Sachin, Rahul and Laxman deserve more respect!

True legends. Period.

For starters, if any of the sane, practical and level-headed Indian cricket fan took the media brags seriously and thought, India who haven't won a single series in Australia, will pull off a rare series victory Down Under this time around, Congratulations! you have made a fool out of yourself by believing the words of arm-chair, self proclaimed pundits whose greatest achievement on the cricketing field is wearing the Indian jersey- not because they deserved it, but because of some mediocre selection made by the then panel of members. These harebrained, juvenile experts are to be blamed for not being commonsensical and adding to the pile of crap they continue to intonate over television. People still take them seriously and everyone becomes a cricket critic at their own right. Well, so can I.

It is not a rare woebegone times for Indian Cricket. We have never been close to establishing dominance in foreign territory. Seeing articles titled ' A funeral end to Indian Cricket's greatest era' , ' It will never be the same again' where eminent columnists are now acting like those former Indian players' with knee jerk comments that is far away from being articulate. The Fabulous 3 comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S Laxman is by far the most decorated middle order in cricketing history. These three prolific run-getters command respect by one and all. They have been raised to the state of Gods by the same public who are raising slogans asking them to retire. Let me rewind a little bit. Did Sachin become a 'God' overnight? Did Dravid get the appellation of 'The Wall' in one service? V.V.S Laxman has run riot and given nightmares to the likes of McGrath, Warne, Lee etc. over a consistent duration of time. One series he falters against Australia and he is now the favorite pass time of every humorist and news channels host. Serving the country, accepting blames individually though it is a team sport, having stones being thrown which they convert to many a milestone, brandishing brickbats with their bats and yet here again, they are made the cover up for a team that puts No.2 rank to shame. Indian Cricket Team has never been a world beater. Face the actuality. The team has been mediocrity at its best. If at all we were able to create a stamp of authority on the global platform, it is due to these three legends along with Ganguly and Kumble. These legends deserve the blame for one thing- for creating an apparition that we can imitate the achievements of the Australians/ West Indies of the past. That very image, painted with colors of hope and dreams has begun to leave a irremovable stain on these very artists. Artists who carved out an niche for themselves in the heart of millions.
Fact is India have been pathetic in cricket since time immemorial. A crop of great batsmen with a big heart come along and create a decade of bending the game to their will, dictating terms to world class bowlers and creating an era of domination at the top. Then, they have an uneventful year. You have injury setbacks. Out of the blue, every John.Q. Public believes they are a road block to Indian cricket's climb up the superiority ladder through generation next. It is a rhetorical situation where we will be in a deja vu- back to being suppressed once these guys call it a day. The odds of India seeking redemption is as bleak as Liverpool winning the BPL title this season. As a friend of mine mentioned, The only fun left for Indian cricket fans is for these greats to play as long as they can give some pleasure outside the victories/losses. We aren't going to be world beaters ever, nor replicate the brand of cricket portrayed by Steve Waugh et. al.   I hope Rahul Dravid doesn't retire now. That guy is fit. He doesn't seem slow or low with respect to temperament and running between the wickets. In fact, there is a rare technical fault in his way of play. A batsman who has been the torchbearer for the much hyped and proven middle order of the Indian team overseas last year Just had one ordinary series now. You can't call for his retirement. No one should. He knows when to hang his boots. The attitude is depressing. The same people who called him back to the ODI side after 3 years due to lack of players, and now they don't want his services. Next What? Pujara, Rohit etc? 
Dravid did not become what he is after one game. It took years of toiling. Do we have the right exposure to field confident lads overseas? I don't think so. Damn the media, who hyped it saying it's our best chance to win a series down under. We can never win unless we have bowlers who can bounce and make the ball talk consistently; batsman who are confident and who take calculative risks. It's high time people who back Sehwag every time he throws away his wicket saying that's how he plays, grew some sense. We never could have won anything overseas, except Zimbabwe maybe. There is a difference between being incapable and unwilling. The team as a whole needs to be aware of that.
The team before had almost everything. Match winners. Jaffer-Chopra/Sehwag where one flashed, the other stayed for 15 overs on an average. Dravid,Sachin,Laxman and Ganguly- who were solid and saved their best for those champion moments. Kumble in the bowling department with a better Bhajji. The last tour in Australia, the captain's 144 in Brisbane paved the way for the team to have belief in themselves. A captain who lead from the front. A man with full on aggression who hated the taste of defeat. No nonsense attitude is what is needed. Not a person with calm demeanor.
A man who doesn't wish to continue on the test format does not deserve a place in the test squad, simply because his contribution as a batsman is equal or even lesser than Ashwin's. No one is undermining the World Cup victory back in 2011 because Gambhir deserves as much credit as Dhoni's Wankhde heroics. We have M.S.Dhoni, all of 30, contemplating retirement from Tests to prolong his career and people show the stick at Sachin and co. A man who has scored 99 centuries in which we have not won a few due to lack of support from his team mates; Dravid who single handedly has snatched pride from the jaws of humiliation. Why doesn't anyone point a finger at the brilliant opening combo whose highest contribution together is a meager 26 runs. Just numbers and statistics do not do justice to the immense contribution of these legends. It seems that few players are having a never ending hangover of ODI/T20 cricket. Flash hard and reach-out-at-everything-not-playing-to-the-bowler's-merit type of cricket. Sehwag is the antithesis of Gavaskar. We have never enjoyed that player who is right in the middle, balancing out the extremes of opening batting.
It was this rare middle order line up that has overshadowed our average bowling woes in the past. The yester-year bowlers enjoyed the cushion of not being blamed because these batsman didn't mind the added responsibility of walking the thorny path.Their life has been like that of a Goalkeeper's. No matter how many spectacular saves made, people remember only the ones which are missed by them.

Along with many Indian fanatics, I have witnessed the callous attitudes of many treating these players like losers. They deserve it for rising our hope, right? So be it. The opinions of the average nobody doesn't matter. These players should continue because they have given me pure joy and nothing else, every moment they step in to the green cauldron, taking their stance with incomprehensible pressure and expectation  on their wide shoulders. Sachin, Rahul and Laxman are those rarest of rare breeds who have made me proud because I belong to the era where they flourished. An era which can never be reality again. As I write the last paragraph, I get goosebumps and can see the future, where the smile on my face will never be the same when I see a team card without them. I know it.
 

Inception: Insanely Brilliant and Flawless.

The claps , the whistles,shouts of " BRILLIANT", "AMAZING" etc. and exclamatory swearings out of shocks reverbrate in the theatre, I was still sitting, wondering how on earth did Christopher Nolan concieve and deliver this movie.
Inception just might be the greatest summer blockbuster of all time as it also contains something we often don't look for -brains, intelligence and the sheer audacity to pull it off ! "What is the most resilient parasite than virus? -"An idea" says Leonardo Di Caprio's character Dom Cobb. Well, Inception is all about ideas. It's already there in the title. The film's central idea revolves around "Extractors", who are paid to extract secrets from people's subconscious minds by sneaking into their dreams, usually for the purpose of corporate espionage. However, when one client asks them to plant an idea in the mind of their corporate rival,The Fischers', "Inception" is born. Our guide to this world of high-stakes corporate espionage is Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), an "extractor" paid to invade the dreams of various titans of industry and steal their top-secret ideas,aptly supported by Gordon-Levitt,Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Ken Wattanabe,Dileep Rao and the ever trustable Micheal Cane.
The less said about this film, the better. It is full of ideas and invention and for each set piece I divulge, a piece of the film's genius is weakened.So it is better not to reveal any bit of this mind-blowing movie. This is a film that cleverly and intricately brings the audience through several levels of existence simultaneously but never allows the viewer to feel lost. Such is the power of Christopher Nolan's script which,is likely to get overlooked due to the sheer visual magnificence of his direction. But everything that makes this film so great is in the script-in the ideas and in the novelty!The other defining aspect is not only the concept of the film but how he manages to convince the viewers.None other than Nolan could come up with concepts like a kick ,a totem and limbo.Period.
If "Inception" is a metaphysical puzzle,per se, It's hard not to draw connections between Cobb's dream-weaving methodology and Nolan's film-making - an activity devoted to constructing a simulacrum of reality, intended to seduce us, mess with our heads and leave a lasting impression. Everything else is just a spectacle. This film bears an uncanny resemblance, thematically, with DiCaprio's other instant classic this year, Shutter Island.
Inception is an even more layered film than Shutter Island and I believe the sci-fi genre setting will prove to be less alienating for audiences than the prison noir of Scorsese's film. There is not a single dull moment in Nolan's film. There is style, charm and uncommon intelligence in every frame of the film.
Every performance is piture-perfect with some strong support by Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in particular .Leonardo DiCaprio gives a typically flawless performance as the muddled, grieving man who we never quite trust to be living in the real world.
The best part of Inception is the large amount of effects which were done in camera. Inception is the kind of film that reminds me why cinema will never die.
This highly ambitious project represents something of a gamble for Warner Bros. At a time when sophisticated original entertainments are neither as common nor as bankable as they once were, and Nolan places mind-bending visual effects and an ensemble and envious cast in service of a boldly cerebral vision that demands, and rewards, the utmost and undivided attention. "Inception" tosses off more ideas and fires on more cylinders than most blockbusters would have the nerve to attempt.All Batman fans neednot worry,Batman-3 is in safe hands.Overall, Nolan has indeed surpassed himself. He has created a world as comprehensive as his Gotham in The Dark Knight, a plot dwarfing the intricacies of Memento,the sanity in Insomnia,the short and low budget masterpiece-The Following and one which blows The Prestige's cinematic reveal out of the water. This is truly unmissable cinema. Revel in it. Inception is the movie of the year, the movie of the decade and the movie of a lifetime.Nothing short of a classic.
Bottomline : A roller-coaster ride. A Phenomenon.

Nanban and The Remake Debate- All is definitely Well!

First things first. Sample of a list of remakes in filmdom- Thillu Mullu, Unnai Pol Oruvan, Perazhagan, Majaa, Billa, Ghajini, Italian Job, True Grit, Departed etc. etc.  The originals were classics. What harm did it do those who acted in/directed the new versions? 

Gemini Films did not make a mistake by remaking this movie in Tamil. Of all the states in India, Tamil Nadu is by far the isolated one. How many people from the villages or housing board would have watched 3 Idiots? The manner in which the story unfolds without any fights, twitched dialogues or cheesy visuals, it had to be taken beyond the Hindi speaking public/ DVD viewers. After spending a crore for the remake rights, why should anyone change anything from the original perfect feel-good drama? It is double the responsibility for the  director to be loyal to the soul of the source and also reestablish the magic of the original. Shankar has given Nanban as a whiff of fresh air to the commercially polluted Kollywood. 

A wise man once said imitation is the best form of flattery. Smart people remake.
Imitation is the creation of an already existent form in a new manner. There has been enough noise created by few sections of the society about the non requirement of Shankar to do a remake; '3 Idiots is a blockbuster'- hence Nanban in Tamil should also become a hit yaada yaada.. The reasons given have surpassed one can give for the Indian team's pathetic show Down Under. The main point which remains oblivious to most is that, a remake of a successful movie doesn't necessarily mean the one remade is necessarily a hit. STR's Osthe (remake of Dabanng) is a stand out example. You need the right director, script, and actors.  Everything fell in place for Nanban. It was bound to. 

You have the censor board certification, production banner introduction, the title rolls and the next thing that unfolds on the screen is the movie. No flamboyant 'Illayathalapathy Vijay' title accompanied by thunder or drum rolls. His name comes as a part of the rest of the cast. His entry is a good 30 minutes into the movie. It was a delight to see Vijay shed the heroism cloak and the non-superhero introduction reaffirms his position as a director's actor. Oh yeah! Oh yeah! This is the Vijay I loved in the late 90s and in the early part of the last decade. This is the Vijay everyone wants. Nanban is the perfect gift to all the people who believed in him. Loved his portrayal of Panjavan Parivendhan. He completely rocked. Jeeva and Srikanth were the perfect play makers for our center-forward Vijay. Jeeva was a revelation. His dialect and ability to handle comic timing has us in splits. Srikanth was more than sufficient. The cast scores big. Ileana had very little to do-hence she was apt. Re-recording of Harris worked better than Shanthanu Moitra's in 3 Idiots. One needs to thank Harris for composing the music of 7am arivu. It makes the highly average score of Nanban seem better. Shankar's touch is evident in the romantic scenes of Pari and Ria. It has to be noted that the dreamy number Asku Laska is visualized by Ria as a Shankar directed song and hence we have the 3 stanzas choreographed similar to Kannum Kannum Nokia, Sahara and Andangaaka from Shankar's earlier flicks. This movie will be a corner stone for Sathyan. He makes us laugh at the drop of a hat with his antics and American-tamil slang, however forced it maybe. 

The plot has been detailed out in Wikipedia. One can always look at it. 

I am pretty sure there will be a sect who cannot digest the fact that Vijay has performed well, and the movie has been drawing rave reviews from one and all. All flaws that were overlooked or those which seemed trivial will now take a gigantic form amongst the audience when watching the movie in their own language, especially after watching the original. Cinema is a medium where one can associate the term 'creative liberty'. If one searches for logic in regional cinema, no cinema can be classified as a sane one. From the inception of Tamil films, good triumphs over evil. Why should good only triumph? why not evil? Mathematically speaking, both have 50% chances of winning. Seeing the winning streak of good beating evil in Tamil cinema, laws of average, probability theories should be flushed in the toilet. In 3 Idiots it is no surprise that Amir will eventually win the bet that his friends will be successful in life. It is the treatment which makes the film a cut above the rest. The running time of over 3 hours shouldn't be a problem. Everyone of us have paid hundreds of rupees to watch two hour crap shots, I don't think spending fifteen more minutes in a movie that entertains us is that big a deal. Easy there people!
Ajith has gone for a makeover, Vikram digresses rarely to the commercial genre. Vijay proved that he can do something different within the commercial domain with Velayudham and has proved that he can do character oriented roles like Paari. It is high time that Vijay experiments within his scope for the sake of everyone.  

Comparisons are an integral part of our life. In a remake, comparisons will eventually be made for sure. I am not a big fan of comparisons because it has no standard base of reference and is highly relative. Let us think of a situation where you travel on Mount Road. If you travel via Honda Activa, you will complain about the cars and autos that cut across the road out of nowhere; if travelling inside a car, you will complain the guy who sneaks in between the gaps in a traffic jam. What is the point in comparison? It is just to satisfy one's personal ego. After watching Nanban, I doubt if anyone else could have recreated the magic of Rancho. Maybe because of the age or whatever, Vijay seemed more convincing than Amir as Rancho/Pari. Vijay has given the perfect tribute to Amir.

Nanban is colorful. Nanban is pure unadulterated fun. Nanban is the loyal tribute to Hirani's 3 Idiots. Vijay is back king size. It is a win-win situation for all.

All Is Well!

Mahendra Singh Dhoni to quit cricket and join Liverpool Football Club!- Exclusive

 Mahendra Singh Dhoni to quit cricket and join Liverpool FC
      -a DailyFail exclusive 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, aged 29, the current captain of an exemplary Indian cricket side, who is known for his glove work more than anything else has now announced that he is going to quit all forms of cricket, including Gully-cricket. (of course there is a World Cup triumph last year under his kitty but that victory was because of Piyush Chawla, Sreesanth and Poonam Pandey more than anything else. It is said that the thought of seeing Poonam Pandey go for the full monty actually motivated the players and it wasn't Gary or MSD ).This news may come as a shocker to many but there are few people who are feeling relieved about this decision. The list of people include Partiv Patel, and former greats like Vijay Dahiya, MSK Prasad, Ajay Ratra etc. When contacted, a close aide of Ajay Ratra said it is a dream come true for the 32 year old and the rest as it gives them another chance to redeem themselves and help Australia complete a whitewash.
According to sources who claim that their information is highly authentic as ever, M.S.Dhoni is quitting cricket for a career in Football- where he is not expected to catch many balls but just stop them, and also because the game doesn't include a 4 feet wooden equipment called bat. Given M.S.Dhoni's love for football and his relationship with football goes back to his school days where he was a Goal Keeper, before shifting to cricket accidentally.
A word on the 'accident'- After his first day on the field as a goal keeper, the next day, he took part in a hockey game as a Goalkeeper. One can not blame him as both sport were played on the same ground. MSD did an excellent job of thwacking the hockey ball and this unleashed his latent talent- ability to hit. Later, since hockey did not generate enough income, he shifted to cricket.
After playing for seven years, seeing the rise in criticism from all quarters of the globe- from people in Manthope to McGrath in Melbourne, who apparently now can predict people's marriage and bride/groom-to-be, Dhoni has decided to quit cricket and pass on the baton to Virat Kohli, who is doing a great job of controlling his aggression and is a born leader unlike Dhoni. Dailyfail understands that Dhoni is a free agent and is expected to be signed by Liverpool for $75million as a substitute for the ever consistent Pepe Reina. Pepe Reina is the best in the world in what he does. (To know the quality of Pepe Reina, please spare Four minutes and watch this!)

 There seems to be some reality in this exclusive report because Liverpool, a club boasting of only history are known for their quality signings like Downing, Henderson and the 6-feet-wonder-oh!-what-a-blunder Andy Carrol. The signing of Dhoni is expected to bring some relief to Fernando Torres. The reason can be deciphered even by blondies. The signing eases the pressure of Torres as he won't be addressed as the costliest purchase in the Premier League.
There is also a possibility that Dhoni could be made the captain of Liverpool after Kenny Dalgish was told about the former's employment of 4-5-1 formation in a cricket test match at Sydney Cricket Ground. Incidentally, 4-5-1 is the formation that the Greeks used en route to their 2004 Euro triumph.
Though it is already known that Liverpool's current second-choice goalkeeper is Doni, it won't matter to the Scousers. In fact, a chant is already created by the football supporters which goes " Jose Manuel Reina, na-na-na-na; who cares if it's Dhoni or Doni, as long we don't play the stupid pony!"
If Virat Kohli is not ready for the job, the next person tipped to be the captain is Sourav Ganguly, who is currently a member of an elite commentary panel that consists of Ravi Shastri and Wasim Akram. It is believed that Ganguly who was supposed to share the commentary box with his well wisher Greg Chappel is very much ready for the job. There are TV clips which suggests that Ganguly is wearing his Test cricket attire under his blazer suit, so that if Team India, which is injury prone whenever they under-perform requires a player to complete their eleven, Ganguly will do so immediately.

Other News- 
Sachin Tendulkar to shift to Tennis, after failing to score one century even after scoring 99 centuries. His son is expected to be drafted in the team, to complete his dad's job.

Virat Kohli to be awarded the 'Truthful player of the season' award, after revealing the fact that he showed his middle finger to the Indian public who woke up daily at 5 am and not to the Australian crowd. 

Indian management to request Cricket Australia to play Kishore Kumar's songs when Sehwag comes to bat.
 
The reason why Dravid was asked to give ''Bradman's Oration''! EXCLUSIVE- the actual reason why he was asked to give the oration was to make him talk, and make his batting talk less (by R. Srivats)

# Dailyfail is an international newspaper that is devoted to bring out facts and nothing but authentic facts without any quotes and speculations.

(Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with actual facts. It is as true as Manmohan Singh talking tomorrow. If anyone has a problem please contact 1800-IDGAF )

That Failed Responsibility of Us- Raju Narayanaswamy, an example.

Happy New Year to all. I have taken a lot of decisions to improve myself as a person and as a blogger. I am still a rookie when it comes to flawless writing with articulate adjectives, drawing comparisons etc. But I am pretty sure I want to spread messages for the well being of our country, our future. We shall begin by learning about one Mr. Raju Narayanaswamy. I came across this article in Facebook. Sharing in Facebook reaches to only the current generation. I am posting this, hoping that via e-mail etc. it reaches far and wide.

Mr. Narayanaswamy-  First Rank in State in Secondary School Examination
First Rank in University in Plus Two
First Rank in IIT Entrance Examination
First Rank in All India IIT Computer Science
First Rank in IAS Entrance Examination

On passing out from IIT Chennai Mr. Narayanaswamy was offered scholarship by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology , USA .. He who came from a middle class family believed that he had a moral obligation to give something in return for the lakhs of rupees the government spent on him as an IIT student. He had the intelligence and conviction to realize that this money came also from the poorest of the poor - who pay up the excise duty on textiles when they buy cloth, who pay up customs, excise and sales tax on diesel when they travel in a bus, and in numerous other ways indirectly pay the government. So he decided to join IAS hoping he could do something for the people of this country. How many young men have the will power to resist such an offer from USA ? Narayanaswamy did never look at IAS as a black money spinner as his later life bears testimony to this fact.

After a decade of meritorious service in IAS, today, Narayanaswamy is being forced out of the IAS profession. Do you know why?
A real estate agent wanted to fill up a paddy field which is banned under law. An application came up before Narayanaswamy who was sub collector the, for an exemption from this rule for this plot of land. Upon visiting the site he found that the complaint from 60 poor families that they will face water logging due to the waste water from a nearby Government Medical College if this paddy field was filled up was correct. Narayanswamy came under intense political pressure but he did what was right - refused permission for filling up the paddy field. That was his first confrontation with politicians.

Soon after his marriage his father-in-law closed down a public road to build compound wall for his plot of land. People approached Narayanaswamy with complaint.
When talking with his own father-in-law did not help, he removed the obstructing wall with police help. The result, his marriage broke up.

As district Collector he raided the house of a liquor baron who had defaulted Rupees 11 crores payment to government and carried out revenue recovery. A Minister directly telephoned him and ordered to return the forfeited articles to the house of the liquor baron. Narayanswamy politely replied that it is difficult. The minister replied that Narayanaswamy will suffer.

In his district it was a practice to collect crores of rupees for earthen bunds meant for poor farmers, but which were never constructed. A bill for rupees 8 crores came up before Narayanaswamy. He inspected the bund. He found it very weak and said that he will pass the bill after the rainy season to ensure that the bund served the purpose. As expected the earthen bund was too weak to stand the rain and it disappeared in the rain. But he created a lot of enemies for saving 8 crores public money. The net result of all such unholy activities was that he was asked to go on leave by the government. Later such an illustrious officer was posted as "State Co-Ordinator, Quality Improvement Programme for Schools". This is what the politician will do to a honest officer with backbone - post him in the most powerless position to teach him a lesson. Since he found that nothing can be achieved for the people if he continued with the State Service he opted for central service. But that too was denied on some technical ground.

What will you do when you have a brilliant computer career anywhere in the world you choose with the backing of several advanced technical papers too published in international journals to your credit?
When you are powerless to do anything for the people, why should you waste your life as the Co-Ordinator for a Schools Programme?

Mr. Narayanaswamy is on the verge of leaving IAS to go to Paris to take up a well paid United Nations assignment. The politicians can laugh thinking another obstacle has been removed. But it is the helpless people of this country who will lose - not Narayanaswamy. But you have the power to support capable and honest bureaucra ts like Narayaswamy, G.R.Khairnar and Alphons Kannamthanam who have suffered a lot under self seeking politicians who rule us. You have even the power to replace such politicians with these kind of people dedicated to the country. The question is will you do the little you can do NOW? At least a vote or word in support of such personalities? He stands as the quintessential example of John. F. Kennedy's words "Ask not what your country has done for you, but ask what you have done for your country". He has done his bit, and we failed to recognize. A point has risen now for us to be part of a change which we all are expecting to see. A vote or creating awareness about such eminent human beings should pave way for sowing seeds of hope in the minds of the future generation. There are many ways we can be a part of the change. Have that hope; and with that hope, please think about ways to make it a reality. It is those drops that make a mighty ocean.