Congratulations.. Tamil writers...

Its been a year since i started reading 'more' Tamil books and i should say i was fascinated by Tamil literature as well as the healthy environment of tamil writers now.I read lots of short stories which are available freely in internet and came to knew about many new wonderful Tamil writers.

Congratulations

1)Su.Venkatesan, author of "kaval Kottam" novel received this year's Sahitya Academy award. I bought this book 3 months before, but have not started reading it yet, atleast now i have to start reading it.

2)Poomani - Vishnupuram virudhu

3)Venugopal -Paasha p arishad (Vennilai short story collection)

4)Vannanilavan - Saaral virudhu

5)Vannadhasan -Saaral virudhu

6)Prapanjan -Ilakiyachudar virudhu

7)S.Ramakrishanan - Nalli-Thisai Ettum Ilakiya virudhu (Kaal mulaitha kathaigal)

8)S.Ramakrishanan - Kannadasan virdhu(coimbatore)

9)S.Ramakrishanan-Wisdom International Award

10)S.Ramakrishanan-Tamil Sangam Award (Prabhanjan,Keeranu zahiraja)

11)Devathchan -Vilakku virudhu

Check out their websites  here

The First Grader

What a inspiring story! "The First Grader" tells the real life story of 84 year old Kenyan villager and Maumau fighter Kimani Maruge. Kirmani enrolled in primary school when the Kenyan government announced Universal and free education in 2003.

Initially the staffs of the school rejected his enrollment but due to his persistence and with the help of kind hearted teacher Jane Obinchu,he was accepted. Even though he was ridiculed by the villagers and scorn by the students's parents, Maruge never withdrawn from the school.

The real Maruge

Why Maruge wanted to join the school at the  very old age? what was  the reason behind it? The flashback gives the answer. He was a member of Mau mau group which fought against the British colonial rule.He was one among the fighters who killed an British officers, he was captured and tortured.His wife and child were killed by British military. Many believes this was the starting of freedom fight in Kenya.Maruge received a letter from the government,he wanted to read it himself.Thats the reason for him joining in school.



Maruge with the help of Jane started to read and write slowly.The school  children started liking Maruge and they enjoy his songs and dance.At one point the villagers oppose the school management for wasting one student allotment to an old man, they even attacks the school and Maruge's house.But Maruge sent them out running.This force the authorities to transfer Jane to different place. Maruge sold his goat and travels to the nearby city and argued with the authority and shows his scars of the torture by the Britishers.The authorities sent Jane back to the school.

He failed in reading the letter in home , so he brought it to Jane but Jane asks his colleague who initially opposed Maruge to read it.The film ends with Maruge attending school.There was also an romantic story of Jane and her husband and their struggle.

What a performance by the lead actors! Oliver Litondo as Maruge was outstanding,Naomie Harris as Jane too played her role to perfection.Beautifully directed by Justing Chadwick.The film was shot in Kenyan landscape.

Maruge never stopped  his pursuit of education till his death in 2009.He attended the UN Millennium Development Summit in 2005 and gave a emotional speech. Some of his quotes :

"I want all the children in the world be educated ,that's what I'm longing to see"

     " For me education is the key to liberty."

A film to watch and cherish !  

How to Travel with A Salmon and Other Essays -Umberto Eco

This is my second book of Umberto Eco and i should say that he is really one of the best essayist and novelist.This book is a collection of essays written by him, his wit and encyclopedic knowledge of history and art are visible in many places.I think these essays mostly taken from his personal experiences with different people,organization etc.

I laughed my heart out in many places , i enjoyed most of the essays specially "How to use the taxi driver" ,"How to justify the private library","How to write introduction","How to play Indians" etc..This is one best humor essays i have read lately,simply wonderful.

On the other hand i did not understand these essays "On the possibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a scale of 1:1" ,  "Three owls on a chest drawers" and "Stars and stripes ".I have re-read many times but still could not understand these essays fully. Now i'm thinking to read more non-fiction works like this.

Umberto Eco

The last essay "The miracle of San Baudolino" brings the best out him, the author deals with his native Alessandria's history  and its people,- a sort of memoir.Many places in this book,  i realized the world around me and myself , laughed sometimes and grimaced some other time.I will definitely suggest this book to anyone who wants a leisure read and a good laugh.

My first book of Umberto Eco was "The Name of the rose" - a classic novel.It remains one of the best  novel i have read so far.

Read it!

More about the author 

Fly Away Home

This is the story of an young girl who helps the geese to fly and guiding them to their natural habitat.Amy Alden after losing his mother in an accident in New Zealand moves to Ontario to live with her father.Her father Thomas Alden  is an inventor, he introduces his girlfriend ,Susan, to Amy who initially avoid and hate her but latter she grow fond of her.

When the forest was cleared for construction Amy found eggs left by some birds,he brings it to her father's barn and keep it in dresser,when she returns from school she found all the eggs hatched and she is very happy and request her father to keep it ,reluctantly he agrees.

Thomas asks help from the local warden to take care of the birds but when the warden visits his house he says all domestic geese should be clipped and tries to clip a bird.Amy is furious and pushes the warden out,Thomas too warn the warden not to touch the bird anymore and ask him to leave.


The geese follows Amy wherever she goes but they are not flying as they do not know how to fly but to protect them Amy and others should make they fly otherwise the local warden will take them.Thomas being inventor tries to create a homemade aircraft and makes the birds to follow him but the birds never followed him.So they decides Amy should teach them to fly i.e flap their wings and once the birds do that ,Thomas can make the birds to follow the aircraft.

Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin

After making the birds to flap the wings and run , they decides to try with aircraft but unfortunately the birds did not follow Thomas but they followed Amy who is running at the side.Now the only option left is Amy should fly with Thomas in the aircraft so that the birds will follow.But Susan disagrees and he asks Thomas to shelve the idea.since they do not have any other option Thomas and his friends trains Amy to to sit with Thomas and fly. Unfortunately the birds does not follows them,so they decides to allow Amy to fly alone in a aircraft.Thomas teaches her to fly the aircraft.The rest of the story tells how Amy,Thomas and friends made the geese to fly.

Incredible story and it is very inspiring to know that this movie is based on the real life story.The whole film was shot beautifully.All the characters had played their part to perfection including the geese.Anna Paquin as Amy was amazing ,perfect fit.Jeff Daniels as Thomas was also good.Music by Mark Isham was awesome.

Overall a great movie to watch with family and friends..!!

Mahatma Gandhi Kolai Valakku

மகாத்மா காந்தி கொலை வழக்கு

This book is the good introduction for Gandhiji's murder and the court case that followed.Not too detailed but have enough information. The author N.Chokkan had done good research.

Surprised that the Indian police/judiciary took many years to fully complete the court case. So many questions still unanswered. And another controversy,till today, that did Gandhiji uttered " Hey Ram!" when he collapsed after the bullet shot?.

Those who are looking for light reading about the Gandhiji's murder can read this book.

My Top 10 sports moments of 2011

One of the great year for sports fans - cricket world cup,Rugby world cup, Ashes,Boxing matches etc.. Below are the list of sporting moments i enjoyed and cherished this year.


1)Indian Cricket team's world cup victory 
  After 28 years , India won the cricket world cup- A Cup of Joy.The whole nation celebrated, i was watching the finals between India and Srilanka most of my housemates went out as they were started worrying after Sachin's wicket, i and only one of my friend watched the whole match.A moment to cherish for a life time.

2)Japanese women's football team's world cup victory
   Uplifting the whole tsunami struck nations by their wonderful and unbelievable performance.They beat US and then Germany.First Asian team to win the world cup either in men or women, wonderful achievement.Watched the highlights in youtube,truly one of the best of the year.

My previous article about Japanese World cup victory

3)Barcelona's champions league victory
   My two favorite teams.I prayed for Messi to score and Man U to win, one happened and another did not.Messi scored a beauty and what a team performance by Barca.The Catalans are the best in the world by miles.

4)All Blacks world cup victory
   My favorite rugby team won this year's world cup after 20+ years,the match against Wallabies(Australia) was the highlight of the world cup.I doubted that the French might upset and eagerly switched on the TV ,luckily the All Blacks fought hard and won.

My previous article about All Blacks

5)Djokovic's US Open victory
 What a year for Djokovic! The semi-final victory against my favorite Roger Federer was the highlight. And ultimately he too beat Rafal Nadal to win the US Open.He is one of the few tennis players who has improved a lot this year, waiting to see him action in 2012.

6)Indian Kabbadi teams (Men & Women) lifting the world cup
 My father and my brother both were wonderful kababdi players but unfortunately i was not. Indian medias did not give even  a small space for this wonderful game.Shame on Indian media.I was keenly following this world cup from the beginning and i was really happy that India won in both categories.Hats off  to this unsung Indian heroes.

7)Manny Pacquiao's victory against Antonio Margarito
 Im a big fan of Manny.He produced one of the best boxing matches of this year.He was too powerful and a joy to watch him action, watched the whole match .He is the "Sachin" of Philippines.


8)Australia lifting World Netball championship
  This one is in this list because i watched the whole championship at the stadium as i did volunteering.I supported New Zealand , they played brilliantly even in finals until the last minute blunder.It was a terrific match.First time watched someone lifting the world cup.


9)England's Ashes victory
England played some wonderful cricket, hats off to Strauss and his team.Its been years since England beat Australia in Australia but this year they did it.Australia's decline started from this loss.Watched some matches live and some in highlights.


10)Rory McIlroy's US open victory
"Boy wonder" of golf world,he became the youngest man to win US Open.He did played wonderfully,expecting him to go miles.I did not watch him in action yet but read lots of articles about him,i like the one came in The Straits times by Rohit Brijnath.

Other notable moments : Sehwag's 200 against West Indies,Roger Federer winning Nadal,Usain Bolt's false start,Rahul Dravid's batting against England,Man U's victory against Arsenal, Barca's 3 victories against Real Madrid,Geoffrey Mutai's Boston marathon victory,Sangakkara and Dravid's speeches.

Top 5 Malayalam movie 2011

Watched some nice old and new malayalam movies this year.. Listed below are the best of this year.

1)Traffic
   Check out my review.Classic story telling. All the actors played their role to perfection.
 Cast :Srinivasan,Kunchako Boban,Rahman,Asif Ali
 Direction :Rajesh Pillai
 Music :Mejo Joseph,Sejo John

2)Urumi
   A story based on the historical events, wonderful cinematography and good music.
Cast:Prithviraj,Prabhu Deva,Genelia
Direction:Santosh Sivan
Music :Deepak Dev

3)Aadminte Makan Abu
  Beautiful story and wonderful acting by Salim kumar.Must watch !
 Cast : Salim Kumar,Mukesh,Kalabhavan Mani
 Direction : Salim Ahamad
 Music :Issac Thomas

4)Salt 'N' Pepper
  Lal ,Swetha Menon and a love story. Poetic.. The tag line of the movie : "The story born out of a dosa".
 Cast : Lal,Swetha ,Asif Ali,Mythili
 Direction :Aashiq Abu
 Music :Bijipal

5)China Town
    Nice comedy movie
 Cast : Mohan lal,Dileep and Jayaram
 Direction:Rafi Mecartin
 Music : Jesse Gift

Many of the movies are loaded with laughter , i really enjoy watching malayalam movies.Other notable movies:"Seniors","Pranayam","Chappa kurish","Christian Brothers"..

Click here to check  my top 10 tamil movies of 2011

Click here to check my top 5 telugu movies of 2011

My Top 5 Telugu movies of 2011

1)Dookudu
     Perfect Mahesh Babu movie. Everything in a correct proportion -Comdey,action,romance and sentiment.
Cast:Mahesh Babu,Samantha,Nassar,Prakash Raj
Direction :Srinu Vytla
Music :Thaman

2)Mr.Perfect
   Simple love story .
   Cast: Prabhas ,Kajal Aggarwal
    Direction :Dasaradh
    Music :Devi Sri Prasad

3)Ala modalaindi
  Check out my review.
 Cast : Nani,Nithya Menon
 Direction:Nandini Reddy
 Music:Kalyani Malik

4)100% love
  Another feel good love story. Music was nice.
 Cast:Nagu Chaitanya ,Tamanna
 Direction :Sukumar
 Music :Devi Sri Prasad

5)Golconda high school
 I really liked this movie, bit funny, bit romance and bit of inspiration.Sumanth was excellent ,so too Swathi.
Cast:Sumanth,Swathi
Direction :Mohan Krishna Indraganti
Music : Kalyani Malik

The above list is based on movies which i have watched ,i hope that there will be some more good movies which i have not seen it yet.Other notable movies :"Sri Rama Rajiyam"and "LBW" .

Click here for my top 10 tamil movies of 2011

click here for my top 5 malayalam movies of 2011

My Top 10 Tamil movies of 2011

Year 2011 is coming to an end, its time for to prepare lists... here is the first one.

Top 10 Tamil movies:

1)Vaagai sooda va
    Beautiful story and brilliant directing combined with wonderful acting of lead characters made this movie one of the best of the year.
Cast:
 Vimal,Iniya,Bhagayaraj
 Direction :Sargunam
 Music:Gibran

2)Engeyum Eppothum
  Realistic! Great acting by Anjali.
  Cast:
   Anjali,Jai,Sharvanand
   Direction:Saravanan
   Music:Sathya

3)Porali
  Another good movie from the hit combination Samuthragani and Sasikumar.Sasikumar and Allari Naresh were good.Worth watching.
Cast :
 Sasikumar,Allari Naresh,Swati,Kanja karuppu
 Direction:Sasikumar
 Music :Sundar C babu

4)Ko
 Nice story and good music made this movie a good one.Jeeva and Ajmal were good. K.V Anand had done it again.
Cast:
  Jeeva,Ajmal,Piya
  Direction : K.V Anand
  Music : Harris Jeyaraj

5)Aaranya Kaandam
  Definitely one of the best direction in recent years.Gripping and poignant.Jackie Sheriff and others made this movie a great one.
Cast:
 Jackie Sheriff,Sampath,Ravi Krishna
 Direction : Thiagarajan Kumaraja
 Music :Yuvan Shanker Raja

6)Aadukalam
    Watch it for Dhanush's acting and for GV Prakash's music.Critically acclaimed,Dhanush got best actor award.
Cast:Dhanush,Taapse
Direction : Vetrimaran
Music:GV Prakash

7)Yudham sei
   For me , its one of the best of Myskin. Neat and clean screenplay. Cheran's best performance till date.
Cast : Cheran,Deepa Sha
Direction :Myskin
Music : K

8)Alagarsamiyin kuthirai
 I watched this movie just for hero and the horse.Appukutty was the correct choice for this role and he had done it to the perfection. Music by Ilaiyaraja was excellent.
Cast: Appukutty ,Saranya mohan,Soori
Direction :Susindhran
Music : Ilaiyaraja

9)Mankatha
 Ajith,Ajith and Ajith.
Cast : Ajith,Arjun ,Trisha
Direction : Venkat Prabhu
Music : Yuvan shanker Raja

10)Mayakkam Enna
   Check out the review. Feel good movie..  watch it for Dhanush and cinematography.
Cast:Dhanush,Richa
Direction : Selvaragavan
Music : GV Prakash

The above list is not in order, these are the 10 movies i liked most.Other notable movies are "Sadhurangam","Payanam","Thoonga Nagaram","Kullanari kootam" and "Deiva thirumagal".

Click here for my top 5 malayalam movies of 2011

Click here for my top 5 telugu movies of 2011

    

Book Awards and Winners 2011/2010

Wonderful year for book lovers, lots of nice book published.The e-books publications made everyone to write and publish on their own.Below are the some of the award winning books and its authors.Have to read some of these books.

Award/Prize	Author	Book Title
Nobel Prize	Tomas Transtromer	-
Man Booker	Julian Barnes	The sense of an ending
Whitebread/Costa	Jo Shapcott	Of Mutability
Guardian First Book	Siddhartha Mukherjee	The Emperor of All Maladies
National Book Award for Fiction	Jesmyn Ward	Salvage the bones
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize	Santiago Roncagliolo	Red April
Commonwealth Writer's prize	Aminatta Forma	The Memory of love
LA Times Book prize for fiction	Jennifer Egan	A visit from the goon squad
PEN/Faulkner Award	Deborah Eisenberg	The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg
Pulitzer Prize for fiction	Jennifer Egan	A visit from the goon squad
Orange Broadband Prize for fiction	Tea obreht	The Tiger's wife
IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize	Colum McCann	Let the great world spin
Desmonf Elliot Prize	Anjali Joseph	Saraswati Park
The Hindu Literary Prize	Rahul Bhattacharya	The sly company of people who care
Jnanpith Award	Chandrashekara Kambara	-
Vodafone Crossword of Book Award	Omair Ahmad,Anjali Joseph	Jimmy the Terrorist,Saraswati Park
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature	H.M Naqvi	Home Boy
American Indian Youth literature Award	Thomas King&Gary Clement,Genevieve Simermeyer,Lurline Wailana McGregor	A Coyote Solstice Tale,Meet Christopher: An Osage Indian Boy from Oklahoma,Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me: A Novel
Neustadt International Prize for Literature	Rohinton Mistry	-
Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award	Isabel Allende	-
Miguel de Cervantes Prize	Nicanor Parra	-
Prix Goncourt	Alexis Jenni	L'Art Francais De La Guerre
Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction	Frank Dikötter	Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962
Miles Franklin Literary Award	Kim Scott	The deadman dance