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Amar Chitra Katha

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 06:16 maheshwaran Blogs - London Ramblings

I lovely call Buttu as "Kapeesh kutty" sometimes because he resembles one of my all time favourite cartoon character. If you are above 30 and having the habit of reading novels in your young age then you might know who "Kapeesh" is. Else you may not be able to identify with my excitement. How many of you know the existence of children books like Ambulimama / Chandamama from Vijaya Combines, and its close rival Balamitra, Rani Comics, Muthu Comics, Poonthalir / Tinkle from Pai House? They were very popular in 1980s and with the advent of TV channels and Cartoon Network, the reading habit if the children were in decline and all the above were closed. However Chandamama was revived by a Mumbai based corporate after 2 years in a different format. Balamitra is dead I believe. Tinkle had relauched itself with Animation and digital copies along with the regular Amar Chitra Katha titles. {sidebar id=2} Today whatever I am, those Ambulimama and ACK played a great role in shaping me up in my formative days. Whatever English I know, is because of reading Chandamama in school days. I was disappointed when I learnt that Chandamama and its contemporaries had their shutters down. I am yet to get accustomed to the newly revived Chandamama format. When I was browsing online for Amar Chitra Kadha Comics, I found that many people of my intrest had scanned and uploaded the ACK titles. Again it was disappointing to see that blog is also closed. So to keep those novels live, I have decided to collect the links, torrents related to them and index them in my Library pages. Expect the titles of Amar Chitra Katha soon in My Library. Already I have ordered a collection online for Buttu. BTW - Kapeesh is a lovable small monkey with a tail expanding and contracting whenever it wishes.

மூன்று குற்றங்கள்

Sunday, 29 August 2010 09:53 maheshwaran Books - Sujatha

அமரர் சுஜாதா எழுதிய இந்த புத்தகம் வாங்கி சரியாக 1 வருடம் 1 வாரம் கழித்து தான் படித்து முடிக்க நேர்ந்தது. கடந்த வருடம் அனன்யா அக்கா சென்னை வந்தபோது புத்தக கடைக்கு அழைத்து சென்றபோது அவருடைய பரிந்துரையில் பொறுக்கிய புத்தகம் இது. சுஜாதாவின் மூன்று குறுநாவல்களின் தொகுப்பு இது - (1) மேற்கே ஒரு குற்றம், (2) மீண்டும் ஒரு குற்றம் (3) மேலும் ஒரு குற்றம். வாங்கும்போதே அக்கா இதில் மூன்றாவது கதை அற்புதமாக இருக்கும், படித்துவிட்டு சொல் என்று சொன்னார். அதனால் இதை படிக்க ஆரம்பித்தபோது 3-1-2 என்ற வரிசையில் படித்தேன். தொடர்ந்து கணேஷ்-வசந்தை படித்த பாதிப்போ என்னவோ கடைசி (2) கதையை படிக்கும்போது ஆரம்பத்திலேயே முக்கிய முடிச்சை கண்டுபிடித்துவிட்டேன். என்னவோடா மகேஷ்வரா!!

Trip to Tussads

Sunday, 29 August 2010 00:45 maheshwaran Travelogue - London Diary

Madam Tussads wax museum is getting famous for its replica of world famous personalities from various fields. However it got the attention here in India with the inclusion of Bollywood personalities. The Madam Tussads has a huge collection of personalities starting with the Movie zone of the floor 1 and then goes to the sports, music, politicians and premiere events. Because of the huge flow of Indian tourists, the sign boards are also seen in Hindi. To be frank I didn't enjoy the trip to Tussads because of very huge crowd. After a while I lost intrest and just rushed out. Besides the wax statues there is a 4D (IMAX) show that can be watched wearing a pair special glasses. The cartoon characters just pop out of the screen, punch our backs, even rains on us. Quite an amazing experience. This show is available for an upgrade of GBP 2.50. Buying tickets to Tussad is economical in combination with other attractions like London Eye and Cruise Travel. Click the thumbnail to see some of the photos taken in the Tussads.

Aagathan (2010)

Saturday, 28 August 2010 20:54 maheshwaran Movies - Malayalam

I always keep looking forward for Kamal's movies because my first brushing with the malayalam movies happened with his Azhagiya Ravanan & Niram only. Oflate Kamal seems to be on off track with his worst - "Goal" and "Minnaminnikoottam", but for me he is still young at heart. His last movie "Aagathan" in which he teams up with his erstwhile assistant Dileep after a long time. "Aagathan" meaning "the one who came.." is quite an apt title. The movie goes beyond the mushy romance or tear jerker and the viewers can find it for themselves.

Devdas: A Novel

Wednesday, 25 August 2010 06:10 maheshwaran Books - General

For a long time I have been thinking of reading the "Devdas: A Novel" by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, which had been the raw material for so many movies of the same name. However I had watched only Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 2002 movie with Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in the lead roles. Even without reading the novel I found the movie badly made. After seeing "Parineeta" I found that both the novels - "Parineeta" and "Devdas" very much similiar in incidents and treatment, so I thought that Sarathchandra had written same story with two names. But when I got the chance to read this "Devdas" flying in air, I found that Sanjay Leela Bhansali had adapted the story (read as mixed with Parineeta) to mount it in a lavish scale at the cost of its soul.