Rose the transgender in Vijay TV

Star Vijay TV is one Tamil Channel which is known as the trendsetter for the innovative programs. Arguably, Lot of programs emerging from various Tamil Channels today have their idea origin in Vijay TV. The latest potential trend set by this TV is a program called "ippadikku Rose". The speciality of this program is that it is anchored by Rose, a transgender lady (err... a guy!!?).

As I was started reading a Tamil book "naan vidya" written by a transgender known as 'Living Smile' Vidya, the program was a pleasant surprise for me. The program hosted by Rose is supposed to take bold steps in discussing certain issues that are considered taboo by the society. But, moreover, this program is actually a bold step for changing the mindset of society toward transgenders. It works!!

For example, look at me. I see transgenders (or more familiarly called Hijadas) as if they are non-human beings. It is all because of the abnormal behaviours shown by transgenders. They stalk you in road-side, trains and other places for money. They don't mingle with the normal people. All these things would create negative opinions against them. In this backdrop, Rose' show helps in changing the way people look at her gender.

Rose has a beautiful face which can make original beau girls feel shame. Her handling of show is very much cool considering the hot topics she covers in it. Sooner or later people would realize that the transgenders are also normal human beings with a different sex orientation.

Khallas if you watch Bindhaas

Another big let down in Sandalwood aka Kannada Film Industry. More bothering fact is that this time the let down is from Puneeth Rajkumar’s latest film “Bindhaas”. Whatever little signs of recovery shown from now and then, are evaporating away. Sandalwood is in such a poor state that it requires a series of Mungaaru maLes to make a recovery.

The so called Power star Puneeth Rajkumar is one of the few reliable entertainers in the poor Sandalwood. In fact Puneeth is a very professional and is very choosy in selecting his films. Keeping this fact in mind, the way the “Bindhaas” has got turned out is very surprising. The film kills you and your mind.

The storyline of the “Bindhaas” can be told very simply that it is a remix of “Pokiri” of Telugu. The original Pokiri itself was a waste movie. Then, this Bindhaas is far worser than that pokiri.

Shivu (Puneeth) is an easy going person doing petty crimes like pickpocketing or black tickets selling. This bindhaas guy falls in love for a beauty named Preethi (Hamsika). After several novel attempts Shivu succeeds in making Preethi to accept his love. Meanwhile he happens to meet new ACP Ajay Rathod (done by nasser), who was given new responsibility of tackling terrorism in Bangalore. Incidently, Preethi is a daughter of Ajay Rathod, and this fact is not known for both Shivu and Preethi. ACP comes to know about love affair between his daughter and Shivu. He asks Shivu to join Don Saleem’s gang and work as a police informer. Shivu does that work successfully. But, one day Preethi sees Shivu fighting in a gang war. She hates Shivu. Shivu tries in vain to convince Preethi. Now he has only one way out through ACP. As per his assignment Shivu produces Saleem to ACP and asks him to tell the truth to Preethi. But ACP turns around and tells that Preethi is his daughter and he is not at all interested to give his daughter to a low class criminal. He tries to shoot Shivu. But Shivu escapes and destroys the whole Saleem gang before winning the heart of Preethi.

The story of the film is supposed to be a pakka masala entertainer. In fact, Puneeth Rajkumar has given a power packed performance. But the director D.Rajendra Babu is the real villain for this film. He makes the film to drag and drag and drag and collapse at several points. You have to be very patient to watch this movie. Heroine Hamsika is pleasant to watch, but irritating to hear. Sandalwood manages to import beautiful Heroines, but falters in finding right voices for them. I mean, there is a dearth of Dubbing Artistes in Kannada.

I have heard that Peter Haynes has directed stunts for Bindhaas. Peter Haynes is a great stunt master who had done great movies in Tamil, Telugu including that of Rajnikanth’s ‘Shivaji’. It’s surprising that Peter Haynes of his stature, has composed some bad fight compositions in this Kannada movie.

It’s painful to watch Bindhaas…

Nice depiction of Ravana in Ilankeswaran

There was a show of Tamil drama “Ilangeswaran” on Feb.14th at Narada Gana Sabha in Mylapore, Chennai. “Ilangeswaran” is a great drama which produced a great actor called R.S.Manohar. Manohar became a well known figure playing the lead role of Ravana in this epic drama. Though he expired in December 2006, the drama still sustains the viewers’ interest. Now the lead role is done by Shanmugan.

I haven’t seen Manohar. In fact, this “Ilangeswaran” is the second Tamil drama that I have ever seen till now. I had heard of the popularity of Manohar in Tamilnadu. People use to say that Manohar’s well built body, his body language and his shrilling voice were tailor-made for the role of Ravana.

I have seen some systems, which were well established by a person, falling apart or losing the shine when that person goes out of that system. For example, we can see “Lankesh Patrike”, a magazine in Kannada. This weekly tabloid was started by Lankesh. Then the paper became famous because of Lankesh, or some even say, that Lankesh became well known because of “Lankesh Patrike”. After the death of Lankesh, the tabloid paper lost its originality and eventually split into two by his son and daughter.

In this backdrop, I hesitated to go to the show of Ilangeswaran sans Manohar. But, luckily, as I hadn’t seen Manohar’ acting in Ilangeswaran, I was able to do watch the show without any prejudices. The drama captured my mind, first by its theme story and then by its technical aspect.

The proficiency of setting the stage and lights was just amazing. The usage of shadow technique on the stage screen is very innovative. The settings for the scenes of Ravana travelling under the sea, Ravana kidnapping Sita to Lanka and Hanumantha flying over sea towards Lanka were not only technically very good, but also were well received by Audience. Particularly, the scene of Hanumantha crossing the sea is just amazing. There is a separate track for the comedy relief for this otherwise serious drama. The lady, who has done the character of Sita, doesn’t have the appeal required for that character. This is one of few negative aspects in this drama.

The important aspect of “Ilangeswaran” is its story. This is the story based on Ananda Ramayana, an epic script probably written on 17th Century AD during the rule of Mysore Kings. The version of Ananda Ramayana is very much different from the original Valmiki Ramayana. In this version, Ravana is projected in good light. Sita is born to Ravana and Mandodari. But, as some astrologer predicted that new born baby Sita would bring misfortune to Lanka, she was taken to Mithila and left there only. This fact was known only to Ravana and his brothers, Vibhishana and Kumbhakarna, and his sister Shuparnaka. Mandori was unaware of this.

Meanwhile, Ravana was keeping track of Sita all through her life with the help of Mayavi. When Sita happens to come to forest with Rama and Lakshmana, Ravana was feeling with pain. Shurparnaka goes to forest just to test the integrity of Rama. Sita’s kidnapping was also done for the same reason. But, the fate wants something else, which eventually makes Rama conquering Ravana.

The story of this drama is written in Tamil by Thuraiyur Murthy. Nice depiction of Ravana makes this story very much interesting. Except that of Shurpanaka and Sita, all other actors have given commendable performance. The emotions of Bharatha and Lakshmana are well rendered by the actors. Rama looks ordinary in terms of acting. The lead character Ravana does well in acting, but lacks physically in terms of height. The actor who donned the character of Mayavi is very energetic.

Unfortunately, here I am not able to find out the names of actors in this drama, as I am new to Tamil theater field. By the by, the first Tamil drama that I had seen, is S.Ve.Sekar’s “Yaamirukka bayam en”. AIADMK’s sitting MLA Sekar gave a non-stop hilarious comedy through this drama. I would write about this experience in later posts.

The thrill missing in the Sound of the Boot

Nowadays Malayalam cinemas are also entering into the clichéd styles. Variety of stories and innovations in stories are missing. The recent released movie “The Sound of the Boot” is one of the examples.

Though Shaji Kailash, the director of the movie, is successful in maintaining the suspense, he is not able to provide the thrill that usually comes with a detective movie. Yes “The sound of the boot” has a murder mystery and revenge story.

Being a mystery movie with too many twists, it’s difficult to tell the whole scenes. Briefly to say the story… is…. The three cops and a daughter of one cop get murdered under the mysterious circumstances. An old man, a young man and two ladies are involved in these murders, which these facts are maintained as suspense. These murders are, in fact, done as a revenge for a murder of one lady by these cops during the emergency period on three decades ago. Meanwhile, Sidharth Mahadevan (Donned by Suresh Gopi) comes to investigate when first murder occurred. Even though he tries hard to solve the mystery, he couldn’t prevent other two murders to happen.

Suresh Gopi in the lead has executed his task perfectly. Being one of the three superstars in Malayalam Cinema he looks secured (comfortable) in his acting. Murali, as a young man on a mission of revenge, looks superb. Other than these there are not many worthy things to tell about the ‘…Boot’. The maintenance of the suspense is not natural. Few unnecessary insertions are done for the sake of suspense. Probably due to this fact the thrilling is missing in the movie.

Another major negative aspect of this Boot is the camera work. The camera moving make you sit uncomfortably instead of watching the suspense anxiously. Poor Camera work. Nonetheless, you have to watch the ‘boot’ for it’s simple appearance, where Suresh Gopi has shown controlled acting.

Taare Zameen Par hum bole Chak De

Finally, I saw “Taare Zameen Par” after a long wait. I am off colour of words to explain the feelings that are lurking in me as a result of watching TZP. I can just say that the film is much needed for the development of Indian Cinema. It’s again Chak de India, thanks to Ramkumar Nikumbh aka Amir Khan. Yes, “Taare Zameen Par” is the best movie happened after “Chak de”, which was done by another badhshah Shahrukh Khan. Thanks for these two Khan ‘Dons’.

The story of the film is simple. It’s about an eight year old boy Ishanth Awasthi facing problem of dyslexia. The boy though rich in talent remains poor in studies, and hence gets tormented by almost everybody. The father of the boy is fed up with the complaints he received against his son by neighbours, school teachers etc. As a result, Father decides to send the boy to a boarding school. There, whatever the little hope the boy had dwindles down to a danger level. An arts teacher observes this and makes a timely intervention. He finds the problem and provides the solution making the boy a pride for everybody.

The film is a morale boosting for the children having the disability of slow learning. The film is a moral lesson for the parents who tortures and pressurises their children to score marks in exams. It is a lesson also to the teachers who are insensitive towards the needs of their students. The film is an example for movie creators who are immersed with the old formulas for their films. The film is an example for the movie buffs like us to select a good taste film from the lot.

“Taare Zameen Par” has many surprises. The lead actor Darsheel Safary is the biggest surprising element in the movie as he makes the character of eight year old boy look too natural. The selection of story is another surprise. Amol Gupte’s story was taken at a risk, considering that it was not sure to be commercially viable one. The script work is amazing. Every scene is done with utmost care. Everything that comes into the sight of camera is made to gel with the story of the movie. The credit should go to Amir Khan, the so called perfectionist. We cannot believe that TZP is his first movie as a director. Beware…the film is about children. Making children to act naturally is as tough as breaking the pea nuts with bare hands.

As I told in the beginning, Taare Zameen Par is the best movie after Shahrukh Khan’s Chakde. Comparison can be made between the two films, but choosing a best movie among them is very difficult. The two movies are best on their own category. In Chak de, women hockey players came from nowhere to achieve the pinnacle of sports. In TZK, the disabled and dejected boy outshines everyone, even his encouraging teacher, to earn a place of pride in everybody. While watching Chak De, viewers clapped their hands and screamed from their heart along with success of the girls in the movie. In Taare Zameen Par, viewers cried with emotions of Ishanth awasthi as if they are watching from inside of that character. Both are truly magic.

Aila… kya films hai yaar… Truly fascinating… hum khush hua.

Sadhu Miranda and Kalloori

As I am relocating to Bangalore on the last week of this month, few days are left for me in Chennai to see as many Tamil movies as possible. I am hurryingly seeing selected movies. Yesterday and day before yesterday I saw two Tamil movies – Kalloori and Sadhu Miranda – and one English movie National Treasure. Kalloori was in my mind from long time back. Surprisingly, I have not seen any Hindi movies after ‘Chak de’ and ‘Bhool bhulaiyya’. I am very nervous that I am not able to see even “Taare Zameen Par”, as the film is mesmerizing people day after day. Adding to this, tickets are not available for current booking, because, the film is running in very few theaters in Chennai. It’s very difficult to get tickets in posh theaters like Satyam Cinemas or Inox Multiplex. Unfortunately, both these theaters are near to my residence.

The other films in my mind are “Pidichirukku”, “Asoka” (Both are Tamil movies), “Boot” (Malayalam) and “Sunday” (Hindi) apart from Taare Zameen Par.

SADHU MIRANDA

I went to “Sadhu Miranda” only after seeing its review in media. The movie is a thriller with a good dose of comedy. Though the film is a worthy one to watch for, somewhere it lacks in quality. The Malayalee origin director Siddique is known for his penchant for comedies. His adaptation of comedy into this thrilling movie looks very natural. This is the main saving grace for the movie and its director.

The story begins with a bank robbery by a gang, which we later come to know that Ram Mohan (donned by Abbas), his brother Shiva, and a minister (done by Telugu actor Kota Srinivasarao) belong to it. While escaping from the police the gang kills a young lady. Then later on, Sundara Murthy, the brother of that lady, goes on the mission of avenging for the death of his sister. Murthy first gets hold of Shiva through drugs. Then he traps Minister by acting as Shiva. Ram Mohan’s girl friend is Priya. She is also the daughter of a bank manager who was killed during the robbery. Sundara Murthy uses Priya, Shiva, and Minister to make Ram Mohan to come back to India from America. Then Sundara Murthy tries to trap Ram Mohan, who by now senses the danger and gets escaped. The game of escapes continues till the truth won over false seekers.

Prasanna as Sundara Murthy has done well. His innocent expressions gel well with the going of the movie. Abbas, as usual, justifies his role. Kavya Madhavan as a lead female looks awesome. But the main highlight of the movie is comedy track. Bhaskar, Karuna and the comedy gang make us roaring with laughter. The comedy is simply superb. This Malayalam style of comedy makes a good change from Vadivelu and Vivek brand of comedies. Moreover, the comedy track runs along with the story. And the plus stops here as there is nothing exciting in the scenes other than comedy track. Siddique could have worked more on the screen play. Nevertheless, “Sadhu Miranda” can be watched once without second thought.

KALLOORI

Good product from Balaji Shaktivel. ‘Kalloori’ is the third movie as a director for Balaji. He had earlier given ‘Samurai’ and ‘Kadhal’. Though Vikram starrer ‘Samurai’ failed, the second movie ‘Kadhal’ became a stupendous success. In ‘Kalloori’, Balaji has livened up to the expectations that rose after the success of ‘Kadhal’.

Kalloori is a story of friendship. A group of friends who came from the same school joins Government Arts College for BA. Muthu, Ramesh, Kaya, Nagarani, Kamakshi, Saleema and other friends are from hard background. One is a son of stone worker; one is the leading care-taker of her family; one is the son of a drunkard police etc., etc. Shobhana, the girl from a convent school in Bangalore, comes and joins this college. After initial hiccups, she became a friend of Muthu and co. Shobhana and Muthu develop intimate feeling for each other even when they tried hard to avoid it. This group of friends was committed to maintain pure friendship without any contamination of love or other feelings. In this backdrop, Muthu and Shobhana were in dilemma of expressing their true feelings outside. But the fate shows its harshness when Shobhana and other two girls were charred to death after a mob of rioters put fire to the bus near Chittoor.

The story is simple. But Balaji shaktivel has given life to each and every character. The character of Ramesh, who is a great chatter, looks very real. Bharani has acted very natural as Ramesh. Akhil has done the character of Muthu. He looks tailor-made for that role. Not only Akhil, all the persons acted in this movie look tailor-made for their role. The credit definitely should go to the director.

There are good dialogues in this movie. Shobhana says in the movie, “…my father and forefathers are all experts in education. There is not much greatness in me studying well. But, you people are coming to college with so many difficulties. You are all great…” Really great!

There is another scene that captures well when Shobhana encourages Muthu asking him to concentrate on the National Athletic Meet at any cost. Chak de Kalloori.

Must Watch Pirivom Sandhippom

After “Thavamai thavamirundhu” and “Emttan magan”, here comes another good family drama through “Pirivom Sandhippom” which leaves you a good space for thinking. “Pirivom Sandhippom” is very much relevant in the changing social scenario. It gives insight to a psychology that deals with the issues of sacrificing personal wishes for the sake of dear ones.

Nowadays Koodu kutumbam (Joint Family system) is leading towards a situation where it would be almost non-existent in near future. But, in Pirivom Sandhippom, Director Karu pazhaniappan aptly showcases the Joint Family system that many of the present generation probably would feel in awe about it.

“Natesan (Played by another director Cheran) is a member of a big joint family. He gets married to Vishala (acted by Sneha), who in turn had almost fallen in love for the whole joint family. She enjoys every moment in that family. She gets attached to each and every persons of that big family. But, the fate turns elsewhere when Natesan gets transferred to a beautiful hill station Attakatti with a promotion as an executive engineer. Natesan, as a newly married husband, needed much need space to enjoy with his wife. He was already fed up living in a big family. He is very happy to be in Attikatti, whereas Vishala is depressed to leave big family for the sake of a nuclear family in a distant place. There in Attakatti, Vishala couldn’t come to terms of leading life in a nuclear family, as she had her likening for wonderful joint family of Natesan. Day by day, Vishala gets into agonizing turmoil within her where she couldn’t express her feelings to her husband. Local Doctor (played by Mallu actor Jayaram) timely intervenes to explain Natesan about the complexity of Vishala’s psychology. He gives warning to Natesan that if Vishala’s feelings were not met she might get to the stage of Madness. And Natesan realizes the reality.”

The first half the film is simply superb. It looks like it is happening in our family or in our neighbourhood family. But the second half lacks the pace required to sustain viewers’ interest. Maybe it is because that the director K. Pazhaniappan might have gone into depth of the feelings of the situations and forgot to speed up the narrative. This is one of the major weaknesses in the otherwise neat movie.

The surprising fact is Cheran. This brilliant director doesn’t have the acting skills to give a life to a character. It would be suicidal for both Cheran and as well as the viewers if this Autograph director continues to make an acting career. In sandalwood we have an example in Upendra. Upendra was known as a bright prospect in direction. After reaching the success in few films he gave up direction and started acting full-time. Though Upendra proved his acting talent in “Anatharu” and “Aishwarya”, still he could have and can serve Kannada film Industry better as a director.

Cheran is not a good actor. This is a known fact. He should continue with his strength field that is direction. The fact that in Pirivom Sandhippom, Cheran’s acting being one of the minus points made me to comment like this.

The music by Vidyasagar is good in parts. But in the situations where the character Vishala shows disturbing emotions, the background music frightens us as if Vishala is transforming as a ‘Chandramukhi’ (Rajani movie). Otherwise, the movie runs smoothly all through.

Ganja Karuppu makes a laugh riot with his innocent expressions with his language accent as well as with his body language. Malayalam actor Jayaram adds punch to the film. Cute actress Sneha looks like a rightly made for the complex character that she dons. Hats off to Sneha.

“Pirivom Sandhippom” is a must watch movie in the present social environment.

Krishnarjuna gives a lasting impact

“Krishnarjuna” is a film giving a refreshing change from monotonous Telugu masala movies in the recent past. Though the film has quite a few drawbacks, still it successfully gives the feeling of enjoyment lingering you for long time.

Most of the movies produced in Tollywood are high voltage, violent, mad heroism and sophisticated technical movies. Rich technology, good choreography, nice picturisation of scenes and punching dialogues are the only strong points of Tollywood movies. There is no innovativeness in the story, no innovativeness in the music and no innovativeness in the direction. Being a second biggest film industry in India, Tollywood has become stagnant wasting its highly valuable resources. Very sad indeed!!

Now coming back to “Krishnarjuna”, it’s time to recuperate. As a director P.Vasu has done a somewhat successful operation through this film. He injects fresh air by resorting into traditional way of direction. Let me tell the brief story of ‘Krishnarjuna’….

“A mentally unstable woman accidently gives birth to a baby and dies in the sanctum of a Lord Krishna temple. This was considered as ominous for the temple and thus it gets closed by the advice of a great astrologer. Everybody considers the baby as unlucky except one baba (done by great hero of yesteryear Mohanbabu). The baby gets into the fold of his grandmother Manorama. Then the baby grows into an innocent youth Arjun (Done by Vishnuvardhan, son of Mohanbabu).

Manorama and Arjun both work as helpers in the house of Nazir. Mamatha, the daughter of Nazir, was supposed to get engaged to a rich person. But the jathaka of Mamatha had a kuja dosham and is believed that the first person who gets married to her will die. This belief makes Nazir to arrange marriage of her daughter to Arjun, who was considered good for nothing. Meanwhile Arjun gets in touch with Lord Krishna through Nagarjuna. Arjun gains power which is enough to destroy all the obstacles in his life and transforming him into manly human being.”

The screen play of the movie is little too slow in the first half which makes strainful to watch. But director Vasu makes amends in second half to give a fresh kick start of speed. Nagarjuna as a Lord Krishna in human disguise infuses great energy to the movie, which otherwise would have been too hot to handle for Vishnuvardhan. As a hero with plenty of scope to give expressions, Vishnuvardhan excels in patches. M.M. Keeravani gives both sensible as well as insensible music. The comedy team of Brahmanand, Venumadhav and Sunil gives below average entertainment. The heroine Mamatha das looks very sexy and has done justice to her role.

But, as a whole the film imparts lasting effect on you after all the rubbish entertainers ruling the Tollywood.

Bheema I think I love you

Now I am thinking…. Why I waited so long (nearly a month) to see Vikram starrer Tamil Movie ‘Bheema’!! Incidentally Bheema is the only movie that I saw till date among Pongal releases this year. Except “Pirivom sandippom” and “Pidicchirukku” all other movies got a bad review from both media and public (in the sense… friends). This delayed me to watch Bheema.

Yes, this movie was a well hyped one. It took nearly one and half years to complete. The producer is a Big one Mr. A.M.Rathnam. The Director is a big one, Mr. Linguswami. The Hero is a big one, Mr. Vikram. The heroine is a big one Ms. Trisha. The Villain is also a big one Mr. Raghuvaran. And the Hero’s Hero is Mr. Prakashraj. And the Music director is Harris Jayaraj.

What else do we want for a movie? Most of our expectations are well served here. Linguswami is well known for his pace narrative screen play with plenty of actions. But here in Bheema the screen play becomes little slower, and due to this the action scenes seem to dominate the whole proceedings. But Director Linguswami has taken plenty of care for each and every scene. Every actors and technicians have ably supported director.

The brief story of ‘Bheema’ is … The Hero Vikram joins Prakashraj gang by impressing with his daredevil acts. As a flashback we get to see Vikram’s raise to power and strength. Since childhood Vikram had a role model in Prakashraj who was a fearless person with good intentions. Now as powerful and as fearless as earlier Prakashraj, the hero Vikram’s entry into the former’s gang makes the dreaded gangster Raghuvaran to eat humble pies. Meanwhile, Ashish vidyarthi and his police team are on a mission to wipe out criminals in the city through “Operation Bheema”. And that gives another angle to action scenarios. By this time, Vikram had fallen love to Trisha and has decided to lead a normal life. But circumstances demand other things to end with a tragedy.

This was a story at a glance. Prakashraj as a gangstar and a role model for the Hero has given wonderful performance. This is probably Prakashraj’s most matured acting till this day. He is simply superb. I am wondering, how come a villain can draw so many fans. The audiences in Chennai theaters give more applause (whistles) to Prakashraj than to the big heroes. This was evident when I saw ‘Pokiri’ in Devi Theatre. The Hero of that movie Vijay is placed as a successor to the Superstar Legacy of Rajanikanth. I could hear whistles for every action did by Prakashraj in that movie, but whereas the hero Vijay got less comparatively.

Coming back to ‘Bheema’, we have plenty to see other than Prakashraj. Vikram, the hero of the movie, steals the show with his magnificent body language and actions. He seems to be tailored-made for every kind of role, making him the most versatile actor at present in the Tamil Industry.

Harris Jayaraj, the music director, is a rare gene of a musician. He is among the top three musicians of Tamil Industry. The other two are A.R.Rehman and Yuvan shenkar raja. All the three music directors are very versatile in composing songs. All of them have the capability to blend melody with hot beats. Wonderful!

The main Villain Raghuvaran as usual looks cold blooded. He doesn’t have that much scope in this movie. The other person who terrorizes us other than Villain is Mr. Ashish Vidyarthi. Yes… Ashish Vidyarthi as a new police commissioner vowed to finish criminals in the city, looks very awesome. Yes this is the solid performance from yet another versatile actor. And the main hero of the movie is the action. Let’s give Hats off to Kunal kannan, the action director of the movie.

I watched the movie in Devi theatre in Mount Road of Chennai City. It’s an ordinary theatre to where we go when we are in financial crunch. There were foreigners sitting in the row behind to mine’s. It was little surprising seeing a foreigner watching a Tamil movie (the other time I saw this type of incident is in Rajanikanth starrer ‘Shivaji’.) I heard one person saying ‘…funny…’ to one song sequence. And with first half nearing end, I heard one female voice saying “I think I love this movie….”

I thought of interacting with those foreigners after the interval. The interval came. They went out and I followed. But finally they went straight out of the theatre before I could call them. Oh my goodness… I missed some rare reviews… I rued.

Vadivelu excels an Yaman in Indralokathil

“Haaahhaa… haaahahhaaa…..Akkazha… Akkazha… Akkazha….” - Yaman in Heaven…err… in Hell fiercely hells while thumping his thighs when he gets excited. The body language makes you even more excited than him. Yes, the comedy king of Tamil Cinema Vadivelu acting as a Mythological Yama in the Tamil Film “Indralokathil naa azhagappan” proved that he is a versatile actor.

There is no doubt on the comedy credentials of Vadivelu. But, in his first movie as a Hero “Imsai Arasan 23rd Pulikesi” I was very much disappointed on the dismal performance of Vadivelu. He couldn’t handle the dual roles perfectly. In that film, the Imsai Arasan character is a buffoon king. Vadivelu does that role almost well. But, in another character which is of a brave and responsible person and a brother of Imsai Arasan, Vadivelu faltered to give justice. The body language of Vadivelu makes that character also look like a buffoon. After seeing that movie, I had started doubting Vadivelu’s versatility as an actor in general.

Now, with “Indralokathil naa azhagappan”, I became sure of Vadivelu’s acting skills. This is the second movie of him as a hero. Here he does multiple roles. Indran, Yaman, an Ordinary person and an Old man. As a character of Indran, Vadivelu once again disappoints with ordinary performance. But once the Yaman character gets introduced Vadivelu plays it with aplomb. There will be no dull moments when Yaman character is in the screen.

I loved the performance of Vadivelu as a Yama. And as a 90 year old man, Vadivelu acts like anything. He looks more effective than the great actor Satyaraj who did old man character in “ombadu rupay notu”.

Apart from Vadivelu’s performance as Yama and Old man, there is nothing exciting in “Indralokathil naa azhagappan”. It looks like Director Thambe Ramaiah didn’t give importance to the screen play. That makes the movie an absurd one. If you want to go to that movie it should be for watching Vadivelu’s role as Yama, nothing else.

Mohan Lal fails to Rock N Roll

Films containing over action Heroism Malalas from Telugu and Strong over dosages from Tamil make me sick after watching them for a certain period of time. For a temporary relief, I usually like to go for a Malayalam movie. Watching a Malayalam movie makes me feel relaxed. Normally I never see details of the Malayalam films like actor, director and other technicians’ names before entering theater to see that movie. This means that Malayalam Movies are a standard guarantee for me. This time I saw “Rock N Roll” starring Mohan lal and directed by Renjith.

The mere names of Mohan Lal and Renjith themselves are a guarantee for a movie. With Vidyasagar’s music rocking, there’s no way other than going to Rock N Roll. Though the film has a typical Mallu Screen play, it falters and falls with Mohan Lal, who seems to be worn out in several scenes.

Mohan Lal plays a character called Chandra Mauli, an internationally busy Rockster playing drum for different International Music troupes. By a chance, he comes back to his old core friends in Chennai. There, his life gets a turn after falling love to a gorgeous singer Daya Shrinivasan (played by a beauty called Lakshmi Rai). Being a Tomboy in all his life, he is perplexed by the love that struck him unexpectedly. As usual in all movies, here also the love gets into twists only to end in a clichéd affair.

There is no doubt that Mohan Lal is a versatile actor. But here in this film, playing Chandramouli character, he fails to give a fair deal. He is in his best when he plays emotional parts with his core friends. But as a energetic Tomboy or playboy, he looks comical. He shows that is jading out day by day with an indication against his versatility.

Music Director of the film Vidyasagar shines with the disappointment from Mohanlal. Vidyasagar gives a scintillating music. Heroine Lakshmi Rai appeals little. Shwetha playing a small role of Choreographer in the film gives a rocking effect. Apart from these, there are clichéd scenes which could have otherwise avoided.

And as a whole, Director Renjith produces an ordinary Malayalam Movie, which is a rare thing in his directorial career, I think.

Lawrence Sheikhs in Mastana

It was a good entertaining mood. It was a splendid moment of climax of a dance competition on stage for a TV program. The judge for the day came to the stage to express thanks (That judge is a top film choreographer in South India, and he is also a hero in few films). He says…

“…I have seen days when I used to go by walk, then by bicycle, then by bike and now by car. But all through these days one common sight that used to haunt me are the beggars using children for begging. Those children are in no way related to the beggars who use them. The money you give to beggars would not reach to children. I hate these inhuman beggars…”

This choreographer was none other than the Lawrence. The program was Sun TV’s ‘Mastaana Mastaana’. Lawrence didn’t stop there… He introduced us one fine example of self respect. Sheikh Abdulla from Dindigul District of Tamilnadu was brought to the stage with a very emotional moment created by Lawrence. The Sheikh Abdulla’s both legs were non-functioning. Lawrence told the background of this disabled person’s life and struggle…. It’s really captivating….

Lawrence had first spotted Sheikh Abdulla during the shooting of a movie in Dindigul. He instantly got curiosity over this unassuming person. He collected information about that person…. Yes… Sheikh Abdulla was a born disabled person. His disability was just physical. Abdulla is mentally a strong character. Anyone in the place of Abdulla, would have easily been into begging in roadsides. But Sheikh Abdulla didn’t get shake a bit. He paid and earned self respect. He sold different items to make his living for his family. A wife and two children made for his family. The two children – one boy and one girl - are the core purpose of his long struggle. His wife, playing a great partner for Abdulla’s innings, is no less warrior. She, being a lady without any physical disability, gave life and inspiration for Abdulla. She says that Abdulla is her first child. What a moment!

Abdulla and his wife want their children to come up in life with dignity. And so also the children expressed their desire to come up. Lawrence brought all of them in the stage. For few seconds I was stumbled and my hands automatically clapped themselves. Though Lawrence used a dramatic way to bring emotion into the moment it was really encapsulating. Hat’s off to Lawrence. Hat’s off to Sheikh Abdulla, his wife, and his two children for showing a great way of self respecting to lakhs of disabled persons in this country.