Was Tamil cinema slowly reaching up to international standards set by Hollywood, asked a scribe. “No,” he said. “Maybe our cinematography and sound are world class today but in the screenplay department, we have progressed only just a little since the silent era. It is unbelievable that the land that produced Kamba Ramayanam cannot produce scripts. We have lost the art.”

This is probably the biggest truth of our Kollywood. I agree with every inch of this comment. Many film buffs would agree too. The dude who quoted this was a film buff himself. Guess ??

P.S If you had read the original interview where it was quoted, I would request you to restrain from giving out the answer. Guessing is so much fun.

Update No points for guessing it right. As many guessed it was none other than Kamal. Here’s the link to the mentioned interview. The most odd guess was Sarath Kumar and Cheran(?!) made by Cocoa. I assume he/she was mocking at this whole post by making a guess like that.

BTW, the musical show that Kamal was mentioning in that interview was Banyan’s Netru Indru Nalai. It was actually planned to be executed last year and was washed out due to rain. Sudhish says its back with a bang. Flashback 2002 - Netru Indru Naalai.

Even if Sri Thyaga Brahmam is upset about me, misusing his world reknown pancharatna kirti, I’m cool but I have to say this. Watching the broadcast of Jaya TV’s Thygaraja Ardhanai Vizha, which was performed in Chennai, was a MahaAnubhava. The true meaning of Endaro Mahanubhavulu Andariki Vandanamulu is, there are many great men and to all my salutations.

On an unassuming sunday morning, I clicked on the archives of Jaya TV[through NUM TV] to find a 2 hour program broadcasted few days back and it read Thyagaraja Aradhanai Vizha. All along I was thinking that the customary Thiruvaiyaaru program was only awarded to Doordarshan. As I expected it turned out to be a program sponsored by Jaya TV in Chennai. It looked like Narda Gana Sabha, where it was performed. For a distanced soul like me, this was by itself a mahanubhava though it didn’t evoke the emotion a yearly broadcast of Thiruvaiyaaru program would.

For starters, Thiruvaiyaaru Thyagaraja Aradhanai Vizha happens in Thiruvaiyaaru where Thyagaraja attained samadhi. Its the kind of function, you would expect to watch it live. Its all about the best carnatic artists of country, coming together and sing along that could give goosebumps.

Jaya TV’s Thyagaraja Aradhanai Vizha seems to be a big hit. The hall was surprisingly full with people sitting on walking spaces. It sure didn’t have all the best carnatic artists but the ensemble was very good. They sang nothing but pancharatna kirtis. Starting from the auspicious Sethulara, the five kirtis followed like gems. Though all of them are the best of keerthanais, my personal favorites are Jagadhananda and Endaro Mahanubhaulu.

Some noted artists who performed in the show were Thavil Maestro A K Palanivel, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, N Ramani, Bombay Sisters, Sowmya, Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Rajkumar Bharathi(as in Bharathiyaar) and Priya Sisters (with ‘kannai parichidum‘ fluorescent green saree). Umayalpuram Sivaraman is one of personal favorites in mridangam. Such a graceful player of the instrument that he makes you drool over an mridangam. Just like how Vikku Vinayakram make me yearn to be a gadam player.

If you wanted to read about what happened in Thiruvaiyaaru this year, Samanth Subramanian has a wonderful column on the festival named, The music man. A must read.

I love Milk Bikis. Yeah, It sounds like a naive statement but I love eating Milk Bikis. Ask my family and they would sing my childhood adventures with Milk Bikis.

This post isn’t a Milk Bikis reminiscent. This is a much serious(!!) observation that I had over a period of time. Has anyone noted this or is it just me. I find South Indians going crazy over Brittania’s Milk Bikis while the northies love Parle-G. Donno if it’s just due to the logistics issue of the goods or has it something got to do with the taste.

Not that I don’t like Parle-G. Its actually tastier than Milk Bikis when I don’t get to eat Milk Bikis. Sitting in Seattle, the only option is to eat the mini Parle-G [sold 4 packs/dollar].

And yeah I love biscuits. The critics of this blog [who term this as the Worst Popular Indian Blog] can now go and call this as the Blog of a Koyindey Payyan. Infact I should be thankful for that written word for after all namma ellam etcetera thaaney, maamu !!.

As everyone churns a review or two (!!) of Rang De Basanti, why should I be sitting idle. If not for Basanti, there is always a favorite dish, Basundhi. A quick search on Google for Basundhi, gets us to this page which lets out the recipe for Basundhi. And yeah, I love Saravana Bhavan’s Basundhi.

Jokes apart, the desi blogosphere seems to be bursting with action on writing reviews for Aamir/Rahman’s latest flick Rang De Basanti. Even folks who were in out-of-action, seem to have come out of the clout. I notice the blogosphere going ga-ga over RDB over the weekend and before I could put them in words, Anti wrote a neat piece on this recent love. This is what Anti had to say -

Rang De Basanti seems to have captured the attention of the desi blogosphere and the Indian media like nothing else before it. Oh wait, a small correction. Before RDB, there was IIPM. But as Jerry would quip, not that there is anything wrong with it. At last notice, a simple search on Blogger Search for “Rang De Basanti” turns up 2,234 posts while a similar search on Technorati returns 1,257 results. In fact, Rang De Basanti has been in the top 15 list of searches on Technorati for the last couple of days and is in the top 10 currently.

People are excessively using internet to get a feel of the movie before they go for it, I would assume. Even if 50% of these searches were by people who wanted to make a decision on RDB before they spend time and money on it, blogs have won hands down. Back in early 2002, when I started to know this thingy called blogs, I never imagined that blogs could be put to use in such a way. Except a handful of badly written sites, there wasn’t much of internet concentrating on this arena. Now with such facts, the Indian Film Industry should turn towards blogs for promoting or taking note of short comings.

This hasn’t happened yet to tamil movies. Sometimes, I have seen sharp spike on stats as people trying to reach this blog during a movie release. But there aren’t many who write about tamil movies on blogosphere. And even if they do, they write as bad as me or they are just trying to make a satirical post to showcase their ‘engpilish’. There is plenty of space for good tamil movie reviews in blogosphere. Just Plenty.

The girl sitting opposite to me was reading a book. This was in the bus, during my morning commute to office. The book looked like a pulp fiction paperback. As the bus approached Downtown Seattle, she suddenly turned to last page of the book and continued reading from there. She was approximately in the middle of the book before took this wild jump to the last page.

She completed the last page, read the blurb in the back of the book and got down from the bus. Donno how much fun it was to do that ?

[Click to enlarge]

Aranmanai Siruvayalil is a play sponsored by Seattle Tamil Sangam on the account of Pongal celebrations at Seattle. Though Pongal completed a week back, on Sunday Jan 29th, this play will be staged in Sammamish High School, where the Gujus play Dandia during Dussehra.

Incidentally there are two bloggers out here, who are playing a role in this play. A long time blogger Swami and his wife Lakshmi are the bloggers who are playing play roles in Aranmanai Siruvayalil. Both of them have prior experience in stage plays, given their experience in staging S. Ve. Shekar’s Thattupillai, and acting alongwith him. If you are around Seattle, do take a spin.

I’m going nuts over NPR. National Public Radio as its alternatively called, NPR is one of the finest resource of un-biased news, told in the most interesting way. Though I was aware that such a thing exists, its only a couple of months back I discovered the profoundness of news stories in NPR.

One of the programs that I get to listen everyday is The Market Place, produced by the American Public Media. The core team of Market Place team is currently visiting China and for the last couple of weeks they have been reporting on the Chinese market culture. Though I have read at least one book on Chinese Market and its culture, these reports that come-in through Market Place team has provided some fine insight into Chinese market behavior and prevailing situation in their market. It’s a treasure. And I loved every inch of it.

If you live somewhere in the USA, NPR is a must-listen. And its probably the only news source thats enough to keep you ahead without causing an information overload. This blog alongwith other numerous blogs and news sites, is adding to the information overload on every single individual reading it.

Ezhai Dhinam Dhinam Sirikanum
Oru Pidi Soru, Avanukku Kidaikanum
Maayam Vilakanum
Arasiyal Saayam Velukanum

Medai Pechum
Vaarthai Veechum Enn !!
Theemai Engey
Thedi theerpom Vaa !!

Sathyaa. One of those rare films, dropped by the us(Tamilians), in the box-office. How crazy can we get ? From Sathyaa to Mahanadhi to Hey Ram to Anbe Sivam, we owe Kamal Hassan more than what we can comprehend.

Raja Sen writes an amazing ode to the copycats, especially to Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay known for shot-by-shot unauthorized remake of hollywood films in Hindi, is on the hot seat. His recent flick, Zinda seems to be an outright rip-off from famous Korean flick, Oldboy.

I read about Oldboy on Hemanth’s Instant Kaapi. Someone had commented there about Sanjay Gupta re-making Oldboy as Zinda. Seems like this has come to the limelight, finally. Even if Sanjay Gupta originally concieves a film, the next time, people would be trying hard to find a similar match from the hollywood world.

This one is a well rounded column. A must read. From the column, Why I won’t watch Zinda[Via - Sunny] -

Cinema belongs to no one, Mr Gupta, and when we watch a film that excites us, we want to share. There is a school of thought which actually says that you are being altruistic, by remaking films most Indians have never seen, and ‘bringing them good cinema.’ I disagree vehemently. When Tarantino is thrilled by something like Iron Monkey, he doesn’t make a version of it himself, he just makes sure enough people in the US know about it when he re-releases it.

It would be incredible if you pioneered such efforts here in India, ensuring people get to see quirky, incredible, violent, earth-shattering films in theatres, instead of just the standard Hollywood popcorn fare. Get Sanju to redub them in his groovy voice, have rocking press-conferences, talk about why the movie is so special. Fans will freak out. I’ll wear a ‘Sanjay Gupta Rocks’ t-shirt, I swear.

[Source - Madras Talkies. Via - Brijesh]

There is this relatively old rumor[a month old] that Mani Ratnam’s latest flick will be a Bollywood film with Aamir Khan.

Few days back, they let the cat more or less out of the bag that Mani is looking to direct another bollywood flick with Abhishek, Aish and ‘Parineeta’ Vidya Balan.

So what’s the movie name? GURU. Yeah, more or less[in Times of India tone], its Guru. Is that why my collar seems to be perpetually raised, since then ?

P.S - Its a surprise to see the image of Mani Ratnam on Madras Talkies site. Its probably the first time, I see Mani indulging in such a self-promotion. Either Yuva must be spotted in some recent film festival or, I’m guessing, some webmaster who is an ardent fan like Guru[yeah, this is me] put up Mani’s photo on the homepage.

Mr.Mani , If you are reading this, can you ask that webmaster to send me a bigger image with better resolution. I need an image like this to be hosted at maniratnamfilms.com.