Arangetram (1973) - My thoughts

 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

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)

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 . 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.

 

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

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.  
My life seems less disciplined, but hell who cares, the experience just makes up for it.

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.

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

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)

Nithyananda episode

Ok now, he is in the news for all the reasons people dont know him for!
I have a different take on this. Why would Sun network air it without a censor ?
What statement did he make against MK or his family or Kalanithi and his family ?

I feel the media makes or breaks the society today. If only Sun Network had shown a little more discretion in airing this on TV(let me remind you that the viewers belong to all age groups)

Is it something that never happens in TN ? Why are we so emotionally driven that we burn effigies cuz he sleeps around ?
Haven't we seen the politicians of TN do this but still get spared cuz of the clout they have?
Does it mean that people who havent gotten into such a controversy the next RAM avtar of INDIA ?

Too many questions and too little definitive answers.

We must respect one's privacy is all i can say at this juncture. Why do we have this unstoppable urge to peek into one's personal life ?

Worst case they unearth this, I strongly feel they shouldnt be airing this on visual media ...

Thats how much i travel everyday

View Journey to Office in a larger map

I know I must have been crazy to trace this on a map. But voila it was fun doing it. Atleast more fun that riding on a bike this long(I dont want you guys to see the irritated side of me by talking about the car drive this long.)

If you guys have noticed I have a better insight on the roads and areas in bangalore then the accolades must reach my company !

Review again!

I have been catching up with some movies lately. I seem to have come back to the normal path of watching (more) movies, but i know i still haven't come anywhere close to what i should or capable of !
Enough of some appraisal-type-talk. Lets get straight in !

Vinnathaandi Varuvaya - Cant help but start from this movie. Just watched it yesterday and cant get it out of my head. The movie is especially a great gift for a tamil audience that has given up (read embraced ) on the cliche ridden pseudo-creativity in its recent films.. The movie has a breezy feel to it. There is of course something usual with all Gautam movies, and that is Love at first sight. But on second thought you feel it better be this way, as they dont waste time getting into the plot.
Frame within a frame has always interested all of us, and this uses similar technique to keeps us glued. The lead pair was refreshing. Simbu for once impressed me. Trisha never fails to though ;)
They look fresh. Somehow looks like this movie is gonna make to head to the screen once again.
Now the thing that sets apart this love story from the rest are... the shades of grey with the lead characters.Trisha's character portrays that so damn well, and the commitment fear that is an integral part of any relations.  - Kudos portraying the characters this way instead of unakkaga-uyire-kuduppaen yaaaaaaaaawn style.

Goa - Venkat prabhu, who gave us Chennai-28 and Saroja somehow failed to give the same punch with this one. I looked at him as the next gen director who gives you loads of entertainment in an unconventional way. Here there is lot kalaaichal and no plot. The star of the previous movies, Premji is hackneyed and you canguess what his mannerism would be. Jai's english is kick-ass though. Yuvan seems to be diluting his work. Worth a single watch but nowhere close to the other venkat's flicks.

Tamil Padam - Awesome is the word. Tamil cinemas patents one of the maximum cliches. Nothing and noone has been spared. It is no lollu sabha and somehow keeps you engaged.
From the family song to the undercover police, rags to riches within a song, intro song etc the director takes care he does not spare you from falling off your seats. But a cliche that tamil padam also conformed to is the "Bambai" heroine.
I cant but not mention the scenes where the hero learn bharatnatyam in a day (Kaadhalan) and the tetra pack on "Kallippal"

Kutty - Mudiyala, valikkudu

Aayirathil Oruvan - What better movie to finish off this blog than AO. Ok here is a director who gives us what he would like to see as a movie. Agreed he doesnt do things subtlely. But this man seems to be one of the most creative script writers in the recent times. He seems to have taken us thru his trailblazing path. If most of the above movies were pure entertainers, this has loads of content. The issue is we have to realize that more the content, it begins to eat into the success. There is something similar with AO that way. He tries to package all the contents into one movie. I certainly loved the movie and have no complains. But if i would want him to gimme more movies like this one, then commercial viability is a must for his movies. This is when trimming parts of the movie helps.
But AO seriously is more of an experience than a movie

All Clear Ad

With the number of mind numbing ads that are out today on media, if I made my living shaking off these ads, I would make a fortune.
But discipline is not part of my DNA and I cant be doing this on a regular basis as more often than not I would get bored of doing the same thing over and over again. But let me tell you the quantity of  chappe ads that are coming will provide you a living for the next 4 generations.

The quality of the video that I have embedded is bad as I couldnt find a nice one on youtube. Maybe they felt ashamed to post it on the web.
The high point is youtube would not let you embed the video here, maybe they knew i was coming

 Watch the video here

Give me a break. Now who pays so much to arrange the sets for these people to come and showcase their dandruff free hair.
Why would someone pay so much to come to the stage to display the dandruff on their hair.

The sequel to the ad would be the All Clear Body spray where Asin would call people on stage to .....

25 Vital questions you would ask yourself

 I was inspired to answer some of the questions that came up when i read this blog
.
 This piece was more of what I felt today and may not be the same always. But it felt nice to answer these questions though I feel it may be an impulsive and not what I would do when I encounter the situation.

What is it like to wake up every morning and pretend that you aren’t dying?
This has never crossed my mind. Its just the faith I guess. Or I think God is kind enough to not inform me prior to the event.




If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend?

Not more than a couple of years, Cuz I cant believe someone would change the personality as often as I do. If they do I would call them psycho;) Contemplating it seriously I guess why wouldnt I want them to be with me always? 


Would you rather be rich and paralyzed from the waist down or poor and able bodied?
Poor and able bodied any day


What’s the most expensive gift you have ever received?  Is it the best gift you have ever received?

You wanna know the gift  ? I guess it is the best gift I could ask for other than a healthy and sound body n mind from parents.

OK wait a min. are we talking about gifts in hand or gifts for the mind. And to give you a clue it wasn't a material gift


When was the last time you lied?  Is it possible to lie without saying anything at all?
I feel I just lied before i wrote this blog(feel like its my breath) .I can lie when I sleep.


Stealing is immoral, right?  But what if stealing was the only way to feed a starving child?
I would steal the morals out of my mind. I am no strict disciplinarian. I would rather be imperfect and make people happy than be perfect and be unhappy

If I gave you $20, what percentage would you – really – save?  If I gave you $200,000, what percentage would you save?  Should there be a difference?

I guess the percentage would increase. I always spend less cuz than I should ;)

If someone could tell you the exact day and time that you are going to die, would you want them to tell you?

What i don't want them to tell me is how.

What i want them to tell me is how long I have. I have to create the bucket list and check the items on the list


If you found out you were going to die today, would you have any regrets?  Would you be happy with the way you spent the last 24 hours of your life?
 I am always happy . I guess I would have been happier meeting the people i love. Well the last 24 hrs.... I think i would settle for it.


What’s your single greatest moment of personal failure?  Looking back on it now, did it make you weaker or stronger?  What did you learn?

Learnt to make mistakes as they teach me more than what i learn when i dont make any


Do the words ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ mean not being persecuted or discriminated against, or do they mean doing whatever you please?
Means doing whatever I please as long as i dont step into someone else's personal space or liberty. But people seldom tell you when you do that but tell people who can do nothing about it.




Is it crazier to choose to be poor or to spend 40 years of your life hating 40 hours a week?

I ain't a person who'd look for happiness outside. I would start loving the hate

Do you ever feel like you don’t have enough time?  How many hours a week do you spend watching TV, or playing video games, or…?

I do feel I don't have enough time to do things I would want to do. 

I seldom do those recreational things listed above.


If you could be given another talent or ability, what would you want it to be?  Have you ever – really – tried to perfect this ability in yourself?

I would like to have understood my work better.

Yes and no for trying to better myself (I love these ambiguous statements;))


No matter how bad things get, are you aware that someone always has it worse than you do?

Oh yeah, but that makes me feel no better unless I meet the someone

When you help someone, do you ever think, “What’s in it for me?”
NEVER


Joy is found with simple awareness.  What does your joy look like today?
Joy is doing well in all things I do.  Self satisfaction


What’s the difference between ‘living’ and ‘existing?’

I live , My creativity and aspiration exists

Are you willing to sacrifice the life of your child or lover to support a war?

Not sure

 

Do you ask enough questions, or do you settle for what you know?
I try to ask as many as I can


If you could do it all over again, would you change anything?
Projecting myself to people. The first impression.


If your life was a novel, what would be the title and how would your story end?

Story ends with a coming soon with the sequel

and the title would be, A man who made no enemies.

Movies I caught up lately.

Wasn't in a mood to give individual reviews. So felt like putting it all together !

Wake Up Sid ! -  Nice watch. Given a chance would watch it again. Finally we see on screen, something that is an issue to the urban youth. Not very tough to associate with a few characters. An indication that the Indian Cinema wants you to sit back and take notice.

3 Idiots - You can hear enough and more things in the media about the infringement of copyrights. But as a moviegoer who pays the 200 bucks (well yeah i went on a weekend) this is a darling. Feels good to enjoy a movie thoroughly in the theatre. The last time this happened to me was for Saroja !


Anne Hall - A movie recomended by a TV new reporter. It is supposed to be the 70s classic. So quite similar to India, if a movie is interesting we do get rehashes later. So i have seen far too many rehashes and then the original failed to leave a punch.


500 days of Summer - Its about a guy's 500 days with a gal named Summer. It is a very average movie and even brushes with Bad on occasions. But being in a flight often doesn't give a plethora of options and you gotta stick with the ones that are available. Strict MISS


Ugly Truth - Katherine Heigl is cute and Gerard Butler is a live wire. Movie is run of the mill romantic comedy where the opposite poles attract. But a nice watch anyhow. Kept me engaged.


Thoranai - Shriya is smashing. A strict NO again.


Eeram - Slick thriller. Shankar needs a pat on the back to have the balls to produce a movie with supernatural elements, in the era of people with the dude-its-the-computer-generation.


Pasanga - Post Anjali I would recommend this movie to go back to your childhood though its got a rustic feel to it. Very nice 

Nadodigal - Rocks is the only word though you wouldn't understand why the movie was heading nowhere till the climax pops up. Cant believe a megaserial-director worked on this movie. Why was he hibernating there ??? 

Emancipation

I am ready to give anything to feel this free again. Just that time's moved on and i haven't. From a person who always wanted to be ahead of time to this position, lot has changed

(PS: I tried mobile blogging this and it got directed to the wrong place :D)

The Me 4years back and NOW

Times change and so do we along with it.
Either i am aging pretty fast or my expectations from movies are changing dynamically.

ME NOW AND 4 Years ago

Flashback
I got up at 7 and finish up all the duties i do for myself and the society and then rush to Natraj Theatre to see if i am able to sneak in 6 tickets to a vijay's movie FDFS (i might forget the abbreviation next year)
And the odds are high that i wont get the ticket. So i would have to call up the useless friends(who let me jump into this and not help me out with this) if they are ok with the ticket price (black ....)I organize this whole entourage and then we have a time of our life watching the movie and then talking about it ..

NOW
Things now have changed so much to my dismay. I have not called my friends to see if they are available to go watch the movie.
I have reported to office earlier than normal days.
I dont browse the websites to see what they think of the movie.
And above all assuming i do go watch the movie today, i am pretty sure what the reaction would be among my friends - Just put the heads down and not talk about this movie for a while and then get on with something more interesting to talk about.

Sneaking a Moment

"You know how much more packing I need to do ? " she calls out. "Ok lets finish this and then take the luggage to your aunt's house, before I drop you off at the station." This voice seems to be soothing to everyone who was born before and after 1980 except her.
XX (couldnt have thought of a better name for my female lead) needs to go to the civil services interview in Delhi and our Hero XY has to aid her from packing the to dropping her off at the station (nothing new).. ;)

So XY just drives back with XX to her aunt's place. The whole house is kicked about her dropping in before going for her all important interview. Oh can she hear XY's Mind voice
"Hope I get the all important drive to the station with her alone. Was a nice guy all this while for that one drive i get with you "
And VOILA he can hear her mind voice too
"They dont think you are going to drop them back and they are too old to come back alone."

He heaved a sigh of relief !!:D

The talks went on from the split in Andhra to the splitsville on MTV. Every new topic that cropped up out of the relative's mouth XY couldnt stop cursing the various media channels for giving them the up to date information

Right when it was time to leave the aunt who was the only probable spike strip in this love story has to offer to accompany them to the station.
XY could only think of being more judicious in reading the horoscope section in the newspaper earlier today.

So now in the car accompanying them are the aunt and uncle. All her life is there was something XX didnt wanna see more than getting jilted in the IAS interview was XY's face. The disappointed on his face was visible to only XX.

X> "Sorry sweetie. didnt expect them to come along."X>
In came a stranger unexpectedly in the form of a sms text :)
The msg didnt seem to cool his anger but he is the nice boy everyone wanted to be with
Y>"Your family is as good as mine. It should be alright"Y>
Came the reply.

X> "I am definitely going to miss the goodbye kiss(es)"X>

Now this seemed to cool the nerves. The msgs just flew all over like the sixes of Sehwag's bat (I believe in contemporary metaphors)

Even the creator of this blog is not sure if the aunt and uncle figured out that it was these 2 who kept texting each other sitting right beside each other in the car.

The dreaded Railway station was there and now XY had to behave like he dropped her just cuz his house was on the way.
He had to drop her off at the gate.

She goes in and he goes out (Dramatics)

She is about switch off the phone which is devoid of charge and is her only hope to wake her up next morning in the train.

She is waiting for a goodbye text while she could have done that herself.


Right when she was about switch of the phone

<>
Y>"Its right when you leave do i feel like talking more to you, but like always i have nothing to talk."Y>

Sometimes EGO needs pampering atleast a little she felt. But its not always do you feel the pampering exceeding the expectations :)


PS: Completely inspired ;)

Be who you are

If you ever hear the cliche about living life the way you are and never lie even when cornered to do so? its just a matter of time before they go through this.
Last week i visited the saloon and for a haircut.
Being the lazy chap i was i even decided to trim the facial hair.
This chap had a TV in the saloon and like most barbers in bangalore this chap was also a Gult.

We were watching an "interesting" telugu movie on gemini.
I enjoy hanging conversations that had no start and dont know where it will end , or for that matter i may not even remember what we talked.
Right when i had the foam on the face and he began the shave, he asked
MAGADHEERA NODDRA Sir, I had seen it and wasn't extremely happy to have seen it.
But the position i was in, and considering the stakes involved with it, a small lie or hiding you real opinion never seemed so tough.

So when you go through self help materials, write back to the author about what happened to me and would he have spoken the frank truth if he were in such a particular situation?

How the new Timings is killing me.

Get up
Bath
Missed call
Run
Sleep
Office

Well to sum it all up this is my daily routine for the last month.
I wouldn't be harsh enough to say that it is mundane but just sweet enough to say that it is killing my personality.
For a person who would travel for an hour and a half either ways and can sleep through the journey one may feel it just wouldn't matter when the work timings are placed.
Well, on paper it doesn't matter.
Thats how i planned my day when the announcement of the 8 30 AM work arrival was announced. I convinced myself, " Dude just get up an hour earlier and sleep through the journey"
I just hope it was that easy.

Things i really miss -

Talking awesomely to mom about her dream
Sipping through coffee alongside watching (not reading) BT (Bangalore Times)
Watching NDTV in the morning to catch up with all that happened last night (my dreams don't come on TV, cuz i don't make it public)
relax walk to the cab stop.

Back to School

 

We just happened to pass the school coincidentally and all of a sudden the guard out there recognized my face and called us in. So after like 8 years, i stepped into school and all i could feel was "Those were the days i can never get out of my head." Not everyday u feel this way :)

This moved me

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