Minnale - Movie review

Minnale hew to the staid Indian movie tradition of offering a love story with a few twists and hoping the audience will not get that deja vu feeling.

Within the framework of the love story, there is usually little scope for doing something novel since unimaginative Indian directors have beaten love to death over the last seven decades. But within this circumscribed framework director Goutham seems to make a valiant attempt with a slightly offbeat, if implausible, story.

Minnale also packs a fine performance by youngster Madhavan.

Rajesh (Madhavan), a young engineer and indifferent to women in his college days, is smitten with Reena (Reema) the first time he sees her amidst heavy rain and flashes of lightening.

To his great dismay, he soon learns that the object of his affection is to soon get married to Rajeev, an Indian engineer working in Seattle. But he also discovers that Reena has yet to meet Rajeev and only talked to him over the phone.

Seeing no alternative, prod by his grandfather Suppini (played by that delightful old comedian Nagesh) and with little time left, Rajesh decides to impersonate as Rajeev to gain Reema's affections. Over a period of five days, Rajesh so inveigle himself into Reena's heart that she even asks him when he would marry her.

But Rajesh's game is up when the real Rajeev returns to India. It turns out that Rajeev is none other than Rajesh's old college bete noire Sam. Reena is also incens.ed with Rajesh's duplicitous behavior and wants to have nothing to do with him. Preparations for Reema's marriage to Rajeev Samuel move at a quick pace.

Reema is all right but her performance doesn't rise above the ordinary.

Besides Madhavan's solid performance, what salvages Minnale from the mediocre dustheap is fine music from Harris Jeyaraj. Memories of the songs, particularly linger long after the movie ends. Our favorites were Azhagiya Theeye, Venmathiye Venmathiye, Nenjai poo pol... 

Source: Internet

What makes us great?

As the hunter turned into a farmer, the farmer into a worker and more recently a knowledge worker.. the context is changing.

What makes us great today? ...

The answer is probably one of those uncommonly common sense.

It is a never ending race amongst all equals.. constantly trying to be the unequals amongst equals. And not one race. But four races in parallel. And the winner takes it all. Loser gets peanuts. And one has to win all the four races.

The race to be Fit: You gotta be fitter than the rest. Trust me. The best are trying to outperform the rest, simply by working harder and harder. So with every passing year, it is taking longer and longer hours of hard work, day after day to end up in the top. Physical fitness is taken for granted. But I think it is the most basic. And think twice if you think you are fit. When I say fit, I mean really fit. Working non-stop with as little as 4 hours sleep. not for days but for months. I think 98% of folks flunk this race one.

The race to be Nice: And if you happen to pass that test. There is another one. You gotta be Nice. You gotta be the type who knows every damn thing about everybody. Who can make a crying child laugh. Whom everybody turn to when they are in trouble. Out of the 2% who pass the fitness test, another 98% flunk this one.

The race to be Smart : Uh. Oh. You gotta be smart as well. Crunch numbers.. Memorize a thousand frameworks.. Solve every damn case. the 100 CAT percentile IIT types... Again 2% success rate.. Most pretend themselves into the comforting belief that IQ is actually inborn...you cant practise yourself into being smart. And they flunk the test even before trying :-) Phew.. Tired? There is one more race my friend..

The race to be Driven: You have to passionate about something. Whether it is about getting mankind rid of poverty or about playing the guitar or being the best athelete. You must be the person who goes beyond logic when it comes to this passion of yours. Everything else is secondary to you. This is what you live for. And then you can call yourself great.

It took me three decades to figure out that I want to join the race. One of my mentor shared this article with me recently. I guess it will take me another three to ace them.. Or maybe never.. Winner or Loser... we dont get to choose which side we end up in life. But the one thing that we get to decide is whether to race or not.

Happy Racing....

On the way to my destiny

1987: Entered the world.

1991-2003: Studied in S K P Higher Secondary School. I can claim myself as one of the very few souls in the world who did his major portion of schooling in a single school! Whatever I am now, I owe significant portion of that to my school. I still remember some of my teachers who were influential in shaping up my personality and my career. To name a few:Ramamoorthy (My dad),Meenakshi,Valarmathi,Ramakrishnan,Muthazhagu, Palanisamy,Gupta.

2003- 2007: Joined one of the premier colleges in Tamil Nadu, GCT, Coimbatore. Chose to major in Industrial biotechnology. These 4 years in my life are simply unforgettable. While the first 2 years of my under graduation taught me the power of persistence and hard work, the subsequent 2 years taught me the art of independent living and power of friendship.

2007: Joined Cognizant Technology Solutions where I learnt all the tricks and fundamentals of Information technology services for the past 20 months. Had a stupendous professional career. Stayed in Palavakkam house (Shortly called as “Bachelor’s paradise…well, it’s a sarcasm!) during most of that period. The typical day began at 7:00 a.m and ended at 12:00 p.m! Well, that’s the life of most Software professionals..Isn’t it?
May 2009 and beyond:Lots of interesting things about to happen…Career? House? New life style? Own venture? Marriage? Kids? etc., Hope everything goes on well…:) For now, my focus is on my “CAREER”…