Wisdom !!

   While I was in India I barely used the word ‘Wisdom’ and did not have much clue about this powerful word in English dictionary; My little knowledge with the word was due to the the term ‘Wisdom Tooth’. In a way Life is very simple but in some other way life is too complicated – if they conduct ‘Neeya Naana’ I can be in either teams and win over audience since I believe both are true. But one thing that makes the equation very complicated is how is your life going to be – there are way too many factors that determine like purna jenma paavam/punyam, current jenma paavam/punyam, any paavam/punyam by our ancestors etc., Facing hardships can be very exasperating especially when you start doubting your own strengths; any number of advice or philosophy can turn you off since your mind is not willing to listen. But one who goes through this phase with head strong and comes out of it can definitely be a much matured human being.

    Out of all the proverbs the one I always cherish is ‘Whatever happens is always for good’; I have experienced this many times. At that time it is tough to digest but the rationale is revealed much later in the game and that is when knot is released. Just imagine if everything happens as per our wish will we workship the way we do? Will we be modest ? will we be thankful ? To some extent we may be but success often closes our eyes and we tend to take things for granted. In order for us to remain grounded, feel the gratitude, help our peers almighty play games in the name of ‘Hardships’.

   Many complain ‘Astrology’ is all fake and they are not ready to believe it – I can assure you there is lot of hypocrisy out there !! I am one who firmly believe in astrology though I do not know the technical aspects of it. If Astrology predicts everything like when will you will buy a house or buy a car then will you have the desire to work for it? You may tend to take it easy since you know things will happen in particular timeframe; Even worse is lets say if Astrology can predict when exactly will you die, then you may tend to play with snake or fall from 50^th floor since you know for sure you are not going to die until this particular time. Astrology can give you heads up and it is upto you to take necessary caution on your career and personal actions.

   Gaining wisdom at a young age in a way is good, there is an unofficial competition in my household between me and my wife about who talks more wisdom. In a way I laugh at it and in a way I feel happy since we are getting matured. A person who is trying to have a baby for a long time  will laugh at people who wants their kid to be a male/female, a guy who lost his job will laugh at people who complain about commute time between work and home etc., Any small act of kindness matters and it could be as simple as offering a banana to a poor person. Just be happy and thankful of whatever you have today since you don’t know how long will things last.

Mani Ratnam – The Film maker !!

   I was not sure of writing a blog of my favorite director but upon watching Mani ratnam’s interview with Gowtham Vasudev menon which I totally loved I realized I should write one. The best part of the interview was ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’ was discussed only for few minutes and the entire conversation was regarding the working style of the legend. Internet is an easily accessible medium and all it takes to review a film is someone has to tape your talking and then you can post the video in Internet and create a sensation. These guys on top of not having Filmy qualification they hardly know anything about movie making process, logistics of film making, movie distribution, etc., They just feel they are pretty good critics since their videos have garnered more views. Some of the people who reviewed the film in Internet are pathetic. Anyway these days all of us including me categorize a film saying its either ‘fast paced’ or ‘slow screenplay’ – this is where the problem starts. We have to see each film as a distinct film and not treat all films in a same way. I recently watched ‘Kodi’ and ‘Singam 3’ and though I liked these two movies to some extent comparing these two with Mani ratnam movie is a criminal mistake. Our mind is just polluted and we expect movies to have either edge of the seat thriller or a story which unfolds faster. All coffee lovers know that coffee taste so good once we boil the milk for few minutes but we always take the route to boil the milk in microwave and compromise our taste buds – reason is we want to have the coffee faster. My wife says whenever I talk I always bring a food comparison and now realize how true that statement was !!

    Let me just briefly walk you through some of the subjects Mani Ratnam dealt in his films – friction between the newly wed couple (Mouvna Raagam), Underworld don (Nayagan), story of step brothers (Agni Nakshathiram), story of couple both suffering from terminal illness (Geethanjali), story of autistic child and the plight of the parents amidst cruel face of society (Anjali), adaptation of Mahabaratha (Thalapathy), romantic love story with terrorism as background (Roja), Tamil nadu politics in a nutshell (Iruvar), Love story between hindu and muslim with Bombay riots as background (Bombay), Post marital relationships (Alaipayuthey), Story and agony of srikankan tamils to meet their near and dear ones (Kannathil muthamittal), Youth in politics (Ayudha eluthu), Biography of Indian business legend (Guru), Adaptation of Ramayana (Raavan), reflection of modern urban youth vs old traditional values (O kadal kanmani) and once again a romantic love story between the lead pair who are opposite in nature (Kaatru Veliyidai). I strongly believe for a movie to be considered good then the heroine character has to be good – Divya in Mouvna Raagam, Roja in Roja, Shaila Banu in Bombay, Kalpana in Iruvar, Shakthi in Alaipayuthey, Indira in Kannathil Muthamittal, Tara in OK Kanmani and Dr.Leela in Kaatru Veliyidai are just etched in my memory. He is one director who shows girls as independent, bold, intelligent and garrulous. Can we imagine a film maker who has touched so many sensitive topics in celluloid? To handle these topics with brilliant characterizations, technical finesse, articulate craftmanship and not to forget realism deserves huge round of applause. Ofcourse celluloid demands fantasy elements and to deliver quality films laced with great music, mind blowing cinematography one has to master the art very well and only a top notch individual can do that which according to me is Mani ratnam. 

Realism: Let me just go over few scenes from his classics which depicts realism to the core.

Mouvna Raagam: Now how many of us know that the home in Delhi (one Mohan lives) shown in Mouvna Raagam was actually in Madras. That is where a film maker comes into picture – right from surroundings, sounds, people everything has to have a realistic touch as per the narration of the movie. I love one of the scene in which Revathy stops Mohan from sipping a coffee saying sugar was not added to it assuming he won’t drink and she can use the coffee later in the day. Also one other scene in second half where Revathy rushes to open the door to greet his parents she would be with Idly batter all over her hand. These small details just blends so well into the narrative. I can keep on talking about this movie but on a lighter note I always had this dream before marriage to watch my favorite movie along with my wife post marriage, only to realize Minu slept half way through. Next day Minu said it’s a good movie but not as good as I portray ….Hmm....Minu watches movie by forwarding many scenes whereas I like to watch movies from Title card rolling ....

Roja: Arvind samy takes his newly wed wife to introduce to his Chief and the chief once realizing it’s a tamil girl connects with her so much and the camera angle is tilted to show a Tamil Murugan calendar in the backdrop ….automatically the audience relates to the narration and not to forget Chief requesting Paal paniyaram to Madhu bala in the end ….I am just trying to be myself ..

Agni Nakshathiram: Vijayakumar often swaps names between Ashok and Gowtham which are just instinct gestures by Vijayakumar but it adds so much to the intensity of the movie as both the brothers share the same biological father.

Alai Payuthey: A typical middle class scene when Shalini and her sister have breakfast where mom complains about hair not tied, daughter complains about upma being the routine breakfast and the best was mom tying a thread around Shalini’s hand for her to do the exams well. These are pure slice of life is an Indian household. Talking about this movie I love the house in which Maddy and Shalini stay with just brick and cement (without being painted) only to realize later when I bought my home that I do not even have control to change the place of my Microwave. Reality sucks !!

Once audience able to relate the narrative in celluloid they get connected to the movie. But obviously movies do need fantasy and that is where songs come into picture. Practically we buy few sets of clothes in a calendar year but in movies we love to see hero and heroine keep changing dresses, we may not be able to go to places shown in the movie and hence audience enjoy those during song sequences.

King of Romance: For a hard core Mani Ratnam fan it is easy to point out that he is king of romance as you can see pretty much all the movies there is a strong dosage of romance. Now for someone who is 60+ in India to deal with romance the extent Mani Ratnam has explored shows he must have done an extensive thesis on ‘Love and relationships’. He is one film maker who does not believe in skin show and always differentiates between lust and love– there is one scene in Roja where by mistake Arvind swamy would happen to tear the blouse of Madhubala, had it been other directors they would have asked music director to make the scene look sensuous by some crap BGM score instead Arvind samy says ‘Sorry …it happened by mistake’. People critisize ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’ so much but if you look deeper the movie deals with relationships and difference of opinion between the lead pair. In real life it is the small incidents which creates misunderstanding between couples and that is portrayed beautifully in the movie. Movies like Mouvna Raagam and Alaipayuthey says love after marriage is the true one, Anjali and Kannathil Muthamittal shows love between the couple keeping children in background, Rajini marries a widower in Thalapathy so on and so forth. Love is always shown with lot of dignity and Mani Ratnam extracts the best out of the actors.

Break the stereotypes: Running time of his movies vary by each movie, number of songs vary per movie, heroine may have kids if the story demands, close up shots are plenty if that is necessary for the movie, on board an actor quite opposite to his nature like the RJ Balaji character in Kaatru Veliyidai, shoot songs in India and still show the aesthetics and talk less about his movies instead have his movies do the talking

    Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam aka Mani Ratnam is a film personality we should all celebrate. Given his recognition any actor in India will be willing to work under his direction knowing he is a low pay master. Sometimes people like Mani Ratnam are forced to make movies in many languages across same time to have pan India release but due to availability of dates with lead actors and other logistics challenges they had to compromise on Nativity as they have to wrap up the shoot. Obviously his movies in 80’s and 90’s are no match to his current films but nevertheless he is still one of the best film makers in the country. Now makers have tough time to defend one scene which sensors believe may be controversial but here is one man who has touches many sensitive subjects in the likes of religion, love, relationships, political battle, disabled kid etc., and still came out in flying colors. He would have made many movies and increased his bank balance but he did not believe in number game. He is inspiration to current crop of directors and his movies act as a dictionary to them. Through this blog I have paid my tribute to my favorite director in Kollywood – Mani Ratnam

Shame on Media

    Indian democracy is said to have four pillars – legislature, executive, judiciary and press which is nothing but media. Media has several different forms like – paper, television, social media etc., Many media is privatized and influence with government authorities can obtain you license to one of the lucrative industries. I am so disappointed with Indian media – anything and everything is sensationalized in order to garner viewership. Their only goal is TRP which is a key metric to denote how well they are performing in the market.

    Sasikala going to jail is captured like never before as if a freedom fighter is convicted, there are alerts, flash news, minute by minute updates on her activities on the day she went to jail. I am not sure about the judiciary aspects but when someone is convicted there has to be process in place saying person who is convicted should report within so many hours or days but here is a person who took her own time and media did not question that instead they passed on the news to public by elaborating hour by hour details. I was informed Thanthi TV program called ‘Kelvikenna pathil’ is a very nice program – yes Pandey definitely does a good job but if you carefully evaluate the program all he is trying to do is counter attack the person he is interviewing. Though he feels something is correct but still he goes up and beyond from what the other person is saying by cleverly presenting facts and smartly interpreting information. People may think Pandey is too good by grilling the person but actually he is trying to be loyal to his employer by making the program more interesting and gaining more viewership. Now let me talk about the super duper famous star ‘Gopinath’ of Vijay TV fame. The day he did doctors show I lost all respect for him but that is just personal level. He can talk about any topic under the sun given the amount of reading he does but where was he during Jallikattu protest, why did he not raise any opinion regarding Jayalalitha’s death, why did he not question Udayanidhi stalin during DMK’s regime on 2G scam, why did he not raise any questions regarding Swathi’s murder case …People may say he is not  police officer or government official to handle law and order in the state but he projects himself as a social activist and says his program will ask questions to raise concerns on current state of affairs. Now he went to a place to stop hydrocarbon project and also gave a speech – this is mere eyewash to gain popularity. He criticizes government authorities and at the same time interviews celebrities associated with political parties; why this hypocrisy? His program picks on good topics but intensity is lost when they edit which one is aired. I have heard from few folks that people talk quite a lot but the one appearing on TV is very less – obviously you cannot show everything but the way program is shown on TV is to attract good one liners, punch dialogues, emotional aspects and also anything which can has the potential to be sensationalized. Media projected Nadigar sangam elections so much which increased their business by many times but do an election comprising of 5000 votes overall deserve this much hype? If Vijay Mallya is arrested, Karunanidhi is hospitalized, Nayantara is separated from her lover, Simbu’s beep song is released then that news dominates the day overlooking many important aspects in the state administration.

    Money dominates the policies; If a jewellery shop is about to be opened in the town then they pay exorbitant advertisement fee to have their ad placed on the very first page. Media should have a policy of not to display ads in the first page. Some news may not have business value like an inspiring real time story but rather than placing it in a nook and corner they can give more real estate to the news by placing it in a nice slot to attract readership. Tamil Nadu farmers are protesting in Delhi and there has been little coverage and even when the coverage is there media is either sensationalizing or sympathetic towards the whole topic. Media started to cover Marina beach protest only after it gained more attention, basically only after it realized there is a monetary potential to the whole proceeding. Through the name of ‘Reality shows’ media also taps emotional quotient and translates into Business which is very sad. A small kid eliminated from a round is projected as a loss in Olympic race by having a BGM score, tears all round, close up shots of parents etc., It just pisses me off completely.

   There is quite a lot of investment made in starting a media and without attracting sponsorship it is difficult to sustain the competition. Once sponsorships come into picture then external influence comes into picture on how media is run and also founders drive the initiatives keeping the sponsors in mind and not the public. End of the day people are made fools by watching news which is not close to reality. Delhi gangrape attracted so much attention for media and then once the dust settled very few media covered whether justice prevailed; For media the news happened at first instance provided so much fodder whereas latter did not. Anyway I am not against media since they are the ones who bring the news to our doorstep but when media commercializes everything then I just feel very disappointed.

Thaipusam 2017

  Thaipusam is celebrated as victory of good over evil. It is to be believed that on Thaipusam day goddess Parvati gave Vel to Lord Muruga to demolish Asuras. Offering Kavadi to Lord Muruga has its own significance – burden in one’s own life will be lessened. Thaipusam is widely celebrated across the globe and here in America Murugan devotees are lucky enough to participate in Shiva Murugan temple’s Thaipusam celebrations. Padhayatra is one such ritual where devotees take pilgrimage to temple. Living in a country where few drops of water on the floor is cautioned using a yellow board, pilgrimage must be a distant dream for many. A Trail in California which is pretty much straight for most part of the journey and all the way to temple – do we call this luck or do we call this a divine intervention?

   Volunteers – a word which gained more respect and meaning after seeing them in action. Young adults take off from their work, young ladies get together on a house and do mass cooking, Teenage boys do Bike patrolling, teenage girls help their mom on break spots, small girl gives napkins, 70-year-old lady does pandhi visaranai, so on and so forth. Food for breakfast, lunch and dinner is not catered but cooked by volunteers; Just to make sure people are not lost during the walk especially the out of station folks, leads are assigned and several folks are assigned on many intersections just to direct to the right path.

  Key to hosting a successful event for an organization is to plan things and execute them meticulously. If one can bridge the gap between planning and execution, then success story is on the making. Let me give you three examples. They had multiple counters for serving food and one volunteer gave plate, spoon and napkin together which reduces time rather than allowing people to pick each one from table. They had dedicated volunteer to collect plates, napkins, spoons by that way they can prevent trash bag getting filled with empty space. By this way they could fill in more and this on top of being environment friendly it also reduces number of trips to dispose trash. Next one is traffic control – with overwhelming numbers each passing year they came up with a strategy in how they want to control traffic amongst the walkers. They placed volunteers in appropriate junctions and basically the person did a traffic constable job in managing the overall flow of walkers. I love the concept of neither sodas in any of the break spots nor junk food. Liquid items were buttermilk, rosemilk, chai, coffee, Gatorade and panakkam which were all well made.

   Padhayatra is a wonderful experience to interact with nature – place your feet on the ground, look upto the glorious sky and feel the wonderful breeze of air and in the process, also thank nature of our existence in this world. There are more and more challenges for the organizers every year due to the overwhelming response from devotees across the country. Being religious is good in many ways and there are many ways to offer our prayers to almighty – Padha yatra is one such thing. ‘Seva’ actually means ‘Selfless service’ and just want to go over this term in detail. First and foremost as devotees we have to acknowledge the fact that many may not be able to do physically exhaustive tasks like Anga pradhesham, padha yatra etc., If we are being truly religious then we can encourage devotees and motivate them and if the other party still feel they cannot then it is our responsibility to give them the free space. Some offer money, some volunteer their time, some sing bhajans, some market the events etc., people can do anything to their capacity and lord will be happy to accept prayers of his/her devotees. The true devotion is the key and this is called ‘Bhakthi’. I know people who are now old who have not indulged in any padha yatra but still having a fulfilling life with good health, wealth, prosperity, good children etc., But there were truly devotional and always good at heart. If one can perform traditions like Padha yatra in a foreign land then that is well and good and should consider themselves very blessed and at the same time they should encourage more people to participate in future. I have been blessed to experience Padha yatra in USA for three consecutive years and would highly recommend you to participate in future. It just takes one experience for you to keep coming again and again. 

Demonetization

   Demonetization – the term that shook the nation by surprise and which occupied headlines in every type of media. Not just that it also dominated most of the space in public gatherings. I was fortunate to be in India when such an announcement was made. Let me brief you on my experience during this earth-shattering announcement from PM Narendra modi ji. I was in my native attending sister’s marriage and whoever recognized I was from USA asked me whether I am missing my vote in the high-octane US elections without realizing I am not eligible to vote and I am no way closer to the eligibility. Everyone was curious who will win as if I am well versed in astrology. But this being on one side around 8.30pm on November 08^th, Tuesday the announcement came saying that 500 rupees and 1000 rupees notes will be mere paper after dec 31^st of 2016. Gossips, banter, shock all started to come from all corners since this is not a forwarded message. Videographer pulled me and showed his phone and it had how 500 and 1000 rupees notes used to fill ground nuts. The creative minds who does forwarded messages should seriously consider getting into cine field since their creativity is good enough to make some good movies. Anyway banks were announced holiday on Wednesday (November 9^th) for it to get ready for the busy days ahead. If there was a survey on human interaction, then I bet November 9^th 2016 would have topped the list in this digital era since every single human being wanted to interact with as much people as possible to get their insights. After the shocking news on Trump’s victory in the morning the only thing that could have made me happier was ‘Food’ and thoroughly enjoyed athangudi perumal’s breakfast.

  Let me point out what are the misses from this move

(a)    When Prime minister of the nation makes an announcement through national media of such a move then what is the credibility of Indian rupees? No law, no reform and a mere announcement gives a bad brand image to Indian currency

(b)    Consumer spending could be less since people want to safeguard the notes for emergency; I visited a medical store in Thirapathur on November 9^th evening to buy a medicine and shopkeeper either doesn’t have change or doesn’t want to give change. 100 rupees notes were suddenly treated like mango lassie in Sahara dessert

(c)     Value of money suddenly increases and with it comes the value of debt which also increases. It makes it more difficult for the debtors to repay their debt

(d)    It also resulted in mad rush to buy other investments like Gold since people had to convert the cash into something tangible; Due to demand the prices increased much beyond than its original price

(e)    Unaccounted cash can be converted into expensive gifts which again makes the gifts go skyrocket in price due to demand than its original value

(f)      I saw a post in FB where Chetan Bhagat said he had to buy all the balloons from a balloon seller who was having tough time selling any due to the cash shortage; India is about these people do who make small money to make their ends meet. The people below poverty line is affected the most since they thrive only by cash

 I personally liked the move and see this as a bold step towards the right direction

(a)    Black money is a very common scenario in a country like India and the move will no doubt help to eradicate black money (not from all but at least from many)

(b)    Counter tax evasion – generate more tax revenue for government since underpayment of taxes will be prevented

(c)     In a land of forgery counterfeiting currency has become very common and the move will help to prevent counterfeiting of currencies

(d)    Terrorist attach groups will not have fake cash to attack our country

(e)    Corruption may reduce significantly due to lack of currency notes

(f)      Local groups who cause petty fights might be discouraged to get into violent acts since there is no cash to award them.

  We can argue both ways but if we want to transform a country and get into a clean state then we have to address things at a grass root level. People believe notice must be given and we all know if a notice given on this regard how many protests we would have seen in the country. The message reached across the length and breadth of the country and this was evident for me since I got a receipt for my purchase of snacks from a small shop run by achi in Venthampatty. The transition is going to be a tough one especially since illiteracy rate for india is still very high. But once people get a hang around then day to day operation will be smooth; Believe me some road side shops generate lots of revenue too – I know a parotta shop in Trichy who has been in business for 30 + years now and I always relish his egg parotta since childwood. This man per my dad owns lots of houses and business is driven purely out of cash. Likewise there are many whose business may appear low profile but may be far lucrative since no tax is paid. Use of credit cards, machines, online accounting, customer service, banking service, application forms all are going to take some time for the common man to sink in but once transition is done we could see a bright, clean and powerful nation …right now it’s in the making. 

Don't forget the Roots !!

    I wanted to pen this blog after observing many different conversations from many different people from all walks of life. It is something which saddens me that people very easily forget their roots. Optimism is important but it should not be at the cost of something. I just wanted to point out how people forget that they came from India after sitting in wealthiest country in the world counting dollar notes.

   In 1980’s and 1990’s the number of Indians migrated to USA was less compared to these days where we see good number of Indians in all parts of the country. As the number increases automatically number of Indian temples, Indian stores are on the rise. With that we also try to bridge the culture as much as possible to pass the rich tradition to the next generation. Example – things like mango leaves, jasmine flower or plantain leaf may be impossible or very expensive stuff in those days which is all very accessible these days. People are basically born, brought up and had all their schooling and college back in India and they have come during their earlier twenties and kind of settled down here in USA. Now with their next generation people try to promote culture and tradition which is praiseworthy. But the problem starts when they say “Ippo ellam India la kuda pilaingalaam epadi ellam paadaadhu” (Meaning: Nowadays in India we don’t get to see kids sing like this); According to me this is completely unwanted. They can be happy that kids are doing a good job here but why unnecessarily they drag India into picture even if what they say is true. Have they seen all kids not sing in India? Mother India nurtures an individual, teaches basic principles, provides education and once people inherit everything they migrate to a foreign nation and harvests everything in an alien land and starts to bad mouth their own country though their passport would say something different.

    Some religious events are so authentic back home and people do not customize per their preference. Things have been changing in India but India cannot become USA and USA cannot become India. Saying we are good is just enough versus saying others are bad. What people must acknowledge is they cannot get best of both the worlds – let us be happy of what we do here as well as learn to respect our nest - ‘India’ 

J Jayalalitha

J Jayalalitha – a powerful name not just in Tamil nadu but throughout the nation. Her demise no doubt created a huge vacuum in Tamil nadu politics. I remember when I was in my childwood appa used to pay a price just to have the letter ‘J’ in the car number plate. Like title value the letter ‘J’ demanded letter value and whenever people hear anyone with ‘Maha’ nakshathiram first thing people quote is it is the nakshathiram of Jayalalitha. Her audacity, perseverance and Intelligence are her trademarks and her oratory skills (Tamil/English) is simply outstanding. Whenever she addresses national media with eloquent English I always felt proud.

    These days’ people grumble for petty things like – gas has gone high by 10 cents, iphone glass broken, visa fees increased etc., but here is a woman where ‘struggle’ was part and parcel of her life. With her dad passing away early in her life she was brought up by her mom, a single parent, she also spent lot of time away from mom since she moved to Bangalore for some time, her brother passed away and she was forced to enter cine industry which she was not interested in first place. When it comes to career, it is very difficult to pursue a career which you don’t relish. Then from one glamorous field to another she had to foray into politics which again was not her natural choice. She could not attest her relationship legally with a leader and hence had to live with a name tag which no woman likes to have. Then after the demise of the leader she had to undergo some nasty experience during funeral, an absolute disgusting experience in Tamil nadu assembly in 1989 where she promised she would enter the place only as a chief minister. In 1991 she became the chief minister of the state and from then on it was a roller coaster ride. She faced many ups and downs and all her hardships packaged her into a person of who she is as a person. Though people talk of gender equality it is not easy for woman to prove her mettle in the male dominated society.

    Just imagine whether we can have woman freely go to ration shop or a middle class cinema theater in India, often there is mad rush and men make use of the situation and nasty incidents are either reported or go unnoticed due to privacy issues. A lady and a fair skinned person coming from cinema industry to fight the system with so much grit shows her caliber. Every national leader attended the funeral or at least expressed their condolence message to the iron lady of India.

   Jayalalitha has been a huge inspiration for woman; To run a leading party of the state and win elections for the party with so much conviction talks a lot about her talent. I liked many of her initiatives and there was a saying that when she rules the money rotation is more in the state. She was steadfast on her thoughts and she will not bend down rules or policies to attract alliances during election. One thing she does often within her ministers is to fire people if she feels they are not fit for the position. She reaches out to Central for funds but never have them dominate when she and her party are ruling the state. I am pointing out this because in politics when money comes in people tend to relax everything including self-esteem. Her nomination list, her allocation of portfolios, allocation of seats to alliances all are admired by political circle. I loved the way she addressed the issue during Visvaroopam release when actor Kamal haasan was going over the roof by quoting how he had to sell the house for the making of the movie. She said if Kamalhaasan is over 60 and had to sell the house for a movie then she or her government cannot be accounted for since she is more responsible for providing law and order to the state and not just one movie and one person.

   Her final days was not pleasant at all. Spending 75 days in a hospital campus without seeing the outside world is no good. She couldn’t meet her beloved people of Tamil nadu in her last phase of life. But who would have imagined that when you get admitted to a hospital you will be there forever, and eventually end your life? She had so much command over her ministers but in the end, she had to be put on life support. Life at times sounds harsh but reality is always a bitter sweet. She got full state honors and Chennai came to a standstill to pay respects to a politician who stood apart from her counterparts. I will personally miss her speech like "J Jayalalitha enum naan", "Seiveergala".  I am not sure how long should we wait to witness another lady politician like J Jayalalitha but we all should be happy that we were part of her era. Rest in peace mam …

Meeting the Legend

Human worship towards people in cine industry is always bit embarrassing especially when your in laws are around. But end of the day we are what we are and I just couldn’t control my exhilaration meeting the legend and my all time favorite Raja sir. In fact given a chance I would like to take pictures with many celebrities but ones I always want to take was with Raja sir and Actor Sivakumar. Before me talking about meeting the legend let me go over the Music concert. Actually this was the second Raja sir concert I attended and was definitely looking forward. It really didn’t matter who were the singers since Orchestration is the main ingredient in a Raja sir concert but we were lucky to have Chitra ji, Sadahana sargam, Mano, Karthik, Yuvan as singers. Typical of Indian concerts to start late but who cares since the excitement is still floating in the air but the concern was would a delayed start mean we would listen to less number of songs ? I bet a hard core fan must have had this question in mind. Then came the man with white dhoti onto the stage when the crowd was on their feet welcoming the legend. It was startling to see another devotional song sung by local priests before the man delivered his standard ‘Janani song’. When Chitra chechi sang her first song Raja sir showed a piece of paper where the notes was written way back in 1981. I was wondering the paper and myself belong to the same age and it is weird how the same pulp used to make paper can be used for music composition of Raja sir song as well as a tissue paper; So basically ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder’; What stand aparts in a Raja sir concert is the Orchestration team –No minimizing the team for cost cutting reasons and basically sound coming from the instruments is retained from the original composition. Also the chorus part is something you see often in Raja sir concerts since the chorus brings the real flavor of the song’s lyrics. Three plus hours flew just like that and then came the climax song from Nayagan with a different lyrics only to appreciate and thank the man more and more. Concert was great and our seating spots were just what the doctor ordered only to enrich our overall experience. At age 73, I am not sure how many more concerts he will tour internationally but feel totally blessed and money well spent on attending this concert.

  Coming out of the concert myself and my father in law decided to have dinner in a nearby Indian restaurant. As I was munching my szechuan fried rice around 9.34 pm I got a call from a friend asking whether I am interested to meet Raja sir next day morning around 7am. This is similar to asking a woman whether she wants to have a Kalamkari saree with handpainted flowers and peacock (I developed interest in Sarees since 2009 for reasons known) . I was delighted to say ‘Yes’ over the phone and I was all pumped up. We reached home and I already started dreaming about next day morning. I wrote couple of lines about Raja sir what I would call my way of thanksgiving to the legend. Around 12, I hit the bed keeping an alarm for 6am, 6.05 am on top of the usual 6.30am alarm; Believe me I am not sure how many times but for sure hurried to look into the clock atleast twice in the night to see whether its 6am already. Skandan rolling over and szechuan fried rice previous night did no good to my sleeping at all. Finally around 6am I got up and was getting ready to meet the man I cherish every single calendar day. I also had my father in law write down the lines I scribbled previous night into a piece of paper and left home like a child who got 4 lolli pops. I was bit concern whether elden street lights would delay my commute but I was given a royal welcome ..Thanks to all the green lights in Elden street. According to AT&T time I reached Worldgate Marriott lobby in Herndon around 6.59 am; We were a group of friends sitting in the lobby all waiting to see the man. Sir gave consent to meet us through one of the coordinators and we took the elevator to reach the respective floor. Though I do not take vallarai tablets for memory power I am going to try to remember as far as I can of what happened next.

 We entered the room and saw the man ..Yes I saw the man and I couldn’t imagine I was few millimetres away from the man. He was all dressed up in western attire ready to take the flight back home in couple of hours but still had vibudhi and kumkum ..maybe he just had his morning prayers before we stepped in. He greeted all of us and all of us touched his feet to get blessings. I said it is still not sure whether whats happening is a reality….Then we all sat in the sofa and common friend introduced all of us and explained how much we all love his music. Raja sir was asking about the water tank seen from one of his windows which he was not sure what it was. When your mind is occupied I am not sure you will respond to a question ….Then I mentioned to him we missed hearing ‘Naan thedum sevanthi poovidhu’ song from the concert yesterday and he said it was part of the list but was missed ..I said when there is so much to choose obviously 3 hours will allow you to sing only so many ..he acknowledged what I said …Then I took out the green card from my pocket and gave him the lines I wrote. He did not read but am happy he took and placed it in the table nearby. Now its time to take Photographs ..we took a group picture. When we see a sign 75 MPH we get excited and wish we could drive in 80MPH and that’s what happened …after taking group picture we took individual pictures one by one ….Thanks to the type of books I read ..a senior inside me pops out at times and I said following words in tamil “Though it’s a selfish desire please take care of your health since we want you to do more music by that way my son, grandson should listen to your music’; He smiled and all of us again touched his feet and said good bye. I came out of the room ecstatically and we also met Yuvan in the hallway and I congratulated for his fatherhood and took a picture with him. Modern brain is programmed in such a way that anything like this happens the next thing we do is turn towards social media. I was very particular I should arrest this temptation and wait for couple of weeks before I share something on Facebook and I am happy I won the battle.

So what’s special about Raja sir? After all he is also a Human being and does his work as a Musician..whats the big deal? Well for me personally Raja sir plays an integral part of my life. A fifteen minutes commute to the nearest Metro demands I turn on Ilayaraja music in the radio, my coast to coast trips would have been like traveling to next continent if not for his music, running in the Treadmill would have been a nightmare without his music, all of my hard drives has a dedicated folder called ‘Ilayaraja’. Let me give you few example of how his music lifts the spirits ..
1) Song ‘Sangeetha Thirunaal’ from the movie ‘Kadaluku Mariyadhai’ has lots of chorus and in my community during the marriages around 3-5 pm normally bride bids adieu to her parents/relatives and leaves to her in laws place and this is normally the emotional part of the wedding. Most of the studios insert this song in the background at this juncture or during any part of the wedding. Just listen to the song with the context and you will emotionally connect.
2) Listen to ‘Mandam vandha’ song from a guy’s perspective who is willing to forget the past and want to focus on future.
3) There is no song which portrays love,war, pain and longing of the couple like how ‘Sundari kanaal oru sedhi’ does, the way violin and flute is used mesmerizes a music lover.
4) Violin part in the start of the song ‘Kalyana Maalai’ is good enough to bring a smile to any music lover.
5) If we start talking about BGM score then my list will go endless ..but even if one doesn’t understand the language I am sure when you watch Apoo Kamal being rejected in love in movie ‘Apoorva sagotharargal’ you will see the pain ….BGM score in movies like Poovae puchudava and Varusham 16 created so much impact that you cannot imagine such movies without the BGM score.
This is what the man does …he advocates the musical instruments through his orchestration according to the context. In Trichy Ayyappan temple a place with lot of difference they have a wall with ‘Amma Endrazhaikaatha’ song lyrics and so many people come and play the song and do a sashtang namaskaram towards the lyrics. Thiruvasagam reached more public through his work and even now when I want to put Skandan to sleep I play ‘Lali lali’ song from Sipikul Muthu. Thank you Panchu sir, Raja sir family for sacrificing time, Directors who got the best out of Raja, Producers who made it all possible, singers, lyricists and his core orchestration team for all the songs we audience treasure in our lifetime. Raja sir is beyond music for me personally and September 26th is always a special day since it is my amma’s birthday and September 26th 2016 will be more special since I met a person whom I have lots of respect.

Raja rasigan

Hmmm ...Expectation - Is it good ?

      Assume it is a Monday morning and at 6.30 alarm starts shouting good enough for you to come out of bed; You get ready to go to work and you just realized your better half hasn’t ironed your shirt as she promised previous day evening since you had to entertain the guests over the weekend. So it’s a small piece of incident happened against your expectations. Now you drive your car to work and as a courtesy you gave enough time for the pedestrians to cross over the road at the cost of you missing a traffic signal. Though you did out of your own interest still you kinda expected a gentle Thank you by means of waving the hand from atleast one of the string of people walking across the road. So once again a small piece of incident happened against your expectations. At work let us assume after an intriguing brainstorming session you go for your lunch and on your way realized that you forgot your car keys inside the conference room. Upon rushing back to the conference room you are shocked not to see the keys but glad to know that keys are kept at your desk by your colleague. Instead of thanking your colleague your reaction is “Why did my colleague not inform me right away rather than coming to know from HR” ? Again things happen against your expectations. Finally after an exhaustive day at work you return home and expect your kids to carry out the daily errands like checking the mailbox and emptying the trash bins. Again things go against your expectation and you are left pondering over all the small incidents that took place over the course of the day.

     So expecting something to happen and when reality is other way round it turns out to be disappointment.  Expecting is ‘Conditional’ and not expecting anything is ‘Unconditional’ and that is why they say mother’s love is always unconditional in nature. As we move on in life the less we expect from it and just follow the principle of taking things as they come will make us at peace. If a day without expectations can avoid disappointments don’t you agree life without expectations will make you more merrier.

K-A-B-A-L-I

     Well I was waiting for the dust to settle ..Pronouncing the word 'Kabali' brings in lot of exhilaration !! In the last two weeks the term I searched most in Google as well as Youtube was ‘Kabali’; For no movie I have read so many articles and I thoroughly enjoyed reading everything since I got to know what each one things from their own perspective. First I would like to talk about the businessman called ‘Thanu’ ..Man …this is how brand marketing should be The awareness it created which both a software engineer as well as milk man can relate to. I came to know that people in North did Case study on his marketing skills.  Basically it had to start from the grass root level and one of his interviews I came to know that Thanu travels with poster man to supervise placement of posters. His hunger and patience to do a Rajini film is very well seen as he had to wait 30 plus years to produce a Rajini movie and when he got a chance he made use of all possible ways to showcase his publicity skills. This is commendable since if you look at any tamil speaking human being (atleast 8 out of 10) around the globe during July 21-25 timeframe either they talked about Kabali or listened to people talking about Kabali.

    Let us talk about Economics..It was released in record number of screens with many showing premiere shows too, we had Air asia as airline partner, Amazon as online partner, VS hospitals as Hospital partner, Muthoot finance group, PVR cinemas as multiplex partner, Airtel as telecom partner, Cadbury as food and beverage partner etc., All the media (Satellite channels, paper,online) had tremendous readership/viewership during Kabali release time and also they earn lot of moolah through advertisements. Right from guy who sells Rajini embossed T-shirt, parking vendor, canteen vendors, Toilet cleaners, poster boys everyone get to earn more money around release of Rajini movie and this time it just got bit more.

It was my very first experience watching the movie First day First show (FDFS) and was definitely looking forward for the movie. The expectations the teaser has set and the hype that surrounded the movie on top of the new technicians that was invloved made me sketch a completely different picture. Once the movie ended I felt the movie was average. It was great move for Rajinikanth to move away from his cliché mass masala movies and give a break to a promising team – a director who is two films old, an upcoming music director, relatively new stunt master, cinematographer, editor etc., He even came out of his sentiment of having SPB sing the intro song, no larger than life scenes, no scope for BGM score, no duets with heroines, no comedian etc., All these are welcome changes and thus shows the confidence he has on the director and his team.

On the downside screenplay is very predictable and the plot was neither cinematic nor realistic and it fell in between which was the major problem. With so many shootings it is hard to imagine how come the movie is given ‘U/A’ certificate and I am curious to know the norm for censor certification. Also dialogues are not very power packed for the audience to feel the emotional quotient and also I felt atleast one song could have been shot in a racy way to fill the thirst of rajini fans. Well super star tried an animation movie and also went back to ace director in the likes of K.S Ravikumar and since both those attempts did not give him favorable results he had no choice but to go back to a promising new comer like P.Ranjith. There is a notion that foreign locates, blazers, action scenes fetches more moolah and often times story is overlooked. Also I believe there is a law which says only so many number of shows to be played on a weekday with exception being on festival days like Diwali or Pongal and also there are restrictions as far as ticket prices but we all know how much was the tickets sold by theatres and also how many shows they ran during the opening weekend (tickets sold at black market is a different story). Well I am just pointing out this to reiterate the fact when all rules are broken then obviously all records are to be broken. It is true we spend 20 or 25$ to watch the movie but this is mere greedyness making use of the charisma and demand. Just imagine top hollywood films are sold 15$ per head on the opening day where they have spent more money on the making of the movie. In the end people may argue we buy the tickets anyway but all I mean to say is that is not the right way to make money and boast about the phenomenal box office records. Rajini film both help cinema industry as well as kill small film producers since a new Rajini movie means theatres pull off movies running on the theatre though it may do good business.

    Logistics of how a Rajini movie business work should change ..when Rajini offers a production house to do a project they take this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and do everything to make it grand and do business based on his previous release..this is where problem starts …Greedyness takes over and people pay much more than how much it is worth for …ok now people may ask how to determine ‘worth’ of a movie since sky is the limit for Rajini movie …well there is no certain formula to come up with a number but if Rajinikanth does movies based on his age and open to character roles where story takes precedence then craze for Rajini movie will be  at optimum level and everyone involved in the supply chain will stand to gain.

    Also one other thing I noticed in Kabali was clash of opinions …Everyone had an opinion and what is discouraging is when people voice out non favorable reviews then fans get angry ..well this act is very childish and even makers of the movie when they get appreciation from 99% of the crowd it is very natural to get 1% negative reviews and I personally feel they should be open about that since it is nothing but law of nature. I believe the fans get angry because they love the person more than the movie and that is the problem ..the review is just about the movie and not about the man. Who else in this earth can roam around in a street with a headset when the entire Tamil speaking community is going mad over his movie. In my entire blog I have talked about the movie but not about the man ..Yes after all I am a fan of superstar too …மகிழ்ச்சி