La Pongal!, What a blast!

If someone were to ask me to pick the best of the three incarnations of Darbuka Siva and his friends (band mates, Pradeep, Susha and Kalyani Nair) namely, Harmonize Projekt, Yodhaka and La Pongal, I'll go for La Pongal.

Three or four weeks ago after purchasing Yodhaka's album (more on that later) and having heard that La Pongal has also released their debut album I couldn't resist checking them out. And man, what a surprise was in in store!

From the very first intro, the album simply rocks. Songs "Vandiyooru Kmmayile" have be listened to over and over again and as things stand show no signs of wearing me down.

You tube link of one of their live rocking performances is here. This song with improvisations and nice solos was even better than the original on the CD. Check it out here.



If you don't want to purchase the CD you can listen to the entire album here,

La Pongal

With shades of rock and reggae La Pongal have a great album that should actually be high on the world music charts. Sad what viral marketing can do to a song such as "Kolaveri" when a superb album as this is just waiting to be explored. Most of the songs are gems done very creatively with both western and Indian musical instruments. The songs and lyrics of the village folk, their dialects and lingo are also a pleasure to listen to. The popular ones are also available on YouTube.

And what a joy to know that Kalyani Nair who is the lead female vocal on "Harmonize Projekt" and "Yodhaka" is the very same Kalyani Menon who sang the beautiful "Adi Thozhi Adi Thozi..." in the Parthiban movie "Thendral".

My sister launches Chennai's first "Laundromat"

Our marketing guys were pretty sure as much as we were when we told them about the concept that this was a first of its kind in Chennai.

The response has been very pleasing on the opening day with people lining up as I write this at 9:42 PM.

Called Laundroroom and located in Velachery, the very-happening part of Chennai we are sure this self-service laundry is going to serve Velachery well.

It all started just a couple of months ago when a friend fainted one early morning at work. On enquiring she would tell me that after a horrendous bus journey the previous night she had to wake up at 4:30 AM to do her laundry before coming to work. I made a note of "scope for a laundromat in Chennai" then and it has now become a reality for my sister who was thinking of opening a "new kind" of business.



A view of the washers and dryers.



For the latest updates and more information visit www.laundroroom.com

Prejudiced, I really missed this one, Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya

Sis and Bro told me they couldn't sit through the movie and had to stop it half way. And with the sour taste of "Vaaranam Ayiram" (couldn't sit through for more than 10 minutes) and the horrible "Nadunisi Naygal" fresh in my mind I just let "Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya" pass whenever it came my way. For the New Year party this year when our professional singer belted out "En Idhayam...." from VTV I really became curious. Though I have seen bits and pieces of these songs I never really cared much. Well, all that has changed.

Bala my new friend at work gave me a copy of the film and what a beautiful movie to have watched over the weekend. One thing. If, like me, you are a sucker for romance flicks, then this is for you. There are flaws and big ones too but the movie nevertheless is lovely. Simbu and Thrisha are lucky to have been cast in this film and they can consider this to be their best movie ever. Of the two I thought Simbu did an excellent job and I really felt for his character in the film. For once I found him cute and adorable. I also thought he acted pretty well. Thanks to Gautham Vasudev Menon for bringing out the best in both Simbu and Trisha. I had never considered them big stars. In several scenes I thought the-being-elder to the man by a year was also cleverly thought over and played quite well. The thin comedy line was also good. Both cameraman Ganesh and director K S Ravikumar do a fine job in this regard.

A.R.R's music is so different when viewed in the movie. The videos are excellent (except for one that I fast forwarded, some black and white stuff) and the best part is that they are timed excellently well. Watching them on Sun Music simply takes the joy out of them. My favorite scenes are many but the best are 1. When Jessy confesses her love for Karthik. 2. The video of "Omana Penne", particularly the concluding scenes of the video. 3. Video of the title song. 4. Simbu's acting on the bench on Central Park.

The Telugu version (Ye Maaya Cheesave) has a different and in my opinion the better ending. I am not sure how the Hindi version (Ek Deewana Tha) ends but if the story and cast are handled like the way it was in the Tamil version, the guys up north are in for a treat!