Katabomman - A new avatar

Its been a while since we saw remakes of old Tamil movie hits into a new one. Sarath Kumar is the next person to remake the classic blockbuster 'Veerapaandiya Katabomman' in a grand new avatar.

It has been said that Sarath Kumar himself will don the role of Katabomman and his wife, the owner of Raadan Inc, will be producing the movie. Talks are going on about the movie and yet to be finalized. Will this movie maintain the honor created by the movie and the great legend 'Sivaji Ganesan'. We can find out soon

Information Courtesy: Indiaglitz

Maasilaamani - A short review

Sun Pictures knows the formulae for a perfect masala movie and they got it in Maasilaamani. It is their back to back victory after Ayan and this movie is doing well in tbe box office charts. Though you may not be completely content with this movie, you would feel that this movie is not a waste of time.

The movie is about a guy named Maasilaamani (Nakul), who once in his normal daytime, happens to see Divya (Sunaina) slapping a rogue to avenge the harassment of her friend. Maasilaamani, stunned by her boldness, falls in love with her but unfortunately when Maasilamani tries to help his neighbourhood by going against the local politician, he is accidently seen as a rowdy by Divya and she loathes him. Knowing about this misunderstanding, Maasilaamani, with the advice of his friends, befriends her family members without her knowledge in the name of Mani. Only when Divya happens to see the face of Mani, she embarasses him and asks him to get out of her house. But Maasilamani has different plans. He refuses her claims and Divya is forced to believe that there are two people - Maasi, a local thug whom she loathes and Mani - a family friend whom she starts admiring. Whether Maasilaamani will disclose his real identity or continue to fake his identity forms the rest of the story.

Nakul and Sunaina have done their parts really well. The 'Kaadhalil Vizhunden' duo didn't have much meat to their roles in their second movie but they have provided the necessary elements to make a masala movie. The music of the movie is good. "Oh Divya" and "Dora Dora", although they sound like the same, both are hummable. "Odi Odi Vilayaada" song is a perfect dance song and tops the list. The comedy tracks are not really great and especially the track played by M.S.Bhaskar makes you hate the first half of the movie. This movie is a family entertainer and I would recommend it if you do not care for the storyline.

Ratings

Story: 5/10
Entertainment: 7/10
Music: 6/10

A millionth word

A millionth word has been added to the Lexicon and that is none other than the technical term 'Web 2.0'. It is not everyday we find a millionth word to be added to the English Lexicon. Coming to Web 2.0, is the next generation of Web provided to people with Semantic Web Services and also the possession of domain knowledge. As per the rule, a word must be added to the dictionary only if it is cited by a particular number of literature content (say in tens of thousands). So the new kid on the block is Web 2.0.

The addition of Web 2.0 has stirred many oppositions from people who insist that Web 2.0 is not an apt term to be added to the lexicon. A few years back, a similar word was added to the lexicon after being used in the Harry Potter series book. That word is 'muggle' meaning non-magical folks that was coined by the author J.K.Rowling. This word was said to be added only in the Oxford dictionary and not followed by Cambridge dictionary.

A Pandemic Outbreak

Swine Flue, the flu virus, that has been making into the news for the last few months has been finally declared by the WHO as pandemic virus. This was declared as a result of reports of 30,000 swine flue cases around the globe and also hundreds of deaths. The WHO has stressed the importance of preventing this virus and has asked all the health agencies to develop a vaccine for this deadly virus.

The Swine Flu has spread in all continents and has been the case of major worry for the WHO. The American continents are the most to be suffered by this virus outbreak. Most importantly, this pandemic outbreak is the one after 21 years of no such outbreak.

Thoranai - A short review

Every actor in Tamil Cinema would want to become a mass hero and end up doing masala movies. Actor Vishal is no exception. If the movie becomes a hit, then the actor would be on a high roll, else the crew gets frustrated and might accidently show at the audiences. This movie is one of the disappointments.

The movie starts with Murugan (played by Vishal) witnessing a murder in the streets of Chennai by a local don named Guru. There is another don (played by Prakash Raj) who is Guru's nemesis. He wants Guru to be caught. So he threatens Murugan to provide testimony to the murder at the court and Guru threatens Murugan not to do it. Murugan decides to continue with the reason why he came to Chennai, i.e to find out his brother who ran away from home when he was very young. Expect some expected twist of turns in the movie as Murugan tries to save his brother and himself to get them safely back home.

The movie, like all masala movies, is a stereotype. Shreya, the lady love of Vishal, comes in a few scenes and for songs as usual. Vishal gives punch dialogues without any intention to give one. Vishal, who was very good in his previous action movies like Sandakozhi and Thimiru, failed to even look like an action hero in this movie and didn't satisfy to the expectations. Go and watch the movie if you are a fan of Vishal or Shreya.

Angels & Demons - A short review

Angels & Demons, the prequel to 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown is an interesting novel that deals with the canonizing of the new Pope in the holy place of Christianity - The Vatican City. Hundreds of Cardinals and millions of visitors from all over the world come to Vatican City to witness the announcement of the new Pope. Robert Langdon, a renowned Symbologist and Vittoria Vetra, a physicist from CERN labs are two people who would have definitely felt they have been misplaced on that particular day in Vatican City, if not for two events - the first being the murder of Vittoria's father, who is also a scientist, at CERN labs and the theft of their long term research - the antimatter, which when collides with any other matter present in the universe, would result in a nuclear explosion. The second, being, Robert Langdon was summoned to help with the case and to solve the mystery that unravels the history behind Christianity's greatest enemy - the Illuminati and the return of their forces to destroy the holy place once and for all.

The entire novel deals with the instances that occur within a 24 hour period and the movie, directed by Ron Howard, is well justified. Tom Hanks, as Robert Langdon, has proven his mettle with ease that makes us wonder whether he is really a symbologist. Other than the acting and the direction, the screenplay and the background music has to be appreciated. The preciseness of the director's work in each scene is definitely a tribute to Dan Brown, the author of the original work. The suspense thriller keeps you at the edge of your seat. The thrill is not just in the murders or mysteries but also in the information that will enlighten your mind with the past that was never told or rather concealed.

Here are my rating

Overall - 8/10
Background score - 8/10
Screenplay - 7/10

Reasons why CSK could have lost

Congrats to Deccan Chargers on winning the IPL 2009 trophy. The final was an awesome match. Anil Kumble's men, the Royal Chellengers, put on a good fight but in the end, it was Gilchrist's men, the Deccan Chargers, who had a reason to go home for the party.

I would like to talk about the Chennai Super Kings' defeat to the Royal Challengers' at the semi-finals. The two teams have met in five occasions - four in the league and one in the semi-final. Chennai has won twice and Bangalore has won thrice including the semi-final. Although Chennai was a favorites to winning the trophy, the match was unpredictable as there was an earlier upset by the Deccan Chargers on the Delhi Daredevils. In T20, it doesn't matter whether the team has a strong batting or a strong bowling lineup or even a well balanced team. On the particular day, whoever plays better cricket in all fields in all the departments wins the game. That was a statement confirmed by Mahindra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Chennai Super Kings. The Royal Challengers, perhaps, considered it serious and put on a hard working battle to beat the last year finalists and also end Chennai's dreams to winning the trophy.

The Chennai batting lineup is without doubt, the strongest batting lineup of all the IPL teams. With the opening pair of Hayden and Patel, the team's first six over total throughout the series has been at an average of 54 with a maximum loss of one wicket. The team's batting strength doesn't end in that. What comes next is a threat to the confidence of the bowlers of the opposition team with the likes of Suresh Raina, Subramaniam Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Jacob Oram, Mahindra Singh Dhoni. All the mentioned batsmen have the strength and the skill to hit the ball out of the grounds.

Dhoni was never worried about the batting department but the bowling and the fielding department was always a concern for him. The fielding was not up to the standards and the bowlers could perform better. Infact, the bowling and the fielding department was tested in the final two league matches and they exceeded the expectations as they successfully defended the total of 116 to defeat Kings XI Punjab. But Dhoni's unintentional mistake began from there.

Testing... but for what?
The final two league matches were given as an opportunity to the benched players to showcase their talents and indeed, they did not disappoint. Some played exceptionally well, like George Bailey, the Tasmanian Batsman, who hits the ball hard and was only unlucky to have got out two times. Another guy is Ravichandran Ashwin, the local guy, who picked up two massive wickets. But this is T20 where every match is a learning curve. The series has not been won yet. What is there to test? Injuries have been claimed to have brought out the other players but the testing resulted in a disastrous performance at the semi-finals by all those who missed out the final league matches.

Team selection
Although Dhoni could not be blamed on the team selection, there are certain obvious risks that he took during the semi-final. In the batting lineup - Patel, Hayden, Raina, Badrinath and Dhoni himself were in massive form. The return of Michael Hussey to the squad at the semi-final, just as he had promised, must have confused Captail Cool a lot. Mr.Cricket who missed the earlier matches due to his national duties was certainly a man who could bat even if he is woken up at midnight. But maybe, it wasn't noticed by Dhoni or maybe he didn't want to risk brining him. So instead, he brought in the all rounders like Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel. Albie Morkel is a strike bowler and has been well used by Dhoni even though he hasn't batted upto his standards. Jacob Oram was kept as a backup bowler. He would be given maximum two overs during the game and the rest depends on how he bowls that day. He didn't fire with the bat as well and always played a very small cameo performance. If he is not being used much, then why include Oram in the team? Why not bring in Hussey? Even if Hussey fails, the team is still strong in the batting. One may question the reduction of the bowling strength. That would have been justified if Makhaya Ntini had been brought in. The first reason is Albie Morkel failed to prove that he is a bowler who can be a batsman. If he is used only as a bowler, then Ntini could have been used. The local boy Ntini was once the best bowler of the world and is certainly at his fitness best.

One down and always down
When everyone expected Suresh Raina to come in at No.3 after Hayden got out in the semi-finals, everyone was taken by surprise when Dhoni walked in. That was another unintentional mistake. This guy can take the ball out of the grounds but he admitted that he needs time to do it. So he came one down. But the match is the semi-final and the testing should be for the team and not for the batsman. After he walked in at No.3, the run-rate massively slowed down and the team got out to a low total.

World's best... but where is he?
Everyone questioned Dhoni for bringing in Mutthiah Muralitharan, the world's leading wicket taker, very late in the innings. He instead tested the batsmen with Jakati and Raina. Though the duo performed well, Mutthiah is the only person who can rattle the minds of Rahul Dravid and Manish Pandey, the inform batsmen. Pandey has never played Murali before and he admitted that he was nervous playing Murali and had to pass the strike to Dravid, the wall with tremendous experience. But this happened in the final six overs and Murali's first over was the 10th over when he should've actually bowled the 6th over. But even then, he bowled exceptionally well and Dhoni justified it by saying that one can't ask more from such a world class bowler and that is the reason he brought him at the later part of the innings to bring down the innings required run rate. He did bring down the run rate but the problem was the run-rate was much higher in the first part of the innings.

There are other mistakes as well like Oram being brought in at the 19th over and he couldn't handle the pressure well. Lakshmipathy Balaji and Albie Morkel are the two perfect guys who can handle pressure well. Obviously Ntini could've handed the victory to the team if he had been there. But unfortunately, he was in the bench witnessing the loss.

I do not blame Dhoni and his men. They played really well throughout the tournament. These are the certain obvious mistakes that they had done and they are completely my views and maybe wrong. I apologize if I am wrong. But anyway, back to cricket, it is always the team which performs better that wins the match, right?