What's Up This Friday? ( 4th Dec'09 )

Well Bollywood this week sees the release of Amitabh Bachchan's Paa & Himesh Reshammiya's Radio.While Paa has been in the news ever since it was known that Amitabh plays the 13 year old son of Abhishek who is suffering from Progeria, Radio has also been in the news for Himesh's music, his " new " voice and the fact that the producer has already recovered his money.

My take- Paa is carrying good reports,should find acceptance with the multiplex junta,but may not be a mass hit.Nevertheless at a budget of around 15 crores,it should make money. Radio may prove to be a surprise and just about do well- keep watching this space.

Tamil cinema might see Renigunta and Edhuvum Nadakkum releasing along with Vettatam.Edhuvum Nadakkum is an experimental thriller with Karthik Kumar and Aparna Pillai, Renigunta a hard hitting realistic tale on child criminals and Vettatam a rural tale.Cant say much about these films, except that Renigunta has some buzz as it was earlier refused a censor certificate due to some objectionable portions.

Malayalam cinema- Mammootty's Paleri Manikyam directed by Renjith was to release today ( 3rd Dec ) but its release seems to have been put on hold due to a stay order by a court due to some payment issues.Probably Gulumaal may release tomorrow.With Jayasurya and Kunchako Boban in it,the movie is supposed to be a fun outing.Lets see if the audience finds it entertaining enough.Telugu cinema- Amaravathi - a thriller with Bhumika & Sneha released today and lined up for tomorrow is Sarrai Veerraju and Pravarakhydu.

Nothing interesting on the English movie scene though.The movies releasing are New In Town and Ghost of Girlfriend's Past.No expectations from both of them.

Among the earlier releases- 2012 continues to do well across the country and entering its 2nd week is Ninja Assassin.Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is still hanging on- a big hit indeed and De Dana Dan has done better than expected.Pazhassi Raja is still holding on in Kerala and a few other places like Chennai.Arya 2 ( Telugu ) had a very good opening week as expected- lets see if the negative feedback affects the 2nd week majorly as is expected.

Will be back soon with whats up for the next week, keep watching this space.

Revisiting Dasavatharam

At the outset let me make it clear that this write-up is not an attempt to review Kamal Haasan’s Dasavatharam.A lot of discussion has happened about the merits and the demerits of the movie on PFC as well as other forums so I’m not going to make another attempt for the same. Then why am I writing this post on the movie? Well because tomorrow- 17th April marks the release date of the Hindi version of the movie (Dashavatar) and so I thought of revisiting the movie and sharing some thoughts on the same.
The release of the movie couldn’t have been timed better. Due to the strike in Bollywood, there is a clear lack of content to feed the theatres and multiplexes and thus a release like this is welcome. So all those who have heard of the movie but couldn’t watch it in its Tamil or Telugu version can now watch it in Hindi. While I do not expect the Hindi version to be a blockbuster, I’m sure that it will definitely get noticed.
Around 10 months after its successful release in Tamil & Telugu, the Hindi version is finally releasing. While there will always be a debate on whether the butterfly effect/chaos theory angle was actually utilized well, whether the SFX work could have been better, whether some of the characters portrayed by Kamal Haasan were necessary or not, one thing that should be accepted is that the movie falls in the category of – love it or hate it but you can’t ignore it. For ages Rajnkikanth and Kamal Haasan have been the pillars of the Tamil Film Industry and both have charted their own paths to glory.
While Rajnkikanth played to the gallery and delighted the audience, Kamal Haasan went in for artistic satisfaction and in the bargain also developed his own niche audience. After Sivaji-The Boss redefined the outlook of Tamil movies in the eyes of the rest of the country, Dasavatharam only helped in re-enforcing that outlook even better. In spite of the movie being as commercial as it could be Kamal Haasan still pushed himself hard physically and mentally to portray the 10 different characters. Yes while it is easy to criticize the make-up let us realize that wearing such make-up and shooting for months together is not an easy task. Of course due credit needs to be given to the producer Aascar Ravichandran whose astute marketing brain played no less a role in ensuring the movie’s success.
Apart from Kamal Haasan and Aascar Ravichandran, a special mention must be made of K.S.Ravikumar, the director. Now all said & done – K.S.Ravikumar may probably never end up winning any National Award ( forget the Oscars ) but one needs to accept that when it comes to hard core commercial Tamil films, he’s probably among the best in the industry today. He’s made movies with nearly every big star and knows the pulse of the star and the audience quite well. Another person whose work needs a mention here is Himesh Reshamiyya who has composed the songs for the movie. I am highlighting him here for two reasons- not only did he compose songs keeping the true requirement of the movie (no trademark Himesh songs ), this may probably be the last time( atleast for now) one gets to actually hear Himesh composing for any other hero’s movie as Himesh is now only composing movies in which he acts.
Giving you below links to two of my favorite songs in the movie-



The first one is Kallai Mattum Kandal sung by Hariharan and chorus



The second one is Mukunda Mukunda sung by Sadhna Sargam and Kamal Haasan
Both the songs are quite different in approach and concept.

The Hindi release of the movie is also important for its heroine- Asin who is currently very much in the limelight after Ghajini & is being seen all over due to the Mirinda ads. Till her next release London Dreams comes along, Dashavatar is there to keep the audience reminded about her. And finally I would like to conclude by paying my homage to 2 eminent film personalities associated with the movie & who are now no more amidst us- H.Sridhar the brilliant Sound Designer and Sujatha the writer (who along with Crazy Mohan and K.S.Ravikumar had helped Kamal Haasan with the story creation).So for all those who have seen the movie and also for those who will see it now – this was a revisit to the movie from my side.

Originally published in PFC-check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/revisiting-dasavatharam/