Venkatarangan Blog

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

venkatarangan — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:12:00 +0000

Booked tickets online at Bookmyshow.com, I went to see this new British comedy movie “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” at Inox Movies. The movie has quite a star cast of British actors – Judi Dench of “M” James Bond Movies fame, Penelope Wilton of Downton Abbey fame, Maggie Smith of Harry Potter films & Downton Abbey fame, Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame & Tom Wilkinson of many fine movies including The Ghost Writer.

The movie is about a group of British retirees coming to India to spend their last years in a (what they believe) luxury heritage hotel in Jaipur. The hotel turns out to be in shambles but the experience of being together and India charms the occupants in interesting ways. I didn’t expect much from the movie. Thought it will be the usual stereotyped portrayal of India (spiritual, yoga, bumpy roads, chaos, dirty) like in Eat, Pray & Love. But it turned out to be better, yes there were scenes of bumpy roads and traffic, but that’s about it – little of India cliché. Instead the movie was about the lives of these retirees, not what they left behind but what they are living currently and their future (yes there is a future for them too).

Dev Patel and Tena Desae have both done a fine job playing their roles. If you want to see a clean fun & a comedy movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel won’t disappoint you and it runs in a theatre near you now!

The Ghost Writer

venkatarangan — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:52:00 +0000

Today I saw this movie “The Ghost Writer” directed by Roman Polanski. The story is about a “Ghost” writer (Ewan McGregor) contracted to write the Memoirs of a former British Prime Minister and it turns risky to his own life as he unearths an international conspiracy. The former PM (Pierce Brosman) happens to be in Martha’s Vineyard (USA) & much of the story happens there in a remote village. This location adds a sense of mystery and anticipation to the story. Throughout the movie you sense something going wrong and is hidden from the Writer, but you are kept guessing on what’s that. In the climax after the former British Prime Minister is assassinated the climax turns out to be great. I expected the mystery to be complicated but it turns out that you can say it in 3 letters.

Nicely taken movie, Roman Polanski has told the story marvellously, I recommend you to watch it.

The kid with a bike

venkatarangan — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:59:00 +0000

The French film was subtitled in English as “The Kid with a bike”. The story is about a 12 year old boy (Cycil) who is abandoned by his father to foster home. The boy is hell-bent on tracing his father and his bike that went with this father. While forcing his way to his old apartment, Cycil happens to bump into a stranger – the local hair dresser (Samantha) .Samantha buys Cycil’s bike back from a person to whom Cycil’s father had sold it before he left the area. Samantha then takes Cycil into her home in weekends and a bond of affection develops between them. They trace Cycil’s dad who categorically says he doesn’t Cycil back. In the meanwhile Cycil falls into bad company with neighbourhood anti-law elements & commits a theft. Cycil realizes his mistake, turns calm and the movie ends with all going well.

The cycle (bike) is the only possession Cycil has, it gives him comfort and he holds on to it with his life. It comes throughout the movie, hence the title for the movie.

The movie has few characters but all of them have done their part naturally and convincingly, you are literally transported to the small town where Cycil lives. No vulgarity or exaggerations. A must see movie of 2011.

Downton Abbey

venkatarangan — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:11:00 +0000

There is something about period TV shows that interests me. The one I am hooked to recently is “Downton Abbey”. This is a British TV Drama whose story starts around 1912 in a village near York, Britain, with the fiancée to the elder daughter of the house and legal heir being dead in Titanic shipwreck. The story revolves around the family of Earl and Countess of Grantham, and follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family. What makes the story more interesting is the focus on what happens in the servants quarters of Downton Abbey. The lifestyle of the owners of the house and the people who work for them can’t be more different but the show brings it all together in a common storyline. Every character seems to be given equal importance with no protagonist as such but still makes it easier to feel for the characters. What I feel is the success to the show is the selection of the casts – they are perfect and appear to be made for the characters they play. Great work by the Director in the casting and the actors.

Season 1 was all about the love life of the daughters of Lord Grantham & life in Downton Abbey, Season 2 was all about the World War 1 and its effects on every day life in Britain. Though it was dramatized for TV still you could get a feel of how life was during the Great War, the sacrifices people made for their country. Season 2 ended with story as on New Year 1920, War was behind, the puzzle on who will be the suitor to Elder daughter getting resolved – all this increasing the expectation on what’s coming next. I can’t wait for the upcoming Season 3 around September 2012.

I am not aware why this award winning show is not shown in any of the channels in India. Doesn’t Indian audience enjoy this genre like the American and British?. I bought the series from iTunes, for Season 1 the SD version. I liked so much the series that paid more and got the HD version for Season 2. I can’t believe the clarity of the screens in HD it was awesome.

Common Man’s Aspirational needs are the new growth engine

venkatarangan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:07:00 +0000

In this month (April 2012) issue of Think Aloud magazine published by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) my article has been published. This issue is a Mobile VAS in India, and my article is titled “Aam Aadmi’s Aspirational needs are the new growth engine”. I have talked about how Indian Mobile Industry is in a cusp of change and it is time they got to move from offerings basics to start addressing consumers’ aspirational needs.

In the article I had outlined various offerings that can increase nearly double the revenue to over Rs. 55,000 crore by FY ‘15. The listings are in FIFO (First In, First Out) order as I thought them and they are presented as ideas. I have not delved on the past and how things are broken, but rather on the solutions and the opportunities they present. Read it and post your comments.

You can view the article from here or download as a PDF from here.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

venkatarangan — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:50:00 +0000

Few days back I watched in one of the movie channels, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This 1989 movie has all the big names in the industry, Steven Spielberg as the Director, Harrison Ford as the protagonist and the legendary “James Bond” Sean Connery. The action movie of those days was fun to watch. The story was all about the search into the Holy Grail taking into Nazi’s Germany and many places over middle-east.

It was nice to see Airships (Zeppelin) as a mode of transport, I never knew that Airships were used big time in 1930s by Germany and even for trans-Atlantic flights. Somehow I thought Airships were more demo vehicles and before they became mainstream the Hindenburg disaster happened.

The special effects in the movie like the hidden bridge and the tank looked funny now but according to Wikipedia took look of effort in those days without much Computer Graphics. Kudos to them.

Titanic 3D

venkatarangan — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:18:00 +0000

The first time I saw Titanic was in Feb ‘98 at London, U.K. during my first abroad trip. I didn’t know anything about the movie and little about the original tragedy, so when my friend in London invited me to the movie with his family, I had little expectation but I was excited in being to a theatre outside India. Needless to say the movie took my breath, it was brilliant and kept me thinking for many days. After which I have watched and enjoyed the other two movies of James Cameron – Abyss (which actually was a predecessor to Titanic movie) and Avatar 3D.

15 years after that I went to see the movie again this Friday. This time at INOX, Chennai and with my 8 year old son – who knew more about RMS Titanic & the movie than me. He was super excited to be there and enjoyed the movie thoroughly. The original movie in 2D itself with its sets and interior were awesome, now being converted by Computer Graphics to 3D made it better. Unlike Avatar “3D” which was shot in 3D, Titanic 3D being a converted from 2D the effects were subtle, but the story and music compensated for all that.

A nice entrepreneur idea by the producers (James Cameron & 20th Century Fox) of the movie to re-release it this year commemorating the century of the original tragedy and to have no one complaining that they are exploiting a tragedy.

My trip to Tanjore-Part 5

venkatarangan — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:02:00 +0000

This is the final post in my mini series on visit to Tanjore – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4.

After our visits to must go places in Tanjore – the Palace and Museum the next day after the wedding we went to another popular destination which is the PunnaiNallur Mariamman temple which is 5Kms from Tanjore. It is always crowded, we could get darshan in about 1 hour or so.

Just like in every other temple in India you have shops selling everything for Pooja (Coconuts, Flowers, Turmeric, Kumkum, BeetleNuts, Banana), Pictures of the main deity, cool drinks and biscuits.

Our final destination was to shopping area in Tanjore around Anna Salai.

The below photos were taken near shops in Burma Bazaar, near Abraham Pandither Road & Jupiter theatre in Thanjavur.

When we went there was a book fair happening in the historic Sri Besant Lodge in Tanjore.