Something for Summer

Since the time I happened to visit one of the Squash'd outlets in Chennai, I've been wanting to write a review post.
Now that the sun God is completely into action, thought a post of this sort would help the crowd out there.

Squash'd:
I have read about it quite a long time back and wanted to check it out since then. Till the time I was in Madras, I was only aware of the Gream's road Fruit shop and Squash'd was started out soon after I left Madras.
And my personal thought is that Anu Hasan has been more of a lady of venturous sorts than an actress, considering her hosting in 'Coffee with Anu' and Idhayam Manthra 20-20. She is not a stunning beauty to be an actress, but honestly I have liked watching her in these TV shows several times.
So with all that and more, I was expecting something huge out of this place, as its an independent venture of an ex-Bitsian.
We had been to this outlet at the Mayajaal Food court and ordered for Skinnie Minnie and a Mango drink (the name I had forgotten). The latter turned out to be good, as mangoes by nature have the pulpy texture. But then Skinnie Minnie (a strawberry, sweet lime admixture) did not come out so great. I went on wondering if it was a Smoothie at all. Considering the fact the both the fruits are highly juicy and lacks sweetness, they must have given some consideration at the fact of declaring it as a smoothie in the menu. Along with that considerable amount of whole milk was added which turned out the drink to be extra watery and less tastier.
The prices ranged from 25-85. But correspondingly the less costlier ones are less preferred.
It would be good if they redefine the menu and revise the price list based on the quantity and availability.
I'm still not sure of the ambiance at their stand-alone outlets as I said the one which we visited was just a part of Mayajaal food court but then I must say the yellow and green color are very soothing.
The concept of employing more number of gals from the lower class of society is quite appealing, though we could find both male and female employees working at the counter with only females dealing their hands at the juicer.
I wonder why has she still not laid out an exclusive website considering the home delivery part of their objective.

Pure n Naturals:Several times in my earlier posts I have mentioned about this place. We frequent at the Jayanagar 7th blk outlet once a week minimum. They are an unit of Pazhamudhircholai and a chain of salad and mocktail bar located across bangalore (Kormangla, Vyalikaval, Jayanagar), I heard they have it in Coimbatore too.
The Jayanagar outlet is one of the finest places filled with a good crowd and a quite ambiance, with the walls painted in green carrying a pleasant design. The menu is laid out in a decent manner and the prices are highly reasonable. The menu runs for 5-6 pages with a variety of soups, hot and cold salds, mocktails, fresh juice, milkshakes and icecreams. I have been there with so many of my friends and a lot of them who despise to try green vegetables have started loving it after trying their salads.
Except for only one annoying waiter at this place, rest things all would bag good appreciation. and the worst part is no owner/manager available to complain about such illiterate workers. u can find only employees who though understand other languages insisting us to talk in Kannada. Highly irritating.
And the website part of Squash'd holds good for these guys too!

Got sometime? Try them out.. a good option for this summer, I beat!
Have fun :)

...

couldn't really think of a title. before whenever i used to write a post, i think so hard to get a title.. even a simple mail for that matter. and few years back neo had taught me of this simple yet fascinating idea of using dots.

over the week i had spent quite a lot of time traveling in and around the Singara Chennai. 3 things i could figure out about this horribly hot place:
1. the only place where people ask couples to go spend romantic times in temples
2. lovers hardly find places to go around in the city particularly considering the sun@work part.
3. the places that should be marked as 'okay' types are being hyped like anything! crowd still sleeping!?

here goes some explanation for the 3rd point. not knowing how to kill time we thought of heading to mayajaal on an as usual hot sunny day! that was the first time i watched a movie at mayajaal. thinking of the hype it has and through word of mouth we burnt 240 bucks and picked up ayan tickets, only after entering i realized how heavily people are being cheated out there! the seats are the worst kind i have ever seen in life. PVR cinemas has reduced regional language movie tickets to 120 bucks on weekdays. i couldn't stop wondering on the versus part!
Last time when I visited Satyam I kept cribbing about the seating comparing it with the PVR, but now I say Satyam does a great job there, no doubt!

We ventured at the Inox box office someday, how could a place that has set such high standards in the movie world be modeled in such a stupid manner.. unbelievable! the entry to the movie hall, box office + exit to box office is all through the same lane. On top of that some 3-4 people stand at the same entry point adding to the already existing crowd 'with no uniforms' and keep shouting on people coming. Ridiculous!
city centre definitely requires a huge amount of redesigning. So much of space is wasted, I still doubt if the construction is yet to be completed. V and Y went on applying their IIM concepts at every other thing we encountered in this place.

With all this plus half a week stay at home turned to be a great revitalizer to the slumber mind.

Iniya thamizh puthandu nalvaazhthukkal!

Ayan

Its been quite a while, though I tried penning down some of my random thoughts, thought nothing is worth publishing and so just kept quiet.

Finally the much awaited Surya Starer Ayan had hit the halls and being some of the die-hard Surya fans, we decided to venture at an inox @ Blore.

Hope this post helps some of those guys who haven't watched the movie yet to get an idea before shelling out some bucks from ur pocket!! particularly amidst all this recession hungama!

Hero - an English speaking dude coming out of the airport, turns out to be a local 'galeej' guy - enj oyable intro. Heroine's intro is an usual tamil cinema one, with the hero dashing the half-clothed heroine. Not sure why they had to show glam when there was no need for it at all! Heroine was uppuku-chappani just so like most of the Tamil movie.

Hero wins an applaud in so many scenes like when he says 'namakku epavume 'Jo' dhaanga'. The deductive surya series in the whole film gave a feel of watching some old Vijayakanth style. The 'citi' character that comes as Tamanna's bro in the movie mattered for some good laugh.

For the 1st time I enjoyed a fight sequence in a Tamil movie, special mention goes to that which happens at Africa. They ha ve tried to spread some awareness on whats going on in the poverty proven fatigue country. The scene stands in memory where those kids continue playing football after a shooting spree happens on the road, its like what we read in those fiction novels. well shot. But I'm not sure why the lighting goes dim when they show Africa every time, a lil wierd!

The beginning 40-50 mins rushes like air. And then starts the real patience testing spree.

There were tooooo many characters that just comes and vanishes off in one scene. Here and there, a lot of disgusting things including Tamanna visiting Surya's mom's shop, not-to-forget the cruel murder of citi (Once you go back home, this scene flashes at least every time you go to sleep), hero goes to the pub to just take the photographs of the villain's crew, its so indigestible when we think of the hero just taking the kanaku pillai's daughter's snap and coming back while he sees her being raped by the Villain, in fact this is the place where they should have applied the usual Tamil movie logic but leaving this elsewhere it is all only that.

I'm not sure if this is what is meant as success for a Villain - making people feel irritated.. With the long hair and an ugly face, overaction althrough the movie!

How can the guy at the customs sector can be so dumb!? He takes hero's help and finally end up recruiting him with an Amma sentiment in the last scene, a typical Tamil movie style again.

Surya speaking in 'peter' English to the customs guy and him saying that he knows what he really is, dialogue delivery with the expressions and stuff there was really awesome from both of them!

In the whole of the movie what mattered the most to me were the songs! 'Vizhi moodi Yosithal' asks for couple of once-mores, Karthik where were you all these years man! Improper placement of 'nenje nenje', it comes as a condolence duet for citi! How absurd! The title song was well composed, its worth it considering its release directly at the theatres and not in the audio release. Chinmayee's voice in Aayiye Aayiye was cool as always!

Some additional concentration could have gone into Surya's costumes. He belongs to a decent middle class family, but the green and orange lungi-shirt in Pala pala was completely crap! Some of Tamanna's clothes were really good.

We expected the movie would be utter crap when it came to Sun pictures. The movie title 'Ayan' is nowhere relevant! In spite of all this, it will make good revenues as its an usual commercial one and taking into account the time period its been released. Its a Surya's movie and accepting him in a local get-up after the Vaaranam Aayiram and Kaaka-kaaka was hugely tough.

Overall, a line below than time pass category.

Rating: **