Raja's read only memories

A remake of the Rajinikanth 80’s cult classic, Murattu Kaalai falls flat due to poor storytelling A theatrical poster of Murattu Kaalai, a remake of Rajinikanth's yesteryear ht                                                           By harking back to yesteryear Tamil movie hits — in particular those of the fab four, MGR, Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth and Kamalhasan — Kollywood reiterates, every now and then, that retro will always be its metro. The Sundar C, Sneha starrer Murattu Kaalai (the raging bull), that shares its title and storyline, but not its finesse and chutzpah, with its namesake of the 80’s Rajinikanth sleeper hit, amply evidences this. The superstar, in what was possibly his first hit as a solo hero Etymology would reveal us that...

Bollywood fare, served with Tamil niceties When the recipes of Gobi Manchurian and Chicken Tikka can transcend national barriers and become a rage elsewhere, can’t we have different versions of an intra-national rage: a remake of a successful Bollywood movie in another language, for instance? Director Shankar answers the question with Nanban (friend), a faithful reproduction, nay a spitting image, of its original, the Aamir Khan-starrer 3 idiots , comprising its highs and lows with equal measure. The hero and the anti-heroes The flaws in our higher education system, especially engineering, and campus life unite to form a heady theme, with Vijay, reprising Aamir Khan’s cool dude-cum-Buddha-like role in the original, offering ingenuous solutions to many a conundrum. Did he levitate on screen? I don’t know; however, I am not willing to bet against it. Jeeva and Srikanth (after a hiatus), portraying Sharman Joshi and Madhavan’s roles in the original respectively, are hi...

Appeared in Expresso, the daily supplement of The New Indian Express on February 27, 2011 If the story of Seedan (the disciple), a remake of the Malayalam movie Nandanam , were to be written on the back of a bus ticket, it would go as follows: a poor woman falls in love with a rich man and finally gets married to him. The script makes a departure from a long-established trend by letting a feminine protagonist taking up most of the screen time. Mahalakshmi (Ananya), is an orphan employed in a rich household in the temple town of Pazhani. She is the ideal homely woman - devout, demure and virtuous. Her employer, Amrithavalli (veteran Malayalam actress Sheela), is extremely fond of her. However, her work leaves her with no time to visit the shrine of Lord Muruga, and she fervently wishes that she gets a chance to do so. In her dreams, she visualises getting married to a handsome man. Mano (Krishna Nair), Amrithavalli’s grandson, visits the place, and its love at first sight for them. Ma...