June 11, 2005

Book Tagging !

For Carnivas , who made me do this :

Total Number of Books I Own : Hmm...must be around 100 i guess. This includes all the techie books which helps me to run the rat race conducted by Microsoft , some impulsive buys which i never got a chance to read and some gud ones which i bought after i had already read them elsewhere.

Last book i bought : 51 Stock Trading Tips. Bought when i had been to Landmark @ Forum.

Last book i read : R K Narayan's 'Bachelor of Arts' . Wow ...such a good read. Elegant story telling . Was pleasantly surprised when the book echoed some of my beliefs on Friendship and Love.

Five Books that mean a lot to me :

Who moved my Cheese - Spencer Johnson: I think i must have read this book atleast 10 times now. But the Value Add never diminshes. A must have in any book shelf.

Rich Dad,Poor Dad - Robert Kiyolashki: I felt a lot wiser about Money after reading this book. Presents some radically new thoughts on Money making.

Man's search for Meaning - Viktor Frankyl : Psychiatric literature is not my cup of tea , but went head and bought this book and never once regretted my decision. The book presents such an Inspiring story of Viktor's experiences in Concentration camp . His observations give a good insight into Human thought processes.

FountainHead - Ayn rand : One of the most influential works of Literature. No fictitious character has ever haunted me like Howard Roark . Got carried away by the Story when i read it for the first time , so planning to re-read it for the philosophical angle.

I 'm right, U r wrong - Bono : Human Thinking process explained in Black n White. Bono covers entire gamut of his research on Lateral Thinking in one book .

Now lemme pass the meme to Uday ..... i 'm thinking hard to find if i have any other blogging friends........







June 06, 2005

Iruvar - Andrum , Indrum

1997 :

Was studying 12th standard then. Our gang had the habit of going to a movie on the last day of every exam. That day we had finished our Third Revision exams. The moment we came out of the exam hall , we started making plans for the movie. As all us were die-hard fans of Manirathnam and ARR , the choice was natural....Iruvar. To our utter disappointment , we found the movie to be dull ,dreary and boring ! When Aish died for the second time in the movie , all of us impulsively walked out of the theatre hall.

2005:

On a languid saturday morning , when sun was breathing down fire on the hapless Chennai residents, i chanced upon the Iruvar DVD. Thought i will watch it with no expectations whatsoever. It turned out to be such a beautiful experience. The movie was simply awesome. Excellent Screenplay , Superb Dialogues ( surprised that those were penned by Suhashini ) peppered abundantly with Vairamuthu's kavithaigal , mind boggling cinematography ( Aayirathil nan oruvan and Vennila vennila songs - a must repeatu ) , ARR's wonderful backgnd score ( ever heard that titillating kutty song when Mohanlal falls for Aish II ( JJ) after she jumps from the Jeep ??!! ) and Manirathnam's authoritarian direction.....all make this film a delightful classic.

Perhaps the best scene of the movie is when PrakashRaj shows the crowd gathered around his house to catch a glimpse of Mohanlal. PR slowly grabs the hand of the hesitant ML , prods him to wave to the crowd. ML finishes the scene with a flourish , by waving both his hands and throwing his neck towel to the crowd. Wow !! it left me totally mesmerised. Slowly but steadily , subtly but surely , the way Aish II seduces Mohanlal was another memorable sequence.

Revisiting certain things in Life after a brief span of time , will tell you how you have grown in the interim period. This film certainly told me how blind i was to the art of film making in my school days.