Kalyanaraman is full on timepass

Writing about a movie that was released 5 years ago is nothing big deal. Kalyanaraman (Malayalam) was a movie which I was looking forward to watch considering the number of people who told me that the movie was pure, unadulterated fun. Finally I caught up with the movie during its umpteenth telecast on Surya TV on a lazy Friday Morning. Considering it was a Friday Morning, there were not many ads in between, but the movie had been cut to fit the schedule so as not to disturb the flow of serials that start playing from 12 Noon on Weekdays. Here is what I have to say on the abridged version of Kalyanaraman which I caught up with recently. Kalyanaraman is the story of Ramankutty (Dileep in his usual self) who is a popular cook cum marriage contractor. He along with his brother (Lal in his elements) runs the catering service with a whole lot of assistants (Salim Kumar and Innocent making the most of the screentime allotted to them) Ramankutty is hired for the wedding of a mute girl (Jothirmayee) which gets cancelled at the last moment. The kind hearted Ramankutty and his brother ask their third brother (Boban Allumoodan) to get married to the girl and thus, the two families unite to share a warm relationship with each other. Ramankutty is drawn towards the sister of the bride (an over enthusiastic and irritating Navya Nair) but there comes a problem in the form of her upmarket dancer cousin (Kunchacko Boban, wasted). Does Raman unite with his lady love? If yes, how? These questions are answered during the latter part of the movie. In terms of content or presentation, there is nothing new about Kalyanaraman. The scriptwriter Benny P Nayaramablam and the director Shafi tread a tried and tested formula path to come up with a pedestrian film which is saved thanks to the many gags in the dialogues. Dileep, Innocent and Salim Kumar are in full form exhibiting perfect comic timing. The only glitch is that the dialogues sometimes slip to plain double innuendos. Technically too, the movie is nothing extraordinary. Camera, Editing and Sound are all of normal quality and the sets are sometimes too trying on one's eyes. Alex Paul's music is very ordinary too. This is a movie that relies entirely on its actors comic timing and its funny dialogues to pull off and is very competent in these two departments. Kalyanaraman is enjoyable if your choice of entertainment is to have a hearty laugh sans logic.

Slick and Stylish Johnny Gaddar

Heist movies have not been a big draw at the Bollywood BO window, neither have many been made nor all that were made been successful. The only successful Bollywood heist movie that comes to my mind is "Johnny Mera Naam"- that unforgettable Dev Anand- Hema Malini starrer that had everything working in its favor. It is precisely from JMN and James Hardley Chase that Sriram Raghavan has been inspired to come up with the very skillfully made "Johnny Gaddar". Seshadri (a perfectly cast Dharmendra), Shardul (a very impressive Zakir Hussain), Prakash (the extremely dependable Vinay Pathak), Shiva (a very passable Daya Shetty) and Vikram (Neil Nithin Mukesh scoring a perfect 10 on his debut) work together and all that they are interested in is making some quick money. Seshadri's friend Inspector Kalyan (Govind Namdeo, very effective) approaches them with an offer to make a quick fortune of 2.5 crores in 4 days. The gang accepts it and starts working on it. But one of its members plays a double cross and what follows is a series of escapades and murders. Johnny Gaddar is not definitely a whodunnit since the identity of the double crosser is revealed in the first reels of the film itself. It is more about how he is going to save himself from being caught and this is what the uniqueness of the film is. Sriram Raghavan drafts an excellent script with crisp dialogues and also extracts credible performances from an ensemble cast. The editing, camera, sound and art are all first rate and ably support Raghavan in carrying the movie forward. Shankar- Ehsaan- Loy trio's music stands out though the songs play only in the background. The title track and "Bhool jaaye pyaar mein" featuring Hard Kaur deserve special mention. The background score enhances the effect of the movie thoroughly. Sriram Raghavan more than proves that "Ek Hasina Thi' was not a flash in the pan. His movies might be dark and brooding but they definitely are slick and stylish. With the multiplex crowd accepting movies that are unconventional and well made, the going should get easier for talented directors like Sriram Raghavan in the near future. Go watch Johnny Gaddar- efforts like these need to be appreciated!

Jab We Met: A Rollicking Rom- Com

At a time when the entire town is abuzz about Kareena abandoning Shahid for Saif comes "Jab We Met"- Imtiaz "Socha Na Tha" Ali's second venture starring the not-so-successful screen pair of the now separated Shahid- Kareena. It was not with great expectations that I stepped into the theatre to watch this flick. Shahid and Kareena had earlier teamed up for Fida, 36 China Town and Chup Chup Ke- movies which had nothing working in their favor. I did have some confidence in Imtiaz Ali but considering the expertise of Shahid- Kareena in selecting the worst of films to appear on screen together, I was quite sure that JWM was going to be anything but joy. But, I literally had to eat my thoughts- thanks to Imtiaz Ali for having come up with a romantic comedy like nothing we have seen before. Let me tell you what makes JWM so special. Well, it is the story of Aditya (a surprisingly subtle Shahid Kapur), the son of a successful industrialist. Aditya has nothing working in his favor- his father is dead, his mother has left him to lead a new life with her second husband, his business is on the rocks and his girlfriend has walked out on him. Disappointed with his existence, he wanders along aimlessly across Mumbai finally to end up in a train. It is in the train that he meets Geet (a delicously saucy and over the top Kareena Kapoor)- the Sikhni from Bhatinda who can just not stop talking. Geet is not really bothered as to what kind of mindset Aditya is in. She just goes on and on and on and irritated, Aditya gets down at a station. Thinking that Aditya is missing the train, Geet leaves the train and finally ends up missing it. Geet demands of Aditya to accompany her till Bhatinda and what follows is an ultimate joy ride across the picturesque locales of North India- not only for the lead pair but also for the audience. Aditya and Geet understand each other. The free spirited Geet motivates Aditya to give life another try. Adi even ends up falling in love with Geet only to discover that all she is interested in is to run away and get married to her boyfriend in Manali. Aditya plays the perfect friend by uniting Geet with her lover, heads back to Mumbai and successfully resurrects his failing business taking cues from the spontaniety and free spiritedness of Geet. 9 months later, Geet's family gets in touch with Adi to know the whereabouts of Geet. That is when Adi discovers that Geet has not contacted her family for the past 9 months and that, she is largely missing. Adi sets out on a search for Geet with many questions in his mind- Where is Geet? What happened to her? Is she happy with her boyfriend? Can Geet ever be his? To find out the answers of these questions, please watch the movie yourself. And mind it, it is just not about getting these questions answered. It is about having a gala time at the movie for the 2 hour 10 minutes running time of JWM. The uniqueness of JWM is definitely its dialogues. The story is very ordinary and predictable but definitely not the situations and the dialogues. Imtiaz Ali successfully stays away from getting inspired from any of the road romances that have been made in the past and lends a certain warmth and originality to the script that is very rarely seen these days. The humor that runs throughout the film as an undercurrent is very much every day life kind and the dialogues are tongue- in- cheek. As a director, Imtiaz succeeds in bringing the best out of his lead pair. Shahid and Kareena are just not good individually, they also share a sparkling on screen chemistry that has not been seen in their past films together. The beautiful mountains of Himachal and the lush green fields of Punjab have been shot picturesquely by Nataraja Subramanian. Preetham has a ball scoring the music for this movie and the songs have been very well shot. If your idea of a good movie is having pure, unadulterated fun for 2 hours, Jab We Met is definitely for you!

Book Review: Lanthanbatheriyile Luthineeyakal

The first time I heard about this book was when Malayalam Mega star Mammootty spoke about it some 4- 5 years ago in an interview. During one of my many recent trips to DC Books, I chanced upon the book but the weirdness of the title made me choose something else. Later, I came to know about the book from my Boss and decided that I should experience the book no later. And what an experience it was! I have fallen head over heels in love with this one. LL is definitely nothing extraordinary or out of the moon. This is precisely what makes it so special! The story and the narrative is oh so ordinary and natural. The 260 odd page book has been written so well that one can finish it off in a jiffy. The style and language are so easy on one's eyes and comprehension and that sets the right mood to take up the story of Lanthenbathery, an imaginary island off the coast of Ernakulam and the many people who inhabit it. In many ways, N S Madhavan's LL is very similar to O V Vijayan's Khassakkinte Ithihaasam. Both of them have used an imaginary location that acts as a microcosm of the country during the period of time that the story covers and through the inhabitants of this imaginary location, in a way, tell the story of the country in a very different manner. The difference between the two books, however, is in the narrative style. O V uses a lot of imagery, his protagonist belongs to the upper strata of the society and events and incidents in Khassak have been narrated in a very classy manner. On the contrary, N S Madhavan's characters are drawn from the lower strata of the society, his narrative is in very ordinary language, his characters speak the very local Lathin Catholic dialect and he focusses more on the history of Kochi city than the happenings in the country during the time the story unfolds. Jessica, the protagonist, her father Mathevusashaari, mother Veronica, her grandfather Valia Marcose Ashaari, the singer Gilbert, the mathematics teacher Pushpangadan, Jessica's childhood friend Johnson, his parents Edward and Rosy- all these characters have been etched out very carefully and each of them have their own unique personality traits which leave a lasting impression of theirs on the reader's minds. Lanthenbatheriyile Luthineeyakal is not like anything that has been written before and N S Madhavan deserves a pat on his back for having come out with something as unique as this!

Mozhi: Magical beyond words

When you have a specially abled person as the protagonist in a movie, you can definitely rest assured of one thing- your protagonist would definitely be someone waning away time in self- pity and all the characters around him/ her would be sympathisers. I also strongly believed this, till I watched "Mozhi". Pyramid Saimira and Prakash Raaj's Duet Films' jointly produce "Mozhi" (Tamil) written and directed by Radha Mohan. Mozhi is the story of Archana (Jyothika in her career best performance), a deaf and mute girl who comes into contact with a young musician, Karthik (Prithviraaj displaying a never seen before subtlety and maturity) who falls for her in the very first sight. Archana does not consider herself less able than anyone else and believes on living her life independently in her own terms. She hates men and marriage since her father had left her and her mother once he came to know about Archana's disability. She gets friendly with Karthik in no time but starts spurning him when he expresses his love for her. The rest of the movie is about Karthik's struggle to win over Archana and bringing about a change of mindset in her. Providing valuable inputs to the Karthik- Archana affair are their friends- Viji (Prakash Raaj displaying his abundant talent) , a music conductor and Karthik's friend and Angeline Sheela (Swarnamaalya, adequate), a teacher at a school for the specially- abled and Archana's close friend. There are quite a few interesting characters too- Archana's grandmother (Vatsala Rajagopal), the secretary of the apartment where Karthik and Archana stay (a hilarious Brahmanandam) and the Professor who has lost his memory following his son's accidental death in 1984. The strength of Mozhi is its closeness to reality. The characters, incidents and the dialogues in the movie appear very real and natural, and do not even border on melodrama. This gives a strong identifiability to the characters of the movie. The hero might look idealistic when he decides to marry a specially abled girl, but the way the story progresses and the characters have been presented, we feel, anybody would have fallen in love with the strong, gutsy Archana. The humor that runs as an under current in this very serious love story just sparkles with situations drawn from daily life. The strongest aspect of Mozhi is its brilliant music score. Vairamuthu's meaningful lyrics have been set to lilting tunes by Vidyasaagar. Jassie Gift's "Sevvanam Selaiyaketti"; Karthik and Sujatha's "Katrin Mozhi"; SPB's "Kannal paesum" and Madhu Balakrishnan's "Pesamadanthaye" are the best songs one has heard in recent times. K V Guhan's camera spells magic on screen. The editing is perfect. The Art Director goes a little overboard at times though. Radha Mohan's taut script and excellent direction does enough to make Mozhi a modern classic. This one is not to be missed!

Nazrani is good enough

The one thing that strikes you the most while watching "Nazrani" is how script writer Renjith has successfully shifted his focus from Hinduism to Christianity. He is equally at home here, but except for the difference in the religious background of his characters, he has not offered anything new in his script.

Nazrani has David John Kottarathil (Mammootty, 56 going on 35) as its protagonist, a rich planter who is always spending his time boozing with his friends (Janardhanan, Maniyan Pilla Raju, Baburaj, Lalu Alex) at a Kottayam club gets into an imbroglio when a local politician, Benny (Arun, who should seriously start thinking about an alternate career option) gets murdered and his fiancee, Sara's (Vimala Raman, doing nothing other than fluttering her mascara lined eye lashes) step- sister Annie (Muktha George, always keeping a sad face) is suspected of having committed the murder. David tries to protect Annie from the local SP (Lalu Alex, effective) who is investigating the murder and parallely launches his own investigation and nabs the culprit with the help of his friends.

As is common with any Renjith script, you have characters moving in and out of the narrative- David's father (Captain Raju), his nun aunt (KPAC Lalitha), Annie's friend who commits suicide (Radhika), M C Paul, President of Malankara Congress and Benny's father (Vijayaraghavan, inspiring), his wife (Bindu Panicker), their elder son Xavier (Biju Menon making a royal comeback), the resigned minister, Ummachan (a dependable Jagathy Sreekumar), David's constant aide and his driver, Sukumaran (Kalabhavan Mani) and many more.

As the script progresses, the many characters are dumped half way and the film finally reaches a predicatable climax. This might not be his best script, but Renjith has successfully managed to keep it racy and fast. Before the audience can realize what happened, there is another incident thrown in and thus, the script writer keeps the audience interest alive.

Veteran director, Joshiy, who has completed 3 decades in the industry gives it all to this film. Joshiy has successfully adapted his cinematic style to the taste of the new generation and little wonder then that he is still a director to reckon with.

Mammootty has a blast playing David John Kottarathil. His style and mannerisms have been used to sparkling effect by Joshiy and Renjith; and the megastar has successfully carried the entire film on his broad shoulders. Special mention must be made about his looks and the extent of detailing that has gone into his make up and costumes.

Shaji captures the beauty of Kuttikkanam and Vagamon through his lenses. Renjan Pramod's razor sharp editing and Ouseppachan's background score adds to the tempo of the movie. Anil Panachooran- Bijibal team of "Arabikkatha" fame have not been able to recreate the magic with the songs.

All in all, Nazrani is a typical commercial pot boiler which one can enjoy with friends and family during the festive season.

Chocolate leaves a bad taste!

Anantha Vision's "Chocolate" (Malayalam) directed by Shafi and written by debutant duo Sachi- Sethu is the consequence of the astounding success of recent campus flicks like "Classmates" and "Note Book". The predecessors were successful because they had novel concepts, freshness in presentation and well drafted scripts filmed by competent directors. These are precisely the things that "Chocolate" lacks in. The premise is definitely interesting- that of a male student- Syam (Prithiviraaj, displaying ample heroism) getting enrolled for a Post Graduation Course in a leading womens' college in the city. The rogue of the guy (7 dismissals and 2 police cases are his track record) is definitely unwelcome for the awesome threesome girl gang- Ann Mathew (Roma- impeccable dress sense and alluring screen presence), Nandana (Samvrutha Sunil, totally out of place) and Susan (Remya Nambeesan, simply Not Applicable). How the gang of girls try their best to chuck Syam out of the college and how he survives against all odds only to fall in love with Ann is what the rest of the film is all about. Of course, there are side tracks in the story- the war between the Principal and the PTA Association, a local fashion designer Ranjith's (Jayasuriya, repeating himself for the umpteenth time) infactuation for Nandana, Syam's night outs with his friends (Salim Kumar, playing one of the friends, gets the maximum support from the audience for his witty one- liners, most of them laced with double innuendos), Nandana's father suspecting her of having an affair with Syam, Preetha, another student, falling for Syam and how her one way love story progresses etc. The problem with Chocolate is that it never really tries to concenterate on what needs to be said. The script writers and the director, it seems, have concenterated more on adding punch liners here and there, instead of establishing the characters properly and trying to connect each of the characters leading the story to a logical conclusion. Songs and fight sequences have been forcefully dumped into the narrative and consequently, they look extremely out of place. Not much thought seems to have gone into the casting either. Salim Kumar is too old to play Prithviraaj's friend, Samvrutha and Remya do not fit into the roles of ultra modern college going girls, Rajan P Dev's loud character just adds to the irritation of the audience. The less said about the second half of the film, the better. Technically too, the film does not stand out. Azhagappan's camera work is of pedestrian quality. Is this the same cinematographer who gave us the wonderful frames in the recently released "Ore Kadal"? The editor seems to have been on vacation. The art department and the sound department have not really bothered to make much contribution to the movie. The script is weak and the director appears clueless in the second half as to where to take this story. The weakest link in this film is its music score- Vayalar Sharath and Alex Paul- the team who gave us the wonderful album "Classmates" last year- hit an abysmal low with this album. The songs are pain to one's ears and the background score has very comfortably been lifted from Classmates. Except for Prithviraaj and Roma's presence and performances, there is nothing sweet about Chocolate. Unfortunately, the movie is on its way to become a blockbuster. I can only sympathise with the degradation of the appreciation level of the Malayalee audience.

Television Reality Shows- How real are they?

It is the era of Reality Shows on Television these days. You tune into any channel- Malayalam, Tamil or Hindi- all you can find is Reality Shows. Needless to say, they are of different shapes, sizes and content, but all of them have one thing in common- to bring out the latent talent in people some of whom look as if they hardly are talented in anything. Thus, on the various Malayalam channels you have- Star Singer, Super Singer, Super Dancer, Best Actor, Vanitharathnam, Rangoli, blah, blah, blah. Go to Tamil and Jodi No: 1, Masthaana Masthaana, Maanada Mayilaada, Ellorum Paadalaam and the like welcome you. The Hindi channels are the limit- from Comedy shows to music shows to family game shows to celebrity dance shows- they have everything under the sun that can be classified as reality shows. Now the big question here is- how real are these shows anyways? Take the musical talent shows. We did get a Sunidhi Chauhan and a Shreya Ghosal from these shows. Abhijeet Sawant, Amit Sana and Rahul Vaidya, however, are on their way to become history soon. The new Indian Idol against whom a Red FM RJ made unpleasant remarks, is now riding an even higher wave of popularity. But, the pertinent question here is- are the participants who win these music shows really talented and how much of their real, natural and born talent is being exhibited here and how much of it is acquired, cultivated and a farce? The first episode of any reality music talent show sees the participants coming in their innocent, gullible self and putting in their best efforts into the song to gain appreciation and applause from the audience. Once the judges find some kind of potential in the participant and the nation responds approvingly through SMS votes, the participant goes through a complete makeover. They are made to look like rockstars sporting the weirdest of hair styles, costume and make up. They are made to act and dance on stage. They are made to make frantic vote appeals to the viewers and in the middle of all this, somewhere, they lose that interest in singing which they exhibited in the initial episodes. Definitely, things were not this bad earlier. When Sunidhi Chauhan was crowned winner in Meri Awaaz Suno or Shreya Goshal was crowned winner in Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma, the market was not this ripe for musical reality shows. The channels allowed these participants to sing and behave the way they were as individuals and the results are now out for all to see. Conversely, when it came to the era of Abhijeet Sawant, Amit Sana, Rahul Vaidya and the Fame Gurukul winners (I dont even remember their names), the format of the whole show changed thanks to increasing TRP's. We had the participants appear in flashing costumes, latest accessories and cool hair- do's shaking a leg or more to the songs they were singing in the presence of celebrity guests who would not mind joining the participants on stage for a jig. All this definitely is good, but not good enough if the soul or the meaning of the programme is lost in between all the addendums. Which I feel is exactly what has happened to these reality shows. Due to the increasing TRP's and the urge to do something different to keep the audience interest alive, the channels are resorting to every trick in the trade to keep their shows unique and comfortably ignoring the quality of singing or the extent of talent that the participants have. No wonder then that the host of reality shows running on various channels these days have not yet been able to produce another Sunidhi or Shreya. When Abhijeet Sawant won Indian Idol, it had become national news. But 2 albums and a couple of Hindi film songs later, he has largely been forgotten. This is definitely another phase in Indian television- like the saas- bahu sagas that ruled the television screens for almost half a decade, looks like it is going to be reality shows for the next 3 years or so. High time the channel producers start thinking about something new soon- you may never know when the reality show bubble is going to burst. PS: It was interesting to read a quote by Malayalam Music critic T P Shasthamangalam this morning- "If M S Subbalakshmi or Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar were to participate in a reality show today, they would have been voted out in the first round itself. They, unfortunately, know only to sing well, not to act or dance" Bang on Target!

Blogging in Malayalam and Kodakara Puranam

Till I caught hold of the recent issue of Mathrubhoomi weekly, I never had an idea that blogging in Malayalam existed. To start with, I have never been much of a netizen in the first place. I started my own blog not very long ago and more than letting the world know about my creative instincts, I was interested in writing down something just to entertain myself. Not many people have been informed about this blog by me directly other than a few of my friends and not all of them who were informed follow up the blog on a regular basis. I don't read too many blogs either. I read a few whose quick links have been given on my home page and beyond that I never get enough time to search blogspot to find out other interesting blogs. That was when I caught hold of this weekly and the report on Kodakarapuranam- the very famous Malayalam Blog and its author, Vishalamanskan, an NRK working in the Middle East caught my fancy. It is extremely surprising when one thinks about the extent of progress that technology has made which makes blogging in Malayalam a reality and even more surprising is the number of hits that Kodakarapuranam receives on a daily basis. Apparently, the popularity of the blog is so much that DC Books has even published selected posts of Vishalamanaskan as a book by the same name. The book, on its part, has become a best seller too. I am finding it difficult not to catch hold of either the blog or the book and I have chosen the book over the blog so that I can go through the posts much more in detail and at leisure. So dont be surprised if you find me writing in detail about Kodakarapuranam sometime very soon. Till then, I wish Vishalamanskan all the very best and congratulate him on having pioneered a movement called blogging in Malayalam. Cheers,

Ee Gopu Monentha Engine?

This is the question on the lips of every Malayalee these days. For all those of you who dont understand Malayalam, well, my subject means why is Gopu Mon like this? Gopu Mon here is defintiely not a character out of a movie or a book or a children's serial for that matter, he is none other than our own Santhakumaran Sreeshanth, the very promising but very aggressive fast bowler in the Indian cricket team. After an admirable performance in the T20 series (especially that marvellous 4-1-12-2 in the Semi Finals against Australia), Gopu these days is in the news for all the wrong reasons- his attitude and aggression on the field and his extreme interest in getting into verbal wars with the Australian team members. Being personally present to watch the match at Kochi, I could understand how difficult it is for anybody to keep their cool when playing against the Australian team considering the kind of attitude they were showing off on the field. For any normal person, it is difficult to be normal anymore and Gopu has always been aggressive as certified by his friends. Little doubt then, that the boy got into a verbal war with the opposition. But what surprised me beyond measure was the kind of media exposure the whole episode was receiving. The cameras were focussed on Sreeshanth and the media went on and on about how bad he was on the field. No one even bothered to check how Symmonds and Hobbs and the others were behaving. Probably, the media wanted enough meat out of a match that was being held on Gopu's home ground :) All said and done, it is always in Sreesanth's best interest that he controls his emotions while on the ground. It is after years and years of toil that a guy from Kerala has made into the team and consolidated his position so well in the team. For a player who is so promising and whom the entire state will be willing to support, it is advisable that Sreeshanth learns to be cool and focus more on his line, length and pace. The boy has already spent a fortune on paying fine and penalty to the ICC. Lets hope that all this makes him a cooler person and that he shifts his focus to where it should rightly belong. Bowl ahead, Gopu! All the best to you!

The Match at Kochi and the road ahead

Consequent to my earlier post on the Indian cricket team's victory in the T20 semi finals against Australia and the team being crowned the World Champions in T20 cricket, it was with bated breath and a lot of expectations that I was looking forward to the Australian tour of India. This, in spite of the fact that I have never been a very big fan of cricket. The first ODI at Bangalore looked as if it was going to be a losing proposition for the Indian team but the rain God intervened at the right time and the team was saved from the disgrace of losing out on the first match of the series. But, lose out they did and how, in the next two matches- at Kochi and at Hyderabad. The Indian team's victory in the T20 series had sort of revived my interest in the game and thus I decided I would go and watch the match at Kochi in the stadium itself. The Australian team's performance in Bangalore was indication strong enough that they were leaving no stone unturned to take revenge on India. But, Kochi, being a ground that has almost always been favorable to the Indian cricket team and being the home ground of India's best bowler in the T20 series, Santhakumaran Sreeshanth aka Gopu Mon, I was quite optimistic that the team would definitely win the match. With so much of hope in my mind, I was at the stadium at 6.55 AM on the morning of Gandhi Jayanthi (Oct 2) for the match that was scheduled to start at 9 AM. Thanks to the incessant rains, the outfield was not looking very good till the previous day and speculations were rife that the match might be called off completely or that it might be limited to 35 overs instead of the usual 50. The sun was playing hide and seek early in the morning and there was no sign of it going to be a sunny day. Thankfully for the 80K crowd gathered in the stadium, the game was on by 9.30 AM. Having won the toss, India chose to bowl first. Zaheer and Gopu started with Hayden and Gilchrist facing the music. The first 2 overs saw Gilchirst and Clarke returning to the pavilion and it looked like all was going to be in India's favour till almost 23 overs were completed. The crowd was in fine form, hooting, howling, clapping, dancing, cheering and making Mexican waves. Even when Symmonds, Hobbs and Hadding were putting in their best efforts to take the Australian totals to admirable heights, the entire gallery was optimistic about India's chances at the game. To give fair share of credit where it is due, the Australian team did garner an enviable tally of 305 in 50 overs, clearly establishing their supremacy over the Indian spinners in the middle overs. The Australian innings ended and the whole stadium was busy preparing to cheer for the Indian batting order. And cheer they did! The Indian batsmen were trying their best to respond favorbaly to the encouragement of the crowd but they could not do much against the strong Australian bowlers. Gambhir, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvi, Pathan- all of them had to return to the pavilion without contributing much to the run tally. Dhoni and Uthappa did their best but India finally lost by more than 50 runs. 10 overs into the Indian innings and I was not really concenterating on what exactly was happening on the ground. There was pin drop silence in the gallery and half the crowd was on its way out of the stadium. In spite of offering the best of support and encouragement to the Indian cricket team, the team was hardly able to even put up a decent performance. As might have been known to all by now, the team lost miserably to Australia in Kochi. The third match in Hyderabad did not evoke much interest in anybody and predictably, the team lost it once again. In the 7 match series out of which 1 was cancelled, Australia is clearly leading by 2- 0. All eyes are now on Chandigarh, which also happens to be the Vice Captain's home ground. Will the 4th match see the Yuvraj becoming the Maharaj of the Indian cricket team and leading them to victory over the very strong Australian boys? Well, only time can tell...

Jayakanthan leaves you irritated...

Reviewing a 6 year old movie is nothing great. But when it is a movie which one was planning to watch for a very long time and made by a director as great as Sathyan Anthikkad, there definitely is a reason to watch the movie and to write about it, notwithstanding how old or new the movie is. Carlton Films' Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka scripted by Sreenivasan tries to look at the social and political scenario of Kerala using a remote hamlet called Paruthippara that serves as a microcosm of the state of Kerala, through the eyes of its protagonist Jayakanthan (Kunchacko Boban) who is entangled in his own personal problems. Confused? Not as much as Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad while they were making this movie for sure. This is a disaster from the word "go". To start with, Sreenivasan's script tries to address a lot of issues and look at a lot of things so much so that it completely loses focus of the story and characters. The effect is that you are treated to a lot of situations that evoke a few laughs in isolation but all through you keep wondering what has this to do with the larger plot and most importantly, where exactly is the scriptwriter taking us. The first half has a few entertaining moments, but post interval the film loses track completely or rather, it starts running on so many tracks that the audience is left clueless as to what is happening. Precisely for this reason, none of the characters attract you or stay with you- be it the protagonist, Jayadevan (Kunchacko Boban trying his best, but in vain), the idealist Panchayath President Priyamvada (Samyuktha Varma looking lost), the scheming Balakrishnan Nambiar (an over the top Janardhanan), his show off wife Sarojini (Bindu Panicker repeating herself for the umpteenth time), their clueless daughter Swapna (Asin, making her debut, looks equally clueless), the crafty politician Thomas Vellikkala (Innocent taking overacting to new levels) and the local money lender Bhargavan (Sreenivasan appearing on screen at the most inappropriate times). To add to these clonies, you have a special appearance by Tamil actor- director R Parthiban who plays Jayakanthan's friend from Kumbakonam. I have still not been able to understand why he was roped in to this mess. Vipin Mohan's visuals of the Valluvanadan country side reminds you of Sathyan's earlier films. (The mango orchard used in canning the songs of Thoovalkottaram have been put to use in this film too. Was it so difficult to find a virgin location?). There is no point blaming K Rajagopal. If he had his way, he would have chopped this whole film off at the Editing table. The Kaithapram- Johnson duo provide a couple of hummable songs that is the only saving grace of this film. Expectedly, the film did not even do decent business at the BO. Thankfully for themselves and the audience, Sathyan and Sreenivasan have stayed away from mistakes after this one! Not recommended to be seen even on DVD or Sattelite Television!

Rajeev Masand- My new Hero :-)

Come Saturday and I am all excited to catch up with Rajeev Masand to get a hang of what is happening at the movies during the weekend. For starters, Rajeev Masand is a movie critic who hosts a Bollywood based show on Times Now which is telecast every Saturday at 10.30 AM. The format of the show is very simple- it starts with the review of movies released during the week, has a celebrity interview, some Bollywood trivia and ends with a movie quiz. What really makes the show interesting is Rajeev Masand's movie review- He never gets into the nitty- gritties, instead he straightaway goes into the storyline in a few words and then takes up the various departments of the movie- actors, script, direction, camera, editing, music etc. Rajeev, it appears, has deep knowledge on all departments of film making and he manages to show it off quite well. His grip on the language and his uncanny screen presence just adds to the pleasure of viewing. And if it is a bad movie, the reviews get even better. Rajeev doesn't hesitate to rip the movie apart and give his honest comments which would sometimes be a bit too embarrassing for whoever is involved with the movie being reviewed. Sample this- "Nisha Kothari is the only consistent actress in Bollywood. She has been consistently bad in all her films till now. The facial gymnastics she does in the name of acting can even put a Mime artiste to shame" (Rajeev on Nisha's performance in the recently released "Go") Or this- "If I start criticizing the script, it would mean that I am accepting there was one in the first place. Now that the movie is out, I really hope someone puts those bunches of paper to good use and the only use that I can think of those is as toilet papers" (Rajeev on the script of Aggar) Being a person so fond of Bollywood in general and analyzing Bollywood movies in particular, I have found my new hero in Rajeev Masand. My Saturday mornings are reserved for him and I have become the greatest fan of his tongue-in- cheek analysis of Bollywood movies. Here is looking forward to more :) Way to go, Rajeev!

Challenges, here I come...

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have moved out of the team that I was part of earlier and I am looking forward to taking up a new project. Things have started falling in place and here I am, working on Notes, Maps, Charts, Dashboards and many other things performing my initial analysis on how things are going to be a couple of months from now (of course with the support of my excellent superiors). I am all excited since this is going to be a first for me and my success in the APM exam has boosted my confidence further. It definitely is not going to be a cakewalk, but then, life is never meant to be one :-) I am all set to take up the challenges heads on and am really looking forward to the tough but exciting times ahead. More on this as I move forward... Till then, Yours excitedly,

Back in the reckoning

...or so I think :-) For all those who would have read my earlier post on my failure in the APM Exams, here is the big news- I re appeared for the exam on 3 October 2007 and managed to clear it. I am a certified Accounts Payable Manager now :) The initial failure in the exam had really put me down and all of a sudden, I had become slightly apprehensive about myself. But, with the constant support and encouragement of my colleagues and superiors, I channelized all my energy towards putting in my best efforts for the second attempt and managed to clear the exams without much ado this time. I am extremely happy about my success and back to the confident self that I have always been :) Yours successfully,

Short and Sweet

That is what one of my esteemed readers want my posts to be :) To the best of my knowledge, I have very few people who regularly visit my blog, read the posts and offer their comments. One of them, a very close friend and a person whom I always look up to, made this suggestion to me. She was of the opinion that though I write well(?), I write so much so that she loses interest by the time she reads an entire post. Based on that wonderful feedback, I am trying to make my posts short and sweet from this one onwards. It definitely is not going to be easy for me, considering the man of many words that I am :) Nevertheless I am putting in my best efforts. Do read my posts and keep on commenting on how you feel about them... Yours shortly,

My take on 20/20 World Cup

I had read somewhere that- "If there is something worse than eating insect pie, it should be eating humble pie". This is precisely what my condition now is ever since I tuned in on Saturday, September 22 to watch the 20/20 cricket match between India and Australia. As everyone might be aware by now, the 20/20 World Cup was launched with much fanfare- this being the first of its kind in the world. Most of the world was happy that they could watch another World Cup within an year of completion of the earlier one. But, the idealist in me was not. To start with, I have not been a great fan of cricket. But, I used to keep track of matches and used to tune into cricket World Cups regularly and some of the more interesting tournaments occasionally. The decision of the ICC to have a 20/20 World Cup came as quite a shocker to me. I was concerned with the change in the format of the game, the game reduced to a total of 40 overs as against the 100 over ODI's that we were used to. I was whining about the crass commercialization of the game reducing International Cricket to the status of what we call "gully cricket" in India. I was quite alarmed at the clout that the sponsors and advertisers had over the ICC. The short shelf life of the cricketers and the inability to assess them correctly owing to the short duration of the game upset me. Finally, I took that great decision- not to watch any of the 20/20 matches! I could not control myself for long. Teams after teams were blasting off on the ground and notching up unimaginable scores in their limited 20 overs. The stadiums at Durban, Cape Town and Johannesberg were overflowing with crowds- all enthusiastic and hung ho about the game. The icing on the cake definitely was Yuvraj Singh's blaster of a performance against England- hitting sixers throughout an over. I could not restrain myself any longer and finally on Saturday, September 22, I decided to watch the much touted semi final with India facing Australia. Needless to say, I was impressed beyond measure. The biggies in the Indian team stayed away- No Dada, No Sachin, No Dravid. But, that did not deter the spirit of the boys led by the formidable Mahendra Singh Dhoni one bit. It was the cracker of a match on Saturday with team India scoring 188 runs in 20 overs over 5 wickets. What added spice to the Indian innings was the fabulous performance of Yuvraj Singh (70 off 30 balls) ably supported by Gambhir, Uthappa and Dhoni. Australia, on the other hand, are also equally good with the willows. In spite of the splendid performance of the Indian team, I was not sure how the Indian bowlers were going to cope up with Australia. But, boy-o-boy, what a show it was! Kochi's own S Sreesanth sowed the seeds of destruction for Australia with a magnificent 4- 1- 12- 2 hunting down the opening duo of Adam Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden. Irfaan Pathan, Joginder Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and R P Singh also put in their best efforts and the Australian team had to return to the pavilion with an unsuccessful 173/7 in 20 overs. Yuvraj Singh was rightly declared the Man of the Match but what impressed me was the total team spirit with which team India approached the game. The guys played for the country and the interest of the team was always ahead of individual interests. M S Dhoni looked completely at ease with himself and totally unapprehensive, thus exhibiting a maturity that belies his 26 years. The cool, calculated approach, the indomitable team spirit and the exhibit of talent has thus ushered in team India to the finals of the 20/20 World Cup. All eyes today are on Johannesberg where India will clash with arch rival Pakistan in the Finals. The match in total lasted for only 3.5 hours and the spirits of the audience were soaring high. Amidst the crowds and the cheers, it really was heartening to see the Indian team walking back to the pavilion after a clinching victory over Australia. One match and all my pre- conceptions about 20/20 have gone for a complete toss! I read Wasim Akram remarking a couple of days back that 20/20 is going to be the future of Cricket ODI's. All I have to say now is as long as the spirit of the game is intact, I really don't care whether it is 20/20 or 50/50! With prayers and best wishes for the Indian team, Spiritedly yours,

Training Time

I have been writing my way to glory on my blog today, unleashing my entire creative potential thanks to the fact that my mind these days is free of any kind of tension- personal or professional. Personally, I have not had many reasons to be tense about till now (fortunately, that is). But, professionally, there have been a few instances where there was no way out but to carry a little bit of work related worries back home at night and sometimes, over the weekend. However, these days, at work, I am at a stage where I am almost out of the team that I was part of and am looking forward to something new that is coming way late this year or early next year. The next obvious question is what am I doing at work these days? Biding away time doing nothing, right? Wrong. I am still very much helping out my earlier team with whatever help they need. But, most of my time these days is spend on admin related stuff and training. I always thought of Trainings as boring but discovered last day that they could be extremely interesting too. I had a self training on a software called MS Project on the training module available at work and found out that it was highly effective. I am not a software person and I never knew about the existence of a software called MS Project. But, I fell in love with it during my first tryst with the software and the training course has further intensified my interests in MS Project. My course material had a pre assessment, a detailed course and a post assessment on MS Project Fundamentals spread across 3 sessions. I completed all the 3 in one day itself and could score an overall 79 per cent marks which I thought was good enough for a software illiterate like me. I have made up my mind to make the most use of my time at work before I get busy with my new project. I am looking forward to getting trained on the entire MS Office Suite' which probably would bring me into contact with MS Access and MS Visio- 2 software I don't have much clue about! Its raining trainings folks and I am looking forward to more :)

Hey Ram!

I am the namesake of one of the most popular characters in Indian Mythology- Sreeram of Ramayana. Ramayana is one Indian epic which every child born in India is made familiar to at a very young age considering the fact that the characters of Ramayana epitomise the various virtues of life. More so, in the case of Sreeram, who was honest, truthful, devoted, and committed to his principles, his family and his country at large. No wonder, pages and pages of literature have been devoted to this mythological character and movies after movies have been made based on Sreeram. The most popular interpretation of Ramayan in my time is that classic serial by Ramanand Sagar which was telecast on Doordarshan in the mid to late 80's when the entire country used to come to a stand still. I had read somewhere that the serial holds the record for being the one that has been shown in most countries across the World and dubbed to the maximum languages. Sreeram has enjoyed a very long run as one of the most reverred mythological characters in the World and his biggest achievement has been the construction of the Ram Setu from Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka, with the help of the monkey troupe led by Sugreeva. Yes, the same Ram Setu which is in the news now a days for all the wrong reasons. Honestly, I really don't care whether or not the Sethu Samudhram project is commissioned and I am not fully aware of the benefits or difficulties of the said project. All I know is that there is a lot of mud slinging happening between a whole lot of people occupying positions that matter in the country. What pains me immensely are the remarks that are being made about Sreeram. Ever since the Ayodhya episode, Sreeram's name has been tarnished and the BJP and the RSS have been doing whatever they can to save the reputation of their beloved mythological hero. However, the controversies surrounding the Sethu Samudhram project have surpassed the Ayodhya episode in tarnishing Sreeram's reputation even leading to questions on his existence. I am a Hindu, but definitely not a fanatic, nor am I trying to make a political statement by writing about Sreeram on my blog. But, my heart really goes out to the real "Sreeram" who after millions of years of his existence (apparently, that is) is being drawn into all kinds of scandals and unwanted discussions. Probably, my feelings for the hero is thanks to the fact that I am his namesake. But, I know one thing for sure. If he was alive today, he would have definitely cried "Hey Ram!!" responding to all the negative publicity coming his way!

Nalini Jameela- Celebrity in her own right!

If there is one society in India shrouded with hypocrisy and false morality, it has to be the Kerala society. Though widely hailed as the state with the highest literacy rate and a favorable men to women ratio (1028: 1000 which is much higher than the national and if I am right, the global average), this society has been plagued with instances of atrocities among women which include sexual harrassment and flesh- trade. These instances always hog limelight much to the dismay and disappointment of the girls' and their families involved and we have had umpteen such cases which are pending in the courts of law at various stages of cross- examination (Vithura episode and the Calicut Ice cream parlor case are examples). The victim of the sensational Sooryanelli case ended up as a government servant while there was no such luck for Shari, the Kiliroor sex scandal victim who succumbed to death following premature pregnancy. It was in the wake of these sex scandals that rocked the society that Nalini Jameela published her autobiography- "Oru Laingikathozhilaliyude Aathmakatha" (2005) with the support of social activists like Gopinath and Maithreyan. The book went on to become a best seller with a record sale of 13000 copies and six editions in one month. The average Malayalee who expected juicy episodes of Nalini's sexual encounters with her customers were in for major disappointment though (I have not read the book, this is what I heard from others who had read it and also from the reviews). Instead of getting into the erotic, the book concenterated on the circumstances that forced Nalini Jameela into prostitution. The book did give a major shock to the hypocritic Kerala society and forced it to wake up from the comfortable slumber that it was into. Consequently, there was wide spread awareness campaigns against AIDS, sex scandals, forced prostitution and the like. Nalini Jameela became hot property for the media and a page 3 celebrity in her own right. Suddenly, the sex workers in the state were out in the open, conducting seminars, panel discussions and the like and hogging the media limelight like never before. 2.5 years since the publication of the book, things have not changed much in the state. The sex scandal cases are pending in the courts of law and new sex scandals are coming out in the open. Love making clips are prevalent on MMS and still, the Malayalee society is clinging on to its false morality dictum as always. It is in the wake of all this that Westland books' have recently published the English translation of Nalini Jameela's book- "The autobiography of a Sex Worker". The language being English which is much more universal in appeal, Nalini Jameela is once again the cynosure of all eyes, this time attracting the attention of the National media. She is being profiled by major news channels and all major newspapers are carrying reports and reviews of her book. Nalini would herself not have imagined the world turning around like this for her. From a street prostitute who had to sell herself to eke out a living to a page 3 celebrity- author earning huge amounts of royalty for her books, life definitely has come a full circle for her. The poor lady is doing her bit in rehablitating and educating prostitutes with her hard earned fame and reputation. Nalini's story indeed is gut wrenching and one can draw parallels from her story to those of the girls involved in Sooryanelli, Vithura and Kiliroor. However, what one fails to understand or predict is how long this is going to go on. You have one sex scandal or the other raising its head every fortnight and one celebrity or the other getting involved in one of these. In a scenario like this, would it help if Kerala goes the Thailand way? Only time can tell.

Big B- Stylish but predictable

Marikkar Films' Big B (Malayalam) scripted and directed by debutant Amal Neerad stars Mammootty in the lead. Big B is the story of Bilal (Mammootty) the oldest of the 4 orphans brought up by Mary Teacher (Nafisa Ali) who is a social activisit based in Fort Kochi. Mary Teacher is mercilessly killed on the eve of X'mas and this causes Bilal to return to his home town from a self imposed exile in Mumbai. Bilal along with his three "brothers"- Eddie (Manoj K Jayan), Murukan (Bala) and Bijo (Sumeet Naval) proceeds on to find out the culprits behind his mother's death. How he finds them and punishes them suitably is what the rest of the movie is all about. The story of Big B is as old as the hills and everyone from Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra in Bollywood to Joshi and Sasikumar in our own Malluwood have made films based on the "brothers' avenging parents' death" concept in the late 70's and early 80's. Amal Neerad knows for a fact that he has nothing new to offer as far as storyline is concerned and thus, he concenterates his efforts on the technical aspects of the movie to come up with a film that is slickly and stylishly shot. Sameer Thahir's camera, Ranjan Pramod's razor sharp cuts, Unni's crisp dialogues, Joseph Nellikkal's authentic production design and Alphonse's trendy music assist Amal in acheiving his objective. Mammootty takes active interest in his looks is something that everyone is aware of. But, with Big B, the megastar raises the bar for himself a few notches higher. With his chic outfits, trendy hair style and cool accessories, Mammootty makes a bold fashion statement in Big B, something one can expect the youth in Kerala to model themselves on for a long period to come. His understated performance as Bilal is different from what you have seen of the star actor in recent times. Manoj K Jayan is credible and Bala is dependable. Innocent evokes a few laughs in his 2 scene appearance. Nafisa Ali impresses in her cameo while Sumeet Naval cuts a sorry picture. The ladies- Lena, Mamta and Manasa- don't have much to do. However, Bala and Mamta look good together in the well picturised chart buster "Muthumanithooval pole". To cut a long story short, Big B scores high on the technical aspect, but thanks to its cliched and predictable storyline, will not linger in the minds of the viewers for a long time.

Perumazhakkalam is a drag

Rasikar Films' Perumazhakkalam (Malayalam) scripted by T A Razzak and directed by Kamal tells the story of Rasiya (Meera Jasmine), a young mother who stays on the banks of the river Kallayi in Kozhikode with her father (Maamukkoya) and is always on the wait for Akbar (Dileep), her husband working in Saudi Arabia. One evening, Najeeb (Sadik), Akbar's cousin comes to meet Rasiya and her father with a bad news- that Akbar has murdered his friend Raghuramaiyer (Vineeth) following a tussle and has been awarded capital punishment by the Shareeyat court of Saudi. There is just one way out to save Akbar- obtaining a pardon letter from Raghu's widowed wife Ganga (Kavya Madhavan) who is bereaving the death of her husband at her agrahaaram by the banks of the Kalpathi river in Palakkad. How Rasiya manages to meet Ganga and how she saves her husband Akbar in the face of stiff opposition from Raghurama Iyer's parents and brothers is what the rest of the movie is all about. T A Razak has never really impressed as a script writer in the past. He is adept at choosing topical subjects for his script (Bhoomigeetham and Kanakkinavu are good examples) but is also well known for messing up his scripts (The memories of Vishnulokam, Rappakal and Bus Conductor still send shivers down my spine). Here also, Razak is in his elements. His script is loaded with excessive melodrama, his metaphor of rain plays spoil sport and drains the script of its strength and the climax is unbearably long and undesirably cliched. His depiction of Tamil Brahman community is far from reality and the characters in the agrahaaram look and sound as if they are straight out of a pulp fiction (painkilikkatha in colloqial Malayalam). It is high time Kamal looked beyond Razak for scripts. The duo have delivered half a dozen duds together including this movie. Kamal's confusion as a film maker is evident with the way the movie progresses. The trauma that the protagonists go through is unable to strike a chord with the audience. The sudden change in Ganga's attitude towards Rasia and Akbar comes out as the weakest link in the film. To a certain extent, Kamal is saved by the performances of his cast. Meera Jasmine is adequate as Rasia though her performance borders on over acting in certain scenes. She needs to restrain herself badly. Kavya Madhavan underplays Ganga effectively with her subtle body language and ample use of facial expressions. Sadik as Najeeb, Biju Menon as John, Mala Aravindan as Kunjikannan and Salim Kumar as Akbar's uncle stand out. Dilip's cameo as Akbar is nothing much to write home about. Vineeth appears in a song sequence and does not make much impact. Mamukkoya gets a chance to exhibit his acting prowess as Rasia's father and the veteran does a great job worthy of the Special Award from the Kerala Government which he won for his portrayal. M Jayachandran's background music is loud and disturbs the tempo of the movie. The songs are well tuned and well picturised but they are completely out of place. Looks like the Kamal- Razak duo were unsure about the kind of movie that they wanted to make and due to this Perumazhakkalam ends up as a wannabe Middle of the Road kind. I really hope Kamal and Razak would have caught up with Nagesh Kukunoor's "Dor" which was based on the same story. Let the mastery of Kukunoor and the subtlety of Dor be lessons enough for Kamal and Razak to come up with something impressive in future.

Sethuramaiyer CBI- A Taut Thriller

Produced and Directed by K Madhu- Sethuramaiyer CBI is the third in the 4 part CBI series from the formidable team of K Madhu, S N Swamy and Mammootty. This film had its theatrical release in early 2004 and it is only after 2.5 years that I could finally catch up with this cracker of a movie. The CBI series started with Oru CBI Diarykurippu (1988) that established Mammootty's Sethuramaiyer as the Sherlock Holmes of Malayalam cinema. A quickly made Jaagratha (1990) followed and its less than appealing box office performance forced the CBI team to take a short break. The advent of mobile phones and the CBI theme making a comeback as one of the most common dial tunes made S N Swamy wake up from his slumber. Inspired by Arthur Healy, he scripted the third part of the series- Sethuramaiyer CBI. K Madhu and Mammootty were equally keen though the producer of the first two parts- M Mani (Sunitha Productions) was not. Thus, K Madhu took up the mantle of producing the movie up on himself and came out with Sethuramaiyer CBI which brought Mammootty back into the limelight and proved as the starting point for the mega star to deliver more than a dozen hits one after the other within a short span of 2 years. In spite of the movie becoming a huge success at the BO, I could not watch it in theatres, thanks to my busy days as a nouveau professional on the hunt for a satisying job. Finally I managed to catch up with the movie on Surya TV in one of its umpteenth telecasts. Needless to say, I was impressed once again with the mastery with which the murder mystery was solved. The movie starts with Sethuramaiyer (Mammootty) coming to his home town in Kerala for a vacation with his sister and family (Urmila Unni, Kunjan, an irritating Navya Nair and an over the top Nandana). One fine morning, Iyer has an unexpected visitor in the form of a pastor (Bharat Gopi wasted in an inconsequential role) who wants Iyer to visit a culprit (an effective Kalabhavan Mani) who is waiting for his death sentence for having committed 6 murders in 2 families. The culprit calls on Iyer for making a confession, a real shocking one at that- he has killed only 5 and the 6th murder was not committed by him. What adds more shock value to the revelation is the fact that the murder mystery was earlier investigated by CBI themselves and the culprit was booked following the investigation which they thought was fool proof. After obtaining the consent from his authorities, Iyer sets out on a re- investigation of the crime aided by his favorite subordinate Chacko (Mukesh) and the newly recruited Ganesh (Vineeth Kumar looking lost and confused). How Iyer and his team manage to successfully find out the culprit is what the rest of the movie is all about. S N Swamy is widely considered the Agatha Christie of Malayalam filmdom. He has every right to be described so since no other writer in Indian cinema has been able to contribute so effectively to the crime thriller genre like Swamy has. Here also, Swamy's script is wonderful and the methodology of the mystery being solved has an onion peel effect to it. The multi layered script contributes immensely to the success of the movie, though a few hitches like the Navya Nair- Vineeth Kumar romance and the Mala Aravindan episode could have been avoided. K Madhu proves yet again that there is no one like him when it comes to directing crime thrillers. The pacing of the movie is just perfect and the importance given to the aesthetics and production design deserves special mention. Mammootty stands tall amongst the cast, as far as performances are concerned. His interpretation of Sethuramaiyer is effective but what is awe inspiring is the fact that he looks straight out of the 1988 movie- Oru CBI Diarykurippu which started it all. Jagathy Sreekumar's brief appearance as the CBI officer in disguise is another feather in the versatile actor's already overcrowded cap. Saikumar as Inspector Sathyadas, the son of Inspector Devadas (the late Sukumaran) who appears in the prequels is equally effective. Technically also the movie stands out. The camera work (Anandakuttan, if I am right) rightly complements the mood of a crime thriller and the background music by Shyam is effective. The editing could have been crisper though. Sethuramaiyer was so big a success that it prompted the team to come up with a 4th part- a quickie called Nerariyaan CBI (2005) which left the theatres quicker than one could say 1-2-3.

Book Review: Khasakkinte Ithihaasam (Malayalam)

I have been hearing/ reading something or the other about "Khasakkinte Ithihaasam" ever since the time it was published first. To start with, this was the novel that brought O V Vijayan into the limelight, notwithstanding the fact that he was an eminent journalist and cartoonist associated with the likes of The Statesman earlier. Being the movie buff that I am, Khasakkinte Ithihaasam once again caught my fancy when Director Shyamaprasad and actor Mammootty declared that they were coming together with the cinematic version of the same. Mamootty even visited O V Vijayan personally to seek his blessings. However, the project never took off :( Ever since, I was on the look out for grabbing a copy of the book and finally, I did manage to. One reading and I clearly understood why Khasakkinte Ithihaasam is considered what it is. The book, as the title reveals, is the history of an imaginary hamlet called Khasak located in the mountainous regions of Palakkad district in Kerala. The story of Khasak and its inhabitants have been sensibly narrated through the eyes of Ravi, the protagonist. The novel starts with Ravi landing in Khasak as the teacher of the single- teacher school, a new government initiative to spread education and awareness among the new generation of Khasak. Ravi is a big threat for Allapicha Mollakka, the head of the local mosque who teaches the Muslim students of the village, the basics of their religious book- Koran. Ravi has his fair share of enemies on one hand- lead by Mollakka himself as well as friends in the form of progressive thinkers of the village like Madhavan Nair, Sivaraman Nair etc. The novel slowly proceeds to establish the background of each of its characters like Mollakka, Thitheebiyumma, Aliyar, Appukkili, Maimuna, Sivaraman Nair, Madhavan Nair etc interspersing their stories with that of Ravi himself. It is interesting to note how the narrative swings back and forth in time and in and out of the life of its various characters in its course forward. The authenticity of the language and the character sketch deserves special mention. All through the novel, there is nothing much that happens in the village. On the contrary, the thrust has been to unfold what had happened earlier in the village and how circumstances had shaped each of its characters into the way they are at present. The novel also deals with sensitive issues like casteism, communism, morality etc but in a very gentle and subtle manner. None of these issues gain more significance than the characters themselves and thus, O V Vijayan manages to sketch the hamlet and its inhabitants in vivid hues and strokes. I have never come across a novel like this before and it is probably the novelty and uniqueness of the plot and the style that sets Khasakkinte Ithihaasam apart from other post- modern literary works. Winner of the Muttathu Varkey award, Khasakkinte Ithihaasam is more than enough a testimony to Vijayan’s keen sense of observance and unmatched narrative skills and intelligence.

Book Review: Savithriyude Aranjanam (Malayalam)

M Mukundan is considered as one of the best writers in contemporary Malayalam Literature. My only tryst with M Mukundan till I caught hold of this book has been the cinematic version of his "Daivathinte Vikruthikal" which I have seen only in parts (Directed by Lenin Rajendran, the movie starred Raghuvaran, Malavika Avinash and Sreevidya in an award winning role). I definitely was impressed with the movie and its unconventional story line and characters and that was precisely the reason I thought I should read M Mukundan. The first book that I selected was "Savithriyude Aranjaanam"- a collection of 3 short stories- Mariyayude Madhuvidhu, Savithriyude Aranjaanam and Rasaleela. Mariyayude Madhuvidhu is about a young European lady- Maria whom the author meets at Delhi and keeps on meeting her at different points of time at different situations and in different places in and around the city. Maria is a disturbed soul who is out to find solace and gets attracted to the mysticism that Europeans often associate with India. She takes to yoga, meditation, sanyaas and goes even to the extent of sleeping around with the Baboos in Delhi to extend her period of stay in India. The story culminates in the tragic death of Maria. Through the character of Maria, the author has tried to analyze the hollow European culture which often borders on vanity and hypocrisy. How Maria wants to break away from her roots and how she gets sucked into the Indian culture has been expressed very well. The choice of language and the subtlety of the narration adds to the charm of Mariyayude Madhuvidhu. Rasaleela is the story of Krishnan, Leela and their lost love. The story starts with Krishnan coming back to the city of his love, Leela. The only difference is that this time around he is blinded (the reason for which is not mentioned) and has to depend on his old room mate, Balan for every information he needs. Balan, on his part, is never genuine and puts Krishnan into a world of make- believe. The dictum that Balan follows is very simple- "It is better to speak desirable lies than undesirable truth". Balan makes Krishnan believe that he is now a well placed professional with a happy and contented family while the truth is that he is still the same old Balan- a bachelor still struggling to make both ends meet, living in the same old pigeon hole which he used to share with Krishnan in their hey days together. Leela, who Krishnan was madly in love with, is now a prostitute. But, it is interesting how both Balan and Leela hide the truth from Krishnan. Leela is presented as a happily married woman with her loving husband Sreedharan doting on her and her kids. At times, the narrative falls down to the pulp fiction level though it is generally interesting to know how Krishnan's story progresses, loaded as it is with a lot of semi- truths and some interesting lies. The best of the lot is definitely Savithriyude Aranjaanam- the story of Ramunni, Neelakanatan, Neelakantan's wife Savithri and her aranjaanam (waist band). Ramunni is a local patriarch who helps out the needy by lending them money. Neelakantan, the local lad has borrowed petty amounts of money from Ramunni earlier and has not been able to repay him. This time around Neelakanatan borrowes some money from Ramunni by pleding his wife Savithri's golden Aranjaanam (waist band). However, the aranjaanam brings with it a hell lot of problems for Ramunni and his unsuspecting wife- Sarojini. Ramunni starts getting obsessed with the Aranjaanam and consequently with Savithri herself. He starts losing interest in his family life much to the dismay of his wife, Sarojini and also his social life, ignoring his friend of many years, Achumaash. How the aranjaanam becomes the bone of contention and puts the life of Ramunni in doldrums is what the short story is all about. It is interesting to note how M Mukundan makes Aranjaanam a metaphor for everything that is taboo from a moral point of view. Ramunni's lust for Savithri and his claustrophobic life within the moral confines of his patriarchal existence in the hypocritic Kerala society has been brought out by Mukundan in an awe inspiring style and that is what makes Savithriyude Aranjaanam the pick of this lot. All in all, a good read!

"Professional" in today's world- some thoughts

"Professional" is generally regarded as something related to a Profession and conforming to its standards. As a noun, Professional means a person following a Profession. Which brings us to Profession- a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation. (Courtesy: Dictionary.com) From an analysis of the above words, the following characteristics of Profession/ Professional come to the fore- Standards, knowledge, academics, preparation. What I feel when I think about these characteristics is that a Professional should have sound knowledge, should be good at academics, should continuously prepare meticulously for the various challenges in his work life and should carry out his activites conforming to certain standards in life. I enrolled myself for a couple of Professional courses completely believing in the above, managed to clear the various exams (albeit after repeated attempts) and started with what I thought is going to be a long, rewarding and exciting professional career. 3.5 years into my professional life and today I feel, "professional" is a much maligned, much abused and much misused word in the current cut throatish corporate scenario. 16 years earlier, our country opened its doors to the world. LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) was the key word and from then on, our economy has moved from strength to strength. Unemployment has ceased to be a problem, Foreign Exchange Reserves are in excess, Rupee is strengthening continuously against Dollar and the Indian Economy is expected to be the 3rd largest economy in the world by 2025, next only to US and China (overtaking Japan in due course). Professionals, they say, have never had it better. Medical research is opening up new avenues for Doctors, Software is luring Engineers by the dozen, Back office operations are attracting the Finance professionals and there is wide spread happiness and contentment on all faces that shout in unison- "This is the best time to work in India". In the middle of increasing opportunities, fatter pay checks and reverse brain drain, is somebody noticing the degradation that has befallen on the word "Professional"? Suddenly, everyone is professional, every activity is professional and every means to a professional end is, well, again professional. It definitely is a world of cut throat competition, one upmanship and survival of the fittest out there. But, does that mean that one needs to compormise on one's standards, thoughts and beliefs to make one's superiors happy or to earn a promotion or a few extra brownies??? Things have reached a stage where all a professional today is concerned about is the end. To achieve an end in view, one is ready to go to any extent- certifying untrue to be true, trampling others on one's way to success, deceiving others to achieve one's end- all this without batting an eyelid. Today's avant grade professional institutes are interested in creating next gen professionals who firmly believe it is only the end that matters, not the means. In the middle of all this, one really feels the word "professional" has lost it's meaning, significance and value. If professional is added as an adjective, it looks as if anything can be justified. Sample this- Professional rivalry, Professional disclosure, Professional non disclosure. Celebrated books and movies are made about Professional crooks, Professional con men and Professional killers. All this reducing the word "professional" to the standards of the world's oldest Profession! Mark Twain had earlier remarked- There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. The time is just right to rephrase it- There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and professional lies.

Three cheers for Chak De India.

I have not been a great admirer of Shah Rukh Khan, nor do I consider him a great actor. But I have always been the kind of person who normally watches an SRK movie during the first week itself. Mostly because they would be directed by one of the top notch directors in Bollywood (Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Aziz Mirza to name a few) and they will have him paired opposite one(some) of the best and the most glamourous actresses in Bollywood (Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, the list goes on). However, Chak De India did not really figure in my list of most anticipated movies before its release. First, it was a Yash Raj Production (Their last few releases have not appealed to me at all- Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Dhoom: 2, Neel n Nikki, Salaam Namaste, Kabul Express, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Fanaa); Second, it was directed by Shimit Amin (one time assistant to Ram Gopal Varma who made his debut as a director with Ab Tak Chhappan, which according to me was no great guns) and third and most important, it did not have a commercial Bollywood heroine. Instead it had 16 actresses, all of them unconventional, but prima facie unattractive. The movie finally did release on 10 August 2007 and the fanfare normally associated with an SRK movie was largely missing. But, a week unto its release and all of a sudden, everyone was talking "Chak De". SRK and his girls were here, there and everywhere, everybody from Rahul Dravid to Shobhaa De were commenting on how inspiring the film was. To add to all this, the film was supposedly running to packed houses even during its 4th week in Kochi. (Normally Hindi films are out in a week from theatres, unless they are exceptionally good). This was more temptation than enough for me to catch up with the movie and there I was at the theatre at noon, all set to watch SRK and his girls. Needless to say, I was really bowled over by the movie. As it is known to all by now, Chak De India is all about Kabir Khan (SRK), the once upon a time captain of the National Hockey team who has to make a disgraceful exit following a no show at a game opposite Pakistan and amongst allegations of match fixing and conspiring against the National team. 7 years later, he re surfaces as the Coach of the National Women's Hockey team- a job that has no takers. The job is definitely not a bed of roses for the coach- 16 girls from different parts of the country- some raw and untamed, some naive and conscious and yet others experienced and haughty. To add to his vows is the completely hostile attitude of the National Hockey Association- it knows nothing of the game, it has no faith on either the team or the coach, nor has it any sponsors or adequate funds to send the girls to the World Cup. Being the high spirited, uncompromising and patriotic sportsman that he is, Kabir Khan manages to evoke in the girls a spirit of oneness, a confidence in them as a team and a passion to excel and achieve the unattainable- all step by step. He manages to convince the association to send the girls to the World Cup and the movie ends predicatably with the team winning the World Cup! There definitely is something about this underdogs playing a sport meets patriotism kind of movies (Lagaan is a good reference point) and this plot is clearly what sets Chak De India apart. A hurt sportsman's attempt to regain lost ground and his unfailing passion towards his game has been effectively portrayed by Shimit Amin in the movie. The coaching scenes, the meetings of the association, the match between the men's and women's teams, the scuffle between the girls and the men at the restaurant and the final matches in Australia have been very well shot. Jaideep Sahni's script is tight and effective; his dialogues are witty and sparkling (The Hindi voice over in Australia that sounds like a commentary is mediocre). Music by Salim- Sulaiman definitely takes a back seat, but then this was not meant to be another Yash Raj Musical anyways. Photography is classic, editing is crisp and art and sound are authentic. Chak De gets a thumps up for having come up with such a brilliant casting- the girls are real, unconventional and natural, their performances lending credibility to the narrative. [Some of them are attractive too ;)] The real hero of the film, however, is Shah Rukh Khan. The superstar is in fine form and takes to the role of the coach like a fish to water. The last time I liked a movie for SRK was Yes Boss (1997). 10 years later, SRK comes up with a stunning performance without even a single instance of hamming! SRK simply rocks :) Chak De India literally takes you to the stadium and evokes wolf whistles. This is a film that needs to be watched in a movie hall with the entire family!