No Vairamuthu- A R Rahman in Illaiyaraaja biopic

Illaiyaraaja biopic with Dhanush and directed by Arun who directed Captain Miller is going to be one without chapters about lyricist poet laureate and Vairamuthu, There will be no mention of A R Rahman as well as the Madras Mozart had no role in the maestro’s life history, The fall out between Vairamuthu and Raaja is still clouded in many versions, But all the same the combo had created history in Tamil music world in terms of biz and national awards. Ommiting this would a big vacuum. The another omission is that in life of Raaja thee is no mention of ARR, Raaja says that in that case he will have to start from how he dethroned MSV on wards and patronage of MHR and then also include Deva to many others and conveniently mises about the Oscars. In that case should Keeravani too figure as he was a Tamil music composer. Keeping this omissions comes another bomb. Raaja talks about royalty theaft by producers and singers like SPB. Raaja ‘s producer is Sathyajothi Films who produced Captain Miller with Dhanush. It seems Bollywood’s production company had first approached Dhanush father Kasthoori Raaja to work out the Raaja project, Dad had already gor Dhanush to shell out a few crores as he sold digital rights of film 3 to two Bollywood companies. At first R Balki who is close to Raaja was to direct the biopic was sidelined after Sathyajothi came in on behalf of the Bollywood company. Though Arun Mathewaran has been fixed, Raaja has been told that Arun’s three films were commercially disasters, Raaja now got Rajinikanth to agree to do in what is said in today’s parlance as extended cameo. We all know what happened to Lal Salaam, After this Raaja has sent Arun to see Kamal to sit on the screenplay. Now will Kamal put his name to a controversial one ? Will Kamal convince Raaja to change tacks ? In fact it was at a Thalapathy function that Raaja bombastically stated that films got sold on his name. K Balchander was Chief Guest, Vairamuthy lyricist, Mani Rathinam director and Raaja the music director. K Balcchander introduced ARR in Roja with Mani as Director and Raaja was getting back at them.

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.