Get Smart

Well it’s been a while since I have reviewed a film. I thought of reviewing both Dasavatharam and Taare Zameen par (the former due to mental compulsion and the latter due to inspiration) but indolence took the better of me, as usual. But never I thought I would bounce back my reviewing with an English film and that too a less hyped and talked about one.

Yes Iam talking about the hilarious, laugh out loud flicks “Get Smart”. Well I don’t know about you all, but Iam a great admirer of Steve Carell. The suave looking actor impressed me a lot in his small but extremely comical role as Evan Baxter in “Bruce Almighty”. He has got this unique skill of maintaining a straight and serious face while delivering the most funniest lines that would make your stomach ache with laughter and roll on the floor and this was exactly what we were doing the full two hours (a little bit of exaggeration as you obviously cant roll over the floor in a theatre… but that’s the effect of the film). I was really surprised to find out from Sudhish Kamath’s review that he’s one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. I really hope he gets more fame and popularity through this film.

The plot is simple. It’s about a secret agent association, CONTROL, which aims to foil the evil plans of a terror group called KAOS who plan a mass destruction via a radioactive nuclear explosion. First Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is introduced as an analyst in the department who makes full fledged and comprehensive reports on terror groups. But he deeply aspires to become a field agent along with his close friend Agent 23(The Rock). When the headquarters is attacked and the identities of its members revealed, The Chief (played by Academy Award winner Alan Arkin) appoints a new team and exalts Max to the most coveted post of field agent. He gets an added blessing of getting the aid of skilled super sexy Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). How they work together to stop the evil forces of KAOS forms the rest of the story.

The next actor to be mentioned is The Rock. A huge cheer erupted as he made his entry and the cheer slowly burst into laughter with the comic scene that followed next. He’s got enormous style and charisma and his body language is simply awesome. He is one of the few actors in Hollywood who can do both action and comic roles with aplomb. The next one is Anne Hathaway. She plays Agent 99 and my temperature reached that number whenever she was on screen (figurative speech employed). Apart from physical beauty, the actress has played her part well. All her action scenes have been choreographed well and her expertise mingled with Smart’s inexperience provide a lot of hilarious moment. And there are also lots of double entendres to boost the humor quotient. Another thing worth noting is the mockery of the American President in almost all the films in which he is a character. Even in our own Dasavatharam, Kamal made a perfect yet hilarious imitation of Bush and in this movie Bush is shown as a complete goof (which is also true in real life as in the reel).

I hope that this review has been compelling enough to make you grab a ticket for the film and even if it hasn’t please do not miss this wonderfully crafted comic caper.

A tiring day

Whoa! It’s been a real tough day. Never had I done so much driving in a single day. Not that I’m fed up of driving, it’s one of the activities I deeply adore but it transforms into a living hell when are you are caught up in heavy traffic while doing it and it’s very rare that I get caught in it more than once. But today was something exceptional and I was a victim to heavy traffic as much as 4 times in different parts of the city.

The journey started at around 2 pm when I left home for college to get some no due sign from our staff. Our psychotic dept had decided to torture us for the last tome in their life with these no dues, signatures and such crap and I must say they are really successful in it. Anyway none of the staff were present today and my trip to the college turned futile (as usual). I spotted only our FA (Faculty Advisor, but I have a better expansion for it. Contact me if you wanna know) but decided it wise not to meet her. A couple of days earlier, I approached her for the same no due work and she bluffed about one of the three laptops (were there really three? I seriously thought there was only one!!!) Getting lost and we students were responsible for it. Let me inform you ma’m that the last thing a sane, I again quote “sane” student would do, is to steal something from the dept (I really can’t see anything worth stealing in the dept anyway) and that too a laptop. It is a well known fact through out MIT and possibly chromepet( if you had a chopper view of chromepet, the college along with the railway station seemed to cover the entire area with houses and shops sprinkled here and there) that the systems in the elex dept contains more viruses than useful information. So anyone in his senses would never even dream of purloining a laptop brimming with viruses.

I met up with Kumar and we left to sathyam cinemas to see Indiana Jones part-4. We had a nice chat along the way. We discussed about Dasavatharam music, some college gossip (This is one bad habit I would like to avoid) and about directorial skills of Selvaraghavan, Gowtham, M.Night Shyamalan and Spielberg. The movie was an exciting ride from start to finish. The only other Spielberg film I saw in theatres was “war of the worlds” and it was total crap. He lived up to my expectations this time and I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

After the film I and Kumar headed to Burma bazaar. I had to exchange a wrongly given DVD the other day with the film I needed and Kumar was to catch the train to chromepet at beach. On the way there was heavy traffic at triplicane, not caused by vehicles, but by pedestrians. The roads there are narrow and these people simply crowd along the roads turning a nelson’s eye to the vehicles. On a particular junction I had to tae a left but a biker was blocking my way. I honked as hard as possible but he didn’t seem to respond. Only when the auto-driver behind me bestowed him with the title of “son of a buffalo” did he move. After asking for directions we reached Burma bazaar at around 6-45. While we were searching for the shop, we were accosted by a shop keeper who was bent on persuading us to buy something. The modus operandi employed by these persons is simply amazing

He approaches us as if he is the noblest person in the entire universe.
The guy- “Hello?" Do u like any DVDs?”
Me-“No we actually came to return a DVD”
Him-“Can I have a look at it?”
ME- “No we are in a hurry; we just have to exchange it”
Kumar-“Yes, we already called up that guy to tell that we want to exchange this with the film we needed”

But the guy was adamant and he jus took the DVD I was loosely holding, opened it and examined it (as if he was the genius who invented these things and could spot a flaw just by seeing it). This act of his deeply incensed me.

Me (a bit angrily)-“jus give us the DVD, we are here jus to return it and get the money back if the film we ask for isn there”
Him (acting as if he was smart) - “Sir, even if you want to lie, try to tell a lie that is believable”

Me-“Ok ok”

Later to Kumar- “Yeah, as if the govt is gonna award me for lying to a jerk off like him”

The guy’s ulterior motive was to make a few bucks out of us so that he could have booze or even more probably to get laid with a prostitute. But I made it a point not to buy anything from him and I didn’t. In the end, we reached the shop and exchanged the DVD. But fate had some other thing in store with which I will mention at the end of this blog.
On my way back home, I was caught in heavy traffic in RK Salai, Kodambakkam Bridge and Valluvarkottam junction. Only when you want to reach home early and take a rest, do these things happen. In RK salai, the traffic is generally smooth, but it seems there was a wedding reception at a marriage hall located near the main road and this had disrupted the flow of traffic. While passing I spotted policemen and traffic personnel. Seems some bigshot in the city was getting married or getting his son or daughter or even his wife married.
Reaching home, I fell with a heavy thud on the bed. Having rest for a few minutes, I had dinner and checked the DVD. And Guess what happened? The guy had given me the wrong DVD again. Along with the DVD he gave me his visiting card as if he was of Ambani mould. But it came in handy as I called him up and gave him a good blasting( And you very well know how good I am when it comes to blasting). He told he would call again but didn’t and I too by that time had become too tired to do anything.

So with a huge hope that the next day wouldn’t be as bad as this one, I shut my eyes and fell asleep.

Chak De India

Keeping the fire of independence and patriotism in mind, Bollywood has made its best presentation of 2007 “Chak De India”. With virtually no hits in the first half of the year Bollywood has been in the doldrums. But “chak De” has turned the tables and has brought sunshine to the land of Bollywood. It has also put the Yash Raj banner back on track as both of its earlier movies namely “Tara rum pum” and “jhoom barabar jhoom” had turned out to be damp squibs at the BO.

“Chak de” tells the story of Kabeer Khan (Shahrukh Khan), a determined coach, who would leave no stone unturned in making the woman’s national hockey team win the world cup. The film starts with the final hockey match between India and Pakistan in which Kabeer leads the Indian side. Kabeer misses out in the penalty shootout due to which India loose. And what happens? Naturally he gets blamed for the loss and the media blows the incident out of proportion (which it always does) by further demeaning him and alleging him of match fixing and false connections with the Pakistani side. Kabeer’s career is now doomed and he gets ostracized even by his friends and neighbors. Seven years later you see a bearded Kabeer (Shahrukh looks cool in this get up) waiting outside the Indian hockey association pleading to be the coach of the National women’s hockey team. The association members, over tea and samosas, speak very low of women entering sports, but accept his offer, though unwillingly.

This is just the beginning. What Kabeer gets is a motley group of girls, each prominent players of their own regions, with different backgrounds. At the beginning it looked as if it were an impossible task with ego clashes and frequent quarrels (Where you have women these things are bound to happen) taking the lead. But slowly and gradually the girls get to understand each other and the spirit of sportsmanship developing among them is showcased well. Especially the short tempered Punjabi putar, Balbir, and the short, yet agile Komal and her clashes with Preeti can never be forgotten. How Kabeer finally manages to win the world cup for the team forms the remaining part of the story.

Shahrukh excels as Kabeer Khan. You can mark a sharp contrast between the dejected captain Kabeer and the determined coach Kabeer. The talk he gives to the girls before their final match is mind blowing and showcases his immaculate dialogue delivery and the dialogues have been well penned keeping this ability of Shahrukh in mind. All the credit goes to the director, Shimit Amin, who also makes his debut with this film. Another highlight is that the girls have been selected not based on their looks but to the extent to which their looks and appearances suit the character. There is no unnecessary glamour (which is so common in Hindi and Tamil movies as well) and unwanted item numbers. The music and the tracks move in pace with the film and there isn’t a moment in the movie that makes you feel bored.

So “Chak de” is the movie for all you people to see this weekend. Just “chak de” your seat belts and enjoy “chak de”

There’s another incident I can’t forget. Though it’s not a part of the film, my hands are itching to mention it. There’s this guy named Sriram in our class and we guys shout his name in the class for anything and everything without any reason. So there was a scene in the film in which the samosa eating fatso of the association asks “Kaun Banega is team ka coach” and we all shouted “SRIRAM!” together. No matter how many times we did this in class, this one at the theatre can never be forgotten.

Mozhi

The tests were to start next week and all of us were to face a complete ass busting 7 days of study, taking Xerox and burning the midnight oil. No wonder how the word “asses”ments originated as a synonym for these tests. If I had to see a newly released movie, I needed to do it that weekend itself.

So there I was at sathyam cinemas with my mom and cousin at 10 pm. We were going to watch the movie “Mozhi”. What impelled me to watch “mozhi” was the presence of Prakash Raj and Prithvi plus I heard it is Jo’s last movie. She would feel bad if I didn’t say goodbye to her (can’t do it personally of course). So there I was amidst several commitments. Ok now iam going to write the review of this movie, keeping in sync with my blog’s name.

“Mozhi” marks the comeback of director Radhamohan after the mediocre “Ponniyin Selvan”. A good movie is that which keeps you engrossed during its entire duration. Mozhi has got the entire characteristics of not a good, but great movie. The very first scene where Karthik(Prithvi) and Vijaykumar alias Viji(Prakashraj), both sound recordists in the field of cinema, make a parody of the cliché sequences in Tamil cinema in which a boy meets a girl and love starts to blossom, is catchy.

Enter Archana (Jothika) who is both deaf and dumb. It is love at first sight when Karthik sees her beating up a drunkard for attacking his wife. He gets bowled over by her courage and decides to marry her. He then gradually comes to know of her physical defects but this does not lessen his love for her. He learns about her and how she communicates with others through her friend Sheela (Swarnamalya) but in the end Archana spurns his love. She thinks that no ordinary person can enter her world of suffering. Does she accepts him or not forms the rest of the story.

Jo excels as the deaf and dumb Archana. Many might not agree to this but I think it’s her best role so far and this is due to her simple portrayal of the character. She looks extremely ravishing in the purple dress in the first song. Prithvi has got all the characteristics of making it big in tinsel town. He is able to create an impression even with a veteran like Prakash Raj constantly sharing the screen space with him. His deft selection of characters (be it the love struck Karthik or the evil businessman in “Kana Kanden”) itself shows his profound desire to carve a niche for himself in South Indian movies. What can I say of Prakash Raj. In a nutshell I think that he is the most versatile actor next to Sivaji and Kamal. I have never seen him in such a light and comical role before and the way he does it with panache truly amazes me. Swarnamalya, far from being irritating (as in Kalaka povuthu yaaru), adds more sheen to the proceedings.

The biggest achievement of Radhamohan is that each of his characters has the equal amount of significance. No one dominates the other. Even the other smaller characters, like the deluded professor who stills dwells in the year 1984, the fussy secretary, his wife, Archana’s grandmother, have been brought out well. Music too goes along with the film. The best is the mellifluous “Kaatril” which you can go on hearing for ages.

So guys if any one of you plans to watch this movie please do inform me as iam game for a second time.

Mozhi

The tests were to start next week and all of us were to face a complete ass busting 7 days of study, taking Xerox and burning the midnight oil. No wonder how the word “asses”ments originated as a synonym for these tests. If I had to see a newly released movie, I needed to do it that weekend itself.

So there I was at sathyam cinemas with my mom and cousin at 10 pm. We were going to watch the movie “Mozhi”. What impelled me to watch “mozhi” was the presence of Prakash Raj and Prithvi plus I heard it is Jo’s last movie. She would feel bad if I didn’t say goodbye to her (can’t do it personally of course). So there I was amidst several commitments. Ok now iam going to write the review of this movie, keeping in sync with my blog’s name.

“Mozhi” marks the comeback of director Radhamohan after the mediocre “Ponniyin Selvan”. A good movie is that which keeps you engrossed during its entire duration. Mozhi has got the entire characteristics of not a good, but great movie. The very first scene where Karthik(Prithvi) and Vijaykumar alias Viji(Prakashraj), both sound recordists in the field of cinema, make a parody of the cliché sequences in Tamil cinema in which a boy meets a girl and love starts to blossom, is catchy.

Enter Archana (Jothika) who is both deaf and dumb. It is love at first sight when Karthik sees her beating up a drunkard for attacking his wife. He gets bowled over by her courage and decides to marry her. He then gradually comes to know of her physical defects but this does not lessen his love for her. He learns about her and how she communicates with others through her friend Sheela (Swarnamalya) but in the end Archana spurns his love. She thinks that no ordinary person can enter her world of suffering. Does she accepts him or not forms the rest of the story.

Jo excels as the deaf and dumb Archana. Many might not agree to this but I think it’s her best role so far and this is due to her simple portrayal of the character. She looks extremely ravishing in the purple dress in the first song. Prithvi has got all the characteristics of making it big in tinsel town. He is able to create an impression even with a veteran like Prakash Raj constantly sharing the screen space with him. His deft selection of characters (be it the love struck Karthik or the evil businessman in “Kana Kanden”) itself shows his profound desire to carve a niche for himself in South Indian movies. What can I say of Prakash Raj. In a nutshell I think that he is the most versatile actor next to Sivaji and Kamal. I have never seen him in such a light and comical role before and the way he does it with panache truly amazes me. Swarnamalya, far from being irritating (as in Kalaka povuthu yaaru), adds more sheen to the proceedings.

The biggest achievement of Radhamohan is that each of his characters has the equal amount of significance. No one dominates the other. Even the other smaller characters, like the deluded professor, the fussy secretary, his wife, Archana’s grandmother, have been brought out well. Music too goes along with the film. The best is the mellifluous “Kaatril” which you can go on hearing for ages.

So guys if any one of you plans to watch this movie please do inform me as iam game for a second time.

some crap part 3

RATING: Left to the discretion of reader.

Wednesday, 9:00 am, MIT, Chennai. No No guys, this is not a script for a gautham menon movie, rather it is a part of my weekday routine. I had already paid the price for expecting too much from a gautham movie .Why is saying all this is that we saw his latest venture PKMC and it has proved to be a highly below average film. Ok I don’t want to be digressive and so let’s get back to where we started.

The first hour starts at 8:30 and there was no hope of making it to the class. You see me going late to class, be it college or GRE, is a normal affair. It would be highly inappropriate if I go early to class and even most of my friends would agree to this. As soon as I set foot inside the campus, the security guard, possibly for the very first time in his entire career, said the words “SMART CARD!” I just drew a blank expression as I was dead sure that I hadn’t brought it. He repeated the two words and it ringed wildly through my ears. I just checked my bag to see if I had brought it by chance and there it was lying innocently at the side of my record. I hastily showed it to him and proceeded towards the class. First of all I will tell you what the “smart card” is. It’s just our college id and there s nothing very smart about it. All you can do is borrow books from the library or buy chocolates, snacks, notebooks and all other crap from a dingy cooperative store in the campus.

What was highly surprising was that our college was suddenly abuzz with heavy activity. There were lots of staff members moving here and there as if the Herculean task of managing the whole world had fallen onto their shoulders. Security was beefed up and I even saw two or three persons moving around with video cameras. One striking feature was that the two huge models of airplanes that stood before the aeronautical dept and that had been abandoned for years possibly decades sported a new and refreshed look. We are having an international conference tomorrow in our college and the honorable President Dr. Abdul Kalama is to preside over the function as the chief guest and this was the chief reason for all the dynamism. There were still 10 minutes for the second hour to start and I went to the canteen to have some coffee. There I spotted “Jodi no 1” DE and CS (Everyone in my class are familiar with these terms) happily chatting. I finished my coffee thinking about this and that and marched off towards the lab. My partner Safeer was absent and I joined Srinath and his team for the next experiment.

Our lab in charge made a swift entry into the lab. It seems that she had divided the whole class into several batches of volunteers and each batch was to be placed under a particular staff. I kept my fingers crossed and hoped it wouldn’t be a psycho for me. But my level of good luck had run down with the ID card matter and all I heard in the end was “Mohan Mukundh to see SP Joy”

“Oh Fuck!” were the only two words that vibrated through my mind at the sound of that deadly name. Here was a female with a name in complete contradiction to the atmosphere she creates inside in the class especially during lab sessions. She taught for three consecutive semesters and was ok with the first two seems. In fact in the 5th sem even she was fine with microprocessors theory class but she made the lab class a living hell and I cannot go into all that. She is famous among us that there is a group named as “Joy no joy” in orkut. I later learned that joy was too taken care of the food department. I felt bloody irritated. I assumed that students taking part in the conference didn’t have to be volunteers which ultimately were not to be. I grew highly elated at not being placed under the staff that had to take care of the toilet dept. I really feel sorry for the staff and students (my good chum Kumar is one of them) who fall under this category. It is always better to serve food than to tell people where to get disposed of the served and eaten food.

Anyway I wish the whole of the college, especially the ECE department, the very best in making this conference a huge success.

some crap part 2

Ah! What a morning, the birds are singing! The sun is shining! And even the castigating tone of the newspaper slandering the Indian Cricket team for their debacle in South Africa seemed sweet to me and the reason that I was so chirpy was that I was going to take the car out that day. You might think what’s there to be so elated about taking a car but iam a driving aficionado. It thrills me to take the drivers seat of my sexy blue colored Maruti Swift, turn on an AR Rehman number on the Sony Xplod system(“paatshaala” would be the best) and hit the road . We were having some stupid medical electronics lab class at about 2pm and we planned that we would start as soon as the 4th hour class was over, fill our stomachs with chettinad cuisine and then whiz along.

So I went and asked my mom if I could take the car out and she declined the offer with a big “NO”. I was devastated. You anticipate something for a long time and when it doesn’t happen you feel irked to the core. At this point I grew highly restless and petulant, kicked at everything I saw, resisted food and went away after slamming the door. I met my friend abhinay at the bus stop. The big problem with me is that if I’m extremely pissed off, I just show it out on anybody in my way .But this is not the case with abhinay. We have known each other for a long time and follow a gentlemanly code of conduct. I have never seen him lose his cool or fret at something so it would be unfair if I were to show my anger on him. We started talking about some of our goofy teachers and used the deadliest of expletives

I entered the college and was geared up to vent my spleen on anybody who makes a mention about the car. I stepped inside the class. Everyone was present. Anand was my first victim. He asked in a jocular tone “Hey man, where did you park the car today?” to which I exploded “What the hell is it to you where I park it you fucking asshole!” He just smiled and went away. This is one of the best qualities of Anand .He never takes anything to his heart. I mean ,he helps me to a great extent be it electronics or GRE , and here I’m rebuking him in the most indecent manner and I can guarantee you that even if I don’t apologize, he would treat me with the same friendliness. When Aravind put forth a question, I just ignored him. Next on the list was Rrk. I could hear Cibi, who was sitting behind me; speaking some frivolous stuff and my heart ached to give him one of my doses. A couple of days back, during the lunch break, he tried to catch the attention of everybody in the class by childishly experimenting with a god damn worm. But he too is a very enterprising character. When you have a bromidic class like networks or microwave circuits, you never know how time flies when you sit with him. During such time, our main topic of discussion would be Hollywood movies and acting legends like Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, De Niro and the list goes on. Kumar probably understood my state of mind and decided it to be wise to keep his mouth shut.

It was 8:40 am right now and no teacher came. Every minute I seemed to be incensed
to a new level. The medical lab staff came and spoke something to our class rep. The rep went to the front, showed his shiny white teeth for about 10 seconds and made an announcement that the lab was only for the first half of the class. What an irony! I fall into the second half and no wonder there was a hidden reason behind me not able to take the car. It’s really amazing what kind of games the one above you can play with you. Anyway we didn’t cancel the plan of going to the hotel and we had a sumptuous treat there. So this is me in my most frustrated form and my parents and many friends have expressed their grievances against it. Each day is a fight against this peevish character of mine and I hope that it dies away one day.

some crap

After racking my brains a lot I had decided that for once I would attend the extra VLSI classes that were being held in our college. My first station was the hostel where I joined with a couple of my friends ‘R’ and ‘H’ (will refer my friends with the first letters of their names rather than first names in order to be ,well, “different”).’A’ was to join us later. It is quite unusual for a person like me to attend extra classes as I never attend the regular classes itself properly. But the problem is that next year I am writing an exam called GRE and it is necessary that I learn something additional to the regular courses(as if I study the regular subjects properly and maintain a good academic record).

We started off towards our department and I was saying to R that I would surely be out of place if a bunch of “pazhams” alias students with a gargantuan appetite for marks were also present there and how right I was . On entering the lab I found the quintessence of a pazham standing near the table and a whole dozen (not bunch) sitting with their eyes glued to the monitors. It turned out that he (person near the table) was our senior and was the one to take the classes. “Oh god help us out!” I cried within myself coz I had seen this guy before when he came to give us some tips on campus interview. He is a very helpful guy, mind you, has got lots of concern for his juniors, and has got a job in IBM which is a dream for many of the students, excluding me, in our stream. But the problem is that he and many of the other students are MIT (that’s our college name) chauvinists. For heavens sake guys our MIT doesn’t stand for Massachusetts Institute of technology you all know what it stands for. Now, back to the lab. I took a seat and started staring into the monitor screen. It seems that we had to work with some software called “Verilog”.

“Oh no not programming again.” I said to myself. I hate programming I don’t know why .You might think that then why the hell this fellow took electronics, which is centered on programming, but there it is. During my course selection period, there was a huge electronic wave and all students were shouting “Hail electronics!” and I unfortunately
was one of them Ok past is past and now back to the present.

R and H started working and I was a mute spectator. A strange feeling inside me said that “Enough is enough and get the fuck out of this college during the lunch break” to which I replied “Shut up! It’s only been 10 minutes since I came here” to which it backfired that “those 10 minutes are a hell lot of time”. The battle went on for sometime ending with my emotions emerging as the winner. So it was decided that I get out during lunch.

A made his entry into the lab. “The lazy ass. See at what time he’s coming” I retorted as it was already half an hour late. A is one of the few guys to whom I confide my worries. He is on the same lines as I am (I hope so) but miles ahead of me in academics. I told him my plans and all he did was smother a smile. He knew me well enough. A few days later another one of my friends told me that he was dead sure that I would attend only one class. Anyways, the senior called us to explain something. Some goof made a stupid gesture I didn’t notice and the room started to burst with laughter. He started to tell some jargon laden stuff and the urge to make an exit grew stronger every minute. It was already 11-00 by now and the remaining one hour was spent “usefully” by chatting with A and thinking about my stinking engineering life and about my future.

On my way back, a train of thoughts ran through my mind:
“Have two years been useful?”
“Will the remaining two years be useful?”
“What have I learnt and what will I learn?”
“Where the hell would I land up after finishing college?”
“Wherever I land up, will it have any value for my engineering life?”

Sometimes I feel when these 4 years of engineering would be over. At such times I get relief through the words of one of my friends “Mr.C.” During the beginning of 5th semester he said “Two fucking years are over and we have to keep our mouth shut and spend the remaining two years” and now I am glad that it has reduced to one and a half years.