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Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Countdown Clock: 5 Hours to leave DFW

Girish always thinks that he comes up with great plan. So we decided according to Girish's plan to check-in our luggage at 5.30 in the morning and then go to work for four hours before returning just two hours before to do security check-in.

Like all good plans the follies were...

1. We had called the airport people on Sunday and the customer service rep. said that we could check in as soon as the airport terminal opened…which was at 4.30am that day.

2. On our way to the airport I decided to cross check and called the airport again and they said that they will not let us check in 4 hours before flight…exactly what I had been telling Girish for sometime.

4. So we decided that we should get into work early and leave to the airport from there…which was my original plan…I just wish that men would listen more often…

I am happy that we are checking in on-time and not super early. Anyhoo...I came into work at 6.00am today and that I guess is a record for me and will not be broken for many moons...

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Count down for the number of hours has started. Excitement within has slowly diffused. Now I feel like tomorrow is just another day and in roughly 22 hours I will be at work doing the same thing I did today. Does not feel like I will be actually on my way to Minneapolis. Sure is funny. On one level I am so happy I am leaving and waiting for this day to end and on another level I just don't want this feeling of anticipation to end. If it does then the vacation starts and also comes to an end with the same speed.

Anyways just like how Monday and Tuesday were the longest days of my life the Friday and Saturday before I leave will be the shortest. Just thinking about the end makes me stop enjoying the present...

Bye

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Ok...Finally after 5.5 years I am leaving for Chennai... and I hope to maintain an online journal or a journal of some sort...documenting all changes...all exciting ones I hope...

Every day for the past five and half years I have been dreaming about this and fianlly it is coming true. Really hard to believe and won't till I land in Aringar Anna Internarional Airport...

So folks to me, my trip and my wedding....Until then

Cheers

Gajini (2005) - Tamil Movie Review

Ranking - 4.5/5

Cast: Surya, Asin, Nayanthara
Director: Murugadoss
Music: Harris Jeyaraj

First off, great movie, great camera work, great music, good acting, decent screenplay. In all entertaining and a must watch. Nayanthara, a medical student researches on Surya (as Sanjay Ramaswamy) who is afflicted with temporary memory loss and can remember only 15 minutes at a time. He carries with him a recorder-alarm and a polaroid camera to keep track of events and people he meets. He is a leading businessman of a cellular company that is taking over the globe one peice at a time. Nayanthara unearths his past through his diaries...

Although Surya has done a good j0b acting it is Asin who brings in the lighter moments of the movie. Asin (as Kalpana) an aspiring model has her goals set in life. She lands up being mistaken for Surya's girlfriend and she plays along with the story that goes into the hands of the media. Surya who comes to confront her falls in love with her almost immediately and hides his identity from her. Over time both of them fall in love with each other. Asin not knowing Surya's real identity and Surya waiting to tell her who he really is based on her answer to his question (I love you, do you love me?).

Enter villain, the guy who sells children to child prostitution and does all the bad things (A to Z). Asin helps the police department crack his ring and earns his wrath. Asin gets killed in the process and Surya gets hit in the head thereby leading to his temporary memory loss. The rest of the story is how Surya takes avenges the death of his girlfriend. There is a small twist in the story...but is it justified? I don't know you tell me...

Surya has performed in this movie with elan. He has matured as an actor since Poovellam Kettuppar and today he surely is one of the best heroes we have in Tamil industry. Asin, is pretty, cute and can surely act unlike many other new heroines. She will surely make the audience fall in love with her histrionics.

Nayanthara, as you can notice I have not mentioned her much in the review is very annoying to look at. She is fat over the limit (maybe she can lend some of those extra pounds to Dhanush) and can't act.

The songs, Oru Maalai and Sutrum Vizhi are hummable and very enjoyable. Surya and Asin can shake their legs as much as they can act and entertain. As far as adapting and reusing the story from Memento kudos to the director. He has added the correct amount of desi masala to make it commercial and entertaining for everybody.

Maja (2005) - Tamil Movie Review

Ranking - 3/5

Cast: Vikram, Asin, Pasupathi, Manivanan, Vadivelu, Vijaykumar
Director: Shafi
Music: Vidyasagar


Hoping that this movie will bring a lot of majaI invited a couple of friends over for Dinner and a Movie. Right from beginning to end the movie really did not make too much sense but that doesn't mean that it was boring. It was a very funny movie with funny dialogues that made you laugh while you wonder where all this is going...

Pasupathy, Vikram, and Manivannan are theives who live together as a family. Manivannan who had lost his family in an accident adopts Vikram and Pasupathy, two ten year olds escaped from an ill-treating orphanage thus forming a family bond. Three of them after fighting and discussing decide to quit their life of robbing and stealing and lead a normal life. They buy a lorry after selling their home and decide to move out of the village.

During their drive their lorry breaks down at a village where Vijayakumar and his family live. Vikram and Pasupathy help Vijayakumar to get back the documents of his house from the village headman Rayar (who is referred to as drawer or underawyer and is extremely feared in teh village) after a long and boring fight with Ramudu and Bheemudu (trained goons). Pasupathy almost instantly falls in love with Vijayakumar's daughter who has just two lines in the whole movie and spends the rest of the time either crying or smiling. And Vikram falls in love with Asin (Rayar's daughter) who has very little window to act but a lot of musical appearances.

The story slowly proceeds into the flashback and the introduction of the real Villain...The reason I am saying real villain is because for the first half of the movie you are made to believe that Rayar is a bad guy but later you realize that he is actually nice. A sweet guy...not the bad daddy of the pretty heroine...With no twist and turns the movie ends...predictably.

Vikram is not upto mark in this movie. With movies like Sethu, Kasi, Pithamagan, etc., under his belt I guess he wanted to try something light hearted and it just turned too light. His presence is hardly felt in the movie. Although he is there in every frame it is Pasupathy who steals the show with his comic timing and funny facial expressions. Pasupathy has really donned the comedian role with ease and it is a fun to watch him exchange words with Vikram and Manivannan.

Vadivelu does not amuse me on most days. The only movie I liked him in the most was Chandramukhi in recent times though he has had a few. Otherwise he just screams a lot and is annoying. In this movie he is actually tolerable and makes you laugh at times. I am not sure if the credit goes to him or to the person who wrote his lines. Manivannan who plays the village drunk, I am sure is pretty used to playing that part by now and does a pretty good job of it with great comic timing. Asin makes special appearances for songs and a few dialogues.

On the whole the movie could be an entertainer if you are in the mood for it. Or else please watch Swamy or Dhool again instead of wasting time for Maja. The movie has its funny parts but it fails to keep you focussed.