Is it a real coup?

By now, people should be aware of Sarath's website....

Eventhough, I watch his movies very rarely, I would say that the ratio is better than watching Vijaykanth's movies. [Say, atleast a dozen Sarath movies in the last decade compared to 1 or 2 of captain's movies].

Considering the fact that 'Thalaimagan' is his 100th movie, I would expect a grand promotion in the media, by Radaan movies. The pictures and Nayanthara's journalist role, convinced me that it would be another patriotic, action packed racie movie. Unless the screenplay is really unique, it may not be my cup of tea.

[Another fact to note is that, 100th movies had been released with hype always, like Prabhu's 'Rajakumaran', Rajini's 'Sri Ragavendra' etc., without yielding much results]



However, this news on his next likely movie, is a real coup.. Gautam & Sarath, with Harris Jeyaraj.

Will it be like a 'Ramana' style movie? Fingers to be crossed..

Normally when the glamour is less in Sarath's movie, the story content used to be attractive to most of the centres. Hope Gautam has come out with such a script & cast. If it really happens to be a different one, I may meet Sarath in this movie again.
254th post

Another lift...

Looks like another lift...

I was expecting a lift on 'Collateral' long before. Now it seems to be happening in the form of 'Taxi no.9211'.


'The Hindu' says

"Two of Bollywood's most popular actors Nana Patekar and John Abraham come together in "Taxi No: 9211", a film which is creating a lot of buzz in the trade. The film, directed by Milind Luthra, is about how two guys with a different outlook meet in a taxi in Mumbai. Raghu, played by Nana Patekar, is a short-tempered cabbie who needs Rs. 30,000 by the end of the day. Jay is a sarcastic young man and an heir to a business empire. He is on his way to court to stake his claim to Rs. 300 crores! Raghu and Jay meet by chance and the fun starts. Sameera Reddy plays the heroine."

During the last two years, I sensed a fresh air in the Bollywood region different from a typical masala / sentiment oriented movies. Hope this movie may also fall in that line and be different... eventhough it looks like a gentle lift.
253rd post

Thai Pusam 2006

Every year, Thai Pusam would be celebrated with more awareness in Singapore & Malaysia (Penang). In India, I believe - only the traditional Pusam goers will be aware of that and only certain belts follow the walks upto Palani.

Thai Pusam is observed on the full moon day of the Tamil Month Thai (Jan-Feb). This time it was on Saturday 11-Feb-06. Being a Saturday, the roads from Serangoon Road to Tank Road were full of devotees. The estimated arrivals to the Murugan (Sri Thendayuthapani) temple at Tank road, would have touched 20000 people. That's my guess.

The 'Paal Kudam' (Milk Pots) and 'Kavadi's which started to arrive @ 00.00 hrs on 11-Feb (Friday midnight) ended at 2.00 hrs on 12-Feb (Saturday midnight). Even on Friday evening, the temple was crowded a lot.

The following has been mentioned in the brochures issued for Thai Pusam, by the temple.

"There are many types of offerings made to Lord Muruga. But carrying Kavadi is considered the best offering. The practice of carrying Kavadi is explained in the Puranas. The great saint Agastya, while at Mount Pothikai, instructed one of his disciples, Idumban to bring two hills, Sivagiri and Shaktigiri, from Mount Kailai Range. Having arrived at the Mount Kailai, Idumban picked up both the hills, tied them at both ends of a long pole and carried them across his shoulders.

However, Lord Muruga had intended that the two hills be placed at Thiruvavinankudi (Palani). At the same time he wanted to test the devotion and tenacity of the purpose of Idumban. After placing the two hills at Thiruvavinankudi, Idumbam rested for a while. When he tried to carry the two hills again he found that he could not do so. The perplexed Idumbam looked up and saw a child in loin clothes standing one of the hills, who claimed that the hills belonged to him.

The furious Idumban then attempted to attack the child but found himself falling like an uprooted tree, which made Idumban's wife & saint Agastya to appeal to the child (Lord Muruga) to spare Idumban. Lord Muruga was pleased with Idumban's devotion to his guru Agastya and his mission and thus made Idumban his guardian.

After that, it is believed that those who bring sandal, milk, flowers etc., in a Kavadi to His shrine, like Idumban who had brought the hills carrying across his shoulders, will be blessed by him"



Am sharing some of the pictures taken on this Saturday.




Entrance of the temple, crowded with Devotees
















'Paal Kudam' (Milk Pots) & 'Kavadi's during the morning session











'Spike Kavadi's which are famous here. Heard that Penang also receives so many devotees like this.


Two of the many westeners who visited the temple on that day...
The devotees crowded at the entrance outside the temple...
and inside the temple...
Another spike kavadi..












Evening crowd....
















Looks like some North Indians... [Even Chinese carry Kavadis and visit the temple on this day. I missed to capture a pic]











The arrival of final Kavadis... Saturday midnight.

















One more... in the night.
















252nd post

More breeze on the air

With more professional institutions like this, I hope we can see a lot more professionalism in our Airlines sector.

Sometimes, I had observed Air hostess getting upset with passengers' behaviours and revert in the same manner {particularly, Indian Airlines flights between Singapore & Chennai}. That attitude is not only towards those who are the root cause of it, but other passengers as well.

Hope these type of attitudes will slowly change, when there is an influx of more professionally trained airhostesses.

Pic courtesy: The Hindu
251st post

Age - No problem, even for Direction...

This industry is like a honeycomb which attracts so many people irrespective of the age. We have come across debut of Chockalinga Bhaagavadar or Manickam Vinayagam @ 60 plus and many young child artistes from the age of 1 year onwards.

But normally, to go behind the camera and instruct the actors, it takes ages for people. Sometimes, they achieve it after a long stint in the industry as assistants like our Balaji Sakthivel, Bala etc.,. Some directors like Maniratham, Gnana.Rajasekaran (Mohamul / Bharathi...), Selvaraghavan were able to join this band at a reasonable age, without any prior experience as assistants.

Only few get the break at an early stage (I mean, at the age of late 20's or early 30's), after their small stint as assistants. But only, few of them make it big.. few go under the carpet as assistants once again, like Balaji Sakthivel (after 'Samurai'), Vasanthabalan (after 'Album', now directing Shankar's 'Veyil') etc.,

Rarely, we get directors at 20plus under the limelight. Recently, I could name Simbu who had taken up the director's role for 'Vallavan'. For a person, who was brought up with 'Cinema' as the nutrient in-take everyday, it is not a big deal. Siddharth who started his career as assistant director to Maniratnam, had gone into acting suddenly. Hope he achieves his ambition as a director at the earliest. We can name a few like this, at this age group...

In other languages also, the above trend continues.. Only recently, we have started getting more youngsters in this role.

But the news is not about all these youngsters...It is is about this Kishan.

".......Ten-year-old Kishan is all set to enter the Guinness Book as the youngest film director ever.... When boys of his age are busy taking notes in class, Kishan is juggling frenetic shooting schedules and dashing off notes to his crew on the sets. Kishan, launched the shooting of his full-length feature film "C/o Footpath," that has Bollywood star Jackie Shroff, Kannada artiste and National Award winner Tara and others in the cast. He is an experienced actor with about two-dozen films to his credit.....

The film is shot in Kannada and will be remade in Tamil and Hindi... The youngest director of professionally made feature film as per Guinness Book Of World Records is Sydney Ling, from Netherlands, who directed the film "Lex the Wonderdog" in his 13th year..."

I could say that, beyond luck, his talent would also have favoured him, in such a competitive industry. Trust this boy has done his homework well, that the exam result will be in his favour.. Let us welcome this kid, to give some quality output.

It is refreshing & rare to see professionals at this age. Eventhough, we cannot expect more directors of his age (!!) very frequently, hope we can get some more reasonably young blood with fresh ideas without being assistant for more than 10 years....

Pic Courtesy: The Hindu
250th post