It tastes less sweet but sounds too familiar

I saw the promos of the Amitabh-Tabu starrer film "Chinni Kum".The first thing that caught my attention was the title song. Its inspired, no sorry, directly lifted from Mani Rathnam directed Tamil movie Mouna Ragam that was made in 1986.The original song being "Mandram vandha thendraluku, manjam vara nenjam....". Listen it. I was quite angry and looked closely at the promos again, expecting Anu Malik to be the Music Director, but surprisingly found it to be Illayaraja, the maestro who also did the original score. May be the Rahman bug, of reusing his Tamil song tunes for Hindi films and vice versa, has bitten him too. Thank God!!, Software Engineers are not the only lot to be blamed for the "Ctrl C + Ctrl V" phenomenon.

Somehow the feel of the movie also looks very familiar to me. I don’t know why, but I feel the movie could be inspired by "Tortilla Soup". May be the fact that the protagonist is a chef who is in love with a younger girl is the reason. Waiting for the release of the movie.

Friend's enemy,My enemy!!!

Just because day-by-day Yahoo and Microsoft are getting cozy together, all of a sudden, YahooMail Beta will not support Netscape Browser;-(

Unspoken Words ...

This is the second time in as many weeks, I have been asked by a friend to accompany for the movie "Mozhi". I have already seen the film twice, so I had to decline both the offers. This is one movie, which every Tamil speaking person would like to watch. Its very rare that you get to see a neat, decent movie with an undercurrent message but at the same time, is non preachy. In short a complete entertainer.

There was only a fleeting moment in the almost flawless film, when I felt that "this could have been done without". It is a movie that sensitizes about the handicapped people and urging us to understand them and accept them as they are. It instills a sense of self-respect and dignity among the handicapped people. With such lofty ideals as its base, expectations from the film, at least in the handling of emotions of the handicapped people, are quite high.

Jo, who acts, as a deaf and dumb girl gets angry with Prithviraj because he imaginatively tries to give a voice to her .He wonders if Jo had a voice how would it sound and every time she communicates through sign language, he mentally gives it a voice. The very fact that she is not being accepted as she is angers her and severs her friendship with Prithviraj. Prithviraj tries hard to make Jo forgive him, but Jo is quite adamant. Jo finally breaks into a smile when Prithvi acts like a mentally challenged and makes all sort of funny face. According to Jo's characterization, I personally feel she should have got more angry but on the contrary it triggers her to laugh and forgive Prithviraj. Something I cannot accept.

Well, you can call me a cynic or incorrigible faultfinder but all I expect is a uniformly good, sensitive movie.

Starting Trouble !!!

I have got loads of work to do,I also know sort of what to do, how to do….. I also know that I got to complete it by tomorrow. I came to office at 8 to start of as soon as I hit my desk. Its been 3 hours since my entry. But I haven’t still started designing. !!!
I thought may be walking a bit would help, nope I was wrong. May be coffee, wrong again. May be a one-to-one interaction with someone who is doing his work pretty seriously, didn’t help again. So I thought let me post something, let it be some arbit stuff.
Am I just being lazy or bored or just checking my limit??? That’s it. I am heading straight to work. Do you ever feel this way?????

Sharukh is crazy about ME!!

Whenever Shahrukh raises his hand toward the sky and looks into the camera with his face tilted towards right (or maybe sometimes to left) complete with his trademark dimpled wry smile, many girls' heart skip a beat. But you know what, the Badshah himself is actually crazy about ME!!!!

It is said that if you like someone, you tend to take that person's name as often as possible even when it is not required and much to my embarrassment Shahrukh is doing exactly the same thing. Since in films he has to follow the instructions of the scriptwriter, he generally doesn’t speak his mind on the big screen but he takes full liberty on the small screen. All those people who have followed KBC, think again and you will relate to what I am talking. SRK takes the smallest possible opportunity to complete each sentence he utters with my name. Since the curtains have come down for this season of KBC, you cant watch SRK calling me in small screen, may be he will carry over his passion to silver screen too!!

SRK also has the tradition to call his leading ladies in his own unique style. Remember his ki..ki..ki..Kiran in Darr or Senorita of DDLJ, similarly he has given a personal touch to my name also.He calls me Uummmaaa. Does it sound a ring --- "Boys n Gals, Uummmaa" , "sleep well, Uummmaaa", "take care, Uummmaa", "this is SRK signing off, Uummmaaa" and you know what, everytime SRK calls me he raise his hand especially for ME !!!

Main Hoon Na

I am sure all the Indian cricket lovers (i.e we) were disappointed with India's performance against Bangladesh (supposedly a minnow team) and the same "we" were ecstatic when India thrashed another minnow team Bermuda. The Indian blogdom is already heavily active with the scrutiny of India's performance, so I am not going to further ramble about the same. I am pretty much concerned about the emotional toll that "we" undergo during the 2 minute commercial slot in between the real sport.

You can very well imagine the plight of "we" when the Indian batting order is
tumbling down like a castle made from a pack of cards and you are forced to see an ad depicting the Indian players walking into the ground as they camouflage into growling tigers walking majestically!!! and at the same time urging us to chant "hu ha India"

Given this scenario the only scene that runs in your mind is :the wicket of the so called top-class Indian batsman falls and as he walks out to the dressing room with his sagging shoulder the camera angle then moves to the next promising batsman who enters the arena and he camouflages to a goat making a meek sound of "meaah ...meah dont worry Main hoon na. I will follow u soon to the dressing room" while "we" yell out "hai hai India".

The channels telecasting the game should be sensitive to the situation of the game and broadcast commercials accordingly. It’s good for the viewers, players, the product being endorsed and as well as for the longevity of the television set. Lets not debate whether it’s right for the cricketers to feature in commercials, but does it make sense for Dhoni to talk about reliability of a particular insurance 1 minute after he gets out on a duck??

So all the advertising firms should have two sets of commercials for the same product - one featuring the celebrity Indian cricketers, which can be telecasted when India plays against teams like Bermuda n etal, and another set of commercial with the usual models when the Indian players are on the receiving end. Atleast this way we can give some relief to the poor Indian cricket viewers.

Help Needed

A victim goes to the police station to file a complaint but the police refuses to lodge a FIR. After persistent pressure, the police unwillingly succumbs but does not take any further actions. Meanwhile the victim and his family keeps on getting threats to their lives.--- now does this sound like a scene from a film. How does it feel when it happens to your life or to any of your friends. Just spare a moment. Doesn't it unnerve you?

Shantanu,one of my friend is in such "big trouble". Kindly help him out it in any possible way you can think of. You can:

1) Give him a lead to the prime News Channels, so that his voice can be heard out. He is trying on this regard but with not much success.

2) Let him know of any legal help.

3) Be his voice and spread the word to fellow bloggers and your friends.

Shantanu is in desperate need of our help. Please reach out.