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Double standards of Tamizh content creators

Posted by: on: December 5, 2024

The year 2024 began for Tamizh industry with 2 big films release on Pongal. The first one was Dhanush’s Captain Miller and the other was Sivakarthikeyan’s Ayalaan. Both films even though collecting decently at the box office did not impress the critics that much. Following that Tamizh cinema did go through a drought in terms of content and success at the box office. All was not lost though as at the same time we did have movies like Lover and Garudan which were very good.

During that time the Tamizh YouTube content creators had a field day criticising the content and the industry. The one thing they realised as well was that criticising their industry actually got them new fans and subscribers. The constant videos putting down the industry and it’s content and appreciating other industries actually created a new fan base for these creators. The success of Malayalam cinema at the start of the year fueled this change among these creators. We all know how passionate Malayalam cinema fan base is and the Tamizh YouTube content creators took full advantage of that. The fact which was completely ignored during this time was that Tamizh cinema had a great 2023. Even at the end of the year a movie like Parking released to huge critical acclaim but these videos made everyone believe that the industry has been struggling for years.

The same people who posted a video a week to appreciate and promote other industries disappear completely when a good Tamizh cinema releases. This has been a trend and not something new to 2024. Even in the past few years when a good Tamizh content releases these so called experts disappear except for the movie review. There will be no follow up, no appreciation videos etc will be seen from these creators. The second half of the year has been brilliant so far from Tamizh cinema. Starting from the successful Maharaja films like Lubber Pandu, Kottukkali, Meiazhagan, Amaran, Thangalaan, Raayan, Vaazhai etc became critically acclaimed films.

Despite producing such widely accepted content in the second half the narrative of Tamizh cinema struggling is being propagated by these so called experts. Who are these YouTube experts? What is their credentials? Why do we give so much importance to their opinion? These are some questions the audience of these channels need to ask. Anyone who is reporting on something need to have some sort of journalistic ethics. Obviously none of these people have studied journalism have no clue what that means. The major cornerstone of journalism is integrity which many of these people lack. The other most important ethics of journalism is accountability, trust and truthfulness. When we look at these content being posted these days it is just done for the sake of increasing the subscribers count.

If any of these creators had integrity they would have at least posted some appreciation videos later in the year when Tamizh cinema produced some good content. The fact that there are more videos criticising and trolling Kanguva than appreciating a film like Meiazhagan shows the shallowness of these creators. The amount of appreciation videos we see of Meiazhagan, Vaazhai, Lubber Pandu etc from other language creators show how selfish and horrible Tamizh content creators are.

I am not saying don’t appreciate other language films, actually I am saying the opposite. Appreciate good content irrespective of the language and have some integrity when posting content. I agree it takes lots of effort to produce a video, edit it and publish the same and they obviously need subscribers to run a channel but what they are doing right now is unethical. Criticism is important for any industry and if you see content creators from other South Indian languages are harsh on poor content from their industry but none of them go to the extend Tamizh creators go. They don’t put down their industry to appreciate other regions to the level our creators do. Why is that I ask? Is it because we are so insecure that we are afraid of appreciating our industry? Is it because we think if Tamizh cinema is appreciated their subscribers will leave them? I am not completely sure but this needs to stop.

People who are jumping on such creators bandwagon are also to blame including other language fans who actually thing these people mean what they post. The fans and creators from other South Indian industries are way ahead of the so called experts from Tamizh. They not only appreciate other industry content but also post a balanced view of their own industry. When Malayalam cinema was doing so well earlier this year we did not see a Telugu YouTuber posting a video attacking their industry nor did we see Kannada content creators doing the same. So why are we doing this is a question we viewers need to ask as well. I don’t mind criticism as not everyone has to like a film. There are a lot of them who did not like Meiazhagan as well which fine as it is their prerogative but their needs to be some kind of fairness in the content they post on their channels. When you troll or post negative reviews of a film, appreciate good content as well. Don’t just post videos to appease fans from other industries for the sake of subscribers, it just looks bad.

I am not saying everyone is bad, there are a few good ones here and there but again when you have so many poor ones good one are hard to find. While social media has made it easier for a common man to dabble with journalism the ethics of such is role should still remain valid. While proper journalist and reviewers will refrain from trolling or posting polarising content just to increase subscribers these self proclaimed experts do it only for subscribers. I am a fan of Indian cinema and watch content from all languages if the content interests me. Never have I appreciated an industry just put down the other, even when talking with my friends. Good content comes from all industries and so do bad ones. At the end of the year every industry at the maximum will have only 10-15 films which remain in our minds. Even Malayalam industry known for its content cannot buck than trend. No one can say an industry produced 50 great films a year, that is not possible. The fact everyone knows and still we promote and support such creators who make us believe otherwise.

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Tamizh Cinema should stick to their strengths

Posted by: on: November 22, 2024

Two years ago I wrote an article about how Tamizh cinema is failing the Pan-India test and how their lack of promotions causes lack of visibility of their content. The want to have a largely successful Pan-India film also has compromised quality of the well known Tamizh masala films. Tamizh cinema is not alien to Pan-Indian success. The current YouTube generation do not realise how big of a hit movies like Roja and Bombay were. These were the days before people only cared about content and did not care about how much money the movies made.

There were also Shankar’s movies like Indian (Hindustani), Enthiran and 2.0 which were pan-India success stories. So in a way Tamizh cinema was the pioneer in Pan-Indian films. Not only movies Tamizh cinema also produced first pan-Indian stars. So this is not something Tamizh cinema should be concerned about as they have nothing to prove. Tamizh cinema was never known for high budget extravaganzas like how Telugu cinema always did. Yeah Tamizh industry made mindless action films as well but again those were rarely successful. The only kind of films which actually were successful were movies with decent story line or movies with some message like the ones S Shankar made.

Now with the pressure of making films which breaks the 1000 cr barrier, Tamizh cinema has forgotten what made them tick over the years. Nothing against movies like Kanguva which is a great attempt but again the want to make a highly successful film the industry is trying to manufacture films which is never going to work. To be frank except for Telugu cinema none of the other industries are able to make movies which continuously match their own success. Kannada industry which put itself on the map with KGF 1 & 2 could not make another film with the same success. I wouldn’t include Kantara with KGF as they are not the same kind of films.

If what we have seen over the past 2 years is any indication Tamizh cinema is more comfortable in generating good content without having to try too hard to impress the wide audience. The movies which were made for local audience without the intention of going pan-India are the movies which actually went across borders and was liked by everyone. This exactly has been the template of Malayalam cinema as well. They have been concentrating on good content and while they might have not made a 1000 cr film, they don’t seem to care about the same.

What Tamizh cinema has shown over the past 2 years is the same. The industry is more comfortable creating good content and not very adept in creating this big scale put together films which other industries are more capable of. Even the big star masala films which have been successful over the past couple of years have been different content with good film making. The only star who has been successful despite questionable content has been Thalapathy Vijay but that cannot be taken as the norm. Even Vijay has collaborated with good directors and has produced movies like Thuppaki, Kaththi and Leo over the last decade. Vijay has a huge fan base which makes his films kind of “content proof” if you want to call it that.

This year we have had brilliant films come out of Tamizh cinema and has been loved by everyone irrespective of the language they speak but again none of these films were large scale films. I am not saying the industry should not try to make films for box office success but again when Manirathnam or Shankar made those films in the 90’s they did not think that they are making a pan-Indian film. They made the films for Tamizh audience but the content took the films across India. The want to manufacture a film to appeal to larger audience will never work. The reason Telugu cinema is successful is because, that has been their strength over the years.

It is okay to be known as the industry which creates good content like Malayalam cinema rather than going for glory with half baked content in the name of pan-India. The success of movies of Meiazhagan, Vaazhai, Lubber Pandu, Maharaja, Amaran etc should tell the film makers as to what kind of films the audience is expecting. Tamizh cinema has always been experimental but again it has always been with a good story and film making. I hope we go back to the roots and make the kind of films we are known for and if that becomes pan-India success then that should be a bonus.

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Most of star/movie promotional interviews in Tamizh are cringe

Posted by: on: January 6, 2023

Interviews are dime a dozen these days on YouTube but again only a few of them are actually watchable. There are so many channels these days on YouTube and on TV that there is some interview either for movie promotions or just a chat with an actor almost everyday. While there are lots of interviews there aren’t many with substance. The interviews mostly at least in Tamizh are boring, unimaginative and sometimes downright embarrassing.

Previously there were a handful of Satellite channels but now there are so many of them that there is always a competition to put up a click bait headline go get views for the video. Most of the interviewers do no homework on the actors career and come up with mundane questions for which we get robotic responses from the actors. Not all interviewers are bad, some of them are brilliant like Baradwaj Rangan, Abishek and Rukshanth to name a few but again there aren’t many.

Here are some of the issues I have about especially Tamizh interviews (I don’t watch other language interviews much to form an opinion on them. Just a disclaimer before someone attacks me)

Too much hero worship:

Most of the times the conversations with famous stars become a ego massaging exercise more than an actual interview. Most of the anchors go overboard with praises which sometimes even make the actors uncomfortable. The interview does not offer anything to the audience who watch it other than to give satisfaction to the fanboys of the stars. Most of the times I do not even watch after the interview after the first few questions as I know how it is going to go.

No research or homework done

Most of the interviews have repetitive questions and we get standard answers from the stars. There is no research or homework done about the movie the actor is promoting or about the career to actually ask meaningful questions. The stars mostly go through the motions and most of these interviews turn into boring one with the anchor trying to fish for some click bait title for the video on YouTube.

Female actors completely ignored in interviews with the movie crew

When we have the movie crew come in to promote a film, the fixation of the anchor on the male star of the film is jarring. The female actors are ignored completely to a point where we can actually see them bored out of their wits. This not only happens with newcomers but also with established actors. The Tamizh anchors are notorious in doing this if you follow movie crew interviews closely. Suddenly they will remember that there is a female actor and resort to some mundane questions like “How did they get a chance to act in this project?” and then, wait for it as this is a brilliant question, “How was it to act with the hero of the film”, once these questions are answered, they will be back to the male stars. This becomes worse for female actors who cannot speak the language. It is not their fault that they cannot speak the language. The fact of the matter is that most of the anchors just don’t bother to do any homework on the female actors careers to actually ask any meaningful questions.

Female actors asked about male stars in their interviews:

This is the worst of all. Even when female stars/actors are interviewed the questions to them will be to share their experiences acting with multiple male superstars. The if they run out of questions about male superstars, they will ask the female actors when they are getting married or what kind of life partner they are looking for etc. These interviews are the most cringe of all. You just cannot sit through it. It is almost like these actors have done nothing in their careers to have a conversation about.

Tamizh anchors need to learn how an interesting interview can be conducted. May be watch videos of a Baradwaj Rangan or Abishek or even someone like Rukhshanth whose recent interviews with couple of female stars were brilliant and fun to watch. The anchors that I mentioned above don’t ask monotonous questions and actually come with proper research about the actors career to ask questions which keeps the celebrity as well as the fans interested.

Yeah praising stars and getting praise out of others about a star for a click bait title might please some fanboys but again that is not all there is for an interview. YouTube channels themselves need to strive hard to give better content to the audience. These days I don’t watch any interviews as they are boring. An actor from a big film will be interviewed but the entire conversation will be about the star in the film and not about the actor who is being interviewed. This needs to change in Tamizh media and channels need to realise that just the ability to talk does not make someone a good anchor.

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Have quality of movie reviews dipped in recent times?

Posted by: on: July 23, 2022

I grew up predominantly in the 90’s. My early tryst with movie reviews were through newspapers. We lived in Chennai and Hindu’s Friday feature was the only way to get a movie review at least till mid-90’s before satellite TV took over. Even though there were movie reviews in print in the 80’s & 90’s people went to the theatres solely based on either the cast or the director. Tamil cinema is one of the few industries where directors have the same pull as the actors. For example in 70’s & 80’s K Balachander, Mahendran, Balu Mahendra & Barathiraja had their own following and people will flock to theatres just to see their films. Even when movie reviews were prevalent in the print media in the 80’s word of mouth was still the preferred way of people finding out about the quality of a movie.

For example when a Rajini film released no one cared about reviews, you will see people standing in long queues to watch a film. Same with Kamal Hassan and other big stars. Once the first few shows were over, the audience talk will what will decide the fate of a film. Things have changed drastically over the past decade and with the advent of social media reviews are almost instant. While the audience post their reviews on Twitter while watching the film, there are 100’s of YouTube channels reviewing the movies as well. To be frank I have lots of respect for people who have their own YouTube channels. It takes courage to put yourself out there and talk about anything. There are a few creative channels while most of them are either reaction channels or movie review channels.

There are a few professional ones working for famous publications while others who have garnered subscribers through their content. I have no way of knowing credentials of any of these so called “Film experts” by just looking at their content though. It is very important for anyone who is reaching out to a large audience to understand that movie reviews are basically personal opinions. Something the experts these days seem to have forgotten. The popularity of their channel or the subscribers they have seems to have completely gotten to their head which makes for some cringe movie reviews. As a consumer of such reviews, the only thing I want to see is what the reviewer thinks about the film, what he/she likes or dislikes about the movie. I am not there to see some agenda driven rant or the reviewers trying to show off their knowledge of film making. As a common man I care a damn about some of the content of the reviews as it does not matter to me.

Also as a reviewer you need to steer clear of generalising. Everyone has the right to say they don’t like the movie but they cannot be under the illusion that they speak for others. The reason these “experts” have a huge following is because people actually respect their opinions. When that happens it also becomes the responsibility of the reviewers to stay balanced when they review the movies. Using their popularity to further their agenda or someone else’s agenda isn’t very ethical and that is the reason I steer clear of few of these channels these days.

The other irritating part about these YouTube channels is that they go looking for controversy as soon as some update on a movies comes about. A film releases it’s first single or a look or a teaser they immediately go on the streets with a mic and a camera asking people on the streets their review. Reviewing a movie is a tough art and being balanced is even tougher. I have hardly seen a few reviewers who give their opinion and let the audience make a call whether they would like to watch a film. That’s how it should be as trying to influence the audience is not why you review a movie.

The one thing everyone needs to understand is that there is nothing called a perfect film. A movie which is perfect for someone might not be for someone else. A film succeeds because there is something which keeps the viewers entertained throughout its runtime. That is exactly what the audience wants. Most of the reviews these days feel like they come right out of a film school. While it is good to show off your knowledge of film making, I feel that should be in a separate video and not in the review itself.

The biggest disappointment for me though is that while technology wise we have come a long way, the quality of movie critics has fallen in recent times. Things aren’t going to change much as in this age of competition people are ready to present controversial content to gather more views and subscribers. When that is what these channels aim for, you cannot expect them to give quality content to the viewers. The sad part is that the viewers also have gotten used to these substandard and agenda driven reviews that they seem to think that this is the norm. I have stopped watching majority of the review channels and only follow a few who I think try to provide balanced take on a film and leave rest to the viewers.

What do you think about movie reviews these days? Do you think they provide you with balanced views on a film? Or do you think they try to push their agenda on their viewers?

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Pan-India struggles for Tamizh Cinema & lack of promotions

Posted by: on: July 23, 2022

I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, so I have seen both the Doordarshan times as well as the satellite television boom in the mid-90’s. Before Satellite television came to India in the early 90’s movie stars were extremely elusive to the fans. They were like this larger than life hero figures in the mind of the fans who only appeared in films. In those times this actually helped a lot with success of films for these stars. This is how the star culture was formed. Fans who do not see their heroes other than on movie screen or posters rushed to theatres to watch them on the big screen.

In a way Tamizh cinema still has that star value. The elusive nature of the Tamizh stars has always worked in their favour. You would normally not see Rajinikanth, Vijay, Ajith or any major superstar making too many public appearances. This surely has helped them to maintain that culture which we see in some of the next generation actors as well. This means that most of the movies in Tamizh cinema comes with little or zero promotions, especially the big star films. For example Vijay’s interview for Beast earlier this year was his first in years but again you can say that he at least appears for audio release functions.

This lacklustre promotions from the stars has trickled down to the female leads and the supporting cast as well in Tamizh cinema. In recent times we have seen majority of the cast not being present for any promotions of a film. For example “Vikram”, the industries biggest hit this year had no promotions from any of the cast except for Kamal Hassan, Naren and Gayathrie. Recently Aatharva’s “Kuruthi Aatam” released after lots of struggle but again except for the hero and the director, none of the others were involved in any promotions for the film.

The biggest issue though hampering Tamizh film industry is that the release of a film is unknown to anyone at most of the times. The director of “Kuruthi Aatam” said in an interview that he just knew a week before that his film is going to release. We see a trailer released for a film and hope it will release in the near future but we end up seeing the movie a year or two later in theatres. This also causes issues for the cast to make themselves available for promotions. I understand that getting screens and taking the movies to the audience has become a huge problem in the industry but again the makers are making it difficult for their movies to succeed if there isn’t enough time to market their films. You might have a great product but if the audience don’t know about it, they are not going to come and see it. This is the era of OTT and you need to reach the audience big time if you want them to leave their home to watch a film. The big star films are fine as the fans will come in huge numbers just by watching a good trailer, but again that is not true for smaller films.

The other elephant in the room for Tamizh cinema is the Pan-Indian films. If we look in the past, Tamizh film industry was kind of the pioneers for Pan-India success. Manirathnam had Roja and Bombay and then we had Shankar’s Indian, Robot & 2.0 all being successful ventures all through the country. The biggest thing Tamizh movie makers need to learn now is that not all films are going to be successful when released through the country. The recent success of Telugu & Kannada cinema has taught us that there are certain type of films which appeals to the Hindi speaking public.

The Tamizh actors are extremely lucky as they have formed a great market in Southern states especially in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana but that’s not the case with Hindi audience. Yeah some percentage of the population knows some of the Tamizh actors through their dubbed films on TV but again that is not going to help sell the films there. The first thing is the content. It is very important as to what movies we are dubbing in Hindi language. The kind of cinema which would mostly work is Big mass masala films like Bahubali 1 & 2, Pushpa & KGF or Movies about our Indian culture like Karthikeya 2 or Nationalistic films well made like RRR. The second most important factor is promotions. People might say that Nikhil did not promote Karthikeya 2 nor did Dulqar for Sita Ramam but again these films did great in the Hindi market.

The reason for the same is that Telugu cinema has created a lot of goodwill with the Hindi audience. They have released the right kind of films with the right kind of promotions which has made the audience there to take notice of any film which comes from that industry. This is what Tamizh cinema has failed to do in the last few years. We are thinking like in the 90’s when Roja, Bombay, Indian succeeded we can just dub a film and release a trailer 10 days before the release and that will bring the audience to the theatre. It does not work that way now. In the 90’s before Satellite channels, just movie posters were enough to sell a film to the audience and if released at the right time people used to come to theatres. They did not have the alternatives they have now in terms of OTT or TV which meant that they had to look at cinemas for entertainment.

Now in this era where marketing and promotions are crucial just dubbing a film and releasing it in any language isn’t going to work. Tamizh cinema also has this very poor trend of releasing movie trailers just a week or 2 before the actual movie release giving the actors just about 6-7 days to do the promotions. That may work in Tamil Nadu but will not work in rest of the country. For example “Naane Varuven” movie touted to release on the 29th of September just saw a teaser release on the 15th of the same month. That is ridiculous but again Dhanush’s popularity means that the audience will make it to the theatres despite no promotions.

In the past 2 years we just dubbed Master, Valimai, Beast etc in Hindi and released them in theatres without any promotions. Most of the Hindi audience don’t even know what these films are, so you cannot expect them to come to theatres. For Vikram, Kamal tried his best but again the time for promotions was very less and he was the only one doing the same. If Tamizh cinema are really serious about going Pan-India with their films, they need to take a leaf out of Telugu and Kannada industry. They need to see how they promoted their films over the past few years and how they have made a market for themselves all over the country. I think the problem lies with the producers who want the film to go Pan-India but again cannot convince the actors to actually promote the films

Tamizh cinema needs to wake up and realise that the method which has been working for them for decades in the state isn’t going to help them sell films to different audience across the country. The producers should stop advertising a film as Pan-India if the actors aren’t game to aggressively promote their films all over the country. If the actors are happy to just have their films release in southern states, so be it, the producers to make the films for just that audience. The next big film which is going Pan-India is Ponniyin Selvan (PS1). The director is Manirathnam who has had huge success across the country with his films. The film is just 2 weeks away from coming in theatres but we haven’t seen any promotional activities. The movie is clashing with one of the biggest Hindi films of this year, Vikram Vedha and the crew is still not taking this seriously it seems.

PS1 is a film which has a possibility of succeeding all over India. It has a theme of Indian history which Hindi audience like and with right amount of promotions this might become Tamizh cinema’s biggest hit of the year. The only good thing about the cast of PS1 is that everyone is game to promote the films. Vikram, Jeyam Ravi and Karthi always promote their films well which works in favour of the makers. The film will take a huge opening in Tamil Nadu as it is our history and we will for sure flock the theatres to watch the film but again the film needs to be promoted aggressively in other states for it to succeed. Manirathnam has done this in the past with his Hindi films so I am hoping that he understands what needs to be done to take his film to the nook and corner of the country.

To be frank if PS1 fails in Hindi, I don’t think we have any chance of getting a successful Pan-Indian film in the future from our industry. The film has the right content and the right actors to go all out to take the film to the audience, so if this fails that means it will be on the makers to not give enough time for marketing. The good thing is that the movie stars Aishwarya Rai in an important role which means that there will be promotions at least in Mumbai but I don’t think that will be enough. If PS1 succeeds it might give a template to other makers from Tamizh cinema as to how to promote films which they seem to not aware of due to the no-marketing culture in the industry. The stars need to wake up and smell the coffee. They get paid ridiculous amount of money to act in a film and I feel they need to make an effort to help out the producers if they want to go Pan-India with the content.

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Bollywood and Media, Stop maligning Sushant

Posted by: on: September 11, 2020

Let me start by saying that every one has a right to take a stand and support whoever they want. The problem is not the choice the industry has made, it is the way the they have handled the entire situation. The same people who have issues with the way Republic media has handled the case have gone on a rampage in attacking a man who is no more. A man who is loved by millions across the world and a man who cannot defend himself during this barrage.

Not a single person who is maligning Sushant know the man personally. Mr Anurag Kashyap says he had some issues with him professionally but he himself can admit that he did not know Sushant during the last year or so of his life. Taapsee Pannu says she does not know the star personally but has no problem in claiming that Sushant would have ended in jail if he was alive. I am not a Bollywood fan and despite my Delhi roots, I never liked the industry. The reason is not because of it’s content or talent but it is due to the hypocrisy which runs deeply within the industry.

The people who claim to have issues with the narrative of Republic have taken the same route themselves. Maligning someone who has lost their life and cannot speak for themselves is much worse that what you accuse the media of doing. It is fine to support anyone and raise your voice for a cause you believe in but at the same time you need to think if what you are doing is any different to what you claim to have issues with.

There is a family who lost their son, there are sisters who lost their brother, there are fans who lost their favourite star but none of you have any consideration regarding the same. Rhea still can defend herself and come out of this mess if she is not guilty but Sushant is never coming back, so the lack of sensitivity is jarring. Support or back whoever you want but stop tarnishing the legacy of a guy who had nothing but love for his fans and was respected and liked by all his co stars and technicians.

Mr Kashyap, has shared some meaningless chats to defend his choice of support. The only thing it showed was that he had problems with Sushant. Not even sure why he needs to defend himself if he feels right about the stand he has taken. Sushant isn’t here and he cannot put out counter chats to prove himself, so Mr Kashyap needs to understand this chat proved nothing and has no meaning in the overall picture. The only thing this showed is that he can hold a grudge for a long time which isn’t a great trait to be boasting about. At least Republic has taken a stand and has stuck by it and is ready to face any backlash they may be getting, Bollywood on the other hand want to take a stand but aren’t able to take the backlash that comes with it. This means they have taken the route of going on a slander campaign against the star which a certain media outlet has done as well.

Like I said earlier in this blog, I never liked Bollywood much but I still watched movies of Anurag Kashyap or Taapsee Pannu but now I have no urge to watch any Hindi film. The decision has nothing to do with the industry’s overwhelming support for Rhea, far from it. I just cannot take this hypocrisy anymore. Sushant was an actor I respected and loved and it was fitting that the last Hindi film I watched was of him.

I just hope people realise what they are doing wrong. People like Rajdeep, Anurag, Farhan, Taapsee, Sonam, please stand up for what you believe in but leave Sushant alone. Raise your voice for what you think is right but stop maligning someone who is no more when you have no clue of what was happening with him during his last days. I am not passing any judgement on who is right or wrong as the law will take it’s course. I am just saying don’t preach if you cannot follow. If you want people to take you seriously at least have some pride and believe in what you are standing up against, If not, your narrative comes out as hollow and meaningless.

I also have a small request for people who are standing for standing up for Rhea as well. Please continue to do so but keep in mind, to support someone you need not malign someone else. No one knew Sushant personally, we are all going by the narratives and counter narratives provided by the media channels. The only truth is that the man is no more, if we had an ounce of sensitivity we would refrain from calling names and hurling abuse.

You are saying #Stopthewitchhunt ,we fans are saying #StopslanderingSushant.

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Aditi’s portrayal of Sameera in “Sammohanam” was effortless and graceful

Posted by: on: February 11, 2019

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Beautiful Aditi Rao Hydari from Sammohanam (Pic courtesy pinkvilla)

Let me start off with a confession, I haven’t watched any of Aditi Rao Hydari’s Hindi films except for Murder 3 few years ago. So, when I saw Mani Ratnam’s “Kaatru Veliyidai” last year, I started off with a clean slate. I was mesmerised with Aditi’s portrayal of Dr. Leela in Mani Ratnam’s rather confusing romantic tale between a fighter pilot and a MBBS doctor.

But watching Sammohanam last week further emphasised what a brilliant performer Aditi is. I don’t think anyone could have played the role of Sameera Rathod as brilliantly and gracefully as Aditi did in the film. I am not for once saying that Sammohanam is a classic, it was far from it. It was a feel-good entertainer which had a brilliant first half and a bizarre second half. The performances from the cast though cannot be faulted.

There were couple of scenes from the movie which lingers in my mind still, one where Sameera and Vijay have a conversation in the terrace and the other when Sameera hears Vijay say “I love you” in the climax and breaks down. Both those instances showed the range Aditi possesses as an actor and her ability to bring the right kind of emotion to every scene. Even in a space thriller like “Anthariksham”, which I watched yesterday only because Aditi was in it, he performance was brilliant and I really enjoyed her ability to speak through her eyes. Not many actors currently can do that.

Thanks to Mani Ratnam for bringing Aditi back to South Indian films. I am saying bringing back as she had begun her career down south in 2006 before moving to Hindi films. This is a fantastic time for female actors down south especially in Tamil. There are some strong characters being written for women by the young directors and the producers are now receptive to scripts with strong female leads. Even though Malayalam cinema has been doing this for a while, Tamil industry is finally catching up. Aditi Rao Hydari is a brilliant actor and I hope she gets more amazing characters to portray in the future. I also hope that she does more films down south as well as in a short career, she has managed to do some memorable roles here.

I haven’t still caught up Aditi’s Hindi films, and probably will do so in coming months. I just got done with her two Telugu films but her Hindi filmography is little longer, so will take a while for me to get to them. I also don’t normally write articles raving about actors on my blog but again Sameera Rathod of Sammohanam compelled me to write this and I am now a huge fan.

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Vishal, producer’s council and YouTube reviews

Posted by: on: May 23, 2017

The recently concluded producer’s council elections in Kollywood was laced with lots of controversies. Like the Nadigar Sangam elections actor Vishal was in the midst of the action surrounding the election. This article is not about the elections and let me conclude by saying that Vishal was elected as the president at the end of it all. The topic I wanted to touch was the press conference the new members of the council had after the win. Vishal who is the president requested the online reviewers to postpone their reviews by few days to help the movie industry.

It was an odd request to be frank. In this day and age, asking few YouTube reviewers to postpone their reviews isn’t going to stop people from voicing their opinions on social media. If Vishal and the new members think that things can be returned back to the olden days with the reviews being postponed, they are living in a dreamland. Let us for example take 90’s as a case study. I am not a movie historian and don’t have statistics but from my experience (Since that’s the decade I am more aware of), there weren’t so many movies releasing every week. We used to wait for big festivals like Pongal, Tamil New Year and Diwali to see big star movies. Only during such big festivals we used to see multiple movies release at one go. Now coming back to the current decade, there are 3-4 movies release every week. It is even hard to keep track of what the movies are and who is acting in it.

The producer’s council should first regulate the amount of movies being made and make sure that the movie they are producing has decent content. Releasing 200+ movies in a year is not going to help the industry. Some movies which release are so amateurish that it is hard to sit through. New producers wanting to enter the industry need to be educated as to how to choose a script before investing a huge sum of money. It is always easy place a blame on a soft target such as YouTube reviewers and call them as a reason for decreasing audience in the theatres but the truth is far from it.

Reviews are personal opinions, people are free to express their opinion in any platform they want. They are the people who go and spend money to watch the film. It’s not like all films are ripped apart, movies like Managaram, 8 thottakal, Bahubali, Aandavan Kattalai, Power Pandi, Pizza, NPNK etc. all got overwhelmingly positive responses from the reviewers. This is the age of good content and if the industry is producing mediocre content, they cannot cry about decreasing audience. I am not talking about piracy here, which is for a completely different topic. People are going to look for review before watching films and that is going to continue. No one is going to stop that. Taking a family of four to the theatre is an expensive ordeal. People would want to make sure that the expense is worthwhile. When we go to a store, the first thing we do before buying a product is to look for reviews. If majority of the users of the product have given positive reviews people purchase that product. In the age of digital media, you are never going to fight that.

If the content is good most of the reviews are going to be favourable. People do look at multiple reviews before making a call and if a movie is good not everyone is going to bad mouth a film. The producers need to get together and think about what they are producing and what content is being screened to the public. If you want people to watch films, reduce the number of movies being produced, produce good content, educate new producers to invest smartly and give the films enough time to publicize their content before release. These would some of the solutions to get the audience to the theatres. By asking reviewers to postpone their reviews, you are basically saying that even if the movie is bad, since we invested, let the people spend the money like they did in the 80’s and 90’s before they found out that the content was horrible. Sorry Vishal, that is not a solution and audience are never going to fall for that.

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Recalls, Wildcards and celebrations

Posted by: on: November 14, 2012

If you watch talent shows on Indian television. You will get the drift.

girisopinion's avatarMy Thoughts

Watching an Indian talent show is like watching a mega serial. The concept is same, if it’s doing well, stretch it as much as possible. Sometimes as fan of talent shows as me, it becomes pretty draining and boring to watch. The last show I really followed and watched to completion was Airtel Super Singer 2008. Even that one at one point got irritating but I somehow pulled myself through to watch it to completion.

The major problem with these shows is that, there are so many meaningless episodes. The countless recalls, Wildcards and celebration rounds get on your nerves sometimes. I started watching Hariyudan Naan, the other talent show on a different network and after a while when it started to follow the familiar pattern, I gave up. I had no intention to watch it till the end. It’s funny when the channel tries to justify these extra episodes…

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It’s not an English writing contest

Posted by: on: March 7, 2012

girisopinion's avatarMy Thoughts

In recent times reading some movie reviews has become a tedious exercise. A normal movie buff looks only for certain things in a review, the positives and the negatives, performance of the lead actors and the music. Basically an outline as to whether the movie is to his/her liking or not. This information should as far as I am concerned be expressed in simple understandable language. In the recent times when I read reviews written by certain writers I feel that it’s an essay for an English literature class. The reviews are extremely complicated to understand and for sure is not in simple language.

I sometimes cannot understand what writers are trying to prove by writing such complicated reviews. No one wants to break their head in trying to understand what is written and for sure none of the readers are here to appreciate your command over English. If your…

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