Chennai 600028 was not a fluke hit. Venkat Prabhu has a proved this point with his thriller Sa-ro-ja and has clearly shown how to make films with a fraction of the amount budgeted for a Superstar or a Universal Hero film.

With no big names in the lead roles, Venkat Prabhu has given life to the thriller script with his Chennai 600028 style comedy woven into some of the most serious junctions. The story happens over a couple of days when four men from Chennai drive down to Hyderabad to cheer for India in a cricket match. Lost on the way, they stumble upon a gang armed with weapons and waiting to make a 9 digit deal with a business man in Hyderabad.

The four men are the people we meet in our daily life, they are no heroes, yet they carry the story. This thriller movie is a lough riot of sorts. Premji and Shiva seems to have taken a vow to keep the audience in splits and they very well fulfill their vows. Premji’s take on Superstar highlights his potential which has never been properly tapped. Shiva’s accent and his geography knowledge makes you laugh even when the four guys are being chased by the gang. SPB Charan and Vaibhav too have tried their hand in humour and they have pulled it with ease. Prakash Raj of course rocks but the only disappointment is Jayaram’s characterisation – from the very beginning, by the way things happen you very well know that this man is upto something else.

Sakthi Saravanan’s cinematography leaves you spellbound. Three fourth of the movie happens in the night and this cinematographer has played with the lights. You would never believe it was the same guy who gave bleached out visuals for Saroja saaman nikalo song (Chennai 600028) giving the perfect night effect and the slow transition to the morning light towards the end of the film. Yuvan has undoubtedly disappointed with his songs. But the script carries the movie forward inspite the not so interesting songs.

The movie is definitley not to be missed. Venkat Prahu is the real hero here.

Recently I updated my phone’s software and Nokia Maps came as a default application. Till then I thought Nokia Maps were only for N95, 82, etc … Even at the Nokia Maps stall at Citi Centre, the babe in the counter told me N73 cannot use maps. The other day I had called up Airtel to just ask about GPRS but for reasons best known to them, they activated GPRS for my connection. So there is GPRS and Nokia Maps in hand and joblessness in mind. So I started trying it out and it came out to be much much better than expected.

Its very fast. And the maps are almost 50% accurate in terms of geography and location labels. A quick address type to Chennai lands me near the GPO, and from the GPO finding the way to my house in Mylapore was a breeze. Type in your start point and your destination point and there you have right in your screen a real time navigation to the desired destination.

But unlike the Wikimap, the end user does not have any control over location tagging on maps. For instance the Bazaar road in Mylapore is mis-spelt as Bazar road. So anybody searching for Bazaar road is never going to find the right place. So even if I spot a mistake, I cannot correct it. My street has not been named/tagged in the Maps and the end user has no privilege to tag places, so any number of search for my street is going to give no result.

The Nokia Maps TVC was brilliantly conceived and executed, although like all advertisements this one too is a bit exaggerating. This map is good fun to experiment with but needs a lot of correction before it can be used on roads. Another disaster I saw in this map was with the Show route option. I gave the start point and the destination point and searched for the route. The map shows the shortest and the simplest route, it does not give a damn about no entry signs and at times shows roads were motoring is out of question.

The kilometers count which it provides for every route by asking the satellites is accurate enough. Just a few updates and some changes and this map will be a treasure. Nokia can even price it.

Thanks to a delayed meeting, I missed the premiere of Dasavathaaram on Thursday night. Which also means I saved 300 bucks + good 5 hours of sleep. When Dasavathaaram was announced saying Kamal Haasan was the man in front of the camera, Tamil film audience were celebrating. They knew the movie was in safe hands. They knew history was in the making. But then on the first day, sadly Arun and I were in complete splits laughing all through the movie which claims to have a lot of AlGore and Ramanujar in it.

Dasavathaaram on a record breaking spree - After a movie like Aboorva sagodharargal or Michael madana kama rajan or even Aalavandhaan, who would have expected Dasavathaaram to be way behind Vijay’s Azhagiya Tamil Magan. ATM had created records for being crap but Dasavathaaram seems to be beating all of ATM’s records.

When Gautham Menon and Kamal Haasan came together, they gave us a stunning visuals. There were plenty of scenes shot in chroma and keyed to perfection. Expectations were obviously sky high for his next film Dasavathaaram which promised to be released along side with Rajnikanth’s Sivaji. News that Oscar Ravichandran has booked all premium theatres for Dasavathaaram and Sivaji has no theatres available was spreading like a wild fire. Finally, Sivaji released, created records, celebrated victory but yet no signs of Dasavathaaram being released.

Okay, cut the thought that I am a Rajnikanth fan. Whatever movie Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan make, they try to compete with each other. This has been going on for ages right from the time they decided not to work together. So the comparison just comes in.

Visual t(h)reat - Ten Kamal Haasan’s, all different from one another and almost 5 hours is spent on make up everyday. The movie is shot using the latest technology, people from abroad are roped in for technical expertise. The result is a visual threat. Kamal Haasan has been setting higher standards for himself and he has been successful many a times in reaching the great heights but here in Dasavathaaram the make up is pathetic, it is technically terrible. The first time while looking at the movie Indian, people were stunned. When Avvai Shanmugi released, people were amazed. But while watching Dasavathaaram, people only choked.

Honestly Kamal Haasan is someone who made Devar Magan and Anbe Sivam. He also made Panchthanthiram and Sadhileelavathi. But why Dasavathaaram? And now Marmayogi … Kamal Haasan definitely knows and loves cinema more than you and me, his mentor K.B. once said “Aalavandhaan flopped because Kamal was thinking way ahead of times and people couldn’t understand the movie”. This man could dance, he could fight and moreover he could act. When such a person dons ten roles in a movie and makes the movie for over two years and gives something worse than ATM, its definitely a flop.

How was Dasavathaaram made? There might be two reasons …

1. “Nobody has donned 10 roles in a single film so why not I do it”, thinks Kamal and he writes Dasavathaaram.

2. Kamal will definitely play the protagonist in the project signed by K.S. Ravikumar and Oscar Ravichandran. What if the antagonist gets all the credit. So the protagonist decides to be the antagonist as well. What if the grandma gets all the credits, so the protagonist decides to be the grandma as well. Slowly everyone were replaced by the protagonist. All of a sudden the protagonist realised he is donning ten roles and he aptly named the movie Dasavathaaram.

… and this is my 101st post.

Arun called up in the morning

Me: Hi da machan

Ar: Hi da, i’ve got 5 tickets for Euphoria concert this evening, do you want?

Me: Thanks da but I’ve got plans for the evening … I’ll let you know if anyone needs it

Mia called up in the afternoon. She called up 4 times before I realised the phone was ringing. She even called up my office a couple of times hoping to catch me on the landline.

Me: Hi da

Mia: Hey da, there is a Euphoria concert this evening …

(I had 5 ticks in hand, now is the time to pay her back for the VIP passes she got me for the IPL, so I interrupt as she speaks)

Me: I have 5 tickets, so dont worry, you can have them …

Mia: No da, I have 15 of them, wanted to find out if you might need them!

Omg! 15+5 tickets for the Euphoria concert. Not a single interested soul …

Update: One of my cousin wanted the tickets and I passed him two tickets from Mia. He goes to the concert and sends a msg: Dude, sitting right in the front, just a few meters from the stage, that babe has given us VIP passes …

Already IPL passes and now Euphoria passes, thanks Mia.

… defeat. No, you can call it a disaster.

Chennai Super Kings lost to Bangalore Royal Challengers. After all the dark clouds that filled the sky at 5 pm I was determined to watch the match. After the 10 mins heavy rain at 6 pm I was determined to watch the match. As I drove through the traffic not enjoying the drizzle I was determined. Determined to watch the match with a small hope that rain doesn’t play spoil sport. As I entered the stadium, it was a real dampener to look at the pitch covered to protect it from getting damp.

The stadium was surprisingly three fourths full in spite of the rain and the romantic climate outside the stadium.  There were lots of well wishers praying for the match to start, not so well wishers who prayed that my plans got ruined, but God tests good people but never lets them down. The biggest cheer of the day came when the ground staff made a run removing the sheets covering the pitch.

The match was of course bad. Surprisingly there were too many film stars coming over and three plum front rows were saved for these non-at-all-interested-in-cricket-but-i-am-a-celebrity guys. There was a film PRO to co ordinate and invite these actors to the match. Damn it.

It was zero cricket and a blade star parade.

I freaked. That was during my +2 exams in 2002.

I freaked. This morning, thanks to my aunt. It was 8.50 in the morning and I was rushing with my breakfast when my aunt came up with a topic. Balaji’s bro-in-law is getting married. Its high time we started searching an alliance for you. I almost spilled the barley I was trying to drink. I couldn’t react. I turned to my aunt, tried my best to hide all the thoughts running together in my head and said, better do a proper research. My voice cracked. I freaked out. Totally.

For fun, I’ve had these conversations with my friends and family about getting married by this year, I even made my cousin bro believe that I’m in a serious relationship and want him to come sign the witness for marriage in case we elope. But today, my aunt kicked the guts out of me. I’m only 23 and I don’t want to get married for the next 4 years.

Marriage definitely is a very beautiful bonding but I’m just not ready for it yet.

In case you have booked tickets for Kuruvi, try selling it off for atleast half the price. You’ll also save three hours of your time, twenty bucks on parking and a good hundred bucks on popcorn and coke.

Vijay’s big budget summer cooler Kuruvi is an outright disappointment for Dharani fans. Vijay fans did enjoy the movie. I still remember the previous Vijay-Dharani combo Gilli, it kept the audience at the edge of their seat. As always expectation has once again killed. This movie cannot get worser.

Nobody comes to watch Kuruvi expecting to see a feel good family entertainer, everybody wants a racy, no logic and all magic movie from Vijay and Dharani. As the plot opens, there are cars lined up in a race track all set to burn rubber. There is Vivek and there is Malavika and then comes Vijay right out of a man hole. God. We were all set to throw bits of papers as Vijay comes on screen but when he came out all wet from the man hole, he only dampened our spirits. Come on, when people in the race tracks are waiting for Vijay, he should have come out of nowhere and land on his fully loaded race machine, instead he comes flying out of the man hole with all smiles and takes an auto to the race track only to drive a completely disfigured Skoda Octavia.

Once again Suman makes a bad villain. No not a bad bad villainy guy, he was a bad choice as a villain. Any day he can give Vivek a run for his money. And Trisha, she might easily be banned from films for comparing Vijay to Antonio Banderas in one of the scenes. Not to mention the songs, I was infact waiting for the movie after listening to the songs. Sadly none of them were trademarked with Vijay or Dharani’s stamp.

The story takes place at Cuddapah, Chennai and Kuala Lumpur but not even at one of these places does the story actually start. All through the movie it is a group of people chasing Vijay. He runs, they chase. He runs, they chase. He runs, they chase. Suddenly the title cards start running, giving a hint that the movie is over. Even then I waited patiently for the movie to start but only as people started walking out did it hit my brain that the movie was over.

No doubt Vijay is a good actor, a very good dancer, but no director is making proper use of his talent and popularity. And Dharani is in fact one of the best screenplay writers. Even when there is no story, he can weave a screenplay around the characters and make the movie a blockbuster. Dhool and Gilli are rock solid examples of his ability to keep the audience bitting the nails. But Kuruvi flies out of the hands of Vijay and Dharani.

… goes hand-in-hand.

A quick phone call to Mia in the afternoon and she gets me tickets for the IPL matches in Chennai. I was hoping for normal stands but the it turned out to be a pavilion. In the row beside us was Vijay. In the AC cabin behind us was our CM.

The flavour of Twenty20 is still fresh and is keeping the crowd in high spirits all through the four hours of the game. The essence of cricket has been retained but a lot of cinema has been added to make the IPL taste splendid.

What could be a better way than to start the evening at Chepauk with Hariharan and Sivamani rocking the stands with their music. Soon the Chennai Super Kings brand ambassador Vijay joins in and makes a walk around the ground. The crowd erupted in joy. Vijay came up to the pavilion and the crowd ran to him for autographs. Mia and me rushed up to him like we’ve never met him in our lives, to get a closer look of the actor. No matter how much ever we meet them in person, the joy of rushing up to a star, fighting the way through the crowd has to be experienced.

And after a very quick two hours of music, cinema gave way to cricket. The Mexican wave by the crowd was a perfect sync. No one new anyone in the 40,000+ crowd but everyone joined together for a Mexican wave all around the stadium. The match rocked till the very last ball.

Everytime a Chennai team scored, there was a Rajini / Vijay / Ajith / Vikram number played and for Mumbai there was Hrithik’s numbers. Very bad DJ btw, no fade in, no fade out. It was like listenting to ear drum tearing music in Amman temple.

Keeping spirits high even after 4 whole hours of cheering. Wondering why Mia alone isn’t sweating? She has a ‘do-it-yourself in 1 minute’ make up kit. Even before I switched on the cam and gave it to the chick sitting in front of us to click a pic, Mia was ready

In India …

… there is Commercial Cinema. Two and a half hours of story telling sans logic but with a prolonging string of gripping incidents.

And there is Intelligent Cinema. Two and a half hours of story telling. The viewer will be amazed by the enormous amount of thinking and reasoning their brain does while watching the movie and still does for hours after watching the movie.

Intelligent cinema is not the art cinema. Infact art cinema / art film does not exist. There is only Commercial Cinema (CC) and Intelligent Cinema (IC). Not all CCs make money nor all ICs flop. In this 100+ years of Indian cinema, there has been a steady mix of CC and IC which keeps the industry running. While a movie like Lage Raho Munna Bhai made the heads all over the World turn by getting an Oscar nomination, commercial films like Sivaji made it to the UK Top 10 making heads turn.

While watching a movie on TV today, I was struck with the contrast of the CC and IC and how they co-exist in the cinema eco-system.

While my working schedules have deprived me of my blogging time, I am going to start with a series on ‘Intelligent Cinemas from India’ to keep the so called writer in me from sleeping. It is your participation which is going to add value to the series by means of discussions. My views, your views and our take on cinema would now be a regular in this blog.

By the way, I’ve got a domain name and now it is up and running on my blog. My old URL will automatically redirect you here but if you have a problem with it do update your blogroll / feeds to www.tudinesh.com.