As expected, Indian-American Rachel Paulose, the embattled U.S. Attorney for Minnesota has stepped down from her post.

Our Kerala immigrant will take up a new position at the Justice Department in Washington as an adviser on legal policy issues in January.

After the New York Times hatchet job on Rachel Paulose last week, we never had any doubt that her departure was imminent.

No official reasons have been provided for Rachel Paulose’s resignation but it’s common knowledge that our Mallu Kutty - the youngest U.S. Attorney in the nation - was under considerable pressure with turmoil in her office and lack of political support making it difficult for her to continue.

In a story on the conservative Republican U.S. Attorney’s resignation, the New York Times wrote on Monday: 

Ms. Paulose’s appointment as United States attorney last year was viewed by many prominent lawyers in Minnesota — and in her own office — as representative of a larger problem at the Justice Department under the former attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, with experienced prosecutors replaced by relatively young and inexperienced lawyers who were seen as fiercely loyal to the Bush administration.

Minnesotta’s two Senators - a Republican and a Democrat - both welcomed Rachel Paulose’s departure.

Denying that she had made any racist comment on her colleagues, Rachel Paulose wrote on a conservative blog last week:

The McCarthyite hysteria that permits the anonymous smearing of any public servant who is now, or ever may have been, a member of the Federalist Society; a person of faith; and/or a conservative (especially a young, conservative woman of color) is truly a disservice to our country.

In one of the ironies of life, Saawariya - the better movie of this Diwali -has collapsed in its second week at the U.S. Box office while that crass, crude Shahrukh Khan film Om Shanti Om continues to rule in the U.S.

For the November 16-18 weekend, Saawariya’s gross collection came in at $150,208, down 72.3% from last week.

Saawariya seems to have been impacted by negative publicity in the media.

In contrast, Om Shanti Om has held up better with an estimated weekend gross of $756,342, down 57.1%.

Vel featuring Surya, Asin and Vadivelu is a little better than Azhagiya Tamil Magan but that’s small consolation for Tamil movie fans.

Vel’s biggest weakness is its pedestrian, beaten to death simplistic story of two brothers separated when young and growing up separately.

Repeated in Hindi, Tamil and other Indian language films ad nauseum ad infinitum over the last five decades, these ”lost and found” films constitute a boring genre unique to Indian movies.

Cast in a double role, Surya plays both the brothers - Vel and Vasu.

The younger brother Vasu grows up with his real parents in Chennai and becomes a private detective.

Cast in the role of a TV reporter Swathi, Asin plays his lady love but this time the extraordinary chemistry Surya and Asin brought forth in Ghajini is missing, partly because Vel’s story is so effete, completely lacking in punch.

Meanwhile, the older brother Vetrivel A.k.a. Vel is adopted in the Dindigul area by a family, which is forever battling a vicious local goon called Sakkara Pandian (Kalabhavan Mani).

Since the enemity between Vel and Sakkara Pandian is the slender thread on which much of Vel hangs, the movie unravels pretty quickly.

Sickles keep flying and Sakkara Pandian keeps yelling at his factotums and at Vel. And that’s it.

Although a better actor than Vijay, Surya seems to be stuck these days with sub-par stories like the dull love triangle in his last film Jillunu Oru Kadal and now Vel.

Vadivelu’s comedy scenes are so poorly integrated with the rest of the movie that they come across as amateurish and provide little joy to viewers.

Good music can sometimes salvage even mediocre movies.  But none of the songs in Vel rise above the ordinary.

All in all, Vel is yet another Tamil movie that left us utterly dispirited and fatigued at the end.

What a shame that two of the most anticipated movies this Diwali - Azhagiya Tamil Magan and Vel - have turned out to be such duds.

If most Hindi films are bad these days, Tamil movies have moved beyond the pale.