Trying out the Nokia Maps

Recently I updated my phone’s software and Nokia Maps came as a default application. Till then I thought Nokia Maps were only for N95, 82, etc … Even at the Nokia Maps stall at Citi Centre, the babe in the counter told me N73 cannot use maps. The other day I had called up Airtel to just ask about GPRS but for reasons best known to them, they activated GPRS for my connection. So there is GPRS and Nokia Maps in hand and joblessness in mind. So I started trying it out and it came out to be much much better than expected.

Its very fast. And the maps are almost 50% accurate in terms of geography and location labels. A quick address type to Chennai lands me near the GPO, and from the GPO finding the way to my house in Mylapore was a breeze. Type in your start point and your destination point and there you have right in your screen a real time navigation to the desired destination.

But unlike the Wikimap, the end user does not have any control over location tagging on maps. For instance the Bazaar road in Mylapore is mis-spelt as Bazar road. So anybody searching for Bazaar road is never going to find the right place. So even if I spot a mistake, I cannot correct it. My street has not been named/tagged in the Maps and the end user has no privilege to tag places, so any number of search for my street is going to give no result.

The Nokia Maps TVC was brilliantly conceived and executed, although like all advertisements this one too is a bit exaggerating. This map is good fun to experiment with but needs a lot of correction before it can be used on roads. Another disaster I saw in this map was with the Show route option. I gave the start point and the destination point and searched for the route. The map shows the shortest and the simplest route, it does not give a damn about no entry signs and at times shows roads were motoring is out of question.

The kilometers count which it provides for every route by asking the satellites is accurate enough. Just a few updates and some changes and this map will be a treasure. Nokia can even price it.

Dasavathaaram - a terror ten

Thanks to a delayed meeting, I missed the premiere of Dasavathaaram on Thursday night. Which also means I saved 300 bucks + good 5 hours of sleep. When Dasavathaaram was announced saying Kamal Haasan was the man in front of the camera, Tamil film audience were celebrating. They knew the movie was in safe hands. They knew history was in the making. But then on the first day, sadly Arun and I were in complete splits laughing all through the movie which claims to have a lot of AlGore and Ramanujar in it.

Oops, I’ve written 100 posts …

… and this is my 101st post.

Arun called up in the morning

Escape routes

It was high time we took that break and we decided to drive away from the city. A few of us managed to get free for the weekend, so no prizes for guessing it right, we set out on ECR to break free in a farm house on Tindivanam road near Pondy.

Arun and Ashwin were on time to my place and by that time I too managed to sneak out of the house with a bag of clothes and a couple of badminton raquets. For safety reasons, the mobile was switched off and neatly hidden in my room The women folk were as usual cliched. LATE. After a quick stop at the ATM we were out on the ECR.

We made a small stop at the Pondy port. Aparna and I managed to walk in through the basement beams and even climbed the stairs up to the port when we were spotted by the Port trust guys. People in white custom officer clothes came and spoke to us in Hindi. Then I spoke to them in my Hindi and they started speaking in English. Finally they let us free after a lot of debating.

Me: Whoa, that was good, gimme the cam, lets take a pic to remember this

Ap: He he he, I left it with Kavitha da …

Me: Grrr … *&%^$

After a quick purchase of the ‘pooja saaman’ we headed to the farm house on Tindivanam road. It was a pretty nice one, car park, garden, full AC. Arun had this brilliant idea of keeping the AC on when we went out of the house. We kept the AC running and we went over for some joint cracking badminton session and soon after that we moved over to the swimming pool. A solid two hours of fun in the water. Only when we came back to the house did we realise the brilliance of Arun’s AC running idea. The rooms had a totally different climate and as the pooja began the room was freezing cold.

One round, two rounds, three rounds … 1950ml … Flat.

The next day started with a couple of hours of swimming and by the time we came back everyone was exhausted. We headed to Pondy for some amazing breakfast and we were once again on ECR. For some strange reason the ECR always seems to be longer while coming back to Chennai.

Here are some of the pics from the trip

Just as we started … In case you take a closer look, people who were late looks completely polished with a coat of make-up

Aparna and I. She is back for good from the Bengalooru. Good for her. Good for me.

This is a tree house above the backwaters some 35+ kms from Mahabs

Its so hard to reach your destination on time when people keep asking you to take pics with them. They even stretch their hand over the waters with their cam

Once again at the tree house

Pah! What a pic. The photographer must be blessed …

The only small proof of us going to the port’s basement beams

The badminton ring inside the farm. It was a wonderful game. Ashwin is flying back in Kollywood ishtyle cos of the force and speed at which the shuttle cock came to him

Ivana paarthu oru chinna paiyan foreignernu sollittaan … adhanaala dhaan saaruku punnagai

This is from the farm house’s balcony. The place is just right if you want to have a farm house party. Plus no police interruption like in the case of ECR, so your booze and you are absolutely safe

The swimming pool. Loved it. Just the five of us. You dont find many deep ones in Chennai, this one was good enough … We spent a good two hours in the pool in the night and another two hours in the morning.

Aaah! the diving shot … Ashwin clicked right in time. Cant forget the joint sprains for the next two days

It was a star studded …

… defeat. No, you can call it a disaster.

I freaked …

I freaked. That was during my +2 exams in 2002.

I freaked. This morning, thanks to my aunt. It was 8.50 in the morning and I was rushing with my breakfast when my aunt came up with a topic. Balaji’s bro-in-law is getting married. Its high time we started searching an alliance for you. I almost spilled the barley I was trying to drink. I couldn’t react. I turned to my aunt, tried my best to hide all the thoughts running together in my head and said, better do a proper research. My voice cracked. I freaked out. Totally.

For fun, I’ve had these conversations with my friends and family about getting married by this year, I even made my cousin bro believe that I’m in a serious relationship and want him to come sign the witness for marriage in case we elope. But today, my aunt kicked the guts out of me. I’m only 23 and I don’t want to get married for the next 4 years.

Marriage definitely is a very beautiful bonding but I’m just not ready for it yet.

This kuruvi doesn’t fly

In case you have booked tickets for Kuruvi, try selling it off for atleast half the price. You’ll also save three hours of your time, twenty bucks on parking and a good hundred bucks on popcorn and coke.

Vijay’s big budget summer cooler Kuruvi is an outright disappointment for Dharani fans. Vijay fans did enjoy the movie. I still remember the previous Vijay-Dharani combo Gilli, it kept the audience at the edge of their seat. As always expectation has once again killed. This movie cannot get worser.

Nobody comes to watch Kuruvi expecting to see a feel good family entertainer, everybody wants a racy, no logic and all magic movie from Vijay and Dharani. As the plot opens, there are cars lined up in a race track all set to burn rubber. There is Vivek and there is Malavika and then comes Vijay right out of a man hole. God. We were all set to throw bits of papers as Vijay comes on screen but when he came out all wet from the man hole, he only dampened our spirits. Come on, when people in the race tracks are waiting for Vijay, he should have come out of nowhere and land on his fully loaded race machine, instead he comes flying out of the man hole with all smiles and takes an auto to the race track only to drive a completely disfigured Skoda Octavia.

Once again Suman makes a bad villain. No not a bad bad villainy guy, he was a bad choice as a villain. Any day he can give Vivek a run for his money. And Trisha, she might easily be banned from films for comparing Vijay to Antonio Banderas in one of the scenes. Not to mention the songs, I was infact waiting for the movie after listening to the songs. Sadly none of them were trademarked with Vijay or Dharani’s stamp.

The story takes place at Cuddapah, Chennai and Kuala Lumpur but not even at one of these places does the story actually start. All through the movie it is a group of people chasing Vijay. He runs, they chase. He runs, they chase. He runs, they chase. Suddenly the title cards start running, giving a hint that the movie is over. Even then I waited patiently for the movie to start but only as people started walking out did it hit my brain that the movie was over.

No doubt Vijay is a good actor, a very good dancer, but no director is making proper use of his talent and popularity. And Dharani is in fact one of the best screenplay writers. Even when there is no story, he can weave a screenplay around the characters and make the movie a blockbuster. Dhool and Gilli are rock solid examples of his ability to keep the audience bitting the nails. But Kuruvi flies out of the hands of Vijay and Dharani.

Cricket, Cinema and Chennai …

… goes hand-in-hand.

A quick phone call to Mia in the afternoon and she gets me tickets for the IPL matches in Chennai. I was hoping for normal stands but the it turned out to be a pavilion. In the row beside us was Vijay. In the AC cabin behind us was our CM.

The flavour of Twenty20 is still fresh and is keeping the crowd in high spirits all through the four hours of the game. The essence of cricket has been retained but a lot of cinema has been added to make the IPL taste splendid.

What could be a better way than to start the evening at Chepauk with Hariharan and Sivamani rocking the stands with their music. Soon the Chennai Super Kings brand ambassador Vijay joins in and makes a walk around the ground. The crowd erupted in joy. Vijay came up to the pavilion and the crowd ran to him for autographs. Mia and me rushed up to him like we’ve never met him in our lives, to get a closer look of the actor. No matter how much ever we meet them in person, the joy of rushing up to a star, fighting the way through the crowd has to be experienced.

And after a very quick two hours of music, cinema gave way to cricket. The Mexican wave by the crowd was a perfect sync. No one new anyone in the 40,000+ crowd but everyone joined together for a Mexican wave all around the stadium. The match rocked till the very last ball.

Everytime a Chennai team scored, there was a Rajini / Vijay / Ajith / Vikram number played and for Mumbai there was Hrithik’s numbers. Very bad DJ btw, no fade in, no fade out. It was like listenting to ear drum tearing music in Amman temple.

Keeping spirits high even after 4 whole hours of cheering. Wondering why Mia alone isn’t sweating? She has a ‘do-it-yourself in 1 minute’ make up kit. Even before I switched on the cam and gave it to the chick sitting in front of us to click a pic, Mia was ready

Cinema, cinema and more cinema

In India …

… there is Commercial Cinema. Two and a half hours of story telling sans logic but with a prolonging string of gripping incidents.

And there is Intelligent Cinema. Two and a half hours of story telling. The viewer will be amazed by the enormous amount of thinking and reasoning their brain does while watching the movie and still does for hours after watching the movie.

Intelligent cinema is not the art cinema. Infact art cinema / art film does not exist. There is only Commercial Cinema (CC) and Intelligent Cinema (IC). Not all CCs make money nor all ICs flop. In this 100+ years of Indian cinema, there has been a steady mix of CC and IC which keeps the industry running. While a movie like Lage Raho Munna Bhai made the heads all over the World turn by getting an Oscar nomination, commercial films like Sivaji made it to the UK Top 10 making heads turn.

While watching a movie on TV today, I was struck with the contrast of the CC and IC and how they co-exist in the cinema eco-system.

While my working schedules have deprived me of my blogging time, I am going to start with a series on ‘Intelligent Cinemas from India’ to keep the so called writer in me from sleeping. It is your participation which is going to add value to the series by means of discussions. My views, your views and our take on cinema would now be a regular in this blog.

By the way, I’ve got a domain name and now it is up and running on my blog. My old URL will automatically redirect you here but if you have a problem with it do update your blogroll / feeds to www.tudinesh.com.

Vijay, all set to fly with Kuruvi

The shootings are going in full pace for this movie which was to be released this month. But better best late than never.

Kuruvi’s audio is already making waves. Being a non-Vijay fan, I am hooked to it. Especially the opening number, the happy new year, palaanadhu and the theme music. I just cant wait to see Vijay in director Dharani’s eyes. Their previous combo Ghilli rocked the box office and Kuruvi is definitely going to keep the box office ringing err singing. Dharani is definitely the prince of screenplays (the King being Bhagyaraj) in Tamil. There is absolutely zero logic in his movie but he keeps the audience hooked with his tight gripped screenplay and shot division. Otherwise a crap like Ghilli wouldn’t have even found a distributor. Of course Vijay also has a huge hand in the movie’s success. He underplayed his role after learning his lessons from Bhagavathy and Pudhiya Geethai kind of movies. I am waiting for the FDFS.

Here is a million dollar question: Kuruvi is produced by Stalin’s son Udayanidhi. Do you think the movie’s thirutu DVD will flood the market within a week of it’s release?