Pazhassi Raja

We had been thinking of going to watch Pazhassi Raja – the movie for quite some time now. The reviews had been mixed –feedback from those who had seen it indicated that the movie was good on the technical side – the photography, background score etc. but not everyone was happy with the pace of the movie.

We finally made it to the theatre to see the movie yesterday. Our daughter’s feedback on the movie was registered 30 minutes into the movie. A battle scene was on, Resul Pookutty’s background score was good but there seemed to a song in the background somewhere – it was out daughter who was supplementing Resul by singing a song and entertaining herself. 15 minutes after the interval she was in the horizontal position head on mother’s lap, feet on father’s unmindful of what Mamooty and co. were doing to save us from the British.

Overall I enjoyed the movie. Yes, the score is good – so is the attention to detail in the costumes and the photography. The kind of movie you want to see on the big screen and not on the idiot box 2 years later during Onam/Vishu/Christmas !

A couple of small points though – Padmapriya plays an important part in the movie. However her part ends abruptly and without much closure. My wife tells me that we should take it that because her character was in the heat of battle it is to be assumed that she gets killed. Rumors have it (heard from a friend) that she was in a battle all right – but with the director (regarding role/remuneration etc) and I guess we can assume that the director is the one who killed the character abruptly ! :-)

Mamooty has been overshadowed by Sharath Kumar. A couple of friends told me earlier that the movie should have been called Edachena Kunkan (the character played by Sharat Kumar) instead of Pazhassi Raja.

All said and done, I enjoyed the movie but the last 15 minutes was a let down – especially the ending! Here you have a prince for whom many had sacrificed (and gambled) everything, most of his lieutenants had fallen one by one in battle while the prince himself had not fought. All of a sudden he decides to go for the British all alone. In typical movie style he fells more than 15 soldiers with his sword before falling to a firearm.

Like I said earlier, inspite of all its failings, still worth a watch if at least for the photography and background music.

Out of the mouths…. cont’d …/2

Well its time for a Nandu-ism again ! We were getting ready to go to the temple this Saturday evening. Just as we were able to leave the following conversation took place:

She: Can we take some paper ?

Me: What ?

She: Can we take some paper ?

Me: What paper ?

She: News paper

Me: Why?

She: So that we can collect prasadam (avil) from the temple.

We normally frequent the same temple and there they place pieces of cut news paper so that devotees can collect avil prasadam.

During last week’s visit there was no newspaper available and we had collected prasadam with our hands. Nandu remembered this - she was trying to be helpful and be prepared for the all important part of the temple visit – viz. the prasadam !

Out of the mouths of babes ….cont’d...

Another small gem from Nandu – this one on her birthday - there was a sadhya (feast). The payasam was offered to God just before consumption by us mortals. Nandu was watching the scene with utmost concentration. Then she asked her grandma –

Q :What is grandpa doing?

A : He is doing puja

Q : What is he doing with the payasam ?

A : He is offering it to God

Q : How can God have the payasam ? He is in the photo, right?

A : Even though what you see is grandpa offering the payasam to the photo, in reality God will partake of the offering.

I was in office when this conversation took place. The first thing my daughter told me when I reached home was that grandpa offered payasam to the photo but in reality God was the one who ate it !!

Out of the mouths of babes …..

Just like any other child, my daughter Nandu likes to listen to stories before going to sleep at night. Usually either self or wife do the honours. Two days back my parents came to Trivandrum for Nandu’s birthday. Last night my mother was telling her the story of how the toddler Krishna killed Shakatasura. The 3 month old Krishna was lying on the floor, Yashoda asked the gopis to keep an eye on him. Krishna rolled over and kicked a cart playfully – the cart broke and Shakatasura who was hiding under it was killed.

After the story, Nandu (my daughter) was silent for a minute possibly contemplating the scene at Vrindavanam when this event might have occurred … and then she asked the million dollar question -

Why did Yashoda-ma place Krishna on the road ??!!!!!??

Site for Car enthusiasts

On a whim, I have been busy researching new cars the past couple of weekends. These days you are spoilt for choice. And searching on the net, you come across a lot of information - ownership reviews, test drives, comparisons etc…. Finally at the end of the day, you tend to get more confused than when you started the research!

However, I came across a fabulous site – www.team-bhp.com which is a mine of information on automobiles – not just on buying an automobile, but also on other aspects like maintenance, accessories, modifications etc.

Of course nothing beats going to an auto dealer and test driving the cars yourself … which is exactly what we (self, wife and daughter) have been up-to the past 2 weekends.

Trip to Neyyar

I have not written a travelogue on this blog so far. So let me start with a short trip to Neyyar.

My daughter had been feeling bored during the Christmas vacation and I had promised my family that we would do something over the three day Christmas weekend.

On Christmas day we decided to make a short trip to Neyyar dam. We started

from Trivandrum at around 10 AM. The road was in surprisingly good condition and relatively free of traffic. We made it to Neyyar (through Pangode and Kattakada) in good time.

Neyyar is relatively well maintained and has more attractions for visitors (as compared to Arruvikara).

First we passed the dam and went straight ahead to the Crocodile Park. The park was not very well kept. Some of the enclosures were empty and those that did have crocodiles had stagnant water in the tank. The crocs though seemed to well fed and in healthy condition.

Since it was mid morning by the time we reached there, the crocs were in a restful mood

and did not seem to care much for the human company.

Next we went to the wildlife information centre to book our tickets for the Lion safari. The staff there informed us that we missed the bus by just a couple of minutes and that the next bus would be after nearly one hour.

We used the time to walk parallel to the lake and to the top of the dam. It was getting quite hot by the time we walked back to the information centre and we had karriku (tender coconut).

We were just in time to book our tickets for the safari. We were the first to board the bus and hence got the best seats on the bus (in the front). The lions are in a large enclosed area and the barricaded bus drives through the enclosure. The likelihood of getting a good view of the lions depends on luck. The occupants of the bus we had missed earlier did not seem to be too pleased with their trip and hence our expectations were low.

We were in for a surprise though – we got a good view of an adult lion couple, a lone lioness and also of two youngsters (3 year olds). They seemed to be quite comfortable going about their daily routine in front of the caged humans. One of the youngsters in the bus though tried to tease the lion. The lion did not seem to be too pleased and it showed on his face. The driver was not as kind though and he admonished the youngster! The chap slunk away to the back of the bus.

The driver informed us that there are 7 lions in the park now and all of them were born in the Neyyar Park. The lions are fed every day except on Mondays – because Monday is a holiday for the park! Poor lions – they have to follow a time table and go hungry on Mondays on account of the weekly day off for the staff!

After the safari we were hungry and we sauntered off to the KTDC hotel for lunch. We expected that the spread and quality would be the same as that of a regular KTDC hotel. However sadly that was not to be - they had only one item on the menu and that was Biriyani. The biriyani reminded one of hostel days – it had blocks (katta) of rice and tasted just ok. Anyway a thank you to Neyyar KTDC for making me feel nostalgic !

Post lunch was the time to walk down to the base of the dam. The main dam outlet looked decent and we took some snaps here. The secondary outlets were powerful and the spray of the water near the outlets was refreshing and cool in the sweltering heat.

We had a leisurely walk back to the car and spent some more time near the lake – Nandu (daughter) was exhausted by then and we decided to head back to Trivandrum.

The highlight of the day undoubtedly was seeing the king of the jungle up close at a distance of four feet!