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I met her just once but I owe at least a small part of the good times of the past year and a half to her touch. When she told me about her illness a few months ago, may be it was the insulating nature of the chat window that stopped me from comprehending the enormity of the news. But then a few days later, someone nudged me and I understood. And I froze.

Then for a couple of months after that, I could not pick up the phone to call her, wondering if a mere hello from her would make me choke. Instead every time I saw her online, we chatted for a little bit about music, her blog posts and the state of the blogosphere.  And I never did ask her the “How are you” question, fearing that I might set her thoughts to where they shouldn’t be.

Then in June, I picked up the nerve to call her. I spoke to her and the first thing she told me was how bad she felt that the Woodlands, where we had met in January last year, had closed down. We spoke for a few minute and my prepared script and the PJs that I had rehearsed all evaporated. I think speaking to her that day changed me. I’d like to think that some of her demeanor rubbed off on me and that has helped me through some personal issues that I have had to face since then.

Since that day in June, it has been Kalyan’s emails that kept us all in the loop. So on Sunday night, I was pleasantly surprised to get a couple of text messages from her. I called Kalyan to confirm that it was indeed her and he filled me in. And this morning, I heard from her sister Triveni that she was no more.

Even though it has only been a couple of years since I have known her, it feels like I have lost a lot with her passing. She touched everyone in her own inimitable ways and none of us will ever forget her for that.

In June, when Triveni told me that she was looking for some older movies for Lali to watch, I sent a few older movies from my collection, movies that I knew that she would enjoy.  I hope she got a chance to watch them, because that means that I gave back to her at least a little bit of the joy that her friendship has induced in all our lives.

Rest in peace, Lali. May your larking continue in heaven…

… someone in the UK currently, who is either

a. flying to the US in the next few weeks…

(or)

b. flying to India (preferably to Chennai) in the next few weeks…

(and)

… would be willing to carry a 26 inch long plastic/cardboard tube (click here or see below for contents) with them.

Yes, yes, yes! I know it’s trivial, but just indulge me!

Driving on the New Jersey Turnpike is a game of strategy, anticipation and the odd pitfall. Add to it, the (not so) random speed traps and it becomes one long 2.5 hour long game of chess.

Yes yes yes! Orey Clancy-esque only! Naan engeyyo poyiitten!

Kuselan for the most part is the telling of a simple story of two friends. This is a story that had potential for understated and yet effective performances, considering the caliber of the leading actors in the mix. Having watched the Malayalam original, one went into this Tamil remake with just a few expectations. While all of them were satisfied, I haven’t been able to digest some of the additional parts that have been added to the Tamil version ,perhaps to satisfy the front benchers.

Case at point - the “comedy” track featuing Vadivelu’s character and his wife. And why the fixation with skin, be it Nayanthara’s or the other actress who played Vadivelu’s wife? Not something I’d want to see in Thalaivar padam, but this has been an alarming recurring scenario starting with Chandramukhi. Thalaivaa, can you step in and put a full stop to this nonsense?

While I am still the quintessential die-hard Rajini fan, I try to take the movie’s story at face value and mold my expectations accordingly. But that is just me. I can’t speak the same of the other members of the fan fraternity. From what I saw around me in the screening in the premiere last night here in Jersey, if this movie tanks in the box office, it will be because of misplaced expectations. And one can only blame the promos of the movie and the creators of these promos for creating false notions of this being a standard Thalaivar padam. In reality though, this story was (at least originally) not about the Superstar. It was/is all about his friend, Balu.

But the promos (including the official website) have so far featured only Rajinikant with rest of the cast relegated to mere footnotes. Even the music CDs that were handed out yesterday for everyone at the premiere, have only Rajinikant’s image on the cover. That, IMO, is a great disservice to the other cast members, especially Pasupathy and Meena. Their’s might not be award winning performances, but they played the characters that the movie was about. And those are the characters that I will recommend that you watch this movie for.

For a longer extensive review, check out my post in UberDesi.