Impressions and Observations

Toy Story - At last watched the movie. And more than P it was we, the adults who enjoyed the movie to the max. The hall was packed to the max capacity and the movie is still running to packed houses crossing more than 50 days - awesome isn't? Aathukarar made the mistake of ordering the popcorn along with the ticket while booking online. The mistake proved to be a costly one - in the sense i vowed i would never have more than a handful of popcorn again. Antha alavukku thegattipochu(large one). When he went and asked for the popcorn while entering the hall , the attendant said that he would bring it in once the movie starts. So, we went and sat and almost everyone especially the ones who were sitting next, previous and the opposite rows were happily munching their popcorn amidst drinking their colas.

Avvalavuthaan P started his paattu - appa popcorn venum every 60th second. Aathukarars reply was "dei 80 rupees * 3 - 240 extra pay panni irukken da kandippa vanthurum". But instead of watching the short film "day and night" (shown before the actual movie) he was keeping his eyes firmly on the entrance and repeating the japam every 60th second. At last it came. And ippo eppodaa intha tub mudiyumnu aayiduthu.

On to the movie - I actually enjoyed the whole episode and the scene which i especially liked was the last one where Andy plays with the little girl after giving all of his toys to her. Though he was going to college he didn't mind playing with the small girl especially his imaginary games with his favourite toys.

While going through forums esp parentree lots of discussions would be centred upon one topic - My child is playing with her toys and speaking to them . She also plays imaginary games and speaking to herself. Ist good or bad? But after watching this movie i really feel the fear is unwarranted.

Naan Magaan alla - Ippo i think the trend is to make realistic movies. Okay i agree, but the realism is turning out to be ugly and unimaginable. Iam not into the argument that the movie is inspired from real life incidents or the criminals are influenced by movies. Lets not get into that. Atleast lets not glorify the incidents and highlight them. This was the feeling i got after watching half of the movie. I didnt really have the inclination to watch the rest. Though the movie had some original scenes (mind original) rest of them were usual like showing the girl and her family as one loosu, ever fighting sister esp for the remote and shouting annna at the top of her voice and sentiment scenes with amma and appa .... sss appaaaa thaanga mudiyala ...ithukku paiya ve better.
OKAY - a big ok why means - iam sick of seeing all the sophisticated villains who find new ways of doing the crimes. I simply hated Vettaiyaadu and vilayadu, kaakka kakka and anjathey for the portrayal of sensitive scenes. It really has its own impact. Though i watched only half of the movie it kept on coming in rewind mode. Such an ordinary soul kke intha impact na think of the sensitive persons over there. Movie is for pure entertainment. Okie u give message like showing the plight of bonded labourers as such in angaadi theru or like shankar movies who thinks he gives some message.(though its like the energy drinks claiming to give you extra energy - people donot think of the energy at the end of the day but only a means of pushing the milk into the kid in some form or other).

Madras - My memories

Somehow i like to say it as Madras than Chennai. Have been grown calling it Madras and hearing from relatives and people calling by that name. May be the name Chennai sounds better when read in news or seeing as such in flash news or to see the north indian news readers struggling to get the pronunciation better, mind i say better and not correct. ;)
All of my first 23 years i have been in mambalam and see things unfold before me. Usman road, panagal park, Venkatnarayana road or the Ashok Pillar. The only road which remains unchanged according to me is 11th avenue - Ashok nagar.
The earliest memory - after watching the prashanth starer sembaruthi (i love the song nila kayum neram - one of the evergreens of Ilayaraja - one of my all time favourite song) in Kasi theatre with my aunts and cousins. We walked all the way from the theater to our home in mambalam. Relishing the shade, greenery and neatly stacked houses. Those days there was no underground drainage and the house would be connected to the road by a slope over the drainage canal. Hardly we felt the stinking smell those days and used to admire it. The road was more similar to those in bangalore those days.
Then Usman road - So much has changed from my good old school days. I studied in one of the then popular school in T.nagar. Now, both name and fame had been to the winds and in its place remains only the IT companies (school is still there magnificently managed to shrink itself to one fourth of its original size ). I think more than anything you need passion to run an educational institution which went missing after the demise of its founder. I dont know why the roads seem to be shrinking with the passing of years. Same buildings but the road seems to me smaller than it used to be. Though T.nagar had been the hub in the past too it was not like anything we see these days. I think the main culprit would be letting those Saravana stores and other Silk stores open their shops and infecting the area with more parking vehicles and hawkers. I like the look of usman road and ranganathan street in the morning hours of the day when there would be only few shops open - especially the tea kadais and the fast food thallu vandis and the hawkers would be undoing their ropes over the big bundle of sheet covering their stocks. Mamas outside the siva-vishnu temple briskly eyeing the passersby. They would be so full of energy and enthusiasm and covered fully from head to waist with vibuthi pattai. That would itself give them a unique image. Reservation counter of mambalam railway station where people would be queuing up to book their tickets immediately on opening of the counter.
All these are etched in my memory cos i love the journey of 20 minutes by walk from my home to school. Today you cant reach t.nagar within 20 minutes even if you go by two-wheeler with todays traffic flow. sigh...

(to be contd)