THROUGH THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

'TIME FLIES'

It seems like just a week back(using ‘a day back’ would be a bit exaggerating) that I was sitting at this same computer, typing away furiously, hoping to finish my 26^th post before midnight, December 31^st. and to think that I would be doing the same thing SO SOON is something I never really expected to happen.

But guess this is the truth-time, does fly!

Looking back, I guess 2010 was definitely a better year. But as is nature’s law of balance, it had its share of joy and sorrow, love and hate & success and failures.

Cricket, or rather the performances on field definitely got better. But like a bird that didn’t have the help of thermals, I had to work real hard to stay airborne. A string of starts, a couple of failures, a day when I turned savior and very little after that. Guess my cricket career didn’t really take off this year too like I had expected it too. yet another bad day at the office.

College life was better. New friends, better relationships with the older ones and so many unforgettable moments with friends, ha-BLISS! Not to forget the arrears I managed to get this sem, a first for me. But then, what is college life if u haven’t been a part of arrear exams. :P

Personal life was kinda twisted. Some people got closer, some just fell out. Altercations with dad on occasions more than one, and happy times with him, again, on occasions more than one. Love interests(?!) though not many did come to mind, which again, happens to be a first. But like most controversial and/or low budget kollywood movies, this never saw the light of the day too!

CHANGE- change did happen. A hell lot it did. Both from within(taller, stronger, sharper; well ok I didn’t really get taller but the other two I most definitely became) and on the outside(a new hairdo :P). Not to forget , I finally managed to get some change done at home too-more breathing space to be precise!

Looking back, 2010 definitely seemed to be better for me in more ways than one; it happened to be a year of many ‘firsts’- my first arrear, my first BIG knock, my first REAL crush, my first tangri kabab, my first Frankie, my first gift to and from my bro, my first movie download, my first plyometric workout, my first stint at self taught meditation, my first academic competition at college(which we came SO close to winning), my first anonymous intro, and of course my first drop of tear in a long, long time.

So revisiting those moments, 2010 did have a LOT of happy endings. But as is nature’s way, there were shades of grey too. But then, as incomplete is a painting without the color BLACK, life is also incomplete without a few failures, a few disappointments, and a few tears thrown here and there. But then, ever noticed how tasty even plain bread seems to be when we are hungry. For, only when we have witnessed the deepest troughs of life will we be able to truly admire and enjoy the crests, the crests that is success. Learn to enjoy even failures for they are nothing but opportunities to start the same work again with more knowledge on it (simple example- Thomas alva Edison and his explanation of his 999 attempts at inventing the light bulb. He never called them failures. He instead said that he was now filled with the knowledge that he knew of 999 items that COULD NOT BE USED to produce the light bulb, simple, yet stunning thought. And history says that the next time(1000^th) he tried,the electric bulb WAS invented)

So next time you sit down dejected, think of Thomas alva Edison, and a certain karthik sukumaran(or kihtrak to mr.venkata balakrishnan ;P :D), for only because they learned to look past their failures, they were able to die successful. well ok, am not dead yet but I know I will die successful. optimistic u ask? Well yeah I did vow to look at the glass as half full rather than half-empty.

Considering I’ve been putting in the effort, I know 2011 would be a better year.

And Considering this post was written on dec 25 AND considering that good kids like me(:P) are entitled to gifts from FR.NICHOLAS, all I’d like him to grant me is a very, very successful 2011, a year when I do peak, as I have been hoping for so long.

But enough of the selfishness, this is the season to spread cheer. And joy. So here’s wishing you all a very happy and successful year to come too.

Keep smiling.

Until next time,

Adios!

MOVIE REVIEW-BREAK KE BAAD

ok, am gonna keep this simple.

3 reasons why u should NOT watch BREAK KE BAAD:

1. corny scenes

2.lame dialogues

3. and a total absence of logic in the script.

but then, here are

3 reasons why you SHOULD watch BREAK KE BAAD:

1. deepika padukone!

2. deepika padukone!!

3. deepika padukone!!!

aaah, she looked 'oh!so great' in it! :S sid maalya/ranbir kapoor, u lucky ass! :@ ;P


until next time,

adios!!!!

PICTURES, PUNCTURES AND POINTS TO REMEMBER!

What do you get when you couple a family function that includes a 135 km drive to a temple outside the city, breakfast on the highway, multiple puncture delays, and a hyper active, super naughty 2 yr old at the heart of it all? Yeah, you got that right, an awesome, eventful day that is sure to remain fresh in our memories for a long, long time.

Two rounds of delicious breakfast, a round of clicking pics, a sumptuous lunch, posing for pics(something I love doing), an hr left stranded on the highway and an amazing time with the hero of the day, my 2 yr old cousin(ya, Iknow, there’s an age difference of 18 yrs between the two of us, what to do, ellam munnorgal panna thappu. :O ;P), things sure cant get more fun than this.

Btw, here are a few things that I did learn on the trip:

1. Small hotels on the highway on the outskirts of the city serve the most delicious food(hot, steaming unadulterated food that tastes just like home cooked food(well if your mom/cook isn’t really a great cook, it could taste better than home made food. ;P)

2. A spare tyre that wasn’t already punctured and discarded onto the roof of the van is VERY, VERY essential.

3. A driver who had been driving the night before and who also happens to have a habit of yawning while driving isn’t particularly recommended when you decide to go on long trips.

4. Hyper active, super naughty, fun loving, super smart 2 yr olds can be difficult to manage when in full flow. But they can be amazing fun too.

5. If it’s a family function, you will always find a group of people(generally, distant relatives of the in-laws) who sit and complain about the quality of the food(however good it might be)

6. Whenever there is a family function, you will always have over doting aunts and least bothered uncles. ;D

7. If the function is based in a temple, you can be mighty sure of finding monkeys and the offsprings (generally the smaller ones but u do find older ones too, at times) of their evolved life forms running around the temple premises with equal zest.

8. Always remember to stack up loads of food and water to last the whole of the travel time!

9. Dilapidated buildings near temples and/ or the temple itself serve as excellent spots to pose for FB profile pics. ;D

And last but not the least

10. If you are a compulsive blogger like me, always remember to put your thoughts into words when the events are still fresh in your mind. A bit like what I have done here. ;)

Keep smiling,

Until next time,

Adios!

FROM HOLLYWOOD TO KOLLYWOOD #1- PHONE BOOTH

Its vacation time, the perfect time to catch up on some movies and chat with friends. The idea for this blogpost(or rather this series of blogposts, hopefully) sprung up when i was chatting with my friend as to how different a hollywood movie would be if directed and/or acted by our kollywood directors and heroes.

First up in the series of FROM HOLLYWOOD TO KOLLYWOOD is PHONE BOOTH, an American psychological thriller about a man who is held hostage in a telephone booth by a sniper. It stars Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell, and Katie Holmes. The film was directed by Joel Schumacher, with music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams.

DISCLAIMER: The passage given below is a work of fiction, done basically out of boredom. References to any person living or dead, is purely unintentional.

Here goes nothing.

PHONE BOOTH(ENGLISH)

PLOT:

check out the link below if u aren't already aware of the plot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_Booth_%28film%29

Now here's the flip.


தொலைபேசிச் சாவடி(THOLAIPESI CHAVADI- the phone booth)

(taking into account the tamil nadu government's rule to have only tamil names as film titles. and also, kollywood filmmaker's pattern of having a caption that more often than not happens to be the literal translation of the title itself. ;P)


PLOT:

Stu Shepard is a minister/very highly ranked government official who is contemplating cheating on his wife Kelly. After work, he calls Pam, a young actress, from a phone booth. When a man tries to deliver a pizza to the booth, Stu rudely dismisses him. After the phone call with Pam, the phone rings and Stu answers it. The caller warns Stu not to leave the booth. The man doesn't tell Stu his identity, only that he loves to watch him. Stu, again dismissive, is skeptical toward the mystery caller, thinking it is a prank, and tells him he is going to hang up. The caller calls up pam, with whom stu has an extra marital affair. He then tells Stu to call his wife and tell her the truth, or else he will. Angrily, Stu does so. Before he has a chance to tell Kelly the truth, Stu is distracted by two prostitutes who want to use the phone.

INTRODUCE: 1)item song with the 2 prostitutes gyrating to the beats of a happening music director. the item song would preferably be a late night-open to all-public stage-i don't care if kids are around type.

The prostitutes become hostile due to Stu's refusal to leave the booth, and they start banging against the glass. Stu becomes agitated and finally hangs up on his wife and yells at the prostitutes to leave him alone. As the two girls leave, the man calls and warns Stu that if he hangs up again, he will shoot him. Stu doesn't believe him but is convinced when the man cocks his rifle.

The situation escalates further when the prostitutes and their pimp, Leon, approach the booth and demand that Stu leave.

INTRODUCE: 2)over dramatised fight scene including crashing lamp posts, water billowing out of hand pumps and flying bodies.

Leon is shot in the back by the sniper and the horrified prostitutes call the police, accusing Stu. The police arrive and Stu is instantly the suspect.

Kelly arrives at the scene and the sniper makes Stu confess to her about his infidelity, which Stu does.

The police finally track down the sniper by tracing the call the sniper made to Kelly, and Ramey tells Stu through a cryptic message that they have done so.

INTRODUCE: 3)high speed crisply cut shots to vigilance departments, cyber crime wing and other police departments that might not even remotely have anything to do with tapping a telephone number! also include, a call from the chief minister(man, y do they always pull the poor guy into this! :$ :D)

The police official(who btw, happens to be the hero in the tamil remake) tells stu to continue with the conversation while the police raid the adjoining buildings. Stu foolishly informs the sniper that the cops are coming to get him and the now enraged sniper chooses to take stu's life. stu hears the cocking of the gun. the next moment a shot is fired. stu stares at the sky, wide eyed in shock and falls down to the ground. the picture fades out into a dull black.

SWITCH TO FLASH BACK MODE

(once again, include high speed camera zooms to the 2nd window on the 3rd floor of the 4th building to the left of the booth)
at the exact second the villain cocks the gun, the hero enters the apartment, and rite when he pulls the trigger, our hero shoots him in the head(as vadivelu says in the tamil flick 'winner'. "thambi, idhuvum timing uh" ;D. shocked by the impact, the villain loses his target and the bullet gets deflected off course and hits stu on his shoulder(leading to blood loss and the reason he falls down unconscious(damn, the guy didnt actually die, he was just unconscious!genius!)

As the film draws to a close, the camera once again pans to a bird's eye view of the room, where a body is shown lying 5ft away from the hero, who stands there with his gun pointed to where the villain was(duh, before he was shot dead by our hero!). the smoke still rising from the barrel of his gun!

NEXT SHOT:AS THE END CREDITS ROLL OUT, the hero is shown being presented with a state award by the CM(duh, again!? :/) for saving the life of the minister/very highly ranked official(who by the way happens to be an adultering lecherous scumbag who has done no good to the society! damn, did u really have to save him mr.hero :$), with the remix of the hero intro song being played as BGM.

add to this a duet between the hero and his love interest, a reporter more often than not(who btw happens to hog 8 minutes of screen space in a movie spanning a little over 120 minutes(the 8 minutes include a 1 minute intro, 5 minutes song sequence, 1 and half minute of screen space when she is shown covering the phone booth fiasco and a half minute at the end when she is shown running towards the hero in slo-mo, a scene that eventually ends in an embraceful bear hug from the heroine and a nonchalant one from the hero ;P)

include all this and a bit more, expand the originally 81 minutes long movie into a 2 and half hour 'never before seen' (don’t they get tired saying this all the time, even for a remake!, well for god's sake, go check the meaning of a 'REMAKE' first!) movie that has incredible humour(yes humour, never mind if this was originally a psychological thriller), romance and action and you have a moolah raking, silver jubilee run completing super hit on the cards.

P.S.: names of the characters and the food being delivered might be changed to suit local taste. so instead of the pizza delivery guy, you might have a guy on a brightly coloured moped delivering you freshly made idlies from MURUGAN IDLY SHOP© :D :P


P.S.S: Wondering why i haven't posted a hindi version of the remake, guess what, its has already been remade into hindi as



but guys, the least you could do was accept that it was a remake, or atleast an adaptation. :P ;D


UNTIL NEXT TIME,

ADIOS!