Rajini- Chiru join Kamal at Indian 2 audio - Santosh Sivan gets Cannes homour

Indian 2 audio launch will be the mother of all audio functions. Our trackers swear that Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan have confirmed the presence on June 1 at Nehru Stadium Chennai. Yet another stunning news that trackers say is that Rajinikanth too would be on stage. It means that Kamal Haasan- Chiranjeevi- Rakinikanth on stage and in Chennai, a place where Chiru and Thalaivar were classmates in the Film Insitutute run by South Film Chamber. Anirudh live performance included. Meanwhile Paara m single from Indian 2 has touched 2 million views. Many feel that it is not enough for the most awaited film of the year. Meanwhile RajKamal has wrapped Amaran the biopic on Major Mukund with Sivakarthikeyan in the main role with Sai Pallavi. Directed by Raju Periasamy.

Santosh Sivan Dil Se speech at Cannes We at southfilmy blogspot get hyper excited when a Thiruvanthapuram gguy gets homoured. Now Santosh Sivan who got honoured at Cannes Film Festival and became the first cinematographer from Asia to get an honour delivered what we say is a one from Dil Se ( from heart). Priety Zinta debut film Dil Se prsenyed the award instituted in name of Pierre Angenieux the inventor of the zoom lens that revolutionised cinematography./ The speech : Sivan was dressed in a tuxedo with a felt hat to complete his look for the occasion. Upon receiving the award, he said: "It is the most awesome time I have had in my life. It is an amazing place to receive this ... for the Cannes Film Festival is the most beautiful festival I have attended." He added: "Like Preity said, I also don't want to say too much except that I am hoping my father, mother, brother, who are no more, are smiling." Admitting that he had been "a really bad husband because I have been filming all the time", Sivan said his family was with him and that "they must be really happy". ( source IANS)

Imternational Honour for Sivan - Mohanlal - Priyan Boxing fight subject next ?

It has been quite some time that Malayalam Cinema has made a mark on the International Cinema. Now the upcoming Cannes Festival in May will see our own cinematographer Santosh Sivan being bestowed with the Pierre Angénieux Tribute. It was startd in 2013 by the festival organisers as honour dedicated to recognising outstanding cinematographers. Sivan joins the ranks of legendary film personalities such as Philippe Rousselot, Vilmos Zsigmond, Roger Deakins, and others who have received this esteemed award in the past. The first Indian cinematographer to get this honour at a ceremony on May 24rd. Sivan will before the event take a Master Class for cinematographers of youmger generstion, Barrozz directed by Mohanlal m his directorial debut, has cinematography by Sivan, He is currently directing the films 'Kaliyugam' in Malayalam and Moha in English. He is also cinematographer for Sunny Deol’s Lahore 47. The film is produced by Aamir Khan and directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. Sivan son of noted photographer turned director Sivan , hails from Thiruvanthapuram. His major film outside of Kerala filmdom was Mani Rathnam’s Thalapathy and Roja. The ffirst mainstream film in Hindi for Sivan was Gardish directed by Priyadarshan and starring Jackie Shroff. He had cranked the camera for Rajkumar Santoshi in 1995 for the debut film of Bobby Deol and Twinkle Khanna titled Barsaat. Talking about Santosh, takes me to Priyadarshan. Priyan is under rough weather as it has been quite some time that he delivered a hit On one side we hear that Priyan and Akshay Kumar are coming together, They had given a couple of hits together and had not worked for over a decade. On the other side we hear that Priyan and Mohanlal are coming again for a film based on boxing sport. After Valiban flop, many say that Lal should not do any film with a sport background. Valiban was about Indian wrestling. Some say that the combo will rock. Priyan who is considered good at comedies was frank enough to say that it is era of actors and directorpf hit film Premalu. Lets hope that Lal- Priyan come bvk. From what we hear is that Premalu is rock steady at BO and Mamootty’s Brahmayugam slipped after Manjummel Boys got released. Trade now say that this film will touch Rs 100 cr.by weekend.

Jack and Jill movie review: Cannot be a Santosh Sivan film

 Santosh Sivan might have just put his name to the film to help his friends ( maybe producer Prasanth Das ) as this film should be shown to FTII students as an example of how a former  student who touched dizzying heights as a film maker can plunger to such low level as a directror. Here and there you get flashes of the camera of Sivan. One takeaway from the film is that Manju Warrier is so flexible and at ease in the action scenes, a real treat.

In a period wen Artifical Intelligence is a part of  school text books. Sivan tells us so many things that has no touch with reality. Most of the caricatures that are abound as characters and contrived scenes make you sit with astonishment. Is this the same Satosh Sivan wo gave Ananathabadram and Urmi ?. Wat a fall !!!.

Iruvar the movie : A Pongal Flashback 25 years back

 Iruvar made my Pongal day memorable. It was 25 years back on a Pongal day, I hobbled on the steps of Woodlands Theater to see the film. ( I was in crutches and had two friends- RK and Charles as escort ). I wanted to see the film for two reasons -   I was the first to break the story that it was a film on MGR- Karunanidhi and secondly Mohanlal was playing MGR under the direction of Mani Ratnam and Santosh Sivan was the cameraman.

I was sitting under a tree in Old Woodlands Hotel chatting with makeup man M O Devassia. He told me about doing the MGR type makeup for Mohanlal and the the details of it that took place in Merryland Studios at Trivandrum. He did not realise that the casual info he was passing was something that Tamil media was groping around. A heavily guarded secret. After it was published in  front page of SCREEN , it was picked up by a top selling vernacular magazine. I remember Alai Osai Mani who  known to break such news come up and congratulate me. I kept Devassia name out of it.

I went to Trivandrum and managed to enter Merryland studios. The part where Iruvar shoot was on but it was a no entry zone. There was nothing I could get. After this story, all media was about Karunanidhi then CM going to crush the film release. It is said that Vairamuthu the lyric writer of the film combed the film and after a few cuts, got ok from Karunanidhi.

I sat in the ground floor back row as I did not want to take steps to Balcony. As the show started, there was hardly anybody in the movie hall. After some time, a couple sitting in front of us started to get amorous. My pal got up and took a seat that had nobody sitting in front of him.  The other pal told the couple to go elsewhere and continue.

Talking about the film's merits has no relevance -  masterpiece of Mani Ratnam and best of Santosh's camerawork. The empty hall broke my heart and created a confusion - Are we critics far away from reality ?. Mani Ratnam continues to blaze on and Tamil cinema has come a full circle- now we have Thalaivi , a biopic on Jayalaaithaa. Looking back , I find it amusing that it was a Northern heroine who played Jayalalithaa , in both the films. Aishwarya Rai in Iruvar and Kangana Raut in Thalaivi.

For Iruvar failure, it was said that MGR - Karunanidhi fans were disappointed as no one emerged victorious, For the poor opening , it was said by casting Mohanlal- Aishwarya Rai , the film did not relate to Tamil audience. A day later `Bharathi Kannamma' was released and in Southern Districts of Tamil Nadu it created  strong protests. It was about a Thevar girl falling in love with a Dalit youth, This film marked the entry of director Cheran and the controversy helped. If  ManiRatnam did not subject to unofficial censoring it could have a been a hit ?. It could have been banned also.   Kathalukku Mariyathaai which put Vijay on Superstar category released just before for Christmas  , replaced Iruvar in many theaters. In the running was Ajith's Nesam for Pongal and failed to create a stir.