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Yuva – The Mani Ratnam Extravaganza :

Rumours in air that the latest Mani Ratnam flick is named as Yuva in Hindi. *ing Abishek, Vivek and Ajay Devgan it has been put to hold and the crew awaits Vivek’s healing from the unfortunate accident on the banks of hooghly river in kolkatta.

As a measure to cut the production costs, Mani bounced back from the shock of Vivek’s accident and started shooting Ayudha Ezhuthu. Leaving no room for any newsleaks to the media, the shooting takes place in an anonymous place in chennai. This is Mani’s way of functioning from the beginning of his career.

Abhishek Bacchan plays the brat in Yuva while the same role is performed by the hot drool-stuff Madhavan in tamil. Ajay Devgan is again getting a role of his career as an intellectual rebel. In a rediff interview he describes his character as strong, energetic who thinks he can bring a change in society. That role is supposedly done by Surya in tamil. Boys fame Sidharth plays the role of Vivek Oberoi in the tamil version.

After burning his fingers in the Sandiyar controversy, it is believed that Kamalhassan is following the footsteps of Mani to cut the media from the shooting spot to avoid any more pack-ups. Kamalhassan is shooting Virumandi aka Sandiyar in the campa-cola campus located in guindy where a major part of Rajni’s Baba was shot.

P.S: The wait is over and Vivek starts shooting from Sep 9th. But he would take up Yuva during october because he isn’t still fit to take up the action scenes. Also MR has planned to have no songs in Yuva. Much to the talks going on, he doesn’t have to follow the Ram Gopal Varma’s way. For already he had thoughts of making movies with no songs during Alai Payuthey’s time.

Currently :

Reading – The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It is a riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilaratingly brainy thriller.

Listening – All That She Wants and Cruel Summer by Ace of Base.

Watching – Tempation Island 3 in FOX. Horribly sick show but it’s still tempting. Reality TV you see.

The talk of the town is webulagam.com’s review of Shankar’s BOYS. It is the one of the most damaging review till day on BOYS. The review points out only Sabu Cyril’s art direction and Ravi K. Chandran’s cinematography as the highlights of the movie. It decides the arrival of Shankar’s first failure after haf-a-dozen movies. Even Rediff’s review wasn’t promising enough. Am eagerly waiting to watch the movie.

These reviews could directly affect the box-office collections and might result in huge losses. Though they say that BOYS was never produced at 22 crores. And all it cost was only 10 crores max.

It was a fun filled weekend in Wisconsin Dells. As we were driving towards wis dells, we could see thousands of bikers heading towards milwaukee to participate in the Harley-Davidson Birthday Bash. It was so cool to see such a global event happening just around the corner.

Many of my Indian friends mailed me on the Boys Debate. Looks like the movie is well placed for being a hit. But many of them are still arguing it for a yet-another-movie.

Mani Ratnam is presumably done with his first schedule of Ayutha Ezhuthu. The movie might be released by Apr 2004 in Hindi and Tamil. All of it depends on Vivek Oberoi’s healing up. The better rumour in this is that Rahman is out and Sandeep Chowta might be fixed in that place. However, I personally feel Mani would still go with Rahman given the rumours that were floating around before Alai Payuthey.

Talking about Alai Payuthey, I remember that whole of y’day we must have played Endrendrum Punnagai in the car for more than 20 times and the music is still fresh. AR Rahman’s synthesized husky voice and the on-the-move music blend so well. Especially the Hey! Here you go rap in the song, sung by Pravin Mani is a sure highlight. I tried so hard those days to get the lyrics right and then no stopping from there. As you drive down your bike through the streets of chennai, keep singing this rap and checkout your soaring energy levels.

Here is the lyrics of Hey ! Here we go :

Hey!! Here we go
I revved up on the marches
Singing with the hip-the-hop
Once again in effect
Feel the constant
Slamming of the bassline
Never mess around with the funk
Because I’m sticking
Kicking always finger lickin
I dont need halloween
Just to be trick or trippin
Cause I’m always on top
Ki wiggudu waggudu
Jiggudu joganna
Hey Wassup !!

And if you see someone zipping in black spelndor, singing this rap aloud, say Hey Wassup. ‘ Cause all possibilities that it is me 😉

I subscribed for the rediffmail mobile service by paying yearly subscription and it works cool all the way. I am able to send sms to any mobile in India / US through this service. It is definetely a cool option for people here in US who want to reach out to their friends, instantly. The better thing in the service is that the replies which people send from mobiles comes as an email. Go for it !!

It is going to be one of the most crowded weekend in US. It is the last chance in this year to go out and roam around as the fall gets started and roaming around would be tough. So people celebrate this long labour day weekend by travelling across US cities. We are starting to wisconsin dells in another 2 hours and I am still here in office doing some bug-fixing.

I live in the mid-west US near a highway that leads to Milwaukee. The weird bike noices that I hear are today are from Harley-Davidson Bike lovers who are travelling to Milwaukee for 100th Birthday Bash of Harley-Davidson Company. More than 300,000 bikers converging on Milwaukee. Probably one of the biggest birthday parties ever.

But the hottest thing currently is Madonna open-mouthed kiss with Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears in the MTV Video Music Awards. the camera focused on Justin Timberlake’s face as Britney shared the kiss with Madonna and he looked annoyed. What a blank expression on his face to see his ex-girl friend Britney doing it with Madonna. Shankar’s Boys were missing in action here !! . Probably they are rocking SAREGAMA in Indian MTV Awards.

Back in Chicago on a business trip and I am all set to miss the screening of boys. But no issues, Boys is screened here on 5th september. I hope to check it out. No idea of watching it in DVD. As such the movie is only to be watched in a theatre.

BTW, the climate here is amazing. Inbetween summer and fall is the best time to be in US. We desis are planning a trip to niagra on the coming long weekend. Not sure if we will make it ‘coz the hotels are already booked a couple of months back. We might end up with Wisconsin Dells, a scenic place with tons of theme parks and what not.

Kurangena Pudhichatha
Udumbena Pudi Pudi
Adikadi Varuma Sandharpam
Announce Panni Varumaa
Label Otti Varumaa
Oru Naal Vandha
SEIZE THE DAY….

1 more day to go…