Men in Kakhi

Courtesy Behindwoods

These are some of the police roles on the silver screen that I enjoyed. I have grouped them into two categories OLD and NEW.

OLD
***

Thanga Padhakkam - Sivaji
Honest police office ku oru eduthu kattu. Given I was not born when this movie released, I should admit that some scenes were overacted by Sivaji Ganesan. But, the pride that he expressed as an officer on duty was amazing.

Kadamai Ganniyam Kattupadu - Satyaraj
Back then Satyaraj was a budding actor predominantly with negative roles. This had him play a cop - his role was positive with negative shades in them. Though loud and eccentric at times, the character was indeed enjoyable.

Captain Prabakaran, Pulan visaranai, Managara kaaval - Captain
All these stands evidence of captain's acting and fighting capabilities. My personal favourite is pulan visaranai - back then it was a very good thriller. Though, the stunts were not world class almost all the fights were believable. These cop roles were tailor made to match Captains image. On a different note, captain should concentrate on films of this type rather than having stunts where he beats the hell out of 200 people or so.

Chathriyan - Captain
Probably the best cop role that captain has played so far. Very believable stunts and sequences. He is a treat to watch while he is on the revenge mode. 'annachi' the villan was very soft spoken but deadly. PC's camera did the rest.

Agni Natchatram - Prabhu
This was an half hearted choice. But I watched this movie recently(again) so this kind of had an influence while making the choice. However, the "gethu" that Prabhu expresses was awesome. In particular the scene on the electric train when he tries to save his sister from rowdies. And the scene in which he arrests Karthik and subsequently the scene in which Karthik gets bailed out stands evidence for the composure of the role. This was not a primary choice because Prabhu was a bit to big to be a police officer and he used his official power for personal issues often.

NEW
***

Gentleman - Saranraj
Career best performance by Saranraj. "verri, verri, policekaran verri", "naan onnum tension agala ma, rathnam" - very good performance. The scene in which his head gets shaved, backed up with some thrilling score by ARR, was awesome. Unfortunately for Saranraj he was not able to take off his career from here on.

Kurudhi Punal - Kamal and Arjun
This is probably the most realistic tamil movie I've ever seen. In particular, I liked the interrogation scenes. Very believable stunts and down to earth dialogs. Kamal and Arjun lookes dashing as cops expecially in the kakhi uniforms.

Kakka Kakka - Surya
Surya lived as Anbuchelvan. His body language, dialogs(or absence of it) and feelings for maya were very believable and down to earth. "gethu" was full-on in his role. "Police officer naley oru thani mariyadhai irrukula..." - salute you Anbuchelvan sir.

Raam - Rahman
Down to earth character. This characted grew on me because out of all the roles I mentioned this was the only one which had no stunt sequences. However, the whole police station set up and behaviours of all the policemen was very believable.

Lets wait and see if Vettaiyadu Velaiyadu makes it into my list!

Born Into Brothels

(Image Couresy: Rikks Revues)

Born Into Brothels is a documentary that is set in the red-light district of the Calcutta city, West Bengal, India. The movie is an account on the efforts by a couple of people in bringing a change in the life of the kids who were born in the district.

The movie serves as a measure to show what the kids born in such districts are capable of given the right chances. A group of kids under the supervision of Zana Briski try their hands on photography. I should admit that some of the photos took me by surprise. These are kids who are under continuous sorrow and pressure. Please do read the article about this movie on Kids with Camera and here on the Smithsonian Magazine.

(Image Courtesy: Kids With Camera)

No wonder this movie won the AcademyAward, IMO, it deserves every bit of it. Please do not be surprised by the other awards(and the number of awards) that this movie has won. A set of pictures taken by the children can be found in VKPR.

A must watch for all.

Kamalhaasan's Best - IMO

No questions about Kamal's talent in almost all fields of the Film Industry. These are some of the best scenes/techniques IMO that Kamal has performed/employed.

Salangai Oli
The scene where kamal, after being criticised for a bad review he had made on a fame-conscious dancer, goes through with her showing her how to dance for that sequence in various dance forms. This scene goes about showing his talents in Dancing. This sence is IMO one of the best in this movie.

Moondram Pirai
I read in one of the blogs about this one. The blogger view in my words.In this movie Sridevi steals the show(thanks to her acting capabilities as a crazy girl) throughout the movie. Kamal all through the movie has to underplay his part. But during the finishing 10 minutes you get to watch some mind-blowing performance from Kamal that he easily walks away with the National Award. I totally concur with this view. Every time I watch it I have a lump in my throat when he runs over the post in the station. Excellent.

Kurudhi Punal
There are a num of things that I liked about this movie. Technically superior than any other films then released. If I am not wrong the first tamil movie to use Dolby. The sound effects were amazing. The characters were down to earth and so was their acting. Kamal-Nasser interogation scene is simply one of the best. "Aaadhi DC, romba neermaiyana komban !" had a bit of command to it and were not merely dialogs.

Nayagan
The scene where he cries after finding out that his son is dead. Though there were many spoofs made out of it one has to accept the fact that it is one of the best scenes.

Saathi Leelavathi
The introduction of Kamal is sure to raise laughs. The manner in which Ramesh Aravind tries to escape from Kamal, Kamal's repeated efforts to get a glimpse of Heera not knowing that she is in fact with Ramesh Aravind, not to mention the Coimbatore Tamil Slang(BTW,I am from Coimbatore) - just hilarious.

Aboorva Sahodhargal
Apart from the dwarf role in the movie there are a few other aspects that impressed me very much. I watched this movie again recently. After the beginning credits the scene opens showing a hut - I went like "what's this ?" - then all of a sudden you have a car running through the roof of the hut being chased by "appa" kamal - this was very new. One other aspect that impressed me was the lighting during the earlier scenes. If I am not wrong it was by PC sir. No wonder. Another notable aspect was the background music - the mosic is very hard and fast paced diuring the fighting scenes by "appa" kamal and all of a sudden the great Raja switches over melody when showing Srividya on the boat. The melody is very smooth and very refreshing. Does any one know if these background/theme music by raja is online ?

MMKR
The scene where the cook kaameeshwaran in an accident gets a fish in his pocket and the scenes following that. He will drop it into the sambhar and will say "modhakaradhu...neenjaradhu" - he will also ask for "meen pidikara karandi irruka" - for a minute everyone will seem to speak about the fish. "I mean what I mean by all means, enna ellarum mean mean gra". Fine comedy.

Punnagai Mannan
The musical interlude and the dance sequence for that is one of the best scenes in the movie. The way he accepts Revathi's love and tears away his egoistic mask all throughout the dance and the sequence that follows. Hallmark of dancing and acting. If Salangai Oli showcased his bharathanatiyam talents this one showcased his more western dance talents.

This list can go on for another page or two but I have decided to stop it here.
Some of his other best movies include Arengetram, Avargal, Varumai in Niram Sivapu, Dhevar Magan, Hey Ram, Mahanadhi.

Happy Birthday to Kamal and good luck for VV and Dhasaavatharam.

Movies I am looking forward for...

Ghajini
Looks to be a techically well made movie. The stills and the trailer looks very good. If the story helps and so does the screenplay we are in for a good one. The directors previous movies have been good so lets hope this one is good as well.

Athu Oru Kanaa Kaalam
Dhanush was very good in the movie Kadhal Kondean. Thanks to some bad selections by Dhanush his recent movies were terrible. Balumahendra is known for emotional human drama (his "veedu" is my favourite). I am looking forward for this movie.

Thotti Jaya
I have started liking Simbhu after Manmadhan. Hopefully he pulls out this time also. He , I beleive, has immense talent but it is being utilized to cater his image. He should make sensible films to become a good actor.

Rajini and Kamal movies are always in my list.

Lets wait and see.

Rajini/Shankar/AVM

Will it be Mudhalvan part-2 ?

or

Will it be a Social-message giving movie ? (Like Gentleman, Indian, Anniyan)

or

Will it be a light-hearted movie like Jeans ?

or

I dont want it to be like Boys, anyone does ?

or

Will it be a Hi-Fi Thriller (like the on-the-shelf "Robot") ?

or

Will Shankar come up with something very new ?

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My observations on Rajini Movies(Recent ones) and on Shankar Movies

Rajini Movie - He will be larger-than-life and all the other charaters in the movie will have either larger-than-life love or enimity won Rajini. The art direction will be dramatic and grand.

Shankar Movie - Hero will be larger-than-life and all the other charaters in the movie will be very down to earth. The art direction will be close-to-real life and very beleivable.

Any comments ? These are just my views.

SA Great

(Image Courtesy: SA Great)

If you live in South Australia you might have come across this logo. Many metro buses have an advertisement about SA Great on them not to mention the ads that run on local TV channels.

"SA Great is a membership-based organisation committed to the promotion of South Australian successes; local individuals and organisations making a real contribution to the growth and identity of our State." - Text courtesy SA Great.

Take a look at this year's winners and a brief about everyone of them over here. I feel that there should be such org's for every district in India. Lots of inspirational people go unnoticed. Most of those people dont mind going unnoticed but everyone else must mind this.

Edhirparpom !

PC for Rupees 9990

(Image Courtesy: BBC)

With India's name bouncing up everytime one spells IT there is a need for computer penetration within the mass. Yes, India has one of the largest population of people using computers but the question of the day is does India have the largest population of people owning computers. Well, the answer is not far away considering the exponential fall of computer prices in India.

I picked up this one from BBC Madras about HCL selling computers for less than 10000 rupees. To be exact for 9990 rupees. Its very clear from the outset that the machines will not be the cutting edge ones but the real point is do we need cutting edge PC's for everyone. Check out the specifications and details over here.

Welcome move !