CM - 40 (Rajini not at his best)Quote:
Originally Posted by gargas
MX - 41 (Dragging in second half made this movie a non classic one)
Sachin - 43 (Vijay back to love stories)
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CM - 40 (Rajini not at his best)Quote:
Originally Posted by gargas
MX - 41 (Dragging in second half made this movie a non classic one)
Sachin - 43 (Vijay back to love stories)
Kbee - I suggest you call up Rajkamal's office in Chennai directly and find out!
Kbee - I suggest you call up Rajkamal's office in Chennai directly and find out!
I think Chandrahasan of Rajkamal visits this forum, and has even posted before...
Finally this week end MX is going to be released in NY and hopefully I will not miss it. Kbee is right, when I watched virumandi in that horrible theatre in NJ it was fully packed , because I didn't like the theatre I thought it was not worth driving all the way there.
Any way as another ardent fan of KH, my 2 cents...
Kamal "ghost directing" new as well as so called well established directors ( KSR, Sundar C ) is nothing new, and if not 100% true there is definitely some intervention ( and media mostly portraying it as interference) by KH in close to 80% of movies especially after apoorva Sahodarargal's huge success and winning three National awards. Apparently his indulgence or interference is mostly in the form of ideas and suggestions and not messing with the script as long as this is not his home production. In his home production despite him not being the director for a few of his own movies and being a able script writer for his own movies, he does intervene in direction ( which Kh doesn't call intervention but assissting the director, this was told by himself in an interview, but imagine assissting santhan Bharathi or PC sriram who directed 2 of his movies which clearly speaks of KH all over the place in those movies). The only Rajkamal movie which he scripted but took back seat was " devar Magan" and the Bharathan KH combo did wonders in BO and coming out as a greatest classic in Tamil movies.
IMHO, I personally don't have a problem with KH giving suggestions, improvisations during movie making, especially for the enormous talent in him with the acting and subtlities in the charactrisations, every small new hero these days with few hits demand changes, demand specific MDs and particular style (copied songs) totally taking the audience ( I mean sensible crowd , not the retarded crowd in TN which makes every Vijay movie a hit) for granted, people arguing about these heroes knowing the mass media likings and making sure BO hits is total absurd if one looks at the progress of tamil movies, this is what I was referring to one of the Kbee posts that 80's tamil movies were way better than the current ones except for technical proficiency ( we had lot of old and new directors ( Mahendran, BR, MR, KB, RC Sakthi, Rudraiyya, Balu M, even the mediocre Durai, R sundarrajan, K rangaraj, did give some decent movies trying new and some thing differently staying away from the mundane formula based movies with 2 rapes, 5 songs one with silk smitha/anuradha, 4 fights etc... barring SPM and other KSR kind of nonsense masala directors, who still produced the crap out of Rajini making him the superstar not because of his acting talents but for being Vasool Raja)
I remember reading a snippet and discussing with other KH fans during "Nayakan" movie making how KH despite having known MR for long time offered himself as a brand new face to be directed under MR with no "nose poking" in any aspect except sitting with MR for RR with IR ( I don't know how much true that was like the Sify news).
Ttrmt,
I think Drohkaal's story was by Govind Nihalani, I don't remember Javed Akhthar's role in script , correct me if I am wrong, (I don't know if the tamil version showed credit to Javed Akhthar for the original story) personally Kurudhipunal was great no doubt, but Drohkaal was much better especially the narration ( with out our KH's usual heroine kissing dramas)
Coming to comedy flicks by KH, in his own interview he refers MMKR as the benchmark for his and any tamil comedies ( I personally agree it was indeed a great KH comedy, all those who had confusion watching movie should watch it again and again, I mean it was not a perfect movie, hey for a neatly scripted comedy with that unimaginable 4 characterisations with the 110% support by every small character in the movie that was really nice), I for some reason have liked all his comedies to the core including PKS ( Don't put word in my mouths!! :rotfl: ),
his average comedy hits like SL ( BaluM) and KK ( Singeetham) also had great comedy sequences.
I didn't watch PKS in theatre may be I might not have liked it that much in theatre but all other comedy movies after Avvai Shanmu I have watched in theatre and many more times on DVD and all of his post APPU comedies had Crazy as the writer the biggest plus point , including the Mouli directed PKS and we all know how hilarious his dialogues are, and that was one of the concerns when MX was anounced without Crazy, but still MX probably has come out well with KH as dialogue writer I think ( saw few clippings in SUN TV review, the whloe Ramesh arvind sequence in telugu was too good, a little bit of Seinfeld kind deviation from central conversation, pramaadham.... Brahmandam....dialogue sequence), the only reason I liked all his comedy movies to the full extent is that I haven't seen one single tamil comedy movie in many years with his kind of perfection, narration and the casual chacterisations and tongue in cheek dialogues , Crazy has penned for few non Kamal starrers but none strikes to me a good one. KH's own production "Nala damayanthi" was much big let down , I enjoyed PKS much more.
Any body watch KH interview last Sunday in SUN TV? Is it only me or any one else have noticed his almost voluntary sort of tics , I mean nose wiping and nose picking while looking at the camera, I have watched him in many TV interviews almost 90% of them with this and why can't he talk in simple plain Tamil instead of his Pure Tamil many times confusing the interviewer himself ( we all know he is a voracious reader and trying to update himself constantly), despite all of these, Kamal is terrific actor Indian Film Indusry ever produced or will ever produce ( especially for his versatality). I have to prime myself tonight with one of his comedies to gear up for MX.
Just curious, which are the NON KH decent full length comedies in tamil in the last 15 years, I mean all those Malyalam remakes ( friends, Leysa Leysa ) are good but definitely not even close to Kamal comedies,
Prabhudas
Yes, in the title it says "Story - Javed Akhthar"Quote:
Originally Posted by prabhudas
PrabhuDas,
Great writeup.
It is no secret most of the Kamal home production and pseduo productions ( like Guna, Thenali etc), his input is significant and over-bearing. But with big directors ( Bharathan, Balu Mahendra), you can find subtle differences that his contribution is not big. The movies where he involved more than usual, you can always find long single shots. The scene coming to my mind are, the hospital scene in Guna, numer of scenes in MMKR, in Thenali where he first meets jayaram and the climax in Hey Ram, when SRK and kamal met again.
You can see less long single shots like that in movies like Devar Magan or Sathi Leelavathi or Indian. Another common thread in the movies, which I find fascinating is, his ability to make all the actors small or big perform better. Who can forget janakaraj in Aboorva Sagothargal, or nagesh in Nammvar, or Pasi Satya in Anbe Sivam, or Atul in Hey Ram, or Hanif in Mahanathi, or Pasupathy and Abirami in Virumandi or Sarath Saxena or that bald guy in Guna and Nasir in all of his movies. He has great ability to create scripts with great characters and extarct performance from them. It is fair to say most of the above actors and other actors, their fine performance came in Kamal movie. Still people say, Kamal always try to dominate other actors in his movies, which is BS.
He can also inspire people like Crazy, Madan ( Anbe Sivam) to write such a great dialogues.
IMO, Kamal is a better director than actor, not withstanding how great his acting credintals are. Hey ram, and Virumandi are good example for good direction.
As you mentioned he is a complete movie maker in every sense - Closest example being Charlie Chaplin, or Hitchock. There is not a single film personality in indian movie industry can come closer to him. He is a adequate singer, and If I believe some sources, his music knowledge is good for a actor.
But his biggest problem to me is, he sometimes confused with his self-induced desire to balance out commercial and artisitic elements in his movie. He still for some strange reason fascinated by car chasing scenes, which you can see unnecessary included in the movies like Sathi Leelavathi and Allavandan and other movies.
His comedy movies are very difficult to act, since it is not only based on just dialogues or physical comedy. It needs lot of co-oridnation and timing among actors, which sometimes very difficult to execute or connect with the audience. In thenali, the scene, where Kamal meets Jeyaram could have been disaster with lesser actors.
But still, I feel that most of this movies,if subjected to outside analysis by some of his other movie friends ( BM, BK), It would have ended up better product in the box office. Because, when you are seeing so many movies and thinking about movies all the time, like he does, You may not realize that average movie goer may not be ready for certain things.
It is sadly true that for last 15 years of so, Kamal survived in the industry because of his own talents and his own money. He had very few outside movies and being a big actor and respected script writer/director , or for any other reason, not many directors and producers were willing to take him.
Only because of his multifacted talent, he is still surviving in the industry as an influential person, otherwise he would have ended up like Jaishankar or Vijayakumar or later sivaji, doing villan or character roles and ended up tarnishing all the good work done by them before in their career.
Thanks
Hari
e. hari,
I very much agree with your findings,
, I think this was the big reason for the failure of "Guna" 'Hey Ram" and " Anbe Shivam" ,Quote:
But his biggest problem to me is, he sometimes confused with his self-induced desire to balance out commercial and artisitic elements in his movie.
About his direction abilities, personally I feel he is just fantastic in comdey movies with great script better than any veteran comedy movie makers but when it comes to serious movies I think he falters a lot especially trying overstuffing things ( as aptly told by KB in a function), I think he gets carried away either during serious script writing or movie making with some extra ordinary situations with some obsession and ends up with a product which is too heavy and confusing, I am sure if he himself watches all his serious movies again he definitely would realize.
I remember somebody writing in the past in TFM forum comparing his direction abilities with MR, where Kamal is like a overenthusiatic highly studious student with too much hardwork but lacking some brilliant sparks typical of MR, on the other hand I can't imagine MR giving a pure comedy.
In a recent interview by Nasser,, he was mentioning how different it is working in Rajkamal production with KH especially the seriousness involved with every body having their own copy
( printed or xeroxed ) of the entire script from smallest to largest roles, to get a better product ultimately .
you bet, I wonder if there will be one single actor in future to come with this kind of talent,Quote:
His comedy movies are very difficult to act, since it is not only based on just dialogues or physical comedy. It needs lot of co-oridnation and timing among actors, which sometimes very difficult to execute or connect with the audience. In thenali, the scene, where Kamal meets Jeyaram could have been disaster with lesser actors
The reasons IMHO, his egos ( which anybody of his calibre and talent will have) and his failure to accept the reality of BO ratings , if he really worries about making good movies and progressing in his film career with landmark movies he should just stop comparing himself with the all those stars unfortunately who are better saleable ( From Rajini to to the wothless AH Vijay) and just do movies with pure perfection with lesser budgets and I am sure there is always a place for him in every sincere tamil film Fan.Quote:
It is sadly true that for last 15 years of so, Kamal survived in the industry because of his own talents and his own money. He had very few outside movies and being a big actor and respected script writer/director , or for any other reason, not many directors and producers were willing to take him.
E hari, it was mostly their own choice ( JAi, Vijaykumar, both were not comparable to Kamal in any standard except they both had some success, otherwise they were very ordinary actors), but with Shivaji ( again his own choice), I wonder why he really ended up with such unforgettable roles in 80's and 90's except the two gems ( Mudal mariyadhai and Devar Magan), even his "Padayappa" role was useless, any senior actor could have done that, and I can't just imagine KH ending like that and I seriously doubt especially because of his super inflated egos ( unless he stoops to this for keeping his bank balance positive) and if that happens, I will probably ending watching tamil movies on theatres ( although it doesn't matter for anybody, just my 'aathankam' for being a ardent fan of him)and he should seriously think of of just becoming a producer and Director instead at that point.Quote:
otherwise he would have ended up like Jaishankar or Vijayakumar or later sivaji, doing villan or character roles and ended up tarnishing all the good work done by them before in their career.
Almost more than a decade ago, one of my Kannada friends told, the only way Indian Cinema can show their recognition to KH is honoring him with Dada Phalke award at an earlier age than any others and be a one of a kind role model for his enormous talents in portraying a variety of role with such versatality ( from 16 vayadinile to Moonram Pirai to Sagara Sangamam to Swathimuthyam to Nayagan to you name it)
Prabhudas
I doubt if he will seriously do that. I am 100% sure that he will do more directional / production than acting after 5 years, but he will always act, most likely like Jack Nicholson type of role.Quote:
Originally Posted by prabhudas
As far as his directional skills goes, he is a step ahead of his Guru KB. He will be one of the best directors from India, only after Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal & Ritwik Ghatak (or even at par with them based on what he does)
First of all, I stand corrected - it is Govind Nihalini who scripted and directed DROHKAAL - Javed Akthar scripted ARJUN (Hindi), the original of SATYA
But as for the comparison between Drohkaal and Kurudhipunal, I refer to an interview of Govind Nihalini, in which he has accepted that KH's treatment was more slick and better
Those were excellent inputs from Prabhudas and co. - personally, I feel that KH's entire gamut of efforts over the last one decade have centered around his main ambition/obsession - MARUDHANAYAKAM - I will justify this stand of mine as follows:
His physique - right from Hey Ram, he has been working on his physique so much that with Abhay (Alavandhan), he reached the pinnacle of his muscled appearence - after Abhay, for a few movies, you cud not see the paunch and it is back there again after Virumandi - he selectively chooses scripts and roles that will motivate him to consciously work on his physique - he agreed 'Vettayadu' IMO strictly for this reason and by all means, we can see a fitter Kamal - the reason for the slow steady buildup of his physique coincides neatly with his choice of scripts (in PKS he does a stuntman, in Virumandi, he does a big bully kind of a villager) and also his ultimate goal of pumping up a big frame for Marudh - btw, the 30 min of Marudh that was shot happened just before Hey Ram and that was when he began his body building in a big way
A host of French + British actors, some stunning battle scenes planned, plus in 1997-98, at least two biggies Demi Moore and Kate Winslet were approached(!) such biggies are not going to act for peanuts - plus, big time marketing all over the world (keeping in mind Kamals's ambition to make it big in N.America) itself will take up a huge budget
Hence, KH has been juggling comedies (for both creative and box office satisfaction) with serious movies (to make sure that critics do not go bonkers calling him not capable of doing serious films anymore and fans are kept satisfied) - all said and done, Kamal is not that bankable a star like Amitabh or Rajini - hence getting a financier to back a big venture is difficult to start with
Kamal as a person, from what (little) I have understood, has some strong very, very strong likes and dislikes - that is a fact - not taking money from some sources (if money was his main need to complete MARUDH, he could have simply done a KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI kind of junk show on TV in Tamil, or better, acted in commercials! he is too hardened a professional to resort to such cheap stuff) not working with some people, if it is his home production - for Hey Ram, when he fell out with LS, he cud have easily picked up the phone and dialled ARR's number - believe me, the movie wud have done business at least for ARR's name in the north - but he went back to IR - what does that say ? - perhaps in the Indian scenario, these factors, prevent him from making money easily, unlike someone like Amitabh who stooped down to the level of associating with Amar Singh (a cheap Samajwadi Party thug) to bail him out of the ABCL mess and then doing that junk, mind-numbing KBC show, which was the biggest, glossiest fraud ever inflicted on the Indian masses since Independence !
Kamal's ultimate ambition is on the Oscars - or at least recognition at the global level - look at some of his other traits - when Sanjay Dutt's
Munnabhai MBBS was remade as Vasool Raja MBBS, he immeditely worked on MX, another comedy, penning it himself and making a statement that 'it is better than Munnabhai' -what does that tell you ? Kamal's supreme
self-esteem (some call it inflated ego) made sure that he made MX to tell people "hey look! I might have done a comedy remake, but see I can do better on my own" ! BO success or not, with MX, he has also put his name across national TV networks, websites, newspapers and of course theaters - two mangoes in one stone!
even the shoot of VV in New York must be planned in parallel with negotiations with some production house(s) in the US - this is how I see it - he wud be doing another bilingual (Hindi and Tamil) and after getting himself a big national market, go for the kill with Marud, since by then, production houses wud be convinced of his CV and also his market pull
among all this, somehow is personal life got messed up - but then, that is none of our business
PS:his training for ABHAY cost him his back, with a major surgery on his lumbar vertebrae!!
I can only give one small anecdote to justify the respect that KH commands in the industry - couple of years ago, when I had met IR at Prasad Studios, the moment KH's name was mentioned (for some reason or the other) in our discussion, IR's eyes lit up like a child's eyes would while seeing a grand spectacle in the sky!! I was taken aback - it was pure genuine, unadulterated admiration + respect - that, the greatest composer of the century this side of the Atlantic, should become starry-eyed the moment KH's name is mentioned, speaks volumes of KH's standing in the industry - for me, that is more than enough
Care a damn to hard-nosed useless critics