Vikatan Deepavali Malar 2004 is already out. Unlike the declining standards of Ananda Vikatan, this special diwali issue rocks. It has some of the best writers writing short stories and articles for it. From Sujatha to Karunanidhi, Ashokamithran, Balakumaran, S. Ramakrishnan, Pa. Raghavan, Thamarai and whole lot of celebrity writers. The last year’s Vikatan special issue was also a big hit.
Vikatan stopped publishing Deepavali special issues 25 years back and it was last year they got it back to existence. I’ve heard stories of people saying that those days, Vikatan Deepavali special issue was a part of Diwali itself. It would rest among the new dress and the cracker lot and once they are done with the customs on diwali morning, there would be a huge fight to get hold of the special Vikatan issue and read it thoroughly. I don’t see that race today. However Vikatan, with the kind of neat publishing, nice laminated pages does bring in the look and feel of a special issue. And we know it’s worth the 100 bucks you pay for it.
Coming back to the recent standards of Vikatan, it isn’t just my view. Many other who are vikatan fanatics have been completely annoyed with Vikatan’s quality over the last few months/years. Just because the other contemporary magazines are hanging onto the kollywood girls and their gossips, Vikatan doesn’t have to barge into those segments. One of Vikatan’s latest column Hollywood/Bollywood is nothing but a space given to show off the glamorous peek into the film industries. Also their story on how Chandramukhi evolved from Rajini’s fort was completely speculation and didn’t seem to impress someone who loved Vikatan for years. Vikatan has a set of readers who love it’s style and so I think it has no neccesity to ‘adjust’ to other contemporary magazines and their fickle reporting styles.
Will write more on this special issue once I complete reading it.
kirukkal.com 
14 responses to “Vikatan Deepavali Malar 2004”
Hi,
As per all business units aim they might also b aiming to get more readers.To get youth readers attention the only quick way is to get some cini pics and news.That’s when a teenager stops skipping the pages.
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Hi,
As per all business units aim they might also b aiming to get more readers.To get youth readers attention the only quick way is to get some cini pics and news.That’s when a teenager stops skipping the pages.
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Raj,
I have been a t’ager myself and I did enjoy reading such stuff but I did know to distinguish between a gossip and a real reporting. Maybe i learnt them over the age.
But just gossip and make believes don’t make a magazine shine for a long time. In my family they are reading ananda vikatan for more than 40 years. they don’t read kumudam. only i read. imagine the kind of mass crowd that kumudam is missing here because of it’s too commercialized stuff that they print. that’s the point I wanted to make here and probably wanted to remind viktan(which cannot be done by me alone) that it’s losing out on audience. time to buck up.
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Raj,
I have been a t’ager myself and I did enjoy reading such stuff but I did know to distinguish between a gossip and a real reporting. Maybe i learnt them over the age.
But just gossip and make believes don’t make a magazine shine for a long time. In my family they are reading ananda vikatan for more than 40 years. they don’t read kumudam. only i read. imagine the kind of mass crowd that kumudam is missing here because of it’s too commercialized stuff that they print. that’s the point I wanted to make here and probably wanted to remind viktan(which cannot be done by me alone) that it’s losing out on audience. time to buck up.
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Thanks Prabhu Ram on your comments. and whatever you had told above vikadan becoming kadan was a game. we used to take off one letter from ananda vikatan and stop it when i reaches N. Vikadan, kadan, dan, an, n.
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Thanks Prabhu Ram on your comments. and whatever you had told above vikadan becoming kadan was a game. we used to take off one letter from ananda vikatan and stop it when i reaches N. Vikadan, kadan, dan, an, n.
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My limited tamil vocabulary means I more or less get to understand tamil magazines through the illustrations and pics. I just love maathi’s illustrations. And Vikatan used to have some great artists for every story. Nowadays I only see bulging curves page after page, revolting senses and making me throw the magazine for want of a peaceful way of showing protest. My mom has stopped buying vikatan due to such disgusting and insipid articles
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My limited tamil vocabulary means I more or less get to understand tamil magazines through the illustrations and pics. I just love maathi’s illustrations. And Vikatan used to have some great artists for every story. Nowadays I only see bulging curves page after page, revolting senses and making me throw the magazine for want of a peaceful way of showing protest. My mom has stopped buying vikatan due to such disgusting and insipid articles
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Prabhuram,
“Vikatan, Hindu and few other people have been on the better side of the line most of the time.”
????????
I invite you to read my latest post on the commie crap that editors of the Hindu churn out. In case you find them still unbiased – let me know.
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Prabhuram,
“Vikatan, Hindu and few other people have been on the better side of the line most of the time.”
????????
I invite you to read my latest post on the commie crap that editors of the Hindu churn out. In case you find them still unbiased – let me know.
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Ananda vikatan is loosing its standards, agreed. But i do not assume that Vikatan can turn back from this point on. If we could ask, Vikatan to recreate the flair it had few years back, it would be virtually impossible. (it was good even three years back ! i liked the creativity of the Kurumbu team). Its better left this way.
opine my blogroll on News and Media here
http://avyukta.blogspot.com/2004/10/news-and-commentary.html
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Ananda vikatan is loosing its standards, agreed. But i do not assume that Vikatan can turn back from this point on. If we could ask, Vikatan to recreate the flair it had few years back, it would be virtually impossible. (it was good even three years back ! i liked the creativity of the Kurumbu team). Its better left this way.
opine my blogroll on News and Media here
http://avyukta.blogspot.com/2004/10/news-and-commentary.html
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Hi,
I also feel that Vikatan is losing it’s quality. Especially with the intro of this ‘i love u vikatan’ supplement – i don’t know why we need it as a regular supplement. Seems Vikatan is under some pressure following the ad blitz of “kungumam” – which is i should say another low in magazine advertising.
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Prabhuram
I fully agree with you. Times of India is a SemiPorn Newspaper. A stupid paper. Advisable for any Bangalorean to not read it. Except perhaps the Wednesday Ascent.
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