Pasanga - A Movie Review

Once again, a show in Mayajaal. But this time we were in a dilemma to watch either "Sarvam" or "Pasanga". To our surprise, tickets were available for "Sarvam" but for "Pasanga" we had only the first row tickets. But due to the timely warning given to us by our friends, we decided to drop the idea of watching "Sarvam". Thank goodness!!
Coz "Pasanga" was one such movie which really gave a feeling of a good movie this summer.

PASANGA
Genre: Family Drama
Cast: Sriram, Kishore, Vimal, Vega
Director: Pandiraj
Producer: M.Sasikumar
Storyline: All about the children's mindset and their pranks
Bottomline: Not only for Pasanga. Wholesome entertainment to all age groups.

First of all hats off to the director Pandiraj for such a good movie and to producer M.Sasikumar, the director of another trendsetter "Subramaniapuram" for making this film happen.
As the film name suggests the film is all about the rivalry, friendship, innocence among children with a small love story and a strong message to parents.
Sriram playing the character of Jeeva Nithyanandham along with his sidekicks reminds me of "16 Vayadhinile" Parattai just by his looks. His father being the teacher in the school, using that as a tool, he tries to be the leader among the students. Introduction of Jeeva and his sidekicks especially "Pakada" gives us the glimpse how the movie will be.
Then comes our hero Anbu played by Kishore who has moved from a private school to the school where Jeeva is studying. From Day one, the rivalry between Anbu & Jeeva heats up. Anbu tries to go in peace but Jeeva loaths him to the very extent as his uncle's daughter also started to talk and help Anbu a lot.
Right from being the class rep to the progress report, Anbu fares much better than Jeeva which increases Jeeva's fury.
If it would have been a normal movie with action stars as the protagonists, now the story would take a line like villain bringing up a group of people and beating up the hero. Then hero speaks a few punch lines and defeats the villain!!
Thank God its not so here. Here the steps taken by Jeeva to defeat Anbu shows the inner innocence of children apart from the rivalry. He sorts up to measures like trying to pour honey on Anbu's hair so that it would turn white, asking a boy with black tongue [ I m sorry if that has been translated wierdly as I dont really find a substitute for the word "Karunaaku"] to curse, as it is a belief among children if a person with "Karunaaku" says something it will happen.
Every single child has given his/her best in the movie and the so close resemblance to the normal life really made this movie a must watch.
Amidst this rivalry between Jeeva and Anbu, there is a love story between Anbu's uncle Meenatchi Sundaram(Vimal) & Jeeva's sister Shobikannu (Vega). A simple love with no duets in the deserts of Namibia or in front of the Eiffel Tower!!
The pranks between Meenatchi & Shobi are very engrossing. Especially the mannerism of Shobi to raise the eyebrows is really cute and the mannerism of Meenatchi to attend phone calls saying "Ingittu meenatchi angittu yaaru?" is new & different. Storing each other's mobile number as "Purush" & "Pondatti" is something which we had seen in our college days. The song "Oru Vetkam Varudhe" is very melodious and once again it is James Vasanthan of "Kangal Irandal" fame who scored music for this movie. When this love gets to the knowledge of the family members, we normally expect a clash, lectures on arranged marriages, locking up the girl in home, beating up the hero,etc. But here it is again a different line. Both the families sit over and decides about the matter. These kind of different approaches have given this movie good reviews.
Apart from these lighter moments, there is also a strong message of how problems in a family can affect the minds of children,how to build up confidence in the young hearts of children, how encourangement plays a role in child's growth and mouch more.
Finally the child which plays the role of Anbu's brother makes us giggle with his stylish dialogue "Eppudi!!"
The way Jeeva & Anbu join hands together and how the love of Meenatchi Sundaram & Shobi ends up in marriage gives a happy ending to the movie.
This is really a good movie to watch which rolls back ur mind to your halcyon childhood days and brings back pleasant memories.
I give a two hand Thumbs-up to this movie which is really a good entertainer with some sensible message to all.

Plus: Cast, Storyline, Music
Minus: Screenplay drags a bit in the middle
Rating: 4/5 - Must Watch

Meet u all again in next movie review. Ba Bye!!!

India @ T20 World Cup 09 - A MidSeries Analysis

As we are in the middle of the Twenty20 World Cup Series, let us analyse what is currently the chance of the Indian Team to retain their title this time.

Well, this year whether it is a boon or bane, we had the IPL 2 conducted just before the T20 World Cup. So most of the players got into the mood of T20 before the World Cup began.
This experience gave a new dimension to the Indian Team with players like Rohit Sharma moving up the order, RP Singh among wickets eventually emerging purple cap holder, Suresh raina stabilising the middle order and a lot of part time bowlers at disposal of whom Yuvraj & Rohit had hat-tricks against their names. Anybody who sees this side will be sure that they are tailor-made to be the champions.

With that prelude, we enter into the phase of T20 World cup.
Being the Champions of initial edition of World cup held two years back, India was grouped into a much easier group in the League table with likes of Ireland & Bangladesh.

1st warm up match against New Zealand saw the emergence as Rohit Sharma as a replacement for Sehwag in the opening slot. But still India went on to lose the match.
Note: India has lost all its T20 Encounters against the black caps.
Then, came the warm up match with Pakistan where India tore away the opposition to comfortably win the match.
So as hot favourites, India faced the young Bangladesh team. Remember? Bangladesh initiated the downfall of India in ICC World Cup 2007. With Bangladesh batsmen hastily chasing the runs, it was some clinical spin bowling in the middle that helped India to salvage a victory.
India also beat Ireland to go into Super 8 comfortably but even in this match, the Irish Batsmen scored heavily in the death overs bowled by Indians.
At this stage, we were able to see some negative things which were evident in most of the Indian matches:

• India gave too many runs at the death overs
• Very much dependent on the slower bowlers
• Dhoni's below par batting which reduces the run rate and makes the task to score runs much steeper for forthcoming batsmen
• India yet to face a quality side hence the performance of the team has not actually been tested under demanding situations

But these were not properly addressed and since the opposition were of not a niche quality, it didnt show its magnitude.

To crown it all, the injury of Sehwag was also a kind of blow to the Team.

Once India reached Super 8, it was drawn against West Indies, South Africa & England. 2 out of 3 wins will see them through to semis somehow.

In first Super 8 encounter, India lost to Windies in a big margin.

This match brought most of the problems with the Indian team into limelight.

• Once top order failed & Dhoni's sluggish batting continued, India was looking down to score somewhere around 110 to 120. Thanks to Yuvraj & Yusuf, India got much more.
• Once again the faster bowlers' balls were frequently sent out of the park. India was dependent on spinners but a much experienced side like Windies tackled the guiles of the spinners to a very good extent.
• Dhoni had a lot of bowling options which actually made him not to rotate the bowlers properly.
• Knowing the maraudering nature of Gayle, Team India had plans of taking him. Good. But they concentrated too much on Gayle, so didnt have a proper gameplan to tackle players coming in after Gayle.
• Dhoni missing one important run out chance which if effected could have sent back Bravo home who ultimately settled the match with a good 66.

So now India is in a must win do or die situation against England & South Africa.

Some of the corrections that could be made so as to avoid a humiliating defeat

• Dhoni should bat down the order and promoting Raina to 3rd slot, the position in which the southpaw is very much comfortable in scoring runs.
• Should juggle the main bowlers efficiently & bring in the part time bowlers only when it is very necessary. Some times we could see, very decent performance not utilized properly. For someone like Praveen who bowled a very good initial two overs but still at the end of Innings he s left with an over or two.
• Should have someone to bowl with good variations in the death overs in order to reduce the scoring rate.
• RP Singh could have been given a chance. It really feels odd when your faster bowlers are getting the thrashing but ur purple cap holder of IPL is kept in bench for all the matches.

So today its gonna be the second super 8 match for India against England. So if the above rectifications are done,we could expect India defeating England pretty comfortably.

With matches left with teams like England & South Africa, even a smal error will cost the Men in Blue very dear.

Lets hope they do win the match today against England and then win South Africa in the same fashion as they did in 2007.

It all depends on the "Captain Cool" to revisit and realign the strategies so as to reconcile & validate the loop holes in the Team & administration.

Lets hope for the Best & keep our fingers crossed !