Tall poppy Syndrome -- Do Indians suffer from this as well?

I once asked about the Tall Poppy Syndrom as a question in one of my quizzes but this came to my mind when I read this post and its comments on Chinmayi's Blog.
The question that I had asked went something like this

This is a pejorative term used in Australia and New Zealand to describe what is seen as a levelling social attitude. Someone is said to be suffering from this when his or her assumption of a higher economic, social or political position attracts criticism, being perceived as presumptuous, attention seeking or without merit. The process can be linked with anti-intellectualism, especially with public criticism by the media or community leaders of particular academics or members of the intelligentsia.( I accept this was right out of wiki) but I came across this when I was reading Mark waugh's biography in college.

The thought of leaving anonymous hate comments on a public system like a blog somehow strikes very similar to a Tall Poppy Syndrome to me. People do not have ( in some cases , have) the pedigree to comment on other person's art or do not have the gumption to put their name in the comments. This is prevalent across the system.


Take the criketers of India for example. Sachin Tendulkar hitting a century in a test match is not good enough any more. The fact that he doesn't hit attacking century seems to be a grouse. Since when did a century in test cricket not matter. People who are struggling to score even 50's in club cricket have their right to criticise player's of much superior capability and that too on public forums like blogs. This is more like - if you are not able to achieve what the other person is acheiving , undermine the other person and bring him to your level kind of thing.
Are we becoming a group of whiners who like to bring down people who are trying to achieve something?

Sivaji - The Boss

( Contains quite a few spoilers)



The reason , we go to watch a Rajni movie is to see the charismatic mannerisms and punch dialogues and to be entertained for 3 hours. Sivaji manages to gives us the mannerisms and dialogues in good doses but leaves the viewer thinking that there is always something that is lacking. The movie stops and stutters through the entire first half but manages to entertain due to Rajni's strong screen presence and Shreya's ravishing beauty.

The style is evident right from the first sound byte that we get from Rajni. All we hear is just an 'Ummm'. This is perhaps the first time when the protagonist of a movie has been introduced with his face masked in a tamil movie. Shankar's storyline seems to go nowhere during the first one hour but more than compensates in the grandeur of the songs. Shankar had earlier shown his penchant for painting things for his songs ( Painting mountains in Anniyan) and his continues the trend in this movie , painting the potbellies of a few 100 people. Ballelaika is as good an intro song as any of Rajni's recent intro songs and Nayantara looks hot. The 'comedy scenes' of socializing with Shreya's family and Solomon Papaiya was pedestrian at best. Vivek though tunes right in , from the first scene and his timing and his dialogue delivery is thoroughly enjoyable. Vivek manages to be for Rajni what Coundamani was to Arjun in Gentleman , with a touch more class perhaps. A fight scene in the warehouse of a music store reminds of the Drum dance in Chandralekha and is again expensively made.

Shreya looks hot throughout the movie and is a sight for sore eyes ( nothing sore about the visuals of the movie though). During parts of Vaaji Vaaji , Shreya looks so damn hot , you forget that Rajni is part of the frame. ( That doesn't happen often in a Rajni starrer , so Shreya - Take a bow) .The set resembling Babylonian palace is wonderfully constructed and Thota Tharani shows that he is in a league of his own.

The sore point from the first half is the stagnant screenplay. You expect racy stuff from rajni movie , with one wave of emotions surpassing the other , but this movie manages to stagnate into still water , despite Rajni's charisma.

Suman as Adiseshan is a welcome change from the screaming villains of the recent tamil movies. He brings an understated performance to the screen and makes the character believable. He excels in the few scenes where he has extensive dialogue , especially the one in which he gives Sivaji the one rupee coin. The movie moves into a different orbit after that scene and races from one scene to the other.

Rajni , with his inimitable style carries the movie on his shoulders and delivers great entertainment. He reinvents himself with a bubble gum( As cigarettes are banned on films- Duh!!!) , throwing it into his mouth from umpteen different actions. His flipping of the coin is another class act and has the crowd ( that obviously includes a hoarse throated me) in raptures. His scene on a tea kadai bench with Suman is one for the ages and brings out the star in the superstar. Punch dialogues like ' Panninga thaan kootama varum , Singam Single aa thaan varum' are delivered with characteristic panache and makes you stand up and scream your appreciation.

The car fight in the second half seems farcical but , I didn't go to this movie expecting logic , so it was laugh riot and complete entertainment. Seeing cars move to the sounds of King Kong is the limit , but you can't help laughing at that scene (oh! that was supposed to be a solid fight scene. Sorry Shankar , that just doesnt cut through as a fight scene. Comedy scene yeah perhaps).

Rajni's imitation of Shivaji, MGR and Kamal during his first night explanations with Shreya are a revelation and is fun to watch. Adhiradee is a blatant 'tribute' to the Mariachi Trilogy of Robert Rodriguez and is meant to be a fun track.

Pyramid Natarajan, Vadivukarasi , Manivannan ( from villain to father's brother to father - manivannan has travelled a lot with Rajni) , Raghuvaran , Solomon Papaiya all make fleeting appearances on the screen from time to time.

The scenes with Mottai Boss are vintage Rajni. Just when you thought that Lakalaka laka was the best performance in recent times, Rajni ups the ante and turns on the style and charisma. His landing from the helicopter and his scene at Adi's office are sheer power scenes. You eagerly wait for things to unfold and lap up all that is being offered. Personally , the piece where Mottai Boss comes into the movie is my favourite.

Shankar has as usual tried to give a social message in this as well , but it is old wine in a new bottle, and we would like some other social message other than corruption. How many times is Shankar planning to grind the life out of this theme ( Gentleman , Indian , Mudhalvan , Anniyan and now this ??). Shankar provides an extravaganza of unseen scale but needs to work on tighter scripts.

Rajni - is the real boss of the Movie!!! Welcome back !!!


Oh! and a Big Thank you to the distributors of this film who got the Pottis in time.

Other reviews and live updates that you can read.

Anantha's Review

Sudhish Kamath's Updates

Rediff's Review

A different but rather inflammatory review by Karthik

IndiaGlitz Review

Oh My God!!!

In the last 15 years of watching Formula 1 , I have seen quite a few shunts but this is as scary as it gets. This crash reminds me of Alex Zanardi's crash in Spa. Thankfully, according to initial reports , Robert Kubica is safe. Look at the way the car clips the toyota and proceeds to surf over the gravel track and hit the wall. Kubica would be happy to have come out of this humongous shunt , alive and unhurt.



Have a look at the Alex Zanardi crash to see the similarity. Zanardi however was involved in a horrific crash in CART racing and lost his legs.

Google - Intentionally Funny or Genuine Mistake?

One of the things with Google is that you never know if something that they are doing is intentional or a genuine mistake( unless they tell you). Check this link for example and look at Number 17. This seems to work for any two points across the Atlantic . Try Milan instead of Paris or try New York instead of Chicago.

Falling on Ice is hard on my knees !!!

Chicago is the sort of place that can get really depressing during winter. You can't move anywhere or roam around because of the snow all around the place and the extreme chill factor in the winds. So at the first semblance of spring , I decided to roam around downtown Chicago. Walking along with a friend who was new to Chicago , I walked into millenium park and found people skating on an ice rink. Skating has always fascinated me ( Katrina Witt effect :) and basically looks cool) and I decided to take to the Ice. After buying skates , I wore them with not much difficulty . And then I stood up and realised that standing straight by itself was an achievement. Walking awkwardly and taking small steps ( with one leg behind the other) , I finally made it to the ice. Walking on the rubber surface was tough but walking on Ice was a totally different level of difficulty. I was finding it difficult to stand even after holding on to the iron railings along the rink. And all the while small kids ( read 5 year olds ) where whizzing past me , as if it was normal. One kid avoided me with panache as she drifted slightly to my left and skate past me , as if I was part of an obstacle course. Hearing my dad's voice in my mind ( kizha vizhunda dhaan kathuka mudiyum ) , I embarked on the arduous journey of going around the rink by holding on to the rails on the side. Lap 1 was uneventful but difficult. With the confidence of having completed level 1 , I decided to do Lap 2 without the help of the rails. Bad Mistake. I didn't realize it initially when I started skating ( which was when this picture was taken) , but when I tried turning towards my left , I felt my legs trying to do a split. And then without much effort , I managed to fall gracefully ( if there is anything graceful about falling) on my knees. Falling on the ice knees first , is no fun. With help from some 'good Samaritans' , I managed to complete a few more laps but a fall was never far away on the ice. Falling in love might not be hard on your knees but falling on ice is definitely hard on your knees.

Youtube's cool new interface

Youtube's new interface for their videos embedded in blogs or web pages is really nifty. Check this video for example.



When you run your mouse over the video , the bottom of the embedded video gives a list of related videos and the sides of the videos provide you options to move to different videos. What this ensures for your site is , people can stay in your blog and enjoy the videos of youtube without actually having to go to the Youtube website to watch related videos.

The question however is , how does this benefit Youtube? This only reduces the number of people going to their website as people can watch the related videos from some random blog!! What is youtube's business model for sustenance? Makes me scratch my head.

Stop dreaming and get back to reality.

When you first land in America , the first thing that you notice is the roadways. Amazingly wide and multiple Lane roads with cars whizzing past at over 65 mph. If you are anything of a car enthusiast , the first thought that occurs , is to own a Mercedes or a BMW and drive on these roads. Ah... the dreamer. A couple of months later , after you have got your SSN and your DL , you start looking at second hand cars in cars.com. You realise that a good BMW (hmmm.. thats kind of redundant, aint it?) would be affordable if you had 8000 dollars. Thats not too bad. Then you start consulting with your friends ( all of whom btw have Nissans , Hondas and Toyotas) about the cars and talk about the Beamer.

Friend A with his infinite wisdom ( courtesy of having lived in the US for the last 6 months) starts his analysis -" Oh Beamer eh? Be careful when you buy a car that is more than 5 years old. European cars might not be great in maintenance. That is why I bought a Toyota."

Friend B , who has limited wisdom (has been in US for 4 months and has bought a car just a month or so back)- " People buy a BMW or a Merc and drive the pistons of it. You should buy a European Marquee only if it is relatively new. The Japanese cars are safer and more reliable. Buy your car from a desi and it will run well even if it has run more than 80k miles"

The little devil on your shoulder pokes at you and you begin to search for "High Class" European Marquees that are less than 5 years old. Hmmm 14K dollars. It then dawns that you might not be able to afford the car unless you stay for a year in the US ( which btw, is subject to a myriad of conditions , if you work in the IT industry . If the client has new projects, If there is a requirement at onsite blab blab blab). After hours of searching on craigslist and cars.com , you come to the conclusion that Japanese car are the way to go. With a sigh , you resign to buying the reliable , used Japanese cars.

Desi Dhaba at Niagara

After a 10 hour drive from Chicago , you are greeted to a great site when you get near the Niagara falls. Desi/Punjabi Dhabas and chaat shops all over the place. It was like getting into a mini Pondy Bazaar. The first thing that we did after parking the car in a remote car park was to walk up to this 'Desi Dhaba' and look up at the menu. And all my favourites were available. I was on cloud 9 seeing Chole Batura, Naan ,Dosa/Sambar, Lassi , Mango Lassi etc. on the menu. We ordered one of each ( considering that we were three hungry souls after a tiring 10 hour journey) from the menu. And then it happened. Our man starts opening the "ready to eat" packets and starts putting them on the tava. Bang all that euphoria of seeing your favourite dishes listed on the menu gets drained in a second. We consoled ourselves saying atleast it was desi food and managed to eat the stuff. As we polished the plates off , our Lassi arrived. Another wave of euphoria swept us as the glasses arrived. With reserved optimism (it had to be reserved after what we had tasted) , one of my friends sipped the lassi. The look on his face told us what we wanted to know. We ended up pouring 4/5th of the lassi into the bins as we left cursing the dhaba.

To paraphrase Vivek and a dialogue from Thillu Mullu-- Menu va paathu mayangidathinga makkalae. Yellam verum eye waasnga(eye Wash).

Yay! Sanjaya !!!

These netizens are crazy!!!. Sanjaya comes third in a most influential poll by Time magazine ?!!!( Shaking my head in disbelief and rubbing my eyes to verify what I am reading is true). I am no Sanjaya basher but don't you think this is taking it a bit too far? After all his occupation as listed by Time is a former American Idol Finalist .

A.R.R in Chicago

An A.R. Rahman concert in Chicago!!! Sears Center finally holds some desi- event that is worth watching.

The ticket prices are also not too bad considering that the parking is also covered in the ticket price itself.

Ticket Prices: $155, $130, $105, $80, $70, $60, $55, $50, $40.

For people interested in watching the Mozart from Madras in action -- check out this link to buy the tickets.

The Third Edition of the QFI Open

The third edition of the QFI Open is scheduled for the 3rd of June 2007. Having managed to qualify for the finals of the last edition ( very pertinent to say that it was the first time I had qualified for the finals of an open quiz), was putting enthu for it this year too , until i found out the date. Could have been a couple of weeks later. The quiz though promises to be an utterly fun quiz. More Details here.

Spiderman now inspires Yuvan

Yuvan shankar raja , gets inspired from many sources, but like all people who grew up in the era of Doordarshan , he seems to have fond memories of spiderman and the spiderman theme. Check out this very well mixed and disguised version of the theme in the hugely popular Saroja Samman nikalo song from chennai 600028. Thanks due to anantha for pointing this out in his blog. The inspiration for the name of the song is a whole different story though.

Check out music in the video between 1:12 and 1:28



If you want to look at the original Spiderman cartoon video - take a look here.