• Once in a blue moon..

    ..comes a movie, these days, that forces me to write about it thanks to its mindblowing simplicity. Yes, that is a rare combination of words, at least for me. 🙂

    I had hoped to watch Neelathamara when I’d gone home last, but was quite surprised to find that it wasn’t playing anymore in any of the theatres in Cochin. So, when it was released in PVR a fortnight back, I made it a point to book in advance, since very few Malayalam movies last beyond a week here. We had some drama off the screen, since Sreedevi Unni, who has a major role in the movie, was also in the theatre. Also, the entire title sequence was shown in split screen despite the traditional howling protests. Apparently the projection guy was busy with his dinner!! 🙂

    In this age when the “poor girl meets rich boy and falls in love” theme is used mainly in film spoofs, it is perhaps impossible to imagine that this seemingly flimsy storyline can evolve into a movie that kept me spellbound for almost 2 hours. Neelathamara would translate to “blue lotus”, but as a character points out in the beginning of the movie, the flower in question is really not a lotus. But it does serve as a symbol of dreams, faith and perhaps, illusions too.

    The movie is based on an original story by M.T.Vasudevan Nair, and was also made into a movie way back in 1979, with him writing the script. This is a modern retelling and the same author has made a few tweaks to suit a modern audience. Kudos to him for doing that but yet ensuring that the simplicity of the original story is retained. I couldn’t slot this movie into any pre defined movie category of mine. It didn’t make me think, it is definitely not timepass, it does not serve out dollops of comedy/drama/action and yet it affected me more than any recent movie has.

    So what really was it that worked? There were a set of well written characters, who retained a certain integrity about themselves. Each of them were special in their own way, and not just the main characters, but the supporting cast too -Sreedevi Unni as the hero’s mother, Rima Kallingal as Ammini (after the urban woman in rithu, this character was a polar opposite, but handled well), Samvrutha as Ratnam in a neat cameo, the bhagavathar who never appears on screen, but whose music adds so much to the movie, the aashaan whose wise words about the nature of life remained with me, they all played a crucial part. The author also managed to leave a few things to the viewer’s imagination, giving enough hints to help complete the story. (Ammini’s story) Archana who plays the principal character of Kunjimalu steals the show with her subtle rendition. And though the hero is really no match, (erm, no pun intended, really) his portrayal of a character whose interest in the girl is at best a distraction, is quite genuine.

    The songs are absolutely fantastic, and while sublime in themselves, also manage to take the storyline forward. This would be my favourite.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCk2KM-j0EE

    The movie runs at its own pace, and yet never managed to bore me. A lot of it had perhaps to do with the way it has re-captured a rustic Kerala setting from a few decades back. The temple, temple pond gossip, aalmaram conversations, they seem a world from long ago, simple and almost self sufficient. I think that’s just it. While I was born in a city and lived all my life there, the world the movie is set in, is one I am familiar with, thanks to vacations and temple visits. The movie was a journey in time, and more than a place and time, it was a way of life. It rekindled a hope in me, that one day I’ll be able to go back to Kerala, and live in that state.. of mind.  Its a dream of simplicity, my very own neelathamara.

    until next time,  if you haven’t done so yet, visit the spanking new home – www.manuprasad.com 🙂

  • Flambe

    One of the other side effects (other than one’s own sides, that is) of having a Food Court almost next door, is that eating out is easily taken care of. And that’s why it took us quite a few weeks to unplug ourselves from ‘Crepe Connection’ and visit a new place.

    ‘Flambe‘ opened a few weeks back in Koramangala, opposite GK Vale, and above the Bata showroom – on the same road  (map) that has China Pearl, Vicky’s Tava Lounge, Oye Amritsar, The Esplanade etc.. Parking shouldn’t be too difficult, even for 4 wheelers since there are many side roads. Flambe has an a/c dining section as well as a terrace section. With the kind of weather Bangalore’s been having, we chose the latter.

    It’s quite a pleasant setting, though the seats with a view of the road are clearly meant for larger groups. Also, some of the tables, though aesthetically appealing, lack a bit on functionality, since they are too low.

    Over to the menu. Multi-cuisine meant that there was much choice. For starters, there are Nachos and Cheese Fritters, Corn & Cheese balls, Paneer Kalimirch, Achari Tandoor Mushrooms etc, priced at Rs.110, for the veggies, and for the meat minded, Chicken Satay, Crispy Lamb, Pahadi Murgh,Reshmi Kabab, Lahori Boti Kabab etc and seafood too – fish – lasooni fish tikka to fish fingers, calamari, shrimp, priced  between Rs.110 – Rs.320. The soup section, relatively, has fewer options – about 4 veg options, priced at Rs.60 and about 10 non veg options from the regular Hot & Sour and Chicken Shorba to the zuppa di pesce at Rs.70-110. There are a few salad options too, about 3 each in veg and non veg at Rs.70-140.

    The main course starts with sizzlers and flambe options – veg, chicken and seafood in both cases. There are half a dozen sizzler options, priced at Rs.100-330, and 9 flambe options, at Rs.200-400. You also get other regulars like Stroganoff, enchiladas, fish’n’chips, a few pasta options. (Rs.110-270) Multi-cuisine means that these share the menu with sweet’n’sour vegetables, Methi Chaman, Hyderabadi kadai Subzi, Dal makhni etc (Rs.70-140) and Diced Chicken in Black pepper, Shredded lamb with onion and capsicum, Mutton Kolhapuri, Malabar fish curry, Goan prawns curry, Murgh Adraki etc  (Rs.190-320). To go along with that, there are quite a few rice and roti options. They also have a snack menu.

    We went through all of that, while munching a plate of nachos, complimentary. 🙂  We finally chose a Brodo di Pollo, “a traditional italian chicken broth served on a slice of toasted bread”, to start with. I think they meant along with a slice of toasted bread, or probably not, because we got the by-two soup along with 1 croissant, which we erm, manually converted to by-two. But the broth was hot and tasty, with loads of chopped vegetables and chicken, though the taste did remind me a lot of Tabasco sauce.

    For the main course, we both chose from the flambe section. D, because, well if the restaurant were named so, this should be the specialty, and me, because it seemed destined. Earlier in the day, i had successfully ‘flambe’d’ my tongue, though with hot chocolate, not alcohol. D ordered a Chicken Pepperonata, “a traditional italian roast chicken with pimentos, flambed with red wine”, and I asked for a Chicken Diane, “boneless grilled chicken and bell peppers flambed with brandy, served with mushroom and pepper corn sauce”. The flooring has two levels, and we were on the upper part, which meant that, though we could see it, the flambe-ing couldn’t be done near our table. That does take a bit away, I thought. Both the items were quite good, though they managed to give me 2 free bones in my dish. When I asked about what ‘boneless’ meant, the guy appeared clueless and mumbled ‘only two bones at the side’. D’s Pepperonata was mildly spicy and tangy, though she felt that the meat could’ve been cooked a bit more. But notwithstanding that, still a good dish. The Chicken Diane was done very well, with a strong pepper flavor that I quite liked.

    There are a few dessert options, including Crepes and Banana Fritters, but we had a movie to catch, so we skipped dessert.

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.700, including service tax, and a service charge of 5%. The service is quite good and attentive, the ambiance is pleasant, and overall, a decent experience.

    Flambe, #93, 5th Cross, 6th Block, Koramangala Ph: 41606888/89

  • Version next

    Those kind souls who follow this blog’s feed on Google Reader or a similar service, might have noticed the change in url a few weeks back, to the /blog sub-domain. Apologies for the sudden flood of old posts in the last few days, the shift caused a few hiccups, and a post was also sacrificed. Thanks to an e-mail, it was retrieved, and was re-posted yesterday. The kinder souls who read posts till the very end might have noticed a small line on an announcement, a few posts back. Actually there are two, linked to each other. One of the announcements is the revamped main domain – www.manuprasad.com.

    I’ve always been experimenting with lifestreams – from the easy to set up Friendfeed to the slightly more difficult sweetcron, and several in between. But this time, I decided to get it done by a professional, and as far as my needs and expectations are concerned, Chugs did a great job.

    But why now, and why a professional approach. Well, the other announcement is that I’ve quit my job in The Times Group, though my last working day is more than a month away. I sense great shifts happening in the way we work, live and the way we function as a society, and I also feel that this is a great time to start creating the job work profile I’d like. The new website is a reflection of not just my work interests, but also me, as a person. My skill sets and interest areas are here. Thanks for your interest in advance. 🙂

    We started with Google Reader, so let’s end with it too. A significant feature was added to the service a few days back. Google Reader will now help you keep track of even pages which don’t have a web feed, like www.manuprasad.com. I plan to test this using my website, as I see it as a harbinger of some inorganic developments in the ‘feeds updates’ domain, which will be of great interest to corporate and brand websites.

    until next time, www.manuprasad.com, take a look 🙂

    Bonus Read: Hugh McLeod talks to Seth Godin on Linchpin

    PS. Meanwhile, a slightly dated piece of news – Got featured in Surekha Pillai’s list of top 10 desi twitterers in Impact magazine :))

  • The clique friendly web

    In spite of the last post, I’m a bit ambivalent about Vir Sanghvi’s column.

    On one hand, I am in complete agreement with the rebuttals that I have read – Lekhni, Amit, Rohit. Rational and well articulated.

    And yet, over the years, that’s almost 7 of them, I can confidently say that blogger cliques have always been around. They may not have been formed with that intention, but over a time frame, many have developed that way, and this is a phenomenon I see on twitter too, where ‘followers’ tends to be taken literally. Will I name any? No, simply because they are cliques, and these days, cliques to mobs is a single click conversion. Heh.

    Simplistically put, many news channels and newspapers started out as a means of expression. Those who produced good content realised that many were paying attention to what they had to say. They looked around and noticed that there were others of their kind too. Mutual acknowledgment was a bit difficult because of business considerations, but they still stuck together, broadly, in terms of stances towards issues. The adoption of the medium rose, bringing new audiences. Somewhere, the quality of content became iffy. Sometimes because it had become a business, and sometimes because the content creators lost objectivity and started dictating norms, because they believed their audience was THE only audience that mattered. Of course they had measurement tools. Heh. (Just a small detour to say that even media planners trash the TAM and IRS/NRS methodology, yes, go on, take a poll)

    And then the web happened, and became a force to be reckoned with. It brought with it, blogs, which took less than 5 minutes to create. Some of the creators spent exactly that much of time. But others stuck on. Time and effort brought them recognition, and even some fame. They looked around, saw others of their kind. There were hardly any business consideration, linking to each other became the norm. The audience was being built all this while, and unacknowledged, a herd mentality too. Personal branding crept in. In many cases, the quality of content might have dropped with time – rehashed content using previously successful templates, link-baits, these are just online manifestations of things we see in newspapers and television. But though the posts were not as funny as they used to be or not well thought out, the audience stuck on, it was after all, a cool community to be in. There’s nothing wrong with it, its human nature to seek out kindred souls. The unfortunate part is the increasing intolerance for contra-views among many bloggers. You can see enough comment wars if you look around. At some point, perspectives became dogmas.

    And then came twitter, and microbloggers. It became all the more easier – from the simple RT to #followfriday and lists, there are multiple tools available, to build audiences, and cliques. And as I’ve written before, we on Twitter are famous for mobs. 🙂

    So,  my point is Mr. Sanghvi, relax. We’ve seen it all before, its only the medium that has changed. The people remain. This too shall give way to something else. If all goes according to the way it has before, in a few years, you can chuckle over post like yours by some blogger, who thinks someone in what is then the new media has been judgmental to a senior blogger. Heh.

    Meanwhile, the good part is, the web makes content production and distribution very easy, so you can ignore people if you personally think they’ve ‘lost it’. You will always find a contra-voice, it might be brow beaten sometimes, but it exists.

    until next time, sanguine 😉

  • De-privacy

    The Twitter discussion last week with Surekha and Karthik, was mostly about attribution, but it had another facet to it – privacy. Last week, a childhood photo of mine was shared on Facebook, I promptly untagged. Thankfully Facebook still allows that, though I wonder for how long. But it made me think. Does the photo belong to the person clicking it or the person who has been clicked?

    Surekha, for example, mentioned that she was okay if her tweet was reproduced, so long as it was attributed to her. I am ambivalent about my stance since I have at least a couple of problems, one practical, one theoretical (for now) – first, the context of it, where will it be used and in what context? I even stretched the thought to whether I can choose who gets to RT me and which tweets. Second, what if someone has a revenue model out of aggregating tweets, and that’s not just MSM I’m talking about, its online publications, blogs and blog aggregators too.

    The first one is about privacy. When I share a status/tweet on FB/Twitter, I do it on the assumption that its shared in a relatively closed network, and in a context. It would be ironic if the content creators of new media to say they’ve been mistweeted. With Facebook’s  changes in policy at the end of last year, the definition of privacy is actually up in the air. No, actually Facebook is deciding what is privacy and that it is over. And to think that privacy was the cited reason for the non-portability of the data on the network!! There are two wonderful posts on the subject which you really should read – one by danah boyd and the other by nicholas carr. On a tangent, this post onThe Inquisitr about how (in the context of customer service), in spite of the web making every person a media outlet, the concerned corporations would choose to listen to only a few. The fear being whether rules of personal privacy would also be decided by a select few. Are we talking the Schmidt language here – “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place”. Oh, did I take that out of context? Heh.

    The second one (about the revenue model) made me think about media and brands and intrigued me because it is linked to privacy, and more so, because I sensed a paradox – between the individual’s notion of privacy and how we expect a media outlet/brand to be dictated by us on how and where its content is used. Yes, they are not individuals. But even if news per se is not owned by anyone, isn’t the particular form in which it is carried owned? The brand, is owned. The way the web is evolving, do they have a choice about where they are seen and who talks about them? This is not a debate on whether it makes sense for them to be private/public, but my point is about choice. When we start thinking about ‘linking’ as a right, just because the web economy is supposedly supported by it, I get the feeling I mentioned earlier – will a (new) powerful few dictate how it plays out? Privacy and control – they cross paths a lot. What really are we creating?

    until next time, protocols