My Top Movies Of the Year

By: Thejas Krishnan on 12:19 AM

As the Year is nearing its closure, there  are a ton of movies that i missed, But here are the few that I think are the Stand-outs of the year.

1.Drishyam

2.Amen

3.Lunch Box

4.The Croods

    

5.Star Trek :Into Darkness

6.Now You See Me

7.Man of Steel

  

8.Neelakaasam Pacha Kadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

9.Special 26

10.Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani

11.Neram

12.Fast And Furious 6

13.Kai Po Che

14.ABCD

15.Raanjhnaa

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MBA Entrance Exams in India; Confusions Cleared!

By: Thejas on 9:10 PM

If you ever were or (currently are) trying to pursue a degree of MBA in India , I'm pretty Sure you are bewildered by the list of entrance exams and are trying to make sense of the acronyms that look almost similar.
So, as a victim of this confusion, I'm taking the responsibility of simplifying the chaos a bit. 

 The top B-Schools either affiliate themselves to a common national level entrance test or take their own aptitude test to select candidates.

Various common national level tests to get into the finest B-Schools of India are:

1. CAT: All IIMs' and 100+ more institutes.
2. XAT: XLRI Jamshedpur, XIM Bhubaneshwar, S. P. Jain, GIM etc.
3. SNAP: Institutes affiliated with Symbiosis University
4. JMET: IITs' and NITs' Management Program
5. MH-CET: Colleges in Maharashtra
6. CMAT: All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE)

Various individual tests of some other finest B-Schools of India are:

1. IBSAT: ICFAI Business Schools
2. IRMA: Institute of Rural Management, Anand
3. NMAT: NarseeMonjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
4. MICA: Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
5. IIFT: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi and Kolkata

 National Level :

Courtsey:tcyonline.com

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My Review: North 24 Kaatham is just too Slow!

By: Thejas on 10:03 PM

Cast : Fahadh Fasil, Nedumudi Venu, Swati Reddy,Srinath Bhasi
Director : Anil Radhakrishnan Menon

This is  indeed the golden era for Malayalam cinema. With the star worship declining exponentially and movies with only their story as back-bone rising, it is an era of new generation movies. But its not all movies that get it right on target. This is one such miss.

Fahad plays Hari , an IT professional with a  serious Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He is a cleanliness monster and is hated by everybody at his office due to his arrogant, shrewd and short tempered personality The story begins when hari is stuck with social worker Narayani , played by Swati and an ex-Marxist Gopalettan played by Nedumudi Venu , on a Harthal day.The Story progresses on how they manage to travel the lengths of Kerala on the day of curfew  and how the protagonist manages to break his shell of inhibitions.

The premise here is good. But the screen-play and script is dragging making the entire movie snail paced. There are moments of dramatic pauses and cinematic silence which adds up to the drag.Also there is no real full-hearted humor making the movie leave no real mark on the viewer.  What makes the movie watchable is the solid performances of its actors. Swati and Nedumudi venu does their parts existingly well and leaves no traces of remorse. Srinath Bhasi, although only a cameo  role, is quite simply one of the best features of the movie, easing into the skin of Hari's brother and playing it to optimum realism. But the movie belongs to none other than Fahadh Fasil, who plays the irritated introvert to perfection. He has once again proved his worth and showed why he is the king of subtleties. With  twitches of unsatisfaction and shouts of  arrogance he really makes the viewers hate him on all levels. At the end, as a changed man he plays the lead with a slight charm that only a few can master.

So Overall, its a mediocre movie. Watch if you have Nothing better to do. You might find it enjoyable. 

Rating : 2.75/5

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My List Of Top 10 TV series You Must Watch!

By: Thejas on 8:51 PM

10.How I Met Your Mother.

9.MisFits

8.Numb3rs

7.Mentalist

6.Two and A Half Men

5.Dexter

4.The Big bang Theory

3.Sherlock / House MD

2. F.RI.E.N.D.S

1.Game Of Thrones

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The Picture Perfect Nostalgia!

By: Thejas Krishnan on 1:17 PM

Everything changes with time. Everything. We change. Our friends and relatives change. Buildings and Land change. Continent and countries change . So inevitably our celebrations have to change and Onam is no anomaly.

This Harvest  Festival of Kerala has long-lost its zeal and honestly resides only in the money minded advertisements of Silk Saris and Jewelries . I really wish the actual Onam was as grandeur as the "husky Mohanlal Voice-over" wants us to believe . But all those who have nothing to sell remain silent amidst all the hyped celebrations. The only two customs of Onam that have stood the test of time is the Traditional Dressing and the Food, that too because of the onam celebration in offices, schools and colleges, that one day when people get to wear their glistening Kerala Saris/Dhothis and eat a 18 course Sadhya complete with two Payasams. You could argue that the Flower carpet is yet another strong survivor but then since all the flowers are imported from either Tamil Nadu or Karnataka, as opposed to plucking your local fragrances, it celebrates the harvest of the neighboring states.
But with the exponential increase in Nuclear Families this drift was apparent and unavoidable. All the customs are so altered to fit the whims and ease of people that they are just a distorted reflection of what existed in the past.
The ideal Onam exists only in the mind. A picture perfect Nostalgia. 

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Django Unchained. Its a Classic!

By: Thejas Krishnan on 2:25 PM

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L Jackson

Director: Quentin Tarantino :D

Just reading through the cast of this movie can make any movie buff drool. Then when they see that its directed by Quentin Tarantino, you just cant wait to get in to the theater!
Tarantino, Known for his blood shed and signature violence in movies brings us yet another classic!

 Django Unchained, is  set in the pre-Civil War era of black slaves and ruthless white oppressors.It’s impossible to deny that there’s a lot to admire in this stylish revenge fantasy that’s peppered with the kind of unforgettable touches only Tarantino could get away with. But ,somewhere it feels like he wanted to use all his ideas in this movies itself, and as a result, the film’s close-to-three-hours running time often feels like a slog.

Jamie Foxx is Django, a shackled slave, whose encounter with eccentric German bounty hunter Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) sets the film’s plot into motion. Freeing Django from a chain gang, Schultz recruits him to identify three outlaws. Pretty soon the two men become partners, cleaning the land of lawbreakers through some pretty violent means. Schultz then promises to lead Django to his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), and help him rescue her from the clutches of sadistic slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Tarantino hasn't bid adieu  of his love for pithy dialogue, the bulk of which go to Christoph Waltz, who uses it to construct another deliciously menacing character after that monstrous Nazi, Col Hans Landa, in Inglourious Basterds. Leonardo DiCaprio, the real cream of the movie so-as-to-speak, appears to be having a blast, playing the racist villain of the piece, complete with moustache-twirling grin. The additional joy , however, is delivered by a near-unrecognizable Samuel L Jackson who shows up in the small but memorable part of Candie’s creepy man-servant.

 The film is dazzlingly shot and is set to a terrific score, but as it approaches the three-hour mark, the twist becomes too much. Just when you think the film has come to an end after a gruesome confrontation in the final act, the story rambles on for another 20 minutes only to culminate in another even more blood-splattered face-off that you leaves you feeling exhausted.

It has got all the ingredients for a classic movie but  like Tarantino's previous films, this isn’t for the faint hearted. Die-hard fans, meanwhile, will likely forgive its shortcomings.


Rating : 4/5

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Book Review: The Shadow Throne

By: Thejas Krishnan on 9:31 PM

Author :  : Aroon Raman

Before begining the book , the author writes,

"It is my intent to place The Shadow Throne against a backdrop that mirrors current underlying reality - especially as it applies to India's current political predicament and its inevitable impact on our security. That we are passing through challenging times on the internal and external security front seems widely accepted, and political and bureaucratic stasis in times like these can have far reaching consequences"

If you ask has the Author succeeded in his intent ?
Yes. Unequivocally, yes. The plot revolves around the increasing anger, pain, hatred and intolerance that is making its presence felt in India-Pakistan relations, and is set against the backdrop of a weakened, scandal ridden central government. While the plot is far fetched - or at least seems far-fetched when examined in the cold light of reason, this does not hit you until after you have read the book. Apparently, a section within Indian security agencies see a simple way of neutering both Pakistan and China with a contrived and lethal plan reminiscent of  the CIA's image, thanks to all those lovely fiction books and movies with CIA as the villain! However, unlike the CIA-based spy thriller, it is not one man against an entire system. A police investigation spanning 3 countries, cooperating with the Media, leads to a sequence of events leading to the unraveling of the entire plot. Saying more would be sacrilege, as it would spoil your reading. The overall plot comes across as very, very believable and at a break neck pace, a very Dan Brownish Effect. :)


This is one book where as overdose of analysis can kill the fun of reading, so I shall keep it short. It is an out-an-out spy thriller.It is a good book, with a reasonably fast pace that does not slacken from the first page till the last. What is more, there is not even a single expletive in the entire book from start to finish, not even a teensy-weensy little one, which makes it a truly great read. The characters are well-developed, with not a single bit of needless detail anywhere. Just the right amount of mystery in the main characters; with just the right amount being added at each stage, leading to increased curiosity as well as increased suspense. In other words, truly class character development. The writing style is simple, lucid and uncomplicated making for fun and light reading.

Yes, there are weaknesses. It is not in the class of a Angels and Demons; but then, very few books are. . Having said that, I found the character development in this book to be very good. However, in my opinion,  the hallmark of a truly great fiction book is it comes across as believable. Unfortunately, as you close the book, you do get a feeling that the story is a little over-the-top and unbelievable, of a lack of reality. Further, the entire ancient cult section seems way out of place. The novel could have been made a much racier and faster read without it. There could have been other ways to achieve the objective (role in the story) assigned to the cult, and would have made it terrifyingly believable. That would, in my opinion, have made the book far more powerful, and you would have kept it down after the last page with "This could happen"-thought... As it turns out, you dont. You enjoy the read, and have fun while it lasts. Its a great one time read....

Rating :3.5/5

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