Kung - Fu - Panda

Over exposure to pure awesomeness!

A boy wearing a Chinese hat (cone-like) running through obstacles & watery patches with a bamboo stick in hand (a fishing rod), jumps from a cliff to land on a thin crescent and the shining letters appear on screen forming ‘DreamWorks Animation Studio ’ here starts the movie and whatever follows, is…absolute Overexposure to pure awesomeness!!!

A brief Introduction to the characters:

Master Oogway –

The present master of the jade palace and the authority to chose the ‘Dragon warrior’. The wisest person and the only one who can stop ‘Tai-lung’ other than the ‘Dragon warrior’.

Master Shi-fu-

the chief trainer at the palace who is supposed to be the best in whole of china, the one who trained ‘Tai-lung ’ and loved him more than anyone he ever had… but that becomes his weakness and he fails to control him.

The fabulous Five! –

They have to be mentioned together master tigress, monkey, snake, mantis and Crane. Known for their heroics at the battle of the weeping river (umm... sorry guys, I’m really getting into it now)

Tai-lung –

The villain, one who was portrayed by his master as the potential ‘Dragon warrior’ but not chosen for the title by Oogway because of his negative streaks. Now in prison and if set free will bring destruction to the valley to get the ‘Dragon Scroll’ believed to be the secret to supreme power.

PO –

HA! Have you seen a good-for-nothing creature? He’s got all the prerequisites to make one! Obsessed with Kung-Fu and suppressed by father’s expectations to take over the family business of noodle-making. Well… not confused though, since he seemed to have got no ambition to make it big…it’s just a dream!

The Dragon warrior – now that’s the question everyone has… who will it be?

The Story begins:

The story develops somewhere in china where people not only love but worship kung fu. PO is no different, he helps his father (a duck-how’s that possible? but neither did I ask nor will you) at the family noodle restaurant.

The movie starts with PO dreaming of a war, where he is fighting the enemies side by side with his five heroes’ .Just when they are at the peak of the war, the father gives a wake-up call. The heavy panda tries to get up by doing a back flip but only to shake the room.

Po lies to his father that he got late coz he was dreaming about noodles… a lie which his father assumes as a lucky sign as ‘noodle dream’ is considered to be the indicative that PO, can now know the ‘secret ingredient’ recipe for noodle soup. Apparently his dad had also had a noodle dream!

There at the palace, Master Oogway (the turtle) has a dream that Tai-lung, is about to escape and come to the palace to steal the ‘Dragon Scroll’ and get the secret to limitless power. He summons his old friend master shifu and tells him about his dream and immediately sends a messenger to the prison to get the report and increase the security.

Master Oogway realizes that the time has come when the universe should have the new ‘Dragon warrior’ (not sure himself about who is it going to be?)So he announces the traditional tournament for choosing 1! Knowing this PO who is a big fan of the fabulous five decides to go to the function but… urr… dad would not like .actually that duck is shown to be a very soft guy, I like it when he doesn’t stop PO from attending the ceremony (had it been a hindi animation movie…he wd have said…’tumhe apni pita ke laash se gujarna hoga!’ and universe wd have missed…. U’ll find out what!)

So, our Po gives an excuse of selling noodles and heads to the palace with the cart, only to leave it at the footsteps of the hill and manages somehow to take his huge body up to the palace but to his bad (or good?) luck, the door shuts on his face and then follows a series of stupid and hilarious efforts to get in and witness the ceremony of choosing ‘Dragon Warrior’. After all the hopeless efforts Po manages to design a rocket chair with help of crackers lying around but dad arrives at the scene (out of hidden love for kung-fu or to keep a watch on Po’s activities…?) that is where Po reveals to him the noodle-dream story was fake and he always dreamt of Kung-fu.

The Universe has…new ‘dragon-Warrior’:

After a few hiccups the rocket-chair takes off and Po lands exactly at the centre stage where master Oogway is about to select the new Dragon-Warrior he closes his eyes and stretches out his hand to point to the right candidate and opens his eyes only to see a big-fat Panda lying in-front…

Is it an accident…? “No my friend, There are No Accidents” master Oogway reveals… and the celebrations start… with everybody shocked (par kya kare… duty is duty) - a lovely Chinese tune which makes u feel very happy about having a new ‘Dragon warrior’ (much to Po's own astonishment!;-) )

The making:

Master Shifu and the gang try to get rid of this pompous creature that, leave alone touching his own toes, can barely see them but because of the faith shown by Oogway and craze for kung-fu. Po takes up the challenge and survives the initial ragging.

Meanwhile Oogway realizes that the new ‘Dragon Warrior’ eats when he is upset (a beautiful scene packed with friendly words of wisdom from the old turtle) and asks Shifu to to believe in the destiny and in his decision.

There at the prison Tai-lung unlocks himself using the feather of the messenger sent by Shifu and escapes from prison to head towards the valley (a fight sequence full of brilliance and skills).

Oogway receives the news and hands over the responsibility to Shifu to train Po and disappears in the envelope of pink peach tree leaves (the most beautiful scene).

Po, realizing now the seriousness of the situation tries to escape but without success and accepts the responsibility (marta, kya na karta!)

Shifu, trying to figure out how to start training discovers Po’s obsession for food and devises unconventional techniques to train him and takes him to the pool of sacred tears where the legendary Oogway practiced his art.

Action Begins:

Tai-lung reaches the threshold of the valley where the fabulous five try to stop him only to get beaten up miserably and sent back to Shifu to give the message that ‘I am Back’.

Shifu hands the secret dragon-scroll to Po but its blank!!! No secret formula written on it!!!

Disappointed and realizing the end is near… Shifu orders his disciples to vacate the village keeping him to the palace to face tai-lung. Po, dejected… returns to his father showing him the empty scroll the wise duck offers him the apron and consoles him that it may not be his destiny… also revealing that the secret of the ‘secret-noodle-recipe’ is actually nothing!

To make something special you have to believe that it’s special!!!

So that’s the trick! Po realizes the meaning looks again in the empty scroll only to see his own reflection! And that’s it… he runs to the palace where a furious fight is going on between Shifu and Tai-lung.

Po Challenges Tai-lung to get the scroll by defeating him which Tai-lung, already raged and rather amused to see the teddy-Dragon-warrior, readily accepts.

Then follows the most hilarious fight sequence which completely demoralizes tai-lung and convinces Po that he is the ‘Dragon-Warrior’. Po ends the fight with the most lethal ‘Wuxi Finger hold’ and emerges as the supreme power and golden light spreads over the valley to mark the end of evil.

The fabulous five bow in front of the new master and Po heads back to the palace to look for Shifu.

Shi-fu feels relaxed that the terror of tai-lung is finally over and valley is again in peace. So is Shi-fu.

The End

A frame by frame beautiful movie ends here leaving not just the cramps in stomach which has got an equivalent exercise of doing 100 abs but many good aspects of life to think about.

Making you believe that there are no accidents, we are mere puppets in the hands of destiny. Many times v come across puzzling situations leaving us with no answers to all the ‘Wh’ type questions. To us, it’s inexplicable... but somewhere our life is taking shape and these are just the building blocks.

“Yesterday... is a history, tomorrow is a mystery,

But Today, is a gift, that’s why it’s called ‘Present’!”

We all have a place in this world,we all are destined to become something... someone, unique in some way. so whenever you feel low just remember that…

“There’s no secret ingredient! To make something special, you just have to believe that it’s special…”

Heart Beat Concert- A Divine Eve!

2nd Dec,2008

Music – The universal language, a rhythmic composition. You don’t learn it; it’s there everywhere…Omnipresent, all-pervading! From the time immemorial & will be there till the time infinite. Our link with it is established with our birth… rather, even before that…in mother’s womb where the child cannot breathe directly, the mother breaths for the child but their hearts beat together, in harmony. There… the ‘Rhythm’ is set, to sing the song of life…

Blessing in Disguise...

The day showed the signs to be a different one. As such I was very forgetful for past couple of days, and was naturally irritated to miss out on couple of important tasks. But this one started well, we I & Surendra had very good breakfast b4 v reached office and work was, as it is in the month of December, very less.

Last few days I was unable to go to the gym and flex my muscles & was very resolute upon not missing it that day but the charm continues and I realize that the gym-bag is in the room itself and also the coupon required for the subscription of some magazine. So, left with no other option I headed for home. On my way out,Dawood met me in the lift & enquired if I was attending the music concert in the evening. I shook my head indicating that I had no idea about it & went straight to the room assuming it must 1 of those Rock shows...

As the common scenario in our room is, Bhargav is always busy with some

thing and I was, after many days surfing the internet with some Hindi songs being played in the background. When the ‘Rock ON’ started, suddenly Bhargav turned to me & said “Babuuu , you want to go to music concert ?I have two passes” naturally he referred to the same concert as Dawood did. When I read the names on the passes… my jaw literally dropped in amazement. I snatched the passes from him and immediately called Rahul asking him to meet @ the auditorium as we didn’t have much time in hands since it was past 6.30 p.m. and the show timing was 7.30.

With a bit of thrilling (Rash, to be honest!) driving and good luck, I reached the place in less than 20 minutes!!!(I can dedicate a separate blog for that ride).

To be Or Not to be...

After parking the bike I looked around and saw huge crowd… (Actually it was far better than just ‘crowd’).in another 10-15 minutes Rahul joined me and we settled ourselves in a big queue wondering how the arrangements will be? Are these passes really for free? (I started looking for asterisk signs on the pass), can we get a seat or will have to look over other’s shoulders … & so on…

But as we approached the entrance, all my doubts started getting cleared… it was a grand entrance which read ‘University of Madras’ telling a glorious history of 150 years . At the gate a security guard was constantly shouting something of which I could only hear “seats over aaitcha”. I was just about to curse my luck for not being lucky enough...When Rahul said it’s only for the ground floor & rest of the crowd was diverted to the balcony. There was a pleasant scene awaiting us… as, when we entered half the seats were still empty, so rather than struggling for seats ,we carried out a detailed survey of the balcony and chose the right place to sit from where we could clearly watch the artists perform!

The divine evening begins:

With some introductory blabbering, the host (who, though a famous RJ but totally forgotten as the show started) invited the music maestro’s … & people like me, who never saw these greats before, held their breaths. But… even after the announcement nobody turned up on stage & my mind again entered into negative mode wondering if anyone had fallen ill, as it generally happens with celebrities. But… I was not to be let down and one by one, the 5 of them appeared on stage bowed to the audience and took their seats as many of us watched in amazement.

Pt. Srinivas on mandolin, Pt. Selvaganesh with kanjira, Pt. Shankar with mike,Ustad Zakir Hussain on Tabla and none other than Shivamani with his fleet of instruments ranging from staplers to pens to switches to ghungaroos to huge drums. Everybody observed a minute of silence before the show.

Floating in air:

The Show began and in no time they hypnotized the audience with their magic.

I don’t know the purpose behind keeping the name ‘Heart Beat Concert’ but certainly, I felt my heart was beating to tunes and beats coming out of various instruments.

The evening started with the Ganesh-Stuti by Shankar and followed by jugalbandi between Shankar and Pt. Srinivas and slowly the others pitched in, to take it to the peak like a tasty recipe in which the preparation starts with ‘tadka’ and one by one other main ingredients are added.

Just when we thought it’s turning out to be purely classical , they changed the gears and surprised us with a tangy flavor of ‘Blues’.

Followed by the unforgettable combination of melody and percussions, as we watched with our eyes popped out and ears stretched in order not to miss even a single beat. There they were Pt. Srinivas, producing sweetest notes with those delicate strings and Shivamani doing wonders with the numerous instruments, sometimes using household items like spoons, sticks, kitchen vessels, suitcases and god knows what… generally percussion instruments play a supporting role but when shivamani played, it seemed complete.

By this time audience was in groove and totally charged up so it needed some cool down which was provided by a beautiful Raga-based composition ‘Ab Radhe Rani’ by Shankar accompanied by Srinivas.

The next 10-15 minutes completely belonged to Selvaganesh and his kanjira. As his fingers tapped the Kanjira , we saw in amazement how so many sounds can be produced by such a small instrument rightly complimented by ustad Zakir Husain; ” It is very difficult to follow and bring up the rear ,such drummers to play with. I mean I have two,Shivamani has two hundred but Selva has only one and it sounds like 2 million!” He also made a point to remind the audience the seriousness of the event and the cause.

The time after that belonged to the Ustad, one & only Zakir Husain, I always wondered what could be the difference between the other tabla-players… after his performance this question will never come in my mind. What can you say about a man who can make you visualize the ‘Tandav’ of lord Shiva just with the help of table and sheer finesse of his art? It can’t be described in words it has to be witnessed. (though my one wish remained unfulfilled, I wanted to hear “Wah Taj! From Ustad.)

Closing Time :

We realized it’s about to end when the soothing words ‘Ishwar - allah tero naam..’ fell on ears… and Once again, I felt purpose of having hearing power was served (I feel it every time when my mother calls me).

The show ended with that beautiful bhajan and people started moving reluctantly towards exit.

It was a great evening, in the sense that it had not only delighted music lovers and artists but it had also sent out the message that we are the people of a rich and diverse but united nation and no one can deter us from enjoying our freedom. Looking at the response from chennaiites I feel,this purpose was well served.

I learnt one thing from this evening:

Life is a chance, to live your dreams,

But the achievements are measured by,

Number of people you please.

Never expect anything, just let it be,

Coz, Good things come for a price,

Great things are for FREE!