I decided to forsake my lunch to catch the much talked about GoMobile at PWTC today and am I disappointed. Half the booths were empty and the rest were still setting up. Come on la, it was advertised that the 'event of the year' opens from 21 November and there was even a launch at 11 am by some VIP and we have a bunch of exhibitors who are not serious about promoting their ware. The recently launched model under Sony Ericcson was not even there for viewing.

Also, i found most items exhorbitantly priced.Most handphones were more expensive that what we would get from our friendly outlets at shopping malls. I fail to understand the objective of this event, seriously.

I think the organiser or promoter of this event will neecd to relook at the objectives and the purpose of such an event . Our disappointment as visitors is the failure of the event.

I heave a sigh of relief after having gained at least 2kgs from all the buka puasa and open house events the past two months. I was far from enjoying all these food fiestas for a simple reason that as a vegetarian, I am often a forgotten lot.

I have been to countless open house events and there had not been a single occasion when there was a dish that is worthy for a vegetarian. Of course there is plenty to splurge at the deserts corner but that is about the best and worst that can happen and that explains my weighty issue.

I was shell shocked when an organization invited me for a Deepa-Raya open house and again, there was nothing to signify the deepavali spirit and not vegetarian dishes either.

I have decided I will not attend any more of these open houses event next year and gain unsightly weight for no good reason. So long as people do not think catering for vegetarian guests are not important, my absence will not be felt, so I wish to think

So , sayonara to the Open Houses.

MOVIE REVIEW
CHAKKARAKATTI

THE Western lifestyle is often showcased in Indian movies as being emulated by the rich and famous as a show of having gained wealth and reputation.

In Chakkarakatti the exaggerations somehow works well for even the middle class. With Shantanu playing the lead alongside Ishita and Vedika, the lifestyle portrayed appeared like an overzealous attempt, but if you don’t put on your thinking cap, the movie will come on just as fine.

Juices straight from the refrigerator for breakfast and girls visiting male friends in the bedroom at the family home are just some of things I found too westernized in the movie, but again why not for a change?

Chakkarakatti is typically a love story- two girls and a guy.

Taking after his father, actor turned director Bhagyaraj, , Shantanu acting skills seemed polished in the movie despite this being his maiden entry. His dimpled smile and rustic teenage outlook was refreshing, leaving the girls trying very hard to keep up by doing the best in the glamour roles assigned to them.

Both Divali ( Ishita) and Rhema ( Vedika) are in love with Raj ( Shantanu) but Raj loves only Divali and the whole movie is about the three coping with the pitfalls of college love affair.

The casting of Raj’s friends was excellent as the boys kept the humour tone high throughout the movie. There was no need for a comedian and without a villain, the movie was just as good.

The animation-laced movie has lots of technology gone into it and A.R. Rahman’s feet-thumping music bombarding the movie will keep you appeased. There were two songs I particularly liked, Taxi , Taxi and Marudhani, one for its fast rappy beat and the other for a touch of old and new sentimentalism.

Director Kala Prabhu, the son of legendary producer Kalai Puli Thanu has given the typical teenage love story a new lease by refashioning some of the regular love-failure scenes.

Adults were all pictured flat in this flick, leaving the plot to evolved with just the’ kids’ in the picture. There is absolutely no ‘interference’ from the parents and again, for a change it was good.

I would recommend Chakkarakatti for its simple story line and entertaining dialogues and it would appeal to the young and old.

I was shocked at the outburst from the FT deputy minister Dato' M Saravanan carried exclusively by Malaysiakini. To begin with, i cant understand what the fuss is all about. A deadline is given for the people and communities to revert with comments and Malaysian Hindu Sangam sent in their comment ten days before the deadline about the missing temples and the crematoriums in the draft plan. Why is Saravana creating a deadline within a dealine? The ministy has an obligation to wait till the last minute of the deadline to compile the comments and then to objectively view them from all standpoints.

Why does Saravanan fear the Media? This is not the first time that he has critcised organisations and individuals who go the Media. It is complete ironny though that the very man who chides people for going to the Media does so himself at every available opportunity. The war of words between Saravanan and Selangor MB Tan Sri Khalid is a classic example. Finally both received a 'slap' on the face when the Kampugn Baru folk shut them up for good.

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny"

KUSELAN FILM REVIEW

WITH great enthusiasm we made it a family affair to watch Kuselan over the weekend and luckily we had enough popcorns and bites to sustain us through the waiting game. Forty-five minutes into the movie, there was no sound or sign of Rajni and the pomp was definitely missing. I then knew this was not the typical Rajni movie I had anticipated it to be.

It was a frustrating wait for Rajni, who makes a rather delayed but definite grand entry as himself, the Superstar. At this point, I wait with bated breath not knowing what to expect and worse still there is still no villain, confirming my worse fear.

For fans of Rajni, please take note that Kuselan is more about the impoverished Barber Balu ( Pasupaty ), eking our a meager living in Maraiyur. Balu values ethics more than anything else and his humble wife Sri Devi ( Meena) complements his character quite well by giving all and asking nothing in return.

The small town of Maraiyur is turned abuzz overnight with the arrival of the shooting crew and with this entourage Rajni arrives, as Superstar Ashok Kumar. It appears to me, Kuselan is an autobiography of sort for Rajni as we get a good glimpse of Rajni, the person, completely dressed-down from fame and prominence.

The town is launched into frenzy to meet Rajni and the people arrive in droves to meet him but for security reasons they are kept out of view. The Superstar’s desire to meet all his fans is often thwarted by the middlemen, the security officers and the police. We get a good sense of the kind of hero-worship people generally have for film stars in this flick.

Balu’s claim that he and superstar were school mates creates ripples in an otherwise calm life of his and the rest of the story revolves around how he and his family members get into awkward situations from this revelation.

The village people start offering favours to Balu in return for some kind of face-to-face chance with the Superstar. But Balu is apprehensive and rightly so as he is unsure if the Superstar who is now a celebrity would want to associate himself with a downtrodden barber’s.

We see Vadiveloo, Balu’s business competitor filling the humour quotient but Livingstone , the self-proclaimed rich man of the village and his bunch of followers turn out to be chief irritants in the movie. Their unruly behaviour and language were disturbing to say the least.

Nayanthara is herself in Kuselan , part of the shooting crew and her role gives her a good platform to publicise her trim and slim figure she now wears.

We see outstanding costumes and impressive settings during the shooting scenes but the songs do not really sink in memory. Kuselan is really an ode to friendship and it provides Rajni an opportunity to communicate to the world all that he really is as a person, beyond and behind the Superstar image he has earned.

Balu’s failed attempts to meet the superstar shows the wall that is created by not the Superstar himself but are put in place by various authorities in the name of security.

Will Balu meet his childhood friend before the latter leaves the village at the end of the shooting period? Watch the movie for the answer, and believe me, the last twenty minutes of the movie leaves you tearing.

Let us give producer K. Balachander and director P Vasu a break. Kuselan is made for a larger purpose and with a deeper message to coincide with the World Friendship Day on 3 August.

Some comments from my family members; the seven year old found the movie tolerable after Rajni’s delayed appearance, the teenagers found it quite a bore with Rajni’s fights missing, while the senior citizens thought they should have stayed at home for the TV serials. And I missed Rajni’s as a Superstar in Kuselan.

The Benz fiasco in Terengganu was quite a revelation for quite a bit about the quality of Proton cars came to light. But what amuses me now is I am lost on who is the more intelligent of the two: the MB who bought the 14 Benz cars or the Prime Minister who allowed the purchases to stay and the cars to be used by foreign visitors to the state. So, the state will continue spending on the Perdanas ( or purchase new ones maybe ??? ) and allow the Benz cars to lie idle and depreciate in value.
I am truly at wits end.

Anwar is now released but the nation is abuzz with want of his blood sample. The cat and mouse game between Anwar and the powers that be is too much for the average man on the street. I met an old friend of mine and we were not talking about us when we met. Inevitably ever so often out discussion veered towards Anwar and the injustice that have befallen him for a decade now and there seems to be still no light at the end of the tunnel.

What happened to the blood sample taken during the 1998 sodomy fiasco? What is the need to draw fresh blood?

And what is to become fo RPK ? As a blogger rightly pointed out, it seems like a one man's fight against the masses and RPK is going against the waves. What is to become of him?

While the police has its hand full with Anwar and RPK, the average citizens of Malaysia are suffering the consequences.

I was in UH on 14 July to do my MRI for which i waited for seven months and I was asked to be at the Xray dept by 7.30am on the dot as there were patients back-to-back. I made it by 7.25am as I was against peak traffic. However my procedure was delayed by half hour as the medical assitants arrived late and subsequently other staff were arriving later and later caused by the road blocks.

We could only stand and watch the nation's resources being depleted by people in power. The police blocks for a fact an act of intimidation and not particularly to thwart the demonstrations- if there were any. If the Anwar was the issue, the police should have erected blocks around his house and not at all entry points leading to the city. This reminds of a man destroying a whole lot of forest to kill a single mosquito.

Another friend asked me what i thought of the country's political scenario now and i said a good disinfectant was critically needed.

FILM REVIEW
DASAVATHARAM

By Bhavani Krishna Iyer

THE wild goose chase for tickets took me from several failed telephone bookings to an-hour long queue at GSC One- Utama and I finally ended up at Lotus with the first row seats, and didn’t mind risking my neck for Kamal. My family thought I was crazy.

Having gotten the ticket with such hassle, I walked into the cinema with loads of expectations ( and popcorns) and what more; Kamal Haaasan is known for some novelty in most of his films. Ten avatars ( reincarnations) or roles as Kamal would have it, I thought would appease my expectation.

The opening scene was grandiose with the first fifteen minutes bringing us back to the 12th Century conflict between the Shaivites and and the Vaishnavites. The setting is in Chidambaram during the Chola empire and the costumes made the scene very telling, exemplifying Kamal’s perfectionism.

Having said that, the events that follow, after the execution of Vaishnavite Rangaraja Nambi ( Kamal) at the beginning of the show, have history woven in delicately but I felt that the relevance was apparent only to the discerning few.

For the next two hours and 45 minutes, it was Kamal running after a tiny box the size of a match-box containing a deadly bio chemical

Biotechnologist Dr Govind Ramaswamy ( Kamal ) takes to heels to save the world from his vicious colleagues and partners, thwarting their plan to mint money from the deadly virus with the potential of being used as a deadly bio weapon, capable of wiping out the entire world population. Govind is part of this prestigious research project on bio weapons in the United States, directly under the Bush Administration.

The run and chase begins when the little box with the vial finds its way out of the laboratory and to India, in Chidambaram more precisely and as it would have to be. We see Govind, the villain, the FBI and the Indian police trailing Govind and Aandal played by Asin the Brahmin girl and the unwitting accomplice to Govind.

I would say Chance, Chaos and Coincidence are the mainstays of Dasavatharam, a movie built over almost three years, with a thin and mediocre story line and predictable twists and turns.

The costliest movie ever made in India ( at a cost of Rs 65 Crores), Dasavatharam was released simultaneously in India and Malaysia on Friday the 13th . Movie critics have since torn Kamal apart for the lack of many-things in the movie, topping the list is the absence of depth in this character and story.

The popularity of this movie runs on Kamal doing ten different roles, a record breaking feat where one actor appears in the most roles but there is no added value or justification for Kamal to appear in so many roles. Some critics say the roles were fished out just to add to the numbers.

Compared to his previous accomplishment such as Michael, Madhana, Kamaraja ( 1991) where he played four roles, Avvai Shanmugi( 1996) , Thennali (2000) and Panchatanthiram (2002), Dasavatharam does not live up to the expectations, I would say.

K.S. Ravikumar who needs no introduction is seen here pairing with Kamal for the fourth time, all three previous ventures were roaring successes. He takes credit for the direction of the movie and shares credit with Kamal, the late Sujatha and Crazy Mohan for scripting the story.

Crazy Mohan’s dialogues are a class of its own. Known for his slapstick flicks, the movie had several of them. Mohan, Kamal and Ravikumar have worked to big success in Panchathanthiram, Thennali and Avvai Shanmugi.

For humour, if you expect to see Vadiveloo or Vivek, you will not be disappointed by their a absence as the pair Kamal and Asin is equally good, if not better.

Now, Kamal’s other roles in this movie, some of which disguised beyond recognized through the good work of American make-up artist Michael Westmore will not be revealed so as not to kill the only suspense in the movie.

Keeping up to the Jackie Chan-like action-packed scenes, there were no dream, dance or song scenes and this contributed to the momentum staying high.

My advice is to catch the movie on the big screen or you will not reap the full benefit of the special effects which are generously provided for and check out the nonagenarian Krishnaveni, she is more than just hilarious

The end

A vs S – a fiery debate

I am neither a great fan of the opposition nor a foe of the Barisan Government but I was tickled pink during the recent debate between Anwar and Shabery. And watching it live made all the difference for we could see who the thinker was as opposed to the other who was grinding on redundancies.
To begin with, Anwar emerged the nobler of the two, by strategy or otherwise and Shabery was a shame to himself and the Government whom he spoke for.
Despite Anwar repeatedly warning or reminding, if you like, that the event at hand was not Anwar vs Shabery but more to counter or support the opposition pledge to reduce the fuel hike if they were to be given the opportunity to lead the nation, Shabery was only a loaded machine gun, losing ammunition but mostly not hitting the target.
Anwar had his mind and insight clear, he talked about reducing the fuel by not just any sum but by 50 sen and he came up with his reasons and justifications backed with facts and figures.

Shabery, on the other had was hiding behind the Barisan Government and saw it fit to defend his paymasters without there being a need to do so. It also appears that Shabery might have worked really hard on researching the history for the history seems to be his preoccupation rather than issues at hand plaguing us every dawn and dusk.
Never once did Anwar condemn

JULY, 2008

NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLE OR VICE VERSA ?

I have not missed a single of the MIC Wanita National Conventions for a decade now and the recent was my 11th.

For obvious reasons I was hoping this year’s gathering would be different. Was I disappointed? Read on for the answer.

The day-long event took off with the ceremonial launches and this is where we get to hear the MIC President covertly reprimanding delegates while overtly showering accolades and praises for the favoured few. After the morning tea, the crowd broke into three sections. I have always looked forward to this session where we are able to meet the Wanita leaders at close proximity and share our thoughts on various topics. This session also gives one a good “perception vs reality” understanding.

The president opened the Wanita session with his two-sen worth of stories to drive some messages across but more importantly, he had wanted to hear for himself the voices from the ground. He told the Woman leader that the usual tabling of annual reports should be dealt with much later, much to my delight

He wanted to know the grouses from the women and what it was that they hoped for in MIC and I was all perked up to hear the voices that would bring about the much talked-about changes.

Marched the first lady to the rostrum to start the ball rolling for the day, with her first question, which turned out to be grumble. Her fatuous concern was not having been given ‘due recognition’ as a division woman leader as was made to sit in the back row. There was no tagging on the chairs and the ladies sat on first-in basis and that did not augur well with this division leader.

Well, some ladies sacrificed their morning tea to be able to take the front seats and I don’t think it would have been fair to uproot people who were already seated, and the organizing committee (if there was one ) let it be.

I thought respect and recognition are not reflected on where one sits but how eloquently one is able present her thoughts and ideas. And this is something, MIC needs to address urgently within party in the rejuvenating exercise; to do away with the form and focus on substance.

Also, why create fractions within the MIC wanita community. Someone asked me why were the women clad in so many different sarees defeating the purpose of uniformity. I remained silent when she asked if the intention was to segregate the ‘ elites’ from the commoners.

Time was limited and we were approaching lunch, I was edgy with frustration from the first question. The next lady raised a question about teenaged girls going astray and getting hitched from school by the young bikers. Now, we all know that this issue is not unique to the Indian community, but this was the topic that took centrestage with every other women deliberating on it. I am not undermining the severity of this problem but when the president agrees that it is an issue needing attention and concerted effort, the cue is to move on. There were more and more hands going up pleading for a chance to speak.

Subsequently, there was another lady who wanted some reprieve for a young local university graduate who had been jobless for some time now. The contention was she had applied to many organisations and her attempts had been futile. As the girl was present in the hall, the president asked her to speak.

She was not able to string a sentence in English and she was fumbling to make herself understood. There were uneasy whispers from the floor and I was happy I was not the only one who noticed her lack of the basics. A good lady seated behind me was correcting, every word the girl was pronouncing with gross inaccuracy. In an aside, we were asking how she could have graduated with a degree in business administration.. It was apparent that she was seeking high handed recommendation to land in a job but I thought if indeed she secured a job through such means, it would be any employer’s nightmare.

She is typically one who thinks MIC owes her a living. This is a perennial problem with most young graduates. They think they have got it all with a degree and would not want to enhance their skills. This girl could do with language and presentation skills to begin with.

There was also a long debate on how MIC could further help single mothers. Let me tell you that this subject has been hogging the convention for as long as I can recall. The Wanita leader would agree me that middle class wage earners are also a lot who need attention.

I know for a fact that lots have been done through the MICs Yayasan Strategik Sosial for single mothers and this is a bottomless pit where it will never be enough. Young professionals and graduates and middle income wage earners’ status must also be enhanced to achieve the 1.5 corporate equity for Indians, announced by MIC recently.

Coming to Resolutions, they are formulated, presented, discussed, amended and then adopted or voted and the resolutions will be the basis on which actions plans be determined for the coming year. I might ruffle some feather if I were to say that the resolutions churned out this year did not have the vigour and zeal that the MIC is talking about to rejuvenate itself.

It is time that the Wanita leaders are given KPIs as MIC is in a ‘ do or die’ situation and we need to make it happen together. The MIC Wanita leaders and members alike should have a holistic understanding of the national issues and be able to place them in Global perspective for out-of –box suggestions and solutions. For this to happen, a K-culture must be instilled.

By Bhavani Krishna Iyer