Here are the rules. Here’s the car. Guess.

Previous Kollywood Cars.

You know the rules. Here’s the car. And now, guess.

Previous Kollywood Cars.

Mugathai Eppothum Moodi Vaikaathey from Thottal Poo Malarum is cool number composed by Yuvan and fabulously rendered by Haricharan[Unakena Iruppen fame]. Except for the bad bad video this is a very loopable number.

Forgive the juvenile & cheesy lyrics. Play the song and close your eyes. Enjoy !!

Mani Ratnam should certainly be taxed for this. It has been my long time grouse on this song and the way it was made. While Andha Arabic Kadaloram isn’t certainly crappy as per Tamil cinema standards, I still think Mani Ratnam didn’t do justice to Rahman’s original number.

We all agree, that there was a good lead to the song, with Arvind Swamy and his beloved wife Manisha, kind-of spending their first time together in an apt after their marriage. As Arvind Swamy starts the heat, Manisha is still artificially shy, from the touch of her husband.

I think that’s a brilliant lead for a music composer and even the director to insert a song(yes, Indian cinema still believes in inserting songs and not making songs happen naturally). As the edit happens from the closed apt to an open location, it transforms smoothly with the shot of Sonali Bendre being unveiled from a translucent silky cloth and Nagendra Prasad shaking his head in a slow-kinda-motion.

Until that very second when Manisha loosens herself and starts to make some silly dance movements, the song sort of wades through easily. Right after this, the shots gets distributed irregularly between the actual dance situation and the apartment. All of a sudden, we see the odd smoke from the room when Arvind Swamy starts to dance, taking away the thrill of that pleasant moment.

Right at the end, when the notes increase to the next level, you see all that flames in front of the camera. What was Mani thinking ?

Even before I saw this song on screen, I was so impressed by the song and was imagining a different picturisation of this song. Probably my expectations weren’t met. I spoke to the Manager of Madras Talkies during the release and he echoed the same thought that the song didn’t come out as expected. They wanted Nagendra Prasad to slim down before the shoot and that didn’t happen. There was also news in the media that Rahman wasn’t so happy about the picturisation of the song, given his effort. Not just in composing but he lent his own voice to the song.

Overall a pretty shabby effort from one of the best directors of Indian Cinema. Not just shabby, it just spoiled a great number of Rahman’s early days. I wish Mani Ratnam reshot the whole song for his future movies.

Trivia : During the initial release of the music album of Bombay, the random rap bits of Rahman like Shighana Pagana Pagana tho tho weren’t included in the song and it was certainly a surprise to see it on screen. Just before 200th day of Bombay in select theatres, the second version of music album was released which had these rap bits and two extra bit songs, Malarodu Malar and Idhu Annai Bhoomi.

While I’m aware of the limitations that come along with Rajini in dance sequences, I still think Shankar didn’t do a good job in picturizing this peppy tune of Rahman. Not just that but Rahman lent his voice for this cool number and it had zero creativity.

While listening to this number on the earphone, I particularly enjoy Rahman modulation while he sings,”Naan Naan Naan Superman Thaan” line. Unfortunately, it wasn’t used too well in the movie. Shankar would have been better off making a complete animated song(ofcourse there is this new found graphics studio by Aishwarya which can be profited) transorming Rajini from Billa / Ranga / Baasha to Superman and Spiderman. Would have proved to be a great curtain raiser to Rajini’s Sultan. Something that Kamalhassan tried briefly in Aalavandhaan.

Instead of doing something like that, Shankar and team resorted to doing silly gimmicks with the gun, which Shankar himself had earlier experimented in Mukkala Muqabla song. Pathetic.

Just when I typed Aalavandhaan, I realized this was a Rajini blogpost, following a Kamal one. And this sequence of Rajini blogpost following a Kamal one or viceversa has been happening on this blog for quite sometime. And honestly, sathiyama, I didn’t realize it until now. Man, there seems to be a ghost residing in this blog. Run…..

Outsiders to Indian Films are astonished at the number of group artists used in songs, dances and stunts. That is something, even we are unable to comprehend ourselves.

If you are watch Tamil film songs/stunts closely, here’s a simpe one for you, Find the song/movie of this picture.

Thanks KV Anand for the ‘splendid’ picturisation, especially with all the ‘Poliz’.

From wikipedia –

A montage sequence is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots is edited into a sequence to condense narrative. It is usually used to advance the story as a whole (often to suggest the passage of time), rather than to create symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory. In many cases, a song plays in the background to enhance the mood or reinforce the message being conveyed.

I guess this part of the Wiki entry was written by an Indian – a song plays in the background to enhance the mood or reinforce the message being conveyed. That’s typical bollywood style stuff.

And we have all seen montages before we even realized it as one. An easy example of montage would be Rajinikanth’s transformation from the milkman to a Five Star Hotel owner in Annamalai.

I’ve always loved montages. I don’t know why but I just love them. I even think, in slight extreme that an entire film could be made effectively just through montages. Akira Kurosawa is known for making montages into popular art.

Yesterday, while traveling through the Seattle Tunnel, I was thinking of making a montage of the entire tunnel route. I don’t even have a camera to start with and that’s a different topic. But it led me to think of montages in Tamil cinema. When thinking about montages in kollywood that were made to the level of world cinema, only two of them struck me instantly. And that’s because they were elegantly made. Both of them cannot be called montages theoretically as they don’t help move the plot too much.

The first one is truly world class. Appu Kamal trying to hang himself and Sri Vidya, his mother talking to him at a circus tent. The camera pans across the room and cuts frequently and disolves into close-ups and long shots. It may not be as vivid as I say here but it was a great one.

The second was a shorter one in Priyadarshan’s Snehithiye. I vaguely remember the context but on a dramatic scene, the shot collapses to a different scene where the girl recalls cycling with Jothinka on a lush green park.

Both these scenes had great BGM and was strikingly well made. Mudhal Mariyadhai had some nice montages but can’t recollect any particular one. Should anyone re-collect other nice montages in Tamil cinema, there is a comment box right below.

It’s been sometime since the previous one. So here you go.

Usual Stuff – For starters, guess the movie and the sequence. There is a clue available in every(well, mostly) kollywood car quiz. This is important – If you are planning to guess the answer, don’t open the comments box and spoil the fun yourself. Once you have guessed go straight ahead and comment it without looking for answers. All Kollywood Cars.

I know this is crazily tough. Keeping mind the previous cars were answered in matter of hours, sometimes in minutes after posting, this needs a tougher cinephile. There are enough clues. Go guess.

Are you new to this silly kollywood car game, look here.

This one should be the most easiest one. Will have another one for tomorrow.

Usual Stuff – For starters, guess the movie and the sequence. There is a clue available in every(well, mostly) kollywood car quiz. This is important – If you are planning to guess the answer, don’t open the comments box and spoil the fun yourself. Once you have guessed go straight ahead and comment it without looking for answers. All Kollywood Cars.

Usual Stuff – For starters, guess the movie and the sequence. There is a clue available in every(well, mostly) kollywood car quiz. This is important – If you are planning to guess the answer, don’t open the comments box and spoil the fun yourself. Once you have guessed go straight ahead and comment it without looking for answers.

Past Cars – 1, 2, 3 & 4.

50 – 50 chances here. Pretty easy sometimes but if you haven’t seen this carefully when you watched the movie this could be pretty tough. I know this kinda becomes like Google-Da Vinci code contest but play along and let’s see where it takes us.

For starters, guess the movie and the sequence. There is a clue available in every(well, mostly) kollywood car quiz. This is important – If you are planning to guess the answer, don’t open the comments box and spoil the fun yourself. Once you have guessed go straight ahead and comment it. After all some wrong answers are more fun than the correct ones.

Past Cars – 1, 2 & 3.

This one should be pretty easy. Still let’s go with it. Guess the movie and the sequence.

Past Cars – 1 & 2.

This is a similar kollywood car quiz just like the previous one. No changes are made to the image. It’s just how the image appears on-screen and that is a clue.

Guess the movie and the sequence.