Poi Solla Porom

The new flick Poi Solla Porom turned out to be one of the few Tamil movies I have enjoyed in a very long time and it seriously restored my faith in the quality of Tamil movies that are being churned out nowadays… This I say on the basis of my last sojourn into the Tamil movie realm… I am talking about my last viewing that’s Dasavatharam for you...Which by the way was immensely torturous to the visual and the auditory hubs of my poor brain….And it led to me getting a full blown headache…
Anyway to continue with Poi Solla Porom… I was really worried about booking tickets for this movie since it was not just my husband and I but my parents and a friend as well who we had invited out of the zeal for turning the whole outing into a big family get together...Ok! Now talking about my husband, he has a really high tolerance level when it comes to Tamil movies… No let me rephrase it saying he has a very high AFFINITY towards Tamil movies…that means he can watch any Tamil movie and his favourite channel is KTV (I am rolling my eyes as I type this)…Most Tamilians will agree with me when I say that KTV is the stupidest channel in India if not the world and the movies that are played on this channel would make you want to hang yourself…But my dad on the other hand has absolutely no interest in movies of any kind…and I on my part had done some emotional blackmailing and compelled him into coming with us…So you can imagine what would have happened to me if the movie had turned out for the worse :)… But all’s well that ends well so here’s where I will start with the movie review…
Poi Solla Porom is the Tamil remake of Khosla Ka Ghosla which I had heard was worth a watch and I assure you the remake is just as good if not better…Anyway the story revolves around a typical middle class family which consists of mom, dad, 2 sons and a daughter… Dad has big dreams for the house he is going to build on the land which he bought with his retirement money…The elder son that would be Karthik (he is so cute!!) is portrayed as a stand offish character with goals and ideals which includes going to the US but not his family…His girlfriend is a part of some drama troupe… the younger brother is a student I think…Dad gets royally swindled by a real estate agent who has the backing of a land shark played by Nassar… the rest of the story deals with how the family tries to get back the land with the help of Karthik’s friends…
The movie is really natural and evokes myriad emotions from the audience…All the artists fit their characters to the boot…Be it the dad played by Nedumudi Venu or Mouli and Balaji as the drama troupe artists who play very significant roles in the movie’s climax or Bosky as the passport agent and of course Nasser as the land shark who conveys all his dialogues through expressions rather than speech (he hardly has any dialogues in the movie, but with his expressions he has given a truly brilliant performance)…And the guy who plays the younger son Om is also really good as a character who doesn’t think before acting…The song and dance routines at all the wrong situations (typical of most Tamil movies) have been removed from the forefront and have been added to the movie as background scores…A relief I assure you…This movie has all the makings of a hit and I hope the Tamil audience accepts it… I definitely approve and would easily give it a rating of four and a half on five :)…As Tamilians say - Half mark cut for the music which was not very appealing… Other than that I have no complains about the movie and neither did my family… and we were smiling as we got out of the movie theatre…

Bangaluru

The transformation of Bangalore has been categorized under the label “improvement of infrastructure’….I for one question this - is that truly what these changes mean to the city or to the citizens…has there been an improvement of any kind…because either I am too myopic to notice the improvements or the authorities have not exactly lived up to their assurance of awarding the public with a better Bangalore…
I am not sure about the other sections in Bangalore, but I can clearly notice the appalling changes taking place in and around Indiranagar…I have lived here for the past 18 years and in the early years it was truly a joy walking on the tree lined roads in and around this area…especially 100 ft Road and CMH road… the peace and serenity of the place contributing to making Bangalore the garden city and the pensioner’s paradise…the exquisite bungalows adding their own charm to the whole setting…the parks in almost every layout were plain delightful…
But the trees have been cut, giving way to roads, metro lines, etc… the whole landscape looks dull and lifeless…the sight just brings tears to my eyes…the remaining trees sport a layer of dirt and grime due to the increasing pollution levels…the whole weather pattern has changed because of the absence of trees… Bangalore was never this hot or water starved before…and there weren’t these many power cuts…
The roads have been quarried time and again for laying of cables to satisfy the needs of the n number of software companies which keep sprouting every other day… there is not a decent piece of road or pavement left anywhere in Indiranagar anymore…
The bungalows have given way to commercial establishments… the noise pollution has driven people into selling their homes and moving to quieter areas (if there are any of those left anymore)….
There is a rule saying - for every tree being cut, two trees have to be planted… I seriously wonder where these trees are being planted... isn’t anyone worried about how these developments are going to affect us? Are the authorities doing something about the worrisome alterations that are taking place? At least I see the whole scenario as moving in reverse rather than forward where infrastructure improvement is concerned….
Why is the government focusing its energies on silly issues such as the non existent night life in Bangalore (a topic of hot discussion I assure you)? Seriously why so much concentration on closing of pubs before 11 p.m. and banning of dance bars?
The existing infrastructure is taking a beating…Why is no one paying attention to that? People are talking about it as in its just on paper but where’s the action being taken?
What about the hours of load shedding? What about connectivity? What about quality of the roads being constructed?
In general the changes even though they are coming about at snail’s pace are devoid of any quality… in harsher terms the work undertaken by the government is purely substandard…
I seriously don’t know where these changes are leading but if these issues are not addressed pretty soon, in a few years Bangalore is going to become unlivable…

Wishing the readers of this space (if anyone's still reading this space)... a happy Ganesh Chaturthi :)

Hali Mane

The restaurant called ‘Hali Mane’ in Malleswaram turned out to be a real treat to the senses (especially taste and smell)…The name literally translates to village house and you would expect it to serve authentic Karnataka cuisine…besides which you can find the usual North Indian dishes like paratha-kurma and naan/roti/kulcha with butter paneer masala on the menu…
I wanted to taste something different so I tried akki roti that’s roti made out of rice flour and ragi roti made of ragi flour…these are served with 2 types of chutney…they tasted really good…
They also serve ragi balls with I think sambar...not sure…its supposed to be really healthy but as with most people, I decide if a dish is palatable or not by the looks of it rather than its nutritive factor…so eating that was totally out of the question :P…
The second time round (this place is totally worth the second visit) we had meals it’s a mixture of North and South Indian dishes… I liked the way the meal was served…they give each person a bottle of mineral water and serve each dish separately rather than pile everything on the plate all at once …also you can order the separate meal for kids which serve smaller portions ...you are served a tambulam (that’s nothing but paan), banana and ice cream to round of the meal…on the whole it was satisfactory but I was not very impressed by the side dishes served with the naan…the subzi’s could have tasted better…
I feel they can completely do away with the North Indian section of the menu and come up with more dishes that can be billed under the category of ‘authentic’ Kannada food…but I can sympathize with most restaurateurs who open restaurant for the masses and are in the constant fear of going under if their hotel does not have the multi cuisine tag attached to them… But Hali Mane seems to be doing pretty well for itself judging by the never-ending crowd outside probably because it’s able to provide quality food at inexpensive rates…but to tell you the truth the major USP for me was the cleanliness aspect…

Kafka on the Shore

My latest read is a book called "Kafka on the Shore" by a Japanese author who calls himself Haruki Murakami...
My brother apparently picked it up from the 'classics' section of a leading book store...can I sue the book store?
Wasting perfectly good money... I agree both my brother and I make good money as software engineers... but why waste our hard earned cash on such an irrelevant book...or is it my problem that I am too close minded and hence couldn’t capture the "deeper meaning" such books often imply?????
Or is it like most modern arts which only TRUE ART ENTHUSIASTS seem to (or shall I put it as claim to) decipher...no!! it cannot be that...I am a self confessed book enthusiast :)...
Ok!! Getting back to the book...it is described as an international bestseller...are all bookstores in the world stocking the book in the 'classics' section?
It deals with two main characters-
A teenager who calls himself Kafka... he runs away from home…and finds a library...he sleeps with the head librarian (a 50 yr old woman) who might be his mother...and he works as an assistant to the other librarian who is actually a woman who considers herself trapped in a woman's body...
And an old man called Nakata...this guy is illiterate and has been living in seclusion from his family...he can talk to cats and stones and goes around making fishes and leeches rain from the sky and searches for an entrance stone (don’t look at me…I have no clue as to what the author was trying to pull here)...
I seriously don’t know how I finished the book...but by the end of it I wanted to shoot myself or much better... shoot the author: P
Oh! By the way did I mention it was in the "CLASSICS SECTION" in the bookstore???