Viswa - Let Down - Roopam

The way the movie kick starts is all good. The firt 15-20 minutes, till the first action sequence is great. Kamal as the Kathak exponent excels, as usual. His mannerisms, way he walks, talks, all very reflective of the art form he is in love with. His transformation to the blood thirsty assassin/spy is very well captured. The visual effects are out standing. The background is conducive of the happenings on the screen. All is well, till then.

Post the action sequence, the film falls flat on its face. Why would Kamal want to make such a run-off-the-mill spy thriller is very questionable. Why again would he want to involve so much of human emotions is a bigger question.

What starts off as a promising thriller runs on to become a "why war?" documentary and again brings us back to the wafer thin plot of a spy thriller. And keeps doing this again and again. One moment you are in Afghanistan and the next in NYC. Not that this type of story telling is not good cinema. Just that once you are in Afghanistan, it is all about jihad(holy war), children, hapless wives, mothers, mutilated bodies, war torn towns. And once you are in NYC you follow the wafer thin plot of a wannabe spy thriller. And the sequence keeps repeating again and again and again, till you grow weary of it.

Why do film makers and Kamal at this new age think that spy cameras installed in offices, data stored in hard disks and thumb drives and cash kept in lockers in office are a great idea of a film? Why would it interest movie goers to know that the actor Kamal is a realist but then the character in the movie is a devout muslim who has lost his faith in all gods? How many times will we need to bear the "punch" dialogues around Kamal and his "endha kadavul" type cliches. Maybe it is just me. But it was overbearing.

The movie is well shot. Technically brilliant. The BG and overall music is good. Performances are, ahem, nice. But the characters are just wasted, actually, blasted away to non-existence.

How many times would you need to show a boy with innocence written all over his face become a suicide bomber? How many times a good doctor is killed, just for the heck of it? Do we need all this to understand the mindless violence that is called war, holy or not?

Trying to balance between the documentary and the spy thriller, Kamal fails in impressing the audience with either.

What is Andrea doing in the movie? Why an MI6 agent? Too many unanswered equations.

Overall, a nights sleep wasted and belief in big budget, big star movies depleted to the core. Small budget movies like Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanum have made worthy watching than the Billa's, Maatran's, Alex Pandian's and now Viswaroopam joins the let down bandwagon.

Pizza - Each piece a new taste

In one line - A horror-thriller with a fitting climax.

Less said about the movie is better as even explanation of a few scenes can hinder the joy of watching the movie.  Those who watch after reading this, please leave your comment if I was wrong.

A pizza delivery boy, an aspiring fiction author as his lover, 2 friends, one boss, his "possessed" daughter form the crux of the story.

The screenplay is good. The editing is fine. BG is good.Actors have done justice. Vijay Sethupathy looks overboard at time, but the climax justifies it all.

A viewers movie rather than a critics movie for review.

Must watch and enjoy makkale.

Barfi - My take

Barfi - Vedalam sonna kadai (Vikram aur Betal for my non-tamil friends)

Long time ago, there lived a simpleton thief (an oxymoron I guess, if so, intentional) who was deaf and dumb. He chanced to meet the princess of the land and was feel for her beauty. Little did the thief know that the princess was engaged to the lord of the land. The princess without her knowledge begins to like the simpleton thief's way of life and falls for him as well. The queen, the princess's mother, then narrates the story of her love with a commoner and how she had forgone the love to marry the king. The princess goes ahead and marries the lord, while still in love with the simpleton. The heartbroken simpleton, then meets a mentally challenged (apologies if I am not politically correct) and slowly but surely falls in love with her. He even introduces her to the princess, who secretly still pines for him. There creeps jealousy into the mind of the new lover and she runs away to her asylum. The simpleton searches the whole world and finally locates her there. They get married and live happily ever after. The princess, on the other hand, had to leave her lord, since he would not accept her once she stepped out to help the simpleton thief in search for his love. After very many years, the simpleton thief is taken ill and eventually both him and his wife die at the same time. The princess, now a sad old lady, pines for the love and life that she must have actually led, had she married the simpleton thief in the first place.

Now tell me Vikramaditya, whose love was the greatest. The simpleton thief's toward the challenged girl? The challenged girls toward the simpleton thief? or that of the Princess toward the simpleton thief?

Once bitten, twice shy - Billa 2, a critical view.

Once bitten, twice shy - Billa 2.

If you can enjoy Ajith climbing down the stairs with a bazooka blasting away in the background and whistle for the "thala", then do not read on. This movie is a must watch for you.

What starts off promising, whittles away as a less than mediocre fare that is a culmination of many movies. If the "madurai ponnu" song is reminiscent of "naan sirithall deepavali" from Nayagan right down to Ajith's hairstyle and shirt style, the last sequence of the termination of all the "villians" reminds you of the The Godfather's sequence where Michael takes out the heads of all the families. Too many similarities and yet, too little stuff. The story line does not lead anywhere. The punch dialogues are too few and too spaced out to carry any impact. The heroine is wasted. It remains to mystery why Ajit would cry at the death of someone who he hardly had any relationship with or intended to?

The only saving grace of the movie is Abassi (Sudanshu Pandey). The character and the actor leave a lasting impression. A good launch pad for a good actor. All the others are just wasted. Vidyut Jamwal as Dmitri has no scope what so ever. The taleted actor we saw flexing his muscles in Force, the hindi remake of Khakka Khakka does 2 stunt scenes and 1 is with Ajith that he has to loose in. Waste of talent.

Coming to the story. Man lands in India from Sri Lanka, is abused, hits back, is plotted against to trap him in drug smuggling, escapes, joins hands with the dealer, leaves the dealer for larger business, ends up in Goa, helps international arms smuggler retreive is stuff, gets in to the big league, takes deicisions that boss does not like, boss tries to kill him, kills boss, looses his girl friend, goes to some far eastern country and kills the arms smuggler, kills everyone connected and then STARTS his Don days. Straight story. No twists, no turns.

Come to think of it, can not write anything else. Cinematography is excellent. GOod choice of female bodies across the movie. Average music. Average background score.

Tamizhnaattu coppuda, dharniellam topuda - Osthe Review

Tamizhnaattu coppuda, dharniellam topuda

Osthe is an out and out STR movie. His fans will love to see their fav hero come back as the action start after performance oriented movies such as VTV and Vaanam. The girls and boys go mad when he flaunts his 6 pack. It is very evident that STR has worked hard for that, especially in the Vaadi Vaadi song, you can actually see a difference between the STR before that and after that in the movie.

Action sequences are out of the world in the literal sence, unbelieveable stunts, but then it is a masala movie, what else would suit. STR explodes in the action sequence, dance, no one has to say, he rocks. It is the emotional scenes that carry you away. STR has indeed matured as an actor and displays controlled emotions throughout the movie. The scene he talks to Nassar in the hospital is very well done. An earlier STR, and it would have been more dramatic.

Richa fits the role to a T. Not much emoting, not too much of glamor. Not too many scenes either.
Santhanam's comedy track goes along with the movie and does not stand out as a sore thumb.
VTV Ganesh, Jittan Ramesh (as Simbus brother) are all adequate.
Revathi afer a long time. As good as ever.
Mallika Sherawat disappoints in Kalasala. Munni Malaika was way better.


The movie stays true to the original, DAbaang and Dharani has tweaked it well to suit the TamilNadu locale. What boggles is why is the set for the climax set alone a near replica of the Dabaang set.? Weird. That is soon forgotten with STR flaunting his 6-pack.

For those who have not watched Dabaang. Osthe Velan(STR) is a supercop-thief who loots the corrupt and apparently distributes to the poor, though we never see him doing it or is there any mention of that. All he does is buy himself new Boleros to blow up. His brother from a different father is Jitthan Ramesh who is naive. Velan crosses the path of Boxer Daniel (Sonu Sood) and they clash with each other trying to outwit the other. Daniel uses the enemity between the brothers in the final stages to get rid of all of them. How Velan overcomes that is the climax. In between Velan romances Neduvali (Richa), thrashes up baddies, outsmarts Daniels attempts to get rid or humiliate him.

Sooriya's score - 3.5/5- Can watch once. For STR fans, must watch.

Thala Pola Varuma

Yes, there are inconsitencies. Yes, it seems, feels and looks outlandish at times. If you care, watch Anbe Sivam, not Mankatha. It is pure entertainment and pure thala.
A fitting fiftieth for Thala is how I would call it. My friend says Mankatha is Gilli. However you wanna term it, the movie rocks.
Right from the first frame that Ajit enters, to the last it keeps you engaged. There are some dragging portions, thankfully, they do not drag for a long time and are cut short by Venkats Prabu's good grasp on the flow.
Ajit has done a great job as the ageing police in the movie who does not hide his age, even when confronted by the girl friends father. The drinking binges, the hangovers, the cheating on the girl friend, the swearing to never to drink again. All atypical of men and very well narrated. Be it the scene where Ajit saves the imprisoned Vaibhav and then dumping the chettiar or the scene where Ajit and Prem go drinking, or the scene where he scuttles Lakshmi Rai out when Trisha arrives, Ajit rocks. Fights, dialogue delivery all come so naturally. He sure has put in a lot of effort and it really shows.
Premji as the nerd. As usual, evalavo paathuttom, idha pakka mattoma. Noodles mandaya. Makes you smile, not laugh as he used to in Saroja. But then, this is a Thala movie and you do not want someone stealing the thunder from the thala.
Ashwin as Ganesh, the Dharavi policeman. A meaty role for an upcoming star. Ganesh Venkatram of Unnaipol Oruvan must be cross with  himself for loosing out on this.
The roles of Vaibhav, Anjali, Aravind Aakash, Lakshmi Rai, Mahat all well thought out and brought in to the narrative at a good time and "ending" them at a good time too.
Action King. As ususal, proves that he is a king of action. Stylish in body language, dressing and attitude. 
Thala calling him as action king in a lot of scenes and Arjun calling Ajit as thala at the last, punch lines, but then, not a typical one. Makes the movie bigger than it is.


What the movie achieves in impressing, again, is that how a simple story line can work wonders in the hands of a good director, an ensemble cast and technology.


If I write more, I might spill the beans on the story, which would be a crime against the movie makers and even against the movie goers. Twist and turns are left for us to enjoy on screen and not to read.


Happy watching.

PMP - Ways and Means

A feeling of great exhilration, a sense of achievement and a ireestible need to have a beer, these were the emotions that ran through me at 5:15PM IST on Aug 5 2011. Yes, I had cleared my PMP. That was the reason for all this.


While it still fresh in my memory, I wanted to jot down some quick points that might help others feel the same.


- A few questions on direct formluae usage were there. PERT, EV/AC/TCPI etc.
- A few indirect formulae questions. Eg., 2 variables given, calculate a 3rd and then use that to caluculate a 4th variable.
- Some question quite confusingly states what is the "process" and the options listed out are 3 KA'a and one process. The key is to read the questions properly and keep an eye open for "keywords"
- PSR - If PSR is involved, throw all option out of the window and go with the one that supports PSR
- Remember, in the "fisrt or best" question, the project is always the priority, the PM always has the responsibility. However, in PSR, it is safety, honesty, responsibility, fairness that is main.
- Sometimes a very early question say 10th, might be the answer for a very late question say 130th. So concentrate on your exam.
- Input, Tools & Techniques, outputs (ITTO) are a must to remember. Write them down every single day along with all formulae and the process group to KA mapping. Make your very own "logical flow" that is the best way to remember, rather than just trying to blindly "mug up", as we say.
- QA vs QC. ITTO's and process here are crucial. As they are indeed confusing.
- Risk and procurement are another 2 areas that I felt a little confusing
- Control and Verify scope, QC - Read and understand the relation that these have with the Closing process group.
- Role of PM and PMO. Understand the differences
- Project doc and Project management Plan -What are the contents. Helps to understand the difference and remember these.
- There are many many books on "clearing" PMP exam. Stick to one. The reason is that every author has his/her own way of teaching. If you try and emulate more than one, you are bound to confuse yourself and eventually fail. Stick to one. While you go through a process or knowledge area, refer PMBOK for that section.
- Remember PMBOK is the ultimate reference, but you are bound to fall asleep without a strategy, which is what one of the exam preps help you.
- The last 1/2 weeks try to take atleast 3/4 mock tests every week. I mean the full 200 ones. Not the 50/75. Those have to be done earlier. But always remember to take a test that provides you with
 (a) standard questions - meaning do not go for every/any mock exam. Try some reputed ones.
(b) answers explained - ensure before you take the exams that the answers are explained at the end. Otherwise, it is not much help. The answers and the relevant explanations always increase your understanding of how you need to read, infer and understand a question. Correct understanding of the question is half the battle won.
- The day before the exam sleep well. You need all the concentration. I did not do this and ended up falling asleep for about 2/3 mins actually.
- Wear warm clothes or carry a jacket etc, esepcially in the warmer places, since the testing centers are normally cool and outside temperature being warm and being cool inside the testing center, coupled with the silence. It is like a lullably :-) Read above point.
- Try to get a realy in the day slot. Or a late in the day slot. Never in between. You neither breakfast nor have lunch properly for those inbetwen slots and they do not allow food inside the center. Hunger could kill your concentration. It did to me. I took a 1 PM slot and suffered.
- Take a 2 mins break every 1 hr. It will help your concentration.