Aa Dinagalu

Directed by K M Chaitanya.
Starring : Chethan, Rekha, Girish Karnad, Ashish Vidyarthi, Atul Kulkarni, Sharath Lohithashwa


Nice movie. Very strong dialogues. Brilliant music by Ilayaraja. There are only 2 songs, but truly Ilayaraja class! Nanditha, Yesudas and Ilayaraja have sung it brilliantly.

When I was listening to "sihi gaali" song, the lyrics of the song seemed so beautifully fitting the music. Gives you a feel of those lyrics of Kasturi Nivasa and the songs of that era. I looked up the lyricist's name and it was guessably K Kalyan.
Kudos to him.

Now coming to the actors. Chethan is a new guy. True Kannadiga - reflects in his overuse of the letter 'h' in his name. I read somewhere that Chethan is has done his masters in drama from the US and wants to act in Kannada movies. Welcome. He has done a decent job. Not many screw ups. But has to learn to cry well.

Atul Kulkarni was a good choice. But personally, I feel Kannada industry should not be using Hindi actors to do powerful roles. For example, in this movie, Ashish Vidyarthi cannot speak a word of kannada and that screws up the lip sync. It makes it look like a dubbed movie. Too bad. Same with Atul Kulkarni. But atleast Atul is very expressive and manages to make up for the lip sync issues.

Archana - Ok actor. Very beautiful.

Sharath Lohitaswa - Wow! Whattay voice. Nice acting. Where was he all these days I have seen him in a kannada serial once. Liked his voice then. He is surely wasting his talent by acting in TV serials.

Girish Karnad - No comments. Never like his acting.

I liked the guy - character in the movie : sardaar. Some how such people do not get important roles.

I also learnt that there is a kannada word for underworld. It is called Bhoogata jagattu.

In all, must watch Kannada movie. In the sea of puneet raj kumar, sudeep and darshan movies, and deluge of Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala and Udit Narayan songs, such movies come and go. For a lot of people it goes unnoticed. This is not the one you should be missing.

Painting the Room - Day 1

First time in life I had my hands dirty in distemper. Pretty cool.
Saturday, Kavya, Anitha, Pacchi, Anu and I painted the new room in our school. Light yellow on 3 walls and dark yellow on the fourth. Memorable. But as Kavya never does, she did not get her camera. So the moments of joy could not be captured for ever.
Anitha got the best compliment. A guy on the road asked her if she was a painter and what kind of painting she did. She was excited.
Anu did the painting but did not get her hands dirty. Did she do any painting?!
Pacchi's long hands reached every corner and swatted all spiders. Credit for painting the top corners has to go to him!
Kavya was the brain behind the act.
I was the water boy. I got people alu bun, dilpasand, water (of course) and paint. I made sure that the fellow painters were happy. Did no worthwhile work but without shame take credit of getting all of us together. Getting all the skilled workers under one roof is a tough job, I say!

Doing the second round of painting and fixing of the board this week. Interested people can join. We are only 4 this weekend. We need 2 more. Early bird gets the nail (to nail the board in the wall).

Later that day, we went to this restaurant called Colonial. The whorestest dinner I have had, till date.

Oh, Happy birthday Chili. From year you will be in your early thirties! What can I say!

HEC Montreal.

I got an admit from HEC Montreal for an intesive MBA starting August 2008. If everything goes well, I will be leaving in second week of August. For all those in Bangalore, I shall see you in exactly 1 year. Hope time flies.

Wiki Montreal. Good stuff.

Parambikulum.

I went to a place called Parambikulum on saturday. It is a wildlife sanctuary near Pollachi, Kerala. They have interesting packages. The one we went for was called the Tented Niche. We stayed at Parambikulum and did some animal and bird watching. It is a dense forest with 26 tigers in it. Totally unexplored and maintained by the tribes around there. The govt. is doing well to maintain the serenity of the place.

We saw deers, Elephants (a huge heard of them), bisons and wild boars. There are 26 tigers, but we could not spot any. The govt does not allow night safari as they do not want to disturb the animals in the night. It seems like a untouched forest, much like the silent valley that Chili had been to.

The interesting packages there are :
Anekal Wild : It is a 3 km trek into the forest. This is available only 5 days in a month (on full moon nights). There will be a tent for 6 people in the middle of the jungle and with us will be 2 naturalists, 2 gunmen and 2 watchmen. We have to carry the grocery and food will be prepared for us. bathrooms available. It is only one night action and we will have to wait all night to spot any animal. Chances of spotting a tiger are the highest (though people have come there 10 times and have not been able to see one). It is 3000 / tent per night.

Vengoli : This is also in the middle of the forest for one night. Since this is a daily package, the human intervention in this part of the forest is high. But, chances of spotting animals in the night is high. This package starts from 4 pm in the evening till the next morning. Grocery needs to be taken. Bathrooms not available (I think) and it is a 6 km trek to the place.

TramwayTrek : It is a 2 day trek. Total of 25 km through the forest. You will be walking through the forest with 2 naturalists, 2 gunmen and 2 watchmen in the night. You will be trekking from Parambikulum to Adarampalli. Chances of spotting a rare animals is high. Cost - 6000 for 5 people.

There are other night treks starting at 11 pm up till 2 am. From parambikulum to parambikulum, I think.

Trombay trek might be difficult for some people. Anekal wild is the most exciting. It will be really exciting to catch a glimpse of of the wild cats (restricting the usage to animals only, not porn movies. )

This place will be closed during monsoon - September, October, November. And people there understand only Tamil and Malayalam. So you can ask Chili or Achuth to get more details, do the booking etc. For booking, you need to send a money order of the advance amount.

It is about 10 hours journey from here till Parambikulum. We could take our cars or hire a TT.

Contact numbers :

04253 - 277251 - Mahendrekran
04253 - 277249 - Chandran
(These are the boat men who gave us all the details. They will also suggest good guides and organize things for us, if needed)

Parambikulum Eco-Center contact :
04253 – 245025. Ask for Gopi. He is very helpful. You can take the reference of Dinesh and the group of 6 people who came on June 7th.

Website : http://www.parambikulam.org

Okay, you will find all this info on the website. I did not know till I looked now.