My top ten addictions of this fortnight

1. A R Rehman - New York Nagaram (Jillunu oru Kaadhal)
2. Coldplay - Rush of blood
3. Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
4. Bob Dylan - Things have changed
5. TaTu - All the things she said
6. Mettalica - Fade to Black
7. Harris Jeyaraj - Azhagiya Theeya (yeah relapse ;))
8. Ozzy - Miracle Man
9. Yuvan - Kaadhal Saidal (Mounam paesiyadae) (all time favs.)
10. Led Zepplin - Stairway to heaven

ARR fading from tam cinema?

People say AR Rehman's music is like 'Sex'. It grows on you with experience. It is always a little confusing and shocking the first time. But you learn to love it and slowly it becomes addictive! A better comparison would have been 'wine' but there is nothing like a shocking first line when you are writing something isnt it?. Anyways, just a couple of days back, completely bored with all the rocks, hiphops and pops in the world i turned to the master for some respite. Digging through the old archives i brought up all of rehman's classics starting from 'roja' through 'dil se' to 'Rang de'. It rocked! Thats when it really hit me - you never get tired of rehman. According to me he is 'the best' music director of indian cinema.

But there has been more than a perceptible shift in ARR's priorities over the years. It all started with ARR's music first going nation wide thanks to maniratnam and then international thanks to Andrew lloyd. In fact, some of AR Rehman's all time best would be the ones he composed for the bollywood : Dil se, Taal, Swadesh, RDB- all brilliant compositions. But if i were to draw a graph of rehaman's compositions for tamil cinema with quality as the defining parameter then we would definitely witness an exponential drop. The abyss becomes all the more apparent when you spot the huge difference in class between a 'Rang de Basanti' and a 'Godfather'. Its shocking to note that both have come from ARR's hands - one album that makes you want to dance and sing along and the other a dissapointment. The trend has been there for quite some time New,Aah Aaah,GodFather and now 'Sillunnu oru Kaadhal kadai'. I wouldnt say they are bad but they pale into comparison when compared to his brilliance in bollywood. Why this bias?
I wouldnt blame rehman. Its the fault of the tamil directors who still swear by formula compositions - one slow, one fast, one item number, one ghana. The story and songs no longer have any connection. Clearly rehman would be wasting his time here and just mixes up a few loops and throws in a few organs and bingo u have ur tam number. A frightening prospect.

But tamil music is not dying. Rehman may be the king of indian cinema but not tamil cinema anymore. Yuvan has taken the place of the number 1 music director in tamil cinema. With his own distinct style, yuvan has given some brilliant compositions in the past couple of years. In fact, within the last year and a half he has composed some songs that would find a place in my all time list of great tamil songs : Kannai vittu(pattial), Kangal kandadhu(oru kalooriyin kathai), Oru naalil vaazhkai (pudupettai). He has really blossomed under selvaraghavan and is now a complete music director. Yuvan is the flavour of the season. So tamil cinema is not entirely missing AR Rehman. But when he comes and gives a completely brilliant composition some time in the future (sivaji?), i am sure all the pretenders will pale into comparison.

Kodai Trip Pics

The winch track at palani















Steep and scary climb to the top of the hill

















The view from the hill top















a few hundred feet above ground
















The bridge over the kodai lake












































The Kodai Lake

















Just like that

Pudupettai - Not for the faint hearted

Gangster movies seem to be the flavour of the season in tamil cinema. After the massacre riot of pattial - just when you thought it could not get more violent or gory than that - comes pudupettai painted in red. Its not a movie for the faint hearted.

Selvaragavan, yet again, puts dhanush in a character you can neither dislike or dis-hate. But unlike kaadhal kondaen where there was a strong undercurrent of love, this one is purely about - well... bloodshed. The movie has a cliched storyline: a young boy influenced by circumstances to become bad. But the execution is different from other movies. Unlike its predecessors which try and sugarcoat the life of a gangster, this one shows it in all its blood and pain. No dream lands, no duets..i like him for that. Sometimes the movie reflects the noir undertone of the story and feels like one is reading the pages of a well written script. Was even reminded of max payne at times - an unheard deep bass voice taking you through the story. The movie proceeds like a melange of events each fading into the next conveying a meaning, each depicting dhanush in new light and each a stepping stone for him in the dark and murderous world of killers and thugs.

What makes this movie enjoyable(at least for me) is the awesome sound track and incredible camera work. As always selvaragavan has integrated the songs into the movie so beautifully that you wont even realise that a song has gone by. Even the background score is amazing in combo with the scenes. Apart from the music, the camera work is just awesome. The scene that stands out is the sword fight on the street. The entire scene looks like it happens in the night, essentially in black and white, except for the red blood. It was an amazing fight sequence with some excellent slow mo captures that felt like a matrix duel. Hats off! Even in other scenes, the artful use of light tones - i could distinctly remember green, yellow and grayscale tones - made it enjoyable watching.

However this is not a movie that will go down well with everyone. The gore and violence is perhaps too much and it was probably intentional. Dhanush fits like a glove to his role as in all selvaragavan movies. Post interval, he gets cranky and begins to do all sorts of crazy stuff. This is the point you feel that the director has spoilt all his good work though this follows a small prelude from Dhanush's ramblings in the cell where he says

"Its just the first murder that scares you. After you have done it once, you begin to like it. You are intoxicated by your own power and begin to feel what you do is right"

That in essence captures the entire story line.

Excellent Fernando Alonso videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3KuuwvCEGU&search=alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrf2djg4rGU&search=alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47JDmOTR9s0&search=alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9t9ngrLqeI&search=alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA0nfz_MbAs&search=fernando%20alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le1CHSkEmD8&search=fernando%20alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItUcMX9SMf0&search=fernando%20alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtvsNyfBnJ4&search=fernando%20alonso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRR8BA33fLA&search=fernando%20alonso