Who are we?

We sat there starting at each other. Our eyes were fixated as if they were trying to pierce each others. The eyes were full of questions. Questions which needs to be answered. The questions that could not be asked. Questions that can not be questions as they do not make sense.  Questions we already know the answer, but could not be spoken aloud. Questions that were killing us to question "who are we?".

The smoke flew high slow and soft. The room was so silent that we could prove that smoke has a voice. May be a whisper to break the silence. "What do you think we are going to do now?", a question so irrelevant to the situation, nevertheless was finally stated. "Someone will have to pay the price. Someone needs to tell us what happened or we all are going to regret it". The burning end of the cigarette ended its life on the table. And so began the story.

It was less than 2 nights ago. The day was fresh, the wind was cold and inside the secret meeting room we all had sat down. If we are to win this, we need to work together. We cannot have any mistakes. Not anymore. We were losing more and more every day. They have been taking over our territory slowly. What was ours a month ago is now theirs. We know we can not allow that. We need a plan. A plan that will show that we shall not be challenged. The main part of the plan was to attack them at night with complete coordination. We have to give them the biggest surprise and finish them all. But before the plan, we need resources. We decided that we will call our headquarters for hi-tech supplies. Guns and glory. We need to have them all. While we wait for the ammunition to arrive, we will engage ourselves in surveillance. The surveillance will tell us all the day to day activities of them enabling us to find the best vantage point for the attack. Once we have received the information, we need to form the attack plan. We should attack not just fast, we need to attack them hard. We should not only be the best soldiers but also armed with the best machinery we have. It is our duty to make sure that we have everything ready for us to fight. We shall communicate only in codes. Of course, we had different code languages for difference situation. But this calls for the best code that we had developed long back. We know what we are talking about. While working together as a team is very important, we must also remember following orders is what keeps us focussed. Therefore when we give the orders, we must follow them. We cannot have questions on the orders for we are much experienced and we are what makes us stronger. When we are inside their base, never lose your sights. They may not be prepared for that night, but their fear of us have made them more vigilant than before. And after the last fight, they would not sleeping well. We may not know this but we showed them the face of terror in the last fight. Their survival was nothing but luck. We will take away that luck today. We will show them the terror in full. We will win this war. We will end this war. We will be victorious. 

And remember, we must wait at the bar outside their base partying all night long mingling with the nightly crowd without raising any suspicion until we have returned from the mission with glory.

The fire lit up the new cigarette into bright red. The smoke filled the emptiness of the room again. "So why are we here?". Another question as dumb as the previous one before. We were seated in silence in the dark far corner of the bar. No one is going to come back from the mission. We were all in the bar and it is all who were all in the secret meeting room.

When we say 'we', who are 'we'?

The Sky falls

What makes Bond, James Bond? Is it the guns? Women? Perhaps Style? Or may be "Martini. Shaken not stirred!"? The truth is that it includes all that brings James Bond to life. You have it all in Skyfall including something off the menu - Family. As much as I hate to say it, it totally negates what Bond means to us. We are taken for a ride into the early life of The ruthless deadly charming Spy and the story goes more personal instead of the usual "Oh-God-Save-The-World-Bond".

With the reboots that are being done in every movie franchise we have loved including Batman, Superman, Star Trek, and spiderman though I keep asking why for the latter web-crawler, the producers seem to have conceived the idea that bringing emotions and personality to the legendary characters can turn the reboots to a Gold mine. It worked for Batman perfectly, thanks to Christopher Nolan and to a good level in Star Trek by JJ Abrams. But one must keep in mind about Superman Returns and The Amazing Spiderman. It was just not enough. Reboots need more than emotions to work. Now Skyfall too falls into this category of needing more. It appears the producers sacrificed everything that Bond was for history that is totally uncalled for.

This is very much apparent when they chose Sam Mendes to direct the film. To put bluntly, Director Bala has been asked to remake Kamal's Kurudhipunal. An excellent director but put in the wrong place. Sam Mendes, well known for his American Beauty and emotional mafia movie "Road to Perdition" did what he knows best. Made the actors feel. But you must not ask James Bond to do that. Especially making him cry with X lying dead in his hands. He definitely needs to watch the previous Bond movies.

Talking about the movie without prejudice on the 22 Bond films before this, you can call the movie as done well. Not a great one. But not bad indeed. You have the fast action sequences, proof of license to kill, a dangerous villain, explosions and ladies too. But like what a friend said in facebook, you tend to doubt if it is Jason Bourne or James Bond that you see. (Was it a coincidence that both the names have initials JB?)

A devoted fan of all bond films, even for ill-fated Moon Raker (Cant forget the line "Oh! he had to fly!") to the explosive Quantum of Solace (Friend of yours? I dont have any friends), this was not impressive. Lets face it. Casino Royale was a reboot. A perfect one. A newly promoted 007 learning to become the ruthless Spy. Then they added destructiveness and cold-heart in Quantum of Solace. We loved it and so we expected more in Skyfall. But then you feel cheated! We are finally told that James Bond is getting rebooted again. And this time back to its origins. Right to the movie that started it all. Dr.No from 1962. For Gun's sake, we did not ask for this.

By the way, whats the reason behind the smirk on the villain's face when he reads the gravestone of Bond's parents. Something to be implied there? If that is true, they better remove that scene from the movie, as it makes one wonder if Sam Mendes met with Bharathi Raja for the movie.

Skyfall - falls out of the sky. 6/10

Trivia: I just thought if Eva Mendes is related to Sam Mendes. Turns out, they are related as close as Lal Bahadhur Shastri and Ravindra Shastri. ;) Just a coincidence it seems.

Action Army - An Action movie

I have been thinking about this movie for the past 20 years. And that was when I started watching our Tamil heroes super action movies. It was when I was introduced to super power megablasting stars like Sathyaraj, Vijaykanth and many others. And it was not just the 80s that were awesome, Indian James Bond JaiSankar also made me rethink about the song and sentiments dominated tamil film industry. Finally this story is going to bring all these heroes together for us now.

The movie starts with our hero one and only Vijaykanth who is living in PattiveeranPatti talking on phone with Airtel customer care representative. He says “Hello”. The lightning strikes in the background. And we enter for the title song. Lot of girls are dancing with cellphone in their hand pointing it like a gun. The lyrics goes like “He is the new iPhone 4. Powered by open Android. He is a Robo. He says Hello” and our Hero keeps on saying hello with different phones while wearing bluetooth headset on the other ear.

The movie continues. “yema ponnu, ithu ennoda 400avathu call.” speaks Vijaykanth.
“No sir. Our records show this is only your 3rd call to us.”comes back the reply. The sweet voice belongs to the college going part time working school dress wearing Nayantara.

“Ennaku athu theriyatha. Naan sonnathu intha mobila naan pannikirukira motha calls. But unga billula 410 calls bill pannirukeenga. Yennu theringukalama?”

“Of course sir. But why are you worried about 10 calls and wasting 20 minutes of everyone’s time. For wasting all these time, you could have commented to 100 persons in Facebook. Oh sorry! I think you village man would not know what facebook is” Nayantara replies back bored to getting stuck with an old voice.

Vijaykanth simply smiles and starts talking.
“Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004.
Now it has a total of 500 million active users.
In 20 minutes, following happens in Facebook.
Tagged photos: 1.3 million
Event invites sent out: 1.5 million
Wall Posts: 1.6 million
Status updates: 1.8 million
Friend requests accepted: 1.97 million
Photos uploaded: 2.7 million
Messages: 4.6 million 
Comments: 10.2 million
Nayantara is now mesmerized and falls in love with Vijaykanth. But before she could speak anything the call disconnects. Our hero just sensed bad guys in his house. He goes to the kitchen and finds that all knifes and utensils are gone. He has nothing but a Coke bottle to fight with. He smiles and takes it out to the hall. Out of nowhere, 100 gangsters surround him with AK 47. Vijaykanth shakes the coke bottle vigorously. Everyone starts laughing. Then all of a sudden, he releases the cap and the compressed fizz comes out of the bottle and starts attacking everyone like a fire engine water hose. All villains are caught in surprise and they die to the powerful Coke. After the fizz gets over, the remaining guys start shooting. Vijayakanth deflects the bullets with the empty bottle and kills the final bad guy by throwing the bottle at his mouth.
Realizing that the Secret Indian Crime Kommittee wants him dead and must have been planning for a long time, he drives to Chennai to save Nayantara who he is in Love with. Why else would he wanted to call Airtel Customer care and talk about 10 calls for 20 minutes.
Nayantara is still in office trying to work, but starts dreaming. The first duet song starts. “Hello caller. I Love you Kalvar. Oh Dark knight. It is a dark night.” Vijaykanth is seen walking around Nayantara who keeps on changing dresses every second.” When she wakes up, her shift is over and she leaves the office. While walking back home through dark alley, 10 guys start chasing her and start shooting with AK47. It is the SICK guys alright. If you did not notice, SICK stands for Secret Indian Crime Kommittee. Nayantara runs off with high heels and short skirt and falls into the arms of one and only Vijaykanth. This time, with no coke around, he fights with Aquafina water bottle taken from Nayantara’s bag and kills all 10 of them with the final one choked by covering the water bottle over his head.
Vijaykanth tells that he was the person who called her in the morning. Surprisingly, she starts loving him more and more. They both then travel to see his senior secret CID agent JaiSankar. JaiSankar and Vijaykanth had worked together for SICK and are retired now. JaiSankar lives as a school teacher preaching Ahimsa for 2 second standard students. Seeing each other after long years, they talk about their past and tears drop from JaiSankar’s eyes. They soon realize the killings relate to a very old mission in SriLanka. Nayantara points out a newspaper that mentions that a female journalist was killed in an accident recently and another column about young man who was wearing a kurta and jeans pant was also shot dead. Vijaykanth and Nayantara goes to visit the female journalist’s parents. They know the young man was shot dead for his bad dress taste.

The mother of the journalist is Manoramo aachi and she speaks about her life and Amma and finally says that her daughter’s laptop, computer and iphone were taken away by AK47 yielding policemen the night her daughter was killed. Lucky for our hero, they left iPad because they couldn’t decide whether to classify it as a gigantic phone or laptop. While they were wondering where to find clues about the killings, Nayantara realizes that there is an App for that. So with few taps and swipes she retrieved a list of people’s names. Vijaykanth was impressed and he loves her more.
Unable to figure out what the list means, Vijaykanth decides he has to meet the action King. Once considering himself as the reincarnation of Bruce Lee, this action King became a discipline of Superhero Vijaykanth very soon and carried out several missions for the nation mostly by jumping and punching the villains for he is short. Action King Arjun also happens to be the most knowledgeable person of all SICK activities. Though old now, he believes himself to be still an young soldier and tries hard jumping higher and higher. Arjun figures out that the persons in the list belong to the team that carried out a secret mission in Srilanka 25 years ago.
In the mean time, CBI officer Jayam Ravi is given the order by his boss Nagma to kill Vijaykanth immediately. Jayam Ravi as a loyal officer agrees to shoot our hero and salutes her. He sets up a trap in a night club where Vijaykanth, Arjun and Nayantara are having dinner. Arjun always vigilant figures out the trap and dances on the stage to distract the CBI officers. Shreya who happens to be dancer for the hotel also dances with him with clothes as minimum as possible. Threatened by the screen time, Nayantara pulls Vijaykanth to the stage and all four dance to an item song. “I am hungry. I eat Jangery. Aadi pada vaa nee”. At the end of the song, Arjun cuts off the lights and Shreya helps them run through the dark while the officers search for the torch light. Remember Vijaykanth need not carry torch light. He has night vision eyes by birth. But when Jayam Ravi using iPhone app for torch light fires a bazooka at them, Vijaykanth gets in the middle and saves Nayantara even though he gets hurt on the arm while deflecting it.
Hurt and running from the CBI, army and SICK people, our heroes reach the Lady Superstar Vijayasanthi’s house who was a police officer once and had beaten up rowdies and corrupt politicians for long time. She treats Vijaykanth’s wounds which got transferred from right arm where he was hurt originally to left arm. Nayantara feeling sad about the wound cry holding his right arm while the wound is transferred again to left arm. They sing for the next song in Alaska. Nayantara shows she is a strong person by showing well in the snow. Vijaykanth just smiles and walks in Pink colored coat.
With JaiSankar returning to the group and the action team grown stronger to five including Vijaykanth, Nayantara, Arjun and Vijayashanthi, they decide that they have to go to CBI office to find more information. And the only person who knows how to get inside is the ex-ISI agent Mansor Ali Khan who was also lover of Vijayashanthi. But she had to shoot him to show her loyalty to Indian Police. Hurt both in body and heart Mansor has become bit mentally ill and is always seen with uncombed hair and speaking drunk. Also an enemy to Vijaykanth and Arjun and was hunted for many crimes including smuggling, terrorism and for being simply crazy, they knew it is a difficult but the only choice they have. Unwilling to help first, Mansor finally agrees so that he can see his lost love at last.
Together as a team, they infiltrate CBI building and gets the secret documents from Documents Keeper Charu Hassan who patiently tell them that he is counting on them for bringing out the truth to the world. After fierce fighting and blowing up the whole building, the action team leaves unharmed. Jayam Ravi was hurt in the battle but starts to think that Vijaykanth might be a good guy and questions Nagma. Nagma wearing high make up and low cut blouse warns him not to question her and just follow the orders. He dreams about his past with Nagma when they were lovers until she gets promoted and dumps him. He remembers the good old days dancing for a song in Africa.
With the new information, they find that only one person other than Vijaykanth is still alive. That is Sathyaraj now a Mayor and about to become the next chief minister. The secret mission in Srilanka was to extract Sathyaraj who was on peace mission was caught misbehaving with local people there and was eventually held as prisoner. Fearing that the news might affect his political future, he is killing all the persons involved. The team confront Sathyaraj in a forest bungalow in Ooty and ask him to surrender. But lying that he is innocent, he escapes from the heroes. Vijayashanthi and Nayantara who are watching from outside the bungalow realize it is a trap and they are surrounded by CBI officers. Jayam Ravi calls Vijaykanth and asks him to surrender so that nobody will be killed. “Surrender. That is the only word I never like in any language” replies back our hero and they start fighting. Hundreds of CBI and army men fight against our three heroes who fight with pistols, swords and throwing back the grenades. There are even replays for the best catches and throws by our heroes and the verdict is always OUT. After enraging gun battle, heroes finally escape only to leave JaiSankar shot dead in the end and Nayantara gets captured by Jayam Ravi.
Wounded and worried about the loss of their dear senior friend, Arjun and Vijaykanth sing a patriotic inspiring song along with Vijayashanthi and they decide that they will fight to death to bring out the truth. Nayantara in the mean time was tortured by Nagma. Nagma threatens to kill Vijaykanth if she does not tell her where Vijaykanth is. Nayantara gets confused whether she should consider Nagma as a real CBI officer or not. When Nagma was trying to torture her more, she gets a call from Vijaykanth. He challenges her that he is going to kidnap Sathyaraj in a ceremony that night.
The CBI protected ceremony opens with Anuska dance on the stage and Jayam Ravi keeps on talking on his walkie talkie asking everyone to be alert. Sathyaraj mesmerized by Anuska walks to the stage to congratulate her performance. With a surprising twist, Anuska removes her face mask revealing it was Vijaykanth dancing all along. The fight starts again and Vijaykanth escapes with Sathyaraj by breaking the wall with his fist and making his own way to the escape van driven by Arjun. Vijayashanthi gets hurt in the middle of the fight and when she is about to be killed by 3 CBI officers, Mansor AliKhan saves her and carries her away safe.
For the final showdown, Vijaykanth arranges an exchange of Sathyaraj for Nayantara in an abandoned warehouse. Jayam Ravi’s doubt that he might not be on the good side gets cleared when he reads the documents left by Vijaykanth for him. He switches side in the last minute and the fight reaches the climax with Arjun and Jayam Ravi fighting the bad guys; Nayantara fighting Nagma and Vijaykanth kicking Sathyaraj’s ass. Sathyaraj captures Nayantara and threatens Vijaykanth and says “Yenn Character-iye Purinjika Matengiriye”. Vijaykanth gets very angry and starts speaking for 15 minutes continuously. Sathyaraj becomes deaf and surrenders and Nagma turns good and falls on Jayam Ravi’s legs. The film ends with Vijaykanth & Nayantara, Vijayashanthi & Mansor, Jayam Ravi & Nagma walking away followed by Arjun and Shreya who just happens to be a dancer in a bar near by.


Postnotes:

• This is not a original story. I would never think like this. It is just a remake of the english movie RED.
• There was a tough competition on who to cast for Jayam Ravi’s character. But for remakes, who else will be suitable better.
• I would have considered Rajnikanth and Kamal, but the movie is about retired people and we know they never retire.
• RED was actually a good film to watch. While the director rightly termed it as Action comedy, our Kollywood would simply release it as action movie which would be comedy for the viewers.
• If you have read the story and still reading, you are the biggest jobless person in the world. As for me, what to do? I am bored and alone as Chini is enjoying her vacation in India.

Resident Evil: Afterlife - Breathing in the third dimension

Raise your right hand and repeat after me. "Resident Evil is a movie made from a game. I know this is not a movie like Matrix. I will expect neither story nor logic for the next 97 minutes. I will purely enjoy the action and special effects which ever is thrown at me. ALICE."

Good. Now you are all set to enjoy the fourth installment of Resident Evil film which is based on Resident Evil games series. As I have not played the game series, I will not comment on how much it lives up to the game fans. Instead, as a viewer of all the previous movies and a fan of Part 1, I can assure you that Afterlife is really awesome. If the second and third parts had lowered your interest in Resident Evil, think again. They have done it right this time. The main reason I can say that is because of the 3D. As published in the trailers, they have used James Cameron's Fusion Camera System which he used in Avatar and the results are awesome. Though you might feel that they have overdone it to show everything in 3D, I actually liked it. Especially the rain which is shown so many times in the movie.
Coming to the story, it keeps you guessing all the time. Don't take it as suspense. It is the director's indecision on how to take his characters ahead.
While the ending of the previous film (Extinction) promised a war with army of cloned ALICEs, you are given little treatment of it. Instead, few other characters emerge and few new monsters show up to bite you. And whatever characters included in the movie both recurring and new have nothing more to do than shoot, kill and die. Ali Carter as Claire is good to watch fighting the Executioner. But I knew I cannot expect more as ALICE as the protagonist have to face the camera and say "I am gonna kill you" every 5 minutes. Sometimes, it even reminded me of Viay.
After a series of gun fights and monster kills in "Left 4 Dead" style and even a dog crossed with Alien, you feel very much satisfied with this movie. Only regret is that they could have made more Executioners. Loved the gigantic axe yielding monster very much. May be we will find more in the sequel (of course, it is a never ending franchise) as Afterlife ends with Jill leading an assault fleet in control of the Evil Umbrella Corporation.

Overall, a movie other than Avatar to have lived up (sometimes better) to the 3D experience.

Saddle up your dragons

One should know that when I say that I watched this movie very closely before writing this review, the words should be taken in the literal sense, as I was sitting in the 2nd row close to the IMAX screen of 70" long X 50" height. With no need to say, I had a truly 3D experience turning my head sideways to watch the dragon flying from left to right. Chini watching along with me for sometime, decided that it is better to get a higher and overall look at the movie and moved to the back seats. Probably a habit from her college days. Anyway, coming to the movie, it is a simple movie of telling everyone that dragons are friendly creatures good enough to be pets for your kids and can also be used to ride to for a quick snack from McDonalds drive-thru. Gosh! The dragons are extinct now. Or is it the dinosaurs that are truly extinct? Does that mean that the dragons are not extinct? I am talking dragonshit. Don’t I? What to do? I just came back from the movie that taught me how to train my dragon.
It is actually fun and great. The movie maintains a fast action style throughout the movie. And the 3D experience is better than all the 3D animated movies released so far. (Avatar is not included in this list). Watching the movie so close (literally), I felt I could walk among the Vikings and the dragons and it was realistic and exciting to watch the camera diving through the open landscape and mountains taking us on a thrilling spin. One difference we noticed in this movie is the blurring or Out-of-focus effect for the background when focusing on the characters in the front. Even though this is something that is seen only in the normal films and new to the animated movies, the effect doesn’t quite feel good as it takes away the field of depth in many scenes and raises the question of what is the blurring in a 3D movie. Nice idea but not preferred.
Here is the story in a fireball. Distinct from the rest, the hero has more brains than strength and is considered a failure by his own father who hunts dragons as both the occupation and life's only mission. Trying to prove his father wrong, Hero catches a dragon, but couldn’t kill it. Slowly understands that whatever they have known about dragons is wrong as they are mostly tamable. Finally he proves the true nature of dragons and changes the future of the people after killing the monster dragon (I did say "mostly" tamable. Didn't I?) by riding on his "Toothless" dragon along with his friends. Just to clarify a point, he names the dragon he caught as "Toothless" as it did not have any teeth at his first sight. The second sight did show teeth enough to rip off a human though.
The movie is interesting not only for its animation and dragons, but the dialogues are well.... blazingly funny. The protagonist dialogues remind me of Justin Long in "PC vs. Mac" ads. And you also have Gerald Butler to voice as the Viking leader and protagonist’s father. Imagine King Leonidas fighting the dragons! Good performance indeed. All in all, the movie has almost everything fitting in the right proportions. Only troubling part of the movie is that we have seen this story in all the animated movies like Antz, A Bugs Life, Bee movie, Chicken Little, Finding Nemo, Happy Feet and Ratatouille. Probably, the audience is still accepting for the same old formula of "The hero is distinct from others and will save the world". Whatever it is, this movie is going to be as successful as the previous movies with the same storyline. A definite must watch for everyone and includes even those who do not have dragon in their home.

Inglourious

My blog though does not have a wide audience has audience from wide spread age groups. Therefore, I could provide only part of the movie name even though the second word was misspelled in the movie title intentionally.
Though this movie was not in my high list of expectations when it got released, it got my attention when I noticed that it was directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the guy who brought us the samurai sword wielding bride slashing hundreds before killing Bill with the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.
Finally getting a chance to see the movie on New year day, I should say that the year have started great in term of movies.
It is a great movie in Quentin's style. Long sequences, unexpected twists, sudden deaths, unique characters and a satisfying end. Even though Brad Pitt is credited as the hero, he has less role than the villain Christoph Waltz who captures the movie as the Jew Hunter with his amazing acting and his perfect dialogue deliveries. He surely deserves an Oscar and has already received many other awards for his role. Do not get me wrong. Brad Pitt too has done his job well. Actually very very entertaining with his accented speech demanding german scalps from his "<>". And all other characters like the German actress, the Nazi captain in the tavern or Wilhelm, a German Wehrmacht master sergeant celebrating the birth of his son have done a real good job throughout the movie. If these are not enough, the climax takes the glorious film "Inglourious" (Typo intentional).

Trivia:
#1 Isn't the Uitvich, the Ryan guy from "The Office". Good acting!
#2 Quentin makes minor appearances in the movie like he did in his previous movies. Actually twice. Probably KS Ravikumar of the Hollywood. No offense meant to Quentin.
#3 I recently learnt that the Season 5 finale "Grave Danger" of CSI is directed by Quentin. No wonder that I became a fan of CSI by watching that single episode. (And stopped after watching some other episodes)

Ghajini - The second invasion

What will you do if given a second chance to start over your greatest success? You try to do it better. And that is what AR Murugadass has tried to do in Ghajini, a remake of his 2005 Tamil film which was based on the Great "Memento" Hollywood movie directed by "The Dark Knight" fame Christopher Nolan. As discussing about the Tamil version might cause sour discussions as I personally did not like the troubled revenge part of the movie, I will just compare the two attempts made with on the romance plus revenge flick.

Actor:
Tamil: Surya - Perfected himself for the role of a troubled person as well as the charming rich lover boy, Surya shined all over the movie and got positive feedback from everyone.
Hindi: Aamir Khan - The master of dedication has done it once again. He has matched the terrific performance done by Surya and was not surprising as it was very much expected from him. A trivial feature common between the two heroes is their height. Or should I say shortness in height? Ha ha. But while Surya was made to appear taller in the original, Aamir's height is so apparent when he fights the goons or sings along with Asin.

Actress:

Tamil & Hindi: Asin. Asin. There was no need to question considering her performance in the Original; she is apt and chosen rightly for the remake too. And she shines with her charm both in comedy and expressions in both the movies. Heartbreaking is the scene during her last moments before she gets killed. But somehow, I found her not great in the songs. Not sure if it is due to difference in the post production activities or something else.
Speaking of actresses, it is better to mention about the other female lead (should be read as drop). Nayantara in Tamil and Jiah Khan in Hindi. The pathetic feature of Nayantara was bettered by Jiah Khan though the role is still ugly and did not make any good impression.

Plot:
Tamil: The movie was a toned and mixed up masala version of Memento. The important word to be noted in the previous sentence is "Masala". So you should expect more heroic action sequences and mindless scenes made up just for the heroine and unwanted damsel in distress plots to add glamour and entrance sequences for the hero. Though the flashbacks were brilliant are keep you relaxed in your seat, the actual revenge plot suffers from unwanted ideas like twin villains, a police officer on the trail just to read the first half of the flashback and then he dies.
Hindi: It might not be God's intervention. But good to think it might be Aamir's intervention, that few plots were changed to keep the movie engaged. Starting from bringing sense to the movie title by keeping Ghajini as the name of the villain and the trick by the villain to overpower the hero using his drawback of short-term memory loss makes the Hindi one a better one in terms of plot.

Music:
Tamil: Harris Jayaraj brought life to the songs in the Tamil version. Almost all the songs are top of the charts and proved essential for the success of the much hyped movie.
Hindi: This could have been not only a challenge but a chance for Rehman to prove that he is still the best. And listening to the background score, he is definitely better than Harris. But did his "Guzarish" match Harris's "Suttum Vizhi" song is a question that needs time before it can be answered.

Action:
Tamil: Peter Hain did his usual of super powered hero who can smash the villains in a single blow. People loved it. Surya looked terrific in the action sequences.
Hindi: A bettered positioning of cameras made action sequences much more violent and hard and were more believable. But will such violent hand fights please the Bollywood crowd is a big question. Actions more suited for the Hindi audience could have been a welcome. But who knows this might create a strange liking too.

Overall:
The Remake is definitely better than the original in all the aspects but still remains a movie that could have been the best 2008 if the revenge plots were revisited and made much more sensible. Ghajini needs more chances to win the game. But he is back with great improvements and is worth watching more than once.

Vaaranam Aayiram - Tusks broken

The-songs-were-good. I-thought-that-the-movie-will-also-be-good. Lot-of-expectations. Lot-of-hype. Good-director. Good-actor. Stunning-actresses. It-should-be-a-good-movie. That-is-what-I-thought. Everyone-thought. Was-it-correct?-I-don't-know. It-was-good. Sometimes. It-was-bad. Many-times. Overall? I-don't-know. One-thing-for-sure. It-made-me-speak. It-made-me-speak-in-broken-sentences. No-emotion. No-modulation. Simply-reading-the-words. No-emotion. No-modulation. Just-talk-from-the-script. It-was-a-different-experience.

Kakabukka Karbur brshsbtrhs grerrerh brrrrrr

Phew! I am back talking normal. What a relief! The movie almost killed me with that monotonous dialogue all the time. Now let’s talk like normal people. The movie starts with a depressing state of showing older Surya vomiting blood and becoming grave ill. As I had to watch the scenes while having my lunch, I was unable to appreciate the Surya's acting. And I doubt if many others would have appreciated owing to most of the conversations that were in English. Goutham Menon wants to show how modern families have moved to conversing in English rather than their mother tongues. But he forgot that the majority of his audience does not fall under that category. 

Then the movie moves to show the younger hero in a military helicopter receiving the news of his father's demise. It’s a sad moment. 

But as I said before, no emotions were shown in the movie and Surya says ok like it was news about his broken iPod. And that is how the movie starts. The rest of the movie is shown in Flash backs narrated by the younger Surya and his younger life. 

As it more of a biography, you get to see every part of a son's life under the care of his open minded and inspiring father. Surya as both father and son had done the best in acting minus the emotions in the dialogue. Many a times, I could not relate myself in the son's life, so I was unable to appreciate them. And few scenes in which you would get involved into the movie, the emotionless speech puts you out. It was like Night Shyamalan directing a love story.

Now the best parts of the 2hrs 40 mins biography:

1. Sameera Reddy - The sparkling part of the movie was the love story of Sameera Reddy and Surya. Right from the first meet in the train till the last scene in the car, you will love her. The scene in the train though might appear crazy, the craziness Surya depicts appears how mad he is about the girl. Love brings madness in you was proved (in a lighter way). But she is also the reason I hated watching the movie for they kill her in the middle of the movie.
2. Surya's search for new life - After the tragic turn, what "Autograph" conveys in a song was shown in 30 mins of Vaaranam Aayiram. And for Surya who lost all his hope in life, his trip towards Himalayas and the encounter with the kidnappers reminds you of Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" and it was beautifully done. The renewed Surya comes back to put inside your mind, "Life must go on no matter what!"
3. Three love proposals - There are three love proposals in the movie, considering that there are three female leads, it sums up right. Surya proposes twice and Divya proposes once. All three are beautifully told. And Sameera's moment of accepting it is though not the biggest moment is pretty neat.
4. Adiyae Kolluthae - If there is one song that lives up to your expectation, it is "Adiyae Kolluthae". The visualization matches the Guitar strings, refreshing lyrics, city surroundings and a perfect matching pair.

So what made the movie less favorite?
1. You don’t start the movie with the death of the hero. It puts the audience off.
2. We know that English has become a normal medium in the daily talks of a modern educated family. But still it’s uncommon for the common audience. So most of the best scenes are lost in translation.
3. Krishnan's flashback - Simran says "unga appa evalavu azhaga irupaaru theriyuma!" (How beautiful your father used to be!). And then they show Surya in 70s with a big power glass. Even for the greatest fan of Surya, it would mean an insult. Not to forget how the best song of the movie, "Mundhinam Paarthenae" made me scream "Naan yen etha partheno" as it was killed by the retro look.
4. Even the father telling his son to go to US to find his love could be dismissed as a contrasting character incomparable to the typical father who wouldn’t agree spending money for was

ting bike fuel for your girl friend, the stringent VISA department wishing well to Surya for finding his love in US not only shocks you but makes you hit your head on the wall and makes you cry thinking back the rejections you saw during the US VISA interview.
5. Why do bad things always happen right after the happiest moments of the movie? How much needed it was for the story, I foresaw that Meghna is going to be killed when she admits her love

 for Surya. So when Surya tells that he will meet her by travelling in the bus while she flies to Oklahoma, I screamed "No you won’t idiot. She is going to die." 

Needless to say, I walked out for the next 15 minutes of the movie.

6. Songs visualization. If the lengthy movie was at least satisfying as a biography, you have to nod away your head with the not-even-close relation between the tune and the dance moves in the songs. Neither the retro look in the first song nor Surya's dance in painter’s costume for "Shanthi Shanthi" song is anyway sensible.
7. If all the above points doesn't affect you and your liking for Surya still makes you watch the movie, the monotonous delivery of the dialogues by the entire cast for the whole movie right from the start till the last scene would doze you off very much in the middle of this yet another could-have-been-made-better flick.

Summer Blockbusters - June 2008

June 2008 promised a variety of entertainment from animations, comedy, action, adventure and thrillers. And most of them were either from huge productions or had notable cast in it which added lot of expectations on them. So here they are - Summer blockbusters of June 2008.
Click here for Movies from the month of May 2008.

June 6th - Kungfu Panda
Now that is a good entertainer. An animated movie with the voices of All-Big stars including Jackie-Chan, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu and Jack Black as the Kung-fu Panda. Nothing great about the story, but it sure hell was fun from the start till the end. A definite family movie to enjoy with all the gags and cool animation put up together. The camera movements in the action sequences were so great that it makes one forget that it is an animated movie. Good watch for the summer season.



June 13th - The Happening and The Incredible Hulk
I do not remember what made me busy that I could not watch both of these movies. I did not care about the Hulk though. Even the first part was pathetic with cheap special effects. But "The happening" had a greater expectation for me. Strange that I watched only the first 15 minutes of the movie so far. And yes, I loved it. Though the movie did not go well with the Box office, I am sure it will be great to watch like "The Lady in the water".


June 20th - Get Smart
Another James Bond Parody is what I thought before going to the movie. After watching Steve Carell in "Dan in real life" and Anne Hathaway in "The Devil wears Prada", the movie appeared to be worth a try. But then I was in for a surprise. This film became the top film I laughed out loud and heartily throughout. Steve Carell and his silly jokes especially when he boasts about his hi-tech gadgets prove his natural trait in bringing out comedy so easily to all. Roc was nothing but a cherry at the top while Kali was a bonus. The million dollar question though is "Which kiss in the movie was the best?"
a. Anne Hathaway and Steve b. Anne Hathaway and Kali (or) c. Steve and Roc? Hell! Yeah baby! Do you like to guess the winner?

June 27th - Wall-E and Wanted
Though we can not call them as the two double-U (W) releasing the same week, both are great movies of their own. Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class or simply Wall-E is an animated movie set in a reality-check in not-so-far future. I must admit that I did not hope much for the movie and feared that this would be disaster to Pixar. But against all my thoughts, this movie was sweet, cute, adorable and funny as hell with a strong message regarding the environment. The Love story between the two robots that can speak nothing much more than their names is so touching and lasts forever. I watched the whole movie with a kid sitting behind my seat who was questioning every scene of the movie while his dad was trying hard to enjoy the movie in-between giving answers to his son. The movie will be remembered for a long time.
"Wanted" on the other hand was based on a comic book which is becoming a trend these days. All film producers and digging out the old book shelves for thrown away comics and put big casts to make money out of it. Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman star as the Merchants of death working in the secret organization called "The Fraternity". The movie has its own share of twists and wicked humor that keeps everyone thrilled till the bullet comes out of Morgan's forehead in the end. It was a good weekend with the entertaining back-to-back features.

The Summer Blockbusters - May 2008

Summer is almost over. But the summer blockbusters are over already. This summer happened to be a great year for movies with one greatly expected movie releasing every week. "A movie every weekend" was the plan but considering the other movies that released along with the big ones and the DVD mail in subscriptions, it happened to almost a movie a day. But let’s not worry about the other movies as they did not create any surprise much. Let’s talk and rate the blockbusters now one month at a time.

Movies of the summer 2008:
Ref: (Firstshowing.net)

May 2nd - Iron Man
I never thought this will be any good. Not a fan of Iron man, actually never read any comic about him, we watched the movie with very less anticipation. Even the trailer wasn’t so cool. But guess what? The movie was total fun. Robert Downey Jr did a good job as the Arms dealer turned Super-hero. And yes. The ending was in a word "Striking". Good start for the summer season.
Rating: 4/5




May 9th - Speed Racer
Opposed to Iron Man, Speed Racer was one movie that I awaited for more than a year. It is a Japanese anime turned to a flashy witty and same cartoonish thrilling roller coaster ride. The eastern bright color added a nice touch to the entire movie and even with all the fast action; it was cool to have the same cartoonish feeling all over the movie. If you haven't watched it yet, just go and enjoy the ride. The summer is getting better. Read more of my opinion here.
Rating: 4.5/5
>>More here


May 16th - The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe though was made a hit did not dazzle me as I had seen the cartoon adaptation of the C.S.Lewis' fantasy novel. Except few special effects the movie was nothing but a film that parents can take their kids too. Also we have seen these animated wars in many other better movies like Lord of the Rings itself, it left me remembering Vivek's dialogue in the movie "Run", "ithelaam naanga ratha kaneerleya paathutomla" (We have already seen these in the old "Blood tears" movie). So I could not find the urge to watch the second part of the Chronicles of Narnia. I guess it did not any difference from the first one.
Rating: n/a

May 22nd - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Before we go into bashing and dashing about this sequel, let’s get one thing straight. This movie was made just to relive the glory days of Original Indiana Jones adventures and made by the fans. Yeah! I am talking about Spielberg and Lucas here. And it had all the fun that the original movie had. Right from the shadow of Jones putting his hat, (If it was Kollywood, there would have whistles) to the scene La Beoulf taking the hat from the floor after the wedding, it is all about reliving the good old times. This movie had all the mix and match one would expect from Indiana Jones. It has a good start, charming villain, betraying friends, families to add sentiments, and the villains getting their end by the hands of the same treasure they seek. All in all, a good entertainer if you can leave your brains out.
Rating: 3/5

May 30th - Sex and the City
Sorry guys. I am not a fan of this TV series and definitely do not find Jessica Parker any attractive or whatsoever. So this movie went outside my hook and I think it did not do any good in the box office anyway.
Rating: n/a

Out of the darkness, comes the Knight

If there is one movie I have seen the US crowd to wow aloud and even cheer and clap at the end, it was "The Dark Knight". And it is also the first movie for which the tickets were sold out at 10 PM show and we had to take tickets to 10:45 show and could not find any seats together when we entered the hall 10 minutes before the start. The movie was hyped high to such a level that everyone feared that the movie can never satisfy the much expecting audience. It was the most anticipated movie of the summer season or perhaps the most awaited one of the year. Right from the teaser trailer which had nothing more than the voices of Alfred, Batman and the Joker over the batman symbol getting blown up with the final piece showing a joker card, the movie created a sense of something big is on the sight. And after almost 6 months, there were the first pictures of the movie and especially the photo of Heath Ledger as "The Joker". Astonishing is the right word to describe it. The dark mood of the movie was clear to everyone. The Batman begins was sure to continue to extend the true Batman that every fan Gotham's dark knight longed to see in the big screen. And then there was the trailer. No wonder people went crazy. Summer was all that the Batman buffs dreamt for and here it is, finally on the silver screen. Not only did it smash the Box Office on the very first show at one minute past midnight, it lived to the likings and expectations of every Batman fan and all the movie buffs and even those who might even refer the dark knight as "Batsman" as in "Bat's man". And even after seeing the movie twice, I am eager to watch it again over the coming weekend. It is satisfying just to listen to the audience go "wow" when Joker makes the pencil disappear. If you have seen the movie, you would know what I mean.

What you need and what you deserve?

I am back from "The Dark Knight".Hmmm....... What can I say?
There are so many things to talk about. Much more to explain and discuss. But let us hold on for sometime. There are important things that needs attention. So let me say this first. Forget all the "thought-provoking" or the nerve-breaking thrillers you have ever seen before. This movie will question everything that matters to you. And it questions more. Do you think you are good and are you really good? It questions who you really are? What is the breaking point of every hero? Are choices so simple to be made? Is it best for the fate to decide the choices? Is "control" more powerful than "money"? What drives you to do what you do? Were you really thinking you can do it?

As you could see, I have nothing to say about the movie.... at least not yet. Go to the theatres and experience yourself. You will know there is more for you to answer than comment on the 2.5 hours of astonishment sitting on the edge of the seat.

Before "I" can answer....... I am going to need some time to think. So please wait.

Why so serious?

Enough is enough. The most anticipated movie of the year is just few hours away from my sight. My plan to watch the first show was spoiled by my manager's request to be in office by 9:30 the next morning. So difficult for a Friday. Now don’t ask me if it is ok on other days. Anyways, the problem was that the first show was screened at 12:01 AM today and I was thoughtful that I may not be able to wake up early after watching the show. I probably would have spent the night dreaming about the movie. So with many thoughts, I had to take the tough decision to watch the movie in the evening. Another fact that made me furious is that our client who is actually brother/sister of the Movie's Production company, (yeah! you guessed it right) arranged Premiere show only for its "EMPLOYEES" and not its "Contractors" on Thursday morning itself. You can imagine how mad I was when one of the clients cancelled the meeting with me on Thursday with the reason "I am going to the movie!” So there I was looking at the same excel sheet while he was enjoying the day with the Dark Knight, a day before the actual release. I wish I have the cold heart as the Joker. But fortunate for him that I didn't have. Public views that the "Contractors" get more money while the employees get only the "Benefits" can not hold true here for I am with an Indian IT services company and we all know how much we are paid compared to both the employees and the direct contractors. It is high time that they provide equality between "Employees" and "Contractors" at least on Movie tickets!
To add fuel to the fire, there are always my friends who said the movie as "The Black Knight" or "The Dark night".

But still unacceptable are the below words.
Me: I am much awaiting the release of "The Dark knight"
X: What is that????
Me: Grrrrrrrr!

Satman, your idea to watch the movie on Saturday still holds. I will watch it again with you. You do not have to doubt about that.

Dasavatharam - Avatars unnecessary

First things first. This is one of the best well thought stories in Tamil film industry. And it is comparable to the best movies of the Hollywood and better than many of them. Hats off to Kamal Hassan for that.

But why??? Why does he have to go to KS Ravi Kumar to direct that movie????? And why? I mean why he has to do the 10 roles in this otherwise turning point of the Tamil film industry. For one, a Hollywood action packed scientific movie is turned down to pointless hero-centric masala movie. And another, any character that wears a plastic mask sold in Mariamman kovil festivals can be identified as Kamal. I am sorry. There are three roles of Kamal in which he looks normal. And he does NOT put any makeup for those characters. Short and simple way of saying it is "It would have been a great movie if Kamal had went to Shankar or Maniratnam instead of KS Ravi Kumar and had done only 3 or 4 roles instead of the needless 10 roles.

Let’s talk about in detail. *Spoilers ahead*
The movie starts at 12th century with the first avatar of Kamal as a Lord Vishnu Devotee. But why? I mean why would they have Asin the girl who melted hearts with "Sutrum Vizhi Sudarae" as his wife crying in literature Tamil? All my friends would have definitely cried at that scene. After that, the movie takes us to Chennai, US and Japan and there is Kamal everywhere. Is he proving to be the "Universal" hero.

Coming back, the main story revolves around the cat and mouse chase for a biological weapon in a vial by Good Kamal who made it and Bad Kamal who wants it. Isn’t that the essence of every evil corporation sponsored project movie in English? That was the first step in taking the movie to the Hollywood level (Sarcasm intended). But did I say Good and Bad Kamal? Yes. How do we differentiate? Is it moustache? Is it beard? Is it shaven head? Or is it the dwarf trick? No. Bad Kamal is an ex-CIA officer and he is an American. And how does he get the face of a American? Simple. Take a packing brown tape and stick all over his face and don’t forget to pull holes for eyes and mouth. The same applies for almost all other avatars that include Singing Singh, Police Naidu, Funny Bush (The American President:D:D:D), tall Bhai and a special brown tape over the hair for his role as a 95 year old lady.

I am sure many people would agree with me here. If he had chosen few roles like Vishnu devotee, Scientist, ex-CIA officer and the Police leaving the rest of the characters to other actors, the movie would have not got deviated from the story. Instead, you are forced to see the imperfect makeup most of the time distracting from the fast paced action movie. Though it is very much appreciated of using Andy Dixon (Transporter 2) as the action choreographer, we cannot say that we liked Michael Westmore work as the Make-up artist. Some one might have told him that they liked his work on the movie Mask and he decided to do the same make-up on Kamal for none of the make-up appears natural. But as said before, the action sequences are worth watching and definitely speak well in front of the international crowd though it is not perfect due to the cheap graphics and special effects employed in the movie.

Verdict:
Story: 10/10
Actor: 7/10 (3 points for Govind, Balaram Naidu and Krishna characters; 4 points for efforts put on the rest)
Actress: 3/10 (1 point for each character again. 2 Asin(s) and 1 Mallika Sherawat). And I almost forgot. Mallika Sherawat does not make any impression in the movie.
Dialogue: 8/10. (The "literature" Tamil could have been toned down a bit for everyone to understand.)
Graphics: 3/10 (3 is for the Tsunami scene at the climax)
Direction: 1/10 (Is it too late to change the director for this movie?)

Overall: 5/10 (Good attempt spoiled)

Reviews in a nutshell - First pack

So where do I start? I watched hell lot of movies more than the number of times I had dropped my mobile. For people who don’t know me, I have butter fingers and drop my mobile at least once a day. And trust me, all these movies are watched either on the large silver screen or Original rental paid Blockbuster DVDs on my employer sponsored newly repaired DVD drive in my Toshiba laptop. I am thus holding on to my resolution as I mentioned here. And after every movie, I always wanted to write a review about it, but as it happens every other time, it slips my mind until now. It is Sunday and I thought I have wasted enough time for today. So here it goes. As the list is pretty huge, the reviews are shortened, but I will try to give everyone a generic idea about the flicks. And more will continue shortly.

[+/-]Speed Racer

I can bet on the Wachowski brothers any time and this is one movie that lived up to its huge hype in 2008. It’s got its own style like The Matrix. Flashy colors, awesome graphics, adrenaline packed races, still with a cartoon finish and of course the best fantasy sporty movie you can ever imagine. If you like to watch something different and unbelievable, you are in for a treat. Its Rajini's movie for the Hollywood.

Verdict: Please race to the theatres NOW!

[+/-]Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

The Archeologist with a whip is back to explore tombs and supernatural powers in this new installment of Spielberg and Lucas's money making Franchise. Though it’s been 19 years since we seen him before, Indie hasn't changed much and so is the story. But hell with that. It’s still fun and crazy. Harrison Ford hasn’t lost his best and does some pretty action that will make you jump. LaBeouf is a nice touch to the movie. But bringing in the family again? We have seen Sean Connery to do the same stuff in the last movie isn’t it? There you go. You have it all. Lots of action, Evil Russians. Devil Queen, deadly traps, and an alien civilization that has magnetic skull with psychic powers.

Verdict: Forget the logic. Go and have fun.

[+/-]Charlie Wilson's War

I had bit of ear-to-ear knowledge on America's involvement in getting rid of Russians from Afghanistan in the eighties. And this movie is enlightenment or should I say blunder on America's greatest covert operations. The best part of the movie is its crackling dialogue and the way the actors present them. Even brutal talks like "Let’s kill some Russians" were said so casually that makes you rethink if you heard the words right. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and of course Philip Seymour Hoffman have done well in what they always do. A good entertainer with some insights for sure.

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world...
...and then we f****d up the end game." - Charlie Wilson
Verdict: Politics? America? Afghans? You got it!

[+/-]Following

Christopher Nolan's debut film for the big screen is no different from the rest of his films. Mystery, non-linear screenplay, spooky characters, multiple twists revealing itself towards the end and what not? a troubled hero as always. If you had watched Memento, you are going to love this movie too. Though the actual story is never understood till we go close to the movie, the hero character or should I say the victim's role is intriguing. It tickles the curious part of oneself and the character itself is an achievement of the writer/director who is promising on the dark knight in the next month.

Verdict: Good choice to rent on DVD.

[+/-]Shaun of the Dead

I was interested in this film mainly because of Simon Pegg from "Hot Fuzz". If you haven’t seen the film, I meant "Hot Fuzz", watch it without fail. It will bring your down with laughter all the way. I do not know how to categorize this comedy. But closest experience would be Vadivelu on a sci-fi thriller. It has a combination of good story, funny characters and witty dialogues with a mystery till the end.

As for "Shaun of the Dead", hmmmmm.... please avoid it if you can.
Verdict: Watch [+/-]"Hot Fuzz" not the dead one.

[+/-]Equilibrium

Two reasons I took this movie. One is Christian Bale and the other for its crazy story line. Christian Bale made it worth a mention. The second reason actually made it stupid. May be the actors were unable to make an unemotional performance. This was needed as the movie is about turning people into organisms without "feelings". A difficult task I would say. But wait. Something else came out of the movie. I found the source of inspiration for the emotional less face and black Tuxedo suits of the Matrix. And sometimes it makes me think... could Christian Bale have outperformed Keanu Reaves?

Verdict: One time. Just one time!

[+/-]Big Nothing

It is seriously "Big" but definitely not "nothing". David Schwimmer (Friends) and Simon Pegg ("Hot Fuzz" and not "Shaun of the Dead") bring a dark comedy that makes you laugh and smile with few nothing but accidental murders. The movie starts with the daily nothing big life in call centers and takes you to the something big of blackmailing and axe on a woman's head and finally ends up with smiling face on the dead Ross Geller. I liked it.

Verdict: Watch it for Ross. You will like him.

[+/-]Identity

This is the not the first movie I had seen on that topic. There was quite a few and each one equally good. One happens to be in my all-time favorites list and I added this into it.
So whats the story? Strangers stranded on a motel with no where to go and each one starts dying. Before you judge it as some Texas chainsaw movie, please watch it. You are in for a surprise. I bet you didn’t think it. At least not the second surprise.

Verdict: A must see. Identity is mandatory.

Horton hears a Who!

Let's be honest. Its MIB with an elephant. Or should I say, EIB. But that doesnt make sense either as elephants are always black. So it is just Mr.H (Horton) saving the people of Whosville living on a speck. Ok, I might be simplifying things here. There is also a Kangaroo ruling the wild who preaches "If you can't see or hear or feel, then it doesn't exist". Sometimes, I feel it is questioning God. And a mouse who is the best friend to our elephant hero. And of course, the Mayor of Whosville has 96 daughters and 1 son and is having big trouble convincing the council that he is not as stupid as he appears though he is voiced by "The Office" fame Steve Carell. There is more to the jungle and the fun is always high when Horton hears a Who, a citizen of Whosville living on a speck which I have told already. There is nothing more to say about the story. As it is based on a children's bed time story book, it also carries a moral at the end in Dr. Seuss's own intelligent way.

Now lets talk about the movie's from the non-story perspective. Considering the graphics and animation style, it was kept as simple as possible with colors reminding of the children's book itself. It is always smooth and attractive to children. But the greatest achievement of the animation in the film is Horton. It is highly creative to animate an elephant which expect for the trunk cannot hold anything. But they have made it better in bringing the elephant not only handsome but very funny in its appearance and acting. It looks more alive in its performance. Some appreciation must go to Jim Carrey for voicing Horton.

As a whole, this movie may not be a classic like "Finding Nemo" or "Happy Feet", but it has its own style and stands out cool.

As Horton repeatedly speaks, "A person is still a person, no matter how small."

August Rush - A magnificent Rhapsody

I had seen lots of movies from musical category before. But none had touched my heart this close. I can hear it even after the movie has ended. It stays inside and resonates your feelings. One should listen rather than watching the movie and it is to be perceived as a fantasy story to really understand the music and connection it creates between people. If you have ever felt that a tune can reach one's heart, you will believe this musical harmony. Though one might argue, that the story is a very predictable and sentimental, and not to forget that the story has been repeated in many of our old Kollywood movies, this musical makes you believe the same instead of what you had laughed at in other movies. The cast has done their work perfectly. As I am not a musician to the least, I am unable to comment on how much the actors have perfectly portrayed the performance of playing the instruments. But you can easily agree with their expressions that they are playing from their heart. Keri Russell with the violoncello, the soft rock songs by Jonathan Rhys Myers and unbelievably gratifying Guitar performance by Freddie Highmore makes you stimulated at times.

If you have not noticed, Freddie is the kid who plays as Peter in "Finding Neverland" and as Charlie in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Amazing performance again.

Honorable mention to the movie is Robin Williams as "The Wizard" whose character I find could have been made better in a good will manner.

And if you want to see this movie, never try from the low quality online prints and even movie theatres might not provide the best effect. My advice is to watch it from a Original DVD in a silent environment with a good quality headphones. I watched with my Bose earphones and I find it worth for every penny I invested on it.

And so as the boy says, "The music is all around us. All you have to do is listen."

Writing Essay on Jodhaa Akbar

Watching a full length history movie and not to forget it is in Hindi is not something I prefer. History had always been a difficult subject to me as it is always references with years. Being a guy who thinks "What" is important than "When" does not help in the history lessons in School. During the good old school days, I will easily know the result of history exams by reading the "fill in the blanks" questions itself. If the first 4 questions are about years, then we know the next 10 questions will be similar ones and it is not really my area of expertise. Though I would often remember the 1000s and final digits of the year, the 100s and 10s will confuse me all the time. As my errors would either be in decades or centuries, I could not even get grace marks that the teacher might give for closer answers. It is always confusing to me, when the whole point of learning history is to understand what our ancestors did, why should we know the exact years things happened. This is not like Rocket science that forgetting the years would cause Armageddon.
The biggest confusion next to years are the king names and their kingdom. Seriously, what is the relation between Gupta and Maurya dynasty? If both are different, which dynasty Chandra Gupta Maurya belonged? And where does the Mughals come in-between? As if North Indian history is not enough, we will have Cheran, Cholan and Pandyans in South India. These lessons were not much troublesome; thanks to our Tamilnadu state government for naming the various bus corporations by prominent personalities/kings of regional/national importance. There was Pandyan bus for Madurai; Cheran for Coimbatore and Chozhan for Tanjore. Though we all welcome the change of this practice to just TNSTC (Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation) to avoid communal violence, it is regretful that the current school students are borne to get confused with South Indian history also.
Ignoring these hurdles, the post period to the history exams are always fun when the teacher distributes the papers back. The rule for essays is always simple. 6 pages at the least with minimum of 4 sketches that might include maps, tables or charts depending upon the questions. The whole class will forget their low marks when we read each others' essays. It must be known that some of the strange and interesting histories are created in these exams only. For example, only in our exam papers will Adolf Hitler with the help of Wilson (Student was playing tennis lately) Churchill bombs China (obvious confusion) in World War 1 which ends with the Treaty of Constantine. There will also be some inspiring dreams like British fighting for Independence from India and Lord Mountbatten is a famous peak of Himalayas and India was discovered by Vascodagama in the year 1947. Many times, the teacher would be impressed and would award full marks for the essays just because the essay had 10 pages. He/she will even be pointed out as the outstanding student of the class and a girl who had written 4 pages for the essay with each word repeated exactly from the book will have to learn from the great historian. But luckily for me, I would never have to do any of these for the exams. The moment I reach the first essay question, the time would be almost up and I would scribble whatever that comes in my mind and finish 8 pages for each essay with 10 to 15 lines per page. My friends who are fast writers with nice handwriting will have to write 22 to 25 lines per page and will think hard on how to fill more than 6 pages. Though filling more pages will guarantee you 70% of the marks, if you need more you will have to employ the magic of the colorful sketches. Even though you are unsure whether Napoleon is from India or not, underlining his name, century he lived and important places that you remember the teacher telling you in the class added with adjectives and verbs which can help you expand the gap between two sensible words related to the essay guarantees bonus marks. Though I was not a historian like my friends, I do contribute my share for the history by changing the name of treaties more often. Treat of Versailles have ended French revolution and the pact that brought an end to Sepoy Mutiny is called the Treaty of Sepoys in our own versions of history.
So with such a level of learning history in School, watching Jodhaa Akbar on the big screen raised few questions in the mind like why is Akbar was never called by his name. This was clarified later when they announced that Jalaluddin Muhammad was his Original name and Akbar was a name bestowed on him at a later age. I am not sure how much the movie was truth with the history. May be the screenplay writer was like my friends in school and they added few contributions to the history on their own. There were scores of evidence for this given in wikipedia. Also the scenes in the movie like duel between Jodhaa and Akbar, Sujamal speaking for 20 mins before death and the final one-on-one battle between the hero (Akbar) and the villain (Sharifuddin) while the whole army watches silently reminds us of the countless bollywood, kollywood and tollywood and every other wood movies we have seen in the past. But leaving the history behind, this movie is definitely a major delight in terms of glory and richness of details and information about Akbar's rule. Though much information including the identity of Jodhaa appears to be fictional and controversial, the movie stands out and is a definite entertainer like Asoka starring Shahrukh Khan. And not to go unnoticed is the background score by A.R.Rahman especially for the war and song sequences. You can feel the horses galloping in the battlefield. He has proven himself once again. To sum it up, though Jodhaa Akbar is not a biography of Akbar it taught me few history lessons without any years and is big achievement in Indian movie industry and recommended to be seen on the big screen.