Thanks to a friend @ IIMB, went to Carnatic kutcheri after long time.
Went to the venue a few minutes ahead of TM Krishna's kutcheri, so got the chance to see Mishra brothers in action(of course not for long).
Earlier I had been to T M Krishna's homepage and so got interested in seeing him concert. Actually, never listened to him earlier via tapes/mp3. So went there to the OAT venue with interest.
Both me and TM Krishna were introduced to a major hitch in 'microphone'.
The microphone system was off-the-mark and so the concert started maybe 30 minutes late from the scheduled time. But that was not all, soon TM Krishna and his co-artists started complaining about the microphone system. According to them, there seems to be some humming sound which kept coming up, when he was singing. TM Krishna's and his co-artists' irritation was for all to see. After the initial song 'Vatapi Ganapathim..', TM Krishna said 'I cant continue like this' and said it is difficult for him to sing. He soon requested all the audience to come front near the dias and said he will sing without microphone.
Thought it was a wonderful decision by TM Krishna, cause I was also sensing that the sound system was quite dismal. There seems to be too much of feedback(same as the ones we hear in old-style rock concerts), resonance and sometimes strange 'dub ... dub...'. I think there were too many microphones close to each other and that probably might be the reason. The microphone-man came close to Krishna and asked Krishna what the problem was. TM Krishna slightly rudely responded, 'I am not the technical person here, you should be telling me 'what the problem is!''. That made up a rather sorry viewing, imagine losing your cool infront of your fans. That was not the end for this rather sorry episode, soon the compere requested TM Krishna with folded hands to continue singing with the existing sound system. Thought maybe this compere need not have embarassed TM Krishna by requesting this. Poor man TM Krishna must have felt terribly sorry for no fault of his and went to on to sing with the rather stupid system. It was more like a Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd concert, with feedback thrown in now-and-then :-( ( of course unintentionally by the artist)
For a moment, I was wondering how is this microphone supposed to be that important and soon thought about those Pink floyd's rock-concert videos. Pink Floyd was one of the techno-savy bands of their time and they were good musicians alongwith good sound engineers. They trusted no third party sound system or equipment, so they always carried their our gadgets for whatever concert they went whether it is in UK or outside UK.
Concert was okay, considering all the sound-hitches. Was expecting him to sing some Bharathiyar song or maybe any Tamil song, guess, he did not sing any tamil song.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Ripper of a Ranji Final
Guess, all of us are waiting to witness a ripper of a Ranji final between Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
Bengal has a few India-rejects like Deep DasGupta, S S Paul(fairly decent line-and-length bowler in NZ-style), LakshmiRatan Shukla and Rohan Gavaskar. Of course, without Ganguly this team looks out-of-colour, but still they have experienced campaigners in their team which will help their tital-cause.
Uttar Pradesh has a bunch of prospects like Suresh Raina, Kaif, Piyush Chawla and JP Yadav(not exactly a India-prospect considering his age and his baldline ;-) ). They have an old workhorse in Ashish Winston Zaidi.
UP will start as the favourites thanks to their astounding win over the perennial favourites Mumbai! UP also has some amazing talent in Raina and Piyush, hopefully these guys get a good break into the Indian team, with Greg Chappel keen to push-in youngsters into Indian team!
Bengal has a few India-rejects like Deep DasGupta, S S Paul(fairly decent line-and-length bowler in NZ-style), LakshmiRatan Shukla and Rohan Gavaskar. Of course, without Ganguly this team looks out-of-colour, but still they have experienced campaigners in their team which will help their tital-cause.
Uttar Pradesh has a bunch of prospects like Suresh Raina, Kaif, Piyush Chawla and JP Yadav(not exactly a India-prospect considering his age and his baldline ;-) ). They have an old workhorse in Ashish Winston Zaidi.
UP will start as the favourites thanks to their astounding win over the perennial favourites Mumbai! UP also has some amazing talent in Raina and Piyush, hopefully these guys get a good break into the Indian team, with Greg Chappel keen to push-in youngsters into Indian team!
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Movies by Pongal-weekend
Mr. and Mrs. Smith:
Ordinary movie. Angelina Jolie was the saving grace for this movie. 'Jolie' in French means 'Beauty'.
Winner - Vadivelu Rocks:
Thought Vadivelu kind of tries to act/speak like Vijaykanth i.e the slow way of delivering dialogues ungalalam partha enakku pavama irukku.... and vendam... enakku kovam varanthu...
But all these dialogues suited Vadivelu and from then-on Vadivelu has successfully adopted this style in his other movies as well.
Memento:
Memento had an interesting way of telling the story i.e end-to-beginning. But the story is cryptic, leaving questions like 'who is the murderer of Guy Pearce's wife'. Guess, Memento's claim to fame is that it happened to be the inspiration of Surya's character in the movie 'Ghajani'.
Kung Fu Hustle:
At last got to see the complete movie 'Kung Fu Hustle ', but this time in Chinese itself without no English sub-titles. The climax of this movie was a good spoof on how Neo(Keanu Reeves) went to sky far-up-above and then listens to some divine signs and then fights back his opponents in 'The Matrix Revolutions'. Guess, the best part about all the Chinese movies and Western movies is that they have a superb way of 'hero getting revenge over his enemies'.
American Pie - Band Camp:
Ordinary movie. The movie was below par for the genre of American teen comedy.
Bicycle Thief:
Vittorio De Sica's 'Bicycle Thief' was extra-ordinary.
The best part in this movie was the last five minutes of the movie, when the protagonist tries to steal a bicyle after getting disillusioned about the prospect of finding back his lost bicyle. The decision of the protagonist to steal a bicyle in the end made our protagonist more human and vulnerable to mistakes. And it was really disappointing to see him get caught by police/public in this act.
Another sequence which made good viewing is when the protogonist after joining his job, thinks that he has a secure future and tries to advise his wife to start believing in themselves rather than spend money in religious activities.
But, when he loses his bicycle, he himself pays his money to the soothsayer.
Guess, this movie inspired Satyajit Ray to enter film industry and make movies.
Hoping to see Satyajit Ray movies soon!
15 Park Avenue:
This Aparna Sen movie was lucky to have so many good actors. Best of the lot has to be Shabana Azmi.
The ending of the movie was more of a puzzle, but nevertheless this is a novel attempt in Indian movies.
S J Surya and his antics:
During this Pongal, whichever channel one sees whether it is Raj or Vijay or Pothigai or Sun or K or Jaya, it s all the same face which greets us 'Happy Pongal' - S J Surya. S J Surya's interviews were great fun. In one interview, he said all his movies has a 'message' and went on to explaining what is the message in all the movies he has directed.
Ordinary movie. Angelina Jolie was the saving grace for this movie. 'Jolie' in French means 'Beauty'.
Winner - Vadivelu Rocks:
Thought Vadivelu kind of tries to act/speak like Vijaykanth i.e the slow way of delivering dialogues ungalalam partha enakku pavama irukku.... and vendam... enakku kovam varanthu...
But all these dialogues suited Vadivelu and from then-on Vadivelu has successfully adopted this style in his other movies as well.
Memento:
Memento had an interesting way of telling the story i.e end-to-beginning. But the story is cryptic, leaving questions like 'who is the murderer of Guy Pearce's wife'. Guess, Memento's claim to fame is that it happened to be the inspiration of Surya's character in the movie 'Ghajani'.
Kung Fu Hustle:
At last got to see the complete movie 'Kung Fu Hustle ', but this time in Chinese itself without no English sub-titles. The climax of this movie was a good spoof on how Neo(Keanu Reeves) went to sky far-up-above and then listens to some divine signs and then fights back his opponents in 'The Matrix Revolutions'. Guess, the best part about all the Chinese movies and Western movies is that they have a superb way of 'hero getting revenge over his enemies'.
American Pie - Band Camp:
Ordinary movie. The movie was below par for the genre of American teen comedy.
Bicycle Thief:
Vittorio De Sica's 'Bicycle Thief' was extra-ordinary.
The best part in this movie was the last five minutes of the movie, when the protagonist tries to steal a bicyle after getting disillusioned about the prospect of finding back his lost bicyle. The decision of the protagonist to steal a bicyle in the end made our protagonist more human and vulnerable to mistakes. And it was really disappointing to see him get caught by police/public in this act.
Another sequence which made good viewing is when the protogonist after joining his job, thinks that he has a secure future and tries to advise his wife to start believing in themselves rather than spend money in religious activities.
But, when he loses his bicycle, he himself pays his money to the soothsayer.
Guess, this movie inspired Satyajit Ray to enter film industry and make movies.
Hoping to see Satyajit Ray movies soon!
15 Park Avenue:
This Aparna Sen movie was lucky to have so many good actors. Best of the lot has to be Shabana Azmi.
The ending of the movie was more of a puzzle, but nevertheless this is a novel attempt in Indian movies.
S J Surya and his antics:
During this Pongal, whichever channel one sees whether it is Raj or Vijay or Pothigai or Sun or K or Jaya, it s all the same face which greets us 'Happy Pongal' - S J Surya. S J Surya's interviews were great fun. In one interview, he said all his movies has a 'message' and went on to explaining what is the message in all the movies he has directed.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Mumbai Knocked Off
Atlast, Mumbai is close to being knocked-off from this year's Ranji trophy. I think Mumbai is close to Australia in getting the distinction of being the 'team-to-beat'.
Sometimes, Mumbai has been awfully lucky to have Sachin Tendulkar during the quarters/semis/finals, who might have missed all the other matches and then play some blinder of a knock during these stages and massacre lesser grade bowlers! Tamil Nadu, a strong Ranji team lately, has been in the receiving end thanks to Sachin's flying visit knocks. This time, Mumbai is struggling against a talented Uttar Pradesh(UP) thanks to no Sachin or Wasim Jaffer. The desperation was there for all to see when Karsan Ghavri, Manager of Mumbai Ranji team requested board to release Wasim Jaffer from India duties if he is not in the playing eleven for playing for Mumbai during their crucial semis match agains UP, inspite of their home advantage.
UP seems to have some talented bowlers. One of them is Piyush Chawla, a leg-spinner. Piyush has been highly rated by lots of current and former India players including Anil Kumble. Hope Piyush makes an impact in international-circuit ones Kumble retires.
The other semis might also be an interesting affair thanks to no-superstars syndrome. There is no Pathan or Zaheer Khan or Sourov Ganguly. So, things are bound to be competitive.
One good pattern that I have noticed in most of the Ranji games is that, there seems to be lots of result-oriented matches for a Four-Day match. And home teams are keen to make sporting wickets(read bowling ones). Only if, India prepares bowling wickets for international matches....
Sometimes, Mumbai has been awfully lucky to have Sachin Tendulkar during the quarters/semis/finals, who might have missed all the other matches and then play some blinder of a knock during these stages and massacre lesser grade bowlers! Tamil Nadu, a strong Ranji team lately, has been in the receiving end thanks to Sachin's flying visit knocks. This time, Mumbai is struggling against a talented Uttar Pradesh(UP) thanks to no Sachin or Wasim Jaffer. The desperation was there for all to see when Karsan Ghavri, Manager of Mumbai Ranji team requested board to release Wasim Jaffer from India duties if he is not in the playing eleven for playing for Mumbai during their crucial semis match agains UP, inspite of their home advantage.
UP seems to have some talented bowlers. One of them is Piyush Chawla, a leg-spinner. Piyush has been highly rated by lots of current and former India players including Anil Kumble. Hope Piyush makes an impact in international-circuit ones Kumble retires.
The other semis might also be an interesting affair thanks to no-superstars syndrome. There is no Pathan or Zaheer Khan or Sourov Ganguly. So, things are bound to be competitive.
One good pattern that I have noticed in most of the Ranji games is that, there seems to be lots of result-oriented matches for a Four-Day match. And home teams are keen to make sporting wickets(read bowling ones). Only if, India prepares bowling wickets for international matches....
The 8 things tag
I have been tagged by AFJ. The rules of the game are:
1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.
My woman should:
1. Be bold
2. Be careless about her behaviour in public(instinctive)
3. Must talk-the-talk
4. Must have interest in sports/fitness
5. Must not be overtly obsessed with cooking
6. Must be enthusiastic about music/movies
7. Be independent
8. Be rational
I really had to think(extremely difficult job) for long for this. Passing across the baton to:
1. Ashok
2. Prasie
Trust Prasie will have lot to contribute :) !
The remaining six places are wild-cards open for visitors. Please feel free to take it.
1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.
My woman should:
1. Be bold
2. Be careless about her behaviour in public(instinctive)
3. Must talk-the-talk
4. Must have interest in sports/fitness
5. Must not be overtly obsessed with cooking
6. Must be enthusiastic about music/movies
7. Be independent
8. Be rational
I really had to think(extremely difficult job) for long for this. Passing across the baton to:
1. Ashok
2. Prasie
Trust Prasie will have lot to contribute :) !
The remaining six places are wild-cards open for visitors. Please feel free to take it.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Jack Black Rocks!
King Kong:
The starting 60 minutes of this Peter Jackson movie was superb thanks to Jack Black! But soon, Peter Jackson because of his 'LOTR' hangover started scripting a few wild action-sequences(gory ones) and that really took the spotlight away from what could have been a superb movie. These giant creatures and its gory activities and sometimes its really humane activities is over-exploited and Peter Jackson would have done a far better job had he made 'King Kong' off-the-screen and tried to continue to build the aura about King Kong(just like how Manoj Night Shyamalan or Hitchcock will do).
School of Rock:
This movie was good thanks to Jack Black again!
Jack Black comes across as a below-par guy just like Adam Sandler and rocks the movie. He was exceptional in a similar role like this in the movie 'Orange County' as well. The way he picked up the monitor of the class as 'manager' and african-american kid as 'security' was fun to watch!
Freaky Friday:
Movie was okay, but of course some predictable humour. Ordinary fare!
The starting 60 minutes of this Peter Jackson movie was superb thanks to Jack Black! But soon, Peter Jackson because of his 'LOTR' hangover started scripting a few wild action-sequences(gory ones) and that really took the spotlight away from what could have been a superb movie. These giant creatures and its gory activities and sometimes its really humane activities is over-exploited and Peter Jackson would have done a far better job had he made 'King Kong' off-the-screen and tried to continue to build the aura about King Kong(just like how Manoj Night Shyamalan or Hitchcock will do).
School of Rock:
This movie was good thanks to Jack Black again!
Jack Black comes across as a below-par guy just like Adam Sandler and rocks the movie. He was exceptional in a similar role like this in the movie 'Orange County' as well. The way he picked up the monitor of the class as 'manager' and african-american kid as 'security' was fun to watch!
Freaky Friday:
Movie was okay, but of course some predictable humour. Ordinary fare!
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Movies by Weekend
Irreversible:
This movie was novel in the reverse way of telling story and the picturisation.
I think it is quite impossible to pick up such a simple subject and explore it so superbly. Remember seeing Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin i.e 'This night has no morning' and this movie was similar to that in telling the story as to what happened in one night.
And the way each scene starts, with concentric circles it reminds me of old tamil/hindi movies where circles go in tortoise fashion to remind us that this is a 'flashback' scene.
Abre Los Lojos or Open Your Eyes:
The cover-version of this movie happens to Cameron Crowe's 'Vanilla Sky'. Quite disappointing to find that Vanilla Sky was a scene-by-scene retake of this movie. The visuals of Alexandro Amenebar's 'Abre Los Lojos' was kind of Hollywoodish and not the usual European cinema-like, maybe the story-line would have prompted major studios to pitch-in and make it a global hit. The dream and reality also kind of reminded me of David Lynch's movies.
Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios or Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown:
Pedro Almodovar's movie. Antonoio Banderas comes in a young kid role. The movie was a fast-paced one and it reminded me of the usual Crazy Mohan kind of plots.
¡Átame! or Tie me up Tie me Down:
This movie has to be the original of the tamil movie 'Guna' which had Kamal in the lead role. I think Kamal had customized this role to suit his audience's tastes. This Pedro Almodovar's movie was fast-paced and enjoyable fare, of course the ending was more of a feel-good kind, which was a bit not along the expected lines had one seen 'Guna' earlier.
Pink Floyd - Live at Pompeii - Director's Cut:
Most importantly, this album has the 'Pink floyd' style in the songs, the video picturisation, the interviews. The footages related to Moon, Earth, Pompeii and other outer space footages(thanks to BBC, NASA, ESA etc.,) which were shown with the Pink Floyd's songs playing in the background, brought in a sense of abstraction that only Pink Floyd is capable of! As David Gilmour said in the interview, only they could pull off such a thing.
Scooby Doo 1, Scooby Doo 2:
Movies had nothing much to offer and thought I enjoyed the animation series in TV a lot better than this! Scooby Doo 2 had lots to offer interms of advise to viewers: 'dont forget past', 'enjoy your work not for fame/money but for the fun of it', 'try to be yourself' and more such punch-lines. Guess, a good start for 2006 in terms of listening to punch lines ;-)
This movie was novel in the reverse way of telling story and the picturisation.
I think it is quite impossible to pick up such a simple subject and explore it so superbly. Remember seeing Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin i.e 'This night has no morning' and this movie was similar to that in telling the story as to what happened in one night.
And the way each scene starts, with concentric circles it reminds me of old tamil/hindi movies where circles go in tortoise fashion to remind us that this is a 'flashback' scene.
Abre Los Lojos or Open Your Eyes:
The cover-version of this movie happens to Cameron Crowe's 'Vanilla Sky'. Quite disappointing to find that Vanilla Sky was a scene-by-scene retake of this movie. The visuals of Alexandro Amenebar's 'Abre Los Lojos' was kind of Hollywoodish and not the usual European cinema-like, maybe the story-line would have prompted major studios to pitch-in and make it a global hit. The dream and reality also kind of reminded me of David Lynch's movies.
Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios or Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown:
Pedro Almodovar's movie. Antonoio Banderas comes in a young kid role. The movie was a fast-paced one and it reminded me of the usual Crazy Mohan kind of plots.
¡Átame! or Tie me up Tie me Down:
This movie has to be the original of the tamil movie 'Guna' which had Kamal in the lead role. I think Kamal had customized this role to suit his audience's tastes. This Pedro Almodovar's movie was fast-paced and enjoyable fare, of course the ending was more of a feel-good kind, which was a bit not along the expected lines had one seen 'Guna' earlier.
Pink Floyd - Live at Pompeii - Director's Cut:
Most importantly, this album has the 'Pink floyd' style in the songs, the video picturisation, the interviews. The footages related to Moon, Earth, Pompeii and other outer space footages(thanks to BBC, NASA, ESA etc.,) which were shown with the Pink Floyd's songs playing in the background, brought in a sense of abstraction that only Pink Floyd is capable of! As David Gilmour said in the interview, only they could pull off such a thing.
Scooby Doo 1, Scooby Doo 2:
Movies had nothing much to offer and thought I enjoyed the animation series in TV a lot better than this! Scooby Doo 2 had lots to offer interms of advise to viewers: 'dont forget past', 'enjoy your work not for fame/money but for the fun of it', 'try to be yourself' and more such punch-lines. Guess, a good start for 2006 in terms of listening to punch lines ;-)
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