Ennndhiraaa...!!!

Note:

1.    This is not an attempt to review Rajini. Rajini is beyond all that. Rajini is a demigod...no wait, Rajini is GOD..! These are just my views on the movie. 

2.    Contains spoilers. Thought it would be ok because almost everyone would have watched the movie. 

3 long years of fasting for Rajini fans. It is only fair to end it with a befitting meal. Will Endhiran sate the 3 year long hunger? Well, may be...! Read on...

Rajini has donned 3 totally different avatars in Endhiran. Vaseegaran (A scientist), Chitti version 1.0 (An android) and Chitti Version 2.0 (Upgraded Chitti Version 1.0 gone bad - Read villain. Kudos to Shankar for bringing us back the Rajini from the 80s). Rajini has performed each role with near perfection and with a clear line of difference between them. Very few could have portrayed a robot as well as the super star has. Splendid acting..! We bow before thee. There is a twitter joke which goes "Rajini's next movie is named Twitter - Rajini is doing 140 characters in it". Even when this is just a joke one can be sure that Rajini would be able to do justice to all 140 of them. Without his usual intro, mannerisms and punch dialogues, Rajini just sweeps you off your feet with just his acting. We all know that the superstar can act but it is for his sheer style (Ref appendix :D) and mannerisms that most of us love him. It is also why he has a crazier fanbase than much sought after actors like Kamal or Aamir. I also love Rajini for the very same reason. And that's what I went to see in the movie but except for about 20-30 minutes when Chitti v2.0 was around it was completely a Shankar movie. A typical Rajini intro was missing. Shankar could have given the larger than life hero a thunderous intro to assuage the millions worshipping him as God. Not that the whole movie was soaked with reality that a filmi intro would have looked odd or out of place..! Whatever..!

Things worth mentioning

Chitti version 2.0 - Two months back I rushed to buy an audio cd of Endhiran on the launch day to get a poster signed by Rajini only to be disappointed to see a poster with the picture of Chitti version 2.0. I had mixed feelings about it. I wished they could have featured the picture of Rajini posing with a guitar. And now after watching the movie I have that poster pinned to my desk at work. Chitti version 2.0 - GOD of Villains..! Rajini is at his villainous best. The scene where Chitti v2.0 would search for Vaseegaran in a crowd of Androids - AMAZING to say the least- Rajini shouting Vasi, Meeheeehheee - Enna style..! The rush of blood experience you get is unmatchable. The kind of Rajini every fan would die to see. If only Chitti v2.0 had more time on screen..sigh..! The whole theatre was applauding, non-stop. I just loved this.

AR Rahman - Another reason why you would want to watch Endhiran. BGM keeps you spellbound. This is Rahman's fitting reply to all those vetti junta questioning his abilities. The songs could have been pictured better though. Shankar is known for the richness and grandeur in his songs. May be because he used the budget for special effects in the movie or may be the movie as such was really grand that the songs didn't stand out. I enjoyed the locales in Kadhal Anukkal song. Seems to have been shot in Brazil. Appears to be super place for a romantic vacation. Really pleasing to the eye. Arima arima was rocking the theatre but again could have been pictured better. Overall a feast to your ears. ARR, you are awesome..!

Other things I would like to add...

• Tamil cinema is going places...yeah, right..! We are still manipulating controls in a robot using a screw driver. How different is this from Gaptun clicking on links in Windows media player movie in Ramana? Koduma koduma...!
• You know why budget of this movie was close to 200 crores? No no...not for the special effects/computer graphics...it was for showing Aish beautiful...She looked like a kezhavi in Raavanan but looks so stunning in Endhiran. Its ok because unlike heroines in tamil movies who just show up for the songs, Aish is there almost throughout the movie. 
• Why are people creating so much fuzz about the Ranguski Mosquito scene? Yeah it is irritating but the kids would love it. This is a movie for all ages remember? 
• Chitti V1.0 running on the side of the train is not against the law of gravity. Robot is just shown to use his magnetic ability to stick to the train's metallic body. 
• Chitti kicking someone spitting out of the train is Shankar's touch.
• The mariyaatha scene was funny. 
• Karunas is an assistant scientist. Oh, really? :) I have always wondered why artist selection for a character is given much importance when it only depends on how people portray the character. I got the answer after watching Karunas as an assistant scientist. Seriously, sema comedy sir neenga...!
• I like Devadarshini. She does character roles pretty well. Even if she had only about 2-3 scenes in the movie, she has done a good job as usual.
• I hate Revathy Sankaran. Ma'm ungalukku enna role kuduthaalum orey expression dhaan kudupeengala? Ungalukku nadipu varuma, varaadha? (Nayagan style)
• How many of us know how big a zettabyte is? This movie might be for all ages but not for all classes. Though Shankar has tried to cater to all audiences there are lot of technical jargons that people will not understand. I will be taking my parents for this movie sometime next week and I am preparing myself to answer a lot of questions :)
• Art direction could have been better. Vaseegaran's work place looked artificial. A lot of sets in the movie looked very artificial.
• Chitti V1.0 dismantling itself/himself in the climax was totally senti. I am sure it would have left a lot of people in tears. Again, its Thalaivar's acting, dialogue delivery. Super..! 
• Thalaivar looks stunning in the birthday party suit. 
• Like Shankar had said during the trailer launch, the last 30 mins of the movie is awesome. Hollywood ishtyle.
• Lyrics by Madhan Karky were good. Pulikku porandhadhu poonai aagadhu types. 
• Human eyes give out emotions. Shankar has used sun glasses for both the androids to hide the inevitable human emotions. Cool.
• Please please please bring back the Annamalai title intro music. That is so damn good. That is epic. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpbFbb9CQ6Y&feature=related
• After watching Endhiran, I feel like seeing Thalaivar in a full time villain role again.
• Last but not the least - Thanks to Kamal Haasan and Sharukh khan. (They were approached by Shankar before Rajini was asked to do this movie. It is only because they said no that Rajini is in Endhiran)

Something to give a serious thought about.

They say this movie is our answer to movies like iRobot or Avatar. Those movies were first of the kind. We don't have any first of its kind movies. This is definitely not one. This is again based on what we have already seen in hollywood movies. The people who have worked for this movie are also the same who worked for iRobot or Avatar. This is a mix of iRobot, Bicentennial man and Transformers. Except for a little creativity on Shankar's part there is nothing different. Please don't tell me we are trying to give C sector audience a taste of hollywood style - Almost all the hollywood movies with rocking computer graphics are now being dubbed in tamil. So why this hype? I would be really happy that day when we make a truly world class movie which has never been attempted before. 

All said and done, a lot of effort would have gone into making this movie and I don't want to take away the credit from the people who worked for this. This movie has a very good entertainment quotient and can be watched and enjoyed with your family. So do go see. Enjoy that 30 minutes of Thalaivar's merattal....and 30 minutes of technical excellence...DOT..!

Appendix

Reasons why Rajini is a super star...

Alex pandian - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l38a9INpruw&feature=related

Thalapathi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZGU_izXsVs&feature=related

Malai da, Annamalai - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK-i_FAcpoY&NR=1

Ulle po - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1N_vzGXvQ&feature=related

Nallavangala aandavan sodhipaan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIfPeLDn8rU&feature=related

Vayasaanalum un azhagum style'um unna vitu pogala - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa5u42SAyDk&feature=related

And more...

Boss (a) Baskaran

The usual story line - Care free guy falls in love with a girl, is humiliated and gets transformed into a responsible individual -  presented in an enjoyable manner. 

The real hero of this movie is Santhanam. With the kind of applause he is getting with his intro one can easily tell that he has started eating into the opportunities of Vadivelu and Vivek. His witty dialogues had me laughing heartily so I wouldn't definitely complain. His comedy is a breath of fresh air when tamil movie goers are saturated with the "messages" from Vivek and "Self-mockery" from Vadivelu. But even he had to rope in references to "Thala", "Thalapathi", "Thalaivar" and "Ulaga Nayagan" for grabbing attention. I felt he would have done well even without those. I mean there are scenes which would make you roll on the floor laughing. A job well done.

Ok. Now about the actual hero of the movie - Arya. I find people surprised to see Arya play this funny character to perfection but he had already proved himself in comedy in "Arindhum Ariyamalum". A scene in "Arindhum Ariyamalum" in which he would giggle in a traffic signal. That was epic. 

Nayanthara used to be really attractive a couple of years back. May be she is still to many of you but I beg to differ. In the movie, like most tamil movies, Arya falls in love with Nayan on first sight. She really didn't look like someone with whom you would fall in love on first sight. May be the cameraman who had otherwise done a pretty good job could have tried something different. But Nayan sure grabbed my attention as the movie progressed with her cute smile, blushing and mannerisms. 

Vijayalakshmi (Surya's pair in Friends movie) as Arya's Sis-in-law, Subbu Panchu (Panchu Arunachalam's son) as Arya's brother, Lakshmi (who plays Anushka's mom in Chennai silks ad) as Arya's mother and Chitra Lakshmanan as Nayan's dad have done a neat job. 

Music by Yuvan was ok. "Yaar indha pen" and "Kumbakonam vethala" songs are hummable. 

I don't know if it is good or bad to have scenes in the movie with differentially abled people to evoke sympathy. It worked though in this movie but I am not sure if that is how it should be. May be the director wanted to show that if differentially abled can achieve great things so can we but the question is, isn't it like telling people that differentially abled have a disadvantage? May be it is true but isn't it what we are trying to erase from the minds of everyone? 

The climax is a let down. If it had been more interesting Boss would have been a near perfect comedy movie. :) (I say near perfect because movies like MMKR/Panchathandiram are perfect. Even if the climax had been different and gripping still it will never be in the same league as those). 

After you see the movie you would realize that almost all the plots in the movie are those that have been already tried many times in tamil movies but in spite of all those if it is enjoyable the credit would definitely go to the director, dialogues and to Santhanam. I can't discuss about a lot many things in the movie without revealing the story so I would rather not discuss anything more. 

A feel good movie. A time pass movie. A movie which will make you laugh. A movie you can watch with your family. A movie worth watching in theatre. Go watch.

Few things I enjoyed:

1. Peppy music in the opening credits.

2. In the back drop of "Kumbakonam Vethala" song, they had the famous "KFC thatha" photo with a pottu (Bindi). Looked funny. 

3. A 2 sec sitar bit in comedy scenes which is usually associated with sober scenes in old B&W movies.

4. Jeeva's acting when Nayan's dad says I would complain to your father. Ultimate.

5. Arya's sister's marriage in the movie was shot in "Chandrasekhar Kalyana Mandapam - West Mambalam, Chennai". People who know me well would know why this brought a smile to my face. (If you don't know it doesn't mean you don't know me well. It might be because I haven't told you yet or you forgot. :) )

6. Nayan looked ravishing in a red dress in one of the songs.

7. Endhiran, Mangaatha, VA quarter cutting trailers during the intermission.

8. The roar in the theatre when Endhiran trailer was played :)

One thing I really hated:

1. Foreigners dancing to Indian beat in a song (don't remember which). I get irritated every time I watch "Hey pappa nee konjam nillu" song from Badri just for this reason. 

Baana Kathadi - One line review

Watched "Baana Kaathadi" today...just because I was so damn bored and didn't have patience to do anything useful... 

So how was the movie? - பாணா காத்தாடி - ஒரு நூல் அருந்த பட்டம். 

I liked two songs though. Considering that I am listening to those songs for the first time, they were quite catchy. "En nenjil" and "Paithyam pidikudhu". Yuvan has scored music.

2 Square...

I had lunch at "2 Square" - A veg restaurant in Nungambakkam (In the one way near Loyola college). The food was A.W.E.S.O.M.E. They just serve Thalis during lunch. There are 4 different varieties of Thalis available - Madras, Hyderabad, Malabar and Mumbai. The spread on all these varieties are pretty much the same except for minor differences. You can have everything on the Thali in unlimited quantities. It is priced at Rs. 85/- inclusive of taxes.

They offer ala carte service for dinner. The dinner menu has very limited options available available but I believe the quality of food would be as good as lunch.

# The ambience is pretty good.
# They have valet parking.

Do check it out if you are in Chennai...!!!

Understanding Calories and weight loss...

We see more and more obese people every day. This number keeps increasing and most of them are from our industry. Fortunately, people are becoming conscious of their weight/health these days and are trying to go on a diet. But most people do so without understanding the concept behind calories, weight loss/gain. Such mindless dieting doesn't help. I was obese a couple of years back and since then have reduced 48 Lbs (22 Kgs). I feel good and confident now after losing weight. While I was trying to lose weight I read a lot about dieting and exercising. Now that I have successfully lost weight and have been maintaining it for more than a year, I thought I could share some of my knowledge on this with you all.

Calories are just a way to measure energy. Our body needs a certain amount of energy to function (Example: Pumping of blood, respiration and maintaining body temperature). Even if you do nothing a whole day but just sit in a place still your body needs energy to function. This minimum energy (Calories) needed by your body to sustain life is called Basic Metabolic Rate. Apart from this you do basic activities everyday like brushing your teeth, taking bath etc which also require energy (calories) which will be in addition to the Basic Metabolic Rate.

You can easily calculate your BMR with your age, sex, height and weight. There are lots of BMR calculators available in the internet. Let’s take a case of someone with a BMR of 2000 calories. This is the minimum calories required by that person to exist. The actual calories which includes other activities can be roughly calculated using the below scale.

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (No exercise)

Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (Light exercise, 2 days a week)

Moderately active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise, 3-5 days a week)

Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports all days of the week)

Extra active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

Considering the case of a sedentary person, he/she would need 2000 * 1.2 = 2400 calories per day.

From the listing above you can easily know that when you exercise the amount of calories needed go up. I guess you get the idea. So in our case eating more than 2400 calories per day will cause weight gain because your body only needs as much calories to function and when you provide additional calories it stores it as fat for later use. Every additional 3500 calories than what your body needs would cause 1 lb (~0.5 kgs) increase in weight. For example now when you need just 2400 calories per day, you eat 2900 (500 calories more) calories continuously for 2 weeks, you would gain 2 lbs (~1 kg) weight because you have had 7000 more calories than you should have in those 2 weeks (500 additional calorie per day * 14 days = 7000 calories) So the idea with weight loss or weight gain just resides with how much calories you give your body.

Wait; now because I told you that weight loss depends on giving the body less calories don't think not eating a meal every day or eating only 500 calories per day would help you easily lose weight, NO. You might ask, when I need 2400 calories per day if I eat only 500 calories per day, I am basically eating 1900 less calories per day right? So shouldn't I lose weight quickly? The answer is a big NO. When you start giving your body less than what it needs to survive (Your Basic Metabolic Rate - 2000 calories in our case) your body would start using less calories for functioning. Your body is intelligent. Your body would try to adapt itself to the calories available. It would think that you are starving and it would try to run the show using just the energy that you give it. So eventually your weight loss would slow down and also you are putting so much pressure on your body that it would start giving you health problems. So the best way to reduce weight is to reduce it slowly. Eat not too much less than your BMR. It would really help if you exercise daily which means your body spends energy in that too. This would mean your body would need more calories per day. For example if you exercise to burn 500 calories per day (20 minutes in Tread mill + 20 minutes in EFX) your body would now basically need 2900 calories per day but when you give it just 2000 calories to take care of its basic functioning it would take the rest from fat which in turn becomes weight loss.

 I don't want to confuse you much but want to tell you a couple more things.

1. As I had mentioned before, the BMR of every person would be different. But unlike I said before there are more factors than Age, sex, height and weight which affects BMR.

a. Illness - For eg when you have a high fever your BMR would increase

b. Thyroid - Thyroid produces a hormone called Thyroxin. More Thyroxin = More BMR, which is why some people with problems with their thyroid gland are fat because their thyroid would be producing very little thyroxin.

c. Diet - Like I had mentioned before if you give your body very little calories, it would go into starvation mode and would try to spend lesser calories than it usually would. Our body is intelligent.

d. Exercise - More exercise = More BMR

e. Body fat percentage - More fat = Less BMR. Its inverse is also true. More muscle = More BMR. This explains why exercising increases your BMR because exercising increases your lean muscle.

 When you diet, only 75% of your weight is taken from fat and the rest from your muscles (which is called lean mass), so eventually your body's BMR lowers slowly as you diet/reduce weight so it is good to exercise to compensate for this muscle loss so your BMR doesn't go down.

2. Even if you eat just 2000 calories per day, eat the food in proper proportion. Roughly 25-30% of energy given to your body should be from FAT, 20-25% percent from PROTEIN and 45-55% from CARBOHYDRATES. So fat is a must in your daily intake. There are two types of fat, good fat and bad fat. Monounsaturated fat and Poly unsaturated fat is good for health. Whereas saturated fat and Trans fat is bad for health. People suggest virgin olive oil or Canola oil because they have a high content of Mono unsaturated fat.

Eat healthy. Eat adequately. Start exercising. Live a longer life.

Raavanan - The Indian epic rehashed...

I was disappointed to see bad reviews just hours after the movie was released but decided to watch the movie nevertheless. Afterall, it is a Maniratnam film.

Its another successful attempt by the director who earlier elegantly brought on screen a part of "Mahabharatam". As you all already know, this time its "Raamayanam".

How do you relate Raavanan to Raamayanam?

Raaman	Prithviraj - Looks stylish
Raavanan	Vikram - Terrific acting. Not sure how many of you noticed the "Dan dan dan dan danakka" chorus in the veera song. Vikram does this dan dan dan thing now and then in the movie and only he can make it look good. It would have been absolutely hilarious if someone like Simbu had done it. I still haven't seen the hindi version but I am almost sure Mr. Bacchan junior can't even come close.
Seetha	Aish - I am confused about Aish. She looks breathtakingly beautiful in some scenes and equally scary in some other scenes...may be Mani ratnam would chose someone else for the lead role for his next movie. Tired of seeing Aish
Hanuman	"Mr. Chandramouli..." Karthik - I thought he went a little overboard with his acting. I didn't like it. May be Mani ratnam wanted to show that he relates Karthik to Hanuman so he needlessly made him jump around trees in his intro...(hoisted with a crane...Mani ratnam could have tried to make it real...)
Soorpanaga	Priyamani - Nothing much special about Priyamani's acting but she didn't get much scope for acting either so I wouldn't complain.
Kumbakarnan	Prabhu - Another neat performance.
Lakshmanan	Hemanth (Don't know his actual name)
Kumbakarnan's wife	Ranjitha - There was a lot of discussion about Maniratnam being concerned about Ranjitha after the Nithyananda issue but she didn't have any crucial role in the movie. Infact there was not even a single word dialogue for her in the movie (or may be I missed it because I hardly saw her on screen).
Ayodhya	Tirunelveli
14 years Vanavaasam (Exile)	14 hrs extended to 14 days vanavaasam for Aish
Prince	Police officer

Raamanyanam in short - The underlined parts can be related to the movie with the above references :)

"Raaman is the prince of Ayodhya. He is married to Seetha. Lakshmanan is the younger brother of Raaman. They (Raaman, Seetha and Lakshmanan) go on Vana vaasam (Exile) for 14 years. While they are in exile, Soorpanaga, the sister of Raavanan tries to seduce Raaman/Lakshmanan. Failing to do so she is trying to kill Seetha when Lakshmanan cuts off her nose. Raavanan kidnaps Seetha to take revenge on the brothers. Raavanan falls in love with Seetha. Raaman kills Raavanan and rescues Seetha."

The story of Raavanan is the same with a little deviation from the epic. Ofcourse the movie name is Raavanan so obviously here Raavanan is the hero and Raaman is the bad guy.... :) How Mani ratnam has made you love Raavanan is sheer excellence.

Needless to say cinematography and music will be at its best in Mani ratnam's movies. The same holds good here too.

Cinematography: The shooting locales are really pleasant. Its raining in most part of the movie and almost every scene is wet. It makes you want to go there. I don't know where it was shot but must be some places in kerala and might also be Mundanthurai/Kalakaadu forest near Ambasamudram. Mani ratnam and his crew has definitely spent a lot of effort for this and it has definitely worked. Music: I wouldn't waste your time talking about Rahman's music. He is a genius. "Usure Pogudhey" song has been wasted in the background. I didn't like some of the dance steps in "Kalvare" song. It didn't gel well with the song. Keda kari song is picturised well. BGM is good. Lot of kutti kutti things in the background is really enjoyable. Rahman (or Rah'GOD' as I saw in some forward mail) has sung "Naan Varuvaen" song for the movie credits. Its awesome.

I didn't like the dialogues. I expect the dialogues to be as good as the cinematography or music in a Maniratnam film.

It is a no nonsense movie and hats off to Mani ratnam and his crew for giving us a wonderful movie. Give a damn about the bad reviews and go enjoy the movie. May be the person who gave a bad review for this movie was expecting to see something like "Sura". For the records, I didn't watch Sura. I didn't think I could take it and what is even worse?, I am a Vijay fan...!