Cinema, Karam, Kapi

Like millions of fans worldwide, I too have been watching ' a few videos on youtube since morning which brings a lot of nostalgia. After all, its 12/12 and an important day for every fan of entertainment. In Indian cinema, Tamil cinema especially, entertainment has been among the foremost reasons why ardent cinephiles watch a movie. Ask Netflix, Amazon and others, and they would tell you how tamil films are watched repeatedly. Some for their content. Some for their screenplay. Many for the lead actors & actresses. Among the top of this pyramid would be the one and only Superstar of Indian Cinema – Rajnikanth who is celebrating his 72 nd  birthday today. Much to the chagrin of his fans, he is not in town today and is shooting with his team for the upcoming movie Jailer, a film which has a lot of expectations due to the Director of the film Nelson, who’s Doctor (Sivakarthikeyan) and Beast (Vijay) has built a certain level of expectation.   This would be Rajini’s 169th movie. The

Lady Superstar Nayanthara has played a few unique characters in her career spanning 18+ years. In one of her earliest movies with Superstar Rajinikanth, her character was named “Durga” and she takes the same name in her most recent outing “Netrikann” in which she plays the role of a visually challenged person. In her earlier movie “Naanum Rowdydaan” pairing with Vijay Sethupathy, she appeared in a role who cannot hear anything. With this role, she has touched the emotions of millions of her fans with a fantastic portrayal, something very close to how a real person who cannot see the world would. Very few actors / actresses have played such a role so well, notable among them being Kamal Hassan in “Rajaparvai” and Rani Mukherjee alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the movie “Black”. Quite frankly, it is extremely difficult to “act” as though one cannot see.  Nayan has done justice to this role and has stepped up expectations on her, making the audience feel worthy of her title “Lady Superstar”

This is the fourth time Actor Ajith Kumar and Director Siva come together for Viswasam - in Tamil, Viswasam means loyalty. We celebrate their loyalty to each other too with this film. In all their past outings, it’s the protagonist safeguarding his loved ones - In Veeram, it’s his fiancee's family; in Vedalam it’s his stepsister, in Vivegam, it’s his pregnant wife and in Viswasam, it’s his daughter. What I appreciate the most of Siva is his portrayal of Ajith in each outing. He knows the actor’s strengths at the back of his head and pins the screenplay accordingly. But for Vivegam which was more a hollywood-type attempt with too much of foreign locales, Russian mafia and gun fights which Ajith’s hardcore fans couldn’t relate to, all the other films did reasonably well during their release. Viswasam has had a fantastic opening in B & C Centres, thanks to a meticulously planned Pongal release which was announced six months back by Director Siva and Sathyajothi Films.

I looked up to Dhanush during early 2000s. He had a unique demeanor. He was not the typical white-skinned or six-pack guy who would enthrall the first row to last row audience with his smashing fight sequences, romance sessions or emotional outbreaks. And today, he is one of the most sought after actor in Tamil and Hindi Cinema with huge openings at the Box Office every time his film releases. The next in line, I hope is Siva Karthikeyan. A young lad from small town Trichy who started doing comic performances on Tv, went on to have the largest movie cut-out in Tmail Nadu, just like his idol Superstar Rajnikanth. Yes, Siva made it to the top of the publicity screen outside Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai ahead of his latest release Remo right after the poster of Thalaivar for Kabali. This means a lot to him. I saw the film after three weeks of release at PVR at noon. The theatre was half full (I am being an optimist here!) which is not bad at all, given that pirated DVDs are out within 24h