Feeling Nostalgic….

Now that the Deepavali releases are competing vigorously, the focus shifts to the upcoming November releases which are likely to eat away their collections. Sundar.C - Madhavan combo’s ‘Rendu’ and Karu.Palaniappan – Vishal combo’s ‘Sivapathigaram’ may be the movies to notice in that November lot. ‘Rendu’ seems to be a comedy movie with the latter being a hot action movie.

My expectations are more on Karu. Palaniappan’s ‘Sivapathigaram’. Somehow, I feel Vidyasagar’s music won’t help much to woo the audience for this movie, even though the album is a mixed bag of melody & folk songs.

‘Atrai thingal vaanidam’ sung by Sujatha & Madhoo Balakrishnan is very soothing and pick of the lot. ‘Chitiraiyil yenna..’ by Karthik & Swarnalatha is one more typical Vidyasagar melody reminding me of some of his tunes of ‘Varnajalam’.

Out of the folk songs ‘Mannarkudi Kala kalakka’ by Manickam Vinayagam & Rajalakshmi tops the list, which is likely to be the absolute treat for the folk song lovers. ‘Adi Chandira Sooriya..’ fits in the list as one more proper folk song. Not sure, how it is placed in the movie…

Much depends on Karu. Palaniappan’s screenplay, which was his strength in his debut ‘Parthiban Kanavu’. I have not watched Vishal’s ‘Thimiru’ yet. But, his selection of scripts are really interesting. However, I’m not sure as to how KP is packaging the folk songs in to the story. Trust this combo may deliver some interesting stuff, which is also a comeback vehicle for Raghuvaran.

It should be interesting to wait and see… their output.

One more reason for me to watch this movie, is that this movie has been shot in OUR COLLEGE, where movie shootings are absolutely rare. I don’t remember seeing any movies shot in our campus. Each and every picture reminds me of my college days. It should have reminded Karu. Palaniappan as well who is an alumni of the college.


Looks like Washburn hall (hostel), where I stayed for sometime. I have a similar shot taken at this place.

Somewhere near the Principal’s office….

Near our Department staff room…

Near the Bell tower… I believe still they use this manual system, without using the electronic systems..









Pic Courtesy: Sify & Indiaglitz
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Getting colder..…

In spite of the weather getting colder everyday, I had to visit this part of the world this time… for official purposes.

Yeah… first blogpost from Copenhagen has arrived. The main reason for missing my Deepavali and movie hall visits is this … :-( :-(

When the flight started descending, I expected the outside weather to be bad, unsuitable for me. But, it was not that bad as I expected. Hope it won’t become worse, soon.

For a long time, I wanted to capture some good shots from my window sheet. This time, I could satisfy my wish to some extent.



Slowly, we were descending…

Just nearer to them…. and felt like it was going to be a soft landing on the bed of clouds.

Kavidhai, Kavidhai.. varamatengudhu…ipponu parthu..

I liked this because of the reflection of our flight on the clouds.. just before getting into those clouds. Double click…

Could feel the outside weather from my hotel room…

The Town hall square, across the city roads..


The 100 year old Town Hall (Radhus), seems to be the 6th town hall of the city, with the previous ones being destroyed by fire.

An artistic performance in front of the Town hall square…



On my way back to the hotel…













The Danish capital Copenhagen city, which lies on the Oresund Strait, is just a few kilometers across the water from Sweden. So, I am getting another chance to land on another country, soon!!! Till then, you will get to see some more interesting posts from this city of harbour.
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Deepavali Crackers…

The festive mood could be felt everywhere, with a matter of few days for the movies to hit the cinema halls. The new release fever has gripped the industry, never like before. Why not? The stake is high with so many star films (7, as per the last count) getting released at the same time. It should have been a tough time for the distributors to finalize theatres and Cinema hall owners in terms of priority for the first few days…

I just thought of having a short preview on those getting released for this season… I have categorized them into three categories.

1) Star value
2) Social issues
3) Masala Entertainment

Star value

‘Vallavan’ and ‘Varalaaru’ fit into this category.

‘Varalaaru’ (Godfather) has the distinct record of a “Movie with too much of expectations” in the CAN for a long time. This follows the earlier records of ‘Ullam Ketkumae’, ‘Vettaiyaadu Villayaadu’ & ‘Perarasu’. Since these movies had not failed the distributors, ‘Varalaaru’ also would have given a comfortable feeling for them. However, does it worth the hype? Recently, I read its story line in Vikatan as narrated by the movie camp, which doesn’t have anything unique. Ajith in his triple roles has plenty of opportunities to perform. However, the B.O. results depend on the magician K.S.Ravikumar’s screenplay touch. Since, the distributors are behind the strategy of ‘Better now than never’, they may have to pray for their luck to click.

Even though, ‘Vallavan’ seemed to have put PL.Thennappan (producer) under a high tension for the last one year, the “Ever-confident” Simbu is confident this time as well, with the way movie has shaped out. In the initial days, there was news that Simbu is doing triple roles in this movie. According to the facts gathered, dual roles are definite. Whether the third role will be a mystery role? Need to wait & watch from the Director’s official debut movie… With YSR’s musical support, Simbu may strike a winner yet again.

Social Issues

I could classify ‘E’ and ‘Thalai Magan’ in this category.

After a long gap, national award film director Jananathan (of ‘Iyarkai’ fame) is coming out with his second movie ‘E’ titled after his hero’s name ‘Easwaran’. Nowadays, directors are more focused on the titles to woo the audience. I assume that the director would have scripted an attractive screenplay as well, which is supposed to be on the Bio-war elements and the related social issues. With Jeeva in yet another different role, we can expect this to be a dark horse in this festival race.


Another directorial debut, by a Journo-turned Producer-turned actor-turned Sarathkumar thru his wife’s production house ‘Radaan’. ‘Thalaimagan’ was supposed to be directed by directors like Venkatesh, Balaji etc., and finally Sarath had stepped in to wield the megaphone. Since Sarath is dwelling upon the water problem of the future world, in his Journalist’s role, I believe there would be lot of scope for him in emotional & action scenes. There is every possibility that Distributors can feel comfortable with this movie as a safe bet.

Masala Entertainment

We can classify the following three easily into this category.

Producer-Director Saran is coming out with yet another city based heroic subject ‘Vattaram’, after his previous hits of ‘Amarkalam’, ‘Gemini’, ‘Attagasam’ (average) etc., Arya is assumed to be a safe bet and Bharadwaj’s music is OK to listen, even though it cannot be classified as excellent. Since his last ‘Ithaya Thirudan’ didn’t click well with the audience, I hope Saran would have taken almost care to make this ‘Vattaram’ a complete commercial entertainment. Need to keep the fingers crossed…



Most of the time, AM.Ratnam’s touches turn to be lucky. But I won’t bet much on his new venture to be released for this festival. Director Perarasu - ‘Captain’ Vijaykanth combo’s ‘Dharmapuri’ seem to have all the masala elements of both the personalities. Being targeted purely for ‘B’ & ‘C’ centre audience, it is a big question if it can become a hit like captain’s last release ‘Perarasu’.

Director Venkatesh is somewhat like early days’ KS.Ravikumar. He is very clear on the formula stories and what he is supposed to deliver. He has neither delivered any memorable movies nor delivered any loss making movies for the producers and distributors. All his earlier releases with Sarath, Simbu etc., are masala entertainers with glamour for the mass audience. This time, Arjun has decided to join Venkatesh for the movie ‘Vaathiyar’ which is also clearly for ‘B’ & ‘C’ audience. I don’t have much to comment or bet on this movie.

Now that distributors are praying that none of the movies should lose money, I can’t comment as to who would be the loser. My gut feeling is that the competition will be between ‘Vallavan’ ‘Thalaimagan’ & ‘Vattaram’ in the initial days with the dark horses being ‘E’ & ‘Varalaaru’.

‘Dharmapuri’ & ‘Vaathiyaar’ are not my cups of tea.

Anyhow, I’m going to miss the Deepavali action this time, since I’m neither in India nor in Singapore. So, I’ll definitely miss opportunity of viewing some of these movies immediately. Will catch up later.
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Stuck at…

couple of places here, regularly…

This would be a common experience for anyone who lives in Bangalore.

Luckily the distance between my house and office is around 7-8 kms. For me, except certain areas, most of the other parts of the roads will be relatively easy to commute in an Auto (not a car!!!). But it may not be the same case for others – who commute in Airport Road or Hosur Road, which connect them with Whitefield and Electronic city.

Recently I met a guy working with an IT firm in Electronic city, who is traveling for nearly 1.5-2 hours morning and evening. His problem is due to his stay at his own house at Malleswaram. He couldn’t avoid it and most of the commuters end up like this. One of my relative also does the same thing.

I wondered as to how these cartoonists (Mr.Chetan & Mr.X) would have experienced the Hosur Road trip to EC. These cartoons which I got thru email forwards clearly show the anguish and pain which they would have suffered.

Even though I enjoyed their comical sense & I don’t travel much in those routes, I’m stuck with the reality this time. :-( :o( :0(

If you couldn’t read those printed words in the cartoons, just blow it up…






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