One of the best suspense thriller novel I read - Kolaiyudir kaalam(Tamil).
Genius at work - clever writing - one can suspect anything or anyone behind the murders - situations are conducive for suspects but not conclusive - full of unsolvable riddles - Laser light holography used in 1997 movie Jeans(Kannodu kanbadellam song)which made one feel awe on the scientific progress, is base of this story written in 1981- Anniyan fame Garuda puraanam is mentioned here - The story is not conclusive, readers are left to ponder on the ending - the reader can conclude the story thinking its super natural power behind the murders or its just man using some advanced technology and fooling others in the name of ghost - you have reasons to believe both, thats how effective the situations occur, Sujatha expects his readers to be creative and come with him, taking them to a different level - awesome, brilliant - After Kalki, its Sujatha for me,who I think would have written some best sellers and rocked the world with their writings, If done in English..
Life is all about changes!!Only we feel it late...Suddenly one fine day one thinks about his past...may be last one yr or 2 yrs of his, and feels that he is missing those days...or some have a feeling that their worst days are over...I am not in this extent or that....Infact I have the power to feel the change thats happening in my day to day life...
Failures after failures....only you get better...You start to recognize simple success and simple appreciations to be priceless...You begin to lessen your expectations, and Life appears to be beautiful..When I think the life is becoming empty, I get some colorful days....This is a best thing in being an underdog....
Malaysia-Singapore trip....some valuable time spent with my dear old school friend...dealings in Ringets and Dollars...most importantly first time flights, stampings in passport,immigration...Ooty trip...got opportunities to get close to some of my college friends....after 2 yrs some extra curricular works at office which you love to do and the recognitions coming your way....Even I started liking my bad health, illness....as it gives you time to relax at home and rest your mind...When you start liking your days you look waitless, shoulder feels relaxed with no burden....
Just spend few minutes everyday to observe the changes in your life....It helps....
Why is the word 'ordinary' causing so much of a dissatisfaction?? insult??
A captain of the sports team ranking first in the world comments the team ranking last to be 'very ordinary'....And the next day you see the commentators and media reminding the cricket followers and others what a crime the captain of no 1 team has committed.....And when the ordinary team's performance is bit above their level then everone owes that performance for having got tagged as 'ordinary', that word has set ablaze the furnace and thus the spirited show...If the word ordinary is so insolent, then what purpose do the words 'bad', 'worst' serve???
Even at office it is not enough if you meet your expectations. If you are 100% to the mark, you are considered very ordinary....The definition of good performance is rewritten. The competition is between 150% and 200%....Peer pressure and all that...You don't think of making some meaningful contribution at the work...You are just programmed to think how your manager can remember your name amidst of all Siva's, Karthick's and Lakshmi's who work on an average 11hrs a day for that 150 and 200%. The word ordinary becomes Insolent.
Now why is that a crime to be an ordinary??? Why does that hurt one so much??? Should everyone be in that top cluster only?? If there is a 99 percentile, then obviously there ought to be some 60 and 70 percentile....Even there will be a 1 percentiler...And the beautiful thing in all that is only because of the overwhelming presence of the 60 or 70 percentilers can someone get that 99 percentile.....In other words to make some exceptionals there ought to be some ordinaries...SO do respect Ordinaries...
Does this analogy suck?? Let it be....It sounds brilliant for an ordinary, I bet :)
Please vote no matter what! is the latest campaign happening at my work place. Many are really geared up in asking their colleagues to vote through forward mails and messages.... I for one always complain on the politics. I strictly feel no one can change the way the politics is run here. Even the god will corrupt if he is a politician, is what i always think. Having seen the benefits and negative impact of corrupting in close quarters, i have a feeling that there is nothing one can achieve by casting their vote....
I dont want the X or the Y contesting in the election to win.....I dont worry for my right getting ceased...i also think that this is how many of us think....BUt why then there is such a campaign??? Why should i vote no matter what my difficulties are???? I was searching for some one to explain why should i vote????
I over heard my colleagues saying the votes that are not casted will be misused by the party workers..at least for that we should vote...But still i was not convinced with that logic as in many cases i might have voted for the same person who will be benefited if some other party worker gonna cast my vote illegally. So it is not going to make much of a difference....
Today morning when i was having a tea at a local tea shop, the tea shop boy was in argument with one of his friends about today's election. His friend said that he is going to vote, for which the tea shop boy said why the hell should we stand in the line in the sun and vote?? better sit under the fan in the shop..." in no moment his friend replied with an unparliamentary word in tamil that "you use the road that govt has laid, you use the current and water that govt provide, you stand in ration shop queue to get the groceries cheaply that govt give and u enjoy all that govt give but you wont vote if the govt asks you???.....you stand in sun for hours to get a ticket for Rajini movie but you dont for voting???? "....suddenly i felt that he was replying me....that bad word he uttered mattered to me....eventhough what he said can be debated on, i just walked out of the shop with my head low, saluting that friend's patriotism...i walked off with required answers and clear mind!!!!!
I was trying to inhibit the novel reading as an habit in me for a long time. But some how i couldn't make it due to various reasons. One of the main reason is that, i was in a thinking that i may not understand the writing as such. In fact out of curiosity and pride i bought the full Sherlock home book series at a book fair near my school when i went for a visit with my friends. But i don't know why dint i ever complete that first chapter. I ostensibly say that i dint have time and the situation was not conducive... But whenever i start reading i will find all the other things interesting...like watching TV, playing cricket, chatting with mom etc... some how i ran away from it and on one festive occasion i gifted it to one of my close friend..and i regret for it now.....I learnt that it was just fugitive once after getting started with my first novel....It was the TRUE CRIME written by ANDREW KLAVAN.
The way i picked this novel to start with in itself is a funny thing. I had a second hand book shop near my house where you can rent a book to read. The deal is 10Rs for any novel for rent and 50 to own it yourself. I liked the 10Rs deal. The owner of the shop was the only man in the shop and he dint have any knowledge on books. He will just keep them in order in the shelves. I felt he is the next man to me to know about the novels at that shop. My friends usually say much about Sidney Sheldon and that helped me a lot. I started looking for that author. Whenever i pick up a book from a pile, i end up sneezing and dusting out the book to look in to it. I couldn't find Sidney in that pile. I knew it is going to be of no use to ask the shop person for help, but still i am not going to lose anything to ask him about it and i asked...as expected he said “whatever is there in the pile is all we have”....hmmm...then i started depending on my instinct and my discretionary powers to pick one. My objective is to read a bulk book...so that i can show myself that i am done with a novel....and my next funda is to pick up a romance story which should have lotta things written to keep a man interesting in reading...or a crime novel which shouldn't allow me take my foot off from the pedal...i picked some worthy books on romance but i knew my mom wont allow me enter in to the house if she sees the front cover of it....hastily i centered with one thinking then, to go for a crime novel....I found lotta such novels....but almost all the books had the tag “America’s best seller”.....”As thrilling as a roller coaster”.....”award winning novel” etc..etc....this dint really help me....then randomly i picked this TRUE CRIME which had a decent 440 pages and its bulkiness would surely reveal to others that i really read a novel....also the thing which really impressed was the story line that was put on the back cover saying “a condemned man who is really innocent is saved in the last second just before the execution by a journalist with which the journalist get his life and career back on track and all he had is the 18 hrs to do this”....appeared to be a seriously good plot....after some 15 minutes ordeal in that pile of books, i proudly took that book to the shop fellow and gave him a 10rs. He asked me for 50rs. I said i am going to return it soon. He asked me for a guarantee....i asked him what guarantee does he want...he said a 40rs guarantee will do...i bit my teeth badly for not understanding this caution deposit funda right away...everything is done....Thank god....the platform is set...its all with me to keep it going now....
Sat down with the book....crawled thru the pages about the author and the praises the book has reaped from various critics...it dint amaze me...after all all the books gonna have such prefaces...started with the first chapter...i found the writing simple and i could understand everything....FUCK, ASS HOLE, GODDAMN....just thinking if any of the 400 pages is devoid of any of these three words....The author of the story is the journalist himself and he is kicked away from every paper he works, as he finds someone to sex with at all the places he work....either his Boss’s wife or the Boss’s daughter...Is it a pride to write about how he impressed a dignified lady for a sex??? I could just feel the big contrast between the movies that portray the life of the people in my country and that of the other....i could see the huge cultural difference between us and the west....but still the author’s life is not the only thing symbolizing their culture and the things i see here are not the only thing that my country is all about.....even though i could travel with the story i took long breaks whenever i stop reading some where....But once my friend said a movie was made on that...i just googled out some posters of the movie to see the faces....once i could put the faces to the names in mind...i could imagine things clearly and the reading became easy...i dint take long breaks after that....in fact i used all the opportunities i get in completing reading the book..
The writing started before the 18 hrs before the execution time...the happenings at the death cell and at the journalist end were written one after the another, this way and that way....some thing like all even chapters abt the condemned man and all odd chapters saying about the journalist...except for one chapter where they both meet in the jail....
A lady at the paper is to write a sidebar in the next day issue...she was scheduled for an interview with the condemned man to know about the things going in him just hours before the execution...she meets with an accident and meets her destiny. So our hero...Steve Everett...oops..should i call him a hero?? Nope...gets a call, when he is having sex with his editor’s wife, to take over this job..the editor, who is a very good man knows abt his paper man’s thing with his wife...he waits for a moment to fire him....but the paper’s chief is Everett’s friend and the editor dint have much to go against the chief and that kept Everett alive at the city paper....he takes over the day’s task and goes through all the script recorded for the 6 yrs when the condemned man is victimised...he goes to the crime spot and talks with the witness....he felt things are not substantial and firmly believes there are all the chances in the world for the condemned man to be innocent...the jail people are serious about the execution as they were worried that the condemned man shouldn't do any agitation at the last moment...when Everett meets the condemned man Frank, Everett says he believes that Frank is innocent and asks him to reveal about the chance of some other people at the spot...but Frank doesn't remember that thing...and the cops forcibly push out Everett and complain to the paper about the seriousness of the confusion that Everett has caused in the last hour....The editor already waiting for an opportunity to fire Everett takes this in both hands and recommends the chief to fire Everett...Everett’s wife whose patience already went to the hilt, throws out the wedding ring on Everett’s face as his sex affair with that lady was disclosed...Also with the rumor that the condemned man has confessed, Everett felt he lost everything and goes to the bar and drinks beyond the limit and lose his balance and everything....it was just some 45 minutes before the execution time the drunken Everett suddenly feels he got a solid proof...he goes to the victim’s father(the victim is the pregnant lady who the condemned man was judged to have killed) to reveal the facts...But as he is drunk he was not believed and he was chased out of the house.... Even though Everett is not a man with clean habits and characteristics of an hero, his desperate efforts to save a man who is innocent makes us respect him....the witness who held herself back all the 6 yrs from revealing the truth that could have saved the condemned man, have to grapple fighting her conscience.... she trying to save the innocent man in the last few seconds is very thrilling and it is certainly a commendable character.....The writer’s skill that made our heart to jump in to our mouth till the last page is stupendous...it certainly is a far thrilling experience than a roller coaster ride....i felt watching a thrilling movie is not as better as reading a thrilling novel....When the drunken man is not believed i dunno how many times i cursed on his drinking habit....the cops chase Everett’s car when he takes the witness to save the innocent man just few seconds before...i dunno where actually Everett is taking her but i couldnt control my self and just had to glance in to the next few pages to see if the cops will catch Everett or not...when i was reading last few chapters in my office bus in the morning, i knew i cant complete the book before i reach office....but i was reading as fast as i can...i peep through the window to see how far i was from the office and read more fast than before every time the bus is moving towards the office....i wondered why should the driver drive so fast as if his ass is on fire.....i want to read the book at office but i know my colleagues will certainly go wild making fun on me and i was left in a lurch that day...waited for the evening bus to get the story going....the stupid light above my head in the bus went off suddenly and i was showing the pages in the direction wherever get some light in that moving bus...the people in the bus should have wondered at my quirky untrammeled attempt of mine in reading that book...but i dint mind....no one at my position would have refrained from making such attempt in reading those last pages of the book..so engrossing it was..when i was done with the book i got a big relief like some achievement...i found that i traveled some 90 minutes in the bus which was unbelievable...actually i was just few metres from the stop i should get down...i dint realise these things...wow...how much can this novel whip me up??....how good a novel reading is??....how much such pleasure have i missed in my life before??....cha...i dunno if am extortionately saying so much about the author as i am not an aficionado in telling about the novels...in the next few days i should read some more such novels and see if this is a special one or all the crime novels are like this....
But now all i feel is i will miss Frank Beachum, Steve Everett and everyone here after....things look bit void...i decided to spend anything to keep the book myself...am not gonna ask that 40rs back from the book shop man so that he will not ask the “TRUE CRIME” back.....
Here i am not the one who is troubled by the cat spoiling my kitchen eating and spilling away the food that mom has cooked for me....I am not running outta ideas to chase out that idiotic cat.....I could have managed that cat hands down...but i am left staggered by another cat that 3 lakh of indian population are chasing at.....yeah am saying about the Common Admission Test....this is the tough nut to crack....i am bowled googly by the serious MBA aspirants who lived, slept, sizzled, sacrificed everything to crack this CAT for one year...I should have been a bit serious being novice to this business....I started it on my friend’s advice even though i was a little crazier to obsess an MBA from a reputed institute of the country....
2 yrs b4, I have seen the material used for the preparation of CAT, i have took some mock tests b4...but it sucked...it put me deep down the earth....my confidence shattered...i felt inferior...i decided to forget it...but now my friend boosted me...and i started trying for it just for a change to my monotonous IT life..i started it as a time pass..with taking mock exams every Sunday and with putting few hours to prepare some thing every saturday, i felt am doing something useful...i felt am becoming bit smart, a bit genius....
But everything started well dint end well for me....the minimum target which i set in pursuing a MBA degree were miles away after i took the exam....all the noise i made in the name of preparation for the exam started back firing me as soon as the results started coming...guess what.. a colleague of mine who took the exam without any preparation scored better than me....i felt the world was showing its middle finger on my face....i started feeling the saying ‘empty vessels make more noise’....while preparing for the exams my dad once asked about buying a piece of land in the outskirts, outta a loan on my salary...i said i might have to discontinue the job if i had to join some MBA....i thought it will be a burden on my dad and spoiled that plan.....now when i said the results on the phone to him, he dint react....he said there is a 2000sqft of land at the southern part of the city....hmmm.... i can only take some solace in the belief that ‘it usually take 2 to 3yrs to crack the CAT unless you are a genius right from your formative years’...its just my first attempt....not an earnest attempt though...
This CAT exam has killed my haughtiness, ego, vanity, head weight every thing....it made me to stand on my feet....it showed me who i am and what is my capacity.....it has showed me my strengths and weakness....it was a blessing in disguise i started feeling later... it made the news paper reading as a habit in me....it made me to read english novels....i felt that it has put a lotta challenges infront of me...i have lotta things to prove now.....i think it will make my next one year intersting....i am going to get better only....i have enough time to redeem myself..... i decided to take CAT next year as well...but am not going to make any noise....i wont blow my trumpet this time...lets see what is in store for me in coming days....am feeling that it is making me to put my next step in the best path...i think i became addicted to the CAT that is eating me
I saw a review in Sify which mentioned that the movie takes the industry at greater heights and its an outstanding master piece. But my colleagues who returned from movie on Friday evening were simply cursing. They said Arya wasted his 3yrs of cinema for this. Pooja cant be showed uglier than this. Bala is a psyche. Its a tragedy to sit the 2 and haf hours inside the 4 walls before the screen.It was a irony. I dint know to believe an expert review or that of my colleagues. Then i listened to the story from one of them. I found the plot is interesting and serious.Then he started explaining the scenes,the tortures. He said certainly you wont like to see that movie again but you can see it once. It is not like a vijay movie or simbu movie which can be totally avoided he said.
Then yesterday evening me and my younger brother went for the movie. I have seen Bala’s 3 flicks before. I know what can i expect from Bala. I know he will have a good plot, flaw less screenplay, very very few dialogues,some unforgettable scenes, not ugly scenes but really poignant scenes, but it will be a national award material.
I saw lotta ladies coming to the movie. I saw some pregnant women coming. I was cursing in mind their husbands for having brought them to a Bala movie. Because his movies impact you so much. You will return home with heavy heart.
The movie started. I see pin drop silent suddenly. Usually we dont see counter comments from the audience for a Bala movie.The titles started with a hindi song on Kasi. The beautiful ganges river, the temple at its bank, Hindu spiritual scenes were beautifully pictured.
Hey here am not going to through out the scenes. Pay your money to watch it.
The subject is very very heavy. The story was built on a theme that the Aghori sages believe that they are god. They have the capability to distinguish between the good and evil. They will become Kaala bhairavan, the god with the power of 1000 elephants and punish if they find an evil. The death they give to the evil is the curse and the death they give to one who cant live is a boon. The human dont have a life next. Only Bala can build a story on these heavy lines.
I can say that the Arya and Pooja are simply crowd pullers. He could have made anybody to act in those roles. Such was their role. The story is the hero,the script is the hero, Bala is the hero here. Pooja was the heroine treated with no sympathy from Bala. Laila in Nanda without make up is 1000 times fortunate. Here she is with no make up, her eye balls are whitened, she was given a typical beggar’s dress, her hair was dry and dusty uncombed. She was made to live amidst of raw beggars. The scene in which she receives severe torture and the scene after that was difficult to see. So real was the make up. It is very hard to forget that scene for a long time.
You have got to praise Bala for the good jokes that he has knitted in the sound script/heavy script. The introductory song of the beggars will be very stinky but you get used to it as the movie progresses and you start to accept it later on. You can mingle with them and share the happiness and sadness.
The Murugan character was very pleasing. You cant sketch such a character. A good man doing wrong. Fighting with his conscience always.100 marks should be given for that. Again the villan. Cruel! Villainous!! Looking at his face you can feelthe agony!! The Pithamagan’s villain was so apt for that character and this villain ranks above than that to gain your hatred. Bala’s villains are many times villains, Bala’s heroes are many timesstronger, Bala’s fight scenes are so real. Except for the titles on the screens there is no graphics in the movie which is very very rare.
You wait for some saviour to come and save the sufferers, you wait for a hero to keep a check on all the atrocious doings. You wait and wait. When such a saviour stands on his foot for the first time its very thrilling. Thats how Arya face the villains. When he starts to hit them you want him to hit hard and he does.Those two scenes were very ferocious, very punchy, very powerful, brings a lotta relief in you.
In my childhood my mom will say lotta stories on evils which will terrorize us if we dont eat out food or waste it, if we dont respect fellow human beings, if we dont sleep, if we give trouble to her. I have heard stories in my child hood on the sages who do some rituals at midnight at grave yards. Late i felt that they are not real, there cant be such evils at all. But here in the movie you put them in to picture and see it through Arya in this movie.
On the whole –
Hats off to Bala for the plot, Screenplay, direction
Hats off to maestro Ilayaraja
Hats off to cinematographer
Hats off to all the actors
I would have said its a master piece if the scenes are not such cruel, if he doesnt show such tortures, if there is something pleasant on the screen. But still thats how the story gains its strength, Thats how the villains become so villainous, thats why the hero turns so ferocious and is so necessary, thats how Bala is. Arya and Pooja can only get better in their carrear.
Its certainly a break for the tamil audience who are drowned in Masala movies of Vijay, Simbu J
If you think you spend money to have a laugh and go or smile, if you think you want to see pleasant scenes on the screen, if you think Radha Mohan kinda people are the only best directors, this is not a movie for you. This is a Anniyan movie. An Apocalypto kinda movie. A award winning material. You should have seen some Malayalam movies at least to travel with this heavy scenes. But take my word, you wont feel bored, you wont see people going out for smoking. You wont hear people saying ‘this scene could have been cut’(unnecessary). It will take some time to forget some scenes. If you decide to go for this movie, tune yourself to see stinky men,tortures...I was surprised when my younger brother said “this is a good movie. Dint you like it?? “
BALA STRIKES MUCH HARDER THIS TIME AND IN HIS OWN WAY.
