Bells and Bullshit
Warning: ‘PG 13′ Rated. Contains brief references to nudity and sex.
Hell yeah, I am immured inside this village. My attempts to elope from this grain on the world map have failed. Inhibition tells me, I might have just lost the opportunity to remove the hefty thing over my head. Being optimistic hasn’t worked for 4 years, I have slowly started digesting the fact that it grew along with me and took 17 years to show symptoms of its strength. It had shown the blood lines of a paladin, not an immature teenager. I have come to terms with the fact that I haven’t been alone, it was a unanimous emotion among many and it was not chauvinistic.
No, I still haven’t contemplated suicide. I have given myself 5-6 years before I get married to a person of the opposite sex. My recent conversations with a few girlfriends gave me the key to the Pandora’s Box. After listening to them and giving it quite a thought, I told myself, if marriage is so metamorphosing for the female kind I won’t mind getting married to one. But when is the question? Well in the ocean of blogs on the internet, it can be difficult to find one focused on marriage that is not trying to play the role of being a matchmaker, aka MAMA. This post can be quite irritating if you have work to do or you were looking for hot profiles. If that’s the case you might want to check out on what we lived on, two years ago, Tamil Helmets.
10 PM, June 7th 2009, I am listening to this guy who is speculated to be born to an elephant and whose teeth resemble Nancy Kerrigan. Not to mention, his IQ is less than his shoe size, he talks about how he might get married to his love affair when he completes his masters. He is 19. Fuck my life (FML). When my cousin used to tell me that his colleagues/friends of his were getting married, I was like chalega yaar, 26 is not so bad. It is highly traumatizing nowadays after having seen five wedding invitations arrive at my inbox in a span of 30 days and to hear such morons talk about wedding bells and bullshit. Damn these, astrologers and the Tamil calendar. Well, I thought that the Child Marriage Restraint act was passed in 1929, it isn’t the case, women are getting married by 21-22. Men, thinking about getting married by 23 (average age when they complete their masters) probably are to be thala mughugified. They are para helmets who haven’t had sexual titillations for 23 long years and decide to embarrass themselves by plunging into tying the triple knot.
Suggested Solution: Bajari – In strict terms lady in high street offering body rental service. (courtesy: tamilslang)
One can only blame the horrible tamil movies topping the BO. Phrases such asKalyanam pannikalama? or Evalo kozhandai pethukalam? have become mere pick up lines among the so called youth. This is what I noticed in the past 24 hours. I found a guy possessing a copy of the Kamasutra in his room. Being curious, I asked him if he used it as an asset in jerking off before the day’s work. He said, he made a guy three years younger to him, buy it, all to check out pictures and learn from it. There was complete silence for a minute. Sitting less than 2 meters away is the 19 year old brat who is reading a pdf article on How to kiss a woman? On questioning, I get to understand that he has to kiss his girl friend at least this time when get backs to a village in India. It’s been two years since they got together. FHL. I am just trying to understand what is wrong with these youth heroes from India. Like in every statement, there can be exceptions; don’t be intelligent enough to drop me a comment as to how SUPREME your maturity levels are. I have also carefully analyzed the guilt aspect among these kids. This is a killer, especially among the Brahmin youths in India.
Once upon a time, there lived a girl and a guy named Eve and Adam respectively. They were nearly at the ends of the globe. Adam pursued what he liked in his university. Eve, as an exchange student flew down and caught with Adam. A few months later Adam and Eve start to have a fling over each other. They speculate their relationship and date the last month before Eve left home. For some damn reason, Adam asked Eve if he could kiss her during a motion picture. Eve replied saying, probably this one time, do not let my boy friend know about this. It so happens on other days as well till she departs. I am not going to give you a packet of cigarettes for guessing the climax, like any Tamil movie, Eve and Adam went to bed the night before she left and they stopped before he made love to her. He stated reasons that he realized the mistake and wanted to get back to the original relationship he was sharing with her.
I can actually quote at least a dozen more real life stories to make my argument more strong about how immature people can be when it comes to love, marriage, affairs etc. etc. The facts lie on the table. Marriages which are arranged might actually work in favor of most helmets giving them the opportunity to press the RESET button and start all over again, except in this case, if it doesn’t work, you might want to write into Times of India relationships head, weekend edition. On the other hand, love marriages can get boring. As they say, how long can you see the same bitch? From 17 to 70? You at least save 10 years in the former case. But if it does work, you can call it the answer to all the karma you have ever done. We must understand the one bitter fact as suggested by my friend Sneha, girls are pleasure centric. On the other hand, guys are logic centric. A direct consequence is the ratio of the amount of girls who break up with guys and vice versa. To summarize, I quote one of the blogs suggested by hawkeyeview. Marriage, not only brings together just two individuals of different opinions and attitudes, but two lives and choices which are unique and complex, but such mergers and amalgamations have more impact on women than on men. Women find an internal and organizational takeover while men find external and financial takeover. Consequently, change is inevitable, but it is strongly influenced by beliefs, values and priorities. If you are able to relate to the statement completely, then it probably means you are ready to search for your life partner.
V-Day Syndrome
I have not understood why people fantasize the Valentines day? I think all helmets are of the opinion that if they propose to a girl on that very day (Feb 14th – it will remain the same, unless Dr.K feels he must change it to April 14th), the girl would say a ‘yes’. But I might be hypocritical in this view, I have always fantasized the V-Day.
Why? Well when I was schooling, it was the very day when these sms’s would start pouring in even without realizing that all the money-minded cellular service providers have levied each sms with a tax of 50p just because of the fact that they feel people will be sending in a lot of “I trulllly maadly loouv u ya”. But in a way the service providers in Chennai did make a marginal profit.
Yes, they were surprised. All these boys and girls started sending pixelated Titanic’s with a message at the end saying, hope you find a date.
Poor helmets like me used to look at the only sms we recieved that day and call our friends (other helmets) to meet up at hot spots like the Ispahani Centre (6 yrs ago, now, no one cares a rat’s ass about it). Girls from MOP Vaishnav College used to flock along the Nungambakkam high road.
One set, would wait in the bus stop, take out their lip gloss and cueetee mirror (all in pink mind you) trying to attract the attention of helmets traveling in buses and share autos. If people do look at them by any chance, well their V Day is deemed to have been successful. They would sms all their friends (the next day mind you, we girls are Kanjam Pisnari, we keep exactly 1.50 rupees to make missed calls and text msging has always been free of cost) saying a guy asked them out and proposed right in the middle of the road, but they rejected it.
The second set, a notch above the first, would actually go out on a date. No offense, but hell yeah, after their 5 hour coffee at CCD (its the cool way of saying Cafe Coffee Day) they would jump into Paasha (a discotheque) which is right down the road. Oh yeah, did I mention, guys in Chennai are usually the sitting ducks. Be it valentines day or not, the guy has to pay for the girl (unless he tags along with some friend who is a girl at the entrance alone). Stag entries are strictly not allowed. So after the party, the guy drops her back without realizing that he would be seeing her for the last time. It so turns out that be becomes a Helmet the next day. Any kind of evidence that the girl has been out with the guy is removed. She becomes a clean (Brahmin) girl.
The third set, you might have never heard of it. They form the Helmet community among girls. They say,
Two lives, two hearts joined together in friendship, united forever in LOVE.
They call each other as their respective valentine. They form a group. They partaay inside the house till they create MAYHEM (for parents). They take photos which very much look lesbian to the original helmets. They upload it on Orkut. Their Valentines day is made.
This was the kind of life which helmets like me went through 6 years ago. Well we used to have a hearty laugh seeing all this happen live right in front of the extreme gethu hangout, take one picture which would turn out ugly because, well we do look ugly. Our mirrors do tell us that.
Two years later it was different, my first valentines day at NUS. I made half boiled Pongal. My second year, I made Maggi Goreng with vegetables. My third year, I was busy arguing with Vicky Vichu on why I dint want to dance in Tarang and ate what Charanya had made for dinner (OC). My fourth valentines day, after having coming to NUS was pretty cool in certain aspects. No, there is no Cafe Coffee Day in Singapore. Where Ram Sena did go wrong was that they had plans of stopping V-Day from happening. This lead to the Loouuvv inside the youths to come out with a message.
The YOUTH speaking to IBNlive:
- This incident which has happened in Blore, its a threat to us, but its Valentine Day, thats the day we should enjoy.
- I am not scared at all, neither do I think any youngster of my age would be scared of it. Its a tradition. People have celebrating this since years and there will be no change as such, you know with regard to 2009 Valentines Day. It ll be just the same.
- We are a democratic country and all this happening here, I dont know what to say. If this is the way they are progressing, I dont know where we head too.
1. (Helmet) - “This is the only day I can get to see as many girls as possible at the same place, being a working day.” (Saturday is a jolly day is a holiday. Well TR was wrong, It is a working day in schools and most colleges, so do not comment on this thinking you are intellectually superior in this sense)
2. (Set 3 Helmet (G)) – “Whatever happens, all our parties are inside the house. Its a tradition, no one wants to even look at us and it will be the same with regards to 2009 Vday as well. Check out facebook tomorrow for the album, Sexxaaay time at Manjusss yaay!“
3. (Set 2 Helmet (G)) - “You just asked the wrong person. I have 17 arrear papers to clear and I am more worried about who is going to pay for my drinks tonight and drop me back home. Yaar, I have to tell my mom that I am going for sleepover, now who will agree to this lie? Stupid. Idiot. Naansense.”
What exactly happened in Singapore? All the hype about the Pink Chaddi campaign was Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V ‘ed in google talk and facebook. Well, being a helmet, I did not know that ordering a bocquet of flowers for a girl in India is the same, whether you do it on the 13th Feb or on Jan 31st 
. India being India, the florists switched off their mobile numbers and put a note on their website saying, all Items will be delivered but the status would change only after two days. Obvious question? What did I do next? Nothing I waited from morning till midnight (15 Feb hai) only to recieve a call from her saying she got it. It did happen, well she sounded as if the florist woke her up while she was sleeping. Not even 5 min over the phone, I was starring at myself on the phone screen (End Call). What a self kalaai my V-Day has become.
Wonder how it would have gone for my friends. Thala might have played cricket alone at the SRC Nets. Nagu might have tried hunting for an SEP chick near the DBS Atm in YIH with whom he can talk about how he was born in Chicago and brought up in Adelaide. Bobby might have probably bought a huge pink teddy bear which he can also hug along with his girl friend. Pasu, I have no doubts, he was the one who tore all the V-Day posters across the campus. Ask him he would say he was highly inspired by senior Ghaleej. USA, well he would have written a poem for his Tamil teacher. LP, might have probably written I love you on his basketball and smooched it. Madhu (cousin) would have probably enjoyed trying new recipies. Which one this time, MozhKozhambu? Rushi, probably was posing to an artist in Little India sketching him on a piece of cardboard. Anoj would have added a random figure on facebook, its not new, but well ..
Life just moves on for randumb people like us.
P.S. I am not a chauvinist.
Religious Fanaticism
Beyond the Obvious- Religion, an Anti-Human force
Love has been an ecumenical symbol spread across by every Religion in the demesne thus remaining. The ethic of reciprocity says, “What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others”. Void, since the meaning of love has reached a stage of ethical/moral bankruptcy. Rather, vendetta is the political source which circles the wagons around the term Religion. The fact that nearly all the charges laid against one religion by followers of another, apply in one way or another to every religion and religious activities is seldom recognized by those who point an accusing finger at practitioners of another religion.
Today, religion is being consciously transformed into an evil narcotic substance that would intoxicate and enslave people and make man hate man. Religious fanaticism, not considering factions within a religion was thus created with the sole purpose of persuasion and elimination of other lithographical beliefs. When Yugoslavia was dismembered, religious faith was rather an entasis ersatz to the concavity among the population which existed. A genocidal war against each other is what prevailed between a Muslim and two Christian communities which had a lot in common.
Kingdom of Hindutva
A more extreme form of fundamentalism is what fanaticism is all about. Hinduism holds that the Brahmins are high born and the others, low born. Hindutva is not a ploy that that was created by the BJP for mere electoral advantage. Religion proved to be a powerful tool in devising Brahminist domination. The few percent of the population comprising the elite Brahmin class were to forever lord themselves over the rest of the society. Hindutva needed the Hindu-Muslim conflict in order to divert the attention of the oppressed people to prevent them from uniting as landless peasants, workers or people deprived of their basic rights.
An attempt to get independence from the British Colonial rule led to the INC under the leadership of M.K Gandhi sought to Hindu-Muslim unity. It was because the roots of Hindutva ran through the Congress establishment that the Congress, especially since the agnostic Nehru, readily yielded to the politics of religion. The need to please the majority in parliamentary politics made such compromises essential.
Once a political party makes a deal with religious or nationalistic fanaticism, the forces of fanaticism begin to dominate. In various parts of India, these forces or activists have wreaked havoc to different degrees in Indian Politics. The list of major acts of violence resulting from caste conflicts, disputes based on language and nationality, and communal violence in the name of religion is long and ever growing.
The Ram Sena
A recent attempt has been made once again to talibanize India. A handful of hooligans, namely the Shri Ram Sena, barged into a bar in Mangalore, all to molest and misbehave with the young women present, and we have the political party trying to score brownie points. Around 20 to 25 activists belonging to Sri Ram Sena organization were responsible for this event, the cause being that the girls were behaving in an obscene manner and going against the Indian culture and tradition.
Rashtriya Hindu Sena president Pramod Muthalik, which is the parent body of Sri Rama Sena, was arrested in Belgaum. The arrest, however, was for an old case of inciting communal disharmony in Davangere (District in Central Karnataka). After having let off on a conditional bail, the self proclaiming, Indianized Obama, feels there is a need for a change in the country. He goes public with his plans of disrupting Valentines day in Bangalore and other cities in Karnataka. Well as you would have realised, its not indian culture. Lest did he realise that people from his own country which includes all the big names in Bollywood and popular actors from the south, including Golden Star Ganesh shot to fame by a debatable word called Love. I guess he felt they earnt enough using the term, probably he thought he deserves a chance and has gone against it. Has he forgotten that Rama and Sita are the protagonists in one of the most famous love stories of all time? Their organisation carries the name of “Rama” in them. How ironic? Dollars to Doughnuts, his grandmom taught him a different version of Ramayana.
I can only imagine if Ram Sena has planned something like an Agni Pariksha ( Fire Exam ) for every Ram’s Sita in the cities of Karanataka. Now you are in for a bad day, if you are caught in the net of Muthalik and his men. At the end of the day, Rama would remain as Sita’s toady even though there have been threats by the Ram Sena, the BARmy Army.
Stumbled!
FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.
BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.
FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.
PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.
RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.
CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.
DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.
PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.
BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.
PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.
LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons
Dasavatharam: Movie Review
Preface
I have been wanting to publish this post the day I watched it, 2nd day, night-show in Singapore. I apologize to the people I have been promising that I would post this way before. The reason is that I am still unsure of certain facts in the movie (especially the avatars linked to Vishnu Puranam) and hence I wanted to watch it again which also never happened even though I did purchase a ticket again. It is as if I can see Kamal only when he wants me too see him (pun intended). I have read atleast a thousand blogs about the magnum opus entertainer, I wouldn’t call ‘the proud owner of each of those blogs’ as a schadenfreude, since they fail to realize that they haven’t realized it yet which has been the case for many years now with respect to Kamalji’s movies.
I quote the creator himself,
“Unfortunately you will not get to see it or probably you will not realize it.”
I will try my best to explain why this certain parts of the movie are not up to the mark as well. The movie has been talked about ever since it was announced. The film, made with a budget of USD 35 million, was released on June 13, 2008.
Review
The screenplay in this particular Tamil cinema is sublime and the pace at which it is being portrayed is mind blowing. An example, all 10 characters played by Dr.Kamal are shown on screen within the first 20 minutes of the movie. Inane questions on whether Kamal is trying to show off his ego by acting in 10 roles and trying to put another of his grandstand plays in an attempt designed to make a strong impression is a ridiculous critic which has been framed by so called fans of commercial entertainers.
It certainly is not a masterpiece of Dr.Kamalhaasan, though the robustness of the script is freshly brewed for tamil cinema. A major reason why the movie is a big hit than any other Indian movies is because of one man, Asscar Ravi. He is also the reason why people are being made to understand this movie by making changes in the script by roping unwanted characters such as Aandal and Jasmine and packaging this in an unaesthetically commercial way unlike other RajKamal movies which turned out to have hollywood’ian’ scripts yet could not even get back the money which the producers invested. I hope that can fit in as an excuse for the acerbating Asin and mesmerising Mallika. Keeping all this in mind, my opinion is that it takes real talent to pen down a screenplay which fits chaos theory, bio warfare, ten roles and keeping the audience entertained all through the movie by fitting commercial nonsense. If anyone in the Tamil industry can do it, it can only be Kamal. All the roles are very well characterized, none being unfitting or totally out of scope for the movie. The versatility of Kamal can be seen in the ten different roles that he plays.
The story starts with a monologue on chaos theory, moves on to 12th century where Nambi tied to the Govindaraja statue is thrown into the sea marking the authorita of Shaivites, then to biowarfare in the US. The protagonist, Govind, tries to stop the bad guys from misusing a bio weapon, which was developed as a consequence of the September 11th attack on the twin towers. Due to certain sequences, the chase for the virus reaches Tamilnadu. Each character of kamal appears with a reason helping the story till the end, rather helping the cause for the apocalypse, Govind. The virus is exposed as Fletcher consumes it in the climax and when it looks like the full stop for all life forms, a tsunami strikes destroying the virus and the Vishnu statue is seen lying on the shore.
Why tsunami?
- 1. To destroy the Vial (Virus). It saves millions by killing thousands (NaCl concept).
Inference: An act of GOD?
- 2. Drowning the idol of Govindaraja seems to cause a tectonic disturbance, which results in a tsunami after 800 yrs. So, the story ends with the idol coming out of the sea.
Inference: Humans drive the destiny of this world; God is just a figment of the human imagination.
- 3. None of the above. The last part of the movie can be interpreted like any other commercial entertainer, the bad guys had to die!
If the whole story is thought with the chaos theory in mind, then the screenplay and the happenings will make you appreciate the effort and the talent, which has gone into the movie. Kamal has managed to provide an on-screen narrative which can be easily interpreted on a vedantic or rationalistic basis depending on one’s persuasion.
One of the blogs read,
Seen from a karmic/vedantic perspective, Rangaraja Nambi and Andal can be seen in Govindarajan and Kothai. Lord Govindaraja whose moola-vigraham was involved in their separation in an earlier birth brings them together. Although this interpretation can be discarded for an atheistic one which looks at how apparently random events bring about changes in so many parts of the world. Also, Fletcher trying to make away with the idol and dying of a horrible viral disease seems to imply that he is the reincarnation of ‘Kirumi kanda Chozhan’. Hence his involvement in Govind’s life and his death near Govindaraja Perumal whose moolavarhe threw into the sea! This resonates eerily with Rangaraja Nambi’s warning in the first sequence. Also the scene where an elephant wearing the saiva markings on its forehead flings the Utsava-vigraham of Govindraja Perumal is a beautiful play on the word ‘matham’ and an ironic replay of the 12th century act. Govind’s arrival on the scene is to prevent Perumal from hitting the ground/falling into the wrong hands. It is Kamal’s touch and not silly heroics. Even the punishment meted out to Nambi has a very Christian flavour to it (being hooked and hung). As the film ends we are shown the moola-vigraham of Lord Govindaraja, on whom Govind and Aandal rest their arms before ‘coming together’ in a conscious meaningful sense, which again leads to two interpretations.
When I thought the movie is over and started analyzing it, the last song, Ulaganayagane, where kamal dances in each of his roles is flashed on the screen with credits being displayed on the frame to the right. It looked really pathetic to see Fletcher dancing to that lousy number. Probably it was made compulsory by KS Ravikumar, having a commercial director is like having an extra hand to choke yourself when you have two other hands, one to eat and the other to, you know what. If this had been directed by Kamal, the movie would have ended with the scene where Asin wants Kamal to believe that God exists and Kamal says “Naan kadavul illanu sollala, irundha nala irukum nu solren”.
I started to ponder, how well this story could have been narrated but I couldn’t find an answer. Kamal had a restriction of commercial success to get the producer pump the money for him. If written as a novel, a lot of details can be added to make people understand what he has in his mind. I have to pity Kamal who’s thoughts are beyond what is understandable by our audience. We are kind of people who will praise the movie ‘Matrix’ though we don’t understand them but neglect good Indian cinema. Kamal was brilliant this time to sell his idea with the intelligent director who knows how to give hit movies compromising and convincing Kamal on certain things.
Other than Kamal, Asin has done a good job in her first role during the 12th century. Jayapradha looks voluptuous for her age during the dance number, well she s the KAM(al)-girl in this movie, something like the bond girl concept. M S Bhaskar is excellent as the translator; Mallika is stunning but could have better off as a heroine in a Himesh Reshimiya starrer. I dint like the Japanese girl tamil dialect, quite painful and embarrassing to even sit inside the theare in Singapore. I would rather give the songs composed by the cap man a 2/5.
I read in one of the blogs which reads,
It breaks all barriers of religion – a Hindu giving blood to a Muslim, a Christian trying to save a Hindu family and the humanitarian Govind trying to save great destruction.
I can now imagine why it is also a commercial success among the B&C crowd. Overall the movie was perfect, a good way to earn money for the bigger bait, Marudhanayagam. I am sure even Marmayogi is one of the money making movies, well I kind of guessed when Sriya has been roped for the same project. Another commercial film with a great script, all to gain a 150 Million USD for the big fish.
Critics
Q: Why bother showing a Tsunami sequence if you can’t completely do justice to it – especially when it has been done in films like Deep Impact (10 years ago) – and flood sequences (like Titanic – 11 years ago)! Those films had huge budgets but relatively speaking, so did this film! Many scenes in Titanic were filmed in a tank!?
Ans: By any chance, are you from a different part of the universe which does not know the conversion between the american dollar and indian rupee? Titanic had a budget of 250 million USD, and Dasa has around 150 Crores. For your information, Superman (1978), released 30 years ago had a budget of 165 million USD and Dasavatharam is the costliest Indian cinema released as of date. All that CG experts have been doing in india is trying to learn how the software used in Matrix works and copy the same stunts and it becomes a moderate hit after 10 years. Why? Ask Brian Jennings, he says they were unprepared. I quote Jennings,
I would say it was difficult but was not impossible. I only wish I had more time. That was the only problem I faced because the studios were slower. The talent is the same but they are not experienced enough to do such effects. So, it all depends on how you use the talent. Most of the visual effects of Dasavathaaram is done by the Indian crew in ten Chennai studios.
The CG in this film is actually one of the best KOLLYWOOD has witnessed and this film will be a benchmark towards getting us excellence in this field. So I would rate it ‘Good’. With so many of Kamal’s avathars in one frame, one will never find the difference between CG and reality. Especially in the hospital scene where we have 4 kamals in one scene, or the Car Chase or the climax fight, well I can just go on and on!!
Q: Make up?
Ans: Make up was very good and could have been better in a few places. I am probably guessing those scenes were shot last as the time in hand was pretty less. But credit has to be given to Kamal because recently I read that each character make up took around 6 hours and he had to fit into the role and change himself. I bow.
Q: Bullet cures Cancer? How?
Ans: I heard lots of people complaining about the illogical bullet removing the cancer, if that’s the only thing one could find fault in a three hour movie – then I think the movie is good in all standards. May be that could have been a slip in the script, could have been better explained if there was a funda behind it. But kamal comes up with an answer that he was inspired from what happened to MGR, a bullet striking MGR’s throat actually made him get a better voice and speak very well. Why not buy that? I would like to ask these pessimists what is a good movie according to their standards? If they think that heavy concepts like chaos theory and bio warfare should be handled only by the Steven Spielbergs of the world, I beg to tell them that only we can encourage good tamil cinema, charity should begin at home.
Q: No Story? Kamal not upto the mark?
Ans: I’d like to point out a few things in defense of Mr. Kamal Haasan. First of all, I’d like to state that I’m not a ’stupid’ fan that doesn’t possess any sort of cinematic knowledge. I’m an educated fan of Kamal and I take pride in the fact that I’m the harshest critic of Kamal Haasan, as I expect him to deliver the ‘best’ performance every single time. Hence the enormous hype for the film and inviting Jackie Chan for the audio release, etc. Personally, I think Kamal wouldn’t have enjoyed the idea of having Jackie Chan for the audio release for three reasons.
- It’s not needed. At least, in Tamilnadu it’s not needed because a film sells for Kamal’s name alone.
- Jackie Chan was reportedly paid around 5 crores, which is on par with the salary that Kamal got for the entire film. It’s utterly rubbish.
- The launch of audio CD was delayed only because Jackie Chan was not able to get a visa. Otherwise, they could have released it earlier and released the film earlier, like Kamal expected.
So, right from scratch, Kamal had to cope up with two big heads – KS Ravikumar and Asscar Ravi. In this case, you can’t expect Kamal to do a Mahanadhi, Hey Ram, Guna, or Virumaandi. Moreover, Kamal never publicized this movie as a classy one. At the end of the day, if the film goes on to become a huge box office success, it would justify everything. After all, that’s the output that is expected of a film like this. Not awards. For award winning performances and gripping storyline, we’ll have to wait for another movie which Kamal decides to direct himself.
(Source:AllthingsaboutKamalinfo Blog)
I have still not figured out the avatars linked with the Vishnu Puranam. I hope to watch the movie again soon and update the post.
Education in Singapore – An article for Times of India
1. Why did you choose to study in Singapore?
A promethean way of thinking is how I started to look at things from the age of fifteen. Choosing to study in Singapore was also one of my decisions, which was arguably the best option at my fingertips after I completed my 12th grade at the DAV Matric Hr.Sec. School, Chennai.
I was never fascinated about studying in one of the 239 colleges in Tamilnadu (July 2005), work for a year with IT giants and fly to the USA to complete my masters. I just hope it is an obsolete expression regarding education at present. The reason why one should pursue a bachelor’s degree, for e.g., an Electrical Engineering degree or why he should choose a bachelor of sciences in Physics is in oblivion. Being sentient about scoring well in examinations, a political apparat and personal ambitions lead me to fax my mark sheets late to the National University of Singapore. Now when I think about, what was my situation, a quote from the movie Matrix seems apt – “I do not see coincidence in any of the events, I see providence, I see purpose.”
Ergo, I am in Singapore, having successfully completed three years of my B.E. Electrical Engineering at the National University of Singapore and starting my final year in August.
2. What do you think are the major advantages / disadvantages?
A diversified conglomerate cosmopolitan, Singapore is an amalgam of the learning infrastructure existing in both worlds together with a feeling of at-homeness and a strong sense of community.
Being a vignette for education, healthy competition in academics between Chinese, Indians, Malaysians and students from other nationalities, easier student visa rules, better student hostels and several bursaries and scholarship opportunities are some of the major advantages of studying in Singapore. Also, major institutions around the world are to set up campuses or chapters in their South-East Asian mega-polis.
Government-funded institutions make it mandatory for foreign students to stay and work in Singapore for three/six years after graduation, a provision which denies he/she from pursuing a higher degree course in different parts of the world immediately after undergraduate studies even though he might have a degree plus job experience in hand after three/six years. Continuous fee hike, be it tuition fee or hostel fee or travel expenses within Singapore is another major disadvantage for students aspiring to study in Singapore. Recently, there is a hike in food prices too, due to the discontinuation of rice export from India.
I personally feel it is difficult for most of the middle or lower class Indian families to afford the education rates with the increase in Singapore Dollar rates from INR 25 to INR 32 within the span of three years and is increasing further. But, there is always a positive way of looking at things, most of these disadvantages can be made to work completely in your favour, all you need to do is make a choice.
3. How did you pick the university you’re studying in now?
Being in the best helps, it surely did in my case. DAV spoon fed ( pun intended ) its students by providing an opportunity for all to meet with the Admissions officer linked to the National University of Singapore, the place I study in. In a place which is critiqued about possesing the cream of the student population in Chennai (DAV), one would expect students to have stubborn ambitions. Interaction between classmates also lead me to know about other universities one could apply to. Basically getting to know stuff is quite a networking thing.
4. Overall …..?
Choice. The problem is choice. Once I made it I never thought of altering it but I am trying to justify as to why I made it. I hope when the dust settles, more number of students would aspire to study in Singapore!
