Post Vikram - Ponniyin Selvan 1 - Vaadivaasal most awaited

Ponniyin Selvan directed by Mani Ratnam and Vaadivaasal directed by Vetrimaaran are the next two films that Kollywood and the audience is waiting to see - post Vikram. As the houseful boards are still up for weekends, Vikram success saga continues. The unified acceptance is that the Vikram success lies entirely on director Lokesh Kanagaraj . The film is in all means a Lokesh film and a fact that Kamal Haasan accepted even before the release. With Vikram, young directors of Kollywood have got a tremendous boost since a 36 year old Lokesh has proved that he can out beat the records of Baahubali- RRR- KGF set in Tamil Nadu box office and with not even half the budget of these films. Vikram success also wiped away the charge that Kollywood has failed to throw up directors like before and other language film industries ( Telegu- Kannada ) flaunted SS Rajamouli and Prasanth Neel.

Two most awaited films that would purely be a director's film and they are   Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 and Vaadivaasal of Veetrimaaran ( winner of National award for Aadukalam) . Mani Ratnam film is a multi star cast  ( Vikram- Jeyam Ravi- Aishwarya Rai- Karthi - Trisha- Vikram Prabhu) film but it assumes great value as it a celluloid adaptation of the iconic novel of the same title written by Kalki. This historical saga is shot in two parts. It is a Lyca production and due for a September release. 

Mani Ratnam last movie to release was `Chekka Chivantha vaanam in 2018. It did well at the box office but it somehow left Mani's admirers unsatisfied as it was found to be lacking the director's `touch'. His outing before this was Kaatru Veliyidai ( 2017) with Karthi -  Aditi Hydari which was not much liked by his fans. The film box office was good in US markets but dull in the core market- Tamil Nadu. 

The novel of Kalki was to have a screen version and right from MGR onwards many tried but failed. Like Vikram which marked comeback of Kamal Haasan , PS1  is expected to put Mani Ratnam at the centre stage of Indian cinema once again.

Vetrimaaran is the recent hot shot director of Kollywood who with bold subjects and action oriented is able to balance critical acclaim and box office. All the six   films that he directed were hits and also bagged awards. His last outing was ` Viduthalai ' ' with Vijay Sethupati in 2021,  in 2019, Asuran directed by him with Dhanush was the actor's biggest blockbuster hit in his career. It also won the National award for best Tamil film.

In Vaadivaasal, he directs Suriya, who after Jai Bhim and Soorarai Pootru, is riding high.  Suriya's cameo in Vikram had the audience in raptures. This film too is adaptation of a novel on  Jaallikaatu ( bull fight), a sport that creates a controversy every year.  Film is expected to start shoot  by July end or in August. As per hype, the film OTT rights was sold for a big amount in the range of Rs 50 crores.

Box office wise, forthcoming films - Sivakarthikeyan's Prince, Karthi's Sardar and Jeyam Ravi's Iraivan for Diwali and under production films of Thalapathy Vijay 's Varisu and Ajith's AK 61 will keep Kollywood cash registers ringing.

Vikram Hindi dubbed film viewing experience

Experience of seeing Vikram Hindi dubbed in a city theater of Mumbai was told me . A nutshell of the viewer's observation : The first thing one gets to see is is that the audience of families with kids have come. It is obvious that the audience have not seen the teaser or have any clue about the film which is no stuff for kids.  As the film starts and moves forward , except for Kamal Hassan intro, Faahad Fazil and Vijay Setupathi get no whistles. Audience have no clue about Faahad or VJS. Biggest surprise is that  only a few recognised Suriya in the climax and that too as ' I have seen him in Tamil films '.  For  Hindi audience, Vikram is a Kamal Hassan film and not a multi- starrer one.

Now lets hear about the dubbing quality. Nothing bad or jarring. Here the biggest spoil sport is the censors. They have muted out so many portions in dialogues that got claps and whistles in Tamil. What is good for Tamil is poison for Hindi wallahs. Words like Rebel - terrorist are muted. Height of censorship was Suriya iconic dialogue on  life time settlement has been butchered ( muted).

Lokesh had said that if one sees Kaithi before Vikram, many things will fall in place. In Hindi, the character of Arjun das brother Adaikalam is Amruthraj   in Hindi and VJS is Santhnam which is Chandan ( sandalwood) in Hindi probably for same meaning. Like in Master Hindi version, here too a few different shots like a paper which has Chandan written on it have been shown and it is a good effort. Anbu becomes Billa, Dilli becomes Shiva and Adaikalam is Ranga in Kaithi Hindi dubbed by Goldmines. 

Wonder why Periyathambi and his village cooking YouTube channel  is retained in Hindi. For Tamil audience, it strike a chord and the way the recipe is presented is a big hit. To imitate it in Hindi is just foolish endeavour and serves no purpose.

Otherwise as far as musical score is concerned, there is no change. Hindi film does have the goose bump moments and not that it is a total waste. Advise is go through Wiki about Kaithi film role names as some are retained as in original. If you cannot get a Tamil print nearby, Hindi will not totally disappoint you is the parting summary by my Mumbai Ka Dost.

Modi visit eve -Kamal Haasan's Vikram posters lash out at Union Government

Anti- Union Government lyrics that were part of a song in the upcoming Kamal Haasan film Vikram are part of posters that has sprung up in various parts of the State/. Police have swung into action and registered case against Makkal Neethi Maiyam party bearers in Madurai as the office bearers themselves have appeared on the posters. Posters in Chennai according to many who saw them on walls yesterday say that most of them were dialogues from Thalapathy Vijay's film like Wait for 2024 and we know no fear or terror etc. with Vikram film images.

Controversial Pathala Pathala song has been omitted from the film that was submitted to censors said a source. Lyrics of the song is by Kamal Haasan. Lyrics spoke about a bankrupt government and the key to the treasury being with a robber. The film is distributed by Madurai Anbu and Udaynidhi Stalin Red Giant. Film is releasing on June 3rd.

Kamal Haasan- Shankar ` Indian 2' abandoned ?

 Multiple sources seem to confirm the news that Indian 2, the mega budget film with Kamal Haasan and director Shankar has been given a silent burial. Checking out this news on many fronts related to Actor Kamal Haassan and director Shankar. events that are moving rapidly, Indian 2 will probably go down as a ill fated film project that took off in style and got a silent burial. 

For one Bigg Boss Tamil next season is fast getting ready to go on floors and as with Bigg Boss Ultimate, this will be a 24x7 on Disney Hotstar with a 90 minute capsule every day on Star Vijay. Kamal Haasan is the host and as things move on STR might step in. STR link with Disney- Hotstar and Star Vijay was the reason for his presence at Vikram' audio . Vikram OTT rights is with Disney- Hotstar.

Kamal Haasan is in talks with Rajmouli for a Mahesh Babu Pan Indian film. His next as actor is with Pa Ranjith as director and once again with Lokesh Kanakraj and followed by  Mahesh Narayanan as director. All are his own productions. Apart from this he is to produce a film with Sivakarthikeyan as hero. Though production side will be handled by Mahendran , executive producer, Kamal as actor has his calendar full. In this calendar, Indian 2 does not figure.

For Shankar, Ram Charan film will keep him occupied for rest of the year. The film is releasing only for Pongal ( January 2023). Reshoot of portions of comedian Vivek and making changes to bring in another heroine  in place of Kajal Aggarwal ( got married and is mother of a baby girl) are the two major headaches. Secondly, Lyca Productions who wanted the film to be ready for Diwali release finds that it is sitting on a project that is ill fated as spending more money on it to reassemble the broken pieces  might not be a good decision. Apart from this, the death of crew members in an accident too is seen an ominous.  Lyca needs to put in Rs 50 crores more and another half of it on promotion. After Marudhanayagam, Sabhash Naidu, Indian 2 is likely to be Kamal Haasan's third film that took off and got shelved ,if  trends are any indicators.

In May 2020, India Today reported the film was shelved but a LYCA spokesperson replied saying " We have completed almost 60 percent of the film’s shoot. How will we consider dropping the project?. We will start after lockdown".

Beast pushes down Kamal Haasan's Vikram film OTT prices

 The failure of `Beast' in the Hindi market ( theatrical) has affected the OTT price of many South films that had been riding on a ` pan Indian tag'. Kamal Haasan who has the tag of `Ulaga Nayagan' ( International Actor) given by fans is coming after a gap of 4 years with ` Vikram' that is scheduled to release on June 3rd. The actor who is also the producer was quoting a price that was on par with a Pan Indian film  with the OTT platforms. 

After the flop of `Beast'  the film which has Thalapathy Vijay as hero, Vikram stock has fallen. Vijay's BO rating is as high as Rajinikanth and much above Kamal Haasan in Tamil Nadu. The last release of Kamal was Vishwaroopam 2 that was an average grosser and nothing that electrified the box office. In the last four years, Kamal has floated his own party and is opposed to the two Dravidian majors. The fan base ( if any left) would have been divided. His party contested two elections and all the candidates including himself lost. Incidentally, the film is distributed by Red Giant Movies of Udaynidhi Stalin.

His only public outing has been the reality show Bigg Boss on Star Vijay. A  abridged version called Ultimate was telecast on Disney Hotstar and this  was a non starter as it was available to only those with Smart TV and Disney app. Nearing the end, Kamal quit hosting the show citing prior date issues.

Vikram has Faahad Fazil and Vijay Setupathi  to give a multiple language look. Amitabh Bachchan is said to have played a cameo. Lokesh Kanakraj,  the director had directed Vijay's Master and it was a block buster. It was dubbed and released in Hindi. With no promotion, it sank. Anirudh is the music director who has a high stock as his score for Beast is a hit across several languages especially the Arabic Kuthtu song. The story line of Vkram that is being circulated around, if true, is nothing novel.

The next big Pan Indian film is Ponniyin Selvan directed by Mani Rathinam with several South stars and  Aishwarya Rai. Mani's rating as a Pan Indian director is still high and commands a huge audience abroad. Film produced by Lyca , the film is fetching high prices in the OTT and digital rights market.  Here again what works for Mani is that the subject is a historical fantasy adventure film , a genre that clicked with Baahubali .franchise.

As per trade sources, only directors like Shankar, Rajamouli and Prasanth Neel who have added to Pan Indain list with Mani Rathinam are able to demand a price for their product. As Pushpa is a hit, the sequel has a high market value but the director does not and nor the hero Allu Arjun .  Prabhas Salaar commands a pan Indian price tag for the director Prasanth Neel as Prabhas Radhe Syam was a flop in Hindi.

After 35 years ,Amitabh and Kamal Haasan on screen in `Vikram' and Baby Nayanthara in Gentleman 2

 

After 35 years , Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan are coming together on big screen. They last acted in Giraftaar released on September 1985. Amitabh Bachchan came down to Chennai for half a day and shot for Kamal Hassan's Vikram  says a report in DTNext. As per the report Big B came on board after many actors were not available and one was down with Covid. It is a cameo role. Kamal and Amitabh had worked in Giraftaar in 1985. Rajinikanth played a cameo in this super hit film.

Reports said that  Nayanthara is said to have been approached to play the lead role in Gentleman sequel produced by K T Kunjumon. The film had launched the career of director Shankar. Baahubaali music director Keeravani is scoring the music and the details of other crew nd cast have not announced. Nayanthara's BF Vignesh is to direct Ajith next film some time next year. Another report says that Nyanthara and Vignesh who got married recently will take the surrogacy route.  Thea actress has finished all her acting assignments and has only Connect directed by Ashwin Sarvanan. 

Now it turns out that it is Baby Nayanthara who has been approached for Gentleman 2. She acted as daughter of Nayanthara in Kuselan ( Tamil) and it's Telugu version. She has done many films in Malayalam and her last was Marupadi with Rahman and Bhama in 2016, After that she stayed away from films to finish her final year schooling. Recently she posted the photos of her recent shoot. Her father is Manimath Chakravarthy and Nayanthara is her real name and not screen name. She is residing in Kochi.

K.T.Kunjumon

@KT_Kunjumon

·

54m

Happy to Introduce #NayantharaaChakravarthy as the lead actress in #Gentlemen2

Kamal Haasan no show at MNM candidate death upsets party cadre

 Kamal Haasan's  MNM  Tirupur unit is upset that their leader  did not turn up for the funeral of the candidate who lost in the local body polls and did not help the family financially either. Political advisor Pala Karupiaah who quit the party said - Why blame Kamal ? Poor guy !!!. What can he do ?". Karupiaah was the latest in the  seasonal desertions from the party. like in previous poll aftermath, After the Assembly - Parliament poll debacles, party cadres and leaders deserted MNM, a phenomena that is hardly seen in any party irrespective of the size.

Tirupur candidate polled 44 votes in the ward where there was 1000 odd MNM member. The candidate borrowed Rs 50,000 for poll expenses from a local lender. The fact that even his party members did not vote and debt made him commit suicide. Tirupur MNM head was informed but not even a condolence message came.

As such incidents were part   of `micro failure ' in Kamal's words and can be corrected to move on, MNM will have to wait in Kamal's words - " when those who are tired of not being able to change the situation and the youth who dismiss politics as not their cup of tea change their minds and make their democratic contribution"..

As cadres wait, Kamal has finished shoot for Vikram ( own production) and will complete Shankar's Indian 2 to move on to other projects. all of it produced by him and one includes a film with current heartthrob Sivakathikeyan ( post Doctor hit). Vikram has been bought by Disney Hotstar for a price that no Tamil film that got for a post theatrical release.

Now the question is whether the voters who did not vote for MNM and lost their `rights' come in large numbers to bring him back in the numbers game of Kollywood ?. In Kamal's words - "Your next generation will care about who you choose and why. You have a duty to strengthen the hands of alternative forces like us. It is an unfortunate fact of history that those who fail in duty will lose their rights,". In a related political development, Actor - Politician Vijaykanth party DMDK too drew a blank and even the actor himself never came to vote.