Veerasami - Entertainment to the core!!

People say "Lightning doesn't strike twice". But it has struck Tamil cinema many times in the form of the man they call TR and in his most ***** (I'm lost for adjectives :( ) film - Veerasamy (VS, henceforth) - Yeah, it was there on K TV yesterday and I and Anand watched it AGAIN. As with the tradition I got calls from the die hard VS fans - RP and Sriram - on this movie getting relayed - Thanks guys!!

Go through this Wiki entry on VS - MUST READ.

This movie was released in 2007. At the time when Tamil people are going through the pain of Chimbhu (TR's son) acting as hero in movies, TR just UNLEASHED himself on the audience through this blockbuster!! I saw it once and then again and then again and then - the count is now 11 and it WILL increase :)
Well, I'm not going to waste time in telling the story - there's none!! And it's not the story (!!) which makes VS what it is, but there are certain other things, which I would like to touch upon. TR plays the title role, he is a) an MLA (THE IDEAL one), b) a lawyer, c) a brother, d) a lover, e) a saviour and f) a dier (??).

a) & b):

This part of VS occupies the screen predominantly. The introduction of VS is just superb!! Not even Rajinikanth or alikes would have had such a sequence. I heard that Daniel Craig (007) is contemplating flicking this scene in his next movie (of course paying heavy royalty to TR). VS will be inside a building fighting the villain gang and suddenly he walks out with 5 fighters "exploding" out of the roof in 5 different directions at the backdrop. Breathtaking!! You should not fail to listen to the BGM. There are many scenes where VS fights against corruption in different government offices. The scenes deserve an acamdey award for lack of maturity and the length of irrelevant alliterating dialogues!! In fact, you can bear a corrupt India rather than these scenes :)
c)VS as a brother

I'm already crying. You also should, not because of the weight of the sentiment but for the plight of the sister! I would have been serving a 14 year term in jail for murder if I had a brother like that!! Or perhaps, I would have been let off considering it to be murder for self defence :) Though there are many scenes, the first one, when the sister asks for jeans and VS' explanation on why she should be wearing only sarees and salwars, gets the first position. I was surprised the sister din't run on the road naked after listening to VS :) There are many more after the sister falls in love and VS expresses his confidence, his shock, his surprise, his affection et all.

d)VS as a lover

The best. Love is blind - True. I just LOVE VS' romantic expressions. Mumtaz, who plays the heroine has also given an equally enviable (!!) performance. It's just a great pair - VS is around 5'4", 95 kgs and Mumtaz is 5'2", 105 kgs and they both dance in the GREATEST duet of the millenium. There are other songs when VS turns a poet - wind blows, rain falls and what not. And in the scene when VS parts his love your hearts get heavier than VS himself. The song after that when VS thinks of his erstwhile love just pushes you to the grave...

e)Saviour

There are two fights which are noteworthy after the introduction. One when he jumps from the roof wearing a red track suit (sleeveless) - you get a feeling that there are two legs emanating from the shoulder!! The villain is the most unlucky soul - he had to listen to TR's dialog (by when he would have been completely drained) and also receive his power packed punches and kicks!! The climax fight is the best - when VS dances on the road with his dhoti on one hand and a sword
on the other - absolutely awesome!! You just exclaim - "He is GOD"!!

f)

He dies in the end. The only death sequence in the history of world cinema, when the entire audience would have burst out laughing. His head falls with a BGM of "TING!!", the moment he knows he has not kept his word. Mumtaz also dies. End of it. The audience wouldn't have realized that they had lost 3 precious hours of their life.

I have tried to capture the VS magic to the best of my ability. I apologize to the fans if I had missed / slipped any scenes. Please do add those in the comments section.
I am busy checking for the DVD (it's worth to own one) and the red jersey of VS. Btw, I would recommend IIMs to make their students watch this movie as part of the anger management and patience development courses.
Bye!!

IPL 2 - Goods and Bads

I had written too many temple blogs recently :). I hope I will continue to write too!! But, for a change this time, here are my views and and a quick recap of IPL 2.

This edition started with a huge drama. When there were questions raised - election or IPL, the answer was obvious - though both have many things in common viz both are team "games", players who represented one team played for someother team (politicians switiching parties and parties switching alliances), star attraction (actors / actresses roped in by parties as well as teams), stars owning parties and teams, cheer leaders (in elections, we, the people and party workers do this job, dancing and celebrating without reasons :)) and above all the GREATEST similarity is the amount of money involved :) - and the IPL was moved to SA. I felt weird when the Indian PL is being played in SA!! But the voter turnout (sorry, audience turnout) was on similar lines and the whole event was a success!! Congrats to BCCI and Modi :)Now, my team (CSK) started rather sluggishly and picked up towards the middle and later part of the tournament and as expected, reached the knockout stage. I was happy that my list of teams reached the semis - CSK, RCB, DC and DD. After this it was anybody's game and DC won in the end. The script couldn't have ended better - Two teams that finished 7th and 8th in the last edition just reversed and played the finals. I was happy for the consistency of DD and CSK reaching the last 4 stage in both the editions!!
But I strongly feel that the knockout stage is the real spoiler in any tournament - not because we lost - but I have my reasons. In the last edition, RR were deserving winners - they showed consistency in the league stage and were literally unbeatable. But KXP was not far behind with as many as 10 wins. But who played the finals with RR? CSK!! (my team :)). In this edition, DD showed real consistency and were table toppers. They had 8 wins out of 10 matches and were playing the remaining 4 games just for the heck of it. When it came to semis, Gilli had a great day, just ra**d everyone and won the game. Ironically, unlike Bangalore, DC din't even earn their semis berth. They were in because KXP lost to CSK in their last game and KKR spoilt RR's party. Somehow RCB deserved a vistory because they were consistent towards the later part of the tournament at least and they defeated real top teams (including DC!!) on their way to the semis. DC on the other hand were totally inconsistent, winning 4 / 4 to start with and then 3 / 10 towards the end (this is poor!!). DC have one less win than DD, having played one more game (the finals)!!! This is ridiculous :( DD - 10 wins / 15 matches and DC 9 wins / 16 matches)

The point I'm trying to drive is, that this kind of a knockout pattern just makes a mockery of the entire league phase. Ideally, at the end of the 14 matches have a best of three finals between the top two teams to reward consistency. Or if there were four teams selected, have a Super 4 kind of concept where teams carry forward points based on their win / loss record against the remaining three qualified teams and then play each other once more. Then decide the finalists!! This would help the tournament and also in generating more revenue :) Otherwise, the champs will be decided based on just one bad day that a good team may have like it happened this time!!

I don't have any grudge against DC but just that I felt something was wrong and hence the post.. End of the day cricket is a sport (a funny game) and anything can happen any day and more so with the T20 format.

DC - Congrats!! RCB - Well played!!

DD - Really Sorry!! MI - Try to win!!

RR - Lightning doesn't strike twice!!

KKR, KXP - Thumbs down!! (I just don't like these teams :()

CSK - My heart is with you!! Well played and you will be the champs in the next edition :) :) :)

All the best to the Indian T20 team... Let's keep the cup :) :)

PS: All you need to win the IPL is to make a 37 year old, retired Aussie player to captain your side!! Just thinking :)

Cheers!!

Kanipakkam and Tiruttani trip

Yahoooooooo!!!! I completed all the 6 adobes of Lord Muruga ("Aru padai Veedu")!!! It happened on May 16, 2009 - saturday.

Great things are spawned out of no where and this was no exception. As Vikram casually suggested on Tuesday (May 12) that we can visit Kanipakkam this weekend, I felt a great and immediate urge to join him and what more, also got the plan of going to Tiruttani!! So we planned and executed the following trip :)

Kanipakkam:

We started from Banaglore to Chittoor on friday night. The bus was at 23:30, not a great one though!! Never mind, it took us safely to Chittoor at 04:20 on Saturday. Kanipakkam is around 15 km from Chittoor and by 05:30 we were in Kanipakkam. As it was election counting day, there were lot of politicians and party vehicles around. Well, who would not want to worship "VaraSiddhi Vinayaka" (Ganesha who grants boons) on such an important day. Yeah, the main deity there is Ganesha!! Legend says that this was a Swayambhu (born by itself) and the idol here grows horizontally (by breadth) every year!! Ganesha was looking very cute though. We were lucky enough to get 3 darhans as it was not crowded at all. There was a shrine for Hanuman too. Two bachelors together - guys better be careful at least inside if you go :D. One more info about this temple is, there was a practice till few years back that criminals were brought here and made to take a dip in the tank and also worship the lord and they will confess to their crimes immediately after the dip as the Ganesha here is a saviour of Dharma!!
We came out of the temple and had a not so great breakfast. I got to eat white rubber balls for the first time in my life. Btw, the hotel had named them as idlies :D

Tiruttani:

We were back to Chittoor by 10:00. The bus to Tiruttani was from a separate depot. There were many private Tamil Nadu buses from that depot and we got one immediately. It was a two hour journey via Porunai, Sholinghur. We reached by 12:15 and to our luck it was not hot at all. Incidentally, the previous day Tiruttani had logged the maximum temperature in TN (42 deg C)!!We took a room near the foothills. The lunch was great and we ate like pigs (I am sorry about that but we really did :)) and slept like logs for 3 hours. At 16:30, we started climbing Tanikachalam (that's what the hill is called). There are 365 steps and on every new years' day the steps will be worshipped (for the next 365 days to be good :)). We climbed in around 20 minutes as the steps were broad and the weather was also fine.
We took three darshans - two free and one in 25 Rs ticket. GREAT!! Subramanya was dressed in red silk the first two times and in white silk the third time. There were shrines of Valli and Devasena on His either side. This is the place where Subramanya got married to Valli. The Utsava murthy was Shanmuga (six faced Lord) and there was a Abath Sahaya Vinayagar (Ganesha who saves you from danger) shrine along with shrines of Shiva and Durga. We spent around 3 hrs on the hill and got to see the sun set ;). I also got a peacock feather - I wanted it for around 20 years and somehow I couldn't / din't buy it !! Everything has a time ; As we climbed down, I saw the last 3 overs of CSK Vs MI match which CSK won by 7 wkts :) Had dinner and a great sleep after watching DC Vs KKR game which DC won.
We climbed again the next day morning at 7:30 and got a darshan of Subramanya with golden armour. Very satisfied as we got to spend nearly 20 min in the shrine :) :). We came down by 9 and left Tiruttani for Tirupathi at 10:00.

Govindaraja swamy temple:

Tiruttani - Tirupathi was again a 2 hr journey via Nagari, Puthur. We reached by 12:00 and our bus to Bangalore was at 14:00. As we stepped out of the bus stand to just have lunch and leave, an auto wala told that there is not much crowd and we can have a darshan in Govindaraja swamy temple. So off we went, unable to leave Tirupathi without seeing Him :) There was not much crowd and we had darshan of the main deity, Parthasarathy perumal, Andal devi, Kalyana Venkatramana swamy., Ramanuja and Mahalakshmi - all in a jiffy and we were back in the auto towards hotel Mayura. The lunch was awesome as usual.
We had to wait for 40 min for the bus and it was very hot, but we found a AC waiting hall (fundooooo!!!) in the bus stand charging Rs.10 per hour !!!!!!

Happy that I had darshan of Ganesha and Subramanya (completing the six adobes) on the same day and also that of Govindaraja swamy. First time to all these places ...

Cheers!!!

Tiruchendur and South TN visit

My long time plan materialized on Apr 24, 2009. I had the darshan of Subramanya Swami (Senthil Andavar) at Tiruchendur, taking my tally of six adobes (Aru padai veedu) to five, with Tiruthani remaining. I will write a blog about the 6 adobes once I complete Tiruthani too :).

Tiruchendur:

We (I and my parents) started from Trichy by cab on Apr 24, 2009. It was a 6 hour drive (via Viralimalai, Madurai, Aruppukottai and Tuticorin). We got to see the salt lakes in Tuticorin and I kind of liked the place. We reached Tiruchendur at 15:00. Took a room in a hotel just next to the temple. The temple is right on the sea shore (Bay of Bengal).
We arranged for Darshan through the hotel itself. It's normally crowded and apparently it's the second most crowded Subramanya temple (after Palani). The darshan starts with a Ganesha shrine (as usual) followed by the sanctum of lord Subramanya. We had a darshan of Subramanya in Golden armour (Thanga Kavacham). We then went to Pancha Linga shrine (5 lingas), which is next to the sanctum, but one has to pass through a narrow lane next to the Subramanya shrine to reach there. Legend says that, Subramanya afetr killing the demon Surapadman, got "Brahmahathi dosha" (not sure how, Surapadman can't be a Brahmin!!) and He performed puja to this Pancha linga to overcome this. Also, as He is performing puja Himself, no one else perfroms puja here. There is a narrow crevice open to sky and legend has it that Lord Devendra also offers his prayers to Shiva. It's only from this shrine that one can do a pradhakshinam (circumambulation) of the Subramanya Swamy shrine. Utsava murthy (Lord Shanmuga) is also close to the sanctum. One more special shrine is that of Muruga with His anklet as His weapon. As per mythology, Lord Muruga was mocked at by Surapadma for not having a weapon of His own (Vel was provided by Goddess Shakthi), for which Lord Muruga showed His anklet saying this would be sufficient to kill him. Interesting!! There is a Maha Vishnu sannidhi (with a Ranganatha shrine next to it). Next to this shrine, there is a destroyed rock, believed to be the erstwhile Krouncha malai, ruled by Tharakasura (Surapadman's brother). Legend has it that this was proptecting Surapadman's city (VeeraMahendrapuram - which was in the sea) and was destroyed by Lord Subramanya first. Then there is the Kalyana Ganapathi shrine. All these shrines form a Om (ஓம்). We then visited the Valli cave temple, where Valli hid Herself when Lord Ganesha took the form of an elephant and inimidated Her, to help Lord Subramanya during His romance with Valli :). We also had a darshan at 20:00 (Vibhoothi kavacham). We spent a lot of time in the beach and I enjoyed playing in the waves :)

Next day early in the morning at 05:00, we were in the temple again and we had the Viswaroopa Darshan at 05:30. The handsome God He is, Viswaroopam was just superb. The temple is open from 05:30 to 20:30 through out.

The God here is very powerful. Adi Shankara has authored Subramanya Bhujangam in this temple on this God, when he was suffering from a severe stomach illness and was cured immediately. Recently, in 2006, when Tsunami hit the entire coastal Tamil Nadu, this was the only place where the sea receded and there was absolutely no damage to the temple and no casualties here, in spite of the close proximity to the sea and many devotees were taking bath in

the sea.

SriVaikuntam:

We left from Tiruchendur at 07:45 to SriVaikuntam, which is just 20 km away on the Tirunelveli main road. There is apparently nava tirupathi temples (9 Vishnu temples) in this area, each ruling to one planet. We just visited SriVaikuntam (which was for lord Surya or Sun God). Swami here is called Kallapiran or Vaikuntanathar. Two Lakshmi shrines - Vaikuntanayaki and Choranatha nayaki. This is the 54th of the 108 Divya desam temples of Lord Vishnu.

Nellaiyappar - Gandhimathi temple - Tirunelveli:

After SriVaikuntam, we reached Nellaiyappar temple in Tirunelveli, a city 50 km from Tiruchendur. Massive temple!! HUGE!! Superb darshan of Nellaiyappar and Gandhimathi amman (She was looking very beautiful). There are around 100 big shrines in this temple and I feel it's enough if you visit this temple once a year and get a darshan of all Hindu Gods at one go :). Interstingly, there was a idol of Ravana!! Also, this was one of the pancha sabhai temples (5 temples one fo each metal - this one is for copper or Thamiram, it is on the banks of "Thamira"barani river).

Madurai:

Finally, we reached Madurai at 14:00. Very bad lunch at College House. Meenakshi amman was as beautiful as ever. We eventually reached Trichy at 21:30 on April 25, 2009.

Good trip and with this my mother had seen all the six adobes of Lord Subramanya. Hope I also do that soon :)

Cheers!!