Cinema, Karam, Kapi

Madras I There are two things that are making the news these days in the city, probably three. Madras, as the city has been known historically (and I choose to spell the city's name that way most often) is also the name of a recently released movie. Featuring Karthi, btoher of veteran actor Suriya, Karthi has been quite experimental with Tamil Cinema ever since his first release 5 years ago with Paruthi Veeran. He has played a village lad, unemployed Chennai youth, and many a time a happy go lucky guy. His box office records have been topsy turvy, where he has the most returns when least expected. Back to Madras, the film is shot in North Madras, which has been largely neglected in Kollywood for a long time. Except for a one-off gana song or a kuthu song, nothing has captured the imagination of this part of the city, which was also the original settlement along the sea shore. I have had the privilege of travelling to North Madras twice or more every week to work where my prev...

Came across this interesting note about the origin of Filter Kapi - by Mr. Elangkumaran Jayabharathi and wanted to share with our readers...  T here are multiple speculations as to why its called "degree" coffee: The most plausible explanation is that it's not "degree" coffee. It's Chicory  which came to be pronounced as  tikeri  and eventually became degree . Chicory helps extract more flavour from the coffee beans. Milk certified as pure with was called  degree milk  owing to a mistaken association with the thermometer. It is claimed that coffee prepared with degree milk  became known as  degree coffee. The first  decoction  is sometimes called the  first degree, thus leading to the  name  degree coffee South Indian coffee (a.k.a  filter coffee ) is a milk coffee (perfect example of South Indians' affinity for dairy products). Most of the beans are grown in India (Arabica and Robusta varieties...

Big news coming our way... Kochadaiiyaan featuring Superstar Rajinikanth and Deepika Padukone, which is created using Motion Capture Technology for the first time in the history of Indian Cinema, is expected to be telecast on Jaya TV coming Deepawali. The film was directed by Soundarya Rajnikanth Ashwin, the younger daughter of Superstar and the Direction was overseen by ace Director KS Ravikumar. The film created a huge buzz with the kind of technology it had used but hardcore Thalaivar fans were a tad disappointed since they couldn't see their matinee idol in flesh and blood. All the seven songs, composed by Oscar Winner Isaipuyal AR Rahman were chartbusters and still remain favourites among music afficianados which was release at a Sathyam Cinemas in which Shah Rukh Khan was the Chief Guest. The film had a huge star cast including Nasser, Jackie Shroff among others and had a special role of actor Late "Nagesh", mimicked and performed by a comedian. It is expe...

Poojai is Tamil film featuring Vishal and Shruti Hassan, elder daughter of Actor Kamal Hassan. Vishal has maintained his position among the top 5 young heroes in the Tamil Film Industry and most of his films have been hits. This film is being produced by Vishal himself like some of his earlier movies and is directed by Hari who has earlier given super commercial hits like Vengai. Hari's scripts are usually racy and fast, and adopts a surprise twist and turn in most of the critical sequences. Vishal  had a good box office release with his recent release "Naan Sigappu Manithan" and the expectations from him are quite high from this film too. Shruti is back in Tamil Cinema after a long hiatus, almost after three years. She has been choosing her projects carefully and wish her to do well. Sarathraj sports a bald look in the film and is suppsoed to have a critical role and is supported by Radhika who now moves to Cinema after her successful TV serial Vani Rani. Kausalya and ...

The much awaited first look of Lingaa feat Superstar Rajinikanth was released on the auspicious occasion of Ganesha Chathurthi on Friday, 29 Aug. 2014. Here is how the movie poster looks like. The film is directed by KS Ravikumar who has earlier worked with Thalaivar in films like Muthu and Padayappa during late 1990s. This film is expected to be a mass commercial entertainer coming from the successful duo of KSR - Superstar and would release simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu and may be dubbed in other languages such as Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada. The film would have two heroines, Sonakshi Sinha and Anushka. A Rajini film featuring two heroines releases after 20 years precisely - the last one was in 1994, a commercial entertainer by the name Veera. While there is no confirmation on the release date, it is highly speculated that the movie may be up in the screens on 12-12-14, which happens to be Thalaivar's 62nd Birthday! Once again, AR Rahman composes music for Ling...

Being the first column here, I was wondering what should I be writing about. And I couldn't think of a more fitting tribute than to give the accolades to Hotel Palmgrove. This hotel is a part of the Ballal Group which hails from the southern state of Karnataka. Started in the year 1973, Hotel Palmgrove is located in the busy commercial hub of Nungambakkam in Central Chennai. It has over 80 rooms and 9 cottages spread over an area of two acres. Palmgrove serves pure 100% vegetarian cuisine and has been a landmark location of Chennai over the past four decades, be it for a grand wedding celebration or a simple meal. I visited this place a few days back and was surprised with the variety and fare that continues as part of its tradition. We ordered Sambar Vadai, Rasa Vadai, Poori, Masala Dosas and Ice-Cream. Of boy! That was a very heavy meal. While the pricing is a bit on the higher side, it is well compensated by the rich quality of ingredients, the friendly service and the per...

Change is the only constant. We have heard this before in our lives, from parents to elders to mentors to well wishers. But to convey it to the general public through a mass medium such as music and cinema is not only innovative but also a great attempt to get the point to the world at large. And this was very well done in the song "Maatram Ondrudaan" from the film Kochadaiiyaan. Penned by lyricist Vairamuthu, composed by  and sung by Haricharan, Superstar Rajinikanth has immortalized the number in the film. In fact, he has also read out a few lines which makes the song one of its kind ever. Positioned as a philosophical poem uttered by the warrior commander of the King's mighty army, the song can be related to our daily lives as well. Click on the picture to see the video. Summary; "Change is the only Constant". In the form of Kochadaiiyaan, Superstar Rajinikanth advises youngsters to be ready to face change. Here is a summary; Kochadaiiyaan asks y...

This review is about a Tamil Movie which has a Tamil hero, a Tamil Heroine, a Tamil Director, a Tamil Music Composer a large star cast from Bollywood including the main Villain, and that's because the film is mostly shot in Mumbai. Or Mum'bhai'. Whatever. I wonder, if only Mumbai produces those dreaded Dons like Dawood, Chhota Shakeel and Raju Bhai (the film's lead and also the hero) that a number of recent tamil films have been shot there. Along with his close buddy (Vidyut Jamwal), Raju Bhai (Suriya) plays the role of a gangster. Though there weren't too many gory scenes of bloodbath as portrayed in other cult classics like Satya (directed by RGV and released in 1998), Shootout at Wadala, and so on, the film has its own share of guns, shooting and street violence. After a successful Singam 2 which was a sequel to Singam, directed by Hari, in which Suriya plays the role of a village inspector and later an Asst. Commissioner of Tutucorin, there were high hopes ridi...