Tele-vetti 2

Wow! I would like to thank each one of you who made tele-vetti 1 a big success. Special mention to my family - ammani , gayathri, guevera and kalthoon tilakji . Naama oru kalai-kudumbam-ngrada ulagukku prove pannitom. I would also like to thank Chinnathirai kalaignargal for their thought provoking acts in megaaaaaa serials.

Now for the results:

• Actor, model and dupping artiste Manikandan wins! 9 /9.
• Gayathri - 8/9
• Ila - 6/9
• Ammani - 2/9 (c'mon , I expected a better score from you)

The answers:

1.Tinku (a) Trilok - Vijay TV's Jodi No. 1 winner who signs his autographs as 'Master Tinku'... even now. How cute eh?

2. Anupama - She sang 'Konjam nilavu' for ARR centuries ago and continues to sing that one and only song.

3. Metti Oli Shanti also called as Snake Shanti

4. Chetan the great - Thinks he is kamalagaasan... thinks! (nenapudan pozhapa kedukum)

5. Azhagu (ex fight master) - You can get a fleeting glimpse of him in almost all 1980-90 Kamal / Rajni fight scenes - This is a special entry only for my brother. Thank you guevera. You are my inspiration for such entries

6. Manager Cheena - S Ve Shekhar drama troupe permanent entry

7. Poovilangu Kuyili - of 'Nila adhu vaanathu mela' fame - yet another item number who acts as a Mylapore maami in a madisar with 'yendddi , vangoonna, settha vaadi ' kind of dialaaks

8. Kalaimamani T K Shanmugasunthari - Remember her from Thillana mohanambal with the vettalaipotti? She is singer T K Kala's mother...oops! Kalaimamani T K Kala's mother

9. Gayathri a.ka 'Metti oli' Saro - Sources say that her per episode consumption of glycerin in Metti Oli was close to 20 bottles. {for peethal's sake - she lives in the same area as I}

The much awaited Tele-vetti 2 is here!

Identify these aaartishtees of Chinnathirai.

Email your answers to blogeswari {AT} gmail {DOT} com

• 9 points to be won - one point per correct answer


• One attempt per person / Only one guess allowed


• Email your answers to blogeswari {AT} gmail {DOT} com


• Last day for sending your entries : Sunday 2nd November 8pm IST

Tele-vetti

"I watch wonly Discovery travel & living, BBC, NGC, CNBC" - adaadaada, how many vetti bandha cases have you heard saying the above?

I watch wonly Suntv, Kalaignar tv, Rajtv, Vijay tv, Jaya tv and Podhigai and crib to my purushan that the cable guy doesn't provide us with Makkal tv, SS Music, Win tv and others. Do you know that there was a magazine called Chinnathirai which is now defunct but comes as an Ilavasa inaippu with Manjula Ramesh's Snegidhi?

After a two hour journey back from office, I'd rather watch ' Arigiri Assembly' on Jaya tv than "Is it a lacklustre Diwali?" - a discussion with Prahlad Kakkar, Aleque Padamsee, Suhel Seth and ofcourse a sobbing Barkha Dutt OR Cheetahs chasing deers on NGC or The top 10 bathtubs of the world on Travel & living.

Be it Deepavali / Pongal / Aug 15th - No festival is complete without my chinnathirai dose of "India tolaikatchigalil mudhal murayagaaa..." Here's a TV quiz for you created with all my lauvvv for Metti oli, Maanada Mayilada, Super singer and Arasi of Chinna-thirai. Identify the popular faces of Chinnathirai from this grid.

• 9 points to be won - one point per correct answer
• One attempt per person / Only one guess allowed
• Email your answers to blogeswari {AT} gmail {DOT} com

The success of this quiz is in your hands. Based on your aadaravu I will decide whether to continue this series or not. Over to you...

Answers, in a few days

Eight packs paraak paraak paraak...

Time to say ''pack up'' to all six packers. Aamir's Eight packs is the talk of the town. The trailer of the much awaited Ghajni was released yesterday. Apart from Aamir, Ghajni is powerpacked with the Kollywood killadi team - directed by A R Murugadoss, cinematography - Ravi K Chandran, music - A R Rahman.

(Bolywood bandha cases - The Saaruk group + jingchak farah khan, Salmaan khan + 2 vetti brothers, ayyo karan jogar group + saaruk + manish malgotra + some punju gujjy fellas and Flop chopra group - please to odhungufy... the Kollywood killadis are here!)

Eight packs paraaak paraak paraaak!

Dikaan dikaan dish...

"Diwali- festival of sound and light.... try to ignite that light within u and in others... Happy Diwali!" (naa light illappa, heavy!! am trying to be 'light'.. thank you very much!)

"May millions of lamps illuminate ur life with endless joy, prosperity, health, wealth n happiness 4ever... Happy Diwali!" (ivlo daana , innum konjam add pannunga viz uppu, puli, melagai ...)

"Aaj mere pass rocket he, sutli bomb he, dher sare patakhe he, tumhare ps kya he?" - "mere pass MAA-CHISS he... Happy Diwali!" (Naataamaa! dialaak-a maatu!)

"Aapko bhi" (paavam ivarukku romba viral-vali nnu nenaikkaren!)

I am sure you have been receiving several such messages since Sunday.

Out of the 50 odd SMSes, one cute kutty SMS sent by the best Tamil RJ , caught my eye.

"Dikkan Dikkan dish... Deepavali wish!" - (Saravanaa, piniteenganne!)

I decided to do one number yesa paattu for this.

"Dandaanaa darrrnaa Deebavali wish-nganna" messaged I. The same message was forwarded to several others. Ayyo, how can I leave out my akkas and thangachis since this SMS was specifically for annas?

So the creative kumari in me pongifyed... yet again.
"Ballelakka balelakka, Deepavali wish-kka" was my ishtyle to all my akkas- ayyo idhu enakke taangala!

Teesu replied to the above "meimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimeimei" - "What waaj that ?Some Chinese wish?" I wondered. She was SMS-ing the second verse of Ballelakka.. yakka teesu! one kumbudu to you.

With SMSes and e-cards replacing the greeting card, it was indeed a surprise to receive a nice Diwali card from the bosses... with a personal touch.

"May the ideas never dry... Season's greetings and best wishes for a Happy Diwali"

Thank you boss(es). The way my think tank is functioning, I hope I don't run out of ideas soon!

Happy Deepavali!

Ten minute Tirattuppaal

Ask me what I'd like to have morning, noon and night, I'll say sweets. With 32 sweet teeth, its no surprise that I love tittippu - Paal payasam, Suratkaari, Rasamalai, Roshogulla, Jalebi, Hot adhirsam, fresh laddu, tirattuppaal top the list.

But, with one sweet toothless purushan and hours of puffing and panting at the gym, oflate my sweet intake has come down. What a sogam! On festival days, Mr. Pillayar, Mr. Krishnar, Mrs. Amman and Co. end up having expensive fruits and Mother dairy milk for neivedhyam. Paavam!

Last week, I came across a yummy super duper tirattuppaal recipe on the Thatha paati blog and decided to try it out for Deepavali. Surprise surprise.. it came out really well! No fuss, easy to make and tastes good. So, no diet food for Krishnar and Mrs. Sathyabhama Krishnar this year for Deepavali. Enjaai Kisna!

My kitchen visits and cooking are very very rare and hence every visit of mine is recorded on video, edited and uploaded like a treasure... like this one :) Here's one more addition to the list of videos - a ten minute tirattupaal film

A word about the soundtrack on the video. Not a single Deepavali Oliyum Oliyum is complete without this song. A feel good track from 'Kalyana Parisu' directed by director (Late) Sridhar

Happy Deepavali !

One packet hope please....

The best thing about working in adfilms is that you get to work with a whole lot of talent - especially in music.

I met singer Hamsika around 4 years ago when we worked together on an ad film jingle and was amazed with her talent. She is a combo of super talent and madness. Am glad that this crazy nutcase is one of my dearest friends in Mumbai.

Apart from a whole lot of jingles, Hamsi has sung quite a few tracks in Hindi films. She made her Telugu debut this year in Vishal-Shekhar's Chintakayala Ravi.

Listen to this lovely track for a Hindi serial called 'Ek packet Ummeed' on NDTV Imagine, composed by the very talented Kaushal Inamdar and sung by Hamsi and Mahalakshmi Iyer.

Ek Packet Ummeed ...

More on Kaushal here -> http://kaushalsinamdar.com/

Hamsi's website -> http://www.hamsikaiyer.net

விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 26

Hmmm.. I know விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 25 is kinda tough. For those sorinjifying their heads trying to score atleast a single point, here's another quiz on ads. It's fairly simple and easy but remember, you have just about seven seconds to answer each question else you don't get points.

So, enjoy ad-ding!




The answers for விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 25 are:

1. Mot Yuva 2. Ashok TMT 3. Mega Mart 4. Bank of India 5. Chevrolet
6. Philips 7. Aviva 8. Sony Vaio 9. Hutch 10. timex

விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 25

It's strange... I don't have answers even for a single ad on விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 24. I can't recollect any of the images on any commercial, probably 'coz none responded and I had forgotten about it completely.

This is விளம்பர விளையாட்டு's silver jubilee post!

Here's a collage of thirty images of ten different TVCs. To make it easier for you, there are three images per ad on the collage.

Identify these ten ads row-wise with these thirty images.

Email your answers to blogeswari{AT} gmail {DOT} com.

• 1o points to be won


• One attempt per person


• Only one guess allowed


• Email your answers to blogeswari {AT} gmail {DOT} com

Results on the next Vilambara Vilayaattu.

Good luck, happy guessing!

PS: Haven't been able to increase the size of the pic. You'll probably need to save it on your computer and zoom into the pics, if you are that enthu.

Chittie.....

I speak to my Bangalore 'M' chitti over the phone, once a year and that's during Navarathri... it is a detailed conversation on the number of Golu padis she has, her theme for the year, new bommais , rangoli etc etc. With all enthusiasm, she and her super enthu daughter, my cousin 'm' explain everything in detail and send me pictures of their Golu without fail.

Before you read further , have a look at my last year's post on their Golu.

Their themes for this year were - Abhirama Battar and Jack and the bean stalk

A collage of Abhirama Battar and Goddess Abhirami with one ear ring.

Beautiful rangoli...

Ramar, Lakshmanar and Shabhari + Raas leela...

Jack and the bean stalk...

Did you notice how well M&m have decorated the kutty dolls in pretty costumes? I wonder what their next year's theme(s) would be. Why don't you send in your ideas to them via this blog?

Flavour of the day 3

Fifty percent of the ad film makers in Mumbai are Bongs - Abhishek Chaudhuri (Dadu) of Black Magic Motion Pictures, Namita Roy Ghosh and Subhir Chaterjee of White light Moving Picture company and ofcourse, Pradeep Sarkar of Apocalypso. If you observe closely, a lot of their ad films will have a Bong touch - be it a character artiste dressed in a Bong saree,  Pujo celebrations , big bindi for the main character and so on.

Pradeep Sarkar has directed quite a few music videos - especially for Euphoria.  I am not a great fan of Pradeep Sarkar's ad films and music videos - They are very tacky, sets look the same and the films feature the same faces again and again.

But this music video is an exception... probably 'coz it has Shubha Mudgal who has a very unique and distinctive voice. Listen to this breezy number by Shubha Mudgal with a feel good video directed by Pradeep Sarkar and filmed by Anil Mehta.

I am glad I am gonna listen to this song more than once everyday, this week (trade secret... shhh..)

PS : There is a Tamizh song with the same tune - atleast the beginning. It starts with 'Naan unnai...' sung by SPB. I don't remember the full song, just the beginning. Does anyone know which film it is from? 

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Dastkari Haat Samiti is an NGO that works with craftspersons from around India in showcasing their work. Their exhibition featuring various handicrafts and dress material is on at Seven days art gallery, opposite National College Bandra til lthe 14th of October 2008. Today was the first day and I managed to pick quite a few interesting stuff for next year's (!) Golu.

A collage of stuff that I bought - Handpainted car, kavad shrines*, a jolna bag , box from karaikudi (don't miss 'Meenatchi' written inside the box-that's the name of the lady who made this ), and those that I wanted to buy but didnt (couldn't!) - painted trunks, wall hangings and the entire kavad* collection - cute illa?

* Kavad, a box like structure with multiple doors and stories of Krishna, Meera, Rama, Ganesha painted in every door. Here's  artnavy's post of Kavad and an article on the same that appeared in THE HINDU

Ahaa.. handwoven stoles, duppattas from Bengal.

The one above was a beautiful piece but pssst...couldn't afford it. Here's the stole that I finally bought. Take a closer look of the dhols, violins, harmoinums, saxaphones, tablas etc.

Managed to do a quick link with the station from the venue and connected our jock with Dastkari's CEO Mrs. Jaya Jaitley who explained the various crafts items on display.

With all these cuties, now am all set to decorate our new home ;-)

Harini's paatti

Amma and I met this young lady with her kid , some five years ago at a departmental store while waiting at the bill counter. The li'l one - Harini got friendly with Amma instantly. With Amma's vairathodu and the lady's metti, the Tamizh bonding and tamizh talk started. We were invited to her place.

Harini, the li'l one lived with her parents and thaatha, paatti. Harini's paatti's big pottu, vaira-thodu and mookkutti reminded me of my dad's aunt Janaki chitti. Paatti, in her early 70s is great with art work. Be it glass painting, fabric painting, doll making- she is fantastic at the craft.

Harini and her parents moved to UK a few years ago and paatti invites me for Navarathri golu and Varalakshmi nonbu every year, without fail. Her Amman alangaram during nonbu is a delight to watch . For Navarathri golu, every year, she paints all her dolls to give them a fresh look, adds new dolls to her collection and thaatha helps her set up the serial lights and the padis.

I wonder how paatti and thaatha manage such a beautiful Navarathri golu despite paatti's knee ache and thaatha's age. For Navarathri, thaatha travels all the way to Matunga by train to buy coconuts, vettalai, pakku etc. I have never met such a Navarathri enthu couple in my life!

This year paatti had added lots of new bommais , a cute Christmas tree and Santa claus from the UK. She was disappointed that she couldn't find a mosque and idols of Muslim men praying in front of the mosque. I have promised that I'd help her find the same. Do email me blogeswari(AT)gmail(DOT)com if you know of any place in Mumbai where I can get them.

Here are a few pictures from Harini's paati's golu.

(L to R )

Row 1: Amman, Marapachi, Lady Marapachi

Row 2: Lady marapachi's thalai alangaram (check out the beads), Small amman decorated as Goddess Saraswathi, Gnana Sambandhar & Manickavasagar

Row 3: Appar sundarar, Handmade fabric art, fabric art framed