Katru Veliyidai- Blows you off!

Disclaimer- Heart patients and pregnant ladies, refrain from watching this movie as it will make you laugh your lungs out, which could result in internal haemorrhage and death.

Spoiler alert- Well the movie has been spoilt enough by mani Ratnam so there’s not much I can spoil for you, unfortunately.

Male lead of this movie, VC(Varun chakrapani, also read as very chauvinistic) is a horny, narcissistic yet a talented Air Force pilot. The female lead, Leela Abraham is a caring, passionate doctor who holds her self esteem very high and is a strong feminist who believes in equality.
Yes polar opposites, yes I can hear you asking, how do they even love each other? Well, believe me I asked this to mani Ratnam throughout the 139 minutes of the movie.
So, moving onto the plot. VC meets with an accident and Leela saves his life in the first scene. They both dance with each other in the second scene and sparks fly in all directions, unfortunately not into our eyes because if it did we would’ve been spared of all the horror that is to come. He takes her on the plane above the Himalayas in the third and if you’ve not guessed what’ll happen next, then you don’t deserve to watch Tamizh films. Chemistry. Yes a chemistry develops. That chemistry pushes them to insanity, or what they call love. They fight in the face of an incoming snow storm because as I said, “chauvinist + feminist = boom!”, but wait, the next minute they confess their love for each other and spend the rest of the duration in the car bracing the storm, “embracing” each other.
After that it’s a just a emotional cradle rocking back and forth, putting us to sleep. He is unsure about her in one scene and wants to marry her in the next, she has to accommodate all his dumbassery because of the “chemistry”. This chemistry leads to a bit of biology and she becomes pregnant, he shies off responsibility as he is scared that he won’t be a good father, a good husband, yes a bit late, what to do and she walks of saying I can take care I’m a doctor like she has a common cold.
The next scene he flies off to fight Pakistanis in Kargil and she tells him she’s leaving Srinagar. The plane is hit with a missile and he is taken as a prisoner to a Pakistani jail. Where he reminiscences all this and regrets, again, too late.
He then plots a way to escape, think shawshank redemption, prison break and all that with a lack of imagination. He escapes the jail only to be caught at the Afghanistan border, he then blasts his way out from there and in a Vijaykanthish climax he highjacks a truck and breaks through the barricades and enters Afghanistan and eventually India. He is conferred with a medal. Now he comes back to the main plot, the emotional cradle. He goes in search of Leela, his sources tell him that she might’ve joined Red Cross, he hops from camp to camp in search of her only to sit deserted in a desert where magically there happens to be a Red Cross camp and even more magically, Leela is there. She sees him, hugs him, introduces him to his daughter, which doesn’t look like his daughter at all, sorry Ratnam jii, bad casting. Then it’s a barrage of tears for the trio and a sigh of relief for the audience as that’s where the movie ends.
Now the casting, Mani Ratnam has gone bonkers, from being one of the best cast introducing directors to this, it’s just unbelievable. Casting rj Balaji as an army doctor is the epitome of his casting prowess. The cast has no real role in the film except filling screen space. The movie revolved mainly around those two and those two revolved around VC. That is how the movie progressed.
I don’t understand Rahman’s role as all the songs are exhausted in the first half and the audience in the second.
To put it simply, if someone asks you if katru veliyidai is watchable, tell them It is only watchable as the location and cinematography is beautiful to watch, but if you try to understand what goes on, you’ll go mad.

Chords for the soul

Certain things in life can’t be explained in a statement, can’t be defined with mere words, phrases and expressions they have to be felt, enjoyed, cherished only then can one understand…

Source: Chords for the soul

Chords for the soul

Certain things in life can’t be explained in a statement, can’t be defined with mere words, phrases and expressions they have to be felt, enjoyed, cherished only then can one understand it’s true value and importance. Music is one such thing. Immortal life, innumerable forms, it is nature’s way of communication. What’s dazzling is the fact that music is able to reach everybody irrespective of caste creed religion and race. Music is universal. Music is equal. Music is ultimate.

What’s more interesting is the fact that music reaches farther and deeper than words can ever do. Music has certain elements that make it invincible. Music can’t be destroyed. Everybody who is born on this planet would be surrounded by some form of music or the other. Any form of sound that makes you react, gives you expression, is capable of reaching of your heart can be called music. A crying baby, a rocking chair, a chirping bird, a wave crashing down on the shore, a whistling old man, an engine revving away to glory, everything is music.
Transcendence of barriers, eliminating loneliness, putting an end to silence, music tends to achieve all this with relative ease. Music also has this compatibility factor, music can be created with anything ranging from a paint bucket to an acoustic guitar which again makes music universal.
Conflict of interest, nothing can be universally accepted or at least most of it, but music is present everywhere, nobody can restrain music from reaching people and presenting itself in amazingly vivid ways that it lies beyond anybody’s imagination.
Music is immortal because of the DARWIN nature of music, constant adaption, infinite survival and immaculate upgradation.
Music is celebration, bliss and happiness presented together to us by nature. All it takes is a peaceful heart and a beautiful soul to appreciate the deep and intricate art that music is.

The second chance!

Life, it is filled with tension, anger, sorrow, disappointment, lost memories, broken relationships, meaningless words, and sometimes a broken heart. But, life doesn’t stop to take rest, it keeps moving. Many a time, we imagine a beautiful life where everything is roses and rainbows, but that’s what it is, imagination.

Life is like an hour glass, with sand pouring down constantly signifying that it stops for no reason and for nobody.
But, the imagination of a beautiful like can be made into a glowing reality with eternal moments of happiness. Yes, this statement seems contradictory to the statement made above, but that’s what life is all about, an unfathomable path, a contradiction in totality.
More often than not, our life presently seems contradictory to what it was in the past, that is why it is unfathomable. Best friends in the past becoming total strangers now, things you loved the most becoming one the most hated things now, everything seems contradictory.
When life seems dull, when it becomes tough to understand the only solace is HOPE. Hope for better times to come, hope for happiness. We go in search for a source of hope, a leap of faith from a ledge that is stable enough to hold you, a dash across glass that won’t break on pressure.
Interestingly though, we get this pint of hope from only one thing, a chance at redemption, a chance to right the wrongs and come off clean. That chance is “the second chance” at life.
Everybody in life gets a second chance, how it presents itself nobody knows, what one can do with it is left to the individual. But, why a second chance presents itself is because, we tend to regret the small mistakes that cost us heavily and we would love to rectify that mistake, be it one moment of anger on somebody, a hurtful word, or shying away from telling the truth that one fleeting moment is enough to cost us our happiness and this second chance manifests itself in the most unusual of ways and gives us a ray of hope that we can come off clean. Wipe our tears, battle our fears live happily without regrets.
Everybody deserves a second chance because nobody can be perfect and that is why capitalising on the opportunity being offered is of prime importance.
A typing mistake on the manuscript of your life can be rewritten if the second chance is utilised properly. Finally, what drives us to this gate of opportunity, more than hope is remorse, what we feel sorry for is what kills us unless we can right the wrong.
Emotions play a huge hand in deciding whether or not, we can un-contradict how life moves, and controlling the emotions becomes a really tough job to do at that moment. Hence, peace is what is necessary in life, to capitalise on the second chance to gain the lost happiness.

Oh Captain, my captain!

The greatest reality check every sportsperson has to undergo is, being compared with himself or herself from a point in the past when they were revered.
Dhoni is no exception to this scrutiny.
From being called the best finisher of the game 2 years back to being criticised for not being able to finish the game for the team dhoni has seen it all.
Let’s put this in perspective and look at it practically.
Dhoni has finished and won us so many games singlehandedly. He has a 50+ average in the ODI format and has scored 6000+ runs, all this whilst predominantly coming to bat at 5. Dhoni’s batting has slumped, agreed, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability, it just means he’s getting old, with age performance falls, this is the ultimate truth.
But, if you look at running between the wickets, he is second to none. Can you name a keeper in the world of cricket who can confidently say that he can remove the bails faster than my captain? I bet my life that you can’t find a keeper who says that.
Finishing games, keeping, captaincy, this machine has taken more wear and tear than any other and still functions reasonably well.
I see many people saying Dhoni should retire. He should bid adieu while he is still respected, he shouldn’t stay until his respect wears off. But, you forgot that Dhoni is the most selfless player. Until he finds some resemblance of himself in someone else as a finisher, he is not going to retire. I mean why should he? Is there a finisher in the Indian line up who can challenge this man? Let alone during his prime, even during his lean patch, bowlers get threatened by his mere presence, because his legacy and stats speak for itself. He is constantly thinking of how to develop the Indian team and yet some deluded people call him selfish.
Him raising the bar too high, finishing impossible games with such ease has left him in this precarious position where hypocrites are waiting with open swords to cut his reputation down and yet, this man smiles, rubs it off and sweats it out in the field, you know why? Because he is MSD, records don’t interest him, but winning a game for his country gives him the ultimate kick. So my dear Dhoni haters, understand this properly. Dhoni is human too, he ages in just the same way that you do. He also feels tired. But, don’t worry, he doesn’t give lame excuses like you do. He will up his game and will give it his all because he is the watchful protector, the dark knight.
Don’t worry my captain. You will be loved forever, by me and all the reasonable people in the world❤️

FRIENDSHIP

An alternate reality in which everything seems intricately deep yet easily fathomable, amazingly articulate yet easy on the eye, a storm that brings the calm, one such alternate reality is friendship.
It is intricately deep for those who see it from outside but when you start feeling the same it becomes easily fathomable. Life is full of tension and emotion and the only getaway from the daily monotony of life is friendship. Friendship is not always butterflies and roses it also has its difficulties and tediousness but that’s what makes it all the more special. When you struggle for something as important as friendship and it pays off that is the true meaning of ecstasy.
Drinks get you high for hours, drugs for days but the only thing that gets you high for all eternity is friendship. Friendship is a drug, that no narcotics division can raid, a drug that has no rehab centre for its cure for friendship is a drug that is good for you, physically mentally and socially. When reality isn’t good enough, isn’t interesting enough isn’t colourful enough that’s when friendship brings in colour, enjoyment and bliss.
Friendship is like peace. True friendship is hard to fight and even hard to sustain but when it is achieved there is nothing like that.
I feel I have finally achieved it. I have two friends who are extremes as far as physique is concerned. One is muscular bulky and huge, while the other is small and tiny. What makes you sure that you’ve achieved that status you may ask? I will say this with certainty that I’ve achieved the Status of true friendship amongst them because I can be MYSELF around them. I don’t have to pretend. I don’t have to act. I can be myself, with them my life feels like a rainy day with the sun shining brightly. A rainbow amidst the clouds of life, the struggles of life they give me the perfect relaxation.
So friendship is bliss :”)

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS!

There are certain question that haven’t been answered for a long time. What is happiness? Who is truly happy? What does one need to do in order to be happy?

So let’s begin with the definition of happiness, is there a specific definition for happiness? Happiness is subjective, it is subjective to the individual. What brings happiness to me may not bring happiness to others, hence there’s a lot of conflict of interest, sometimes within ourselves as well.
So coming to the next question, who is truly happy? Well, from the definition of happiness it is evident that a conflict of interest arises with respect to the definition of happiness, well why does a conflict of interest arise? It’s because of the fact that what I want may not exactly be comfortable to others, hence if one wants to be happy forever, he should want NOTHING. He should be free from desires and wants for that’s when he becomes truly happy. When one person can quell the conflicts of interest within himself, he becomes happy.
How can one find this happiness? Well there’s an age old saying, “money can’t buy happiness” well that is cent percent true because nothing can BUY happiness. Happiness can be found if one can manage his socioeconomic discrepancies and manage to be happy with what he has.
Hence, the pursuit of happiness is like a pendulum without any resistance, it will never stop until you stop it by yourself. Happiness can never be found if there’s no satisfaction, for satisfaction means happiness.

Negative news sells best

Media, a weapon for the masses to express their feelings. A tool that is supposed to increase accountability of the politicians. An entity, if pure, is the strongest platform for people to voice their concerns. But, what has media become lately? It has become a sea where positive news is like bubbles which never surface up, and negative news is like a tidal wave that has the maximum impact. We are being mislead to believe that the only news is negative news and hence negative news sells best as the title says. How has this affected the society? To answer this simply, let’s take an example, if you ask people who nithyanandha is most of them would know as he was involved in a SCANDAL. But if you ask people who kailash sathyarthi is most people would not know as he’s just a mere NOBEL PRIZE winner. The media projecting negativity in the spotlight has made the society more pessimistic as a whole. We don’t want a pessimistic society, on the contrary we need a more optimistic approach to the way we handle things if we’re to achieve something. There’s only two types of news, the real one and the sensational one and more often than not, the sensational news is the only news that gets telecast. In order to achieve exorbitant sensationalism, the methods media resort to are very very hurtful and infringes on the privacy of the victim. For example, all of us know the nirbhaya case, in lieu of digging deeper the media in the name of enquiry, interview, interrogation and what not, asked the family so many private questions that the dignity of the whole family was lost in the process. Who is accountable for that? We can’t arrest the media and put them behind bars nor can you suspend media rights as India being one of the largest democracies in the world HAS to give right to freedom of expression as that is the very pillar of democracy. Where do we draw a line to all this? The more pertinent question is, how do you draw a line to all this? If we let this continue, in the near future, we’re going to have a society that is so pessimistic that positivity and optimism will become extinct.

MSD- a man of many masks

Why does batman wear a mask? To protect the ones he cares about from danger as he’s bound to make enemies. Similarly, MSD wears a mask of utter peace, which is backed by a calm rage, a subtle storm that’s raging inside. Not once can we see MSD emoting on the field, does it mean he’s emotionless? Does it mean that he has no feelings? Absolutely not, feelings are one way to expose yourself to a whole new range of artillery called emotional attack. Prying on emotions, calculating feelings has become a new age technology for finding out what one is thinking about. A leader of MSD’s caliber knows better than to unnecessarily emote, his face gives away nothing, for all you know he may be breaking on the inside, filling up with anger, sadness, happiness, but you will NEVER truly know, for its the mask of utter nonchalance that characterises what dhoni is made of. Nerves filled with fighting spirit, eyes determined and sharp that one gaze and You’ll be split in two, a calm that blows like the storm, looks like the spring, a face so expressionless that’ll have you guessing your guts out, this is what MSD is made of.

It is funny that I started of by taking batman as the example to elaborate on MSD, because MSD and batman have so much in common, just as batman saves the day, and when all goes down takes the blame and still remains the same, just and strong as ever, it is the same as far as MSD Is concerned, limelight has never interested the man, sometimes it makes me wonder whether he’s a man or a saint dressed like a cricketer? How can someone be so selfless? Gives it all when the chips are down, takes the burden of criticism on his shoulders, wins matches singlehandedly and still is called SELFISH. One can never see MSD on the frontline when the team wins, but, when the team loses he steps up casually, takes the blame and rubs it off very coolly.

Finding people like Dhoni is very difficult, giving it everything he’s got for the team and not expecting anything in return. He’s not just a captain, he’s much more. An inspiration, a celebration, an era of amazing captaincy has been woven into the very fabric of cricket by MSD. His legacy will be etched on golden tablets and will be publicised for years to come, but still even then, you can’t expect a reaction from Dhoni. He’s not just a captain, he’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight.