Chandigarh -- The Wonder City

Hi Friends,

I never told you people about my short but very pleasant visit to the best planned city and cleanest city in India, Chandigarh. The architecture and urban planning has been done with utmost care that it really leaves a mark on your first visit to the city.

The capital of Punjab & Haryana (now I can say I’ve visited both the states at one go) this city was actually Lahore before partition.. OMG did I go into Pak... lol.. Yep in a way I can say...

Thanks to my colleague for inviting me to his home and giving me a glimpse of this unique city. We started our day out from the Panjab University (no i didn’t do a typo .. it is spelt as PANJAB) where my friend lives.. A huge campus with loads of greenery it sure is a treat to spend your days of learning. Chandigarh as what i know is very popular for its quality of education..Affiliated to prominent universities it is one trying to jump deep into the IT world. The infrastructure of the city and its close proximity to the capital may be I assume the reason for its quick rapid growth in all fields. Well now coming back this city I must say is filled with most people having lots n lots of paper posing the Father of the Nation (Well I just meant money). Youngsters coming to college in nothing less than sedans was quite amazing to watch. Most of them involved in local politics as well so the inflow wouldn’t be a issue at all.

Stepping into the road will give you a shocker especially if you are from a city like Bengaluru. Gosh !! Which country are we in ??  Lush green lawns on either side of a 4 lane road with a divider in between.. and also an extra cycle lane on both sides... and traffic !! Ooopsies wait .. Now that must be a new term for the local population. No jams, No horning, Nobody rushing. Helmets are compulsory for even the pillion rider which is followed with utmost responsibility(Look whose talkin abt the helmet rule :D)... Being in UP past few months, i too had actually forgotten that RED in a signal means u gotta stop.. I was reminded about that...:-O .. Only hope such discipline will get implemented in our city sooner if not later it’ll be a great achievement.

I must tell you friends about this place called the Rock Garden. A 40 acre sculpture garden it is. The story goes that Nek Chand who is the creator collected materials from the demolition sites around the city (partition --> Pak --- > lots of things to break maybe ... :P ) and is supposedly built the garden illegally later made legal due to public demand... Hard to explain but marvels have been created from materials like broken bangles, odd shape stones, broken glass, bricks and even bulb holders.. Lesson to learn that nothing actually goes waste after use...

The whole place can be explored in a day n a half.. Smartly speaking not more than a day is really needed.

Hangouts are quite popular in the place just like ours .. though I’d say we got a better line of hangouts.. I just got a glimpse of one of the high profile ones in one particular colony... but wait I just had lunch at the restaurant and walked away.. The night-life was not that great though...Hardly any takers even without the 11:30 shutdown notice... Finally we just went for a drive to a hill station nearby and back post mid-night..

Coming to the malls.. Thumbs down. These are just forgettable structures compared to the ones in NCR.. But the insiders are just incomparable to any place. THE PUNJABI KUDIS !!?? Fashion clothes stitched to cover or to uncover. A BIG QUESTION MARK?? Some native of Chandigarh only must answer this.

Chandigarh is completely smoke free, plastic free. Buy anything from a shop and you will get it in a cloth or paper bag. I had heard of this before and its actually true. So many imported cars.. Man!! BMW's,Porshe,Lexus,Audi... name it and you will surely find it parked or zooming somewer.

Oh yes the Gol Gappa was tremendously delicious and so was the kulfies and so was the well I forgot all those Punjabi names... Unique varieties of snacks.. Not a great relief from aalu & paneers but Punjabi's have their own touch of enjoyable cuisines...

I couldn’t make it to Mohali and Patiala, however hoping I can go there sometime again... A memorable first time experience to one of the corners of India... As of now a rough road ahead with deadlines at work looking like demons approaching... Signing off .. Ciao till the next blog...

Dasavataram -- Review

Movies come and go. Some are brilliant some mesmarising... But very few movies which will leave you jolted onto your seat baffaled at a brilliant masterpiece which seems almost impossible to think of from scratch. If you want to catch innovation at its best Dasavataram is the movie you should just not miss.

One striking feature that hits you in the face once you have watched ‘Dasavatharam’ is Kamal Haasan's passion for filmmaking. All the ten roles he has essayed have been meticulously planned right from the body language to dialogue delivery. Be it the American president George Bush, the Vaishnavite priest of the 12th century or Fletcher, the American baddie playing an EX CIA officer.

The eyes are considered the most effective tools in creating the right kind of attitude for any actor and Kamal Haasan is a master at that. There are many a time in the film when the audience would have to force themselves to believe that it is the same actor who is the good guy as well as the bad guy. The roles have been placed so carefully that you just cant get out of it for any moment. The editing is so brisk and fast paced you just wonder if this is really a tamil movie or u've honked yourself into a latest Hollywood flick.The expressive and determined eyes of the priest, the mushy and yet funny countenance of Balaram Naidu, the hilarious CBI officer and the peaceful martial artist eyes of the Japanese character have all shaped up to fit into any acting text book. Hats off to Kamal Haasan on the acting front!! There's no second thoughts behing the effort put in by the great master who love for films just reach no bounds.

Based loosely on Chaos theory, the narration of the film promises a lot of excitement and as the story unfolds, somewhere down the line there are a few missing links that have been forcefully stitched together. Govind, the bio-scientist in the United States of America has been wronged by his boss who has intentions of selling his invention to wrong hands. The determined scientist doesn't give up. He sneaks it away and after a few accidents the invention lands in India. The hunt and race against time especially with Fletcher, the ex-CIA baddie sniffing at his neck with murderous intent culminates into Govind meeting an irrationally sentimental and at times sweet Andal (Asin). The baddie with sizzling Mallika Sherawat for company proceeds along the vulnerable Indian security system and shows up at the right places at the right time.

The narration then makes sure most of the characters played by Kamal get into close
proximity in terms of geography. The stunt sequences are quite professional with its share of thrilling moments, but then there are too many coincidences consistently. The protagonist and his slowly, but surely falling-in-love lady companion seem to be jumping off just about everything. Soft landing seems to be a predictable option at most times.

When it comes to action and stunt scenes, ‘Dasavatharam’ is head and shoulders above most Indian films. The music element in the film is passable with some breathtaking re-recording bits in patches. Hats of to Devi Shree for that. Himesh does live upto his name by putting in 4 numbers which do fit approriately into the storyline but wonder why they went in for him in the first place when they was talent overflow here in the south itself :P .

Cinematography has been simply awesome. The heavy compositing and trick shots have not dampened Ravi Varman's innate talent at creating the right kind of mood the film depicts.

‘Dasavatharam's’ review can never be complete without talking about the makeup part. Apart from the desired result one can guess the kind of effort and hard work Kamal Haasan would have had to go through just to get them on and that too on a daily basis. Makeup has been good overall except for a few shots that show off a kind of plastic look.Computer Generated Imagery plays a huge role in the film. When the same actor plays seven feet plus youth and an old woman who is barely five feet, one can imagine the kind of intensive scaling and image manipulation by the CG team. Recreation of the 2004 Tsunami is impressive and the action part weaves the intensity of the story. The most convincing factor for me was the reason given for the Tsunami hitting our country at the climax. Thought its a statement which would bare a mixed response from most people its gives a very good end to the great movie.



The direction has been apt sticking to the script in the true sense of the term. K. S. Ravikumar known for his simple style of narration has not been himself with ‘Dasavatharam’, but has shown sparks of ingenuity. I just wonder how the duo of Ravikumar and Kamal managed to plan and share their thoughts. Hats off to them.

Kamal Haasan has stuck to his favorite subject of the 'no God' debate in this film too and has glorified himself probably for the first time on screen with a dialogue directed at him as being the 'Ulaga Nayagan' .

Dasavataram --- Is a movie of the decade. Miss it and you have yourself only to blame.

Rating : 4 / 5

Darode 'for LovE' - Film Review

Darode is a dream of Uday Jadugar, a famous magician and shadow play maker.
He says, "cheating" is what he likes the most as whenever he does cheating, people like it. For eg: He is a magician.. magic tricks are just cheating skills right?.. Whenever he performs them, people like him.
So he has put all sorts of "cheating" skills in to the script in a "TIGHT" way and made a movie out of it by using average actors with a very small budget.
So here comes Darode.

First half is a bit slow, but in the second half, the script, screenplay is very thrilling which keeps you on the edge of the seat. second half has scenes wherein the team plans for the LOOT... and the mistakes they do in the execution of the preparation for it. They all hit them hard, during the day of darode, the way they overcome it has been shown impressively. Finally, police catches the team and then a criminal lawyer has enough points to disprove that they are the people who looted the finance company.
Screenplay is very impressive. Script is flawless and every minute-detail has been taken care of, if you deeply observe.

The main field where the film fails is, no star cast, no names, bad camerawork at some places in the movie, hopeless acting by some actors, Dubbing time dialogues change, which have shown majot lip-sync problems.

But if you think these points are not so big compared to other fields of the movie as its a LOW BUDGET movie, its a thrilling and entertaining movie.

Music has been very good considering the budget of the movie. Krishna Krishna, Cinema Cinema an
d one pathos songs are impressive. Lot of comedy dialogues makes the movie fun filled too.

Good effort by the low-budget team !

Antu Intu Preethi Bantu Audio Review

ತಾರಾಗಣ - ಆದಿತ್ಯ ಬಾಬು, ರಮ್ಯಾ

ನಿರ್ದೇಶನ - ವೀರ ಶಂಕರ್
ಸ್ಕಂದ ಆಡಿಯೋ

ಒಂದೇ ಚಿತ್ರ ಇಬ್ಬರು ಸಂಗೀತ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರು. ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ವಿಭಿನ್ನ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ. "ಅಂತೂ ಇಂತೂ ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಬಂತು" ಚಿತ್ರದ ಒಟ್ಟು 7 ಹಾಡುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಾಲ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ಯುವನ್ ಶಂಕರ್ ರಾಜ್ ಸಂಗೀತ ನೀಡಿದರೆ ಮೂರು ಹಾಡುಗಳಿಗೆ ಗುರುಕಿರಣ್ ಸಂಗೀತವನ್ನೊದಗಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.
ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಹಾಡುಗಳೂ ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮವಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೂ ಕೆಲವೊಂದು ಹಾಡುಗಳು ಮೊದಲ ಸಲ ಕೇಳುವಾಗಲೇ
ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಹಿಡಿಸುವಂತಿವೆ. ಒಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂತೂ ಇಂತೂ ಒಂದು ಒಳ್ಳೇ ಅಲ್ಬಂ ಬಂತು ಅಂತ
ಧಾರಾಳವಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಬಹುದು.

ಗುರುಕಿರಣ್ ಹಾಡುಗಳು:

೧. ಮತ್ತೆ ಮತ್ತದೇಕೆ ನನಗೇನೋ ಹಂಬಲ... ಮೊದಲ ಸಲ ಮೊದಲ ಸಲ (ಕುನಾಲ್
ಗಂಜಾವಾಲ, ಆಕಾಂಕ್ಷಾ ಬಾದಾಮಿ): ಇಡೀ ಅಲ್ಬಂನ ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ಹಾಡು. ಕುನಾಲ್ ಗಂಜಾವಾಲ
ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಸುವರ್ಣ ವಾಹಿನಿಯ "ಕಾನ್ಫಿಡೆಂಟ್ ಸ್ಟಾರ್ ಸಿಂಗರ್"ನಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ
ಉದಯೋನ್ಮುಖ ಪ್ರತಿಭೆ ಕನ್ನಡಿತಿ ಆಕಾಂಕ್ಷಾ ಬಾದಾಮಿ ಹಾಡಿರುವ ಈ ಹಾಡಿನಲ್ಲೇನೋ
ಮಾಂತ್ರಿಕತೆಯಿದೆ ಎಂದರೆ ತಪ್ಪಾಗಲಾರದು.. ಮೊದಲ ಸಲ ಕೇಳುವಾಗಲೇ ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಹಿತವಾದ
ಅನುಭವವನ್ನುಂಟು ಮಾಡುವ ಈ ಹಾಡು ಮತ್ತೆ ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೇಳ ಬೇಕೆನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ!. ಎಫ್ ಎಂ.
ರೇಡಿಯೋದಲ್ಲಿ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಜನಪ್ರಿಯವಾಗಿರುವ ಈ ಹಾಡು ಚಿತ್ರದ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಹೈಲೈಟ್ ಆಗಬಹುದು!
ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ - ಹೃದಯ ಶಿವ.
9/10

೨. ಅಂತೂ ಇಂತೂ ನಿಜವಾಯಿತೇ, ಪ್ರೀತಿ ವಿಧಿಗೆ ಬಲಿಯಾಯಿತೇ (ಹರಿಹರನ್) - ಪ್ರೀತಿಯನ್ನು ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡ ಪ್ರೇಮಿಯೋರ್ವನ ವಿರಹ ಗೀತೆ. ಉತ್ತಮವಾದ ಹಾಡೂ. ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ - ಹೃದಯ ಶಿವ.
7/10

೩. ಅಂತೂ ಇಂತೂ ನಿಜವಾಯಿತೇ, ಪ್ರೀತಿ ವಿಧಿಗೆ ಬಲಿಯಾಯಿತೇ (ಗುರುಕಿರಣ್) - ಮೇಲಿನ ಹಾಡಿನ ಮುಂದುವರಿದ ಭಾಗವನ್ನು ಗುರುಕಿರಣ್ ಹಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಹರಿಹರನ್ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಇಷ್ಟವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.
6/10

ಯುವನ್ ಶಂಕರ್ ರಾಜ್ ಹಾಡುಗಳು:

೪. ಓ ಬೇಬಿ ಓ ಬೇಬಿ...(ಚೈತ್ರಾ,
ಹೇಮಂತ್) - ಚೈತ್ರಾ ಅಭಿಮಾನಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಖಂಡಿತ ಇಷ್ಟವಾಗಲಿದೆ. ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆ ಸಂಗೀತ
ಉತ್ತಮವಾಗಿದೆ. ಕವಿರಾಜ್ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯವನ್ನು ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಉತ್ತಮವಾಗಿಸಬಹುದಾಗಿತ್ತು.
6/10

೫. ನೀ ಚುಮು ಚುಮು (ಕಾರ್ತೀಕ್, ಚೈತ್ರಾ) - ಪೆಪ್ಪಿ
ಗೀತೆಗಳಲ್ಲೇ ಗುರುತಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಚೈತ್ರಾ ಹೆಚ್.ಜಿ. ಫಾರ್ ಎ ಚೇಂಜ್ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಧುರ್ಯ
ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಗೀತೆಯನ್ನು ಹಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ - ಕವಿರಾಜ್
7/10

೬. ಮಂದಾರ ಮಂದಾರ (ರಾಜೇಶ್ ಕೃಷ್ಣನ್) - ಅಲ್ಬಂನ
ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಉತ್ತಮವಾದ ಹಾಡು. ರಾಜೇಶ್ ಕೃಷ್ಣನ್ ಎಂದಿನಂತೆ ಉತ್ತಮ!. ಹೃದಯ ಶಿವ
ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಕೂಡ ಸೊಗಸಾಗಿ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಮೃದುವಾದ ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆ ಸಂಗೀತ ಕೂಡ ಖುಷಿ
ಕೊಡುತ್ತದೆ.
8/10

Thanks to Ajay Kumar for the review.