Movie Review: Chandupottu

Title: Chandupottu (means “bindi” in Malayalam)
Type: Family Drama
Language : Malayalam
Starring: Dileep, Gopika.

This is a story of a fisherman’s family. The grandma in the family is longing for a female grandchild to be born because all the grandchildren are males! Unfortunately, she ends up with another grandson. Frustrated, she ends up bringing him (named Radhakrishnan) up like a girl — long hair, painted nails, make-up, bindi etc. Despite being a boy, he talks like a girl, walks like a girl and hangs out with the girls. However, he falls for one of the girls. There is some historic family rivalry courtesy of which a villain (a fine performance from Inderjit, son of the late mallu movie star Sukumaran), is introduced. As expected after some twists and turns the lead pair comes together (as if you didn’t guess!). This is a family story with plenty of masala, but some of it like the basic theme of the film is pretty creative, though not necessarily remotely realistic. There is some truly enjoyable hilarious comedy as a part of the main story itself as opposed to the deliberately inserted plug and play comedy that you see in most films.

Hats off to Dileep for a fantastic performance as Radhakrishnan. Gopika does justice to her role as the heroine. The movie is running to packed houses despite having crossed the 100-day mark. After a long time, I saw the movie in a jam-packed theatre in India! Overall, a very enjoyable film.

I am pretty certain that remakes of the film in other languages will soon start to appear. But the hero’s role is a very challenging one and not may heros might be willing to take this on.

England’s defeat, Pak’s win, Test vs ODI

Hats off to Pak. These guys are looking like a different team under Woolmer. If Inzy is around in this form for the next World Cup, I think these guys have an excellent chance to pull off a World Cup victory.

On a pitch where Pak scored more then 600 runs, England team could not survive for a day to save the Test. Surviving to bat through a day on a pitch that was a batting delight was a no brainer in the past. But these days its a different story. Batting is mostly about stroke play. 90 overs a day producing over 300 runs seems to be the norm for one day of Test cricket. The classic Sunil Gavaskar style of cricket is “out the window”. Its all about slam bang. How else can you explain the complete failure of the England (supposedly a team in supreme form) team to bat through a day?

England sorely lacked a Dravid equivalent. Someone who can “park his ass” in the middle and frustrate the opposition to the point of submission. Graham Thorpe would have been a great asset in this Test match.

Test cricket now produces results more often than ever before. But there is still room for cricketers in the classic Test cricket mould. Unfortunately, we are not going to see them as long as teams gravitate towards playing the same team for Tests and ODIs. Have you noticed that there is hardly any difference between Test and ODI teams for most countries?

Survival at the wicket without necessarily scoring a bunch of runs has become an art form of yester years, thanks to ODIs. Test cricket is more entertaining, no doubt. But….

Help! How to transfer Junk mail controls in Thunderbird?

I have been using Thunderbird mail program for some time now. I really like it and highly recommend it.

I am facing an issue right now with Thunderbird. When moving from one computer to another I can’t figure out how to transfer the junk mail filters. After you have used it on certain PC for a while Thunderbird automatically figures out the junk emails and moves them to a folder. In other words, it learns over time.

Is there a way to transfer that learning when I start using Thunderbird on another PC?

Book Review: Five Point Someone

Title: Five Point Someone
Type: Fiction
Author: Chetan Bhagat

This is a book based on life at IIT. It revolves around three guys who meet at IIT and become great friends through their four years at IIT. They end up as “bottomers” (based on grades) and hence the name “Five point someone” (five point referring to their GPA).

The book is a very easy read, and perfect for a long plane ride. The author has a very casual writing style. He does a wonderful job of story-telling. There are a few filmy sections (like the dream about Prof. Cherian’s speech) but overall a very enjoyable book with plenty of humor.

If you went to IIT then there is no question this book will bring back memories and is one that you can certainly relate to. Even otherwise I think this is a worthwhile read.

I noticed that the book cost Rs. 95 while most other books by Indian authors sold for over Rs. 200. Wonder why?

Fifth ODI and beyond..

India wrapped up the final ODI in style, thanks to Dravid’s responsible knock and Yuvraj’s good form. After his initial burst in the SL ODI series Sachin seems to be struggling once again.

Things look good for India on the eve of the SL series. It will be interesting to see Dravid’s success rate in Test cricket. His form and his performance as captain these two recent series is certainly commendable. besides, t will be most interesting to see how he handles Ganguly starting with his selection! I suspect Dravid is a tough guy despite his diplomatic peace-loving persona.

Fouth ODI at Kolkata: Large-scale conspiracy?

SA thrashed India in the fourth ODI. The results were similar to the second ODI except that the performances of the two teams were reversed.

I can’t help but wonder if India was battling partly unexpected local demons. I think there was a conspiracy possibly lead by the CAB to nail the Indian team, not to mention the strong backing of all and sundry from Kolkata (local filmstars, politicians and the crowds at large).

First, there was a green pitch at the Eden Gardens. The kind that suits the SA and the kiss of death for the Indian team. Who in their right mind would recommend such a pitch?

Then, you have the scoreboard publicizing Ganguly performance in some third-rate Ranji match.
“In the meantime India were skittled to 188 and the giant screen showed a Ranji update of Sourav’s 159 in Bengal’s 378. The crowd erupted in a rapture to hail the all-round comeback of Sourav.” — what was the need for this? All round comeback in some Ranji trophy match after dismal failures for over two years at the international level. Gimme a break!

Last but not the least, the Kolkata crowd was supporting SA and booing the home team! The Kolkata crowds need to grow up! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Ganguly has been a dismal failure with the bat for over two years. Its impossible to argue that there is way too much talent knocking on the doors of Indian cricket to keep carrying “player baggage” simply based on past performance. Its one thing to support the local stars, but its quite another to not be objective and look at the facts and boo players who have earned their spots in the team.

Another one of those behind the scenes maneuvers orchestrated by the bigwigs in India’s cricketing establishment?

Dravid’s Interview

Check out Dravid’s interview. He appears to be extremely articulate (better than Ganguly in this respect too and I personally think Ganguly was good). The answer to the last question in particular was very impressive.

If he can continue to maintain his form, this can be a great opportunity for him to hang on to the hot seat through the World Cup.

Fourth ODI: India wrap up series

SL is struggling and India under Dravid seems to be on a roll. Greg Chappell’s overall strategy seems to be producing results. I have been a Ganguly admirer over the years, but I must admit that getting rid of Ganguly certainly seems to have opened the flood gates of India’s talent pool. Rahul Dravid’s consistency and his lack of rigidness when it comes to the batting order seems to have played a big part in this revival of Indian cricket. Ganguly’s insistence on batting at number three pretty much everytime coupled with his poor form seems to have been the bottleneck.

In any case, its too soon to discard Ganguly completely and praise Dravid to the skies. But for now, it certainly looks like a new beginning for Indian cricket with an optimistic future.

Third SL-INDIA ODI: Dhoni Strikes

Boy, what an explosive knock! It is terrific to see India send Dhoni at number 3 when most needed. After keeping for 50 overs and then returning to slam 183 not out, Dhoni played virtually for the entire day. This speaks highly of Dhoni’s stamina (he has the energy to whack 10 sixes!) apart from his impressive abilities as a batsman. Dinesh Karthick should be really worried about his Test slot. He hasn’t done much in the domestic matches either.

With a hat-trick of victories, Rahul Dravid’s team India seems to be on a roll. Two of SL’s four key players seem to have really regained their form with this ODI. But with a decent total in this ODI, SL might be on its way to finding its form.

Dropping Sreesanth makes no sense

The Indian team under Dravid-Chappell appears to have decided on an experimentation strategy. ie., try out the talent at hand and eventually pick the best for the world cup. In theory, this is most welcome and admirable. But how do you explain the continued mysterious use of Agarkar in the team while Sreesanth a hot recent talent is relegated to the bench after one match? We all know what Agarkar is capable off. The Indian batting is currently at its best. So India doesn’t really depend on Agarkar’s batting skills. Then why bother with him?

Experiment with Sreesanth instead. Dropping him after 5 overs in the first ODI makes no sense whatsoever. I guess we have another product of the infamous quota system (e.g., Tinu Yohanan) in the making?