The Cup of Joy!!

It was The Judgment Day at the IPL season 3 yesterday which decided who is gonna have the last laugh (Ok.. enough of the Clichés)

It's no secret anymore. It was Chennai who came out in flying colors :) CSK entered the finals as the under-dogs given Mumbai's consistent performance through out the tournament. They were the side to beat and hence the pressure of winning was obviously on them and this proved decisive when they had to chase a decent enough score on a tricky pitch.

The eve of the match rendered a slight blow to CSK's camp. The news was that Sachin was fit and will be playing in finals and leading his team to win the ever elusive Championship. It was bad news for Kallis too as his Orange cap was under threat (eventually Sachin scored much more than those 2 runs reqd to pluck the cap out of Jack's head)
Raina's innnings was a cherry topping to his already illustrious carreer at the IPL so far and he along with able support from others made sure Chennai reached a score that was defend'able.
When Mumbai came to bat and were struggling for the 1st half scoring at less than 6 r.p.o, they still had hope in the form of the man of the tournament 'Sachin'. But when he was gone and when MI were busy deciding whether to send Pollard ahead of Malinga or after him, you know the game was done and it was too late even for the big hitter.
CSK's fairytale ending was amazing and I was absolutely speechless and spell-bound after the match. Just think that we had to score 44 runs off 3 overs even to make to the semis exactly a week ago at Dharamsala. The BIG turnaround for CSK was Chennai's (or rather Dhoni's) last over win against Punjab. That set the tone and the rest is history!! :-) It has been a long way from there.
Feel sorry for Sachin.. but he lacks that eeny weeny bit of luck required to grab a big trophy. On the other hand, Mahi has been CSK's lucky charm. Winning both the Championship and the Fair Play Award (We had a perfect 10/10 for all the 14 matches) just goes on to show the kind of hard and fair cricket this team has been playing throughout.
And needless to say Chennai has been the most consistent team across all the IPL seasons. Here are a few numbers to drive home the point.

No.	Teams	IPL '08	IPL '09	IPL '10	Net worth
1	CSK	7	5	8	20
2	DD	5	6	4	15
3	RCB	2	7	6	15
4	DC	1	8	5	14
5	MI	4	2	7	13
6	RR	8	3	2	13
7	KXIP	6	4	1	11
8	KKR	3	1	3	7

The points are allocated as below:
8 pts for the Tournament Winners
7 pts for the Runners-up
6 for the winner of 3rd place play-off or the one higher on the Points Table
5 for the other losing Semi-finalist
4, 3, 2 and 1 for the rest of the teams according to their positions in Points table
The Net Worth will be the summation of points across the IPL seasons

Numbers speak for themselves.. Do I need to say anything?
Hoping for more success for the Lions in the forthcoming seasons too :-) Fingers Xd.

PVR | Be there

Well, at last its here in Chennai after such a long time. It's quite weird as how long it took for them to start screening in one of the metropolitans whereas they have screens in almost all of the prominent cities around the country. Well, am not complaining, better late than never.
We now have a nice alternative to the biggies of Chennai (Sathyam and Inox). So coming back to the question 'Does it live upto its biggest competitors?'. I would say, Yes it does, at last it appears to do so at the first look.
Location: It's a 7 screen multiplex located at a pretty nice spot, the Skywalk mall in Aminjikarai. Its easily accessible from Annanagar, Shenoynagar, MMDA, Valluvar kottam n many other residential/commercial places.
Picture/Sound: The picture quality of the screen was very good. The screen seemed little smaller compared to others. But the auditoriums are somewhat small and you cant have screens any bigger. Sound was pretty good too. The surround effect was predominant. Ppl actually turned back a couple of times hearing music at the background :)
Ambiance/Seating: The trademark red provides a nice ambiance to the movie hall. The seats are well-cushioned and all have nice push-backs. The leg space is just enough (could been a little wider for people have grown a little more than the normal like me ;)
To improve: One worrying thing would the pagal kollai at the parking lot. Usually malls that have movie screens charge a different flat rate for movie goers. But, here they charge on a hourly basis and I had to shell out 30 bucks for a 2-wheeler parking. That's 25% of the movie ticket cost. Too bad. Hope they do something about it.
Also they don't have the Gold class tickets, as TN govt has a cap of Rs. 120 as a max for movie tickets. So we Chennaites may not get a chance to check that out at all.

Overall, it was fine movie watching experience for me at the PVR and I would say that the PVR is here to stay.

IPL season 3

So the season 3 of the mad man's game is here. So is it Back? Bigger? Better?

Bigger- it might be next year with 2 more teams to join the party

Better- is what we could decide over the next 1 month of action

But, its definitely back.. ya back to India after almost 2 yrs. That's definitely a reason to celebrate.. Yay!! :P

So what's new this IPL? Let's have a look what each of the franchises have in store this season

1. Chennai Super Kings

Its my home side :) and I hope we win this time after a couple of fairly good outings in the past 2 seasons. We made it to the semis on both occasions. CSK will be as ever blessed with the presence of one of the best captains of the IPL, Dhoni. Couldn't agree with Director of CSK more when he says, he s a 3-in-1 performer whose contribution can never go without a mention.

Haydos is back and we might get a chance to see him with his Mongoose bat. The one that looks like a Dhobi walla's. Kemp is in the side too and we might have to wait for sometime to c the blazing opening pair of Hussey and Hayden.

Now putting the other teams in perspective in the order of my backing them :)

2. Mumbai Indians

+ Sachin leading from the front and in the midst of an amazing purple patch

+ The Caribbean explosive duo of Bravo and Pollard.

+ They will hope that the Indian Spin and Pace spearheads Bhaji and Zaheer fire along with Malinga's unorthodox bowling

3. Delhi Daredevils

+ The awesome Delhi opening pair of Viru and his Ranji team mate Gauti. Warner could only add to the woes of the opposition.

+ SA's ABD and SL's Dilshan were well worth their money last time. ABD might not be the same on Indian tracks.

+ Nannes and Parnell will form a nice bowling pair

No more favorites.. Listing others in some random order

4. Bangalore Royal Challengers

+ My 3rd fav captain after Dhoni and Sachin. Kumble can trouble any side with balls landing on their seam

+ Kallis couldn't have hit a good form in anyother better time. Being an excellent all-rounder he comes as a nice package

+ The young Indian contingent of Praveen, Pandey and Vinay kumar should make their presence felt.

5. Kolkata Knight Riders

+ Supposed to be the most glamorous team of the IPL. But the glamour usually limits itself to just SRK. Hope Dada leads them to a decent position this time.

+ Gayle's flamboyant batting, Mathew's all-round abilities and Bond's fiery bowling should come good for them to spell success this season

6. King XI Punjab

+ Much will depend on how good Sangakkara handles the additional responsibility of Captaincy with batting and wicket keeping.

+ Jayawardene, UV and Bopara's batting will be things to look out for.

+ The Australian pair of Lee and Marsh would be eagerly awaited.

7. Deccan Chargers

+ Gilly Gilly.. all the way. He s one another Batsman-Wicketkeeper-Captain package after Dhoni and Sangakkara. And a main cog in the wheel for the Deccan.

+ The out of form talented-Rohit and lasttime-purplecap-holder RP Singh need to come good.

+ Big man Symmo has been good with both bat and the ball. Vaas seems to be going back to his good old days with some amazing opening bowling spells. Look out!!

8. Rajasthan Royals

+ Royals = Shane Warne. The equation couldn't get any simpler.

+ Smith's and Dimma's injuries have really hurt them. Should more than be compensated by Shane Watson's return in April.

+ Warne lead a team of underdogs to an emphatic win once. Can he do it again? Wait and watch.

Oscar 2010 Predictions

Its that part of the year again, where movies from the Hollywood are screened, rated, reviewed, nominated and finally selected for the most prestigious movie awards on the planet Earth. Yes, its time for the Oscar festival.

This year the nominations are being announced on Feb 2
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will co-host the awards this year on Sunday, March 7

So here are the nominees.. rather, possible nominees :) and winners

BEST PICTURE

Avatar
The Hurt locker
Up in the Air
Precious
District 9
Inglorious Basterds

It should be between Avatar and The Hurt Locker. With Slumdog winning it last time for the mass appeal, Avatar could very well make the cut this time.

BEST DIRECTOR

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

Usually this category gets tagged along with the favourite picture. So it could be either James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)

Jeff Bridges won at the Golden Globes. George Clooney is not a distant second.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Gabby Sidibe (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)

It should be between Sandra and Meryl. My guess would be Sandra Bullock

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)

Other nominees need not even turn up. I can give this one in the writing ;)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Mo'Nique (Precious)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)

Must be Mo'Nique. She won the favour at the Golden Globes too.

BEST SCREENPLAY (Adapted + Original)

Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Pete Doctor and Bob Petersen (Up)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

There are seperate categories for Adapated and Original. Here I have clubbed them up. It should be a 3 way tough fight between UITA, Avatar and IB.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Up
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Up, Up and Away!!!!

Keep ur fingers crossed. Lets have a look at my hit rate once the nominees are announced this Tuesday :)

[Updated on Feb 02, 2010]

So, its Feb 2 and the much awaited nominations are finally out. Avatar and The Hurt Locker get the most with 9 noms. Inglourious Basterds - 8. Precious and Up in the Air - 6. Up - 5

And coming back to my predictions, I got 26 of the 27 noms right. Not bad really :)

Only thing I had missed was, I thot Avatar wud be nominated for Best Screenplay. But unfortunately it didn't.

Anyways, lets wait for the big day when the winners r announced

TOscars 2009

This is a Desi Tamil version of the Academy awards :)

The movies are based on what I have seen and felt. There might be a few more worthy contenders left out. If there are any, kindly post a comment.

Here are the nominees for the various categories. Winners will be announced on the first day of the New Year!!

(Winners listed at the end of post)

The categories are simple: Best movie, Best Actor (Male), Best Actress (Female) and Best Album (Music Director). More categories might be added in the future :)

So, here goes the list *Drum Roll*

Best Movie 2009 Nominees

• Naan Kadavul by Bala

This movie deserved every bit of its nomination for the director's bold effort in handling a subject that many would not even dared to think about. He was ably supported by an excellent cast including the lead pair Arya and Pooja who made the movie complete.

• Yavarum Nalam by Vikram Kumar

A nice horror/thriller in Tamil after a very long time. Many have made an effort in the recent few years but only in vain. It had all the components to provide a nice thrill and kept us on the edge of the seats all the way.

• Naadodigal by Samuthirakani

One of those films which went on to prove that block busters don't really mean huge production costs. In a year where films like Kandhaswamy which largely relied on the huge budget/hype and star cast failed to make a mark, few films like this showed that as long as the story is fine, people welcome a movie with both hands.

• Eeram by Arivazhagan

Another not-so-big-budget films and a nice thriller like Yaavarum Nalam. It was visually appeasing and the cast was very good. Virtually unknown actor Aadhi (earlier starred in Mirugam) made a mark for himself with his performance. And ofcourse Sindhu Menon came up with one the best performance from a female actor this year.

• Unnaipol Oruvan by Chakri Toleti

This one movie I had to think a lot before including it for the nominations. It was not an original screenplay. It was a remake of the Hindi version 'A Wednesday'. But it was not a remake that spoiled the original even though you could not say that this was better than the original. The 2 veterans in the lead made sure they carried the movie on their shoulders.

A special mention has to be made for few more splendid efforts. Pasanga by Pandiraj, Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu by Susindran and Renigunta by Paneerselvam won the favour of the critics and did well at the box office too. Hope there would be more such honest efforts in 2010.

Best Actor 2009 Nominees

• Arya for Naan Kadavul
• Kamal Haasan for Unnaipol Oruvan
• Sasi Kumar for Nadodigal
• Aadhi for Eeram

Best Actress Nominees

• Pooja for Naan Kadavul
• Sindhu Menon for Eeram
• Tamanna for Kandean Kadhalai
• Abhinaya for Naadodigal
• Padma Priya for Pokkisham

Best Album (Music Director)

• Harris Jeyaraj for Aadhavan, Ayan
• Devi Sri Prasad for Kandhaswamy, Villu
• Yuvan Shankar Raja for Sarvam, Vaamanan
• Vijay Antony for Nenaithaley Inikum, Vettaikaran, TN07-AL-4777

*** The winners ***

Best Movie

Naadodigal

Best Actor

Aadhi (Eeram)

Best Actress

Pooja (Naan Kadavul)

Best Musician

Harris Jeyaraj