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Thursday, August 31, 2006

Compassion

Our hero comes whistling he sees his friend sad (very sad). That gives him more confidence as he feels there are people who are sad at the time when he is happy. He goes to him and asks with compassion

Hero : Enna maams sogama iruke

Friend : Samma kadi da total collapse (friend looks totally dejected)

Hero feels more confident in continuing the conversation

Hero : Eanda enna aachu

Friend : vidra onnum pana mudiyathu

Hero whistles in his mind feels 5 % sad for the friend but cant wait to hear the problem

Hero : solda definitea naan help panaren

When Hero says this he is 80% genuine he expects something terrible must have happened to his friend.

Friend : dei i have 20 K GBP in London HSBC bank but dont know how to transfer it to indian icici account if they will charge commission or not. can you help me

Hero's confidence falls down

Hero : naan enna da pana mudiyum?

Friend : Also yesterday i got my car delieverd but there is a small scratch at the back of the car

Hero has mixed feelings hearing this.

Friend : Our boss has asked me to leave for US for 3 years da i am totally not interested

Hero now starts looking for an escape route. His whistle disapears. He looks at his friend as his number one enemy.

Friend : Can you give me a ride to Park Sheraton now i have been invited for a shareholder meeting da.

Hero feels he should never have met this guy on this day.

Hero : illaeda naan oruthara mukyama paaka ponum

sollitu our Hero goes home immediatly take remote control and starts watching TV. His friend is now his current enemy until the friend gets a real disaster problem.

Nacho Libre

I started with and idea of going to Snakes In The Plane but ended up in Nacho Libre with brief thought about Monster House. I liked Jack Black's Shallow Hal and also the promos of Naco Libre were funny so didnt think twice before choosing Nacho.

The first impression of the movie was that the print was not crystal clear. It had a old film look and the dialogue started in Italian or Spanish. Throughout the film the people communicate in English with an accent. The film starts in a monastery where Ignacio (Black) joins as a kid. Its a monastery run for orphans. Ignacio turns youth and becomes the cook for that monastery. Ignacio has a soft corner for the orphan kids.



Once Ignacio gets a chance to witness the fame of a famous luchador (wrestler). He longs for such a fame. He wants to become a great wrestler. For this he partners with a street urchin (Hector Jimenez). They both make a comic pair and starts participating in local wrestling matches.

All the matches are very funny. The one with small gremlin kind of fighters was really funny. But in all the matches they both loose. But they are given money just for fighting though they loose.

In the mean time there runs another parallel plot where a Nun joins the Monastery and Ignacio falls in love with her. He is not sure whether one can fall in love with a Nun.

Ignacio leads a secret life as the wrestler as the monastery doesnt approve of wrestling. Once his identity gets revealed and he is sent out of the monastery.

How Ignacio wins best wrestler in the world for the sake of the orphans forms the rest of the story.

There are lot of funny moments in the movie. The ones I enjoyed where when Ignacio takes the Nun out for a walk and is expecting his friend to stage a drama. But he mistakes two strangers to be his friends men and goes for a fight with them to impress the Nun.

The other one where he sings in a party will definitley make you laugh. His expressions are too funny.

Overall though this is not a classic comedy there are lot of slapstick comedies which makes it watchable.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Good Old Days - 3


From the world of tamil comics I moved on to Tamil Novels. Tamil Novels became a part of my life. I Started reading Tamil Novels with Rani Muthu. I used to borrow this book from one of my neighbour. There used to be a lot of stories by Sujatha then. Ganesh and Vasanth used to be the heroes. And then my dad joined adyar district libraries and he brought Sankarlal stories by Tamilvanan. The name of the Novels used to be Hong Kongil Sankarlal. Thailandil Sankar lal. I remember Sankarlal used to drink lot off "Thenir". I became a fan of Tamilvanan, Sankarlal and Thenir.

And then opened another door to the world of Tamil Novels. My dad brought Ularatha Ratham by Rajesh Kumar (My dad never used to read these books). The plot is a haunting bungalow rented by a new family. I couldnt put the book down. Rajesh Kumar replaced Tamilvanan from my mind. I started searching for Rajesh kumar books like anything and started reading. This led me to Suba (Suresh, Bala) and Patukottai Prabhakar (PKP). Those days all that was in my mind was Vivek, Rubala, GokulNath from Rajesh Kumars, Naren, Vaij, John Sundar, Dass from Suba and Bharath, suseela from PKP. Vaij and Suseela occupied the mind more than those days tamil heroines.

Coimbatore and Ooty used to feature in most of Rajesh kumars novels. The design of the covers of these novels used to be a favorite topic among the readers.

My thirst for these was novels were quenched by my dad bringing books from library and another neighbour of mine who had a huge collection of Crime novel (Only Rajesh Kumar), Ungal Junior (Aathma Suba and PKP), Super Novel (Only Suba) and there was another seperate novel for PKP (I forgot the name).

In Crime novel published by a person named Asokan there used to be coimbatoorilirundu trunkal where the author Rajesh kumar speaks to the audience. He used to reveal the name of his next novel in this section.

Ungal Junior used to have a funny cartoon character called Aathma whose only job is to drool over girls.

I used to read those books in my bed, toilet, train, bus, while eating, while listening to radio, while watching tv. I couldnt live without them. Then I joined a local lending library which had a huge collection of these novels. I used to read Malaimathi from Kumudam publishers as well. Tamil novels, tamil novels, tamil novels that was all that was there in my mind.

Whenever i used to travel by train to my native i used to buy some novel. Though I never read them as gazing out of the trains window used to interest me more than reading books.

When I used to be a at my native place I started buying second hand tamil novels.

There were also other crime authors like Rajendra kumar, Saruprabha sundar, Pushpa thangadurai. Rajendra kumars Aavi Raajiyam came as sequels as well. Though I was not an avid fan of these authors I used to read theirs as well.

I used to look at those reading thick english fiction and used to wonder when you get so much in your mother tongue why bother about books in foreign language. Then one day all changed.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Collars up

It's time to lift my collars up as my blog site has been listed as one of the favorite blogs by the great yogi creator and creative blogger and my best friend on his blog.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Accidents

I recently saw an advertisement in TV which talks about accidents. It says most of the collisions occur within 3 miles of our residence and asks us to be more careful while driving through known places.

It starts of with a man getting up from sleep and a voice talking in the back ground something like

The alarm that fails to wake you, The cereals we we never finish for breakfast, the girlfriend we kiss good bye, the man we saw walking down our street, the shop that's always open, the kids going to the school, the car which we see always parked... so it goes on like this describing certain things which always remain the same everyday we leave for work. So it says since everything remains the same we tend to become careless.

And then it goes on like The opening door you notice too late, the lamp post you slam on to, the legs that you will never use.

The guy missed to notice an opening car door and skids and collides on a lamp post.

The advert ends with the guy lying on the road with background voice saying the day you went to work.

Most collisions happen within 3 miles of our residence so please be careful.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Devils Advocate



Though the movie starts of well as an intelligent courtroom drama it changes its course halfway through. The movie was able to keep up the pace most of the time except for a confused climax. The movie turns out into an encounter between the GOD and Satan. Wehn we sit straight in our chairs and wait for something interesting the movies ends with a not so exciting climax.

It looks like the old time favorites wants to try out their lucks playing the baddies. Harrison Ford, De Niro in couple of films and Al Pacino trying his luck playing the Satan himself.

The movie did have the potential to turn into a good movie but for some reason leaves us feel that something was missing.

There are so many twists in the end you fail to appreciate any of them.

The story is simple Keanu Reeves is a great lawyer who has not lost a single case. He is approached by a big law firm in New York with a great roposition which he or his wife, played by Charliez Theron, couldnt refuse. They move to New York against his mothers advice and they meet Al Pacino who is the head of the law firm.

Reeves is made to appear for some cases. He struggles with his conscience. On the other hand his personal life takes nose dive.

All fingers point to Al Pacino.

Al Pacino reveals himself as the great Satan and gives some lecture on GOD and Sin. He tempts Reeves with an offer.

Why Pacino chose Reeves? Did Reeves take that offer? What happens to Reeves wife? And some more twists are there in the end.

All in all its an okay movie.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Good Old Days - 2


As part of the Good Old Days series I thought of remembering some good old advertisements (TV) which were part and parcel of our life till early 90's.

Rasna - I Love You Rasna (Seems the little girl is now the actress Ankita)
Regal - Sottu neelam doi
Rin - Minaladikum venmai
Vicks Vaporub - A guy and girl in beach. A guy in theater has nose congestion and the actors are disturbed by his act
Ujjala - though came late became a sensation (irritation after a lot of run)
Fertilizer - vandhane vandhane maaveeran vandhane (used to come without fail before oliyum oliyum)
Surya Bulbs - Sridevi dancing for Surya bulb and full tubes
Colgate - Paathugaapu valayam (used to be a sponsor for many sunday movies so before start and stop of all sunday movies came without fail)
Complan - I am a Complan Boy
Boost - Kapil dev version before 10dulkar came
Dabur chavanprash (dont know if i have spelled it right) - Used to come on Sundays between hindi programs during afternoons
Vicco vajradhandhi - i think they have not changed advertisement till this day same advert in old print format
Vicks action 500 - aamapa aama
Iodex - ou aah ouch
Surf - thedikite irupeenga
Nirma - washing powder nirma (used to sponsor most of saturday evening hindi movies)
Narasus Coffee - no one can forget usilaimanis besh besh
Seven Seas - used to look good with western look
Old Spice - Wester look the surfing advertisement was a huge hit
Gold Spot - The zing thing
Sprint - This is so cool this tastes so neat
Maggi tomato ketchup - Zaved jaffri
Rexona - Sona sona
Santoor - collega naana
Lifebuoy - evidamo aarogyam avidame (velile polama - appram paaklam)
Amrutanjan - poye poche

I know the list will be endless - oh i miss those days

A Simple Plan and Just Mercy