The Circle of 99

This is a short story that i heard somewhere in my childhood. Its a nice moral story.
I just wanted to share it.

Long time ago, there was a king who ruled the vast lands right from the Oceans to the High Mountains. His Kingdom was vast and abundant. His riches were no match for any other kings of those times. He was a valiant and a benevolent king. But Despite all of this, he ws not Happy.

Yea right, tell us something we don't know
His anxiety grew and he tried to satisfy himself with all worldly pleasures. But to no avail. In his court was a barber.

Billo Barber !!!???
He would come every week to give the king his shave. He had two wives and he would rave the king with his petty adevntures of his domestic life. he would always be cheerful and pleasant. Every week, the king would pay him 5 copper coins for his services, to which the barber would happily acept and be off. The King was jealous of him.
One evening in his resting quarters he called upon his trusted friend and advisor, his prime minister.
Birbal..... no wait.. i got this one... tenali rama... ?? no?
He told him about his dilemma that he was not happy despite all the riches and pleasures. He told him he wanted to know why and how was this poor barber so happy, even when he barely makes his ends meet.
His minster spoke said," It is because he is not in the circle of 99".
The King said, " What do mean?"
He said," Today night, ask one of the guards to drop a bag of gold coins in the barbers house quietly. but make sure the bag only has 99 coins"
The King replied," Why? Why not a 100 or 1000?"
The minister said,"Then you shall understand why you are unhappy"

The King did as advised. Next morning the Barber discovered the bag of coins. He was overjoyed. He felt as if all his prayers were answered. He started making plans for a Shop. A new house with this new found money. He was afraid the guards might be looking for it. So he decided he will wait if somebody is looking for them for few days. So making his plans, he decided to count them. He found there were only 99!

He began to think, if only there was one more gold coing he would have full 100. He started to think how he can get it. He thought if he did double the work, by travelling to the next village and cut back on his expenses, he could earn a gold coin in a month. Delighted he decided so.
Soon he started working double.

After a month, when he visited the king, he was late. His looked travel worn, he looked worried and irritable. He had no stories to tell. The King noticed the man looked no more happy.

The king talked to his minster," What happened to this poor barber?"
The minister simply replied," Sire, he is now in the circle of 99"

The End.... Really ..already?

Mr Ratnam You missed a spot

I don't know why I chose this movie review as my comeback to Blogging, but yes after almost 2 years I am trying to post something which is a movie review. The movie in question being Raavan.

But why Raavan.. ??? Good Question. Am I here to say something different from what the Entire critic world has to say ?? May be May be not . But my reason for this choice is as simple, lucid and trivial as the plot of the movie. Here goes....

Well actually I got bored watching the movie that my thoughts drifted and they reminded me that I have a neglected withering Net Space called this blog.

Coming to movie.... Expectations were very high considering the fact that the Doyen of Indian films was its director and Santosh sivan the cameraman.

Also, the marketing did a hell of job so the people never forgot this "epic" movie is coming. But as with all other highly marketed films, this too has .... (for me) fizzled.

The plot is a retelling of the epic Ramayana retrofitted to the newer world. I expected it to be more of a retelling in sense and not just a remake, which is what it turned out.

The story starts of quickly, With Beera (Raavan), kidnapping Ragini (Sita), Police SP Dev Pratap's wife. The Hunt begins and we stumble across Govinda as Hanuman, Laxman, Brothers of Raavan and Lanka.

Well for the least the first half has no story whatsoever. Its more like a Dicovery channel show with every other scene shot in Slow motion. But as with Discovery shows these are so breath taking that u may ignore the fact that movie's plot is at a grinding halt. Its only time that you realize its like watching a beautiful Windows screensaver, when your PC froze and it just loops endlessly.

Its only when you begin to get restless at about near Intermission that the story snails ahead.

We are treated with all the epoch events such as Surpanakha's insult, Hanuman's meeting and many others(disclosing them will be a spoiler.. ya i know that every one knows the story, but still it can be a spoiler.). During all this the movie shows energy but misses the soul. There is no connection. You really don't care for any of the characters' tragedies or travesties and they simple turn out as plot twists.

A End which is more predictable than the Sunrise in mornings, the movie left me with utter indifference. There was no retelling. No re alignment of values to modern times. It was a Remake with a newer Twists. God forbid if i am not getting the big picture, but as a movie it never connected to me and that is what is least a movie experience should have.

Acting Department, Aishwarya catches your attention with brilliant potrayal of Sita's Defiance and worship for her 'Bhagwan' husband. Vikram is usual, his hindi being really good, but nothing spectacular. He has simply put up the Samy (Vikram's Tamil Film ) act. Ratnam has really extracted the best from Abhishek as he has in his previous movies with him. However, this time Abhishek feels stifled and unnatural. Yuva and Guru are way better.

if you are a die-hard movie buff and cant-miss-a-mani-ratnam guy, you should go. But if you don't care so much, or its raining too heavily for going out you can give It a miss. A DVD, when it comes out, is all it needs. Even so, the breath taking cinematography coupled with stunts performed by the actors themselves may still be worth your admission fee.