Friday, September 4, 2009

YSR: Untimely, Unfortunate!

Now, this has come out as one piece of really shocking news for me- Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the charismatic AP Chief Minister is no more and that too, due to a chopper accident!
A big loss to the people of Andhra Pradesh, YSR's death is truly a bolt in the blue for INC as it is losing one of its senior most and highly respected leaders down south! 4 time Member of Parliament, YSR took over Andhra Pradesh from N Chandrababu Naidu in the 2004 Assembly Elections. He won the 2009 Assembly Elections again and brought INC successfully back to power. He also won 33 Lok Sabha seats in 2009 which was quite an achievement!
The INC will have to do a lot of ground work before finding out a successor to YSR and I cannot think of anyone who can really match upto him! The opposition parties may find it easier next time but all will definitely miss YSR in the political circles. May his departed soul Rest in Peace!

Three- O Celebrations!

Considering the fact that I was few continents away from home for my big 30th Birthday and the amount of work on hand to be completed, I thought this day was going to be a low key affair. But, thanks to my good friends in Halifax, I had a blast- the kind of Birthday I have not celebrated in decades!
To start with, had a great lunch at Economy Shoe Shop- now don't mistake it for a place that sells shoes. It is one of the oldest Taverns in Halifax, has a very unique feel to it, is done up differently and most importantly, serves delicious food. I had a ball munching into my Club Veggie Wrap and Roasted Potatoes under comfortably warm sunshine!
Had more fun when I was back in office. A delicious chocolate cake was arranged specially for me (with a Birthday Message written across it) and I had close to 30 people singing "Happy Birthday" to me!!! I am so so happy that this Birthday has turned out magical for me. I hope the year ahead is also as special! Thanks to all good friends in Halifax who made this happen. Needless to say, I am on Clouds NINETY NINE  before I board the flight home tomorrow :-)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Rajan P Dev and Murali

2 talented actors that Malayalam Cinema lost to the 2009 Monsoons...2 who can never be replaced. This post is my way of paying tribute to the 2 actors who I have enjoyed watching on screen!
Murali was not just a cinema actor- he was also an intellectual who believed strongly in the leftist ideals and tried to apply them to his life. A stage actor, director and an articulate writer, Murali handled his different roles with his ease and played all of them extremely well! Murali came into limelight during the mid- 80's with one great performance after the other- in Hariharan's "Panchagni" and Lenin Rajendran's "Meenamasathile Sooryan". It did not take Malayalam Cinema long to recognize his talent and soon he became a part and parcel of Malayalam Cinema slipping in and out of a variety of characters and leaving his stamp behind on each of them. He particularly shined in roles scripted by Lohitadas (Aadharam, Maalayogam, Kaarunyam, Bharatham, Thoovalkottaram, Amaram, Venkalam, Chamayam, Valayam- to name a few) and Cherian Kalpakavadi (Lal Salaam, Aardhram, Ulladakkam). He was accepted as villain, supporting actor as well as a lead actor though he was not at all the conventional hero. He won Kerala State Awards for Best Actor 4 times (Aadharam, Kaanakkinavu, Thalolam, Neythukaran) and twice for the Best Supporting Actor (Amaram, Veeralippattu/ Pranayakaalam). He also won the coveted National Award for Best Actor in 2001 for Priyanandan's "Neythukaran". He was also the Chairman of the Sangeetha Nataka Academy and authored 5 books in total. He also won widespread acclaim for his stage production "Lanka Lakshmy". He had an unsuccessful stint with politics too when he contested for the Alappuzha Loksabha Constituency in 1999. Murali will be remembered for his powerhouse performances. He was truly an actor who could rise above the script and bring out the finer nuances of the character through his performance!
Rajan P Dev took Kerala by storm as Kochuvava, the protagonist in one of the most successful stage plays in Kerala history- SL Puram Sadanandan's "Kattukuthira". Unfortunately, he could not play the role in the film adaptation but he more than made up for it through a stellar performance in Thambi Kannamthanam's Mohanlal starrer "Indrajaalam" which was his first major role in Malayalam Cinema. It was one of those rare villain characters who outlived and outperformed the hero in spite of having a talented actor like Mohanlal playing the hero. Rajan has not had to look back ever since. Powerful characters followed one after the other- most of them were villainous roles but later Rajan made a clever and successful move to performing character roles and comedy roles as well. He even ended up playing titular roles like Pallivathukkal Thommichan and Thommanum Makkalum- the latter where his role was even more important than that of Mammootty's. He made a successful move to Tamil and Telugu Cinema and played menacing villain roles with great ease. Unfortunately for Rajan, his performances were not properly awarded though many of his characters are well etched out in the minds of movie goers (Sthalathe Pradhana Payyans, Ekalavyan, Commissioner, Sphadikam, Aniyan Bava Chettan Bava, The King, Junior Mandrake, Dada Saheb, Karumadikuttan, Sethuramaiyer CBI, Bharath Chandran IPS, Chandu Pottu, Chota Mumbai, Roudhram etc)
With the demise of these 2 great actors, Malayalam Cinema stands to lose yet again. Rajan P Dev and Murali along with Bharath Gopi and Oduvil Unnikrishnan in recent times are losses that have malnourished Malayalam Cinema of some of its best character actors! Even when we say that these are actors who cannot be replaced, we are still hoping and looking forward to a brand new set of talented actors coming up and taking their positions, at least partially. As the saying goes, the show must go on...

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Exciting times at JTPAC

For Art connossieurs in and around Ernakulam, it is an exciting time since JTPAC has come up with a wonderful array of programmes that promise to be a true treat-
Vineeth and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy perform on 5 September, Udit Narayan sings on 19 September, its Sivamani's percussion on 3 October and Mohanlal and Mukesh perform "Chayamukhi" on 17 October 2009. What more does a true lover of art need?
Personally, I am going to miss Vineeth and Lakshmi since I am on air on 5 September! But I definitely am going to be there for all the other three! (hopefully nothing else crops up!) Shall write about what I thought about those after I attend the performances :-)

Label me "Technologically Challenged"...

I started blogging looking at blogs of some of my friends and cousins and take inspiration from other blogs even when it comes to stuff like Layout, Page Elements etc being the "Technologically Challenged" person that I have always been!
To be fair to myself, I have been able to recreate most of the stuff that I have seen on other blogs within my own but I have been a miserable failure when it comes to "Labelling" of posts. I have seen fellow bloggers using "Labels" to astounding effect. I recently started trying but within 5 posts realized that labelling is not my cup of tea. None of my labels repeat and most of the time I end up posting without adding labels even though labelling is at the back of my mind.
After a lot of thinking and re thinking, I have decided that my blog and posts look good enough without the labels! I dont think I will ever understand this whole funda of labelling and have decided to stay away from it...forever.