Maestro Ilayaraja and A. R. Rahman on Padma Bhushan

The Padma Awards 2010 have been announced and three living legends from Tamil Nadu - Mr. Ilayaraja (Padma Bhushan) and Mr. A. R. Rahman (Padma Bhushan) and Mridangam Maestro Umayalapuram Mr. K. Sivaraman (Padma Vibhushan) bags the same all in the Category of Arts. Congratulations to all who have won.

The reason for this post is, I read and heard the press statement of Mr. A. R. Rahman and a video clip of Mr. Ilayaraja on their take on receiving one of the country's prestigious Awards. Mr. Ilayaraja expressed his happiness and when asked about Mr. A. R. Rahman getting the same he says "If he gets the award it is for him" and because he said this statement, he had to continue saying the same for other people. What is he going to lose if he says he is happy about everybody getting the award? I respect both Mr. Ilayaraja and Mr. A. R. Rahman for their music. I am definitely one of those Mr. Ilayaraja's Fanatic. My respect for him as a person goes off with his attitude on appreciating others. A person who is much younger but great in stature is able to appreciate whole heartedly that he is happy about Mr.Ilayaraja winning the Padma Award. I am not able to understand why can't Mr. Ilayaraja say this one word that he feels HAPPY about it!

I am still a fanatic of Mr. Ilayaraja for his music, however, as a person i am quite disappointed by his attitude! This is just my opinion and ofcourse who cares about my opinion on Mr.Ilayaraja:-(

A word of appreciation could mean a lot to an individual. Leave this case of Mr.Ilayaraja not appreciating Mr. Rahman, in our own lives, if you are appreciated for something that you deserve you feel happy about it and that definitely instigates you to do more good work.

Be verbal in acknowledging your appreciation
- Catherine Pulsifer (One of the authors of A Simple Life - Inspirational quotes)

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.