Sachin Exclusive About Australia Test Series

Sachin Tendulkar has said the India-Australia series is about more than just how the Indian seniors play. "It's India versus Australia, it's not certain individuals versus certain individuals in their team," he said, responding to a question whether the seniors were under extra pressure, especially after Sourav Ganguly was not picked for the Irani Cup.

"It's about performing, and that is what the whole team should concentrate on doing," Tendulkar said. "We would just like to focus on our performance. It is both the countries competing against each other, so every little thing matters."

Tendulkar, however, avoided commenting on the Ganguly issue. "I would leave that to the captain, the coach, and the selectors. They have certain ideas in their minds and we have to abide by that."

Tendulkar, and the rest of the middle order, had an ordinary series in Sri Lanka, creating a debate over whether, and when, to phase out the Fab Four. Tendulkar started the Sri Lanka series needing 172 to become the world's leading run-getter in Tests, and three matches later he still needed 77.

"I just have to go and play my best," Tendulkar said. "Records will come if you keep playing well, and the focus will be on playing well. My mind is not on 76 runs, and it's not as if I can relax after getting 76 runs. For the four Tests, the team has some targets, and I am more focused on those."

The good news for India is that he is back to full fitness - he had injured his elbow in the last Test in Sri Lanka and missed the Irani Cup - and is feeling good about it. "Obviously coming back to the team you feel an energy like no other," Tendulkar said. "I have been working with our trainer, and it has worked out very well. Last two-three weeks have been quite good and I have been pleased with the way things have gone."

Tendulkar was speaking after India's first training session at the pre-series camp in Bangalore. "The first session we had has been very good. It was mainly a fitness-targeted session. We enjoyed it quite a bit."

The session went for over two hours, and focused on fielding and fitness. The team will go through more specific sessions - nets, open-wicket practice, and match simulations - in the coming days. The first day of the camp was attended by most of the Test squad that played in Sri Lanka. The players missing from those 16 were Ganguly, the wicketkeepers Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel - since Mahendra Singh Dhoni is back - Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha, who will play for Board President's XI against the Australians. The additions at the camp were Mohammad Kaif, who took Ganguly's place in the Rest of India team for the Irani Cup, and Dhoni.

The squad for the Tests is yet to be announced, and the players present at the camp are believed to have been called by the captain and the coach. India's new selection committee will meet on October 1 to pick the team for the first two Tests, which means the tour game in Hyderabad will have no bearing on the team for the first Test in Bangalore.

Poi Solla Porom-Tamil Movie Review

Starring: Karthik Kumar, Preethi, Nedumudi Venu, Mouli, Nazer, Delhi Ganesh

Direction: Vijay

Music: M G Shree Kumar

Production: Priyadarshan
Rating:****(Out Of 5)



Interesting title, that’s the first thing that you notice about the movie. Has it got anything to do with Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar, one might be tempted to ask. Take a look at the trailer and one is left even more confused. What is Nasser doing with a hack saw, hacking away at Nedumudi Venu’s torso, or what is he doing in a boxing ring surrounded by a bevy of beauties? Questions that cannot be answered easily. One thing is for sure, the movie is definitely not the kind that releases every Friday. It might be a rib tickling comedy, a comedy of errors, or satire on some contemporary social scenario full of black humor, or it could be anything else.


The interesting thing here is the cast. Nasser and Nedumudi Venu need no introduction, but we don’t see them playing funny parts very often. Nasser has been stereotyped in recent times with an air of seriousness while Nedumudi Venu moves routinely in and out of Iyer or Iyengar roles in select films. But here, they get a chance to explore their more lighter sides. Then there are Haneefa and Delhi Ganesh who can bring the house down, given the right chance. Then, the most interesting part, the bald man of TV, Bosskey. We have seen him at his nonchalant sarcastic best in talk shows, what can he deliver on the big screen? We are not forgetting that Karthik Kumar plays the lead here.

The intriguing thing here is that Priyadarshan has produced the movie. He is generally known to direct rib ticklers and produce down to earth films. This script should have had something special to get him to produce it. Another interesting aspect is the director. He debuted with Kreedom and who thought that after all the critical acclaim and moderate box office success, he would have chosen a relatively low profile production. In his hands, one believes the film would have shaped up well.


The music by playback singer M.G.Shreekumar doesn’t seem to have made much of an impact and this might detract a bit from the movie. The trailers too gives the movie an up market ‘niche’ which could work both ways, but the makers know what best to do with the movie.

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Sa-Ro-Ja Movie Review

With almost everyone of the cast and crew of Chennai-28 are there in the movie at least in a small role, Saroja takes us back to the cricket story while taking Tamil cinema front in terms of film making and story telling.Dialogue is simply superb by venkat prabhu

The story is so simple. The screenplay is straight forward. And the execution is honest. It starts with four youngsters Jagapathi Babu (S P Charan ), Ganesh Kumar (Premgi), Ajay Raj (Shiva) and Chinni (Vaibhav) leave for Hyderabad to watch a cricket match.

They lose their way due to a tanker mishap on the National Highway they travel and enter the ‘den’ of a rowdy gang, which had kidnapped Saroja (Vega), the daughter of a rich entrepreneur Vishwanathan (Prakasraj).

With Vishwanathan and his friend Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravichandran (Jayaram) taking steps to get Saroja back, the four-member team rescues her and escape from the kidnappers after all travails.

However, when they are about to reach a safe place, they are into a sudden shock, which turns entire things upside down. What’s it is the interesting climax, which is interesting, gripping and of course breathtaking.

All four lead actors- Charan, Premgi, Shiva and Vaibhav have come out with their best. No need to talk about Prakashraj and Jayaram, both synonyms with apt performance. Nikitha oozes glamour while Vega emotes well.

The real strengths of the movie are Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music and Sakthi Saravanan’s cinematography. Both do magic from the beginning till end, not to forget about the editing by Praveen K L and Srikanth N B.

In short, Saroja shines and sizzles and undoubtedly a trendsetting movie like Chennai-28. And all credits should go to

King Khan's Smoking Controversy

Denying reports that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was found smoking on the campus of a Sikh institution in Amritsar, the Punjab government said it knew nothing about the matter and had not complained about it to the union Health Ministry.

"No report had been sent by the Punjab government to the union Health Ministry," said Punjab's Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla.

"I don't know where these reports are coming from. We have not filed any complaint (against Khan). I have again just checked with the health director. I cannot even say anything about whether he smoked there or not," Chawla said.

Reports in a section of the media said the union Health Ministry, following a Punjab government complaint against the actor's smoking in the Khalsa College, had issued notice to him.

College functionaries, who did not want to be identified, said they were shown a picture of the superstar smoking but were not sure if the campus in the background was of their college.

"We pointed out that the photograph did not look like that of the college. We have nothing more to say on this," a functionary said.

Despite the reports, no Sikh organisation in Amritsar or elsewhere in Punjab has protested against Khan's alleged act. Smoking is prohibited in Sikh religion and also in all Sikh institutions.

Khan has been shooting in the holy city of Amritsar for his next film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

Wipro Reduces 1000 Employees For Low Performance

Wipro Technologies, an IT solution firm, is screening around 2,400-3000 employees (4-5 percent of the total workforce) on the grounds of non-performance. According to sources, around 1000 employees are being given the pink slips, while about 2000 are allowed to move on.

As per a report in The Economic Times, the company will provide some of the employees with counseling for boosting up their performance. Pratik Kumar, Wipro's Corporate VP (human resources), confirming the move, said, "It's a regular annual exercise. As the appraisal cycle gets over, a multi-layer review happens. Following that, people who have fallen in the lower quadrants of performance are put on watch. Some are asked to pull up and others are asked to move on." It includes all the 60,000 global IT services employees from the senior leadership team down to the person with one-year experience.On the number of the employees who had been asked to move on, Kumar said the company did not disclose the number. But it was "significantly lower than 2,000" as company sources said about 1,000 employees were being asked to leave.

The employee base in Wipro has also come down from 62,070 to 61,345, as seen in the quarter ended June. But the company refutes it to be related to the slowdown and rather emphasizes it to be industry driven move. Kumar says, "It's not just our view, but the industry's view, that we have to be thoughtful of additions and drive productivity. We took a closer look at our hiring and realized that we did not need to hire more, since there were people on the bench."

However, the companies who have recently adopted the trend of giving off pink slips at anytime, decline it as a move to push through the slowdown era. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country's largest IT services firm, had given pink slips to 500 non-performers. IBM, too, had asked about 700 employees in India to leave, citing non-performance. In July, Patni Computer Systems had shown the door to 400 employees.

Thamana photos