Not going to forget 11th February 1981

I am new to Chennai. So I found this studio apartment to stay in a pretty calm area with a lot of open terrace. I loved the terrace, since I am so much of a nocturnal being and I like wandering in the terrace lost in thoughts in the night.
As my landlord was showing the place to me, he was saying how Madras used to be and a hidden tinge of nostalgia on his face was evident to me. He is an excellent narrator and I could visualise the old Madras as he explained about his good old days.
And then he started off a story. I was busy seeing how the leaves of the mango tree falling on to the terrace moved in the wind. Then I slowly changed my gaze on to my old land lord out of respect.His eyes had something in it before he started which I couldn't really guess. I just listened to the story to see how would it turn out to be.

 He said "Doctor ( As my 60 year old land lord calls me), on 11th February 1981, (6 days less than ten years before I was born), in *some railway station I can't recollect*, around 150 km from Madras there were two trains departing. One to Trivandrum, the Madras mail and other to Yercaud. And it so happened that the driver (locopilot as we address him today)  of one of the trains saw a red signal and stopped the train promptly in the station. But he gave a signal that he passed the station."
 His eyes showed excitement, and me being a lover of stories with happy endings, expected someone's  bravery (which I thought was his) would save the imminent accident.

 He went on " but the other train driver didn't know that another train was stationed ahead of his until it was too late. He tried his level best and applied the brakes" he paused. Took a deep breath. I was interested. And for the poor mentalist that I am, I couldn't guess anything from his flushed and smiling face. My face was asking him loudly "did the train stop!?"
"He couldn't stop the train. And it hit the first train. A third goods train was also involved in the accident". I hate sad stories. But that's how life is. I still didn't know the relevance of the story. Was he in the train? Or did he save someone's life that day?
He continued " Around 30 people died that day" he took a long pause. And smiled. His eyes were full. I'm not sure if he looked up the sky took a deep breath. But I almost knew the story. It was for sure how he narrowly escaped death. And how it is to live a second birth. My thoughts were cut short when he talked in a different tone "my dad was in that train. He was going back to vellore after the days business. And we lost him then. Since then it was me alone and I have come up till here" Deeply yet subtly emotional was he, his eyes full of bereavement of something and accomplishment of something else.
I didn't expect this ending. And I'm not sure if it's happy or sad. All I know is this is life. And it has no happy or sad endings. It just goes on. And this date! 11 February 1981, the point where the story started, I am not going to forget that!

5 REASONS TO WATCH AND 3 REASONS NOT TO WATCH LEELA

DIRECTOR	RANJITH
SCREENPLAY	UNNI R
CAST	BIIJU MENON, VIJAYARAGHAVAN, INDRANS, PARVATHY NAMBIAR, JAGADEESH
PRODUDER	RANJITH
MUSIC	BIJIBAL
CINEMATOGRAPHY	PRASANTH RAVINDRAN
RELEASE DATE	22- 04-2016
LANGUAGE	MALAYALAM

ABOUT LEELA – A nice movie about kuttiyappan, who is a complex character, mostly sleeping around and with weird sexual fantasies, which sure make him an interesting character too. This is about his weirdest fantasy, how he goes about it, how would that fantasy change the person he is (or did it change him?), and what fatal fantasy fate had in store for him. Biju Menon shines as Kuttiyappan, Vijayaraghavan aces as Pillechan, Indrans plays a pimp in style, Jagadeesh does justice to his role as a drunkard and rapist (rapes his daughter) and notably Parvathy Nambiar portrays Leela superbly  with no dialogues at all.

5 REASONS TO WATCH LEELA

1. VIJAYARAGHAVAN

Pillechan is going to stay long in our hearts for sure. Vijayaraghavan shines as Pillechan in one of the best roles in his career. The actor plays the role with ease and does it with such naturality.

2. BLACK COMEDY

There is a lot of it, more in the first half. The serious tone of the storyline is sprinkled with these to tickle your funny bone.

3. BIJU MENON

The most important ingredient these days in Malayalam hits, Biju Menon does not disappoint. His performance in Leela is not something you would like to miss.

4. KUTTIYAPPAN

Well Kuttiyappan is yet another reason why you shouldn’t miss this Ranjith flick. Who is he? Must be the question in your mind at this point of time. He is the protagonist played by Biju Menon. And Leela is quite about this character himself. So that explains why have I put it as a separate reason. Kuttiyappan is maniac, intellectual (at times), funny, cruel, loving, crazy and sexual fantasies are epic! Now that’s a hell of a character.

5. RANJITH AND UNNI R

Ranjith has done a good job converting a short story into a 1 hour 40 minutes movie, 5 years after its publication, adding the right ingredients and not making it obsolete. Addition of Dinkan and Dinkoism was a clever move. Unni R did a wonderful job too converting his short story into a screenplay.

3 REASONS NOT TO WATCH LEELA

             1. AMBIGUITY

Ambiguity prevails throughout the movie. Kuttiyappan stands out as a mystery. Climax would leave you wondering what happened.

             2. LOOSE PLOT

Converting a story into a movie is not the easiest of the jobs after all.

             3.  ‘A BOOK IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN A MOVIE’

Said someone. True most of the times. Here Leela is a short story. And people who had read the story beforehand would have known kuttiyappan well before (little frog hasn’t read the story). A pdf version of the story is available online. Do search ( I am going to search too. Not providing it here, not sure about copyright issues, Well, Homework for you! )

My (amateurish ) rating – 3/5

DISCLAIMER – The little frog is no movie guru or intellectual. The little frog immerses itself deep down in a well all day in its own mediocrity. All that is written is individual opinion and kindly excuse the little frog for the possible mistakes/misinterpretations. IF YOU HAPPEN TO READ THE POST, KINDLY LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS, GOOD OR BAD, DOESN’T MATTER B)

FAN - review

DIRECTOR	MANEESH SHARMA
SCREENPLAY	HABEEB FAISAL
CAST	SHAH RUKH KHAN, SAYANI GUPTA
PRODUDER	ADITYA CHOPRA
MUSIC	SONGS- VISHAL-SHEKAR, BGM –ANDREA GUERRA
CINEMATOGRAPHY	MANU ANAND
RELEASE DATE	15- 04-2016
LANGUAGE	HINDI

This Shah Rukh Khan (in double-role) movie starts off nicely, gives us a lot of expectations but fails at some levels. The first half is brilliant and the director succeeds in showing the devotion and agony of a true die-hard fan and look alike of the superstar Aryan Khanna popularly known as AK ( played by SRK, where he pretty much had to act like himself and has done it extremely well) - Gaurav ( also by SRK). Shah Rukh as the 25 year old Gaurav was a treat to watch and he literally blends into the character, the body language, dialogue delivery and flexibility of the actor is exquisite. The first half shows how Gaurav from Delhi goes to Mumbai to his superstar and finally succeeds in it but in a sad and unexpected way. He realizes his expectations about the star was totally wrong and his favorite hero on screen turns out to be the villain in his life. The first half ends with a lot of suspense with the audience expecting Gaurav to act witty and outsmart his once role model. The movie failed here, the second half has a lot of emotional sequences and dragging chase scenes. The only positive thing in the second half was of course SRK's versatile acting as the real man behind the superstar unfolds. There is no song in the movie and Jasba which was a hit before the release didn't find a place in the movie, sadly. Sayani Gupta as Aryan Khanna's PA did a good job. Being his debut film, Maneesh Sharma had done a good job but he did not play the nostalgia card much. The storyline had abundant scope to remind us about old movies of SRK however the references to his old movies are limited, but all SRK fans would have sure loved to see his DDLJ jacket. In nutshell fan is a watchable movie and a must watch for all SRK fans for this is some solid performance from the actor

My (amateurish) rating - 3/5

DISCLAIMER - The Little Frog is no movie guru. All the posts here are opinions and may differ from person to person. Excuse the small mistakes and Enjoy the read!

10 POINTS YOU MUST NOTE BEFORE FACING MD/MS EXAMS IN INDIA

1.     GET YOUR SECOND YEAR SUBJECTS THOROUGH

SOURCE : giphy.com

Yes I wrote it down as the first point because the second year subjects are the ones that give you a rank. So be thorough with your pharmac, path and micro. If you need a rank at the first place you need to master these. No doubt

2.     DO NOT NEGLECT THE 'SHORT SUBJECTS'

source ; giphy.com

Short subjects aren't that short after all. Put together these 10 subjects form a major part of your question paper. Give them do respect. You make a mistake from hot topics (while i write this) like the blistering disorders in dermatology, you are instantly out of the race. Period.

3.     'REPEAT QUESTIONS' - DO NOT STICK TO THEM, I REPEAT, DO NOT STICK TO THEM

source ; giphy.com

Believe me, mugging up those previous year questions are not going to do much help. Reading the explanation might fetch you some marks but getting the exact same question as a repeat has become a thing of the past

4.     TOO MUCH HARRISON WILL MAKE YOU EQUIVALENT TO AN EXAM GOING MEDICINE P.G

source ; giphy.com

Yes there are people who have cracked the exams with Harrison, Just with Harrison, but again it’s a waste of time. You can use the spare time to read those short subjects, path and pharmac.

5.     EVERYTHING OF SOMETHING or SOMETHING OF EVERYTHING??

source: nerdophiles.com

The very old question. I would say something of everything but be sure with that something.

6.     CONCEPTS? DO I NEED THEM?

source: giphy.com

Do not be of the impression that nat board wouldn't ask conceptual questions. On the other hand there are a plenty of conceptual questions popping up in DNB and AIPGMEE question papers

7.     DO NOT STRESS ON NUMERICALS! NAT BOARD! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!

source: mbatious.com

Yes they ask facts. But how many would get it correct? A very few. So you running behind the facts and numericals would actually drag you down in the psychometric analysis. Do not waste your time. TIME IS RANK

8.     HOW MANY YEARS PAPERS SHOULD I MUG UP? - NOTHING!

Build you concepts up. Know the hot areas. Forget the previous papers

9.     RETROSPECTIVE / SUBJECT WISE? 

source: pankajghanshani.com

          Since most of us haven't done the prospective study from first year, we have this                 doubt. And it’s genuine. I advise subject-wise detailed study

10. REVISION! REVISION! REVISION

source: giphy.com

I would say even if you forget points 1- 9 don’t forget REVISION REVISION REVISION REVISION…..

Jacobinte Swargarajyam ( JSR ) MOVIE REVIEW

DIRECTOR	VINEETH SREENIVASAN
SCREENPLAY	VINEETH SREENIVASAN
CAST	NIVIN PAULY, RENJI PANIKKER, T.G.RAVI, SAIKUMAR, VINEETH SREENIVASAN, LAKSHMI RAMAKRISHNAN, SREENATH BHASI, AIMA SEBASTIAN
PRODUCER	NOBLE BABU THOMAS
MUSIC	SHAAN RAHMAN
CINEMATOGRAPHY	JOMON T. JOHN
RELEASE DATE	8TH APRIL 2016
LANGUAGE	MALAYALAM

This movie is based on a true incident and its a tribute by the director to his friend. A well made tribute indeed. The story revolves around Jacob ( Renji Panikker), a businessman based in Dubai, who considers himself the 'wealthiest man in the world', his wealth being his family. However on a sudden turn of events his business succumbs and the responsibility of getting the family back to their 'kingdom of heaven' falls on Jerry ( Nivin Pauly) the eldest of Jacobs three kids, Abin ( Sreenath Bhasi), Ammu (Aima Sebastian) and Muthu. Jerry stutters in the beginning, but later picks up the pace and learns the tricks of the game and tries to bring the kingdom back. He gets his support from his mom, Sherly ( Lakshmi Ramakrishnan) and Mathews ( Sai Kumar), Jacobs friend.

The gripping story, the wonderful screenplay, the excellent cinematography blended with natural acting  of all the cast makes its a worth watch. Vineeth sreenivasan's cameo adds a nice flavour to the already delicious meal that JSR is. Renji Panickker aces as Jacob and his already proven and wonderful chemistry with Nivin Pauly is commendable. Nivin Pauly as usual, brings up his natural acting. Sai Kumar portraying Mathews does a powerful role and gives the scene just before interval its much needed punch. The climax is rather subtle, for those who were expecting a Pursuit of Happyness moment, but it strikes the emotional chord very well. The background score is commendable and the songs are soothing. JSR has that Jomon T. John touch. The versatility of Vineeth Sreenivasan is no doubt improving with each of his movies and JSR is his best movie so far.

In nutshell, JSR is a must-watch! Dont miss it!

MY (AMATUERISH) RATING - 4.5/5

BOOK REVIEW: WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

Friends, so here it is! my first post in this blog! Review of  'When breath becomes air' by Paul Kalanithi.

Through this book the author takes you through a journey, tries to answer the life and death question, confronts death, rises above it and leaves behind an energy. Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgery resident on the verge of completion of his long residency program, gets diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and is forced to flip his role from a doctor to a patient. He takes a stroll back through his life, decides to fulfill that one old dream of his - to be a writer and excels in it. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015 while working on this book which was completed by his wife Dr. Lucy Kalanithi. So we very well know how this is going to end and would doubt if we should really try reading this. However  the unsentimental handling of the book, the invisible optimism and the evident courage of the man makes it a positive and uplifting reading experience. And we would all agree to Lucy Kalanithi -  
'What happened to Paul was tragic but he was not a tragedy!'.

The book is divided into three parts. A foreword by Dr. Abraham Verghese which he himself says should have been an afterword, the main book written by the author divided into three parts and an Epilogue written beautifully by Dr. Lucy Kalanithi.
Dr. Verghese in his Foreword correctly says he got to know the author in depth only after his death, though he had met him once before.
"I came to know him most intimately when he'd ceased to be"  
I bet we all would get to know him intimately by the end of the book. The foreword is a little long but a nice read and adds to the bulk of the book.

The crux of the book starts with a short prologue where the author talks about how he gets diagnosed with lung cancer, and about the marital problems the couple had been facing and how that diagnosis brought them back together. The author then goes to his past, through a section titled 'In perfect health I begin', wherein we live his childhood with him. The section starts off with the author saying that he was certain of not becoming a doctor. Born in to a family of doctors, including his dad, he says he knew medicine from its absence. He studied English Literature, human biology and history instead. He was an avid reader and was influenced T.S. Eliot, Nabokov and Conrad but could not find the perfect answer for his question -what makes life meaningful? At Stanford he was lucky to work under one of the greatest living philosophers of his time Richard Rorty. His thesis, much unorthodox, was on the works of Walt Whitman and his vision of Physiological-Spiritual man. However he realized that it was in the practice of medicine that biology, morality literature and philosophy intersected! So he did follow the voice from inside to set aside the books and practice medicine.

The description of early days of his med school training is intriguing and flows parallel to the basic theme of this book - life and death. From anatomy dissections where he dealt with the cadavers to time when he actually gets to see the patients, the first birth he saw which was also the first death, he shows how life and death are closely intersected. There are no boring case histories with loads of medical information and its light and peaceful journey. Delightful!

Later when he had to specialize he found his friends pick up the lifestyle branches with humane work hours and easy money, he followed his heart to master the surgery of the brain - arguably our most important organ. He proves that he wasn't wrong in following his passion. He then describes a few cases in a way only a skilled surgeon can do and we get to see his dexterous hands. Being a doctor is not all about treating them, it is also about talking to them, his biggest inspiration for this was his dad. He explains the power of mind, constructive and destructive, with the examples of psychogenic syndromes. He brings up the issue of self-doubt, when even his moral exemplar, Mr. V on getting diagnosed with pancreatic cancer had the same questions as him in the face of morality.

Then he describes more about his diagnosis and treatment, initially he responded to a new biological therapy and his cancer was almost cured. At this point he regained his strength and pushed himself to work again as a neurosurgery resident and completed his residency. He donned the scrubs he once thought he would never wear again. But there is always a last! His lungs showed a new growth and his condition worsened forcing him to complete the last purpose of his life- to be a writer and he started working on this book. Towards the end he and his wife plans to have a kid and Cady is born and the brief family time they have is touching, intense and full of love! And one day Paul left us! As Lucy Kalanithi puts it
" Paul's decision not to avert his eyes from death epitomizes a fortitude we don't celebrate enough in our death avoidant culture. "

My (amateurish) Rating - 4.5/5

*** I came to know about this book from a friend who said its a must read for us, Doctors. But the basic theme of this book being philosophical and dealing with life and death, it attracted me. I could correlate a lot with this book probably because I am doing my residency in internal medicine. My eyes were full on completing this book. It was supposed to be a sad book but it isn't sad at all levels. I loved the book and thought I would make this my first post here. Excuse this little frog in a well for the possible mistakes***