Real Steel

My first movie review, I am person who always comment on something in a word or two. Most of the time it would rather be a criticism than a comment or at least it will be flavored with some-kind of sarcasm. Now that I am so bored and idle thought of trying an review in words ... 

Real Steel - To say it in short its 'Really Worth watching if you are a guy who like metals crashing at each other, robot, video games & Hugh Jackman.'  I watched it twice in last two weeks @ Finnkino. I know its bit late to write a review for Real Steel after it ran out of the theaters but I wanted to start with something I watched recently. Its more of a fan page with detailed plot than a review ;)

Not much of a star studded movie but we have a Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo in the main role. They have done their part really well rather excellent. Hugh played as Charlie Kenton and ex-boxer, father of a 11 yr old (Dakota), a character that is stupid, over-confident, emotional, muscular. It altogether a different role when compared to the Wolverine which comes to our mind when hear the name Hugh Jackman.

Its from Dreamwork Studio and Reliance Big entertainment. The CG of Robots and fight are realistic. Max and Atom dance sequence is short but cool, i expected that dance to come in the climax but it was n't there :(. Targeted audience for this movie are teenagers and geeks who owns PS3, Xbox. It over all a good entertainer got family value, fun, good sound tracks, hard-core metal crash, good acting from Jackman.

Plot: (Detailed)

               Movie is set to happen in near future 2020 or so, where human boxing replaced with Robot-boxing. Charlie Kenton (Hugh) is a ex-boxer who is currently participating in Robot-boxing with his good old robot named 'Ambush'. And he is at his very low and letting Ambush fight with a 800 pound bull in a exhibition for a bet of 20K $. Being distracted by few young chicks he is loosing the fight failing to control Ambush and letting it torn down by the crazy bull. At this point his ex-girlfriend who he have n't seen for 10yrs dies and he becomes the legal guarding of the 11 yr old kid Max. (do the math)

Ambush

Charile sells his guardianship to his ex-girl friends  (Debra) for 100K in order recover from his debt and to buy a new robot for the fight. But he was stuck with the kid for a month or so since Debra goes on a summer vacation to Italy and he gets 50K as advance.

With the 50K he gets a deal for a robot named 'Noisy Boy'  which was WRB (World Robot Boxing league) robot. Max (Dakota) comes to know about the deal about the guardianship and  feels bad about father. Charlier and Max stays along Charlie's childhood friend Bailey at her old gym. Bailey father was the boxing coach of Charlie when the human boxing existed.

Noisy Boy

Later Charlie takes Max for the robot fight and loosing Noisy Boy in a fight. Max is not happy since Charlie didn't listen to him when he asked him to go for a under-card fights instead he went for a main fight with stronger robots and lost it.

Here comes the Hero Introduction :) Later that night Charlie and Max sneaking into a old government garage to pick up some spare parts for putting up a reasonable robot out of the left over of Ambush and Noisy Boy. Robot spares are stored near a cliff in the garage and as it rains that night Max slips in to the cliff and hanging in a robot hand near a deep valley. Charlie manage to take Max from the robot hand and save him from falling from the cliff. Charlie feels his real love on Max when he felt that he almost lost him in the cliff.

 Max finds that the robot hand which saved him from falling into the valley is attached to a whole robot buried in the wet soil of the cliff. He digs out the robot and takes it to Charlie's truck. Bailey repairs that robots and identifies it as a generation two robot which was developed as test dummy during the initial times of robot boxing and it is not fit for the fights. Max fights the marking on chest of the robot that says 'Atom' and he names it as Atom. Atom has a unique feature when compared to other robots in the market i.e shadow functioning, it can replicate the action of the person who controls it.

Max asks Charlie to arrange a fight for Atom. Charlie refuses to do but later just to satisfy max he arranges a fight in a low profile area. Somehow Max wins the fight there and his robot gains popularity in the low profile circle.

Atom

I think I am going into too many details here so will wrap it up here you can watch the rest in the dvd. Atom gains popularity in low profile games and starts earning some bucks for charlie. Max starts enjoying his fathers company and boxing. Atom gets a call for participation in WRB. And wins the first under-card match in WRB becomes very popular due to Max and his show.

(Max and Atom awsome dance). Meanwhile the owner of WRB champion robot (Zues - unbeatable) gives a 200K deal for Atom and Max refuses to sell the robot also challenge Zues for a WRB fight.

 

  Days before the championship fight Debra (guardian) comes back from her vacation and charlie convince her to get Max back for one night to the fight. Zues vs Atom the climax. Atom losses the fight but a happy ending :)

As I said its more of an fan page than a review. I hope you will rent the DVD sometime. If you enjoyed the post leave a comment, will try to improve myself will come up with a real review for a new movie next time.

@ I do not own the pictures and videos posted in this page.

Shastiapthapoorthi@thirukadayur

On 12-12-11 we celebrated my parents Shastiapthapoorthi (60tham kalyanam) in Thirukadayur Amirthakadeswarar temple.

When and Why

Amirthakadeswarar temple is famous all over India for performing the wedding when the groom (father) completes his 60 years and steps on to the 61st. The reason behind is not so clear to me but one thing I came to know while googling about this temple and Shastiapthapoorthi, Tamil calendar is divided in to 60 years cycle if you are born on 2011 i.e. கர வருடம் the next கர வருடம் comes when you complete 60 yrs i.e on 2071. It is almost considered like a new birth for them, the planetary position will be different from the one they had when they were born. By doing Shastiapthapoorthi on your star birthday you are starting this birth in a holy fashion. The rituals performed in the ceremony are considered to give health, wealth and prosperity to the couples and their children. It is the duty of the children of the family to conduct this ceremony. 

Where

Shastiapthapoorthi is a ceremony which consists of various homams and rituals which has to be performed by the couple, priests and the children of the family. These rituals and homans can be performed at any place of your convenience in home or in a near by temple or in Thirukadayur amirthakadeswara temple.  

Importance of Thirukadayur

Performing this in Amirthakadeswara temple is considered to be special since this is the place where siva did samharam of Yama and protected Markandeyan and gave him the boon to live ever 16.  Apart from Amirthakadeswarar the other deity in this temple is Kalasamharamoorthy, with his grace it is believed that people doing Shastiapthapoorthi will live a healthy life. Also the main deity Amirthakadeswarar i.e Amirtham + Kadam+ Eswarar, the lingam here is nothing but a pot filled with amirtham. When devas and asuras grinded the ocean (பார் கடல்)  and got amirtham out of it, they took the amirtham in a pot and decided to have it without worshiping lord vinayaga. So vinayagar stole the pot and hided it in this temple and the pot became a lingam. Later Devas worsiped Siva here and got the amirtham. Since the vinayagar here stole the amirtha kadam he is called as கள்ளபிள்ளையார். 

This temple is also famous for the goddess Abirami, this is the temple where abirami battar sang 'Abirami andhathi' praising the goddess Abirami to save him from death sentence given by the kind. 

 

How to reach Thirukadaiyur

Thirukadaiyur is a village in Nagapattinam district it is not a big in size but it is famous in this part of the state. From Chennai there are trains available to reach Sirkazhi (சிர்காழி) or Mayilathurai (மயிலாடுதுறை), from there you can take a cab or bus to Thirukadaiyur which is 10 - 15 Kms far. If you are coming from south as far as I know Thiruchendur express comes to these towns from there you can take a bus to Thirukadaiyur.

Where to stay

Though Thirukadaiyur is a village it has high-class lodging facilities at an affordable rate. They have rooms of multiple options, you can rent a room for a family of 2, 3, 6 or even for a group of 10, 20, 30. If you do not wish to stay there or coming there by morning train, there are also places where you can just freshen up and go to temple directly. For a 2 bedroom the prices vary from 350 Rs to 750 Rs. 

How to arrange the function in temple

If you are willing to perform this ceremony inside the temple then you need to go to the temple in person and pay 1250/- to reserve a place inside the temple on your star birth day. It is always better to reserve it a month before the date(at least). Then you need to find a priest who can do the homam on behalf of you. And you need to buy the things (flowers, fruits, ganga theertham, etc.) which are required for the homam and rituals.

There are many groups/contractors available in the village who arrange the whole package for us. They will book the place in temple, arrange for priest, cow for pooja, elephant, nathaswaram, if needed food for the guests etc. Cost varies from 6000 /- to a lakh depends on what package you select.

Our Experience

Since I was at onsite my father he himself arranged the whole function, (even if i was there in Chennai also I doubt any participation from me ;) ). He visited Thirukadaiyur a month before his star birth day and booked the ceremony for 6.5k. They gave a list of items which we need to bring while come for the ceremony listed some of those i remember,

Seven Coconuts

Ganga theertham

Banana and other fruits (apple / orange)

Choclates or கற்கண்டு 

2 மாலை

New dress sets for the couple

விபூதி, மஞ்சள் , கும்குமம், சந்தனம். 

Our ceremony is arranged to start by 10 AM so we booked 3 rooms in a hotel for a night stay so that we can get ready in the morning and go to the temple by 9. We did the booking in Hotel Abhirami via phone.

We had a small and simple ceremony, so only seven of us were in the function including the bridegroom (my parents). Me, my two sisters and brother-in-laws we took a Innova from chennai to thirukadaiyur directly. We started around 3.30 PM from our home in Vadapalani and reached the hotel in Thirukadaiyur at 10 PM. Since it was rainy season We took the Dhindivanam, Pondichery route instead of villupuram, vadalur route. And the cab we have taken is not All India Permit so we had put a permit for 300 Rs in TN & Pondicherry border. There are 3 toll gates you need to pass on the way. Till you cross Pondichery road is very good from Pondy to Cuddaloor and cuddaloor to Chidambaram road is not as good so it took 6 hour driver for us to reach there. 

The hotel we booked is decent though the rooms are very small but it was very neat and had all the facilities. Morning we got ready by 8 and had our breakfast in a near by restaurant. Restaurants are not good and its not bad. 

We went to the temple gopuram around 9 and arranged all the things in தாம்பாளம். There were lot of goats around the temple :) 

 

You can book photographers near the kovil gopuram, they charge 600 Rs for taking 35 photos, incl a CD, one album and courier charge. Though we had 2 cameras with us We hired a person, later we realized how useful it was to hire him. Since we all are children we all had to participate in the rituals so no time to take the camera out. Then the priest brought 2 garlands for my parents and tooks us inside the temple. First we did கோ (Cow) poojai in the first praharam. We are suppose to do a pooja for kovil elephant also but that day the elephant was taken to the rehabilitation camp in mudhumalai so we didn't get the chance to do that. 

Then the priest took a tour to all the main deities of the temple and dropped us in the Abhirami amman praharam where the place for our ceremony was booked. Since it was late in the morning it was not much crowed and only 2 or 3 marriages were happening on the praharam. In the morning 7O'clock batch around 15 couples got married. So we felt it is better to go in the second batch. 

In the abhirami praharam 2 other priest arranged all the things needed for pooja and homam. They started doing the homam in between they explained us what they are doing. Then we were asked to worship many gods when they were telling the mantra for each of those gods. The total homam took place just for an hour, but if you do the same homam in your home it will take a day to complete. Here they did it briefly. Then we showered the couples with the holy water in the kalasams kept in the poojai. After that they wore new dress and exchanged garland and then mangalaya dhanam. Many people who came for the temple and participated in the showering and took ashirvadam, it seems it is very good to even see the people who had done 60tham kalyanam here. 

After finishing the ceremony we are asked to visit the Markandeyar temple which is 2 -3 kms from this temple. We went there in car and came back. Then we had lunch in a restaurant and vacated the room. So over all it took 4 hrs for the ceremony.