Movies with Dad

Sometime back during March/April, R sold the idea successfully this time that we need a big screen TV and eventually we bought it. And we switched over to a 50 inch plasma TV. Dad was visiting us in January and we did not have it then. So when we bought later, myself and R were mighty confused if we should tell him or let him discover it himself when he visits again. For we were planning right from March, to make him visit in June. And I had to beg my brother to not tell dad, for I had to tell him that we had gone for the big one at home.

God, how much we roamed around dallas to get a shelf for the TV, or is it a stand that would go the way I wanted it to go. Really tough time we had I tell you. Finding shelving units to match the rest of the furniture that we had in place. But in the end, all went well, not without some solid roaming of close to 2 weeks and some assembling and dismantling and some returns back to the store.

But anyways the end result was great. Dad has been freaking out on it since he came, and I cannot have enough words for R for having successfully made me purchase the idea of buying a big screen TV. And we have been enjoying it tremendously since then.

Dad being a movie buff that he is, when he came in July was way too excited seeing the TV. Moreover, dad hates doing movies in the theatres for they are too loud for him. And it’s been really years since appa seen a movie in the theatre. He would wait for it to come on the TV or a DVD to watch the same for watching them at home suits him the best. So all the more fun seeing him watch.

So with him at home with us the last couple of months I have been making my poor dad watch so many movies. Most of them my favorites. I do do a brief of the movie to him and let him do the choice of course. And we have watched quite some old ones too. Luckily, he is pretty quick with the sub-titles and so I have been able to make him watch so many and hopefully he enjoyed them as much as he says he enjoyed them.

I have been making him watch so many movies.. many of them the anthology kind of movies right from Harry Potter 1 to the 5th in IMAX (his first IMAX movie) to Die Hard, to Rush Hour 1, 2 and 3, Spidey 1 and 2 (haven’t gone to the theatre yet to watch the 3rd) Indiana Jones 1 – Riders of the Ark, Lord of the Rings, all the 3 of them (he just loved it) Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, Von Ryan’s Express, The Bourne Series (the one and two in DVD and the third in the movie hall)--he just loved it the best--, The Witness for Prosecution, Akeelah and the Bee and many more. I cannot remember the names of many movies that I made him watch.

Oh yes, we did watch Sivaji together too which actually was my second time. Of course that was in a movie hall. And I did make him watch some of the English ones in movie halls too. But still somehow, he is happy seeing them at home rather than the movie halls. Beats me. I go to the movie halls because I like the loud noise of the theatres. He hates it. Guess it has to do with age. For I remember my granny asking us to reduce the volume of our stereos when we growing up.

Apart from these, we did do a re-do of some Rajini movies. Add to it, the visit to Sea World in San Antonio and various other small time outings. What fun filled days the last few weeks were. I got to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with Dad in Dallas.

The first cricket series in our big screen TV was the India tour of England and we all got to see it together. Watching Cricket with appa is really great. Felt like I had gone to my 6th grade or 7th grade for a few fleeting moments. Except that those were the times when I missed my brother and the whole gang. Anyways the last few weeks have been a blast after a long time in my life :)

Summa Adhiruthilla?

I am not the kind that wastes a post on just giving a link to another post. My ego is not satisfied if I cannot have something written by myself on some junk. I know, thats madness, or being egoistical or you name whatever you want. But this link deserves a post all by itself.

I came across this post and followed what she says on her page. I suggest you do the same. I re-iterate, its a must do—what she says on her page.

Simply awesome.

Sivaji—Second Time

I had been away from my blog for sometime again. But this time, I was not being lazy. Was really occupied with so many things, added to which I had a lot to write too, that I couldn’t put them all down without my brain (assuming I have one) not getting jammed. So had to take a short break before keying in my thoughts.

As said earlier, I did get to see Sivaji, and saw it twice I did. Yes, yes, and an emphatic yes. I did see it twice. Do I regret it? Nah, no way. I am too much a Rajni fan to regret it. Which actually means, I can enjoy any dabba movie churned out with Rajni in it on the TV, I did tolerate even Baba. Some of those dabba movies, even re-runs, but not Baba though. I cannot do that for any other actor. I can hear people saying I am being too biased… but what do I care. IMO, I think no other south Indian actor so much so, I could even say no other Indian actor has the charisma and screen presence that Rajni has.

Being a Rajni fan, enjoyed every bit of my experience of watching it for the first time, which was I think the 2 or the 3 show here in Dallas, and was thrilled watching it again with my dad last weekend. I was so excited when a re-run of the Tamil version came back very quickly (for they did do a re-run of the Telugu version earlier) and booked my tickets in advance for the 3 of us. (You can never take a chance with Rajni movie.) And man, I was right. Though it was screened in a smaller theater which could hold some 200 people, the hall was full. And there were still people, like who I think are watching it for at least their second time, like me and R.

OMG, it was still an exciting experience watching it for a second time. First of all, this was the second time, I see a Rajni movie within days of its release, with Chandramukhi being the first one but this is the first time I see it for a second time in a movie hall. It was very different kind of experience watching it with all those whistles and papers flying in the air. WOW. All my previous experiences of watching a Rajni movie was seeing it in a theatre in Madras, after some 2-3 months of it release, for only then, the crowd would have subsided. But being in Dallas, it felt okay to go for I know the crowd cannot get unruly for sure.

It really was an awesome experience. And as for my favorite song Adhiradee, it indeed was an adhiradee watching it on the big screen. But some how the first time when I watched the movie nothing got registered in me, except Rajni. Watching the movie the first time for me was more of watching Rajni on the big screen and hearing some jokes of Vivek. And nothing else. After being to the ARR concert, even now, when I think of Adhiradee song, I can visualize ARR in his white suit, doing a small jump on his heels yelling on top of his voice ‘Adhiradee Kaaran Machaan ga’. It really was euphoric. I still keep laughing over the way ARR was singing it. May be he was conscious of the crowd in front of him or what I cannot know, but it was like he was swaying to the music and the rhythm of the song in a very peculiar fashion. It was like he had these springs attached to the heel of his shoe or something and was getting a little lift from it. He kept repeating that particular action rhythmically for the whole song, and for any song that he sang for that matter. That’s the scene combined with his facial expressions that I can visualize when I hear the song. I still cannot remember the visuals of that song from the movie. It is ARR's picture that comes to my mind. There was this girl who was crooning to the female part of the lyrics and its her face I get when I listen to the songs even on the screen. Isn’t that funny?

Anyways, am not much of a movie fanatic, but would like not to miss any good ones. I am not a great fan of Shankar either. He keeps churning out the same stuff with very slight variations and keeps doing things in a grand scale and it sells. Otherwise I don’t see much in his movies. And the same holds good in this one too. There is absolutely no story. If you have seen one movie of Shankar, you can sort of guess the storyline for the rest of his movies. The object that can be projected grandly here for Shankar is Rajni and he has showcased it in all grandeur possible and Rajni is indeed awesome. It really is a treat for fans like me. Then you can imagine for the die-hard fans. And then there is Vivek. He is just brilliant. Guess this is the best of him that I have seen so far.

Actually when Shankar and Rajni teamed up and when I came to know that Rajni is an NRI from US, I was slightly worried for the way he can talk English. I did not want to spoil a Rajni movie watching experience because of yucky accent. Luckily, he talks less of English and what little he talks, he seems to have worked diligently on the accent. Added to that Shankar is not that great with his stories. So was a bit skeptical what if one of what could be Rajni’s last movie tanks. Luckily the whole team has helped us there and come up in giving us an experience that we never had before.

But whatever, it was joyous experience watching the movie the first time and the second time. Looks like I can still watch the movie again. Whatever, with no story nothing big like his old movies, Rajni can still evoke that Rajni charm and charisma and pull crowds. The movie is aptly named Sivaji, for its just Rajni, Rajni, Rajni all the way. One has to mention the ‘mottai’ Rajni. The walk he does coupled with his expression after getting down from the helicopter is absolutely fabulous.

An excellent treat for Rajni fans like me.

Woooo Hoooo

Am all set to go to two mega events... one today and another on Sunday.

1. I am going for my first music concert in a stadium. I have been music concerts before, the ones that happen inside halls, but this would my first one in a Open Air Theatre and its going to be the concert of AR Rahman. I have no words to say how mightily thrilled I am. I have been looking forward for this from late April, so this evening is one that I am going to remember for a long time.
2. I am going to see Sivaji - The Boss on Sunday with R and a couple of my friends. Too much to take in one weekend.

With two such events in quick succession, I just cannot contain myself. Its like, I have been literally on cloud 9 the whole of this week. In fact, I have postponed Pirates yet again (a story by itself for which I shall come up with a write-up in its whole entirety later) to next weekend. The weekend, it got released, I had to postpone seeing it, as I wanted to see 1 and 2 before seeing World's End. Then at last found the time to see both in one session last weekend. But then with this weekend being so filled up, I did not want to lose the joy of seeing Pirates. So it has gotten postponed again.

Post Script to Jaane Do Na

My husband, the Illayaraja fanatic that he is did not get that mightily impressed as myself on Cheeni Kum and to my favorite Jaane Do Na, he said not only was it an imitation of the Tamil version as I had identified, but was actually from a Kannada song of which he had forgotten the lyrics. He said, that Illayaraja initially came up with that composition for Kannada and then used it for a tamil movie.

And last Friday when I did some blog jumping I read somewhere – as usual lost the source – that it was a song named Jotheyali Jothe Jotheyali from a Kannada movie named Geetha. As usual, I got to musicindiaonline.com and I now prefer that one. The orchestration in that is even better, especially the violin and the voices of both Janaki and SPB. But I still do like the Hindi version better to the Tamil one.

Anyways, so much over a song. And Cheeni Kum is still the ones that I am listening to. :)

ps. Yet to see the movie though.

Jaane Do Na

Got to talk to a friend of mine yesterday after some 4-5 weeks. Actually, felt like talking after ages. Some people have that way to make you feel. Unfortunately, this one has that uncanny nature to make me feel that way at times. That’s besides the point of what I started to say.

Anyways, this friend of mine and I share very similar taste with reference to film music and we both like Illayaraja. Of late, I had been way too busy with so many things that I had missed doing so many things that I should be doing leave alone listening to the music of Cheeni Kum. When starting the conversation, my friend was like ‘Did you listen to the songs of Cheeni Kum, did you? Oh God, its way too good. You have to listen to Cheeni Kum. It does sound very familiar, but is awesome. Illayaraja is brilliant’ in a very exuberant fashion. Hearing that exuberance was when I realized what I had been missing all these weeks that made me feel like the weeks were ages. Now you know that you should be calling more often you moron… I am digressing again.

That’s when it struck me that the music was done by Illayaraja and that I had missed listening to it. I did know it was Illayaraja who composed for Chenni Kum for I remembered reading it long ago some where. So I went to musicindiaonline.com--my usual haunt for any kind of Indian music--and listened to the songs of Cheeni Kum today. Hmm, the music was not just good, I am so glad that I am listening to it at least today.

Funny, those songs were my favorites in Tamil and now, I have fallen in love with Jaane Do Na. It is an old tamil song composed with different instrumentation with Shreya Goshal singing it and with Sameer's lyrics, it is heavenly to listen to that number. Its been in my loop for the whole day.

I did remember that Baatein Hawa was Koozhal Oothum Kannanukku from Mella Thirandhadhu Kadhavu and Cheeni Kum and Sooni Sooni were both Mandram Vandha Thendralukku from Mouna Raagam, but some how I am not able to get the right tamil lyrics right for Jaane Do Na… but whatever, they might be repeats, but they do sound fresh and are lovely to hear. As always, Illayaraja is lovely and with Shreya Goshal its even more enjoyable in spite of the melodies being old numbers. Baatein Hawa in Shreya Goshal's voice with Amitabh talking a few words in-between is just too good.

Have not seen the movie yet.

ps. I just realized that Jaane Do Na is Vizhiyilae Mani Vizhiyil Mouna Mozhi Paesum Annam from Nooravadhu Naal but I feel that Jaane Do Na is way too good than the original. After listening to Shreya, I like the new version more than the old one. :)

Rain

Been listening to songs from Guru for sometime now. Listening to Barso Re from Guru in a loop the last few days. Should be more than a week. Sometimes I get hooked up to a particular song and keep listening to it like no other song exists in this world.

Barso Re makes me go back in time to the rain songs of Raja. To the late 80’s and early 90’s. To getting wet in the rain during college days when granma was around. To coming home drenched to a hot cup of coffee or bournvita. To the hot onion pakodas and bajjis made by granma. To the smell of all these welcoming you when you come home. To the hot water waiting for me to wash myself after that eventful ride in PTC. To Granny waiting with all these eagerly for me.

It rained hard during the weekend here in Dallas. I did get wet on Friday. Me and R had Mexican food at our favorite place straight from work. Went home wet. Took a hot shower. Missed the smell of coffee or choclate. Missed the presence of elders in the house. So many things change with age, time, and place.

It was cold winter rain. Not the cool rain of the monsoon. I sometimes miss that. More so when I listen to songs like these.

ps. Yet to see Guru.

Kireedom—Mohanlal (VCD)

During the last 3 odd days of leave, I saw Kireedom, a Malayalam movie starring Mohanlal, Parvathy and many others. These days, I have become a major fan of Mohanlal. Not that I haven’t been earlier. But you could say, I am reviving that old spirit of seeing movies that I had during my college days :-)

What captivated me was the characterization of Sethu done my Mohanlal. He had bagged a national award for the same. He brings out the portrayal of a veetukku adangina pillai, whose life goes hayway and he is not in control of it. In the process, his parents misunderstand him, he loses his sweet heart. And the way he performs is just too good. Every bit that is required but not a pinch more or a pinch less. Just what is needed to bring Sethu alive. And I still have Sethu in front of my mental eyes after 3 days of watching it. Excellent movie indeed. Everyone has performed well. But then Mohanlal was Sethu himself.

Mystic India—The Giant Movie—My 2 Cents

Was indeed a giant movie made of a small country. My country. Had read so many reviews and wanted to see what it was that this small boy did.

The blurbs that I read said, that it was a walk of 7 years of a 11 year old boy – a young yogi. I was expecting to see another westernized way of looking into India. But this was different. A typical Indian way of approaching the subject and the trail of this young yogi. Made me marvel at the faith and will this young boy had at that tender a age. When at this age, not that I am a granny.. but still question His existence at many a time.

The way Neelkant, that’s the boy’s name, walks all alone in the summits of Himalayas, all alone with nothing to accompany him except his faith makes you believe in god. The enormity of the mountains in sharp contrast to this small boy all by himself, with nothing with him, no food, no clothes to keep him warm except for this faith. He is going all around the country to understand the supreme better and in the process learns to become one with nature. The way the camera goes with the boy makes you feel that you have made your journey around India.

Leaves with a feeling you have gone to India for 45 mins. Right from the time, you are welcomed with an elephant to the time when Neelkant decides to stay in a place in Gujarat, the movie makes you leave with a feeling that you have been in India for a few days and have returned back to US when you get out to go to the parking lot.

Kudos to the crew and to everyone associated with the making. An excellent movie that brings out the unity of India in its diversity. One more reason to feel proud to be an Indian. I am so happy to be a drop in that vast ocean.

Manasil Mithuna Mazhai Pozhiyum Azhagil oru Mayilin Alasalaasyam... (VHS)

I saw this Malayalam movie called Nandhanam. If I am right, it was the first movie of Navya Nair. And for a first movie that girl is just too good. And the cast includes Prithviraj, Revathy, Kaaviyoor Ponnama as P’s Gramms, Innocent, Jagathi and many others whom I don’t know.

Okay, I need tell this before I proceed further. I am not that fluent in Malayalam with Tamil being my mother tongue and if I end up speaking Malayalam a native of the language is going to have a tough time. But then, I can surely survive with my knowledge in any remote village of Kerala. But I sure enjoy a good Malayalam movie more than a regular Tamil movie. So much for a language.

Let me get back to Nandhanam. Its an awesome movie. I don’t know if everyone would feel that way. Its just another romance where a poor servant girl falls in love with the master of the house and the usual problems that go with it where the relatives are against it and make them feel miserable. But the beauty of this movie is the girl by herself. She is a very simple girl, with simple expectations in life and is not angry at the people who are trying to spoil it for her, is so genuine in the way she gets things around the house for the old woman (KP) and in general it’s the girl who makes you get involved in the movie. And of course the script. Being an ardent devotee of Guruvayoorappan, she is for ever taking to him as her friend. Comes to his picture when she is happy to share a few words and again to cry to him when she is upset about something. And those conversations just stay with you long after the movie is over and is just classic. So much so, the lord himself is not able to just not be without hearing her and comes down for her as her next door Unni Ettan and gets her married to her sweetheart.

The movie lingers in your mind long after you have seen it. Makes you feel that God is right there hearing you all the time and there for you no matter what and if there is a time which you find difficult to cross he is going to come next to you in some form. Its just that you do not know. I can just go on and on and on… Dunno why some movies have this feeling of making so silent about it after watching it and you just feel like you have had a look into something so so special. Like it was a message just for you!

And there is a song where she is confused as who this next door guy is … Manasil Mithuna Mazhai … my favorite from the time I have seen the movie and a couple more where she sings on lord Krishna ... Karmugil Varnande Chundil ... Excellent Excellent Excellent. I had to iterate it that many times. Couldn’t help it. I have been listening to that song the last few days repetitively and just had to write about it. How I wish I can understand those songs better!