An Ode to Chilver 360!

Chilver 360 thy be named, 180 odd days of you a home I made.

 

Free from chaos and the insanity of the world, but limiting me to the gateway of LAN and CMA World.

Yet a home away from home you gave, oblivious to which, your keys, away I gave.

I choose a path that befuddles the grey,   

 From the green expanse of the West Road view, To the mystery maze of the Mitchell rue.

No more a self-catered kitchen to raid, it shall be only a BLD parade.

From the comforts of the Ensuite showers and few,  

to the communals of Mitchell Penitentiary with like crew,

It shall for sure be a downward trade , All in the name of saving I'm afraid.

Adieu my beloved Chilver block, as I vanish into the Bermuda that is Mitchell block.

CPR!!!

I know, I know. it's been ages! before it dies out completely, I shall post something!

Oh wait. I just did. :D

Well whatever is left of my readership, I have some good news. I shall soon post something!!! Keep watching this space as I fight boredom, crazy weather and a busy MSc course to come up with witty content for my once flourishing space on the internet!!!

The Varmans, their sandcastles and the French Colony.

 The Kingdom of Cambodia is little known to many. Terms like Khmer Rouge, Pol pot might sound familiar to some but despite its recent violent history, this nation has so much more to offer. Angkor Wat the world famous ancient Hindu Temple is located near Siem Reap in Cambodia.  Siem Reap is a small city in the North Eastern part of Cambodia and lies north of the Tonle Sap lake; One of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia that spans over 2500sq.km and can span up to 12,000sq.km during the rainy season.

Siem Reap

There is basically only one reason that you would want to visit Siem Reap; Angkor Wat. This is the 12th century ruin of a Hindu temple built by Jeyavarman. History will tell you that the Varmans are basically descendants of the Chola Empire after their conquests in Indonesia, hence the spread of Hinduism. The area has a dozen other such ruins all built around that time period from the 9th century till the 14th century. Below is a list of the notable places and in the order that I visited them. Buy a 3 day pass at 40 USD to make the best use of time. Most of the places below can be visited with the Pass. Tonle Sap Lake and Kulen mountains have separate entry charges.

Day 0 -- (5PM to 7PM)

01 Phom Bakeng(45 mins) - Sunset

Day 1 -- (9 A.M. to 8 P.M.)

01 Preah Khan(1 hour)

02 Neak Pean (15 mins)

03 Ta Som (1 hour)

04 East Mebon( 30 mins)

05 Pre Rup (30 mins)

06 Srah Srang, Banteay Kdei, Prasat Kravan (30 mins)

07 Tonle Sap Lake(3 hours)

Day 2  --  (5 A.M. to 4 P.M.)

01 Angkor wat sunrise

02 Angkor Wat after breakfast(1.5 hours)

03 Angkor Thom (1.5 hours)

04 Ta Prohm (30 mins)

05 Thomannom (30 mins)

06 Chau Say Tevoda (30 mins)

07 Ta Keo (30 mins)

Day 3 -- (9 A.M. – 3 P.M.)

01.Banteay Srei (45 mins)

02 Kulen mountain (1 hour)

03 Banteay Samre (30 mins)

04 Roluos Group (30 mins)

* I’ve mentioned the time that was spent at each place beside it. These are rough figures and include time spent on taking pictures. Does not include travel time.

On day 1 we returned after nightfall as we saw the sunset from the lake. It’s a massive expanse of water and I imagine the sun set would have been spectacular. But dismal weather and the fact that we went during the end of the dry season meant that it was cloudy and the water was murky. The fishing village at the lake is an interesting place to visit. Imagine finding schools, shops, and even a restaurant all on water. Scenes of people cooking and living on water are a sight to see. There isn't much to say about the temples at Siem Reap actually. They are all similar and run down in many cases but magnificent in their architecture and the workmanship. Numerous restorations projects are on-going in an attempt to bring the temples back to their former glory. One thing that will definitely engulf you is that these majestic landmarks were all constructed centuries ago when there was no access to the modern construction technologies that we have today. Be prepared to do some heavy duty climbing if you want to see all the temples. They are worth the climb too. The sunsets and sun rises were much talked about, but we were rather disappointed on those counts. Blame the clouds for that.  Most of the places are a stone’s throw away from each other so getting around is quite easy. Some are really small and just require a quick walk around while some can be quite extensive. For example, this region was supposedly home to almost One Million people during the peak of the reign, so you can imagine the vastness of the area. On days 2 and 3 we returned back to the city by 3-4 in the afternoon. But of course we skipped breaking for lunch and survived on packed food so as to stay on the road continuously. A Lunch break would have definitely extended the itinerary well up to 5PM on both those days.

The town of Siem Reap is busy at night as all the tourists flock in. Pub Street is lined with restaurants and bars to unwind. The layout and architecture of the city is very quaint and has a European feel to it, if you ignore the weather that is. It’s a good place to go shopping and relax as well.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is a bustling city but does not have much in store for the tourist. It is a great place for shopping as you can get great deals at the Russian markets and central market. Clothes and accessories are damn cheap but you have to haggle really hard. As a rule always start bargaining at 30 percent of the price they quote and finish at 50 percent. By the looks of it, I’d say they make a reasonable profit with that price too, but by our standards it’s a bargain anyway. But if you’re the kind that likes a good bargaining session where the other party gives up all hope in life, by all means, this will be your orgasmic zone!  One ‘to visit’ place is the killing fields south of Phnom Penh. A sad memory of a horrific past, this will open your eyes to a lot of historical events of the 1970’s and 80’s. In addition important attractions would include the Palace and National Museum. There apparently is another Museum at S21 but we decided we had had our fix of visiting sites of death and decided to skip it.

Getting around

Getting around anywhere in Cambodia is relatively easy. You just flag down one of the contraptions known as a Tuk tuk. These are basically motorbikes that have carriage trailers fitted. Rates start at 1 USD but given the size of the cities like Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, you can pretty much get around with that 1 dollar. Full day charges vary from 18 to 25 dollars. Be prepared to haggle though. Moving from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh or anywhere around the country is reasonably easy too. There are numerous bus services that charge around 10 USD per person. If you have a group of 4 or 5, you can hire a car. That would cost around 50- 60USD in total and cut your travel time by an hour or two. I find Cambodians to be a very friendly lot. The people we met at Siem Reap were very polite, humble and hugely friendly. Most people can understand English if at least vaguely and reply in jumbled words. You will have to speak a little slowly though :P.

Money matters

The most interesting part about this country is that everything is quoted in USD. You can forget about going to the moneychanger for Cambodian Riel. Even if you did, be prepared to do some serious counting because the exchange rate is 4000 Cambodian Riel to 1 USD. Yep, no typo there! Everyone deals with USD and if the amount to be dealt with goes below a dollar, out come the 1000/2000/500 Riel notes. One advantage; no heavy currency to lug around.

Eating out in Cambodia

You may be surprised to hear this, but we found it rather easy to pick out vegetarian restaurants in Siem Reap. If you are vegetarian, the places that you should check out are Chamkar, Chusska and Peace Café. Chamkar is a Cambodian style vegetarian restaurant run by a French guy Very unique menu of traditional Cambodian fare. You will find this place located in an alleyway off Pub Street. Chusska is a vegetarian restaurant run by a Pakistani but it serves pretty good South Asian fare. Located near Pub Street as well. Peace Café on the other hand is across the river and away from the busy night crowds and hence exudes an atmosphere similar to Atmos(Coimbatore) or Amethyst(Chennai). Their menu focuses on all things vegetable and has a nice choice of vegetable based juices and snacks. But their food menu is good too. I will put up a separate post on all the restaurants on my ‘dying’ restaurant blog :D. For the foodie who loves good food along with a good drink, Siem Reap is no longer a temple town when dawn falls. It’s a night out haven.

Unfortunately I can’t say the same about Phnom Penh. It’s a larger city and hence one has to travel further. There are lots of Indian restaurants but I spent my dinner at the Pizza Company and came out completely satisfied. Thanks to the generous toppings unlike Pizza Hut in India.

To Wear

I would advise a good pair of sports shoes for the walking and climbing part. Sandals would be good too. Light clothes are best so you will a lot of shorts, short skirts and sun dresses being worn. Most people travel light and buy cheap clothes there.  That is a pretty good idea I’d say. Phnom Penh is a more regular city so seem less touristy, regular casual wear there is good. Again all that can be bought there at really good prices too. I picked up Jeans/pants for 15-20USD and Polo/Round Neck Tees for 4-5 USD. Buy ONLY bottled water. Keep lots of water handy because the sun tends to have an affinity for roasted people.

Tipping is not generally expected in Cambodia, but is most definitely appreciated. One guy looked like he might fall at my feet any moment and that just goes to signify how humble and friendly these folk are. For more info on Cambodia, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, well Google it. :P Or be nice to me and give me a call. For more detailed pictures watch my Facebook photos space. Coming Soon. :D

Eating out in Madraspattinam. - The ones that came to my mind immediately!

One year in Chennai and i've had some gastronomic delights and terrible food choices as well here. Here is a brief on some of the good places to check out if you're ever in Chennai and the places to avoid as well.


P.S. I've been meaning to write this one for ages. Hopefully You are reading this in 2011!! :D


Murugan Idli Shop
This is a Madurai import. Murugan Idli is a decent South Indian vegetarian restaurant. The reason it features on this list is the Special Buffet Dinner available only at it's North Usman Road Branch. For a Hundred and Fourteen Rupees(INclusive of taxes when I last ate there) you get idli, vada, sweet pongal, vennpongal and a variety of dosas like rawa, masala, ghee, uthapams, onion etc. And being a buffet, it's all unlimited. You can end you feast with a complimentary glass of Jigarthanda(Slurp :P). You have to eat it to believe it.  A top tip: Go for weekday dinners as the dosas are relatively larger in size than on weekends. :D


Fruit Shop on Greams Road
A juice place that serves awesome juices and shakes. Try out the ice cream based shakes. I still haven't been able to try out everything on their menu which is reasonably extensive and reasonably priced as well. They have several branches around the city and are a good place to hang out for an after dinner shake.


Texas Fiesta
This is a texmex styled restaurant near Kadher Nawaz Khan Road. It's a good place to eat out with friends and the prices are reasonable by Chennai restaurant standards. Try out the Chicken wings with Raging Buffalo sauce if you want something real spicy. We weren't really impressed with the main course as such but the deserts were interesting The churros with chocolate sauce and fruit quesadilas with ice cream were definitely mouth watering. The salad was also a reasonably decent option. A good choice if you want to try out something different.


Dhaba Express
If you want North Indian, Dhaba Express should meet your needs comfortably. A somewhat reasonably priced menu serving both veg and non veg it has several outlets around the city. They also have an afternoon veg buffet option at their Nungambakkam and Alwarpet branches. At 80 rupees a head, it makes for quite a decent filler.


Zaras
THE place to be for all those party folks who can't get into a pub. :P No disrespect to the place, but it is a great place to hang out with friends and attracts a pretty cool crowd. Getting in on weekends is tough unless you have some clout and can make a reservation ahead. You could walk in but it's a given that you'll get a table only if you have girls in your group and if you walk in before 7.30P.M.. The Tapas bar as it is known, it has good music, really good food and a pretty good crowd. Just the place for a weekend night.


Mathsya
This place serves Udipi Cuisine. I think they have two branches, one in Egmore and the other in T Nagar. Chances are, they may not even be remotely related, but each restaurant has its own catch. The Egmore shop serves good vegetarian fare and is open late at night till even 1 am they say. The T nagar branch is a good place for a vegetarian Buffet Dinner that is reasonably extensive and tastes pretty good as well for the 200 odd Rupees that you will be spending.


Kebab Corner
Chances are you may not have heard of it and may not have seen it either even if you went hunting for it along Greams Road. Hidden around a corner of the block that you will find the Fruit Shop, this places serves pretty good chicken kebabs for reasonable prices. Rs30 for a Chicken Seekh Kebab sounds good? I definitely think it was.


Benjarong
The only time I went to this Thai restaurant was for a dear friend's Birthday treat. Heh. It was a good meal. :D    A somewhat pricey place obviously but it serves Thai cuisine that may not be all that authentic but it's definitely been made palatable to the Indian palate. A good place to visit once in a while. I think Citibank card holders get a 10 percent discount!


Dine
This is the in house restaurant at Escape, the multiplex at Express Avenue. It's a gourmet Restaurant that serves continental fare. The Pizzas and pastas are good and worth a try even if they might seem a tad pricey. Actually by Pizza restaurant(Read Dominos, Pizza Hut etc) standards, it isn't all that expensive and a definite must try. There apparently is a weekend buffet option at Rs200 where you get unlimited Biryani, soft drinks and desert. Might be worth a try too.


Madras
This, is the restaurant at The Raintree, Mount Road. Its a very expensive place that I would suggest you visit if you feel extremely generous or if someone else is paying the bill. My visit was of course because of the latter. They offer a Thali meal for Rs650. Yes. You read that right, but what a meal. The Chicken was like no other chicken, the mutton was tender and the fish just melted in your mouth. The rice was, umm ok, I think I shall cut it short and describe the meal as orgasmic. :D Each dish was so meticulously prepared and served in such a fashion that I for a second felt like the judge at Masterchef. I actually think it was worth it for the one time experience. Thank you Achilles for that wonderful treat!! :D They also have a bar called Madeira which doesn't seem all that happening. I suppose if you wanted to see some activity, The Raintree - Alwarpet might be a better option. Unfortunately I never got to visit it during my stay in Chennai.


I suppose this post shall come to an end here. I've written about the restaurants that I pulled off the top of my mind. I will have quick review on a few more in store which I shall write about at a later date(Ideally this lifetime). Dear Chennai'ites(Or visitors), (if any of you are reading) I hope this is a good quick guide! :)

The makeover.

Airtel. You have been grifted. Sources say you paid close to 66Million USD for an image makeover. Tell me now, does the end result seem worth all that money?? Here is a small image below, to cement my point.

Airtel say they needed a new more youthful brand image. Granted the old logo was ageing, but with the new one, it has lost its identity. The similarity to Vodafone is just too obvious. Just today, I was driving by a road and as I stopped at a traffic light I casually scanned the shops by the roadside. There was just too much red. Infact, what stood out was the blue of Uninor and multicoloured hue of Tata Docomo. The red of vodafone and airtel just was too overwhelming. To add to that we also have virgin mobile and MTS. Clearly someone got the concept of painting the town red all wrong.

Forgetting the colour scheme we move onto the shape of the logo. Seriously is that the best they could come up with? I find their attempt to be somewhat half-hearted and is not exactly all that vibrant and youthful. Somehow, the effort that went into revamping the bharti logo a few years back seems to have evaporated when it came to doing the same for their actual public brand.

The one that that I do like about the new concept is the slew of adverts that they have come up with. The conception is really beautiful. A gripe is that they are creating all this hype about the 3G services, but not saying anything about when exactly they will be available. Business line sources say end of december, but an airtel employee who is trying to promote the 3G service at a stall in a local mall says, I don't know. Somehow I feel Airtel is giving away the 3G advantage to services like Tata Docomo because they are actually promoting a service that they don't have yet while a someone else does have it.

I am not a marketing or branding expert, but as the average gadget friendly user I have to say the new campaign does not really make the cut, though of course I will be sticking on to Airtel because I use it and prefer using it.

Random ramblings

Just wanted to post something. Type to myself maybe, while simultaneously filling up cyberspace with some more junk :P . Another week goes by heralding the arrival of another weekend. If you haven't heard the story, I got fined for travelling in a ladies ticket(My cousin's) by the Indian Railways. Paid 1 grand in fines and the actual ticket cost. Doing the math, I realised I don't earn that much in a day. Might as well have bunked Monday and stayed at home. Apparently the Railways earned around 30 Lakhs in fines during the Diwali season for ticketless travel and travelling in the name of someone else. That's a fat sum I say.

If you've been keeping abreast of the latest happenings in Coimbatore, you might have heard about the spate of kidnappings not only in Coimbatore but around the state. The guys who were apprehended in Chennai happened to be foreign educated working professionals. One guy had an MBA from UK. And yet he had to resort to kidnapping some guy's kid. Yeah he did show resourcefulness and his engineering pedigree when he devised alternate breathing methods for the kidnapped kid by removing speakers from the rear parcel shelf of the car and stuff like that. What a waste of talent. :| The guy who was apprehended in Coimbatore was shot dead in an "encounter" when he tried to flee apparently. We've watched too many cop movies to know how an encounter goes about, so I'm sure the general public didn't bat an eyelid on that news.

Finally, Mr.Raja. Seriously? 1.76 Lakh Crores? How??

I'm going to be watching the Social Network sometime soon, so maybe there might be a review of that coming up. I also have some short stories in the pipeline. Pipeline being the keyword there.:|

Pedal to the metal along the East Coast River/Road

The planning started several weeks back. The gym regime was enhanced one week ahead. Traversing forty kilometers without the help of an internal combustion engine just seem like a far fetched task. I decided to do it for the hell of it. I'd done it before(albeit eons back), surely I could get back to that? Friday night. I tried sleeping early. alas. 4 hours of sleep was all I got as I awakened to the bright tubelight of my room at 3.55 a.m. A short figure towered in the distance. Prateek of course. "5 minutes dude", I said and went back to sleep. Of course, the rest of the story would usually end up with me waking up later to find that I had overslept by a few hours as usual thus rendering all my plans defunct. Not this time though. I woke up two minutes later. Waited for my phone to start ringing for the 4 a.m. alarm and switched it off with great satisfaction. Phase one complete. I was awake.


As I was starting to get set, I thought I heard a loud noise from outside. A peek revealed that Zeus and Indra had decided to have a party. Problem was, it was an after party or more like an after party for the after party, considering it was 4 a.m. Prateek came out of the bathroom. "Is it raining he asked?"."Quite heavily infact", I replied as I pondered over how exactly we would reach the venue. Deval my flatmate, entered the room then. He had woken up too as he had a train to catch at 6.50 a.m. "Would you like a poodle, lab or perhaps a Siamese?", I asked him. He of course stared at me like I had gone nuts. I followed it up with,"it's raining cats and dogs you see". He left the room. His exit was accompanied by the message tone of my mobile phone. There are times when you realise that the fancy sounding IPL horn doesn't exactly work well as an sms tone. This was one of them. "Due to rain, the start would be delayed to 5.45 a.m." I read the message out loud. Prateek jumped into his bed. Another hour of sleep. :D


5 a.m. I had to drop Deval at the Saidapet station before leaving for Thiruvanmiyur. A quick shuttle was all that it was meant to be. Except the streets had something else in store for us. What was supposed to be a 3 minute ride, became an agonising 10 minute ride in 2nd gear at 10km/h thanks to the newly created lake Saidapet. Despite the slow speed, it also involved getting my shoes and socks wet. Cut to Thiruvanmiyur.


A constant light drizzle ensured that Prateek and I reached Tiruvanmiyur in quite a damp condition. It was still dark and we somehow made out the activity that was happening in the distance behind the bus depot. Quickly finding a parking spot we joined the crowd, only for Zeus, who simply refused to go home after the party, to start the music again. One of the organisers immediately told everyone to board the bus. I looked around for the bus and was surprised at what I found. CRX(The organisers) clearly had snicked Toby from the sets of Thomas the Tank Engine and put it on the road. We got on board and awaited for the rain show to end. After 15 minutes of fruitless waiting, it was decided that the first leg would be covered by bus, thus bringing us out of the city by which time it would have hopefully stopped raining as well. And so it did.

Getting out at the toll gate after having spent about 30 minutes in Toby the speedboat(Ex- tram) as we Cruised along the East Coast River(After effects of an overnight rain party), we revelled in the cool climate the morning start afforded us. Our equipment soon arrived and the 60 plus crowd geared up with helmets et all and mounted our stallions. Nope not 4 legged whiney yet majestically maned creatures but Eco-friendly two wheeled mechanical contraptions; Bicycles. We had missed the sun rise being within the confines of the bus but we soon set off along the coastal road taking in the fresh morning air as we pedalled our way towards Mahabalipuram. Yes that was the task of the day. Cycling to Mahabalipuram. Due to the rain, the actual target of 40km came down to 26km. Still formidable for a person whose physical structure has by the months, been replicating a slow motion version of the big bang theory. Me.

It was an eventless trip after that, doing speeds of around 15-18 kph, enjoying the picteresque views, chill breeze and the attention of pedestrian crowds as they observed several brightly clothed people pedalling their asses off. They of course assumed it was some race of some sort and duly went back to their work. Pretty soon, The distance was covered. Approximately a little less than an hour and a half. Pretty good I said to myself as I hardly felt the strain. Entering the picteresque campus of Radisson Templebay, our final destination, we soon parked and headed out in anticipation of the buffet breakfast that awaited to be devoured by us.


The breakfast spread was fantastic. Just what you can expect at a Radisson.We took a few moments off to rest as the breakfast had clearly tired us more than the journey itself (I live to eat folks. :P). The beach was the next destination and man, what a sight greeted us. The amazing weather coupled with the angry sea, beautiful beach and historic shore temple in the distance just proved to be a sexy alluring combination. An amazing end to a short but awesome trip. I was short of words. Pictures below. Be awed.

P.S. 1. Picture credits for bus,crowd and blue sky to the pretty photographer who was with the organisers.
            No idea who she is, so no specific name. :P
       2. Picture credits for the fantabulous Mahabalipuram pics go to Prateek Rungta. Pictures link directly to 
            his website.
       3. Panorama picture was taken by me. :P


P.P.S. CRX conducts a trip down to Mahabalipuram on a monthly basis. To participate join their community on Facebook and register when they announce the next event. "Reaxion cycling - Chennai" is the name.

The other guys

This is the perfect spoof movie of the generic cop buddy storyline that hollywood generates on an annual basis. To start with, the story isn't exactly new. We have two misfits for cops who obviously don't gel together.  Wahlberg as Det. Terry is the guy who got stuck at a desk because he used his gun in the line of duty to accidentally shoot some sports star while Will farrel as Allan Gamble is the married guy who takes up all the paper work to keep himself at his desk. unfortunately these two have been assigned as partners for the past 7 years and hence have not achieeved anything commendable in their line of duty. They are constantly berated by their seniors/colleagues at work and apparently have quite a dull police life, until THAT one moment. So story wise, nothing spectacular there.
But the whole point of this movie is the humour and that is where this hits the bullseye perfectly. You won't find a constant tirade of humour, but it is in bits and pieces; sufficient to keep you glued to the screen. Wahlberg and Ferrel are quite fun to watch as the partners who clearly have differing agendas in life. Dwayne Johnson and Samuel Jackson as the superstar cops do their part well until they jump a 20 floor block and die. Of course, that's part of the comedy storyline too. So the rest of the plot revolves about how our two stumbling cops (Wahlberg and Ferrel resolve their differences and rise to being the superstar cops that NYC needs). The scene where Ferrel introduces Eva Mendes as his plain wife is just fun(Yeah, you read that right. EVA MENDES- PLAIN WIFE :P. In the case that you by any chance just thought, " Ok, so what?", I've placed her picture on the left. Please take a look, get back and re-read the above paragraph. :P).Watching Wahlberg just continuously drooling at her while still trying to get over the fact that she married Farrel(In the movie that is) is even more awesome fun to watch.

The rest of the movie focuses on their escapades, Ferrel's red Prius(Yes, the cop drives a Prius. :D), more action, comedy and how they go on to become good friends. I'd put this on my list next to films like Starsky and Hutch. I don't want to describe the story in further detail and spoil the fun. It isdefinitely a good time pass movie for that boring weekend or if you've had a bad day at work, just go hit the night show and have 2 hours of good laughs. You most definitely won't regret it.

The Town

Saw this film a whole week ago. As usual, the lazy me, took my own sweet time. :P This Ben Affleck direction is a pretty slick movie and definitely a must watch among the recent releases. It hasn't burst out on the scene and I haven't exactly heard rave reviews about it out here in India, but it makes up for all that with its neat screenplay and storyline. Apparently it opened at 23 million Dollars at the US box office, so there, the figures testify its a good movie.

Opening with a robbery in progress, the movie depicts a team of ace bank robbers who show great prowess and skill in planning and executing robberies at banks in Boston. Of course they hail from Charlestown, a neighbourhoood known for the large number of criminals and bank robbers it churns out(Maybe they have a PhD course there??). The team takes a manager hostage during a robbery and later release her once they are clear, but they soon discover that she happens to live just a few blocks away from them. Ben Affleck, then takes on the charge of checking  up on her to see if she might be any trouble to them and instead a romantic alliance forms between him and the manager(Rebeca Hall). What next? That's the rest of the plot. :P As police close in on suspects and further robberies take place, this romantic liason adds to the story(I forgot: We also have the "best bud and his sister(Blake Lively - Gossip girl fans remember Serena?? :D) who happens to be Ben's ex" roles to add to the story) and merges to bring about a sobre ending. Its one of those movies that will leave you thinking,"hmm, interesting" but not necessarily have you engrossed totally to the core. You most probably won't want to run out in irritation either. In short, just go in and have a nice time!

Endhiran

It took me a whole week to find time to actually blog about it. First thing, Given the recent increase in a spate of Rajini jokes, here is another one that can be added. :P Apparently, no robot except a Rajini robot can impregnate Aishwarya Rai. Secondly, Endhiran become a US box office hit on the opening weekend, because, Rajini told Obama he would 'visit' the US, unless. Thirdly, Endhiran would most probably have been dismissed as another 'indian masala hollywood wannabe' movie, if not for Rajini and the big budget that it attracted.

I had received a lot of reviews that said, and I quote, "The 2nd half is a Shankar Movie". I would like to ask at this point,"What makes you say the first half is a Rajini movie??" If you walk in expecting a Rajini movie, trust me, this is completely not it. The first half was obviously the better half, but that was because it had the right mix of an interesting story, some humour, and a obscene amount of songs shot in some planet not known to humans, or any other life form for that matter. The second half just has an insane amount of graphics, stunts and the works, to keep the viewer entertained, but sufficiently dazed as well, because trust me, at one point, when the viewer realises things aren't making any sense(We are talking about indian viewers who watch stupid romance flicks and the likes that have absolutely no logic at all here mind you), you just end up getting a really dragging and soggy storyline.

I am pretty sure, Shanker would not have dared take this movie in this form with any other actor. Because if he had, chances are he would be sweeping the streets for a living the next day. I mean the work that has gone into the film is amazing. No doubt. the graphics, the stunts and scenic locations and camera work is just top of the class. Definitely among the best that Indian cinema has ever produced. But when you see behind that Glossy surface that screams Rajini, you realise, it's all show and no go. The music is not much to write about either. As stand alone audio, they just don't whet my palette, while in the theatre, they gel well with the cinematography thus proving to be an entertaining combo. But then again, definitely not the best work of ARR.

I enjoyed watching the movie and I am sure you would too. But then, that's just once, for the hype and the Rajini factor. That's it. You most probably will not remember too much of it at a later time period. And personally, I felt the evil robot was a better personification of Rajini than all the other characters of Rajini in the film. His actions, the style of language was all to the dot, the best display of Rajini in all his former glory, than the other roles in the film. Maybe 10 years back, this movie might have been revolutionary, but for now its just a definite one time watch, for all the effort that has gone into making this epic film.