Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Why Red Carpet??
Posted on: March 13, 2009
54th Annual Filmfare awards 2009
Recently I was looking at winners of the 54th Film Fare awards and was startled to that Bollywood called pre-show interviews as Red carpet interviews. I don’t know why they have to do that. It seems like the Hollywood bug has bitten the Film Fare awards too. Film Fare awards are the finest in Indian cinema and its unfortunate that it’s lost its originality. I am not sure who the organizers are trying to impress here. They are not increasing their viewership in America as they are not interested in knowing which Bollywood movie is the best of 2008.
Yeah there are few Americans who watch Bollywood movies but that’s about it. They are not going to be interested in the awards in India. Are we trying to impress the Indian Audience? I am not sure because how many Indians in India do actually watch the Oscars to know what Red carpet means. The actors and actresses behave as if they are in Hollywood with their dressing and interviews. I hardly saw anyone wearing Indian costume in an Indian award. None of the actors give interviews in Hindi which seems to be out of fashion.
So by talking in English they are already cutting out more than 50% of our own people watching the show as they don’t understand what’s going on most of the times. Unfortunately the quest to gain International attention seems to be affecting Bollywood big time. They have to realize that the NRI’s are not Americans but they are Indians who have settled in America. We don’t care about the Red carpets and the fashionable dresses which the actresses wear. We see it already in the Golden Globe and the Oscars and I don’t think we need to see the same in Film Fare in India.
An Indian award needs to be Indian that’s what everyone wants. The shows on Television and awards need to first cater to the Indian audience and then to the International community if they actually watch the show. By aping Oscars in Film Fare awards Indian movies don’t become world standard. To get International recognition India need to make movies which are world standard rather than doing such ridiculous things which aren’t going to impress anyone but the Bollywood themselves.
I am really happy that the south awards are still maintaining the traditional approach and yes we don’t call it Red carpet yet. I hope that it remains this way. Indian film industry needs to be Indian first which I guess is a message lost on most of the actors and organizers. India has the talent to make an impact on the world stage but that can only be achieved by quality in cinema.
It’s unfortunate and saddening to see that we copy everything that happens in Oscars and none of the legends in cinema seems to talk about it. Recently Amitabh said that he thought calling Hindi cinema Bollywood is a derogatory as its copied from Hollywood but its seems like copying the Oscars doesn’t seem to affect anybody. Red carpet is just one of them. I guess in few years time the Hindi audience will turn their back on their own awards as it would seem alien to them. I hope that the organizers realize the same and maintain some Indianness in these functions.
Anoop gets through
Posted on: March 12, 2009
- In: Entertainment | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
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Anoop made it through to the next round yesterday but chose another wrong song on Tuesday. The judges were clearly not that happy and he recieved very bad comments from all the judges even from Paula. Anoop has to really pull up his socks if he has to remain in this competition.
I am afraid till now he seems to be going the Sanjaya way. I hope that he stays in this competition through his ability rather than his popularity. He should choose the right songs to suit his voice and should perform better if he has to avoid elimination. Lets hope that he does that in the next round.
This was the day of elimination and had three contestants fighting to survive the same. Manorama Aachi and PBS were gone and we had LR Easwari amma as the chief guest on the third day. She enthralled the viewers with her legendry songs such as “Kaadhodu Thaan”, “Lovely Birds” and also her version of “Ketukodi Urimi Melam”. She was very insightful and was all praise for Ravi and Prasanna.
The program started with Ravi singing yet another classical song and was appreciated by everyone. The comments also were not that serious as this was just a guest performance by Ravi. Srinivas though felt that Ravi could have probably sung a different genre as he had already sung classical based song in the main round.
The first contestant of the night was Vijay Narayanan and he chose to sing “Paatu padava” from Thaen Nilavu. The song was good at parts and the ending was excellent. Overall it was an average performance from Vijay, considering this was a elimination round. The judges gave him good comments but it was by no means a great performance.
The second singer was Prasanna and he decided to sing a melody a genre which he has not often attempted in this competition. He did a fabulous job with the same. LR Easwari amma enjoyed it very much and so did the judges. Sujatha actually said that if Prasanna had sung this in the first round he would not have been here. Prasanna has improved by leaps and bounds during the course of this competition and is one of the most consistent singers among the pack.
Finally when the time came for Rohit to perform Malini and Yugendran revealed that he will not be able to make it as he has pulled out of the competition. The reason cited for him pulling out was his academics and attendance in college. A video message was played with Ravi apologizing to the judges who clearly didn’t seem that happy. Rohit’s father though came on stage and apologized to the judges and the audience. The judges were disappointed as they felt that they could have selected Aruna instead in the previous round as it was so close.
I feel that Rohit did what he needed to do and what he felt was important for his future. Best of luck to him and hope he does not stop singing. Vijay Narayanan got a lucky break this week as he escaped from elimination due to Rohit pulling out. He seems the most likely candidate for elimination though. Anyways we have 7 singers now and the race for super singer hots up.
- In: Airtel Super Singer | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
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The Black & White round day 2 was interesting with some surprise performances. First PBS was missing today even though Manorama Aachi was still there viewing the performances. Already there were two spot selections from day 1 and day 2 had 5 performances in the offing.
The first performance of the day was Vijay Narayanan. His was a very inconsistent performance. I just felt that his pitch was all over the place when he started but later on he picked up. The judges felt the same and rightly he wasn’t spot selected. I guess Vijay has to do something about his “Sruthi” if he has to progress in this competition and currently looks like the one to receive the axe in this round unless he does something spectacular tonight.
The second performance of the day was Raghini. I just feel that Raghini is always a hit or Miss Singer but yesterday she gave a stellar performance with the “Elandha Pazham” song and the judges loved it. The good thing about her performance last night was that she was smiling throughout her performance and also after it. The Judges and Manorama Aachi were really impressed with her version of the song. She was spot selected two rounds in a row which is impressive if we take into account that she was mostly in the final two before the recall. It seems like Raghini is improving. This is a good thing as it will help her to go further in this competition.
The third performer of the day was Ravi who was in his elements yesterday. He sang a classical based song yesterday which we know is a meat and drink for someone with the caliber of Ravi. He absolutely mesmerized the judges and the chief guest of this show Manorama Aachi, who stood up and applauded Ravi’s performance. It was a brilliant performance from him. I am positive that I saw some tears coming down from Srinivas’s eyes yesterday. Even though Ravi got spot selected Unnikrishnan requested him to perform on the third day too.
The fourth performance of the day was Ranjani who gave a good performance. She sang a song which was perfect for her voice and pulled it off brilliantly. The judges liked it and she was through to the next round to join Ajeesh, Renu, Raghini and Ravi.
It seems like Rohit was unable to come in yesterday due to some unforeseen circumstances, the judges said that he can perform with Prasanna and Vijay on the third day. That ended the show last night and without doubt the performer of the day was Ravi.
I am not sure who will get eliminated today but I am guessing it will be someone between Vijay and Rohit. Lets wait and see.
1000 views complete
Posted on: March 10, 2009
Its been exactly one year since I started blogging on wordpress and my blog has finally completed 1000 views. Its a great feeling to know that people are actually visiting my blog and are reading my posts. Thanks to everyone who visited my blog and please do keep coming back.
Tuition Teachers Vs School teachers
Posted on: July 15, 2008
Over the weekend I was watching Star Vijay channel and on Sunday I stumbled upon an interesting debate show called “Neeya?Naana?” (You? Me?). To give you all a background on this show, its basically a debate show between two sets of people on a particular topic. This week the topic was kind of interesting as it was Tuition Teachers against School Teachers. This is an ongoing debate in India as most of the parents think that sending their kids to private tuitions is the way to go. The school teachers on the other hand say that the lack of attention from the students in the classroom is due to the fact that they go to tuition after the school.
The topic was kind of interesting but the one thing that bothered me was the absence of a student angle to the debate. The base of this discussion were the students and not involving them was kind of a dampner on the show. As I was watching the show there were so many questions that came to my mind as a viewer. Being educated in a system which puts so much emphasis on your marks rather than the knowledge aquired by the students, it was hard for me to agree with the School teachers defence on the topic.
The argument from both sides went something like this, the School teachers said that going to tuition is affecting the student’s concentration in the class and the Tuition teachers hit back saying that its due to inefficient teachers in the schools the students come to them. Personally for me I dont have any fond memories of a classroom in India. In India education is a major business and with it comes lots of competition. In schools the teachers want instant results. Not many teachers want to spend enough time with a kid having trouble with studies.
Teachers in India dont want to listen to criticizm of any kind from anyone. They have lots of ego and it was kind of funny that in the talk show they teachers said that the students are in their control. There is so much emphasis on the marks scored by the students the parents think that their only option is to put the kids in private tuitions. Few private schools in India have decided to fight the competition by only admitting students who are toppers already. I was also shocked to hear from the teachers in the debate saying that they admit kids only if their parents are educated.
These are new developments in an already outdated education system in India. The reason for the parents to trust private tuitions is because there are very few teachers in schools who concentrate on making students understand the concepts. The aim of the teachers is to just complete the syllabus assigned for a particular class for that year. The tuition teachers are not any different either as their main aim is to get the kid over the line to get money. All in all members of both the groups dont impart any knowledge to the kids but yes they tell them how to pass in an exam.
Teachers escape from their duties by complaining to the parents about the kid. When the parents hear the complaints from the teachers in the school they think the ultimate solution is to approach a private tuition teacher. If the teachers can also provide a solution for the problem faced by the kid along with the complaints then probably parents will not think about tuition teachers. The problem is that none of the teachers have a clue about the issues faced by the kid. The problem is that most of the school teachers themselves are part time tuition teachers which made me laugh when they were arguing with each other on the show.
The Indian education system already puts lots of pressure on the kids to perform as marks they score funnily enough determines how intelligent they are. Their fate most of the time is decided in the 3 hours they spend in the examination hall. To top it all there is always constant comparisons between different induviduals by the parents and the others around them.
I was one of the so called average student during my school days and faced my share of humiliations and beatings. I was also the victim of the after school tuition torture. My father was also called by my teacher for complaints and you can only imagine what happened to me after I came home that day. Inspite of all that I am currently a Masters degree holder in US with great scores and work in a big software firm.
Kids in India are not to be blamed here ,its just the system and the non availability of enough good teachers are responsible for this situation. Teachers should understand that hitting and humiliating the kids in front of their mates isnt going to help their confidence either. I may be coming accross as another complaining student but the fact is that I really respected my professors during my masters here in US and understood how students should be actually treated.
Well I dont think the situation in India is going to improve a great deal in the future. So finally my verdict on the debate is that both the School Teachers and the tuition teachers are not doing any favours for the kids. India has one of the best tried and trusted curriculam but the system surrounding it isnt that great. Teachers are not hand picked and there are hardly any good ones around. Schools and Private tuitions are a way of making money and they are equally not that worried about the students to be honest. Both are worried about getting 100% results to get their names popular with the people to get more money.
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Recently an article on a famous website stated that director Mysskin of Anjathe fame has decided to act as hero in his next movie. This is not new to Tamil cinema as we have seen Cheran, SJ Suryah, Thangar Bachan, Praveen kanth and Perarasu trying their luck in front of the camera. To be frank it has been a real torture for the audience to see them performing the lead roles in the movies. Recently Cheran expressed dissapointments on the comments from the media for sarcastically comparing him with Kamal Hassan. Why does Cheran want to become like Kamal? Cheran is not an actor, accepted that he is a very competant director but I think that his aim should be to become like a Maniratnam or a Balachander rathan than trying to become an actor like Kamal.
The Tamil directors for a long time now have underestimated the intelligence of the movie going public. People for sure dont want to pay money and watch perarasu delivering punch dialogues on a big screen. The work of a creator should remain behind the scenes and try to make people see them through the characters on the screen. The success of directors like Mani Rathnam, KB, Balu Mahendra, Bharadhiraja was based on their great screenplays and scripts which made the viewers appreciate them without them having to come on the big screen. So whats with this new trend of directors becoming heroes after couple of successes in the box office? I will never know the answer to that.
The fact that list keeps growing is a worrying factor for the tamil movie watchers around the world. Its not only the directors but now a famous song writer Pa.Vijay also has decided to act in movie as the male lead. We all can take the example of Sonu Nigam, who after couple of unsuccessful ventures decided to stick to his strength which is singing. As a fan of “Good” tamil movies it pains me to watch these directors trying to act.
Well unless and until these directors realise themselves that they are more of creators than actors we will not see the end of this fiasco.
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Couple of days back there was a news flash which said actor Raghuvaran is no more. I was shocked at the news as there were no indication of his bad health. He was a fine actor with a wide variety of roles in Tamil cinema especially.
His best work includes movies like Puriyatha Puthir, Baasha, Mughavari, Run etc. He had his own style of acting and brought believability to the roles he played. Who can forget the role of a suspicious husband in Puriyatha Puthir or the Mark Anthony of Baasha. Whatever may be the character he played he always brought great value to the roles with his unique stlye of acting and dialogue delivery. His role as Madhavan’s brother-in-law in Run showed that he had great comic timing too and is one of my favorites of his performances.
He was and will remain one of the most versatile character artist in Tamil Cinema. He will be missed for sure.
Is Hindi our National Language?
Posted on: March 14, 2008
Is hindi our National language? The answer is “No”, Should it be our National Language? Again the answer would be “No”.India does not have a National language which not many Indians know(Including myself until last week). According to the National languages act of 1963 Hindi and English together was made the official language of communication for the central government. The act also mentioned that each state would have their own official language together with English. So according to the act people in TamilNadu, AP or in Gujarat need not know Hindi as thats not their state’s official language.
This is not a great situation though as I think that knowing the language is a great plus for every Indian no matter where he comes from. The reason why I said that Hindi should not be declared as our National language is because it may cause a huge regional clash and the people, not the politicians will be blamed for not knowing the language. I was lucky enough to grow up in Delhi, so can speak the language fluently but not all Tamilians have that luxury. The problem is that most of us do not know that Hindi is not our National Language and keep blaming the people from south for not knowing the same. Well now we have an excuse and reason for not knowing the language. People from North have to realise that not all Indians need to speak Hindi.
Being a Tamilian myself who can speak Hindi, I just think that by knowing the language my life has become little bit easy. I guess by knowing hindi it gives you more freedom to move around within India and makes life very simple when you travel abroad. Regional politics played by the politicians in TamilNadu has made sure that people from that state are discouraged to learn the language. We do have people who learn the language through their own efforts by giving “prathmic” exams and stuff but the number is too less. With the growing IT market and people moving to different parts of the country to work, it becomes easier if you can speak Hindi.
Unless and until the Govt can make sure that every state in India will cooperate and make learning Hindi madatory, we cannot even think of making it our National language. The possibility of that happening is very less as no sooner there is a talk about making hindi our National language there will be riots accross India. At least now we know that the people from different parts of India are not required to know that language and it boils down to personal interest to learn the same. When people used to say to me that every Indian should know Hindi as its our National language, I never had a defense against the same but now I do. Its not the mistake of any Indian that he cannot speak hindi but its the politicians and the respective state governments who deny us that chance.
I was recently reading a great article on sledging by Harsha Bhogle and it got me thinking what does aggression on the cricket field mean. Aggression on a cricket field has been a hugely misunderstood concept.
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