Varanam Aayiram - A review

Varanam Aayiram - Many people dont know what that "Varanam" means and actually the word does not have any relation to the movie. Simran tries to give a correlation to the name of the movie and the actual movie at the end and it was like - we writing about cricket elaborately when we were asked to write about mechanism of TV in a detail answer and finally ending up saying that we watch cricket in TV.

Actually Varanam means Elephant and it comes in the andal's poems as "Varanam aayiram soora vatham seithu - naranan nambi nadakindrar". Anyways its a good rhymic title Gautam Menon usually goes for.

Its a thanks giving movie by Gautham Menon to honor his father who passed away recently.The story is Surya (his name is Surya in the movie as well) narrates about his days with his father Krishnan (Surya playing the father role) and how much he means to him when he hears his father has passed away while he was in an Indian Army mission.

The story starts with Malini(Simran) Surya's mother telling how she & his father made love and got married. They were actually students of Madras Christian college where they first met and started loving. They both score the opening song of the movie - Mundhinam Parthene - Naresh Iyer has set new definitions for singing a melody. Gautam Menon has tried to show the late 70s and early 80s in this song except the song is a branded one of Harris musical styles of this decade.

Surya grows seeing the mutual love that their parents share and the screens scroll showing Surya - a mech engg student meeting the heroine - Megna (Sameera Reddy) in a trian while on his vacation to home. Sameera is really pretty while Simran is getting pretty old.Now Megna & Surya in the same compartment opposite berths. I need not blow the trumphet of Gautam Menon's abilities in running the romantic screenplay for this. Its a overpitch flying to the pavilion from the willows of Yuvraj.

Surya falls in love on sight with Megna. He gets thrilled - excited. There are less dialogues in these frames complemented by Harris's background score. Finally she introduces herself and tells she already know him as he played guitar in a musical contest in REC Trichy where she does her Comp Sci Engg.

Excited Hero takes his guitar and plays "En iniya pon nilave song" ...Even after many years - the song was very young and pleasant to hear - Raja is a Raja..

Guys who were uttering the dialogue "Avalukku enna pudikala..athu enakku pudinchirunthuthu" from Kaakha Kaakha were not disappointed by Mr.Menon in this movie.....You have lot of dialogues like that in this movie and Hero closes this frame with Gautam Menon's branded dialogue........

"ippadi ellam naan behave pannathu illa

intha alavu guts irunthathum illa..irukkum kooda theriyathu..

aana ithukku munnadi unnai maari oru ponna paathathu illa....."

The departing frame welcomes the second song of the movie "Nenjukkul vizhunthidum Mamazhai".Thamarai's lyrical talents drizzle's tamizh beauty over the heart and Hariharan's silky voice echoes in the ears even after the song and after the movie - like the the smell of the earth after the drizzle.

I should note Thamarai's situational lyrics in the song.....

"ival yaaro yaaro theriyathe

ival pinnal nenje pogathe

ithu poyyo meyyo theriyathe

ival pinnal nenje pogathe"

Surya follows to her house, comes to know that she travels to US to pursue her MS in Berkely University, SFO and promises that he ll travel to US to see her. But the financial situation of the family was not well and surya earns money by doing projects to companies and also through his musical skills in guitar. With this money he improves the financial status of the family & manages to apply and get a tourist Visa to travel to US.

He travels to US and meets Megna in Berkely. Sameera Reddy - Suspension bridge of SFO - Harris background score - Gautam Menon's direction. I know you need no further explanation to tell the visual & audio treat that this part of the celluloid brings to the audience. I really felt for not doing M.S in US... ;-((

Azhage kolluthe song falls in this reel of the film.They both have a good time and suddenly Megna dies in a bomb blast that happens in Okhlahoma when she goes there for a 3 day visit regarding project. [I was not in the group of guys who left the theatre after this - thinking the movie is all over.]

Surya gets disappointed and he returns back to India. While he returns back he happens to meet a guy named Shankar Menon who helps consoling surya on the death of his lover.

He could not forgot her and becomes a drug addict and comes the fourth song of the movie "Ava enna enna thedi vantha anjala" Again Thamarai has done exceptionally well in unloading the feelings of Surya in her lyrics. Please note these lyrics in the song.

"Ava onnukulla onna

nenju kulla ninna

konjam konjamaaga

uyir pichu pichu thinna

ava oththa vartha sonna

athu minnum minnum ponna

ada enna solli enna

ava makki pona manna"

Krishnan helps surya in getting rid of the drugs. Here comes the message of the movie through the words of Surya's father - "Whatever happens - life has to go on"....

Surya goes on a trip to Jammu & Kashmir in search of his renaissance. He then comes to know that son of Shankar Menon - is kidnapped.He then actively involves in rescuing the child. Babloo made an appearance in 70mm screens after a long gap playing the kidnapper role - Azad.

Surya rescues the child. He works hard then - builts the six packs and aspires to go for a military job.

Priya (Divya Spandana) a friend of Surya's sister expresses her love she had on Surya for a long time. Surya neither accepts or denies the proposal and goes to join the Army in North India. After 5 years - Divya meets Surya in an Army camp when she gets posted there. Surya accepts the proposal and they get married. Harris Jeyaraj's orthodox song sung by Bombay Jayashri falls here as the final song of the movie - "Anal mele pani thuliye..."

Surya's father - Krishnan developed throat cancer and his condition gets worse. Surya while taking care of his father receives a call from Army to execute an important mission and Surya leaves for the mission. During the start of the mission he comes to know that his father has passed away and he continues to execute the mission successfully and returns to pay the last honors to his father. As said - the entire story is narrated by Surya on hearing that his father has expired and while coming back to his place to see his father.

On an overall - its a good movie to watch once..!!

Sameera is impressive - Surya is aggressive -Harris Jeyaraj's Music is Exclusive - Thamarai's lyrics are expressive - Choice of Divya spandana is interrogative - Menon's direction is intuitive - the story is little passive

But if you have recently watched Aegan,Kuselan...Please definetly go get tickets for Varanam Aayiram to regain an interest for tamil movies.

Varanam Aayiram - 6/10.

"Kaviraajan" Raaja Shrinivas

I have drafted this article a quite long back and was targeting to publish this on my birthday July 26. But due to my procrastinating attitude and damn laziness this was delayed. Its not only that - i get bored with the office work i do -getting bored with my food that i cook and a monotonous work and dont get the interest of writing blogs. ofcourse - Its not quite long that i have been cooking and working.

But there are people in the world who dont get bored in the work they do because they do things innovately and differently. Their attitude towards excelling and altitude of commitment meet each other like latitude and longitude of earth. One such wonderful inspiring personality is my mama - Kavirajan raaja srinivas.

To those who dont know - he is banker and has been a manager for lot of branches for the past 20-25 years. As i know he is a B.Sc Physics or a B.A history(Not sure) graduate from the periyar arts college - cuddalore. Got selected in a bank competative exam and became a banker - the software job of 60s and 70s.

He is a born singer & a brought up poet. A trained tailor - A perfect painter - A tasty chef & so on. His interest & skill has never drawn any boundaries. Yes, A skilled descendant of Kunnathoor.[My Maama's poorvigam]

He has written around 1000 devotional songs & 10 casettes has been published so far. Recently - the living legend - SPB has sung for his devotional lyrics. This is a great feet in my maama's musical career. Kunnathoor is honored. Venkatraju Iyer [My Grandpa] is honored.

I am really proud. Actually he is the one who named me as "Guruprasad" & now i m honoring him by naming as "Kaviraajan".

Here is my kavithai on "Kaviraajan" Raaja Shrinivas

கடன் கொடுக்கும்
வங்கியில்
கவிதை தரும்
கவிஞனே...!!!!
குன்ணத்தூரின் குருந்தொகையே..!!!
கோபிசெட்டிபாளைய கண்ணதாசனே..!!!

கவிஞனே...!!!!
குன்னதூருக்கு
இன்று நீ கிரீடம் சூடிவிட்டாய்....
ஐந்து தலைமுறையாய் பாடும்
ஐயன் இன்று
உன் பாடலுக்கு
சிறகு பூட்டி இருக்கிறான்.....

ஆச்சர்யம் தான்..!!!
வங்கி கணக்கே உன்
வாழ்க்கை கண்களான போது
கவிதை எங்கே அதன் கண்மணி ஆனது..??

கற்பனையை கடன் கொடுத்து
கவிதை வசூலித்தாயோ..??
பணம் எண்ணும் வேளையில் கூட
உன்மனம் தமிழ் எண்ணியதோ??

மெட்டுக்கு பாட்டெழுத - நீ
கல்லூரிக்கு போக வேண்டாமே..
நீ தான் வங்கியில்சிதறும்
சில்லறையின் சந்தத்துக்கு கூட
வார்த்தை பூட்டுவாயே...

ஆயிரம் பாடல்களை
பெற்று இருக்கும்
உன் பேனா....
இன்னும் கொஞ்ச தூரம்
கால் நடயாய் போனால்
கலைமாமணி ஆகிவிடுவாய்...

உன் புலமைக்கு
தேசிய விருது ஒன்றும்
தூரமில்லை...

கடுகின் காரம்
கீதையின் சாரம்
வாலிப கிளர்ச்சி
விஞ்ஞான புரட்சி
சுதந்திர தாகம்
மேற்கத்திய தாக்கம்
இவை எல்லாம்
உன் கற்பனையின்
எரிபொருள் ஆகட்டும்

துள்ளல் பாடல்கள்
மட்டும் அல்ல
துவண்ட தமிழனுக்கும்
பாடல் எழுது.....
உனது கற்பனைகள்
பல கவிஞர்களின்
கல்லறை கதவுகளை தட்டட்டும்

பைபுள்ளும்
குரானும்
போதாத போது
இந்த மானுடம்
உன் பாடல்களை
படிக்கட்டும்

அன்று
உன் பாடல்கள்
உன் பேரனுக்கும்
மனப்பாட செய்யுள் ஆகும்...!!!!

Dasavatharam - A Review

At last, Dasavatharam is screened. A movie made for nearly 2.5 years and thats the first mistake that Kamal & K.S. Ravikumar made - I would say.

The story is that christian fletcher (An american - one of Kamal's 10 avataram) chases to get a biological bomb from Govind(Another Avatar) for his personal monetary benefits. The biological bomb kept in a vial if decomposes will kill many million people. Finally fletcher breaks the vial containing the biological bomb, he dies and at the same time Tsunami comes - neutralises the biological bomb reducing the death count from millions to thousands. Asin - the heroine - A brahmin girl tells its the perumal who brought down this death count and Kamal - as usual speaks atheism.

The mistake number two is the story and screen play is extended to show kamal's 10 different characters and the story does not require 10 characters. The avatars will pop all of a sudden and at one point of time you ll become busy in sorting out who is Kamal and Who is not in the movie. Even i got an illusion and saw my neighbour in theatre if he is not one of the avatars in the film.

The chase between fletcher and govind gave a feel of watching Tom & Jerry. Honestly....!!The screen play was very poor. The movie started very seriously showing the famous war between saivas & vaishiyas. The dialogues of those scene carried Sujatha's signature. As it went - the dialogues smelled Crazy's comedy and finally Kamal's pen bored the show. No body knows whats the message of the movie finally. really.its true.

I dont know who gave the idea. Himesh or Devisri prasad should not have scored music for this sort of movies. I would say they should have chosen Vidhyasagar. He would have made it commercial and atleast people would have said "paatu nalla irukku pa" when they come out of the theatres.

Another thing that screwed up the flim was the very very poor graphics. Even "viral sapra paiyan" kooda will tell - this is graphics.

Finally Perumal silai(Idol) was played like IPL. Definetly VHP will file a case against Kamal and Supreme court will do the third umpiring.....

As far as i know the idol Asin carried with her to all places is called "urchavar". Actually the "urchavar" wont come out of the temple unless there is a festival. But Asin carried the "urchavar" to all the places along with her.First of all girls are not supposed to touch the idol. These are really hurting, insulting the myth of hindus.

Karunanidhi banned the screening of Dan Vinci Code in tamilnadu as he told its hurting the belief of christians. What about this?

For Kamal fans like me - or - those who watched the excellent works of Kamal like - Hey Ram - Anbe Sivam - MiMaKaRaj - Avvai Shanmughi - who went to the theatres with huge expectation could see one more avataram othan than the 10 avatarams - the messavataram (mess:confuse)

Madame Tussads & Empire State Building - May 2 '08

It was around 2am on May 1 when we started sleeping.Gopal and Raj started scanning through the TV Channels. Raj (Rajender Gurram) is my team mate and a very good friend of me. He cannot live without two things. One is very good spicy andhra food & the second one is movies. I asked them to switch off the TV.mmm..No Chance....I was very tired & started sleeping placing an alarm at 8:00am.

We got ready on time and the hotel graciously dropped us in the Jamaica metro railway station. These hotels have good habit of providing complimentary pick up and drop to nearest railway station & airports. We got the tickets to Penn Station(34th Street). It was a 25 min travel from Jamaica to Penn Station.

Times Square listed in the top of our plan for the day. Geetha and Gopal are the navigators of the tour. They both had a map in the hand and plan in the mind. We just followed them. Geetha has been to Newyork already a year back and she knows quite lot of places there. That helped us a lot. She got her parents to US recently & care on her parents throughout the tour is phenomenal.

In the mean time - we reached Penn Station & took a subway train and got down at 42nd street to see Times square. Its not only that Newyork was busy. The underworld of Newyork was also busy. As we reached Times Square - our hands became reflexive to our vision & the cameras started twinkling. These guys told that we were going to Madame Tussads. I didnot know what it is. I was busy listening the busy of Newyork.

We entered into a building. There were two rows of queue standing and there was a stair case nearest to the entrance. It resembled some textile shop in chennai. We already bought the Newyork city pass so we didnot stand on the line. We got our tickets showing the pass and walked in.

As i walked in, I saw Morgan Freeman standing.....I walked towards him. But he did not move. Then i observed its made of wax. I remembered seeing my friends posing with Diana, Angelina jolie in orkut. Oh...this is the place they took all those photographs..Its the wax museum of Newyork. It had almost all the celebrities of the world and the only Indian was M.K.Gandhi. Then what else to say. The musuem would never need any lightings as the cameras flickered more than 60 times per second. We started taking orkut snaps but did not end until after 3 hours.

There were lot of photos that were taken in the museum. The photo that i love was the one i took with Morgan Freeman. Cos of the excellent role he played in Shawshank redemption. I would say I liked him in the movie than Tim Robbins.When you like somebody you ll like all the things associated with them & no matter what it is. mmm..Yeah..I love that photo.

It was around 3:30 we came out of Madame Tussads. We all were very hungry. The plan was to go to "Saravana Bhavan" for lunch. We caught a subway train and arrived at a station. I dont remember the what the station was. Later we came to know that it was a wrong station to go to Saravana Bhavan but the right station to go Central Park.

We got two taxis to go to Saravana Bhavan. The address we had was 102 lexington. Gopal,Geetha's Mom, Geetha's Dad were in one taxi and me,raj, geetha were in the other one. Gopal's taxi took them to Saravana Bhavan. The taxi we took drove us to 102nd street lexington. As we reached there we saw there was no saravana bhavan. Oops...!! we were screwed for the second time but this time not by the sardar.

We called Gops and he told that they are in Saravana Bhavan and it is in 26th Street. Wow..We travelled from 102nd Street to 26th Street, Lexington. It took around 40 mins to reach there. The traffic was less but the signals were more. One thing i understood during the drive was NY is horizontally divided into streets and vertically into avenues. It was a costly understanding ofcourse as we paid 25 bugs more to beat this bush driving around.

After the lunch the next place of visit in our list was Brooklyn Bridge. 28th Street & 23rd street are the subway stations which are near to Hotel Saravana Bhavan. We walked to 28th Street and catched a subway train to Brooklyn Bridge.

It was around 6:30pm we reached the station. You need walk a while to reach the bridge from the station. The breeze was cold & little heavy as we climbed over the bridge and it whispered that we are little late to see the bridge. There was an american joking on the road in that chill weather. Gopal & Me faced towards each other and uttered "Ooty kuluru la anchu manikku joking thevayada....??"

As we climbed we saw her. I remembered i have seen her picture somewhere. How can I forgot? she is the one who posed on the wrapper of my nightmare subject's Textbook - Engineering Mechanics by Beer & Johnson. I am so fortunate to clear that subject.

She was 3/4 mile in length & she stood across the hudson river. She connected the brooklyn & Manhattan of Newyork. Steel wires woven on the top suspended her potraying the art of civil engineering. It was absolutely chill and windy and we prepared to leave.

Our next plan was to visit Empire State Building - The world tallest building as WTC is destructed. We reached there around 9:30pm. The reception welcomed us stating that it is obsolutely misty and it was a zero visiblity day. Empire State building has 102 floors. They will take you to 102nd floor and you can have an excellent view of Newyork. As i told - it was a zero visibility day. So like attending classes in the college for attendance - we went to 86th floor and 102nd floor. But could not see anything except the cloud/fog around us.

The Travel to Newyork - May 1 '08

This is one of the excellent trips i have been to.Eyes stayed away from the outlook, ears did not rest on the office phones & index finger tapped on the cameras to the keyboard instead. We laughed more than we spoke. We saw more than we breath. We saw the width of the world in the breadth of the eyes.

It was around 4pm i came from office on May 1st to catch the flight at 6pm. I was actually late but i am little early than Voldemort(Gopal).The itenary to Newyork was San Antonio - Atlanta -Newyork JFK Airport. Anyhow we reached San Antonio airport around 5pm. All the crap security checks got over and we boarded the flight on time.

The flight was operated by Delta Airlines. It was a small one - 75 seater. There are two things that an air carrier should consider while operating flights. The seats should be spacious enough for the comfort of the passengers and the air hostess should be good for the comfort of the bachelors. You should not be tall and fat to get seated on that flight comfortably. On the second one - the flight is not eligible to carry eligible bachelors like me.

Anyhow the pilot drove smart and landed to Atlanta on time at around 8:30pm..When we landed Atlanta we saw the flight. I told Gops that the pilot should park the flight in a kaayalan kadai and get pericham pazham before he leaves for the day. Gops patted on my comment by his immediate out bursting laugh.

We had one hour gap for the next flight to Newyork. We bought rice bouritto in a mexican restaurant for the dinner. The flight to Newyork was a good one. It was around 9:30 she started moving away from the gate. She speeded through the runway, climbed up, pierced into the air and exhibited the technological extravaganca. I have not become crazy enough to describe a take off but i would say i enjoyed that.

As she climbed up, pilot screened some crap movie and as i saw no one saw the movie. We also did not like that. Voldy took his lap top and screened"Hotel Rwanda". It was a film on the war between two communities in Africa - Hutu & Tutsi. Nearly one hour went on the movie.

Pilot announced that we are 100 miles away from Newyork. Actually the two rows infront of us were empty. It was a thursday so no wonder that its empty. I shifted from my seat to the window seat in the front row. I looked through the window. We were approaching New york and the pilot reduced the altitude gradually..We almost reached New york city. It glittered like a gold of zero carrat.

We landed on the John F Kennedy Airport at around 12:30am on May 2nd, The friday. Geetha waited nearly an hour to collect her baggage. JFK is one of the busiest airports in the world. Every minute a flight will take off and every minute a flight will land.

We came outside the airport and took two taxis. Myself, Geetha's mom & Geetha's dad were in one taxi and others were in the other one. To our surprise - the taxi driver was an Indian - Punjabi - Sardar. We told him where wanted to go and he speeded up the car.

We paid for the taxi and reached the hotel. We gave the reservation print out to the receptionist and he slapped on our face saying that we have reached a wrong hotel. Actually we booked hotel in Comfort Inn near JFK but the sardar dropped us in the other comfort inn. we got screwed up. Not only us the other cab where raj, geetha & gops travelled was also screwed. Because when sardar started from the airport he asked the other cab also to follow him.Probably this should be added in the list of existing sardar jokes. Anyways we were screwed up.

The receptionist was a hyderabadi - doing MS in Virginia University and working here as a part time. Bad donkeys - small wall.He helped getting another taxi and we finally reached the hotel where we have booked.....

Vijaya & Apartment Number

I just came from Vijaya's birthday party....The party was very brief and the silence was actually very long....Ashwin's absence was echoed in the silence...Saed & Mandeep filled the vacuum to some extent. Their kaalai on Ashwini was a good one....The duo is always smart in this.... I like it...

ok matterkku varen......one or two months kku munnadi vijaya kitta oru range aana figure oda apartment number enna nu ketten...avunga athellam solla mudiyathunu scena pottanga...sari ok nu vittuten....

approm orun naal....office la IM la oru vazhiya solren nu sonnanga.....athukku clue ellam koduthaanga...enna clue na "antha ponna oda apartment number enga veetu apartment numberlaye irukkaan"...udane naan 401 aa nu ping panni ketean..illa nu sonnaanga..sari ok...402 va nu ketean..athukku konjam yosichutu...illa nu sonnanga..approm....406 nu sonnen...innum konjam yosichaanga..sari thappu pola appadi nu nenachukitte 204 aa nu ketean..mmmm...no reply..oru ten minutes kazhichu...."GP....Unga veetu apartment number enna..?" appadi nu ketaangale paakanum.....naan vizhunthu vizhunthu sirikka aarambichuten.....1104 ee sirichuthu 1 varam....

[To those who do not know - Vijaya has been to our apartment 1104 for nearly two years..]

ithellam summa....vijaya car la driver seat la okkanthu kittu.."hey gopal..break enga" appadinu kepaanga....approm left lane la poitu..cha..intha americans paaru arive illa....naan pora lanelaye ethir direction la varaanga nu solluvaanga...."hey vijaya..US la right lane la thaan vandi ottanum" nu sonna approm..."Oh..Ammam illa" apaadinu Vijaya style la sollitu siripaanga....ippadi vijaya voda comdies nu neraya sollalam....

just kidding vijaya...she is one of the very gud friend i have got at USAA....u know she is very caring friend....she is a very bold girl..i like that...She never depends on anybody & she takes care of all her needs by herself..gr8..

Wish you a very happy birthday & a very long healthy life ....