Just like most of the Hollywood movies I have watched in recent years, I saw this movie (The Time Traveler’s Wife) too on a long-distance flight. This was on my return flight from SFO to Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific – on Business class they have a nice selection of movie, TV shows, a 17” LCD screen and a full-flat bed.

As someone who has watched lot of Star Trek episodes,  the idea of Time Travel was familiar to me, so I was inquisitive after seeing the title of this movie. The movie is about “A love story about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about his wife, an artist, who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences”. The story has been told by the Director quite nicely and he brings out the emotional pain of a wife with a husband who keeps disappearing suddenly. In one instance, just before their marriage, the Bridegroom in his 20s disappears and reappears just seconds before marriage in his 40s.

A nice movie to watch if you like the idea of Time Travel, otherwise can be pretty confusing to follow!

Though Lagaan was a very popular Hindi movie that came early this decade, I haven’t seen it so far. I bought the collector’s edition of the DVD few years back, but it has been sleeping in my CD rack. Today with the rains in Chennai, I was not able to go out, so I watched this movie.

The first impression anyone seeing the film is that it is an excellent movie, must see. Initially I was worried on how I will sit through for a Three-and-Half hour movie, but the director & actors keep the interest level high all the time. The other significant things that impresses you is A.R.Rahman’s brilliant background score, the choreography and the dialogs.

I had purchased the DVD of this movie “An American Affair” sometime back, but never watched it till today. I can’t recall on why I bought this movie as I haven’t heard or read about it; nor I could recognize from the names any of the actors of the movie. The only reason I can think of is probably I thought the movie was about Marilyn Monroe. It turned out to be not. The movie set in 1963 was about adolescent attraction of a school boy to his new neighbour - a pretty lady who has relationship with then U.S. President John F.Kennedy.

I try hard but nothing I am able to remember or say that is great about the movie. A boring movie with an average coverage of a Thirteen-year-old boy’s adolescent yearnings.

வார விடுமுறை, என் சகோதரிகள் மற்றும் அவர்களின் பிள்ளைகள் வந்திருந்தார்கள். பேசிக் கொண்டிருந்தப் போது திடிரேனயுதித்த யோசனையின்று சினிமாவிற்கு போகலாமென்று. எதிர்ப்பார்த்த மாதிரி சத்தியம்/ஐனாக்ஸ் திரையரங்களில் டிக்கெட் இல்லை. இணையத்தில் பார்த்ததில் மயாஜாலில் 3:10 காட்சிக்கு டிக்கெட் கிடைத்தது. காரை எடுத்துக் கொண்டு தி.தி. என்று மாம்பலத்திலிருந்து கிழக்கு கடற்கரை சாலை (30 கி.மி.) சென்றோம். எங்கள் பயணம் வீண் போகவில்லை, கமல் ஏமாற்றவில்லை. ஒரு நல்ல படத்தை அழகாக கொடுத்துள்ளார். ரொம்ப இழுக்காமல், முன்கதைகளுக்குச் செல்லாமல் ஒன்னே முக்கால் மணியளவில் ஒரு ஆங்கிலப்பட பாணியில் படத்தை கொடுத்துள்ளார் இயக்குனர் சக்கிரி டோளேட்டி. மோகன்லால் அலட்டிக் கொல்லாமல் தன் பாத்திரத்தைச் செய்துள்ளார். வசனம் சில வாரங்களுக்கு முன் நான் படித்து ரொம்பவே ரசித்த மூன்று விரல் புத்தகத்தின் ஆசிரியர் இரா.முருகன் தான், நச்சென்று ஆழமாகவும் ஆழகாகவும் இருந்தது. அனைவருக்கும் பாராட்டுக்கள்.

படத்தின் விமர்சனத்தை ஏற்கனவே பலர் தங்களின் வலைப்பூக்களில் என்னை விட நன்றாக சொல்லிவிட்டதால் அதன் முகவரிகள் இங்கே: Cable சங்கர் வலைப்பக்கம், Prakash வலைப்பக்கம், விவசாயி வலைப்பக்கம்.

உன்னைப் போல் ஒருவன் – நல்ல படம், பார்க்க வேண்டியப் படம்.

ஒரு நல்ல தலைப்பை, ஒரு (பழைய) நல்ல படத்தின் பெயரை இப்படி ஒரு சுமாரான படமெடுத்து கெடுக்காமலிருந்திருக்கலாம்.

ஒரே கல்லூ‌ரியில் படித்தவர்கள் எட்டு ஆண்டுகளுக்குப் பின் மீண்டும் அதே கல்லூரியில் ஒன்று சேர்கிறார்கள், அப்போது ஒரு கொலை முயற்சி, அதற்குப் பின்னால் முன்பு நடந்த ஒரு கொலை, காதல்.  படிக்க சுவாரஸியமாக தெ‌ரியும் இந்த‌க் கதை தான் ‘நினைத்தாலே இனிக்கும்’ - மலையாளத்தில் வெளியான கிளாஸ்மேட் படத்திலிருந்து எடுத்தது. ஒரு நல்ல கதையை எப்படி எடுக்கக் கூடாது என்பதற்கு மிகச் சிறந்த உதாரணமாக இந்தப் படத்தை சொல்லலாம்.

எட்டு வருடங்களுக்குப் பிறகு சந்திக்கும் கதாபாத்திரங்களின் தோற்றங்களில் எந்த மாற்றமும் இல்லை. ஷக்தியை ஏன் எல்லோருக்கும் பிடிக்கும், அவர் அப்படி என்ன சாதனை செய்த மாணவர் என்பது புரியவில்லை; அதனால் அவரது மரணம் எந்த தாக்கத்தையும் ஏற்படுத்தவில்லை; ப்‌ரியாமணி பாத்திரத்தோடு ஒட்டவேயில்லை; ப்‌ரியாமணி-பிருத்விராஜ் காதலில் எந்த ஒரு அழுத்தமும் அவர்களுக்குள் ஒரு இற்பும் தெரிவில்லை.

மொத்தத்தில் இந்தப் படத்தைப் பற்றி வெப்துனியவில் சொன்னதுப் போல - நினைத்தாலே இனிக்கும், நினைத்தாலே கசக்கும்

I like the TV series – Star Trek. I find the episodes involving (imaginary) alien civilizations interesting as they offer a nice introspection in our globalized world without the baggage of reality. I first watched the series when HBO India started to air the Voyager (Captain Janeway) series and Next Generation (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) few years back. 

Today I watched the recently released movie version of “Star Trek”. The first half of the movie is little boring but the second half picks up speed and maintains the usual momentum of a star trek story.  Worth to watch in a DVD for star trek fans that’s all.

After watching few months back The Pink Panther movie I was interested in seeing the sequel Pink Panther 2 by Steve Martin. So got a DVD of the movie and watched it today. It is a very hilarious movie. As in the first movie Steve Martin was all round funny. Aishwarya Rai has done a good performance in an important role. If you get a chance don’t miss to see this comedy movie.

In last month TED conference, Pattie Maes' from MIT & Pranav Mistry demonstrated a wearable device.  It's a wearable device with a projector paves the way for interaction with our environment. The device which they call "Sixth Sense" enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. A very exciting idea which opens up boundless possibilities if lives up to its claim.

One of the uses of this device they show is a live video (latest on the relevant headlines) being projected in the newspaper in your hands. When I saw this, I was reminded of a old Tamil movie - Pattanathil Bhootham (released in 1967). In the movie there is a scene where the "Genie" shows (then) latest movie songs on top of the movie's advertisements that is in the newspaper.

What was a dream and thought super-natural 40 years ago is now a reality. Exciting to look forward to the reality of the coming decades.

Video links:

1.The clip from Pattanathil Bhootham (பட்டணத்தில் பூதம்) Tamil Movie released in 1967, showing the idea of videos being projected on a newspaper

2.Full movie Pattanathil Bhootham (பட்டணத்தில் பூதம்), free and legal from Rajshri.com

3.Sixth Sense demo by Pranav Mistry (forward to the minute 6:30 for the newspaper demo)

Few days back I joined my son while he was seeing in Pogo channel this movie - Mr. Bean: The Movie. The movie is a full length comedy just like any of the Mr.Bean's series. I had a thorough laugh for the 2 hours+ of the movie.

The story is a simple line but was enough for Rowan Atkinson to exploit to his fullest advantage. Bean works as a caretaker at Britain's Royal National Gallery where his bosses want to fire him, but couldn't because the chairman of the gallery likes him. They send him to a Los Angeles (USA) art gallery instead, where he'll have to officiate the opening of the greatest US picture ever (called "Whistler's Mother"). There David Langley, curator of the LA museum invites Mr. Bean to stay with his family and Bean begins causing problems to David's marriage and family.  Bean is given a few minutes alone to study the painting for his grand "speech", however, Bean sneezes on the painting and wipes it with a handkerchief, not knowing that it is covered in blue ink. Terrified, Bean tries to fix it but causes more damage.Rest of the story is how during the night, Mr. Bean hatches a plan and restores the painting by keeping a copy. In the climax, Bean is mistaken for a doctor and pushed into an operating theatre containing a policemen, who has been shot. While the other doctors and nurses are distracted, Bean unconventionally retrieves the bullet and saves him. Overall, the movie is a total comedy riot - enjoy it.

I was watching in TV today a clip from a Tamil movie where the lead couple are college students with the story revolving around their college life. In almost all Tamil movies that have college stories, the main couple will be featured as the leaders of their respective groups in the story. The female lead character (Heroine) will be the most beautiful girl in the college and all the boys will be seen going behind her. Similarly the male lead character (Hero) will always come first in studies, sports, gym and music.

I was wondering why they don't make movies where the main characters are featured as members of a group and not as group leaders. I am sure you can tell an interesting realistic story with the main characters just blending in a group and still the story revolving around their life. Do you feel the same, please post your comments.

I saw this movie, Will Smith's Hancock in my return flight from US in Cathay Pacific. Comparing to his other movies, this is relatively a easy role to be played by Will Smith and he has done it without any disappointment. The movie is about John Hancock (Will Smith) a drunkard with superhuman powers, including supersonic flight, immortality, and super-strength. Though he uses his powers to stop criminals in his residence of Los Angeles, his activities cause millions of dollars in property damage due.

This is an average movie, can be seen if you are a Will Smith fan or a Special Effects fan, other than those two there is nothing worth mentioning.