“Enthiran” Film Review…

Release date: 1st October 2010
Starring: Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai Batchan, Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam, Karunas and others.
Directed by: Shankar
Screenplay by: Shankar
Story: Sujatha
Music by: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Vairamuthu, Pa Vijay, Madhan Kaarki Vairamuthu and Kash n’ Krissy
Choreography by: Raju Sundaram and Claudia Bruckmann
Cinematography by: Rathnavelu
Art: Sabu Cyril
Animation: Stan Winston Studio, USA
Editing: Anthony
Produced by: Kalanidhi Maran and Hansraj Saxena (Sun Pictures)
Running Time: 155 mins
MPAA Rating: G (General)
Genre: Action/Adventure/SciFi/Fantasy/Romance

Rating: 45%
Summary: Most expensive Indian film with well known actors and acclaimed technicians – film should have been a mega hit, but it is a failure because of the direction and screenplay, long unwanted scenes, pathetic romantic scenes and bad comedy. A film that is an insult to viewer’s intelligence!

This is a simple triangular love story. Dr Vaseegaran (Rajinikanth), a scientist creates a robot named Chitti (Rajinikanth again), in the hope that the robot could eventually be useful to the Indian army to fight wars without the loss of human life. Chitti has to be taken to an approval panel which has to test and approve it’s worthiness for military use. Professor Bhora (Danny Denzongpa) who is Dr Vaseegaran’s former mentor is part of this panel to test Chitti. Professor Bhora is jealous of Dr. Vaseegaran’s success and objects the use of Chitti in military as it doesn’t have human feelings. To rectify this Dr Vaseegarn works hard to teach human feelings to Chitti. Sana (Aishwarya Rai Batchan), Dr. Vaseegaran’s girlfriend wants to keep Chitti to assist with her studies and house work during her university examinations. Chitti starts to fall in love with Sana and Dr Vaseegarn gets annoyed and jealous of Chitti’s behaviour towards her. When Chitti fails the trial for military, Dr Vaseegaran disassembles and dumps the parts.

Professor Bhora finds broken Chitti and re-assembles him and gives him a red chip that makes the robot an evil killing machine. The newly assembled Chitti kills Professor Bhora, kidnaps Sana, creates hundreds of Chitti’s, robs and kills people. Blame is placed on Dr Vaseegaran for all this destruction and mayhem. What Dr Vaseegaran does to stop Chitti, forms the rest of the story.

Acting – Danny Denzongpa as Professor Bhora has done his role extremely well and is believable as Professor and villain. It is a real pity that he didn’t have more screen space. The other good performance comes predictably from Rajinikanth as a “villain” Chitti. It is well documented that Rajinkanth at his best is when he acts as a villain, and this is another testimony for that sentiment. Dr Vaseegaran and “good” Chitti are average performances; there is nothing to write home about. Aishwarya Rai Batchan as Sana has done an ok job, not that she had a challenging role. The talented Santhanam and Karunas have been wasted in this film, as they have not been given enough scope to act.

Direction and Screenplay – Shankar who has a high reputation fails miserably in this film (again, as in his last few films). He did make good movies such as “Gentleman”, “Kadhalan”, “Indian”, “Jeans” and “Mudhalvan” once, but lately, he has been creating below-par movies starting from “Boys”, “Anniyan”, “Shivaji” and now “Enthiran”. He takes a story, applies his standard “formula” to it and makes a film with unnecessary graphics, lame jokes and wastes money on sets/costumes that do not add anything to the story. This has been happening from his early days as a director, however after repeating this formula time after time, it has got to the stage that it can’t be tolerated any more. Especially now when there are other young directors who are able to produce a final result that is, much better than Shankar’s with a lower budget.

If we look at “Enthiran” there are holes in the story from start to end, the screenplay is very boring and in some scenes it did not make any sense. At the end there are a lot of graphics and a few words such as “de-magnetising”, “deworming”, ‘de-bugging”, etc. Somehow by throwing these words around miraculously Dr Vaseegaran overcomes Chitti. Dr Vaseegaran was not able to do anything to stop Chitti for a long time, but once he uses all these words and types some kind of codes into a computer set up in a van, suddenly Chitti and his fellow robots are destroyed. To make these scenes worse Shankar has showed graphics after graphics where Chitti and his creations are forming all kind of different shapes and figures almost like synchronized swimming!

Earlier in the movie there is a scene where Sana gets upset with Dr Vaseegaran for not paying enough attention to her and decides to break up with him, so both of them bring all gifts that they received from each other in a suitcase and return them to each other. Then the hero says to Sana that she has not returned the kisses, so he can’t break up with her. So she kisses him and the scene continues in a manner the audience has to cringe. Rajinikanth looks sleazy with a much younger Aishwarya Rai Batchan. Following this scene, comes a song in which Rajinkanth is trying to look like Suriya from “Varaunam Ayiram” film with a guitar. Why?

The heights of Shankar’s (lack of) talent in direction come out when Chitti comes to Sana’s room in the middle of the night wanting a kiss from her. Sana says that a mosquito bit her and she will only give him a kiss if he can bring that mosquito. Chitti goes finds the mosquito, has a conversation with multiple mosquitos and brings back the ‘guilty’ mosquito to Sana, so that it can apologies to her. I can’t think of any director who could think of a scene like this other than Shankar!

Special Effects / Animation – This is definitely a positive in this film and is the best animation that has been seen in Tamil films. However, there was too much of it inserted into the film so that it makes you want the film to end. Some scenes were not executed well, such as the scene that involved a burning apartment building is on fire as this looks very artificial.

Settings / Locations – Can see that the makers of the film have put in a lot of effort to find good places to shoot the film, particularly songs. This is definitely a positive in the film and adds to the entertainment.

Cinematography - This was a positive in the film. Rathnavelu has done a great job, as expected. He has been one of the cinematographers who have been doing well consistently. If you want to be very critical, there are couple of shots of Aishwarya Rai Batchan which was a in an awkward angle and a bit too close. But this does happen often in Indian films.

Background music – AR Rahman has done a good job on this, as nothing made you lose focus from the film or story. But nothing less is expected of AR Rahman.

Editing – This was very crisp, as explained earlier may be a lot of the movie should have been cut up because of bad direction and long unwanted scenes. However, that is the fault of the director and not the editor.

Songs – I am intending on writing another blog on Enthiran music. So I will not comment on the songs in this blog.

There is nothing wrong with Enthiran story and there is nothing wrong with Tamil cinema wanting to experiment with sci-fi. Sci-fi is not new to Tamil cinema, as director SJ Suriya has done similar sci-fi like “New” and “Vyabari” that comes to the mind immediately. Particularly “Vyabari” film had a lot of similar aspects to this film. Ofcourse a countless films from Hollywood, Bollywood and Kollywood have inspired this film, and there is nothing wrong with it long as it’s not a direct copy of it.

However, very poor direction, long unwanted special effects scenes, cliché romance scenes and some poor comedy scenes have ruined this film that is said to be the most expensive film yet from India. Shankar has (ab)used the big banner production (which poured in the money with no restrictions), mass hero Rajinikanth (who has given more than two years of his call sheet), ex miss world Aishwarya Rai Batchan, Oscar winner AR Rahman, along with good technicians from Kollywood/Bollywood/Hollywood in making this film. Most of the above have given their time and effort to this film, but because of the poor direction their efforts are wasted. If all these resources were given to a good director, the result would have been an outstanding film.

Just for comparison if you look at a the well directed Hollywood sci-fi film from last year “District 9” it cost only 75% of the amount that was spent on “Enthiran” film. This would give a good referral point for people who want to compare “Enthiran” with Hollywood films.

Because this film has such big names involved and because of the branding of Sun TV there is a lot of hype created, which had helped in pre-bookings for tickets and also in a big opening. However, unless the audience of this film and media provide honest feed-back about it, directors like Shankar will keep insulting our intelligence by using popular artists and technicians to create more rubbish.

When Tamil cinema is making history and being noticed around the World slowly for quality films by good young directors, films like these are a slowing down the progress of it. It’s time that the Tamil cinema audience request more intelligent films and make sure that they don’t put up with rubbish because their favorite actors or technicians are involved in a project. Be objective!

"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 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.