Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all !!!

12 Years Back

                I just wanna pen down about a sweet thing that happened 12 years back. One of my most favourite films “Kadhalukku Mariyadhai” was released on this day 12 years back. Many people think that it was released in 1998. But it was a slow pick up but a blockbuster movie. There was not even a single advertisement about the movie when it was released. It was like a re-entry to Maestro Ilayaraja. He just rocked. But no song was telecast in any of the channels till Pongal ‘98. It entered as a Pongal Release in Top Ten Movies and Super 10 songs as Pongal release and maintained in 1st position for a long time and it was the best movie in the Annual Top 10 movies and Super 10 Songs. I’m so proud that I’m the Kadhalukku Mariyadhai community owner in Orkut which has more than 1000 members.

                But I didnt watch on this day. I watched on a 25th Dec 1997 with our school friends.  Thanks to my Maths teacher Mr. Ravichandran who took our students to the movie. I was sitting near my friend Andrews and he saw me crying during the climax. I was 15 then and since I was in my early teen, it’s so close to my heart. I became a fan of Vijay esp for his dressing and I got crush on Shalini.  I might have seen this movie for more than 100 times.

                The songs were like National Anthem for me when I was in 10th. My school crush Hema was a fan of “Chandiranai thottadhu yaar…” from Ratchagan. But when “Ennai thalaatta varuvaala..” got 1st position, the former went to second. The next day she regretted for that in the classroom. Soon she too became a fan of KM songs. But her favourite is “Oru Pattampoochi..”. I sang that song in our 10th Std Farewell day. After around 11 years I got to chat with Andrews (Thanks to Orkut) and we were discussing about the day we saw the movie.

P.S: Yesterday Vettaikkaran was released. But I’m no more a Vijay fan now. In fact I stopped liking him after Khushi. The last Vijay movie I watched and enjoyed in theater is Ghilli. After that, I stopped watching Vijay movies which are so similar and more irritating. Hope he would do some meaningful films.

Margazhi Maha Utsavam

Yesterday was one of my most memorable days. For the first time  I attended Margazhi Maha Utsavam concert that too of Sudha Raghunathan. Though attending Sudha’s concert is not first time, it was the first time in Chennai I attended her concert. Last week itself I had planned to attend the concert as it was scheduled a couple of weeks back. I told my roommate Arun Ram and he too agreed to come with me. Last evening my uncle also told that he would come. Unfortunately I got work yesterday and went to office. Still I managed to attend the concert from 7pm to 9 pm and again went back to office.

WhenI entered the Chettinad Vidyashram School it was almost 7.10 pm. Cos we were searching it for a long time. Whenwe entered it was the ending line of Asaindhadum Mayil onru kandal, my fav of Sudha which made me her die hard fan. Then only I came to know that the theme was Oothukkadu Venkata Subbiyer’s songs. I listened to her “Alaipayuthe Kanna” album (Compilations of Oothukkadu songs) and becam ardent fan Carnatic Music and Sudha.

TBC

Happy B’day Rajnikanth

Wish Rajnikanth a Happy 60th B’day

A Tribute to Mahakavi Bharathi & M.S.Subbulakshmi

Today is Mahakavi Bharathi’s Birth Anniversary & Carnatic Music Queen M.S. Subbulakshmi’s Death Anniversary.

I would like to pay Tribute to the Legends through my blog.

Dosa Calling & 420 Beeda

Dosa Calling (DC), my recent favourite food joint opened a branch at Adyar very near to my house. Thanks to my friend Balanagesh for taking me to DC for the first time at Kellys a couple of moths back.

Naan pogiren mele mele

This is a beautiful romantic song from the movie Naanayam composed by James Vasanthan and sung by the evergreen duo S.P.Balasubramaniam and Chithra. Both simply rock with their mind blowing  and God-gifted voices even after two decades. The lyrics are also so romantic and cute. Check it out.

Lyrics Courtesy:  http://tamilmp3songslyrics.com

My Love for Mumbai

Mumbai- I just hated this place till last year same day. I had been to Mumbai for 3 days when I was in my 3rd year Engineering. (Courtesy my aunt’s Amway convection). I went with my uncle and aunt from Bangalore. Being a cosmopolitan city, it didnt impress me despite its tall buildings and hot figures. I just hated the crowd, pollution and traffic. I was about to miss my train while leaving from Mumbai though I started 2 hours before. If I were 10 minutes late, I would have missed the train. From that day, I bid a big good-bye to Mumbai. Terrorism and insecurity  are the foremost factors to hate Mumbai. Hence I never showed interest to visit the place.

But after the Mumbai Terror attack on 26/11/08 and watching the Burning Taj, with gun shots all around a public place I wished to be in such a place to experience the thrill and adventure. I had seen only in movies (esp RGV). I wanted to join my then company’s Mumbai branch with Muru.  I had just underwent a surgery then so I didnt tell my wish to anyone. But believe it or not, on Dec 8th 2008, I got a call from our HR that I would get transferred to Mumbai. He told me to vacate Kolkata and join Mumbai asap. That time I was in Chennai in my uncle’s home. When I told this to my family, none wanted me to go since it was just 10 days after the Terrorist Attack. My friend Rachna might be the only happy person as she too loves Mumbai. But I believed that nothing would happen since my wish became true. One of my favourite Gods had answered my prayer. I left for Kolkata from Chennai by train and the next day itself I left for Mumbai with my bag and baggages. My uncle scolded me to be assertive and to tell my PM to get a week’s extension for transfer since I was a week patient then. But my zeal and will power gave me confidence to travel again 2 days by train. My mom still wonder as I was a delicate darling and a couch potat0 who never used to move from my place totake a glass of water. On 15.08.2008 midnight, I landed in my dream place at Dadar Station. Mumbai meri Jaan!

Homage to the 26/11 Victims

Today India observes the first anniversary of 26/11 Terrorist attack at the Taj Hotel, Mumbai. Today is one of the Black days of India.

Paa

Paa - The yet to be released movie starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan in the lead roles is the talk of the B-Town. The Cheeni Kum team is back. Director R.Balki teams up again with Amitabh, Maestro Ilayaraja, P.C.Sreeram and Paresh Rawal but without Tabu. It created a curiosity when it was announced that Junior B will be playing Big B’s father in the movie. Now, after the teaser, it created more eagerness to watch it. Yes, Amitabh is playing the son of Abhishek who has a disease of ageing in childhood. He gets a physical appearance of 60 year old man in his teen age. The highlight is Big B’s make up. He takes 2 days rest after a day’s shoot. That much heavy make-up. P.C.Sreeram has used a different kind of camera lens to show Amitabh Bachchan shorter. K.S.Ravikumar should have used that in Aadhavan to show the younger Surya instead of cheap Graphics which was so unreal.

Music: Since Cheeni Kum’s music was one of my favourites, I expected the same from Paa. But I was disppointed very much since Shreya has not even sung a song in the album. Shreya was given evergreen Tamil songs in the former movie. But what hap between Ilayaraja & Shreya? The songs are okay. Mudhi mudhi is quite novel and refreshing. It has 3 versions. Putham pudhu kaalai is recreated as “Halke se bole” but for less than 2 mins. My most fav Raja number “Sangathil padadha kavidhai..” is recreated as “Gumm Summ Gumm..” though it was recreated as “Monday to uthkar chalo…” in Balu Mahendra’s Hindi flick Aur Ek Prem Kahaani. I set this as my caller tune soon after hearing the song. Just a couple of weeks back, I told about this song in different languages to my roomie Arun Ram. I wished that Shreya would sing this song once. But Bhavatharini has sung the song. Anyways, I just love the song which made me a die-hard fan of the Maestro. You too enjoy!!!