Raja's read only memories

The Indian Railways, by introducing infotainment consoles – a euphemism for television-like contraptions – in premier trains such as the Shatabdi Express, is seemingly either starved of creativity or funneling a potential scam Trust our beloved IR to leave the suspicions of a scam hanging in the air in anything grandiose it attempts. Proof: the LCD screens aboard the Bangalore-Chennai Shatabdi Express – ostensibly part of its infotainment (whatever that means) systems. Surely, they could have installed a PA system, or boards, to achieve the same, was the first thought that crossed my mind. Loud welcome messages in various languages greeted passengers just as they settled in their seats and were about to drift into sleep. The screens did have a purpose after all; a programme titled “Yoga at the workplace”, with a woman vainly attempting a Shilpa Shetty, was the day's first, interspersed with advertisements on incense sticks, nationalised banks and contraceptives. ...

A trigger-happy imbecile opened fire indiscriminately inside an American movie hall during the screening of the movie The Dark Knight Rises , killing at least a dozen viewers and injuring many more. This directs the spotlight on an age-old conundrum related to cinema: should violence ever be part of it? For the motion What we see is what we get Nothing makes a case for the exclusion of violence from cinema better than the acronym in computer terminology WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get). This statement is not without its empirical evidence. That visual stimulus, in concordance with its other forms, can make a lasting impact on the sub-conscious, the portion of our mind that functions even when we are physically inactive (Think the Pavlov’s dog experiment), has been well documented. Depending on the information that we feed our brains, our thinking processes can undergo irreversible deformations. Feed violence and you would, in all likelihood, receive the same. Let us take t...

                 Movie Name: Billa-2 (A)    Language: Tamil Cast: Ajith Kumar, Vidyut Jamval, Parvathy Omanakuttan, Brunah Abdullah Director: Chakri Toleti      Pros: Ajith's stellar performance; fast-paced narration; mind-blowing stunts and a gripping climax Cons: Originality takes a hit — stay away if you are awash with the gangster flicks of Hollywood, notably Martin Scorsese flicks or Coppola’s The Godfather ; mind-numbing violence Imagine, if you can, a home-grown don who answers to David Billa (known in Bollywood as Don), who, during a police encounter gets gunned down; the police get hold of his doppelganger, make him infiltrate his gang, and after a cat-and mouse game spanning locales in Malaysia, bring them to justice. Imagine, if you still can, the focus shifting to Billa’s chronology; his rise to the top of the food chain, a la ...

Worldspace Radio's abrupt termination of services left behind a void in music aficionados. However, Carnatic classical music listeners may have reason for cheer as the RJs of its Carnatic music channel team up again - this time for an online avatar El Classico : The RJs of RadioWeb Carnatic               by Rajagopalan Venkataraman Bangalore: Commonality of interests was what R Mahadevan, radio jockey and former director of Shruti, the Carnatic music channel on Worldspace Satellite Radio, and A S Krishnan, former employee at Wipro Technologies, discovered when they met on a social networking website one-and-half years ago - a passion for Carnatic music. Now directors and co-founders of RadioWeb Carnatic, an online Carnatic music radio channel that has been running for a few weeks now, the duo was driven by the desire to create a user-friendly website. Work on the site started about nine mont...

Peppered by stellar performances by its cast, Saguni has a beaten-to-death storyline If only politics were as easy as portrayed in Saguni Anarchy prevails the ruling political party — which interestingly portrays the late actor Poornam Vishwanathan as its founder — when its scheming deputy chief Boopathy (Prakash Raj) supplants the chief minister-elect unceremoniously, with some help from his concubine (Kiran, back after a hiatus). He rules the party, and the state, with an iron fist. The camera then swings to the protagonist, Kamalakannan (Karthi) a villager on his maiden visit to Chennai, who, after witnessing its squalor, remarks sardonically, "Busy city, pasi (hungry) citizens." Sounds familiar? Those who grew up in the 70s/ 80s would have sworn that these scenes belong to an MGR's messiah-of-the-masses movie (think Nam Naadu ), or Rajinikanth flick. A man-against-the-system themed movie that manages to punch above its weight due to power-packed ...

A remake of the Rajinikanth 80’s cult classic, Murattu Kaalai falls flat due to poor storytelling A theatrical poster of Murattu Kaalai, a remake of Rajinikanth's yesteryear ht                                                           By harking back to yesteryear Tamil movie hits — in particular those of the fab four, MGR, Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth and Kamalhasan — Kollywood reiterates, every now and then, that retro will always be its metro. The Sundar C, Sneha starrer Murattu Kaalai (the raging bull), that shares its title and storyline, but not its finesse and chutzpah, with its namesake of the 80’s Rajinikanth sleeper hit, amply evidences this. The superstar, in what was possibly his first hit as a solo hero Etymology would reveal us that...

The IPL may be over; however, it’s time to examine a TV advert – which did the rounds around the same time – that pitted cricket against football Few in India would dispute that cricket here arouses as much, if not more, passion than the Kama Sutra . When viewed such, Indian society has no room for atheism or differences, for it has a common God aka Sachin Tendulkar (name provided for the sake of the uninitiated), who only recently got elected to the Upper House of the Parliament. The Holy Grail of Indian sport, the sponsors’ and media’s darling, cricket’s popularity also means that its hordes of followers are also its experts. So, pitting this game against any other, howsoever popular, could be viewed as an attempt to either be a trendsetter or a sitting duck to widespread ridicule and criticism. Ergo, intrigue is the watchword when Atlanta’s second cola major, Pepsi, pits Chelsea’s Frank Lampard, Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba against Indian cricketers M S Dhon...

Here’s a sneak-peek into what transpired before the raging debate in our Parliament over an insidious/ thought provoking/ hilarious (take your pick) cartoon Inside the room of the powers-that-be, at 24, Akbar Road, New Delhi, the office of the grand old party of India... “But still, madamji , I don’t understand why he needs to be depicted as flogging a snail, of all creatures.”  “And you say this cartoon figures in our school textbooks. Surely, I hope you are not inebriated, as you were when you made that zero-loss statement on the 2G scam?” “I swear on the Quattrochi’s hefty Bofors commission... (Voice trails as he receives a cold glare that would have frozen a bowl of steaming hot pasta)” “ Madamji , I swear by Andimuthu Raja’s 2G loot that... (Speaker waits for approval from listener which he gets after a momentary furrowing of the eyebrows and a brief rumination) that these books are perpetuating the heinous of the ideologies. The minister who had granted the go-...