I like that!

The other day, as a college tradition, the tams of NLS went out on a tam-dinner. While I insisted that it should be a good south-Indian restaurant and arranged for the dinner at Ponnusamy, one miscommunication led to another and eventually we landed up at Desmondes for a late dinner. There were around thirty of us of different sorts- full tams, half tams, quarter tams, tams from different parts of the country (and this time, different parts of the world too!), tams from chennai, non-tams from tamil nadu, etc. Tam dinners/lunches are a lot of fun. We get to know the juniors, treat them and try to welcome them aboard. I still remember my first tam-lunch at Sapattu Raman- we had lovely dosas and sambar, introduced myself in tamil (like: vanakkam, yen per krithika. nan chennai-lendhu varen. psbb-la padichen, etc) and now I can't believe four years have passed and this was my last tam dinner.

Desmondes had a great variety but we chose to order a few and share amongst us. Great food, hours of laughing together and racking our brains to divide the bill. And then we hit Corner House on Lavelle Road (did you know Corner House people, whichever branch, speak super tamil?). I had my favourite cake fudge while Vivek had litchis with ice cream, Shruti had something chocolate-y, Latcho was too full to have anything and Dv had choco mousse with ice cream. Shruti, our very own DISCO convenor, was being all responsible and sent off the juniors in the cabs first! And then we had a long long chat fully in tamil about nothing in particular while we waited for our cabs to come. This was different- nothing bitchy or intense but just a funny gathering of memories of four years! We didn't even realize the time until it was about eleven fifteen. And then we had to leave the place... but continued the laughter riot in the cab. At the end, Shruti's cheeks and my stomach were hurting so much. But who cares!! We had an awesome awesome time! Evlavu sirichom-nu oru alavu illa, edhukku sirichom-nu kooda nyabagam illa. Aana nariya sirichom, romba jillu-nu irundhudhu! :) :)

Ilaiyaraja-na Ilaiyaraja dhaan! ;)

Ilaiyaraja is a genius when it comes to making situation-specific songs and one of the classic examples is the song Sorgame Endralum from Oora Vittu Oor Vandhu. When it comes to lyrics, singing and the music, this is my all-time favourite. The genre is folk, set in Hamsanadham apparently, with Ilaiyaraja and Janaki rendering the song with brilliant expressions. I love Ilaiyaraja's version of Tamil folk and this song just stands out. The song, in the movie, appears when the lead couple leave their village and go to Singapore to accomplish their mission. The translation, however done, can do no justice to the spirit of the song but I still have tried:

Pallavi:

Sorgame endralum adhu nammooru pola varuma?
(Even if you take heaven, would it like our own city?)
Ada ennadu endralum adhu nam naatukeedaguma?
(And would any other country be so good as our own?)
Pala desam muzhudhum pesum mozhigal Tamizh-pol inithiduma...?
(There may be many languages but which one sounds as sweet as tamil?)

Charanam I:

Yerikarai katrum elelelo paatum inge edhum ketkavilaiye...
(I cant listen to the breeze on the banks of river and the sound of folk music here)
Padum kuyil sathham aadum mayil nithham paarka oru solai-illaye...
(Neither can I see cuckoos singing or peacocks dancing)
Vethalaiya madichhu maaman adhai kadichhu thuppa oru vazhi-illaiye...
(There is no way I can give my husband folded beetel leaves to eat here)
Odi vandhu kudhichhu mungi-mungi kulichhu aada oru odai-illaiye...
(And there is no lake here in which we can run, jump, play and bathe)
Ivvooru enna ooru, nammoodu romba melu,
(What kind of a place is this? Our city is so much better!)
Odum pala caar-u, veen adambaram paaru,
(There a hell lot of cars and unnecessary sophistication)
Oru dhaagam theerka yedhu moru...?
(But would I get buttermilk to quench my thirst?)

Sorgame endralum...

Charanam II:

Maadu rendu meikka meiyuradha paarka mandhaveli inga illaiye...
(There is not a farm here for the cows to graze or to see cows grazing)
Aadu-puli aatam pottu vilaiyada arasa-maram medai-illaiye...
(And there is no banyan tree under which we can play games)
Kaalai rendu pooti kattai vandi otti ganam paada vazhi-illaiye...
(There is no way I can sing songs while riding a bullock cart)
Thozigalai azhaichhu solli solli rasichhu aatam poda vazhi-illaiye...
(Neither is there a place I can take all my friends to sing, dance and chat)
Oru yendhirathhai pola ada inge ulla vaazhkai,
(Life here is like that of a machine)
Idha engai poi solla manam ishta padavilla,
(Where can I go coz I dont like to be here)
Nammoorai pola ver-ooru illai...!
(There is no better place than ours)

Sorgame endralum...

A damn cute video and great music- just the way Ilaiyaraja makes it work everytime. I repeat, Ilaiyaraja-na Ilaiyaraja dhaan! Someday I want to meet him and I will never forget that day in my life! :)

Kambakht Ishq- Battle of What?

I can now safely say that it is the worst movie I have ever seen or I could ever see. And for anybody who has watched Pammal K.Samandham, this movie is a shock. I refuse to believe it is a remake of PKS. K.Ishq is full of vulgarity, illogical scenes, terrible acting, cliched jokes, inconsistent screenplay and horribly repetitive music. In short, as harsh as it may sound, it is an expensive piece of shit that does not even qualify for a mindless watch. What the hell was that Nadiawala guy thinking? And how long does Akshay Kumar think he can pass this off? And Bebo, please stop! All said, I thought it was only fair to PKS if I blog out a comparison between the two movies for all those who might think the parent movie was just as bad.

PKS- starring Kamal Hassan (as Pammal Kalayana Samandham), Simran, Abbas and Sneha. One of my favourites and a complete family entertainer that had one of the best set of dialogues and scenes ever! A great blend of family sentiment, foot-tapping music by Deva, outstanding direction and dialogues by Mouli and absolutely no exaggeration. A simple story shot in Madras with Kamal as a stuntman in Tamil cinema and Simran as a doctor (not a super-model and doctor!) which had a storyline concrete enough to accommodate a lot of fun, romance and sentiment. But K.Ishq ruined it thoroughly- offensively (and repeatedly) demeaning stunt-men, stupid sense of humour (like making Akshay Kumar fart on Amrita Arora's face unnecessarily), too much of vulgarity in the pretext of romance and comedy and misplaced scenes to show AK's sentiments. What a disaster! I really wish you guys watch PKS with subtitles and see how Sabbir Khan has absolutely no brains whatsoever. Tell me how difficult is to remake a movie?! While I understand that you shouldn't expect a flow of logic in a rom-com, this movie just goes overboard in making a fool of us. Why would you take the entire thing to Hollywood and make Kareena a supermodel? Why would you get Stallone into a roadside fight with random bullies? Like how many times have you heard of Stallone straying around random streets helping innocent and helpless women! Why would you not, as in the original story, depict the hero as innocent instead of making AK (for the nth time) a casanova? Like Akshay Kumar has to hit on chicks and use them in every single movie! Why would they rip apart AK's body to search for drugs in such an offensive way? ( BTW in the original, Simran tries to take revenge on Kamal by making a complaint against him for animal-rights violation. That scene is HILARIOUS.) Why would AK and Kareena refer to each other as dog and bitch throughout the movie even when there was no context to begin with? Why have they tried the "gay-jokes" (like I haven't seen enough of them in Karan Johar's movies already) again and again? Why on earth would AK make Aftab drink Viagra in the wedding reception when the intention was to make Amrita have sex with him or not vice versa (And I thought Viagra helped in increasing one's virility!)? Also why is being virgin funny? Why Why Why? All these scenes just disgust you on one level and on another level make you wonder if you could get a refund. So I tried walking out of the theater thrice but my friends wouldn't let me to! Please DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!!

Never too young for anything! ;)

These twenty days have been so full of life and I am loving it! With no internship and no exams, I have been painting the town red! Met up with a lot of friends, heard my share of good news (Varun is coming down in September, Vids is going to New York and Gow is going to the Oxford), hogged on great home food and got myself into a project- revamping my house! We have the Asian Paint guys, the carpenter, the computer service guy and the A/C mechanic practically living here and there is a hell lot of noise and dust around. My room looks lovely (the sea-green paint is beautiful) and I am happy. Sindu has been my constant partner in going out in the sun and going out in the dark and sitting at home to idle away time. After one French movie, two Hindi movies, random shopping at Pondy Bazaar, morning walks with amma, countless dosas, unrestricted access to internet (especially youtube), book shopping at Crossword, lot of traffic-rules skipping with Sindu on the bike and intense sun-bathing, I am totally rejuvenated to go to college for my final year. I still have no freaking clue about what I want to do with my life. But I love the way my life is- a lot of work, a lot of chilling and a hell lot of suspense. This is crazy but I am thoroughly living it. :)