Raja's read only memories

Part 1: In the office of the Karnataka CM... A wizened man was scanning the day’s newspapers, character by character, pixel by pixel, hoping to find a positive reference in a news article, leave alone stumbling upon a glowing reader’s comment. Frustrated, he threw away the bunch of newspapers – English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam dailies. “Perhaps we must subscribe to the ideology of paid news,” he remarked. “At least then I can get to see something positive published about me.” His personal secretary, to whom he spoke, reflected, “Perhaps, we could think of positive governance,” but looked up in a startle, when he realised that his official was glaring at him, perhaps reading his thoughts. “I agree with you entirely, sir. We could speak to the senior editors of some dailies and probably get them on our payroll,” he said half-heartedly. “Don’t you think they may go public on any such overture of ours?” “Why not,” blurted the secretary, but was quick enough to...

You can read this review also at: http://expressbuzz.com/biography/avan-ivan/286219.html Raw depiction of human emotions have been the USP of Bala's movies. The Aghori sadhu in Naan Kadavul , the son of an undertaker in the national award-winning movie Pithamagan , or the jilted lover in Sethu stand out for their oddities, influencing movie and satire makers like no other. So, it is confounding that Avan Ivan , the latest movie from his stable, is surprisingly stereotypical. Kumbidaren Saamy (Arya) and Walter Vanangamudi (Vishal) are village louts who are half-brothers. Walter, an aspiring actor, has a squint, cross-dresses and even dances as a woman (he boasts that when dressed as a woman, even Cleopatra would emerge from her grave and kiss him); Saamy is an expert at picking locks. A local magistrate summons him to his house to open his ancient safe, the key for which he has misplaced. Although animosity runs high between the two, Saamy is afraid to confront Walter directly. The...

"Whatever is needed is Dharma," or so goes a quote attributed to the philosopher Chanakya prior to the start of Thiagarajan Kumararaja's debut movie, Aaranya Kaandam (the forest chapter) . The movie, which is part of Kollywood's new-found passion for off-beat themes, has certainly satisfied its cinematic 'dharma' by looking beyond the traditional masala fare, and still produce a gripping entertainer. A gangster flick, Aaranya... steers clear of the good v/s bad kind of characterisation, with virtually every character painted in hues of grey — a departure from the Robin Hood/vigilante-themed movies . Singaperumal (Jackie Shroff), a dreaded gangster, beats up his concubine Subbu (Yasmin Ponnappa) while unable to get it up during intercourse, but makes up for it by handing money to Sappai (Ravi Krishna), his effeminate assistant, asking him to purchase something for her. A kid, Kodukapuli (Master Vasanth), helps his drunkard dad perform his daily ablutions, but ...

A scene in the recent Bollywood blockbuster, three idiots , goes as follows: The principal of the college explains to an eager bunch of freshers how the Americans spent years of complex research and millions of dollars in developing a pen that can be used in a spacecraft, even in zero and sub gravity conditions and in extremes of temperatures. At that instant, Rancho (the character portrayed by Aamir Khan), almost innocently asks, “Sir, can’t we use a pencil instead?” when all the students burst into laughter. If anything, it only establishes the fact that he did not know about the perils of using a pencil in a spacecraft and the Space Pen. PS: This scene could have been probably inspired by the age-old joke, which probably originated in the Cold war era and continues to circulate via e-mails and SMS’ worldwide, in which the US and Russia (or USSR), in the height of the space race, were developing a pen for use inside spacecraft and during one such meeting between scientists of b...

Appeared in City Express , the daily supplement of The New Indian Express , on 23 March, 2011 If ever there is a movie to exemplify that a comedy track alone will not suffice to cover the gaping holes in the logic of its screenplay, one need not look beyond Kandean (I saw). The movie abounds with scenes that lack coherence and could have done with a great deal of trimming. Vasanth (Shantanu), the son of yesteryear film director K Bhagyaraj, is a playboy and a software engineer, whose sole aim is to fall in love with a girl and marry her. Vasanth’s grandfather, Chinnrasu Kounder (Vijayakumar), a village chieftain, (someone please tell him that the days when rural-centric movies like Naattamai or Natpukkaga were a rage are over) forces his grandson in vain into a marriage when Vasanth lies that he has a girlfriend back in Chennai. Narmada (Rashmi), a college student and the daughter of the police commissioner of Chennai (Ashish Vidyarthi, who follows a pattern in grimacing and mellowin...

In a move that could confound pollsters and analysts, the principal national political parties of the nation — BJP and Congress — have decided to come together in a state where their prospects have never been anything to gloat about, Tamil Nadu. The partnership, it is said, has been forged to take everyone by surprise. BJP state unit president L Ganesan addressed reporters in Chennai recently, "According to a secret public opinion poll, confidential even to its respondents, we realised that the public were tired of  the bickering between the Congress and us. Hence, this move, in addition to leading Tamil Nadu to the road of development, will offer some variety to the aam-aadmi, on whom to vote for." Former state Congress chief K V Thangkabalu, however, remained tight-lipped. "The decision rests entirely with Sonia Gandhi madam," he said, conceding that her son Rahul expressed interest over the partnership, as his previous attempts at improving the Congress' t...

If marriages are made in heaven, then the events preceding it must definitely be made in Kollywood’s studios, whose insistence on replicating the phrase “and they lived happily ever after” on screen is so strong that anything contrary has been (and will) strongly be looked down upon. As Paulo Coelho would have said, the entire universe would have conspired to ensure that the lead pair, be it the newcomer or the reigning star, stand united, no matter how adverse situations may turn out to be. P Vasu’s Chinna Thambi and Mani Ratnam’s Roja are movies that instantly come to my mind when I think of this. Did not the actor Amitabh Bachchan once say that he is intent on providing entertainment to the common man who is burdened with the complexities of life? Which is why the ending in Gowtham Menon’s not-so-recent movie, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (Will you cross the stars for me), where the lead pair – Silambarasan and Trisha – despite falling in love, decide to part ways, intrigues me to n...