Sid's visit to my place 

Black - The Best

After a long wait I watched 'Black' yesterday. Instead of review, I would say that these are my thoughts on this phenomenal film in the history of Indian Cinema. 'Black' is one of its kinds and is a movie which we all can be proud of, when showcased to audience elsewhere in the world that movies like this are taken in India. Starting from the cast, the music, the direction, the screenplay, the cinematography, every single aspect of the movie was flawless.

Kudos to the director Bhansali, who has given this cathartic tale of a deaf, mute and a blind girl and her teacher who brings her light. He has got the best out of everyone. This film is a masterpiece, carved frame by frame. Firstly, the credit goes to the cast. Rani Mukherjee has done an awe inspiring performance as blind and deaf Michelle Mc Nally, who is in a world of unending darkness. The story begins with this girl praying to god, to get her teacher back. A teacher-magcian who made her, what she is. From the first scene of the film till the end of the movie, she has done a great job. Some of the scenes in which she really moved me were, the graduation speech where she talks about her achievements, the interview in the university, the one in which she goes mad after knowing that his teacher as been chained, the scene where she craves for a kiss, the way she walks almost in every single frame of the movie, she has proved her talents. Her voice suited very well for the narration.

Now talking Amitabh, the character Debraj, will always be in the minds of the people for years to come. I was never a big fan of Big B, because of the crappy roles he used to do lately, like the one in Boom , Kyon Ho gaya na and many other films which came out recently. But he has proved that he is a superstar with an action that’s out of the Bollywood world. As a tough teacher for a obstinate girl, as a old man suffering from Alzheimer's disease Bachan jsut rocks!. The back ground score was nicely done. It suited the movie very well.

All put together it’s a film of international standards that’s going to change the way, people see Indian cinema. A must watch film.

Baba Count Down Starts !!!

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The count down starts. The heat is picking up. Exactly one more month left for the release of one of the most awaited pictures of this year. I'm waiting with my fingers crossed like a million of other in TN and all over the world for the release and the results henceforth. Having disappointed personally with the music album, I'm hoping that the movie will not let me down like the last one from thalaivar. Yes I'm talking about Baba. Though the movie was so bad, I can never forget the environment surrounding the Detroit Livonia theater on August 15th 2002. I was surprised with the kind of support that thalaivar was having thousands and thousands of miles away. A guy had his name plate in the car registered to BABA. Some guys took aarathi when rajini came on the silver screen. I mean all these are usual in TN, but getting a chance to see that in US, was simpy amazing. But this time I dont know whether I can make it for the first show, because they don't release tamil films here in Indianapolis. Hopefully the first show should be on a weekend, so I could be there in Detroit for the first show. 31 more days.....Lets see

Modern Marvel -1

Just watching the history of Sears Tower on the Modern Marvels in History Channel. The facts behind one of the worlds tallest building which is located at chicago are mind blowing. When it was completed in 1973, it was the tallest building in the world. It was primarily built in response to the interior space requirements of Sears & Reobuck - the number one retailer in US. The building plan consists of nine 75 x 75 foot column-free squares at the base. Floor sizes are then reduced by eliminating 75 x 75 foot increments at varying levels as the tower rises. A system of double-deck express elevators provides effective vertical transportation, carrying passengers to either of two skylobbies where transfer to single local elevators serving individual floors occurs.
Some of the facts about Sears tower --

The Sears Tower covers two city blocks and has 101 acres (4.4 million square feet) of office and commerical space.

The roof rises a quarter of a mile -- 1, 454 feet (442 meters).

Its highest occupied floor is 1,431 feet above the ground.

The foundation and the floor slabs have some 2 million cubic feet of concrete -- enough to build an eight-lane highway five miles long.

The Tower has more than 16,000 bronze-tinted windows and 28 acres of black duranodic aluminum skin.

The 222,500-ton building is supported by 114 rock caissons. Each is securely socketed into the bedrock.

A 106-cab elevator system (including 16 double decker elevators) divides the Tower into three separate zones, with skylobbies in between.

whats in the bag...!!

Surya's Mayavi is all set to release this week, after a long delay. All these days I was thinking that Bala-the producer of the movie was caught up with some bad finance, but doesn't seem to be one after the record number of prints and the biggest ever Vinyl poster at koyembedu bus stop. Hopefully he should get back all this. The songs of the movie were out long before. Most of them fast numbers, repeated from telugu. Lets wait and watch !!!

Music - a Life saver

Bought a new Ipod mini yesterday. I was little hesitant before buying it. But now I'm happy that I finally took up a very good decision, it surely exceeded all my expectations without any doubt. The quality of the sound is different from the ordinary cd players. This is a personlised one from the Apple Store with a laser carving saying "music - life saver" along with my name. See the picures below.

I loaded some 50 songs yesterday, all Rehman songs (what do you expect from an ARR fanatic). Guess what was the first song that I listened in my Ipod - Its Vellaipookal from Kanathil Muthamittal, sung by the whizkid himself. My interest in music like many others of my age in Madras, started during early 90's when Rehman was at his peak. I still remember how I used to wait for evey sunday to watch the Superhit Muqabla and can never forget how much the Rehman songs dominated the countdown in those days. Oorvasi OOrvasi was in the number 1 spot for almost 4 months. From that day its never turning back, I became a big fan of him, listened to all his songs, watched all his interviews, even attended his concert in Detroit, which was the best, watching him perform live. Will need a seperate post to write about that, will do it some other time.




My Ipod - 1

My Ipod - 2 

My Ipod 

Chandramukhi - Song review

One of the most awaited movie of the year from kollywood is Chandramukhi. You know why its the most awaited, for one obvious reason, its superstar Rajinikanth's movie. A movie from him after a long hibernation. The movie is slated to be released on the tamil new year's and this is not a news to most of you. The songs of the movie released this weekend and I just want to write my views on the songs.

Music is by Vidyasagar and the album has 6 tracks. Its a good album, for a rajini movie, although I expected more from Vidyasagar. He had been giving out some real commercial numbers for the past two years taking out some recent films. One thing which is sure is that he has met rajini fans expectations, even if he had not, don't worry rajini's songs are always a hit.

My favorite song in the Album is the Athinthoam thinthari nanthoam. SPB makes the song so special that not only rajini fans but many other music lovers will surely love this song. SPB rocks! in this song, he has not gone even a little bit with his age. With the number of years and number of songs just accumulating in his bag, he is just getting great song by song. This song is one real example for it. He sounds so casual and I'm sure this song will go good with Rajini on screen. The thara thampata sequence here and there sounded so usual but that did not affect the song. The kids voice at the later part of the song has added a flavor to the song.

The next good song according to me is the konja neram konja neram song by madhu balakrishnan and Asha Bhonsle. Both of them had done a great job and justify that they are the right choice for the song with their melodious voice.

Next in the list is the Kokku Para para and Devuda Devuda. The Kokku para para song was started very nicely but slightly went out of the flow in the middle. I wouldn’t say it affected the song too much, but could had been better. The Devuda Devuda song is the intro song for the star. The starting music somewhat sounded like muthu intro song and the most part of the song were a repeat from his older songs. Most of the part sounded like Dhool and some older rajini songs.

Then comes the Anann-oda paattu. Two things I like about this song is Karthik's voice and the lyrics. Karthick has done a very good job. That guy is really a wonder. He has come a long way in a very short while and his voice proves how exactly he could make it. The last is the classical song in telugu. It had some good music but again in the name of commercial value it loses the track at some part.

All together a very good album for rajini fans, but surely not the best. For music lovers, it’s a decent album with the first three songs they can really watch out for..!!

A day in History that we all can cherish...

This is one special feeling for Indians all over the world. This is going be the seen all over this Formula 1 series. I can't wait till the Formula One comes to Indianapolis. I'm sure that a big crowd of support will catch the media's attention when he is in Indy.

"MELBOURNE, MARCH 6. Rival pit crews gawked. A television cameraman came running. An incredulous policeman muttered "unbelievable". Maybe even Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, after a shower in champagne, briefly peeked out of a window and wondered, "Hey I thought I won this race". Long after the official celebrations at the Australian Grand Prix, bedlam had come visiting pit lane and its cause was Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan.

Clinging to the mesh that separated the track from the pits, joyous faces mashed against the bars, a 200-hundred-odd raucous mob of Indian fans had come to claim their hero. They bellowed, chanted, offered him a beer can and a written proposal on a poster that shouted "Marry me". His wife Pavarna just smiled.

Karthikeyan was drained, his left foot was in agony for in every racing category the right foot uses the brake except here, but he signed, everything, ticket stubs, shirts, dollar notes, caps. He limped away into the paddock to rest as his wife, like some courier of celebration, ferried more flags, shirts, caps for him to autograph. An hour had passed since the race's completion, but the crowd would not disperse and then, like some messiah in yellow overalls, he returned to them again to a roar. "

never, so good before!!

When I had been to India last year, I was able to see a huge difference on the spending capacity of the people. With all the star hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, Cinama halls filled with people who did not care about how much they are paying. This really is good sign of the economy. With lot of IT companies and BPO coming up in the past 2 years, the pay scale of the whit collar guys have sky rocketed to never before numbers. For quite some time this sound economy has been hogging the news headlines about india, in the press all over the world. Here are some snippets from an article in India Today which will tell you how good the economy is.

1. Job seekers have never had it so good. The number of jobs on offer is likely to surge by almost 22 per cent this year as against 18 per cent in 2004.

2. According to the latest survey of salaries by Hewitt Associates, 2005 will see the best hikes in the past five years

3. India Inc is on a hiring spree. The IT and BPO sectors alone are estimated to hire 2,75,000 people in 2005, 30-35 per cent more than it did in 2004. Textile, the biggest turnaround story in Indian industry, will hire more than 2,00,000 workers this year.

4. BSE's Sensex crosses 6700 mark-its highest ever

5. consumption by Indians rises at the highest rate in 23 years

6. India's gross domestic product (value of all goods and services produced in the country in a year) grew by 7 per cent in the first half of 2004-5, on the back of a record 8.5 per cent growth in 2003-4

7. foreign investment in India in the year 2004 was highest in any single year

to read more goto India Today

The tidings continues, Good to hear all this.