Heaven, Inc.

U guessed it right this is a Nightwatchman! and to know what a nightwatchman does in ma blog read this

By popular request(!) uploading a short film that we made in college days. Heaven, Inc. a.k.a "I had a dream last night" was one of the most ambitious project of ours(yes better than all the Java and .Net projects that we had done in college!).It was a movie made by a bunch of young men who roamed around with no real plans, when life was too boring they decided to make this so called short film titled Heaven.Inc.Adapted from a short story of mine(ahem..) it did turn a few eyebrows @ college. Now years later it looks a bit kiddish, but for a bunch of techies like us and at an Engg college level this looks like a decent attempt.No more ranting or blowing trumpets:).. You better play the film and decide it for yourself!Umesh if you are reading this, thanks for the voice:), I am still reminded of the fun we had during the making.

(Disclaimer: 1.The movie does have some clippings "copied and pasted" from popular Hollywood flicks don't be amused if you find it, no points for you!!, and 2.there is this guy called Vignesh(find me first!) starring in the movie so it is not advisable to watch with elder people or kids by your side.3.Don't get carried away by the build-up, watch it after you zero your expectations 4.Audio output is low, plz increase your speaker volume)

Plot summary

Circa.2005 A.D, the world is suffering, the unthinkable is happening, abnormality is setting in, Tsunami was just days back, the Arctic ice-belt was seen melting at dangerous proportions, heavy rains have made normal life an impossible task. Nature has unleashed all her forces which question the very existence of mankind.So Why are we suffering? why is the world becoming too dangerous to survive? the answers are not very far...Watch it for yourself,

continues here..

Thanks for your time, and if you need an autograph please form a queue. Jus kidding.

The movie just proposes a conspiracy theory! Y cant it be true? so did u like it??

UZAK

Loneliness. My loneliness is where i take refuge. My loneliness is where i seclude myself from all the chaos. My loneliness is where i reinvent the process of living. My loneliness is my greatest boon, I love being a loner, but there is always the other me. The other one who balances the loner, the one deals with the chaos, the one who just lives. Whenever I get into the mighty web of loneliness I always know that sometime when i come out of it, life will be waiting for me, there will be people eager to speak and shed love, then I kill the loner for a while and I become a social animal like the rest of us. But what if someday I am trapped in my web of loneliness and there is no way out? What if my loneliness turns out into my greatest curse? what if I become the only one in my world? what if the mask becomes my face? NO. I cant even think about it!. Socially induced loneliness sucks out the very essence from living. Each of us are have a book the book called life and there are some pages that we always prefer to skip. Those pages filled with the deepest and unexplored emotions. I read them today, A movie made me read it. UZAK(2003) a Turkish film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan contains excerpts of hidden pages from the book called life. It deals with the lives of two lonesome men who are forced into the cavities of a painfully isolated existence.

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Yusuf comes to the city from the country side. The factory has failed in his village and he has no means to earn. He foolishly believes that he can find a high paying job in the city at the shipping yard and save his family from the cruel hands of poverty. He comes to Istanbul on a bleakly winter day in search of his distant cousin who is now a well-of photographer. Mahmut the cousin is a lonely man, he is divorced from his wife and lives all alone in his apartment. He has no friends or he doesn't have an active social life. He gets on with hookers, smokes, drinks and photographs the dusky beauty of Turkey. The two men slowly become isolated companions of the house.As days pass by Mahmut begins to loathe his cousin, berating him for everything from failing to flush the toilet to the smell of his cheap cigarettes, he feels that Yusuf is disturbing his privacy and gradually grows furious at the disorder that has come into his life. As the "for a few days" job search extends for weeks, Mahmut gets annoyed at Yusuf's presence. Meanwhile Yusufs job search doesn't turn fruit full, he is deeply hurt, he knows that he has become an unwanted guest but he has no choices, he roams around smoking cheap cigarettes. Both men start living a distant life in the same room, they are unable to connect with themselves and with the society. They smoke, they wander, they live in a vacuum.When things get worse in Mahmut's personal life they enter into a shabby confront which makes Yusuf leave the house without informing his cousin. The movie ends with Mahmut being seen sitting on a bench in a gray, cold day, smoking the leftover cigarette cheap of Yusuf and the deep silence on screen gives a number of meanings, one of which is Muhmut finally is disturbed as he has lost the only companion in live, with no one even to annoy him, he has finally become the same old loner which he was before.

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The two men in their own way portray the pain of being lonesome and helpless. In the eyes of Yusuf we could sense the sufferings undergone by all unemployed men, who are pushed into the verge of rejection, who remain defenseless to the abusive attacks of the society, who long for love and who are always ignored by women. The pain he undergoes when he gets rejected by women and the complex that he develops over it are disturbing. And Mahmut remains as a deep physiological study of what happens to a man who is exhausted by life.The cinematography is a strong point, handled by Ceylan himself it portrays the disturbing beauty of the grey snow. Winter which makes us confine in our homes is aptly chosen as the theme. Silence is the language of the film. With some deeply moving performances, an efficient screenplay and a disturbing camera work UZAK can be one of the most important films of the decade.

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Let me end up by narrating what i feel the most disturbing and defining moment of the film "In a scene after Yusuf goes to bed, Mahmut closes the door and secretly decides to watch porn, with the fear that Yusuf may enter the room at any moment, his eyes are reluctantly fixed on the closed door, on the other side behind the closed door Yusuf secretly uses Mahmuts phone to converse with his sick mom, but his eyes are fixed on the closed door fearing Mahmut". Both men hold their secrets behind the closed door.Hence the closed door symbolically defines the dual faces that people portray to each other.The behavior in the absence. The "real" person can always be found behind the door. What is behind our doors remains as the most kept secret.Hence this movie which is an ordinary story of ordinary people asks us a question, which we always prefer to parry, which in deeper thought becomes a nightmare for many, but the question remains. What does it mean to be really alone? How does it look like?

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To explore more details please visit

Trailer-UZAK

Ceylan official site.

The Bachelors nest - II

let me finish off with this,

You may be the sort of guy who reads mostly Douglas Adams and hears only Amy Winehouse or Pink Floyd. You may be the hippest guy in town, but never dare to address your rommies as "hey dude" or "buddy", it is like calling them as M**F** or A*H*. Stick to your roots. Remember: Acquaintances are "dudes" but real friends are always mamas and machans.(pudhiya thatuvam 2054, note-pannungada!!)

Whatever the stakes maybe never ever bring your most beloved bike and PC to a room which is a host for 8 another dummies. Plz don ask me why! but never ever bring em, no guys i am not crying, really I AM NOT CRYING.

However tempting it maybe, never try to over hear a phone con. between your roomie and his GF. Better watch Veerasami for the umpteenth time. Believe me nothing can be more boring than that, no not even Harman Baweja's face. A sample piece- evanga- hey ennapanra, avanga-nee sollu, evenga- nee first sollu, ....after some 35mins avanga-nee sollu, evenga- nee first sollu (Add maane, thene, ponmaane inbetween).... why blood?, same blood.

You may buy copies of Businesstoday, outlook, or even a cosmopolitan. But vannathirai will be the most sought after and will win hands down.

Regarding boozing. The amount of beer in-taken by a person will be inversely proportional to his annoyance quotient, and directly proportional to the number of omlets that he mouths(Che!!). And also the more serious that one behaves after a booze the more he looks like a joker.

Planning doesn go well with bachelorhood. The more you plan of going for a treat of your roomies @ Le'royal meridian the more are the chances that you will end up eating the same old parotta in the same old rottu-kada(street-shop). The more you expect it to be a peaceful night the more are the chances that you will endup in mayajaal watching good-for-nothing flicks. When you are a bachelor life just happens.

It is not advisable to discuss issues of national importance such as Ajith-a?-Vijay-a?, why dasavatharam sucks, in the company of 8 other guys, Coz mere words, will lead to ego clashes and end-up in bloodshed and destroying the property of most annoying mammal on earth(read our house owner). under such circumstances a single question can bring silence and make people disperse , Should India really sign the nuclear proliferation treaty?

Your roomie is a S/W engineer and you see him sayin in chaste and local tamil "Dey mappi, vakkali Project manager kadiya podranda, Sotta k** avana..." suddenly he gets a call, in a jiffy he shifts to his American English "hey dude, wazzup man, i was jus nou discussion bout dat..". Plz don be amazed. S/W engineers are reptiles of some kind.

here we come to the end of draft-2, i haven written all, and if you have somethin to add about bachelor life please feel free. These may seem like hardships, but they arent. The carelessness and restlessness are very much a part of bachelor life, and if you can put friendship before everything else then these are just noteworthy happenings!. And if you are my roommate reading this then "Macha, sorry if I made ourselves look like a bunch of losers, it was not intentional, it was written for the sake of those in the blog-o-sphere who read whatever crap I write, I love you all, long live THE GODZ".

PS:But why suddenly a post on bachelor life?? coz this may be the last week of my bachelor life with my bunch of favorite dummies. (No speculations, I am not getting married, i was just born 22 yrs ago, this may be the last week coz i am trying 4 a transfer!!)

The Bachelors nest

Slippers, shoes and socks dumped till the middle of the hall, clothes old and new scattered everywhere, unread newspapers lying all over the floor, cigarette butts at definite intervals, bed which is not done for days, thick layers of dust at all corners of the room, beer bottles lying on the verandah without any shame, pungent smell which dissipates from the lavatory, parotta parcels of the previous week lying untouched on the kitchen floor, spider webs; wide and huge all over the ceiling, a television which yells "Kathala Kannala kuthaatha" at feverish pace, few morons sleeping and mimicking a pregnant pig(read snoring), and a loser at the PC typing about the most un-inhabitable place on earth; The Bachelors nest.It has exactly been 10months, 15days and some 4hours since we moved in, and we are counting our days here. And with all my experience of living with these men, I present to you some Dos and Don'ts in a bachelors nest.(requirement- morons- 8.nos)

As the first case, think before you stay with your college mates coz they know you in and out and they will never let the teenager in you die, even if you wish.And life will remain the same big-boring-party as in college days.

Never reveal your bank balance at any costs, else you have to undergo all the envious looks, the fuming ears, and the burning stomachs, but the truth would be that you will be having just Rs.250 on your account and you will still remain the richest in the room(kastam!!) Also never reveal your payslip if you work for Cts,if you wish to maintain some dignity.

Never watch a cricket match inviting a crowd of friends(40+ppl), and that too if India/Chennai Super kings are in the verge of victory. else the screams will make your neighbors think -"the stout GUY in the bachelors room is giving birth to a twins"

If you are not a sound proof sleeper, and if you prefer silence as in the graves as i do, then it is not advisable to sleep with roommates, else you will endup hearing all kinda noises from loud farts to louder snores, some even get up in the middle of the night and shout "Enna emathitu poiteyedi??".

If you buy a branded shirt, make sure that you destroy the brand tag and the bills, else the shirt will go on a resource sharing mode. If its a Peter England you get it back after a week, if its a Sting you get it back after a month, if its a Van Heusen then you better forget that you bought one.

If you and your friends are the sort of guys who play street cricket, with torn lungis, mouthing poetic words in Tamil, better mislead your neighbors sayin you guys were educated from Adhiparsakthiamman Engineering College, Neyveli and you work for Muthupandi machine works, Porur. Thereby saving the disgrace for your college and your company.

If your friend plans to bring in a relative for a visit, ask him to inform two weeks in advance. Else on D-day he would be greeted with the sight of scantily clad men lying in awkward unathletic positions, thereby the guy you brought will give ("you live with these kinda people??... sigh") looks, that will put your family reputation at stake.

It is always advisable to buy ones inner's in "sangu mark" and "sudarmani" brands, it helps in retaining the identity. If its going to be jockey then there will always be an identity crisis(as all jockeys look the same). And it doesn't look good if two fully grown men fight over the ownership of an underwear.

PS:Dry-humor?!.K let me stop here, i don wanna risk stones and rotten tomatoes, and if you still find the post interesting then lets meet in a sequel

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring

Now what does these seasons remind us? Spring reminds me of the blossoming beauty of mother nature, Summer remains be about a lonely village street and some somber moments of life, the falling autumn leaves remind me about the philosophies of life and death , and winter reminds me about a child's grin, joy and festivity. Together they remind me a beautiful phrase from a long forgotten poem. Kim Ki-Duk's 2004 movie and his masterpiece Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (Korean- Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom) reminded me of something else, that if all worlds a stage in which we act, then these seasons are the backdrops that mother nature keeps changing.Accompanying us throughout the drama called the cycle of life. Spring, Summer.. is a a simple. spiritual, spellbinding tale about growing up from innocence to sagacity.The five seasons in the title depict the different stages in the life of a Buddhist monk, implicitly referring to all lives of humanity.

The season is Spring and the place is filled with the sight of blossoming flowers and dense green vegetation.The screen opens to a small, floating Buddhist monastery, in the waters on a isolated lake surrounded by nothing but serene forested mountains. We are introduced to the two main characters, an old Buddhist monk and his young apprentice. The young boy who is nearly 8-10 years old is is learning the ways of Buddhism. Their lives are filled with prayer,mediation and total surrender to god, far away from the cries and desires of humanity. On an unusual day the master observes the kid torturing a fish, frog and a snake by tying heavy stones to their heads. The next morning the master ties a heavy stone to the kids back and offers to remove them only when the kid frees all the tortured animals from their burden, and also hints that if any of the animal dies of pain then he has to "carry the stone in his heart forever". To the kids dismay the snake and the fish die out of pain. the spring season ends with the huge cry of the kid upon seeing what he has done to the snake, thereby learning an incredible lesson to shed love on all beings.

The season is Summer and the air is filled with the warmth and clarity of the sun.The young kid is now a charming young Buddhist monk in his late teens.When a sick and lovely teenage girl arrives at the monastery for treatment, young monk is experiencing a first-crush, a race in his hormones. For the first time he has encountered the outside world , and he wants to taste it. Soon their age makes them vulnerable and he falls prey to his emotions. The two fall in love and have sex, a number of times.When the master finds their out their act, he advises the young monk that lust leads to desire, and desire opens door to more sinister impulses. And asks the girl to leave. The young monk who is not able to bear her departure abandons the master land eaves the monastery in search of her and the "real world". The summer ends with the departure of the young monk who is ought to learn some harsh lessons from the real world.

The season is Autumn and the place is filled with the beautifully colored leaves and the shedding trees.The old monk remains as the sole occupant of the monastery. the young monk who left years back returns to the monastery. We learn that he is now a wanted fugitive in the hands of the law for killing his wife for infidelity(the same girl whom he fell in love with). He seems to be tortured by the hands of the "real" life. He has lost the charm of a boy and that of a monk, he is now filled with rage and anger. He tries to kill himself, and when the master discovers it, he beats him ruthlessly orders him to carve ancient symbols on the monastery deck. The wood carving acts as a treatment for the raged mind, he sheds out all the anger in his mind by ruthlessly carving symbols using the stained knife, peace settles in him. And finally detectives arrive and arrest him for the crime. After a "final" goodbye with the master the young monks leaves for prison.Autumn ends with the master knowing his end and performing a suicide ritual, and meditates as he is suffocated and burned to death.

The season is Winter and it has frozen the lake with Ice, the mystic winter and the moody clouds fill up the air.The young monk who left for prison now returns as a middle age adult monk. he soon finds that the master has left, leaving behind the monastery and his position for his apprentice to occupy. The adult monk gets through all the ancient journals and prepares himself physically and mentally. Soon a woman with her face wrapped with a shall arrives there with an infant boy. She abandons her baby to the monk and tries to flee in the middle of the night, but drowns and dies in the middle of the frozen lake. When the monk uncovers her face, he finds something deeply disturbing or enlightening and it makes him tie the old rock to his back and climb the nearest peak. He undergoes huge amount of pain and torture as he climbs.He erects a Buddha statue on the peak. And finally the winter comes to an end with the monk trenchantly meditating on the summit.

when again as the Spring returns, we find the same floating Buddhist monastery amidst the sight of blossoming flowers and dense green vegetation.The adult monk is the new master and the abandoned boy is the new apprentice,the cycle continues, with new people getting the same old roles thereby hinting the viewers that it shall go on for years. In his turn the kid is found torturing a fish, frog and a snake by forcing stones into their mouth. He is happy to see them suffer in pain, just like his predecessor(the new master) was. And finally spring comes to an end with the sight of the Buddha statue nonchalantly observing the happenings from the peak.


As the film ended i was tied to my seat, it looked like i was in deep meditation for the past two hours. An intriguing experience which we rarely experience in cinema, transporting me to a different reality altogether. The way the cinema portrays the beauty of various seasons will stay in ones mind for long time. Mutability of life and the desire for inner peace which the film portrays have universal implications. It is a magical fable which conveys Buddhist philosophies in the most spiritual and persuasive form. With very minimal dialouges , the calmness of the movie intrigues deep into the viewer. The usage of Buddhist chants add to the ambiance that the movie has created. And the night when we were done with the movie, we found a frog in the closet. My usual reaction would be- just flush it out, but i just couldn't say that. I felt something deeply moving, and we decided not to disturb and to let it be. I didn't want to carry a stone in the heart for the rest of my life.The frog was saved, and for sure a lesson was learned. I could feel the tiny ripples that the movies has created within me, I was humbled .And that is what they call the power of good cinema.

Do check the comments, for some interesting counter views and discussion about regional movies by Raj.

For more info visit
Spring, Summer - Trailer
Kim Ki-Duk

S.Ramakrishnan

Can a book change lives? Can an author alter all the perceptions that you had on living? Can a few printed words induce changes deep down inside your soul? Can reading someone turnout to be the most cherished moment of your life? Can a book transform you into a different entity altogether? It was some five or six years back, I was then a small time reader, reading mostly cheap English fiction.Back then I read to keep me entertained, I read for the thrills it gave me, I read to satisfy the hormones that disturbed my pineal glands. I would have easily become yet another representative of this modern generation. A generation which takes pride in reading Jefferey Archer and John Grisham. A generation which is more than happy to fill its bookshelves with Robert Ludlum and Sidney Sheldon. A Generation which is unaware of the existence of Jeyakanthan and Asokamithran. A generation which reads only in English. A generation of mere Fakers. But then there came S.Ramakrishnan(S.Ra).

It all started on a sleepless night, jobless, bored; i was looking for something to read. And ended up with an literary essay by S.Ra in Anandha Vikatan titled Thunai Ezhuthu(துணை எழுத்து ). I wasn't too eager to read it. Maybe i found it to be too serious for my tastes or maybe i feared that i can never understand such serious writing. But somehow i started reading it, and suddenly all heavens broke loose. I was losing my conscience and was traveling into a magical world created by his words. It was like reading something that the my inner soul has always tried to convey . It was like all my philosophies were acquiring a printed form. It made me visualize the world just like the way my mystical third eye had perceived it. This is no exaggeration, i went speechless. The same night i went through the archieves finding all the essays from previous issues. I read them all. I read till dawn, and soon i could sense the difference that the words had made in me. A change was underway, a change that would introduce me into serious reading, a change that would make me go in search of my roots in Tamil literature, a change that will alter my preferences forever, a change that will make the name S.Ra sound like a chant.

What is Thunai Ezhuthu about? It is collection of essays in Tamil, in which the author speaks about human lives, that he has witnessed till date as an onlooker. He writes about his experiences with life, as a wanderer, as an observer, as a kid, as someones friend, as a scholar, as a dreamer and as a normal human like the rest of us.He writes about incidents that we all face, but in a way that we have never perceived them. He brings in front the truths and hidden emotions that we would have failed to notice.He applies magical realism to normal life and brings out something very unique and special. He makes words flow like a whisper down the ear, silent and mesmerizing. Intense words written vividly to capture the senses and the soul together. Stories about ordinary lives and their plight for surviving the complexities are narrated like epics. Like a spiritual guru S.Ra teaches philosophies about living. lessons that you could take with you for a long and unending journey of life. I know people who carry around Thunai Ezhuthu just as Bible and Qur'an , it makes wonders in peoples lives. It made one in mine.

My opinions on life started to differ, maybe for the first time i started to have opinions on living. Reading was no more a pass time, it soon became one of the very reasons of my existence. I ventured into unexplored teritories, i lost the fear that i had for literature. I read S.Ra till the last drop. He introduced me to Jayakanthan, Jeyamohan, Sundara.Ramasamy and all other men who served the echelons of Tamil writing. He made me understand Rushdie and McEvan in better sense. When I then saw cinemas from around the globe i was able to relate with the humanity that it portrayed. My search for life grew bigger. I started to look out for life in everything i that I sensed. He made profound impacts on my thoughts, and in whatever i write or do I could find his influence all along. S.Ra words filled me with something that i have been missing all these years. His philosophies became my tenets for living and a more sensible human being was born out of me.Hence there is definitely a book out there which can change your life and alter all your perceptions .It lies somewhere, in the undusted shelves of a bookstore very near to your proximity.All you got to do is find it.... before its too late!


I would be really happy if the book was to be Thunai Ezhuthu. And to know more about Ramakrishnan and his works visit ::http://www.sramakrishnan.com/::