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Monday, July 30, 2012

Arangetram (1973) - My thoughts


NewImage Talking about a movie that released way back in 1973, and 30 years later, I still think this is one of the best movies offered by Tamil Cinema. The sheer depth in  categorization and bold theme chosen by the director are the major reasons why this movie stands out in comparison to other scripts that have been offered ever since. K Balachander is one of the pillars of the industry who offered variety of scripts and showed the courage to portray strong female protagonists. To sculpt such characters, one needs to fall in love with them, and KB must have been deeply in love with Lalita (actress prameela), to have etched out a masterpiece. 


I happen to see a video, where the blogger mentioned this movie as one his all time favorites and this provoked me to revisit this movie and observe the sheer intent to make the audience think and decide for themselves (deciding for yourself is a topic we never like to think about).

The first thing that struck me was the title, and how there are tacit mentions sprayed throughout this 150 minute masterpiece. How the friend is consoled by telling that till you reach the stage, you will be nervous and once you start your Arangetram you would never know that you were once nervous (Arangetram medai erum varail thaan kashtam). One of KB's favorite topics is maintaining the balance between authenticity of a ritual and the repercussions of modernization; How Ramu Sasthri feels humiliated and squirms at the way society is performing the acts unauthentically. The social messages that are tacitly touched upon by KB just leaves me spellbound; be it flesh trade and how male escapes scot-free, family planning or societal impressions on a call-girl. 

There are various scenes where you can find KB's stamp on his characters, Kamal's opportunism, Lalitha's histrionics due to frustration towards men or be is the usual, not-a-brahmin-do-gooder. This movie, tends to push you towards thinking about the outlook of a middle class indian family and the parochial view on a woman we once lived with. 

Portraying Lalitha as an intelligent, subversive young woman is a master-stroke and makes you sit up and take notice of the emotional intelligence she possesses. This is a movie, that i think helped Tamil cinema hold its head high and commercial success only encourages you to choose scripts such as these. 

It is tough to imagine the 70s and 80s without KB and makes me uncomfortable thinking of the movies that might have ruled in his absence. We would have had KR Vijaya as the obedient daughter-in-law and preached to house wives how to follow the 26423498 rules to keep you husband happy and not question him. I am proud to have seen KB's movies and still salute him for the sheer intent in making movies with unusual characterization. Characters in the movie make-or-break the experience and KB had that spot on. 

To other people who might have not watched this, I highly recommend it to understand the quality of cinema then, and how surprisingly we never found another KB ( there might be a mani, shankar or Bala), though Bhagyaraj was pretty close in terms of characterization.

 (You can find the movie here)http://www.einthusan.com/movies/watch.php?lang=tamil&id=351

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Inspite of having 3 of its products, I believe Apple hates me.

Over the last week, my entire RSS list has been full of Apple's new features with its Mountain Lion OS. I was quick to jump and purchase the $20 upgrade. 

I loved the features and the upgrades that seemed to get OS X closer to iOS in terms of various features and extended use to iCloud to create a consistent experience across devices. 

Something that has always peeved me has been Apple's tendency to control the way I should be using my computer. It reminds me of my mom when I was 6th grade. The safari browser now lacks the RSS button as Apple thinks RSS is a passé. Apple's strength over the years has been its reliance, or the lack of it on market research when it comes to design and features. Now another freak act to remove the RSS button sometimes feels that you are not considered when they make decisions for you. 

 

Restore The RSS Button To Safari With This Simple Extension | Cult of Mac:

(Via www.cultofmac.com)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

SPOTIFY !

What is the best form for music consumption ? Yes, you guessed it right, free. So spotify gives users free music( You do have the paid service too) to users and synchronizes that to the phone ( Only if it’s an android or an Iphone. You know WP7 always catches up)

The best aspect to this service is, getting all the music you want for free and above all, you are not labeled a pirate Winking smile. Listen to unlimited songs, and synchronize them for free and listen to them on the go. You could also synchronize them to your phone for offline listening. I would not have to stress on the fact that , from Anna’s fast to Aishwarya’s pregnancy, everything is social. So why would you think that Spotify is going to fall behind? Yes, spotify can help you discover your friends’ favorite tracks, if they have made it public and share your tracks with your friends.

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You can use spotify as a paid or a free user. A paid user would see no advertisements. As a paid user you are free to listen to the songs offline too once synchronized to your phone or other music device.

Spotify’s Business Model

Every time a user listens to a song, Spotify pays the music label and you can either pay a monthly fee, or have an ad filled music experience. You can find more information about the expectations pre-launch in pre release link  . This link has some important marketing documents that’s worth a look

I believe that the spotify experience is simply better than the ones that are available in the US right now. Another important positive step that Spotify has taken, is the well defined tiers for its paid and free customers. There is enough value, if one may want to consider jumping to the higher tiers. Another game changer could be, teaming up with facebook and providing a streaming music service, which is already provided by others, but still worth a chance, considering the immense visibility that facebook possesses.

The advertisements are not intrusive and Spotify has tried to keep it in an area close to its streaming music service. I have seen ads that are from recently released music labels which I believe is creatively brilliant.

In summary, I think Spotify is a great service and an innovative model that is able to make both the labels and users feel that they are getting the better end of the stick.

Worth a try

Friday, August 05, 2011

New York

The summer of 2011, turns out to be one I will relish for a long time. Reasons aplenty from getting to stay with long time buddies to experiencing USA in its entirety. This city has the sting and is addictive.
For starters, I got an offer to do my Internship with IBM this summer and no surprises, I accepted it. I knew I loved NYC but my experience had very little to do with Manhattan but with the people I interacted out here. From long talks about <insert anything here, from US politics to famine in Somalia> to just aimlessly trudging the streets of Manhattan. Getting to roam the streets of Manhattan that I have only seen in my favorite TV soaps was so exciting. I do realize why they rave so much about this place, and you would to, when you stay here for at least a week.
Walking along Hudson is tranquil which I failed to take complete advantage of. Given a chance again, I would like to take more walks along this serenity. The public transport was icing on the cake, taking you to all the places you would ever want to in Manhattan in a jiffy.
Work wise (Oh I came here for that) I have had so much to learn but I think the change in my personality would be attributed to my experience with the people here.
I did go through some tough times personally but the waterfront here goes the extra mile to pull you out of trouble. Well it tried its best. Smile 
My life seems less disciplined, but hell who cares, the experience just makes up for it.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Apple Adobe... LOL



This morning when i wanted to see the keynote from Steve jobs from the WWDC, I faced a weird error.
On normal days i wouldnt have noticed it. But over the last few months when we have been hearing so much of the Adobe - Apple face off , i couldnt help but laugh out on this.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Nostalgia for the day!

Whoaaa. Just couldnt stop myself from blogging this one

Just found this after a long long time.
2 Really wonderful things that made my day when i was a kid.
Remember my classmate Aishwarya who use to sing this to the class and i enjoyed this max.



Just takes me back to my school days!

The other thing that comes to mind is the awesommmest Gounder when he tries to rescue Senthil from his suicide attempt.


These are nostalgic i must say

PS: Kindly ignore the costumes that the side kicks of Hasan Jahangir wear in this video

Monday, March 15, 2010

Coming Soon

Blogging very often is a euphemism for being jobless, well atleast to me. Cuz i always get these "idea lightning" (like our very own IDEA Mani, nothing about Bacchan Jr) but fail to give the same pleasure to you guys.

Disregarding everything I said above, I planned a new coming soon section
By this, you either get to know what you would be reading in my space soon, or atleast know what i wanted to write here .

Janathipathikku Manu series (Which literally translates to petition to the President)

Semma Chappa Ads (IPL is waking up the ad critic in me. Mind numbing ads)

Snaptu Review. (Snaptu is the Symbian App that has all the functionality under one roof)