Remix at its BEST!!

I have more often not been an aficionado of remix songs, especially those songs that come in tamil movies that have meaningless rap bits thrown around here and there (except all of Yuvan's recent releases). So when one of my friends sent me a scrap book entry with an URL that carried a remix, I was reluctant, yet curious in getting to know what is in store...

Yogi B & Natchatra - the name was weird, and I was giving time for buffering the youtube video, simultaneously checking my personal mails for the day. After a while, played the video. Namma oorkara pasanga oru naalu peru. The opening of the video was in a barber shop. The inmates start talking about an old Ilayaraja classic - Madai thiranthu (Nizhalgal), and start humming the same.

Now starts the hip-hop. Entry of the barber shop inmates in a perfect rap, hip-hop outfit. Not just the outfit, but a taylor-made body language and gestures that made me doubt if they are really from the Wild wild west... An awesome entry announcing the viewers what might be in store. And till the end, they effortlessly manage the tempo and the hype they gave during the entry.

In all, four of them contribute individually to this remix. Among them, I was peculiarly impressed by one chap who is chubby, and round, but full of enthu, focus and has a hardcore hip-hop, rap tone (who comes with "Evanukkume theriaathu"). He is Yogi b, the leader of the troup. For the remix, you can go to this URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TVgGsIuLYU

A few facts that I could collate about this the foursome awesome...

* They are a Malaysian band
* Yogi B's original name - Yogeswaran K. Veerasingam
* Yogi B was initially with a troup called Poetic Ammo, but broke down with them, and joined the Natchatra duo (comprising Dr Burn a.k.a. Ruban Manoharan and Emcee Jesz a.k.a. Sujesh Sambasivam).
* Their debut album was named VALLAVAN
* Vallavan has 15 songs, all produced by Yogi and Natchatra
* Vallavan has even two temple priests on one of its tracks
* Their website - http://vallavan.macrology.com.my/v4/index.php
* An amazing 132,752 views so far in Youtube (at the time of penning this blog)
* The other major hits from Yogi B are "Indian girls", "HIP HOP ERA", and "Vali Theduther"

The Madai thiranthu song closes with a one-liner by Kalignar Karunanidhi (I think its kalaignar's voice) in his coarse voice - "Kalai - Manithanaaga pirantha ovvoruvanum alli alli parugavendiya amirthamadaa athu"

A perfect ending to this amazing remix. DO WATCH / HEAR IT!! Entertainment guarenteed...

Two similar COME-BACKS!!

It was just a warm-up match. Rest of South Africa vs India, a warm up four day match but still it was of some importance. "Dada was back". And most importantly back among runs. This particular innings of him was of great significance, that it even overshadowed an aggressive brilliant century from Irfan Pathan.

By now, Ganguly has stamped his importance to Team India sans doubt in each of the two innings of the first test against SA. In the first innings, he came up with a steady, gritty, unbeaten half century, and in the second, a decent valuable 20+, adding to the overall lead. A solid, rather arrogant comeback. Arrogant I would say, as he silenced his critics without fuss in all the innings he played immediately after his comeback (but for the second innings duck in the warm up match).

I would, as a cricket lover, rate this as one of the greatest comebacks, not just because he scored a half century in his first comeback test, not just because he was the top scorer for the team, not just because he hit a towering six of Ntini, not just because of his last wicket stand with a tailender, but just because this innings showcased his character, his grit, his self-belief, his never say die attitude and overall his ruggedness. KUDOS to the prince of Kolkatta!!

The second such a comeback was by the man hailed as the ULTIMATE star by his fans. Yes Ajith Kumar, via his noteworthy performance in his latest movie GOD FATHER (Varalaru). After a long streak of flops and after a period of hibernation, this movie of him was the sole winner out of the entire lot of movies released for Diwali. Of course, KS Ravikumar is renowned for his commercial hits and knows the knack of making it to the box office, but yet Ajith's performance in the movie, and the way in which he was fit into the role was laudable.

And these two come-backs were in a way similar to me, (though Dada's return is more important to me) as there were some commonalities. Both Ganguly and Ajith were once seen by me as notorious in terms of their attitudes. But yet, still there came a time when I was really feeling for them to perform, when I could miss their action, & when I was looking forward to their come-backs.

Which is what happened together coincidently... Happy for Dada, and Ajith...