Wake up Santhanam

                                                     

                     Santhanam, a name that might be more popular in Tamil Cinema than the superstars!! There are even producers and directors who are ready to orient the script and schedules to suit Santhanam. Such has been his importance in today's tamil films. In fact, Santhanam also ensures that he often does movies that make him play not just a sidekick but a kind of supporting role to the heroes. All his movies with Rajesh and also movies like 'kalakalappu' are some examples. His gradual increase in popularity coupled with slump of form of Viveks and Vadivelus ensured that he became no.1 comedian in Tamil Cinema in no time. It has been really a long journey from being an actor of the evergreen 'Lollu Sabha' to becoming a sidekick to the Superstar Rajni in Enthiran.


                    His timing and counter punches has been strength for years. But off late may be after Kalappu  one may feel he is getting monotonous. Especially after movies like Saguni,Alexpandian,Settai,etc did not tickle much. Every comedian goes through such a phase where audience might start thinking a comedian is getting repetitive. Vivek was at his best between 1998-2003 but soon one got a feel that he is getting monotonous with too much of delivery of social messages and later often appearing in lady get ups which werent well received. Same was the case for vadivelu where his antics of getting beaten up went overdose. Personally I just get the feeling that Santhanam is just starting to get monotonous with counter punches. Moreover, he has also been using more 'crude' double meaning dialogues in recent movies which hasnt gone down well with the family audience. The recent trailers of 'Theeya Velai Seiyanum Kumaru' and 'Madha Gaja Raja' clearly shows he will be again following what he has done before. Also, its time for Santhanam to understand that using Power Star Srinivasan as a source of comedy will not generate humour in the long run. Moreover it was really pathetic to see a director like Bhagyaraj complaining that Santhanam betrayed him in falsely promising that 'Kannada Laddu Thinga Aasaiya' was not based on his classic 'Indru Poi nalai Vaa' . Clearly KLTA was based on 'Indru Poi Naalai Vaa' which made me lose a little bit of respect to Santhanam.


                'Comedy' is of course is one of the most difficult things to think and perform. Building up a comedy track and performing it with correct voice modulation,acting and with perfect timing sense isn't easy at all. Santhanam has shown tremendous consistency over the years. Many of the comedians including the legendary Nagesh haven't been able to rise up much once they lost their steam. Only GOundamani and Senthil have retained their dominance for close to a decade and a half. Santhanam is only 33 and has age in his side. This is the right time for Santhanam to make some refreshing changes to his comedy which could help him in extending the dominance he has had over the years (especially when there seems to be no comedian in hindsight now to challenge him)

Can the Indian Cricket Rise ?

                         
                                   
                                 
                                    "Defeat", well, its no longer seen with a sense of pain to Indian cricket.They got used to it. All those people who said with pride "Come to India,we will show who we are"  are now struggling to find a place in the squad. Batsmen unable to score runs , even in flat tracks. Spinners clueless,even on home conditions,a captain who quickly becomes defensive on the first sight of things getting awry, Team India have gone from worst to super worst in Test cricket.The reason is simple , eventhough we lack quality batsmen from next generation we are struggling to find bowlers who can pick 20 wickets in a test match.It doesn't matter even a batsmen scores 500, if we can't pick 20 wickets a team cannot win.In fact, we have asked "who is going to replace Sachin,Dravid,laxman,etc.." but how many of us thought have we got a replacement for kumble ?  Is there a replacement for Zaheer ? 'No' will be the majority. Over the years, we have only glorified batsmen that we have forgotten the contributions of Javagal Srinath,kumble and our other bowlers. How many of us think those kumble's 619 wickets were as precious Sachin's tons of runs.Did we win only because of the "The Wall" and "God" ?? We were so fortunate to have a few legendary batsmen coming together that our weak bowling affected us only at fewer times.

                   At this stage, India has every chance of dropping below West Indies,New Zealand and it wont be surprising even if Bangladesh upsets us in a test series. The process has to change at grass roots. Atleast a handful of matches in Domestic tournaments like Ranji trophy , Duleep trophy has to be conducted on green wickets. That is one of the main reasons why we are struggling to find a bowler who can bowl consistently over to 140 kph. Lack of exposure to green wickets is also a reason for our next generation spinners failing to get wickets in England and Australia.Another notorious way that often occurs is rushing in youngsters at the first sight of a worthy performance. Those players survive until they are sorted out.After then, these young players lack the mental toughness to see through that phase. Players need to see through enough seasons to ensure they dont fall out after few months or a year in international cricket.


                    For me, the biggest surprise is Dhoni becoming unbelievably defensive. The lowest point was during India tour to Australia,when a No.10 and No.11 batsmen were at the crease and Dhoni had a field that had a long-on , long off, deep cover,deep mid wicket ??!! Post 2011 WC, at the very first sight of things not going according to plan, Dhoni goes on to defensive at the quickest. Why?? God knows.Dhoni's s tale captaincy is also a reason for our downfall in test cricket. But again,is there a BETTER player than Dhoni for a captain ? Well, thats itself a big debate. The main contenders like Gambhir and Sehwag are no longer seen as a permanent player in any format. Just when everybody thought Kohli is the next wonder, he is beginnning to have a slump.So who else ? well, no one.


                    The selectors, not just Srikkanth but the whole lot of others over the years are also to be blamed for not giving a fair run to promising all-rounders.Wait, how many potential all-rounders have they selected ? Well, from the hindsight my gut feeling is that they look at the top 5 run getters and top 5 wkt takers and the job is done. They hardly take a look at those players who fall in between who have taken wickets and scored runs. Many feel that Indians don't have quality all-rounders coming out from the domestic circuits. Well, you may have to change your opinion after seeing through a few player profiles. Players like Abhishek Nayar,JP Yadav, etc deserved an extended run despite their failure in first few ODIs.When players like Rohit Sharma get an unprecendented run for his 'amazing' talent these players deserve too.In my opinion the selectors' decision to ask a blueprint from MS Dhoni on winning the next world cup is ridiculous unless there is some sort of input from BCCI or selectors. A captain can only give an outline, it is the selectors who should have broader details for the domestic players. A captain, that too in today's cricket of hectic shedule will hardly have an idea about the next generation players.


                   So,is there anything positive for Indian cricket ?? Well, the Indian colts winning U-19 World cup and that too in Australia is definitely a good sign for the future of Indian Cricket.Unkumt Chand,Baba Aparijeeth have already earned a lot of praise for their ability. The recent losses is deinitely a blessing in disguise as it has exposed the weakness and frailities present in the Indian cricket for everyone to see. People like Rahul Dravid,Ganguly,Kumble,etc and other former players should be drafted in the technical committee and consulted for re-building the Indian cricket team. In the mean time, it is a great opportunity for Indian hockey,Football,etc to cash in the Indian cricket's dip in popularity.

The Big Fight

Dhoni's captaincy vs Ganguly's Captaincy,Rajni vs Kamal,Aamir vs SRK,Sprite vs The Mountain Dew and many more rivalries that has enough people literally biting out each other.The latest to join the bandwagon is Times Of India and The Hindu.With both these newspaper groups taking on each other their rivalry has just spiced up.So which better ? which gives us better news? Well, I have read only "The Hindu" ever since I started reading a newspaper.It is only in last 18 months I have switched to "The Times Of India", so I guess I have something to comment on both the newspapers.The fact now is TOI have blasted its way into South India and also encroached into Tamil Nadu, the fort of The Hindu.


To start with, as a reader one of the most irritating features in a newspaper is overdose of
advertisements,Hindu has almost half of the pages running into advertisements. You pay a hard earned Rs.3 to Rs.4 and you dont want to spend it reading on ads.TOI on the other hand did not have such problems in the beginning.But once the paper shot to popularity, advertisements started to overflow.

When it comes to Columns and Articles, I feel Hindu has the upper hand.The level of
detail,authenticity,diction and the entire way of the report is far better than TOI. I get the feel many times that TOI articles are bit amateurish and also beats around the bush. Whoever has read Chetan Bhagat's columns in TOI would know that he wants to impress with his style of writing rather than the content

News Coverage - Here TOI wins hand down.Not only coverage is low in Hindu at times the coverage is a bit too late.When it comes to overhyping and sensationalizing news, then one has to agree that TOI does that pretty well.I have never seen Hindu giving undue importance to celebrity gossips.TOI not only does that but also take a big pride in reporting those gossips to the readers.Having said that,I once again reiterate that 'amount' of news that oneget to see in TOI is simply much more than the Hindu


Newspaper Ethics-Also I found out that many times ,the TOI news articles' content and its photograph bears no connection at all. Take for eg., an article on how computers/laptops should adopt 'Go Green' methodologies and its corresponding picture would be a model in a bikni??!!!. Often ,in its additional magazines,you would see a number of articles giving you tips to increase the pleasure of love life,sexual desiresHOT/porn photographs,etc. to allure the readers.As far as I can remember Hindu never adopts such cheap tricks.


And Finally the one major factor that spiralled up TOI is the cost.Yes, TOI charges Rs.1.50(even on weekends) whereas the cost of Hindu is around Rs.3 to Rs.4 on weekdays and it does got upto Rs.5 on sundays.Now TOI is also issuing discounts for subscribing on annual basis.This is the rate charged in Coimbatore.Thats were the middle or even upper middle class started to consider seriously switching to TOI and save money.At the end of the day people tend to read more at a lower cost.

Lot of People believe news appearing in Hindu as reliable and untwisted.Just a small example of how 'blunder'ous they can be, in their edition dated FEB-19-2012, they have said that other than Chennai all parts of Tamil Nadu have 'two hour' power schedule.Dont you think its riduculous writing given the way how TN has been reeling under power cuts?? As I have a huge passion for cinema, I never miss out reading the movie reviews. TOI gets clearly paid by tge film-makers.Hindu movie reviews though at times inconsistent are far better and genuine than the TOI.

As I said earlier, TOI have now become clearly the most popular Newspaper. We could see that there is a slugfest between TOI and Hindu in advertisements arena where both of them bashing each other. So is TOI themost preffered or is the Hindu ? Well, according to me , if people just quickly want to know whats happening around then and if PAYING LESS is a vital factor then good times are with Times Of India. But there are a section of readers who will crave for beauty of Columns and aesthetics of other Newspaper related stuff would find solace with the Hindu.But I just get the feeling that most of the people are preferring the former. A small example, almost
all the people of my neighbourhood have Times Of India in their hands who once held Hindu or The Indian Express

My Top Ten Tamil movies of 2011

Well, we have come to that part of the year where its time to recollect memories of 2011.Some hot topics were Anna Hazare,Lokpal,World cup,Kolaveri,Dhanush,Chamak Chalo and many more.Aside all these, how did tamil cinema perform??(Of course we are obssessed with movies, so there is no running away from it :) ) Once again Tamil cinema has churned out a good mix of commercial entertainers and class films.So wats your favourite 10 of the year?? Well this is my pick , my top 10 movies of 2011.. So here are they :

10)Mayakkam Enna :
The brothers(Selvaraghavan and Dhanush) are back.Though not the best of selva, Mayakkam enna had elements to keep you interested.Dhanush once again has done a great job.The movie dealt with Love,friendship,alcoholism and the struggles of an underachieving photographer.The actor has matured well from his kadhal kondaein days.Cinematography was excellent and this has to be G V Prakash's best music.The climax which was done in trademark 'Vikraman' style was quite a dampener.But its the performances of the actors that could have possibly saved the movie from blushes




9)Velayutham:

Ilayathalapathy Vijay is showing signs of return.After a reasonable outing in 'kaavalan','Velayutham' is much needed box office bumper for Vijay.I think its probably the lack of promotion and hype made the movie a winner.Velayutham is the best entertainer that vijay has given since 'Pokkiri'.The film was all about a Village simpleton turning into a vigilante to save the society(Not new to tamil cinema).The movie has a good mix of comedy,romance,action and sentiment with Vijay written all over it to make it a good entertainer.With Vijay gearing up to work with some big guns like Shankar,Murugadoss,Gautham menon and A.L Vijay on the trot ,Ilayathalapathy is all set to get back to his pole position for 2012.




8)7 aum arivu :

How do you describe a movie with an interesting,out of the box storyline executed with a shallow screenplay.Well 7 aum arivu is a great example.Arguably the most anticipated,hyped movie of 2011 failed to set cash registers ringing in box office.But still one has to give credit to Murugadoss for reviving the glory of Bodhidharman and making us know about this great legend.'Bodhidharman' became a hot topic during its release.Only if Murugadoss had come out with a better research to his findings and depth in screenplay,7 aum arivu would have been a milestone in tamil cinema.I felt Murugadoss googled out Bodhidarman,hypnotism,genetic memory and made the movie only with first two links.Harris Jeyaraj has literally run out of tunes.The movie is still in my top list of 2011 because of the freshness of the story and hardwork of surya and murugadoss and for nothing else.




7)Mangatha :

The biggest blockbuster for Ajith in recent times and resurrected the star status of thala ajith.One has to agree that movie was a monstrous hit.Sometimes you cant find out reasons why a movie has become hit,I felt the same for mangaatha.Probably it has to be ajith's anti-hero antics and his screen presence were the only reasons for the movie becoming a huge hit.Contrary to the film title,the movie has hardly anything about gambling.It was all about a bunch of men playing double games to swindle a hefty sum of money.Its high time that Venkat Prabhu begins to do something original.The robbery scene involving traffic signals was shamelessly copied from 'Italian Job', the climax from 'Chaos' and many more. Nevertheless, the movie was welcomed with both arms by ajith's fans and was a huge relief for ajith and Venkat prabhu.



6)Vaagai Sooda Vaa :

I dont know how many of you will agree with this choice(many of you would not have seen this movie :)).Amidst fast paced,big budget entertainers,here comes a movie with neat and clean story line sans double meaning dialogues,punchline,bloodshed,etc. One has to really appreciate the director sargunaram(kalavani's director) for making a movie with a simple story and a good message.The story revolves around a budding teacher trying to educate children of a village where children are treated as labourers. Probably it is the documentary feel of the movie that made it to sink without a trace.Vimal not only proved his worth as a actor but also as a human.The actor gave back his salary to the producer citing the movie's failure.The result could have been different if such small-time movies get a good promotion/marketing




5)Deivathirumagal :

Well,am really confused which is chiyaan's best performance;anniyan?pithamgan?sethu or DTM?.When vikram,arguably India's finest actor of this generation gets to the skin of the actor,one hardly notices the flaws in the movie nor has the heart to whine about the flaws.DTM ,though not a poignant movie,portrayed a relationship between a child and child-like father in best possible way. The movie has some good cinematography and music.It was refreshing to see anushka getting away from her glam-doll image and also santhanam restraining his gimmicks to suit the mood of the movie.Also,its time for A.L.Vijay to churn out something new.So far,he has shown good skill at handling remakes.Eagerly awaiting their next combo which is touted to be an action film.




4)Aaranyakandam :

One of the rare nu-noir movies of tamil cinema this year.The movie received a lot critical acclaim for the bold storyline involving underworld and drug mafia.Debutant Thiagarajan Kumaraja did away with cliches,unnecessary songs,needless comedy track and also was songless.One has to applaud the uncompromising mindset of the director to stick only with core storyline.Though only a section of audience has watched this movie,that itself fetched a lot of laurels for the movie.Tamil Cinema needs a lot of such movies with bold genres



3)Engeyum Eppothum :

You do not need a big star cast,lavish picturisation,extravagant sets, or even out of the box script for a successful movie.A simple,straight from the heart kind of movie is enough for a winner.Thats what exactly debut director Saravanan did for Engeyum Epothum,a story involving a tale of two pair of lovers and their happenings.The major highlight for me was Jai's portrayal of shyness and innocence.Due credit to anjali,ananya Also was the impressive music from sathya(another debutant!!!).This was also AR Murugadoss' first productional venture.




2)KO :

Arguably the biggest blockbuster of 2011 tamil cinema. K.V anand once gain has proved his mettle in delivering commercial entertainers with smartness and no no-nonnsense approach.Also, KV anand brought to the fore a fast paced political thriller after a long time in tamil cinema.The movie which revolves around a photo journalist and young man aspiring to be a politician to change the fate of Tamil Nadu has commendable performances from Jiiva,ajmal and also karthika.The music also was a chartbuster('Enamo Edho is still a hot melody :) ).The movie also catapulted Jiiva's popularity to land him as the next potential star.With two back to back blockbusters in Ayan and KO,expectations are sky high for his next venture with surya(Maatran)




1)AADUKALAM :

And the winner of 2011 is Aadukalam.This has to be the year of Dhanush not just for kolaveri fame but for his national award performance in aadukalam(Yes he was fantastic,but a national award??!!).This is just vetrimaaran's second film and already seems to be a well-established filmmaker.The movie which basically centres around rooster fights in Madurai,had almost two different films post and pre -interval.The first half dealt with the members involved in rooster sport and second half dealt with friendship,distrust,mind games,etc.In the end vetrimaaran managed to strike a balance between commercialism and class genre.Personally I felt the portrayal of characters,the slang and the other nuances were hugely responsible movie's success.Dhanush definitely showed a giant leap in his acting and also jayabalan was flawless as 'Pettaikaran'. Aadukalam has touched upon a concept, that filmmakers of other regional industry find it difficult to remake.Kudos to entire Aadukalam team.





Phew!! thats the end of the list.If this wasnt enough, 2012 may well be a monstrous year for tamil cinema as some big names are going to join hands with other bigger names to churn out some biggest movies :) . Here are a few, Nanban(Shankar-Vijay),Thuppakki(Murugadoss-Vijay),Maatran(Surya and KV anand) where Surya is reportedly playing a role of siamese twins,Billa 2(Ajith-Chakri Toleti) a prequel to Billa,Vikram's untitled action venture with A.L Vijay. Even the legends of Tamil cinema may swing into action this year : Kamal's Viswaroopam and what could be a first motion capture of Indian Cinema is Rajnikanth's Kocchaidaiyan which is said to be a prequel to RANA.All I pray to GOD is to infuse some originality to our film makers and reduce the movies which xerox from hollywood and other regional languages. Thanks a lot for spending your time in reading this article.Hope you had enjoyed.Btw wats ur top 10 of 2011??

The chronicles of 23rd Pullikesi :

Scene : AR Murugadoss Meets Pullikesi






Kavalan : Manna,Thangalai parka AR Murugadoss vanthu irukirar

Pullikesi : Murugadossu, amam ivan oru periya bossu!!?? vera sollum

AR Murugadoss(ARM) : Enathu arumai 23am pulikesiyae!!Nee vaazgha!! Tamil Cinema Vaazgha!! Tamil Cinema rasigarkal vaazgha!!!

Pulikesi : Amaicherae intha lagudaapandi ipadi than romba pesuvana??

Amaichar : Amam manna.Oru padam Hindi le eduthuvitaram antha aanavam

Pulikesi : AAhhhh.Thaangal vantha nokam??

ARM : Enathu pudhiya padaippu ana 7 am arivu thangalidam kaativitu parisu petrakolalam nu vendhen

pulikesi : Parisu hmm??? kaatum .kaati tholayum!!

ARM :enathu padaippu 7 am arivu,ithu tamizh cinema oda virivu

pulikesi : ??!!!

ARM : intha padathil pramathamarka nadithu irukirar surya.Ivara vittal intha kathapathiram le nadiparthuku vera yaar ya??

pulikesi :!!!

ARM : intha padatha tharayithuirukum udayanithi ivar maatha pogirar tamizh cinema oda vidhi!!!

pulikesi : @@@!!!

ARM : isaiamaipalar harris Jeyaraj,inimae ivarru than aduthu isaignani ilayaraj.

pulikesi : shabbba mudiyalae

ARM : intha mathiri oru padam aduthu 5 varushathuavadhu varathu.

Pulikesi : nirithira mundakalappa

ARM : uh

Pulikesi : Konjam kooda vekkam illamal ivlovu peethi kolgiraya ?

ARM :Naana? epo apdi pesinen ?

Pulikesi : Amaicharae enna pithaippukiran

Amaichar : Yov dossu, sirithum idaivaili illamal thenodaya padam parthi perumayai pesinayae da!!

ARM : Naan epothu apdi pesinen ? Nan unmai than sonen

Pulikesi :Unaku parisum kidaiyathu onum kidaiyathu.Uthaipathukul odividu

ARM :manna,veena ennoda sabam ku aal agartheerkal

Pulikesi : Ha ha ha!!!! ennada seivai?? Meenji ponna ravoda rava oru'Christopher nolan padarthai parth vitu athu tamizh ku ertha mari mathiveetu ithu "Enodu padam" endru peethi kovai."Genetic Memory","Hypnotism" aga varthaikal payan padarthinal naangalam pothi kondae padam parthuvidom endru nenaithuvitaya?

ARM : illai manna

Pulikesi : Enna nolai manna?? Ozhunga padam edupavargal kuda unnai parthu kettupovargal da!!!kavalaragale ivanai izuthu chellungal , Ivanai siraiyil adaithu kaalail irundu sam anderson padam um maalail irundu Power star srinivasan padangalum parka vaiengal.Um,izuthu chellangal

ARM : Manna, manna!!!

Amaicher : Manna,pavam avan, intha thandanai romba athigam

Pullikesi : pinna enna amaichare?evlov pesinan avan iruthiyil ippadi lucha thanama padam eduthal kovam than verum.Athu mattum illai,ipadi pannal than aduthu murai ivan urupadiya padam edupan

Amaicher: irunthalum,intha thandanai sattru athigam than manna, ivanodu mattra padangal nalla than irukku

Pullikesi : hmmm.Ivan oru angila-Hollywood padathai parthivitu inga "Ghajini" nu eduthan, pona matham oru padam parthoma, enna athu - Unga atha ??

Amaicher : Manna athu Mangatha!!!

Pullikesi : Ahh Mangatha,antha padathoda lagudapandi iyakkunar Venkat Prabhu,irandu-moondru angila padangalai parthivitu athai orey padama eduthu vidigaran!!! krathaka.oru pakam hollywood ai parthu padam edukeerargal marupakkam telugu cinema vai parthu padam edukeerargal,engey poivitadhu nammadhu iyakunargal oda karpanai??

Amaicher : seri ya ga soneergal.Intha mari "remake" mattumae seiyuthukonduirukum makkalai enna seiya poreergal ??

Pullikesi : ha haa .. Poruthu irunthu parum

THINK DIFFERENT.. THINK RURAL..THINK MADURAI

I think we have reached a state in tamil cinema where there is saturation of Madurai - based movies.Well, it all started with paruthiveeran.Eventhough, the movie is not shown to be madurai based,the slang, the mannerisms,etc were invariably followed by many movies that released latter.

It was a period when the established stars were not haveing a grt time.Masala entertainers were rubbished away by the people.The first one to break the cliche and bring back the 'grammathu manvasanai' after a long time was paruthiveeran.Seeing its success, many directors felt if they can take rural based or madurai centric themes,they can claim to be 'different' and success would thus follow.The first was 'Subramaniapuram'.The movie clicked with audience coz of strong performance of characters.Then came a slew of madurai-centric movies..All had few things in common :


1)The hero must appear like ruffian,with an ugly shirt,lungi and an unkempt beard.

2)The heroine shud not be 'fair' and shud always wear a pavadai-thavani

3)The comedian in these movies will mostly be Ganja karuppu

4)There should be a temple thiruvizha and a song accompanying it

It is interesting that almost all the heroes of such movies follow the slang and accent of karthi.."ennaa mama .sowkiyama...".Even the recently released ones like vamsam,thoonganagaram irritated with such things.As a result,now the same rural based or madurai -based theme which looked appealing is begining to bite the dust.People are again switching back to commercial and meaningful entertainers.Directors have to realize that they cannot claim to be different only by taking rural themes.All that matters is the content and presentation

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"