Kathir ( 'Pariyerum Perumal'.) joins Atlee - Shah Rukh Khan and Vijay Sethupath keeps date with theaters

 Makkal Selvan Vijay Sethupathi keeps his word and his fiilm Laabam  will be released on September 9th. Tamil actor Kathir who received critical acclaim for 'Pariyerum Perumal'. and also did well at the box office has been signed for Atlee directed Shah Rukh Khan film. It already has Nayanthara as the heroine. Simbu and Gauttham Menon who are shooting for  Venthu Thaninthathu Kaadu is to come back from Trichendur to Chennai and before that a few portions will be shot in Mumbai.

With box office reports of Bell Bottom in Hindi not doing well in theaters, Tamil Nadu exhibitors too were a worried lot. The neighboring Andhra / TS theaters too have not shown any robust opening as it did after the first Covid lockdown was withdrawn. S R Kalyanamandapam  is the only film that is doing well. Andhra theaters are hoping for CM to give a concession in ticket rates for small - medium budget films.

Kathir's last outing Sarbath is available on OTT. 'Madha Yaanai Koottam' in 2013 was his first film. Currently he is acting in a Tamil- Malayalam film Yuki directed by Zac and has Natty ( villain in Dhanush film Karnan) and Narain in Tamil version and Joju George - Sharaf U Dheen in Malayalam with Kayal Anandh , Pavithra Lakshmi ( cook with Comali) and Pratap Pothen  in a pivotal roles. Unlike Sigai and Sarbath which were direct OTT release, Yuki is aimed for theaters. Kathir has acted in Vikram Vedha ( now remade in Hindi) and it was his role of a coach in sports drama Bigil with Thalapathy Vijay  thst got him  close to director Atlee. Atlee had attended the wedding of Kathir. Kathir also had Jada a sports film that tanked at the box office.

Vijay Sethupathi who is playing the lead as well as villanish ones in several Soouth languages as well as in Hindi had tweeted a year back that Laabam would be only a theater release. The film directed by Jannathan ( he died recently) is a tale of fight against corporates exploitation . The film's protagonist is Sruthi Haasan. Laabam has Sethupathi playing the role of a social activist who galvanizes support of the proletariat to start a revolution.  Sethupathi plays a reporter who comes to the village to do a story and stays back to fight for the villagers.

Vijay Antony film Kodiyil oruvan and Rio Raj- Remya Nabeesan Plan Panninum mannanum, are other films to hit theaters and Arya's Sarpatta parambarai which was released on OTT and said to release in movie halls will not make it as Ott has shot it down

Mani Ratnam - Shankar with 8 top directors float Rain On Films banner

 

Indian Cinema's top film directors Mani Ratnam and Shankar along with 8 directors of Kollywod  floated Rain On Films Pvt Ltd . The idea is to fund new talents who want to make films or web series. Director Vetrimaaran's office will be functioning as the hub for the newly floated company. The first film under this banner is directed by Lokesh Kanakaraj who is part of the group.

Mani and Shankar have two successful production houses - Madras Talkies and S Films. Similarly many of the directors who are part of this new production house have own production units. A R Murgadoss, Vetrimaaran, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Lingusamy have production houses. Poo Sasi, Vasanthabalan, Balaji Sakthivel are other directors who part of the new company.

Sources say that the idea germinated after directors Mani - Shankar ( considered aloof) started to interact with each other and other directors during the Covid 19 lockdown. The ice breaking event was director Myskkin birthday where all these directors turned up.

The new venture means serious business as it was registered under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in September 2020.  The business model is to capitalize on the OTT platform business. Most of the production houses that are new are not able to get their product in established OTT and hence are forced to give it away to local players. New directors selected under a banner with big names backing it can easily see their films on OTT .

A R Rahman yet to pay Enjoy Enjaami,' fame Rapper Arivu - blacked out of Rolling Stone cover

 

Rapper Arivu was not paid by A R Rahman backed music label Maajja  for his work in the viral track Enjoy Enjaami. He goes missing from the Rolling Stone  mag cover that did a story on Dhee alongside Canadian singer Shan Vincent de Paul. Social media is full of comments alleging that  the man who wrote the songs Neeye Oli ( sung by Paul) and Enjoy Enjaami (co-sung by Dhee) also lending his voice to the latter was avoided as the magazine and music label Maajja of “marginalising” rapper-singer Arivu, allegedly due to his caste, and side lining him from promotions of songs that went on to become global hits.

 Arivu is a 27-year-old rapper from Tamil Nadu whose  song “Sanda Seivom” criticising the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens went viral. His father is a professor in a government college and mother works as a school teacher. Growing up, Arivu faced discrimination at school for his caste and skin colour. “I faced huge discrimination there (his school), but until recently I never realised it was discrimination. There were teachers who abused me by my caste name, students who taunted me for being dark,” he told The Wire.

 Arivu released his first poetry collection after finishing his engineering course and while completing his MBA degree. Incidentally, it was director PA Ranjith who gave the rapper his first big break with a song for the Rajinikanth starrer Kaala. 

An angry woman reader wrote- “Enjoy Enjaami’s core is Arivu’s lyrics, his story, and the social context of displacement marginalized has to go through. Not giving a separate feature or precedence and instead, only focusing on Dhee only puts the performer at the front, whose concern will hardly be to overcome the barriers.” She further added that Arivu should have been on the cover and the magazine should have featured a separate interview with him, instead of reducing his work to “dark lyricism” within the piece featured.

 Activist Shalini Maria Lawrence pointed out in her tweet how despite writing and co-singing “Enjoy Enjaami”, the song’s title read “Dhee ft Arivu” thus indirectly making it Dhee’s song. Writing that Arivu was “systematically erased” from the picture, Lawrence wrote, “Yes caste here played a major part and they exploited Arivu and his talents and betrayed him. This has happened in the past to lot of Dalits…” 

Noel Kirthiraj, one of the owners of Maajja said, “Maajja's ethos is to empower artists with rights to their songs. This is to eliminate precisely this practice of artists giving up rights for a nominal fee. Artists own the rights and share the revenue earned on an ongoing basis, instead of a token payment. No artists were paid.”. The music is by composer Santhosh Narayanan, Dhee’s stepfather, and the song is the first release under AR Rahman’s Maajja banner, an initiative launched in January to promote independent musicians. This is Dhee’s first video, though she has previously sung hits such as Rowdy Baby from Maari 2 (2018), alongside actor Dhanush.

 

Boomika review : NETFLIX hell bent on giving Tamil cinema a bad name on a pan-Indian level

  

Boomika is yet another con game by putting names like Karthik Subburaj as the presenter of the film and then hyping it as Eco Thriller. Happens to be Aishwarya Rajesh 25th film ( as if all she did so far were gems). Yet another reason is director Rathindra Prasad who directed an episode in Navarasa. 

Rathindra Prasad does what he did in Navarasa. He started off well and concentrated on the camera- music - editing ( but somehow the CGI looked bad). He mucked up the content. Now such films get made and sold to an unsuspecting Netflix  by a super marketing hype . First you put across the subject - not just horror but eco- horror. Bhoomi (Earth) takes revenge on those who play with it. Right stuff for all the educated environmentalists and those who eat only organic food and use only paper bags. They are the ones who pay Rs 800 PM for subscription.  Second is cast- Aishwarya Rajesh. She takes up women centric roles and mind you not the Nayanthara type but that of a bold women fighting for a cause. This is her 25th film and a eco mixed horror film is just the thing. Last but not least is Kartik Subburaj . He is a champion of causes- don't you remember Mercury ?. ( for a living he will do a masala dishoom movie with likes of Rajnikant and Vikram). As a producer, he picks only the best . ( Penguin was a horror film that Amazon picked up despite such bad content just coz it had Keerthi. Last minute addition was Rathindra Prasad the director. If Mani Ratnam can pick him then he is best.

Netflix falls for this hype. Result is Boomika. A film which has no horror to keep you rooted and a bunch of  characters who do some clowning. I think the director  himself turned a critic and put in a dialogue - First time a psychologist who psych's the ghost.

This is what happens through out. Now a flashback sequence makes a good watch as the girl who plays the one with autism does a neat job and so also her father. I think her name is Avantika 

In case you are so immersed in the horror aspect, director brings you back to the core theme - Mother Nature and need to preserve it. The film has been dubbed into several languages ( I saw it the next day after I saw the Tamil). Netflix is hell bent on giving Tamil cinema a bad name all over India.

யார் இந்த SAC ? பின்னணி என்ன ? Thalapathy Vijay's DAD starts YouTube Channel - Starts from Pondy Bazar footpath

 

SAC the father of Thalapathy Vijay started his YouTube Channel Yaar ?Indha SAC ?, Though the media was informed about the channel, the news has yet to reach out to Thalapathy Fans at large. Searching for the channel in You Tube and getting it was itself a task. Since it had only 558 views, the channel did not figure in the top search list. Ironically a Vijay film song with the opening lines - Yaar intha figured in the top of the search.

SAC who has oflate fallen out with his son said tha  " The Covid has parlayed the film industry. The sounds of of claps in movie halls was missing, daily wage earners were affected and even if theaters opened it was Star films that were running. So where do we who make films with small budget films go ?. Unless one starts getting active will be we get energy or else we feel as if suffocated. So using the new technology , I decided too talk to you. So far my films dealt with many issues. Now I am going to talk about my life, the people who helped me and betrayed me, the technicians, actor- actress whom I introduced  . I wanted to be a director. 55 years back , I came to Chennai. Today where Naidu Hall stands in Pondy Bazaar, there was a few small shops and a corporation pipe. I slept there for 45 days. When it rained , I moved to a parked cycle rickshaw and took shelter. My journey started from here.

https://youtu.be/4ZdhUe_XxyA

Kamal Haasan to pen Thevar Magan 2 screenplay - Chiyyan Vikram to act- Mahesh Narayanan to direct

After completing work on Indian 2, Kamal Haasan will be scripting the sequel to the all time iconic Tamil film Thevar Magan in which he co- starred with legendary Sivaji Ganesan. The film was directed by Malayalam film director Bharathan. Now  The Cue reports that the film will be directed by Mahesh Narayanan who directed Malayalam hits - Take Off , C U Soon ( editor - cinematographer ), Malik  and Editor of many hit films like Nayattu, Uyarae and Arakariyam. He was the Editor of Kamal Haasan;s Viswaroopam 2. According to a source close to the actor, Chiyaan Vikram is tipped to act in the film. Vijay Sethupathi is likely to play Nassar's son.

Kamal Haasan in an interview to Mathrubhumi TV said that he was going to script a film with Mahesh Narayanan as director. It is now said that the subject is none other than the sequel to Thevar Magan. Kamal has also revealed that he would soon be winding up his work on Indian 2 and hinted that issues were sorted out. Currently Kamal is working on Vikram directed by Lokesk Kanakaraj and has fahad fazil and Vijay Sethupathi in the cast.

In 

Quiz shows from today to woo Telly viewers

 From today onwards, it is the season of Quiz shows – at least for many in the Hindi- Telegu and Malayalam TV viewers. Today we have Big B coming on Sony. Gemini TV, SUN TV Network’s Telugu GEC Channel is all set to broadcast ‘Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu’ by actor Jr NTR. ‘AnchinoduInchodinchu’–Malayalam version of the successful international format show “ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER” starts today on Surya TV with Suresh Gopi. Already you have at the same time band, a quiz show Oru Kodi with Flowers TV host Sreekantan Nair. 

KBC comes with a steady loyal viewership and a host Big B . Now that is not enough in times of pandemic. The curtain raiser promo, Amitabh Bachchan can be heard introducing Gyaanraj. It is to be noted that Gyaanraaj is part of a team consisting of 100 scientists that work as advisors for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That takes care of the Modi Bhakths as well. Channel publicists have been active as media picked up a year back old FB post of the first winner of KBC who wrote about his squandering of Rs 5 cr prize money on business as he wanted to tell journalists that he was a successful investor. Now KBC is into the 13 th year and this year the ad volume rates are very low. Even the Tokyo Olympics ad revenue took a dip. 

Moving to South. Here the two shows starting today (Aug 23) has a time slot that takes a direct face off with all favorite soaps of the rivals and leaves the weekends open for other shows to fight it off. The truth is that Surya in Kerala and Gemini in AP/TS are two crosses that the successful Sun Network has been bearing. Now pitching these two shows at 8.30 PM, it sorts of hopes to neutralize the soaps of the rival channels. The marketing guys in TV ad world says that a survey conducted post Covid 10 1 Phase says that men audience are game to sitting at home and watching quiz shows or any reality show (other than the beaten to death singing- dancing reality ones) and so also the woman and kids. 

Though no one has the name of the agency who conducted the survey, TV addicts in Kerala and AP/TS say that as such the serials in top channel in these two States in 8.30 PM are boring. Flowers TV funded by chit fund owner Gokulam Gopalan who has invested his money (or investors?) in many biz and also has a stake in the Ezhava politics is pumping money to make it the top GEC.  Sreekantan Nair or SK who drives the channel GEC and news 24 Hours is inching closer to Asianet .  Flowers TV soaps not being able to make a dent, SK put Oru Kodi quiz show at Mon- Wednesday 8.30 PM and this was a new move. Such shows came only at weekends or Mon- Friday. It was a move to break the TRP rating hold, says Ad guys, 

Surya TV guys now pitched their Quiz show at same time- same days. Now Suresh Gopi the actor – BJP RS MP has been a successful TV host and his one liner at early shows are still popular. To give a curtain raiser, we get Kunchacko Boban, youth icon as first contestant. Moving to Andhra/TS, Jr NTR is an actor whose stronghold is in rural areas. Here the ball game has a new meaning. These two States are the ones that beat all fears of exhibitors when theaters opened after the first wave and second wave. A robust theater going public is intact. Even some films that would have flopped pre- Covid time were hits. 

Gemini then adds yet another film celeb – Tammannah Bhatia as host to Master Chef show starting at August 27th - Friday- Saturday 8.30 PM. It has decided to puta new serial at 8 PM- Sundari and Kaviyanjaali at 9.30 PM – Monday – Saturday. 

For a film crazy State add a curtain raiser of Ram Charan (top draw and member of Chiranjeevi clan) coming as celeb contestant is ultimate.  The blockbuster formula is ready to unleash. Here the TV viewers did plump in a big way for Bigg Boss hosted by actor Nagarjuna (appears at weekends). It was on Star. In Kerala, Mohanlal and Lalettan magic waned in the just concluded BB show on Asianet. In Tamil, Sun will have to face Zee coming with Survivor reality show and the next edition of Big Boss in Star Vijay hosted by Kamal Haasan.  

Now we will have to wait and see whether the serial makers formula makes more money for tv channels  or the quiz masters.  As if competition to theaters from OTT was not enough, BB Hindi has a OTT version .