Cinema, Karam, Kapi

The first thing that comes to my mind is that Vikram, should perhaps be named as the next Cine world Markandeyan, after thespian Sivakumar. Secondly, Vikram well deserves the Chavalier Award for his acting skills. What a guy! The amount of hard work this actor hs done in the past 20 years is stupendous. In almost all his movies, he carries the film completely on his shoulders. Unlike many stars who are kids of Cinema biggies, Vikram had none to bank upon. He has acted in some non-nameworthy films in his late 20s and early 30s. Ever since he received a break with his Sethu, Vikram has been on the rise. He does some powerful performances every now and then and also does some light characters to strike a balance. And this is what impresses me as an ardent fan of Vikram. In his late 50s, with his daughter getting engaged to a prominent city based business family, Vikram should be doing father roles, but that is not to be. With his brilliant skills of emoting and getting in to the ski...

This was one occasion that I have been eagerly looking forward for the past one year or so - To watch FDFS of Thalaivar movie. And it happened. Had the darshan of Thalaivar Superstar Rajnikanth in and as Kabali at 4.10am on Friday, 22 July 2016 at Kasi Theatre Chennai.  Watch my film review to The Hindu at 2.26 in this video  which was taken outside Kasi Theatre on Friday morning. I have seen the film thrice back to back on Fri/Sat/Sun and now content to my heart about the movie, fully satisfied as a fan that Thalaivar has not given us just a movie but something very special.  At 65, him acting and taking so many risks itself is a great deal. And he has given us such a splendid performance. Many fans cried along with him in the scene where he reunites with his wife. Fans celebrated fatherhood when Dhansika calls him "Appa" in a particular scene. You may note that Thalaivar has never had a son in any of his movies, just like his real life, in which he...

So, finally Kabali has released. It's been over 72 hours as I right this and the euphoria doesn't seem to have faded. And Rajnikanth himself has returned to Chennai on Sunday night (25 July 2016) after his supposed treatment in the US. The film has been much looked forward to by his ardent fans, the Indian Industry at large, the distributors, theatre owners, and even small time printers of flex banners who get a huge business during his movie release. The film released worldwide on Fri. 22 July 2016 with much fanfare. I was among those who had Thalaivar darshan at 4am at Kasi theatre at Chennai. Was super delighted to see him on screen after a gap of two years. People expected to see a different Rajni portrayed in the film, as emphasised by the director of the film, P Ranjith from time to time. And yes, we did see a very different Rajnikanth in the film, something that we haven't seen in over 25-30 years. No over the board antics, no parallel comedy line, no antics like t...