The secular parties are terribly pissed off at the people who pioneer the net. No, they don’t have any problems with any news flash or breaking news. But they are seeing a conspiracy theory where the Net people and the Hindutva guys are hand in hand. Diggy baby has been at it for long now. “See, there are times I like a website, and will want to regularly update myself on its contents. But why the F….Fast will I have to subscribe to RSS feed? This is totally Hazaredous to our Nation’s integrity and secularism”, he was said to have been quoted.

A sad story which most of you might have not known before this. There was this Tambrahm guy working on a top secret project in association with Amazon. He met another tamgirl at a bar and they got chatting. To impress her, he started talking about his project confident that she would not make head or tail out of it. He told her that he was working on a project where it was possible to read books on the go, and we can download books and read them at our comfort and this will also make the whole process cheap. But he told her that he will not be able to share the name with her. The girl had a contemptuous look on her face. She was far from impressed and with a look of disdain on her face asked him “Kindle panriyaa?” The poor guy was totally zapped and has been unconscious ever since Wrong choice of words by the girl. Nakkal would have been better for the situation

“More to the table” is one term a lot of people use these days. After slogging one’s ass off, if people rhetorically ask you what else can you bring to the table, it’s cool to upturn that table on them. NOT. More coffee will be better

There is a site called iwantoneofthose.com. Pretty cool site except for the fact that it reminds me of this particular scene for that brilliant dialogue “I’ll have what she’s having” and no sorry, don’t think they sell that. You are welcome to keep digging (pun unintended)

And finally, when they welcome you into a company saying that it’s your life thereon, you better believe it. Cos both in life and in companies you work for, there is respect only when they know you are leaving

Until the next time then folks

Where would I start with this movie? The characters like Kodukkapuli and Kaalayan? Or the zany dialogues like “Unakku Rajini pidikkumaa, Kamal pidikkumaa?” Or the BGM music for each situation (Yuvan, if you really came up with this, Dude. You. God)? Or the overall story?

Undoubtedly, the director is the hero. That this is the work of a debutant is hard to believe, but the director has been an ad film maker and it shows in the choice of music, the editing style and the overall feel of the movie. But one person who has to be thanked is S P Charan, for bringing the movie to us after a lot of fights.

The movie talks about a single day in the lives of some people and how it intertwines. Now I know what you must be thinking…. Seen that in Pulp fiction, Snatch etc….. Yes, you have and I am not saying no. But does that mean no one else can take movies which intertwine? I don’t think so and thankfully the director also doesn’t. He has paid homage to Pulp fiction through some scenes, but this IS a great original piece of film making.

Singaperumal, an ageing don who finds that he has lost more than his control over his henchmen. Pasupathy, his lieutenant who yearns to make a place for himself. Gajendiran and Gajapathy, 2 brothers with a brilliant story as their background on the search for their missing cocaine powder. Subbu, Singaperumal’s mistress who is as young as his non existant Granddaughter. Kaalayan and Kodukkaapuli, a father and son duo trying to recover lost money through cock fights. These are the characters which pepper this movie and the movie is awash with brilliant scenes. Like the first one, where Singaperumal fails to get it up and Subbu says “Ungalaala mudilannaa, enna edhukku adikkireenga? (If you are not able to, why beat me?)”. This dialogue breaks about 5 mins of music into the starting of the movie and sets the tone of the movie thereon.

North Madras is shown brilliantly. Though there have been various movies which showcase North Madras, this movie takes it one step forward. The Mills, the houses, the byzantine lanes are all so well shot here. The only 2 scenes which looked gimmicky were the video game one and where Jackie Shroff strips. All performances were good except for the girl. She played too cutesy :-/

Revealing anything else will not be good as the twists and turns in the movie are a lot (though fully believable). If you are an adult reading this, go watch the movie now. The others to get back to their rooms, please.

Finally, one more dialogue which had me in splits in the movie

Adi aal: Avan kedachaa, enna panna?

Singaperumal: Mutham koduthu matter pannu

I haven’t seen any other movie with this much candidness in its dialogues. And with the amount of fights, the producer and director had to make, am sure will be sometime anyone else will attempt this.

What problems does the censor board have, btw? On one hand, we have movies where the hero rubs his hand over the heroine’s midriff and also manages to cook things there and they give a U/ A. But when the producer director combo are totally fine with an A certificate, why propose 52 cuts? It’s not as though we never use it. Everyone uses swear words, even the 10 year old kid these days. Why would they want to beep out words like “Dokku”, “Mayiru”, “Loosu ku” in an A rated gangster movie is beyond logic. Maybe Shandaala and nashakkaara are the words the censor board believes has to be used.

And please dont complain about the profanities. They are an integral part of the movie and it is not gratuitous. Lets not have the impression that “City of God” is great, because it is world cinema and “Aaranya Kaandam” is not, because it has tamil profanities.

This is a movie which merits multiple viewings and I will eagerly await the Director’s cut DVD for this one.

They dragged him out of the car, and as the blows rained on him again, he puked. He couldn’t take it anymore. He stumbled to his feet and started moving helter skelter. Laughing, they caught him and started dragging him across the terrain. He moved over stones, thorns and hard mud. He tried to focus. Could it be Madhusudhan, that rival boss who fumed over the loss of his contract? Or Karthikeya who lost a land auction? He couldn’t make his mind up.

They stopped dragging him at a particular point and made him stand up. He swayed. As the others laughed, he sensed that his swaying was not just because of his weakness and general condition, but also because of the strong wind. It was a cliff, he thought. And this was it. He was going to be murdered and they will bury all traces of him. As they brought him closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, the wind got stronger and the fear on his face loomed large.

He wanted to scream, but it wouldn’t come out and as they pushed him, he felt helpless. There were a lot more things that he wanted to do, and to achieve. Now it was all gone. His empire will be shared among a lot of people now after this. He desperately wanted to scream, and he let it out…..

His scream was cut short as he hit the floor. Much too short for a cliff, and wonder of wonders, he was still alive. He then realised that they had pushed him off a cliff into a made up cushion area. He swallowed hard. He puked again. He felt a chill running through his body. What would these people want from him? As he heard the sounds approaching him, he noticed a new sound; that of a hard shoe walking on gravel. He hadn’t heard it before.

He was pulled up roughly and a new voice spoke to him, “I have seen the fear in your face, Sethu. All that bravado you displayed on that TV show is false. Wont be long before I get what I want from you. It will take some time, but I have all the time in the world”. TV show, what TV show, he thought as he spat in the direction from which the voice came. The reply came in the form of a hard shoe blow to his face, courtesy the new man. He fell, unconscious.

“Take him back to the den”, the raspy voice commanded the others….

[To be continued....]

The story that I had submitted for the “Flash Fiction” competition at MICA. The theme was “Jealousy“. Your comments, please

Then there was this story of a criminal who was from Tamil Nadu. He had conveniently managed to evade questioning by the Police. Finally when the court directed the police to conduct a Lie Detector test for him, he was still confident that he will get through. Now he is languishing in jail. It was indeed a huge surprise when the “poly”graph test failed

Numerology is playing a huge role when parents want to name their kids. The current scenario is where all parents name their kids with names starting with A. This means that their kid will be first in class and other things that they pursue. And there are these random cases of teachers complaining about names like Veeeeeeeeeeeresh. Roll call takes a longer time is the common complaint. But as always there is an odd man out. So this is the story of a man who used his name as a weapon against the credit card system. A sample goes like this.

Credit card caller: We are calling from you never see bank. Is this Amrish?

Aaaamrish: No this is Aaaamrish

CCC: Yes sir, thats what I meant.

Aaaamrish: No, you meant Amrish. This is Aaaamrish

CCC: Just to confirm, A for America, M for Money, R for River, I for India, S for Super, H for Honest?

Aaaamrish: No no, A for America, A for America, A for America….

CCC (cutting in): Sir, I heard you the first time…..

Aaaamirish: If this continues, you will be hearing things for the last time. See, my name is A for….

CCC: Sir, if you dont mind, will call in a while. Will call you back. Thank you sir
And that was that….

She was just out of a relationship, one that had been her very life till then. But then life, as she came to realise, shows its ugly side from time to time. Her boy friend had behaved like a prick then and a bitter quarrel ensued about life after marriage. After ending their relationship, she had walked out of the mall along with the memories that simply refused to leave. It was funny when people run behind photographs when their biggest album was right there in their heads. She broke down while sitting on the steps. It was then that she met him. Nope, to be fair, he had talked to her first. She had this backpack of hers with a teddy bear attached to the zip. He glanced at her while passing by and then came back behind her. She didn’t notice him.

“Your teddy bear is cute”

She uttered a “What” as she turned around

He repeated the sentence, “Your teddy bear is cute”

She couldn’t help smiling as she said thanks.

“Phew, you smiled. Couldn’t bear to see you cry. Alright then. Will carry on”

“Wai….” She let it hang. She didn’t know what to say.

“Well, if you need some company at this point now, can do that. Care to come for some coffee with me? I had this book which I wanted to read in the coffee shop, but I can also use some company for a change while having coffee”

That wasn’t a pick up line she was used to usually. But she agreed and that’s where it started off. He was fun to be with and knew what he wanted to do with his life. He also let her be her usual self everywhere and didn’t impose any regulations. But he was quite possessive sometimes, something which she was happy about.

She thought she heard him stir, or maybe she imagined it. She waited for some more time before she continued her thoughts about their life.

He was an online marketing consultant and she was a PR executive. After a year, they decided to get married. Their parents had no issues at all and one fine day they were married. They both didn’t change a lot after marriage and life went on as usual. There were the usual fights, the ones that creep in when you have led life as an individual for quite some time and suddenly you find that another person has beat you to the loo. Or when they criticise your taste in movies or other indulgences. Apart from that life was good.

As time went by, they both settled into a comfortable routine. Both their careers were going quite well. Their physical relationship took a bit of a backseat but was there nevertheless. Slowly other things started creeping in. The stress of their jobs took its toll on their marriage. More fights than the usual ones followed by hours of not talking to each other marked this phase in their life.

And slowly, even that settled into a comfortable routine. Maybe they did want a break from each other from time to time each day or week. The aggression shifted someplace instead. Their lovemaking became more aggressive, something which they both were not comfortable about. But then she thought, they had to let out their aggression somewhere.

And then sometime back, as the phrase goes, when the shit hits the fan, it becomes very bad. She had come for the party. Recently, tongues had been wagging about the affair between him and the other woman. She was quite a looker and had a wonderful profile. “She has some nerve”, she thought for coming to an anniversary party where she was the potential breaker. She hadn’t cared about the rumours. She was not the one to break her head over certain things. But after looking at the way he had kept looking at her and talking with her, she wasn’t sure.

“What was her name again?”

“Whose?”

“Come on, don’t overact. That woman in the black dress. She was quite a stunner”

“Aliya”

“You like her don’t you? Saw that at the party”

“Hmmm…. Yeah”

“Well, I don’t care for anything as long as our routine is normal”

“Uh…. We need to talk. I think I would need a divorce”

The words were out of his mouth express fast, but he had said it. And in his eyes she saw how determined he was.

“Well, can’t we talk more? You know how well I value this relationship”

“I don’t think so. In the recent years there have been only fights”

There. He had said it. She knew he wanted to justify his decision based on that. He wouldn’t say that Aliya was more voluptuous than her. No sir, it had to be more than that. No person would want to admit it was because of lust. She laid out the plates for dinner.

She tossed and turned around in bed. She faced the other side now. Coming to think now, in a less turbulent frame of mind, she thought that she wouldn’t have done it. It was too stupid a reaction. “But then am I not human and prone to haste?”, she thought to no one in particular. She put his hand on him again. He was getting a bit cold. She got down from bed and got out the linen. She covered him till the neck. No need for the head, she told herself. The head was still warm. A little sticky as she took her hand back, but warm nevertheless. A sticky post always remains on top, she thought and giggled at her own PJ.

She washed her hands and then willed herself to sleep as tomorrow was a busy day. She should maybe start with cleaning the mess at the dining room….