BEST MOVIES(???) OF THE YEAR 2007

Merchant of Death:

Stars: Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Keshubai Patel, Media.

A typical masala movie .The story line was simple. At the beginning of the movie, the major villain Sonia Gandhi, Media, Election commission of India every one seems to be against the Hero ‘Modi’. In fact the film starts sensationally with Sonia describing Modi as the Merchant Of Death” and the media showing flash backs of 2001 riots. Later with the other veteran BJP leader Keshubai Patel and other BJP rebels also joining hands with the villains, and exit polls predicting defeat to Modi it seems the Hero is struggling. But as typical of any masala movie, the Hero makes a massive comeback and defeats every one and delivers a famous dialogue “I am a CM always, for me CM means Common Man”.

It was a very impressive performance by Modi, who has played a hero role. This is his second movie, after the first movie “Gujarat riots” in which he acted as a villain. In fact his public speeches in the film are full of fire. The dialogue writer deserves a special round of applause. The major villain Sonia Gandhi fails to impress us except in the first scene when she calls Modi “the merchant of death”. The comedy role is being played by Union minister Kapil Sibel, who tries to defend his party leader Gandhi through out the film from Election Commission for her Merchant Of Death remark, although every other character is being over shadowed by the awesome performance by the Hero.

The story line is very good, but there are two confusions at the end of the movie, 1) Did the hero succeed because of development or because of Hindutva or because of the mixture of the two and 2) Are the senior BJP leaders happy or sad at the hero’s success. The Director promises there will be a sequel to the movie in few years time with the base place being changed from Gujarat to India, but before that film he has to clarify these confusions.


2) Right Combination:

Stars: Mayawati.

Yet another masala movie similar to that of “Merchant Of Death” but the lead role is played by leading heroine Mayawati. The film begins with Mayawati trying to find a right balance of caste mixture in laboratory so that she can win her elections and she finds the right combination , FC+SC. She experiments it in the elections and wins it quite comfortably. In fact she comes in almost all the scenes of the movie, that sometimes we tend to feel that she is the only character in the movie. Nevertheless we never get tired of her and a brilliant performance by her. The movie ends with she saying that the experiment will be performed in larger scale through out the country, and one has to wait and see whether she will able to give a hit that time too.


3) Indian Juggernaut:

Star: Indian cricket team.

The movie begins with the Houses of the Indian players being hit with stones after world cup debacle in West Indies and ends with the Open Bus Drive in Mumbai after Twenty 20 success. The film has everything that the average audience asks for. The climax in which the Indian team defeats the arch rival Pakistan in the final of the Twenty 20 world cup is the best climax one has seen in recent years. There are various poetic moments in the movie like the one when Yuvraj hits Broad for 6 sixes in a over after the verbal dual with Flintoff and the producer seems to have been very magnanimous in spending for the last scene of the movie where the team gets a heroic reception back home. Over all, a typical sports movie with lot of masala.

4) Neighborhood chaos:

Star: Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sherrrif, Musharaff.

A tragedy movie with the base in Pakistan, the film has bombing scenes once in every five minutes. The movie begins with the Benazir Bhutto, the heroine giving a TV interview where she says, she doesn’t fear death, and ends in her funeral. In the tragic script with very high violence, the director tried to introduce few comedy scenes towards the end of the movie, when the Pakistan Government said that Bhutto died because her head hit some part of her car, but it looked very artificial. Nawaz Sheriff performed his character role superbly, although when he cried so naturally after Bhutto’s death, no one was sure whether it was because of her death or for the fear for his own safety.

5) Who Killed Him?

Star: Bob Woolmer, Jamaican Police, Pakistani Cricket team.

A thriller inter woven with cricket world cup, with the Jamaican beauty in the back ground. With good screen play, this could have been a block buster movie of the year. When Pakistan team lost to Ireland and few days later Pakistani Coach dies, every one in the theatre sits up expecting a brilliant movie. But sadly the directors ideas seemed to run out after those initial scenes, and at the end of the movie , no one including the director seems to have any idea as to who was the culprit. The Jamaican police played the major comedy role, giving one reason every day for Bob's death. Through out the movie, no one has any idea whether the Pakistani team is an innocent or a culprit.

6) Deal, Deal:

Star: Manmohan Singh, Communists

A super hit comedy film of the year. The greatness of the movie lies in that there is no story. There is some thing called nuclear deal, which the director does not explain what to the audience through out the movie, either because he feels they will not understand or because he himself did not understood it. Through out the movie, Manmohan singh wants the deal to be signed and the communists does not want it to be signed. Director maintains a delicate balance and no one really finds out whether they are friends or enemies till the movie ends. But together they run a company called Indian Government and third character called BJP looks in anticipation when ever they fight hoping that their company will collapse, so that they could get the company but unfortunately they end up dejected at the end of the movie. No one knows what happened in the end of the movie, but the comedy played by the communists in the movie is appreciated widely by every one and people just went to the film to relax after the hectic day at office.

7) Karnataka thamasha:

Star: Devagowda, Kumaraswamy.

Yet another comedy movie. In contrast to the previous movie, there was a story in this movie, but it was too complicated that no one understood it a bit. Nevertheless the movie was single handedly supported by the comedy actor Mr. DewaGowda. His son Kumaraswmay also tried to play his part in the comedy, but he was no match to his experienced father. Father – Son show saved the movie from being utter flop.

8) Nandhigram Killings:

Star: Budhadev, Mamta Banarjee

The movie was a interesting tussle between Budhadev and Mamata set up in Nandigram. No one until the end of the movie could find out who was the hero or the villain, and the director needs to be congratulated for maintaining the suspense. But the movie had lot of violent scenes, with the record number of rape scenes too, and bit of comedy too with communists wearing police dress during the mid part of the movie.

9) Doctor treatment:

Star: Ramadoss, Karunanithi

The film is set in Tamil Nadu, and Ramadoss played the role of a comedy hero who opposes any scheme brought by the CM Karunanithi. The climax of the movie sees a brilliant verbal fight between Arcot Veeraswamy , Karuna’s associate and Ramadoss. Ramdoss’s son Dr.Anbumani also chipped in with his comedy role.


10) The Great Family War:

Star: Karunanithi, Azlagiri, Maran brothers.

A family sentimental movie. The movie begins with the entire Karunanithi’s family happily singing a family song. But soon the problem begins. With Maran brothers trying to gain popularity over Karunanithi’s sons, ever violent Azalagiri turns even more violent. With Madurai literally burning, Karunanithi feels his sons are more important to him than his niece’s sons. As a result serious of highly sentimental scenes follow , and the film ends up with the Dayanithi Maran losing ministry and Kalainjar TV being launched. Best sentimental movie of the year.

Familiar but cruel story

"We will not tolerate this any more" - Prime Minister Dr.ManmohanSingh and UPA chair person SoniaGandhi.

"This is a result of the minority appeasement policies of the Government which is always soft on terrorists. - BJP leaders and other NDA partners.

"Breaking news: Terror strikes again. Attacks in ________ (Hyderabad/ UP/ Mumbai) claims the life of innocent citizens" - Flash news in Major English news channels in India.

"Oh! God, so many people died mm " - The reaction of most of the public in India, before changing the news channels to continue watching the cricket match or the serials.

---- Familiar story, isn't it. Ya these things are said every time some terrorists strike some parts of India killing innocent people. No one knows what these terrorists intend to achieve. Even the Indian intelligence services seems to have no clue. Time and again the only thing they tend to discover is that the terrorist apparently had some links to Pakistan. Great discovery indeed, discovery that a common Indian makes the moment he sees some terror related news. May be perhaps that is the reason why, terrorists this time around sent an Email saying that they are in no way related to Pakistan. And again great discovery was made by the Indian Police- "The contents of the Email may not be true. It might be just a smoke screen" - Discovery which again every average Indian could have made.

By the way, i was wondering just what the terrorists are achieving by this. Any way what they are doing is not affecting India , it seems. Of course the only change they make in the lives of ordinary Indian is that they force them to listen to barters of complains by the various political party leaders against each other for letting the terorists to do such a thing. Other than that an Indian seems to be not affected too much, right.

No, on outside it may seem so, but wait a minute and look closer. When you look deeper you will find out that some people have died. For country with hundred billion population, death of few individuals may not matter much, but for the family with five members? What if the innocent victim of terror happens to be the lone bread winner of the family. Then the family not only faces an emotional crisis but an financial one as well. Even the loss of a limb, hand and other such things that happen in such terror strikes may result in those unfortunate families having to go through lot of crisis.

This is the exact reason why these terror attacks hurts me more. Next time when you see an terror related news in an news channel, just imagine for a moment what would have been your reaction, if one of the victim was your blood relative. It may cause you a few sleepless nights. But don't worry. Those few sleepless nights wont harm your health much. Rather it would help in creating a society which is deeply against any terrorist activity, which is exactly what we want if India needs to develop as a terror free country in Future.

WELCOME TO INDIA

India is now hard trying to sell its brand in the world. From the land of tigers and snakes , now the world is seeing India as a country of great hope, as a country that has innumerable software engineers and has country that is fast changing the dynamics of the world.

Now more foreigners are visiting in India, not just to visit the Tajmahal and other historic monuments, not just as CEO 's to oversee their companies overseas operation in India, but also to get trained here in software field. Even our batch ( I am undergoing training in Infosys) has around twenty such people from US.

I would like to share few real incidents that one of them shared with us. When one among them was walking in the streets of Bangalore, one police man had approached him and said "Hi you are from US, you must be having lot of money, Why don't you give us some?". I felt terribly bad as an Indian, when i heard that. What sort of image India will get? What he will tell about India once he returns to US.

It is relating to corruption, I could understand that at least because we all know India is in fact very corrupt. But the next incident that he said shook me a lot.

He added that he and his friends (he is White but some of his friends were blacks from US) went to one bar in Mysore. Only foreigners go to that bar. The blacks were refused admission into that bar and they also said only Whites are allowed inside that bar and even Indians are not allowed inside. This guy fed up with that racial discrimination, said that if my black friends are not allowed in, neither I'm coming and returned back without entering.

He dint say anything, but his look after narrating that incident seemed to be asking, " How the hell do you permit people to deny entry for your own people in your own country". When US government denies visa to few of our people we get upset. But then inside our own country , there are these establishments ,which deny entry to the sons and daughters of the soil.

Is it fair? Is it the image we are going to provide to foreigners visiting India? What is the use of our tourism ministry spending so much for advertisements, when at the end we are giving to provide such an poor image of our country.

Let's do something immediately about it. We can't attract tourists by just showing ads, please every one of us understand that.

BLOG AFTER A LONG TIME

Few days ago , as I was watching Sun Music, there a female caller was talking to teh person conducting the program. In that program, when the anchor asked her where she will take her mother in law during free time, shje replied spontaneously that she won't take her anywhere, and also unleashed a barrage of remarks on the negatives of her mother in law. When the anchor asked what if her mother in law see this program, she proudly said that she was currently in a village where the sun tv does not come.

Agreed in almost every house there will be differences between mother in law and daughter in law, but then is that a issue that needs to be shared in a mass media? Can a person who speaks so bad about her own mother in law in front of virtually the entire world, can be a good mother?

In the same program, she later said that she has a young child. I pity for that child.

Was The Tamil Nadu Government Fair?

In the shoot out incident at Virginia Tech, US, the death toll included the 51 year old Indian professor of civil and environmental engineering, namely G.V.Loganathan, and the entire Tamil nadu was shocked to see that one of the Tamilian was killed in a brutal incident across the other side of the globe. Each and every one of Tamil nadu felt as though one of their family member has passed away. The Media's continued telecast of the grieving relatives of the professor increased the people's sympathy towards the family. Every one in Tamil nadu prayed that his soul must rest in peace and asked God to give the confidence to his wife and daughters to face the rest of their life without him.


When we move through the life of the deceased professor, it is seen that he hails from a small village in Erode district of Tamil nadu and had worked hard and earned a place in IIT, one of the premier institutes of India. Giving due credit to him, we ought to state that for the greater heights he achieved, many people need to be praised, including his teachers during school days, who transformed the young mind from rural areas into an intellectual one fit enough to study in IIT. We also need to remember the many IIT professors and we the people (Remember, the Indian Government gives huge subsidy to IIT, (i.e.) our tax are being utilized by those studying in IIT) are also responsible for him achieving greater heights.


But some how the deceased professor felt it would be better for him to teach US students rather than students from his own country. I have no problems with that. He has every right to decide where to work. The professor also felt for some strange reasons that his body be buried in US and not in India, which contributed mostly to his success. Again I have no problems, as every individual has a right to decide where he needs to be buried. Immediately after his death, the Tamil Nadu Government took steps to make sure that his relatives received passport immediately and visas without much delay. I appreciate that on the humanitarian grounds that a family which is already struggling with the fact that they have a lost a close one was not put into much more trouble.


But then the Government decided to sponsor the entire travel expenses of the family members for their travel to the funeral. It is where I disagree. Why has the Government decided to spend the tax money of the people (every one, even a beggar pays 50p as sales tax, when he buys a soap) to sponsor the relatives from attending the funeral of a person who must have been earning more than what most of people from Tamil nadu earn, who studied with the help of tax payers money but did not want to repay it and who did not want even his body to be buried here?

At least if he had died due to fault of the Government of India or Tamil nadu, we could understand Government helping them as a compensation. But he died due to the fault of the US government , the country he seems to have cherished so much that he wanted his body to be buried there. If any Government had to pay for the expenses, it should have been the US government, not the Tamil nadu government.

There are so many villagers, who help us to get food every day and serve us in what ever way possible, and at last die due to various factors like lack of proper treatment in Government Hospital, lack of proper transportation facilities in the villages to transport the ill, etc. But when those people die ( here the Tamil nadu Government is actually responsible for their fate) the Government does not give a single paise for their funeral. I know many families who literally beg so that they can do their last rites to their deceased family members. Worse still, in most of the Government Hospitals they don’t allow the people to take the corpse out of the hospital unless they pay the bribe to concerned people. Is it the equality our constitution teaches us?

So the moral of this incident: If you want the Government to help with your funeral, get all possible help from India as possible and then go to abroad and don’t serve your country. If you want the Government to neglect you and worse demand bribe to take your corpse to your home, you stay in the country, work hard and do what ever little you can do for the country.

JAI HIND

SUN - THE BEST FINANCE MINISTER?

Most of you would know the mechanism of rain formation. You would have studied about it in the science books of your primary schools. Any way let me again take you through the mechanism of rain formation.

Three fourth of the earth is filled with water. But most of the water is present in a salty state in ocean and hence not useful to the humans for consumption. Here is where the almighty Sun comes to our rescue. The sun absorbs the excess of water from the ocean through evaporation and then pours them down in the lands as rain. The rain helps every one in the world, whatever be their race, religion, language, customs, culture, etc.

Imagine what would happen if the sun does not does this activity. The excess of water in the ocean would be wasted and we the people would die due to lack of water. Imagine what would happen if Sun decides to absorb all the water in the ocean, rather than absorbing only the excess if water from the ocean? The ocean would dry up, marine animals would die, the eco system would be upset, and the world would cease to exist. But the Sun absorbs the excess of water from the ocean in the right proportion that the life in earth continues to survive.

Now compare the excess if water in the ocean to the excess of money in the hands of rich. The Government should act like a sun in that it should absorb the excess of money from the wealthy in the form of tax and distribute it to all sections of the society, without showing any partiality due to their religion, language, race, culture or customs. The government should also follow the other Golden rule of the sun, that if all the water of ocean gets absorbed, life in earth would be upset. In the same way the Government should tax the wealthy in such a way that only the excess money gets absorbed. If this rule of sun is followed by all the Governments, it would result in happiness and prosperity.

PS: The views expressed in this article are not my novel idea. These ideas are derived from the works of an unknown Tamil poet who lived around two thousand years ago. So it would be helpful for our Honorable Union Minister for Finance if he could replace some of the economics books in his shelf with the Sangam literature books.

Long Live Tamil!

Temples And Exams

Going to temple just before exams is a trend now a days, more so before important examinations like public exams. Many people ask a query, "Will the God help you, if you don't study anything and then go and ask God's blessings in the last minute?". Ya I do agree. God may not help such a person.

But what about the student who has studied well. Will going to temple before the exams would be of any advantage to him? The answer may differ, depending on the beliefs of the person. But my answer is YES, the person will benefit. Don't feel that I am saying this just because I believe in God. I will give you some scientific explanation to prove that a student who goes to temple regularly before exams will benefit from it and score better marks.

1) Scientific experiments conducted by psychologists suggest that, if we say some thing for many times, it increases the probability of that thing happening. That is if you say "I want to get good marks in the exam, I want to get good marks in the exam" every day, it increases your self confidence and there by increases your probability of getting good marks. This is exactly what you do in temple. You say to God every time "Please help me get good marks" with at most sincerity and belief e very time you go to temple. Applying the same principle here, your probability to get good marks increases with visits to temple.

2) "Students who study seriously, often neglect regular exercises and proper diet. As a result they get into trouble during exam days in the form of sickness or disease"- says many famous doctors. But in today's fast paced world, students never get time to do any exercise. When they go to temple, they are supposed to walk around the temple once or thrice, thus they get proper exercise. Some of the 'Prasadams' like 'Tulasi' offered in temples also helps to keep the disease away. Thus the visit to temple serves to keep the students fit without their knowledge, and thereby boost their performance in exams.

3) Meditation improves concentration. Hence it helps to concentrate better in studies. This is the fact accepted by many educationalists. Very few students could afford to get a quiet room alone in their house to do meditation. On the other hand, when they go to temple, they are supposed to sit in the temple for some time in silence just before they return back. This provides a proper setting for meditation at least for few minutes and helps the students to concentrate better in studies.

4) Due to the extreme pressure students face just before the important examinations from all quarters including parents, teachers and other well wishers, they study virtually twenty four hours, few days before exams. Every person would agree, students would preform better, if they take a bit of break in regular intervals, relax and then study. It will help them to study with more energy and determination. Whenever you ask the students to relax, most of them immediately switch on their television sets or start playing video games. I am sure, even my atheist friends would agree that going to a temple would serve as a better source of relaxation then watching television or playing video games. If they go to temple during the time they take break, they not only get time to relax themselves but also derive the above said three benefits.

My first essay

I did my first creative writing when I was around six years old, a essay on 'Bus', written in my mother tongue, Tamil. When ever I just come across this essay of mine, while my mother arranges the old trunk boxes, I congratulate myself for the logical mind I had even when I was so young. Frankly most part of that essay, written in a yellowish paper which is at the verge of being torn now, deals about the external appearance of the bus, uses of the bus and the other such silly things that excites a six year old. It also has a small diagram of a bus drawn in crayon. But what excites me most about that essay even today is one particular paragraph.

Before I write about that paragraph, I need to give you some information. In those days, the buses in Tamil nadu were run by different transport corporations, depending on the district in which the bus runs. Each transport corporation had names of famous personalities, kings etc, and the names were painted in bold letters on either side of the bus. Now there are only few transport corporations in Tamil nadu and they have their names of the cities in which the head quarters of the transport corporation is situated. (eg, Villupuram transport corporation.) The names of the personalities were replaced by cities names, since the people belonging to every caste wanted the names of the famous leaders of their caste to be given to transport corporation, and it led to lot of chaos and the Government could tolerate it no more.

In those days, the buses in my district were run by Dr. MGR transport corporation, named after former chief minister of Tamil nadu.( the fact I did not know then). The buses in Chennai were run by Pallavan transport corporation.

Now lets read the translation of that paragraph:

"The buses in Chennai were named after Pallavas, who were the kings of areas surrounding Chennai (as I had studied in history). The buses running in my village are named after Dr. MGR. So I think Dr. MGR must have been the king of areas surrounding my village."

My logical thinking (!!!) had converted the chief minister of Tamil nadu to the petty king of my village. Any how I still admire my creativity at such a young age and look myself in the mirror with pride.

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