The Curious Case of Warner Bros

With Warner Bros issuing a public notice in Times of India, I am wondering will they do for every movie releasing under their banner? Are the other production houses too ready with their notice? Let them do whateva they want, but lets make this clear that we have a pool of extremely talented directors to rip-off a movie and add a dash of desi masala to it and give them back as a reference to their libraries. Jai Ho!

To Be Read

My Favorite Songs of 2008

Here is a list of my favorite Tamil and Hindi songs of 2008.  These are the songs which stayed in my playlist for a long time.

Tamil Songs: (in order)

Kangal Irandal -  Subramaniapuram, James Vasanth
Belli Raj, Deepa Mariam

Lesa parakuthu – Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, Selvaganesh
Karthik, Chinmayee

Dosth bada dosth -  Saroja, Yuvan Shankar Raja
Haricharan, Naveen, Rahul

Anal mele – Vaaranam Aiyiram, Harris Jeyaraj
Sudha Raghunathan

Mazhai nindra – Raman thediya seethai, Vidyasagar
Kalyani

Taxi taxi - Sakkarakatti, AR Rahman
Benny Dayal, Blaaze, Javed Ali, Viviane Chaix

Kathazha - Anjathey, Sundar C Babu
Naveen Mathav

Venmegam – Yaaradi Nee Mohini, Yuvan Shankar Raja
Hariharan

Pada pada – Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, Selvaganesh
Karthik

Avaram poo – Poo, SS Kumaran
Chinmayee

Ava enna thedi - Vaaranam Aiyiram, Harris Jeyaraj
Karthik, Prasanna

Kadhal siluvayil - Subramaniapuram, James Vasanth
Shankar Mahadevan

En uyirukkul - Mahesh Saranya Matrum Palar, Vidyasagar
Tippu, Rajalakshmi

Kalathai vendra - Uliyin Osai, Ilayaraja
Sriram Parthasarathy, Bhavatharini

Sagiye - Dhaam Dhoom, Harris Jeyaraj
Bombay Jayashree

Hindi Songs: (in no order)

Aahista aahista – Bachna Ae Haseeno
Khwaja Mere Khwaja – Jodha Akbar
Jashn-e-bahaara- Jodha Akbar
Ek Lau – Aamir
Meherbaan – Ada
Tu Meri Dosth- Yuvraaj
Kaise Mujhe – Ghajini
Kabhi Kabhi – Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Mar Jaawan – Fashion
Yeh Tumhari Meri Baatein – Rock On

Slumdog Millionaire

The boy who knew too much

A story of Indian teen from the slums of Mumbai making his way to the final question of India’s “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and what happens next.

Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is about a story of Jamal Malik, a boy from the slums of Mumbai and how he gets himself to the final question. The narration, with each question takes us to small flashbacks of protagonist’s life. The flashback connects well with the incidents of communal riots. The Bachchan autograph scene was shit load of fun and the Tajmahal episode was equally hilarious. When Anil Kapoor (the only disappointment in the movie) asks Jamal the final question,he just smiles and we all knew why and we put a smile on our face too. With similar moments throughout the movie, Boyle has created this suspenseful drama in the comedy genre. Rahman,  with his  Golden Globe nominated soundtrack, seems to be a strong candidate for the Oscars too. Jai ho, in the end credits was a true bollywood treat. Mausam and Escape was perfect whereas O Saaya was stunning with the City of Godish visuals. Here is a clichéd rags-to-riches story, which you will never forget.

Ghajini

A memento to remember

Kalpana (Asin, playing the same character again) has an ambition in Ghajini, that she will not get married untill she gets three Ambassador cars. She pawns her jewels and gets her first Ambassador car. Few days later, Sachin (Aamir as known to Kalpana) comes back and says that he has to go to his village to deal with some property and he will be out of town for 10 days. Later, when Sanjay(Aamir), the chairman of a firm is getting ready for his flight after a meeting with business people, he gets a call from Kalpana that she wants to meet him immediately, in the midnight. He rushes to the place and sees Kalpana waiting for him in front of her old house. She gives him a box with money inside and asks Sachin to keep the money for his expenses and not to sell the property. And when he asks her about the money, she says with a smile that she had sold the car. Then comes Kaise mujhe tum, the moment which defines the sentimental note and stays with you for a long time.

Are we really civilized?

During my stay abroad in USA and UK, I used to have discussions about India and its culture with my colleagues (mostly Indians who are settled there for decades). They always surprised me with their perceptions on India.

On one afternoon, during my stay in Birmingham, I was in a car with my colleague (a desi in Britain for decades) and there was an ambulance racing with its siren sound. All the vehicles just made way to that ambulance.

“This is what you call a civilized city. Do you have such things in India?” he asked, moving to the other lane and giving way to the ambulance.

“Oh yes, sometimes we give way when it comes in the opposite direction as well”, I replied proudly.

“Thats good. India is much better than what I thought”, he said.

Let’s forget about the attitude of desis abroad and I will save that for another lengthy post. Now to this ambulance story, my reply to my colleague was very much true but the scene is totally different here. I have seen many times ambulances getting struck in traffic signals and the clueless vehicle drivers standing in front of ambulances with no space around, to give way. I used to always think about people inside the ambulance and what they would feel at that moment, when struck in a traffic jam. Will they curse the traffic system in our civilized country, or the civilized people in front of the ambulance?

Kemmangundi on a team outing

A trip which got materialized after 11 months with 11 members. Thanks to all those leeches, which made the trip more adventurous and dramatic with all that blood scenes. Yes, that was one bloody good day.

Rest of the pics here

A weekend in Kerala

One weekend. 2 guys. 1 Alto. On a mission to Kerala.

Onwards:
Started-Bangalore: Friday night 12.30am
Reached-Bekal : Saturday morning 10am
Route: Bangalore-Mysore-Madikeri-Sullya-Kasargod (pathetic roads from Madikeri to Sullya)

In Kerala:
Places visited on Saturday: Bekal fort, Pallikunnu beach – near Kasargod
Places visited on Sunday: Dharmadam, Muzhupuzhangad beach and Kannur fort – Kannur

Return:
Started-Kannur: Sunday evening 4am
Reached-Bangalore: Monday morning 5am
Route: Kannur-Thaliparamba-Iritty-Kottiyoor-Boys town-Mananthavadi-Batheri-Gundalpet-Mysore-Bangalore (Excellent roads without any traffic, but complete ghat roads till Batheri and very steep hill climbing between Boys town and Mananthavady. Crossing the Bandipur forest zone was thrillig to see road signs saying “Go slow-Wild animals crossing”. Car puncture after Mysore made things worse and got struck in the highway in the midnight. Finaly someone came for help.)
Rest here

Solutions just a mail away

Yesterday, I mailed to the head of a bank, Karnataka-loan recovery division with copies to the south zone and country heads. The content of the mail below:

Hi,
This mail is to bring to your notice regarding the issues I have been facing with your recovery team.

I had a two-wheeler loan from your bank in 2006 (loan a/c no LTBNG0000XXXXXXX) which I cleared it in 11 months EMI. Few months back, I was stopped by the recovery team of your bank claiming that I have bike loan due. After producing my loan a/c no to the bank, I came to know that there is another loan account created for the same bike registration number and also with my name for which the EMIs are in due. I made it clear to the bank then, that I have no dues( I remember it was someone named Harish from Bangalore office who talked to me, ofcourse in a harsh way thinking that I have absconded for this loan). After few days, I was stopped again by the recovery team, claiming that I have not paid the loan. After proving themn again with the correct loan no, I was told that there are chances of ceasing the bike without my knowledge if they see it in public and they demanded for money (for reasons I dont know) and I paid them an amount considering the situations where I would have to park my bike somewhere in any public place.

Yesterday, I was again stopped by a group of people asking for the loan due. I would call it as an harrasment, the way they approached me on the road. It needed again another 30 mins for me to prove them that its not my fault and I dont have any dues. This has become so annoying that everytime they stop me when I am in a hurry to go to work. Again, they were asking for some money (read as bribe) saying that if I pay the money, the issue will be solved immediately. This time I didnt pay any money and am sure that they are not happy with this. Also, I am really scared now to park my vehicle in public places as am aware of recovery people taking the bike. I may not be there always with my bike to prove them that my loan has been cleared already.

Immediately, I made a call (Call no ref: XXXXXX) to customer care with hopes that they would be in a position to take action or atleast lodge a complaint or service request. But they denied to take it as a complaint and asked me to approach the bank for the same. I have mentioned the details below.

Details:
Loan no: LTBNG0000XXXXXXX
Bike No: KA 04 XX XXXX (you may search with this bike no and you will be surprised to see two loan accounts created for this bike no)
Bike model: Unicorn
Bank Ac No (ECS payment) : XXXXXXXXXXXX

Please do the needful and remove my bike no from the list.

Thanks,
–
Abubaker Siddiq. A

I got a call from the local head within hours asking for apologies and assuring me that my number has been removed from the records immediately. He was going on with the usual stuff that ‘we value our customer..blah blah blah”. He said nobody would touch my bike and I am free to park it in public places. Also he assured me that I will get my NOC delivered to my address within 2 days for which I appplied long time back. After that call, I wrote a mail saying:

Hi X,

Thanks for your efforts on solving this issue. I dont know how fast this would be materialized but I am glad that at least someone was there to hear my concerns.

You were asking me on the names of the people and I could remember one name -XYZ (Mob no: 9731XXXXXX). I think he is a Police official who came along with that recovery team. Please make a note of it. Well, I hope that giving this number doesnt get me into any other unnecessary problems.

Again, thanks for your efforts. I really appreciate that.

Thanks,

He called me back again to assure that everything is clear now and asked me to keep a copy of the NOC always when I travel to be on safer side.

Now I am just sitting relaxed and waiting for the NOC. Well, this is just one instance where you get into problems for someone’s mistakes. But atleast now things have changed to an extent to solve your problems in couple of mails. They say its as simple as that.

Chim Chim Cher-ee

Mary Poppins hangover here. Yes, I watched my first musical play yesterday night. We managed to get a ticket 3 days earlier to the show and as expected the theatre was packed. It was really surprising to see people coming in coaches to watch a play.

Grand stage, beautiful sets, amazing choreography, incredible perfomances and a jaw dropping scene of Mary Poppins flying over the crowd. Altogether, an helluva experience it was. At the end, it had its deserving standing ovation.

Now, I want to see the Beauty and the beast as well and I am missing it by a week’s time. I hope that it comes on a tour to India. Yeah, I know that is too much to ask for but you never know. So till then I sing,

Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be…