I cast my VOTE!

A couple of days back i exercised my fundamental right of the indian constitution. Yes. I cast my vote. This is the second time i voted in my life. Recollected few general reminisces of the voting experience here below..
by the time i entered the election booth,at 10'OClock,many middle aged men/women, aged people ,Churi clad girls and few young chaps with barmudas were already waiting in the queue. As my turn came,the officials noted down my Voter id no and took my signature . One of the officers asked to show my hand for marking ink . I showed all my fingers as i forgot the finger which was marked the previous time i voted. He pulled my index finger , made a dirty pink marking and directed me to the ballot cabin. It looked more or less like a internet browsing cube. Two electronic voting machines(EVM) were placed side by side . The EVM were quite bigger than initally imagined. I quickly browsed through the candidate names printed on the EVM and pressed the button corresponding to my choice. But there was no ENTER button to press after making the choice ?!
As i was abt to leave the ballot room , i heard a 'tin ...tin' from my mobile, a typical SMS omen. Just a moment before picking up the mobile from my pocket, a thought suddenly flashed... may be the message is "Your vote has been successfully Registered. Thank You- Election Commission" !??? Well, it is quite usual that everytime after picking up cash from ATM or make an online payment, an acknowlegement SMS appears on my mobile, that too within a minute . Getting used to this , my sudden hunch is not a surprise . Aftermath, few more thoughts wavered into my mind then and there that day.... Why there is no online voting system?! despite being an IT hub of the world ! If online tax payment is a reality , why not an online voting system? It is unlikely that every one of the above 18yrs citizen will go for online voting , if introduced. But this facility would surely attract the younger generation to cast their vote and make them accountable for the Indian polity. I think the apathy of youth with voting is more abt laziness in getting regitered in the electoral office and going to the voting booth rather than any frustation with the corrupt politicians etc as some youths claim.
I was also thinking abt the wrong address got printed on my VoterID Card. I would not be able to use it as an address proof anywhere :(
a word of appreciation to be surely mentioned here. Elder citizens were allowed to vote ahead of the queue. More specifically,the elder citizens didn't request as a favour. But the election workers themselves invited them to vote ahead of the queue!

P.S:
By the way if you are eager...the SMS i actually recieved was like
"HanumanJi devotional songs download . Rs.15/month.Limited offer. Hurry"!

Vedham Pudhidhu

A movie by Bharathiraja, released in 1987.. I remember watching the movie in a theatre long time back with my parents when i was kid , only able to comprehend spiderman cartoons! After that happened to see the movie in tits and bits few times . But only for the last few years started showing a real liking for social movies. And one of the movies i liked most in this genre is 'Vedham Pudhidhu'

The movie is essentially based on a village backdrop . Baaluthevar (played by Sathyaraj) a well to do man of the village , is a die-hard atheist and vehement critic of the caste system, vedas and all superstitions. But owing to his generous and sympathetic nature earned the good-will and respect of the villagers .
In the same village agraharam , lived Neelaganda Sasthrigal , an orthodox brahmin(Charu Haasan) , who earned his bread teaching the vedic scriptures to the brahmin boys of the agraharam. He lived with his daughter Vaidehi (Amala) and son , Sankara. Despite being a young boy ,Sankara showed signs of marked reasoning and inquisition at that age itself.

Baaluthevar's son Chakrapaandi, a educated youth , once happens to see the beautiful Vaidehi and falls in love on first sight. Vaidehi too surrenders to the Cupid's arrow! Romance blossoms between them despite their caste differences.Vaidehi's father comes to know of his daughter's love interest and immediately pleads Baaluthevar to save his dignity by restricting his son Chakrapaandi . Baaluthevar discerns unwillingly and orders his son Chakrapaandi to forget Vaidehi. The Sasthri quickly arranges for his daughter's marriage elsewhere. But Vaidehi, escapes from the marriage putting up a feign of having committed suicide and moves out of the village and rescued by an outsider(Nilalgal Ravi).

In the meanwhile, the most unfortunate happens when both Vaidehi's father and Chakrapaandi get killed by a freak mishap. The real crux of the story begins from here, when Neelaganda Sasthri's son Sankara is left orphaned and none came forward to take care of him
even from their own brahmin community. Baalu Thevar , comes forward and invites Sankara to his home. Sankara, becomes a solace for both Baalu Thevar and his wife ( Saritha ) from the loss of their son Chakrapandi. Sankara is more isolated from his community since he lives with a non-brahmin man, Baaluthevar and get refused of any Vedic education and even excluded from the 'aani-avittam' ceremony despite Baaluthevar's best efforts. At the same time Sankara's wisdom & reasoning,turns an eye-opener for Baaluthevar and gets slowly reformed for his affection for the boy. Above all ,Sankara stuns Baaluthevar when reminded of his strong Thevar community inclinations, despite an ardent critic of the caste system all these years. Baaluthevar then on disposes his thevar identity and becomes Baalu !

In the meanwhile ,Vaidehi, returns to the village and comes to Baaluthevar's house to meet her only kin , Sankara. The village comes to know of Vaidehi's return, whom they assumed had committed suicide. The villagers stimulated by evil advise turns angry considering her return inauspicious to the village and march towards Baaluthevar's home to drive away Vaidehi.But in the drama, Baaluthevar gets killed pathetically . In the end , Sankara too throws away his brahminical inclinations and mingles with the other caste children of his age, as a positive note.
The movie is filled with razor-edged dialogues throughout and is impeccable. The vedas , caste system and religious beliefs rediculed all through Baaluthevar. And when vedas are criticised, it is invariably brahminism bear the brunt. But the same Baaluthevar , when backfired by the brahmin boy Sankara, of his own caste bias deserves big applause.

Sathyaraj has done a superb acting. With the make-up of an village god-father clad with 'kadar' dress and towel , one can hardly see the actor Sathyaraj in Baaluthevar ! Saritha has done her role suitably well. The end sequence is too dramatic undeniably. Too many things happens in one night and the way BaaluThevar gets killed is unconvincing. Romantic interlude of Raja and Amala is beautifully depicted though acting opportunity is limited.

Surely , Baaluthevar, Sankara and the striking dialogues will remain eternal in our minds.

Puli varudhu..

I saw the movie on a SUN TV night show. Though initially watched only half heartedly, some how the movie pulled me in as it progressed despite annoying frequency of advertisements.

The hero, Ramesh, on a visit to a village on his friend's marriage gets a morbid dream on the way , where the marriage is marred by an unauspicious event.. the mangal sutra falling into the fire. As his friend and his family rejects the marriage,the hero accept to marry the bride girl and request his other friend Karunaas to get a new mangal sutra. But on the way Karunaas dies of a lorry accident. The bride commits suicide setting herself on fire unable to bear her fate .
To the relief ,in reality, the bride turns to be different from the dream girl and marriage proceeds happily. But to the surprise,the hero happens to see another girl in the marriage proceedings,the heroine(Mallika Kapoor) who resembled exactly the bride girl of his morbid dream. The hero falls in love-on-first-sight with this girl and she too shows her liking . Their parents happily agree .
When Ramesh, his family and Karunaas go to the village next for the betrothal arrangement ,the hero again gets a dream! This time his own marriage gets shattered by his father's heart attack and the heroine commmits suicide in a village well.

Ramesh , obviously is put in dilemma whether to ignore the dream and proceed with or to cancel the marriage. Events more or less resembling his dream adds to his woes. How the hero manages the dilemma is the rest of the story.

Jithan Ramesh, played only a subdued role compared to Karunaas . The movie heavily relies on its unusual theme and humour . Good to see a comedy part which doesn't deviates away from the story . A special appreciation for the hero being spared of heroic loquacity and stunts. (but here is where probably it lost in commercial sheen ! )
Towards the end , comedy and suspense are well balanced. Despite all mis-happenings , since there is always a humor touch , it is well evident "hey relax man. The end is surely a 'smiley' ! " The decision of the hero to 'go ahead' on the marriage is not very convincing considering his father's life at stake. The heroine comes as a chubby chocolate girl and fills the glamour part in song sequences.
The unusual concept and humour is the movies's strength. (Though Azhagiya Thamizh magan is based on the same concept, the movie is much hero oriented)
I liked the movie..that is my unequivocal feel!

Raman Thediya Seedhai

The movie is about a gentle & good natured guy Venu(Cheran) looking for a suitable bride and how he succeeds despite all odds & testing times is the story.

Venu is a well-educated,employed, talented guy with decent looks. He has just one problem of stammering which results in getting him rejected by the brides . Bad luck adds to his woes. At last one bride gets fixed . But at the last moment , the bride runs away before marriage . The hero makes up a show as if he runs away taking the blame thus saving the girl's family the worst humiliation. ( Too gud a guy! Except here , his portrayal of his goodness is okay on most other occasions) .
Personally Venu's spirits are severed and is dejected. He incidentally meets Nedumaran(Pasupathi) , an RJ and also a visually disabled person. Nedumaran's bouyance and his romantic interlude with his die-hard fan Thamizhisai(Gajala) lifts his spirits and resumes his bride search. The eloped girl's father(Manivanan) , decides to help him feeling deeply guilt by his daughters felony . Together they go to see Gayathri(Karthika) , a bride from Nagercoil . Gayathri's 's charm and openness impresses Venu. But on the other side,Gayathri is in dilemma on accepting Venu, since an auto-driver(Nitin Sathya) , previously a petty thief changed for her sake , deeply loves her. Venu who incidentally comes to know the whole story from the auto-driver itself helps Gayathri understand his love . Gayathri is convinced and deeply moved .
Venu in between happens to see Manivannan's eloped daughter who is pregnant and in battered state. He helps her to get admitted to a hospital where he unexpectedly sees Ranjitha (too dramatic here.. ) working as a hospital receptionist , who is the first girl to reject him 3 yrs back . They get to now each other better . Slowly Ranjitha gets moved by Venu's good-nature and falls in love though she reveals only at the end . Venu though has a liking for her, does'nt propose again for marriage as he had already been rejected and proceeds with his bride search.
Next bride he plans to see is inspector Senthamarai(Navya Nair) . But this time , faces the embarassment of beaten up by Inspector Senthamarai itself , mistaking him to be a rebel .Venu's frustation is obvious here. When Venu seeks Ranjitha's help in covincing Senthamarai of his innocence , Ranjitha's emotions breaks down and reveals her love . Venu... yes, accepts her proposal ! ...and they lived happy for ever :)

It is a good visual treat with a flow of beautiful heroines(Vimala Raman , Gajala, Ramya Nambeesan , Navya nair, Karthika ) till the end! In fact that saves the movie commercially . Otherwise movie could have got a "boring" response. Cheran has improved in his acting. Vimala Raman who looks stunningly beautiful in her traditional costumes acts well too. Others girl's impress albeit short screen presence. Cheran's 'Autograph' specs which he wears then and there could have been totally avoided. Pasupathi has done an excellent performance and enlivens the audience . Nithin Sathya's role adds mild humour in his romance sequence .
Could have added more comedy with Karunaas .

and finally the movie has a message ..." one cannot judge a person on the first sight or few minutes of conversation ! "

Good to see a mild movie after a long time indeed . A film without villains, bloodsport,vulgarity, double meaning or punch dialogues is refreshing and deserves appreciation . Soft movie goers will like . Others will not be disappointed either.

Dhaam Dhoom

The hero (Jeyam Ravi) , a Doctor,visits Russia for a conference meeting but gets entangled in a murder charge . How the plot unfolds into a drug pedalling episode behind the murder and how the hero gets out is the story. Though the storyline seems to be a interesting thriller, the way the film is made is really shoddy. The movie is never gripping at any point of time as there is no turn of events in the story and is stagnant for the most part. Too much time is spent in run-chase drama. The drug pedalling episode is never properly focussed. The cops chasing the accused hero and the villain gang's attempt to terminate him wouldn't have bored had the real conspiracy plot too moved in parallel rather than at the end. It is illogical that daughter of Police chief does drug pedalling (... mean she could be a drug addict but not a drug peddlar!). The advocate for the hero,(Lakshmi Rai) has nothing to do other than running around with the hero and a duet.
The villain is quite predictable long before being revealed .The climax sequence is slightly interesting though not great. Lot of redundant shots are filled up . There is a romance flashback too for the hero in which he had been in love with a mischievious village girl(Kankana). Here too scenes are filled up irrelelevant to the main storyline.
Only the camera work is appealing and refreshing as used to be in Jeeva movies.

One more weakness to be mentioned is that it never gives a 'local' feel ,except for Ravi( thanks to M.Kumaran S/o Mahalakshmi, Santhosh subramaniam). Felt like watching a dubbed Telugu movie in the village sequence. Also the foreign land effect makes things worse.

few reasons in nutshell why the movie did'nt click
- irrelevant scenes filled up
- leaving Ravi, nobody else give a 'namma aalu' feel.
- too much of run-chase

SAROJA

SaRoJa , the second movie from director Venkat Prabu after the 'Chennai-68' flick is an modest entertainer especially for the youth and middle age groups . The blend of comedy and crime is an infrequent genre in the Tamil cinema and the attempt by the director is welcome...

The actual plot begins with the four friends (played by Premji, Shiva, S.P Charan & Vaibhav ) starting casually from Chennai for a Cricket match at Hyderabad . Initially everything was normal and fun filled as any of us would leave for a trip with friends chit-chatting ,snacking etc. But soon things didnt move as planned as on the way they were caught in a traffic block caused by a tanker toppled down by an accident . The friends decided to take the short cut route and join the main road to Hyderabad . As they proceeded they lose their way and run into a gang of goons and their leader . The four friends ,of course, have no business there other than just escape from that place. Soon turn of events led Saroja who was kidnapped and trapped in the gang's camp also to join with them in their escape mission . and how they do it is rest of the story ..

Focus is more on the four friends' comraderie, tussle and their 'heroic' endeavours to escape from the gang than on the kidnap episode. The dialogues among the friends and their delivery were natural . Only the addressing each other 'sir.. sir' initially and 'da ..da' later here and there was not so acceptable. Premji, Shiva, S.P Charan and Vaibhav suited their roles and put up a decent show. Premji carried a big responsibility , the comedy part and did it good enough.

The escape sequence happening around the night/midnight dark and the seemingly ruthless villains added ample eerie . Everytime the tension builds up , Ganesh (Premji) comes out with his comedy dialogues and tickles us . Shiva and others too added to the humour . Seems the director never wanted the film to be serious at any point of time . Even in a tense climax , humour is sprinkled . No doubt , comedy is a big strength to the movie as an entertainer . But at times the same were irksome , when we are engrossed in a real thriller mood . Particularly the muscial background of some old movie songs to add comic effect could have been avoided as the plot moved towards the end.

Jayaram comes as a cop to rescue Saroja , his close friend Vishwanathan's (Prakash Raj) daughter, from the kidnap gang. Prakash Raj played only a subdued role .

Camera lightings were perfertly done and especially deserves appreciation in the second half where the story moves mostly in dark . Also hard work is obvious in many of the shots where scenes were projected from different angles . But it also needs mention that many times the camera movements & scene shifts were too quick that it makes the eye coordination with the scene uncomfortable . May be it is a camera technique to project a tense or a eerie situation . But the same too often is not apt .

The villain's love interest Kalyani (played by Nikita Thukral)added steam amidst thrill with the item number "kodana kodi..."

Music..Few songs linger. Also kudos to Yuvan for the background music , especially the beats at critical moments.

Could have saved some budget if the first 40 min was compressed to some 10-15 mins !

To conclude , the movie as mentioned in the beginning is a modest entertainer and fits well in a 'gud , watchable once ' types..