Very TRagic movie

Sometime, the past week, I was bored, not sure what to do.. So I decided to watch this movie by name "Veerasamy" ...

For the benefit of the readers, who don't know tamil and / or tamil movies.. "Veerasamy" is a recently released tamil movie, which is almost a one-man show..

This is how the opening credits roll out


Production
Direction
Story
Lyrics
Cinematography
Screenplay
Music
Dialogues
Catering(!!!)
Audience (????)

by

Vijay T Rajender M.A (a.k.a V T R, formerly known as T Rajender M.A formerly a.k.a T R)

This appears everytime our hero delivers a punch dialogue. BTW, every dialogue in this movie is a punch dialogue ... it is a punch delivered on the audience, for their choice of movie..

No prizes for guessing who is the hero, comedian, heroine.. oops ignore the last one... it is our very own V T R...
Luckily for us, he has got a well groomed(!!!) and pasted beard, due to which he cannot disguise as the heroine.

After this introduction, I doubt whether you would want to read a review of this movie.. In case, you still want to read the review, then may God save you...

The story is very simple. The hero(V T R, who is also director-cum-producer-cum-story writer-cum-caterer-cum-music director of this movie) is a good samaritan, who helps needy people.. In order to help people, he joins politics and wins an election .. Thanks to his verbal punches at the villains and the dear audience.. Then you have his sister, who loves his arch-nemesis' younger brother (surprise!! surprise!!), who delivers a long dialogue, which makes us reach for the paper napkins.. You also have a heroine whose purpose is .. nah!! forget it .. totally irrelevant to the movie and its audience.

The travails of our hero lands him in trouble with the corrupt politicians, police officers, audience of this movie.. and finally our hero dies surprisingly without speaking a dialogue..

Officially, this movie is intended to belong to action genre. But unintentionally it has ended up as a comedy movie. The audience started laughing during the emotional scenes.

V T R rocks (just like a baby in a cradle) as usual with his rhyming punch dialogues, rhythmic dance steps and amazing emotions, which ends up as a good stand up comedy. Jerry Seinfeld, step aside!! you are no match to VTR. I love the scene, where our beloved V T R jumps thru the roof and hits the villain. I have never laughed so much looking at an action scene.

Not recommended for people to see alone, especially in theatres.

Rating : Sorry dude, no stars, maybe one black hole..

I would like to end this post with a punch dialogue from V T R. During a TV interview,a reporter asked V T R about how he felt about his son's success in the Tamil movie industry, he replied in a typical VTR style "Maankottailendu Maamaram-than varum" (Translation : From a mango seed, you can only get a mango tree)... I thought we could grow apple trees using mango seeds, oh stupid me!!!!

P.S : I admire V T R. Even after taking a lot of flak from everyone, he dares to make movies his way and be himself. Also, it takes a lot of effort being everything in a movie. This guy is never short of energy, even though the end result is vastly different from what he expects.

Thanks Everyone

In case, you hadn't noticed before, there's this teeny-weeny thing at the bottom of my blog which is known as a site meter. It gives me information about the location of people who have visited my blog so far alongwith..

According to this image from the sitemeter, I have had readers across the world, making this a truly international blog ;-) ..

A huge THANKS to all who have visited and recommended my blog to their friends...

It is this kind of encouragement, which keeps me going on and on (just like the energizer ad)...

Hope to have a rocking time through this blog in the future...

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN

Eight years ago.....

It ended in the year 1998, eight years ago.. Seems like yesterday.. or maybe day before ..

Welcome to my school days, where I was younger,shorter,lighter and had less facial hair ... Those were the days..

Gone were the days, where I dreaded wearing a tie everyday, used to bite nails during assembly so as to not get punished, used to smuggle my wrist watch in my bag to my class, used to fight with my class girls for trivial matters, used to hide corrected answer sheets in my bag away from my parents, used to eat during class, had the odd treat with my close friends at a fast food joint, having 10 Rupees in my pocket was a huge joy, enjoyed speaking in front of an audience and so on....

As time went by, those joys slowly diminished...
When I reminiscent abt those days now, I always end up having a smile on my face wondering whether it was really me doing all those???

You might be wondering why I have become nostalgic all of a sudden. My class from school had a reunion last September and I was looking at some of those snaps.. It was good fun, looking at an older version of a person with whom a lot of time was spent and recognizing him / her... As kids we fought, and now as adults, we are good friends.. It is amazing how time changes our perspective...
We were school-children, without any worry (except marks in the tests and exams) 8 yrs back and now, we are professionals, who have a career and life to worry about..

Just like a famous Metallica song which goes Ash to Ash, Dust to Dust, Fade to Black , but the memory remains... the memory always remains..

The height of irrelevance

It has been a big change living away from Bengalooru for the past few months.I am missing the place, which I am proud to call my own.

The events last week in Namma Bengalooru left a bad taste in my mouth, and was tongue tied out here unable to defend my city and country.

Let us look at the reason why this happened. A former dictator in a faraway land was executed (and there were no protests there) and there were protests three weeks later (I will not be surprised if this had happened three years later) in Bangalore, burning the effigies of people who hardly matter to us or our everyday life and all of a sudden indulged in violence, bringing the city to a stand-still. Then came the reaction to that and another round of violence. Unfortunately, Newton's third law held good here, which was not good for us :-(..

My first reaction was shock. What nonsense is happening in a place like Bengalooru?? There are a lot of problems faced by our country, namely Terrorism by those not-so-friendly cowards (a.k.a terrorists) everywhere, poverty, lack of development & infrastructure, rise in crime and many more.. There are no protests against these problems.. but why the hell do we need to have a violent protest for some dead guy in a really far off land.. It beats me.. There are many peaceful ways to protest.. Wear a black badge or have a candle light march ... Why do you want to disrupt common people's peace of mind and damage public property which belongs to us, the citizens? This holds good for those people who retaliated. An eye for an eye is not a solution to any problem..

What did the people who protested and indulged in violence achieve by this? An ex-MP, who was almost lost in the oblivion, is back in the news. Is this the price to be in the news?? Damage of public property,injuries to people, loss of life and most importantly a dent in Bengalooru's reputation.

Let us not forget that Bengalooru is being watched worldwide and this kind of negative publicity is what we can do without. Let me add another thing. The newspapers in the place I stay , just need a minute reason to damage India's reputation.. Incidents like this is what they are looking forward to.

To compund this, I noticed the protests and burning of cricketers' effigies which were happening due to the non performance of our cricket team. If people are 0.1 % as passionate about the performance of their respective governing bodies like municipalities, corporations, governments, all these bodies will be on tenterhooks and will perform well and most of our problems will be solved..

This shows the amount of time we are wasting on irrelevant issues and lack of attention to important issues...

BTW, I have a suggestion for those politicians and political party members who still want to protest against that particular execution.. We the citizens can start a fund , so that we can sponsor the tickets and visas of these politicos to that country to protest. This cost would be much cheaper than the cost of violence and loss of peace of mind out here. In addition, we have the chance that these people may not make it back, which will help us and our country in the long run.

The only solution is to ask the so-called champions of justice to "TAKE A HIKE" and let us concentrate on issues which are relevant to our country and our lives..

The Rain - A short story

Disclaimer : The characters and events in this story are fictious . Any resemblance to those living or dead is a pure coincidence.

As I sit next to the window, I see beautiful droplets of water on the leaves, moist sky and green grass. The rain makes everything look beautiful.. As I saw the rain get heavier, my memory jogged back to a time not so long ago....

I was a happy-go-lucky guy, with no care about the world, living everyday as it was the last. All I wanted to was enjoy life to the fullest. It was just another day or it seemed so in the morning on the way to office... and then it started raining in the evening. All I felt was that it was just another rainy day,with flooded streets and serpentine traffic jams and it would be a very long drive back home..

I started driving back home and as feared got stuck in a traffic jam.. But, was it worth getting stuck in a traffic jam? .. this was worth it.. I saw a dark shadow jumping on the puddles on the footpath and enjoying the rain.. as the shadow neared me.. I could see the face more clearly.. I started feeling better.. and it seemed like an angel had descended on this wet world.. and I yearned to see the angel better.. and as she came close to my car.. i could see her round blue eyes ,flowing hair, the dimple in her cheeks and the beautiful smile.. and I was in a different world.. and there came the rude awakening.. a shrill horn!!!

The traffic started moving .. and she had disappeared... Looks like my luck had deserted me as usual.. I never had any luck in my life.. I started moving again .. but this time around, I enjoyed the rain and the thought of that angel.. Who was she? Will I ever see her again??

To this day, I hope that I can catch a glimpse of her again in my life and my hope increases every time it rains.. Who is she?? She is my angel, my beautiful angel...

Author's footnote : We see a lot of people day in and day out. There are some unknown people whom we remember for some good reasons and yearn to meet. This is such a story where the protogoanist may or may not meet that girl again...

A small thought

Hello everyone!!! u might be wondering what the hell happened to the Metalhead..

Well!! I have been very busy and there were lots of things happening outside the blogosphere in my life and have been having virtually no time to put up any post..

Two weeks after posting my previous post, I shifted abroad on an assignment to work on my client site. This is my first time away from home. The time here has been a mixture of many emotions, excitement, sorrow, disgust, fun, elation, relief and many more...

I haven't returned back home yet at the time of writing this post. It has been a roller-coaster ride so far and
promises more..

This has made me think a lot about how life is shaped around decisions and how these decisions are made. All in all it is interesting how the mystery a.k.a life unfolds.

One thing for sure, it is not prudent to ponder about decisions that were made, rather live with it...

This hiatus has come to an end. Keep on watching this space for more thoughts in da near future.

P.S : I had started to write this post in november.. am publishing it 2 months later..

Retribution - A short story

Disclaimer : All characters in this story are fictious and Any resemblance is a coincidence

Present :

I was in a daze, not knowing what had happened. All I can feel is the warmth on my fingers. As I looked down, I could see my trustworthy sidekick, a .44 Magnum dangling on my fingers. As I looked around, the carnage we had created was very much visible. I can see more blood than the water all around me.

Now I know how Retribution feels like. But what drove me here? My life and my memories just flashed across my eyes............

3 years ago :

All along in my life, I wanted to be a cop. I always felt that there was an aura surrounding a cop and wanted to feel that aura and enjoy it. I cleared every test that was thrown at me and was one of the most successful cops in my Precinct. Then came the decision that I had to take. "Pablo"

Pablo was the best hitman available in the World and they wanted someone to take him down. Why they chose me was, is and will be the biggest mystery. Was it my willingness to take chances or my only chance at glory.

I happily accepted this assignment. It involved a lot of real danger and more importantly, the highest glory which a cop could get. I started following the trails and tried to get close to Pablo. But it did not work out as well as I had hoped. He somehow managed to escape every time around. The problem was that we never had any clue on his appearance or a picture of his and we were literally shooting in the dark.

12 months ago :

I was losing my patience . This assignment is killing me. It has been two years. I had given my all, sacrificing everything, yet never came anywhere close to Pablo. But today was unlike every other day, we got a tip-off on Pablo's son's whereabouts. This was my biggest oportunity to nab Pablo using his son as a bait.

We entered La Samba club and started moving around with the crowd. Looking the rampant drug abuse by youth there, I felt sick to my stomach, but carried on to find Pablo's son who was in a corner obiviously on a high. There was froth coming out of his mouth and we realised that he had a drug overdose and hurried him to the hospital. But, he died on the way and so were our hopes of finding Pablo.

I felt bad for what happened to Pablo's son. This was the worst way to waste his life. But I didn't realize that this incident had more to it.

2 Weeks ago:

I got a call on my cell phone and it was my Precinct captain. He asked me to come home immediately. There was a sense of urgency in his call. I didn't understand the reason for this. Fearing the worst, I came back home.

It felt like a nightmare. There was smoke and ash all around and a bunch of debris at a place where my home used to stand. Everything's gone!!! I didn't know what to say or do... I never felt so numb in my life .. All my loved ones were gone... I heard my Captain whisper something into my ears.... Just one word.. Pablo.....

How did he know it was me?? How did he get to my family??.. I could not think at all...

2 Hours ago:

I got the information that Pablo was in the Jus Warehouse today, closing a big deal.. This was the chance I was waiting for... One on One.. Man-o-Man.. I wanted him so badly that I did not even take a police unit with me... None knew that I was going there...

I saw the guard stand outside the Warehouse.. I didn't warn him, no chance in hell .. I took him down with a well-aimed shot.... a hole-in-one in his heart..... Slowly I opened the door and noticed that there were four guys who were chatting.... I took out my other pistol and they were just other corpses in this battle.... This went on and on and on.... I could fathom what hatred and a desire for retribution can do...They can turn a man into a dangerous beast, which I was that moment...

Finally, I saw the man himself, "Pablo" is what they call him... the same "they" who asked me to take him down...
I could not believe my eyes, it was..... BANG!!!! a hole in my arm.... just before I could gather my senses.. WHACK!! my head never hurt like this before... I didn't want to lose my consciousness, but this was a losing battle and the world became a blank...

I don't know how long I was out cold, but woke up looking at Pablo... He was none other than my Captain.. or did I hallucinate so??? No not at all. It was all a bloody setup....They took me for a ride.... They ruined my career, my life, why?? I didn't want any answers to these questions.. All I wanted was retribution....

I don't know what took over my senses, the next thing I remember is firing my guns and everything was over...

Now I sit there, watching the carnage... Is retribution worth all this?? All of a sudden, the door opened and came another guy, whom I could not recognise. His last words were "It's been a pleasure".......

Why me??? - A short story

Disclaimer : All events and characters in this story are fictional and any resemblance is pure coincidence

I was driving back home after a long day's work. The same old routine everyday. Listening to Metallica's Fade to Black just like I do every other day. But was this just another day? All of a sudden there was a small child on the road just ahead of my car.

The next thing I remember is my aching head, legs and back and some voices asking me whether I was fine. Some people managed to carry me. That is the last thing I remember, before I went onto blissful sleep. I never slept like this in my life so far.

One fine day, I woke up from the sleep. I dunno how long I was asleep. But this awakening was very much different from the usual. I felt very good, brisker than ever, fitter than ever and got up from the bed without much fuss. I have always been a person, who never looked back in my life. Maybe this was the reason why I didn't want to look back at the place from where I got up.

I headed towards home, sweet home. I missed home all this time. I was looking forward to go back home. I got into the bus. It was the quietest and the most peaceful ride I have ever had in a bus. As the bus neared home, I was feeling very happy. But I didn't know that this happiness would be short-lived.

As I entered home, I saw all the people who mattered the most to me. My parents, my brother and sister and of course, my lovely wife. They seemed to be unaware of my presence at the door. Even though the door was open, I thought that I would surprise them with my presence by ringing the door bell. As I was about to ring the bell, I heard my mother's voice asking my brother to shut the door. He came to the door and slammed the door on my face.

I was shocked and terribly sad that my brother shut the door on my face and that too on the behest of my mother. With anger and dejection, I left home and went to my best buddy's place. Maybe he'll understand me. I saw him inside his house and thought that I could blurt out everything that happened. As I entered his house, he was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. I sat next to him and started talking to him. To my surprise, he completely ignored me. Oh no! not him too!!!!

Are they angry at me? What is the reason for this immense hatred towards me? Now I remember!! What happened to that child that day? Did I kill the child with my car? I shudder at the possibility that I might have killed an innocent child. Why should this happen to me? God, of all people Why Me??? How will I convince them that it was not intentional?? Why me?? Why should I be in this mess??

I didn't know where to go next. I felt that I had to bide some time before convincing my family and friend. I went to the library nearby. I was in no mood to read anything. I took a random newspaper and started flipping through the pages. I stopped at a headline which read "YOUTH KILLED IN A CAR CRASH". I started thinking that the traffic situation has worsened to a point of no return. I didn't want to read further as the news about accidents makes me feel miserable. I just flipped throught the pages and started thinking on how to tackle the current situation.

I stood up and made up my mind that I'm going to get myself out of this situation. I went back home and walked in through the door. I saw a lady and her child talking to my parents. The child's face looked familiar. As I was wondering who the child was, I heard my wife crying in our room. I went into our room and started consoling her. She started crying more than ever and she got up in a jiffy and moved out of the room. I was taken aback by this. I didn't know how to react. I saw the same newspaper with the same headline as I had seen in the library.What a coincidence!! I started to read this news item.

It read " A 28-year old Software Engineer was killed in a car crash when he tried to avoid a child on the road" and the photo of the car was published. I looked at the photo. Something seemed very familiar in this picture. I saw the plate of the car and it struck me like a lightning. It was my car!!!!!

Now I remember, who the child talking to my parents was. It was the same child on the road. As I moved to the living room, I saw a huge photo of mine on the mantle, and my wife standing next to it. As I went closer, I heard the strange lady say amidst sobs "It was my mistake all along. I asked her to stay at the Super Market entrance as I went in to get an extra bag. She wandered onto the road by herself. If it was not for your son, I might have lost her forever. I'm really sorry that your son had to sacrifice himself for my daughter. I would always be grateful to your family".

My family was not disappointed by my actions. In fact, they are and will be proud of my last action for a long time.

All along I was asking the question "Why me", now I know why it was me.

Multiple Personality .... Disorder????

One of my all time favorite movies is this Tamil movie by name "Anniyan" (a.k.a "Aparichitudu" in Telugu and "Aparichit" in hindi.. In case, u don't know these languages.. Don't worry I'll tell wat's so special abt this movie ;-) )... I dunno how many times I've seen this movie. Everytime I see this movie, it brings on a new dimension......

So what's this movie all about, that makes me blog about??? There's this portrayal of a condition known as Multiple Personality Disorder , a.k.a MPD..... Yes, u are right, the same condition which is mentioned in Sidney Sheldon's "Tell me your dreams" ,which is a brilliant book...

In case u haven't see this movie, here's the brief outline.....
The movie's about a meek person by name "Ambi", who can't stand the carelessness of people and feels bad that he can't make any difference to the society. Without his knowledge, he transforms into "Anniyan", who punishes the people, who are careless... The story is all about the protogoanist's brush with the law machinery and the movie ends brilliantly, one of the best I've seen....

After seeing this movie umpteen times, it just occurred to me, that this condition is prevalent among every person... Interesting .. ain't it?? First thing, people will vehemontly deny this...Let me prove that this exists.... Just read on!!!

There are many personalities within a single person, a humorous personality, an angry soul (something like our very own angry young man ;-) ), a romantic personality and many others... It can be seen that every person has his/her own mood changes... Now isn't that something like a personality change .... People do have fantasies .. isn't that wanting to turn into some other personality, which they are unable to.....

Let me take a test subject....

As usual, our friendly neighbourhood Software Engineer... somehow, I just can't do without dragging in Software Engineers :-P.. Before u jump to conclusions, Let me re-iterate that I'm also a Software Engineer :D.....
Early morning, this guy is lazy as a sloth .... During the day, he's a professional, talking and behaving like a well-groomed individual.. Catch him with a close friend, he is as humorous as Drew Carrey.... When he's speaking with his parents or someone from his family, he as quiet as a mouse... When with his girl-friend or wife, he is as romantic as Romeo.. When drunk, he's more unpredictable than a monkey.....
Wow!!! isn't this a multiple personality????

I can quote many examples like this... When friends go out on a road trip, where a lot of booze flows and they do get drunk and go crazy.... When the same people go out with their folks the very same evening,they seem like some body else..... Isn't this strange??? The only difference between MPD and this syndrome is that, people are very much aware of changes in their personality ...... Is this voluntary or involuntary??

So what's your personality today???

Music in Metalhead's eyes.. oops!! ears

Guess who's back in the blogosphere?? Yes, it's the average dude with the mix 'n' match of random thoughts.... If u haven't guessed the person yet, then u need to scoll to the top of this post ;-).... Yep, it's me :-D

What is Music?? How will a person define music??? Some might say soothing sound..... some strange out-of-the-world person would categorise the sound of chainsaw cutting wood as music as well.... Looks like people can debate on this topic forever. It's said that Humans are social animals... I would go further ahead and say that humans are also musical animals.... I don't think there are people who live without listening to music. In fact, it has been proved scientifically that plants also listen to music....

Hey, why am I posting some random information about music? This is just a prelude to my post. It's said in English Grammar that a good passage consists of an Introduction, Body and a conclusion... So here I am, trying my best to follow this... Oops!!! this is another distraction.... Let's come back to the topic....As the title says, I'll talking about my perception on various music genres.

Please note that this is my personal opinion and I'm not trying to impose my views on any of the readers....

Classical Music : A person needs to be classy to understand this type of music. This is the foundation to all the music being created. In fact, when a person learns music, he / she has to learn classical music. There are no 2 ways abt it. In fact, most of the successful Indian singers are accomplished classical musicians.. Now that's food for thought....

Pop : I'm not a huge fan of pop...Let's not talk abt it... I include remixes alongwith this genre... My view is that I'll listen to pop.. in case if it's the only music left in the universe.. I like a few tracks here and there... but those are far and few.....

Hiphop and Rap : I like the videos... Who doesn't like them :-P... But music-wise, some are very good and some are ok-ish... As long as u don't get offended by lyrics of most of the tracks.. I don't think many people will dislike this genre of music...

Rock, Metal, Heavy Metal, Death Metal and any music that's heavy ;-) : I guess my profile name gives away my preference.... :D.... Yes, I love rock music.. Many people perceive it to be only noise.. Believe me, if u haven't listened to rock, u have missed something in life.. So, what are u waiting for??? My all time favorite rock band is METALLICA.

Indian movies' music scene is sort of a cocktail of different genres of music... It combines every possible genre of music, that too in a single track.... That's what makes this music scene unique... My favorite songs are those which have a touch of classical and Rock music.. which makes the numbers less than others....

There's no rights or wrongs in a person's taste for music... and I believe that no music is bad.. it's only that an individual likes or dislikes a particular type of music..... There are a few things about a person, which should not be criticised and preference for music is one among them....

So, what are u waiting for?? Go grab ur Music Player or something and put on some music.. After all, there is no background score in real life ;-)....