kirukkal.com

October 27, 2005

Srirangam in Shambles

Prabhu Venkatramani sends me pictures of Cauvery overflowing inside the town of Srirangam. Seems like after years of not-so-much-rain, this one has really affected the temple city. He also writes in the email that the electricity is non-existent for the last three days and the town has come to a standstill. Thats really bad to know. For more news on the floods, read from dinamalar.

Shucks !! What a deepavali this is turning out to be ?

With hundreds of small villages nearly submerged in water, why are the social work bloggers not starting a Srirangam Flood Relief Blog ? A flood is a flood wherever it happens. Right ?
October 26, 2005

Shankar ? A Legend ?

[Thanks Karthi]

Shankar’s website, Director Shankar has a splash screen that displays the above picture. We are yet to decide if Shankar is legend or not but there is legend standing in the front of camera, called THE BOSS. Know who ?
October 26, 2005

Satyaraj, SJ Surya, Salman & Seattle

It’s becoming colder in Seattle. Its raining, windy and pleasantly cold. The kind of iira nilam that one would love to live. They have been telling me that as winter coses it, you would be terrible out of mood, blame it on the absence of sun. But for me it’s becoming the other way. I do enjoy the sun but the cold weather combined with semi-frequent coming of the rains. This evening it was so windy with rain drizzles that I had my spirits uplifted. A different kind of feeling, that for a moment, makes you forget projects, go-lives, status reports, MOMs and what not.

Offlate, I’m voraciously reading and unexpectedly all the books that were in a long library queue are just pouring in. Besides Ashokamitran’s Katuraigal Part 1, I’m having Rusdhie’s Shalimar the Clown on my left hand, Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat on my right hand and a lovely book that I wouldn’t disclose now. I want to certainly write a post on that special book.

Saw SJ Surya’s Ah Aha and namma Surya’s Ghajini. Ah Aha was loud, ugly and a sick movie. I’m planning to protest against Rahman tuning music for this dude. He has literally screwed up all the songs with crass creativity and glaring colors. The wide angle close-up shot is an overkill. The completely unrelated sentiment scenes seems to be targeted the thaaikulams while he was busy exploring the midriff of Nila. Does he think we are a bunch of idiots, watching his movie ? Ellyei !!

Satyaraj’s Englishkaran is one good movie in the recent times with some common sense. It’s typically a late 80’s flick with a storyline that we have seen a million times, Satyaraj’s satirical comedy rocks. If you can mock at the several happenings of Kollywood and Tamil Nadu politics, with a rehashed storyline, you could cast Satyaraj and make it into a hit, like this. Though we have seen similar movies from Satyaraj, watching truly crappy films from kollywood this year, this was a good time pass. The voluptuous Namitha portrayed as an athlete and she actually runs 100 meters in a tar road before she dies of the kollywood classic poison, arali vedhai. Though I’m not for this nuisance, I’m holding from cursing too much as Namitha Fans Association might actually protest to burn printouts of kirukkal.com. I ain’t ready for all that !!
October 25, 2005

Calling Amma !!

With all the storm blowing between the Kings of Bangalore, it’s time for the Amma of Tamil Nadu to reach out and woo Infosys into Tamil Nadu. 500 acres near the ECR at government ‘rates’ would be enough to make Infosys shift headquaters to Chennai. We lost it once before, not anymore. Come on, Time to get ~~Bangalored~~ Chennaied !!
October 21, 2005

Balachander’s Nizhal Nijamakirathu

[click to enlarge]

Watching K Balachander’s Nizhal Nijamakirathu, few things cleared up. One – this is one of those movies that truly exploited Kamal’s bharathanatyam talent. Two – We probably miss natural talents like Hanumanthu and Mouli in Kollywood, these days. Three – Other than the dancing part, Kamal smokes in every damn scene.

Offlate, I’ve been watching KB movies in a row. It all started with Jaathi Malli. I have questions on why Balachander directed the movie in the first place.. The movie sucked in very other aspect except for the interesting MadanBob /Dhamu sequences and Maragadamani’s music. Then it was Kamal’s Manmadaleelai, which was a mediocre effort by KB and Kamal, keeping in mind the classy films they were delivering at that time.

The storyline seems cliched now but in yesteryears it must have been a decently interesting one. More than the rape you-marry you story, it was the cast ensemble that elevated the pleasure of watching this flick. It had Kamal as a smoking communist with intelligent dialogues just like Sujatha‘s protagonist. Sarathbabu playing as usual, the sucker friend. Sumitra as the feminist and the classy Shoba playing her debut as a rich-dreams-poor-girl. These four characters alongwith Hanumanthu, Mouli and Oru veral Krishnarao make the entire movie cast. Its truly KB’s talent to blend these characters in a fashion that makes the movie interesting.

Hanumanthu is a gem of an actor. Natural talent. Not a single shot he seemed to ‘act’. The expression, body language and dialogue delivery was just perfect. I’ve seen him in other Mouli ‘s films but this was probably his finest performance. I’ve heard people talk about him but I’m not sure he was regarded as a classy actor in his time.

Though the entire film looks just like a stage drama, it was fun to watch Kamal play a semi-baddy. Kamal’s characterisation reminded me of Prashant ‘reverse-talking’ role in Agathiyan’s Kaathal Kavithai. If you could grab you hands on the video, you are certainly not wasting your time.

Srirangam in Shambles

Shankar ? A Legend ?

Satyaraj, SJ Surya, Salman & Seattle

Calling Amma !!

Balachander’s Nizhal Nijamakirathu