Hail Dustin Hoffman

Just as a "prayashchitham" (can't remember the exact word in English) for y'day's 3 hours crap in the name of movie, I went on to watch that one movie I've been wanting to watch since the day I discovered Dustin Hoffman .. "Kramer vs Kramer". No words are enough for this film or the man. He is a truly a wizard ., and he keeps you spell bound when he is on screen. I've often caught myself gaping at the screen forgetting to blink.

It was "Tootsie" that introduced me to his artistry. (Yep the hollywood avvai shanmughi along with Mrs.Doubtfire ). You have to watch him for just the ease in which he flip flops between the male and female characters and the dead pan humour. Classic !!
And then of course , "The Rainman". How interesting could you make a character that can feel no emotions?? No laughter,no tears, no anger..nothing.Just a smile once in a while, ohhh..and still you could watch him for 120 mins without even realizing it.

And now, Kramer vs Kramer. Don't have the words. Just watch the 2 silent scenes where the kid and Dustin make breakfast and eat it without a word. Pure poetry :-)

I must remember these when I watch crap and wonder why they call movie making an art and actors as artists !!

Rajneeti - as messy as politics

okay, just completed a marathon viewing of Rajneeti on one of those zillion websites which apparently put up fantastic copies of movies on the day of release. stop, please dont give me the moral sermon that I'm single handedly bringing down the movie industry..blah,blah. Here I am as close to the arctic as one can get in Finland (lovely country, no complaints) where ,forget about Hindi, even listening to English is as rare as darkness in summer (yes it doesnt get dark at all. its 1 am and the sky looks like 6 pm in India !!! ).

Anyway,enough of my stories, lets get to the movie. I was tempted into this by the trailers and I now feel that the trailers had the best parts of the movie (like most other movies !) ! No really !!
I mean , if you arrive 5 mins late in the theatre, then that is how much Naseeruddin Shah's screen time is . Why the hell have a promo for him ?? I really feel conned .

And why so much "shudh hindi" ?? I don't know if people really speak like this in hindi "heartlands" as they are called, but spare a thought for the "aam aadmi" my dear director. It took me 15 mins into the movie to get my mind and ears used to it.

NanaPatekar looks and sounds so good without his trademark ranting and shouting. Ajay Devgan broods,stares and delivers dialogues as he has done in 100 other romantic,action,emotional characters. God knows what people find in him. If all you want is a wooden performance make a tree stand and dub for it the next time. Manoj Bajpai acts and overacts. Ranbir Kapoor sleepwalks through the movie. I even spotted his eyes being half closed in the climax murder scene. (no he was not fainting !! )

The best performances were from Arjun Rampal and surprise,surprise Katrina Kaif. Arjun was really natural as the brash politician and Katrina's was the only character that had a proper graph and she really has made good use of it. And her own voice sounds so much better than those stupid sweet voices she is given in other films.

The story is Mahabharatha and Godfather put in a blender with some desi sentiments and songs added. The first half was all right, thanks to the uncountable number of characters and each one's introduction keeps the story moving. But once the director runs out of any more characters, he runs out of the story as well. I mean how bad can you direct a scene of Kunti revealing to Karna that he is her eldest son?? The scene just fizzled out like a can of opened diet coke. Neither fizz nor punch ! I can still remember how beautifully Maniratnam had done it in Thalapathy with Rajnikanth and Srividya. It still gives me goose bumps.

Anyway, I don't want to go on and on about every scene. Just felt like giving out about this epic s**t.

PS: This is what happens when your read and watch those numerous film reviews!! By the way the * in the last word are not my ratings ;-)

Of Idlis,vadas and volcanoes

Nostradamus was right on the spot when he said " the day the idlies turn dark, the skies will turn dark too" or was it the other way around "the day the skies turn dark with ash cloud from a fire spitting volcano under a glacier in an island in the middle of nowhere ...the idlies will turn dark " .

After months and days of planning and replanning and mindless running around , the big 4 (both our parents) were supposed to start tonight for their much talked about trip around europe. And that is when i thought i would impress them with my culinary skills and make them divine idlies and I soaked the rice and the dal. And this was where it all started !! All I needed half a cup more of this dal . Being the good "home maker " that I am , I always run out of things before realizing I dont have additional inventory, and then my crisis management skills come to the fore !!

Ok, I digress. I didnt want to use the poor cousin,the spilit urad dal (for idlies, thats blashphemous, thats the thalikara paruppu , you lesser mortals ), and went in for the big daddy , the whole black uraddal. But the gods had already spoken . No amount soaking in "hot " water could make it shed its coat !! Thats the story then , of my idlies going from fair and lovely to the unlookable!!

So yes I did it !! The moment I soaked in the black dal, the gods of idlies and medhu vadas(what, we dont have one ??!! I thought they had a picture in saravan bhavan) had had enough " this woman who makes idlies that are good enough to be the next WMDs, medhu vadas without holes, upmas that could compete with fevicol and eats cornflakes for breakfast is a disgrace to our race, and they spewed out tons and tons of venom and fire and ash !

And there my friends is my confession. Stop !! before even you start cursing me , i want to let you know, that justice has been swift !! Yes , my mixer died on me. It just stopped working when i was in the middle of the sinful act .

I'm now decoding the predictions on appalam like phulkas and tooth breaking chholes !!

PS: I know I sound better when I'm pouring my heart out when something goes wrong cursing the whole world than when I try to be funny !! Bear with me..I'm trying to remain upbeat and trying hard to see a silver lining in the ash cloud ;-) (there I go again !! )

On my lips now ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jMBsIUuvdA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt8kAQMYbJU

Things that make me PUKE !!!

*The age old (probably a british legacy) rifles that our policemen sported fighting the "terrorists" armed with grenades and AK 47s.Thank god for the NSG & Army.


*The new age "english" news channels telecasting terror attack 24/7 punctuating it with "these shots are exclusively shown on xxxx" (c'mon guys show some shame!!)


*Reporters showing us the aftermath of the attack on Taj and crying over burnt antique carpets and rare books and historical heritage pieces,when an equal number of lives were lost at CST.(probably a businessman's life or an antique carpet lost is equal to 5 aam aadmi's life in their world)



*A British survivor narrating her tale says "i was relieved when I saw the Indian gurkha arrive" ..My dear honourable lady ,for christ's sake he was a policeman and not a "gurkha"..take off your imperialist blinders for a moment please!!!


*Mr.Mammohan Singh in his address to the nation saying this attack comes from a "neighbouring country"!! oh that is such a great find!! i felt like shaking him at that precise moment !!with all due respects to his education and qualifications,I would've cheered if he had said that this came from militants in pakistan and we would not spare them even at the risk of sounding like george bush. To hell with his oxford and cambridge diplomacies!!


*the talk of "Spirit of Mumbai" and "spirit of India"...c'mon,after all this I have no spirit left in me at all.and if you are suggesting that the common man going back to work shows his spirit then you have got it wrong.what would a man earning Rs 20 a day,without a semblance of savings , do for his next meal if he doesn't go to work the next day after an attack?? it is not about spirit but survival.and btw it is only the business bigwigs surviving the attack who sat at their home watching TV and narrating their tales of survival,who could afford to not work till things get back to normalcy.


*Lighting candles for the martyrs!!! how long are we going to be doing these stupid symbolic Rang De basanti gestures !! If you really want to show your anger and distress march to the parliament/assembly and sit till those stupid politicians propose measures for tackling the issue and see to it that they implement it.


*people who say "I'm tired of indian politics,that's why I never vote".Guys,are you so stupid that you don't understand?? If you don't vote ,your vote will be cast by somebody for a party you don't support.ok if you don't support any party then don't complain.you have to choose a lesser evil,that's the choice we've got.



You can only choose between an inactive congress and a hyperactive BJP (at the national level),if you don't like them,then come up with an option,else don't complain.Just because you don't vote,these puppets in the parliament don't care about you and are not wary of you and they only cater to the so called voting masses and patronise them.

Madurai Veyil

the first thing that hits you(literally) as soon as you land in madurai is the heat !!! "madurai veyilla kazhudai kooda suthadhu" were words that rang in my ears(courtesy:my granny) almost everyday that i came back home roasted,burnt and dehydrated after all the "oor suthal". meaning not even donkeys roam around in madurai heat.

but paati,what do you do if the weather report reads hot,hotter and hottest all through the year!! stay at home she would say, but i chose the other option ..roam around as much as you can and get to the point where you no longer feel the heat ,you and the heat become one and the same ..

yeah chennai is also hot,infact the whole of tamilnadu except for those summer getaways kodai & ooty are always hot.but madurai veyil(heat) is something unique.feel it to know it. anyway it never deterred us from exploring the nook and corner of this city and we got so used to it that the once in a blue moon showers had us whining !!

the daily "ilaneer" (tender coconut) outside our college,the jigardhanda(a drink unique to madurai),the mug full of fruit juice in pazhamudircholai near periyar bus stand,the juicy,mouth watering melon pieces near arasaradi which we ate (licking the juice flowing to the elbow as if our life depended on it) all the way through the walk back home ...i bet you can't get these in a cool country !!

but what stays on are these..the paati selling the ilaneer dispersing some "gems"(!!) on how girls should behave seeing us girls giggling away , the annas selling juice at pazhamudhircholai and the akka at the melon shop ( not a shop really just a "thallu vandi-mobile trolley kind of ) saying endearinlgy" nalaikku kuudu da , parava illa" in that typical madurai lilting tamil( you can give it tomorrow dear,its ok)when you don't have the Rs 2 change for a piece of melon..

the nostalgia express

have been doing so much of blog hopping for the past 2 weeks and found a bunch of really interesting blogs.it was while reading one of these that i found myself going back in time...(imagine old movies' style tortoise mosquito coil going round and round).

It sucked. Dabbler hit the nail when he said nostalgia sucks..it means that you are growing old and things you grew up with are slowly but surely disappearing. anyway am not so old (!!) and i still have time to say all these things.still, a trip down the memory lane sure does give you a "i- don't- know- how -to- say- it- but- you- have- to- feel- it " kind of feeling!!!

after reading these blogs of mostly original,agmark tamilians i found the love of "chennai" run through their blogs..and this triggered a flurry of thoughts which threaten to explode my head if i don't put them down!!

Madurai !!! one word that can make me sit up from the deepest of sleep (well..that's a bit of an exaggeration!! ) and strain my ears to the point of them of growing an inch bigger even if i hear a passing reference to it.

i can go on and on on this place where i spent the best 6 years of my life ...but one post would not be enough. so will just put up things as and when they pop in my head and excuse me if i sound biased,coz i can't help it..

...

“If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”

stumbled upon this when reading something from somewhere !!! found it interesting ...