Entries Tagged 'Madras Talkies' ↓

1. When in the rest of the country, students stage protests against the proposed 27% for the OBCs, here we have pro-reservation rallies supporting the proposal!

2. Only here, we have the CAS (Conditional Access System or CAn’t See tv) in place. Most of us are more than happy to pay 100 bucks and be content to watch Tamil Channels.

3. The aftermath of CAn’t See tv:- Only in Chennai do people miss out major sporting actions from Cricket series to Euro Soccer to Forumula one to Grand slam Tennis. Actually we enjoy watching News Channels as most of them are FTA.

4. The opposition party leader won’t attend the State Assembly, when voted out of power. So.. in actual there is no real “leader” of opposition.

5. 50% reservations in public transports for women. It’s a tradition that we should not “touch” opposite sex persons unless the person happens to be your spouse.

6. No night life. Try to walk in Chennai streets after 9 PM, you’ll have vagabonds and dogs for company.

7. We have the cheapest deal for Rice. It’s only Rs. 2 per kilo!

8. L’affaire Kushboo. You opinions and thoughts can be challenged in the courts (and they’ll admit it as well!). You should not waear bright coloured shirts/tops to colleges, cellphones are banned, kissing is banned even is private places…you thought it’s a democratic country? Think again.

9. The unique style of bus conductors to pick up currency notes in between fingers that not found either any where. (Thanks to multi)

Just take a scroll at 0530 hours in the morning in the Margazhi season when we have Kollams spread through the breath of the roads, womens with long beautiful hair with Jasmines, Music season is full flow, early morning rituals at home and prayers in Temples, pleasant cool climate…. wow. Can you experience this elsewhere?

It’s April 3rd week and even in our dreams we can’t expect the temperature to drop 31-32 degrees. But it’s raining now in Chennai! The climate is pleasant and pleasing.

Hope it keeps raining…

A new shopping mall has born in Chennai today. It’s the Chennai Citi Center. It has come up in Radhakrishnan Salai, next to Kalyani Hospital.

I was passing by that area with my friends and we wanted to check it out (or rather do some Window shopping). It’s just opened today at 1830 hrs and not much stores has opened up now at this point of time.

Adidas, Wills Lifestyle, Landmark (4th store in Chennai), Raymond, Florsheim, W, Food world, Helvitica (2nd store in Chennai), Lifestyle, Pepe Jeans, Le Chocolatier, Suxus are some of the brands that will open their stores shortly. Even offices spaces will come up along with the retail space.

Even INOX Cineplex is expected to come up shortly! INOX Leisure Ltd has signed up to open a five-screen multiplex here. It will have a total of around 1,200 seats. Yeah, they’ll all be in the same league as Mayajaal screens, Studio 5 or Six Degrees. But who cares? It’s the so called “small screens” that run to packed houses as they run newer Hindi or English flicks. This is great news for me as this Chennai Citi Center is near my house as Satyam cinemas.

First-themed complex in Chennai

Theme malls are the happening thing and attract crowds with offers of special services, discounts and designer labels.What works in a theme mall is the cluster of choices that are made available to the consumer.

Lifestyle is the anchor tenant for the retail section and Inox is the entertainment anchor tenant. So we’ll have a variety of stores and choices in front of us.

A French theme
When you pass by the mall, I am sure you won’t feel that you are in Chennai. The entrance looks like Arc De Triomphe! Don’t take my word for it. Even you’ll feel the same after catching a look at it. The entrance of Chennai Citi Centre and Arc De Triomphe strike a resemblance and looks alike. It’s not only the exteriors, even the interiors have some element of French Architecture. This is a refreshing change from the usual monotony of glass structures.

Fraser and Nag (a Dubai-based firm) and Eskay Design have done the architectural design for the mall. “The shopping mall will have a French theme, with both the exteriors and interiors designed based on French architecture”, claims the spokesman. And right so!

With Chennai Citi Centre, Spencer Plaza, Abirami mall and various other malls which is waiting to take off, Chennai is now the Mall city of India! I am looking forward to an European style of Shopping experience right here in Chennai.

Today I was at Shoppers’ Stop, Chennai to…to… shop what else!

The store is in Harringtons Road, Chetpet. They had their Annual 50% sale. There were many items which was sold with discount. I was with my mom to purchase some stuffs which I need.

I got the following items:

Red Tape Shoe
Indian Terrain Formals - T-Shirt and Trousers
Adidas Shirt

Hope I look suave wearing them!

The day started off boring and disappointing as usual for Chennai vasi’s when there is Cricket Match being played. The rest of India would watch and we will be left to see the scores in News channels or listen to AIR FM radio commentary. At 10:15 AM my cousin called me and asked me tune to Sun TV; they were scrolling a message that from today Chennai people with SCV connection (a MSO) can watch the cricket matches without the need of a fucking set-top box!

There is No free lunch
At 11:00 AM, they aired Ten Sports with their logo and their advertisements. This was courtesy SCV-Ten Sports. DD would have bagged the telecast, had they agreed to Ten Sports “offer” to air the telecast complete with Ten Sports logo and their advertisements. They did not even agree to pay compensation for the expense Ten Sports incur. DD states Ten Sports should share the feed keeping the viewer’s interests in mind as Ten Sports don’t have a large viewer base as DD and it’s a pay channel.

Now if DD wants to “protect” the interests of the viewers, they should agreed to Ten Sports terms and aired the series. Now assuming if they bagged the telecast, will they air without advertisements? I hope DD don’t get the telecast for ODI Hutch series also, now that Chennai people don’t care when we can watch the match in Ten Sports!

The same story:
It’s gonna be a long for the Indians, considering that the wicket is batsmen friendly. Faisalabad seems to a tame and docile pitch as the one in Lahore. Run feasts will continue and this match will head to a draw. I personally prefer the Dust Bowl pitches in India, atleast we can expect a result!

Anyways, this is a wonderful news to Chennai people. Now all the Ten Sports telecasted cricket matches will be aired.

Related posts:
Live streaming of Cricket matches

Satyam cinemas is Chennai’s best theatre and grosses more money than any cineplex in south India. It has 6 screens with six-degrees being the new addition. In fact it was Satyam cinemas which introduced the concept of cineplex/multiplex in Chennai.

It’s one of the best theatres in Chennai. Being close to my home , makes it even more favourite. I have fond memories associated with this theatre having gone a lot of movies with my friends, cousins, family and relatives. I have seen many hit movies in here.

Why Satyam Cinemas rocks?
Just a few hundred metres from Anna salai (Mount road for me, forever) which is in the heart of Chennai. It’s close to my house, I can just take a walk to reach. They screen Tamil, English, Hindi and sometimes foreign films also.

Satyam Cinemas website, www.thecinema.in (copy this URL and paste in your browsers’ address bar) gives us information about the movies screened, their availability and most important of all we can reserve tickets right from our drawing room. They claim that the queue is dead!

No tickets are sold in “black”.They advertise in The Hindu (all days except Sunday) about the movies which are being screened. All this makes life easier.

Now the ambiance inside the theatre is also very good. They are clean and well maintained. Even the toilets are well maintained. Almost all the toilets in Chennai suck big times with this theatre being a welcome exception! Their staffs are vigilant and refrain any junta who come to have a puff.

The seats are well maintained and not torn. They are comfortable as well.The Ac’s work well and give a cool ambiance.

They have R|D|X sound systems along with DTS Dolby surround. It’s one of the few theaters in India having the ability to screen a movie with digital print.

On the negative side, the ticket prices are on the costly wrt other theaters but hey who cares we don’t get to buy the tickets in “black” and reservation is just a click away!

What’s Cooking?
The present cineplex will have 12 screens and Satyam theater will be split into 3 screens and they will lauch many more of the `Signature’ series like Six Degrees. The company has acquired sites at Kilpauk, on Poonamallee High Road, and Vadapalani for two more multiplexes. They plan to have eight screens at the Kilpauk site and 10 at Vadapalani. Read more about it in The Hindu’s Article: Sathyam Cinemas plans 20 new theatres by 2008

More on Satyam Cinemas here: New and Notable at Satyam Cinemas. It got more information on various things like how to book tickets using Credit Cards, about Blind Date, 4 frames and a small review of the new theater Six Degrees.

So long for Satyam Cinemas…till I catch up with another movie!

Check out my Romance Movie Store at Amazon if you wish to buy Romance movies in DVD and enjoy with your GF/BF/Spouse: Ashwin’s Romance Movie Store.