of ghosts and vampires

This week while I was coming back home, a movie was put on in bus. It was the recent Malayalam movie kaaNaakaNmani (കാണാകണ്മണി) directed by the Veruthe Oru Bharya fame Akku Akbar. It had a powerful message against young couples purposefully aborting their pregnancy just because they are not ready for parenthood. But the movie as a whole is executed very badly. The director has brought in a concept, where the restless soul of the aborted child (named Shivani) enters into the couple's present child (Anagha) and wows to kill Anagha since Shivani never got the care that Anagha got from the couple. The parents realise their mistake and as per the elders advice apologizes to their aborted child. But Shivani is not so easily tamable. She takes Anagha to a waterfall to drop her, but seeing that her parents are crying and devastated at Anagha's plight, decides to give Anagha back.

I am not dwelling into the details of the movie as the movie lacks a good script. There are lot of loopholes and no wonder it bombed in the box office. But what made me write this post is the different way in which the director treated the restless soul (ദുരാത്മാവ്) of the kid. I almost expected a Thilakan or some other meledam namboodiri or a Kathanaresque Father (the couple are Christian-Hindu) making an entry and killing(or removing) the haunting Shivani. But there was nothing like that. The trouble goes on its own.

That made me wonder why is that it is necessary that restless soul needs to be treated with a sorcerer. While Manichitrathaazhu brought in science and sorcery to tame Nagavalli , some of the Vinayan movies like Vellinakshatram and Aakashaganga entirely depended on the well known sorcerers for taming the vampires. Why one never thought that the restless souls encroached onto the human mind may go on its own? In this movie the vengeance, which actually should be towards the parents (because they took the decision of aborting), is against the sibling child who is raised with great care by the couples. May be that is why Shivani decided to leave Anagha alone. But why she didn't kill her parents then? How can she sit calmly with out fulfilling her vengeance? Aren't all ghosts/vampires supposed to get satisfaction by killing the person they intend to? Or am I totally lost here :-)

Kaanakanmani for sure is a pathetic movie, but this twist on the restless soul abandoning the human soul without any problem is what surprised me. Akku Akbar takes out a very valid message out to the viewers, but in a pathetic way.

Long Live Manichitrathaazhu!!

malayalam story - നഗരത്തില്‍

The first story that I wrote in a time bound fashion for Prabhodhini Vayanasaala's Annual Magazine - Vykhari - is now available as a blog post in my Malayalam Blog. I am thankful to my friend Joju for recommending my name and also to Jincy of Prabhodhini who gave me the opportunity to write and published it. I really enjoyed writing it especially with the excitement to finish off within the time.


The story - Nagaraththil -നഗരത്തില്‍ (In the City) - is about the city's indifferent attitude towards the common man. The spark of the story are a couple of incidents that happened in Bangalore city. I had noted it down in my personal diary and made some notes about it myself. When Jincy asked for an article, I didn't think anything but to develop the notes into a story. I hope you like it. The comments and criticisms are most welcome.

mashithantu dictionary | മഷിത്തണ്ട് നിഘണ്ടു

The online Malayalam Dictionary Mashithantu is now available in a new form. Its more clearer, better and user friendly. This was released on the web on Nov 1st, The Kerala Piravi Day - one of the most auspicious day in the life of a Malayali. The impression the new version gives is much better when compared to the old version.


First up there is Google's and Mozhi's transliteration facilities embedded into the site along with Mashithantu's own transliteration. So it is completely up to the user how to type in the word he or she wants, to search the meaning for.

Then the most important feature that excites me is the fact that even "I" & "You" can add new words or edit the meaning of existing words (if we find it wrong) in Mashithantu. This I believe is the USP of the site.

There is a Thumbs Up/Down feature which is fine tuned from the previous version. Using a thumbs up and thumbs down button, the end user can inform the Mashithantu team whether he or she is satisfied with the results.

Hats off to my dear friend Joju John, Unnikrishnan K. P and the entire Mashithantu Team for bringing this up in the new avatar. I am proud of being an end user, a bit of contributor with words, crosswords, my bit of marketing and word of mouth publicity.

Here is the news about the release in the online version of Mathrubhumi .

Please visit http://dictionary.mashithantu.com and continue supporting it.

why agassi?

Its so shocking and sad, when people whom we considered idols or heroes come back and disclose that they have cheated. Why Agassi? Why did you do it?

There was a time when I used favour always Agassi, against any big shot. Even against Fedex I favoured Agassi. But when you hear such news, the confessions people make in the autobiographies, it certainly saddens you. May be the book will sell a lot, may be he will get pardoned, the WADA may be disappointed, but the true fan who might have spend sleepless nights watching an US Open is really devastated on hearing such news.