publishing rights of his music. The music company which has a separate division for MJ (Epic Records) didn't take this kindly and a lot of bad blood was spilled over in the media.

Jam Jam
Here Comes The Man
Hot Damn
The Big Boy Stands
Movin' Up A Hand
Makin' Funky Tracks
With My Man
Michael Jackson
Smooth Criminal
That's The Man
Mike's So Relaxed
Mingle Mingle Jingle
In The Jungle
Bum Rushed The Door
3 And 4's In A Bundle
Execute The Plan
First I Cooled Like A Fan
Got With Janet
Then With Guy
Now With Michael
Cause It Ain't Hard To...

That was Heavy D's rap in 'Jam' from the album 'Dangerous'. To call MJ a phenemenon would still be an understatement. His command over rhythm programming and orchestration was second to none in the pop arena. In an age where an artist had to depend on a producer to score the music, MJ belong to a elite group who most often wrote their own music. MJ started off his career with Quincy Jones producing his songs. This trend changed with 'Dangerous' after which he co-produced his albums with Bruce Swedien, Bus Kohen, Ted Riley. R Kelly started working with MJ from History onwards, 'Cry' from 'Invincible' was also a collaboration with R Kelly.

MJ's song 'Will you be there' featured in the movie 'Free Willy' was counted to be one of the all time best songs to be associated with a movie. MJ's personal life was troubled all through. He converted to Islam in November last year and came to be known as Mikaeel. He was working on an album with Steve Porcaro in Bahrain, he's known Steve since his Thriller days. MJ was on track to perform live from the 13th of July which would have signalled his return to the live stage. The voice has been silenced, we won't get to see any more moon walks. I've seen the legend at it's peak and then being overshadowed by lesser mortals whose music though mediocre in quality was louder than MJ.

Did MJ not anticipate the changing tastes of new generations? Why couldn't he transform into a trendsetter like he did in the late seventies, eighties and early nineties? Was there ever a performer like MJ who could set the stage on fire? Will there ever be one? I sincerely hoped MJ would come out with just one more album and silence his critics, captivate this generation and cast a spell on them, but alas that's not going to happen anymore. This not even if the album he's been working on is released. With hearfelt prayers I mourn the loss of my musical hero, someone whose string and voice arrangement still gives me goosebumps, whose moonwalk on stage could prompt me to get up and shake despite the fact that I have clay feet. Michael, we'll miss you, our prayers will always be with you.

Like A Comet
Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

(This song was written for Ryan White, a young victim of AIDS, by Michael Jackson in 1993)

AR Rahman - The Musical Storm - Book

2009-06-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

Having picked this book from Crossword on Monday I hoped to be able to read it on the train in the weekend but the subject was too good for me to postpone it till then. This is an unauthorized biography by Kamini Mathai, I've read many of her articles in 'The New Indian Express'. The book does give some insight into the reclusive composer's style and life but there's nothing compelling in this book for a die-hard fan.

One look at the cover and I sincerely hoped it wasn't going to be like 'Superstar' which was Rajini's biography penned by Gayathri. In that book 'petti kadai' was referred to as 'box shop', that's how transliterated it all can be. The tag line given is plain lazy. "The Musical Storm" is nothing but the English translation of "Isai Puyal", that's how AR Rahman is referred to in movie credits and album covers. If my memory serves me right it was KS Ravikumar who coined this title and used it first in the movie "Tenali". Of course this book has it's share of nice little things like Harris Jayaraj for example. Until I did read this book I didn't know that 'Majnu' was offered to AR Rahman who couldn't take it up and referred Harris Jayaraj instead.

Given the fact that there's hardly any information about Rahman that's official, anything that gives us a peek into the composer's life, style, preferences would certainly tickle the curiosity in a music lover. From that perspective this book is surely worth one read. An AR Rahman fan knows most of the things in the book already or can even give some more insight into areas which the book doesn't get into.

Geo's Talkies - Angels and Demons

2009-06-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

"Angels & Demons filmed by Ron Howard is roughly based on the book by the same name written by Dan Brown", I'd like to begin writing about this movie by stating this loud and clear. This book was written before 'The Da Vinci Code' while the movie starts off at some point after 'The Da Vinci Code' with references to this movie atleast twice on screen, once when the Priest from Vatican comes to Robert Langdon asking for his help and again when Robert Langdon meets the Camerlango.

The movie starts off with the funeral of a pope with the Vatican in mourning, this wasn't part of the book. After a quick refresher on the processes followed we move to CERN where production of antimatter is in progress under the supervision of Fr.Silvano and Dr.Vittoria. The priest is killed and antimatter is stolen. A priest from the Catholic church meets Robert and solicits his help in helping them find the Illuminati who it is suspected are behind the theft of the antimatter and the threat to four kidnapped cardinals who are also known as the 'preferati'.

To spell out the story completely would be to state too much of plot which is best enjoyed on screen if one hasn't read the book already. The movie uses the books premise as it's foundation and branches out though keeping most of the plotting around the murders in Rome intact. It deviates majorly in the way Robert is brought into the story, it doesn't talk about Camerlango's filial relationship with the deceased pope, the assasin is no longer Arab probably to stay within the realm of political correctness nor is there a hint of an attraction between Robert and Vittoria.

The movie is racy, it hits the ground running. The audience is taken rapidly from one plot to another without any delay without making the screenplay fuzzy. I particularly liked every scene in which the characters referred to 'The Da Vinci Code', they were well conceived. The first shot on screen began with music used in 'The Da Vinci Code', the main motif that was played when Robert finds the rose beneath the Louvre in Paris is one of Hans Zimmer's works and he's brought it back here to improvise it further and take it a step ahead using the choir, stupendous effort. This theme is used in multiple instances in the movie, it takes a different tonal color at some points because of the way it's treated each time.

After Vittoria rips a page off Galileo's Veritas from the Vatican Archives the lead characters set off towards the first church in Rome, the racy music remain a steps ahead of them in the 5/8 time signature, this is an original piece which is superbly written and orchestrated, awesome stuff. I can't state for sure if this movie's music is better than 'The Da Vinci Code' as I strongly count 'The Da Vinci Code' to be one of Hans Zimmer's best scores written for the screen. The way each motif is taken from the previous movie and reworked in this one is too good. A solo violin plays many motifs and the most interesting exposition is when it plays the old motif, lilting stuff. In the credits I saw Joshua Bell's name listed which sort of proved why the solo violin was superior.

Since most of Vatican is either CG or shot on a stage I didn't find too much of brilliance in camera work, all the action scenes were well shot and the night scenes were well lit and shot making it very difficult to spot the CG in them. At a little over 2 hours this movie is faster than the time you actually spend in the hall. I guess this is Ron Howard's way of atoning for 'The Da Vinci Code', I'm kidding. Watch this one, surely worth it and sit back in the hall when the end credits roll, you'll get to hear the full score from the old movie re-orchestrated along with Joshua Bell's violin. If your curiosity is piqued buy the book and read it.

Italian food

2009-04-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

The last three days into the weekend were hectic beyond comprehension. Waking up at 12 noon on Sunday meant that I caught up on just a small percentage of lost slept over the week. "Let's go fine dining, treat's on me", said Josh. "Let's do it", I said and jumped out of bed. "Where are you thinking of going?", I asked to which Josh replied "Let's do some good food today dude, surely non vegetarian and not your usual Brindavan". "Fine, give me 10 minutes" I said and off I went for a bath.

Ten minutes later we were driving in Koramangala 6th block passing Koramangala club for the third time trying to fine Fiorano Ristorante when I said "Do you know where exactly it is or have an address somewhere?". "Dude, I've been here a couple of times okay, it's somewhere here I'm sure, my geography is not that bad !". "Oh well tell me about it" I said with a wry smile which could beat any fox in a 'wicked smile' competition. "My geography was very good, believe me" said Josh to which I asked "And when was that?". He replied "In school probably, that was when you didn't even know me" to which both of us laughed loudly and finally found the restaurant. I've known Josh since VII standard.

Fiorano also is the name of Ferrari's test track outside Maranello. To the uninitiated Maranello is Ferrari's headquarters in Italy. I've eaten authentic Italian food only once before in my life on an overseas trip and I was looking forward to a good meal. I'm very open in trying out new cuisines.

Josh was a pro in cuisines, especially foreign and was a good person to go with if you were in a mood to try Greek, Italian, Mexican or Mesopotamian cuisines. Having woken up with a blistering headache I badly needed a drink to take the migrane away and drink we did - virgin mary & bloody mary. We went through a rather elaborate italian meal:

Fritto Di Calamari (deep fried squid rings)
Stracciatella con pollo (chicken soup with cheese, italian spices and egg)
Spaghetti Alla Carbonara (spaghetti with bacon, eggs and parmesan cheese)
Costollette Di Maiale (grilled pork chops served with sun dried tomatoes, mashed potatoes and grilled pineapples)
Tiramisu (chocolate cheese cake flavoured with rum)
Mango Cheese Cake
Lemon Cheese Cake

After enjoying every morsel of food the restaurant had to offer Josh exclaimed "It's when the bill comes that the sinking feeling comes back damn". We walked out of the restaurant and started driving homewards when the sms tone went beep beep beep. You have made a debit card payment of Rs.2848 in Fiorano Ristorante said the message. "Dude, why can't they tell us before we make the payment too" said Josh. "You are about to make a payment of Rs.2848 should be a value-add banks can do, don't you think?"

The pilgrimage ..... 5 yrs and counting

2009-04-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

Paulo Coelho's 'The Pilgrimage' is the writer's account of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. St.James' Cathedral is a famous attraction that brings in scores of pilgrims to this place. The trek to Santiago is renown and arduous and requires a lot of personal determination to undertake the journey. St.James is also the patron saint of Spain. In the ancient times all pilgrims going to the holy land (Jerusalem) from Rome would visit Santiago on their way.

Catholics in India have their own St.James in St.Thomas who came to India in the first century via the spice route and got off in Cranganore which is modern day Kodungallor near Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. During those times the caravan route from the west coast to the east between Kerala and Tamilnadu was through Malayatoor. It is in Malayatoor that St.Thomas fled to the top of the hill to pray and meditate. Malayatoor is a small hamlet of farmers. This is situated in Ernakulam District about 14 kms from Kalady, which was the birthplace of Adi Shankara. St.Thomas died a martyr's death in Madras and was interred in the site of the Santhome Cathedral before being exhumed and taken back to Rome.

The river Periyar flows in all it's glory through the sleepy town of Malayatoor, this separates the town from the elephant reserve Kodanad. After the onset of the monsoon the river periyar in spate is a sight to behold. The places where one would normally be able to get down for a bath or swim would become very dangerous with strong currents and flash floods. Situated on the banks of this river is the Church of St.Thomas, believed to have been built centuries ago. The hill that St.Thomas prayed on is today an international shrine and the end of the Lenten season plays host to lakhs of pilgrims visiting the shrine re-enacting Christ's last moments on Earth by reciting the stations of the cross.

I've been a visitor to Malayatoor for 6 yrs now, my first trip to Malayatoor was in 2004. This year it was just Kan (Renald George) & Bob (Antony Renald) for company, Josh couldn't make it due to professional commitments. For us it was a repeat of the trip we made in 2004, it was just the three of us then and it was the first time Kan & Bob visited Malayatoor. This year we reached the foothills at 10PM. It took us over an hour to get to the top. After getting down we spent some time in the Periyar and headed to Ernakulam hoping to get home by 2 AM so as to get some food to eat and sleep.

A quick moment in St.George's Church, Edapally from where we reached Ben's house in Thripunithura. Molly Aunty's meat curry with parotta and bread brought a top class day to it's fruition. This year's trip was filled with more driving, less arguing (with Kan), more eating, more talking, more traffic and very less tension. Over to Malayatoor 2010 ......

Driving on a highway - Part 1

2009-04-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

Driving on highways are experiences in themselves. An automobile can either be a joy or a nightmare on a highway. One can either be thrilled, elated and happy with the experience or feel stressed, tired and bored even worse a freak incident can cause it to be a nightmare which'll haunt you all your life. Reading Jiya writing for the first time about driving on a highway brought out a certain sense of excitement and discovery. I started driving in 1995 and a Maruti OMNI was the car/van on which I learnt the art and honed it (if one could call it so). City driving demands lots of patience, deft use of the gear & clutch (if you are driving a diesel), lots of attention to the road and mirrors (all three - center, left, right), anticipate a rash bike to cut across or a pedestrian to jump across a median, and most importantly keep your cool given the increasingly stuffed city road, pollution & traffic hold ups. On the other hand to drive on highway one'll need all of the above coupled with an instinct to know when to speed (rip as some would call it) and when to exercise extreme caution. Having driven all over South India on all the highways and most of the state highways if there's one thing that's common to all roads in India then that is their unpredictability. One has to stay ahead of the automobile one is driving performing calculations in real time in one's mind working out the distances in overtaking & braking, knowing when to put your foot down on the accelerator and when to brake so on and so forth.

We all know the risks of highway driving, the speed for one can be deceiving and give one a false sense of safety. With the high speeds modern cars can achieve and the increasing improved nature of our roads the thrill of going overboard on the speedometer is not an easy prospect to fight over. Mind you, I'm not advocating snail's pace on a highway, it beats the whole point. I'm only advocating a more cautioned approach where the drive is majorly convinced of his/her actions. And ofcourse one person's view might just not match with another and hence each one interprets events in their own special way. There are no set rights and wrongs and no one can claim to be immune from an accident. An accident / mishap can happen to anyone, to the aggressive, to the extremely cautious, to all and sundry, one can only take some precautions hoping to remain on the safe side and enjoy the drive. I'd like to cite an example here of an extremely competent drive I know, my brother. This guy is a master of speed, he can do Coimbatore --> Bangalore(340 kms via Sathyamangalam, Mettur) in 5 hrs (minus a couple of minutes). He knows where to bark and where to calm down, sitting with him in the front seat will open your mind to innovative ways of calculating time it takes to overtake a vehicle with oncoming traffic. The way he slips in and out of traffic looks and feels so effortless and one could think it's because of the power in the car he drives but most often he sets the records straight by doing the same on a Maruti 800. Even this guy has had a bad day on the road and the reason was sleepishness. Despite the best of human efforts and thinking there can always be a day when things simply don't go your way, don't fear that day.

Before you hit a highway plan your trip here's some pointers for the layman which are apart from the fact that the vehicle should have been recently serviced and is not due for a service anytime within the next 1000 kms. Most of these are also regular maintenance tips but hold more importance when embarking on long trips.

* Start the engine and let it idle for 2 minutes, closely hear to the engine's hum and try to see if any unnatural ratting, clinging or vibration is observed.
* Switch off, check engine oil level by pulling out the dipstick in the engine. The right way to do this is to pull the dipstick out, clean the oil off it, dip it into the engine and pull it out. Check if oil is within the min/max markings and also see it's colour. Any shade of brown/black means it's time for an oil change (on petrol vehicles this is done every 10000 kms, on diesel's it usually every 7500 kms)
* Check coolant levels and top the wiper water container with fresh water preferably not hardwater/seawater if possible.
* Check all electricals for proper functioning - headlights, turn indicators, fog lamps, horn, electronic locking system.
* Check the aircon and let it run for 10 minutes, try to see if any abnormal smells comes into the cabin like smoking or burnt oil. Make sure the cooling happens normally and watch out for signs of a lag in cooling in which case the gas in the system needs recharging.
* Check brakes and get them adjusted if the pedal is too soft or if biting occurs when braking.
* Start the engine, engage the first gear and release the clutch. The vehicle should get into motion smoothly with no signs of strain or jumping. If the clutch is not in good shape you'll feel the vehicle behaving like a frog getting into motion. This problem needs immediate attention to avoid being stranded on a highway with a broken or faulty clutch.
* Check onboard and confirm that you have a copy of the registration certificate, insurance papers (up to date), emission certificate (irrespective of the state you are driving in), driving license and the first aid kit with basic medication (cotton wool, dettol, paracetamol, saridon/anacin). Do not carry cough syrup. It's okay if a driver coughs for 50 kms before reaching the destination than allowing him to drink cough syrup and sleep midway.
* Check and make sure you have the tools for refitting the tyre on board (spanners, jack and a hazard sign)
* Check tyre pressures, don't miss the spare wheel. Check the pressure early in the morning or late night and don't drive too long to check. The idea is to check cold tyre pressures which are what you find marked on the body. When you drive longer you heat up the air inside the tyres and can cause setting an incorrect value. An Indigo rated is 28 psi tyre pressure normally. After driving 25 kms at 80 kmph the pressure shoots up to 30psi which is perfectly is normal and within the working parameters of the rubber. But if I check pressure at this point then I'll bring the pressure down 2 psi down (to 28 psi because that is what is on the body) which is less than ideal. Make it a habit of checking tyre pressures the first thing in the morning all the time.

We're making an assumption that wheel balancing and alignment has been carried out on the automobile every 5000 kms and the tyres are in good shape. After writing this much I'm tempted to convert this post into a series because summing it all up will make this one HUGE article. So, over to the next part of this post next week. Drive safe folks.

F1 2009 - Thoughts after a race and a half

2009-04-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

Albert Park this year has turned to be a complete revelation. Who'd have expected the team that almost didn't make it to active racing in 2009 to come from behind and take top honours. With testing having shown already that the usual front runners are going to have a lot of work to do to remain in the front and some surprises were in store. Williams is a good example of a team that seems to have got it almost right in terms of engine, aerodynamics and drivers. Their pace during testing has been quick and they've demonstrated considerable consistence topping time sheets. Toyota similarly have shown progress with their 2009 car during testing.

McLaren and Ferrari are the two front runners who seem to have a lot going against them. During testing they had huge problem keeping up with the rest of the pack though the reds from Italy managed to top the timesheets every now and then. It's another matter that these two teams adopted KERS early on and were focussed to run it on their car right from the first race.

Brawn GP came from nowhere with no sponsors in tow and swept the first race completely. Overnight Ross Brawn became a sensation, not that he was any less earlier. His work in Benetton with Michael Schumacher is part of F1 legend and the records he helped Michael break after moving to Ferrari is part of F1 folklore. Yes, Brawn was truly worthy of every bit of the praise it was receiving however probing a little further one would see that Honda Racing (before it became Brawn GP) spent all of 2008 developing the 2009 car. The 2009 car was supposed to be Ross Brawn's baby.

Jenson Button's second ever Formula 1 victory came in Brawn's first ever GP. Today in Sepang Jenson too his second consecutive pole position ever. Surely there's a lot in store for the fans.

Sebastian Vettel proved his driving capabilities in Torro Rosso last year and showed class in Melbourne this year. A freak incident with Robert Kubica cost both drivers their championship points and Vettel was served an unfair penalty of 10 grid places in Sepang. Sebastian Buemi's debut in active racing is proving to be interesting, there's going to be a lot to see from this guy this season. Force India with the ugliest looking car on the grid don't seem to have made rapid progress despite the technical support from McLaren-Mercedes. Ofcourse since they haven't done too much testing by mid season their true mettle will show.

After watching qualifying in Sepang I'm pretty sure of one aspect of this year. The frontrunners are the one's that are not running KERS and it makes sense because KERS needs significant economic investment. McLaren and Ferrari are the two consistent KERS runners and the weight of their cars are atleast 20-35 kgs more than the frontrunners. Add to this the fact that McLaren is having a problem with grip and cornering speeds and you know where the focus should lie. Easier said than done, how will McLaren go about closing the gap will be seen in the days to come. It would be unfair to expect McLaren to suddenly show up in the front row in the next race. However in a couple of races I expect them to be back in contention and I get this feeling that back in Woking a diffuser similar to the one's used by Brawn, Williams & Toyota are in the works and might debut in Spain, that would be subject to the FIA ruling from the hearing scheduled on the 14th of April w.r.t diffusers.

Starting from 13th & 14th would definitely not be a prospect Lewis & Heiki would be looking forward to but is there a choice? They will have to have a clean start and then make up as much places on the grid as possible. I hope Heiki adds to whatever Lewis is able to garner from each GP and avoid repeating the mistakes of last year. Over to Malysia .....

Bala on Rahman

2009-03-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

"Rahman's music would not have worked for my films, from Sethu to Naan Kadavul", said Bala in an interview in rediff about his last release "Naan Kadavul". With all due respect to the fine director and story teller that Bala is, I wonder how would you know unless you've already given it a try and given up!

Formula1 - 2009 season - A curtain raiser

2009-03-06T13:51:00.001-08:00

2009 will either turn out to be the year overtaking came back to F1 or the year of disastrous performances from drivers all and sundry. The reason being the sweeping changes introduced to the format this year. The absence of traction control brought a lot of focus back to the driver last year. We saw cars twitching into turns and skidding while driving out of it. Flat spotting tyres happened more often with drivers trying to outbrake each other into a turn. This year's regulations will bring max rev limit down to 18,000 rpm from 19,000 rpm. A driver will be allowed 8 engines for the season and 4 more for testing, any more engines will invite a 10 place penalty on the grid. Interestingly Renault has been allowed to introduce changes to it's engine to equalize performance with the others.

This years cars won't have any aerodynamic enhancements on their body work, this is to allow the cars running behind run in clean air rather than get caught in the turbulence impeding overtaking. The front wing will be seen lower and wider almost extending from end to end of the wheel of the car. Driver will be able to make adjustments to the wing from the cockpit, this has been limited to two adjustments per lap. Technically this means if a driver changed his wing to facilitate better traction on a slow curvy track, he'll have to switch to his normal position when he hit's a high speed straight. Any further change in the same lap won't be allowed though the quantum penalty he might invite is not clear yet.

KERS will see the light of the day in active racing this year. Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is a new optional system which allows saving a car's energy lost normally during braking and makes it available for use on demand for the driver at a later stage. This system is designed to provide as much as 80 hp power to the driver, the catch here is that the driver is not allowed to use it for more than 6.7 seconds per lap. For the one's used to seeing the 'Fast and furious' series I believe we can imagine this to be something like the 'nitro boost' the drivers are shown to have in the movie. I'm ready to stick my neck out and say not all teams will run their cars with KERS in Melbourne, KERS comes with a significant handicap in terms of weight for the flywheel and battery and it might take some time for the teams to work out the performance equation which will vote for or against using KERS.

Bridgestone remains the lone supplier of tyres for F1 and this year's regulations bring in slicks back to active racing, no more grooves. Drivers will have to use two compounds in every race like last year but how the slicks fare in wet weather conditions is going to be anybody's guess. With reduced downforce this is surely going to go the cartoon way. It will also bring in tight racing and hopefully bring up more overtaking opportunities.

There is a testing ban during the season which means teams won't be allowed to do any kind of testing after Melbourne until mid December. This is a move that is aimed at reducing costs and help prevent financially sound teams from splurging on testing while helping other teams to not worry about not having the money to conduct such testing. A hugely unpopular rule that was in force last year was about pitting when the safety car was on track. Imagine a car that was dangerously low on fuel and was on it's way to pit when a on track incident forced the safety car to come in. The pit lane would be closed and if this car enters the pit to refuel a penalty would be served (either a 10 second stop/go penalty or a drive-thru pit penalty). This year this rule has been withdrawn and the pit lane would remain open. To keep an eye on drivers who rush into the pits to take unfair advantage a new system will be employed which will calculate the time a car needs to take to get to the pits, if any driver arrives sooner he'll invite a penalty.

Some of these rules are aimed at helping F1 develop technologies that can be used on road cars but environmentalists will be disappointed that nothing has been introduced to help the sport take a greener turn. The cars look odd, last year's cars were stunningly beautiful while this year's are a little sore to see. The team line up is almost the same as last year the only change being in Honda Racing. This has been rechristened Brawn GP and the legendary Ross Brawn has invested his money to save this team after Honda withdrew from F1. Mercedes Benz has been allowed to supply engines to the Brackley outfit and it will be interesting to see Ross Brawn use his team and resources working with a Mercedes engine, using a Ferrari engine would have been a natural choice but it remains a mystery as to why he couldn't secure an engine deal with Ferrari.

Force India wasn't anything to speak about last year and during the end the termination of some high profile personnel got it in the news. Vijay Mallya knows to work the media to his advantage. With McLaren electronics & gearbox and Mercedes Benz engines this team might be the dark horse this year. Who can forget Simon Roberts and the role he played in McLaren? He's taken up the role of the COO in Force India and prior to this assignment he was Operations Director in McLaren. Simon joined McLaren in 2003 as General Manager and was responsible then for for coordinating the manufacture and assembly processes, I.T., transport and logistics, quality, vehicle technology laboratories and human resources. If only the team prinicipal can concentrate on actual racing, instead of strutting pretty women (girls) on the grid week after week, this year could be a windfall year for this team with an Indian name.

All of the team predictably are holding all their cards close to the chest and rightly so. Red Bull appears to have gotten a lot of mileage and Mark Webber's recovery is well on track. Renault have been doing very well in testing, Alonso topped the time sheets this week. BMW have been the 'let your work do your talking' type and one can be sure that they are doing very good progress. McLaren should have a lot to worry about and this year's focus would be to get both the driver's and constructor's titles back to Woking. Ron Dennis has stepped down from the role of Team Prinicipal and Martin Whitmarsh (Marty) has stepped in his place. I expect Ron to show up at all races, this man got divorced last year and it can't get any worse than that.

One can expect Norbert Haug (Head of Mercedes Benz Sporting) to hang around in Force India & Brawn Racing's garage give that engine partnership he shares with this team. Abu Dhabi makes it's presence on the F1 calendar this year, Canada is absent with which F1 does not travel to North America at all. Remember previously we had a race in Montreal and in Indianapolis which lost their places in the last two years. Everytime I start writing about F1 I try to be brief but brevity is not my forte. This season promises a lot but can it deliver? Let's see how it all pans out, over to Melbourne.

Indians can win Oscars too - AR Rahman, Reesul Pookutty

2009-02-22T23:09:00.000-08:00

It's official, the speculation is finally over. AR Rahman has bagged both the awards he was nominated in - Best Original Score & Best Song (Jai Ho) for the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". Let's face it, Slumdog was not the greatest movie ever made nor was the soundtrack AR Rahman's best. Indian audiences have seen him write and score better music in the past, South Indian audiences have seen this even more since AR Rahman started scoring for the movies in the early 90's. Having said that one can't deny the sheer magic of winning an Oscar is. AR Rahman meekly and with all humility stated thus after winning the first award (original score): "எல்ல புகழும் இறைவனுக்கே".

"All praise belongs to God alone", that was a candid statement to make in an arena where it's not fashionable to take God's name. To add to it he thanked his Mother for being there. Dressed in 'bandgala', which is a close necked version of an indian version of formal suit doesn't require a tie, Rahman belted out Jai Ho & O Saya before the audience. No big speeches, no drama and after winning the second award it looked like the emotions started to overwhelm him as he sprinted to the left of the stage in a hurry. This man deserves every bit of praise and adulation. With the dream of being able to stage an Indian Symphony Orchestra he has started a school of excellence in Music and insha allah the days are not far when we get to see this happen. Enough of going to Budapest, Prague or London to record orchestral music, in a couple of years we'll probably be doing this out of Chennai / Mumbai.

This is only the third time an Indian has won an Oscar award, the first person to win an Oscar was Bhanu Athaiya for the costumes in the movie 'Gandhi'. AR Rahman is the third person to bring the Oscar, Reesul Pookutty being the second. AR Rahman is the only Indian to have ever won two Oscar's at the same show. He's probably also the only composer in the world to have won a double - original score and original song in the same year. The world is really flat.

Reesul Pookutty sharing the 'sound mixing' award with the team that worked on 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a incredible for the technical crew based out of India which always was considered to be among the best in the world but hadn't been recognized as yet. The news channels are already getting opinions from all and sundry (stars, politicians and the like) about the Oscars and these Indian's winning it, here are some messages I got from my friends about Rahman winning the coveted award. These are ordinary people mind you, what's extraordinary about them is their love for good music. There are hardcore fans of Rahman in this list, there are ruthless critics too. The commonality they share is their love for all things good and music is foremost in that list.

"The maestro wins a double for India" - Joshua S Remigius

"Jai Ho" - J Xavier Roy

"Music takes it's pleasure in honoring the trend setter of 21st century" - J Donatus Fernando

"Emotions overwhelm me, I'm finding it difficult to express what's going on in my mind in it's entireity" - Renald M George

"Superb. Congrats to the legend - divine soul. Superb" - Gayathri S

"I didn't want to miss the historic event so I cancelled meetings to watch it live on TV at home. It was a great moment when he chose to say one line in Tamil" - Ramakrishnan V

"Hats off to a living legend, an inspiration. A person who stretches humility and modesty to extremes has won such a terrific honor in the international arena, I'm proud and I am sure every Indian is as much proud if not more" - Roy J George

"That's awesome" - Aaron Pradeep Raj

"Hooaye, am really happy to hear this" - James R Rosario

"WOW, that's great" - Rev.Fr.Mathew

Requiescat in pace - Herbert Roy Boother

2009-02-09T13:09:00.001-08:00

Herbert Roy Boother or Uncle Roy as he was known among friends breathed his last today in Asokan Hospital, Coimbatore. An accomplished bass guitarist with a keen ear for music, Uncle Roy was one of the rare people who'd make you instantly comfortable. He was our worst critic when we used to play in the Church. I vividly remember seeing him stand in the last rows closely following the music that we used to play, I used to loathe the thought of getting feedback because we sucked big time with our music and he was not a person to mince words.

The honest and genuine feedback he always shared was a motivation to do better. I was even fortunate to jam with him, I remember practising carols for Christmas when he offered to play the bass. It was an opportunity too good but at the same time scary because here was a person you looked up to musically who was offering to play with you. We did jam together and Uncle wasn't exactly pleased with the music we did then but he never gave up on us.

I can't seem to nail the correct date but it was during Easter of 2002 that Uncle Roy suggested that we play a full drum set in the Church. We went to a friend of his and brought back a bass, snare, cymbals, hi-hat and a high, mid & low tom. Sam was supposed to play it but couldn't due to some last minute compulsions. The cover we did of 'More love, more power' sung by Stanley was appreciated by Uncle who used to be amazed at times at how a computer can make many things easier.

Uncle Roy was also a known face in the Coimbatore orchestra circuit. He used to play bass guitar and he enjoyed it so much that you could see him completely immersed in his music when he was on stage. He sounded like a bass guitar too, the baritone voice he had still rings in my ears. I used to be a regular for tea in his house till a couple of years ago and I can't say how much thankful I've been for the hospitality of the Boother family. After getting a job I've never been able to visit them as regularly as I could when I was a student.

Stanley's been a close friend from school and we recently met when he visited India for Christmas. The last couple of years have been demanding on Uncle with his usual movements restricted by illness causing him to visit a hospital more than often. Uncle Roy is survived by Aunty Felis, Stanley and his sister Geena. The void he leaves can never be filled and we all join the family is spirit to share the pain. May God grant peace to his soul.

Geo's Talkies - Naan Kadavul (I'm God - Tamil)

2009-02-08T03:19:00.000-08:00

I have a particular fondness for a film director who writes his own story. There's a sense of conceiving an idea, carrying it in one's mind allowing it to grow and finally giving birth to it by seeing it play on screen, there's a motherhood cycle related to it. Today there are as many director's who take another person's story and get the movie to work as are director's who write the story and screenplay and direct the movie for the big screen.

Bala belongs to the latter group, after interning with Balu Mahendra this young man from Madurai debuted with the superhit 'Sethu' which was as middle as a mainstream Thamizh movie could become gave a fresh lease of life to a hitherto unknown actor who has been the voice of many on screen, Vikram. Bala's fourth directorial attempt 'Naan Kadavul', which translates into 'I am God', starts promisingly. When the protagonist utters 'Aham Bhramasmi' a couple of minutes into the film it sets expectations and also get's the viewer all excited to get a sense of how far a mainstream movie can go to work around the concept without having to bother about formula and without tinkering with logic.

The movie opens gloriously in Kasi, 'Om Sivoham' plays as the title sequences play out, visuals of the Ganges in Kasi are sights to behold. Here's a father in search of his son he gave up in Kasi 14 yrs ago heeding to astrological advice hoping for better fortunes for his family. Accompanied by his daughter he reaches a famous priest in Kasi who helps him out despite abhoring the thought that a father gave up his son listening to superstition.

Rudhran is the son the father has been searching for, he's an Aghori (see trivia for more) now. Rudhran is sent by his Guru back to his hometown to return after renouncing his worldly connections. Rudhran arrives in his hometown in Southern Tamilnadu to his mother. The mother doesn't get the son's love nor can they understand the methods to his madness - blowing the conch and playing rustic drums in the middle of the night, smoking ganja etc.

Thandavan (notice the resemble to 'Andavan' meaning God in Tamil) uses beggars to earn his living, he's the head of a large begging mafia in this small town. He earns large amounts of money getting people to beg and doesn't give a damn about human life. He beats the one's that dare question, he deforms and multilates them. Murugesan works for Thandavan and is assigned a group of beggars who collect the highest among their peers by begging in the foothills of a hill top temple - Malaikkovil.

One night in search of ganja Rudhran arrives to the hill top to find other ascetics (some real, some fake) smoking to their glory. This hill become his abode from here on. He mouthes filth and sanskrit shlokas when questioned and is revered and feared by the folks around him. Amsavalli is a blind beggar with a sweet voice, she's stolen from her group of small timers who don the roles of MGR, Sivaji, Rajini, Nayanthara etc to make money and is taken to Thandavan. Here enters Nair from Kerala who runs a large begging group in places of religious interest in Kerala, Nair wants a change of faces to improve collections and hence takes people from Thandavan to Kerala.

Nair comes back to Malaikkovil with a proposal to make money with Amsavalli hoping to sell her off to a rich but completely deformed person who'd never have any woman bed with him due to the gory nature of his face. Amsavalli is left in the hill top temple by Murugesan and his accomplice hoping to save her from the ill that is to visit her and pleading the God there to save her. Rudhran answers their prayers, he takes on Nair and kills him. This infuriates Thandavan who mutilates Amsavalli's face. How Rudhran takes on all the evil he sees around him complete the narrative.

Arya comes out tops as Rudhran, the key here being in the fact that he doesn't have to emote too much. He brings in a completely different mannerism and body language to the aghori ascetic's character and the long beard and hair complement the persona of the character he is playing. Pooja, the glamour girl we all are used to, surprises us with her portrayal of Amsavalli. Shod of any glamour and with darkened complexion and lenses to blind her vision she does a good job of portraying the character of a blind beggar. Her north indian accent lends a wee bit more of credibility to the role she's playing though many see it as a handicap. Arya and Pooja have got the roles of their life time in this movie. Despite this one can't but imagine how it would have been should a more competent pair of actors were chosen to esssay these roles.

Every other character in this movie is aptly cast, there's no one who is miscast or who doesn't play the part well. I'm not able to name the person who played Thandavan, he's menacing and the very look of him on screen builds a huge amount of hatred in our hearts. Bala has reportedly used real beggars to act in this movie for a monthly salary of 2500/month. It shows on screen and most of them play their part rather beautifully.

There's an underlying tinge of humor in some scenes and despite the rather sordid state of affairs we see on screen some lines made me laugh rather loudly. The way the beggars laughed and made fun of the world around them brought both a smile and a tear to one's eyes. I had a minor problem with the dialogues in the beginning of the movie when it sounded very dramatic in that the characters mouthed them like it was a stage drama. Arthur Wilson's cinematography is the other high point of this movie. The opening in Kasi is outstanding. The camera literally crawls in and out of scenes majorly, most of the shooting is done from below the knee level which adds another layer of mystique to an already mystic movie.

Ilaiyaraja's music elevates this movie one notch more. The songs are superbly written and tuned. I couldn't pick one number which didn't fit the mood of a scene or which wasn't melodic enough. The background music was superlative to say the least. Here's a movie where Harris could learn a thing or two about writing for action scenes. Raja Sir's score for the action is apt and fits the thematic needs perfectly. The dialogs are laced with lewd and vulgar language when one sees it from a prudish metro dweller's point of view but one shouldn't expect anything less from a fare that is so grounded in reality.

All the Tamil swear phrases have been beeped out but a particular swear word in Hindi which would translate into 'sister violater' wasn't beeped out. Is it that the Censor board folks in Chennai don't know enough Hindi? Given the large influx of IT professional from various parts of the country into Chennai this swear word should be rather widely known. It's rare that an actor get's an author backed role, Arya certainly get's to play the most challenging role of his career. The way he's introduced on screen while he's doing seershasan is so bold. On the low side Arya's character is not completely explored, there is no mention of what's he thinking or how he's tuned to see things, we have to assume that as an aghori he's broken off all his material leanings including his family which deserted him 14 yrs ago. The logic given towards the end for moksha for a character who begs redemption is hardly plausible.

Extras don't have any role to play in a scene in Indian movies. They simply have to stick to a marked position with a particular look on their face which an AD gives them. This movie breaks that routine. I'd like to mention a very short scene of a beggar crawling in a bus asking for alms during a song sequence. In the background you see the insides of the bus, the camera looking into the front where a conductor is changing the board of the bus, the back reads 'Bus Station' implying that this bus is leaving to a suburb or village nearby. The conductor picks his bag and moves ahead to issue tickets. All this happens in a couple of seconds but to keep a scene so dynamic takes a lot of rehearsal and vision and Bala has it. It's small things such as these that elevate 'Naan Kadavul' to a good movie.

This is not a pop corn movie. This movie arrests it's viewer. You can't take your eyes off the screen. You are either repelled by the scenes you see or are engrossed in it in a non voyeuristic manner. The star behind 'Naan Kadavul' is Bala, the writer/director. It takes a lot of courage and guts to take a story about beggars and their problems and project it on screen. On paper it's not viable at all and no producer worth his salt would spend a penny on a project that looks so doomed. I hope this movie is seen by as many people as possible for the sheer magnitude of thoughts condensed into it. At a little over 2 hrs this is a lot shorters than the normal postcard swiss dramas we see churned out by our filmfolk.

Trivia:

# Aghori sanyasis see them as a symbol of Lord Shiva as per Hindu mythology. They are rumoured to indulge in cannibalism.

# Aghori sanyasis believe in the perfectness of Lord Shiva and the fact that he is responsible for everything in this world - animate and inanimate.

# Corpses are freed off their curse by Aghori sanyasis to allow them attain moksha hence liberating them from their cycle of reincarnation.

# Aghori sanyasis can be distinguished from others by the way they smear ash left after incarceration of a corpse on their faces and body.

# The scenes in Kasi were shot in the real Kasi on the banks of the Ganges.

# The scenes depicting Malaikkovil were shot at Thenkarai near Kumbakarai in Theni district of Tamilnadu.

# The water falls shown near Malaikkovil is Kumbakarai falls in Theni district. This area was known to be naxalite prone but fast developing into a tourist spot recently.

Slumdog's nominations at the Oscars

2009-01-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

Is this going to be a case of the underdog 'Slumdog' going on to become an Oscar sensation? Look at all the nominations and it's anybody's guess,. AR Rahman is nominated in twice for best song ("O Saya" and "Jai ho") and original score, a total of three nominations. Another first ever for an Indian is Reesul Pookutty who has been nominated with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for achievement in sound mixing.

Reesul recently worked on the sound of 'Ghajini' which was released in December in India. He was first noticed for the work he did on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Black' with whom he went on to work with later for 'Saawariya'. He also is credited on Zinda, Bluffmaster, Mathrbhumi and many more for sound design. Reesul hails from Kollam district in Kerala and is an alumnus of FTII, Pune. over to the 22nd of Feb 2009.

Achievement in cinematography

“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle

Achievement in directing

“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle

Achievement in film editing

“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

“Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar

“O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

Achievement in sound editing

“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers

Achievement in sound mixing

“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty

Adapted screenplay

“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Windows 7

2009-01-19T14:22:00.001-08:00

I am currently using Windows 7 Beta 32-bit edition on my desktop, after three hours of setting it up and playing around my initial feelings are so positive about this when compared to Vista.

I saw one glitch with the Intel display accelerator which the system recovered from automatically the experience has been trouble free. The default installation attempted to change the display resolution to 1280 x 1024 (60 Hz) which for some reason wasn't displaying on a DELL 19" LCD monitor. Changing this to 1280 x 1024 (85 Hz) fixed the display problem.

Music - Oscar hopefuls - 2009

2009-01-09T02:10:00.001-08:00

I was tempted to post when I saw a pic of such distinguished composers on Hollywood reporter. Here's a short description on each of them.

From left: Jan AP Kaczmarek, Alexander Desplat, Danny Elfman (Top most), Howard Shore, AR Rahman are the composers posing in the picture above. [Image copyrighted by Hollywood reporter and used here in a non-commercial context, will be removed if objections are raised by the copyright owner]

Jan AP Kaczmarek is a Polish composer who has won the Oscar award for Finding Neverland. Jan effectively was able to create melodies on the piano and merge it the the orchestra in his soundtrack for Finding Neverland which was instantly appealing at the same time was layered enough for hardcore classical music fans to discern in the long run. He is also known for two symphonic compositions done in Poland - Cantata for Freedom & Oratorio. Jan's tickets to the awards nite this year is 'The Visitor'.

Alexander Desplat is considered French and has composed music for such films as Lust, Caution, The Luzhin Defence, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Syriana, Birth, Hostage, Casanova, The Nest and The Painted Veil. He got noticed for his score for 'The Painted Veil' for which he earned a Golden Globe for best original score. His score for the epic 'The Queen' was nominated for the Academy award (Oscar). This year he's rumoured to be nominated for the score done for the movie 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button'.

Danny Elfman is an American composer whose scores to movies have been described as wild, maniac, romantic, lush, serious, dark, bright etc. Having scored the first Batman movie, Danny is know for his work in movies such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas, Good Will Hunting, Chicago, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Kingdon etc. Danny has been nominated for the Academy award for Good Will Hunting (Dramatic Score), Men in Black (Musical or Comedy) & Big Fish (Original Score) but hasn't won the coveted Oscar as yet, is this going to be his year for the work done on the movie titled 'Milk'?

Howard Shore is the most popular and decorated of the names we have on this post today. Having composed for such successful movies as The Silence of the Lambs, The Lord of the rings trilogy, Philadelphia, Se7en, The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Howard has won the academy award thrice - Best Original Score for The Fellowship of the Ring, Best Original Song (sung by Annie Lennox) and Best Original Score for The Return of the king. The year he's likely to be nominated for the score of the movie 'Doubt'.

AR Rahman is probably the best selling composer in this list simply because of the sheer number of record sales his music is attributed to, it's rumoured to be close to 110 million putting him in the same league as Michael Jackson in terms of sales. AR Rahman is an indian born composer who changed the way music was done in mainstream indian movies. After breaking all records in Indian he went west to compose music for the hugely successful musical Bombay Dreams (premiered in London) and The Lord of the rings (premiered in Toronto). His work on 'Warriors of Heaven and Earth' a chinese production was well received. Rahman is rumoured to get nominated to the academy awards for 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

I'm going to stick my neck out and make two predictions. AR Rahman is going to be nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for 'Slumdog Millionaire', he'll win Best Original Song ('Jai Ho' sung by Sukhwinder Sing, Lyrics by Gulzar, Produced by AR Rahman). Over to the short list expected in Feb 2009.

Geo's Talkies - Ghajini

2008-12-30T22:47:00.000-08:00

It's nice to see the menacing villian return to the screen in a hindi potboiler. Ghajini for one could be the first movie that's named after the antagonist which is not only what's not seen normally but also unique when you have a superstar playing the role of the protagonist. Ghajini should have been called Sanjay or Sanju (Bah, I'm kidding !!!!).

Sanjay Singhaniya (Aamir Khan) is a foreign educated industrialist who is at the helm of affairs of AirVoice a mobile service provider. Kalpana (Asin Mary Thottumkal) is a small time model doing ad shoots for Tinnu Anand. Kalpana is bubbly, ready to help and full of joy. In a classic case of mistaken identity during the course of an interview with a journalist from a yellow magazine Kalpana blurts out that she's Sanjay Singhaniya's love interest. Sanjay is furious at all the press he's been getting and sets out to meet Kalpana only to be floored by the lady in red tops and white pants. They become friends with Sanjay choosing not to reveal his true identity to Kalpana not knowing how she'd react to it.

Sanjay proposes to Kalpana who accepts his love after some introspection not knowing that this was the real Sanjay indeed. A chance encounter with some child trafficers on a train get's Kalpana right into the eye of a huge organ harvesting and human trafficing storm which eventually get's her killed right in front of Sanjay's eyes in a gruesome manner. An attack on Sanjay during this episode removes his power to remember leaving him just the capacity to remember anything for 15 minutes at a stretch. This is not the real short term memory loss but it's okay, it's not meant to be a documentary.

Director AR Murugadoss has acknowledged the inspiration from Memento directed by Christoper Nolan. I wouldn't see why he'd have to do that, Memento had a non-linear narrative, Ghajini is pretty linear with flashbacks intercut into the narrative. Memento demanded some serious viewing and worked the brain while Ghajini is a movie that demands your logic to be left at home and good it's so. Ghajini has everything packed into an almost 3 hr theater experience, there's action, romance, thrills. Weren't these what were part of a good hindi fare? As an entertainer Ghajini does entertain, it's not a serious movie, it's a sandwich which is pepperred with everything for everyone.

Aamir the 'superstar' shines in Ghajini especially in the scenes where he shows rage and animalistic behaviour when he recollects his past. This is the Aamir Khan that set's the cash registers ringing. Asin is okay as Kalpana, she does go over the top and in atleast two instances sounded like a (cliched) Madrasi (despite hailing from Ernakulam). I'm sure everyone would love the bubbly person she's portrayed on screen. How far can she go in an industry that is never in short of bikini clad cleavage exposed hip gyrating actresses remains to be seen. I did not see an iota of romantic chemistry between Aamir and Asin on screen which didn't augur well for the experience as I'm supposed to weep with the hero. Jiah Khan is adequate in the role of Sunita, a medical student who get's interested in Sanjay's case. Pradeep Rawat plays Ghajini is menacing and outright scary, you don't ever want to see him in real life.

Ravi K Chandran's superlative camera work takes Ghajini to another level. The songs are exquisitely shot and the color palette always fits the mood of a scene. The very last frame of the movie is a DOP showing off what he can do with nature and photoshop (not really !!!). Anthony (from the South) has edited the movie, I thought some of the cuts were annoying, especially the fast one's. Anthony probably saw only the action part of this movie and forgot that at it's core was a sweet romance, decent job though. Sound design has been credited to Resul Pookutty and H Sridhar was also working on this movie till he passed away in Dec 2008. The sound at times was too loud which is typically how our theaters set up the volumes but the sound design part of it sounded spot on, given the fact that this movie was shot in sync-sound. Peter Hein's (and Stun Siva who took over when Peter left) action is well choreographed.

Ghajini is surely worth a watch with it's heady mix of romance, thrills, suspense, music and action.

Trivia

# AirVoice headquarters shown in the movie appears to be Ascendas Tech Park, ITPL, Bangalore. Since AOL, Bangalore was credited in the beginning of the movie the office shown in the movie is probably AOL's support floor.

# Aamir uses Samsung cell phones throughout the movie.

# The closing action scenes have been shot in Hyderabad.

# In Asin's introductory scene where she's shown helping physically challenged school children leaves keep falling which look like 'maple', has anyone seen maple leaves in India?

Geo's Talkies - Bommalattam

2008-12-15T18:59:00.000-08:00

"Yen iniya Thamizh makkalay, ungal paasathirkuriya Bharathiraaja pesugiraen". When Bharathiraaja addressed the audiences in his movies at it's opening with his characteristic line it was a promise of good cinema, one could be sure that here was a fare that was going to be earthy and entertaining. Kizhakku Cheemaiyilae, Karuthamma, Kadal Pookkal, Anthimantharai, Muthal Mariyathai, Kadalora Kavithaigal were good examples, I've deliberately left out movies that were made and released before 1985.

This movie tells the story of Rana played by Nana Patekar, a fiercely passionate movie director, almost a reel life version of the real Bharathiraaja. He's shown to be prone to temper tantrums, has a wife who is not giving any respite. Inside the man is a person who loves cinema completely. Minutes before the preview of his newest movie 'Cinema' the heroine of the movie is killed in a car accident with Rana escaping, the audience is made to believe that this was a murder? Why? What's the motive? Why would a skilled director like Rana commit a murder without an alibi? The mystery unfolds in the closing moments of the movie attempting to keep the suspense alive until then.

I won't even tell about Arjun who plays Vikram, a "CBI officer". It's good to know that the CBI does the investigation of accident deaths in Chennai city. The Chennai City Police is probably too busy with the traffic arrangements that they've outsourced this task to the CBI. How else could you explain Vikram showing up on the accident spot minutes after the accident? Or maybe CBI stands for Chennai Bureau of Investigation, you'll never know with names mind you. It was Madras before, it's Chennai now. Coimbatore was Kovai always, so was Tiruchy (Trichy), Thanjavur (Tanjore), Puduchery (Pondicherry), it's very likely that the C in CBI was Chennai and not Central.

If this was a movie written and directed by a debutant one could give him a chance for goofing up the car numbers when Rana is chased by the press before the launch of his movie, the front of the car's plate shows a TN-06 registration while the rear shows a MH-06 registration. During flashback the numbers are back to MH-06 on both sides, wow, this is a mystery which the producer could take up in a sequel. Lot is expected from a person of Bharathiraaja's calibre, he's carved a niche for himself and I still believe no one can narrate a story set in a rural town like him. No one can bring out emotions of a brother & sister like him, all these require melodrama in varying amounts. A slick thriller needs action, it's needs a racy screenplay which is not jerky or full of holes, it needs suspense and a good finale. This movie has none of the above, it's fast, but it's fast like a town bus doing 90 kmph on village roads, you keep getting pushed around, your head bangs the sealing, you get a bum ache.

There are tiny surprises, probably to compensate for the 50 bucks one pays to get to see it. The heroine Rukmini is a revelation, Nana Patekar does what he's known for which is 'act'. Nizhalgal Ravi's dubbing for him was a little over done. Himesh's music is a damp squib, Monty's background score had a couple of nice tunes. It was nice to see "Audiography - H Shridhar" on screen despite the fact that the sound effects were overdone. Give us another earthy fare Mr.Bharathiraaja, we deserve better for being your fans over the years.

Hunter or Farmer?

2008-12-13T22:32:00.001-08:00

Do you want to be a hunter or a farmer? Coming soon !!!!!

Requiescat in pace - H Sridhar

2008-12-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

The demise of H Sridhar has come as a rude shock to all fans of Indian music, South Indian in particular. Winner of 4 national awards for Mahanadhi, Dil Se, Lagaan & Kannathil Muththamittal, H Sridhar was one of those rare breed of sound engineers who were trained in music too. Born on 31st Mar 1960, HS was just 48 yrs old when his end came. I read on the internet that he returned back home at 2 AM after working on the soundtrack of 'Ghajini' and didn't wake up from his sleep. The doctors declared him dead around 1000 AM and the reason was attributed as a cardiac arrest.

South Indians in particular are known to look out for names of technicians and the name of H Sridhar as Sound Designer / Sound Engineer / DTS mix was a sure fire indication of top notch sound mix on multichannel soundtracks. Media Artists, an organisation which pioneered the use of DTS as movie soundtrack formats, was H Sridhar's main umbrella. H Sridhar has also mixed / engineered almost all of AR Rahman's soundtracks. It's simply no surprise that out of the 4 national awards he has won, the music for 3 were scored by AR Rahman.

We have all the technology one would need to create a near perfect sound for CD / DVD, HS belonged to an era that had to work hard at achieving that. It's probably from there that the sense of achieving higher things would have imbibed into his system, every movie mixed by him had his stamp on it. His presence will surely be missed by the industry, DTS technologies owes it's success in India majorly to Real Image and H Sridhar who worked to create some of the best software in DTS in our times.

# All pics used in this post are from KJ Singh's collection and permission is awaited for using this here. Content will be removed if objection is raised by the owner.

Geo's Talkies - Vaarnam Aayiram

2008-11-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Vaaranam Aayiram is about the relationship between a father and a son, the whole movie is shown from the son's perspective. All the other relationships blend well into the whole theme and lend their own color to the story. The father is Krishnan and the son is Surya, both characters are played by Surya. Simran is Malini, Surya's mother and Krishnan's wife and Shreya is Surya's sister. The movie opens on a rather sombre note with the death of Krishnan and the news is broken to Surya who is on his way with a team of commandos for some sort of a rescue operation. Surya recollects some incidents in his father's life and his which moulded their respective personalities.

Krishnan's college romance with Simran is shown in a beautiful song, the production work at this time is perfect and one get's to see Datsun, Standard, Herald, Plymouth cars from an era bygone. We then move into Surya's life and see him grow up, as a school kid, as a college student who is not good at studies, as a guitarist, as an entrepreneur, his first love and the loss he faces, as an addicct to alcohol and drugs, as a fighter who regains his life, various shades of a person's life which unfold in a rather nice way on screen. Sameera Reddy plays Meghna, Surya's first love. Although I didn't find her very pretty in the introduction scene in the train, Meghna in the US was stunning and outright beautiful. Divya Spandana plays Ramya, Surya's sister Shreya's best friend who becomes Surya's wife later on in the movie. There's hardly any suspense and hence I don't mind revealing the complete plot in this blog.

The story is very warm and melodramatic, a little too nice for a father and son relationship I should say. Nevertheless the effort is laudable and this is by no means an inferior movie, it's actually a good movie and with a little more effort during writing and editing this could have been an excellent movie. The second half of the movie was rather tedious and gave a bum ache (borrowed this phrase from Ridley Scott who says you know the audience is feeling the pain when you see them shifting in their seat). Gautam Vasudev Menon needs commendation for attempting a movie of this scale and getting it right with the casting and production. Simran always was an underutilized actress and very rarely does she get a role to play, this is one such role where she performs like the one she got in Kannathil Muththamittal.

Surya who plays both the father and son is perfect in the father's role and apt in the son's role. Watching Surya as Krishnan is a revelation on screen, I consciously had to remind myself that was Surya indeed. He has given the father's character a lot of subtle movements and a slightly different body language which gels well. Surya plays the son's character pretty much like he's done before sans the theatrics. Nothing ground breaking in this, mind you Surya is still one of the better actors in the newer lot. Sameera will remain in the minds of the audience longer because of the nature of her screen character. She's pretty, aptly cast and has some acting to do which she tries. Divya's role is short, not too much is written for her and she's always been someone who can emote reasonably.

Harris Jayaraj delivers melodic tunes for this movie some of which linger on in the mind even after you've left the movie hall. The background score was comsi comsa. It was apt in some situations but absolutely out of bounds in some, case in point - the rescue done by Surya in Delhi had shoddy background music. Action scenes are jerky which seems to be a problem with the use of steadicam. Rathavelu's camera is majorly superb, I particularly liked the clever use of the camera in double act scenes, the camera becomes one character in those. Anthony who usually is a deft editor seems to have allowed Gautam to dictate terms to him with the final print which probably is why the movie is a little over 3 hrs long. Thankfully since I saw the movie outside Tamilnadu I was able to see the full version, the one running in Tamilnadu is only 2hrs30mins long.

On the whole this is a good movie and definitely worth a watch, I'm sure many father's and son's will be able to similarities in their life and this movie. I'm looking forward to watching this movie this weekend with my Dad, should be worth the while.

Trivia

# I'm reasonably sure the college shown in the 'Munthinam' song with Krishnan (father's role) is Tamilnadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore as I remember seeing this film crew in 2007 there.

# Gautam's attention to detail in a shot is always top notch, I've written about this in a previous review too. When Krishnan is shown as living in Calicut (Kozhikode) there's is a Mathrubhumi calendar (most read newspaper in Kerala) hung on the wall. A song showing Surya (son's role) in Chennai also has a billboard showing Solidaire TV and Arnold's Commando. A cut out of Kamal Hasan's Sathya (directed by Suresh Krishna) is shown outside a cinema hall in a song sequence.

# Recreating the Madras Central railway station and the buckingham canal bridge was a a little sloppy, as was Spencers (not Spencer Plaza Mall).

# Binny mills, Chennai which was featured in previous Gautam movies is present in this one too.

# All Gautam movies have had a strong anti-eve-teasing stance, Surya beats up an eve-teaser which seems to occurs at the same location where Kakha kakha had a similar scene, both movies had the heroine in the frame too.

# Meghna (Sameera's character) is shown as getting injured and subsequently killed in Oklahoma, this incident happened in April 1995 and there are original file shots of the gutted building.

# I just couldn't see calling 'kiddo' as normal for the time this movie is set in, this is a very american phrase. There's a higher amount of English in the script which could turn off non English speaking audiences because there are no subtitles, this is not a mass movie either!

Geo's talkies - Quantum of Solace

2008-11-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

'Bond, James Bond' - That was the phrase that usually one saw on screen minutes after the movie opened. Then the audience is taken on a whirlwind tour of a situation setting the stage for Bond to intervene. Before taking off on his journey there's the mandatory meeting Bond has with M which is usually witty. Then Bond meets Q who introduces Bond to one sophisticated gadget or another. Before Casino Royale happened all these were part of the rules for making a James Bond movie. With Casino Royale director Martin Campbell took a completely radical take at the Bond franchisee, the result was refreshing. Here you got to see the evolution of a normal man into a fighting machine. Here was a man who could fall in love.

Quantum of Solace's story starts from where Casino Royale left off. Bond is in hot pursuit of Mr.White possible to take revenge for the death of Vesper. Mr.White is the head of a global organization called Quantum and Bond takes him into custody. From here Bond take off on a journey across the globe chasing Mathieu who is part of Quantum and is setting the stage for a coup in Bolivia to take control of the water in the country and profit from it. Bond meets Camille and though there's a hint of some romance between them nothing comes up on screen which is refreshing. There's nothing new or radical in the story or the theme so nothing much to talk about it. The action which the movie begins with is staged well but the editing was jerky, the transitions are faster than a second which makes the action seem fuzzy. I was not able to understand what was going on in the first action scene and the boat chase scene till it ended.

I was disappointed with this movie, I expect some more drama and character development which didn't happen at all. The humor was wry and funny, that's the high point. The music was top notch. The proverbial Bond title song that usher in the movie was a dissappointment, Alicia Keys & Jack White (Another way to die). I think they should have simply let David Arnold collaborate with someone like he did on Casino Royale. Marc Foster directs this movie and somehow lacks to bring in the vibrancy associated with Bond movies. Marc Foster is a brilliant director (remember Finding Neverland) no doubts, but is he upto the task of doing a Bond movie which needs not just high art but also elements which would appeal to a large section of the movie going crowd and not just the arthouse types.

The action that takes place during the Opera in Austria is top class well shot stuff. There are high points in this movie no two minds on that. The movie has an open ending so that the next part can being from where this ends. This movie is certainly worth one watch, not too sure if anyone would want to own a DVD of it.

Formula ONE - End of Season 2008

2008-11-03T06:16:00.000-08:00

The Formula ONE season has finally drawn to a close (cliche). It's that time of the year where I sit down (cliche) and look at the whole season and try to write my usual junk (cliche). Though I promised myself that I'd post an entry to my blog before and after the race, knowing fully well that I was asking for the moon, the slob in me did nothing about it. I was more interested in keeping track of fuel levels, engine, weather and a multitude of thing that normally screws up McLaren's strategy (fan alert - I watch Formula ONE only for McLaren). This year has been disappointing for McLaren as a team (I got to be kidding right!!, they won the driver's championship this year then why?). I would prefer a performance like last year minus the controversy about stolen Ferrari data (Stepneygate in case you are squeezing your brains). Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, despite their intensely competitive nature of driving which at times worked against the interests of the team, kept adding points to the Constructor's tally of McLaren which saw them zoom ahead of the pack to establish early lead in the points table and consistently kept it going. McLaren finished the season with 218 points as opposed to Ferrari's 204 points but were denied the Constructor's championship due to the spy scandal, that was the hardest blow to any team in the history of Formula ONE. The $100 million fine they had to pay should have dented their P&L sheet badly.

The last season saw only two big teams competing for first and second places: McLaren & Ferrari. The other's didn't have the horsepower to dream of finishing ahead. This year has been a refreshing change on that front. The two engine rule and the various other technical regulations introduced like the lack of traction control all have played into the hands of an avid racing fan. How else could one have ever seen Sebastian Vettel drive his Ferrari powered Redbull designed car to first place for Torro Rosso in the Italian Grand Prix? Robert Kubica won his first race ever in Canada, last year it was Lewis'. BMW Sauber reaped huge returns by competing fiercely for qualifying positions and race results. In effect, Sauber's stole more constructor's points from McLaren this year than Ferrari. Heiki Kovalainen is without doubt a great driver and has performed reasonably well in his first year with McLaren. I did expect a lot more from him but am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt because he's young and is probably surrounded by similar folks. He doesn't have the support which Lewis Hamilton enjoyed last year. Remember last year, Lewis Hamilton was the rookie and Fernando Alonso was the champion roped in by McLaren to turn it's sagging fortunes. Fernando surely brought in immense experience into McLaren working hard with his team to extract 1/10th of a second in every move. After Adrian Newey's departure from McLaren in 2005 Simon Lacey was entrusted the aerodynamics department and in Fernando it looked like the team had found it's perfect sounding board, the one person who can rip test all the aero stuff they were designing, after testing those in the wind tunnel, and give them exact feedback. It worked well for McLaren until Lewis sneaked from behind showed he was no rookie but was there to win as well. A lot of water has flown under the Thames (for that matter any river in the world) since then and Fernando's exit at the end of the last season ushered in the entry of Heiki Kovalainen. McLaren won 8 races compared to Ferrari's 9 last season and this season McLaren won 6 compared to Ferrari's 8, Renault won 2 while Torro Rosso and BMW Sauber won 1 race each.

The last time McLaren won the Constructor's crown was in 1998 when Mika Hakkinen was world champion. Lewis is no Mika, he's a star already, a stud at that. Who else could have had 3 girlfriends in 2 years, one of them being billionaire boss' (clue:TAG) daughter all their good times splashed across tabloids and the internet. Lewis sometimes is too humble to be believable, he's never shown disgust or rage on the track or off it (nothing in the media as yet) and wins with panache and loses with equal spirit. He's any team owner's dream. I strongly believed his driver (Anthony Hamilton) would strongly try to pitch the superstardom hard in the F1 market and get a move to the red folks stationed in Maranello, Italy (Bah, I should have simply said Ferrari!!!). I don't see that happenning though, Lewis is comfortably signed up till 2012 and from the statements he's been giving out to the media he's pretty happy with McLaren and hopes to drive all his career for the team. The next season is going to be even more challenging with the introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), slick tyres and a 3 race engine rule.

How can I write a year end post and not talk about how the championship was won by Lewis? They were the most intensely thrilling 30 seconds in my life. Massa won the race and almost celebrated the victory and the championship as Lewis was running 6th one place lesser than the requirement to win the Driver's championship. At the very last moment he passes 4th place runner Timo Glock who slowed down due to dry tyres on a wet track and regained 5th position to steal the championship. The sheer tension of seeing all these unfold in front of one's eyes was a little hard to bear, tempers were running high as was the heart whose beat would have sounded like a rumbling train at 140kmph. That was it, Lewis Hamilton became the 2008 Driver's World Champion and brought the title back to McLaren after 9 years, the last time they had it was in 1999 with Mika Hakkinen.

Force India meanwhile has severed their deal with Ferrari for engines and has signed up with Mercedes Benz High Performance Engines (Illmer) for engine and McLaren Automotive Racing for hydraulic systems, KERS and support. So the VJM02 cars next year will be very competitive and I'd expect them to be in the top 8 at any time. Initially it was rumoured that McLaren would also supply Force India the chassis but that was not to be the case. With this deal, Force India also get's exclusive access to the whole list of McLaren's official suppliers which will certainly work well for them. Getting Collin Kolles & Mike Gascoyne out of the way will be the sad thing to happen and don't be surprised if Dr.Vijay Mallya becomes Team Prinicipal to reap the benefits of all the hard work these folks put in the past year resurrecting the team. Clever guy this man is, when it come to having the cake and eating it nobody can ever come close to him. (cake!!! clue: calendar)

Coming of age

2008-08-25T21:24:00.001-07:00

He was always the 'little one', perceived as irresponsible, indisciplined and always at loggerheads with the norm. Being younger comes with a price tag, on one hand one get's pampered and mollycoddled for being the last one and on the other there's a huge baggage of being compared to the one that is elder. He wasn't bogged down by this baggage too much but I do know instances where he'd have lost his nerve every once in a while for being compared to the elder and expected to do things like the elder did, not the the elder was a paradigm of 'how to be'.

Last Saturday over dinner he spoke from heart about what he wanted to do with his life. He conjured up and painted this vision of a successful business and how he wanted to go about executing it. There was a serious dialogue about how to motivate the staff, what the ambience should be and where the core market was. I sat in amazement listening to all this talk because he's always been my sweetheart, the one I always could bank on and despite the disagreements we seem to have from time to time, as we grow older it's tends to get a little more, I saw the man in him maybe the first time. He wasn't my kid brother anymore, here was a fountain bursting with ideas ready to challenge and conquer the world.

I hope he has the strength, perseverance, determination and grit to pursue his dreams with passion and I hope to be around as a partner, wellwisher and above all 'his brother' to share or bask in the limelight.

Should POTA be brought back?

2008-07-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

Everytime there's a terror attack in one of the Indian cities one can hear a cacaphony of voices asking for stringent anti-terror laws. This is particularly true about members from the BJP that keep arguing that POTA should be brought back. How serious is this allegation? Does our country need a draconian law like POTA to maintain law and order? Here's some more information.

POTA which stands for Prevention of Terrorism Act was passed in 2002 prior to which there was POTO which stood for Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance. This act was brought into force after the attacks on our Parliament in Dec 2001. It defined terrorism and many human rights advocates would argue that the definition infringed on the freedom of speech at times. Anybody arrested under this act could be kept in police custody for a period of 180 days without having been produced in front of a judge/magistrate for a remand. The confession extracted from an accused can also be used a evidence in a court of law. POTA by it's very nature assumed that anyone arrested under it was 'guilty' and had to be proved 'innocent' by way of evidence when the case came up for hearing.

As per the Indian constitution and other criminal laws a person is 'innocent' unless proven 'guilty', this was a vital new change in POTA. Most states in India implemented this law except Lalu's Bihar and some other states. The states that used this act to the maximum were Jharkhand, Gujarat and Tamilnadu. The irony in Gujarat was that the muslims who were arrested under allegations of torching the railway coach at Godhra were charged under POTA. The riots that followed saw large scale massacres of Muslims by Hindu hardliners and the folks arrested during these riots were charged under normal criminal laws, the CM of the state said POTA was not necessary. This selective imposition of the law was seen as partial and used as per the convenience in a particular case.

POTA also was a potent weapon in the hands of zealous law enforcement agencies. A law which was meant to handle the globally witnessed phenemenon of terrorism was being used to harrass and heckle innocent citizens many at times. In Tamilnadu V.Gopalaswamy (Vaiko) was arrested by the then CM J.Jayalalitha for making speeches in support of the LTTE. He languished in jail for about 4+ months before being formally charged by the police. Such was the vigorous nature of the act and it's ramifications when used by politicians to settle political scores. The UPA government repealed this act in 2004 and rightly so, it should have followed up with modifications to the CRPC with the definitions of terrorism, terrorist to accomodate the changing global scenario but that is still in the offing.

TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities prevention act) was in force between 1985 and 1995 and was brought primarily to tackle terrorism in Punjab. This act didn't have clear definitions for terrorism and hence was misused widely because of which it was repealed in 1995.

The answer to a terror strike is not in getting draconian laws. It's in more efficient intelligence gathering, it's in sifting through volumes of gathered data and extracting meaningful information out of it. It's more about states taking complete responsibility for law and order and effective policing, it's not about blaming the central government for everything. Law and Order has always been a state subject and not a federal subject. For the sake of all the lives lost till now someone has to drive the point pretty clearly in our leaders today that the last thing they should play politics with is a human tragedy like a terror strike!

Requiem for a dream

2008-06-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

A requiem is a grand musical composition performed in honor of a deceased person, with a title like this you sort of guess which direction this movie will head. This movie introduces us to Sara whose onlyhobby is watching TV to obsessive limits. Harry is Sara's son who is a drug addict. Harry frequently mortgages the TV to get his dose of dope. Tyron is Harry's friend and accomplice and both of them start making money in drugs. Marion is Harry's girl friend and also a junkie.

I don't want to spell out the story, some characters get lucky and redeem themselves in the end. Harry's character almost makes it to the other side but he's stuck so deep in his own doing. Sara's obsession with TV makes her want to loose weight to appear on TV and end up loosing her mind too. Marion's drug obsession makes her sell herself at times and in the closing moments of the move we see her get involved in an orgy. Requiem for a dream is a startling motion picture that shows the damage drugs can cause in such a shocking, stark and bare manner that it wrenches one's gut and churns the stomach.

I haven't been affect by any movie as much as this one till now, this is shocking cinema.

The Kalam effect

2008-05-06T04:23:00.000-07:00

The Kalam Effect is an insider's account of the presidency of Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. PM Nair was the prinicipal secretary to the President and gives us some insight into the persona of Dr.Kalam. Don't expect startling political revelations. Don't expect controversy, this book is worth reading if one wants to know a little more about the genius we've all knows as our President.

Kuruvi

2008-05-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Dharani's magnum opus Kuruvi released in Balaji theater and given the large Thamizh population in this part of Bangalore I doubted if I could manage a first day first show. That attempt failed but a first day second show was set up. Kuruvi is typical Vijay masala pot boiler sans Dharani's usual (pseudo) intelligent elements.

I'd like to draw the reader's attention to the scene in Gilli where Vijay is surrounded by Prakash Raj and his goons and the escape he makes with a knife held to Trisha's neck, that was (pseudo) intelligent. None of that is in Kuruvi. If this movie makes it to the 100 day mark and races to a silver jubilee then there can be only one reason for it - Vijay. Vijay has a huge mass following, he's the superhero who cares a damn about wanting to be different or meaningful.

Thamizh movies are increasingly becoming more Telugu in the way screenplay unfolds and given the fact that most directors in Thamizh work in Telugu it's no surprise either. Music by Vidyasagar is a let down, except for one song nothing else was hum worthy and most importantly are not mass songs either.

Santhosh Subramaniam

2008-04-30T22:51:00.000-07:00

Editor Mohan's sons Raja and Ravi have always been associated with entertainers be it Jayam or M.Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi. Given this background I went to watch Santhosh Subramanian in Balaji Theater, Bangalore last week. Work was getting monotonous and I was lost in different things and the movie was meant to be an ice-breaker, was it?

Balaji theater screens Thamizh movies regularly and has a decent screen and pretty good multi-channel sound which is too loud most of the time. The theater was empty, there were only two other people in the balcony. So this almost became a solo movie experience, I should add here that this was my first solo movie outing, I always have someone to accompany me to a movie. Santhosh Subramanian can be called a Jayam Company formula movie, there's this sweet and decent guy who falls for a simple and pretty girl. Where is the problem you'd ask? The problem is his Father who controls the life of his son by making choices for him. What's so wrong about it some might ask?

How does the guy win his dame? How does he face up to his Father and speak his mind out? That's the story line in two sentences. It's a clean movie, no skin show, no item number nor is there a 'double-meaning' (as it's come to be known) one liners. This is one of those movies you can watch with the whole family (a typical Indian term for a movie that has no references to sex, seduction, lust, skin show and the like). Ravi plays the role of the burdened son pretty well, Prakash Raj enacts the Father's characters aptly. Genelia d'Souza (over)plays the innocent college girl.

F1 season start - Melbourne

2008-03-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

The season has begun and the absence of driver aids has made it thrilling and full of suspense. A driver could be leading the pack and could loose it all out by getting onto the gravel in the last turn or a little too much speed and the attempt to control it could end the race. This year's season is going to be dependent on the driver more than the technology as we've seen in the past 5 years. Being a McLaren fan it was disappointing to see McLaren car bear numbers 23 & 24, I've never seen the car go below 10 in the last 11 yrs that I've been following F1. But, if this was a fight between the Big Daddy of FIA (read Max 'the rat' Mosley) and Ron Dennis the first round has gone to the latter. Kimi had engine problems at the end of Q3 and was barred from taking part in Q2. Massa did a splendid drive to get a position in the second row for tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton continued his top run and took pole, Kubica did an awesome drive by taking P2 despite the huge oversteer and subsequent run out of the kerbs into the last corner.

The new qualifying format allows all cars to run in Q3 (20 minutes), six slowest cars drop out at the end of Q3. The remaining 16 cars will then run in 15 minutes at the end of which the six slowest cars will drop out at the end of this session. The final session Q1 will run 1o cars and lasts for 10 minutes which will determing the positiong of the cars from 1 to 1o on the race the next day. The fuel burn in lap has been done with and cars can have as much runs as possible in any qualifying window the most important being how well a car does in Q1 if it get's through the other two sessions. The year has begun well, over to the race tomorrow. If one has to go by McLaren's form last year and the look this morning the race is theirs.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

I wish you all a happy, prosperous, blessed and productive New Year filled with God's blessings

Star of Bethlehem

2007-12-12T06:02:00.000-08:00

Star of Bethlehem shining bright
bathing the world in heav'nly light,
Let the glow of your distant glory
fill us with hope this Christmas night.

Star of innocence, star of goodness
gazing out since time began,
You who've lived through endless ages
view with love the age of man.

Star of beauty hear our plea,
whisper your wisdom tenderly.
Star of Bethlehem set us free
make us a world we long to see.

Star of Bethlehem, star up high,
miracle of the midnight sky,
Let your luminous life of heaven
better our hearts and make us fly.

Star of happiness, star of wonder
you see everything from afar,
Cast your eye upon the future
make us wiser than we are.

Star of gentleness, hear our plea,
whisper your wisdom tenderly.
Star of Bethlehem set us free
make us a world we long to see.

Christmas star

2007-12-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

Distant stars, at home up in the heavens
Wonder what they see, are they watching me
Christmas Star, you spin your strands of silver
What a sight to see, are you there to guide me

Star light, shine bright
See me through the dark night
Light mine, half way
Guide me home for Christmas Day

Midnight stars, they sail the sky in silence
Hearing all they see, are they hearing me
Christmas Star, you watch the world so wisely
At my journey's end, will you be my true friend

Star light, shine bright
See me through the dark night
Light mine, half way
Guide me home for Christmas Day

Christmas Star light,
See me on my way.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day

Geo's Talkies - Om Shanti Om

2007-11-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

I tried to find out what really was the meaning of the word 'entertainment' though I very well know what it means. I just wanted to be able to be able to express the meaning of the word 'entertainment' in a short sentence. So I'd like to agree that 'entertainment' is "a diversion that holds attention". It's side effects are joy, laughter, happiness and a myriad other things which could even be suspense if you're like me. 'Om Shanti Om' is a movie that is 'entertaining' and the reason for that is one man - Shah Rukh Khan. I have no qualms in stating this. I'd like to state for the record that I've seen most if not all of Shah Rukh's movies and I like his persona but I'm not quite a HUGE fan.

This movie is Farah Khan's second directorial outing and has she worked out a formula which tells a story and entertains at the same time? YES, that's the absolute answer. 'Om Shanti Om' is a movie that defies and embraces all genres at the same time. The movie broadly is a romance and is thrilling towards the end of the second half. The story line is very simple, it's the execution that comes up in shining colors. The movie is a story of a guy named Om, a junior artiste who is hopelessly smitten by the charms of the very beautiful leading lady of the 70's Shantipriya. Om hopes to make it to the actors league some day and is supported by an 'over the top' Kiron Kher as his Mother and Shreyas Talpade as his best buddy.

A tragedy occurs in the middle of the movie and Om reincarnates in a new avatar, the only difference is that this time he's already what he wanted to be in the previous birth. He's born in an affluent filmi family, he's a star already and he wins the Filmfare best actor award. He's got girls drooling all over him and he dictates scripts to directors and producers because that's how he works, or probably that's how it works for him. It is at this point that a chance encounter with the memories of his previous life rekindles the spirit of love and revenge in Om and when he meets a tall legged pretty nubile nymph who's startling resemblence to Shantipriya of the 70's. How does Om get the villain to confess? Does he get revenge? Is love timeless? Does Om get to unite with the love of his 'previous' life? All questions are answered in a perfectly filmi ishtyle.

Every frame has Shah Rukh stamped over it, his screen presence, excellent comic timing and passion makes this movie watch worth and repeat watch worthy. The story is pretty straight forward which is why I didn't mind disclosing most of the key plot points. There's lots in store in the movie, the lines will make one laugh heartily and the dialogues from old movies and hollywood look patched but they go well with the flow of the movie. The sets in the movie when showing the 70's are just spell binding, all credits to Sabu Cyril for the excellent work. For a movie that is loud in terms of colors used for dresses on screen, the sets stand out for their sheer authenticity and brilliance. Manikandan's camera does justice to every penny spent on the sets.

Music is the other highlight of the movie apart and the credits for this goes to Vishal / Shekar. I would like to specially mention the 'Om Shanti Om' climax song which is picturized as an opera-meets-reality-show. There's no need to mention that Farah Khan's dance choreography is excellent. SPOILER **** It's time to welcome the prettiest ghost in the history of Hindi cinema, Deepika Padukone is the prettiest face to have debuted in recent times. She's got an ethereal sense of beauty to her due to the way the shots are lit up and portrayed on screen. There's no real depth to her character but who cares, all the close up shots look gorgeous.

Sandeep Chowta has scored the background music for the movie which is apt and likeable. I'm a big fan of movies and I should also add here that I watch all sorts of movies. Yes, I do like some of the artsy ones too but I don't miss on a movie that's an entertainer. Do NOT miss this movie because if you do then you are simply missing a wholesome entertainer.

# Trivia

* Dialogues from Titanic ("king of the world") and Gone with the wind("Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn") pepper the movie at regular intervals.

* All the crew have acted in the movie too.

* Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan makes a sparkling debut on screen at the very end.

* 31 current actors from Bollywood made their appearance in the extended 'Om Shanti Om' song lighting up the screen.

Alonso moves out of McLaren - It's official!

2007-11-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here's the press release from McLaren which I've reproduced verbatim below. Who'll fill in his place is an interesting question. Where will he go to? Renault? Would it be a seat swap between Alonso and Kovalainen? Answers to all these questions should come in the days ahead.

Woking, 2nd November 2007: Following a meeting between Fernando Alonso and McLaren, it was agreed that it would be in the best interests of both parties to bring the relationship to an end.The mutual parting of ways has not been discussed until now, since it was felt that any such discussion could have seriously disrupted the team’s and Fernando’s 2007 Formula 1 World Championship challenge. Both parties believe that this was the right decision.

FERNANDO ALONSO: “Since I was a boy I had always wanted to drive for McLaren, but sometimes in life things do not work out. I continue to believe that McLaren is a great team. Yes, we have had our ups and downs during the season, which has made it extra-challenging for all of us, and it is not a secret that I never really felt at home. I know there have been suggestions of favouritism within the team and people say a lot of things in the heat of battle, but in the end I was always provided with an equal opportunity to win. Today’s decision allows all of us to focus on 2008, and I wish the team, Vodafone, Banco Santander, Mutua Madrileña and all the other team Partners who I have worked closely with during the year, the best for the future.”

RON DENNIS: “Everybody at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, especially McLaren’s Spanish Partners Banco Santander and Mutua Madrileña and the team’s title partner Vodafone, want to wish Fernando all the best for the future. He is a great driver but for some reason the combination of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Fernando has not really worked out, and in the end we reached a stage where none of us could find a way to move forward. We all believe that our joint decision to part company is for the best, and we will now continue to focus on our 2008 World Championship challenge.”

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will announce any additions to its existing driver line-up in due course.

Formula 1 season - 2007

2007-10-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

We've reached the end of the season and it's official, Kimi Raikkonen is crown World champion. This was a surprise much to the amazement of Ferrari fans and Raikkonen drove extremely well in the final race in Brazil to steal the title from Lewis who was so close and yet so far. Murphy's law kicked in at the worst possible time in his McLaren car and Lewis ended up being tied with Alonso on the points effectively making him 2nd due after comparing finishes.

A lot of hungama is going on with the teams, Renault is yet to announce it's lineup and so does Toyota, Force India (Spyker), Honda and a host of other teams. Alonso being dropped by McLaren doesn't look like a possiblity to me, in an earlier post I'd written at length at how both Alonso and McLaren need each other. McLaren has appealed against a technical anomaly which saw two drivers from Williams and BMW not being penalized and any favourable ruling in this matter could make Lewis Hamilton the world champion.

Singapore circuit has been cleared for next years calendar and a night race should be exciting for the drivers as well as the spectators. I for one have been very lazy in updating this blog primarily because I'm stuck with no internet most of the time. Trick or treat, it's Halloween time and I hope the scares are not life threatening. I also wish all my readers a very Happy Deepawali in advance in case I end up not posting anything in the next week or so.

Christmas time is coming and the prospect of the very smell of the season is an exciting prospect, no matter how many carols you hear, no matter how many cards you send and receive, it's Christmas fever from now on and I'm going to indulge into the season. Every bit of it.

Japanese grandprix 2007 - Fuji Motor Speedway

2007-10-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

The race at Fuji motor speedway which replaces Suzuka this year was eventful in many ways. Lewis started the race from pole with Alonso following him, Kimi and Felipe started from the second row. A delay in intimating the Ferrari team to use extreme wet weather tyres caused the Ferrari's to pit very early for a tyre change and loose grid position. Lewis was never challenged by any other driver. Alonso's first stop got him into a lot of traffic and had a tough time trying to pass cars in a race that looked more on water than tarmac.

Alonso aquaplaned into a turn and hit the wall which ended his race in Fuji. The finale saw Lewis take 1st, Heiki Kovaleinen take 2nd and Kimi take the 3rd positions. Sebastin Vettel's performance was good and at one point it looked like he'd finish 3rd by he sabotaged his as well as Mark Webber's chances by crashing into him. Heiki drove a perfect race and took a well deserved 2nd position almost giving in his position to Kimi in the penultimate lap but held up to finish ahead of the Finn.

It's just a week ahead to Shanghai and if Lewis wins here then the championship is sealed. The race was exciting in parts but was largely boring with the safety car leading the pack. I hope China sets the stage for some fine racing.

McLaren - Stepneygate - Constructors championship

2007-09-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

Ferrari has finally gotten what it always wanted, the Constructors crown for the year 2007. I wouldn't want to debate if stripping McLaren of the points was fair or not, want to wait for the FIA report which should have the reasons for this drastic step. McLaren's performance this year was mercurial and this step by FIA (read Max Mosley) appears to be harsh and detrimental to the interests of the sport. The team that has some of the finest and highest paying sponsors had to take a beating from the FIA (read Max Mosley) for obvious reasons. My heart goes out to Ron Dennis and I hope they appeal against this decision when the FIA report is out. What a farce the constructors title has been reduced to be!

PRESS INFORMATION - STATEMENT FROM RON DENNIS - 13 March 2007

Paris, France, Thursday 13th September 2007

“The most important thing is that we will be going motor racing this weekend, the rest of the season and every season. This means that our drivers can continue to compete for the World Championship. However having been at the hearing today I do not accept that we deserved to be penalised in this way.”

“Today’s evidence given to the FIA by our drivers, engineers and staff clearly demonstrated that we did not use any leaked information to gain a competitive advantage.”
“Much has been made in the press and at the hearing today of emails and text messages to and from our drivers. The World Motorsport Council received statements from Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Pedro de la Rosa stating categorically that no Ferrari information had been used by McLaren and that they had not passed any confidential data to the team.”
“The entire engineering team in excess of 140 people provided statements to the FIA affirming that they had never received or used the Ferrari information.”“We have never denied that the information from Ferrari was in the personal possession of one of our employees at his home. The issue is: was this information used by McLaren? This is not the case and has not been proven today.”
“We are also continually asked if McLaren didn’t use the information, what was the reason for Stepney and Coughlan collecting all this data about Ferrari? We can only speculate as neither Coughlan nor Stepney gave evidence at today’s hearing, but we do know that they were both seeking employment with other teams, as already confirmed by both Honda and Toyota.”
“There will be no issue for the 2008 season as we have not at any stage used any intellectual property of any other team.”
“We have got the best drivers and the best car and we intend to win the World Championship.”

Monza - A low downforce circuit ... now what is that?

2007-09-10T06:03:00.000-07:00

Monza is the fastest circuit in the Formula 1 calender and the reason for that is that it demands a low downforce setup from the cars to be able to extract maximum speed from the track. It's really important to make up those milliseconds in each chicane and corner to be able to carry maximum speed into a straight and build on it. The maximum speeds recorded by all cars running the race yesterday would have shown that something more has been done to the car to extract the speed from it with a little compromise on traction. Consider this - Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both hit maximum speeds of 350 kph in Monza while in Hungaroring Lewis managed to hit 296 kph while Fernando managed 299 kph. What do the race engineers and drivers do the extract this sort of performance from their cars? We know for sure that the engine specification remain same for the full year and the rpm is limited at 18000/minute. What exactly changes in the setup that helps drivers hit such high speeds?

Let's attempt to answer this question using the two pictures below. Picture 1 is Lewis Hamilton's car running in the Italian Grand Prix while picture 2 is Lewis' car running in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Let's first look at the section marked as A. This is the rear wing and in Monza it sported a flat profile which is evident in the way 'vodaphone' looks on it, it's facing the sky. This helps in reducting drag to get higher straight line speeds. The drawback to this is the reduced downforce in curves which don't make too much of a difference in a track like Monza where you don't have hairpin bends and too many tight turns. Look at section marked as A in Picture 2 and you will see the double profile rear wing which is slightly tilted to that extra bit of downforce for better traction and the difference is markedly evident in the way the letters 'vodaphone' appears to the front. It's tilted a little and not as straight as we've seen in Monza.

Turn 1 in Monza is the a tight turn which can take a car off it's line or cause a skid and depending on how much speed is carried into the turn a lot of nasty things can happen. All other turns are less tight. We can observe drivers attacking the kerbs with ferocity to turn as little as possible because of the reduced traction available and the less effort required to get in and out of a chicane/turn. Alonso did this to perfection during qualifying and all through the race to take the first place. In the section highlighted as B in Picture 1 we can see the absence of the the upper profile in the front wing. The front wing has two smaller flaps connecting the nose and wing which gives just the bare minimum amount of downforce required for this circuit. Compare this to the section marked as B in Picture 2 and you'll see that the double profile front wing could have hampered the front end aerodynamics of the car and shaved off those milliseconds that could have added up to a longer lap time.

Aerodynamics .... my oh my .... how much of a factor they are in a Formula1 car!

Italian Grand Prix - Monza - Alonza

2007-09-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

What a finale to the Italian grand prix? High drama at the start and a couple of laps behind the safety car and McLaren finished in the positions they started - Alonso first and Hamilton second. McLaren dominated the race with blistering speed and a superb suspension which took all the pounding from hitting the kerbs, Alonso did this the best. Massa retired prematurely due to a suspension problem and a clever Ferrari one stop strategy for Raikkonen gave hope to a scarlet finish which wasn't meant to happen. A top class overtaking move by Hamilton outbraking Raikkonen who had taken 2nd place after Hamilton's 2nd pit stop. McLaren delivered a slap on the face of Ferrari and amidst all the noise and commotion over the spy scandal saga, this was a 'let the work do the talking' statement. On another note, Vijay Mallya is all set to launch a full fledged F1 team after taking over Spyker. It's high time Kingfisher branched out into a team, enough of piggy backing on Toyota. Hail Mallya!

Italian Grand Prix qualifying

2007-09-08T06:03:00.000-07:00

Fernando Alonso takes pole in the race tomorrow in Monza by doing a flyer of a lap in 1:21.997 followed by Lewis Hamilton who took 1:22.034 to qualify. The third position is occupied by Felipe Massa followed by Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikonnen. I expect a McLaren one-two and an exciting race tomorrow unless McLaren do something really bad with the pit stops. Amidst the new allegations of email exchanges between Pedro DeLaRosa and Fernando Alonso about Ferrari's tyre setup leaked by Nigel Stepney to Mike Couglan, a victory tomorrow should provide some solace temporarily to the stressed out team.

Turkish GP 2007 - qualifying

2007-08-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

Felipe Massa took pole by blistering through the last couple of seconds with a fine lap in 1:27.329 secs shaving a little over 0:00.040 secs of Lewis Hamilton's timings relegating him to 2nd on the grid. Kimi and Alonso take third and fourth places respectively. Fernando Alonso set the fastest time if one was to look at the qualifying session as a whole with a 1.26.841 in Q2. He was running the softer compound tyres then and could have been on lower fuel loads and he tried Q3 with the harder compound tyres. Lewis and Felipe were about 0:00.200 quicker than Kimi and Fernando probably because they went into Q3 with lower fuel loads.

I am betting my money on the McLaren's and Fernando in particular after seeing the way he drove in Istanbul yesterday and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up finishing 1st.

Fernando Alonso v/s Lewis Hamilton - McLaren at war after more than a decade

2007-08-13T00:57:00.000-07:00

Do a search on either of these drivers and one will be bombarded with opinions, edits and blogs all over the internet about the recent problems and how the drivers have been reacting to it. I'd like to stay away from those topics and try to look at some other areas which is normally not highlighted. Alonso came to McLaren hoping to become it's blue eyed boy, a reasonable wish one could say for a double world champion. McLaren signed him at the end of his first world championship itself, this is a point to note. The Spainard would have been surprised to see a more democratic atmosphere where the team doesn't pamper one driver over another in terms of resources available and personnel.

McLaren has a policy of equality between drivers and this would certainly have come as a shock to Alonso. Ron Dennis is a good man, he's got a balanced outlook and keep his team well organized not to speak of his excellent talent in drawing sponsors to his team. But if there's one area he's lacking in then it's the lack of bravado on the track. He's not the boss on can drink a beer with, he's more understated and likes to talk less (apart from ronspeak which is a legend unto itself). Apart from Mika Hakkinen, we've never seen Ron hug a driver on Parc Ferme or even backslap the driver. This bond could be unique and can be linked to the devastating crash Mika had in Australia which took him out of action for a couple of months and impaired hearing on one side.

It also can be attributed to Mika's receptive nature, despite being a good driver and a hard man at swallowing pressure, Mika's lost his composure a couple of time, the most notable being Monza 1999 where a wrong shift of gear took Mika into the gravel throwing away his race lead where he bitterly sobbed in the sides of the race track. But overall Mika proved to be a man of character, he was the gentleman on the grid and was even branded unfit towards the end of his F1 tenure being branded 'too-good' for the race track. But even then Mika set the records straight by demonstrating excellent car control and capability in 2001, case in point - Silverstone and Indianopolis.

Back to Alonso now. McLaren needs Alonso as much as Alonso needs McLaren. There aren't too many options for the double world champion. The only place that would look like a promotion is Ferrari but Italians and Spainards are not good bedfellows. Alonso will not go from McLaren, I'm sticking my neck out on this one. Simply because the McLaren car this year is a rock solid package, it has completed every race it has started and except for just two failures during qualifying - Alonso's engine block and Hamilton's tyre, the car has performed incredibly well. I'm doubly sure that the research and development effort of McLaren is immensely being benefitted by Alonso's experience.

Alonso's experience on the track on various cars the best of them being the Renault is a testimony to the fact that he know a hell a lot about setting them up. McLaren's engineers could be benefitting immensely from this aspect of his relationship and this could be indirectly benefitting Hamilton too who is a rookie in F1 and surely wouldn't be able to fine tune the setup at the level he currently is in. Alonso also gives some Spanish sponsors visibility the most notable being Santander, his departure could raise questions on that.

Hamilton on the other hand has been a revelation. He's the classic case of being too sweet to spit and too bitter to swallow - a catch 22[only in the context of the Hungarian GP, Lewis's behaviour has been impeccable in all other races]. Ron Dennis would certainly not expected his protege to do so well in his debut. That is where the hitch lies in. Compare Hamilton's pay with Alonso and he should be grumbling inside at the disparity. The fact that he other is a double world champion means nothing to the rookie. As far as he can see, he's outperforming the champion in every race and qualifying session and he demands to be equalled in all aspects - sponsors, technicians, resources, money.

Hamilton is an incredibly straight and talented driver too. He's got the thirst to win every race he starts in and he doesn't seem to pound the car in the circuit like a JP Montoya. He knows his limits when pushing and knows when he needs to back off and simply complete the race. Nobody expected Hamilton to do so well, let's face it that's the answer to the problems McLaren is facing. Ron was not prepared otherwise he'd have found out better ways to synergize the two and get them focussed. Remember when Mika rejoined racing after the accident David was the guy with more experience and chances to win but Mika ended up being double world champion and the Mika/David combination went all the way till 2001 till Mika bid goodbye to Formula1.

This is the longest serving pair of drivers in the history of Formula 1 no doubts about it and neither Mika nor David nor Ron have shown scorn or disgust at the team like we've seen recently. That says that no matter how much you accuse Ron Dennis of not being able to communicate clearly he's done some things in fact a lot of things right in this case. Let's give the man some credit when it's due, Prost and Senna were like petrol, they can fire up anytime. Mika and David were competing against each other but not at the cost of the team. Mika's first Formula1 victory in Jerez is a testimony to the gentleman that David Coulthard is.

The three week break before the Turkish GP is bound to heal some of the wounds and will get the two drivers back to talking terms. Unless the FIA decides to play spoilsport, which increasingly looks like a possibility looking at Ferrari's media interactions, McLaren are going to finish this season right on top. At the end of the year anything can happen and I'd be very glad if the developments end up making a seat vacant for Nick Heidfeld to fit in, until then let's just enjoy the spectacle one race at a time. Over to the Turkish grand prix of 2007.

Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying

2007-08-04T19:11:00.001-07:00

Formula1 is getting more and more exciting these days, reason - Drivers. After Felipe Massa not making it into the final cut and settling down for 14th position on the grid it was Kimi Raikkonen's turn to take the fight down to the last couple of seconds in Q3 of qualifying and he did albeit for a brief moment until Lewis Hamilton came across the start/finish line to take up pole from Alonso who had ousted Kimi from P1. Alonso pitted for tyres and this time he was coming out with the hard compound tyres and one could see Lewis already waiting in the pitlane for Alonso to drive into the track. The fact that Alonso was waiting could have been because his race engineer waiting for a empty slot to give Alonso a free run or it could have been a fuel burn out strategy like Ron Dennis alleges or it simply could have been team rivalry with Alonso wanting to deny Lewis the final go at bettering his time which put him on P1.

I'd rather that the first would have been a plausible strategy but pray why hold up the pit crew, Alonso can drive upto the pit lane exit and wait and that's not in violation of any regulations unless he ends up holding another car that is attempting to exit into the track. The qualifying was over, Lewis was denied a final chance at giving another shot to better his timings thought he came out with the softer compound tyres and Alonso took pole relegating Lewis to P2. Right after the qualifying session was over Ron Dennis looked distraught and was seen animatedly talking to his colleague in McLaren trying to find more about what could have happened. One thing was obvious, harsh words were exchanged over the radio.

This morning it's been announced that McLaren won't earn any constructors points in this grand prix because the marshalls feel they have violated the sporting code and have pushed Alonso down to 6th position. McLaren have appealed against the decision but any favourable ruling could only help with the points, there's no way they'll allow Alonso to take pole. After Nurburgring it's turning out to be high drama in another Formula1 race this year, it sure makes the sport all the more interesting.

It had to happen .......

2007-07-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Lewis Hamilton had to fail. An event a lot of the cynics were looking forward to (cruelly) had to happen at Nurbugring today. The hero fell. It would be totally unfair to blame the drive for the high speed crash in Turn 5 of the Nurburgring circuit. Lewis' front right wheel failed and took his car right into the tyre wall which absorbed the impact of the crash and the monocoque survived the accident, a sterling testimony to the sturdiness of today's cars and a big thumbs up to the designers. The wheel failure has been attributed to a fault wheel gun which could have failed due to a incorrect pneumatic pressure causing it to not fasten the wheel nut to the torque levels they are supposed to. Lewis was a couple of micro seconds better than Massa when this occured, can't but ignore the irony. Ron rushed from the pit wall into the garage, apparently the radio had failed and the team were not able to communicate with the driver. Television images of trembling legs caused more concern. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when Lewis climbed out of his car a good 13 minutes after the accident only to lie down on the gravel. Tense moments which culminated finally in the driver being carried to the medical center on a stretcher and when one thought it was getting a little too serious, from the stretcher waved his arms and showed a 'thumbs up' sign relieving us all of the trauma, he was safe, Ron knew it, we knew it. Now all eyes will be glued to the FIA's doctors fitness report in the morning so that Lewis can start the race from 10th position. I for one will not miss a minute of the action to see the driver weave his way past the traffic.

Narain Karthikeyan - Back to racing F1?

2007-07-10T23:51:00.000-07:00

Will Narain Karthikeyan find his way back to active F1 racing by taking up the empty driver's seat which became vacant due to Christijan Albers exit from the Spyker team? More likely not than otherwise because Christijan has had to leave due to non-payment of fund by one of his personal sponsors and for a budget strained team like Spyker moolah matters. Team boss Colin Kolles' affinity toward Narain could tilt the balance give the fact that Narain has worked with him in Jordan during the 2005 season and Colin's departure from Jordan was cited to be one of the main reasons for Narain's exit then. It will certainly take a lot of bargaining from Narain's sponsors if this deal has to go through. HONDA test driver Christian Klein's name is also being talked about for this seat. Will an Indian be back to racing a F1 car? A couple of days and we'll know.

Thiruppavai in Sivaji

2007-06-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

A 1300 yr old song composed by Saint Andal praising the Thamizh God Thirumaal (believed to be an incarnation of Lord Krishna) finds it's way into my aural arena and many other men/women/children of today, thanks to the soundtrack of 'Sivaji'. "Thiruppavai" is a collection of 30 verses in praise of Thirumaal sung primarily in the month of Maargazhi which falls in the latter half of December and early half of January according to the Gregorian calendar. It is also said that each of the 30 days in the month of Maargazhi is named after these 30 verses.

Now back to 'Sivaji', the reason I'm talking about these verses. The way the lyrics blends with such sublime music in 'Sivaji' is a moment of musical brilliance. All flamboyance and style is reserved for the hero in all other songs but what beauty, almost spiritual divinity, in this song that one can keep hearing it forever. I tried my hand at deciphering the words in this verse and then got it translated through one of my friends Mr.Shanmugham (70 yrs young and keeps pushing me to complete 'Ponniyin Selvan').

Maali! Manivanna!

Maargazhineer aaduvaan

Maylaiyar seivanagal venduvana kaettiyal

Njalathai yellam

Nadungamularvana

Paalvanna vanaththul paanjajaniyamay

Polvana sangangal poipaadudaiyanavay

Saiyarperum paraiyay pallaan thisaipaaray

Kola vilakil kodiyae vidhanamay

Aalin Ilaiyaay

Arulaylo rempavaai

Oh Lord! (The original is a reference akin to Black Diamond)

Give us the strength

To complete this penance in Maargazhi like you did to our elders

Give us oil lamps, flags, powerful big drums,

singers who sing praises and conches that sound;

like your pure multi hued voice -

the sound which makes the universe shudder

Oh Lord, bless us,

Let us do our penance

I tried to stay away from transliteration and would be glad to correct any mistakes in the interpretation of the verse. The verses are powerful, the music adds to it's grandiosity. Simple and minimal orchestration, Rahman knows when to sink us in the power of the divine aural spectrum. Splendid song, another of the treasures of Thamizh literature polished and embellished by Rahman.

Geo's Talkies - Anbe Sivam

2007-06-24T04:26:00.001-07:00

’Anbe Sivam’, as interesting as the title sounds is a movie who’s essence is captured in it’s title, Love is God.

The story begins in an airport in Orissa where both Nalla, a disfigured, not good looking communist leader and Aras, a smart, suave and globalised yuppie are waiting for a flight which eventually get’s cancelled due to storm. They are forced to share a hotel room where all shades of both characters are aptly portrayed on screen. Aras desperately wants to get back home because he’s going to get married in four days. Nalla realistically takes Aras through the world that they are in which is just too dangerous and dirty for a yuppie like Aras who cannot understand why his mobile won’t work or his credit card is not accepted. Interspersed among all the opening scenes are liberal doses of humour, slapstick at it’s hilarious best or should I say worst.

The story gains momentum with the storm intensifying in Orissa and Nalla and Aras take up the journey together to Chennai by rail and road. Here we are exposed to Nalla’s life, the Nalla that was. The audience is transported to the world of trade unionism, Nalla’s street plays, his friends, his romance with the mill owners daughter and his idealogies, which are very marxist. Somewhere down the line, things don’t work out as they have to, Nalla gets disfigured in an accident, he loses his love and somehow escapes death by an inch. It’s this Nalla that starts to realise the divine power. Coming back to reality, Nalla and Aras become witness to a train accident and Aras comes back to the real world after bearing witness to gore and bloodshed. In the end he marries his girl and life moves on, watch out what really happens in the movie.

The main focus of this movie largely revolves around globalisation, faith, ideologies and love for the human being. Kamal Hassan as Nalla does what he does best, act, and believe me when you see the disfigured Nalla it’ll send shivers down your spine, he’s put his heart and soul into the role. Madhavan as Aras does a good job, no one else could have shared frame with Kamal and not ended up looking like a joker. Nasser as the hypocritical believer in God, who swears by God’s name in revenge does a splendid job. Art direction by Prabhakar is one of the strongest points of the movie, be it the flooded railway station and roads in Orissa, the mill protests in Coimbatore, the train accident in Andra, all have been re-created excellently. Vidyasagar’s music is a mix of Classical Symphonies and Vidyasagar’s own background score and five songs of which the title song and the street play song stand out.

Cinematography by Arthur Wilson is good though he didn’t have great sceneries to picturise, he’s done justice to every frame. Kamal Hassan has done the story and screenplay, one should commend him for the story but the screenplay is fudged, he must have got lost in a whirlpool of ideas and couldn’t decide on which to highlight. Sundar C is the director of this movie, this is clear in the comedy scenes that make up one half of the movie, but the later half looks like it was ghost-directed by Kamal himself. It’s just too unlike Sundar's earlier works and that’s what makes me suspicious. Lyrics are top class, by Vairamuthu. Here’s a sample from the title song:

Yaar yaar sivam, nee naan sivam(Who is God? Me and you, we are God)

Vazhvay thavam, anbe sivam (Life is a penence, Love is God)

Aathiham pesum adiyalkellam sivamay anbaagum(For the believer God is love)

Naathikam pesum nallavarkellam anbay sivamaagum(For the non believer love is God)

Idhayam enbadhu sathithaan enral erithazhal thinruvidum(If the heart is only flesh, it’ll be burnt by fire)

Anbin karuvi idhayam enral saavai venruvidum(If love originates from the heart, it’ll win over death)

Anbin paadhai serthavannukku mudivay illaiada(There’s no end for the person who takes the path of love)

Manathin neelam ethuvo athuvay vaazhivin neelamada(Life is as long as your mind)

# Plz bear with my crass translation(trans-literation), I know just enough Tamil to understand what it means.

’Anbe Sivam’, definitely watchable for the contrasting views it projects and the non-judgemental stance taken, but every frame has Kamal Hassan and that’s what is a not so positive point.

[This review was originally written and posted on mouthshut.com on the 27th of Jan 2003]

Geo's Talkies - Ocean's 12

2007-06-23T06:01:00.000-07:00

After putting up the review of Ocean's 13 I thought putting up the Ocean's 12 review done earlier in Moutshut would be appropriate. So here's the review written on the 7th of Feb 2005.

Anybody who understands the dynamics of film making would agree that more difficult than making a successful movie is making a sequel. Steven Soderberg’s version of Rat pack eleven titled ’Oceans’ Eleven’ not only made millions at the box office but prompted the director to work on a sequel to it, aptly titled ’Oceans’ Twelve’.

Story

George Clooney as Danny Ocean and Julia Roberts as Tess are spending their ’second third anniversary’ in Europe. They get rattled by the presence of Benedict (Andy Garcia) demanding the return of the $160 million with interest they siphoned his casino in the previous movie. Benedict manages to globe trot and meet all members of the Oceans’ Eleven team to make sure the message is driven loud and clear. Brad Pitt as Rusty is recuperating from a failed romance with Isabel Lahiri played by the svelte Catherine Zeta Jones. Isabel works for the police force and is all determined to nail theives and the reason for this is something from her past.

Ocean, Rusty and the whole team decide to hit something in Europe to pay off their bucks to Benedict since hitting any place in the US would be walking into a death trap. The one question they have to find an answer to is to identify potential places that could help them make up this gigantic sum in a time span of one week. The added thrill to these situations is that Benedict had been alerted by Night Fox played by the dashing Vincent Cassel whose only motive here is to be proved as the best thief the world has ever seen. Linus Caldwell played by Matt Damon wants to play a much larger role this time around and it is hilarious to watch him on screen.

The story moves a bit slowly across Europe until the big deal is set despite some initial failures. This movie is full of surprises despite the presence of visual clues all over. Julia Roberts excels in comedy in a scene where she plays ’herself’ opposite Bruce Willis. Mind you, you need to listen to each word that is spoke to savor the humor and I am sure one would chuckle for the full length of the movie. After getting beaten to the first heist, Oceans team take up a challenge by Night Fox to steal a faberge egg. Do Ocean and his team make it through this challenge? Is Night Fox the better of the two? Is the premise set for yet another sequel, a la Oceans Thirteen?

Crew

Script by George Nolfi is the weakest part of this movie with things having kept at a slow pace in the beginning, but hey it’s never easy to write a decent continuation to a hugely successful heist movie. David Holmes’ music is there for one simple reason, functionality. You can hear Hip - Hop, Rock and the traditional hollywood piano - string combo in shades, but the movie is all about a different contemporary(not techno) sound aptly used in one flash back scene ance the end titles. This film was canned and directed by Steven Soderberg and he’s done a neat job, he never expected any critics to rave about this move I guess. But he will definitely smile his way to the box office since the audience would enjoy this movie.

Epilogue

This is a fun-movie, all the actors are wonderful on screen and exude a terrible sense of lethargy and chemistry that they don’t appear to be acting. The camera simply happens to be a voyeur in the lives of these people exposing their daily sides to us. It is a daunting task to shoot with big names in a movie that just about 2 hrs long. But all characters have enough screen time to warrant their names in the credits. George Clooney swims through the role with his calm demeanour and his on screen ramblings with . Brad Pitt does what he does best, charms his way into Jones’ heart. Andy Garcia has been wasted with having nothing to do expect walk into people’s lives.

Though cinema is a form of art, at times one simply needs to throw logic and stop looking for the tangible to enjoy a movie. Forget reading all this, simply rent this DVD/VCD or catch it in a theater. You won’t have to regret this experience if pure entertainment is what you are looking for despite that the fact that Oceans Eleven is a better movie. The end shows that there is indeed a possibility for Oceans Thirteen.

The new reliance tv ad

2007-06-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

I'm absolutely in love with the new Reliance Mobile ad that is doing the rounds on TV. It's got simple lyrics and the rhythm of the song get's added with one more layer every 2 bars to end in a fitting finale, all this inside 1 minute which is what makes the whole ad, music and the concept spectacular. Is there a better way of conveying the fact that the color phones added color to lives. A big round of applause to the folks at Corcoise Films for the concept and execution and Dhruv Ghanekar & Ashutosh Pathak for the music.

baathon mein rang aayae hai jabsay
barsein barsein barsein rang barse

bheegi bheegi pathiyan barsay
rangwali pathiyan barsay

barsein barsein rang barse
barsein barsein rang barse

Geo's Talkies - Ocean's 13

2007-06-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

"Ocean's 13" is a welcome third installment to the Ocean's series of movies produced by Jerry Weintrub and Steven Soderberg. As with all the Ocean's movies there's a lot of hilarious one liners in this one too. Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould) get's kicked out of a lucrative hotel-casino project by his partner Willy Banks (Al Pacino) which gives Reuben a heart attack and confinement to bed. The rest 10 member regroup and pledge to take revenge in their typical style.

They conspire to hit Willy's hotel on it's opening night and turn the tables back on him and how? Rigged slot machines, dices, blackjacks. A plot is also hatched up to make the visit of the reviewer from Five Diamonds (like 5 stars) hell - chemical infested rooms, sick food and rude service. Add to this already mixed plot Terry Benedict and you know where we are heading. A small part by the Night Fox himself adds to the curiosity. The end is a foregone conclusion for all of us who are familiar with the series but how do that conjure it up is certainly a treat to watch.

I'd like to mention Ram here because he in a way piqued my interest onto the second movie and we saw it in Carnatic theaters without being able to understand a word of the dialog because of the crappy way the sound stage was setup there. I'm sure like Ram there would be many of you who'd take an instant liking to the third installment. One should have watched Ocean's 11 to completely enjoy this movie although it's not necessary to have seen Ocean's 12.

These guys have managed to take a jibe at Oprah Winfrey show and have exhibited the sensitive side of men in a satirical manner. George Clooney takes jibe at Brad Pitt in the end of the movie about settling down and having children, the resemblance to real life is so thin here. The only reason for Al Pacino to be in this movie is either because he was paid well or is a friend of the producers, his character simply exists for the Ocean's team to punch into. Steven Soderberg makes an appearance in the movie as Gecko, the genius behind the Casino's security systems.

And if you've not realized till now the women are absent in this edition. Ellen Barkins in the addition but she's got nothing much do than strut her stuff around the screen and get cozy with Matt in the end. I'll try and post some hilarious lines when I get to lay my hands on the DVD.

Geo's Talkies - Sivaji the boss

2007-06-15T06:01:00.000-07:00

"Sivaji the boss" is Shankar's first directorial venture with the one and only Super star in India, Rajinikanth. It's tough to make a movie with Rajinikanth, there's a certain expectation from the audience and double guessing that is a herculaean task. Mani Ratnam would have spent a lot of time scripting "Thalapathy" because he had to keep Rajini's screen image in mind and also give Mammooty equal screen prominence, that was a good effort. Shankar plays to the gallery with Sivaji, there's everything the masses need. And there is Rajinikanth who remains the numero uno in the movie. For a change we are spared of the sister and mother sentiment which I welcome wholeheartedly.

I don't want to spell the story here, it's a typical Shankar socio-commercial story. An NRI comes back to India and wants to reform the system, he hits road blocks. How does he overcome all of them to make his mark? That's the story. You have oodles of humor, the one's with Shreya's parents are extremely silly to say the least. Vivek plays the hero most of the times stealing punch lines which Rajini should be delivering, the change is good. Thankfully Vivek's character has not been reduced to a caricature. That's one good thing about comedians acting with Rajini, they are not belittled. Shreya has just a little more to do than looking pretty in the songs dressed in the most skimpiest of dresses. There's lots of curves on display here, they say it's for the masses, it's also for the classes. Rajini dons umpteen looks in this movie which themselves make the movie repeat watch worthy, each look is unique and would sound outrageous on paper, but Rajini/Shankar have carried it off with elan and style.

AR Rahman plays another vital role with a superb soundtrack which is new and well recorded. The background score has obviously been done with a lot of time and attention paid to it. I loved the choral Sivaji title chant, if they brought it out on CD's it would be a nice disc to own. Thotta Tharani's sets are huge, they are magnificient but to me they all looked misplaced. Thotta Tharani is a master in his craft but maybe it's just me who is not able to see reason for those opulent sets. KV Anand's camera does a good job at capturing the images. This movie stars all Shankar regulars - Raghuvaran (cast against type, who could imagine the Anthony in Basha becoming one of his trusted men?), Cochin Haneefa (cliched bad guy), Manivannan (Father).

Vadivukkarasi (cast against type as the Mother, the granny role in Arunachalam lingers fresh in our memory), Solomon Pappaiyya, Raja, SunTVnews reader (can't recollect her name) and Suman who takes the villains character complete the cast. Nayanthara skips her way into the opening song in skimpy costumes showing ample cleavage, this actress has lost oodles of weight. This is a Rajinikanth movie, no looking above, below or beyond that. Suspension of disbelief is not an option, one has to keep one's logic at home and simply get immersed in the magic, that's what a Rajini movie is all about. "Sivaji" without any doubt could turn into the biggest blockbuster in recent times.

Trivia

# Watch out for Shankhar, KV Anand and Thotta Tharani on screen in the middle of "Ballaelakka"

# Mimicry by Mayilsamy, Chinni Jayanth and Damu in the end is short and hilarious.

# Rajini using the guitar as a gun a la Desperado style in the "Athiradi" song.

# Mercedes Benz stretch limo bearing a Pollachi registration number plate.

# Rajini's SUV's registration number totalling 8 (TN-09 AZ 98), surely this vehicle belongs to Shankar given his penchant for the number 8.

# Binny mills compound used in one of the action sequences where the villain comes with money, will filmmakers finally stop using this place. 3 out of the four movies I saw last are shot here.

Sivaji the boss

2007-06-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Every single news channel last night was fixed on Rajinikanth and the magic he creates on screen. I'm slated to watch 'Sivaji' in 'Central Theaters' at 1400 hrs today. After this screening I intend to catch the evening show in 'Shanthi Theaters' with my office folks. Quite a prospect this is, watch out for the review of this movie in the next 12-16 hrs.

Late Summer movies - Malayalam

2007-05-25T23:20:00.000-07:00

I saw two movies this week - Vinodayatra & Mayavi. Vinodayatra is a story of Vinod finding his calling in life. It's a feel good family movie where the screenplay takes us into a families daily life without any fanfare and at a leisurely pace. Sathyan Anthikkad is a master director at weaving good family stories and though this movie is not his finest, it' s certainly a decent one with oodles of melodrama. Dilip is funny and so is Mukesh. Seetha, Meera Jasmine, Parvathy (the Kiran TV compere), Mamookoya, Innocent and a few others complete the cast. Screenplay this time is done by Sathyan Anthikkad himself. Ilaiyaraja's music is apt.

Mayavi is a humor loaded movie which doesn't offer any logic, I didn't expect that too. Mahi is a good guy who walks in and out of jail for various crimes he did not commit but owned up to for money. Inorder to get big money he accepts to own up to a murder that is to be committed so that he can save his best friend's brother's life by paying for the operation. How Mahi goes about the task unfolds in the story. There's deception at the highest level, there's jealousy and every Shakespearean vice in this movie. But what I am deliberately trying to understate is the fact that this movie has tons of laughs stuffed into it.

The first half races past you, the length is not felt because of the incredible humor by Mamooty and the entire cast. The second half meanders into the illogical to the absurd but who cares, you can still laugh. Overall, Shafi has directed a hot comedy screenplay penned by Rafi Mecartin and delivered the first superhit of the year. After the dissapointment that was "Big B", "Mayavi: was a refreshing change. Incidentally "Mayavi" released before "Big B" but took so long to release in Coimbatore.

Crossroads

2007-05-23T07:23:00.000-07:00

"When you are standing at life's crossroads
When you're confused and weighed down with loads
When pain and strain, explode and sear right through you
Take the long hard road, take it O my friend
Journey ride along, don't let your patience bend
And at the end of the road
You will find the Lord
He'll be standing there and waiting with his arms open wide
He'll gather you in his side with a love that so bright
His love will soothe your tired mind and heal your weary body"

This song written by Daryll Atkinson best describes the state of mind I'm in these days. Thank God for the power of prayer and the gift of love, it'll take a lot of time and effort to sail through.

Seasonal vibrations

2007-05-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

It is hot in Coimbatore, hot like I've never experienced in the past. I am known for covering myself under a sheet all round the year when asleep, this year I had to abandon that. Intermittent summer showers cool things down a bit but the afternoon heat is excruciating. The lull after the last race in Sepang and the race in Spain this weekend are heating things up too. Will McLaren continue their good run despite their car looking shaky at times (the blue haze from Lewis' car at every turn was scary)?

AR Rahman's "Sivaji" is another thing that is adding to the summer heat. This album is hot and shows what Rahman can do when he get's his own sweet time to work on a soundtrack. I hope the background score lives up to the demands of a Rajini movie. Waiting for this movie to release to see how it fares. Though 'Big B' was a dissappointment, it's music was the best to have come out in recent times. Alphons Joseph is the man behind the soundtrack which get's me to a pertinent question. Why is he not doing the background score for his movies? "Big B" is a case to point.

Haven't read anything in the past 2 months except weekly magazines and the daily newspaper. Call it laziness or not being able to allocate time for it. These days I sleep all day and then work all night. Catch up with some errands early in the morning before going back to sleep again. Heading toward to Madras this weekend and guess what? It's always fun to be with kids and the joy of being with Mia and Meeshma is unparalleled. Especially when you see them fighting for ownership over you, it's not to be encouraged but it's a nice feeling. I will drive them back to Coimbatore on Sunday and I hope the roads are better this time around.

On the back of my mind there's a thought to take a quick trip to Edapally and take part in St.George's feast this year, this is one of those random lightnings I keep getting so it may happen or simply may be dumped. "Roses in winter", "Destination Christ" - two albums Timmy brought back from the trip to Malayatoor released by the RexBand lives up to the expectations I had. The songs are simply fantastic and there's a particular song dedicated to the Late Pope John Paul II which moves me in ways I cannot describe. I am a fan of the late Holy Father and I cannot but submit myself to the power of the music and lyrics and experience his presence in my life. I would love to share the music with everyone on the internet but I don't want to encourage piracy, if anybody wants a demo track or something I'll put it up online. I'll also be glad to purchase and mail copies of this CD if anyone desires.

Big B - movie

2007-04-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

Being a fan of Mamooty and not wanting to miss a chance of watching 'Big B' (malayalam) in Central Theaters (Coimbatore), I went for the night show on Saturday. To say that this movie was bad would be an understatement. This movie was awful. Earlier last week Benoy Chettan had recommended 'Big B' over 'Chota Mumbai' (starring Mohanlal). I should watch the latter and see how it fares.

"Big B" is simply a collection of disconnected images masquerading as a movie. It's a story lifted off the Mark Wahlberg starrer "Four Brothers". It's pace is dismally slow, the screenplay is a jinx which doesn't settle down nor redeem itself. Songs in the movie are good and the action sequences are shot well. Background score is done well too but I felt it was too loud and the surrounds in the cinema hall were pounded for all and sundry. I'll stop here with a quote from a review on this movie in sify.com.

Mammootty's Big-B, is a stylish and technically savvy film from cinematographer turned director Amal Neerad. It is a fast paced entertainer, which is packaged like Amal's guru Ram Gopal Varma films, aimed at the youth audience.

What a farce!

Malayatoor - the spiritual quest

2007-04-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

We started at 2300 hrs IST on Sunday night from Coimbatore towards Malayatoor via Palakkad, Thrissur, Chalakudy, Angamaly & Kalady. The 175 kilometre journey took us about 4 hrs and 30 minutes which included a 45 minute stopover at Mannuthy (near Thrissur) for a midnight dinner. There was this nice place that served tasty chicken legs roasted, mutton fry and gravy with chapathi and omlet to boot.

The trek from the base to Marthoma Mandapam on the hill took about 65 minutes. It was very tiring given the fact that all of us (Sam, Kanja & Tim) are not as fit as we once used to be. I remember running up the hill 5 yrs ago when I went there the first time, compare to the slow walk and you know how much of fitness you should regain. After completing the prayers we spent some time sitting on top of the hill overlooking the forests below.

We got down to the base by 0700 and went to the Periyar river for a long bath. We started towards St.George Church, Edapally at 0930 and stopped over for breakfast in Mezban in Kalamassery. We were served idiappam, pathiri, channa curry and fish curry. The food was tasty and filling. After completing prayers in St.George at 1100 we started back to Coimbatore abandoning our plans to visit Arthunkal. Overall the 5h year to Malayatoor was a grand celebration of the power of prayer and friendship.

I already look forward to the next year's trip.

McLaren updates - 2007 - Malaysian Grand Prix

2007-04-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

It looks like Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes team has finally got it's act together. An almost flawless race today in Sepang saw the team taking the positions 1 and 2 and Lewis Hamilton deserves special mention for showing steel will in the start of the race and keeping his cool till the very end, especially in the closing moments when challenged by Kimi Raikkonnen. "Some time this year I am going to win one of these", that was his message to the team after crossing the finish line. A good sign of things to come from a confident driver whose head is firmly on his shoulder.

Double mirrors - McLaren

2007-03-31T13:02:00.000-07:00

The McLaren car this season had two sets of mirrors on each sides, this was an interesting aspect in terms of giving the drivers all round visibility. Check it out.

Books - mid March 2007

2007-03-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

I have ready the following books till now this year.

* Beware falling coconuts - Adam Clapham
* The Goenka Letters - TJ George
* Lee Iacocca - An Autobiography - Lee Iacocca

Beware falling coconuts is ex BBC producer Adam Clapham's version of life in India. It's humorous, satirical and at times historically interesting. There's a full chapter devoted to Sir Mark Tully.

The Goenka Letters is a compilation of letters written by Ramnath Goenka to various people during his time and vice versa. This book describes the history of the Indian express and Ramnath Goenka's friendships - political, business and personal. A lengthy letter written to the Shah Commission about the emergency is worth a read.

Lee Iacocca, An Autobiography is a very positive book which traces the business life of Lee Iacocca who worked his way up to become the President of Ford Motors only to be sacked. He then took up a challenging assignment to resurrect Chrysler which was going through a bad time and reached the top of this organization too. An uplifting book which certainly is interesting to read.

An update on March

2007-03-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a hectic Feb and March. Feb was throwing health problems in the family and March appears to be ready to win the award for the most hectic month already. Despite having a couple of tracks ready for the 'After The End' section and some other articles, I am simply not able to pull myself together to sit down and write stuff for this blog. I am not on a sabbatical, I am just running too fast. There have been two very interesting trips to God's own country, my birthday and some other reasonably good things to post on a blog which I hope to do soon. The Formula 1 race yesterday was a good start to the 2007 Formula 1 calendar. Sepang on Easter Sunday should be a good one given the heat and high track temperatures in Malaysia. Don't give up on me as yet.

Oscar awards - 2007

2007-02-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

The OSCAR results are out and Martin Scorsese has finally been awarded an oscar. I stuck my neck out by speculating the winners for the 'Sound mixing' and 'Visual effects' category and appear to have got it right though the 'Best animated feature' award went to 'Happy Feet' while I thought 'Cars' was a good effort. The whole world and some aliens too predicted an oscar to Martin Scorsese which has ended in a double whammy - Best Direction and Best Picture, so no big deal on telling about that one.

Cross posted on our group blog

Missing in action ....

2007-02-25T02:27:00.000-08:00

For all of you who have been wondering what the devil I am upto recently I have to say that I've been having a really tough time juggling work and home especially in the recent ups and down that the family has been going through. A fried motherboard at home adds to the woes which is in the process of being fixed. I stick to my earlier promise though.

Mohammad Kaif missing in the 15 member World Cup squad

2007-02-13T00:30:00.001-08:00

It's disheartening to see Mohammad Kaif's name missing in the 15 member squad for World Cup 2007 in the West Indies. This man has the highest batting average in the last series in the Carribean in ODI's and was the second highest run scorer in Test matches behind Rahul Dravid.

ODI's - 5 Matches, 5 Innings, 205 Runs at an average of 51.25

Test's - 4 Matches, 6 Innings, 226 Runs at an average of 56.50 [Ofcourse the only excellent Test match score is the 148 not out in this series]

Surely his ODI performance in terms of batting (in West Indies) is decent and his fielding is the best amongst the players today. Having thought of Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik, our selectors should have given Mohammad Kaif a chance especially more when you see that Yuvaraj has been selected.

What are the odds? 13 to 1

2007-02-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

After the thoroughly enjoyable Oceans 11 and Oceans 12 comes the final part of the trilogy from Steven Soderbergh aptly titled Oceans 13. If Oceans 11 was better that the old version, Oceans 12 took if further and was an entertaining movie. The premise of Oceans 13 appears to be interesting and that makes it a movie to look forward to not for it's oscar value but for simple entertainment.

When one member of the team get's cheated in a business deal all others join together to take revenge soliciting the help of Terry (Andy Garcia). The idea is to bankrupt a casino run by Al Pacino (who cheats Reuben) on it's opening night. This time it's not for the money but for revenge. The absence of Catherine Zeta Jones and Julia Roberts is going to be a minue, but Al Pacino's entry should raise the bar a few notches higher. Andy Garcia and Al Pacino will be seen in the same movie after "The Godfather III".

Disclaimer - Story snippets is based on leaks on the internet, this may or maynot be the actual story in the final version of the film expected to release in June 2007.

Ratan Tata, F16, F18 ......

2007-02-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

This week saw Ratan Tata fly the F16 and F18. That's surely an achievement considering the man's age. The Bangalore air show made Pakistan turn pussy and blame India for once again starting an arms race. Defence AK Antony promptly returned the message that India's defence budget was the lowest in the region. But with the Sukhoi's already orders and with Lockheed Martin waiting for it's order from the Ministry of Defence, India is surely planning to spend every paisa in it's Defence budget.

Police mobile helpline - Coimbatore

2007-02-06T04:31:00.001-08:00

Coimbatore City Police can be reached on 9843100100. The following is a notification to this effect.

Members of the public could make use of this facility to report law and order problems, crime, criminal movement, drunken brawls and even traffic snarls on any of the roads when they saw them while travelling.
For people with speech disability or those who were in distress and not able to make voice calls could send messages over Short Message Service (SMS).

Kerala CM v/s Tamilnadu, where are we heading towards?

2007-02-05T04:23:00.000-08:00

Something is surely amiss between Chief Minister VS Achuthanandhan and Karunanidhi. Kerala and Tamilnadu have enjoyed cordial relations for decades which appears to be on the verge of a roadblock now. Currently we have the following issues simmering between the states and most of them have been publicised by the Kerala CM.

Mullaperiyar water dispute
Parambikulam Aliyar water dispute - Kerala alleges now that it didn't get it's share of the water from Tamilnadu which Tamilnadu says it has.
Bifurcation of the Palakkad division of Southern Railways - The bone of contention here is to in making Coimbatore Jn a part of the new Salem division which means huge loss of revenue to Palakkad division. Coimbatore Jn is the second highest revenue generating railway station in Southern Railways after Chennai Central.

Coimbatore City Police Helpline

2007-02-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

Police Commissioner CK Gandhirajan after taking charge as COP of Coimbatore has put up a number of way where the common man can reach the Police in a free and fast manner. First was the setting up of an email ID to write to the Commissioner of Police (COP).The latest is a police helpline number which can be used to report any law and order problem in the city. 9994310000 is the number to be called. The first instance of immediate police action is the arrest of a bus conductor of a private bus with route number 1C on charges of eve-teasing. This city surely need an upright and effective police force to keep up with the growth it's going through recently. Incidentally Coimbatore has seen some of the best officers in the country despite being a low profile destination. MS Jaffer Sait IPS who is currently the Inspector General of Police (Central Zone) worked as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in this city.

During my polytechnic days I've seen the amount of respect DSP Muthuswamy commanded in the city. I can remember names like Radhakrishnan, Lalawm Sangma, Karan Singha, Sanjay Arora, all COP's at some point of time. The last person was known for his no nonsense approach when it came to police matters. The current COP of Coimbatore has also been an officer who wants police to be friends of the people. This is a welcome move and will help both the police and citizens. Traffic is one of the bigger challenges in this city. With racing almost in every one's blood, every rider/drive in Coimbatore is a one man driving team. The Police are certainly doing a neat job of enforcement in terms of traffic violations and general road safety.

Coimbatore is also one of the safer cities to live in South India and most certainly safer than Chennai or Cochin. There are excellent avenues for primary and higher education and recently the job market has been also showing promise for the IT and Engineering sector. As this city grows, it needs good infrastructure to keep up with the demands of the population, good citizens and above all excellent law enforcement professionals. Men and Women of honour and integrity whom the citizens can look up to. In the way progress is being made by the Police force, we are on the right track. It's now simply going to be a matter of time. Many congrats to the COP for all the positive changes in the department in such a short span of time.

P.S - "Organized Crime" is a book authored by CK.Gandhirajan IPS, it's a good book that deals with what the titles refers to. Get the book, it's worth a read.

Facts and stats - Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes Team

2007-02-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

began development of MP4-22 in March 2006
began initial wind tunnel work on MP4-22 in May 2006
sends between 95 (fly-away races) and 135 (European races) personnel to each Grand Prix
has a race team which comprises: race team manager, senior race engineer, chief mechanic, software engineer, race strategist, two driver engineers, two assistant engineers, two system engineers, two data analysts, 10 mechanics, two gearbox mechanics two fabricator/carbon repairmen, engine dress, chief truckie, two tyre men, electrician, two support crew, security, senior fuel technician, fuel technician, spares co-ordinator, team co-ordinator
used a total of seven chassis throughout the 2006 season
transports approximately 30 tonnes of freight, including three complete race cars at approximately 600kg to each grands prix
takes three spare gearboxes to each race, two built with rear suspension and one loose unit
takes eight engines to each race, one in each of the three cars, two additional for Friday practice sessions and three spares for the rest of the weekend
completed 53,750 kilometres when testing during 2006
completed 16,349 kilometres when racing in 2006, including Practice, Qualifying and Races
generated 100 gigabytes of data during all race meetings and 300 gigabytes of data at all tests in the 2006 season
was supplied with 236,000 litres of Mobil Unleaded fuel for all track and dyno work during the 2006 season
competes with a car that typically handles 3,000 gear changes during a race. This figure varies from circuit to circuit with the highest number occurring at the Monaco Grand Prix where the gears can be changed up to 4,000 times during the race and the lowest in Indianapolis where the driver changes gear approximately 2,000 times
competes with a car that is typically capable of the following performance:
0-60mph / 0 - 96kph 2.3 seconds
0-100mph / 0 - 160kph 3.6 seconds
0-100-0mph / 0 -160 - 0kph 6.6 seconds
and can decelerate from 185mph to a standstill in 3.5 seconds
was supplied 3,024 tyres in total for the 18 Grand Prix weekends in 2006. (2,016 dry-weather tyres and 1,008 wet-weather tyres)
take 160 Enkei wheel rims to each race
generate 4,600 drawings to create the 11,000 components that make up each car drivers are subjected to forces of up to 5G under braking
conducted 1,263 practice pit-stops throughout the course of the 2006 season takes approximately seven seconds for a pit stop, with 29 crew working on each car, to refuel and to change four wheels and tyres, and the cars can be refuelled at a rate of 12 litres per second
[Images - McLaren MP4-22]
[Source - www.mclaren.com]

McLaren - 2007 F1 season

2007-02-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

Wooooha, McLaren is ready with the car and drivers for the 2007 season and by far the MP4-22 is the best looking car in this year's lineup. Interestingly it looks like a departure from the grey-black attire that drivers don in this team, this year the drivers are sporting a white overall with logo imprinted all over it. This looks like an improvised version of dressing McLaren had till 1994 until Mercedes stepped in as the engine supplier.

Music - Pachaikili Muthicharam

2007-01-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

All fans of music, rush to the nearest music store and grab a copy of this movie's soundtrack. It's worth the money, time and effort. Simple melodies by Harris Jeyaraj and songs written by Thamarai for a movie directed by Gowtham, now that's certainly one winning combination.

Roberto Benigni's next

2007-01-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

After the super good 'Life is Beautiful' and 'Pinnochio', Roberto Benigni is back with 'The Tiger and the snow'. This movie appears to be another romance set in the times of the Iraq war. Trust Roberto to treat the story sensitively and in an incredibly humorous manner. I can't wait to see this movie, but I doubt if it would be ever released in my country. That reminds me of something, time to visit Burma Bazaar.

In the larger interest .....

2007-01-29T05:17:00.000-08:00

Last night in a program on Times NOW Mahesh Bhatt narrated the following story. He met a boatman in a village and this man was charging Rs.1 per passenger to cross a river. Bhatt asked him if he knew that a bridge was being constructed across the river the boatman answered in the affirmative. Bhatt then asked him if he wasn't worried about loosing his livelihood to which the boatman replied, "Whatever happens to me, the bridge will certainly be good for the people".

A similar incident happened an year ago about which my brother recollected. This happened during one of his trips to Thattekad near Kothamangalam in Kerala. There was this boatman who was ferrying tourists across the river and my brother asked him if he knew about a bridge that was coming a little upstream. To my brother's surprise the boatman said that he was happy about the bridge because people who are sick and bitten by snakes in the forest can be driven to the town hospital much faster.

I salute these Indians!

An update on 'After The End'

2007-01-28T22:40:00.000-08:00

This series is yet to go online because I thought of putting up the sound clips in addition to writing about them. Currently I am trying to capture the sound and put them up as MP3's on this blog for readers to listen to the score too. This series will go online in not later than a week from now.

Adrian Newey on McLaren

2007-01-27T22:18:00.000-08:00

It's interesting when Adrian Newey, McLaren's erstwhile Technical Director, comments on McLaren and in a tone thats positive and raises hope :

"They're a tough team and in (double champion) Fernando (Alonso) they have perhaps the most proven driver at the moment given Michael (Schumacher)'s retirement.Probably some of the things that hindered them last year, the direction that tyre development took and possibly the way that the engine rules were, have now fallen into their hands.So I would imagine that they will be very competitive this year."

Adrian Newey was the brain behind the MP4/13 which took Mika Hakkinen to his first championship and won McLaren the constructors crown in 1998. This man used to be the force that saw Mclaren's car have that wee bit of aerodynamic advantage and when he left McLaren for Red bull in 2005 some of us would have wondered if McLaren would be able to get a person who could fit the big space that was vacant.
Adrian Newey also is quite a modest man which is evident when one see the interviews he gives to the media. My favourite Adrian quote is also the answer he gave when questioned about the secret of his success.

"I don't think there is a single knack, I mean it's what I always wanted to do. I guess I am reasonably artistic, got a reasonable maths brain as well, and managed to combine the two into what I do. But what the trick is, I don't know."

[The first picture and second pictutes are off Mika Hakkinen & Adrian Newey. The third picture is off Ron Dennis and Adrian Newey]