Prometheus - movie review

Why on earth (or the other galaxies) didn't somebody warn me about Prometheus? A simple hint that Ridley is trying to re-claim as the original creator of Alien would have prepared me for (or made me avoid) this nasty experience in 3D. But no, none of the reviews or the social noise did. You will have to wait (if you manage to avoid throwing up) till the very last few frames...literally the flashes after the FADE-OUT to yawn "Ohhhh.....okay, so thats what you were trying to convey".

Goes without saying, every act was more gruesome than the previous. Now, I'm not a great fan of 'creature' movies (PREDATOR is an exception). So if you are, then you might not agree with my views. The very very thin line of story or plot gets completely darkened with the gore you see on screen. Halfway through the movie I decided to feast my eyes only on the size zero Charlize and ignore the rest. No whats the point of getting Guy Pearce if you are gonna hide his whole face with prosthetic ?? I rest my case.

Moving on...

He wore black and I wore white
He would always win the fight

ShUN ShUN, he shot me down
Splat splat, I hit the ground
Dhaam Dhoom, that awful sound
Chen chen, my mady got me down.

Seasons came and changed the time
When I wake up, the day'll be mine

Now he's gone, and I know why
Untill this day, sometimes I cry

I didn't even say goodbye
I didn't take the time to lie.

Bang bang, I shot you down
Bang bang, you hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
BANG BANG, I always shoot you down !

Thadayra thaakka - review

You could say I was waiting for this one. I wanted to see how Magizh Thirumeni graduates in his second venture after Mundhinam Paartheney. And kudos to him for choosing to try his hand at a different genre rather than another romantic comedy. It takes guts to shred one's own feathers and emerge new. Having said that, he's still not able to shred off his mentor's influences on him - a lot of muted words in the dialogues even after a "A" certification by the censor.

Thadaiyara thaakka is not your everyday action flick. What makes it different from the average hero/heroine caught in the wrong place at wrong time with villain movie is the "treatment". Though there were some hits and misses with the narration and screenplay, the treatment of the story is very fresh to Tamil cinema. For instance, my friend felt the movie is very violent whereas there is not a single instance of drop of blood splatting on the screen. That is the "impact" that leaves in your mind letting you fill the gaps rather than showing things explicitly. There are many puzzles for us to solve even in the hero's characterisation...sometimes we even wonder if he is actually in love with the heroine.

Every actor barring Rakul Preet Singh, the newcomer leaves an impact. Arun vijay has waited quite along time for this one and let us hop his underplay works. Vamsi Krishna, for sure, is gonna make some rounds in the coming years. Mamta couldn't have done more justice to a story like this. The Gayathri character would have worked if played by some veteran known face in Tamil....you just can't shove in a new face after 3/4th of the film is over and expect miracles.

Thaman's background has filled in whatever is needed to scare and thrill you. Kelaamale is good but badly shot, I wonder what happend to the melody Kaalangal ? And I won't complain for a needless Poondamalli song at the beginning of the movie - there are many non-creative reasons in Tamil film making that makes this mandatory. Action by Anal Arasu and Cinematorgraphy by  N. Sukumar are "effective" (pun intended). I don't know if it is editing or the dialogues, once the plot is set and the goose chase begins the movie reduces itself to a average goonda film. The too many twists and turns in the second half don't actually work because the screenplay lacks a rhythm for you to follow.

There is a thaakkam (impact) for sure but not thadaiyara (hurdle free) !

Vazhakku Enn 18/9 - review

A lot has been said and written about this movie. It is touted as a major milestone in Tamil cinema history like a Sethu or Subramaniyapuram. Unfortunately, I was not very impressed ! No doubt, it is a neat presentation without any cliches or skin-show for the chosen issue, but it was not a very gripping narration for the genre chosen. The two legs of the narrative does overlap each other but for no reason or impact. For instance, why should the protagonist help the rich boy by pushing his car to start ? What difference would it make if it was some other passerby who pushed the car there ? Nothing. How does showing the guy's past in North-India help this investigation which is the crux of the story ? No way ! The plot is also not completely devoid of holes. There are movies in the same investigative movies (with a dash of romance) in the recent past (read RAAM) which managed to hold the attention of the audience throughout.

Balaji Sakthivel shocked me as an audience with the final quarter of his previous movies whereas the surprise element in this climax is not very effective. There were many incomplete characters which might represent various elements in the society but they do not help the story in any way. Excellent cinematography for sure with a digital still camera. An Ok background score by Prasanna. The "Vaanathaiye" song was good but got annoying when it was repeated so many times ! Karthik's Solo Oru kural was soothing. Very good performances by all the new comers, they did what was told and fit their characters. Editing and art department have done a good job. Not a great case made, but made with a good heart.

You are your brand !

You have to live and love your brand ! You need to eat, sleep, drink and breathe it through the thousands of cells in your body....and thats just a beginning ! your customers will start giving a second look and start recognizing it soon.

To begin with, if you are start up company, the first thing everybody you are trying to sell is gonna do is check if he has "heard" about your "brand". So give a name to your product / service. Take time to make a neat logo that expresses your spirit of business (joyful or professional or whatever the spirit is) This is probably the first thing you must do. Make something that people can easily remember and associate you with.

Then go head over heels to promote it ! Your passion and love for your brand should be the fire that ignites other matchsticks, that is your first few loyal customers. Yep, get them excited about using your product. Give away compliments etched with your brand name. Of course don't do a direct marketing - find the best occasion in their life to do it and give your compliment with even a simple "Best wishes from (Your brand)" written on it.

Take your brand everywhere you go and let the customers do the same.

Wanna know how much we love thiray ? Oh..we go crazy with thiray ! Our team attended the International Film Festival in Goa. There were some computers in the lobby for the delegates to check their emails. We promptly set the default homepage of all the browsers in all the computers to www.thriay.com, so that everybody who stops to check their email sees our landing page first !

Limitless - movie review

Watched Limitless today. It joins the list of movies that I call "don't get me started now..." along with In time, Unknown, Drive etc which equally disappointed me in the recent past.

I'm a Jesse Cook fan

O My God ! thats how I got blown away when I heard this guy's music. I happened to be at a bookstore where they played Tuesday's Child and I became an instant fan of Jesse Cook. Loved his flamenco-rumba approach and was amazed at the wide range of emotions his music conveys.

Margin Call - movie review

Okay this one was a stunner. Probably because many of the academy list did not live up to my expectations. But my first reaction to this movie is - Good ! Kudos to the debut director J.C. Chandor

This movie works for today's corporate world because one could connect to the crux of it - be it being called back to office late nights or all hands working the whole night to save the ship from sinking or getting axed one fine morning and much more - we get a feeling of been there gone through that. If you take off the financial market jargons (thankfully not much of it) it would fit to any other industry. And the director cleverly takes us away from the subjectivity of the issue. The computer screen or the report that reveals the main issue that the whole story revolves around is never shown to the audience ! It is the cast and the performance that makes it so real.

When it comes to performances you don't expect anything less than perfectness from the bunch of Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jermy Irons, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci and you get just that. The surprise packages were of course the two young analysts Zachary Quinto and Pen Badgley. Oh boy...don't we all see a Seth Bregman in our offices? There is an emotional side of the story which I don't personally subscribe to but I loved the choice of montage shots with the wonderful Paul Bettany's voice over for the day's proceedings where the solution to the problem is actually implemented.

Have you been able to make the difference in the pep-talk from your boss when he truly believes in what he is saying and when he does not ? Have you been suddenly called for an unexpected meeting that is way over your pay grade and wonder what the hell is happening ? Have you seen the same problem being viewed from different perspectives by different people up the org-chart ? These are some of the reasons why you should catch this movie.

The academy list...

The Iron lady
The Artist
Ides of March
Drive
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

6 down...4 more to go

The descendants
Hugo
Warhorse
The Help

did I miss something?

Will your business really make you rich ?

When these two things happen without any push from your side, you can be assured that your startup / business is moving in the right direction to make you rich !

1. Your customers tell you directly what they don't like about your Product / Service
2. Your customers tell their friends about what they like about your Product / Service

10 Useful Free Offline Android apps / utilities that I use

I love apps which are offline !

My Phone Explorer - The PC client, backup tool, Outlook sync, Todo list,Calendar yada yada...
Flex T9 Input - Keyboard
SMS Replier - Automatically replies calls / messages when you are busy or driving etc
Call Informer - Great tool to view more about the caller / contacts before answering the call (like category etc)
SMS Reader - Reads sms (or just the sender name )aloud as it arrives.
Total Recall - Call recorder
Setting porfiles - Profile manager
Phonalyzr - Reports on call usage
The Speaking Clock 
Droid Light  - Light application with color / Message display and more option.

The apps I'm looking for....


1. Offline Speech to voice app
2. Offline Map / Navigation (No luck with Mapdroid )
3. Offline Answering machine / Voice mail app that stores messages in the SD memory

Help me find these...

2011 Tamil Film Music countdown

IMHO, the countdown for Tamil Film Music

New entrants this year to watch out for in 2012....

8)Saajan Madhav(Murann)
7) Anirudh (3- BGM yet to be released)
6)Sathya (Engeyum eppothum)
5)Prakash Nikki (Rowthiram)
4)Gibran (Vaagai sooda Vaa)

3)K -(yuththam sei)
2) Singer Karthik (Aravaan)
1)Sharreth (180)

in the race....

7)Sundar C Babu (Poraali,Thoonga nagaram..)
6)Vijay Antony (Vedi,Yuvan yuvathi,...)
5)Harris Jeyaraj (Ko,Engeyum kaathal...)
4)Yuvan Shankar Raaja(Aaranya Kaandam,Mankaaththa..)
3)GV Prakash kumar(Mayakkam enna,Deivathiraumagal,...)
2)Joshua Sridhar (Veppam, Viththagan)
1)Thaman S(Vandhaan vendraan,Mounaguru...)

and the heavy weight / marathon league...

A R Rahman( )
Vidyasagar(Thambi Vettothi Sundaram)
RESERVED (Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai,Mayilu,...)

Techie anecdotes

Very often we come across people who are the end users of technologies like email, smart phones, digital cameras etc. And if they do not happen to know your software engineering background, it could be your rendezvous with ignorance which you can laugh about later. Here are some of mine...

A famous Eyecare chain here created an online record of my issues and generated a patient ID. The next time I happened to visit one of their other centers and I promptly took the ID card with me. But to my surpise, these guys had no clue of my records and wanted me to register again. When I asked why, the young girl replied "Our records are different Sir"

I took my mom's old black and white photograph to get it scanned in my native town. The guy who owns the famous photo studio / lab there quoted an exorbitant price to scan and make a blow up print of the photo. I was in no mood to argue, but did raise my concern in vain. Later, the lady technician who actually did the scan whispered generously "Don't worry I have made 2 copies of the photograph in your memory stick for the same price" !!

Govt. websites need some serious changes in design patterns. My login credentials wasn't working for service tax website. When I called the toll free help desk they said you I'll have to contact my local range officer to reset the password, for whatever reason ! When I went there, this guy finds that they had no record of my business and so he can't access it !! I was in a different region when I started my business and I had moved since then. But what is the point of going "cloud" if a particular regional office can't access(even view) info. about other regional records ? I had to unnecessarily travel some 20km today because of this.


I got an email from the HR of a potential employer asking me to send scanned copies of my documents for verification. As I went through the list I saw the last item was "2 passport size photographs". I called the young lady to confirm if she wanted a soft copy or hard copies. I told her what the last item was and she said "Oh thats ok, just send us 2 soft copies of your photo, that'll do" !!??

Share your anecdotes too...

MI4- Ghost Protocol - movie review

If you're a lover of the precision of IMF's previous missions, you're not likely to enjoy this movie much. Because, everything goes wrong with the missions of this installment of MI - messages don't self destruct, fake IDs don't get uploaded on time, packages turn up empty, gloves don't work, masks don't get molded and of course (as they mention in the teaser) the whole IMF has been disavowed. But you still have the edge of the seat action sequences and the ever fit Tom Cruise chasing and being chased as usual. Learn how to take your car out of a parking lot from this guy.

Brad Bird, the director, not surprisingly, adds his own comic touch to the action. The director's love for humor can be evidently seen in many sequences especially through Benji 's character. But too much of anything spoils the broth and in the case of this movie it does distract the viewers from the seriousness of the missions. If there is one character that interests you with many shades it is that of Brandt played by the deserving Jeremy Renner ( The Hurt Locker fame). Paula Patton doesn't add much to the plot more than skin and kicks. Tom cruises through his role as Ethan Hunt as usual and the chemistry between him and Simon Pegg in the previous installment has been cleverly extended in this movie. And yeah, we have our own Anil Kapoor playing a very very crucial role that takes your excitement to a completely different level  !!! (pun intended). Ving Rhames does a cameo as Luther Stickell at the end of the movie.

 The real problem with this movie is it does not have a single focused mission (like the Chimera or the Rabbits foot). The normal save-the-world-from-nuclear-destruction plot reduces this to any other action movie. The other big let down was the characterization of the villain. Hendricks ( played by Michael Nyqvist) does not measure up to Owen Davian (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). It was evident that the climax which supposedly happens in India were shot elsewhere in a set. I'm not even gonna start on the loop holes in the plot since nobody seems to be bothered about it. But if you want some adrenaline pumping action from Tom go for it.

Porali - movie review

"...because success is a menace. It fools smart people into thinking they can't lose." - Bill Gates explains in the movie "Pirates of Silcon valley" why a giant IBM would buy anything from a nobody like Microsoft. Perhaps that is what has transpired in the case of Samuthirakani (Nadodigal fame) and M. Sasikumar (Subramaniapuram fame) to make Porali and Eesan respectively. As expected they have cast each other as protagonist in their projects.

Porali starts off with a promising note and a very interesting pan shot of the top viewing camera to capture the typical Chennai housing complex and its residents. The initial comedy tracks are cleverly used to make the audience travel with the main characters Sasi, Ganja karuppu and Allari Naresh (A very commendable comeback to the tamil industry) The first one hour does engage you with interesting developments. The script loosens when Swathi starts falling for Sasikumar. Like many other tamil movies the unemployed youth miraculously finds a way to make a living and succeeds in his life in just one song. Now, it keeps you wondering what the "struggle" is all about.

I really liked the subtle nuances of the director like the Vinayagar coming throughout the film or the prices going up every time he shows the petrol bunk etc. But I couldn't stand the repetitions (one folk song and one song by Shankar Mahadevan) from his previous project and loads of unwanted violence hoping these would save the day. Music director Sundar C babu shines more in re-recording than in the songs. There is a strong contrast between the city and village portions in that give a feeling that these are two different movies !
 
Porali takes too many twists and turns in the treatment that one wonders what exactly the director wants to convey? It was a real struggle for me to figure what Samuthirakani wants to convey? Is this a movie about how gifted children are ill treated, or about Chennai's suburb and its residents or family feuds or a youth struggling to achieve in life or....about Uranium.

Six myths about customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is after sales support - No that is customer retention; one becomes a customer after he is satisfied with your offering or at least trusts so.

He loves "that" feature of your product - No all he cares is his current problem and how soon you solve it.

He might not pay for value of your product - No he is always ready to pay for his "perceived value" of your product.

You don't have to give anything free - No; you have to let a trial version out for free for the potential customer to get a feel of your product

Online business can be done online - No, Sales can be done online, you still have to get out of your home/office to get drive your business to sell.

Competitors might win the fight - No, they have already won, YOU are fighting to win customers (back). Even if there is no competition, you're fighting the fact that customer is OK to live with the problem you're trying to solve.

Multiply !

"How do I win?", He was always busy
the quest for the answer, sometimes made him dizzy

Distance, time by speed
and persistance to feed
shelter, sense and shame
all lost their battle against his fame

"Invincible - Don't I fit the bill?,
anything I can't kill ?" - he asked
"Anybody you can save forever ?"
-the reply caused a slight tremor

"How do I win ?" - his started again
but all he could do was fight in vain
One by one they fell; Kith and kin as well

Alas he found a way ! always to have his say
though copied from the very foe he fought
the idea did work as he thought

Multiply !
(RIP Mom's younger sister who passed away yesterday)

Ko- movie review

This was one film I was following during the making itself and was waiting for a long time, because I have to admit I really liked Ayan and Kana Kandein. K.V. Anand, (the ace cinematographer turned director) has the guts to really get to the bottom of any theme around which he winds his projects. Ko is no exception, he has dared to bare some of the well kept secrets of politics and media ( he was a media photographer erstwhile). So it was home ground and he looks like has really sent the balls to box office boundaries. I wasn't able to get tickets till today !

Okay, first things first - the story is NOT a rip from The State of Play. This is much localized political and media drama. The narration bears much similarities to Ayan. I hope the much deserving Jeeva gets into the big league for his portrayal of Ashwin. Ajmal has yet again proved that second roles are nothing second. Pia needs much meaty characters than just 'meat'. Karthika seriously needs to learn Tamil, I can imagine how tough it must've been for Chinmayi to do the dubbing. Kota and Prakash raj are at their usual best. Camera is good (duh !) Harris has to improve a lot both in songs and RR. Songs are shot in Norway and around the world but the chemistry between the leading pair is missing !

Now, the issue with a racy screenplay or fast paced editing or both is not the potholes it leaves on the way, but the absence of beats and pauses. You feel the momentum of an action sequence only when there is a rather slow dull moment before that. If you keep running right from frame 1 you get tired midway. There is a  great main story line which has beautifully woven suspense and knots to untie, but the supporting cast (the editor in chief, Jeeva's parents, friends of Ajmal) do not make an impact. These characters are not etched completely and they utter boring "supporting" dialogues. This in turn makes the main characters look either too noble and unbelievable. So at some point of time in the first half you just start watching the film feel no connection, the way we watch election news !

Kudos to K.V. Anand for saying out loud that media can make or break personalities.

I still like Inception

Okay, I have waited and watched all other contestants - King's speech, Fighter, social network and Black swan - and guess what, Inception remains my favorite. Nolan, you rock !

5 steps to a succesful start up

1. Be formal: Even if you are an IT guy with the next BIG idea and are working out of a garage, don't present yourself that way. Get your start up registered formally and take care of the legal issues first, even if this takes time and money. Get a bunch of decent looking business cards printed and use them when you make contacts. People will take you seriously only if you take yourself seriously.

2. Get bottom dollar: While getting business cards is necessary, don't spend a fortune on the perfect design. Get a good but quick design. Bargain on every penny you spend and maintain books. When we wanted a small number of  T-shirts for Thiray, we figured the cost were sky-rocketing unless we order thousands. We found an artist and got the few painted with fabric paint instead.

3. Build a team: This is probably the most vital and difficult step. You need to find able people and delegate things, you can't do everything by yourself. Get people for their skill and attitude not for experience, references. Every member of the team should feel something very important is at stake for him/her in the startup.

4. Sell first: There is no better way to find out whether your idea will work unless  than taking it directly  to your target customer's scrutiny. Come up with a minimum desirable product at the earliest, give it to beta customers for free trial ( selling doesn't mean making money, sell your idea first ) and get feedback / review.

5. Go Viral: Never forget to ask a satisfied customer to refer your product to his contacts. Building a network of trusted users is probably the single most important thing in business which will eventually make your cash box ring.