The “Raja” named “Rahman”

February 23.. the nation woke up, prayed, perspired,chewed nails( and some fingers),anticipated,waited and froze when A.R.Rahman won the Oscars ! The first Indian to win two in a row, the first Southie, the first Tamilian and on a personally satisfying note the first PSBBian

It would have been too easy to get carried away and fake your identity, but being the humble man Rahman is, he remembered it all.. the Sherwani, his love for mother and most importantly his mother tongue-TAMIL ( All the Saviours of Tamil who wear Western Suits for gatherings and send your kith and kin to English convents, please spare the corporation wells, they can not take you all at a time )

Amidst all this, perhaps the only aspect that pained me was the way a few fans of Ilayaraja received this news and their sequence of reactions right from the build up to the Golden Globe. It is a blessing that India has been fortunate to enjoy the best works of possibly two of the greatest musicians that ever walked on earth, yet it is a pretty shameful that some amongst us do not have the stomach to digest the success of both the musicians equally.

I am a great fan of both ARR and Raja, and both in their own ways have achieved astronomical fame. Ilayaraja revamped film music with his impeccable orchestration,mind blowing BGM and melifluous folk tunes. Rahman revolutionised it by teaching India what “sound” meant to music.While Ilayaraja stayed within South Indian horizons, ARR’s unbridled talent enabled him venture into Hindustani,Arabic,Sufi,Irish folk,Jazz,Rap,Hollywood,Sky,Moon,Stars and above !

Sad that we , in India, always have this mindset of choosing one over the other. North vs South,Tamil vs English,Hindi vs Tamil,Rajni vs Kamal,MGR vs Shivaji,Sachin vs Saurav, IPL vs ICL.. if only we realised that everything could co exist !

I did not know how to end this one, so to wind up on a pleasant note, I will try listing my favourite numbers composed by both these geniuses.

Ilayaraja

10. Enakku Piditha Paadal (Julie Ganapathy)
9. Amma Yendrazhaikadha (Mannan)
8. Then Paandi Cheemayile (Nayagan)
7. Enna Sattham Indha Naeram (Punnagai Mannan)
6. Kodai Kaala Kaatrey (Panneer Pushpangal)
5. Ninnukori (Agni Nakshathram)
4. Sundari Kannal Oru Seidhi (Thalapathi)
3. Ilaya Nila (Payanangal Mudivadhillai)
2. Aagaya Vennilave (Arangetra Velai)
1. Mandram Vandha Thendralukku (Mouna Ragam)

Rahman

10. Thazhuvudhu Nazhuvudhu (Ah Aah-Anbey Aaruyirae)
9. Sahana Saaral (Sivaji)
8. Vennilave Vennilave (Minsara Kanavu)
7. Thenmaerku Paruvakaatru (Karuthamma)
6. Pudhu Vellai Mazhai (Roja)
5. Narumugaye (Iruvar)
4. Theekuruviyai (Kangalal Kaidhu Sei)
3. Thirupachi Aruval (Taj Mahal)
2. Chandhralekha (Thiruda Thiruda)
1. Minnale Nee Vandhadhenadi (May Madham)

Now, what is your favourite ?

P.S ( My original list for Ilayaraja songs had the number “Oru Kadhal Devadhai”.. One of my friends Aravindan rightly pointed out that the credits for the song belong to Shankar Ganesh )

The “Endhiran Experience – Part 2..

Today we went to the auditorium early at around 8 30 A.M and we were all hoping for a few surprises and guess what.. we saw Superstar in his scientist avatar today !

In he walked,brisk and trim, a cheerful smile and his trade mark “vanakkam” to all of us, with his hands held well above his head.He is sporting a french beard for the scientist role and the wig is similar to his “padikadhavan”, “maaveran” days..He was in a white designer shirt and black trousers today. He was concentration personified, with a stern look and his left hand placed firmly on a nearby ladder for support, he was browsing through his dialogue papers intently.

We were then asked to wait outside as they were about to shoot some confidential stuff but from the scenes that we witnessed since yesterday and the overall theme that was evident, this is gonna be one cracker of a movie,definitely the first of its kind in Tamil cinema

We waited patiently for about 3 hours and it was fun watching the activities of all other junior artists.. most of them were North Indians and a few were foreigners, who were happy to lie down on the lawns, with the sun beating down on their backs..A few junior artists were selected for the main shot and a couple were cribbing about the length of their costumes ( they seemed pretty lengthy though for today’s standards )

After lunch, we entered the auditorium again and as we entered, we saw with open mouth and wide eyes, the Miss World Aishwarya Rai. The entire audience was stunned. Beauty at its best, and with drop dead gorgeous looks, she is definitely the most beautiful spectacle that I have ever witnessed so far. She was wearing a black top with short sleeves, that complemented her glowing skin, and a black skirt.

The director called for a break and so we rushed out to be near Ash’s car for a closer look.We waited gazing at her caravan..the door slowly opened ,a hand, visible till the forearm emerged , pushing out the caravan door, and the frame was frozen for five seconds, for all of us to gape open mouthed again..out she emerged, and now we were five feet from her ! For the next few seconds,none of us blinked,the hormones were working overtime
Light as a breeze, she got into her car, that guy Abhishek Bachan, is damn lucky , she is a “Creator’s Masterpiece”..

By the way, one more interesting news is that Danny Denzongpa( remember the DD teleserial Ajnabee/Anniyan ? ) is one of the premier villains in the movie.

Endhiran “The Robot” – A Childhood Dream Comes True !

There is a wise old saying “Do not ever get desperate, if something is destined to happen, it will happen”.. how true these words are..!

January 10th 2009, the D-Day where my childhood dream of seeing the Superstar LIVE on location was realized was one such day where destiny proved its superiority

The day could not have begun on a more worse note.. I was at home, waiting impatiently for the afternoon as I was asked to receive a top CMU dignitary from the airport and drop him at the college guest house and lo! all my friends were messaging from the college that Superstar had arrived and was in his Caravan!

I cursed my fate and luck for deserting me at this inappropriate time.. I went in time to receive the dignitary but my mind and heart lay elsewhere..

We reached my college guest house at 4.00 P.M and me and my friend decided to just have a glance into the auditorium and to our surprise , nobody stopped us from going inside!

Inside the auditorium, I got a comfortable seat and could spot director Shankar busy giving instructions to his crew..camera man Rathnavelu was listening intently.. and as I gave a casual glance towards the right of the auditorium, a face looked familiar, I turned around only to feel a hammer like bolt striking me hard to glance carefully and.. there he was! the one and only Super Star Rajnikanth ! I froze !

I was shocked, shell shocked, my heart was pumping faster, I was shivering with excitement, my eyesight deserted at the instant and blurred out intermittently, I was rubbing it hard in disbelief and there he was sitting with ultimate grace,.. cool and composed as ever..

I became crazy and lost my mental balance ( if it ever existed )..I was mesaging all my friends in an inebriated exalted state, like a child receiving his favourite toffee, a guy giving his first kiss to his love and above all, a drunkard who had just emptied his favourite bottle of drink..! I must confess to all my friends that those messages were definitely not texted by me in my proper senses.. My apologies to all those whom I drove crazy with those messages.. after all, what are friends for

The director was asking Superstar to get ready.. there he was looking sauve,chick,smart, handsome,manly, dashing,STYLISH.. curse the Oxford, it does not have enough adjectives

He looked stern at the camera, A violet colored shirt, a black tie and matching trousers, a black blazer and his trade mark coolers, wig that resembled his “Thillu Mullu” days, clean shaven, he oozed grace and charisma..

I heard him utter his dialogues even, but I am an ardent fan of Shankar and my respect towards his hardwork and creativity prevents me from describing the scene and dialogues here in public..

Once his scenes were finished, he retired to his caravan, and I left the auditorium in awe. We met Santhanam and Karunas outside the auditorium and Santhanam was his usual self, making witty remarks laced with humour.On enthusuastic fan repeated the dialogues uttered by Karunas in Polladhavan ” Boy touching girl hand, Harry Potter also same problem,5 th chapter 7 th page”, just that he picked the wrong person and told these to Santhanam instead He gave a typical reply ” Sir, adhu en problem illa Karunas problem”

Another Santhanam gem was ..
An enthusiastic female fan : “Cha Aishwarya Rai kooda dhaan photo eduthukka mudiyala,vaanga di atleast Santhanam koodayavadhu photo eduthuppom”
Santhanam : ” idha solra Aishwarya Rai yaaru ? ”

I left the place, still unable to come to terms with what destiny had in store for me for the day..A child hood dream was realised

Beating Boredom

It has been just two days since resignation but already its been tough.It is always a struggle when we miss something which is a routine for quite sometime.I have spent time watching Cricket Matches and songs on Television. I am really running out of ideas as to how to spend the next few days.I think I am well past those days when I used to have a voracious appetite for books.I simple don’t have the patience to sit through an entire novel these days.But today morning , I chanced upon Paddy Upton’s blogs.I read only a couple of them but I just can’t have enough of it.The thought process of this man is simply mind blowing.For those who have not heard of him, Paddy Upton is the ‘Biokineticist’ & Sports Psychologist of the Indian Cricket Team.

One topic that instantly caught my fancy was “Self Organized Learners”.To put it in simple terms,he calls those willing to practice this theory as “people who think for themselves”.The best thing is that he stops with just a couple of lines,instead of dwelling on it,allowing the reader to come up with his/her own interpretations and relate to his/her own thought process.This set me thinking,and I tried to come up with my own interpretations of what he meant.The following are my personal views where in I have tried to come up with a summary as to how we can assimilate his thoughts.The individual,sits down,thinking on what could be the possible solutions to a particular scenario.The same applies to all players in a group.At the end,each individual shares his/her views to bring out the best possible outcome.It sounds so simple,but it is very tough to practice.The process behind it is amazing, a closer look would reveal that each individual has set his mind thinking to find a solution without any external help,and also learn the best practices of others.Thus,after each group analysis,the individual emerges a better person than what he was before it,and also the quality of the team improves after every outing.This is not a scenario where people are thrown the long end of the rope without a clue.At the same time,there is no focal point or “senior mentor”.Each peer latently helps the other!

Imagine each and every one of us thinking to ourselves ” I am no Edison.I am no Einstein either.I may not have the capacity to invent anything( who cares for it??!!),but still,I definitely can do certain things,the best way as only I possibly can!”.Sounds great!

Paddy Upton’s theories are tailor made for guys like me,who don’t have the patience to sit through personality improvement lectures for long hours.Only the tip is revealed,and the rest is left to our imagination.I am this sort of person who loves sitting alone,and imagining,living out, dreaming- (I just can’t find the right phrase)- about the things that I want to do in the very near future,I see it visually, as to how we see a cinema..and I try penning it down in words.. yes a perennial “dreamer”.. but who does not love to dream??

It also set me thinking on a few other things that I have been trying hard to practice.Just two weeks before my resignation,I had decided that I wanted to be good( or at least diplomatic,at best) to each and every one I was gonna get in touch with.It was difficult,believe me,at times people really tested my nerves but I quickly realized it was not impossible.I knew that it was possibly the last time I was gonna meet a few people in person for the near future,so I had made up my mind that,at least by the time I leave,parties from both sides should have only pleasant memories.I was reasonably successful I should say.I even went to the extent of taking people who bitched about me ,behind my back to my manager for a treat,with me bearing the expenses.I personally believe that it works out best when you try to be good to people who were not so good to you, as it stings them hard!One of the foremost things that made it possible was cutting down on expectations.Frustration arises mostly when expectations are not met,leading to bitterness and anger,so I had lowered my expectations.Nope it was not a Saint life,where one has to cut down on the root causes( which, in my humble opinion is never possible for mortals like us).It was just plain simple life in the sense that one needs to hold back on the urge to chase things that we covet/desire , but when it comes along,there is no harm in enjoying it to the fullest.I have tried to put this into practice,and it has been quite an emotional bliss so far.

Yeah I think we can wind up on that cos else,it would be me blowing my own trumpet a bit too much.This prompts me to ruminate on another happening that has set me thinking.A clip of Mr.T R (Vijaya T.Rajhendhar) losing his cool when a reporter asks him why he is not able to draw crowds like others.What followed was utter chaos,with T.R making desperate efforts to promote himself.This happens sometimes to us too.We try to comfort ourselves with the fact that we are the best,or better than other/other(s) who we think are our rivals,without pausing to think if we really have solid credentials to back ourselves.It becomes really dangerous,as after a point,our growth as an individual might stop,if we refuse to come out of the cocoon,as we first fix it up in our mind that we are correct, and then try to reason out facts for it,though ideally it should be the other way around.So that could probably be my next challenging activity.To go back in time and check out if I had acted with that sort of mindset in any such situation,and if possible set it right at least now.Look at the classic digression in topic.I had started out with Paddy Upton’s “thinking for ourselves”,only to end up talking about myself, and our TR,moving over to “thinking about ourselves” instead.Paddy Upton and T.R,though in contrasting styles, have set me thinking!
More to come..

Rajni-The Phenomenon

Friday Morning…

Time: early morning 6 30.. scenes on Vadapalani Road..People lining up in queues ..barricades have been put up .. What could be the occasion ??Perhaps was the government givin out free tv sets??( yeah of course that was the most useful object on earth that politicians could think of .. and shameless that we voted for such a silly thing..when most dont even have proper homes..) NO..
9 30.. Flowers,Garlands,Pumpkins,Arathis,Camphor ,Tonnes of Milk all kept in place.. perhaps A temple Festival?? or a day of extreme religious significance..?? NO..
Friday , June 15 th… Offical release of our SUPER STAR’s magnum opus SIVAJI!
The demi god who defies barriers.The man who cuts across all social sections of the society.. kids, ladies, teenagers, man,woman, senior citizens,black, white,bench sitter to BENZ owner,cobbler to computer expert,auto driver to auto mobile engineer.. he woos them all..Perhaps the only thing that entire Tamil Nadu have in common is this liking for our superstar.
He began as a humble bus conductor giving out tickets to people..manning the route 10A.. now people are struggling to get TICKETS to his movie.He has been placed on a pedestral that no other movie star can even dream about .. yet he is the epitome of simplicity.It is sad that his acting skills have been pushed to the background, thanks to his inimitable style and a larger than life image. Some of his evergreen movies are..
RAJNI-THE HERO
BAASHA – I doubt if there are people in Tamil Nadu who have not scene this movie.An amazing script to which only Super Star could have done justice..One of Super Star’s two favourite movies( along with Mullum Malarum).
ANNAMALAI- THE movie which set the cat among political pigeons.From an innocent do gooder in the first half, Rajni transforms into a shrewd business man in the second phase of the movie.
MURATTU KALAI- Tho movie which enabled Rajni to reach out to the rural masses.One of the biggest grossers of the 1980’s.
BILLA- An out and out Rajni movie ,in which Rajni portrays two diverse characters with amazing style.
RAJNI-THE FUN
THILLU MULLU-Rajni’s first full length comedy caper..A movie which can be seen over and over again.
RAJA CHINNA ROJA-A movie exclusively for kids..Rajni charms the tiny tots with his charisma( I have watched it 44 times since childhood..!)
GURU SHISYAN-Another comedy treat form super star.CHO’s one line political sattires add to the fun.
JOHNY- Another dual role for Super Star.. He plays a barber who guns down his own lover.. all with a sublime streak of humour.
NINAITHAALE INIKKUM-Rajni shares screen space with kamal , and breathes the necessary humour into this otherwise serious movie.
VELAIKARAN-It is fun all the way, of course in typical Rajni ” ishtyle”!
RAJNI-THE ACTOR
AARILIRUNDHU ARUVADHU VARAI-If any one has any doubt about the acting credentials of Rajni, they must see this movie before passing a comment.Rajni portrays the struggles of a young man who shoulders the burden of his entire family right from a tender age.The scenes when Rajni struggles to get even milk for his infant kid,his emotional portrayal when his wife immolates herself so that her husband would get the insurance money, would leave the audience in tears.Rajni then attains fame as a writer.The film ends on a tearful note with the death of Rajni.
THALAPATHI- Another big grosser, this time RAJNI appears sance make up,his style and a cigarette.
MULLUM MALARUM-Super star’s personal favorite(He even ranks this one above Baasha).Rajni plays a young man who loses his arm in an accident and who forever dotes on his beloved sister.
NALLLAVANUKKU NALLAVAN-Rajni playa a baddie in the first half, who is reformed by his wife..The story takes a turn after his wife’s death and his own daughter turns against him.
DHARMA DHURAI- Rajni plays an innocent villager whose life revolves around his two brothers.When all is lost,Rajni realises that his brothers have cheated on him and eventually he is sent to jail..Another portrayal from Rajni which leaves you with a heavy heart.
NAAN SIGAPPU MANITHAN-Rajni plays an undercover reformer who wards of the society of all evil,after he loses all and sundry in his personal life..Bhagyaraj comes up with a neat role in this movie.
ILAMAI OONJAL AADUGIRADHU-A classic form director Sridhar.. Rajni plays a stylish manager who goes all out to help his friend Kamal.The story takes an interesting twist when both fall in love with the same girl.
ANBULLA RAJNIKANTH-Rajni plays himself in this movie..
MUNDRU MUDICHU-Rajni plays an all out baddie who charms the audience with his style..
NETRIKKAN-Style at its best.. the film is about the face off between a son, and his baddie father, both played by Rajni himself.
POLLADHAVAN-Rajni sports a beard almost throughout this movie..HE plays a widower, who loves his kid and is thirsty to avenge the death of his wife.
We, forever have pretenders to his throne.. who might not achieve throughout their careers whatever super star achieved in a single movie..
One forever keeps repeating the same story again and again, changing the heroines and directors alone, another one stakes a claim to his throne when he can’t even deliver hits continuously..
And the funniest part is about this “little” version of Super Star(mind you ,no Super Star fan would agree with this, all this is self proclamation by the actor concerned).This is an actor who shamelessly tries to imitate Rajni on screen( and fails miserably at that, only ending up leaving you irritated and frustrated),who keeps on mouthing punch dialogues , advising people in his songs, when he is not even a dozen films old, still calls himself “little” when he is 23( will he ever grow up??),who portrays obscenity in all his movies, with scenes which would leave you squirming in your seats.
Perhaps this Sivaji mania should make his pretenders realise where they really stand in comparision to the incomparable Super Star..
By the way, I am all excited about “Sivaji”.. I have been discussing nothing but this for the past week(I have left my friends exasperated).. and I am watching it tonight..! So the next post will be on “Sivaji” of course..