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. :)

25 + 1 Random Things:

Here is the list:

1. There is only one person in this whole wide world I look up to and it is my mother. She is everything I respect and want to be.
2. Black, purple, ruby red and peacock blue are my favourite colours. I wish to paint my home in all of them.
3. With my first salary (whenever that happens!), I would like to gift my mom a treadmill (she has always wanted one but considers it an unnecessary expenditure) and to my dad an I-Pod (he thinks it’s funky but isn’t confident enough to use it).
4. Music is my only solution to all problems in life. And to me, music is predominantly Ilaiyaraja’s.
5. I love traveling. Europe, as it always was, is the best resort to holiday.
6. Heels- I hate them yet ogle at them all the time. I promise myself to learn to be comfortable in them and sashay around.
7. It is true that I spend at least two-three hours talking (/chatting) to (/with) Varun everyday and I have never felt bored of it no matter how much we fight. In fact (at the cost of getting mushy) I am looking forward to doing it every day of my life.
8. Corporate law has been my favourite subject ever. I can never get enough of it.
9. I believe I belong to Chennai and I simply love the place for more reasons than one.
10. Predictably, thayir sadam (curd rice) with vadaam (namkeen, sort of), maangai thokku (cut-mango pickle) and vazhakka fry (raw banana fry) is my favourite followed by crispy dosai with tangy thakkali-vengayam chutney (tomato-onion chutney) and molaga podi (sundried red-chilly powder) followed by chilly-cheese toast with tomato sauce.
11. I am crazy about stationery of all kinds- pens, pencils, highlighters, erasers, notepads, tags, etc. I make sure I have them in all colours and sizes.
12. If I had all the strength in the world, I would dance till my last breath.
13. I hate the taste of alcohol, the smell of cigarette and the sound of abuse. Hence, I think I am very lucky!
14. It is a (sad) fact that I put on eight kilos in the first nine months of law school and have maintained it till this day.
15. If I were to be defined in one word, then it has to be energy. I am usually found in really high spirits and I put in a lot of energy even into sleeping.
16. I can’t keep mum. It is scary that I once lost a bet with a friend who challenged me to remain silent for sixty seconds.
17. Ayyo is my only idea of exclaiming- be it in happiness, surprise, shock, disgust or anger. Only the tone and pitch differ.
18. I think I have a big capsicum for a nose which I have inherited from my dad along with the juvenile sense of humour.
19. Someday I hope to build my own kaapi shop (ideally along with Starbucks!) and give, inter alia, kumbakkonam degree kaapi with thattai and murukku in the most sophisticated fashion ever.
20. I love the concept of bathing and explore my creativity while bathing in terms of the products I use and the procedures involved.
21. My mom once told me I behave like I was born in rakshasha ganam (literally, the time of demons) and I told her (proudly) that it is called so because I was born at that time. That was the day when she totally gave up on me.
22. I have a very wide scale of endurance ranging from highly irritable to highly patient. The scale changes according to the person, the person’s behavior towards me or others and the circumstances.
23. If there is one thing I can’t get myself to do, it is waking up on my own. I need somebody to wake me up every morning regardless of the time.
24. I love the A/C. I don’t care however elitist that makes me sound but I repeat I love the A/C.
25. There is something I admire about myself- the ability to help people in spite of something ugly that could have happened between us.
26. I can’t believe I can keep writing things about myself. Truly a narcissist. And a talkative person.

Ok, I stop.

Its that time of the trimester again!

Four exams. Numerous slides (I haven't bothered counting). Around 300 pages of Priyasha on different subjects (Thank god for her!!). And abominable abdominal cramps. Six whole days to catch Chennai Mail and escape to home. It is funny how I crave for a million things at this point like my mom's vathhal kozhambu rice with ghee and applam (which I used to complain about a few years back!), my grandmom's manga pachhadi and my chithhi's aloo parathas (I have had it only once and I fell in love with it).

Then I want to hop on to my TVS-Excel and roam around aimlessly in K.K.Nagar with Vidhya and go to my terrace just to gaze at the stars.

I want to chat with my mama (knowing it will end in a huge argument with eventually one of us storming out of the room) and I want to read Kungumam for ugly news about Tamil films and politics.

I want to lay on the oonjal in paati house and swing by listening to my grandmom chant vishnu sahasranamam or sudharshanashtakam- this restores all my peace and energy even though I am not one bit spiritual or god-fearing.

I also want to go to my dance class just to listen to Ambika Akka sing and talk to us in the sweetest voice ever and then have lime tea with Poorna, Sandhya, Nithya, Janani, Swapna and GK- not to forget Bharati aunty teasing me about how much I talk.

I want to have a long telephone conversation with Gow, Aishu and Sindu- update them about these four years and renew the almost-lost friendship.

I want to have a proper chat/conversation with dad and mom about what I want to do with my life (more like ask them what I should be doing with it) over a nice three course meal on a not-so-sunny Sunday afternoon.

And then, knowing it is not going to happen for the next four months, I badly want to go around Chennai with Varun the usual way- go shopping in Kalpastree, City Center, Spencer's (have a fight in each of these places) and have a nice lunch at Copper Chimney (with Varun's favourite cream of tomato soup and my favourite sauteed tandoori gobi) and end it with my hazelnut frappe and his dark tempation (amazing chocolate cake served with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream) at Barista.

I WANT THEM ALL NOW. NOW NOW NOW! :(