Geo’s Talkies – OK Kanmani

‪#‎OKKanmani‬ is vintage Mani Ratnam, even if it sounds like a cliche. The GodFather of modern romance at various points of time right from Mouna Raagam right up to Alaipayuthey has written a story that involves a man and woman of today, wonderfully played by Nithya Menen as Tara Kalingarayan and nicely portrayed by Dulquer Salman as Aditya Varadharajan.

Conversations over cell phones, professional aspirations and goals, values (some would say the lack of it) all have been woven into the story. He layers these troupes with those of an ageing couple faced with their own problems in day to day life. Its almost like a plant blossoming under a giant tree the two couples separated by age. The movie is also about Prakash's Raj's Ganapathy, in one of his finest roles ever, and Leela Samson's Bhavani though the trailers focus on Adhi-Tara.

The hip upper class crowd, for a change isn't portrayed as scheming and lacking in moral and ethical values. After a series of botched up female acting calls, the ace auteur nails it this time with his cast. Ramya Subramanian gets a good role to play in her first full scale movie outing almost like Swarnamalya and Medha got in Alaipayuthey. Buses, trains, rain, sea front, telephone calls, bikes all get a fresh take in this story. Though Mani's characters are mostly upper-middle class / upper class they always travel by public transport.

The story is light weight, entertaining and lacks serious drama or tension building moments. AR Rahman's re-recording (an Indianism for background score) has a higher amount of piano this time and the BGM is co-credited to Qutub-e-Kripa (KMMC composers). PC Sreeram's camera is inventive in it's angles, particularly featuring Adhi and Tara. The first series of conversations between the couple is beautifully staged and immaculately captured. Another Madras Talkies' regular Sreekar Prasad has edited the movie.

This movie is Mani Ratnam giving his fans a re-arrangement of his troupes, to people who felt he strayed away from his strengths as a story teller. [Asides: The movies didn't have to be rated U/A. "Pollachi Mahalingam", "Kalingarayar", the "TN-66 J" registered Audi and the name itself makes up a lot of references to Kovai aka Coimbatore. For some of us there is no other place like Cbe].

Requiscat in pace – Malcolm & Carmel

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.

Police mobile helpline - Coimbatore

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).

Coimbatore City Police Helpline

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.