Yesterday this stand-up comedy “Make Chai Not War” show happened in Egmore Museum Theatre, Chennai. It was organized by U.S.Consulate General in Chennai in association with Evam Entertainment and Times of India. The stand-up comedy was by 3 Indian Americans – comedian Hari Kondabolu (www.harikondabolu.com), comic Rajiv Satyal (www.funnyindian.com) and Azhar Usman (http://www.azhar.com). The show was brilliant, over two hours of non-stop laughter and a bit to think over. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much in my life on some clean comedy. A fantastic effort by U.S. Home Department to foster friendship with India and its people through some multi-religious, multi-ethnic jokes and not through handouts or military aid. There is so much for all of us to laugh about our diversity in this world than to fight for.
Rajiv who is from Ohio, a Hindu (he stresses it often for effect & to poke good fun at), born to Punjabi parents who immigrated to USA. He covered everything in his show – from Indians refilling with water the almost empty Soap bottles to how Gujaritis save money. He touched nicely on the diversity of Indians and India – saying unlike USA in India the smart people are put up in South.
Hari who is from Queens New York, born to parents from Andhra Pradesh is a performer in Comedy Central & HBO Comedy Arts Festival. He seems to have a stated dislike towards British and Colonization that he made fun of at every turn. Yesterday he appeared a little sombre but still funny enough to make you laugh.
Azhar who is from Chicago, hailing from immigrants from Bihar and a title ‘America’s funniest Muslim”. He was the super-star yesterday firing all cylinders. He started by how to spell his name – Azhar like in Buzzer with a B, it gets pronounced as Uzzer. His experience of Auto-drivers in Chennai hailing him first for Sight-seeing, then for Girls and finally for Marijuana. He closed his show with a profound thought – we are all birds in a cage, each of us can see all the 7 billion people in the world but not ourselves (for which we have to look inside us). His story of scaring a British Gentleman in a flight was hilarious.
Overall a superb, brilliant, hilarious show you shouldn’t miss if they come to your city.
Having watched him in “Friends” and then in short lived “Joey” I will say I enjoy seeing Matt LeBlanc on screen. On learning in iTunes about his new show “Episodes”, I wanted to see it and did that this long weekend.
The show’s plot was quite interesting, it is about a British writer-producer couple who have a wonderful marriage and a hit TV series in UK. They get an offer from a Hollywood big network producer to do a remake of the show for American audience. After a lucrative offer, the couple pack up and ship out to LA. Next few weeks they learn that Hollywood is a place where deals are made and broken in the same breath. The cultural difference between the two countries and their celebrities are all shown very nicely. Tamsin Greig who acts as Beverly Lincoln, has done a good performance of enacting a Writer who is forced by Hollywood to include changes in her story, and who is personally going through a tough time of being a simple wife surrounded by Hollywood’s glamor all around. A must watch for a good laugh.
Unfortunate the series won’t be having a sequel or a next season to it.
After seeing and writing about a classic movie like Graves of the Fireflies, I couldn’t believe that I watched this movie “Hall Pass”. It is not the plot that’s bad about this movie, the plot is fine for a comedy movie – which is about married men dreaming about a chance to have an affair with a beautiful women and thinking how great it will be. What is bad is the artificial scenes, humourless acting, wasted twists & lack of any real joke. After the first half I had to literally force myself to finish the second half. I am surprised how this got 35% in Rotten Tomatoes.
You may skip this movie and save yourself 100 minutes of your life.
I just finished watching the British TV Series – Come fly with me. I like few of the British Comedy for they are good in bringing out a realistic portrayal of the society, especially they are very good in spoof & satires. As a frequently traveller I was looking forward to the series after watching the Pilot which described the story to be about what’s happening in a British airport. Overall I enjoyed the Series but it didn’t cut out to be my favourite. All episodes seem to be from the same cookie cutter, characters were getting stereo-typed. No new fresh story line in any of the episode, though there was much to be talked about in an airport. Almost all the characters were enacted by the same pair of actors (Matt Lucas, David Walliams), though they each character well, they playing even the female roles is making it monotonous. Having said it, many of the individual scenes had good humour in them which made the series overall enjoyable.
For last few months I have been watching this American TV Serial “Outsourced” online. "Outsourced" is NBC’s comedy series about a catalog-based company (Mid America Novelties), that sells novelty goods and whose call center has suddenly been moved to Mumbai (India). The TV Series is based on a movie by the same name (which I haven’t watched yet). The title is a misnomer as the company is outsourcing the work, but just moved work to its own captive unit in India.
Season 1 was quite enjoyable with Ben Rappaport & Pippa Black playing lead roles. Rizwan Manji plays very well the rude, heartless assistant manager to Ben in India. Rebecca Hazlewood comes as “Asha”, Ben’s Indian sweetheart and she is gorgeous. I believe the shooting happened in entirely in LA, USA which you can easily guess with the canned portrait of Mumbai streets. In few places the story is stereo-typed portrait of India, it doesn’t tend to be demeaning anywhere. Overall it is an enjoyable office place comedy. I am sad to see NBC not renewing this for a second season, hence this post to pay obituary to it.
Came across this 2007 movie by Wes Anderson in some review online & saw the trailer in YouTube. The trailer for “The Darjeeling Limited” appeared to be interesting, so rented it for $2.99 from iTunes about a month back. Didn’t get to watch it with my vacation to Malaysia two weeks back and today the rental was about to expire, so watched it now.
The movie is about three brothers who have little in common, nearly zero bonding as siblings, traumatized with their father’s death few years back, a mother running away to faraway places for helping in charity. The brothers take up a “spiritual” journey across India in Train. What happens next is the story.
As it was a train journey I was expected to see beautiful pictures of India that was less travelled by road, pictureous places & interesting people in the movie. Instead I got none of that. The movie starts like a comedy, in many scenes you expect some humour but there is none, many scenes just run flat. Till the end I could hardly figure what is the Director trying to say. The female lead role is done by beautiful Amara Karan in her debut performance as a train stewardess “Rita”.
I like “30 Rock” TV Show and because of that Tina Fey. So when the book by Tina Fey “BossyPants” came out I wanted to buy it immediately. I read the initial description and figured out I will be too lazy to go through reading the book and decided to go for the AudioBook instead, that was a wise decision I made. The Audiobook set me back by $21.95 from iTunes. I did the entire 5 Hour listening over 2 weeks during my drives and at many places the book kept me entertained.
The book is not really her Autobiography, though it is easy to conclude that way from the description and the initial chapters. She talks in length about her childhood, teenage, her first job in YMCA, her acting training days in Chicago to such great detail that at times a bit boring. In her acting days description she talks about how she likes Impromptu acting on stage, that resonated with me as I have had few similar impromptu experiences on stage – which for me was certainly not on acting but on presentations & talks. She says that in Impromptu sessions it is important to always say “Yes” to whatever the other actors throw at you, keep the flow/story going and don’t take it to a dead-end – these are certainly a tell-tale of experienced live performer.
Then the book suddenly jumps into her TV job in NBC Saturday Night Live (SNL) and then full-throttles into 30 Rock days. Her limited description of 30 Rock work days sounds surprisingly similar to seeing a 30 Rock episode – which is planned I guess. She rants in length about Womanhood & Working Women in America – though she tries hard to make them sound comedy, it comes out pale and rhetoric.
Overall, if you like Tina Fey & 30 Rock, have $21.95 to spare and 5 Hours of listening time you can give this Audiobook a try, but don’t blame me!
ரொம்ப நாட்களுக்குப் பின் தமிழில் ரசிக்கும்படியாக ஒரு முழுநீள நகைச்சுவைப் படத்தை கொடுத்ததற்கு இயக்குனர் கே.ஸ்.ரவிக்குமாரைப் பாராட்ட வேண்டும். படம் வந்து பல மாதங்கள் ஆனாலும் இன்று தான் பார்க்கும் வாய்ப்புக் கிடைத்தது, படத்தைப் பற்றி பலர் (கேபிள் சங்கரின் விவரமானப் பதிவு இங்கே) எழுதிவிட்டதால் என் கருத்து சுருக்கமாக கீழே.
படத்தின் முதல் காட்சியிலிருந்து காமெடியும் ஆரம்பித்துவிடுகிறது, குறிப்பாக கடைசிக்காட்சிகளில் சிரித்து சிரித்து எனக்கும் மனைவிக்கும் வயிறு வலித்தேவிட்டது. கமல், த்ரிஷாவை விட சங்கீதாவின் நடிப்பு தான் அபாரம் – மிக இயல்பாக தனது பாத்திரத்தை செய்துள்ளார். கப்பல் காட்சிகள் கண்ணுக்கு குளிமை, அருமையான ஒளிப்பதிவு. மொத்தத்தில் ஒரு நல்ல பொழுதுப்போக்கானப் படம் – ரொம்ப யோசிக்காமல் பார்த்து ரசிக்கலாம், சிரிக்கலாம்.
“காவலன்” – விஜய் நடித்துள்ள இந்தப் படத்தை இன்று சென்னை ஐநாக்ஸில் பார்த்தேன். போக்கிரிக்கு பிறகு விஜய் படங்கள் எல்லாமே சுமார் தான், எனக்கு எதுவும் பிடிக்கவில்லை. மனுஷருக்கு நல்லகாலம் இந்தப் படம் அமைந்தது (படம் வெளிவறுவதில் நடந்த அரசியலை விட்டுவிடுவோம்).
குத்துப்பாட்டுக்களோ, ராபின்ஹூட்டு கதையோ, பஞ்ச் டயலாக்குள், நம்பமுடியாத ஹீரோயிஸம் இவைத் தான் கடந்த சில விஜய் படங்களில் இருந்தவை, இவற்றையெல்லாம் கவனமாக தவிர்த்துயுள்ளார் இயக்குனர் சித்தீக், அவருக்கு அதற்கு ஒரு பாராட்டு. அழகான ஒரு காதல் கதை தான் படம். விஜய்-அசின் பாடல் காட்சிகளில் அழகாக வருகிறார்கள், நடன அசைவுகளும் வித்தியாசமாகவும், ரசிக்கும்படியும் இருந்தது. வடிவேலின் நகைச்சுவையும் பல இடங்களில் சிரிக்கும்படி இருந்தது, Private Numberஐ பார்வதி நம்பியார் என்று அவர் படிப்பது நல்ல சிரிப்பு. BodyGuard costume விஜய்க்கு நன்றாக பொறுந்திருந்தது, அதில் அவரின் Body Languageம் அருமை. கல்லூரிக்காட்சிகளில் வழக்கமான கெட்ட மாணவர்கள்-விஜய் மோதல்கள் இல்லை, நடன ஆசிரியரை ஒரே ஒரு அடி அடிப்பதோடு நிறுத்திக் கொண்டதற்கு படத்தின் இயக்குனருக்கு ஒரு நன்றி. க்ளைமாக்ஸ் நம்மால் ஓரளவிற்கு யூகிக்க முடிந்தாலும் எனக்கு பிடித்திருந்தது, தன்னை ஏமாற்றிய அசினை அவர் எப்படி ஏற்கிறார் என்று புரியவில்லை – ஆனால் மன்னிக்கலாம். மொத்தத்தில் காவலன் – நல்ல நகைச்சுவையான படம், பார்க்கலாம்.
After seeing advertisements for this movie my son wanted to see it. So I took him today to “Gulliver’s Travels” in Escape Cinemas, Express Avenue, Chennai.
The story is about a Mailroom assistant wanting to impress a lady in his office, pretends to be a Travel Writer. Take’s up a risky assignment in going to Bermuda triangle, but gets into a vortex and lands in the island of Liliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens. He saves them from attacks, gets caught by real giants, escapes and saves the Liliputs in the end. An interesting story, but the movie’s screen play leaves much to be desired. Most places, the story line runs flat.
An average movie. Kids will enjoy it to a limited extend as it was in 3D.
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