India vs Australia @ Bangalore : 1st test DRAW

The first test between the highly hyped ‘new rivals’ India and Australia has ended in a draw. Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Ganguly batted really well to save the test match for India. Its been a big problem for India trying to survive in a test match and they did it pretty convincingly being down only by 4 wickets when the match ended. Zaheer Khan had a great match picking up 5 wickets in the first innings and also scoring a match saving 57 runs to help India save the game along with Harbhajan Singh who also scored a 50. Sachin Tendulkar missed the world record of the most number of runs by just 15 runs, but he proved that he is not always a 2nd innings failure by saving India the game at the right moment.

The Aussies were surprisingly defensive in their game throughout the match (as rightly pointed out by Zaheer Khan in the post match comments). It was surprising to see Australia score at below 3 runs per over for most part of the match. Also the respect they give for our Fab Four batters (Rahul, Sachin, Laxman) is surprising since they seem to mostly set defensive fields in order to try and not allow these batsmen to score runs fast. India seem to have flustered the Australians, and now it is time that they get onto attack mode. These Australians know that India is a team that can beat them, and will be defensive for most part of the series. Its now ripe time for India to hunt these Aussies down and have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Varanam Aayiram Music Review : Minnale’s Re-incarnation

Among Tamil Cinema’s classic director – music director combinations, Gautham and Harris Jeyaraj have certainly found a long lasting place. They have proved yet again that they can be called the next “Maniratnam – AR Rahman” of Kollywood. The chemistry between them is so captivating that one is curious to know how they interact with each other when creating such a work. They have hit the bull’s eye again with Surya’s “Varanam Aayiram” and this album has the capacity to last much longer in the listener’s minds than some of their earlier works like Vettaiyadu Vilayadu and Kaakha Kaakha

1. Anal Mele Panithuli – Sudha Raghunathan

Harris Jeyaraj has replaced Bombay Jayashree with Sudha Raghunathan but that ‘Bombay Jayashree’ feel is quite evident. Sudha Raghunathan is a very acclaimed singer, and she carries off the song very well which is a credit for her. Yes, she reminds us of the famous “Bombay Jayashree – Harris” combination but when the song is so good, you tend to not care about all those things. Harris plays with the veenai bit at the beginning, and the song carries a very consistent flow throughout. An ideal song to listen when you are calm or relaxed, and the tune haunts you even after you’ve stopped listening to the song. Excellent use of the percussion and the instruments by Harris.

Rating: 4.3/5

2. Yethi Yethi – Benny Dayal, Naresh Iyer, Solar Sai

A very youthful and exuberant song. Reminded me of the “Oh Maama Maama” days. The song exudes a lot of peppiness and definitely makes you shake your hips. Seems like Harris uses a lot of Rahman singers in his albums (Benny, Naresh, Hariharan, etc). Both of them are by now popular singers and they do full justice to this song. A song fully targetted at the youth, and it will not be too much time before this song will be loved by the teenagers.

Rating: 4/5

3. Mundhinam Parthene – Naresh Iyer, Prashanthini

Perfect singer for a perfect song. Naresh literally rocks the song! When I listened to the radio quality version, I didnt know it was Naresh, but when I listened to this full version, the traces of Naresh was quite evident (he is my favorite singer right now!). The female voice is very adept and different, and hats off to Harris for the new invention of Prashanthini. The song starts off with Surya expressing his love to the woman (I guess its Sameera Reddy) in his voice. The lyrics are very romantic and catchy, and it is to Harris’s credit that he lets the tune mingle so well along with the lyrics.

Rating: 4.4/5

4. Nenjukkul Peidhidum – Hariharan, Devan, V Prasanna

PICK OF THE ALBUM! Hari Anna (Hariharan) is just masterclass! A very lovely rendition of a very very romantic song. The “Oh Shanti Shanti” by Hariharan just keeps ringing in my ears long after I have listened to this song. Harris is a king of such melody songs, but this is something very very special. Everything falls into the right place for this song, and the Gautham style is also quite evident in this song. The other singers give the right kind of support to Hariharan, who just stamps his authority over this song. According to me, no one but only Hariharan could’ve sung this song this well. Eagerly awaiting the picturisation of this song (since its Gautham feel, the expectations touch the roof)

Rating: FULL MARKS…..

5. Adiye Kolluthey – Shruthi Haasan, Krish, Benny Dayal

Is that Shruthi? WOW! Didnt know she was such a good singer. I knew she was going to sing in some albums, but didnt know she had this much talent in singing. A song based on rock. The guitars pull you towards them and the tune, even though it reminds you of Harris’s previous tunes, still keeps you captivated and is foot tapping. The male singers combine well for the song but for me, Shruthi Haasan is the revelation.

Rating: 4.1/5

6. Ava Enna – Karthik, V Prasanna

A kuthu song in a Gautham film?? Where has this world come to? But NO! It has the kuthu beats, but its in essence a melodious song. The song shocks you at the start with the kuthu style rendition by Karthik. It slightly reminds us of the “Sowkar Pettai Pandiyana” bit song from the film “Boys” by AR Rahman also sung by Karthik. But this is a totally different song, and after sometime it charters the melody path and it changes track quite convincingly. A Kuthu melody (what a combo!!!!).

Rating: 4/5

7. Oh Shanthi Shanthi – SPB Charan, Clinton

A faster and a remixed version of Hariharan’s “Nenjukkul Peidhidum”. A nice decision to have SPB Charan sing this song. That SPB trace in his voice is probably something which gives this song a very different feel from the normal Harris Jeyaraj songs. Clinton sounds quite wierd in many parts of the song, especially when singing the “Oh Shanthi Shanthi O Shanthi” part but its not too irritating. A faster version of the original song, probably just for the CD

Rating: 3.7/5

This album reminds us more of Minnale in the sense that the feel is more fun filled and frolic than that of Kaakha Kaakha or Vettaiyadu Vilayadu. The melodies are there in place, but songs like ‘Anjala’, ‘Yethi Yethi’ and ‘Adiye Kolluthey’; give that much needed boost to the fun that Gautham and Harris’s songs needed. Harris has been in fine form this year with ‘Dhaam Dhoom’ and ‘Sathyam’ but this is in a totally different league. He can easily claim the honours for the ‘Best Album of the year’ with a superb score that will be likes not only by the youngsters but one that has potential to be liked by a wider section of the audience

OVERALL VERDICT: DONT DOWNLOAD, JUST BUY!

‘A Wednesday’ – Review

Its very rare that one gets to watch a movie which is a mixture of high quality entertainment and thought provocativeness. ‘A Wednesday’ is such a movie which is entertaining because of its pace and the ‘what happens next’ ability but it is also highly thought provocative because of the message that it tries to tell. And the message comes across exceptionally well because the actors chosen to send the message across are both legends in their acting careers – NASSERUDDIN SHAH and ANUPAM KHER

If you have watched Tamil director Shankar’s films, then the plot bears a very close resemblance to his films (the helplessness of the government, the police, the intelligence, etc) but the way the movie went about exploring it makes it very special. I cant reveal anymore of the film as I want everyone to feel the excitement (those who will feel it if not for my spoiler!).

I have heard people praise Nasserudin Shah to the skies and have heard people saying that he is a legend, he is a natural actor, he is this, he is that, etc. But this is the first time I am feeling that all they said was RIGHT! He is a legend, he is such a natural actor that he can easily be called as one of the greatest actors in Indian cinema. Especially the scene in the end where he gives a lecture type dialogue with not much emotions, is just SPELL BOUNDING. What an actor! Chanceless! This film is such a good film because of him.

Anupam Kher is equally adept as the police officer who is involved with this case. The chemistry between Nasser and Anupam is just terrific (they actually met physically for only one scene in the end) but their chemistry is very evident in the way they have that frequent conversation on the phone. Anupam Kher has some of the most witty dialogues of the movie and he delivers it with gutso. Another great actor who shows ample glimpses of his talent.

Jimmy Shergill is a revelation. I couldnt believe that this Yash raj find can act this well. I hated him in films like ‘Mere Yaar ki Shaadi Hai’ and ‘Hum Tum’ but here in this role, he is just superb. His characterisation has been created really well by the director and he matches up to it spectacularly.

The real hero of the film is of course, Neeraj Pandey the director. Brilliant execution of the screenplay helps the film tremendously. The background music suits a thriller kind of a film, the editing is very crisp and great, and there is not any unnecessary distractions that deviate the audience from the actual story.

Verdict: Real classic – Save it on DVD – 10/10

Dont forget to drink water – Learnt it the HARD WAY!!

I had the most frightening moment of my life when I collapsed last Thursday at the doorsteps of my bathroom, and I was carried on a stretcher to the hospital and into the emergency ward. It seems that I was suffering from a heavy bout of dehydration because of which I suffered from ‘Syncope’ which is the decrease of blood flow to the brain which leads to passing out (or fainting!). Since I had pumped out a lot of sweat at the fitness centre trying to lose weight, all the fluid in my body had been lost and my body needed water which I did not drink. Thankfully, the blood flow did not stop to the brain (IT COULD HAVE!) which would have led me to coma (a far more serious issue!).

My advice based on experience – DRINK LOT OF WATER! Drink atleast 8 glasses of water (8 ounces per glass) a day. If you are working out, try to drink 10 glasses (or drink an energy drink apart from the regular 8 glasses of water a day). This advice was given to me by my cardiologist doctor who treated me at the hospital (gosh, went through all those extensive tests where I felt like a computer that was being checked for viruses, spyware or adware that was causing problems).

I am back to normal (well, close to normal as I still have a weak body trying to get back the lost energy!). Happy that I am still here to write my thoughts/opinions to you all (though not sure how many read it!).

Die Hard Series – Loads of FUN

Have been watching a lot of English films in recent times (I was totally averse to English films till the past 2-3 weeks and had watched only 3-4 English films till then throughout my life and everyone was like ‘Why dont you watch English films, they’re awesome..” this and that. Suddenly I had this idea to start watching English films (maybe because Indian films arent as good these days). One of my friends (well, an elderly friend) had told me great things abt the Die Hard series quite sometime back. I decided to start with the Die Hard Series from the first.

Man, what an amazing series THIS WAS!!!! Pure entertainment, amazing thrill and some really exharilating stuff. Bruce Willis (I want to call him McClane from now on!) has been SUPER-DUPER!! He did awesome in each and every film of this series. He looks great as a cop, and the way he handles the bad guys is just classic to watch. Personally, I loved the 2nd of the series (”Die Harder”) the most because it was more thrilling of all with some really awesome scenes like McClane in front of the landing plane trying to stop it from crashing, etc. The fourth one was the weakest though it was also extraordinary (the fourth one was too focussed on the explosion, the action, etc rather than the story). And also, McClane didnt look that cool with his bald head.

After this, now I have been watching a lot of English films and most of them have impressed me so much. Watched Face Off, Gone in 60 Seconds, Casino Royale, The Holiday, etc in the past 2 weeks and cant get enough of them. If you guys have any good films to recommend, PLEASE DO SO! Would be great if you guys can share some of your favorite stuff so that I can rent them and watch (I have an account with Netflix here which is so cool that they send the DVD’s, I watch it and I send them back through post). I have a queue of 20 movies with them right now.