On Kamalhassan‘s Thenaali tone, if I have to say, these Deiva Machaans, Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, are awarded with the highest award in engineering. These googles guys are selected for the 2004 Marconi International Fellowship Award at Columbia University. Read More.
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Barkha Dutt and her time-out crib
[Pic: tribuneindia.com]Barkha is highly impressive with a mike in her hand. The comparable Christiane Amonpour of India. One of the stalwarts of NDTV and also a household name in Indian news. For the kind of fabulous reporting she does on NDTV she can just walk away with the best news correspondent award every year.
I’ve been a fan of her talk show We The People for a couple of years. We the People focuses on the hot topics of the contemporary political and social scene in India. She manages to get the best of minds appropriate to the topic selected and she definitely does a good job in forking the time/space between the opposites in the show. Its a show that will grow on you and you would even street fight with your folks to get hold of the remote on Sunday evenings. The same time Kushboo does the Jackpot show on Jaya TV and hence the street fight.
Last week, the topic on the hottest and very concerning topic of Reservation of Jobs in Private Sector. Thats enough to rake up the show. From Dalit activists to sociology professors, there were more than enough chief guests carefully selected to deal this rather very sensitive topic.While the group churned out some nice points on both sides[for/against reservation], I loved what GurCharan Das had to say.
GurCharan Das, the former CEO of Procter & Gamble, also a leading columnist in Times of India, answered to a query of giving away 2% of all the private companies profits to backward caste students, thereby enabling the government to start more schools for the backward castes. GurCharan remarked, why would the backward caste guys get public education even when the private sector contribute so much to the education. He said the private sector would surely give away more than 2% of their profits and those students who are from backward classes should be allowed to study in any school they feel like. Be it the Dhoon school to the Don Bosco they should be given the best of education. A reply with lots of foresight. He is certainly one visionary.
Back to point, Barkha Dutt seems to be too bothered about the time running away and literally cuts short some interesting conversations between the guests. That seems to be dull side of the show. If a guest comes over to the show, he should be given ample time to convey his ideas and also he needs time to talk against his counterparts ideas. Rather it seems like Barkha conducts a GD interview and the one who interrupts at the right time with the right stuff gets full scores. With the show being such a hit on NDTV why would those guys at NDTV crib so much to extend the show to an hour and half. Instead of the same news getting repeated every half hour, this one is better alternative. Would Barkha/NDTV get it done ?
More:
Barkha Dutt – A Profile.
Her Interview to The Tribune. -
Kamalhassan’s Confessions of the Assassin
[Pic: thehindu.com]Kamalhassan, in his interview to The Hindu, makes a mention of Hey Ram‘s english version called Confessions of the Assassin. He leaves it to the assumption if it’s a remake or a dubbed version. But to read between/upon/downunder the lines, it looks like its a re-make. I hate to make this assumption because it could very well be a dubbed version. However, he says it been made on a limited budget and he is in agreement that Hey Ram should have been made on a shoestring budget.
Personally, I think, Hey Ram is one of the most stupendous movies he ever made. It had to it many abstract theologies that he advocated without being obvious and he did a good job of making it in big budget. Just because the movie failed in the box-office none[including him] can think it could have been made with a tight budget. Kamal along with Bharath Shah[who produced it in Hindi] did spend a huge lump of money for Hey Ram. However, the portrait of Sagetharam which he weaved so lavishly was definetly worth it.
Hey Ram had some superb talent to it. Be it Kamalhassan himself, Illayaraja who orchestrated the music for Hey Ram in Hungary, Thiru who did a great camera work, Shahrukh, Rani and many more.
If this Confessions of the Assassin could get a good notice in Hollywood, like Bend it like Beckham, Kamal’s long term dream of Marudhanayagam has chance to get a re-birth.
Incidentally, he also mentions Marudhanayagam while saying, It is a nice movie that has to be released in Tamil, English and French. My investment of Rs. eight crore is totally blocked. It should happen very soon. Read more from his interview, No stopping him.
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Chennai Bloggers Fly High
Today’s Hindu spotlights on Chennai Bloggers and their Blogs in an article named Here, the possibilities are mind-blogging. Karthik Subramanian writes – The proliferation of broadband brings good tidings for the future, bloggers say. There will be voice blogs, video blogs … the possibilities are mind-boggling. Or should we say “mind-blogging”.
Kribs and Chandra Choodan alongwith others get a warm mention. Read More.
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Katha Kelu Katha Kelu
Last evening, while me and my friend were yapping on tamil cinema, we stumbled over a question on good title songs in tamil cinema. While it’s no more a fad to have songs in the title, we have had many good numbers as title songs in the yester years. Both of us, spontaneously, could recollect only four good title songs. The first was the good Illayaraaja number Katha Kelu from Michael Madana Kama Rajan then it was
Kaathal KasakuthaiyaIndiran Vandadum Chandiran Vandadum from Pandiyarajan’s Aan Paavam, Amman Koil Kezhakaaley from Sakalakala Vallavan and finally A R Rahman‘s Vellai Pookal from Kannathil Muthamittal.Though there were few more like the one in Panakaaran, Manithan and other MGR/Sivaji stuff, these four were the ones that came to our mind without much thought. If only you can re-collect three good title songs from tamil cinema, thanks for that. No Googling, no Raaga no nothing. Sheer memory.
P.S – If only you can get three, you get a gmail invite. Hey, I hear you whispering THODAA. But guys, if not for the invite, be game and give it a shot.
kirukkal.com 