Billa 2007 - movie review

Sometimes you have to trust your instincts and if you don't, you pay a heavy price. Today was a bad day for me and I didn't trust my instincts and ended up watching...NO NO staring at this movie.For those who don't know any background of the movie, this is the remake of famous hindi movie 'Don'. It was remade in tamil in late 70s or something into a Rajnikanth starrer 'Billa'. Since Amitabh's 'Don' was remade recently starring SRK, some wise guy in Tamil filmdom came up with the idea of remaking Billa. Wow, isn't that innovative and creative.

Seems everyone in the movie crew was infected with Madras eye or Conjunctivitis. Everyone in the movie had to wear sun glass religiously and I believe the movie definitely made some optical store profitable. Wearing sun glasses is another regular ritual that has to be followed rigorously in a gangster flick and this movie is no exception. And wearing big sun glasses helps the actors too, you comfortably shield the eyes and half the face and there is very lil they have to express. May be I am living in some 82nd dimension, I don't understand Haute Couture.

Another interesting thing in the movie is that you can see many co-actors to acting as Human Statues (??) or Body guards. Having Malay body guards and damsel with weird hairdo doesn't raise the standard of movie. In total the movie was more like ramp walks by the lead cast in blazers and sun glasses than acting.

This movie proved once again the time tested theory that villains are morons, they go in groups when there isn't any need for it and when someone is going to meet someone they go at it alone and without even proper backups. I think thats the reason they are international gangsters and I am a code monkey.

The songs were absolutely pathetic and I don't see any reason why I should even mention it. The song 'My Name is Billa' reminded me of some one pulling a patients rectum through his mouth without administering anesthetic. Ripping OST of Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions for the background music doesn't make a Tamil Movie close to a Hollywood flick. This is surely one of the worst scores from YuvanShankar Raja.

Since I had seen the old flick couple of times during my summer holidays as a kid, there wasn't anything to look forward to in the movie. Only thing that this movie proved was Nayantara has a good Mid Riff and she doesn't mind showing it. The movie comes close to B-Grade hollywood flick and fails miserably. Stay away if not suffer.

Formality Freaks

Traditional Indian marriages, apart from the happy bride and groom and tasty feast is a place where great many beasts lurk and if you get a chance to attend one don't miss it. Because this is the time very many unsuspecting creatures come to life. Apart from ghostly aunts/uncles (the overdone makeup puts the ghosts in movies to shame), walking jewel houses (you don't have to go to the jewelery shop to see the latest designs, you can see them all here), there is one beast which lurks in the venue unsuspectingly and paralyzes the host who have arranged the ceremony. Yes, I am talking about 'Formality Freaks' (FF). Any victim of FF will tell you countless nightmarish tales of FF's exploits. Having been a victim of FF recently let me sketch some of the tactics used by FF.

1. FF waits and stalks the host for the right opportunity, the moment guest arrives and the guest is seated, FF will send you a signal through someone to serve the guest. Yes, he won't check with you earlier whether you have Some snack or something to drink handy so that you can serve the guest. Didn't I tell you surprise is the favorite weapon of FF. Another interesting twist in the story is, the guest is usually a FF. If you fail to ask him or fail to serve him, you are damned to flames of hell. FF will have his revenge my friend.

2. Irrespective of where the FF sits, you have to locate him and serve him even if he had sneaked and mixed into the crowd.

3. FFs will give you instructions at the beginning of things and will never tell you what to do at the end. Isn't it a joy to see you stressed out in all the melee.

If you come across this beast be wary of them and maintain a safe distance for your own sane mental state. If you know any exploits of FF do leave them in the comments section.

Gabriel Hennessey

Another random post, was lost in the web and came across Gabriel Hennessey, a photographer from Romania. He has a nice web site with photos from his shoots. Here is a sample if you are interested.
http://www.gabrielhennessey.ro/

Conversations in the Concrete Jungle - Part I

Being a primate who can't control his ear muscles and shut the ear drums and living in the same tree with other species, overhearing things is a part of life here. Like me, the characters living in this concrete jungle have a character of their own. Unlike the stereotype wise ones, one of the wise one living in the concrete jungle is a young chameleon who leads a normal life of hopping around branches, eats insects, reproduces when he finds a mate, watches the concrete jungle with curiosity of a child using his big eyes. One day a rabbit was talking with the chameleon and the conversation is as follows.

Rabbit: Except a few of my friends, not many are in touch with me.
Chameleon: If you want to meet someone, you will find the means. Mu.

Rabbit went away hopping around in the concrete jungle and chameleon caught a juicy dragon fly.

Jigarthanda

Madurai has the famous Meenakshi Temple and if someone asks me what else is famous in madurai, this drink is definitely on my list. It might have a strange name JigarThanda which is a combination of two hindi words Jigar (Heart) and Thanda(cold), so it roughly translates into heart cooler. I have no idea whether it actually does it but it does taste great.

There are several places in the city where you can buy this drink but if you want the authentic and want to try the original recipe, head for 3rd or 4th shop on Manjanakkara Street, Madurai and ask someone for the old Jigarthanda shop and they would point you to a one room shop which sells this delicacy. This shop is run by a family member whose family has been traditionally selling this drink for generations. Be aware of the fake imitations which sell the same drink on push-carts on the road.

So what is this drink actually made of, none i have met so far knows the original recipe, but it is a mixture of edible sea algae, cold milk, Sarsaparilla syrup or nannari syrup, and ice cream made of boiled milk in a clay-charcoal oven. This is sure favorite among the people of madurai during summer, when the temperature is scorching and this what you need to cool you down. If you are in madurai and if you get a chance, don't miss Jigarthanda.

Your own South Park Character

If you like South Park, South Park Studio lets you create your own South Park character. Played around a bit and created myself and this is how i guess i may look like in the world of South Park.

Hello Cthulhu

Cthulhu might be one of the most dreaded and famous characters created by H.P.Lovecraft, but what will happen to Cthulhu if you put him into the universe of Hello Kitty, the result Hello Cthulhu.

It is funny to see the most evil thing in the universe struggle and sulk against innocent hello kitty and other characters. Even though the site is not updated regularly and the last update was in 2006, the available strips are really funny. Check out Hello Cthulhu from the following link http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/?date=2006-11-21

One more funny take on cthulhu can be found here on, Tales of the plush cthulhu http://www.logicalcreativity.com/jon/plush/01.html

Want to meet more devilish creatures created by H.P.Lovecraft check out
http://members.shaw.ca/csstrowbridge/Tulzscha/Information.htm
http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=88885

Misal Paav

Unlike its cousins Vada Paav and Paav Bhaji, Misal Paav is not well known outside Maharashtra. Having met two self confessed misal fanatics and having tasted it along with them, it will be gross injustice to misal, if I don't blog about it. Mmhm the word misal brings back several old memories of brunches and afternoon naps on the weekend.
So what is Misal ?? Misal is Manna to some and spice bomb to some. You decide which side you choose. Misal is a mixture of Farsan (Mixture) with rasa (Usal) made of sprouted green or black gram or pea or any of the seasonal varieties served with a layer of oil base called Kut or Cut. It is spicy and if you are not used to spicy food, stay away but carry the guilt that you are going to miss a delicacy savored by many. It will take a seasoned Cook to make the Usal and with the right consistency. If you become a master misal eater you can devour up to 3-10 paavs with one misal. Pune has some famous places to try misal, here is my partial list.

• Tulsi Restaurant - This restaurant situated on Baner Road, near the symantec office serves consistently good misal in taste. Decent place and must try place if you enjoy misal.
  
• Ramnath - Located on Laxmi Road, this is a very small but very famous place in Pune to eat misal. The menu board says 'Java Marg Misal' and this is definitely not for the faint hearted. If you have guts you will gain glory. The drawbacks about this place are (i) The place is small and crammed, you might have to wait (ii) they serve misal only with bread no paavs my friend :-(
  
• Swaad - This is a small shack located on Shivaji Housing Society adjacent to Pyramid Mall and ICC. There isn't much to write about this place but the misal served here is just okay.
  
• Bedekar - This is located somewhere near Appa balwan Chowk (ABC). Lot of people like the misal served here but I didn't like it that much. The farsan was thick variety and the usal or bhaji was just too thick for me. Once again this place also served misal with bread ..darn it. Try it for name sake.
  

Finally, the link to misal recipe
http://www.recipesindian.com/indian_recipes/indian_snacks_recipes/Spicy-Misal.html

Misal Paav