அறை எண் 305ல் அபத்தம்

சமீபத்தில் சன் டிவியில் அறை எண் 305ல் கடவுள் பார்க்க நேர்ந்தது. சிறிது நேரத்திலேயே அதைப் பார்ப்பது நேர விரயம் எனப் புரிந்தது. சில காரணங்களால் தொடர்ந்து பார்த்தேன்.

சில காலமாகவே மீடியாக்களில் வரும் சில அபத்தங்கள் இப்படத்தில் சற்றே தூக்கலாக இருந்தது. அதுவும் இந்த சாப்ட்வேர் மக்களைப் பற்றியும் சாப்ட்வேர் கம்பெனிகளைப் பற்றியும் இது போன்ற அரை வேக்காட்டுத்தனமான விமர்சனங்கள் எதிர்ப்போரின்றி உலா வருகின்றன.

படத்தில் வரும் ஒரு சாப்ட்வேர் கம்பெனியின் பெயர் கொள்ளையோசிஸ். அதில் வேலை பார்ப்பவர்கள் அனைவர் விரல்களையும் சிறியதாக்குகிறார் நாயகன். அதோடு அவர்களை பிச்சை வேறு எடுக்கச் சொல்கிறார். காரணம் அவர்கள் அளவுக்கு அதிகமாக பணம் சம்பாதிக்கிறார்களாம். இது ராணுவ வீரர்கள் சம்பளத்தை விட அதிகமாம். அது முறையில்லையாம். அப்படியென்றால் சினிமா நாயக நாயகிகள் வாங்கும் சம்பளம் எப்படியாம்?

சாப்ட்வேர் காரானுக்கு கம்பெனியே வரியைப் பிடித்துக்கொண்டு மீதியை கொடுக்கிறது. சினிமாகாரர்களுக்கு எப்படி? அதை வேறு விளக்க வேண்டுமா? கறுப்புப் பணம் பற்றி பெரிதாகப் பேசிய சிவாஜி படத்திலேயே சினிமாவில் உலாவும் கறுப்பு காணாமல் போனதே!

அரசு ஊழியர்கள் மட்டும் தான் வரி கட்டி நாட்டையே தாங்குகிறார்களாம். சாப்ட்வேர் மக்களும் சாப்ட்வேர் கம்பனிகளும் வரி கட்டாமல் சுவிஸ் பேங்கிலா பணத்தைப் போட்டு வைக்கிறார்கள்?

சினிமாவில் நடிக்க ரஜினிகாந்த் வாங்கும் கோடிகளும் சாப்ட்வேர் மக்கள் சம்பாதிக்கும் லட்சங்களும் நேர் வழியில் வருபவை. ஊழல் செய்தோ ஊரை ஏமாற்றியோ வருவதல்ல. இனி வரும் காலங்களில் இது போன்ற அபத்தக் கருத்துகளைப் பரப்பாமல் படங்கள் வரும் என நம்புவோம்!

Whats wrong with Dhoni?

Before talking about Dhoni's bizarre tactics against England and in the IPL, lets see some stats in T20Is:

Player	Sixes	Innings	6's per innings
Yuvraj	29	13	2.23
Yusuf	9	7	1.29
Sehwag	10	11	0.91
Raina	6	7	0.86
Rohit	8	10	0.80
Gambhir	8	15	0.53
Dhoni	5	16	0.31

These are the stats of the seven Indian batsmen in their international T20 career and as you can see it is sorted by the no of sixers hit in an innings. And look who is at the bottom of the list. Our Captain Cool.

When Dhoni promoted himself up in the order during the last edition of T20 WC, it made sense. That time we didnt had Sachin, Sourav, Rahul and Laxman in the team (whether they were good for T20 or not is not the point here, we lacked experience is what I am trying to say). With the exception of Veeru and Yuvi, rest of the batting was unknown. We had an unreliable Gambhir, untested Rohit and Yusuf played only in the final. For that matter Dinesh Karthik was preferred as a middle order batsman. Dhoni's tactics of not playing big shots was also perfectly justified at that time, as we needed some one to play thru the 20 overs.

But look at the team now after having seen how these fellows played in the IPL in South Africa. Under this scenario we cannot understand why Dhoni would bat above Yuvi or Yusuf and why he would send some one like Jadeja ahead of Yuvi. It also does not make any sense for Dhoni to bat above 5 or 6.

I think he is getting insecured with the two "seniors" Yuvi and Veeru after getting rid of practically all other seniors from the team. We are seeing a new Ganguly in the making. While Ganguly turned around the Indian team's fortunes, his playing politics with the players could not be forgotten or forgiven. Promoting a middle order batsman Veeru to open the batting to check Sachin is something I can never forget. Today Dhoni is doing the same thing with another middle order batter Rohit to put a check to Veeru.

It is quite visible that he prefers certain players over others. For example, Dhoni favours Ishant over RP. I feel RP is better for T20 than Ishant and Ishant is better than RP for tests. Same way with he prefers Raina over Yusuf.

Here are some facts that Dhoni can ponder:

• Sachin is a better batsman, while Saurav is a better captain.

• Dhoni is a better captain, while Yuvraj is one of the best limited overs player for India.

• Dhoni should take a leaf out of Steve Waugh. Both these are not great players by any means, but both great fighters.
  

IPL 2009 Dream Teams

THIS is AFP’s Indian Premier League's "dream team" after the 59-match, five-week IPL ended at the Wanderers with Deccan Chargers beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in the final.

1. Matthew Hayden (Chennai Super Kings)
2. Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers, wkt/capt)
3. Suresh Raina (Chennai Super Kings)
4. AB de Villiers (Delhi Daredevils)
5. Tillakaratne Dilshan (Delhi Daredevils)
6. Jean-Paul Duminy (Mumbai Indians)
7. Anil Kumble (Bangalore Royal Challengers)
8. Pragyan Ojha (Deccan Chargers)
9. Rudra Pratap Singh (Deccan Chargers)
10. Ashish Nehra (Delhi Daredevils)
11. Lasith Malinga (Mumbai Indians)

Jayaho Slumdog

There have been lot of hype & hoppla surrounding Slumdog Millionaire and there have also been lot of jealousy in the Indian film fraternity about its success, there had been some protests by the slum dwellers to the name containing "dog" and the usual story of selling Indian poverty to the world.

I am really not going to talk about all this. In terms of the craft of film making Slumdog Millionaire is a good film and that is the reason why it went to win 8 Oscars today. It is not really important for a viewer to accept the theme of a movie or any art form for that matter, to appreciate that.

Personally I am not a big fan of the man Gandhi, but a big fan of the film Gandhi. I am not a religious person, but I am a big fan of the old TV serial Mahabarat. So I hope you get the point.

Same is the case with Slumdog Millionaire also. I may not agree with many of the things portrayed in the film, but i liked it as a film.

When our Tamil and Hindi film pundits talk about their Oscar dreams here is a man AR Rahman who quitely goes there and wins two Oscars and has the guts to say the phrase "Ella Pughazhum Iraivanukkae" in Tamil in the world stage. Kudos to this man for keeping his feet on the ground, even when he is flying!

I am also not a big fan AR Rahman's background score in most of the Indian movies. I feel Roja's score is still his best background score in Indian movies till date and thats not a good news as it came 17 years back in his first movie. However, I should confess that I am a fan of his songs and I feel that is his strength than the BGM.

Today is however a very important day in the history of Indian Cinema, similar to the day when Abhinav Bindra won the Olympic Gold.

After all, we have just had two earlier Oscar winners from India:

1982: Costume Design - John Mollo, Bhanu Athaiya - Gandhi
1991: Honorary Award - Satyajit Ray

Today we have 3 Oscars:

Best Sound Mixing: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
Best Original Score: AR Rahman
Best Song: "Jai Ho", Music by AR Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar

And for those in Chennai hoping to win the oscars for the best picture and best actor, grow up folks. They dont give that for Tamil movies. You can either make your movies in English or try for the best foreign language film category.

A few things about the Tamil movies and the Oscars: if we make movies of Oscar class and style, we wont have audience for that here. You should compare the crowds of a Jackie Chan movie with those of Schindler's List or the crowd we get for Transporter or Snakes on a Plane. So there is no point in aiming for an Oscar.

We can aim to tell stories professionally and lift the levels of the audience to the next level with a few movies every year. It is happening in the hindi cinema, and it is high time that it happens in the tamil cinema as well.

If you look at the list of India's official entries at the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, you can get an idea about where we are:

1957: Mother India
1962: Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
1969: Deiva Magan (Tamil)
1971: Reshma Aur Shera
1972: Uphaar
1973: Saudagar
1974: Hot Winds
1977: Manthan
1978: The Chess Players
1980: Payal Ki Jhankaar
1984: Saaransh
1985: Saagar
1986: Swathi Muthyam (Telugu)
1987: Nayagan (Tamil)
1988: Salaam Bombay!
1989: Parinda
1990: Anjali (Tamil)
1991: Henna
1992: Thevar Magan (Tamil)
1993: Rudaali
1994: Bandit Queen
1995: Kuruthipunal (Tamil)
1996: Indian (Tamil)
1997: Guru (Malayalam)
1998: Jeans (Tamil)
1999: Earth
2000: Hey Ram (Tamil)
2001: Lagaan
2002: Devdas
2004: Shwaas (Marathi)
2005: Paheli
2006: Rang De Basanti
2007: Eklavya - The Royal Guard
2008: Taare Zameen Par

You can see some ridiculous choices like Saagar, Henna, Jeans and Devdas. Come on: Jean for Oscar. The Academy should have sued the producers for wasting their time. I havent seen Taare Zameen Par, but Dasvidania could have been a better choice. Last year Paruththi Veeran could have been sent instead of the melodramatic and funny Eklavya.

In this list only the 3 made it to the nominations:

1957: Mother India
1988: Salaam Bombay!
2001: Lagaan