Happy New Year & Prosperous Pongal!

Wish you all a happy new year and a prosperous Pongal!

Mayakkam Enna? (மயக்கம் என்ன?)

Movie:      Mayakkam Enna
Cast:         Dhanush,  Richa Gangopadhyay
Director: Selvaraghavan
If someone told me 10 years back that I will be announcing it to the world that I enjoy watching a Dhanush’s song and will go to the theaters to watch Dhanush’s movie, I wouldn’t have believed them. But what to do you know? I caught Mayakkam Enna today in theater this weekend. What made me go? Dhanush and he didn’t disappoint! Blown away by Dhanush’s acting! He has done a wonderful job. He is picking the characters that suits him and that is working out for him very well! Selvaraghavan has picked a very complex story and has done a very good job of making it into a movie. It is very believable barring the cinematic climax (But then one has to end a movie one way or the other! So he didn’t have too many choices there). The second half of the movie appealed to me more than the first half.  As for Music, not impressed by G V Prakashkumar. The voda voda song was not necessary for the movie. The rest  of the songs gave me a sense of Deja Vu. How many of you were reminded of “Naa maangun sona chandhi” from Bobby and the “Made in India” song when listening to “Naa sonnadhum mazhai”. Although I loved the song on screen. Even the background score was not all the great in my opinion.  As for the cast, everyone did a wonderful job, but I am disappointed with Richa. The first half had terrible lip-synch for her. In some scenes, the dialogues were delivered when she had her lips closed. Did Selvaraghavan dose off while directing Richa? Also she had a wooden expression through out first half. No chemistry between her and Dhanush. As for the second half, Richa made up for the flaws by her wonderful acting in a vital scene. If she didn’t, the movie wouldn’t have worked. The movie would have been even better and powerful if Andrea or Priyamani had played the role of the heroine.

Overall, I enjoyed watching this movie.

Dinner Tonight

We had been to Lake Tahoe for the Thanksgiving weekend. Surprisingly, it was sunny and bright there in Lake Tahoe. Had a relaxing and fun time there. Came back home to a gloomy weather yesterday and went to work today in the gloomy weather. What better way to spruce up a gloomy weather than a hearty wonderful dinner. So raided the pantry and finally found a bag of Avees Puncha Idiyappam podi and some cans of light coconut milk. Have never made idiyappam in life. Searched internet for recipes and gave up since all of the recipes were for white rice flour, not the red rice puncha idiyappam. Decided to give it a try on my own. Didn’t have high hopes. But guess how it turned out! Awesome! Look for yourself.

Idiyappam (6-8 servings  of 4-6 idiyappams each)

1. Avees Puncha Idiyappam podi (Red rice flour) – 2 cups
2. Boiling water – 2 cups
3. Oil – 2 tbsp
4. Salt to taste

Mix the salt, Idiyappam podi, add water little by little. Mix it without any lumps and keep it aside closed for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add the oil and knead it well without any lumps. Then using a idiyappam press or thenkuzhal choppu/Nazhi, press them into idly mould and steam them for 10 minutes.  Wonderful idiyappam is ready.

Kadalai curry(4 servings)

1. Diced Onions 1/2 cup
2. Boiled garbanzo bean(channa) 1 1/2 cup
3. Grated garlic/ginger 1 tsp
4. Red chilli powder 1 tsp
5. Oil 1 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Madras curry masala powder/garam masala 1 tsp
8. Tomato 1, chopped
9. Light coconut milk 1 cup
10. Cilantro leaves, 1 tbsp chopped

Heat oil, add ginger/garlic, then add onion, saute for 2 mins, add tomato and salt, saute for 10 mins, then add the curry masala powder, after 5 mins, add the garbanzo bean and 1 cup of water. Let it boil for 15 mins. Add the coconut milk, switch off once it is about to boil. Add  powder, saute for five minutes, add salt and keep it aside. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

Serve it with hot idiyappam.

Why this Kolaveri?

Did you laugh/smile/enjoy as much as I did watching/listening to this?

First it was Otha sollala, now this! I so don’t want to admit that I liked both the songs and Dhanush’s acting/expressions!!

Kullanari Koottam (குள்ளநரி கூட்டம்)

Boo has been asking me to watch this movie for a long time now. Since this is a movie with no popular actors and since utbt has R2I-ed, couldn’t get hold of DVD here. Finally saw the promos for it in Vijay TV and looked forward to watching it. To make things complicated, it was screened on the day of time change and the recording got screwed up. Since Vijay TV repeats the program twice, thankfully was able to record it the second time. Well, the movie was well worth the trouble. Thanks Boo for the recommendation!
Pros:

• The cast. Don’t know any one of them, but they were all good. The hero’s entire  family was so natural and believable.
• Very simple story, tight screenplay. I don’t know how to describe it, but the movie was pretty good.
• Music was pretty good too and apt for the movie.

Cons:

• None really. If I had to pick one, the movie would have been much better if they have picked a more Madurai looking girl instead of Ramya Nambeesan. Also the ending could have been more creative.

The movie was very entertaining. Overall, the movie was a fun and brilliant.

7aum arivu (7ஆம் அறிவு)

Have been looking forward to watch this movie for some time. But has been a  little skeptical since AR Murugadas said he wants to please A, B, C centers and their extended family with any of his movie irrespective of what he takes. Missed watching the movie the first week due to many schedule conflicts. By then reviews started coming in and my expectation hit rock bottom which was a blessing in disguise. Watched the movie finally this weekend, and it was not bad thanks to my low expectation.
Pros:

• The cast. Shruthi, Suriya, Johnny tri Nguyen, all three looking good and acted well.
• Bodhi dharma’s back story. Wish it was the entire movie. It would have been fresh and very entertaining. (Felt the same way in Dasavatharam as well. It is time for a good historic movie in Tamil. Anyone hearing me. If so, please remember it should be good.)
• Didn’t screw up big time in an attempt to dumb down the movie for the audience
• Visuals
• Not dwelling much into Suriya/Shruthi romance
• Strong role for the leading lady instead of typical “damsel in distress” heroine. Shruthi has played this part very well.
• It was creative of AR Murugadoss to pick the story of Bodhidharma. At least I didn’t know about Bodhidharma until I saw this movie, although an article about Bodhidharma came in Junior vikatan in the 80s.

Cons:

• Songs! Totally out of place and not impressive. “Ennum enna thozha” didn’t have the umph like “Jana gana mana” from Yuva. Probably the songs might work as a separate album, but not in this movie
• Background score was not impressive, it was distracting in many places especially in the climax fight sequence
• Too much reliance on Hypnotism and less martial arts
• Unnecessary display of  Surya’s  body. Kind of starts reminding one of Salman Khan
• Climax was dragging. Since we all know that Suriya is going to win, why drag it out.
• Gets too preachy at times. I mean, if the directed has depicted Bodhidharma as a Telegu prince in 7th sense, what does it do the credibility of the director!! So why bring the tamil pride and get all preachy when you are ready to misrepresent historic details in order to make money

Overall, the movie can is worth watching one time.

Happy Deepavali 2011!

Wish you all a wonderful Deepavali!

Visit to Boodom 2011

Had a wonderful time in Zurich with Ashu, Antu, Boo and Boo’s Hd. Ashu was thrilled since my visit was a surprise to her. Antu was not very thrilled. She took time to warm up to me or she teased me, only she knows. Antu declared, she doesn’t like me with a smile. And she kept repeating till the last day with a naughty smile. Every time I told her I liked her, her answer was, “Perimma kku enna pidikkum, enakku perimma pudikkadhu(Perimma likes me, but I don’t like perimma)”. Although on the last day, she had her bags packed and was ready to leave with me to OOOYES(US) leaving her amma/appa/akka. Stay at Boo’s house was a welcome change of pace in the midst of my week day work trips to Germany. We did squeeze in hikes, dinners during the weekend. We went to a super tasty Italian restaurant with family and a girls night out to Movie restaurant where I had a fake birthday celebration since the birthday girl didn’t show up.
Over the weekend, we went for a 4 hour hike at Alt St.Johann. The kids were such a sport walking without complaining. Here are some pictures. Isn’t it such a fun idea to have kids-friendly trails? Only Swiss can think of these wonderful ideas!!

Hiking trip

 
 
 
 
 
 
     
     
 
 
 
     

Also took a walk in the woods with the Ashu and Boo. It was a beautiful morning.

Walk in the woods

Mankatha(மங்காத்தா)

Pros:
Ajith seems to have enjoyed doing the movie and the bad boy image suits him better.
Ajith carries the entire weight of the movie.
Fast paced(Although the songs and Premji slow it down a bit)
Venkat Prabhu stuck to the script instead of changing it according to Ajith’s perceived image.
Lakshmi Rai, Arjun, Arvind have done a good job supporting Ajith. Lakshmi’s role is the meatiest of all.

Cons:
Too long
Mediocre to bad supporting cast. (Premji, Magath, Vaibhav to say the least)
The background score and songs weren’t impressive
They could have cast some one other than Premji for the geek character. Couldn’t imagine a character like Premji hacking into highly secured systems
Lot of scenes remind one of the many Hollywood movies that we have all seen. (Onna renda eduthu solla.)
The women in the movie other than Lakshmi Rai are fully wasted

Overall, the movie can be watched one time. Decent entertainer. For me this is the thrid Ajith movie in theatre. The first one was Vaali, which was pretty decent. The second one was Citizen. (I still have nightmares about that, so let us move on), the third is Mangatha, which is a decent movie.

By the way, the censor board, apart from bleeping out the profanities, also blurred some of the bloody scenes and some of the hips and bellybuttons. I have a question(Enakku oru unmai therinjaganum), when they freely show the bikini clad women prancing around, why are they blurring the hip that peeks out of a saree. Strange people I say!! Did this happen in all theatres or were we in a special theatre?

US Open 2011

Was in New York/New Jersey the past one week. A very good friend of us took us to US Open this weekend. It was the most a wonderful time of our life!! We had box seats, seated at the same level as Mrs.Federer (Althogh for a fleeting moment, the thought of selling our tickets for 1000$+ did cross our minds. In retrospect, we are so glad we didn’t pay attention to our thoughts!). We had the privilege of watching Federer vs Cilic and Serena vs Azarenka matches. It was just amazing. Husband went camera crazy. We were grinning half the time since we couldn’t believe we were there at close proximity. Take a look at a few pix that husband clicked. It was fun hearing Azarenka grunt and Serena roar in person!! Federer looks more skinny in person that on TV. Still grinning thinking about the fun we had!! Good company, great friends, great kids, good chaat, mini-golf, wii resort, US OPEN live from box seats, what more can one ask of a vacation!!