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Chaos theory…butterfly effect…..existence of God…….an unstable biochemical substance which may destroy the world….Tsunami…..Now these words blabbered by the voice-over and that too in an Indian Movie can make anyone excited …..but wait there is more…we have a George Kamal Bush who does a rajni to get up from his seat……we have a Japanese girl who speaks Tamil….we have a Punjabi Kamal Bhangra singer who apparently does a bhangra in Tamil……..There is a extended looooong chase which starts with 15 mins in the movie and finishes just mins before the movie ends……and ya there is Mallika Sherawat……

The story begins in an era where Vishnu clan and Shiva clan or you can say cults are trying hard to vote down each other…..The leader king of Shiva Clan wants to move the Ranganatha idol ..errr not move..to throw it into the sea……He is opposed and fought by none other then Kamal who is …

FULMARXX-Short films’ festival- 2nd day, 2nd session.

I thought somebody would cover this event. I waited but nothing happened. So here i am giving some details on fulmarxx. Friends, I am not a journalist so I have no experience of covering events. I am giving some details and my random thoughts on Fulmarxx- short films festival organized by MICA-EDC on 26-27th april, 2007 at Ahmedabad. This post is as per viewer's eye.

I wanted to catch whole event, but due to my personal and professional commitments; I watched only last session of fulmarxx short film festival. The Last session featured full shorts which had duration around 45 minutes.

1. Mid-shot (hindi)- It was about principles of Gandhiji and Nathuram Godsay and its relation to today's world. I liked it because of its pace, editing and music.

2. Kachra (hindi/telugu). The story is about street boys, a girl and child abusement. Concept …

Yes. I said it. I called Prabhudeva a renaissance man.

This is not going to be an objective post. A glowing hagiography is more like it.

He may be the most talented person working in Indian movies today (hyperbole never hurt anyone). But he is wonly a dancer you say. No.

Item Dancer, Choreographer, Actor, Star, Director, Writer.

Writer/Director? Yes. That too of hit movies.

He was the original male item number. Nowadays a lot is made of Shah rukh, Abhishek or Hrithik dancing in some film they are not acting in. But he was there first. Many may not have seen this song of his. It was from a Rajni movie that bombed but this song was a hit.

How awesome was that?

His first appearance on the screen was as a backup dancer at age 17 in Mani Rathnam’s Agni Nakshathiram….

In Anjaadhe Mysskin has proven what film makers, story writers, screenplay writers, creative people in general can DO, if given the liberty by the people with money who think they have figured out what audience want.

In spite of so many masters who have made so many masterpieces, thamizh cinema is still a local fiefdom where the produers and distributors decide what is the movie that is worth seeing the arc light in a dark theatre. So it is a wonder for me that Anjaadhe even got made, let alone distributed and screened. From a distributor’s angle in a multiplex world, the film did not possess a star hero (After Chithiram Pesudhadi, the director could have approached and star and made a movie with him), ‘A’ list music director, commercial heroine, or a hefty villain with 50 henchman. It has only one plus from a distributor -producer angle - the film …

Narration: A message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program.

I see movies like “thirupachi” “thimiru” “madurai” etc and wonder … did the director even have a story to tell … if not what did he tell the producer?
Lets club such movies in a separate genre “koothu”! “THE KOOTHU MOVIES”

But I love this language and still follow all the movies that get released … may it be the amazing “paruthiveeran” or the honest “mozhi” or even the filthy “palani” … I always keep track of the Friday births, to gauge the quality of cinema in my foster land. And in one such attempt I hit upon Vetrimaran’s “Polladhavan” last Diwali.

The promos of that movie appeared cheap. It even gave me a feeling that the movie is more like the …

Jab We Left - Movies and Memories
Warning - Random personal rambling post ….

Jab We Left…. left forever… Reminds me of the last scene of Sadma where Kamal hassan with a painful expression on his face does all the monkeying around in the hope that Sridevi will recognise him… But she’s lost all memory .. she won’t … She’s forgotten or may be she chose to forget … can’t blame her … As far as she is concerned Kamal’s chapter is closed. Kamal can’t understand why Sridevi can’t recognise him… After all … he was with her all this while … caring for her .. nursing her .. fighting with her .. enduring her eccentrities and madness… Kamal became mad with her long before she left him. Who with a sane mind would pretend to be a monkey with a bucket on his head and caryy water .. dance at …

Can’t write much, can’t talk much.

Just heard (or rather read) the news here

Tamil Writer Sujatha is dead

The key person behind the development of the Electronic Voting Machine and an eminent writer, S Rangarajan alias Sujatha, has died.

To be very honest, I have never read a single sujatha’s story (I cant read/write Tamil unfortunately). Although i do watch tamil films eagerly. And the films written by him …I’ve loved.

The article further adds on

Sujatha was a pioneer in the field of science fictions in Tamil. He also wrote short stories, novels, screenplays and columns in weeklies

Here’s some info from another site

His true name was Rangarajan, Sujatha being a pseudonym. He has written over 100 novels, 250 short stories, ten books on science, ten stage plays, and a slim volume of poems. His very first story featured in a magazine called Sivaji in 1953. His short …

I am borrowing the phrase that the renowned film maker R.Partheban used to introduce Ilaiyaraja in a function.

To an average Thamizh film music lover, Ilaiyaraja is one name that is synonymous with music. His name is taken with awe and great respect by singers, peers, critics and film makers. He redefined film music in very many ways, ways that are hard to explain, even figure out. The impact of a Ilaiyaraja BGM or song is instantaneous and everlasting, catchy and yet soulful, funny yet melancholic. He works on the basic premise that all forms of music are the same and the treatment and usage brings out the difference and impact. One reason why you could have a bachish violing interlude to a “pure ganada” compositiion in “Poomalai vaangi vandhaan” in the memorable KB masterpiece “Sindhu Bhairavi”. He literally made a whole generation of fans go and learn guitar with that …

AMOL GUPTE THE CHILD SPEAKS …. AT BAISCOPE EVENT

“BAISCOPE ENTERTAINMENT Presents In Association with PVR CINEMAS

Children in Cinema – Innocence & its Essence

A workshop with Amol Gupte & Deepa Bhatia
( Creative Director, Taare Zameen Per & Editor, Taare Zameen Per )

And NO…… This is NOT about the TZP controversies !!

An afternoon exploring the art and the process of working with children.

* The Orchestral Beauty of emotion
* Fake & Real Innocence – Its cinematic interpretation
* Guarding the Child

The workshop will also include an interactive session with Amol, Deepa and the audience (the film fraternity & the children accompanying them) .
It will be an organic process in working with children”

That was the event which immideately drew to our attention (mine and Phonix) and we landed up on the D day with our eyes and ears open and pen paper ready …. all set to listen to the man behind the …

This is not much of a detailed post.  Just a brainstorm on how some small amount of experimentation is carried out before done on a full blown scale in cinema.

Prototyping : Wikipedia explains it thus:

“Prototyping is the process of quickly putting together a working model (a prototype) in order to test various aspects of a design, illustrate ideas or features and gather early user feedback. Prototyping is often treated as an integral part of the system design process, where it is believed to reduce project risk and cost. Often one or more prototypes are made in a process of iterative and incremental development where each prototype is influenced by the performance of previous designs, in this way problems or deficiencies in design can be corrected. When the prototype is sufficiently refined and meets the functionality, robustness, manufacturability and other design …

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 …

There was a time when as a child I could imagine myself to be anything.

I could be a pilot flying a plane. but not too high. just high enough to see my mother drying clothes on the open roof of my house.

I could be a fish swimming in the pond with gold skin and transparent fins.

I could be a rickshaw puller who can pull a rickshaw with 3 fat men with ease.

I could become anything that amazed me.

I saw a movie with Sivaji ganesan and really believed that he was a police inspector and learnt what “duty” means. It means you can gun down your son even if he is your only son a son about to sell his soul, his country.

I saw another Sivaji movie and truly believed he is Lord Shiva sitting on the icy ranges of Kailash wearing just a rug made out of tiger skin and …

iView Author:
VASU
(Chennai, India)
Email :
vasuanish85 [at] gmail [dot] com

Katrathu Tamizh - An Anti-thesis of Escapist Cinema

Indian Cinema, for ages, has always revolved around escapist cinema and Tamil Cinema has been no exception. What MGR did decades ago is done by Rajini today. People spend their money to see their hero fight against all (’all’ ranging from a mean villain to the entire bureaucracy of this country) and emerge victorious. Hence we have come to see only successful protagonists and happy endings. Rarely do we find movies about losers in life; movies which delve into the psyche of a loser, even rarer. Those are the ones which actually raise questions, those are the ones that make you think, and those are the ones that have an impact.

Katrathu Tamizh is one such movie. The movie is as much about …

iView Author:
DEEP BLUE LOTUS
(Chicago, US)

Email:
deepbluelotus [at] gmail [do] com

Anjali & “MockingBird”

I was memorizing a monologue from the academy award winning screenplay by Horton Foote for the film version of the modern American classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. And, it struck me.

“Anjali”, one of the finest films by Mani Ratnam, was essentially based on /inspired by/adapted from this book. I immediately searched the web for others who felt this way. To my surprise, I only found one blogger who merely said that a sub-plot was similar.

But, the parallels are striking –

Shekhar – played by Raghuvaran, the architect is based on Atticus Finch the upright lawyer who does not shy away from accepting the case of defending an innocent black man in a highly racist society in rural south in America of 1920s. Shekhar …

iView Author: Vasu (Chennai, India)

Email: vasuanish85 [at] gmail [dot] com

Evano Oruvan - “Just another nobody?!”

Evano Oruvan, in Tamil, might roughly translate into “Just another nobody” but the movie with the same title is everything but just another movie in Tamil. Evano Oruvan is a brilliant remake of the Marathi movie, ‘Dombivilli Fast’, directed by Nishikant Kamat.

Tamil Cinema has seen many vigilante movies in the past like Gentleman, Indian, Anniyan etc but what sets Evano Oruvan apart from all of these is the fact that the vigilante is not a larger-than-life superhero who fights the system against a grandeur backdrop but is an average bank officer whose dream is to get a window seat in the local train that he travels by daily and enjoy the breeze and the ride! The premise for the movie is set brilliantly during …

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 …

Veri in Tamil can be loosely translated as Passion-for/ Obsession-for etc. If this website, PassionForCinema, were to be in Tamil it would be called what i have titled this piece - Cinema Veri. And Cinema Veri can also be translated as Trippy Cinema which ‘Tamil M.A’ totally is.

Few films stay with you irrevocably for a particular impact. Like a certain expression, gesture or action. Every needle held by a girl would be an embarrassed recollection of a scary situation such as the one in Takashi Miike’s ‘Audition’. Or Belmondo’s lip-swagger in ‘Breathless’, Forest Whitaker’s SamuraiSword-like panache with his gun in ‘Ghost Dog’ etc. ‘Tamil M.A’ would be remembered for it’s oft-repeated, a measured honest-to-goodness-question posed to the protagonist by the love of his life - Nijamaa dhan sollariya? translating into ‘do you truthfully mean it?’. With its frequency as we proceed in the film we figure it to …

Driving as fast as I could in the treacherous NYC traffic last Thursday I was thinking as hard as I could as to what I would have done if I were to remake Dombivilli Fast, that too in a language of which I knew all but 2 words. How would I even start to write the change in characters or change the sensibility to suit my target audience? How would I even trust the characters when I cannot understand them while they are giving a shot? How would I make it work? What would I have to face?

Nishikant Kamat is a director shows you lot less than what he is. He is fun to be with, very very personal and probably the most chilled out person I have met with lazy being the other very apt adjective. He is patient, loves to shop for shoes and his immediate desire is …

So much of discussion on no-Smoking on the PFC . I haven’t seen the movie and would love to see it in a theatre, for it reminds me of an erstwhile experience of having watched a movie that merged the real and the surreal together. This was the Thamizh movie, “Kudaikkul Mazhai” directed by R.Parthiban. It released in the year 2004 and I was in Bangalore watching it in a small theatre.

In the promos of the movie and trailers, there was no scene from the movie that was shown. It was just a talk by the director saying that this movie is a commercial poem. I thought, you can never scare the audience better than by saying such nonsense. I thought that this guy simply has gone crazy again(usually he does go crazy and makes nonsense movies while coming up with some absolute gems inbetween).Thamizh press started floating news as …