Anniyanai Vidathu Karuppu

Warning: Some spoilers of the movie 'Anniyan' and the TV serial 'Marma Desam: VidAthu karuppu' will be found.

During the time when Anniyan was released, I was very thrilled with the concept and the fact that it was a vigilante movie by Shankar further fuelled my interest on the movie, which culminated in a string of posts in May-June 2005. After watching the movie too, I was very impressed by it. Logistics and the irritating 'Remo' apart, it was quite a nice portrayal of multiple-personality disorder (MPD) or split personality. Add to that some fine acting by Vikram, it was a movie I never got bored of watching any number of times.

Then I happened to watch 'VidAthu karuppu' on a website recently. It was totally awesome. It was such a different tele-serial that I felt like I was watching a very long and superb movie. This is easily the best tele-serial I have ever watched. So many visitors of the website were anxiously waiting for the posting of each episode. The suspense was too much to take. It has nearly ended, and, towards the end came the shocking revelation of the split personality of a main character which was the 'Karuppu'. It was then that the 'Anniyan' connection became clear.

A few bloggers have compared Anniyan with Vidathu Karuppu, but none of the famous movie reviewers nor the professional reviewers pointed the 'inspiration' for Shankar. Let me point them all:

1) The 'normal' personality is a scary goose.

2) The normal one has witnessed some gory deaths and societal injustice in the childhood, which becomes the seed for the eventual growth of a new personality.

3) An elderly female character in the family talks about punishment by God, of the people who do wrong, which goes into the thinking process leading to the split personality.

4) The girl whom the normal one loves, likes him as a harmless friend, but doesnt love him since she views him to be boring and cowardly.

5) The girl is the one who first becomes aware of the dual/multiple personality of the main character.

6) The persons who are killed by the split personality are those whom the normal guy has seen doing wrong.

7) A confusion/defeat for the split personality is suggested/shown to cause the disappearance of that personality.

8) The imporant parts of the MPD, which is the transition from one personality to the other, the accompanying confusion, and the timing of revelation of the second personality, are not discussed.

9) In the climax, rapid switching between the personalities were acted well by characters in both the serial and TV. So, the famous MGR-Sivaji-Kamal-Rajni scene of Vikram is a heavy inspiration from the serial.

10) Both the second personalities have a voice rougher than and different from the original voice.

From these points, it must be clear how ground-breaking the serial was, which was telecast over 9 years ago. The director, Naga is a film institute student, and is the cinematographer for the serial too. So, he has superbly captured the beauty of the village, and the mystery of the nights with clever camera angles. Each role has been brilliantly played by everyone, with Chetan winning the award with an unforgettable performance. Devadarshini delivers a strong female performance, but her character is shown to be clever, independent and, unlike in movies, unsubmissive. Even the supporting cast is not naive at all. Care has gone into the sculpting of each character and the story line, which proceeds in two parallel timelines - past and present. Not to forget the subtle, but brilliant and natural performance by the little boy, Logesh. Where is he now?

While the tele-serial proceeds with both the supernatural, and hence scientifically unexplainable events and the MPD, Shankar simply chose only MPD. Vidaathu Karuppu has touched upon several fine aspects of love and society which are: Friendship, feminism, caste differences, commanality among religions, village way of life, thieves as a part of social structure, the rich people who indirectly steal from commoners and hence are more dangerous, mythical beliefs, revenge, punishment, confusion arising from clash of beliefs, and control through religion.

The recent news about Shankar producing a big budget movie to be directed by Naga is interesting. Not having credited or even mentioend Naga for the inspiration, it appears to be Shankar's attempt towards salvation to remove his guilt. Having said that, can't wait to watch 'Anthapurathu Veedu'.

Quoting dance master Sridhar, "Indha mAdhiri serial edungappA.. edhavadhu sollanumnu thonudhA?".

Demography of bloggers

Blogging has become another important social networking tool in the past few years. Through blogrolling, commenting etc. we keep in touch with fellow bloggers of similar interests and/or nationaliry. I have heard from some of my friends that it is quite difficult to know a person through his/her blogs. I always used to tell that, one can hide certain personality traits for sometime, but over a long period of time and several dozens of posts, they would eventually be revealed. In that sense, this is my attempt to categorize the bloggers.

* Happy-go-lucky:

Starting with a positive point, these bloggers, who are mostly unmarried, write about everything they like and what they are happy about. When one reads such a blog, it will look as if the world is one big happy sphere with nothing but positive energy vibrating through it. They have the uncanny ability to see the good in everything around them. Its good to visit such blogs once a while.

* Dual personality:

And then there are some who write so sweet posts which totally apply to one and all, and we form one sort of impression about them. In the very next post, we see a nasty attack on some celebrity and they totally defend what they write. When someone strongly protests their writings, they go to the usual offending mode of "This is my opinion, and I can write whatever I think in my blog.. who asked you to come and see me?" kind of things. IMHO, blogs are open to public and are of course criticizable. These bloggers are highly temperamental and moody too. People who comment regularly in such blogs are also scared to write anything -ve about that person. Even if they write a simple but -ve comment like "I think you are wrong" they put a smiley in the end. I laugh at those smileys, which, to me, look like white flags saying, "Hey I am your friend.. dont shoot me!!".

* Deer in the disguise of a tiger:

These are the bloggers who show a very brave, smart and 'I-know-all' face in the blog. They are introvert &/or shy &/or scared in real life that they lead a pseudo life in the blog world. They get exposed when they are seen in real, or when they appear in some media. Just a few minutes ago I saw a tiger stripping itself to show the bunny inside. It was so hilarious. My whole impression on him has changed dramatically that I tend to see his writings in a totally new light.

*Harmless citizens

They simply mind their business. They have their small world of family, movies, music, books and things around these, about which they blog. Sometimes I imagine them sitting in front of their desktop when the kids are playing around them, and the wife is calling from kitchen saying that the dinner is ready. They hardly get angry, and I dont know how to show my anger to them if they write something I strongly disagree. Thats bcos if someone scolds them in the comments, they still reply with a smile, and they dont hide their biased view.

*Intellectuals

You cant just visit these blogs any time of the day. It is advisable to visit them only when you are at your alert best, bcoz their writings make you think a lot and you need to break your head. In order to fully understand their personality, several months are required. They cant simply write an XYZ post... their standard of intelligence has to be seen in every post. I wonder how they will be at their home.

* Anonymous

They love writing, and enjoy sharing their thoughts with others. They want to write so much but they have some restrictions. They can't afford to reveal their identity, due to some hesitation or shyness or fear. Their sp0use doesnt like their blogging activity, and hence there is some conflict. They keep a pseudoname and write carefully so that no hint about them is known. Very hard to see comments from people who personally know them.

If you think about some other category, feel free to comment. And, yeah, have a good weekend!! :)

Taste of India to American Audience (And an Important P.S.)

Many of you might have heard the recent news about an actor of Indian origin, Shelley Malil, who has been arrested for having stabbed his girlfriend in Los Angeles. Having got very few Indian actors to represent us in the American entertainment media, we could have certainly be better off without the Malil incident. Who else is out there? Let us see..

a) Manoj Night Shyamalan:

He doesnt need any introduction. Shot to huge fame after 'Sixth Sense', he was hailed as the next Spielberg, only to gradually disappoint after his first three movies. His last three movies released since 2004 have got mixed reactions from both the critics and the audience. His recent product 'The Happening' has been branded the worst Shyamalan movie so far. Though creepy and all, I came out of the movie hall disappointed. Hope he slowly gets back to his Sixth sense days..

b) Kal Penn:

Kalpen Modi, who changed his name to Kal Penn to suit the American audience, is gradually getting recognition and famous. He is the Kumar of the 'Harold and Kumar' series of movies. His performance as Gogol in Mira Nair's 'Namesake' has been widely appreciated. He is among the rare breed of Indian Americans who have got both artistic talent and academic excellence. He also stars as a doctor in the famous TV series 'House'.

c) Sendhil Ramamurthy:

I came to know about him from one of my students.. it was awkward. I saw 'Heroes', a famous TV series, in which he was the young Geneticist. He looks rugged and handsome. He has a mild Indian accent which is good to hear. While his role in 'Heroes' is quite big, he has appeared in other famous TV shows such as 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Num3ers'. Quite nice to have a Tamil representative in this list.

Though there are others like Mira Nair, Gurinder Chadha, and Shakhar Kapur who direct movies, they are not known among the audience in US because they dont appear on screen. Few other actors such as Ajay Naidu (Office space, pi, and The Guru), Naveen Andrews (Bride&Prejudice, Kama Sutra, Lost and Provoked), Sanjaya Malakar (of American Idol) and of course Aishwarya Rai have tried to make some impression among the American audiene with mixed success. Hope someone raises above the average mark and makes a big impression in Hollywood or American TV.

A Very Very Important P.S.: Happy Birthday to Xander Vijaykanth:

Tamil Nadu's only hope, Puratchi Kalaignar Gaptun Visayakanthukku jora oru salaam podunga!!

Chiru for Chief minister? (And Kuselan Mini-Review)

I haven't been following Andhra politics for sometime now, but still this news came as a huge surprise to me. Chiranjeevi and politics? Well, he was the megastar of Andhra after NTR so he is definitely aspiring to test his luck. With the state assembly elections around the corner in a few months, the announcement come along the lines of what Vijaykanth did three years ago. I watched Chiru's recent 'Tagore' and it had failure written all over its face and was duly rejected by the audience. Isn't it a sign for him to tread his path carefully? Hmmm... we never know what Andhrites think, when it comes to politics. Let's wait and watch..

Kuselan Mini-Review:

Not having watched Baba, Kuselan is the most boring Rajni movie since Pandian.

Rajni - Savior of the movie. Injects at least some life into an otherwise irritating story.

Pasupathy - Looks disinterested in the proceedings throughout. Is funny when he tries to dance with his family.

Nayanthara - Total waste, except for a couple of songs and some front-benchers. Among the entire cast (excl. Rajni) of double-chinners, pot-bellyholders and no-neckers, she is somewhat of a relief.

Meena - Tries to act as an 'ideal wife' which she just barely manages to pull off.

Vadivelu - Crass comedy, generously sprinkled with double entendres. Managed to show his true talent in the scene where he gets to meet Rajni.

Supporting cast: The less said about them, the better. The nuns of the school were shockingly silly; the gang of Livingston & co., were insipid, fellow shop-owners and neighbors of Pasupathy would have failed even a single episode of TV soap opera.

Music: One song sounds like 'Uruguthey', one like 'Veyilodu'.. Easily the worst album of GV Prakash.

Picturization: Horrible. Especially the song where the village praises Pasupathy. Dolphins and exotic waterfalls in a song were so hilarious.

Story & Screenplay: None. The main plot goes around and around and around until even the most patient of us scream "padathai mudingayya".

Dialogues: Amateurish. When Meena refuses the neighbour's food, and when Pasupathy refuses to meet Rajni, the dialogues sound deja-vu.

Cinematography: Zooming on the distorted mouths, faces and bodies of the fringe actors will not win you any awards.

Direction: P Vasu is back to his 'full form'. When a big deal is made out of a seamingly worthless issue, it is the worst possible plot one can get. I havent watched the Mallu original, but I doubt it must have been butchered by Vasu.

Attitude problems: Firstly, the film is not named after Pasupathy's character, as everyone thought. Rajni, in his final speech, makes it clear that he is 'Kuselan' (and there is a 'Krishna' twist to Pasupathy's role to justify that). So, this film is, after all, on Rajni. Secondly, when Sundarrajan asks some sensible questions to Rajni, I was truly surprised. The subsequent sommersault of Sundarrajan and Rajni's reactions to his questions, I thought, reflected Rajni's attitude on all of us who have and raise such questions.

Microsoft Windows - Name and Logo Analysis

Rediff had a feature today on the "Success story called Microsoft". Microsoft windows and its logo being the two things which we see/use almost everyday, and using it for the past 13 years, made me analyze the name and logo of the famous product. Idhai padichittu "enna, room pottu yosicheengalA"nnu ellam kEkkakoodathu.. Edho, ennoda ninaivalaigaL:


Microsoft's operating system, Windows, is the leader in the world's personal computer market. Contrary to the uniqueness of the name of the company, its most important product has bored a very simple and common name. Unlike its rivals which chose unconventional and hi-tech names for their operating systems (for instance, Unix and Mac OS), Microsoft chose a simplistic name for its product, probably to compensate for the fairly technical name of the company, unlike its rivals which had simple names (for example, Sun, Apple).

Similar to the way windows in homes are used for viewing the outside world, the operating system enables access to the vast space of the cyberworld. Turning the computer on is virtually like opening a window to see the world. Moreover, the operation of a computer is invariably accompanied by bright light of the monitor, comparable to opening windows at home letting sunlight, or brightness in. Windows protect the home from the attacks of bugs, and other harmful insects, and keeping that name for a product indicates protection of the computer from possible outside attack. Thus, there cannot arguably be a better word to symbolically describe the product than ‘Windows’.

Just as the name, the logo for Windows is a four panel window, with a different color for each panel. The earliest versions (3.x series) had a normal, simple window that seems to have either flown from the left or wavered or gradually disintegrated into smaller pieces. The panels were uniformly filled with the different colors. Windows 95’s boot logo, logo which appears when the computer starts, showed a colorful and unambiguously wavering window, usually at the backdrop of a blue sky with scattered clouds. The wavering/flying window was a welcome change from the placid one used for the earlier version. The moving image firmly helped the consumers remember and retain the rectangular colorful panel as the logo of windows in their mind.

When the version XP was introduced at the dawn of the new century, it didn’t have the black frame of the window and the tailing dots. It was undoubtedly more elegant without the negative shade of the dark frame. Moreover, the colors were lighter, fluorescent, and this time, the wavering is exemplified by the curvy panels and the lines of lighter hue running straight down the panels. That they are off the ground is shown by the grey shadows beneath the panels. The most recent version, Windows Vista, is very similar to its previous one, except for a circle of brightness, centered at the point where all the four panels meet. This makes a graded color contrast diagonally across the panels. This contrast further adds to the beauty of the logo. It creates an illusion as though there is Sun right behind the window and its brightness has seeped into the window panels.

The choice of colors for the four panels is interesting. They are red, green, blue and yellow. The first three colors are called the primary colors of vision. Mixing them in various proportions produces all the colors of the world. They, along with yellow, constitute what are called ‘opponent colors’, according to the Theory of Colors. The intricacies of the theory are beyond the scope of this essay, but, in essence, the theory says that these are the four colors that the human eye would be able to differentiate to the fullest extent. Interestingly, the cyclic order in which these colors are stacked in a rectangle is the same way they appear on the Windows logo. The various cells responsible for vision in the eye process red-green and blue-yellow differences. By pairing exactly the same set of colors, Microsoft has made the logo look aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The text accompanying the icon has also undergone considerable change. The earliest version had Microsoft and Windows written with the same type and size of font. It was essential, since the product was new and it had to be properly introduced and familiarized to the consumers. Once the people became aware of the company Microsoft and the logo, the size of Microsoft in the logo gradually decreased. Nearly all of the targeted audience would have certainly come across the logo either as a user or an owner of the product. Thus, for the latest ‘Windows Vista’, it was necessary to add the company’s name at all – the case of a product proudly speaking on behalf of its developers.

Windows is unarguably the most purchased product of any kind in the history of mankind. The success of such phenomenal scale was possible by a combination of factors, such as simplicity of the software, its user-friendliness, smart advertising tactics, and constant upgrading for improvisation. Not surprisingly, all these qualities can be said of the logo as well.

Dasavathaaram

The most eagerly awaited movie of recent times is here at last. With Kamal donning 10 unique roles, and several of their identities having been kept secretly, the major curiosity was about how Kamal is going to surprise us on the screen. Also, there was this big question of the justification of all the 10 roles. Kamal has done a splendid job as an actor most of the time, and as a script writer, not that much. I would say that I wasnt enthralled about everything after the movie; it has its share of high moments and a few low ones as well.
The movie begins with Govind (Kamal 1) sharing the dais with Karunanidhi, Manmohan Singh and George Bush (Kamal 2) in Chennai and delivering an intense, though visually distracted speech on bioterrorism and saving the earth, and makes a reference to the 12th century, when Saiva-Vaishnava conflict was at its peak in South India. Rangaraja Nambi (Kamal 3) attempts to stop Kulothunga Cholan-II (Nepoleon) from removing the deity of Lord Vishnu from the famous Govindaswamy temple of Chidambaram. He also refuses to convert to Saivism. Both these acts anger Nepoleon, who orders Kamal to be tied to the deity and dumped into the Bay of Bengal.

Back to the 21st century, in Philadelphia, Govind is a biotechnologist, specialized in virology. He works in a private company which expertises in biological weapons. Govind and his colleagues have just invented a deadly airborne virus which attracts some bad elements to the company for a lucrative deal with some high authorities. Kamal finds about it just in time and takes away the capsule in which the virus is stored and fleds. The bad elements employ Christian Fletcher (Kamal 4), a former CIA agent to retrieve the capsule from Govind. Then begins the cat-and-mouse game, which brings all the players to Tamil Nadu. The other six characters of Kamal intersect this deadly game, which proceeds with a lot of blood spills before culminating in a gargantuan climax involving Tsunami.

The first half of the movie has one of the most fast-paced screenplays in Tamil films. Too many things happen so quickly that even the songs dont have the usual decelerating effect. The characters are well-etched and the story takes us through 12th century Chidambaram, modern Philadelphia and Washington DC, Japan and India. The second half drags in comparison to that and reduces the slickness of the movie. Asin's character is a huge letdown since she is downright irritating after the melodious and sweet 'Mukunda' song. She is the weaklink in the movie, and in the end, one cant but feel that her character could be done away with. The 'romance' between Kamal and Asin is the worst I have seen in any Kamal movies.

The role of Rangarajan Nambi is the most intense among all, though Balram Naidu role as the RAW officer wins the best of 10 avtars. He is so hilarious, with some very funny lines and body language. Fletcher comes next best, whereas the 'lighthouse' Khalifa is the least impressive, followed by the Japanese guy. Also, on the Avtar Singh show, the big question is, how come a Punjabi singer gets such a rousing reception and crowd in Chennai? Amazing how Kamal could appear very tall and quite short (the 'paatti' role). After the initial excitement of seeing Kamal in different roles fades away, we get engrossed in the proceedings of the movie, treating as though the various roles are played by different actors.

Though the story is quite weak, there are some intelligent and brilliant scenes throughout the movie, which challenge our grey matter. My favorite scenes are: the appearance of hawk when Rangarajan Nambi is tortured, a butterfly flying in some scenes (Butterfly effect), Bush's question ("What is NaCl?") and the next few seconds, a scientist's remark on NaCl ("I cant explain you more than NaCl for this stuff in Tamil"), his stand on faith ("I am not saying that God is not there, but I'm saying that it would be good if God is there"). Also, there is a lot of thinking process that has gone into naming and characterizing the Indian roles. e.g., 'Boovaraghan' is a dark-skinned (probably pork-eating) Dalit activist whose quest is to save the land (sand); 'Avtar' Singh is a singer who gets a new avtar (lease of life) after narrowly escaping from the jaws of death. And the shorter-statured 'paatti' steps onto people's shoulders before committing an act that would save the state.

The songs, as I mentioned earlier, dont have much impact on the movie, so Himesh Reshammiya's efforts appear to neither strengthen nor weaken the script. Technically it is superb, though the camera appears to move too fast in many scenes, leading to blurred images. Also, the link between the events of the 12th century and the current time is hard to see, which makes the initial episode stand aloof. (Though one can say that 'religious conflict' is the common factor, it subtly portrayed).

Dasavathaaram is a visual treat, and is breathtaking in several scenes. Had the story been little solid, it would have done full justice to all the hype and the money spent.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones series has been one of the top 10 best Hollywood series of all times, what with two legendary film-makers - George Lucas and Steven Spielberg joining hands together. I had watched and enjoyed the first three movies in this series, and so when I came to know that, after nearly twenty years Indy is back, I had mixed feelings, bcos I didnt like Harrison Ford's movies of the past decade and I was doubtful about his having necessary energy to carry a movie entirely on his shoulders. Now, after watching, I can tell that old is indeed gold..

For an Indy movie, you dont need a super-strong story; and you invariably know the ending as well (pretty much like our masala movies) .. so the challenge for the director is to show the events in an interesting fashion, with intelligent screenplay, some twists here and there and with quite a bit of help from graphics. Spielberg mostly succeeds in the latest version too.. but he liberally borrows ideas from movies that have been released in the interim period, making us feel a sense of deja vu. For ex, several scenes remind us of some classy shots from Jackie Chan's 'Operation condor', 'Mummy returns', and a few James Bond movies.

The movie has its nice moments too.. the scenes involving insects and reptiles are hair-raising, as usual.. and the ride in Amazon river is amazing. The climax is a little disappointing and made me wonder why recently Spielberg and alien-centric climaxes dont go well at all. For many people, this might be their first Indy movie on-screen (like my case), many oldies might feel this to be their last, so just for the sake of it, I am sure that there will be a good audience to see Indy on silver screen.

Tamil Cine Quiz - 6

Another music quiz.. The first is quite easy whereas the next two are somewhat hard, I think.. As usual, comment moderation is in place; and more clues might be revealed depending on the response..

1) What is common among the following pairs of songs? (a) "Janani, Janani" (Thai Moohambikai) and "Idhu kAdhalA" (Thulluvatho Ilamai); (b) "KAdhal sadugudu" (Alaipayuthey) and "Pon mAlai" (NizhalgaL); (c) "Solladi" (KAdhalil vizhundhEn) and "Hello mister" (Iruvar); and (d) "Engirundho" (En jeevan pAduthu) and "Shenbagame" (Enva ooru pAttukkAran)?

2) What is common among these three movies - Priya, Dhool and Kuruvi? (Plz remember it is a music quiz). One song in each of these movies has a common thread connecting it to the other two. To the best of my knowledge, that is a very unique thread. It has something to do with preludes... the songs are a duet, a solo and sort of a duet respectively for the 3 movies mentioned above.

3) Recently we get to hear a lot of remix songs. Surprisingly, AR Rahman, in one of his earliest movies (among his earliest 3) re-mixed a song penned by Vairamuthu and composed by MS Viswanathan. The original version was so-so and not very popular (it was repeatedly played in DD only), but the remade version turned out to be a great hit. Which song is it?

Stem Cell Controversy-A primer

Some of you might be familiar with controversy involving 'Stem cell research'. Human stem cells are derived from humans and have the capability to differentiate into different types of cells (such as blood and organs). There are two kinds of stem cells – human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and adult stem cells. The former ones are derived by destruction of an early stage embryo whereas the latter ones are derived from a tissue sample obtained from an adult. Both these types have generated controversy – the former due to the ethical and religious belief that it is wrong to destroy a human embryo, albeit with the permission of the parents, and the latter due to the fear of human cloning. The interplay between religion, ethics, legal issues, commercial interests and Government policies have made the stem cell research a very controversial topic recently.

In order to understand the controversy on stem cell research, it is important to acquire some knowledge on its fundamentals. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are derived from blastocyst, which is the inner mass of an early cell embryo. A few days after fertilization (typically 4 to 5 days), the embryos reach the blastocyst stage and at this time they consist of about 50-100 cells. These cells would be able to differentiate into about 220 different types of cells that are found in an adult body. Hence, they have excellent capacity for self-renewal, making them attractive in degenerative medicine and post-injury tissue replacement technique. The controversy arises from the fact that while extracting out the embryonic inner mass, the embryos get destroyed, and the religious groups consider it akin to ending a human life.

The proponents of life argue that destroying an embryo is against human dignity and that one life is sacrificed for the sake of another. There are ethical and religious protests on the use and destruction of human embryo for stem cell research. This has led to the ban for stem cell research in some Western countries and some of the states of the U.S.A. In most of the Western countries in which Christianity is the primary religion, the hESC research does not get Government funding. Private funded research is allowed in most cases. This arises an inconvenient question as to, if the hESC research is deemed unethical and anti-religious in the first place, why show vague double standards in allowing private funding while stopping Government funding, as opposed to totally ban such research.

Are these embryos equivalent to a ‘person’? Various religious groups consider different timeframes about when ensoulment takes place. Some have revised the timeframe (usually to an earlier time) after scientific discoveries started to reveal the exact chronological events of human embryonic growth. Pro-life activists argue that an embryo has to be considered as a human immediately after conception and bring ethical questions about destroying that embryo, on the similar line of argument that they use while opposing abortion.

We can classify the people of this planet into three broad categories – traditional Christians, post-Christians and followers of Eastern religions, the tolerance to and acceptance of stem cell research increasing from left to right. Whereas the first category resists the creation and destruction of human embryos because they consider an embryo to be a child, the last category doesn’t object and in fact supports stem cell research due to their religious beliefs that concern reincarnation and karma. Due to this divide, some scientists are heading east, and, if the scientists in the eastern countries succeed in curing some diseases or cloning the children via stem cell research, the desperate people will also head to such countries to avail the facilities.

A more elaborate look at the voices and concerns of people of different religion and beliefs shows that the opinion of the world is certainly divided in the issue of stem cell research. Several non-Catholic Christian groups don’t mind hESC research with the consent of the mother. The religious argument against hESC research would be much stronger if all religions agreed. The problem is difficult and emotions run high. Religions are attempting to reconcile the overlapping rights of three parties: the mother, an embryo and the patient. The answer is certainly not an easy one.

Though the scientific progress in this Government-funded area of research has been promising for the cure of aforementioned diseases, it has also received its share of resistance, mainly due to the fear that man should not play God and use the adult stem cells for human cloning. Though several U.S. states and Western countries have banned human cloning, some of the Eastern countries haven’t. And that again, along the lines of hESC research policy, divides the world. The use of human cloning as a cure for certain emotional matters, such as, loss of a child or donation of bone marrow for transplant, plus the deep inner urge by the scientists to solve the ultimate challenge of nature – creation of a human – all have caused a substantial private funding in human cloning research.

Rather than think that the humans try to outsmart God by entering into his realm of creation and destruction, the people should think that it is God who is gradually revealing the nuances of his powers to humans. Such a thought would drive away the ‘Man vs God’ argument and reinforce ‘Man aided by God’ faith. After all, one can argue that, if God wants to keep his utmost secrets to himself, why can he not hide it from the humans for ever? Such a philosophical/theological thought aside, the numerous medical advancements that the stem cell research promises must allow its opponents and Government to let the scientists do their job under the watchful eyes. After all, a life saved is a life created.

Kuruvi

Sometimes I tend to place too much hope on a director that I neglect all the ominous signs coming out from various quarters. First was Skanda's comment in Balaji's post; the second was the interview of Gautam Menon that Vijay wants his movies to have the masala elements of his legendary flims Sivakasi and Thiruppachi. I think Perarasu is probably the worst thing to have happened to Vijay and going to Tollywood, to Dharani; both these seem to have rubbed on a reliable director like Dharani too, which makes us wonder whether it is indeed he who gave us Dhil, Dhool and Gilli.

I got the feeling of watching a 80's telugu-dubbed movie; remember the stories where a goon or a landlord enslaves an entire village, tortures and kills them? (Maaveeran, anyone?) Kuruvi is shockingly similar to those violent-n-loud movies. The director is badly inspired from Hollywood movies like The Mask of Zorro and Blood Diamond. Worst, the second half happens in Andhra, so we have a Ghaddar-like villain, a loud MLA who shoots at the drop of the hat, his brother who is always shouting and another stereotyped villain can get away with atrocities in cities of the caliber of Kuala Lumpur and Chennai.

Kuruvi is carried almost entirely by Vivek in the first half, and once the action shifts to Andhra, it becomes brainless, totally predictable and sickening. Trisha is to the movie what the Andhra spicy pickle is to curd rice. Vijay has unnecessarily thinned down, having lost some muscle too, but looking younger. Suman is wasted even more than in Sivaji. Vijay starts the movie this time with a car race (engEyO idikkuthey..) Some of the songs are nice to listen to, but not so creatively picturized. The action scenes are as usual contrived, liberally copied from Matrix and superhero movies.

If at all you want to watch, do so only until 'Intermission'. By naming the movie after a cute little bird, the film crew have grossly insulted it.