Sivaji: The Boss - Movie Review

Sivaji, the movie, released yesterday worldwide. I went to the matinee show today in boston, to see a hyped public buzzing with excitement.
Spoiler Alert for the movie:
There are no spoilers. It is a typical story that you would come to expect of director shankar by now. Sadly, the story is a great let down for someone not too interested in the commercial aspects of a movie. AVM productions and Shankar have used Rajni - the brandname to the best of their ability. But the question is, does it take Indian/Tamil Cinema any forward with its wild storyline with implausible logic? Having said that, shankar certainly wouldn't have had the wildest of ideas about taking Indian Cinema to the next level, something that he's capable of, when he sat with rajni to discuss the story. This was a movie made to supersaturate rajni's already glittering stardom and that was done. Period.
As for Rajni, he was great with comedy, especially with his 'Vaanga Pazhagalam! Vaanga Pazhagalam!' and also his imitation of actors Sivaji and MGR were entertaining. He has certainly not dissapointed his fans, with abundance of his style and action in display throughout the movie. Rajni was also impressive with his appearance and dance (you really can't call that dance, movement perhaps) in the song athiradeekaran. There's nothing more that you can ask as a director from rajni and that is nothing more that his fans expect from him either. As for Vivek, all of his scenes were attached to those of Rajni's and one has to say he did his part pretty well considering that he didn't have any scenes of his own to flash with his comedy inundated with messages.
The movie seemed a bit long (about 3hrs 15min). But being just the 2nd day, I expect the movie to be trimmed down a little, at least after the 1st week. Towards the end of the movie, the audience were getting noticeably restless. Even the avid of fans in the theatre had gone quiet by then.
As always with shankar's movies, all the songs were filmed to be rich with color and were well choreographed to match the amazing music composition by A.R. Rahman.
AVM has supposedly invested about 84 crore rupees on Sivaji. Honestly, I didn't see anything in the movie that fit the bill. Movie making is not all about extravaganza. Some of the renowned directors have made better quality movies at a much lesser expense than this one.
All in all, it should be a great treat for Rajni's die-hard fans. For the rest of us looking for value in entertainment for 3 hrs, you are not missing much if you waited for a while for the ticket prices to drop down a notch.

iPhone with Cingular

My 2 year contract with cingular is about to expire in a month, and I was shopping around for a different phone/service. I was looking at the iPhone and I must say that I was pretty impressed with the looks/features of the iPhone + better usability known in apple products + a pretty hefty brand name to live up to, in a new product-line. Honestly, my motorola razr v3 has zero usability. Hey, they made a sleek phone alright, but you must be able to see something (and i mean something atleast) when you are out there in the open. Believe me, it would take another post to talk about my razr.
I was greatly relieved that I could move on to other service providers at the end of my 2 year contract with Cingular. For one, I know that verizon is much better in my area than Cingular. I have had a frustrating experience with my Cingular service, especially for the last 7 months, since I moved in to my new home. It is impossible for me to make a call staying inside my home. During the peak of the winter, I had to go outside my home, to the parking lot, shivering under the snow, so that I can make one emergency call. I usually use shopping trips to walmart or elsewhere, to speak to my friends. The iPhone's cool, but another 2-year contract with Cingular is a deal-breaker for me.
Know what? At $500 a piece and with the Cingular crap, 'you lost me at Hello!'.

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Hi there!

Just thought that I should may be start blogging again, especially with a lot more time to kill now than I had when I was a student. Hope to be more regular this time around.

Let me know of your views, ideas, comments, suggestions if any.