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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Support Sivaji!!

There seem to be quite a lot of negative critical reviews circulating by mouth, about the movie Sivaji. I just don’t see why people are so critical about the movie. Here are some of the criticism that I heard, and the explanations to them.

1-“There is no story in Sivaji”

Who makes movies without a story? Every movie has a story of some kind. Look at “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy; did any of them have a proper story? They had lots and lots of plots and sub plots. But the main theme is just Jack Sparrow Vs Davy Jones. Why can’t we have Rajini Vs Suman in Sivaji? But Sivaji had a better message to tell, unlike Pirates. Sivaji Talked about bringing out the black money, and asking not for the rich to become richer, but also the poor to become rich. And he cleans the black money to white, through hawala method. How many of you know what hawala method is? It’s called money laundering! The way he cleans money is perfectly logical.

2-“There is nothing unique in Sivaji”

What do you mean by being unique? Rajini have his huge set of fans and followers who wants to see him powerful on screen. There actors like Kamlahasan, whose fans expect him to be unique and different in all his movies. But how can u expect Kamal to do a powerful role, and Rajini to do unique role. It sounds idiotic and it doesn’t work like that. This doesn’t happen even in Hollywood. Every movie of Arnold Schwarzenegger shows him strong and powerful and has formula story to follow. And similarly every movie of Brad Pitt shows him cool and romantic, and every movie of Russell Crowe has a real life story or unique characters from his previous films.

You can’t change an icon like Rajini so differently on screen. Changing his appearance slightly by growing beard in Baba was not accepted by his fans. So the director has to be careful about that. But still Rajini came up with lots of different styles and get-ups. He even imitated Sivaji Ganeshan, MGR and Kamlahasan, which he had never done before. And he also appears with a tonsured head.

And furthermore you can’t show Rajini getting beaten more by villains. There was a slapping scene in Muthu, and fans got angry on it and burnt down an expensive screen in Chennai. You might be living in a civilised developed country, but the culture and fanatical maniac fans in India are different. And mind you, Sivaji is made for them. They are the main market.

3-“The fight is not so good”

Movies like Pirates have 1 billion dollar market, so they will put in all the money to have a nice incredible fight scene with all the latest technology and highest quality. But Sivaji has 5 million dollar market, and that too is the highest ever registered in Tamil Cinema. How can you expect the movie to have fight scenes like in Hollywood movies?
And our hero Rajini is 58. Give some excuses to the guy. He has done better to his age.


Sivaji has done quite well considering the fact that the movie was under lots of pressure to perform well. It did deliver quite well to the expectation. It might not be the best, buts its good enough!!!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Spoofy Sivaji

Watched "Sivaji", 3rd day 3rd show in JB, Malaysia. The movie was fantabulous. Sivaji is a movie made for Rajini by Shankar. Shankar knew Rajini and his fans very well, and he made sure that Sivaji is enjoyed by all.

The thing that I like most about Sivaji is its spoofs. Making parody of Rajini's old movies, existing film dialogues and also calling himself in the names of yesteryear legends of Tamil cinema, was real fun. My film reviews are not like all other reviews, which just analyse the movie on the whole and give comments. My article here is a listing of parodies involved in the movie and analysing it individually.

1- The Title 'Sivaji'


Rajini's name in the movie itself is a parody. First of all his real name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad. But he bears the title role of Sivaji also being a big fan of the legendary Actor Sivaji Ganeshan. The title first appears with a black and white label of 'Sivaji', and then it changes to 'Sivaji the boss'. In one scene when asked who he was, Rajini replies back "Parashakthi hero", referring to Sivaji Ganeshan. In the climax Rajini comes with a tonsured head and when asked whether if he was Sivaji, he replies back "No I am MGR", referring to the former Tamil Nadu chief minister and former super star of Tamil Nadu. But interestingly he bears the name M.G.Ravichandran, instead of M.G.Ramachandran to avoid criticism from MGR fanatical maniacs.



2- No 8.

A lot of news and predications were made about the importance of No 8, long before the movie was near completion. This is Shankar’s 8th movie to be directed in Tamil. 8th time AVM and Rajini are joining hands once again. Shankar’s lucky number is 8, born August 17, 1963, 8th time A.R.Rahman is composing music for a Shankar movie, and was predicted that the movie would be released on 8th of May. Seems that Shankar was aware of this conspiracy circulating in the media, and there was a reference to it in the movie when, Vivek informs the officer that the arranged prostitute is in room 35, and it’s no 8, a lucky number.



3-Refering to Famous Funny Dialogues and Scenes of other movies.

Rajini was in Shreya's house and asks her to dance for "raa raa" from chandramukhi. And he acts here again saying the jathi but Livingstone jumps in at the right moment and says "lakalakalakalaka". It’s hilarious to see Rajini is there in the movie but not speaking his own famous dialogue.

In the suicide scene Rajini tells Vivek "Enna vachu comedy keemedy ethuvum pannalaye?”
And Vivek responds back with the trademark "awwwhhh" of Vadivelu, although he is not in this movie.

In one scene Rajini says "Enna Kodumai Saravanan Ithu", which was originally used in chandramukhi, but later was popularised more by Chennai 600028 and was so hilarious in YouTube with Vijayakanth fight edited to it.

When everything is lost for Rajini Suman tells him, "I see that you have lost everything now, what are you going to do?? Are u going to milk cows (referring to annamalai), or drive auto (referring to Batsha), or become a bus conductor (referring to Rajini’s past life) ".

Lots of mimicry artists try to open Rajini's Laptop which is protected by Voice Recognition software. When asked to imitate like Sivaji and open the laptop, Sinni Jeyanth imitates Sivaji Ganeshan. Thamu gives the final shot when the laptop warns that if you make one final false attempt, it will self destruct itself. He dramatically says the final word "lakalakalakalaka", only too see the laptop getting self destructed. Was so funny.



4-Dressing up like other Actors

In the first night scene Rajini speaks of different varieties of doing it. He dresses up and dances like Sivaji Ganeshan, then MGR and then Kamalahasan. It’s so funny to see the super star acting like the yesteryear legends and his present competitor.




Saturday, June 16, 2007

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Tuesday, June 5, 2007

A game of Chess

I have a pretty interesting story of a chess game, played between me and my friend. Parthz and I were online, and we had nothing better to do. So we decided to play a game of chess. The first game went smoothly, where Parthz was thinking a lot and losing his time. So I was always putting pressure on him to make his next move. He eventually got disturbed and didn’t think well as much as he would have liked and ended up loosing the game.

But he requested for a second game and came back with vengeance. His moves were so fierce that I lost my bishop and knight so early. Then he moved his knight inside my area, and soon my king could take only 2 steps. He was about to win...

That’s when I started an off topic conversation with him. I talked to him about the latest Ltte attack in Sri Lanka and he was sucked into the conversation. He was discussing with me on how this stupid war is affecting the country. So much into the topic he made a lot of mistakes in his chess. He didn’t see me pawn targeting his bishop and my knight on his. Very soon he lost his mind and quit the game.


Lessons Learnt...


1 - I see how the war in Sri Lanka has affected the people even after leaving.
2 – Its hard to fight back someone with vengeance.
3 – Everything is in the mind of the individual. Make Ur mind strong, u can achieve anything.
4 – Being smart doesn’t mean u cheat!!

Friday, June 1, 2007

Mathematical Jokes

Pun-based jokes

There are only 10 types of people in the world — those who understand binary, and those who get laid.


This joke relies on the fact that mathematical expressions, just as expressions in natural languages, may have multiple meanings. When multiple meanings are available, puns are possible. In this case a pun is made using the expression 10. For non-mathematicians or non-computer programmers 10 almost always refers to the number ten. However, in binary, the expression 10 means the decimal number two. Thus the joke says that there are only two kinds of people, those who understand binary, and those who don't. However, those who do not understand binary will certainly not get the joke. This joke is only feasible in written form; when speaking a binary number aloud, "10" would be phrased as "One Zero" or simply "two", rather than "Ten".


A similar joke may be played by asking the question:

If only DEAD people understand hexadecimal, how many people understand hexadecimal?


In this case, DEAD refers to a hexadecimal number (57005), not the state of being no longer alive.

Another pun using different radices, sometimes attributed to computer scientists, asks:


Why do mathematicians think Halloween and Christmas are the same?


Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.


(This one is also often attributed to computer scientists: Real programmers confuse Halloween and Christmas — because dec(25)=oct(31).)

"Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?"


This joke relies on the audience knowing that since the Möbius Strip is a surface with only one "side" (i.e. one "edge"), anyone trying to give the typical answer will realise its impossibility. The answer is sometimes also given as "To get to the same side", with the same rationale.

Stereotypes of mathematicians

A mathematician and his best friend, an engineer, attend a public lecture on geometry in thirteen-dimensional space. "How did you like it?" the mathematician wants to know after the talk. "My head's spinning", the engineer confesses. "How can you develop any intuition for thirteen-dimensional space?" "Well, it's not even difficult. All I do is visualize the situation in n-dimensional space and then set n = 13."

A mathematician, a biologist and a physicist are sitting in a street café watching people going in and coming out of the house on the other side of the street. First they see two people going into the house. Time passes. After a while they notice three persons coming out of the house. The physicist says, "The measurement wasn't accurate." The biologist says, "They must have reproduced." The mathematician says, "If one more person enters the house then it will be empty." (+2-3=-1. therefore if one more person enters it will be 0)

A mathematician and an engineer agreed to take part in a psychological test. They sat on one side of a room and waited not knowing what to expect. A door opened on the other side and a naked woman came in the room and stood on the far side. They were then instructed that every time they heard a beep they could move half the remaining distance to the woman. They heard a beep and the engineer jumped up and moved halfway across the room while the mathematician continued to sit, looking disgusted and bored. When the mathematician didn't move after the second beep he was asked why. "Because I know I will never reach the woman." The engineer was asked why he chose to move and replied, "Because I know that very soon I will be close enough for all practical purposes!" (The joke hints at the dichotomy paradox.)

A mathematician, an engineer and a chemist are at a conference. They are staying in adjoining rooms. One evening they are downstairs in the bar. The mathematician goes to bed first. The chemist goes next, followed a minute or two later by the engineer. The chemist notices that in the corridor outside their rooms a rubbish bin is ablaze. There is a bucket of water nearby. The chemist starts concocting a means of generating carbon dioxide in order to create a makeshift extinguisher but before he can do so the engineer arrives, dumps the water on the fire and puts it out. The next morning the chemist and engineer tell the mathematician about the fire. He admits he saw it. They ask him why the hell he didn't put it out. He replies contemptuously "there was a fire and a bucket of water: a solution obviously existed."

A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were traveling through Scotland when they saw a black sheep through the window of the train. "Aha," says the engineer, "I see that Scottish sheep are black."
"Hmm," says the physicist, "you mean that at least one Scottish sheep is black."
"No," says the mathematician, "all we know is that there is at least one sheep in Scotland, at least one side of which looks black from here!"

A sociologist, a physicist and a mathematician are all given equal amounts of fencing, and are asked to enclose the greatest area. The sociologist pauses for a moment and decides to enclose a square area with his fence. The physicist, realizing he can fence off a greater amount of land with the same amount of fencing, promptly sets his fence in the form of a circle, and smiles. "I'd like to see you beat that!" he says to the mathematician. The mathematician, in response, takes a very small piece of his own fencing, and wraps it around himself, proclaiming, "I define my location to be outside of the fence!"

Three statisticians go duck hunting. Their dog chases out a duck and it starts to fly. The first statistician aims and takes his shot, it misses a foot too high. The second statistician aims and takes his shot, it misses a foot too low. The third statistician says, "We got him!"
The humor there is derived from the fact that the average of the shots hits the duck, and so it is dead.

Non-mathematician's math

A visitor to the Royal Tyrell Museum was admiring a Tyrannosaurus fossil, and asked a nearby museum employee how old it was.
"That skeleton's sixty-five million and three years, two months and eighteen days old," the employee replied.
"How can you know it that well?"
"Well, when I started working here, I asked a scientist the exact same question, and he said it was sixty-five million years old – and that was three years, two months and eighteen days ago."
In the above example, the humour is that the employee fails to understand the precision of the age of the fossil.

Two mathematicians are in a bar. The first one says to the second that the average person knows very little about basic math. The second one disagrees, and claims that most people can cope with a reasonable amount of math. The first mathematician goes off to the washroom, and in his absence the second calls over the waitress. He tells her that in a few minutes, after his friend has returned, he will call her over and ask her a question; all she has to do is answer, "One third x cubed." She agrees, and goes off mumbling to herself. The first guy returns and the second proposes a bet to prove his point. He says he will ask the blonde waitress an integral, and the first laughingly agrees. The second man calls over the waitress and asks, "What is the integral of x squared?" The waitress says, "One third x cubed." Then, while walking away, she turns back and says, "Plus a constant!"
thanks wiki