Italian food

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

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

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

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

"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 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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

"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?

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

Requiescat in pace - H Sridhar

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

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

'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

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

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.