Thoongavanam - A Noisy Night!

Tightly based on the French movie Nuit Blanche, Thoongavanam is a wannabe-taut-thriller which loses out from the original somewhere. May be it is the duration (89 vs 120 minutes) or may be it is just that we are too used to 5-songs, 4-fights, 3-melodrama, 2-parts, 1-climax formula.

Kamal acts as the corrupt-cop-cum-drug-buster-cum-divorced-husband-who-gives-tough-love-to-his-teenage-son.

A lot of ordinary scenes become extraordinary just because of him - even a simple facial twitch (e.g., father-son conversation while dropping him at school) is sufficient to elevate the experience. So nothing new there. But still at 61, doing his own stunts, running around like a 30-year-old is amazing to say the least. Let us just say that even his wound acts!

Prakash Raj and Sampath as drug-lords were more there for comic relief, me thinks. Prakash Raj even wonders how he would face the mother of one his dead henchmen, who was killed by Kamal & in another scene offers to waive a customer's bill after he bashes him up. So, the menace is kind of lost.

At no stage did one feel the angst of a father who is desperate to save his son - except for a couple of scenes, where Kamal bashes up the molester repeatedly or where he breaks down (no, not Nayakan style ;-) when Trisha feigns ignorance about the whereabouts of cocaine. The latter scene ends with a little gem when she casually tells where the bag is. Oh, by the way, the kid acts well and is kinda cute!

The film can boast of some excellent close-quarter fights, especially the one between Trisha and Kamal. Kudos to the director in not pulling the punches (literally!) in that sequence by allowing her to bash him up.

In a classic pop-reference to Anbe Sivam, one of the characters (who else? Santhanabharathi!), chides Kamal for being preachy and that he makes movies for the elite and not the masses :-)

Thankfully no songs, except a Viswaroopam-like-song that blares out as the end credits roll on.

As most of the movie has been shot within a night club (aptly named as Insomnia), one felt a bit too claustrophobic. Same places. Same people. Same blaring music. Same mooching in the corners, Same boozing away to glory. Same Kamal. Same blood... (no, not the Vadivelu dialogue!)

Tamil movies have moved quite ahead in its criminal activities, depicting them that is. Guns, Coke, Girls, Kisses. (though the last one is not a criminal activity! Kamal has been missing that on-screen activity  over the last few movies; here he compensates nicely by doing it not once, not twice but three times with Madhu Shalini! No wonder she asks right after the third one, 'Are you married?')

Overall, Thoongavanam is a good one-time watch on an original DVD.

Papanasam - Leadership Study!

Have you had that feeling?

Yes, I am talking about that moment, when you realize that someone else has had that brilliant idea which you knew was within your grasp, but could not get it out in the right time.

I have had that many a time. Talk about missed opportunities, hmmmm!

Whenever they come across a runaway winner, those 'creators' in all the *woods of the Indian film industry usually drown themselves in sorrow, Johnny Walker, Heineken or whatever that is readily available!

Drishyam (visual) from Mollywood was one such case. Director/Writer Jeethu Joseph hit such a jackpot, that they were queuing outside his Ernakulam bungalow for remaking it.

Kamal with his gravitas managed to get Jeethu to wield the megaphone and the resultant Papanasam is a very good and enjoyable replica of the original.

To make a movie narrating a life that draws heavily on cinematic elements is quite difficult to achieve - almost as difficult as the ECB trying to get Greece to pay of its debts (or is it the IMF?)

The long and short is that the Tamil version does not disappoint.

Comparisons are inevitable. But to compare Mohanlal with Kamal Haasan is to compare Copa America with UEFA Champions League. Former is 'Beautiful Logic' and the latter is 'Logical Beauty'. So just be and enjoy both.

Kamal himself managed to do a fabulous job; I was wondering whether he watched Drishyam at all. Because, though the shots were identical in most of the places, the little nuances that he brought to the character were nice.

Yes, he does play to the rationalists & front-benchers - 'I am a Swayambulingam - came up on my own without any external help' :-)

Ghibran's music starts off from where he left in Uttama Villain - so much so, the first half hour here has the same re-recording as 'Saagavaram' song from UV! But he really excelled in BGM over a couple of scenes - those electric guitars when the police first comes to Kamal's place & the melancholic/suspenseful violins when the police is about to use third-degree on the little one... phew!

To say that everybody acted very well is stating the obvious. However Asha Sarath, Kalabhavan Mani, MS Bhaskar, the two daughters, even the Pasanga villain-boy... stole the show. Gowthami was a let-down as she did not have the same village-wife pull - as much as Meena had in the Mallu version.

The dialogues were adequate - Jeyamohan must have had a very easy task to pen the Nellai slang - but it was a bit jarring as one had to pay a high degree of attention not to miss any intricacies. May be, have to watch it once more to catch them!

The movie is also a study in contrast of two leadership styles.

Two leaders both of whom are forced to take action when their child(ren) are in danger.

Kamal, the protagonist (illiterate, self-made country bumpkin) is forced to play the leader outside his comfort zone.

• He chooses the path of taking the entire family/team together. 
• He confides in them; cajoles them; pushes them; reassures them.
• He chides them (and yet shows the tender side immediately when the younger one gets scared! - That is the sequence that I can repeat ad nauseam).
• He even works on a strict need-to-know basis; leads from the front; has the foresight to draw up a plan B and even a plan C. 
• He draws help from outside; 
• Above all, he communicates and over-communicates and over-over-communicates!

On the other hand, antagonist Asha (the Inspector-General-mum-searching-her-son) is also a leader worth noting.

• She chooses her own path purely based on the police gut/sixth-sense.
• She bulldozes her team - husband, subordinates, third-parties, witnesses etc., through her authority driven by her helplessness and anxiety to find her son.
• She knows when she has lost it and yet strives for a closure (in the last scene, she steals it away from Kamal without speaking a word! Of course, our man is histrionics personified ;-!)
• She underestimates and course-corrects half-way down.
• And boy! Isn't she intelligent!?

Even if you have watched it in Malayalam, you will enjoy the Tamil version for the nativity; for the familiar faces; for a different genre (when have you heard a family-entertainer-cum-thriller as part of an advertisement for a movie that does not have any item-songs or badly choreographed action sequences or punch dialogues... you get the drift, don't you!?)

So, watch Papanasam. 
Yes, it will be on Cable TV eventually. But you don't want to wait for that.

For this is the perfect antidote for 'Senjiruven' Maari that is about to be unleashed on us to assault our senses (and sensibilities) in a couple of weeks' time!

Settle before IPL8 Starts...

Thanks for the great support to GQ'15.

As I told someone, I wanted to finish the donation part before the IPL starts.

Here it goes.

The list of donors and the quantum

Receipt of the BHEH donation

BHEH (www.bheh.org) is a voluntary welfare home providing quality health care and shelter for the disadvantaged and aged sick regardless of race, language or religion, alleviating their hardships through holistic nursing and medical care. I volunteered in this home recently along with RMaheshK and we found it to be quite eye-opening and therapeutic at the same time.

I missed a few names in the dedication below from the quiz team - AngelAsh, Bhuvana, Peruri and MurthyLN who contributed immensely in making the GQ'15 that much more colourful! Apologies for the miss.

Then Raghav and Shanky decided to donate to Udhavum Karangal (http://www.myhelpinghands.org/). 

Receipts below.

No, I am not going to repeat GQ for IPL8. After all who would bet on movies ? :-)

Enjoy the emotional roller-coaster that you will be subjected to, complete with Ravi Shastri and his braying cohorts' exhorting about IPL MAX and what not!

However, my heart beats for CSK and it will take some effort to beat those canary yellow warriors.

Meanwhile somewhere in England, Lalit Modi is sulking. Or has he come back? Who cares?

Quiz prizes are work in progress. Some logistic issues of Indian credit cards etc. Should be sorted in the next few days. Thanks for the patience, folks.

It was a great ride. Till the next one...

--Addtion: Quiz prizes happened through Rambo's help. Great work folks!

Day 35 - Pacy Ozzie Cup!

Well, all the other pretenders contenders were shown their place by the Aussies!

In a 45-day span, their pacers terrorized the opponent batsmen; their batsmen hustled, bustled and blasted the opposition; their fielders seemed omnipresent resulting in a fantastic over-powering performance from the gold-and-green!

I see another long dominant decade by the Australians.

Spare a thought for the Kiwis. They played a very attractive (read as attacking) brand of cricket - though I would say that Brendon McC did the corporate thing of giving his vision sufficient air-time for people to go gaga over! Not that Clarke wasn't as attacking as Brendon
was :-)

G-Section:

They don't call these as Sweepstakes for nothing.

Siva* hit the jackpot in the last leg and has leap-frogged to the top of the pole!!

Congratulations to all the winners: Siva*, Rambo, Vishal and Shanky! Yes, all the four guys who ended up with a positive balance will get a book prize!

Settlement details via a separate email to the respective participants.

Q-Section:

The bumper issue of questions drew some interesting responses.

Q30 - Remember Shakti is the answer. John 'Mahavishnu' McLaughlin, Mandolin maestro (late) U Shrinivas (one of his pieces was in Eat Pray Love), Ustad Zakhir Hussain (arey hujoor, wah taj boliye!), Shankar Mahadevan (one of the music directors of KANK),  V Selvaganesh (music director of VKK) [AngelAsh, Bhuvana - 5 points each]

Q29 - John Lillywhite and Darrell Hair are the two great umpires who got embroiled in the controversy of no-balling 'errant' bowlers. One for overarm bowling and the other for throwing. And the story of how the overarm bowling came about due to female wardrobe impediment avoidance is delightful on its own. The second picture is a zoomed up version of a hair. [Raghav (3), AngelAsh (4)]

Q28 - Those graceful dancers are Siddis. They had settled in India who moved to India having descended from Southeast Africa. [Guru, AngelAsh, Raghav - 3 points each]

Q27 - Listen and watch this beautiful Sanskrit song by Sa Dingding supposedly the only Sanskrit Pop singer around. And the lyrics are: The Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra [Good one, SriG ;-)]

So at the end of the mandala-long event, here are the Winners of Q-Section:

Have to say that AngelAsh and Raghav kept me on my toes throughout. Admirable trait, young people! Guru was steady as usual and the surprise package was the fourth-place winner - she would search for the answers in such innovative manner that Google apparently are planning to reach her for search optimization and analytics :-) 

Pure, unadulterated fun! Congratulations folks!!!

I always say that the Q-Section is 'the' fun part from my perspective and this installment has not been an exception either.

I will reach out to all the participants and winners separately.

So Long, and Thanks for all the FUN!

Day 34z - Before the finals!

Martin Crowe has written a wonderful emotional piece in Cricinfo citing the rivalry between New Zealand and Australia. A tear-jerker par excellence!

Then Matt Hayden writes what every arm-chair critic says about the size of MCG and how the Kiwis will be caught somewhere between the 30-yard circle and 50% of the ground whenever they try to go aerial. The response to that has been really epic! #MCGsobig rocks with that final nail by @toby_etc !

Baz wants India to support him. Indians want to support him. Aussies want everyone to support them as it is Clarke's last ODI. The only person/institution still after MSD is @TimesNow! #ShameOnTimesnow

Good luck for a cracker of a game today!

G-Section:

Entries Closed!!

Q-Section:

Today is the last quiz installment of GQ-15.

So to enjoy that, there is a bumper set of four questions. Yes, you read it right, 4 questions!

That is 16 points in the fray! Take your time to claim some bragging rights!

Thanks to Rambo and Raghav for suggesting two of them. They get 3 points each for suggesting them. (I almost feel like Dumbledore - '3 points to Griffindor!')


Q27: [4 points]


Watch this Youtube video.

(Music copyright: USM Japan)

Who sang it? What language? What is the song about?

No connection; no breaking the nut; no need to peer through the pictures for the clues!


Q28: [3 points] Thanks to Rambo.

Who are these nice dancers? What is their purported connection to the gentleman?

Q29: [4 points]

What is the controversial cricketing connection between these two pictures?

Q30: [5 points] Thanks to Raghav.

When he saw these five pictures together he was reminded of the power of music. How so?

Answers to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)

Day 34 - Gold and Out!

Australia played an ODI which MSD would have been proud of. Very, actually. Now, all they need is to repeat this on Sunday to regain the trophy that they last held in West Indies.

In the end, India was put in its place. 7-0 and 70 wickets not withstanding, India was just a bit under-cooked, especially today. Bad toss to lose. Worse batting to bowl to. Worst bowling to face. Result: 95 run loss!

Steven Smith was amazing. Every time he has batted in this world cup - or for that matter this whole season, he seemed be batting on a separate pitch against a significantly inferior bowling. Captains lose their plot; bowlers lose their line/length/pace/control; fielders forget to field; spectators forget to close their mouths! There, your daily dose of hyperbole!

Tail-piece: Twitterati are having a field day that Virat Kohli's heartthrob Anushka went all the way to Sydney to support him for that "1" run! Talk about cruelty on our heroes!

G-Section:

Look who has hit the jackpot with the correct margin guess! Rambo!!! Swept it all away to reach the top!

Guesses for the finals are welcome!

150 credits at stake!

You deserve a lottery like Rambo ;-)

Australia vs New Zealand @ Melbourne by 1100 SGT 29th March Sunday

And the default entry shall be:

Australia wins by 1-30 runs / 4-5 wickets / Australia takes more wickets / 8-11 sixers

Q-Section:

Those funny spellings are from one of the most famous documents of the world - The US Declaration of Independence. The most stylish signer of them all was John Hancock. 



Now John Hancock Financial (just named after the big man and not related to him - is 'eponymous' the word that I am looking for, Jeeves?) has a motto of "the future is yours".

Raghav gets the full 3. AngelAsh gets 2 as I had to guide her a bit and Siva* gets 1 as he went upto the declaration.

Good show, guys!

Q27 will be published on Saturday before the Finals.

Guesses to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)

Day 33 - Kiwi Midas Touch!

Finally, a nail-biter at Auckland!

Right from the word go, there were nerves on display. Boult's first over went for 10 runs. Inside the first ten minutes, two catches were dropped by the black caps. Run out chances missed; mis-fields happened; more catches dropped; Big Mac as usual almost bowled all his top bowlers by the 40th over - you were left wondering whether it is going to be SA's day finally.

Then the rain.
Overs reduced.
Suddenly Big Mac's finish-'em-by-40 seemed to be a master-stroke (MSD will say 'fluke!')
Chasing 300 in 43 is easier than chasing 350 in 50, albeit the run rates are same!

And Big Mac was typical in his response. Quick-fire half-century. Funny that we say quick-fire for 50s these days; it used to be for 20s and 30s :-)

But the small Eden Park ground meant that no total is safe there. Couple that with such a wet ground. Tribute to Tahir for confounding the Kiwis through-out; especially that maiden to Guptill!

Boundaries flowed. Catches dropped. Run-outs went abegging. I personally counted that Elliott was dropped twice and was spared from run-outs twice as well. Morkel was electric. ABdV was adequate. But in the end, all it required was a length ball to be dished up. Steyn obliged. Elliott accepted. Game over.

MSD used to say that in such tight situations, just make it as 'bowler vs batsman and let their individual mental fortitude take care of the duel. Unfortunately for the Proteas, Steyn ended up second today.

SA will look back and rue Steyn's lack of form and an unfit Philander. And where was Kyle Abbott? There is only so much that the bastmen can do to bail out a team time and again. Ask India on how it used to feel until Feb 14th :-)

PS: Please ask Ian Smith to shut up! Whenever he was on air, the other two commentators were just quiet not because they did not have anything to say; but because Smith simply out-shouted them! If ever there was a one-sided commentary then it was from Ian Smith today! He acted as if he was still on the ground!

G-Section:

Funny that SA took more wickets than NZ; put it to vagaries of the game due to rain!

Rambo and Siva* managed to clean the kitty today.

Now for the second semi-finals.

Australia vs India @ Sydney by 1100 SGT on 26/March Thursday

And the default entry would be:

Australia wins by 31-60 runs / 4-5 wickets / Australia taking more wickets / 8-11 sixers

Reasons for the same tomorrow!

Q-Section:

Here is Qn. No. 26 of GQ'15.

The Brittish hath shewn compleat disregard!
Thus spake the document - more or less!
Give the motto of the company named after the stylish signer.

3 points.

Guesses to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)

Day 32a - HUGE loss before the semis!

(c) TIME - paraphrased their tagline

A swamp.
A poisoned river.
No hinterland to fall back on.
Nobody wants you.
You have the proverbial 'one ringgit' in your pocket.
People expect you to fail miserably and worse still, go back groveling.

Enter left: Harry Lee Kuan Yew. 

Shows the emotion to cry on the separation.
Shows the courage to accept the challenge of separation.
Shows the gumption to chase his 'practical'  dreams.
Shows the vision to drive not just the country but the entire region. 

If Deng Xiaoping copied LKY to wake up the Chinese dragon and drag millions out of poverty, then Singapore can hold her head high to have taught the behemoth a trick or two! Thanks to the favourite son!

Sounds like a movie script from any one of the -woods of the world?
After all, reel follows real,doesn't it?

I will not say 'Rest in Peace Mr Lee Kuan Yew'. He was the man who said once: 

“Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up.”

That is the hallmark of a man who had Singapore as his 'abiding passion'!

And in typical fashion, someone asked today, 'Will there be a holiday since he passed away?'

What for?

Precisely the antithesis of a phenomenon called 'Lee Kuan Yew'.

Work hard, folks!

G-Section:

In a fight between two very very equal teams at Auckland, there is history that beckons both NZ and SA. And SA has something to pay back for last edition's quarter-final choke. With no Milne, NZ are going to be a bit short-handed on the bowling front. Though Southee, Boult and Vettori have been amazing, there is quite a bit of fire power with SA to exploit bowlers 4, 5 and 6!

On the other hand, Kane Williamson is due for a big one. So is Ross Taylor. Lip-smacking to see Steyn and Morkel causing some havoc!

New Zealand vs South Africa @ Auckland by 0845 SGT

Default entry:

South Africa wins by 1-30 runs/4-5 wickets & SA takes maximum wickets / 12++ sixers

Send in your entries. It is 100 credits for the semis!

Q-Section:

No question today. Next question on Wednesday evening before the second semi!

Guesses to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)

Day 32 - MartiAn Guptill lands!

Today was the Battle of Cake Tin between the hobbits and the orcs. Hobbits thrashed orcs as expected. I usually love the orcs for their joie de vivre. But today it was noticeably absent!

The Kiwi-Gandalf aka the Martian-with-only-two-left-toes Guptill wielded his staff with supreme authority. At the innings break, the West Indians were so deflated that the Windy City of Wellington had an extra swirl of wind!

In this tournament, watching the New Zealanders bat, bowl, field and bond is so refreshing.

Every ball batted has been faced with the express intent of scoring and not blocking. Every bowl bowled was delivered with the keen intent of securing a wicket - mind you, not purchasing but securing!
Every ball that went to the out-field was chased with the unique intent of saving that run. 
As a result you see a team that is redefining cricket in an endearing way, sans the bullying that one associates with Australia or South Africa. As a corollary, they seem to have taken the pressure of playing at home much more easily than the Aussies.

The proof of the pudding of this 'Kiwism' was the TUI catch by Vettori today to dismiss Samuels. Poor Samuels, as it is he was hoping that the ground would open up and swallow him after he dropped Guptill when the Martian was on 4 - yes, you read that right, 4! To add a plethora of insults to that injury worth 233 runs, that one-handed blinder by Vettori! In the bargain, Vettori gained a few TUI orange t-shirts :-)

The West Indies innings was fabulous and met the run-rate throughout. There was a small problem of losing wickets regularly and also in clusters! Gayle showed some spunk and that was it.

So, the semis are settled nicely - 1 vs 2 and 1 vs 2. About 1.2 billion populace and a few million sheep want it to be a '1 vs 1' next Sunday. Let us see.

Q-Section:

That was a gentle half-volley. 3 points to Bhuvana, AngelAsh and Raghav.

The pretty lady in question is Manorama, the evergreen humour queen of Tamil cinema. 

The quiz position seems to be quite steady.

No question until Monday evening before the semi-final#1.
Enjoy the respite!

G-Section:

Today's game was kind to Siva* and Rambo.
More changes in the positions.

You can send in the guesses for the semis. Each semi is 100 credits worth.

Guesses to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)

Day 31 - Warp Speed Wahabi!

Pakistan's batting gives you the creeps. Their fielding is a good case-study for lotteries. Their discipline is a joke. So are their birth certificates. But their bowling? Right at the top of the world along with similar faculties displayed by Barcelona, Yankees, New England Patriots...

In today's quarter-final, they had the good luck of winning the toss. Scored an almost-paltry 213 which would have been enough - just barely, if the lotteries are won and the jokes light up the audience.

Wahab Riaz continued with where he left off against SA. His pace is something that is an envy to everyone except the batsmen facing him; today Watson was so scarred that I will be surprised that had he been a cat, he would have lost eight of his nine lives already! (Well, the ninth one is reserved for Umesh Yadav ;-)

If Morkel roughed up Angelo the other day, today Riaz roughed up Watson so much he looked like a sandpaper at the end of it all. Spare a thought for this young man - who would have been on the winning side had that catch been taken.

And Smith seemed to be batting on the moon - one-sixth the gravity and practically had all the time he wanted!

That sets up a mouth-watering semi-final @ Sydney next Thursday.

Meanwhile, saw Rohit's no-ball controversy. Sipping tea & reclining comfortably at home, I could say that it wasn't a no-ball. Not when 50000 people are braying in a high-pressure game. Trust me, umpiring can be a very lonely profession. Read somewhere that Dar and Gould are considering legal action against that joker who is the ICC president. They should.

G-Section:

Tomorrow's game may be the ultimate banana-peel for New Zealand. West Indies could cause a fantastic upset - all they have to do is look for inspiration in their own dressing room. There is that seven-foot giant called Curtly Ambrose...

New Zealand vs West Indies @ Wellington Cake Tin by 0830 SGT

And the default entry is:

New Zealand wins by 31-60 runs / 1-3 wickets / NZ max wickets / 8-11 sixers

Status after today's quarter-final has shifted the positions around a bit.

Q-Section:

Raghav came back with the right answer.

Lee Kuan Yew - Singapore's founding father and the 1st Prime Minister of the island nation.

And for today's question.

Another personality. Who is this beautiful lady? [3 points]

Answers and guesses to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)

Day 30 - Blue Bouncers!

In an ideal world, you would expect the team batting first score a 300+ total; then restrict the opponent by taking early wickets and asphyxiate them with tight bowling and win the game.

India were in that ideal world, as much as Sri Lanka were not in at all yesterday and Bangladesh was that zone exactly for 18 overs right after the mandatory power-play. Then the Rohit & Raina Express took off to take the game away from the tigers. Rohit particularly was sublime and mature bundled together. As usual, he was like the drunken surgeon who on the rare occasions of sobriety will work miracles with his dexterity! (there, two -ty words in a sentence!)

As usual, the Indian bowling stepped up fabulously. The pitch at the G supposedly has a good dent around the short-of-length area! India dished up so many bouncers, that there is a scarcity of bouncers in all the bars of Melbourne tonight ;-)

So, India moves on to Sydney; no business class tickets for MSD and Co., for that short flight. At least they have a week to recover!

So long, Bangladesh! You did well. But Mashrafe need not have lost his cool so much during the game. Learn from the master in the opposite camp!

And a word about the commentary on Star. Continuous dirges by Sanjay & Nasser coupled with Dean Jones evidently plugging for an IPL slot...aaargh!

Q-Section:

Probably a tad too tough.

Think Chinese names but not a person from China. Still 3 points on.

G-Section:

Tomorrow's game:

Australia vs Pakistan @ Adelaide by 1100 SGT

And the default entry will be as follows.

Australia wins by 31-60 runs / 1-3 wickets / Australia takes max wickets / 12++ sixers in the game

So, if you don't want to follow my guess and lose points, send that guess now!

At the end of QF2, Raghav and Vishal (this guy is on such a roll - hard to catch him now IMHO!) cleaned up the pool.

Answers and guesses to the usual place.

(The usual place is my email address/FB PM/Whatsapp; details of ranges etc., are at http://sribees.blogspot.sg/2015/02/gq-15-here-we-come.html)