F1 Nature Run 21KM Trail Challenge

After Sundown marathon, Nature Run 2011 was my first run.I have not practiced much,ran only 3 or 4 times after marathon!So i knew that i have to be very careful with my body specially my legs. For the first time i took fuel belt with couple of Power gels and a analgesic cream.

The race was held at MacRitchie reservoir, i should say that this route was one of the best i have ran in Singapore so far, better than ECP.Wow!! What a greenery ! The race was flagged off exactly at 7:30AM.I started briskly, i felt better.After around 600 meters we reached the MacRitchie trail .The real trail begun!

MacRitchie -Scenic Route

The route was peppered with stones,pebbles,wet leaves,sticks,wet sands and in couple of places sticky mud.I liked the whole view as i progressed.Till 8 KMs i was running in a consistent pace but after that there was a vertical muddy slope, i walked and crossed over.I did not stop anywhere till 17KMs , i was back to my normal pace.The official drink was Pokka sports water, i drank it at the water stations.

I felt pain in my right knee when i crossed 17km mark,luckily as i mentioned before i had a heat rub with me , i rubbed it , felt better and i crossed the finish line without any other physical problem.It was a good run.For most part of the race i ran in a consistent pace.Below are the finisher medal

Then came the surprise ,I won a heart rate monitor in a lucky draw which was held after the race.Wow! I never owned a heart rate monitor, now i have one! Have to learn how to use it.

My lucky draw prize-a heart rate monitor

Special thanks to the volunteers , you were awesome!On the whole , a great day to remember.

Avan-Ivan

I never watched Bala's movies with  expectations since i can not predict the story line,same thing for this movie.Started the movie with open mind and i enjoyed it.

Story is very simple , step brothers Walter Vanangamudi and Kumbideran Samy always fight each other for  every thing but one thing they share together is their love and affection for defunct  zamindar who has lost everything and he is dearly called as "Highness".He too treat them like his own sons.He always encourages them to leave the criminal activities which they are known for.

And there are two heroines whom fall in love with these two step brothers.Life is going well until they found villain RK who is doing illegal selling and butchering of cows.The Zamindar calls police and they arrests RK.The rest is the story of revenge.

Undoubtedly two characters stood out- G.M Kumar as Zamindar and Vishal as Squint eyed Walter. They set the screen on fire whenever the comes.Simply awesome, specially G.M Kumar when he was hit by the villain, his expressions were realistic.Hats off to Vishal ,he had done his role to perfection.We can see his hard work on the screen.Arya as Kumbideran Samy ,typical  Araya character, carefree and done justice to his role.

Rest of the casts including Ambika, the boy who is a friend of Kumbideran Samy, the old man who rings bell whenever police enters to their place,villain RK and the wannabee DSP are all done their role well.The two heroines are not bad, not much scope.

Background score by Yuan Shankar Raja is amazing.I think one his best background score.I felt sad as the song "Rasthi" was not in the movie.Cinematography by Arthur A Wilson is simply awesome.He captures the hills of Theni beautifully.Theni never looks beautiful before.Editing by Suresh urs is also excellent.Art director Muthuraj had brought the Zamin alive with his work.Another highlight is the costume of the lead characters, kudos to costume designer vasugi and Selvam.

Director Bala

Technically a good film ably supported by music and a power packed performance by everyone.But Bala missed the golden opportunity with his screen play which loosened specially at second half.So many questions arises in second half.Hope he will bounce back in the next film,eagerly waiting.

Saagavaram (சாகாவரம் )

This book was written by V.Iraianbu .This is a story of Nasiketan who has lived his life to the fullest until he lost of his three close friends.From that time onward he started to have an aversion to death.He wanted to find a way to stop death.His journey to find it is this book.

The author started beautifully by explaining the life's simple pleasures and Nasiketan's way of life.He is very gentle,lovable and very helpful.He is a teacher unlike his friends who went to different places to work and earn, Nasi chose to remain in his native with his parents.He is unmarried and his parents never cajoled him to marry. Simply saying he enjoyed his life till he met the destruction caused by death. He lost his love for life.Started to alienate himself from others.

At last he decide to leave his family and go in search of the place where there is no 'death'.He found a guru who lives in a jungle and he was very much impressed by the way he lives his life in conjunction with nature. The journey he took to reach the guru was described beautifully by the author, the landscapes,the waterfalls, herbs and of course fruits.The guru asked him to read a scroll before leaving from there and guru died in his sleep.Very much worried Nasiketan forgot to read the scroll and went on searching for that place.

After going through many tough paths he reached the place, everyone there wave him to go back but he misunderstood and felt that they were jealous of him for reaching that place.At first he was very much impressed by the place but gradually he understood how things were in that place.That place did not have time  -means if there is time there will be degradation of things including human body.Every thing remained same through out, there were no bloom and fades , no smile and cry , it was like life at standstill.

Gradually he was losing his memory of everything past,  from now on he will be like a living dead.The story ends there.Later part of the book is not that interesting may be i guessed the outcome or simply bad writing , i can not say.But after reading this book , 2 people whom i known died.One was the 'smiling' uncle at the next house, he always smiled at me , used to ask me about my runs.I never knew that he had cancer, we came to know about his death only after three days.Next my beloved uncle who died of cardiac arrest.He was a gem of a man who was misunderstood my most.

Death is part of journey here in earth , nothing remains still ,everything have to change at some point of time.Instead of wasting time and worrying about death , lets enjoy the moment and make the journey - a happy one.

Marykkundoru Kunjaadu

Mary had a little lamb...

Another blockbuster movie of Dileep.Shafi , the director of previous Dileep's hit movie Kalyanaraman, did it again.The duo continues to rock!

Solomon, the son of GeeVarghese , the sexton , is scared of everything.so the village people call him as 'Kunjaadu' means lamb.He failed as a serial director and everyone blames him and his father for squandering church's money.And added to their misery  the church's gold crucifix was stolen.Mary is his mother's name.She was loved by Ittichan Muthalaly but she married GeeVarghese.Ittichan Muthalaly from the beginning wants to take revenge on Mary and gives troubles to GeeVarghese.

Another Mary is Ittichan's daughter who is in love with Solomon from her childhood.Mary's father as well as her brothers are against her love but the whole village knows Mary and Solomon's love story.Enter the character Jose who has good physique , Solomon walks courageously with Jose at his side and he introduces Jose as his long lost elder brother.

The story takes a turn when Solomon comes to know that Jose is a criminal involved in a murder and theft.In the meantime Solomon is force to go out his family house.The remaining part of the movie shows how solomon overcomes his problems and find the crucifix.

Dileep and Bhavana

Dileep as  Solomon  was perfect.His mannerisms were good as in his previous super hit movies.The entire movie was shot in a beautiful locations.Bhavana did her role neatly even though she did not had much scope.Biju Menon as Jose was perfect for the role.Salim kumar as coffin maker, Innocent as Ittichan,Jagathy as the priest and Vijayaragavan as GeeVerghese have done their job.Music by Berny-Ignatius is good specially the song ""Kunjaade Kurumbanade".

Marykkundoru Kunjaadu  is not a great movie but enjoyable one.Enjoy Dileep's slapstick comedy.

Stanley Ka Dabba

Dabba with love, great movie

A heartwarming story of fourth standard (grader) boy Stanley who never brings the lunch box.Babubhai Verma , the hindi teacher likes to eat the children's lunch.Stanley's friends hide eatables from Verma and share with Stanley, when Verma finds this, he commands Stanley to bring his own lunch box or he should not come to school. But other teachers are nice to him specially his english teacher Rossy who encourages him in all his activities.

Stanley misses the classes for 1 or 2 days, his teachers are worried and talk to Verma.Next day Stanley comes with a big lunch box with lots of items and gives to Verma.He shares his lunch box with all the teachers and friends and speak high of his mother's cooking skill.He realises his mistake and resign his job and wrote a letter to Stanley.Stanley learns dance from a nearby school by watching the children practicing. He participates in   inter-school festival and performs that dance.Everyone including his teachers appreciates him.

Stanley and his friends with English teacher Rossy

Tears rolls down when the real story of Stanley revealed.Stanley is an orphan and he is a child labor.He works in his uncle's food stall who beats him often and works very late every day.

This simple story was beautifully brought to life by the director Amole Gupte, the guy behind Taare Zameen Par.Credit must goes to Amole for making this film authentic and simple.The first half of the movie remains our school days,those wonderful days.The characterization in this movie is spot on,everyone fits exactly.Music by Hitesh sonik is good.Cinematography  by Amole Gole is excellent.

Amole Gupte as hindi teacher Babubhai Verma

Partho as Stanley is excellent,highlight of this movie.No wonder he is the son of Amol Gupte.The boys who are Stanley's friends have done their role neatly.Divya Dutta as Miss Rosy is good.The director himself enacted the role of hindi teacher Babubhai Verma and he did it wonderfully.

A must watch movie for all! Enter your school class rooms once again!!

Kungfu Panda 2

Po, the Dragon Warrior

Po is more adorable than the previous version,animation at his best!This time Po is trying to find the story of his birth/parents and protecting China from Shen,the Peacock. Shen creates weapons to destroy China.Po while fighting to defend the people of Valley peace from Wolf bandits  noted a symbol on the head of one wolf and it makes him go back to his childhood with his parents .

When Master shifu  came to know that Master Thundering Rhino was killed and Shen's forces are controlling Gongmen City he sends Po,the dragon warrior and the Furious Five to take on Shen and restore the town council.Po and his friends storms the prison and rescue Masters Storming Ox and Croc but they are not interested to come out as they feared the Lord Shen will destroy Kungfu traditions.Po uses all his tricks to convince them but it vain.

The Furious Five and Po

Po misses the chance to kill Lord Shen as he sees a symbol (the same on which he saw on wolves's head) and gets distracted.Tigress is not happy with Po for he missed Shen and confronts him.Po tells her that Shen was there on that night when he was separated from his parents.and wanted to ask about his parents to Shen.Tigress decided to leave Po at the prison and goes to fight.But Po work out his own way and as usual is in trouble with Shen,again the Furious Five came to his rescue.Po foils the Furious Five's plan to blow the weapon factory, he is thrown out and the furious five are captured by Shen.

The soothsayer goat resuces Po from the water and tells the story of Po's parents.Now Po knows what happened to his parents and who was responsible for his separation.He is at peace i.e Inner Peace. He is ready to take on Lord Shen and his  troop.The rest is how Po fights and gets rid of Shen.

Great Animation!The voices of different actors matches exactly to the characters, specially Jack Black's to Po.DreamWorks Animation had done a  great job.I liked everything about the film.Hans Zimmer's had scored brilliantly.His music is one of  the big plus for the movie. The visuals are breathtaking. Directed beautifully by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and ably supported in good scriptwriting by Jonathan Aibel and Glen Berger.

A must watch for all,specially for kids and animation lovers!!