The Changing Face of Tamil film Industry

The not-so-macho-looking macho heroes, thugs with unruly hair who roam in packs but disciplined enough to come at the hero one-at-a-time, heavy looking thugs getting beaten up by beaten-rice sized heroes – ah! those fancy days of Tamil cinemas. Those days when the dialogues were as innovative as the idea of a circular wheel today, and the sequences of scenes followed the diktats of the days of Sivaji and MGR, when watching movies was an effort of sitting through and appreciating the talent of the teams involved in repeating the age old chants just like the school kids – the days of Tamil cinema from the time I began to watch movies. Thankfully, I think those days are coming to an end. Why? Some of the movies coming out now are highly refreshing; they give me the audacity to hope. The songs are still there, the fights are still there, the villains are still getting beaten up. But there is an element of believability. Some of the recent movies like 1. Unnale Unnale, 2. Anjathey, 3. Saadhu Mirandaal, 4. Polladhavan, 5. Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu, 6. Subramaniapuram have been so good to watch.

What is so special about these movies? Well, they start with a story - stories with a bit of realism here and there. The crew have started with a story, worked on it, and then went to cast the actors. This is a path-breaking effort in Kollywood! Making a movie had become a mechanical work. Get dates from a huge hero, put in 4 songs and an item number, arrange 4 fights in the middle, and then add mother or father or both, let us see who is supposed to be killed by the villain and how the hero fights the injustice. How much difference it makes when you start with a story rather than a hero! Albeit some of the movies listed above have some negatives, there are still some refreshing things in the movie that even out, if not outweighing the negatives. It just shows that a bit of realism here and there would go a long distance in outweighing the unwanted aspects and repetitions.

I have heard of some more movies which are good, but then it has been long since I have taken anyone's word for Tamil movies. When I land on some such movies, maybe I will like them. But please, someone should say no more formula movies. For example, Villu was an absolute disgrace. Prabhu Deva should be stopped from movie making.
Out-of-place songs go a long way in irritating a viewer. Making a movie is similar to writing a paper to publish in an academic journal. Any piece that is out of place, or is not substantiated or is unnecessary would only irritate the reviewer and increase the chances of rejection. Repetition of an earlier work, without acknowledgement, would surely be kicked out. The same applies here too. Did the piece of prose in italics irritate you because it was out of place and without any connection? The same happens in movies too.

One could argue that it is just for entertainment and no need for strict rules in making movies. I say, making movies is their profession. And any professional cannot be allowed to get away with mediocrity, be it in any field. Cricket is for entertainment, would the fans keep quiet if the team does not perform well? Why doesn't the same apply here?

Sudesi 2006, Movie review

The following blog entry is a word for word quote from one Praveen K in Chennai.

Finally!! I watched THE man on big screen and fortunately, being really strong hearted, I am living to tell you about it. I found it an amazingly entertaining movie and would recommend it to all you guys and gals out there for two main reasons. One, its super fun. Two, its totally economical - you can buy a ten rupees ticket and still manage to sit in A row, for all you need to do is turn back and understand that you are alone. So lets get to the review of Sudhesi, the film of the year 2006.

I watched the film on Saturday with a huge bunch of friends. The theater was jam packed with around 12 people and over 948 seats. The whistles began right away. It was a pleasant shock that the film was produced by Sudhish, an ultimate fan of Captain. I guess he chipped in with this movie before "That Four Letter Word" so that he could possibly invest the huge profits obtained from Sudesi. He told me that he did not sponsor Captain's clothing alone, which is understandable since buying off Aravind Mills is not an easy joke.

The film starts off on a political note : the death of the Chief Minister, which completely puzzled the viewers since Captain hadn shown his face yet. Riots break out everywhere after the new Chief Minister is decided and that is when Captain comes into the picture. Such an awesome intro he gets. A group of rowdies try to kill a poor man during the riot and suddenly the theater erupted as the camera joomed to show us a man wearing a sports soo and running on the road like Gilli Vijay. [Trivia
: This road later came to be known as Bannerghatta Road] When the camera joomed out, there was an amazingly youthful Captain in a red tracksuit. He was drop-dead gorgeous : five people dropped dead. Captain came walking towards the rowdies with camera trying to focus his face from beneath his shoes like in Chandramukhi, but unfortunately his stomach stood in between and they ended up focussing something private. This was followed by terrific fight sequences, at the end of which there was so much destruction that all the shop owners felt that it was more economical to allow the riot to continue next time.

Sudhesi is basically a do-gooder. He helps people round the clock. Velai vetti illa-nu vidhyasama solli irukkar director. He solves a mystery involving the death of a young boy and gives a half an hour lecture in the court which impresses the judge so much that he appoints him as a Public Prosecutor in his court. However, Sudhesi's extraordinary language skills played spoilsport since a Bublic Brasecootar made him appear like a Naidu Hall salesman he loses his job. He has statistics about each and every thing in the universe in his finger tips and often lectures people with such intensity that it would make even Ramanujam hate numbers. The only other thing possible was mentioning his vital statistics, which was left out since it hasn't been measured accurately due to inadequate technology.

As always, Captain proves that he is highly romantic. He is constantly nagged by his mora ponnu who, for some reason, finds him to be the hottest person on earth and troubles him to marry her. I did not find any compelling reason why a girl would love Captain, considering the death rate of his heroines, unless ofcourse she'd been paid all the extra money like Isha Kopikar in Narasimha. So, the director had to be really smart and he was. All scenes were shot in the evening coz the heroine had maalai kannu noi.

Karunas has been included for comedy, but he pales in comparison to our MAN. I pity Sudish who ended up spending extra money for a redundant character. There is a scene in which Karunas and Sudhesi travel by bus. They were both supposed to travel on the footboard. However simple equations of physics showed that if that scene was shot, the bus would topple for obvious reasons. So Sudhesi alone got a nice place inside the bus, as a result of which it was completely crowded and Karunas had to hang on for dear life hoping that Captain doesn't sneeze or cough. In certain scenes, the direction was completely flawed - Captain says to Karunas, "Dei nee powder poosina panni maadhiri irukka" - it is always better to rehearse the scenes so that you don't end up saying the other person's dialogues.

Captain's costume in the movie were revolutionary. His wardrobe was provided by M.A. Jacob, the carpet people. The colourful flowers on his shirts are only found in two other places - bedspreads and ooty flower show. It is said Sudhish refused to buy faded jeans and so Captain bought normal 52inch jeans, forced himself into it and made faded designs with chalkpiece. Such wonderful costumes made Sudhesi appear so youthful that it gave us a glimpse of how Captain might have looked during his adolescent ages. He was equally scary then. He infact rides an Enticer with such ease that it looked like he was riding a tricycle. Such was his class. In one scene, the heroine jumps into the bathroom where she thinks Sudhesi is taking bath and with her looks matching that of her man's, the guy inside comes out shouting "Ayyoo Peyiiiii". Thank god Captain was not inside the bathroom, or else the heroine would have come out running. There is a duet song in the movie which has extremely relevant lyrics about Pongal festival. Captain has danced very lightly for this song and thus the heroine was reported to be safe.

Kadhai-la ippo dhaan taRning point. The Chief Minister and his right hand are totally greedy and selfish in this awesomely innovative script. They do lotsa kedi thanams including killing the ex-CM, which the right hand secretly tapes using a micro camera. This video falls on the hands of Sudhesi. After having watched Ramana, the right hand knew that this was highly dangerous since Captain was the only person capable of dragging and dropping new pieces of information into videos using Windows Media Player. The right hand comes looking for the CD and holds Sudhesi's mom a hostage with a knife and a gun simultaneously. But he had already seen Narasimha, he knew that Sudhesi would dodge all the bullets and decided to use a time bomb instead. He locks Sudhesi and his mom inside a room and fixes a time bomb. The bomb explodes. Mom dies. But amidst the flames thalaivar comes out flying. Sudhesi escapes. The bomb had actually thrown Sudhesi out of the house into a safe area. Friendly bomb.

In the second half of the movie, Sudhesi decides to use the CD and blackmail the CM to do good stuff for the people. The CM decides to kill Sudhesi and there is a super fight in a shopping complex with Captain wearing the kalyana band master dress seen in the posters. He freezes after every punch he delivers and the camera jooms to show his eyes in close-up which had as much sex appeal as a garbage truck. Even his coolers refused to stay in its place and flew away, but Captain pulls it back with a romantic stare and a there-is-nothing-like-early-morning-shitting smile.

Sitting on the stairs of a half-constructed building, Sudhesi proposes reforms in the medical field to the CM. This caused unnecessary expenditure for Sudhish, who had to pay compensation for damaging the foundation of the building. So next time onwards they decided to use fax mizeens. Sudhesi, who failed four times in fourth standard, now proposes educational reforms that take the entire state by storm. All this increase the popularity for the CM and he wins the elections easily, while it was the mastermind of Captain in the background!

So the CM calls Sudhesi to a place that is supposedly a factory but has a double cot in the manufacturing section. What sort of a factory would have a bed in such a place? Sudhesi senses that there is something fundamentally wrong and just as he expected the bad guys appear out of the blues. Plenty of wired stunts in this scene with Captain being wired with Amman TRY Murukku Kambis and lifted by cranes. One senseless guy tried hitting Captain with a steel rod, which just bends around Captain's wrist like a watch. What a man. Suddenly one bad guy says, "Dei ivan romba nallavan da, evalo adichaalum chamatha freeze panni nikkaraan" and the fight stops. The CM apologises to Sudhesi and urges him to become the CM. That triggered a half hour Sudhesi sbeech which makes you desperate to take a dip in the evergreen cooum and close your ears with cork. After the speech, the CM commits suicide for making the deadly mistake of holding "talks" with Captain.

Captain is back in form after a really dry period last year. Punch dialogues like, "MGR-kum enakkum orey oru vidhyasam dhaan. Avar kai-aala adipparu, naan kaal-aala adippaen" made us have a hearty laugh in the theater after we made all crooked sentences out of it! (Purinjavanga sirichukkonga pa, inga me no tell that, naan good boy!) The heroine disappears after the first half since Sudheshi did not want to distracted by silly matters. Everybody wondered what happened to her, but I am sure she must have cancelled her dates on the pretext of going on a sight seeing to Dumil Kuppam, after the duet song with Captain.

I thank Sudhish from the bottom of my heart for giving us such a wonderful film, and hereby confer upon him the title, "Sudheeshi".

Chak De India? Or....

I have this bias against ShahRukh Khan's movies. Having said that Chak De was no moer than a glorified bollywood movie for me. The story was alright and acting was more mediocre and less talked about direction the better... But then this view of mine reached a new low last night. Why?

Last night I was watching a movie on TV, Miracle, starring Kurt Russell. This movie was not great, but good with average directorial effort and good acting. So what was the story... If you haven't guessed already, an Underdog Ice-hockey team making it to the olympics and winning the gold.

I never had great expectation from bollywood movie makers, but what really did it for me was they don't even write original dialogues... Everything inspirational dialogue, every key point in the movie has been lifted from Miracle. What was original in Chak De was its stupid way of showing team-spirit, where the team goes and bashes up some guys in a restaurant, and the so-called romance between one of the team member and a cricketer... But full-credits to the makers of Chak De, they were innovative in making the story about a Women's hockey team!!! Now that is amazing creativity!! Even if you are only copying a hollywood story, give the original some credit and try to make the original look better...

Excellent movies 1. Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is an amazing movie to say the least. The movie by Coppola won 2 Oscars. The world's best actor EVER - Marlon Brando stars (and i mean it STARS) in this movie. He is supported by Duvall and Ford. A wonderful work from Sheen.

Sheen portrays the character of a soldier who feels more at peace in the jungles of Vietnam than outside. He also plays the narrator of the story. He is given a very important mission. He tracks the life of Brando - a colonel who has gone insane due to the war. The movie shows how an exemplary soldier and man of great regard could stoop to such lows in a war.

The movie is shot in great locations that give more eerie touch to the movie. Brando lives and breathes as the insane colonel, who knows he has gone beyond all help. Duvall plays a maverick Lt colonel who loves his men, hates the war, but still wants to enjoy even if it means taking highest risks. Even though i have told most abt the movie, it is an absolute treat to watch.

A MUST WATCH!!!

Silence of the Rainmaker

Today I am blogging about two movies I saw this week. Silence of the Lambs and The Rainmaker.

Silence of the Lambs: A heavily recommended movie (by a friend whose recommendation I regard highly). I started the movie a bit sceptical. I do not like movies with blood and gross stuff. It is a very old movie. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. The movie won Oscar(s). The movie is about a psycho serial murderer, who skins the people he kills. And the only person capable of helping the Police is a very talented Psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. But here is the catch, the Psychiatrist is a CANNIBAL. Hannibal, the Cannibal. Anthony Hopkins has portrayed Dr. Lecter with great dignity. To play a decent, well-mannered Cannibal is quite a task. And Jodie Foster as a rookie cop has done well. If I am right, she got an Oscar. The movie has a very tight script.

The only problem I found in the movie was that the psycho happened to be related to Dr. Lecter in some way. This is too much of a coincidence for me. I could not digest this fact. Other than this, the movie has all ingredients for a classic.

And I nearly forgot, as expected the hero Dr. Lecter escapes from the Police. Some rope for a sequel!! I think there are about 4 movies based on this character.

The Rainmaker: I have one word for you, AWESOME. Coppola is a great director and he proves it yet again in this movie. Based on Grisham's novel of the same name, the movie does justice to the novel. Starring Danny DeVito, Matt Damon. Both of them give commendable performances. DeVito is splendid. He is a great actor and always amazes me with his ease of portrayal. He plays a paralawyer, one who has passed the law school, but has not managed to pass the bar exam. Matt is a young graduate from a law school. He joins this shady firm in which DeVito works. The firm head has many cases of money laundering and other things on him. Matt and Devito team up and chase ambulances. Matt has two cases with him, one is a Will and other is against Insurance company.

Danny Ray is a Cancer patient slowly dying. Great Benefit has denied his insurance claims and Danny takes them to court with Matt's help. Matt now has set up a separate firm along with DeVito. Matt and DeVito fight with big law firm defending the insurance company and win the case. They manage to close down the insurance company. This is a truly well-done master-piece.

A must watch in every sense. I could not find any flaw in the movie. I single out Matt's accent in the movie for appreciation.

Will see you all later then!! Rent these two movies for this weekend.

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet st.

Today I went for the movie Sweeney Todd. I knew part of the story before i reached the cinema. I saw the review was 8.1/10.00. LOTR had about 8.2/10.00. So I knew it would be good.
I was not disappointed. It was lovely.

Johny Depp was so very impressive. He has given a stellar performance. The cinematography is excellent. The animation was spectacular. Great direction. I liked the music. It was a great movie overall .

I recommend everyone to watch the movie. But i would like to caution you that it is a bit gory. Lot of blood and a bit of cannibalism. So if you are up for it, there is no reason to miss it. Even otherwise, it is a must watch. Johny Depp deserves that much.

Man on the Moon - Discontinued!!!

I could not believe my ears when the chap in the DVD store told me that sales of the dvd "man on the moon" has been discontinued in Australia. I was told that i would be lucky to find it anywhere in Australia. I went round to 4 more dvd stores and same answer from all of them.

I am not going to stop with this. I am going to ask my friends in Melbourne to check for the dvd there. It must be there somewhere, isnt it? Lets hope so.

I am now more than 80% done with that research problem. Will be finishing by next friday.

Will let u know soon, how the dvd hunting went.

Got hold of fav songs and Death trap!!

You know how it feels when you see an old friend after a long time?? Well it is quite the same with songs too. After about 5 months i got to hear my favorite songs again, last week. I had totally forgotten about them, when i accidently reached their pages in Wikipedia, and then went to 'youtube' and downloaded from there. One is Michael Jackson's "Heal the world" and the other is Enigma's "The Return to Innocence". If you have not heard either of them, please do at once. You will regret it otherwise. I assure you that you will love them. Such is my taste. They have exceptionally good music and lovely lyrics. I appreciated the songs more when i learnt their full lyrics. I also got hold of "Across the universe" of the Beatles. That is quite good too.

If i say that is what i have been doing whole week, i would be lying. A friend of mine made me watch the series "Lost". And i must say, i am really impressed. I saw the whole first season in about 4 days. And i am raring to have a go at the second season. It has a normal plane-crash-on-a-island story line. But the way it has been shot, is quite marvellous. But one sad part is, the series is still not fully shot. I hear the seasons 5 and 6 are still to be shot. That means it will be another 2 years for it to be complete. I am not sure if my interest will hold up that long.
Lets see. I still got 2 seasons go anyway. If you haven't seen it, why don't you give it a try, eh?

And by god, i accidently hit upon this brilliantly made comedy thriller movie this sunday. It is an old one, "Death Trap". You have heard of who-dunnit thrillers, well this is a who-will-do-it thriller. It has a very tight story-line, which even i as a director, cannot spoil and a great cast.
It has Caine and Reeve. Please pick this one too. This is a lovely comic thriller. I assure you, even before you finish laughing, there will be a surprise waiting for you in the next scene.

I seen to have talked a lot about entertainment today. Don't think thats what i am doing. I also do study, whenever i am free.

Ciao.

Bollywood war movies

Hi good to see you back. Today was very hot here, while it washed away another day of the practice match for India. Dada again got out early in the morning. Please do not let him sleep when he is not out. Once he goes to sleep, he loses his touch and gets out early in the morning. The team management should take turns in keeping Saurav awake throughout the night. I am his big fan and it pains to see the management not taking care of its players.


Anyways coming to what i wanted to talk about today. When i reached home from the university, tired after a hard days work (just a figure of speech), my room-mates were watching the movie "border". I had not seen the movie before so i just sat down with my coffee. I am not very sure what the director was trying. We all know Sunny Deol is a super-hero, immortal being and all, but still this was way too much. Sunny bhai and Akshaye were stabbing the enemy Pakistani soldiers, in tens and tens. The Pak soldiers were very disciplined enough to attack them one after another. Should never outnumber the enemy!! As if that is not enough, Akshaye gets shot, but that won't deter from stabbing more. We know that nothing can stop Sunny, so i am not talking about it. There is also Sunil shetty. I dont know if he has a sister in this movie too. He takes an anti-tank mine and walks to the enemy tank formation, (don't be stupid, ofcourse they shoot him with 10, 20 bullets), and then shouts at them and frightens their tank leader. The fellow puts the tank in reverse and tries to outrun Sunil, but is that possible, he drops the mine on the tank, and kills them all. So till here, the director has successfully showed the Pak soldiers to be brainless, cowardly and stupid. But no, it seems that was not his aim, he later shows the flags of the two countries and begs them to be friendly. Is there anyone with common sense in Bollywood??


Nobody is asking you to make movies on the wars, but if you are doing them at least do not insult the memories of the soldiers. That is the least you can do. It is sick to make commercial movies based on the life of the soldiers who have died on the fronts.

Well this post became a bit serious one. Sorry about that. I think i really felt a bit strong about this attitude of the directors. I will try to keep the posts on the lighter side from now on.
Bye.