Mar 23, 2006

Tamil vs Hindi cinema: 2. Great actors

After looking at how they 'look', it is now on how they 'perform'.

Tamil:
Well, we have got a good bunch of highly talented actors, whose passion in acting is more from heart than for the sake of money or being the #1.

Kamalhaasan: He continues to lead and he is like the 'Sachin Tendulkar' of Tamil cinema for over a quarter century now.. Having won three national awards and given equally strong performances in movies like 'Rajaparvai', 'Pesum Padam', 'Thevar Magan', 'Mahanadhi', 'Kurudhipunal' and 'Virumandi', Kamal is hailed by most as the best actor India has seen for long time.

Rajinikanth: Acts well. He has got the pressure of pleasing his fans, which IMHO is a reason his movies are in a different league.. Entertaining nevertheless.

Vikram: He is all set to take the mantle from Kamal. One national award already and another in pipeline?

Surya: Though he started off as a typical indifferent masala hero, post-'Nandha', he continues to surprise in each movie. He is the only one who can challenge his good buddy Vikram in acting in the years to come..

Madhavan: A Manirathnam find and favorite has got to be good. Though a bit unlucky with box-offlice of late, he excels whenever given a chance to show his skills. I was amazed by his recent performance in 'Thambi'.

Dhanush: Everyone took notice of his acting in 'Kadhal kondaen'.. He was brilliant. Subsequent directors failed to bring the best out of him (except Balu). I hope we can see Dhanush at his recent best in 'Pudhupettai'.

Ajith and Vijay's aura surrounding them doesnt help their acting talents. Both had got some good roles in their early years when they were romancing heroines and longing for them. ('Aasai', 'Vaali' and 'Unnidathil ennai koduthen' for Ajith and 'Poove Unakkaga', 'Kadhalukku mariyathai' and 'Thullatha manamum thullum' for Vijay).

Apart from them, there are some talented young guns like Jeeva (Raam and Dishyum) and Simbhu (Manmathan and the first half of 'Thotti Jaya'), and Rajkiran (for character roles).

Hindi:
Khans: Aamir Khan is the most versatile actors among the Khans. His performance in the last 5 years has been good with movies like Lagaan, DCH, Mangal Pandey and RDB. Shah Rukh, the hottest star in Hindi, comes next. He is a good actor but not great, since he tends to get monotonous. His best performances came in Swades, Kal ho na ho, Devdas and Dil Se. Other 'Khans' like Saif, Salman, and Fardeen are just OK. It is ironic that among them, they have won only one national award (Saif), that too a highly controversial one.

Big A's: Amitabh is still the big fish in Bollywood. At times, he is the main hero of the movie as well ('Ek Ajnabee' was a recent example). He is a good actor, charismatic but gets only a rare movie once in a while (like 'Black') which shows his full acting talent. Abhishek is a cool actor; his best so far was in 'Yuva'. Ajay Devgan had a high in the early 2000's with successive national awards (for 'Zakhm' and 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh') but has failed to ride on the high. Akshay Kumar and Akshay Khanna do have talents but while the former has become a full-time masala actor, the latter is hardly seen nowadays.

Then there is Hrithik Roshan, who delivered a mind-blowing performance in 'Koi mil gaya' and he was good in 'Lakshya' too. The low frequency of his movies recently and his tendency to overact at times are his minuses.

Thus, in the category of heroes with terrific acting skills, Tamil heroes are ahead of their Hindi counterparts. They win this round and the score is levelled at 1-1.

Have a great weekend, y'all!! Next few days, will be pretty busy in Atlanta; I will try my best to read your comments and reply..

21 comments:

Me too said...

Yay! Both my favourites(Tamil/Hindi) no. 1 in your listing!!

Welcome to enga pettai(chumma sollikaren. Neenga dhaan engalukku ooru suthi kaatanam!)! My email is meetoo.a[a]gmail.com. Mail me for my contact details. If possible, we can work something out.

Anonymous said...

Jeeva is definitely an actor to look out for, I saw Dishyum, and I was amazed, he can act very casually, and there is no nervousness. I saw him recently on pepsi ungal choice, he seems like a cool guy. I recently saw Mercury Pookal, Shrikkanth is definitely a good looking hero, but somehow he does the same roles again and again. If he does some different roles, it might earn him some awards. I didn't like Madhavan in Thambi, he is a good actor, but he overacted in thambi, all that fight, he is supposed to be some karate expert, just by pushing his hands towards the villain, they fly 50ft in the air, i liked him a lot in ayutha ezhuthu.Ajith was good in vaali and in his old movies, he looked good, but then he changed hairstyle, and he looks weird now. In hindi, I like Aamir, and Ajay Devgan is good. Amitabh acts in all sorts of movies, but in BLACK, he was definitely good.

Blabber-blogger said...

ok.. how come.. kamal hassan n rajni are listed .. appo hindi la.. Nana Patekar is not..I dont know about others.. To me he comes out as a very talented and extremely versatile actor..

Raju said...

Aparna, yeah.. I like Aamir more than SRK.

Unga pettaikku June-le visit adichadhu ippo udhaviya irukkumnu ninaikkiren. We would reach there in the late afternoon today, then there is a dinner program. Tomorrow it would be very tight from morning 8:30 to evening 8. The presentation is in the evening. Monday morning is occupied. I wish there was some free time during the weekend in the program.. but it was not designed like that.. let me see.
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Nitin, yeah, Jeeva was impressive in Dishyum and is highly impressive. Srikanth was at his best in Parthiban Kanavu. Wish he gets roles like that. About Madhavan in Thambi, yeah, the stunt scenes were comical, but Madhavan, as the home-centered guy taking up a violent path, was the most impressive, considering that Ajit, Vijay and Simbhu had similar roles in their Pongal releases.
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Nyneishia, Nana Patekar is not among the mainstream heroes in Hindi... He would be discussed alongside character artists..

Marutham said...

Hi Raju,
Not sure if you have listed in any particlar order! But sure you have well analysed about the celebrities! And A&V ambonu oru stanza'la ututeenga? ;) VAMBU VENDAM"NA ? Its been long , u visited .....

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

Oru aala mattum thooki irunda list'ey superb'a irukum.. RAJINI....
I dont like him in the recent days.

Blabber-blogger said...

not quite.. Look at the movies like - Parinda, Taxi No. 9211 and many more to the credits. I dont think is a side character.

மு.கார்த்திகேயன் said...

Actually a good listing..having analyzed both fields very keenly. Like u said, Compared to Hindi, we have good actors..eventhough in first class babies like Bharath, Arya...

Raju said...

Marutham, in tamil, I listed them in the order of my liking and their potential.
I know I know.. Konjam busy.. I will visit.. :-)
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Ponnarasi, enna appadi sollitteenga.. Net-le kittathatta paadhi peru avaroda fan-dhaan..
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Nyneishia, Nana hardly acts in single-role dominated movies at all, no? Between Parinda and Taxi no.9211, the gap is almost 17 years. Only 'Ab tak chappan' had him as the hero recently.. In between he had good roles in Agnisakshi, Khamoshi, Sakthi and Darna Mana hai, Thats the reason why I didnt include him as the 'main hero'.
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Veda, thanks..
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Karthikeyan, mikka nandri. Bharath and Arya were impressive in 'Pattiyal'.. They are certainly promising..

Anonymous said...

Raju, so did u like Pattiyal. I somehow though it was very much like pithamagan, although pithamagan was better. Bharath did well, but Arya played a similar character to his arindhum ariyamulum. So, ru preparing for ur move to NY?

Raju said...

Nitin, I sort of liked Pattiyal.. surely above average movie.. If you watch the movie with no/low expectations, then it does surprise surely. Thats what I did.

Yeah, preparing for the move.. which starts this weekend, by the leaving off the car to NY by driving and seeing houses.
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Ammu, nandri.

Krishnan said...

Anna ippadi Prasanna-va ambonnu list-lendhu vittuteengalae:-))

Raju said...

Krishnan, Prasanna... mm.. IMHO, he is cute.. he is just above average in looks..

Anu said...

Sheesh.. why didnt I read this post before giving my comment for your previous post.. Happy to see that you have graded them well.. Waiting for more posts on this topic :)

Raju said...

Anu, though I did grade them based on their performances, I still missed out the things like dance and fight.. More posts will follow soon..

Anonymous said...

Above everybody oneman stand tall and his heights can ever be achieved is Sivaji Ganesan. He was one of the greatest ever actor of all time in world cinema history and the Bradman of Indian cinema. Once in an interview Marlon Brando himself told that Sivaji can act like him and he can't act like Sivaji. This shows the aura of the man. Nobody in Indian cinema is equal to him.

Anonymous said...

hai i am lionell.hey ajith is the man for the future as far as the indian film industry is concerned-how dare u neglect him?he is the only versatile actor after kamal haasan.he is gonna rule the industry.wait and watch.vijay is a colossal waste.surya and vikram can never match ajith.so the hierarchy goes like this-sivaji ganesan,kamal haasan and ajith.
looks like u have not seen "varalaaru".

Anonymous said...

More informations about Actor Simbu

Anonymous said...

Rajnikant is come out via tamil movies, but he has fan clubs all over the world, but amitabh is only in north India. how can compare? irrational.

Anonymous said...

all southie are very happy after this blog.. losers!!!

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