Chandramugi and Casino Royal - Out of the ordinary hits

Now if u think that this is gonna be a review of the two blockbuster movies & comparing the scenes, then think again.. It's not a usual movie review that i'm gonna put but rather a different kind of a comparisn.. Read on..

Both movies were Blockbusters with a huge star value tag attached to them (Chandramugi - Super Star Rajinikanth, Casino Royal - James Bond). But the very fact that both failing to live up to the tag, still went on to become blockbusters is what amazed me a lot.. The general feeling after seeing both the movies was, "Hmmm.. Yeah nice movie.. but... not typical to the tag".. Here are the reasons why..

Let's start with Chandramugi... Super star movie after 3 years.. Big time hype.. Amidst all the expectations and ticket counter tussles, i watched the movie on the first day (It's a sin not to watch super star movie on the first day)... After 3 hrs, when i came out discussing with the friends, the common feeling among all of them was, "Very good movie.. But not like a super star movie"... I mean, I just watched a rajini movie that had no style factor, negligible punch dialogues as well as no cigarettes.. The only saving grace for die hard rajini fans was the climax where he dons the 'Vettaya Raja' avatar where Rajini does a negative role to perfection... Inspite of all the missing Rajini factor that the movie grossed a record Rs.1102 crores (33rd in the most grossed movies in the world) is a testimonial to Rajini's sheer presence in the movie.. I'm saying this with all due respect to a powerful performance from Jyothika...

Casino Royal... Bond movie after a long time with a new blond bond.. Sure its a blockbuster action movie.. But where is Bond in the movie.. Let's face it.. Bond actually gets hurt.. Bond falls in love.. Bond cries for his love.. Bond has an Aston Martin that breaks down in two scenes and most importantly, Bond sleeps with an unmarried woman... huh.. Are you kidding me.. But with some spectacular stunts and good acting from Daniel Craig (Now hailed as the Best Bond since Sean Connery), the movie was a blockbuster hit around the world...

The very fact that these two movies able to be blockbusters inspite of an underplay to the tag means that people's interest sure is changing all over the world.. In my view its getting better.. Movies with good story lines like United 93, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Munich, Kanda Nal Mudal, Kaadal, and others relishing critical acclaim as well as commercial succss... So keep watching good movies... Peace..

Haircut, Ice skating, Pissing in a street.. err.. Am i talking about New Year Celebrations?

Years after years after years we've seen new year celebrations all over the world telecasted in TV.. It's been one of my dreams to be in person in one of those places for new year's day.. Since the day Abilesh and me got offers to study in the united kingdom, we were determined to celebrate New Year's day in the city of dreams, london.. More fitting, it also happened to be our 100th day in UK and the first time we met after leaving family and friends back in India.. It was all about the excitement of meeting a best friend after a long time and the eagerness to be in the celebrations for a new year. Victoria Station in london was all buzzed up with people coming in for the celebrations. One could see the excitements on their faces, leaving me with a relief that i'm not alone..

When i finally me Abi I was pretty much amused than excited. The reason is, he havent had a hair cut since he came here and looked like a pre historic tribal in the forest of the amazon. He more so looked like the aryan nomads who settled in India abt 5000 years back.. I thot even the tribals in Apocalypto lokked decent.. So much for spending 6 pounds for a hair cut.. I was even more amused when he said he's gonna have a hair cut anly when he goes to India.. That's in the month of may.. I started to reconsider my decision to visit manchester often.. But then friendship came first to hair cut.. He told me that he's gonna look like great Kamal Hassan in Devar Magan by the time he goes to India... Kamal fans, forgive me..

After all these hair amusement we finally set off to East Ham, a south indian place in london.. It was nice to be in that place it typically looks like a street in chennai. Grocery stores with names in tamil, music stores playing fast paced tamil songs, temple with lots of people in sarees, traffic ignoring road crossings, Ananda Vikadan, Kumudam and Kunguman in the stores etc etc.. It was a virtual Chennai street. Amazingly i was able to give equal company to Abilesh in the buffet lunch.. Now that's surprising is'nt it.. I ate half of what he ate when we were in India.. Now its equal..

We were off to Greenwich, to say that we are standing right in the middle of the world, if not top of the world.. Fate decided otherwise.. The place was closed before we reached thr.. By this time all of our friends joined as well.. The next destination was Canary Wharf, the business capital of london with all those high rise buildings.. Thr was this ice skating going on.. I cautiously decided nt to try it.. A friend and his brother went for it, scratched along the walls, fell down n number of times and finally came out looking like drunk men.. Too bad they didnt follow a genoius' (that's me.. lol) decision..

The time was 8'o clock in the evening on New year's eve.. That was the time we were supposed to be at the victoria embarkment for the celebrations.. Victoria embarkment is a road perpendicular to the big ben overlooking the london eye just across the river.. The place was all crowded with people from all over the world who have come here for the celebrations. Its an electrifying place with loud music playing in the background and people dancing to its tunes.. It is a place to be with on a new year's day celebration. We then have walk back for abt half a mile to get beer.. As always i had pepsi.. As the countdown began, the crowd went crazy with all the shoutings and screamings.. Exactly at 00.00 on 1.1.2007 couple of crackers went up the sky and bursted signalling the start of a new year followed by the famous 12 gongs from the big ben... And then it's show time.. I can only describe the fireworks that went for the next 10 min in one word.. SPECTACULAR.. u gotta see it to believe it.. Every single person was glued to the sky... It's the best set of fireworks display i've seen in my life... After the fireworks started a slow walk back to the hotel.. Even a snail would have moved faster.. But that's abt the crowd.. It was just so huge and we had only one way to get out..

Then came a real problem.. I drank so much of Pepsi, (Yeah only pepsi) that i had to piss urgently... the hotel was abt 2 miles away.. I'm damn sure that my bladder is nt gonna hold up till then... Then i saw it.. Not a toilet, but a dark deserted street... What's more delightfull was the fact that i could see many men pissing thr.. i'm nt alone... So much relief for me that i didnt even mind a few girls who passed by me when i was pissing... who cares really.... The best part is we had planned to stay overnight in the victoria bus terminus.. But the friend and his brother (Remember.. ice skating) had booked a hotel room and asked us to join.. Thank u very much... What's more surprising was that was a 5 star hotel.. Change for fortunes...

We woke up on new year's day (when did we ever wake up early)... We were off to east ham again... This time to have idly, dosa, pongal and kothu parota.. Felt like heaven u know... After shopping some typically indian items (ananda vikadan, good day biscut, vellam, muruku), we were off to victoria bus terminus again for the trip back home.. I left london with a satisfying feeling of being a part of a gr8 celebration and with a amusement of when is Abi gonna have his hair cut.. I have a gut feeling he's nt gonna do it that early.. Kamal Fans, I'm sorry again...