Pizza (2012) – A Treat

I watched the movie “Pizza” yesterday. I usually like watching these kind of thriller movies, but will be scared for the next few days. Still I think it is fun to watch as a group. My adrenaline went up too J.

Pizza is a thriller movie (with some horror content). It was neatly presented. Vijay Sethupathi & Ramya Nambeesan in the lead roles – both did their part good. There were very few actors in the whole movie and all of them did a good job. I thought it was more like an Hollywood thriller movie. I liked the last scene J.

The new director Karthik Subburaj did a wonderful job in packaging the movie. I felt it was crisp, neat and clear. Movie was only 2 hours long and was very engaging. I think this director did not work as an assistant to anybody. He was a software engineer by profession and took some short films before taking this movie. Looks like they took the movie with minimum budget, but should have gained profit by now. For a debut, I think this movie is really really good.

Pizza is a Treat. Have fun watching it!

Maattrraan (2012) – Entertaining

Vijay and I went to “Maattrraan” premier show last night in Des Moines. The show was supposed to be at 9 PM, but they were still downloading and were not sure whether they are going to have the show. We waited at the theater from 8:40 PM and with so many updates in between they finally announced at 10 PM that they are going to have the show. It was like a medical miracle J. Here is my review -

Maattraan had a very good story. First half was so crisp &  nice and the second half was also good, but was little dragging. Surya did a wonderful job and acted as conjoined twins. I thought that the movie is little longer (around 2 hours 45 mins) and could have been cut short post intermission. Movie plot was good and looks like KV Anand did a proper research on few things before working on it. He tried to establish the logical sense without any loopholes (except some heroic acts) throughout the movie. It is a kind of thriller genre. KV Anand’s last 2 movies were also of the similar kind. Screenplay was good and engaging. I thought the dialogues were much better. Writers SuBha wrote them this time and did a good job. It is really worth mentioning. Sachin Khedekar as Surya’s dad was really good and acted very well. The actor who acted as Surya’s mom was also very good, but I do not know her name. Kajal Aggarwal is ok like an usual heroine. There is no separate comedy track. All the songs were very good to hear and good to watch. Fight sequence before the intermission is worth mentioning. Special kudos to Choreographer and Stunt master of this movie.

Maattraan is Entertaining and it is worth to watch one time for sure. Go for it!

Hilarious!

Vijay's dad’s brother (chithappa) passed away last February (that’s not hilarious by the way) and according to the tradition, we are not supposed to celebrate any festivals for the whole year. We could not even do Samanu’s first mottai when we were in India in April. My mother-in-law is visiting us from India and she is here from mid July. From the time she is here, whenever we talk about festival, she immediately says “We should not celebrate any festivals as Vijay’s Chithappa passed away”. Sometimes, she will not even hear what we say, but she responds with a big “NO”.

The other day on October 2^nd, I asked her about a serial in Vijay TV that Why is it not getting telecasted today? She told me that it is Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday and that’s why they have some other programmes. Vijay spontaneously replied to his mom “Amma! Chithappa passed away, we cannot celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday this year”. I thought it was Hilarious! Not sure whether it is my MIL syndrome that added kick to this moment J. But I really found it very funny when he responded immediately.

Thandavam (2012) – OK

Watched a tamil movie "Thandavam" last week. Got to go to Premier show in DesMoines. Movie had a good story, but was lacking on the screenplay. It is in thriller genre and the director could have made it with faster screenplay. Movie was very slow. That too in the middle closer to interval, it really tests your patience.

I think Screenplay is the most critical piece of the Film Making and this film really lacks that. Vikram did a wonderful acting. Anushka and Jagapathi Babu were good. Santhanam was good with his limited space.

“Oru padhi kadhavu neeyadi” is the nice song to hear as well as to watch. I don’t even remember the other songs J.

If you have free time, go ahead and watch for Vikram.

Last Day at ITA

Last Friday Sep 28th 2012 was my last day at ITAGroup. I felt so weird the whole day. It has been a long journey of 6 years and 9 months with the company. I got my job in Sep 2005, but joined on Dec 27th 2005 since I was going to India to get married. I joined them one month after I got married.

My family life and my ITA life grew together. I really enjoyed working there and will miss lots of people from there. Des Moines is a small place, I am sure that I will meet them again.

It was an emotional decision, but still I had to make it as I wanted to move on with my career. Last day, I did not want to cry in the office. So, I did not give much thought about what’s going on. Just packed my stuff, talked to many people , visited Building 2 and said bye to my friends. Linda and Ana took me to lunch on Friday. And Adam scheduled an Happy Hour for me at 34’s Sports Bar & Grill in Valley West Mall. Usually I don’t go to any Happy Hour parties as I do not drink, but I went this time and drank couple of lemonade J. Even my friend Ann asked Adam whether I am really going to my own party OR these guys are celebrating my departure (without me) at the bar J. Fun!

I really had fun for couple of hours from 3:30 till 6:45 PM. I went home (Vijay was mad as I was late) and had to rush to Yatin’s Birthday party, had food and played Taboo for a long time. We came back home around 3:45 AM and slept at 4 AM. Vijay asked few questions about my last day, but I felt he did not really understand how I felt L. In a way, its fine as I did not have to think through lot of things.

I think I am handling this transition by not thinking about it too much. Not sure whether this “Escapism” strategy is good or not. But it works J. I started my new consulting job on Oct 1^st Monday and did not have enough/much time to think about or analyze anything. I am taking this as a positive opportunity to explore and learn new things. Hope it goes well.

I really want to say my special thanks to Adam Brucker for organizing my Happy Hour party. And Many thanks to Andrew Morris, Matt Vande Vorde, Jarod Trecker, Matt Khalil, Jeremy Sims, Mitch Lake, Bobby Dineen, Yousef Alzawaidah, Tim Fisher, Naveen Konda, Matt Drey, Ryan Franz, Jolli Wihlm, Adam Brucker, Linda Dickerson,  Srini Kadiam, Joseph Hicks & Ann Kindwall for stopping by at my Happy Hour and made my evening a memorable one.

I will MISS YOU Guys !!!