Flipkart

How beautiful it will be if India has an online bookstore like Amazon. When you live in a suburbs of Chennai and it's a pain to commute to place where good bookstore is present. There are basically 2 mindsets when you visit a bookstore.

1. You know what you want to buy
   
2. You just want to browse around with an open mind and find a book
   

If you are in #1 category then how good it will be if you've an online bookstore! It should be ok even if we spent some rupees extra, if it saves our time and energy. There are a number of big chain of bootstores who've online presence like Landmark, there is a Hindu's online bookstore. There are also a few exclusive online bookstores, but none impressed me. Finally I bumped into Flipkart and I am pleasantly surprised. The search was good, almost all the books I was looking for was in there! They had a small discount and they ship it within 3 days…..no shipping charge. These ppl have no offline bookstore, read here their interview

When I browsed for reviews on Flipkart I found many positive and some negative reviews, but the best thing is most of the ppl who gave negative review said that they are happy now since Flipkart ppl had corrected the issue! This is really good, we cannot be perfect but if someone says something is wrong then if you are able to correct it, you are bound to succeed. I ordered a couple of books and it was in my doorstep in exactly 3 days!

I am very happy that I've discovered Flipkart.

Impress your Girlfriend .. not here!

I am kind of guy who wants to see a film fresh, without even seeing review! So I got disappointed a couple of times by ppl who are trying to impress their girlfriends in the theater. For these ppl impressing the girls simply means tell her what's going to happen in the next scene! First you are just irritating your girlfriend, you are not even stopping after her repeated plea to stop your nonsense.

Leave your girlfriend, she had chosen to hangout with you so let her suffer, what crime did I and all the ppl in the next 2 rows committed?

First I don't know what really is the manliness of that silly act. Is it true that girls wants boys to always play prank on them… irritate them… tease them?

I see these kinds of stuffs in movies and real life. In real life I dono many of the ppl who do this stuff, but the few ppl I know personally are living so incongruent with true love. If you really love your girl and you brought her to a film then you should just let her enjoy the movie. You shouldn't even say, "This is a good scene!"

Eventhough the focus in this article is about the irritating guys who come to the theater, you can expand this to so much area of your life. Do you know the guy who does this kind of stuff? Are you that guy? Why should you impress someone? Is it b'coz you are not really impressed with yourself?

Unnai Pol Oruvan

This is a remake of A Wednesday, I dint watch A Wednesday, so went to watch this film with no prejudice! Also I watch this film not b'coz it's a remake I watched it for Kamal Hassan and Mohanlal. Sometimes you need stars, if not for them who would've seen this offbeat film!

Intelligence! Intelligence everywhere in this story. Intelligence…. That's something that you don't usually see in a tamil film. But these kinds of films are not good for repeated viewing. I may not enjoy the film if I watch the second time.. I might not have enjoyed it if I watched the original. Also terrorism is still very alien to a tamilian(even the film points out this alienation), it makes you remember that it's a remake.

When I saw Lakshmi I thought she might've a solid role but I got disappointed. Mohanlal's character was confusing, why he called the Chief Secretary of TN for help and then at every drop of hat tried to tell her that he is the lame goat! In many scenes, Lakshmi's dialogue looked innocent, but Mohanlal's interpretation of what she said will make you realize how prejudice he was.

The 2 policemen especially Ganesh Venkataraman as Arif Khan, look very convincing. After a long time we are seeing sincere Policemen in films, sincere but not stereotyped as you see in mass police story movies. How many of us yell at our parents, spouse when we are stressed out in office. We all have to learn a thing or two about compartmentalization of life from the other policeman.

In a movie how many costumes ppl change, the hero and heroine change dozens of dress for a song, here its just same dress for the entire movie (just 2 hours), b'coz the movie is about the story in a day! The movie should've been made in a shoestring budget. It's a home production, so Kamal and Shruti Hasan's salary could've been discounted. No song no big action so should not have cost much.

Regarding Shruthi Hasan's music most of the songs were not in the movie, just heard a couple of songs in youtube. The music and the BGM is not really standing out, but its also not amateur. I believe perfecting an art needs practice and if you are given a big platform and support and if you are conscious enough you will create a great art!. Sachin was not bright when he started.

Lastly, we should thank Kamal for his courage to make this different film! What's not important is whether you made a different film, but can you bring in ppl who are so used to mass movies to watch your movie. Kamal could do it with his star power!

Medea and Its Double

I had an idea of what a Theater Drama is. Had seen soom S.Ve.Shekar, Crazy Mohan, Y.G Mahendran Dramas. Also many of the dramas of Podhigai in the 90s are technically 'stage drama kind'.

So when you ask me what is Theater. The answer is it's a stage drama, where they open and cloe the screen every 5 minutes and whenever the screen is down you will either hear a film song or a totally out of sync Harmonium sound. Also the stage background shows different locations, like Bus Stop, Temple, House etc.

An example a lady walking and we've a Temple background. An oldman was also walking in the opposite direction.

The Old man asks, "Ennamma Koil Poitu varaya?

Wow What a brilliant Dialogue!

She says Yes and then this old man continues, "Pavam Neeum Ennathan Saiva! Appa Uthavakara, Thambiyo Kudikaran, rendu Thankachiya Kara Sekanam. Hmm.. antha Perumalthan unna Kappathanam"

And then the old man walks away, you may ask why he uttered these words.. that's the introduction man! Can the director afford to take 5 scenes to give you full background or can he have an artificial dialogue to give you the crux?

So this is what I presume a drama should be. But everything changed when I saw Medea and Its Double

No Screen uping and downing, it was a drama with music and a little bit of acrobatics.

I saw it from the Balcony, so was not able to see the Surtitles. Its good that I dint see the Surtitles. It helped me to see the play with no distractions.

The Play started with some ppl coming out and lighting some candles in the pond and sitting on each side. Then all the lights were dimmed and the stage was lighted only by the candles and there was pin drop silence (as though we were watching a Meditation)

I was like, "C'mon! I've paid Rs 200, start the play!"

The Play started slowly, like a prayer song, which then slowly transformed to a kind of fun song and then the actors played games, they were acting as kids. All these things should've lasted about 15 minutes and I think that's the best moments of the play.

The story is similar to our Kannagi Story.

The thing about this particular play is it shows Medea and her double, 2 personalities one a loving mother and other a lady who wants revenge.

This is a play with minimum stage prop. It has beautiful songs and powerful live music!

Theater play is a kind of abstract platform for story telling.Medea and Its Double is an example of how best to use the stage platform!

Courtallam

Happened to visit Courtallam previous week. Long long ago had spent 3 days in Courtallam, but this time went for just a half day visit.

If you are planning to spent a day in Courtallam, include Shenbagadevi Falls, which is little far away from the main falls, you've to hike inside a reserved forest, not a strenuous one. This reserved forest is open to public just for the sake of ppl visiting Shenbagadevi Temple. So we've free access to this falls thanks to Shenbagadevi! It's the best falls, its like a big cylinder of water coming and hitting you. Also you can chill out in the pond created by this falls. Shenbagadevi is a really beautiful fall!!

They say that Thenaruvi (Honey Fall) can be reached if you could hike a little more. But you are not allowed. It seems that around 80s a bridge towards Honey Falls was broken and it was never repaired.

If you speak with some locals, they will say that they had visited Honey Falls in their childhood. I think Honey Falls will be much better than the Shenbagadevi and it seems nature has decided to preserve it from Humans!

How to reach Courtallam?

In Thirunelveli there are 2 bus Stands, if you want to go long distance you've to go to new bus stand, the old bus stand is near the Thirunelveli Junction. For going to Courtallam you've first catch a bus to Tenkasi. The Tenkasi bus starts at new bus stand, but also passes through the old bus stand. From Tenkasi you can catch the bus going to Senkottai and get down at Courtallam.

Pichavaram

Happened to visit Pichavaram a couple of weeks ago, during my trip to Kumbakonam.

Catch a bus to Chidambaram from Kumbakonam, if you want you can bundle this trip with Vaitheeswaran and Chidambaram temples.

You will have bus once an hour to Pichavaram from Chidambaram Bus Stand. Pichavaram is the last stop.

Karparakshambigai

Visited Karparakshambigai temple couple of weeks ago during my trip to Kumbakonam.

If you are traveling from Kumbakonam and would like to travel in the cheapest mode possible then take a bus to Pabanasam. From Pananasam take an auto to the bridge. Just say Karparakshambigai or Thirukarugavur, they will charge 40 Rs. Actually a main bridge used by vehicles is damaged and is being repaired, so you've another bridge used by pedestrians. Cross the bridge and you have to get another auto Rs 20 to reach the temple

Also one more thing, if you want to go to Kumbakonam by bus and dint find any bis then try for any bus that goes through Mayiladuthurai. Kumbakonam is just an hour drive from here.

Eeram

Happened to watch this film. Many new faces and an interesting start but at the time of intermission you know what is in store and finally when the story reveals the motive for the crime, you feel disappointed. The thing about the thriller is anybody can try it but can they glue the viewers till the end? Can the director show the viewer why something happens, which convinces the viewer or can he settle to shows scenes where everything fits in by weird coincidence. The beauty for any story is its natural flow. It seems the director started with a concept and tried to skew the story to fit in the concept. So many things looks out of place.

Why is it that the heroine is almost always a Brahmin girl and when you just look at the face of the heroine's father you know that a Cliché is just waiting to happen. The story is about ppl trying to do a character assassination of heroine and how the heroine gets justice finally. But why should the lady next door die? Did she commit such a stupendous crime?

Anyway its still a better effort, the film was different from other films and films like this should be encouraged.