My Dad bought a new car recently. He is a long time fan of ‘Fiat’, and at last bought himself a new ‘Fiat Linea’. Below are the details and a picture of our car.

Model: Fiat Linea Emotion Pack
Engine: 1.4 l - Petrol
Colour: Fox Trot Azure

Here are some of my favorite comedy sequences / movies from Indian cinema. The list is not exhaustive. Also, as I primarily watch Tamil, Hindi and Kannada movies among Indian Langauages, the list comprises of movies from the above mentioned languages only.

1] Thiruvilayaadal  [Language - Tamil]

 Nagesh in his career best, according to me. This whole sequence is one episode from the film. Nagesh gets into the skin of the character ‘Dharumi’ and with his voice modulation gives one of the best comic lines ever. It’s a treat to watch even after so many years. This is evergreen comedy.

2] Aboorva Sagodharargal  [Language - Tamil]

No, not Kamal Hassan or Crazy Mohan. Its the investigation duo of inspector-constable who keep you in splits. Jangaraj was just too good ably supported by Shivaji. You can’t stop yourself laughing out wild each and every time when Jangaraj mouths lines such as – “No Silly feelings!” to his assistant.

3] Kadhanayagan  [Language - Tamil]

One scene in this movie makes this eligible for this list. It’s a favorite of many – the ‘Going to Dubai’ scene. With this you get the deadly combo of Pandiarajan and S.Ve.Shekher, both of whom can make you laugh with just their looks.

4] Karagaatakaaran  [Language - Tamil]

Talk about comedy in Tamil films and you can’t miss the ‘Vaazhaipazham’ joke. The famous pair of Goundamani-Senthil give their best in this. I feel this movie was a blockbuster only because of this comedy track and super hit songs from IR.

5] Ganeshana Madhuve  [Language - Kannada]

I consider Anant Nag as one of the good comedians in Indian Cinema. He made a mark with is ‘Ganesha Series’. And this one is the first one. The favorite scene of mine is the ‘Ramanamoorthy Scene’. “Modlindlu Namm naayi hesaru ‘Ramanamoorthy’ antha!…” – Very funny.

6] Jaane Bhi do Yaaro  [Language - Hindi]

The movie is a satire, a commentary on the political scenario of those times. But who can forget the ‘Mahabharata scene’ towards the end of the movie. A whole bunch of thugs enter in the stage, replacing the real actors, and end up playing ‘Mahabharata’ their own way. Class act!

7] Andaz Apna Apna  [Language - Hindi]

The only comedy directed by Raj Kumar Santhoshi. A full length Slapstick humor film makes it impossible to pick any particular scene as a favorite. It’s filled with the funny characters – Film producer (Mehmood), Inspector of a new police station (Tiku Talsania), Crime master Gogo (Shakthi Kapoor at his best), sidekicks of villain (Viju Khote and Shehzad Khan) and the villain itself (Paresh Rawal). You can’t stop laughing till the end.

8] Gol Maal  [Language - Hindi]

The 1979 cult classic by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. No double entendres, just pure comedy. A full length comedy featuring brilliant actors like Utpal Dutt and Amol Palekar. Actually it is appreciated more because of Opal Dot than the latter. With his high pitched voice and ’shudd’ Hindi fascination he gave the audience some of the best comic scenes. Hard to pick a particular scene from this laugh riot. Don’t miss to enjoy the great theme music which plays in the background.

Keep Smiling…..

Watch the below video clip to see ARR giving a brief demo of  ‘Continuum Fingerboard‘ synthesizer.

Biographies chart the lifetime of a personality, detailing how they stood out to be different. Fiction on the other hand is purely entertainment. Problem arises when one tries to bring these two together, and fails to deliver. Jeffrey Archer’s new novel, ‘Paths of Glory’, has the same problem. I was not sure whether the story is a fact or fiction. To me, after the initial pages and the casual search in the internet, it was revealed that the main lead in the novel, George Mallory Leigh, was a real person and not the author’s imagination. From there it became complicated for me. I couldn’t decide whether I was reading a biography or a fiction. I am not saying that the novel is bad. It has a good storyline, and Archer being the master story teller makes you turn the pages with anticipation. But somewhere a doubt lingers in the mind of the readers about the ‘realness’ of a particular incident. The climax was kind of a disappointment for me, with the author imagining the fate of the climbers, which till today remains a mystery in reality (as per the internet sources). Read ‘Paths of Glory’ if you are a fan of Jeffrey Archer. I did.

‘Rehna Tu‘ from Delhi-6 is one of the fabulous compositions by A R Rahman in recent times. At the near end of the track, I like the instrument solo, which I had for a long time thought to be ‘Nadaswaram‘. It was a surprise when someone told me it was not ‘Nadaswaram’ but a new synthesizer called ‘Continuum Fingerboard’. I looked it up on the net and found that the synthesizer is actually a ‘Midi performance controller’. The best part is that A R Rahman is one of the few in the world who can play the ‘Continuum Fingerboard’ and it was he who played it for ‘Rehna Tu’. For more details visit the official manufacturer website – Haken Audio, where A R Rahman is listed as a player and ‘Rehna Tu’ clip is part of the ‘Example’ section.

This is the list of My Fav Music as of today. Note that they are not ranked, just listed.

* SONG -> (MOVIE/ALBUM, LANGUAGE, SINGER/BAND)

————————————-

* Ra Ra Rasputin -> (—, English, Boney M)

* Kalyana Maalai -> (Puthu Puthu Arthangal, Tamil, SPB)

* Anbale Azhagagum Veedu -> (Pasanga, Tamil, Balamurlikrishna)

* Come September Theme -> (Come September, English, —)

* Baby Elephant Walk -> (Hatari, English, —)

* Thangali Thandeya -> (Love Guru, Kannada, Benny)

* Madhura Pisumathige -> (Birugaali, Kannada, Mohit Chauhan, Shamita Malnad)

I had been on a vacation to Melbourne, Australia with a 15 hour stopover at Singapore. Below is the tour diary. 

July 13: Arrived at Singapore Changi airport. Left for a sightseeing trip of the city, conducted by RMC tours. The day trip covered the following locations in the city:

•  Merlion, Supreme Court vicinity, esplanade road
•  Singapore Botanical Garden (Orchid Garden)
•  Little India
•  China town, Buddhist monastery, Mariamman Temple 

It has been my desire from a long time to visit the memorial erected for the Indian National Army (INA) at Singapore. Immediately after the death of Subhas Chandra Bose a memorial was erected, but it was bombed and destroyed by the British. Then later on with the help from the newly formed Indian Republic a second memorial was setup. I was asking about the memorial to my relatives in Singapore, but they didn’t seem to know where it was located. I even did some research online and told them that it is somewhere near Esplanade road, but still they didn’t seem to know. At last, when the day trip bus gave us a 10 – minute time for photographs in Esplanade road, I managed to walk around and at last locate the memorial. Sadly the historical monument is ill-maintained. The local government surely seems to show little interest to this monument. Later that night left for Melbourne from the new Terminal 3 of Changi Airport. 

July 14 – Arrived at Melbourne (Victoria State).

July 16 – Visited a Shiva – Vishnu temple in the evening. It is located in a sprawling campus located at about 30 KM from the city centre. Later had dinner at an Indian Restaurant (run, ironically, by a Sri Lankan) ‘Spice Club’ at Frankston (60 KM from Melbourne).   

July 19 – Arrived at Sydney (New South Wales State). Lodging at Sydney was booked at Goldsborough street OAKS apartment (service apartments), which was overlooking the Sydney CBD (Central Business District). Took off in the afternoon after lunch for a drive through Sydney Harbour Bridge and Kiribilli house (house of the Australian Prime Minister) located on the shore of Sydney Opera House. 

July 20 – Visited Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and shopping at CBD. Left for Gold Coast (Queensland State) in the night. As in Sydney, lodged at service apartments at Surfer’s Paradise. 

July 21 – Visit to the Warner Brother’s ‘Movie World‘ theme park. Enjoyed the rides and shows and did some shopping before returning to the apartment in the evening. Evening stroll in the beach side street market. 

July 22 – Visit to the ‘Dream World‘ theme park. Enjoyed the rides and shows before returning to the apartment in the evening. 

July 23 – Return to Melbourne. Rest day. 

July 24 – Visit to the Melbourne CBD and Immigration museum, where a special on ‘Hampi’ of Karnataka is on currently. Lunch at an Indian restaurant ‘Flora’ near Flinders street station.  

July 25 – Drive on the Great Ocean Road terminating at the site of the ‘12 Apostles‘. Evening tea at Port Campbell (15 KM from 12 Apostles site) and back to Melbourne at night. 

July 26 – Visit to Philip Island Nature Park, a conservatory of Fairy Penguins (or called little penguins). 

July 27 – Shopping at Melbourne at DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) in the evening. 

July 28 – Shopping at Greensborough Plaza, Melbourne. 

July 29 – Shopping at Flinders street and Swanston Street for gift souvenirs. 

July 30 – Visit to NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) where a special exhibition of the work of Salvadore Dali under the name ‘Dali – Liquid desire’ is on till 4th October 2009. After NGV visited Melbourne Eureka Skydeck 88 in the evening. 

July 31 – Visited City of Ballarat (about 100 KM from Melbourne) which is known for the goldfields, replica of the heritage village and the museum about the initial Gold rush in Australia.

August 1 – Visited Werribee Open Range Zoo located at about 60 KM from Melbourne. 

August 2 – Back to Bangalore.

My friend, Tejas, recently recommended the movie ‘12 Angry men’ to me. Frankly, till then I had never heard about such a movie. He then said that it is an old B&W movie made in late 1950’s. But the reason I really got interested in this recommendation was because, he mentioned that the whole movie was shot in a single room – in a single setting.

The movie takes off brilliantly from the start. The characters and their personalities are gradually disclosed to the viewer as and when required. The cast of actors have done their part remarkably well, though at times it seems that Henry Fond does steal his moments (Henry Fonda was also the co-producer of the movie). Apart from the unique situation, that of a jury in a criminal case with a split verdict, in which the movie is set, it is also the dialogues (or the arguments of the case) that keeps us hooked to the screen. There is no moment where there is a distraction or a chance for the viewer to yawn. The brilliant pace, the heated debates, the moments of short surprises keeps us interested till the very end. It’s a masterpiece and I would recommend this as a ‘MUST WATCH’!

I am keeping this review short without even giving the synopsis of the film, so as to let you enjoy the film.

 Happy Viewing….

I am a die-hard A R Rahman Fan. But, I do also like Ilayaraja’s (IR) songs, and his symphonies. One such symphony I liked was a piece called ‘Mood Kapi’ (Based on the carnatic Raagam Kapi), which is available in the recoding of his concert in Italy (Album Name – Ilaiyaraja’s Music Journey). Once it was released it was a rage online and people lapped up the composition as one of his great works. This was in 2004. Later that year or in 2005, IR had a similar concert in Chennai, telecasted in Jaya TV and the same composition received a great response.

And that’s when IR spoke to the audience about the birth of that song. He told that it was composed and part of the soundtrack originally in 1982 for a Tamil movie called ‘Autoraja’. That movie had the duo Shankar-Ganesh as the composers, but the producer wanted IR to render one single track and hence he had composed ‘Sangathil Paadaatha Kavithai..’ in Kapi raagam, sung by IR himself and S Janaki. Unfortunately, the movie and the music sank without a trace.

Later that year, Balu Mahendra was working on a Malayalam movie with Amol Palekar – ‘Olangal’, and he being impressed with that Tamil song requested IR to recreate it for him. That song was ‘Thumbi Vaa..’, sung by S Janaki as a solo number. This number was hit in those times and few of my friends too remember it. But again this did not receive the wide recognition like IRs other hit numbers.

It was Balu Mahendra again in the same year who wanted IR to give him the composition for the Telugu movie ‘Nireekshana’ that he was directing. The song was ‘Akasam Enatido..’ sung again by S Janaki as a solo. And, again the song did not receive the recognition that the symphony version boasts of. This movie was in 1988 dubbed into Tamil as ‘Kanne Kalai Mane’ and the song was “Neer Veezhchi..” sung by S Janaki.

The only person who religiously loved that song was perhaps Balu Mahendra, for he again asked the Maestro to re-create the song for his Hindi movie ‘Aur Ek Prem Kahani’ (the remake of his Kannada original, ‘Kokila’)in 1996. But here is where IR disappoints by re-creating a composition as a fun song, rather than its soulful melodious earlier versions. The song was “Sunday Tho..’ sung by Preethi Uttam Singh, which sank without a trace.

After this it was in 2004 that in the concert at Italy, IR delivered the symphony version of this composition titled as “Mood Kapi” and people were mesmerized by it. This was later staged in Chennai. And then it was a famous number, with people searching for the song everywhere.

If I were to rate these songs then I would rate the Symphony version as the Best and the Hindi version would be the last on my list. The Telugu and Malayalam version were fine tuned and well rendered and the Tamil one being the first version lacks the detailing and tuning found in the other versions.

It is indeed hard to believe that for a great composition like this, it takes almost 25 years to reach the audience. Listen to the song(s) and enjoy.

Below are the links to listen to the songs:

Song Title – Movie/Album – Language – Year of Release
1]Sangathil Padatha – Autoraja – Tamil – 1982
2]Thumbi Vaa – Olangal – Malayalam – 1982
3]Akasam Enatido – Nireekshana – 1982
4]Neer Veezhchi – Kanne Kalai Mane – 1988 [No Link..Sorry ]
5]Sunday Tho – Aur Ek Prem Kahani – 1996

and finally……

* Mood Kapi Song

* Mood Kapi Video

Hats off to IR for such a wonderful composition !

Blood Thirsty – The term I would like to use to describe certain media persons who were bent on making the unfortunate terrorist attack of Mumbai a mega 24/7 event.

They played on till the last bullet was fired and even there after. All this after several sincere requests/warnings from the government agencies to stop the live coverage with the fear of information being relayed to the terrorists holed up inside the hotels (and which, now revealed, seems to have taken place).

There was this one particular journalist who made the whole episode of covering the events a nasty one. Barkha Dutt, considered as the bold face of Indian television journalism after her stint at Kargil war zone, disrupting the army with her ‘exclusive’ reports, had a cover story and she grabbed it with more than eager hands.

This particular journalist was covering the Mumbai terror attack near the Oberoi hotel and if I can recall correctly she was terrorizing and creating panic among the crowd gathered in the road near her. One particular incident that I can clearly recall is where in she was seen shouting to the camera (obviously giving orders to the people at the studio) ‘Natasha! Natasha! I want this in the Breaking news.at the top of the screen….there are shots heard from the Oberoi’. Shots being fired, and all she was worried was about ‘Breaking news’ at the top of the screen ! And hearing her high pitched howls to the camera, the public stranded near her went berserk and started to scatter in all directions creating panic. All this for responsible journalism.

Next she asks the police constable stationed in the road as to who might be responsible for the shots just heard, to which he answered that he could not tell as he was with the crowd in the street many yards away. This makes her draw a conclusion of how ill-informed the state police force was. Aaah!

After the attacks and the siege ended, she was back in studio with the nation’s anti-terror experts like Shobha De, Mahesh Bhatt, Sharmila Tagore, Narayana Murthy, Simi Garewal to comment / dissect the attacks and the governments inaction and so on. And these ‘experts’ played their part wisely by giving their expert comments.

Sample this:

Narayanmurthy says: ‘I want the NSG to be decentralized’. Great one from the IT czar, I thought he was only an expert in IT, but he was there to give remedies for internal security matters of our country.

And it was no surprise when Simi Garewal landed in soup by not being able to differentiate between the flag of Pakistan and the green flag on a mosque she saw in Dharavi. And the person who milked the most out of this controversy: the same journalist who made her give these statements in her talk show…sorry the ‘debate’ show.

Responsible journalism? I don’t think so…

To give some credit to the media world, not all the reporters that day were so sinister. The likes of Srinivasan Jain, Prannoy Roy maintained a decorum and adhered to ‘Reporting’ the events alone.

I believe the media world is now up against the government which has planned to ban the media from covering such incidents ‘LIVE’. After all, the civilian world doesn’t need to know the intricate details of a military operation. I somehow feel now that the good old DD days were better when there were 2 – 3 brief updates per day on such incidents and the progress made. But this 24/7 coverage was a nasty display of Journalistic freedom being abused to a nauseating extent.