First report: Fans verdict on Veeram and Jilla

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The Pongal festival has begun early in Tamil Nadu with the releases of much-hyped Vijay's Jilla and Ajith Kumar's Veeram. The two star's films have hit the screen today and with a lot of fans catching up with early morning show, here is their first report on the two films.

Ajith's Veeram

#Mass commercial movie mixed with action, comedy and sentiments. Wholesome family entertainer!

# Overall it is Thala all the way. His stylish and solid performance and his dare-devil stunts are a highlight.

# Families should enjoy this, and for sure all Thala fans should too.

# Fun, romance, action, 2nd half: Sentiment & action.

# Ajith's wholesome package for the masses.

# Veeram is a typical masala with Ajith's screen presence and charisma.

# First half full mass and comedy. Perfectly packaged commercial entertainer.

Vijay's Jilla

# Good entertainer with good songs, choreography and an awesome combo of Vijay & Mohanlal, while the second half is lengthy.

# Jilla's biggest strength are Imman's songs and BGM. Great cinematography and excellent choreography by Raju Sundaram & Sridhar.

# 1st half- mass entertainer! 2nd half- a bit lengthy, but entertaining!

# There are several scenes where fans will erupt in celebration. At the same time, some scenes are dragging.

#All the cast do their jobs well, but Vijay and Mohanlal steal the show. Both do their parts well, and show their mass.

# 3 hours too long for a mass movie. Song picturisation is a worry.

# Mass overload. Vijay and Mohanlal pack a punch, but this sure is a disappointment.

'Veeram' Review Roundup:

 Complete Masala Entertainer for Ajith's Fans

Ajith's new film "Veeram" has received positive reviews from critics, who have termed it as a complete masala entertainer.

"Veeram" revolves around Vinayagam (Ajith) and his four brothers played by Vidarth, Bala, Munish and Suhail. Vinayagam is a vegetable wholesale dealer in a village and a ruffian, who deals violence with violence. He is a bachelor, who is fond of his brothers and detests marriage.

His brothers want him to get married so that they can get hitched with their love interests. They devise a plan along with Santhanam, their lawyer and friend, to make Vinayagam fall in love with Kopperundevi (Tamannaah), an architecture student who works with a group that restores old statues in temples.

Vinayagam slowly gets attracted to Kopperundevi and falls in love with her. Kopperundevi also reciprocates his love, but when she comes to know about his violent acts she distances herself from him. Vinayagam decides to mend his ways for the sake of his love, but when he comes to know that a convict (Atul Kulkarni) is planning to seek revenge and destroy Kopperundevi's family, he decides to stop him and protect his lover's family at all cost.

SOS buried in bottle 54 years ago warned about vanishing glaciers

At a time when glaciers are melting at an alarming pace, an SOS buried in a bottle 54 years back in the Canadian Arctic, and unearthed now, sent a distress signal about the world's rapidly disappearing glaciers.

An American geologist Paul Walker, concerned about the melting of ice, buried a message in a bottle during his exploration of Ward Hunt Island in Nunavut, Canada, in 1959.

He measured the distance - about 1.2 metres - from a glacier to where he buried the message in a bottle, requesting that anyone who found the note contact him with an update on the glacier's distance to the bottle site, Chronicle Herald reported.

Unfortunately, owing to medical reasons, he died the same year he left the note.

For 54 years, the message remain hidden until this summer, Warwick Vincent, a geologist at Laval University, discovered Walker's note in a glass vessel, the report added.

To his astonishment, in little more than 50 years, the original distance of 1.2 metre between the glacier and the bottle was now measured at 101.5 metres - approximately a soccer field's length of ice melted away.

"We captured the complete loss of this ice shelf. Suddenly, we caught this open water, we think for the first time in thousands of years. The changes are extraordinary, particularly the last 10 years, and especially the last two years," Vincent was quoted as saying.

What did he do to the Walker's note? Well, Vincent placed the original note where it belonged - back in the bottle. But the truth is out.

According to NASA, Earth is losing half a trillion tonnes of ice per year. "A study finds that the world's small glaciers and ice caps in places like Alaska, South America and the Himalayas contribute about 0.02 inches per year to sea level rise," Tom Wagner, cryosphere programme scientist at NASA, was recently quoted as saying.

Even scientists are anxious that melting glaciers are causing earth's axis to shift, creating new changes in weather patterns.

Top of the Agenda Top of the Agenda: South Sudan Fighting Continues as Talks Begin in Ethiopia Heavy fighting continued Wednesday in South Sudan's Unity and Jonglei states, prompting President Salva Kiir to declare a state of emergency there as government and rebel negotiators travelled to Addis Ababa, where East African leaders are seeking to broker a cease-fire (WSJ). The strategic town of Bor, Jonglei's capital, fell to rebel forces on Tuesday; it is said to be a gateway to the national capital, Juba. Relief groups said 75,000 South Sudanese have converged on the town of Awerial, outside Bor, where food, shelter, and clean water are scarce (Guardian). They are among the 200,000 that UN officials have said have been displaced in just over two weeks of conflict (al-Jazeera).

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I WISH U A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR IN 2014.MAY ALL YOUR WISH COME TRUE...........

Christmas - celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ

Christmas or Christmas Day is an auspicious religious festival for Christians. It is being celebrated every year on the specified date December 25 with great fervor to commemorate the birth and life of Lord Jesus Christ. Christians on this occasion gather at the churches in the morning for the 'church service', popularly known as mass, for Christ. Christmas, nominally a holiday is observed in various innovative ways apart from following traditional practices that includes: preparation of dishes, exchanging gifts, offering prayers and enjoying meal with family members. Following the centuries old customs and beliefs, Christians will observe Christmas 2013 on Wednesday in the month of December.

For pilgrims and ardent followers of Jesus, Christmas is a season for pilgrimage. To make long and tiresome journeys to shrines or the sacred city Bethlehem, located in Palestine, Jerusalem that is believed to be the birthplace of Jesus according to the New Testament Gospels of Luke and Matthew.

Merriment of Christmas has a long history and believed to bring goodwill. For many people, this festival is truly a magical season as they can stay at their houses and spend some good moments with their friends and family members. Christmas is a very special occasion for children because they fantasize Santa Claus travelling a long journey carrying fancy gifts for them. 

The festivity of Christmas usually continues nearly for a month. But preparation gears up a few weeks ahead of Christmas. Houses, churches and offices are fascinatingly embellished with colourful lights to mark the religious festival in a grand way. Delicious cuisines and traditional dishes such as turkey, fruit cake, roasted potatoes, fudges and more are an integral part of this celebration. 

Christmas is celebrated across the world following customs that varies from one to another country. But certain customs prevails irrespective of geographical boundary that includes sending warm Christmas greetings, fancy Christmas gifts and Christmas cards; to hold nativity plays, beautify Christmas tree and visit church to sing Christmas songs praising or reliving baby Jesus and Holy Mother Mary.

The excitement of the festival is also expressed and shared with lovely and snappy Christmas SMS or messages. Happy Christmas and Merry Christmas quotes available in varied languages are also popular as successful medium to share the spirit of joy and peace of the occasion.

Christmas tree, known as Yule tree, has a distinctive significance in this festival. The Christmas tree is adorned with beautifully wrapped gifts, ribbons and attractive items to make the occasion more pleasant. But with the growing awareness to protect trees and go Eco-friendly, people now opting for artificial Yule tree at their houses to observe Christmas.

Christmas is the best time for a vacation. As New Year follows the festivity, people plan for long rejuvenating vacation making the occasion a memorable one. 

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