Optimism

I lost my 'poonool' recently while I was trying out some dresses in a mall. When I was thinking about it, my mind wandered into what could be its potential advantages. Suppose during my forthcoming India trip I get caught in the middle of an unexpected carnage against Hindus, or, specifically, Brahmins, me not wearing a poonool might save my life!! :)

It reminded me of a scene in 'Hey, Ram!' in which Atul Kulkarni, when confronted by Kamal, cites some mantras to save his life. I was wondering what if he was mute, and he had no other proof to show that he is a Hindu. Similarly was the scene in 'Mr. and Mrs. Iyer' when the Hindu mob attacks the bus. That these things still happen in some parts of the country is a disturbing thought. Anyway, back to the discussion.. I was thinking, 'what if, on the contrary, I am caught by a Hindu gang, when I am without my poonool?'. The mantras that I learnt long ago would probably come to rescue me aka Atul's case.. hmmm.. mind is truly a monkey..

Tamil Movie Quiz - 2

1) A famous line uttered by Kamal in Pammal K. Sambandham is:

"Pazhamozhiyai anubavikkanum; aarayakkodathu".

Last weekend, I was watching an old movie in which, surprisingly, Rajini commented the same - but it was not on 'pazhamozhi'. When I was discussing at length about this movie to my close buddy, this analogy was invented. That was not a very successful movie, but was critically highly acclaimed. It was directed by a debutant. This comment by Rajini shows him as a sexist in that movie. Interestingly, it had Kamal as well.. Which movie is it?

2) One more qn. on assistant directorship. Probably the longest chain of directorship in Tamil, may be even in the entire Indian cinema..

'A' was a director under whom 'B' was an assistant director. The initial of 'A' is 'A' and the first letter of 'B' is actually B... :) . 'A' is not such a famous director as 'B' but still has directed big stars such as Kamal, Rajini and Vijayakanth (after 'B' left him). Many assistant directors of 'B' got very famous, but his most famous disciple was 'C', who had even acted in a few of B's earlier movies. 'C', until recently, was always the hero in his movies. 'D' was assistant to 'C', and the first movie of 'D' had a hero and heroine introduced in the same movie by B, along with 'D' himself.

In that super-hit movie, he introduced a new heroine, on whom he apparently had a crush. He made his second movie with a title conveying to the world indirectly that he is set to pair with her in real life too. Probably she didn't like that kind of arrogant behavior, so they parted ways. 'E' was assistant director to 'D' and he directed his first movie with the aforementioned actress as the heroine. He too named his second movie along the similar lines of second movie of 'D' but it was more of an open proposal. Soon, they got married.

'F' was assistant to 'E' and his first movie too was a run-away hit. He has made himself a name for directing soft and decent movies. He has provided new lease of life to many famous stars, when their careers were in crossroads. 'G' was assistant to 'F', and his movie, surprisingly was a thriller, with the heroine that 'F' had introduced in his first movie. 'G' has been highly successful with only countable number of flops. He is labeled as 'The Distributors' Director'. He tries to appear in at least a few frames in all his movies, and has acted in -ve and character roles as well. 'H' was assistant to 'G' and is known for quality movies. He is recently into acting as well. His first successful hit as a hero was a superb film. 'J' was assistant to 'H' and directed one of the most successful movies of last year with a totally unexpected actor as hero, and choosing a very different genre. His name has two parts, the first part the nickname of an upcoming, talented young hero and the second part, the name of a villain actor from Kerala. All the first movies of B to H were super-hits.

The offspring of B, C, D and E have all acted in movies.

Identify the directors B to J.. if you can guess 'A', it is a bonus as well..

3) Often in movies we see inspirational stories.. someone struggling to make it big, becoming hugely famous after getting his first chance. A few years ago, a movie, which was a Pongal release, had the story of a talented singer waiting for a breakthrough.. The movie is not all about him, though. It had a female protagonist. He is shown to become very famous with his very first song. I thought "Hmm.. in this competitive world, it would be an ideal case".. how I was proven wrong.. Less than 20 months later, the audio of a famous director's second movie was released, in which a song rendered by a newcomer was a huge hit. He went on to win national award for that song (and for another beautiful song for a movie released the month after his first movie). That was a real turning point in his career. I must add that he was famous in another elite league but his first song made him famous all over the state. Who is the singer in question?

PS: Comments moderated as usual, for sometime.

More clues are added - in yellow.. Have fun cracking.. :)

My Fav TV Shows: 2.Nach Baliye

'Nach Baliye' was a dance-competition for the couples of Hindi TV industry. Here again, I watched only the second season, and from the limited knowledge, I feel that it was better than the first one. There were 10 couples chosen, and after the first week, the poorest performing couple would be eliminated in each week, similar to the 'American Idol'. Most of them were good-looking, and danced reasonably well too. Three judges - Malaika Arora-Khan, Saroj Khan (famous Hindi film choreographer) and Kunal Kohli (Director of movies like Fanaa and Hum Tum) and the public would cast their votes.

Each week would have a theme for which the couples would practice hard for 6 days and perform. Some of the themes were love, marriage, comedy and Indian diversity. It was very interesting, since the competition was pretty intense. Most of the couples had almost no prior experience in dancing, so each of them was provided with dance masters, who were assistants to famous choreographers of Hindi film industry. It turned out that lucky were the couple who got the best choreographers. I almost always liked the performances of four couples. The eventual award-winning couple, Hussain and Tina, danced fantastic in the last 3 or 4 rounds, and were hands-down winners. Click the following clips, in which they danced blind-folded, or with a rope, These were some of their best and my favorites too..

There were some cool dances by other couples too, which were available in youtube at that time but not anymore.. :( Eagerly waiting for the next season now..

Bulbu

Yesterday, I received this e-mail, which made me all excited.. I was like "Wow.. after songs, now the movie, eh?"



So, I went to this site, and the excitement went only further up.. .. only that I forgot what day it was!!
I clicked on the download link, which took me to this webpage. Ange ponaa, 'Idhudhan bulbu enbadha'.... Ethanaiyo perukku bulbu kudutha enakkey ivlo periya bulba?