15/09/2007 Special Programmes

06.30am - 07.00am - Sudha Raghunathan
07.30am - 08.00am - News
08.00am - 08.30am - Interview With Actor Kamalhassan
08.30am - 09.00am - Interview With Maestro Ilayaraja
09.00am - 09.30am - Interview With Director K.Shankar
09.30am - 10.30am - Leoni Pattimandram
10.30am - 01.00pm - Pokkiri Movie 100Th Day Function
01.00pm - 01.30pm - News
01.30pm - 04.30pm - Block Buster Movie “Mozhi”
04.30pm - 05.00pm - Ungal Choice (Dial In) Jeyam Ravi
05.00pm - 05.30pm - Interview With Comedian Vadivel
05.30pm - 07:30pm - Super Hit Movie “Imsai Arasan 23Rd Pulikesi”
07.30pm - 08.00pm - News
08.00pm - 08.30pm - Interview With Actor Surya
08.30pm - 09.00pm - Pudhu Padangal - New Movies Review
09.00pm - 09.30pm - Interview With Actor Vivek
09.30pm - 10.30pm - Mannada Mayilada
10.30pm - 11.00pm - Interview With Director / Actor Cheran
11.00pm - 11.30pm - Magic Show

16/09/2007 Special Programmes

06.30am - 07.00am - Nityashree
07.30am - 08.00am - News
08.00am - 08.30am - Interview With Actress Asin
08.30am - 09.00am - Interview With Actor Vishal
09.00am - 09.30am - Interview With Actress Sneha
09.30am - 10.00am - Interview With Actor Arjun
10.00am - 10.30am - Interview With Actress Sandhya
10.30pm - 11.00pm - Interview With Actor Bharath
11.00am - 11.30am - Logic Illai Magic
11.30pm - Block Buster Movie “Ayudha Ezuthu”
01.00pm - 01.30pm - News
03.00pm - 04.30pm - Chandramuki 100Th Day Function
04.30pm - 07.30pm - Movie “Periyar”
07.30pm - 08.00pm - News
08.00pm - 08.30pm - Mannada Mayilada - Curtain Raiser
08.30pm - 09.30pm - Ellamae Siripputhan
09.30pm - 10.30pm - Comedy Skit By Yuhi Sethu
10.30pm - 11.00pm - Interview With Actor Madhavan.

Keerthi forwardded me this proposed opening schedule of Kalaignar TV. While this is not the finalised schedule for the opening weekend, the who’s who of kollywood can be spotted already and I am skeptical if there will be any entertainment left for the coming days/weeks.

By the way(everyone writes BTW these days so this is just for a change), Kalaignar.tv, KalaignarTV.com, KalaignarTV.in and KalaignarTV.co.in are all already booked by cybersquatters. They are the most obvious names for the Kalaignar TV domain and I dont think the management is making attempts to book them.

Also Raj TV has no news about Kalaignar TV on their site. Makes me think if the media houses in Tamil Nadu are just too engrossed in entertaining people that they forget a huge business market exists for them outside of the country.

Blockbuster killed enough of Netflix’s market share by introducing Total Access feature with which one could exchange the movie packet obtained through mail for an in-store movie. This means, technically you can double the number of movies you watch for the same price.

Though being a Netflix fan, I moved to Blockbuster, lured by the double whammy offer. It’s been smooth since then. I moved to the 1 dvd at-a-time scheme and was able to watch atleast 15 movies a month. I have to accept that its overwhelming sometimes to watch 15 movies a month.

After pulling enough of marketshare from Netflix through this plan, Blockbuster recently started to grandfather existing subscribers to their unlimited in-store exchange plan while it moved others to a new plan which limited in-store exhanges. Depedning on how heavily you use their Total Access feature, the plan to retain your account under the the old plan was made.

Luckily I have a blockbuster right across the street and was able to use the in-store exchange every time. Hence I think, my account is now retained under the old scheme. And the account page reads this -

BLOCKBUSTER Total Access Premium $9.99 / month (plus taxes). 1 at-a-time, unlimited mailings, unlimited in-store free movie/discounted game exchanges +1 FREE bonus Movie or Game Rental E-Coupon / Month

It’s a pity that some of the existing subscribers were moved to the new ‘blockbusted’ plan. Meanwhile Netflix began offering DVD quality downloads of movies, in addition to the DVD by mail option which seem to interest me.

Atleast a good percentage of ‘blockbusted’ subscribers will now move to this super lazy Netflix plan. No more store exchanges for them as they can just click on their computers to watch DVD movies. And ofcourse, there is Apple TV to stream movies to your TV, if you hate watching movies on a 19 inch monitor.

The online version of Katrathum Petrathum says “முற்றும்” at the end. Not sure if it was a typo or if the series has ended for good. This one was the fifth serving that started last July.

Even on the saturday ambalam chat with Writer Sujatha, nobody talked about this. Since I hadn’t read this week’s serving of Katrathum Petrathum by then, I was also talking about En Iniya Iyanthira and other things.

Can someone verfiy this from the print edition ?

T.S. Narasimhan, the producer of the hit 80’s television version of R K Narayan’s Malgudi Days is back with the next installment. Shankar Nag who directed the 80’s show, has passed away. The ‘new’ Malgudi Day will be directed by Kavitha Lankesh. And I first read it on rediff, in an interview with Kavitha Lankesh.

To select 15 stories was quite challenging. I had to select new stories, as tales from Swamy and Friends had been done by Shankar Nag. So, I had to read all the works of Narayan again and took stories like Lawley Road, Snake Song, Salt and Sawdust.

I am getting a positive response. You should know that, when Shankar Nag directed the serial, there were more black and while TV sets and no private channels to compete with Doordarshan. Of course, Nag’s efforts were also classy. Things are different now, yet the reactions I have been getting are wonderful. I think my efforts have been widely appreciated.

From the interview, it seems like the broadcast has already begun. I’m sure it will be interesting to watch the post-2K Malgudi Days.

In this week’s Vijay TV Super Singer, the lifeline round brought in 5 contestants who were eliminated or who dropped-off due to personal reasons. It included Harish, Sowmya, Archana Iyer, Nitinraj and Vijay. Vijay seems to be the most luckiest than anyone in this competition. He was eliminated thrice in the prelims but managed to get back into competition because someone else dropped off. Also his singing gets better as the rounds proceed. Couple of weeks back when he sang, Illamai Itho with an intonation of a drunkard, I whistled from the living room.

The lifeline round was judged by the public voting method. So each contestant were given a number, and the viewers dialed-in or sms-ed to register their vote. One out of these five contestant was to be selected and others would get eliminated. Here’s what happened -

- Sowmya sang her best song to date, Konjam Nilavu. And she rocked. Personally after Swathi, Anitha and Maya, Sowmya is also one of my favorite among the females. Earlier to this round she was eliminated and was brought-in by voting system of the previous round. Konjam Nilavu is a tough song to sing on stage. I dont know if Anupama also sang it in one shot during the recording. Neverthless its a song that allows you to travel through your pitches. Especially the lines, Enn Pirandhen Endra Kaelvi Vaarathu. Ingu Nee Irundhaal Athu Konjam Meerathu. Vandu Naaaan…, calls for a versatile singer. And I think Sowmya did a fairly good job. The most important thing was that her lyrics were clearer than the original version rendered by Anupama.

- Harish Sivaramkrishnan, who dropped off due to his official work came back with a wildcard entry. He sang the Ennavaley Adi Ennavaley. Ofcourse Unnikrishnan was there judging him. And did a very good job by singing it one pitch lesser than the original. In the original version, Unni Krishnan picks it up at a higher pitch, making the words sound lighter and also resembling a female intonation. But I loved Harish’s version. And I’m sure he is going to be tough to compete with if he enters the finals.

- Vijay, who stormed back into the contest with his drunkard version of Illami Itho, took a melodious number this time. He sang Nilaave Vaa from Mouna Raagam. Except for some places where he experimented he sang exactly the SPB version. And he did it perfectly well. Some place I thought they played a back-up tape of the original for him. While he was fine, I think he has strong competition from Sowmya and Harish to reach the finals.

- Archana Iyer, who also dropped-off in the previous rounds due to her exams came back with her favorite, Thoodhu Varuma. And yeah an OK job. Ofcourse, she sang it in her own style which is appreciative but the flavor of the song suffered because of that. Neverthless it was a decent attempt with original style.

- Nitinraj, whom I thought didn’t have enough versatality did a super job yesterday with his version of Kanaa Kandenadi from Parthiban Kanavu. And he did it really well that I had to change my opinion on him. He might be a strong contender for the finals.

The finals team has 4 contestants - Anitha, Maya, Nikil and Goutam. One out of these 5 lifeline contestants will join them. And its going to be huge show for the rest of the weeks at Vijay TV’s Super Singer.

Sujatha details his friendship with Balu Mahendra in a recent Ambalam article, Baluvin Kanaakaalam. Very importantly he mentions two things about Balu Mahendra’s Kathai Neram serial.

Those who had watched Kathai Neram can vouch that it was one of the best serial ever made for television. Each episode was a seperate shortstory. And as Sujatha says it was a perfect example of adapting a shortstory for the screen. He also goes on to say that Balu Mahendra was able to tell a shortstory in 20 minutes without making it embarassingly loud or terribly boring. And as someone who saw most of those episodes, I have to say that Sujatha’s words aren’t an exaggeration.

Sa.Kandasaamy’s Tholaindhu Ponavargal was my other favorite serial. If I could re-collect it right, it was broadcasted on Thursdays from 10 - 10:30 pm. In Channel 2. Remember, Channel 2 of DD ?

Two weeks back, the tamil world went bonker bonks with two back-to-back murders. The wifes killed their respective husbands. Not because their husbands didn’t buy them chicken briyani or they didn’t take their wifes to Azhagai Irukiraai Bhayamai Irukirathu movie. Adultery. One of them was marred for nearly 12 years and had two kids. the second one killed her husband on the third day after marriage, while they were off for a honeymoon. And that was shocking to many.

Passing moral judgements would be the stupidest idea. But atleast someone could actually look through these and discover what really went wrong. Connected to these two incidents, Anuradha Ramanan’s column on Vikatan named, Enna Aachu Namma Ponungalukku ?, hits the nail on the head. She explores the mindset of contemporary society and then derives reasoning as to how extra-marital affairs branch out. The concluding part of this column will be on the next issue but this is Anuradha Ramanan in her own style.

Couple of month’s back, I was reading Sujatha’s Katrathum Petrathum Part 1 where he writes a one page story named Thirai. Thirai starts off as any normal shortstory and within just one page, explores the issue of adultery so subtely that it shocks you just on it’s concluding line. One of Sujatha’s best shortstories. Infact, the shortest.

Today, Mumbai is back to business. People suffered a lot on Tuesday evening, but only after 12 to 15 hours they are back to their duties/business without any fear, travelling in the same crowded trains. This is the spirit of Mumbai. Terrorists can explode bombs in trains or even at strategic locations, but they cannot break the Mumbai spirit.

This spirit is sufficient to frustrate the evil design of terror-mongers. They can draw satisfaction from material damage but they are unable to break the moral, courage and spirit of Mumbaikars.

Despite the jamming of all telecommunication and transportation hurdles on Tuesday evening, Mumbaikars rose to the occasion. They helped each other; passed well-being messages through incoming STD calls; provided food, water and shelter to stranded fellow Mumbaikars; donated blood; helped the administration in traffic control and at blast sites.

[#]

Seems like RD got it all wrong. I’ve never been up at Mumbai. I don’t know what it feels be a mumbaiite. But when all the media is going ga-ga over it’s spirit, I couldn’t stop getting amazed. I want to stay at Mumbai for atleast twenty hours.

Vijay TV’s Super Singer was a mess-up this week.

- The show organisers formed three groups, Chennai, Kovai and Madurai. Each had five participants.

- On Friday, one from each group was eliminated except for the Chennai group.

- Harish, one of the best singers in the whole competition, from the Chennai team, walked out of the contest for personal reasons. It’s probably the same with Archana Iyer too.

- The groups were askd to perform two songs. One to show their harmony strengths. Two for the creativity.

- Chennai team performed Pachai Niramey and Madapura[Pathiban Kanavu]. Gowtham Bharadhwaj making those romantic twists, in the beginning of Madapura, seemed silly. Gowtham is a fantastic singer except that he is super artificial when he talks. And I think, he believes that he is probably the only good looking guy in the contest.

- Kovai team did a fantastic job of performing Kurukku Chirthavaley and Sorgam Enbathu Namakku. The Sorgam song rocked given the fact that they were dancing and singing it. Swathi of Kovai team is one helluva singer.

- Madurai team also did a good job. They sang Pani Vizhum Iravu and Kaatril Varum Geethamey. Rajini and Anitha are probably the best singers of this team.

- Vani Jayaram, who was chief guest for this week’s show, didn’t enjoy the dancing and singing of Kovai team. She voted Madurai team as the best group singing team. And I think that wasn’t right in my opinion. Kovai was the best. One could see that from the reactions of Anuradha Sriram and Sreenivas.

- After all this, the lousy thing happened. As a part of their elimination strategy, each contestant was asked to vote-out one of their group members. This was only for the Chennai and Kovai as they lost out to Madurai Team. The results are to be announced next week.

If only Chinmayee, who is MCing the show, could shout a little less especially the bramandamaana kural thedal bit, a little bit, it might seem much better. Gayathri Jayaram on the other hand, in hosting the Vijay TV’s Grand Master show shouts her soul out. Shouting seems to be an essential quality for becoming a TV host in Tamil media.

Yet another show on the American Idol format. First it was Indian Idol and now it’s Vijay TV’s Airtel Super Singer contest. The winner of this super singer contest will get a chance to sing for Harris Jayaraj. The show runs from 8 pm every friday and saturday on Vijay TV.

Believe me this show is good. Just damn good. Not because this show is about music but the tamil touch to this international format is just exciting. And we have some super dooper singers amongst us.

The other day, a participant named Gowtham sang, Rahman / Hariharan’s Malargale song. I haven’t heard such an amazing control like that from an amateur singer. Nice balance and amazing sangathis. If one was watching this from the first week, they would understand how many singers we have in the country. Though the first round participants included many weirdos, atleast half of the crowd was nice stuff. As of now, the contest is on the fourth round with 20 or 24 contestants. And as it moves forward, its going to be more interesting.

In the initial rounds, the judges included SP Sailaja, Sreenivas, Maalathy and many others. After prelims it’s Anuradha Sriram, Sreenivas and Unni Krishnan. While its a nice trio, Anuradha seems to be too bossy and wouldn’t allow the other two to do the talking. I’m sure someone would let her know as the show moves on.

Instead of a screwed up film review or a kadi serial, I prefer to spend two hours a week for some nice music contest. Worth the time spent. With such shows, Vijay TV is slowly becoming the best channel for true entertainment. Two years from now, I would expect Vijay TV not to top prime time TRP ratings but to a gather a loyal viewer base.