Neelathaamara -Was this remake really needed?

reviewed by nikhimenon@gmail.com

Lal Jose's tribute to Yousuf Ali Kecheri -'Neelathamaara 2009' is painfuly boring and hence a tiresome experience for the viewers.Most of the web reviews seem to be too much carried away by the M.T-Lal Jose combo(as they have showered praises endlessly),but it's not the same atleast in the cinema halls.

All right, i will come straight to why i found this movie as a test of my patience(Contains Spoilers)..

1.The lack of Chemistry between the lead pair...
2.Though Neelathamara is designed as the story of kunjimalu, the story never delves deep into her life.
3.The half baked character of Shaarathe Ammini.Can somebody tell me why she committed suicide? Was it because her brother molested her?
4.The cliched 'Naadan characters' of Bhaagavathar,insane genius who sits in the temple ground.
5.The better movies with similar theme like Nandanam which got released earlier.
6.Nothing really happens in the movie and even a running time of 110 minutes seemed too long ...!
7.Neither Haridaasan nor kunjimaalu made an impact
8.The lethargic pace of the movie....
9.The  beaten -to death.story line...

Why it was not an absolute disaster for me...(again i am not saying about the b.o.performance or the general public opinion)

1.The song Anuuraga Vilochananayi...
2.The movie had atleast it's heart in the right place....
3.Archana who played Kunjimaalu was sincere..

verdict: swa.le was more entertaining than this neelathaamara....!

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An ultrashort review of the Ultimate disaster movie.....

nikhimenon@gmail.com

The so called critics  (or even the wannabe ones) might have written off this movie,but  still i thought i would end my 3 month old hiatus (ofcourse from the hospital and the patients) on a lavish note by spending 50 bucks on this disaster flick .Directed by Roland Emmerich,who is better known for B-grade,yet entertaining enterprises like The Day After tomorow and Independence day, 2012 is cheesy yet thoroughly entertaining.(oops ..in all probability, this statement would flood my inbox with  'who are you to comment on this/that 'monumental' work of art ' mails....never mind, i think so..that's it.....)

Leave behind  the Mayan calender,sunspot activity,apocalypse and other  weird terminologies,forget the mandatory personal story of the failed writer (who else,john cusack),occasional cheesy dialogues and bad acting(ofcourse  quite expected  for a disaster movie) ,the great vfx and the visual spectacle it offers'  alone would make this one worth your money.

 If  you let go of how unrealistic it is, you can just have fun with that want of destruction and chaos.The cilmax could have been better and the movie itself could have been easily trimmed a bit,but never mind in this present form itself it qualifies as a  great pop-corn flick.

Since i am too tired to write a lengthy review , i am concluding the review with my rating : 7/10 (it's cheesy ..un adulterated fun..go for it...)

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This one is hilarious...

 nikhimenon@gmail.com

Check this out.....

http://movies.rediff.com/report/2009/nov/13/sena-sainiks-cover-kareena.htm

The shiv sainiks are into garment business too nowadays.....!

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Now we know why you cried last week,C.M.......

nikhimenon@gmail.com

For those who still can't figure out why the Karnataka C.M, B.S.Yeddyurappa. wept 'live on tv' last week, here comes the answer.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Yeddyurappa-spends-Rs-17-crore-to-redo-home/articleshow/5224576.cms

C'mmon isn't  painful to sell your 'brand new house' even before staying a single night in it?

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Again 3 books and a movie...!

nikhimenon@gmail.com

Now that my 3 month long 'extended' vacation before house surgeoncy all set to vanish to thin air within a couple of days, here comes one more post,rather short  reviews of 3 books and a movie which i just managed to finish.

Books:

1.Almost Single:

A desi chick lit  by Advaita kala,this one tells the story of three single,fun loving women Misha,Aisha and Anushka and their adventures with the opposite sex.Quite hilarious and fast paced, recommended if you love reading decent chick lit' books.

rating: 6.75/10

2.You are here:

Written by India's star blogger ,Meenakshy reddy madhavan 'You are here' is nothing but chick lit gone bad.Totally unfunny and plain bad at times, this one can be easily avoided.Heard she is writing her second book now...Hope she will learn from her mistakes...!

rating: 4/10

3.The Strike:

This one is Toronto based 'Anand Mahadevan's' debut which is the story of  twelve year old Hari who tries to make sense of his tumultous and complex world in the 1980's India.A note worthy coming-of-age tale laced with humour ,strike is at the best a decent debut.

rating: 5/10

Movie:

1.Dil Bole Hadippa:


Yash Raj's Chak de india meets 'jab we met' kind of story set(again) in the punjabi back drop din't work for me.The only good thing about the movie being the title track set to tune by Pritam.


rating:3/10

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National Epilepsy Day

nikhimenon@gmail.com

In connection with the national epilepsy day(November 17) ,Cochin Neurological society in association with the Indian epilepsy association is jointly organising a panel discussion on epilepsy at the IMA Hall,kaloor from 7 pm to 9 pm.All the GPs,house surgeons,obstetricians and paediatricians in and around kochin are invited.The function will be inaugrated by Dr.BeenaIAS ,District collector,ekm.

The topics of discussion include Head Injury and related epilepsies(by Dr.T.K.Manoj,consultant neuro surgeon,St.James hospital chalakkudy),Special issues concerning women with epilepsy (Dr.Sareena Gilwaz,jubilee mission hospital thrissur)and management of benign epilepsy syndromes in school going children(Dr.Murali Krishna Menon,consultant neurologist,Lake Shore Hospital,Cochin).

Food and cocktails will be served there after.

Hope you will make use of the evening.

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Error regretted...

nikhimenon@gmail.com

A couple of weeks back, i had made a post titled

Shocking news : Malayalam Directors have started reading again....!

In this post,rather in a comment written by me as a reply to panicker in the comment box,i had stated that lal jose's short in kerala cafe was based on vk sreeraman's story.  It was CV sreeraman and not vk sreeraman.I thank mr.saswath , for pointing out this error.

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The worst Malayalam Movies ever made-Part 2

written and posted by nikhimenon@gmail.com

A couple of weeks back, we had the first part of this  post and here comes the second.

 

5.Thacholi Varghese Chekavar:

 

This is one of those  films ,the distant memory of which  would even be sufficient to cause  an M.I.(heart attack) to those who were involved in it's making .With a ridiculous script,amateurish direction and 'awful' performances from the  lead cast(rajeev kumar had the courage to make an otherwise dependable mohanlal ham till he became a hamburger in tvc!), this movie was every  insomniacs' delight.The film was unforgivably regressive and could have easily garnered the top honours in the Razzies had it been made in Hollywood.The only good thing about the movie being the decent songs tuned by Sharath.(who makes a livelihood  by correcting the 'sangathees' of  wannabe Jesudases and Mangeshkars out there  in one of those 'Malayalee  idol' reality shows nowadays)

 

4. Millenium Stars:

 It was indeed the first Malayalam movie of the millenium and  in all probability would remain as one of the worst ones too. Neither the good story line nor the brilliant music by Vidyasaagar could save this mess of a movie in the boxoffice.Producer 'Kireedom Unni'(better known for movies like Sallapam,kireedom et al) went bankrupt after the release of this multistarrer directed by jayaraaj and hasn't recovered from the financial losses still. The movie supposed to be inspired from the real life story of 'Colonial Cousins' was a colossal failure and was trashed by the critics as well.

3.Chakram

 

It was a close call between Vamanapuram Bus Route, Bhagavan and this one.Chakram won the race just because it was ditched out by one of the legends of malayalam cinema,the late Lohithadas.This one  was a juevenile,amaterish attempt by the master story teller who is known for  meaningful and realistic movies.Prithviraaj (in his early days though)couldn’t save this one and the role of a ‘lorry driver in search of his lost love’ seemed to be too heavy for him.Meera Jasmine in her ‘damsel in distress’ avatar  was even horrible.All together a horrible movie by all means and recommended for those who want to abuse  your endurance levels.

 

2.Ee Pattanathil Bhootam :

 

With EPB Jhony Antony and his script writer duo of Siby and Udayan managed to set a new bench mark for all the 'i desperately need to direct a film to make my partner realise that i am terrible only in bed' kind of film makers. days. (In what other way can you   rationalise  the use of double meaning dialogues and innumerable references to Shakeela, a desi porn star in a movie for children?).I seriously doubt the sexual orientation of the bhootham character (who had Suraj as his side kick)who always speaks as if he is in a gay orgy or something.One of the most insufferable movies of this decade.

 

1.Living Together (Directed by Fazil)

 The movie was so bad that we were forced to write this after watching this 'torture' called 'Living Together'.It's one of those rare movies which is a failure in all the departments.Poorly written,badly acted and awfully shot,this movie can even put Mr Vinayan to shame!A song from this awesomely awesome movie can be watched here.

Ps: I have excluded the recent Rajasenan,Vinayan films while preparing this list else they would have shared almost all the honours among themselves.: All the movies featured in this list have been made by some of the best talents in this business and not by some 'one film wonders'.That's also  why movies like '3 chaar sau bees',nirakkazcha','oru small family' have no place here.

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America's victory in the Kerala by-elections.....!

written and posted by nikhimenon@gmail.com

In the normal case i won't  have cared about the by-elections, as my 'idiotic' mind thinks that the whole 'circus' of making a member of the legislative assembly leave his office to contest for the parliament elections is like forcing  a husband to  divorce his existing wife for marrying another, as the rest of the XYs in the city have got castrated.But with the  'jhagada' over the Voters list and 'the deployment of central forces' making the headlines ,the by-election results in Kerala arouse some curiosity.

As expectedly, a flash about the results appeared in the  news channel (which has  reporters with  a 'I don't mind  raping a teenager for the sake of my channel's TRPs look' all the time)by noon.It announced the victory of the congress led United Democratic Front in all the 3 constituencies in Kerala where the by-elections were held.It was followed by a clipping in which the 3 elected candidates lectured about how they would work for the upliftment of the 'secular', 'peace loving' people of Kerala (thank God,no body asked them whether they had some plans to  kill all the 'communal','violent' people of the state!) or rather the  'mankind' as a whole in the next one and a half years of their life (or till they get screwed up by getting themselves involved in some scandal!) .As i was about to switch off my television ,still pondering about the possibility of being included in the 'violent' group (for having a secret fetish for bondage and domination videos) came the  second clipping in which one of the defeated (atleast that was what i thought before seeing this one) communist candidates was seen analysing the results of the election.(I should say that i am thankful to this great human being for clearing one of the greatest misconceptions of my lifetime) .As always,i  am sharing all the valuable information which i got listening to that  great human being with my beloved readers. 

1.The popular belief that UDF has won the kerala by-elections is nothing but a delusion.

2.In fact all the 3 communist candidates have emerged victorious 'technically' this time as none of the  'UDF' candidates could garner as much majority as they had garnered in the last Lok Sabha Elections.For instance, while during the last lok sabha elections the UDF  won the kannur constutency by 22,000 votes ,this time they could win only by 12,000 votes.

3.America and CIA are spreading 'false information' proclaiming  'the UDF victory' to destroy the mighty Communist party of India(Marxist).They are doing so  to force  India sign the ASEAN deal(which they have already achieved by now) and thereby make Indians eat 'American' food all the time.

4.Due to the pressure from America, more than 12,000  workers in kannur and 8,000 Christians in Ernakulam refrained from voting in favour of CPM which has 'given' a false impression of UDF victory.







In short America Has won the Kerala by-elections.....!

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Remembering Seth Cook

nikhimenon@gmail.com

While browsing through one of the 'desi' entertainment channels(which still believes that 'zooming' into the 'menstrual cycles' of celebrities' would qualify as entertainment!) , happened to see the trailer of a 'yet to be released' Amitabh Bachan starrer titled 'Paa'.Incidentally it reminded me of an article (which i had come across a couple of weeks back) about a child called 'Seth Cook' who lived in the United states. For those who are wondering what Big B and this child have in common,here is the answer -Seth Cook had progeria.(Of course ,Bachan doesn't have Progeria,but his character in Paa has...!)

For the beginners,here is a useful piece of info. Progeria is a rare,non-heriditary genetic disease which occurs as a result of mutation.Also known as "Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome" and "Hutchinson–Gilford syndrome)it is an extremely severe disease  wherein symptoms resembling aspects of ageing are manifested at an early age.The affected usually die in their teens though cases have been reported where the patients lived up to twenty years of age.In other words children(though their mental development will be normal) with progeria dont grow ,they age rather.No effective treatment is there for this condition.

Kyle Cook, (Seth's father ) and Patti Cook,(Seth's mother) were students of a high school from the tiny logging town of Darrington, Washington. Like every other bollywood movie; they met , started dating and a few twists and turns later  got married.Patty eventually got pregnant at the age of 21.On  July 22, 1993  Seth Anthony Cook ,the baby with blue eyes was born.All was fine till the baby was three months old,when the parents discovered that their child was not normal.Failure to gain weight(failure to thrive) and hairloss(alopecia) being the first symptoms.When Seth was two years old,the parents realised that their son was one among the 40 odd cases of progeria  diagnosed worldwide.

While weak hearted people like us would see this as a tragedy,Seth cook had the courage to underlook it and  he even  took his life as a blessing.NBC,USA had done a feature on him and he won over millions of people through his witty one liners and practical jokes.

He was made  an honorary sheriff's deputy, which incidentally was his  lifelong goal.

Seth passed away on June 25,2007 when he was thirteen years old due to  myocardial infarction which was a   consequence of his disease.

I came to know about him while i was collecting some information about progeria to write a paper on it.But after reading a lot of articles about his life, and watching the interview he had given to nbc online,i am pretty sure that i wont be able to forget this blue eyed,brave boy with a great sense of humour soon..

To read more about Seth  ,here is the link http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20119569


This post is dedicated to all the students in the country who don't think twice to end their lives when their exam results disappoint them ...!

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Stress and diabetes...

nikhimenon@gmail.com

Stress is an inevitable accompaniment of modern life.As most of us know, stress can create havoc in our personal life.It can cause or worsen a hell lot of diseases.But have you ever thought Diabetes is one among them?Those who haven't, this one is for you people.

Diabetes Mellitus (popularly known as high blood sugar) can be due to a lack of insulin in the blood level or the resistance to insulin or the presence of an excess of counter regulatory hormones like Cortisol,Adrenaline,Glucagon and Growth hormone.Severe stress can cause an increase in the blood levels of the latter thereby resulting in Diabetes.Studies have been done worldwide substantiating this fact.This makes it extremely important to detect high stress levels in a diabetic patient,since blood sugar will come down only if stress is relieved.Have you got a patient with un explained high blood sugars,or with un controlled levels despite optimum use of diet,tablets and insulin,think of severe stress..(it may explain the condition).

The  ability to cope with stress depends on the individual and it all depends on how he/she reacts to it.It's also important not to resort to a band-aid approach when dealing with stress.(that's try only treating the symptoms avoiding finding out the root cause for it).Stress management techniques,diet,exercise,meditation,bio-feed back,yoga and other relaxation therapy will help in over coming stress..

for those who wonder why i am posting an article related to diabetes,november 14 th is the  world diabetes day.

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3 Books and 3 Movies....

nikhimenon@gmail.com

Though the last week was a bit busy one, managed to finish two books and a couple of movies.Here is a short review of them.

Novels:

1.The Inscrutable Americans by Anuraag Mathur:

It's the story of Gopal ,a rich brat from ,jajau,a small town in India who lands in the U.S. for pursuing a degree in Chemical Engineering.His 'atrocious command' over the language and 'his small town' attitude, makes this book a 'laugh a minute' adventure.Genuinely hilarious.Recommended.

Rating: 7/10

2.Phantoms by Dean Koontz:

Spring Field is a fictitious town in California.One fine morning,Dr.Jennifer discovers that all the inhabitants of the town have disappeared.They have been killed by a supernatural force! Will she survive the 'thing'?

With a rather interesting premise, this one would have been definitely worth a read,had the writer shortened the length of this 484 page book a bit.In it's present form,with it's lethargic pace,and repetitive scenes, it tests your patience quite often.

Rating:5/10

3.My Friend Sancho by Amit Verma:

Writing a book is every mainstream blogger's dream. 'MFS' is Amit Verma's answer to meenakshy reddy Madhavan and Ashok Banker(to name a few!).The story as well as it's premise is pretty familiar,a boy(who apparently works in a tabloid) meets a girl..(he) falls in love with her (with a few  topical cliches thrown in between).The book promised to be fun but after going through it, i would be dishonest if i say that i was not disappointed.The language is too simple and at times you feel that you are in the midst of a  conversation with  a sales executive in some random book shop. Anyways, Amit atleast tried to give us a 'fun read' avoiding the popular  'IIT/IIM'  formula...

Rating:5/10

Movies:

1.Kerala Cafe:

An anthology of ten short films conceived by Renjith and directed by nine mainstream directors and a debutant, this movie is definitely one of the best movies of the decade.The pick of the Lot being Bridge by Anwar Rasheed.Shankar Ramakrishnan's Island express,Anjali Menon's Happy Journey ,Unnikrishnan's Aviraamam were also outstanding.Shyaamaprasad's Off season and Uday Ananthan's Mrutyunjayam disappointed.

Rating:8/10..Miss it at your own risk.

2.Swa.le:

Cinematographer P.sukumar's directorial debut is an 'attempted satire' on the life of a journalist of the pre-mobile,pre-internet era.An excellent theme handled in a mediocre manner with an amatuerish script,Swa.le misses it's post by a mile.The second half drags big time and is a pain to watch.

Rating: 5.5/10 (for it's brilliant first half and it's novel theme)

3.Blue:

Akki's latest movie was written off by the critics unanimously.But i still gave it a try.To my surprise, it came to me as a rather watchable one.

Rating:5/10

Image courtesy: rediff.com

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Angel Jhon review featured in Varnachitram.com

nikhimenon@gmail.com

Varnachitram.com is a popular blog about movies.They had earlier featured my minnaminnikkoottam review as guest review.

Now they have also accepted by review of Angel Jhon in their guest review section.

Here is the link...

http://varnachitram.com/2009/10/30/guest-review-angel-john/

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The weekly Gossip round up- 1

 written and posted by nikhimenon@gmail.com



Look who is up and who is down this week...

↑	Mammootty: Played Pazhassi Raaja to perfection.After defeating bhootam with  his ‘Angel’ act, his driver might make Mohanlal do atleast  a ‘Chotta Raajaa’next!.
↑	Prabhudeva:  Prabhu Deva’s wife threatens Nayans.When you have market and even a blockbuster bollywood movie to your credit,there ‘s nothing wrong in trying outside food once in a while!
↓	Mohanlal: Angel jhon has bombed! Antony,where are you?
↓	Priyadarsan: Says the bollywood directors are scared of him! Quite true,Mr.Priyan,after your Billu and Mera Baap Pehla Aap,we too are scared  which Malayalam movie you would butcher next!
↓	Meera Jasmine:  Says she is back to Malayalam.We seriously hope that her ‘Mandolin dreams’ have ended.!.
↓	Dileep: hiked his salary. C’mmon ,when Prithviraaj scores a hit,it’s his moral right to divert his producers na?! We hope that he will soon release a movie titled, ‘Ettavum Puthiya Mukham’!
↑	Nayantara: Prabhu Deva plans his sequel to Wanted with Nayans and Salman.Make hay while the Sun shines!After all, you have nothing much to lose !.

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How to write like Chetan Bhagat

nikhimenon@gmail.com

Chetan Bhagat is said to be 'India's most loved author.(atleast that's what he claims to be!).This 'four books old' writer(though none of them were literary marvels), usually writes 'light stuff' with the sole intension of entertaining his readers(though the output may not be necessarily entertaining; his recent one, '2 states' being the  testimony to that fact).


Anyways,for all the wannabe Bhagats out there,here is a  piece of info that you might find useful..


1. The characters should be 'funky' and invariably IIT/IIM educated.They should necessarily begin their conversations with the F word..!( point number 1 will help your target readers identify themselves as one among them  )

2.Never under look even  the minute instance in the story where you can throw in, the maximum number of cheesiest lines possible.
( your readers will definitely find it funny...!)

3.The  hero should fall in love with a 'hot' girl (ideally his prof's daughter or his friend's sister,the college beauty queen may also be enough) and he should be smart enough to make love with her on a regular basis.(that's what most guys fantasise  about,so they might find it interesting!)

4.The hero should have an  'I don't know, how i made into the IIT/IIM'  attitude through out the story.(no doubt,the readers will symathise with him)

5.Most importantly ,try to convince a publisher who would sell your books at a prize,not more than 90 bucks.(C'mmon you want your book to be popular ,naa?)

6.Make friends in bollywood.(this will help you find takers for your book there too!)

Try this, it works....!

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Shocking news : Malayalam Directors have started reading again....!

nikhimenon@gmail.com

Long ago, much before the era of Bhootams and Jackies, we had movies based on popular novels and short stories.But  since our directors started treating books as 'potential sources of infection', (one director had even confessed recently that he hated visiting public libraries  coz of Swine flu scare!)those type of movies have become extinct.

The good news is that some of the  mainstream movie makers have finally  dared to think beyond Udaya Krishnans and Benny P nayarambalams.(who are currently the highest paid script writers of the state with movies like CID Moosa ,Lollypop,Chotta Mumbai to their credit).Two movies which are in the post production stage are based on popular malayalam novels.They are Renjith's Palery Manikyam Oru pathira Kolapathakathinte Kadha and Dileep-S.kumar team's Swa.Le.

Paalery Manikyam is a novel by T.P.Rajeevan ,the noted malayalam writer who actually wrote the english version of this novel first (titled 'A Mid Night Murder story').It's about a 22 year old lady named Manikyam who was found dead 50 years ago in a small village called palery near kozhikode.(I had read this novel a couple of weeks back and i must say i enjoyed reading it).

The second one, Swa.le is based on a short story by kalavoor ravikumar (who gave us earlier 'Ishtam') titled 'Dead Line'.Set in the early ninetees, the movie should be a pleasant experience to the viewers unlike the hero's last solo release 'Moss and Cat'.

Hope both the movies come out good unlike the reel version of 'Sunil Parameswaran's Anantha Bhadram,which was a not so great cinematic experience....!

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Angel Jhon is good in parts....

reviewed by nikhimenon@gmail.com

                                 One advantage of going for a movie with least expectations (thanks to the poor reviews!) is that there is a possibility of you leaving the movie hall feeling satisfied. Mohanlal's fantasy adventure 'Angel Jhon' ,( heavily inspired by Jim Carrey starrer 'Bruce Almighty') when compared to his rival Padmasree Bharat Mammootty's 'Ee Pattanathil Bhootham' is enjoyable as long as it lasts.Those who have seen the latter would definitely know that it isn't much of a compliment...!

                                The protagonist is Maradona,a 21 year old guy who has a shabby life style.(who doesn't care to have a bath even once in a while, his only interersts being watching porn and misbehaving with women of twice his age..).From the first few reels itself,the audience realise that Maradona is a loser in life(not to forget an idiotically picturised song in the fifth minute of the movie).Fifty five minutes into the  movie and a few bizzare, cheesy 'comical scenes' later (which include two separate tracks involving Jagathy Sreekumar and Baiju) Maradona decides to end his life.Enter Angel Jhon( who else?Mohanlal) who gives him two options either to live his destined lifetime as God has willed with problems, or live one third of it with his every wish fulfilled at the rate of a wish per day. Expectedly,Maradona chooses the latter one (only to realise later that he had made a foolish decision!)

Angel jhon is exactly not that kind of film that you would expect from an actor of Mohanlal's calibre,but in these days of Bhootams' and jackies' anything seems to be possible!Mohanlal is actually the soul of the movie and only after his entry (a few minutes before the interval) the movie catches pace. After a rather disappointing first half(which fortunately was only 60 minutes long), none of us (the few pretty souls who were in the theatre) actually expected anything worth mentioning in the second .That is exactly the strength of this movie.The second half is somewhat entertaining and does evoke a few laughs.The scene where Salim kumar meets Angel and Maradona is a cracker.Angel jhon also manages to make a few statements in between.(like the one about the  increasing number of 'student suicides' for petty reasons).The climax was also pretty decent.It can be safely said that S.L.Puram Jayasurya has got talent.


Coming to the performances,Mohanlal with his innocence and cockiness is brilliant as Angel.Shantanu is good in a few scenes.The female lead Nithya menon is adequate.Vijayaraghavan,Jagathy sreekumar are wasted.The two songs which are credited to Ouseppachan seems to be done by his assistants as neither of the two sounded like being tuned by a national award winner.

On the whole,as one of the characters in the movie says, with a better script Angel Jhon would have been a blockbuster. In it's present form i am giving it five point five out of ten, a pretty average rating. 

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Book Review: 2 States by Chetan Bhagat

reviewed by nikhimenon@gmail.com

                                        Chetan Bhagat is undoubtedly the most popular english writer of the country.His books are mostly light hearted-easy read kind of stuff which has attributed to his great success.(Probably ,that might have prompted the writer to come up with his fourth book,hardly a year after the release of his last one.!)Anyways.if i am asked to rate his 3 previous books in a scale of ten, i would give his first one Five point someone -seven ,the second-One night @call centre (which was later made into a dud called 'Hello' with  Salman Khan in a cameo)- five point five  and his last one -3 Mistakes in My life -a meagre five. Naturally i went into his latest one,2 States : the story of my life with least expectations,yet i found this 269 pages' book as mediocre stuff..

The story revolves around Ananya Swaminathan,a tamil Brahmin and Krish, a punjabi by birth.As fate would have hit,these two individuals who were born geographically apart ,meets at.....(where else, at IIM-A!).,love blossomes,the couple decide to get married (only after getting their parents' approval.).Their desperate attempts to get the 'much needed approval' of  their folks forms the rest of the story( there is the mandatory twist too...!).Bhagat has tried to portray the culture clashes,difference in sensibilities in a humorous yet cliched way.
 

 The basic problem with this book is it's predictable or rather familiar story line.Haven't we seen all these in umpteen number of bollywood flicks?It's high time that Chetan Bhagat came out of his routine formulaic  stuff,(you can hardly miss the essential  five elements of his  wrting in this one too: young, modern protagonists (no prizes for guessing that they are  from IIT or IIM); conversation with F word, Bollywood-ish plot complete with proposals on knee; a love story and a twist at end).We loved it in five point someone ,dared to overlook them in 'One night @call centre',tolerated them in '3 mistakes', but not any more Mr.Bhagat. The writer seemes to be in a 'self indulgent mode' as we can see 'left overs' of 'five point someone' in the initial half of the novel.

All these flaws apart, what makes this book an okay 'one time'. light read is it's simplicity and the occassional fun it manages to provide.The writing is mostly simple (as any of his previous books) and there are a few funny lines too....(that's what we expect from a chetan bhagat book,after all ..!)

On the whole, '2 states: The story of my marriage' ,though cliched is slightly better than his previous one 'the 3 mistakes in my life'.Grab a copy if you want to kill a boring sunday after noon.

I would give this book five point five out of ten...

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The Verdict..!

nikhimenon@gmail.com

So finally,the maharashtra assembly results are out..As per the latest reports,Congress-NCP will retain power.Raaj Thackery has also proved his mettle through this election..

Here is the seat tally as of now,

    Remember last week we had predicted a similar verdict,( http://nikhimenon.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-election-time.html) much before the Desi news channels came up with their so called projections

Maharashtra Leads Wins   Cong + NCP 12 135   BJP + Shiv Sena 5 87   MNS 1 11   Others 6 31  Total 24 264

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The debacle called Champions League T20....!

nikhimenon@gmail.com

 With the three IPL teams - Deccan Chargers, RCB and Delhi Daredevils - crashing  out of the Champions League, the event has lost a lot of zing and popularity .Lalith Mody and co seemes to have lost their battle this time if empty galleries and poor TRP ratings for the tournament is anything to go by.That leave us with a few questions.


Has the Champions League exposed IPL in some ways? 


Were the foreign teams too good for the so called devils , challengers and chargers  ?


Did too much cricket make the IPL franchisees a tired lot?


Or was it the lack of motivation that  resulted in the early exit of the IPL teams?


Lalit Mody may have some other explanations for all these,but for me it's a bit of all the afore said that made their exit way too early. The single thing that was clearly lacking among the IPL teams was  motivation .While the foreign teams were  playing like cohesive units, the IPL  players looked exhausted and as one Dare devils  player has told in a recent interview,they hardly got  much time to develop some kind of bonding among themselves.Most of the Indian players were either attending  to other priorities they had  or 'shooting for commercials' till one or two days of the commencement of the tournament.

Delhi were undone by injuries to greats like Daniel Vettori and AB de Villers. Challengers bowling was weak while Deccan depended too much on a few individuals, like skipper Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds. Another reason was that some leading lights of IPL teams opted to play for teams from their own country, thus weakening the IPL units. All this negated the home advantage that the teams had. 

The lacklustre performance of the IPL teams has therefore ensured that one of the foreign teams will emerge Champions of the first edition of Champions league T20....

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