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Too many new kids on the block !!

Out of 47 tamil movies released this year, 19 new heroes, 24 new heroines and 80 new comers including directors and singers have been introduced. Is it for Good or Bad ?

Nothing, says Panchu Arunachalam, the master screenplay writer. In his interview with Sun TV, he remarked that the production costs come down heavily because of these new comers. Also there aren’t much call-sheet hungama with these news kids. Also the director has his own way of taking the films instead of getting influenced by the star image.

Will this continue is a big question. While some are here to say many new faces have to go back to their old jobs.

Parthiban Kanavu, the new hit is directed by a new comer, Karu Pazhaniappan. An impressive debutant director with the same touch of class as Keladi Kanmani Vasanth. I could see glimpses of wonderful dialogue writing skills. Yet some scenes were meant just to convey punching dialogues, it is a pretty neat movie. The first scene has an unexpected twist. Hats off for such small twists all along the movie. Even the expressionless Srikanth, wades through the movie with his calm acting. Sneha‘s best movie till day. She plays a dual role and she has done a good job. Except for her irritating smile throughout the movie, she deserves a pat.

Vidyasagar’s Aalankuil song reminds me of Chippi Irukuthu song from Varumayin Niram Sigappu. Though the later is a much classy one, the sudden soothening of tune in the mid-song and the wide angle shots of Srikanth-Sneha walking in a greenish lawn are inspired by Varumayin Niram Sigappu.

A good movie to plan with your family.

Hmmm…So Six months. One hundred and seventeen releases. Eight hits. One hundred and nine flops. According to the trade magazine Film Information, the industry has lost about Rs 110 crores (approximately US $23 million) in 109 of the 117 films released in 2003.

Bollywood has been going bonkers since last 2 years and this is the pinnacle to that. Last year was worse with a total loss of 240 crores. This year it is status quo. Until someone can stop releasing bollywood flicks, think for a minute, re-organize, re-vitalize and re-view the bollywood films before they are released, only god can save them.

Read more from rediff here. Need I say more. They say I am more biased on Kollywood. Am I?

Virumandi‘s shooting has begun. My assumption is that Kamal’s Sandiyar would be renamed as Virumandi – the protagonist’s name. He has reportedly started shooting yesterday in an undisclosed place. However the title is to be yet to be confirmed by him. After his recent encounters with the Tamilnadu politicians, Kamalhassan is pretty cautious about his moves and he is aware that he is closely watched.

The media is reporting that Mani Ratnam’s latest bi-lingual(!) flick is being shot in Chennai’s Boat Club Road. A Kolkatta look-alike set has been erected for the same as thwe story is said to happen in Kolkatta. The film stars Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, Abhishek Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee and Simran. The film is being shot in sync-sound (direct recording of voices and no dubbing). The first Indian film in this category was Kamalhassan’s Hey Ram. Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai also sync-sound technology. It is being said that after the film is shot, Mani will start shooting the same film in Tamil.

However, these are just rumors as there is no confirmed news from Mani’s side. I am very skeptical about this news. I firmly believe Mani Ratnam is the last person who wants to redo the same film again. All his films have been taken once and have been dubbed into other languages. From Kavithanjali (dubbed as Idhayathai Thirudathey) to Dilse (dubbed as Uyire) have been made once. He once remarked in an interview that the most boring thing is to redo the same film. Even Saathiya, which was a re-make from Alai Payuthey, was directed by Shaad Ali, his assistant.

The Reliance 501 scheme has shook the cellular world. In the last 2 days reliance has added more than 2 lakh subcribers becoming the 4 biggest cellular operator in India. When I went to a Reliance R-World showroom, the customer service guy was so busy in attending more 25 customers at a time and it finally looked like a goverment office.

Read that in some places of Bangalore, these guys resorted to the help from police to stop the mob from a law and order violation. I am not sure what is the revenue model behind this scheme 501 because the required documentation is pretty less and there are chances of fraud and defaulted payments. Whatever might it could be but Reliance came into being as a check to the GSM operators. Now it is in action. The best thing that happened because of Reliance is that the mobile phone prices have touched rock-bottom. Nokia 2100 which was selling at 6,800 bucks a month back is just 3,500 in grey market as of today.

Good going. The game has just begun. Watch the fun, unfold.

Also note that from next month pay only Rs. 72/- for your cable operator till further notice from the goverment. In a cold war between the cable operators and the private networks, the CAS issue is put on hold and the govt announced that till further decision on CAS, the cable operators should charge only 72 bucks inclusive of the pay channels. One more monsoon hungama. But be prepared, because of this decision, your cable operator might cut all the pay channels. Get used to private FM radio. Better friend at such times.