Ambimama - India

Some of the best Ads I enjoyed in 2008
Airtel
Rahman spreads goodness through Music

Kids’ Wonder

No widows thanks to permanent Bindhi from Camlin India

Fevicol
Every Ad of Fevicol is innovative

Fevicol Ad 2

Amul’s Wonderful Doodh

Dadhy, Manana and Czechoslovakia

Who else but Vivekananda can inspire us?
Talk not about impurity, but say that we are pure.
Fill the brain, therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work.
There is a great tendency in modern times to talk too much of work and decry thought. Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking. Little manifestations of energy through the muscles are called work. But where there is no thought, there will be no work.

Civilization is the manifestation of that divinity in Man.

Anand Vishwanathan

With his win against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008, Anand became the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats - Knockout, Tournament, and Match. Anand became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. Anand broke the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He is also the first recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour.

Abhinav
Abhinav Bindra won gold in the 10-metre air rifle event at the Beijing Olympics and became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal. India had a gold medal after 28 years.

Sushil Kumar
The Wrestler Sushil Kumar bagged a bronze at the Olympics. The medal came 56 years after wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav gave the country its maiden individual Olympic medal.

Advani
Pankaj Advani from Bangalore made India proud in the international billiards and snooker circuit during the year 2008.
Saina won the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix badminton tournament.

Dhoni
In the auction of IPL, Chennai Super Kings, owned by India Cements, Mahendra Singh Dhoni got $1.5 million, the highest and Andrew Symonds was the costliest overseas player at $1.35 million for Deccan Chargers. Dhoni raised India’s image in Cricket as a captain and individual winning Test series and One Day against Australia and England and become Champions in Twenty20’s.

Beijing Olympics
Michael Phelps
Won 8 Gold Medals at 2008 Beijing Olympics in swimming. Seven of his gold were in world record time, while the remaining resulted in an Olympic record. Phelps has now won 14 medals from three Olympic Games — the most by a male athlete.

Usain Bolt
Jamaica’s “Bolt of Lightning” is the world’s fastest man as he shattered his own world record in the 100 metres at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. He also won the 200 metres in world record time to become the first male sprinter since Carl Lewis in 1984 to achieve the 100m-200m double at the Summer Olympics. He also set a world record in the 4×100 metres relay at 37.10 seconds with his Jamaican teammates in Beijing.

Yelena Isinbayeva
Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva showed that she is the undisputed queen of her sport. Not satisfied with being ensured of the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Games, Isinbayeva decided that she would attempt to break her own world record in front of a packed house at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. She failed in her first two attempts, but was successful in clearing 5.05 metres in her third and final try to set yet another world record.
F1 Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton just missed the world champion in 2007 — his debut year on the Formula One Circuit. But, in 2008, the McLaren-Mercedes driver ensured there wouldn’t be a repeat and he was crowned world champ at the age of 23 to become the youngest champion in F1 history. Hamilton, who is also the first “black driver” in Formula One, has pledged that he will stay with McLaren for the remainder of his F1 career.

Rafael Nadal’s domination of men’s tennis

 The former world No 1 John McEnroe describes the Wimbledon 2008 between Fed and Nadal as the greatest he has ever seen. Nadal dislodged Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7. With the win, Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, and also the first Spaniard to have won the Wimbledon title since Manuel Santana, who was champion in 1966.

Spain wins Football also

Fernando Torres scored the winning goal of the Euro 2008 final against Germany as Spain won all their group stage fixtues and the championship itself. Following their win in the Euro 2008 final, Spain was ranked No 1 in the FIFA rankings on July 1, 2008.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo scored his 100th goal in all competitions for Manchester United against Stoke City on November 15, 2008. Portugese and Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo had a dream 2007-08 season as his club not only retained the English Premier League title, but also won the UEFA Champions League. He was also the Premier League’s top scorer, won the European Golden Shoe, and was named the FIFPro World Player of the Year 2008, and he was also awarded the 2008 Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo, who finished with 446 points, is Manchester United’s first Ballon d’Or recipient since George Best in 1968.
But, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Ronaldo as he wasn’t able to inspire Portugal beyond the quarter-finals at Euro 2008. He was also involved in an ugly spat involving Manchester United and Spanish club Real Madrid over his rumoured interest in moving to the latter. After a heated exchange of words between the clubs, Ronaldo stated that he is not leaving Manchester United, but these rumours have been re-ignited again in the first week of December 2008.

Football God visits India
Maradona’s Kolkatta visit and his show of skills with the ball to the crowd and warmth to the players is an important thing for football fans in India. It may take years for China to learn Cricket, and India to master football to the heights of Europe or South America.

Hockey Loss
Eight time gold medal winner India failed to qualify for men’s hockey at the Olympics for the first time in 80 years. They lost 0-2 to Great Britain in the final of a qualifying tournament in Santiago, Chile.
India’s women hockey team also failed to qualify for the Olympics.
It was some satisfaction when India retained the Junior Asia Cup hockey crown in Hyderabad, with a dramatic fight-back to beat South Korea 3-2.

Finally Chennai is pleasant. Compared to Northern cities and capital Delhi where it is real winter we feel we need not put fans in full blast these days. But the general mood of the country has made me dull. I go on reading some paperbacks and dailies. I find the regular and special columns boring, emotional and philosophic. Lots of things to worry about people and children killed daily due to war and peace efforts in my country and the World. Whoever is right, the Hamas or Israel, they do not know how to understand Life and the route to peaceful daily, happy way to live and not die.

The Kashmir voters have opted for a new life and they will enjoy this winter. The happiest event in India in 2008 is the Kashmir elections.
Meanwhile I tried hard to give my viewers the best of 2008. So far I have ended up in reading and watching TV channels only. The war in Gaza is worrying.

All channels and Dailies have started listing the best and worst of 2008. I also start with Top Ten Tamil movies 2008, the easiest to do!

2008 has not been good for the Tamil film industry. There was confusion again as star actor films flopped and small budget films with new faces were hit. The viewers no longer could be fooled by masala and obscenity.

My choice of the good ones: 
Subramainiapuram
The main attraction was story and scenes set to Madurai of the 1980s. Sashi decided to produce the film himself after failing to get producers. Director Sashi Kumar was the assistant of Ameer and Bala who produced Paruthiveeran. The film turned out to be the hit of 2008. One song ‘Kangal Irundhal’ became a hit but the limitations of James Vasanthan has been exposed.
Anjathe
Director Mysskin’s Anjathe February has made people still talk about it. This is his second hit after Chithiram Pesuthadi. This is a crime thriller and the film’s success is also due to performances by Prasanna, Ajmal and Naren.
Yaaradi Nee Mohini
This Dhanush hit is a remake of the Telugu runaway hit, Aadavari Maatalaku Ardhaale Verule.  Director Selvaraghavan’s screenplay and Dhanush made the movie a success. The original Teleugu version had Venkatesh and Trisha.
Saroja
Directed by Venkat Prabhu of Chennai-600028 fame Saroja was a hit. The mild humour and incidents is really different (Oru Vidhyasamana Kathai in the real sense).The biggest compliment Venkat Prabhu got was that it was projected to compensate the distributors’ losses from Rajni’s Kuselan!
Poo
The film’s success is mainly due to Parvathy’s performance. Moserbaer’s Poo is based on a creative Tamil story written by Tamilselvan.
Dasavatharam
It is difficult for any actor even to do a double role. Lot of technical and acting skills are required. To imagine performing in 10 roles is huge. Though some of the roles are boring, overall the film Dasavatharam is Grand. Commercially, the film was a huge success.
Vaaranam Aayiram
The young Surya as son with Sameera Reddy is better than the father role. Vaaranam Aayiram is director Gautham Menon’s tribute to his father. Though lengthy and narrative the film is not boring and the songs are good in music and video.
Santosh Subramanium
The girl from the movie ‘Boys’ Genelia’s cheerfulness is infectious and this movie has an entertaining story and worthy of family viewing.
Poi Solla Porom
A Hindi remake Khosla ka Ghosla is all about a middle class man trying to buy a home. After a long gap Mouli entertains with Boskey and Cochin Hanifa.
Alibhaba
Sudden twists and turns is the feature of this film.
Dhanam
The movie is not a hit but the challenging role by the heroine of ‘Pithamagan’ (Vikram’s love in the film) is worthy.

The Failures
I hear many movies with Ads and Promotion failed. Like Thenavattu, Aegan, Pandhayam, Dhaam Dhoom,Seval,Kadalil Vizhunden,Uliyin osai, Nepali, Indiralohathil Na Azhagappan and Bheema.
Shankar’s movies always make news. More if it stars Tamil superstar Rajnikant. Eindhiran shooting is in progress. I do not want to see Rajini doing stunts and tricks like Arnold or Jackie. I am bored of Rajini, his styles and stunts in politics and movies. But that will be in 2009.

I have chosen films that I heard about or forced to hear and view. Sure I have not seen some of the bests of 2008, but sure wish to see them in 2009.
For those people who have time here is the list of Tamil movies in 2008 and reviews. Click on the link below:
http://www.koodal.com/tamil/movies/reviews