VANGAVEETI

STORY: vadu vedni champadam, eedu aadi champadam, champadam, champukodam(this guy killing, that guy killing, both killing, both sides killing).

Did i like anything in the film: Nothing, only scene i felt like watching is the murder of vangaveeti raadha, other than that nothing.

What did i not like in the film:

• lot of things,  camera angles in the first 30 minutes of the film, it did not work for me, i could not able to concentrate on dialogues
• RGV's voice over, half of the film is covered with his voice over, he made a 2 hour film out of 22 years story, in that process he skipped lot of incidents which he tried to summarize using voice over. but because of this method, i could not able to feel anything, it is like he is begging audience to feel the emotion, feel that this guys is a great rowdy, this is a very sensational murder...he is simply saying audience instead of showing them. his voice over made me feel VANGAVEETI like a documentary.
• Slow motion shots in the climax, almost entire climax shot in slow motion, i slept for some 15 minutes, a loud bgm woke me up.

What did i learn from this film: voice over can be used explain what character is feeling, to give introduction, to explain a situation, but showing it is always effective and difficult than saying it.



This is not a film, it is a documentary with out interviews or video diaries.....its up to you to watch it or not watch it.

Saaham Swaasaga Saagipo.....watch it for Rahman..

For RAHMANIACS like me, this film's first half is like eating a full andhra meals with all the varieties served with extra love. ALL the five songs in the album comes in the first hour of this film. It is like Gowtham memon saying to me "You liked the first song, wait i will create a beautiful moment to serve you second song....here is the second song...njoyy"...the moments GOUTHAM MENON created to place these songs and the way he picturised them are so beautiful, every time the song started, there was a huge cheering in theater and all the rahmaniacs like me hummed the song.... listening RAHMAN's songs back to back in DOLBY ATMOS sound with great visuals is itself worth the ticket.....

Some people liked the second half, some did not like it...i liked it, overall it is a good film with some beautiful moments in first half and some thrilling moments in second half...

PREMAM TELUGU

DISCLAMIER: i have watched the original premam 'n' number of times, so this opinion is going to be a biased one.



Watching a remake after watching its original is like watching a girl in a new dress(makeup, hairstyle). Some times she looks better in her new dress, some times worst. With out any second thought i like this PREMAM in her old dress(malayalam) only....but this new dress looks ok to her..she is not ugly...

First half of Premam is really boring, here Naga Chaitanya's teenage character over emotes in every scene, but compared to the first half second half looks better. According to me the most important scene in premam is the one where the hero meets teacher character after her accident, here in this Telugu version they did not spoil the scene, they pictured it nicely. Another important scene in the film is teacher's dance scene...here in this version...shruthi hasan is the teacher, when she dances, it was like some one got possessed and dancing very hard(she dances with loose hair, all her hair flies while dancing giving you a feel of ladies dancing in front of temples).

Over all the film looks ok ok ok.....i cannot speak for the people who have not watched the original, but if you watched the original, i am 100% sure that you wont like this film....

P.S: During interval a guy sitting in front of us called his friend, and explaining his friend about the first half. It seems he watched the original premam, he did not like how they remade few scenes in first half, so he is explaining each and every scene and scolding the director for spoiling the scenes he liked, so original premam loverss....better dont watch this filmmmm....other who did not watch the original....please go and watch it.........

VTV Church(Pulickunnu)

Place: Pulickunnu(20 km from Allepey town)
How to reach: Town buses are available from Allepey.

Remember the beautiful church from Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya(yem maaya chesave) church, it is present in a small but very beautiful town called PULICKUNNU. Pulickunnu town is located 20 kms from Allepey town.

The town is divided into two parts by the backwaters.  A ferry runs between the two parts which takes the vehicles and people from one side to other side(dont know why didn't they construct a bridge).

view of the church fro ferry

To go to the church you have to take the ferry and go to the other side where church is present, a half kilometer walk from the ferry point takes you to the church. When we were walking to the church, ti was around 4pm, schools time got over and all the kids are coming outside and going to ferry point(from where we are coming), along with them a group of young women wearing sarees were also coming(i guess they are school teachers). My friend looked at me, i looked at him and we both looked at them, it was an 'ohh my godd' view...coming back to the church, As i said it is a beautiful church, the presence of backwaters, the beauty of the locality adds more beauty to the church. we entered the church around 4pm on saturday, prayer was going on, local people(mostly women) came and seated there. we sat inside the church for some 20 minutes and came out and went back to the ferry point.

they have constructed compound wall and golden pillar recently

we wanted to have a boat ride on the back waters, we bargained with a boatman and he agreed to give us ride for 200 rupees.

some festival is going to happen next day(sunday), so they decorated the church

We got on to the boat, two roads run along the back waters, the road on the right side leads to the church, the left side road has beautiful houses along with it. They are typical kerala houses which  are big in size and having cone shaped roofs..  

view of the back waters from the church

The view of the nearing church from the boat with its mirror image on the water is beautiful and i felt that this place is better than the allepey backwaters.

photo says it all....

we returned to allepey via government boat. while waiting for the boat at boat stand i met few local kids who came to take bath in the back waters after school. I sat there, waiting for the boat, looking at them, thinking how lucky they are to live in such a beautiful place.......

When you go Allepey, dont miss this place....

KABALI- example for a bad marketing

It is very difficult to say that' i did not like rajni's film'...it is equal to saying ' i didn't like rahman's song'....i watched kabali first day morning show and i did not like it. I dont want to tell the story, but i will try to tell why i did not like the film without revealing the story.

My main problem with the kabali film is that i did not get connect with the emotions of the characters. Hero is searching for his wife, i have to feel his pain but i did not. why i did not feel the pain?? because there are no proper flash back scenes which establish the love between hero and heroine....if i felt their love when they are together, i would have felt the pain when they are away. I did not feel the enmity between the hero and villian. In between there are some dialogues about how indians(tamils in tamil version) are treated badly in malaysia which has no relation with the film's treatment.

Similarly, all other characters are very poorly written, the story is different. but the characters are routine...the most funniest character is 'attakathi dinesh's character, whole theater laughed whenever he is on the screen which is not the intention of the director. He is the body guard of KABALI, we should feel his loyalty, strength and that power, but instead his mannerisms made the theater laugh.

 Through out the film i noticed the reactions of the audience, they are clearly disappointed. this i feel is because of the mismatch between the promotions and reality. If you look at the way they promoted the film, a teaser with 'neruppu daa' background score and the 'kabali daa' dialogue, an album where half of the songs praise hero with english lyrics..what will audience expect??? but what is there in film- the main theme of the film is different, there are slow motion shots, stylish poses, but they are not typical rajni sceness....audience who expected these things will surely disappoint after watching the film.  Had they released a teaser without showing RAJNI walking in slow motion and telling a punch dialogue..people have expected some class movie, it is important to prepare the audience for the film you want to show especially when you are making a different film with a star.

The most important thing is the way the film got ended, i dont know what director wanted to tell with that shot, it is clearly a final nail on the coffin for mee....

Kabali is not as bad as LINGAA, it is a one time watchable film...go and watch it and share your opinion hereee

TOP STATION, KOLUKKUMALAI AND MEESAPULIMALA in two daysssss!!!!!!

I have been to these three places before, i wanted to visit these three places in a weekend.

• Location: Near Munnar and Theni 
• How to reach: There are overnight buses from Chennai and Bangalore to Bodinayakanur..from Bodi you have to reach Kurangani which is the starting point of Trek
• Trek Difficulty Level: Difficult(as you are going to climb 2KM up and 2.5km down, i am talking about height, not the length of the trail)
• Trek starting point: Kurangani village, buses are available from Bodinayakanur.
• Permissions: You need to get forest officer permission at Kurangani(200 per head) and one more permission is required at the meesapulimala entrance(100 per head). You can get these permission on the spot..no need to get it in advance...
• Trek route: Kurangani------Top station----Top station to Suryanelli(via jeep)------Suryanelli to Kolukkumalai(walk or jeep depending on your time constraints and interest)-----Kolukkumalai to Meesapulimala(trek)----Meesapulimala to Kolukkumalai----Kolukkumalai to Kurangani(trek down)

From Kurangani there are two routes..check this link for more information. We went though the route which goes via the village Muthuvar kudi because it is more beautiful compared to the other route.

 Night stay you can stay in Suryanelli...there are lot of lodges available.......


There is a small stream at 10-15 minutes after the start of the trek where we can take bath and have tiffin(you have to take parcel in Bodinayakanur).

starting point of the trek

Starting 5km (until Mutuvar kudi village) is a jeep road, but it is steep, so will take some 1-2 hours depending up on your stamina

After Muthuvar kudi village the real trek start..it will take some 3 hours to reach top station from the village

It started raining in the middle of the trek and made both the trek and place even more beautiful

It rained for almost an hour...for the last 15 mins we could not able to see anything...as we got covered by mist..and then suddenly the rain got stopped....we turned back to see a terrific view of floating clouds..rain water running down the hills forming a water fall.....

Trek route to Top station from Mutuvar kudi village is a confusing one....when you feel that the route is leading you down....dont follow that route....

After reaching Top station, we had our lunch..then from there we booked a Jeep to Suryanelli(67Km)...Jeeps wont be available after 7pm...In Suryanelli we booked a lodge..lodges in suryanelli are resonable..1200 to 2000 per room(4-5 people can stay in a room)

                                           View of Kolukkumalai from Suryanelli-               Next day Morning we started from Suryanelli to Kolukkumalai by Jeep(if you have time, you can go by walk also..it is not that much difficult)..it will take 90 minutes by jeep...some 3 hours by walk

View of Suryanelli from Kolukkumalai-there is a tea factory on kolukkumalai which is worlds highest tea estate..you can have a tea there and start the trek to meesapulimala

View of Meesapuli mala and trek route- half of the people return back after seeing the steepness of the route from Kolukkumalai it will take 2-3 hours to meesapulimala peak(need to pack the food items in suryanelli or kolukkumalai)...we started at 11 and reached the peak at 1.

On the top of Meesapulimala- when we reached the top..the total area was covered with mist..almost zero visibility...so we could not able to see anything..we just stayed there  for some 30 mins..listened to the sounds of wind..waiting for the mist to go away so that we can enjoy the view of the world below us.....unfortunately...it did not get clear...we strated trekking down at 2...reached kolukkumalai at 3.30...had tea there..bought some tea packets..and started trek down to kurangani...reached kurangani at 7.....from kurangani..we took jeep to bodinayakanur(last bus from kurangani to bodi is at 6pm)..where our bus to chennai was waiting for us..

My  Kolukkumalai trek video

Kammatti padam- Movie

Annayum rasoolum, Njan steve lopez- these are the first two films of the director Rajeev ravi. He is a strory teller, he tells them in in his own pace which some people like and some don't. In Kammatti padam, he narrates the lives of people from a place called 'Kammatti padam'. He demands a little patience from audience as he tries to narrate a long journey of these people who witnessed the Ernakulam village turning into a City. In this film he takes time to establish a world where every character has its own significance.

The film is narrated in a non linear fashion, the protagonist Krishnan(Dulquer salman), who gets stabbed  recollects his whole life while he tries not to lose his consciousness. He recollects about his child hood, how he met his friends Ganga, Abu,etc, how they looked upto 'BALAN CHETTAN (played by manikandhan)' who is a fear less guy, works for a businessman called Surendran.  Krishnan and his friends become a Gang called 'Kammatti padam boys' under the leadership of Balan chettan and start working for Surendran. As the story unveils we will get to see the various stages of this Gang, the lives of low class society, how the businessman surendran used the gang for his benefits.

The screen play and editing gives enough importance to every character and it is very difficult to forget any of them. Even though the main protagonist is Dulquer salman, for me the pick of performances is Vinayakan who played his friends character. The action sequences looks so realistic, no flying, no defying of laws of physics.

The film is very long, close to 3 hours, but as i said earlier director takes his time in first half to establish a world and the way he handled the non linear narration, so many characters and plots with out creating any confusion is brilliant. It is one of those films where every character gave their best. If you have not watched this film, go for it and experience the lives of these Kammatti padam boys.....

TOP STATION TREK from Kurangani via Muthuvan kudi village

There are two routes to trek from Kurangani village to Top station, one route will go via Central station, you can find the details of the trek here Kurangani to top station via central station

There is another route which goes via a small village called Muthuvan kudi, this route is most scenic compared to the central station one, when you start the trek from kurangani, after 5 minutes a point will come where you can see two routes, right one is an off road with stones and the left one is a tar road. The left route will take you to top station via Muthuvan kudi village.

We started at morning 10 from kurangani and reached the top station at evening 5. We have camped near the view point, Here are few photos with details

Un explored water falls near the trail, there is not proper trail to this water falls from the main trek trail, you have to go through bushes in the direction of falls to reach it, it is a very beautiful falls, perfect for swimming, but very deep

This is kolukkumalai

Sharbat at Central station

Add caption

view from the Top station view point

camping site

These three kids tried to sell that fruit for 100 to us.

From this pace you can view all the hills- top station, kolukkumalai, meesapulimala, a perfect place to camp

Muthuvan kudi village, Sunday afternoon, no work, all the villagers gathered under tree

Change PLSSS

Day before yesterday i was traveling to my home from Madras by bus. Bus got stopped at Nellore for dinner, i got down and went to the hotel and stood in the queue at the counter. The person standing before me gave 100 rupees note and ordered Curd rice, the lady sitting in the counter asked for 5 rupees change, he told that he has no change, then she gave the bill along with 40 rupees and a 5 star chocolate, next is my turn

 Me: 1 Curd rice parcel(gave 50 rupees).

Lady: 5 rupees change please(gave bill to me)

Me:  I dont have change, give me 5 star chocolate.

Lady: Please give me 5 rupees.

Me: Its ok, give me 5 star chocolate.

Lady: Please give me 5 rupees change.

Me: i dont have change, seee(showed my purse to her), give me 5 start chocolate.

Lady: Curd rice is 55 rupees, you gave only 50 rupees, please give 5 rupees.

I checked the bill, could not able to control my laugh, gave 10 rupees to her and got the 5 star chocolate......she gave me a dirty look, i guess her mind voice is saying 'where are you people come from??'