Deja vu

Heal the world

2011-05-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Another mission. Another rebel killed. More rebels to get inspired. When will all this stop? When are we going to wake up without finding our news papers or channels not mentioning a bomb blast, a war threat or an impending invasion by a military super power.

If one analyses the root cause of all the so-called terrorist activities it leads to one name..The United States of America. How much more oil do they require? How many more innocent women and children will continue to die for the greed of one nation?

Why cant European and North American nations opt for a slightly lesser standard of living??

Do they always require to travel by flights when you have the option of high speed trains or publich transport served by such superb highway infrastructure? Is it necessary to have a room heater when all you need to protect yourself from the cold is a thick rug?

I thought that the US Financial market crash would make the West think deep on why it happened. People are angry when the system is so unabalanced. One nation lives in so much unnecesary affluence while others struggle to survive each day. Would Americans restore democracy (like they claim to do in Libya) in any other nation if there is no benefit like oil to be gained? Why are they allowing the Sheikhs who revel in vulgar opulence to rule Saudi Arabia and other Middle East nations?

Unless the root grievances of the natives of the rebel nations are addressed, there will be no reduction in terror attacks. Al-Qaeda is too huge an organization and more importantly, too huge an ideology to be destroyed by the death of a Bin Laden. I really hope that at least the American people understand this in the times to come.

I was waching a program in National Geographic on 'Siberian Tigers'. At the end, the narrator had this to say "The Siberian tiger only takes as much food as it requires. It hunts only enough to satisfy its hunger. All this, very unlike humans, who never seem to have enough."

Congrats Men In Blue

2011-04-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

We did it!!!!!!!!!!

I knew that we were going to witness a special moment. A perfect gift for that man who bore the burden of India's batting for more than decades. As a cricket, my most painful moment was when India lost the semifinal match of the World Cup. Probably that team was too much dependent on Sachin.

Yes, this time the Little Master missed his hundred. But what was nice to see is how youngsters took the responsibility on their shoulders and the captain played an innings befitting the ocassion.

And regarding the India -Pak cricket relationship..Start by taking Pakistan players into IPL. Let those Sena's who cry for bad relationships between the two nations go to hell...

World Cup memories: Down Under in 1992

2011-03-07T01:19:00.000-08:00

After Reliance had sponsored the 1987 World Cup co-hosted by India and Pakistan, Benson and Hedges were the official sponsors of the 1992 edition co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. This was the first world cup I remember watching on TV since the 1987 cup took place when I was in the first standard and me not even having the faintest memory of those matches.

I think one feature which I liked most about the 1992 edition more than its subsequent ones was the round-robin format. Each team played the other teams in the tournament in the first stage. After all those matches, the tournament went directly went to the semi's and then to the finals. I always thought that this format gave equal opportunity to all teams to compete and prove a worthy contender for the title.

And I remember India's first match. It was against England. And again Robin Smith proved to be India's nemesis with his bat. But even at the end the victory for England was by just a mere 9 runs. India, as usual, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I think it was a time when the batting got over as soon as the top 5 batsmen got out. The tail never managed to be effective with the bat. Sachin had an interesting duel with the legendary Botham till Beefy managed to get the better of the Little Master with a leg cutter.

Pakistan never started in the best fashion. They were convincingly beaten in their first match against West Indies (which had a young and flamboyant batsman called Brian Lara). But they still had the legendary Imran Khan leading them. Never ever should one write off the Pakistan team. They are to cricket what the German football team are to football. I remember the toss taking place for their crunch game against Australia. Imran was wearing a Tee shirt with the picture of a tiger. Ian Chappell asked him about the new Tee he was sporting and Imran replied "I was just talking to Border here. He also asked me about it. I told him that we are like the cornered tiger shown in this shirt. That is when it is the most dangerous". And how true it proved.

Martin Crowe tried his bag of tricks when captaining New Zealand. Opening the bowling with Deepak Patel, a spinner and one of the many Gujarati Patels who took cricket as a career in New Zealand!! Also the aggressive opening batting by Mark Greatbatch was something that went on to change the nature of batting in cricket.

On the hindsight India could have done better in so many ways. But like they say, life is not about ifs and buts. Probably Sachin could have opened the batting in all games. Probably our tail-enders could have shown more sense and judiciousness in their batting. Our fielding could have been better. So many excuses like that.

Jhonty Rhodes was a revelation in this tournament. His run out of Inzi in the round robin match proved that the new generation of cricketers were going to set higher standards in fielding. Rhodes will arguably probably go down as the greatest fielder in cricket history with some old timers still feeling that Colin Bland was still one level above him.

New Zealand had a dream run until the semis. Martin Crowe seem to do everything right. For me the turning point in that match, probably more than Inzi's blitzkrieg, was Aaqib's dismissal of Greatbatch. I think that superb slower ball by Aaqib proved crucial for Pakistan because Greatbatch, till then, had smashed all bowlers in the first 15 overs in most of the group batches. Had Greatbatch continued in the same momentum we might have seen a different result in that semi.

Australia who started as title favourites didn't perform as expected of them. They defeated teams like India (though by a single run), Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka but failed against whom it mattered most (New Zealand, England,South Africa and Pakistan).

South Africa were really unlucky not to have made it to the finals. Brought back into international cricket after being excluded from the ICC for following the practice of apartheid, they produced some brilliant display of cricket to reach the semis. But as fate would have it, even in future, they were brought down at the crucial stage.

I still remember rooting for Pakistan on the day of the finals. Pakistan has always been one of my most favourite team in cricket. For the amount of raw talent they had, it was only befitting that the reins of captaincy was taken by Imran, who commanded respect from everyone in the team. No one who saw that match will ever forget the 2 deliveries by Akram to get rid of Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis. 2 varieties of reverse swing by the Sultan of swing. I think Imran's biggest advantage was that he was never afraid of losing. So this made him a great risk taker in the positive sense. Taking Inzamam into the team after just watching him for 5 minutes in the nets was the best thing he had done during the preparation for the World Cup.

And finally, the outcome of the victory made it seem so satisfying. A cancer hospital and research centre in Lahore where even poor people could take treatment for free. Imran's dream had come true. It also proved to be a springboard for him to take the plunge into politics in which he waits to achieve the same glory that he achieved in cricket.

The elusive cup

2011-03-01T00:09:00.000-08:00

What a match it turned out to be. 667 runs and no winner. I think the grand performance from both sides was summed up by Mike Artheton, former England captain who said "Neither Sachin nor Strauss deserved to be in the losing side".

While Strauss was brutal in his reply through some strokes which made him look, at times, like he was squatting musquitos, Sachin seemed like a 1810 wine. Absolutely vintage stuff from the legend. Never ceases to amaze us, does he? He fits into any form of the game with such eaze.

The first time I decided to watch him bat was during a Sharjha Cup finals. Unfortunately he was out for a first ball duck with Aaqib Javed destroying the Indian batting line up with figures of 7/37. But what struck me the first time I saw him was the perfect poise in his stance. I am no analyst of the game, but I think the first impression you form of a batsman is from his batting stance. No wonder that Gavaskar hailed him as the batsman who achieved perfect balance when executing his strokes.

He is another of India's short statured batsmen who commands respect from his peers and opponents alike. A genius, but not an eccentric one like Maradona or Bobby Fischer. Sachin is what he is today due to his relentless dedication, discipline and passion he has displayed for the game. So different from his schoolmate Kambli who could not fulfill coach Achrekar's dream of giving the game it's greatest right-handed and left-handed batsman.

I watched the first innings of the India Pakistan match at Centurion in the 2003 world cup at CET's hostel . When I came out after the first innings, most of them who saw the game till then were telling that India would crumble under the attack of Wasim,Waqar and Shoaib. When I saw Sachin bat for around 30 minutes I thought he had an early appointment with someone outside the stadium. He was playing an innings befitting the cricketing gods.For a while he was a combination of the Don and Viv Richards. As ironical as it could get he got out once again to a brute of a delivery from Akthar. That was the only way he could have been dismissed. Probably Sachin would have relived the moment Adam Bacher took a spell binding catch to dismiss him in South Africa during a Test match.

I don't think even he knew what kind of a bowler he was. He sometimes spun the ball more than any one else when he tried his hand at legspinners. He had his moments of eccentricites as well. Bowling the final over of the Hero Cup semi-final against South Africa was one. But the same gutsy decision had the reverse effect during IPL 2010 when he captained Mumbai Indians.

He never scored a Test century at Lords, but had his moment during the Diana Memorial match when he stamped his authority against a bowling side having Mc Grath and Allan Donald. Probably he felt something was wrong when he found he didn't have a century against his name at Lord's while Bombay duck Ajith Agarkar had one at the Mecca of cricket!!!

Women at a dance bar in Buenos Aires, Argentina said that the only time men coming there didn't look at them was when the TV showed the goals scored by Maradona. BBC Sports said "When Sachin goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives".

During the 1975 and 1979 world cup, West Indian fans used to display banners which proclaimed "The World Cup belongs to West Indies". Couldn't argue much with them for saying that. Probably Sachin needs to satisfy fans who feel his trophy cabinet deserves the elusive World Cup. I think we are going to witness something magical.

Yeh Dil Maange more.

The Menhir effect

2009-05-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

The recent Scripps Spelling Bee Contest saw an Indian American victory sweep at the final stages of the competition. Aishwarya who won the 3rd place had failed to spell the word ‘Menhir’.It was a surprise for me that the word which I had heard so often during my school days had eluded the memory of a Spelling Bee finalist.

The Asterix stories along with the Tintin series have been a source of reading pleasure for comic enthusiasts around the world. The varied adventures of Asterix and his close friend Obelix were a craze for youngsters like me at that time. Every Asterix comic started with the introduction of the Roman Empire which had conquered every surrounding territory except for a tiny colony of Goths (French tribe). The Goths have survived many attempts of takeover from the Romans. The secret to this is attributed to the magic potion consumed by the Gothic warriors prepared by a druid Getafix. Of these the popular warriors are Asterix and his close friend Obelix.

The Asterix series are filled with action, humour which at times is sarcastic and all other sentiments which made it such an interesting read. As you would have noticed, most of the Gothic character names end with ‘ix’. The chief is named ‘Vitalstatistix’, the bard who is bashed uo even before he can try to sing is named ‘Cacafonix’ and the pet dog of Obelix is named ‘Dogmatix’.

In the village each of the guys have a particular occupation and that of Obelix is to deliver menhirs (huge blocks of stone cut in a cone like shape) to the stone mason. Obelix who is supremely strong due to him falling into a pot of magic potion when he was a baby carries these menhirs on his back for delivering them.

While the initial story series centered around the neighboring Roman camps, the later ones were woven around other exotic countries like Egypt (Asterix and Cleopatra), Britain (Asterix in Britain), Spain (Asterix in Spain) and even India (Asterix and the magic carpet)!!

The funny scenes used to be that of Obelix and Asterix thrashing the entire Roman army and Obelix walking away with the Roman helmets and muttering to himself “These Romans are crazy!”

I guess the French story writers had a great sense of imagination and humour since both the Tintin and Asterix series were written by French speaking people. Tintin comics originated in Belgium whose citizens speak the French language.

Whatever it is, probably the participant at Spelling Bee would definitely rue the fact that she had missed a great opportunity to get a better result at the competition.

Sagar Alias Jackey & Others

2009-04-05T00:10:00.000-07:00

Amal Neerad's 'Sagar Alias Jackey' is all what the various reviews make it out to be: All style and no substance. A real disappointment when we know that it is scripted by the ever dependable S.N.Swamy.

Mohanlal's 2nd release of 2009 made a mockery of it's prequel superhit "Irupathaam Nuttandu" with just some stylishly shot scenes and myriad slow motion sequences converting an intended racy thriller to a collage of posh camera shots. To add to all that, when actors are looking forward to have a six or eight pack body Lal continues to act with his family pack figure. Not that he needs to get a highly toned body, but at least he could have done some work in shedding a few kilos.

A graduate from the Satyajit Ray film institute, Amal Neerad found the Midas touch with his debut film "Big B". But unfortunately in SAJ, while the side dishes(camera, locations etc.) were exquisite the main course (script) was totally ignored. An opportunity to make a fitting sequel totally gone wasted!

Also had the time to watch a brilliant film. 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' has been Brad Pitt's most challenging and exciting role so far. And, for me, it deserved the 'Best Picture' award at the Oscars. The film had many memorable scenes and the watershed was at the point of the below dialogue exchange towards the end.

Daisy: Benjamin, you are getting younger by the day
Benjamin: Yes, but only from the outside

Comparing the central character to a humming bird (the only bird which flies backwards) and his life to the clock at the New orleans railway station whose seconds needle goes anti-clockwise are noteworthy. At times the movie seems a bit dragging, but the effectiveness of the actors keep us engaged.

But as BVN replied to my comment on his blog, the movie "reminds us of Forrest Gump at times". Eric Roth may have missed his second shot at the Academy Awards but surely has left the minds of the viewerd with lasting thoughts on this film.

Lal of the Siddique-Lal seems to have made a good comeback in direction with '2 Harihar Nagar' as the movie runs to packed houses at most centers in Kerala. Maybe a lesson for the likes of Amal Neerad on how to make a good sequel??

I am awaiting the release of Pazhassi Raja which seems to be the next most promising release in Malayalam this year. Also another interesting release in the pipeline is Shaji.N.Karun's 'Kutty Sranku' with Mammootty in the lead. Interesting trials lie ahead in Malayalam cinema at the box-office this year.

Veteran actor Nagesh passes away

2009-01-31T04:53:00.000-08:00

Pic Cortsey: http://static.manoramaonline.com/

Just heard the news in Sun TV that veteran actor/comedian of Tamil film industry, Mr. Nagesh, passed away today morning of an heart attack. He was 78.

Just like Mehmood was to Bollwyood, Nagesh was to the Tamil film industry. His performances in films like Ethir Nicchal, Thiruvilayadal, Thilana Mohanambal, Server Sundaram and later films like Aboorva Sahodarangal, Michael Madan Kamarajan and Nammavar were well appreciated by his fans and friends.

For me the death of Nagesh represents the end of the early Tamil film era which comprised greats like M.N.Nambiar, MGR and Sivaji Ganeshan. With his body language, witty dialogue delivery and ever amusing mannerisms he captured the heart of the Tamil cinema auidence.

Of the next generation actors to his era, he was particularly close to Kamal Haasan. Most films of Kamal Haasan, by default, used to have Nagesh in them. I particularaly enjoyed his role of the corrupt PA 'Avinashi' in Michael Madan Kamarajan and the villian 'Anbarasu' in Aboorva Sahodarangal.

He also had great respect for the Malayalam film industry which was evident during the Surya Festival felicitation ceremony when he said that he was lucky to be felicitated in the midst of great actors like Thilakan. I pray that his soul may rest in peace and that his friends and relatives get the strength to bear this great loss.

Veruthe Oru Bharya, Crazy Gopalan and others

2008-12-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

Back from Trivandrum to Bangalore after a 4 day trip in which I got to catch up with 2 films.

Veruthe Oru Bharya has Jayaram in his typical family man role. Directed by Akku Akbar the film is a decent effort from Akku Akbar.

Sugunan (played by Jayaam) is an employee at the Electricity Board and Bindhu (played by Gopika), his spouse, is a house-wife. Sugunan believes that his wife is solely responsible for managing the entire household affairs since he is the earning member of his family. How the gradually strained relationship caused by inflated ego's and inability to trust affect their life and that of their daughter form the rest of the story.

The firsr-half potrays the typical middle-class family life while the end scenes of the movie remind us of a 'Vadakku Nokki Yanthram'. But again, the film is nowhere a classic. Like 'Kadha Parayumbol' the movie owes its success to the crap flicks which have become the norm of the present day.

'Crazy Gopalan' is Dileep back at what he is known for: slap-stick comedies. The promos showed Dileep in various get-ups, but sadly they remained enclosed within poorly made beard wigs and false-teeth. Dileep, I felt, could have shown more sincerity in this area. What made me sad was the script struggling to make people laugh at certain points. Comedy tracks included just for the heck of it and double-meaning dialogues brought in un-necessarily gave me an unpleasant nostalgia of the past Siddique-Lal hits.

No releases for the 2 big M's this Christmas. Mohanlal's 'Red Chillies' and 'Sagar Alias Jacky' await release in 2009. I also sincerely hope that Mammootty's 'Kutty Sranku' and 'Pazhassi Raja' bring a big smile to the Malayalm film industry which have been starved of the commercial plus classic element in cinema for a long time.

Also picked up the dvd of 'Akashagopuram' which unfortunately I haven't had the time to see. This reminds me of one issue which I felt is plaguing not just the Malayalam film Industry but also the Indian film industry to a large extent: The quick release of the original DVD. I was surprised and shocked that the producer of 'Thalappavu' had not yet released the original DVD of the film. Why is our film Industry so un-professional? Aren't they interested in promoting their film? After all this they blame the piracy sector. That is why I felt that the producers of 'Akashagopuram' did a good job in quickly releasing the DVD through 'Moser Baer'.

Before I wind up, Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Those beautiful gems - 1

2008-11-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Comparing present day films to the golden ones of 80's and 90's is like comparing fast food recipes to home-made food. The memory of experiencing the former in both cases is ever lasting. We have many big budget films being released nowadays. But excepting a meagre few, the rest fail to get our attention; they fail to invoke a feeling in us; they fail to move us. In that respect, the films of 80's and 90's outclass any of the present day films.

I would just like to give you my pick of Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films of that Golden era which have left as much an emotional impact on me as they have on many others.

1. Thaniyavarthanam:

I just have these words to say about this hallmark film. "If this film can't move you to tears and agony, then no film can".

Lohitadas made a big bang entry into the Malayalam film world through this film. Set in a typical 'Tharavadu' in a Kerala village, the film shows how the family superstition affects the life of Balan Mash, a member of the Tharavadu who is a school-teacher by profession. Lohitadas has captured the very essence of the damage caused by false beliefs. The film was too tragic for me to watch it over and over again. I had seen this film around 1990 (during 4th standard) and to say that I was not affected emotionally by this film is telling a big lie.

The protagonist 'Balan Mash' played so brilliantly by Mammootty was a sort of resurrection in the actors career. During the early and mid 80's Mammootty was kind of sterotyped by the roles he did. The one criticism of him which was much talked of at that time was that all his films were about "A benz car, Baby shamili and a wife". Thaniyavarthanam almost fetched Mammootty the National award only denied by an equally powerful role of 'Velu Nayakar' played by Kamal Haasan in Nayakan.

The elder members of the Tharavadu have a belief that in each generation, a male member of the family goes mad. It starts with Balan's uncle (played by Babu Namboodiri) who faced a failed love-affair. He is locked up in a room and chained since he is beleived to have gone mad. Balan's brother (played by Mukesh) detests the false beleifs held by the family since he is a rationalist. Even Balan doesnt believe in them but takes part in the rituals conducted by the family so as to not displease the elders.

Through sheer misfortune, Balan is believed to be the male member who has gone mad. And then starts his tragedy which culminates in a very agonising scene. Lohitadas asks us through this script " Is Balan mad or is it the society who is mad?". A great film but I really wish that it is not shown to young kids.

2. Mahanadi:

Another film which makes me cringe everytime I see it.

It is the story of a widower Krishnaswamy whose peaceful life in a village on the banks of River Cauvery gets topsy turvy when he chooses to shift to Madras for enjoying the benefits of a city life. Cochin Haneefa plays Dhanush who tricks Krishna into starting a chit fund business and earn lots of money.

The names of all characters are those of a river. Starting from Krishna (Kamal), Ganga (his first wife), Yamuna (Sukanya), Saraswati (mother-in-law), Kaveri (daughter), Bharini (son) to Panjabakesi (Poornam Vishwanathan). In short the protagonist Krishnaswamy is the 'Mahanadi' around whom the lives of all other characters revolve. How he overcomes the struggles and returns back after many years to his village is what the film is about. The scenes which stick out are the jail scenes (similar to Shawshank Redemption but released before it) and the one in which he finds his daughter in the Sonagachi (red-light) area of Calcutta.

3. T.P. Balagopalan M.A:

The Sathyan Anthikkad - Sreenivasan - Mohanlal team gave us many memorable films like 'Varavelpu' and 'Nadodikkattu'. But this film is one which is not noticed immediately but one which has an equal undertone of sympathy for the protagonist.

Whenever I think of this story I remember an earlier film of Rajnikanth "Aaru muthal arupathu varai". In that, the film gives out a message at the end stating "A help done by a poor man is never recognised while the same when done by a rich man is spoken about for a long time".

TP Balagopalan MA has a similar theme. But the difference here is the sheer brilliance of Mohanlal's acting.

There is an interesting anecdote about this film. Sreenivasan was writing the script with Sathyan Anthikkad by his side. There is a scene where Mohanlal's sister marries Raju and is going to leave the house. Now Mohanlal says something to her. At that moment when Sreenivasan was thinking on what dialouge to write, Sathyan told him that he had to go somewhere and would be back in an hour. When he came back he found that Sreeni had just written a few words. Sathyan was furious that so much time was spent to write just a few words. Sreeni just smiled and told Sathyan to read what he had written. On reading it, it is said that Sathyan became very emotional and looked at wonder at the genius of Sreeni.

What Sreeni had written as a dialogue was Mohanlal lamenting the fact that he had not been able to buy his sister anything valuable till now in life and that she should not feel angry for that. In the movie the effect is much more coupled with Lal's acting and the heavy emotional build-up of the story.

The film had its moments of humour when Lal goes around as a salesman and meets with disastrous results.

Overall a small story , but a big message in it!

4. Yathra:

When many saw "Ithu oru Kanaa Kaalam" starring Dhanush, they complained that Balu Mahendra had made a mess of the original "Yathra". I used to remember "Yathra" as the first film of Mammootty that I watched in a theatre.

But when I saw the movie again recently, I could imagine the kind of impact it would have had on the viewers at the time it was released. Mammootty plays the role of a forest official who gets transferred to a remote area. He meets Thulasi (Shobhana) and falls in love with her, though she is the daughter of a poor labourer who is a widower. A cruel twist of fate lands him in jail when policemen mistake him for a Naxalite/terrorist. How he reunites with Thulasi after spending many years in jail is what the climx is.

It has melodious songs by Illayaraja and the first song in the bus is worth listening to any number of times. Balu Mahendra has made many classics like 'Moondram Pirai' and the thriller 'Julie Ganapathy' starring Jayaram and Saritha, but 'Yathra' always will remain one of his best and unique efforts in weaving a romantic story.

5. Drohkaal:

When Kamal Haasan saw this movie at a film festival he was instantly drawn towards it. He liked it so much that he decide to remake it in Tamil. That was the genesis of 'Kurudhipunal'. (River of Blood).

Drohkaal is the tale of two anti-terrorist squad leaders Abhay and Abbas (played by Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah) who tackle he network of a group of Naxalites headed by their commander Bhadra (Ashish Vidyarthi). Directed by Govind Nihalani, the film takes an unbiased view of the ideologies of patriotic police officers and a group of people who feel justified in using violence in trying to show their anger at the corrupt government.

A lot of quality is expected when the reel has two great actors like Om Puri and Naseer and they do not disappoint. One scene which I like in this movie is when Abhay tries to force Bhadra to accept that his ideology is wrong and illogical while the latter calmly justifies his views through logical sounding reasons. The climax scene is also note-worthy. Overall a totally emotion-packed story line.

6. Kireedam:

Mohanlal and Thilakan deliver outstanding performances as son and father in this gripping tale of the change in fortunes of a young lad Sethumadhavan whose father Achuthan Nair dreams of making his eldest son a police officer.

Lohitadas again proved that he was one of the best script writers in the Malayalam film Industry. Lohitadas claimed that the idea for this story came to him when he heard a tale about a person who had a fight in a bar ran away from that place fearing retaliation from the other gang. He then tried to imagine what would have happened had that person stayed on, and thus began the story of Kireedam.

The film was a huge hit, with the song "Kanneerpoovinte.." earning M.G.Sreekumar the State Award for Best Singer.

Wikipedia says thus " Kireedam means a crown. And society places a crown on a person based on their first impressions." It is such a crown which changes the life of Sethumadhavan in the film. The film was remade in Tamil withj Ajith and Raj Kiran, but sadly, fails to reach anywhere near the original as always.

The story , if seen from the view point of achuthan Nair, is even more disturbing. With a daughter whose husband (Jagathy) is an idler, a younger daughter and a son at higher school his responsibilities are many but he finds hope in Sethu. It is shattered and culminates at the police station where he states with great pain but firm beleif that his son is a criminal. Kireedam is also known for providing Malayalam cinema with the most popular villain 'Keerikkadan Jose".

7. Nayakan:

Mani Ratnam was ever modest when he was told that 'Nayakan' was selected by Time magazine as one of the top 100 films of all time. He attributed it to people like Kamal Haasan, P.C.Sreeram and Illayaraja who made sure that the film was near perfect in art.

When Mani narrated the story of Varadaraja Mudaliar to Kamal, the latter had no hesitation in accepting the project. Kamal played 'Velu Nayakar' a Tamilian who escapes to Mumbai in his childhood and slowly rises to become an underworld Don.

As years go by, he loses his wife and son as a result of his activities. His end gives proof to the adage that "Those who live by the gun, die by the gun".

The cinematography and songs are just outstanding. Mani had recreated the Dharavi slum area which form the area of all major happenings in Nayakar's life. Kamal's acting had the touches of a Marlon Brando in Godfather. The scene where he cries on seeing his son's dead body was laterseen in Godfather-3 when Al Pacino cries on seeing his daughter lying dead.

Indirectly Mani also potrayed the life of South Indians in Bombay. The scene where Kamal is beaten by the police officer Kelkar and he lies down with blood coming from his lips and saying "Naa adiccha nee satthiduve" (If I hit you, you will die) is also a noteworthy one.

The scene where Nayakar's grandson asks him "Neenga Nallavara Kettavara?" (Are you a good person or a bad person?) is subtly handled. Nayakar replies that he doesnt know the answer and proceeds to gift him his amulet(meant for protection). After coming out of the court he is shot dead.

8. Amritham Gamaya:

I don't think Mohanlal 'acts' in any film. He is just so natural. Even if it's a heavy roles, he makes everything look so easy and natural. This gift is what makes him a good actor.

It was not in Panchagni, but in Amrutham Gamaya (based on MT Vasudevan Nair's story and screenplay) that he really surprised me. That was an amazing performance. In fact, he should have won a National Award for it.

Have you seen the scene in which he injects pethidine into his thighs? That was simply great. And when he realises that the family he befriends is the family of the boy whom he had accidentally killed while ragging him in medical college, was heartbreaking.

I don't know how he showed inner turmoil so beautifully. It was so subtle, so disturbing. The beauty of his performance is that he underplays emotions. Every muscle of his body reacts. For that one scene itself, he should have been given an award.

The above statements are the comments of Director Hariharan on Lal's performance in the film. The MT-Hariharan team had created magic even before 'Oru Vadakkan Veera Gatha'. Mohanlal delivered another performance worthy of his talent.

One scene from this film which haunts me always is the ragging scene in the Medical College in which Unni (Vineeth), a Namboodiri student in his first-year, meets his end.

Mohanlal conveys the emotions of the character through strong body language and dialogue delivery. His transformation from an arrogant student to a kind doctor is something which seemed so natural on screen.

It is when I see such films that I wonder as to why we do not have such good script writers and music directors in our midst now. Will there be another MT? Another Lohitadas? Another Mohanlal? Another Kamal Haasan? Another Mammootty? Another Illayaraja?

Nowadays, the movies only stay in our memory for those 2.5-3 hours in the cinema hall. They only serve us for that much time. An Aamir Khan says that films are meant only for entertainment, not for sending messages. Maybe true, but then they should also leave behind something to remember.

I know I have missed so many movies. Even what I have mentioned are not in any particular order. But then this is only the first part. There are so many more. :-)

Diwali Greetings!

2008-10-25T06:52:00.001-07:00

Advance Diwali Wishes to each one of you out there. Reached Coimbatore today morning at 4. Found time to watch the matinee show of the film 'Thirakkatha' at a nearby theatre. I am not reviewing it since it has already been done many times on the net and the movie is as good as what the reviews make it out to be. I hope many more such films come up in Malayalam.

Enjoy Diwali!

The Mongol

2008-10-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

'The Mongol' is a film directed by Sergei Bordrov and depicts the rise of Genghis Khan from humble beginnings to becoming the greatest ruler of Mongolia. The film shot around Inner Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan has breath-taking camera-work and well-shot war scenes.

The problem with any of the History books we have encountered at school, college or otherwise is that they are mostly based on chronicles of Westerners which make them biased towards Western thoughts and ideas. Take up any history book and you get to read that Alexander was a legendary conqueror while Persians, Huns and Mongolians were barbarians. I think the western historians have conveniently pushed aside the fact that Mongolians have had some of the greatest warriors and a warrior like Genghis Khan had conquered half the world in his lifetime, more than what Alexander achieved. I don't understand how westerners classify Mongolians and Persians as barbarians and Vikings as honourable and brave warriors. Were Vikings and Greeks more civilised than Persians or Mongolians or better in warfare. Weren't the western warriors defeated at the Crusades at the hands of Sallaudin? Hope our text books bring out the actual facts of history than merely printing Western thoughts.

Anyway, back to the movie. In brief, the movie depicts how Temujin (childhood name of the Khan) overcomes childhood difficulties (father's death, starvation, slavery etc.) to rise to the position of a great commander and warrior in Mongolia. He chooses his bride (Borte) at a young age and later with her support surges ahead as a warrior. What I liked about the movie was the characterisation of Genghis Khan which I felt was very naturalistic and much more authentic than shown in any other movie or documentary. Unlike Western perceptions that he was cold-blooded barbarian, the movie depicts him as a brave, composed and shrewd warrior who is also a great commander.

The dialogues are in Mongolian and Mandarin and so I had to rely on the English subtitles of the DVD (which were pretty good!). Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano gives a superlative performance as Genghis Khan with a very natural style of acting.

The scenes which depict Genghis Khan's friend Jamukha's soldiers shifting their loyalties to the Khan is subtle and at the same time creates an impact on the viewer. They tell Jamukha that they find the Khan more just and kind. It shows us that Genghis Khan also had great people management and leadership skills which held him in good stead in his future campaigns.

The Director says that he had planned this as a trilogy and if that is true, I am definitely looking forward to the next two parts. One reason is the magnificent war scenes which would be shown and the second is his conquer of China and Russia. As we all know, Genghis Khan was the only warrior who successfully conquered Russia. Two famous people who failed later in this feat were Napoleon and the anti-semitist Adolf Hitler. Also Genghis Khan attacked and successfully conquered China at a time when the Chinese had built the Great Wall to protect their country from invaders.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in History and wants to see a good movie. As simple as that. As to why the Director is a Russian, the reason is the affinity of Mongolian people with the early Soviet Communists. In fact, Russian language is commonly used in Mongolia along with the native language. Right now I am very glad that Sergei Bordrov had taken the painful efforts to direct this great movie and also depict a more authentic form of Eastern history. I impatiently await the release of the sequels.

Prithviraj- The rising star

2008-09-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

Image Courtesy: http://movies.bizhat.com

The first time I had heard of and seen Prithviraj was in 1999 during my +2 course. Our school was conducting a cultural fest for which he had come along with his classmates as a part of the team from his school. The previous year he had won the personality contest at the same fest.

My classmate and I were taking care of issues of event timing clashes, and, moments before the Personality contest, he along with his classmates came and told us that in case he qualified in an earlier event, it would clash with the Personality round. When we told them politely that it would be difficult to resolve the issue, they were quite understandably upset. The teachers of that school who had no inkling of the difficulties involved in hosting such a culture fest started cribbing that the standard of the organisation had come down. After some tense moments, we came to know that he had not qualified in that earlier event and so, was free to take part in the Personality round.

The Personality round, as expected, was won by him for the second time i a row. What I liked about Prithviraj's performance that day was his remarkable poise, confidence and clarity of thought while answering the questions. His father had passed away recently, and to still come out of the period of grief and take part in an event like this itself was much appreciable.

The next time I saw him, was during my days at CET (College of Engineering, Trivandrum). He had come to CET for the shooting of his film 'Campus'. Also in the cast were artistes like Geetu Mohandas, Siddique and my 1 year senior at school Mithun Ramesh. His appearance had changed a lot from the school days where he sported a spectacle and had a more intellectual kind of look.

Prithviraj was introduced to films by Fazil -The man who has contributed so much to Malayalam cinema not just through his films but also by introducing so many new talents. Prithviraj's first film was Renjith's 'Nandanam'. After a brief experience in the Malayalam film Industry, he tried his hands at Tamil films. Starting with a villain character in 'Kana Kanden' , Prithviraj has managed his portfolio in Tamil films quite well. I appreciated his humbleness in acting in Bhagyaraj's 'Parijatham' through which Bhagyaraj tried to prop up his daughter's acting career and thus give her more importance in the film.

The success tasted by Prithviraj till now, in films, is not just the result of his looks or earlier affiliation in the film industry through the fame of his father. It is mainly due to his hard work, discipline and arguably, through his lack of hesitation and humbleness in his earlier days to try any role which came his way.

Whatever the so-called super-star fans say, the days of the 2 M's playing young heroes are getting over. What is needed on their part is to get more selective and play roles befitting their age, thus providing their valuable support and experience to the industry. It is time for the next generation of actors to pave their way into the film industry through their talent and hard-work. Prithviraj has still a long way to go before establishing himself as a sure-shot bankable talent. But the path he has chosen to do the same is correct. I don't know whether it is right to call him proud or arrogant. These comments, maybe, are a result of the confidence he displays in public. Even I thought the same the first time I saw him.

It is a sad reality that the super-star fans are ready to hoot in theatres running the films of so called lesser actors.I feel that the destruction caused by the low quality films of superstars is like the damage done when an unqualified medical student performs an operation. But then fans ask ' But in our case we are not killing any patients, are we?' . Well, not any patients, but you are killing the art of cinema.

Lets hope young and upcoming stars like Prithviraj, like our current super-stars in their heydays, put the cinema industry back in a much better shape than what it was when they first saw it.

The Silent Masterpiece

2008-09-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

I request anyone to read this post only after you have seen 'Pushpak'. The cd/dvd is available at Moser Baer's website.
Acknowledgements: Dr.Chandrashekar, 'G' and other members of the Kamal Haasan community at Orkut.

What film do you make when you have to satisfy people from a country with more than a dozen languages? Common sense says "A silent movie".

Pushpak (1988) was not exactly a silent movie if you consider the background scores and sounds, but it was definitely a film with no dialogues. A simple story and an even simpler screenplay made it appeal to all classes of audience.

An un-employed graduate (played by Kamal) lives in a room located in the chawls of the city. A chance encounter with a drunkard lying by the roadside presents him with an opportunity to take his identity and enjoy the stay in a star-hotel for a few days. How the incidents during these days transforms his ideas and perceptions about life is what the rest of the movie is about.

The humour in 'Pushpak' is both satirical and pitch-black. The film starts off showing Kamal living in Spartan conditions at the chawl. He is the typical unemployed-graduate. There is a shot of a retired person ogling at the maid-servant with the background sound of the AIR news reporting that "Retired people must be appreciated for their far-sightedness and sense of fulfilling their objectives with zeal".

The chawl has a theatre nearby which screens martial arts films at night. Kamal is shown sleeping at night even with the blaring sound of fight scenes emanating from that theatre.

His struggle for survival is shown by the way he cleans his shirt and brushes his teeth. Squeezing the last bit of toothpaste from the tube and making a paste of the last remaining amount of washing powder and applying it on the shirt so that it is just enough to remove any sweat odour is humorous and at the same time food for thought.

The best scene I like from this movie is when he meets a beggar on the road side. Kamal tries to show off by taking a few coins from his pocket and showing them to the beggar. The beggar then smiles and reveals many currency notes lying below the mat on which he is sitting. A perfect way of depicting that the protagonist is way worse off than even a beggar.

Also humorous is his encounter with a girl (played by the sweet and beautiful Amala) at an artifact shop. The romantic interlude between the two is captured very beautifully. The girl's father is a magician by profession and plays a part in the humorous scenes by performing few tricks inside the shop which Kamal tries to replicate in vain.

Kamal then is shown trying to search for a job with very few vacancies. The queue for candidates is long depicting the difficulties faced by a graduate in getting a job in India at that time. Now watch this perfect contrast. A rich man (played by Sameer Kakkar) comes in a luxury car and gets down. He is drunk. He has an ice-cream in his hand which falls down when he gets out of the car. Being in the drunken state that he is in, he steps over the ice-cream and keeps walking. The protagonist sees this and gives an expression which says everything about the contrasting lives of people in India. Some struggle for a day's meal while there are others for whom money is in plenty.

Then comes the chance encounter with the same rich man at a footpath. He is in a drunken state and has almost no consciousness. Kamal find the key of a star hotel 'Pushpak' in his pocket. The mundane life and desire for materialistic benefits takes over the mind of Kamal and he develops the plan to take the place of the rich man at his hotel and put the rich man tied-up at his room in the chawl.

So from there begins a new avatar for our protagonist. There is an interesting symbolism as he enters the hotel. The sign of the Hotel 'Pushpak' is that of a circle with 2 wings spread out from either side. As Kamal enters the Hotel, the camera is shown from behind the hotel sign. As he comes forward, the camera angle is such that the wings spread out from either shoulder.

'Pushpak' was supposed to be a chariot where everyone obtained what they wished for. Similarly the wings on either side of the protagonist symbolise the fact that he is getting to lead the materialistic life he believes will give him all comfort.

We then see the protagonist enjoy the comforts of the room in the hotel. Drinks, food, clothes, sunglasses and all such things. But at night he finds it difficult to sleep. The silent atmosphere of the hotel room is in deep contrast to the sounds at the chawl (fight scene sounds from nearby theatre). So he goes back to the chawl and records the theatre sound on a tape-recorder. He then comes back to the hotel and plays the tape to get sleep.

The rest of the film is about how the hero is made to change his perception on life. There is a very interesting scene where Kamal goes out with Amala. He asks her what she wants him to buy for her, like, jewellery, gifts etc. She says that she wants nothing of that sort and points to a flower at a high branch on a tree beside a dilapidated building. Two points are brought out here, One is that, money cannot buy everything. Second is that, the most treasured gifts might not always be found at the most magnificent places.

Amala then takes leave of him. As Kamal stands holding the flower in one hand and a bunch of notes in another, a wind blows them both away to the ground. Kamal runs to gather the money, and in the process steps over the flower, thereby crushing it. It is shown that in the pursuit of money he has forgotten other important values in life.

Another incident occurs when he goes back to meet the beggar. He finds that the beggar has passed away and the corporation people are taking away his body. Immediately they find the money under the mat and then they drop the dead body an rush after the money. Another point which shows how people consider money more important over other humane factors.

Also the rich man whom Kamal had replaced at the doesn't have the best life. His wife has an affair with his friend who arranges an assassin to kill the rich man. Tinu Anand excels in the role of an assassin. He has never seen the rich man, but is told the room number at the hotel. He uses an ice dagger for the mission. The logic is that the person will get killed and also the dagger will melt after some time leaving no clues!

He fails miserably the first time and Kamal follows him secretly and finds everything about who he is and why he is trying to kill him. In the next attempt the assassin gets killed in a very hilarious scene.

Also the hotel owner passes away and all his relatives shed crocodile tears at his funeral. Kamal sees the photos of the owners rise from being a humble tea-stall owner to becoming such a great hotelier. He understands that hard work is a must for success and that there are no short-cuts to it. There is a scene of dark humour, where Kamal and Amala go around the dead body as though paying respects while in reality it is a romantic interlude between them.

He puts back the rich man at the footpath where he found him and confesses everything to Amala the day before she is leaving the hotel. At that time her father performs a magic show at the hotel. So just like the magician is finishing his illusory tricks and leaving, the hero also is leaving the illusory world of material comforts. The climax scene is very touching. Finally the protagonist is shown standing in the queue of candidates applying for a job with a new found hope (The number of vacancies is shown to have increased).

Some critics said that the scene where Kamal wraps the enema of the rich man in a gift paper and disposes it was very gross. All I can say is that the director tried to show that it is not the external appearance (symbolised by gift wrapper) which shows the true-self but the inner character.

On the whole, Pushpak is 'Poetry in celluloid'.

A true Ripley stuff!

2008-08-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

I know Orkut has fan communities for almost all actors. Well, the community for actor 'Dileep' also seems to be huge. And guess what? He seems to have fans right from Brazil to Japan!

A Mohanlal fan provided the image below , stating that he was banned from that community when he asked the members there as to how Dileep had so many non-Indian fans. It seems the number of members in Dileep's community grew from 67000 to 98000 in a matter of few minutes. Anyway, here goes the image being talked about:

Looks like Dileep and not Mr. Kamal Haasan is the true 'Ulaga Nayagan' (Universal Hero). God bless.

The Quote Tag

2008-08-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have been tagged by Deepti

Very interesting tag indeed. The rules are as follows. (Ctrl-C Ctrl-V from Deepti's post who had done the same from Thomas).

Jot down 5 of your favorite quotes from the various books you’ve read. If you don’t have the books with you now, googling (Wikiquotes and the like) can be used to find them. Tag five people and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

1.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have many promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep

- Robert Frost

I love these lines from the great poet. Encourages us to strive for something.

2.

Film-makers say that they approach every film as their first film

I approach each of my film as though it were my last film

- Stanley Kubrick

Words from one of the greatest directors of Hollywood. The master of symbolisms who made outrageous pieces of art like 'Dr.Strangelove' and 'A Clockwork Orange'. Originally slated to make the 'Schindlers List' , he gave the reply to people who asked him on Steen Spielberg's effort as "The Holocaust was so horrible that it is difficult to be even depicted accurately through a film"

3.

The glory is not in never falling

But in rising every time you fall

- Old Chinese Proverb

Well, no need to explain the above. I have always loved to read old Chinese proverbs.

4.

Science without religion is lame

Religion without science is blind

- Albert Einstein

A great message from someone whom I believe was more of an agnostic than an atheist.

5.

One who knows to forgive is a man

One who knows to ask for forgiveness is a great man

- A quote from the lead character in the film 'Virumaandi'

Why I like this quote is because the dialogue is spoken by the lead actress to the lead actor. She tames his rogue like character and makes him understand the futility of violence. A far-cry from the usual Indian film heroes who teach the heroine on good manners.

As earlier, I am not tagging anyone. Anyone who is interested can take up this tag. Thanx again to Deepti for tagging me.

The Sixteenth Day

2008-08-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Karna had risen very early. It was the sixteenth day of the war. Dawn had not yet touched the skies. But he could not sleep any longer. He was weary, both physically and mentally. The Kaurava army had lost its two best warriors. Bheeshma lay in his death bed of arrows while the Acharya was slain the day back. Now Duryodhana had chosen his best friend as the Supreme Commander.

Five days of battle had drained much of the energy from the Suryaputra. But how could he refuse the offer from Duryodhana. Wasn't it he who made him the ruler of Anga when he was ridiculed by everyone in front of the royal audience? Wasn't it he whose salt he had eaten from that day? Wasn't it he who made him an equal among unequals?

With all these thoughts he walked slowly towards the river. Closing his eyes he slowly invoked the Sun God. "What brings you at this early hour my Son?". Karna opened his eyes to find Lord Surya before him. The built up frustration, helplessness and anger in Karna had reached a point of release. "Why do you call me your son? Am I not Radheya? I am worse than an orphan. What curse is this? My mother abandoned me for no fault of mine. I was denied the marriage to Draupadi because of my supposedly low lineage. For no reason, I was denied a brother's love or a mother's affection. I am the sacrificial animal in the selfish game played by all others".

Surya stood silently while his son had vent out the suppressed rage and frustration within him. Smilingly, he replied "Whatever you said is correct my Son. But do not blame your mother and brothers. Whatever your mother did was justified at that point of time. Had she kept you, it would have brought not only her and you but even your entire family a bad name. Your brothers would have grown up hating you more. " The Lord continued "Everything is pre-ordained my son. I am not blaming you for joining sides with Duryodhan. But remember that finally what is destined to happen will happen. I think you will approve of what I say from seeing the events that have occurred in the first fifteen day of this war. Lord Vishnu in the form of Krishna is himself in the Pandava camp. But Duryodhan refuses to believe even after viewing the Vishwaroopa. Your fate is not decided by your lineage , my Son, It is decided by your acts, your thoughts and your decisions."

Coming back to his normal-self . Karna replied " Pardon me for my harsh words, Father. My anger is a result of me being a paradox. I am a rightful royal, but people consider me a low-born. I am praised by many for my un-selfish nature and intense discipline but yet cursed by Rishis. At this point of time, I only live to serve Duryodhan in the best way possible. Let me at least be a great friend. My rival, Arjuna, awaits me today at battle. Let me give my best at the battle-ground. I seek your blessings."

Surya then blessed Karna who then proceeded towards the Kaurava camp. Seeing him going away Lord Surya thought of the pre-determined outcome of this great battle. Tears began to flow from his eyes as he thought of Karna. The sixteenth day of war had begun.

Karna is one of the unsung heroes of Mahabharata. He was brave, unselfish, disciplined, obedient , respectful and loyal. Yet he did not choose the right friend or fight for the just cause. Hence he perished. But at the same his commitment of friendship is unquestioned.

True friends will always be by your side when you need them. But make sure you all choose the right friends. Happy Friendship Day to all of you out there!

The Book Tag

2008-07-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

More than 3 weeks back, I had been tagged by one of my favourite bloggers Philip. While I was a good reader, an influx of a laptop purchase along with the availability of cheap foreign film dvd's had brought down my reading spree to alarmingly low levels. So a big thanks to Philip in rejuvinating my enthusiasm for reading.

Mumbai , as a city, had always fascinated me. I have never been there. But the facts I have heard about the unique Amchi Mumbai life has always made me curious in knowing more about this great metro. Suketu Mehtas "Maximum City" dwelved on the different shades of Mumbai life. But this was a non-fictional account. Recently, I came across "Breathless in Mumbai" by Murzban.F.Shroff, which is a series of fictional tales on different occupants of Mumbai.

Ok, so the rules of the tag are as follows:
Pick up the nearest book.
Open to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

Page 123 takes me to the middle of a tale ' The Queen guards her Own'. This tale depicts the heartwarming relationship of a carriage driver and his beloved horse. The fifth sentence describes a person living in the same locality as the carriage driver who has taken begging as a profession and even trains children for it.

He knew whom to find. He knew boyfriends wishing to impress their girlfriends, mothers waiting for their children outside schools, businessmen in their cars, locked in important discussions, and foreign tourists who'd never seen anything like this - all of them came under the spell of Amir Jawaab's act.
Working the street he gotto know others like him, other beggars not as successful. At first, he'd give them free advice, telling them how to playact successfully.

I don't know whom to tag. Anyone interested can take up this nice tag. Happy tagging!

Dasavathaaram - Making sense of it

2008-06-26T02:36:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: The article just lists a few of the subtleties, symbolisms and hidden meanings which are implicit in the film. It is not an exhaustive write-up on the same, and readers are invited to come up with their thoughts/ideas if interested. The major source for this article comes from the fans of Kamal Haasan at his Orkut community and a few things I had noticed when I saw the movie on June 13th. Also I wish to say that I have seen the movie only once. This is not a recount of the story. For that you can go to this Wikipedia article on Dasavathaaram.

"I didn't say there was no God. I only said it would have been nice if there was God".

You may love him, you may hate him but you just cannot ignore him. Kamal Haasan's latest flick 'Dasavathaaram' incorporates the themes of chaos theory, karma, spirituality, science and environment in a wholly entertaining package. While many have hailed the movie as a great effort, there are critics who have blamed the poor quality of graphics, bad make-up and seemingly blank script with 10 characters just stuffed in. But all that is another story.

Kamal Haasan is the leading method actor in India. In my opinion, Kamal Haasan comes from a school of thought which insists on symbolisms, facial expressions, body language and intelligent dialogues while making a film. Probably it could be attributed to the influence by his mentor K.Balachander and his interest in the works of Hollywood director Stanley Kubrick.

'Dasavathaaram' is what many call "a hologrammatic movie' . What you perceive of the story depends on from which angle you look at it. A rationlist would attribute chaos theory and butterfly effect for as the cause for all the happenings. A religious person would attribute the events/interventions as acts of the supreme being. A believer in Karma would attribute some later events to acts done in the previous birth. Finally, a neutral person would perceive the movie as an entertainer or thriller.

At the function attended by Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi, Indian Prime Minister ManMohan Singh and American President George Bush (played by Kamal) we hear Kamal (face not shown fully) giving out a speech. On the stage is the Govindarajar (Lord Vishnu) idol. We are told that the idol has both a religious and scientific background.

We are taken to the 12 century period where Kolathunga Cholan II rules over Thillai (Chidambaram). He is shown to be a staunch Shaivaite to the level of being in a frenzy state of wiping out Vaishnavites. This is expressed in a very nice dialogue by Kamal. "Yaanayepol Manushyanukkum madham piditthal athu tholla thaan". The interesting thing to note here is the use of the word "madham". One interpretation is frenzy (as in the case of an elephant) and the other is "religion" (as in the case of humans). So he is saying that in either of the two cases it creates trouble/nuisance (meaning of tholla).

We are shown 'Ranagaraja Nambi' a staunch Vaishnavite who prevents the workers from displacing the statue of Lord Vishnu from the temple. He succeds in doing so but only in being captured and hands bound by chains by the king's soldiers. The king them speaks to him by telling him that he knows that he is a Vaishnavite, knows that he will turn into a Shaivaite etc. For the words "I know" the tamil translation is 'Arivom' , which the king uses 3-4 times. Kamal the mocks him by telling that his Lord Hari had made the king call his name by the words "Hari Om Hari Om" (Arivom sounds like Hari Om).

The king asks him as to the whereabouts of the 'Rangarajar' idol. The point to note here is that in South Indian temples (mainly in the ones in Tamil Nadu) one idol is the main one in the temple. The other is a smaller one used in the festivals (like Ratholsavam). So the Rangarajar idol here refers to the smaller one. The king wants to destroy that also.

The king then tells him that he could spare his life if he chants the name of Lord Shiva. On hearing this both his wife (played by Asin) and father-in-law plead with him to do as the king says as all gods are the same and it doesn't matter as to whose name he chants. Nambi instead chants 'Om Namo Narayanaya". As a result the king orders his people to tie him with the idol and drown both in the sea. As he is being taken to the sea, a boy throws a stone at his forehead and this causes a bleeding. If you notice, the bleeding comes in the form of a 'naamam' used by Iyengars, thus showing that however much they try to make him a Shaivite he still remains a loyal devotee of Lord Vishnu. Then as he along with the idol sink into the sea the colour turns a little red due to the bleeding he has. Also Asin throws her 'thali' in anger at the king. It misses him and falls at the lion sculpture indicating that her husband has the bravery of a lion.

We are next shown the period December 2005 in U.S where Govind Raamasamy (played by Kamal) is a scientist in a top bio-reserach lab in US. They have discovered a deadly bio-weapon which could prove to be the most destructive. However during an announcement with George Bush, Govind's lab monkey breaches the security protecting the bio-weapon and swallows it, killing it and producing a devastating effect. Now if you note the monkey which is very intelligent is named as 'Hanu' in the movie as a possible shortened version of the monkey Lord Hanuman. Govind realises the danger of the weapon (which can only be neutralised using large quantities of NaCl) going into wrong hands.

His boss has other ideas and so has ex-CIA agent Christian Fletcher (again played by Kamal). During the encounter with Fletcher Govind receives an injury in his forehead (same area where Nambi received the injury). Also the injury was caused by the security guard trying to shoot him. If you notice, the boy who threw the stone at Nambi didn;t even know why Nambi was punished. Also this security guard didn't even know what Govind was trying to do. He was merely shooting him based on the orders given by higher authorities.

Also Govind dresses the wound on his forehead by putting two plasters. One is vertical and the other is horizonatl and passing through the lower half of the vertical one. Probably Kamal is trying to tell us that Govind, at that moment, is a sort of Anti-Christ since he is going around with a potentially dangerous weapon which threatens to wipe out the human race.

The vial (bio-weapon in its case) gets shipped to India (Chidambaram) under some circumstances and Fletcher and Govind continue their search in India. Here we are introduced to the CBI officer Balram Naidu (played by Kamal) who interrogates Govind. But in some bizzare situation we see Fletcher arriving there and taking Govind and another police officer Akash along with him to search for the vial in Chidambaram. Balram Naidu and other officers actually come back to continue their interrogation but are delayed when a famous pop singer 'Avtar Singh' (played by who arrives at the airport faints.

The vial ultimately ends up at the house of a Brahmin family in Chidambaram. The vial, delivered in a parcel by the postman Prabhu (Vayapuri), is taken in by a 95-year-old, mentally retarded woman, Krishnaveni (Kamal Haasan), who lives in belief of receiving a parcel from her son, who perished in 1953. Govind pleads for it to no avail, but eventually changes the mind of Krishnaveni, after explaining the scientific threat to her granddaughter, Andaal (Asin Thottumkal). Krishnaveni responds by putting the vial inside the idol of the deity, Perumal, citing that God would destroy the weapon. Actually here Kamal is telling us that the vial is being accelerated to it's destiny (final state/destruction). And a;so the Perumal idol here could have been that 'Rangarajar' idol which the Shaivite searched for destroying in vain.

Govind tries to secure the vial before Fletcher and Jasmine reach them. Soon, to embark fear, Fletcher fires his gun near an elephant and it starts rampaging, with Jasmine getting badly hurt in the commotion. Lest she should say something, Fletcher shoots her dead. A religious person will say that it was God's act of punishing the evil while rationalists would argue that it was a simple reaction caused by Fletcher shooting the elephant.

Govind tries to escape with the idol but Andaal, who worships the idol, tries to stop him. Now the thing to note here is that Andaal is shwon to be very religious and conservative (with signs of believing and practicing the caste system). Govind on the other hand is a pure rationalist/athiest. Asin asks him his full name and Govind replies saying that it is "Govind Raamasamy Naicker" and Asin shows here contempt for a supposedly lower caste by telling things (that %@#$* caste) which are understandably censored. Now if you notice Govind is of the same caste as the legendary Ramasamy Naicker aka Periyar who was an athiest. He did not have any children. So in essence Govind tells Aandal that he is one of the many adopted sons of Periyar.

Time and again we see Kamal potraying his athiestic beliefs through dialogues in his films. When Aandal tells him that the Rangarajar idol has its rightful place in Chidambaram and not Pondicherry , Kamal mocks her by telling her "Thoonilayum thurumbilayum daivam irukkinnu sollrenge.." which translates "You tell that God is present in every nook and corner.."

Eventually they both escape and after a long chase, they manage to reach the old Chola Temple, where the King watched the idol of Vishnu being thrown into the ocean in 12th century. Govind remembers that the vial should be kept cool or it could cause total annihilation so they bury the idol in cold sand and go in search of ice to maintain the temperature. It's interesting to note that Kamal first buries his watch inside the sand and only when he takes it out do we realise that he does so to note the temperature.

As I said, for those who belive in Karma theory Govind and Aandal could be the re-incarnation of Nambi and his wife who lived in the 12th century. If you notice again, in the 12th Century Nambi is a staunch Vaishnavite who doesn't mind sacrificing his life and rejecting his family for the Lord. But his wife and father-in-law on the other hand are not staunch devotees. This can be understood when they tell Nambi to chant Lord Shiva's name since all Gods are the same. But, in the present day Govind is an athiest while Aandal and her father are staunch devotees. So the Karma effect has ensured that people pay for their actions in the past.

So after the Tsunami you see Govind and Aandal professing their love for each other and join hands touching the idol which has been thrown out of the sea because of the tremor. So this indicates that Nambi and his wife who were seperated at the 12 th century have united at the present age through Govind and Aandal and the idol which was sunk in the sea has now been thrown out to be restored at it's original location.

Now , on the other hand a rationalist would say that the idol which sank in the 12th century (800 years back) disturbed the sea bed by a small amount. That fault gradually increased over the years and finally caused a tremor resulting in the tsunami. But this reasoning is not explicitly stated in the film.

Also, in the film, just before the tsunami the birds are shown to be flying away from the shore. In fact when the actual tsunami had occured , in Yala National Park at Sri Lanka most of the animals had fled away from the shore (probably they have an extra sense regarding these) and hardly few animals had died.

Also, in the film, the word 'Tsunami' is uttered only by the Japanese Shinghen Narahasi (played by Kamal) since the term was not known much among Indians at that time, whereas tsunami was a recurring phenomenon along the Japanese coasts.

There is a interesting dialogue between Shinghen and Fletcher.

Fletcher : Remember Hiroshima?

Shinghen: Remember Pearl Harbor? denoting the Hiroshima bombing by Americans and Pearl Harbor bombing by the Japanese which preceded that.

Also when Fletcher consumes the vial and dies, the tsunami strikes the shore and an Indian flag is uprooted and it goes ad pierces the body of Fletcher, who at that moment hoped to kill many Indians through his death from the virus.

The other characters include 'Vincent Poovaraghan' , a Dalit leader fighting against the sand-mafia and Khaifulla Khan (a 7 ft Muslim). If we notice carefully, the actions by each character finally shape the outcome. Avtaar Singhs health condition gives an escape route for Fletcher along with Govind. Poovaraghans entrance saves Govind and Aandal from the sand-mafia. The sand-mafia boss looks to rape Aandal when she cried 'Narayana' and lights flash revealing Vincent Poovaraghan along with press reporters. Again, religious people would take it to be an intervention of God while rationalists would argue and say that it was just the right person being at the right place at the right time i.e co-incidence/luck etc.

Prem Panicker at his blog had said that people would get lost if they viewed the characters as the Dasavathar's of the modern age. But if you carefully see, the 10 roles can be compared to the 10 avataars taken by Lord Vishnu.

Krishna avatar - Vincent PoovaraghavanLord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent's men are drugged at P. Vasu's.. sounds familiar???
Balarama avatar - Balarama naiduThis is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.
Mathsya avatar - Ranagaraja nambinambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly.
Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paattiDuring the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.
Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khanremember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.
Parasurama avatar - Christian FletcherParasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER... Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. But does he kill 21 people?????
Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashifirst of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?
Rama avatar - Avatar SinghLord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.
Kalki avatar - Govindaraj RamasamyAs you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!
Koorma avatar - BushThis is the most loose adaptation I couldn't clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth (divine nectar). This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom.

A few say that the character 'Vincent Poovaraghan' uses false eyes. This may have been done to show the intensity in the expressions. But to confirm this I have to see the movie again :-)

Dasavathaaram, I would say is packaged in such a way that audience can pick and choose what they want. Yes, I do agree that the symbolisms and dialogues indicate implicit messages. But after all they also add to the mystery and thrill.

But I think the marketing for this film could have been better. I fell the real hero is the script and that should have been hyped instead of the 10 roles. But that is another debate.

I know that I have just included only very few details regarding the symbolisms and inner meanings. If you have seen the movie and deciphered/understood more , then you are ever welcome to share them here.

Dasavathaaram - Order through Chaos?

2008-06-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

Though I would have heard the term 'Chaos Theory' sometime back, I searched the net for it's meaning only yesterday. And this is what I found:

Chaos theory attempts to explain the fact that complex and unpredictable results can and will occur in systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions. A common example of this is known as the Butterfly Effect. It states that, in theory, the flutter of a butterfly's wings in China could, in fact, actually effect weather patterns in New York City, thousands of miles away. In other words, it is possible that a very small occurrence can produce unpredictable and sometimes drastic results by triggering a series of increasingly significant events.

Now there, I wasn't attempting a thesis of philosophical nature. I was just trying to understand the backbone of the theme of Kamal Haasan's latest flick 'Dasavathaaram'.

Dasavathaaram is slated for world-wide release on June 13th. It is directed by K.S.Ravikumar, produced by Aascar Ravichandran and has Kamal donning 10 roles. The story is built across several centuries starting with that of a Vaishnavite priest in the 12th century Chola period to the present day world. If chaos theory is to be believed then most probably the script depicts how small events trigger a very significant event at a different place and at a different period of time.

According to Kamal " This theory is under the skin of the film and you will find little veins, tissues and muscles, every layer of it. One is the chaos theory — we are all connected to everyone in the world. None of our acts will be without effects. One act will collide with another. It is like what you learnt in physics — where one object crashes into another object and produces something else. This is basically our sensibilities, insensibilities, crime, disregard for society and good deeds. In religion, it is called good karma. It all comes around because there is some physics to it but we are not talking about it in bombastic terms as people will come for entertainment and will understand it in the process. "

When I read this, I was awestruck imagining the kind of screenplay that would have been developed for this movie. More so because it is said that the language, voice, storyline and background of each character in the movie are different. Now to fit all this into a 3 hour movie will only be possible with a very tight screenplay. And at the same time the script should not be too complicated as to divert the attention of the viewer. And this seems to be further affirmed when Kamal says "Your intelligence will not be insulted and your time will not be wasted".

I feel Dasavathaaram is a very bold attempt in Indian cinema considering the fact that the movie is commercial and at the same time delivers important messages. It is said to highlight science, spirituality and environment. The movie (as seen from trailers) is said to start with the story of a Vaishnavite Brahmin priest Rangarajan Nambi and connect events leading to something more significant (disastrous?).

As we think deeper 'Chaos Theory' is perhaps a scientific explanation of what is known as 'Karma' in Hinduism. It's another story that Sharon Stone's explanation connecting it to the earthquake in China met with harsh criticism from the Mandarin land. This website explains a little more on Chaos Theory by providing information on its history and giving examples.

Whether 'Chaos Theory' is true or not, it certainly does provide an interesting theme for a film. And, I hope, Dasavathaaram is a successful attempt at this.

The 10 characters played by Kamal Haasan are:

Rangaraja Nambi
Govind Ramasaamy
George Bush
Avtar Singh
Christian Fletcher
Shinghen Narahasi
Krishnaveni Paatti (90 year old woman)
Vincent Poovaraghan
Kaifulla Khan , and
Balram Naidu

At the Orkut community of Kamal Haasan , members have tried to interpret the story based on the trailers they saw and the characters listed. It was just amazing reading people trying to imagine what the story could be like. Some, I must admit, came up with truly amazing versions too! But, as they say, the proof of the pudding is only complete after you eat it. I hope to see this unique story, appreciate the hard work put in by so many artistes and wish that it raises the benchmark for the quality of Indian films. So, I wait.

P.S: The Tamil film, upon release, will be subsequently dubbed and released in Hindi and Telegu, with later release dates set for the Malayalam,Kannada,Bengali and Bhojpuri versions.

For a better India...

2008-05-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

Greek mythology states that one of the twelve tasks of Hercules involved the cleaning of the Augean stables which was filled with filth and dirt. For this, it says, Hercules diverted the rivers Alpheus and Peneus into the stables, thus, accomplishing a task deemed impossible right from the outset.

A Herculean effort like the one above is needed to save the agriculture sector in India. Majority (60%) of the Indian workforce is engaged in agriculture, an occupation (along with forestry, logging and fishing) which contributes to around 20% of the nation's GDP.

While pre-liberalised India concentrated on generation of jobs through industries promoted by the public sector, post-liberalised India's GDP growth is dictated primarily through the services sector. In both era's, it is the agriculture sector which has suffered the after-effects of a Government which totally ignored the national sector with the largest labour force.

Time and again we are reminded of the grim realities facing the agricultural sector in our country. Journalists like P.Sainath bring out well researched and shocking revelations of the situation of farmers in rural India. These farmers face the risks of never ending debts, failing monsoons, low scales of profit and the harsh realism of avoiding starvation death. Whether we accept it or not, they represent the average Indian.

A contrast to all this can be our own life. Many of us (including me) work in the IT sector. Like other private sectors we enjoy medical claim, health insurance and many other such benefits. And yet, we crib when we fail to make it to that particular grade during our appraisal period which would have given us a 20% salary hike instead of that 15%. But whenever I see a blog-post like this, I feel I am far better off when compared to that average Indian. What benefits does he have? A village farmer obtains loan from the money-lender at such astronomical rates of interest. He slaves for a lifetime hoping to repay that loan. He has no one to insure him. No one to help him pay his medical bills. Or worse, he is not even if any such scheme exists. Then, when it comes to selling his produce, he is taken for a ride by the middle-men. We complain when we see farm loans being wavered or free electricity supply being provided to them. Of course I agree that these are not long-term measures. But then, are we losing much by doing this?

While the entry of India into WTO was a welcome move, it has conveniently pushed aside the woes of the agricultural sector. The meets at Doha and Geneva were not fruitful in this regard. They ended with hollow promises (mainly from leaders of European nations) to entertain thoughts like this at future summits.

Right now it seems ridiculous to know that, for a country like us with such huge arable land, once upon a time we were importing food-grains from U.S. It needed a Green Revolution to drastically improve the situation by increasing the food-grain production. I think the nation now needs to raise its hands to bring about a second Green Revolution.

What will a second such Green Revolution encompass? Well, the issues to be sorted out are many. Modern methods of farming, making loans available to a larger populace of the farming sector, Public Distribution System, Basic Infrastructure (Roads, water-supply, electricity and others) and what not! I am not, at any moment, voicing a cause for deliberate negligence of the IT & ITES sectors. A surging Indian economy should have the growth of both the agricultural and services sectors go hand-in-hand.

As a nation, we have a lot more to do than lauding short-term victories like an Infosys listing its stock at NYSE. Our neighbouring country, China, produces twice the amount of food grains when compared to us, and that too, when the amount of arable land there is lesser than ours. They have recently built the world's longest sea-bridge, the breathtaking three Gorges Dam and a new international world-class airport at Beijing as the start of the Olympic Games nears. The numbers regarding youth population may be favouring India, especially after the one-child norm was imposed in China. But their energies have to be channelled and utilised in the right direction.

For me, India shines only when the life of the average Indian shines.

P.S: Read this article which appeared on Business Line.

Rashomon

2008-05-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Rashomon (1950) is a film directed by Japan's most famous film-maker Akira Kurosawa. The theme of the film is that of relative truth or relative reality. Basically it is the narration of a particular incident from the view-point of 5 people.

Two persons (a woodcutter and a priest) are sitting inside a building (a dilapidated temple) waiting for the incessant rain outside to stop. They are both pondering about an incident which took place recently. Another person (a commoner) joins them inside the building to whom the woodcutter and the priest give their versions of what essentially is the murder of a Japanese Samurai, and , the rape of his wife by a notorious bandit named Tajomaru.

While the woodcutter and the priest first give their account of what they found, the woodcutter then goes on to give the versions of the incident as spoken by different people during the court inquest. Those people are the bandit, the police (actually a law keeper) who found the bandit later, the Samurai's wife and then the spirit of the murdered Samurai. While these are multi first-person narratives of the incident, they are essentially stories within a story (the narration of the woodcutter to the commoner).

After narrating all the above versions, the woodcutter then proceeds on to say that what he told as his version isn't exactly what happened. He then proceeds to narrate what according to him is the real incident as he witnessed.

In all the versions, one common thing we find is the rape of the Samurai's wife and the death of the Samurai caused by a dagger/sword. The woodcutter maintains his stance that only what he has said finally to the commoner is correct and that all the other versions are false. He attributes it to the theory that all humans are selfish and look out only for things that benefit them. The priest meanwhile still keeps hope in the goodness of humanity.

Finally they hear the wailing of a baby. The commoner goes and takes away the kimono used to cover the baby and an amulet kept to protect it from evil. While the woodcutter rebukes him for this, the commoner shrewdly reminds him that he knows the woodcutter had stolen the dagger with which the Samurai was murdered. This silences the woodcutter and brings him to shame. The commoner then takes away the things and goes out with the rain still pouring.
The woodcutter then tries to take the baby away from the priest who holds it. The priest gets angry and asks whether he is so evil as to take even what little is left of the baby. The woodcutter then gives a sentimental explanation which cools down the priest who says that there is still goodness in humanity. The woodcutter takes leave of the priest and as he leaves the building (named "Rashmon") the rain ceases and the sky gets bright again reflecting a change in mindset among humans.

The movie is not a murder mystery as many would think. It is rather a film portraying the emotions of different kind of people through some great visuals and superb acting from the lead actors. Kurosawa has done an excellent job through the screenplay and camera work. Kazuo Miyagawa who is the cinematographer collaborated first with Kurosawa for this film and then went on to work with him for many other good films.

For people who wish to see cinema in its best artistic form this is a must-see. The DVD I bought had an audio commentary by Donald Ritchie, an American expert on Kurosawa films and listening to it gave some valuable insights on the subtleties adapted by Kurosawa in the making of this film.

The commoner according to noted Japanese film experts is the voice of the director. He is trying to make an inference from the different version he hears. The film is around 90 minutes long and some scenes (like the fight between the bandit and the Samurai) are prolonged to give it a realistic feel. The camera work (sun rays piercing through the forest trees) is excellent and praiseworthy. The editing is also excellent. Infact many noted film critics tell that Akira Kurosawa was a better editor than a director or screenplay writer and I completely second this opinion as regards this film.

Multiple first-person narratives were later adapted in Indian films, as in, 'Classmates' the Malayalam film starring Prithviraj, 'Virumaandi' a film by Kamal Haasan , 'Antha Naal' a murder mystery film involving the Late Shivaji Ganeshan. I wonder as to whether Padmarajan, that great director, would have done a film of such nature, had he not left us in his prime since mysticism(in some of his films) and open nature of the climaxes were something he always fascinated us with.

As for me, it was a welcome break from watching some crap flicks. It's always better to watch the masters in action! I have now decided to get the entire collection of Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray as I have taken a liking to their films now.

Are you stoooopid or something?

2008-04-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

My most favourite English movie has to be Forrest Gump (1994). This movie never ceases to amaze me. It is a fictional story of the life of Forrest Gump who has witnessed first-hand some of the most significant events of the latter half of 20th century United States, sometimes not even being aware of it!

Forrest is not the most gifted child with an IQ of just 80 and an handicapped leg. But how he overcomes them remarkably under extraordinary circumstances which look sometimes crazy, sometimes outright funny and sometimes simply logical is what the story is about. The movie is adapted from a novel by the same name though the story depicted in the movie varies considerably from the novel. Many of the scenes are marked by irony with people imaging Forrest to be a genius when he just says what he feels is correct or calling him 'stooopid' when he actually does the right thing.

The scene when he joines the army:

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Drill Sergeant: Gump! What's your sole purpose in this army?

Forrest Gump: To do whatever you tell me, drill sergeant!

Drill Sergeant: God damn it, Gump! You're a god damn genius! This is the most outstanding answer I have ever heard. You must have a goddamn I.Q. of 160. You are goddamn gifted, Private Gump. Listen up, people...

Forrest Gump: [narrates] Now for some reason I fit in the army like one of them round pegs. It's not really hard. You just make your bed real neat and remember to stand up straight and always answer every question with "Yes, drill sergeant."

Drill Sergeant: ...Is that clear?

Forrest Gump: Yes, drill sergeant!

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I think there is a subtle message in scenes like this. Basically the movie is trying to tell us that sometimes it's just better to not think too much. Act by your instincts. Follow your heart. Tom Hanks said about this movie "It is neither political nor judgementa;". I second this opinion.

Forrest Gump has several messages, some of which are less obvious than others. The most frequently recurring theme is an admonition not to give up on life. Why surrender when you don't know what lies ahead? By contrasting Forrest's life with the lives of those around him, and by showing how the passage of time brings solace to even the most embittered hearts, the movie underlines this point.

My friends always tell me that 'Forrest Gump" brings in some inspiration in them each time they see the movie. They tell me that something in the movie moves them. It could be the plight of the protagonist in scenes where he meets a dying mother or when he marries his childhood sweetheart when he knows that her days are far getting over.

The major part of the movie is a first-person narration by Forrest Gump to many different people at a bus-stop. They act in different kinds of ways to what he has to tell them. Some are attentive, some are indifferent, some empathise, some simply cannot believe him. And finally he realises that he has waited for a few hours for a bus when all he had to do was walk a few meters down the road to go visit his girlfrend.

Words fail me at this moment. What reveiew can I write for a movie which simply cannot be reviewed. It has to be seen and felt. I really cannot classify this film into any particular category. Is it funny? Is it serious? Is it a dark comedy? I don't know. I only leave behind my favourite scenes from this unique film.

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Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?

Forrest Gump: I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir.

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Forrest: And Bubba always was talking about shrimps...

Bubba: Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it.

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Forrest Gump: Hello. I'm Forrest, Forrest Gump.

Recruit Officer: Nobody gives a hunky shit who you are, pus ball. You're not even a low-life, scum-sucking maggot. Get your ass on the bus, you're in the army now!

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[Forrest has just graduated from college]

Recruit Officer: Have you given any thought to your future, son?

Forrest Gump: "Thought"?

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Forrest Gump: That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.

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Coach Bryant: That kid may be the stupidest son of a bitch I've ever seen, but damn he can run!

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Forrest Gump: There was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland - he was from Detroit; and Tex... well, I don't remember where Tex come from.

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Jenny Curran: Have you ever been with a girl, Forrest?

Forrest Gump: [nervously] I sit next to them in my Home Economics class...

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Bubba's wife after Forrest gives a couple of million dollars to their family: Are you stoooopid or something?

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Understanding two screenplays

2008-04-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer:

If you have not seen the movies 'Hey Ram' or 'Mahanadi' this post will sound slightly vague. Also, this is just few impressions which I have about the two screenplays and not an exhaustive exploration on the same.

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A few months back, actor Kamal Haasan had released the Malayalam version of two of his screenplays, Hey Ram and Mahanadi. Although I had seen both the movies, I decided to buy "Kamalahasante Randu Thirakkathakal" just to experience the pleasure of reading a good story and even know as to how a screenplay evolves.

Both the films were landmarks in the career of the great actor. While Mahanadi deals with the sufferings in the life of an ordinary person named Krishnaswamy who yearns for life in the city, Hey Ram unravels modern India' s repressed past through a story narrated in the first person perspective by the chief protagonist Saket Ram. Both stories share the emotions of suffering, grief and betrayal. The greatness of Kamal Haasan lies in the fact that he is able to bring out so many subtleties and thoughts even in what seems a simple story like Mahanadi.

It is really fascinating if one explores a screenplay in its details and other nuances. Reading Kamal's screenplays reminded me of the screenplays by Padmarajan which were so specific that the director only had to refer to it and call 'Start', 'Action' and 'Cut'. I have heard people say that Padmarajan's screenplays even used to contain details of the required camera positions, though I didn't find such things in the screenplay of Aparan I had read a year back.

The screenplay of Hey Ram, I felt, was a very complex one and which would have required Kamal to undertake extensive research. The story spans across different regions of India, and hence, makes use of different languages too. Some scenes have been explained with the kind of background music needed at that shot. It would be really fascinating to know as to what exactly goes through the mind of the person who develops the screenplay, especially when the story, dialogue and screenplay are by the same person. How does he fit in the dialogues, songs, silent shots etc.? Unfortunately, I haven't had the fortune to interact with an artiste of the stature of Kamal to explore such facts.

Hey Ram , though critically acclaimed, was not a commercial success. There were film critics (including supposedly famous people like Gautaman Bhaskaran) who termed the movie as too complex, anti-Gandhi, too long, all scenes dominated by Kamal etc. I feel those who say Hey Ram is anti-Gandhi have simply not understood the story. It takes more than one viewing to appreciate the movie because of the kind of story it is (semi-fiction).

As I said earlier, a lot of research goes into the making of a script like Hey Ram. Since it a semi-fictional plot revolving around pre-Independent India, the kind of guns used, cars driven, kind of language used in dialogues and other such details have to be given utmost importance when giving out such details through the script and screenplay. For example , the use of "I do not" instead of "I don't" in which case the latter term was prevalent only a couple of years after India's Independence. Another example is the Mauser gun chosen by Saket Ram in the plot to assassinate Gandhi and the mantras uttered when Saket Ram when he does sanyasa and renounces everything. It is said that to make the scene look authentic Kamal had consulted Kanchi Sankaracharya regarding the mantras used at the time of Sanyasa. Similarly the introduction by the character Sriram Abhyankar by using the term "Abhivadye". Another example of deft handling through the screenplay is seen when we read the portion showing Kamal (who is depicted as doing some welding in the room) receiving a letter from the Maharaja that Abhyankar has passed away and that the plot to kill Gandhi must be undertaken in a few weeks by Saket himself. Here Kamal mentions in the screenplay that 'Thiruppavai" bhajans are heard in the background. This itself explains two things. For one, these Bhajans are sung by Vaishnavites at dawn. So it indirectly means that Kamal has been working the whole night in his room. Also, such Bhajans are sung during the moth of Maragazhi (Dec15- Jan15). So when the letter says that Gandhi should be killed in a few weeks, it synchronises with the actual date on which Gandhi was killed i.e January 30th.

Mahandi, though not of the complex storyline nature of Hey Ram was also equally riveting. The chief protagonist Krishnaswamy (played by Kamal) is a widower with two kids who is living a contented life in his village. A chance meeting with his college mate lures him into living in a city and thus lead a life which could prove beneficial to his children (as regards better schooling, learning better English etc.). The screenplay is handled so deftly that this change in mentality of Krishnaswamy is brought about in just 2-3 scenes.

But, even Kamal doen't include all visual details in the script of Mahandi. There are some visuals , as in, the signboard showing the name "Thirunageswaram" in which the Hindi transalation is striked through by black lines (showing the anti-Hindi feeling at that time?) or when Kamal's son tries to touch the gun held by the policeman when he and his sister go to visit Kamal at jail (perhaps showing how young kids are fascinated by guns?). Perhaps these were thought of at the shooting spot by the director and then incorporated in the scenes.

According to Kamal the story, screenplay and dialogue should always be handled by the same person. To an extent, I think this is true. To achieve synchronisation, it would be ideal for the person who conceived and wrote the story to do the screenplay, as in , Padmarajan for Aparan, Sreenivasan for "Chinta...Shyamala" or even Francis Ford Coppola for GodFather.

As I had seen both Mahanadi and Hey Ram, I could visualise those scenes unfolding even as I read the screenplay. But it would be really fascinating to visualise and imagine the scenes unfolding when we read the screenplay for a movie we have not seen. I am experiencing the same as I read the screenplay of "Peruvazhiyambalam" by Padmarajan.

P.S:

Yet another interesting aspect of Kamal is the title he gives for his films. Even Padmarajan was master in this aspect. But, in the case of Hey Ram, the title can mean so many things. People say 'Hey Ram' were the last words of Gandhi before he died (Ironically Gandhi does not utter these word in the film). Or, Hey Ram could be an expression of shock at the actions of the principal character 'Saket Ram' or a simliar expression at the action of Sriram Abhyankar or Nathuram Ghodse!

As to why he named the other film 'Mahanadi', you people who have seen the movie find out. If you are still in doubt read the screenplay or watch the movie once again. And let me see if you are able to deduce the logic :-).

Celebrating Mediocrity

2008-04-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

When I visited Trivandrum last Onam, I had made up my mind to see a couple of Malayalam films, trying to compensate for the meagre few I had seen during my days at Coimbatore and Trichy owing to a scarcity of theatres showing Malayalam films coupled with a laziness to go searching and hoping to find cd's of the same, a task which seemed next to impossible.

However the very first film I saw at New Theatre made me wonder as to why I had even thought of such an idea. Ali Bhai seemed another stereotyped action film from Shaji Kailas and a last throw of dice from Mohanlal to provide a hit film to his fans. What worried me more was the near hysterical fans who seemed to relish the dialogues and the different action scenes in the film which was nothing short of a preposterous show by an actor of Lal's caliber.

The same film viewers who relished the natural films of Padmarajan and Bharatan and encouraged directors like Sathyan Anthikkad and Sibi Malayil to bring quality movies to the screens were now thriving on a horde of films which are an insult to the films made during the Golden era. The vestiges of the brilliance of the films during the golden era are found only in a few films now.

The fault lay partly with the Directors themselves, who decided that the tastes of the audience had changed with time and that the mimicry style of films was the new name of the art. However I would blame even the experienced actors who never bothered to be selective about their films and instead chose to work on every tom, dick and harry project.Sadly even the film industry seems depleted with its shortage of quality scriptwriters. While directors like Sibi Malayil and Sathyan Anthikkad were assisted to a large extent by brilliant scripts from Lohitadas and Sreenivasan, they failed miserably when the quality and quantity of output from such writers reached a low point. On the lighter side, it can be said that the only person who seemed to benefit from all this was Sreenivasan, who took this opportunity to make a blockbuster film "Udhayananu Tharam" :-)

A relief could be that while this could be a case of flash in the pan as regards the Malayalam film industry (owing to the various factors mentioned), the situation is worse in Tamil Nadu where genuinely good films are sometimes totally neglected by the public. Quality films like Anbae Sivam and Hey Ram were commercial failures though critically acclaimed. Again and again we see mediocre films from the like of Simbu, Vijay and their ilk getting attention from the film viewing public while the genius of Kamal and Mani Ratnam is being rubbished.

The effect is seen when Mani Ratam makes a film like Guru. The climax in that movie which showed the protagonist being questioned by an enquiry committee setup by the Government was nowhere near the levels depicted in the same kind of scene in the movie 'Aviator' by Martin Scorcese. It is not that Mani Ratnam could not have made it better, but the fact that the film viewing audience do not seem to have the sense to appreciate such natural techniques of filming. If an ace director like Mani succumbs to such pressure from the public , then it is no wonder that the others have made no effort in improving the quality of films.

Another example is Sreenivasan who scripted 'Kadha Parayumbol' . The same genius who scripted such high quality satirical scripts like 'Thalayanmanthram' and 'Sandesham' fails to bring out quality satirical humour in "Kadha...". It is really sad to see even Sreeni stoop down to such mediocre levels from the golden heights of success he once enjoyed.

Hero-worship also causes much of the above problems. Hero-worship discourages improvement and encourages mediocrity. The same people who set the benchmark for such high quality films in Malayalam now deal in immature slap-stick and crude comedy flicks. Recently I happened to see the comments section in Rediff regarding the review of the film "College Kumaran". At the end , I didn't know whether to laugh or lament over the bitter truth regarding the quality of present day super-star flicks. The only postive outcome I had was that the comments section provided me with humorous dialogues from fans of Mammootty and Mohanlal, which I thought I would share with all of you ;-).

Ajay, obviously who has had enough with all these flicks says "Super movie, like best of Lalettan clips, but heroine is too old for lalettan, it should be Baby Shalini or that daughter in Kazcha who should be Lal's heroine.Roma , Parvathy and Meera are all to old for our evergreen hero.."

VarunRaj, a die-hard Lal fan retorts " PAAVAM AJAY IS JEALOUS THAT EVEN THOUGH ABOVE 50, LALETTAN REMAINS THE PLAYBOY IN MALAYALAM MOVIES!!! SHAME ON OTHER MALE ACTORS, THAT STILL NOONE IS THER TO COMPETE WITH HIM EVEN WHEN IT COMES TO ACTING OR EVEN GETTIN THE GIRLS...SAKALA KALAA VALLAVANS R ONLY 2 IN INDIAN CINEMA, KAMAL SIR N LALETTAN!"

Girish says "It's total paisa vasool...heartening to see that Lalettan is back with a bang" to which Ajay says "Correct, my friend paid for the ticket and I had a superb nap for 2.5 hours, less mosquitoes than at home, even they are staying away from this movie.., woke up for 5 minutes and liked the dialogue by Suraj Venjaramoodu.. Pazham ..njan tharum.. ha ha funny, then slept again.."

Jiby mentions frequently that arrival of fresh and young talent like Prithviraj and Vineeth Sreenivasan could be a sign of changing times for the better. But my only concern is that I don't seem to find that talent emerging in the case of directors and script writers. GOD save Malayalam cinema!

The Art of Mimicry

2008-04-08T23:55:00.000-07:00

I have been fascinated by the art of mimicry right from my childhood days. Be it school life, college life, movies or stage-shows the mimicry shows have evoked great admiration and interest among many people.

In Kerala, mimicry artistes have used their skills at stage-shows and also in films and TV comedy shows partly as comedy, and partly as a means of effective satire on the various happenings in society. Many of the mimicry artistes have diverted their career successfully into movies. The earliest example of such personalities could be Cochin Haneefa who started his career as a stage-show mimicry artiste by imitating the voices of leading actors like Sivaji Ganeshan and MGR. Others of his ilk include the famous director Fazil whose shows were regularly attended by Mammootty during the actor’s days at Maharajas College. Mammooty too is an avid fan of mimicry shows and has been seen at many Gulf Programmes.

Fazil, after his break into the film world, went on to direct many hit films and later introduced the duo Siddique-Lal into the cine field. Siddique-Lal were popular mimicry artistes cum comedians at the famous Kalabhavan troupe in Cochin. Probably Fazil was also influenced by this very fact which would have reminded him of his heydays as a mimicry artiste. This proved to be Fazil's best gift to Malayalam cinema since the duo of Siddique-Lal went to create many super-hit comedy films like In Harihar Nagar and RamjiRao Speaking.

However, as a member of YouTube quoted "Jayaram remains to-date the master of the art of mimicry". Jayaram honed his mimicry skills while studying at Sri Sankara college, Kaladi and later at Kalabhavan, Cochin. Probably the artiste whom he was mimiced often has been Prem Nazir whom Jayaram respects a lot and who he has seen in childhood at shooting locations at Perumbavoor as a young boy. In the film 'Chanakyan', Jayaram appears as a mimicry artiste with his reel-name also being Jayaram. The film which deals with a former musician (Kamal Hassan) seeking revenge over the killing of his family members by a politician (Thilakan), shows Kamal seeking the help of Jayaram (in an indirect way/ unknown to Jayaram) by making him mimick the Chief Minister's (Thilakan) voice and relaying a totally false speech on TV.
Even now Jayaram appears in quite a few Gulf Programmes where people wait to see his mimicry skills. He also appeared as a guest in the programme "Minnum Tharam" hosted by actor Jagadeesh on Asianet channel. Such is his love for the art which gave him so much fame among the people of Kerala.

Dileep, who ruled the roost during the crisis time of Malayalam film industry (1998-2002) started his career as a mimicry artiste. He honed his skills during his days at Maharajas College which later proved handy when he went searching for roles in films. He was the first anchor of the program 'Comicola' on Asianet which gained immense popularity during that time. Jayaram had this interesting anecodote regarding Dileep to share whe he appeared on "Minnum Tharam".

"Njan oru shooting kazhinju vannappo enne kanan oralavide kathirippundennu aro paranju. Chennu nokkiyappo njan kandathu melinju kolam ketta oru Dileep-ine ayirunnu. 'Sir..Njan mimicry artiste aanu' ennu paranju Dileep swayam parijayapedutthi. Sadarana ella mimicry artises kanikunna sthiram items ayirikkum eyalum kanikkan pokunnathennu ehikku thoni. 'Sir. Ithuvare arum attempt cheyyatha oru pratheka item enikku kanikkan pattum sir'. Enthennu njan nokiyaapo "Lalu Alex"-ne mimic cheythu oru dialogue. Aa samaythu athoru puthiya item ayirunnu. Adhikam arum imitate cheythittilatha oru actor ayirunnu Lalu Alex".

Saying the above, Jayaram showed the audience as to how Dileep had performed the item. It was just amazing to hear what Jayaram had said and again more amazing, to see him mimicking Lalu Alex just like how Dileep had done, or maybe even better.

At school, my classmates Anand, Tariq and Arun were known more for their monact rather than mimicry. But Anand at times used to mimic Prem Nazir, not so much by voice, but by the actions especially that famous smile of Nazir and to say that the fellow Loyolites didn't enjoy that would be a mere understatement. I feel, from the viewpoint of a lover of this art, at times, that it was rather unfortunate that there were more monoact artistes than pure mimicry artistes at Loyola School.

While the earlier mimicry artistes in Kerala used to merely mimick the voice of popular actors merely through their popular dialogues, the later one's added an element of comedy by mimicking their voice by choosing specific imaginary instances. For example I remember a mimicry artiste showing how Prem Nazir would have spoken at an election campaign.
"Ehhh..Kavilammayanu Sathyam..ehhh..kodungallur deviyanu sathyam..njan ee election-il theerchayayum vijayikkum..ehh..anganeyalla chirikkunnathu..ingane venam..Ha Ha Ha Ha".

Suraj Venjaramoodu seems to be the latest of mimicry entrants in the cine field. He is known for his famous mimicking of actor Jayan and is seen using that voice in many of the films he acts in. Since the audience too enjoy that I don't see him dropping that style in the near future.

All famous mimicry artistes have not necessarily made it big inflms. Kottayam Nazeer is such an example. Though his skills at mimicry even equal and sometimes even rise above Jayaram, his roles in films have been far and few in number. The last time I saw him in a movie was in the Sreenivasan flick "Kadha Parayumbol". While he is a definite successor to Jayaram as a mimicry legend, journey into filmdom has not been a smooth ride for him. As a film lover, I wish he gets good comedy roles which will help him leverage his acceptance among the film viewers.

Moving from people who do mimicry to people who are mimicked, there seems to be a standard list is an expected and now accepted one. The usual personalities are film actors like Nazeer, Mohanlal and Mammootty and also politicians like Achuthanandan, Karunakaran, E.K.Nayanar and even A.K.Antony. In fact the comedy shows at Asianet and Surya used to take a dig at Achuthanandan so frequently that his party supporters expressed anger at it. A popular episode at one such comedy show mimicked the phone-in program with the Chief Minister. The dialogues go like this:
Q: Saare..Njan Guruvayoor Kshethrathile Melshanti-ya samsarikkunnathu
EKN: Aaahh..enthado guruvayoorile prashnam..
Q: Sir evidethe vigraham moshanam poyi..kallane pidikkan vendiya ella sahayavum mukhya manthri cheyyanam
EKN: Aaahh..kallane pidikkan athrakku padalla. ella onnam theeyathi avide oruthan thozhan varum..avane pidicchu police-il elpiccha mathi ketto..

Jayan became the popular subject of mimicry artistes circa 2000. I remember Jayan Day being celebrated every year at CET with students coming dressed in bright red shirts and white bell-bottoms providing the ever funny college life there with even more interesting moments. I remember a Mech guy once entering our class during Jayan day. He pointed at one of the girls and asked us guys 'Ithente Seemayano?' in typical Jayan style. Of course we guys didn't spoil the fun and replied "Ohhh.thanne...kondu poykko" much to the flushed expression on the girl's face.

Even now I enjoy mimicry shows. Maybe it's the comedy, maybe because it's a good pass-time or maybe because I continue to get amazed at how the artistes manage to do it so well time and again. So, I end this post, fittingly, with this video from Youtube. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. :-)

The Bhisti

2008-04-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

The other day I was reading the book "The Great Indian Novel" by Sashi Tharoor. While reading through the second chapter, I happened to notice the word "Bhisti". The term, literally means, a water carrier to a household or an army regiment. Primarily prevalent during the days of the British Raj and in the caste-ridden societies, the Bhisti's were people from the lower caste who used to supply drinking water to members of the household or the regiment.

As to why I suddenly got interested in this term is a different matter altogether. During our school days in the 12th standard there was a syllabus book titled "Anthology of Poems" which was a collection of poems by poets of different eras. Understandably, we had to study only a selected few from that book. Of the poems we were not taught, was one by Rudyard Kipling titled "Gunga Din". I am not of the poetry lover type, but this poem somehow caught my attention.

This poem talks about a Bhisti serving the British regiment in India. Frequently rebuked, ridiculed and shouted at by the army officer (the narrator), he is finally acknowledged for his kindness, hard work and valour by the very person in a tragic climax. Kipling brings out the fact that though he is from a lower-caste, he shows valour and loyalty at a level not expected even from that of people supposedly superior to him.

The poem starts in a sort of prose style and gradually the situations are described. One of the reasons I tend to ignore reading poems is because of the difficult subtleties and metaphors they use. But this poem is written in such an easy-to-understand style that anyone who reads it for the first time would get hooked on to it. It is Kipling's take on vintage pre-Independent India.
But for me the real message was the one in the very last line. Read it and share your experience. I guarantee you an enjoyable time!

P.S: Critics claim that Kipling was a racist (regarding this poem it could be the way he addresses Gunga Din at times), but as Wikipedia says, the racism is exhibited only by the fictional charcaters of Kipling's works. Infact Kipling could be ridiculing the mentality of the British Raj through his very works.

The Poem

You may talk o' gin and beer

When you're quartered safe out 'ere,An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;

But when it comes to slaughter

You will do your work on water,

An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.

Now in Injia's sunny clime,

Where I used to spend my time

A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen,Of all them blackfaced crew

The finest man I knew

Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din.

He was "Din! Din! Din!

You limpin' lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din!

Hi! slippery hitherao!Water, get it! Panee lao!

You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din.

"The uniform 'e wore

Was nothin' much before,

An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind,

For a piece o' twisty rag

An' a goatskin water-bag

Was all the field-equipment 'e could find.

When the sweatin' troop-train lay

In a sidin' through the day,

Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl,

We shouted "Harry By!"

Till our throats were bricky-dry,

Then we wopped 'im 'cause 'e couldn't serve us all.

It was "Din! Din! Din!

You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been?

You put some juldee in it

Or I'll marrow you this minute

If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!

"'E would dot an' carry one

Till the longest day was done;

An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear.

If we charged or broke or cut,

You could bet your bloomin' nut,'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear.

With 'is mussick on 'is back,

'E would skip with our attack,

An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire",

An' for all 'is dirty 'ide

'E was white, clear white, inside

When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire!

It was "Din! Din! Din!"

With the bullets kickin' dust-spots on the green.

When the cartridges ran out,

You could hear the front-files shout,

"Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!"

I shan't forgit the night

When I dropped be'ind the fight

With a bullet where my belt-plate should 'a' been.

I was chokin' mad with thirst,

An' the man that spied me first

Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Din.

'E lifted up my 'ead,

An' he plugged me where I bled,

An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water-green:

It was crawlin' and it stunk,

But of all the drinks I've drunk,

I'm gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.

It was "Din! Din! Din!'Ere's a beggar with a bullet through 'is spleen;

'E's chawin' up the ground,

An' 'e's kickin' all around:

For Gawd's sake git the water, Gunga Din!

"'E carried me away

To where a dooli lay,

An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean.

'E put me safe inside,

An' just before 'e died,

"I 'ope you liked your drink", sez Gunga Din.

So I'll meet 'im later onAt the place where 'e is gone --

Where it's always double drill and no canteen;

'E'll be squattin' on the coals

Givin' drink to poor damned souls,

An' I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!

Yes, Din! Din! Din!You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!

Though I've belted you and flayed you,

By the livin' Gawd that made you,

You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

Loyola & CET Bloopers

2008-03-31T04:38:00.000-07:00

College life along with school life provide us with a treasure horde of myriad memories which we can carry around for a life time. While school provided us a secure studying environment, the life at CET introduced us to the unchartered areas of student life. Strikes, gheraos, demo days etc. where terms which we did not even come remotely face to face with during our school days.

While students are the uncrowned badshahs of bufoonery in both school and college, the Professors are the silent rajas of comedy. Read on below to find out why.

Our Chemistry teacher takes us to the lab to demonstrate a few experiments. On the walls of the lab are potraits of great chemists like Lavoisier, Mendelev etc. After showing those to us, he says "One day......I will also hang there", meaning, one day his fame would also make his potrait hang on those walls.

The same teacher, during the demonstration of the Golden Spangles Test, warns us to pour out the chemicals into the test-tube slowly. "Dont pour..pouuuuuuuuuuuur".

Also by him were "Take an empty beaker full of water" and "Take an iron rod of any metal".

Our Chemistry teacher was also the main organizer from the staff for the Loyola Youth Festival. While revealing the outcme of one event there was great tension between GG and JJ house as to who would come out first. While revealing the winner of the 2nd place, he announced "And the 2nd place goes to...........GJ House", leaving both the house supporters wondering as to who had actually won.

Our PT Sir on the rehersal day of our school sports meet. "The 24th Annual Loyola Sports meet will delcare the Chief Guest open".

The same PT Sir telling the boys of a class to seperate into 4 groups. "Seperate into four halves".

At CET, the level of English usage by the professors was taken to the next level. The examples below are courtsey the Orkut community of CET, and, most contributions are by boys of that rocking department - The Royal Mexx - those who experience the royal life at college :-). The examples below also include some non-english related bloopers also.

The words of a lecturer who wants to explain that there are also other persons in the college who share the same name as his "I am not the only "Rakesh" in this college.....there is also yet another "Rakesh" but that is not me"

How about a Prof in Mech asking Rohit after his seminar on "Inter continental Ballistic missiles""oh ok...seminar kollam...but tell me its daily use" . A visibly shocked Rohit replied"Sir...it can be used to bomb countries". The Prof replies "Oh..Good, good" !

Or the time someone went to Ayyappan sir a.k.a Oxford Ayyappan for change of elective. He was initially refused on the famous 'technical grounds'. Then he actually applied pressure via some uncle or cousin or somebody to which the Sir replied "If you have hold, then don't make anonymous calls"

(read) "If you have influence, then don't come with any recommendation"

Ayyappan Sir asking a student on him discontinuing the course:"So you discounted???"

One lecturer of machine design desperately requesting the Mech students to write an assignment"Please .....shall i give one assignment.......just one.......its enough if one person writes it on behalf of the class"

Some one was flying paper planes in the class..and this lecturer comes in yells out.."aaaro Arrow vittu"

Ayyappan Sir telling "dont throw paper through the window.. understanding people will suffer"

During Viva in Electrical Machines Lab

___________________________________

Instructor: Can u tell me why the Induction Motor Torque-RPM curve falls down at high RPM?

Student : Gravity sir :-)

_____________________________________________________

Once Oxford Ayyapan was taking his class. He started having a suffocated feeling inside the class , the reason being, closed windows. On seeing this, oxford aiyyapan yelled,"Open the windows,let the air force come in"

Ayyapan became a grandfather. Look how he describes it.

"My daughter born again. The boy is a girl"

One royal mech at strength of materials lab was asked @ viva

q-what is hooke's law?

a-stress by strain.....

.q-what is stress?

a-hooke's law into strain..

q- %$#@&^

How about this from a Mech student

This happened in HE(heat engines) lab. The students had to write their names(full name) on a piece of paper and read it out loudly and walk away ..All of us wrote the full name and read them out one by one . I jus read out my first name (vishal). lab prof was shyamlal sir , and when i did that , he shouted "WHAT IS THE BALANCE".. he wanted my surname

In Computer Science class, where the HOD was taking classes

Someone flew a paper plane in the class which happened to whiz over our miniature 4feet 3inches tall HOD. Furious she turned round and asked : Aaranu ivide rocket vidaaru? (who flies rockets here?). pat came the reply : VSSC

Another blooper from Ayyappan Sir

When a student went to him to get the marks of MD corrected...his response was.."Once put is put. Now no more puts"

This is another one as narrated by a Mech guy (God , they truly enjoyed college life!)

We were having our "Material Science" class in S4 by Mr. X and he was just tellingus abt the books for that particular subject for which one of my friends added " Sir, How abt the book called 'Rim Poche'?"Hang on! he replied,"I guess Rim Poche is okay but not better than Kanitkar"We wished he would hav seen "Yodha"

This is one of my favourites, an anecode from yet another Mech guy

Scene: Our sir, sorry i dunno his name, was taking class while my friend 'luke' catches his attention by doing something. He comes running and asks him his name. luke replies "luke". he runs back to the board and writes "LUCK" and reads it out Luke!!Ooooh, u shud have been there to see the response of my classmates!!

Our Civil Engineering Staff Advisor came asking for Darren Desalphine. He says "Where is Darren....". He is not able to read the surname properly. He pauses for a long time and then approximates the surname and spells out "Where is Darren Deshpande?"

The next scene is that from the drawing class. One of the guys draws the plan of the house without showing the steps. The lecturer, I think Thundu Rajan, sees this and asks "De De..ithenthonnade..PT Usha-de veedo? Steps onnum vende?"

CET life is full of such interesting experiences for the students, not forgetting the innumerables strikes and gheraos by the students expressing reasonable , and sometime, unreasonable claims. For example, read below:

I remember my brother who was from CET Mech and a 1993 batch (reffered to as the Golden Batch, since that passing out year was the Golden Jubilee Year for the college) telling me that their batch had formed an association named 'MAFIA'. While inside the college premises the full-form was "Mechanical Association for Inncoent Activites", once outside, the full-form became "Mechanical Association for Immoral Activites".

It was the year of the Bombay bomb blasts, and, the next day all the major dailies came up with the headlines 'Police claim MAFIA behind bomb blasts". Sensing this as the best opportunity, the Mech batch next day armed with many banners marched "On strike...On strike...MAFIA-kku Bombay bomb blast aayi oru bandhavum illa", referring to their so-called association.

It is said that the lab machines at CET are some of the most efficient machines in the world. General Motors and Ford Corporation are said to have been amazed at the efficiency levels of such machines at the automobile lab. Every year when the students attend the lab exam, they are asked to measure the efficiency of the machine. And, goodness gracious, the efficiency measured by each student turns out to be the exact value as measured by students of the previous batch, and the batch which preceded that previous batch, and the batch which preceded that preceding batch and so on. Even the individual values taken at different periods of time turn out to be the exact same, thus forcing the industrialists to conclude that the machines at the CET labs are truly out of this world!

Me and my classmate Kiran a.k.a Kurudan used to find the Survey Lab exam a really tough one, especially getting the correct readings on the survey instrument . On the exam day, after a few miserable attempts, I went to the teacher-in-charge and said "Teacher-e..ente kanninu entho kozhappam..Optical nerve-inu entho kozhappamundu..". Teacher-ku pettennu daya thonniyathano ennariyilla , avarenne matti irutthi reading edukkan sahayicchu. Ithu kandu ente bhagya deivathe kanunnathu sahikkanavatha Kurudan ente athe adavu prayogikkan nokki. Pakshe avanu kittiya uttharam " Ohh..kanninu kozhappam alle..aduttha thavana suppli pariksha ezhutham..kannu athinu munpe shariyakum.."

P.S: When I was doing my MBA at REC,Trichy many of my classmates from Tamil Nadu used to laugh and tell me "Your college is so different". All I could manage as a reply was "Yes, but your colleges there are all the same".

Trivia Tag

2008-03-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,
Tagged for the first time and that too by two of them (Deepti and Mathew). Okie Dokie, here I go:

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER:
Aah.. This was on my trip to Trivandrum a week back. Saw the film "Cycle" starring Vineeth Sreenivasan. Nothing worthwhile to remember , but a good time-pass movie with its humorous and senti moments.

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
The Great Indian Novel by Sashi Tharoor..Story of Pre-Independent India interwined with the epic story 'Mahabharat'. Have just started, but found it to be very interesting and different.

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
'Scrabble'. Used to play Monopoly a long time back

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Readers Digest and The Week. Like the columns 'Humour in Uniform' and 'Life's like that' in RD. The Week has a good column by Shobha De.

5. FAVORITE SMELLS?
This is quirky stuff..But I like the smell of petrol ;-)...I don't know why, though in Chemistry I have learnt that petrol has a pungent smell ! Jokes apart, I love the smell of coffee..hot filter coffee :-)

6. FAVORITE SOUND?
Any western composition on the Piano..I actually love the theme music of the film '7G Rainbow Colony'.Do hear it..You will love it!

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
Hearing people either brag or being prudish.

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
"Why did morning have to come so fast?"

9.FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
Domino's Pizza

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
No clue yaar. But I like the name 'Rohan'. It sounds both modern and traditional :-)

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D...?
If there were only 'if's' and no 'but's' ,my aunt would have been my uncle ;-) Ya, it's a Siddhuism.

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?
No. And I have decided to use the public transport after seeing the Bangalore traffic

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
No.

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?
Cool

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
Don't have my own yet.

16. FAVORITE DRINK?
Sharjah..Don't find this at many places in Bangalore but very common in cities in Kerala

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD"
Finish reading that book 'Shantaram' which has been lying idle in my home for more than 4 months.

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Yes

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Any colour other than black would look horrible, but if given a choice it would be brown.

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Native place is Kanyakumari, schooling and college (engineering) at Trivandrum, then a year at Coimbatore, did my MBA at Trichy and now working at Bangalore

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football and Cricket. Find tennis boring now except for Federer. At school I loved watching the basketball tournament.

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU
Err..Actually two people tagged me...Both are humorous and genuinely caring.

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
Old clothes and travel bag..My room is actually in a kinda mess now.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Not really. It's boring to be born as the same person again. Maybe as Jim Carrey..I find him really amazing..his ability to make others laugh

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?
Night Owl. I hate getting up early at morning. And definitelty a night owl on eve of exams.

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Either

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Home at Trivandrum especially during the monsoon time.

28. FAVORITE PIE?
Tasted chocolate pie once. Not really a big pie fan.

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Strawberry

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Deepti

And this tag is passed on to:
1. Syam
2. Thomas

What do you want?

2008-03-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

My company says that my role is defined as what is called a "Functional Consultant", whatever that means. We basically gather requirements from clients who look to implement some business application like Oracle Apps or SAP, and try to map these requirements to the features available in the application.

Some clients have a clear knowledge of what they want while some need to be prodded and pushed to make them them understand as to what best fits their business needs.

There is a third kind of species who believe that a computer was simply invented to replace humans in the future. Read Scott Adam's (That brilliant cartoonist/satarist) Dilbert strip below to understand what I am trying to say. (Click on the picture below to see an enlarged view)

Life in an IT firm truly sucks big time :-(

P.S: The cartoon strip may not showcase the true happenings literally, but people who have been/are in my shoes will definitely understand what I am trying to say

Good old DD - Weren't we "Santhusht"?

2008-03-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

As I was gearing up to see the finals of the Commonwealth Bank cricket series, I got to know that the match was also being telecast on "Doordarshan". That name certainly rang bells and being exposed to Cable TV for well over a decade had made me ignore the presence of our very own national channel.

As more and more channels keep cropping up each year, I wonder at times, as to how we (including me and my friends) managed to entertain ourselves with just one TV channel. Yes, the first reply would immediately be "But we had no other choice". But there is something more to this. We had our own preferred set of programs that provided us the much-needed fun needed to quench our insatiable thirst for visual entertainment. Let us just take a trip down memory lane to rekindle the sweet memories of the DD of our bygone childhood era.

Though our choice of cartoons were limited to He-Man, Disney, Ducktales and Jungle Book , I remember many of us eagerly waiting to see them on those leisurely Sunday mornings. In fact He-Man was so famous that its merchandise became an instant hit among kids of our age group. I remember pestering my father to buy one from the Paico store at Trivandrum (with him tactfully evading my request each time). He-Man was assisted by his friends Man-At-Arms, Teela, Sorceress and Orko whereas his enemies were the dangerous Skeletor and Trap Jaw. Ducktales also was a good toonie program focussing on Uncle Scrooge Mc Duck (a billionaire) and his 3 nephews (Huey, Duey and Luey?). Jungle Book was telecast in Hindi and I remember being desperate to watch each episode, as was the case with my friend 'Binu' :-). Disney used to relay episodes of Mickey and Goofy in the beginning but then it got discontinued. Also popular were 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Talespin'.

As to the weekly serials, none can beat the fame of Ramanand Sagar's "Ramayan" or B.R.Chopra's "Mahabharat". The sight of Rama's duel with Ravana or Arjuna's battle against Karna, with different kinds of arrows flying in all directions, were a treat to watch at a time when special effects were just beginning to take giant strides in Hollywood movies.

Remember the young Shah Rukh in serials like 'Dil Dariya', 'Fauji' and 'Circus'?. Fauji and Circus were entertaining with the former describing the tale of an army cadet whose commanding officer is his brother. It had its moments of the tough army life, blood relationships, romance, fun and the usual British style Army dialogues like 'I say chaps...". All that looks a bit silly now, but the fact is that, at that time, we simply loved those! ' Circus' depicted the life of circus artistes, with each episode highlighting the life of an artiste in the troop. Shah Rukh was "Shekaran" the son of the circus owner whom everyone refers to as "Babuji". The serial came to its climax with the passing away of Babuji and then Shekaran taking over the mantle of ownership after rejecting an offer to go and work in America.

Who can forget those wonderful Hindi detective serials? It started with Karamchand starring Pankaj Kapoor in the title role as the eccentric investigator with his secretary Kitty who always seemed to try to impress him. The famous catch-line/dialogue used to be “Shut up Kitty”. And then there was “Tehkikaat” with the chief detective being named Sam and his assistant going by the name Gopi. Ashok Kumar came in one of the episodes in which he is named the murderer in the end. My favourite among the detective serials was Byomkesh Bakshi starring Rajat Kapoor in the title role. The other protagonist was Byomkesh’s friend Ajith, a writer, and one who begins to live with him after they meet on the first case and also one who accompanies and at times assists him on most cases. Based on the stories by the Bengali writer Saradindu Bandopadyay, the episodes were a hit among the TV viewers with Rajat Kapoor playing his part to near perfection. For cultural program enthusiasts there was “Spirit of Unity Concert” and the popular “Surabhi” hosted by Siddarth Kak and Renuka. The question asked at the end of Surabhi used to invoke response from people all over India sending their answers through postcards. At a time when people had not heard of Discovery Channel and when National Geographic Channel books were read by a few, that wonderful German channel TRANSTEL used to telecast wonderful programs on wildlife. They also used to telecast the slapstick comedy series “Didi’s Comedy Show” and the detective series ‘Derrick’. Also popular were the detective serials Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and ‘The Old Fox’.

Among the popular long running Hindi serials like Humlog and Buniyaad. The former was about a typical middle-class Indian family of the 1980's, whereas, the latter was a story on the lines of the Partition era. The list of long winding serials also later included the popular Shanti (starring Mandira Bedi), Kismat and Swabhimaan. Another popular serial used to be Mr. Yogi, a comedy based one about the various foiled attempts of Yogesh Patel to find a girl he can marry. Other comedy based programs used to be Jaspal Bhatti's Ulta Pulta and Flop Show, both being extremely popular during those days.

Turning Point was an excellent program aimed at preserving the scientific temper among the people. Initially hosted by Mahesh Bhatt, it was later anchored by Girish Karnad and Nasserudin Shah and explained simple scientific principles in a manner which would be termed simple even for a layman. I was a regular viewer of this program that had people sending their scientific queries to Prof. Yashpal who attempted to answer some of them at the end of the program.

No description of DD would be complete without the famous sitcom "Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi" which starred the Late Shafi Inaamdar. The serial was so popular that Moser Baer has now released the episodes in CD's. Among the sitcoms, another popular one used to be "Tandoori Nights" starring Sayed Jaffrey which was a take on an NRI family in London who owned a restaurant.

DD introduced the charismatic economist cum journalist "Prannoy Roy" through the program "World This Week". "The Pritish Nandy Show" used to be the popular talk show with Pritish interviewing many famous personalities from the field of politics, entertainment, media etc. My favourite episode in that was the interview with the famous magician P.C.Sarkar :-)

Among the Sports programs "World of Sports" was an evening program hosted by Narottam Puri. Also hugely popular and my personal favourite was "Sports Time" hosted by Tom Alter (first time I heard of him). It had a section in the end called "Lighter side of sports" which showed some of the funny moments in various sports. It was the program which showed two young girls practicing tennis rigorously in the United States and were tooted to be the next big names in women tennis. They were Venus and Serena Williams.

Our own DD (Malayalam) had its set of interesting and popular programs. Jiby had mentioned Kalikkalam, the sports program, in one of his blogs. I used to watch this program regularly and thoroughly enjoyed it those days. I remember that we got a holiday whenever Kerala won the Santosh trophy, and therefore, used to pray for their win not just as a supporter but even for getting an extra holiday in the school calendar. But I remember Kerala Police losing the finals once in a penalty shootout and agonisingly lose the cup, and more so, depriving me of a holiday

:-(

People in Kerala used to stay glued to their television sets on Sunday evenings for the Malayalam films being telecast. Though at most times, DD telecasted films from the "Jambhavan era" a.k.a films starring Nazeer and Sheila (How many films have they acted together in??), at times sense prevailed and somewhat new and good films used to be shown. I remember once that they had telecast a film that seemed to have some 17 songs (and most of the film was just songs!) when they had announced earlier that it was going to be a new movie. I , being so bored, actually saw that movie! Next day, I went to school thinking that all my friends would laugh at me on having seen that movie. Luckily all of them too had seen the movie! Instantly I was happy that I was not alone in this world.

But what ailed DD were the usual problems faced by a Government entity. Bureaucracy, red-tape and a general lack of accountability in the Department. Today it just exists, viewed regularly only in the remotest of places, and, in the coming years, even that elite viewer-ship seems improbable. But at its helm, it truly gave us some memorable moments.

P.S: One day, at my friend's house, we were using the remote to switch over various T.V channels to see, hoping against all odds, that there would be something worthwhile to watch. We started with DD and surfed many channels before we came back to DD. Whether it's irony, I don't know, but right when we went back to DD, the anchor of that program being relayed at DD said "Welcome Back". :-)

Anyone interested in downloading the video links of the epidsodes of "Byomkesh Bakshi" ?

Find it in the blog link given below:

http://serialepisodes.blogspot.com/2007/05/byomkesh-bakshi-episodes.html

Enjoy!

Dasanum Vijayanum: Veendum Oru Varavelpu??

2008-02-22T21:18:00.001-08:00

Picture Courtsey: www.indiamovieclub.com

When the names Mohanlal and Sreenivasan are spoken in unison, the first images that come to the mind of a Malayalam film lover are the scenes from the film “Nadodikattu”. In the genre of comedy films, no two characters have given us funnier moments than Ramdas and Vijayan.

Recently a few websites (like this one) claimed that Director Rosshan Andrews (of Udhayananu Tharam fame) had decided to direct the fourth part of this acclaimed series after initial rumors that the director duo Rafi-Mecartin had planned to do the same. But even in a recent interview by Rediff regarding his latest flick “Kadha Parayumbol”, scriptwriter Sreenivasan had denied any plans on making a fourth part.

“Nadodikattu”, the film released in 1987 was scripted by Sreenivasan and directed by Sathyan Anthikkad. It was succeeded by two sequels “Pattanapravesham” and “Akkare Akkare Akkare”. But it was Nadodikattu which gave life to the two characters and ensured a permanent place for them in the mind of the Malayalam film lovers.

Nadodikattu explored the trials and tribulations faced by two unemployed youths Ramdas and Vijayan and how fate finally reverses their fortunes through a series of humorous and bizarre incidents. The film has characters made memorable through actors like Thilakan (as Ananthan Nambiar) and Captain Raju (as the killer Pavanai). Though this film was a huge success, its sequels didn’t succeed commercially as much as the original. More than just highlighting the twist and turns in the life of two youths the film showcased the different shades of character in a Malayali living in Madras (now Chennai). The miserly business man Ananthan Nambiar, the taxi driver Balan (Innocent) struggling to meet his livelihood, the single woman living with her mother (Shobhana), the cunning politician (played by Janardhanan), the honest police officer are all testimony to this fact.

Of the two sequels, Pattanapravseham churned out better box office results compared to “Akkare..”. The reasons as to why the latter didn’t perform too well at the box office could be attributed to the following reasons:

Released during the 2nd half of the golden era of Malayalam cinema (early 1990’s). Therefore was released during a period in which the quality of Malayalam films was so high that such films were hardly recognized.

Removal of characters like Ananthan Nambiar and Gafoorka from the script, thus making the film devoid of some aspects critical to the success of its first two parts.
Absence of the realistic factor by setting the story in a country like United States.

The villain being an American instead of an Indian, thus limiting the comic situation with him, unlike the duels with the character “Prabhakaran” in Pattanapravesham.
The very CID theme was made just to bring in the sequels, whereas, Nadodikattu was based on the difficulties faced by two unemployed graduates in managing their life. Therefore, the sympathy the viewers felt for the two characters in the first part was considerably reduced in the 2nd part and almost absent in the third part.

So, that brings us to some interesting questions:

· What story can we expect if Sreenivasan decides to pen the sequel?
One has to take into consideration that both Mohanlal and Sreeni are in their 50’s.

· Will we get any new characters like the ones played by Mukesh and Raju in the third part?
· Will the setting of the story again be in a foreign country, with the current trend in all films being so? (In the Orkut community of Dasan and Vijayan one member suggested that the title of the film should be kept as “Ikkare Ikkare Ikkare”)

· Will a legendary comedian like Jagathy get a role in the film?

Many people have stated in various internet forums that a fourth part should not be made since it could spoil the “brand value” of the two characters. I am not sure whether that statement is true, since, the quality of average present day Malayalam films being the way we know it is, the film would do really well at the box-office if it at least matches up to the levels of “Akkare..” That would be the consensus, I suspect, even with Sreenivasan.

Comedy films need to have more of situation comedy rather than pure slap-stick comedy. Pattanapravesham was also a film which took a dig at politicians and even other detective films through a few dialogues. But it was very neatly done rather than scenes being introduced just for the sake of it. As to who was the target of the jokes in those scenes is anyone’s guess ;-).

I, personally, don’t prefer to see a fourth part. Lal and Sreeni would find it a real challenge to recreate the magic of the first two parts and I would rather see Sreeni script a story like ‘Kadha Parayumbol’, than a half-baked sequel of the CID series. What do all of you feel? Would love to hear your comments!

Before I wind up, I am leaving behind some memorable (and humorous) dialogues from the three films.

V – Vijayan
D- Dasan
AN- Ananthan Nambiar
I- Inspector
P - Pavanai
Pr – Prabhakaran (AN’s ‘partner in crime’ and friend)

Nadodikattu

V: Aishwaryathinte siren muzhangunnnathu pole ondu

V: Pre-Degree athrakku moshamaya degree alla

AN: A.N. Traders avihitha margathil onnum sambhadikunnilla
D : Sir..Saare..Nammal company-ile employees-a
AN : Thalkalam employees-inte roopathil ennu parayam
V : Bavathilum anagane thanneya saar

I: Arengilum Jamyam tharathe ningale release cheyyan pattilla
V: Saar thanne nammale Jamyathil irakkikude

P: I am Pavanai
V: Daasa..ithu etha ee alavalathi?

V: Sasi sir ippo evide kaanum
Seema: Sasiyettan ippo Bharaniyila
V: Bharaniyilo ! ?

AN: Angane pavanai shavamayi..enthokke bahulyamayirunnu..malappuram katthi, machine gun, olakkeda moodu..

Pattanapravesham

Pr: ee kallakadothokke kazhinjittu venam onnu guruvayoor vare pokan

D: Ivide dummy onnum ille.
I : saar..ithu oru kutthu kondulla kolayalle..mukalil ninnu veenathalla
D: Enthengilum akatte..Oru dummy enthayalaum venam

Guess all of you would have understood which politician and actor were made fun of :-)

AN: Prabahakara..Kallakadatthum kolapathakam okke engane pokunnu?

AN: Prabhakara..nee enganeyenkilum oru kalla passport oppichu tha..njan evideyengilum poyi samadhanamayi kallakadathu cheythu jeevicholam.

I: Sir..Kola cheytha alude shirt-ile button kittiyitundu..athoru thumballe
D: Thumbano thumbiyano ennu namakku pinne nokkam

V: nalla ugran biriyani..nalla vishappu
D: athu puthiya sambhavan allallo
V: Daasa..ippo nallapole kazhichillangil vayasu kalathu diabetes varumbo dukhikendi varum
D: Ingane kazhichal vaikathe dukhikendi varum

Pr: Kolapathakam cheythavare kandupidiccho?
D: Manyathayude mughammoodi aninjirikunna palarum ithil pinnilanennu namakku manasilayi sir..avare vaikathe akathakkum

It was really amusing to see a scared Karamana Janardhanan’s expression in this scene and the CID’s not realising that they were actually talking to the culprit.

Akkare Akkare Akkare

Mukesh..Da Gopi..ini gopi varachha mathi

American villains: Tell me the truth ..Aren’t u the CID’s from India?
Raju : No..I am gopi from Sasthamangalam

Drug Dealers: Give us the heroin
V : Hair oil-o?

D: Nammale Krishnan nair saar-a ivide ayachathu
Nedumudi: Aaah..athinte phalam-a ayal avide anubhavikkunathu
Soman is shown being beaten up by the villains.

The A-Z of Punjabi times at Dilli!!!

2008-02-22T04:06:00.000-08:00

The following article appeared in the Delhi edition of the Times of India newspaper and is a humorous take on the Punjabi community in Delhi. Found it to be quite good. Reminded me of the Jaspal Bhatti serials aired on Doordarshan a long time back. No offences meant to anyone. :-)
________________________________________________________________

A is for Adjust, Punjabis will always ask you to adjust whenever they want to push you around.

B is for Backside, and it has nothing to do with your bum, it is an instruction to go to the rear of a building, or block, or shop or whatever.

C is for cloney and its first name is not George nor is it a process for replicating sheep – it is an area where people live eg. Dfence cloney.

D is for Saddi Dilli

E is for expanditure – and believe me Punjabis are not scared of spending money – the latest cars, marble floors, their ambitions are always expanding.

F is for fackade, and even though it sounds like a bad word it is actually just the front of a building (with backside being the back, of course).

G is for Gaddi and the way a Punjabi can pilot a car puts any F1 driver to shame, if the Grand Prix does come to Delhi there’s no way Hamilton, Alonso or Kimi can overtake Balvinder, Jasvinder and Sukhvinder.

H is for Ho Jayega, the moment you hear that, you have to be very careful because you can be reasonably sure it’s not going to happen.

I is for Intezaar… to know more about it see P.

J is for Jindagi and if there’s one person who knows how to live life to the full it’s a Punjabi.

K is for Khanna, Khurana, etc – the Punjabi equivalent of the Johnses ie, keeping up with the Khuranas.

L is for Lovely but she never is.

M is for Mrooti – the car that moved an entire Punjabi generation.

N is for No problem ji - to find out how that works see H.

O is for Oye which can be surprise (oyye!), a hailing (oyy), anger (OYY) or pain (oy oy oy).

P is for Panch minit and no matter how near (1 km) or far a Punjabi is from you (100 km) they usually say they’ll reach you in panch minit.

Q is for Queue for which there’s really no word in Punjabi.

R is for Riks and a Punjabi is always prepared to take one, even if the odds are against them.

S is for Sweetie, Bunty, Pappu and Sonu who seem to own half the cars in Delhi.

T is for the official bird of Punjab – Tandoori chicken.

U is for when U lose your sex appeal and become ‘Uncle’.

V is for VIP phone numbers @ Rs 15 lakh and counting.

W is War – on the roads.

X is x-rated words they flow freely in casual conversations on the street.

Y is ‘You nonsense’, anger replacing vocabulary in a shouting match.

And Z is for Zig zag for which you should see G, M and P.

Reference: Author: Shivjeet Kullar; Delhi Times; The Times of India; Dated 07-Aug-2007

Raking in the HOTS to call the Shots

2008-02-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

A news item on CNN-IBN today stated that the CBSE Board has decided to implement H.O.T.S. For the 10th standard Board exam this year, they stated that very subject would be based on this new design in which the question papers include 10% of very short answer questions and 20% of questions to assess H.O.T.S. Also read it here.

H.O.T.S according to this official website is Higher Order Thinking Skills. It is a complete general thinking skills program for helping students in grades 4-8 who are disadvantaged in learning (a euphemism for the actual term "Low grade students"). The approach, they say, combines software with a sophisticated curriculum and Socratic dialogue (i.e. teacher asking questions rather than telling the student what to do) in small group settings. For example, instead of making the student answer a question in one word, they "encourage" him to elaborate his/her answer and thus gradually enable him/her to improve the thinking process.

The HOTS software is described as a state-of-the-art interactive application. The teaching is through simple interactive games. Some of these games, like say, "Hangman" is something I have seen (and even played!!) in the computer labs at N.I.T. Trichy during the tenure of my M.B.A course. I must say that i found it to be interesting and even addictive. It involves guessing the letters in a word based on clues, and every wrong guess brings a man pictured in the game nearer to his execution. On guessing the entire word correctly he goes scot-free. This link in the website shows the entire list of games, all of which are interactive and quickly gets the attention of the student, much like the Hangman game.

Through such games, curriculum, training and support H.O.T.S is said to develop the following thinking skills:
Metacognition
Generalization
Information from Context (Reminds you of the CAT exam, eh? ;-) )
Information Synthesis

The organization itself admits that though the Socratic dialogue method is effective, it is also very difficult at first. Therefore, rightly as they say, the teacher should be organized, flexible, energetic and excited at getting students to talk. I guess they missed one point: Loads of Patience. Considering the fact they are dealing with students who are "disadvantaged in learning" and therefore such students need to be given both time and encouragement. This system of education has been implemented in many schools in U.S. and the results are said to be encouraging.

Now coming back to the situation in India, there is one reason why i posted such an article. It was ironic, to say the least, that this news item in CNN-IBN was preceded by a news item in N.D.T.V which should put our education reformers to shame. It was reported that at a primary school in Maharashtra, 50% of the class 7 students had failed a very basic test to gauge their competency in the English Language and General knowledge. Some even could not correctly write even their own names in English!!! And the school authorities say in the usual lackadaisical manner "Hum iske baare mein charcha karenge". Arre kya charcha karenge aap? These are students from the 7th grade for heavens sake!!!

The state of the primary schools in India is abysmal. No proper infrastructure (Remember the gruesome fire tragedy at the Govt. school in Kumbakonam around 2-3 years back?) , lack of teachers, pathetic text books and an indifferent management which professes by the laws of the babudom (Best depicted in the Malayalam film "Doore Doore Oru Koodum.. Starring Mohanlal). The situation needs urgent remedial measures.

How do you expect such students to become employable when the basic foundation of knowledge is not built properly at such schools? Teachers, especially at Government schools take leave requests at their liking without even paying the slightest attention to their job. The senior examiners even at established boards like the I.S.C and I.C.S.E are sometimes found wanting in the knowledge of the subject they teach. The syllabus in books remains the same even after a decade with no changes appearing in the pipeline (which seems to get longer and longer). Compare this with the education system in U.S. where in the 1960’s the content and syllabus of the entire school science text books were reviewed by greats like the Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman.

The Indian education system, which owes it origins to the Britsh Educational System, has not been upgraded unlike the latter. While we still brood over our pathetic primary education system, the West seems to be on the other side of progress with the same. While HOTS seems to be a pradigm shift in the teaching methodology of students in the higher grade/class what is needed in India right now is to call the shots on the basic needs of the Primary and Secondary School education system. Then we can bring in the HOTS.

Profound words

2008-02-13T00:31:00.000-08:00

Was going through a few blogs on the net. And then i picked this one post. What words!!! As i prepare to leave for lunch, I wonder "If this is not keeping faith in God, then what is?".

Arthur Ashe - R.I.P.

Life's Truths and Humour

2008-02-07T20:14:00.000-08:00

A few months back a random browsing through Google brought to my notice a book written by Malayalam film actor Mukesh titled "Mukesh Kathakal - Jeevithathile Nerum Narmavum". Primarily based on his memoirs of his college life at S.N.College, Kollam , it was released at a function held at S.N.College where the State Minister M.A.Baby (also an alumni of S.N. College) was the Chief Guest. The sales of the book following its release were according to Mukesh "Unexpectedly high". Curious to know as to what made many read the book, I ordered for a copy. The book is published by Olive Publications.

The book is written in a very lucid manner with the incidents being narrated with a tinge of mischief at times and often interlaced with humour. When Mukesh writes we get to know his character which when it comes to oneself many would like to feel good about but few would like to reveal. Mukesh displays no airs of being an established cine artiste and recounts his former days with no qualms on what the readers would perceive of him. Perhaps this is the very reason why many readers, including me, enjoyed this book right to the very end.

The book takes off, as i said earlier, with many incidents from Mukesh's student stint at S.N.College. Probably people who have studied at Govt. colleges in Kerala would be able to identify more with the characters and incidents mentioned in these chapters. The incidents are narrated in a very natural manner with the "Kollam accent" being distinct in most dialogues.

Though i am tempted to narrate many of the incidents mentioned in the book, I am stopping myself from doing that since i feel that reading the book is the best way to enjoy these. The incidents involving the character "Annamma" are described in such a straightforward manner so much so that we feel that the reader is currently a college student. The incidents involving the Botany teacher and the Principal are also those which i found to be very humorous and life-like in reading. We would sometimes be tempted to feel that the "Poovalan" characters of Mukesh we saw in films like "In Harihar Nagar" and to an extent in "GodFather" are the real Mukesh itself and not an actor.

Apart from his life at S.N.College the author has also described certain humorus moments with his friends in the cine field like Jayaram, Mammootty, Sreenivasan, the Late Ratheesh etc. The one incident i really enjoyed reading was his experience with director Priyadarshan when shooting for the Srenivasan scripted film "Odaruthe Ammava Aalariyam". It depicted the quintessential street-smart and quick thinking side of Mukesh's character.
As i finished reading the book I felt that the book is much more than just a mere recollection of some humorous events from the author's life. It is a statement to one and all that life is not all about the mad rush for money and status. It is such moments that one can really treasure and remember about for a life time.

I feel Mukesh silently shows us that even now there is a child in every one of us. That should never be shelved away by us. One passage what i liked was when Mukesh described a scene when he and his wife Sarita where starting to travel somewhere by car. At that moment he saw a girl from his college days walking by that same place and at once he called here by her college nickname and made some comment or the sake of fun. At that moment Mukesh says Sarita chided him by saying "Nanamillallo manushya. ee vayasilum comment adikkan." But Mukesh tells us readers "Ee vayasilum enikku oorjassum unmeshavum tharunnathu ee comment adi thanne..".. :-)

Oru pakshe Mukeshettan parayunnathu pole ithokkeyalle suhurthukkale jevithathile nerum narmavum.

P.S: I recommend this book to any person who has enjoyed the films in which Mukesh has acted or any person who loves to experience a little humour in life.

To believe or not to believe

2008-01-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Whenever i visit Trivandrum I make it a point to reserve one day just to visit Beemappalli and buy a few Malayalam film cd's/dvd's to add to my existing collection. Rather than going for new movies (except for selected ones) i prefer buying the "Tried and Tested" ones a.k.a award winning, comedies, classics genre of films etc.

This time on my trip I purchased a few of the Mammootty classics. It was a DVD with the films Yathra, Thaniyavarthanam and Nirakoottu. Of these perhaps the one that will immediately strike the chord of not just a Malayalam film viewer but any film viewer would be the film "Thaniyavarthanam".

Before going into the discussion on the movie, I would like to contemplate on the theme of blind-beliefs or what is known in Malayalam as "Anthavishwasam" with respect to Malayalam movies. It is a theme brought about it in a few Malayalam movies through varied degrees of seriousness in the script.

Nagarangalil Chennu Rapaarkam (1989) was a Viji Thampi directed film starring Sreenivasan and Jayaram. Sreenivasan plays the son of Nedumudi Venu in a typical village Tharavadu. The local astrologer predicts that Sreenivasan would die within a few weeks. Then the entire family keeps him virtually in a sort of house arrest providing him with good food and all other facilities. Jayaram , his childhood friend in the village returns from town on a break and meets Sreenivasan at his home. Sreenivasan on hearing the stories about town life coupled with his boredom on being forced to stay within the boundaries of the family house decides to escape with Jayaram to the town. The film then goes through humorous twists and turns before Sreeni finally unites with his father after the prediction of the astrologer proves false. This is a comical satire on blind beliefs that exists in rural Kerala brought about in a light manner.

Based on these themes were the satire like films Sadanandante Samayam (Dileep) and a film (whose name i forgot) in which Sreenivasan is claimed to have "RajaYogam" by an astrologer and thus whoever comes in contact with him will gain enormous luck. The latter was a laugh riot but atypical of Sreeni films delivers a subtle message on the blind beliefs held by society.

Anyway coming back to Thaniyavarthanam, it tells the story of Balan Mash (so brilliantly portrayed by Mammootty) a middle class schoolteacher who falls prey to the blind beliefs held in society. His uncle Sreedharan Maman (played by Babu Namboothiri) becomes mentally retarded after getting separated from his lover (played as a cameo by Parvathi). Thus starts the blind belief in the family that in each generation one male member in the family would get mentally retarded. Unfortunately Mammootty becomes the victim and the sufferings of the protagonist depicted on screen and the climax of the movie were too tragic for me to watch this movie more than once. Unlike the other mentioned movies, this one dwells into the subject in full seriousness and considering that it was Lohitadas's debut script one can also imagine the genius of the scripting prowess of Lohitadas that were seen in his later films like Kireedam. The film shows that these incidents are caused due to the perceptions held by people rather than they exploring the reality. Directed by Sibi Malayil (known for his tragedy films) the film explores the emotions, beliefs and attitude held by people in such a society. Mukesh (playing Gopan, Mammotty's brother) is cast as a rationalist and one who despises such beliefs and who is always seen telling the family members that unless they leave the house no one is going to live a happy life. This film is a must watch not only for fans of Mammootty but also for any film lover.

Now coming to the subject of false-beliefs, one can say that with the advancement in science and the spread of income among middle class and with migration of people from rural to urban areas the stats seem to indicate a decline in such thoughts among people. But along with increase in income and a busy and stressful lifestyle also comes insecurity in life. This has induced even people among the so-called educated class to adopt false beliefs and visit god men. How can this be stopped or will it ever stop? I have no answer for this. As for me i am one who keeps faith in God but I absolutely despise false-beliefs and even get irritated when i meet people with such views. But i guess traditional views passed on by generations cannot be completely removed from minds of old-aged people who believe in them. But at least the present generation should drop such thoughts and create a healthier society in terms of social development. Would love to hear your views on this. Please do drop in your thoughts.

Life in every art : The Loyola Youth Festival - 1

2007-12-18T00:18:00.000-08:00

When i started this blog I expected to put up at least an article each month. But with laziness being my forte coupled with an unusually dull month of November, I have stuck loyally to the cliché that rules and oaths are meant to be broken at least with respect to my life. Also the choice of a topic to post seemed to make me very indecisive. Finally i decided to stick on to my comfort zone - Loyola School. I feel that I need to jot down my memories on this great school before my grey cells start to fail me in stirring up wonderful thoughts on my alma mater.

I had said in my earlier post that the BB Cup was one event that brought the entire student fraternity of Loyola together. But another annual event of equal importance and celebration is the Loyola Youth Festival which is an inter- house event unlike the Lafest and the BB Cup which are inter-school events.

For the non-Loyolites who are reading this post: The Loyola students are grouped among 4 houses: Apollo Pioneers (AP), Sputknik Spacemen (SS), Gemeni Giants (GG) and the Jupiter JetSetters (JJ).

During my 13 year stint at the school (1986-1999) , AP was synomously associated with being the sports champions being comprised of star athletes. GG had great allrounders in both sports and arts, JJ house had also a mixture of both though not to the level of GG while SS from 1993 started to stamp their authority and voice themselves as the undisputed champions in the Youth Festival.

My memories of the Loyola Youth Festival are limited to highlighting some great performances by some very talented Loyolites in their respective art fields.

One of the much viewed and enjoyed spectacles of the Loyola Youth Festival is the Fancy Dress Competition. In 1995 for the Seniors section this section invoked some good performances. But the highlight was the performance of Antony Unni Xavier. He dressed as a roadside beggar. Usual stuff, eh?? No, this performance in a Fancy Dress is something I will never forget for a long time. The appearance, actions etc. were so good that for a moment everyone in the audience were stunned in amazement. Then he took out a package and thrust food in his mouth like a man who had been starving for ages and then a dog came out on the stage and both had morsels of the food!!!! It seems Antony had brought his pet dog from home for this purpose. And this gave the A.P. the first prize in the Senior Division for Fancy Dress. I would be happy if any other Loyolite present at that time could shed more light on this.

Drama was another event where students could prove their mettle in histrionics. The award for best actor in Malayalam Drama for the senior section was one given by the late Fr. Mathew Pulickal who always patronized the inculcation of such programmes. In 1995 (If i am not mistaken) the award went to Praveen S.S., a bloke who had proved it big on such events.

But the best ever has to be Tariq.B from 1997 S.S.L.C , our dear batch mate and one who had provided us many entertaining moments during the L.A. periods in class. Tariq also was in A.P. house and was a proven talent in the Malayalam drama. It was obvious right from the beginning that he was the one going to win the coveted Best Actor award for Malayalam Drama. Tariq was aided in his drama by the team of Arun Sathyan, Mukesh , Zeno etc. The character he potrayed in the 1997 Youth Festival was a character named "Ayeshama" , a muslim lady, and the way he introduced that character in the drama would make some the film directors proud. His creative skills were just too good for anyone to challenge him. His scripts used to be created out of nowhere, was 100% comedy and i remember students enjoying it irrespective of what house they belonged to. When the award was announced on the final day he was cheered by one and all as someone who was destined to win it. Another timeless moment from the Loyola Youth Festival.

The 1997 Youth Festival also saw a new talent emerge through the English Drama for Seniors. Binu Ninan was my classmate and I can vouch for the fact that till around the 9th or 10th Standard he was never a keen participant in the Youth Festival. But after that he had a sudden surge of adrenalin and confidence which saw him participate in elocutions, debates and finally the school drama. One thing i always liked about Binu was that whatever task he undertook, he ensured that it was done with certain finesse and made to look simple and neat. The drama which he presented was that of a totally absent minded, muddled and eccentric doctor who always brought havoc in whatever he did for his patients. The actual script i heard was quite lengthy and twisted but Binu had edited to the just perfect state. Again all enjoyed the drama which was packed with comedy. In fact i always tell people that Binu never acted in that drama. Guess i feel he would have been like that even if he really had been a doctor :-)..Just kidding bunny. I remember that drama had a scene where Damu (also my classmate) comes telling to the doctor that he is fat and needs to lose weight. Then he puts him in some machine and forgets about it. Then to show that the machine was getting overheated, Binu had Tariq and others from the backstage to burn incense blocks to give the smoke effect and the explosion sound was done through Binu’s favourite synthesizer. It was very simple stuff but in such situations as they say "It takes a lot to keep it simple". Our whole batch was happy when Binu received the award for best actor, especially considering the fact that unlike Tariq he was not a veteran.

The 1995 Youth Festival was one of the most closely fought Youth Festivals in the history of Loyola School. GG house which was the undisputed champions till that time were suddenly finding tough competition from S.S. One of the last events was the English Declamation for seniors. The late Vivek Rajendran (GG House) gave a fiery speech and was all heated up for the occasion. To the joy of GG House supporters he received the first prize but alas when the Final Results came GG had lost by 1 point to SS. From then onwards started the surge of SS House in Youth Festivals.

The Sutter hall provided a serene ambience for the Youth Festival events. Simple in construction, pleasing in design and built to last this building will be a lasting reminder to all Loyolites on the simplicity and efficiency of everything in Loyola. But with a supposedly new auditorium coming up I sincerely hope that this monument donated by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sutter doesn't slip into oblivion.

The English Recitation had also provided many memorable moments. My classmate George Varghese who used to participate in it used to invariable give out a speech of Julius Caesar starting with the lines "Friends, Romans, Countrymen". Whenever i think of this event i remember our favourite teacher DP (Deepa Pillai). During one such event Vivek Krishnan (1997 I.S.C) , one of the founding student members of LAFest had recited a poem (I forgot the name. see what did I tell you on my grey cells). It was about a boy who is killed during a war because of the bombings. The final lines end something like "The boy..Oh..Were was he?".

Vivek had recited this poem almost to perfection. And then Boney.M.Ninan (my junior) had recited the poem "Daffodils" shouting, huffing and puffing as though it were a fiery speech. But the judges had the final say and Boney was given the frist prize. Later in the class, DP had come to teach and all of us were telling how Boney had won the prize from Vivek. DP then lamblasted the judges (I mean not literally but explaining her view) telling that while Vivek had recited the poem perfectly , Boney had totally messed up the Worsworth poem which was such a soft verse by raising his voice. Finally she also new nothing could be done since the judges had the final take on it.

In 1995, the solo instrumental round for seniors saw a new participant with an instrument which not many had tha panache or talent to play. The drums were handled deftly by Kuruvilla and for a few moments it seemed that the Sutter Hall was hosting some kind of rock concert. This performance had us all spell bound and without mentioning we knew who that days winner in this event was.

Another popular event was the Tableau. One incident which comes to my mind involved my senior KrishnaMohan (I don remember which batch ) was all ready with his team for the tableau. The curtains opened and the team was ready each holding some sticks and rods about to present something. But unfortunately due to some problem with the tape recorder the voice which would have described the tableau didn’t come. I can never forget Krishna Mohan angrily throwing away what he was holding and walking off leaving the audience wondering as to what on earth was going on. Later i heard DP had consoled him and told him not to get upset over it.

Before the Youth Festival started the prelims for elocution used to be held at the Assembly ground. My favourite speaker used to be Deepu Chandy. Deepu had the gift of the gab and could speak for hours on almost any topic using stylish words and a wonderful accent. The topic once given to him was "Unrest in schools". He started speaking and what followed after that completely stunned the listeners as he spoke on bikini's and the culture of skimpy clothing wear by students of schools. Only later did he realise that the topic had been "Unrest in schools" while he had taken it to be "Undressed in Schools".

My classmate George Varghese used to be a regular participant in the English declamation event. Once during the prelims he was declamating some famous speech and midway his memory seemed to fail him. Frustrated at this he exclaimed "Shit" unknowingly in front of the mike itself. Though we were shocked to hear something like that in an English Declamation we later had a hearty laugh over it at the expense of Georgie.

I have described Tariq's histrionic skills in an earlier passage. Also the drama troupe of Tariq had the advantage of not preparing a detailed script and going strictly by that . They had the ability to do on the spot corrections if they felt that something was going wrong. An example of this was seen during the Youth FEstival drama. The drama was going on and during the course of a particular dialouge, Mukesh had difficulty holding his mundu and at the same time concentrating on his dialouge delivery. Arun Sathyan who was one of the participants on the stage saw this and just about unexpectedly said "Enthade. Mundudukkan polum arinjukooda. Poyi nera odithuttu tirichu vada. Ivanayokke entha cheyya". He said this as though it was a part of the script. This saved them from otherwise what would have been a very akward situation to handle. And then eve Mukesh had the quickness to understand the intent of Sathyan delvering the dialouge at that time and quickly made amends.

Unlike many bloggers i find it difficult to go on and on despite the nature of the topic. This is all I can rope in in this post. I will definitely make a 2nd extension to this post to get back to you all on more past happenings from the Loyola Youth Festival.

Till then wishing you all a great and prosperous New Year!!!..Cya..

Play it smart sir

2007-10-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

The euphoria of the T20 win seems to be slowly fading and the harsh reality of the position of the men in blue in the 50-50 and Test versions of the game slowly seem to be seeping back in the minds of the cricket fans following the 1st 2 one days against Australia.

The South African Cricket Board deserves full kudos on arranging a successful tournament and even the coverage by espn-star sports was well worth mentioning. And one of the reasons i mentioned the latter is because of the choice of their commentators, and, among them the one i consider the most knowledgeable and practical person, Ian Chappell.

During one of the matches (I don’t remember which) Chappell and David Lloyd were giving the commentary when the talk turned on to the free-hit rule. David LLoyd was telling when the bowler bowls a no-ball caused by overstepping, the batsman gets to face an extra ball in which the only way he can get out is through a run out. Then Chappell replied "Oh.Ok.In that case what if the bowler bowls a wide in the next ball. Does that mean the batsman now has to face an extra ball for the wide and then the free-hit does not apply for that extra ball? In that case the bowler can bowl a wide always?”

Finally they confirmed with an ESPN staff there that even if a wide is bowled the free-hit is transferred to the ball after that. So that literally threw Ian's ploy, as they say in cricket, straight out of the window. David LLyod then jokingly told Ian "Looking for loopholes always, aren’t you?" And to that Ian gave, according to me, the most apt, logical and practical answer. He said "You are not doing your job as a captain if you are not looking for them".

I think Chappell's answer makes a lot of sense in today's competitive world where besides working hard people are also expected to work smart. However i will restrict this article to about being smart when playing cricket.

I think the criteria to be able to play smart cricket is relatively more relevant in the context of the one-day and t20 formats of the game where a piece of cricketing brilliance can change the entire equation for either of the teams in a matter of an over. People at times try to draw a line between playing smart cricket and playing in an unsporting manner. But i feel that as long as the game is played within the defined rules there is no such thing as unsporting cricket.

For illustrating my above viewpoint lets consider the infamous incident involving Greg Chappell in a one-day match vs. New Zealand. People (Critics and cricket fans) termed the underarm bowling incident as an insult to the spirit of the game. But if you analyze it from a viewpoint of a captain there’s not much fault one can find in what Greg did that day. True, probably the tactic was not exactly an ethical ploy, but then weren't those rules a part of the game? Why didn’t the people who framed the rules oversee the impact earlier? Do all players play within the ethical limits at all times?

In my personal opinion Greg didn’t play unsporting cricket. He merely played smart cricket and used the rules of the game at that time to his advantage. I sympathize with the New Zealand batsman who had to face that last ball, but frankly, that cant be termed unsporting according to me.

How many of the batsmen walk back when they get a faint edge that is not detected by the umpire? Steve Waugh himself has said that he never used to walk back without seeing the umpire's decision for the simple reason that no one else did it!!!!

Playing smart cricket is something that every modern day cricketer should be armed with. What the Australians and South Africans lack in terms of pure technique at times is nullified by their amazing fitness levels, agility and most importantly playing smart cricket at the most needed times. Even the legendary Pakistan captain Imran Khan admitted that it was difficult to inculcate good technique among Pakistani batsmen since the domestic cricket structure was very poor when compared to say, Australia. Therefore, he said, coaches of Pakistan should look for cricketers who are gutsy, talented and street smart.

Playing smart cricket was the forte of the Kiwi team in the 1992 world cup. Under the captaincy of Martin Crowe they tried out tactics like opening the bowling with Deepak Patel and the more famous pinch-hitting to manipulate the field restrictions in the first 15 overs. And that almost took them to the finals but for the fact that another supremely talented cricketer named Inzamam stopped them in the semis.

The Australian team, which has been the pioneer in introducing new concepts of coaching, used the services of Edward De Bono in giving talks on lateral thinking. They also introduced the concept of relay throw in fielding and have employed it to good effect. The next level of smart cricket according to former Australian coach John Buchanan is "Ambidexterity" i.e. w.r.t. Cricket the ability to bat and/or bowl effectively with both hands. This concept though in a very nascent stage may well change the way the game is approached and could have a huge impact on the game. Imaging Sachin batting right handed for a while and then deciding to bat left because of a new bowler or a change in field or in the same way a Wasim Akram bowling left handed and then deciding to bowl right handed suddenly!!!!

As the players get more professional and the game gets more competitive and the stakes keep getting higher the need for playing the smart way seems to get more significant. Lets hope its all for the betterment of the game, for ultimately the game wins.

Sreenivasananu Tharam!!!!

2007-09-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

photo courtsey: http://www.answers.com/

Two things which Mallus definitely like speaking and debating on are politics and movies. And both have provided the people of Kerala with memorable moments. Though very much a liberterain I dont consider myself to be very political at most times. However a discussion on movies is welcome to me at any time.

The Malayalam film Industry has provided some of the best movies ever to have been made and the best artistes ever to have set foot in Indian films. Of the many brilliant films and artistes in the Malayalam film industry , perhaps, there is no one else who has captured the minds of the common man in Kerala more than Sreenivasan. With his scripts containing satarical comedy relating to social issues and at the same time delivering a meaningful message at the end, his films have won appreciation from all sections of the society in Kerala.

Hailing from Thalassery, Sreenivasan was not what people conceptualised as an actor. Here was someone who was dark, short and not having a really great voice. But Sreenivasan proved himself to be someone who turned around his weaknesses and converted them to his greatest strengths. In most of his films we find him making fun of himself sometimes on the basis of these so called "weaknesses". In the film "Thalayananmanthram" he (as the character Sugunan) plays the husband of a wife (brilliantly played by Urvashi) who inflicted in her mind with jealousy and inferiority complex forces him to come out of the joint family and stay in a seperate house at a different place. In one of the scenes Urvashi tells him "Suguvettan otthiri karutthu poyi" . To that Sreeni replies "athinu njaan pande karutthitanallo irikunne" thus making fun of himself in the process. The script continues even further when Urvashi tells him "Suguvettane oru vashatthil ninnu nokkiyal Mammottiye pole thanne" to which Sreeni tells her "Pakshe Mammotykku nalla pokkamundu" all this providing moments of simple humour and once again establishing the fact that Sreeni never leaves the opportunity in making fun of himself through his movies.

At times Sreenivasan prowess in script writing has over shawdowed the actor in him. From the problems faced by a Gulf returnee in Varavelpu to the challenges faced by an ordinary contractor in "Vellanakalude Nadu" and the problems faced by Sethumadhavan in setting up a biscut factory and also managing the affairs in his house in the film "Midhunam", Sreeni has created characters who exist and can be related to the everyday life fabric of the Kerala Society.

Sometimes what stands out are the way he brings out the messages in his films. Through well delivered dialogues and comical scenes and subtle variations in acting Sreeni makes sure that the viewer doesn't miss the actual intended message in the film.

An example of the subtle variation in acting can be seen in the film "Nadodikattu" which immoratlised the characters "Dasan" and "Vijayan" in the minds of the Malayalee film viewer. There is a scene where Sreenivasan gets a radio lying on the road (actually intended to kill him when he turns it on-transistor bomb) and he sells it at a Marwadi shop. Now people will remember that till that time Sreenivasan is shown to be living with Mohanlal in poverty. Immediately after he sells the radio and gets the money the scene shows Sreenivasan calling for a taxi to go home. These subtle changes in acting also highlight Sreenivasans brilliance in depicting the story through the film.

In the film "Vadakkunokki Yanthram" the character he depicts (Dineshan) has no confidence in himself and doubts his actions all the time. The story is believed to be that of a person Sreeni met in real life. What is ironic is that the character depicted in the reel life is completely opposite to that of Sreenivasan in real life where Sreeni despite the short comings is a person who comes across as one with enormous self confidence. Probably contrary to beliefs, Sreeni was inspired to write the script based on his real life itself!!!

Many situations in Sreeni's films are based on his real life experiences and events. In the film "Vellanakalude Nadu" (Land of white elephants) Mohanlal explains to Shobhana that for making a living he had left his home and gone to another place where after many days of poverty he lay on the road and fortunately people from the Malayalee Samaj took pity on him and admitted him to a hospital and later gave him money to go back home. When i read the book "Sreenivasan - Oru Pusthakam" Sreeni explains the same situation as what happened to his brother without making a reference to this movie. Probably the character in that beautifully potrayed movie "Chintha.. Shyamala" is also similiar to Sreenivasan in an earlier part of his life where circumstances forced him to adopt different kinds of beliefs. In fact we may find that character among many people we ourselves know.

No mention of Sreenivasan is complete without the film Sandesham, the jewel in his crown. Political satire at its best. It is claimed that Sreenivasan charged no fee for the script instead claiming that he would be happy if people remembered that film for years to come.

When the Malayalm film industry seemed to be in a crisis with no major hits coming through and with the existing ones being rubbished by the audience Sreeni scripted "Udayananu Tharam" which explores the trivials and difficulties faced by a talented script writer aspiring to direct a film. It is said that at many points in the movie Sreeni has depicted in reality the antics of many real life actors like Mohanlal and Dileep (as in giving money to magazines to write about the success of their films when in reality they were bombing at the box office). It is said that Sreeni himself told Lal about this and it is another matter that Mohanlal showed the greatness and humility in accepting Sreeni's script.

Sreenivasan is indeed a gift to Malayalam cinema. All what one can say after all this is "Sreenivasan Thanneyanu Tharam".

The Man with the Golden Stick

2007-08-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

This post is not about an Ian Fleming created James Bond adventure. Its rather about a personality who has touched the lives of many a Loyolite in one way or another.Sumod Mathew (1991 I.S.C) had written a poem in the "Loyolite" magazine on this very person with the title I have given for this post.

The first thing that comes to the mind of any Loyolite when he hears the words "Fr. Mathew Pulickal" are not that of a serious, dull and boring preist but rather that of a lively, friendly, jovial and at the same time a no-nonsense person. Fr.Pulickal was indeed all these rolled into one.

He first came to teach us English Grammar at the 6th Standard. Till then the way most Loyolites learnt grammar was to take the wren&martin one day before the exam and go through the usual chapters. How were we to know that the term "parsing" would make us study English Grammar more than physics and chemistry in the coming years!!! The real test was only going to come.

Usually any 8th standard student would say that the toughest subjects to learn were physics or maths. But at Loyola the 8th standard students feared only one subject. "History"!!!!!

Any senior Loyolite would give a wicked smile and say 'Wait till you come to the eighth standard and start learning history'. Me and my classmates learnt the meaning of that statement after Fr.Pulickal started teaching us. Though i was miserable when it came to getting marks in his paper I knew that the subject was being taught exactly the way it should be. He taught it in a very logical way and didnt believe that a student could never score 100/100 in a subject like History. But we knew that the final exam marks could spell history for us if we didnt clear this subject. Luckily all of us did with Sahasranaman Anand scoring the highest (If i am correct).

His history lessons save for the exams which came after that were a treat to be a part of. He encouraged students to think for themselves and gave his frank opinions on whatever part of history he used to teach us.He taught us to be happy and most importantly to laugh at ourselves. I remember the time when he collected the entire fine amount (for not talking in english) and treated the whole class to sipup from the canteen. Even now whenever i see kids buying sipup from the bakery shop I am reminded of Fr.Pulickal and the canteen at Loyola School. He had a vast array of knowledge on various topics right from the speeches of Alexander to the happenings of the second world war, Indian politics and the latest articles appearing in the Readers Digest.

When he taught us History during the 8th Standard he came to our class one day and announced that in our best interests we had to write sensible things in the exam paper. Otherwise, he said he would put up a list of all blunders we wrote in the exam paper on the notice board with the Title "Wisdoms from students of Loyola in the final exam". All of us laughed that day since we though that he was making a nice joke and that no teacher in any school had done that sort of thing.

But surprise surprise!!! after the final exams we had to face that very thing we dreaded. I remember all of us rushing to see whether our names had come up in that list. I felt lucky that day since my name was not there and there was much to laugh about reading other's blunders. Some of the blunders i remember are;

1. The battle of Plassey was fought at Panipat.

and courtsey Jiby I have two more

2. Rani Laxmi Bai had no male natural hair

3. The 1857 war was fought by British to get independence from India.

I would definitely like to get my hand on the rest of them. :-)

When we were to begin the first computer class at 8th standard by Mr. Sunil Prabhakar he came down to our class and told us that though he didnt know the "ABCD" of computers he expected all of us to get proficient in it since he believed that they were going to shape our future. His words certainly make a lot of sense now considering the fact that the majority of us work in this field.

He spent his last days at Calicut and those days were the days of decline of his health. His demise was mourned by many including the large family of Loyola School (teachers, students, non-teaching staff and many more).

He was the first to introduce us to the term "AMDG" literally transalating to 'For the greater glory of god'. It is the very term the Pope uses to end all his writings and the same term like Jiby said 'countless students of history under Fr.Mathew Pulickal used literally hoping for a miracle to happen so that they could pass their exams'. The only tribute that I could give right now to a man who taught us the importance of laughter and more importantly to laugh at ourselves.

AMDG

The BB Cup

2007-07-24T21:07:00.001-07:00

I was just reading Vineeth Krishnan's (ISC 2007 batch) blog on things that have changed in Loyola. And one thing which surely changed (for the worse unfortunately) and something which i had heard from many was the result of the Loyola Junior Basketball Tournament. The sport seems to be on a downhill as of now at Loyola School which once prided on having one of the best teams among the schools in the state.

Looks like my batch (1999 ISC) has been the last to see Loyola lifting the cup. The BB cup used to be one event (and the most famous) which bought all Loyolites together. I am not here to give an analysis of the various tournaments I had seen during my Loyola days. Those have already been beautifully penned down by Jiby in a really wonderful blog. My blog is just about a few memories which I have about this great spectacle at Loyola School.

Till the 4th standard our viewing of the basketball tournaments were confined to the steps near the school day stage. We just knew the side to which our team had to score the points and a loud cheer from our side would accompany each point being scored by our team heroes.

From 1986 to 1990 Loyola though not able to win every tournament had produced some great teams with one memorable one being the team of Andrew Danty Thomas . Danty (as we called him) was a superb athlete and an allrounder in almost every sport he played. But unfortunately when he headed the team we lost by a whisker at the finals. But i think all who knew him would admit that Danty was one of the best basketballers to have played for Loyola.I still remember seeing Danty at times ride his bicycle when coming by the school bus and let me tell you, i wonder whether I have seen someone ride a bike faster than that!!!!

But the best was yet to come.

The real involvement, thrill and ambience was experienced by our batch in the 5th Standard. Year:1991

It was the year , like Jiby said, which saw the emergence of two dream teams. One the American National team with all its NBA superstars (since the Olympics had allowed the entry of professional players into the national team) and the other our very own Loyola team spearheaded by Jayant, Tojo, Eapen and Randeep Hari.

It was almost as though the team just needed to make an appearance and everything was set for them. The basketballing prowess was at its peak in Loyola School. The finals saw a clash between Marthoma (if i am right?) and Loyola. Vinod (from Vipin's batch) started the cheering "Are you ready for the magic?"..and magic it was..for the next 1 hour one saw a display of basketball which was simply best described as outstanding. Tojo and Co ensured that the cup remained with Loyola for that year. Later in the school day speech i came to know that Eapen.T.Joseph had got a berth in the State team and Tojo had narrowly missed out on that.so much about the quality of that team

The next year the team was headed by the dynamic Vipin.K.Varkey and the team looked set to follow the footsteps of its predecessor. But then came the St.Joseph's team (facing accusations of fielding overaged players and among some who were supposed to have been at colleges) which showed why they were rated above the rest.

In the first match Loyola easily overcame the opponents ( I remember Deepak shooting a great 3 pointer in the beginning stages of the game) and at that time I am sure many would have felt that retaining the cup would be just a walk in the park for the team. But the finals proved otherwise. After 30 minutes all faces in the team and the crowd began to drop down. Frustration creeped in the faces of Vipin and Deepak. Few minuted after the first half Vipin scored a flurry of points through some amazing dribbling. But St.josephs was in mood to give up the trophy. They finally romped home deservingly and most of the Loyola team members were in tears. It was painful but one also had to understand that this team had to live up to the expectations set by a supremely talented 1991 team which in itself was a little far fetched from the beginning.

After the disappointing result in 1992, the next year saw a team which again featured an extremely talented player who was in the reserves in the 1991 team and who had made an appearnce for a few minutes in the tournament in the previous year. The late Vivek Rajendran

was rated highly by many. And one thing one could notice immediately when he took the field was his speed. The team comprised of the big 3: Vivek, Subin (the captain) and Vyasan. There was no St.Josephs team good enogh to stop our team this time. But the challenge came from the most unexpected quarters. "Christ Nagar". As ill luck wouold have it, Christ Nagar produced their best team ever at this year and the result of the finals again went against Loyola. At the day of the finals I just happened to pass by the junior basketball court and the team looked extremely confident at practice and gleefully took up suggestions from various excited Loyola students who believed that the trophy would come back to the school. But what happened at the finals was heartbreaking. And the fact that we were defeated by a team which till those years had been nowhere near contention for the title hurt us more.

The next year saw the strangest (I cant think of any other word at this moment to describe it) tournament of all . Rain for the first time destroyed any chances of hosting the first two days of the tournament and this was the most frustrating experience of all . I remember father Pulickal coming to class one day and telling that he saw the team practice and he didnt have any hopes this year either. These were not the exact words he used but then those words were the best when heard from him in his unimitable style uncensored :-)...

So the first day match was scheduled to be held at the indoor stadium at College of Engineering, Trivandrum. And then we being in the 8th standard had no chance of being taken there to see the match and remained in our classes :-(. I remember all of us being tense about the result and sighing a breath of relief when we knew that we had won the match. And this time too Loyola made it to the finals.

As a sign of some sort of Apocalypse the skies cleared up completely at the day of the finals. The team lead by Akhilesh and comprising of Bijoy, Vivek and Arun were welcomed by the usual raptous applause. None of them were big names or extremely gifted but as a team they were there to prove a point. And after 2 long (!!) years the cup was back in the shelves of loyola. It was not a very tough finals considering the fact that the margin of victory was huge but the Loyolites were ready to give anything for a victory that year..and when it came it was sweet :-) Since we won the cup after 2 years they had a sort of post match interview with Akhilesh. He said that the team wouldnt have cared even if they met a tougher team in the finals and many more things like that..I think he would have escaped with anything he said that day...

The subsequent tournaments saw our team narrowly losing to St.josephs team in 1996, then being beaten comprehensively in 1997 and then winning it in dramatic ctyle in 1998 thanks to some last minute heroics from Harish Haridas who shot some amazing 3 pointers and walked off coolly like it was just another normal day for him .

The 1997 finals saw a St.Josephs team comprehensively beating Loyola in the finals with rain interrupting most part of the match. However the best player award went to Fahim. I think that was not the best decision considering the fact that St.Jopseph's Rahul had played some brilliant basketball throughout the tournament and missed an award which deservedly should have gone to him.

Jiby has mentioned in his blog that the time from the release of the ball from his hand to the time it went inside the basket were the longest few seconds for the Loyolites during the 1998 finals . I will just tell one thing. After the basket was scored i just couldnt believe that Harish Haridas had the audacity to try a 3 pointer at that very crucial moment and then even manage to pull the rabbit out of the hat in scoring them!!! When that 3 pointer (and i think 2 more after that!!!) was scored we knew we would win the game. Those points scored were a hint of some good thing going t0 happen for the team. And fortunately we were proved right.

And that was it..Teams came after that but for me the most memorable tournaments were those from 1991 to 1996 (when Shenoy's team narrowly missed winning it). Recently i heard that Loyola had struggled to put up a team for the tournament!!! It seems that gone are the times when we only had to see whom Loyola would have had to face in the finals!!

At times like this it looks like retaining the BB cup is a distant dream. But we can always hope, can't we?

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!!!

2007-06-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well...I always like listening to and reading good speeches..Sometimes they inspire you..Sometimes they make you think and sometimes they provoke you to get different.. I found this speech simple, forecful, really sensible and up to the point. Hope you people enjoy reading this..And many thanks to Vishnu for sending me this by mail..:-)..

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
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I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
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