Halo around the Moon!

Canon Powershot: ISO200, Exposure 2 Seconds

 Canon Powershot: ISO400, Exposure 4 Seconds

Shot at 11pm IST today...More effects of pollution?

Dasavatharam Movie Review

I know it's like 80 days since the movie released... But I guess it's never too late to write about a great movie. The best avatar of Kamalhaasan is definitely the invisible 11th one of the Story & screenplay writer. An intricately woven plot of ten seemingly unrelated characters and storylines merging towards the end with Kamalhaasan's commentary on the society and satire neatly woven in all along the way.

The criticism that the movie lacks a story line is stupid, considering most of the events in the movie happen in a span of about 72 hours.

It's easier to describe the movie through it's 10 characters so I'll do it that way. If you've not watched the movie then U probably shouldn't read this. But if you're like the scores of people who missed lots of minute details maybe this post is for you.

The Movie begins with Kamalhaasan (Govindaraj Ramasamy) addressing a huge crowd. He begins by explaining the butterfly effect and the Chaos theory! Kamal's commentary on the society begins too... He starts off by saying long before the English came here to divide us or religions divided us... we as a country were still fighting among ourselves. We're even fighting now!

Nambi: A Temple priest, who is dumped into the sea with the stone idol he prays because he defies the religious wishes of the king. He chooses to die with the idol over his family. It's pretty obvious what Kamal feels about idol worship and people who blindly follow god.

Govindaraj: The hero of the movie is a biologist who's involved in developing biological weapons for the USA even though his conscience is clearly against it. Isn't everyone like this? When his boss tries to sell off a potent biological weapon he fights them off and gets shipped to India along with the germs.

During a song In Govind is shown stepping out of a god's picture. Is Kamal trying to say Govind is like god's incarnate? or everyone who fights for good is god maybe? :P

Entry Asin the Heroine, in an extremely irritating character! She's a Brahmin? gal who lives in a Mutt and is attached to 'god' So when the vial of germs is put inside the statue of a god she clings to the statue and Govind through the movie. I used to like Asin before the movie... You'll understand if U have watched the movie. It's surprising Govind the brilliant scientist never thought of giving a whack on Asin's head and retrieving the vial to safety!

Govind & Asin have more than one discussions about caste. Asin is a stereotype upper caste girl (old lady?) who asks what caste he is. When she realises that he isn't upper caste she walks into a toilet to prevent him from touching the idol. Kamal quips 'You (people) feel god is better kept in the toilet than coming into contact with us'

Christian Fletcher Rocks! He's an ex CIA agent, mercenary He's single minded in his pursuit to recover the vial to his corrupt bosses. In the climax when he and Narahashi are fighting he quips "remember Hiroshima?" For which Narahashi replies "remember Pearl Harbour?" :) Fletcher also says "Here (India) anybody could get away with anything!" This is how foreigners think about India I guess!

Balarama Naidu, RAW officer, is a stereotype Police officer. He leaves the audience in splits with his Telugu accent and dialogue delivery. He's given the task of interrogating Govind the terrorist and recovering the vial of Germs. Once when Govind is almost caught at Kalifulla's house the first thing he asks Kalifulla is if he's from a terrorist Organisation. He then rounds up the whole village for interrogation at the local mosque, typical police behaviour when they're clueless!

Vincent Poovaraghavan is probably the most meaningful crater in the whole movie. He fights against illegal sand mining.

Avatar Singh is a singer, Avtar Singh is shown contemplating in front of a Sikh Religious Guru's pic as he gets closer the pic is replaced with Kamal's reflection! Kamal sort of acquits himself for Nambi's folly as Avtar Singh by choosing his family over his profession.

George Bush is portrayed as George Bush needs no description!

Krishnavaeni Paati has a small role to play

Kalifulla Khan is shown as a soft kind hearted Muslim, breaks the stereotype of the image people associate with the religion nowadays

Shingen Narahashi, Japanese martial arts trainer who avenges his sister's death, provides for some action at the climax with Fletcher

When Fletcher loses to Narahashi and ingests the germs and a large quantity of Common Salt is required to neutralise the germs. At that moment (on the morning of 25th December 2004) the Tsunami strikes and does the job! Kamal has tried to say there's some good even in that disaster. I'm surprised it didn't offend people.

With the Tsunami the statue of Vishnu along with Nambi's Skeleton chained to it? lands on the Beach! Implying God came with the Tsunami!!? When Govind rues at all the destruction and death, Asin says God sent the Tsunami to neutralise the Germs. Govind, offended asks why the all powerful god killed so many people Asin replies imagine how many lakhs would've died if the germ had spread! Kalifulla and his entire village is inside the Mosque when the Tsunami ruins his village.

At the end when Govind (Kamal) and Asin fall in love (OMG!) Kamal says 'When did I say God isn't there, I only said it would be nice if God is there!'

Dasavatharam: Vishnu & Kamalahaasan

How the Mythological 10 avtars of Lord Vishnu inspired Kamalahaasan's movie Dasavatharam!

(Macha Avthar - Nambi) - Nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea...

(Koorma avatar - George Bush) - The lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom… May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise…

(Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti ) - In varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.

(Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi ) - The name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches my namesake Prahalathan :) In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here..

(Vamana avatar - Kalifulla Khan) - In vamana avatar, Lord Vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar

(Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher) - Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what, thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around

(Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan) Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. He appears when Asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent’s men are drugged at P. Vasu’s (villain here).. sounds familiar???

(Balarama avatar - Balarama Naidu) As the name suggests and the role personifies Balaram naidu RAW officer, helps kill the villain

(Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy) The hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

(Rama avatar - Avatar Singh) - Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

Of course Kamalahaasan is the best person to explain how he got inspired! Us being mere mortals have to contend with such information from EMail forwards and the like!

Who will police the Police?

The High profile Noida double murder case is heading towards it's logical end now that the real criminals have 'probably' been identified. For almost 2 months, in prime time news, the face of an innocent father was flashed across most channels as the killer of his only daughter prompting the Soap Opera crowd to switch loyalties to follow the drama. Similar discussions ensued, everyone turned Sherlock Holmes passing a Judgement on who done it and their motives...

The UP Police created the drama in the first place by falsely charging the Father and holding a press conference to announce possible motives of the 'killer father' - Either he had an affair with his Family Friend which the victims came to know Or the victims (his 14 yr old and his 40+ man servant) had an affair and the father saw them in a compromising position leading to the murder!

If the police in a suburb of the Capital city can make such a blatant accusation against an educated man even in such a high profile media covered case. Imagine the plight of the hundreds of Innocent people the police all over the country could be falsely implicating for crimes they cannot solve. That, the case might drag on for years and the guilty may still walk free is a different matter altogether.

The country is not going to progress unless it's corrupt politicians and bureaucrats are cleaned up. For even that to happen the policing has to be non-corrupt & stronger, the justice system has to be more effective. What this country needs is a revolution... a radical re-haul of the entire system with committed & educated youth leading the way...

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

What is that scatters my thoughts in a hundred directions...
What is that holds me together...

What is that makes my Heart beat in Rage...
What is that gives me the Placcidity I seek...

Free Tibet!

A casual train conversation that turned into a full fledged political discussions on Tibet... I promised to blog about it so here goes...

• Tibetans travel through the passes of Himalayas to reach India via Nepal illegally in search of a better future/education.
• They have a 'Government-in exile' in Dharmashala, Himachal Pradesh headed by the Dalai Lama
• The Government-in exile has various departments much like our own. For example the education department allots Tibetan students to study at various educational institutions across the country. Chennai has 120!
• Apart from Himachal Pradesh Tibetans live in a few large Refugee camps around the country in places like New Delhi, Karnataka etc
• Children make the treacherous trip via the mountains to reach India to study. They don't see their parents for years together. They have a school in Mussorie where they study and move on to colleges. They can return to the school even during their college holidays!
• Though all Graduates dream of returning to return to Tibet, many choose to work for the Government in Exile in India.
• When the Dalai Lama dies he'll leave a clue as to where his next incarnation would be and the Tibetans will have to go an identify the child.
• Next in hierarchy to the Dalai Lama is the Panchen Lama, the real Panchen Lama was a 5 year old kid when he and his family 'disappeared'!
• Now there's a Chinese government 'installed' Panchen Lama who is doing the rounds in Tibet. He gives 'religious sermons' which at least one person from every family has to attend.
• Considering the Dalai Lama is the only potent force for the Tibetans, wonder what the Chinese will do to the child who gets identified as the next Dalai Lama
• They're happy to have self rule within the Chinese framework
• They're happy with India's neutral stance. But an aggressive posturing from India is like their main hope!
• The Yummy part: There's just one Tibetan run Tibetan restaurant in Chennai, Mount Kailash, near Loyola. Recco: The mo-mo :D

I'm sure at least half of this is news to most people!

Adventures of a Chennaiite in Petrol illadha kaadu

(Jungle without Petrol!) (Read like Thanni illadha Kaadu:)

30 June 2008 9 AM: Me and Hari on the phone

Me: I need my camera to upload the pics of yesterday's BHUMI meet, at least 80-90 people must be waiting for it

Hari: I'll give it to you at Gandhi Mandapam at around 10 when I go to my office...

10 50AM, Call from Hari: Prahal see you in 20 minutes! (see the time this fellow goes to office and his punctuality)

1105 AM, Me travelling through Kotturpuram, Call from Hari: Hope you've not left home, cos I'm stranded on the OMR without fuel.

Me: So what you gonna do? Let me get fuel for you...

Then began the hour long search for Black Gold! I first bought a 1 litre mineral water bottle and started in search of the bunks near Adyar Signal to my surprise all were closed. When I asked the guy inside if there was some strike he said po po!

So I went in search of petrol bunks toward Thriruvanmiyur. Got caught in a major traffic jam near a petrol bunk on the way to Indira Nagar, so I started drinking the water not wanting to waste 13 bucks :P. Suddenly the traffic moved and the bottle slipped from my hand and started rolling towards the pavement. In cinematic fashion, it slowly rolled, escaping all the speeding vehicles to reach the pavement without a dent!

After a while I managed to get in to the petrol bunk wondering what to do with all the water, only to find a long snaky queue of people with all sorts of containers. as I passed around the water to all the waiting 'auto karans' I realised none of them knew why there was no petrol at other bunks or why they were trying to get fuel in large containers in preparation for doomsday! As I joined the long line of ignorant people cursing Hari, that 'Nanari payan' calls me to ask what's taking me so long :-/

After, half an hour waiting through conversations of 'expert' economists I finally got 50 bucks worth of 'black gold!'

Later learnt, it was only a supply chain disruption... But is the day when water and fuel will be rationed like this far away?

Defintely related!: Subsidising Regression

Gmail Rocks!

If the ever expanding mailbox, Conversations view, Google Chat, Labels, IMAP and the email account that wouldn't get deleted weren't enough. These guys keep making it better and better every day. Gmail Labs allows Gmail users to create add-ons to Gmail and these guys will implement the most popular ones for everyone else. How much more cool can it get?

And Gmail is still in Beta! The possibilities are endless for best email service in the world

- A grateful Googlaholic :)