Lingaa - A Movie Review

Watched Lingaa yesterday night.. Had tickets for 11am show but didn't take off from office to watch a Rajni movie.. Would have if I was able to get an earlier show.. In certain theatres there were shows from 1am yesterday... I think everyone knows the cast and crew of the movie.. 

It was always nice to watch Rajni movie on the first day... Each dialogue would be lapped up by his loyal fans.. This movie starts off that way in the introduction song.. Rajni looks stylish... The song doesn't have the punch that you expect in a typical Rajni intro song... Also felt like seeing Amitabh dancing - you all know how it is.. 

Started watching shouting thalaivaa... slowly the enthusiasm dies down.. not much punch in the first half.. Santhanam shines well in the first half and the second... 

When the first half ends you feel exhausted.. It's a bit long... The train fight sequence is well choreographed.. But there are certain scenes were it is clear that there is dupe being used for the sequence... Anushka looks beautiful... 

Second half is also predictable.. We know who the villain is and we also know what he is upto and we also know that our hero will stop him.. We didn't want Rajni to look like Golden Star NBK.. Agreed he has done such things in his earlier films but things have evolved... People laugh at stunts like he jumping with a bike from a cliff on top of an hot air balloon and doing a bicycle kick on a nitrogen bomb :(

Lingaa is a typical Rajni movie - He gets dragged into a situation which he is not initially keen to take up.. then understands the situation after hearing going through the flashback where he gives up all his wealth.. destroys the villain and saves the people... We continue to watch it because it has Rajni.. One main thing missing is that Rajni doesn't have a strong villain in this movie... 

Sonakshi Sinha is ok.. other support casts do their bit.. nothing great to talk about.. Karunakaran is just hanging in there.. not much to do.. There are certain scenes where it is obvious that Anushka is taller than Rajni.. what was Randy doing? 

Making - I expected the dam to look like a set but it wasn't that bad.. Many shots have been taken in an actual dam.. which was good.. Otherwise nothing great to talk about... Except Mona mona don't like any other song... Rahman lets down... 

Some scenes are good in a typical way - where Rajni talks about being contended with what he has or that everyone has to leave something behind when they leave... you expect these in Rajni movies.. 

Overall the saving grace were Rajni and Santhanam comedy... The movie is way too long.. 

Should you watch it.. we all watch any Rajni movie.. Will I watch it again - No, even though I had tickets for today morning, didn't go... Heard that there were tickets available in counter in certain theaters today itself.. 

Phil Hughes - A Life cut short

Phil Hughes, was an hardworking cricketer. He is not someone who was bestowed with natural talent but had to work really hard to make his way up. 

He scored loads of runs in first class cricket which ensured he came to the Australian team at a very young age(for Australian standards) of 19 and also become the youngest player to score 2 centuries in two innings of a test. 

He was about to make a come back to the Australian side for the test match series against India in place of injured Michael Clarke. 

That's when on 25th November a bouncer from Sean Abbott hit the left side of his back neck. The helmet doesn't cover this space. This is where the vertebral artery that takes blood to the brain is located which split and caused him to collapse immediately. He was administered CPR on the ground and taken to the hospital where he had undergone surgeries. However, on 27th November he passed away. Thus becoming the first cricketer at first class level to die because of an injury while batting. 

There are few deaths of cricketers that had affected me - Dhruv Pandove was the first. He was touted as the next Tendulkar. He was breaking many of Tendulkar's records in the age cricket and in first class cricket. He was killed in an accident when he was 18 years old. I was eagerly following his progress when this happened. The under 19 trophy in India is named after him now. Raman Lamba was the second when he was killed while fielding at short leg in a club match in Bangladesh. He was completely out of reckoning to play for the country and also was not a regular for Delhi Ranji team when this happened. And finally Phil Hughes'. 

This incident will have a huge impact on the way cricket is played (for a few months at least). Players will be more cautious in playing the hook or pull. There will be lot more ducking and swaying. The helmet design will definitely be relooked at to make it more safer. Not sure if we will have a HANS device like in car racing. Read that New Zealander's didn't bowl even one bouncer in the test against Pakistan which was on going at the time of Hughes death. The India Australia test series is also rescheduled and first test at Gabba is moved as the second and it is also pushed out by few days. 

The manufacturer of the helmet that Hughes was wearing at the time of the injury issued a statement that Hughes was not wearing the latest model. To me this was an accident that cut a life short. 

Coming to Sean Abbott who bowled the bouncer. I really feel for him. He is only 22 and will always have the guilt of bowling the bouncer which killed Hughes. Even though it was not intended to injure him. I had an accident(the person got injured and luckily it was nothing major) when driving a car and took me a long time to get back into the car. And the first time I did, I was completely shaken and mentally drained. 

Every cricketer and Cricket Australia has offered him all the support he needs but I am sure he will be undergoing counselling from professionals. However, it will take him sometime to get back to bowling. It is going to be very difficult for him to come back to bowling. 

Kaaviya Thalaivan - A Movie Review

Watched Kaaviya Thalaivan on the first day night show. 

Movie is set in the 1930s and 40s. The cast includes Nasser, Siddharth, Prithviraj and Vedika. 

Nasser runs a theatre company in which Siddharth and Prithviraj are part of. Ponvannan who was playing the lead role (raja part) in all the dramas is sent out of the company and it is between Siddharth and Prithiviraj to take up the lead role. 

Siddharth is selected over Prithviraj and there starts the Prithviraj's enmity towards Siddharth. Add Vedika into the mix with a two one sided loves and things get out of hand. To the extend that Prithviraj ensures Siddharth is kicked out of the company and also the climax. 

The movie doesn't show the great acting talents or details of the theatre during that period. It is just a movie of how two people who grow up together fall apart. Not sure why this movie needed a 40s setting? 

Siddharth impregnates two people in the movie - First a daughter of a Zamindar (Why did I get a feeling that this girl had a mustache? ) and second is Vedika and in between wavers becomes a drunkard and also becomes a patriotic person to stage only patriotic dramas. 

Prithviraj on the other hand makes it big in the theatre world and makes a lot of money before he starts losing it all in the theatre itself. 

Vedika has nothing much to do. Even though some people claim that she has a character with substance. Why did she fall for Siddharth that she wanted to bear his child is a question that you are left with - Just because the hero who she doesn't see for years becomes patriotic? 

Music is good and Rahman has ensured it brings the 40s feel to the movie. 

On the whole I didn't see much in the movie. It was a simple story which didn't require a 40s setting. It was only OK. 

Indian Team for Australia Test Series - My View

The team that has been selected MS Dhoni (capt), Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha*, R Ashwin, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron

*Ojha has been included only for the first Test.

Up front - 18 members for a 4 test series is utter stupidity. Not sure why we need that many in the team. 

Openers - We have Shikhar, Vijay and Rahul in the team as openers. Vijay and Shikhar should be opening in Brisbane and Adelaide (also probably Melbourne). Don't expect Rahul to get a chance unless they fail big time in the first 2 (or 3 tests) or one of them gets injured. He is more going for the experience than anything else. Rahul is selected because of the wonderful season he had last year in the domestic series(scored over 1000 runs with 3 centuries) and the 2 centuries he scored in Duleep trophy final. 

Middle Order - Pujara, Virat, Jinx and Rohit have been settled middle order for a while now. Rohit is coming out of the injury and unless he scores big in the 2 one days against SL might sit out. Raina who seems to have the backing of the current big man (Ravi Shastri) might get a chance again in the whites. 

Fast Bowlers - Bhuvi, Shami, Ishant, Umesh, Varun. We will be playing Umesh, Bhuvi and Ishant in the first 2 tests. Varun limped out of the first ODI against SL. Shami is not also playing the SL series due to injury. Ishant is also down with a stiff back. Bhuvi is on his well-earned rest and hopefully he comes charged. Bhuvi was in the last few matches being very flat. He has to get back his swing. Varun might get one match, don't think Shami will be lucky. Out of the 5 selected 3 are down with injuries - that shows how vacant our bench strength is when it comes to fast bowlers. 

Spinners - Why do we need 3? We should play 1 or max 2 (at SCG). Dhoni is known to be soft on Jadeja and that might make us play 2 spinners which is not ideal. Ashwin did a good job in the 2 tests that he played in England and seem to have learnt lessons from his earlier trip down under and should be our first choice. I would have preferred if Kuldeep was selected over Karn. Now that we have Karn in the mix, he should get a chance in Sydney as the second choice. Jadeja is ok for ODIs but it is high time we stop picking him up for tests. Someone should put their foot down when MSD asks for his inclusion. 

Wicket Keepers - Saha has established himself as the second choice and Ojha is selected as backup only for the first test where MSD is not available. 

We should have selected a 16 member team - Shami and Jadeja are over kill. 

I feel that in certain cases the selectors go primarily by the IPL (Karn) and the recent effect (Rahul). Hopefully they do well if they get chances. Gone are the days when unless a player wont be picked unless he performs consistently in 3 or 4 series. 

PS - On the ODI front - Happy that Uthappa is back in the mix and he being picked as the keeper might give him a chance to go to Australia for the world cup. 

Modi's Cabinet Expansion - My View

First and foremost, really happy that the Prime Minister has realized that minimum government does not mean having minimum number of ministers. Not sure if he realizes that it means minimum number of ministries. 

Also good that some of the ministers are divested multiple portfolios so they can concentrate on key work - Like Arun Jaitley moving out of Defense, Nitin Gadkari moving out of Rural development and Nirmala Seetaraman moving out of Finance and Corporate affairs. I don't think any of these are punishments. Arun Jaitley getting I&B is funny though. 

Suresh Prabhu and Manohar Parrikar joining the cabinet, clearly shows the dearth of talent in the 325(282 in LS and 43 in RS) BJP MP pool. Which really is a sad state of affairs. 

Manohar Parrikar - Has built a image of a clean no-nonsense administrator. He gets an important Defense portfolio. There is lots of defense procurement that is planned and his clean image and good administration capabilities will come to use (hopefully this will be a welcome change over the "very clean to the extent of not doing anything style" of Antony). 

Suresh Prabhu - He was well respected and was thought to be a no-brainer in the initial cabinet itself. However, he has not been in good books of Udhav which let to him not being part of the original cabinet. He gets the railways ministry which was going nowhere under Sadanand Gowda. 

Birendar Singh - More to appease the Jat community of Haryana where BJP has positioned the first non-jat CM. 

JP Nadda - Rewarded for his work in UP where BJP did exceptionally well to win 73 seats. Even though it is open secret that he pressurized Harsh Vardan to get rid of AIIMS Vigilance officer. This also shows the audacity of the government in having scant regard for all such things with Nadda now becoming the Health minister in charge of AIIMS also (he can get rid of anyone he wants now - doesn't have to pressurize anyone else). 

Bandaru Dattatreya -  He becomes the first Union minister from the new state of Telengana. He was also a minister in the earlier NDA governments. This is more for coverage than anything else. 

Giriraj Singh - He is the guy who asked everyone opposing Modi to go to Pakistan. He was also recently in controversy over the 1 crore rupees found in his residence. He is selected along with Ram Kripal Yadav from Bihar for getting the Bhumihar and Yadav votes from which they both come from respectively. Bihar goes to elections next year. 

UP also get 4 new ministers which shows the focus that BJP has in another state which goes to election next year. 

Vijay Sampla - The plumber turned minister. He is brought in to garner the dalit votes in Punjab. It also clearly sends a message to Akalis (who didn't get any additional ministers) that BJP is moving into consolidate its position in Punjab. 

Same is the case with Babul Supriyo - BJP wants to establish themselves in West Bengal. With TMC on the decline and Congress not seizing the opportunity there is lots of space for them. 

Naqvi - Joins as MOS of minority affairs. Understand that BJP wanted to improve their Muslim representation but he could have been given another ministry - what with both muslim ministers in the cabinet being in charge of minority affairs. 

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsh Vardan, VK Singh and  Sadanand Gowda all have their wings clipped. Unless they get their act together won't be surprised if they are dropped completely. Harsh Vardan alone could be a case of prepping him for Delhi elections but others are clear cases of being warned. 

Ravi Shankar Prasad lost Law and Justice - that should really hurt. This guy who shows up in all TV programs with a book shelf filled with law books should feel really bad about losing the law ministry. Sadanand Gowda - his time in the ministry looked numbered. Not sure if he can be any successful in this ministry. This should be a huge set back for him dropping from Railways to Law. 

VK Singh - He has been removed from the NE affairs ministry and given statistics. Saw a funny tweet that this was more to finalize his date of birth :)

Shiv Sena - They must be fuming - Their request for minister posts in Maharashtra is not considered at all, their requests for having the new minister Anil Desai as a cabinet post rather than MOS is not considered. On top of it they had Suresh Prabhu join BJP just before the swearing in after resigning from Shiv Sena. This clearly shows where they stand in the current scheme of things. It is high time they reconcile to that fact and see how to survive and re-establish themselves (if at all they want to). 

The next post will be on my take on what can really be done to achieve minimum government.  

Madras - A Movie Review

Was intrigued by some of the interviews and news articles that came up in the last few days about this movie. 

This movie released about 3 weeks back and I read some good reviews about the movie but somehow didn't get to watch it. After reading the recent spate of views watched this movie over the weekend. 

The director mentioned about some of the aspects that he had used like the color blue - associated with the ambedkarite parties - used extensively in many frames and also the book the the hero reads in a particular scene. That's when I realized how I miss such minute details when watching a film and how each element is there to convey something. I still didn't catch the book in the movie though :(

The casts include Karthi(Kaali), Catherine(Kalaiarasi), Kalaiarasan(Anbu), Johnny(Hari). The music is by Santosh Narayanan. This is Pa. Ranjith's second movie after critically acclaimed Attakathi. 

The story takes place in North Madras. The main issue is about a wall (a pretty large wall in a housing board flat) and how two political parties want to reserve it for them. Anbu is in a party and he wants to take over the wall which is used by another party. Kaali is his friend and he works in an office. 

Kaali falls for Kalai and the usual things happen before they fall for each other - Does such movies need a love angle? And secondly Catherine definitely doesn't look the part. Ritwika who plays Anbu's wife looks the part and could have even played the role of the heroine (if one is really needed)

The first half is breezy and before you realize you are at intermission. Once the movie starts we know that Anbu will get killed and I was surprised that he was not when the first half ended. However, he gets killed in the beginning of the second half. When it comes to North Madras there has to be a gaana - unwritten rule of tamil cinema. Could have been avoided. 

Second half is a bit of a drag with the director trying to include some of the commercial elements like gaana (mentioned above), love, etc. Movie would have been much better if these could have been avoided. 

The second half is about how Kaali takes revenge for Anbu's killing and what happens to the Wall. 

This is a good movie. 

Music is by Santosh Narayanan. Songs are good - Naan Nee, Enga ooru Madras, Kakitha kappal are good. BGM is also good. 

In terms of acting everyone has done a good job. You don't get to see the usual Saranya or JP as parents - which is a welcome move. 

Happy to have watched a good movie. Watch it if you get a chance. 

You might also want to read some of the articles that I referred at 

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/impure-tamilians/article6490030.ece

Best line in the above article is Roja reminding Paakku thool to KB :)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/madras-a-critique-of-dalit-politics/article6507818.ece

What next for TN

Following on from my previous post (http://dailykaruthu.blogspot.in/2014/09/jayalalithas-conviction-lesson-for-all.html).

As expected O Panneerselvam has been elected as the leader of the Legislature and took oath as the Chief Minister for the second time. Also there are rumors that Sheela Balakrishnan, who is currently the Advisor the Government of Tamil Nadu (after her superannuation as Chief Secretary) and R Natraj, who is a member of the ADMK party was the Commissioner of Chennai Police and Chairman of TNPSC will be actively involved in guiding the Tamil Nadu Government.

As expected the violence that occurred on the day of the verdict ended the same day. Things came back to normalcy the next day. There were people who were baying for blood and asking for Presidents rule. Which is the most opportunistic that they can get. Things have changed after the Bommai verdict where dismissing the Government is not an easy task. The principal opposition party was wise to say they don’t want elections as they are not in shape to fight an election after two consecutive drubbings in the 2011 Assembly election and 2014 Parliamentary election.

Jayalalitha has moved the Karnataka High Court seeking bail, suspension of the conviction and quashing of the same. With the High Court in Pooja Holidays as expected the hearing is pushed to next week. She has to stay in Jail at least till October 6^th when the hearing will be taken up. There are some views that the fine is not in conformance with the Prevention of Corruption Act which states that the fine can be a maximum of the corruption amount. Will wait to see how the lawyers (including Ram Jethmalani) handle the case in the High Court.

The Chief Minister in his last term was not even sitting in the CM chair. The key difference between the last time and this time is that the appeal process was on going and it was a matter of time before a decision was made by the High Court to acquit her of the charges. This time not sure how long it will take for the appeal to get to a stage of verdict. The original cast took 18 years in the lower courts. Not sure Jayalalitha can allow the appeal to go on for 18 more years. Supreme Court has also ruled that the higher court cannot suspend the verdict when in appeal especially in such cases of prominent people. That being the case should be handled quickly.

In the worse-case for her that the appeal doesn’t progress at a fast pace, the state cannot afford to have a non performing Chief Minister. Even if Jayalalitha comes out on bail (which will definitely happen in a short duration) she will not be able to ask votes for a non performing Chief Minister. People will not vote for the person that she shows if they don’t see him working. The Chief Minister unlike last time cannot go to Poes Garden daily morning and act based on suggestion by Jayalalitha. He has to take his own decisions. He also needs to be even more proactive in all aspects. He has to show the people of the state that he can work only then the next election ADMK will come back to power. Not sure if Jayalalitha is ready to accept that.

Jayalalitha has to understand that she doesn’t have an option but to have an effective Government in place. That is what will be to her benefit in the long run. O Panneerselvam is not a person with high ambitions so she should not have a problem with him becoming over ambitious (that is highly unlikely to happen). He is not a mass leader and cannot become one also in such a short period of time. It is in everyone’s best interest that he performs effectively till the next election (I don’t think the appeal will get decided before then). 

Jayalalitha's Conviction - The Lesson for all of us

Yesterday Jayalalitha was convicted in the Disproportionate Assets case by the Bangalore Special court. The case was filed in 1996 and it has taken 18 years for it to reach a conviction stage in the lowest court. This case was moved to Bangalore 2003 and even there it has taken 11 years. That’s how slow the judicial process works in India. Obviously, the case will now move to the High Court and even to the Supreme court if the High court doesn’t over turn the conviction. She becomes the first sitting Chief Minister to be convicted.

The sentence of 4 years rules her out from contesting elections effectively for 10 years (4 years now and another 6 years of disqualification). With the conviction she loses her MLA seat and effectively the Chief Ministership immediately. She has also been fined 100 crores – at this point of time it is not clear how she will pay the 100 crores when her assets as per her affidavit during the election shows her net worth as 51 crores. Heard that some of the fine will be adjusted against some of the property already attached. Not sure how much fine will be pending still.

This is the second time that she is being forced to step down from Chief Ministership. Last time she tried to use a loophole in the law – Law states that you cannot contest an election if there is a conviction but it didn’t state you cannot become a Chief Minister. This is what the Supreme Court didn’t accept in 2001 and she was forced to step down. That time she brought in O Panneerselvam as the CM.

Jayalalitha has been convicted by lower courts in two other cases – Pleasant Stay case and Tansi Land case. She got both of them over turned. She would hope that she will be able to do the same in this case as well.

In case the sentencing was less than 3 years the convicting court itself could have issued the bail. In this case with her being sentenced for 4 years she has to go to the High Court for bail. With the Karnataka courts going off for Dussera holiday from Monday, the earliest her lawyers can file for bail in the High court is October 6^th.

The ADMK cadres as expected have gone on a rampage yesterday immediately after the verdict was announced. Buses were off the road yesterday and most commercial establishments were shut down. It was more of immediate reaction and I am sure things will be back to normal today. Any politician will definitely try to get some sympathy going for them, I am sure she will also do the same. However, for that the situation should be kept under control. The former CM has sent a letter to all saying the law and order situation has gone out of control trying to show the world that his party is still around. I am pretty sure the administration (yesterday itself the police have issued a stern warning to everyone) will bring the situation to normal this morning.

The major problem for Jayalalitha in this case is that she has been convicted in Karnataka and her appeals should only go the the Karnataka High Court and not here in TN. She is also going to be in Karnataka jail and not TN. There are no major elections for next 19 months , which should give her time to at least get  a stay on the conviction. In case she doesn’t get a stay or in a worse situation she doesn’t even get bail by then, then there is a bigger problem. As with many other strong woman leaders (and our PM) like Mamata and Mayawati, Jayalalitha hasn’t allowed any strong second layer to be formed.

She has to ensure she is able to come to Tamil Nadu before the elections. With absolutely no second layer, I am not sure if people will vote for the party without her at the helm.

A leader’s main role is to create a strong second layer who can take care of things when they are not there.  There was a nice article in the Times of India some time back (Does India Inc have a drop dead plan). This should apply to our politicians also. That to me is the lesson for every one of us. Not the clichéd – No one is above the law. 

Book Buying - How things have changed

I am still a book buyer. Haven't really migrated to kindle or reading using my tablet. 

When I started buying novels, I used to buy them from the road side shop. These are poor quality pirated copies which were available for less than 50 rupees. I used to buy regularly from a shop in Pondy Bazaar. Then after few years (rather many years) of buying fake I became conscious of the fact that I am buying pirated books. 

That is when I moved on to Landmark - That was one of the first book stores in Chennai. The books in this store are priced at MRP. Even then started buying books from there (but kept going back to my pirated store as there were no deals at Landmark). 

Once every year Landmark has a sale (around September) and I make a list of books that I want to buy through the year and buy during the sale. Slowly migrated to Landmark website which had good deals - we used to get 30-40% off through the year. 

Now I have moved onto Flipkart which offers better deals than Landmark. Landmark deals have reduced to 25% max for all books on the net and they still sell at MRP in their stores. Flipkart offers at least 33% off on most books. Now a days it is mostly Flipkart where I buy my books. 

I still go to yearly sales of Landmark. Make it a point to visit all Landmark stores in the city during that time. This sale generally goes on for a month. 

For the first time with the Chetan Bhagat book Flipkart is offering an exclusive sale of the same for first 1 month. The book is also priced at only 15% discount of MRP which was a surprise but expected with the exclusivity. Book is releasing only mid October but it is available for pre-order now. I am not a great fan of his but his books are a decent time pass. My wife loves his books though. 

Will I pre-order now? The answer is NO. I have many books that I have not read so I can definitely wait for the price to fall after the 1 month exclusive period. Not that his books are expensive. You generally get only paperback.

One thing is true for all big Retailers(Flipkart is a big retailer now) they kill the competition by giving discounts but once there is no competition they will start pricing at MRP. You end up spending more than what you used to. 

PS : Landmark closed it's first book store in Chennai recently, felt bad about it.  

Why the negativity?

I wrote a positive blog on the Indian performance in the just concluded Commonwealth games.. Look what Hindu and TOI wrote

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-hindu-editorial-for-india-a-mixed-bag/article6281130.ece

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/lacklustre-showing-indias-performance-at-glasgow-games-is-an-indictment-of-the-countrys-sports-system/


We need to take into perspective that nearly 15 events in which we won gold medals in 2010 was removed in this edition. 

Glasgow 2014 - India's performance

India ended with 64 medals in the just concluded Commonwealth Games. This medal count was much lesser than the 101 we got in the Delhi games. The major difference between the two games was Archery, Synchronized Swimming, Greco Roman Wrestling and Shooting Pairs were removed in this edition of the games. In it's place we had Judo, Powerlifting and Triathlon.

We knew for a fact that with Archery, Greco Roman Wrestling and Shooting pairs not being part of this edition of the games we will not match 2010 games in terms of the medal count but it is good to see a higher % of athletes winning medals.

As usual Weightlifting, Wrestling and Shooting are giving a good haul of medals. Boxing was a bit of a let down this time with not much medals coming there. 

As usual we lost to the Aussies in the finals of Hockey. The scoreline was a bit better than last time we only let 4 goals compared to 8 last time. 

It is also good to see us getting close to winning medals in events like Lawn Bowls we lost in the bronze medal match for Men's fours event. 

Some key highlights from this edition of the games

1. Dipa Karmakar was the first female athlete to win a medal in Gymnastics and second Indian after Ashwin Kumar to win a medal in Gymnastics. Ashwin won 2 medals in the last games
2. Vikas Gowda won the second individual Athletics gold after Milkha Singh 
3. Wrestling except 1 individual all Indian Participants won a medal
4. Percentage of athletes winning medal has gone up from 22% to 29%
5. We won medals in the new events added in this edition - Judo & Power Lifting

Some people were cribbing about the coverage (or the lack of it) for the games. I felt the coverage on the news sites and also in papers were good. One let down for me is that it was telecast on Ten Sports and DD also didn't show anything. 

Overall a very good performance by our athletes.  Hope we continue to do this well in the Asian Games coming up in September.

In all this one latest embarrassment as usual has been our officials. Two of them arrested :(

Jiggarthanda - A Movie Review

Watched the Jiggarthanda movie on Saturday.

Cast includes Siddharth, Lakshmi Menon, Karunakaran, Bobby Simhaa (the real hero). This is Karthik Subburaj's second movie after the super hit Pizza.

Movie starts off with a scene from a realty show (which you generally see in almost all realty shows of two people fighting). The hero is a budding director and makes a short film which a acclaimed director (Nasser) claims as a kuppa padam and the other judge of the show a producer claims the movie is excellent and promises to produce Karthik's movie. The producer asks him to make a nice gangster movie - showing DVDs of Scarface, Godfather etc. He nicely says make a movie like these or even make these :)

Karthik wants to make a gangster movie by studying a real gangster. Off he goes to Madurai to study Assault Sethu played by Bobby Simhaa. A dreaded gangster in Madurai. As per the cops a "oru madhiriyaana pyscho". Introduction scene establishes that very clearly. He burns a journalist who writes about him.

Karthik uses his friend Urani (played by Karunakaran - be it Pizza or Sudhu Kaavum or this movie, he is establishing himself as a good actor) to get around in Madurai. Heroine Kayal and her mother cooks for Sethu. They are also saree theifs. He wants to use her but she falls in love with him.

After much struggle Karthik to find out about Sethu, he finally gets to hear everything from his horse's mouth. Sethu also wants to act in the movie. Movie is made finally and this is where the movie turns from a gangster movie to a comedy movie. The movie finally ends in an expected way - which was a let down.

There was a bit of a drag in the early part of the second half.

Kannama song is good but was forced on us. There was no need for such a song in that situation.

BG music is good by Santhosh Narayanan.

In terms of acting Bobby Simhaa rocks as the gangster. Siddharth surprisingly doesn't overact. Lakshmi Menon - not sure why there was a need for a heroine in this movie. Karunakaran as usual does a decent job. Vijay Sethupathi shows up in a cameo.

Overall the movie was very good. Successive hit for Karthik Subburaj.   

Sathuranga Vettai - A Review

Watched Sathuranga Vettai over the weekend. It has been a while since I watched any movie, the last one was Rio 2 (don't think I wrote a review about it).

Disclaimer - I was too sleepy for a night show and was going in with lots of expectations based on all the positive reviews.

The first half of the movie is good with the hero played by Natraj running one fraud scheme after another like MLM, selling a Snake to a businessman, temple hiest, etc. First half is breezy

It is a typical con movie, where at some point in time he gets caught by the person he is trying to con and how he escapes forms the second half of the story. Second half is a drag.

You would have heard all the good dialogues in the radio advertisements so it didn't make much of an impact on me.

The villain makes a good debut (at least I have not seen him before).. Ishaara as the heroine ok.

Overall because of the disclaimers above I didn't like it that much. 

Vaayai Moodi Pesavum - A Movie Review

Watched Vaayai Moodi Pesavum on Saturday night at AVM Rajeshwari. Watching a movie in this theatre after a long time, it is the same lousy theatre. Not sure why they cannot renovate this? They have such a huge space available. The ticket cost Rs 40, which was a huge surprise also.  

Anyhow, coming to the movie this is the second directorial venture of Balaji Mohan after his successful debut - Kadhalil Sothapuvadhu Eppadi. 

Like his first movie this is also a light hearted rom-com. 

Cast includes Dulquer Salman, Nazriya Nazeem, Madhubala (Surprised to see her in mother's role already - still looks beautiful). 

Dulquer is an orphan and happy go lucky guy who works as a sales representative and his only aim is to become a RJ. He meets Nazriya who is a doctor and is in love with another person (this guy comes once in a while, we don't even know what he does for a living). Madhubala plays Nazriya's mother and Abhishek her father. Both look very young to play parents. 

The entire movie happens in a hill station. The people of the hill station suddenly get affected by "dumb flu". Things move along when government bans people from speaking as the flu spreads only when speaking. The entire second half of the movie is like a silent movie with no dialogues. 

Things flow along till the heroine dumps the other guy and falls for the hero and there is vaccine for the flu. 

Others in the cast include - Vinu Chakravarthy, John Vijay, Ramesh Tilak, Arjunan(seems to be a regular in Balaji Mohan's films), Robot Shankar and Pandiarajan. Balaji Mohan himself plays a TV news reader. 

Dulquer does a decent job in his first job. Nazriya has a sad look all through the movie and fits her role well. All support cast have done a decent job. 

Vaayai Moodi Pesavum and Kadhal arai onnu songs are really good. 

Overall it is a decent movie to watch. Good time pass.  

Latest Prediction for 2014 elections

Uttar Pradesh
BJP - 35
Congress - 8
SP - 20
BSP - 17

BJP will find it very difficult to cross the 35 mark as their organization structure fell apart after being out of power for nearly 2 decades. Even if they have support not sure if they can convert it to votes. This in itself is a tall order considering the fact that they have only 47 MLAs (12%).

Assam

One of the states where every pollster is agreeing that Congress will do well

Congress - 10
BJP + - 3

Punjab

Congress - 8
BJP + - 5

SAD is having a huge anti incumbency and that should really benefit Congress and the fact that they had some strong candidates also helps.

Tamil Nadu

BJP+ - 3
ADMK - 26
DMK - 10

Even though the alliance that BJP had formed looks formidable on paper they cannot win many seats. 3 is the max that they can win.

Andhra Pradesh

Congress messed up big time with the Telengana and the alliance/merger with TRS. However, there will be goodwill in the Telengana region which will help them win few seats.

Congress - 12
YSRC - 10
BJP + TDP - 12
TRS - 8

Chattisgarh

Raman Singh scrapped through in the assembly. He will do slightly better in the LS

BJP - 7
Congress - 4

Bihar

BJP - 10
LJP - 2
RJD - 10
Congress - 5
JDU - 13

Even though people are saying JDU will have huge reversals don't think that will happen. With a 3 way contest expect all 3 combos to get almost equal seats. BJP best case can get 3 more seats

Haryana

Vadra factor will play here.

BJP - 6
Congress - 4

INLD will get some of the anti incumbency votes. BJP at best can get 1 more seat. AAP can also play a spoiler here for BJP

Karnataka

Congress - 20
BJP - 6
JDS - 2

Best case for BJP is to get 4 more seats.

Kerala

LDF is still in ruins which only helps UDF

UDF - 14
LDF - 6

Odisha

BJD - 15
BJP - 4
Congress - 2

Gujarat

BJP - 22
Congress - 4

Gujarat has to vote for Modi. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the 4 seats that Congress wins is Gandhinagar, Modi is known for such things.

Maharashtra

BJP - 12
Congress - 14
SS - 10
NCP - 12

I strongly feel that MNS will still play the spoiler for the SS + BJP alliance even though they are primarily fighting only the SS. Best case for BJP is to win 5 more seats

Madhya Pradesh

Some strong candidates will ensure that Congress gets to double digits.

BJP - 19
Congress - 10

BJP can at best get 3 more seats

Rajasthan

This will be huge win for BJP like the assembly elections

BJP - 20
Congress - 5

Delhi

AAP - 2
Congress - 2
BJP - 3

Goa

BJP - 2

J&K

PDP - 1
Congress - 3
NC - 2

Himachal

Slogans like Dil Mange more will not work here

BJP - 2
Congress - 2

Uttarakhand

BJP - 2
Congress - 3

The rehabilitation post the floods will cause damage to Congress. BJP can win 1 more seat at best case

Tirupura

Left - 2

Sikkim

Congress - 1

Nagaland 

BJP+ - 1

Mizoram

Congress - 1

Meghalaya

Congress - 2

Manipur

Congress - 2

Arunachal 

Congress - 2

Union Territories

Congress - 3
BJP - 3

West Bengal

TMC - 25
Left - 12
Congress - 5

Jharkhand

BJP - 5
Congress - 6
RJD - 1
JMM - 2

BJP at best can win 2 more seats

Total
BJP+SS+SAD+TDP+LJP = 195
Congress+NC+RJD+NCP+JMM = 179
SP - 20
BSP - 17
Left - 20
DMK - 10
ADMK - 26
TMC - 25
YSRC - 10
JDU - 13
JDS - 2
BJD - 15
TRS - 8
AAP - 2
PDP - 1

How can BJP get to power?
BJP+ at best can add another 15 seats which will take it to 210 seats.

Another 62 -
TMC is completely ruled out with the recent utterances by TMC and BJP
SP is also ruled out
BSP is possible ally which will give them 17 seats
JDU and JDS are ruled out
Left is completely ruled out
BJD is a possible ally which will give another 15 seats
YSRC/TRS cannot be an ally as long as TDP is there in NDA
PDP is a possible ally with 1 more seat
Either ADMK or DMK could be a possible ally which will give them 25 or 10 seats.

Even then they will not be able to reach 272 unless they get few from the UPA like NCP or JMM or RLD. RJD and NC won't move over to NDA

Elections Update - Back after a break

Back after a short hiatus. Things have been pretty hectic at work. 

Tamil Nadu

The new front in TN (NDA) on paper might look strong. However, all key parties in it namely DMDK, PMK, MDMK are all on the decline. On paper people might claim that they have 22% vote shore but that was 5 years back. Things have changed and I am sure they will not cross 15% on all and maybe in one or two seats they will come second. Don't think they will have a big impact. 

DMK is a house divided and we have seen Alagiri causing some damage to their prospects the last time he was sent out of the party. Not sure if that will happen this time also. Even otherwise their prospects look bleak

AAP is a joker in the park. Don't think they will get even their deposits back except probably in Kanyakumari where Udayakumar from the Kudangulam agitation group is standing. 

Congress might do well due to individual’s capacity. Like Thirunavukarusu or Mani Shankar Aiyar might do well (don't think they will win though). Chidambaram could have done well if he had contested, but don't think Karthi will even come second. 

Primarily because of the opposition and the social welfare measures that ADMK government has been taking in the last 3 years I am pretty sure that ADMK will win close to 30 seats if not more. 

National Updates

Advani didn't want to contest from Gandhinagar because he doesn't trust Modi and fears he will ensure his defeat. No other reason. 

Arun Jaitley can be bit more polished in his chamcha to Modi. When a senior politician is sideline things can be done in a more dignified manner. 

In the current BJP only what Modi wants gets done. Others have absolutely no say. 

BJP seems to creating more troubles for themselves. The way they handled Advani/Jaswant issue or the Muthalik issue. It is really funny when they can definitely be the single largest party they are causing troubles for themselves. I repeat I said they can be single largest party not that they will form the government. 

Maharashtra - BJP/Shiv Sena combine could have done well but the way they had dealings with MNS will ensure they don't even get to half way mark in Maharashtra. 

Congress should really be happy with all the self goals from the NDA which will only help them especially in the states where they are fighting only against each other. 

Telengana issue seems to have backfired big time on Congress. They couldn't get the merger or alliance with TRS, which will only split the votes in that region. They had written off Seemandhra when they took the decision to split the state. 

AAP at the national level will hardly cross single digit. Except in Delhi don't think they will win a single seat outside (disclaimer - I didn't expect them to win so many seats in Delhi). 

Opinion polls all seem to give BJP more than 200 seats which doesn't factor in the individuals who are contesting. For eg, in MP I don't think a Scindia, Kamalnath, etc. will lose. There are so many such leaders from Congress who are sure to win, which will ensure the numbers don't match what the opinion polls project.

Will try to give my revised projections in the next few days.  

Coalition Contradictions

From the year 1996 India as a country has been seeing coalition governments at the center. No one has been able to get absolute majority. Any party which gets 160+ is see as victorious, unless it is led by a certain Narendra Modi (who cannot find new friends to take him past the half way mark).

What I would like to talk about today is list out some of the contradictions in the coalitions that are formed.

Tamil Nadu - TN is a strange example where we have had Left and Congress fighting elections together even thought they oppose each other every where else including the neighboring Kerala where they lead the two large coalitions in the state. We have had DMK a so called revolutionary party allying with BJP during the 1999 elections. DMK leader who calls an Hindu a thief and allies with a predominantly Hindu party. TMC the party which was formed opposing the Narasimha Rao's decision to ally with ADMK formed an alliance with the same ADMK in 1999.

Kerala - We have had coalition governments for a long time in the state. It is really peculiar where we see splinter groups of congress in the left alliance and the other way around also.

J&K - PDP whose leader Mehbooba Mufti who doesn't mind questioning Indian government's authority in J&K allies with a nationalist BJP. We also had the NC which derives its support from the muslims in Kashmir allying with BJP (they were mutually exclusive which helped them in winning though).

Maharashtra - We had the NCP which was formed against the foreigner's influence (read Sonia Gandhi) in the Congress party allying with the same Congress.

Puducherry - We have the NR Congress which runs the government with the support of Congress. NR Congress was formed when N Rangaswamy came out of the Congress.

Delhi - We have the AAP running the show with Congress's support, the very party which it claimed as untouchable.

In the upcoming elections 

BJP wants to ally with MDMK, PMK, etc. The two leading parties of TN have not shown any interest in allying with them. MDMK and PMK are known to be LTTE supporters and it will be fun to see Subramaniam Swamy (the new entrant of BJP) who is a known LTTE baiter sharing space together. MDMK has already said that the Sethusamuduram project has to be reassessed for the environmental issues.

BJP which has been claiming that they are clean and only Congress is corrupt also wants to ally with INLD led by Om Prakash Chouthala (who is currently in jail on corruption charges).

Congress is also not far behind, their VP wants to project a clean image but they are also harboring ambitions of allying with RJD led by Laloo Prasad (who is just out on bail after being convicted in one of the fodder scam cases).

Cliches when it comes to Coalitions

To justify all these contradictions the politicians have their own set of cliches

1) There are no permanent enemies or friends in politics
2) There are no untouchables in politics
3) This is just an election alliance and not based on ideology

The only thing that we have not seen is the Congress and BJP allying together somewhere or Left allying with BJP. Heard that left is keen on allying with a BJP splinter, so we might actually get to see that also.

As a famous Goundamani dialogue in a tamil movie "arasiyala edhu ellam satharanam appa"(everything goes in politics)..