ANANDHAN SUBBIAH - INSPIRE AND INNOVATE

This is from the movie Sivapathikaram . Vidyasagar is the composer. Karthik and Swarnalatha are the singers of this romantic song. Vidyasagar is known for his soft melodies and this song is another gem . A simple but free flowing song which is made even more pleasant with excellent instrumentation . The bit in the front by an oldie is actually a spoiler and I can’t relate to the reason as to why it is there.

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Mozhi is a clean entertainer. It is a perfect combination of musical symphony and smooth direction. Each and every scene in the movie has a purpose and Radha Mohan , the director has not added anything for commercial reasons. There are no crazy dances and none of the larger than life crap that tamil cinema has been producing on a periodic basis .The movie is slightly on the lengthy side but it is still entertaining . I am thrilled that this movie was a big hit. Actors like Vikram and Surya have always focussed on the character that they play I am reading reviews that the Ajith starrer Kreedam follows the same style of focusing on the story than the actor so hopefully Tamil cinema is moving in the right direction. Idiots like Simbu and Dhanush freak me out and lately vijay has also been the culprit of doing insane things.

Ramadoss the politician and moron for all the stupid and unacceptable values that he is trying to forcefully thrust on the common man has got one thing right on - advising the people not to go crazy over movie stars and focus on thier life first . Even in the United States there is lot of focus on what the actors do but not at the same insane level as in South India .I sincerely wish this would change.Movie like Mozhi can help us move forward in the direction.

The movie is all about a Dumb and deaf girl Archana(Jyothika) and her friend Sheela(Swarnamalya)and two musicians Karthik(Prthiviraj) and Viji(Prakash Raj). Archana grows to be a tough young woman amidst the early demise of her mother and her handicap. Her father deserts her family so she has trouble trusting anyone. Karthik falls in love with Archana on first sight and the story is all about how he manages to convince Archana that they can live a good life together.

There are interesting characters in the movie like MS Bhasker and the telugu actor Brahamanandam. This will also be a career defining portrayal by Bhasker as the professor unable to deal with the death of his young son. Watch out for the actor when he is at Karthik’s door asking him for help. The director has etched this character really well .

Viji the dialogue writer deserves special credit for his ability to keep the audience entertained through the entire movie with gentle humor.

Prithiviraj is one of my favorite actors and he deserves special praise for his sincere portrayal of a idealistic and sincere lover. Prakash Raj is at his best when proposing to Sournamalya and as usual does everything that is expected of him. It is shame that Jyothika has stopped acting after her marriage . If this is indeed her last movie then the versatile actress has certainly left on a very high note.Sournamalya also essays a neat performance.

Finally Prakash Raj might not be the best actor around but he is definitely one of the best producers Tamil cinema has ever produced. I have enjoyed all his movies except when he decided to go crazy with the balachander movie.

Radha Mohan has luckily found a perfect alley in Vidyasagar. This is perhaps the best album ever composed by vidyasagar. The music director has delivered both in the background score and songs.

Katrin Mozhi - The theme of the song is simple humans do not need a medium like language to communicate if they learn to appreciate the voice of nature . Balaram , a relatively unknown singer stamps his class with authority and conviction. He has a terrific voice and Vidyasagar has pushed the background score and relied solely on Balaram and the singer has delivered. One of my favorite songs of 2007.

http://anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/katrin.mp3

Kannal Pesum- SP Balasubramanian delivers this awesome song. The hero apologizes to his lover for his mistake and who else than SPB to do the job. The simple lyrics combined by the orchestration by vidyasagar makes this song so pleasant . There is also a jazz bit which adds to the beauty of the song.

http://anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/kannal.mp3

Bonus Songs

http://anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/Aazha_Kannaal.mp3

http://anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/En_Jannalil.mp3

http://anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/Mouname.mp3

This is from the movie 7G Rainbow Colony . Yuvan Shankar Raja is the composer. The instrumental is the theme song of the movie. The lead actor in the movie is a angry youth who is frustrated with life , he then meets this girl and that brings a change in his attitude . The climax is tragic . The song conveys this beautifully in phases . Yuvan has selected the perfect instruments to depict the appropriate mood . The saxaphone to convey the difficult phase , the flute and the piano when the lead character transforms into a lover and a chorous to convey the sad ending.

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Rehman created a wonderful masterpiece for Air-Tel . This http://anandhansubbiah.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=607 tune is even better .

Yuvan Shankar Raja is the music director of Deepavali. Vijay Yesudass has rendered this beautiful song . I have become a huge fan of Vijay and he has never let me down once. He is more versatile than his father but then Yesudass had only Illayaraja but Vijay has oppurtunities from all corners - Rehman , Harris , Yuvan , Vidyasagar and  Joshua Sridhar to name a few . This song is about a youth longing to be with his lover and the lyrics and the music go hand in hand in reflecting the mood. The background score is peppy and Yuvan has allready proved that he is a master of this genre of music.  

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This song is also from the movie Sivaji . Vijay Yesudass and Gomathi Sree have sung the song. Vijay has delivered at the higest level and proved that he can deliver under pressure with this song. I honestly think he can be compared with his legendary father Yesudass easily . His voice can appeal even to people who don’t understand the language. Rehman is back to his favorite instrument , the flute and it is pure magic all the way. Gomathi , not a well known name  has also delivered . Her interlude with the thirupavai does not distract the viewer. It reminds me of the song “Yamunai Atrilae” from the movie Thalapathi. Pay close attention to the humming piece from Vijay .

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This song is from the movie Sivaji . Udit Narayanan and Chinmayee have sung the song. I think Rehman reserves the best for Chinmayee and she has made full use of nearly all the oppurtunites she has got. Udit Narayanan is one of the best singers in India and there is no way anyone can doubt his ability. It is evident from the way he is able to reach higher pitches with minimal fuss . The same cannot be said about his tamil skills. Vaiaramuthu has created magic with the lyrics.

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Show ‘Dancing’ Bears That You Really Care Created by an award-winning advertising agency, this frightful flick is a spine-tingling tale of terror and torture.

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/dancing_bears

Want to know the scariest thing of all? “Dancing” bears in Pakistan and India are mercilessly mutilated just like this when they are barely a year old. No animal should have to endure this type of abuse. Never patronize roadside bear shows, and when traveling in India and Pakistan, if you see tourists encouraging such a show, speak to them about the cruelty.

If you see someone forcing a bear to “dance,” report the incident to the closest police station. Even though it is illegal to capture bears in both India and Pakistan, more than 1,600 sloth bears are being forced to “dance” by madaris—the people who capture and keep the bears. Bear cubs—who are barely 1 year old—squeal in agony as red-hot needles are jabbed through their noses and thick ropes are forced through the throbbing wounds. When the ropes are tugged, the bears lift their legs and “dance.” Most of their teeth are pulled out, and they are forced to perform for up to 12 hours a day.

Bears are “trained” to dance through a regime of pain and starvation. Many cubs die before the training begins because of the stress of capture, the terrible transportation conditions, starvation, dehydration, and rough handling. Although bears used in these acts would live up to 30 years in the wild, they rarely live more than eight years in captivity. Please write to the environmental ministers of Pakistan and India and urge them to enforce laws that prevent bear-baiting and to prosecute madaris.

Why SSL ?

Protecting your web folders with Basic Authentication by using either htpasswd (using the filesystem to store username and password or mod_auth_mysql (using mysql to store username and password) increases security. But , this added layer of security provided by Basic Authentication can be overwhelmed easily by a serious hacker familiar with sniffing tools since  the username and password are actually transmitted unencrypted from the client to the server.

What is SSL ?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL in Apache comes in the form of mod_ssl, an Apache module that SSL-enables a website that Apache controls, allowing any communication to and from Apache to be encrypted.

Where can I Find it ?

mod_ssl.so is the name of the library and it can be found in the modules directory of apache.

What else do I need ?

Before SSL will work, you need to have a server key and server certificate that will be used to encrypt transmitted data, and present the client/browser with an SSL certificate. You can create your own certificate for testing purposes but this will cause an warning in the broswer - “Your browser does not recognize the Certificate Authority that issued the site’s certificate.” You should get a certificate from a bona fide Certificate Authority (CA) for production systems.

How do I create my own certificate ?

openssl req -new > testcer.csr

Now you have two new files: privkey.pem, which is a private key used to sign the certificate, and testcert.csr, the certificate request. Now you have to remove the passphrase from the key created . If you don’t remove the passphrase, you must enter it every time Apache is started.

openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out testcert.key

Now you have to modify the httpd.conf

<VirtualHost _default_:443>

  # Server Certificate:
  SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache/ssl.crt/testcert.crt

  # Server Private Key:
  SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache/ssl.crt/testcert.key

  SSLEngine On

  DocumentRoot “/wwwssl” # Use the SSL directory you created earlier
  Servername www.example.com
  ServerAdmin youremail@example.com
</VirtualHost>

WebDAV, which stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning enables Apache to act as a network drive . It uses HTTP as the protocol instead of TCP/IP or port like SMB and NFS.

How can we do this ?

• mod_dav which ships with Apache has to be enabled. You should be able to see the library in the modules directory.
• If it is not available then you may have to build it . The library can be downloaded at  mod_dav  .After you install them using make add the following lines to httpd.conf

"LoadModule dav_module

modules/mod_dav.so LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so"

• A new directory has to be created to store the files. It is a good practise to create the folder in your SSL enabled web root.

                mkdir  /wwwssl/dav

• To enable basic authentication a htpasswd file has to be created

               mkdir testauth 

              htpasswd -c /testauth/dav.htpasswd testdav

• Create a .htaccess file under /wwwssl/dav . The file should have the following entry

            AuthName “DAV Test”
            AuthType Basic
            AuthUserFile “/davauth/dav.htpasswd”
            require valid-user

• make the following entry in httpd.conf

               < Directory “/wwwssl/dav”/>
                  AllowOverride AuthConfig
                  Dav On
               < Directory />        

Restart apache and ”somedomain.com/dav” would be the path to your repository (replace somedomain.com with your site url).To use the capabilities of your WebDAV URL, you’ll need to use software that is WebDAV-enabled. Apache has a open source project called Slides which is a CMS tool built over WEBDav