'08-09...10...11...????

I have heard and believed that only soap operas can last for 5-6 years but I think there's going to be a record break by a TV reality show called 'Airtel Super Singer' which started in 2008 and may go for another 2-3 years. A TV show's TSP soars based on the interest shown by people/its marketing strategy and this show is going to lose all its lustre for dragging the show with unwanted episodes like the one today. As everyone who watches may be waiting to hear who's the 4th contestant going to join the final show, they are dragging this with the judges wildcard round. People have already voted and why there is another wildcard round? Sigh....$%^&*. I could hear people murmuring (like me) 'Dei...Enda ipdi mega serial maadhiri javvvvaa iluthittu poreenga?'....

And now for today's show and my comments on it:
Vijay Narayan - There are so many great classic hits of Ilayaraja and this guy chose one mokkai song. I just forwarded his performance :)
Ranjani - If she's not selected for the finals, as everyone, I would think there's some politics that might have happened not to choose her. Hope that does not happen because she has a great voice when compared to other four contestants on the wild card round
Prasanna - I usually like his on stage perfomance and today it was OK but not great
Santhosh - Although there were few flaws and especially sodhappals in pitching, I liked his rendition
RaginiShree - It looked like someone asked her to read 'Swasame Swasame' lyrics and try few sangadhis in between to show that she knows music. The breaths in between each line - Only Ragini can do it. The beauty of the song was entirely lost. If judges dont give positive comments, Ragini might end up crying and hence all the judges said 'You are an excellent and promising singer'

If this show does not end in another 2 months (which is highly unlikely to happen but I saw some youtube comments saying this is going to end in June;)), I have made a resolution not to watch this show in future :) How many of you are with me? :)

- From a die hard music fanatic

Bits 'n' pieces...

'Click'ed...not on my camera, but through my optical mouse ;) When I read anything, I have the habit of bookmarking the pages that interests me and I'll read it more than once and keep it for future reads as well. That's how I clicked the below ones and marked it as bookmarks and pushed it down here. Most of these gave me a feeling that 'Changes are good sometimes and it's time to see a better world' and made me to listen to my favorite song of MJ's 'Heal the world'. And now for the pages,

1. Entrepreneurial dreams & politics:
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?a=jexx8iaeafa&title=_Give_us_a_chance_we_ll_change_the_system&?vsv=TopHP1
SarathBabu - I have read about his life history when he started Foodking and very few people like him get to do something they determined for and make their dreams come true. I believe that he's the one who can create entrepreneurs down the lane.
His website on his election poll campaign: http://sarathbabu.co.in
2. Roses & thorns:
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/04/18/stories/2009041851181200.htm
I haven't seen 'Ippadiku Rose' so far but planning to watch it soon.
3. Yes, we can:
I need not introduce this IT mentor - NarayanaMurthy. His recent interview excerpts here:
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/04/20/stories/2009042050050100.htm
4. The 'Signal':
In US, it's a common thing that we can get updates about the ongoing traffic online or through a SMS. But I am not sure how many people know that Indian web kings have developed one there too.
http://www.thetrafficpeople.net/
5. Unplugged:
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/ - I watched 'Chicken a la carte' and it was amazing...Moviebuffs will not leave any of those listed there...Click it!

Who's next???

I was a great fan of 'American Idol' in 2007 but this year, I have not watched much but I've been following the updates in the web part of the version. In 2007, I used to watch it for Sanjaya and deliberately wished to vote for him even though he was not a great singer when compared to the other top contestants of the show (being a desi, this was a way to show my patriotism ;)) And this year, it's for Anoop Dogg as he's popularly called...But he had to go out in the last episode because of the valuable comments from the judge Simon Cowell...So, my desi patriotism has come to an end for this year in terms of AI. Waiting for the next year's AI to see if someone like Sanjaya or Anoop shows up...Who's next???

Kavidhaiya? Kadhaiya?...

If it comes out without any thought, is that called a kavidhai? It's been a long time since I wrote a poem or a story and unintentionally, this flew out...

Note: Tamil akshara mistakes are because of the online translating pad...Pls excuse :)

சொல்ல மறந்த கதை

அன்று சொன்ன 'பாட்டி சுட்ட வடை' கதை ஞாபகம் இருக்கிறது
பள்ளியில் வாத்தியார் சொல்லிய 'அரிச்சந்திரன்' கதை ஞாபகம் இருக்கிறது
சில வருடங்கள் முன்பு நண்பர்கள் சொன்ன 'அன்பே சிவம்' கதை ஞாபகம் இருக்கிறது
ஆனால் யாரிடமும் சொல்லாத கதைகள் நேராயாவே இருக்கிறதது மனதுக்குள்...

இத்தனை கதைகளை சொன்ன இவர்கள்
ஏன் வாழ்க்கையின் கதையை மட்டும் சொல்லவே இல்லை?
அதை மட்டும் நானே தெரிந்து கொள்ள வேண்டுமென்று
என்னை அப்டியே விட்டு விட்டார்கள்
வாழ்க்கையென்னும் ஆழ்ந்த கிணற்றுக்குள்...

அந்த சொல்ல மறந்த கதையை
நானும் அறிந்தேன் வருடங்கள் கரைய...
அதில் ஒன்று இரண்டை இங்கு சொல்லி விட்டு
போகலாமென வந்தேன்...

இருட்டு இருந்தா தான் வெளிச்சதோட அருமை தெரியும்;
பணம் இல்லாட்டி தான் அதை சமாபதிக்க வேண்டிய அவசியம் புரியும்;
தோல்வி அடஞ்சா தான் வெற்றியோத அருமை தெரியும்;
அன்பு கெடைகாட்டி தான் அதோட அவசியம் புரியும்

வாழ்க்கை எதாயோ தேடி பயணிக்கிறது
அந்த ஏதோ ஒன்று கெடைக்கும் என்று
கெடைக்காத போது அதோட வழி தெரிகிறது
கெடைக்கும் போது அதோட இன்பம் நிலைக்கிறது

வாழ்க்கையே போர்க்களம்
வாழ்ந்து தான் பார்க்கலாம்
போர்க்களம் மாறலாம் ஆனால்
போர்கள் தான் மாறுமா???

அந்த வாழ்க்கை என்னும் போர்க்களத்தில்
என்னை நானே தொலைத்து விட்டேன்
இடம் தெரியாமல் இருக்கும் என்னை
கண்டுபிடித்து கரை சேர்த்து விடுகிறீர்களா?

Movie time...

As usual, I watched few movies this weekend. There's nothing better to kill the boredom with 2-3 hrs going in a movie :)

1. Milk - Sean Penn's oscar winning performance, a homosexual oriented movie which has got great reviews nominting itself for the oscars and academy awards. I expected more in terms of all the above said factors and that's the reason I picked it up from my netflix queue. But I did not like the movie as I thought I would. Nothing more about it...
2. Naan Kadavul - I ended up crying more than liking the movie. There's only one thing that I liked in the whole movie - The cast. There's nothing else that is worth watching and I wonder why this movie was over hyped...
3. SMS - That's what my friends in India told that this movie is called in its shorter form...Siva Manasula Sakthi. When compared to the above two movies, I would say this one is far better because there's not much hype about this movie and it's casually screened. Jeeva's performance was good and I was surprised to see Aarya playing a guest role...(I was drooling amidst the surprise ;))
4. Yaavarum Nalam - I liked this movie better than any other tamil movies that I have watched recently. The screenplay, the twist and the turns, the cast, the suspense - Everything fitted well. When I started watching the movie, I thought it's going to be the usual pei, aavi kind of tamil movies but it was not. It's a bit different than the movies like 13 number veedu, Uruvam, Rasathi varum naal etc., I read somewhere that there may be a sequel to this movie which is being discussed by director Vikram Kumar and Madhavan. I would definitely watch the sequel too, if there's gonna be one.

And I have got the next 3 movies from library. At this rate, I guess I have to write movie reviews every weekend :)

The Lil' champs...

In the recent videos that I have watched, these two have been my top favorite for these obvious reasons - The song, the rendition and the innocence in their voice.

Anakha's voice - When I heard it first time, I told myself - Chancea illa, ennama oru voice...Epdi ipdi ellam?
Vasundra's voice - I cannot categorize it as an outstanding voice but the childishness in it attracted me :)

IPL, its way...

If you think I am going to write about Shane Warne, you are wrong. This picture looked different and thought it would suit my title at one point i.e. IPL.

I am looking forward to watch, atleast the highlights of IPL this year. With IPL around the corner, some form of news comes surprising everyday. Kaif being ruled out, my favorite Laxman paving his path to Gilli, 'The Wall' Dravid giving his role to Pietersen (another favorite of mine ;)), Ganguly's captaincy has been knocked out and Mccullum being appointed as captain of KKR and the big controversial debate of multiple captaincy concept put forward by John Buchanan, venue changed from India to SAfrica...all these tells me that this year's edition of IPL is going to be bit different than last year's, especially in terms of fans support. It would have been great if it was held in India. And I have already charted out my top 3 favorites for the first 3 places of this shorter version of game this year. Fingers crossed :)

Photo courtesy: Sify.com

The 'F' syndrome

I have my top favorites in anything and everything I do and so as in reading. My top two favorite books are 'It's your ship' and 'Catch me if you can' and now I have a third one to add - It's Robin Sharma's 'The greatness guide'. I have read it more than once but I am still reading it every day. It's like reading one or two chapters every day which usually refreshes my thoughts. There's one such good read recently from this book and it's about the 'F' syndrome. When I used to think or talk about such topics, I always say to myself - Easy said than done. Now, towards the syndrome:

The 4 most significant things in life that we go through almost everyday. I would actually call it as 3 instead of 4 since it's 'fear of failure' which goes hand in hand and can be categorized into one.
Fear of failure - When you fear, you fail. When you cannot accept failure, you fear. Why do people say 'be confident'? Because if you fear, you will fail...you will not execute as you expected. When you talk or sing on stage, if you fear, you will not deliver it quite right. That's a failure when things don't happen as expected. But when I say this, I have got confused at times because I firmly believe that success comes through failure. So, fear of failure should be okay, right? But now, I have an answer - it's okay only when fear of failure and success is understood well

Forgetting - This is the most common factor. It's not forgetting what to buy today or whether I have paid the rent? It's about forgetting what is learnt. When you go for a seminar or when you watch a highly inspiring show, you'll feel rejuvenated and entitled to think that you want to be like that or you want to do that. But after a good night's sleep, all will go away from your mind and you are the same old person going to work, exercise, read, eat and sleep. Once we are out of the moment, we lose it, we forget what we thought at that point. When someone does not have this syndrome, then they are committed to that particular thing. Commitment and consistency in one are powerful factors

Faith - I always think about this when people talk about love or marriage although it's applicable to almost every thing in life. When you have faith on something or someone, you will not question about it. When there is lot of questions, then there is no faith. When you don't have faith, you will not give it a try. When you don't give a try, how will you know whether it will work or not? (So many questions??? ;))

Robin Sharma gave few examples in his book on all these and it's a whole new perspective of transforming one's attitude. It's easy to say but hard to follow. But when followed, I guess that would be an extraordinary life to lead :)

1970's...

Mauro or Moishale? was the title that I intended to put for this blog post @ the first place. Probably my spelling may not have turned correct...I just googled it and found that I'm not getting there right...Anyways I am not concerned about the spelling here and let's get into it....

Yet another movie that I watched this weekend and slated as 'worth watching'. It's a brazilian movie and I did not know that until I saw the title flashing on my laptop from the netflix queue picks. And I was surprised that I picked a movie by chance which has been nominated for Oscars and won 4 academy awards. Seeing the title, I thought it's an English movie which I've not heard before. This revolves around 1970's, jews, world cup football, Pele, politics, communism and the main character Mauro, a 12 year old boy who is left in a jewish neighbourhood when his parents went on vacation. The real meaning of vacation comes later. After seeing movies that takes a small boy/girl as the main character, I am quite impressed that how a 12 year old can act so vividly. Few other shows/movies to quote on this genre - Taare Zammen Par which featured Darsheel Safari, David Copperfield which featured Daniel Radcliffe, Anjali that featured Shamili...and now this gets added to the list.

Mauro is a soccer fanatic and the movie starts where he plays the desk soccer game @ home. He was left alone when his parents went on vacation. Then, he gets a chance to meet different people and make new friends around. Brazil's 1970 world cup win and the way people watched it in dining places, listened to the scores in the transistor, jiggled and giggled around...even those kids ran around and watched it with great interest, clapped their hands and did high fives - It reminded me of the World cup cricket matches which I used to watch and shout at times showing different emotions.

And what I felt about the different characters in this movie 'The Year my parents went on vacation'?

Mauro - One who stole the whole movie...He's the essence of the movie
Hannah - Cute and clever. Clever when opening windows for those kids to see girls changing dresses in her mom's garment shop and get money from those kids for allowing them to see it as a bribe :)
Shloma - The jewish thatha in the nearby door, very religious...
Irene - Very beautiful

Rest of the characters did their part quiet well but I have nothing to write about them. I dont want to reveal the entire storyline here and leave it to everyone to watch it when a chance strikes :)
My rating: 4.8/5 especially for Mauro's performance.

M.T.R...

This is not a recipe for a MTR Gulab Jamun :) I was talking to my friend yesterday and he introduced me to this show called 'Roadies' which comes on MTV. Although he told me the plot line, I was curious enough to watch the show to know the reason behind its popularity. A gist of what lines were exactly going on my head when I was watching the March episode of it:

Palomi - Jeez, who gave her the right to talk? She's very irritating...
Palak - I wish this girl gets eliminated soon...Palomi is far better than this
Natasha - Hmmm....now I know why guys watch this and there exists a huge fan club for this hottie chic :) But, she looks like a 'narikurathi' in some angle
Numan - Model maadhiri pose kudutha mattum podhadhu, edhachum pannanum
Sufi - Ha..this guy resembles Aarya...So, no comments ;)
Aussie models - I wonder how MTV can come with such amazinnngg ideas making Aussie models pose for a game show to reveal the 6 letter word from the water splashed on them, out of a pool...

A must watch show, if you are still interested after reading this.

The 'Musical' fe(a)te

I have the habit of starting the day with a devotional song and it's been 'kandha sashti kavacham' or 'Venkatesa subrapatham' most of the times played from my youtube quicklist every morning. I wanted to play some other song for a change today and there came 'Maha ganapathim' but it showed a picture of Shabana Azmi instead of Sivakumar. I was surprised and played that video to see what it actually was and where it came from. I must say that I was impressed by the music and the singing which led to watch the musical fe(a)te in the later part of the day as a movie.

Three lives - Abhinay's, Swarnalatha's and Priyanka's connected by the title of the post. Abhinay is an aspiring musician whose mother dies in a road accident when he was a kid. Priyanka is a business woman who helps her mother in her business and she sings at times. Priyanka loses her father in the same road accident where Abhinay had lost his mother. Swarnalatha is Abhinay's periamma and she's a versatile carnatic singer who lost her son when he was a kid in the same road accident. It's as simple as this - Abhinay comes to his native village to tell his dad Naser that he's going to form a music group which Naser resists by his looks. On the 'devasham' day Abhinay gets a chance to meet Swarnalatha and Priyanka where the musical journey begins and rest is the movie.

There's nothing great about the movie but I liked it for two main reasons - 1. The musical fusion at the end of the movie 2. A simple naration without any hullaballo. Now, on the various aspects of the movie:
1. Music - Usually when I watch movies, I just forward the songs except when I know that there are few songs that I like in the movie. There are only two movies in the recent past where I did not hit any button other
than a 'Play' - One is 'Rock On' and the other one is this movie which I am talking about. I am yet to explore on who sang the track 'Thaye Yasodha' in this movie but it was great listening to it
2. Cast - IMHO, Abinay was a decent looking guy who has performed his part as given. He reminded me of my favorite VVS Laxman at times :) Priyanka was good looking especially in those sarees but I did not like her voice. Swarnalatha (S Azmi) - a typical south indian mother look and I loved seeing her traditional wears - 'Mangalyam' and those cotton sarees and the thalai kuli towel :) Naser and 'Thalaivasal' Vijay - Their part was small but I liked T Vijay's matured role as Swarnalatha's soothing husband
3. Comedy - There's nothing as comedy in this movie but I could only smile rather than laugh when the Annapoorna part comes in the form of a cow :)
4. Romance - Romance was like a sprinkled water in a huge bucket. Just a hug, a cycle ride tells it all between Abhi and Pinki
5. A bit annoying - Munna's behaviour and Pinki's mom's modern look
6. My takeaway - You gotta have some sort of inspiration in life to do something different that you like
7. My rating - 4.8 stars out of 5

And, do you know what movie am I talking about? Here's the poster: