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 !

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 !

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

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

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 !

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

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

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.

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 !

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.

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 !

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 !

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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