AlPhA KaPpA DeLtA PhI

Arya’s much anticipated movie, Madrasapattinam has finally released to a great opening. When I saw the first show, not only was the show full, but also lot of excitement among the actor’s fans. And correspondingly the movie doesn’t disappoint those who have come to watch it for getting a glimpse of the old Chennai.

Madrasapattinam, as Chennai was known under the British Raj is a much more simply and easier city to live than the modern Chennai. And director Vijay has done a good job of capturing the spirit of life in the 1947 and his portrayal of characters of that era also work well. Actor Arya, who plays a malludha veran (wrestler), is active in fighting for freedom. His encounters here lead him to meet Amy Jackson, the sister of a British Officer. One can’t help but recollect the story of Lagan at this juncture (where a similar incident happens). The relationship between the two lead characters takes an interesting turn of events as they make it public. The story proceeds on expected lines from here, but more than the story, it’s the setting or backdrop against which it happens, that is more interesting.

Madras of 1947 is brought out as a place with simple hearts and high ideals. The desire to attain freedom reaches frenzying heights and the twist in the movie occurs on the day of freedom – 15th August, 1947. The end of British Rule has also ended the love affair of Arya, who now has no option but to give up his love. In short, the tagline of the film – When everybody celebrates freedom, one man looses it, rings true. This is exactly what happens in the movie.

The music is above par, with a few songs catching your attention. The background score is also good and has to no obvious flaws. GV Prakash must be reveling at the opportunity of composing for different films. His last few films have been as different as chalk and cheese.

But the highlight of the movie is the amazing art work. To depict a different era is a tough job, but has been done well. I am sure that this movie will get a good share of repeat audiences just for the art work. Overall, the movie is definitely worth a watch. It is an attempt at neat and clean cinema, which has thankfully come out well. I would surely recommend it for your weekend plans.

Ravan and Ravanan have finally released and here is the box office verdict. Ravan has nearly bombed at the box office and Ravanan has done average business.

Ravan has released, finally. Director Mani Rathnam has finally put his creative work to the public and the response is mixed. Ravan, the Hindi version has just about falled short of bombing at the box office. While critical acclaim for a Mani Rathnam movie is no more headlines, the producers aren’t too happy about the movie’s commercial gains. The blame game has just started in Hindi with Amitabh tweeting in support of his son. The stars aren’t rubbing Mani Rathnam on the wrong side, but it wouldn’t be long before that starts.
Ravanan, the Tamil Version, has done good business. Vikram is a highly sale-able star and his extensive network of fan clubs have ensured a good opening for the movie. It’s still too early to pass a verdict on this issue.  But the initial signs are mixed.

Actor Simbu, after success in Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya, is busy with his next project. Simbu’s mellowed screen presence went down well with the ladies audience. It is still a guess, if Poda Podi will cast him in the same light. It will be hard for Simbu to curtail is natural instincts once again. So everyone is expecting a return of the old Simbu in this movie.

Poda Podi is directed by Vignesh Siva and is produced by Gemini Film Circuit and Padam Kumar. Simbu has gone the extra mile to get his look right in this film. International hair stylists Toni&Guy will be doing Simbu’s hair in this movie. Varalakshmi Sarath Kumar, daughter of Sarath Kumar will be paired with Simbu. The lovely lass has made a mark as an able dancer, wonder if acting will be her forte.

After attaining commercial as well as critical acclaim, actor Vikram has decided to commence his next. Ravanan seems to be doing good at the box office. The initial reviews on the movie were very good. But all the good word about the film hasn’t translated into money at the box office. This trend is typical of Mani Rathnam’s movies. In the recent past, from Kannathil Muthamital to Guru, only the reviews have been good, but not the collections.

However, Actor Vikram, who still awaiting the audience response to Ravan (where he plays Prithiraj’s character), has started work for his next film. Titled as “Vedi”, the movie is another police story. How many more police stories will we see. Surya, who is also trying to break into Bollywood, starred in Singam, a typical commercial, cop film; and now it’s Vikram’s turn. Is it a trend that stars wanting to enter into Bollywood, accept to such commercial films, to keep the market in Tamil steady?

“Vedi” is directed by Bhoopathi Pandian and is produced by Mohan Natarajan. Devi Sri Prasad will be doing the tunes and lleana will star alongside Vikram. Ileana is looking to make another entry into Tamil. Hope she has better success this time around.

One of my favorite singers Lena Horne has passed away recently. It’s such sad news for her fans around the world. The singer, whose music was truly timeless, was 92 when she died. She died at a Manhattan hospital, late last night.

For those wondering why the death of a singer means so much to so many people, let me brief her life for you. Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was among the early liberal blacks in America. She literally gave her voice to the civil rights movement by singing at popular gatherings and conventions during the historic movement. She was seen as one of the sensible reformists during those years of turbulence. Despite lending her voice to such causes of social activism, Lena Horne continued her highly successful career without a pause. She literally never took her leg off the pedal on her career and kept breaking new ground every year. Her active years were from 1933 to 2000.

Broadway was bread and butter to her. Her success on commercial Broadway shows is far greater than those of today’s stars. She personally preferred Broadway to Hollywood, partly because of Hollywood’s increasingly pro-white tendencies. Her strong views on the civil right movement left her blacklisted by Hollywood’s top shots and consequently couldn’t find work. By the end of the 50’s she lost her interest in films, despite being successful and focused on Broadway and Night-Club singing. By the 60’s Lena Horne made it big on the TV audience as well. She reigned over this audience for a good 20 years. But when things were their best, she quit the show. But a zeitgeist like her couldn’t keep silent for too long. Within a year, she came back and kept performing actively till she was over 80 years old. 

Her personal life was not the greatest, but it never bothered her. She was married twice and lived a rich and affluent life. She possessed several luxury cars with a fancy dash kit. And her car accessories were the subject of several media men’s attention.  Reporters have it that the wood dash kits in one of her cars generated more attention than her songs!

Another specific reason for the interest in the tragic loss of Lena Horne is the fact that she was an active and a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta – An African-American Sorority that specializes in social service. It’s almost like a sister concern (must get rid of my corporate Lingo!) for the Alpha Kappa Delta Phi – an Asian-American interest Sorority.
Lena Horne will be missed. Her space in American Show Biz will be irreplaceable. Rest in Peace, Lena.

IKMS (Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam) , is Director Simbudevan’s latest venture. After a mediocre movie (Arai En 305-il Kadavul), the director will be looking to enhance his reputation as a film maker with a difference. IKMS is set in the genre of Wild West movies. It has dancer-actor Lawrence playing the lead role. Sandhya, Padmapriya and Lakshmi Rai play the leading ladies in the movie. The Film has caught the imagination of many with its unique theme. But whether it sets the cash registers ringing is not known. The movie has released today and is doing average business so far, but the weekend will spell the verdict.

Veteran producer Kalpathi Sa Agoram is the producer of this movie and songs are by GV Prakash. The music director is getting good projects of late with this one following his laudable effort in Ayairathil Oruvan.

Coming the review of this movie. IKMS is has a strong story line. Not that it breaks stereotypes familiar to Tamil cinema, but the theme more than compensates for the usual good versus bad drama. Opening in a mythical time when Tamil Nadu was ruled by Cowboys the movie takes off with a serious plot. The freshness of the theme keeps the interest till the end of first half. But the slightly elongated second half makes you wonder if the could have been edited well. Raja Mohamed is the editor and in all fairness has done a good job. The director perhaps is little carried away by the theme. The good versus bad theme runs as an under-current in this movie and one can’t help but note the similarities of scenes between the ones in this movie and the ones in classic Wild West movies from Hollywood. The director should have been aware that those movies are very popular in Tamil Nadu. Padmapriya and Lakshimi Rai play the rough female cow-buys and their presence lends credibility to the movie, but nothing spectacular from them.

My only crib in this movie is that, none of the lead actors do full justice to their roles. They don’t fail in their attempts, but a more convincing performance would have been better.

The support cast more than fills in for this defect. Manorama, Nassar, MS Bhaskar, Delhi Ganesh, Vaiyapuri and Mouli make for a very impressive support cast. The presence of such names makes the milieu more realistic and credit must go to the director for roping in all these people for one project. Sandhya plays the love interest for Lawrence in this movie. And though I am not a big fan of her work, she pulls off an above par performance.

Overall, its worth the watch. Good choice for this weekend. Perhaps and 3.5 on 5 will do justice for this movie.

Beera – Vijay Prakash

Behene De – Karthik

Kata Kata – Ila Arun, Sapna Awasthi, Kunal Ganjawala

Khili Re – Reena Bhardwaj

Ranjha Ranjha – Rekha Bhardwaj, Javed Ali

Thok Di Killi – Sukhwinder Singh

The cast of the movie includes the following Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram, Aishwarya Bachchan, Govinda, Prabhu, Karthik Muthuraman, Priyamani, Bipasha Basu, Munna, Kishore, Manisha Koirala, Ravi Kishan,Nikhil Dwivedi, Vaiyapuri.(cast from both Hindi and Tamil versions of the movie)

You can also download all the songs by one click here

AR Rahman has come up with his latest offering – Ravan. The maestro teams up with Gulzar once again and the combination brings great joy to listeners, as both the artists are experts in their respective fields. Mani Ratnam’s direction is another plus to this combination. Rahman is knwn to produce his best for Mani Ratnam. The tunes of Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Guru, Saathiya come to mind instantly.

The album seems to reflect the kind of movie that Ravan actually is. It has a rustic feel to it, and includes a semi-devotional songs as well. “Beera” is a cult song in the album and is sung by Mustafa Kutuane. “Ranjaha – ranjha”, sung by Rekha Bharathwaj and Javed Ali is sure to be a hit song. Radio stations are already buzzing with this song. The other favorite song is “Thok de Killi”, by Sukhwinder SIngh has an Arabian flavor in its interludes. It is such interesting juxtaposition of myriad flavors that makes Rahman’s work worth waiting. Rahman’s amazing rhythm sense comes good in “Kata-Kata”, which has lively beat sequences and is an uplifting song. “Kille Re” is the semi-devotional song which seems to be pictured around Aishwarya Rai (just guessing)

Overall, its an excellent album and Rahman has stretched his potential once again to offer his fans the best. Ravan Music album is a must buy. The movie is expected to release in later half of June, and is a bi-lingual (Hindi and Tamil).  

Bipasha Basu put on a superb show in the IPL closing ceremony. The sizzling hot actress danced in the company of Shahid Kapoor. There was a lot of excitement on which star would perform at the ceremony. Initially Hrithik Roshan was supposed to be dancing in front of the Mumbai crowd, but a broken knee left him out. Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai were performing at the music launch of Ravan and hence weren’t available. The IPL big boss finally pulled all his strings and roped in Bipasha and Shahid. And the two did not disappoint.

Bips was dressed in a black mini skirt with multi coloured frills at the bottom and looked hot. Shahid was looking dapper in a torn jean and a banian, complemented by dark shades. The IPL closing ceremony was a dazzling event and lived up to the expectations. AR Rahman also performed at the awards and added a classy touch.

Rettaisuzhi, staring ace directors K. Balachandar and Bharathirajaa has finally released. The movie is shot by director Thamira, a debutant director. The highlight of the movie is its interesting cast. K. Balachandar, plays Ramasamy and Bharathirajaa plays Singaravelan. The two are childhood friends who have grown up and still retain the childishness in them. Apart from these two people, Anjali (of Angadi Theru fame), Karunas and Manobala chip in with roles in the movie.

Director K. Balachandar, admits that it was hard to keep the creative person in him silent and follow the orders of another director. Interestingly, Thamira, the director, has worked with KB for almost 8 years now. KB admits that this and the director’s confidence in his script convinced him to act for another director for the first time. About the movie; it is produced by “S Pictures” (Director Shankar), music by Karthik Raja and cinematography by Chezhiyan. Director Shankar, whose eighth film as producer is Rettaisuzhi, flexed his muscle and roped in Aishwarya Rai to attend the audio release function. Even the veteran director’s couldn’t stop raving about Aishwarya at the function! It almost looked like a felicitation function for Aishwarya Rai and not a music launch. The story of the movie goes like this. Ramasamy (KB) and Singaravelan (Bharathirajaa) are childhood friends who remain close all their lives. The movie paints the troubles of men who are not able to match the fast pace of today’s world, in subtle way. So, the movie focuses on how these men interact with kids and hence turns out to be a movie for the children. That’s right; Rettaisuzhi will most likely please the kids section of the audience in the B and C centers. Nothing much for the audiences of the A centers in this movie. In the midst of all this happens a love story that is admirably cute.

Revealing more would spoil the charm of watching the movie, so go ahead and take the time out to watch this pleasant movie, with well-etched characters. The chemistry between KB and Bharathirajaa is the best part of this movie and it doesn’t disappoint one bit. One can’t help but admire the scenes where the two veterans live their characters on screen. Overall, this is not a bad movie to watch. The director scores with his neat casting and subtle emotions, depicted dramatically.

The ravishingly hot Tamanna is having a good time in Tamil Films. The red-hot actress was seen talking to a mystery man throughout the audio release function of the film Paiya. The last image in the series was taken during once such conversations.. When quized about the mystery person on the other end, the actress declined to comment. She did not throw any tantrums during the function, but was visibly upset. Stars value their privacy a lot. And Tamanna is no different.

A press release later, confirmed that Tamanna was talking to ralative who was not keeping well. Even though that sounds too simple to be true, the media manager had no response when asked how Tamanna could laugh frequently while talking to a sick person. Fishy eh? Watch this space for more on this story.