100% Love Review

Throughout the years, whether you're a girl or a boy, there are certain phrases that you are bound to here. "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", "Its easy to go the moon than to figure out a girl's heart" and "Boys are the most confused creatures" in the world to name just a few. Now these are said with good humour and are clearly not the norm but when it comes to love, everybody has an opinion about it. Sukumar is the kind of director that likes to take a different angle on everything and has done the same with his latest 100% Love. With Devi Sri Prasad on music, Naga Chaitanya and Tamannaah play the lead in this Geetha Arts production. So let's jump and check it out.

Meet Balu Mahendra [Naga Chaitanya]. State level tenth standard first rank holder, state level Intern first rank holder, MCET first rank holder and according to him, he is a genius and a brand name. The only thing bigger than his record is his ego. Enter Mahalakshmi [Tamannaah], his maradalu [marriagable cousin] from his home town in the village. A country belle smitten about her Balu Bava, she comes to the city to complete her higher education and stays with Balu and his family. While the family already adores Mahalakshmi, its going to take more than looking cute for her to get on her Balu Bava's good side. For his part, Balu with his head is firmly in the sky, doesn't look at anything beyond her second class ranking and dismisses her promptly. She decides to stick to her studying but becomes frantic in her exam and breaks down crying. Mahalakshmi runs out of the exam and says to her Balu's father, her uncle[Naresh] that she is going to fail and she wants to just go back to her hometown when surprisingly, Balu steps in. Ignorant to her and her emotions as Balu may have been, he decides to help her out of pity. And so with his guidance, her own effort and a bit praying by the whole family to Ganesha, Mahalakshmi sits for the exams. But much to Balu's absolute disbelief, she doesn't just pass. She takes over his coveted first rank. Balu becomes furious at the humiliation while everyone else is applauding her. But he isn't one to let the humiliation last long so he puts in the extra hours to study and in the process, purposefully distracts Mahalakshmi from her own without her realising. Yet just before he can bask in his glory, Mahalakshmi realises his plan and starts her own cat and mouse game to even the grounds. D-day arrives after the exams and both get the shock of their life as their class mate Ajith[Anand] came first. For Balu, his ego maybe hurt with Mahalakshmi getting the first rank the last time but there is no way another student can take it. So the both of them set their rivalry aside and work up a plan to distract Ajith. But he's not the only one that gets distracted as the two spend more and more time together studying albeit with a few encounters on the personal side. Everything seems to go smoothly and as according to plan, Balu gets first rank. Celebrations are in order and the family members, who are by now aware of the private canoodling, plan for an engagement announcement on the day of the party when Balu gets a bout of jealousy as Mahalakshmi casually praises Ajith who missed out only by a few marks. Words become insults and with their guests and parents as witness, Balu and Mahalakshmi have a massive fight and the pair part ways. Yet only 3 years on, circumstances bring them back together. Has time healed all wounds? Have Balu and Maahalakshmi changed themselves? To find out, you will have to watch the moview.

First thing's first. Naga Chaitanya, who is only three films old and has thus far made some interesting choices with his films, is absolutely adorable as Balu. Personally, I could even say this is by far the most perfectly suited rôle for him. The arrogance, the dismissal, the attitude, the frustration. At every point, Balu has the face of Naga Chaitanya and that is all you see. Some may feel he is a little stiff at certain points but given that everyone has quirks and habits, this only adds to his appeal and I myself have come across real people that have rarely faced failure and get a big head over it. Tamannaah plays the bubbly Mahalakshmi with ease but tends to go OTT with more emotive scenes. She also has tendency of reminding you of an early career stage Kareena Kapoor. However, she looks amazing and has great chemistry with all on screen, including and most importantly, Naga Chaitanya. Anand as Ajith has very little to do even though he is quite important to the story. K.R.Vijaya is elegance on screen and delivers whats needed for her Mahalakshmi Bhama rôle. Naresh has very few scenes in the film but plays it with heart. Vijayakumar is apt in his special appearance. Big special mention to the kiddies in the crew. Each one adorable as hell but unfortunately names aren't available of these little champions. Dharmavarapu Subramaniam, 'Thagubothu' Ramesh, 'Chitram' Sreenu and M S Narayana add to the comedy cocktailfun while the rest are passable.

That leads us to the scene stealer. Sukumar is at it again with his "different" angle on love. Personally, I felt that life has become one big competition to see who's better and with the alarming rate divorces get sanctioned, there is more truth to Sukumar little message than most would believe. But leaving the realistic things aside, his trademark storytelling is evident. Keeping the fun in check and building the drama in proportion, he showcases his talent in abundance. Adding to his awesome screenplay is the superb dialogue. Yes there are some commercialised moments but in all, there were very few in the cinema hall that didn't enjoy such great lines. Music by Devi Sri Prasad almost always has automatic feet-on-the-dancefloor effect and he is back to his old tricks with 100% Love. A Squared. That Is Mahalakshmi and Kallu Kallu Plusu bring out the fun, crazy and melodious side where Diyalo Diyala is a classic item number that is always present on a DSP soundtrack. But the album entirely leaves a major impact. Cinematography by Venkat Prasad is top notch as is editing by Srinivasa Karthik. Both are a huge asset to the film. Leaving us with the negatives of the film remaining.

So what can be wrong with one the most enjoyable flicks in recent times? Not much. Depth in characters could have been extended to avoid a two-character-driven-story feel yet at the same time, the situations become as they are because of the lead characters. The disappearance of Swapna at the climax wedding was overseen but came to the fore when Ajith was shown leaving. A few snips here and there could have done some good but barring that, you will be hard fetched to find anything majorly wrong as the film does entertain and leave you with a satisfied feeling about the money you spent on the tickets. Even if you go looking, it is you that needs to judge if the film reminds you of them or not. 

To me, 100% Love is 50% Fun, 50% Masti. A total time pass film that will have you singing the words and tapping your toes as you get the giggles from the story

The evergreen SPB - my fav songs

The GRAND voice of the man himself  SPB has made millions of tamil film music listeners, his fans or rather fanatics. I am one of the fanatics of the evergreen play back singer just because of ONE reason, that is, he brings life into the songs he sings. I love the way in which he sings the songs His improvisation (for example laughing in the middle of the song at the appropriate time) is great! 

Whatever he sings, peppy or pathos, he brings the particular mood of the song through his magical voice. That is why he is still the ICON for many of the play back singers in tamil film music industry. I think he has sung around 39000 to 40000 songs in various languages. It is rather very difficult to list out the top 10 songs, so here some of my most favorite songs of him :-




1.Madai Thiranthu from Nizhalgal - This song is my all time favourite because of the fact that whenever i feel dull, lilstening to this song recharges my mind. His voice modulation in this song is absolutely breathtaking.

2.Mandram vantha from Mouna ragam - One of the most difficult songs to sing just because of the pitch level esp. in the charanam. SPB delivers it with ease and perfection.

3.Ilamai idho idho song from Sakalakalavallavan -  What a grand song man! The energy with which it is sung is just marvelous. 

4.Minnale nee from May matham - The music in this song by ARR along with the MAGIC voice of SPB are wonderful. SPB brings the pathos mood to this song with his brilliant variations.

5.Oru Kadhal enbathu from Chinna Thambi Periya thambi -  Though i think it is a song which many would not have heard, i like this song becuase of SPB’s romantic voice. This song is a duet, but the way in which it was delivered by SPB is fabulous. 

6.Poovil vandu koodum from Kadhal oviyum - Defying his critics that he cannot sing a pure classical or carnatic song, all the songs SPB sung in the movie were purely classical, esp. this song which i love the most. 

7.Kadhal rojave from Roja - One of my all time classics - the music in the song and the voice of the evergreen master blends really well, the net result being a GRAND treat to our ears. I prefer to hear this song late night because of its melody. Just experience it! 

8.Ilayanila from Payanangal Mudivathillai - One of the finest pieces of music by the great mastero ILAYARAJA. The way in which it was sung by SPB, i really doubt if any one could replace the finest singer of all time, SPB 

9.Sundari kannal oru sethi from Thalapathy - its a milestone movie for Ilayaraja, Rajini kanth and manirathnam.. Infact, a wonderful combination in tamil musical arena is Ilayraja - SPB. one of the fabulous and my favorite is this song. he has sung it along with S. Janaki.

10.Enna Satham Indha Neram from Punnagai Mannan - Again, the meeting of two great talents - Ilayaraja and SPB - creates magic. Really, the experience of listening to both of them at their finest is heavenly. Raja’s incredibly tender handling of the guitar and flute is brilliantly complemented by SPB’s superlative rendition.

11.Nalam Vaazha  from Marupadiyum - This is the Tamil equivalent of Tum Itna Kyon Muskura Rahi Ho from Arth. By equivalent, I mean the movie situation is the same. But the song is entirely different and the pain more intense. With due respect to Jagjit Singh, his charming interludes cannot match Ilayaraja ’s genius, and personally, I find SPB’s performance more touching.

12.En Kadhaale from Duet - Now for some A R Rahman. SPB opens his heart in this song, tearing you apart in the passionate highs. Not to mention Kadari Gopalnath’s superb saxophone solos in the interludes.

13.Thodha Thodha Malarndhadhenna from Indira - Well, SPB has to share credit with Chitra here. Difficult to say who’s better in this song, but one thing’s for sure - they have both given what will rank among their best performances and that for such legendary singers is something. Even in his early movies, A R Rahman knew just how to extract the best out of all singers - the renowned and the unknown.

14.Nilave Vaa from Mouna Raagam - A lot of people would say this song ought to be ahead of Nilave Vaa, as SPB has arguably sung this one better than the other song in question. But when I rate a song, it’s not only on the basis of SPB’s performance. I take the overall musical experience into account and on that count this is just a shade below Unnai Nanachen in terms of intensity.

15.Malare from Karna - One of the last few songs in which one got to see such splendid competition between SPB and S Janaki. Again, the verdict:it’s too close to call. They both excel. Kudos to Vidyasagar for bringing the legendary pair together for this lovely melody.

16.Mannil Intha Kadhal from  Keladi Kanmani - Can any SPB list not have this song? The song where this untrained singer sang an entire stanza breathless and did it again in the next stanza too! But the point is not really that it’s a ’breathless’ song, it’s the elegance with which this astonishing feat is achieved that makes it one of SPB’s very best songs.  

17.Vannam konda vennilavae from Sigaram -This is a special song with music n sang by SPB.

18.Mun paniya from Nandha - After the arrival of so many new singers and their domination this song is come back for SPB and proved that he is the king ever. The voice and rendition in each and every line has something new to deliver and especially the ending ?Valkiraen naan un moochilae? is out of world.  

19.Kadhalin deepam from Thambikku endha ooru - Anyone who is a big fan of Rajini in his hey days (when he had lots of hair) and has watched DD in the 80s would have seen this song in an advert for Bush TV. With the luscious Madhavi as the inspiration being the song, this slow and contemplative romantic number is one of those early songs which helped in catapulting Rajini to super star status .

20.Taj mahal from Amaravathi - Not many would have heard of this composer but yes, besides Amaravathi this guy also gave the musical hit Thalaivasal. This particular choice of mine is a soft romantic number in which SPB and Janaki combine magnificently to create the perfect ambience of love. No loud instrumentation here - its a very pleasant hear. 
 
 

 

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

Even if you don't like the piano or Richard Clayderman, do listen to this piece. Else, you can just look it up on google or youtube. Soul stirring composition. But don't listen to it if you are in the mood for 'Western pop/hip hop/heavy metal.
That would be an insult to this great composer. The best mood for it would be unhurried or with at leat a willingness to close your eyes for two minutes.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ChmPkwWMV0w&feature=related

Me, I can drop whatever I am doing to listen to this gorgeous piece

Be Intentional

Oh, great. Yet another introspective reflection on my past and future packed up by some basic common sense. Bear with me for just a moment.

It’s not easy to be intentional. Especially for a guy like me. I’m laidback and easy-going. This results in not having a plan, not having a defined goal, and a spine made of Playdoh.

It starts from thinking with the end in mind. I don’t quite know what that looks like. It’s a little fuzzy, but I know how I want to feel. I want to wake up and feel confident about the day ahead regardless of any distractions or interruptions. I want to feel confident by night’s end that I have been accomplished. I want to be up for any challenge and not have to psyche myself into them – I just want to be ready and love them.

Driving at dangerous speeds is one way to get a thrill. The high from going fast is short-lived. I want to gain satisfaction from all parts of my life. (Right now, I almost have it, but not quite.)

I’m establishing a variety of short-term and long-term personal and professional goals. It starts with being more intentional, more direct and more focused on execution. This is the first step among many to become great.

Osama Bin Laden DEAD

I must admit, I did like Bin Laden arrested or get killed.

Justice has been done to the thousands of innocent people he killed on September 11, 2001.

Credits to the soldiers who constantly risking their own lives and tirelessly tracked his footsteps.

While we are still in this fallen world, there will be another evil leader that would replace Bin Laden. But one’s things for sure, evil have momentary victory.

Evil is always a loser.

You Stole My Heart Away

 You Stole My Heart Away

Now, it’s time for me to emote. I just love this song. A friend originally posted this on her Facebook wall.

I dedicate this song to the women I’ve loved, but never loved me; to the women I’ve loved, but could only like me; to the one I’ve loved, then loved me back, but did not love me later; and to one I will love and will love me back forever.

The song is performed by Big Mountain.

Source Code Review

Source Code starts off on a very promising note. There is an explosion on a train. 100 people are killed. The army manages to get hold of some of the victims’ “brains” (literally) and harness whatever memory imprints are available in those brains before the persistent electrical activity in the neural networks die so that the imprints can be digitized in a reproducible form later.
I think I owe you all an explanation. This preposterous suggestion is not mine. Let me try to explain the “science” behind this.

Apparently, according to Hollywood Science – some parts of the brain do have some electrical activity in play for some time even after the brain is fried in a bomb blast – till the investigators get those brains to a high security army research lab – where brilliant scientists latch on to those electrical neural circuits and salvage the last eight minutes of the memories. They do this on a number of those brains and construct the world as seen by the travelers in the train in the last eight minutes of their life. This information is digitized and stored in what they call “The Source Code”

Enter the hero, a Captain in the US Army pulled out from an Afghanistan against his knowledge. He is strapped to a seat in a ramshackle enclosure with only a television screen in front of him – where an Army operative is impatiently waiting for him to come to senses so that she can put him “into” the source code – as one of the passengers – so that he can figure out who planted the bomb and hence help the Army stop a potential nuclear holocaust right in the middle of Chicago!

The Captain makes several excursions into those last eight minutes and tries to figure out the culprit.
If I go on any further, I will be spoiling your experience of this movie. The science is atrocious but the movie is not! It is quite good actually provided you leave your brains (pun intended) outside the movie hall – for good reason.

The end leaves you aghast though. There’s this lingering question at the back of your mind – perhaps more than one question – in all probability a million questions which the director conveniently chooses ignore – because he himself has no clue what the answers are. That’s pardonable because Hollywood Science is a branch of science that takes the explanation only so far as to make it a good screenplay. It does not even attempt to close the loose ends or the gaping holes. That is the very nature of Hollywood Science.
The movie is slickly made; has a great pace; a lovely premise and a politically correct end. In case you expect some character in the movie to tell you how the stuff really works; what the consequences are, please note that this is not a documentary on quantum physics which by the way gets more than a mention in the movie. For your own good, pay no attention to those dialogues.
Source Code is a good watch and Michelle Monaghan is HOT. Jake Gyllenhaal needs no introduction. He lives the character is immensely believable and likable.
My rating: Pretty Good.

10 Twitter Crimes You Really Shouldn’t Commit

Twitter has exploded over recent years to the point where your friends, family members and favourite celebs are all part of one massive network, but since the early days there have been people who don’t get it, misuse it or simple do it wrong. This post rounds up a collection of common crimes that Twitter veterans and newcomers will all be able to relate to, are you guilt of any of them?

Hiring people tweet on your behalf

The biggest criminals in the whole of Twitterville has to be the celebs who try to gain extra cool points by being on Twitter, but they end up with a profile updated by their ‘team’. There’s a decent collection of high profile celebs who “get it”, but the majority simple don’t understand the whole meaning of Twitter and end up talking at their fans with no personal interaction.
Whether you’re an average Joe or this year’s hottest idol, you should be Tweeting messages yourself. A get out of jail free card may be supplied to companies who use Twitter, who allow their employees to interact with customers and fans.

Tweeting spam messages, especially as a bot

No doubt we’ve all experienced this one, either as @replies selling you something or random messages when you mention a certain keyword. Companies soon caught on that Twitter was a good marketing and branding tool, but yet again they go about it completely the wrong way by trying to ram their message down your throat. Don’t bring junk mail and cold calling tactics into the digital age.

Keeping the default avatar and profile design

Nothing makes you stand out as a Twitter noob more than sticking with the default profile background and avatar. People follow other humans on Twitter; a default profile has no personality and doesn’t relate to you as a person. Make sure the first thing you do is upload a picture of yourself as your avatar and take the time to change the background image and colours of your profile.

Never responding to people

Twitter is a great communication tool, but many people don’t realise that communication is a two-way process. If you don’t respond to your @replies, mentions or comment on the status of others you’ll simply come across as an ignorant arse. Make sure you listen and engage with your followers, don’t just talk at them. A common excuse is users don’t want to fill up the streams of their followers with response messages, but they don’t realise your @reply tweets only show up in someone else’s stream if they’re following both you and the recipient.

Gaming your follower count

Twitter newcomers often get caught up on the all powerful follower count and try to game the system to increase their numbers by following people in a hope for a follow back in return, often just ditching them once they’ve gained that extra number. Be a real person, chat and engage with others and your follower count will grow naturally.

Overtweeting

There’s a fine balance between every day social interaction and being an annoyance. Be careful not to get overzealous in your tweeting as it doesn’t take long for a person’s Twitter stream to become completely saturated with nothing but your tweets, especially those who don’t follow a great deal of people. If you’re tweeting links or any kind of self promotion give it at least 15 minutes between posts.

Excessive Multitweeting

Twitter is limited to 140 characters for a reason. It’s aimed a short and concise messages, so don’t be that person who writes complete novel in their stream 140 characters at a time, with each successive tweet taking up more of your screen real estate. If you want to express yourself in more than 140 characters, consider writing a blog post and linking to it.

Converting every other word into a hash tag

Hash tags are one of the great resources Twitter provides which allow us to keep track of tweets based on a certain subject and find new friends. Hash tags are exceptionally handy for conferences and gatherings, but they can also be used to tag every day tweet content. Sometimes the odd person really gets it wrong and ends up converting every noun or verb in their tweet into a hash tag. The words in your tweets are crawled in searches anyway, so think about whether the word you’re hash tagging is really going to be worth clicking to see all the other tweets including that word.

Starting a tweet with “is…”

Finally we’ve got a petty crime that is often excused, but could be the start of the path that turns this person into a hardened Twitter criminal. Unlike Facebook, Twitter updates don’t start with your name, so posting updates starting with “is…” simple doesn’t make sense. You’re not observing yourself from a third person perspective, tell people what you’re doing as yourself.
Do you have any Twitter pet peeves of your own? Add any other Twitter crimes you can think of as a comment.

Business

Business.

Is something else.

I gather the word busines comes from being very busy!! A business sure makes one busy. I have, for better or worse, so very recently, entered the world of business. If only in a very small way...but still, business is business.;)

One of the first things I have picked up in just a few months, is that one needs to be thick-skinned to do business of any kind. If you dare to start your own thing, you have to grow those extra layers of skin. No other go.

Especially if you are the 'non-business' type (as I'm sure I was hitherto considered to be), people will look you up and down...and then some. They will gaze shrewdly at you and make some remark or the other. The remarks from such folk may often be encouraging, but not always ring true. Words of caution on the other hand, almost always ring true, but seldom come ...unless from someone very close.

So, mostly, a 'green' businessman/woman must endure many a discouraging word or lack of support and take it in his or her stride.

Therefore, I have thickened my skin as much as I can(!) and am trying to steer well away from 'over-sensitive' as I usually might be accused of being. Not that it all doesn't bother me, but I am TRYING to shrug it off and concentrate on the many, many tasks at hand.

I'm making a serious attempt to focus on being practical.

After all, if I fail, I would be neither the first, nor the last. And if I succeed...well then too, I will be one of the many. So, this brings me back to a memorable lesson I had in school about tennis star Chris Evert who, I understand, was being interviewed for her 'grace-under-pressure' or some such thing. She was heard quoting Rudyard Kipling:"If you can meet both Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters the same..."

I made it a point to understand the depth of these words even then, and I do so admire the meaning even more now.

Yes, business is...something else.

On the phone

The telephone is super. Chatting with people over it is the best. I especially, was not one for particularly short phone chats. I have talked hours on the phone ...to the same person(who obviously, was as into the phone as I was) . The longest would be a chat with a friend that lasted overnight -- maybe 6-7 hours, and then there were those other times when I have chatted with some other friends regularly, for three hours -- give or take an hour...and so on.

45 minutes was nothing.

But today, I had a 25 minute phone chat with a friend and I was tired at the end of it. I chose to end the chat and hang up. I cannot today believe my earlier phone conversations lasted hours. Of course, I did not have so many things on my hands those days as I do now... Those days were basically footloose and fancy free. Such a condition is given to change! He he. Just 11 years ago!

Phone chats were and still are (despite tiredness and all!) so FULFILLING and de-lonely-fying (!). Not to mention convenient...