I - Shankar's Treat

Spoiler's ahead: If you haven't watched the film yet, go and watch it without any second thought, it's Shankar's film, you can always come back and read the review after watching the film.

After a long time Shankar took a non-message oriented subject and made a thriller with romance. Film starts with the introduction of vikram in hunchback makeup, then comes the body builder Vikram with a different dialogue delivery. Shankar takes time to introduce our hero and his love towards super model Amy Jackson, Amy looked hotter than Chennai's summer in this film and her introduction step in 'LADIO' song is awesome, after introducing these characters Shankar takes us to China and from there with the help of P C Sriram and Rahman he just gives a visual feast.

Coming to the highlights of the movie
Songs and it's Picturization is beautiful, VFX work in 'Mersalayitten' song is topnotch, beauty of China and cinematography in 'pookkale' song is jaw dropping, 'Aila Aila' song in second half where 7 advertisements are pictured is brilliant. Shankar always mesmerizes us with his songs and his song's visuals always matches the beauty of Rahman's  music.
The first fight in Gym and the one particular shot in that fight where Vikram lifts two persons is super. I didn't like the fight in China,but still watching it on big screen with Rahman's BGM is worth.
The scenes of Vikram taking revenge on each villain with a different strategy is clever though it reminds us of Anniyan.
Last but not the least Rahman's music, no words to explain about God(RAHMAN)'s music, his BGM gave the grandness that Shanakra's vision requires.

 It is a usual revenge story, but the way Shankar narrated it is brilliant. He cleverly selected the non-linear screenplay showing the past and present one after the other, so that we won't get the usual same story feeling while watching it. Almost for the entire second half Vikram looks in that de-glamourized role and no one complains, whole theater claps when that character says 'athukku mele' and takes revenge on villains, that is the greatness of Shankar. I will say that this film's script is the weakest of all the Shankar's films, but the execution is at its best with rich technical aspects and great acting.


Shankar, Rahman,Vikram and P C Sriram, 'I' is the magic created by these people with the help of the others. 

I hate travelling in bus from chennai to vijayawada

When i make a sudden plan to go my hometown, i always end up traveling in APSRTC, i try my best to avoid it. On Thursday morning i call my friends who got access to high speed internet and tell them to book train ticket in tatkal, from 9.30 to 9.55 i call everybody and give the details looking at my login page. You can expect an intelligent film from Sajid khan, but booking a tatkal ticket successfully is impossible. So, i end up booking the ticket in APSRTC bus.

 While leaving the office on Friday evening i pray to God to show some mercy on me this time. With that fear i go to CMBT,  get into the bus and wait for that moment hoping for some miracle. Finally the moment arrives, they switch on the TV, blue screen gets displayed with loading message. I straighten my body, open my eyes wide and look at the screen while the movie starts. When that 'Varahi chalana chitram' logo appears i know what film it is, i know that God showed middle finger to me, it is 'LEGEND' movie acted by Balakrishna and directed by the great Boyapati sreenu.

For the next two and half hours you see the lion in the form of human being dancing, fighting, shouting and romancing. If you are lucky enough, they may play 'Badrinath' movie after that. After watching two great movies like that, it is very difficult to sleep. Last Saturday on 20th December  God showed me his two middle fingers, i booked ticket for direct bus from Chennai to Kothagudem to my surprise they played two good movies 'Uyyala Jampala' and 'kotha bangaru lokam. I felt so happy and slept, early morning at 5.30 when the bus reached Vijayawada i heard Balayya voice, i thought i was dreaming, but slowly the voice became so clear and i woke up to see the legend movie being played on the T.V. Life is not easy and God is so crazy.

P.S: Those who haven't watched LEGEND(telugu) movie, please watch it

Interstellar- this film is for 'them'

Before going to the film i read few reviews on the Facebook about the film telling that they have watched the film second time to understand the film, so in the theater i sat straight, kept my all concentration on the screen so that i don't miss anything. When the film started..for the first few dialogues no subtitles , everybody in the theater sighed, the person sitting beside me started crying-'whaattt tthe frock, this is cheating you cannot do this to us, this is not normal film, this is nolan's film please put subtitles..pleaseeee God, if you are real...prove it, pleasssss', and when i was about to join him, there came subtitles to rescue everybody in the theater.

When that subtitle appeared on the screen, all the faces glowed with smile. But after watching the film the same faces showed no reaction, everybody bent their head down, trying to analyze what just happnd, whether they liked the film or not, what to tell when any one asks 'how s the film ?'.  Few people who tried to understand the film until the climax gave up and left the theater before half an hour itself.

I am not eligible to comment on Nolan's film but after watching this film i came to know that there are two types of 'meaning less' films, one where the director uses no brain at all like my TELUGU films and the other where the director uses too much brain like 'Irandam ulagam' and this film. I feel that for Nolan's films sensor board should give an extra certificate saying only people who did Ph.d should watch this film. This film is about the space, to the people in space and for the people in space...if you haven't watched this film..please don't watch it

NAGALAPURAM- west entrance

 

Want to dive into the beautiful pools ?,want to learn swimming or overcome the fear of drowning ?,  want to do trekking in dense and safe forest along the stream ?, want to sleep under the stars, hearing the sound of running water ?- if you are staying in Chennai ( even if you stay in other places, it is worth to travel all the way) and want to do all the above things, then visit Nagalapuram. Through the Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) event i came to know about this place and it is one of the few natural places around Chennai where you can go, relax and enjoy the nature during the weekend. There are so many trekking routes in this place, but mainly two trekking routes are popular- trekking from west entrance and trekking from east entrance.

Nagalapuram hills

 Me and my friends planned to go for trekking through west entrance and i was so excited because for the first time i am going to have camp fire, stay for the night in forest with my friends. Our plan was to start early in the morning and reach the west entrance road as early as possible. so i slept early to wake up early. I woke up- 'did i miss the call from chandru ?', i asked myself, Chandru told me that he will call me at 5 am to wake me up. I took my watch and checked the time, it was 3 am----- this same scene got repeated for every 20 minutes, i get up, check the time and go back to sleep.....getup, check the time and go back to sleep. Finally the clock ticked 5 am, i got ready by 5.30, but there was no call from chandru, i called chandru, he didn't pick up the call, instead he messaged me- 'machi..i am celebrating deepavali da'- his way of telling that he is shitting. This guy 'chandru' is my colleague and he is one of the few unique characters i have met, no one can be like him (chandru, you can take it as compliment). so, what i am trying to say is that i didn't sleep properly because of this excitement and it happens to me every time i plan to wake up early, i don't know why          

By 6 am every one started from their respective places to red hills. It was drizzling and the climate was so cool unlike the usual Chennai climate, we reached red hills at 7 am where Sam was waiting for us with all the food items. We reached the west entrance road of nagalapuram (Aare villiage) by 10.30 am, parked our bikes there and started walking towards the hills. we walked for an hour to reach the 'pool 0'.

Surender. Yerra reddy, Chandru, Selva, Sam and Bala

Our plan wast to go to pool 1 and pool 2, camp for night at pool 2 and return. we don't know the way from pool 0 to pool 1 and pool 2. With out crossing (there is a way on both sides of the pool, you have to cross and take the way which is on the left side of the pool) the pool 0 we just went in the way that was there to the right of the stream. From pool 0 we walked for 5 min, then came a place which was very steep, we started climbingggggggggggggggggggggg...almost one hour got over and we were still climbinggggggggggggggggg.

completed exhausted after the climbing

Then came a view point (we named it as a suicide point) where you can have a look of the forest below, from there we saw a line of smoke coming from the forest down the hill we were climbing, we were confused whether the way we took was correct or not, Bala and Chandru called their friends (yes...fortunately signal was available there) who went there. They told that you have to cross the pool 0 and walk along the stream to reach pool 1 and pool 2. we came in the wrong path...and that one hour climbing sucked every inch of energy out of us, slowly we returned to pool 0.

we crossed pool 0 and followed the path along the stream, sometimes crossing the stream, you can hear the sound of the running water all along the path, after walking for some 20 minutes we reached the pool 1. I have to dig my dictionary deep to get the correct word to explain the feeling we got when we reached pool 1, i don't want to make you guys wait, so i say we felt relieved + excited + tired.

Pool 1

After having some fun in the pool, we had our lunch there. We started to pool 2, on the way we met a group of people who were returning from pool 3, they told it takes only half an hour to reach pool 3, so we thought we decided to go to pool 3 and camp there for night. At 4.30 pm we reached pool 3, pool 3 is very deep (30 ft), if you know swimming very well, then only you should enter into it, so i didn't

Pool 3

   

So. we all decided to enjoy pool 3 by just looking at it except these two guys Surender and Yerra, they know swimming very well, they just dived into the pool and started having fun, we others took photos and videos.

Surender at pool 3

After an hour, it started getting dark, so we collected wood for fire and started cooking Maggie. By 6.30 pm the place became completely dark, eyes closed or open, it was just same. In that complete darkness, sitting near pool 3, under the stars we had our dinner, then we cleaned the place near by the pool and tied the tarpaulin to sleep.

Surender brought a tab in which we played A R songs through out the night, i tried to sleep but these '3 idiots' in the photo below didn't let me sleep

Chandru, Selva and Sam

After 12, with full concentration i tried to sleep and i almost did it, but this Selva, he started camp fire at 3 am, started shouting(singing) and dancing, my sleep gone completely, so i got up and joined them. At 6 we got up, finished our Poo Poo in that beautiful forest, packed every thing and said good bye to the pool 3. By 7 we reached pool 2, while coming, we didn't take bath in pool 2, so we decided to take bath there

Early morning!! 7.30!! taking bath in that beautiful pool!! it was so nice and you should experience it. we just looked around that beautiful place- it was so calm, only our gang was there, it was so silent and at that moment we just fell in love with that place. A dip in that chilled running water just took away the tiredness we got from sleepless night. With that freshness, we left Nagalapuram and returned to Chennai by afternoon

Pool 2

Information

Trek route : koyamebedu- periyapalayam- pichatoor- Aare villiage (west entrance), you can park your vehicles in village. If you go by bus..it will take 3- 4 hours from koyambedu bus stand.

If you don't know swimming( or have fear of drowning like me), take swimming tube with you.

The curious case of A R Rahman song

Do you remember those paragon slippers that we used to wear in childhood. How can we forget them for all the trouble we faced while using them, removing thorns from it using safety pin, putting that rubber thing back in the front hole every time it came out, every time my chappals become old enough to buy a new pair, i used to feel excited coz i am going to have a new pair of chappals. When you wear those new slippers, for the initial two three days, they bite your feet, but after those initial hiccups they stop biting and start serving your feet.

When an A R Rahman album is going to get released, i wait for that date. When the songs are getting downloaded i wait with some excitement, this waiting period increases the expectations on the album and i know that rahman is going to tower over those expectations. Listening to the AR's album for the first time is like entering into a new and unknown world. First time you don't get it, your mind says  that the songs are average and not as good as his previous albums, but then immediately your heart starts scolding your mind -'Idiot, it's A R Rahman, how can his songs sound average, how many times i have to tell you, AR songs are like slow posion, you have to give it some time, you have to listen for three four times to get it, listen to it again carefully'. After listening for two to three times your mind replies to your heart 'yes, sorry i forgot'.

Last week 'I' album got released, the scene that i explained above got repeated again, it's not new to me, it happens for every rahman album, after listening for 4 to 5 times slowly one song after the other started winning me. All you people who feel that 'I' songs are average, just give them some time, just listen to them one more time, you start feeling the magic