Sympathy, Antipathy and Venkatachalapathy
Ahead of its time was how Hindu's Sudish Kamath has described Mani Rathnam's latest classic in two lanaguages. I somehow do not agree with Sudish that the movie is well ahead of its times. It is a well made, well thought out movie about youth belonging to three different backgrounds. The very essence or beauty of Manirathnam's movies is that you can identify with some of the characters in the movie. As a rebel, I am able to identify myself with Surya. As an utopian who dreams about living in America, I can identify with Siddarth. Manirathnam always makes movies about characters you have seen or you have heard about.
Only hypocrites will reply in negative if you ask them whether you have been or seen the Madhavan character in Alapayuthey or Karthik's role in Mouna Ragam. Nandita Das in Kannathil M... or Pankaj Kapoor in Roja are folks whom we have read and heard about. Also you should commend Manirathnam for shooting his movies in India and India only. Some of the locales in Roja, Bombay, Dil se would make you gape at the aesthetic beauty of the Indian landscape. Even the title of the Tamil version is so thoughtfully coined. Ayutha Ezhuthu is Aak( represented by three dots , two on one side and one on the opposite side. If you see the movie, you will realize the two dots which were on the same side.
On a related note, I heard that the Hindi audience did not like the movie. Why am I not surprised?. Hindi movie audience do not want to accept reality. They would rather see Shahrukh Khan as a school student winning his Chemistry teacher than Ajay Devgan winning the By-Elections.Having seen a few of those megahits in Hindi, I have developed an Einstein like understanding of those movies. Take a Manirathnam movie and rip away reason and logic, you will get a Hindi blockbuster. If you are not capable of doing that, then go to your Aunt and I am sure she will have a video tape of her wedding. See the wedding and replace your Aunt with Shilpa Shetty or Madhuri Dixit and your uncle with one of the Khan's and you have a winner on your hands. Do not forget to give it a long name - " Meri Aunty Ki Shaadi" (MAKS). It is a no brainer that the hero and the heroine meet in either the hero/heroine's wedding. It will be a bigger hit if the hero/heroine is already hooked on to some useless rascal within the family by their parents. There has to be a minimum of 8 songs with three songs shot anywhere outside India.How about returning to some of those after dark movies you watched in your teenage years. Squeeze your brain, remember the fleshiest parts and build an absolute no- sense plot around it and what you have in your hands- "Cheat", "Boyfriend", "Teacher", "Neighbor" - all offerings that would catch fire with the Hindi Log...
Here is one of my friends thought about Hindi Movies....
Hindi Movies
So, are Tamil movies any better? Puhhhhllleaassse would be the most popular retort. Making a Tamil movie is probably easier than heating up milk in the house. All you need is a village, one boy, one girl. Needless to say that each belongs to a different caste and their dad (usually one of them is Vijayakumar and the other is Sivakumar) heads their respective castes. Intialize your variables by showing some instances of fatherly affection between daughter and dad, some tearjerking between mom and son whenever he goes into the village and drags a fight with anyone who speaks ill of his father. Start your process by firsting NANDing the hero and heroine and finally ANDing them in a loop. One usual comedy track irritatingly headed by Vadivelu or Vivek beheading the value in humor. Throw in two romantic songs, one utterly disgusting song praising Vijayakumar and one sentiment song. If guys cannot guess the climax, then rush to the nearest video shop and close your eyes, take any movie, rewind it all the way till the end and watch the climax. If Hindi movies show hearoines with hot bodies and no brains, Tamil movies show heroines with neither. What you have is so called "Bombay" heroine with no "Bomb".
Sympathy for Manirathnam that he is living in a time ruled by sex, lies and pirated CD's. Antipathy for Hindi movies and only Venkatachalapathy can save Tamil movies.
Ahead of its time was how Hindu's Sudish Kamath has described Mani Rathnam's latest classic in two lanaguages. I somehow do not agree with Sudish that the movie is well ahead of its times. It is a well made, well thought out movie about youth belonging to three different backgrounds. The very essence or beauty of Manirathnam's movies is that you can identify with some of the characters in the movie. As a rebel, I am able to identify myself with Surya. As an utopian who dreams about living in America, I can identify with Siddarth. Manirathnam always makes movies about characters you have seen or you have heard about.
Only hypocrites will reply in negative if you ask them whether you have been or seen the Madhavan character in Alapayuthey or Karthik's role in Mouna Ragam. Nandita Das in Kannathil M... or Pankaj Kapoor in Roja are folks whom we have read and heard about. Also you should commend Manirathnam for shooting his movies in India and India only. Some of the locales in Roja, Bombay, Dil se would make you gape at the aesthetic beauty of the Indian landscape. Even the title of the Tamil version is so thoughtfully coined. Ayutha Ezhuthu is Aak( represented by three dots , two on one side and one on the opposite side. If you see the movie, you will realize the two dots which were on the same side.
On a related note, I heard that the Hindi audience did not like the movie. Why am I not surprised?. Hindi movie audience do not want to accept reality. They would rather see Shahrukh Khan as a school student winning his Chemistry teacher than Ajay Devgan winning the By-Elections.Having seen a few of those megahits in Hindi, I have developed an Einstein like understanding of those movies. Take a Manirathnam movie and rip away reason and logic, you will get a Hindi blockbuster. If you are not capable of doing that, then go to your Aunt and I am sure she will have a video tape of her wedding. See the wedding and replace your Aunt with Shilpa Shetty or Madhuri Dixit and your uncle with one of the Khan's and you have a winner on your hands. Do not forget to give it a long name - " Meri Aunty Ki Shaadi" (MAKS). It is a no brainer that the hero and the heroine meet in either the hero/heroine's wedding. It will be a bigger hit if the hero/heroine is already hooked on to some useless rascal within the family by their parents. There has to be a minimum of 8 songs with three songs shot anywhere outside India.How about returning to some of those after dark movies you watched in your teenage years. Squeeze your brain, remember the fleshiest parts and build an absolute no- sense plot around it and what you have in your hands- "Cheat", "Boyfriend", "Teacher", "Neighbor" - all offerings that would catch fire with the Hindi Log...
Here is one of my friends thought about Hindi Movies....
Hindi Movies
So, are Tamil movies any better? Puhhhhllleaassse would be the most popular retort. Making a Tamil movie is probably easier than heating up milk in the house. All you need is a village, one boy, one girl. Needless to say that each belongs to a different caste and their dad (usually one of them is Vijayakumar and the other is Sivakumar) heads their respective castes. Intialize your variables by showing some instances of fatherly affection between daughter and dad, some tearjerking between mom and son whenever he goes into the village and drags a fight with anyone who speaks ill of his father. Start your process by firsting NANDing the hero and heroine and finally ANDing them in a loop. One usual comedy track irritatingly headed by Vadivelu or Vivek beheading the value in humor. Throw in two romantic songs, one utterly disgusting song praising Vijayakumar and one sentiment song. If guys cannot guess the climax, then rush to the nearest video shop and close your eyes, take any movie, rewind it all the way till the end and watch the climax. If Hindi movies show hearoines with hot bodies and no brains, Tamil movies show heroines with neither. What you have is so called "Bombay" heroine with no "Bomb".
Sympathy for Manirathnam that he is living in a time ruled by sex, lies and pirated CD's. Antipathy for Hindi movies and only Venkatachalapathy can save Tamil movies.
Very good observation about AKK and in general about hindi and tamil movies. Very funny too.
Just a small suggestion as a side note. This is just my opinion, please don't keep sudish's comments/blog as a benchmark irrespective of whether they concur or oppose your point of view. His reviews are shallow and his blog is mindless and self-serving.
Murali.
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2:26 PM