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The movie “The Help” released in 2011 is one of the movies nominated for several awards for this year Oscar. I read about the movie in this article in “The Economist” about servant’s shortage in Brazil. The movie is based on a novel by Kathryn Stockett & is based on 1960s Mississippi in USA where how black maids were treated around the Civil Rights movement’s time period. This movie is one more in the list of Hollywood’s recent obsession to 1960s – remember the TV Serials Mad Men, Pan Am and movies like A Single Man.
Though Emma Stone plays the lead character Skeeter Phelan, a budding white writer who is trying to find her career, it is Viola Davis who steals the thunder in the movie. Viola appearing as an experienced black maid Aibileen delivers an imposing performance throughout the movie & is a perfect candidate to win an Oscar this year. Skeeter is one of the few people in Jackson, Mississippi who seem to be appreciative and sympathetic to the sacrifices the black maid in the city perform. Octavia Spencer coming as Minny provides the needed relief to an otherwise serious story, every scene she appeared I smiled.
Overall a good movie to watch & enjoy.
From the time I heard about this movie “The Dirty Picture” acted by Vidya Balan, we (myself and my wife) wanted to see it. After the movie got released few months back we couldn’t make it to the theatre every time we planned to go. In the few months after the release many magazines including Hindustan Times Brunch has written good reviews about Vidya Balan’s excellent performance in the role. I purchased the DVD from FlipKart and saw it today, DVD has the advantage the Hindi movie will come with English Sub-Title making it easier for me to understand it. The movie made by Ekta Kapoor said to be loosely made on the life story of South Indian film sensation Silk Smitha.
The movie didn’t meet the expectations I had. Though Vidya has done a good performance, having seen Silk Smitha on screen earlier I couldn’t see any resemblance of real Silk in Vidya Balan. Similarly almost the entire cast didn’t match the Tollywood or Kollywood people it claims to portray. The settings & costumes were impressive, they have been painstakingly brought back to life the 80s Kollywood. The first half of the movie was boring, the second half was better when “Silk” goes to her high moments and falls back rapidly from it. The makeup of Emraan Hashmi who plays Director Abraham makes him look like Director Cheran, which I think is accidental. The screen play was average at most places with the best in the scene when Silk walks out after her Filmfare award, when the reporter Naina advices her “Don’t think too much, just be yourself”. We are able to enjoy the play of emotions between Silk and Abraham (Director) in the last portion of the movie. The sound track for the song "Ooh La La" makes you hum it few times.
Last year I had been to “Madras to Chennai” a fine play by Shraddha group. Impressed by the show I became an annual paid member. This new year 2012, there first production is a historical play – Vadavooran (வாதவூரன்). It is about Manickavachagar (மாணிக்கவாசகர்) who gave the great Tamil work Thiruvasagam (திருவாசகம்). The play starts from the point where Vadavooran who was the Chief Minister to Pandya King, sets out to buy fine Roman horses for the king. On the way while at the depleted temple at Tiruperunturai Avudiyar Koil, he realizes the Supreme Being (Lord Siva) and instantly decides to renovate and rebuild the temple. The king imprisons Vadavooran and punishes him severely for disobeying his orders. The play ends with great floods in Vaigai river and the King realizes his folly and Vadavooran becoming the enlightened Manickavachagar. Of course we all know what happened later (Thanks to Sivaji Ganesan’s Thiruvilayadal movie) – Lord Siva coming as a labourer carrying sand for a handful of a traditional snack of sweetened millet flour (புட்டு).
The play is presented in kind of Opera format. To make mortals like me understand the songs from Thiruvasagam, the organizers gave out free booklet with all the songs and meanings – thanks to them I could follow the 4 lines songs, which were not many. The songs were pre-recorded but rendered and enacted superbly. The lead actor is Swaminathan Ganesan, who has done a brilliant job of bringing the character to life. Especially the scenes where he is in inner turmoil between his royal duties and divine calling, Swaminathan brings Vadavooran before our eyes. The little girl who came as Vadavooran’s daughter performed well, kudos to her.
The sets were done nicely, I could not help comparing it to the astonishing set and special effects done decades earlier in R.S.Manohar’s plays that my father took me during my school days, Vadavooran certainly is not in that league but nevertheless it is a great effort for recent times considering the effort and costs. They showed a dragon fly (தும்பி) flying in the stage by suspending it from a rope above, the engineer in me wondered why they didn’t use one of those miniature remote helicopters and then cover it with a costume. The audience were taken for a treat when they showed a real horse on the stage – that should have been difficult managing it and controlling with the changing light effects, great show.
What impressed me most is the on time start of the play, in fact they started the brief introduction a few before 7:00PM. Thanks.
Shraddha doesn’t repeat its plays. So catch ‘Vaadhavooran’ tomorrow.
Review of the play is in the The Hindu here, Behind the scenes work and photos here.
Videos: In Tamil (முன்னோட்டம்), In English (Trailer)
“Madly in Love” is a German movie about a Sri Lankan Tamil boy falling in love over a Swiss-German Divorcee with a Boy. I came to know of this movie from a friends’ FaceBook stream, after a search in the Internet found this movie.
The main character “Devan” is done brilliantly by Muraleetharan Sandrasegaram – he comes out naturally as a next door youngster that we will see daily. The female lead role “Leo” is done nicely by Laura Tonke. The movie is about the struggle the Devan goes through between his love for Leo and his father’s pressure to marry “Nisha” a young girl from Sri Lanka who has been engaged and flown over to Switzerland to marry him. The movie briefly touches on the life that Sri Lankan Tamilians have in Switzerland trying to assimilate into main stream Europe or to stay apart. You won’t believe it – but the movie has 3 to 4 Tamil songs just like Kollywood movies, but were shot quite nicely and were appropriate to the storyline.
இந்தப் படத்தை தமிழ் கூறும் நல் உலகில் கடைசியாகப் பார்த்தது நான் தான் போல, படம் பொங்கலுக்கு கலைஞர் டிவியில் கூட வந்துவிட்டது. இந்த வாரம் எங்கள் கிளப்பில் வேலாயுதம் என்று சொல்லிவிட்டு இதைப் போட்டார்கள்.
”கோ”வில் ஜீவா சண்டைக்காட்சிகளை பொளந்துக்கட்டுகிறார், பாராட்டுக்கள். நான் முக்காலியை வைத்து படம் எடுத்தால் கூட கோனலாகத் தான் வருகிறது, மனுஷன் ஒருகையில் ஏன் இருவிரலில் எடுக்கும் படங்கள்கூட சரியாக வருகிறது, நம்ம ஊர் 3ஜியில் மின் அஞ்சலே கஷ்டம் ஆனால் ஜீவா முழுஅளவு படங்களாக அனுப்பித் தள்ளுகிறார். கார்த்திகா ராதாவை நினைவுப்படுத்துவதோடு நின்று விடுகிறார், நடிப்பு முகபாவம் எதுவுமில்லை, அடுத்தப் படத்தில் பார்க்கலாம். வில்லன் வசந்தன் பாத்திரத்தை நிறைவாகச் செய்துள்ளார் அஜ்மல் அமீர், சில கோனங்களில் இயக்குனர் திரு.வாசுவின் மகன் ஷக்தியைப் போல இருக்கிறார்.
முடிவில் எனக்கு உடன்பாடுயில்லை. என்ன காரணம் சொன்னாலும் பாத்திரிகைகள் உண்மையை மக்களுக்குச் சொல்லத்தான் வேண்டும்.
Yesterday this stand-up comedy “Make Chai Not War” show happened in Egmore Museum Theatre, Chennai. It was organized by U.S.Consulate General in Chennai in association with Evam Entertainment and Times of India. The stand-up comedy was by 3 Indian Americans – comedian Hari Kondabolu (www.harikondabolu.com), comic Rajiv Satyal (www.funnyindian.com) and Azhar Usman (http://www.azhar.com). The show was brilliant, over two hours of non-stop laughter and a bit to think over. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much in my life on some clean comedy. A fantastic effort by U.S. Home Department to foster friendship with India and its people through some multi-religious, multi-ethnic jokes and not through handouts or military aid. There is so much for all of us to laugh about our diversity in this world than to fight for.
Rajiv who is from Ohio, a Hindu (he stresses it often for effect & to poke good fun at), born to Punjabi parents who immigrated to USA. He covered everything in his show – from Indians refilling with water the almost empty Soap bottles to how Gujaritis save money. He touched nicely on the diversity of Indians and India – saying unlike USA in India the smart people are put up in South.
Hari who is from Queens New York, born to parents from Andhra Pradesh is a performer in Comedy Central & HBO Comedy Arts Festival. He seems to have a stated dislike towards British and Colonization that he made fun of at every turn. Yesterday he appeared a little sombre but still funny enough to make you laugh.
Azhar who is from Chicago, hailing from immigrants from Bihar and a title ‘America’s funniest Muslim”. He was the super-star yesterday firing all cylinders. He started by how to spell his name – Azhar like in Buzzer with a B, it gets pronounced as Uzzer. His experience of Auto-drivers in Chennai hailing him first for Sight-seeing, then for Girls and finally for Marijuana. He closed his show with a profound thought – we are all birds in a cage, each of us can see all the 7 billion people in the world but not ourselves (for which we have to look inside us). His story of scaring a British Gentleman in a flight was hilarious.
Overall a superb, brilliant, hilarious show you shouldn’t miss if they come to your city.
When a friend suggested I see this movie “Bad Teacher” I was not sure I will like it. From the web comments I expected the comedy to dull & boring and the sexy visuals of Cameron Diaz especially as a teacher will be making it unpleasant to watch. But the movie turned out to be better than that. It is by no means a great movie or anything but just different, certainly watchable & at places I even laughed while watching it.
The movie is about a seventh grade teacher Elizabeth Halsey (played by Cameron Diaz) who is an exact opposite of an ideal teacher. She does everything that is wrong about a teacher, she sleeps in classes, secretly drinks alcohol in class, doesn’t even know her students names or what’s in the syllabus and she even uses Marijuana in the school parking lot. To fund her breast implant (which is to attract a wealthy spouse) she is shown stealing items from a student’s house, dresses provocatively in a student car wash to pocket the collection and even accepts grafts from parents for better grades and drugs the state examiner. Then there is the usual love story with Elizabeth trying to impress a wealthy substitute teacher while the gym teacher likes her.
What makes the movie watchable is the simplicity and the frankness of the portrayal. It doesn’t sugar coat anything. The Director breaks the typical mould of a teacher character in movies – someone who is normally inspirational and above criticism. And at the end too, Elizabeth doesn’t get caught, instead the good teacher gets punished and Elizabeth gets away, she stops being sloppy and becomes a guidance counsellor.
My son is avid reader of Tintin comics, because of him after so many years I too read again many of the books recently. Both of us have been planning to see this movie “The Adventures of Tintin” and we went for it today at Escape (Express Mall), Chennai. My interest was increased due to the film being directed by Steven Spielberg.
The adaptation of the comics to movie has been done quite nicely, without disturbing the original author’s (Herge) magic. The original Tintin stories had a way of impressing boys with its action packed scenes, simple storyline & wordings, a trip around many parts of the world showing its culture & people. The movie to a good extend has retained it, the animated characters too look quite faithful to the impression I had from the comics. You can even have laugh at many of the scenes, just like I had. Overall, a fun movie to watch with your whole family.
One thing I don’t understand is the need to pay for the 3D glasses Rs.20 separately in the food counter at Escape, why can’t they add it to the Online transaction itself?. I guess it might be due to some archaic Entertainment tax issue, but Satyam can collect additional Rs.10 or so to cover it and make it convenient for audience.
I like Bruce Willis movies and I had been wanting to watch this movie but did it only today. The movie’s premise was very interesting, humans are living safe inside their houses and come out/do all their activities using a Robot which acts as their surrogates. Kind of like Avatar but this is all humans and in earth. So I had good expectation for this movie “Surrogates”.
It turns out the movie has wasted a great plot with poor imagination & execution, Bruce Willis is wasted too. First there is not much a suspense or rather it is not told correctly. Second lots of loopholes in the story, why should surrogates be doing sane things as humans & limited by Human capabilities – when they can jump as high as they want, why should they use a cell-phone to communicate, why use a computer monitor and mouse, why use the same cars as humans and the list goes on. The surrogates are supposed to be used worldwide including in China, Russia – how on earth will they let an American Private Corporation (VSI) control their lives, how the poor in the world who can’t even be reached to get safe water by their governments get a surrogate. How could all this have happened in just 14 years.
Overall, you can certainly live it through the movie.
என் பையன் இப்போதெல்லாம் சினிமா பார்க்கிறான், விஜய் படங்கள் பார்க்கப் பிடிக்கிறது, பள்ளியிலும் அதைப் பற்றிப் பேசுகிறார்கள் போல். இந்த வாரம் அவனை தீபாவளி வெளியீடான விஜய்யின் வேலாயுதம் படத்திற்கு அழைத்துச் சென்றேன்.
சத்தியம், ஐ-நாக்ஸில் சீட்டு இல்லாததால் விருகம்பாக்கத்தில் புதிதாக வந்துள்ள “சந்திரா மால்” ஃபேம் திரையரங்கிற்கு சென்றோம், இணையத்தில் பதிவு செய்திருந்தாலும் வரிசையில் நின்று டிக்கேட்டை மாற்றிக் கொண்டு தான் செல்ல வேண்டும். ஆற்காட் சாலையில் வழக்கத்திற்கும் அதிகமான நெரிசல், அதனால் பதினைந்து நிமிடம் தாமதமாகத்தான் செல்ல முடிந்தது. எனக்கு ஒரே எரிச்சல், தியேட்டரில் பார்த்தால் எனக்கு நீயுஸ் ரீலும், விளம்பரங்களும் தொடங்கி, வணக்கம் வரைப் பார்க்க வேண்டும். சந்திரா மாலில் ஒரேயிடத்தில் நான்கு கார்கள் (ஒன்றன் மேல் ஒன்றாக) நிறுத்த நவீன வசதி செய்துள்ளார்கள், அதனால் சுலபமாக காருக்கு இடம் கிடைத்தது. ஃபேம் திரையரங்கு நன்றாகவும், வசதியாகவும் (Screen 1) பெரிதாகவும் உள்ளது, இதை நான் எதிர்ப்பார்க்கவில்லை தான். இந்தப் பக்கம் இருக்கும் சென்னைவாசிகள் நவீன திரையரங்கிற்காக இனி மைலாப்பூர், அண்ணா சாலை செல்ல வேண்டாம் – இப்படியே பராமரிப்பார்கலாப் பார்க்கலாம்.
சரி படத்திற்கு வருவோம். காவலன் எனக்கு பிடித்திருந்தது, நல்ல காமெடி, அதனால் இதுவும் அப்படியிருக்கும் எனப் பார்த்தால் இது முழுக்க முழுக்க கமர்ஷியல் விஜய் படம். சந்தானம் தன் வேலையை இயல்பாக செய்து ரசிக்க வைக்கிறார் (மனுஷன் இன்னும் கொஞ்சம் அடக்கிவாசித்தால் அவருக்கு நல்லது) – கடைசியில் ஓட்டைப் பிரித்துக் குதிக்கும் இடம் நல்ல சிரிப்பு. ஆக்ஷனிற்கு விஜய்யும், கிளு கிளுப்பிற்கு ஹன்சிகாவும், இரண்டு குத்துப் பாட்டும் கிடைத்துவிட்டதால் இயக்குனர் ராஜா கதைக்கு ரொம்ப யோசிக்கவில்லை போல – விஜய்யின் முந்தைய சிவகாசியையும், விக்ரமின் கந்தசாமியையும், காஷ்மீர் திவரவாதிகளையும், ஒரு ரசாயன வெடிப்பையும், மகாநதி சீட்டு கம்பெனி போண்டியையும் சேர்த்து கலக்கி நல்ல சுத்தமான மசாலாப் பொடியைத்தூவி கதையை முடித்துவிட்டார். ஜெனிலியாவிற்கு படத்தில் அவ்வளவாக வேலையென்று ஒன்றுமில்லை, அவ்வப்பொது வந்துப் போகிறார். மொலச்சு மூணு இலையவிடலப் பாடல் தனியாகக் கேட்க அருமையாகயிருந்தாலும் படத்தில் வரும் காட்சிகளுக்கு ஒட்டவேயில்லை – வீண் செய்துவிட்டார் ராஜா; ஜில்லாக்ஸ் பாட்டு ஹன்சிகாவாலும், விஜய்யின் துள்ளலாலும் நம்மை கொஞ்சம் இருக்கையிலேயே ஆடவைக்ககிறது.
விஜய் பிடிக்கும் என்றால் பார்க்கலாம். மற்றப்படி சொல்ல எதுவுமில்லை.
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