Nagesh - Passed away on 30/01/09

Actor nagesh is dead. He passed away on 31st january. As long as tamil cinema of 60's and 70's keep playing on television channels, nagesh will never be forgotten. His legacy is as unique as the nambiar's and the asokan's.
Its quoted somewhere that once k.balachander ( the famous director as i remember him and not the not-so-famous producer that he is today ), was annoyed with kamal with a particular scene, and retorted saying that if it were nagesh, it would have been completed in no time. That great an actor was nagesh.
Evokes laughter in his own style, a unique one. Thin in appearance, always moving, a great dancer. People have reported that he will be remembered for Thiruvilayadal. I would like to add a small list thats in my memory now, to that. He will be remembered for more than just thiruvilayadal, he will be remembered for server sundaram, ethirneechal & 'sippi eduka vareeyalaaa'.
His comic scenes with balayya in 'kadhalikka neramillai' will be among the fore-runners. Director was the other great man, sridhar.
Nagesh had a concern that he was not chosen for any great awards in the state ( kamalhasan was present in the stage & had got more awards than nagesh ! ). Awards are not for people like you nagesh, you are more than that. You have been an inspiration for lots of ppl today. you are not alive today. But your memories will be rekindled whenever your movies are seen. I will feel sad for more time to come, everytime i see you on an internet clip or on the television. Just like other million tamilians and movie patrons.
The day that nagesh came out from his house, telling his mom that he will return after making a career strikes me like anything. Its time to take risks. Only when ur young you'll be able to take them. Who knows ? The future may be all-right !

Memoirs of a friend and a possible testimonial !

I'm not sure if this was the first person i met and had a chat with, initially when i joined thangavelu engg. college, but he is certainly a part of my To's and Cc's of everyday life. But when i did, i vaguely remember that he was with his dad and i was either with my brother or with my dad. What we discussed then was a matter of pure educational interest. of what was best and what were the things better.
But as chance would have it, we studied together for the next 4 years. I remember that we used to speak in hindi almost as soon as we knew that both of us knew the language. Why was it never tamil ? it was not because we did'nt like to or whatever, it was purely coincidental. I can even say that i liked to speak in hindi ( kind of a hangover feeling after finishing my 'praveen' exams in 97 or 99 ) and was searching for ppl to speak with.
Ahmed hussain is his name and thus started a company and companionship which i still cherish. 99 - 03 were years of complete mental freedom. Allowed to think and allowed to play, that is the life which one can be envious of. Ahmed was a difficult person initially to understand. Always full of questions on subjects, work and various different things. There were a bunch of other people, nice friends. sachi, ramesh, harsha, ezhilan and ravi.
Ahmed, in particular, whom i wish to discuss here - was never completely studious. A decent cricketer, a decent body builder(?) - Not someone who would always keep reading or interested in reading. But somehow i felt that he had a fascination for such people. I personally feel that he was a good student. What could have stopped him from concentrating hard will be a mystery yet-to-be-unrevealed. He was quite ok for the kind of education that we received from our college and the given circumstances. Do we remember all that we read is definitely a valid question. But then, its fate which has forced us into different occupations. But happy, that he has managed to retain portions of what he learnt most in his stream of work. How is he at work, i can only guess. Is his line of work his best choice ? I felt that he was suited more for business - a modern 'uppu' sahibu, eh ?!

He is now getting married to his neighbour. A girl of his choice. A lucky girl. All the best ahmed ! Hope to meet you at your wedding. Wishes remain un-obstrued whether i make it or not :)

M.N.Nambiar passes away - 19/11/08

The man who took the whip against MGR as his exploiting uncle in 'Enga veetu pillai', the man who was one among the easiest to mimic, the villain who terrorised tamil movie goers, the man who was hated by M.G.R's fans and mobbed whenever he travelled on the roads, the man who was in the league of the most famous villains of tamil cinema passed away last wednesday. Manjeri Narayan Nambiar (a) M.N.Nambiar, the man who was a nasty villain in reel life and praised as a complete gentleman in real life.
In the early days of cinema, combinational logic was always successful and is even followed today. The combination of MGR and Nambiar is the most famous hero-villain combination even today. The man, people claim, has acted with 6 to 7 generations of heroes. A handsome actor, his mannerisms were unique. The days when actors esp. villains of tamil cinema adopted different mannerisms and tried to woo audiences. Veerappa, M.R.Radha, Asokan and Nambiar - the four names that come to my mind immediately.
Nambiar, will always be remembered as long as the MGR saga still holds its sway in TamilNadu and everytime 'Enga veetu pillai' is re-released, he will terrorise the tamil people as he has done before and will be a fascinating subject for all movie analysts.
May his soul rest in peace.

Confessions of a violent kid.

Where do we not have violence in our country. We have it in the state assemblies, the central assemblies, we have it in the streets, we have it in each house & we have it in most of our movies.
But not everything is filmed. Film them and see them, it looks horrendous. These Pictures and videos will be repulsive. Is Ambedkar law college the only college to have such violent clashes. No. I've seen it happening near my own college, when my fellow students fought with their seniors ( or the other way round ? ). It happened again with my juniors fighting their juniors !
Someone will be injured when tempers fray.
I have been violent with my neighbours' children ( when i was a child, mind it ). I have hit a boy's leg with a stick when i was provoked. We have formed gangs and thrown stones at each other. Even big men would not have dared to stand on the terrace where i was standing as a kid. Such was the influx of fist-sized-stones !! As children its different. You're still not civilised enough, u dont understand how painful 'pain' is. I cant even imagine how brutual ive been & how brutal my next-door-friends were at that time.
Ofcourse yes, honestly, there are chances that it could have happened to us in belfast. Fist-fights with ppl who gave us a stray passing comment. Tempers frayed. We could have ended with blows if they came back at the ruckus i created in retaliation. Not sure. Its all animal behavior. Something provokes, either deliberately or accidentally and fights ensue. But you analyze them all again, look and think over what you have done and you definitely feel that it was not for good.
In a fit of anger, we can hurt someone very easily. But god forbid, if that happens to be very serious, then there is repent in our lives forever. Is that what we want ? Let's learn from whatever has happened in the past days and learn that its time we learned to calm ourselves. Time to learn to be friends with ppl around us, time we learnt to be non-violent in our approaches.
The man who was hurt near the law college gates, who was attacked as though he was some poisonous serpent which had to be immobilised - he had pain that day, hospitalised. But the ppl who hurt him, they are the ones who will have the same pain for the next couple of days till they are apprehended by the police. That was physical, this will be mental. & the wise know that both are equally painful.
Next time you see kids fighting, separate them, talk to them lovingly. Get them to be friends, have ice-breaker sessions with them. Play with them for sometime && then.......leave them together. I can assure you - they will never fight again and will even stop others from fighting.
This is what we need. We need to curb this violent nature in our sub-conscious minds even as we are kids.

Speaking about how violent we were as children, you wont believe that we patched up later and were good friends for a long long time. Innocent kids that we were !

Vaaranam Aayiram - Paavam Sur(i)ya !

Vaaranam aayiram. My Initial feelings after watching the movie on a Thursday evening was unabashedly against gautham menon ! The reason was very simple. I was expecting a movie in the lines of minnale, khaaka khaaka and vettaiyadu vilayadu. These movies were entertaining, even if not classics or anything close to that. There were'nt many dull moments. But V.A was dull esp. in the second half. But i have to admit that even the first half did'nt attract me that much. Sameera Reddy was good, very easily because its her first kollywood film.( and i have'nt seen any of her bollywood flicks before. Did i not like nayantara in Ayya, a simple homely look :-) ). Surya is good and has come with a good performance, liked him in the scene in the telephone booth where he cries out for the heroine's murder ( ya, learn to call every terrorist act an act of murder ). Has took enormous strain for the movie becoming so young looking like a teenager. Not sure which half it is, but the scenes where he comes as a young lad tying his shirt into a knot and dancing for a song remind you of his nerukku-ner days !!
Pachaikili muthucharam flopped at the box-office but i still liked the movie. So its probably the plot which makes a movie interesting finally, not the director's skills. ( we can go blah-blah talking about how important it is for everyone to put their act together ). But what matters is the plot and its treatment. Sindhu bhairavi is there in my mind on top.
But its not easy to predict the commercial outcome of V.A.
Gautham has been advised and is ready to cut the scenes where surya goes behind a child's rescue in the second half ( I was driven mad around this time, so i feel its a good move ;-)
So this may improve its financial prospects. But my point is - where the plot is good and the climax is powerful, the movie will score easily. Raman thediya seethai is a good example to the subtle minds which understood the director's point.
Thavamai thavamirindhu was slow, a movie on the same lines, but still powerful. So if we collect the positives and negatives ( all credits to krishnamoorthy, my colleague who is happy with the movie :-) ) and come with a grade for this movie, it will be apt.
First with the positives ( the easiest ! )
Easily surya.
The first encounter with the heroine. ( was a bit dragging though )
The last scene after the funeral, near the beach waters( where simran explains the meaning of V.A to the audience finally )

The negatives :
The dragging plot ( which might be rectified sooner )
Divya spandana's char.
Totally unappealing story line. ( To understand this, lets wait for abhiyum naanum to release. I have huge expectations with radha mohan's story line. Similiar, "daddy-daughter" if not "daddy-sonny" )

For a rating out of 10, this movie can be given something close to 4.5
p.s. Im not going to talk about surya's narration here. Im definitely not going to discuss the 'my daddy, i can see my daddy, my daddy is with me always, i can always see my daddy........................................................ hey, did i say that im not going to discuss any of these ? ) :-)

Kunnakudi vaidyanathan passes away - 08/09/08

Loss. Change is the only permanent thing. We dont realise that we have lost something very valuable until we actually lose it. Till then we have a feeling that its going to be with us, kinda forever. Its happened before and will happen again.
The great violinist sri kunnakudi vaidyanathan will not hold the violin again and strum the strings. Nevertheless his music will keep vibrating our souls whenever we listen to it. But what can beat a stage performance ?
There have been 3 instances that i have stood dumbstruck after listening to the music of three great people. The first one is that of kadri gopalnath, the next one is that of seerkazhi sivachidambaram and the third one is that of kunnakudi vaidyanathan. You can listen to any of their songs n number of times. But their physical presence is something which is such a pulsating experience that you enter some sort of a trance when you are with them.
You hear of many a persons demise but a couple of them will make you cry when they pass away. They can be close relatives or friends. But there are others. They are the ones who have secured a place in your heart with their talents. Such people will never be forgotten. They leave behind a legacy which will live on. Kunnakudi vaidyanathan, one such man. His large kumkum mark with a half-moon like vibhuthi smear and to top it all, a great broad childish smile. His face so cheerful all the time. May his soul rest in peace.

What's similiar ?

This para was very interesting and posted by one Mr. Kafir Sahab which i came across in the rediff. Generally you find comments of insane nature in rediff columns but this one was rather educative. Thanks Kafir !

The Islamic term 'Eed-ul-Fitr' derives from the 'Eed of Piters' that is worship of forefathers in Sanskrit tradition. In India, Hindus commemorate their ancestors during the Pitr-Paksha that is the fortnight reserved for their remembrance. The very same is the significance of 'Eed-ul-Fitr' (worship of forefathers).

The Islamic practice of observing the moon rise before deciding on celebrating the occasion derives from the Hindu custom of breaking fast on Sankranti and Vinayaki Chaturthi only after sighting the moon.

Barah Vafat, the Muslim festival for commemorating those dead in battle or by weapons, derives from a similar Sanskrit tradition because in Sanskrit 'Phiphaut' is 'death'. Hindus observe Chayal Chaturdashi in memory of those who have died in battle.

The word Arabia is itself the abbreviation of a Sanskrit word. The original word is 'Arabasthan'. Since Prakrit 'B' is Sanskrit 'V' the original Sanskrit name of the land is 'Arvasthan'. 'Arva' in Sanskrit means a horse. Arvasthan signifies a land of horses., and as well all know, Arabia is famous for its horses.