Deepak's Blog

Movie Mush - Idhakuthaane Aasaipattai Balakumara - Mildly Amusing

2013-10-02T03:07:00.000-07:00

Every crest must be followed by a trough and the Sethupathi wave has - sadly - fallen to a trough, with Idharkuthaane Aasaipattai Balakumara. It is a light hearted comedy movie - and you can be excused from watching this movie if you are already lost in the recent spate of comedies such as Sonna Puriyadhu, Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam, Ya Ya, Thillu Mullu etc.

Vijay Sethupathi's bull ride in the box office had started with Pizza. Driven solely by the story and the well concealed twist in the end, the movie became a huge hit through word-of-the-mouth popularity. Soon, as his next two ventures, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom and Soodhu Kavvum became major hits which were loved equally by both the critics and the masses, Vijay Sethupathi proved that he is a thinking actor who chooses different scripts which are content oriented.

It is definitely Vijay Sethupathi's dullest movie - including Thenmerku Paruvakaatru and Sundarapandian - and this can probably be attributed to the standards that Vijay Sethupathi has set for himself. If it were any other actor, you could have said 'not a bad attempt' and tried to laugh it off. But it is Vijay Sethupathi, and the movie has followed a cult movie like Soodhu Kavvum and so , obviously it is a big let down, if you were expecting something very exciting.

The story is a simple tale of a day in the life of two people: the potagonists Bala (a rather timid Ashwin Kakamanu) and Kumar alias Sumaar Moonji Kumar (Vijay Sethupathi). Bala is a Sales Executive in a bank who struggles to satisfy his boss (played excellently by M.S. Bhaskar) on one end and meet the demands of his girlfriend (an effervescent Swathi Reddy). Sumaar Moonji Kumar is a - hold your breath - wastrel whose only aim is to get the girl from his opposite house (Nandhita of Attakathi fame) to fall in love with him.

The only plotline is that a woman in need of a rare blood group (it seems there is a H1 blood group) and that can be provided by Kumar alone. Bala, who is the reason for the accident that injured the woman in the first place, feels a moral obligation to help her and hence attempts to find Kumar and get him to donate his blood. But, Bala, is on his way to a wine shop and Kumar must reach him before Bala can gulp the liquor - else, the poor pregnant woman - yes, she is pregnant, and that is supposed to make us sympathize with her - could die. Does Bala find Kumar? Does Kumar manage to impress his girl? That forms the rest of the story.

You can almost predict the ending from a mile away, so when it happens, it does not actually surprise or impress you - it was just the typical all-is-well ending. With better writing, this could have been a heartwarming movie. There are portions such as how Swathi is hopelessly in love with Bala that she keeps coming back to him in spite of all the promises that he has broken, the small smile from Nanditha for which Bala agrees to *SPOLIER ALERT* donate his blood and so on. The movie has a message which is said rather too subtly that I am not sure people would even think about it: Don't Drink.

But instead of capitalizing on these, the director puts much emphasis on the unnecessary murder at the Wine shop and the subsequent investigations, the role of Soori and a host of numerous other characters who are wasted in the name of comedy. Because of this, there are a lot of scenes which you feel are needless and crass - and they bring rather an embarrassing shrug on your face than a laugh. The adultering wife and her luring Soori and the two other murderers are just pointless distractions in the story.

Vijay Sethupathi and Swathi Reddy provide good perfomances but the other actors with the exception of of M.S.Bhaskar - who steals the show in one scene - have not emoted that well. This is probably the Director's fault and the first-timer Gokul should probably work more on extracting the best out of his actors. Songs are a problem here - they severely hamper the pace of the movie and cinematography has nothing great to write about.

Overall, Idharkuthaane Aasaipattai Balakumara is a reality check for Vijay Sethupathi. Let us hope he bounces back from these and chooses stronger scripts and better roles than that of a wastrel who is hopelessly in love - we have already seen it a hundred times in our movies. For the audience, it can be a mildly amusing venture. Don't go with much hopes. It is just an addition to those ordinary Tamil comedy movie that seems to release every weekend these days.

A modest 2.5/5.

Movie Mush: Onaiyum Aatukuttiyum - Mysskin Is Back!

2013-09-28T04:40:00.000-07:00

#OnaiyumAatukuttiyum

I have never liked to be called a fan of director mysskin, but looking at my constant urge to watch his movies as early as possible, I guess I have to admit that I am. Coming after the poor response to his Mugamoodi, with lesser known stars and limited publicity, Onaiyum Aatukttiyum has surpassed my expectations.

The story is about how a young medical college student (Sri) who attempts to save an injured man on the road and succeeds. The trouble is that the man whom he has saved is a notorious criminal and goes by the name of 'Wolf'. The police arrest Sri and his family for aiding a criminal. In the process, he gets caught in a strange turn of events, as a result of which he finds himself in in the middle of a gang dispute. As the night moves to a dawn, all is not what it seems to be. Who is good? Who is bad? Who will survive? The answers to these questions form the rest of the story.

I do not understand why Mysskin would have had to cast himself for the role of 'the Wolf; even though he emotes well, I can see a lot of actors who would have been physically more convincing at the role. But other than that, the casting is quite excellent.

The movie has all the typical things that you would expect from a Mysskin's movie: an over-the-top villain, people in the lead role often torn between impossible choices, disabled people playing an important part and so forth. Hell, there is even a scene when the lead-actor takes a dying man in his bike - a repeat of similar scenes from 'Anjaathey' and 'Mugamoodi'. Also, thankfully, the movie does not have the few Mysskin regulars such as the Yellow-Saree-Clad-Item-Number to entertain 'the masses'.

In fact, the movie does not have any songs and also, the lack of any attempt at humor is such a relief, after watching a flood of comedies in the recent weeks. For a change, everyone - not just the main cast - seem to turn up with brilliant performances: the police constable at gun point, the prostitute who saves 'the Wolf' at gun point, and even the watchman at the mall who gives refuge seeing the plight for safety.

For once the camera beautifully captures Chennai at night. Ilayaraja's background score is to be appreciated, not just for the haunting and heart-rending title score, but also for the moments he leaves silence to speak. The fight scenes are well choreographed - watch out for the fight between the two Ninja fighters and the Wolf -and the editing is top notch.

There are a few questions which Mysskin doesn't bother explaining: like why the Wolf would go to so much trouble to seek the help of Sri, why he would give the pistol to the blind man in the firing line, why would Sri not warn the Wolf when he sees a gunman approaching them in the cemetery and so on. Perhaps, it is for us to infer from what we see! I would definitely give it another viewing!

So, overall, it is a decent thriller with a few poignant moments - definitely worth watching more than all non-sensical comedies releasing the every other week.

A definite 3.5/5.

Gandhi: A 'Mahapurushya', not a 'Mahatma'

2012-10-01T23:32:00.001-07:00

Come October 2nd, we are all glad that it is a national holiday. Most of us know that it is also the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It would be unwise to expect the common men of India to swear to take an oath to live their lives by Gandhian principles on this 'holiday'. But what is reasonable is for us to at least remember Gandhi, the ideals that he stood for, and have a constructive discussion about his principles and his way of living. Hence, this article aims to provide an unbiased opinion of Gandhi.

The point that I would like to focus on, in this article about Gandhi is the apparent lack of knowledge about Gandhi. People in India can be classified into broadly two types:

1. Those who know nothing about him, but idolize him equivalent to God just because someone told them that he was a great human soul (Mahatma).
2. Those who know all the wrong things about him (propagated mostly through unverifiable sources) and claim to hate him, either because they want some attention or because they are tired of hearing all the good things about him.

What is shocking is that most of these people never seem to consider him human: he is either a 'Mahatma' or a 'Stubborn-Prick'. Why can't people think of him as a human: a normal human being with flaws but courage and determination enough to stand up against the British empire through an unusually effective strategy: non violence?

Another common myth that is quite prevalent among the youth of India - especially post 'Rang De Basanti' and 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh' - is that, Gandhi was someone, who in spite of having the opportunity to save Bhagat Singh from being hung to death, chose not to. The truth is way more complicated than that.

One can understand that Gandhi did make attempts to talk to the then viceroy, Lord Irwin[1], but the viceroy was unmoved. Lord Irwin remarks, "As I listened to Mr. Gandhi putting the case for commutation before me, I reflected first on what significance it surely was that the apostle of non-violence should so earnestly be pleading the cause of the devotees of a creed so fundamentally opposed to his own, but I should regard it as wholly wrong to allow my judgment to be influenced by purely political considerations. I could not imagine a case in which under the law, penalty had been more directly deserved"[2]. It is obvious from verifiable references that Gandhi had made his best attempts to save Bhagat Singh, but people would rather choose to believe in conspiracy theories of what 'could have been'.

There are more horrible accusations against him about his 'Brahmacharya Experiments' and his stubborn nature, but on a deeper personal thought, one can make out that these accusations - whether or not they have credibility - are rather desperate attempts to make people hate Gandhi.

Summing it up, I personally believe that Gandhi was a great human being - no, not a Mahatma, but a Mahapurushya. And, rather than hating him for no reason, if people would give time to read some books of history, they would understand the magnitude of his contribution. It is sad that we forget all that and claim to hate him for no apparent reason. Yes, very sad!

References:

[1] http://www.quora.com/Mahatma-Gandhi/Could-Gandhi-really-have-saved-Bhagat-Singh-if-he-wanted-to

[2] http://www.flonnet.com/fl1808/18080910.htm

Movie Mush: Kalakalappu : Laughter Feast!

2012-05-13T09:03:00.001-07:00

I took a risk by booking for "Kalakalappu" on the very first day. And that too, to watch it with family. Though the trailer was rather dull, the movie's cast boasted of people such as "Chennai 28" fame Siva, who can make you laugh with anything he says, "Kalavaani" Vimal, who has consistently chosen good roles to play and most importantly Santhanam whose mere presence adds screen value these days to movies. Added to that, the fact that Sundar.C - who can forget his "Ullathai Alli Tha" - is directing a movie after a long time. Well, I took a risk and am more than happy that I did it. Because at the end of the movie, as I was walking out, everyone was busy discussing which of the scenes was the funniest and everyone had one favorite scene of their own. My mom, sister and granma were all praise for my choice of movie to watch as a family. Voila, Sundar.C, what were you doing other than directing all these years?!

The storyline concerns Seenu - played neatly by Vimal - whose only possession his his three-generation old traditional restaurant, "Masala Cafe", which is now in ruins. He struggles to keep business afloat and hopes to make his restaurant big one day. When the new food inspector Madhavi decides that "Masala Cafe" isn't hygenic enough and gives Seenu a two month notice period to either improve the infrastructure or close his Cafe down, his brother, Raghu - perhaps Siva's best role yet - an ex-con, helps Seenu to get out of the problem. Meanwhile, a set of diamonds, hidden in a cell phone case, comes accidentally into Siva's hands and all hell breaks loose.

Anjali as Madhavi and Oviya as Maya play the love interests of Seenu and Raghu respectively. One is surprised that after acting many strong character oriented roles right from her first movie, Anjali has opted to play a not-so-significant tole in this movie. Also, she definitely looks odd in song sequences wearing skimpily clad outfits. Oviya doesn't have a big role to play but she does the best with what she has.

The real plus of the movie is that the first half is definitely owned by Siva's unique brand of humor evoking statements. For example, "Kaalam kaalama attu figure ku good-u boy-um, good-u figure ku attu boy-um thaan set aagum!" and "Unaku ipdi ellam doubt ae vara koodathu. Naan yaaru kaasu kuduthalum vaangipen!", when Maya expresses doubt if he would accept money from her, has the audience in splits. Though he has a long way to go in acting, his unique dialogue delivery style and the baby-faced innocence make up for it.

The second half, though, belongs to Santhanam. As the to-be-groom of Madhavi, all the scenes involving him evoke hearty laughter. The car chase scene in the second half and the confusion in it evokes wild laughter. In fact, there are so many laughs throughout the movie and most of them work.

The movie is not without its flaws: there are lots of logical loopholes in the movie and the songs actually stagnate the pace of the movie. For example, Madhavi, who seems nonchalant towards Seenu accepts his proposal at once. And when there are so many ways to hide your assets, would the villain be stupid enough to hand over the job to his stupid cousin, that too in a cell phone? However, such an analysis would be too rough on a movie which tries to evoke healthy laughter throughout.

Sundar.C is back to directing movies and with a bang. Go watch it and laugh your heart out. Quite an enjoyable fare.

A deserving 3/5.

Movie Mush: Oru Kal Oru Kannadi - Just OK!

2012-04-16T21:46:00.001-07:00

Director Rajesh of "Siva Manasula Sakthi" and "Boss Engira Baskaran" fame hopes to hit a hat-trick through his third venture "Oru Kal Oru Kannadi" (OKOK) starring Udhayanidhi Stalin, Hansika Motwani and Santhanam in main roles. But the problem is, though the treatment tries to be fresh, the story and screenplay are often seen ones in tamil movies - the best examples being the director's first two movies itself.

Sample this: The female lead actor, in spite of a number of attempts by the male lead actor, seems uninterested in him. The male lead persists and finally makes her agree. Then, Santhanam does something stupid and causes a rift between the male and female lead. This rift widens to the extent of the female lead getting engaged to another guy. Finally, something really stupid happens and the male and female leads are united.

The above is the storyline of OKOK. You could have been excused for thinking that I was telling you the storyline of "Boss Engira Baskaran" too, because it's virtually the same over there. Sometimes, in the second half, the staleness of the storyline gets to you and you start getting bored. Fortunately, every time you begin to get bored, Santhanam comes in and makes you laugh.

You need to give it to him: Santhanam carries the movie on his shoulders and delivers his witty dialogues with perfect timing. But sometimes even his dialogues fail to arise laughter and it is more so because you tend to feel that he shared a better rapport with Jeeva (in 'SMS') and Arya (in 'Boss..'). He plays "Paartha" aka "Parthasarathy" - a Brahmin boy from Triplicane. It is visible that his accent and role have been well etched and due credit must be given to the director and actor for that.

Udhayanidhi Stalin does much better than what I expected him to do, but he still falls way short of the justice that amny other actor could have done to the role. His role has shades of grey - he back stabs his so-called best friend 'Paartha' on a numerous occasions - which goes unnoticed partly because of the monotonous expression on Udhayanidhi's face.

Hansika actually has a decent scope to emote in this movie and the child-artist-turned-actor does her best. However, her dialogue delivery leaves much to be desired.

Saranya Ponvannan as Udhayanidhi's mother shines in her role and once again proves what a capable artist she is. The rest of the cast also do justice to their part.

The cameos by Sneha, Arya and Andrea are a wasted effort - they neither have the desired effect, nor do they create a huge impact, which, again, is one of the downfalls of the movie. The climax - especially- leaves you irritated: its a shameless confession that the director has ran out of ideas to unite the male and female lead.

Bottomline: An otherwise ordinary effort, watchable only for Santhanam. 2.5/5.

Movie Mush: Ambuli 3D

2012-02-25T04:11:00.000-08:00

Ever gone to one of those movies just because your friends force you to and you expect it to be boring and dull, whereas it turns out to be surprisingly good? That is what happened to me with Ambuli. Neither the title or the trailer were impressive. It seemed like one of those bad low budget movies from the outset, so I was never been in the mood to watch it in a theater. But my friends insisted and I did. And I' quite thankful now that they insisted. Ambuli definitely is worth a watch in the theaters.

"Avatar" started this new wave of 3D flicks. Two years after its release, Kollywood comes up with its first Steroscopic 3D flick - Ambuli. What is heartening is that the makers have concentrated not just on the 3D effects to be delivered - as usually is the case with most of the 3D movies - but the story and screenplay have been quite well etched and executed. The result is a movie where 3D does exactly what it has to: enhance the quality of movie watching experience without overtaking the need for a plausible storyline. In that regard, Ambuli scores well.

The story is set in the late 1970s in a rural town with Tamil Nadu with more superstitions than people, and the most important of them being the presence of an animal born to a woman 25 years ago which comes out at night and kills people who wander along a forest route connecting the town with a nearby college. Sounds like a joke right? That is what our lead actor and his best friend think and they set out to break the myth; to bring proof to everyone that "Ambuli" doesn't exist. But some myths turn out to be true.

The first ten minutes offer exhilarating 3D fun. The first half that follows is engaging because the 3D here isn't the only good thing: it has a decent story and a logical screenplay as well for three fourths of the movie, quite a rarity in tamil movies, nowadays!

Apt casting is one of the biggest pluses of the movie: almost everyone match their roles and play their part well. The fact that debutants have been cast in the leading roles actually help the cause of the movie - it brings a much needed freshness also to the script. Fortunately, the songs don't bore you and are used such that the story moves forward with the songs.

For a "creature" movie, the plot is quite logical, and it is obvious that the directors have done quite a lot of research to explain how "Ambuli" was born.

However, as the movie veers towards the climax, the plot loses all logic and the confrontation of "Ambuli" with Parthiban is more funny than scary. R.Parthiban's behavior is confusing, at many instances. His role has been wasted. But for these minor plot holes, the movie is definitely entertaining and worth watching.

A deserving 3/5.

Movie Mush: Nanban - Worth Watching!

2012-01-14T03:31:00.000-08:00

Usually, with popular movies that are remade, there are bound to be comparisons. Director Shankar, who prides in making "original" movies, has taken an exception for "Nanban", obviously due to both the scope and the vast canvas that the script offers.

The more sensational news is that, the script is a multi-starrer, and no ordinary one at that: it has Vijay, Jeeva and Srikanth, all three who are very good actors in their own right, but not in a great patch at the moment.

The story is about the life of three friends, Panchavan Parivendan aka Pari (Vijay), Venkatramakrishnan aka Venkat (Srikanth) and Sevalkodi Senthil (Jeeva), who are students of the best institution in India, "Ideal Engineering College". They invite the wrath of their college Dean, Virumaandi Santhaanam aka VIRUS (Sathyaraj) when Pari openly speaks up against the system after one of their College seniors commit suicide, being unable to complete his project on time. How they handle that and complete their education and what happens after that in their life follows the rest of the story. The aforesaid three are reprising the roles of Aamir Khan, R.Maadhavan and Sharman Joshi respectively from the Bollywood Blockbuster, "3 Idiots".

I, personally found "3 Idiots" to be a bad movie because I had read "Five Point Someone" only a couple of days before watching "3 Idiots" and I felt that the movie was quite unfair to the book and that it did a "balathkar" of the book. However, it touched the hearts of people because it showcased a huge problem - the illogical education system - in a light manner.

To those people who loved "3 Idiots", "Nanban" may be a bit of a dampener, because it is just a xerox copy of the original. It is surprising, because, you would have expected to see more of director Shankar's touch.

It would be obviously unfair to compare an Aamir Khan with Vijay. Aamir is older and has worked with some world class directors and so, the perfection that he etches to his roles can't be usually re-enacted that easily. To his credit, Vijay has done a very neat job of playing the smart Pari with an attitude that rocks, though at times, the body language that Vijay displays - especially at the beginning of the movie - seems to be an imitation of Aamir's. He could have avoided that.

Srikanth has come up with a sterling performance. What is good is that, he hasn't tried imitating Maadhavan from the original and looks every inch a college boy during the flash back. This movie should resurrect his sagging career. In the scene where he convinces his dad to let him pursue Wildlife photography, he rocks!

Jeeva underplays his role very well and does justice to his part. The actor seems to mature more and more in every movie. Good for him!

Together, the three actors display a rocking chemistry and look every inch as three close friends. That should be a big factor in ensuring the success of "Nanban".

Sathyaraj plays the strict and hardworking professor with ideals. Those who had watched the original would swear to God that no one could do justice to Boman Irani's role in "3 Idiots" in any language again. I thought so too - till I saw Sathyaraj in this movie. Brilliantly cast, he is a huge asset to this movie. His role has been well etched and equally well performed. One wonders why he doesn't do such roles more often.

Ileana's acting is worse than what Kareena's was in the original. Thankfully, she doesn't have a huge role to play in the story. Sathiyan, as Srivatsan does a neat job of playing "Silencer" from the original.

Music by Harris Jeyaraj is good. A couple of songs are hum worthy and carry the movie forward rather than slowing it down.

Coming to the negatives, as I had mentioned earlier, the movie is an exact xerox copy of "3 Idiots" and so, the negatives in the original also get carried forward here. For example, in the scene where the friends try to deliver the grand daughter of VIRUS in the Table Tennis room (due to certain unfortunate reasons, she could not be transported to a hospital), there is a power cut in the college. Would such a huge college not have a generator facility? Shockingly, it doesn't. Which is comfortable, because, it would allow our "hero" to let him use his smartness to connect an inverter to car batteries and power up the room to perform the delivery! Wow, what brilliance! Seriously, Shankar, didn't you have the brains enough to think over this?

Next, there comes the inexplicable logic behind the crassness involved in Silencer's Teachers Day speech. I mean, in the original, only the word "chamatkar" would have been changed to "balathkar". Here, the many words in the whole speech has been modified to make the speech sexually explicit. Wonder what the censors were doing there, especially during the last two lines of the speech, which should have been muted.

But, on the whole, if you haven't watched "3 Idiots", you could love this movie. If you had, go with an open mind. You may just like it. If you'd ask me, I'd say that it's worth a watch, for either case. If you are a Vijay fan, by the way, you would love it. It's been long since he acted in a script where he doesn't jump 10 storeys. We can gladly welcome "Nanban" warmly!

A solid 6/10!

Trivia:

* This is perhaps the first movie in a long time where all the main characters take a dig at Vijay and he doesn't retreat with any punch dialogues. :D

* This is also perhaps the first time where there is a smooch (towards the ending) and the Chennai censors have granted it a "U" rating. Good to know that they are becoming more broad minded. :P

Movie Mush: Don 2: SRK is back, at last!

2011-12-24T07:04:00.000-08:00

It's been long since I watched a decent movie starring Shah Rukh Khan. The last was "Om Shanti Om", after which came the horribly made "Billu Barber" and an even worse "Ra.One". "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" was good, no doubt, but I didn't like the flawed logic in the story. In fact, the only reason I actually went to watch "Don 2" is because of Farhan Akthar. I am a big fan of his work and just couldn't resist missing this one.

All of that said, you got to hand it to SRK. SRK is truly back. He delivers in style in this movie. His witty, dialogs have you in splits in many an occasion. The famous SRK charm has been missing in a few recent ventures of his and has been thankfully utilized well here.

Coming to the movie, the thing that irks you about "Don 2" is that, other than the title and the main characters repeating themselves, it doesn't actually feel like you are watching a sequel. There aren't too many references to the first part. If you haven't watched "Don" (2006), you'd still manage to understand "Don 2" without too much of an effort.

Other than that, the story is any other regular bank robbery story, where the lead character masterminds a bank robbery and his associates turn against him. Even the execution is the same as in many other bank robbery movies that you'd have seen. But what makes "Don 2" worth a watch in spite of all this is definitely SRK's and Boman Irani's roles. Without either of these guys, it seems almost impossible to imagine the "Don.." franchise. It is amazing how Boman Irani can slip into any role with effortless ease. As the baddie Vardhaan, he is every bit as convincing as SRK is as Don.

The rest of the cast includes heavy weights such as Priyanka Chopra , Om Puri, Lara Dutta, etc but they have all been under utilised. Same goes for Hrithik Roshan's cameo as well (Yes, he comes in a five minute role and disappears before you can get out of the realization that he's actually in the movie).

The fact that the movie is shot entirely outside India should have probably inspired the camera man and the editor. Because the Cinematography and Editing are top rate. Comparable to Hollywood standards. Similarly, witty dialogs are a definite plus.

The only disappointment is the music department. Is it actually "Shankar Eshaan Loy", who composed three forgettable numbers and such a pathetic BGM for this movie. Coming to think of the fact that the same combo gave great hits such as in "Dil Chahta Hai" and "Lakshya", it is a shock.

Some sequences have no logic, but going to watch a movie such as "Don 2", one shouldn't probably complain too much. For, it is more convincing than "Don" was, is more logical and a more racy screenplay. Farhan hasn't disappointed.

Planning to spend your holidays well? Go for "Don 2".. 2 hours and 20 minutes of entertainment guaranteed.

A definite 7 out of 10!

Movie Mush: Mayakkam Enna

2011-11-26T04:18:00.001-08:00

Selvaraghavan's movies are never perfect.. I personally didn't like his maiden venture (as writer) in "Thulluvadho Ilamai". But he made us sit up and take note of him with "Kaadhal Kondein" and "7G Rainbow Colony". Again, these were not perfect movies: they had some bad acting at certain scenes, some loopholes in the story. But they worked, because Selva makes movies that you can instantly connect to. He is a time tested master at showcasing situations and emotions in a boy-girl relationship that other directors dared not to enter into (at least before his entry into Tamil cinema). And with "Pudhupettai" and "Aayirathil Oruvan", he scaled new peaks though both the movies had a lot of sloppy scenes.

"Mayakkam Enna" is a near-realistic story of a young and aspiring wildlife photographer Karthik alias Genius (Dhanush) who wants to make it big. Along the way, he falls in love with the girl whom his friend is dating, marries her, gets back stabbed by the man he considers as his idol in wildlife photography, meets with an accident and goes mentally unstable. What happens next makes for a gripping last 20 minutes.

Typical of all other Selva's movies, this movie has its share of positives and negatives. Addressing the negatives first, the screenplay is ordinary at instances and as a result, some scenes are not clearly understandable straight away. Maybe it is because the movie was wrapped up in less than two months from start to finish. But compared to his other ventures, the screenplay here wasn't the best.

Secondly, the first half, though is entertaining, I'm not clear on why it even exists. Its almost as if there are two separate movies: the first half where Dhanush falls in love with his "nanbanin kaadhali" :P and the second half where he goes mentally unstable.

Thirdly, the growth of Dhanush to the standard of an international photographer is shown in something like two minutes. Similarly, some other sequences are abrupt and leave a lot to be desired.

Finally, the casting of Dhanush (with due respect to the national award winning actor) is questionable. He does his role well, yes, but I thought the part where he goes mental could have been portrayed better with someone of more versatility (I don't know, Vikram, maybe, or even Ajith). Maybe the other actors weren't brave enough to play the role or maybe Selva didn't bother approaching them, but I personally think that the movie would have been better that way.

Despite all these, "Mayakkam Enna" is my Tamil movie of the year (I can't compare this with "Deivathirumagal" because the latter is an outright copy of "I am Sam"), because this movie has a soul. It is a modern fairy tale, told in typical Selva style, that tells you to chase your dreams and respect friends and family and be grateful for them. I am totally for it. That is exactly where Selva scores.

Dhanush, as usual, delivers a powerhouse performance and shows a lot of maturity in acting for his age. But, as mentioned earier, this role demands more versatility than even Dhanush's capacity but still he does a neat job of it. Kudos, Dhanush.

Richa Gangopadhyay (photo below) makes a dream debut. A role of immense scope and she scores! She's one of the best finds of this year, if you ask me. I was seriously moved in the scene where she breaks down while she cleans the floor of her own blood due to the miscarriage.

The other friends and family of Dhanush all almost play their roles to perfection. Some scenes are sheer poetry: like the one where Dhanush falls down mesmerised while capturing a photograph of a bird (the photo below), the scene when he requests an old woman to pose for a photo, the climax and most importantly, the scene during the end credits (dont walk out when the movie ends; wait for the end credit; the small scene in it is perhaps the best part of the movie).

All songs are good, though the "Pirai Thedum" song is definitely the highlight. GV Prakash Kumar does a neat job in the background score: silent when necessary. Sometimes, a music director needs to also know when exactly to be silent. GVP scores a bull's eye in that regard in this movie.

I have spoken enough about Selva in the first paragraph, so I don't think I must go into telling that he proves his worth once again. I was pleasantly surprised to note that he has almost minimized the use of (his erstwhile popular) crass sexual innuendos in this movie to a bare minimum. Way to go, Selva!

The cinematography is decent. The editing could have been better.

Yes, the second half reminds one of "A Beautiful Mind", agreed, but its more than that. It doesn't feel like a copy of that movie, rather it only complements it. Whether it was inspired from "A Beautiful Mind" or not, only Selva should answer.

Overall, if you have an open mind, you will enjoy this "Mayakkam Enna". Or if you expect a movie where the "hero" has to have three fight sequences, two romantic songs and one intro song and should jump 20 floors without getting hurt, you better not watch this movie rather than watching it and commenting all nonsense about it.

I'd give it 7 out of 10. With better screenplay i would have given it even a 9! Sorry, Selva, but thanks for this movie: just next time, take some time to make your screenplay perfect.

Movie Mush: ROCKSTAR: Not As Rocking As It Could Have Been!

2011-11-11T21:44:00.000-08:00

Imitaz Ali's newest offering starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri has more stuff working for it than not. But the problem is that it tries too hard to be an epic, which unfortunately is visible!

The story revolves around the life of Janarthan alais Jordan (Ranbir) who aspires to be a rockstar. I have to admit: When I walked into the movie, if someone had said that there could be another contribution to the movie as good as Rahman's music, I would have laughed at it. But then, there was Ranbir playing the best role of his lifetime and by the end ofthe movie, I really had myself doubting, which of the two was better: Ranbir's performance or Rahman's music. Truly fabulous performance by Ranbir.

The subtle changes in body language that Jordan displays during the various phases of his life - the naive Jordan, the Jordan trying to impress Keer (Nargis Fakhri), the Jordan madly in love with Keer, the Jordan after Keer gets married to someone else, the Jordan after he is grounded from his home, the Jordan when he gets to meet Keer again, etc etc - are an absolute treat to watch.

Nargis Fakhri is drop dead gorgeous, yes, and she does extremely well for a newcomer, yes, but for a role of such huge scope, my personal opinion is that Imitaz should have played it safe by having a more versatile actor playing the role..! The biggest problem with the movie is that Nargis's performance - though good- is not convincing enough. She is much better than the many new stone-faced actors but still, her chemistry with Jordan is not as good as the Saif-Deepika chemistry was in "Love Aaj Kal" or the awesome Shahid-Kareena chemistry in "Jab We Met". Maybe that is where Imitaz Ali misses a trick or two..

Rahman's background score is an absolute value addition and along with the beautiful cinematography carries the first half through without an effort. Sometimes people walk out of theater during songs. In this movie, even those who had strayed outside now and then came rushing in when a song starts: the power of Rahman!

The cinematography - especially the scenes in Kashmir got me breathless. Fantastic work there!

The "love can cure any disease" segment in second half almost got me irritated. Eu tu, Imitaz! It is at certain sections in the second half that you almost get bored of what should have been highly emotional scenes (please note: those who loved "Twilight" could call these scenes the best scenes in Bollywood film history. I have no comments about that!). After a point, you just want to know what happens at the end.. The movies starts dragging, when Keer gets hospitalized. Even Jordan calls her and asks "Tum kab mar rahi ho?". You read my mind there, Jordan! :P

One should appreciate Imitaz Ali for venturing into uncharted territory - yes there was "Rock On", but it was a rock version of "Dil Chahta Hai" - and doing reasonably well in that.

Overall, its worth a watch for ARR's awesome awesome music and Ranbir's carrer best role.

I'd give it 3 out of 5.

7am Arivu: Over-hyped but under-rated!

2011-10-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

By Tuesday night, reviews of A.R.Murugadoss's long awaited magnum-opus "7am arivu" had come: Scathing reviews accused that the movie was over-hyped and that it fails to deliver miserably.

However, having booked for "7am arivu" almost a week before all of this, I was upset that I had wasted another 120 bucks of my money for another boring venture. Note: I had watched "Raavanan", "Kaavalan", "Manmadhan Ambu", etc this year, some of them FDFS only to be disappointed!

On Friday, I also watched "Velayudham" at Padmam for Evening Show and felt that it was a nice popcorn entertainment movie and assumed that most people who claimed that "Velayudham" was better than "7am arivu" were correct!

So, I went to "7am arivu" for 7:15 show at Sunday morning expecting myself to be bored and irritated, but hey, to my pleasant surprise, found the movie to be NOT BORING, NOT IRRITATING and NOT MOKKAI..

Let us address the negative critics first before moving to the positives:

1. That the movie was over-hyped:

Very true, from what I hear. But I don't watch too much of TV (yes, even the Diwali special shows included), so I was thankfully masked from most of the hype. But judging from the outcry of so many people, I guess that yes, the movie was probably a little over-hyped, but so what?

I have seen worse movies that were over-hyped (I can name those but that would needlessly start a war of words between "mass hero" fans) and this one definitely is much much better than that!

2. That the storyline was absurd:

True! But hey, its not a documentary about the life of "Bodhidharman" to have a plausible, believable story line. There is an element of fantasy in it and it was, I must say, well executed. Someone as smart as ARM should not have used the word "genetic memory" to explain how "Bodhidharman"'s memory and skills could be inherited by the present day Aravindan (Surya). Someone who understands what that term means would laugh at it.

Apart from that, I found nothing too absurd with the story. If you want reality, go watch Discovery channel! If you come to an escapist medium like Tamil Cinema and ask a hundred questions of how this is fair or not, plausible or not, believable or not is stupidity. Some suapension of disbelief is always necessary!

3. That the graphics were bad in the movie:

Firstly, I request everyone who claims that the graphics were bad in this movie to come and watch the movie in theater before complaining about the graphics. Even "Avatar" would have sucked to you people because you watched a TC rip of the movie in which the graphics were bad!

If, for a budget of 84 crores (that is what i heard! Correct me if I'm wrong!) someone could make a movie with better graphics than this, I would stop writing reviews!

4. That the first half was very boring:

I beg to differ! Time didn't drag on when i watched the movie, either in the first or second half. The biggest plus of the movie was the arresting cinematography by Ravi.K.Chandran. I never felt like walking out of the theater during any of the songs in the first half.

The love sequence between Surya and Sruthi Hassan was not boring, as many reviewers had put it, though it was difficult to believe that a circus artist would walk around in MGM, Skywalk, etc in new clothes at all times.

5. That the zombie-like fight sequence in the second half was funny:

It was deliberately meant to be that way. And the use of CG was near perfect, so stop blaming it! Kudos to ARM for bringing in a zombie like sequence for the first time in tamil film history! :D :P

6. That the use of "Eelam" has been deliberately made to gain people's sympathy and as a marketing gimmickry:

Please shut it, people! All I saw in the movie was a director's genuine angst against the atrocity committed over thousands of people in Lanka. It is ARM's first movie after the LTTE has been overthrown and obviously, he wanted to register his views too! Don't blow it out of proportions!

7. That Sruthi Hassan's acting was flat:

Yes, to this, I completely agree. She seems to have 4 or 5 standard expressions after which all she seems to be able to muster is a stone-face. A real insult to her daddy, if you ask me :D. If she were not as gorgeous as she is, I would actually hurl a few abuses at her! :P

8. That the movie praises Tamil Language when its not needed, and as a marketing gimmickry:

No, I think it is much needed. People who know a little bit of history will understand that the Tamils had a rich cultural heritage. ARM doesn't go overboard with his praises over the Tamil language. It is for the same reason that we misunderstood "Ayirathil Oruvan". A lot of pathetic Tamils couldn't understand the ancient Tamil language spoken in the second half.. Pathetic! Whether ARM praises Tamil language and Tamil culture or not, I am always a proud Tamil. Now that he has, I am just a little more proud!

Now that we have addressed the negatives, all I got to tell you is don't believe the fake reviews of people who haven't watched the movie.

Excellent technicians have played a vital role in making the movie crisp and entertaining. Just, keep your brain at home; go to the theater and enjoy some good popcorn entertainment.

"Happy Independence Day": LOL!

2011-08-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

I had seriously believed in the concept of something patriotic, some feeling of brotherhood, some freshness in the air I breathe - knowing that it was the air of freedom - and what not, whenever someone wished me "Happy Independence Day".

It took me along time to realize that almost everyone was wishing me as if they were machines, as if it were a ritual, an utterance for the sake of it. Why, I myself, was more concerned about the cultural event - in school - and the fact that it was a holiday - while in college - on Independence Day.

The youth are too enthused about Valentine's Day, the elderly are too concerned about their Diwali or Ramzan and the poor Independence Day and Republic Day seems to have no takers. Everyone is happy that it is a holiday.

"All right", you may ask, "so what should one do, on independence day?".

I do not ask of you to remember Gandhi and Bose and Bhagat Singh on this day and weep for their sacrifice. If you like them, remember them. That's your choice.

What we can, at least, do is to to assess, on every independence day, if we really are free. This is an almost cliched, old argument that I am almost yawning right now, at having repeating it over and over again.

I spoke of it, at first, at a speech during my school independence day speech. No one really bothered listening. (May be, I made a bad speech, I don't exactly remember). After this, I had again talked of how really independent we actually are on numerous occasions.

The maximum those talks did were to win me a few prizes in a few oratorical competitions. However, I shall repeat it again, because I really don't think a vast section of our population is really independent.

In my book, Freedom is the ability to live your own life without unreasonable limitations.

In that regard, here are the three category of those who are not completely free:

1) Women:

For centuries, man has suppressed women, knowing full well the fact that she was mentally and intellectually tougher than him, using the only weapon he had at hand - brute force.

We can call our women free,

If our mothers can walk the roads bravely at night;

If our sisters can wear T-Shirts without worrying about whether cheap eyes will stare at them all the time;

If our wives (no pun intended) or girlfriends can travel in buses without worrying about some rascal standing behind them.

Though these lines are cliched, they are not outdated and still very relevant, which is why I choose to repeat it over and over again.

2) The Minorities:

No one faces such appalling lack of freedom after women in India as do the minorities.

Christians and especially Muslims are treated with prejudice.

Even among educated people, where Dalits are treated with sympathy, the most important commodity that they have been asking for years, "Respect" is still missing.

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are often frowned upon by other castes, because of reservations allotted to them. This is especially prevalent among young Indians which is a frightening prospect, as it only confirms another generation of hatred.

3) Children:

Of all people, I choose children as the ones with lack of freedom because I strongly believe that they are the ones who are denied freedom at many levels.

They are robbed off their freedom for fun, by ambitious parents who want to make them ready for competitive world.

They are robbed off their freedom for choice, when they are forced by their parents to pursue a doctorate or an engineering, with least consideration for the choice of their children.

While the above mentioned criteria are the problems faced by children growing in educated families, the freedom for living itself is threatened for children living in poor and below poverty level conditions.

The above mentioned categories comprise of a staggering 75% (by the most lenient of estimates) of our population. What we are going to do about it? I am clueless.

So, folks, happy Independence Day. Somehow, I just don't feel proud to say it.

Movie Mush: Deiva Thirumagal

2011-07-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

Knowing that this was an adaptation of "I am Sam", I watched this movie with not a lot of expectations because I didn't like the original Sean Penn starer that much. But what stood out in that movie was the brilliant performance of Sean Penn. He carries the movie in his shoulders and makes it worth watching.

It was interesting to see the way director Vijay adapt the story for the tamil audience:

1) The protagonist's wife leaves the child in his hands as soon as she had given birth to the child as she wasn't interested in raising it in "I am Sam" but for the traditional tamil audience, that could be "immoral", so like all tamil films where the mother character is not needed, Krishna and his wife were supposedly in "love" and his wife dies in child birth! Wow, hats off, Vijay! :P

2) In the original English version, the lawyer (one of the best performances by Michelle Pfeiffer till date) agrees to handle Sam's case because, when she makes an occasional remark to her friends that she is handling Sam's case for free, they pass it off as a joke because everyone knows that she is money minded. In the tamil version, of course, the lawyer Anu, played by Anushka, cannot have shades of grey, because that could "shock" the audience, so Vijay makes us believe that she agrees to handle the case out of symathy for the child like Krishna (Chiyaan Vikram).

3) In the original, the friends of Sam have a larger role to play; here, they are reduced to a few scenes here and there. What Vijay misses here is a lot of innocent fun and laughter.

4) There are no negative characters in the original movie!

There, the child gets separated from her father because volunteers of child welfare feel that the child would be better off at foster care or given away for adoption than be with Sam, whereas, here, the child is plucked from the hands of Krishna by his in-laws. Krishna is shown as being fooled by them and thrown out of the car at the very first scene just to make us sympathise with him.

The characters of MS Bhaskar is shown to have negative shades, but why he abruptly turns good near the climax is anyone's guess.

Maybe it is because we tamil audience have long been familiar with the good vs bad story that directors are not risking making a movie with no negative shades at all.

5) In "I am Sam", we fell in love with the character played by Sean Penn. He was even nominated for the best actor category in the Academic Awards that year. The point to be noted is that the movie was in no point trying to exploit the disability of Sam at all. Here, Krishna falls down at the steps of court trying to catch a glimpse of his daughter, he gets beaten up by police because he refuses to move away from the place where he is standing: aren't the police even smart enough to realize that there is something wrong with the guy!

Never exploit someone's disability to make people sympathize for him. That's the cheapest trick at a director's arsenal and its sad that someone like Vijay who gave us a movie like "Madarasapattinam" has resorted to it!

However, the movie has a few noteworthy positives! 'Chiyaan' Vikram's costumes, hair style, even looks and mannerisms seem to have been inspired from Sean Penn's role in the original. As usual, he does a neat job.

Baby Saara as Nila is perhaps the cutest child artist Tamil Cinema has seen since the kid in "Sillunu Oru Kaadhal". The chemisrty between the dad and his girl child has been portrayed beautifully and that is why, the first half seems more enjoyable than the second!

Anushka, for a change, does not have to dance with skirts here and has ample scope to perform! She portrays the role of a young lawyer with enough dignity. But, however nice the "Vizhigalil oru vaanavil.." number may be, it is an unnecessary addition to the story.

Amala Paul is pretty and makes her expressive eyes give a few nice looks but does nothing more than that. She just seems to be a reason to take Nila away from Krishna. Nasser, Santhanam and the rest of the crew all do justice to their roles.

However, the finest moment of the movie comes right at the climax in the court scene when Hrishna meets his daughter after a long time! Brilliant performance by Vikram and Saara that would dampen the eyes of anyone however much you liked or didn't like any other part of the movie! :)

I do not choose to rate this movie, but, let me just say that it is a good local remake of an international classic made memorable by a brilliant performance by Sean Penn! The only sad point is that it could have been better!

A List of Great Time Travel Movies - Part 2

2011-06-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

I'm such a time travel movie freak that I have watched almost all decent time travel flicks. The ones that I have not watched are very few and include Pleasantville, Returner, Prince of Persia and Austin Powers series. And I have not included movies like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban because time travel is not a key part of the plot of that movie and certain other great movies where time travel is used only as a passing reference.

Make sure you read part 1 of this post here before you proceed with the Part 2.

11) Deja vu (2006)

Denzel Washington is a great actor, no doubt, but time and again he plays the lead in some riveting edge-of-the-seat thrillers. Deja vu is a perfect example. It's sad that I could not fit it at the to ten in my list but is equally as good as any movie that list of ten. In this movie, an ATF agent (Denzel Washington) travels back in time to save a woman (Paula Patton) from being murdered, falling in love with her during the process. The beauty of time travel paradoxes is subtly shown in the last scene. Guaranteed entertainment!

12) If Only (2004)

How many times have you felt that you love someone a lot but never knew how to express it? This movie tells you to show your love, to appreciate your partner NOW! After his impetuous musician girlfriend, Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt), dies in an accident shortly after they had a fight (and nearly broke up), a grief-stricken British businessman, Ian Wyndham (Paul Nicholls), living in London gets a chance to relive the day all over again, in the hope of changing the events that led up to her getting killed. This is one of those very under appreciated but beautiful movies. It is a romantic movie but its not cuddling or crying all the way. The movie has decent humor to sustain your interest throughout the length of it. Suitable for a warm afternoon watch with your partner.

13) Happy Accidents (2000)

Things are going great in the love life of Ruby (Marisa Tomei) and Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio ) till one day,Sam tells her that he is from the future - 2470 to be exact, traveling back in time to avoid prosecution for his sister's death, and to find Ruby, whose photo he saw back home. Sounds interesting doesn't it. The movie has a lot of humorous scenes to sustain your interest and never in the run time of 2 hours do you feel bored. Scenes involving Ruby and her girlfriends are absolute fun to watch for its comedy. Make sure you watch this one..

14. Somewhere in Time (1970)

I stumbled upon this one by chance and loved it very much. In this movie, a Chicago playwright (Christopher Reeve) uses self-hypnosis to find the actress (Jane Seymour) whose vintage portrait hangs in a grand hotel.Self hypnosis for time travel can sound like an absurd idea bu kudos to the director for making it look believable. If you have the patience to watch this 41 year old movie, you would be rewarded with a heart rending climax.

15. Time After Time (1979)

I was seriously impressed by this movie. Made almost 32 years ago, the fact that it sustained my interest till the climax deserves special mention. There are certain plot holes but in one can be excused for overlooking them because the movie moves at a brisk pace. The plotline is that H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.Such a storyline offers plenty of scope for fun that only a time travel movie can provide and the movie does exactly that!

16. Source Code (2011)

Lets face it. This movie, if you strip it off its racy screenplay, would melt down to nothing. But what made it interesting was the time-travel touch to it and the human factor involved. And also, honestly, I haven't watched a better screenplay in Hollywood this year than this. The climax is a bit of a dampener though. A lot of things were not properly explained and left much to be assumed. Watch the trailer and you'd know what I am talking about, when I say 'gripping'.. If you haven't watched it yet, well, what are you waiting for?

17. The Time Machine (1960)

It would be unfair to not include this movie in this list, purely because H.G.Wells was the man who made the dream of time travel reach to millions through his works.And to not include his work in this list would be nothing short of sacrilege! Not just that, this movie has a decent story and is very well directed and considering that it is more than 50 years old, that itself is an achievement. You a time travel freak? Then, don't miss out on this movie!

18) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

If you haven't heard of this movie, you'd surely surprised when you watch it to find Keanu Reeves (yes, the 'Neo' of Matrix fame) play a dumb Ted along with his also idiotic best friend Alex Winter play Bill. The best thing about this movie is its tongue in cheek humor and i doesn't mind make fun of itself. There's no question of logic here. Time travel is used to its creative best level, especially in the last half an hour. Surely, it is one 'excellent' movie to watch with your family and friends and laugh out loud.

19. Hot Tub Time Machine

A 'Hangover' type guys' movie. Lot of crude jokes and sexual dialog combined with time travel madness and mayhem gives you 'Hot Tub Time Machine'. Other than that, it follows the path of all other time travel movies: people travel to the past with an opportunity to change their pasts; whether they do or not, is the only point where all time travel movies differ. Not that it is bad, but because it could have been much better, I rate it only 19th in my list.I felt that someoe like John Cusack had been wasted in the role.Otherwise, you ca always watch it for boyish fun!

20. Kate & Leopold

If you like either Hugh Jackman or Meg Ryan, you would love this movie, because both are at their charming best here. But if you don't like them both, you may get bored here. In fact, the time travel element is the only interesting point of this movie. The story is the same old traditional time travel stuff where guy from past comes to the present and falls in love with a woman there. What happens after that is fairly predictable. Watch it if you have nothing else to do..

The ones that missed out:

The Final Countdown

Because it has a disappointing climax!

The Philadelphia Experiment

Because it tries to be too smart!

Donnie Darko

Because it is toooo complicated!

Primer

Because I ended up with a headache after watching it!

The Time Machine (2002) :

Because the 1960 version itself was way better!

The Falling Standards of our Education System - Part 4 - Conclusion

2011-05-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

In the first three parts under this topic, we have seen in detail, how engineering, medical and the arts & science courses have deteriorated in standards over the last decade - in terms of admissions in the engineering stream, quantity and high cost of seats in the medical stream and the serious lack of even mere passion among the students of arts and science.

In the final part, the one topic that remains to be discussed is the Tamil Nadu government's recent decision to not abide by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms for the minimum required percentage for engineering admissions. Here's the story:

In 2010, the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr.M.Karunandhi announced that, "the state government, in order to make available engineering course to all sections of the student community, has laid down the minimum qualifying marks as 50 percent for general category, 45 percent for backward classes, 40 percent for most backward classes and 35 percent for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes."[1]. In late January, the AICTE had laid down minimum eligibility for general category students at 50 percent and 45 percent for all other categories from the academic year 2011-2012[2]. In May 5, 2011 - barely a week before its humiliating defeat in the state legislature elections - Mr.Karunanidhi made it clear that the Tamil Nadu government will not abide by the AICTE regulations and has decided to continue its own norms formulated last year. [1]

This decision is shocking because by doing this, the Tamil Nadu government opposes the highest body for technical education in the nation. And the decision comes in the backdrop where the number of engineering seats have increased by 15 to 20 thousand seats since last year to 1,50,000 seats in the state. More than 51,000 BE/B.Tech seats were lying vacant for want of students in the academic year 2009-10[3]. Less than 10 students were admitted in three private colleges! It is very clear that parents and students did not have faith in the quality of education provided in many private institutions and they could have also stayed away due to prohibitive costs of engineering education.This scenario raises many questions regarding the above-mentioned decision of the Karunanidhi government:

1. If the seats had not been filled properly in 2009, should not the Karunanidhi government been more worried about how to improve the quality of education and minimizing the cost levied by the private engineering colleges so that the poor scheduled castes and tribes are benefited, rather than blindly decreasing the eligible percentage?

2. If an ST student could not score even a 35% in his 12th exams, in what reality could we expect her/him to score the required 50% (to clear the subjects) in an even more testing and tougher stream such as engineering?

3. On what basis did the Karunanidhi government arrive on the figures of 45%, 40%, 35% and 30% for BCs, MBCs, SCs and STs respectively, which seems more like a numerical series than numbers with any intelligent basis of assignment?

4. By reducing the eligible percentage, the number of eligible students increase. Is this move more indicative of the view of the previous government that it is more imperative to fill seats rather than do anything to improve the quality of education?

My point is, to emphasize that the last ruling party in Tamil Nadu did nothing much to improve the standards of education in the state; in fact, I would say that they only contributed to decrease it unbelievable lows. With a new government in place, if the following changes occur, it would help improving the standards of education:

1. Bring back the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Exam (TNPCEE).

2. Follow the AICTE norms of minimum percentage for entrance exams.

3. Make the twelfth standard question papers more challenging and the corrections, more strict.

4. Enable career counseling and planning facilities to students in the final year of their schooling or if possible, during their 10th standard itself, to make students decide which path they would like to choose.

5. Appoint teachers to specifically train students in rural areas for exams like TNPCEE and AIEEE. This would stop the complaints from rural section that the presence of entrance exams favors only the urban students.

Let us hope for the best...

References:

[1]."TN rejects AICTE norms for engineering studies",
http://www.facenfacts.com/NewsDetails/8980/tn-rejects-aicte-norms-for-engineering-studies.htm

[2]. "Score 50% For Engineering: AICTE",
http://www.fullhyderabad.com/hyderabad-news/aicte-fixes-50-percent-marks-at-intermediate-to-study-engineering-3408

[3]. "Over 51,000 seats vacant in TN engineering colleges"
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-04/chennai/28133299_1_engineering-colleges-btech-seats-student-intake-strength

The Falling Standards of our Education System - Part 3 - The Sudden Rush for Arts & Science

2011-05-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

There was a time, in the 1990s when people were proud to say that they are engineers; admissions in any engineering college was prided as an achievement and Civil and Mechanical engineering were the most sought after course. And now, there is nothing proud in being an engineer - almost every street seems to have more than 15 to 20 engineers - and some people are too shy to tell the name of the engineering colleges they've got into and Civil or Mechanical are the least preferred courses.

Smart people have realised that the significant advantage of doing B.E has been effectively nullified by the fact that IT companies are recruiting students of Arts & Science as well, in the recent days. Moreover, it costs less and is also not as complicated as B.E to study (true, some pure science courses are a headache, but I am speaking in a general sense).

It is an established fact that the number of applications for these streams have increased manifold in the last few years [1]. B.Com remains the most sought after course. While a certain section of people do B.Com for the sake of having a degree behind their name, many others pursue it with another career in mind - such as those who want to crack IAS or IPS or CAT, etc.

While the fact that there is a change in mindset of people that engineering is not the only UG course to study, the sad news is that Arts and Science courses are not pursued for their intended purpose. Students doing pure science courses in their UG very rarely end up doing research and only a small fraction of those pursuing B.Com seem to study M.Com.

What can be done?

Students must be encouraged to pursue their dreams; parents must let them to! That is the biggest problem in our society: People are not clear of what they want to do and even among those who are clear of what they want to do, are not presented with an opportunity to do so.
Between the time of 12th and joining a college, students must be allowed to consider an educational expert or a career counselor or at least someone with an open mind, like the principals of their respective schools to help counsel students to determine what course would be ideal for the students.
The University of Madras recently announced a four year UG honours course scheme, which also has generated a considerable interest in students. Such innovations are long due in the field of Arts & Science.

One can only hope that with the suggestions mentioned above and with the right emphasis from the media, teachers and parents, Arts & Science courses could get their due respect in the near future.

Reference:

[1]. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article2021872.ece

The Falling Standards of our Education System - Part 2 - Admissions in The Medical Stream

2011-05-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

As a society, we - the people of Tamil Nadu, have always followed the results of 12th standard very keenly. The name of the person who gets the state first each year is remembered by almost everyone with no exception. While, we can say that it is a proud fact, this year sprung a lot of surprises, even to the general observer. The cut off of 200/200 is the dream cut off for any medical student. The number of students with 200/200 were only 9 in the year 2009 and 14 in 2010, whereas, in the current academic year, it is 65! Yes, almost an astonishing six fold increase since 2009. [1]

In Part 1 of this topic, the problems with engineering admissions was discussed in length. The way engineering and medical admissions differ are that there are 1,50,000 seats available for engineering, whereas, for medicine, there are only 1,653 government seats and 635 seats from self financing colleges are available. Also, to be noted is that for a middle class student, it is all the more preferable to aim to get a government college than a self financing one because the former charges 10,000 per year as tution fees whereas the latter charges about 2,50,000! Including hostel, mess and bus charges, this could be as high as 3 and a half lakhs per year, making the total cost of studying MBBS in a private medical college as high as 20 lakhs! Phew!

From the table [1], it can be seen that, in 2010, to get a seat in a government medical college one needed a cut off around 195. But in 2011, even a cut off of 197 does not guarantee a medical seat under a government medical college. Even seats of private medical colleges threaten to be filled up even before the cut off of 196, but due to the high cost of studying in private colleges for medicine, not many may opt for it and it could be available till a cut off of 190.

Thankfully, unlike engineering colleges which have sprouted all over the state in the last few years, the central government has been strict to grant permission for new medical colleges and hence, the standard of medical education is not as spoilt. But, the biggest problem concerning medical admissions this year is the increase of cut offs as much as 2.5 marks. This obviously resulted from the fact that the correction had not been tough. Else, how can you possibly explian almost a doubling in the number of students for a cut off of more than 195 from the last year?

In sum, medical education is not as spoiled as engineering is. But a variety of factors from easy question papers to canellation of entrance exams to easy correction has lead to a crowding of students in the cut-off 195 to 200 range.

The discomforting factor is that if a hardworking student had scored 195 and could still not get a medical college, how dejected would he/she be? For this precise reason, the government should bring back the medical entrance at least. Let us hope that it does!

References:

[1]. "Cut-off marks for medicine courses in the Tamil Nadu up by 1.5 to 2 marks"
http://www.thehindu.com/education/article2004505.ece

The Falling Standards of our Education System - Part 1 - The Pathetic Engineering Admissions

2011-05-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I saw something in paper, that compelled me to write this post. In The Hindu, there was, "88,744 engineering application forms sold in State on first day" [1] and in the Times of India, there was "Over 2 lakh forms for engineering admissions will be sold (this year)" [2]. As an engineering student doing his final year, I believe there are some things that parents and students need to be aware of regarding engineering admissions.

In 2007, I joined Electronics & Communication Engineering in what is considered to be a good engineering college in Chennai - if not Tamil Nadu. At that time, my cut off was 190.75 and my rank was 6990. My batch was the first batch without an entrance exam for engineering admissions - the then newly formed Karunanidhi government thought that there was no need for entrance exams and that marks in 12th standard was more than sufficient to prove one's candidature for Engineering admissions. People were already telling me how unfortunate I was, because they thought that if I had written the entrance exams I could have got a much more competitive cut off and that in turn, I would have got into a top 5 college in Chennai.

Nevertheless, the engineering counselling got over and I managed to get a decent college in Chennai. But I was still very unhappy thinking over how much better it could have been had I managed to get a better college. But, as soon as the 12th standard results were out the next year, i.e, 2008, I realized how lucky I had been. Because, for the same cut off that I had scored, the ranks were in the range of 9000. Whether that is because the papers were easy that year or students were getting smarter, is debatable. But what I didn't know at that time was that the trend was to continue.

If one can look at the table on the left [3], one would realize how still the competition has grown in the last three years. Certainly, I was very lucky to have managed to get into the college that I did because to enter the same course that I did in my college, in the last year, students had to score a cut off of nearly 196 - almost a 5 mark increase in four years.

It does not need a genius to realize how stressful and demanding the course of one year can be on the poor 17 year olds doing 12th standard every year. The situation is so pathetic that

Even a cut off of 199 is not sufficient to guarantee a seat in Anna University for the candidates attending the counselling in 2011.

Almost all the top 10 private engineering colleges see a 1 to 2 mark increase in cut off every passing year.

What caused these problems?

An almost frightening craze for engineering seats, which has been the trend ever since early 2000s when the IT job boom started.
The abolition of entrance exams in the year 2007 contributed a great deal to this tragic dependence on 12th standard marks alone, in turn leading to a very tight competition for the top marks.
Alright, if the engineering entrance exams have been cancelled, then at least the 12th standard exam question papers should be made tougher. Was that at least done? Nope! In fact, by what I hear from my juniors, the biggest problem was the fact that the question papers were very easy.
If the papers are easy, at least, should the correction of the same not be strict? Alas, seeing the number of centums increasing in Maths, Physics and Chemistry every passing year, one would be forced to believe that the corrections are also not getting any tougher.

What is the solution to this problem?

Either start conducting the engineering entrance exams once again or, if that is too much, at least make the questions papers for 12th exams tougher or if even that is too much, at least make the corrections tougher. It is the only way to save our system from becoming a completely hopeless one which rewards students for their memorizing and presentation skills rather than their techincal skills.

The engineering scenario is just an example and a variety of other factors cause the same problems to exist in Medical and even Arts & Science admissions. We will see them in parts 2 & 3 in this blog under the same title. Moreover, the government has done something very cheap to plummet the standards of education to new lows. We will discuss it in the final part of this title and conclude it.

References:
[1]. "Craze for engineering courses continues"
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article2024141.ece

[2]. "Over 2 lakh forms for engineering admissions will be sold"
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Over-2-lakh-forms-for-engineering-admissions-will-be-sold/articleshow/8377225.cms

[3]. "Tough competition for engineering seats"
http://www.thehindu.com/education/college-and-university/article2004518.ece

Movie Mush: Engeyum Kadhal

2011-05-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

I was about to go to theater and watch this movie, but since my friends told me that it is 'mokkai', I decided to merely download and watch it. And, surprisingly, I found it good. Whether it is because I watched it with very low expectations or maybe because the movie is actually good, I am not sure.

The movie is about a young Indian business man Kamal ('Jeyam' Ravi) - a playboy - who falls for an NRI girl Kayal (Hanssika Motwaani) with good cultural values. The whole movie is shot in Paris, which, in itself adds a refreshing tone to the movie. The cinematography is excellent and all the songs are beautifully shot. Especially, the 'Engeyum Kaadhal' and 'Nangai' songs are well choreographed. Jeyam Ravi plays a rich young businessman perfectly and Hansika seems to be the new chubby girl of Kollywood. Together, they make a cute couple and I didn't get bored of watching them, as many of my friends said they did. Most of the songs are intelligently placed throughout the movie except perhaps the 'Nenjil Nenjil' number.

Now coming to the minuses, one doesn't understand why Prakashraj has been wasted in the movie with just two unnecessary scenes. And, a few sequences are copied from Bollywood movies of the past - like the scene where Raju Sundaram gets robbed by a woman and he is left gagged in his room sans all his clothes is an outright copy of a similar scene in Dil Chahta Hai and the song 'Dhimu Dhimu' reminds you of the popular 'Ye Dooriyan' song. In fact, the whole movie seems to be inspired by the new generation Bollywood movies where the whole story happens in a foreign country. It started with 'Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Ghum' back in 2001. Now, kollywood seems to be catching up as well.

All in all, if you can digest a few loop holes and suspend your disbelief in the climax where a dove united the two lovers, you will certainly not find this movie boring.

Go without expectations and enjoy 'Engeyum Kaadhal'.

I give it a decent 6/10.

A List of Great Time Travel Movies

2011-05-06T01:37:00.000-07:00

Time travel is my most favorite movie genre, so much so that if I'd get a chance to make only one movie, then it'll definitely be in this genre. What is incredible about this genre is that it taps into the desire of people who wonder how great it would be if it were possible for them to change just one event in their past and how rosy their future could be, as a result. In fact, this general thought is the central theme of most of the movies described below.

1. The Butterfly Effect (2004)

An incredible movie, to say the least. The first time I saw it, I cried at one point. I have never, ever cried watching a movie before, so, in a way, this movie is very close to my heart. The film follows the life of a Evan (Ashton Kutcher), who blocks out harmful memories of significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life. The central theme of this movie is how by altering one event of his past, the entire future of Evan changes. He keeps changing events of his past hoping that he can attain a perfect future. But, to his dismay, he realizes that no matter how hard he tries, things only get worse. Ashton Kutcher, as Evan, plays his career-best role in this movie.The story has brilliant screenplay and direction ad every scene is important and contributes to the central theme of the movie. The movie needs 2 viewings, at least to be appreciated of its beauty. If you haven't watched it yet, go get ready for a mind blowing experience.

P.S.: The Director's Cut has a better climax than the original, so watch that version, if possible.

2. Back to the Future (Series)

Who doesn't love this movie?Among the best comedies of Steven Speilberg, this movie - in fact, the entire series - is one that has stood the test of time and it doesn't bore you, how many ever times you watch it. Neat casting, crisp dialogues and an entertaining screenplay makes 'Back to the Future' a super movie-watching experience. In my view, the third part is the best - in terms of entertainment quotient - closely followed by the first and second parts in that order. I am sure everyone is aware of the story and it needs no mentioning. Watch it for its rollicking screenplay!

3. 12 Monkeys (1995)

You can be excused for getting shocked at watching Brad Pitt playing second fiddle to Bruce Willis in this awesome time travel flick. Because I was, too! But I guess Brad Pitt playing such a role was essential in maintaining the suspense and the twist in the climax.For those who haven't watched this movie yet, the story is set in a futuristic world, where a deadly virus has has almost caused an extinction of the human race and whatever humans are left are forced to take refuge underground. Using a time machine, they send Bruce Willis back in time to that period when the virus first broke out to find out a possible solution to find a cure for the virus. You keep guessing and wondering the reason for his periodic flashes but only at the end is the true reason revealed and you are like 'Oh, why didn't I think of that!'. This movie is of that type of time travel movies that stress that it is impossible to change what has happened in the past, no matter how hard you try. Anyways, behold an interesting experience!

4. Triangle (2009)

It is difficult to explain this movie, really. And the end of the movie, you are so immersed into it that you want a sequel, explaining the loose ends and finally showing you the fate of Jess (Melissa George) and her son. The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.How it is different from all other time travel stories is that this story is that of a loop in time - a loop with three cycles that keep repeating. Jess gets on a ship with her co passengers and must kill all of them to make the cycle repeat. Only if the cycle repeats can she try and warn their co passengers in the yacht (from her past) to again not get back to that ship. The movie needs 2 or 3 viewings to be understood completely but it is interesting enough to keep you hooked even for the second or third time. Watch it for a whirlwind experience!

5. Groundhog Day (1993)

The thing about Groundhog Day is that it has its heart in the right place. A weatherman is sent to a small town in Pennsylvenia to cover a famous event where the 'rat' predicts whether there will be an early spring that year, where he experiences the same day again and again till he finally spends a perfect day, helping others and thus helping himself stop the cycle. Phil (Bill Murray), as the reluctant weatherman, delivers a splendid performance. This is one movie you can watch with your family, laugh and cry and fall in love with, instantly. The striking thing about this movie is its honesty in characterization. Each character is very well etched and they stay true to their selves. Even thee transformation in Phil is shown in a very believable way. What are you waiting for! Go watch it, if you haven't yet!

6. Timecrimes (Los cronocrímenes) (2007)

I only recently saw this movie after becoming a (self-proclaimed) expert in time travel movies. So, most of the twists were predictable to me, but, could still surprise an amateur to this genre. But what was most impressive about this movie was that its climax had a shocking revalation - unlike any other time travel movie that I have come across. I was as shocked as I was surprised with the climax, which also explains the title of the film. Watch it for an entertaining experience!

7. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

I didn't like the first part as much and the third part was just okay. But its the second part that steals the 7th place hands down. The cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who once tried to kill Sarah Connor in the first installment must now protect her teenage son, John Connor, from an even more powerful and advanced Terminator.The master stroke in this movie was when the villain was made the good guy. This is one of the rare set of movies where the second part is even better than the first (only Munnabhai and Night at the Museum comes to my mind). Most people would have watched it already. But its such a classic that another viewing will still entertain..!

8. Frequency (2000)

Thankfully, in this movie, unlike many other time travel movies with the 'past can never be altered' rigidness, the past can be altered but with certain consequences. An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences. Whether he manages to fix those or not then forms the rest of the story. The movie mixes time travel with a serial killer case and moves at a frantic pace. The story has a decent suspense maintained through out its run length, and the tension towards the end is unbearable. If you are game for a decent suspense drama, watch this one..!

9. Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)

Comedy in time travel is a very under explored genre. Other than the 'Back to the Future' series, it is difficult to think of any other full fledged time travel comedy.In comes 'Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel' to fill the void. It is almost a more sensible remake of 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure', where people from future (here, it is Anna Faris of 'Scary Movie' fame) come to the present to help to-be-famous geeks reach their destiny. But, this movie is certainly more fun than the Bill and Ted movies and has a more logical (I mean the time-travel logic) and plausible story. If you wanna laugh with your friends and laugh hard, this is the movie to watch!

10. The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

I am not a big fan of romantic movies, but time travel combined with romance somehow seems to get me on a high! The story is a romantic drama about a Chicago librarian Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana), with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates for his marriage with his wife Claire (Rachel McAdams).Perfect casting is the main plus of this movie. Whether it is his early 20s or late 30s, Eric Bana looks and plays his role perfectly. The love affair between the two is brilliantly portrayed. Guess Rachel McAdams is an expert at these kind of roles (remember 'Notebook'?). Based on a novel of the same name, the movie evokes a lot of emotions, that only a time travel movie can. If you are a romantic, make sure you catch this flick!

Coming soon: Movies 11 to 20 in this list!

Movie Mush: Ko (Go for Ko!)

2011-04-27T03:41:00.000-07:00

Cinematographer turned Director K.V. Anand is back after a two year gap with 'Ko' starring Jeeva, Ajmal and Piyaa and how! Only if you check your watch do you realise that the movie's length is almost 3 hours.

Racy screenplay and an interesting twist in the second half are what that makes you sit through the entire length of the movie without ever getting bored. Jeeva is a young photographer of a tamil daily who takes high risks to cover his stories. Piyaa and yesteryear actress Radha's daughter both have a crush on him. (Sometimes I wish I can be a tamil hero so that all girls have a crush on me too!).

K.V.Anand's 'Ayan' was a runaway hit because of its smart screenplay and direction. This movie is equally as interesting and the twist smartly hidden by effectively using Kotta Srinivasa Rao and Prakash Raj. Not to forget, the song sequences are breathtakingly beautiful.

But the movie is not without its minuses. How come some one who has his feet directly over a 'kanni vedi' survive it and the guy who is a few feet away get killed? Guess you can't have everything perfect in a movie.

Anyways I give Ko 7/10.

Go for Ko!

My Final Year Project - Part 4: Project Implementation

2011-04-07T18:19:00.000-07:00

As a continuation of my earlier posts, in this part, I would like to explain how the project was implemented and what are the test results. Our project drives on the basic ideas of:

· Voluntary blood donation is the safest way of donating blood.
· Blood collection is the most challenging part among the duties of a blood bank.
· With the immense human resources available in our country, the gap between demand and supply of blood can be bridged easily.
· The main reason why blood collection is low is because of the inability of the blood banks to maintain contact with one-time users due to a variety of reasons.
· Websites are an easy and cost efficient way for a blood bank to keep in touch with the young, literate, potential donors.
· Because a major percentage of the voluntary blood donors belong to the 18-40 age category, using social networking plug-ins enhances the reach of our website.
· By collaborating with blood banks, their bulletins and details of their upcoming camps can be posted in the websites, enabling interested users to go and donate at any time that they are free.

Hence, our idea is to create a social networking site and add Facebook connect features to it and promote it among youngsters to join. The main aim of our project is to prove that social networking can be used for a good cause. We launched our site on the 18th of March. By the 25th of March, there were a 104 users. More than a 100 users had joined in the span of a week. With proper advertisements and Facebook shares and invites, our site could grow at a tremendous pace.

Movie Mush: The Adjustment Bureau

2011-04-01T00:36:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of Matt Damon and the trailer seemed promising, so I watched "The Adjustment Bureau" with expectations. Maybe I shouldn't have!

The storyline is simple: The affair between a politician, David Norris (Matt Damon) and a ballerina, Elise Sellas, (played by the beautiful Emily Blunt) is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart. The mysterious forces here are the Adjustment Bureau, who are people who control the way the world functions.

Now what do these hat-cladding people from the Adjustment Bureau do? They can stop time, decide who meets whom and what happens everyday. In short, they are eerily similar to the guys from the 1998 movie 'Dark City' except that those hat-cladding people were bad and these, are good. The story may sound almost cliched to people who have watched movies such as The Marix series and 'The Dark City'.

But the writers do try to explain how the members of the Bureau alter only significant events and let other events to the human free-will. And the movie does have its moments, such as those when the scene in which the purpose of the existence of the Adjustment Bureau is explained and especially during the climax, when David tries to fool the bureau and elope with Elise.

Matt Damon puts in a solid performance as a young politician with high aspirations and Emily Blunt matches her role to a T. They share a good chemistry and the romantic scenes are well acted. But the use of hats and turning the door knobs clockwise to use the Bureau's path is almost fairy tale stuff and makes you snigger, almost.

The movie has an interesting start, picks up speed on the way but the end is soft. As an audience, you were just expecting something more. But ah, that doesn't happen. The climax is a little abrupt and is not explained convincingly. Overall, it is worth a watch, but only just.

I'd give it 6/10.

Important Questions: Wireless Networks

2011-03-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

UNIT 1:

Very Important:

Design of wireless modems,

Diversity and smart receiving techniques,

Random access for data oriented networks,

UWB pulse transmission.

Important:

broad Modems for higher speeds,

UNIT 2:

Very Important:

Cellular topology,

Capacity expansion techniques.

Important:

Securities in wireless networks.

UNIT 3:

Very Important:

Mechanism to support a mobile environment,

IS-95 CDMA forward channel,

IS – 95 CDMA reverse channel,

GPRS and higher data rates.

Important:

Communication in the infrastructure.

UNIT 4:

Very Important:

IEEE 802.11,

The PHY Layer,

MAC Layer.

Important:

HYPER LAN,

HYPER LAN – 2.

UNIT 5:

Very Important:

Bluetooth,

Wireless geolocation technologies for wireless geolocation.

My Final Year Project - Part 3: Project Research

2011-03-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

One fact related to blood donation: A donor must give blood only once in 90 days. Again, many people don't know this. Our idea for the project before we actually started working on it was very simple: Create a city level donor database in which the data of all the blood donors will be entered in the database and the donors can be searched from the same in need of blood by both blood banks and blood donors. We had further plans of making a search filter where those who had given blood within the last 90 days would be avoided being considered eligible. Now, this, was a great idea, no doubt. But, the problem is, when we started meeting blood banks as a part of our project research, asking them what their problems are, they had more serious problems to contend with.

As a part of our project, we had met 9 blood banks in the city after gaining permission from Chennai Corporation AIDS Control and Prevention Society (CAPACS), which funds these blood banks. But our meetings with the blood banks changed our project idea on its head.

Problems faced by blood banks:

1 RELUCTANCE OF DONORS
It is a sad fact that in a country as populous as India, there is a lack of availability of donors. Hence, reluctance among donors serves as the most important reason why India is suffering from an acute shortage of blood and blood packets. This reluctance stems from both fear and wrong notions about blood transfusion.

2 INABILITY TO RETAIN ONE-TIME DONORS
One-time donors are those donors who have donated blood once – for the first time – during blood donation camps or along with their friends who may be regular donors. They are a great potential source of future donors: with proper guidance and motivation, they can be made aware of the great social service that they do by just allocating a few minutes of their time every 3 months. But, unfortunately, the blood banks have too many other duties to perform: to test, store and distribute blood that they do not tap into these potential future donors.

3 INABILITY TO PREDICT DEMAND
The demand for blood is almost always unpredictable: a massive natural disaster could cause a sudden spurt in rise of the demand for blood. Even the daily requirement of blood is not constant; hence the individual blood banks usually have their own target of the number of voluntary blood donations they would like to receive per day. Even this target is difficult to reach for many blood banks.

4 LACK OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BLOOD BANKS
This is another sad problem concerning blood banks. Blood banks are not willing to share the details of the available blood units in their stock with each other – especially government blood banks are unwilling to share their blood stock level with private ones. Such lack of cooperation also reduces the efficiency of the functioning of these blood banks.

5 HEAVY MISMATCH BETWEEN DEMAND AND SUPPLY
Due to all the above said reasons and more, there exists a great negative mismatch between supply and demand. This mismatch also causes a strain on the functioning of the blood banks, because often they have to turn down the request for blood for patients.

Now, all of these led us to the conclusion that a simple searchable database is not the solution to the problems faced by the blood banks.The bigger problem was that not enough blood is being voluntarily collected. One blood bank official mentioned to us, "You college students are the biggest source of voluntary blood donation to the blood banks. In the months of April, May and June, because the colleges are closed, we face a huge shortage in our blood needs".

We were of the conclusion that for a permanent solution to the problem of blood collection, it is imperative for people to donate more than just once. That is, it is important to cultivate the habit of regular blood donation in the minds of the blood donors. Now, habits can't just be cultivated. Our solution, was to promote the habit of voluntary blood donation among first time donors, so that they would be ready to donate blood again. And that is what we aim to achieve through www.bloodix.com