Movies in 2012 - An Experience

2012 has come to an end.Just two more days to go,which means,hereafter there wont be any releases this year.Just wanted to write a blog post on movies released in 2012.

Nanban :

This year started with an ultra-cool movie 'Nanban' - remake of the Hindi classic 3 Idiots.I watched first day night show in 'Chitlapakkam' Varadaraja theater.I love movies based on friendship.Vijay's friends is one of my favorite movies.Without friends,life is nothing :-).

When the cast and crew was announced,lot of people complained that Vijay is worst choice for this movie and he will spoil the classic.Even a section of Vijay fans were not convinced.I strongly believed Vijay is the right choice for the character played by Aamir Khan and Jeeva is the perfect choice for Sarman Joshi's role.I even told this to some of my friends.I had a valid reason to justify Vijay's casting.

The hero's role is somewhat preachy.It is like motivating his friends.If a debutant or an upcoming artiste gives lectures,none will listen to it.And you need an acceptable face to give lectures also.I felt only Ajith or Vijay will be accepted by the audience.But here the hero is a college student,so he has to look physically young too.Thala cannot reduce so much of wait and look so young.But Vijay is slim,so without any doubt people will easily accept him.And the audience were convinced after the movie released.And now don't think am a Vijay fan,am a die-hard Ajith fan.Though I was satisfied with the outcome of the movie,certain aspects of Nanban really disappointed me.Vijay imitated Aamir Khan's mannerisms and expressions(not at all needed, Vijay's casual acting is his biggest plus),Sathyaraj's dialogue delivery was horrible.Shankar should have taken care of these,barring these negatives Nanban is a must watch.

Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi :

A perfect February month movie.I watched it twice in theaters.Earlier,it was released as a short film,but then it was made as a full length cinema.Some people said this is a movie for only youngsters and college students. Well this is a movie for everyone who is young at heart.I have seen lot of such lovers-fights and the director has shown it beautifully on screen.Suresh-Surekha(heroine's parents) love-story is the highlight of the movie.The way Suresh realizes his responsibility and Surekha trusts him completely will give you a good feel for sure.If you have not watched this movie,give a try.This is a must watch movie.

Kahani :

One of the best thrillers in bollywood.In an age where the Khans are selling craps and showing 100 crore profits,here is a movie, without any big hero,which completely depended on its script.Since Vidya Balan became popular in dirty picture,her name was good enough to market the movie.A pregnant woman comes to India,in search of her husband.She is surprised to find another person who resembles her husband and he happens to be a most wanted criminal.Whether she finds her husband or not?Does the criminal gets caught by the police?This is the story.Very simple storyline and the movie has an interesting screenplay.Instead of concentrating on huge sets,the director has given more importance to the script,which is a rarity nowadays. Camerawork was awesome.The cameraman has shown the Kolkata city realistically.

Kalakalappu :

The movie was laugh riot.From the beginning till the end the movie made me laugh.Vimal,Siva,Santhanam, Ilavarasu and Manobala and everyone else were outstanding.Even the dog(google),made its presence felt. Sundar C should understand he is good in directing comedy movies and his serious movies becomes a comedy when he acts as a hero.

Naan E :

A bilingual movie which had Sudip,Nani and Samantha in the lead roles and it was directed by Mr.S S Rajamouli.Its an usual revenge story told in an unusually different way.Here the hero(Nani) after his death,is reborn as a housefly and tortures the Villain Sudip.Sudip's acting was unimaginably brilliant.He had to imagine that a housefly is troubling him and act accordingly,which is a not at all easy.The technical work deserves a special mention.It was all done by Indian animators.Neither the director nor the animators crossed their limits.Great job and hats-off to Nani's cast and crew.One special information,dialogues were penned by one of my favorite writer Mr.Crazy Mohan :-).

Attakathi :

This movie had mixed reviews.A section of people claims this is a very good attempt by the director and another section claims this is one worst movie.But I felt this movie as a good time pass.Written and directed by Pa.Ranjith,the movie has a novel touch in it.Making and the performance of the artistes was too good.Yet again,the hero's character is a reflection of reality.I have seen lot of guys who closely resembled the hero's character.After a long time,this movie had 2 good gana songs(aadi pona aavani and nadukadalula kappala). The director could have come up with a better storyline and gripping screenplay,that's the only negative and otherwise I enjoyed this movie :D.

Sundarapandiyan :

This is the best mass movie this year.This is on the lines of Nadodigal.Again this movie is based on friendship. Sasikumar's character was too good.He has a very good screen-presence.Songs were also enjoyable and Lakshmi Menon has acted well too.Very good entertainer.

Saattai :

One of the least noticed movies this year,which was actually good.Director Anbazhagan has given a real picture of Tamil Nadu government schools and the attitude of teachers.He also criticizes the private schools in a one scene.And the way the adolescent age problems are shown,is commendable.Samudhrakani was brilliant as 'Dhaya sir' and Imman's music is a huge plus for this movie.Adi Rangi rangi and Shreya Ghoshal's Sahayane are the pick of the album.Only negative for this movie is,its too preachy,but still its a must watch.

English Vinglish :

A perfect re-entry for yesteryear dream girl Sridevi.After a long gap,she has acted in a full length feature film and that too in a heroine-oriented subject.Her acting was too natural.Her English class scenes were the highlight of the movie.Every character made its presence felt,I personally enjoyed the Pakistan taxi-driver Salman Khan.A cameo by 'Thala' Ajith(Amitabh ji played this role in the Hindi version) was a real gift for Thala fans.His dialogues about English and purpose of visit received thunderous response in theaters.After a very long time,I enjoyed this feel-good family movie.Z Tamil channel is going to telecast this movie on Jan5th.Don't miss it.

P.S. : I watched a first day show this movie too,as it is a Thala movie for fanatics like me :P.

Pizza :

A rare movie in Tamil cinema.The best part of this movie is,you can't categorize it to one particular genre.You can't say its an entertainer or a thriller or a horror movie.The movie was made on a shoe-string budget,but the settings looked realistic.Vijay Sethupathy carried the movie pretty well.Movies like this are a welcome change for Tamil cinema.

Thuppakki :

This is an engaging action movie.Perfect entertainer for a Diwali.It was good to see Vijay acting in a neat action movie.There were some protests against this movie by the Muslim organizations,which was not acceptable.I wrote an exclusive blog post about the Thuppakki controversy here.Kajal Agarwal and Jayaram's characters had no significance at all and the songs were not appealing(except 'Google Google').But the director made an engaging screenplay,which overshadowed these small negatives.Thuppakki was good enough to watch more than once in theaters.

Neerparavai :

Best movie of the year.Seenu Ramasamy has made an art-film in an enjoyable manner.Songs and background score deserves a special mention.The director should be appreciated for making a movie based on the lifestyle of fishermen.Instead of making it too preachy,director has taken a beautiful lovestory as base. For detailed review,check this link.

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom :

Yet another movie to show the maturity of Tamil cinema.This is how movies should be made.There were no unnecessary songs,fight,comedy track etc.The story revolves around 4 friends,Prem,Bagsu,Bajji and Saras. Screenplay was so good that the movie was not boring at any point.Everyone has acted well and my favorite character is that of Bagsu :D.He was a scream guys.If you have not watched this movie,please watch it.Its hilarious.

Neethane En PonVasantham :

This movie was teared into pieces by 'so called intellectuals' like RJ Balaji.The movie was good enough for a one time watch in theaters.People should learn what to expect from the movie based on trailers and stills.On seeing the stills and trailers,we should have expected a slow feel-good love story.Those who were shouting in theaters didn't have any patience at all.It has happened to so many movies.Pokkisham was one such movie. And we have social networking sites like facebook,twitter and orkut etc.Even without watching people starts sharing crap about movies.Everyone has a following in facebook and most of these followers, tend to get carried away by the comments of the person whom they follow.Opinion and expectation differs from person to person,so never criticize a movie without watching it.And most of these facebook users has the habit of sharing one line reviews in their profile and am no exception.I have shared my opinion about lot of movies in my facebook wall.But,there is a difference between sharing our review after watching a movie and watching a movie only for the sake of reviewing.The problem is with the latter.When you watch a movie with a premeditated mind,you will never enjoy the experience.

Coming to the movie,Jeeva and Samantha has acted very well,Samantha was awesome in school scenes.Ilayaraja's music and background music had its class.Rightly,The Hindu reviewed,NEPV is an ode to Ilayaraja.If you have some patience,you can enjoy this movie.NEPV may be your love story.Once again Gautham Menon has proved that he is a master of romantic movies.

I have mentioned about the movies which impressed me.There were also movies which I expected to be good and got disappointed too.They are Aravaan,Thandavam,Kazhugu,Mugamoodi.

Movies like Saguni,Billa2,Maatraan,Kazhugu,3(Moonu),Mugamoodi were boring and had nothing interesting.They were bad.Among these movies,I felt Saguni and 3 as worst movies.

Most of them said Vazhakku En 18/9 was a must watch movie.Unfortunately,due to time constraints I missed it in theaters and I couldn't watch it again(watching movies online is a very difficult task for me).


That's it.2012 had its own share good and bad movies.If you observe carefully,you can find that,movies with different content, received good response from the audience and they were box office hits too,but not all the movies.Serious movies like Neerparavai,Vazhakku En 18/9 etc., were just average in box office.This is a trend which I observed - movies with different theme,if has humor and entertainment content,becomes box office hits and serious movies find it very difficult to survivie in box office.

As a cinema fan,I expect more no.of quality movies in 2013.Already Kamal's Viswaroopam has created huge expectations and its audio is smash hit.And also Power Star's Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaya is all set to break the collections of Avatar :P.Looking forward to it.

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year :-)

Narendra Modi's Hat-trick

Gujarat yet again proves that people recognize good governance too.The thing is,this time there was no competition to Modi at all.It was very well evident from the way some 'important' congress leaders skipped campaigning most of the constituencies in Gujarat.In 2007, Sonia ji gave title 'Mouth ka saudagar(merchant of deaths)' to Modi and paid the price in the elections.This time the opposition couldn't really find one worthy issue to corner Modi.The biggest surprise is,inspite of being in power for more than 11 years,there are no worthy allegations of corruption against Modi.Literally - the congress gave up,much before the elections. They don't have a credible face in Gujarat.This statement is very well supported by the fact that the Gujarat congress president Mr.Arjun Modhwadia couldn't win in his constituency.Instead of concentrating on how to reach out to Gujarat people,the congress played all dirty games like 'branding' Modi a communal person, they didn't co-operate with Modi on appointing a lokayukta,using media against Modi etc.The congress heavily banked on media and Keshubhai Patel.But nothing worked out for them.

On the other hand,here is a Chief Minister,who didn't play the caste card or religion card.He didn't bribe the voters.There was no minority appeasement.He banked heavily on his development works.I believe this is the first time in India,3D technology was used for election campaigning.This clearly shows,how much Modi has updated himself with the latest technologies.The Hindu paper published an article or two daily,against Modi.Well I wonder what kind of journalism is this,constantly writing against a democratically elected Chief Minister.Anyone with common-sense will ask this question,'without doing anything good,how will people elect the same person time and again as Chief Minister?'. But I haven't read a single line in Hindu which highlighted the positives of Modi.And the so called negatives mentioned in their articles are not worth discussing at all.

That's the way Hindu has been all these years,so actually there is nothing to surprise.After all,the Hindu paper supported appointment of Mr.Navin Chawla as Chief Election Commissioner and N Ram wrote articles against Mr.Gopalasamy(former Chief Election Commissioner) for recommending Chawla's dismissal.I still remember an article by Charuhassan,in which he wrote 'the red line in his forehead is preventing him from being secular'.Well they have gone to the extent of branding a Chief Election Commissioner itself 'communal'. Then what else can we expect from them with respect to Modi?Not only Hindu,we have lot of intellectuals/political analysts who speak all non-sense against Modi.

Whenever Mr.Modi's name is involved in a discussion,it dates back to 2002.They speak about the communal riots happened in 2002.Still riots are happening in Assam,which is ruled by the congress. Rajasthan witnessed hindu-muslim clash this year, which is ruled by congress.None condemns these riots.If the riots happen under congress rule,its fun,we shouldn't take it serious.But if it happens under BJP's rule,we should antagonize the chief minister, who took honest measures to control riots of such a large magnitude.We should brand the party communal.Warre wah!!!IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt's statements are considered divine by the pseudo-secularists and pseudo-secular media.I have seen this fellow calling a sitting Chief Minister,as criminal in tv channels.We should not forget that he said this statement after he was released on conditional bail by the court.Well the story about Bhatt doesn't end here.His wife contested against Modi in Maninagar constituency on a congress ticket in the recent elections.Should I write more to prove Bhatt's credibility(?)?.This is just one example about people who criticize Modi.

The CBI gave false information against former Gujarat minister Amit Shah,to move the case out of the state. And the Supreme Court slammed the CBI for doing this. Read this "CBI’s ‘kith and kin’ remark on Gujarat’s Judiciary is complete nonsense and contemptuous: SC" - for source click here. Even after the Special Investigation Team(SIT),which was appointed by the Supreme Court,after an independent probe,gave clean chit to Modi on Ehsan Jaffri case,the media was focusing too much on the amicus-curiae report.Who is an Amicus Curiae?He is just a friend of the court.Whatever may be his argument,the final verdict will be given only by the judge.And the amicus curiae,who got too much of media attention was none other than Mr.Raju Ramachandran,who defended the 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab.
The SIT headed by Mr.R K Raghavan,which probed the riots case,gave a clean chit to Mr.Modi.At the same time,lot of people were convicted.A BJP MLA,Maya Kodnani,has been given life sentence.The court has sentenced 28 years of rigorous imprisonment to her.Doesn't this prove,the investigation was honest?All these years I have seen intellectuals condemning only the riots that happened after 2 compartments of sabarmati express was burnt.Not a single leader condemned the train burning,except Ms.Jayalalithaa.

Commenting on the roasting alive of 60 persons inside the Sabarmati Express in Godhra in Gujarat, she said, ``it is saddening and strange that when such acts are perpetrated against the minorities all political leaders rush'' to condemn. But when the majority is attacked, ``not a single political leader'' condemns it.

She rubbed it in further.``It is not as if crime is a crime only if it is committed against the minorities, and not so if it is committed against the majority community.'' - source.

That just came to my mind and hence shared it.We all know being secular is being anti-hindu in India.Coming back to the riots,I believe only in Gujarat,the investigation was completed so soon and the guilty were punished.But what about the 1984 Sikh-riots?In the 1984 riots,more than 3000 innocent Sikhs were killed,after the death of the then Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi.She was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards[refer this]. After this there were huge riots in Delhi and more than 3000 people were killed brutally.When questioned about this,Mr.Rajiv Gandhi,who was sworn in as Prime Minister,said 'when a big tree falls, the earth shakes'.But Rajiv Gandhi is not viewed as a communal leader.

Well the point which I wanted to make is,how many people,involved in the anti-Sikh pogrom, were punished?We have seen lot of riots in Mumbai.There were riots in Rajasthan.The situation is still tense in Assam.How many people were punished?When the riots broke out in Gujarat,within 2 days Modi sensed the seriousness and called the army.The SIT report clearly says,Modi called the army on-time - see this link.
Inspite of taking steps,it took time to bring the situation under control.Administration lapses were there. When riots of such a large magnitude occurs,its quite common.I don't justify the riots,but my point is it was not state sponsored as it is being projected by the so called 'intellectuals'.And after 2002,till now,the state has not witnessed any riots.And Gujarat has developed vastly under the leadership of Mr.Modi.After a disastrous earthquake,after horrible religious riots,its no mean task to revive the state and to bring the situation back to normal.After bringing it back to normal,the state has attracted investors from all over the world.China has shown interest to invest in Gujarat.Japan says Gujarat is the right place to invest.It is not easy to achieve this after facing earthquake and riots.

Gujarat provides uninterrupted power-supply.They don't give free power-supply to anyone.They provide electricity at subsidized rates.Inspite of showing so much of development,still the media sees him as 'merchant of deaths'.The biggest problem with the media and the so called critics of Mr.Modi is that,they are not at all ready to listen to others.When the congress was getting some leads in 2007 Gujarat Assembly elections,the news channel Headlines Today almost declared victory for congress and they started discussing what's wrong with Modi?But within few minutes the trends changed and Modi got a landslide victory.Then the media started discussing 'what's wrong with the people of Gujarat?'.There can't be a bigger insult to democracy than this.

After 5 long years,lot of things has changed in Gujarat.Even Muslims vote for Modi.BJP did well even in the constituencies where more no. of  Muslims are there.Some half-baked politicians thinks touching Modi's hands will make them communal and avoiding Modi will bring more no. of Muslim votes.Pity on them really.But what has not changed even a little bit is the attitude of the English media and Modi's critics.To be precise,Modi fought the elections against the English media and Keshubhai Patel.These 2 gave tough fight to Modi than congress.Yogendra Yadav,an activist and a columnist,calls this victory for Modi as the darker side of democracy.Who is Yogendra Yadav to say this?Doesn't the people of Gujarat know,what they want and what they doesn't?If everything has to go as per the wishes of people like Yogendra Yadav and Rahul Kanwal,why should we have an electoral system?Its a real shame that,these news channels which speak volumes about freedom of expression,fails to respect democracy.If people are electing a candidate time and again, doesn't that itself mean,he has fulfilled their expectations?Doesn't that mean he has given a good governance?

Modi is in power for 11 years in Gujarat.He didn't win elections by doing booth capturing(booth capturing WAS popular in Bihar).He has worked sincerely for the people of Gujarat and that is why people elect him time and again.That is why he is seen above caste and religion.His so called critics,instead of expressing their frustration,should accept the reality that Modi has given a good governance.Instead of talking non-sense against Modi,they should make constructive criticism of Mr.Modi.That will be good for them as well as the nation.

It will be better for Mr.Gadkari if he himself announces Modi as BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.If he has any ambitions of becoming PM,that will end up in disaster and the BJP at national level will become like congress in Gujarat or Tamil Nadu.Likes of Advani and Suhma Swaraj should give way to Modi. Advani is a real statesman in politics.One of the tallest leaders the BJP has ever produced.We should respect him.But its time for him to quit active politics.He should follow Mr.Vajpayee and give way to Modi.I wont be surprised if the party is forced to make Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.It will be interesting to see Modi in national politics.Modi has kept RSS and VHP at a distance in Gujarat.The sangh parivar very well knows that they cannot control Modi.But they too cannot stop him.Modi's entry into national politics will give a new lease of life to BJP,which will be a very bad news for the congress and good for the nation.

And regarding comments like 'darker side of democracy' is no different from finance minister Mr.Chidambaram's claim that they won Gujarat too(just because their tally increased by 2 seats). Believe me, he said this really.

Undemocratic Activities of Democratic governments

pic : Courtesy Source

 
The water dispute between Tamil Nadu and other states(especially Karnataka) is there for almost 2 decades. Not a single govt in Karnataka tried to find an amicable solution for this issue.Karnataka has seen Chief Ministers like Deve Gowda,Kumarasamy,S M Krishna,Yeddyurappa,Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar etc.I haven't seen any of them taking proper measures to sort this problem out.We have had central govts formed by various parites,Congress govt,a 3rd front govt backed by Congress,a BJP govt and the UPA govt led by Congress.Neither of these govts showed any interest in solving this dispute.Only silver-lining was in 2004 election campaigns,the BJP(which projected Mr.Vajpayee as its Prime ministerial candidate then) promised inter-linking of rivers.But unfortunately,the Congress came to power in 2004 and the fortune is still bad for this nation.

This is what happened recently.The Tamil Nadu farmers are dependent on Cauvery water.Its time for them to harvest.But the Karnataka govt is not releasing water to Tamil Nadu.And,without left out with too many options,the TN govt approaches the Supreme Court.The apex court slammed the Prime Minister Office for not taking any step on this issue.They didn't even fix a date for Cauvery River Authority meeting.Supreme Court judges used strong words to condemn the lethargic attitude of the Prime Minister Office.

"Only our blood pressure is raised. Please call senior officers. " - source

After this,the PMO finally acts on it.Then the Cauvery River Authorities examined the water availability in Karnataka,because the Karnataka govt stated that they themselves doesn't have enough water and so if they release water to TN,the Karnataka farmers will suffer.Immediately this question arises in my mind, 'are our politicians so good to think about the welfare of the common man?is the Karnataka BJP so good?'.Anyway let us leave this question in choice.We will focus on facts and figures.The authorities submitted their report to Supreme Court.The Supreme Court adivises both the Chief Ministers to meet regarding this issue and sort it out amicably through talks.The very next day,TN Chief Minister Ms.Jayalalithaa,meets her Karnataka counterpart Mr.Jagadish Shettar.Within 45 minutes the meeting ends.The TN CM comes back with empty hands and she says the Karnataka CM refused to release even a single drop of water to TN.So the next day again the Tamil Nadu CM approaches the Supreme Court.After considering the reports submitted by the authoritiy,the Supreme Court directs the Karnataka govt to release 10000 cusecs of water/day to TN.




After this verdict,Jagadish Shettar calls for an all-party meet.After this he comes up with a statement that they will not release water to TN.It is also said that the congress party pressed the govt not to release water,even though if its like humiliating the Supreme Court verdict - source . Then he goes to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and explain their position.Means,he is sincerely working for his state and he is making the PM understand the situation of Karnataka that the state itself doesn't have enough amount of water.What a noble Chief Minister Mr.Shettar is.And,now he also says that he will approach Supreme Court in this issue.

I am not an intelligent person.But I believe followers of this blog are intelligent.So people please enlighten me 'why he is going to approach the Supreme Court again?'.After struggling for months,finally the Supreme Court gave this verdict.It ordered the Karnataka govt to release only minimum amount of water(10000 cusecs).The Karnataka govt rejected this judgement outright and now again they say they are going to approach Supreme Court.Can there be a greater insult to our constitution than this? The Supreme Court is the highest authority of Indian constitution.One of the main features of Supreme Court is, to sort out the disputes between states.when this court gives a verdict,any govt is supposed to follow it.But states like Kerala and Karnataka are playing divisive politics on this issue for the sake of votes.

When the case about Mullai Periyar dam was in Supreme Court, the Kerala politicians threatened to break the dam.They said they will go ahead with the construction of new dam.The Karnataka govt refuses to release water.Is Tamil Nadu not a part of India?Are TN farmers not human beings?Are Tamilains not human beings?Why these 'national parties' are more concerned with Kerala and Karnataka and why this step-motherly treatment is meted out to TN everytime?Reason is simple.The Congress and BJP has a votebank in Karnataka.The Congress and Communist parties has a vote bank in Kerala.But these parties will not even manage to get deposit in Tamil Nadu,if they go alone in polls.So they want to consolidate their votebank and make themselves strong by playing divisive politics.When S M Krishna was the Chief Minister TN faced same sort of problems.When former Chief Minister Mr.M Karunanidhi proposed a power project using the Hoganakkal water.Former Karnataka Chief Minister Mr.Yeddyurappa protested against it.I don't know what's wrong with Mr.Yeddyurappa.Mr.Karunanidhi himself will do something good only on rarest of rare occasions and such Yeddyurappas will spoil that too.


Now the situation in Karnataka is not so rosy for BJP. And Yeddyurappa quit BJP and started his own political party.Still he has some loyalists in the current govt.Anytime,by using his supporters he may bring down the current govt - this is what the BJP fears.Personally I don't feel Mr.Yeddyurappa has that much support.And the Karnataka BJP has earned the wrath of public on various issues like mining scam, pornography issue etc.If the BJP faces elections right now,it fears a defeat.So to project themselves as the saviors of Karnataka farmers,they are doing like this.

One can very well raise this question - 'if the BJP had not earned the wrath of public and had maintained a good name,will their govt release water to TN?'.The answer is a big NO,because other parties will carry out hate campaign against them.The opposition parties will try to antogonise the ruling party on this issue.So even if there was anyother party(Congress or Janata Dal(secular)) in power,the ssituation would not have been any different.

Regarding the reason behind the Kerala govt's irresponsible behavior on MullaiPeriyar issue, I will try to come up with a separate blog post.

Democratically elected govts are behaving in an undemocratic manner.I would like to suggest this solution to govt(??) and activists to avoid this in future.If a govt goes against the directions of Supreme Court,the govt must be immediately dismissed.The parties which formed the govt,must be barred from contesting any elections for 5 years in that particular state.This will give some fear to our politicians.A politician will afford to lose anything including self-respect,but he/she will not afford to lose 'power'.So no party will go against the apex court.

Playing divisive politics based on region or religion is very dangerous.It will end up in disaster.Hope something happens and someone comes up with a suggestion as I mentioned above.And regarding this issue, the current BJP govt in Karnataka, must be immediately dismissed and President's rule be declared in the state.

'Neerparavai' flies high

I post movie reviews in this blog only on rare occasions.This movie is worth reviewing.
 

We can expect such artistic movies only once in a while..Seenu Ramasamy has proved his worth as a director yet again.. With such a soothing music and brilliant camerawork,watching this movie itself was a great experience.Acting was brilliant. Vishnu's performance is damn brilliant.He has shown a great amount of maturity, be it in expressions or body language or dialogue delivery. Sunaina's performance too is worth mentioning.She has acted very well too.Saranya and 'Poo' Ram were brilliant.Ram is an excellent character artiste, one who acted as 'penakaarar' in Poo,has now lived as Lourdusamy.He has shown variations in his acting when fights with Samudrakani for his son and when he urges the same Samudrakani to help his son.Pandi andT Thambi Ramayyah's witty one-liners evoke laughter. Instead of having a separate comedy track,their part comes with the story.So its good.

As I mentioned earlier camerawork is beautiful.The way the churches,sea are shown,makes the audience very much involved into the movie. They have captured the lifestyle of fishermen perfectly.The Christian-fishermen lifestyle and their internal issues can be felt by watching this movie itself.Songs like Devan Magale adds a great weightage to this concept.But still the Para Para Paravai song is the highlight of the movie. It has 3 versions and all the 3 are awesome with lyrics fitting perfectly to the situation."enadhu asuthangal paaradi,ennai parisutham seyyadi" and in another version "kannaalan nilamai enna kadalodu paarthucholla kokkukkum naaraikkum kan alayudhe" kind of lines shows the director has worked with every technician like cameraman,lyricist(the great Vairamuthu),music director,art director etc.Art direction is like soul of this movie.The old churches were shown beautifuly.Dialogues,as expected is good enough to brand this movie an excellent movie.

On the whole Seenu Ramasamy has attempted to make a movie based on the miseries of fishermen and he has succeeded in it to a great extent too.The best part of this movie is this does not completely deal with the fishermen problems with Sri Lankan navy.The Sri Lankan fishermen problem is dealt nicely through dialogues and some incidents.That works big time for this movie as it doesn't give us a feel like we are watching some pro-Sri Lankan Tamil campaign.Personally we can support Sri Lankan Tamils,but if only that aspect is there in a 3 hr movie,it will look more like a documentary film.Thank God this film is not like that.The director has intelligently dealt all these serious issues keeping a beautiful love story as a base.If we want to point out some negatives,I found only one - "meenukku kadal meenukku" song could have been avoided.Anyway that song is good,so its acceptable.For such an excellent movie,they could have made an even more interesting climax,though the climax is good.

'Neerparavai' flies high and it is a must watch for people who love good cinema.

Verdict - Awesome

Rating - 4.5/5

UPA Government's Honesty

Pic : courtesy - The Free Press Journal

Recently the UPA govt has proved its honesty by auctioning the 2G spectrum.It could get only around 9400 crores in the auction whereas the CAG Vinod Rai gave a report with a presumptive loss of around 1.76 lakh crore.How harsh and unfortunate was Vinod Rai?Because of his report the entire nation was angry on this issue and everyone were mocking Raja and the Congress govt.

Some months ago,even our IT minister Kapil Sibal claimed '0' loss in spectrum allocation.Actually he was wrong.He could have even gone one step further and said,the then UPA govt(in 2008),received profits in spectrum allocation.We all know Kapil Sibal is an intelligent man.And here comes another 'brainy guy' Mr.Digvijaya Singh.

"The CAG should reconsider how far its estimate was right with regard to the report, which it had earlier given and the losses that it had computed (in spectrum allocation two years ago)," Singh said.This he said,a day after the recent spectrum auction. - source.

And we have the grand old politician of India - 'Kalaignar' Mr.M.Karunanidhi.He questions,'did Raja commit any mistake in spectrum allocation?' - full article.Dravidar Kazhagam leader Mr.Veeramani is campaigning about the spectrum allocation in support of former telecom minister Mr.Raja.

It's a real pleasure to see these many intelligent and honest people in India and that too in politics.So what for we are still waiting?The much hyped spectrum auction couldn't fetch the expected amount,so as per the theory of these intellectuals,there were no irregularities at all in spectrum allocation and CAG committed a blunder.Then why was Mr.Raja arrested?Why was Mrs.Kanimozhi arrested?The charges against Raja,Kanimozhi,Sharad Balwa etc., can be dropped right?But it cannot be dropped.Because there are some questions for which no satisfactory answers are available.

Raja claims he followed his predecessors in spectrum allocation.Yes the NDA govt followed the first come first serve policy.I myself have blogged about this 2 or 3 times.When NDA allocated spectrum on FCFS basis,the no. of cellphone users was too less and in 2008 cellphones has become a matter of necessity from luxury.But still the then UPA govt preferred FCFS policy.The congress govt is known to follow their predecessors,but only when they are 'comfortable' with it.

So for the sake of an argument we assume that there is no flaw in the FCFS policy.But why did Mr.Raja advance the cut off date all of a sudden?Why the cut-off date was advanced to September25,2007 suddenly, which was supposed to be October1,2007?
 
"He also introduced a cut-off date of September 25, 2007, for considering applications though only the previous day a DoT press release had said October 1, 2007, would be the last date"  - source

And still some people were able to pay some 1000s of crores and get the license.How was this possible for them? So can we assume that, those who paid the money on Sep25th itself, knew that 25th will be the last date for considering applications?If the answer is yes,how?If no,then how could they pay such a huge amount within few hours?

These are all old questions.Everything has become a matter of past.So let us come back to present tense. The govt says,it got only around 9400 crores after the spectrum auction.Why the auction flopped?

"The auction failed because of the government’s inability to understand the current market. Things would have been better had the government been more sensitive to the current market realities. It erred in not putting on auction the entire spectrum freed up by the apex court and ended up setting an unrealistically high base price in a hurry to make up for the resultant shortfall in revenue. " - courtesy The New Indian Express.


Interestingly, Mr.Subramanian Swamy made a sensible tweet as follows :


Subramanian Swamy: "2G Auction news show media as Pavlov dogs. In just 22 licence areas the govt today reaped Rs 9500 crores. In 122 in 2008 govt got 9280 cr."


Can there be an irresponsible government than this UPA govt?It only seems that the govt has auctioned the 2G spectrum only to justify their 'controversial' decisions.Rightly the Supreme Court slammed the government for not putting the entire spectrum into auction.Even the planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia says it was a mistake to have high reserve price for the spectrum.And still intellectuals question the credibility of the CAG Vinod Rai.Fact is the govt couldn't bare with the honesty of the CAG Vinod Rai.And that's why the government is planning to make the CAG as a multi-member body.Narayanasami may claim he was misquoted, but the intentions can be clearly observed.


One can very well argue that sometimes the CAG's report doesn't consider practical difficulties.But in this case, atleast, I don't find any practical difficulty and the amount quoted by the CAG itself is presumptive and not exact. The claims of intellectuals and pro-government spokespersons that there were no irregularities in spectrum allocation is laughable.