Not much to Gloat about Floats

Well, here comes another of my quick but crazy posts (technical you see :D..). I happened to spend some time yesterday trying to figure out a particular way of rendering a HTML page when I observed that some part of the text was truncated across pages when printed. That was when this post originated. After spending hours on the issue, the samaritan I am, I decided that nobody's time is worth spending on figuring out this issue. Though initially very obscure, the culprit was "Float".

I wouldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that such an innocuous CSS element could be such a potential blockhead. Now that I had promised to keep my post really short, let me try to put this in the most straight forward terms..

Float : is a CSS property of any object (object.style.cssFloat) that can be set to "left", "right", "inherit" or "none".

Purpose : Initially created for placing text or images within a container. But this usage can even be extended to other container elements like DIV, SPAN etc..

Usages : object {
float:left
}

(DiV1) (span1 style="float:left")

(/span1)
(span2)

(/span2)

(/dv1)

Common Pitfalls:

* The most common mistake that we commit is not providing sufficient place for the element which we are floating. So if we have absolute specifics like width etc., we have to ensure that there is sufficient amount of space for the float to render. If not the browser dutifully renders it at the next line where sufficient space would be available.

* A good thing that you should always do while floating containers is to specify where the next element should render. For example in the above case, we have said what should be done with span but nothing about span2. Hence the browser would again take charge and render it as close as possible to span1, which is again a potential screw up. So having a "clear:right" would have been the ideal thing to do here.

* Contents of float element can overlap, hence all the inline entities should be placed after the floated element.

As a parting note, you might also want to specify the overflow of the container elements to prevent any visual mishaps. Float property has many peculiarities across various browsers and wouldn't be an advisable option to scatter it ruthlessly across pages. Moreover, the issues caused by floats aren't readily debugg'able. Beware guys ! stay limited with the usage of floats..

Remake rules !!

"என்ன கொடுமை சரவனன்ன்..."("What a disaster, Mr.Saravanann..") was all that I could say when we decided to watch the latest flick "Billa". Despite my earlier resolve not to venture into filmdom, I know that I have to commit this cardinal crime at least this once. Quite lamentably, it is once in ages that a tamil movie gets released in hyderabad, thanks to the remakes. Speaking of remakes, let me educate my non-tamil readers that Billa is the remake of the remake of the original, the original being the Big B's "Don". Oh yeah, it also happens that the first Billa was screen-presented by our "SuperStar" Rajinikanth.



As an all time fan, I knew what to expect from our dear "Thala" ("Head") a.k.a "Ultimate Star", as he is known to his dearest fans. There are certain things that has ever been beyond the horizon for our Thala,

* Expression
* Dialogue delivery
* Dance (There are more importnat things in acting, for Gods' sake !!)

But then there are several important traits that our Thala possesses,

* The trademark expression that never ceases to amaze us, his hardcore fans !
* The physique for donning any filmy attire
* Punch (both verbal and physical)
* Three day old stubble

Billa was a fluent portrayal of an anti-hero, with the usual glamor and grandeur that can attributed to the villains of today. The heriones were at their flashy best througout the movie. And dude ! You aren't supposed to expect expressions from the bad guys. They should be STONE COLD !! True to this fact, every character in the movie was at his/her expressionless best. Oh yeah, exceptions are that there can be comedy and song sequences at all inconceivable situations. But then they serve their purposes, they always take you by surprise :). Added to the hilarious chow was the DSP, main character in the plot being subjected to all sort of ludicrousness. Right from the hero to the comedian and a non-absolute kid have a go at the DSP. To be frank, Santhanam screen presence was the only time when the comedy was palatable.

A couple of songs flicked from the old billa were quite nicely remade much to the taste of the audience. Our thala looks ultimately fit throughout the movie. Obviously, he has literally ramp-walked umpteen kilometers in every song in the movie. The action sequences are the highlight of the movie where we have our heroine as a Ninja-girl jumping from the top of the Petronas towers :). Our thala can drive a car in such a splendid fashion that even NFS specialists would bow down in odium. The best part of the movie is the surprise element..you'll be surprised with the lack of surprises in the movie. This would be an eulogy to the old Billa as the director has not tampered with the plot maintaining its sanctity. All things said and done the movie is definitely going to be a box office burner, thanks to us, hardcore thala fans who would devotedly cheer every move made by him. This movie might not make it into the awards ceremony, heck ! who cares.. remake still rules !!

Movie Bottomline : Beware - Thala all the way !

Anger.. where art thou ?

"Don't you ever get angry ?" asked one of my close associates (accomplice ??). I gave yet another wry smile of mine in a cold fashion which would have even put off a wisecrack. The matter was dismissed thus with an utter disregard for the question.It was a couple of days later that I realised the question had struck a few strings within me. Something about the question disturbed me very much. It wasn't a serious impediment to my normal thought process, but it did lurk up occasionally causing some uneasiness within me.

When the frequency of this "gyan darshan" increased, I decided to sort it out once and for all. This seemingly simple remark had raised quite a few questions the answers to which wasn't as simple. I felt as if I had lost an emotion, an emotion which was quite frequent in the past. Now this part is very tricky, anger is definitely not one of the better human emotions that you would want to stick to. This is what happens when you lose something that you possessed for so long a time. The dicey part component is that you never know whether you should be happy or sad. Part of me was happy that I was oblivious to anger, while the other part was quite concerned whether I had lost the capacity to get angry...


The next few days were quite funny when I think of them now. I tried my level best to get angry at every possible opportunity. I hoped to surprise my friends with my "attitude", but I ended up surprised when they found my antics rather comical ! The more I tried to get angry, the more aware I was of my thoughts and the more I felt as if I were fabricating anger. It was pretty pathetic when you consider my attempts at getting angry. But there was definitely one thing that I gained out of this.. I could easily pretend anger with amazing ease. I was no longer artless...

Then one day it happened.. for a few moments my mind was under seizure, I couldn't think clearly, I was definitely in a different plane altogether. Some uneasiness hit me from the most unexpected quarters and brought along with it the emotion which I had lost. I was getting angry, but habits stay alive my dear; I could see and feel that I was getting angry. Well, it lasted for hardly a few seconds but again the impacts stayed long enough. For some strange reason, happiness was what I felt after that. I had not lost the capability to get angry ! Well, the next question wasn't far out there.. Does a man require negative emotions to make him complete ? Well, the search goes on.

The Godfather

This is going to be a unique post, quite different from any of my earlier ones. For once this is dedicated to one of my non-regular readers, who surprised me with the fact that he hasn't come across this masterpiece. It's come as a surprise even to me, a lazy bone like mine, undergoing all the trouble to draft a post at the most innocuous of times. This is going to be a combo review, a book -movie combo that I chanced upon to read-view within the span of the past week. I am pretty sure that each of my readers must have either read the book or watched the movie "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo. I happened to read it for the third time a couple of weeks ago when the inspiration to watch the movie was aroused within me. For the book lovers, nothing can equal the vivid description provided in the book. The smell of print and paper provides the icing for the wonderful delicacy wrought by the author.

Thankfully,for once, the movie provides ample justice to the book by taking into account the most innate details depicted in the book. For those who haven't watched the movie, please do so. Believe me, it is definitely worth it ! Marlon Brando and Al Pacino are simply amazing in their roles as Don Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone. Though the movie had some variation from the book, it recapitulates the charm of the story with its screenplay and music scores.Some of the differences that I could notice were;

* The history of Don Vito Corleone is not shown in the movie.
* Johnny Fontane isn't a very prominent character in the movie.
* The character of Dr.Jules is not even mentioned in the movie.
* The plot in the movie ends with the murder of the heads of the five families whereas the book is more benevolent, killing just the Tattaglia and Barzini.

The movie does score over the book in certain areas; the pace is quite pleasant in the movie whereas the book seems to be a bit too descriptive in certain places like Michael's stay in Corleone. The movie shows the cold-blooded politeness of the underworld in a scintillating fashion which seems extremely realistic. The music scores are so wonderful that it makes an impact on you without diverting the attention from the screenplay. Brando's presence is the magical mix that makes the movie a marvel. The scene where he says "Look, how they have massacared my boy!" to the undertaker Bonasera is one of the masterpiece of acting that has ever come up on the silver screen. The dialogues spoken in Italian have actually added the realistic flavor to the movie, despite this being not being a bi-lingual flick. No wonder the movie has been rated, the third best movie of the century ! Irrespective of the cause, the result is the same..Be it the movie or the book, both issue out an offer which you can't refuse !!

Happy Happy days !!

Back to a movie review says the Titan, No, not just because my readers prefer it, but because the Titan feels like writing one today. Its been aeons since I felt any movie was good enough to be even reviewed. Let me bang in no surprises, my dear readers, I was already a Sekhar Kammula fan and just couldnt miss out his latest flick, "Happy Days". The only telugu movies that I relish watching inevitably turn out to be kammula's and thats how I found myself being converted into a fan of his. Typical of his movies, the story is neither brilliant nor unearthly. "Happy Days" is a very commonplace movie that even one of can contrive. But that's what makes Kammula stand apart, the way he transforms these seemingly trivial stuff into the magical movies is simply amazing.

Happy days spans over the four years of a bunch of college going students. Thats all the story is about !! Reminded of Godavari ?? :-)... Well, thats Kammula for you. Coming back to 'happy days', the story begins with the most intimate description of the life of freshers stepping into the engineering colleges. The way each of the lead characters is defined is simply amazing which every you can easily identify yourself with. A studious and all serious guy, a simpleton coming up the hard way, a sincere and devoted guy who does all things with utmost patience, an easy-go rich brat, an all rounder with not-so-bad marksheets, a tom-boyish girl, a college beauty... just name any kinda character you want, you get it in the movie. Among these, two characters deserve a definite mention here and are provided a bit stronger outline than the others. First, Rajesh the typical big shot's son who has entered with one eternal goal, somehow spend four years at college and get a certificate. The second would be Tyson, the straight-forward, ultra patient and steadfast student who perseveres to achieve his end.

The first half exhibits the typical samples of college life,
> Ragging
> Nagging
> Engineering drawing :P
> canteen restrictions
> English lecturer
> Fresher's party (Ahem..)
> x-year vs z-year tussles
> Assignments and night-outs before exams
> Tours (industrial visits ?? )
> 'extraaa'- curricular activities (Okay .. here I would let the readers guess the rest :D)

Typical to the Indian movies, there is the usual college-romance between a couple of the lead pairs. The movie touches almost all the pleasurable aspects of engineering education. (Well, what else could the director afford to show ..even a fleeting glimpse of electrical lab could have put me off !!) But we have to give due credit to the screenplay, it simply zips you back to your college days. The rest of the movie is a mixture of break-ups, patch ups, and mix-ups. What makes the movie magical is the detail of on-screen depiction, minor facts like hostel mess, club-rooms, same-pinche's and anniversary-trees are shown so casually that it literally transports the audience into the college-campus. For example, the scene where one of the guys borrows money and bike from his gang shows the level of attention given to each section of the screenplay and direction. The movie is strewn with an amazing array of songs which are again typical of Kammula's movies. Kudos to Mickey for his absolutely stunning music scores ! Also the entire movie is shot within the same college premises (CBIT, Hyd) which again shows that low-budget movies can also be money-makers.

As with other Kammula movies, the comedy is subtle and adds gaiety to the story. With such a weak story line it simply amazes me how the movie manages to hold your attention for the entire duration of the movie. Well, who cares.. as long as I don't have to comprehend human-impossible feats and out-of-place characters, I am a happy audience. But identifying yourself with the characters of the movie is quite a different recipe that leaves a lingering aroma and tinge of joy in your heart !