Lack-luster review for LOTR musical.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... nment/home



Ouch!

A demo for one of the LOTR songs can be found here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 81,00.html

http://www.telugucinema.com/tc/satyagra ... ar2506.php

Satyagrahi launched in grand scale
Mar 25, 2006, 04:25

Pawan checks in viewfinder at Satyagrahi as Cinematographer P C Sriram looks on..

It was an unique launch. Normally Pawan Kalyan shies away from speaking at his film launches and press meets. But for his second directorial venture, Satyagrahi, he looks changed and seems very confidant about himself. He has opened up his heart at the launch ceremony of the film that was held today (March 25, 2006) at Annapoorna Studios in a grand scale.

Union Minister Dasari Narayana Rao did the pooja ceremony, Allu Aravind and hero Venkatesh graced the occasion as special guests. Pawan’s mother, his wife Renu Desai and his other family members were also present. Chiranjeevi could not attend the function as he was in Chennai.

This is also the first time in a long time that a Pawan film launched amidst his fans. Hundreds of fans attended the ceremony and he humbly accepted their garlands and delivered a long speech (for a man who hardly utters a word at public functions, talking about the film for 15 minutes is really unique).

Cinematographer P C Sriram flew down from Chennai to can the muhurat shot. Producer A M Rathnam made arrangements in grand scale.

Satyagrahi is my outcry: Pawan Kalayan

“ Normally I don’t like to talk about my films. But this time I want to tell you something. I have been thinking about the misery of the people since my childhood. I have always been pained by the plight of the common man. My heart aches when I see injustices in the society but I didn’t know how to express them. I don’t know much about politics.

But when I was studying at a missionary school a brat who used to beat all the students was elected as student leader. I was surprised and asked my friends how did headmistress allow him to field in elections. The replied, “That is politics”. Since than I have been thinking about the political system and injustice in society

Pawan Kalyan and his wife Renu enjoy thier son's dance

I have been conveying my feelings through songs in my films. “Yeh..Jaha..” and “Le..Le..” songs are examples for this.

Satyagrahi is about a student leader who rebels against this system. This is not a documentary. We are making this film to entertain you. It would have all the elements – entertainment, songs, message and everything, yet it reflects today’s socio-political system.

I always treat my fans as brothers. Though my brother Chiranjeevi could not attend the function, I see him in every one of you (fans). "

Producer A M Rathnam, Allu Aravind, Allu Arjun and Venkatesh also spoke at the occasion. Satyagrahi is being produced in Telugu and Hindi and is also being planned to release in Bengali.

Allu Arjun, Venkatesh, Pawan, Nitin at Satyagrahi launch

Banner: Sri Surya Movies
Writers team: Patrick Biswas, Siddartha
Direction team: Sippy, Dayanand
Art director: B Anand Sai
Director of Cinematography: P C Sriram
Music director: A R Rehman
Screenplay: Satyanand and Pawan Kalyan
Story and direction: Pawan Kalyan
Producer: A M Rathnam

© Copyright by Telugucinema.com

ROFL. also, I love how his sons name is "Akira". haha

Telugu, Hindi, Bengali? AMRatnam? no Tamil? me wonders if they will be dubbed or remade

Are you going to see this, DC? I checked out the website, and tickets are upwards of $100 ($125 for orchestra)!

My cousin has a few free tickets that he got from his work, we're planning to go sometimes in May (atleast once my finals are over).

I don't know what "WorldSpace" is, but I saw similar news articles at two websites:



A R Rahman is WorldSpace's new Brand ambassador
http://indiafm.com/news/2006/03/30/6912/index.html

By IndiaFM News Bureau, March 30, 2006 - 23:15 IST

WorldSpace, India's only digital satellite radio service has roped in A R Rahman as their brand ambassador. Rahman will now produce a WorldSpace promotional song and also endorse its products.

Says Shishir Lall, Managing Director of WorldSpace India that they are delighted to team up with a musical genius like Rahman who is world renowned for his works. On the other hand, Rahman is also very pleased to be associated with a service like WorldSpace which believes in providing extensive music of various genres to its audiences.

This will be the second time that A R Rahman is going to endorse a brand nationally. Prior to this, he had done a similar endorsement for Airtel. He had also produced a theme music for the brand. Let's hope that the man does that magic again but this time for WorldSpace.

I was looking for a bgm called Night Fox/La Menthe theme from Ocean's 12 film and I came across a French rap song sampling Ottagathai Kattiko (Gentleman) by ARR. It's by a group called La Caution.

http://www.myspace.com/lacaution

Song: Pilotes Automatiques

Somebody from tamil movies must have intruded the hollywood/pop space. It was IR's enakkum unakkum aanandham song and now its Ottagatha Katikko song. On top of that I saw "Yours Mine and Ours" and its exact copy of "Mazhalai Pattaalangal" (came in 70s/early 80s). Director name is Raja Gosnell (seems to be indian!).

Raja Gosnell isn't Indian. He's, well, a white guy

--

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tami ... 22103.html

Rehman for Harris
IndiaGlitz [Friday, April 28, 2006]

Director A R Murugadoss is all set to direct his Ghajini in Hindi. Aamir Khan would play the lead role with Asin playing his ladylove.

Interestingly, Harris Jayaraj, who composed the musical score for the original, would be replaced by A R Rehman.

Sources say Aamir Khan had insisted on Rehman working in the movie.

Starting with Lagaan down through Mangal Pandey and now Rang De Basanti, Aamir has hit it off with Rehman.

Ghajini starring Suriya and Asin went on to become a big hit in Tamil and established Murugadoss as a sought-after director in Kollywood.

Currently he is directing a Telugu movie featuring Chiranjeevi and Trisha, Murugadoss would commence the Hindi venture of Ghajini only after completing the Chiranjeevi starrer.

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tami ... 22131.html

Now it is Bhagyaraj's son
IndiaGlitz [Saturday, April 29, 2006]

Close on the heels of actor-director Bhagyaraj's daughter Saranya taking to the big screen with Parijatham, his son Santhanu too is ready make a foray into filmdom.

Santhanu is being launched by producer Kalaipuli S Thanu in his production venture Sakkaraikatti being directed by debutant Kaalaprakash.

The movie has musical score by A R Rehman, editing by Anthony and cinematography by James Andrews.

Debutants Ishitha Joshi and Sibi would be playing the female leads in Sakkaraikatti. The movie would hit the floors on 30 April (Sunday).

Thanu known for his grandeur has come out with a grand and huge invitation for the movie's launch.

Quite appropriate to the title, the invitation carries with it sugar cubes.

Get ready to welcome Santhanu Bhagyaraj.

Hmm... Anyone in his family (father/mother, grand father/mother, great grand father/mother etc) ?

Bollywood night at the Hollywood Bowl:

http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tix/perfor ... fm?id=2691

http://movies.indiatimes.com/articlesho ... page-1.cms

Is Aamir making a film to launch his nephew?
KUNAL M. SHAH
MUMBAI MIRROR


One more Khan, this time from Aamir's Khandaan, is ready for a Bollywood debut. Imraan Khan, Aamir's nephew (Nuzhat's son) is being launched by Abbas Tyrewala in his directorial debut titled, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. The film will go on the floors in October.

“Actually I was supposed to start the film about a year back, but it got delayed and the producers changed,” says Abbas. “We have finalised Imraan for the film, which is a romantic comedy. It's a simple, though unpredictable, love story. We are yet to cast the lead girl. However, the film stars many newcomers. It will have small cameos by Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak, Arbaaz Khan and Arshad Warsi, among others.”

"Imraan has done an acting course. My assistant told me about him, after we had gone through a lot of screen tests for the character. He looked the part and we immediately finalised him," he adds.

Jhamu Sugandh was to produce the film initially, but things did not work out. So has Aamir Khan has stepped in to bail out his nephew, as goes the speculation within the industry? Abbas, however prefers to remain tight-lipped about this. "I can't reveal the name of the producer at the moment," he says.

Anyway, he claims that Aamir had nothing to do with his nephew's casting in Abbas's film. "We met Imraan independently and it has nothing to do with Aamir," he says. "We screen-tested him without Aamir being involved. And I don't know if Jhamu Sugandh who was earlier producing the film has told him anything about the film or not..."

About Jhamu Sugandh, Tyrewala says, "Things did not work as there were some issues on the business front. However, he has been kind enough to give me the title. A R Rahman is composing the music for the film."

As for his hero, Abbas insists that they're making him maintain a low profile right now. Imraan Khan will be pushed into the limelight only when the right moment comes.

----------------------------


http://www.radiosargam.com/news/stories ... /014a.html

Exclusion

Exclusion, formerly known as Kamagata Maru, is a forthcoming movie to be directed by internationally acclaimed director, Deepa Mehta starring Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham, Seema Biswas, Kabir Bedi and well-known British actor, Terence Stamp in lead roles. Music of the movie is composed by famous Indian music composer, A. R. Rahman. The movie depicts the Komagata Maru incident, one of the most notorious "incidents" in the history of exclusion laws in Canada and the United States designed to keep out immigrants of Asian origin. The movie is set to go on floors in 2006.

ok. so i went to the concert last night. it was a sold out crowd.

the live performance/orchestra was amazing. there was a bit (from thiruda thriuda) which had vocals by local(LA) 'talent', while the local orchestra was great, the local vocalists weren't so great.

as for ARR, he was fantastic, singing and all! he said something technical about some 516. luckily a couple of my friends have musical backgrounds & explained to me what that was.

I don't want to ruin a good thing by bitching, but there was one caveat. majority of the performances in the first hour were Hindi dubs of Tamil originals. It irked some of the tamil audience at where I was sitting. Then he surprised us all with some Tamil songs anyway, I know that the show was being catored for the northern masses, but he should've used his hindi original songs is all i'm saying

closing performance - Vande Mataram - audience contributed some vocals I was sad when they turned the lights on after this song

Yuvan, I'm jealous I wish the tour's website would be updated with upcoming tour dates. Right now I have no idea if he's coming here or not.



http://www.musicindiaonline.com/n/i/top_stories/1837/

Rehman's new label to tap musical talent
By PTI
Jul 12, 2006, 12:48


The man who's given some of the most commercially successful music in recent times is all set to "give space to non-mainstream work and less known but immensely talented artists."

Music director A R Rehman isn't revealing much about his new label, except that it will be out by the end of the year and that "jazz and classical music will feature prominently." But why 'KM'? "It's something auspicious in Islam, a symbol of good luck," says the new look music director whose curly mop is neatly trimmed and combed. "I am just back from a pilgrimage," he explains.

Rehman is equally discreet about an upcoming international collaboration where "he is teaming up with a guitarist of international repute." After wowing the international audience with 'Bombay Dreams', 'The Lord of the Rings' and the Chinese venture 'Warriors of Heaven and Earth', he is lending music to the sequel of Shekhar Kapur's 'Elizabeth' and a musical 'London Dreams'. Back home Mani Ratnam's 'Guru', Shyam Benegal's 'Chamki Chameli' and the periodical 'Akbar Jodha' are some of the other projects that are keeping him busy.

Rehman, who was recently here for a music tune launch, says international productions approach him for his music. "I think it's for my melody which knows no boundaries." He does admit though that the audience abroad is still niche.

However, Rehman's just lost a prize opportunity to work with Baz Luhrmann of 'Moulin Rouge' fame. "He was intimidated by my roster," says the much-in-demand Rehman. Rehman says nature is his muse and this comes through in the new signature tune that he's created for Worldspace, who have also signed him on as their brand ambassador."I started out with jingles and I am now composing music for advertisments. Life has come a full circle," Rehman says philosophically.

Recently, Rehman has come with his own rendition of the nation anthem 'Jana Gana Mana..". This comes after the popular 'Vande Maatram'. He doesn't attribute a patriotic motive to his versions though.

"It gave me chance to work with Bharat Bala (who produced the song), my friend from school," Rehman says simply.

Panned by critics for being repetitive till he silenced them with the hugely popular music of 'Rang De Basanti', one is tempted to ask if signature style is the bane for a music director ? "I think music should rejuvenate. People listen to a music director so many times that if the music gets repetitive, people get sick of it." The director has a reputation for being difficult to work with. He defends himself saying that if it were the case, he wouldn't be offered so many projects.


© Copyright 2006 by MusicIndiaOnLine.com