AVATAR - The World of Pandora is Amazing!

James Cameron's Avatar (3D movie) is unbelievable and amazing! Kudos to the Film maker for his extra-ordinary brilliance in bringing the World of Pandora close to our eyes. It is truly Fantastic.

This is the first time in my life i saw a movie of this great stature. The 10 year work of James Cameron after Titanic has seen the light of the day. The response is just awesome through out the world and FOX Communications has done a marvelous job in Marketing the Movie to the World. The director's wait for the technology growth is a worth mention here and that has created a magic in bringing the World of Pandora close to us.

I have no clue if anyone has ever taken or will take a movie of this stature in future. More than describing the experience of watching this movie, it is worth the money you pay in theatres to watch the same.

A must watch for an awesome experience to see the world of Pandora!

The Remake Trend: Not Healthier?

Off late, the Tamil Film Industry is more inclined towards the Remake of yesteryear or other language movies. The trend started off primarily with Billa and from then on it just continues and there seems to be no end to it!

In spite of the fact that, many remakes are not doing good in the box office, today's directors and producers keep taking these kind of movies without any period. To my knowledge, Unnai pol oruvan and Gajini (In Hindi) was two of the best remakes in the recent past. There are a few other movies like Billa, Santosh Subramaniam, Pokkiri, etc which was good enough as well. I can count the number of best remakes when compared to the unbearable count of the worst ones. In how many languages will these people take movies having the same story? For example, Prabu Deva's Pokkiri was already a remade movie from Telugu. Now, he again made Wanted in Hindi. Can't these people make a movie with a better story avoiding the remake?

I happened to see Kanden Kadhalai (The remake of Jab We Met in Hindi) and Ninaithale Inikkum (Classmates in Malayalam) in the recent past. Both the films lacked originality. Jab we met in Hindi was such a fantastic movie and it had a wonderful performance by both the lead roles played actors. I felt, the transition of the character played by the female lead in Tamil was not upto the mark and the Male lead was trying to imitate more of the one played in Hindi and hence lacked originality. While in Classmates (Malayalam) the climax had more twists and turns which made the screenplay more interesting. The Tamil version Ninaithale Inikum lacked the suspense and screenplay did affect because of the same reason.

There are many other films on the list which lacks in showing justice to the original version. It is high time the film makers think about a new story line and if at all they wanted to remake a film, wish they do it with full justice to the original version.

"Unnai Pol Oruvan" Or "A Wednesday" - The Hindi Version Leads!

I was eagerly waiting for the release of Unnai Pol Oruvan, the reason was; i was left with a feeling of awe when i watched the Hindi Version of the movie titled "A Wednesday".

Both are equally good in its own style and my choice would be "A Wednesday" just for the severity of the Mumbai blasts which disturbed the entire nation.

Nevertheless, Kamal Hasan and Mohanlal were great donning their role brilliantly. The only issue is the sensitivity of the Mumbai blasts where it was more intense among common people. Even though i am not from Mumbai, i felt the Mumbai blasts was somehow more disturbing in the life of a common man. Having said this, i am not denying the fact that people from Kovai or a common man who felt the pain of Kovai blasts only must be knowing the pain of the same. The only difference is when it happened in Mumbai the pain was even more severe and the entire country was disturbed by the incident. This role was very well enacted by Nasiruddin Shah in the Hindi Version. I blame myself for not even knowing anything about the Meenambakkam blast. Of course, it was an eye opener when Kamal Hasan brought this point in the movie. Am not sure how many people knew about this incident!

I somehow do not like Kamal Hasan claiming that Unnai Pol Oruvan is different from the Hindi version which had come first. The credit has to be given to the original version as the entire movie was based on the idea of the same. The only difference between the two versions are, the Hindi Version considering the Mumbai blasts and the Tamil Version considering the Kovai and Meenambakkam blasts. Having said this, Kamal Hasan ofcourse is a boon to the film industry and no hard core hatredness towards him in anyways!

The casting for the Tamil version is brilliant! I must mention a few people who have done a great job apart from the legend of Tamil and Malayalam Industry. The Cop role played by Ganesh Venkatraman of Abiyum Nanum Fame and the journalist role played by Anuja Iyer was Fantastic. Both seems to have an immense potential in acting. I could come to this conclusion by observing the differences in role played by them and their flexibility, comparing with their performances in other movies. Wish they go a long way in the film industry.

The screenplay is equally good in both Tamil and the Hindi Version.

Lastly, the background score for the film is just apt in the Tamil version. When i first listened to the songs after the audio release function of the movie, i thought Shruthi Hasan is going to screw up the movie with her western music influence. I must say, what i thought was wrong and the music is just perfect for the movie. No songs in the movie except Allah Jaane which goes along with the story, it just appears in the audio album. Allah Jaane with Kamal Hasan singing in Nasal voice is not sounding great in a few places, however it is a good try.

In short, Unnai Pol Oruvan is definitely a worth watch while the Hindi version "A Wednesday" is one step ahead in the race!

Airtel Super Singer 2008 Adieu : Not a Fair Conclusion?

It has been close to one year since Airtel Super Singer (ASS) 2008 started and the D-Day was on June 03, 2009 in YMCA Grounds, Chennai. The Grand Finale took place with so much of hype that viewers probably thought a deserving contestant would win the title! Majority of the Indian viewers across the globe were in track of the show. The channel tried out all possible ways to increase TRP. I must say many of them enjoyed every bit of it and the TRP for this show did increase inspite of the gimmicks played by the channel till they reached finals. The finals changed the perspective of many of the viewers about the show and the show ended leaving negative remarks among many of the viewers. I have come to this kind of conclusion only after browsing through various websites, blogs, communities in the social networking websites and comments of the viewers in the channel's forum and other websites.

Considering the individual talent exposed in the show, each of the final five had their own speciality:

Ranjani is both technically and singing wise great. One of the most versatile singer in the female contestants during this season.
Prasanna brings out the feel in the song so perfectly in any kind of genres he sings, however, was strong in Kuthu songs! Technically needs improvement and voice imitation has definitely gone down which is appreciable. So, he just needs improvement technically in singing.
Renu has a honey like voice and any kind of genres suits her voice. She has got all talent to get used to other kind of genres with sufficient time for practice. Undoubtedly a playback material as everybody says! She has a long way to go. Her strength is Melody genre. One of the most expressive singers during this season of ASS.
Ajesh is good both technically and singing wise with a great voice. The question is if his voice will suit today's heroes in Tamil industry. May be very soon as his voice matures, he will make a good playback singer. His strengths are Melody and classical/Semi-classical genres. My opinion is he has to open up more wherever necessary.
Ravi attracts every single person with the way he sings! His dedication to music is impeccable. The most versatile singer out of the lot. According to me, he is the most expressive singer in the ASS journey so far. Technically and musically strong and has been the most consistent singer throughout out the journey. Never in the verge of elimination throughout the journey which is commendable.

That was all about the final five in a nutshell.

My order of the contestants would be:

Ravi
Ranjani
Ajesh
Renu
Prasanna

I would prefer Renu in the third position. The reason being Ajesh needs time for his voice to mature. Moreover, Renu is the ideal voice, the playback industry might need.

Few of the awards ignored by the panel:

Magical voice of the ASS 2008 - Renu and Rohit deserves this one.
Super Singer title - Ravi deserves this one. Since, he did not make it, he should have been given the best performer award throughout the journey.
The most expressive singer - Aishwarya or Deepshika

My thoughts on the judgement and validation of votes:

All the five finalists performed the finals in their own special way and we did enjoy the performances. Regarding the judgement, when the super singer is to be decided by the public, then why to get comments from the judges. If at all they want the judges comments, it should never have an influence on the public voting. Also, the comments should never be biased. All this happened in ASS finals. Oh my god! Why am I writing about the public voting when the whole point of voting has been ignored!

You will understand more clearly from the validation of votes. Here are the statistics on number of votes disclosed by the channel

At the end of Grand finale Ajesh alone gets 2,50,000 Votes
Renu and Ravi's votes were not disclosed.

The positions after Grand final 1 at the end of 1st week
Ajesh - Not disclosed
Ravi - Not disclosed
Renu - 4 times Prasanna's votes
Prasanna - 39249
Ranjani - 31179
One of the anchors of this show Malini told Renu's votes were 4 times Prasanna's, which means 4 times 39,249. So, Renu's votes should have been 156996

Total votes at the end of grand finale ( All the three rounds put together) - 5,70,000

As mentioned earlier, Ajesh himself got 2,50,000 votes which means the rest is 3,20,000
Ranjani got 31179 in 3,20,000 which brings down the remaining votes to 2,88,821
Prasanna got 58623 at the end of second week before he got eliminated and the remaining votes comes to 2,30,198
Renu got 60,832 votes is what they say, however at the end of first week itself her votes were 1,56,996 or does it mean that Renu's votes were less than that of previous week. Utter non-sense! Renu's Grand finale 2 performances were fantastic when compared to Grand finale 1. Did people vote reversely? :-) Quite baffling here! Vijay TV please clarify!
If the left over votes are more or less what Ravi could have got, it is crystal clear that they have fooled the viewers big time!

Now, people who read this post would have come to conclusion, why the hell am i concerned so much. As i have mentioned in one of my other posts about Ranjani's elimination, there are a few things in life which haunts you so much. The result is you can't be keep your mouth shut and nod your head for whatever crap is happening around you. Injustice is something very difficult to accept in life to whomsoever it happens!

In my opinion, even though i have enjoyed some of the best performances in the show, they have become baseless now. Anyways, I must thank the channel for giving such a great exposure to all these talents. They have been known to people because of the channel. Gimmicks - they did it successfully, however, not smart enough in getting a positive remark among the majority of viewers across the globe.

Atlast, I must tell you that I am not against Ajesh in any way. I love his voice and what a soulful singer he is! It is just that Ravi is one step ahead in the race. His dedication to music is incomparable and no way less than Ajesh.

My heartfelt wishes to all the contestants who gave a few wonderful performances and delighted so many Indian hearts across the globe. May all your dreams come true and wish you good luck in all your future endeavours.

On Paati’s Rememberence…After her death!

I just wrote about my Thatha a few months back and now my Paati is no more! Quite shocking, however, felt she is a blessed soul again like my Thatha. She fell down when she was back from the restroom and there ends her life on May 20, 2009 9 pm IST.

It is so paining that I couldn’t see her face at last and living so many miles away has lot of disadvantages in emergencies. I wanted to talk to her and something in me was telling me that I should call and talk to her. Somehow, I missed it! I have no reasons for this. I had a hatredness towards myself that why the hell did I not call up? Sometimes in life, you should do things immediately when you feel like, otherwise you end up in never doing at all and repend for it for the lifetime. Calling up your dear ones whenever you feel like talking to them is not a big deal, however, I did not even do that! You feel for a few things for the entire life and this is one for me.

Paati has always been kind and good to everybody in our family. She has been a great and sensible lady throught out her life. Flexibility to any kind of family style made her to blend with the entire family – This includes all her three Sons.

She was a good artist. May be she did not develop the talent to that extent. She was also good at Origami and for her level of education in those days, she used to read English, Hindi and Tamil all the three languages. Not an avid reader though! Tamil and English are okay. I thought reading Hindi was a bit difficult in those days without formal training.

I should definitely be thankful to Paati for being one of my Maanasika Guru in learning Lalitha Sahasarnamam. When i started to learn i thought, it is going to be difficult than Vishnu Sahasarnamam, however, things changed once i think about how my paati and another family friend of ours used to recite in their own way. You get inspired by a few people in your life for many different things. Paati was one among them for me. Atlast, i myself couldn't believe how i was able to get the hang of it. I thought considering somebody as your Maanasika Guru definitely makes a difference. Kandha Sashti Kavasam was one which she taught sitting with us (me and sister) way back. Thanks for spreading a few good things about what you learnt - Paati.

I can never forget the days when my Paati used to give curd rice with Maavadu to all of us – This includes my cousins as well. Lovely and great moments with her that I can always treasure for the entire life.

There were tough times in her life and she has done so much for the family and relations in the earlier days of her life. Off late, she had problems in the hip and leg as she fell down quite a few times here and there. Inspite of all this hardships, she was strong and never used to express her feelings out. Her patience and tolerance level is impeccable I should say! Admire her for these two wonderful qualities. She has been very strong even in tough times in her life.

Anyways, I felt she was not bedridden and suffer for a long time. Those sufferings are still more worser. When I think all of that, I think god has taken her or rather she has joined my Thatha soon after my Thatha passed away. According to me they both are a few among the blessed souls on the earth.

I must thank my Mother and Perima who have served her offlate for her health conditions. For the past 4.5 years she has not been able to walk properly. All the credits to them for having taking care of her without much snag .

Thatha and Paati – You both are definitely special to me as always. Your memories will always stay with me.

Injustice to Music in a Music Reality Show?

I am writing this post with a dissatisfaction of the happenings in the show – “Airtel Super Singer”. This is one of the Music Reality show for a talent hunt in the playback industry. This show has got a viewership worldwide and liked by most of the people.

One of the toughest, challenging and deserving contestant - Ranjani, inspite of giving fantastic and flawless performance got eliminated because of the less number of votes from the public at the end of first leg of finals. This is the reason they say when the deserving contestant got eliminated. Is it believable? God knows the answer for this! I myself voted thrice for the contestant and as far as I know most of the people I know voted for her fantastic performance. Now, you may wonder why am I getting so much concerned about it. There are a few things in life which may haunt you so much that you cannot stop talking about it. This is one among them.

There are many questions that pops up on my mind-

Are the public so insane to vote for their favorite contestants without even giving importance to the person who gave best performance?
(OR)
Is it…Inspite of voting for the deserving contestant the Vijay TV management has decided not to move her on to the next stage for the reason that she might be one of the toughest contestant for the others in the race?

The difference in number of votes cannot be digested by anyone who knows what is good music. There is nothing like good music or bad music, however, when people are ignoring the real good music in a person, am using these kind of words! If people made the mistake…Please wake up and give respect to good music. Never ignore the real talent. Everybody in this world is not blessed with a good voice and talent in music. Those who are, should never be ignored. If Vijay TV has made the mistake of eliminating her inspite of getting more number of votes, go hang yourself! You have lost a real big talent. You have insulted music in a music reality show. If gimmicks is all you wanted to do, better remember that you may lose viewership! I have already written about the gimmicks in this show in my earlier post. Favoritism is one word that should be the reason if either of them made a mistake – Vijay TV or the public.

Here is a message for the deserving and talented contestant Ranjani who got eliminated in the race –

All that I can say is…You are no doubt a great talent. May music stay with you ever! Never ever care about all these gimmicks played by Vijay TV or the Public - whoever it is! I know you are not…still wanted to convey what I thought. Hard work will definitely be recognized, if not now, some other door will open for you and take my word that would be better than this one. No doubt Vijay TV has given you much exposure, however, they still have lost you in the race. You are what you are and you know what you are capable of! Hats off to the improvements you made in your singing by taking every feedback from the judges in a positive aspect and I must say all these inputs reflected massively in your singing. You became one among the best when you departed. You won many number of hearts when you departed from the show. Nobody else who are still in the race would win these many number of hearts around the world as you did. This is your biggest asset and you now know how many people like and respect your singing.

I must say, your professionalism, determination and confidence will take you places.

Good luck, big success and great days are in store for you dear.

Reality Show and its gimmicks to increase Television Rating Point (TRP)!

A big question which comes to my mind is "Are the reality shows happening for talent hunt or is it to play pranks with people's personal life?" It hurts so much that it happens on a music show!

Here is the situation to which am writing this post:

A and B are contestants in a music show and are the top rated contestants to win the title. Contestant C points his finger to contestant D in one of his performances. The camera is rolling towards another angle to contestants A and B indicating these people are the people whom he is referring to in the song. The camera then rolls to contestant D who responds to the Contestant C with a gesture.

There are many meanings that can be drawn from the above instance. Rolling the camera to selected contestants all the time can draw "n" no. of meanings for a single instance among the public.

The public comes to conclusions in a jiffy without knowing the head and tail of it! Having said this, even if something fishy budding between the contestants it is none of our business to comment about it. It is upto them to deal with it.

All the above crap is something which is out of the box happening in a music show. Let there be discussion about music rather than personal stuff on a musical reality show.

Are the Marketing Managers and PRO's not finding any other way to increase the TRP rating? Or should i say the editor's work has been blindly accepted by the team to telecast the show? Shame on the approach! It proves their inability to do their job effectively. Above all, showing the personal vengeance of the contestant on screen is so immatured and i must say even if the contestants have showed their personal vengeance on screen; one of the wiser approaches could be, to edit those portions. Because of this, Unnecessarily people who are not involved in the matter get involved in it and the internet is such a wide medium of communication that the whole world is talking about it! What do i say about it...Insane people and their insane approach?

The irony here is the reality show becomes a reel show! Please know that they (the organizers)are insulting music by focusing more on the other stuff in a music show than the music itself.

The other major concern is about editing in these kind of shows which entirely changes the perspective of the public. It is so obvious that the editing is not happening properly in these shows. Editing half the portions of what the contestant sang and judges giving comments about the edited part is so insane and it is more concerned with fooling the public! Do they think whatever these people edit and telecast on the TV will be accepted by the public? You might find a way to increase the TRP rating for that moment, however, you may end up in having no viewers at all very soon! Please have this in mind and my humble request is PLEASE DO NOT INSULT MUSIC IN A MUSIC RELATED REALITY SHOW by focusing more on the contestants personal life than music.

Naan Kadavul - Brutal...Yet Commendable!!!

I happened to watch the movie Naan Kadavul directed by Bala yesterday. Here are my thoughts on the movie...

The story revolves around the sufferings of the beggars (mentally challenged people) having been caught under underworld dons hands and on the other hand a life of an Aghori(Sanskrit word) - Meaning Non- Terrifying. They don't attach themselves to anything in this world, remain undisturbed and worship lord Shiva. For this reason, the hero of the film inspite of coming back home is unable to lead a normal life. He is unable to change himself and his life will continue to be the life of an Aghori and not as a normal humanbeing. These Aghoris have this ability to bless or curse a person after his/her death. The Aghori Arya(Hero) goes by the mentally challenged Pooja(Heroine)'s wishes and blesses her with death and no re-birth at the end.

After quite some time i could see a film that is not a usual love story. The story primarily revolves around the mentally challenged people who are made to look even more worser both in their looks and physical abilities by the Underworld Dons so that they can make money out of these people. In short, I would say...What a brave attempt by Director Bala! Has anyone in the film fraternity portrayed the sufferings of these mentally challenged people till date? I am afraid they have not done it! I think, the mentally challenged people in the film are facing the cameras for the first time ever in their life, however, they don't seem so! Kudos and Salutes to the entire team of Mentally challenged people who have acted in the film.

The first positive side of the movie is the justification on characterization. Every character in the movie is justified and has a vital role. The second positive side would be the casting. Most of the faces in the movie are new, yet, commendable performances from every individual who have casted for the first time. The third one would be the storyline - An untold story. Lastly, Maestro Ilayaraja's Music. The negative side of the movie is it should be an Adult only film. Children can better avoid this film. It is a serious and there is this brutal take on the movie which children would not feel comfortable with.

I should mention about Arya and Pooja for their commendable performances in the movie. Pooja deserves a national award especially for the climax scene. The climax is the time when i realized how these mentally challenged people would feel if they get caught amidst of the underworld dons. What a miserable life are they leading? Are the sufferings so bad and brutal? And at last, what a brave and courageous attempt by Bala to bring all this to the limelight. What kind of a human Director Bala would be to have brought all this in his film? I personally feel for any person to take such a film...how adversely it would have affected self? Definitely, it should have been a thought that would have been there in the Director's mind for sometime. I wish Director Bala should be appreciated from all corners of the world for his take on the film. I am sure he would not have worried about the commercial success of the film by taking such a subject. What a daring take I would say? Salutes to you Bala Sir and may you give such quality films in your future projects.

The final appreciation is for Maestro's Ilayaraja's work. Amazing background score for the film. No words to describe about his work. He is a legend and has proved it once again with his music in the film.

Kudos to the entire team of Naan Kadavul. This movie is sure to pour laurels from all walks of life!