THE HOBBIT

For all of those LOTR(Lord Of The Rings) fans,missed reading The Hobbit?Well,The Hobbit is the prelude to LOTR. In case you have read the LOTR and not The Hobbit,its better that you remain devoid of The Hobbit.Probably its my mistake for having read LOTR first and then switch back to 'Hobbit' that I found the later no way near to the epic of LOTR.Hobbit is more child-like comics sans pics,a more of bed time story rather than a epitome of creativity.The only advantage out of reading this book is that you get a little introduction of the characters who will be the main roles in LOTR.The dwarfs,The ELves,Hobbits,Gandalf,etc.If at all you wanna read this book,read this one first before you go to LOTR.Dont to do the other way round(like me :)) ,am sure you will be bored.The narrative style of J.R.R.Tolkien again is impressive and the dialogues at many a place will have you in splits.But its the series of events which are so amatuerish that it will test your patience.On the whole,Hobbit is tiny creature in comparison to the gigantic LOTR
Bottomline : Jump to LOTR,do not wait for "The Hobbit"

WILL RAJNI FANS BE SATISFIED ?

Well its a known fact that Endhiran now is highest ever grossing Indian movie.Very few wholesome entertainers like this one are critically acclaimed.Its a proud moment for Tamil Cinema; for it has now sent a message, in fact a hard hitting message that Indian cinema is not just Bollywood. Amidst all this I have a gut feeling that Rajni's fans may go unsatisfied.

First of all Superstar is a scientist which is not a down to earth kind of role(like autodriver,milkman,etc) which relates him to the middle or lower class ppl.Next,Rajini does not challenge or gets challenged from villain in the interval.Then,Rajni does not help or salvage the downtrodden from destruction.There is no song or a situation which praises his popularity or fame.And the most important Rajni does not flip his cigarette ,there isnt his trademark style,punchlines,etc. Ithulam illame eppadi pa thalaivar padam pakarathu???.This may be the spontaneous thought for thousands of hardcore Rajni fans.Well, they have to understand that Rajni is no ordinary actor and Endhiran is no ordinary film.

With robotic concepts being the theme of the story,you cannot expect Rajni(scientist) to break the glass and jump from a roof and then start his role with a punchline.If not for scientist,expecting such a stuff from another Rajni(robot) is even more foolish.People have to understand with such a theme being handled and with more general audience(which includes non Rajni fans and the whole of national and international people) gonna watch this film ,it was only sensible that Superstar and shankar decided to cast away the 'superstar' tag to tune Rajni into the role.Shankar then fills the gap by showcasing us a different sorts of entertainment from Rajni.Thanks to shankar for showing Rajni - a rajni with fire,aggression,force,fiery dialogues... in short 'vintage' Rajni.You will be reminded his days of moondru mugam,netrikan,etc.(That villainous laugh of villain chitti, OMG!!! who else can give us such a laugh :) ). In fact Rajni's entire body languauge and style changes when he is the villain.Isnt this a quality entertainment????

One word what can define Rajni is 'MASS'.No other actor can claim himself to be a 'mass' actor.This is something Rajni did not learn but is born with.For decades Rajni has shed away the 'actor' him just to satisfy and enthrall his fans.And it will be only fitting for Rajni fans to pay it back by appreciating his performance in endhiran which has seen the more of 'actor' in him.Infact in a fans' meet held in 2008,Rajni has said that his interest was only in art and performance oriented roles and it was purely coz of the fans' request that he has wore the Entertainer 'mask'.After watching Endhiran I said this to myself :" Amidst all this super-stardom have we missed Rajni-The actor,especially the Villain all these years???

Nevertheless Rajni has entertained one and all.I don think there is any other actor whose popularity has increased with his age as most of them tend to retire from core 'hero' roles at their early 50s.At 61, he still remain the undisputed king of Box Office.Go on thalaiva, your MASS is unleashed and will remian forever

AN EPIC OF A CREATION

PHEW!!!! FINALLY I HAVE COMPLETED "THE LORD OF THE RINGS".... I AM STILL SPELLBOUND BY THIS LEGEND OF A BOOK FROM J.R.R TOLKIEN. I HAPPENED TO SEE THE MOVIE OF IT BEFORE BEING MESMERIZED TO READ THE BOOK ,,,, EVEN THOUGH I COULD NOT FOLLOW THE FILM, I FELT THERE WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL IN IT WHICH MADE ME TO HAVE A LOOK AT THE BOOK, SO IT ALL STARTED SIX MONTHS BACK WEN I BEGAN TO READ THE BOOK. IT WAS AN EXCELLENT JOURNEY!!!!! TOLKY(JRR TOLKIEN) WILL TAKE U TO AN ANOTHER WORLD.... TO A MEDIEVAL WORLD... SUCH WAS HIS SCRIPT...

WITH A PLETHORA OF IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY , YOU WILL SURELY SEE YOURSELF AMONG THE CHARACTERS.TAKE A LOOK AT THE NAMES ARAGOHRN,GANDALF, SAMWISE GAGEE, FRODO BAGGINS, ANDUIN,EDORAS,LEGOLAS GREENLEAF,,,,, etc ADDS TO ITS AUTHENTICITY.THE TWISTS AND TURNS THAT U ENCOUNTER MAKES IT MORE GRIPPING. TOLKY HAS TAKEN A SOLID 2 DECADES TO COMPLETE THE ENTIRE SERIES( HIS FIRST WORK WAS "THE HOBBIT"), THE FIRST PART OF THIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED IN 1950.IT GOT RAVE REVIEWS BOTH FROM THE CRITICS AND THE PEOPLE,, UNLIKE OTHER FAMOUS WORKS, LOTR WAS DEVOID OF FANFARE BUT IT STILL HAS A MASSIVE FAN FOLLOWING.

WELL , THE STORY REVOLVES AROUND THE "ONE RING", AND THE MISSION OF THE PROTAGONISTS IS TO DESTROY THE RING WHICH HAS EVIL POWERS. I LEAVE IT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT WHETHER THEY PULLED IT OF OR NOT.ONCE I WAS NEARING THE COMPLETION OF THE BOOK, I WAS BIT SAD,,, WHY DID TOLKY STOP WITH 3 BOOKS???!!!!! I WUD HAVE LOVED TO READ 3 MORE.... BUT 'TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BROTH', SO I HAD TO CONTEND WITH 3.

THE ONLY FLAW : PERHAPS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF AN AVERAGE READER, I WUD SAY THE PACE OF THE SCREENPLAY IS THE ONLY FLAW... TOLKY GOES LITTLE OVERBOARD IN DESCRIBING THE SCENES OR OBJECTS ( eg,,, TO SAY

" THE LEAVES ARE GREEN", TOLKY'S WAY OF IT IS " THE LUSH GREEN LEAVES SHINES LIKE A BRIGHT EMERALD IN THE PRESENCE OF A GLEAMING SUN THAT WAS AT ITS BRIGHTEST IN THE SUMMER..... :)),,, THIS IS JUST FOR A LINE, IMAGINE HOW MANY PAGES WUD IT RUN TO DESCRIBE A SCENE!!!! SO U JUS NEED A GOOD DEAL OF PATIENCE TO FINISH OFF THIS BOOK. BUT ARDENT N ENTHUSIASTIC READERS WUD NOT MIND THIS BCOZ U WILL BE BOWLED OVER BY THE CREATIVITY OF TOLKIEN .EVERY BIT OF THE BOOK IS BUBBLED WITH CREATIVITY.

JRR TOLKIEN - A GENIUS : THE BOOK DOESN'T END LIKE A CONVENTIONAL ONE. I SIMPLY COULD NOT THINK OF THE AMOUNT OF CONCENTRATION AND IMAGINATION THAT TOLKY HAS PUT TO BRING BACK THE DAYS OF THE MIDDLE EARTH,,, HE HAS GONE ALL THE WAY TO DESCRIBE THE CALENDAR, CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS, MAPS , MEDIEVAL WRITINGS, ETC,. I AM COMPLTELY STUNNED. I HAVE NEVER SEEN AN AUTHOR GOING TO SUCH AN EXTENT!!!!!!

BOTTOMLINE : PLZ DON JUST READ IT, FEEL IT!!!!! ... I DON THINK MORTALS HAVE THE POWER TO DRAW AWAY FROM THE BOOK , ONCE THEY START READING IT

STARS : 4.5/5( THE BEST I HAVE READ IN MY LIFE)........

am not a bibliophile, i stick myself only to TINTIN, hardy boys stuff,(when i was a kid).... LOTR has made me to write my first review for a book....

Vettaikaran -Review

First of all what is mass? jus saying few punch lines, a couple of air borne fights ??? 'Mass' performance is something that keeps you entertained for most parts of length of the movie and you[general audience] are impressed by the sheer screen presence of the actor.Rajni is an exempla.But today's so called commercial or mass actors is doing the former.Thalapathy Vijay who started of well in this line is rapidly falling behind.

Now lets come to the review.I had gone with Zero expectations and came out not disappointed but disgusted.The story kicks of with Ravi aka 'police' Ravi(vijay) arriving in Chennai from his hometown with high hopes of becoming a police officer .But soon he develops a dispute with a dada in chennai.Then it is bang-bang between Vijay n the dada ,Dada kills Vijay's friend,Vijay hits back with killing dada's son , meanwhile love happens between Vijay n anoushka. How Vijay eliminates the baddies is the story(Phew! this happens to be a template in commercial movies nowadays).

Postives:

I am not a vijay hater , but i am sorry to say that there is simply nothing positive in this movie.Almost every scene is rehash from earlier Vijay movies which we have seen many times.


Negatives :
technically the movie is far from average.As usual the villain is introduced by the camera focussing the villain's feet ,then his sumo's tyre and then the door closing with a bang and finally the villain' s face!!!!! This is the formula to introduce a villain in almost every Present commercial movie.And there are two types of villains in Cinema nowadays : 1) a tall fella with 'virumandi' mush or beard with long hair,"aeiii -aeiii" type of villain, 2)one with dhoti,with vibuthi or santhanam pottu in his forehead who talks less.Unlike the hero a villain can have only one punch line "Nee yaaru kitte pesitirukke theriyumala", then challenge the hero in first half and get kicked in the climax.well, you can find both of these in Vettaikaran and whose job is to follow the instructions as above.Vijay has tried his level his best to do comedy stuff but hardly tickles your funny bone.Now to Anoushka, will u believe if i say that Anoushka has given a decent performance(come on, after all she is just another heroine in Vijay movie whose job is to romance and dance with vijay and join him in the climax!!!!).Music may be a treat for vijay fans.The movie is heavily inspired from thirupaatchi,dhool,pokiri,sivaji,etc

The list goes on........



BottomLine: there are only 2 ways that vj fans gonna take this movie:
1)be disappinted as it turns out to be yet another dud from vijay
2)be contented with what the film is as they have got used to his crappy movies

the movie might do well in box office thanks to SUN PICS, but it is hightime that Vijay comes out of the shell and does entertaining films if not different

BY targetting only his fans vijay is considerably shrinking his fan base


STARS : 0/5
( i have been generous , for previous flick 'Villu' i had given -3)

After a two year marathon in the making,,,dasavatharam has finally hit the screen.With a buoyant force of technical team,,it is kamal hassan all the way. Reported to be the costliest movie ever in Indian cinema history... Dasavatharam has all the ingredients to be a super hit..with kamal being the major attraction.
The main protagonist of the movie(Govindh) discovers a deadly virus.Now his mission to safeguard it from the grab of the baddies.Analyzing the characters the best performs comes from Balram Naidu.. the RAW officer.He will hav u in splits with his funny dialogues and his slang of tamil.Kamal as George Bush is simply outstanding.His body language and mannerisms is perfect.Make up wise.. the japanese man is impressive of all with no trace of kamal in it.Cinematographer Ravivarman's work is a major boost to the film and has given a hollywood finishing to the movie.In such a movie where "acting" is a primary plot..asin hardly gets anything to perform.She simply struggles to talk the "Brahmin Tamil".Mallika Sherawath's role in the movie very lucid...i.e to add the much needed glam quotient,MS baskar tries to do his part in comedy but he hardly tickels u.

Special effects and CG deserve a special mention ,,,especially The tsunami scene work was laudable.Despite all these massive efforts kamal fails to integrate about 3 to 4 roles in the main crux of the story.The logic at a few scenes is ridiculous(eg...HOW CAN U CURE CANCER WITH A GUN SHOt,,,,BUSH ASKING WAT IS Nacl)))dasavatharam looks a like a platform to showcase kamals skills rather than a natural cinema product.

12th century scene has no really significance to the movie.Kamal could hav workled more on screenplay which is devoid of twists and sub plots.In contrast to KAmal's classics lik nayagan,indian,devar magan...dasa,,,lacks in content and string climax....




bottom line: kamal ,kamal and kaml all the way..



verdict:::: Dasa... is an entertaining extravangaza yet it is uninteresting


stars::::(***)