Sepia Mutiny has this post on the release of 79 desi DVD titles on Netflix. But what really caught my eye in that post are these words -

This comes in the same week that GV Films announced their intent to create a legal Bollywood (and Tamilwood [is that even a word? - ed]) film downloading system

According to a news release that I found on GV Film’s website, this translates to almost 6000 movie titles that will delivered to paying customers (who possess a credit card) via two portals – “gvtamilfilms.com” and “telugupictures.com”!

While this is awesome news, I am at a loss trying to figure out how this peice of news passed under the radar for over 2 months (the press release on the GV films site is dated 17th Aug.).

I recently heard and glanced through an editorial that had appeared in The Hindu about a month ago. It appeared two months after N.Ram’s taking over as Editor in chief of the Hindu Group and announced a re-structuring of The Hindu and its sister publications and sought to inform the readers of its re-orientation. Now about a month after this editorial, comes the first public hint of the change. An article covering a function marking the 125th day of the release of the Vikram flick – Saamy. Is this for the good or the bad? This is but a very tiny indication of change in the newspaper and can by no means construed as representative of the magnitude of such a change. There was, as far as I know, no coverage of the recent fracas involving a couple of out-of-work actresses and their subsequent arrests, but then these events happened much closer to that editorial mentioned about. So will The Hindu go the TOI way? I hope not!Coming back to the event that was covered. Too much praise on each other from Rajini, Surya and Vikram. The King and the heir-apparents. Another poseur – Vijay, was around too, but I think he got invited on stage just out of politeness. That he had just two words (apart from reading out a list of names) to speak did not add any sheen to his presence. Vivek apparently got mentioned in the same breadth as Kamal and Rajini, straight from the mouth of the big boss, KB. Vivek, in case u did not know, is a KB discovery from Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal. Dunno if he did any more with KB though.

I am strong backer of dappan koothu! The term dappan koothu probably originates from Dappa Koothu or dance (koothu) accompanied by percussion beats from the back of a dappa (tin or box). For those of you who’s knowledge of Tamil is perfunctory, Dappan Koothu is nothing but the common man’s (read as someone with zero knowledge of classical music) idea of music – the Tamil equivalent of rap. Hence, most other people (incl. my father) dismiss it as trash. But if you want to dance and you lack the moves, then the best music for you would be dappan koothu.I am a great fan of dappan koothu – the versions strongly promoted by the likes of Thenisai Thendral (LOL) Deva. For a period of time during my undergrad years, Deva produced a steady stream of such songs that have probably entered my Koothu Hall of Fame. And there have been several other composers too who have contributed lately to this list – The Raja siblings, Bharathwaj etc.

I am not a good dancer per say, but koothu electrifies me. And this is my koothu Hall of Fame (in no particular order, I should add). If you want to hear these songs, just go to Raaga.com and search for these movies. And be sure to have some empty space in your room when you hear these numbers. I am sure that you are gonna start dancing.

The Dappan-Koothu Hall of Fame.

1. Anna Nagar Andalu – Kaalamellam Kadhal Vaazhga (1997) / Deva / Deva etc.
2. Kasu Mele Kasu Vandhu – Kadhala Kadhala (1998) / Karthik Raja / Udit Narayan, Kamalhaasan
3. White Lagan Kozhi – Priyamudan (1998) / Deva / Deva etc.
4. Kothavalchavadi Lady – Kannedhirae Thondrinal (1998) / Deva/ Deva etc.
5. Vethala potta sokkula – Amaran (1992) / Adithyan/ Karthik*
6. O Podu – Gemini (2002) / Bharathwaj / SPB, Anuradha Sriram (the remix rocks too!)
7. Sarakku Vachirukken – Shah Jahan (2001) / Mani Sharma / Shankar Mahadevan, Radhika
8. Site adippom – April Madhathil (2002) / Yuvan Shankar Raja/ Silambarasan, Karthik
9. Kaathadikkudhu Kaathadikkudhu – Ninaivirukkum Varai (1999) / Deva
10. Laalakku Dol – Sooriyan (1991) / Deva / Mano

* the Tamil actor

Btw this is just my personal hall of fame – songs I enjoy dancing to. My father would not appreciate these songs as much as i love them, but if you share similar sentiments with him, I would actually ask you to see (the video) of one song – the ninth in the list.

This song is actually a fine example of what can be conveyed through these songs. Songs of this kind are quite common in street theatre and this particular song incorporates a sequence from the Ramayana (the kidnapping of Seetha), which literally comes out of the blue.

Anybody who says such songs are trash should see this song to understand the messages that can be possibly expressed through this medium. Maybe then Deva and his ilk would get the respect they deserve. But for that to happen, Deva should probably first lose the “copy cat” tag that has overshadowed even his best work.

The Old Lady of Mount Road is celebrating her 125th birthday. I have a been reading it for atleast 15 years now. Yeah, I was a early starter with it and usually headed for the last pages to get the daily update on my cricket and other sports as per the season. These days, I usually go to the Tamilnadu section of the Southern States page of the online edition.

In my house, The Hindu was usually handed to me via my cousin. My father left early in the morning, often meeting the newspaper boy at the door when he left. But sometimes, if I was lucky I got it first when my cousin was brushing his teeth or heading for his morning ablutions. But he was sure to snatch it from me as soon he was ready to read it. But after he got married, I got first shot almost everyday, spending a quality 15 minutes everyday. And according to my mother, everytime I got delayed for school, it was always because I chose to spend time with the “Hindu paper” rather than putting my school books into the bag or filling my water bottle. And whenever it was our class’s turn with the news during the morning assembly at school, I had to spend another 10 minutes at least to make sure that I got valid reasons to say “This is Ananthanarayan with the morning news hoping that your news isn’t bad news”, a la-Clark Kent. Hence the Hindu was as good a part of my life as cricket or the Hardy Boys.

When in college, I spent time each day at the college library checking out the news in the Hindu and also for other unmentionable reasons. And in college I also became hooked on the word games, the Sunday crossie and the weekly Discovery Channel Quiz in the Indian Express. So much that even in Chennai, I bought the Express every Sunday much to my mom’s chargrin that I read not one, but two newspapers.

Here in the US, its the online editions. Though I have almost stopped reading the Express, due to the time zones, The Hindu is almost always my first read in the early afternoon, when it is usually updated. I wish they would improve the design of the online edition, but then the whole charm would be gone.

The Hindu has always had a reputation of being a staid newspaper without any sensationalism. So much that even when a certain N.Godse broke a million hearts by killing Gandhiji, The Hindu still was calm enough to put news of this incident and subsequent happenings not on the first page, but in one of the inside pages. Its another fact that in 1948, The Hindu used to have only ads on the first page. But its exemplary that they did not want to change their usual activities even at the face of such extraordinary news. Btw, does someone know whether this same practice was followed when India became independent?

Closer to present, I heard that R.Mohan, one of the foremost cricket journalists in the nation, had to resign his position in The Hindu’s staff when his name came up in connection with the match fixing scandal. Though his name was mentioned only in passing and he was never really even censured, he still had to leave on the instructions of the Hindu’s top brass.

The Hindu is one of the familiar sights that I remember from my childhood and reading it is one of those things that I hope to do for a long time now.

UPDATE: Dunno how i missed this, but there are atleast two instances of highly sensationalised investigative journalism from the Hindu, one of which I keenly followed. The other, I learnt after reading the special supplement today. I don’t know how I missed mentioning about Chitra Subramanian and her Bofors investigative peices filed from Stockholm. I keenly followed the case and for a time was the in-class expert on the Bofors 155mm Howitzer. I have heard she was pregrant during the time she spent in Sweden covering the case. In that way, she reminds me of Chief Marge Gunderson from Fargo

The second case (which predated the above mentioned Bofors series by atleast 80 years) was the The Crash of Arbuthnot & Co.. Arbuthnot & Co was one of the Big Three companies in the then Madras Presidency, the other two being Binny and Co. and Parry and Co. and was a big player in South Indian commerce and had financial interests even in the American Railroad and South African gold mining. It was a banking firm, the precursor of the numerous nidhis and chitfunds of the recent past. The Hindu then was just finding its feet and when Arbuthnot & Co. crashed, it became the mouthpeice of the affected investors who ranged from small families to Maharajas of various princely states. This opposition indirectly led to the incorporation of the first ever “Native” bank, “a bank which depended on the savings of those in the South had to be incorporated locally and managed by Indians who were locally known and respected“, which a couple of years ago, ironically fell into the bad times that befell its predecessor too – Indian Bank. If that is not irony, what is ?

If you were ever a resident of T.Nagar and if you are a cricket fanatic, then you will never forget “Somas”. “Somas”, as the Corporation ground off North Usman Road is/was fondly called, has been for quite some time now, the breeding ground for budding cricketers in the adjoining areas. I have been hearing about the IDPL ground lately (courtesy the Cooling gang), but Somas still occupies a special place in my heart.Somas was one of the places (the other being the Corporation Ground in Venkat Narayana Road, opposite Natesan Park) where I started my competitive cricket. By competitive cricket, i mean the war types where every wicket is like a drop of blood and you have to fight for it. I have been involved in certain fiascos as well. The first of these that comes to mind is the “Recall the batsman” incident. The match is still etched into my mind, because i was in the thick of things right from the word go.

The above mentioned incident is from a match between the 9th standard A and B sections in my school. I was in the A section and was part of the team as well. The A and the B sections were always in logger heads, till our 10th standard when the sections were mixed up to ensure “common educational levels” (as my Vice Principal said a couple of years later when I met her). Now the match was a part of a series of tennis-ball cricket matches that were played almost ever weekend throughout that year or part of it.

This guy Satish (fondly called Nattai, meaning Tall, because of his gangling gait), was the most technically perfect batsman in the B section (if not the whole school) and also the most competitive. He was also the best bowler, again because of his height and he had very good bouncer (if i remember right). He was batting, in the 20s when there was this terrible mixup and both batsmen were stranded out of the crease. The umpire (who was from the battting side) could not figure out who was out and there was extreme confusion. We were obviously claiming the wicket of Satish and he was not ready to walk. Being a pre-teen, the other batsman was more worried about getting his gachi (popular lingo for “quality batting time”) and hence was claiming he was not out and that Satish had to go. So the ensuing confusion the B section team decided that they were not going to play anymore and they walked out. We said “fine” and we walked off too. None of us were getting off from the ground and we were just milling about.

I don’t know what got into me then, but I just suggested why dont we forget everything and recall the batsmen. Nobody from my own team opposed me. Atleast the majority seemed to think that it was better in the interests of the game, to continue. and after quite a bit of discussion we decided that the ball was to be re-bowled.

After this the whole match turned around. Satish decimated the bowling. I think I bowled a few overs too (why, I will tell soon) and though I want to think otherwise, I feel I was not spared. But personal consolation comes when I think about Satish’s dismissal, sadly only after he scored a century. He was caught brilliantly, a running catch taken inches off the ground by yours truly in deep cover. But the damage had been done and Satish probably holds the record for the only century ever in all forms of cricket between the A section and B section. But more consolation comes from the fact that when we batted, I top scored with 21 (playing with a bye-runner as usual, I should add). But this incident was/has been repeated whenever there was talk about inter-class cricket.

Another cricketing incident that has made me famous among my classmates was the “Mine” incident. I don’t know if it was the same match mentioned above, but the teams involved were the same. And even the batsman in question was the same Nattai. I was bowling my gentle medium pacers (or was it my off spinners, that I used to bowl till I dramatically lost the ability) to Nattai when he stepped out and tried to pull me to the mid-wicket fence. He got, but a top edge and the ball went high up in the air over the pitch.

What happened then has been repeated zillions of times, much to my embarassment. Apparently I waved my hands like a duck flapping its wings and ran down the length of the pitch, shouting “Mine” at the top of my voice (which is really loud, if you have not heard me). And promptly the ball slips through my cupped fingers and every one looks at me like my fly was open all day and they had come to know of it just then. That was so embarassing. I have taken some wonderful catches from then on, but the stigma of the “Mine” incident has stuck to me since then.

But I remember the stage for all these incidents fondly and most of my friends spend a lot of time there in the evenings talking, sitting in the wall next to the floodlit basketball court.

Somas has apparently fallen into bad times as this article in today’s Hindu mentions, but its heartening to see the residents take up the cudgels to protect this place. I am sure a lot of us, who have grown up playing cricket there at Somas would be glad to help.

Does anyone remember this eventful over ? I am sure that every Indian cricket fan remembers this Test match, but this particular second inning dismissal? Have seen any talk about it lately. Read on. The following is from a Cricinfo ball-by-ball commentary.

41.1 Saqlain Mushtaq to Tendulkar, no run, a step forward, aggressive shot, played to midwicket fielder.

41.2 Saqlain Mushtaq to Tendulkar, one run, bounces and spins a lot, turned to backward short leg, quick run.

41.3 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, no run, short ball, cracked very hard at silly point fielder. both silly point and short cover turned their backs the ball bounced off silly point’s back but short cover was not ready either turning his back too.

41.4 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, no run, pushed to offside

oh no….

41.5 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, OUT:
India 82/5, Partnership of 9
SC Ganguly c Moin Khan b Saqlain Mushtaq 2 (25b 0×4 0×6)
Saqlain Mushtaq 14.5-5-19-2

Interesting, what if India had actually complained to the match referee (which I think they did not). Btw, Cammie Smith was the match refree in this match, but with two sub-continent teams involved, just like “la-affaire Latif”, we could have had some success. Even the mainstream Pakistani media termed the decision the worst of the match

It is also interesting to see two similiar incidents involving the same team. Speaks volumes about the tendency of the team in question to do such things when the tide is against them. They won on both cases and in both cases the victory was as close as it can be. If only Azhar and Co. had been clever enough to approach Smith with a protest!