Lonely Mountain Dragon!!

Being invited for my daughter’s mystery reader at her school, I finally decided to pen one of our favorite and often repeated bed time story to paper.

Hope you have as much joy reading this simple story of a dragon and a village boy who went up against it.

Happy reading!!

                 Lonely Mountain Dragon

 

Long long time ago, there was a village named Deddarville, situated at the edge of a lonely mountain, which was so tall that its peak was mostly engulfed in snow. 

 

The villagers of the beautiful village conducted a yearly ‘Festival of Lights’ to celebrate the summer harvest. But as with every year, they had one big problem. There was a big dragon who was named Aragon, who lived in the lonely mountain and disturbed their festival every year by burning down their decorations. 

 

To put an end to this, all the people assembled in the village council hall. The leaders of the high committee asked them as to who would be interested to go up the lonely mountain and defeat the dragon. A young orphan boy named Cupertino raised his hands for the big task. The villagers loaded a big basket of bread and fruits and gave Cupertino a long spear for his impossible task.

 

Cupertino bid farewell to the villagers, climbed up the lonely mountain and to the top, came to a big cave hosting the dragon. He lit up a fire and ventured cautiously into the cave. He could not see the dragon anywhere. However, his eyes followed a magical light coming from the corner of the cave. He followed the light and came upon something very precious: the dragon’s eggs.

 

Cupertino quickly took the eggs in his food basket, ran out of the cave and walked back to the village. In the village, even though he felt guilty about stealing the eggs, Cupertino lied to everyone that he had defeated the dragon by showing the dragon’s eggs as proof. The villagers were very happy and started celebrating.

 

After a few days, the eggs hatched and two young dragons, who came out from the eggs, started playing with Cupertino and the kids in the village. The king of the North who had heard of this amazing story sent some soldiers to bring Cupertino and his dragon to his court.

 

Cupertino travelled with the soldiers and reached the king’s court. The king saw the beautiful little dragons and asked Cupertino whether he could gift them to his young prince. Cupertino however refused to part with the young dragons and the king ordered his soldiers to arrest Cupertino. 

 

The king asked his men to forcibly chain the young dragons. Suddenly, there was a big roar and with the huge fire, the big dragon, Aragon broke into the King’s court and perched on the palace roof. 

 

The king ordered his men to shoot arrows at the mother Dragon. Aragon spit fire at the whole palace destroying everybody. Aragon then freed his baby dragon as well as Cupertino and carried both of them in its claws and started flying.

 

In the journey, Cupertino begged for mercy and said he was very sorry for stealing the Dragon’s eggs and started crying. Aragon looking at poor Cupertino, forgave his mistake and took his back to his village.

 

At his village, Aragon gently put Cupertino back onto the ground and then flew back up to the lonely mountain with its two babies. The villagers were very happy that Aragon had brought Cupertino back to the village safely and started rejoicing and started making decorations for their yearly ‘Festival of Lights’.

Thug “Too Much” Life!!

The latest Mani Ratnam’s directorial ‘Thug Life’ hosts a galaxy of stars – Kamal Hasan, Simbu, Trisha and many other notable actors. It is a very simple straightforward story of revenge and family drama woven in a less than engaging movie.

Spoilers Ahead!!

Highlights

• Music by AR Rahman was quite a highlight with Chingucha and Sugar Baby songs ruling the airwaves in the last few days. Muthu Mazhai song, which opened to rave reviews, unfortunately, did not figure in the movie.
• Cinematography by Ravi K. Chandran was crisp and provided a few amazing shots in the first few minutes of the movie.
• Supporting cast of Abirami, Aiswarya Lekshmi, Joju George, Naser and many others have done their work appreciably.
• De-aged Kamal looked to have come in straight from the Nayagan movie.

 

 

The Trouble?

The first half of the movie set up the platform beautifully for the story to be taken to the next stage. Unfortunately the 2^nd half of the film was an absolute disappointment like most other Tamil movies that have released recently. With a paper thin story, a complex screenplay with a whodunit thriller would have saved this movie. Instead we get repeated fights (with amazing ARR BGM), senseless drama sequences and Kamal Hasan appearing in every other scene in the movie (with the get up of Shingen Narahashi from Dasavathaaram movie).

Alternate Scenarios

• The simple revenge story between Kamal-Simbu could have been converted with the gang breaking up into two factions, fighting it out and rejoining at the end to take out a common enemy.
• When Kamal suspects Simbu, Simbu’s character could have got murdered, with Kamal going after his killers in a whodunit thriller, with Trisha emerging to be a suspect.
• Simbu’s father could have been shown to be a police informant and Simbu who was after revenge could have been shown to be remorseful, but his sister not so much, with her finishing off Kamal in the final scene.

If one has enough patience and a lot of money to burn, the movie is a one-time theatre visit. 

DragOn – Righteously Entertaining!!

In 90s and 2000s decade, there were many actors who rose up the ranks to become stars in Tamil movie industry. Unfortunately, the last decade and half, we only have a couple who have made it through. But this decade has seen the rise of a new star, Pradeep Ranganathan, who with ‘Comali’ as a director and ‘Love Today’ and this movie ‘Dragon’ (as an actor) has made a mark with entertaining movies which also leaves you with a non-preachy message that is very relevant to the current society and the times we live in.

Highlights

• Leading ladies, Anupama Parameswaran and Kayadu Lohar have done quite a good job in their respective roles and add value to their onscreen persona.

• Supporting director-actors GVM and Mysskin add depth to their roles while Youtubers VJ Siddhu and Harshath Khan provide us with necessary laughs and light-hearted moments.

• Editing by Pradeep E. Ragav is crisp and to the point. Niketh Bommireddy lenses convey the story with the highlight being ‘Vazhithunaiye’ song shot across Europe.

• Music Director Leon James gives us a beautiful melody ‘Vazhithunaiye’ in eternal Sid Sriram’s voice.

• Story and screenplay is precise and on-point and all kudos to director Ashwath Marimuthu. His cameo in the movie moves the story forward.

• But the star of the show is undoubtedly, Pradeep Ranganathan. Showcasing amazingly versatility in voice and body modulation, he single handedly carries the movie on his brittle shoulders. 

 
     
 
 
After ‘Oh My Kadavule’, director Ashwath Marimuthu has hit the jackpot with a unique but relevant story with a very appropriate message. Expecting another collaboration with this actor-director combination. If you have a couple of hours for a breezy movie, Dragon is the one for you. Lookout for the surprise in the movie’s climax.

Sookshmadarshini– Intriguing!!

Just when you feel that you have seen/heard as many crime thriller stories as you can, you come across a movie recommendation that makes your day/week after watching it. Nazriya starrer ‘Sookshmadarshini’, directed by M. C. Jithin falls in that league.

Spoilers Ahead!!

Highlights

• The cinematography by ‘Sharan Velayudhan Nair’ crisply captures the essence of a community of close-nit families beautifully and then moves up the pace using sharp angles towards the climax.

• Music by Christo Xavier keeps you on the edge as the movie picks up pace in the second half.

• Direction by M. C. Jithin is top-notch with a meticulously crafted storyline and tightly knit suspense.

• Amazing performances by all the supporting characters including Nazriya’s friends played by Akhila Bhargavan (Sulu)and Pooja Mohanraj (Asma).

• Basil Joseph as the antagonist plays his character to the hilt, transitioning seamlessly from the next-door neighbor to the scheming villain.

• However, the icing on the cake is Nazriya, who portrays each and every emotion effortlessly including a heart-racing climax and does not look a day older than Raja Rani movie, which was released nearly a decade ago. 

 

Malayalam movies take some time to get started. This movie falls within that category and if you are ready to spend some time soaking in the canvas that the director brilliantly sets up, you are in for an amazing ride. Do look out the twist in the climax, aptly helmed by Manohari Joy, who plays antagonist’smother. Kudos to the entire team and sincerely hope to see moresuch off-beat thrillers in Tamil as well.

Cruise Diaries!!

When the winters are dark and deep, it is perhaps pertinent to look at our joyous events/adventures of our past to light the glimmer of hope: a Harry Potterisque trip down the memory lane. Movies like ‘Cast Away’ and ‘Life of PI’ have ingrained a deep sense fear of the ocean, but I was pleasantly surprised to experience quite the opposite in our family vacation on our MSC cruise which carousel ’ed us from New York to Bahamas and back in a week over the Thanks Giving week.

 

 

The Journey!!

Day 1: Adventure Begins

We woke up quite early to drive down to Brooklyn for our 9:30 AM check-in even though the ship was set to leave at 3 PM. After quite a smooth check-in process and lengthy walk, we settled in on the best food that our ship had to offer, a multiplecuisine (all you can eat at anytime) type of buffet on Deck 15, which we frequented countless times. The ship made a memorable pass under the Brooklyn bridge as we spent the rest of the day exploring the various activities the ship had to offer.

 

Day 2: Adventure Continues

The made-to-order omlette station (courtesy ever-smiling Mohit) greeted us with sumptuous breakfast to wake us up coupled with amazing cappuccino/ hot chocolate. The day meandered through exploring the various activities, indoor swimming pool, hot sauna, kids play area, lounge area to hang out, all quipped gym and a late night dance party as the weather mellowed during the later part of the day as we crossed the maritime waters over North/South Carolina.

 

Day 3: LandFall

After nearly 2 days at sea, the ship made landfall at the beautiful port of Cape Canaveral, the hometown of erstwhile NASA space launches. As much as we want to explore the amazing NASA center, due to lack of time we head out to a nearby beautiful beach and the balmy waters welcomed us warmly. However, we missed watching the test flight of one of Space X rocket flights as it got postponed.

 

Day 4: Nassau Bahamas

As our ship docked precisely in the shallow waters of the port of Bahamas along with other massive cruises, it reminded of our own Central Train Station, which housed the trains in the various platforms. Some of our families grouped into a memorable outing to the places below.

Waterfall at Queen’s staircase

Rum cake factory

Chocolate factory with Rainbow umbrellas.

Bahamar hotel

Atlantis hotel (housing with a humongous basement aquarium) and fire on water show.

 

Day 5: Ocean Cay

On our last day to land, we visited the most beautiful private island of Ocean Cay, specifically designed for MSC cruise passengers, with the ship rotating nearly 360 degrees to land up most accurately on the port. We head out to the most popular Bimini beach, with most of the day either floating and/or swimming in the shallow waters of the beach including a short canoe ride. With our hearts still firmly planted on the beach, we were ordered to return to the ship earlier than usual due to a medical emergency, missing out a lighting show at the light house.

 

Day 6 & 7: Back to Home

We set sail back to our homeland, en route Miami, dropping off the injured passenger. Explored more activities in the ship including the ‘Himalayan Bridge’ which was a rope course across the windy back side of the ship. Consuming countless Mojitos, early morning health drinks, Deck 15 buffet and amazing Deck 6 dinners, we landed a week later, safe and sound.

This trip would not half as enjoyable without all our ten friends and family. Looking forward to many such adventures and experiences in future.