Saturday, March 22, 2008

shriya explains her role

Get ready to have Shriya rolling you in the aisles with laughter – that is what the star feels she is confident of doing with her Hollywood debut, The Other End of the Line. Shriya’s career has skyrocketed with offers pouring in from all the other woods –from Bollywood to Hollywood. Her next Kollywood movie, Kanthaswamy with Vikram is eagerly awaited, as are the roles she will do for internationally acclaimed filmmakers, Deepa Mehta and Meera Nair.

Talking of her role in The Other End of the Line, Shriya said it was a romantic comedy set in Mumbai and San Francisco. She plays a call centre employee who falls in love with an American on the phone. The American, thinking she lives in the States, asks to meet her. What is she to do? Confess to him that she lives in Mumbai or fly to Frisco to meet him and continue the deception? Shriya went on to say that her fans have so far seen her dance and cry and do romantic roles but this will be the first time they’ll see Shriya the comedian! Apparently, a lot of the places that are meant to be Frisco were actually shot in Mumbai itself. The movie will probably release around June or July.

A beautiful and silent love story


Starring: Prasanna, Udhayathara, Vadivelu, Vijayakumar, Rajesh, Santhanam Harrish, Chitra, Rangavasan, Pondy Ravi, Javid Iqbal, Neepa Varshini, Priya, Akila, Ashok, Singamuthu

Direction: G Marimuthu

Music: Dheena

Production: Mohan Radha

Love - it is the elixir of life. Love, they say can move mountains and melt stones. Nothing can stop love and when love is sacrificed for something more sacred, it is still love that wins. For it is love that gives us the strength, and inspires us to do things that our normal selves would not. Love isn’t always about possession or being together-sometimes love also means giving up, parting ways. There have been movies before that have shown love in this light. Kannum Kannum joins that league of rare films that have shown that love can be selfless. A beautifully made, silent love story full of innocence. A whiff of fresh air amidst the rush of popcorn romances.

Prasanna plays an orphan in Chennai who has fought a battle with his cruel fate and emerged successfully as an engineer, ready to take on life. He has a hobby- poetry, and wants to get one of his poems published in a magazine. Much to his surprise he sees his poem in the magazine but under the name of Shenbagavalli. He tracks the origin of the letter all the way to Kuttralam but the poetess' identity is a secret, she had been using a pen name. Prasanna writes letters to 'Shenbagavalli', a simple, chirpy and innocent girl of Kuttralam played by Udhaythara.

The vibes that they shared soon blooms into love, unspoken but understood, silent but strong, more platonic than romantic. As they share their love through letters, destiny brings them closer, within touching distance. And yet the lovers don’t realize it. They loved through letters hoping that some day the gods would unite them for a lifetime. Little did they know that their love was with them, near them, and that time was fast slipping away. As close as they were being brought together by the hands of fate, the farther they were being swept away from their dream of living a life together. When they finally recognize

each other, time has slipped. Destiny has put them in a quandary where they will have to hurt their most beloveds for their love and the decision they have to make is not easy.

The film's message is that love is the most beautiful of all of God's creations, it is meant to spread joy, happiness and smiles. Love that hurts anyone so dear is perhaps not love as love was meant to be. G. Marimuthu, debuting with story, screenplay, dialogue and direction has provided us with one of the cleanest, most honest and endearing love stories of recent times. We can't help feeling sympathetic (a few might feel empathetic) for the young lovers but the director convinces us that the ending could not have been different. The screenplay is disarmingly cute, without any unnecessary intrusions and devoid of unsavory commercial elements. It is love, family and friendship all the way and we can for once declare with confidence that this is how a family movie should be. The dialogues have to be singled out for special appreciation. The technicians too have done their bit convincingly to help the movie on all fronts.



The only let down in the movie is Dheena's music. A more imaginative score could have done wonders to this movie that is already good. Instead, Dheena's score struggles to pass muster. The brilliant lyrics of Vairamuthu seem to have been squandered on some uninspiring composition.

Prasanna continues a busy 2008 with his third release in as many months and after the hit Anjaathey where he played the hateful baddie, getting back to the sweet lover role will be cheered by people who like to watch this simple guy on screen. Udhayathara (who originally began acting with this film but eventually had Thee Nagar releasing first) is really convincing as the bubbly and innocent college-going girl of Kuttralam. The only real commercial element in the movie is the parallel Vadivelu comedy track. Even though completely disconnected from the main plot one cannot help laughing at some of the predicaments he gets himself into. The rest of the cast, which includes Vijayakumar as Udhayathara's father, turn in good performances as well.

Kannum Kannum is a director's movie totally- the effort shows; we can only hope that audience appreciation and the box office outcome is strong enough to match the effort. There have been times when such films have hit the jackpot and times when they have been ignored. The only thing that puzzles us is why it was two years in the making. Perhaps good things take time.

And why haven't we revealed more of the story? Well, it is too good to be on the web. A small, cute and touching love story.

Land dealing

Rajini land dealing controversy - result
The Tamil Nadu government has clarified that Rajinikanth did not commit any act that brought in losses to the government exchequer. News that Rajini registered a property worth more than its guideline value created a hue and cry among some sections that the actor has paid a huge amount of money to procure land in Kannigaiper village. According to a press release issued by the Tourism and Registration Department by Minister N. Suresh Rajan, the TN government did not suffer any loss due to this land dealing. The land, situated within the limits of Arani sub registrar’s office was registered for Rs. 21 lakhs while its guideline value amounted to Rs. 20,03,963.50. For this, the actor has paid Rs. 1,68,000 as stamp duty and registration fee amounting to Rs. 21,000.

Rasigan Express

Reliance Mobile Vijay Awards is back with a bang after its astounding success the pervious year. This year about 107 films that were released in 2007 are in the fray. The interesting part of this show is that fans get to choose their favorite hero, heroine, director and film.

To enable fans vote for their stars, the Rasigan Express, a publicity van, will travel to important cities of the state. Honorable Minister Mr. Parithi Ilamvazuthi, Information Minister of Tamil Nadu, flagged off this van on 20th March 2008 at the Chennai City Center. Other dignitaries who attended the function are Mr. Ramanarayanan, President, Tamil Film Producers’ Council, Mr. S. A Chandrasekhar, President, Tamil Film Directors’ Association, Mr. Sarath Kumar, President, Tamil Actors Union and Mr. FEFSI Vijayan, President, Film Employee’s Federation of South India. The Rasigan Express Van would reach Salem on March 21, and then proceed to Erode (March 22), Coimbatore (March 23 & March 24), Madurai (March 25 & 26), Trichy (March 27), Tanjore (March 28) and finally reach Vilupuram on March 29.

There are 30 categories of which fans will choose four. The remaining 26 categories comprising Best Film, Best Actor Male/Female, Best Supporting Actor Male/Female, Best Comedian, Best Villian, Best Playback Singer Male/Female, Best Debut Actor Male/Female, Best Choreographer, Best Film Editor, Best Lyricist, Best Art Director will be chosen by an eminent jury comprising actor-cum-director Bhagyaraj, writer-cum-director-cum-producer Yugi Sethu, film critic-cum-cartoonist Madan and Lizzy Priyadarshan.

Rasigan Express’ journey will be aired by Vijay TV from March 30, Sundays 2 PM onwards. “Neeya Naana” Gopinath will host the initial episodes.

Kadhalil vizhundhen' – A round-up

Kadhalil vizhundhen' is a film produced by a new production company Atlantic Cinemas and directed by P.V.Prasad.

Having worked with directors like V.Sekar, Azhagamperumal, Vijay Milton and the like he has expertise and experience in direction.

The hero of the film, Nakulan, is the younger brother of Devayani. Introduced in 'Boys', Nakulan has considerably reduced his weight through rigorous exercise and strict food habit and has become quite smart.

Sunaina from Andhra Pradesh is being introduced as heroine in this film. New to Tamil cinema, she is very famous in Telugu cinema. She has acted in '10th class' and 'Something Something'.

The one line story of the film is that death can't break up love. The director is working with a passion to make 'Kadhalil vizhundhen' as an important film in Tamil.

32 years after the historic film 'Mullum malarum' by Mahendran, a fight sequence was shot on a winch. Cinematographer Vijay Milton shot the fight between Nakulan and Sampath tying a rope around his waist.Important shots with Nakulan, Livingston and Sampath were shot on the train running on Coimbatore-Mettupalayam route.

The climax shot and a shot of the song sequence 'kadavul padaitha kadaisi azhagiye' were shot at the wooded Thalakonam in Andha Pradesh.

Vijay Antony has composed sensational music for this film using innovative musical instruments.

The director hopes that Vijay Milton may win an award for this film. Vijay Milton has used handle shots for shooting the all the scenes. Especially in the song sequence, it is said that he had done world-class cinematography.

Audio function, now in TV

Holding audio function and collecting a crowd for it is old hat.

Now the trend is to go to a TV channel, make the release, and interact with the TV people and telecast them live. The audio release function for 'Santhosh Subramaniam' will be done in that fashion on 23rd of this month.

'Santhosh Subramaniam' is the Tamil re-make of the Telugu super hit film 'Bommarilu'. Jenilia is Jeyam Ravi's pair in the film. In 'Bommarilu' too she was the heroine. It can be best described as a colourful love story fit for family entertainment.

Jayam Ravi, Genilia

Devisri Prasad has composed music for the film. The live telecast of the audio function will be on Sun TV. It also includes interactions among the hero, heroine and the film unit.

You can enjoy all of them from your drawing room.