My Son Turns ONE  

Sunday, November 23, 2008



Day after tomorrow, my sweet little angel turns ONE. He is the one who made our life so busy, engaged always, happy and so responsible too. As a gift of our love marriage, God has sent us a guardian angel, who takes care of both of our families too. He was born after the great loss of our Grandpa, who is the backbone for all our families. Hence my kid is believed as our grandpa returned home to bring back his loss.

 He is the first grandchild of both our parents, hence he is the apple of everyone's eye. He is the best entertainer for my sister and brother in laws, and they are the ones who can get him anything in this world. In this 25 years, I can surely say the most unforgettable and treasured moment in my life would be, the time when I saw my kid for the first time, after the painful surgery to give birth. Obviously it would be the treasured moment for every Mom. The only thing which flashed my mind at that moment was, "GOD is always so generous over me".

We have been enjoying all his milestones, when he turned around, when he crawled, his toddling, his magnificiant walk, his first tooth, his first word...oooh everything. Its all remained a celebration for us. I felt so proud of myself when called me 'Amma', even I was so jealous over my Mama and dad, as his word was 'Thatha'. He is so gifted that his grandparents are becoming young and playing with him like kids, even when they are gasping for breath. He is pricelss for my Sister, on the otherside my brother inlwas will roam around the world to make him happy.

I wish everyone of your blessing will be there for him always. I have no powers to predict the future but I am sure that we have a bunch of happy days ahead with our Adhityan...

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LEELAI - A Software Romance @ HCL Technologies  

Thursday, November 20, 2008


Leelai - A trendy movie being shot almost in a software company, HCL Technologies, Chennai.
The director, Andrew Louis is not so novice, but served as an assitant to the well known director cum actor S J Suryah. The team S J Suryah and A R Rahman worked out well in many films. Yet another combination blooming, the assitant of S J Suryah and Assitant of A R Rahman are teaming up in this venture.
The film being produced by Aascar Films V Ravichandran. The main story is about the romance that blossoms between two software engineers working at HCL. It will sure to turn out to be a high tech love story.

The main lead roles are been played by Shiv Pandit and Mansi. Shiv Pandit is already a well known as IPL compere and Mansi though HDFC and Sony Ericcson brand model.


“The entire movie was shot in popular software company HCL. Even the employees of the company were prevented from carrying cameras and mobile phones to their company. But we managed to get the permission of senior officials from the company and shot the movie for over 100 days inside the company,” preens the director.

Lollu Sabha fame Santhanam plays the comedy part to provide the humour quotient for the movie. Editing is by V T Vijayan, art by Edward and lyrics by Vaali.

Lets wait and watch this IT romance in silver screen and its box office results.

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Varanam Aayiram Movie Review  

Tuesday, November 18, 2008














After a greatest delay, finally the movie has hit the silver screen, creating a lot of hype among the audience. Thats why the tickets for the entire weekend was sold out once it is released. But I am not sure of the box office status on the forthcoming days. Ok lets look into the story line.

The movie opens with death of an old man(Surya) at his residence. This news has been passed on to an army officer(surya2) who is on his way to a mission. His flashback on his life, from childhood till date, with his most adored and disciplinarian father. After schooling, the son surya enters into his college life at tiruchi, but ends up watching movies than attending classes. After his last semester exams, on the way back to Chennai he meets the beautiful Meghana (Sameera Reddy) on train and it is love at first sight. Being a guy who has never looked at a girl, he pulls out his guitar and sings En iniyia pon nilaave!

He comes back to his home and settle the debts of his dad and excels in his new business. Meanwhile Meghna gone to do her MS at Berkley University, California. With his parents permission, goes to America and win over his lady love. But by the plot of fate, Meghna dies in a bomb blast. Returning home india, surya suffers for this loss and indulges into drugs. To bring him back, the dad surya and mom simran tries all possible ways, and sends him kashmir to change his mindset. There he meets his co passenger menon in trouble(his son being kidnapped). Surya saves the life of Aditya, son of menon. This flashes his mind to persue a career in Army. And becomes an army officer immediately. Here suddenly Divya enters the plot, carrying her total love towards surya. Her love will soon be accepted and ends up in a successful marriage and kid too. 

Gautham simply wrings you dry with his overplay of emotions in the father-son bonding. The climax is heart wrenching and heartwarming as Surya’s breakdown and tears roll down his cheek which looks real. The best part of the film is the first half, especially the wispy romance between Surya and Sameera Reddy, with the scene where Surya falls for her in the train is 
hilarious and romantic. And when Sameera says finally – “I’m in love”, with Surya playing around with a toy helicopter at Fort Point, which offers the best view of the Golden Bridge in San Francisco, the romance tugs at your heart. Only Gautham, a romantic can make such scenes work.

Ratnavel’s camera is eye-catching as it pans California, Dehradun, Delhi, Rameswaram and other locations and gives the film richness. Surya’s make-up, his six pack look and old man get-up is very good.

The music of Harris Jayaraj is first rate and tangy, with meaningful lyrics of Thamarai. This is Harris- Gautham’s last film together and the combo is simply terrific. Four of the songs before interval are shot beautifully like a music video, with Adiye Kolluthe… and Nenjukkul Peidhidum.. being the pick of lot, while two songs post interval mars the tempo. 

The power-packed performer award belongs to Surya, who is outstanding in a dual role as father and son. Shorn off any artifice, his anguish, pains and joy look real. The female star cast is simply too good, whether it is Simran playing Surya’s mother, Sameera Reddy pure eye candy and brings an uninhibited joie to her role as Meghana. Divya is outstanding, investing her character with sensitivity a far cry from her Kuthu days. 

On the downside, the film is excruciatingly slow, and in the second half plods as the director has no story to say. All of a sudden why did he make his hero larger than life? The Delhi kidnapping and the hero solving it has been done to bring out his heroism, which sticks out like a sore thumb. Is there not a cut-off age to join the army? Surya’s character is far too simplistic. The thing about a father backing his son to go to America and win over his lady love just doesn’t wash. An ordinary middle class, Tamil family speaking so fluently in English does not gel with viewers.

On the whole its a modernised version of cheran's "Thavamai thavamirundhu" in which Rajkiran is a poor village father, whereas here Surya(Dad) is a father of modern times working in central govt. But the former had so many realisitic feelings clustered together, but the latter ends up in a messy mixed over reactions. 

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Citigroup Cuts down 52,000 of its workforce  


Citigroup Inc revealed plans to cut 52,000 jobs by early next year in a dramatic move to restore the No. 2 US bank to health as it combats mounting debt losses and sagging economies worldwide.

The cuts announced by Chief Executive Vikram Pandit on Monday affect 15 per cent of Citigroup's workforce, and are in addition to 23,000 jobs eliminated between January and September.
Citigroup plans to slash expenses by as much as 20 per cent, and spend a total of $50 billion to $52 billion in 2009. That compares with $61.9 billion over the last four quarters.

The cuts will be global, affecting many regions and business lines, including the retail and investment banks, a person close to the matter said. About one-half will come from layoffs and attrition, and the rest from the sale of units, such as the German retail banking business.

Pandit became Citigroup's chief executive last December, and has faced much criticism from investors and others for failing to implement a workable turnaround plan. The New York-based bank has lost $20.3 billion in the last year, and some analysts do not expect it to make money before 2010.

"As the economy continues to weaken they will have greater credit losses," said Michael Holland, founder of money manager Holland & Co in New York. "Cuts will lessen the losses, but they in no way guarantee profitability."

Pandit told employees in a memo that Citigroup has spent the last year "getting fit," and projects a "difficult" 2009 for clients and customers.

Citigroup's latest cuts are the most by any US company since the global credit crisis began last year. They are also the second most ever, trailing the 60,000 that International Business Machines Corp IBM announced in 1993, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The latest cuts would leave Citigroup with about 300,000 employees, down 20 per cent from the end of 2007 and about the same number it had at the end of 2005. People at the bank said the cuts should be made by the first couple of months of 2009.

STOCK UNDER PRESSURE

Shares of Citigroup, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, fell 19 cents, or 2 per cent, to $9.33 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.Last week, Citigroup stock fell into the single digits for the first time since Sanford "Sandy" Weill created the bank in 1998 from the merger of Travelers Group Inc and Citicorp.

Well over 100,000 jobs have been lost at the world's largest banks and brokerages since the global credit crisis began. In the last month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc began cutting 3,200 jobs, and Morgan Stanley said it will cut 10 per cent of jobs in the unit housing its investment bank.

Citigroup said it has a "very strong" capital position, and according to the person close to the matter has no need to further cut its dividend, which has already been reduced twice this year.

Still, many investors remain wary. Through Friday, the bank's stock was down 68 per cent this year, leaving Citigroup with a market value of $51.9 billion.That's barely twice the $25 billion of capital it received from the US Treasury Department's bank bailout plan, and down from more than $270 billion in late 2006.

"We have a bull market in fear," said Henry Asher, president of Northstar Group Inc in New York.

Citigroup also said its board will make decisions on executive compensation after Dec. 31.

That prompted criticism from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who urged the bank to follow Goldman's decision on Sunday not to pay bonuses to top executives this year.

"It seems only fair that top executives should shoulder their fair share of these difficult economic times," Cuomo said. "It would send exactly the wrong message for Citigroup's top brass to collect bonuses while investors, taxpayers and now Citigroup's own employees suffer."

DIVERSIFICATION DOESN'T HELP

Citigroup was built principally by Weill, who ceded control to Pandit's predecessor, Charles Prince, in 2003. Analysts have said Citigroup never invested enough in technology or to make the bank's various parts work well together.

Its geographic diversity, including operations in more than 100 countries, is now also working against it as customers in such countries as Brazil, India and Mexico find it harder to stay current on payments.
At the same time, Citigroup's ability to grow at home is relatively limited. Last month, Wells Fargo & Co derailed Citigroup's attempt to buy Wachovia Corp and its $418.8 billion in deposits.

The bank has tried to downplay reports of dissension among directors regarding the performance of Pandit and the bank's chairman, Sir Win Bischoff. Last week, lead director Richard Parsons said the board supported management's plans.

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Hats Off to our Indian Team  

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

To honour the millions of cricket fans, our Indian team has established itself as the only team in this era to consistently challenge the World Champion Australia both at home and away.In fact, since the turn of the millennium India has transformed itself into an all-round cricketing power capable of winning in varying conditions anywhere.The Indian selectors deserve special praise for being unfailingly objective in their decisions and for getting the balance right. Finally, India was the more resilient and iron-willed of the sides. This became clear during the last three sessions of the final Test, when Ponting lost the plot and India rallied from a vulnerable position to put Australia out of the match.

India got back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy defeating world champion Australia by 172 runs in the fourth Testand won the series 2-0.

Its a farewell match for Ganguly who got the same trophy in 2001 and retained it in 2003 too. 

This stumbling Victory made India to climb up to the No. 2 spot in the Test rankings.

Dhoni and Kumble, who shared the captaincy in the series, received the trophy from Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar amidst scenes of wild cheering from the best crowd of the Test.

There was some consolation for Australia — off-spinner Jason Krejza, who took 12 wickets on debut, was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Finally Ricky Ponting accepted the fact that our cricketing has grown with high quality. 

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Sun Tv vs Vijay Tv  

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Both of them are regional channels in Tamilnadu...the former is still a ruler of regional channel industry all over the world and the latter is an upcoming star catching hold of the young minds. 
Lets first see the history of both of them:

Sun Tv:

This is the first fully privately owned Tv channel in india and emerged in the year 1993. When it was started, it had programs only from 6 pm everyday till 10 pm. Programs like "Varthai Vilayattu" by Anandageethan, "Jodi Porutham" by Chakkravathy and "Pepsi Ungal Choice" by Uma were on the top list and fetched more viewers for them. Now Suntv has become the most viewed tamil channel all around the world. 


Vijay Tv:

When it was started it couldnt compete with the major giant Sun Tv and went in loss till 2003. Later instead of competing with the giant they decided to carve a unique space for them in the market. Instead of investing heavily on the tamil new realeses they got tied up with Star group and dubbed famous english movies into tamil. Slowly now it has started emerging as a must watch channel among the youth. 

Quality comparision on programs:

Sun Tv has been occupied by serials (targeted mainly on housewives) the whole day. Starting from 10.30am  - 2pm and again from 6 pm to 11.30 pm only serials. 
Vijay tv makes the day time full of retelecasting teh previous day show of its hit serials and programs. Again from 6pm onwards they hit with the fresh telecast for the day. 

Comparing the serials Anandham, Kolangal and Arasi are the major attractions as of now. 


In Vijay Tv also there are few serials like Madurai, Khakki and Kana Kaanum Kalangal targeted towards the young generation. 








Standing apart from the glycerinated serials and latest movies, vijay tv has many more innovative programs like Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhudeva,  Super Singer,  Neeya Naana, Kalakka Povathu Yaaru,  Jodi No 1 etc. All these ones except the Neeya Naana, have been copied by all the other channels which have turned out to be a flop or got a moderate rating. 

Even Suntv bought the entire kalakka Povathu Yaaru comedians and lauched the same show in 
a different name Asatha Povathu Yaaru, Thats when the copying mechanism started among the 
channels.


Coming to the talk shows, Neena Naana stand out of the crowd and occupy unique space in the intellectual manner.The topics discussed were very clear hot and crisp. 







The other side Arattai Arangam conducted by the Country bear(TR) and the confronting Visu on Makkal Aragam(Jaya Tv) stages the same boring concepts and letting small children talk about worldly issues. 








So on the whole Sun Tv is targetting at the house wives with its terrifying serials and the younger generation with the latest movies. And Vijay Tv targetting the corporate world and young minds with their innovative shows. KEEP WATCHING!!!!!!!!!

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