Am not a stranger to watching Tamil movies. Ages ago, I had sat through some very terrible movies - which I neither could understand a word of nor recognize the faces on screen. In fact, I couldn’t even pronounce the name of the movie! (Kandu-something!). But over the years I have watched their re-made counterparts in Hindi and Telugu and had wanted to watch their original version just to get a comparative perspective. I even started listening to Tamil songs (only those which were already popular in their dubbed versions) - mostly by Ilaiyaraja and A R Rahman. And a few months ago, I did watch in its entirety, my first Tamil movie - Autograph.
And today, I have doubled the count by watching the acclaimed Kaakha Kaakha. Starring Suriya, Jothika and Jeevan, its the original of the Venkatesh, Asin starrer Telugu flick Gharshana. I had liked the grittiness and raw action of Gharshana and had always wanted to watch its original. Thanks to Mr. SD, I could realize that wish now. First impressions were that of how Gharshana is a frame-by-frame remake of Kaakha Kaakha! But of course it would be, coming from the same director. I could understand little of the dialogues but the English subtitles did help a lot. And so did the fact that I almost know the entire dialogues of Gharshana by rote! As the movie concluded, I was surprised. For the ending was quite different from what was in the Telugu version. The heroine is shown as good as dead in the Tamil version but is shown alive and well in its remake. I guess that goes to show how influencing the audience-receptive-factor is. Telugu people would like a happy ending more than a sad one! IMO, Venkatesh did a better job in the Telugu version and Jothika was better in the Tamil version. Wish they’d have done this together. Also, the bad guy was moreso badder in the Telugu version. Truly menacing he was. Songs are the same in both, at least the tunes are…but I’d prefer the Tamil ones any day over the Telugu ones.
Uyirin Uyirae Uyirin Uyirae,
Nadiyin madiyil kaathu kidaikindrein
neera alaigal neera vaari mughathil iraithum
mulhukum verkindrein!!!!
(My dear llfe, My dear life,
I’m awaiting by the riverside,
Even though the cool waves are splashing upon my face,
I am perspiring profusely!!!!!)
Other Tamil movies I’d love to see are: Kaadhalan, Kaadhal Kottai, Thirupachi, Pokkiri, Agni Nakchatram, Minnale, Aayutha Ezhuthu, Kushi to just name a few.
April 11, 2008
After several days of dilly-dallying and dithering, I finally moved into a new abode yesterday. And by new abode, I mean yet another rented apartment! The dough hasn’t piled up enough to afford an own house at this point!
The new one’s quite close to my earlier place of residence - in fact is situated just behind the old one. So in terms of surroundings, am still in familiar territory. Which is a bit of a relief as well as a bit of a disappointment really. Why? Coz familiarity breeds contempt. With a new locality, new friends might have been made, new acquaintances being scrapped, new service-providers being tried out etc etc. [Err...the services should be read as 'cable' and 'internet' alone and not anything else 
] But with the same ol’ place, such things are just not possible. Its like old wine, in a newer bottle. Bring it onnn………
April 10, 2008
Ferrari achieved a 1-2 finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Felipe Massa leading teammate Kimi Raikkonen. After a “could-have-been-1-2″ at the Malaysian Grand Prix, this race certainly showed that Ferrari has the most comprehensive package of all the teams. Pre-season testing here might have helped them a bit but there’s no denying the fact that they had the quickest cars on track. Massa outgunned pole-sitter Kubica at the start and sped off into the lead with Kimi fast on his heels. Kimi managed to pass Kubica a few laps later and the order remained thus. BMW had a terrific day on-track as Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished 3rd and 4th respectively. Pole position, 11 points plus the lead of the Constructors’ Championship - not a bad day at all by any means.
McLaren though, did have a pretty bad day, with Lewis Hamilton having a sluggish start to the race and dropping down to 10th before clobbering the back of Fernando Alonso and having to pit for new nose wing and a tank-full of fuel. He eventually finished 13th, well outside the points and relinquishes the lead of the Drivers’ Championship to Kimi Raikkonen. The lone silver lining for McLaren was Heikki Kovalainen’s 5th place finish and the fastest lap of the race. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli finished 6th with Red Bull’s Mark Webber in 7th place and Williams’ Nico Rosberg taking up the final point in 8th place.
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April 6, 2008
First Pole for Robert Kubica and BMW….
Felipe Massa took second….Hamilton third
Ferrari took the P2 and P4 positions; McLaren P3 & P5, BMW P1 & P6….
Force India had to be content with 18th & 20th Positions…
F$&# Star Sports for not showing the Qualifying session Live!
F$%# the Cable Op for not showing Star Sports!!!
Find the Qualifying report at Formula1.com & BBC Sport
April 5, 2008
The famous and tasty Tirupati Laddu may soon get a patent of its own! According to a 30-min news report I happened to watch on TV9 yesterday, the TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams - the temple’s executive board) is thinking of applying for a patent for the Laddu that is served as prasadam (holy offering) at the temple town of Tirupati. The laddu is one of the most popular thing about Tirupati and for many people, eating the laddu is as good as having a glimpse of the Lord himself. And of course, it is yummy and tasty too!
Its popularity and demand have given rise to a humongous black-marketing network that is prevalent in Tirupati and there have been cases of counterfeit laddus being palmed off as the real ones, that too at exorbitant prices - sometimes as high as 100 bucks for a laddu! To check that and also to protect the Intellectual Property on account of its Geographical Indication, the laddu and its preparation method is to be patented. So don’t be surprised if you see this sort of sign the text time you are in Tirupati: Tirupati Laddu ® Available Here!
April 4, 2008
Microsoft Virtual TechDays is an online event/seminar scheduled to be held on the WWW on the 9th and 10th of April by Microsoft India “to give further insight into Microsoft’s newest technologies”. And those “newest technologies” are MS Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 & Visual Studio 2008. Am no geek or MS follower but I just happened to stumble onto the site from some ad (on Yahoo!, no less!) and surfed through it just to know what its all about. Maybe its something on the same lines as Sun Tech Days.
Am not saying that I’ve got a keen sense of observation or that I’m very nitpicky or I find fault in everything I see (well, that’s my profession you see 
) but I noticed a small anomaly in this following paragraph on the Microsoft Virtual TechDays Website:
To join the session, you are required to have Microsoft Ofiice Live Meeting 2007 client installed on your machine.
Notice the anomaly? The neat li’l typo? No? Well, then I must say that you’ve to be a little more observant! Lemme spill the suspense for you……
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April 2, 2008
