Peter wrote:

Date: 27-Sep-2008, Saturday

As promised, Nagala/4 would be an interesting one, better then all previous
Nagala’s put together.

32 CTC trekkers started off along the main stream, crystal clear water generously flowing in which we swam and from which drunk. The water was amazingly fresh and cool, a natural rejuvenating spa for the body and mind. The taste was enchanting. The stream was sprinkled with small and big boulders, bounded on both side with lush greenery and cut deep into the surrounding hills over thousands of years not seen yet by humankind before. Words can’t explain the experience of walking through this peaceful and serene terrain… (Simply can’t understand why most people spend their weekends in the concrete Chennai city jungle… you guys are missing out on life…) We met 3 major obstacles along the river – deep water pools surrounding by steep vertical rocks – the first and third we conquered by
swimming through with the help of a long rope. The second one we circumvented by climbing over it. We took a dip in several smaller pools along the trail.

Towards the late afternoon we reached a split (named Nagala/6 and Nagala/7 respectively… in the stream – at both sides the water was falling down higher up past we could not immediately proceed. With another 1-2 hours before dark we decided to climb steep uphill on a surrounding mountain to set up our camp for the night. The climb was very steep and tricky, rocks falling down, people holding on to tree branches trying hard not to slip. We reached a fairly flap grassland sprinkled with small rocks where we put up the camp. After some theplas and cup noodles everyone fell deep asleep. An
exhaustive 12 hour trek from 7am till 7pm.

In the morning we climb further uphill and spotted the original Nagala/1
target – a 800+ meter high peak in the center of the Nagala mountain range
somewhat 3km away from our camp. Although water resources were limited and
several valleys separated us from the peak we decided to give it a shot. 16
brave members took off while the others took rest near the camp. The sun was
beating down hard on us, water was running low, the terrain of long grass
and rocks along the non-existing trail was though. We started around 7am and
followed several adjacent green slopes until we reached the base on the
target peak. From there we had a really though climb with no water left and
burning sun on top of us. Sweat was dripping, the legs were trembling,
throats were dry as sandpaper, spirits were low, people close to dehydration
and mental/physical exhaustion, we pushed on and finally reached the 820m
peak around 11am. The mind blowing views, the cool mountain breeze, the
feeling of accomplishment, the spirit of team work immediately made us
forget all the pain, sweat and thirst. The feeling was indescribable -
seeing the entire Nagala mountain range at our feet. We went through hell to
reach heaven. We discovered several new streams, a second entry point in the
Nagala range and a mysterious small hut in the middle of nowhere. We will
soon be back exploring new trails again…

Then came the descend, a steep, long trek back to the night camp, throats getting dryer and dryer, some people were close to passing out, sun relentlessly beating down on us, close to desperation, little shade along the path. We finally reached back to camp exhausted around 2pm and hope was low to exit the hills the same day. Meanwhile two brave souls had climbed down to the river and returned with several bottles of water (still not enough for so many thirsty people). Water never tasted this good! There was no way we would be able to make it back before midnight along the onward
trail – too many obstacles along the river. So we decided to take a new, unknown return trail straight over the hills, crossing several valleys in between. It was navigation using intuition, sense of direction and knowledge
of the terrain (after three earlier Nagala-s and studying Google topomaps) more than using the modern technology GPS. We started climbing down and up across several grassy/rocky slopes Southeast. We finally reached an upper
(dry) stream, found an entry point through dense bushes surrounding the stream and climbed along the stream  sprinkled with big boulders downstream.

Everyone was extremely thirsty, visions blurring the mind, knees trembling under the weight of our backpacks, stomachs empty, body near exhaustion. When will we find water, will we get out before darkness, will we get lost in the jungle? We proceeded further downstream until we finally came across some stagnant, slightly dirty pools, some members unable to resist the thirst and drinking from the same. A little further we reached another dead-end (4th one this trek) – a steep 10 meter drop in the dry stream, impossible to scale. So we climbed up along the steep rocks bordering the stream and created a trail to circumvent the dead-end ending up at the
bottom of the steep drop. From there again we proceeded along the narrow stream, cut deeply inside the surround mountains, crossing several smaller pools until we finally met running, clear water allowing us to drench our relentless thirst. God heavenly! Water never tasted this good! Amazing feeling! At the same spot we hit another steep 15 meter fall in the river bed which prevented further progress.

Kannan/myself (ahead of the rest to find a trail home) climbed up along the
steep left side of the stream along a 85 degree vertical rock until we met
the grassy foothills of the surrounding mountains. Climbing back to the
stream seemed impossible as it was too deep cut inside the hills with
vertical walls on both sides and probably more steep drops along the stream
would prevent further progress. It was 5pm… the sun setting behind the
mountains already… Another 200m climb brought us at the top of a local
peak from which I could see that we were getting closer to the main stream
from which we started the previous day. I went ahead and climbed down on the
other side of the hill trying to find an access point to the main stream
avoiding patches of dense thorns and steep rocks which were impossible to
proceed over, the climb down was extremely steep. I finally reached the main
stream around 6pm, tracing the trail with the GPS so we could find it back
during darkness when the group would be ready for the descent.

After enjoying another 2l of cool Nagala mineral water and dumping my
backpack, I climbed up again along the steep slope I rejoined Kannan and the
rest of the group helping out those in the back. Everyone was happy to hear
that we would make it back home the same day instead of spending another
night trapped in the jungle. We regrouped at the top of the peak when the
night was falling and prepared for a slow, steep descend in the dark guided
by the GPS. Rocks were falling, feet were slipping, people were falling,
some were sliding down on their bumps, we finally made it down around 8pm.
Everyone enjoyed the cool, refreshing water after a 2 day ultimate
experience which stretched both body and mind beyond what most think was
possible. As usual we saw CTC team-work at its best, previous unknown
individuals helping each other overcome some of the toughest physical
obstacles they had ever faced in their lives, creating new life-long
friendships and memories. Thanks to all the great guys and gals with
amazing, selfless spirit who helped those in need, stretched out the helping
hand, shared that last drop of water and made this trek another successful
mission. I believe this is the essence of CTC. It took us another 2 hours to
reach back to the cars, dipping inside a big, cool pool along the way to
clear all the sweat of the past 2 days. Finally, I reached home at 5am this
morning after one of the best and toughest CTC treks so far. Never felt so
good and alive!

We will soon be visiting this trekkers paradise again. Stay tuned!

Just for this one trek, Peter, I will never forget you… You took care of us like a father does his children. Thank you Peter.

I haven’t seen any other music director create musical passages with so much importance given to help the singer get to his starting note.  He is also probably the first music director to re-use the same tune for different emotions/scenes showing happiness or sadness, it is here IRs vast knowledge on notes/what note combinations can produce what feeling, and in what octave to play to get a required feel, helps. For example, a major chord signifies boldness, smartness etc ( play any major scale like C/F/G) and immediately if you play the minor variation of the same, you’ll get a different feel…there are so many such helper chords available like added 9th,5th,sus4,maj7 min7,augmented etc, when used in a proper sequence you can create so much of musical emotion just by playing these chords alone ( you don’t even have to change the base scale), couple such sequences to a beautiful video track and you get an amazing sequence.

He also makes sure that the emotions/feel the director wants to convey in a frame is heard through his music, a simple example is evident in the song “Katta Vaandi” from the movie – ” Sagalla Kalla Vallavan” , where Kamal makes fun of Amibka as her car stalled and that she had no other way to reach home untill Kamal comes in his old fashioned bullock cart, so keeping this situation in mind, the instrument IR uses for the Ist BGM of the song pefectly fits the shot/it’s required feel. Another blazing example is in the song ” Poovae
Sempoovae” from the move “Solla Thudikuthu Mannasu”  where the director wanted to show the rising tension/disbelief in Kartick’s face as he sees Licy on stage, to this effect IR uses a fast paced bass track, a fast drum track and skillfully placed strings/veena. He also ensures that every part/instrument has it’s own place, it;’s own specialty moments and signature.

Another notable aspect to his orchestration is the inter-mingling of notes with which he creates unbelieveable harmony – a striking example is the song “Kanmani Annbooda” from the movie “Guna”, just notice how the bass lines play along with the melody. His background score is even more amazing, one striking example – the background score of Anjali is heart rending, so is Hey RAM and Mouna Ragam.

More to follow…

I have a lots to say about IR. I think it was some 15 years ago that I first had heard a song that he made. This was the time when VCRs were around, so one of my dad’s friends had given us a video tape that had the song “Nilavaee Vaa”  from the movie Mouna Ragam. I was barely in my teens then, didn’t know tamil, but as i heard this song, my mind was captured to the intricate style in which he orchestrated the song. The sequence, parts layout, harmonization,chord usage – everything was superb ( something  tha I”ve never heard before at all. I immediately wanted to get more and more songs from the same composer, but since my tamil knowledge was limited, and most of the students and friends I knew never had an interest for his music(they themselves were probably in the same boat as I was). Days and years passed by, still I didn’t have much on IR, but I used to hear songs from him frequently – not knowing  that those songs were again his compositions. My next reaction to getting his songs came from “Oliyum Oliyum”,  I had quite a hard time ‘judging;’ his music because my benchmark was a song like Nilaavae Vaa only. I was spellbound to later realise that he has surpassed so many laurels and composed for so many films.

There’s one particular incident that took me 6 yrs to get that song. This song was featured many times in Oliyum Oliyum, but since I didn’t know to read tamil, i couldn’t get the song. I used to faithfully check every broadcast of the programe. The strings arrangement on this was fantastic. IR’s knowledge and his dexterity to use strings (and wind percussion) remains unbeaten. I went to Malaysia as a part of my work and there found the name of the movie that the song was in and finally got the song. It is called “santhosham endra santhosham” sung by S.Janaki for the movie ” Manithanin Marrupakkam” . By this time i began to understand what to look for or to expect from an IR number, and i was getting used to his style of arranging/scoring. It really helped me because i was a great listener, and a growing musician. It’s  a different thing when you know  to sing a song and a totally different thing when you know to play that same song. It’s as if you are going through the same emotions and feelings that the composer had when he was creating that song. from then on, I slowly started to take interest in all his compositions. I even went to purchase VCDs of movies where his songs were hits, just with these songs the movies that had them were hits too. His improvisation knows no bounds..for example take the BGM of Mouna Ragam, this (in popular circles) is loosely connected to the soundtrack of the hit English movie – Flashdance. Giorigo Moroder did the original soundtrack for the movie. If you listen to the soundtrack of Flashdance and then listen to the BGM of Mouna Ragam, you can notice a common thread, but that’s all that you’ll notice. The common thread being the feel and the tempo of the music there.  IR composed something to that effect but a totally different chord progression and feel to it.

I am an 80s freak, I love both Tamil music and English music of the 80s. As my knowledge slowly started to increase about IR, i started a journey to collect his masterpieces (it’s still an ongoing process) and I discover that each of his songs have a story to tell, be it the simple – Kanae Kalaimaanae or the gusty Illamai Idho Idho…the way he composes, the way he arranges, the way he chooses what instrument for what part, the octave it should be played, the positioning of the same in the stereo field (instrument panning), how effects can be applied, and how much of it’s application help a song, what all instruments need effects and what effects to use (based on the feel of the song), to give a striking example, take the song “Panni vium malar vanam’ from the movie “Nineivellam Nithya”. This song has a fast feel to it and just after the introduction has been played and as the song starts off, there’s an electric guitar being played (strummed) that catches your ear. This guitar has a unit attached to it, this unit is called a Phaser and it modulates the clean electric guitar tone to make it sound as if it’s coming out of a rotating tube, more like how you see waves on a sea shore, couple that Phasesr to a compressor and a chorus, you get beautiful tone.  This effect was necessary to give that song a raunchy feel, if you play the song without that effect, there’s something missing – and the clever part here is that the frequency of these waves is matched to the tempo of the song. His knowledge on harmony is remains unbeaten, his 500th film Anjali is a treat for every musician. The intricate arrangements in  the title track Anajali is such a delight, he makes it look as if all the instruments ‘talk’ with each other as in , these instruments are correctly panned left/right and have different parts to play, so as one part is over, the next part starts up from the right and then left, sometimes together. (as heard in the II BGM of Anjai and II BGM of the song “Singalathu Chinna Kuyilae”  from Punnagai Mannan)

The way he arranges strings/violins makes you happy or sad, as in the songs – Sandhosham endra Sanshosham from the movie Manithanin marrupakkam, or Idhayamae (title track), the other point to be stressed is that wind percussion is probably one of the difficult parts to play as it’s played by humans. Unless you have proper breath control, proper wind pressure, you cannot play percussion, especially when it comes to fast notes at fast tempos also slow (long notes) where you have to hold. It’s also tough to get wind percussion play at any octave as these instruments depend on wind pressure to sound, so if there’s no adequate pressure from the player, trumpet hits wont have a punch. For every wind instrument, there are a variety of options that come along,..for ex: in trumpets you have bright trumpet/solo trumpet/jazz trumpet etc…each of these leave a particular signature on the song.  Another reason why most people get instantly latched on to songs that are made by him ( or by composers of his time) is the authenticity and naturality of the instruments used, to be more specific, the tones used. Before the advent of modern digital recording,everything was analog, which means for a recording you’d have 2 tabala players, some more percussion players veena’s, violins,guitars etc etc, when these instruments get recorded, the sound that the instruments produce, the dynamics introduced into the environment, the recording ambience, the natural warmth of the instrument are all captured by the microphones and these are recorded as analog signals ( basically a change in voltage). Now with digital technology, (though its very very beneficial), the actual process of the whole chain of recording revolves around bits/ 0s and 1s. Though clarity and depth of each instrument tone has been reproduced accurately, the sharp shrillness of the new age instruments/samples/rack boxes seem to take a toll on our ears. You can hardly listen to a song more than 5 times with today’s music, whereas if you put a song like Sangeetha Megam or Paatu Thalaivan or Nee Oru Kadhal Sangeetham – you can play it for a long time, as the sounds there don’t irritate you or hurt your ears at all.

He’s probably the only music director to use everything that was available to him, even guitar effect units were not spared. His level of understanding harmony and  the knack of mixing the correct notes to give 2/3/4 part harmony is outstanding – a perfect example – rajja raajathi rajan – from Agni Nakshathiram. He brought in the bass guitar, an instrument that was only used in Western music into tamil films. Song that feature a lot of bass guitars – Devanin Kovil – from the movie Aruvadai Naal, ( the bass guitar plays notes that’s related to the melody in the background), there are different styles of playing for a bass guitar,  you have fretless bass, slap bass,picked bass,acoustic bass and many more, IR has used all of them, particularly in songs like Raja Raja Cholan from the movie Rettai Vaal Kuruvi (Slap Bass), Pattu Ingae – from the movie Annanagar Muthal Thiruvu, Thumbee Vaa from the Malayalam Movie Olangal. All these effects/ style of playings/differences in arranging /chord inversions/rhythm changes were all just getting developed and were never heard in Indian music till IR came along. Today we have everything available to us, music production is more like making fried rice where you just throw in all the components necessary to make a sequence, add some effects and then vocals, polish the vocals with a touch of compression/eq and your song is ready. It has become so affordable that anyone who has a net connection and a decent fast computer can make music in seconds. If IR could do all this and much much more, (when nothing of this even existed as theories) then he is the king of music.  His music gives life to every frame of a movie, and as much as he makes music, he also does know the power of silence too. Apart from his music, lyrics also played an important part in shaping a movie, you don’t get lyrics that make you think these days, it’s just pure commercial logic that exists today. Take for example Poonkodi than – the song from the movie idhayam, analyze the stanzas, or any good song, can you ever imagine to get lyrics like that today ? or take Sangeetha Megam  from the movie Uthaya Geetham.

It’s true that you can’t contain someone like IR in lines like these or by blogs/websites etc, his music is the universe in which all of us live. He has done so much and achieved so much in music, that today most of us take certain things in music for granted. He is instrumental in creating fades ( where the volume of the track reduces over time) stuff like fade in , fade out and cross fades, he is also instrumental in creating stuff like intro sequences for a hero, musically creating empathy,pathos, etc. His arrangements are all tight, with different variations to a common rhythm pattern. The differences in rhythm create different arrangement opportunities for a song, the result of which you see in film where a song is sung in a a happy mood and the same song is sung as a sad slow song. His chord progressions are fantastic, the use of diminisheds,major 7ths,minor 7ths, added 9th/5ths/ etc and when coupled with root inversions (for bass), creates /lifts the song, a simple example – the introduction for Vaa Vaa Paakam Vaa – from the movie Thanga Magan, his use of the human voice as an instrument is also a new thing – the shining example being Raja Raajathi rajan – from Agni Nakshathiram and also the starting part for the song Devanin Koyil.

More to follow…

[image courtesy:http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lsxB2f-l77c/SIl7OFIXpaI/AAAAAAAACuM/ci9aeszEZT4/s320/ilayaraja2.JPG]

I was in Trichy for last two days for wedding of my colleagues. During the stay there, I got a chance to visit the Rock Fort.

The rock fort is the main icon of the city of Thiruchirappally, better known as Trichy. The above image is the bell room of the temple. Primarily this was a temple which abodes shrines of Lord Ganesha, known as “Uchippillaiyar koil”, Lord Shiva, known as “Thayumana swamy”, Amman and Lakshmi Devi atop the rock. It provides a wonderful view of the whole city. Night lights here is very beautiful!

Though it was a temple from the age of Pallavas, it was subsequently handled by Vijayanagara samrajya, Nayaks of Madurai and British. During Vijayanagara period this rock was fortified and used as a watch tower and garrison. Hence a Bell room there.

Geologically 83 meters high rock is one of the oldest in the world, dating back to 3 billion years. Shape of the rock itself is very interesting, which looks different in each angle. A banner seen there…

Interesting!

More photos here: Picasa web

Dear readers, I am joining nammude boolokam website in the e-campaign led by them for saving Mullapperiyar dam. I hope all like-minded people will join us. Pictures used in this post are taken by Mr. Faizal Muhammed who is a photo journalist for a leading print media in Kerala. Faizal published all the mullapperiyar related photos in his blog two years before. One can see the pathetic condition of the dam in the photos below. The funniest thing is, almost all media have the same kind of photos and visuals. But no one is publishing it in their media. Just because of vested interests and their not-so-serious mentality towards a catastrophic disaster which will occur in Kerala in near future. Let us do something, at least the smallest thing that we can do in regard of Mullapperiyar.

I, along with Nammude boolokam request readers to spread the word across; if possible, translate this article to Tamil or a better English article. So that an awareness is created.

Many people still believe that the so called dangerous situation in Mullapperiyar dam is just a hype created by Kerala government and Keralites. I hope this article will atleast show some shocking scenes from the ground zero. Mullaperiyar dam is one of the oldest of its kind in South India. It was built before 110 years using some jurassic technologies, which the builder himself tells the ‘estimated’ life of dam is 50 years. The dam breach is 60 years over due now!

This dam has a height of 54 meters (177 feet) and a basement of 44.2 meters (145 feet). It is built with a mixture of Lime stone and mortar. When it was built, there was no reinforced concrete or similar techniques. The engineer who built this dam calculated that this dam will stand for 50 years. After building the dam there was an agreement between princely state of Travancore and then Madras presidency. It was purely an unfair dealing. The agreement says of leasing out the land area of reservoir for 999 years.

Kerala was giving water to Tamilnadu. It is, and it will. No problem. Problem comes in the other way. The dam is not safe to carry water more than 136 feet of water. Tamilnadu wants it to be raised to 142 feet. Whereas in late 1970s itself central water committee suggested not to raise water level beyond 136 feet as the dam is not in fit condition. Fact is that even in 136 feet water level, Tamilnadu will be able to get water. Another interesting fact is that Tamilnadu pays Andhrapradesh Rs. 3 crores per TMC of water, and Rs. 40,000 for 70 TMC of water! Shall we call it incompetency for Government of Kerala? We should!

See the image below where you can see the week wall of the dam. You should see the cross section of the dam in the image above also to understand the impact of a breach!

Mullaperiyar Dam as it is seen with water level at 115 feet.

Image below,you can see the cracks very clearly. Generally the security system there will not allow anyone to photograph this. Once, Indian navy was called for to photograph the cracks in the dam. But after boarding the boat, Navy got a call from ‘Higher’ authorities to come back! Understand, this “STRONG” wall is protecting the lives of 35 lakhs+ people who live downstream and 5 districts which are in the vicinity of this dam.

Cracks to take lives

Water seeping into the wall through the cracks

Plaster on the wall of the dam eroded due to constant contact of water.

See the reservoir of Mullaperiyar! Good. Right? What Tamilnadu say is even if the Mullaperiyar dam is breached, Idukki dam will be able to stop water at it. Hey TN, what are your trying to say? Just forget about the thousands of people who are living between Mullaperiyar and Idukki dams? (Then, why can’t we forget people in Tamilnadu?!)

This is the gate of the “Srikovil”! Key is with Tamilnadu. What a pity. Our neighbor has the key to our home! And for sure, it will not be opened to a Keralite.

Here comes the super scenes. The below is inside the tunnel. Reservoir is on the right wall of this tunnel. You can see water oozing from the wall. Mind it. It is not any intended hole or crack. But it is one which developed in time course.

Breach of this dam will be so disastrous that, the high court building in Eranakulam will be under water! So, think.

Dear Tamilnadu, Please don’t try to say that all these photos are taken inside my home!

I wish I get more details and photographs in this regard. Please pass the word…

Save Mullaperiyar Dam, Save Kerala

Credits for the pictures goes to Mr. Faisal Muhammed. Thank you Faisal. You did a wonderful work.

Anything which is going out of control will revert back one day. I believe, media in india is nearing its death. Or atleast the bad time for them will start soon.

I’m writing this post with two incidents in mind. 1- media frenzy created by telecasting live shows of cheap politicians who are challenging each others for a bunch of goondas- mr.pinangrayi vijayan and k.sudhamakaran. They behave like local rowdies calling the other one for a fight. As the case is being investigated by police, politicians need not interfere it. And media need not pay attention to those a** h***s who are making unwanted noise. For atleast one week, people in kerala were getting no news other than goonda mafias, pinangarayi, sudhamakaran and paul muthoot. Did nothing else happened parallel in kerala? I wonder. Media had only few words to say in a jumbled manner; repeatedly…police, goonda, mafia, pinangrayi, sudhamakaran, paul, muthoot, s knife, black smith…WTF!!
2-The poor crorepati Mr.Shashi Taroor. All because of a good habit…tweeting. What ever he told is correct. Atleast the contreversial tweet… The holy ‘mother’ cow and holy ‘son’ cow are the biggest cheaters. Mr. Taroor started travelling in economy class much before the austeres. Proofs are floating over the net. And the holy cows were doing dramas! Travelling in second class train for a while… And the holy son spent more than a crore to roam around in tamilnadu, not for the country, just for his f***ing party… Holy cows are always holy… And they holy s**t.

I just wanted to vent out my anger towards the media…

Yes man… Indian media sucks…screw it!

Sankara says:

"naaristhana bhara naabhee desam
drushtwa maaga mohaavesham
edan maamsavasaadi vikaaram
manasi vichinthaya vaaram vaaram"

Yes it means what you are thinking of! Being emotional on thinking of a sexy butly’s body is just a lust. It is all flesh and bone…the same things that you have in you. Remember this again and again.

Some times your work environment will seem to be a heaven. You will see all good things in it. May you praise it! May be you become poetic on it. Looking very closer to each detail of a thing. Project or work is just an example. Let it be some other useless thing. Still the whole world is running with ego, greed and diseases. Life is always tough man…! Believe it. It is never a cake walk. Elaborating this, Sankara says:

"nalini dalagatha jalam athi tharalam
thath thwath jeevitham athisaya chapalam
viddhi vyaadhyabhimaana grastham
lokam soka hatham cha samastham"

A drop of water on a lotus petal will be very beautiful to see. It is poetic and romantic. But it is very uncertain too. It’s life will end when the sun starts staring on earth. The same applies to human life also. Here, instead of sun, our own greed works out to make ourselves uncertain.

Along the long history of human race, there had been many teachers, spiritual leaders, “Gurus”. Some of them went from detachment to salvation. Some went from Sex to spirituality, Dwaitha to Adwaitha, Humanity to Spirituality… enough! I am here a guru- of self. I go from Information technology to Spirituality. I walk in the shoe of Sri Adi Sankara. I use his shoes only! Path is my own.

***** End of blabber *****

I woke up from my bed. In the background, sweet voice of my favorite singer- MS Subbulakshmi was singing the usual song- “Bhaja Govindam”. It is a song which can relate to human life at any point of time; which can be related to a man who is in any stream of life. “Brush your teeth”, there came an order from my father! “OK Appa”, Said I and in a half thought, I walked to the wash basin. Still my mind was roaming around the words-

“bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam
govindam bhaja moodha mathe.
samprapthe sannihithe kale
nahi nahi rakshathi dukrinjkarane.”

Thought, thought and thought… I was going mad… What is happening to me? Am I becoming Swami Santhoshaanandaji?! Nuts! With my limited knowledge in Sanskrit, I learnt that Sri Sankara is trying to say- “Worship govinda, Oh fool! Rules of grammar will not save you from your end of life”.

Say, in a life of a software engineer. Lot worry about the work the whole day. At the end of the day, we are all disappointed with the fruitlessness of our work and life. You may say, you are very much satisfied. But the satisfaction that you are feeling now is just a false feeling. You try to believe that you are satisfied.

Daily we see people who always complain about their job. They are paid very less. “Macha, my friend is in XYZ company da he is getting x lacs salary da….” and so on. My question is “Why didn’t you get job in XYZ company?”. You didn’t study well. You didn’t perform in the interview. Your attitude was not right. And now, you are in a company which pays you according to your performance, caliber and all other blah blah! Just for the sake of getting more money you look out for another job! What a fool you are… Sankara says:

“moodha jahihi dhanagama thrishna
kuru sadbudhim manasi vithrishnaam
yellabhase nija karmopaaktham
viththam tena vinodaya chiththam“

Means- “Hey fool, just stop running behind money. Understand and devote to the reality (Your aggregates are low!). Be ready to face any reactions for the actions you have already done in the past”.

You didn’t study well. So, you are paid low. Now, you need to build a good career. Be stable in a company for some time. Yield goodwill. Be ethic. And then search for another job. Rather than just switching the job every year!

How great Sri Sankara is… He might have foresee the recession periods and IT booms in his age itself?!

Yaar… I am going mad… Please forgive me if I continue this article!

Rock on, is surely a different kind of entertainer. The greatest thing I liked in the movie was the story was successful in keeping suspense for a long time, for showing the reason of the breakup of the band. The threads between the present and past were blend perfectly. The ins and outs of the flash back were simply great! Farhan Akhtar, Oh man… he is superb. He is such a multifaceted personality! Still it is hard to believe that he sung those beautiful songs himself!! The opening song- ‘socha hei kya’ makes any kind of audience to stick to the seats. Starting with that and until ‘Sindbad the sailor’ it was superb. Not only Farhan, Arjun Rampal, Purab and Luke played their roles very well. It seems Arjun Rampal learnt playing guitar for this movie. Because when the music is played, his fingers on the guitar tabs seemed very realistic. Also the ladies team- Prachi, Shahana and Koel done a great job. Though in a small role, Nicollete bird too did well.

One thing… The movie being a music based one, the song music was not that much extra ordinary. It was just like other bollywood movies… nothing special in it. Especially when it comes to percussion instruments, the songs were just above average. Those guitar leads were marvelous. It seems to be loosely based on Tom hanks’ directorial movie- That thing you do. Director groomed Rock on really Rocking!

And Saroja… saamaan nikal diya.

Tamil film industry’s real strength is the wide pool of talent who can tell usual stories in an unusual manner. Saroja has a story which simply resembles a Scooby doo or Richie rich cartoon! I heard somewhere, this movie is an inspiration from another English movie- Judgement Night. It starts something like the Eurotrip movie, four friends going out to another city and facing hell lot of problems and how they escape from all those problems comprises the story. One does not need to compromise anything for this movie. All commercial components were well mixed in this family entertainer. Not like other contemporary movies, vulgarity is nominal in this movie.
Shiva’s TV serials, the golti brothers and the washbasin mouthed Premgi really rocked it out. Venkat Prabhu excels in treating the situations in different angles. The frames of the chase were wonderfully captured. The factory, I think it is the old Binny Mills, plays a great role in creating a horror effect in the spectator’s mind. I could see people sitting at the edge of the seats during the chase sequences.

Songs department handled by Yuvan, kept its loyalty. ‘Dost bada dost’ and the engagement songs are really good. The picturisation of the song ‘Kodaana kodi’ looked like a mock to ‘Kathaazha kannaale’ of Anjathe, except the sexy hip shakes of Nikita Tukral. She was awesome!

Something that really entertained was the moment when Premgi ask Charan- “Yaaru sir antha figure?”! And the spoil sport was the trap preparation sequence. Although it does not spoil the whole movie’s spirit, director could have thought a little bit practical solution. I don’t know what I mean though!

What to say… guys, see these movies in cinemas only… DVD, especially pirated will spoil the mood of these movies.

Enjoy… Rock on Chennai!

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Note: I dont receive any kind of incentives/discounts/commission for putting this write up here!!