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Showing posts with the label Madras

Made in Madras!

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A group of Madrasi residents led by PC Bala, Author of several Books and a Management Consultant who are also cinema enthusiasts gathered on 30th August 2019 at Cream Centre RA Puram to discuss about Madras and Movies as part of Madras’s 380th Founding day Celebrations.  Actor Raja Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Kitty joined the movie buffs over samosas and coffee. He was quizzed by me on his film career, early days of associating with his junior from college who went on to make iconic films like Roja & Thalapathy and of course about Kitty’s acting stints with Superstar Rajinikanth without whom Madras is incomplete.  Kitty shared about how specific scenes in films like Thalapathy and Baasha turned out during the shooting while also narrating various other crunchies about Thalaivar including his Spiritual bent as well as his views on the socio-political environment.  Kitty, born and raised in Mumbai, completed his MBA at Jamnalal Bajaj and moved to Chennai t

Celebrating Brand Rajinikanth

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The day of Holi festival is very special to Superstar Rajinikanth, for it was on this day in the year 1975 that he was named so by his guru and ace director Late Shri K. Balachandar. Shivaji Rao Gaekwad was a young lad from suburban Bangalore with high spirits in heart and a hardworking nature. His mother passed away at an early age and his father and elder brother ran the household. He ran errands for people, worked as a coolie, a bus conductor among many things to sustain himself. He had his own vices and needed money for all that. Shivaji also had a deep inclination towards spirituality even when he was young, thanks to his upbringing from Ramakrishna Mission. He performed skits and plays in the neighborhood and that prompted his friends to encourage him to join Cinema – Kannada Actor Rajkumar who was in his prime during the early 70s was a great inspiration for Shivaji. With some money in hand given by his friends, he boarded a bus to reach the erstwhile Madras and join the Film

Madras Eye

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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