South Africa - Curse of Rain and WCs!!

 

There is a joke of late actor-comedian Tamil actor Vivek, thanni la kandam which roughly translates to the actor specifying that he has a curse of water(rain). South African cricket team fortune seems to follow that route is very strange fashion.

Curse - 1

At the start of 90s, South Africa were not able to participate in any of the cricket tournaments as they were banned due to apartheid. After the abandonment of apartheid in 1991, cricket was the most played sport along with rugby. At the start of ’92 world cup in Australia, South Africa (SA) were one among the favorites to win the tournament boasting of some very good players.

Things came to a head when SA were playing in semi-finals against England. Needing to score 22 runs in 13 balls with 4 wickets in hand with the game favoring a first SA entry to the finals. And then, the curse started. Rain stopped play, but only for 10 minutes. That was enough to cause quite a farce scenario, wherein SA now had to make 21 off just one ball. This was enough to send England through to finals and SA back home.

Curse – 2

Hansie Cronje, the most charismatic Midas touch captain, who had led the team to crowing glory in the 1997 champions trophy and had led them to No.1 rankings had admitted to his role in the bookies scandal where he and his players had taken money to deliberately lose or influence the matches played in India. This devastating scandal took the cricket world by storm, causing him to lose his captaincy, his place in the side and ultimately his death in a plane crash in 2002.

In the back-drop of this terrible incident, SA tried to re-build their image and their way under Shaun Pollock and tragedy struck again in 2003 world cup which they were incidentally hosting. Boucher, SA’s best wicket-keeper had just hit a six, when it started drizzling in their league game against a weakened Srilankan side. Boucher understood that under the Duckworth-Lewis (absolute crazy) method, they had achieved the score they require to win the game and blocked out the last ball of play with no run scored of that. Unfortunately, the underlying fine print reflected the teams need to score 1 run more than the par score to win the match and the match was a tie resulting a heart-broken exit of a host country in the preliminary stage of the World Cup competition.

Perhaps Curse – 3

In the most recent match of SA in the current T20 world cup hosted in Australia, they faced off against a resurgent Zimbabwe. In a rain reduced match Zim scored 79 runs in 9 overs. As more rain drizzled through, SA were set a target of 64 in 7 overs, with them making an astonishing 51 in first 3 overs and then play was abandoned. Boucher (who is now the coach coincidentlu) refused to get drawn into the comparisons with the 2003 world cup and perhaps time will only tell whether this abandonment is crucial for them to make it through to the next stage.

 

                                                      Champions Trophy Victors - 1997

Nonetheless, the world cups or mutli-country tournaments have not been very favorable to South African cricket teams and the general ‘chokers’ tag in association with their heart-breaking and crushing semifinal defeats of 1999 and 2007 world cups to eventual champions Australia have itself been a curse for them in a general. The hope against hope is that they find enough strength and firepower in their wonderful team to make it to the next round in this championship and break all the curses once and for all.

DESERT STORM– Déjà vu!!!

Nearly quarter a century ago, a couple of friends and me watched Sachin Tendulkar hunker down as the desert storm ravaged the Sharjah stadium. A couple of Australian players had even left the field, while Sachin plotted to blow away the Australian mighty attack to shreds right after the storm subsided. What happened next is was absolute goosebump worthy moment as Sachin tore apart every bowler that night and came so close to winning the match. He single-handedly helped India qualify for the finals where another masterful century sealed India’s famous win. This ultimately established Sachin’s place in annals of cricketing history as one of the best batsman. 

 

For a very long time, people would switch off their television when Sachin got out. This trend diminished to a great extent when Dhoni took over the Indian team. But nobody in their dream had thought that there would be a heir to his cricketing throne. But the next King had arrived in a grand style. His best of 183 along with the Master Blaster tore Pakistan’s bowling in Asia Cup a decade ago. 

Kohli rose from one high to another in a very short span of time, but things never go according to any plan in life, do they? The last 3 years have been excruciating for the world (with Covid) and more so for Kohli. His paternity leave for his first daughter through the most important Australian test series was heavily criticized as India were expected to be whitewashed in his absence. Fortunately we won a historic series, with contributions from the least expected players. His much publicized fight with Ganguly (former BCCI president), losing his captaincy and a change in head coach from his favorite Ravi Shastri to Rahul Dravid must have quite shaken up any normal player. But Kohli is no mere mortal. 

India needed 28 of 8 balls, with in-form Rauf running in hard. As with why Misbah chose the scoop over the 100s of shots in that in-opportune moment in the 2008 world-cup final to why Rauf banged a slower ball back of length to the regular hard length delivery, nobody knows. The bowler nearly won as he had Kohli jam up in a very awkward position with the ball hitting high up on his bat. But then the magic happened… Kohli hit the ball with his all muscle memory and it travelled all the way for a SIX!! (a true Desert Storm Deja va). This one shot, given the magnitude of the game, playing conditions and his own dismal form is why he will be considered a legend whenever he decides to hang his boots.

 

But it is this iconic picture that speaks a thousand words, as a tear dropped in from his eye as India finished winners in this iconic match. He is still human, he is still one among us, a human being with deep feelings. This is perhaps a gentle reminder to all of us to be caring, patient, positive and forever cherish this beautiful game as well as our lives!!

 

The Har(r)i(s) Story!!

 “Our Saamy.. Rendu Saamy….. Aaru Saamy!!”.. these words quoted by Rajni in Saamy movie’s 100^th day function reverberated across the whole auditorium. This dialogue as well as the perfect masala story in Saamy made the movie a huge hit 2 decades ago. The success of Arul, Aaru, Vel, Singam series and the lesser known Thamirabarani, Poojai have cemented Hari’s place in as pakka commercial director.

Most of his movies revolve around a large family with the youngest son (played by various heroes) protecting the family against a powerful protagonist. The racing screenplay coupled with some power packed action sequences lead the way through with some beautiful memorable songs running non-stop in Tamil music channels or in tea shops near bus-stands. However, Hari is not all guns blazing as he deftly handles more emotions in Koil and Ayya.

The terrible failure of Saamy 2 for it generic formulaic storyline along the onset of covid wherein the general audience to be more acclimated to more types of stories as well different screenplays has led Hari to look for alternate options, or at least that is what we believed. The reviews coming in from his latest ‘Yaanai’ movie unfortunately do not seem to suggest that.

Another person whose career trajectory seems quite in line and intertwined with Hari’s films is music director Harris Jeyaraj. Starting out with the most popular ‘Minnale’ movie (whose songs are still evergreen) to his rise with ‘Saamy’ movie songs (especially debuting with kuthu song Aarumuga Saamy) , his romantic peppy numbers were quite a rage on any music channel/radiosin early 2000s and 2010s. However, the formulaic mix like Hari’s movies have failed to generate the excitement that it earlier used to.

Their combination was one of the most sought after in their hey-days and the strong belief is that both of them will bounce back together soon. Old is Gold sometimes!!

 

 

Vikram – The Dark Knight in Loki Universe!!

 

The first scene of any movie determines how engrossing it would be. The joker’s mask in the hand of one of the robber forms the most unique entry scene to perhaps one of the Hollywood cult classics.

Spoilers ahead.

Vikram’s first scene is quite not that flashy but Fahad Fazil’s search of Kamal Hassan’s character’s whereabouts makes it quite an intriguing first half with an amazing background score to match. It is in the second half where the movie reveals its ambitions with the best part reserved for the unexpected action sequences of Agent Tina. Vijay Sethupathi has tried his best to variate though it is similar to his role in Master movie. Suriya’s much-talked about climax cameo felt a tad underwhelming in the overall context of movie but has generated enough interest in Lokesh Kanakaraj’s (Director) own universe (popularly known as Loki Universe) as this movie links up with Kaithi, the director’s previous venture.

The Loki universe excites me quite the most, as MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has shown how a series of movies could be linked and properly amalgamated into a final showpiece like final Avengers 1 and 2 movies. The Loki universe seems to have Kaithi 2 and Vikram 3 lined up and would be first among Indian movies to link different movie plots into one larger schematic plot.

Lokesh Kanakaraj has also expressed interest in directing Rajnikanth and this is where my interest peaks. If one can imagine amalgamating all movies which includes Kaithi, Master, Vikram-2 and his forthcoming movie with Vijay along with Kaithi 2 and Vikram 3, we would be quite expectant to what the future holds for, in the Loki Universe.

Just IMAGINE Fahad Fazil,  Narain, Karthi, Vijay  and Kamal Hassan (as Protagonists) facing up to Vijay Sethupathi (in as a triplet to the other villains to Master, Vikram), Suriya and Rajnikanth and/or even actor Vikram (as Antagonists), it would absolutely be a firecracker of a moment in the whole history of Tamil Cinema, which would bring all its biggest stars on one single platform/movie.

As they say, when you want something so badly, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. If it does happen, what a moment it would be, to cherish that one scene in an IMAX screen with all our friends and family. As they say, “Keep Dreaming!!”.

P.S: Please do let me know your thoughts on it.

PK to KVRK!!

 

Title meant Parthiban Kanavu (PK) to Kaathu Vaakla Rendu Kadhal (KVRK).

Parthiban Kanavu

Released in 2003, it was certainly amongst the most underrated movies of its generation. The movie revolves around a young marketing executive, Parthiban (played by Srikanth) and his journey in finding the right life partner. As he starts falling for an attractive modern girl played by Sneha, he is arranged by his family to get engaged to a docile girl (again played expertly by Sneha). In this confusion, he gets married to a girl who he doesn’t like but resembles the girl that he likes. How all the confusion get resolved, forms the basis of this amazing movie. It is also one of the classics of comedian, late Vivek and his combination with Devadarshini resulting in rip-roaring hilarious sequences.

Kaathu Vaakla Rendu Kadhal

I have not watched the movie, but from all the reviews it seems to revolve around Rambo (played by Vijay Sethupathi) and his two girlfriends played by Nayantara and Samantha. One of the reviewers mentioned how the two girls, after getting to know the truth, fight with each other rather than taking the fight to Vijay Sethupathi’s character. 

 

Movies seem to be quite an appropriate evaluation of the times we live in and the disparity between the movies shows much the society has developed or regressed from any individual’s point of view. Ages ago, it was common for a man to marry many wives and Lord Rama decided to change the trend then by marrying Sita and Sita mata only. Perhaps we have just come a full circle with KVRK. Who knows, the next trend could be one girl and two boyfriends.. or did I just reveal the plot line for some new age director’s next movie? 😊

Indian THOR!!

As I walked through MG Road in the then Bangalore, about 20 years ago, I saw something strange that I could not quite explain. In one of the theatre, there were English, Telugu and Tamil movie shows but not even one Kannada movie was listed. Perplexed, I asked my local friend and he explained that Kannada movies had lost their charm.

Cut to 15 years later and even after hearing rave reviews of KGF movie, I still missed it in theatre. My wife and I caught up with it one weekend and were absolutely enchanted by the KGF story and Yash’s acting. His weapon of choice (hammer) quite mimicked the THOR God as he thundered each of the antagonist into brutal submission, finishing off ferociously with the main villian, Garuda. However, the real connect was the flashback of Rocky and his mother beautifully narrated by the journalist (Anant Nag) with Nizhagal Ravi providing the mesmerizing voice in Tamil dubbed version. The two scenes that stood out were the bun on the road scene and Garuda’s own statue reveal. 

Recently, I happened to catch up on KGF2 and it carried on where the first movie left 4 years ago. I loved the movie for it's intensity and Yash’s acting. Prakash Raj’s lackluster dialogues dimmed what was a enjoyable joy ride. I wish we get back Anant Nag with Nizhagal Ravi’s voiceover one last time in part 3 and with more of the mother and Rocky’s scenes.

Stop here if you don’t want any KGF2 spoilers. A lot of people have been confused by the last scene of KGF2 and I thought I will share my take on it (which may not be correct as well). Rocky being such an intelligent character, would not just throw everything away without a solid cause. I believe that his mother was a resident of KGF and was affected by ‘sodium cyanide’ solution which is used to extract gold from its ore. This had her cough blood, eventually leading to her demise. Rocky must have promised his mother to finish off KGF once for all. This desire led him to become a don in Mumbai, eventually coming to KGF to finish Garuda and take over the place. Now, he slowly finishes off all the antagonists, excavates all the remaining mines and sends a photo to CBI regarding the factory and personally induces the prime minister to send in the army to finish off KGF. He safeguards the people by sending them away to new KGF town and puts all the money into their trust. To make sure that the excavated gold does not reach anybody, he plans to sail into international waters, where he notifies Indian, Indonesian and US navies of his whereabouts. The beauty of this plan is everybody knows where the gold is, but no one can excavate it as the other country’s eye for it as well.

Eagerly waiting for KGF3 and continuation of this massive story.. nah.. BRAND KGF. Salaam Rocky Bhai!! Also a big salute to the massive vision of the movie's director, Prashanth Neel.

P.S: How I sorely wish for that one Tamil movie that would be pan-India as well.