Surprising Choice for the 2006 top story
Normally, Indians have used to hear and probably enjoy little bit at the sight of Pakistan being talked about as a bad boy, who normally accused of behind funding and harboring terrorists and responsible for spreading nuclear weapon know-how's to Iran and North Korea.
So when the talk in the Washington for most of the year revolving around North Korea and Iran, whenever Iraq is not mentioned, it is with in expected lines when a reputed foreign policy news organization chose nuclear proliferation news as the top story of the year.
So when that happened, my first expectation was, it should be either about AQ Khan's Nuclear black market, which basically ended up being a Trade Missile for Bomb deal with North Korea and gave Iran a viable inexpensive under the radar uranium based nuclear programs.
So what was the surprise here?. This top story is about nuclear proliferation. This top story is about Iran trying to get in to Nuclear weapon know-how's. But the country accused is not Pakistan. Are you kidding me?. If it is not Pakistan, which other country can be accused?
No reputed media will accuse the Big boys in the nuclear club ( US, UK, Russia, France, China) for nuclear proliferation. It does not matter that in some intelligent circles, it is still strongly believed that China provided Pakistan the complete blue print of nuclear bomb making knowledge. But that news were never part of any top story in any of the last 2 decades.
So which country is accused of helping Iran to in the latest news cycle?. It is India.
Technically these are three separate sanctions against few Indian companies for exporting - Chemical, Nuclear and Missile parts to Iran. Does it mean, India no longer enjoy the moral superiority it used to carry in comparisons with her infamous neighbor.
Before jumping in to any conclusion, Lets take a quick look at the sanctions itself.
1. US sanctioned two Indian chemical companies for exporting banned chemicals, used for Rocket Fuels
2. US sanctioned two Indian nuclear scientists Shri Ch. Surendar and Y. Sivaraman Prasad, both belong to the top most elite members in the nuclear scientific community. Mr prasad was in Iran to transfer technology to extract tritium, a material necessary to make smaller, more efficient missile-deliverable nuclear warheads - as alleged by US.
3. US sanctioned two Indian companies for transferring missile parts to Iran
India is not happy about any of it.
The first charge looked more like a mistake. Because one banned company was owned by a Australian entity and another by a American and there are at least 7 Chinese and 2 Australian companies also banned by US for the same crime. This is not big deal. It looks like the exported chemicals were not even banned under chemical weapons conventions.
The maximum damage this banning can do is, allow the Pakistani foreign secretary to make nice sound bites, when he is sitting in front of a switched microphone and a camera.
The second sanction which happened in the late summer of 2004, was still being fought by Indian government and one of the deal breaker items in the
Indian Us Nuclear Deal agreement. Again this one was not a very serious one, and as recorded by this report submitted to
the US Congress.But the most serious and highly talked about sanction was the third one, where two firms were banned for transferring missile parts to Iran.
There were few doubts, whether these transfers helped to build rockets, which were used by Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel. There were serious questions raised about the timing of this news, as it was broken by the US government only after the US India nuclear deal was ratified by the US congress.
Still there is no smoking gun evidence here. This looks more like a tap in the Indian government shoulder by US to stop working with Iran in any capacity.
Though it could be that these are minor violations compared to other nebulous proliferations, this latest sanction had taken a life out of its own, and now ended up being Number one in
The Top Ten Stories You Missed in 2006. India helped to Build the bomb, but US looked other way.
For god's sake, even if this alleged missile transfers were true, how it is that transferring missile parts can help to build bomb?.
These are other reports by other reputed news organizations regarding this.
House Voted on Indian Deal Unaware of Iran Missile Sales Bush signs legislation permitting nuclear cooperation with India
Bush signs India nuclear deal -Reversal opens doors to trade, controversyMost of the liberal Blog was against this deal right from the start. When this missile transfer news broke, it gave them more fuel to attack this deal.
India as a Nuclear PowerTake a look at the comments section to read few strong reactions from the Indian liberal readers, including yours truly to keep the facts straight.
What is going on here?. Is it a over reaction from the media?
Or is this a legitimate concern that giving this deal to India, US has permanently voided the NPT and giving green signals to countries who harbor thoughts of owning a nuclear weapon.
Or is this a concern that US foreign policy will be viewed in more hypocritical sense, since one hand they are rewarding India and in the other hand force countries like Iran, North Korea and others to give up.
Or is this a concern that Pakistan, - still enjoys lot of clout in the cold-war era US state department, will be forced to look else where ( probably China), as US and India getting closer and sharing a good time - will start another deadly arm race in South Asia.
Or is this a result of current state of the US president, who provides so little comfort to the general public and to the media and liberal blogs about his competence and decision making ability - It is a foregone conclusion that every deal made by this president is bad for the US and to the general world peace.
Or is this a concern that Neo-conservatives who were responsible for the ill fated Iraq war, will again fail in their desired mission to contain china's growing influence
China Runs up African Debt by hedging the bet on India.
I can not decide for sure, which one of the above is the reason for this deal getting a bad press here in US.
I am still not sure, what did US and India get out from this deal?
Personally, I think this deal is between two desperate countries -
- US trying to nudge India away from co-operating with Iran in any capacity
- Use India to contain China's growing clout
- India trying to get unlimited nuclear fuel for fast growing nuclear energy needs
- Getting access to western technologies denied for a long period of time
- Keeping a lid on how much of its nuclear reactors will be open for IEAA inspections.
- Finally a chance to join with the Big five nuclear club as the sixth country eventually.
These may or may not be the objective of Indian positions, as this was a very secretive deal even by Indian standards.
There were lot of oppositions with in Indian scientific community itself. I ignored the indian opposition parties view, since they oppose evertying for the sake of opposing.
The deal which was agreed upon between Bush and Singh and signed by the Congress / Senate were different, though the severity of the changes were reduced by the signing statements Bush included in his ratification.
This happened, despite the fact that this deal enjoyed a good amount of support in both the parties and in the Congress and Senate.
Jury is still out to pick the country,which came out as the winner in the deal.
But in the near future, this deal will continuously give India a lot of bad press. With the successful UN Sanctions on North Korea and Iran related to their Nuclear weapons activities, this historic deal between the planet's two largest democracies, will continue to be drawn in to any WMD discussions in the fore-seeable future.
Only history can decide the fate of this deal and the probably the fate of this little blue dot, we live and call it as home.
Let us all hope that this deal will end up on right side of the history.
My top 10 - 80's tamil movies
Nenjathai KilladheIt is a Lovely film, with very good camera work and mind blowing music by raja. Film was about a young modern girl, who struggling to live with her abusive sister in law, despite having a loving brother. After finding that the her lover was a coward, she was forced to marry her brother's friend. The rest of the story was how she went about accepting her husband. Very different film from mahendran, probably a trendsetter for later films like mouna ragam. All the actors/actress(s) in the film did a good job, though sharat babu deserved special mention.
Vaideghi Kathirundhal - This Film came in the time, when assistants of bharathi raja were coming in large numbers to give lot of good films. Directed by R.sundarajan, who already gave hits like payangalmudivathillai before. What I liked in this movie was the way director combined three small separate stories together and built the film. One of vijaykanth's early hit film. Raja teamed up with jayachandran and gave some evergreen hits.
Thambikku Endha Ooru - A very different rajani film, from his usual masala Stuff. It is one of the early rajani movies, where he tried comedy. He did Succeed to larger extent ( pambu pambu scene memorable). With Rajani's acting combined with Rajasekar's direction, and with raja composing songs like 'kadhalin deepangal', 'en valvile varum anbe vaa', made this film one of few watchble rajani's movies in the 80s.
Raajaparvai - A very experimental film from kamal, may be bit early for the audiences to appreciate. Kamal literally lit up the screen with his acting as blind person. With good support from madavi, T.V.Prasad and with good technicians around, it turned out to be a great mature film . Raja and Kamal's RajKamal movies long association started from this film. Raja's songs and background music are still talked about. A great movie to watch, if you are a fan of good, mature, and serious films.
Uyire Unakkaga - Directed by Rangaraj, who is another assistant of bharathi raja, this film is about an young rich girl, who came out from his rich surroundings to look out for real love. She ended up seeing it in a small poor family. As a nadiya fan, I could not have expected more. She along with mohan, sujatha and others gave a very good performance. Though film was not a commercial success, Music Scored by lakshimikanth-pyarilal had few pleasing numbers.
Pillai Nila- it should be one of the all time top horror movies in TF history. It is Directed by manobala, another assistant of bharthiraja. Film was about a rich girl, who committed suicide because of love failure. She then entered into her lover's daughter body to take revenge. Radika’s acting was one of the highlights of the film, as raja background score and songs. Must see for all the fans who like horror movies. There were some poltergist inspired scenes in the end, which kind of looked odd.
Nayagan - It is One of the well known movies of this generation. I liked every thing in this movie. Did I have to mention, why this film is in the 10 ten list?.
Apoorva Sagodarargal - It is one of my top film of 80's. Apart from kamal’s acting as dwarf, funny dialogues, raja's music and other technical perfections, it was the kamal's screenplay, which attracted me. I liked the way janakaraj character was treated in this film. Overall a must see movie for all kind of fans.
Mouna Raagam -In my opinion, It is probably the best film from manirathnam so far. It should be in every one's top 10 movies of 80's.I already got bored mentioning about raja music in every film, but apparently he was not. Background score and songs in this film deserve to be preserved forever.
Andha 7 Natkal - It is one of the best films from bakkiyaraj, who of course is another assistant director from bhartiraja family. Rumored to be the story based on comedy actor chandrababu's real life, this film had effective combination of strong story, very good dialogues and great acting. This film is a tutorial for how to write effective screen plays. Bakkiyaraj excelled in writing it and giving a gripping story, which would haunt us forever. Melliasai Mannar MS Viswanathan composed wonderfully tuned songs which are still popular.
Uyirodu Uyiraaga - Old Review
Uyirodu Uyiraaga, is another successful album from immensely talented and still vastly underrated MD Vidyasagar. There are six songs in this soundtrack, all of them are unique and great to listen to.
Soundtrack starts with I Love You by K.K. and new singer Nandhini. It is a usual Vidyasagar dance number, - catchy tune and great beats. Lyrics are also very smartly written. Overall, this song is a sure chart topper, targeted toward young listeners.
Second song NOTHING, is another dance number, inspired by Take it easy from Kadhalan. Harini, another talented singer, shows her promise with the usual tamilish lyrics dominating the song. This song is already started appearing in the top 10 charts.
With two good dance numbers to start with, it is time to for some melodious numbers, and as expected third song Anbe Anbe, is a soft melody, with Hariharan and Chitra singing at their best. Vidyasagar usually gives one or two great melody numbers in each of his albums like Priyam Priyam (Priyam), Malare Mounamaa? (Karna) and recently Vaa Sakhi
(Arasiyal) This song deserves to be mentioned along with these great songs. It is a kind of song, you want to sing along with and sounds equally great with ear phones.
Poovukellam, next song starts with a great guitar piece and maintains that quality throughout the song. Vidyasagar has tried some new music patterns in the interludes, and shows that why he is one of the talented musicians in Tamil Film Music today. A great song to hum and to enjoy; it will end up as one of the very unique songs in TFM history. Lyrics are also great.
Next song, Vanna kiLi, starts as a classical based song, turns mid-way and ends as a modern song. Again, Vidyasagar's interlude music is great. He tries new age music in the interludes and concludes the song in great fashion. This song may not be a great, hummable number, but nevertheless another immensely enjoyable song.
Last one, Nadhi Yenge, looks like a sad song sung by Ganshyam Vaswani in an atrocious tamil accent. One can not miss again Vidyasagar trying some unique music pieces in the interludes, which goes great with the song.
Overall, a great soundtrack from Vidyasagar after the successful Arasiyal, and he proves once again that he has everything to dominate TFM with his unique and innovative music. I bought this CD for Jeans, and was happy to get a Vidyasagar film along with that. After hearing both, I may want to feel the other way around.
Old Review - kannethirey thondrinal
dusted and dumped - Another old review of mine
This looks like another addition to the current trend of love movies. The recent sound track of all love movies tend to have one or two fun fast paced songs, couple of duets and if Deva is the MD, one or two Deva(ish) numbers. This album is no exception.
The album starts off with the funky number, Easwara, and Udith Narayan sings it joyfully. I am not a big fan of the tobacco chewing voice of Udith, even in Hindi, but this song, I have to admit, he does a fabulous job. There are some songs, you will like it from the first instance you hear it, and this song can be bracketed in that category. Vairamuthu comes up with some goofy lyrics like Easwara, vannum mannum hand shake seivadu unnal easwara, but hey, it is funny and enjoyable, what else do you need? The next song is Chinna Chinna Kiliye is a melodious number, with soulful rendition by Hariharan, Anuradha Sriram and Shobana. There are two versions of this song, and this version is the best. Deva does a good job in keeping the melody, without compromising the pace of the song and keeping it to the liking of masses, and the result is, another winner.
IMO, in the current crop of female singers in TFM, Harini seems to be the luckiest one. There is hardly any bad song from her so far, and the next song, Chandaa O Chandaa by Harini, looks like another feather in her cap. This song, Deva tries his best to remind you of more than a couple of old songs, as usual. Song is very pleasantly tuned, so we can forgive him. Again VM proves that he is the only one, who writes some thoughtful lyrics in TFM. Next song, Solomiya, with Deva’s abrasive voice, is a direct lift from the ubiquitous song Sayoniya, from the group Junoon. It is a typical Deva song, and rightfully targetted for the front benchers. You won't lose much, if you hit the forward button for this song,
Next side starts with, IMO, THE SONG of the album, Kanave Kalayaadhe. Deva’s favorite singer of recent times, Unnikrishnan teams up with Chitra, and produces another gem like Manam Virumbathe from Nerukku Nerr. Unnikrishnan has been successful in singing difficult songs, and making them very enjoyable and easily hummable, and this one, he does it to near perfection. His voice is a little bit nasal, but that is why, we love him and here with the indomitable Chitra, and with the help of some very nice music from Deva, this song will certainly push you to hit the rewind button again and again. The next song is another version of Chinna Chinna Kileye, but this time, the talented, but often neglected Krishnaraj replaces Hariharan. He did a good job, but I feel Hariharan's version is superior. The album ends with another Devaish number, this time his brother Sabesh, rendering his voice to Koththavaal Chaavadi Lady. Thank god for putting this song as the last one. Do not bother listening to this, it is just the filler.
Overall, this is definitely a must buy album for Deva fans, and for others, if you liked Nerukku Nerr, you won't regret buying this album either. With other recent hits like Vaali and Nerukku Nerr, it seems Deva is really on a roll, and that is good for music lovers!..
Old Reviews -
I decided to collect all my ramblings happened in my life here, which is few anyway, but significant, considering how lazy generally I am always. Usually it was like writing one long sentence in one month, and another month to read it back and another one to post.
This is one of the grand old reviews, I wrote in the Indolink website. It used be a good website for tamil films related, and they had few decent interviews with tamil movie personalities. I wonder, What happened to Sandhya and Krishana, who used to run the website.
Anyhow here comes the first one.
Unnai Thaedi, the upcoming Sundar C.. film, has music by Deva replacing Karthik Raja, who did the music honors in his last movie Naam Iruvar Namakku Iruvar. As in the case of Sundar C. movies, Pazhani Bharathi has done most of the lyric work in this album.
The next song, NaaLai Kaalai/Dhachayani Dhaiyavu Sei, is a peppy number, with Hariharan trying to do SPB tricks. His voice is too stiff to do gimmicks of this sort, and I feel either Unnikrishnan or SPB should have been much better. But the song itself is very unique and catchy. Deva has tuned this song really well and with smooth and adequate orchestrations. Lyrics by Pazhani Bharathi are adequate. Next song, pOraaLe pOraaLe, again by Hariharan, has shades of folk music. Once again Hariharan is not suitable for such songs, but Deva compensates with good beats and lovely orchestrations. What else you can say, you got to have at least five songs in a film, and not all of them are going to be chart toppers. Next song is Oyilaa Oyilaa with Mano and Krishnaraj doing singing for a change. This song may grow on you in a while, but frankly it is sad to see a singer of Mano's caliber being wasted in songs like this. What he can expect to do, where even the likes of SPB are increasingly being ignored!..
The next song, MaaLavika MaaLavika, with Hariharan and Chitra doing great job, is the best song of this album. This song sounds close to Needhaana, but is different. Deva is continuously getting better at giving smooth orchestrations and this song with a lovely tune, will make you hum it for days to come. Hariharan loves songs like this, and with Chitra, you have got a winning combination. Special mention to the lyricist Kalai Kumar - who looks like a good new find. FYI, he also penned the recent hit song, Edho Oru Paattu in the movie Unnidaththil Ennai Koduthaen. As a tailpiece this song appears to be rehashed from ManadhukkuLe Oru Nandhalaalaa (Devaraj), also another Deva number.
The last song of this album is Kaattraaga Varuvaayo performed by a new comer Naveen. His voice sounds like Hariharan and Suresh Peters rolled in to one. He could not do much in this dance number, but Deva will impress listeners with good use of flute samples. I won't be surprised, if Deva has been listening to lot of Jethro Tull albums, but why do we have to complain, if he is going after the best to copy.
Overall this album adheres to Deva's recent standards, but too much use of Hariharan is bound to bring the enjoyment level down. Furthermore, Hariharan should stop singing all kind of songs, as more albums like these will bring his downfall soon. I have to say the songs sound too soft for a Sundar C. movie. So we may be expecting a love story instead of his usual fun-filled ones. That indeed will be welcome change, or may be not. Why can't we wait and see?
Mumbai Express audio Review
WhatThis is the 30th year in Illayaraja's life as a film Composer. 30 years is usually a very long time for indian music directors. Most of them fade away in 10 years. Only very few managed to survive for a decade or more, no one can for 30 years and still be respected. It is true that for the last 10 years, he painted himself in a corner with the choice of movies and songs not aimed for commercial and countdown programs, and abdicated rightfully, once what was his, the leading person to define and reshape the popular film music, to other younger music directors. Still it is remarkable that he retained relevance for his presence, though he struggled to find that new sound and direction, which can be all of his own. My first reaction after hearing Mumbai Express songs, at last it looked like he might have found one.
HowApart from being one of the best in what ever he tried, Kamalhassan also have another one in abdunace, that is loyality. If he likes some one, and admires their skills, he will try to work with them again and again and again. So it is not surprising to see Kamal, Illayaraja and the production house Raj Kamal stay together for the last 25 years. Illayaraja have always reserved his best works for Kamal movies right from 'Raja Parvai', with out any exception, with Mumbai Express also joining in.
AboutThe first song 'Kurangu Kaiyil Malai' has two versions. The first version is by Kamal and Tippu. Though it is fair to say that tune is a typical Raja's Number, but it is the arrangement that will blow you over. It has an overflowing jazz flavour, which is a rarity in indian film songs. The song starts with a synthesized music enhanced by the brass section, with the background piano notes. Tippu starts the pallavi and Kamal joining him later. A femal humming fills most of the first interlude, with Raja attempting some thing similar to the Vikram title song. A small but dis-joint brass section prepares you to the saranam. Saranam is again adequate with the piano in the background, and small chorus lines holding together the different parts of the saranam. The second interlude starts with synthesized drums, which give away to a full blown jazz flavoured instrumental piece. It is a two part brass section and sax involve in some delightful interplaying, with drums and piano playing along. The song ends with pallavi being repeated twice. Already it is very clear this is going to get better and it sure does.
The second song 'Poo Poothatdu' starts with a kid's voice. Then music takes over with synthesized music with chorus lines 'Tha Tha Tha' tailing off the pre-interlude. The singers are Sonu Nigam, Sheriya and Shaan. Pallavi is very soothing. It has a leisurly pace, but with out being delibrately slow, which can be attributed to some of Rahman's recent numbers. The beats adapt very well to the tune. Again it is the interludes, which will get your attentioin. Again lot of jazz flavour, but this time lot of soft piano notes. Saranams are again very soothing, but, Raja has decided not to sweat over the tune and relied on his past memory to stretch the saranam. Saranam does remind you to one of his recent song in the movie Kadhal Rojave. The second interlude starts with brass section with piano and chorus adding finishing touches. The chorus sectioin in both the interludes are long and that is very unusual for Raja. Overall this one is a great song. It is amazing to see this man trying out new things in the arrangment even after all this time.
The third song 'Yelae Nee Yetippo' should be the tour de force of this album. Again the interludes are divine. There are no words which can explain adequately the beauty of these interludes. There are lot of interplay between singers. The singers are Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Sheryal, Tippu and Kamal. Saranams are beautifully woven together. The whole song is like a roller-coaster ride with ups and downs with different singers singing the various parts and all hold together well. There is a female voice over in the second interlude suggesting what kind of city Mumbai is. The beats through out the song is remarkably underplayed, yet you can feel the pulse. It is fair to say that this song in all sense looks like a new face of Raja. It is not that he has not done any new things like this before. He has sucessfully attempted so many path breaking music before. This looks like another new avatar.
The fourth song is 'Kurangu Kaiyil' II nd version. This song looks like a theme song appearing in the movie in small bits. This version is longer. There are subtle difference between both the versions and both are very enjoyable, just for the arragements alone.
The fifth song is a diluted kid's version of Vande Matram. In all fairness, this looks like a situational song. I relaly have issues with Kamal including the situational songs in the audio releases. These kind of songs usually not enjoyable for listening alone. Secondly, these kind of songs can bring down the enjoyment level of an album. He basically killed the Hey Ram album by including non-sense situational songs. Glad that there is only one in this album.
The last one is the 'Theme Music'. Theme music has become an hot property now a days, with almost every album including one. Raja, being the master of the background scores and instrumental music, he just needed this track to show, that he is indeed the mastero. Again lot of Jazz, lot of WCM, lot of inter play between the Brass section, Sax, and the Piano. It is very well done just for the fact that it is a 5 minute piece and you won't feel that it is long.
I am curious to see the movie, just to find out where this music is included. I sincerly hope it is not during the credits.
FinallyAll the music directors after some time would worn out their fans. Raja definetely has his share of worn-out fans. It has been few years since any of his songs hooked me on the first hearing. Mumbai Express songs have surely got my attention in the first try. It not only gave me satisfactioin that Raja, the musician is still alive, but also reconfirmed my belief that this man is not done yet.
