Cinema, Karam, Kapi

The much-awaited Music Album of Darbar feat. Superstar Rajinikanth was released amidst much fanfare on Saturday 7 th  Dec. 2019 at Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai with an array of Film Stars and Technicians heaping praise on Thalaivar even as he is playing hide and seek with Media and Politicians across parties about his much anticipated announcement of forming a Political Party ahead of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Elections slated in 2021. Much to everyone’s surprise (and to many people’s disappointment), the Man didn’t speak a single word about Politics during his finale speech at the Event and thanked his fans and supporters as he celebrates his 70 th  Birthday on 12 Dec. 2019.  The film to be released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi is produced by Lyca and Directed by AR Murugadoss and has Music composed by Anirudh Ravichander who is the Superstar’s nephew and is doing back to back Thalaivar films after the much successful 2018 release Petta.  On 27 th  Nov. 201

Chinathai, aval petra Rajave, Mullil thondriya chinna rosaave! While there are so many songs composed by Maestro Illayaraja who celebrates his 76th Birthday today, my most loved one eulogising the legend is this song from Thalapathy sung by KS Chitra.  My abundant love for film music to which I've been addicted for over 4 decades is only because of Illayaraja's songs which I have grown listening to, all my life. So much so, that during my growing up years I had to have some music in the background for me to even study! Nothing much has changed even today - there's always background music even when I am working on something very important, while travelling driving and even when going to sleep. Over the years, I have collected hundreds of cassettes and later CDs and had downloaded thousands of songs during the last 20 years. In the past few years though, I have stopped downloading and have been listening to Music on the Go through apps such as Raaga, Gaana, Saav

Most of you who’ve seen Petta can resonate with many of Superstar’s movies over the past 40 years. Some are quite obvious, some are hidden gems. Am listing my few favourites here. The film starts with Thalaivar uttering the first dialogue - “Naan Veezhven endru ninaithayo!”. I could immediately connect with the opening scene of Muthu where he wishes the best for everyone, breaks the coconut and just when the horses scream - “Oruvan Oruvan Mudalali” song begins. Am sure Karthik Subburaj had this inspiration as well. All the more for Petta, since Kabali and Kaala were not up to the expectations of his hardcore fans, so KS had to ensure not only he delivers a blockbuster but also make Thalaivar say this dialogue, which is also something he openly mentioned in the 150th day celebrations of Chandramukhi where he mentioned he is not an Elephant, rather a horse and would get up just like that. Whattay fanboy moment when the film begins! The sarcasm that Kaali, the hostel warde

The first dialogue Superstar Rajinikanth utters in Petta is “Naan Veezhven enduru ninaithayo” after bludgeoning a few bad guys in his inimitable style. One cannot but remember the golden words of Neelambari “Vayasanalum un stylum azhagum  innum  pogale” - except that she actually said that 20 years back when Thalaivar was 49 years young. From this scene which is 4 minutes after the film reels on till the last scene - where Thalaivar ends with a pistol shot, its Superstar galore for over 150 minutes. Every fan who came out after watching the film has only one thing to say about Director Karthik Subburaj - “Only someone who has consumed Rajinikanth in every vein, muscle, blood and brain can create such a screenplay” - so true. KS has literally “Rajinified” the viewers with such a strong and gripping storyline which is a potpourri of Superstar’s antics for 40 years which most of his  ardent fans have enjoyed every bit and byte, literally . Kaali joins a convent in a hill sta

Releasing “Singles” ahead of the main album release has been prevalent in Tamil Cinema for over 4-5 years although I don’t recall which was the first movie which did this. So Music Director and Film Director of Petta Anirudh and Karthik Subburaj released the first single “Marana Mass” on 3rd December which opened to a thunderous response and garnered 1 million views on YouTube in just 4 hours.  This was followed by another number “Ullaallaa” which released on 6 Dec., a peppy number with a bit of reggae and rock. Finally, the full music album was released on 9 Dec. 2018 at a grand gathering which was well attended by the Cast & Crew of the film including Superstar Rajinikanth and Kalanidhi Maran of Sun Pictures. Subsequently, Sony Music released the entire album on YouTube the same day at 9pm and finally Amazon Music released it on 10 Dec. 2018 at 6pm. Marana Mass is a peppy tune sung by Anirudh and a short yet interesting part sung by SPB, perhaps as the voi

Being a fanboy of Shankar ever since his first film Gentleman in 1993, here are a few snippets I found out from the film 2.0. All the films of Shankar are named on the Hero / Key Character of the film except Jeans  although I wonder why - perhaps it was only his third film, so maybe he tried it differently. All his films have had the name of the protagonist such as Gentleman, Kadhalan, Indian, Mudhalvan, Boys (after all, the film revolved around all the four friends), Anniyan, Sivaji, Enthiran, Nanban, “I” and 2.0.  He seems to be a devout Hindu and references for this could be seen in most of his films. All his key characters have been Hindus and there’s a strong reference to the Almighty in every movie while in Enthiran, he takes to another level where Chitti, The Robot refers his creator Scientist Vaseegaran as the Go who created him. Subtle yet strong message that a Mother is God while for the machine, it is his Scientist. He has worked with AR Rahman in most pf his f