Make up magic

Awrite..it's pretty obvious , I am pumped about Rajni's next movie.Jus wanted to show , what a good director can do ? These two images - One from Thillu Mullu which released about 18 years ago and the other one from Sivaji..!!

Thanga Vettai - Hunt for Gold

Okie..Im gloating over my CAVS victory over the Miami Heat , it was a great win !!

While I was eating my dinner , I flipped the channel to SUN TV.The new game show Thanga Vettai (hunt for gold or gold hunt) was on.It's a trivia show.Now a taste of the questions on the show.
1.Topic : Cricket : How many runs do you score for a boundary ?
2.Topic : General : What is the "Ship of the Desert" ?

3.Topic : Literature : Which mythological work of literature did Kambar translate to tamil ?

4.Topic : General : How many avatharams does Dasavatharam mean ?(The participant did not know the answer , so a clue was given - "Total number of fingers in both hands" - thank god the participant was not Hrithik Roshan)

I understand this a family based trivia show meaning families as a whole take part in it.So you are not looking at 35 year old (No-life , No-girlfriend)geeks taking part in it.But the level of difficulty in these questions is down right pathetic.On top of this ridiculous level of questions
, the host , Ramya Krishnan (Daaaaang..ai'nt she hotttt) makes it seem like the Indian"Jeopardy".

Now , I have a question.How smart should one be to take part in this show ?

Sivaji…Paraak..Paraak..Paraak

The day, AVM(for those who dont know..AVM is a very old/prestigious film production company in India) announced a movie with Superstar Rajnikanth, is still vivid in my memory.(Of course it was not too long ago , so I remember it really well , It was actually on SUN Thalaippu Seydhigal..I have it on my TIVO).I was so excited that I called all my filmi friends in India immediately and chatted with them about what a huge opportunity this is for Rajni,Shankar and the Tamil Film industry as a whole.

For all the readers wondering...what big opportunity ?…well. This film could be Tamil Industry’s “Sholay”,”Titanic” etc...in magnitude, box-office collections. It can rewrite record books.i.e if the opportunity on hand is not wasted!

It has been long since Rajnikanth has acted in a film which had the director as the captain of the ship. Well technically the director is the captain of the ship for any movie, but for a Rajnikanth movie its different and most of you know why?(If you dont..its a long story..so jus take my word for it)

Well all that changed with Chandramukhi Rajni's previous release earlier this year.There are glaring holes in Chandramukhi, technically and logically, but the movie served its purpose. It brought Rajnikanth back to the forefront of Tamil Cinema after the BABA debacle.Chandramukhi was entertaining and the movie re-established Rajni’s status as the box-office Baadhshah of the South Indian Film Industry.

Rajni’s earlier release, BABA flopped. Well I don’t understand that!

Let me explain..BABA was nothing but what Rajni believes (he actually believes that he is the son of God..im not even kidding you folks…the dude believes that he is a Yogi or something) and he wanted to spread the message of Religion/Faith to all the people.

The masses rejected it. But when you think about it, BABA and Chandramukhi are not much different. In BABA, Rajni says that there is a 200 year old Yogi, still living a healthy life in the Himalayas and he actually has a conversation with “Babaji” in the movie.

Whereas, in Chandramukhi he claims, there is a snake in a bottle, for more than 100 years, guarding the angry revengeful sprit of Chandramukhi .The snake happily returns to Guindy Snake Park when the spirit is freed.

Now both of these events are fantasies, how did BABA flop? Well I think BABA was a failure at many levels. The movie had a decent story (by Rajni Movie standards) but the screenplay, dialogues where very patchy.Sureshkrishna the director, really messed up a lot in the movie. If you notice, you can make out that dialogues were improvised during the shot and most of that was out of place. That won’t happen with Shankar!

Anyway I digress, I think now, Rajni will have a opportunity to work on a Social theme after a long time. If you dissect all of Shankar’s movies, they would have a social theme.(Except maybe for Kadhalan) The film has KV Anand(brilliant cameraman/director of Kana Kanden) ,AR Rahman ,writer Sujatha and choreographer Raju Sundaram lending support to Shankar.

I hope they don’t screw up. But again. its going to be real hard to screw up with such a team. Folks , get ready SIVAJI is going to be a treat !

I wanted to post this yesterday (12/12/2005), marking Rajni’s 56^th birthday but I could not. Better Late than never I guess…..Happy B'day ..Thalaivaa !

Weather Forecast - Business Plan

One of the few things that I love about TV in the USA,is the weather report.Sometimes, I enjoy the humour, the weatherman laces with the information he shares!(Heck...David Letterman was once a weatherman..)

Anyway..When I watch a weather report...Its accurate..or atleast as close as Mankind can get to a uncontrollable phenomenon.Be it Snow..Wind..Hurricane..Rain..or jus a normal day , they guys predict some pretty cool stuff.When it snows they even point out the city blocks that are going to get hit hard.They give you the number on inches to expect ,the UV factor, which route to take the office, how to dress tomorrow ,what to eat tomorrow..okie I made the last one up.

But seriously...Can you imagine the information they prepare for the commoner to gear up and battle against the mother nature.Fabulous.. !!

The other day ..I was watching SUN TV news at home....Da.Da(background music)......the weather report....So im thinking..awrite..India has come a long way in many technological and scientific arenas..the weather reporting must have improved a lot..from the Black and White India Map DoorDarshan used to show.

The reporter starts off..."Well...Hello Viewers..the weather sucked today..look at the people battling against the Rain..stuff floating in water..school were closed..and kids happily returned home..aftr they found out school was closed.."...and she continues the blabber on about how the day "WAS"....hmm...do we need a weather report to tell us..how the weather was..?? ..Hmmm I think we have a decent idea about that...Duuh...

What we need to know is about how the weather is..and more importantly..how the weather is going to be ??...The reporter in her 2 minute segment...spends about 20 seconds saying this.."and yeah...tomorrow..is propably gonna rain....it might stop too...but then it might not...good luck anyway".....HELLLLLLLO.....am I the only one here who thinks that this weather report is garbage ???

I dont need to know how the weather was...tell me how it is going to be...Dont give me suggestions based on..ur imagination...base it on scientifc facts...dont we have one of the best Remote sensing systems in the world ?? what the hell is goin on...how many more years are we still going to speculate about the weather...why cant TV networks in India..spend the money and get the DOPPLER...TRIPLE DOPPLER RADAR...or something like that..and give us accurate forecasts...I think the networks dont want to spend that kind of money..for a lot of reasons..but I think the main reason is....comon..you guys must know this..especially in Madras...its either going to be hot..or very hot..or very very hott...or so hot that you thought that the SUN was jus screwing with you...Coz of our climatic conditions its propably not necessary for such a system.

But didnt more that 300 people die due to the rain in Tamil Nadu in the past 2 months....Is the rain like a TSUNAMI that we cannot predict ??? Coudnt we have saved those lives.. ???

Well..my business plan is this..Start a Weather Company in India..tie up with on of the local TV stations in the USA..and get their help with respect to satellite imaging..or whatever ??

We need to have the "Triple Doppler Radar" in India..Comon now..dont you guys think that the people would appreciate some ACCURATE..weather information about TOMORROW ???