Cinema, Karam, Kapi

21 hours is a slick thriller who’s screenplay is set in 21 hours time. A lonely wife to a supposedly gay husband wants to move out of the relationship and the household. In a chain if events, she gets killed. Who triggered the bullet, find Investigative Cop Srikanth (Dhananjaya).  Madhuri Menon (Durga Krishna) is married to Renjith Menon (Sudev Nair) and fight almost every other day. Her Mother in-law keeps teasing her that she is yet to deliver a baby but Madhuri feels to shy that there is no physical relationship between the couple. Fed up of the feud, one fine day, she simply walks out of the house and accosts her former Ex and now friend Vishal Nair (Rahul Madhav). She informs her parents what she has done while her father Girish Nair (Dinesh Babu) requests his an old acquaintance Joe Machado (Ravikumar Rao) to help her in the mess. Joe connects with a Minister (Dinesh Mangaluru) who in turn connects him with someone else. And all this happens late on that fateful night. Early next

A young muslim boy aged 7 was distributing newspapers in a quaint town of South India many decades back. His school teacher who was a Hindu, identified him as a bright young man in the making and encouraged him to study well, though the boy had to still make ends meet for his poverty stuck family. Today, the entrance of Rameswaram, the town that he lived and grew up has an edifice of his lifetime work in the name and style of “Kalam Memorial” where a rocket that he commissioned in his early years stands proudly showcasing his years of work and dedication, before he eventually became the First Citizen of India and made his homeland proud. Other than this, there are many many such examples of people who have come up, literally from the rags and have risen to higher echelons of the society, in the professional, entrepreneurial and even political space. The White Tiger, now streaming on Netflix is about this phenomenon – Poverty Porn – as the name that has been coined for this as a referen

I was casually browsing Amazon Prime and stumbled upon this movie’s 2-line review and was intrigued to watch it. For 2 reasons. It was about friendship. And Entrepreneurship. Two of the most important things I cherish in my own life. The 1 hour 20 film was a breezy roll with some great camaraderie, nonsensical stuff that closest friends end up doing, personal and professional challenges we all go through, especially when we decide to work “together” and finally the big and ugly world of “Vulture Capitalists” as it is being displayed in many films as well as in the general domain. The reality, is of course different.   Mia Carter (Tiffany Haddish) and Mel Paige (Rose Byrne) are two childhood friends who set-up and run a Cosmetics business and have adorned the cover of many a few local magazines and garnered awards. As is the case in many start-ups, they have built a great business running huge debts (read: Investments), especially with their signature “One-Night Stand” make-up kit which

Many wondered who this young lad was, from where and how did he land up in the Tamil film music scene and whether he would be a one-film wonder with his unique voice modulations and rendering effortlessly some tricky tunes, after his first number released 6 years back in the film Kadal, which was directed by ace Director Mani Ratnam and music composed by his protégé and confidante AR Rahman, whom he introduced 25 years back in his film Roja. The number “Adiye” was not only an instant hit with great top of mind recall but has also endeared the singer’s successive songs. In fact in the first half of 2019, there was a new song of Sid which was released online every 15 days or so, taking his total count of songs sung now to around 50 in three languages, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Personally, I have loved his songs all along and have attended a few of his Live concerts as well during which he exudes so much energy that the audience seem to enjoy – while many croon along with him

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

Imaikka Nodigal Frankly, I didn’t read a single review before I went to see the film. All I knew was it was a crime thriller, Nayanthara on the lead and Anurag Kashyap on a negative role. I wasn’t even aware that Vijay Sethupathy played an important role in the film, although I had seen Atharva on promos. The songs were out long back and were peppy but were frankly passable. So, I went with a complete open mind to watch the movie.  Boy, I wasn’t disappointed.  From the first frame till the climax, it was an edge-of the seat (ok, not so much) thriller. The Director conned me at every stage when I predicted a certain outcome which was a great welcome that it wasn’t yet another crime thriller. The very motive of the serial killer Rudra is kept a secret till almost the film ends – I wouldn’t even call it a climax because the film ends suddenly even as you keep thinking the next twist set by the Director. The only predictable scene was when I thought Anurag would get shot and he did

When I used to be a kid, I would literally wake up to the music playing on radio – early 80s. Those days, we had Vividh Bharathi operated by AIR – All India Radio. There were set timing for every program and it would work like clockwork (as compared to today where even so called “Live” programs are recorded and played. So, from 6am to 6.40am, there would be devotional songs and News at 6.50am. That was the cut off to sleep, else hell would break at home. Dad would also listen to various kinds of music, from Carnatic to Film songs on Radio. Over time, I just took over this habit and till date addicted to music. For many years, the Alarm on my mobile phone has been Venkatesa Suprabatham; continues while I read newspapers, get ready to work, while driving, while working (if I’m alone, that is) and all the way till we go to sleep. No wonder, my kids have also taken to this habit – so much so that my younger one even has made a playlist on the iPod which is to play every night. When t

Managed to watch Bairavaa first show at Inox Mylapore. It was a full house with a majority of Actor Vijay's fans thronging from early morning to catch a glimpse of him. This was a much awaited release ahead of the more anticipated Surya's S3. Pongal releases have always been box office hits and Bairavaa is no exception. By the way, there are two heroes in the film - Actor Vijay and Music Director Santhosh Narayanan. First about Vijay. The film is an out and out mass masala with the actor clearly managing to stay ahead of his ardent fans expectations. Bairavaa is a collection agent who helps Banks collect loan dues. The opening act is one such with a mass fight sequence which brings applause right from the first row to the last followed by a top-rated song which talks about the ills of hoarding cash with heroic lyrics. Vijay positions himself as a do-gooder and is always the go to guy whenever something goes amiss. He meets his love interest in a wedding and an event th

It's by now a known fact to a large section of the world how much of a Rajni fan I am, thanks to an article that appeared in the front page of The Economic Times Newspaper on Saturday, 16 July 2016. Read the online link here . I knew one day my name will appear in The ET but to be featured along with a news about my two favourite passions Rajni and Retail (my startup Oyethere.com is a Hyperlocal Ecommerce Marketplace) was a double whammy. Here is the background - I tried procuring 4 tickets for myself for the opening weekend of Sivaji the movie in 2007 at Bangalore. However, I couldn't. That's when I felt how many people like me would be finding it difficult to watch a Rajnikanth magnum opus in the first week of its release. So, I reached out to INOX multiplex, one of India's largest Cinema Chains and asked them to give me a full Auditorium. Initially, they hesitated for want of any unwanted issues during the screening. I assured them that it would be a fully family s

After a week of release, finally found time to watch 24 The Movie. I had consciously avoided reading reviews about the movie or talking about it to friends so I could save the suspense factor to myself. It was a Saturday morning show on the 9 th day of release at Inox Citi Centre. Sadly, there were not more than 40 people out of the 100 seater screen. That made me think, if the film was a blockbuster or not, contrary to what the producer and the film crew have been advertising on social media. Actor Surya, during the music release function told his fans outright to reject the film if it was not good, or rather good enough. He was honest when he said that though with much conviction - I watched the program which was telecast on Tv a week later after the function was held. So I went with limited hope. And thankfully, I was not at all disappointed. The movie is a class apart. On screenplay and direction, I would give a thumbs-up and a 8 rating on 10. The casting could have be