For a change, cardboard Krishna jumped into my carpeted house from the balcony, this time. And I got to eat lotsa seedais. However, missed Sun TV playing Kettathum Kodupavaney[Deiva Magan] and Ullathil Nalla Ullam[Karnan], numerous times on a Krishna Jayanthi.

Hindu Temple and Cultural Center at Bothell.

Hemanth is currently visiting Seattle and having a nice time with movies / bad time without his Mac. We met over lunch yesterday and had fun time discussing Madras stuff and ofcourse a little bit of cinema. Incidentally, we found ourselves, that we both worked/work/will work for the same company back at chennai and here too.

After a naan filled lunch, we decided to walk back and started talking about cinemas and the famous Grand theatre at Anna Nagar. Hemanth is hanging out in Seattle for sometime and hopefully we will get to meet often to catch-up. I am not going to allow him to escape without talking about our respective blogs.

Read Hemanth’s interesting account on we stumbled against each other.

Travelling through the bus gets interesting day by day. The gentleman beside me was sitting with small cardboard in his hand. It read,”Bush lied about Iraq. Impeach him”. He seemed like a normal corporate man who is returning from office to his home. He was holding the cardboard in his hand while waiting for bus and then kept it inside the bag while travelling in the bus.

Now, without getting into any US political details, of which I’m proud to be oblivious of, if we could have a totally unassuming common man in India showing such a harmless protest and get back home safe, I would agree we have freedom of speech/expression. Not that I’m blaming the homeland, rather dreaming that even if one were to hold a placard like that he shouldn’t fear the autorickshaws lined-up in front of his house, the next morning.

As for the remuneration, Rajnikant’s formula is a combination of a fee plus a share in profits, it is learnt. In that respect, he reportedly took home anywhere between Rs 15 cr to Rs 20 cr. That has already made him the top earner among stars, not only in India, but also Asia, next only to Jackie Chan.

And he is now said to have worked out a 50:50 profit sharing formula with AVM Productions for Sivaji. That is sure to increase his earning potential to anywhere between Rs 20 cr and Rs 25 cr and catapult him even higher.

I’m going bonker bonks. 25 cr for just one movie is one hell of a money for an actor. Never seen that before in the history of Indian cinema. The tax officials would be witing to get to the source of this article, Can U solve Rajnikant’s biz formula? from ET.

Meanwhile Karthi mails me with a Kumudam reporter ‘report’ that Sivaji storyline might be a case of 7 look-alikes. Rajini seems to have heard a story during his childhood and goes in search of the rest 6 people who look-alike him. With Kamal’s Dasavatharam news adding 10 roles of Kamal we might get to see 7 Rajinis and 10 Kamals. Get ready for sore eyes.

He said, “Now, go over to the curb and leave your car in an unmanned position”. A brain wave stuck, Oh !! this is the uphill stuff. I parked the car with the tyres in the uphill position. Pulled my hand brakes and said, “I’m done”. He said,” Downhill now”. I did the downhill stuff.

After I came back to the licensing office he said, ” You are a great driver. Too good for someone on a driving test. Just that you misplaced uphill as downhill and downhill as uphill. Take the test again. Better luck next time”.

Kavuthutaangappa Kavuthutaanga !!

[Thanks - The Madras Day]

It’s ironical that ‘Chennai’ is celebrating Madras Day today. More ironically it completes a year of years. Don’t worry to calculate it is the 365th year[ending] since it was founded in 1639.

It was on that day, in that year, that a sliver of land, where the Fort. St. George and the secretariat now exist in Madras – now called Chennai, was sold to the East India Company.

The deal was struck by Francis Day, his ‘dubash’ Beri Thimmappa, and their superior, Andrew Cogan, with the local Nayaks.

It is believed that this deal was made on this day and these three men are considered to be the founders of this city.

The city has been witness to many firsts in India and been home to great men, institutions and developments. And such a day should focus on the city, its history, its past and its present.

I can never say I’m frantically attached to Chennai/Madras. It’s much more to that. Like others who love Madras, I’ve just love my home town. It’s the most lovable place in the world. I’ve been badly missing Chennai for sometime now and it was only last week, I was intending to ramble here on that. I was planning to list down the things that I miss in Madras. One of the prominent things is the cofee, the crowd and ofcourse the Marghazhi Kutcheri. Even today, while driving back, I was listening to Sanjay Subramaniam and felt so nostalgic. And as the festival season fast approaches the crowd on T.Nagar, the diwali shopping and above all that the friends and folks out there. Anyway let this not end as a crib.

The 365th Madras Day celebrations began last year. A meeting was also held at Amethyst where I rightfully missed to meet Rushdie and ofcourse Padma. More to that Ramnath did say that I missed a lovely lecture by S. Muthiah on Madras aka Chennai. I still repent for that when I read a Rushdie‘s book.

Whoever says, I love Madras, raise your hands !! Here’s mine.

I called home today and here is what happened -

Appa – News theriyuma, AVM Rajini Shankar sendhu padam panndraangalaam.
Me – Oh !! theriumpaa. Inikku karthaalaye therium.
Appa – Padam peru Sivaji.
Me – Ennathu ? Sivaji-ya.
Appa – Sivaji [ganesan] oda first padam Parasakthi eduthathu AVM thaan. Athanaala Sivaji nyabhakarthama vechutaanga.
Me – Yaaru sonaanga ? Chumma kathai vidathapa.
Appa – Dina thanthi-la pottirukaan.
Me – Appidiya. Iru naan online-la pakaraen.
Appa – Athanaala Sivaji nyabhakarthama vechutaanga. Sivaji nyabhakarthama vechutaanga.

He repeated Athanaala Sivaji nyabhakarthama vechutaanga more than thrice. He is a long-time die-hard Sivaji fan. Me a die-hard Rajini fan. This is yet another point where we both agree on a same thing with regards to movies. Not that I hate Sivaji still I belong to the Rajini generation. He was so happy for Chandramukhi crossing 100 days with 50 crores. That was because Sivaji Films produced it.

Daily Thanthi adds to the gossip that Rajini/Shankar/AVM movie is named Sivaji. Seems like its named as a tribute to Sivaji as AVM produced Sivaji’s first movie Parasakthi. It would be silly if I highlight that Rajini is a Sivaji himself. Sivajikkey Sivajiya !!

Link via the meticulous daily thanthi / deccan chronicle/ hindu reader Appa.

The titans of Tamil film industry- superstar Rajnikanth and top director Shankar are coming together in a film to be produced by AVM, one of the oldest banners in Tamil.

This will be the biggest ever film made in South India and the deal was cemented today. Shankar has started work on the script of the film which will be released next year.

Too many things to happen on a same day is just too much to handle. Talk about handling Memento’s screenplay.

This news seems to be as interesting as Kamal’s Dasavatharam. So what’s the name. Intially this was a P.S to the previous post and when I caught this on Sify, I think the rumor is getting to be true.

I am one of those who think, Rajini missing Shankar’s Muthalvan is one of the biggest sins he commited during his acting career. Now the sin will be excused.

As a part of the deal, Ravi will also produce another film with Kamal Hassan titled, Dasavatharam to be directed by K.S.Ravikumar. In this rip-roaring satire, Kamal will play 10 roles something similar to what Sivaji Ganesan did in that classic Navarathri.

Some of the characters that Kamal will play are George Bush, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussain and a few other characters which is a closely guarded secret.

Dasavatharam is said to be the most hilarious script in recent times. Kamal and Ravikumar combination is sure to make it a sparkling entertainer. The film will release for 2006 summer.

Read more from Sify.

Seems exciting to me. How about Crazy or Sujatha for the dialogues ? These are the types of films Kamal should be playing for the rest of his acting career. Am expecting for more information on the actual Dasavatharams he will be playing. Any believable wild guesses on the roles ??

Thanks Praveen for the link.

P.S Prabhu K mails in with a hot news subject. Seems like Sun News has a news item on the next movie of Rajinikanth to be directed by Shankar and produced by AVM. Seems fishy to me but I can’t stop that little chuckle in my face. Devuda Devuda Rumor Rumor Devuda !!

[Pic - Vikatan.com]

Praveen in the comments section of a post rambled that going by the promos, Gajini could well be a rehash of Memento. Seems to be true. To add myself a lil bit of credit, I did think of it initially, when I glimpsed the mottai Surya but never believed completely. Murugadoss’ interview to Hindu nearly confirms it.

It is about a man who has this unusual problem — 15-minute amnesia. Some very interesting things happen in that short period of time. I have done a fight staying in the water for nearly 24 hours,” Surya added.

Honestly Memento isn’t one of my favorites. I love movies with a smart screenplay rather than a good storyline. I did like Memento but I think Christopher Nolan just went over the head with that screenplay stuff. It was mind-blowing. Accepted. But was just too much for someone to handle.

Oru Urula Oru Raja Kumari, a Bhaghyaraj movie failed only because the many twists in screenplay was just too much for the audience to handle. Kadhala Kadhala failed because there was just too much happening in the screenplay that an unassuming audience could grasp, while laughing to the wits. Memento could possibly be classified in that over-the-top genre. However Gajini aka Memento[if it would be] would be a huge step forward for tamil population.

I was hoping that Gajini would have an authentic story line. Murugadoss just disappointed me. I would be happy if Gajini just borrows just the screenplay trick of Memento and has an independently built storyline to feed it. I hope !!

Sudhish is more of a blogger than a mainstream journo. I love to have him in our camp. His review of Mangal Pandey in today’s edition of Hindu is one of the better reviews of recent times, going by Hindu’s review standards. You have to read his blog review , The Balls of Mangal Pandey and come back to read his Hindu review, The canvas is not complete. The content of the review hasn’t changed much. The words have. If you do a compare and contrast you know the limitations of a mainstream media journalist.

But the way Hindu’s reviews reveal half the plot in their review, the rest half is however very predictable by any short term tamil movie audience. I remember S.Ve Shekar’s wit in one his stage plays, “Enna Avasaram. Theatre’la Padam pottuta podattum. Tamizh padam thaney… Engendhu Paathaalum puriyum“. Though there is no story as such that someone can reveal in a movie like Mangal Pandey, his review today is certainly a good offshoot from the regular ‘boring’ stuff. Sudhish, Way to go !!

BTW, Sudhish did say that the movie had a four-year wait. Maybe he just doubled the wait time. It was not even 2 years back, Prince was here to kick-start the movie. Thats just for my urge to nitpick.

As soon as blogger announces the import of posts from other blogging tools option, I’m moving the blog here or back to it’s own place. Whatever be it, the templates are now changed and ready to take over.

I’ve sent a couple of mails to blogger team asking for the release dates. No answers as of yet. Seems like it is their feature request No.1.

Rumors were also abuzz that the actor has decided to revive his dream project Marudhanayakam and hence he had a meeting with Karunanidhi to discuss about the storyline and script.

Since Kamal wanted to come out with a book of his own poems, he had called on the latter and read out few lines to him and also urged him to take part in a function to be held later to release the collection of poems.

– More from India Glitz

For a minute, I thought the rumor of reviving Marudhanayagam was true. Yet, its a sweet news. A book by Kamal Hassan was set to be released even during Ananthu‘s days. It was never released.

Finally, I think he has decided that tamil folks can read his writings. Though we have already read his screenplay of Hey Ram and also the shortstory[Aalavanthan was based on this shortstory] that was published in Kumudam, a couple of years back, this full fledged collection of poems would be magnum opus for Kamal’s fans.

** There are no spoilers here or in any other review of Mangal Pandey. Whats written below as story is just history. So cool off and read ahead even if you haven’t seen the movie.**

Either they exaggerated a dude called Mangal Pandey, in my high school history textbooks or they just minisculed a great warrior in Ketan’s Mehta’s flick. Mangal Pandey falls short in every other area and gets sandwiched between classifications of mainstream masala flick and a artistic period movie. Rahman and Ketan Mehta fighting to walk away as weakest link of the movie title alongwith a host of other technical crew who have supported them in pulling down a movie of high expectations.

Or the whole of previous paragraph is an outcome of the arm chair critic in me, trying too hard in stopping me from enjoying this typical masala movie. Whichever be the answer, without Aamir Khan the movie wouldn’t have even deserved a mention. And we know that a fort called Aamir Khan can carry the weight of a movie effortlessly.

I’m surprised how the movie which was called The Rising throughout the production of the movie suddenly became to called as Mangal Pandey – The Rising. That’s probably when Ketan Mehta clearly saw he wasn’t making a movie on The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. He was just trying to document the history of a warrior called Mangal Pandey whose death triggered the Sepoy Mutiny. It was a personal account of Sepoy Mutiny’s trigger from the view of the man who kick started it with a handful of gunpowder and infinite dhill.

I completely upset not even by the movie but by A R Rahman’s background score. Nearly non-existing. While some songs were great to listen, they were not-so-well-picturised. Himman Dammija’s camera angles didn’t bring in the required grandeur. You might have to search for sensational sequences and be happy if you find a couple of them along the way.

With the Brits talking hindi more fluently that they wouldn’t have problem in repeating, Ek Ghaav Mein Ek Kisan Rahta Tha, like many southies. I have to admit the movie wasn’t boring at all. The screenplay was clean, the characterization however lacked depth. It had a potpourri of sentiments that a typical Indian movie need to be successful. From the mangal sutra, friendship, betrayal, romance and even a item number. If only it wasn’t called Mangal Pandey, I would have enjoyed it more. The yearning to enjoy a patriotic hero’s history stopped all that. Who’s to be blamed for that. Me, who drove 10 miles to watch it or someone who made it over the last few years.

A huge bunch of deceived souls eagerly await the next patriotic experiment. Why shouldn’t it be him ?