"Sathyam" Music Album Review...

Music: Harris Jeyaraj
Release Date: 20th July 2008
Lyrics: Pa. Vijay (2 songs), Yaga Bharathi (2 songs), Kabilan
Director: A. Rajasekhar
Starring: Vishal, Nayanthara, Upsendra, Prem Gi Amaran, Kota Srinivasa Rao and others
Producer: Vikram Krishna

Gada Gada (5:02)
Vocal(s) by: Prem Gi Amaren
Lyrics by: Pa. Vijay
Prem Gi Amaren and Harris Jeyaraj have delivered a rhythmic and stylish song in this “Gada Gada” song. A different kind of song which make use of the voice like a music instrument. Prem Gi Amaren has done a good job with his unique but not smooth voice – very original. There is nothing special to say about the lyrics and most of it is in Tanglish, I suppose it’s excusesable since it’s a kind of a rap song and a youthful song. – 80%

Enn Anbe (6:07)
Vocal(s) by: Sadhana Sargam, Beney Deyal
Lyrics by: Yaga Bharathi
Harris has given the nice melodious music to complement the lovely vocal without overpowering Sadhana. Music is simple but nice. Sadhana Sargam always had a good voice, but often her Tamil pronunciation has let her down, but in this song she seems to have improved a lot. It’s very soothing to listen to. Not sure why they have included the African chant, but because it comes in the interlude, it doesn’t disturb the song. Again there is nothing special to say about the lyrics. It’s just a plain romantic song. – 87%

Aaradi Kaathae (4:46)
Vocal(s) by: Hariharan
Lyrics by: Pa. Vijay
A new kind of mass song. It’s refreshing to here something different and new in this mass song filled times. A song that picks up pace as it goes on with a lot of nice drums. This is a different kind of attempt by Hariharan to sing a mass song, which is not his usual style of song. It s definitely a good try to do a unique possibly intro song. Specially the bits where he pronounces Tamil in a broken way doesn’t sound good, but good effort in other places. This is a very original mass introduction lyric for Vishal. – 80%

Chellame Chellame (6:03)
Vocal(s) by: Naveen, Bombay Jeyashree
Lyrics by: Yaga Bharathi
Probably the most trademarked Harris Jeyaraj song in this album. The music sounds a lot like his older work, however the music does sound good. One violin interlude and then Thai female solo is adding a bit of a new feel to the old melody. Nice vocals. Naveen and Jeyashree both do compliment each other and add a positive effect to the song. However, Jeyashree trying to sing sexy has dragged out the words and that has made it hard and sometimes even impossible to understand what she is singing. The lyrics are reasonable sensual – 67%

Paal Paapali (5:49)
Vocal(s) by: Naveen, Mahathi
Lyrics by: Kabilan
This is the “kuthu” song of this album. Nowadays each album seems to have a “kuthu” song and this album is not an exception. Harris is not known for his “kuthu” songs but he has done a decent job with the music. There is some nice use of drums. This song has typical vocals for a “kuthu” song. Nothing new, but the singers have done their job in providing what is expected of them. Again the song has typical lyrics for “kuthu” songs. – 67%

Summary
Overall Harris Jeyaraj has done well in introducing some new ideas but still playing it safe with his music. This album is a good album with a decent mixture of songs, so there is something for everyone. Singers did well and the best thing is that the pronunciation of Tamil was good most of the times. Most of the singers also suited the mood of the music with suitable voice and delivered the song. Good choice of singers for all the songs. Definitely “Gada Gada” song by Prem Gi Amaren is new and refreshing and that has to have a special mention. Lyrics were ok but nothing novel.

I have to give a pass mark for the lyrics (64%) as there was nothing wrong or special in it. The music was excellent (84%) even though there are shadows of Harris’s earlier work. Since he has added a few new bits to it, it sounds newer and still has the enjoyable melody that he is known to produce. Singers also did an excellent (80%) job and they suited all songs. All in all, the entire album is another hit for the “king of melodies”. – 76%

"Kuselan" Film Review...

Release date: 1st August 2008
Staring: Rajinikanth, Pasupathy, Meena, Vadivelu, Nayanthara, Sona, Mamta Mohandas and others.
Directed by: P Vasu
Screenplay by: P Vasu
Cinematography by: Aravind Krishna
Music by: GV Prakash Kumar
Choreography by: DKS Babu, Ragavendra Larrence, Brinda, Ashok Raj
Editing: Saravana
Lyrics: Vaali, Pa Vijay, Yugabarathi, Dr Kirdhayaa
Produced by: Pushpa Kandaswamy, GP Vijayakumar (Kavithalayaa & Seven Arts Films)
Remake of Malayalam film “Katha Parayumbol”
MPAA Rating: G (General)
Running Time: 158.52 mins
Genre: Family / Drama / Comedy

Rating: 40%
Summary: A movie that should have been a mega hit is a failure because of the direction, screenplay, too many unwanted characters, unnecessary graphic gimmicks and vulgar scenes. What a shame!

The plot is simple. Balu (Pasupathy) a barber who has a small old-fashioned barbershop is finding the going hard to make a living. His old school friend Ashok Kumar (Rajinikanth) who is known as superstar comes to the village for a film shooting. Everyone gets to know that Balu and Ashok Kumar were childhood friends. The villagers try to be friendly with Balu, so that they can meet Ashok Kumar. But Balu feels ashamed of his current position in life and feels that Ashok Kumar would not want to meet or not even remember him . The whole movie is about how Balu meets Ashok Kumar.

Acting - Pasupathy as Balu acted out his role well, can’t say this is his best performance though especially when compared with Veyyil. I believe Vasu did not know how to get the best out of him. Rajinikanth as Superstar Ashok Kumar didn’t really have to act as such, as he just had to be himself in this movie. Meena acts as Sridevi (Balu’s wife) and her acting was very artificial and she didn’t manage to portray the character to the audience. She reminded me of characters in TV commercials. Her childish peepsy voice did not help either. She just did not fit the role of a mother with 3 children especially with the oldest daughter being around 15 years old. People broke out into laughter when she says “naangallum alluthutom”. I too almost cried when she said that. Vadivelu as Shanmugam is the main comedian in this movie. Again Vaduvelu did act his role out well, but nothing outstanding about it. The comedy at times included a lot of vulgarity which is very unlike Rajini movies. Nayanthara acted in a role that I would have imagined the likes of Silk Smitha in. She degraded herself to that level and that is all I can say about her. Nothing else.

Santhanam in certain places gave a relief from the monotonous screenplay. It was beyond my understanding why this movie had to have to many comedians in it. Noone had a real opportunity to deliver. And the little that was delivered was tasteless.

Direction – The P. Vasu who has given many hit movies in ‘90’s couldn’t be found in this movie. He was not able to remake an already established and successful script that proved to be a hit movie in Malayalam. Even with stars such as Rajinikanth and Pasupathy he managed to fail miserably. First of all he has to learn to caste for a movie, it’s not about how many stars that you have in a film, but about whether they add any value to the story. P.Vasu has not paid any attention to artists’ dialogue delivery to make it realistic ensuring that it’s shot again and again till it’s right. In this movie, there are many scenes where the dialogue delivery and acting were below par. There are so many instances where computer graphics have been introduced for no apparent reason. The artificial blue colour of the sea and dolphins were very unreal. In fact there are scenes that gives the impression they were introduced only to add computer graphics. Not sure who came up with this idea, but who ever did as well as the director who let this happen are to be blamed. The ultimately worst scene is where Rajinikanth slits his neck and pulls his head off his body which then flew around the room (this was supposed to be “Chandramugi 2” shooting). There are many scenes like this that have ruined Kuselan. Pasupathy’s characterization was insufficient because of that the movie did not have the impact on the audience that the story really deserves. Direction is an art, and P Vasu has showed, how it shouldn’t be done!

Screenplay – Character development lacked everywhere especially for Balu (Pasupathy). There were so many unnecessary scenes and dialogues. There are big holes in screenplay and most audience in the theater could see that it was not up to the standard and hence there were a lot of comments and laughter during serious scenes. It was truly emberassing considering it being a Rajinikanth movie despite the fact that it has him in a guest role. After all the marketing was done for it as if it was a typical Rajini movie. Therefore the expectations got crushed.

Settings / Locations – Were realistic and the landscape was beautiful.

Cinematography – Most parts cinematography was impressive. It was a treat to the eye. Composition were easy on the eyes. However, there was a scene where Madhan Babu’s head was cut off as he was talking from the balcony of the Superstar’s guest house. This is a big flaw in cinematography and I can’t believe the director, cinematographer and editor all missed this. Makes you wonder how much effort and dedication went in to the postproduction work. A highlight in the camera work is that the lighting suited the situations. Especially the scene where Balu is repairing his barbershop’s old chair was taken very well with artistic flair. Finally, the camera angles that were trying to show Nayanthara and Sona’s body are very disturbing and too intrusive.

Background music – Another aspect that let down the movie is the background music, which was distracting as it was often too loud. At times it did not suit the situation. Some were even copied from other movies.

Editing – There was nothing that looked out of place, however, it can’t be called crisp and I could not identify any particular patterns. The background music had taken a lot of the blame and because of that the editing couldn’t be reviewed properly.

Songs – Refer to the "Kuselan" Music Album Review in this blog itself.
Special effects – Almost all of the computer graphics was unwanted for this movie. The special effects removed the emphasis and realism of the story. The special effect work was very amateurish in many places.

The message told by this movie was good and showed how a good friendship could be a big turning point in ones life. This movie is a remake of a hit Malayalam movie called “Katha Parayumbol”. I did watch some of “Katha Parayumbol” and think that movie was much more realistic and it had a lot more importance to the story. The direction was true to the story line. There was a lot of publicity about Kuselan but it didn’t live up to all the hype that was created around it.

This movie might be a “good lesson” for many artists and technicians. P Vasu should understand even if he was to remake a hit movie, he has to pay attention to screenplay and direction. There is no point in adding more characters (big names) and adding more comedy if you are going to sacrifice the main characters development. This movie makes us appreciate other directors and artists who are remaking hit movies in a successful way. A hit from a different languagee is not an automatic hit film inTakil, it has to have the right touches. Probably Pasupathy for acting and Aravind Krishna for camera would be talked about for the right reasons. Definitely Nayanthara and Meena for their lack of acting, P Vasu for bad direction and screenplay, GV Prakash Kumar for loud and unsuitable background score, Soundharya for amateurish and unwanted additions of special effects will be talked about for the failure of this movie. Audience expects Rajini movies to be family entertainers. Selective comedy scenes and the ‘Charal’ song do not let Kuselan qualify for “General Audience’ certification but somehow it has managed to do it.

Producers, distributors, theater owners (for financial reasons) and superstar Rajinikanth (for his reputation) are the losers from this project.

“Kuselan” Music Album Review…

Music: GV Prakash
Release date: 1st July 2008
Lyrics: Vaali (2 songs), Pa.Vijay, Yugabharathi, Dr. Kridhaya
Director: P Vasu
Starring: Pasupathy, Meena, Rajinikanth, Nayanthara, Vadivelu and others.
Producer: K Balachandar
Remake of Malayalam classic “Kadha Parayumbhol”

Chaaral (4:34)
Vocal(s) by Shreya Ghoshal
Lyrics by Dr. Kridhaya
Shreya seems to be delivering good songs consistently. However, this song is not above average in terms of music or lyrics, but the honey filled vocal of Shreya has to be appreciated. She has played her part well as a singer. – 67%

Cinema Cinema (6:08)
Vocal(s) by Shankar Mahadevan
Lyrics by Vaali
This is a typical Rajinkanth glorification song. There is nothing special in the music to speak of. Shankar Mahadevan has done well and there are no suprises as he has rendered many songs in this tempo. Lyric for this song do not live up to expectations especially since the hype was that it was a tribute to Tamil cinema’s 75th anniversary. It has bits and pieces about Tamil cinema, but mostly it’s about Rajinikanth. I counted the lines that it talks about the rest of the cinema or cinema related lines and it’s only 21. The Rajinikanth glorification lines are 32. So not sure how it can be a tribute to the Tamil cinema in anyway. It also does not talk about other key people in the industry who have made great contributions like Kamalhassan, Manirantam, Balachandar, Illayarajah, AR Rahman, etc. I think it would have been better if they had tried to add some of these people in to the song and if it was going to be hard to add them as there is always some one who might get left out and that may cause unwanted problems, then they should have not sung about Rajinikanth in this song and kept it general. Where I have a problem is when they say that it’s a tribute for Tamil cinema’s 75 years celebration, and then they write about Rajini alone. There is already a song for Rajini so this was just purely overkill. Anyway why we have NTR and Rajakumar when it’s suppose to be a tribute for 75 years of Tamil cinema? I hate it when they try to make marketing comments thinking that everyone else is an idiot! - 53%

Om Zaarare (7:12)
Vocal(s) by Daler Mehndi, Chitra, Sadhana Sargam
Lyrics: Vaali
Why Om Zaarare? What does that mean? Is that Hindi? Don’t we have enough Tamil words to use? The music is very average, probably the weakest song in this album. Why waste Chitra and Sadhana in this song? Why Daler Mehindi? He does not add any value to this song. Why include someone who can’t pronounce Tamil and there is no need for that voice as such either. Another marketing strategy, I guess. The lyrics contain many of Rajini’s previous film names all through out the song. But it doesn’t make much sense; anyone can put the titles of Rajinikanth movies together in this manner. Very disappointing song especially considering this was written by Valli. Another simple mass song only, however it is not that great. - 40%

Perinba (5:36)
Vocal(s) by Kailash Kher, Prasanna
Lyrics by Yugabharathi
Another Rajinikanth worshiping song! Nice music, probably the best music in this album, pity that it reminds us all of GV Prakash’s earlier work from “Veyil” movie. There is no uniqueness. Apart from Kailash Kher’s Tamil pronunciation the song is sung well. I am not sure if Rajinikanth is all what it says in this song, infact I am sure he is not! There is no need to have such lyrics in any album. The lyrics suggest he is a god, leader, etc. Why this? Praise his accomplishments rather than inventing fairy stories- 53%

Sollamma (6:13)
Vocal(s) by Hariharan, Sujatha, Baby Ranjini, Baby Pooja
Lyrics: Pa Vijay
This song is probably the best song of the album. Music is easy to listen, with nice melody. Do I need to say anything about Hariharan and Sujatha’s singing ability in a melodies song like this? They excel as expected. Probably the best lyrics in this album as it depicts the simple happiness a poor person has in their daily life, it’s no surprise that this song was written by Pa Vijay. – 80%

Summary
All in all, I find that the album serves the only purpose of worshipping Rajinikanth. I am not sure how they could write songs like this and get Rajinikanth to act in this! He is said to be a modest person and doesn’t like glorification, but this song is all about glorification of Rajinikanth and not even true glorification. I know that Rajinikanth is acting as a super star in this movie, but I don’t see the need for so many songs about Rajini to portray that super star effect. I am confident that all Rajini fans will be overjoyed and this would be the best thing that happened to them but I for neutral fans this album is a bit suffocating. Overall lyrics are a big letdown. The music is good, but nothing exceptional or new. GV Prakash has played it safe by placing good singers into their comfort zone. Daler Mehndi & Kailash Kher were inclusions that could have been avoided, as they didn’t add anything special and their Tamil pronunciation was appalling to warrant their presence in this album. Especially Daler Mehndi was not needed at all, but as I said it would have been another marketing decision to promote the movie, perhaps specifically targeted at North Indians? Who knows!!!

I would give a fail (44%) to the lyrics apart from Pa Vijay’s “Sollamma” song. Music was good, but because there was nothing new or special it’s a pass mark (58%). Singers did a good (72%) job and they are probably the ones who saved the album on the end of the day. – 59%.

Orkut and me!

I have been an orkut member for the last two years or so. To be honest I am not that active. However I do once in a while log on to read some news and occasionally even add my two cents worth of opinions to a thread.

Last weekend I was removed from Super Star Rajinikanth community. I didn’t know the reason why as I didn’t insult Rajinikanth or anyone else in anything I said. That would not be my nature anyway. So I requested to join the group again and in a few hours I was approved. So I was wondering why this had happened and did some research by going through some of the posts and also checking the moderators scraps (the ones which I was able to view). To my surprise, one of the moderators (Dharma) had scrapped another moderator (Ganapathy S) saying how he had removed one of the members in suspicion as he was part of the LTTE community in Orkut and has advised that we should be careful of people like this (Actual words - "the spy team reported one member is a member of LTTE comm and is posting here too, watch the profile name with a song from kuselan, I have removed him from community not banned, just watch out for such profiles".

I was absolutely shocked to see this. Since when is it a crime to have joined the LTTE community in orkut ? Who are these guys to judge which groups that we should be part of and which we shouldn’t be part of? The best part is that I have never ever even talked about Eelam issues in that community or in any other community in Orkut. They seem to think that they are some kind of law and order implementers in Orkut. I do realize they will not be amused by this piece of writing but I am not scared to express my views. There are a few things in my life that I feel very strongly about and the move to remove me out of a fan community because I support the struggle of MY Tamil people in MY homeland is very offensive to me. That too being banned from a overwhelmingly Tamil speaking community for a Tamil star!!!!

I was thinking about what I should do to address this issue and so here I am writing this blog and attaching the screenshot that I took in this blog for all your viewing. I will also shortly start a thread within the Rajinikanth community asking if supporting Tamil people in Eelam is deemed to be wrong among Rajinikanth fans? I would not have been surprised if I had brought the topic and they told me that they do not want to bring politics into Orkut. That is the stance that all cowards take these days anyway. I wouldn’t have been happy but I would have accepted their statement. But by removing me from the community on the grounds that I support the LTTE shows that that is not their stance. They do have a political view and anyone that thinks otherwise will be removed so I would really like to hear more about this. But from observation I would not be surprised if the thread was deleted immediately and me banned. If that is the case these people are not worth talking to anyway. There will be no regrets from my side since I should have never been part of that community in the first place.

By me referring to Eelam Tamils I am also including the LTTE who are fighting for the freedom of the Eelam Tamils. I hope that no one tells me that they approve the Eelam Tamils demand but not LTTE, since Eelam Tamils have always been saying that LTTE is part of us and are our sole representatives. I find it very offensive for people to come and separate us into two different entities, as even recently in “Pongu Thamil” that has been held all around the world the Eelam Tamils have asked the people to accept LTTE as our voice and talk to them about our Tamil people’s aspirations.

To find out more about “Pongu Thamil” that was held this year around the world check - http://www.ponguthamil.co.uk/ and http://www.tamilnation.org/diaspora/ponguthamizh/08.htm

Do they realize how many thousands of Eelam Tamils are ardent Rajinikanth fans? Is the Rajinikanth community really willing to take such a big risk of making a statement that Rajinikanth fans and LTTE supporters should be mutually exclusive? They better be very careful in what they are saying as they are on the brink to loosing them all. Well THEY are not loosing anything but Rajinikanth is. To a star every single fan is important and here we are talking about thousands, even hundreds of thousands. The Sri Lankan Tamil community is doing their bit at fuelling Rajinikanth’s movie ventures. We are buying rights and distributing and now they want to tell us that we are not accepted as fans? Come on people!!!!

If Rajinikanth or his fans want to make a stand against the Eelam Tamils and/or LTTE, then it’s time for the Eelam Tamils to reconsider where they are spending their money. We (Eelam Tamils) are sick of being used as cash cows who keep giving money to these movies when the artists don’t give a damn about our people’s plight. They are after all just artist so I don’t expect them to do anything for us, but at least don’t do anything against us. Removing someone because they have also joined LTTE orkut community is the simplest of asserting a marginalizing process of LTTE and Eelam Tamils.

Time of the fan associations to think hard and make a stance about the Eelam Tamil issues!

Background about my interest in Sports…

I don’t play as much sport as I watch it! I lover sports! Where does my sporting interest come from? Not many people in my family are interested in sports except for my mother. When I was small I used to remember my mother watching cricket, tennis etc and also telling me about the rules of the game and about the players. That must have been the sole reason for my interest in sports.

Because of the war conditions in Jaffna, I didn’t get to stay after school to play much sports or go to any coaching sessions (only students who were living close to the school or who were in boarding school went to these). I used to play a bit with my cousins and sometimes with friends but not that often. As my school was a bit further away, my friends were scattered around. I didn’t meet them often outside of school. Cousins were not interested in sports as much as I was, so I didn’t manage to convince them to play with me as much as I wanted. The neighbours, well….not sure why I hardly played with them either. I think may be the socio-economic difference might have been the reason for this, even though I myself or my parents didn’t restrict from this as such, the others surrounding me didn’t feel comfortable playing I guess. Then again, it’s my fault for not asking them to play with me. Again, the reason was some of the kids around my age were helping out their parents with farming, etc and didn’t have the time to muck around and play as well, I guess.

Anyway, at that time I was only interested in cricket and tennis to watch and cricket and badminton to play. That’s where my sports interest stopped in Jaffna.

When I moved to New Zealand, I guess I should have taken the opportunity up and gone for coaching in cricket. The first two years I was in Wellington. Since I came to live with my brother and sister at that time, I was still trying to get used to be without parents as well as getting used to the English accent around me. I have to say that my brother was encouraging me to play cricket at least among the Wellington Tamil sports club and I have gone to play as a fill in a few times. But I was not confident at all, as the others seemed to be much better than me. If you have played sports you would know how much the confidence helps when you play. Lack of it makes you suffer. I actually did play a season of cricket for my school’s social team. Again, the lack of confidence was the main reason I played badly.

During my university years, I played for fun and didn’t take it serious enough. This is all cricket I am talking about. At University I started to play a lot more badminton and did become fairly good. I played for the University’s B team. At the same time I also picked up Table Tennis and loved that game. Later on I played Indoor Cricket and enjoyed that a lot too. I also played social squash and later Indoor Netball too. So I can’t say that I didn’t play any sports, but didn’t play to a higher level, which I would have loved to have done. Later on I also played club cricket for two seasons on a social level and enjoyed it, but found it hard to commit so much time, as all of Saturday and some Sundays will go playing for the club and Thursday evenings in practise. Now, I hardly play sports, but I am intending on getting back to playing badminton. On and off we play Indoor Netball in a social league too.

Anyway, that’s enough about me playing sports. As I wrote earlier because of my mother’s interest in watching sports I watched a lot of cricket and tennis when I was in Jaffna. When I came to New Zealand I watched a lot of cricket initially. I think first three or four years I would have watched every single ball of any cricket match that was shown on New Zealand TV. Also after two years I started watching a lot of other sports on TV like Rugby (how can I not, living in New Zealand), NBA Basketball, etc. I think in 2004 World Cup Football was a big highlight for me as that was the start of my passion for Football games. Then I watched most of the major competitions (like World Cup, European Cup, etc). But I started to find it difficult to watch cricket as much as I wanted to because of work. So I started watching less cricket and watched more of the shorter versions of the games. I did always follow cricket with cricinfo though.

Now let me tell you my psyche about supporting sports teams. When I was a kid in Jaffna I always supported India as it had Srikkanth the only Tamilian in world cricket at that time. Later on after the 1987 Indian Peace Keeping force (IPKF)’s attack of our house and harassment that followed, I stopped supporting India. May be West Indies was the only team I liked then. Once I came to New Zealand, I started supporting the New Zealand team and have since been a New Zealand supporter.

Rugby…of course I can only support New Zealand’s All Blacks. In domestic NPC Rugby I supported Canterbury (as I started watching Rugby when I was in Christchurch) then I continued that support to Canterbury Crusaders in Super 12 and now 14.

In NBA I supported Houston Rockets and Hakeem Olajuwon and “Sir” Charles Barkley who played for them at that time. As I was fully in to the games in ’93, ’94, ‘95 season. Then later on I started supporting Toronto Raptors, once the Canadians joined NBA. I also went to two matches in Toronto Raptors home “Sky dome”. For a few seasons I went to support the Manawatu Jets (New Zealand domestic basketball league team)’s all home games. I also worked as a volunteer in helping the administration side of things for the games.

In Football, I could never get myself to support just one team. I have not got into supporting an English premier league team yet. I often support the under dog team that plays out of their skins. Like Chile in ’94 World Cup in USA and Korea in the World Cup ’02 that was held in Korea and Japan.

This year Indian Premier League started up and I supported Chennai Super Kings as first time I had a team that was linked to Tamil’s as Chennai is a city of Tamil Nadu. I enjoyed watching and supporting the team. Chennai Super Kings also did very well and made it to the finals.

If I watch any sports often I support the small or underdogs than a super power. I guess that may be coming from me as I have been in Jaffna and have faced the brutal powers trying to take over our land and Tamils fighting back and preserving our land against all odds. If I support a team that is powerful (like All Blacks), that’s because I am linked to them, not because I choose them as they are clear winners. To be honest, I do not have much respect for the people who support the big powerful names like Ferrari in Formula One; Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal in English Premier League; the biggest names in NBA (like LA Lakers now); etc.

Background about my Tamil Cinema views…

Before I start to write about particular a Tamil cinema topic such as a movie, actor, actress, director, producer, music composer, cinematographer, etc I would like to let you know about my preferences, taste and ideas that would let you know “where I am coming from”.

I do not have a favourite artist in Tamil cinema. In every movie I might like or dislike an actor, actress, director, script writer etc. So please don’t brand me as someone’s fan. For me to be a fan of someone, none of them have performed to my expectation constantly to deserve that. I do like movies that are realistic and stories that show realism. However, more and more these days I am enjoying movies that are pure entertainers – no brainers. I however do think that these pure entertainers should still be socially responsible.

Tamil cinema has a lot of influence in Tamil Nadu (South Indian state) politics, public perceptions, etc. This started off with MG Ramachandran (MGR) (who formed Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK)), who ended up being Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Then there are other cinema personalities such as script writer Mu.Karunanidhi (from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK)) and the current Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa (ex-chief minister) (from All Indian Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)) who was an ex-actress and someone who had a illicit relationship with MGR. There are also film personalities such as Cho Ramaswamy who is heavily involved with politics and also has his own magazine (Thuglak). Now there is actor Vijayakanth who has started his own party (Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam(DMDK)) and has won a lot of seats in the parliament soon as he has got into politics. Then there is Sarathkumar, who is the current president of the Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Artists Association), actor and also a politician who has started his own party (Akila India Samathuva Makkal Katchi). Then there are likes of Rajinikanth who has a huge fan following and has been flirting with the idea of coming in to politics. He has not come out publically and said anything about coming in to politics but his fan clubs have been actively promoting the idea of him becoming a politician for sometime now. Will he come in to politics is still being debated very keenly in Tamil Nadu. In fact many cinema artists have been flirting with the idea of being involved with politics, or supporting a party during the election times. I don’t mind Tamil cinema and Tamil Nadu politics being intertwined with each other. However, where I do have a problem with this fact that if you are a film personality, it is some how counted as a qualifying factor for entering politics. Someone being in cinema field shouldn’t make you a prime candidate for politics and aspiring politicians should not come into the cinema world to promote themselves as politicians. In fact I wouldn’t mind all these at least if they can not change the story of a movie in such a way that would promote them as a politician. This has been happening since MGR days, in fact most of the lyrics in songs and most of the dialogues are written to promote this, that’s a bit sad to see. Anyway, I can live with that all, but the fact that the people who watch these movies, blindly become fans and then because of this they vote for them is something that makes me wonder if this is good for the society. It’s almost like a formula that has been well practised and used by many film personalities, even the younger ones now!

And then there are a lot of movies that show female’s as just objects. This has become an increasing trend. Actresses are almost like accessories for the hero! This is very sad to see since it feels as if we are stepping back in terms of progress. If you think about older movies (mostly black & white) actresses used to portray an important character in the movie. They share the screen with the actors almost equally. There were even movies that were centered on the female character; this is hardly ever the case these days. Actresses are not challenged in their role apart from keeping their bodies slim and performing dance routines accompanying the actors. Intimate scenes are put on screen just to get people watching. Female clothing is sometimes non existent (or close to it), camera angles and dance moves that are suggestive and vulgar. All these are common formulas for a lot of movies. Because many Tamil actresses not agreeing to do this has put a high demand on other state actresses, in particular north Indian actresses, who do not fit the Tamil movies and stories in many occasions, but end up doing the roles, just because they are prepared to act more in glamour roles. And sadly this is a trend that is getting some traction.

Then there is Music - Nowadays there is a lot of acquired music from western countries that are being played as if it was their own work. This is very disappointing. Also there is more importance given to background music than the actually lyrics. This is not just a Tamil cinema related problem; this is the same case in Hindi music or even western pop music. I suppose this is a disappointing global trend.

Let’s talk about the positives in all this; there is more and more realism in characters these days in some movies. There are characters that have the good and bad qualities like in real life. Movies such as “Veyil” and “Paruthiveeran” are movies that are from young directors who are trying to show more realism.

Okay, now to how much I love Tamil movies. Well, I think I do love them enough to do the following:

• Follow reports about present and upcoming projects closely.
• Rent out and watch most movies that get released.
• Watch every single Tamil movie that gets released in New Zealand cinema (first show ;-) - I think that we get to see about one movie a month on average. I know that does not sound like much for those who live in India but believe me for New Zealand that is impressive.
• Buy original DVD’s of movies that I like as they get released.Do all the above make me a Tamil cinema fan? I think so.

I am planning to write what I think about some movies from now; like reviews. Let’s see how it is going to work out. I am not sure about you guys, but I don’t seem to be able to find any good Tamil movie reviews no matter how much I search. It seems that most if the reviews seem to come with a package attached, they will talk about a movie depending on who acts in it. I find that such a put off. Even if you look at magazines such as “Ananda Vikatan” which is a reputable magazine in Tamil. They don’t review movies well, especially these days. This frustration has made me want to write my own. Time will tell how successful this exercise is going to be!

Time to time, I am hoping to write about my views on film personalities too. Again, it will be from my perception and that might cause controversy.

For regular movie news I visit: IndiaGlitz (http://www.indiaglitz.com/), Vikatan online (http://www.vikatan.com/), Tamil Cinema (http://www.tamilcinema.com/), Chennai Online (http://www.chennaionline.com/), etc. I also search if there is anything specific I want information on and also I check orkut communities once in a while. These are my primary source of information that I base my movie related writings on.

About me…

Firstly, I would like to thank you for visiting my page. I hope that your visit is useful and entertaining. My aim of this blog is to talk about things that interest me and I hope that you too will find them interesting. ;-) If I start off by telling you a bit about me, it might help you to understand my background. Background is important for anyone to find out why a statement is made and how this idea came to one’s mind.

No, I am not a celebrity or anyone with great knowledge in any particular area. I am just an average citizen and I hope exactly that will make my writings more relevant to you.

My name is Dhaya, and I am working as a Communications advisor. I was born in Jaffna (northern peninsula in island of Sri Lanka). My schooling up to my age of 15 was in a private school in Jaffna and then from 16 to 18 I was studying at a College in Wellington, New Zealand. Then I studied to gain a Bachelor of Applied Science (Natural Resource Management) at a New Zealand University and have been working in several different places and also in different areas / roles since then.

If anyone asks me who am I, the first thing that comes to my mind is that I am a Eelam (North and East of the island Sri Lanka) Tamil. And then of course that I am a kiwi (a New Zealander). So most of my interest is based on the fact that I am a Tamil who love my motherland (Eelam) and my adopted country (New Zealand).

The love of my motherland has made me interested in Eelam politics, world politics, issues that are faced by minorities, etc.

The love of Tamil language and culture has made me interested in Tamil cinema, Tamil music, Tamil magazines, etc.

Love of New Zealand has made me interested in environmental issues, sports, traveling, etc.

What am I intending to write about in my blogs? I seriously don’t have an agenda. I will like to talk about anything and everything that comes to my mind. I would say that I will try and keep away from Tamil Eelam issues for the time being, not because that they are low priority, but because I want to start with easy topics. Probably about Tamil movies.

Remember I am writing this for your entertainment and knowledge (?). So I would seriously value your comments and your views about the issues I write about.