Billa 2 - MyView

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I was skeptical to watch this because of unanimous comments on this movie right from the day one.
The decision got stronger when I heard that few days after release, ticket prices were slashed 1/5th of the day one ticket price.

But I stepped into movie hall daringly. And after watching the movie, I was not sorry for that. Because this is one another reference for Tamil movie industry for stylish film making.

The story describes the transformation of a Refugee to an Gangster. A 'lungi' wearing Ajith to one in Blazer.
Ajit looks very charming and stylish on western outfits.

The movie starts with the same dialogue which was popularly highlighted in the movie trialer. The same dialogue and stunt is repeated near the climax too.

Cinematography and BGM are the main spine for the movie. Rathinavelu and Yuvan has done an fantastic job. Many wouldn't notice, the color tone changes along with Billa's transform.

I really like the song which goes after Billa takes over his first enemy's regime. Its a monochromatic, comical story telling kind of clips editor together. It was totally in new our tamil movies (after Alavandhan, where cartoon would be used instead). Same style was applied when the initial credits slides (it looks similar to that of spiderman but here with background sounds of the events)

Another set of technicians who showed their overwhelming performance was Stunt team and Special effects team. Since this is an gangster movie, they didn't miss any of the important attributes like blood, fight, girls, guns, cigars and drinks.

Director(Chakri Toleti) being a new fellow (we cant consider Unai pol oruvan has his debut, since it was a Kamalhasan's movie) he has tried his best. But made many mistakes, few of them are very prominent. Most of them are continuity errors, like blood strains in knife, shirt disappear and appears after a scene. 

The story describes about the growth of billa, which we assume it happens in early 90s. Few of the screen properties prove that, like heavy cellphones, cordless phones,pistols etc. But in many places we can see recent kind vehicles like Sumo, eicher's tempo, trailers, yellow color name plate etc. Subtitles were missing for few English and Russian dialogues.

Dialogues were good(should say impressive), and few places powerful. I like the dialogue when one of the gangster exclaims about the worth of arms business and Billa replies, 'Demand is not for the arms, its for the death'. In another place when Billa chats with CM he says, 'For doing good or bad, effort/dedication is required.'

Though its a sequel movie, there is no direct connection between the two except 'Ranjit' and 'Jagdesh' characters. I should say, he has chosen an enough and safe distance. Another challenge

for the director was, Vishnuvardan(Billa I director) has set the bars so high. Chakri has managed to just touch it with help of Ajit Kumar and other technicians.

We have seen many such movies like Pudhupettai and recently Mangatha. May be that's the reason Billa 2 was not interesting to people. But I have a question to people who complain about the violence in a gangster movie. If you want a non-violent gangster movie, you should get call sheet of MK Thiagaraja Bagavadhar. Is someone ready for the attempt?

Controversy

List of controversies came to my mind, when I was commuting to office.

Do not want to continue quarrel == No idea to stop your debate
Want a safe and pleasant ride. == Wont follow traffic rules.
Need more Salary == Not ready to work more
Require a silent environment == Not willing to keep quiet
Wish to talk with some one == Not willing to start a conversation
Want to go to heaven == Not ready to die
Like the articles I wrote == But not willing to comment

Controversy, Hence LHS != RHS

You can add to the list too....

I am clean

Recently, I been to a cultural festival nearer to the place I live.

Part of it, there were lot of  south Indian classical concerts, religious talks and bajans.
Tasty snacks, beverages were distributed. Many of them were glued to these stalls trying almost all of the varieties (I was lucky to get two, three snack varieties struggling beyond these snack zombies... :) ). 

One such program was 'Religious Speech' by a mid aged women. She gave very inspiring speech on spirituality. Quoted incidents from epics and other religious literature. All went well, time to complete the talk.

She sang 'Namavali', a kind of bajan reciting God's names in tune. She wanted the audience to join her in bajan. A feeble chorus joined her.

Then she said 'Your voice not even audible to me, how will god hear you. Sing louder'. Giggles in the auditorium, then the chorus volume increased.

Then she said, "when singing God's name, one should raise their hands above their head". Again only few hands went up.

Now she made a clever move. She said that her guru used to tell her "Everybody wants to sing God's name with hands up their heads. But their hands are fastened with their sins". Moment she completes this statement, everybody in the auditorium do so (Except myself and my room mate, we told each other that we have more sins :))

It was a excellent powerful pan shot of enlightened audience for the live camera covering for a TV channel. The lady who gave the spiritual talk was happy with the feel of victory, walked away.

Two things came to my mind at this point Firstly, A Tamil movie comedy where comedian Vadivelu does similar kind of statement when he makes his village believe that he can show them god. Secondly, How clever people are(:) really).

People were so clever to cheat themselves. All they were trying to do was to make a statement 'I am clean'. Many would oppose my point, but this is fact.

I conclude with a quote,(reused from one of my friend's gtalk status message)
Be a good person, But don't try to prove it.

Its our mistake

Recently I been to USA.
Few of my fellow friends know this.

It was the west part of the continent. And it was a growing summer. Driest and hottest in the year.
I stayed for three weeks, and the maximum was 113 degree Fahrenheit with 5-10% humidity.
You cannot just roam around in sun with out protection creams. Sun burns would be for sure if you don't.
 Rains are very heavy and for very less period. The ground is so dry and hard, it cannot absorb the water. Most of the time floods into nearer river to reach the sea.

The above text were to give you the verbal picture of the landscape and region.

In the weekends I got chance to travel across the state to visit few places. I got shocked by the window side scene. It was jaw-dropping. In mid of that dry land I saw thousands of acres of agriculture land. Not Just that, they have cattle too.

It was really amazing and bunch of questions crawling in my mind. How do they grow this? What is the irrigation source?

After these questions attack, a great shame feeling stuck me.
In a very dry, hot landscape, where water cannot be stored for longer duration, they managed to grow crops. We in India  comprising 2/3rd of agricultural land, farmers complaint lack of monsoon, government funding, etc.

I don't say they are not important, but there is still more important stuffs which we need to cultivate. Commitment. If we don't save our farm lands, our next generation are in great danger.

Already we started importing food grains. Agriculture lands being swallowed by realtors.

I really don't know the solution for this. But I can ask 'Who's Mistake is this?'