Double mirrors - McLaren

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

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

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

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 ....

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

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

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 ......

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

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?

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

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

• 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

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

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

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 .....

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'

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

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]

Geo's Talkies - Salaam-e-Ishq

Nikhil Advani's second movie after the super duper 'Kal Ho Na Ho' [I am certainly not a fan of the movie but loved the music] promised an interesting premise. Six couples and their lives with love as the underlining aspect. After viewing the movie, I am not only utterly dissapointed at the half baked story but also wonder how the screenplay was conjured up.

The story is about love in people of different age groups and sensibilities. John Abraham / Vidya Balan are couple who are married for 2 yrs. Anil Kapoor / Juhi Chawla are married for 15 yrs with two kids. Arbaaz Khan / Isha Kopikkar are newly wedded. Akshaye Khanna / Ayesha Takia are to be wedded soon. Govinda is a taxi driver who gets into love, how? Priyanka Chopra is an aspiring starlet who will also fall in love, how?

The premise is certainly interesting but the story is a hogwash. Music is the highlight of this movie. I couldn't stand the individual climax each couple had on screen, surely Nikhil Advani needs a ruthless editor who can butcher meaningless and worthless length of film which otherwise plays on in the name of character exposition but does anything but that. I salute Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for sitting through the story session and coming up with decent tunes.

All actors except Govinda, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla are horrible actors. Vidya and Priyanka are the least bad ones. John's emotions are surprisingly less wooden. Salaam-E-Ishq is a good idea gone all horribly wrong due to the lack of a coherent screenplay and a strong story. Salman Khan is wasted in a meaningless role and Arbaaz Khan / Isha Koppikar are in miniscule roles where they attempt to consummate their marriage on screen.

If you want to see how multiple stories can be stitched into a decent movie, watch 'Crash'. And for heavens sake movies like this should avoid insulting viewers intelligence by showing 'somewhere in London', 'somewhere near Delhi' etc, yikes, the audience is hardly confused all along the movie. The filmmakers certainly are.

I wouldn't be least surprised if this movie turned into a box office hit.

79th Academy Award Nominations

The nominations for the 79th Academy Awards (OSCAR) are out and this is one of those years when John Williams' score hasn't made it to the list because he didn't have any releases in 2006. Movies nominated for original score are :

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo Santaolalla
“The Good German” (Warner Bros.) Thomas Newman
“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight) Philip Glass
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Alexandre Desplat

Sadly AR Rahman's songs too failed to figure in the original song for a motion picture list. The following are the one's nominated :

“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”, Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry Krieger and Scott CutlerLyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” from “Cars”, Music and Lyric by Randy Newman [My favourite]
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Willie Reale

"Apocalypto" figures in both the sound editing and sound mixing nominations and it should win the Oscars despite the presence of heavy weight competition from "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Blood Diamond". I wouldn't be surprised if the sound mixing award went to 'Dreamgirls' though. The visual effects award would most certainly go to the minds that worked on "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest", "Superman" and "Poseidon" are the others nominated in this category.

The best animated feature film of the year award should go to "Cars". "Happy Feat" is a strong contender and so is "Monster House". "Water" directed by Deepa Mehta makes it to the final list in the best foreign film category, I don't know the odds of this movie winning the oscar, but I hear it's got a good chance. Interestingly it was Canada's official entry in this category. "Rang De Basanti" apparently didn't make it to the final list. Go through the full list of nominations and take your pick, let's hope the academy finally breaks the oscar jinx and gives Martin Scorsese the oscar for best director.

Coimbatore --> Madurai --> Coimbatore

Before embarking on this trip I tried to find out various routes to take to reach Madurai online but was not too successful in finding correct information. So I spoke to some friends who belong to Madurai and decided to go via Dharapuram and return via Udumalpet. From Coimbatore, one has to take the NH-67 upto Palladam. One has to drive past the diversion that leads to Tirupur in Palladam and about a kilometre to the right is the road that leads to Dharapuram. There are no diversions or confusions midway and the only area where one will need directions is when entering Dharapuram.

Every road is neatly marked with directions and one will have to drive towards Ottanchatiram from here. This is a fairly straight drive and upon reaching Ottanchatiram one will join NH-209 (right from this intersection will take us to Palani and left to Dindigul). One will have to take the left towards Dindigul and drive to a point where the a diversion towards the left leads to Sempatti. After Sempatti, one joins NH-7 (coming from Karur, Salem) and drive right upto Madurai.

While returning we drove upto Ottanchathiran via Sempatti. The diversion to Sempatti occurs around 45 kms from Madurai on the NH-7 highway. From Ottanchatiram we took the road to Palani and reached Coimbatore via Udumalpet and Pollachi. This drive took 3.5 hrs and the roads were better than the route I took to go to Madurai. One can cruise at 90-110 kmph speeds without any serious risk in the night time because of the lack of potholes and moderate traffic.

Geo's Talkies - Dil Chahta Hai

Dil Chahtha Hai is a primarily about three guys, Akaash, Siddharth and Sameer. All three are from well to do families and they are shown to be the best of friends. They party together, travel together and have fun. Akaash does not really believe in love, he’s more of a realist who believes he has no time to romance. Sameer has time only to fall in and out of love, everytime he falls in love he strives hard to keep it glowing but alas, it never works. Siddharth is an artist with the third eye, he sees what normal people don’t see. He lives in a world of his own and is the type of guy even if we’ve known for years would still not have known him, paradoxically.

The usual stuff that happens between college students like parties, date fundas, crushes, jokes are shown superbly in this movie. The friendship hit’s a speedbreaker when Siddharth begins to develop feelings for an older women, Tara, who’s a divorcee with a grown up child who comes to live in Akaash’s locality and has an eye for art and alcohol. Akaash and Siddharth get distanced over a freak remark by Akaash over their relationship and the movie treads a new course from here. Siddharth takes up art full time, Sameer get’s into business with his Dad and so does Akaash.

Akaash goes to Australia where he meets Shalini with whom he’s already blooped a meeting in a graduation party when in college. Akaash get’s into business professionally & personally and in the process he finds himself inextricably in love with Shalini who’s already engaged with Rohit, an arrogant and overtly possessive son of Shalini’s father’s business partner, why she wants to marry him is also shown in the movie, a la Hindi film style. Meanwhile, Sameer finds love in Pooja after turning down a proposal to marry her because he was averse to the idea of an arranged marriage.

The story actually begins with Tara being taken to a hospital where she is waiting her death on account of a damaged liver. It progresses from there where all these items are presented in flashback sequences. Tara dies leaving Siddharth broken hearted, Akaash apologises to Siddharth and the three become friends again, and if you thought this is where the story ended you just jumped the gun. Months later Siddharth finds love in the form of Akaash’s ex-flame Deepa and all’s well end’s well.

I usually don’t like to spell out the story of a movie but this movie’s highlight is in the way the characters are presented on screen, how they behave and strike a rapport with the audiences. Another reason for making the story public was because this is a fairly old movie. DCH’s team has done a lot of study in etching the characters, we can find very real characters one notable example apart from the main cast being Priya, a cameo by ex-VJ Suchitra Pillai. She simply lives her role exhibiting the upperclass aura that we can usually see around.

There are some scenes that require special mention, one being Akaash’s phone call to Sameer asking him to put him on to Siddharth to apologise. Akaash’s transition from a joker to a serious viewer in an Opera house with Shalini. Akaash, Sameer and Siddharth sitting on a wall of a ruins of a fort in Goa. The most hilarious scene is when Sameer who’s dating a foreigner Christine in Goa is shown groaning and moaning in a bedroom with all kinds of dress and lingerie strewn around, no, it’s not what you are thinking!!!

Director Farhan Akthar has created a mark for him with his debut, his innovative style of presenting the story needs special mention. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is good, very smooth. Ravi K Chandran’s camera work is more than excellent, it’s fabulous. There’s a dominant color tone to signify the youthful feel of the movie. Nakul Kamte has done superb work with the sound, we have lot’s of silences and the foley artists have filled in the gaps. Shot using sync sound, the result is stunning.

Music of this movie is one of the best that came out that year, credits must go to Shankhar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani & Loy Mendonsa for the songs and scintillating background scores. The background scores are a mix of techno-rock, piano-flute-guitar pieces and they are apt and mesmerising. Aamir Khan as Akaash, Saif Ali Khan as Sameer, Akshaye Khanna as Siddharth, Preity Zinta as Shalini, Sonali Kulkarni as Pooja, Dimple Kapadia as Tara gell into their role quite perfectly. Dimple Kapadia has got the most intense eyes in the film industry but this performance is not a superlative one, just the usual one.

Overall this was the best movie to have released then, if you have not seen it then you have missed great entertainment.

[Published originally on the 30th of December 2002 on mouthshut.com]

Geo's Talkies - Parineeta

Vidhu Vinod Chopra is one of the few directors in India who’s got it all to call himself a good director. His movies have had good music, excellent cinematography and a good script to take the story forward. For the novices, he roped in Sanjay Leela Bhansali to direct his songs in ’1942 A love story’. The script is credited to him in this movie and he’s done the screenplay with Pradeep Sarkar. Who is Pradeep Sarkar? With over a 1000 ad movies under his belt, Pradeep Sarkar is the director of this movie. I wonder if a non-Bengali could have done justice to this story.

The original story ’Parineeta’ (Married woman) was penned by Saratchandra Chatterjee, the same person who did ’Devdas’. It begins in 1962 in calcutta where we see Shekhar getting ready for what appears to be his wedding. 30 seconds into the movie a jump cut takes you to what’s running on his mind and that’s Lolitha, his childhood buddy and sweetheart. Lolitha as we later understand has grown up with Shekhar and they’ve been close to each other as cheese and bread. Her parents die when she’s young and she grows up in an uncles place who are Shekhar’s neighbours.

Shekhar’s father, Navin is a construction baron as it’s typical to people from West Bengal. He’s a man known for his ruthless ambition and strict demeanour. Lolitha has an adorable sister, aptly enacted by Raima Sen. She’s always full of life. Enter Girish, almost God like and acts like a saviour, helps Lolitha’s uncles family out of a financial mess antagonising Shekhar’s Dad in the process who manages to engineer a split between the lead characters. Shekhar ends up loosing the two things he loved most in his life, his music and his wife.

Did I say wife? You need to see the movie to know how Lolitha becomes Shekhar’s wife, the scenes depicting this are sheer poetry. Shekhar meanwhile agrees to wed Gayathri Tantia, the daughter of another wealthy baron. At this point the story comes back to the present. Girish’s one sided love for Lolitha, Koel’s (Lolitha’s sister) admiration and crush on Girish, Shekhar’s love for Lolitha and Lolitha’s love for Shekhar, everything is so nicely portrayed in the movie without going over the top. Everything is so subtle but clear.

Though the movie goes back and forth in time, there in no difficult in the audience understanding the transition because of the beautiful execution hence removing the need for ’some time ago’, ’present day’ etc. The strength of this movie is that it is based on a solid foundation, i.e., the original book written by Saratchandra Chatterjee. The screen writers have adapted the story beautifully to the 60’s, the book is originally set in the beginning of the 20th century. Production design by Apocalypse Filmworks, Pradeep Sarkar’s ad company, is top notch. A lot of hard work and money has gone into re-creating Calcutta of the sixties.

Saif Ali Khan who portrays the role of Shekhar brilliantly bringing out the repulsiveness, angst, jealousy, short temper and shows that he’s pampered but with infinite love for his beloved which is understated. If one wonders how can Saif fit into an almost period character this one is a sterling example. Sanjay Dutt is all that Saif’s character is not, we have seen him in similar characters in the past, this is is unique though. Vidya Balan enacts the role of Lolitha to perfection, at one point she makes you feel so bad for the dialog writers because you end up only seeing her, we can hardly listen. She brings out myriad amount of emotions and subtle gestures on her face which light up the screen.

Sabyasachi Chakravarthy plays the role of Navin Rai to perfection, one needs to pay attention to the effortless transition he makes between Hindi and English on screen. He looks, lives and breathes life into his character. There’s nothing one can blame on the actors, this should be one of the movies with the most appropriate cast who don the roles to perfection. Cinematography by Nataraja Subramanian (he’s worked with Pradeep on ads before) captures Calcutta for what it is, Howrah bridge in dusk, Trams on the road, large havelis lit up to show all their splendour, darkness that seem like they are being drawn on screen while they are actually the absence of light. A thousand standing ovations to the cinematographer for the brilliantly capturing the visuals on screen.

Another aspect that strikes you is the use of sound. I saw this movie on a DVD that had a dts encoded soundtrack. When one says dts, immediately you hear helicopters going all over you, gun shots, woosh’s, etc come to one’s mind. This movie is a good example of using technology to create a wholesome ambience sans the loud sound effects one usually relates to it. When you see something on screen, you also hear it. Good use of sound helps in taking the audience right into what’s hapenning on screen, the durga pooja in the movie is an example of this aspect. Biswadeep Chatterjee scores full marks for sound design and recording.

If I have to pick a bone at the director, I’d say the ending was a bit over the top, especially the main guy demolishing a wall with people around him going ’do it Shekhar’, ’come on shekhar’. The speed at which things move when Shekhar get into business is real fast and the director hasn’t wasted any time in developing that part of his character. Diya Mirza essays the role of looking good as Gayathri and nothing much to say about her, we don’t expect much either. Rekha comes in a nice cameo as a Jazz singer in Moulin Rouge, nothing much to talk about it except that she’s done a good job.

Music director Shantanu Moitra has excelled in the simple and hummable tunes he’s created. They are appropriate and fit into the movie perfectly.Pradeep Sarkar is the man of the moment in this movie, all his experience has gone into making this movie which shows. A man who is making his first feature in his early 50’s is not an easy task, but all the experience he’s had has shown in getting the screenplay done and keeping off from the in-your-face commercial tamasha.

On the whole ’Parineeta’ is surely one of the best modern movies that are commercial but still try to strike a balance between what’s logical and aesthetic without getting over the top and crass. ’Parineeta’ is a class apart from the usual bollywood fare, now for all you who are curios about what hapenned to Shekhar’s wife, does he get her? What happens to Girish’s love? Where does Koel fit into all this? Go see the movie or still better buy a VCD or DVD, it sure is worth the price.

[Published originally on the 13th of October 2005 on mouthshut.com]

Censorship and the I&B Ministry

The I&B (Information and Broadcasting) ministry in the Government of India is bent upon playing spoilsport in the past decade. In the past if one I&B Minister thought FTV should be banned, the current minister has taken it a step further and banned AXN from Indian airwaves for a period of two months. This sort of arbitrary action has been a signature recently for example consider the furore over 'The DaVinci Code'. I for one could not watch this movie when it released because of the ban in Tamilnadu. But the fact that I own it (legally) on DVD is another matter now.

Yesterday's ban on AXN was immature if not unwarranted. The statement released by the I&B ministry reads as follows.

“It had come to the notice of the Central Government that some cable operators in the country through their Cable Television Networks are transmitting /re-transmitting a satellite channel namely “AXN” which is reportedly telecasting programmes such as ‘World’s Sexiest Advertisements’ that are against good taste or decency and are likely to adversely affect public morality,”

Now what constitutes 'good taste' or 'decency' is open to interpretation. I am sure all the umpteen mega serials are 'decent' as are all the proceedings shown in state assemblies and parliament. Let's take a look at the provisions in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 that could have been invoked to effect this ban. Chapter 5 section 20 of this act reads as follows.

(3) Where the Central Government considers that any programme of any channel is not in conformity with the prescribed programme code referred to in section 5 or the prescribed advertisement code referred to in section 6, it may by order, regulate or prohibit the transmission or re-transmission of such programme”.

Obviously this section can be invoked at any programme and an arbitrary ban can be effected because there is no established procedure to haul up the broadcaster and solicit an explanation (which I don't think is fair at all in the first place). The program code referred to in section 5 is show below. See for yourself how varied it's provisions are.

Programme Code - No programme should be carried in the cable service which:-

(a) Offends against good taste or decency:

(b) Contains criticism of friendly countries;

(c) Contains attack on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes;

(d) Contains anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half truths;

(e) Is likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promote-anti-national attitudes;

(f) Contains anything amounting to contempt of court;

(g) Contains aspersions against the integrity of the President and Judiciary;

(h) Contains anything affecting the integrity of the Nation;

(i) Criticises, maligns or slanders any individual in person or certain groups, segments of social, public and moral life of the country ;

(j) Encourages superstition or blind belief;

(k) Denigrates women through the depiction in any manner of the figure of a women, her form or body or any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent, or derogatory to women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals;

(l) Denigrates children;

(m) Contains visuals or words which reflect a slandering, ironical and snobbish attitude in the portrayal of certain ethnic, linguistic and regional groups

(n) Contravenes the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

(o) is not suitable for unrestricted public exhibition.

Explanation – For the purpose of this clause, the expression “unrestricted public exhibition” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Cinematograph Act, 1952 (37 of 1952);

Given this matter, another one came up yesterday which kind of sends one logic in a tailspin. Pray what's in public interest about Shilpa Shetty taking part in 'Big Brother' for a sum of 3 crores for 25 days? Why is the government worried about what is happening in the show? If Bollywood is worried it certainly has a right to and if fans are worries their worry is not misplaced. But the Government certainly has other pressing matters to talk about and work on. The I&B minister calling a meeting of secretaries in New Delhi to tackle the matter of alleged racism in a TV show is surely in India's interest!

At the end of the day, it looks like everyone wants to be featured in the next days' newspaper and all news bulletins. The I&B ministry needs a liberal minded minister who'd be able to open up airwaves like Dr.Manmohan Singh did to the Economy in the 90's. They also need someone like Mr.P.Chidambaram to continue the reforms otherwise the successor will end up undoing all changes effected by the predecessor.

Geo's Talkies - The Shawshank Redemption

What makes a movie spectacular, a cut above from the rest? A good story, a clear screenplay, neat performances, technically sound which includes the faculties of music, cinematography, editing, art direction and production. There are a lot of movie which might fit into one of these genres - action thrillers, suspense thrillers, romance, musicals. There are a couple of genres where we don’t have a tight narrative, where the director takes the liberty to move things at his pace, we could call them drama.

Drama is a tricky slot to be in because apart from all that the movie has, it has to relate to the human spirit in some way to be special. ’The Shawshank Redemption’ is an excellent movie by that standards. It’s a story about this banker played by Tim Robbins(Andy) who’s imprisoned for the murder of his wife, over the course of the movie we get to know more about the murder.

In the prison the movie introduces us to a variety of characters. Morgan Freeman as Red who plays the role of a convict serving a life sentence fits into the character perfectly and so does Bob Gunton as Warden Norton, the hypocrite Bible-obsessed disciplinarian. The film moves highlighting all aspects of prison life, the not-so good and bad side, like Andy being sexually abused. The film begins to show glimmers of hope when Andy begins to get into the system and tries to work it for the good of the prisoners.

There is also a very interesting insight into the murder of Andy’s wifes’ murder when a new convict comes in and things get a bit worse from then. But the real treat is in the last 15 minutes when all things fall right where they have to be and elicit a very positive reaction from each one of us. This is where the film truly wins and this is where the director has proved his mettle.

Frank Darabont had shown a lot of promise with this movie in the mid nineties, though this film failed to get an Oscar despite being nominated for more than one categories does not in any way diminish it’s sheen, we all know about the Oscar’s and how they can be manipulated. Stephen King’s book was translated into this beautiful movie is another achievement, given the fact that Stephen King always dwells with supernatural concepts. The same writer-director team came up with ’The Green Mile’ years later shows the talent in the director, the writers talent is not a question here since it’s been proved more than once in the past.

Music in this movie can be compared to Tim Robbins performance, one could call it under-stated. Given the concept of the movie Thomas Newman has done a splendid work, either this movie could have provided one big theme that went with the concept or it could have a number of themes that went with the story and the music director has chosen to do the latter which fits into the soundscape perfectly, so finally we have one person to carry on the Alfred Newman legacy. Special mention has to be made about the scene in which Andy plays the duet ’’Sull’aria... Che soave zeffiretto ’’ from opera ’’Le nozze di Figaro’’(The Marriage of Figaro composed by Mozart) , as audiences we can feel the freedom that Andy speaks about and that’s what Opera is all about.
Roger Deakins, the cinematographer has also executed his task very well, we have optimally lit(should I say darkened) prison scenes and a beautiful helicopter aerial shot of the prison which is breath-taking, editing has also been done deftly and a very novel method of transition between scenes heightens the narrative, like the sound of gavel in the court and clanking of doors in the prison.
'Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free’, says the tag line and I doubt whether we’d have anything to contrast it, this is one movie everyone must see to know what goes into making a good film. If I had to pick the top movies of all time, I’m sure ’The Shawshank Redemption’ would make it to the list without any second thoughts.

[Published originally on the 30th of October 2002 on mouthshut.com]

Nerd test result

Music and movies - After "The End"

Music in the movies always play a vital role and I am sure most if not all of us walk out of the cinema hall as the end titles start rolling in. There are cinema halls which simply stop projecting as soon as the credits start to roll which is unfortunate too. It makes sense to them to save on electricity and stop showing something which the audience is least interested in. On a personal level, most of the end titles of movies have some of the best music from the movie backing up the credits and I thought why not write about some of them which I've seen and tended to like. With this in mind, we'll be rolling out a new series titled After "The End" which has nothing to do with the Apocalypse or Armageddon, but will only try to talk about the music that underscores the movie credits after we've seen 'The End' on screen. I hope to post the first opinion on this service by the end of this week.

Geo's Talkies - Stigmata

This is a movie which tries to build it’s plot around the Catholic concept of ’Stigmata’,which is a state where the afflicted suffers the wounds that Jesus Christ had when he was on the cross. It’s is supposed to originate from a very high state of religiousness and faith.

The movie has spectacular cinematography, especially when in the beginning before the titles come up. It begins with a priest who’s investigating a miracle in South America stumbles upon a crying statute, the higher up’s in the Vatican put him on another mission where he has to solve the case of an atheist suffering from Stigmata.

It’s here that the movie gains momentum, an atheist suffering Stigmata is not a credible explanation. The priests internal conflicts, the priests struggle regarding his faith, his reason for being a priest and a scientist all form a very interesting narrative. Though the Catholic Church is portrayed in a not-so-good light, it doesn’t spark off a major controversy.

All these were part of the debate the Church has had and is having for centuries now. The end has a surprise which to a certain extent explains all the happenings, which is though not fully acceptable but in any case fine. This is a movie for Christians and non-Christians alike, for Christians it’ll provide some insights to the concept of faith and to non-Christians it’s a mystery solved, a thriller.

Musically, this movie has nothing great to offer, it has some real good Techno, House based tracks which are played when the lead character come in the frame, which enhances the narrative highlighting the mindset of the character. The other scenes in the Church and Priest are the usual, Gregorian, Gothic or Classical music which is passe .

Cinematography and Editing are strong points of this movie, editing is razor sharp with inter-cuts and some inter-play of visuals enhance the feel of the situation. Wonderful camera work all along the movie highlight the look and mood of the movie.

Overall, Stigmata can be termed as an OK thriller which might be heresy to some but valuable insight to many.

[Published originally on the 26th of October 2002 on mouthshut.com]

Trivia

# Stigmata are bleeding wounds in the wrists & feet, back, on the scalp and on one side of the chest. These are believed to be symbols of the wounds Christ got when he was crucified - nails through his wrist and feet, lashes on his back, spear through his chest and wounds caused on the scalp by the crown of thorns.

John Williams on music ....

“There’s a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn’t have to do with body movements, it doesn’t have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual.”

Content - mouthshut.com

I wrote my first movie opinion on the 26th of October 2002 after watching this movie titled 'Stigmata' because I was terribly affected by the content and presentation of this movie. It's always been a challenge to do this consistently and the fact that I wrote only about 13 other views in 4 yrs is a testimony to the lazy bum I am. But with the re-naming of this blog I made a promise to myself that I will be more consistent in putting up opinions and I'm working hard to live up to that promise. To consolidate my writings, I intend to move some views from mouthshut.com over to this blog so that new content is published. With blogger I believe I am able to reach a much wider audience and the absence of word limit works well for a verbose writer like me.

Guru, Mani Ratnam and .......

Looking at the way the media is projecting and reporting "Guru" it appears that the first blockbuster for the year is already in the movie halls. Mani Ratnam should be one relieved man, given the fact that he's yet to taste 'stupendous' success north of the Vindhyas though this is not an indicator of the quality of films he makes. The South Indian audience has already been treated to some off his finest works and most if not all have been big grossers in the box office.

Mani has never been very vocal in the media despite the huge excitement his projects generate. Partnering with CNN-IBN this time for 'Guru', Mani certainly has worked on the PR area and as Anuradha Senguptha said at the end of interview that Mani should allow the media to meet him more. By the way, this interview is a must see for any cinema fan. A usually wry Taran Adarsh has also provided a decent report about the box office opening in IndiaFM.

As I expected, the people who saw this movie in my home town have been raving about the titles and the innovative and rather surprising way in which it's ushered onto the screen. Mind you, most of the people in this part of the world are very aware about the technical aspects of films. No wonder that the largest number of dts theaters are in Andhra Pradesh and every movie releasing in Telugu and Tamils comes out with a dts encoded soundtrack.

Geo's Talkies - Guru

Guru is the story of dreams, of relationships caught in between them and off a man who fought the odds to create value for people who trusted in him. Gurukant Desai hails from Iddhar village in Gujarat whose father is a school headmaster. He goes to Istanbul, Turkey in search of better pastures after failing in school . After doing fairly well over there he returns back to India with dreams of setting up a business.

Guru marries Sujata, a daughter of a wealthy money lender and whose recently been ditched by her lover. They go to Mumbai to setup a business against the wishes of Guru’s father. In Mumbai Guru faces all sorts of hurdles attempting to setting up his business and meets Manikdas Gupta who runs a newspaper ‘The Independent’ who helps Guru in voicing his concerns through his newspaper. Meenakshi aka Meenu is Manikdas’ is the differently abled terminally ill granddaughter of Manikdas aka Nanaji.

Guru setups a strong business empire and in the process breaks a few laws in a system that his largely sided with the one’s that have money. This causes concern in Manikdas who’s straight as an arrow approach towards life makes him despise Guru and enlists Shyam Saxena, a successful journalist, in exposing Guru. Meenu meanwhile marries Shyam and lives the remaining days of her life in his company.

What happens to Guru and his empire? That’s for the audience to see in the theaters. “Sapna nahi dekhna, sapnay kabhi sach nahi hothay” – this is the line Guru speaks as the movie opens in an empty cricket stadium. That sets the tone for the movie and the things to come because we know right then the futility of that line somehow. Gurukant Desai is the character handled by Abishek Bachchan and does he do a wonderful job? Oh yes he does, this is his best performance till date. He displays variety, range and a certain aura which binds us to his character.

Mithun Chakraborthy plays the role of Manikdas Gupta. I wish Mithunda does more character roles in movies, but it’s hard to get a character of such depth and substance. He plays the role perfectly and still has an immense screen presence. Aishwarya Rai plays the character of Sujata, surprisingly for a cynic like me who has never like any of the acting she’s done in the past except her dancing skills, this turns out to be a better performance. The deglamourized Aishwarya works well in the movie and I am sure a lot of hard work has gone into her character and role.

Madhavan walks the character of Shyam Saxena which looks easy to play but there’s a lot of subtle things he does proving his experience in the Mani Ratnam production unit. Vidya Balan essays the role of Meenakshi, this is one capable actor we all want to see more. No running around, no dancing but perched on a wheel chair, she emotes well and has a wonderful voice. All other characters are dealt with by talented people and veterans and full marks to the director in selecting this cast. No song till now has done justice to Mallika as ‘Mayya mayya’ in this movie. This song is sensuous, well lit and shot and has good dance too. It’s not vulgar and arousing like item numbers are these days. We can’t expect any less from the badshah of item numbers Mr.Mani Ratnam.

Rajiv Menon’s camera captures the proceedings accurately and innovatively. This man is not only a good director and singer but also an exceptionally talented cinematographer. The last time Rajiv and Mani came together, Bombay happened. Though the expectations on the second outing could have been huge, Rajiv has equaled them if not surpassed. Look out for lights on temple dooms, light reflections on pillars and the way the Turkish Church is lit up for ‘Mayya mayya’. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is not sharp in the sense that we know how it is in the movies in the past 2 – 3 yrs. Transitions between scenes are not swish-zoom-tak but more subdued and laidback, I guess the subject deserves this kind of treatment. I am sure he’s also ruthlessly chopped out some scenes from the movie, for example, the following scene did not feature in the movie at all.

Samir Chanda’s 20 yr experience shows in the production design. Except for the tram in the Mumbai scene in the beginning, which I thought was a bit too tacky and unreal, everything else about this production is superlative. To believe that the sets were put up in the Binny mills compound in Chennai is tough, it’s so real and fits the period. The train in the movie from the 50’s looks real too. Sridhar (a Mani regular) captures and recreates the necessary aural ambience and the dts mix is not distracting at all. Not sure if they used sync sound, my logic says that the dialogs are dubbed.

AR Rahman, the musical genius weaves a score that at once melodic, periodic and inventive. How I wish producers would give him all the time he needs to work on music. The result can’t get any better than this. A musical from Mani with AR Rahman writing tunes is the best it can get in terms of music in India. All songs fit into the story and the background score needs a separate review of it’s own. Like with all Mani movies this movie has a song too which is not featured in the audio release. This song is used for Meenu’s character.

Mani has a unique way of portraying relationships on screen. Be it husband-wife, father-children or friends, all relationships he films are so real and unique. There's this bedroom scene in this movie where Guru and Sujata are beating each other in a playful manner, who could imagine intimacy can be shown in such weird yet effective manner. Shyam proposing to Meenu and ultimately kissing her after she gives her consent is another intensely romantic scene. The same can be said about the bonding generated between Manikdas and Guru and the lack of that between Guru and his Father. Humor has been woven into the screenplay and dialogs and some lines will hold you in splits.

This movie is a Mani Ratnam movie. I can simply stop my case with this one line. Only this man can take characters from real life, fictionalize them and present them on screen as an entertaining movie. Mani the auteur is the brain behind Guru. Every frame bears his signature, every character is imprinted with his DNA. When you have a good leader, you have a team have team that excels in what it does. That’s the success behind such a nice product, Mani motivates, taunts, guides and extracts the best from each of his team members and the result is there for all to see.

Guru, I am speculating is going to be the launch of Mani into big league Bollywood (in terms of box office collections). He deserves every bit of that attention and he’s delivered a decent movie that’s not void of cinematic elements but are set in an ambience that’s as real as Bollywood can get. Way to go Mani, let’s wait for Lajjo now. This movie is going to be a blockbuster.

Trivia

# The song ‘Barso re’ opens in Athirapilly falls. No matter how many times we see this location, when it’s canned by Rajiv Menon it does look a bit more spectacular. I am sure the remaining locations are somewhere in Kerala too.
# Thirumalainaicker Mahal is the location where ‘Tere bina’ was shot. This is the same location that Mani used in ‘Iruvar’ in the scenes featuring Prakash Raj and Mohanlal.
# There’s this scene almost in the middle of the movie where Abhishekh is talking to Mithun about his means of growing business and Vidya gives a wry smile and Abhishek returns it. Both actors display brilliance in emoting.
# Binny mills compound in Chennai is the same location where the climax for ‘Vettaiyadu Villayaadu’ was shot recently. It’s a big chunk of real estate right in the middle of Chennai city.
# The titles of this movie is very innovative, a big round of applause to the visual team that conceptualized and executed it.
# Gurubhai (as Abhishek is called in the movie) resembles Dhirubhai, but this is coincidental as is The Independent to The Indian Express. Manikdas Gupta is not Ramnath Goenka and Shyam Saxena is not S Gurumurthy. As Mani's first frame says, "Any resemblance to characters in real life is coincidental".

Mullaperiyar - murky waters

A week ago I tried to bring Idukki dam into the Mullaperiyar debate because it appeared to be hiding something the Kerala government didn't want to disclose. This morning Sam Rajappa (political analyst who was with The Statesman earlier) reiterates his position on Mullaperiyar in a column in 'The New Indian Express'. Earlier in December last year Sam posted an article in The Statesman about the same subject. Here are some of his assertions.

The Idukki dam was not getting filled up fully after completion of it's construction because of not so copious rain in it's catchment areas and the KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) engineers hit upon an idea of reducing the storage level of Mullaperiyar (which is upstream) to 136ft to bring in enough water overflowing from there. It took 4 years after completion for all 6 power generators in Moolamattom power house (situated downstream of the Idukki dam) to generate power.

Given Kerala's energy situation, the fear is understandable. There is a 30 minute load shedding in summer in Ernakulam district (there could be in others, but I can't say for sure) and if there i no enough storage in Idukki dam which generates the bulk of Kerala's power for the Central region then the situation could worsen. If this assertion is entirely true then full marks to the Nostradamus' in Kerala for the successful campaign in instilling fear in the minds of people.

Previously I stated the following here.

# Despite copious rains the Idukki reservoir was filled only to the extent of 57.365 tmc though it's full storage was 70.500 tmc. The Idukki dam which is situated further downstream ahead of the Mullaperiyar dam can take in excess of 11 tmc water should the worst happen.

And now Sam's article reiterates that all the water from Mullaperiyar will add to about 1ft more water in the Idukki dam. He also makes another interesting observation. After leaving the Mullaperiyar dam the rivers meanders through thick hilly sections for 32 kms and for the remaining 16 kms there are pockets of human inhabitation. The article alleges that these hamlets will not be submerged but might get inundated.

The life of a dam has been a key question and if one was to view it from the Kerala government's perspective then the Stanley reservoir (Mettur), Bhakra Nangal dam, Nagarjuna Sagar dam and a couple of other dams are already running way past their life and could be an 'imminent' danger. This can be anything but true. A dam's life after construction entirely depends on how it's monitored and maintained from there on. Look at the Grand Anaicut (Kallanai) in Trichy, built by the Chola's, it's been in active service for about 1000 years.

All concerns raised by the Govt of Kerala could be valid. That's when you bring Idukki into the perspective. Mullaperiyar is surely not Kerala's only concern, the truth lies in Idukki which nobody is talking about.

Mika Hakkinen - Update

In this post I speculated a full time return by Mika Hakkinen to Formula 1, I guess I was carried away by the prospect of such a development. It's been recently announced that Gerhard Berger was the person who talked Mika into getting back in shape and step into the F1 cockpit instead of doing the rounds in DTM. Ron Dennis footed the bill for the testing and return apparently and given Ron's previous association with Mika it's no surprise. If only Mika would seriously contemplate a return all off us who grew up seeing early Formula 1 (in India) after 1996 would be extremely excited.

Here's the full new report on this news.

Journeys - Jan 2007

2007 is promising to be a journey filled year. I have to make a trip on all weekends in January and the following is how I have planned it out.

5th & 6th Jan 2007 - Avoly, Ernakulam District - Sanu's wedding
13th to 15th Jan 2007 - Madras a.k.a Chennai - Break from the routine
20th & 21st Jan 2007 - Madurai - Ravi's betrothal

Back from God's own country

Though I got back to Coimbatore on Sunday I could not get myself to put up a post about the weekend primarily because I was tired to the bone driving and the next day (Monday) was pretty hectic at work. The route was better than I expected and since we started in the evening, half of the driving was with the headlights on. Surprisingly the total distance was covered in 4 hrs which included a 20 minute tea/snack break.

One reason which contributed to the reduced running time (previously it was 5 hrs) was the improved state of roads in Kerala and the 25 km stretch in Tamilnadu which has been repaired though in a shoddy manner. I must admit that the roads after Angamaly all the way upto Avoly are super smooth and well laid. Ofcourse there will be 3 or 4 places where the road is ruined because of some work but otherwise this stretch is a drivers dream. It also does wonders to a vehicles mileage.

Sunday was the feast of the Epiphany and the main Catholic Church in Muvattupuzha (The Holy Magi Church) was draped with lights. The Church was brimming with people at 2200 hrs in the night and vendors were selling all sorts of stuff from rosaries, dollars, pendants, prayers books to halwa and other eatables. Festivals in Churches are celebrated in grandeur in Kerala and the whole town/village takes part in the festivities. I wanted to shoot some pictures and post it in here but guess what, Murphy's law simply cut me out. That's right, there was no charge left in the camera and I had to get home to recharge it. Lesson learnt and time to invest in some sort of a charger that will work in the car.

After taking part in some festivities we got to bed around midnight. The weather was pleasant and it was not sultry as I expected to be. Early in the morning around 5 the chill was getting to the bones and the sound of early morning mist falling on tin roof woke me up. For a city slicker like me, the joys that a country setting can instill is priceless. Walking across fields drenched with dew kissed blades of grass to the sounds of chirping birds and the sun sneaking across the horizon painting the sky in various hues of oranges and yellows can take one to another world.

The wedding next day was another grand celebration. Sanu wedded Deepa (she's from Manjapra which is near Kalady) in St.Sebastin's Church, Anicadu in the presence of friends and family. The wedding ceremony was conducted by Rev.Fr.Matthew Vellangal (retired Vicar General in Kothamangalam Diocese and Sanu's grand uncle) alongwith Fr.Varghese Paul , Fr.Matthew Paul (both Sanu's paternal uncles), Fr.Shyju (Sanu's cousin) and a couple of other priests from the brides side.

I was amazed at the beautiful music the choir played. It was bad that I did not find out the names of the people in it. The two female voices effortlessly navigated the complex swaras in the songs and the lone male voice was adequate to say the least. Keyborad (Korg) was deftly handled by a man who was thirtysome a tabla added support. The orchestrations that were preprogrammed were done well. There was this one time when the priest didn't keep up with the tempo or sang the wrong note, but that's bound to happen every now and then. Especially when you consider the fact that the priest and the orchestra would never have practised together previously.

We started back to Coimbatore after lunch at 1530 hrs and except for a flat tyre which was fixed in Vadakkanchery, the journey was hassle free. When we finally made it to Coimbatore, the time was 1930. We passed through St.Sebastin's Church in Ukkadam thanking God for the safe trip, this has almost become a ritual. Anytime I leave in in the South West direction by road I make it a point to pass through this Church. The statue of Christ standing atop the Church with open hands is a reassuring sight to me.

I will be travelling to Madras (Chennai, I still like the old name though) this weekend since Monday is going to be a holiday anyway for Pongal. If I make the trip to Pondicherry, it would be worth the trip otherwise Roy Maama's family will make it special anyway, especially the kids Mia and Mishma.

Off to God's own country

I am gearing up for the first travel in 2007. Where else but what's now quite popular as God's own country though I'd be glad to call it the 'Devil's own'. I hope the roads are better than the last time around, but the chances of that are remote given the fact that the worst stretch between Coimbatore and Palakkad hasn't seen any repair works in about an year now. The nice thing this time is going to be absence of rain (I love Kerala's monsoon, I love it's sun more) and the late winter weather which should make living there less sultry.

Travel notes or interesting observations will follow in the next 24-48 hrs. Let's hope it turns out to be an enjoyable weekend.

Mullaperiyar Dam - Another perspective from the Kerala side

This is the URL to a Kerala government's video about the Mullaperiyar issue. The video somehow looks sensational and appears to be made to instigate fear in the minds of people. On the other hand Kerala's concerns appear to be valid too. But amidst all this smoke, what is the status of the Idukki dam? Word is out that the monitoring systems setup on it have not been working or are giving erraneous results since 1990. A little more light on the Idukki dam could open another can of worms and this time Kerala won't be able to deflect attention anywhere else.

Another advertisement from The Hindu published by the Govt of Kerala

New Year wishes

Here's wishing each one of you a blessed, joyful and fun-filled New Year 2007

Mika is back

Mika Hakinnen, two time world champion whom Michael Schumacher once described as a driver he respected and enjoyed racing with is back into Formula 1. Not as a race driver but as a test driver. A press release from McLaren Mercedes racing team says that Mika will take over from Pedro DeLa Rosa from the 30th of Nov 2006. Nevermind that Mika is not back on the competitive racing track. The feedback he can give as a test driver should help fine tune things up in the McLaren Formula 1 team. After the departure of Adrian Newey (aerodynamics) McLaren seem to have lost an edge they used to have in car design.

I for one would love to read about Mika's lap timings and test results from now on. The car must have changed from how it was in 2001. The last race Mika drove was the Japanese GP in 2001. Welcome back Mika Hakkinen. Now why am I hoping he'll start racing sometime soon?

McLaren press release

Supreme Court judgement - Mullaperiyar - Feb 2006

After trying to get the original judgement delivered by Supreme Court in the Mullaperiyar dam issue, I found the judgement delivered by Supreme Court. The following are some specifics pertaining to this issue.

Case No - 386 of 2001

Petitioner - Mullaperiyar Environmental Protection Forum

Respondent - Union of India & Ors

Date of Judgement - 27th Feb 2006

Bench comprising of - Y.K. Sabharwal, C.K.Thakker & P.K. Balasubramanyan

The judgement exhibits in a rather crystal clear manner in which the Supreme Court of India has looked into various facets of the case and came to a conclusion on this issue. The arguments raised by both sides are as follows. Before getting into the details, here's a short background. In the year 1979 water leakage was detected in the gallery of the dam and the full reservoir storage level was brought down to 136 ft. The Central Water Commission [CWC] was brought to inspect the safety of the dam and come up with its recommendations. The state of Kerala raised reservations to the CWC report and it's representative appended a dissent note stating that he water level could not be raised beyond 136 ft.

Kerala's argument

# Technically the life of any dam is 50 years and this dam was already over a 100 yrs old and hence this dam was well beyond it's safe useful life.

# If anything happens to the dam, the disaster could completely wipe out the three adjoining districts in Kerala.

# The dam was constructed at a time (1887 - 1895) when the design and testing processes were at it's infancy in British India and hence there's been no real measure of stress and tension because the dam has been holding water in it since the first time it was filled.

# The dam was situated in a region prone to frequent tremors and an earthquake could cause large scale destruction of life and property.

# The CWC which did the initial study didn't take into consideration all points raised by the official of the State of Kerala. Hence their recommendations can't be considered as binding on it. It was also added that he CWC was not the highest technical body in the country for giving technical advise.

# The reservoir of the dam is part of the Periyar Wildlife Santuary and is a 'Project Tiger' reserve. The loss of flora and fauna upon increase of water level would be invaluable. The raising of the storage would also affect the ecology and economy of the State of Kerala. The totaly area covered currently is 777 sq.kms.

# The agreement between the Madras Presidency and the State of Travancore executed in 1886 was null and void since it was done under pressure and was written to be valid for 999 yrs.

Tamilnadu's counter argument

# The CWC was the highest technical body with sufficient expertise on the subject. The CWC had inspected the dam and found that several allegations raised by the State of Kerala were incorrect and baseless.

# The CWC report allows the State of Tamilnadu to raise the water level to 142 ft after certain strengthening measures (this was already done immediatly after the CWC report) are undertaken and upon completion of the Earthen bund, Baby dam and other measures the height was be raised to the full reservoir level of 152 ft.

# The Kerala govt did not co-operate in this matter and refused to allow raising the height of storage to 142 ft.

# It was not open to the State of Kerala to not co-operate and accept the recommendations and suggestions of the CWC.

# Increasing of water level from 136 ft to 152 ft (the full reservoir) level increase the inundated area by another 11.6 sq.kms. The percentage of area that would be submerged would be 1.44% which is meagre.

# The increase in strorage level would not affect the flora and fauna and would only better the wildlife habitat. There will also be an increase in tourism which would translate into higher revenue earnings for the State of Kerala. The increased aquatic life would mean more revenue too since the State of Kerala had the fishing rights in the reservoir.

The Supreme Court's observation

# The water level on the dam was brought down to 136 ft to facilitate Tamilnadu to conduct strengthening measures.

# The total area of the sanctuary is about 777 square kilometers. The leased area of about 8,000 acres is a part of the total area. By raising the water level, the boundaries of the sanctuary do not get altered. The total area of the sanctuary remains 777 square kilometers.

# It is on record that animals particularly elephants and tigers like it when the water level touches the forest line. Birds and animals love water spread and exhibit their exuberant pleasure with heavy rains filling the reservoir resulting in lot of greenery and ecological environment around. The apprehension regarding adverse impact on environment and ecology have been found by the experts to be unfounded.

# Regarding the issue as to the safety of the dam on water level being raised to 142 ft. from the present level of 136 ft, the various reports have examined the safety angle in depth including the viewpoint of earthquake resistance. The apprehensions have been found to be baseless.

# Despite copious rains the Idukki reservoir was filled only to the extent of 57.365 tmc though it's full storage was 70.500 tmc. The Idukki dam which is situated further downstream ahead of the Mullaperiyar dam can take in excess of 11 tmc water should the worst happen.

# The concerns raised about earthquake appear to be baseless since an affidavit failed in April 2004 showed that no damage was caused to the structure.

# The experts having reported about the safety of the dam and the Kerala Government having adopted an obstructionist approach. (Observed twice in the judgement)

The Supreme Court goes on and concludes the following on this matter which is very concise and clear to both sides.

Under the aforesaid circumstances, we permit State of Tamil Nadu to carry out further strengthening measures as suggested by CWC and hope that State of Kerala would cooperate in the matter. The State of Kerala and its officers are restrained from causing any obstruction. After the strengthening work is complete to the satisfaction of the CWC, independent experts would examine the safety angle before the water level is permitted to be raised to 152 ft. The writ petition and the connected matters are disposed of by permitting the water level of the Mullaperiyar dam being raised to 142 ft. and by permitting the further strengthening of the dam as aforesaid.

Disclaimer : The views expressed in the article are simply a condensed form of the Supreme Court judgement. The author assumes no legal responsibility from anyone using it's content in part or in full and will not assume any liabilites for any consequences arising out of it's usage. This article is written in good faith to present a fairly balanced point of view to an issue which is of importance to both Kerala and Tamilnadu. This article has also tried to be fair and objective in putting forth the facts of the matter and has stuck to the Supreme Court verdict closely. The author does not intend to violate any law and would be glad to comply with existing regulations of any part of this article is offending or unwarranted.

Blog rechristened

'Pacem in terris' which means 'Peace on earth' is the new identity I have given this blog. With this makeover I have promised myself to be more regular in posting to it and voicing my opinion on a number of issues which strike a chord.

Mullaperiyar and Madhani

Just got reminded of the camaraderie exhibited by Chief Minister VS Achuthanandhan of Kerala upon assuming office in Kerala with Chief Minister Karunanadhi of Tamilnadu. There were a couple of letters exchanged between them about the fate of the PDP leader Abdul Naser Madhani currently lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison undergoing trial for alleged involvement in the Coimbatore bomb blasts case of 1998. They even met in Madras and the Kerala CM's delegation visited Madhani in the Coimbatore prison. Sherlock Holmes would have seen a link between something gone awry in one of these talks to have irritated the Kerala Chief Minister who has been going hammer and tongs against the Tamilnadu Chief Minister ever since and Mullaperiyar appears to be caught in the cross fire. Or all this could be simply a figment of Holmes' imagination, who knows?

Mullaperiyar dam

The 110 year old Mullaperiyar dam is in the middle of another water controversy. Tamilnadu which is still battling Karnataka on sharing of Kaveri waters gets yet another one on it's hands and it so hard to see which side is apolitical. It all started with a Feb 2006 Supreme Court verdict allowing Tamilnadu to raise the dams storage to 142ft from the current storage level of 136ft. The apex court would have taken most/all of the concerns of both sides before delivering it's verdict in this matter and one of the prime areas it would have looked at would be the safety of the century old dam made of slime and mortar.

This verdict surely didn't go down well with Kerala which promulgated an ordinance in it's assembly stalling any increase of the reservoir storage level. The Kerala government has also raised it's concerns about dam safety and the fall out of a disaster should the dam burst are all valid apprehensions which need to be considered. The Tamilnadu government and all it's politicians cutting across party lines are sticking to the stand on implementing the Supreme Court order with the AIADMK and MDMK gunning for the Chief Minister's scalp. This has caused tension on both sides and politicians raising the ante each time by rhetoric directed at inciting passion.

What makes me comment on this issue? As a concerned citizen I hate it when two federal states in the dominion of India fight with each other as though they are competing countries. I can't but refrain from using the cliched 'like India v/s Pakistan' phrase. I am a regular visitor to Vallakadavu, Thodupuzha, Moolamattom and other places in Kerala which are right in the eye of the storm about this issue and could be wiped out from the face of the earth should the worst happen. On another note, I live in Coimbatore which is a multi-cultural, mlulti-lingual and plural society and has a large number of Malayalee population and is one of the main transit points into Tamilnadu from Kerala.

Traffic between Coimbatore and Palakkad via Walayar and via Pollachi was stopped yesterday because of alleged provocation from the Kerala government by bringing in Navy personnel to the dam site under the pretext of inspecting it's safety. Now, this act of bringing in people to the dam to inspect it's safety should have been intimated to the Tamilnadu side by the Kerala government and going by the press this was done. However, good statesmanship would have called for keeping all these actions in abeyance till the Centre govt mediated interstate talks scheduled for the 29th of Nov was held.

In order to understand the importance of the traffic between Kerala and Tamilnadu through Walayar one has to gauge a number of aspects. The NH-47 is the road that links Coimbatore and Palakkad and Walayar is one of the highest revenue generating checkposts in India. Almost all of the goods transported out of Kerala to the North passes through Walayar and the movement of people between the states is the highest in this sector. The Sabarimala season has just started and a large number of pilgrims from Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andra Pradesh were stranded because of this blockade which somehow has political overtones to it. The following are some questions which can be raised:-

# A national highway was blocked by a group of people (reports suggest that they were about 500). Why didn't the state police remove them and clear the highway for traffic?

# The argument that these were farmers doesn't hold good for Walayar and KK Chavady. There aren't any farmers who would have been affected by this problem in this region and the Aliyar dam has sufficient water this season to cater to the irrigation needs of the Pollachi region which is the agricultural region of Coimbatore.

Almost all of the national media (NDTV, IBN, Times NOW) are sided with Kerala's point of view and I haven't seen statements by the Tamilnadu ministers. On a lighter note this could be due to the fluent manner in which Kerala ministers can converse fluently in English. Surely Tamilnadu has a point and that is about the lost crop each year due to lack of water. Kerala is a water surplus state and Tamilnadu is a power surplus state. Why can't we complement these with each other? Share power with Kerala which undergoes half hour to an hour of load shedding each day in the Summer. Why aren't we seeing unity in diversity? Why are our politicians playing power games? What can we do about the problem and get both sides to move ahead?

The following are genuine concerns that need to be addressed :-

# The safety of the dam should be of prime importance. All concerns raised by the Kerala side should be studied, investigated and addressed by a mutually agreeable authority. This is an aspect which should be deviod of any political overtones and no compromise should be done on an issue which hangs like a sword across the necks of the people in Idukki, Ernakulam and Kottayam district in Kerala.

# The reservoir storage in this dam when raised is going to inundate more areas in the Kerala side which will need to be addressed in terms of loss of flora and fauna and relocation people.

# Both sides should refrain from rhetoric and not talk anything more about this issue till the talks scheduled for the 29th are finished.

I am no polticial analyst nor am I an authority on dam safety. I am just a concerned citizen in the Union of India and have loyalities towards it's constitution. I hope this doesn't escalate into a Kaveri sort of dispute where there anti-Tamil attitude in Karnataka and the fallout of such actions would be despicable. We belong to the same country, this should be the mantra in the minds of both sides. Having put forth my views, I guess it's time to simply wait for the likes of Arundhati (Roy) and Medha (Patkar) to come and take over this issue. Now that would put a different spin to this issue which we can't predict.

Mr.Clean is back in business

Arackaparambil Kurian Antony a.k.a A K Antony is back in the union cabinet as the Defence minister. Widely respected across party lines for his clean image and non-corrupt public life, AK Antony is truly one among the rare breed of politicians in India today. Born in Cherthala, a small town in the district of Alapuzha in Kerala, this two time chief minister was written off when he had to vacate his Chief inister's chair due to intense infighting in the Kerala Congress party. He went on to head the chair of the Disciplinary committee of the Congress party and was last seen in the media when Natwar Singh' was hauled up for indiscipline in the party. Surely, no one else had the moral right to pull up Natwar except for AK Antony in the Congress party. Let's hope he manages to stem the rot in the Armed forces which is facing too many corruption charges in the past couple of years.

Faith in the criminal justice system in India

The lower courts in India have always raised questions of the law being above partisan considerations but time and again and High Court in each state the the Supreme Court have stepped in to prove that the law is indeed fair in dealing with criminals. The conviction of the rapist and murdered of Priyadarshini Matoo today bring back the faith one needs to have on the Indian judiciary system. The media also cashed in on the case in a constructive sort of a way and got people to unite by calling for SMS campaigns and emails. Let's these sentences deter possible criminals from committing acts of brutality and instill a fear of having to face the law for their doings with no hope of getting away from them.