Let us not behave like ostriches

I am no fan of the PMK, neither of 'maruthuvar' ramadoss or his son. But Anbumani Ramadoss seems to be serious about his concerns. It does'nt look like any sort of political gimmick to me. well, even if it is, all for a good cause.
An article about his take on alcohol appeared in 'The Hindu'. Reading it will definitely give anyone concerns about the present indian society. Especially the statistics and the reasons behind the Union cabinet minister's remarks, which are alarming.

The counter attack on the Union cabinet minister for health and family welfare was launched by Big B. Big B went on to say that the government does'nt cut the sale of alcohol but is bent on targetting 'artists' like himself and others who consume dilated tea or coloured water onscreen pretending to be drunkards. This is not correct. This is just escapado. The union minister's concerns are right. what amitabh bachchan drinks on screen does'nt matter. His acting is 'par excellence' and poor youngsters ;-) definitely will take up to drinking after seeing his movies. well, not just him , him and his co-'superstars'. Young indians are very attracted to super heroes and super heroism. Does anbumani have the power to cut down the sale of alcohol is yet another question. You need to be politically correct to answer it. But as a 'health and family welfare' minister, he has every right to point such happenings in India and that's what he has done. Amitabh bachchan might be owning thousands of crores of properties, exaggerating here. & so, as a result, he does'nt have to worry for anything. A lost kidney can easily be replaced. Thats the not the case with crores of normal indians who have'nt raised themselves to a 'Big' superstar's status.
Finishing this entry, a thing to be highlighted here is that people like Big B dont need to think big. They should'nt think like a rich man ( a rich man he is , yes ). Come down to the level of an ordinary man. Think of his welfare. Is that the only role that you can do ? that of a drunkard ?! have you not done enough of such roles already ? dont you think you can stop all this once for all ? do you not have enough money already ? Give back to india what indians have given to you. Not money, good manners on screen which 'blind' indian youngsters will anyway emulate. A big thanks if you would listen. But dont stop with just that. Go for a campaign against drinking, against smoking and against all things which you dont want your sons and grandsons to follow !!

வெள்ளிதிரை

The first thing i would like to say about the silver-screen is that it had somehow managed to attract me to it. I think the seed for this was first sown in my Xth grade dramatics class. Although the events surrounding it is still clear in my mind, i am not able to recollect the exact name of the book from which i took my first stage play. But that was a book that i used to cherish, read all over again and again. The reason is some sort of an insomnia that has overcome me, wherein i have forgotten many things of the past and these days i keep forgetting things which have happened a few minutes back. This gives me an impulsion to record the current state, thoughts of my mind in this Aviyal !!
well, where was i ? ya. the seed which got sown. That seed did not start to grow until my final year at college. Thats a good gap of nearly 6 yrs. I thank god that it did'nt during this time. This is not going to be a good crop. Its going to be an infectious weed. I am sure of that, but again its getting addictive. I kinda forget about it at times and then it gets into my brain again. Maybe that i have to live with it forever. Just hope that it does'nt empty my pockets someday.
so, 2 paragraphs to just avoid my insomnia... whew !
Is it really insomnia or a insomniacal phobia ? I am not really sure. just that i am sure im unstable. well, does'nt really matter. I wanted to start commenting on the movie 'vellithirai' which i just finished watching.
Prakashraj is shown as a struggling actor who has wasted 16 yrs of his life wanting to become an actor.
He looks like some sort of a 'mayakannadi' hero first. But then he becomes an astute villain and cunning 'thalapathi'. It does'nt relate to the actual 'thalapathi' whatsoever in the true sense. But it's just an act of pulling others legs. But then i think they have veered away and stayed clear from pulling everyone's legs just to be on the safe side. Instead they decided to get ahead with a proper story. The story is the least convincing part. They could have been more precise like the shahrukh starrer OSO. That was more entertaining. Pull in a lot of stars and you can create some magic on screen. The songs were good, but i am not sure if it evinced the right interest in the people.
The transition of prakashraj's character, i felt, was rather quite abrupt. Its convincing alright. Then the movie that prithviraj shoots without prakashraj's knowledge is also ookk, convincing, as convincing as prakash's acting in those scenes.
so whats missing then. why does'nt this movie go for a silver jubilee ?
Because such star cast is getting common and the 'pulling power' is weak. You need to have a even more stronger story line to pull-in audiences.
But again as with 'arai en 305il kadavul', the director/producer/the whole team as such, should'nt give up hope and keep giving such different movies for which tamil cinema is starting to get famous for, alongwith the usual hoopla stuff.

Dudley

careless planning can lead inadvertently to bad adventure & in this case left me thinking, some good memories some bad ones.
When i started at 6 p.m in the evening to the wheatsheaf bus stop, the first mistake i did was to not note the journey planner properly. But yes, this should be the second mistake as the first mistake itself was to have a 'journey planner' instead of calling someone & finding out the best route !!
The 3rd was then to board bus number 57 after i missed 600. The fourth was to take 126 and get down at the wrong stop. The fifth was to take 120 and get down 2 stops before where i should have got down.
The only good thing that happened in all this was i met 2 pakistani guys and my impressions of pakistanis changed. The first man was himself not sure of where the temple was. So where did the temple come from. Ok. I had planned to start to the balaji temple at 6 p.m and thats the reason for me making the journey planner first.
Righto. So with the first pakistani man. He asked me to get down 2 stops after where he got down & this was oldbury. Our conversations started with whether i knew urdu and that hindi is closer to urdu etc., and when it was nearing its end, he told me - brother, pareshaan mat hona. wohan hamare log hain, woh aapko rastha dikhayenge.
The second man was a taxiwala and he took me off after i got down due to the forcing of a caribbean lady in bus number 120. I got down mainly because i saw the bus driver and felt sympathetic for him. Also that i saw that 87 has a stop at that point.
He was almost crying after my conversations with him and the lady :(
The second man left me at the entrance , did not take money from him ( i didnt offer him any because i sincerely felt that he did it just out of humanity for his own kind and because he thought i was lost )

And what was the last conversation we had - 'so where r u from ? India, chennai. i am from islamabad, pakistan. pray for me too to your god. bye. cheers. thanks'.
vroooom....
hindustan, pakistan - circumstance. bhai-bhai ; keep this thought going.

To the director of 'Arai En 305il kadavul'

Dear chimbudevan,

At a time when we have meaningless tamil movies getting released all over the world one cant help but wonder why some mediocre 'starless' but still kinda ok movies dont get that recognition. I would'nt say that 'arai en...' is a fantastic movie, neither is it a dud like 'kuruvi', but then the attempt is different. Its not a run of the mill movie. Its theatrical and thats what i like most.
General readers: Its not that the director does'nt know that god is more than a 'man with a galaxy box', but that he just wanted to have a 'god-as-human' theme and employed a simple idea.
Chimbu: keeping things simple is alright, very effective; but then you should also be ready to brave the fact that your movie wont make a 100 round days !

But that should'nt dishearten you -the director nor the producer. Keep making such different movies so that 'goodfellas' like me dont lose hope. Only that make it in such a way that people dont avoid ur movie coz its philosophical.

we dont want to see action stunts or 'naach-gaana'; we want movies which have some 'theatrical stuff' in them. But try to steer away from 'convey-good-messages' subjects for a while now. people will start branding you and thats not useful for you.
Cheers and keep up the good work and yes, maintain your newly formed team of v.s.raghavan, rajesh etc., good to see them all back.


BR,
Badri.