logo

The good news first: Sultan the Warrior is being readied for a release
by the year-end. And the bad news: we will still have to wait for a
lot many months before we get to watch the boss in action, though in
an animated version.

The release of the second trailor of the film was held at a press
conference in Chennai on Sunday, and the atmosphere at the Inox theatre
was nothing less than electrifying. It was almost as if those present
were waiting for the premiere or the “first day first show” of a
Rajnikanth movie.

Sultan the Warrior is being produced by Ocher Studios in association
with Adlabs. The movie is being directed by Soundarya, the 23-year-old
daughter of the superstar and the managing director of Ocher Studios.
The animators and others working on the movie at Ocher Studios were
out in strength to cheer their MD and also to see how mediapersons
would react to their work.

And the moment Soundarya …

Movie: Evano Oruvan (Tamil)
Director: Nishikant Kamat
Cinematographer: Sanjay Jadhav
Editor: Amit Pawar
Music: G.V. Prakash
Producer: Abbas-Mustan (Burmawalla Brothers)
Co-Producer: Leukos Films
Cast: Madhavan, Sangeetha, Seeman, Nishikant (cameo)

It is more than three weeks since I saw ‘Evano Oruvan’, but its images still hold me in a vice-like grip. They keep running in my mind; I keep seeing the movie over and over again in my head, starting from the first frame till the end.

I have never been so affected by a movie ever before. Some movies have surprised me, some have confounded me, and some made me go ‘wow’. Some movies went over my head too. But never has one movie dominated my thoughts like this.

Why? Is it because like the protagonist of the movie, Sridhar Vasudevan, I also live in Nanganallur, a suburb of Chennai? Is it because like him I …

“Oram Po” (move out of the way). Pushkar and Gayatri are here. The debut movie of the husband-wife team is rocking Chennai. It is running to full houses, right from Friday when it was released.

“Oram Po” can be termed Kollywood’s answer to ‘The fast and the furious’ or maybe even the ‘Dhoom’ series as it is a movie about drag racing in Chennai. And please note, that too on unwieldy autorickshaws not sleek bikes. It is the story of two rival mechanics, Bigle (played by Lal) and Sun of Gun (John Vijay), who settle all their disputes by racing autos. Built into this is the love story of Chandru (Arya), who is the ace driver of Bigle’s mechanic shop, and Rani (Pooja), who works in a biriyani shop …

The first thing you notice about Nitinsathyaa are his intense eyes; maybe that is what helped him get under the skin of the character he played in ‘Satham Podathey’ (Don’t make any noise). He shone as the impotent sportsman, even though the role was not too well written. Even though his role in ‘Chennai-28’ endeared him to the masses, but it was the role of the anti-hero in ‘Satham Podathey’ that won him loads of critical acclaim and also got him a lot of offers.

“I am on cloud nine after ‘Satham Podathey.’ When I was acting in ‘Chennai-28,’ the responsibility was not much. But now with different roles and films, I feel a lot of responsibility has been thrust on me as the audience expectations are high. But at the same time, my confidence levels are also high after receiving so much of praise for my work in ‘Satham Podathey’,” …

Autorickshaw drivers won’t win any popularity contests. Especially in Chennai.

The average citizen has zillions of complaints about their attitude, tampered-with meters, fleecing and crass language. And we don’t even want get into a discussion of their driving skills.

But Pushkar and Gayatri don’t think so. “The autodrivers in Chennai are very different from those in Mumbai or Delhi. They have a cool attitude. Even though they work under trying circumstances, they have a keen sense of humour.”

And the husband-wife duo decided to take this rather unusual fascination to its logical conclusion by making a film about autodrivers.

The ad filmmakers hit on the idea around two years ago while returning home from a friend’s house late at night. Their bike broke down and they had to hail an autorickshaw. Their chatty driver entertained them with quite a few interesting tales about his tribe.

“Why not make a film …

I was always sure about cinematographer Nutty’s acting abilities, and thought he acquitted himself quite fairly in his debut venture, “Naalai.” But I was always curious to find out if he could dance as well too; in his first film, he had no such scenes as the character he played sported a broken leg for most part of the movie.

So the invitation from director Mahesh to visit the sets of “Chakraviyugam” (this is the official spelling, had got it wrong in the earlier piece) came at the apt time. Mahesh said they were shooting their first song, scored by composer Karthik Raja, during the weekend. The incentive was that it was an item number, featuring Mumbai dancer Malishka.

It was a dream come true for me (actually it turned out to be more of a wet dream).

The shooting was on in full swing at the fourth floor of AVM …

I was actually planning to publish this post after some time, but thought it apt to post it now seeing the reactions to Pratim’s post on Aamir Khan and ‘Memento.’ Perhaps it will help clear the air about ‘Memento’ and Murugadoss.

When I met A.R. Murugadoss a couple of weeks ago, he was getting ready to go to South Africa to scout for locations to shoot the Hindi version of ‘Ghajini’, starring Aamir Khan. But he graciously sat down for a chat, asking his assistants to hold all calls. (Actually, he is now shooting in Mumbai, and will be leaving for South Africa in a day or two on a month-long schedule.)

Murugadoss actually wanted to start work on the Hindi version soon after finishing the Tamil version of ‘Ghajini’ in 2005, and even approached some Bollywood stars but in vain. “I showed it to many top stars there (though he refused …

Nutty (Nataraja Subramaniam, the cinematographer of films such as ‘Black
Friday’, ‘Parineeta’ and ‘Eklavya’) is on to his second movie as actor. He
has been enjoying the best of both worlds: he is an acclaimed cameraman in
Mumbai and is on his way to establishing himself as an actor in Tamil films.
His first film as an actor, ‘Naalai’ (Tomorrow), was released last year, and
had a decent run at the box office. This gave him enough confidence to get
in front of the camera again. But with ‘Chakravyuham’, he is taking on
another role — that of executive producer.

‘Chakravyuham’ also heralds the entry of Sree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, who
produced Rohit Shetty’s ‘Golmaal’ and Priyadarshan’s ‘Bhaagam Bhaag’, into
the Tamil film industry.

The movie is directed by buddy Mahesh (complete name Udayabhanu Maheswaran),
who had earlier debuted with ‘Naalai.’ Mahesh has worked with Shoojit Sarkar
earlier, and was one of the writers of the much-acclaimed ‘Yahaan.’

I had asked Mahesh if I …

I finally watched Sivaji on Monday, which is practically blasphemy for a Rajnikanth fan and a serious follower of Tamil cinema. But I think the wait was well worth it, as going to a theatre in the first week would have rendered impossible any attempt to follow the movie or its dialogues.

After seeing the movie though I realised I had done the correct thing by not getting into a frenzy about it. For, though it proves that Rajni is still the boss, Shankar seems to have exhausted all his ideas.

Rajni plays a software systems architect who returns to India to set up a college to provide free education and a hospital where all the patients are to be provided free treatment. But once he sets off on this journey, he realises that the changes that have taken place in the society are only artificial. That though his intentions …

R. Madhavan, more commonly known as Maddy, is very excited about his role in ‘Evano Oruvan,’ the Tamil remake of Nishikant Kamat’s ‘Dombivli Fast.’ In fact, he thinks it will mark another watershed in his career, like his role as the ruffian Inbasekhar in Mani Ratnam’s ‘Aayidha Ezhuthu.’

Actually, when I was talking to the actor, I was reminded of a line that golf player Roy McAvoy (played by Kevin Costner) says in the movie Tin Cup: “When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment … or the moment defines you.”

Looks like ‘Evano Oruvan’ will be one such moment in Maddy’s career. The film is getting ready for release sometime later this month.

Following is the text of an interview with the actor:

What is ‘Evano Oruvan’ all about?

From our childhood, we are taught about what is right and what is wrong. We are taught about a self-righteous lifestyle — …

“Dombivli Fast” was one of the most acclaimed films to come out of India in 2006. It has been shown in festivals around the world, and won a lot of praise for its debutant director Nishikant Kamat.

Following is the text of an interview with the director:

How did you come up with the screenplay of “Dombivli Fast”?

I am a Bombay boy and familiar with the problems of the city — water, garbage on the roads, traffic indiscipline like parking in a no-parking zone, corruption and the like. The script grew from these irritations. In the movie, the protagonist also exhibits a lot of angst about the city’s problems … very basic problems.

I was very inspired by Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” which I saw around 20 years ago. When I started writing “Dombivli Fast,” I realised that my protagonist is very similar to that portrayed by Robert De …

All the credit for this blog goes to Anurag Kashyap. This piece would not have happened if not for what Anurag wrote about his meeting with Danis Tanovic.

Anurag quoted Danis as saying that “Apocalypto was the greatest film of the year … but one drunken outburst from Mel Gibson and no one said anything great about the film.”

I was very fascinated by the idea of the film ever since Mel Gibson announced it, and read all reports put out on it in print and on the Internet. And was eagerly waiting to watch it.

And for once, the wait was worth it. Though I would have loved to watch the movie in a theatre, I had to be content with watching it at home … on a bootleg DVD. But no regrets.

‘Apocalypto’ is one of the best movies of 2006, and would have got a handful of Oscar nominations …