Selvaraghavan's movies are never perfect.. I personally didn't like his maiden venture (as writer) in "Thulluvadho Ilamai". But he made us sit up and take note of him with "Kaadhal Kondein" and "7G Rainbow Colony". Again, these were not perfect movies: they had some bad acting at certain scenes, some loopholes in the story. But they worked, because Selva makes movies that you can instantly connect to. He is a time tested master at showcasing situations and emotions in a boy-girl relationship that other directors dared not to enter into (at least before his entry into Tamil cinema). And with "Pudhupettai" and "Aayirathil Oruvan", he scaled new peaks though both the movies had a lot of sloppy scenes. "Mayakkam Enna" is a near-realistic story of a young and aspiring wildlife photographer Karthik alias Genius (Dhanush) who wants to make it big. Along the way, he falls in love with the girl whom his friend is dating, marries her, gets back stabbed by the man he considers as his idol in wildlife photography, meets with an accident and goes mentally unstable. What happens next makes for a gripping last 20 minutes.
Typical of all other Selva's movies, this movie has its share of positives and negatives. Addressing the negatives first, the screenplay is ordinary at instances and as a result, some scenes are not clearly understandable straight away. Maybe it is because the movie was wrapped up in less than two months from start to finish. But compared to his other ventures, the screenplay here wasn't the best.
Secondly, the first half, though is entertaining, I'm not clear on why it even exists. Its almost as if there are two separate movies: the first half where Dhanush falls in love with his "nanbanin kaadhali" :P and the second half where he goes mentally unstable.
Thirdly, the growth of Dhanush to the standard of an international photographer is shown in something like two minutes. Similarly, some other sequences are abrupt and leave a lot to be desired.
Finally, the casting of Dhanush (with due respect to the national award winning actor) is questionable. He does his role well, yes, but I thought the part where he goes mental could have been portrayed better with someone of more versatility (I don't know, Vikram, maybe, or even Ajith). Maybe the other actors weren't brave enough to play the role or maybe Selva didn't bother approaching them, but I personally think that the movie would have been better that way.
Despite all these, "Mayakkam Enna" is my Tamil movie of the year (I can't compare this with "Deivathirumagal" because the latter is an outright copy of "I am Sam"), because this movie has a soul. It is a modern fairy tale, told in typical Selva style, that tells you to chase your dreams and respect friends and family and be grateful for them. I am totally for it. That is exactly where Selva scores.
Dhanush, as usual, delivers a powerhouse performance and shows a lot of maturity in acting for his age. But, as mentioned earier, this role demands more versatility than even Dhanush's capacity but still he does a neat job of it. Kudos, Dhanush.
Richa Gangopadhyay (photo below) makes a dream debut. A role of immense scope and she scores! She's one of the best finds of this year, if you ask me. I was seriously moved in the scene where she breaks down while she cleans the floor of her own blood due to the miscarriage.
The other friends and family of Dhanush all almost play their roles to perfection. Some scenes are sheer poetry: like the one where Dhanush falls down mesmerised while capturing a photograph of a bird (the photo below), the scene when he requests an old woman to pose for a photo, the climax and most importantly, the scene during the end credits (dont walk out when the movie ends; wait for the end credit; the small scene in it is perhaps the best part of the movie).
All songs are good, though the "Pirai Thedum" song is definitely the highlight. GV Prakash Kumar does a neat job in the background score: silent when necessary. Sometimes, a music director needs to also know when exactly to be silent. GVP scores a bull's eye in that regard in this movie.
I have spoken enough about Selva in the first paragraph, so I don't think I must go into telling that he proves his worth once again. I was pleasantly surprised to note that he has almost minimized the use of (his erstwhile popular) crass sexual innuendos in this movie to a bare minimum. Way to go, Selva!
The cinematography is decent. The editing could have been better. Yes, the second half reminds one of "A Beautiful Mind", agreed, but its more than that. It doesn't feel like a copy of that movie, rather it only complements it. Whether it was inspired from "A Beautiful Mind" or not, only Selva should answer. Overall, if you have an open mind, you will enjoy this "Mayakkam Enna". Or if you expect a movie where the "hero" has to have three fight sequences, two romantic songs and one intro song and should jump 20 floors without getting hurt, you better not watch this movie rather than watching it and commenting all nonsense about it. I'd give it 7 out of 10. With better screenplay i would have given it even a 9! Sorry, Selva, but thanks for this movie: just next time, take some time to make your screenplay perfect.
Imitaz Ali's newest offering starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri has more stuff working for it than not. But the problem is that it tries too hard to be an epic, which unfortunately is visible!
The story revolves around the life of Janarthan alais Jordan (Ranbir) who aspires to be a rockstar. I have to admit: When I walked into the movie, if someone had said that there could be another contribution to the movie as good as Rahman's music, I would have laughed at it. But then, there was Ranbir playing the best role of his lifetime and by the end ofthe movie, I really had myself doubting, which of the two was better: Ranbir's performance or Rahman's music. Truly fabulous performance by Ranbir.
The subtle changes in body language that Jordan displays during the various phases of his life - the naive Jordan, the Jordan trying to impress Keer (Nargis Fakhri), the Jordan madly in love with Keer, the Jordan after Keer gets married to someone else, the Jordan after he is grounded from his home, the Jordan when he gets to meet Keer again, etc etc - are an absolute treat to watch.
Nargis Fakhri is drop dead gorgeous, yes, and she does extremely well for a newcomer, yes, but for a role of such huge scope, my personal opinion is that Imitaz should have played it safe by having a more versatile actor playing the role..! The biggest problem with the movie is that Nargis's performance - though good- is not convincing enough. She is much better than the many new stone-faced actors but still, her chemistry with Jordan is not as good as the Saif-Deepika chemistry was in "Love Aaj Kal" or the awesome Shahid-Kareena chemistry in "Jab We Met". Maybe that is where Imitaz Ali misses a trick or two..
Rahman's background score is an absolute value addition and along with the beautiful cinematography carries the first half through without an effort. Sometimes people walk out of theater during songs. In this movie, even those who had strayed outside now and then came rushing in when a song starts: the power of Rahman!
The cinematography - especially the scenes in Kashmir got me breathless. Fantastic work there!
The "love can cure any disease" segment in second half almost got me irritated. Eu tu, Imitaz! It is at certain sections in the second half that you almost get bored of what should have been highly emotional scenes (please note: those who loved "Twilight" could call these scenes the best scenes in Bollywood film history. I have no comments about that!). After a point, you just want to know what happens at the end.. The movies starts dragging, when Keer gets hospitalized. Even Jordan calls her and asks "Tum kab mar rahi ho?". You read my mind there, Jordan! :P
One should appreciate Imitaz Ali for venturing into uncharted territory - yes there was "Rock On", but it was a rock version of "Dil Chahta Hai" - and doing reasonably well in that.
Overall, its worth a watch for ARR's awesome awesome music and Ranbir's carrer best role.
By Tuesday night, reviews of A.R.Murugadoss's long awaited magnum-opus "7am arivu" had come: Scathing reviews accused that the movie was over-hyped and that it fails to deliver miserably.
However, having booked for "7am arivu" almost a week before all of this, I was upset that I had wasted another 120 bucks of my money for another boring venture. Note: I had watched "Raavanan", "Kaavalan", "Manmadhan Ambu", etc this year, some of them FDFS only to be disappointed!
On Friday, I also watched "Velayudham" at Padmam for Evening Show and felt that it was a nice popcorn entertainment movie and assumed that most people who claimed that "Velayudham" was better than "7am arivu" were correct!
So, I went to "7am arivu" for 7:15 show at Sunday morning expecting myself to be bored and irritated, but hey, to my pleasant surprise, found the movie to be NOT BORING, NOT IRRITATING and NOT MOKKAI..
Let us address the negative critics first before moving to the positives: 1. That the movie was over-hyped:
Very true, from what I hear. But I don't watch too much of TV (yes, even the Diwali special shows included), so I was thankfully masked from most of the hype. But judging from the outcry of so many people, I guess that yes, the movie was probably a little over-hyped, but so what?
I have seen worse movies that were over-hyped (I can name those but that would needlessly start a war of words between "mass hero" fans) and this one definitely is much much better than that!
2. That the storyline was absurd:
True! But hey, its not a documentary about the life of "Bodhidharman" to have a plausible, believable story line. There is an element of fantasy in it and it was, I must say, well executed. Someone as smart as ARM should not have used the word "genetic memory" to explain how "Bodhidharman"'s memory and skills could be inherited by the present day Aravindan (Surya). Someone who understands what that term means would laugh at it.
Apart from that, I found nothing too absurd with the story. If you want reality, go watch Discovery channel! If you come to an escapist medium like Tamil Cinema and ask a hundred questions of how this is fair or not, plausible or not, believable or not is stupidity. Some suapension of disbelief is always necessary!
3. That the graphics were bad in the movie:
Firstly, I request everyone who claims that the graphics were bad in this movie to come and watch the movie in theater before complaining about the graphics. Even "Avatar" would have sucked to you people because you watched a TC rip of the movie in which the graphics were bad!
If, for a budget of 84 crores (that is what i heard! Correct me if I'm wrong!) someone could make a movie with better graphics than this, I would stop writing reviews!
4. That the first half was very boring:
I beg to differ! Time didn't drag on when i watched the movie, either in the first or second half. The biggest plus of the movie was the arresting cinematography by Ravi.K.Chandran. I never felt like walking out of the theater during any of the songs in the first half.
The love sequence between Surya and Sruthi Hassan was not boring, as many reviewers had put it, though it was difficult to believe that a circus artist would walk around in MGM, Skywalk, etc in new clothes at all times.
5. That the zombie-like fight sequence in the second half was funny:
It was deliberately meant to be that way. And the use of CG was near perfect, so stop blaming it! Kudos to ARM for bringing in a zombie like sequence for the first time in tamil film history! :D :P
6. That the use of "Eelam" has been deliberately made to gain people's sympathy and as a marketing gimmickry:
Please shut it, people! All I saw in the movie was a director's genuine angst against the atrocity committed over thousands of people in Lanka. It is ARM's first movie after the LTTE has been overthrown and obviously, he wanted to register his views too! Don't blow it out of proportions!
7. That Sruthi Hassan's acting was flat:
Yes, to this, I completely agree. She seems to have 4 or 5 standard expressions after which all she seems to be able to muster is a stone-face. A real insult to her daddy, if you ask me :D. If she were not as gorgeous as she is, I would actually hurl a few abuses at her! :P
8. That the movie praises Tamil Language when its not needed, and as a marketing gimmickry:
No, I think it is much needed. People who know a little bit of history will understand that the Tamils had a rich cultural heritage. ARM doesn't go overboard with his praises over the Tamil language. It is for the same reason that we misunderstood "Ayirathil Oruvan". A lot of pathetic Tamils couldn't understand the ancient Tamil language spoken in the second half.. Pathetic! Whether ARM praises Tamil language and Tamil culture or not, I am always a proud Tamil. Now that he has, I am just a little more proud!
Now that we have addressed the negatives, all I got to tell you is don't believe the fake reviews of people who haven't watched the movie.
Excellent technicians have played a vital role in making the movie crisp and entertaining. Just, keep your brain at home; go to the theater and enjoy some good popcorn entertainment.
I had seriously believed in the concept of something patriotic, some feeling of brotherhood, some freshness in the air I breathe - knowing that it was the air of freedom - and what not, whenever someone wished me "Happy Independence Day".
It took me along time to realize that almost everyone was wishing me as if they were machines, as if it were a ritual, an utterance for the sake of it. Why, I myself, was more concerned about the cultural event - in school - and the fact that it was a holiday - while in college - on Independence Day.
The youth are too enthused about Valentine's Day, the elderly are too concerned about their Diwali or Ramzan and the poor Independence Day and Republic Day seems to have no takers. Everyone is happy that it is a holiday.
"All right", you may ask, "so what should one do, on independence day?".
I do not ask of you to remember Gandhi and Bose and Bhagat Singh on this day and weep for their sacrifice. If you like them, remember them. That's your choice.
What we can, at least, do is to to assess, on every independence day, if we really are free. This is an almost cliched, old argument that I am almost yawning right now, at having repeating it over and over again.
I spoke of it, at first, at a speech during my school independence day speech. No one really bothered listening. (May be, I made a bad speech, I don't exactly remember). After this, I had again talked of how really independent we actually are on numerous occasions. The maximum those talks did were to win me a few prizes in a few oratorical competitions. However, I shall repeat it again, because I really don't think a vast section of our population is really independent.
In my book, Freedom is the ability to live your own life without unreasonable limitations.
In that regard, here are the three category of those who are not completely free:
1) Women:
For centuries, man has suppressed women, knowing full well the fact that she was mentally and intellectually tougher than him, using the only weapon he had at hand - brute force.
We can call our women free,
If our mothers can walk the roads bravely at night;
If our sisters can wear T-Shirts without worrying about whether cheap eyes will stare at them all the time;
If our wives (no pun intended) or girlfriends can travel in buses without worrying about some rascal standing behind them.
Though these lines are cliched, they are not outdated and still very relevant, which is why I choose to repeat it over and over again.
2) The Minorities:
No one faces such appalling lack of freedom after women in India as do the minorities.
Christians and especially Muslims are treated with prejudice.
Even among educated people, where Dalits are treated with sympathy, the most important commodity that they have been asking for years, "Respect" is still missing.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are often frowned upon by other castes, because of reservations allotted to them. This is especially prevalent among young Indians which is a frightening prospect, as it only confirms another generation of hatred.
3) Children:
Of all people, I choose children as the ones with lack of freedom because I strongly believe that they are the ones who are denied freedom at many levels.
They are robbed off their freedom for fun, by ambitious parents who want to make them ready for competitive world.
They are robbed off their freedom for choice, when they are forced by their parents to pursue a doctorate or an engineering, with least consideration for the choice of their children.
While the above mentioned criteria are the problems faced by children growing in educated families, the freedom for living itself is threatened for children living in poor and below poverty level conditions. The above mentioned categories comprise of a staggering 75% (by the most lenient of estimates) of our population. What we are going to do about it? I am clueless.
So, folks, happy Independence Day. Somehow, I just don't feel proud to say it.
Knowing that this was an adaptation of "I am Sam", I watched this movie with not a lot of expectations because I didn't like the original Sean Penn starer that much. But what stood out in that movie was the brilliant performance of Sean Penn. He carries the movie in his shoulders and makes it worth watching.
It was interesting to see the way director Vijay adapt the story for the tamil audience:
1) The protagonist's wife leaves the child in his hands as soon as she had given birth to the child as she wasn't interested in raising it in "I am Sam" but for the traditional tamil audience, that could be "immoral", so like all tamil films where the mother character is not needed, Krishna and his wife were supposedly in "love" and his wife dies in child birth! Wow, hats off, Vijay! :P
2) In the original English version, the lawyer (one of the best performances by Michelle Pfeiffer till date) agrees to handle Sam's case because, when she makes an occasional remark to her friends that she is handling Sam's case for free, they pass it off as a joke because everyone knows that she is money minded. In the tamil version, of course, the lawyer Anu, played by Anushka, cannot have shades of grey, because that could "shock" the audience, so Vijay makes us believe that she agrees to handle the case out of symathy for the child like Krishna (Chiyaan Vikram).
3) In the original, the friends of Sam have a larger role to play; here, they are reduced to a few scenes here and there. What Vijay misses here is a lot of innocent fun and laughter.
4) There are no negative characters in the original movie!
There, the child gets separated from her father because volunteers of child welfare feel that the child would be better off at foster care or given away for adoption than be with Sam, whereas, here, the child is plucked from the hands of Krishna by his in-laws. Krishna is shown as being fooled by them and thrown out of the car at the very first scene just to make us sympathise with him.
The characters of MS Bhaskar is shown to have negative shades, but why he abruptly turns good near the climax is anyone's guess.
Maybe it is because we tamil audience have long been familiar with the good vs bad story that directors are not risking making a movie with no negative shades at all.
5) In "I am Sam", we fell in love with the character played by Sean Penn. He was even nominated for the best actor category in the Academic Awards that year. The point to be noted is that the movie was in no point trying to exploit the disability of Sam at all. Here, Krishna falls down at the steps of court trying to catch a glimpse of his daughter, he gets beaten up by police because he refuses to move away from the place where he is standing: aren't the police even smart enough to realize that there is something wrong with the guy!
Never exploit someone's disability to make people sympathize for him. That's the cheapest trick at a director's arsenal and its sad that someone like Vijay who gave us a movie like "Madarasapattinam" has resorted to it!
However, the movie has a few noteworthy positives! 'Chiyaan' Vikram's costumes, hair style, even looks and mannerisms seem to have been inspired from Sean Penn's role in the original. As usual, he does a neat job.
Baby Saara as Nila is perhaps the cutest child artist Tamil Cinema has seen since the kid in "Sillunu Oru Kaadhal". The chemisrty between the dad and his girl child has been portrayed beautifully and that is why, the first half seems more enjoyable than the second!
Anushka, for a change, does not have to dance with skirts here and has ample scope to perform! She portrays the role of a young lawyer with enough dignity. But, however nice the "Vizhigalil oru vaanavil.." number may be, it is an unnecessary addition to the story.
Amala Paul is pretty and makes her expressive eyes give a few nice looks but does nothing more than that. She just seems to be a reason to take Nila away from Krishna. Nasser, Santhanam and the rest of the crew all do justice to their roles.
However, the finest moment of the movie comes right at the climax in the court scene when Hrishna meets his daughter after a long time! Brilliant performance by Vikram and Saara that would dampen the eyes of anyone however much you liked or didn't like any other part of the movie! :)
I do not choose to rate this movie, but, let me just say that it is a good local remake of an international classic made memorable by a brilliant performance by Sean Penn! The only sad point is that it could have been better!
I'm such a time travel movie freak that I have watched almost all decent time travel flicks. The ones that I have not watched are very few and include Pleasantville, Returner, Prince of Persia and Austin Powers series. And I have not included movies like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban because time travel is not a key part of the plot of that movie and certain other great movies where time travel is used only as a passing reference.
Make sure you read part 1 of this post here before you proceed with the Part 2.
Denzel Washington is a great actor, no doubt, but time and again he plays the lead in some riveting edge-of-the-seat thrillers. Deja vu is a perfect example. It's sad that I could not fit it at the to ten in my list but is equally as good as any movie that list of ten. In this movie, an ATF agent (Denzel Washington) travels back in time to save a woman (Paula Patton) from being murdered, falling in love with her during the process. The beauty of time travel paradoxes is subtly shown in the last scene. Guaranteed entertainment!
How many times have you felt that you love someone a lot but never knew how to express it? This movie tells you to show your love, to appreciate your partner NOW! After his impetuous musician girlfriend, Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt), dies in an accident shortly after they had a fight (and nearly broke up), a grief-stricken British businessman, Ian Wyndham (Paul Nicholls), living in London gets a chance to relive the day all over again, in the hope of changing the events that led up to her getting killed. This is one of those very under appreciated but beautiful movies. It is a romantic movie but its not cuddling or crying all the way. The movie has decent humor to sustain your interest throughout the length of it. Suitable for a warm afternoon watch with your partner.
Things are going great in the love life of Ruby (Marisa Tomei) and Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio ) till one day,Sam tells her that he is from the future - 2470 to be exact, traveling back in time to avoid prosecution for his sister's death, and to find Ruby, whose photo he saw back home. Sounds interesting doesn't it. The movie has a lot of humorous scenes to sustain your interest and never in the run time of 2 hours do you feel bored. Scenes involving Ruby and her girlfriends are absolute fun to watch for its comedy. Make sure you watch this one..
I stumbled upon this one by chance and loved it very much. In this movie, a Chicago playwright (Christopher Reeve) uses self-hypnosis to find the actress (Jane Seymour) whose vintage portrait hangs in a grand hotel.Self hypnosis for time travel can sound like an absurd idea bu kudos to the director for making it look believable. If you have the patience to watch this 41 year old movie, you would be rewarded with a heart rending climax.
I was seriously impressed by this movie. Made almost 32 years ago, the fact that it sustained my interest till the climax deserves special mention. There are certain plot holes but in one can be excused for overlooking them because the movie moves at a brisk pace. The plotline is that H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.Such a storyline offers plenty of scope for fun that only a time travel movie can provide and the movie does exactly that!
Lets face it. This movie, if you strip it off its racy screenplay, would melt down to nothing. But what made it interesting was the time-travel touch to it and the human factor involved. And also, honestly, I haven't watched a better screenplay in Hollywood this year than this. The climax is a bit of a dampener though. A lot of things were not properly explained and left much to be assumed. Watch the trailer and you'd know what I am talking about, when I say 'gripping'.. If you haven't watched it yet, well, what are you waiting for?
It would be unfair to not include this movie in this list, purely because H.G.Wells was the man who made the dream of time travel reach to millions through his works.And to not include his work in this list would be nothing short of sacrilege! Not just that, this movie has a decent story and is very well directed and considering that it is more than 50 years old, that itself is an achievement. You a time travel freak? Then, don't miss out on this movie!
If you haven't heard of this movie, you'd surely surprised when you watch it to find Keanu Reeves (yes, the 'Neo' of Matrix fame) play a dumb Ted along with his also idiotic best friend Alex Winter play Bill. The best thing about this movie is its tongue in cheek humor and i doesn't mind make fun of itself. There's no question of logic here. Time travel is used to its creative best level, especially in the last half an hour. Surely, it is one 'excellent' movie to watch with your family and friends and laugh out loud.
A 'Hangover' type guys' movie. Lot of crude jokes and sexual dialog combined with time travel madness and mayhem gives you 'Hot Tub Time Machine'. Other than that, it follows the path of all other time travel movies: people travel to the past with an opportunity to change their pasts; whether they do or not, is the only point where all time travel movies differ. Not that it is bad, but because it could have been much better, I rate it only 19th in my list.I felt that someoe like John Cusack had been wasted in the role.Otherwise, you ca always watch it for boyish fun!
If you like either Hugh Jackman or Meg Ryan, you would love this movie, because both are at their charming best here. But if you don't like them both, you may get bored here. In fact, the time travel element is the only interesting point of this movie. The story is the same old traditional time travel stuff where guy from past comes to the present and falls in love with a woman there. What happens after that is fairly predictable. Watch it if you have nothing else to do..
In the first three parts under this topic, we have seen in detail, how engineering, medical and the arts & science courses have deteriorated in standards over the last decade - in terms of admissions in the engineering stream, quantity and high cost of seats in the medical stream and the serious lack of even mere passion among the students of arts and science.
In the final part, the one topic that remains to be discussed is the Tamil Nadu government's recent decision to not abide by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms for the minimum required percentage for engineering admissions. Here's the story:
In 2010, the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr.M.Karunandhi announced that, "the state government, in order to make available engineering course to all sections of the student community, has laid down the minimum qualifying marks as 50 percent for general category, 45 percent for backward classes, 40 percent for most backward classes and 35 percent for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes."[1]. In late January, the AICTE had laid down minimum eligibility for general category students at 50 percent and 45 percent for all other categories from the academic year 2011-2012[2]. In May 5, 2011 - barely a week before its humiliating defeat in the state legislature elections - Mr.Karunanidhi made it clear that the Tamil Nadu government will not abide by the AICTE regulations and has decided to continue its own norms formulated last year. [1]
This decision is shocking because by doing this, the Tamil Nadu government opposes the highest body for technical education in the nation. And the decision comes in the backdrop where the number of engineering seats have increased by 15 to 20 thousand seats since last year to 1,50,000 seats in the state. More than 51,000 BE/B.Tech seats were lying vacant for want of students in the academic year 2009-10[3]. Less than 10 students were admitted in three private colleges! It is very clear that parents and students did not have faith in the quality of education provided in many private institutions and they could have also stayed away due to prohibitive costs of engineering education.This scenario raises many questions regarding the above-mentioned decision of the Karunanidhi government:
1. If the seats had not been filled properly in 2009, should not the Karunanidhi government been more worried about how to improve the quality of education and minimizing the cost levied by the private engineering colleges so that the poor scheduled castes and tribes are benefited, rather than blindly decreasing the eligible percentage?
2. If an ST student could not score even a 35% in his 12th exams, in what reality could we expect her/him to score the required 50% (to clear the subjects) in an even more testing and tougher stream such as engineering?
3. On what basis did the Karunanidhi government arrive on the figures of 45%, 40%, 35% and 30% for BCs, MBCs, SCs and STs respectively, which seems more like a numerical series than numbers with any intelligent basis of assignment?
4. By reducing the eligible percentage, the number of eligible students increase. Is this move more indicative of the view of the previous government that it is more imperative to fill seats rather than do anything to improve the quality of education?
My point is, to emphasize that the last ruling party in Tamil Nadu did nothing much to improve the standards of education in the state; in fact, I would say that they only contributed to decrease it unbelievable lows. With a new government in place, if the following changes occur, it would help improving the standards of education:
1. Bring back the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Exam (TNPCEE).
2. Follow the AICTE norms of minimum percentage for entrance exams.
3. Make the twelfth standard question papers more challenging and the corrections, more strict.
4. Enable career counseling and planning facilities to students in the final year of their schooling or if possible, during their 10th standard itself, to make students decide which path they would like to choose.
5. Appoint teachers to specifically train students in rural areas for exams like TNPCEE and AIEEE. This would stop the complaints from rural section that the presence of entrance exams favors only the urban students.
Let us hope for the best...
References:
[1]."TN rejects AICTE norms for engineering studies",
http://www.facenfacts.com/NewsDetails/8980/tn-rejects-aicte-norms-for-engineering-studies.htm
[2]. "Score 50% For Engineering: AICTE",
http://www.fullhyderabad.com/hyderabad-news/aicte-fixes-50-percent-marks-at-intermediate-to-study-engineering-3408
[3]. "Over 51,000 seats vacant in TN engineering colleges"
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-04/chennai/28133299_1_engineering-colleges-btech-seats-student-intake-strength
