Yajaman Tamil movie review

A block buster of its times - with Rajinikanth, Meena and Aishwarya in lead roles.  This movie actually has a storyline and it is to do with Rajini as the great master or yajamaan.

The hero predictably is very caring and an affectionate master to his villagers and they look up to him but he too has some enemies.  He marries Meena after much wooing and how happy they are together is picture perfect.  The movie has some classic songs.

Aishwarya with some provocation from Napolean upsets the tranquility of the marriage by accusing Rajini falsely of some very lowly things; it does not change him in the eyes of his wife but the villagers are a little skeptical.

Then she herself clears the air by coming clean but by then some irreparable damage has been done to Meena by the same villain crowd.

The movie ends in a little bit of a twist and not the usual 'they lived happily ever after' note as Rajini wants to honor his wife's last wishes.

Vaidehi Kathirundal Tamil movie review

Vijaykanth and Revathi play the lead roles in this 1984 movie.

    Revathi plays the role of young widow named Vaidehi and Vijaykanth is a recluse whose nightly songs soothe the entire village but no one knows his story.  He scratches her name in the temple walls which intrigue the villagers and they start to speculate if the two (hero and heroine) have any connection. 
    That's when Vijaykanth narrates his tragic story to her - his beloved's name is Vaidehi too.  'Do not jump to conclusions' is one moral viewers can probably learn from her avoidable death.  This Vaidehi too opens up her history to him too, of how she came to suffer this fate at such a young age. 
    Meanwhile love blossoms between two youngsters - a new arrival to the village and a rowdy's (Radharavi's) sister.  By some circumstance the new arrival (who ends up working at a ration shop) stays with Revathy and her dad; and quite inadvertly the new person gives the idea that he may be interested in marrying Revathy.  The dad is quite enthusiastic about the prospect of a new lease of life for his daughter.  I think that it is in poor taste that the new person calls Revathy to a secluded spot just to seek help for his love which Radharavi is dead against.
   The pathos of all the primary characters forms the rest of the story.
Goundamani as 'All in all Azhaguraja' makes quite an impression which has in fact been considered as iconic.
    The music of Ilaiyaraja deserves another laudable mention.  'Indraikku yen intha' in Abhogi ragam is mesmerizing and refreshing.
 

Chefpro Roti-maker review

Awesome gadget!  

We were looking for a reliable roti maker and initially I was oscillating between a manual one and electric version - because left to me I would like to keep things simple, and moreover did not want to shell out nearly 40 bucks for a gadget.  Came across quite a few cast iron and cast aluminum tortilla presses online but the reviews were very confusing - some said it broke after a few uses; some said it was not suitable to make Indian breads like chapati or puri.  Moreover it was all online - I would prefer to get to feel the gadget before purchasing.  Looked for it in speciality kitchen ware stores but no luck.  

Anywise, asked around in my friends circle and combed the internet for some hints but again got such mixed opinions.  Then finally we decided to take the plunge (I dont take credit for this) and got one at the local store.  It was the Chef pro brand and there are two sizes - 8" and 10".  In my opinion 8" is sufficient for household use.

I cannot say that I started making perfect rotis from day one; in fact I wondered if I had made a mistake of getting it.  The instructions which came along with the gadget were a little vague  and the few demo reviews on the net were not very helpful too.   To me it seemed like a camera trick that their rotis came out so perfectly.  But hey! perseverance does pay! 

Now I have evolved a way of getting near perfect rotis - 

1. make the dough a trifle watery than what you would for hand-making it. 

2. Use a little more oil than you would while mixing the dough - cooking oil is better than olive oil; but you can probably use an equal ratio of both.

3.  Smear a little oil (instead of atta powder) while pressing.

4.  Switch on the roti maker, adjust the heat settings between medium and maximum.

5.  Take a small amount of dough, flatten a little, smear a little oil on both sides, place it off center near the hinge and press through.

6.  Flip the roti and place it in the centre and press again, most of the way. (pressing it all the way could make the edges unnecessarily thin)

7.  Have a heated tawa ready and cook roties the usual way, except it starts fluffing right after dropping on the tawa because the heat in the roti maker has already started cooking it.

A great addition to my kitchen appliances!! Thoroughly enjoying the ease of making rotis now!! Its so much more convenient and quicker!  FYI I was very comfortable hand-rolling rotis as well.  But another stark difference in using the roti maker is the less use of counter space which is always in great demand!

Chennai Express movie review

Let me start by saying that I am no fan of SRK; just find him  incredibly adorable in some scenes; and again as in JTHJ there is a reference, be it minor, to his increasing 'seniority'; though, of course, he 'does not act his age'; the initial scenes in the movie where he prepares to go to Goa and the ones in the train where he encounters the goons are unbelievably juvenile and cinematic.

Most of the time we see happy families speaking with a heavy accent and a liberal mix of Punjabi vocabulary in their Hindi in Bollywood movies.  Chennai Express offers a refreshing change of scenario to beautiful Tamil homes and streets.  In fact the movie itself has loads of dialogues in Tamil.

But what mars this beautiful change is Deepika's Tamil accent!  Unbelievable!  Infuriating!!   Does this mean that all Tamilians speak Hindi with such an annoying accent??  Listen to Vidya Balan, Hemamalini - just two great actors I remembered from the top of my head!  They speak Hindi more beautifully than many other native speakers of the language!  Of course the Hindi that non- native speakers speak will have some remnants of influence of other languages but that is quite negligible.  I think in Chennai express the 'accent' thingy is supposed to be a comedy in itself, but according to me its in very poor taste!

Chennai Express has some vibrant colors in it; breathtaking scenery ( for all I know could be graphics) but overall a good entertainer!

Karaikudi

Great place for authentic South Indian food; specifically 'Chettinad' cuisine from Chettinad region in South India.

The weekend lunch buffets seem great.  Good selection and authentic variety; I am told that the non-veg dishes are very tasty.  As a vegetarian I get very limited choice - very limited - just one gravy and plain or fried rice, of course I can binge on desserts and appetizers.  It took me a couple of visits over the course of few  months to realize this.  I am not going here any time soon, but would certainly recommend this place to friends who enjoy non-veg food.  Friendly service.

http://www.karaikudiva.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chettinad_cuisine

Minerva review

I would like to give my opinion on two restaurants.  Both share the same name; not sure if they are same management.

Minerva location at Chantilly:
Good food, fair selection, fair service.

Most restaurants close buffet by 3, it really becomes inconvenient for those of us who show up half and hour before closing.  Just into appetizers/ first course the hostess would come by and politely ask us to take more since they would be closing soon!  And most often if we show up late the rice has already become crusty because of sitting there a long, long time.

Minerva Indian Cuisine location at Lee Hwy, Fairfax:
Good food, better selection, fair service.

Food was great, no question about that; it would have been better if they had a website explaining coupon / Restaurant.com policy.  My gift voucher listed some exclusions, but not that it was not valid on a weekend buffet.  Though it is located on Lee Hwy, we had some difficulty navigating to it.  When we tried calling them for directions, we could not get any help - seemed like a fax line. 

 

Sapphire Indian Restaurant

My first and only visit to this beautiful restaurant was very enjoyable.  I would gladly go here often, if not for the distance from home.

A grand selection of food items makes the weekend buffet very sumptuous.  I am not sure I saw any thai entrees in the buffet, but there was an array of north/south Indian; veg/non-veg dishes.  The ambience of the place was good too.  What I liked the most is that the weekend buffet is open till night!  That's fabulous for people like us who 1. habitually go late to places 2.if we are running errands we can just stop by the restaurant whenever we feel like it.

http://www.sapphireindianrestaurant.com/

Jab tak hai jaan - Hindi movie review

SRK, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma

One refreshing thing is SRK acts his age at least for some part of the movie.  It is a welcome break from seeing him as 'just out of college' kid.  With the opening, Samar (SRK) is shown as challenging death, he takes on risky assignments such as bomb defusing in the Indian Army.  According to him, its only his death which will make Katrina (Meera) lose her faith in God (with whom she has a barter system going on).  She has given up seeing him because of one such barter, even though she is deeply in love with him in spite of being engaged to another man.

Meera's understanding of love is somewhat incomplete; she thinks love is something to be avoided.  Her mother's elopement with another man when she was 12 probably had a huge influence on her outlook.  But in comes Samar with his happy go lucky attitude and creates a reunion between mother and daughter.  She sees her mom very happy and content with her partner.  After the reconciliation Meera's outlook on love is entirely the opposite of her previous one - now she thinks people have to run away to find true love.  Her habit of 'praying' to God frequently and having an ongoing agreement of barter system is very annoying. 

However Anushka's character (Akira) is more annoying with her rustic attitude of youngsters and sex.  She has no problem bringing it up even to strangers.

Unless you are a fan of either of these actors, you can skip this movie.

Movie review - Vazhakku en 18/9

A wonderful enactment, full of pathos.  Two parallel tracks, one of an upper middle class family in an apartment and another a slum.  The two tracks and the people involved meet only after the poor servant maid, Urmila Mahanta, survives an acid attack.

The police conduct a thorough investigation and the culprit is caught, but he is not brought to justice, sadly.  The usual powerful politics pokes its ugly nose and the innocent poor Sri is framed.  His love for the servant maid is exploited and he consents to plead guilty.

The unexpected turn of events consists of Urmila taking matters in to her hands and the film ends in poetic justice for the corrupt policeman.  What is not justice, poetic or not, though is Urmila having had to suffer the disfigurement and the jail sentence too.  Sri makes a very convincing and endearing young one-sided lover.  His friend in the roadside restaurant is initially irritating but he turns out to be an honest fellow.

On the whole a very gripping narration.  All the atrocities that can be done with the mobile phone are well brought out.  This film made me understand the hatred I have for rich spoilt teenagers.  

The end leaves the viewer feeling sad for the innocent and gullible people in the film as well as all those out there whose stories never make it to the world outside. 

Movie review - Kahaani

I give full marks for this movie.  Very gripping story which keeps up your interest till the last scene.  A nice plot which even entertains your brain.  Vidya Balan plays very well her role of a very pregnant woman who visits Kolkata to search for her husband gone missing since two weeks.  How she takes revenge on those who were the reason behind her husband's death and so many other innocent victims in the Kolkata metro train poisoning is the theme of this story.  The story plays out so well, that at last, it is confusing whether it really happened or not.  That's why this movie is named so aptly as 'kahaani' or 'story'.

Movie review - Moonu

The thing that stands etched in my memory about this film is Shruti Hassan's crying face.  I think in every alternate frame, this dame is crying - for something or the other and for no apparent reason whatsoever! Whew!  

The story was okay, certainly an off the beaten track one and based on a 'psychology' subject and could be considered 'trendy' I suppose!  The first part of the movie moves well and both Dhanush and Shruti can pass off as school kids. Prabhu and Bhanupriya seem typical parents of a laid back boy, the mother very protective and the father too strict.  Though they seem affectionate and acquiesce to his every wish, why are they not in the picture when he has a serious problem? 

I would have liked the movie to start on a more positive note instead of Dhanush's funeral.  The anguish of a young widow is portrayed well. Shruti makes a very convincing grieving young widow who is torn in her sorrow.  What makes it all the more unsettling is that Dhanush has been killed in his own apartment, in broad daylight, but there are no signs of a struggle or nothing robbed from the apartment.
The movie flows on briskly, weaving together the past and the present and how finally Shruti finds answers for some very troubling questions.
On the whole, an entertaining watch if you are into serious themes.