kirukkal.com

December 28, 2005

In Kollywood we (never) trust

**Hasn’t been spell checked. Was just blowing some gas. Read at your own risk**

The latest picture postcard of Rajini[looking energetically as in Billa/Mr Bharath] in Sivaji makes me fear that this Shankar flick will also turn out to be another Baba. Baba was a flop mainly due to the hype that was created by media. Now that blogs are trying to match the media in every other area, news is spreading like nobody’s business on blogosphere.

If only someone kept track of that picture, it would possible be the most e-mailed picture in the last week or so. I got atleast 6 forwards of the same picture from various newspapers. Sujatha and Shankar should be grinding their teeth to catch hold of that photographer who paparazzi’ed the whole thing. Me too. Just because I am going to miss the surprise of meeting the ‘old’ rajini in a ‘new’ movie. Starting now, we will have numerous stories floating around on Sivaji that would even entice Shankar to include in the original script.

I was also bloddy irritated about Selvaraghavan’s pre-release marketing of Pudhupettai. While making a whole movie on gangsters, an interview that’s sounding as cheap as, “This is a special movie for Sneha. She is acting as a prostitute. It would be a milestone in her career”, doesn’t suit. For someone like him, I would expect a rather sublime interview and not being so obvious about the characters which spoils the whole fun of watching a movie. I care a damn if its a milestone for Sneha or not. Especially not before the movie. The pre-release marketing should only being hinting at what the movie is aiming to do. Whether its going to be a milestone or not is for the audience to decide. Also this attitude of glorifying someone is he shaves his head or he acts with lungi or if a heroine acts with a saree through out a movie, doesn’t stand a chance to make an impression. Come on dude, I’m expecting Pudhupettai should do atleast 50% of what Marti’s GoodFellas did to Hollywood. If only its turning to be a pot boiler, I’m no more bothered. BTW, Pudhupettai has many context based songs/themes that may not be once-more numbers but they will sure be an enjoyable watch.
December 25, 2005

I am this…I am that

Magazines run ads.

Books don’t.

What are blogs?

This is sheer co-incidence. Two days before, I decided to remove ads out of this blog. Two days later, I read Seth Godin’s introspective blogpost on Promotion, Self Promotion and ofcourse Ads.

If you are a blogger, you are sure to have thought about this, numerous times. Even if you aren’t one, Seth’s post would hint you the kind of promotional and self-promotional ads run by the blogs. Do read it.
December 24, 2005

Best of 2005

Roger Ebert’s Best Movies of 2005. Crash tops the list as Spielberg’s Munich is on the third while King Kong sits on number 9.

Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and U2’s Bono are Persons of the Year 2005.

Time’s Best Photos of the Year 2005.

Reuter’s Pictures of the Year 2005.

Google’s 2005 Year-end Zeitgeist. Looking at Froogle – Top Searches in 2005, you know how the world goes ga-ga over the whole IPOD thing. Indian version of Google’s Zeitegeist isn’t out yet. However going by the international zeitgeist itself you could expect Sania Mirza, Bipasha Basu and Mallika Sherawat to top the list.

10 Best Tech Podcasts of 2005. The Web 2.0 Show has been quite interesting.

Sify’s Kollywood Box-Office 2005. This essentially does not mean these are the ‘good’ movies. We know good movies and box-office are inversely propotional. Thalaivar’s and Jo’s Chandramukhi tops the list. And yeah !! read closely, No Comments for minuses on Chandramukhi.

Best of Indian Blogs ?. We are still in the process of nominating the Best Indian Blogs. If you haven’t nominated your favorite Indian blogs, read more on IndiBloggies. If the whole thing sounds a little geeky to you, cool off. Leave a comment here and I will try to nominate them for you with a mention of your name.

NY Time’s The 10 Best Books of 2005. Haruki Murakami’s Kafka On The Shore tops the list of fiction 2005. Ian McEwan’s Saturday is also one of them. They also have 100 Notable Books of the Year which features Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown, Freakonomics, The World is Flat and also the expected Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince.

P.S – Will keep adding few more as they keep coming.
December 24, 2005

An Ad-free blog !!

I know it was me who jumped in at first to sign-up for Google Adsense, when it was introduced. Two reasons. To earn money from the blog and to also try out how Google Adsense works. Well, I haven’t earned more than what I spend on this blog. More than the hosting charges, its the time that I invest writing which is more precious. I do enjoy the experience of writing. Add to that joy the lots of typos and grammatically perfect sentences that would Wren and Martin, a run for life.

Just that I don’t want to earn money from the targetted ads. Hence I unplugged the Ad scripts from the templates. Adsene has been just outstanding as expected. Maybe I’ll plug back the Ad scripts after a few months. As of not this blog is Ad-Free. Talk about signing up for the Ads myself and taking it out with a dramatic post like this.

To keep the templates trim, the Go Seattle Photoblog is also not plugged out of the templates. I did notice that the flickr script has been running more than the expected time and sometime it’s frustating to see the blog getting loaded after a long time.
December 23, 2005

Mani Ratnam’s latest – A Romantic Comedy

With all the hulla-golla over Mani Ratnam directing Mahabharata coming to an end, there is some rumor on bollywood circles that Mani Ratnam is directing Aamir Khan, produced by Bobby Bedi. Well, its not Mahabharata but a romantic comedy. And I’m already thanking my stars that Mani Ratnam isn’t directing the three-series Mahabharata, atleast in the recent future. And I hope he never does it. I would love to see if he makes Mahabharata in Tamil. However, we know tamil cinema’s market isn’t as big as bollywood.

Anyways on the Mani Ratnam-Aamir Khan-Bobby Bedi project, Mid Day reports –

Aamir Khan will be again seen in a comic mould after a long time. Mani Sir is directing and scripting; it’s a special project, as it marks the coming together of Aamir and Mani Ratnam for the first time. Talking about the format, Bedi adds, “It’s completely different from whatever romantic comedies you have seen so far. A lot of changes and incorporations are being made, so I can’t really talk about the story.”

Mani Ratnam directing romantic comedy seems very exciting given Mani’s mood to make some serious cinema, these days. Above all that is Rahman joining the team, will be a question to be answered in the coming days.

In Kollywood we (never) trust

I am this…I am that

Best of 2005

An Ad-free blog !!

Mani Ratnam’s latest – A Romantic Comedy