Manmadhan Ambu - movie review

I kept wondering what ever happened to the Kamal-Mysskin movie that was planned to go on floors after Unnaippol Oruvan. Kamal started Manmadhan Ambu and Mysskin, Yuththam Sei. Looks like Kamal needed a well deserved vacation in a cruise in Europe and thats exactly what he got !

MA is a typical Kamal movie. Kamalism overshadows in every bit of the movie so much that you even forget the character he is supposed to play - Major Mannar. Agreed, that is partly because he has taken the responsibility of story, screenplay, dialogue (with who else? crazy mohan) and even lyrics. But, the problem is I had to put up with so much of Kamal's own life in every aspect of the movie. Look at the characters for instance - a movie actress who is suspected to have an affair with a co-star, a cancer patient and a divorcee with two kids. Agreed, that in any movie, the protagonist usually voices the opinion of the writer who creates the character. In this case, Major mannar expresses Kamal's ideas of non-violence, ahimsa and political views but only at the wrong time when he is expected to feel sad and angry over the culprits who killed his beloved wife. His idea about "Veeram" has also been heard before in Virumandi ( Manninkka therinjavan....)

Even though the screenplay is just above average and characters had no graph, the performances should be applauded. Very natural and neat acting from Maddy and Trisha. Sangeeetha, Ramesh Arvind and Urvashi were good too. The surprise packages were Usha uthup and the kids. Camera and editing were excellent, felt like a nice Eurotrip. I liked the rendering of poems. It also proves to be a neat entertainer without skin shows, bloodsport and dappanguththu songs.

The best of the movie was of course Neelavanam and the way it has been shot and edited. Kudos to the team for that.

Uh...yeah BTW the director is KS Ravikumar, one of my favorite directors. But since I was not able to give him credit to anything about this movie, I added his picture in this review at least.

Quickest test to check if your startup idea will win

I bumped into this article about failed startups whose founders eventually moved on to something else. You wouldn't find such stories very often. It describes why many startups were not able to survive in short and bitter excerpts from the founders.

Your startup would win ONLY if you do at least one or more of the following to your customer

1. Solve a crucial pain they have in a wrong place
2. Help them make them more money
3. Cut their cost
4. Save time


If your customer is aware of the problem and how crucial it is, probably he is already looking for a solution, So selling your product would be pretty straight forward. But hey, you are not the only player in the market so he is going to be looking for alternatives. You will have to prove your durable competitive advantage to him to have a winner.

On the other hand, if your customer is not even aware of the pain area, then making him realise would be a herculean task ! But remember once he perceives it to be crucial problem, then you have an easy winner in your solution or product. If you manage to do this, you've actually managed to create a niche market of your own and have the first mover advantage.

The other 3 need no explanation, you win if your customer wins !

If your startup idea is about doing something else, STOP right there and go back to sleep, dream more !

Journalism - reality and fictions about it

A lot has been said, written and watched about Bharka Dutt, Vir Sanghvi and Niira Radia.  This made me go think about ethical journalism and check my memory of movies that describe a similar struggle.

The first one that comes to my mind is timeless classic All the President's men in which Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford wonderfully bring out the struggle journalist undergo to collect information and the extent to which they risk their lives to gather evidence before they publish a story. The next one is of course Wag the Dog in which Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman tell us how a manipulated promo and marketing can make or break a country's top leadership positions.

In Tamil, we had Oomai vizhigal an with Jayshankar, the newspaper editor struggles to uncover the mystery behind beach resort murders of chennai. Page3 is another excellent effort from Madhur Bhandakar in the same lines. Then we have the latest offering from Aamir Khan, Peepli live which showcases the brutal realities of today's Media. This list would not be complete without mentioning about Alaigal a TV serial which I watched in my childhood days. Sivakumar is at his best as the publisher of a newspaper in it.

My own post in this blog talks about yet another fictional movie about the same topic. In the edited versions in front of the camera, we see the shows where journos and anchors grill the opponents and we even feel that they go overboard to sensitize the issues. But in reality (and as all the above movies depict) it looks like the politicians, corporates and nay their lobbyists are the ones actually in control of the media !