Kadal Movie - Micro Review

Director: Mani Ratnam
Cast: Gautham Karthik (son of Karthik), Thulasi (daughter of Radha), Arvind Swamy, Arjun and Ponvannan
Music: A. R. Rahman

Kadal is a beautiful movie which revolves around the lives of Christian fishermen. It throws light on Jesus and Satan, directly represented by Arvind Swamy (Father Sam Fernando) and Arjun (Bergmans) respectively. The hero Gautham Karthik (Thomas) is caught between these two men in different stages of his life. He explores both the good and evil ways to lead his life and finally chooses the right path with the influence of the heroine Thulasi (Bea). In the end, the good triumphs over the evil.

The music is synced well with the movie. The background score creates a good ambience for the scenes. The choreography brings out the best in Gautham Karthik. Thulasi looks like an angel in her white dress throughout the movie and she suits the role of Bea perfectly. The cinematography is very realistic and you will have the feeling of getting washed away by the waves by the end of the movie. Though the dialogues are in colloquial language, they are clearly understandable unlike the dialogues in other Mani Ratnam's movies.

Overall, it's an amazing movie with a simple story which slightly touches the subject of philosophy. You just need lots of patience to watch it!

Birthday Wishes For My Friend

Every time I think of my school days, there's one particular girl's face that flashes on my mind. If there's any girl with whom I've never had a fight right from my childhood, it's only her. She's the one who listens to all my silly problems. She's the one who can take all my emotional dramas. She's the one who sticks around even when I don't pick up her phone calls or reply to her messages. She's the one who loves me when I give her every reason not to. She is none other my best friend Sahana. Today is her 23rd birthday. May all that's bright and beautiful, fill her heart with happiness. Happy birthday. 

P.S.: Sahana, this world is filled with many uncertainties but one thing is always certain- I will be your friend beyond words, time and distance. Many more happy returns of the day!

"Bandhan"

Few weeks back, I had been to Orion mall with my mom for Diwali shopping. She suddenly entered into Titan showroom, took a glance at all the watches displayed there and she really liked one particular watch. She wanted to buy it but that watch was to be sold along with another watch. Those two watches (one men's watch and one women's watch) are known as "Titan Bandhan" and they are little costly. She could have bought it but she thought she could buy it some time later when there is discount.

Today is my parents' 24th wedding anniversary. All these years, I've never bought any gift for them on their special day. Yesterday I suddenly felt I should buy those "Bandhan watches" and surprise my parents. That's what I did. I went to a Titan showroom nearby, quickly bought those watches with the money I had earned during my summer internship, got it gift wrapped and kept it on a table in our drawing room. When my parents woke up in the morning, they were really surprised to find a gift and they were more surprised when they saw those two watches. That smile on their face was really priceless.

Thought my parents have difference of opinions most of the times, they complement each other perfectly, just like those two watches!

She Stood Up For Me!

We were six of us (all girls) in my Spark car, enjoying the drive back home from college on the muddy roads of Anekal village. Suddenly from no where, two drunkards came zooming in their bike and bumped into my car! I was stunned for a moment. Amulya, one of my close friends, warned me not to stop as it was not my mistake. I was concerned about those two guys and I had no clues that they were drunk. The moment I got down from the car, around 15-20 villagers surrounded us and started blaming us for the accident. I was so shocked that I was shivering and I couldn't say a single word. One of the drunkards sat inside my car and demanded me to take him to the nearby hospital though he was not really hurt while the villagers were yelling at me for no reason. It was then I saw my friend in action. Amulya stepped out of the car and literally yelled back at all those 20 village men! Those men were so furious and they could have done anything to her but she was trying her best to defend me. Luckily, before the situation could go out of control, four of our class mates (all guys) came to our rescue.

There are many situations in my life when I have failed to stand up for myself and this was one among them. It made me feel very brave when she was beside me and when she stood up for me. Though it was a simple act, I will never forget it!

P.S.: Amulya, I know you will read this someday. Thanks a lot for being there for me. Love you lots!

Billa 2 Movie - Micro Review

To be very frank, Billa 2 is not as good as Billa 1. But as Ajith's fan and Yuvan's fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Ajith's stylish acting and Yuvan's striking music always makes a good combo. Not even a single minute in the movie was boring.

All the songs are really trendy. The moves in each song was very appropriate and also captured very well. I wonder why the theme music was not played right from the beginning. Only after the interval, you get to hear the theme music. Out of all songs, I was excited to watch the "Gangster" song because it's got my favourite music director, Yuvan in it. I expected this song in the very beginning but was shown only in the end of the movie. The song "Idhayam" sounds very romantic and I expected this song somewhere in the middle of the movie but this song was not at all shown anywhere in the movie. The background music is damn powerful and makes the movie worth watching!

The fight scenes were on par with those in Hollywood movies. The helicopter stunt in climax was the best. 

If you are Ajith's fan, you will not regret watching this movie because the way he walks and talks is simply stunning. His clothes in this movie is simple when compared to his attire in Billa 1. The way he portrays his attitude as David Billa is dazzling. Parvathy Omanakuttan and Bruna have got very less acting scenes in the movie. It is totally one man show and Thala Ajith has done his part well. If you think that the movie is just average, blame the director, Chakri Toleti.

Two Girls and a Friendship!

It was way back in my 8^th standard when I first met Salma. She was new to “The East West School” and she was my classmate. Initially I didn’t interact much with her (I was very shy throughout my high school days). But she used to talk to me every single day about all relevant and irrelevant topics. Soon we got along really well and were known as good buddies. 

If you have noticed me playing throw-ball, I have a very weird style of serving the ball and that’s simply because it was Salma who taught me how to serve! I have tried to change my serving style but I always like to stick on to the way she has taught me because every time I serve the ball, it reminds me of her. Oh, it also reminds me of the inter-school and inter-house competitions. It is an age old practice in our school to divide the students into 3 different houses- Green, Mauve and Yellow. Fortunately, Salma and I belonged to the same house, that is, Green House. As a team of two, we participated in vegetable carving competition and used fruits instead of vegetables; in rangoli competition, we used flowers and diyas instead of colour powders; in essay writing competition, we wrote poems with rhyming lyrics instead of boring paragraphs; we sang patriotic songs instead of filmi songs in singing competition; we neither spoke for the topic nor against the topic in debate competition; and guess what, we won prizes in all the above mentioned events. We also represented Green House for the basketball, throw-ball, tug-of-war, short put, high jump, long jump and other such competitions. We were always different from the crowd. Somehow we both shared a good rapport. She encouraged me like no one else did in school and made me feel special in all possible ways. 

It was somewhere during the middle of 9^th standard, Salma lost her dad. She was horrified and so was I. When she cried for days together, I made sure that I was always there for her, wiped her tears and helped her to get over the pain she was going through. This strengthened our friendship. Gradually she was back to normal. 

In 10^th standard, much to our surprise, we both were nominated by our teachers for the same post- Green House Captain. I was happy that she was nominated but sad that I was contesting for the election and that too, for the same post. The best thing about the election was, I voted for her and she voted for me. I won the election. She was happier for me than I was happy for my own self. She was not at all jealous about me becoming the new Green House Captain. We were and we are such true friends. 

In 10^th standard, we were taken on a school trip to Hyderabad. Due to personal reasons, she couldn’t come to the trip. I too thought of skipping it but since other classmates insisted me to not miss out on all the fun, I decided to go. Only after we left to Hyderabad, I realised that I missed her so badly. To make it worse, I got fever, cold and cough and I did not really enjoy the trip as much as my classmates. 

On our farewell day, we both never cried or felt bad because we knew that we would stay in touch. After 10^th, we joined different PU colleges. I made new set of friends. The frequency of our phone calls and hangouts gradually decreased. By the time I joined my degree college; we both had changed our numbers and completely lost in touch with each other. But she always calls me to my landline number on all my birthdays without fail. When I was in the last year of my graduation, I received a mail from my school which was regarding the school re-union. I was more than just excited because I knew Salma would attend the re-union and I hadn’t met her in 5 years. That re-union helped me to get back in touch with her and all other classmates. Though I met her after a really long time, we were still the same. We still felt like we were school kids. It was after the re-union party, she told me that she was going to get engaged and also get married in few months. It was then I realised how much our lives had changed. So we both decided to have as much fun as possible before she her marriage. We spent quality time with each other. 

And then, on November 12^th 2011, she got married. Just like how I always used to be there for her throughout our high school days, I was there with her on her D-day also. I had mixed emotions. I was happy that she got married but sad and scared that our friendship would change. As I was standing beside her on the day of her wedding, she was able to sense my feelings and that too just few minutes after she got married, she had all the time in the world to listen to me about all that was running in my head. This clearly shows how much she values me, my emotions and our friendship. She assured me that our friendship will always remain the same no matter what happens. 

I know that she will keep up her words though her cell phone was switched off right from the very next day of her wedding. Let anything come on the way of our friendship and I’m sure that we will feel like school kids and still remain the same the next time we meet! 

Reasons For Not Posting Here Quite Often

I know, this is a really weird topic to blog about. But I can't think about anything better right now. It's been exactly two whole months since my MBA course started. I joined Alliance University in Bangalore. The MBA course here is very hectic. To make things worse, this B-school is 45 kilometers away from my house. If I have to travel to and fro everyday in Bangalore's nasty traffic, it would take away at least 4 hours of my precious time. So I'm staying in the University's hostel and if possible, I go back home only for the weekend. And, I have some assignment or the other every single day. It's good in a way because I've learnt to make ad campaigns, business plans, product launch, etc. etc. But because of too many assignments, I'm left out with no time for my family members and friends and yeah, for the blog also. It feels so good to actually make a blog entry. I should seriously create some space for myself before this mechanistic life rules over me. Anyways, I need to get back to my half-finished-assignment which has to be submitted tomorrow. So, this is Sandhya logging out, see you soon in the next blog post! :)