SPIN WIZARD: Ashwin!!

As I watched Shane Warne and Muttaih Muralitharan weave their magic around bamboozled batsman in cricket matches, I wondered if I would witness anyone would bowl off-spin, leg-spin, flippers, carrom balls with drift, under/over spin on pitches conducive or not, I finally found my answer in our very own namba ooru payan (hometown boy): spin wizard Ashwin

Career Highlights

• As Ashwin dismissed the universe boss, Chris Gayle (in the form of his life) in all the important IPL final of 2011, it cemented his arrival onto the big stage.
• Ashwin bowled the final over of the famous win in Champions Trophy to bring India to a full circle of world cup wins of 2008, 2011 and 2013.
• Ashwin was at his absolute peak when he bamboozled batsman in the 2014 Aussie tour of India which India thrashed the visitors 4-0, courtesy a ‘home-work’ gate scandal.
• Ashwin stood strong when he ran out Jos Butler, as the batsman backed up too far in a crucial IPL match, creating a media/social media uproar. Thanks to his actions, MCC/ICC have officially changed rules to deem run-outs official if batsman back-up too far.

 

But my absolute favorite, was a simple play that occurred 2 years ago in Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). As Virat Kohli played a magical innings it was left to Ashwin to face the last ball of the T20 innings with 2 runs to get. Any normal batsman would have tried to hit it out of the park. However, our scientist-batsman Ashwin just side-stepped a ball going down his pads to get a wide, level the scores and reduce the blood pressure of 1.5 billion people while calmy lifting the next ball over mid-off to secure one of the memorable wins over Pakistan in that T20 match.
 
 
With 537 test wicket, over 700 international wickets to his name and 11 man of the series awards, Ashwin’s place is right up there with the best who have played this beautiful game. Coming from my own school in Chennai, Ashwin is now a legend in his own way. We wish Ashwin a great innings off the field and as many of his kutty stories go on his youtube channel go: it is never an end, always a beginning.

Meiyazhagan – Endearing!!

Just when you thought Tamil movies have been so rigid and robotic that we need an opening song, twists and turns every other 5 minutes (post KGF trend) or look to Malayalam movies for realistic content, Meiyazhagan (from famed ’96 movie director C.Prem Kumar) comes as a breath of fresh air capturing a heartwarming, emotional family drama woven beautifully with a realistic but inquisitive screenplay.

Spoilers ahead.

Highlights

• Arvind Swami and Karthi, two fabulous actors by themselves, bond seamlessly and take us on a pleasant unexpected journey. While Arvind Swami uses his eyes to effectively convey his emotions, it is Karthi with his body language and quirky come-backs that steals the show.

• Devadharshini, very much under-rated, but an amazing actor, has portrayed the character of a nuanced, balanced spouse of Arvind Swami with quite a grace and hope she gets her due. All other supporting actors including RajKiran have performed their roles well.

• The realistic locations along with the charm of Thanjavur and Needamangalam (some of my actual childhood spent there) were portrayed beautifully through the lens of cinematographer, Mahendiran Jayaraju.

• Last but not least, full credit to the director C.Prem Kumar to come up with a simple yet effective story of family and relationships with a slow, yet effective screenplay. Credit to 2D productions (Suriya and Jyothika) for boot-strapping this beautiful narrative with many more stories waiting to be unearthed.

 

 
 
Alternate Ending
As much as I loved the climax, it perhaps fell a little short of the high note that I had expected. A alternative ending could have been Karthi’s character coming over suddenly to Arvind Swami’s house (by getting his address through his means) and them having the emotional climax scene in person and as Arvind Swami’s playfully shares that he knows his dear potato’sactual name, the scene could have cut to Karthi handing over his new born child to Arvind Swami and Arvind Swami whispering the kid’s father’s name as Meiyazhagan (the movie’s title) to the new born child.

Nevertheless, the movie explores themes of nostalgia, self-discovery and takes us down to our memory-lanes of our beautiful childhood and amazing memories with all our cousins and extended families. Hoping to see many more decent, family based movies in times to come.

G.O.A.T

The “Greatest of All time” (GOAT) movie of ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay, hosting a galaxy of stars, was much-awaited as it is his second last movie before he switches on to his political career. The movie directed by Venkat Prabhu is a generic mass masala movie catering to the actor’s fan base and then perhaps a few more. 

Spoilers ahead.

Pros

• Casting for a such a large-canvas movie could be arduous. With Prasanth (reviving his career), Prabhu Deva, Sneha, Laila and with other starry cameos, the movie has placed a safe bet with each actor performing their role precisely.
• The action sequences of the movie are top-notch and keep us entertained for the most part.
• Last, but least, the man himself ‘Thalapathy Vijay’ has given his all in terms of performance and dance capabilities and will be sorely missed when he hangs his acting boots.

Cons

• Venkat Prabhu and Yuvan Shankar Raja have given us multiple songs and BGMs to rave about, but this movie unfortunately drew a blank. The songs and the BGM (literally blaring) was well below par. 
• LOGIC. Logic has no place in Indian’s mass masala movies, but this was taken to the extreme in this movie. An intelligence officer’s son is kidnapped (actually Vijay’s charatcer could have very well taken his son along to fill up the form) and there are no repercussions for it. Strange and hard to believe.
• STORY. Hollywood scripts are to be copied and/or inspired from. But this movie’s inspiration from Gemini Men/Departed/Sniper-Train is taken too far and requires course correction at least in the next part. I believe the director first script for this movie revolved around a time travel wherein Vijay’s character uses time travel to revisit the crime scene again and again to find out what happened to his missing son and eventually retrieve him, but was modified as another father-son time travel movie stole the show recently.
• VFX. Fell short of expectations, could have been better.

 

Coming on the back of a critically and commercially movie like ‘Manadu’, director Venkat Prabhu’s effort seemed not to be that GOAT. Hopefully it will be course corrected in the sequel and hope the entire movie crew put in more effort the next time around to send-off Vijay’s acting career on a happy note.

KALKI – 2898 AD!!

Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata

Abhythanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham

 

"Whenever there is a decline in righteousness and an increase in unrighteousness, at that time I manifest myself."

 

Lord Krishna’s words in the midst of a searing battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas forms the core story of Nag Ashwin’s most ambitious movie of this year. Starring a host of stars – Amitabh Bachan, Kamal Hasan, Prabhas, Deepika, Disha Patani and others, this epic saga offers a great start to the ‘Kalki’ universe. Spoilers ahead.

 

 

 

 

Cons

 

• A lagging first half with nearly a work-from-home Prabhas fail to pull us through the initial boredom. However, it is adequately compensated by a visually compelling second half with a great pre-interval and a fantastic climax.
• Usage of all the sci-fi Hollywood movies in post-apocalyptic and chase sequences might be borderline plagiarism, but fit decently into the storyline.
• Kamal Hasan’s character was obnoxiously different, and an extended role-play in second set of the movie series would provide justice to his great talent.

 

Pros

 

• Fantastically believable VFX seamlessly fit into the cinematic marvel with re-created scenes from the Mahabharata war and the detailed fight sequence between Amitabh and Prabhas quite the highlight.
• Amitabh Bachan as the legendary Ashwatthama is the new version of ‘angry’ old man and exudes absolute brilliance in each and every frame.
• Deepika emerging from the fireball (like Kunti) and with several vulnerable portions has given us an underdog to root for.
• Surprising Santosh Narayanan’s BGMs create the most memorable goosebumps as the shrill pitch reverberated around us, even defying the poorly constructed audio in the theatre.

 

Last but not least, the fantastic direction of Nag Ashwin, who has transcended the boundaries of conventional story-telling, defying odds to deliver a good start to this cinematic universe. If you are interested in mythical Indian tales and its futuristic extensions or want a visual treat on the big screen, then this is definitely a must watch movie.

History Loading…WCT20!!

Irrespective of the outcome of today’s India vs England match, this T20 World Cup, hosted by USA and Caribbean, has been quite a ground-breaker with the first ever appearance of South Africa in a finals of a ICC tournament. As many as 20 teams participated in this grand tournament, with many exciting last-ball thrillers.

Highlights

USA Vs Pakistan – Nobody can rule out the decline of Pakistan team, but for them to lose out to USA in a super-over finish was disappointing even by their standards. USA moving onto the Super 8’s from league matches (beating Canda enroute) augurs great for themselves and associate members of world cricket as well.

Papau New Guinea Vs Uganda – One of the lesser know and followed matched between two relatively new comers provided us with a thriller with Uganda scrapping through, their first win on a world stage.

England Vs Oman – One of the shortest matches this World Cup, which England won in 19 balls, ran them through to super 8’s. In the process, they eliminated Scotland, which had nearly gone through to the next round breaking their hearts and souls.

Srilanka and New Zealand – With both these teams not at their best, they were still expected to move on to the next phase of the tournament. However, a Bangladesh and Afghanistan played better to pip them out, with AFG team bettering Bangladesh team to reach Semis.

India Vs Pakistan – Last but not least, our own cricketing behemoths clashed out in New York’s Long Island (Eisenhower Park) stadium to a packed audience, providing ample goosebump moments in a rain delayed match.

My friend’s and I were lucky to witness an interesting South Africa Vs Netherlands match in NY, with the Dutch running the Afrikaans pretty close. With quite a profitable New York stadium round of matches, there is a great possibility of international matches being held again in Long Island.

 

With cricket’s ever expanding reach (part of Los Angeles 2028 Olympics), I hope today’s match with the next one captures USA’s and World’s attention and help cricket grow to its full potential.

Flashback Series - Kandukondain Kandukondain!!

There are always some movies that are our absolute favorites and then there are some that when we re-watch it, we learn/recollect some important life lessons. ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’ (roughly based on ‘Sense and Sensibility’ novel) is the best of both worlds and is an absolute must watch.

Highlights

• AR Rahman’s soothing music fills into each and every frame of the movie starting from jasmine flowered introduction cards to the beautiful end credits extending into all the songs.
• Lyrics by Vairamuthu are pearls strung from beautiful words.
• Cinematography by Ravi K. Chandran is quite exquisite, with wonders of ancient Egypt, castles of Scotland and paddy fields of Karaikudi showcased beautifully.

 

 

Actors

• Mammootty is at his absolute best performing each and every scene with grace and with fantastic expressions. His dialogues about the tragedies in his life to falling in love with Aishwarya Rai’s character is quite heart touching.
• Before he moved on to formulaic movies, Ajith’s character play is perhaps one of his best, taking us on a trip down the hardships of a newbie trying to make his place in the movie world.
• Tabu absolutely has lived her character in the movie. Starting off as a person who accepts destiny's role in guiding her life to the person who makes her own destiny, is quite a contrast to her younger sister’s character played by Aishwarya Rai.
• Movie ‘Jeans’ and this movie has quite defined Aishwarya Rai's early movie career. She has portrayed her fiery character with absolute conviction, with a fitting finale wherein she understands the ‘true’ meaning of love.
• Mannivannan, Srividya, Raghuvaran, Abbas have given their best with even guest appearances of Dino Morea and Pooja Batra making a strong impression.

 

With recent movies not making an impact on critics or us, I hope that we are able to watch a re-release of this Rajiv Menon’s best directorial to rekindle our fond childhood memories. ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’, as they say, is not just a movie, but an emotion, which takes on a roller-coaster ride called “Life”.

Manjummel Boys – Cliffhanger!!

There are movies that entertain you and then there are movies that take you for an experience of a lifetime. ‘ManjummelBoys’ written and directed by Chidambaram falls in the later category as it explores the perilous mission of a group of friends to rescue their buddy in the dangerous Guna caves in Kodaikannal in Tamilnadu.

Spoliers ahead.

 

Highlights

• Extraordinary sound design and background music by Sushin Shyam takes you right into the middle of action in this edge of seat thriller.

• Fantastic cinematography by Shyju Khalid literally makes you wonder how some of the scenes were shot through especially in the second half of the movie.

• Amazing crew of actors along with show stealer ‘Soubin Shahir’ have effortlessly fit into each of their roles of ‘Manjummel Boys’. Their various emotions shine through in the various frames of the movie. Incidentally Soubin Shahir has also acted in one of my favorites as well – “Ela Veezha Poonchira”.

• Phenomenal usage of ‘Kanmani Anbodu’ song (originally from ‘Guna’ movie) reference in the movie. The final part pf the rescue effort synching up with the beautiful lyrics provides ample goosebump moments.

• Finally a absolute hats-off to master writer and director ‘Chidambaram’, who has beautifully woven a cliffhanger and brought life to an amazing untold story. The sudden trauma induced chokeof crevice fallen person on his rescuer and the rescuer sniffing on lemon to alleviate the smell of the rock crevice are beautiful hidden gems in the  director’s writing and screenplay effort. Sincerely hope that he can replicate this effort in many more movies to come.

 

Right from ‘Roja’ exploring the Kashmir issue through a family drama to ‘Enthiran’ being the first pan India movie, Tamil movies were once considered the gold standard of South Indian movies. Telugu movies with Bahubali, Kannada with KGF series and Malayalam with Dhrishyam and other fantastic movies have pulled far ahead. It is time for some serious introspection for Tamil movie industry with at least the roles of ‘story and screenplay writers’  be given their due importance.

Nevertheless, a standing ovation is due for the original ‘Manjummel Boys’ who put their life on the line to save their best friend. I have been quite lucky to be a part of our own ‘EagleRock Boys’ group and have had some wonderful memories . Do let me know in the comments about this must watch movie and about the friendship groups that you have been part of in your life.