Illayaraja is all set to launch his long time aspiration, Thiruvasakam Symphony. Thiruvasakam, a divine Tamil literatute of south India is one of the most philosophical compositions of Manikavasagar. One God, Universal Brotherhood, Attaining Liberation through Love, and Immortality of the soul were its goals. Its english version was written by Rev. G.U Pope, Rome before a century. More on Thiruvasakam here.
The music recording is planned in the month of November at Hungary. The same place where Raja recorded his first symphoney and the Kamalhassan’s HEY RAM. The Hungarian Orchestra is well reknown for their class in symphony music. Raja is getting ready for the recording with some of the best singers from India.
Mastro Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club, an online fan club has donated more than 1.3 lakhs for this major project. It’s a fair deal of money by his true followers. Appreciate their love on Raja.
I was into this news incidentally when me and a group of friends were listening to Raja’s Nothing But Wind. Nothing but wind is nothing but magic. I am so amazed how he could use the only flute to create emotions ranging from agony to pain to sensuality to scary. His last symphony was never released in India. I am sure this one will be released with a lot of publicity. He is still the only maestro, rocking.
Enakku thevayellam ettu mani nera thookam, poo pola naalu idli, pudhina chatney, mansakku niraivana vellai, appa ammavoda oru kai rummy, pooncholai kiramathilai oru azhaghana ratchashi – Mudhalvan
Zoom…
And now BOYS.
Completing half-a-dozen movies successfully with BOYS is the whiz kid Shankar. Brought up in the neighborhoods of Chennai and having done his schooling and college in Chennai, this is shankar’s wish to celebrate the coming of the age of adolescence. His boldness to describe BOYS as they are has helped him to come out of his pedestrian fantasy movies.
Keeping out the controversies of the media to the end of this review, Boys is a movie with no false pretensions, no intended puns and a no-nonsense movie. Even if you have the smallest nail in the world, I can write the story on it. Five guys and a girl find their hidden talents due to unforeseen situations and take an elevator to their career. The thread that unites them is friendship and love. What begins as a small time eve teasing ends up in a relationship that displays a spectrum of emotions, debacles and re-unions.
Sidharth playing the quasi-hero, leaves a distinctive influence of a typical lover boy in us. Harini playing the full-time heroine is the most natural of all the characters. To use an often used cliche, amazingly brilliant performance. Not a typical heroine to just run around those lavender farms. To our surprise, she often gives a FINGER. Good one.
The other BOYS have done their best and ‘natural acting’ comes so easily to them. That innocent looking Kumar has given a flambuyoant performance. Vivek as Mangalam sir is a typical drunkard whom we find in every other bar in Chennai. He has downplayed his comic sense to match the character. The surprise is senthil’s cameo role. It is a sure shot shankar punch to explain Information is wealth through a most unassuming character of senthil. Glimpses of classic characterization.
A loosely written screenplay has let down shankar’s ambition of unfolding the carpet of The Pimple Age. Nearly the first half of the movie is spent to wade through the life of collegers. But there is honesty in the depiction. Every mischief of these boys is nothing but true. None of them has the slightest exaggeration. From girls to cigarettes to beers to porno movies to ‘first experiences’ do happen in the life of a college guy. Trying to pack all these mischiefs among these five boys made the boys look like bad exceptions of the college crowd. Though everyone who has gone through that phase could feel a pinch of them in these boys. If you can’t, write-off, you are an exception.
A R Rahman has added his part to the celebration. Seven songs which are certainly the best of tamil music, this year. Vaali’s lyrics for the Secret of Success is the best of all. The small songs, which haven’t appeared in the CDs, are worth a mention. ARR – Shankar combination is known for fantastic BGMs like Ni Sa Ri Sa in jeans etc.. ARR has not done his best in BGMs for Boys like what he did for the songs. Not a single BGM stays back in our minds.
Writer Sujatha‘s down-to-earth dialogues forms the core of the movie. Bringing in the local taminglish lingo of chennai has been a cakewalk for him. The punch comes when harini replies to her father, who ditched his lover for wealth. She says ” You kept my name as harini because it was your ex-girlfriends name. You are still living in thoughts of her. I don’t want to repeat you. I cannot ditch my boyfriend (munna) and then keep my son’s name as munna“. Listen to these lines with the context and you would appreciate it. Except for some dialogues, which are explicit, sujatha proves he is a clean observer of surroundings. The wineshop scene where the boys meet mangalam sir is typical. Dialogues like OTMP are very common in the badly lit, improperly maintained wineshops of chennai.
The proper villains of BOYS are the unwanted graphics. Trying his hand on 3D animation Shankar spoils the quality of songs. The BOOM BOOM song is the biggest let down. The 3D animated character of BOYS in-between this song is horrible. It spoiled the feel and the sets of the song. Those unwanted graphic leaves during ALE ALE are also irritating to the core. How can someone like shankar afford to include such cheap animation in the picturesque Tasmania gardens? Also Ravi K Chandran has done an OK job. Not like the powerful shots in Kannathil Muthamitaal.
Shankar’s over-confidence in his art of selling situations to audience has failed this time. Many scenes including the climax look very ordinary without any build-up sequences. Especially that most artificial scene where all the parents meet together just to hear the often-repeated dialogue that television spoils the kids, from vivek. If 22 crores was the original spending for boys, it’s a lavish waste of money.
Coming back to the controversies created by the HYPOCRITIC media and a portion of public who argue that the many scenes in BOYS are obscene and vulgar in nature. Go back a couple of years in the cinema history. The same Chennai had a special screening of Deep Mehta’s Fire exclusively for women in Anand theatre. What a movie to have special screening for women. Surprisingly the show was housefull. A movie that depicts an illegitimate relationship (this type of relationship is still illegitimate in India) between two women, in the same conservative Indian society, is running full houses. But a movie that depicts the lives of five boys as they are is protested to be cut left, right and center to accommodate public interest. Appreciate the height of bias. I’ll have the last laugh. Despite the shortcomings, just for the honesty of filmmaking, I support BOYS. Do you ?
Along came a group of friends with me the Burger King to hog some burgers. One of my diet conscious friend ordered : Grilled DOUBLE Cheeseburger and a DIET Coke. Diet huh !!
Hurray !! We guys are getting ready to watch the United States Grand Prix 2003 in Indianapolis on Sep 28th. A couple of my friends have already booked the seats. We are still trying for a gallery ticket, atleast. I never even thought in my wildest dreams that I can witness a Formula 1 especially when Schumacher is right there in pole position.
All of us we let down when he crashed at 150 mph while testing in monza. But this report says he will be fit for the forthcoming race. Lets hope that we can make it.
Today’s dinamalar has the best scoop about Boys preview show. It says the tamil superstar rajnikanth who came for the preview show, sent his daughters back home after the first half hour of Boys movie. The best part of the news is that even writer sujatha’s( the dialogue writer of boys) wife went home after an hour of the movie in a seperate car.
The worst breakdown for Shankar is being compared with Selvaraghavan for the genuinity of Boys story. But this news says that after thulluvatho illamai released shankar dumped 55 thousand feet of film which he had shot and shot back 4 lakh feet of movie again. FYI : Only 16,000 feet is required for an entire movie.
All this news and scoops only triggers my interest to watch the movie. A perfect audience for this movie is my cousin who is just in his first year of his engineering. All he has to say is that except the first half of the movie which contains these vulgar-reality stuff the movie was an excellant watch. Infact he cried during the second half of the movie when the boys find their way through the hardship. With this judgement, I am sure that shankar has achieved what he wanted to. His target audience are the college grads and he has won their acceptance.
The Hindu’s review is also pretty subtly hinting about the failure of Boys to provide a compelling story. Read it here.
kirukkal.com 