Ek Deewana Mein

Isn't it a lovely coincidence that, like VTV, its Hindi version too is released on the month of Valentine's day? VTV has been the most unforgettable Indian movie of the last 20 years for me. What a movie!! Every time I watched it in Sathyam (and the one time in PVR, Skywalk) was a unique lovely experience. How I wish I was in Chennai this week!! 'Ye Maya Chesave' fell short in most fronts compared to VTV due to Chaitanya's dumb acting and the climax. Memories aside, I am concerned about which climax I will end up watching, because the news is that, Gautam has the 'original' (Tamil) climax for urban centers and the 'happy' (Telugu) version for rural ones. In Gujarat where Hollywood movies are mostly released in Hindi-dubbed versions, I have to keep my fingers crossed.

I also would have preferred a more poetic title than the chosen one. Especially since the first line from the original song was already tried as title (Ek Haseena Thi) with promising stars (Urmila & Saif) and bombed big time.

The songs in Hindi wern't as exciting as VTV's originals. Uninspiring lyrics of Javed Akhtar aside, most disappointingly, my favorite 'Mannippaya' was rendered by Madhushree. Why her, Rahman, why her? Whats wrong with Shreya's soothing, pain-inflicted, longing voice? Talking about Madhushree, she recently killed 'Un perey theriyathu' (Engeyum eppodhum).

Now, thinking about that song, especially its second interlude, I wonder what would have been going on in Ananya's (Ayilya) mind when she got engaged with a 'businessman Anjaneyan'? I know it is her personal life and choice, and I have no clue about this Anjaneyan guy, but couldnt help the above thought, as 'Un perey' was the song of Ananya I have seen most times.

The title of this post is mine for linking VTV with Anjaneya.

Meet Flexy Stu

whose name deserved to be floating on the water (I call it "தண்ணீரில் ஓர் கவிதை" - thaNNeeril Or kavithai). Flexy Stu is the choreographer of VTV's songs. The salient part of his dance movements was that, it was stylish and simple (or looked simple, thanks to the dancers) while appearing new for Tamil cinema. Especially for Hosanna and Omana Penney, it was simply brilliant! Hats off to you, Stu !! Wish to see more of your contribution in Tamil movies.

Anniyanai Vidathu Karuppu

Warning: Some spoilers of the movie 'Anniyan' and the TV serial 'Marma Desam: VidAthu karuppu' will be found.

During the time when Anniyan was released, I was very thrilled with the concept and the fact that it was a vigilante movie by Shankar further fuelled my interest on the movie, which culminated in a string of posts in May-June 2005. After watching the movie too, I was very impressed by it. Logistics and the irritating 'Remo' apart, it was quite a nice portrayal of multiple-personality disorder (MPD) or split personality. Add to that some fine acting by Vikram, it was a movie I never got bored of watching any number of times.

Then I happened to watch 'VidAthu karuppu' on a website recently. It was totally awesome. It was such a different tele-serial that I felt like I was watching a very long and superb movie. This is easily the best tele-serial I have ever watched. So many visitors of the website were anxiously waiting for the posting of each episode. The suspense was too much to take. It has nearly ended, and, towards the end came the shocking revelation of the split personality of a main character which was the 'Karuppu'. It was then that the 'Anniyan' connection became clear.

A few bloggers have compared Anniyan with Vidathu Karuppu, but none of the famous movie reviewers nor the professional reviewers pointed the 'inspiration' for Shankar. Let me point them all:

1) The 'normal' personality is a scary goose.

2) The normal one has witnessed some gory deaths and societal injustice in the childhood, which becomes the seed for the eventual growth of a new personality.

3) An elderly female character in the family talks about punishment by God, of the people who do wrong, which goes into the thinking process leading to the split personality.

4) The girl whom the normal one loves, likes him as a harmless friend, but doesnt love him since she views him to be boring and cowardly.

5) The girl is the one who first becomes aware of the dual/multiple personality of the main character.

6) The persons who are killed by the split personality are those whom the normal guy has seen doing wrong.

7) A confusion/defeat for the split personality is suggested/shown to cause the disappearance of that personality.

8) The imporant parts of the MPD, which is the transition from one personality to the other, the accompanying confusion, and the timing of revelation of the second personality, are not discussed.

9) In the climax, rapid switching between the personalities were acted well by characters in both the serial and TV. So, the famous MGR-Sivaji-Kamal-Rajni scene of Vikram is a heavy inspiration from the serial.

10) Both the second personalities have a voice rougher than and different from the original voice.

From these points, it must be clear how ground-breaking the serial was, which was telecast over 9 years ago. The director, Naga is a film institute student, and is the cinematographer for the serial too. So, he has superbly captured the beauty of the village, and the mystery of the nights with clever camera angles. Each role has been brilliantly played by everyone, with Chetan winning the award with an unforgettable performance. Devadarshini delivers a strong female performance, but her character is shown to be clever, independent and, unlike in movies, unsubmissive. Even the supporting cast is not naive at all. Care has gone into the sculpting of each character and the story line, which proceeds in two parallel timelines - past and present. Not to forget the subtle, but brilliant and natural performance by the little boy, Logesh. Where is he now?

While the tele-serial proceeds with both the supernatural, and hence scientifically unexplainable events and the MPD, Shankar simply chose only MPD. Vidaathu Karuppu has touched upon several fine aspects of love and society which are: Friendship, feminism, caste differences, commanality among religions, village way of life, thieves as a part of social structure, the rich people who indirectly steal from commoners and hence are more dangerous, mythical beliefs, revenge, punishment, confusion arising from clash of beliefs, and control through religion.

The recent news about Shankar producing a big budget movie to be directed by Naga is interesting. Not having credited or even mentioend Naga for the inspiration, it appears to be Shankar's attempt towards salvation to remove his guilt. Having said that, can't wait to watch 'Anthapurathu Veedu'.

Quoting dance master Sridhar, "Indha mAdhiri serial edungappA.. edhavadhu sollanumnu thonudhA?".

Chiru for Chief minister? (And Kuselan Mini-Review)

I haven't been following Andhra politics for sometime now, but still this news came as a huge surprise to me. Chiranjeevi and politics? Well, he was the megastar of Andhra after NTR so he is definitely aspiring to test his luck. With the state assembly elections around the corner in a few months, the announcement come along the lines of what Vijaykanth did three years ago. I watched Chiru's recent 'Tagore' and it had failure written all over its face and was duly rejected by the audience. Isn't it a sign for him to tread his path carefully? Hmmm... we never know what Andhrites think, when it comes to politics. Let's wait and watch..

Kuselan Mini-Review:

Not having watched Baba, Kuselan is the most boring Rajni movie since Pandian.

Rajni - Savior of the movie. Injects at least some life into an otherwise irritating story.

Pasupathy - Looks disinterested in the proceedings throughout. Is funny when he tries to dance with his family.

Nayanthara - Total waste, except for a couple of songs and some front-benchers. Among the entire cast (excl. Rajni) of double-chinners, pot-bellyholders and no-neckers, she is somewhat of a relief.

Meena - Tries to act as an 'ideal wife' which she just barely manages to pull off.

Vadivelu - Crass comedy, generously sprinkled with double entendres. Managed to show his true talent in the scene where he gets to meet Rajni.

Supporting cast: The less said about them, the better. The nuns of the school were shockingly silly; the gang of Livingston & co., were insipid, fellow shop-owners and neighbors of Pasupathy would have failed even a single episode of TV soap opera.

Music: One song sounds like 'Uruguthey', one like 'Veyilodu'.. Easily the worst album of GV Prakash.

Picturization: Horrible. Especially the song where the village praises Pasupathy. Dolphins and exotic waterfalls in a song were so hilarious.

Story & Screenplay: None. The main plot goes around and around and around until even the most patient of us scream "padathai mudingayya".

Dialogues: Amateurish. When Meena refuses the neighbour's food, and when Pasupathy refuses to meet Rajni, the dialogues sound deja-vu.

Cinematography: Zooming on the distorted mouths, faces and bodies of the fringe actors will not win you any awards.

Direction: P Vasu is back to his 'full form'. When a big deal is made out of a seamingly worthless issue, it is the worst possible plot one can get. I havent watched the Mallu original, but I doubt it must have been butchered by Vasu.

Attitude problems: Firstly, the film is not named after Pasupathy's character, as everyone thought. Rajni, in his final speech, makes it clear that he is 'Kuselan' (and there is a 'Krishna' twist to Pasupathy's role to justify that). So, this film is, after all, on Rajni. Secondly, when Sundarrajan asks some sensible questions to Rajni, I was truly surprised. The subsequent sommersault of Sundarrajan and Rajni's reactions to his questions, I thought, reflected Rajni's attitude on all of us who have and raise such questions.

Time of the Siblings

1980's saw the emergence of offsprings in Tamil cinema - Prabhu, followed by Karthik created their own magic and survived long enough. The recent times has seen the arrival of siblings.. first, it was 'Jithan/Jerry' ( ;) ) Ramesh following his brother Jeeva's footsteps, supported ably by their 'Can-waste-all-my-hard-earned-money-to-make-my-boys-into-heroes' R.B. Chowdhary. Jeeva didnt do much to attract attention in his first few movies before 'Raam' but since then has hardly looked back. Will there be any 'Krishna' for Ramesh? Only time can tell..

Then there is Karthi, who, in his very first attempt, has given a bigger blockbuster than what his elder bro Surya could manage in a career spanning almost a decade. Haing a good mix of acting skills and looks, he is surely here to stay.

Now, about some 'expected' cases.. After a successful transformation from 'Baby' to 'Kumari' Shalini, her younger sis Shamili is rumored to make a (re-)entry into Tamil/Telugu industry. I wish she is re-introduced by Maniratnam, who has an excellent track with her family, in Anjali and Alaipayuthey.. but, my foresight tells me that I would prefer to think of her performances in Anjali (and even Durga) rather than as a heroine in the future.

And then there is 'Kuralarasan', who is chubbier and hence believed to be cuter than Silambarasan(!?!?). With the dad Vijaya TRajender having been re-energized after 'Veerasamy',and wishing to make more movies with him as the hero, the fate of Tamil rasigars is on the hands of his family.

The downside of such a thing is a possible rivalry between the siblings.. inspired from politics (two MK siblings' recent fights fuelled by two united brothers comes to mind..). Reminding of the good old tamil proverb "Rendu Aadunga sandai pottaa ...."

PS: Time to change my 'Favorite Video'.. Doesn't mean that the previous song has lost its sheen... The new favorite song is a very special one for me, especially since last Wednesday.. :) It is from my all-time favorite movie, Anjali.. I am sure most of you would have watched this many times. A beautiful song involving some of the cutest moments.. Shamili was just awesome.. especially when she is sitting on the bench holding a leaf, or when she is wiping the cheeks after receiving a kiss.. so artistic yet so natural.. Njoy..

Wasting the talents

On New Year Eve, while on a casual chat on the movie 'Thiruvilayadal Arambam', Dhanush's performance in it, etc. , my friend remarked that in Tamil cinema, the talents are getting wasted, and history is repeating itself (cf. super-heroism, mindless masala etc). A few hours ago, I watched 'Chennai Kaadhal' and suddenly that point seems to make even more sense. During the discussion, I said that it looks like we can count only on Jeeva and Bharath to act in sensible movies.. How I was proven wrong.. Bharath, and Vikraman, for a change or what God only knows, have both resorted to Gilli, Edhiri-type masala movie. Bharath walks in slow motion, his hand movements make the 'Whishhh' sound aka Rajini, etc.. Welcome to the long queue of 'Next Superstar' aspirants, Bharath!!

Lemme take the case of Dhanush as an example. He won our hearts and made the biggest impression after his performance in 'Kadhal Kondaen'.. In the scenes with Nagesh and in the climax, he really showed a lot of potential of being an excellent actor. Even in the masala entertainer 'Thiruda thirudi', he played the role of a carefree adolescent with aplomb. Later, only in 'Adhu oru kanaakalam' and in 'Pudhupettai', glimpses of his talent could be seen. Now that T.A. has become a hit after a string of flops, we can trust him to take a safe route and act in similar movies.. Here, I have listed a few promising movies by our young heroes to give u a glimpse of how they excelled when given opportunities and how later they 'veenapoyittanga'..

Vijay - Kadhalukku Mariyathai, Thullatha Manamum Thullum, Poove Unakkaga
Ajit - Aasai, Vaali, Kandukonden, Mugavari.
Simbu - Kovil, Manmathan.
One can even add our Captain for his performances in movies like Chinna Koundar, Vaidehi Kaathirundhal, etc..

We were glad to see that Vikram and Surya havent joined the aforementioned bandwagon yet; and I sincerely hope that 'Chennai Kaadhal' is an aberration in Bharath's resume. May be he wouldnt have expected a veteran like Vikraman to choose such a lousy plot. We were left wondering if there would ever be actors like Karthik and Prabhu of 80's again.. May be, if our directors believe in good scripts and stop depending on Telugu flicks for remaking.

PS: Me being a staunch Kamal fan has landed me the opportunity to write in an exclusive Kamal blog http://kamalhaasan.wordpress.com I am gonna start there with some stuff I have already posted here... Hopefully in the near futue I will have some new concepts to write on my fav actor.. All Kamal fans, plz do check it out there..

Meendum Billa?

The following discussion came along when I was talking to my friend: Now that Shahrukh has reenacted Amitabh in his latest 'Don', who will step into the shoes of Rajini's 'Billa' in tamil, in case it is remade? Vijay will be the first one to raise his hand.. but does he have the charisma that Rajini possessed in 'Billa'?

Hit or flop?

The summer of big releases begins with this week's Pudhupettai.. here are my two cents on the recent trend in the tamil movie box office results..

I was truly amazed to hear that the movie's "Hit or flop" status is decided by the opening 3 days' collection.. With the theater owners openly selling the Fri-Sun tickets at exorbitant prices, those three days are apparently enough to collect a major chunk of the distributor's money.. Crazy, isnt it? Firstly, the government should have banned such illegal high prices.. When it was expected of the theaters and government to go hard at the black-ticket sellers, things have taken such a wrong turn..

What this has done is to create the 'star-value' for pretty much all the actors.. The fans of a star are ready to spend all their hard-earned money to make sure that their thalaivar's movie is a big hit.. I dont understand how we got such huge crowd of crazy fans.. There are three types of movie-goers, according to me: 1) The hardcore fans of a particular star; 2) those who are fans of the heroine/director/music director; 3) those who want to watch 'some good movie' with their friends or family. I have also watched so many movies on the first day.. may be little bit of planning is done but I havent paid over Rs. 50 for a ticket any time..

A movie takes about 6-12 months to get completed.. when one can wait that long, why not another week or two until the tickets are sold at 'normal price'? "Aakka poRuthavanga aara poRukka koodatha?" Someone told me that, with so many youngsters getting into well-paid jobs early in their careers, that they dont know how to spend their money.. and they dont understand the value of the money.. may be such crowd doesnt mind double prized-tickets for the fun of watching a new movie.. Unless the public shows thumbs-down or a flipped finger to such tactics of the theaters, this bad trend would continue.

'Best of 2005' Poll Results

Let me start the new year with heartful wishes to all of you for a wonderful and positive new year 2006!!! A year from now, when you look back, this should be one of those 'glorious and memorable years'.

The voteboxes for Tamil cinema's 2005 are officially closed, after 20 days. The results are out.. (hold ur breath).. :-)

Best Actor: It was a two-horse race, with the fortunes swinging like pendulum.. Of the 61 votes, Sanjay Ramasamy edges past Ambi/Remo/Anniyan 23-21. Surya's efforts as a cool millionaire and as revenge-seeking STML patient were well appreciated. I think the ladies' votes mostly went in his favor. :) In hindsight, I should have added Rajkiran. Cheran has to be applauded for allowing him to steal the show; but, I was not sure under which category Rajkiran would fit in - Best actor or best supporting actor.





Best Actress:
This was again a predominantly contest b/w Asin and Jothika. The last few minutes of Jo's performance in CM, including the famous 'lakalakalaka' act, helped her cause. Of the 47 votes, Jo has got 21, that is 45%.

What a coincidence that the best actor and best actress awards go to JoSurya.. ;-) Hope and wish they star together in Kaakha Kaakha-like movies.. (of course w'out Jo dying plz)...


Best movie: While the audience like the performances of artistes doing fantasy roles or the 'disordered' characters, when it comes to quality, Cheran's realistic portrayal of the story of a father has won the hearts of the majority. Thavamai Thamirundhu got 19 of the 44 votes, with Ghajini the next with 9.

Though the movie might not do as good business as its other competitors, its decent show in box office would and should encourage some others to try on such down-to-earth simple, strong performance-based movies.









Best director: Again, Cheran.. Like in Autograph, he managed well with the twin responsibility of acting and direction very well. He gets 19 of 41 votes; Shankar and Murugadoss equally share 16 b/w them.

Best music director:
A year with only a handful of movies with 'All-good' songs. In his year of marriage, Yuvancomes up with some memorable scores, getting 19 out of the 42 votes, just winning the race ahead of Harris (15). Pudhupettai's songs are a good start to the new year; and I eagerly await a possible Kamal-YSR project. AR Rahman, who was the top music director for so long, has to just score music for more albums to get back his place.


Thanks to all of you who voted..

Spirit of Anniyan

(Pic adopted from Indiainfo)

Anniyan's storyline is based on how a lawyer wants to effect changes that would help India become like the western nations. Those of us who have visited the developed countries in Europe and North America would be wondering why India cant become like one of those. Me and my friends have had several discussions on the parasites of Indian society in different parts of the country that plague our progress. Several of them are highly linked with each other.. Here is my list:

(Since I have been living in US for over a year, comparison with the system over here is inevitable.)

1) Politicians:

Biggest problem.

(a) Almost all politicians have money in their mind, not the will to serve the people they voted. They need money for (i) Future, since their political career may come to an abrupt end due to various reasons, (ii) Elections, since most have to pay lumpsum amount during and before campaining, (iii) Paying the party workers during some function at their home, meetings, etc., and (iv) Political trading. For money, those who rule misuse their power, dont make schemes successful and impede growth.

(b) Opposition party politicians have their only policy as (i) trying to come to power in the next election (ii) try to topple the government if some means are available (iii) Keep protesting and criticizing all the decisions of the government and (iv) do the dirty politics of agendaless coalition formation, trying to split parties, etc.

So, in short, politicians in power try to make best use of their 5 years to secure their personal and political future. No worrying about people. On the other hand, in US, whichever party comes to power, they dont anyway change the policy of people service.. They work to make sure the life of citizen goes smoothly.. They dont have 'festival-like' election time for need of money. They are far less corrupt, since they have to be accountable.

Some political parties stick to some agenda which seriously affect the people in a bad way. e.g., the strong communism has prevented industries being setup in W. Bengal and Kerala.. So, most of their cities and towns look the same for several years.. no improvement, no infrastructure improvement. We all know how post-Godhra could have been avoided.

(2) Government employees

Many of them misuse their power to make money. They take a 'laid-back' approach once they get their job, since they are not going to be fired. Many would have got their jobs by paying huge money to politicians and/or higher officials so they also want to make quick and dirty money. Files get clogged and they spend a lot of time in thinking how and where to make house/buy car, etc. than focus on their job. Going for bandh, strike, etc. are just unacceptable. Just ask the question: Do I deserve what I am asking for?

(a) Police: Money from law-violators who erode the society, political bias, underperformance.

(b) Tax officials: Money from tax-evaders, political bias, misusing their power to avenge those who dont comply with them

(c) Administration: money from all who benefit with their 'signatures', political bias, under-performance.

(d) PWD: Nexus with the contractors leading to underservice. c's things apply too.

(e) Teachers and doctors: Under-performance, letharginess, not realizing the seriousness of their impact on the society, concentrating on getting money from their private service (tuition and clinic).

3) People

Most of the people have no awareness on (a) cleanliness (b) maintanance of provided service (c) education and (d) population control and (e) money management. The collective mindset has to change. They have to make sure that their home, office and all they deal with aren't dirtied by them. Get just one child, no matter you are rich or poor, no matter it is a boy or girl. People cant afford to BOOZE as they wish.. esp. the low wage workers.. if they spend 25-50 % on their earnings to drink, how will their quality of life improve?

4) Diversity

India being so diverse is great.. but when the diversity affects the people adversely? Cauvery water issue being a vote-luring one, highly politicized and prestige issue. Clashes between people in the name of religion, region, language and caste. In US too, African-Americans were underprivileged till few decades ago.. I dont think they got any quota system or something to come up in life and society.. No discrimination - one law and thats it.. they joined the mainstream by themselves.. by working hard and making use of the available opportunities. Importantly, the whites accepted them within a very short duration of time.

We have to do something that urgently with the caste system.. The current quota system that exists in states like Tamilnadu will not bring any long-term solution.. The higher caste people have to accept that all are equal. Caste system has to be abolished totally. People need to be educated seriously about it.. Unfortunately, the things are going in exactly the opposite way in this matter.. with caste-based politics getting into almost all states.

5) Unemployment and child labour

With a large chunk of population in the 20-30 age group, unemployment is a plaguing problem.. Government should strictly enforce the law against child labour and punish the offenders.

In short, everyone has to give their near 100% in whatever they do. I think it is enough of funda.

Most of these have been touched upon in different movies. Let us see how shankar approches differently in Anniyan.

Kamal's Next Film in Kannada

Kamal is acting in Kannada after a long time.. It is going to be the remake of "Sathi Leelavathy" and he is going to replay the Doctor role. Ramesh Aravind would try his luck in direction with this one. He is joining Balu Mahendra and David Dhawan, who directed the Tamil and Hindi versions resply.

Kamal has said it is his first Kannada movie since Pushpak in 1987!! I think he had some pun intended.. Coming to think of Pushpak, it is a nice blend with its lead stars being Tamil (Kamal, Amala and Pratap), Director and few supporting actors being Andhrites (Singeetham and the unforgettable 'begger' actor), movie being shot in Windsor Manor, Bangalore and some hindi actors too (Tinnu Anand and the captive).

If you watch the movie now, just see the location around Windsor Manor and the traffic of 1987.. Man, what a huuuuuge difference...!!

SuBa's entry into cinema

Got to know KV Anand's directorial debut Kanaa Kandaen has been released. I regard him high in my list of favorite Cinematographers and have seen most of his movies. To my pleasant surprise, it was SuBa's story that Anand has chosen.. wow.. that would be great.. I used to love reading those crime novels by Rajesh Kumar, SuBa (Suresh and Balakrishnan) and Pattukottai Prabhakar (PKP). Though the former's stories were undoubtedly great, I found a nice variety in SuBa's stories, in terms of the 'naughtiness' factor, their 'varnanai', unknotting the plots, the duels between their star pair Naren-Vaijayanthi, supported by Ramdas and John Sundar.. I have seen PKP and Devibala's stories being made into teleserials.. And when I used to see some so called 'thriller' movies in Tamil, I was found wishing how it would be if SuBa pen a script for a Tamil thriller... So, looks like my wish has been fulfilled.. Cant wait to watch Anand's Kana.

Star Wars

No, this is not about the forthcoming sequel.. It is about the war-of-words between some of our tamil heroes… Vijay-Ajit and Dhanush-Simbhu duels are well documented. When I think about it, this is what I get: In the case of latter pair, people have ascribed it to Aish marrying Dhanush. There were once rumors on Dhanush-Aish relationship, since they both studied in the same school and also kids of cine personalities. Some dialogues in Manmathan, even I felt, seemed to be attacking Dhanush and Aish. Even though both parties deny it, I think that’s the reason.

The “Vijay-Ajit” stuff also seems to be along the same line. Vijay and Shalini gave a blockbuster “Kadhalukku mariyathai” and they joined again for “Kannukkul Nilavu”. Looks to me that Vijay fell for Shalini… both were Christians too.. I cant say about the response and reciprocation of Shalini but she married Ajit after “Amarkkalam”. The hungama started only after that, with Vijay being the first one to vent out his anger against Ajit, and, Ajit too gave it back to him.. It goes on till now.. Vijay married Sangeetha and is living happily but, I have the feeling that he cant forget Shalini.. my evidence is “Sachein”, where the girl he craves for answers to the name “Shalini”!!!! In several of his dialogues with her, I felt that he talked from the heart.. and I have never seen him at this much romantic best in any of his movies. He says "Shalini" moochukku munnooru thadavai.. His only motto in the whole movie is to make "Shalini" say "I luv u" to him.. Poor man, he has his own version of love story deep in his heart and may be ruing his missed chances to convey his feelings to Shalini,, thinking that, with successes galore and a great position in the industry, how happy he would have been if……