athuva varrathu......

Saw Saroja on the first day with a bit of expectation. The movie was a disappointment. There was nothing refreshing in the movie. Every character was shown to have a story to them which least connects with the viewer. It was irritating too when the protagonists just keep hovering around their lost path and the abandoned place beyond reason. Yuvan disappointed big time. Silly movie it was.

As usual technology & internet that can make anything vulnerable has led to the release of first pictures of Endhiran. The first feel you get off them is that another typical shankar movie kind movie. Anything else is to be expected? Just on coincidental notes the other stalwart Kamal has also commenced his photo shoot of his magnum opus (a cheap expression by itself these days) Marmayogi. Both had a set pattern of operating in the industry, especially after 1995 since when I watched movies eagerly. With rajini the pattern is just as predictable as the number of active cells on George bush’s brain. With Kamal though it is not as unpredictable as the sub prime crisis, still a pattern as to the equivalent of political graph of Dravidian parties can be drawn. Kamal keeps acting in a chain of comedies (mostly) interlaced with his ambitious (that sometime turns to be good) movies. A kadhala kadhala before a Hey Ram, Panchathanthiram & PKS before Anbe Sivam & Virumandi. A VV before Dasavatharam are examples. But the recent trend of Tamil movie breaking greater boundaries (both within and outside India) has up heaved both of then to a higher pedestal. Now budgets, collections are least and last of the issues. On that note one did Sivaji and the other did Dasavatharam. Without entering the debate about the success of these movies, what really succeeded was Tamil movie industry. It is being more widely accepted and acknowledged. With that new pedestal and the basic that technology can only aid a good film these stalwarts hopefully give us the right entertainment.

Panakkara Naai....

Naai vechirukkura panakkaara naaihala,athunga aai porathukku katti vekkalada pavements.

Recent Movies.....

Kuselan:SHIT.
SUBRAMANIAPURAM :Loved it, Liked it like hell.
DHAAM DHOOM: Well am taking the risk of even being labelled as inhuman for reviewing the dead (Director JEEVA). But this movie made me feel just "Good that the man is no more to make another atrocious movie and waste resources".

Dasavatharam cont....

These days any big budget movie is a minimum draw. say a population of 6+ crores in tamilnadu. and assuming only 25% of them watch movies and further assuming all such kind would hit the theatres atleast once for these days' pre-release-propogandised blockbusters. At a very average ticket rate of rupees 20 per head, the mathematics comes to 30+ crores of collection. And that is the last of the bounty a filmamker looks at these days. Thanks to overseas, satellite rights, big bang openings. That explains why a movie like Shivaji or Dasavatharam can't be debated to be a hit or miss based on economics. But that small impute inherent in any movie would just stop a movie from being taken to the hearts of the people . A film saddles to heart of the people by entertainment, refreshment, emotional disturbance. In all of them or one of them. To cut a long story short, a mediocre stuff is a mediocre stuff. Dasavatharam undoubtedly is a masterful, mammoth task cut out on screen. But how does it help end of day if people don't connect. Kurosowa's and acclaimed directors made movies that stood test of time and geographic boundaries. Reason, cinema a visual medium was enriched by them. And it is only sad for a movie to be understood and explained in forward mails. And before anyone would squeal dasa is for the enlightend, bet the maker had such an illusion.As indicated in one of my previous posts the ingrain of cultural divisiviness in the brains of, atleast the learned tamils, makes them predjudicative about different movies and heroes. It can't be more emphasised by the point that it is unacceptable to be a fan of both kamal and rajini. Acclaiming and criticising them on equal scales. You must be mundane then. BUt hurl one and hail other is acceptable anytime. This is not another exhaustive rajini vs kamal (should it be kamal vs rajini,given the fact kamal is senior?) debate. As a generation, rajini and kamal movies were what with which we had grown. in the late 80's and early 90's if you had come to me, a boy of 10-12 then and asked if you liked rajini or kamal, i would have just replied i like cinema. I still would answer the same for that question. In so mammoth leaps the tamil film industry has taken, these two are real pillars who are entertianing a tonne times more than all the crop of current youngsters. Time, has made cinema synonymous with entertainment to us. And that is divided as two types rajini and kamal. And what would you prefer at any point of time. Well any one as they would entertain as in their best ways. So owning a DVD of thalapathy and Thevar magan as a pricey posessions is no new for a real cinema lover. When a baba does fail, we do say ok fine let's see whats next. And with Dasa we only say that kamal betrayed us. We are only pained that such hardwork has been overshadowed by his ego and more so by his fetish for make ups. C'mon don't say technical brilliance. To the standards of technical brilliance and freshness new direcotrs have got into tamil cinema, this movie looked like a puppet show in various instances. And mediocrity is no compromise for right intentions. Dasavatharam has a average hollywood flick kinda oneleine story. And beyond that everything is left to the screenplay to sustain. And thats where he falters giving sparks of brilliance rarely and a drab most of the time. Smitten is he himeself in between with his prophecies, which no bloody hell is interested. too many loose ends you see. A dasavatharam should have taken kamal to higher pedestal (hidden case:any movie of his would never ever deprive him oh his achieved stature), but fails. And to attribute that failure to the audience is a shame on him.

Dasavatharam and the average cinema lover......

better late than never. Taking on Dasavatharam's trailer and music or well without even taking on it the following things are for sure,

1) Kamal periya aalu thaan ba...
2) A film is only as good as it is accepted by people from all centers....

3) The third and the most elaborate of my non taking of Dasavatharam music is that , Himesh Reshamiyya by any sort of standard or explanation is a misfit here. A misfit that is a culminate of a crate of misunderstandings, most commonly nomenclatured as MARKETING DEMANDS. Undeniable is the fact that they could have easily settled for a more renowned South Indian music director. Even citing the reason of being a multilingual doesn't stand a valid reason for Reshamiyya on board. As still 3 out of the 4 languages it is being made are only south Indian languages . And as again there are eminent music directors who have established unabashed fan following for themselves, mostly through movies that are just dubbed inter languages. And quite a handful of them have perched on the bollywood arena too. So if they thought Himesh Reshamiyya could serve a facilitator for the multilingual tag of the movie they were wrong. Or just had they thought that he could give the movie an address atleast in the bollywood arena, again they are wrong. Or i shudder had they ever thought Reshammiya's music could bring an universal appeal as supplementing to kamal's addiction for universal recognition. Simple is that nothing but a belligerent producer or actor or director whoever it is, explains of having him as the music director. And truth is that he can't even manage to bring the real crowd in even for a Hindi movie.Was the content of the movie so unacceptable for some music directors to have not accepted the film. In that case viewers beware.

And what is this attitude of scoring only the songs and not the background score. As known a trend started by A.R.Rehman, such unhealthy it is. An escapist tendency i would say. Now look at this , once a movie is planned the foremost thing is to make the story sink into three persons who are the only ones referred by the word DIRECTOR in the glossary of cinema. They are the movie's Director, Music Director and Art Director. Here is a situation where we get him scoring all the songs and enter devisri prasad for background scoring. And none of them i bet would have got a hearing from the director or the scriptwriter. They would have only dealt this on a situation to situation basis. At least that is what i feel. In that case it would only end up being a remorse for the viewers. when they can't even get as simple a full time music director for a film how silly it is of the people concerned with the movie and those people concerned with the people concerned with the movie to hail this to be a classic sort. Well as said in point 2 Dasavatharam will be judged aptly on day one of its release to public. And in case people offer to reject it there would be a malicious campaign propagating the theory of viewers being fools and failing to connect with the movie. Mumbai Express , remember? A trash that was. Still some people who claim to eat, sleep, breathe good cinema blame the viewers as to not having understood a classic. Bullshit. Well it's meandering, as though i am a kamal basher. but even a iota of non inclusiveness of the average viewer by so called methais should be unabashedly bashed. I am off late stuck with this phrase of khaled hosseini and borrow the same for this situation too. If in general everything about Dasavatharam is a turmoil of uncertainty, small things like himesh reshammiya could make it a certainty of turmoil.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Having abandoned at least a dozen books midway or even before take off makes me ruminate often as, what had happened to my fetish for reading. But A Thousand Splendid Suns
is really arresting.

Raghuvaran...

Long time, say some 8-10 years back, Raghuvaran in a interview said "ethir kaalathil director aahum latchiyathudan uzhaikkum ella assistant directors um avenga kathai leh enakku nu oru character create panni vechirukkaanga" . That he counted as his achievement of his career. one of the few versatile actors , who can infuse life into a film even as dead wood as Sivappathikaaram . Off late we saw him much shriveled on screen and here today his life comes to an end. Never knew he was so old (60 years) .