Kataariveera Surasundaraangi!???

After a long long long time, I am writing. But after a long time went to a Kannada movie with my wife. Plagued last week with no tickets to Anna Bond, did not want to miss Kataariveera Surasundaraangi starring Uppi, Ambi and Ramya in 3D. Touted to be the first 3D movie in Kannada the story seemed not so interesting but just wanted to have some brainless fun from the Real Star and that was it.

After going to Cinepolis, BG Road and returning in vain, found the tickets for the 3D movie in Gopalan Cinemas on BG Road. For unknown reasons felt that place is overpriced, but after seeing that Fun charges 230 for a Kannada movie, decided this was better on my pockets. So there we were, me and Sups picking up our 3D glasses waiting for the show to start.

Plotted in heaven and earth, the movie has no semblance to real life. The story disappointment both of us a lot. Given the publicity, we did expect a lot out of the movie with veterans like Ambarish and Doddanna in lead roles. But except for a new-look pretty looking Ramya (a.k.a DivyaSpandana), our expectations were went down the drain, just like the water from the heavy rains outside :). The movie was supposed to do the same to sandalwood what Avatar did to Hollywood.

The better part of the day probably was the time we spent in SFO restaurant themed on San Fransisco Cable cars, and of course the ride back in near torrential rains. The weather has been a welcome change over the past week. Hope the rains are here to stay. Just before I close, the Cable Car restaurant served great food, probably worth another try. And yes, I did not get tickets to Anna Bond again, probably next week, or with another Upendra release that is expected soon.

Three Movies and a Changing Life!

Firstly apologies for not posting for long. Its been a while, but I still see consistent traffic to my blog. Thanks for the patronage. Life over the past three months have been a roller coaster and seriously have had very little space to both breathe and write. Today finally I am writing after commiting myself to ensure that I pen down my thoughts over a few happenings. I can attribute the delay in posting to date my ISP who still has not provided Internet service to my house! After one month of appliying. Talk of economic freedom, privatization etc…??? Once a govt. agency always a govt. agency. On the other hand, I am extremely impressed by the way our Energy Minister Shoba Karandlaje has gone about cleaning up the LPG mess in the state. Hats off to her, for taking action on illegal customers.

Firstly, life has been very dynamic. This might be too Siva-istic a dialogue from me. Quite a few from Great Lakes would agree, but yes it has been very dynamic over the past few months. Trying to find your dream job/ firm, not happenining in your city, make choices, meet someone, get things moving, the inherent delays everywhere including someone – whew! Life is full of stress. Meanwhile has been good to see Pavan and HM settle as Srichand, Tanny, Abhi in that same order are bound for the knot.

The past two plus months have also contributed my chunk to the kitty of the transport coporations and the oil corporations. With ever-increasing oil rates, not stopping me from traveling within Karnataka between the three cities of Shimoga, Mysore and Bangalore. Yeah, the only effect the hike has had on my options is now to check and wait for Etios Diesel which if they do not release by November, and would be going for a Beat Diesel. Trust me from my journeys i admire the beauty of the green forests of interior Karnataka and nature at its best. Damn the mining that was done in kemmangundi, Jairam Ramesh must have been made the environment minister long ago to get it stopped. Meanwhile the journeys are pleasent as well and I am shocked at the way Shimoga has been developed by Yedyurappa, whatever others claim he has done.

Out of boredom I have probably seen the most crappy movies of the recent times. Did not even stop at Salman Khan’s Ready. The last three weeks though have seen what I can claim as three solid ones for the year until Don 2 or another AK flick releases. And here are the three movies the latter two which I went in after declining an offer to watch Singham for free :).

– Delhi Belly – My thoughts – Utterly Vulgar and times disgusting. Still enjoyable. Thoughts wander why you need to pay money to hear someone using gaalis. Still it was fun, youth oriented and yes truly what happens in the modern world. Would probably rate each actor to have given a 100% performance, but the best performance of the three movies are in this one. Note it. Its Bold and its Funtastic.

– Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara – Kaash yeh movie na dekhne pade mujhe dobaara :(. The movie by the end of three hours was almost as long as its name is. For Gods sake I do not understand why all movies nowadays have three heroes or three characters. Even Delhi Belly had. Now even ZNMD??!!!*&*&* Well could not help on one more thing, the whole world ranted about Katrina Kaif and watch this movie for her! I would rather watch it for her Spanish friend ;). Well she was good looking in all her movies and in this as well. Well in all it was a light movie, but just too slow. If they tried to make a modern Dil Chahta Hai, this was not it. Good one, but not the best.

Harry Potter 7 Part II – And now the movie for which I had no one for company for 3 weeks!!!! Yeah, god knows if Lord Voldemort had eaten them all so that I could not watch HP7b in company of people who could understand the movie. People including Pri declined to watch the movie for the sole reason of not understanding it!!! My god, people read, read the books, stop watching the idiot box for sometime and then watch the movies. Things will fall into piece. And yes coming back to the movie, I finally got Tanny for company, poor chap had not seen even one HP movie and ended up seeing this without understanding it. The movie began where it left in 7a, with LV claiming the Elder Wand and ended as depicted in the book at Platform 9 3/4 in the majestic Kings Cross Station. Trust me this has been the best Harry Potter movie, but still did not feel great or on the top after seeing this. The effects were too good and it was nice to see the cast put up a great show for the last epic release of the series. Was fun to see the curses being stung across the screens, dementors being chased away, Gringotts being robbed, aah… Still I long for it, wish it was a 10 hour run :(.

Food

The next best thing after movies is food 🙂 Have shifted to my new house in JP Nagar and yes have had an amazing experience ever since. After Basavanagudi, was skeptical about food elsewhere, but Prasiddhi Hotel in JP Nagara is an awesome joint to eat. The food is extremely tasty and healty and well if I can quote, Oil less Dosa here tastes much better than Dwaraka or Vidyarthi Bahavana. So well Prasiddhi you get a 3.5* on a 5 from me.

Well alls not the same and I visited another hotel called Madras Cafe. Well food there sucked big time and probably that explains the rush in Prasiddhi and the emptyness here. Trust me the pongal/ Pulyogre that was being given as prasada in the temple opposite Madras Cafe was tastier than the food there.

Looking for a bright day tomorrow. No new movies slated for this week though Tanny invited me for some Tom Hanks flick at the Infy Mulitplex! No way for now…. May be next week or sometime mid week. Cheers.

Aare Yoouuu Readyyy???

All through the IPL, the stadiums used to reverberate with noises and the PA system announcing to the ever waiting audience – Aare youuu readdyyyy??? followed by a loud cheer! Today I decided to experience another encounter – watching the movie Ready starring Salman Khan and Asin. Wondered if I was really ready to bear such a movie on a weekend! Good Laugh, but little sense as I had seen the Kannada movie Raam starring Puneet Rajkumar which had the same storyline! My take on the movie – if you have had a bad day, just go sit in the movie and enjoy, otherwise, forget the movie, just stay home or go elsewhere and enjoy!

While I would say that watching Ready is not completely worthless, I would also like to mention that the movie has no takeaways apart from a break to the daily grind! Sallu and Asin are at their usual best. After Debaang, though much cannot be expected from this role Salman Khan, he has tried his best to make the role as lively as possible.

Paresh Rawal on the other hand, has done a decent job, but cannot stop going back to the Kananda version where Rangayana Raghu did great justice to the job. All said, still Paresh is the king of Hindi comedy after those Kader Khan days! Well if you intend to take a compelte break from your brain tomorrow, ready is a good movie to spend your money on, with you thinking of only three things – I, me and myself!!!

Pottered and Battered!

Well, this Sunday was truly a Potter evening! After the meeting with Mr. Sridhar, I headed for The Grand Sigma Mall, which is not so grand on Cunningham Road, and yes thanks to Dhana and Reshma, we had the ticket to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part I. An amazing movie, and I recall, that it is one of the two or three Harry Potter movies that actually brings back the aura of the book on the screen. Daniel Radcliffe at his best, probably mature acting with age and Emma Watson at super best!

Sad, that I could not watch the movie in 3-D, felt that some scenes like the snake – ‘Nagini’ gobbling up one of the Hogwart’s staff, would have been an amazing treat to watch in 3-D. The movie was kind of a word-to-word replica of the book unlike the other versions, and well the fight between Ron, Hermione and Harry has been really pictured very well.

Another plus for the movie is the locales, the Scottish highlands have been amazing. Recall my five day trip to that place and probably for a moment felt like going back there! The darkness is equally personified as well in the movie as Harry learns about the Deathly Hallows – the wand, the cloak and the pumice stone. Somehow, cannot wait for the last part of the series to be released and add it to my collection of modern day classics! As Harry Potter ends, now, I think I look forward to the next version of Narnia, soon.

But, all was not well, as I headed back to Manamai after meeting Thyagi and Rekha, got battered black and blue by the SETC bus run by the Tamil Nadu State Corp. Well, if that was just it, it would have been okay! Was bitten by a thousand bed bugs in the bus! I hope the transport corp. does understand that there is something called ‘customer service’ and ‘de-moth-er’. Almost took a vow not to travel in the SETC bus again, except for the reason that it drops very close by to my campus and is damn cheap.- KSRTC, I missed you today 😦

And yes, the sickness generated by the SETC travel, was nullified by the walk in the emptiness from Vengambakkam to the campus, in pitch dark conditions! Amazing… Was just left wondering – Hope I had a Wand 🙂

Sense and NonSense

Back to movie reviews – Just one line on Golmaal 3 – Its crap and utter nonsense if you see it!

Btw I am in the Bangalore Area (as Linked In calls it), was here to meet Mr. Sridhar Lolla, the amazing mentor that LIBA, Chennai have assigned us for their Espire event. He has been an amazing mentor all along and his inputs have been crucial in formulating our plan as well as vital to build upon further. Tomorrow, we have the final meeting with him, over lunch. Dunno where, but definitely somewhere in JP Nagar/ BSK side. Then on, I will be free, and will return back to my life in the Great Lakes campus.

Past two days have been tiring and entertaining as well. With Espire final rounds coming up (though we have not publicized of having got in there, except seeking help form our beloved Profs. and industry mentors), sort of it has pushed a lazy person like me, to move around and get things going as well. Over the weekend, apart form the meeting with Mr. Lolla, we have prepared, the FE’s, got promotional material printed (including phamplets) for our service, created videos for promos (thanks to iMovies)! and of course, Siva and Shruti starting the buzz on Social Media to get it moving further. Have been looking like a clown preparing presentations/ documents for submissions in Cafe Shops, buses and trains over the past two days!

In between my submissions and Bangalore, I decided to hop into Mysore as well (yeah my mom calls it hop-in as I never seem to stay for more than 10 hours in my own house!), visited an ailing uncle, visited all the oldies, visited my Engineering prof. and congratulated him on his Doctoral thesis getting approved, visited my alma-mater all in just under 7-8 hrs! Mom, of course as usual forced me to the temple constructed by the Royals at the Palace gate on the pretext of a Puja for my Birthday!

Meanwhile, Aj got tickets for Golmaal – 3 in our second home – The Skyline theater and headed there as well! Trust me I do not want to write more than this on that movie. The best dialogue was that ‘If people stay in a glass house, they change their dress in the basement!’ waaah….

Then on the fun started, me and Abhi hit the roads to Chamundi Hills, the place we used to visit during the Dussera festival every year. Not that we visit the temples there, its just the ride and the greenery of the city that pushes us to take those bike-rides to the top often. And yes, this time as well, on those amazingly tarred roads, we were back at the city center in about an hour and tasted ‘churumuri’ by the town hall and well the eternal – ‘Phalaamrutha’ ice cream in the heritage ‘Landsdowne building’.

As we headed back home through the Irwin Road and the Princess Road to my home in the northern part of the city, was thinking of the day, after the meeting tomorrow before I head back to Manamai! Just after the meeting tomorrow with Mr. Lolla and Binoy, I am heading to meet Dhana, Thyagi, Rekha, who just returned from Bradley Stoke, Reshma and Navya (as of now) and looks like a reunion that had to happen long ago! With loads of time to spend before I have the bus back to Kalpakkam, the plan as of now is to work on the presentation and well, with crossed fingers, wait and watch if Dhana can get tickets to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Then this will be a trip which definitely covered what all I missed over the last six months!

As I head back to watch my favorite shows on NDTV now (one thing that I am not able to do on campus!), will close the blog with snaps from today’s ride.

Mysore City from Ch Hills 1

Mysore City from Ch. Hills 2

The Town Hall - Mysore

The Clock Tower on Ashoka Road, near the main Palace

Aaptha Rakshaka

It had been a long time since I had given Rajeev Masand a run for his money! Yeah… I watch only two programs on CNN IBN, one The Week That Wasn’t – *ing Cyrus, Kunal, Kaneez and of course Now Showing *ing Rajeev Masand. Well, I was bound to write the reviews of almost each of the movies I watched and the whole of the last year I did that without fail. This year has been horrible… to the fullest. It started off with My Name is Khan… and now to add fuel to that fire, its Aaptharakshaka.

I went to Aaptharakshaka almost two months after its release. Every one I met, called it an amazing movie. Guys trust me, I rate this movie 3 on 5, just for Dr Vishnuvardhan’s acting. See this movie, only if you are watching for Dr Vishnu. Aj had told that this movie is not good, still dared to go to this with an upcoming sub-registrar in Mysore, of course, both of us coming out cursing ourselves and disappointed. The movie is very predictable and has bad graphics. Music is mediocre. The Naagavalli story is becoming too common. At least the director must change the plots. Again the story of Vishnu and Avinash solving the troubles of the family of two brothers wont work out.

Its a pity that I could not be positive about Dr Vishnu’s 200th and last movie, which gave me a headache. To compensate, I will and shall watch Naagarahaavu as many times as possible when I feel like doing it, to recall his acting in the bygone era… Long Live Vishnu, the grand old fellow Mysorean… in the hearts of all his fans….

My Name Is…..

I should have guessed its worth, when Abhi was able to get four tickets to the movie My Name is Khan(MNIK) starring Sharukh ‘My Name Is’ Khan and Kajol Devgun, without hassles. (Note that I have due respect for Ajay Devgn, the actor minus his latest crap flick All the Best!, when I use his name here.). The Hype, The Hoopla, The Aura against the movie was all a damp squib. I am seriously not going to believe any more reviews and well, if the promos and music are really worthy, I will watch the movie based on my instincts and then submit a personal review. So well, that means if my gut feeling says that the movie sucks, it does.

MNIK, is definitely only for SRK fans. The movie is as normal as it can be and probably introduces the Aspergers Syndrome into the Indian Market. Remember media tracking progerians and Dyslexians after Paa and TZP, I see the same thing happening after MNIK, provided Shiv Sena decides to play its activities down. SRK is at his emotional best in the movie, which I do not think is what I, as an audience will seek for nowadays or any previous day! I heard someone quote he has acted better than Chak De! Chuck it…. this is no match to Chak De! The theme of the movie is a big let down as well. All that is portrayed is the life of Asians in US after 9/11. Come on I am in India and I have been seeing such differences among people for ages and things are changing slowly, may be for good! But What does this movie have to convey??? That it might reach the Oscar finals for this year as it has a theme that will get the whole of the Americas and the Europe to the theater? That it has Fox as its distributor? Or that people are still suspected on the basis of their surnames? Give me a break the last reason has been used by several movies now and I am tired of it!

The movie hopefully brought an end to the Trilogy of terror related movies, like New York, Kurbaan and finally MNIK! Hope it ends. All three of them, made me think of getting out of the seat in the interval. But for the sake of reviewing I had to sit through till the end. MNIK, starts off slowly and has a few grasshoots. Shahrukh’s comical sense and his aura as a mature actor carries through the movie. But still the script is not that great. The US based locales too have become quite common nowadays and are not pleasant.

The movie, will definitely be a hit, given that it has SRK and of course, the fact that Shiva Sena opposed to it. Sainiks, I think you have made the movie a hit, by objecting to it. Honestly, if it had no controversy during release, in India, it would just have reached the froth of the sea of hits that may release in Bollywood this year.

So boring was this movie that, that Kite trailor which was played at the beginning was a pleasure to watch. Probably to show off that Kites and Rajneeti have a much more impressive storyline they had thier promos aired before the movie. Anyway its an okay work from KJo and well the magic of Shahrukh – Kajol pair I am really searching for where it is? I am seriously looking forward to know why almost all of the newspapers, CNN IBN (which I usually trust) over-rated this movie! Was it just to ensure that crowds reach the theater and ensure that Sena had a black face??? Hope that it is not and they have seen some positive.

My advice, watch this movie, if you are only a die hard Shahrukh fan. No 2, if you have enough money to shell out on a cheesy multiplex. No 3, from my side, for green shoots and Shahruks acting in a few scenes. No 4, its much better than Wolfman. But honestly if you are trying a regional flick against MNIK, go for the regional flick. See this on a weekday when the prices are less. The movie will be a hit and may even be a nomination to the Oscars from India, given the way the world thinks now, but for me of the releases in my memory till now, 3 Idiots is still the best.

To add to this, I had fever today and still went to the movie. I was probably having a temperature and had a constant running nose and irritating throat with a stiff neck! The postive was even Shahrukh looked like he had a stiff neck in the movie and it gave me the confidence that I can act as well ;).

Just Maath Maathalli….

After a break of over a month I hopped on to the theater to watch Kichcha Sudeep’s latest flick with ‘pakkadamane hudugi’, Ramya and established TV star Rajesh – Just Maath Maathalli. The movie is short and sweet and simply enjoyable. Before I go further, I feel its a must watch, just because its a pure entertainer and just flows without many hiccups.

The soothing music by namma Mysooru huduga Raghu Dixit is amazing, except for the fact that the Just Maath Maathalli jingle appears every few minutes in the movie which some may feel is crazy.

The movie for me, appears to be a mix of several stories, starting with Mungaru Male, where the hero does not get the heroine in the end (Is sudeep trying to prove that Rajesh is the new Diganth?). Sudeep was a rock star now led to depression in life (ala Rock On!). Sudeep and Ramya have scenes in the railway stations which look very familiar to the Jab We Met scenes. And finally the story being told over a flight from one person to another, which is already used in hundred’s of movies!

These does not mean that the movie is a flick! No way! Sudeep has really underscored that he can be thebest of both a director and an actor. A classy comic touch whenever required, witty narration, keep the movies rythm upbeat. The very fact that its just a two hour fifteen minute pure entertainer and wont drag on much like other movies, makes it score along with its pleasant ear friendly tracks.

Looks like searching for lost love, has become a common plot in most of the movies now a days. The directors need to think out of the box! But still, the movie rocks, as it is non-vulgar and the performance by Sudeep is way above the rest of the cast.

One clarification I still need from the JMM is team, is why the movie is called Just Maath Maathalli! Looks like the title has not many links to the story. Was it because the story was told in a flight over a casual talk? Was it because, Sudeep’s maathugalu led to lots of broken hearts? Was it because, the movies strength lies in its dialogue delivery? Not sure, may be I am not the best to answer these!

Of Cricket and Cinemas

It was probably the first time I was witnessing a match in a stadium yesterday. Aj, me and naveen dropped into the Gangothri cricket grounds in Mysore to witness the semi final clash between Punjab and Karnataka. It was a damp squib match and I walked out in another hour or so, but within the same campus, I crossed Ganesh (Mungaru Male fame), shooting for his file ‘Eno Onthara’. Here are some snaps of both the events.

Aal is Well

There could be no other better title for the review of the best movie I have so far seen this year. Of course this would be my last movie for this year as well. All is Well, as the jingle in the movie goes, it perfectly echoes with the track of the movie. It was definitely worth watching this movie the First Day First Show, of course, missing the 3rd idiot on our list (Sorry Abhi, we could not wait for the new year for u to come to Mysore).

The movie, touches the flaws in the Indian Education System pretty well and emphasises more on the necessity of value based education and innovation more than scoring based and rank based education. The movie starts off taking a dig at parents forcing children to do what they want, rather than supporting what the children aspired to do. It traverses through the miseries of end of the list-ers and the problems they face and the ragging in college, troubled by a cranky dean who runs around with a pegion and its eggs in the hand.

Meanwhile our hero, does all his maniac tricks, irritates the pegion handed fellow and still manages to top the college, ahead of a well portayed Madrasi titled – Chatur Ramalingam. However there is a twist in the tale, our hero – Aamir is impersonating someone in the college! Waah! Out to prove how sane our education system is and how secure it is, though not explicitly stated in the movie.

The heroine, if I may mention so, has a very short screenspace, may be one of the reasons for the movie to be a big hit ;). There are funny sequences typical to any Raju Hirani film and may tickle you to laughter every few minutes. Of course, there are emotional scenes about friendship and honesty as well. All in all, its an amazing package to watch out for and has every potential to be the blockbuster of the year not just because of the story, because of the new marketing strategies, the cast, the twists in the story and plain and simple screenplay. The movie stresses on the need of innovation in education and thought and is probably a must for every self-proclaimed educationist of the country. The movie also has amazing names for its character Viru Sahastrabuddi (VIRUS) – the nutty dean played by Boman Irani, Rancho (Ranchoddas Shyamaldas* Chanchad *Corrected) – Aamir khan, <something that I cannot remember, a very creepy name like Phunsuk Wangdu> – Aamir’s real name, Chatur – the mugpot of the class. The movie carries a few negatives as well, but they can easily be forgotten. There is a pregnancy in floods scene, which must have been a passing thought from the flop – ‘Tum Mile’, which was completely un-necessary and drags on a little bit.

I hope Mr Sibal, our current HRD minister will have a look at this amazing movie and re-think of the education system, the enterance exams etc etc…. They definitely need a re-think and honestly I am not using one tenth of what I learnt in my engineering in my stream of work!

I look forward for a sequel to this movie on the lines of the bad working system in India as well :). We work without innovations and crave to be – Chatur Ramalingams. One last statement, the movie only has slight resemblence to the orginial book, ‘the 5 point someone’, there is now way that its more than 5% of that book and thats the reason its turned out to be a masterpiece unlike the other book which turned out to be disconnected as soon as bollywood called to say ‘Hello!’.