The Oscar goes to....

Being a great movie buff I was waiting for the academy awards. Earlier as per my schedule I would not have watched this show. Thanks to my corporate world which made a miracle so that I could watch this great event. I was very much interested for two reason. First for my favorite actress Kate Winslet and second my own favorite legend A.R.Rahman. I watched from the entry to exit of the show. I have seen a couple of academy awards show but this proved to be different from most of them. A glimpse about the show from my point of view.

The opening was done by none other than the most sexiest man alive on the earth. I have seen him as a mighty werewolf, a fierce mutant, a magician etc. But this time he was the host who did dancing, singing and what not. He mesmerized everybody with his talk and his style. I have no words to describe for you have to see yourself to experience it. For first 10 minutes I was not able to take my eyes of him. But they have got to proceed with the ceremony na. It was a very fine show and the much expected Slum dog Millionaire movie started gathering all the awards to their gallery. As an Indian I was eagerly waiting for the Oscars in the music section. Before giving away the winner both the nominees for the song performed on stage. When Rahman performed his score the entire house was awestruck. They were stunned by the way the music was approached by him. They really understood his new dimension in the music world. When his name was announced I was on cloud nine. I am happy coz I m crazy fan of him.

There were few expected winners like Heath Ledger, who got it for his supporting role in Dark Knight. But the joker was unfortunately missing and so the family received his award. The entire house was reminded that a fellow person was missing. Then the other expected winners were the art direction and visual effects for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Best animated movie of the year for WALL-E.

Unexpected but reality, Penelope Cruz had her hand in the Oscars for Vicky Christina Barcelona in spite of fellow tough competitors. Most of the expectation was on Taraji.P.Henson for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Amy Adams for Doubt. But penelope took the stage for herself in a silent manner. Another surprise was the sound editing for Dark Knight. Coming to the important part of the ceremony is that the Jerry Lewis, the leading comedy actor was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The entire house gave a standing ovation. The ceremony reached to its height when Hugh Jackman and Beyonce Knowles did a piece together and a piece from Mamma Mia. It was awesome to see such a talented actor on the stage.

Kate Winslet who had been nominated for six times and yet to touch the Oscar was the much expected among the fellow tough competitors like Angelina Jolie for Changeling, Merly Streep for Doubt, Anne Hathway for Rachel Getting Married and Melissa Leo for Frozen River. Meryl Streep has been nominated for this award for 15 times and the stage is never new for her whereas Anne Hathway got her first token this time. Yet much was expected from Kate. When I watched Rachel Getting Married I thought that Anne would get her Oscars. But this morning everything was proved wrong because Kate Winslet at last made to the chamber of winners. She is always my favorite but every time she was nominated she was good but not better. But this time I guess she was the best, I say this because I m yet to watch The Reader.

In the Actor category I had no doubt about the winner. Sean Penn deserves the awards for his extra ordinary pick of character in The Milk. He has done one life time character which is flawless. It definitely requires guts to under take a certain subject which may ruin your entire life if taken to the dark side and I think Sean Penn has taken a worthy risk. I am saying this even without watching the movie. When most people's favourite was Brad Pitt I felt that he was a little bit out of frame. The toughest competitors for Sean Penn were Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler and Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon.

Well as the ceremony proceeded the slum dog millionaire became the spot light and got 8 awards in 9 nominated category. Much interesting thing was that the yesteryear nominees introduced this year's nominees and gave away the awards for categories like Actor,Actress,Supporting actor/actress. This was an entirely different thing in this year's Oscars.

This time the Oscars is very different this is because most of the winners are Non-US artists. This means that they were not born in US but few are settled in there for their career. Here is a sample list.

Hugh Jackman - Host(Australia)
Kate Winslet - Best Actress (UK)
Penelope Cruz - Best Actress in supporting role (Spain)
Heath Ledger - Best Actor in supporting Role (Australia)
Danny Boyle - Best Director (UK)
A.R.Rahman - Best song, Original Score (India)
Simon Beaufoy - Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published (UK)
Anthony Dod Mantle - Best Achievement in Cinematography(UK)
Michael O'Connor - Best Achievement in Costume Design(UK)
Resul Pookutty - Best Achievement in Sound (India)

I think the Oscars have started seeing beyond their curtains. They have started exploring other countries' talents and I think that they will soon be out witted by other country artists. Catch you all folks next year with much more diverse exhibition and meanwhile lets not forget to watch some quality movies.

Yen Samayal Araiyil - Episode 2

Guess the time has come for me to enter into kitchen for another time. Since my parents have gone out of station I decided to take some cooking practice. My mom didn't want to take any risk but I insisted. But she made some preliminary preparations to make the cooking work a bit easy for me. I kept alarm so that I could wake around 6 to make the lunch for my bro(experiment rat in this case). But I think I had a restless mind and got up around 4. I was in the bed till 6 and woke up with a fresh mind to prove something to my family members.

My mom did the vathakozhambu a day earlier and kept in the refrigerator. My job was to do some vegetable for myself and my bro. I selected an easy one. I decided to do Vandakkai Poriyal. Since I had a bad experience with the upma I took careful mental notes from my mom. As for the starter I cut the vegetable to the required shape and kept it ready. Then I went into the kitchen and wished that everything should go well. I added all the ingredients as told by mom and everything was happening very good.

Wait a minute this should not happen. I m always prone to do some mistakes. Yes this time I took a ladle and washed it properly and dipped the same into the oil without drying. The result is simple, I got small drops of hot oil splashed on my arm and a drop on my face. Nothing went serious. If it had gone serious then that would have been my last day in kitchen. Then as per my mom's instruction I was about to add a small quantity of curd and I had this small doubt. I wanted to know if I have to add before the vegetable got cooked or later. Before I took the decision the vegetable was cooked and so I took a deep breath and added the curd. Then it was time to add some kadalai mavu for roasting purpose. At this juncture I had a doubt about the quantity of the kadalai mavu. I just wished that it should go well and just put some kadalai mavu and added some salt. Well everything came out well and I invited my bro to taste it. He said it was ok but a little salt is needed. All I wanted was that the vandakkai to be properly cooked. Even without salt it is possible to eat but not when it is half-cooked.

When I had my lunch I figured out that it was good and my bro was wrong about the salt thing. Yes it required lot of salt not little. But I think it gave me a positive experience. Suddenly I started feeling cooking to be a nice experiment and a different experience. I believe I would definitely become a better cook if I hang out in the kitchen for some time. I wished my parents were here to reward my cooking ability. I also learnt how difficult it is to make a dish and we people(eaters) just like that give the comment on the dish without giving any thinking. I also learnt that all we require is nothing but a hearty involvement in the dish that we prepare. Will be back with my next cooking experience.

Changeling

After a long time I have watched a contented movie. The movie is a true story which happened decades ago in LAPD. Angelina Jolie(Christine Collins) plays the role of a single parent who is much bonded to her son(Walter Collins). Everyday he leaves her son at his school and goes for work. He picks up him on her return from work. On one Saturday when she had to work for an extra day her son goes missing. When she files a complaint to LAPD she discovers that it will not be attended for another 24 hrs since that has been the rule. Later next morning the police takes her complaint and promises her to find her son. After three months the police department finds her son, who actually was not her son and has changed a lot. Initially she had no other option than to accept the boy. Soon she discovers he was not her son and goes to LAPD and pleads them to search for her son. But the LAPD does not take any step. Instead LAPD finds all the opportunity to put her into a mental asylum. On the other hand a reverend who knows the department well helps her in all possible means to bring her son back and also the corruption into the light. Angelina discovers that most people in the asylum are brought under code 12, people who tried to bring the corruption of LAPD out in the world. She meets a person in the asylum who gives her all the confidence to strike against the LAPD. During this period a boy(Sanford Clark) was arrested on a juvenile case by a police officer Detective Lester Ybarra. Sanford confesses on killing more than 20 children with his cousin. When Sanford was asked to identify the children in the picture whom he had killed he identifies them and in particular Walter Collins. Lester who had the custody of Sanford was asked to leave everything behind and report back to base. But he takes matters into his hands and sees to that the bodies of all the 20 children are found. This brings matters to worst and the reverend finds asylum to bring Christine out. On returning back from asylum, the first thing to be done by Christine was to file a case to release all the people from asylum who are brought under code 12. She also files case against LAPD. On the other hand the murderer was also caught and brought into the court. In the case against LAPD, the officer who took charger of the case and his chief commissioner are given suspension for life time. On the other hand the murderer was also found guilty by the statement provided by the boy who confessed. The boy who impersonated Christine's son was also reunited to his mother but leaves a statement which confuses the press people about the efficiency of the LAPD. Christine never stopped searching for her son since she was sure of his existence. She was asked by the murderer to meet him before his execution. The murderer didn't expect her to meet him. He never told her what he did to her son. One day on her work she receives a call from a mother, who lost her child like her and informs that her son has returned. The boy who returned informed that Christine's son escaped from the murderer with him and also another boy whom he did not see after that. The boy also told that it was Walter who came back to save him and that was the reason he remembers Walter's last name. When the Lester asked Christine if she still believes that her son is alive and she replies positively. She also said that she has got one thing that day than the last night. It was nothing but HOPE.

The movie depicts the HOPE of a mother to find her son and her struggle against a whole department. I have watched Angelina Jolie's movies and I think this would be her master piece of all her time. The way she acted was extra ordinary particularly when she was thrown into the asylum and when she identifies that her son was among the 20 children killed. She depicts the mother who is strong both mentally and at heart. Any movie buff should definitely watch this movie.

Unexpected turnout

When Australian Open started, the women's side was much expected to have some major results. Jelena Jankovic who was no.1 ranking and yet to have her slam was much expected in this season to be in finals. But she got her exit in the early rounds and shocked the entire tennis fans. Another expected person was Ana Ivanovic, who won the Rolland Garros. But she also shocked the tennis world with her exit. With Sharapova missing in the tournament it was easy for some unseeded players like Jelena Dokic,Kleybanova and Navaronne to progress much more in the game.

Right from the Rolland Garros I wanted Dinara Safina to get her hand on the slam. She made extra ordinary progress in her play. Among the William sisters it was the younger one who made it to the finals. Dinara played some extra ordinary tennis in all her rounds. When her brother Marat got his exit she made sure that she had to hold onto the game. She was no lesser to Serena. But Serena was untouchable and was dominant through out her final. The final took place for only 45 minutes and Serena joined the club with Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley,Steffi Graf and Monica Seles to hold the title for the fourth time.

Dinara Safina who started as an underdog was never expected to be in the finals with the tough competition. She just has to improve her second serve since she made 5 double faults to 0 double faults of Serena. She has to bring down her climbing unforced errors. It was tough luck for Dinara in the Australian Open 2009. The slam is just around the corner for her. Waiting for her major slam victory and I hope it to be in the Rolland Garros.

Not Again

First I m cursed and then I can't believe it. I have missed the second finals between Roger and Nadal(Wimbledon 2007 and now Australian Open 2009). In case Roger I missed even the US Open 2008. When Australian Open started I thought I could watch the entire tournament since I may not be able to watch any other tournament later in this year. This is because it is time for me to tighten my seat belt to travel in the competitive world for survival(simple,corporate world).I was able to watch the earlier rounds of the tournament without any disturbance. I have never made an attempt to get up early in my past eight months but to watch the matches I woke up early in the morning.My family was not at all surprised by this, since they know how crazy I m about the game and also Roger. But I guess I damned because I started missing the quarters,semis and finals.

I was having my fingers crossed so that Roger would equal his slam record with Pete Sampras. He was in an extra ordinary play. I thought he would be out in the 4th round. But he made a great come back with three sets win when he was down two sets against Tommy Berdrych. It was an impressive play. When the 4th round got over I realised that I will not be in station to watch the finals. I decided that I m unlucky. I was sure that Roger will be going into the finals with his smart play. On the other hand Nadal was cruising but was tested by Fernando Veradasco in the semis. To be honest Nadal would have got his return tickets but it was a terrible double fault by Veradasco which cost him the entire match. With the play for about 5hrs and 15 minutes everybody expected Nadal to be completely worn out.But he recovered very soon.

Whenever I watch the slam there would be some problem with my dad. This time nothing like that happened. I was surprised but not for long. Since I didn't have the chance to watch the men's finals I decided to watch the women's finals. The same day there was a cricket match for India. Here comes the issue between me and my dad. I fought with him and told him that the match would last at the most to 3 hrs and then he can watch the cricket. But to my surprise the finals lasted only for 45 minutes and in an hour the ceremony also got over. So I think I avoided the big fight with my dad. Thanks to Serena Williams!!!

I wanted Dinara to win the match but it was Serena who won the slam. When the match ended I told my dad that Roger would win the finals.My dad is a supporter of Nadal. He promised me to call me the next day to deliver the news that Nadal won the match. The next day I finished my scheduled trip and was returning. At one point I called my mom to know the stats. When my mom told the stats I was relieved. The stat was that each one had won a set and playing the third set. After that I had no clue how I forgot about the match. I kept my mobile in my bag and didn't even have a clue that my dad was calling me. Then he called my bro and delivered the happy news(according to him). He told me the shocking news that Roger lost again to Nadal. When I checked my mobile, My cousin also sent me a msg making me fume. I would have beaten my cousin if he had been there in person. In my heart I had a doubt coz my cousin told that he may come to my home and I thought that my dad and my cousin may be playing with me.

As soon as I reached my home I tuned my television to check the result. I was shocked and my mom asked if I m sad. I told her I m not but she knows how cray I m and didn't dig deep. Then my dad gave the stats about the match. I listened to it without any words. Then he told the most unbelievable news that Roger became emotional at the ceremony. Even though I was tired I was tuning on my TV to check things out. Around 23rhs my eyes didn't co-operate with me. I went to sleep.

Next morning when I was checking my mails my bro called me to watch the highlights of the match. At the end of the highlights the ceremony was also telecasted. When I saw Roger getting emotional I had tears on my eyes. Lucky that I controlled myself very soon. I checked out the interviews online. At the ceremony, Roger was only able to say "GOD,It is killing me.". Then he broke into tears and was not able to proceed further. After sometime he came along again and delivered his speech.

At the press conference he told that for once in his time he felt that why didn't he try to be a left handed player. He still feels that he can beat Nadal soon. It is not a tough one since Roger has made many changes in his game plan. On the other hand Nadal confronted that Roger is strong in forehand and he prefers to play only to Roger's backhand. He said that if he had played to forehand he would have lost the match. He is also sure that Roger will get his hand in the Roland Garros trophy pretty soon.

I was happy that I didn't watch the finals coz I would have cried myself on seeing Roger break down. I would have become more upset than now. I hope Roger gets his slam record on track and also his first Rolland Garros trophy. Waiting for the Rolland Garros.

Australian Open 2009

The tournament was different this time with different set of results. Let me start with the details.

MEN'S SINGLES:
Everything started with good results from all the leading players. Most of the expected players made through the rounds. But in every tournament there will be few who gets their exits earlier. When Roger and Nadal had their exists earlier in the year 2008 it was Murray and Djokovic this time. It was Murray who lost to Fernando Veradasco in the 4th round followed by Djokovic,who exited the game in quarter finals against Andy Roddick, claiming that he has got some health issues. This gave Roddick a chance to move ahead in his play. It was time for Jo Wilfried-Tsonga to book his return tickets. Veradasco was the unexpected person to climb on the ladder for the trophy. He met the world no.1 Nadal in his semis. It was a tough match for both of them and finally Nadal made a place in the Rod Laver Arena for the finals with none other than Roger.

Roger had a smooth starting with Andreas Seppi and Evgeny Korolev. He met Marat Safin in the 3rd round. This would be the last time he meets him in Australian Open since Marat retires next year.But his skill was tested in the 4th round against Tommy Berdrych. He was two sets down but soon regained and found a place in the Quarterfinals. Both Quarters and semis was a piece of cake since he executed everything very well. On the other hand Nadal had an easy progress. He was tested in semis when he played against his fellow country man Veradasco. To be honest at one point Nadal should have booked the return tickets for practising for the paris but it was a terrible double fault by Veradasco which gave Nadal an entry to the final.

The Final was an extra ordinay one with five setter and a nail biting win by Nadal to be the number one for some more time. He became the first spaniard to hold the trophy in his hands.

WOMEN'S SINGLES:
Many unexpected results came out this time. It was Venus Williams who got her exit in the 2nd round followed by the most expected Ana Ivanovic in the 3rd round. Jelena Jankovic who was expected to open her slam count got her exit in the 4th round. The unseeded Jelena Dokic was stopped by Dinara Safina in Quarters. The progress of the unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro, who defeated Venus was stopped by Elena Dementieva. So it was Dinara Safina and Serena who made into the Rod Laver Arena for their finals. I geared up myself to watch this match which just lasted for only 45 minutes. Serena became so dominant that she clenched not only her 10th slam but also her no.1 spot. With the end of the tournament, Jelena Jankovic who had the No.1 spot without a slam was pushed to no.3 spot and Dinara Safina made an extra ordinary progress to no.2 Spot. Maria Sharapova who didn't attend the tournament was pushed to 17 spot from 9th. Hope to have a nice Rolland Garros.

Comedy Master

Well, today after returning from my shopping I learnt that our own legendary comedy king Mr.Nagesh a.k.a Gundu Rao passed away due to some illness. He was a legendary actor who not only did comedy roles but also some character roles. He walked away from his family and started his career in Railways department but switched to acting career since he was not satisfied. He joined some drama troupes and became the most sensible comedy actor to live in this world. He is one of the actor who mingled with the next generation and also acted with them. It was producer Balaji who gave Nagesh an opportunity to enter into in this film industry.

He has acted under numerous director. He dedicated himself to this industry. He fits exactly into the character. Be it the poor poet(Tharumi) in thiruvilayadal, Innocent Server in Server Sundaram, Villianous comic pimp in Thillana Mohanambal,an upcoming film director in Kadhallikka Neram Illai or revengful villian in Aboorva Sagodhargal he blends himself into the character. I cannot identified any character which he didn't perform in his career. He even acted as a dead body in Magalir Mattum movie, a poor college boy in Yadheer Neechal and also actor himself in Thillu Mullu.

In the next generation he has acted with vijay in Poove Unakkaga as a grand father, Madhavan in Minnalae as a grand father, arjun in Rhythm as caring father and Dhanush in Kadhal Kondaen as Fr. Rozario. He even acted with Vadivelu in the full length comical movie. You can never count the number movies and characters he was into.

He became the number one expected person in almost all of the Kamal Hasan's movie. He did good comedies with Kamal. Some the pieces with kamal which cannot be forgetten are Michael Madhan Kama Rajan, Avai Shanmugi, Nammavar, panchathanthiram and also in the recent Dasavadharam.

Though he rose to numerous height he was a down to earth person who cared for other people. But it is very unfortunate that the Indian government didn't recognize his work. Many people are given Padma awards(I don't want to quote people who really didn't deserve the this award may be later year) and I think this guy also deserved one. Hope at least in future people get proper recognition for their work.

A common man who worked for the government was never expected to become legend and change the history of Film Industry. Thanks to producer Balaji who gave Nagesh, an extra ordinary material to the Film world. He would be remembered as the comedy king of the yestyear. Long Live his work and May he rest in Peace.