Truly "Aayirathil Oruvan"

I happened to watch this film last week in a theatre. I had stopped watching flims in the theatre for some time now, but this happened. And I am happy it did.

We keep studying history and identify points in time which creates a change in the course, but is hardly recognized at that point in time. In its presence, it fails to manifest its truer potential but like vintage wine ages priceless.

Aayrathil Oruvan is one such endavour. There has been no Tamil film in this genre. That is a fact. A lot of thinking and sensitivity has gone into making of this movie. That is a fact. A lot of people have completely wagered their career in the last two years during the production. That is a fact.
An attempt has been made to remember our history, in whatever little manner was possibe. That is a fact. And this is a work of an obsessed man who wanted to give some thing more. And that is an undeniable fact.

Selvaraghavan excels as film maker in at least one count. He has produced a film for the Tamil audience with a limited market. It is easy to compare this film with the Stephen spielberg or James Camaron and rubbish Selva. But what Selva has achieved is to raise the bar to bring comparisons with them. That is stunning .........

Another coup, if I may say, is the ending... The media has been saying that open ending will not work in Tamil Cinema. It does, here.

Add that to the haunting music, breath taking visuals , the film really trascends the watchers to another level.

One of a kind Tamil movie in a long long time .........................

Surprising Sunrise

Now a days it is not uncommen for me to get up around 3 o 'clock and rush out to Air port to catch early morning flights. As much as I loathe the idea of sacrificing my regulated sleep, not to mention the mess these travels do to my running and workout schedules, it has become imperative to suffer these trips in silence. Te only saving grace if any, on these travels are my resolve to be back home for dinner and bed.

However, my visit to Hyderabad was a pleasent and different experience to day. Most of the times the early morning flights are always on time. Of course , if you are a Delhi bound passenger then it is a different matter during this season. My flight landed exactly at 7.35 am and I walked through the aero brigde. It is these 30 seconds that was one of the most awesome experience I had.

The bridge has glass panels and one walks through a clear and unhindered sight of open space. Imagine that with an sunrise, it is an experience we normally associate with cliff top. It was so moving, I decided to just to record it down immediately.

So guys, if you ever land in Hyderabad early in the morning and walk through the aero bridge, pause a moment to enjoy the sunshine................

Class of 81 - Reunion

"How time flies" is a cliche'. But I could not find a more appropriate sentence to describe my feelings when I met my old school mates at Cosmopolitan club last saturday, 12 December 09.
Apart from me, Raghu, Hari, Venkat Ramani and Nachiappan was there.

It is really interesting how this whole thing started out. I met Hari last month ( without realising that he is my class mate in school), through a common friend . Hari has started a venture and I met him to help him make an contractual obligation to one of his prospective customers. As we got to talking , it was Hari who recognized me , albiet , hazily. We immediately started talking our school days and revelled at the memories. It was at that moment we decided that we should track every one and meet .

One call to Raghu and we had our pivotal man. He agreed to dig his address book and take out all the available names. And he did. In no time we could round up 9 guys and had information on another 2. Out of 22 we have tracked half of them in 2 days.

Thanks to Raghu and Hari , now we are in the process of reaching out all our old friends. May be one day in not in the distant future, we will have a complete reunion of Class of 81.

After the finish at Singapore Marathon

After the run at Mayajaal

@15 km Mark- photo by Shahid& Senthil

My ECR 8

Last Sunday run at ECR 8 was one of my finest long distance runs. I have not run many runs , but with my little running experience this ranks as one of top runs. It was raining the later part of the week and I was little worried that it may rain on Sunday too. Not that any one was really bothered about it enough to post pone the run. But rain would have made it uncomfortable by increasing the risk of friction and chaffing. At least that is what was crossing my mind. But thank God, the whether was perfect.

We assembled at Mayajaal at 4.30 a m. The enthusiasm was great, the organisation was impeccable. Thanks to the committment and dedication of the team , at no point there was any kind of inconvenience for the runners. I ran 20 kms with a timing of 2 hours 41 minutes. Certainly improve on this at Singapore.