KOCHI WELCOMES YOU...

Get Ready For The Battle...

11:29 pm, Dec 31, 2010

Recapitulating the fine moments of this wonderful year now... Thanks to all who have made this year really memorable...
Wishing all my readers a very very Happy New Year 2011... May this year bring all goodness and happiness to all...

Good Wishes,
Uthara

"Bell has no sound
till someone rings it,

Song has no tune
until someone sings it,

Never hide your feelings
because it has no value till someone feels it!!!"

A touching SMS I received today :)

Life In A Metro

Yes it seems I have successfully completed 365 (and still counting) days since I first got down at Chennai Central railway station, my ‘Buland Darwaza’ to a world outside the skeptical alleys of Kerala.

The knick knack shopping, bingeing on pongal and chutney, traveling by metro railway (with and without ticket), commuting to work in Chennai MTC buses, walking in the December rain, loading pirated DVDs into my bag, the 24x7 local FM channels, clicking away pics of happy kids (as a respite to my boring desk job), thanking cordial strangers for showing direction and speaking broken Tamil and being happy at the end of the day... life in Chennai and a metro city for the very first time has been nothing short of pure adventure, happiness and little boredom strewn in between.

And oh yea, did I miss out my eat-out experiences in Velachery? I used to stroll around the suburb after my work hours and go on a gourmet therapy. Chennai is one of the finest places to find great food joints, local and international. It's pure fun to experiment a food joint a day and savour on the local delicacy. Also, it's fun to get into an ice cream parlour, look around and ask "Is this a new shop? I just came in to check what is out here, Thank You". C'mon, you needa have a count on your calories right?!

Ever attended an interview for a private detective post? That is so beautiful and so crazy, well, I have had. I was hailed as a detective in the embryo by the famous private detective, doing detective jobs on Sundays in Velachery area! The master detective told me, "I can see a bright detective in you, Ms. Uthara." Thrilled at my potential designation, I came back home singing some famous detective numbers, apparently excited about my new role and also the scope to earn a few extra bucks.

A month and half passes by, but no intimation from the man in black suit from Scotland, the dandy Mr. Cholan. No regrets here since the meet up was fun, adventurous and a perfect staple for discussion with my friends back home in college. (at the time of writing I was still in college).

Life is riding on high since my coming to Chennai. I feel the place lets you take some fresh lessons on the value of independence, culture, politics, add to all, the importance to shed inhibitions in one's life. Of course, I wouldn’t dare to experience this had I been in Kerala, since women rarely do feel safe after twilight.

Till date, I have explored very little in Chennai and most of the things to be done still hog around my wish list. Movie reviews take the lion’s share of the blog posts here, ironically the reviewer have never had the chance to go out with her friends to a multiplex and catch the new movie watching experience!

I still await the opportunity to bask in the sun in Besant Nagar beach, visit lot more temples and churches, explore the nightlife in a discotheque on a New Year eve, go to Mahabalipuram (my new Telgu friends have promised that they’d accompany me one day), do high-end shopping in a department store, attend movie and art fests, and so on and on and on.

If you feel to share some free tips on sight-seeing in Chennai, please do it right away. Extending the discussion to the comments board...

PS: Some of my visual testimonials.

                                                   The Little Florist In West Mambalam 

 Crowd Across Ranganathan Theru On A Diwali Day

Chennai's IT Highway on OMR, my new neighbourhood (courtesy: Wikipedia)

There's No Magic In Guzaarish

,

Reviewing Guzaarish, it's a catch-22 situation (at least for me). If I say the movie is ‘Perfect… So Close’, I fool myself and if I tell the movie did not satiate my senses (or any one), it could send wrong signals to the lovers of art house films, since very few films like this are produced under big banners in India (Especially, the Bollywood). Hence, the director must be applauded for his courage to consider yet another off-beat plot after the Saawariya debacle.
The plot unfurls in a grand bungalow in the silent outskirts of Goa city, inside lives Mr.Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan), a former great magician, now quadriplegic for 14 long years. Since then he has been looked after by his nurse Sophiya (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). An author of his own league, a RJ who teaches values of life and infuses inspiration in the minds of people who have nearly lose faith (and of course plays great songs on radio) Ethan still is not happy with his life, so urges his lawyer friend Devyani (Shernaz Patel) to get him the right to die in dignity from court.
Eventually, his plea gets rejected by court whilst Sophiya wins her case in legal separation from her casanova husband. The protagonists confess their love for each other and decide to marry on the penultimate day of Ethan’s life.
Now to the question hour, how is Ethan going to end his life? It highly rivets me. What if he made a U-turn on the next day? The probability is far too less, but its still there. Maybe, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a sequel in his mind. :P
The acting department did a fine job and it is Aishwarya who shines all the way in the movie, thanks to a perfectly written role. Hrithik is equally good but his role is marred by a shoddily-written script with holes as big the size of craters. I could not see an extreme urge in Ethan to fight his case out, some screen time is simply wasted by the director showing Ethan taking radio votes to crystallise his opinion. The plot is banal as it doesn’t convincingly answer as to why Ethan wishes for death other than his lawyer parroting an argument that can even be said by a 10 year old. Given the serious subject of euthanasia, the treatment of script must be serious enough to drive home the point of the issue to the audience. Guzaarish lacks punch dialogues, neither it has memorable quotes on life by any of the characters present (since, that forms the plot).

A word about music and melody in Guzaarish, SLB has got a decent start as debut music director (also not to forget his “Yoon Shabnami” from Saawariya). The song ‘Udi’ rendered by Sunidhi Chauhan rocks with some Spanish flavour blend with however, run-of-the-mill Bollywood tune. The soundtrack by KK is a flop, interestingly it is Shail Hada who brings life into the melody "Tera Zikr" with his totally rocking vocal, let alone the stunning choreography perfected by Hrithik, the magician and Monikangana Dutta.

Whatever be it, I can’t stop myself from saying that the lose script of Guzaarish is almost a perfect lift of Mar Adentro, a 2004-Academy award winning Spanish movie that I had always loved to review some day. Watch Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside) instead; jam-packed with stunning visuals, perfect cast (though this paraplegic hero is not a hunk like Hrithik) and most importantly powerful dialogues on values of life, this movie just doesn’t get off your head so soon. Oops, this post is supposed to be a review on Guzaarish!

From Chennai To LA: It’s Robo Da, Robo Da

You must be thinking why in the hell would one need a review to catch a Rajini flick. Well, it’s a common question to which there is a pretty easy answer. I too like to associate with the whole brouhaha surrounding the release of this sci-fi extravaganza on planet Earth.

So finally I did catch up Enthiran after long wait (Gasps). So in fond remembrance of those who still nurse a disappointed heart for not able to watch the film until, I unwrap my findings.

The story is about this scientist (Dr. Vaseegaran) who has given his life and blood in the creation of his masterpiece, a humanoid robot which he intends to use for humanitarian purposes. Meanwhile, Dr Vasee’s efforts bore fruits and a humanoid is ‘born’ and they call him ‘Chitti’. A replica of Vasee, the robot only lacks human emotion but the scientist after much deliberation succumbs to the pressure of his senior scientists and upgrades him to produce human emotions. The story takes off from here when the robot falls in love none other than Dr. Vasee’s girl friend creating a love triangle.
Will Chitti fall into the hands of the evil? How audacious will it be like if robots are subjected to misuse? All this is answered as the movie climaxes to the end.

First off, though Robot is a movie Of Rajini, For Rajini and By Rajini (of course it’s Shankar’s from a screenplay by his own), every other character have willingly given their full support for the movie and is very evident. Each frame seems effortlessly perfect which indicates the amount of work gone behind-the-scenes. The film set outclasses and puts into shame every other sci-fi film produced in India, if not the Hollywood. Did you notice Vasi’s robotics lab looks like a mini BARC!

Aishwarya has equally been a saving grace in Enthiran. Her character Sana fits so perfect like a flash drive on a PC port. The song sequences are fully or mostly reliant on her dream moves. Tell me any other Indian actress who can rule both the classical and western genres of dances as natural as this 50 kg Tajmahal (guess I am gushing, but can’t help it).

Conversely and quite disappointing to the fans of Santhanam, the script does little justice to his role and is mostly given a Cntl+Alt+Del in the movie. But nobody complains as long as we get good doses of Robo Da and his antics. Danny Denzongpa as Dr. Bohra did a good job too. Even Kalabhavan Mani in his cameo as Pachaimuthu, a tribal who Sana tries to flirt with to avenge her boyfriend, Dr Vasee was engaging.

The music composition by AR Rahman is a massive enabler of Enthiran. After the super star Rajini’s credit and the movie title, most of the wolf whistles inside the cinema house was reserved for AR. But did you think he must have listened to Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow from the album The E.N.D more than once and got inspired by it? Well, I obviously got a dejavu whilst listening to Irumbile Oru Idaiyam. On the whole, I felt the tunes are fresh, convulsed with melody and sophistication albeit any mention of it here to reiterate his genius as a music composer.

So Bollywood watch out, Rajini is back with a bang in Enthiran. What a movie! Go, see it and tell me what you think about it!

Diary Excerpts

“Aum Namah Shivaya…
Oh, Lord Jesus…
Ya Allah…
Hare Krishna…
Bless Me, Bless All…
- Yours Chosen One, Uthara”

I was excited to start using my new pen, so I gave it a ceremonial inauguration. I said some sweet and flattering things to it, hoping to impress it and win its good will. I know it's silly, but it's just something I do every time I start using a new pen.