[Image - Rajini Fans / Vikatan]

Sujatha is on the hot seat. With AVM announcing Rajini’s next flick Sivaji, the media is already going ga-ga over even a trivia about the movie. Shankar has found an ideal script/dialogue writer with Sujatha to suit his endeavors. It’s truly a favor for Shankar than for Sujatha.

This is Sujatha’s 25th year in writing for cinema. Sujatha was shying away from the invitation to write for cinema until Kamal Hassan and K Balachander forced him in Ninaithaale Inikkum. In his interview to Kunguman on on the account of the silver jubliee year at cinema, Sujatha details on the scripting of Sivaji and concludes that the premise is new, both for Rajini and Shankar. Not just that but he also discloses how scripting is usually done by the kollywood biggies like Mani Ratnam and Kamalhassan. Pretty interesting interview and Sujatha is just too good in adding hype to the already hyped Sivaji.

If you didn’t get to read the offline interview, I’ve uploaded it here, Page 1 & Page 2. Thanks Karthi for passing it across.

Prabhu Venkatramani sends me pictures of Cauvery overflowing inside the town of Srirangam. Seems like after years of not-so-much-rain, this one has really affected the temple city. He also writes in the email that the electricity is non-existent for the last three days and the town has come to a standstill. Thats really bad to know. For more news on the floods, read from dinamalar.

Shucks !! What a deepavali this is turning out to be ?

With hundreds of small villages nearly submerged in water, why are the social work bloggers not starting a Srirangam Flood Relief Blog ? A flood is a flood wherever it happens. Right ?

[Thanks Karthi]

Shankar’s website, Director Shankar has a splash screen that displays the above picture. We are yet to decide if Shankar is legend or not but there is legend standing in the front of camera, called THE BOSS. Know who ?

It’s becoming colder in Seattle. Its raining, windy and pleasantly cold. The kind of iira nilam that one would love to live. They have been telling me that as winter coses it, you would be terrible out of mood, blame it on the absence of sun. But for me it’s becoming the other way. I do enjoy the sun but the cold weather combined with semi-frequent coming of the rains. This evening it was so windy with rain drizzles that I had my spirits uplifted. A different kind of feeling, that for a moment, makes you forget projects, go-lives, status reports, MOMs and what not.

Offlate, I’m voraciously reading and unexpectedly all the books that were in a long library queue are just pouring in. Besides Ashokamitran’s Katuraigal Part 1, I’m having Rusdhie’s Shalimar the Clown on my left hand, Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat on my right hand and a lovely book that I wouldn’t disclose now. I want to certainly write a post on that special book.

Saw SJ Surya’s Ah Aha and namma Surya’s Ghajini. Ah Aha was loud, ugly and a sick movie. I’m planning to protest against Rahman tuning music for this dude. He has literally screwed up all the songs with crass creativity and glaring colors. The wide angle close-up shot is an overkill. The completely unrelated sentiment scenes seems to be targeted the thaaikulams while he was busy exploring the midriff of Nila. Does he think we are a bunch of idiots, watching his movie ? Ellyei !!

Satyaraj’s Englishkaran is one good movie in the recent times with some common sense. It’s typically a late 80’s flick with a storyline that we have seen a million times, Satyaraj’s satirical comedy rocks. If you can mock at the several happenings of Kollywood and Tamil Nadu politics, with a rehashed storyline, you could cast Satyaraj and make it into a hit, like this. Though we have seen similar movies from Satyaraj, watching truly crappy films from kollywood this year, this was a good time pass. The voluptuous Namitha portrayed as an athlete and she actually runs 100 meters in a tar road before she dies of the kollywood classic poison, arali vedhai. Though I’m not for this nuisance, I’m holding from cursing too much as Namitha Fans Association might actually protest to burn printouts of lazygeek.net. I ain’t ready for all that !!

With all the storm blowing between the Kings of Bangalore, it’s time for the Amma of Tamil Nadu to reach out and woo Infosys into Tamil Nadu. 500 acres near the ECR at government ‘rates’ would be enough to make Infosys shift headquaters to Chennai. We lost it once before, not anymore. Come on, Time to get Bangalored Chennaied !!

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Watching K Balachander’s Nizhal Nijamakirathu, few things cleared up. One - this is one of those movies that truly exploited Kamal’s bharathanatyam talent. Two - We probably miss natural talents like Hanumanthu and Mouli in Kollywood, these days. Three - Other than the dancing part, Kamal smokes in every damn scene.

Offlate, I’ve been watching KB movies in a row. It all started with Jaathi Malli. I have questions on why Balachander directed the movie in the first place.. The movie sucked in very other aspect except for the interesting MadanBob /Dhamu sequences and Maragadamani’s music. Then it was Kamal’s Manmadaleelai, which was a mediocre effort by KB and Kamal, keeping in mind the classy films they were delivering at that time.

The storyline seems cliched now but in yesteryears it must have been a decently interesting one. More than the rape you-marry you story, it was the cast ensemble that elevated the pleasure of watching this flick. It had Kamal as a smoking communist with intelligent dialogues just like Sujatha’s protagonist. Sarathbabu playing as usual, the sucker friend. Sumitra as the feminist and the classy Shoba playing her debut as a rich-dreams-poor-girl. These four characters alongwith Hanumanthu, Mouli and Oru veral Krishnarao make the entire movie cast. Its truly KB’s talent to blend these characters in a fashion that makes the movie interesting.

Hanumanthu is a gem of an actor. Natural talent. Not a single shot he seemed to ‘act’. The expression, body language and dialogue delivery was just perfect. I’ve seen him in other Mouli ’s films but this was probably his finest performance. I’ve heard people talk about him but I’m not sure he was regarded as a classy actor in his time.

Though the entire film looks just like a stage drama, it was fun to watch Kamal play a semi-baddy. Kamal’s characterisation reminded me of Prashant ‘reverse-talking’ role in Agathiyan’s Kaathal Kavithai. If you could grab you hands on the video, you are certainly not wasting your time.

Vaanam Kidu-kidunga Bhoomi Nadu-nadunga
Ezhunthu Aadalaam Thozha
Dhegam Thudithudikka Ratham Analadikka
Vetri Suudalaam Vaada
Saga !! Kaalai Vizhithu Maalai Urangum
Vazhkayai Marappom Vaa
Saga !! Naetru Naalai Kavalai Marandhu
Indrai Mattum Rasippom Vaa !!

Cisco Systems® and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, announced today that they will collaborate to support India’s National E-Governance Plan. Cisco will also support Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) telecom network evolution by establishing Asia Pacific’s first IP Next Generation Network (NGN) Lab for BSNL in Chennai. To support these two initiatives, Cisco will invest a combined US $10 million.

Why wouldn’t one be happy about that deal. After all, India’s endeavors to go beyond the markets of Shanghai, just got renewed. I am specially happy about the first IP Next Generation Network going to be setup at Chennai. That was just enough reason to make a blog post. As Om Malik states, With that one giant poker chip, the company has shifted the focus from India as outsourcer to India as an innovator. It is also a realization that India is a big market, perhaps not as big as China, but equally lucrative in the long run.

Why would no one lure Universal Studios to invest a $500 million dollars in Kollywood. Wouldn’t that be so cool ?

And I ran, ran and ran. Haven’t done something like this in the last few years. Per my self-assumed nick goes, I was always lazy enough to run on the treadmill. Even those wacky-techno-gizmos called walkman, CD player and mp3 player could only inspire me just a lil’ bit. Last week, I was thinking about a blogpost to gather suggestions on Tamil songs for the Tread Mill. After all how many times could I listen to just Humma Humma, Uyirin Uyirey or the ultra cool Illamai Idho Idho.

While in college, I was a big fan of rock and heavy metal music. Even now, I would listen to it on any offbeat day but not regularly, like those college years(even before brushing teeth). Looking for a change, I banged my MP3 player with a dose of Metallica, a pinch of Judas Priest, one teaspoon of Megadeath and a big chunk of Iron Maiden sprinkled with Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. What a suprise. I was running nonstop for more than 25 minutes. Spoiling my ears with those electric guitars and bass drummers, I was trying to help myself with the work-out. Phew !! What an irony.

If you don’t believe, do it for yourself, listen to Metallica’s ST.Anger, Iron Maiden’s Can I pay with madness and Judas Priest’s Metal Meltdown, see your mood getting relaxed. I have a dozen of Black Sabbath and Led Zep music for tomorrow. BTW, I still don’t have a fresh list of Tamil songs for the tread mill. Any suggestions would help the fellow lazy’s hanging out here !!

Prolific Tamil Writer Sundara Ramaswamy passed away last week. See blogposts on Tamil blogs by Badri, Venkat amd Boston Balaji. More than his famous JJ Sila Kuripugal, I enjoyed Oru Puliyamarathin Kathai just for its sheer usage of the sweet Thirunelvelli Thamizh. I had to read JJ Sila Kuripugal twice, to get understand it completely. His contribution to the smal magazines, by being the publisher of Kalachuvadu is a huge service to tamil literature. If interested, do check out some books by Sundara Ramaswamy .

Blogger Arun Vaidhyanathan’s short film Thaniyoru Manidhanukku gets selected to IAAC Film Festival in Indian Independent & Diaspora Films section. Do send an email to Arun and he would provide info about the screening. Good Luck, Arun !!

Desikan had pointed to two amazing columns written by Ashokamitran and Raa Ki Rangarajan. While Ashokamitran’s anecdote was short sweet and made me feel a little sad, Raa Ki’s wish made me feel guilty.

Praveen has a nakkal review on Ghajini here. A commenter Bijoy Bharathan on Hemanth’s blog leaves a list of inspirations for Ghajini[Scroll down to read his comment]. Even if we may not accept to his views, his scene comparisons to hollywood films seems almost right.

Sri Hari gets to watch Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday. I am totally envious of him because of the ban and the hype that surrounds it.

Did you read the humongous book called The Suitable Boy. Then you are to like Vikram Seth and his interview to Outlook. After a long long time, he is back with a book called Two Lives which he says was from a story line that his mom told. Seems like a semi-biographical book on his Uncle and Aunt. Why is Aamir Khan excited about Vikram’s latest book ?

Meet SJ Surya - The Sultan of Sleaze !!

Finally, how did I miss it. Belated Happy Birthday Babe !! Enna b’day gift from AnbuChelvan?