Uttama Villain - A Movie Review

Cast - Kamal has continued with Andrea and Pooja Kumar in this movie as well. You also have Urvashi, Parvathi Menon, Jayaraman, K Bhalachader, Nasser, K Viswanath, MS Bhaskar. 

Movie is about a star who is about to die and his last wish. Manoranjan(played by Kamal) is a superstar. He is married to Urvashi and has a son. He is a superstar and movie starts with a release of a new movie. Kamal plays the typical hero (hiding his drinking from public, etc.) and his manager played by MS Bhaskar ensures that the superstar image is well managed. 

Manoranjan comes to know that he is going to die due to brain cancer and wants to do a final movie with his mentor (played his real mentor KB) and that too a period comedy. Some niceties - KB plays Margadarshi and Manoranjan plays a character in the movie who is immortal. 

K Viswanath plays his father-in-law who also produces most of his movies. Jayaraman plays the step father of Parvathi Menon who plays the daughter of Kamal from his yester year love affair. Andrea plays his personal physician who is also his mistress. Pooja Kumar is the heroine in his movies(within movie). With so many affairs you are left wondering if it is a bit biographical. Nasser plays the villain in the movie being made. 

The film goes back and forth between what happens in the life of the star and the movie that is being made. Whether Kamal is able to complete the movie before his imminent end makes the rest of the story. 

Even though he wanted to do a comedy as his last movie - you were left wondering where the comedy was?  

KB keeps praising Kamal during the making of the movie - which beyond a point gets very irritating. 

There is a tiger animation and it was very amateurish. 

Songs - I personally liked the fast paced Single Kiss-kae.. But the dancing by both Kamal and Pooja Kumar was a huge let down. Other than that no other song was anything to write about. 

Urvashi has acted well as Kamal's wife and so has Parvathi has his daughter (even though she still claims that Jayaram is more her father than Kamal). Andrea looks beautiful as always and Pooja kumar - not sure why she was there in the movie. The scene when Kamal comes to know about Parvathi and his meeting her were beautifully enacted by Kamal. 

The sets are good in the period part. 

Neither the comedy nor the serious part of the travails of an actor who is facing death makes an impact on you. 

Oh Kadhal Kanmani - A Movie Review

Watched OKK yesterday night. Cast - Dulquer Salman, Nithya Menon, Prakash Raj and Leela Samson. 

Movie is a romantic love story. The hero and heroine meets in Mumbai station. Next they meet at a friend's wedding and then get to know each other, don't want to get married but stay together and then get influenced by the relationship between Prakash Raj and Leela Samson and finally get married. 

There is lot of resemblance to Alaipayuthey and Ayudha Ezhuthu (Siddharth and Trisha story). Here also the hero wants to go to US and heroine to Paris.  

Dulquer's second tamil movie and he has done a good job and this being a sync sound he has done a good job in dialogue delivery also. However, you get a feeling that there is a bit of Madhavan from Aalipayuthey in the initial scenes. He plays the role of a video game designer who wants to become the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. 

Nithya Menon - Especially in the church scene looks beautiful. Uses are big eyes to good extent and acted beautifully. She is an Architect and want to pursue her Architecture studies in Paris. 

The best part of the movie is the pair of Prakash Raj and Leela Samson - They play the hosts for Dulquer initially and then Nithya Menon when they start living together. Very subtle acting not going overboard. Leela Samson is a very good find as an actress, she plays an character with Alzheimer's.  

What is with Mani Ratnam and having a song or dialogue sequence of the hero and heroine under a bed sheet. You have seen it from Bombay days. Also as he explained when a movie is made in Mumbai how can you not have the trains. 

Songs - Mental Manadhil - I personally liked the picturasization of that song. Fast paced and beautifully done. 

Initial part of the movie meanders and then picks up speed just before intermission and then you know what is going to happen in a typical tamil movie and that's how it ends with the hero and heroine getting married - but still continue to go about their individual careers. 

There is no separate comedy track and there are some scenes and dialogues which make you laugh - Overall a light romantic movie and good entertainer. I didn't watch Kadal, but this movie is much better that Raavan. 

OKK is definitely more than OK. 

Operation Raahat - Successful Evacuation of People from Yemen

Operation Raahat - The operation to evacuate Indians from Yemen has been successful. We have successfully evacuated nearly 4000 Indians and few more from other countries. 

Excellent job done by Ministry of External Affairs in coordination with the Airforce, Navy, Ministry of Home Affairs and Air India in this Operation. 

Good part is that we have received requests from 26 other nations to help evacuate their nationals also and Government is responding to the same. 

Way to go. Nice to see us taking a lead on this humanitarian initiative. 

India had deployed 3 Naval Ships and the C17 globemaster from IAF in the evacuation. Air India has also been flying out people from the country. 

MoS of External Affairs, VK Singh was on the ground coordinating the entire operation. The Indian Army has many experience of evacuating people from natural disasters and other situation, this experience would have definitely helped VK Singh, who was a former Army chief, in coordinating the entire operation. 

Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister was also actively involved. Finally nice to see her getting to do some work as EAM, as till date PMO was taking over most of the EAM's activities. 

Heard that Twitter and other social media was also used by people affected to reach out to the Indian embassy officials, which shows us how the social media is getting more and more integrated and useful in our lives. 

Lastly the controversy about VK Singh's tweets about the media. Having been a chief of Indian Army, he would have got used to people taking orders from him and not questioning anything he said. However, now that he has become a politician and that too a Minster, he has to understand that he has to be a bit more diplomatic. His tweet after visiting the Pakistan Embassy for their national day celebrations was also not in good taste. That doesn't justify what Times Now try to do with VKDisaster hashtag. 

This operation is a success and us helping in evacuation of nationals of other countries shows how to exhibit our soft power. 

Komban - Movie Review

It has been a long time since I watched a movie so went to watch Komban over the weekend. 

Cast includes Karthi, Lakshmi Menon, Rajkiran, Kovai Sarala, Super Subburayan and some unknown villain characters. 

Movie is set in the background of 3 villages - No effort was spent on establishing what the issues are between the people of the villages. Karthi falls for Lakshmi menon and marries her. Not really sure what bad things villains do. Karthi claims that he doesn't like what they do - But no one tells what that is. Just because they are called as villains and the hero beats them up we have to accept that they are villains. 

Some stupid cliches like Lakshmi Menon saying she has to accept her husband whatever he does - not sure if even village girls say such things now. But this is after she leaves him and goes with her father - no logic. 

Suddenly Karthi in one scene beats up Rajkiran and next scene goes to their house and apologizes and in the end says that father-in-law is like his father. Not sure how such transformation happens. 

Rajkiran in the climax shouts like a cat and dog - not sure if that is the custom or what. Seeing it for the first time in a movie. 

In the end Karthi beats up the villains and the movie ends. After Madras you expected Karthi to continue to act in good movies - not to be. There is no story or screenplay in this lousy movie. 

Most important reason why I went for this movie to understand what was the fuss about - I think I found out. PT leader doesn't like people having such moustaches and if the hero of the movie sports such a moustache he will create trouble - happened with Virumandi and with this also. I found nothing derogatory and offensive in the movie. 

Overall a very lousy movie to watch. Please avoid. 

Hawala at Midnight

If you want to find fault with someone it is very easy.. Especially when you claim that you are holier than thou, it becomes even more easier... 

Yesterday AVAM (AAP Volunteer Action Manch) reported that some of the donations to AAP are from dubious companies. BJP and Congress both receives bulk of their donations in cash, but that doesn't matter. 

AAP's defense is that everyone is bad. Wasn't that the reason why they were formed? If you agree that you are one among them, AAP loses its USP. Which is what has happened now. AAP is also questioning the fact that the folks from AVAM are now in BJP but that is not an issue. What is the point in shooting the messenger. 

This is well crafted move by BJP which is really under pressure to win the Delhi elections as many have claimed that this is their first real fight after the last year's general elections. Also the induction of Kiran Bedi as the CM candidate of BJP has not worked as they had expected. She was brought in to get the clean image and she being someone from the same IAC group was expected to give them the extra boost. However, her not so polished way of talking in public has not really helped the cause (which has also forced the BJP to enforce a gag order on her). 

BJP pressed the panic button and brought in many ministers and MPs to campaign. Their asking 5 questions is good publicity but the questions being asked are pretty childish. 

AAP's primary vote bank is the poor people which will not be hugely swayed by this recent issue. The middle class voters might move away from them. 

Coming back to the topic of discussion, the funds and the dubious nature of the companies that has given the donations -

1. AAP has to accept their mistake of not doing a proper due-diligence of the person giving the funds - In case they are hiding any ill-gotten funds in such way then they are proving that all political parties are the same - I hope that is not the case. That will help in getting back some of the sheen that has been lost 
2. Running a political party in India and compete elections is not easy. With the practice of getting cash for casting votes it is becoming even more expensive. There needs to be more transparency in the funding process. Most of the funds that parties receive is primarily from business people. I would like to quote an incident that Shekhar Gupta had mentioned about recently, when Suresh Prabhu was sacked as Minister from the Vajpayee government it seems that Shekhar asked Bal Thackeray the real reason for for his sacking for which Thackeray had responded after much persistence that he has to run a party and what is the point in having a minister if I cannot get money for the party :).
3. People give donations to parties for two reasons - To get something in return or as response to some thing bad they had already done. Either way it is bad. 

AAP started of as a party with difference which is what caught the fancy of the people and got them a huge vote base in Delhi. They came to power, thanks the Nirbhaya case, commonwealth games scam and not in small measure the protest that Anna Hazare led. Sheila Dixit government over the 15 years did lots of good work for Delhi but the incidents just prior to 2013 elections, mentioned above, helped AAP establish themselves. However, power got to their heads and they gave up the Delhi Government and contested the general elections in the whole entire country. This election in case they lose, is going to be a huge problem for them. It will become another Lok Paritran - not that I will miss them a lot if that happens. 

We are all Hypocrites

Over the last one week there are few incidences which highlight one basic fact of life - We are all Hypocrites

First Incidence is the Savile Row suit of our Prime Minster with fine print of his name - There was a hue and cry about how the Prime Minister can wear something which had his name all over it. Good question, I also found it stupid.. Then realized two things - One I wear so many clothes which has the brand names visible - either big or small and Two I have a cap which has my name on it. Is it ok for me to wear those but not the PM? That is when I realized the basic fact of life - I am an hypocrite

Second Incidence is about case of Evangelist IAS officer Umashankar - Let us look at objectively, he is allowed to do what he wants in his private time. We all have code of conduct at work and in most cases organizations don't allow us to propagate religion or indulge in political activities during work time. However, we are not stopped from doing anything we want outside our work time. That is not questioned but being an IAS officer shouldn't he be treating everyone as equals? IAS officers and for that matter the politicians also should act as if all religions are equals. 

Every individual has their own belief be it an atheist or fatalist or any religious follower believes that whatever he does his the right thing and is better than what others do. That's why the continue to do it. Otherwise, they would have changed their beliefs. That is precisely the main point of contention with what Umashankar has done. 

Even our PM has openly displayed that he doesn't believe in symbolism of wearing a muslim cap which was offered to him (It is a different story that he was ok with wearing a sikh turban). Everyone made a hue and cry about it because we wanted him to be a hypocrite. So are we expecting the IAS officers and politicians to put on a show that they consider every other belief as equally good? 

When personally we are OK with us believing that our belief is the best but when it comes to IAS officers and politicians we want them to act that their belief is nothing great when compared to other beliefs? Isn't that hypocrisy? Yes it is, we want our people in power (be it officers or politicians) to be perceived as treating everyone as equal. 

After realizing the basic fact I just have one question, how much did the Savile Row suit cost and who paid for it? 

Is Meeting Expectations Bad?

I am sure everyone who has been working in IT know that Meeting expectations is Bad. Is that the case? In normal circumstances HR will say meeting expectations is not bad but when it comes to issuing pink slips (as in the case with the recent issue with the large IT organization) this is communicated as bad performance by the same HR. I am not blaming them for the fiasco. So are the employees always expected to exceed expectations? 

Many organizations have a 4 grade system. There are cases where organizations have 5 grades or in some cases a 10 point scale. All these only causes more confusion and ambiguity. 

What is the solution to this? A change of nomenclature for rating to me is fine. You just have three rations - Exceeds Expectaions, Meets Expectations and Doesn't meet expectations. This way we can get rid of the ambiguity in the system. 

Exceeds expectations should be the people who did exceptionally well should be the top 10-20%. Meets expectations should be the majority of the populations - 75-85%. Doesn't meet expectations should be the bottom 5%. 

The bottom 5% should be put through the performance improvement program and set clear expectations on what they need to improve. In case the employee doesn't improve post that period also he/she can be let go. 

This is purely in the case of performance issues. However, that doesn't seem to be the only criteria with the recent case in the largest IT organization in India, where employees are let go because they were not utilized for sometime. 

Every mistake gives opportunity to learn. Every organization should also learn from each others mistakes. The current issue gives an excellent opportunity for everyone to re-look at their performance appraisal systems. 

Meeting expectations should not be considered bad. This is what the majority of the employees be rated as.