Gajini - my review

Watched Gajini over the weekend. I very much agree with the first reviewer’s comments on the background music. It is jarring and really bad and I can’t understand why HJ decided to use such unconnected music for certain situations. Amateurish…is the word that comes to mind. I guess it is the norm that certain situations require certain types of background scores.
If Memento was superior and to a certain extent ‘over’ screenplay, this movie is at a total loss for screenplay. Surya has short-term memory loss and the movie begins saying that he is all normal otherwise…then why does Surya have to have this quirky behavior after the fact that he has this mental disease. I guess things just can’t be normal, and the director has to explicitly show that the guy is mentally disturbed and a ‘loosu’. Things are so unconnected…the apartment complex Surya lives is is supposed to be a posh and upscale place…and his apartment though looks like out of the ghetto…again…you see…it has to be spelt out that this is a disturbed guy…or the director has to give a feel of murkiness to the whole scene. The direction is so amateurish…the final half-hour was a bit of a pull-through…the never-ending fight sequence at the end is bad enough. You can actually see one of the girls in the ‘audience’ watching the fight give out a nice smile…happy that she is on camera. I think these ‘Matrix’- type fight sequences are getting a bit too much. Every fight sequence in every Indian movie has to incorporate some of those unrealistic slow-motion moves. Whatever happened to the down-to-earth ‘vettiye madiche katte’- type fight scenes.
Nayanthara…what a sorry plight Tamil cinema is in…the only qualification she has is that he co-starred with the SuperStar. She is ‘bloated’ for lack of a better term…and the director has to put the audience through the torture of watching her do an ‘item number’. It would have been nice if she could act as well. I think Nayanthara is the biggest disappointment to the film.
Asin in her own rights is short of any acting skills…but I think she kind of came out well in the movie at least to her extent. She has done fairly well.
There really is nothing you can say on Surya…he has done a decent job…a good and true actor. Again, as the previous reviewer said, the ‘Gounder’ needs a decent break with a good movie and a good director. If only he would not insist again on having Jyothika as the heroine…J
Lastly, but not the least, choreography is at its worst in the movie. None of the songs are choreographed well…you can watch the good songs just for the sake of Surya.
The things which struck me while watching this movie was that so much Tamil Cinema is becoming so away from reality with all actors walking around in expensive suits, flies in a private jet and never travels alone save with 4-5 cars with him. Well I must confess I cannot substantiate this argument fully, for an avid Superstar fan…but then that this “different”…JThis is the next disappointment after Anniyan…another movie which was made for kids…which is Ok by the way.

India donates $ 5 million to US

This is a rather unusual headline which we don't see often.
India donates $5 mn to US
But truly the people hit by Katrina in the US do need help.
This might be seen as just another sign of the important player that India is devloping into on the world scene. The last indication that we gave of this, was when it was reported that India had not not explicitly asked for foreign aid and was confident of handing the catastrophe on its own.

Iraq - draft Constitution online

It is interesting the progress of 'nation-building' in Iraq. Of course foremost the draft constitution which was approved recently. The Iraqi draft constitution is online in this web-site. Is the Indian constitution available for public access anywhere?

PS: The Indian constitution is online here with all the 22 parts and the 395 articles...

Rajini 'Shivaji' - it is ARR

What more do we need....
It's thalaivar, shankar, AVM and ARR...atleast that is what I am hearing...it will be great if this is confirmed.
And the heroine...who's doing the best in Bollywood...Rani Mukherjee...
hmm...we have all the sparks and indications for an 'erimalai'...just hope it really does explode when the movie is released...

Katrina imagery

Google Earth has the images of the Katrina disaster.

Nature's fury is the same all over the earth irrespective of the poorest nation or the richest nation. 'US refugees' are facing the same sad plight that the people in Banda Aceh and Sri Lanka faced. We did crticize the Mumbai govt. machinery during the 'one-day' floods there...but I guess the US governments response to the disaster in New Orleans and Mississippi show that all govt. machinery is unprepared for nature's fury. There is imagery of both the tsunami in South Asia and the hurricane Katrina at Digital Globe which has satellite imagery of both these disasters. The images of the Tsunami in Sri Lanka are especially rivetting...it shows the waters rising and then the recede....

Netaji enquiry still alive!

The Govt. of India has still not acknoledged Netaji Subhash Chadra Bose's death..he is still 'missing'. To top it all, there is still a one-man Commission the MK Mukherjee Commission invetigating Netaji's death. I think this commission is scheduled to go to Russia in connection with the investigation...and then probably Vietnam and other countries...
We could not even nail down some culprits who ignited the Sikh riots in 1984 which happened in broad daylight with more than 3000 people dead after numerous enquiry commissions and debates...do you think we could ever acertain what happened to Netaji in his final moments. If we can't investigate and hold to court what happened in our nation's capital...I am not sure how much success we are going to have with enquiring abt' Netaji's fatal crash and death outside our borders...

Well...I read somewhere that Netaji would be 110 if he was alive now...

Katrina's Deady Kiss

The tropical storm Katrina has wrecked havoc over Mississipi after battering Lousiana. AP has already reported atleast 50 dead. Real-time Doppler radar for the storm can be seen here.

In a separate report Reuters has an article on how this storm could slow down the economy. With oil prices already touching a record high, Katrina has added to the woes with damaging energy supplies.
I just hope we don't see the same situation as the US did in the early 1970's with the oil crisis and the never-ending lines at the gas stations...

Nanda,,,

I am watching Nanda starring Surya- a film by Bala. I have seen this before....but worth watching once more. I think this is where Surya arrived as an actor...and director Bala had done a great job...Surya has managed to bring out some great expressions in his acting this film...
And above all, Bala also managed to get Laila to do a great act...!

The Rising:Raja Sen review

Wow! This scathing review from Raja Sen on Amir's latest 'Mangal Pandey' seems to be right on the point.
I think Hey Ram from Kamal was a much better movie. But that did not go down very well with the audience. I guess Mangal Pandey is from the Bollywood franchise and this helps it a lot.