Disclaimer : I am a devotee of Rajni (thats one step above a fan but one step below a fanatic) I have watched all Rajni movies several times and will end up watching this one (Enthiran) several times. I am also a movie buff and this review is written from the perspective of the buff.
Its admirable that Shankar has attempted something much bigger than whats ever been attempted in Indian Cinema and the output of this attempt is definitely a movie worth watching.
But ....... A problem I see with many who attempt something big is that they get tired before crossing the final mile, in the case of Endhiran , Shankars failing to cross the final mile lets the movie fail on so many grounds.
Let me start with the casting - Aishwarya Rai is only in the movie for eye candy and to help increase sales in north India. Asin would have been a much better fit for two reasons - She looks much more pretty and she can act. Lets face it Aishwarya has always been an horrible actress and when it comes to looks she is getting old.
Then the music department, except for in a couple of movies in all other movies that I can think of ARRs BGM scores are never as good as the songs.In Endhiran the BGM is simply noise at some parts. The songs are way below mark too. The movie could have done without a couple of them e.g. Khilimanjaro
Its safe to say Santhanam's role in the movie has nothing to do with comedy, not many comedy scenes in the movie and none of them really standout.
The editor slept at work and it clearly shows the movie is a big drag at 3 hrs and many of the scenes are totally unnecessary (Spoiler : Why the hell does Rajni have to talk with the Mosquitoes)
Finally the graphics , this is one place where Shankar absolutely failed to run the last mile. Some of the scenes are absolutely amazing. As good as Matrix or Terminator. But some of them are very childish. Spoiler : The Scene ROBO Rajni plays with the kid, the scene with the helicopters etc look so unrealistic that one wonders why Shankar even tries.
Rajni is as always amazing, Chitti the ROBO is wonderful and just because of Thailavar Sun pictures will make all the money they have invested. The graphics and the different story line make the movie a spectacle but frankly I miss Rajnis punch lines, the grand hero introduction , even if its a different movie we are Rajni fans and we expect him to be deified(or may be thats just me).
I am going to watch the movie again tomorrow and the day after but frankly I am very disappointed. May be only because my expectations were very high or may be because Shankars obsession with experiment something big and different prevents him from telling a compelling story.
--Badri--
P.S: In the movies defense , I watched the movie in UP with two north Indian friends who dint realize that Rajni is God, so the electrifying atmosphere in Chennai theatres that make Rajni movies an exhilarating experience was missing, In fact the crowd was so boring, that only 2-3(including me) people in the entire hall whistled during the movie.
Dabangg !!! - The best Salman movie ever, inspired by Rajni's Style, Hilarious from first scene to last , fast enough to hold audience attention, Salman Khan finally has one good movie in his kitty. Its a total time pass movie and definitely worth watching.
Note: If you don't like Masala Movies, you wont like this one.
Cheers,
--Badri--
Chicago the Movie:
Watched Chicago the movie yesterday, have been trying to see it for 2-3 yrs now but never got past the first fifteen minutes. Yday though I sat through the whole movie. Very well made I must say and great acting by Rene. But the movie is a peep into the dark side of humanity and the ill effects of Jazz and Drinks.
After I finished watching the movie I wrote this poem, I guess a side effect of the fights I saw in the movie.
The Row :
Will it ease your pain if I show
How much I am hurt because of this row
My fast heart beats and my numb legs
Can stand testimony along with my mind which for peace begs
But what good is it to know that we are both hurt
What do we achieve by finding who to whom was curt
Alas it wasnt meant to be and this is how it ends
May be the roads of life are meant to educate us with these bends
If we manage to maneuver out of this
Perhaps then again we can search for bliss
Now that we know our roads are headed different directions
It is time I guess to do the course corrections
Its easier for me to be the bad one and to take all the blame
Especially if it saves you some of the shame
I am a poet and a poet needs his pain
So I guess from all this fight the pain is my gain
Only because our destinations were different
At this crossing we had to become indifferent
That doesn't mean I cant wish you only the best
For the rest of your journey and all your quest.
Cheers,
--Badri--
While there are several theories such as Aura, Creative Visualization, Butterfly effect , Power of the mind that directly or indirectly state that the state of mind of a person can affect that of others around him.
Even if one doesn't believe in those theories and completely disregards the very ability of a mind to affect another, Its hard to reject real life scenarios where one sees for oneself that the state of others can affect him/her.
I have been noticing for a while now that when people shout near/around me, when they are angry and heated and yell for a while I start feeling weak, even shiver at times(even if the shouting doesn't involve me), I shout to hide my weakness or because I don't know how to respond.
Similarly, when people are very calm around me and sulking, I feel lazy , sleepy. When they are describing some problems with feelings, singing with great joy, reading verses of thiruvasagam often I feel like crying or tears trickle down my eyes, etc.
A more interesting observation is that as I grow older my threshold for shouting, loud noises is rapidly decreasing and I am starting to avoid huge functions, places with lot of crowd, loud pubs and starting to like more casual intellectual discussions(In school and college I preferred heated debates), mild music, silent places, parks etc . Is this because of thermodynamics ? Is this because of just the way we think/feel about these emotions? Or Have I become too soft a person suddenly.
--Badri--
This post is a continuation of my attempt to write a short story in 4 parts, the first part can be found here, if you read the first part and were waiting for the second part, sorry for the delay, between work pressure and football matches, couldn't find much time for Her ;-)
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The meeting on the bus was nothing close to what I planned. In my mind I walked into the bus, our eyes met, she got struck by my charm(I said in my mind) somehow I managed to strike up a conversation and I managed to invite her for a coffee.
What really happened is this, I boarded the bus, the over friendly driver insisted I was in the wrong bus and the bus route dint go anywhere close to where I stayed(The perils of being known), everyone in the bus was staring at me, I managed to silence the driver with some hushed words and took the only seat I got which was some 5 rows behind her.
I had to resort to plan B, it was risky because I hadnt planned it completely yet but I wanted to talk to her today. I got down at her bus stop, she noticed me and smiled, "so what brings you here, the driver was saying this is not where you stay" she said, perhaps she had guessed my intentions, after all I spent the last one hour in the bus watching her.
"Well I had to meet a friend, she lives around here" I used the cheap trick, you are at some place at 10pm to meet a "she" friend and you hope someone whom you have barely met is intrigued by it. She wasn't intrigued, if she was she hid it well with her "Oh ok".
"Btw Ruchira , about the project, I read the details, its very interesting, when do you want to discuss it, any time is fine with me, I even work weekends" I rushed through my long sentence, it was important that I let her know I was working the weekend and it was important I liked her project and yes it was important that I said her name.
"Oh but I am going out with my friends this weekend, we were planning to go the select city walk mall. Can we discuss the project on monday if you dont mind", she said with all sincerity and professionalism. Damn you gal cant you sense my emotions.
I took a deep breath , one last attempt , God pls pls pls "Oh ok I generally work weekends from the coffee place at Select city walk, If you are around and free , we can catch up there for a bit and get started on the project, can I have your number please, will call you if I am there".
By now I had already walked some 40 steps with her, perhaps she felt connected , she gave me her number and told me that it would be ok to catch up while she was waiting for her friends. I wished her good night, she wished me a pleasant evening with my friend and I watched her leave, it was painful, sad songs were playing in my mind and then suddenly Lionel Ritchie came to the rescue and sang Hello.
I picked up the phone and called her, A beautiful english song which I had heard before but couldnt recollect from where, was her caller tune, "Helloh...." she greeted and I forgot all that I was going to say, "hellllloh "she said again , stressing now on the l, I recovered, "hi this is badri just checking you number, sorry if I bothered, good night" . "Thats okkk Baddriii, is this your number" Thank you god, thank you she said my name in such sweet fashion and for the first time I liked my name, I did have a cool name. "oh ya it is, please feel free to reach me on this whenever u want to", "sure", "good night", "gooood nigggghhtttt" I dont know why her english words had more alphabets than mine but I liked it that way.
The next day morning was busy I had to assign work to my team in the morning staus updates, "So Navin what are you busy with" I asked still lost in thoughts of Ruchira but wanting to chug along at work, "Nothing much just the new project proposal, anything important I must look at". Nothing much, just the new project proposal, this guy was going to be the reason why I was going to get fired, the new project proposal was the only important thing my team was working on, "Hmm,,, I was wondering if you could help me with something, its for a competition, the lines go something like this "....." I need to get some details about the song, like OST where it appeared, the lyrics etc, you get the point" I asked in a bossy but help seeking way. "Who is the gal dude" he smirked , Now he gets smart, when I ask him about the proposal he is dumb god save my team, "no one important man just a friend" I said with a serious face trying to make him think it was really no one important. "Sure will bounce you the details ASAP" he said while leaving the room, he came back for a bit, smiled and said "All the best boss", I suddenly liked him now, I smiled, I had to remember to give him good ratings in the next appraisal what a nice kid.
I called the concierge kid, he was famous for being the babe magnet at work, "Shashank, can you please come to my cube for a sec , need some help". I asked him about select city walk, places of interest there, gifts to take for a gal whom you are meeting "casually for the first time", he was very helpful.
Navin replied with the data he had gathered about the song, It gave me a few ideas for a conversation. I called and made reservation at one of the best hotels in the mall. I ordered a bouquet of 3 red roses and a few roses of other colors, I was all set.Tomorrow was going to be a wonderful day...
Disclaimer : I call them Write-Ups, you can choose to call them Short stories if you want. But anyways the point is its been a long while since I wrote one that sounded ok and that was way back in 2005. The last one I wrote was incomplete and largely garbled but even that was 6 months ago. So I figured it was time to get over the writers block , so here is my "attempt" at another write-up. I plan to write this in four parts(Please bear with me :-)) and this is the first of those four parts
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Her - Part 1:
"No it will never work" that was the first thought that crossed my mind when I decided to approach her. She had just entered my office floor and was talking to some of my colleagues. I had never met her before. But something in me told me I had to go talk to her. But something else said "Look at her and look at you, she is so pretty , so good looking , forget it she is way above your league". But luck had different plans for us. She walked up to me and said "xxxxxxxxxxx". Well I couldnt hear what she was telling me, I was so overwhelmed by the fact that she approached me when I was planning to approach her that my mind went blank, well almost.
Her eyes dark and deep, her skin unblemished and pink and her glowing lips moving up and down to reveal her beautifully lined up white sparkling teeth flooded my mind with images of her. It was like my mind was a high speed camera taking tens of thousands of photographs. My eyes were so overworked that my other senses had to momentarily shutdown.
"Excuse me, are you Badri?" she interupted my photography session with by increasing her voice and by change of expression that made her eyes looks bigger. "Cute" I blurted out what my mind was thinking. "Whattt..." she reacted with a lot of emphasis on the t.
"I said true, ,meaning true I am Badri" I said trying to manage the situation. "Well I am Ruchira from the RND department and I was told you can help with a project I am working on, could you please let me know of a good time that we can meet up, I have a lot of questions to ask" she said adjusting a thin strand of hair which I thought was deliberately left in front of her ear so that she can push it back while talking to guys like me and make us notice her model like profile, anyways I wasnt complaining.
"Well, err... Hi Ruchira nice to meet you" I said extending my arm for a handshake. She extended a folded palm and shook hands like a Pomeranian dog would. Hah the soft palm, the smooth skin - My mind went into another blank. I shook her hand for what looked like 20 seconds when she pulled back her hand and said "Same here so when can we meet".
This was my chance, I had to say the right words and something good could happen, think Badri think ..... "Can you please give me your number I will call you back when I am free, I am kinda busy right now" I said quickly pressing windows key + D on my laptop to hide the freecell window. "Oh ok, my number is on the LDAP do give me a call when you are free, thanks" she said and smiled. I nodded, she thanked me again and left.
God bless the RND guys I said in a hushed tone and opened up the employee directory to search for her. Ruchira Sharma , born 21st Feb 1989, Marital status Single, Address : XXXXX , Ph. NO xxxxx. There were advantages of having admin access to some portals. You just could see more information than others could.
I saw that she took the office bus route 31 to go home. Of course I stayed 30kms in the other direction from her place but like so many other times before when I had met good looking gals, this time too my mind was telling me that she was the one and this was my chance. So I called the transport team and booked a seat on route 31 , her destination was today mine.
To be continued.....
--Badri--
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Cheers,
--Badri--
