Friday, July 25, 2008

2008ൽ ഇന്ത്യൻ ഹോക്കി

ബെയ്ജിങ്ങ് 2008 ആരംഭിക്കാൻ ഇനി ഏതാനും ദിവസങ്ങൾ മാത്രം.
ഇന്ത്യൻ ഹോക്കിയുടെ ചരിത്രം പല തവണ കേട്ട വിരസമായ ഒന്നാണ്. അത് ഒരിക്കൽ കൂടി വിളമ്പാൻ ഒരവസരം കിട്ടിയിരിക്കുന്നു.

ഭാരതം അന്താരാഷ്ട്ര നിലയിൽ ആദ്യമായി നേടുന്ന ബഹുമതി: 1920ൽ ആന്റ്വെർപ്പ് ഒളിമ്പിക്സിൽ നടന്ന ഹോക്കി മത്സരത്തിൽ ഹോളന്റിനെ തോല്പിച്ചു് സ്വർണം നേടി.
പിന്നീട് 1928ൽ ആംസ്റ്റർഡാമിൽ നടന്ന ഒളിമ്പിക്സ് മത്സരത്തിൽ ഭാരതം അമേരിക്കയെ വളരെ പരിതാപകരമായ 20-1 എന്ന സ്കോറിനു് തോല്പിച്ചു.
പിന്നെ ഇന്ത്യ 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1980 എന്നീ ഒളിമ്പിക്സ് മത്സരങ്ങളിൽ സ്വർണ്ണം നേടി.

വിജയങ്ങളുടെ ഇത്രയും നീണ്ട പരമ്പര നിരത്താൻ കഴിയുന്ന മറ്റോരു ഹോക്കി ടീം ലോകത്ത് ഉണ്ട് എന്നു തോന്നുന്നില്ല.

ഇന്നു് ഇന്ത്യയുടെ ഹോക്കി എങ്ങും എത്താതെ നില്ക്കുന്നു. ഒളിമ്പിക്സിൽ ഇന്ത്യ ഹോക്കിയിൽ മത്സരിക്കുന്നില്ല. 2008ലെ മത്സരങ്ങളിൽ, ഇന്ത്യയുടെ പുരുഷ വിഭാഗവും സ്ത്രീവിഭാഗവും ഒളിമ്പിസ് യോഗ്യതാ മത്സരങ്ങളിൽ പരാജയപ്പെട്ടു.

നീണ്ട പാരമ്പര്യം കാത്തുസൂക്ഷിക്കാൻ കഴിവില്ലാഞ്ഞിട്ടോ? താല്പര്യമില്ലാഞ്ഞിട്ടോ?

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Dasavatharam (Dasa-aparaadham)

The storyline:
Flashback :- A Tamil king who has recently converted to Sivism is determined to rid his kingdom of all Vishnu deities from temples. Kamalhaasan (No.1) is mighty pi**ed of with this and performs a few Dishum-dishums with the guards and tries in vain to stop this major-league sacrilege. The king decides to teach this chap a lesson and ties our hero along with the Vishnu deity and throws him in the sea.

------Spoiler Alert
Present day :- Kamalahaasan (2) A Tamil scientist in the US develops a biological weapon that can practically destroy the world. The weapon (a glass vial kept in a flimsy metal box !! ) can only be diffused by pouring "NaCl". ("Tonnes and Tonnes of it" as another Tamil scientist mentions in the movie). Of course this chap who landed in the US last month conveniently forgot what NaCL is in Tamil.

The hero tries to stop the vial of germs from falling into the wrong hands. He travels to chennai (of all places) pursued by an ex-CIA Fletcher (Kamalahaasan No3), FBI, CBI, and local police. After much running around a few dance numbers and a couple of rather good dishum-dishums, the vial of germs is broken. Strangely this happens on Christmas day 2004, the very day a tsunami struck the east coast of India. The deity that was thrown into the sea in the initial Flashback also washes up along with the tidal wave. Apparently this was how Lord
Vishnu saves the world from destruction. The End.

------End of Spoiler Alert

Dasavatharam is one of the most expensive ego-trips in the history of ego-trips. A film made to satisfy one man, Kamalhaasan.

As the name suggests Dasavatharam is an experiment on how much money one can spend on sub-standard make-up with Hollywood horror film make-up artists, and dish out a poor storyline.
The excruciatingly long (3 hours !!!!) film packs more characters than one can deal with. There is no attempt at character building. In fact there are several unnecessary characters in this film that have absolutely no place in the film. For all the money these guys spent on shooting in the US they could have hired some good actors to perform as George Bush and the ex-CIA villain. This would have turned out to be an interesting action thriller if a little bit of common sense was applied. But Noooo !!!.

A George bush that looks more like a Mardi-gras puppet, the stereotypical flat-faced Japanese (Shinghen Narahasi ) guy who looks like he ran into a truck, The tall guy (Kalifullah Khan) who looks more like Dr. Frankensteins Monster on stilts and the Punjabi singer who doesn't have much to do other than spit blood at every occasion. An old women (Krishnaveni) who looks like Freddy Krueger .

There is nothing worth watching in this film, since most of the story is high funda nonsense, mixed with a whole lot of Kamalahasans running around wearing cheap makeup. There are a few attempts at humor by the Balaram Naidu character (also played by Kamal) which tasted as flat as last weeks beer.

Mind you this is not the first time Kamal has hired horror-film makeup artists from Hollywood. Last time it was the infamouse Pizza faced old man in "Indian". I feel Kamal has lost focus on what he wants to achieve. Its acting and entertainment what we pay for not a spot-the-Kamal competition.

Dasavatharam is more like Dasa-aparadham. There are however a few exceptions. Although the character doesn't have much relevance in the story, the makeup team did manage to disguise Kamal as the dark-skinned environmentalist, Vincent Poovaraagan and as Inspector Balaram Naidu quite well.

The Tsunami scene at the end of the film was rather spectacular and did not have the usual cheap Indian animation feel to it (probably because it wasn't done in India by our IT geniuses !!). But hey wait a second, we didn't come to see the tsunami or wax-faced dummies, we came to see Kamal acting in ten different roles. Unfortunately under all those prosthetics, rubber, botox and paint we can't see any Kamal. All we see are some zombies, and a pathetic storyline.

Kamal Haasan was a great actor and entertainer. He gave us "Hey Ram", "Mahaanadi", "Virumandi", "Avvai Shanmugi". This is perhaps the beginning of the end of good Indian Cinema and the arrival of the manufactured products for entertainment from film technicians.