Panorama in video

This could probably the next BIG in movie entertainment after 3D magic of  AVTAR. Check out this video to get an idea of what I'm talking about. Yellow birds don't have wings but they fly to make you experience a 3D reality.....relax that is the name of the camera which made this video possible.

Imagine the possibilities it might open for entertainment. Consider a scene where a guy and a girl is talking. Instead of an usual over the shoulder shot of the guy which you normally see today, you might be able to to just turn your view and keep looking at that hot girl he is talking to ! (Though this is unlikely to happen in the near future since the cinema halls have to keep up with this development.) It feels like you are literally in the movie, in between the actors ! That could really change the perspective writing a screenplay, nay the very basics of story narration ! Whew !

At this point of my movie career :-P, all I can do is pass the word to one tech-savy crew in India which might probably show interest, yes, it is Mr. Shankar. I scrapped one of his cameramen who happens to be my friend, hope it gets some attention.

Kosuru news : Enthiran is getting ready in 3D !!

Porkkalam

Porkkalam is one of its kind Tamil movie, no doubt about it. Ever since I saw the teaser where Kishore blows away a Ford Endeavour with his punch, I knew I wanted to watch this movie.

A couple of years ago, Hindi cinema industry witnessed a paradigm shift where a bunch of fresh directors and story writers emerged bridging the gap between commercial cinema and art cinema. This resulted in the first copies of what is called as Multiplex movies (Mithya, Bheja Fry, Khoshla ka Ghosla, Manorama 6 Feet under and more...) which were good in content, made at shoestring budgets and targetted at a specific group of audience rather than the masses. Porkkalam probably confirms the arrival of a similar trend  in Tamil cinema. Bandi Saroj Kumar, the director of the movie excels in extracting the best from almost all the departments. You are bound to get surprised when you learn the 21 year old has not gained any prior experience as assistant director. When he had gone to join the factory, RGV had apparently sent him back saying "if you have a good story go ahead and make it yourself"

From the point of time-line I felt the suspense (though a good one) in the first half is a bit lengthy since you are not given enough clues that there is in fact a suspense in the movie. Only thing the viewer keeps wondering is the reason or motive behind the disconnected subplots and action blocks. If the reveal would have been a bit more earlier and the sequences connected to one another it would have been even better. Nevertheless the canvas of the movie and the action sequences do stand out. Kudos to Super Subburayan team for a having meaningful single-blow actions. Music is good and even though misplaced a couple of songs are good to hear. The sparingly used of special FX is also appreciable. The very short dialogues and absence of it in some places have to be appreciated. The flash back could have been a bit more crisp. The second half of the movie takes the normal B and C center tracks.

Kishore is just too good with his performance and so is Sathyan. While the character of the protagonist is etched very well, the same is not the case with others except probably Sathyan. For instance, "a corrupt police officer with ethics" alone does not make the character interesting and believable ! And what a waste of Sampath, a highly capable actor ! I felt Tinu Anand and Biju Menon were not needed at all for the movie. Remove their portions, the movie would still look good. In spite of making a visually striking and different this movie would still fall under the category where the heroine's role is under developed. I mean, with all her problems back home why would she fall in love ? Is it because love is Blind?

Why were there so many English sentences in the dialogue?
Why were there so many Fade-to-Black and Slow motion?
Why was there only one gun in whole Lanka and that too with the hero?
How come the villain's brother was not able to realise a crucial fact about the hero when he was in the hero's custody for almost a week, but finds out the very next day in an action sequence?

and of course..."Why two orders?" - the "A-few-good-men" question. - If the hero is not ashamed , if he is so intelligent, capable and confident to overcome his weakness, why does he have to hide his it from the world ?

I would love to see what Saroj has in store next.

Are you content with the content you consume?

I've always had some questions in my mind about the media. Media exists to question, publicize, expose or opine on the happenings as this recent article claims. And so confirms our Supreme Court in its judgment. But does the responsibility of the media stops there? or should it take some positive actions beyond just bringing the issue to notice of us the consumers ?

I happened to be in an event where Mr. Vinay Tiwari, CNN IBN's head of operations was one of the speakers. He sure had the audience delighted with his one liners like "The difference between erotic and porn is just lighting", "Two things nobody in India understands completely are Duckworth-Lewis method of resetting target in cricket and TRP ratings of media". In response to one of the questions from the audience on how they decide to prioritize the content shown in news television media, he said it would be impossible to satisfy the whole nation's audience in terms of what is exclusive and breaking and important news. As long as the news it correct and accurate his channel runs it. "When we say it is breaking or exclusive, we mean it is breaking and exclusive for us the channel". Now, how much do you concede with that as a consumer of news media content ?

Also, who questions the media which questions the happenings? Social media wins the race in this case. For instance, I write a review thrashing or praising a movie but who rates and reviews my review? the comments to my posts is the solution in case of blogs. We see less and less of "Letters to editor" and "Edhiroli" in case of print and television media. I wish the channels ask the viewers to SMS them answers to "How well did we cover IPL controversy?" instead of "Should Modi be removed ?" The viewers don't have the final say in the second question anyway.

Mr.Vinay Tiwari concluded by saying "Remember, the TV comes with a remote, using it is the only way you can punish the channel"

Paiyya

"Make a film like RUN" - Karthie had apparently asked Lingusamy when they decided to do "Paiyya". While Lingusamy has tried to achieve the goal, he has  consciously chosen to ignore the vital element of a movie  - the story. And he does not fail to tell you so in the first few scenes through the careless attitude of the protagonist. A director I met recently told me the value of 'screenplay' is increasing day by day in the Tamil film industry than that of the 'story'. Very true with movies like Payya. Having said that, I wouldn't bother listing it as a "Road movie" since all the action happens off the road and but for some comedy sequences and a few songs, it is just travel on the road with long monologues. And when are our action-directors gonna understand that the scope of "action" is  more than just "fight sequences".

You've to give it to Karthie for making us believe the "will-cross-the-river-when-it-comes" attitude of the protagonist and bother less about how he happened to be so. He has performed effortlessly after an Aayrathil Oruvan. A commendable third step in his acting career. He is good in action sequences too. Among the supporting cast Jegan stands out with his comic performances. A capable Sonia Deepti could have been used better I felt (having seen her in Happy days). Milind Soman does provide a fresh air to a Tamil cinema villain but I'm afraid he is gonna be type-casted if he repeats a Paiyya again.

"Adada Mazhai da" and "En kaathal solla" are good numbers. Now we know Lingusamy had opted to remove the soulful melody "Panikaatre" in the final released version of RUN to ensure the pace of the movie. I wonder why there we so many songs in this one which is supposed to be a fast paced movie.

Thama..

Among the many things you have to assume in the story, you should also take it for granted that none of the Andhra or Mumbai gangsters are aware of a thing called firearm.

Go for it if you wanna mid-day no-brainer comic ride !

Data theft and IP rights violation in India

As an aspiring startup company, I was happy to see the move by the HC to close down operations of askme on charges of data theft from justdial Askme, the infomedia TV 18 venture has been convicted of stealing the vast database that Justdial had built through years of research. One of the things that any startup must ensure is the securing IP rights. You can either apply directly to the patent controller or through the facilitating center here

Justdial (the red line in the graph) has managed to work its way to the top over the years as indicated by Google trends here The other players in the local search are Sulekha, asklaila and getit yellow pages. and of course there is Google

Raavan - teaser

Hu hoo !! The first official teaser of RAAVAN is out here
It says the music launch is on Apr 24th, wonder what happened to Ashokavanam ? or is it Raavana now?

Usability design

When you work single-handed (literally all alone like me) on a startup idea, you need to get your customer's feedback frequently on your product as you do in an agile. This ensures that you don't get carried away by viewing through your lens.

Just when I thought I had the perfect design for my company's website, I realized that it is just my view and not the end user's view. so I was wondering how I could ensure the best experiences for the end user. I bumped on this wonderful article about usability centric design of websites. Also I tested my website in using this cool tool. Guess what, I was not half bad at my estimates. It is quick. Whats more, its free for 5 results and you can earn karma points by doing other's tests which you can use to get more results for your test.

Angadi Theru - movie review

A couple of months ago while this movie was still in production I was wondering about the title, why "Angadi Theru"? why not "Kadai veedhi" which is the more common way of referring any shopping street be it the "Town hall" road of Madurai or the Orchard road of Singapore. Has Mr. Vasantha Balan tried to have a poetic title and stopped half way ? I feel that is what he has done with the movie as well. He has perfected the technical departments including production but not the story and screenplay.

The soul and concept of Angadi theru has the capability of becoming a Lagaan of Tamil, but nay, at one point of time you wonder if this just another tragic teenage love story. Yes, the movie has some scenes which leave you with a disturbed mind. But that’s all; overall the movie does not impact you with any resolve. Some questions that come to the mind of a keen observer

- WHAT exactly is the problem if a salesboy and saleswoman fall in love? Of course you would end up in trouble if you get caught for calling your supervisor "karungaali" in your love letter.

- How come Pandi tries to end his friend's romance to save his job and just 10 mins later he gives a "Savuri mudi" his crush Sophy.

- There are a just a couple of instances where the salesperson is beaten up or manhandled in a private dark room, every other ill-treatment and violence is shown to be happening in the shop floor itself. Where were the customers?

- A few auto-drivers chase the couple to get the girl but why not in their AUTO ?? !!

- The employer ties the pair for romancing in the store and then gets the hero arrested on a false complaint. Hero gets squashed in the police station. He cries that he knows all the illegal ways in which the owner does business. The inspector promptly calls the owner and tells him "the boy knows too much, let us release him" Hero goes back to the shop, makes a big scene in front of the customers and gets the girl released who was tied up in the godown till then - realistic movie anybody ? Oh yeah, on his way back the hero promptly challenges the supervisor that he will survive in the same "Angadi Theru"

As mentioned there are a few cute and intelligent moments as well - I did enjoy the scale, strawberry, "savuri mudi" cues to romance and of course the sister act chasing the shopping bag. Also noteworthy are the quick sequences like the restroomwala, the shirt vendor etc. But if these supporting cast were given more screen space it would have been a complete picture.

The thing I don't like with capable Tamil directors like Bala, Selvaraghavan is that they believe they will be considered critically acclaimed and famous only if they make dark and heavy movies. Yet to see what Sasikumar and Ameer have in store. VB is no different, why make an Angadi Theru when you've done a Veyil as your first ?

Angadi Threu is much of Angadi and less of theru !