Blogmatix

Deiva Thirumagal: Movie Review

2011-07-16T14:45:00.001-07:00

For the first time, a loosely based remake of a Hollywood movie “I am Sam” has been made better than it’s original. I had seen “I am Sam” 5 or 6 years ago and loved it. Sean Penn’s best performance until Milk, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dakota Fanning had ably supported him in this emotional courtroom drama. The movie was remade in Hindi in 2005 titled “Main Aisa Hi Hoon” starring Ajay Devgan. The movie was average and was a complete remake unlike Deiva Thirumagal.

Director Vijay whose previous film Madrasapattinam was a super hit has nailed this one as well. Unlike “I am Sam” where the core content is based on a Custody case between the mother and father for their child, Vijay has given a new touch to this film. Vikram’s best performance till date, Yes this was a better acting performance than Sethu and Pithamagan. I won’t be surprised if he wins his second National Award for this film. The performance was so brilliant that you tend to forget that it is Vikram on screen and not his character Krishna.

Krishna (Vikram) is a mentally retarded person working in a chocolate factory near a small town Avalanchi in Ooty. His wife Bhanu gives birth to a daughter named Nila (Baby Sarah) and dies during child birth. Vikram brings Nila up until she is 5 years old. Shweta (Amala Paul of Myna fame) is the Correspondent of Nila’s school and takes a liking for her. She eventually finds out that Nila is none other than her sister Bhanu’s daughter. Shweta’s father who is a big shot in the pretext of taking care of both Krishna and Nila take them to Chennai and abandons Vikram on the road and whilst off with Nila. How Vikram manages to find Nila along with the help of lawyer Anu (Anushka) forms the rest of the story. Superb cameo performances by Y.G Mahendran as Anushka’s Father, Vikram’s four mentally deranged friends, Anushka’s lawyer friend, owner of the chocolate factory, father of Amala Paul and Nazar as the defence lawyer.

It’s Vikram all the way, blows you away with his performance, even Sean Penn would agree with me. I thought I wouldn't mention this but Baby Sarah made Dakota Fanning look like an amateur with her performance. Hats off to the Director to get so much of performance and content from such a young artist. She probably is the find of the century. It is just unbelievable that this is her first film. Anushka has forayed into a different league with her performance to follow-up her superb performance in her previous film Vaanam. Nazar eased through his role like a veteran that he is. For a subject which has such a heavy dose of emotional content, the directed peppered the movie throughout with meaningful light hearted moments with Santhanam in the lead. Santhanam as Anushka’s assistant waltz through this heavy dose film with his effortless comedy.

It’s officially time to upgrade Music Director G.V Prakash Kumar to a Tier 1 Music Director in Tamil Film Industry to join along with Yuvan Shankar Raja and Harris Jeyraj. “Vizhigalil Oru Vaanavil” crooned by G.V’s wife Saindhavi is the best of the lot, probably one of the best melody in recent years. Cinematographer Nirav Shah forays his skill meticulously in this song. The song is a visual treat, Anushka just dazzles in the visuals. Vikram has sung two songs himself and has nailed it as well. Na Muthukumar’s lyrics are just top notch stuff.

My only complaint was that the movie is a tad long and could have been shortened by 15 minutes or so to my liking, especially in the first half and maybe could have dropped off a song as well. Otherwise it is the best ever remake movie I have ever seen. Vikram, Director Vijay and Baby Sarah need a standing ovation. A soulfully rendered movie which has to be seen on big screen.

My Ratings ****

The SRT Jinx

2011-04-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows it. A Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar century more or less results in India losing the match. Lately the Jinx seems to be getting stronger and stronger. In the recent World Cup, Sachin had scored two centuries, one against South Africa and one against England, the one against SA was for a losing cause and the one against Eng was almost a losing cause. How we managed to tie it from a lose-win-lose situation is a miracle. Like me, many people were hoping that Sachin would not score another ton in the World Cup so that India could lift the World Cup. And he obliged. In 2009, against Australia, Sachin scores a marvelous 175, even a high score such as this wasn't enough for the Jinx to turnaround.One would have expected these kind of Jinxes would have been negated in the shorter format of the game, The T20's.Cometh the IPL Season 4, a match against a less fancied Kochi Tuskers, Sachin carves out his first T20 hundred, you think you cannot be on a losing cause in a 20 over format, that too against a weak team at least on paper and with a superb Mumbai Indians bowling attack. Voila, the Jinx happen, the strongest team in the IPL are in the losing side against the weakest team in the IPL despite when their captain makes his debut IPL ton on his and their team's home ground.

The Jinx is getting lethal and lethal, just one way to stop it, score 99 and get retired hurt if you must or you could score a 200................................

The Paul Valthaty Effect

2011-04-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

0/2 in 2 balls aint a good start but heck did Chennai Super Kings recover to a super score of 188/4. Thanks to local boys Vijay, Badri and a great cameo from Dhoni. No one expected Kings 11 Punjab to actually chase given the fact that the Chennai Super Kings has a international (Not a World Class) class bowling attack in Tim Southee, Albie Morkel, R Ashwin, Suraj Randiv, Scot Styris, Jakati and Raina. Well they had a chance if Gilchrist or Marsh had taken it away from them, however what we saw is the best T20 Knock when chasing. A little know Paul Valthaty smashed the CSK bowling attack to an enterprising 120 not out of just 63 balls with 19 Fours and a couple of Sixes, the next highest score of 21 indicates the dominance he had on the CSK bowlers. Well a one match knock wont get him automatically into the Indian team, if he continues his good run he may seriously knock on the door for the Indian team selection.Just hard to imagine what would have happened had Kings 11 Punjab retained Yuvraj.

The Ultimate Slow Cooked Mutton Chops

2011-04-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Can be tried with Goat, Sheep or Lamb

Ingredients:

1 KG Mutton Chops

8 Medium Size Red Onions

1 Medium Size Tomato

4 Medium Size Green Chillies

2 TBSP Chilli Powder

4 TBSP Coriander Powder

I TSP Turmeric Powder

1 TBSP Pepper

4 TBSP Oil

1 Cup Yogurt/Curd

1 TSP Lime Juice

Brandy or Papaya for softening the meat

Preparation:

Marinate the mutton chops with Brandy/Papaya, Yogurt/Curd, Lime Juice, Chilli Powder, Turmeric Powder, Coriander Powder, Salt and keep aside. Marinate for at least 3 Hours, more the better.

Fry the Onions is a slow flame till golden brown, just before it becomes golden brown add green chillies and tomato. Once the raw smell goes off, add the marinated mutton chops and add water till all the meat sinks well under the mixture. Keep it on low flame and let it cook for 90 minutes to 120 minutes. This is a slow cooking method and if you want it done quickly done, boil the mutton chops in a pressure cooker before and then do the cooking which would save time.

Good Luck, very easy to cook and tastes great. You can do a gravy or dry it up if you would like it drier, either way it tastes so good.

The Dhaka Massacre

2011-04-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

A year ago, an Australia Vs Bangladesh series would have evicted another yawn from most endearing cricket fans. With the recent Australia's slide from cricket dominance and an quarter final exit from the World Cup, one would have thought the gap between the two teams had narrowed a bit. After losing the first ODI by 60 runs, I expected another encounter of similar sorts only to be surprised by the massacre that happened. I was talking to a friend about why Australia is struggling currently, due to lack of any potential future legends with the exception of Shane Watson. A 229 against Australia is quiet an achievement for a Bangladesh team and would have expected Australia to at least take 40 overs to chase them down. Shane Watson, according to me is the most underrated Australian player ever, no one really talk great about him and tend to ignore the fact that he goddamn opens the innings in both form of the game and bowls like a bowler. Not even Sir Garfield Sobers or any of the greatest All Rounders opened regularly for their country.

What happened on 11th April 2011 at Dhaka is the biggest carnage caused by an individual in the game of cricket. Maybe if Sir Vivian Richards was playing T20 now, we could have seen something of the same range. The score of 229 was mauled almost individually by Shane Watson who flayed the Bangladeshi attack in his merciless effort of 185 Not Out of 96 Balls studded with 15 Fours & 15 Sixes. I was lucky enough to record the highlights of this match in HD :) for my viewing pleasure. The next greatest all rounder has arrived and time for the cricketing world to address it give Watto his due credit.

Endhiran: Movie Review

2010-10-03T01:45:00.000-07:00

My longest movie review ever, but the movie demanded it.

A typical Hollywood Blockbuster Action movie would take about 200 $ million dollars to make. Endhiran, despite being the costliest Indian film ever made, the budget was approximately @ 35 $ million dollars. So you do the maths.

Let’s talk about Hype, making a regional film @ 35 $ million dollars, you need to appreciate the guts of Kalanidhi Maran. Why wouldn’t you want not to Hype it, it’s after all his money. We all know how good Sun Pictures is when it comes to marketing and they have done their job clearly well.

The movie starts sans Rajni’s fancy Introduction, and is light hearted right through the first half. Rajni is Dr. Vaseegaran who is a Robotic Scientist keen on creating a one man army Andro Humanoid Robo which he could give it to the Indian military for greater good. He creates Chitti the Robot who amuses everyone with his capabilities. Sana (Aishwarya) plays his love interest, two assistants for Rajni in Santhanam and Karunas who are wasted with little scope for them. Dr. Bohra (Danny Denzongapa), the guy who had refused Amjad Khan’s Sholay role is brought back to the Silver Screen after a significant hiatus. He plays the role of a Rajnis’s antagonist who wants to create destructive Robots and sell it to international terrorist arms dealer. Unlike Rajni’s previous villains like Ramya Krishnan in Padayappa and Suman in Sivaji who crave a niche for themselves after they make a movie with Rajni, there isn’t enough scope for Danny too and is completely wasted as well. The Robot character has been thought too well by Shankar and satisfies the viewers in all needs. Shankar is without any doubt the best creative director in the world when it comes to creating a song sequence and has proved it again in Endhiran. Aishwarya looks sizzling in Arima Arima and Kilimanjaro song. Just when you thought that the former Miss World would have possibly worn every single dress on this earth during her career, the dresses doled out to her in the Kilimanjaro songs are a visual treat to the viewers, shot at Machu Pichhu, an UNESCO World Heritage Site located at Peru is the first Indian film to be shot at this location. Heard that shooting rights were rejected for James Bond’s last film at Machu Pichhu, the views and camera angles are just breathtaking, you need to watch in Big screen just for this song alone. Shankar’s creative genius comes into foray when Chitti attracts all the metal objects from the bad guys and looks like a Bathrakali with all the ladies amusing themselves thinking that he is actually their God, a hilarious scene.

Shankar does a King Kong in the second half giving us an overdose of animatronics and CG. It looked like a showcase event to Hollywood producers that he can do a Hollywood Blockbuster if given 200 $ million dollars. In the run, the plot of the movie was compromised. His desperation comes out when he tries to fit in all possible famous Hollywood CG effort in the long climax action sequence ranging from Anaconda to Iron Man. However, Kudos to his meticulous effort despite a poor finish to the movie. When I was wondering why Rajni’s first half performance was subdued with no significant mentions, Bam came Rajni with the Bad Robo performance. Many a times we tend to forget how great Rajni is as an Actor, he scorches the theatre with his performance. The scene where he finds the Black sheep and shouts maaaaaaaaaaaa was phenomenal, one watch just for this sceneJ. Hope Rajni does a full blown Villain role in the near future. Aishwarya was stunning in patches and artificial in patches too, the final scene where Rajni destroys all the Robots, Aishwarya’s expression was amateur. I would still stick to my point that Aishwarya can act only in emotional scenes.

A. R Rehmans’ background score was a mini Philharmonic Orchestration and was colossus. Off late many of his songs need a lot of listens before it gets on to you and Endhiran is no exception. He nails it to the movie requirement. If you don’t like the songs yet, probably you have listened enough. Sabu Cyril art stands out and so does Rathnavelu’s cinematography.

A very impressive enjoyable first half turns cacophonous to satiate Shankar’s CG appetite with Rajni’s performance as the saving grace.

My Verdict: ***

Avatar Movie Review

2009-12-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

When was the last time when people inside the theatre clapped after the movie was over. I have never experienced this before and that too in a US theatre, I have seen a lion’s share of movies in theater and I can strongly make this statement, the best visual experience I have seen in my life. As of Dec 24, 2009 Avatar has raked in 329.3 million USD worldwide collections and is at the 184th position of all time grosses. Only 4 movies have ever crossed the 1 Billion USD mark and I won’t be surprised if Avatar makes it as the 5th movie ever to cross the 1 Billion USD mark in worldwide collection. Beating Titanic’s record of 1.8 Billion USD may be a tough ask for Avatar but it will at least move to the second biggest grosser of all time if not first.

Making the movie in 3D was a very smart move from James Cameroon as it enhanced the visuals to an unimaginable level. The story has nothing great to write about; Pandora is a planet with a wealth of resources and has a rich deposit of Unobtainium, a small piece of it costs 20 million dollars. The local natives called the Navi inhabit Pandora and their village is sitting on top of the richest reserve of Unobtainium. The Navi’s can do literally everything, they are 10 foot tall, great hunters, have fancy beasts and dinosaur like birds to ride and fly through the sky and sleep on big beaver like nests. The hero is sent on a mission to infiltrate the Navi’s and relocate them so that the Unobtainium reserves can be unearthed. Since humans cannot survive in Pandora, they are mutated to become Navi’s similar to matrix style. The hero gets into Pandora and learns the way of the Navi’s only to have a change of heart and support the Navi’s and fight. The climax scene is a sight to behold.

The movie takes you through a series of breathtaking visuals, an entire planet has been created for our visual pleasure, James Cameron plays god here to his full innovative extent. Watch the movie purely for its visual contents; it will blow your mind away. For all future animation and CG experts, this movie would be the bible. Watch the movie in 3D, save your 3D glasses as souvenirs and show them to your grandkids and proudly say to them that these were the glasses though which you saw Avatar. As far as for James Cameron, let’s start calling him James Cameron The Great.

Ice Age 3 Movie Review

2009-07-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

I don’t remember the last time a movie sequel had bettered the previous ones. Yes, Ice Age 3 is the without a doubt the best of the series. There are new additions to the herd, Buck, a one-eyed Weasel which helps the herd in this adventure. Buck is a character similar to Shrek’s Puss in Boots character but only with more zeal and more scope in adventure & actions to perform. The character is in itself a phenomenon. Simon Pegg has done great justice by lending his voice to this character. Scrat (the nut chasing squirrel) has a friend/foe in this new character Scratte, another squirrel which tries to lure Scrat romantically in parting the nut. More footage to these two squirrels this time around, though in the end one might feel it was overdone a little bit.

The movie runs for 1 hour and 34 minutes packed with great animation, adventure, creativity, camaraderie, thrill, fun, wit & humor. The story line starts as usual with a fight for the nut between Scrat & Scratte. Manny is excited hearing that Ellie is pregnant. Diego the Tiger leaves the herd after realizing that old age has caught up with him. He gets a reality check after a Deer mocks him over a failed chase. Sid feels left alone and stumbles into three large eggs (yeah, you guessed them right, they are Dinosaur eggs). Sid decides to raise them and three baby Dinosaurs are born. Mama dinosaur comes looking for her babies, finds them and is forced by her babies to carry Sid along with them. Many & Ellie along with Crash & Eddie (the two Possums) plus Diego go behind the Dinosaur to rescue Sid. Buck helps them in this whirlwind adventure.

The portion with Sid & the baby Dinosaurs are just eventful. Dinosaur land has been created a la Jurassic Park. The biggest plus has been nearly equal footage to most of the characters rather than focus on only the two Mammoths. Director Carlos Saldanha has come up trumps in this movie. Ray Romano’s (Everybody Loves Raymond) voice for Manny and Queen Latifah’s voice for Ellie was top notch as usual. I just can’t imagine what a spectacle it would have been if I could have watched this on 3D. For folks in Mumbai, try to watch it in IMAX, trust me, it would be a treat.

My Verdict: ****

Top 5 Worst decisions for Oscar Award Winning Best Picture

2009-02-26T07:39:00.000-08:00

You guessed it right, Slumdog definitely features in my list. As a person who has seen every Oscar winning "Best Picture" movie since 1929, my least favorites are below

Not in any particular order, though Rocky would be the last.

1.Rocky
2.Crash
3.Gandhi
4.SlumdogMillionaire
5.AmericanBeauty

I would rate the above movies between mediocre to very average but definitely not Oscar material. Very happy that ARR won 2 Oscars, however even getting a nomination for Best Picture category was quite a shocker to me. Hope 82nd one turns out to be a pure performance show rather than driven by any external factors.

Anything.....for a friend
Thilak

Test Matches Year 2004: A Glimpse

2005-04-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

It was year full of Test matches and runs came pouring in, players scored double centuries aplenty, in all 11 double centuries were notched up by the batters apart from the one triple century and one quadruple century that was scored. Almost all the top countries played more than 10 Test matches for the year. Many records were shattered and many records were created.

• Lara became the first batsman in Test history to score a quadruple ton
• Lara also became the second player after Sir Don Bradman to score 2 triple tons(considering 400 as a triple ton)
• Lara’s innings of 400* is the highest ever Test score in the history of the game
• Srilanka contributed 5 of the 11 double tons.
• Kumara Sangakkara from Srilanka and Sachin Tendulkar from India made 2 Test Double tons for the calendar year.
• Sehwag became the first Indian to score a Triple Century when he made 309 against Pakistan.
• Sachin’s 3 biggies(241*,194*,248*) for the year all came in foreign soil which is a remarkable achievement
• Sachin scored his first double ton against Australia as well his first double ton away from home.
• Sachin’s 248* against Bangladesh was his highest ever Test score.
• Sachin’s 248* against Bangadesh was the 250th double century in the history of test annals, incidentally the 200th double was also scored by Sachin
• Sachin, for the record scored the first and last double century of the year 2004
• Lara, Sachin, Sarwan, Dravid, Sehwag, Sangakkara, Atapattu, Flintoff made their best ever Test Score which was a great achievement as all the mentioned players apart from Flintoff already had a high test score already to their credit.
• All 4 top scores by the Indian batsmen came on foreign soil which is a remarkable achievement. (241*,309,270 & 248*)
• In the 12 Test matches played by India, they notched up 5 scores of over 500 runs. (705,675,600,526,540)
• Lara became the 3rd and fastest(Matches) player to reach 10,000 runs in Test Cricket
• Rahul Dravid became the first person to score a century against all test playing nations at their home grounds
• Anil Kumble finished the year with 444 wickets overtook Kapil’s record of 434 wickets and became the highest Indian Tests wicket taker
• Shane Warne with 562 wickets overtook Muralitharan to become the highest wicket taker in the history of Test cricket, Murali has 532 wickets
• Kallis, Flintoff and Gayle scored 7 half centuries for the year which was the highest no of fifties recorded for the calendar year
• Martyn scored 6 centuries for the year which was the highest no of tons for the calendar year
• Strauss became the first and only player to score Test centuries on debut at home and in away Tests
• Langer with 1481 runs scored the highest amount runs for the year
• Interesting thing to note is that Martyn scored 2 test centuries each against the 3 big subcontinent teams in the calendar year which I assume is a first of its kind
• Also Australia defeated the 3 big subcontinent teams in a Test series in a single calendar year which may also be a first

India started the year on a strong note against Australia with their 1st test match for the year played at the SCG. The Test Series was leveled at 1-1 after 3 matches; India piled 705/7 decl with Sachin making his highest Test score at that time after his dreadful run of scores in 2003. He was amply supported by VVS Laxman who made a fine 178. After leveling the Australian series, India confidently strode past Pakistan at their den. Sehwag scoring the first triple ton for India and was supported by Sachin’s unbeaten 194 which raised a lot of brows because of Dravid’s declaration before Sachin was able to complete his double century. After losing the second test, India came back strongly to win the 3rd Test and the series, thanks to Dravid’s magnificent 270. India lost the home test series against Australia 2-1 and won the home Test series against South Africa 1-0. India creamed Bangladesh to register a 2-0 series win in Bangladesh. Sachin scored his career highest knock of 248*. Dravid and Gambhir helped themselves to a century apiece.

3 double tons and a triple ton was contributed by India, 4 players made 5 double tons for Srilanka, Lara made the historic 400*, Sarwan creamed Bangladesh to make his career highest score of 261*. Fleming also scored a double ton against the hapless Bangladesh. Langer thwarted the New Zealand attack to score his double century for the year. Pakistan played only 7 tests for the entire calendar year with no major contributions.

Only Kallis and Martyn were among the runs consistently. Although they didn’t have a double ton or a high score to their credit they had been incredibly consistent with the bat throughout the year.

Big not out scores made up the averages for the otherwise not so consistent year for Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. Sachin was unlucky to miss out on his double ton when he scored 194* against Pakistan.

As many as 11 players reached the 1000 run mark for the calendar year. The breakup was pretty interesting, in spite of 3 West Indies players featuring in this elite list, the Windies had a pathetic year in Test cricket. 3 Australian, 2 Srilankan, 1 Indian, 1 English and 2 South African player completed this list

My Batsmen of the Year: Damien Martyn & Jacques Kallis

Damien Martyn: His average of 56.38 may not be high when compared to Sachin but he has scored 6 centuries, 5 fifties and 4 scores of 40 plus in the Calendar year with 2 knocks of 97 in the fifties that he had scored. 4 centuries coming in the subcontinent, 2 each against Srilanka and India and 2 at home against Pakistan. He was one of the main architects of the 3-0 whitewash which Australia handed to Srilanka in Srilanka.

Jacques Kallis: Averaging 80.50 for the year, Kallis has scored 5 centuries and 7 fifties with 3 of the 5 centuries being unbeaten tons. He was unlucky to miss out on his 5th Ton when he was dismissed for 92 in the 1st Test against New Zealand.

My Debutant of the Year: Andrew Strauss with 971 runs for the year, he scored 4 tons and 4 fifties and was the revelation of the English side. The player to watch out for in the future.

My All Rounder of the Year: Andrew Flintoff with 898 runs aided by 7 fifties and 2 Tons. He also took 43 wickets with a best of 5/58.

My Team of the Year: England

Although Australia was strong contender for this spot, I couldn’t rate them No 1 for 2 reasons, one being they conceded over 700 runs at Home against India and the other being, they unable to snatch victory against India in the Mumbai test and being bowled out for a paltry score. England played 13 Tests in the year and won 11 of the 13, although they played 8 Tests against Windies and 3 against New Zealand, they white washed both New Zealand and Windies at their home and thrashed Windies 3-0 in the 4 match series at Windies, Only Brian Lara’s 400 stopped the English from completing the white wash at West Indies. They finished the year with a 1-0 lead over South Africa at their own den, bad light preventing them from winning their 12 Test for the year. Great going England.

My Bowler(s) of the Year: Shane Warne with 70 wickets with five 5 wickets hauls and two 10 wicket haul from 12 Tests and Stephen Harmison with 67 wickets from 13 Tests with a best of 7-12 which is also his best Test bowling performance

A look at the Captains:

Name Matches Runs HS Avg 100s 50s

Brian Lara 12 1178 400* 58.9 3 4
Saurav Ganguly 8 408 88 45.33 0 4
Stephen Fleming 10 737 202 46.06 2 2
Maravan Atapattu 11 966 249 48.3 4 1
Michael Vaughan 12 712 140 35.6 3 2
Ricky Ponting 10 697 98 41 0 5
Graeme Smith 11 921 139 46.05 2 5
Inzamam-ul-haq 6 372 118 37.2 2 1
Tatendra Taibu 4 184 59 30.66 0 2
Habibul Bashar 6 298 113 27.09 1 1

• Brian Lara led the pack for the maximum number of runs scored for the calendar year. His average was also the highest among all the 10 captains.
• Saurav Ganguly missed out on 4 tests due to injury, his average came about 45.33 after the 2 big fifties he scored against Bangladesh.
• Stephen Fleming notched up his second double century of his career when he made 202 against Bangladesh.
• Maravan Atapattu was unlucky to miss out the 1000 run mark, he scored his career highest score of 249 against Zimbabwe.
• Both Michael Vaughan and Ricky Ponting had a quiet year despite their team astounding success.
• Graeme Smith had a good run with the bat although his team fared badly, he missed out on the 1000 run mark by 79 runs
• Although Pakistan played only 7 Tests for the entire year, Inzamam-ul-haq’s performance was below par.
• Habibul Bashar scored a ton to his credit
• Zimbabwe was troubled because of the political situation in their country played only 4 Tests for the year

A glimpse at the rest:

Sachin Tendulkar 10 915 248* 91.5 3 2
Virendar Sehwag 12 1141 309 63.39 3 4
Rahul Dravid 12 946 270 63.07 2 4
VVS Laxman 12 513 178 32.06 1 1
Kumara Sangakkara 11 1114 270 55.7 3 5
Sanath Jayasurya 11 1130 253 56.5 4 3
Mahela Jayawardene 11 861 237 45.32 2 3
Ramnaresh Sarwan 12 1005 261* 50.25 3 4
Chris Gayle 12 1135 141 54.04 4 7
Mathew Hayden 14 1123 132 43.19 3 6
Justin Langer 14 1481 215 54.85 5 4
Damien Martyn 14 1353 161 56.38 6 5
Darren Lehmann 12 803 153 40.15 2 6
Adam Gilichrist 14 837 144 38.05 3 3
Andrew Flintoff 13 898 167 52.82 2 7
Graham Thorpe 12 951 119* 73.15 4 4
Andrew Strauss 9 971 137 60.69 4 4
Marcus Trescothick 13 1004 132 43.65 4 3
Jacques Kallis 11 1288 162 80.5 5 7
Jacobus Rudolph 11 890 154* 49.44 3 5

Stats Courtesy: cricinfo.com & howstat.com
*** Players who have scored more than 800 runs in this year, the top 5 Indian Batsmen and all the test playing nation captains have been included in this list

The Chronicles of Madras

2005-02-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

In 1970's two people falling in love was not a common sight that one could see in Madras. Although, it being one of the 4 main metros of India, Madras and now Chennai was and till now has been the most conservative city in India. At least it was definitely and truly was conservative in the 70s. Love those days were talking through the eyes and eyes only, even something like holding hands was considered to be taboo, as a result of which you could receive some sharp glances from the passers by.

Kumar (Name changed) and Divya (Name changed) were working in the same office and somehow due to the magic or madness of love they became lovers. Kumar was the envy of the office which was a government organization, mainly due to the fact that Divya was astoundingly beautiful and he wasn’t all that attractive to woe a girl of Divya’s beauty, he was simple with the boy next door looks and was he naive? Probably that’s what attracted Divya to Kumar. Kumar friend’s define him as the person who doesn’t even knows how a sharpen a pencil with a blade; such was the innocence that Kumar had had. Divya who had key chain that had a small penknife for sharpening pencils used to tease Kumar with it, you could see a twitch in Kumar’s eyes whenever Divya flashed out her penknife key chain. Seeing two people fall in love may have been a rarity in those times in Chennai but the parents of both the parties opposing to the love without any valid reasons wasn’t a rarity.

It was one such day when the love between them went to the ears of their parents who without any fuss opposed it, threatening to kill themselves if they went ahead with it, a sentimental ploy which normally works and still works in many cases across India. Disturbed over the proceedings and after a long thinking and mutual understanding both the lovers decided to commit suicide, a drastic method to prove their love and also to prove their parents wrong. In those times the state buses were named as Pallavan Transport Corporation or PTC buses, it was one such bus that the lovers boarded on the fateful day, already armed with a poison bottle that Kumar had got from the local medical store. They decided to kill themselves inside the bus, a place where they spent most of their time when they were lovers. The bus was unusually empty on that day and Kumar eyes caught the last row seats in the bus with the few people in the bus sitting around the front portion of the bus. As the bus was moving Kumar opened the bottle and took half of the poison that was inside the bottle, with sweat on his forehead dripping on his shirt he gulped down half the bottle and passed the bottle on to Divya for her to drink the rest. She was staring at him and was trembling before Kumar had to grab her hands and put the bottle on her palm, she was still staring at him, Kumar said drink it, for which Divya responded saying that she cant drink it.

Kumar with a perplexing look saw Divya and he was almost choking, he said please drink it, Divya who was firm now said that she cant drink it, Kumar was anguished with what he heard when he saw the penknife which Divya was holding in her other hand, he asked again to drink for which she again refused, infuriated Kumar grabbed the pen knife from Divya and stabbed her 4 times before she died. Kumar too fell in the bus as the poison was getting to him, fortunately or unfortunately, he was taken to the hospital in time and was saved, the court gave him 12 years for murder. He got released a few years ago and he is living his life alone. He hasn’t married and has told that he couldn’t marry anyone else.

Based on a True Story

Anything ......... for a friend
Thilak Rajah