My First Audition

Chocolate to our Lovely Senior

Back ground

Teja Conscious: I am Teja. I and Nikhil are close friends studying 3^rd year Mechanical Engineering. We are happy that in few weeks time we will became “the seniors” of our college but at the same time we are sad that we will be missing the angels of our senior’s batch.

Scene 1: Class room during morning tea break

Nikhil is sitting on a chair of joint-school-desk-and-chair and Teja is sitting on the desk of the same joint-school-desk-and-chair, both facing towards the audience.

Nikhil: (Sadly looking at the floor) Dude, today is the last day. She will leave the campus.

Teja: (Turning towards Nikhil in a confused state) Whom are you speaking about?

Nikhil: (Looking at Teja) Swetha.

(Shot is frozen) Teja Conscious: Swetha is our senior who is about to complete her degree in IT. Many of my mates look at her, including me. My friend likes her a lot but he never tried to speak to her. Not only to her but to any of the girls because he is scared that he would be embarrassed by them.

Teja: oh, that pretty roomly figure (Nikhil scowls at Teja), oops sorry, it’s just a slip of the tongue; that pretty homely figure.

Nikhil: (in a loud voice) If your tongue slips, apply fevicol and stick it. (After a pause & in a soft voice) Should do something. (Hastily) Atleast should give a chocolate to her.

Teja: Then give!

Nikhil: Hey dude help me man. You already have experience on it by giving a PERK chocolate to your girlfriend; that too during our first year itself.

Teja: Man, she is not my girlfriend. I just tried to speak with her and it is because of you guys, I started hitting on her and became mad about her. And last week she told that she has a boyfriend already.

Nikhil: Hey, are these things new to you or what. But still you have guts, buddy.

Teja: (Jumps from the desk and stands on the floor) Alright. (Facing Nikhil) I will help you. Buy one PERK chocolate now and keep it with you. I will look after the rest.

Scene 2: Canteen during lunch

Both Nikhil & Teja are sitting in the canteen facing each other, and Nikhil is looking at the canteen’s entrance for her arrival.

Teja: Has she come?

Nikhil: No da. Hey dude, many people are in canteen. What shall we do if it becomes an embarrassing moment?

Teja: If you are concerned about that, then we can’t speak to any girl. C’mon man you should lose your dignity and respect after you joined mechanical. Oh shit!, there goes the bell, let’s get back to the class; let’s try in the evening; let’s see how your luck works?

Scene 3: Around 6 PM; Nikhil just entered the canteen and Teja was following him

Nikhil: (excitedly) Dude there she is and no one is in the canteen except she and her friends.

Teja: (Softly) Ok ok. Control your excitement. That’s true but some of her friends are guys, so let’s sit near the counter and wait for the opportunity.

She gets up from her chair and comes to the counter. She buys cool drinks and is returning to her chair.

Teja: This is the time. Get up fast buddy. Hello Akka ........

She turns back.

Teja: I am Teja. He is my friend Nikhil. We know you. Today is your last day right? So thought of giving you a chocolate, just consider it as our compliment.

Swetha: (Smilingly) Oh thank u. Which department are you guys from?

Teja: Mechanical

She shows an awkward face.

Teja: Which company you got placed?

Swetha: Infosys

Nikhil: Your posting, akka?

Swetha: Pune

Teja: ok akka, best wishes. We will catch up sometime. (Nikhil frowns at Teja for ending the conversation so soon)

She shakes hands. Then Nikhil & Teja exits the canteen.

Nikhil: (Hugs Teja in overjoy) Hey dude thanks man, you rocked. You made her to shake hands with me!!!! I will not wash my hands for a week atleast.

Teja: Even I didn’t expect that. Ok Ok when is the treat?

Nikhil: Soon buddy.

Scene 4: The next day during lunch in the canteen

Teja is working in the lab and his phone rings.

Teja: hey tell me buddy.

Nikhil: Hey where are you. Come fast. Swetha is in canteen

Teja: Ok I am coming now.

Scene 5: Teja just entered into the canteen

Teja sees Nikhil standing far away from Swetha. Teja approaches Swetha who is sitting along-with her friends.

Swetha: (On seeing Teja) Oh oh. Now what? (Teja: akka.... )- next you guys keep coming and will start to take advantage. (She takes the chocolate from her bag) Take the chocolate and leave me.

Teja: (Hastily) Oops. akka, you keep the chocolate yourselves (Then Teja walked hastily towards Nikhil).

Nikhil sees the Teja conversation with Swetha and starts approaching them. Teja signals him not to come. But he didn’t listen and signs that he also wants to join in the conversation. So Teja drags him to the other corner of the canteen where few of their friends having lunch.

Nikhil: (With anger) Stupid, why are you so selfish?

Teja: (With anger) You asshole, you want to be embarrassed.

Nikhil: (in a slow voice) What happened?

Teja: She said we are annoying her. But that didn’t bother me much. She.... she...... she is still having that chocolate in her bag. (After a pause) May be I should have got that chocolate from her.

PS: I would like to express my gratitude to my friend’s sister who grammatically corrected the script.

Mosuo: a community with unique & astonishing tradition

We have different religion, caste, sub-caste, language, ethnicity in this world - from east to west, north to south, rich to tribes. Each genre have their own customs and traditions, but what remains common to all genres is the basic family structure i.e., Father, mother and their children. Besides that, we can find gay couples & their children, and lesbian couples & their children, rarely. Had you witnessed or heard any other family structure? At least I had not!

But recently I heard a completely different family structure; a family structure without a father or husband - sounding strange right? and they are called Mosuo. Mosuo, a small minority ethnic group living around Lake Lugu which share the borders of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of China. They live in a mountainous region whose primary occupation is agriculture and farming as like any other village people in this world. But their traditions of Matriarchal family system and most importantly - the Walking marriage make them distinct from any other existing known community in this world.

Mosuo women are given high preference with due respect and Mosuo follows a matriarchal family system in contrast to our male-dominated family system. In such a kind of system, the family tree consists of only maternal branch since Mosuo don’t prefer to have a father for their child. In many cases, their children are unaware of their father and hence there is no place for paternal branch at all in the family tree. Women will have physical relationship only with the men whom they like and they are free to do it at any number of times with any number of people since the age of 13, and this is referred as "Walking marriage". Mothers teach about sex to their daughters after their age ceremony and they say "Sex is good for skin". It is either the mother or mother's brother responsibility to raise the child.

Mosuo community became so popular to outside world after a well-known Chinese pop singer Namu who left Lugu at her young age, recently released a book “Leaving her mother” after which the government improved the infrastructure to make it as a hot tourist destination spot, thereby reducing a week trekking to hours travel to reach Lugu from outside world. Many tourists visit Lugu looking for free sex because of which Mosuo females are really disturbed. Taking the advantage of this tradition and tourists disappointment of free sex, some prostitutes travel from town and clad themselves as Mosuo and provide them the sex. Thus the access to Lugu by outside world presages the rise of deterioration of Mosuo community. At present, Namu works for the welfare of the uplift of their community, and tries to protect the community & their traditions by building a museum and through various charities.

I came to know about Mosuo community through a documentary "The Great Himalayas". Follow the link to know more about Mosuo community:

http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=182&catid=5&subcatid=87

Wikipedia - Mosuo

Endhiran

Endhiran - a whooping sum of Rs. 120 crore worth contents were finally presented on a big screen. A perfect commercial sci-fi entertainer and I feel it deserves all credits. Thanks to SRK who officially announced to drop the project after which it slipped into Rajni's hands (Infact Rajni was the first person to hear this script couple of years before but refused it for some reasons).

Shankar dominates the first half of movie and Rajni performance excels in the second half. The movie is completely out of Rajni's formula - no formal introduction song, no punch dialogues, no mannerisms, no sentiments to please oldies, and no yesteryear actors like Gandhimathi :). Rajni's performance as a villain is really awesome, particularly his dialogue delivery is so perfect which reminds me his old movies like Netrikan and 16 Vayathinile. Though the creativity for graphics looks childish and inspired from various Hollywood movies, they are presented with utmost care and perfection than any other Tamil movies before. Dialogues are well-written; short, crisp and meaningful. The one thing which I really miss in the movie is Rajni's stylish stunt. Last but not the least, it is claimed that the movie is an adaptation of a Tamil novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endhiran) which is still a controversy, and I DOT this review with the below tagline :).

Tagline: Endhiran – An attempt to make a movie using the modern technology - is successful.

PS: I decided to watch Endhiran, a month after its release, since the ticket rates were very high. But I could not refrain from watching the movie due to the headlines that it made on newspapers day-by-day. Finally I and my lab-mates decided and booked the tickets for a Monday night show in Inox Bangalore. Not even a single whistle was blown by anyone in the theatre hall throughout the movie though I watched it on the fourth day of movie release because I watched the movie along-with the so called elite community :(. Finally I managed to blow one whistle for Superstar title. Whereas the nearby local Natraj theatre have erected a megasized cut-out for Superstar which is garlanded with different flowers. Anyway - my Coimbatore theatre doors are calling me for the second time :) to witness the Superstar’s fan maniac actions.

Ultimate Tamil short films

In recent days, I am very much addicted to short films and the person behind for it is M.Balaji whose short movies are rocking all over Tamilnadu, particularly his Kadhalil Sothapuvathu Eppedi (How to mess up in Love). I could not able to give any negative critics for his works except Addi tail in which I feel the sound recording is bad. Each of his short film is of different themes, and he knows very well how to present it to the audience. He assembled a very good team – particularly camera-man and music-director. Sometimes the camera angle kept for the shots itself conveys the actor’s emotions. Background score, casting and the actors performance suits very well to the story. The themes he handled so far except in Kadhalil Sothapuvathu Eppedi is very much touching.

Kadhalil Sothapuvathu Eppedi (How to mess up in Love)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anuz0dV0XOM&feature=related

Grade (on a 10 scale): AA (10)

Addi tail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9HDKpvxT6U

Grade: AB (9)

Mittaai Veedu (Sweet home)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4xViru8_Jo&feature=related

Grade: AA (10)

Pudhayal (Treasure)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkSulDdK60M

Grade: AA (10)

Kanavu Keerthanai (Dream Symphony)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMyVc76bqFg

Grade: AA (10)

Thuru

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFURVU3t6ZY

Grade: AA (10)

Genre: Comedy

Remarks: Awesome story and screenplay