Caste System - Is History repeating itself ?

India , for a long time has been accused of following a rigid caste system . There has been a huge outcry and indignation against this kind of a society not just by Indians but by the whole world as well..People have been ruled by dynasties for generations together. But today all most all the monarchies have been replaced by democratic or dictatorial style of governance , Saudi Arabia and Brunei being exceptions. Even in countries where the monarchies still exist , these are simply titular heads as in Britain and in Thailand.

In India , this system went one step further and divided the population into castes based on their professions. Now , the main drawback in this system was that a person who was interested in another vocation was never given a chance even if he had talent. In course of time , these profession based divisions became to be addressed as higher or lower castes based on the nature of the jobs. Now , although I do not believe in caste system , I do believe that there were certain merits to this society . The expertise was passed down from generation to generation giving them depth and understanding every aspect of their business. But , the strict regimentation and oppressiveness of this caste system has been ridiculed and has been overthrown in the last 80 years.

But now , for all the talks of being a free society , I feel that a new kind of caste based society is slowly creeping into this generation. You find that children or spouses of politicians becoming politicians. Case in this point , the Nehru family and the Congress party and Karunanidhi family and the DMK party. Now , is there no able leader to lead the Congress Party . Was it started by the Gandhi family that they have the exclusive rights to the party ? Are these people so spineless that they are compelled to accept the leadership of Sonia Gandhi , an Italian ? Her only claim to the party is that she married Rajiv Gandhi ? C'mon , she took Indian citizenship only after Rajiv Gandhi entered politics although they were married since 1968.

Ditto with DMK . Karunanidhi climbed his way up-to the top with his hard-work and cleverness. So why does his sons and nephew wield so much power within the party ? What have they done to merit this power ? Is it because the public sees them as a worthy successor ? I think not . I think it is because the party cadres are loath to find another worthy leader who meets the criteria as a successor.

Now , this political trend is seen not just in India but also throughout the world , be it a 3rd world country like Pakistan ( Bhutto family) , or in a developed country like USA ( e.g.Kennedy, Clinton family) . The list is huge !!

The same trend is creeping in other walks of professions also. Case in point , the entertainment industry . Many cinema personalities have their children following them in their own footsteps. The examples are numerous - Karthik , Prabhu , Vijay , Surya , Karthi , Simbu , Dhanush, Abhishek Bachan , Salman Khan , Nagarjuna , Venkatesh , Balakrishna , Shiva rajkumar , Puneet to name a few ( Whew ! I am able to say so many names off the cuff) . In this case, I think following your parents or your sibling makes an easier launch-pad . They have good contacts which will help these fledgelings. But isn't this also a kind of a caste system in the making ?

But cinema and politics are the two visible fields where this trend is noticeable because these people are always in the spotlight. But if you look around , you can see almost every walks of life that has begun practicing this . You can find businesses run by families like the Tata , Birlas or Ambani families. I have known doctors who run a clinic or a hospital as a family. Following footsteps of a parent or a siblings prevents pitfalls and makes life easier because you have the frame work done for you and all the thorns have been cleared in your path. Also , a new entrant will not see his life's hard-work go away in front of him if he has somebody following him. The legacy may go on.

So for all the new values and new life style we may said to be leading , we may find ourselves returning to a old culture in a fashionable manner if such nepotistic promotions continue.

Chak De India

To begin with , Chak de India is a complete entertainer...No 2 ways about it....It is very tough to make an engrossing film in the current trend without skin show and silly love duets..Credits go shimit amin , the director and yash raj films . Nice to see YRF deviate from their mushy romatic cliched films and make a sports entertainer having women’s hockey as the theme, a sport that exists in oblivion that has no spotlight on it.

The story begins with Kabir Khan ,captain of the Indian team miss a penalty stroke in a crucial match against Pakistan , making them the world champions. A harmless handshake to one of the pakistani players is twisted by the media and Kabir is vilified and accused of match fixing. Disgraced , he leaves his ancestral home with his mother and fades into oblivion with nobody having any idea of his whereabouts.

Seven years later , he resurfaces to redeem himself and is appointed as the coach as the women’s hockey team. But the job is very tough. The girls are a unruly bunch from various states and various backgrounds . They have ego clashes and hardly are intent on playing as a team. So now not only does he have to train them in the game , but he also has to teach them team spirit. He also has to convince the hockey board to send his team to the world championship who are interested in sending a men’s team. As one of the committee members puts it".Atleast the Men’s team might bring a bronze medal" .... Sorry state of affairs for our national game !

Every actor has played their part to perfection. King Khan perfomance is a treat to watch especially after his KANK’s acting. He has curbed his hamming and underplayed his role with a quiet intensity. The girls are also excellent . The first half focuses on the girls and this gives rise to some comic moments from their language barriers. The scene before the interval is a well executed one establishing the unity in the girls in the face of any problem. The second half turns serious with the focus shifting to the game , the success and failures and the world cup. The world cup games againt various countries is picturised in an interesting manner with each match presenting a difficulty and how does the team solve it. One Fav scene is where the coach of the england is confused and asks " Which one of them is Didi ". Watch out for Shah Rukh’s expression after the indian team wins the final.

Technically, the film is excellent . The editing is crisp with no dull moments. The songs jell into the background without hindering the pace of the movie.

The best thing I liked in this movie is that it emphasised the importance of the team spirit which is needed for any team to win regardless of sport. I wish that our cricket team would watch it and learn some lessons !! So , Go watch it with your family and have fun.

Las Vegas

We went for a Las Vegas trip between 23rd December and 28th December flying both ways . We stayed there for 4 days in downtown Las Vegas at Golden Nugget . The hotel was plush with good service and comfortable rooms.
First day, we visited Casinos Bellagio, Alladin , Luxor and MGM Grand. Each casino was built upon a theme. We first visited Bellagio and saw the down facing glass flowers hanging from the ceiling. We did more of Bellagio on the 4th day.

Our next destination was Alladin. As the name suggests , it was themed on the Medieval Arabic countries. The settings recreated the bazaars of erstwhile Arabia. More than half the area of the casino was only shops and was exclusively for shopping alone .

Post Lunch , we visited Luxor. Luxor is the name of an Egyptian town , so its obvious. I felt that Luxor is one of the best casinos we had visited. At the entrance was the statue of Sphinx and the hotel itself was designed like a pyramid. The main attraction in this casino is the museum of Tutankhamun. It houses the tomb of Tutankhamun similar to the original one and the exact scene that was found in the excavation has been recreated here. It shows the Anubis and the gods of the underworld and other such Egyptian mythological figures. From the audio guides , looks like Tutankhamun was a very pampered king.

The last stop for the day for us was the MGM Grand. Apparently it is the biggest casino cum hotel in LV with over 5000 rooms. MGM was not based on any particular theme. I would say it was rather contemporary American environment. At MGM we went to the David Copperfield show. It was superb and enthralling. Of his many illusions that he performed that day, I liked the one where he brings a car from nowhere and the one in which he makes 20 people( from the audience chosen at random ) vanish within a second.

Second day , we first visited New york New York , a casino based on New york skyline and architecture. The main attractions were the statue of Liberty ( I am not sure if it was recreated to the same size as the original) and a roller coaster ride , Manhattan Express. The ride was great and I enjoyed the thrills to the hilt.

We visited Mandalay Bay Casino situated at the South end of the Strip.. Supposedly based on Tropical climate , there was nothing to illustrate that save a few palm trees in the casino . The main attraction was a shark reef with sharks and fishes in their natural habitat . But since we have seen this quite a few times in San Francisco , we skipped it and went to The Excalibur.

Excalibur was based on Medieval Europe. It was built like the old forts that we see in fairy tales. It was very beautiful to look at in the night with the top of the castles lighted up in orange and blue. The interior was also recreated in an authentic manner with ramparts and knights with shining armour.

Our last visit was to the Wynn , one of the most expensive casinos in LV. Built by Steve Wynn , the successful entrepreneur who also built Mirage and Bellagio . The opulence was obvious from the moment we entered. Though it was not based on any particular theme, the architecture and the furnishings was excellent and beautiful. We saw a show called Lake of Dreams . Not much to say about it . Was only made of changing lights and a lake like setting.

We went to the south rim of Grand Canyon next day. En route , we also visited Hoover dam. I personally didn't find anything about Hoover Dam . After all we have seen our own Manimutharu dam and Krishnaraja saager dam built more impressively with fewer resources.

Grand canyon was an amazing experience. Apparently, South rim has one of the best and largest views. It is a semi-arid area consisting of raised plateaus and structural basins. Over an area of around 200 miles, the diverse landscape views and the numerous rock types that can be seen are simply mind blowing. We were even able to see forests and snow at higher elevations. Even the trail of the now nonexistent river that ran through the canyon is still seen. It is of little wonder that it is one of the most studied geological systems in the wonder. Hats off to nature !!

The final day of our stay , we again went and saw quite a few casinos that we decided to give a pass initially. Happy that we had not missed it. We first went to Bellagio. It is the richest casino. Since we had gone immediately after Christmas , we were able to see the Christmas decorations. They were so beautiful . It was obvious that money rains in these casinos. The we saw the chocolate fountain. It consists of white , medium and dark grade chocolates in constant circulation at 120 F while the enclosure is maintained at 95 F.

Our next stop was at Caesar's Palace. Caesar's Palace was opened in 1966 and was the biggest hotel/casino at that time. It was also the first casino to be built on a them. The theme here as the name implies is ancient Rome. Both the interior and the exterior were decorated with roman sculptures and Greek gods. The shopping area of this casino was called Forum Shop and it featured some of the most exclusive and expensive brands. In the middle of the Forum shop, there was a sculpture of David , an exact replica of the Michelangelo's creation. In fact , they claimed that this statue was carved from the same Italian marble that the artist had used.

We then visited Mirage . The best feature of Mirage was the Secret garden where they housed some vary rare animals like white lion and white tiger. That was the first time we ever know that a species called Panthera leo kruger , the White lion ever existed. There were 2 male lions. with their mane and their resounding roar, they were the personification of Royalty . We then saw a Bengal white tiger and then a surprise, a snow white tiger with no stripes at all. These animals have a low rate of survival because due to their albino genes, they lose their camouflage color in the wild. Seeing these majestic felines , I felt sorry for the future generations who might not get an opportunity to see these beasts at all with their present rate of extinction.

Lastly , we went to The Venetian as were to watch a show called " The Phantom of the Opera" . It was superb opera drama with beautiful music and great production values and props. Had it not been a combination of Opera and drama, I would not have enjoyed the play. Among other attractions in the casino are the Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum and Gondola ride. Wax museum was good. Among the many statues Capt Jack Sparrow, Andre Agassi , Angelia Jolie , Michael Jackson were life-like.

As we boarded the plane next day , we felt that we haven't had enough of LV and wished that we could have stayed longer and watched more shows. Well ,well , all good things must come to an end .

Rendu

I watched this movie 2 days back as it had been a long time since I saw a new movie. Frankly, I didnt have much expectations from the movie since its from Sunder C.

STORY :

Shakti(Maddy) comes to Madras to join his uncle Kirikalan(Vadivelu) who runs a magic show in an exhibition. On the way he meets Valli(or Velli...I was confused ..anyway she is reema sen), who also runs a kadal kanni(dunno how to put it in english) in the same exhibition opposite kirikalan’s stall..After some predictable twists , these 2 fall in love. Meanwhile 2 murders happn at kumbakonam and trichy with the date and time of the next murder clearly. Enter Investigative Officer Bhagyaraj . Ultimately Shakthi is arrested on murder and here the second maddy(Kannan) emerges. Kannan is blind and he murders these people to settle old scores with them. Why he murders them and what happens in the end is for you to watch out.
Storywise , there is nothing new. But what works is the comedy to an extent and maddy’s charm

PERFOMANCE :

MADDY: Maddy is good in the double role. He is able to differentiate well in the 2 roles.

VADIVELU: I guess vadivelu is getting overexposed. His comedy wasnt that good when compared to Winner or even in Giri. The problem here is that he has gone through the same kind of situations before and it is quite predictable now a days.

REEMA SEN : Nothing much to say. Only for glamour and songs.

ANOUSHKA : She is good and has a better role than Reema.

The flashback sequence of Kannan was good with some hilarious moments from Neelu and Santhanam.

MUSIC:
Music was jarring and terrible. Not even one song worth mentioning

All other departments were adequate

DIRECTION :
Since its a movie from Sundar C, you can expect only comedy to take centerstage and that’s what happens here. But just one question, why is there always a marriage sequence in many of your movies ?

Finally, watch the movie if you need a timepass or a maddy fan

Classmates - Nostalgic trip down the lane

Ever wondered how it would be to meet your old classmates after 15-20 years ? Gettting to know of their success , failures, joys and sorrows... Although the internet has bought our friends at a hands reach , I think that seeing them in person would be an altogether different feel. That was what that struck me the most after seeing this movie.

For people who are unaware of the movie, Classmates is a recent malayalam movie released for this Onam and is a blockbuster starring Prithviraj , Indrajeeth , Kavya madhavan, Jayasurya, Radhika, Narain , Balachandra Menon and Jagathy Sreekumar. Music in by Alex paul and direction is Lal Jose

The movie starts with the arrival of the students of chemistry batch who passed out during 91-92 from CMS college. They have arrived on the invitation of iyer sir(balachandra menon) and lakshmi teacher whose only son Murali(Narain) died in the final year under mysterious circumstances.Sukumaran (Prithviraj) , a leftist student leader is diamond merchant who has a unsuccessful marriage. Pius George (Indrajeeth) , the college romeo is now working in Dubai with a family consisting of his wife and a daughter. Thara Kurup ( Kavya Madhavan) , the dancer and the lady love of Sukumaran is a famous dancer who runs a dance school and is still unmarried. Satheesan Kanjikuzhi ( Jayasurya) who was an aspiring politician and constantly at loggerheads with Suku is now and MLA of Thodupuzha district. Vaasu ( Vijeesh ) who was dubbed as "Vaalu Vaasu" by Father Vadivelu ( Jagathy Sreekumar) as he is always an assistant to Satheesan and his right hand is still Vaalu to the MLA. Raziya (Radhika) who was nicknamed as "Penguin" comes to attend the re-union on the condition that nobody should ask her about the passed years . All goes well with everybody remembering Murali , who was the college singer and the peacemaker between Suku and Satheesh. It was his wish that everybody should meet after 10-15 years to find out how the others are doing.

But on the night of the re-union , Pius finds his close buddy Suku strangled with Murali's guitar wire and admits him to a hospital where he is struggling for his wife. Police views it as a suicide attempt after reading his diary excerpts. But Iyer Sir is not convinced and he talks to Pius and asks him to relate the incidents in their college days. The film then moves to past and present in parts. From the flashback, we get to know that Satheesan and Thara have an axe to grind against Suku and Iyer Sir confronts them . But both reply that they are not responsible for this and explain their reasons to come to re-union , to apologise to Suku . Then who is the murderer and what is the motive behind forms the rest of the story leading to some unexpected twists.

Prithviraj and Indrajith have performed their roles with ease and the camaraderie between them is evident throughout the movie.I enjoyed the sequence where Indrajith reads out Kavya's letter to Prithvi aloud and Prithvi's reactions. Indrajith has good comedy timing.

Narain looks smart and gives a neat perfomance.I read that the role offered to Narain was initially offered to Kunchacko Boban and he turned down the role due to prior commitments. Costly mistake , poor guy! Jayasurya has also been given a meaty role which he relished .

This is a role Kavya has done many times and she sleepwalks through the role. She shares a good chemistry with Prithviraj. Radhika has done really well for a newcomer. She had got all the expressions right.

Other supporting artistes like Balachandra Menon and Jagathy have performed what is expected out of them. Music by Alex Paul is good with melodious songs. My personal favorites are Ende Khalbile (Male Version) , Kathirunna Penn alle and Zindabaad.

Direction by Lal Jose is excellent.I liked the way he fashioned the sequences such that passing comments and actions of the characters take an entirely different sense from the narration of the culprit.He has a interesting story with unpredictabletwists and coupled with good perfomance and music , he has proved that any movie's success depends on the story and direction alone and not entirely on the actors.