Tamil vs Hindi cinema: 4. Good Actresses

In an industry dominated by males, the role of heroines, pretty much throughout the country, has been mostly confined to 'dancing dolls'. The actresses can be classified into 3 categories: a) Those who do only meaty/decent roles; b) those who are just glamour dolls; and c) those who do both. In the first category, one can count on Revathy, Tabu, Jaya Bachhan, Shabana Azmi, Konkana, and Aishwarya Rai; the second category has most of the new and young actresses; the third category has artists like Simran, Jo, Sneha, Meera, Kajol, Rani, Preity, Sandhya, et al.

The main problem with actresses is that they have only a limited lifetime in the cine industry.. Unlike heroes who continue to sing duets even well into their 50's, the actresses have to make hay only until their youth lasts; seldom do the fans accept married and mothered actresses. (I sincerely hope Simran and Kajol would break that trend). Due to this, what happens invariably is that there is a seggregation of sorts, based on age and experience: usually, senior actresses tend to act in meaningful roles.

As the parallel cinema doesnt almost exist in both these cine worlds, one gets just a handful of good actresses to compete in this category. A cursory look at the recent National award winners tells us that Meera and Shobhana are the ones from Kollywood (though they won the award for Non-Tamil movies).. and Tabu, Konkana and Raveena won them in Bollywood. Not much to separate one from the other, here again.. So, the actresses on both sides are not only equally beautiful, but equally good in performance as well. Score remains tied at 1-1.

Tamil vs Hindi Cinema: 3. Beautiful Actresses

There was a time in Hindi cinema that all the dream-girls were from South - Rekha, Jayapradha and Sridevi. After their retirement, the likes of Madhuri, Juhi, Kajol, et al. took over. In Tamil, it was quite the opposite.. until recently, most heroines were from the South India - Ambika, Radha, Revathi, Gauthami, Soundarya, Meena, Rambha, and Devyani. No one ruled Tamil cinema as much as Simran and Jyothika did.. and they both are Punjabis.. So, unlike in case of heroes who usually dont break language barriers towards complete shift, the heroines tend to act in more languages. It would be more suitable to call Sim, Jo, Sonia, and Namitha as Tamil heroines, simply bcos they act most in Tamil.

Currently, the heroines most-in-demand in Hindi are Preity, Rani, Kareena, Priyanka, Bipasha and Mallika. In Tamil, they are Jo, Asin, Nayan, and Trisha. Right now, my heartthrob is Katrina Kaif, whose first film, I think, was 'Malleswari' in Telugu and now she has a handful of movies in Hindi. Aishwarya Rai, arguably the most beautiful Indian celebrity of recent times, was introduced first in Tamil. Hindi has heroines from Punjab, Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra, whereas Tamil gets its heroines from pretty much all Indian states. Analyzing all these factors, kootti kazhichu parkkumbodhu, right now, the scenario in both sides is similar. So, I would say that both sides have some equally good-looking actresses and some so-so ones too.. The score still is tied at 1-1.

Happy Birthday, Deepak!!

We both
are tall and lean ;
are precisely equally tall;
know tamil the best; but speak a different south Indian language at home;
come from the same Chennai;
lived in the same state in the US for 2 years;
recently moved to North;
have just one brother;
started blogging the same time last year;
got our first double-digit comments in June, 05;
are teetotallers;
are two among unique 0.27% of Tamil-speaking guys in the world.
All u guys visit Deepak and wish him.

Good Bye, Florida..

Left Florida yesterday; I have heard from myfriends who moved out that they missed
a) the vast beaches
b) the fine weather
c) the beautiful fauna and flora
d) the calm, cool and slow life
e) Orlando & Miami - two of the best tourist spots and
f) the unique (!) good-looking girls... :-)

Let me see how I feel...
a - probably not much of a problem, since the new place is NYC, that too an island with a couple of beaches.
b - cold here.. Sniff..

c - Have to wait for the Fall
d - I am looking forward to the fast life
e - I will surely miss them.. esp. Orlando
f- May be!! :-)

Anyway, it is hi hi to New York !!

Please Do's and Don'ts..

To:
Yuvan Shankar Raja - Do compose music; don't sing.
SJ Suryah - Do direct movies; dont act.
Simran - Do act in movies; dont enter into politics.
Vivek - Do comedy roles; dont try your luck as hero.
Ajit - Do acting; dont indulge into car racing.
Captain - Do politics; dont act in XYZ movies.