MD's favourite movies

FINALLY after a year looong lay off i m gonna blog again....Just before i get into serious stuffs,let me just inform to all those who dont know that me n my frnds are alive and well here in NOIDA...went for Ind-Aus match at the Kotla a few days bak...would be blogging about it in the coming days....

But i first wanted a couple of posts about the

best movies i have seen thus far and wat fasci

nated me about them...I am not picking any one as more favourite coz all of them

are dear to my heart for various reasons and for the reason that classics cannot be compared...

So lets start...

1)Thoovanathumpikal- For me the greatest creation of my most favourite

malayalam director cum story writer.....I love the movie coz every time i see it,it leaves me confused about the very concept of wat love is....It mocks the

traditional concepts of relations between a man and a woman.....and wat makes the story more interesting is the character of the protagonist.....One of mohanlal's best ever performances came in this film....Also Sumalathas character is so well scripted and taken so that its difficult for a first

time viewer to understand the person....

The thing about this movie is once anyone sees this fully, he or she would still be thinking about the characters till the next time he sees it....And every time i see it i end up creating a new theory about wat exactly is happening or will happen to the characters....This is the one reason i like this movie so much

2)Manichithrathazhu- Do i even need to type about y i love this movie....An absolute classic in all senses and till date one of malayalis most favourite movies... Whats more ineresting is that even as time goes by this movies popularity just goes on increasing..

What i liked about this movie

....well, its the same as everyone...the comedy scenes which make u laugh

every time u think about them.....Shobhana's and Lalettan's amazing performance....The beauty of the script and obviously the way its been taken...first time i saw it, i was sure it was a ghost movie till the twist occured in the end....How each little happening in the house begin to make sense in the end, its a movie of sheer beauty and wat makes it more exiting to wtch is tat there is never a dull moment in the film be it the songs or the haunting or the comedy scenes....its an out and out entertainer and a classic at the same time.....Easily one of the best malayalam movies ever made..

..

3)Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha- Easily the best script i have ever seen in a Malayalam movie......The sheer beauty of the script is that it changes no historical fact, it changes nothing...Just takes a look at it from the villains side...It would have been simply

just another good malayalam movie, well remembered and all But Mammotty's superb performance raises the bar.....Such was the power of his role that people actually forget for a moment that MT Vasudevan Nair is actually depicting a character of many weaknesses which lead to his downfall eventually.....Such was the power of this movie that even tv serials about the same started depicting chandu as a nice person after this movie....It was a movie which had the power to rewrite history...Literally...Capped of

with a National Award winning performance....

4)Nayagan - The greatest ever acting performance by an Indian actor according to me came in this film....Partly inspired by the real life story of Varadaraja Mudaliar and partly inspired by the God Father this film released in 1987 rewrote the

whole concept of heroism....It was a work of pure perfection which also bought Mani

Rathnam to international limelight...It was also included in the Times list of 100 greatest ever movies, one of only two Indian films in the list other being Pyaasa....The story is about Velu Naikkar- his rise and fall....more importantly the person that he was....The whole film can be epitomised in one scene in which Velu Naikkars grandson asks him:"Ninga Nallavana Kettavana?"(Are you a good or a bad person) Velu Naikkar replies:"Ther

iyalle"(I dont know)

5)1921 - I have put this film in coz back home Pazhassi Raja has released and its been an independence wave.....So i decided to think back on which malayalam film on independence struggle shook me the most....It was close but 1921 scored over Kalapani and Veluthampi Dhalava....I am yet to see Pazhassi raja so i have not included tat in this....I like 1921 more bcoz i feel it was a movie which showcased the realities of the moplah rebellion in Kerala.

...The script is real strong but the performances by Mammotty and T G Ravi take it to another level.....It not only tells you about the struggle but also tells you why it happened...also it does not tend to overtly glorify the rebels as it also showcases clearly the cruelty they inflicted...It clearly takes us to that time and shows us how the rebellion took place, how it spread and how cruelly it was crushed...It is for me the best movie yet released in Malayalam about the Independence struggle or a part of it......

Well these are just 5 of them...there are more..will publish them again when i have nothin else to write about..[:D]..There are other language films that i like but for the time being its mostly malayalam as it is the language in which i have seen most films....

Water Mirror or Pervy Sage........

the one habit of mine which has lead to criticism so often from my friend sasimon has been that of me watchin nd readin Japanese manga(comic series)....well it seems that habit of mine may not die anytime soon(especially after startin wid Naruto).....one thing i have put my mind to durin these times is if me as a person bears similarities wid any of d characters i come across.........

The similarities between me and naruto(the character) were obvious,about the loneliness i had when i was younger,tryin various things to get peoples attention and comin to a great college and finally findin some real good friends(3 of them closer than most).....the similarities seemed never endin but the prob was that i was never as loud as Naruto,despite me bein an idiot i was never as stupid as naruto too.........So similarities ended there.....

Then came Shikamaru, another character in the same series......the way we thought was similar and both of us had real low grades for our exams tooo.....But i was not as good in chess as he was
and never in my life wil get an IQ over 200,so there ended our similarities(even though he still reminds me of a certain person i know,for people who dont get it yet his name starts wid V nd ends wid N,still dont get it then u dont know the guy).........

Another one of my most favourite manga series was 'Flame of Recca'.....The first 2 times i watched it i did not notice but the third time i started noticing similarities in nature between me and one of the characters in d anime.....This time it being Tokiya Mikagami(Mikagami means water mirror), the water sword master.......we were dead similar in the ways we thought and even in little things there were similarities between us.....i could say that he is one character i have come across which bears most resemblence to me............

But i m not rushing , there is yet another character which bears its resemblance to me.......Naruto readers will surely know Jiraiya,his god father,teacher and the one he calls Pervy sage due to his dealings wid women(:D).......for my close friends my character would bear more resemblance to Jiraiya then any other... (even though i do not consider myself to be that fallen).....
Well there could b hell lot of animes out there that i bear resemblance to.....I just wanted to blog about a few of them thats all......


PS-yeah i have seen more animes than Naruto but its while watchin this series that i began to find resemblances wid me or the friends around me..........if any people readin this find any resemblance wid me and any fictional character then u r free to comment......

For people not familiar wid Naruto,chck out http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page for details or goto http://www.mangavolume.com to read the entire series

The Ronaldo Saga-My Take........

For the past few months the one controversy that has been rocking world football has been that of the tug of war between footballing heavyweights,ManUtd and Real Madrid over the most (in)famous football star on the planet at the moment Cristiano Ronaldo..........Well here's my take on the whole thing and its implications not only for the two clubs and the player but for world football as a whole........
Let me first start from Rons side,having given 5 years of meritorious service at OT,making both home and away fans spend their savings just to come to watch you week in week out.....(most importantly choosing to return to ManUtd after the world cup Rooney incident and all the media hype assossiated with it in England)...plus winning every trophy available with ManUtd its natural for any player to look for a fresher challenge....especially if it involves a world record deal both for the player and the club and if the club that comes calling is your dream....
Moving on to Reals and Uniteds tussle.....it is natural for united to want to hold on to a player who has just signed a new contract last year ...tat too a bumper deal......In Reals case as their president Calederon has put it there is no club in the world which would not want Ronaldo at the moment(or is there?if Barca are to be believed)......
Real are willing to give Ronaldo a bumper deal equalling his wages with that of club captain Raul......( contrary to previous reports it would in fact be a pay cut for Ronaldo from his Man Utd wages,but Real are ready to offer him extra for his image rights).....
Also on the offing is a world record transfer fee if paid in full would dwarf what real paid for Figo........(there are also reports of a cash plus player deal details of which i would come to later)......
Looking at Real over the past few years,they had a horror run during the 'galacticos' years,but last 2 years under 2 different coaches they have won 2 la liga titles back to back....what has been noticeable about these wins have been the reliance on team ethics than on individual performers unlike in the past......players like sneijder,diarra,ramos and especially casillas(plus the up front combination of Raul and Ruud)...wats obvious that the player that real lack is by no means Ron(they already have 3 world class opertors for the wings in Robben,Sneijder and Robinho).....
So Ron is definately surplus to them as far as their team is concerned.......which makes it clear without a doubt that they want this deal just for selling extra merchandise.....United in fact are at the win win situation here because if the deal doesn't come through Ron being the professional he has been till now will come back and play his normal way(luckily for him his team mates are not against him yet so he will not hav emuch of a problem if he does come back so will the team united)..........If the deal does go through they can ask for Sneijder,Ramos (even Casillas!) plus significant amount of cash in return for Ronaldo,which would for all reasons damage the team structure at Real....It is known that the Real fans are upset at this deal as they do not want the repeat of the Galacticos mistake.......
One thing Ronaldo should have in mind about his new 'challenge' is that the fans in spain would not be as considerate as ManUtds who were with him thru even his tough times(Remember what came of Ronaldinho and the other Ronaldo)....If he leaves United no doubt those loyal supporters will turn against him and he can get ready for a repeat of what Figo got at the Nou Camp if at all he ever steps foot in OT again......plus Real being a team of the adidas brand and Ron under Nike contract the deal would be financially less beneficial to him........
Plus if the deal does happen it would put new questions on player loyalties.....what Real did to United could soon backfire on them at some other time......(i heard Mr.Platini murmur somethin about Uniteds debts and that Real have every right to court Ron coz they are finacially secure,hope someone informs him that Real is also under debt of over $400 million)........
So whatever happens in this saga could be a turning point for world football in some sorta way.....only time will tell how it would pan out.........

Dashaavatharam-The review of a blogger

i am not an active film critic,not even an authority to speak on films....but if i don't write about dashavatharam it might be refusing to comment on one of the most wonderful works of art,ignorance about one of the most brilliant scripts ever written in Indian cinema and oblivion of one of the greatest actors of all time........
Sure,i should have to mention here that there is a considerable amount of people who did not like that movie...fair to them,it is pardonable for a mega project worth 165 crores from kollywood is widely expected to be a run of the mill kind of story with all action,colour,dance,drama and sensuality( its a Kamal flick of course!!)........But Dashavatharam falls short of most or so it seems,the action is good,so is Avtar singhs dance but the storyline seems to happen all too quickly for comfort.......A lot of my friends were saying the 10 avtars were a show off and they damaged the base story....so on and so forth.....even my father,a hard core Kamal fan seems to think the movie is not good......Respect to all of you,till the half way stage of the movie,i was like you tooo..........But then the intermission happened.....
Sitting in a dark corner in a theatre in nedumangadu me and Kichu were shocked to a great extend by what we had seen......The first 15 minutes and Rangaraja Nambi were superb....But the story in the future did not seem to make any sense...was this turning out to be another of those big budget mega flops.....Sceptically we decided to put our grey cells into the matter....Were there meanings hidden to all that we were seeing?......
Kichu lit up the first idea......Like the fight between the shaivas and vaishnavas in the 12th century...here in the 21st century also we are in the middle of a fight,like the religious sects of 12th century trying to destroy each other now we have super powers and super terrorists and a deadly vial in between.....
In the beginning we see Rangaraja Nambi perishing for holding on to his beliefs......The scene is breathtakingly shot and Kamal sir excells in the role.....so does Asin and even Nepolean as the Saivite king.......
Then the focus shifts to Govind a biotechnologist working in a lab in America.....He flees of with a deadly vial when his boss tries to sell it for big money....and after him comes Christian Fletcher(again Kamal Hasan) an ex CIA agent and the hot again looking Mallika Sherawat......
The scene shifts to India where the rest of the avatars come into the picture.............
As Balram Naidu the(Telugu not to be missed)CBI officer Kamal as the story teller and protagonist(s) portrays the present day habit of officials to come to their own conclusions and refuse to even lend an ear to poor Govind's plight..........
Christian Fletcher is an architypical anti hero and one of the best in recent memory....it was easily the avatar which caught notice by normal film goers like me............
But more than the avtars it was what each stood for that mattered........
We had Govind,Fletcher,Balram Naidu all main characters in the base story......Then we had sub plots for each characters.....Krishnaveni Amma who had lost her son and with it her mental stability to whom is addressed the deadly vial......
There is a scene in the film where Krishnaveni Amma slips the vial into an idol of Perumal.....Here the story passively tells us of the dangers of religion, of how peopler misusing the belief to meet their own personal ends is just as dangerous as a vial today........
Then we have the story of Vincent Poovaragan,a dalit leader up against the sand mining lobby.......He is easily one of the characters you take back after watching the movie.....The touching scenes where he saves the lives of the children of the head of the illegal sand miners who threatens to kill him at the time of the tsunami giving up his own life in the process is nothing but a great display of humanity.......
And the scene in the climax where Krishnaveni Amma recognises Vincent as her long lost son is also touching....But also to be noted is that it is a brahmin woman recognising a dalit as her son..........
Then the character of Shingen Narahashi(inspired from Narasimha of the original dasavathars),silently touches on Hiroshima and Nagasaki through his pupil Yuka who is killed by Fletcher.......Narahashis quest for revenge also reaches its climax just before the climax of the film......
Then we had Kalifullah,a 7 foot giant whose plot showcases the trials faced by a muslim family suspected of being terrorists......
Then of Avtar Singh a Sikh singer who has a tumour in his throat....The end of his story may resmble an old Rajni kanth story line but the way it has been taken in the film is good enough to make us believe in it........
The story of Govind and Andal,is again passively told by the director to be the continuation from that of Rangaraja Nambis......That they get reunited in the end at the same place where Rangaraja Nambi and his wife get seperated.....
The story basically has 10 subplots which gets intertwined and finally reaches a common climax with the tsunami.....
In each of the dialogues and of the film the director and scrpit writer sometimes sarcastically,sometimes passively takes a dig at a lot of social happenings.........
In short for me personally Dasavathaaram is definately an epic ,a film which has something for everyone watching it.......Just that we have to inspect hard to appreciate it..........

Writer's Block...

May 2007 i guess it was....i had just finished Os Amantes nd was searchin for a different topic other then love failure for my next work(a lot of my friends suspected i just had a love failure,some of them even made stories)......
I first thought of writing a report on the sorry state of Indian cricket and ways to improve it.............
(India had just crashed out of d world cup then)...By the time i made up a good report,India had won the 20 20 world cup and everything was fine again...So that remains still in d shelf for d next time India messes in cricket.....
By then months had passed since my last work nd the words Vyali my bloguru said to me when i
started blogging was ringing in my ears,"keep blogging,never stop,there are some who start blogging with some zest,but in due course stop blogging after some time....."...I did not wnt to be among them....I hated them....So with that mind set,i came online...sat in front of my computer
with one aim-to write a new blog,to let the whole world hear from me again.............
I started typing...but very soon i had to close my window ......my imagination was dryin up....
i could not type....Writer's Block or something like that was upon me.....
I had become what i had loathed.....i had become a dead blogger....efforts were on straight away to 'phoenix'ify my blogging.....I badly needed a subject,nd complexes prevented me from choosing a topic on love.....
By that time i had begun to travel a lot on train(first time in my life alone).....i went to all sorts of colleges....some on top of mountains...some in the middle of rubber plantations....for fests....some of those journeys were successful,some not....I wanted to write about my journey's but this time
my hands were trembling when i entered blogger....i could not type even if wanted to........
Something was blocking me....what was it i don't know.....
then one day my friend Manzu(aka manju aka manzoor)..visited friendscetians nd next day was
askin the same thing which many had asked me before....y aint u blogging nw?......
I did not have an answer...but he did make me recollect each and everyone of my past posts.......
nd the obvious fun i had in writin them........
I decided that day that i will blog again.....but what to blog about.....a lot of topics went thru my mind.......
Then it dawned on me....y not write about the very thing that kept me from blogging for a year......y not blog about my writer's block?....
So here i am writing about my writer's block in order to end my writer's block.......Hopefully my worst has passd nd i will blog again......Hopefully..........

darkness was all tat was there in the land.......people there did not know wat light was,they could not even see each other....but they still lived on....by sounds they recognised,by touch they felt each other......by smell they hunted....and their spirit kept them alive............
The ever enduring darkness held many dangers,but they still enjoyed their life.....there were scientists among them,there were soldiers,there were doctors and engineers among them...........
And there was love too,deep in the annals of the ever enduring night love was found and there was beauty and seduction in voice.....and music ,there was music too....the soft blowing breeze refreshed their mind and the ice chilled rain water cleansed their body..........
For an outsider their life might have been one of misery but for them their lives were of joy,love and laughter....
Their inner flame keeps them alive and pushes them on day by day.....in a world where eyes are useless they do not see the ugliness of the world around them...beauty they could already sense.....
all of us are like them......we have eyes but we do not see or wish to see wat happens around us .....but worser than them in not sensin the evils around us......worser than them in suppressin our love,worser than them in lack of spirit sometimes.....worser than them in wishin for wat we dont have yet not carin of the treasure that is within us....worser than them in not using ourselves to speak out and act against the injustices around us........................................................

Demons and Angels(About me in orkut).....

Told i was that there were devils and angels in this world....That for every angel that is born in this world there
is a devil born to be his/her enemy..Astronomy tells you that for every sun there must exist a nemesis...
Alan Iverson once said,"For every one million people that like me there are ten milllion who hate me"...
No one person not even the great Mahatma can claim that every person in the world liked him....
Throughout my little time in the third rock from the sun i have had many people hatin me...special mention must be given to most of my teachers of plus one,plus two in school most of whom expressed their displeasure with me during the few hours i found time to be in class.......
then there are contemporaries,some hate me for the person that i am,some i have been told envy me(god knows wat is there in me to envy)....but every one do manage to show each of their 32 teeth when i wave at them....
people will continue to hate me.....
but through all these 1000s who wants to find a reason to hate me there are still 600 odd people in here and many more around that really do like me and hell i ride with them.....
Where is that sun who has born with me as his/her nemesis...where is tat angel who wishes to take on this demon.........
HELL I AM WAITIN