Soodhu Kavvum; Bloody Awesome Movie

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 5/14/2013 9:11:00 PM

'This is probably one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. My (biased) view of thamizhs as a culture leads me to believe that the spectrum of sarcasm -> நக்கல் and everything in-between is this civilization's strongest point. This movie is a great example of how that நக்கல் can be on your face but at the same time unstated. Take the first scene for instance where T.Rajendar posters adorn the walls in the house of a character. No one really talks about the poster or even (...)'

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Thathuvam #1172: The insular mind

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 5/6/2013 9:21:00 PM

'Focus is narrow, exclusive insular, and discriminating.So is concentration, specialization and dedication.Dilution is broader, liberal, inclusive and more encompassing.So is aimlessness, scatter brained and accommodating.One converges the other concaves.A true roman in rome is the former.The latter - his non-roman subject.'

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Kamal Hasan, Cho etc

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 4/17/2013 5:31:00 AM

'I don't think Cho's spontaneous genius can be summed up in simple words. He has the ability to squeeze through a subtle point in-between humor. And I'd like to think it stings where it hurts. He summed up Kamal Hasan perfectly when Kamal appeared in a mock version of reality show "Neengalalum Vellalam Oru Kodi" For the uninitiated this show is a poor man's poor copy of "Who wants to be a Millionaire". Or as I'd like to call the show - Vijay TV's Poverty Porn.. A carefully (...)'

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The notion of equality

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 4/11/2013 9:22:00 PM

'I am increasingly amazed when young kids totally filled with idealistic notions comes and tells you  that s/he believes in "equality". I am not even sure if they mean this exclusively in a social context. I think they mean it everywhere. I find this kind of "flat earth and the sun goes around it"  brainwash fascinating. I wish I was in a position of power to poison the minds of younglings with arbitrary notions such as the one on 'equality' so that I can push my own agenda(...)'

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Panguni Uthiram

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 3/26/2013 5:01:00 AM

'Iyam Sita mama suta sahadharmacharee tava prateechchha chainam bhadram te panim grihneeshwa panina pativrata mahabhaga chhayevanugata sada.These are the words spoken by King of Janaka, on the day when Utthiram star intersects with the full-moon day, as he offers his daughter Seetha in marriage to Rama. These words are uttered in every marriage that happens in the northern half of India. The translation of this goes "This is Seetha, my daughter. she will follow you in the path o(...)'

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Review: Paradesi

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 3/18/2013 8:32:00 AM

'How do I compare two categories of bad movies. Category A is a kind of movie that had shit material to start with and then was shittily executed by a nincompoop. Category B has awesome material to start with and an incompetent fool makes a shit movie out of it.  Now is the nincompoop more of a shithead or the incompetent fool? I would say the latter. But thats just me.I don't know a lot about making movies. If I were given unlimited budget and a awesome technical crew, I wouldn(...)'

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Open Book Exam

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 3/17/2013 5:51:00 PM

'This news about board exams being open-book exams might appear like good news for students. Well! it is so not good news for students. Its actually a nightmare. There were times in grad school where a bunch of desis would be praying that the professor would announce the exam as closed-book/closed-notes. We would recoil in shock if the prof said open book. If the test had to be meaningful even if you had a book open that says something about the toughness of the test, doesn't it? Its(...)'

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Some movies I saw last month

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 2/14/2013 5:53:00 AM

'With 3 weeks of raging flu movies and some internet rants kept me going. Here are some movies that I sawKanna Laddu Thinga Aasaiya: This movie was funny, very engaging and had interesting characters. I would have given in 2 thumbs up if not for it being a blatant copy of Indru poi Naalai vaa. That is still a favorite movie of mine. There was a movie in 1990s where Goundamani acted as a hero. Goundan was at his peak and that moment where he tried this started his downfall. I feel wit(...)'

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When it comes to dealing with Conflict of Interest

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 2/4/2013 10:09:00 PM

'"indha avinaasi oru viswaasi"p.s: I'd like to collect funds for a social psychology research project that surveys why such an abnormally high number of criticized bloggers resort to this (or why they feel compelled to use the word "really arrived"). '

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Maniratnam's Kadal : Movie Review

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 2/1/2013 8:10:00 AM

'There is an episode in Seinfeld where George says "I don't have anything to say to anyone". I think Manirathnam should take a cue from that. He really doesn't have anything left to say anymore. Kadal is by far the most boring movie I have seen in the recent past. You get the usual things that the 'The Hindu' newspaper people mention in all their reviews - like great cinematography, good technical aspects, good soud engineering, good back-lighting, good light-boy effects, good still (...)'

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Dowser Kazhandu pochuda

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 1/30/2013 7:05:00 PM

'Kamal: "Indha paapathi ma! chicken'la uppu kaaram ellam correct'a irukkannu sollungo"Paapathi 'Amma': "Indha court order banning your movie. Sariya padichu 'sa'ku badhila 'sha' irukaanu paarthu Shollungo"'

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Viswaroopam - Review

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 1/25/2013 9:09:00 AM

'Strangely, I am at loss of words on how to describe this movie. It is certainly not a great movie or anywhere close to Kamal's best. At the same time I wouldn't say he did a bad job with the movie. Its just that nothing much happens in the movie. The entire movie seems like a build up to potential second movie he may or may not release. Specifically in the 2+ hours he has spent on the movie Kamal Hasan  paints a nice picture of life in Afghanistan and the lives of the people th(...)'

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All Squares are rectangles but all rectangles....

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 1/16/2013 1:06:00 AM

'While anecdotal evidence is very impressive, one definitely wonders whether empirical evidence will show that at least a significant proportion of rape cases happen minus influence of alcohol.The recent Dilli case is a starting point. Then you have the Bombay case that says- "a young man — who raped a pregnant woman and killed her grand mother-in-law — on the ground that the accused was drunk and not in a normal state of mind."Then we go back to the famous Sarika Shah(...)'

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The Pongal Song

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 1/14/2013 1:50:00 AM

'A nostalgia search triggered led to unearthing of a poor print of this song that was shown by DD on every single Pongal day - Thai Pirandhal vazhi pirakkum thangame thangam..". Watching SSR and Raja Sulochana was generally regarded as recipe for proper chinese prison torture stuff . But this song somehow managed to lend hope..'

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When does a movie becomes a Kamalagasan movie?

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 1/9/2013 12:36:00 AM

'A country can be called England only when any young boy can dream of growing up and becoming the queen of England [1].A movie is a Kamal Hassan movie when any ambitious and self-respecting Srinivasa Iyengar, Ramunja Iyengar, Agnihothram Thathacharya, Vemuri Ranga Raghava Iyengar can dream of growing up and becoming an islamic terrorist. That too a terrorist in a jihadi organization that firmly believes in secularism, communism and freedom for women. [1] - M*A*S*H'

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Adiye

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 12/26/2012 9:41:00 PM

'Here is A.R. Rahman's 'Adiye' song from Manirathnam's upcoming movie 'Kadal'. As soon as I heard it mind began wandering into "where have I heard this before" mode (No! its not the Aaromale song from VTV). Here is the Adiye song:(After lot of head scratching)Maybe there is a better "original" song in the same category but Boyz II Men was the closest that came to my mind:But there were these boy bands from the 90s who have had a song much closer to 'Adiye' than I can remember. I sear(...)'

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Rape, Rajo Tamas etc

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 12/21/2012 8:16:00 AM

'I checked my twitter feed today morning and the first 30 or so tweets all had the same topic. It was people expressing extreme outrage on the Delhi rape situation. A lot of tweets were from men hurling expletives and wanted the rapists to be castrated and hanged (in that order). I hadn't read a single news article on this issue and I don't have cable TV. So it has been interesting experience learning about what happened purely based on twitter reaction of people . And that is what t(...)'

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Dei Gautham Menon!! 1990s called they want their love stories back!

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 12/16/2012 4:18:00 AM

'When I wrote that I really liked VTV, I was told by my friends - who went to engineering college in 1990s and had this thing called girl friend (back then it was called 'lover' as the concept of casual dating didnt really exist) - that only people who had no idea of love or romance would really like VTV. They might be on to something. VTV was probably an excellent love story for losers from 1990s.  Nee Dhaane En Pon Vasantham would have been a great movie for the lovers from 19(...)'

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Kiruba apologizes forgetting to apologize last year

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 12/14/2012 7:14:00 AM

'Chenthil tells us why - among people who offer deep apologies - Kiruba's apologies are the deepest?'

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Vadivelu, International Politics, 24 x 7 news etc

Author : Hawk Eye      Blog : Lightning Strikes Everyday      Date : 12/13/2012 12:30:00 AM

'I can describe the analogy but I'll let you draw it.'

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