De-mystifying AAP

AAP has shown so much promise after their phenomenal performance in Delhi elections but people got disillusioned after some of mis-steps and are quick enough to write it off. Here I would like to address some of the questions related to AAP , their ideology and why it makes sense to support AAP.

What is AAP ?

Aam Admi Party is not a typical party but it’s more like an idea. It’s a party born out of social movement. Their fundamental idea is Jan Lok Pal Bill – a strong anti corruption bill.

What are the other main ideas of AAP ?

Swaraj – which essentially means self-rule. It is participatory democracy where in the local civil issues are identified and addressed by citizens of that area. More on Swaraj here .

http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/goal-of-swaraj

What is their manifesto ?

http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/aap-manifesto-2014

Where can I find information about AAP candidates ?

http://candidates.aamaadmiparty.org/

AAP has lost my faith after their dharna , quitting from government ?

Well there may be multiple viewpoints as to why it is a right/wrong decision.I personally feel it’s a mistake at some level to have gone ahead to form govt with Cong and then get it all sort of unwanted controversies. A viewpoint on whether AAP ran away from Governance. You may agree or disagree

And if Delhi people on ground have felt that AAP has done good governance , how do we go about understanding their voice vs claim by media ?

AAP have no idea about governance ?

This idea could have very wel planted by media with their continuous reporting on negative aspects of AAP alone. But based on this tracker poll , people seem to be satisfied with AAP. Check Table 3. Also reason why many people are unhappy with AAP resigning comes from fact that they have high levels of satisfaction from AAP.That explains reason I suppose.

Though opinion poll is never a right way to judge , there is no other option left at this point of time.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-election-tracker-bjp-aap-may-win-24-seats-each-congress-02/455644-3-244.html

What will happen if AAP is defeated ?

Nothing much , it will be business as usual for all political parties who will continue with their traditional politics and we as common man will continue cribbing and feel sorry about sad state of affairs.

What if AAP wins 20-30 seats ?

Based on performance of their govt in Delhi , it is impossible for them to rule country since they are very new. But it’s also important that they win decent number of seats in this election.

How will it help if they win the seats ?

For first time,it will put traditional political parties in a spot. They have to counter AAP which means they can no longer have corrupt , poorly performing candidates in their party because we have an alternative . This is first step towards cleansing politics in idea.AAP winning seats where political parties field candidates based on caste or corrupted candidates will teach political parties a big lesson.

I don’t believe AAP now but they can wait until 2019 ?

Well technically this is a logic that make sense. But AAP is not a traditional party. It does not have money to run the party for 5 years if there a wash out in this election.Hence it is important they need to have meaningful tally so that people trust them and party starts believing in itself. Believe me , as per current pre-election poll, they cannot get more than 5 seats. And this would take a toll at many levels.

Modi has better track record and has Gujarat model of governance. Why not vote for him ?

Congress had a really capable leadership up to 2010. Last 2-3 years their performance have been really bad. Reason mostly being corruption. Now if Modi comes to power , what will he do about corruption? I have not heard anything about BJP stand over corruption.

If AAP is talking about Jan Lok Pal bill , I believe them to bring it since they are new party and hence there is no baggage. But same cannot be said about BJP. There are many corrupt people fielded by BJP and if they win , it will be similar to Congress only. If leader was decisive enough , why field candidate corrupt leaders in first place?

But Modi will bring jobs or development ?

How ? That is next question we need to ask. How will Gujarat model of governance be applied across country. What policy changes or plans does Modi envision that will help to hold that promise. I get a feeling that nobody wants to know answers and that we have to blindly believe Modi because he has done good work in Gujarat.

Modi vision and manifesto is not important?

Yes , manifesto are just promises ! But it provides an opportunity for people to see what the party vision is.I dont know what is vision of BJP(other than buzz words like jobs and growth) and how they plan to go about executing it. It’s quite puzzling that even without their ideas or plans , people have decided to vote for Modi and BJP which is a sad thing!

Hey but did you read manifesto last time?

Well that is good question.People are only now getting enlightened about politics after emergence of AAP. Just because we did not scrutinize it last time does not mean we can continue same thing now as well.

So who should we vote ?

Vote for local candidates if they are good – be it any party.Else vote for party which is not corrupt and clean.That will at least a good start. Don’t worry about fact that it is a national election and local issues should be ignored while voting.

You can vote for the person who you believe is good. But don’t base the decision through media reporting, election polls! It’s even better to not believe your friends(myself included) on social media who may be swayed or bluffed by some carefully manufactured consent ! Read two sides of story. If there is only one side to story,try to understand why there is one side alone! Yes,it takes time to research but I feel, it is worth !

 

 

Why I donated Rs 2014 to AAP for 2014 Elections?

Few years back , the discussion around Politics in India used to be centered around these two fundamental questions .

1. Why educated ,good and honest people never come to Politics  ?

2. Why people without money power can never make it to Politics ?

These two questions remains unanswered for a really long time. There were few independent candidates  and small regional parties who used to win once in a while but the changes they can make to fundamental core of the system is pretty limited.

From being LokPal movement to Political Party

And then the Anti Corruption movement happened. The credentials of people in movement impressed me a lot. But I always wondered if that movement can really bring about a positive change. I firmly believe that being in government and working from within the system can only help to bring big system changes. Hence i wished the Lokpal movement become a political movement and finally end up being a political party.

And then Aam Admi Party(AAP) was formed. Though i was not impressed with the way party functioned with their press conferences and unsubstantiated exposes and anti nuclear stand when whole of Tamil Nadu was reeling under severe power shortage , their impressive feat in Delhi elections brought my focus on them again .

On Forming Government and its 49 days 

While everyone in India were excited to look at the start-up party forming Government , the following 49 days were nothing short of being a pure disappointment. The Dharna ,free subsidy ,resigning from Government quickly , their populist , attention seeking , news grabbing tactics and various U-turn decisions,am-only-honest-person in country sort of attitude crushed the dreams of a millions of Indians who were hoping for a change in political class.

With so much of disappointment in AAP , why I still back them ?

Frankly because , we do not have any other alternative. Inspite of all their disappointment in their functioning of the government,AAP is still an answer to two fundamental questions i have asked earlier.Party has interesting mix of good minds who are well read and hails from various diverse background. The party is still volatile and their economic policies are still not very clear .Their only source of funds I believe is coming from common man. The alleged AAP funds coming from elsewhere is unsubstantiated so far. And they seem to be only party whom we can all trust.

In coming few years , AAP can self-destruct because of various internal party issues that are widely reported .They may become like other established parties and get involved in corruption and what not. Forming a political party and managing aspirations of members and whole country is a really tough job. Hence the initial years of forming and stabilizing the party will be a tough job,not to forget the various mis-steps that they can take which can take back the country by a decade.

But why AAP matters ?

Because other established political parties are fearing for first time ever I believe. If you think one need to play politics pretty decent , then you may want to know about Lok Satta – http://www.loksatta.org/ . They are AAP  minus all drama – sensible to core. But how many people know about this little party in Andhra Pradesh? And political parties do not give a damn about this party because their impact is pretty limited. But AAP is just beating all the big parties at their own game. It creates more drama and manipulation that all parties now are trying to find a way to manage and counter.

Because of AAP , now other political parties will try to field candidates that are good. You have seen it already. BJP changed its CM candidate few weeks before election in Delhi. Now Nandan Nilekani is being fielded by Congress. So AAP is in a sense making other parties accountable.

And because people trust AAP relatively better, whenever they raise important issues that was already discussed in public domain for long,people tend to listen to them. Impact is much bigger than biased media or opposition party that normally make a hue cry. So I believe at this point of time, even if AAP is not winning and forming government , they are making sure other parties are made accountable and transparent.They can be good opposition party?

And to keep AAP from doing whatever they are doing now , the party needs funding to stay afloat and that is why I has donated Rs.2014 for this 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

AAP is a political experiment 

5 years from now , AAP may bite dust and become non-existent.They can be biggest failure in political history of our country or they may have revolutionized Indian politics within short span of time or they may could stabilize and take baby steps over next decade to make a big political change ! So it is critical that I support the party with funds when it is fluid,volatile and trying to evolve!

AAP is an experiment – it has its own strengths and weakness and I do not subscribe to their views on various issues and way of functioning. But every big political change has to have a beginning, a starting point . Their journey from a movement to party is spectacular and I wholeheartedly support their experiment.

Failure of this experiment will be really tragic and no one will be willing to experiment in near future – no educated , service minded indians will form a new party or will people ever trust any other new political party. Failure of AAP is not about the party but the future of India.

As someone who is yearning for a better political change for a better India, am funding this experiment. Whether I will be proud of this experiment or is this experiment going to be a disaster and embarrass all those who chipped into this will be only known in years to come.

Endrendrum Punnagai Music Review !!!

• Harris Jayaraj does what he does the best – rehash all his earlier songs and bring out decent,hum-worthy songs

• Pick of album is Vaan Engum Ne Minna , feels like song straight from late DIrector Jeeva’s film. Harris again uses many singers in one song – Alaap Raju , Devan and Harini makes an appearance after a long time! She sounds predictable but nice to hear her voice.

• Ennatha Solla is yet another love failure song on lines of Venaam Machan from Ok Ok .Though situation is beaten up by film makers these days, Harris tries to make it fun and it works to great extent thanks to interesting combo of Karthik and Velmurugan.

• Kadal Naan Thaan is song straight from Gautham Menon movie with Bombay Jayashree replaced by Sudha Raghunathan. Sounds familiar but decent.

Harris Jayaraj seems to be sitting in his comfort zone and churning out music that is mild variations of his earlier albums. Wish he experiment more and try to surprise us.

Nexus 4 experience – It’s underwhleming

After having used it for little over 3 months , here is my Nexus 4 verdict !

Pros:

• Pure Android experience , can get OS updates regularly
• Absolute value for money, impressive specs 
• Blazing fast and loads web pages quickly

Cons:

• Phone heats pretty quickly while on 3g browsing for little over 20 mins continuously
• Phone was snappy and didnt hang anytime initially but now, it stucks and freezes now.I have 11 gb of free space and not many apps installed but still phone slows down considerably when accessing some apps. Some times you cant even attend calls as the lock screen does not even unlock.
• Battery life is below average. I have to keep tab of it to make sure i make it through one full day before charging again. 
• Bluetooth has issues while connecting to the car module randomly.

Verdict : Buy it if you are in US of A or UK where it is being sold so that you can exchange in any case of issues reported above. If you are planning to smuggle it to India , i dont think it is worth the effort !

My thoughts on Vishwaroopam….

No doubt,Vishwaroopam is one of the finest efforts in Indian cinema and by Kamal in a long time.Movie is extremely accessible for most part but it does not compromise on making it suitable for every one in the family to watch. The indulgence of Kamal as a film maker with great passion is obvious in many frames.

There are some great moments in the movie that are incredible and riveting especially when the real identity of Kamal is revealed. Great stunts,shot and edited with brilliance.It is a great feeling to see those big army choppers flying around in a tamil movie.Kamal is brilliant as the dancer with incredible body language to bring out feminine touch. Some other moments are when the phone vibrates over pool of blood,kids being trained from young age to easy recognize arms blind folded etc.There is a great deal of humour spread out through out the movie that works very well to a great extent.

But there are some grouses as well. the screenplay is pretty flat for the most part.There are sparks of intelligence , but they are very few.It’s Kamal show all the way. Not a single supporting character is sketched well,especially the villain who is so dumb and uni-dimensional.It’s all physical throughout , emotional scenes and mind games are totally non-existent and takes back seat. Second half works like any other movie you would have seen these days where in the hero is left with the task of saving nation from that inevitable bomb blast.

Overall the movie has some great moments but is average for most part which has been over come by pretty good stunt and racy action sequences that makes it entertaining to a large extent.

My favorite 5 Tamil films of 2012

I used to update in Facebook after watching movies on how well i liked the movie. Here are the top 5 picks of 2012.

Naan Ee

Though not a fan of animation movie , ‘Naan Ee’ is a must watch barring the initial 30 mins. Engaging screenplay , good animation effects,brilliant bgm and awesome direction makes it’s a real treat to watch it .You forget the fact that it’s a big vadai on your mouth and you enjoy it .Perfect movie to be watched with kids. And finally a telugu movie has finally arrived big time in tamil cinema , don’t miss it !

Naan

‘Naan’ is a refreshing,edge of the seat thriller. One of the best movies I’ve seen this year ! What a relief to see the story happening in city,characters dressed up well,driving swanky cars and looking über cool. Story and screenplay both equally absorbing and convincing.

Vijay Antony fits the role to ‘T’ ,underplays quite effectively and his re-recording deserves mention.There was never a dull moment to a great extent but for the climax, which was a let down in a way because they wanted to end it different as well as make a sequel,hence decided not to resolve all loose ends which spoils the impact to some extent.

But this is a kind of movie that respect your intelligence and deserve your every single penny ! Go for it 🙂

My Favorite songs of 2012

My favorite Tamil songs of the year 2012:

1.Aska Laska – Nanban. The very first time i listened to the song , it was really catchy especially the way how the word ‘Love’ in different languages merged with the song seamlessly.Credits to Madhan Karky who has written the lyrics. He is turning out to be one of most sought lyricist of 2012.  Vijay Prakash has a great voice range and is really versatile. His singing style is very similar to Hariharan at times and I initially thought it was Hariharan’s voice.Vijay Prakash renders the song with great elan, loved the way how he delivered ‘Kaadhal Anukal’ in ‘Endhiran’ before.

2. Kaadhalil Sodhapuvadhu Eppadi – The whole album itself is refreshing right from ‘Parvathy Parvathy’ to ‘Aanandha Jalodhosam indha love’.The sound and tempo was different from the usual but i loved  ’Azhaipaya’ a lot for it’s simplicity.It is a chirpy song. Karthik doing justice to this song with ease.But i really loved the female voice in this song. It seems to have been sung by Harini,i think has she sung it in a different way. Nowadays it’s really hard to identify singers by listening to a song. Well a great album from Thaman.

The Hobbit Experience!

If you are like me who has never watched ‘Lord Of Rings Trilogy’ or never been a fan of this genre or have difficultly in following the conversations especially when the music overlaps/people talking in really husky voice, read the story and whole characters in wiki before going to watch the movie. You will love the movie even better.

Watching Hobbit in Sathyam Cinemas with HFR(High Frame Rate) 3D at 48 fps was a awesome experience.Though the movie looks superficial/animated at few scenes due to 2X speed,the picture clarity,color reproduction,quality of 3D and detailing is too good to believe it to be true. Each and every frame is a treat to watch on the big screen especially the opening and mind blowing chasing sequences. 

Though the movie does not connect on an emotional level to a great extent and is tad long and dragging at times,it is a visual brilliance to be experienced on big screen, this coming from some one who does not like animated movies. 

If you are in Chennai , watch it in Sathyam Cinemas. You have three formats to choose from: Normal 3D or 3D with Dolby Atmos(Get great surround sound , next step in Dolby DTS) or HFR 3D at 48 fps that enhances the picture quality there by providing an immersive experience, but it gives the movie a slight animated,superficial feel and the picture seems to be moving at 2X speed at times. 

I watched it in HFR 3D and the experience has been mixed but mostly positive and this is what I recommend you as well to experience.If you ask me whether is it worth watching after putting so much effort ?Well if you are a movie buff , you will be delighted . Give it a try !

Nee Thaanae En Pon Vasantham ?

Plenty of spoilers ahead! Read it after watching the movie 🙂

As you get settled and watch the opening sequences of the movie : you are in for a shock.Santhanam features in major part of ‘Pudikala Maamu’ song and Jiiva plays a near second fiddle.Normally Gautam does not have separate comedy track post Minnalae and it’s surprising to see this happening. But it’s only later you get to know due to date problems Santhanam’s portion was reduced in the movie considerably. And that explains the reason why  so much screen time for Santhanam,the cool dude, chill out guy!But the song is pretty average for a Gautam movie.

The story dives straight into action.The initial moments on how Samantha and Jiiiva meet during the college festival is charming! The initial trailer, had you watched earlier helps to relate to the characters and the sequences even before coming to the movie hall. And this is second time after Vaaranam Aayiram that the hero impresses the girl with Raaja song. Well it is sung by Gautam himself. I’m a fan of his voice, it is kind of Farhan Akthar-ish. It is broken at times but yet charming. In Vaaranam Aayiram, the title credits has him singing few songs and it is really impressive when he sings the whole song in his own voice here.

It is revealed later on how they were child hood friends.Again the next song comes up ‘Vaanam Mella’ on how the kids grew together.But the mood of song is so foreign to me. The song did not work ,may be Gautam’s movie always had different kind of music that I’m used .The divide in the sense and sensibility between Gautam and Raaja’s music is pretty much obvious .

And as Nithya moves to a different place, their relationship as child hood friends pretty much ends there. Again they meet up during school, especially during the tuition classes. I think Aishwarya Dhanush handled the tuition sequences better in her ‘3’. There are no genuine magical moments here if i think abt it.And the issue of dealing with ego in relationship is now beaten to death in Tamil cinema starting with Khushi. So it mildy tires you when the same happens here. .But Samantha really killed the role with her amazing, second lasting cute little expressions. She is convincing as a school girl and Jiiva also emote really well and makes things so effortless.That shows how restrained is his performance here.You can’t praise it here as it is not stand out but again it is apt for the role he plays.

In life when things happen and when you got to decide,you kind of act in a weird manner that is totally preposterous to the situation at the spur of moment.But when the same happens to others,you kind of find it silly and  start-up putting up your thinking hats to suggest a way out of the issue for the people in trouble.

As you see the couple fight on-screen,you are not getting sucked into how they feel and fight abt it just because you are still a 3rd person and you see them fight for really silly things.But again your age and what stage of your life you are in, really adds up to this.If you are married and kind of realized how relationship works out,there is little chance things you will be impressed.You may feel nostalgia abt the small fights that happened to you but again the problem is how much you feel for the characters.

I have to say that by this point , im not totally sucked into the movie.Things pass muster.And the relationship during their college days again seem to be pretty average.Santhanam has some rib tickling comic moments here but that is very minimal here.Songs do work here. ‘Saaindhu Saaindhu’  gives you a nice feel but you know now for sure the magic is now very obviously missed.

And again when they break due to career choices,you get that wth feeling.The tempo during these kind of situations does not warrant heavy songs with orchestration of 100 violins blowing off during  ‘Mudhal Murai’ . I loved the song when i listened to on CD. Sunitha Chauhan brought the angst of a women nicely but in the context of movie , it was pretty heavy to my taste.

In the sequence leading to the interval as the couple break up ,you are again watching just with the 3rd person view,wearing cap literally shouting how this could work and that it is not a big deal.A pretty long scene with a long shot camera panning around from a distance gives you a perspective of some one from next house terrace actually seeing a couple fight.

Movies like Love Aaj Kal,Rock Star,Jab We Met,VTV  have talked so much about breaking up with relationship by making bad choices and when the same is shown up here ,you don’t find any freshness to the situation.

Post interval,the movie never works because the same ‘ screw you,am not talking to you’ kind of repeats itself. Though one Gautam touch was there : about how Varun has written so many mails to Nithya during break up but just to save it to drafts instead of sending it. You are reminded of hot mail that was the flavour during the period.But then the movie is out of reach for me , the characters and their moods remain largely inaccessible.

I don’t know why, is it because of the pacing or the lack of required drama to stir things up? May be the scenes are simple and honest though there is nothing new to offer as an experience.

I was trying to think why VTV worked for me. Some how the characters were pretty much relatable to me.I get a sense of Karthik and Jessie , their family and the kind of situations they are engulfed into. A genuine problem of parents not letting the girl marry the guy he loves, adds so much drama especially when the girl is confused on who is she should be faithful too – her parents or the guy with whom she is in love with. Dialogues were amazing, love and emotions pouring out brilliantly.Jessie was weird though I was able to feel for her,same with Karthik as well.Emotions between the lead was intense, chemistry sparkling and their fights realistic. I really wanted them to be together that when the climax came out, it came as a huge jolt and hurt real bad.

I think a lot of people can relate to the movie and get nostalgic about how they screwed up their loved life or priorities in life.The movie may help to revisit those memories but again as a movie ,does not impress me, the magic of love that was just not there!

May be should i watch the movie once again after some time to see how it works out?

Life of Pi

Planning for ‘Life of Pi’ ?

1. Watch it in the best 3D theatre in town.
2.If you do not have tickets there, wait for a week and go back to 1.

My whole movie watching experience was ruined, thanks to AGS Cinemas who has consistently rendered 3D dull and pretty bad. The ‘Red Carpet’ program in Star Movies HD about this movie had 10X better video quality.

If you are in Chennai, try watching in Satyam Cinemas. Heard there is a special ‘Dolby Atmos’ sound system introduced for this movie especially.

Highs:
-Super creative story line that has various heavy-duty stuff like philosophy, spirituality, optimism and fight to survival neatly intertwined.
-Way how the bonding established between boy and Richard Parker was brilliant. Watch out for first appearance of him in boat. Will take your breath away.
-3D is used aptly without exerting too much, this may disappoint some. Computer graphics at certain scenes is out of world. Leave your mind and surrender to the visceral visual delight.
-Sequences of how the boy finding way to get past his loneliness with help of survival book is interesting with brief comic moments.
-Has good connect with Indian sense and sensibilities, some Tamil dialogues that represent our tradition, Bombay jayashree singing title song makes you wonder how much pain and dedication a foreign director has taken to bring the authenticity.

Lows:
-Since movie is adapted from novel, some characters are not developed fully and hence towards the end do not give the needed impact. Understandable it happens with every movie.
-Movie takes it own sweet time to establish but again it feels like little rushed. Felt the movie dragged towards the middle, may be the director wanted us to feel the boys’ desperation by keeping it slow.
-Many sequences are shot in night and you are not sure what is really happening -looked so dull, this could be because of the pathetic theatre where I watched the movie.
-Movie is high on emotional and spiritual quotient and after a point, the boys’ soliloquy feels tiring, could have been little more entertaining if edited tightly by 10 mins.

On a whole it’s entertaining mostly with its stunning visuals and quirky story line. Mind you it’s not fun movie you can watch it with kids and show them tiger, zebra and flying wish etc. But lovers of pure cinema will louve it big time 🙂

P.S: I’m most certain that I would have enjoyed the movie better in a good theatre!