A humble request to A R Rahman !

            I recently watched the Kaaviyathalaivan audio launch telecast in Sun music.Words like "Ada paavigala" ,"apdi lam maatividatheenga" , "romba buildup venam" and many more coming from his mouth could surprise some of us. Also, many times he gave nice 'counters' to the host 'Blade' Shankar. Probably have never seen a more candid and relaxed AR Rahman :) . May be he was fed up with all of his peers and his fans seeing him as a 'saintly' figure that he badly wanted open up ! Amidst he describing the kind of effort that has gone into this album, he also informed why he isn't teaming up with small-scale film makers and is unlikely  to do it in the near future. His reason was that the moment he associates with such movies, the movie would no longer remain 'small' and might lose it simplicity because of the expectations its going to generate. In the worst case it could very well backfire because of exceeding expectations. Well, there is some sense in hindsight but if we take a deeper look, in my opinion I feel there is every reason why Rahman should do a 'small' film  once in a while if not a lot. With almost every album of Rahman getting national or even perhaps even International exposure, small movies will have a massive face-lift !

   Today's film business is heavily dominated by 'Big' films that small films are finding it extremely difficult to get released and even if they do they only get released in miniscule number of theatres. Eventhough 'Thanga meengal' was Directed by katradhu Thamizh fame Ram and produced by Gautham Menon it struggled to make it to theatres. 'Big' films swallows almost all of the screens that there is no way for 'small' films to get it released alongside. Once this is done, next comes the medium tier movies invloving upcoming stars which gets released next leaving a very small breathing space for small movies. Its people like AR Rahman who can give a big push to these movies. "Kaaviya Thalaivan' itself is now gearing up for a decent release thanks to music by A R Rahman ! This is where I would like to bring Maestro Ilayaraaja. During his peak in 1980's , he composed for at least 10 films a year and it was not just for Rajni,Kamal,Mohan,Mani Ratnam ,Bharathiraja ,etc. He would have worked for a whole lot of new film makers !  People used to come theatres just for that one NAME. Likewise Rahman committing to a small movie obviously is going to create an interest to the audience. I hope Rahman understands this especially in an era where small movies are limping. He need not say 'Yes' to all but he can do atleast one such film in a year or two. All the Big films automatically generate hype and going to earn back the investment because of its heavy weight star cast even if the movie is going to be bad. But as we all know most of the small movies hardly break even despite being too good. An 'A.R Rahman' factor could pave a huge way in bringing a lease of life for these movies.  I hope Rahman realizes it and does not see as a ‘gamble’ for supporting small movies.  Many of the big films for which he has tuned has gone out a whimper like Azhagiya Tamizh Magan,Kadal . Movies like Mariyaan and Raavanan too did not fare well at the box office. So, I don’t see any harm that Rahman is going to do(as he thinks) in accepting small movies. 

THE ANJAAN SHOCKER

 "Disappointment" or probably even worse was the feeling  after watching Anjaan.  Just like every other movie of a star today, Anjaan too was promoted and arrived with huge hype. But I least expected Anjaan to have such poor script. The storyline need not offer anything different but screenplay should be interesting enough. Atleast the dialogues and characterisation should be strong(like Dhanush's VIP).Anjaan had neither. It really surprises me how lingusamy was able to assemble a strong cast and crew for this feeble script. Honestly the reason why I thought Anjaan might have something interesting to offer was Santosh Sivan as he is known to be extremely selective( He has worked with only Mani Ratnam in the past and then for Murugadoss). There aren't just errors but huge blunders in this movie which might make this as Surya's worst till date. That 'Baasha' feel was present in various situations.  Those supposed to be twists are hardly 'twists' ! They are best suited for 90's. We have seen so many movies of having the pattern of Baasha most of which have flopped.Forced songs, spineless punch dialogues and powerless villains makes Anjaan a dud. You would definitely get the feel of 'Azhuguni Kumar' by seeing all the villains. The costume and their expressions are so pathetic that it appears to be a high school drama. The most horrible and ridiculous was the dubbing. Apart from Surya rest all other actors have been dubbed and barring Samantha rest all are hindi speaking actors. Call it ignorance or brazen attitude Lingusamy has simply put aside the dubbing and Lip Syncs ! One can clearly see Vidyut and others speaking Hindi. For those of you who can understand Hindi, you can find out that they actually speak the hindi translation of the dialogues. Never expected such amateur stuff from a man who has provided huge hits in the past. It seems Lingusaamy isnt realizing there is actually a change happening in Tamil Cinema. Especially the commercial movies. Films like Soodhu Kavvum,JIgarthanda,Moodar Koodam, etc are redefining how a commercial movie should be made. True or not, Anjaan once again proves that Lingusaamy is not quite there in dealing with big stars.

 Just to remind, Lingusamy said he started to work on the script at the last of year; he presented 3-4 scripts to Suriya and much more. So it was either Surya's mistake to have chosen the worst script or may be Anjaan was the best of the lot ! Surya who was so smart is choosing scripts is rapidly falling behind now. This is his fourth straight film to get negative reviews. Singham 2 though managed to make it big despite negative reviews and that was mainly because of Surya's screen presence. In Anjaan too there isnt much to complain about him. Surya tries his best to save the wreckage but the ship is simply archaic and outdated. It's time Surya starts becoming a little more aggressive in his script search and come out of his zone of picking only big directors. His last few movies , though all with top directors hasn't done big wonders. 7aum ariv and Maattran would have earned back the investment and that was purely because of the promotion and Surya's star power. Getting back the money these days arent a real challenge. You need a good opening and a good marketing to fetch that opening. I am wondering what is stopping Surya to get back to scripts like Nandha, Mounam Pesiyadhey,etc. I am sure many of us enjoy Surya that way, atleast once in a while. He can take a cue from Kamal Hassan who smartly juggles between big Action movies with simple down to earth comedies. The problem is Surya of late is trying desperately to be a commercial star and finding it hard to grasp. Hope Surya chooses a bit different subjects from now on ! 

The Curious Case of Indian Bowling

  As the IPL has drawn to a close focus now shifts back to international cricket. Perhaps the glitter and sheen of the IPL has shadowed how crucial could be the next six months for Indian cricket. With the team for the England tour has been announced, India is all set for the penultimate international lap before heading to Australia and then stepping into World cup. The unsually large squad comprising of 18 players with 6 pacers in it will hopefully try to bring in some reputation for India's performance overseas.



While under Dhoni India has won every coveted trophy, the performance in foreign soil has been hapless. India have been winless in England,South Africa and New Zealand. Only a win in T20 and an ODI was all India could afford in Australia. Any other captain would have been axed, though it was not the case with Dhoni. His captaincy has become defensive in recent times. Well to say it better, he becomes defensive once things started to go awry. To make it worse, our bowlers have remained our biggest concern. With Zaheer being omitted, India now will be forced to look for a new bowling warrior for the next decade. It was kapil in 80s, Srinath in the 90s and Zaheer in 2000s. Thats how we have been producing bowlers, 3 quality bowlers over 3 decades.Is it the lack of talent or does the domestic wickets not conduicive for pace bowling ? Where our bowlers are going wrong ?.  Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, etc have had terrific start to their careers. But sadly none of them were able to sustain. Ishant Sharma continues to be so called 'spearhead'. Very few or no one could still be part of a team whose bowling average is close to 40 after playing 50 test matches. The batting concerns have alleviated to an extent after our young batsmen put up a brave fight against the SA bowlers. In fact Steyn remained wicketless after conceding 100 or more runs in an innings. Rahane, Dawan, Pujara have been impressive in the foreign conditions. But thats not going to help us unless we have bowlers to pick 20 wickets.

In the past we used to depend on Kumble if the quicks dont deliver as he was one of the very few spinners who could york or bounce a batsman out.Now we have dont have that luxury too. Ashwin and Jadeja continue to be only home turners. Ojha who had an excellent stint with English county season last time isn't selected because he bats poorer than Ashwin and Jadeja :P . Mohammed Shami 'seams' to be the sole ray of hope. He has shown his mettle with new ball swing and reverse swing too. Only time will tell if he is going to be the next spearhead for India. Ishwar Pandey and Pankaj Singh have impressive domestic careers but will they deliver in the big stage ? Can they do it consistently ? Coaches have come and gone but what does not change is as Indian bowlers spend more time in international cricket, their pace slows down !! We have seen Ishant Sharma clock close to 150 kph in Australia and now the same man says "Line and length  are important" . I definitely agree his point but at the cost of slowing your pace to 130 ? Same was the case with Irfan,Munaf and RP Singh ! Still it remains a mystery to me how uninaminously all Indian bowlers reach that mindset ! If India has to survive the forthcoming test series with atleast a drawn series or coming up with a final four finish in World Cup let alone another win, we need atleast 3 quality fast bowlers. The problem from hindsight is the ability to sustain. With each passing year, the schedule is only becoming more cramped. The selectors have to handpick a few bowlers only for tests and some for ODIs alone. India can take a cue from Australia in the way they have managed their bowlers. Johnson,Siddle, Harris have been kept for tests and other young bowlers like Coulter-Nile,Starc,etc have been kept for shorter formats. India might still get away by even winning the world cup without any quality bowler but would find extremely difficult to win a test match overseas because you need bowlers to pick 20 wickets !