Showing posts with label Entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entertainment. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 05, 2020
Mehandi Circus
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Sunday Shots: Rain Scenes
Some umbrella moments or rain scenes snapped from last monsoon season. From today morning the whole city is under showering and for last two weeks the rain seems to peek now and then to keep the temperature down to normal. While we’re happy about the rains, the triggering of mosquitos has become a nightmare all these days and they even bite during day times. When we already fighting with Covid these days, the mosquitos were a threat to other fever related illness, so we’re in need to be more awake in preventing the bites and hit the mosquitos.
My balcony is one of my favourite spot at
home, and overlooking the street is a better entertainment to sit around the
evening or anytime I find leisure. In lockdown days I often hangout at balcony
to check activities on road as it becomes lesser but it was almost back to
normal now up till 7pm. Today being a Sunday, its total lockdown across the
state as all Sundays of July is declared as total lockdown by the govt. and it’s
quite peaceful out here other than the TV volumes. Lol
All pics shot with mobile (iphone se) as it comes handy than looking for camera. |
Labels:
Adyar,
Chennai,
covid19,
Entertainment,
home,
inspiration,
iphone,
lockdown,
Picture,
PowerShot Sunday,
rain
Sunday, January 05, 2020
New LG Nano cell LED TV, completes my home theatre dream
The year began for me with a real brand new thing; I expected to buy in last few years or at least from the time
of purchase of my AV receiver, an initial step in building my home theatre.
After a lot research, comparison and reading on various aspects I come down to
choose the television that content my hunger for some quality. I was certain I
want a direct backlight LED TV, just like my previous 26” Samsung TV, bought in 2010,
and I have seen the differences in clarity the led TVs that produced later couldn’t
live up to it and many who watched our TV had praise on its sharpness what
their own led TVs couldn’t produce. I don’t want to go more on its detail. I
know there’re greater TVs in market where finance decides the content and from
my budget I looked for the best and I find the year end to be right moment for
discounts and the television came in fair tag price of ₹ 57,000 at 35% discount
in Paytm Mall online shopping.
We bought a 49” LG Nano cell Led
TV and the LG promoted the TV as most advanced Led TV and a step down to OLED
TV. Somewhere I read Nano cell Led TV is called poor man’s OLED! Ha ha. The TV
has IPS flat screen and Ultra HD resolution with 4K Active HDR and 4K upscaler
and wide viewing angle and many more visual enhancers to make watching
pleasure. While choosing the TV I was much concern about the visual/image
features because I already have the best sound resource in Sony AV Receiver to
expand audio up to 7.2 channels, so the TV audio would be seldom used but still the TV has good sound quality with
DTS Virtual surround. Nowadays I watch movies mostly in Prime video (and yet to
join Netflix) with almost contents available in HD and 5.1Ch audio, there are some
4K videos too that I am supposed to experience sometime.
I’m someone always lookout for
tiny details or observe little things, so the detail was something strongly
built within me couldn’t avoid this TV that has Nano cell particle to refine
dull colors to accurate colors. The HD movies/videos are a pleasure to watch in
this TV than the relayed satellite channels, that are mostly in SD content and
it strains the vision with irregular to bright in colors and disband pixels.
The best thing about this TV was its magic motion remote. The cursor at the
shake of remote is easy to browse the television, access apps and above all it
has voice recognition with both built-in Google Assistant and Alexa. The apple
airplay and homekit is seems to help connect smart appliances but right away
this will only useful to connect mobiles since they are the smart appliance we
hold.
I was working on quite a home
theatre setting from the wake up of 2018, when I purchased an advanced budget 4K
AV receiver at half the price of its original rate through an Amazon offer and
discount. It was a dream comes true for
me to buy a proper home theatre system than the regular surround sound existed
through the satellite speakers system in market. Following the receiver I
waited patiently and particular about the speakers’ purchase that should nowhere
loses the signal and compatible with the receiver but the budget was something
restricted me to progress step after the other. First I bought two powerful
bookshelf speakers from Boston Acoustics for the front right and left, and last
year I purchased the centre and surround left/right speakers from Yamaha to get
a 5.1 Ch sound and for the sub-woofer I hold back from the previous system. Now
with the big Led TV that was installed on the New Year itself my dream of a home
theatre had come true really. I’m grateful for my parents to support and
understand my need for building a home theatre, although they aren’t much
interested they spent quite only because I desired for. Thank you
Friday, June 28, 2019
Notebook
There are some flowers blooms once in a while and one such blossom was the Notebook! It’s been a while I watched a
beautiful film where love is exhibited in an awesome way or mood. Though the Notebook (Hindi film) is written with a simple love story it touched beyond the commonly held romance
between a pair of love. Actually love is a part of the movie where each other
liked without meeting but carries a silent message in the air blown through the
mountain breeze and ripples on a serene lake.
Notebook carries the subject of a
remote school in middle of a lake in Kashmiri and it was in a condition of
closure due to poor student strength. A young ex-army officer joined the school
as a teacher, for a change, tries to improve the condition of the school, finds
a notebook from his desk drawer left behind by the previous teacher, and he’s
nourished with confidence and love within himself as he read her story. The
school is back to spring with children turning up to same as his every turn of a
paper in the notebook, the former teacher re-joined the school later, found her
notebook with comments from him made her fall for him.
Kabir and Firdaus characters as young
teachers made a lovely presence on screen and create an affinity of love without
meeting and it was really beautiful to watch them expressing their love in
silence and voice for child education. The kids make fun at the school, which
itself in a poetic houseboat and show emotions in return when its time. The
whole setting of the floating school in mid of a lake, partially covered in
vegetation, transport us to a world anew where we would love to go back to
school! The cinematography is overall a hero of the notebook and the location
of the school is a well choice to enhance the subject of rom com drama.
For both, Zaheer Iqbal and
Pranutan Bahl, the lead of the film is debuted and so their screen presence was
refreshing like the fragrances of bloom and I loved the character name Firdaus
to sound very pleasant. For the observer like me, her tiny expressions and smile
could be admired. The Kabir’s character is a nice example of soldier mind-set when
he saves kids despite what bothers him including his life or love. Notebook is simply
made out of love and wow simply like the breeze caress across. The Bollywood movie
is produced by Salman Khan!
Labels:
beauty,
Children,
Entertainment,
favorite,
Film,
home-theater,
Love,
movie,
Pleasant,
Review
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
New Purchase: iBall Compbook Excelance OHD
Lately I was looking for a compact laptop or netbook after I come across a smart one during a visit to
doctor’s clinic and it was a MacBook for sure (which I'm certain apparently
doesn’t need to define, as all apple products are smarter) and the way he dealt
with it impressed me and produced a desire to buy one. I know I could not go
near the MacBook that totally out of my budget and while come down the options
were limited but still some renowned brands priced high the netbooks with
specifications same as some local and unknown brands. I did read many a reviews and comparisons on
netbooks around 11 inches, anytime I felt and once get to know the Amazon Summer
Offer is ahead, I took it seriously and settled at last for the Indian brand
iBall – Compbook Excelance OHD – a Full HD netbook at around ₹9000 ($130) +
10% instant discount.
I bought a chocolate colour compbook
at a weight of about 1 kg and being a prime member of Amazon, compbook was
delivered within 24 hrs of booking. I
was excited to power on the compbook (after 3 hrs of charging) and the first thing
that stroked me was the spectacular color/contrast of the screen that turned
the viewing stunning, enriched and refreshing sight! Thanks to IPS panel to
turn things magical on screen and the 32GB emmc storage is left by 20 GB of free
space and the 2 GB ram is unexpectedly quick for a leisurely operator alike me.
The multi-touch touchpad is super
sensitive to my worn out fingers which lost track the gestures in the long run with
my former laptop – what is still good and the compbook is only an alternate
that I planned to use for browsing,
social networking and MS word. Photoshop
is strictly no on compbook so my laptop (Dell Inspiron) is the only choice for
photo editing and storing data.
The letter keys on compbook is
bigger than the laptop to type but the location of shift, backspace and arrow
keys are placed uncomfortable or I need to practice lot to make it usable. The most impressive of the compbook was the battery
that could run 8 hrs without charging, which means the netbook could last more
than 2 days for my kind of use. The compbook comes with micro SD slot to expand
storage up to 128 GB and also has option of adding internal HDD/SSD up to 1TB.
I decided to do anything right now or until the system face trouble with speed
or storage. It looks overall a good deal and could only wait and watch how
worth the purchase was.
Labels:
colorful,
Entertainment,
Fun,
Gadget,
India,
inspiration,
Review
Saturday, April 06, 2019
Twilight Zone
The sun haven’t raised, yet
the life started to act
at the state of twilight,
the purified air of night
and the tranquilized dust
is back to surface
as life restarts, to survive.
The honk of vehicles, bang
as other noises unbroken, yet
the natural chirp of birds
and crisp in air, sways
as slowly sky consume light
things went for better views
as sun warm-up to glow.
as other noises unbroken, yet
the natural chirp of birds
and crisp in air, sways
as slowly sky consume light
things went for better views
as sun warm-up to glow.
Like things have two sides
the light has its part of shadow
or silhouettes against its glow,
the twilight zone is bliss
as things take minimal effect
to retreat or restore the activity
from the day or night sleep.
Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS
the light has its part of shadow
or silhouettes against its glow,
the twilight zone is bliss
as things take minimal effect
to retreat or restore the activity
from the day or night sleep.
Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS
Labels:
Adyar,
bird,
critter,
Entertainment,
inspiration,
iphone,
Life,
neighborhood,
poem,
Sky,
skywatch
Saturday, August 04, 2018
Front and Back
Here’s couple of candid shots on
a horse ride around the Kodaikanal Lake road. It was the same horse, horseman
and rider on both images that I just shot from the parked car, beside the lake,
as they rode front and back. Kodaikanal Lake is one of my favourite places and
just observing things happening around is a great time pass and entertainment
as well. And horse riding is a part of the tourist activities take place around
the lake road, apart cycling, where cycles are rented on hour’s basis.
Labels:
critter,
Entertainment,
favorite,
Fun,
kodaikanal,
Travel,
western ghats
Friday, June 29, 2018
Friday Review: Tik Tik Tik
From the time I
heard about this film and its concept (of space travel) I decided not to give a
miss, watching it from theatre – and like I told earlier I went for a night
show at drive-in, skipping the evening, for the Tamil film Tik Tik Tik .
Shakthi Soundar Rajan always comes with different concept and deals with
technical aspects neatly and I’m following his movies from Naanayam, even
though he has directed only four films Tik… is top-notching.
The film
revolves around an asteroid, in the size of Chennai, which is to hit the east
coast of India in a week time to create havoc and the Indian space team tries
to destroy the asteroid before it enters the earth surface! A team of
astronauts head by Vasu (a trained magician and escape artist) goes to a space
station to steal a missile, hold by an opponent country, to break apart the
asteroid to preserve our country. Did their mission accomplished or not remains
the subject which put us upright and holds interest to watch.
Hollywood has
manipulated a lot on this concept (of space travel) but first time a movie made
in India, using our simple technologies and VFX, want me to consider special
and it lived up to our expectation. The director has simplified the subject and
technical aspects to everyone’s understanding and the film crew had given their
best to accomplish the mission. There are many places where logic dies but the
illusion helped built up an image or mirage to watch with amuse. BGM was
excellent!
The first
impressive was the sound effect, where an asteroid hit the earth with force and
make a large hole. I could say D.Imman had given his best and every time the
BGM hit “tik tik tik” takes the entire attention and congrats D.Imman to
accomplish a century, where Tik… was his 100th composed album. Jayam
Ravi in role of Vasu had showed boldness and unpredicted on face keeps intense.
(I appreciate Ravi for taking such innovative projects following Peranmai.) Ramesh
Thilak and Arjunan made fun and Nivetha is additional attraction to the exact
replicative high-tech spaceship and space station.
The editing was
magic and one could feel it if you watch filming clips under credit.
Cinematographic is quite refreshing and the VFX scenes are pretty clear and
feels real! The movie is a great
experiment that deserves attention and keeping away the logic (which I think is
not necessary in a Sci-Fi) it’s a sheer entertainment, taking Tamil cinema to a
different level and I really wanted to watch this movie in theatre to support
their effort and to encourage such experiment in movies. Tik Tik Tik! A must
watch in theatre for the terrific effects.
Monday, June 18, 2018
Evening shows and Kaala
Hereafter, I
decided not to go for the evening shows at drive-in theatre as they begin to
play movies at 6.45pm itself, it takes at least half an hour to get clear
picture on the screen or to say until the sky turns darker. Except winter, all other
season has day light up to 7pm and it’s really difficult to get involved
watching. The only theatre I could visit here was the Prarthana beach Drive-in Theatre
where I could watch movies sitting from
the car rather shifted to a seat like regular theatres, and I don’t think
Chennai theatres are wheelchair friendly or allow to watch movies from wheelchair.
Apart this we could avoid traffic if we go for the night show at 10pm, and it
takes only 15-20 minutes to reach and return home.
Last week I went
to watch Tamil superstar’s Kaala and it is a movie based on the popular
residential area of Mumbai, Dharavi (one of the largest slum in the world),
where the superstar protect the people from a political head who tries to evict
them to execute his construction plan. The movie was easily predictable, and
the director has made it simple so there wasn’t an excitement of watching a
Rajini movie. I too went without an expectation perhaps because Rajini has done
many don movies and this is another shade in black. Actually at many places it
feels and reminds the pro-jallikattu and the tunes celebrating Kaala also reflects
the loudness of people gathered at Marina and black being the protesting logo influenced
lot.
I thought it was
only me, reminded the popular Vivek comedy where he played a fake don in Tamil
film Padikkadavan but now I could see many connected this way while watching
the movie. For people who went looking for some action from Rajini could have
disappointed but ok with bit of styles. At a scene where he says, you may have
come without asking me, but to go you have to… I wish Director Ranjith could have
made clear notes at some places and also the sub for Hindi dialogues are
unclear and noisy when languages blend. All characters did their part well and
Easwari Rai had made a nice resurface after long time in Tamil and her slang is
typical. Nana Patekar role could have been stronger and the movie is an eyewash
overall in black. Could watch ones and you won’t miss anything if not.
Friday, May 18, 2018
Friday Review: Iravukku Aayiram Kangal
After long time went to drive-in theatre to watch Iravukku Aayiram Kangal (the Night has
Thousand Eyes) learning that the Tamil action thriller film has come out well.
It was last September I went to the theatre and I mainly avoided going to
theatre thinking of high ticket price which has gone up from ₹ 120 to ₹ 167 per
head apart parking ticket as ₹ 70! There wasn’t a film released for 45 days
from March to mid-April protesting against this high rate in theatres but still
there isn’t difference and I feel ₹ 120 could be the fair amount.
Arulnithi is one
of my favourite actors and I like his choice of subjects and realistic acting
which is one important reason for me to watch this movie in theatre and being a
night show it well suited the subject and mood. I rarely go to night show when
I feel the movie is worth watching in theatre despite any trouble. Iravukku
Aayiram Kangal is an excellent thriller surrounds a mysterious murder where the
protagonist (Arulnithi) is suspected and he go on his own trial, after escape
from the police, to prove his innocent.
The screenplay
is so gripping and keeps glue to the seat and most of the scenes surrounds that
one night put watchful eyes from others. The movie has lot of plays, gaming
within one another to hook with the subject. Arulnithi as a call taxi driver
picks up love with Mahima Nambiar, who isn’t cute but also smartly performed.
The songs are cut short and adapts to the scenario which is one of the plus to
keep it engaged. And all other characters did their job well and Ajmal with
chocolate boy look did smart villainy and after Anjathe and KO he got to shine
in negative shade once again.
Directorial debut
Mu.Maran had created an expectation from him by building a solid screenplay around
a simple storyline, and made certain the string doesn’t loose anywhere. The
highlight of the movie was the climax even though the movie has twist and turns
all over the subject, it gets intensify as we near the end. The cinematography
is truly appreciate and it’s the core area where it played well to sustain the
mood esp. during the night scenes and Arulnithi balanced the tense and love at
the right level.
Iravukku
Aayiram Kangal is watchful and worth watching in theatre!
-----------------
----------------
Following is a
shot of Yellow Daylilies bloomed against the wall of Tea Museum in Munnar… to join Floral Friday Foto
Labels:
Entertainment,
favorite,
Film,
floral friday,
Flower,
movie,
Review
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
An Upgrade to Real Home Theater System
I already have a DVD home theater system bought in 2011 and it’s still continue to
sound good and I watch movies connected to surround sound but lately I feel it
wasn’t effective or I was in need of more effect and moreover the system isn’t
reading the latest video formats and I need to convert the files or play
through the television port to bring the digital out and then convert it into
analog and play the sound though the home theatre. I always like listening to quality
content and used to buy original audio cassettes and CDs when the albums of my
favourite artist release and it continued till 2010 – Enthiran was my last
purchase from the shop. I slowly converted to download songs from internet and
later movies, but I still maintain my policy of not downloading or watching new
movies rather than in theatre and watch movies at least 100 days after the
release.
I was
looking for a better opportunity to upgrade my listening and lately started to
dream of buying an advanced music and home theatre system and while I was into research
the Amazon.in came up with offers and 10% discount encouraged me to go ahead. I
really don’t want another home theatre with a playable disk which has any other
option of connecting. Technology keeps advancing and I can’t keep changing the
home theatres accordingly and keeping it in mind I convince myself for an AV
receiver with multiple inputs and UHD out though single HDMI. AV receivers are
priced high even without speakers, and the basic system is not less than Rs.25,000
and I opted for Okayo or Sony as I got good reviews about them.
The Sony
STR-DH770 is a 7.2 channel receiver and I have connected just 2 channel
bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer from previous home theatre, simply rocks. I can’t describe the feel it produces even
from just 2 Ch. Speakers; I can’t image how it would sound from 5.1 Ch., the basic
setting of home theatre. The receiver has given me an opportunity to relive and
enjoy listening to my favourite music/songs again through this enhanced AV
receiver and I love the details it reproduces via Boston speakers, which cost
me Rs.10,000 a pair and I’m in need of 3 more speakers. I really loved listening
to old songs than the new ones and I can’t say how amazing it feels and each
song sounds alike listening for first time.
Perhaps it’s
the reason for my slow blogging as I can’t stop listening or watching movie from
the time connected, I trying listening to many songs and genre. The actual
price of the STR-DH770 including import fee and delivery charges is Rs.41,000
but amazon offered me at Rs.27,000 along
with 10% discount. This receiver is not sold in India and amazon imports it
from USA and it can’t be directly plugged into the Indian socket but need a 220
to 110 volt step-down converter to give power to the receiver which is at 120
volt. I also found the receiver to be damaged at a corner for which they
refunded Rs.6, 660 after I sent mail to amazon with pictures of damaged part. And
in this way we save the amount and I’m quite content with the outcome which I’m
expecting to improve as I use it fully.
Labels:
Entertainment,
Fun,
Gadget,
home,
home-theater,
movie,
Music,
Pleasant
Saturday, January 06, 2018
Fan of Visiri
The
release of Visiri, a single video song from Tamil film Enai Noki Paayum Thota,
has quite mesmerised me and to say I was addicted to this song or fell in love
from the first time listening, it keeps going still. Already two songs from the
film were released at various dates last year, but Visiri was simply breezy and
has beautiful lyrics to be murmured. The music director of the film was kept
secret until the Visiri released. Darbuka Siva has been a new comer composed
these awesome songs. Moreover one of my favourite singers Shashaa has lent her
voice to top notch…
Though GauthamMenon decided to give chance to a new comer rather following his usual Harish
and ARR formula, the songs carries a similar scent or accent (which seems to
ever wither) bearing the stamp of formers. More than watching the video I love
listening from home theatre.
Maruvaarthai is
another beautiful, excellent foot tapping song and gives a feel of classic
touched by stylish rhythm. Megha Akash, paired with Dhanush, is very pretty and
admirable to watch ;)
Wednesday, January 03, 2018
On New Year Occasion
A year has end
and begin peacefully with great joy spread across, though nothing turned significantly
different, a refreshing feel enters the vein as we accelerate into a new year,
wishes and hopes bring new cheers into the life. The New Year eve was spent as
usual in front of television; apart checking my cousins in next-street to greet
on the occasion and receiving calls from other dear ones as we were awake till
1 am. News channels were live from different places on the sprite of New Year, and
the beaches in neighbourhood (Marina and Elliot) was thronged by people and
being a resident of Adyar, we could clearly hear the resound of rushing
vehicles, blasting fireworks and aloud greetings of New
Year.
The colourful
peacock Kolam in the picture above was drawn by my aunt in front of their house
(and also our native home in next-street) which I shot at the New Year night. Due
to very low light I couldn’t get clearer picture and I also used flash which
went over exposed I feel. My mom also drew Kolam in front of our house but it
was a simple one and uncoloured. For those unknown, Kolam is a pattern drawn in
front of the houses, a traditional custom followed by the people of India and Kolam
is a cultural identity of Tamil people and drawing colorful Kolam in front of the
home is considered as auspicious and a sign of welcome during the festival
seasons and events.
On January 1st
I went for a short ride on ECR (east coast road) and checked the Kovalam beach
in evening. ECR being a scenic stretch of entertainment, there was heavy
traffic on the road because of New Year and all entertainment hubs were crowded
includes the toll gate with longstanding queues. While parked at the beach, I find the sky beautiful
and took some photos using the iPhone and I tried panorama and was really amazed
by the light and colors of the sky. The setting of sunlight caused a great
effect on the image, to only find a glowing sun as we moved out of the beach
area and it continued for some time on the ECR before we took turn to The Great
Salt Lake area, off the ECR.
It was such
wonderful to see sun setting on the west and moon rising on east at same time. Being
a full moon day, the moon was also at its full glory just like the reddish sun.
Though I was taking photos on iPhone, I couldn’t get great details on both and
the mild hazy winter weather took control even though the twilight sky was interesting
watch throughout. Hope you enjoy the photos above and below on full moon.
Labels:
Adyar,
Beach,
beauty,
Chennai,
ECR,
Entertainment,
Festival,
home,
Nature,
neighborhood,
Outing,
photography,
Pleasant,
Travel
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Deepavali 2017 (remarks)
Deepavali
passed off pretty well last week and I had wonderful time celebrating and going
out watch the dazzling fireworks displays from the neighbourhood. I wasn’t
doing much anything these days but too lazy or not interested to post or write
something while I was in festival mood and relaxed being. Though the day wasn’t
great or differs from a regular Sunday, that begin with watching television and
having curry kulambu for breakfast, the evening turned wonderful with lighting
fireworks and going to beach to watch the aerial fireworks light up from the
neighbourhood. I took many photos/videos on the fireworks display either at
ground or sky; it was fun shooting from three different cameras – iPhonse SE,
Canon powershot and Gopro hero 5. More photos to come soon and do check the video at end of the post.
Unlike earlier
people don’t look or feel festival and even greeting each other has come down,
but I shouldn’t wonder really about it as confronting smile had dropped from
day-to-day life. But I was more cheerful cherishing my old memories and I
couldn’t prevent happiness popping up and the sound of crackers makes feel
festive. Compare to previous years, bursting of fireworks are less this year
but there was high smoke on Deepavali evening/night. The high humidity in air
and along with mild fog the firework smoke sustained into the ambience without
gaps to escape. But it turned normal next day.
I really
amazed at the level of noise reduced this year and the interest on firework
drop. The people say price raise, GST and demonetisation, but this isn’t matter
really and from my observation, the firework price was bit less comparing last
year. Moreover the sudden environmentalists has created a irk feeling and
people doesn’t want to be pointed out guilty or whatever they say, its better
leave alone those unwanted to burst. I’m sure in future bursting fireworks will
be reduced and children who aren’t interested in firework shouldn’t be forced
and it will help in transformation. The environmentalists should continue to
voice against pollution instead popping head on Diwali alone. Fireworks do not
rule us all the days and it highlights what really hides within and unlike
crackers it destroys quiet.
More to come soon.
Labels:
Adyar,
Chennai,
colorful,
Entertainment,
Environment,
favorite,
Festival,
Fun,
home,
India
Wednesday, August 02, 2017
Vikram Vedha
I
wasn’t sure to write a review on the interesting action crime thriller Vikram
Vedha, because many have given great reviews about the Tamil feature film, but
like to note down few things that impressed me. The title itself would give
clue that the movie is based on the concept of Vikramadithyan Vedhalam ghost
story, where Vedhalam ask questions hugging from the back of Vikrama, the king
to quest answer through the stories he narrate.
Vikram Vedha
has Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi and it isn’t a regular cop movie but a very
interesting and different level of play between an encounter specialist and
notorious gangster. First thing I felt watching the opening scene (shooting
between police and gangsters) was Gautham Menon’s movie, though I know it was Pushkar-Gayathri’s
combo (who made Auto and Va Q cutting) the action sequence were such casual
that no one could expect at such a venture.
The name Vedha
continued to travel for some time into the movie creating hype and sounding demon,
were all broke into particles the way Vijay Sethupathi entered the scene in his
own idle style of walk. What applaud from the audience! He appears in front of
cops and escapes, revealing a story with questions to let Vikram answer through
his investigation and at the end of each story Vedha escapes leaving a clue to
glue on seat.
The balance
between the Madhavan and Sethupathi had been handled well and they played an
excellent teeter-totter entertaining the people. Madhavan on his side exhibits
great body language and his rough tone is apt.to the role of cop and Sethupathi,
as young and mid-age did effortlessly the job of gangster and those watched his
movies could understand what I mean the effortless i.e. natural acting.
Though not so
parallel to the male dominate subject, the female characters of the movie do
speak even it’s for few scenes. Shraddha Srinath and Varalakshmi have raised
their voice and hand as well protecting their rights and liberty as
advocate and love affair of Kathir (of Kirumi fame) who played Vedha’s brother.
Shraddha is a wonderful choice for the wife of an encounter specialist, acted
pretty and though working again him their not let down relationship was
impressive.
Through Vikram
Vedha, Pushkar and Gayathri (the director duo) has touched an extremely high
level and also raised the expectation which I’m sure going to give them more
pressure to retain the success, although I don’t believe well done movies are the
best. Alike everyone else and being concerned on the interesting screenplay,
the songs and music doesn’t take attention and the BGM also resembled Miruthan.
Vikram Vedha - a nice suspense movie to watch in theatres and it’s a blockbuster already.
Friday, June 30, 2017
Friday Review: Vanamagan, the Son of Nature
After
the success of Tamil horror comedy flick Devi, director AL Vijay is back on his path
of unusual he left with Madrasapattinam and Deiva Thirumagal. Though Vanamagan isn’t impressive as the former ones did, I really want to appreciate him for
taking different subjects and experience things. For a tribal role Jayam Ravi
isn’t new, as he already done one in Peranmai but what makes difference was he
comes from remote and expresses emote instead of dialogues.
Vanamagan (Tamil movie) is about how modernisation and industries destroys the forest and disrupt the
tribes who adopt nature as their belonging… but wished the movie adjoin this
subject strongly rather moving around cities for first half of the film.
Plot:
Kaviya
is a very rich girl and orphan, growing under guardian of her uncle, is
carefree and enjoys life on her wish. During a holiday in Andaman Island with
friends, she broke into a protected area and accidently hit a tribe by the car.
Seeing him bleed, they took him to hospital and later brought to Chennai for further
treatment without let know anybody. Back to conscious, the tribe Vaasi got into
violence and she was force to take him home, where she learns about the tribe’s
behaviour and try to control him. At a moment things went wrong, Vaasi was
caught by police and shifted to Andaman where they tried to kill him, but Kavya
interrupt and they both escape into forest. And what remain answer everything.
Features:
You
can’t keep away the thought of Tarzan or George of the jungle even looking at
the poster or trailer, where Jayam Ravi hanging from a root. For Ravi, his
body, look and height are apt to the role of Vaasi (Kattu Vaasi), an indigenous
tribe unexposed to outside world. But his role as tribe there isn’t much action
for him to do or we to feel adventure or we lack interest to watch it as we
have seen similar movies earlier… the humour isn’t that much fun or
interesting.
Sayyehaa
as Kavya is beautiful and captured my attention through her dancing skill than
her acting! Perhaps the songs were choreographed by Prabu Deva who’s also
called as Indian Michael Jackson. She tried to be beautiful with her
expressions and being shown as senseless on things and
turning positive all of sudden doesn’t suit her well or she did about. Thambi
Ramaya did little bit comedy and his eagle map line is good.
The film captures the beauty of
caressing here and there and the feeling of touch, the real one, which has
almost lost in the gadget world, is perceived well. Stroke arrows on animals on
television, watching through car sunroof and the tiger fighting like Captain (Vijayakanth)
and the tribe on-board to Chennai all makes senseless and boring. Feels the
director has approached the movie from a common perspective rather studying
well about tribes of Andaman, to give more emotional detail to the subject.
Music is by Harish Jayaraj and
Vanamagan was his 50th composition… the songs were good to listen
and the cinematography is wonderful and captured the beauty of forest and
waterfalls so well. But the BGM is a bit old charm and is tuned for African
forest instead of Asia, which I feel has a distant tone. While I appreciate the
effort put by the team to give a different experience and explore a world at its
brim, could have scored an interesting screenplay rather applying Hollywood
shades.
I feel
Pulimurugan is better than Vanamagan!
Thursday, June 01, 2017
Amusement park’s gate and gateway
The yellow gate and the wall is a
cropped version of the photo I shot on the façade of the first amusement park
of Chennai, VGP Golden Beach and Universal Kingdom. There you could see someone
taking photo on the gate or selfie, but I don’t have logic for him to take
selfie with road behind him from where I shot this, from the slowly moving car.
Past the main entrance I got to shoot
a blue gateway, belong to the same amusement park with parking lot inside. I
had no idea about the gateway until Google down to know it’s a gateway to the
Snow Kingdom, a part of the Universal kingdom, a family amusement park. Actually
I decided to shoot this gateway for its beautiful architecture and coated in
blue and white. The fence along also has a nice wave design.
Apt to the name of the amusement
park (Universal Kingdom) the entrance has a wonderful look of a realm which I will
post on some other time.
Linking this post for Good Fences by Gosia
Linking this post for Good Fences by Gosia
Labels:
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Saturday, May 13, 2017
Pulimurugan
Watched this
excellent action adventure movie in Malayalam that includes Tigers! The title
itself inspired me to watch the movie that was released in mid-2016 and being
an ardent of forest, nature and mountains I couldn’t miss the movie that shot
at the lap of forest. Mohanlal is portrayed as Puli Murugan (Tiger Murugan) and
he acted as a trained hunter killing the man eating tigers that invade his
village. But the movie isn’t all about Tigers; he also fought against dangerous
humans who forced him to move out of forest.
Murugan lives
in a small village, inside the forest called Puliyoor and he lost his mother in
childhood after his brother was born and later his father in a tiger attack
took him for vengeance, where he traps the tiger with the help of his uncle and
kill it. The Murugan grows into Puli Murugan, now a lorry driver, married and
has a daughter, but he hunt rogue tigers whenever they invade the village.
Meanwhile he
was forced to escape the forest/village for killing a tiger, and getting a job
for his brother he smuggles Ganja (marijuana) in his lorry which directed him
toward another face of trouble. How the hunter weed out all this using his Vel
(a kind of spear, his main weapons) remains the subject.
Mohanlal is an
apt fit to the subject and the character, and his physique and face
structure led him valiant looking against the predators. But the movie doesn’t
exhibit great violence yet knives pierce tigers, its watchable quite as
family. The most impressive thing about
the move was its action and stunt sequences.
I think I don’t need to say more about it, because it was such skilful
to won the first ever National Award for Stunt Choreography.
Peter Hein has
executed the stunt choreography and Mohanlal himself preferred to do all the stunt
scenes rather using stunt doubles, which is normally used in films where the
heroes stand aside and dupes do the stunts. Mohanlal’s involvement really
amazed me and having a considerable size structure he performed so well. The
little boy, who done Mohanlal’s childhood role, too capture the attention esp.
facing the Tiger without fear.
The tigers involved
in the movie were real ones and the scenes fighting with tiger were all shot at
Thailand using the tigers from a Buddhist temple there, since
filming with wild animals is prohibited in India. Though the tigers were
trained ones, the shooting seemed to conduct according to their moods! So was
the team hard worked for the success of the movie. An additional fact about the
movie was it was the currently highest-grossing Malayalam film ever done and
the film is expected to release in Tamil soon, along with a 3D version.
Pulimurugan
has some lovely songs to soothe listening and excellent BGM! Kamalini Mukerjee’s
performance as Mohanlal’s wife was fair and Lal bring out the best character
and Telugu actor Jagapati Babu, Bala and Vinu Mohan (Puli murugan’s bro) were
all done their job neat. And not to forget the cinematography, the capture of natural
resource of God owns country was fabulous and the lorry chasing and action scenes
were stunning.
Puli murugan –
fair and interesting to watch
Labels:
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Monday, February 13, 2017
RGB Monday
Here’s RGB Monday to keep away your Monday Blues and make feel colourful and yet cheerful! And this Link-in feature invites your colourful photos with the content of RGB – Red, Green, and Blue.
Pretty colorful Merry go around at Elliot's Beach, Chennai
p.s. Beaches
are my favourite pastime perhaps since we live close to sea and Elliot’s beach
has many memories to share, and in our earlier days we visit the beach to enjoy
the playground equipment’s like siding, seesaw, swings… installed at the beach
sand. Elliot’s hasn’t been crowded then and only a part of beach was used much
then, and the manually operated equipment’s like merry go around, ferry wheels
aren’t available and also any kind of shops exists except the popular eatery Cozee,
which is opp. to police booth. My late uncle is a friend of the owner, who’s a Singh
(and he has also acted as Rajini’s friend in Basha) and he would take us there
and get ice creams from the shop. Every time I pass the Cozee, the moment spent
with my uncle at one of the tables there blink at my mind for few seconds.
Labels:
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RGB Monday
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
My Pongal celebration 2017
I know it’s
late by two weeks to post on Pongal, the harvesting festival of Tamils, but
it’s better late than never. I think you all know about the youth revolution
that took centre stage following the Pongal and though it wasn’t an easier task
for people to come forward to protest for their rights and protection of bulls,
the entire week was like an extension of Pongal with the voices of slogans
indirectly, alongside supporting the traditional sports, emphasis the wealth of
bulls and farmers. We couldn’t think of Pongal keeping away the farmer and it
was farmers festival overall but we have the reason to celebrate as they are
our life savers, producing food for us. Pongal festival brings happiness for
farmers and Jallikattu is a part of the celebration and we got back the
traditional sport in right manner.
Coming to the
post, this year’s Pongal was different for me and was able to feel the mood
more than latter years. Though we celebrated Pongal in the traditional way, where
we lit firewood’s on the outside of the home and made Pongal (boiling of rice
and milk) in the mud pot, the Pongal event conducted in our street by the
backstreet boys was really uplifting. They created a friends group in name of
APJ Abdul Kalam and conducted Kolam contest, running race for different age
groups and couple of fun sports. The
event was started from the eve of Pongal and the Kolam contest happened at the
night itself but they came to capture our Kolam (along with the others) only in
the morning and we unknown who’s the winner. The boys and girls participated in
the races and won gifts from the organisers and what really impressed was all
showed up in traditional dresses.
But what keeps
me bothering was how I missed capturing the event or at least the kids running
around. The songs played in the speakers and people talking over the mike let
the festival feel in the air. I put some special programs and movies on record
(thanks to DTH) and moved out of the home to enjoy the festival and while
things happening around; mom prepared the Pongal in the mud pot on the firewood’s
and before it overflows I was with camera to capture the moment and once the
rice boiled the whitest foam forms and milk is poured to restrain its flow. But
it was me asked her to wait to let it overflow, though I don’t believe such
thing will change things for better but this custom of overflowing keeps me
going. Lol
The pot Kolam
in my previous post was drawn by mom along with the above one but the coloring
job for the couple of pots were given to our next door neighbour and she did it
pretty colourful. We stayed awake till midnight for them to finish the Kolams,
amid the troublesome mosquitoes and my cute lil friend Achu was also wakeful to
give company and it was fun to be along with him. The sweet Pongal boiled in
the pot was later offered to the Sun, the foremost source of energy to the
entire living on earth and helps in high yield, which is a form of thanksgiving
to nature and farmers who transforms the resource into edible. On Mattu Pongal,
the third day of Pongal, I went for an outing on ECR and visited my great
grandma’s village. I will write on it later. Follows few shots from the offering:
The offer to energetic sun |
My favorite "ven pongal and vada" |
Labels:
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