there are some movies which cannot or should not be reviewed ,Rajni movies definitely fall in that category.Don't get me wrong here , the reason why we cant review it is , reviews dont matter , the story or ensemble cast doesnt matter , a Rajni movie is above all these things , its a phenomenon in itself. A lot of ppl who are not from south may not understand , but Ranjni is not an áctor' in Tamil Nadu (actually entire south ) he is THE 'Superstar'. He appears in only 1 movie in a couple of years and fans eagerly wait for his darshan. By fans its not just rural folk/lower class , but city folks too and a huge crowd of techies/software engineers who are spread all over the world.Blogosphere is full of blogs about how eagerly they are waiting for superstar's movie !
Though im not a big Rajni fan , i feel you just deny the fact the man has the charisma n appeal and is a phenomenon , movies with Rajni needs just Rajni , fans just want a darshan with typical style n mannerisms.So when i set out to watch the movie 'Sivaji' on a hot sultry evening in Dubai , i had my expectations (-> superstar + lots of style , action , some comedy and a cute girl with values as heroine) in the right place , which i believe is important while watching movie of any genre. it was a monday evening in Dubai and the movie hall we were going to had 300 seats , like in India , here also Rajni sells and we could not get tickets at all in Dubai ! So we headed out to nearby city of Sharjah in a cab from dubai ! When the movie had released , i was earlier amused when i heard tales of ppl from Chennai going to other cities to watch the movie and suprisingly here i was doing the same.getting there was in itself an interesting , movie like experience , getting cabbies and arranging the trip to shrajah for 8 of us and seeing a new city was memorable.
We saw lot of southindians out there and saw a shop called madras grocery , where some us bought pickles n such typical tam stuff and then we followed it up with an early dinner @ Saravana bhavan ! it never felt like we were in middle east , we sitting in a huge table and talkin in tamil and the whole place was full of south indians that really set the mood for the evening.
So lemme get straight to the movie , the recipe ( perfected for Rajni movies over years) was there , the ingredients were definetly there , ppl handling it were the best lot of tamil cinema ( shankar n his crew is the best u can think of ) but the final effect was not what i was really looking forward to ! it simply was not what i wanted , something was missing considering the hype , the potential of ppl involved the final effort was def not justified , but who cares , its a Rajni movie they say and he is there and i guess thats all counts for most !for ppl like me who were looking for a 'movie' along with superstar, there's bound to be some dissapointments.Having said that it was not all that bad i definetly though it was worth my dirhams !
Rajni was usual self and was in top form , supporting cast was adequate , Shriya was nice eye-candy and fitted the role , 'item-girl' Nayantara was wow ! Vivek was in top from with his one-liners n his terrific comic timing with Rajni had everyone in splits. The first half was just not what i had in mind , it was a let-down for me personally , a view shared by most ppl in my group. the story was typical Shankar stuff , one man taking on the system for the benefit of masses , it was fight against money laundering /black money in this particular case. But dialogues and pacing of songs ( though masterpieces by themselves ) was really bad !but i guess overall the movie must have addressed Ranji's fan base , it was for the masses, it had all the fantasies of tamil male viewer , there were references to MGR , sivaji and even Rajni's prev films , i liked the bit "enna koduma saravana"and ref to vadivelu during comedy scenes , all in all a movie for the fans ...but still felt that it as a movie lacked the punch we wud have expected ...
i read this one the movie reviews and when i saw the movie , i realised how true it was , there was scene were rajni while trying to woo shriya gets stuck on a track & is about to be run over by the train. the same was true for movie til then , it was bout to be run over by the expectations and if it proceed at that pace would have been smashed to bits n pieces. But shriya comes along waving here duppata n saves the hero and funnily after that point film also gets saved. The pace picks up , Rajni starts to kick ass and get into the role we are familiar with the trademark style satements , superhero stunts and dialogues all fall into place and it is an amzing journey after that. Most of our movies begin well and lose the fizz subsequently and endings are weak points in most of Indian movies , but here was a glorious exception , i absolutely loved the last 15 min , where Rajni transforms himself into MGR from Sivaji , his appearance n screen presence was terrific and the last 15 min made the movie for me ! The movie is supposed to have one of the highest budgets in Tamil Cinema , agreed the sets were grand n all , but still was wondering where all that money went , the final 5-10 min gave me an idea of how so much money was spent ;-)
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
A cat n mouse game !
Writing had always been first in the list of things i 'wanted' to do .. though i did make attempts at writing fiction, i never completed anything ; also sad part of bout my attempts was that none my stories packed the punch. As with most stories these days mine also had its moments but when it came to finishing i realised that i was pathetic. Though i kind of fixed that urge to write by coming up with this blog where i keep ranting bout lotsa usual stuff . Since i found myself outta work for some time , thought of makin another shot at fiction , starting another story
(disclaimer: it could b loong boring and may or may not make sense as i still havent figured out an ending )
i was sitting in my bus and was reading a book which i had picked up purely on whim one day from a bookstore , the name somehow appealed to me . im always good at pickin books which are gr8 reads . the book in Q was called "My name is red" written by a turkish author and it did turn out to a real good one , but thats not the point here. i was reading this particular book while i was travelling to my office as i was telling you , i happened to read a chapter which was bout a guy returning to a city where the person he loved lived after a gap of 12 yrs. She had married , but her husband was missing on warfront ... by fotuitous circumstance he happens to catch a glimpse of her one day . I closed the book and was thinkin that it had been 12 months since i last spoke to my ex-girl friend . Not that i was sad or anything , infact i was amazed at how i din feel bad at all considering that previously after break-ups i used to be such an emotional mess and would invariably jump into a realtionship witin a few months , but this time i hadnt wavered , and also for the first time i broke it off ( nothin to b proud of , but a first all the same ! )Now that i have set the tone , let me get back to my story , after closing the book , started walking to my office from the busstop , the whole campus is really huge and swarming with ppl , as i walking to my building i saw a familiar face , i saw her from distance , infact it was not my eyes that noticed her , i knew even before my eyes saw her that it was 'her' - 'she who must not be named'.we were still a sufficient distance apart and i was suddenly flustered as my eyes confirmed that i was indeed 'her and the red line of sindoor drawn on her forehead was clear "RED" signal for me. it wasnt the old her and only one word flashed before me 'Avoid' , i just wanted to get away , i quickly changed directions and moved into a buliding nearby , i realised that i cud hear my hearbeating and that i was feelin a little hot under collar !!!i still couldnt beleive my rotten luck for she used to work elsewhere in another part of the country !moreover i had resigned my job as i was takin up a new assigment and would be speding most of the time abroad.i just had a little more than a week left and i badlywanted leave that part of my past which involved her among many other things behind.I quicly went to my desk and realised i was early , i grabbed a cup of cofee and stood near the window watching the entrance to my building and to my relief foumdout that she wasnt in my bulding and hence not in my department. So there was hope yet , i just had to watch my step. with thousands of ppl around i was sure i could move around for another 10 days unnoticed !It was evening and a colleague asks my why im working so hard daily even though i have quit the job ! I quickly close the chat windows and mails/articles that i was reading and lean across my desk and shout back saying "i get so immersed in this that i never realise it!" ( boy i can shoot crap !). But anyways since most of frens r offline , i think its time to shut shop , so leave with her. we walk till the busstand , then i move to the terminus where buses heading to my directions come and i find that there are 3 buses which are about to start. There were around 50 odd buses starting in that 20 min period from that terminus and 3 to my place. I choose one ( thinkin bout the how narrow the odds were for another encounter with 'you know who' ) and i get in and i get this strange feelin again and there 'she' was sitting in the front row near door , she was talkin on phone but i was sure she saw me , i quicly moved in and took a seat in the back row, By now i kinda figued that she mite living in same area as me ( had to be !) Since the place i lived was at almost in the heart of the city , the we were always caught in traffic jams , so i thought of gettin down 1 stop before mine and i was sure that if i walked i will reach at the same time as the bus reached the stop. I crossed the road and walked to stop near my home and headed into a store nearby from there i watched the bus coming slowly past the traffic and people started disembarking and just as i thought she got down at the same stop ! To my relief she lived a few blocks away from my house and i slowly walked back to my house aware of the cat n mouse game that awaited me daily at my office.
(to be continued ...)
Ps: Thanks for all the comments , unfortunately had to hide the comments as you ppl commented before reading the full story , i do plan to complete it pretty soon , got held up lots of stuff after moving to Dubai , hence the delay !
(disclaimer: it could b loong boring and may or may not make sense as i still havent figured out an ending )
i was sitting in my bus and was reading a book which i had picked up purely on whim one day from a bookstore , the name somehow appealed to me . im always good at pickin books which are gr8 reads . the book in Q was called "My name is red" written by a turkish author and it did turn out to a real good one , but thats not the point here. i was reading this particular book while i was travelling to my office as i was telling you , i happened to read a chapter which was bout a guy returning to a city where the person he loved lived after a gap of 12 yrs. She had married , but her husband was missing on warfront ... by fotuitous circumstance he happens to catch a glimpse of her one day . I closed the book and was thinkin that it had been 12 months since i last spoke to my ex-girl friend . Not that i was sad or anything , infact i was amazed at how i din feel bad at all considering that previously after break-ups i used to be such an emotional mess and would invariably jump into a realtionship witin a few months , but this time i hadnt wavered , and also for the first time i broke it off ( nothin to b proud of , but a first all the same ! )Now that i have set the tone , let me get back to my story , after closing the book , started walking to my office from the busstop , the whole campus is really huge and swarming with ppl , as i walking to my building i saw a familiar face , i saw her from distance , infact it was not my eyes that noticed her , i knew even before my eyes saw her that it was 'her' - 'she who must not be named'.we were still a sufficient distance apart and i was suddenly flustered as my eyes confirmed that i was indeed 'her and the red line of sindoor drawn on her forehead was clear "RED" signal for me. it wasnt the old her and only one word flashed before me 'Avoid' , i just wanted to get away , i quickly changed directions and moved into a buliding nearby , i realised that i cud hear my hearbeating and that i was feelin a little hot under collar !!!i still couldnt beleive my rotten luck for she used to work elsewhere in another part of the country !moreover i had resigned my job as i was takin up a new assigment and would be speding most of the time abroad.i just had a little more than a week left and i badlywanted leave that part of my past which involved her among many other things behind.I quicly went to my desk and realised i was early , i grabbed a cup of cofee and stood near the window watching the entrance to my building and to my relief foumdout that she wasnt in my bulding and hence not in my department. So there was hope yet , i just had to watch my step. with thousands of ppl around i was sure i could move around for another 10 days unnoticed !It was evening and a colleague asks my why im working so hard daily even though i have quit the job ! I quickly close the chat windows and mails/articles that i was reading and lean across my desk and shout back saying "i get so immersed in this that i never realise it!" ( boy i can shoot crap !). But anyways since most of frens r offline , i think its time to shut shop , so leave with her. we walk till the busstand , then i move to the terminus where buses heading to my directions come and i find that there are 3 buses which are about to start. There were around 50 odd buses starting in that 20 min period from that terminus and 3 to my place. I choose one ( thinkin bout the how narrow the odds were for another encounter with 'you know who' ) and i get in and i get this strange feelin again and there 'she' was sitting in the front row near door , she was talkin on phone but i was sure she saw me , i quicly moved in and took a seat in the back row, By now i kinda figued that she mite living in same area as me ( had to be !) Since the place i lived was at almost in the heart of the city , the we were always caught in traffic jams , so i thought of gettin down 1 stop before mine and i was sure that if i walked i will reach at the same time as the bus reached the stop. I crossed the road and walked to stop near my home and headed into a store nearby from there i watched the bus coming slowly past the traffic and people started disembarking and just as i thought she got down at the same stop ! To my relief she lived a few blocks away from my house and i slowly walked back to my house aware of the cat n mouse game that awaited me daily at my office.
(to be continued ...)
Ps: Thanks for all the comments , unfortunately had to hide the comments as you ppl commented before reading the full story , i do plan to complete it pretty soon , got held up lots of stuff after moving to Dubai , hence the delay !
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