Rendu - doubly disappointing

Nothing to write about the movie - such a bore. It was very disappointing that it has come from Sundar C and especially Madhavan. Even Vadivelu & Santhanam's comedy isn't anywhere near what they can really do. It just deprived us of some sleep. But, in hindsight, I would have anyway kept myself awake and watched the yet another embarrasing loss to South Africa. In that way, I am sort of happy that I didn't watch the loss, but don't ask me about rendu too - intha padathukku website onnu thaan kaedu.

Sivappathigaaram - yethaavadhu seyyanum saar

Starts like naattupurapaatu and ends with a very good message, but the screenplay definitely lacks the vigour to make it racy. The opening village shots are very exciting and green which make you (atleast me) feel like being at those places sometime in life.

The voluntarily retired professor Ilango (Raghuvaran) comes and settles down in his native picturesque village along with his daughter Charulatha (Mamta). His best student Sathyamurthy (Vishal) also joins him as they both settle down to do some research on folk songs in the country side. Later we realize that they are against bad politicians/politics. Infact they go about killing them and the killings even postpone the elections in the state. The police eventually close in on them and Vishal has a good lengthy talk in the climax which seems to have valid points. A lot of people would have thought all these, but taking the next step isn't possible in reality and hence we can atleast see it on screen. On the other hand, its a bit deadening that some things only get worse in this society. The ending rightly says - Yethaavadhu seyyanum saar. But, who? where? when?

Needless to say, Raghuvaran has played his role to perfection with subtle smiles and dialogues. Vishal also gets better with every movie, but seems to imitate Vijai more often. Mamta looks good at times and not-so-good at times, but definitely, just a normal heroine in the movie and has nothing to do, except for two songs. There are many eye-pleasing natural village scenes as the movie moves slowly. There is also an unnecessary kuthu naattupura paatu, while the hero is introduced, with a damsel in very little clothes. Atrai thingal..., which is a superb pleasing song to hear has been videographed horribly indoors with a sexy theme - a huge disappointment to those like me who were eager to see the song on screen. The comedy track is taken care by Ganja Karuppu and he hasn't let us down badly. Showing the blood in black when the politicians are murdered conveys the message clearly.

Karu. Palaniappan has definitely done a good job in opting for this message, but hasn't been great in dealing with it - be it the first half or the second. He has only bored the audience in trying to bring up the crux a bit late in the movie and when its in, he has missed the bus flight, as such should have been the speed of the movie.

Scribblings Unlimited

Yes, the name of this blog is changed from today. Thanks for all your overwhelming responses, but I have gone with the name that my heart and mind told me.

Plastic money

Yesterday's newspaper showed me that creditcardvictims.org existed and I was so eager to see whats in there and hence checked it when I got online later in the day. The tagline tells me that the website was a project of centre for social and economic justice. A credit card swallows you up, only if you are not judicious enough of you spending powers. There would be no need for such websites, if everyone can think and spend. The interest rates on your lavish spending cannot be termed injustice by any means.

Having a credit card does not mean that one can buy the world. He still has to keep it within his monetary powers. An adult should be mature enough to evaluate it and make sure that he spends only for what he wants. Man has become extremely greedy and is so much behind money and pleasures. With a credit card, he is not bothered to look at the price tag, if he decides to own something. When you swipe your card, at the back of your mind, it should ring that I should pay it by this month or the next maximum, depending on the credit days you are allowed. If you decide to keep paying the minimum amount due, its only going to make you MAD. I have told this to many of my friends to use a credit card sensibly and I hope they have understood what I wanted to mean.

There is no point in blaming the banks for the interest rates, after we spend exorbitantly. I understand that at times there are some false promises made by brokers when selling the card, but you can be wise and check with the bank for the right info. There are also times, when you get to face some billing problems and some overcharges in your statement, but with proper proof you should be able to come out of it as well.

If you think that you can't keep things under control with a credit card in the wallet, atleast be firm in your 'no' to the banks when you are offered a credit card. There is nothing wrong in not having a credit card. Only wth with love, "it's better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all", not with debts.

Change of name...

For the last 2 weeks or so, I have been contemplating a change of name to this blog. Probably because I am a bit bored with Happily Haphazard. While I am continuing to zero in on something, if there is anyone willing to help me, feel free to email your suggestions to goodganesh at yahoo/gmail dot com.

The world is not so diverse!

Munnaal Iraq athipar Saddam Hussain-kku thooku dhandanai!

America athipar George Bush-i kandithu Chennaiyil Thol. Thirumaavalavan thalaimaiyil aarppaattum.

I happened to see a poster today which had the above words and I couldn't stop this post.

Drama for dummies

I vaguely remember attending 1 or 2 SVe Shekar/Crazy Mohan dramas long back. I, somehow never got the chance to see dramas or rather, I never took the initiative to go and see dramas as much as I took for pethal movies. Thanks to Anandhi, I happened to be part of the audience at the Museum auditorium yesterday for the stage drama Lifeline: ICU-2 by dummies drama. Though it started about 15 minutes late, I definitely enjoyed the show. To me, all the actors were unknowns as I was completely new to stage dramas. Still, I thought most of them did a good job at keeping the audience enthralled for the one-and-a-half hours. I thought Dr. Sudharsan & the administrative officer Reddy really did a very good job, though an earlier review of the drama seems to disagree. The drama had the right mix of sentiment and comedy. Also, there was more than one message in it - the nobility of a doctor's profession (irony that I saw E just the previous day), unwanted political violence, lack of medical equipment amenities in our country and more social help from superstars.

Now, I look forward to attending such plays. Hopefully...

E - just short of Excellent

Online ticket booking again and a different disappointment this time. I booked tickets for row G and as I expected it was the seventh row from behind. But, to my shock, it was also the third row from the front and that's Studio-5 for you. Definitely, the audio effects and visuals were not as bad as I thought. Anyway, this movie was the closest to me in terms of seating.

Getting to the movie, I, personally, had a lot of expectation about E, due to Jeeva & director Jananathan. I started to develop a liking for the director from his first movie Iyarkai as it was completely realistic and it even won the national award. Again the director lives up to his reputation of showing reality in his movie, but for the last 20-30 minutes where he gets carried away by the latest graphic effects.

The hero is not a do-gooder like all heroes are. He is just an important character for the story and Jeeva excels in that role. The characterization is splendid that the hero does not turn good, for the sake of anything - even for his lover (played by Nayantara). Infact, he is not even too committed in his love. The scene where he casually says "yaarukku theriyum, nee kooda yengappana irukkalaam" sums up his character. Though a bit slow, the movie moves realistically as the ruffian hero leads his driveless life. He accidentally, saves the life of doctor Ramakrishnan (played by Ashish Vidyarthi) from Nellai Mani (played by Pasupathi) at the mortuary. The doctor thanks him and tells him that he could make a lot of money if he killed Mani. The hero is enticed by the offer and goes to get Mani who is in police custody. There he realizes that he is not a normal rowdy and decides to stay away doing his petty crimes. After a while, Mani dodges the police, but couldn't dodge their bullets and is severely wounded and falls in Jeeva's hands, who is delighted for the money he can make with Mani. Jeeva does not realize that its the doctor who is the criminal who tests banned medicines on the poor from the slum and makes a lot of money from alien hands. Jeeva develops a relationship with Mani and understands from him that the doctor has even used his grandma for the test. I feel, there is a deviation from reality here when Jeeva understands and turns over a new leaf. The movie has a very nice unexpected ending, but for the graphics. Not a great suspense, but I wish you watch it on the screen.

One could easily say that Jeeva is the most improved actor currently, be it acting or dance. Nayantara appears with more flesh in some scenes and with a nice slim structure at times. She has done her part well too, but doesn't fit into the slum as Jeeva does. Karunas plays a good friend to the hero with some comedy as well. I think, it's Pasupathi who is more important to the movie than Jeeva in a lot of aspects. The movie also has good camera, decent background scores and songs which are neither bad nor good. One refreshing thing is the absence of a duet. There is not a lot of negatives to talk about, but the utterance of a gross-word, not once, but twice could have been avoided. I don't understand why such words are muted in some movies and not in many others. Also there are no boring flashbacks even though there was good scope to insert one or two.

As said here, E is definitely a very bold attempt with a new concept and it makes us wonder about going to doctors for treatment. A completely fresh movie worth going to the cinemas to watch. Don't miss it.