Asides

Mazhanrutham

Singer Pradip Somasundaran has ventured into music direction with the album titled “Mazhanrutham”. The songs for this album where penned by movie director Sohan Lal (he also did the video for the title song). Singers include actor Manoj K Jayan, Pradip Somasundaran, Gayatri, Shahbaz Aman, Franco and Bhavyalakshmi. Here is the music video of the song “Mazhayil nin mizhikal” featuring Manoj K Jayan and Maithili (Paleri Manikyam fame).

Mallakhamb

I didn’t know that there is such a sport called “Mallakhamb” (pole gymnastics) in India. Only when I got an email with the subject line “Amazing Indian Gymnastics” that I learned about it. See the amazing pole gymnasts performing “Mallakhamb”.

Wiki says:

Mallakhamb or Malkhamb is a traditional Indian sport in which a gymnast performs feats and poses in concert with a vertical wooden pole or rope. Mallakhamb also refers to the pole used in the sport.

The word “Mallakhamb” is composed of malla which denotes a gymnast or a man of strength and khamb which means a pole. Mallakhamb can therefore be translated to English as pole gymnastics.

What about them?

Here is a real opportunity for India to prove in front of the world that we are indeed a developing nation. And it does not need a penny to be wasted on exhibitions. All it needs is a will and an action. Governments here and abroad are watching India’s stand on endosulfan at the sixth meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) of Stockholm Convention that began in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. – says The Hindu.

Oh, and you should read this too, from the same news article – “While most of the governments represented at the Stockholm Convention are taking stands in favour of global ban on endosulfan, India was opposing it.”

Aha!

To those who don’t know what this is all about, go here to read about the Endosulfan tragedy in northern Kerala.

For 26 long years, the government-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala aerially sprayed endosulfan in an area of nearly 4,700 acres in Kasaragod. Endosulfan is a deadly pesticide banned in many parts of the world. The United States Environmental Protection Agency classifies Endosulphan as a highly hazardous pesticide. But in Kerala it was sprayed for years in government-owned plantations. Today, villagers who lived close to the plantation are paying the price, despite an indefinite ban on the substance. Many of them got paralyzed or are seriously ill. Swarga and other areas like Padre, Muliyar and Bellur in Kasaragod district of Kerala have become living examples of how the poison in pesticides could be lethal to our health when used excessively and carelessly. The area is dotted with tragedy struck families battling physical deformities, cancers and disorders of the central nervous system. [India Together – The Living Dead]

And also see these pictures:



[Photos courtesy: Endosulphanvictims.org]

Linkaholic

Beat of India is a website that popularizes the traditional folk music of India. They cover a vast variety of regions in India. A wonderful effort indeed.

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Here is an inspiring story of a laborer boy passing the entrance exam for IIT. Don’t know how the elitists of the institution would treat him, but let us hope for the best and cheer for him.

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And a spot-on ad for the new season of Kaun Banega Crorepathi. 🙂

The Common Health Games

As we easily forget all the wealth games of the Common Wealth Games as India wins more Gold medals each day, we have such wonderful news to accompany. Be proud, my fellow countrymen!

“India dropped two ranks to 67th among 84 developing countries in the International Food Policy Research Institute’s annual ” Global Hunger Index” for 2010. Even Sudan, North Korea and Pakistan rank higher than India.” – says TOI.

“The policymakers in India, who are are still fighting over the need to have an expansive National Food Security Act, should look at the following data more closely: in 2005-06, about 44% of Indian children — below five years — were underweight, and nearly half — 48% — were stunted.“

“Notes from a beautiful city”

More from a game that cost 90,000 crores to a country that has more than 70% of it’s population below poverty line, with not even 10 percent in return for the money spent, made us look ridiculous during it’s final preparation stage, took out the right of the city’s inhabitants to live in the city and hid it’s own citizens behind huge posters.

Shame on you, austerity wallahs!

Shankar’s “Enthiran”: You better watch “Matrix Reloaded”

This is what film makers who cast Rajni fail to understand. Rajni is a ‘son of the soil’ and he does his best in such roles (remember Padayappa or Muthu?). I loved Basha and it is after watching it that I made sure not to miss any Rajni movie. Sivaji was perhaps the maximum he could do but when you stretch him far you get “Enthiran“. A boring, exhaustive, three hours long film with graphics and songs fit in here and there. Luckily, I had the company of Hiran, or else I would have bored myself to death.

I’d say you should go watch “Matrix Reloaded” again than spending your time and money for Shankar’s “Enthiran“. It is not only because “Enthiran” copies some of the cloning ideas or the road chase scenes from Matrix, but the makers of Matrix made a convincing movie out of a very fictitious story. This is what Shankar & co has to understand. Paying up huge sums of money to some big-wig Hollywood animation studio can only get you some amazing graphics but never a convincing script. You need talent to do that.

Director Shankar has played a bit of Congress party in the Common Wealth Games for this film. Almost all the people you see in the movie are fair and beautiful except for some who faces a fire tragedy. The hospitals, research centers are all huge and beautiful buildings like you see in the Hollywood movies. Still you would know it happens in India. 😉

Rajni, the supernatural, is so boring in so many scenes. There is no punch line, not even his trademark gestures but some weird actions of the villain Rajni. I enjoyed the train fight scene though. About the director, I wonder how people call Shankar a perfectionist. The scenes where the animation is plugged into outdoor scenes are far less convincing because the animation bumps out from the scenes. Or look at the tiny things. Like the lab where it is written “Restricted Area”. A red tape kind of thing that you have seen in many old movies to read “ICU”, “No Entry” etc. It is so amateurish for an otherwise gaudy set. It is small things like this that make all the difference in “convinving” people.

The songs are boring but the visuals are stunning. The first song sequence in the desert is the most beautiful of it all. But when the songs keep coming in and out, you get bored. A R Rahman’s score is not captivating too.

The movie is not without it’s positives. It starts well and you would blindly believe the robot story in the beginning before it started falling off. The animations are perfect and though it copies many Hollywood movies that we are familiar with, it also has some nice animation towards the climax scene (the snake, the giant robot – all made up of robots etc). The climax scene of the robot dismantling himself was good. The editing of the song sequences is good. Aishwarya Rai does her job well too – of looking beautiful. The most believable character of the movie is neither the hero Rajni, nor the villain Rajni. It is Dr. Bora, played by Danny Denzongpa. He was amazing and we realize how artificial and made-up the other characters are when he comes on screen.

To conclude, I want Rajni of Baasha back. Or Rajni of Padayappa. These folks have now made him a robot that  painfully tries to move us but terribly fails at it.

Go, Keshava!

Here is an amazing child prodigy on Tabla. I just learned from Hiran that he had performed for the inaugural ceremony of the Common Wealth Games in Delhi. What really caught my attention and what really made me smile and appreciate is how much he enjoys playing music. Look how happy he is!!