பொம்மலாட்டம் - பார் அது ராஜா !
ஒரு சினிமா படத்தின் விமர்சனத்தை எதிலிருந்து ஆரம்பிப்தென்று தெரிய வில்லை. நான் பின்னணி இசையிலிருந்து ஆரம்பிக்கிறேன் . பின்னி இசை ஒரு படத்தை முன்னணியில் வைக்க வேண்டும். நெருப்பின் அருகே குளிர் காயும் வெப்பத்தை , இரவின் கறுப்பை , திசை தெரியாதை பயத்தை , வார்த்தைகள் இல்லாமல் இசையால் பார்ப்பவரின் மனதில் அந்த தாக்கத்தை ஏற்படுத்த வேண்டும். ஆனால் - பின்னணி இசை சேர்த்து நம்மை படத்தின் கருவிலிருந்து பிரித்து விட்டார் மாண்டி ( தேவதாஸ், sawariyaa படத்திற்கு பின்னணி சேர்த்தவர்) . மிகவும் நுட்பமாக சொல்ல பட்ட காட்சிகளை தலையில் சுத்தியல் போல அடித்து முடிந்த வரை , காட்சியன் தீவிரத்தை காலால் மிதித்து குப்பையில் , அவர் உபயோகித்த keyboard உடன் போட்டு விட்டார்.
அதுவும் பொம்மலாட்டம் மாதிரி கதையமைப்பை கொண்ட படங்களுக்கு - கதையை சுருக்க சொன்னால்- சில கொலைகள் நடந்து , சில கதை மாந்தர்களின் குணாதசியங்களை காட்சிகள் மூலம் விளக்கி சந்தேகங்களை தூவி , ஒரு காட்சி குவியலில் இறுதியில் யார் கொலையாளி என்பதை சொல்லு கிருறார் . யார் கொலைகளை செய்தார் என்பதை கண்டுபிடித்து விடாலாம் - ஆனால் என் கொலை செய்தார் என்பதை கைகளில் பத்து ராசி மோதிரம் போட்டாலும் கண்டு ப்டிகிக்க முடியாது.
நானா படேகரின் பார்வை , அவரின் ஹிந்தி உச்சரிப்பிற்க்கு நிழலகள் ரவி கொடுத்த டப்பிங்கை தாண்டி பிரகாசிக்கிறது.படத்தில் வரும் படத்தில் வரும் கதாநாயகியின் தேர்வு இறுதி காட்சியில் தான் புலபடுகிறது. ஒரு நமிதாவையோ, நயந்தாராவையோ போட்டு இருந்தால் நம்பும் படியாக இருந்திருகாது.ஒரு இயக்குனராக புகழில் குளித்தாலும், கலையை ரசித்தாலும் அதற்க்கான விலையை ரஞ்சிதாவின் கேரக்ட்டரில் தெரிகிறது.பொதுவாக இந்த மாதிரி thriller படங்களில் , கதையின் பிராதான பாத்திரத்தின் வாழ்க்கயில் சில கோனல்கள் இருக்கும் . இந்த படத்திலும், நானா படேக்கரின் பாத்திரத்திலும் அப்படியே!
படத்தில் எல்லா பாத்திரத்தின் மேலும் சந்தேக நிழலலை பிச்சுகிறார்- அர்ஜுன் பாத்திரம் , ஒரு CBI யாக இருந்தாலும் , அவரின் காதல் , அதற்க்கு நானா படேக்கரின் குறிக்கீடு, அதனால் அவர் இதயத்தில் தோன்றும் வன்மம் , எல்லாம் இந்த படதிற்க்கு ஒரு பலம் - காஜல் அகர்வாலின் பாத்திரதிற்க்கு பொருந்தாத உடையும் , வசனமும் மட்டும் தான் த்ருஷ்டி.ஏனோ இந்த படத்தை ஹமிழில் இயக்கி , இளையராஜாவை போட்டு பண்ணி இருந்தால் இன்னும் நன்றாக இருந்திருக்கும் என்பதை மட்டும் ஒதுக்க முடிய வில்லை .
மொதத்தில் , நல்ல படம் - பாரதி ராஜவின் பட்டறயிலிருந்து !
சுருக்கமாக - கிருஷ்ணவேனியில் பார்த்தும் இந்த படம் பிடித்து இருந்தது .
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Kizakku Pathippagam
கிழக்கு பதிப்பகம் ஒரு அருமையான யோசனையொன்றை செய்து இருக்கிறது. குறிப்பிட்ட சிலா புத்தங்களை இலவசமா சிலருக்கு அனுப்பி வைத்து அதை விமர்சனம் செய்ய சொல்லு கின்றனர். தங்களின் விமர்சனத்தை அவர்களின் இணைய தளத்தில் போட வேண்டும் . அவ்வளவு தான் .
நான் "heroes or villains - srilankan circa 2007' என்ற புத்தகத்தை எடுத்து கொண்டைன் . படித்த சில பக்கங்களில் தெரிந்தது - இது ஒரு வருடமாய் தலையங்கங்களின் குவியலனென்று. இதை படிக்க LTTE பற்றி சிறிது தெரிந்து இருக்க வேண்டும். என்னுடைய கிரங்கங்கள் நன்றாக இருந்தன . மருதன் (அருனனா?) LTTE parri எழுதிய புத்தகம் என்னிடம் சொல்லமால் என்னுடைய அலமாரியில் இருந்தது . அதை முதலில் படிக்க வேண்டும் போல !
நான் "heroes or villains - srilankan circa 2007' என்ற புத்தகத்தை எடுத்து கொண்டைன் . படித்த சில பக்கங்களில் தெரிந்தது - இது ஒரு வருடமாய் தலையங்கங்களின் குவியலனென்று. இதை படிக்க LTTE பற்றி சிறிது தெரிந்து இருக்க வேண்டும். என்னுடைய கிரங்கங்கள் நன்றாக இருந்தன . மருதன் (அருனனா?) LTTE parri எழுதிய புத்தகம் என்னிடம் சொல்லமால் என்னுடைய அலமாரியில் இருந்தது . அதை முதலில் படிக்க வேண்டும் போல !
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Liked Ghajini , didnt SDM !
Somehow ,somehow the oscar nominated Slum Dog..OST didnt find a place in my current play list . i have heard it once in music india online and was unimpressed. It was loud , noisy and never sticked in my memory . It lacked emotion or any background. I understand quite number of people liked it . Let me try couple of times , probably it may change .
On the other hand Ghajini impressed if not in totality , atleast with latoo , Beka , Kaise Mujhe ( esp instrumental) and guzaariSh . It had some emotional tone to it , somehow it reminded me my delhi days and i found some emotional attachment to it .
On the other hand Ghajini impressed if not in totality , atleast with latoo , Beka , Kaise Mujhe ( esp instrumental) and guzaariSh . It had some emotional tone to it , somehow it reminded me my delhi days and i found some emotional attachment to it .
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Ads ads hell !
I love Ads - but then the no of ads shown in a cricket match is a steep disregard for the game - this happens probably only in cricket, that too in INDIA .
If you see Tennis - there is an opportunity for 2 min ad for every 2 games , but they don't do it always - they show other tennis matches during it or something related to tennis.NEO , STAR , ESPN , please respect the game sir !
If you see Tennis - there is an opportunity for 2 min ad for every 2 games , but they don't do it always - they show other tennis matches during it or something related to tennis.NEO , STAR , ESPN , please respect the game sir !
Friday, October 24, 2008
Sundar C babu
Nope , Nope - This is not yet another long post . I feel this guy is quite impressive with his unique sounds . Esp his bGM for Vellithirai and Anjaathey are just superb !
When everybody breaks the skin of the drum for folk songs , he mixes vocal harmony in a clean way .
Hopefully he gets more chances to produce such stuff !
When everybody breaks the skin of the drum for folk songs , he mixes vocal harmony in a clean way .
Hopefully he gets more chances to produce such stuff !
Ananda Thandavam- Yes !
if somebody asks me if i like GV Prakash - my answer is , ' Im not sure , what movies has he composed ?'. Not that i haven't heared his songs , but somehow his songs don't stick beyond 1 month or so . Probably couple of songs in Kreedam is an exception , other than i haven't found a month-more attraction to his songs .
If you can forget the harris followed, Rehmanish guitar pieces in the second interlude, everything about kalil Aadum is splendid - Benny iss superb , and the unusual rythm joins him in making the song truly delightful.SHankar Mahadevan adds one more hit , previous being Hey baby from Aegan , and this one contrasting to it - 'Megam Pola' - starts with an uncomortable sound that translates to a hindustani kind of song - probably the singer is quite apt since he has composed and sung such a number in 'Breathless' .
Nithyashree , vinitra and shuba mudgaal croon in Kanaa KaaNgiraen - i havent heard of subha much , but her numbers in raincoat (hindi/Bengali) were quite delightful. The opening isn't impressive , but the energetic rythms and Nithyashree's solid singing makes it up - its intresting how many songs can be tuned for a marriage kind of situation ! Again why rehmanish's sitar !
Shreya's midas touch continues in this vidyasagar kind of song- Povinai and to an extent shreya resembled the chameleon singer CHinmayee .Charanam - exactly haunting as Vidyasagar ! WOW ! some strange reason , i don't like Naresh Iyer and pattu Poochi doesn't do anything to change it - kiddish voice , Karthik woulkd have done a good job for this song ! Not a bad song ,actually.
This leaves with the theme music - can't wait , im ready to visit the theater - did it have anything to inspire GVP to give such a nice score ?
Score - 40/50
If you can forget the harris followed, Rehmanish guitar pieces in the second interlude, everything about kalil Aadum is splendid - Benny iss superb , and the unusual rythm joins him in making the song truly delightful.SHankar Mahadevan adds one more hit , previous being Hey baby from Aegan , and this one contrasting to it - 'Megam Pola' - starts with an uncomortable sound that translates to a hindustani kind of song - probably the singer is quite apt since he has composed and sung such a number in 'Breathless' .
Nithyashree , vinitra and shuba mudgaal croon in Kanaa KaaNgiraen - i havent heard of subha much , but her numbers in raincoat (hindi/Bengali) were quite delightful. The opening isn't impressive , but the energetic rythms and Nithyashree's solid singing makes it up - its intresting how many songs can be tuned for a marriage kind of situation ! Again why rehmanish's sitar !
Shreya's midas touch continues in this vidyasagar kind of song- Povinai and to an extent shreya resembled the chameleon singer CHinmayee .Charanam - exactly haunting as Vidyasagar ! WOW ! some strange reason , i don't like Naresh Iyer and pattu Poochi doesn't do anything to change it - kiddish voice , Karthik woulkd have done a good job for this song ! Not a bad song ,actually.
This leaves with the theme music - can't wait , im ready to visit the theater - did it have anything to inspire GVP to give such a nice score ?
Score - 40/50
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Aegan - Not home food !
Raaja made me listen JAZZ through his spectrum of songs in 80s and it rejuvenated with Kurangu Kayil Maalai and rehman continued it with SIllinu Oru Kadhal . Yuvan suceed to a large extent in Hey Baby with Shankar fitting to a T , esp the change in pitch at the end and the 'Malikka I love you' part - APT !
Hey Saala has all singers that i don't care ( yeah including Naresh Iyer , a bit kiddish) and a music thats resembling Rehman , if you listen to New New song ,Taxi Taxi , but in the end is foot tapping .Odum varayil confused me with the Pallavi/anu pallavi offering dose of advise and my mind imagining Ajith literally singing it , but then nayantara(hopefully) takes over charanam with the female voice (Bele shinde- KR find in Chakravuyham) and the melody as soft as her skin ! yahoo yahoo does nothing to improve the situation the web leader , but didnt make me hit the forward button , atleast for today !
Kichu Kichu starts like a Imaan song , then revisits Billa's sleeze mood a bit and finally settles to a band of average to good music .Thinking again , the tune is actually raaja's 80s but made opaque by yuvan's Synth orchestration.
This is plastic music , pizza food , short lived- but you do eat pizza , because beneath the facade of health concerns the momentary joy you get in biting that cheese is indeed nice :)
Score - 37/50
Hey Saala has all singers that i don't care ( yeah including Naresh Iyer , a bit kiddish) and a music thats resembling Rehman , if you listen to New New song ,Taxi Taxi , but in the end is foot tapping .Odum varayil confused me with the Pallavi/anu pallavi offering dose of advise and my mind imagining Ajith literally singing it , but then nayantara(hopefully) takes over charanam with the female voice (Bele shinde- KR find in Chakravuyham) and the melody as soft as her skin ! yahoo yahoo does nothing to improve the situation the web leader , but didnt make me hit the forward button , atleast for today !
Kichu Kichu starts like a Imaan song , then revisits Billa's sleeze mood a bit and finally settles to a band of average to good music .Thinking again , the tune is actually raaja's 80s but made opaque by yuvan's Synth orchestration.
This is plastic music , pizza food , short lived- but you do eat pizza , because beneath the facade of health concerns the momentary joy you get in biting that cheese is indeed nice :)
Score - 37/50
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Identify which song ! (KR)
I was inspired by suresh's post where he had Interludes in his post and we had to identify the song.
He had doen it for raaja , im doing it for his first son. I didnt know how to use hipcast ( it was a paid service) , so have uploaded the interludes here .
Answers in few days ,if at all i get any answers :)
Comments will appear after answers are revealed !
He had doen it for raaja , im doing it for his first son. I didnt know how to use hipcast ( it was a paid service) , so have uploaded the interludes here .
Answers in few days ,if at all i get any answers :)
Comments will appear after answers are revealed !
Friday, October 03, 2008
Karthik Raaja
Karthik Raaja !
I think Suresh , Baradwaj , Karthik(itwofs) have written wonderful articles on their journey with Illayaraaja /ARR . I believe we have all ( ~25-30) would have grown with Raaja or ARR songs and hence definetly lot to write about ARR or Illayraaja .
For some reasons , i like Karthik raaja . May be , the very first time i heard that son of Illayraaja is composing , and beinga naive , emotional music listener at 14 , i wished Karthik Raaja deliver music that would push ARR to the bottom of charts , as at that time even a sneeze of ARR was becoming a hit . ( it is another story that i secretly enjoyed ARR music but put up a brave front before my friends that im a die haard fan of Raaja and that i don't hear ARR much ) . But Manikkam , Enakku Oru Magan Pirappan , Alexandar didn't do much ,except adding 5-6 songs to my likeable songs .
Then came Ullasam - it just blew me up and i started having some kind of unique liking to Karthik Raaja . It was not rehman , not Illayraaja , but a unique sound which i liked very much. Ullasam songs were a big hit and i went mad with that album , almost mentioning the name of album to everybody . Next started by search on dhinaa thanthi , dhina karan on the new films that come up and the music director for those films . I started searching *Raaja* in the names and it used to excite me to find a karthik raaja in the crew.
Another album which excited me was GRAHAN . The minute i heard in those hindi channels , i was just sucked to it . So much so , that after 8 years when i was working in delhi , i searched for Grahan soundtracks only to see a whimsical smile from the cassete shop owners . Till now , it remains one of my favourite albums that just remain hard wired in my mind . Esp kehte ke jisko , chum chum , Ye sochu ta
By then, yuvan gave a Aravindan , a good debut and i also started liking him (again hoping that he will push rehman down) . I started tracking each and every album of Karthik and Yuvan . At one phase i liked yuvan abit more , when he delievered Povellam Kettu paar , dheena and it just mingled with my college life so much .Yuvan dished out his career in his own way , his own hip hop, pop sounds that slowly became a big hit with Karthik .
Two albums which made my loyalties move to KR are Naam Iruvaar Namakku iruvar and kadhal Kadhaala . I was the first guy to buy Kadhala Kadhala in the saidapet cassete shop ( was in anna univ ) and just rushed back to hostel to listen to the sound tracks.Esp , Naam iruvar songs defined my freedom i got in my hostel days and my life just got interwined with it .
Karthik raaja made a couple of unforgettable outings like vaanchinaathan , which made me hate his music for aa short time . Again , when dumm dumm dumm , Ullam Kollai Poguthey came up , it was just candy -time for me .
It is difficult to say why you like a composer . You would ideally like to say ' i like songs and doesnt matter who the composer' , but somewhere the bias comes in !
Post-2001 , KR adopted an change in his compositions . He tried his best to maintain his original style at a time where even if you follow 30% of rehman's style , you are sure to find your numbers in the top 10 . Of course this resulted in KR giving scores which find a mention only in musicindiaonline . But i liked almost all of the scores that came after 2001 - atleast couple of numbers in each movie. My favorite songs of KR .Just hope that he gets good movies to score !
1. Indha Sirpinnai - Naam iruvar Namakku Iruvar
2. Konjum Manjal - Ullasam
3. Kehkte Jisko - Grahan
4.Kavithaigal Sollava - Ullam Kollai poguthey
5.Onnu rendu - Kudaikkul Mazhai
6.Oru Matram - Naalai
7.hei Unnidam- Chakravuyham
8.Kadhal VanOli - ALBUM
9.Sutrum Bhoombi - DUmm Dumm DUmm
10.Mein Cheese Badi - 16 December
11. Belli chandriudu - Hoo Anthiyaa HuHoo Anthiyaa
12.Oduthey Ooduthey - Ragasiyamai
13. EN Kadhali- Muruguga
14. Poo Vaithal - Kadhalai Kavurivukum Neram
I think Suresh , Baradwaj , Karthik(itwofs) have written wonderful articles on their journey with Illayaraaja /ARR . I believe we have all ( ~25-30) would have grown with Raaja or ARR songs and hence definetly lot to write about ARR or Illayraaja .
For some reasons , i like Karthik raaja . May be , the very first time i heard that son of Illayraaja is composing , and beinga naive , emotional music listener at 14 , i wished Karthik Raaja deliver music that would push ARR to the bottom of charts , as at that time even a sneeze of ARR was becoming a hit . ( it is another story that i secretly enjoyed ARR music but put up a brave front before my friends that im a die haard fan of Raaja and that i don't hear ARR much ) . But Manikkam , Enakku Oru Magan Pirappan , Alexandar didn't do much ,except adding 5-6 songs to my likeable songs .
Then came Ullasam - it just blew me up and i started having some kind of unique liking to Karthik Raaja . It was not rehman , not Illayraaja , but a unique sound which i liked very much. Ullasam songs were a big hit and i went mad with that album , almost mentioning the name of album to everybody . Next started by search on dhinaa thanthi , dhina karan on the new films that come up and the music director for those films . I started searching *Raaja* in the names and it used to excite me to find a karthik raaja in the crew.
Another album which excited me was GRAHAN . The minute i heard in those hindi channels , i was just sucked to it . So much so , that after 8 years when i was working in delhi , i searched for Grahan soundtracks only to see a whimsical smile from the cassete shop owners . Till now , it remains one of my favourite albums that just remain hard wired in my mind . Esp kehte ke jisko , chum chum , Ye sochu ta
By then, yuvan gave a Aravindan , a good debut and i also started liking him (again hoping that he will push rehman down) . I started tracking each and every album of Karthik and Yuvan . At one phase i liked yuvan abit more , when he delievered Povellam Kettu paar , dheena and it just mingled with my college life so much .Yuvan dished out his career in his own way , his own hip hop, pop sounds that slowly became a big hit with Karthik .
Two albums which made my loyalties move to KR are Naam Iruvaar Namakku iruvar and kadhal Kadhaala . I was the first guy to buy Kadhala Kadhala in the saidapet cassete shop ( was in anna univ ) and just rushed back to hostel to listen to the sound tracks.Esp , Naam iruvar songs defined my freedom i got in my hostel days and my life just got interwined with it .
Karthik raaja made a couple of unforgettable outings like vaanchinaathan , which made me hate his music for aa short time . Again , when dumm dumm dumm , Ullam Kollai Poguthey came up , it was just candy -time for me .
It is difficult to say why you like a composer . You would ideally like to say ' i like songs and doesnt matter who the composer' , but somewhere the bias comes in !
Post-2001 , KR adopted an change in his compositions . He tried his best to maintain his original style at a time where even if you follow 30% of rehman's style , you are sure to find your numbers in the top 10 . Of course this resulted in KR giving scores which find a mention only in musicindiaonline . But i liked almost all of the scores that came after 2001 - atleast couple of numbers in each movie. My favorite songs of KR .Just hope that he gets good movies to score !
1. Indha Sirpinnai - Naam iruvar Namakku Iruvar
2. Konjum Manjal - Ullasam
3. Kehkte Jisko - Grahan
4.Kavithaigal Sollava - Ullam Kollai poguthey
5.Onnu rendu - Kudaikkul Mazhai
6.Oru Matram - Naalai
7.hei Unnidam- Chakravuyham
8.Kadhal VanOli - ALBUM
9.Sutrum Bhoombi - DUmm Dumm DUmm
10.Mein Cheese Badi - 16 December
11. Belli chandriudu - Hoo Anthiyaa HuHoo Anthiyaa
12.Oduthey Ooduthey - Ragasiyamai
13. EN Kadhali- Muruguga
14. Poo Vaithal - Kadhalai Kavurivukum Neram
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Varnam Aayiram ( Music Review) - Nooru !
Distortion guitar distracts me sufficently in Adiye Kolluthae , inspite of the Harris jeyaraj's typical good-melody, gibberish words that coated , wrapped with sugary voices and Krish's singing and sufficently mature shruti Hassan.Sudha Raghunathan carries the baton from Bombay jayashree and continues the honey-moon with annal melae, with some throwback to the MS SUbhulakshmi's times , pleasantly done !Oh Shanthi Oh SHanthi might as well be with nerves of romantic folks ,with charan following his dad's legacy , only i hate that oh shanthi oh shanthi humming.
Naresh Iyer delivers well in Mundhinam , with surya's voice as a prelude will go well with people who liked muthal Naal onru (unnale Unnale) , but not with me , though i like this more than the unnale unnale song. Harris gave a great number with Hariharan in Mungil kaadukalae , but the minute i heard the prelude, it brought me down , but again lifted me with MSV kind of tune . Well done ! AA h the same Oh SHanthi , Oh SHanthi and yet i liked in this !
And of course you can forget being called as gay and kiss the hands of the guitarist . Splendid stuff !
Harris's genes are quite evident in Aethi aethi , sufficently energetic , the same feeling i had when i heard Oh maama maama in Minnale , esp the naan raaj naan raaja is just cool man .A song where irrespective of where u are , gonna like it immensely.
Ava enna is OK , nothing to complain . Unfortunately i heard it after aethi aethi and so just felt it as OK. Gautam should recommend paying more to Harris !
42/50
Naresh Iyer delivers well in Mundhinam , with surya's voice as a prelude will go well with people who liked muthal Naal onru (unnale Unnale) , but not with me , though i like this more than the unnale unnale song. Harris gave a great number with Hariharan in Mungil kaadukalae , but the minute i heard the prelude, it brought me down , but again lifted me with MSV kind of tune . Well done ! AA h the same Oh SHanthi , Oh SHanthi and yet i liked in this !
And of course you can forget being called as gay and kiss the hands of the guitarist . Splendid stuff !
Harris's genes are quite evident in Aethi aethi , sufficently energetic , the same feeling i had when i heard Oh maama maama in Minnale , esp the naan raaj naan raaja is just cool man .A song where irrespective of where u are , gonna like it immensely.
Ava enna is OK , nothing to complain . Unfortunately i heard it after aethi aethi and so just felt it as OK. Gautam should recommend paying more to Harris !
42/50
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Saroja - Good Ride !
Saw Saroja this week end . Quite many reviews have mentioned that this is the dawn of new age cinema . I did'nt think so . Quite a number of movies , probably starting from Madras to pondicherry have come up in this genre. But given the quality drought we had this year , i believe that this is quite true, if you restrict the period to few years.
Like we associate social fantasy themes with shankar , there will be association made with venkat prabhu's film making . We are absolved of not seeing heroics , sugary romances, marathon dialogues, red-eyed villains in this movie - but then venkat prabhu does carry few things from chennai - 28 , like the portions where Premji's attempts to fall into love trap aptly guided by raaja's retro music . But then , this movie is a shathapthi , you don't feel bored. the minute you feel it drags an train-hostess comes to you with some food prepared by yuvan( aptly delivering hit songs) . But then , why do we have hollywood tailored background scores? Sure, it is interesting , different , apt , but as yuvan done it many times, he could have avoided this influence to an extent - especially the piano piece which has become the signature style in almost every hollywood movie when the screen shows images manifesting emotion.
This is the second ride i had this year - the first one is the magnum opus dasavatharam , where i had Kamal Hassan pulling me from my laid pack chair in my office to the theaters twice. Such a thing may not happen with Saroja , its good but not good enough to see it twice.Its not a string of comedy sequences but a string of events tied together with interesting knots(sprinkled with action, comedy ) that does keep you stuck in your seat and not visit the loo !
A caution for Premji amaran - people did see my 29 numbered tooth quite often during the movie , but i would assume that the mass laugh effect did do the trick. I would'nt have enjoyed this much in a home theater. And of course amazing photography and slick editing has become a defacto that you seldom mention it in your review.With most of the scenes shot with lightings that would challenge Maniratnam's past movies , you have to give lot of credit for the color correction and the photography.
Four guys , a dozen henchmen , couple of villains , 1 gal , 2 neutrals - happy to see a movie where the director is the reason for the people to come to theaters. Though the comedy scenes remind you of ch-28, the script is no way related to Venkat prabhu's previous outing . While ch-28 shrinks an year of incidents to 150 minutes, saroja shrinks the events in 2 days to 150 minutes window.
It will be interesting to see what Venkat Prabhu does in his third movie- if premji is cast again, im gonna keep off from the theaters.
Like we associate social fantasy themes with shankar , there will be association made with venkat prabhu's film making . We are absolved of not seeing heroics , sugary romances, marathon dialogues, red-eyed villains in this movie - but then venkat prabhu does carry few things from chennai - 28 , like the portions where Premji's attempts to fall into love trap aptly guided by raaja's retro music . But then , this movie is a shathapthi , you don't feel bored. the minute you feel it drags an train-hostess comes to you with some food prepared by yuvan( aptly delivering hit songs) . But then , why do we have hollywood tailored background scores? Sure, it is interesting , different , apt , but as yuvan done it many times, he could have avoided this influence to an extent - especially the piano piece which has become the signature style in almost every hollywood movie when the screen shows images manifesting emotion.
This is the second ride i had this year - the first one is the magnum opus dasavatharam , where i had Kamal Hassan pulling me from my laid pack chair in my office to the theaters twice. Such a thing may not happen with Saroja , its good but not good enough to see it twice.Its not a string of comedy sequences but a string of events tied together with interesting knots(sprinkled with action, comedy ) that does keep you stuck in your seat and not visit the loo !
A caution for Premji amaran - people did see my 29 numbered tooth quite often during the movie , but i would assume that the mass laugh effect did do the trick. I would'nt have enjoyed this much in a home theater. And of course amazing photography and slick editing has become a defacto that you seldom mention it in your review.With most of the scenes shot with lightings that would challenge Maniratnam's past movies , you have to give lot of credit for the color correction and the photography.
Four guys , a dozen henchmen , couple of villains , 1 gal , 2 neutrals - happy to see a movie where the director is the reason for the people to come to theaters. Though the comedy scenes remind you of ch-28, the script is no way related to Venkat prabhu's previous outing . While ch-28 shrinks an year of incidents to 150 minutes, saroja shrinks the events in 2 days to 150 minutes window.
It will be interesting to see what Venkat Prabhu does in his third movie- if premji is cast again, im gonna keep off from the theaters.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Top 10 songs in Tamizh
1. Ippave , Ippave (Raman Thediye Seethai)
2. mazhai Nindra ( Raman Thediya Seethai)
3. Vanathai ( Raman Thediye Seethai)
VS hand picks me and drags me to heaven. Amazing melodies, honey-soaked ones !
4. I Miss You da ( Sakarakatti)
If at all there is a composer who can create wonders with a relatively weak tune, its our ARR !
Just feel the orchestration !
5.Kanavilae ( Nepaali)
If im going to remember srikanth deva , it is going to be for this song. Aptly aided by the picturisation, chemistry of the bharath-meera and physics of meera !
6.Aei ..Unnidam (Chakrvuyham)
KR , my man never falters with haunting melodies !
7.ABhinayam Kattukindra (Uyilion Oosai)
I approached Uyilin oosai with some indifference( yeah man , MU KA script directed by unknown has to be a bad) , but was plesantly surprised by this number( and other carnatic numbers).
8. Kadhal Devathai ( Thoza)
Zingy orchestration by Premji ! Thankfully i saw the picturisation much later.
9.Mukunta Mukunta (Dasavatharam)
Himesh , at his best in tamizh .
10.Kananakku enna (Dhanam)
Yet another semi classic in the league of Kaatril varum geethame !
2. mazhai Nindra ( Raman Thediya Seethai)
3. Vanathai ( Raman Thediye Seethai)
VS hand picks me and drags me to heaven. Amazing melodies, honey-soaked ones !
4. I Miss You da ( Sakarakatti)
If at all there is a composer who can create wonders with a relatively weak tune, its our ARR !
Just feel the orchestration !
5.Kanavilae ( Nepaali)
If im going to remember srikanth deva , it is going to be for this song. Aptly aided by the picturisation, chemistry of the bharath-meera and physics of meera !
6.Aei ..Unnidam (Chakrvuyham)
KR , my man never falters with haunting melodies !
7.ABhinayam Kattukindra (Uyilion Oosai)
I approached Uyilin oosai with some indifference( yeah man , MU KA script directed by unknown has to be a bad) , but was plesantly surprised by this number( and other carnatic numbers).
8. Kadhal Devathai ( Thoza)
Zingy orchestration by Premji ! Thankfully i saw the picturisation much later.
9.Mukunta Mukunta (Dasavatharam)
Himesh , at his best in tamizh .
10.Kananakku enna (Dhanam)
Yet another semi classic in the league of Kaatril varum geethame !
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Delegation
Everybody knows what delegation is .Your delegate your work for many reasons varying from laziness to personal effectiveness. The output of delegation depends on the activity delegated, the preparation for delegation,the skill of the person delegated. By preparation i mean , the inputs you give to the delegated person , the context you establish for him to do the work.
Apart from these factors , i found few other factors affecting delegation. There will be some cases where you have to delegate the responsibility but you haven't done it for some reason. Esp if you are a pure project manager with less technological background) , this applies to you . Pure Project managers feel the insecurity to deal with colleagues who are sound techies. As a result , they tend to take up an activity which ideally would need some technical coordination. Half way through, they realize that they can't move an inch in that activity because there is so much dependency and experience in technical things required to complete an activity.This results in a claustrophobic environment where you feel trapped.
The better thing would be to delegate to a person who can do this . You can monitor the progress of the activity and provide inputs of what you expect out of this work.
Apart from these factors , i found few other factors affecting delegation. There will be some cases where you have to delegate the responsibility but you haven't done it for some reason. Esp if you are a pure project manager with less technological background) , this applies to you . Pure Project managers feel the insecurity to deal with colleagues who are sound techies. As a result , they tend to take up an activity which ideally would need some technical coordination. Half way through, they realize that they can't move an inch in that activity because there is so much dependency and experience in technical things required to complete an activity.This results in a claustrophobic environment where you feel trapped.
The better thing would be to delegate to a person who can do this . You can monitor the progress of the activity and provide inputs of what you expect out of this work.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Part of the Problem !
When i was in my early years of my IT job, there used to be a forward which was supposed to illustrate the difference between being a part of the problem and being a part of the solution. The story goes like this -> US and then USSR were in a race to invent a pen that would work even in zero gravity . USA used the latest techniques to invent an ink that worked, while USSR just used a pencil to write in space ! This was given as an example , where US was thinking about the problem and not the solution.
To put it bluntly, this example sucks big time. Not only is this example bad, but also is inappropriate. The above example at best could have been fit for lateral or concept-fan thinking , popularized by edward de bono. Concept-fan , because instead of asking ' Whats the ink that would work in a zero gravity?' , the russians asked ' what is that which would help me write in space '?
Being a part of problem , i believe is something else and i felt it quite recently. Recently it so happened that one of the servers that my Tech support manages was shut down without any prior notice. Due to this , we did lose couple of days as the App servers got corrupted. Now the problem is two-fold ,
1) How do i compensate for the days lost ?
2) How do i solve this problem in future ? Who can solve this ?
But the problem became multi-fold , when somehow , without my conscious effort my mind started pondering over other things . Im not the reason for the problem in the first place and im just supposed to solve the problem by assigning it to a competent fellow. But , what happened is this -> I approached the issue with a perception of ' Im responsible for everything and i made a mistake ' . As a result , all the interactions i had with the team members were tainted by this perception . I failed to think to solve the problem , but started thinking about how my supervisors would assess me . So apart from the original problem , my mind augumented it with its own , due to its desires, perceptions, fears , feelings , past impressions . In the end , the problem became bigger and i was part of the problem .
Plain stupid !
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Satyam - True expectations
I was never a big fan of Vishal , but never had a problem with his movies. His choice of scripts is impressive , he knows his boundaries and makes sure the scripts he chooses is within that . He never had a flop ( yeah , all of them made money ) , never had an opportunity to mouth over the top dialogues .
WHen he announced that he was doing a police man , i did chuckle a bit , but his six pack did shut my mouth a bit . I was sure that the mixture of technical crew and script wouldn't let his convictions down , but his vocal chord sometimes does. Hope he modifies and modulates his voice call to be frequently spoken about in FMs :))
Sathyam has nayantara , whose dress budget seem to spiral downward and a prem gi who doesnt disappoint. Songs by HJ had a lukewarm response, but i felt otherwise. And when a film booms , the songs too , with thords striking the right tone!
The pre-release hype has made sure that satyam's satyam release is House full 3 days before the release ! Let me wish vishal good luck - I don't want another vijay , ajith but somebody unique , atleast in choice of scripts.
The trailer does serve the purpose - its a commercial movie with some talking by muscles , be it Vishal or nayantara . It would be interesting if Upendra is given a role that commensurates with his salary !
WHen he announced that he was doing a police man , i did chuckle a bit , but his six pack did shut my mouth a bit . I was sure that the mixture of technical crew and script wouldn't let his convictions down , but his vocal chord sometimes does. Hope he modifies and modulates his voice call to be frequently spoken about in FMs :))
Sathyam has nayantara , whose dress budget seem to spiral downward and a prem gi who doesnt disappoint. Songs by HJ had a lukewarm response, but i felt otherwise. And when a film booms , the songs too , with thords striking the right tone!
The pre-release hype has made sure that satyam's satyam release is House full 3 days before the release ! Let me wish vishal good luck - I don't want another vijay , ajith but somebody unique , atleast in choice of scripts.
The trailer does serve the purpose - its a commercial movie with some talking by muscles , be it Vishal or nayantara . It would be interesting if Upendra is given a role that commensurates with his salary !
Monday, August 11, 2008
Most heard song in 2007
This is my most heard song of 2007 !
Could'nt hide my happiness when i hear this song. From a composer who idolizes ARR but gives a melody like IR ! Uninspiring movie , star cast, box office down the drain .
But this song is a gem - the singing , the melody , the second interlude ! WOW ! Why dont you give more like this , Mr. D. Immaan ! This will make "KANNADASAN" proud !
You can hear it here
Could'nt hide my happiness when i hear this song. From a composer who idolizes ARR but gives a melody like IR ! Uninspiring movie , star cast, box office down the drain .
But this song is a gem - the singing , the melody , the second interlude ! WOW ! Why dont you give more like this , Mr. D. Immaan ! This will make "KANNADASAN" proud !
You can hear it here
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Rajini - Boiling point !
Gjnani has literally lamblasted Rajini in today's issue of kumudam. I have love-hate relationship to Gjani's writings and a diffident relationship to rajini's views. Fans have reacted strongly here .I have read jnani's views and the reaction from fans . These are some of my view points . Both these reactions are due to the fact that you can't separate fact from feeling , opinion. These are my view points. All contrary view points.
1) It is true that rajini in some films, used to have scenes that gave an indication that he is trying to enter politics . Of course its the director who plans these , but not without a nod from rajini . But we never know whether rajini tried to enter politics and then changed his mind or if this is just a gimmic.
2) In the reaction from fans , they have questioned Gjani's mum over the glamor pictures appearing in AV and kumudam , while he opens his mouth a mile wide when it comes to the vulgarity in Rajini's movies . Probably a valid point .
3)In his post , gjani had questioned Rajini's integrity . If at all he genuinely feels to apologize , why now ? Because rajini has a 5 crore market in karnataka ? Makes sense.
4)At the same time, if you see this issue from rajini's perspective . He has done it so that the producers do not end up losing money for something which he did . This is also appealing ,but the perspectives are different from above.
5) Gjani's review of Kuselan looks Ok to me . He has stated his view of what should'nt be in the film. Whats the problem here ?
6) Gjani says that whenevr Rajini mad some comments on politics a film had released. I think this is very wrong ! Rajini said that JJ was dhairiya lakshmi - so which film released at that time.
6) Finally Gnani asks rajini to emulate amitabh - my request to rajini too!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Six Thinking Hats - u can wear it !
Im don't think i had that crush on reading books - it was never a palatable activity , except for the Kalki's ,sujatha's novels. All these changed when my visited my boss' house. He was almost conducting an orchestra of books and had an experience of ' Life on Mars'.
Among all the books , i consider edward de bono books to be excellent. It is indeed a apity that a book on creativity is written in a linear, boredom inviting way . But if you are used to his ways of writing (better read Das Kapital by Karl Marx), then you have a stuck gold, provided you use your eyes and brain simultaneously.
One important breakthrough in forms of thinking is Six Thinking Hats thats very popular in lot of corporates. Even INDIA team used it , albeit nothing happened . You can't expect INDIAN cricket team to hatch out of their shellso soon !
The essence of six thinking hats is to have parallel thinking . Contrary to the brainstorming sessions where ideas are fought out , this attempts to have parallel thinking . That is everybody participate with one perspective at a time. If you are thinking of ideas , then you think about through that perspective, not about the disadvantages of ideas. The whole team does the same.SO as the perspective changes you think through that perspective.
I found it difficult to use this , but the concept of parallel thinking is very important to shepherd the discussion. Setting an agenda alone ensures nothing.
You can read more about edward de bono here
Among all the books , i consider edward de bono books to be excellent. It is indeed a apity that a book on creativity is written in a linear, boredom inviting way . But if you are used to his ways of writing (better read Das Kapital by Karl Marx), then you have a stuck gold, provided you use your eyes and brain simultaneously.
One important breakthrough in forms of thinking is Six Thinking Hats thats very popular in lot of corporates. Even INDIA team used it , albeit nothing happened . You can't expect INDIAN cricket team to hatch out of their shellso soon !
The essence of six thinking hats is to have parallel thinking . Contrary to the brainstorming sessions where ideas are fought out , this attempts to have parallel thinking . That is everybody participate with one perspective at a time. If you are thinking of ideas , then you think about through that perspective, not about the disadvantages of ideas. The whole team does the same.SO as the perspective changes you think through that perspective.
I found it difficult to use this , but the concept of parallel thinking is very important to shepherd the discussion. Setting an agenda alone ensures nothing.
You can read more about edward de bono here
Music review : Raman thediya seethai - Almost an epic !
I listen to tamizh songs only from websites . My intention of buying CDs ended with my marriage .
But i have resolved to buy few CDs a year that is fully worth . The last CD i bought was mozhi.
Raman thediya seethai , though not as exuberant as Mozhi, does evoke lot of interest. Im not referring to Dj DJ song, the pig in the herd of sheep, although its interesting, if not in this movie. Raaja fans can evoke their nostaglia with enna pulla , with the composer crooning in place of raaja. VS ' marriage with Madhu continues beyond their honeymoon with Ippava Ippave with a ambient prelude and a timeless melody, interwined with superb orchestration.The same effect that mugam enna song had on me !
Kalyani never falters with VS , that too with a jatin lalitish prelude , Mazhai nindra gets it right in all ways . Nanba Nanba would ideally been true even if karthik had sung for VS, ample scope for his singing, except that its a short.Did they sing " Yezundhu nirkkum Yevu kanai?" - WOW !
Vanathai with zingy orchestration is cool and reminescent of manisharma's music. Vidyasagar did take me to heaven during the charanam.
I may buy the CD for this movie .
Score : 40/50
But i have resolved to buy few CDs a year that is fully worth . The last CD i bought was mozhi.
Raman thediya seethai , though not as exuberant as Mozhi, does evoke lot of interest. Im not referring to Dj DJ song, the pig in the herd of sheep, although its interesting, if not in this movie. Raaja fans can evoke their nostaglia with enna pulla , with the composer crooning in place of raaja. VS ' marriage with Madhu continues beyond their honeymoon with Ippava Ippave with a ambient prelude and a timeless melody, interwined with superb orchestration.The same effect that mugam enna song had on me !
Kalyani never falters with VS , that too with a jatin lalitish prelude , Mazhai nindra gets it right in all ways . Nanba Nanba would ideally been true even if karthik had sung for VS, ample scope for his singing, except that its a short.Did they sing " Yezundhu nirkkum Yevu kanai?" - WOW !
Vanathai with zingy orchestration is cool and reminescent of manisharma's music. Vidyasagar did take me to heaven during the charanam.
I may buy the CD for this movie .
Score : 40/50
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Music review Satyam: truly Not bad
I would'nt say the sound track is bad. After multiple listens the energy of Ada Gada ,mellifluous chellame ,ambient en anbe are impressive. Premji is indeed cool !
But hariharan's bad singing and a song like Paal papaali in a supposedly sleek movie does irk me a bit. Neverthless ,vishal is a clever guy , the papaali song would be sandwiched nicely.
Not sure why they have labelled this as harri's worst .This is Ok sound track to me , which gets better on multiple listening, of course you get used to the recipe of Harris jeyaraj.
Only complaint aaradi kaathe could have been sung by shankar Mahadevan.
Score : 29/50
But hariharan's bad singing and a song like Paal papaali in a supposedly sleek movie does irk me a bit. Neverthless ,vishal is a clever guy , the papaali song would be sandwiched nicely.
Not sure why they have labelled this as harri's worst .This is Ok sound track to me , which gets better on multiple listening, of course you get used to the recipe of Harris jeyaraj.
Only complaint aaradi kaathe could have been sung by shankar Mahadevan.
Score : 29/50
Mallepuvvu - The ramp goes up !
When i saw that Mallepuvvu had 9 songs , honestly i never got a 'high' feeling. I was more afraid of a composition of 2 melodies, 3 dappanguthus , 1 hero worship , 3 so so songs and passable theme .
Passable is wrong , the theme piece is indeed superb .The adjective finds a brother in the suvi suvi with effervesce orchestration and a parody " Bhava sings nice". The title song almost had 'timeless' passages , but it falls short of Niram pirithu experience , nevertheless its nice, if you can forget not so good synth that has become a signature these days in raaja's music.
Tippu singing in Raaja ,except for the "ithuvarai naan' number in some Z-grade movie never created any kind of enthusiasm to look forward. Thats further reiterated partially by the Lokam song , but raaja comes up with an ear- popping Hero Nonaechene , a song with subdued yet poppish orchestration - whatever it is , is a pleasant surprise .
Gajula and Chandamama, a song that would have been much much better had SPB sung brought my interest back the second time i heard , while Vasthava Naatho is melodious considering that Malathi had sung it , if you take into account the ear drum obliterator 'manmatha Rasa' :)
This leaves with Chirugali , a song that is totally belongs to the border of timeless classics .
First UO, dhanam and now this - this is certainly upward trend to an good extent , although still short of the timless classics he has produced. My last sentence is going to irk some sincere fans.
Score : 37/50
Passable is wrong , the theme piece is indeed superb .The adjective finds a brother in the suvi suvi with effervesce orchestration and a parody " Bhava sings nice". The title song almost had 'timeless' passages , but it falls short of Niram pirithu experience , nevertheless its nice, if you can forget not so good synth that has become a signature these days in raaja's music.
Tippu singing in Raaja ,except for the "ithuvarai naan' number in some Z-grade movie never created any kind of enthusiasm to look forward. Thats further reiterated partially by the Lokam song , but raaja comes up with an ear- popping Hero Nonaechene , a song with subdued yet poppish orchestration - whatever it is , is a pleasant surprise .
Gajula and Chandamama, a song that would have been much much better had SPB sung brought my interest back the second time i heard , while Vasthava Naatho is melodious considering that Malathi had sung it , if you take into account the ear drum obliterator 'manmatha Rasa' :)
This leaves with Chirugali , a song that is totally belongs to the border of timeless classics .
First UO, dhanam and now this - this is certainly upward trend to an good extent , although still short of the timless classics he has produced. My last sentence is going to irk some sincere fans.
Score : 37/50
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Neeya Naana -OK
I have been seeing Neeya Naana for quite sometime. It has been a puff of fresh air in the domain of debates in Tamizh channels.The discussions are shepherded well , people given sufficient space to express their opinions. Generally these sessions are organized well furcated into different points of discussions. Gopinath does well to start with particular view points of individuals to general causes /reasons- This is no easy task to do .
But i have a few scratches regarding the program.
1. Most of the times gopinath is too over powering that guys mostly talk to satisfy him, rather than talking about their view point.
2. Sometimes, gopinath launches a personal attack against individuals that sometimes it is irritating.
3. Since it is Neeya naana , guys siting at one end don't have the space to accept other view point. There is no environment for that .
If you want to decide on how to conduct discussions , read this out.
Ram Gopal Verma 's blog
Im not a fan of RGV ( Ram Gopal verma), his emotional tone never finds an artistic lover me . But yes , some of his movies did engage me .
More than the film maker , im impressed with his blog- candid , honest , frank , blunt - all meaning the same. Fans of Rajni , vijay -> have a look at this.
RGV ' blog
More than the film maker , im impressed with his blog- candid , honest , frank , blunt - all meaning the same. Fans of Rajni , vijay -> have a look at this.
RGV ' blog
Project Management - Rule No.3 - One at a time
Perhaps , quite rudimentary is this . But i see people ( yours truly ) go berserk when the number of tasks they need to finish follow an exponential equation ( and then comes down exponential) also .Most of the time i find that it is physically and mentally exhausting to a point that pranayama and 3 glasses of water techniques find an companion in trash bin.
Stephen Covey in his bible for personal effectiveness has a chapter dedicated to time management . Its wonderfully written with quantitative as well as qualitative analysis . Before you use the Edward De Bono's techniques to find out a way to manage time, it is essential that you read this book.
In essence, Covey says that you need to prioritise the tasks in four quadrants by classifying them as High/Low Urgent/Important activities. He says to focus on Very Important less urgent activities , so that you will get less "Very Urgent" activities. The missing link is to identify the external factors before hand that create the urgency.
This is a method. When you apply this technique or any other theory that helps you prioritise tasks , it is important to note that your stomach can't take a 29" inch pizza at one shot ( most of us can't) . We have to take up one activity at one time. Before you push this idea into the nonsense quadrant , let me add few things .
Taking up one activity one at a time doesn't mean that you finish one task then take up another . You will most probably end up having an egg in your face! It means that you complete a logical portion of the task, so that there is minimal dependency on you. You do a task and that is approved or reviewed by your supervisor / or you need to collect inputs from your subordinates , coordinate with other groups , process it , give them directions and track their outputs . This is bit abstract, but then the essence is that completion of a logical portion of your tasks is as important to negate working on different portions of different tasks at the same time . Else you will end up seening Mr.Rudran.
Stephen Covey in his bible for personal effectiveness has a chapter dedicated to time management . Its wonderfully written with quantitative as well as qualitative analysis . Before you use the Edward De Bono's techniques to find out a way to manage time, it is essential that you read this book.
In essence, Covey says that you need to prioritise the tasks in four quadrants by classifying them as High/Low Urgent/Important activities. He says to focus on Very Important less urgent activities , so that you will get less "Very Urgent" activities. The missing link is to identify the external factors before hand that create the urgency.
This is a method. When you apply this technique or any other theory that helps you prioritise tasks , it is important to note that your stomach can't take a 29" inch pizza at one shot ( most of us can't) . We have to take up one activity at one time. Before you push this idea into the nonsense quadrant , let me add few things .
Taking up one activity one at a time doesn't mean that you finish one task then take up another . You will most probably end up having an egg in your face! It means that you complete a logical portion of the task, so that there is minimal dependency on you. You do a task and that is approved or reviewed by your supervisor / or you need to collect inputs from your subordinates , coordinate with other groups , process it , give them directions and track their outputs . This is bit abstract, but then the essence is that completion of a logical portion of your tasks is as important to negate working on different portions of different tasks at the same time . Else you will end up seening Mr.Rudran.
Vidya sagar - dark lion ?
The post here led me thinking about vidya sagar .
Vidyasagar's first outing that made us turn back was Jaihind . Esp the bothai yeri pochu song was something exhilarating . He found an ally in arjun and the duo gave some songs that are 50-50 . He ventured into mallu in 1995/96 and almost got a state award every year there .
He re-entered tamizh through dhill and followed up with dhool ,sathurangam ,parthipan kanavu , mozhi ,ponniyan selvan, Alli thantha vanam , gilli , kuruvi,thendral etc . Almost all of these movies atleast has a gem of a song which i enjoyed throughly.
VS is almost a 2nd favourite to most people. Most people like him , but do not like him sufficently to be the no.1 favourite . Hie melodies make him teh heir of Illayaraaja , MSV kind of melodies , though both of them had contrasting styles to melody . VS was sufficently eclipsed by rehman in the 90s and by YSR, HJ post the millennium. For a along time i was not willing to accept the VS melodies were superb , fearing that i might dethrone raaja from my mind , but then everybody changes - i too changed. My current list of Top 10s of vidyasagar , with no emphasis on ranking.
1. Engae engae from sathurangam - If Karthik were an female , i would have kissed him. Jazzized Vidyasagar , the saxophone seem to be an entry to heaven !
2.Udayathaa venilla from PRiyam - My first tryst with romance was accompanied by this song . What a song !
3.Pongaatru from MR.Madras - SPB , VS make this song mix with your hemoglobin , literally !
4.Pinju Mazhai chaaral from Varnajaalam - Karthik , vidyasagar never go wrong . Guess VS pays Karthik more for him !
5.Pesae madanthayae from mozhi - I simply hate mozhi - but this song , with a peronal mini tragedy in my life found an instant healing touch , so much so that i hate to listen to this song now . Not many songs have made me cry apart from IR/MSV's , and this is definitely one of them.
6. Adi Thozhi and almost all songs from thendral - If azhagi songs moved my heart outside my body , the songs from thendral made me choke my heart , esp the thandava kone song ! Pity that thangar went to baradwaj , although it worked !
7.Kannale kannale from Alli thantha vanam - Superb ! Unni menon is fantastic .
8. SHalla SHalla from Gilli - Surprisngly i didnt like appadi podu at any point of time. The charanam of this song is mesmerising , although the picturisation was too cliched.
9. Oru thethi Paartha from K.Mappillai : This was vintage VS , really !
10.Mugam enna from sabash - One of the gems from ARjun - VS combo !!
Vidyasagar's first outing that made us turn back was Jaihind . Esp the bothai yeri pochu song was something exhilarating . He found an ally in arjun and the duo gave some songs that are 50-50 . He ventured into mallu in 1995/96 and almost got a state award every year there .
He re-entered tamizh through dhill and followed up with dhool ,sathurangam ,parthipan kanavu , mozhi ,ponniyan selvan, Alli thantha vanam , gilli , kuruvi,thendral etc . Almost all of these movies atleast has a gem of a song which i enjoyed throughly.
VS is almost a 2nd favourite to most people. Most people like him , but do not like him sufficently to be the no.1 favourite . Hie melodies make him teh heir of Illayaraaja , MSV kind of melodies , though both of them had contrasting styles to melody . VS was sufficently eclipsed by rehman in the 90s and by YSR, HJ post the millennium. For a along time i was not willing to accept the VS melodies were superb , fearing that i might dethrone raaja from my mind , but then everybody changes - i too changed. My current list of Top 10s of vidyasagar , with no emphasis on ranking.
1. Engae engae from sathurangam - If Karthik were an female , i would have kissed him. Jazzized Vidyasagar , the saxophone seem to be an entry to heaven !
2.Udayathaa venilla from PRiyam - My first tryst with romance was accompanied by this song . What a song !
3.Pongaatru from MR.Madras - SPB , VS make this song mix with your hemoglobin , literally !
4.Pinju Mazhai chaaral from Varnajaalam - Karthik , vidyasagar never go wrong . Guess VS pays Karthik more for him !
5.Pesae madanthayae from mozhi - I simply hate mozhi - but this song , with a peronal mini tragedy in my life found an instant healing touch , so much so that i hate to listen to this song now . Not many songs have made me cry apart from IR/MSV's , and this is definitely one of them.
6. Adi Thozhi and almost all songs from thendral - If azhagi songs moved my heart outside my body , the songs from thendral made me choke my heart , esp the thandava kone song ! Pity that thangar went to baradwaj , although it worked !
7.Kannale kannale from Alli thantha vanam - Superb ! Unni menon is fantastic .
8. SHalla SHalla from Gilli - Surprisngly i didnt like appadi podu at any point of time. The charanam of this song is mesmerising , although the picturisation was too cliched.
9. Oru thethi Paartha from K.Mappillai : This was vintage VS , really !
10.Mugam enna from sabash - One of the gems from ARjun - VS combo !!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Project management Rule No.2- Kill the innocence
Innocence is a nice thing. When we learn a technique , apply it in practice it injects some spirit into our nerves. Esp , if its a project management technique,tool it is very nice. We learn Microsoft Project tool , six thinking hats , Critical Path analysis and every other thing . I tried applying some of them and found it was exciting to use such techniques and manage a project.Life is so nice, if its linear.
But quite unfortunately, this forms just one part of management. The other part is to obliterate the innocence in you , act a bit skewed sometimes. We don't want to cheat , but you need to lie in an intelligent way to get things going. Understanding the motives of the people with whom you work is very much essential. Beyond a point , it is impossible to deal the corporate politics at manager's level without lying , without crossing the 'im- straight-goodie'barrier. But this needs to be controlled and balanced to a level that you don't miss out the essential thing - contribution is higher than your ego. To execute a project , you can project something 'more' to your senior management , but not to a level where your mirror is not willing to show you up.
But quite unfortunately, this forms just one part of management. The other part is to obliterate the innocence in you , act a bit skewed sometimes. We don't want to cheat , but you need to lie in an intelligent way to get things going. Understanding the motives of the people with whom you work is very much essential. Beyond a point , it is impossible to deal the corporate politics at manager's level without lying , without crossing the 'im- straight-goodie'barrier. But this needs to be controlled and balanced to a level that you don't miss out the essential thing - contribution is higher than your ego. To execute a project , you can project something 'more' to your senior management , but not to a level where your mirror is not willing to show you up.
Internet addiction
Have you ever been addicted to internet ? Im feeling slowly addicted, getting a sense of accomplishment and voidness . Need to restrain my usage and have a conscious usage of the internet. This is indeed a disease !
Dhanam Music Review
Dhanam is an interesting sound track. It has the usual ambient ,soft melodies typical of 80s, with some relatively zingy orchestration. It is still short of expectations, but considering that i expected a low profile sound track from this movie, im kind of happy.
Esp the song katilukku - if you compare a very similar song in 90s in kumbakonam Gopalu , the same song would have been fast forward now , its not so in this case. The orchestration quite similar to kanave kalai kirathe ( yuvan , azhagai irukirathu ...) and that makes it very different and enjoyable too. But raaja doesn't give the same treatment to ulagam kidakkuththu , a boring 90s raaja song.
Dhanam Dhanam , Kooththu onnu are more than passable songs , with bits and pieces of orchestration and rythm making it wholly entertaining.
Illamai Kanavugal ,unakkul irukinren , kannanukku enna - all of them have a neat melody, effervesce orchestration , archaic phaselets , raaja stamp at various levels , but overall it is nice.
Good thing that i never hit the >> button in my player once in this sound track ! But Raaja sir , please give more , we want to hit the << button often !!
Esp the song katilukku - if you compare a very similar song in 90s in kumbakonam Gopalu , the same song would have been fast forward now , its not so in this case. The orchestration quite similar to kanave kalai kirathe ( yuvan , azhagai irukirathu ...) and that makes it very different and enjoyable too. But raaja doesn't give the same treatment to ulagam kidakkuththu , a boring 90s raaja song.
Dhanam Dhanam , Kooththu onnu are more than passable songs , with bits and pieces of orchestration and rythm making it wholly entertaining.
Illamai Kanavugal ,unakkul irukinren , kannanukku enna - all of them have a neat melody, effervesce orchestration , archaic phaselets , raaja stamp at various levels , but overall it is nice.
Good thing that i never hit the >> button in my player once in this sound track ! But Raaja sir , please give more , we want to hit the << button often !!
Project Management Rule No.1
Starting today , im planning to have series of 'rules' blog , primarly from my experience. Karthik's blog i have become fan of brevity .
Project Management requires no Learning. To become a developer , you need to have your neurons soaked in Head First book juices , but to be a project manager you just need a pair of ass, a nice seat , paunch, expertise in microsoft word, lie,a small bald patch . Non sense !
Not only is this atrocious but completely illogical too. Having executed projects with no sense of quality process and projects following good process, i can say confidently that the day you start learning project management techniques,tools sun raises in the west - sorry , that won't happen. But you can control the project effectively , if you kick the ass of laziness that piggy backs with your archaic thoughts. There are some good books , but i will first recommend this book
Project Management requires no Learning. To become a developer , you need to have your neurons soaked in Head First book juices , but to be a project manager you just need a pair of ass, a nice seat , paunch, expertise in microsoft word, lie,a small bald patch . Non sense !
Not only is this atrocious but completely illogical too. Having executed projects with no sense of quality process and projects following good process, i can say confidently that the day you start learning project management techniques,tools sun raises in the west - sorry , that won't happen. But you can control the project effectively , if you kick the ass of laziness that piggy backs with your archaic thoughts. There are some good books , but i will first recommend this book
Raaja ki saagar
After a blast of carnatic songs in Uliyin oosai, raaja somes up with this amazing number. Raaja , enough of cinema , please do these stuff. Movies restrict you too much
Make g-a-y while the sun shines
There has been increasing outcry about rights of gays , lesbians, transgenders . Debates have been shifting the pendulum towards the rights of gays /lesbians , marriages and the work opportunities of transgenders . From this point i will refer to these people as Group GLT.
Vijay TV has gone ahead and has a program thats hosted by a transgender, who was abused socially, sexually and every other s- word you can think of . You can watch it below .
Most of us relish in writing blogs , winning discussions over rights of GLT ( Gay, lesbian, transgender), very similar to the grey haired folks coming in cnn-ibn . We feel nice when others acknowledge our broad mindness , write comments in blog ..whatever . But as RGV says , it matters when it happens to us . Go ahead , feel the situation , what would you do in these situations ?
1. You have a neighbor who is a gay . He lives with his gay friend . Nice guy , doesn't interfere in your line . After a month, your son starts to roam out with him . Everything seem to be OK . One day you see your son going to his house late in the night , albeit he says that he goes to play play station .
2. You have two sons and you are in a very comfortable position in your life. All that you touch in your professional life turns gold , peopel look upto you for inspiration . You discover that your son has a girlish tendency and starts having affinity towards girlish things , mingles only with girls . His hand gestures mirrors bharatnatyam dancers . He hates boys . He is 13 now and he starts feeling he is indeed a 'she' . What do you do ?
3. Your son is 25 . Very much a communist . You are ok with that , because your brain extends beyond your body to the artic poles . He is a software engineer and mingles with your family in a nice way . One fine afternoon , he drops a shell : he wants to marry a transgender.
If at all anybody answers , i will tell mine too :)
Vijay TV has gone ahead and has a program thats hosted by a transgender, who was abused socially, sexually and every other s- word you can think of . You can watch it below .
Most of us relish in writing blogs , winning discussions over rights of GLT ( Gay, lesbian, transgender), very similar to the grey haired folks coming in cnn-ibn . We feel nice when others acknowledge our broad mindness , write comments in blog ..whatever . But as RGV says , it matters when it happens to us . Go ahead , feel the situation , what would you do in these situations ?
1. You have a neighbor who is a gay . He lives with his gay friend . Nice guy , doesn't interfere in your line . After a month, your son starts to roam out with him . Everything seem to be OK . One day you see your son going to his house late in the night , albeit he says that he goes to play play station .
2. You have two sons and you are in a very comfortable position in your life. All that you touch in your professional life turns gold , peopel look upto you for inspiration . You discover that your son has a girlish tendency and starts having affinity towards girlish things , mingles only with girls . His hand gestures mirrors bharatnatyam dancers . He hates boys . He is 13 now and he starts feeling he is indeed a 'she' . What do you do ?
3. Your son is 25 . Very much a communist . You are ok with that , because your brain extends beyond your body to the artic poles . He is a software engineer and mingles with your family in a nice way . One fine afternoon , he drops a shell : he wants to marry a transgender.
If at all anybody answers , i will tell mine too :)
Rapport with folks
One of the frequent complaints or disgusts which I often discuss with my friends is the lack of trust of the immediate supervisor on us. The immediate supervisor has a huge role to play in anybody’s career- for he represents the company to us. We look up to him and especially if you are in your formative years of your IT, you would also expect him to guide you, encourage you, plan your career – no matter what your efforts are. The immediate supervisor also plays, sometimes a crucial role in getting things done, for his contacts and familiarity with the pillars of the organization may be quite more and is handy to ‘move’ things.
No Matter whats your role is in a project, the important thing in a project is that the team gels well and things are bit open – the team member should be able to reach to the Project leader and discuss his problems and the project leader should be able to discuss the mistakes, convey to the team member on why he has got a bad performance appraisal rating, or convey to the team on the need to work harder, even probably couple of night outs to finish the project. Im not saying that there need to be ‘shaking the heads always’ guys in a team. This is not obedience but an environment where people can discuss things and agree to take up not so comfortable things for the sake of the project.
Probably one of the familiar mistakes we make in a project and in personal relationships too is to expect this rapport right from Day one of the project. Rapport is something that would come never automatically in a team. Sometimes it never comes in a team even after a long time. Worse, rapport is not something you can plan consciously – execute steps from a book and develop the rapport. This has to come naturally. There are so many reasons why people don’t get along with – without going in depth into it, I can safely say that the reasons vary from factors such as religion, race, sex to priorities, first impressions, age, physical appearance ( yeah !!) even.
I did say that rapport cannot be developed through executing some steps in a book – but you can develop the rapport in certain ways. Again, I have a certain view point about developing rapport – the most important of it is that, it has to come within and not without. You can go a picnic, go for some training programs, even on a tour as a team, but that doesn’t ensure anything. The need to have a rapport or atleast say, the wish to communicate and involve the team in executing the project has to come within. – this is the focal point here- based on which the whole concept of rapport revolves.
So if you are a project leader, you need to start believing in the capabilities of the individuals, to assess the current and nurture them. We need to start believing truly that projects – not only the development part , but even the planning part needs the brain which is located in more than one head. There are so many planes in which this works – the team member loves to be treated as an important member , to be trusted . Even sharing little bits of information on the importance of the project in the business sense, sharing best practices of your experience will greatly inspire the team and create a sense of ‘being’ in the team. Explaining the context of the task can be very useful here – imagine asking this..
“ Hey– I would like you to analyze this crash immediately and send an email to the client. I don’t like these crashes at all”.
Again I reiterate – this need not be a wrong way to communicate and it may work for some. But a more complete way is to explain the team member of why solving this crash is important and how the business thrives on the stability of the application being developed- this puts the task in a better context and the team member feels a sense of passion. This also creates a sense of responsibility within the team member.
And if you are a team member – let’s remember this: There are some good project managers, but if your boss’s ass is being fired, its natural that he drops a couple of hot potatoes into your trousers. If you are expecting that your manager will gel with you immediately, chances are that you are most likely to be disappointed. When you join the project, behind the façade of clean smiles the manager would obviously be concerned about your skills, your flexibility, how well you gel with the team and last but certainly the most hidden – how much you share his vision – if such a thing exists. He may even expect you to understand the importance of the project even if is not interested to involve you by explaining the business side of the project.
And here comes the most important thing – first impressions! I think, that we have multitude amount of tasks that being restless has become a habit and a way of mind. One of the dark things about being restless is that you tend to form impressions very quick. So, even if your are talented, if the manager has formed some kind of impression about you, things will be tough for you. Imagine a guy who joins in your project and starts questioning the deadlines straight away – his intention might be to get involved, but that’s not what how the manager might see it . So, go slow in few things, atleast at the start and once you gel with the manager, you can find your way in easily.
The 180 angle to it is this – you r a project leader and u realize the fact that you need to gel with team. So what you do is to start cracking jokes, move out with the team members, socialize with them and all those kind right from day one. While its an individual’s opinion to do this, I need to mention here – that it is quite possible that team members might take you a ride sensing that you are a bit care-free person!
To summarize, the first impressions are important to form any kind of rapport. Always go slow and steady initially – Involve others and get involved in the team as soon as possible.
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