well if public is romancing 50- 60s anique stones..fine!

In Vikatan this week, they gave -ve criticism for CM because Rajini didnt act too close with his counter part!

I saw the chandramuki coverage in suntv (probably an ad), they were showing women with 2 kids and 3 kids standing in a long line to buy the ticket at 3 AM. On the other side, all college students are standing in line, who normally watch Vijay movies (considered next big star), but totally shuned vijay's Sachin (out of theatre in some areas) and came to see Rajini movies. As long as he has such devotees, there is nothing wrong in acting with 20 year old girls.

A man probably in his late 70s asked me if I sell adult movies and compared to that it is no sin.

You make my point. See Naa Alludu. I dont consider 'Naani' or 'Naa Alludu' vulgar per se, but if you are comparing vulgarity, Naani has more vulgarity than Naa Alludu. Naa Alludu is crass never the less. That shows that you cannot form opinions by seeing the posters.

My point about Malayalam films was the same. If I unwittingly formed my opinion about the entire Malayalam films from the malayalam film posters I see, I would be making a mistake. By the way when talking about films by language you cannot selectively exclude this and that films

I would be god if I know how audience reacts to films. They do rile against some films as vulgar and make the next film a big hit exactly for the same reason. That people blamed vulgarity as one of the reasons for Naani's failure was reported in the papers.

Completely agree with PAV, The so called "comedy" came as a rude jolt for me, I don’t think I have seen such explicit jokes in a Rajini film. Knowing his fans range from 5 year old to 50 year old this is pathetic - Boooo Rajini !!! . Add to that the beheading scene at the end - so much violence is pathetic. I saw the film with my 8 year old cousin and he was holding my hand all the way through while I was twitching uncomfortably in my seat.

The concept of "Family" entertainment had got to stop in India , the inherent problem being it tries to cater to everyone including fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles etc. Cinema is not meant to entertain all age groups in one stroke or at least most (if not all ) directors are not capable of doing it.

I hope some kind of new regulation comes in bringing sanity to current setup

P.S : Good to be back after a long vacation in India.

Welcome back dvdisoil.

Cinema CAN entertain the whole family, but that means that every part of it has to be appropriate for the youngest viewers. It shouldn't mean that whoever wants romance gets romance and whoever wants extreme violence gets extreme violence

Very few artist in the world can do it - Chalie Chaplin comes to my mind immediately ( Modern Times is such a good example). Alas to expect that quality from current crop of indian directors is a tad too much.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... Rajnikanth

SRK, Big B bow down to Rajnikanth

CHENNAI: In the rat race, Rajnikanth has overtaken the likes of Shahrukh Khan, Chiranjeevi and others of their league.

Leaving the rest far behind, Rajnikant, the superstar of Tamil cinema has now become the new icon of Indian cinema with his latest super-duper hit Chandramukhi.

Industry sources said his latest flick could well gross over $10 million.

Of the total collections, Rajni would pocket 50 per cent as his fee.

This in turn translates into a sum upwards of Rs 15 crore, thereby, passing on the crown from Chiranjeevi – icon of Telugu cinema – to Rajni.

Chiranjeevi's Tagore was considered the biggest regional language hit so far.

Released on April 14 (Tamil New Year), Rajni's Chandramukhi has been enthralling audiences across South India.

Chandramukhi has scripted a success story all over. While Rajnikant's charisma and screen presence is definitely helping in the success, the state government too has a hand in it.

The lower entertainment tax (15 per cent ), introduced last year and success in preventing pirated VCDs from flooding the market during the first few days, have all added up to the ultimate results.

Without Rajnikant's remuneration, industry sources place the cost of production of the film at about Rs 5 crore.

The sale proceeds were estimated at a conservative Rs 30 crore from theatrical, overseas, audio and satellite rights.

The collections of Chandramukhi has overtaken that of Padayappa (his biggest hit, released in 2000) in most centres, trade sources pointed out.

The movie is having an extraordinary run in the overseas market too.

Mathematically it doesnt add up, but neverthless CM did have good run across many areas, mainly since the screenplay is very good and Rajni acting after 2 years. This is a different type of movie. The movie, if acted by anyone, is sure a flop, on the other hand its not a typical Rajni movie!

Now Rajni is resting in some himalayas and rumours are already on the air about his next movie. The rumor is that they are going to remake Waqt. Since Rajni badly needed few good hits before he reitire, he will act only in remake movies which prooved success in other parts of India, except Tamil and Telugu!

Also if Panchu Arunachalam is the producer, we can hope that IR will scroe music for Rajni, since Panchu is the one who introduced IR to tamil films and he is the one who promoted Rajni to a hero from villian!

I tend to disagree ..., an inherent nature of rajini movie is that they have a framework in which rajini is the focus - remove him and the film cannot stand on its own ( Padayappa, Bashaa, Arunchallam, Baba etc.). Chandramukhi is different - Here the focus is on Jyothika and her schizophrenic antics (kudos to her, she was great in this flick ) . In fact the flaws of chandramuki stems from "trying" to bring rajini's character into focus e.g.) why have a fight with the servant after the marriage – serves the story no purpose ! . I can easily see rajini being replaced by any other capable actor (suggestions anyone ??) and still the movie rolls on by its own merit ( note - removing rajini removes the hype, thereby lowering expectations and increasing chance of sucess ). I have not seen the original ( Malayalam or Kannada version), but their success without rajini got to mean something .

Rajini's greatest strength is his persona and his screen presence - unfortunately Saravannan ( rajini’s character ) neither has it nor needs it .

If you remove Rajni and put anyone else, then it would have been a Jyothika movie (and it is still a Jyothika movie, but Rajni's presence make you feel like its a Rajni movie). How many movies ran well in Tamil movie history, which focuses on heroine? Name 5 movie and I will agree (or atleast name 1 movie in the last 5 years)

Thats my point - this is a jyothika movie . Why then is the movie called chandramukhi and not saravannan. In the last decade or so no Rajini movie carries a title that directly or indirectly not reference his charecter. There is a good reason why they are named after him - simply put he is the "focus" of his films!

I just feel bad for jyothika - she is the soul of this film while Rajini is merely its body. I have never been a fan of jyothika, yet i think she was good in this one and it pains me when people call it a rajini film. I shared similar views with padiayappa ( but to a lesser extent) .



Did not expect this from you - yet i forgive you

- Avargal
- Arangetram
- Aval Oru thodar Kathai
- Manthil Oruthi vendum

How about flicks from bharathiraja
- pudhumai penn

** Added ** - The Terrorist ( Santosh Sivan ) - a critical success !

I am pretty sure i am missing 100's of other flicks , but this should suffice. There has always been directors whose fav subject were female protagonist




CHANDRAMUKHI

ok kidding..., this is a tough one, esp. given tamil cinema is in a state of limbo right now and i have not watched enough tamil flicks recently . How about
- Shock ( remake of Bhoot ) - i heard it was a moderate hit ( never seen it ).

Shock I wouldnt include. If at all, I will accept Avargal, Arangetram, Aval Oru Thodar Kathai, Manathil Urudhi Vendum (interestingly all KB movies!). Pudhumai penn is okay and Terrorist is a success because of the story line (Rajiv Gandhi assasination). Neverthless, like you said, in the last 5 years, Tamil movie is over dominated with heroism, only because Rajni is keeping quite and everybody else wanted to be Rajni. If Rajni really act 2 or 3 movies / year, then the rest of the crowd (vijay, ajith etc) has to look for stories more suitable for them and an action movie.

Anyway, CM rocks SI now and Jyothika rocks in CM. Interestingly last week I called my house and my father told me that my mom went to see CM, so I called the next day and when she picked up, I said "Laka Laka Laka Laka" and she was frozen, thinking its "Chandarmukhi"

K Balachander was/is a "women" director (for lack of better word), early balachander reminds of Lars Von Tier ( Breaking the waves, Dancer in the dark, Dogville ) expect his female protagonist are less darker. Balachander along with Balumahendra and Bharathiraja are in my regards the trimurthis of Tamil cinema (70-80's).



Not really - Terrorist is "pure" human cinema. In fact I don’t think I have seen a better Indian film since then ( released in 99 ? ) . Terrorist reminds me of a Bresson films or to an extent Satyajit Ray films ( stripped of everything non-essential and sticking to basic human emotions). The film impressed people everywhere it went and all thanks to John melkovich . Infact George Luca$ after seeing the film offered a 'tiny' role in to Ayesha Dharkar ( she played the queen in episode II ).

let me rest my case here for i feel i am starting to digress here

What about Indian Time Bomb DVDs that freeze even when we don't say "Laka Laka Laka Laka"??

BTW, in the theatre where I saw it in DTS, whenever "Laka Laka Laka Laka" was muttered, theatre filled with laughter.
Not knowing Tamil, I don't know whether it was supposed to terrify the audience or make them laugh??