Kamal's Hollywood's copies

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Topic started by vasanthkv on Tue Apr 19 9:36:07 2005.

Kamal's Hollywood's copies.

1. Avvai shanmughi - 'Mrs. Doubtfire' and 'Big Momma's House'
2. Magalir mattum - 9 to 5
3. Nala Dhamayanthi - Green Card
4. Thenali - ??????
5. Mumbai Express - ??????
6. Anbe Sivam - 'Planes, trains and Automobiles'

7. Aalavandhan - people say 'The Silence of the Lambs' ( I am not sure. )

Do you guys know other copies of Kamalahasan?

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Responses:

From: sefroth on Tue Apr 19 11:06:27 2005.

For your info Anbe Sivam is of different content from that 'Planes, trains and Automobiles' I have watched both the movies and i can tell you both are very different.
From: vasanthkv on Tue Apr 19 12:18:39 2005.

I have also seen both the movies. He has taken 'P.T.A.' as a base and added some communism, masala and Kamalism to create 'Anbe Sivam'.
From: mellon on Tue Apr 19 12:32:24 2005.

Hi!

That is "What about Bob" -ThenaaLi 8)

It is not a copy!

It is "inspiration" when it is "done" by "brilliant people", man!
From: vasanthkv on Tue Apr 19 12:44:11 2005.

I do not know if you are making a sarcastic comments. I can give you the examples inspirations.

1. 'Naayagan' to 'Godfather'
2. 'Roja' to 'Proof of Life'

'Magalir mattum' cannot be inspirational, it was copied frame to frame from '9 to 5'. Funny thing is Kamalahasan claims he has written the story for 'Magalir Mattum' and 'Nala Dhamayanthi'.

I am sure 'MX' is also copied from some English movie.
From: Kumar on Tue Apr 19 20:00:47 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

I am sure 'MX' is also copied from some English movie.

I see. What English movie is it ma?
From: Surya on Tue Apr 19 20:29:46 2005.

Not sure about copied, but inspired I'm sure. "A Job gone Bad." That's a very popular theme for English Movies and Novles.

Heat (Robert Di Nero, Al Pacino)
Babies day out.
etc.
From: Kumar on Tue Apr 19 20:52:06 2005.

Dude, are you serious?? OK, I know that you like Rajini, and for some reason, you think you need to hate Kamal to support your favourite actor. But making ridiculous, desperate comparisons like that is very....comical actually.

Next thing you'll tell me is that Kamal wore a jacket and rode a motorbike, so M.E must be a copy of Born to be Wild.

Question: Chandramukhi is on a ghost, possession, split personality; what THEME is that based on, or is it an original, never ever done before in the history of film making?
From: Surya on Tue Apr 19 21:08:13 2005.

Kumar wrote:

for some reason, you think you need to hate Kamal to support your favourite actor.

What!!!!??? Dude! u obviously don't know me very well!! That's the same exact same dialouge that I've given to radical Rajni/Kamal Fans in other threads!

Quote:

But making ridiculous, desperate comparisons like that is very....comical actually.
Desperate comparisons??? How?? The Theme of ME, "A job/hit gone bad" That theme has been used in many movies! Is it essentially copied?? NO!. Like I said in my previous post.

Kumar wrote:

Question: Chandramukhi is on a ghost, possession, split personality; what THEME is that based on, or is it an original, never ever done before in the history of film making?
Did I say it was? Why so judgemental??

Now here's a question: For some reason why do u think that someone is anti-kamal, just because they point out a fact which doesn't favor him??

PS: Where have I given any indication that i've hated Kamal?? I'm infact a huge fan of his movies.
From: Kumar on Tue Apr 19 21:59:22 2005.

Surya wrote:

Now here's a question: For some reason why do u think that someone is anti-kamal, just because they point out a fact which doesn't favor him??

Why? Because of your banter with Crab, who is anti Rajini (pro Kamal) in other threads, such as the below quote:

""Mumbhai Express has been declared a flop!!!! Ayyo Paavam!!""

To me, that reads anti. But I will also say that you are way more pro Rajini, than anti Kamal...something which I appreciate.

I read the attached review too from Rediff which you provided in the ME vs CM thread. The reviewer has said it was a flop; but after 4 days??

I don't buy that CMukhi is a flop, because it is early days and Rajini's mass appeal is great. So, Crab's postings don't hold much either.

Don't mistake me; I didn't mean to come across as judgemental or harsh (in fact, if you can see me typing this, I'm actually smiling , and I also approached this as a discussion, not an attack (If I had spoken those words, it would have been in a light heatted tone.)

So sorry if I've been misunderstood. I just brought my points up because, IMO, your comparisons (inspirational or otherwise) seems a bit desperate. If ME cannot be compared to an English movie, why say that it's been inspired by stuff like Heat and Babies Day out (Wha...???????). It reminds me of when still shots of Aalavandhann was out, and some were so desperate to claim it was a copy that they declared it a re-make of The Green Mile, because Kamal was blad, big and behind bars. Or when one reviewer saw a Thenali still of Kamal and a rat and declared (in his review!!!) that it was a re-make of Mouse Trap (when it was based on 'What about Bob').

What was your your intention of making your comparisons though, if it wasn't an anti-Kamal remark? Was it to mock Kamal, or are you OK with inspired films?
From: Surya on Tue Apr 19 23:43:39 2005.

Ok, I still don't see how it's desperate, still a ligitament comparison, but just to clear a couple things up, I'm not anti-Kamal, I'm a vivid fan of Kamal, I own DVD's of almost all his movies, from Nizhal Nijamagirathu to Vasool Raja, but that quote was just to tick Crab off, and also I was badly dissappointed by Mumbhai Express, espicially, after he gave us a hilarious movie like Vasool Raja.

So same here too, So sorry if I've been misunderstood as being Anti-Kamal. I'm a huge fan of the Padmashree.

Regards. 8)
From: Kumar on Wed Apr 20 0:55:00 2005.

Surya,
Thanks for the clarification. I think it's pretty obvious that I am a a die hard Kamal fan; but I don't hate Rajini. I think he's a great actor; I just miss his glory days of 16 Vayathinilei , Mullum Mallarum , Johnny, Thillu Mullu , Billa 8) , 6 to 60 , Netrikkan and Thalapathy . In my opinion, his last good movie, for pure entertainment, was Padayappa, in patches. Baba didn't impress me. I haven't seen CM yet.

From: lancelot on Wed Apr 20 3:36:02 2005.

Quote:

Aalavandhan - people say 'The Silence of the Lambs' ( I am not sure. )

no maan aalanadan is not a copy of The Silance of the lambs.

The silance of the lambs is briliant.
Aalavandan is not a gud movie. but Kamal is just mindblowing.

From: Prabhu Ram on Wed Apr 20 4:03:23 2005.

As for Aalavandhaan, the gore was new to Tamil and Silence of the LAmbs had a comparable effect in Hollywood, thats all. Anybody who has seen both films can assure there's not a shred of similarity.

What about Bob is a straight lift. In fact even the costume worn by Kamal in the climax is similar to Bill Murray's.

Nayagan is also a baseless charge (In my opinion the Godfather theme is more heavily felt in Thevar Magan). De Niro has acted in many 'the-development-of-a-don' flicks. The Next Factory film is called the D-Company, based on Dawood Ibrahim. I suppose you'd call that a 'lift' too ? Perhaps one can say the real Dawood himself is copying DeNiro in 'Untouchables'

.
From: vincent on Wed Apr 20 4:07:25 2005.

KAMAL'S MOVIE IS A CHALLENGGE 4 HOLLYWOOD
THAT'S ALL
From: Alien on Wed Apr 20 8:58:25 2005.

Very well said Prabhu Ram

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Perhaps one can say the real Dawood himself is copying DeNiro in 'Untouchables'

.
From: Thiru on Wed Apr 20 9:33:07 2005.

Big Momma's house came after Avvai shanmughi and there is no similarity in those two movies.... Avvai shanmughi was inspired from Mrs. doubtfire and from Tootsie... Panchathandhiram's plot was inspired from 'very bad things'... I saw 'What about bob' recently and I can say that 'Thenali' was heavily inspired from this movie.. particularly the Raj TV interview scene etc...
I wonder why people havent discussed about 'Vetri vizha' heavily inspired by 'Bourne supremacy'... Well prathap pothen had a habit of making movies out of english novels.. so we cant blame kamal for that one...
From: Thiru on Wed Apr 20 9:34:15 2005.

and btw, kamal's role in Guna was heavily inspired from Dustin Hoffman's 'Rain man'..
From: Prabhu Ram on Wed Apr 20 15:59:22 2005.

Thiru wrote:

and btw, kamal's role in Guna was heavily inspired from Dustin Hoffman's 'Rain man'..
Loony heroes, pardon the coldness, are Oscar regulars. We could also perhaps add Forrest Gump and I am Sam, but it would be anachronistic.

So Thiru I don't agree with you completely. Nobody can say Kamal was not inspired by Hoffman but with admittedly much less degree of relevance he was also inspired by Shakespeare's mad-with-a-method Hamlet !

'Open your eyes and ears and you're influenced/ And there's nothing you can do about it' - Bob Dylan

I think we should classify only substantial one-to-one correspondence as 'inspired-by' , and completed one-to-one corresepondences as 'lifted from'. By this term : is Rain Man admissible. Here comes the arrogant sacrilege: 'I haven't seen Rain-Man So , heheh , I'll take it if you say it was 'influenced' even by this definition.
From: Surya on Wed Apr 20 16:19:46 2005.

Kumar wrote:

I haven't seen CM yet.

Watch it! It's awesome! Worth every penny!
From: Thiru on Wed Apr 20 16:20:48 2005.

PR,
Kamal in one of his earlier interviews had mentioned that he was influenced/inspired (or whatever u want to call it) by Hoffman's performance in Rain man... Though the movie or the story is totally different, kamal's acting/body language was strikingly similar to Hoffman...you gotta watch 'Rain man' to see the similarity..
One of my friends who is a kamal fanatic, told me that kamal tried to mimic Hoffman during the early 90s because of his similar looks and physique (both of them are 5'7").. I dont know how far thats true.. but kamal certainly has a habit of getting influenced by hollywood...
From: vasanthkv on Wed Apr 20 16:55:24 2005.

What about Bob? I am going rent it and watch it.

When you watch Kamal's acting, you may see shades of Al Pacino ( I started noticing it after I watched 'Devils Advocate ). I am losing all respect I had for Kamalahasan. He is copycat of not only stories, but also acting.
From: mellon on Wed Apr 20 17:01:26 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

What about Bob? I am going rent it and watch it.

Man! If you watch WAB, u will lose "the rest of the left over respect" you have for him.

Think twice before u do that, please?

Please DONT if you ask me!
From: lancelot on Wed Apr 20 17:30:29 2005.

wat's the name of this Al Pacino movie???

hehe
From: mellon on Wed Apr 20 18:07:49 2005.

I think u need to address ur ? properly to "vasanthkv", learns-a-lot!

What about Bob has Bill Murray, Richard Dreyfus!
From: Kumar on Wed Apr 20 21:00:45 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

'I haven't seen Rain-Man So , heheh , I'll take it if you say it was 'influenced' even by this definition.

Your Honour, I have seen it, and the charges are not true. Hoffman's character in 'Rain Main has autism. He doesn't have eye contact with anyone, and cannot deal with emotions, i.e. he shows no normal emotions. On a few occasions, he freaks our and goes into spasms, shotung out, hitting his head, etc, typical of people with severe autism. He can't relate to anyone, he walks with a hobble/shuffle with his head cocked to a side. And like most autistic people, he has one, almost supernatural, talent with numbers.

Guna does not have autism, but does suffer a mental illness. His mother also explains that he was chained in the Gunaseelan temple to cure his 'sickness'. He harbours all the crud and bad things that have happened in his family- his dad abandoning his mum, his mother's entry into the world of prostitution, etc. He is aware of things happening around him, but approaches them in a child-like manner. He's subdued by depressants given to him by doctors, which makes things more bleak. He believes he is god incarnate and is on the lookout for his consort, which he finds later.

I believe the comparison between Guna and Hoffman is NOT due to similarity, but due to a need to attribute something new to an existing entity. When Guna first came out, it was in the thick of movies where leading characters were demi gods, people's heroes, who first appearences on the screen would prompt a frenzy of worship: you know what I mean- slow motion walks, posing with clasped hands long enough for the cinema audience to make flower offerings, break coconuts and say their prayers. PHHEEEWIIIITTT!!!! THAILAIVA VAZHGA, DHEIVAMEY VAZHGA!!!

Then, there's Kamal in Guna, who almost MOCKS the whole concept of the demi-god status of heroes by first appearing with his BACK to the audience, in a cosmic dance pose, believing he's god incarnate. And he doesn't fight and beat 23 naughty men to establish his status as the Alpha Male, he GETS beaten up by people from a wedding party. In your face! Things spiral downwards from here. The 'heroine' is NOT attracted to Guna (shock! horror!!). And, wait for this, Guna DIES in the end (How dare he!!!)

Confronted by this unconventional 'hero', many audiences were confused and were looking for reasons as to why Kamal did not present himself as as God's gift to the masses. And this is where people start theorising that Kamal has based his character(s) on Hollywood characters, because he's not perpetuating the Tamil movie hero image, or his own signature moves which some 'heroes' do in every single one of their movies.

I once asked a person what she thought of Guna. Her response was:
" Don't like! Why is Kamal acting like a mad person?"

In my head, I was screaming "That's because it's his CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE, YOU ABSOLUTE DUFUS MAXIMUS!!!!"

But on the oustide, I was going, "Yes, I see..."

But I digress. If you want to compare a similarity in characters, then maybe you can compare Hoffman's Rain Man and Kamal's character in Sippikul Muthu; but even that is a strained comparison as Kamal can relate to people and show emotion, but has a simplistic way of understanding things and talks with an unemotional monotone.
From: Badri on Wed Apr 20 21:13:13 2005.

Good essay, Kumar.

I just can't see the point in comparing acting styles! That is what acting is all about - it is being a character, not just one person. If the character warrants certain gestures, certain body language, certain style of speech, well, that is what an actor has to do. That is when an actor can really distinguish himself.

I have seen good Hollywood actors do that. It is only some of the Indian entrants who stick to their stereotyped, much hyped ishtyle. And they tailor the character to suit this "style" and no matter how many movies you see, you will see the same style! Rather funny, dont you think, that about a 100 different characters in about a 100 different movies seem to talk the same way, walk the same way, dance the same way???

That subtle nuance of becoming your character has been totally lost, and our people seem to have grown up steadily on a fixed hero diet that they don't seem to recognize real class acting even when it stares them in the face.

Hell, how can you compare Al Pacino and Kamal Hassan? If De Niro is doing a don role, and if Kamal is doing a similar character, odds are they will match. That is not because either is copying the other, it is because that is what the character demands.

You can't patent a style and insist on using it, no matter what the role demands!!! That is not acting, that is just pandering to a few thousand people who don't know zip about acting.

From: Crab on Wed Apr 20 21:14:37 2005.

Thiru wrote:

Big Momma's house came after Avvai shanmughi and there is no similarity in those two movies.... Avvai shanmughi was inspired from Mrs. doubtfire and from Tootsie... Panchathandhiram's plot was inspired from 'very bad things'... I saw 'What about bob' recently and I can say that 'Thenali' was heavily inspired from this movie.. particularly the Raj TV interview scene etc...
I wonder why people havent discussed about 'Vetri vizha' heavily inspired by 'Bourne supremacy'... Well prathap pothen had a habit of making movies out of english novels.. so we cant blame kamal for that one...

That's true, Prathap Pothen' Aathma was total lift from Irving Wallace' The Word!

From: Crab on Wed Apr 20 21:20:55 2005.

Surya wrote:

....I'm not anti-Kamal, I'm a vivid fan of Kamal, I own DVD's of almost all his movies, from Nizhal Nijamagirathu to Vasool Raja, but that quote was just to tick Crab off....

Adappaavi!

Yaen?

YAEN?

YAENNNNN?
From: Thiru on Wed Apr 20 21:25:49 2005.

Well I'm not saying that there is any similarity in the roles or the nature of the roles that the two actors played... All I was saying was that Kamal took a leaf out of Hoffman's books in his style of acting.....
Everyone even say he tried to imitate Marlon Brando in Nayagan..
If this was an actor who hasnt copied/inspired at all, then you have a valid point.. but its tough to argue against a person who has a well-known history of lifting from hollywood...

From: Kumar on Wed Apr 20 21:54:02 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Good essay, Kumar.

I just can't see the point in comparing acting styles! That is what acting is all about - it is being a character, not just one person. If the character warrants certain gestures, certain body language, certain style of speech, well, that is what an actor has to do. That is when an actor can really distinguish himself.

I have seen good Hollywood actors do that. It is only some of the Indian entrants who stick to their stereotyped, much hyped ishtyle. And they tailor the character to suit this "style" and no matter how many movies you see, you will see the same style! Rather funny, dont you think, that about a 100 different characters in about a 100 different movies seem to talk the same way, walk the same way, dance the same way???

That subtle nuance of becoming your character has been totally lost, and our people seem to have grown up steadily on a fixed hero diet that they don't seem to recognize real class acting even when it stares them in the face.

Hell, how can you compare Al Pacino and Kamal Hassan? If De Niro is doing a don role, and if Kamal is doing a similar character, odds are they will match. That is not because either is copying the other, it is because that is what the character demands.

You can't patent a style and insist on using it, no matter what the role demands!!! That is not acting, that is just pandering to a few thousand people who don't know zip about acting.

See, I told you you were my long lost twin!

I agree with you on the ishtyle thing. Try this experiment. Watch a string of movies starring any ishtyle actor, back to back, and you'll be convinced that this is just a very, very long TV serial involving the hero.

From: Kumar on Wed Apr 20 22:07:28 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

That subtle nuance of becoming your character has been totally lost, and our people seem to have grown up steadily on a fixed hero diet that they don't seem to recognize real class acting even when it stares them in the face.

I thought this line deserved applause.

You hit the nail on the head with this one.

From: Badri on Wed Apr 20 22:08:56 2005.

Thiru wrote:

If this was an actor who hasnt copied/inspired at all, then you have a valid point.. but its tough to argue against a person who has a well-known history of lifting from hollywood...

I am not going to be a die hard fan of Kamal and say, "That is so not true"

But I will say this - so what's wrong with that? If an actor has done a remarkable job of essaying a character, what is wrong in emulating him? I use the word emulate and not imitate, and would like to draw your attention to that. Emulate is not an euphemism for imitate.

I think it is not so wrong to emulate a better actor, especially if that is going to improve the quality of cinema. I'd rather welcome an actor who conciously betters himself, even if it means embracing the style of another, than one who religiously sticks his jaded style, just to preserve his identity. After all, being an actor means losing your identity, in exchange for that of the role.

From: Thiru on Wed Apr 20 22:47:40 2005.

badri,

I beg to differ.. Emulating someone doesnt mean that you have to follow the foot steps of the person... you could do it in your own unique style or agree to the fact that u've drawn inspiration from certain sources... I'm not saying that kamal is a copy cat or tries to inspire/imitate others in every aspect of his acting...Knowingly or unknowingly he tends to get inspired from other sources and arguing that its his own idea wont concur with me...

From: Alien on Wed Apr 20 23:06:59 2005.

U need to be applaused for bringing the point. Not Worthy

sbadri99 wrote:

Thiru wrote:

If this was an actor who hasnt copied/inspired at all, then you have a valid point.. but its tough to argue against a person who has a well-known history of lifting from hollywood...

It's a hundred thousand times better, emulating and getting inspired from some of the best and providing good cinema for a lot of ppl who wouldn't watch it or get to know abt it otherwise, rather than just showing ur crappy boots in the whole screen and ppl watch it and clap.

From: Badri on Wed Apr 20 23:13:55 2005.

Thiru wrote:

badri,

I beg to differ.. Emulating someone doesnt mean that you have to follow the foot steps of the person...

arguing that its his own idea wont concur with me...

Actually, we are not differing, Thiru. What you say is hundred percent right. My point was only that drawing inspiration or emulating is by itself ok. But arguing that it is original is definitely not right, and neither does it stand with me.

With Kamal, I would still say - Avvai Shanmugi or Vetri Vizha or Tenali were direct lifts, tweaked just so to suit an Indian setting and audience.

But with respect to aping acting styles, we must understand that when it comes to acting - and I am talking real acting here - there are no styles, only roles, a point that I have stated already and merely reiterating here.
From: Roshan on Wed Apr 20 23:57:55 2005.

Kumar and Badri,

Great going pals !

Thiru,
Even if Kamal directly lifts or copies 100% of another Hollywood movie/artiste it doesn't matter to me or many of his fans. How many of Tamil fans in TN and elsewhere watch English movies? . Comparatively it's a very small percentage. Therefore there's nothing wrong in emulating , copying or lifting and giving the majority of the viewers a chance of watching some different stories and performances instead of sticking to formula movies ( three fights sequences, 5 songs, punch diaglogues and drum blasting comedies) or cigerette lighting, aruvaaL, panjaayaththu or love/romance stuff.

In fact we should appreciate him for doing so - I mean copying, lifting instead of criticizing. There are hundreds of movies made out of same old formula but you guys keep on watching them without any complaints but only interested in pointing out at Kamal. Sorry moderator, I only see sheer desperation here.

To be frank I have not seen any of those movies except God Father. Saw it only after seeing Naayagan. I wouldn't have bothered to see it but too too much of breast beating in this hub about Kamal lifting the story (note: not Maniratnam ) and copying Brando's style made me watch it. Naaygan did have some shades of God Father story wise but that's upto Maniratnam. And I did not see Kamal copying styles of Brando or Al Pacino. I just felt that Kamal did a great job better than both of those Hollywood legends. You may say , I felt so because I'm a Kamal fan but I insisted some of my Singhalese friends who have hardly watched Kamal movies but great fans of Hollywood stuff to watch Naayagan. And they whole heartedly accepted that Kamal's performance was great- better stuff than Brando and Al Pacino. Even story wise they preferred Nayagan to God Father.

Irrespective of whether Naayagan or Devar Magan was lifted from God Father or not - both movies were greatly appreciated by all Tamilians and went on to make box office records. I'm sure even those who are criticizing here would have watched those movies atleast three times.
From: Kumar on Thu Apr 21 0:51:28 2005.

Roshan wrote:

... formula movies ( three fights sequentce, 5 songs, punch diaglogues etc) cigerette lighting, aruvaaL, panjaayaththu stuff.

Roshan, I think you just summed up 75% of Tamil movies in the above one line. Well done.

[quote]Irrespective of whether Naayagan or Devar Magan was lifted from God Father or not - both movies were greatly appreciated by all Tamilians and went on to make box office records. I'm sure even those who are criticizing here would have watched those movies atleast three times.[quote]

Right again Roshan. I wonder whether people force themselves to dislike a movie, just because it's based on another? These people won't blink if their favourite hero does the same stuff in 32 movies, but protest when a well made movie, with superb acting, is based on a foreign film.

I once saw a Malayaalam movie based on Shakespeare's 'Othello', which has been done many times in Hollywood, and even in the modernised version called 'O'. This Malayaalam movie centred around traditional dancers, which was the Indian touch. Probably one of the best movies I've ever seen (If anyone knows the name of this movie, please let me know). I loved it: but I'm not going to force myself to hate it just because it was based on 'Othello'.
From: Alien on Thu Apr 21 1:07:05 2005.

Gr8 posting u guys. Very well conveyed the message Roshan.

From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 1:27:42 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Roshan, I think you just summed up 75% of Tamil movies in the above one line. Well done. Wink

Thanks but percentage wise I think it's somewhere around 90

Quote:

Right again Roshan. I wonder whether people force themselves to dislike a movie, just because it's based on another? These people won't blink if their favourite hero does the same stuff in 32 movies, but protest when a well made movie, with superb acting, is based on a foreign film.

That's what you call jealousy and desperation !!

Quote:

I once saw a Malayaalam movie based on Shakespeare's 'Othello', which has been done many times in Hollywood, and even in the modernised version called 'O'. This Malayaalam movie centred around traditional dancers, which was the Indian touch. Probably one of the best movies I've ever seen (If anyone knows the name of this movie, please let me know). I loved it: but I'm not going to force myself to hate it just because it was based on 'Othello'.

That's the beauty of a real admirer of Art !!

From: joe on Thu Apr 21 1:36:26 2005.

Anybody can easily copy 'GOD father' to make 'Nayagan' (If it is really copied)..but think about any other actor in tamil in that role ..Wouldn't be a comedy?
From: Badri on Thu Apr 21 1:37:53 2005.

After seeing your avatar and reading your post Joe, I was thinking how Sivaji would have been in that role!!
From: joe on Thu Apr 21 1:40:59 2005.

Badri,
Nadigar thilagam is incomparable..He is out of comparison ..I am a kamal fan .But sivaji paithiyam like kamal.
From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 1:42:41 2005.

joe wrote:

Anybody can easily copy 'GOD father' to make 'Nayagan' (If it is really copied)..but think about any other actor in tamil in that role ..Wouldn't be a comedy?

For that matter not only Tamil actors none of the Indian actors can do justice to that role. Vinod Kanna made a real mockery out of it when it was re-made in Hindi. The film was declared a all time super flop.

badri,

IMHO, Nope ! not even the great Sivaji Ganeshan !
From: Badri on Thu Apr 21 1:43:30 2005.

Very true...he was indeed a great legend!

You know Roshan, you may be right. It was that controlled manner in which Kamal essayed the role that won him accolades and awards. In an age when overacting was the trend in cinema, Kamal's natural style came as a refreshing dose.

Perhaps Sivaji Ganeshan would have over-acted a bit there.

Sorry for the digression...let us continue to discuss Kamal.
From: joe on Thu Apr 21 1:44:33 2005.

Badri,
Nadigar thilagam was unlucky in his times not having professional directors like manirathnam in his times ..If there was a manirathnam in his time if he got a chance to act in this role at his age of 40 ,wow..I can't imagine ,that should be another feather in his crown.
From: Cinefan on Thu Apr 21 1:47:00 2005.

Well Entering into the argument I think I will go by what Roshan says.How many people have seen 'What's about Bob' or '9 to 5'?I have not,so cannot say whether it was a straight lift or adapted.One thing that has to be mentioned is that it's difficult to believe that 'Magalir...'was a straight lift as the charcters of Urvashi&Rohini were too Tamil,maybe a few scenes were lifted.As for 'Avvai...'apart from the basic story knot what was common between this&'Mrs.Doubtfire'?Avvai had an original screenplay.

Thiru has a point, though Kamal gets inspired&doen't copy or imitate.Kamal in his interview to rediff says he gets influenced very easily.

http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/apr/18kamal.htm
From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 1:53:39 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Perhaps Sivaji Ganeshan would have over-acted a bit there.

Exactly ! specially the scenes with his daughter and the scenes after his arrest. Not to mention that soul melting cry when he sees the dead body of his son.

Quote:

Sorry for the digression...let us continue to discuss Kamal.

You are slightly wrong badri. The discussion is on Kamal copying and lifting
From: Badri on Thu Apr 21 1:54:20 2005.

Cinefan: Here is what we mean by a straight lift.

What About Bob

Bob is a paranoid patient. He seeks medical help from his psychiatrist, who is a self-centered doctor. The doc goes for a vacation with his wife, son and daughter. Bob follows him. With his natural charm, Bob becomes a part of the family, much to the doc's dislike. There is an interview with a morning show and Bob steals the show, while yet pouring his praises on his doc who treats him. (I actually forget the final finale, but never mind.)

You'd have seen Tenali...now, except for the Delhi Ganesh angle, the love angle of the sister and the inevitable duets of Tamil cinema, do you see any similarities at all?

Let us take Mrs Doubtfire and Avvai Shanmugi

Premise: Parents on the verge of divorce, father dons the disguise of a woman to be with his children/child...

No doubt, they have to alter it suitably to suit the audience and settings, which is what both Tenali and Avvai Shanmugi did.

By the way, were there any copyright issues? Does anyone know whether permission was sought before the movies were made from the original producers?
From: joe on Thu Apr 21 1:57:26 2005.

Sorry for the digression.
//Perhaps Sivaji Ganeshan would have over-acted a bit there. //

Badri,
Pls understand that Nadigar thilagam always delivers what directors and fans of that time expect from him.

Haven't you seen Devar magan and Muthalmariyathai ?

Nadigar thilagam knew to over-act ,under act what not?
Anyway,I don't want to divert the topic..we shall continue on Kamal the great.
From: Cinefan on Thu Apr 21 2:00:02 2005.

Looks like WAB was a lift but Avvai had similarities only in the basic premise.

I don't think any permission was taken from the original producers though now Kamal has straightened up&has bought remake rights from a Spanish director(Pedro Almadovor,I think).

Also,the general trend is to accuse only Kamal of getting inspired/copying/lifting as if the rest of the industry is original&straight.I wonder why there is so much excitement to potray him in Black .
From: Badri on Thu Apr 21 2:01:21 2005.

Really sorry for this post, but I had to answer Joe...

Joe, that was the style in those days...the usage of the word "histrionics" originated from its original meaning a "theatrical performance" and now also means "a deliberate display of emotion for effect"

Which is what Nadigar Thilagam did. He was extremely skilled at that. And your point is also taken about Thevar Magan and Mudhal Mariyadhai...still, one can see the difference between Kamal and Sivaji in TM.

Anyways, as I already apologized, sorry once again. Let us continue on Kamal's "lifts"
From: Badri on Thu Apr 21 2:03:17 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

I wonder why there is so much excitement to potray him in Black .

I think he rather likes it that way. Your standard hero always dishes out the same fare, where he is the most adored, the best man in town.

Kamal is the only one who dares to take on roles that do not typify your average hero. In a way, perhaps it is a vicarious pleasure that makes him do it, and get labelled in black for his "antics"

Kumar, bear me out here!

From: joe on Thu Apr 21 2:03:45 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Also,the general trend is to accuse only Kamal of getting inspired/copying/lifting as if the rest of the industry is original&straight.I wonder why there is so much excitement to potray him in Black .

Yeah..That is because Kamal is the only actor deliver movies with some content on which people can discuss and serach for something ...Most of the others do the same thing again and again so nothing to discuss and find fault.

From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 2:12:56 2005.

joe wrote:

Very true !! This thread was started by a Kamal hater out of desperation when he found unable to counter argue in CM Vs MX thread. And now this thread turned out to be one of the best threads to analyse and discuss Kamal and his movies.

Who ever the Author is ... THANKS A MILLION for starting this thread !!

From: Crab on Thu Apr 21 2:38:55 2005.

Roshan wrote:

joe wrote:

Very true !! This thread was started by a Kamal hater out of desperation when he found unable to counter argue in CM Vs MX thread. At now this thread turnedout to be one of the best threads to analyse and discuss Kamal and his movies.

Who ever the Author is ... THANKS A MILLION for starting this thread !!

Nan ninaichen, nee sollitte!

From: Kumar on Thu Apr 21 2:41:57 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

I think he rather likes it that way. Your standard hero always dishes out the same fare, where he is the most adored, the best man in town.

Kamal is the only one who dares to take on roles that do not typify your average hero. In a way, perhaps it is a vicarious pleasure that makes him do it, and get labelled in black for his "antics"

Kumar, bear me out here!

Dude I think you may be right. Kamal does like applause; but not the "Pheeewiiit, Thalaivaa, Dheivamey, Iraivaa" variety. It's almost noteriety he seeks by portraying grey characters, rather than pure, do-good heroes. I think he likes the fact that he has turned the 'hero' concept on it's head.

From: Crab on Thu Apr 21 2:43:16 2005.

The copy is better than the original sometimes.

Was not Avvai Shanmugi a million times better than Mrs Doubtfire?

Godfather was slow paced, but Nayagan was mindblowing jet speed!

I just saw MX... Wow! man, you never realise there is just 1 song in the film until the end... the film takes off at jet speed and keeps he momentum till the end!

Master has done it again!

8)
From: joe on Thu Apr 21 2:46:46 2005.

Also I feel many of our people have a inferiority complex ..They always think great things only can be done by westerners ..If someone who we know achive something we have a mindset to think "This guy?How come?might be he copied or malpractice" ..When all others are doing the same nonsense and kamal delivers somthing fresh ,these guys think "Hey..How come this bloody from our own paramakudi ,staying with us in chennai ..can able to do something extrodinary?..There must be something behind this" and they go and search some hollywood movie ..when they find 5% smilarity in any movies ,they take this opertunity to show their intelligence,their so-called knowledge in hollywood movies ..So they are satisfied in many ways ..they make many think "oh! this guy can even find fault easily with great actor like kamal hassan...oh!this guy has a tremendous knowledge about world movies"

Finally If they complain kamal in this matter ,they will get more people to comment on this ..For example if you blame rajini for the same issue 50% of rajini fans will say "ha ha ha ..kamal copies this.. and that " that is the answer ,they won't be going to discuss rajini movies ..ofcourse another 50% of rajini fans will argue "ha ha ha..Who care? As long as thalaivar come and stand ..it is already superhit.."
From: Cinefan on Thu Apr 21 2:50:07 2005.

Crab wrote:

The copy is better than the original sometimes.

Kuruthippunal was far better than Drohkaal prompting the original director Govind Nihalani to say "A remake better than the original".

BTW,Did that film have P.C.'s touch or was it another proxy by Kamal.
Any one with insider info?In fact I have the same query for Guna&Mahanadhi where direction is credited to Santhana Bharati.
From: breadpuli on Thu Apr 21 3:05:44 2005.

Mahanadi shooting time, many days Santhanabharati did not even come to the location. The direction was mainly done by Kamal only.
In Guna bharathi was always present but again Kamal's contribution was much more than bharathi's in the direction.
From: joe on Thu Apr 21 3:42:35 2005.

Not only mahanathi..whenever I talk about anbesivam one of my friends who is rajini fan used to say "Hey! I am not ready to accept Anbe siavm really directed by Sundar.C .It should be kamal..Sundar is not capable to direct such a class movie" ..i don't know exactly
From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 3:50:04 2005.

Yeah ! True !!
From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 4:23:43 2005.

Crab wrote:

Godfather was slow paced, but Nayagan was mindblowing jet speed!

Exactly !!
From: Cinefan on Thu Apr 21 6:49:09 2005.

Another point is that Marlon Brando was a method actor&in the "God father'was studied&matter-of-fact while Kamal invested more passion/emotion in 'Nayagan'.This is not to berate Brando,maybe that was the way the character graph was designed but somehow I felt Kamal's performance was more heart touching.

From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 6:58:34 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Another point is that Marlon Brando was a method actor&in the "God father'was studied&matter-of-fact while Kamal invested more passion/emotion in 'Nayagan'.This is not to berate Brando,maybe that was the way the character graph was designed but somehow I felt Kamal's performance was more heart touching.

YES!!! I too felt the same !!

From: Thiru on Thu Apr 21 7:49:34 2005.

There is no doubt that though Kamal inspires or imitates ppl he's the best we've got and he excels in what he does... If copying and reproducing was so easy, why everyone is not doing the same...There have been some very poor remakes of hollywood movies like my dear marthandan, 12b etc...
Kamals efforts are laudable but at the same time what concerns me is the fact that certain people are not even aware of the fact that this has been inpsired from something else...The other thing is not giving someone due credit and trying to take the credit.. A typical example would be the hey ram story inspired from a old tamil short story that appeared in Kalki..

From: Cinefan on Thu Apr 21 7:56:20 2005.

Thiru wrote:

There is no doubt that though Kamal inspires or imitates ppl he's the best we've got and he excels in what he does... If copying and reproducing was so easy, why everyone is not doing the same...There have been some very poor remakes of hollywood movies like my dear marthandan, 12b etc...
Kamals efforts are laudable but at the same time what concerns me is the fact that certain people are not even aware of the fact that this has been inpsired from something else...The other thing is not giving someone due credit and trying to take the credit.. A typical example would be the hey ram story inspired from a old tamil short story that appeared in Kalki..

Are you saying that Kamal reads/sees something&a new idea germinates in his mind&he develops on it,he should put a "Inspired by...."in the credits.Then everyone will have to do that,why only Kamal.

From: Alien on Thu Apr 21 8:15:13 2005.

Yeah! True!!
From: Alien on Thu Apr 21 8:33:10 2005.

Ya i read that in Vikatan. Kamal himself admitted that to Vikatan, and this is what Kamal had to say later when inquired abt that, by Vikatan.

Kamal said that nobody in that research panel did tell him or mention him abt that story. Kamal went on to say that, he even acknowledged an author who had passed away long back of the film's making, for getting inspiration from his work. And he said, had he known that such a story had appeared b4, he would have definitely given him credits and discussed with him more abt that story. Bcos the author of that story had been alive at that time. He also appeared in that AnandaVikatan edition. I forgot his name, and what exactly Kamal said there.

Thiru wrote:

A typical example would be the hey ram story inspired from a old tamil short story that appeared in Kalki..

From: Thiru on Thu Apr 21 9:11:55 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Thiru wrote:

Are you saying that Kamal reads/sees something&a new idea germinates in his mind&he develops on it,he should put a "Inspired by...."in the credits.Then everyone will have to do that,why only Kamal.

cinefan,

i'm not saying that kamal needs to credit every person for his thoughts or improvisation on existing ideas... when there is a blatant copy of something , you better address it or agree to it...
Again I dont have anything against kamal or his copying.... He can make a great living out of that with/without giving due credit to the original, but what I dont agree to is kamal fan(atic)s arguing that he doesnt copy or he hasnt inspired anyone... Typical example is 'What about bob' or 'PTA' or '9 to 5'... Taking the crux of the story and modifying it by adding a heroine, fight sequence and 6 songs doesnt mean that it wasn't inspired or copied...

From: Prabhu Ram on Thu Apr 21 10:13:01 2005.

While talking about his performance in Indian Kamal said (or in the vocabulary of this thread, admitted) using some of the nuances used by Marlon Brando in 'The Freshman'

The Freshman is a very ordinary film starring Brando and Mathew Broderick where Brando spoofs his own Don image. Kamal explained to Madan (in the tv interview) what certain subtle moves of Brando (like scratching the back of one's palm and ears: as one ages the fuzz their gets itchier) meant and how he used them straight in Indian, which I liked much better than Freshman.

From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 10:23:13 2005.

Thiru wrote:

cinefan,

but what I dont agree to is kamal fan(atic)s arguing that he doesnt copy or he hasnt inspired anyone... Typical example is 'What about bob' or 'PTA' or '9 to 5'... Taking the crux of the story and modifying it by adding a heroine, fight sequence and 6 songs doesnt mean that it wasn't inspired or copied...

Thiru,

Who are the Kamal fan(tics) you are referring to? Dont you see us gleefully accepting the fact? Even in this thread you can see all Kamal fans happily discussing with an open mind about his inspirations, copies and lifts

Infact we Kamal fans really welcome him re- making good movies in Tamil. It hardly bothers us Mr.Thiru.

But ever since I came to this forum I have seen Kamal haters - read Rajini fan(atics) breast beating about Kamal copying and lifting. Even this thread was started by a Rajini fanatic when he lost points to argue in CM Vs MX thread. Anyway this is nothing new to this hub. Even in the past I have seen some Rajini fanatics starting up threads on Kamal movies - when they found unable to counter the arguments by some hubbers - against Rajini's political move in the May 2004 elections

8) . But that's alright. Who else apart from Rajini fans can entertain us with such comedies

From: Thiru on Thu Apr 21 10:40:28 2005.

Roshan,

I'm not targetting any particular person with my comments.. I was addressing fans who are not able to digest the hard fact that his/her hero is not 100% original.... Dont get me wrong that it was targetted towards any hubber...
To be frank, i'm a kamal fan having watched almost all of his movies since 1990, but hey I'm his worst critic too... In my opinion, a fan should be ready to criticize his hero when the hero falters... I see certain hardcore fans appreciating kamal for aalavandhan or Rajini for Baba.. It doesnt go well with me, because you are giving a free pass to your hero and project his crap movie as good which makes him do more such movies..

From: Roshan on Thu Apr 21 10:42:52 2005.

Thiru wrote:

Roshan,

I'm not targetting any particular person with my comments.. I was addressing fans who are not able to digest the hard fact that his/her hero is not 100% original.... Dont get me wrong that it was targetted towards any hubber...
To be frank, i'm a kamal fan having watched almost all of his movies since 1990, but hey I'm his worst critic too... In my opinion, a fan should be ready to criticize his hero when the hero falters... I see certain hardcore fans appreciating kamal for aalavandhan or Rajini for Baba.. It doesnt go well with me, because you are giving a free pass to your hero and project his crap movie as good which makes him do more such movies..

That's good to know and I agree with what you have said !

From: Prabhu Ram on Thu Apr 21 10:44:19 2005.

Thiru wrote:

I see certain hardcore fans appreciating kamal for aalavandhan or Rajini for Baba..

Agree with you
From: Cinefan on Fri Apr 22 2:36:22 2005.

Talking of Aalavandhaan,can anyone list out a few points which didn't gell with the audience.My personal opinion is that the nandha character was too eccentric while the army guy Kamal was too naive.An equal battle of wits rather than brawn might have made the film interesting to the audience.But Kamal has a point when he says that critics either didn't bother or were sarcastic about the animation thing but when Kill bill had a similar sequence,everyone went ga-ga calling it a brilliant piece of improvisation.

Tailpiece:Aalavandhaan is premiering next sat(30th)on Sun Tv at 10pm(what a time)
From: Prabhu Ram on Fri Apr 22 4:26:20 2005.

Hey don't even compare the Kill-Bill animes of O-Ren-Ishii's childhood and Aalvandhaan's loony tunes of a neck cracking Nandhu ! The Kill Bill animation piece was slick and as racy as the rest of the film.

From: Cinefan on Fri Apr 22 6:56:05 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Hey don't even compare the Kill-Bill animes of O-Ren-Ishii's childhood and Aalvandhaan's loony tunes of a neck cracking Nandhu ! The Kill Bill animation piece was slick and as racy as the rest of the film.

It's not a personal opinion,I was quoting Kamal who again was talking about the concept per-se&not the quality.

From: ramsri on Mon Apr 25 3:17:13 2005.

great thread - whoever started it ...

talking of Nayagan being inspired from The Godfather ... having seen both films several times i get the feeling it was not the plot or the characters that were "lifted", but the "look" and "feel" of the film overall - i somehow find it unlikely that mani ratnam tried to ape Coppola's direction - or that kamal attempted a rip-off on Brando. it's more likely that P.C.Sreeram probably took the cue from Gordon Willis to create that same atmosphere around the characters, which is what really sets off all these comparisons.

a good example is the scene after the killing of his wife, where kamal stands at the beach, looking at the waves in the distance. and the camera pans from behind the black car - the car (half of it, in fact) is shown in the foreground, with kamal standing in the distance. a classic rip-off of several similar scenes in The Godfather.
From: geno on Mon Apr 25 6:00:10 2005.

Thiru wrote:

.. A typical example would be the hey ram story inspired from a old tamil short story that appeared in Kalki..

Thiru,

I believe you are referring to the "Claim" made in "Kalki" during "Hey Ram"s release that it was inspired by a "Novel" (not a short story) written for kalki by "rA.su. nallaperumAL".

I remember reading the article in kalki regarding this issue and they had even given a brief "Plot" of that novel - which they "claimed" that Kamal copied!

It was nowhere even near to the "crux" of "hey Ram"s script and what it conveys through a very powerful presentation by Kamal the creator!

"Hey Ram" rich and layered approach to the Communal questions and the underlying "historical" undertone which was prevalent throughout "Hey ram" is a different story altogether.

Although i dont - right now recolect that novel's name - i can find it out and may be i shall try to post the "central plot" of that novel here.

It was obviously "certain frustrated orthodox" elements which tried to concoct stories about "Hey ram"s script!

From: Alien on Mon Apr 25 6:46:17 2005.

geno wrote:

Thiru wrote:

.. A typical example would be the hey ram story inspired from a old tamil short story that appeared in Kalki..

Thiru,

I believe you are referring to the "Claim" made in "Kalki" during "Hey Ram"s release that it was inspired by a "Novel" (not a short story) written for kalki by "rA.su. nallaperumAL".

Yeap, That author's name was ra.su. nallaperumal 8) . Both Kamal and he appeared in that Anandha Vikatan i earlier told abt.

From: Prabhu Ram on Mon Apr 25 6:49:21 2005.

Ra.Su.Nalla Perumaal's novel Kallukkul Eeram was about a guy trying to kill Gandhi then undergoing a change of heart. Is that what we are talking about ?
From: vasanthkv on Mon Apr 25 9:52:03 2005.

Spaeking of Novels, I think 'Vikram' is inspired by one of Sujatha's novel. I do not know the name of the novel.

Have anyone seen 'MX' and 'DUMB&DUMBER' ? Is there any similarities? One of my friends told so. I have not seen either of the movies. So, I cannot really tell if MX is copied from D..D...
From: Thiru on Mon Apr 25 10:58:02 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Ra.Su.Nalla Perumaal's novel Kallukkul Eeram was about a guy trying to kill Gandhi then undergoing a change of heart. Is that what we are talking about ?

That's the one PR..

Vasanth, i dont think kamal would be so dumb to rip off dumb and the dumber..

From: Girish11 on Mon Apr 25 13:08:56 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

I do not know if you are making a sarcastic comments. I can give you the examples inspirations.

1. 'Naayagan' to 'Godfather'
2. 'Roja' to 'Proof of Life'

'Magalir mattum' cannot be inspirational, it was copied frame to frame from '9 to 5'. Funny thing is Kamalahasan claims he has written the story for 'Magalir Mattum' and 'Nala Dhamayanthi'.

I am sure 'MX' is also copied from some English movie.

Vasanth, I think Roja was made and released much before
Proof of life. Isn't it???

Rgds/Girish

From: vasanthkv on Mon Apr 25 13:25:50 2005.

Gosh!!! You are right. I just checked it out!!! 'Proof of Life' is released on 2000. Roja was released much before that.

From: Girish11 on Mon Apr 25 13:28:41 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

What about Bob? I am going rent it and watch it.

When you watch Kamal's acting, you may see shades of Al Pacino ( I started noticing it after I watched 'Devils Advocate ). I am losing all respect I had for Kamalahasan. He is copycat of not only stories, but also acting.

This statement is baseless, even while making known Hindi
remakes, Kamal tries not to replicate the acting of the original
star in Hindi version even though it was a hit, I feel, his
acting is genuine, say Varusham 16, Moondram Pirai, Raaja Paarvai,
Mahanadi...... the list goes on and on, his acting is definately
original and appreciable, yes, you can see shades of Chaplin in
his acting, which Kamal has agress himself being a great fan
of Chaplin, you can always see influence/shades of one actor
in another, no harm done, it always happens, you can criticize
when one totally copies the acting of the other which you have
to prove properly.

After Forrest Gump was released, T.Hanks even got an oscar
for it, many in India felt that perfomance was nothing
compared to that of Kamal's in Sippikkul muthu, some even
commented Forrest Gump is a copy of or inspired by Sippikkul Muthi
which I totally disagree with being a great fan of T.Hanks and
seeing no reality to it. Those comments are ridiculous. But your
comments are just similar to those who said Forrest Gump is a
copy of Sippikkul Muthu.

From: Girish11 on Mon Apr 25 14:14:32 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Crab wrote:

The copy is better than the original sometimes.

Kuruthippunal was far better than Drohkaal prompting the original director Govind Nihalani to say "A remake better than the original".

BTW,Did that film have P.C.'s touch or was it another proxy by Kamal.
Any one with insider info?In fact I have the same query for Guna&Mahanadhi where direction is credited to Santhana Bharati.

There is no doubt that Kamal has a lot of say in his movies,
especially home productions, you can see his involvement
in all departments, including direction in a big way which is
noticeable. But with different directors, the outcome is
different. The direction of course is a combination of the
mentioned director plus Kamal and not Kamal alone using
the name of the other director as a Proxy.

In my opinion, Kamal with Santha Barathi is one of the best
combinations, my most favourite movies of Kamal Guna and
Mahanadi both happen to be an outcome of this special
combination, I am longing for an other product of this
combination, hope it happens soon.

From: Girish11 on Mon Apr 25 14:25:21 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Crab wrote:

The copy is better than the original sometimes.

I thought DrohKaal was better, I saw Drohkaal first, that could
have affected my opinion, but after seeing Kuruthipunal, I
wished they had made it exactly same as Drohkaal, Drohkaal
looks more authentic, in Drohkaal, Om Puri exposes the
identity of Nasseruddin Shah and is responsible for the death
of Nasseruddinshah, they show Om Puri doing it to protect his
family, a person not able to withstand the enormous pressure
and revelaing his friends identity to protect his family, a weakness
of a normal human being, in Tamil, they changed it, mainly
I think to suit the audiences and to protect the image of the
hero, to not show him doing such a bad thing, probably the
change made was for right reasons, the tamil audience
could not digest such a thing but due to this, the hindi version
looked more authentic.

Rgds...

From: Prabhu Ram on Wed Apr 27 9:53:15 2005.

Girish wrote:

in Drohkaal, Om Puri exposes the
identity of Nasseruddin Shah and is responsible for the death
of Nasseruddinshah, they show Om Puri doing it to protect his
family, a person not able to withstand the enormous pressure
and revelaing his friends identity to protect his family, a weakness
of a normal human being, in Tamil, they changed it

Oh ! They should have retained it that way I say. The movie would have been excellent with that. I am unhappy Kamal didn't go for it

Aadhi came out ahead with Abbaz apologizing for the circumstances. That shouldn't have been the case. Can't believe Kamal didn't dare to come out as a baddie, well quasi-baddie. If he doesn't dare who will.

From: ramsri on Thu Apr 28 13:45:09 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Talking of Aalavandhaan,can anyone list out a few points which didn't gell with the audience.My personal opinion is that the nandha character was too eccentric while the army guy Kamal was too naive.An equal battle of wits rather than brawn might have made the film interesting to the audience.But Kamal has a point when he says that critics either didn't bother or were sarcastic about the animation thing but when Kill bill had a similar sequence,everyone went ga-ga calling it a brilliant piece of improvisation.

Tailpiece:Aalavandhaan is premiering next sat(30th)on Sun Tv at 10pm(what a time)

can't speak for the podhumakkal, but i personally found "Aalavandhan" a bit of a let-down. and it wasn't because of the animation part. it had all the elements of what could have been a great film ... but failed on a few vital counts.
the story was great - the concept of an eccentric man affected by a traumatic childhood - and how it tells on his life. also the contrast in the lives of the two siblings was brought out really well. but somewhere down the line it just seemed to lose vision ... after a point, it simply turned into a chain of events - there didn't seem to be a bigger picture. and the depth in characterization, a trade mark of kamal's, also seemed to be missing. i for one found the army man character pretty shallow and quite unconvincing.

i think suresh krishna would've been better off making it a film that explored the two central characters and the relationship between them ... with an actor like kamal playing the roles i;m sure it would've made for compelling viewing. where they prob'ly went wrong was in trying to make an action thriller out of it.

From: ramsri on Thu Apr 28 13:49:16 2005.

guys, was "Aalavandhan" supposedly based on The Diary of Anne Frank ?
i remember some buzz about this around the time the film was released, but i can;t recollect any striking similarities. except for the part which shows nandu's childhood, and the narration always comes with "Anbulla Diary" ...

From: Girish11 on Thu Apr 28 14:47:47 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Girish wrote:

Oh ! They should have retained it that way I say. The movie would have been excellent with that. I am unhappy Kamal didn't go for it Sad

You and me may feel unhappy for Kamal not showing himself
as quasi-baddie in KP but please remember Prabhu, in hindi
it was Om Puri, in tamil it is Kamal who I am sure would not
have been accepted like that by 95% of the movie watchers,
so for the sake of the business, this slight change had to be
made, I am sure if everyone who watched this movie knows
about this change that was made, more than 90% of them
would feel happy that this change was made and did not make
Kamal look bad.

From: vasanthkv on Fri Apr 29 7:03:09 2005.

I forgot to mention another important copy of Kamal.

'Nammavar' is inspired by 'The Principal'
From: Cinefan on Fri Apr 29 7:36:42 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

I forgot to mention another important copy of Kamal.

'Nammavar' is inspired by 'The Principal'

yarungo actors intha englipish padathule.Enna story?
From: vasanthkv on Fri Apr 29 7:41:30 2005.

Inthango.. Ithe padingo... Kamal just added cancer, Songs to this story

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=info&id=1800108053
From: Cinefan on Fri Apr 29 8:06:03 2005.

Anyone seen the english flick?Is it a copy or like most of Kamal's hollywood lifts,he has taken the story&built a screenplay around it.All said and done,Nammavar was another film which never got it's due.Taut screenplay,a great performance by Kamal made this a memorable film.I was Chennai for Diwali that year,came back&saw this movie the following Monday in a near empty theatre.I was truly .Wonder what the audience did not like

PS:Some sensible comments plz,Kamal bashing can be restricted to the CM VS MX thread
From: vasanthkv on Fri Apr 29 8:17:28 2005.

Yeah, I liked 'Nammavar'. I have seen both the flicks. Kamal is far superior than James Baleshi( I think...). I liked Karan acting as well.

This movie is my list with 'Anbe Sivam', The movies I liked, but did not do well in BO
From: Cinefan on Fri Apr 29 8:25:31 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

I liked Karan acting as well.

Yeah,Karan was amazing.I think it was his second film as an adult(after Annamalai).It is another of those films where a co-star has an equal or better role than Kamal.In fact Kamal too was totally natural&smooth in the movie.He just oozed confidence.

I was reading the reviews for the principal,looks like there was another(better) film 'Lean on me'starring Morgan Freeman with the same story.
From: vasanthkv on Fri Apr 29 9:30:59 2005.

Yeah. There was a Samuel Jackson movie also in similar lines. But I did not know the name. There was a series 'Subsitute I, II, III' which were quite enjoyable. All these movies, deal with Violence, drugs in campus.
From: Roshan on Mon May 2 6:42:04 2005.

Kamal on inspirations

�People say Devar Magan is similar to Godfather. I will only talk about films that I write and Devar Magan is one of them. There are similarities, yes; here is a father whose least expected son takes over and there is a clash of opinions. Now I will tell you where the foundation for Godfather came from - King Lear.
�And if you are talking about Avvai Shanmugi, then in Tamil theatre, a man playing a woman�s role, is a common thing, it is not something new. (Having said that), the root for Mrs Doubtfire after all, comes from Kramer vs Kramer and Tootsie. You put those films together and you get Mrs Doubtfire�. This was Kamal Haasan�s speech in Malaysia at �The Indian Film Festival 2005�, which will hold a Kamal retrospective (Aboorva Sahodrargal, Devar Magan, Mahanadhi, Indian, Virumaandi & Anbe Sivam.)

Source :

http://tamil.galatta.com/entertainment/livewire/livewire.asp?n=kamal2.txt
From: Prabhu Ram on Mon May 2 8:27:22 2005.

Around the time of Hey! Ram's release Madhan interviewed Kamal for Jaya Tv. It is a long and wonderful interview. Shot in and around kamal's office in Alwarpet. That time Madhan asked him about his two Godfather films: Nayagan and Thevar Magan.

Kamal:(sic) Andha Padam influence pannaadha writers a ? Alwarpet le andha pakkathukku Maniratnam ezhidhinaaru , indha pakkathukku naan ezhudhi nen. (Mani Ratnam lives in Venus Colony, the other side of Alwarpet !)

Personally I think Thevar Magan was closer to Godfather than Nayagan (note i am NOT making a which-is-better comparison). I started a thread in the Old Hub about this, it died an unpatronized death

GF is not so much about the mafia as it is about the least likely son taking over. It is thoroughly Indianized:
1) Can't imagine Vito Corleone talking about his insecurities to Michael .
2) Perhaps because , for all his headiness Santino was there and Tom Hagen. But Periya(sami) Thevar had only Fredo
3) The protestant girl was inducted into the family but the Telugu girl is given the boot
4) Appolinia (right ?) was married not due to circumstancial compulsions (more practical compulsions) , so we had the romance intact.
The qn is, one of them more sensitive to the woman as she does not have to submit to the rut of a life, because she loves the guy. At the same time, here, Michael does not manage to convert Kay into his fold and Panchavarnam is as much a part of the Chinna-Thoovaloor he takes up in his new avatar. So the conversion stops with him
...................I think all this , and more, beats Nayagan as far as closeness to GF goes. What say you ?
From: Cinefan on Mon May 2 8:38:21 2005.

PR,I agree completely.Somehow I have never been able to connect Nayagan with GF.As ramsri put it across well sometime before,it was the ambience created by the sets,mood,lighting etc which reminds us of GF than the script.
From: Thiru on Mon May 2 9:03:47 2005.

Nammavar was more of a copy than an inspiration... Kamal comes in a motorcycle very similar to Jim Belushi with the leather jacket and stuff.. The drug dealing inside the college et al... were all very similar... Kamal added some masala elements like a couple of songs, senthil/sarala and the cancer element to make it more cinematic... in my opinion, nammavar doesnt rate among his good movies list...
From: ramsri on Tue May 3 0:09:53 2005.

object to Nammavar being called mediocre - i personally found it a very sensitive and focussed performance by kamal - he did an efficient, no-nonsense job of playing the character, without recourse to any gimmicks ... also the character of gauthami was very well sketched.
of course - thiru, you probably have a better perspective on the film than i do - i must admit here that i haven;t seen The Principal, hence am unable to make a comparative study of james belushi's portrayal vis-a-vis kamal's ...

From: Roshan on Tue May 3 1:18:10 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Personally I think Thevar Magan was closer to Godfather than Nayagan (note i am NOT making a which-is-better comparison). I started a thread in the Old Hub about this, it died an unpatronized death Sad

GF is not so much about the mafia as it is about the least likely son taking over. It is thoroughly Indianized:
1) Can't imagine Vito Corleone talking about his insecurities to Michael .
2) Perhaps because , for all his headiness Santino was there and Tom Hagen. But Periya(sami) Thevar had only Fredo
3) The protestant girl was inducted into the family but the Telugu girl is given the boot
4) Appolinia (right ?) was married not due to circumstancial compulsions (more practical compulsions) , so we had the romance intact.
The qn is, one of them more sensitive to the woman as she does not have to submit to the rut of a life, because she loves the guy. At the same time, here, Michael does not manage to convert Kay into his fold and Panchavarnam is as much a part of the Chinna-Thoovaloor he takes up in his new avatar. So the conversion stops with him
...................I think all this , and more, beats Nayagan as far as closeness to GF goes. What say you ?

Excellent observations and comparisons PR !!

I really miss geno here.

I'm sure he'd have more things to say about this.

From: Kumar on Tue May 3 1:39:39 2005.

Thiru wrote:

Nammavar was more of a copy than an inspiration... Kamal comes in a motorcycle very similar to Jim Belushi with the leather jacket and stuff.. The drug dealing inside the college et al... were all very similar... Kamal added some masala elements like a couple of songs, senthil/sarala and the cancer element to make it more cinematic... in my opinion, nammavar doesnt rate among his good movies list...

Oooh Thiru. I would rather say it's inspiration, and I also wouldn't narrow down the reasons for similarities to the props and wardrobe. The whole teacher/principal vs rebellious students theme has been explored in various movies from different countries. Fair enough that 'The Principal' has similar themes to Nammavar, but so did movies like Lean on Me and Dangerous Minds. And before all this is a movie done in the early eighties called Class of 1984, which is considered a cult movie by some. This film preceded The Principal and Lean on Me; not copies, but they had the same theme.

I also remember an old Gemini Ganesan movie where Gemini is a new school teacher to a bunch of rowdy pre-teens; eventually he wins their hearts and respect, etc, etc. (Help me out anyone if you know the name).

Agreed that Nammavar was not like Kamal's other movies; but it just showed that you don�t need a super-human, incorruptible saviour-type �hero� for every movie.

From: Roshan on Tue May 3 1:51:30 2005.

Kumar,

It's so nice to have you around specially when discussing a subject of this sort. You provide so much of worthy information and help educate us. Thanks
From: Prabhu Ram on Tue May 3 2:33:37 2005.

I know this is sacrilege but it is too close in theme to be left out. How about Thalaivaasal ? The drug and college rowdyism and a resolute principal ( I liked SPB,despite the horrendous hairdo !). Of course there's no comparing the two but thought I'd kick it off, because Thalaivaasal is not a very bad movie altogether.

From: ramsri on Tue May 3 3:06:29 2005.

Kumar wrote:

I also remember an old Gemini Ganesan movie where Gemini is a new school teacher to a bunch of rowdy pre-teens; eventually he wins their hearts and respect, etc, etc. (Help me out anyone if you know the name).

this sounds uncannily similar to "To Sir With Love" - the film starring Sidney Poitier as a new teacher assigned to a class full of rowdy adolescents ... and how he transforms them into responsible adults, in the process winning their respect and admiration. i must admit the film impressed me the first time i saw it.

From: Badri on Tue May 3 3:10:04 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Kumar wrote:

Which movie in turn was based on ER Braithwaite's book, "To Sir With Love" about a black teacher in London. Just adding to the sum total of knowledge in the Hub, hehe!

From: Roshan on Tue May 3 3:24:53 2005.

Wow !! you guys are really amazing !!

aanA antha Gemini Ganeshan padathOda pEra yaarum sollaliyE innum
From: Thiru on Tue May 3 11:52:32 2005.

A few more kamal's hollywood inspired movies to discuss rather than discussing about the recent ones..

Moon over Parador - Indran chandran
She Devil - Sathi Leelavathi
The reincarnation of peter proud - Enakkul oruvan

I saw 'The principal' a few years back in A&E or TBS ( i dont remember which one) but the settings/costumes and initial scenes of nammavar will definitely remind you of this movie.... Nammavar was more of Kamal trying to impose his views and ideas on people.. It was more of a 'enakku ellam theriyum' character... its my opinion though.. some people still liked that movie and I dont have anything against that..
From: ramsri on Tue May 3 14:12:12 2005.

hmm ... i saw She Devil a long time back - the theme certainly matches with that of Sathi Leelavathi, so it could have been an "inspiration" ... but even so, it looks like the part played by kamal himself (incidentally, a pivotal role in the film) was written specifically for Sathi Leelavathi. 'coz i don't remember the equivalent role appearing in She Devil. i may be wrong, though ... informed hubbers enlighten

From: ramsri on Tue May 3 14:25:57 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

really?! that's surprising ... just looking at the kind of insights we;ve been getting on this and a few other threads, i thought a topic like that would've been pretty hot !!
anyway, maybe you should seriously consider starting a thread for the nayagan-godfather-thevar magan connection ...

From: Kumar on Tue May 3 18:21:53 2005.

Thiru wrote:

A few more kamal's hollywood inspired movies to discuss rather than discussing about the recent ones..

Moon over Parador - Indran chandran
She Devil - Sathi Leelavathi
The reincarnation of peter proud - Enakkul oruvan

I saw 'The principal' a few years back in A&E or TBS ( i dont remember which one) but the settings/costumes and initial scenes of nammavar will definitely remind you of this movie.... Nammavar was more of Kamal trying to impose his views and ideas on people.. It was more of a 'enakku ellam theriyum' character... its my opinion though.. some people still liked that movie and I dont have anything against that..

I can somewhat agree with you on Moon Over Parador, which incidentally was the basis of movies like 'Dave', which came after Indiran Chandiran.

But the "Incarnation of Peter Proud" = Enakkul Oruvan? Abachaaram abachaaram!!

I assume you're talking about the 1975 movie, which I think was made again in 1988, and based on the book of the same name by Max Elrich. But the story, apart from the re-incarnation factor, does not really match with Enakkul Oruvan. Here's a review of Peter Proud I found:

"When college professor Peter Proud begins to experience flashbacks from a previous incarnation, he is mysteriously drawn to a place he has never been before but which is troublingly familiar. As if drawn to her by cosmic force, he soon finds himself unwittingly in the company of his previous incarnation's wife. This woman, Marcia Curtis, recognizes in Peter startling characteristics which he shares with her dead husband, Jeff. Even the sound of his voice seems at times to be that of the dead man. Peter becomes romantically drawn to Ann Curtis who is or was his daughter (Jeff and Marcia's daughter). Recognizing the incestuous nature of their relationship, Mrs. Curtis tries to keep the two young people apart. But how? Must she reveal the terrible secret of the final minutes she shared with her husband in order to keep this man from her (their?) daughter?"

Incest in Enakkul Oruvan? I shudder to think.

There is however, an old Sivaji movie which had this theme of reincarnation. (OK, although I pride myself as a Sivaji fan, I am running a blank here. I know that this movie had classic songs such as 'Santhanatthil nalla vaasam' and 'Sondhum Yepodhum', I think. Help me out here someone.) This movie was more closer to Enakkul Oruvan.

From: Girish11 on Tue May 3 18:31:08 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Thiru wrote:

As a matter of fact, Enakkul Oruvan is a remake of Hindi movie
Karz starring Rishi Kapoor which happened to be a huge hit in
Hindi, also there are many other movies which are remake of
hindi movies sattam etc.

Rgds.

From: Kumar on Tue May 3 23:36:58 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

Thanks Girish. I must admit that my knowledge of Hindi movies is pretty limited. If I get the chance at all, I watch only selected ones. I try to avoid bad remakes (Dhayavaan)...but then again, I only find out they are bad remakes when I actually watch them.

Also, the first sign of talking camels, or families re-uniting after singing their 'family song' will sound off alarms in my head.

From: Roshan on Wed May 4 0:07:58 2005.

Kumar wrote:

There is however, an old Sivaji movie which had this theme of reincarnation. (OK, although I pride myself as a Sivaji fan, I am running a blank here. I know that this movie had classic songs such as 'Santhanatthil nalla vaasam' and 'Sondhum Yepodhum', I think. Help me out here someone.) This movie was more closer to Enakkul Oruvan.

That's "praaptham"

But no body has yet given the name of that Gemini movie

From: Kumar on Wed May 4 0:20:19 2005.

Roshan to the rescue! Thanks for that.

I still can't remember the Gemini movie, though. I don't have Prabhu Ram's good memory!
From: Prabhu Ram on Wed May 4 1:37:14 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Roshan to the rescue! Thanks for that.
I still can't remember the Gemini movie, though. I don't have Prabhu Ram's good memory!
Naane padam paer theriyaama Orama olinju vadikkai paathukuttirukken.......Neenge Vera !

Kumar wrote:

Also, the first sign of talking camels, or families re-uniting after singing their 'family song' will sound off alarms in my head
Boy, this one has cut you real hard, I say ! Bet you are gonna see camels galore in inkblot tests

From: Thiru on Wed May 4 12:05:11 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

Kumar wrote:

Thiru wrote:

karz was inspired from 'the reincarnation of peter proud' and enakkul oruvan was a scene-by-scene remake of karz... i just wanted to point out the original source... What I was deriving was the main theme behind the movie was a guy having vague memories of his previous birth, seeing it on TV and wanting to go to the same place and then remembering things after he gets there...
Based on this theme, the story was modified for a hindi/tamil version...

From: Girish11 on Wed May 4 19:05:45 2005.

Thiru wrote:

Girish11 wrote:

Kumar wrote:

Thiru wrote:

Thanks for the info Thiru, I was not aware that Karz was
inspired by some HW movie. Re Enakkul Oruvan being
a scene by scene remake of Karz, I am not very sure, I
have seen both the movies very long time back, but as far
as I could remember, I think, in Karz, the wife of the hero
plans the killing of the hero in the previous birth whereas in
Enakkul oruvan it is someone else, I think, the stepmother,
I think the previous life events have been made differently
in the Tamil version compared to the hindi version.

Rgds

From: Girish11 on Wed May 4 19:13:59 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Girish11 wrote:

Also, the first sign of talking camels, or families re-uniting after singing their 'family song' will sound off alarms in my head.

I totally agree with you about movies like Dayavan, I did read about
the talking camel post too somewhere in the forum, really
hilarious.

But Kumar, recently some good movies have come out,
reading your posts so far, I think you will like some movies
which have come recently, I recommend.... Black, Swades,
Page 3, Raincoat if you have not seen them, please see them
if you get a chance. I heard Maqbool is very good, not seen it
yet, also heard good reviews of Tango Charlie and My brother
Nikhil, I have seen both, thought they were ok, not really
classsss. In fact, my brother Nikhil in patches, sometimes starts
looking like a documentary, there was an other movie made
on the same topic, i.e Aids, years back and went totally unnoticed
then, probably the public was not so appreciative then for this
type of movies or the star value did not attract the people too,
it is a movie by Mahesh Manjrekar, the name is Nidaan, it
was pretty decent movie too.

From: RC on Wed May 4 22:05:07 2005.

Thiru wrote:

T: I dont think enakkuL oruvan was a scene-by-scene remake of Karz. Though I dont remember watching karz, a friend of mine told that in karz, it is the Old Rishi's wife that ends up killing him. In tamizh version, Sripriya did the role of the wife. And it is Satyaraj who, I think, is the uncle of Sripriya, that kills the old Kamalhassan. And I believe there was no such uncle character in karz.

From: Kumar on Thu May 5 0:35:42 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Boy, this one has cut you real hard, I say ! Bet you are gonna see camels galore in inkblot tests

PR, ithu yennoda 'breaking point'.

You have your typing snake and stenographer monkey, I have my Hindi speaking camel.

Yes, it has cut me deeply; 2 blows simoultaneously. Not only did they introduce a talking beast, they did it in the last 15 minutes when I least expected it.

From: Kumar on Thu May 5 2:44:08 2005.

RC wrote:

RC, long time no see friend. Hope things are going well for you. Thanks for the further clarification. I will concede that Tamil fims have been based on other movies, Indian and Hollywood. But I hesitate to declare a movie "inspired' or 'copied' just because the themes are similar, or if some scenes have similar elements. Till today, I cannot agree with comparisons between Guna and Rainman, or Aalavanthaan and Silence of the Lambs. The more I hear about Karz, the less I'm convinced that Yennekul Oruvan is totally based on the former.

From: Badri on Thu May 5 2:57:07 2005.

Kumar - my udan piravatha twin!!! You are letting me down, buddy!

You say,

Quote:

But I hesitate to declare a movie "inspired' or 'copied' just because the themes are similar, or if some scenes have similar elements.

Then what would you call copied/inspired?

If it is exactly the same, it is called a remake or a dubbed movie. It is called copied or inspired if select scenes match or if the entire theme is the same.

Confuse panreye paa, enna!!
From: Kumar on Thu May 5 3:09:39 2005.

Saghotharaaaaaaaa!!!

Maybe I should have been more specific. When I say 'scene', I mean little pedantic stuff like say if Tom Cruise climbs a hill in Missio Impossibe 2, and Kamal does the same in MX, then I will not say it�s �inspired�. (Thank God no one has done that comparison; but just give it a few weeks and someone will claim MX is a copy of something).

I will also hesitate to put the �inspired tag� on a movie with the same theme, but NOT necessarily story line. So, a Holywood movie and a Tamil one may have re-incarnation as the subject/theme. But, if the story is different (American man re-incarnates and falls in love with his daughter versus Tamil man whose previous incarnation was a Nepali martial arts practitioner seeking revenge on his murderer), then I don�t see it as an inspired movie.

But movies like Thenali, Avvai Shanmughi are examples of inspired movies (just like Magnificent 7 was inspired by 7 Samurais).
From: Badri on Thu May 5 4:01:38 2005.

Now we are back into agreement! For a while, I thought we were being very un-twinnish!!
From: Roshan on Thu May 5 4:48:59 2005.

Kumar wrote:

(just like Magnificent 7 was inspired by 7 Samurais).
[/tscii]

That was a good PUNCH !!!
From: ramsri on Thu May 5 7:48:04 2005.

OK - am posting this query here out of respect for my good friend Roshan
was Anbe Sivam supposedly inspired from the steve martin-john candy flick "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" directed by john hughes? has anyone here seen the entire film ... i've only seen the first half hour and haven't been able to recognize too much in common between the two - except for the traveler-itching-to-get-home-runs-into-eccentric-companion concept from "P,T & A", which was the starting point for AS as well
From: Prabhu Ram on Thu May 5 8:42:24 2005.

Ramsri you remind me of my youth. 8) Just kidding, I had that avatar before so i'm jumping to read whenever I see the something-up-his-sleeve smiling Calvin.
From: Thiru on Thu May 5 9:12:03 2005.

In my opinion, copying or inspiration need not necessarily match the original 100%... The argument is to point out that the theme or idea behind something is not original and authentic... For example, an inspiration need not be like 'sliding doors' to '12b', but simply be a scene like 'mission impossible' to 'en swasa kaatre' or 'Remember the time' to 'maaya machindra'. It depends on the director's talent to modify the original to suit the taste of his audience.. Someone like prathap pothen was not good at doing this whereas people like Shankar, kamal and manirathnam are so good at it, that the inspiration seems to be better than the original... I'm not comparing prathap with these people but what I'm deriving is that directors like prathap and jeeva are so blatant in their copying that they dont even try new ideas to add something, whereas these people draw a thin-line inspiration and turn it into an all-time classic...
From: vasanthkv on Thu May 5 9:34:31 2005.

Speaking of other Hollywood copies,

1. 'Coming to America' - My Dear Marthandan
2. 'Misery' - Julie Ganapathy

I saw a horrible movie last weekend 'Girivalam'. It copied from 'Perfect Murder', with modifications here and there. Stay out of this movies, guys.......

From: Sanguine Sridhar on Thu May 5 11:12:51 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

Speaking of other Hollywood copies,

1. 'Coming to America' - My Dear Marthandan
2. 'Misery' - Julie Ganapathy

I saw a horrible movie last weekend 'Girivalam'. It copied from 'Perfect Murder', with modifications here and there. Stay out of this movies, guys.......

I think one Hindhi movie has the same story line up...I forgot the name

From: RC on Thu May 5 11:44:18 2005.

Kumar wrote:

RC, long time no see friend. Hope things are going well for you.

Kumar, I know there used to be another RC in the Forum Hub world while I used to limit my stay to PP and related threads. May be you are referring to him. But to answer you.. Things are going great here and I hope the same is with you...
From: vasanthkv on Thu May 5 12:36:03 2005.

Beckham,

If you talk about Hollywood copies of Hindi movies, this 1 thread will not sufficient. Here is few samples...

http://us.rediff.com/movies/2005/may/04board.htm
From: stranger on Thu May 5 18:25:24 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Kumar - my udan piravatha twin!!! You are letting me down, buddy!

pangaaLigaL-nA appadithaan, Sir!

They will let you down often.

Did n't u know the "story" of, "Fredo broke the heart of Michael"????!!!

From: Kumar on Thu May 5 19:38:45 2005.

RC wrote:

Kumar wrote:

RC, long time no see friend. Hope things are going well for you.

Kumar, I know there used to be another RC in the Forum Hub world while I used to limit my stay to PP and related threads. May be you are referring to him. But to answer you.. Things are going great here and I hope the same is with you...

RC, I'm pretty sure it's you. I remember your avatar. Good to know you're doing well.

From: Kumar on Thu May 5 21:16:02 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Now we are back into agreement! For a while, I thought we were being very un-twinnish!!

"Un-twinnish"?? Abachaaram! Banish the thought. Athu nadakkave nadakkaathu! NAALAI NAMATHEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYY...............

By hastily branding a movie 'inspired', even if the theme (not necessarily the story) is similar, we are assuming that the writer, director or producer of the Tamil version had seen the English/Hindi version and then decided to do the Tamil version.

For example, just because the theme of a Hollywood movie is re-incarnation and the Tamil movie has the same theme, doesn't mean that the Tamil producer saw the English version and decided to make a Tamil movie. If the stories are similar, then we can assume that the Tamil producer/writer did see the Hollywood version. But if the 'idea' of re-incarnation is there in both films, but the stroies are completely different, then I wouldn't assume that the Tamil movie makers drew inspiration from the Hollywood version. In the case of Yenekkul Oruvan, the concept of re-incarnation is not inspired by another movie; it's been done before in older Tamil movies.

But in the case of Thenali etc, then yes, the story is inspired.
From: Badri on Thu May 5 21:49:31 2005.

For that matter, so is Avvai Shanmugi.

Themes are more generic, and no movie can be called inspired/copied just because it uses the same theme as another. You have rightly pointed that out using the example of reincarnation. Same would apply to movies built on social themes, themes of adventure, mystery, love etc.

That way, almost every movie made these days is a rehash of the eternal boy-loves-girl theme! Can't call them all inspired or copied. But, a movie like Vetri Vizha or Avvai Shanmugi is definitely inspired (which is my euphemism for copied). While there is nothing overtly objectionable about it, it would certainly be nice if the inspiration is acknowledged. In fact, I'm surprised there are no copyright issues involved!

Are you allowed to take a movie, make it in another language with sufficient tweaks to suit the regional setting and walk away with it?
From: Thiru on Thu May 5 22:04:28 2005.

A story can be tailored to suit your audience.. For example, In english movies the hero will be a divorced man or single who struggles to live his life whereas the same character in tamil will have a widow mother and blind sister and he will have some romance with the heroine and there will be a comedian in the fray too.. Just because these characters are not there and the story doesnt exactly match the original doesnt mean that it was not inspired..
I will take Planes Trains and Automobiles and Anbe sivam.. In this movie, certain scenes leading up to the main part of the story has been inspired.. but the base themes are totally different.. Steve martin wants to get back to his family for Thanksgiving... Madhavan wants to get back to chennai for his wedding...It starts off with a snow storm in newyork whereas in Orissa its a rain storm..
They are encountered with a character whom they dont like but ends up spending the next 2 days with that person due to various reasons... The other character keeps annoying this person.. Finally they understand the other person's problems and accomodate them into their family/celebration... Now, Kamal or Sundar C for that matter do not stop with just comedy but take it to a different story with capitalism and Foriegn investment...New characters like the orissa guy, yuhi sethu were added to suit the story.. Just because they deviated from the original story and inspired only a portion of it doesnt make it 'a original idea'.. Let me ask you, why did kamal/sundar c had to choose the same prelude to the main story as PTA? Wasnt that inspiration..?? The inspiration was made to add some juice to the strong theme of communalism which if made as a stand alone subject wouldnt have been received in the same manner.... The same holds good for Enakkul oruvan too... in Enakkul oruvan, remember that the reincarnation part alone was not inspired... Scenes leading to it and scenes after that were partly inspired to suit our audience...

I'm done with my argument... Again I'm not against Kamal or his movies..My only point is that Kamal draws inspiration from different sources (knowingly or sometimes unknowingly) and it doesnt make sense to me when people just brush it off saying naaah these are two different things...

From: ramsri on Sun May 8 14:04:57 2005.

Thiru wrote:

I will take Planes Trains and Automobiles and Anbe sivam.. In this movie, certain scenes leading up to the main part of the story has been inspired.. but the base themes are totally different.. Steve martin wants to get back to his family for Thanksgiving... Madhavan wants to get back to chennai for his wedding...It starts off with a snow storm in newyork whereas in Orissa its a rain storm..
They are encountered with a character whom they dont like but ends up spending the next 2 days with that person due to various reasons... The other character keeps annoying this person.. Finally they understand the other person's problems and accomodate them into their family/celebration... Now, Kamal or Sundar C for that matter do not stop with just comedy but take it to a different story with capitalism and Foriegn investment...New characters like the orissa guy, yuhi sethu were added to suit the story.. Just because they deviated from the original story and inspired only a portion of it doesnt make it 'a original idea'.. Let me ask you, why did kamal/sundar c had to choose the same prelude to the main story as PTA? Wasnt that inspiration..?? The inspiration was made to add some juice to the strong theme of communalism which if made as a stand alone subject wouldnt have been received in the same manner....

that's a good point - i guess the major difference between Anbe Sivam and its "inspiration" (PTA) was the Nalla character in AS having a past ... that flashback really made up the backbone of the film, for me. and the Ars-Sivam connection was used as a prop - to bring out the actual story. so the film actually works on two levels. i guess a lot of credit goes to the director here for weaving the subplot so intricately into the main story, so that it doesn't cloud the central theme, instead lends a lot more credibility to the characters.
pardon the digression, but i couldn't resist posing this question ... popular opinion has it that kamal ghost-directed AS ... the film credits him with the story and screenplay ... anyone know to what extent he was actually involved? i personally find it difficult to believe it was entirely sundar c's vision that produced such a gem...

From: Kumar on Sun May 8 20:45:49 2005.

Thiru wrote:

A story can be tailored to suit your audience.. For example, In english movies the hero will be a divorced man or single who struggles to live his life whereas the same character in tamil will have a widow mother and blind sister and he will have some romance with the heroine and there will be a comedian in the fray too.. Just because these characters are not there and the story doesnt exactly match the original doesnt mean that it was not inspired..
I will take Planes Trains and Automobiles and Anbe sivam.. In this movie, certain scenes leading up to the main part of the story has been inspired.. but the base themes are totally different.. Steve martin wants to get back to his family for Thanksgiving... Madhavan wants to get back to chennai for his wedding...It starts off with a snow storm in newyork whereas in Orissa its a rain storm..
They are encountered with a character whom they dont like but ends up spending the next 2 days with that person due to various reasons... The other character keeps annoying this person.. Finally they understand the other person's problems and accomodate them into their family/celebration... Now, Kamal or Sundar C for that matter do not stop with just comedy but take it to a different story with capitalism and Foriegn investment...New characters like the orissa guy, yuhi sethu were added to suit the story.. Just because they deviated from the original story and inspired only a portion of it doesnt make it 'a original idea'.. Let me ask you, why did kamal/sundar c had to choose the same prelude to the main story as PTA? Wasnt that inspiration..?? The inspiration was made to add some juice to the strong theme of communalism which if made as a stand alone subject wouldnt have been received in the same manner.... The same holds good for Enakkul oruvan too... in Enakkul oruvan, remember that the reincarnation part alone was not inspired... Scenes leading to it and scenes after that were partly inspired to suit our audience...

I'm done with my argument... Again I'm not against Kamal or his movies..My only point is that Kamal draws inspiration from different sources (knowingly or sometimes unknowingly) and it doesnt make sense to me when people just brush it off saying naaah these are two different things...

You have valid points, Thiru. But let's just keep in mind that this forum is big enough for more than one opinion.

I find it hard for someone to be inspired by another "unknowingly". I don't know if this means if a person has unconsciously taken scenes from another movie, i.e. without realising it. My question is, if a person has not realised it, then how can he be inspired by it?

The other danger of assuming that a movie is inspired, but with major details changed, is the assumption that the Tamil movie maker has seen the Hollywood version and has re-done it. For the more obvious movies (Thenali, Arunachalam, etc) this is an acceptable assumption. But for movies with the same subject (eg politics, travel, etc, BUT with character changes) inspiration may not be the case.

Also, notice how if a Tamil movie is not about the boy-girl love drama, and is something really novel, like Aalavandhaan, Hey Ram, etc, Tamil audiences will immediately assume it's inspired. Nobody would assume this if the opposite happens. Here is an example:

This is a period movie. The English occupiers have gone overboard and are now treating the locals badly and have made unreasonable demands. The local leader takes up arms and declares war on the English. He wins a few battles at first, but loses a loved one. And because of a betrayal from one of his own, he is forced to go into hiding. Finally, he is caught, but he refuses to submit. He accepts his death sentence, and dies a hero.

The above is a description of 2 movies; one Hollywood and the other a Tamil one. The Tamil movie is �Veerapandiya Kattabomman�, and the Hollywood one is �Braveheart�. Now, do we assume that �Braveheart� was inspired by �Kattabomman�? After all, it�s the same theme, storyline, character types, etc, only some characters have been changed: Kattaboman loses his brother, Wallace loses his wife (and father). Nope, nobody will assume that Mel Gibson, whether knowingly or unknowingly, was inspired by Kattabomman.

But already, people are assuming that �Marudhanayagam� is �inspired� by Braveheart.

From: Thiru on Mon May 9 11:27:23 2005.

Kumar wrote:

I find it hard for someone to be inspired by another "unknowingly". I don't know if this means if a person has unconsciously taken scenes from another movie, i.e. without realising it. My question is, if a person has not realised it, then how can he be inspired by it?

This was explained by Kamal himself in one of his interviews... Certain movies that he watched has created such an impression/lasting feeling in him that though he doesnt want to reproduce or recreate it, the impact of the movie made him inspire something from that movie unknowingly... Its something like you watch a person's habit over and over again and suddenly you are doing the samething unknowingly.. I dont know how far its going to be true if he admits that he has inspired someone unknowingly...

Your example of veerapandiya kattabomman and Brave heart makes sense but again war and sacrifice is a universal concept and you cant generalize it... Any love story for that matter can be termed as inspired....You can derive comparisons between any vandamme or steven seagal movie with a vijayakanth or arjun movie because most of them is going to be vengeance..
but we are talking about inspiration of unique characters or mannerisms like reincarnation, schizophrenia, autism etc..

From: Prabhu Ram on Mon May 9 14:02:07 2005.

Kumar wrote:

This is a period movie. The English occupiers have gone overboard and are now treating the locals badly and have made unreasonable demands. The local leader takes up arms and declares war on the English. He wins a few battles at first, but loses a loved one. And because of a betrayal from one of his own, he is forced to go into hiding. Finally, he is caught, but he refuses to submit. He accepts his death sentence, and dies a hero.

The above is a description of 2 movies; one Hollywood and the other a Tamil one. The Tamil movie is "Veerapandiya Kattabomman", and the Hollywood one is "Braveheart". Now, do we assume that "Braveheart" was inspired by "Kattabomman"? After all, it's the same theme, storyline, character types, etc, only some characters have been changed: Kattaboman loses his brother, Wallace loses his wife (and father). Nope, nobody will assume that Mel Gibson, whether knowingly or unknowingly, was inspired by Kattabomman.

Good one !
Have you seen the parisal version of Titanic told by Kumaravel in 'Azhagiya Theeye' ?

From: Kumar on Mon May 9 20:27:47 2005.

Thiru wrote:

Your example of veerapandiya kattabomman and Brave heart makes sense but again war and sacrifice is a universal concept and you cant generalize it... Any love story for that matter can be termed as inspired....You can derive comparisons between any vandamme or steven seagal movie with a vijayakanth or arjun movie because most of them is going to be vengeance..
but we are talking about inspiration of unique characters or mannerisms like reincarnation, schizophrenia, autism etc..

Hmmm....I usually compare Vijayakanth movies with the Three Stooges series or Tom and Jerry;

you're a brave man for propping him against Van Damme and Segal. Yes, I can understand your point on actors who take on personas, or qualities based on what they have seen. I once read that the late great Sir Laurence Olivier based his Shylock from The Merchant of Venice on a Jewish gentleman he had met. He even went to the extent of having his dentist place a hidden brace in his mouth to exaggerate his expressions.

Sure, love and war are universal; but let's extend this universality to schizophrenia, autism, etc. These qualities are not only exclusive to the western world. For example, I don't think the makers of Pithamaghan needed to be inspired by some Hollywoo movie to create Vikram's character; there are plenty of them around, (especially in the political arena

)

But saying that, yes, I do agree that actors take notes from the performances of their colleagues.

From: Kumar on Mon May 9 21:04:49 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Good one !
Have you seen the parisal version of Titanic told by Kumaravel in 'Azhagiya Theeye' ?[/quote]

PR,
No I haven't. Can you reproduce the dialogue or give methe gist of it?
From: Prabhu Ram on Mon May 9 23:19:46 2005.

Kumar the parisal version is not so much about the content as it is about the guy's rendition of it. It dawns on you rather slowly that all he's doing is twisting 'Titanic' around in a Tamilized manner. Something on the lines of Cho realting Thiruvilayaadal Puraanam in Madras slang in Bommalaattam.

Kumar wrote:

He even went to the extent of having his dentist place a hidden brace in his mouth to exaggerate his expressions.
Strange ! I say so because of the following anecdote:
Remember the torture scene in 'Marathon Man' ? Dustin Hoffman took two days off to prepare for that scene and starved himself. Laurence Olivier walked into the sets and saw a sunken and drooped Hoffman so he enquired with the director who told him about the preparation. Olivier's remark was : ' Hasn't the young boy heard of acting ?'

Considering he belongs to this school I find his preparation strange !

Kumar wrote:

Hmmm....I usually compare Vijayakanth movies with the Three Stooges
[/i]

From: Kumar on Tue May 10 2:10:27 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kumar the parisal version is not so much about the content as it is about the guy's rendition of it. It dawns on you rather slowly that all he's doing is twisting 'Titanic' around in a Tamilized manner. Something on the lines of Cho realting Thiruvilayaadal Puraanam in Madras slang in Bommalaattam.

Strange ! I say so because of the following anecdote:
Remember the torture scene in 'Marathon Man' ? Dustin Hoffman took two days off to prepare for that scene and starved himself. Laurence Olivier walked into the sets and saw a sunken and drooped Hoffman so he enquired with the director who told him about the preparation. Olivier's remark was : ' Hasn't the young boy heard of acting ?' Smile

Considering he belongs to this school I find his preparation strange !

PR,
I read this Olivier thing in an obscure magazine years ago. I tried looking for it in the internet and no success. Yes, I also read about the Marathon Man incident. Apparently Hoffman did this to exhaust himself and look weary.

But the whole mouth thing for the Shylock role was done mainly to draw attention to a physical attribute, rather than to act out a scene. I think the logic behind it was, as I recall, to replace the stereotypical hooked nose, bearded Jew with an expressive mouth. Olivier saw Shylock as a passionate, emotional man, and the mouth was used to express this emotion and passion. I think it�s comparable to make-up and the manipulation of physical features (just like Olivier�s Richard the III; in this role, he DID have a hooked nose and his eyebrows were stretched and pointed for a more sinister look).

Hoffman, on the other hand exhausted himself to appear exhausted, rather than ACT exhausted. Geez, imagine an icon like Olivier making a comment like that when you�re just in the starting years of your acting career

. (Must say that Dustin Hoffman has come a long way since).

From: ramsri on Tue May 10 9:03:18 2005.

Kumar wrote:

The other danger of assuming that a movie is inspired, but with major details changed, is the assumption that the Tamil movie maker has seen the Hollywood version and has re-done it. For the more obvious movies (Thenali, Arunachalam, etc) this is an acceptable assumption.

was Arunachalam "inspired" (i'm a little hesitant to use the term here looking at the various ways in which it's been interpreted, but nevertheless) by an english film? which one was that?

'coz i remember watching a hindi film called "Maalamaal" starring naseeruddin shah, satish shah etc which had a pretty similar theme - about a guy who suddenly inherits a fortune but for some obscure reason is forced to spend the bulk of it in very short time. entertaining flick (interestingly sunil gavaskar had a cameo in that film - he played himself).
of course the only similarity between arunachalam and the hindi film is the spending-big-money-in-quick-time concept ... so going by kumar's extremely convincing arguments, dunno if this could be called an inspiration ...

From: Prabhu Ram on Tue May 10 9:08:37 2005.

Kumar wrote:

But the whole mouth thing for the Shylock role was done mainly to draw attention to a physical attribute, rather than to act out a scene. I think the logic behind it was, as I recall, to replace the stereotypical hooked nose, bearded Jew with an expressive mouth. Olivier saw Shylock as a passionate, emotional man, and the mouth was used to express this emotion and passion. I think it's comparable to make-up and the manipulation of physical features (just like Olivier's Richard the III; in this role, he DID have a hooked nose and his eyebrows were stretched and pointed for a more sinister look).
Hoffman, on the other hand exhausted himself to appear exhausted, rather than ACT exhausted.

Yeah I get the diference. Well put. But that does not make Hoffman's method, no pun intended, in any way inferior. The actor's ultimate commitment is to how it looks on screen. The viewer does not (and should not) care for the sweat of the artist. So what is meant by acting ? It does go a long way beyond playing pretend.
Stephen Crane died contracting a disease when he tried to cover a war because he was going to write a war novel. Some people celebrate his heroic commitment to art while others (the Olivier types) called it un-artistic as art is more about imagination than translating experience.

My take is, it is about imaginatively translating experience which is what Hoffman did. So...

Kumar wrote:

Must say that Dustin Hoffman has come a long way since

I disagree because I think he was on-track even then. A track Olivier might make wisecracks about but a good track nevertheless.

PS: I enjoyed the wisecrack though, that's why I posted it

From: Kumar on Tue May 10 18:09:18 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Hi ramsri,
I did not see the Hindi movie mentioned. But the Hollywood movie I was talking about is 'Brewster's Million' starring Richard Pryor. In the movie, Prior inherits an obscene amount of money; but a conditio states that he needs to spend a significant amount , under conditional circumstances and within a stipulated time frame.

The Rajini movie was quite well adapted; but reading your post, I suspect that Arunachalam may have been adapted from the Hindi version.

From: stranger on Tue May 10 18:27:08 2005.

I think, it is Rajni's Hollywood copy as you could see the plot is just like arunachalam!

Quote:

Plot Summary for Brewster's Millions (1985)
Brewster is a minor league baseball player. Unknown to him, he had a (recently deceased) rich relative. In order to test if Brewster knows the value of money, he is given the task of disposing of $30m in 30 days. Brewster isn't allowed to have any assets to show for the $30m or waste the money in any way. If successful, Brewster gets to inherit $300m. The biggest problem of all however, is that Brewster can't tell anyone what he's doing, so everyone thinks he's crazy. Add to this the fact that if he fails, two scheming trustees will get their hands on the money, Brewster's task is not an easy one.

Summary written by Rob Hartill

From: Kumar on Tue May 10 18:36:51 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kumar wrote:

Must say that Dustin Hoffman has come a long way since

I disagree because I think he was on-track even then. A track Olivier might make wisecracks about but a good track nevertheless.

PS: I enjoyed the wisecrack though, that's why I posted it Wink

Ahh, a man who appreciates wisecracks when they are cracked open.

Before the "thread deviation squad" invades this thread, let me say that I just re-read you above post and I take back my comment. You're right; who is to say that Hoffman's method is inferior, or unacceptable by the acting fraternity (Who am I to make such a statement!). I suppose Olivier's statement stems from the fact that his background was from theatre where actors had to memorise volumes of script, and there's no such thing as running around the stage before doing a scene. Anyway, Hoffman did do a great job in the Marathon Man.

I tell you what, if you want to see an example of going to the extremes for your art, you should see Christian Bale's condition after dieting for his role in The Machinist.

Olivier's method reminds me of an interview I read on Dr Sivaji Ganesan; replying to accusations of 'over-acting', he said that when he started in cinema, the audience back then needed to see 'acting'. They wanted to know that the actor was putting on a persona, rather than be very believable.

But even he knew when to change is acting style; his later movies like Dhevar Maghan just showed what this man was capable of.

From: RC on Tue May 10 21:27:44 2005.

Kumar wrote:

RC wrote:

Kumar wrote:

RC, long time no see friend. Hope things are going well for you.

RC, I'm pretty sure it's you. I remember your avatar. Good to know you're doing well.

Kumar: Accept my apologies if you are sure its me... vayasaagitte poguthaa maradhi jaasthi aagi pOchu..

From: Kumar on Tue May 10 21:37:51 2005.

RC wrote:

Kumar: Accept my apologies if you are sure its me... vayasaagitte poguthaa maradhi jaasthi aagi pOchu..

Aamaa....neenge yaaru?

Just joking RC! No apologies needed.

From: Prabhu Ram on Tue May 10 23:38:50 2005.

Kumar wrote:

I suppose Olivier's statement stems from the fact that his background was from theatre where actors had to memorise volumes of script, and there's no such thing as running around the stage before doing a scene.

Neat diagnosis ! But Brando was a stage actor too, wasn't he ?

Kumar wrote:

But even he knew when to change is acting style; his later movies like Dhevar Maghan just showed what this man was capable of.

I give much credit to the writer-director for that. In my opinion it is Sivaji's greatest perfomance. Particularly the conversation with Sakthi in the house when it is raining

From: Roshan on Wed May 11 2:38:24 2005.

Kumar and PR,

I'm totally lost but I still keep reading your posts thinking I may grasp something atleast.

enakkum english padathukkum romba dhooram . I have seen only a handfull of English movies.
From: Badri on Wed May 11 3:05:54 2005.

Same here, Roshan, but the levels of intelligence that PR, Kumar and Ramsri are taking theatre and cinema to provide for some real class reading, which is why I am hanging about in the wings, no pun intended, reading and learning!
From: Prabhu Ram on Wed May 11 5:11:33 2005.

Ayyo kulurudhunga !
Raj,Vijay mudhakkondu oru channel vidaame padam paakkurOmle. I won't claim to be as conversant as Kumar is with English films that too the old ones. My diet is limited to StarMovies and HBO. Earlier when Cartoon Network was not a 24 hr channel it used to have a tie-up with Turner Classic Movies from 6pm to early morning. Now Classic movies ( as we know from Kaaviya Budhan and Classic Matinee) just means old movies so there was no expansion of diet. Nice films do not get a release here, even in Bombay !
I saw the Machinist,Closer trailers on Yahoo long long ago. Eternal Sunshine even before and no sign of either movie whatsoever. None of these films where offbeat,cranky at all. Yet !
Meanwhile XXX2 races to Mumbai screens in no time at all

Do you guys have netflix in Australia ?
From: Sanguine Sridhar on Wed May 11 7:28:57 2005.

I m sorry.... i have a doubt...Whether any Sidney Sheldon novel has been taken as a cinema?

From: ramsri on Wed May 11 12:42:36 2005.

Kumar wrote:

I tell you what, if you want to see an example of going to the extremes for your art, you should see Christian Bale's condition after dieting for his role in The Machinist.

Olivier's method reminds me of an interview I read on Dr Sivaji Ganesan; replying to accusations of 'over-acting', he said that when he started in cinema, the audience back then needed to see 'acting'. They wanted to know that the actor was putting on a persona, rather than be very believable.

i must say this is developing into a pretty absorbing discussion ... maybe we're digressing from the topic here, but this reminds me of an interview with naseeruddin shah that i happened to watch a few years ago. he was talking about his acting style, and why he didn't believe in the *method* acting paradigm ... he said the true measure of an actor's talent is his ability to "switch on" and "switch off" at will. ie, slip in and out of the character he's playing, rather than "live" the character, which is what method acting advocates.
anyway, we're probably going too far with all this analysis here ... has anyone considered starting a separate thread for this?

From: ramsri on Wed May 11 13:09:34 2005.

Beckham wrote:

I m sorry.... i have a doubt...Whether any Sidney Sheldon novel has been taken as a cinema?

a few sheldon novels which were filmed -

"Bloodline" starring Audrey Hepburn and Omar Sharif, directed by Terrence Young ("Wait until Dark", "From Russia with Love")

"The Naked Face" was also adapted to screen - it starred Roger Moore and Rod Steiger i think

i also vaguely remember watching a movie called "The Other Side of Midnight" ... can't remember any of the actors, but i think it starred susan sarandon in one of the side roles. it's about a young french girl who travels all over the world, getting mixed up in all sorts of affairs. set in the years prior to world war II
i'm pretty sure there was a sheldon book by the same name, but i haven't read it so ... dunno if the film had anything to do with the novel ... PR/Kumar - clarify

also, "Master of the Game", "If Tomorrow Comes" and "Windmills of the Gods" were all made into TV mini-series
From: vingem on Wed May 11 17:03:48 2005.

Yes, The Other side of Midnight was a book by Sydney Sheldon.
Its about a girl, catherine who faces problems from a tycoon, guess the name of that character was constantine dimitri or demiris not quite sure.
read it a long time ago.
They also made a movie out of it. the funny thing is since the book was a huge success they expected the movie also to be a big hit and about the same time another movie called Star wars was being released, a Sci Fi movie which they expected to bomb at the box office.after the release, well rest is history.
I heard about this trivia in one of the movie channels.

From: Kumar on Wed May 11 18:55:45 2005.

Roshan wrote:

enakkum english padathukkum romba dhooram . I have seen only a handfull of English movies. Crying or Very sad

Alaathinggamaa. I'm in the opposite predicament; I can't seem to find a place where I can rent Tamil movies. Occasionally, some kind businessman here sets up a single screening of a Tamil film, and that's that!. There is a cinema near where I live that shows regular Hindi movies, but I'm craving for Tamil films. There is an Indian grocery shop near where I work that has a collection of about 300 Hindi DVDs and two and a half Tamil VCDs (I say half, because one of the VCD sets has a disk missing). What's worse is that they are all Vijayakanth movies.

At least he sells good mollagha urugai.

sbadri99 wrote:

Same here, Roshan, but the levels of intelligence that PR, Kumar and Ramsri are taking theatre and cinema to provide for some real class reading, which is why I am hanging about in the wings, no pun intended, reading and learning!

If you can see me now badri, I am blushing (for a brown-faced man, that's quite an achievement!) I just like movies. I studied media studies at uni, which included film study, analysis, etc. Hence the interest.

PR, ramsri,
It's a bit of a hard fight between the 2 methods; both methods have produced some great performances. You mentioned Brando PR; yup, he started off in theatre, then studies method acting, which us basically drawing on your own own psychology and experience in creating roles. In Apocolypse Now, he basically waffled through with his own dialogue. In one scene, he apparently described a banana in detail- it sounded so deep and perplex that Copolla used it. In Superman, he had his dialogue written out on a huge placard which was placed behind the camera. He read it in the trial scene, but made it look natural.

ramsri's story on Naseerudin S reminds me of what Sivaji said about method acting as well- he didn't believe in it.

What about Kamal? I know I have read stuff on his views on method and traditional acting, but I'm not sure where he stands on this. (Can anyone reproduce anything on this?). He has prepared for roles by going through training, or doing research if necessary. In Aalavandhaan, he trained with the special forces for a while. He bulked up as well. And notice that if a movie requires his character to be bald, he actually shaves off his hair.

OK, what about this; in Thenali, he manages to shed tears while being interviewed. No cuts, just one continual shot. Obviously the man can induce tears, which is quite hard to do (I mean, how the hell do you rehearse such a scene??) Method acting, or 'Sivaji' school?
[/quote]

From: Girish11 on Wed May 11 20:14:40 2005.

[quote="Kumar"]
Roshan wrote:

enakkum english padathukkum romba dhooram . I have seen only a handfull of English movies.

Alaathinggamaa. I'm in the opposite predicament; I can't seem to find a place where I can rent Tamil movies. Occasionally, some kind businessman here sets up a single screening of a Tamil film, and that's that!. There is a cinema near where I live that shows regular Hindi movies, but I'm craving for Tamil films. There is an Indian grocery shop near where I work that has a collection of about 300 Hindi DVDs and two and a half Tamil VCDs (I say half, because one of the VCD sets has a disk missing). What's worse is that they are all Vijayakanth movies. At least he sells good mollagha urugai.

Kumar, my case if not worse, is same as yours.
over here, locally, there is hardly any source to get tamil movies.
Since most of the Indian community living in Chile is linked with
imports/exports and has supplier contacts in Hongkong/India etc
and receive regularly shipments/samples from these places,
Indian movies do reach here and get distributed/shared, some
even have it as a mini business i.e making copies and selling them.
Even the Indian club here did it for sometime, but for Tamil movies,
the only option is when someone known to you travels to
Hongkong/India and gets the movies and shares them with you
or gets them from these places along with samples. But now,
thanks to internet, there are good options available, there
are sites hosting movies in torrent format from where you can
download the movie and watch it on a computer or on a tv
(if your computer has a video card and it is connected to the
tv) or you can even burn it to a vcd/dvd and keep it as collection,
the files are available in different formats, vcd, dvdrip, even
dvd-r, you will need patience but if you have a highspeed
dsl connection, you can get lots of stuff, not just movies, even
tv serials, documentaties music etc. Initially, I was hesitant, thinking
of it being illegal and unethical but I finally gave in, cannot
resist it, anyways, I have been watching lots of movies
recently due to the availability of this facility including latest
movies like New year releases, were available 4 days after
release.

If anybody is interested, please PM me for further details.

Rgds.

From: joe on Wed May 11 23:11:55 2005.

Roshan wrote:

Kumar and PR,

I'm totally lost but I still keep reading your posts thinking I may grasp something atleast.

enakkum english padathukkum romba dhooram . I have seen only a handfull of English movies. Crying or Very sad

Exactly the same in my case ..The main reason is really I don't understand the dialogues more than 40%...As a serious movie watcher ,who don't want to miss even a single line..I always loose my patience when I miss to understand some dialogues.

From: Prabhu Ram on Thu May 12 0:53:47 2005.

Joe that's all the more the case in Brando films. Great actor all fine but he chews and mumbles. His idea was 'people do not speak in complete sentences in flat tones. They modulate,mispronounce and talk in phrases.'
Now where would you classify that !
I quote the Pattimandram Leoni. Imagine Sivaji 'realistically' portraying a Tirunelveli king:
' Ele Vaanam Poliyidhule..........Poomi Velayudhule..........Nee Yemle Kisthi Kaekke ?
Do we draw a line somewhere ?

From: Badri on Thu May 12 0:56:15 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Joe that's all the more the case in Brando films. Great actor all fine but he chews and mumbles. His idea was 'people do not speak in complete sentences in flat tones. They modulate,mispronounce and talk in phrases.'
Now where would you classify that !
I quote the Pattimandram Leoni. Imagine Sivaji 'realistically' portraying a Tirunelveli king:
' Ele Vaanam Poliyidhule..........Poomi Velayudhule..........Nee Yemle Kisthi Kaekke ?
Do we draw a line somewhere ?

This is the PR we've all come to know and love!!

From: Badri on Thu May 12 0:59:42 2005.

PR: That is why there was a time when realism never found its place in theater and its extension, cinema. They were both filled only with exagerration - of delivery, of costumes, of makeup

In Tamizh cinema at least, that trend was dissolved in part by Kamal, when he brought realistic acting to cinema.

Again, I am reminded of the movie "Veedu"! How realistic was that?

And the famous Naseerudin Shah-Shabana Azmi combination in Hindi. Movies came to you straight from the street, the villages. Suddenly, cinema seemed shot not on sets, but on the streets, where real people were doing their real stuff, and it was just being filmed.

Like that Jim Carrey movie, whose name slips my memory.
From: Badri on Thu May 12 1:04:56 2005.

The Truman Show, was it?

From: Sanguine Sridhar on Thu May 12 1:06:16 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

PR: That is why there was a time when realism never found its place in theater and its extension, cinema. They were both filled only with exagerration - of delivery, of costumes, of makeup

In Tamizh cinema at least, that trend was dissolved in part by Kamal, when he brought realistic acting to cinema.

Again, I am reminded of the movie "Veedu"! How realistic was that?

And the famous Naseerudin Shah-Shabana Azmi combination in Hindi. Movies came to you straight from the street, the villages. Suddenly, cinema seemed shot not on sets, but on the streets, where real people were doing their real stuff, and it was just being filmed.

Like that Jim Carrey movie, whose name slips my memory.

Jim carrey movie is Trueman Show...lovely movie....In fact Red had a smell of TS...

From: Prabhu Ram on Thu May 12 1:15:54 2005.

Truman Show is a very good film. As unvelievable as it may sound I used to think on similar lines as a kid that the world I passed by my cycle would seize to be as soon as I passed it. And one day I would catch it unawares.
The guy who wrote Truman Show (Andrew Niccol) also directed a movie called Gattacca. Seen it ? It's really good. A wee bit slow but really worth it.
There's this other movie he made with Al Pacino (I think) which was the complete oppositr of Truman Show: an unreal man in a real world. Have only heard about it though. Niccol is now writing for Shekar Kapur's 'Paani'. Sure this will get released in India.
From: Badri on Thu May 12 1:36:39 2005.

The movie is "S1m0ne". Or Simone, if you think the heroine is real!!

Havent seen it but heard about it too.

A star quits a movie and so the disillusioned producer creates a digital person to act instead. Everyone believes the new actress is a real person, and she behaves as well too and achieves fame and stardom. The movie, I am told, is about his struggle with himself on the fraud he has perpetrated. Perhaps he is mocking the celebrity cult that is so strong in the world today, that even an unreal celeb is worshipped!!!

By the way, Andrew Niccol also co-wrote The Terminal.
From: ramsri on Thu May 12 1:57:07 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

The Truman Show, was it?

if you liked "The Truman Show", maybe you should check out Ron Howard's "Ed TV" starring Matthew McConnaghuey and Woody Harrelson (if you haven't already seen it) ... very similar theme, about a real man trapped in an unreal world. not half as effective as peter weir's film, but entertaining nevertheless
another film with a similar theme was "Pleasantville" ... anyone seen it?
From: ramsri on Thu May 12 2:31:47 2005.

Kumar wrote:

What about Kamal? I know I have read stuff on his views on method and traditional acting, but I'm not sure where he stands on this. (Can anyone reproduce anything on this?).

that's an interesting point ... i don't think kamal is a very vocal supporter of method acting. in fact, i remember a rediff interview with shoba warrier (i'm still hunting for that link - will send it across when i find it) in which he says changing roles and characters is as natural to him as changing clothes is to you and me. his take on this is that just as ordinary people don't like wearing the same clothes on two consecutive days, he prefers his characters is successive movies to be radically different from each other. in effect, changing characters and get-ups is like changing costumes - you exhibit what you like and edit what you dislike

now you just have to read through his opinions once to understand that these are not the views of a method actor. it's a well know fact that method acting as a technique takes a huge emotional toll on the actor. in fact, jim carrey once went on record to say how "empty" he felt after he'd played the eccentric comedian andy kaufman in milos forman's "Man on the Moon" - a role which required carrey to literally live the kaufman character for months on end. kamal's views on acting seem to run contrary to this - getting in and out of roles is as easy to him as slipping in and out of costumes - method acting? i'm not sure...

but then, just looking at the depth which he brings to his roles ... and the amount of effort that goes in to "looking" the character first, before "playing it" ... if he can do all this without subscribing to any of the intricacies of method acting, then the latitude of his genius is probably one level above that of brando or pacino or any of those celebrated "method" actors. what d'you say?
From: Roshan on Thu May 12 2:33:35 2005.

Nice going but discussions are going away from the topic. You guys are discussing only about hollywood movies. appappa thread-Oda titile-a paarthu athukku porunthuraa maathiriyum konjam pEsunga.

Kumar, PR and Ramsri,

Thanks for the info about some good Hollywood movies. After reading your posts now I'm tempted to watch them. To start with.. how is this film "Gangs of Newyork"? It's being shown in one of those nearby cinemas here. I vaguely remember the moment Kamal announced his film "saNdiyar" ( virumaaNdi) some athimEdhaavis in this forum said it's rumoured the film is going to be a remake of "Ganags of Newyork". But later I heard the film had nothing to do with the Hollywood one. Anyways, would like to know about the film from you guys.

From: Roshan on Thu May 12 2:39:46 2005.

ramsri wrote:

but then, just looking at the depth which he brings to his roles ... and the amount of effort that goes in to "looking" the character first, before "playing it" ... if he can do all this without subscribing to any of the intricacies of method acting, then the latitude of his genius is probably one level above that of brando or pacino or any of those celebrated "method" actors. what d'you say?

You have inferred it well I feel

Nice post overall !!

From: Sanguine Sridhar on Thu May 12 2:41:44 2005.

I dont know ...any of the tamil movies got the inspiration from tamil novels?
From: Badri on Thu May 12 2:45:25 2005.

Quote:

Anyways, would like to know about the film from you guys.

Which film, Roshan? Gangs of New York (which has no connection with the title of this thread) or Sandiyar/Virumaandi?

From: ramsri on Thu May 12 2:45:57 2005.

Roshan wrote:

To start with.. how is this film "Gangs of Newyork"? It's being shown in one of those nearby cinemas here. I vaguely remember the moment Kamal announced his film "saNdiyar" ( virumaaNdi) some athimEdhaavis in this forum said it's rumoured the film is going to be a remake of "Ganags of Newyork".

nope, Virumaandi had absolutely nothing to do with "Gangs of New York" ... Gangs is about the conflicts in 19th century new york - which was supposedly the world's most violent city at that time. it's about the raging warfare between the white anglo-saxons and the irish immigrants coming into the city, which forms a backdrop for the main plot involving a young man out to avenge his father's death by killing a powerful gangleader. i found it a pretty gripping film, with a standout performance by daniel day-lewis as the ruthless demon, bill the butcher

From: Roshan on Thu May 12 3:04:18 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Which film, Roshan? Gangs of New York (which has no connection with the title of this thread) or Sandiyar/Virumaandi?

enna badri kiNdalaa? appappa konjam title paththi pEsanum otherwise paavam the author. CM Vs MX thread-la kaduppaagi intha thread-a open paNNaar.

ramsri,

thanks for the info. Yes I knew Virmaandi had nothing to do with Gangs of Newyork - but you know some athigaprasangees as usual started assuming things the moment Kamal announced his "Sandiyar".
From: Badri on Thu May 12 3:12:39 2005.

Yes, Roshan...chumma dhaan sonnen!!

Neenga solrathum correct thaan...aanaa, orey postla rendum poteengala, athaan, couldn't help a friendly dig!

Thappa eduthukatheenga.!
From: Roshan on Thu May 12 3:18:00 2005.

thappA onnum edukkala.. naanum friendly-A thaan kEttEn

neengaLum appadi ippadi konjam Hollywood films paththi pEsa aarambichuteenga.. naanum Ethaavathu pEsanumla..adhaan konjam hollywood padam paakalaamnu mudivu paNNi irukkEn .
From: Badri on Thu May 12 3:34:14 2005.

Kamal's Hollywood Copies thaane title, Roshan!

Athunala, inga,
Kamal patthi pesalam,
Hollywood pathi pesalam
Copies pathi pesalam!

Moonume, within topic thaan...enna solreenga?

Athunaala, neenga Hollywood padam pakkarathum intha threadku related aaga thaan karuthanum!!

From: Prabhu Ram on Thu May 12 4:02:12 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Kamal's Hollywood Copies thaane title, Roshan!
Athunala, inga,
Kamal patthi pesalam,
Hollywood pathi pesalam
Copies pathi pesalam!
Moonume, within topic thaan...enna solreenga?

You a practicing lawyer by any chance ?

From: Badri on Thu May 12 4:08:02 2005.

Illa pa! Neenga vera! Rombavum nitpick panniteno?
From: Prabhu Ram on Thu May 12 4:11:49 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Illa pa! Neenga vera! Rombavum nitpick panniteno?
No no not at all. You picked the loopholes with ease and havegot the thread initiator locked in his own words a la Hiranyakashipu.
From: Badri on Thu May 12 4:17:01 2005.

a la Hiranyakashipu!!

You've got a wild imagination!!!
From: Roshan on Thu May 12 5:59:06 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

a la Hiranyakashipu.

PR,

What does that mean? Anything profound in Latin?

Sorry, my earlier post was not made correctly and now I have edited.

From: Kumar on Thu May 12 22:01:27 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

Kumar, my case if not worse, is same as yours.
over here, locally, there is hardly any source to get tamil movies.
Since most of the Indian community living in Chile is linked with
imports/exports and has supplier contacts in Hongkong/India etc
and receive regularly shipments/samples from these places,
Indian movies do reach here and get distributed/shared, some
even have it as a mini business i.e making copies and selling them.
Even the Indian club here did it for sometime, but for Tamil movies,
the only option is when someone known to you travels to
Hongkong/India and gets the movies and shares them with you
or gets them from these places along with samples. But now,
thanks to internet, there are good options available, there
are sites hosting movies in torrent format from where you can
download the movie and watch it on a computer or on a tv
(if your computer has a video card and it is connected to the
tv) or you can even burn it to a vcd/dvd and keep it as collection,
the files are available in different formats, vcd, dvdrip, even
dvd-r, you will need patience but if you have a highspeed
dsl connection, you can get lots of stuff, not just movies, even
tv serials, documentaties music etc. Initially, I was hesitant, thinking
of it being illegal and unethical but I finally gave in, cannot
resist it, anyways, I have been watching lots of movies
recently due to the availability of this facility including latest
movies like New year releases, were available 4 days after
release.

If anybody is interested, please PM me for further details.

Rgds.

Adengappa!! Chile! Santiago va? Girish, in your case, I think you should be allowed to download movies from the net for humanitarian reasons. And to answer PR's earlier question, I think we can get movies from the net here; that's probably the reason why some rental DVDs come with a short ad before the movie to discourage downloading. I don't know what the legal implications are, but these ads always emphasise on the moral aspects, which may mean that it's totally legal to do this.

Anyway, my computer is being repaired now; it doesn't have many features, but I may take your up your invitation and get your advice on what I need to do to get Tamil movies from on-line. More on that later.

From: Kumar on Thu May 12 23:41:03 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Pretty good analysis ramsri; I say that you're right. He's not a method actor, but the intensity of his acting abilities places him right up there with the cream of the crop. Kamal doesn't hold himself back when it comes to achieveing the look he wants; this goes beyond the conventional make-up, wigs and costumes. He goes the whole 9 yards- he shaves, grows hair, bulks up, slims down, etc to get the right look.

ramsri wrote:

Yup, classic case of jumping to conclusions.

From: Girish11 on Fri May 13 0:18:12 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Girish11 wrote:

Hi Kumar,

Not Santiago, Iquique, it is a small city, but has foreign population
due to the presence of free zone here.

Let me know when your computer is ok.

Rgds

From: ramsri on Fri May 13 0:50:58 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Kamal's Hollywood Copies thaane title, Roshan!

Athunala, inga,
Kamal patthi pesalam,
Hollywood pathi pesalam
Copies pathi pesalam!

Moonume, within topic thaan...enna solreenga? Laughing

badri

it's this kind of banter that really injects life into the discussion - great going !!

From: Prabhu Ram on Fri May 13 2:52:06 2005.

Roshan wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

a la Hiranyakashipu.

PR,
What does that mean? Anything profound in Latin?

Onnum Kedeyaadhu, profound in lore avvalo than. Badri reminded me of Narasimma (the avatar not Captain) circumventing Hiranyan's boon and tearing him apart.

Coming back. How about David-Gale Virumaandi. Haven't seen it so would love to hear about a comparitive account.
From: Kumar on Fri May 13 3:05:48 2005.

Haven't seen it myself, but I beleieve David Gale goes something like this: during an interview with a prisoner accused of raping and killing (I think) a colleague,a journalist finds out that the authorities may have the wrong man.

Not too sure if that alone qualifies as 'inspiration', but then again, Virumaandi has been compared with Kurosawa's Yojimbo. I don't think that qualifies either.
From: Prabhu Ram on Fri May 13 3:09:47 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Virumaandi has been compared with Kurosawa's Yojimbo
Yojimbo va rashomon a ? because the latter is about multiple-versions of the same incident. But then you could say that about 'Andha Naal' too
From: Roshan on Fri May 13 3:14:32 2005.

Thank PR for the reply on "Hiranyakashipu! "

Kumar wrote:

Virumaandi has been compared with Kurosawa's Yojimbo. I don't think that qualifies either.

I vaguely remember something on this. The comparison was based on the way the story was executed and not based on the story itself I think.
From: Roshan on Fri May 13 3:19:13 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Adengappa!! Chile! Santiago va? Girish, in your case, I think you should be allowed to download movies from the net for humanitarian reasons.

Adengappa!! I envy your sense of humour Kumar !
From: ramsri on Fri May 13 5:42:11 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Yojimbo va rashomon a ? because the latter is about multiple-versions of the same incident. But then you could say that about 'Andha Naal' too

i think Rashomon is the Kurosawa film which was supposed to be the "inspiration" behind Virumandi ... but Roshan is right - if at all it was an inspiration, it's only the methodology of storytelling that it inspired, and not the story itself.
what about 'Andha Naal' - haven't seen it. how does it figure in the discussion?
From: Roshan on Fri May 13 5:46:35 2005.

ramsri wrote:

.
what about 'Andha Naal' - haven't seen it. how does it figure in the discussion?

I havent seen it too ! I think it's a Sivaji movie..a crime thriller

From: Sanguine Sridhar on Fri May 13 5:47:55 2005.

Roshan wrote:

ramsri wrote:

.
what about 'Andha Naal' - haven't seen it. how does it figure in the discussion?

I havent seen it too ! I think it's a Sivaji movie..a crime thriller Rolling Eyes

Andha naal was excellent thriller....I was really amazed of the class of the movie

From: ramsri on Fri May 13 5:50:52 2005.

however, Yojimbo did serve as inspiration for Sergio Leone's 'A Fistful of Dollars' and more recently Walter Hill's 'Last Man Standing' ... the funny part is, no one noticed that Kurosawa himself had lifted almost the entire plot of 'Yojimbo' from Dashiell Hammett's novel 'Red Harvest', which was also about two small-time crime families pitted against each other in a midwestern town.

anyway, sorry for the digression, just thought i'd add some trivia to the discussion. let's get back to the topic on hand...

From: Prabhu Ram on Fri May 13 7:09:26 2005.

Roshan wrote:

ramsri wrote:

.
what about 'Andha Naal' - haven't seen it. how does it figure in the discussion?

I havent seen it too ! I think it's a Sivaji movie..a crime thriller Rolling Eyes

http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?p=73406&highlight=#73406

From: Roshan on Fri May 13 8:05:44 2005.

Thanks PR. I read your fantastic review on Antha NaaL and now I'm tempted to see this movie . But how ? VCD, DVD Ethum kidaikkumaa? I have my doubts.

And how did you manage to see this movie?
From: Thiru on Fri May 13 14:14:49 2005.

Rashomon and virumaandi are similar only in the way the story is narrated (two sides of a coin).. Apart from that there is nothing inspired or copied :) ...
Andha naal, was a great movie during those days .. It was a brave attempt with no songs during a period when movies had n number of songs in it... Also, hero dying in the first seen was something unheard of in film industry those days.. again S. balachander (director) drew inspiration from kurasawa in many places..notably the title when they keep showing the boy running throughout the title...

From: Girish11 on Fri May 13 19:39:14 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Roshan wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

a la Hiranyakashipu. Smile

PR,
What does that mean? Anything profound in Latin? Razz

Onnum Kedeyaadhu, profound in lore avvalo than. Badri reminded me of Narasimma (the avatar not Captain) circumventing Hiranyan's boon and tearing him apart.

Coming back. How about David-Gale Virumaandi. Haven't seen it so would love to hear about a comparitive account.

PR, I have seen David Gale, the message giving by both movies
is same, i.e Eliminitate capital punishment, but apart from that,
the only thing in common is a lady jorunalist interviewing the
person going to face the capital punishment, but nothing
else is same, the charecters, the incidents nothing, I rather
not revel more about David Gale and make this post a
spoiler because David Gale is a very nice movie and dont want
to spoil the fun for hubbers who may watch it later

From: Prabhu Ram on Fri May 13 23:31:00 2005.

Roshan wrote:

Thanks PR. I read your fantastic review on Antha NaaL and now I'm tempted to see this movie . But how ? Sad

VCD, DVD Ethum kidaikkumaa? I have my doubts. Sad

And how did you manage to see this movie? Rolling Eyes

TV la dhaan. I saw it first in days of yore on DD. Around last year I saw it on KTV Classic matinee

See if you can catch it on Tape so you can watch it w/o breaks.

From: balakumar86 on Sat May 14 5:07:04 2005.

kamal copies many things from hollywood,
but ou tamil ppl don accept those things in tamil films,
so only kamal films r getting flopped ere.

From: ramsri on Sat May 14 12:28:58 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Roshan wrote:

Thanks PR. I read your fantastic review on Antha NaaL and now I'm tempted to see this movie . But how ? Sad

VCD, DVD Ethum kidaikkumaa? I have my doubts. Sad

And how did you manage to see this movie? Rolling Eyes

TV la dhaan. I saw it first in days of yore on DD. Around last year I saw it on KTV Classic matinee Smile

See if you can catch it on Tape so you can watch it w/o breaks.

great review PR - Roshan's right, i'm sure all of us who read that write-up will make it a point to catch this flick next time its on KTV or any of those channels ... rest assured you've contributed, in your own small way, to increasing sivaji ganesan's (already enormous) popularity among the masses!

From: Kumar on Tue May 17 21:01:35 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kumar wrote:

Virumaandi has been compared with Kurosawa's Yojimbo

Yojimbo va rashomon a ? because the latter is about multiple-versions of the same incident. But then you could say that about 'Andha Naal' too

Although the topic has gone beyond this, I thought I'd clarify this: I did read and article which compared Yojimbo to Virumaandi. The comparison was mainly with the main characters as both Virumaandi and the Yojimbo (bodygaurd) stood between two warring clans. Rashomon has also been compared because of the narration style.

From: vasanthkv on Wed Jun 8 7:31:01 2005.

Atlast, I got a chance to watch 'What about Bob?'. I would say Kamal did better job than Bill Murray.
From: ramsri on Wed Jun 8 9:37:17 2005.

vasanthkv wrote:

Atlast, I got a chance to watch 'What about Bob?'. I would say Kamal did better job than Bill Murray.

whatever happened to this thread?! just when i thought we had assembled a group of like-minded people and were having a stimulating discussion ... bang! one fine day the thread just disappears into the archives! c'mon guys, surely we haven't run out of topics to discuss ... let's keep it going and ensure that this one at least doesn't die an unpatronized death!!
From: ramsri on Wed Jun 8 9:46:37 2005.

to pick up from vasanth's point, yes ... 'Thenali' undoubtedly had a better lead performance from kamal than murray's turn in 'What ...' and i suspect that was bcos of the singala tamizh accent, which really put his performance on a different plane to murray's. where murray was plain funny, kamal actually impressed with his flawless rendition of the accent, in the process gaining himself a few brownie points.
but i think you'd agree that overall, the original scores over the remake. i thought the supporting roles in 'Thenali' (devayani, jyothika) were pretty tacky. ramesh kanna and delhi ganesh made occassional, mildly amusing attempts at hilarity, but madan bob throwing up on screen every few minutes sort of compensated for that
also, i somehow liked richard dreyfuss' doctor better than jayaram ... just a personal opinion, though ...
From: Cinefan on Thu Jun 9 1:51:44 2005.

Actually I didn't like Thenali when I saw it in theatre 4 1/2 years back.It followed kadhala kadhala&I began to wonder how Kamal could come up with two below avg comedies in a row.But when I saw both these movies on TV(Diwali sp film premiere)I thoroughly enjoyed them.Is it a case of two films being fit for home viewing or was I expecting too much when I first saw them.Anyone else with a similar experience?
From: Badri on Thu Jun 9 1:54:43 2005.

Didn't watch it in the theatre, but then I rarely do. Enjoyed Tenali at first viewing on TV! The resemblances to "What... " hit me at once, nevertheless, it was original enough to be thoroughly enjoyable.
From: Cinefan on Thu Jun 9 2:03:25 2005.

sbadri99 wrote:

Didn't watch it in the theatre, but then I rarely do.

Very bad.Watching a movie in a theatre is a different experience altogether.I hate to watch films on TV.At the same time it's not practical to watch all the films you want to see in the theatre.So I ensure that atleast I go to the cinema hall to watch films of Kamal,Manirathnam,Shankar&other movies which get very good reviews.

From: ramsri on Thu Jun 9 4:47:27 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Actually I didn't like Thenali when I saw it in theatre 4 1/2 years back.It followed kadhala kadhala&I began to wonder how Kamal could come up with two below avg comedies in a row.But when I saw both these movies on TV(Diwali sp film premiere)I thoroughly enjoyed them.Is it a case of two films being fit for home viewing or was I expecting too much when I first saw them.Anyone else with a similar experience?

i see what you mean

- remember watching 'Panchathanthiram' at the theatre and wondering what was so special about it. i mean, i found it amusing, no doubt ... but not over-the-top hilarious (which it was!). but the same film viewed on TV a couple of years later ... and the experience was entirely different. it was almost as if the gags were wittier, the jokes more funny and the timing sharper when viewed on TV. somehow, the atmosphere of a theatre seemed to take something away from that film.

From: Cinefan on Thu Jun 9 6:53:37 2005.

well,ramsri also has a similar experience though it's a different film.As I have posted before I hate to watch movies on TV with all those ad/news breaks.Even if you are watching on DVD,there will be interuptions like a visitor,child crying,lunch/dinner/snacks etc.The big screen has a charm which is unbeatable.That's why I was surprised as to how films which I didn't like in a theatre suddenly became enjoyable on the small screen.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Jun 9 8:54:54 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

well,ramsri also has a similar experience though it's a different film.As I have posted before I hate to watch movies on TV with all those ad/news breaks.Even if you are watching on DVD,there will be interuptions like a visitor,child crying,lunch/dinner/snacks etc.The big screen has a charm which is unbeatable.That's why I was surprised as to how films which I didn't like in a theatre suddenly became enjoyable on the small screen.

Interesting......
MX in theatre
first time - OK
Second time - Better
Third Time (Hindi) - Even better
Fourth time Hindi VCD (ORIGINAL!!) - Not as good as the third time.
Well, i guess the reason could be that you generally tend to enjoy comedies more if you hear the audience laughing around you. However, i never saw Sathi Leelavathy in a theatre, but to this day, i enjoy watching that.

One more quirk i have is i generally don't like to watch Kamal movies with friends who are not Kamal fans. Somehow i seem to be uncomfortable. I'd rather watch it alone.

alwarpet_andavan

From: r_un2001 on Thu Jun 9 11:18:21 2005.

MOVIE PRESENTATION STLYE OF "VIRUMANDI" COPIED FROM BRAZIALIAN MOVIE "CITY OF GOD".

ANYBODY SAW "CITY OF GOD"?

Kumar wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kumar wrote:

Virumaandi has been compared with Kurosawa's Yojimbo

Yojimbo va rashomon a ? because the latter is about multiple-versions of the same incident. But then you could say that about 'Andha Naal' too

From: Cinefan on Fri Jun 10 1:57:44 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

One more quirk i have is i generally don't like to watch Kamal movies with friends who are not Kamal fans. Somehow i seem to be uncomfortable. I'd rather watch it alone. Smile

alwarpet_andavan

Well well well,I have a soul mate

Till now I have never watched a Kamal film the first time with anyone else,it's always alone.Based on the experience I decide whether it should be watched again with friends/family.The reason is that I am a Kamal 'veriyan'&can't stand ppl close to me passing unsavoury comments if the film is not nice.I take criticism of his films but that's after some time has passed since the release&I have cooled down.In fact I believe that a film can be enjoyed on the big screen only when you don't go with a gang as the concentration levels are high.

From: Sanguine Sridhar on Fri Jun 10 2:21:00 2005.

Mumbai Express i would say its an another experiment by Kamalhassan...The taste of people in Tamilnadu wont synchronise his taste.People like movies like Avvai Shanmughi,Virumandi cauze..its very light concept.Just sit,relax and enjoy.I tell u what Aalavandhan is a superb concept...but wasted!
From: sanjay on Fri Jun 10 7:20:50 2005.

MX is a classic example to show kamal's mediocrity as a dialogue writer esspecially when it comes to comedy. Crazy mohan was orely missed.

There is notyhng very great or intelligent in the comedy in MX as is made out to be. It is all media hype. U are undermining the intelligence of the cine goers by saying so.
From: Cinefan on Fri Jun 10 7:31:09 2005.

Sanjay,it was Kamal's first attempt at writing comedy&please note he wanted to break away from the style of 'Crazy'.It might not have suceeded but I don't think the dialogues were mediocre,they were quite intelligent.But they were not of the 'Crazy' kind&ppl didn't accept it.
From: RATHEESHAJITH on Fri Jun 10 8:02:11 2005.

HOLLYWOODLA IRUNTHU COPY ADIKKARATHUM
ORU TALENT THAANE ???

NALLATHU SENJA PAARAATTANUM

From: Alien on Sat Jun 11 0:15:22 2005.

sanjay wrote:

MX is a classic example to show kamal's mediocrity as a dialogue writer esspecially when it comes to comedy. Crazy mohan was orely missed.

There is notyhng very great or intelligent in the comedy in MX as is made out to be. It is all media hype. U are undermining the intelligence of the cine goers by saying so.

Intelligence of cine goers in TN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who thoroughly enjoys classics such as CM or Thiruppachi....

Sorry for the digression, couldn't refrain myself from posting it.

From: Nerd on Sat Jun 11 0:17:46 2005.

vasanth_luv wrote:

sanjay wrote:

Intelligence of cine goers in TN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shocked

Who thoroughly enjoys classics such as CM or Thiruppachi....

Sorry for the digression, couldn't refrain myself from posting it.

**** Digression *****

MX had nothing to test the intelligence of its viewers too ***

as kamal's other hollywood copies

***End*******

From: Alien on Sat Jun 11 0:22:15 2005.

RATHEESHAJITH wrote:

HOLLYWOODLA IRUNTHU COPY ADIKKARATHUM
ORU TALENT THAANE ???

NALLATHU SENJA PAARAATTANUM

Well said ratheesh...

If copying from hollywood was so easy, then why tom or dick or raj.. or any other such dickhe*d couldn't do it? Instead keep doing the same stuff which has been repeated for decades....

From: Alien on Sat Jun 11 4:36:51 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

vasanth_luv wrote:

sanjay wrote:

Intelligence of cine goers in TN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shocked

Who thoroughly enjoys classics such as CM or Thiruppachi....

Sorry for the digression, couldn't refrain myself from posting it.

**** Digression *****

MX had nothing to test the intelligence of its viewers too ***

as kamal's other hollywood copies Very Happy

***End*******

And u say that based on what?

U went and talked to all 70 million ppl in TN......

I had seen some stupid ppl who couldn't understand Virumaandi , Guna,.......

Or u didn't mean these films and meant som other, by the word hollywood copies?

. U wanna clarify it?

From: Nerd on Sat Jun 11 5:00:23 2005.

Yeh yeh everybody here posts their opinions after making a survey or something..

I meant that MX is worse than any other recent kamal movies and as many guys in this thread quoted almost all the recent kamal movies were *inspired* from hollywood movies

did u get me??

From: alwarpet_andavan on Sat Jun 11 8:59:46 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

Yeh yeh everybody here posts their opinions after making a survey or something..

I meant that MX is worse than any other recent kamal movies and as many guys in this thread quoted almost all the recent kamal movies were *inspired* from hollywood movies

did u get me??

Nanbar Kasi Avargale,
Have you watched all the Hollywood movies that you allege Kamal has copied, or "inspired" as you sarcastically point out?
What he does is this: He takes either the core idea of the original, or some situational aspects (like "Planes...." for Anbe Sivam, where apart from the meeting at the airport, sharing a hotel room, there is no other significant similarity), but he never makes a frame-by-frame "copy".
If at all he is going to do a REMAKE, he will do it after obtaining the rights from the creator of the original, like he might do for a Spanish movie he is planning to remake. In fact, he has said in an interview that if he felt like remaking "The Signs", he wouldn't mind going to Shyamalan for the rights.

And if you think Hollywood stands on a higher pedestal of doing everything original, you would be wrong. The Magnificent Seven-Seven Samurai, Godfather (i know it's from Mario Puzo's book) was "inpired" by Shakespeare's King Lear, And more than one movie (Spanish, English) have been inspired by Kurosowa's Rashomon.

Theera visarikkanum nanba, theera visarikkanum

alwarpet_andavan

From: alwarpet_andavan on Sat Jun 11 9:08:02 2005.

sanjay wrote:

Sanjay,
With all due respect, what can i say about the intelligence of cine goers of this blessed land of ours, who are able to like and appreciate movies like "Thirupachi", "Samy", "Thirumalai" and what not??? By the same token, i can tell you are overestimating the intelligence of the same cine goers!

BTW, MX IMO didn't show that Kamal's dialogue writing was mediocre, but he included unwanted elements in the content of the movie. Two negatives i found in MX were rather verbose scenes in the beginning of the movie (maybe his dialogues were not the best in this part) and the Manisha Koirala bit. Apart from that, the movie was quite good.

alwarpet_andavan

From: alwarpet_andavan on Sat Jun 11 9:40:37 2005.

vasanth_luv wrote:

[
Well said ratheesh...
If copying from hollywood was so easy, then why tom or dick or raj.. or any other such dickhe*d couldn't do it? Very Happy

Instead keep doing the same stuff which has been repeated for decades.... Very Happy

Vasanth, enna idhu chinna pulla thanama, Rascal!
Unga aal Kamal madhiri naanga onnum Hollywood copy ellam panna mattom. Oru padathla vara vishayatha mattum thiruppi thiruppi matha padathukku copy adichuppom.
Puriyale??
1) Mandatory opening song glorifying and deifying the protagonist referred to from hereon as GOD
2) Slow-motion intro with spark's flying from GOD's shoes
3) First half shows GOD as a childish, gold-hearted person playing pranks and indulging in a brand of humor that only we (GOD-fans) can enjoy
4) Almost everybody turns against GOD and ditch him. GOD shows his other side in the second half. Throw in some unbelievable fights and a song which make you involuntarily walk with a surge of adrenaline (yes, after all he is GOD)
5) Every character in the movie (including those who are not in the movie like the light-boy etc) take every available opportunity to throw in dialogues to eulogise GOD. In fact, they do it off-screen too in interviews.
All these and much more. We reserve the right to copy the aforementioned formula in most of our movies. After all, we don't look at Hollywood like you Kamal fans, we just use "File-Save-As" on our previous film.

Above all, the folks at Time magazine were fools to list The Godfather and Nayagan in their best-100-movies list, not realizing that these were "copied" works of crap

Vasanth, did you understand????

alwarpet_andavan

From: Alien on Sat Jun 11 9:47:15 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

vasanth_luv wrote:

[
Well said ratheesh...
If copying from hollywood was so easy, then why tom or dick or raj.. or any other such dickhe*d couldn't do it? Very Happy

Instead keep doing the same stuff which has been repeated for decades.... Very Happy

Yes, Alwarpet_Andavan, I understood every word of it

.
Hope kasi and others too understand it

From: Nerd on Sat Jun 11 12:40:04 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

vasanth_luv wrote:

[
Well said ratheesh...
If copying from hollywood was so easy, then why tom or dick or raj.. or any other such dickhe*d couldn't do it? Very Happy

Instead keep doing the same stuff which has been repeated for decades.... Very Happy

nice points but Kamal came in as a GOD in many of his pre90 movies and u guys cud hav forgotten that.. I have told this in many threads that I m a great fan of kamal's serious movies no matter they were inspired or not.. and see kamal has given many stupid movies before the 90s (the same GOD thing and even worse, I can quote atleast 10) and a few stupid movies after the 90s.. never mind.. I dont want to start a clash between A and B..

Also u say that samy, thiruppachi even CM are stupid movies.. agreed.. what about MX?? was that any better than these?? that was my whole point!!

The title of tis thread is kamal's hollywood *copies* not inspirations and thats why i used the word copies in my earlier post and not sarcastically as u guys pointed out..

Yes true a_a i havent seen all the hollywood movies quoted by you guys but i can boast that I have seen atleast a few of them..

let me quote a few inspirations and i m sure someone else wud hav already quoted that:

Thenali - what about bob
PT - very bad things
guna - rain man
avvai shanmughi - Mrs. Doubtfire

and about nayakan, thats one of the best movies ever made in tamil cinema and I salute the acting of KH in that but atleast 50% of the credits should goto MR...

From: Crab on Sat Jun 11 12:45:08 2005.

What?

Guna = Rain Man!?

No way!!!!

Do you know Rain Man was the biggest blockbuster of 1988? I think it had Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. It played in 1,590 screens worldwide at its peak!

Source - imdb.com

From: Nerd on Sat Jun 11 12:48:46 2005.

Crab wrote:

What?

Guna = Rain Man!?

No way!!!! Shocked

Do you know Rain Man was the biggest of 1988? I think it had Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. It played in 1,590 screens worldwide at its peak!

Source - imdb.com

Crab,

I never said that some movie = some other movie... I just said it was inspired... no sarcasm..

Rain man, successfully framed the plot around a character incapable of emotional development. and ther r a few scenes which were inspired from Rm in Guna.l.. thats why..

From: Crab on Sat Jun 11 12:50:53 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

Crab wrote:

What?

Guna = Rain Man!?

No way!!!! Shocked

Do you know Rain Man was the biggest of 1988? I think it had Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. It played in 1,590 screens worldwide at its peak!

Source - imdb.com

Hmm... That's interesting!

I have reserved the DVD of Rain Man. It should be on mail this week. Let me watch and comment on it.

From: Nerd on Sat Jun 11 13:07:16 2005.

Rm is a very good watch.. u ll enjoy it.. and I believe david huffman got an oscar for his mindblowing performance!!
From: vasanthkv on Sat Jun 11 14:32:58 2005.

Rainman is must see movie. I agree with you. Guna and Rainman have some similarities. I would not say its a copy. DustinHoffman is alltime great in the movie.
From: ramsri on Mon Jun 13 1:01:02 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

Rm is a very good watch.. u ll enjoy it.. and I believe david huffman got an oscar for his mindblowing performance!!

that's right - all time classic film. one scene i remember in particular (there were many memorable scenes in the film, but this one has stuck in my memory) in which charlie (cruise) is trying to explain to raymond (hoffman) about the complications regarding their father's will -

charlie: listen, ray, our dad died, that means he's not with us anymore. did they tell you about that?
raymond: i don't know
charlie: what don't you know? you don't know if they told you or you don't know that he died or you don't know what death is?
raymond: i don't know

aside from the parallels drawn between this film and 'Guna', i wonder if kamal has ever considered remaking 'Rain Man' and giving himself the lead role - it would be a great challenge for him to play a raymond babbit-ish character, with one of these younger actors (surya, maybe?) taking tom cruise's role. definitely a mouth-watering prospect.
From: Alien on Mon Jun 13 1:19:54 2005.

Yeah, sounds cool n gr8 8) 8)

From: alwarpet_andavan on Mon Jun 13 2:42:09 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

Crab wrote:

What?

Guna = Rain Man!?

No way!!!! Shocked

Do you know Rain Man was the biggest of 1988? I think it had Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. It played in 1,590 screens worldwide at its peak!

Source - imdb.com

C'mon Kasi, you gotta be kidding here. Rain Man is one of my favorite movies and so is Guna and i can categorically state that they are as different as chalk and cheese. If you say Guna was copied or inspired from Rain Man, i have to say Pulp Fiction was inspired from Mahabharatha and what not??????
Man, this is the height.....

And people, you can watch "Planes...." and decide if Anbe Sivam was copied from it or not.

And Kasi,
Kamal sure did a lot of crap and so has every actor to walk the face of this planet. The point is this: His good work outweighs his bad ones hands down. And, i still stand by my word that GOD copying from his own in every recent movie is way better than Kamal copying/getting inspired from Hollywood. Let's teach brats like Crab and Vasanth a lesson

alwarpet_andavan

From: alwarpet_andavan on Mon Jun 13 2:46:53 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

Rm is a very good watch.. u ll enjoy it.. and I believe david huffman got an oscar for his mindblowing performance!!

It's Dustin Hoffman, by the way....

It's a story of two brothers - Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. It's basically about the struggle between Tom's dreams, love and monetary pursuit vs his love, loyalty and duty towards his autistic brother, played brilliantly by Dustin.

In fact, talking about similarities, Guna was schizophrenic, Dustin played an autistic man. Well, both are forms of mental conditions, but there ends the similarity. The only other shred of similarity is there's a scene - a long shot showing Tom and Dustin travelling through a highway (more than one scene, actually) in a car which reminded (remember, only reminded, i'm not talking about copying here) me of Anbe Sivam

alwarpet_andavan

alwarpet_andavan
From: Kumar on Mon Jun 13 22:18:13 2005.

Hi Guys,
Just back from a short break. Long weekend here: Queen's Birthday (Happy Birthday Rani amma.)

Anyway, I think it was discussed (and established) that Guna and Rain Man have nothing to do with each other, as pointed out by some of you.

Just saw Mumbai E and CMukhi over the weekend (VCD of course. My apologies to the puritans, but under my current situation, beggars can't be choosers). I personally feel that the script/dialogue in ME was pretty witty. No, it wasn't Crazy Mohan's stuff, but it was suitable for a movie like ME. It was clever, witty and subdued when necessary. Plus the delivery played a crucial part. Scenes like Avinash's and the Insurance agent's tangent conversation on Telegu and Tamil in the middle of Pasupathy's kidnapping plan was hilarious. The deadpan delivery was also great; the 1st scene where Pasupathy narrates the plan while the visuals show him dangling from the crane and flying past the school and over the highway was just funny. The kids singing Vandhe Matharam while Kamal tries to scale the crane is just one of a kind and will probably be remembered as one of the most funniest scenes in Indian cinema.

I can seriously see this movie being screened in countries like Australia in cinemas specialising in foreign films. It just needs to be tighter. The ending may also need to be more detailed as I thought that it was wrapped up abruptly.

From: Nerd on Tue Jun 14 0:11:47 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Hi Guys,
Just back from a short break. Long weekend here: Queen's Birthday (Happy Birthday Rani amma.)

Anyway, I think it was discussed (and established) that Guna and Rain Man have nothing to do with each other, as pointed out by some of you.

Just saw Mumbai E and CMukhi over the weekend (VCD of course. My apologies to the puritans, but under my current situation, beggars can't be choosers). I personally feel that the script/dialogue in ME was pretty witty. No, it wasn't Crazy Mohan's stuff, but it was suitable for a movie like ME. It was clever, witty and subdued when necessary. Plus the delivery played a crucial part. Scenes like Avinash's and the Insurance agent's tangent conversation on Telegu and Tamil in the middle of Pasupathy's kidnapping plan was hilarious. The deadpan delivery was also great; the 1st scene where Pasupathy narrates the plan while the visuals show him dangling from the crane and flying past the school and over the highway was just funny. The kids singing Vandhe Matharam while Kamal tries to scale the crane is just one of a kind and will probably be remembered as one of the most funniest scenes in Indian cinema.

I can seriously see this movie being screened in countries like Australia in cinemas specialising in foreign films. It just needs to be tighter. The ending may also need to be more detailed as I thought that it was wrapped up abruptly.

You are a hardcore kamal fan

Now I know how much u luv kamal..

From: ramsri on Tue Jun 14 1:17:01 2005.

Kumar wrote:

I personally feel that the script/dialogue in ME was pretty witty. No, it wasn't Crazy Mohan's stuff, but it was suitable for a movie like ME. It was clever, witty and subdued when necessary. Plus the delivery played a crucial part.

talking of MX, one line i remember from the film is kamal asking the little fat boy his age:

Avinasi: Daddu, onakku ennappa vayasu aavudhu?
Daddu: Navambar vandha pannandu
Avinasi: Ada ennappa sandeghama sollra, navambar kandippa varumpa!!

From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 1:29:16 2005.

I too saw the movie this Sunday, but in theatre (he he too late nah?)

Yeah, the dialogues were very witty in MX. I don't see any problems in the dialogues part as pointed out by some Rajni fans.....
As kumar told it wasn't Crazy mohan stuff neither was Crazy needed there...
Kamal has tried to accomplish the humor in a quite unconventional manner as compared to his previous comedy movies with Crazy, or compared to the usual tamil cine comedy stuff like Vadivelu's ..........

I too felt that the Climax was wrapped up abruptly... I wouldn't have bothered abt the climax if it was another tamil film, but since it's a Kamal film, yeah it looks odd.....

On the negative side, the scenes in the middle(pre n post interval) were quite lagging especially at Manisha's house.......
Other than that a good watch indeed 8)
From: sanjay on Tue Jun 14 1:34:41 2005.

I think kamal fans are going abit overboard on the conmdy part in MX. At best, it was good in parts & peices. Crazy mohan would definitely have done a better job.

Not everybaody can write dialogues for comedy films. Kamal must realise that. I hope he has after this debacle.

From: Kumar on Tue Jun 14 1:40:24 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

Kumar wrote:

You are a hardcore kamal fan Laughing

Now I know how much u luv kamal.. Laughing

...just like you love your Rajini.

PS: I like Kamal so much that I have no qualms in criticising his movies, just as I praise him; like I said, the movie could have been tighter, and the ending should not have been abrupt.

I also like Rajini enough to do the same. That's why I will say that Rajini flying 10 meters across a room horizontally to tip a tea cup off Prabhu's hand in CM will also be remembered as one of the most funniest scenes in Indian cinema....even though the intention was different.

From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 1:43:33 2005.

sanjay wrote:

I think kamal fans are going abit overboard on the conmdy part in MX. At best, it was good in parts & peices. Crazy mohan would definitely have done a better job.

Not everybaody can write dialogues for comedy films. Kamal must realise that. I hope he has after this debacle.

U r going too overboard on worrying too much abt Kamal's job

Even Sathi leelavathi which is now termed as a classic, wasn't received at all at that time.

From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 1:49:54 2005.

Kumar wrote:

That's why I will say that Rajini flying 10 meters across a room horizontally to tip a tea cup off Prabhu's hand in CM will also be remembered as one of the most funniest scenes in Indian cinema....even though the intention was different. Mr. Green

From: sanjay on Tue Jun 14 1:51:05 2005.

Sathi had dialogues by crazy & was received very well even at the time of release.
From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 1:56:08 2005.

sanjay wrote:

Sathi had dialogues by crazy & was received very well even at the time of release.

received well by whom???? Then why was it a average/flop grosser??
It obviously would have been received well by Kamal fans , so is MX
From: sanjay on Tue Jun 14 2:01:02 2005.

sathi was a hit & not an average grosser. U have got the facts wrong.
From: RajaRam on Tue Jun 14 3:39:30 2005.

Gracy Mohan has written dialogues in some other non kamal movies.
1.vietnam colony(prabhu - hero)
2.pandiyarajan movie(forgot the name).

both were bombed in boxoffice.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Jun 14 4:23:07 2005.

RajaRam wrote:

Gracy Mohan has written dialogues in some other non kamal movies.
1.vietnam colony(prabhu - hero)
2.pandiyarajan movie(forgot the name).

both were bombed in boxoffice.

Vakkali appadi podu pangu

BTW Vasanth, Sanjay is right about Sathi.... being a hit

alwarpet_andavan
From: sanjay on Tue Jun 14 4:29:38 2005.

I am not talking abt crazy mohan's dialogue in other actor's films. Almost every kamal fim for which he has written the dialogue, is a hit. That is my point.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Jun 14 4:30:17 2005.

Kumar wrote:

kasi_sce wrote:

Kumar wrote:

You are a hardcore kamal fan Laughing

Now I know how much u luv kamal.. Laughing

<Digression>
As far as i know, i have hardly seen any Rajni fan offering even a critique (critique is not necessarily criticism) of his films.
</Digression>

alwarpet_andavan

From: Nerd on Tue Jun 14 4:36:12 2005.

a_a

I ve seen that many times in this forum and I hav criticized CM more than any other rajini fan here.. I posted a review for CM as well..

The thing is that calling that tickling scene (vandematram) as one of the funniest comedies in indian cinema, that beats me!
From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Jun 14 4:44:03 2005.

kasi_sce wrote:

a_a

I ve seen that many times in this forum and I hav criticized CM more than any other rajini fan here.. I posted a review for CM as well..

OK, sorry about that
....but still not many Rajni fans do that

kasi_sce wrote:

The thing is that calling that tickling scene (vandematram) as one of the funniest comedies in indian cinema, that beats me!

I found it quite funny. Had they retained the original Vande Mataram song it would have been even better. In fact, this was liked by many when i watched it in the theatres.

alwarpet_andavan
From: Nerd on Tue Jun 14 4:46:34 2005.

that was funny but extremely unbelievable.. nowhere close to other kamal's classics like mmkr, thenali, SL etc..,

sorry a_a and other kamal fans for the digression caused by me
From: RajaRam on Tue Jun 14 5:00:38 2005.

Even Kamal-Crazy combination
kadhala...kadhala and Panchadhantiram were not hit movies.
From: sanjay on Tue Jun 14 5:04:37 2005.

I agree. But they were average hits, not flops.
From: RajaRam on Tue Jun 14 5:05:13 2005.

In fact thenali was one of the kamal's crap movies like singaravelan and PKS.
But it became super hit. the reason was thenali(kamal's commercial movie) was released after 4 years.(last movies was AS -diwali-1996,thenali-diwali-2000)

From: Nerd on Tue Jun 14 5:10:12 2005.

RajaRam wrote:

In fact thenali was one of the kamal's crap movies like singaravelan and PKS.
But it became super hit. the reason was thenali(kamal's commercial movie) was released after 4 years.(last movies was AS -diwali-1996,thenali-diwali-2000)

hmm SV and thenali craps... never knew that

From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Jun 14 5:17:24 2005.

Take Kamal's brilliant performance out of thenali and there's nothing in the movie. RajaRam is right, it was not a great movie by any means.
And Kadhala Kadhala is an example to show without a tight script and scope for performances, Crazy's dialoguesd alone are no big deal. At times, they are tedious. In fact, with all due respect, Crazy's Janaki-Mythili brand of "Brahmin saba" comedy are generally very predictable. Of course, he is great in his own right but he is also human like everybody and has done some bad work as well.

alwarpet_andavan
From: RajaRam on Tue Jun 14 5:22:49 2005.

Apoorva sahodararhal,SL,Thenali,VRMBBS(KAMal & crazy combination hits)were became hits due to KAMAL performance only not due to crazy.
Mahalimattum became hit due to -story(female subject) + crazy mohan +Raj kamal banner.
From: breadpuli on Tue Jun 14 6:15:45 2005.

Wo wrote dialogs for Singaravelan?
It had some crazy type dialogs, for example, "sariya peru vacheenge Autonnu, aatto aattunnu aatireengale"
From: Poornima on Tue Jun 14 6:24:25 2005.

panchu arunachalam wrote the dialogues, i think. singaravelan had some cool, though at times crass, comedy. koundamani was deadly 8)
From: RajaRam on Tue Jun 14 6:43:52 2005.

poornima,
eppadima irukke?aalaiye kaanom.
From: breadpuli on Tue Jun 14 6:49:43 2005.

Quote:

panchu arunachalam wrote the dialogues, i think. singaravelan had some cool, though at times crass, comedy. koundamani was deadly

Yes, koundamani was very good. Also vadivelu. Was this his 1st movie?
It had good songs too.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Jun 14 7:25:05 2005.

breadpuli wrote:

Quote:

panchu arunachalam wrote the dialogues, i think. singaravelan had some cool, though at times crass, comedy. koundamani was deadly

Yes, koundamani was very good. Also vadivelu. Was this his 1st movie?
It had good songs too.

Vadivel's first was "RajKiran' s En Rasavin Manasile i think. However, it was in SV that Kamal spotted Vadivel (Vadivel getting ill-treated by Kounder, according to Vadivel in his series in Anandha Vikatan)

alwarpet_andavan

From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 7:42:43 2005.

Thenali crap????????
By no means, never!!!
What r u guys talkin? U guys have gone too overboard
From: Poornima on Tue Jun 14 7:44:15 2005.

rajaram
naan nalla thaan irukken. am yet to get over the demise of the CM vs MX thread neenga eppdi irukkeenga?

yeah, even vadivel was good.. i like that scene in the restaurant where this old flautist is performing. after the performance, khushbu kisses his hand or something and koundar breaks into his trademark lollu... "avar enamma perisa pannaar? oru kuchi eduthu vechu aramani neramaa etho pannittu irunthaar. inga adinga oru kissa (taking kamal's hand)... paarunga, kai seva sevennu irukku!" i still think the likes of vivek have to do a lot of catching up to do when it comes to koundar (i'm not particularly fond of his combo with senthil, but when it comes to deadpan delivery and lollu, though at times abusive, he's up there 8) )

psst: btw, aren't we digressing here?
From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 7:59:02 2005.

Digression? Mmmm perhaps....

Ok poornima, if u could find out from where Kamal copied/inspired Singaravelan then we could continue on Singaravelan....
From: RajaRam on Tue Jun 14 8:02:38 2005.

Poornima,

CM 100 days odumam.
Rajinifans.com-la solranga.

50 days otturadhukke mukki mukki ottinanugha naga theatre-la.
http://rajinifans.com/CM_Theater/Bang.asp
From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 8:05:44 2005.

Raja ram !!!

Now this is really digression. Don't bring CM here and another war
cheers 8)
From: Poornima on Tue Jun 14 8:18:25 2005.

hmmm... nah, i don't think SV was copied/inspired from any other movie

but just a thought, there has been a lot of talk here about parallels between guna and rain man, which i thought didn't make much sense. however, i've always found some stray similarities between the character guna and lennie small, the protagonist of steinbeck's classic book "of mice and men". john malkowich played the role in the movie version. i'm not talking about the movie, just the characterisation. what do you think?

and unlike someone said here, guna wasn't scripted by kamal. the screenplay was by ace malayalam script writer of the 90s sab john (a good friend of kamal, he also did a terrorist cameo in kuruthipunal) and the dialogues were by balakumaran. now, sab john also scripted a rather forgettable malayalam film called suryamaanasam with a buck-toothed mammootty where the plot has more striking similarities to "of mice and men". i think john was deifinitely inspired when he wrote guna. what say?
From: Alien on Tue Jun 14 8:25:22 2005.

Mmm no idea!
Lets see what others say
From: RajaRam on Tue Jun 14 8:52:48 2005.

guna's story was written by Sabjohn and screenplay was by kamal.

From: ramsri on Tue Jun 14 12:37:08 2005.

Poornima wrote:

but just a thought, there has been a lot of talk here about parallels between guna and rain man, which i thought didn't make much sense. however, i've always found some stray similarities between the character guna and lennie small, the protagonist of steinbeck's classic book "of mice and men". john malkowich played the role in the movie version. i'm not talking about the movie, just the characterisation. what do you think?

hmm ... interesting thought, yes - guess the perceived similarity between the guna and lennie characters stems from the fact that they are both people with an extremely limited understanding of the world around them. but while lennie is actually retarded, guna is simply unbalanced. in 'of mice and men', lennie's mental condition and the fact that he doesn't realize his own strength, causes enormous problems for his brother (played by gary sinise, who also directed the film, i think??) ... while in 'guna' kamal's character leans more towards the obsessive rather than the lunatic.

From: ramsri on Tue Jun 14 13:20:18 2005.

sanjay wrote:

I think kamal fans are going abit overboard on the conmdy part in MX. At best, it was good in parts & peices. Crazy mohan would definitely have done a better job.

so many opinions on this, i just couldn't resist getting in there and putting some points across!

okay, here's the run-down on MX - i would agree partially with sanjay's brief verdict. meaning, i agree with him when he says crazy mohan would probably have done a better job. and i'll tell you why. i remember martin scorsese once talking about the layman's perception of comedy ... he said most people regard comedy as a few funny-looking people, doing corny dialogues with crazy expressions. but real comedy (according to scorsese), is when you have good-looking actors mumbling crazy dialogues with straight faces. now, if their track record is anything to go by, both singeetham and kamal are major exponents of this art. and i'm sure both of them have realized over the years that the major factor in all their successful ventures has been the dialogue. however, i felt that with MX, there more than a few places where the dialogues fell a little flat. they somehow lacked that punch ... that vital ingredient which drives home the point and brings out the giggles. with crazy mohan penning the lines, i have a feeling the humour, however subtle, would've been more effectively brought out.
i somehow found this anomaly with dialogues was even more noticeable in MX because most of the situations were genuinely funny, the characterizations bang on target. and this only served to underline the absence of genuinely funny dialogue. it's quite easy to see what singeetham was trying to do - he was trying to create an atmosphere straight out of a wodehouse book ... where all the characters are corny, nothing serious ever happens and the story just takes you on a pleasure trip where you don't ever have to worry about where it's going or how it's going to end ... basically, the destination loses significance as the journey becomes an end in itself. great concept, but slightly flawed execution. someone made the point about the first half of the film being slightly verbose - i couldn't agree more. and while i personally would hand a lot of credit to kamal for taking this bold step and doing the dialogues on his own, i somehow still believe that film itself would've been better if crazy had done the job.

bottom line - MX will definitely not be counted up there with other singeetham gems ... the likes of MMKR, Magalir Mattum and Apoorva Sagotharargal ... and frankly i'm a little disappointed with that.
From: ramsri on Tue Jun 14 13:23:02 2005.

sanjay wrote:

Not everybaody can write dialogues for comedy films. Kamal must realise that. I hope he has after this debacle.

but having said all that ... sanjay, i still think you're being a little hard on kamal when you call the film a 'debacle' ... no, i don't think it was as bad as that! in fact, it wasn't bad at all. it just wasn't as good as it could have been. and the very fact that we expect so much from kamal stands testimony to his monumental talents. also, i have this uneasy feeling that all the criticism about the dialogue is magnified because it's targeted at kamal. it may be just my imagination at work, but i think the opinions would've been more a lot less biased and lot more objective if someone else had done the dialogues. who knows, a lot of people may even have lauded the effort!

also, remember that kamal isn't exactly a veteran when it comes to dialogue-writing. and while it's no secret that the guy can do just about anything he wants (acting, directing, singing, screenwriting, dialogue-writing) if he puts his mind to it, we must grant that MX is a good start. i hope he doesn't stop writing dialogues after this ... he can only get better at it!

From: Girish11 on Tue Jun 14 16:11:26 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Take Kamal's brilliant performance out of thenali and there's nothing in the movie. RajaRam is right, it was not a great movie by any means.
And Kadhala Kadhala is an example to show without a tight script and scope for performances, Crazy's dialoguesd alone are no big deal. At times, they are tedious. In fact, with all due respect, Crazy's Janaki-Mythili brand of "Brahmin saba" comedy are generally very predictable. Of course, he is great in his own right but he is also human like everybody and has done some bad work as well.

alwarpet_andavan

A-A, I think Jayaram deserves a mention for his perfomance
in Thenali. I feel he performed quite well in Thenali.

In fact, probably in VRMBBS, it would have been better if
Jayaram had played the part of the doctor, i.e Sneha's father.
Anyone seen the original version Munnabhai? I dont know the
name of the actor who place the same role as Gracy singh's
father but he is a very good actor, he had given an excellent
perfomance and it is sad the Prakashraj could not do justice
to that role, probably Jayaram could have done better.

Also, Gracy singh was much better than Sneha in the original
version, Gracy looked more innocent, more cuter and that smile
she gives was a huge huge plus point to the original version
which VR lacked. I feel with Jayaram and Gracy singh herself
playing those roles and someone else in place of Prabhu, VR
would have been 30% better.

From: Nerd on Tue Jun 14 22:12:24 2005.

Quote:

A-A, I think Jayaram deserves a mention for his perfomance
in Thenali. I feel he performed quite well in Thenali.

True. Jayaram's performance was as good as kamal's, if not better particularly in that movie!! He was responsible for the whole laugh riot!![/quote]
From: sanjay on Wed Jun 15 0:29:10 2005.

Comparing VRMBBS & munnabhai, having seen both I can surely say that kamla breezed thro' his role with ease. Also, the dialogues were a lot funnier in a few scenes. I am not decrying the hindi version though.

Only sore point was while arshad warsi had a goood role, poor prabhu's role was chopped off. That is another weak point of kamal. He did it to arjun in kurudhipunal also.

(Now I know kamal fans are waiting to pounce on me)

Boman Irani played prakash raj's part in munnabhai.

From: ramsri on Wed Jun 15 0:40:36 2005.

sanjay wrote:

Comparing VRMBBS & munnabhai, having seen both I can surely say that kamla breezed thro' his role with ease.

Only sore point was while arshad warsi had a goood role, poor prabhu's role was chopped off.

agree with sanjay ... warsi's was a standout performance as munna's 'chamcha', Circuit - while prabhu's part in VRMBBS was nothing to write home about.
another interesting observation about the two films comes from the chemistry between the don and his aide ... the sanjay dutt - arshad warsi duo were really funny (the best scenes in the film are the ones in which these two share the screen). somehow, in spite of kamal being at his best in VR, that X-factor was missing when it came to the scenes between him and prabhu.

one of my friends summed it up the best, when he made this remark while watching one of the VRMBBS trailers:

dei, ennada ivanga rendu peyarla yaaru dada yaaru adiaalunnu theriyave maatengudhu!

definitely one area where munna bhai scored over its tamil counterpart.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 4:19:02 2005.

sanjay wrote:

Only sore point was while arshad warsi had a goood role, poor prabhu's role was chopped off. That is another weak point of kamal. He did it to arjun in kurudhipunal also.

(Now I know kamal fans are waiting to pounce on me)

Boman Irani played prakash raj's part in munnabhai.

Annan/Thambi Sanjay avargale,
1) Prabhu's role being truncated was not Kamal's mistake. He took no major decisions in this movie. He himself admitted that they ahd to literally wake him up for the shots.
Sanjay, please stop the habit of blaming Kamal even if it rains in Russia.

2) I don't know who started this but this is one piece doing the rounds for a very long time - "Kamal wants to dominate.... he wants to be in every frame". I'm really sick and tired of it. And to mention Kurudhippunal is just tooooooooo much. What did he do to Arjun? Even if someone watches KP after downing 8 large rounds of Old Monk, he/she will acknowledge the weightage of Arjun's character.

3)Take Sathi Leelavathi for example. If you measure Kamal's screen time it will not be great. He does not come in many scenes but the IMPACT is deadly when he comes.

alwarpet_andavan

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 4:27:32 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

A-A, I think Jayaram deserves a mention for his perfomance
in Thenali. I feel he performed quite well in Thenali.

I realized this after i made this post, but free-a vittutten
Yeah, Jayaram did a good job also.

alwarpet_andavan

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 4:43:21 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Poornima wrote:

Any idea where i can get a VCD of that movie in Chennai (or Bangalore) - in Richard's (Shalini's brother) shop????

Ramsri,
Guna, more than anything else, had this bottom line: Sanity and insanity are relative and the society at large is sometimes more insane than the people whom we call "insane".

In the movie,
Roshini : Nee paithiyam illa Guna. Kaasukkaga aasapadra enga chithappa madhiri irukkaravanga thaan paithiyam, Pana paithiyam (Not verbatim, but something like that)
Guna: Adhathaan naanum sonnen, enna paithiyam nu sollittanga

alwarpet_andavan

From: sanjay on Wed Jun 15 4:46:46 2005.

andava,
Don't tell me kamal did not call the shots in VRMBBS. I can't laugh enough.

U may feel sick, but the fact is this - kamal dominates & chops others' roles. There are far too many egs which have don't require repeatition.

Have U seen Drohkaal? Seems like U have ot. Then U will know the real "weightage" of arjun's character. U need not waste old monk for that. It was a parallel role in the hindi version whereas it was a guest role for arju in tamil.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 4:54:50 2005.

sanjay wrote:

andava,
Don't tell me kamal did not call the shots in VRMBBS. I can't laugh enough.

Laughter's the best medicine!

sanjay wrote:

U may feel sick, but the fact is this - kamal dominates & chops others' roles. There are far too many egs which have don't require repeatition.

There are beliefs, facts and myth. What you've said above is a myth which won't pass the test of simple unbiased observation.

sanjay wrote:

Have U seen Drohkaal? Seems like U have ot. Then U will know the real "weightage" of arjun's character. U need not waste old monk for that. It was a parallel role in the hindi version whereas it was a guest role for arju in tamil.

Yes, i haven't watched Drohkaal in its entirety and i'll check out Naseer's role again. (Arjun's role was played by Naseer wasn't it?)
And don't worry, Old Monk is my best friend, and OM consumed is never wasted

alwarpet_andavan

From: sanjay on Wed Jun 15 4:59:36 2005.

andava,

Laughter's the best medicine! - Right.

U also take it. then U will agree with me.

regarding point 2, it will need seperate thread to fight it out.
From: Nerd on Wed Jun 15 5:01:19 2005.

sanjay wrote:

andava,

Laughter's the best medicine! - Right.

U also take it. then U will agree with me.

regarding point 2, it will need seperate thread to fight it out.

seperate thread...

started by sanjay.. 1000 posts all by sanjay.. or if he is smarter, 1000 posts by sanjay using diff handles

sorry guys, for the digression!
From: Poornima on Wed Jun 15 5:03:04 2005.

i think you can get "of mice and men" at bangalore's cinema paradiso.

i don't think arjun should have complaints about his outing in KP. he did a brilliant job as abbas which was shaped even better than kamal's (aadikeshavan?)... after all, re-playing a role done by someone like naseeruddin shah is no mean ask. he did fine.

about VR, prabhu was miscast. as simple as that. i read somewhere that saran wanted kalabhavan mani in the role, but kamal had reservations because he thought mani, with his crowd-pleasing style, could walk away with the honours. don't know what happened really, but mani would've been definitely better than prabhu. arshad warsi's was a terrific turn in munnabhai and among other reasons, i think the actor's desperation to return to big time bollywood also fuelled this performance.

as films, both drohkaal and munnabhai stand above the remakes. interestingly, there were also talks about munnabhai being inspired from "patch adams". maybe in parts, but i thought PA was more or less a pretentious weepie but MB was just rollicking fun. of course, vidhu vinod chopra in trademark arrogance, went on record that MB is much better than PA
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 5:09:35 2005.

Has anyone here seen The English Patient, directed by Sam Minghella, starring Ralph Fiennes of Schindler's List fame?? It picked up many Oscars.
IMO, it's a deadly movie with very good performances, cinematography and BGM (especially the Hungarian folk song, haunts the life out of you!).

When i watched it, the narrative style reminded me of Hey Ram. Remember, only the narrative style and not the content - though i think it was released before Hey Ram was, it is not a copy or inspiration for Hey Ram.
The screenplay is in present-past-present-past mode like Hey Ram. The dying patient, the nurse, the patient being hidden (a ditch in Hey Ram, an abandoned building in EP), times of strife (riots in HR, WW2 in EP) are all common points.

When i pointed this out to my friend who had recommended this movie to me in the first place, he said he didn't feel the similiarity when he watched the EP.
I wonder how many of you people felt about it............

alwarpet_andavan
From: sanjay on Wed Jun 15 5:18:23 2005.

well said, poornima.

"about VR, prabhu was miscast. as simple as that. i read somewhere that saran wanted kalabhavan mani in the role, but kamal had reservations because he thought mani, with his crowd-pleasing style, could walk away with the honours"

If I say he same thing, kamal fans fight with me.

In fact during the casting K.mani was to have played the role but for the reasons mentioned above by U, he was replaced by prabhu.

Seriously speaking I would like to record one incident her. (I know kamal fans will not like it)

A friend of mine happened to be kamal's secretary for some time (during the thevar magan days). Among the many plus points & minus points which he used to tell me, he told me that insecurity was one of kamal's biggest weakness. At first even I did not believe it. But seeing his track record of chopping other's roles, I have come to realise that it is true.

Do not know why a supremely talented person like kamal should have such fears, but that is the way it is.

Of course he has lots of plusses which I will reveal in due course. It is not something that U have/will read in the press. I can assure U that.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 5:23:01 2005.

Poornima wrote:

i think you can get "of mice and men" at bangalore's cinema paradiso.

Will check it out. In fact, have a long back-log of To-Watch movies.........

Poornima wrote:

i don't think arjun should have complaints about his outing in KP. he did a brilliant job as abbas which was shaped even better than kamal's (aadikeshavan?)... after all, re-playing a role done by someone like naseeruddin shah is no mean ask. he did fine.

Yeah, Arjun sure did a good job. Apart from Rhythm and Gentleman (to a little extent. I didn't like the movie very much), this was the only good role he has done.

Poornima wrote:

but kamal had reservations because he thought mani, with his crowd-pleasing style, could walk away with the honours. don't know what happened really,

I disagree. If Kamal was insecure about an obscure Kalabhavan Mani, god save him from the oblivion of filmhood! How can one explain the weightage given to Madhavan in the classic Anbe Sivam? If Kamal were to have reservations or insecurity, it would have been more so in the case of Maddy than with Mani, IMHO.
That said, Kalabhavan Mani is a terrific actor who's been wasted in the Tamil industry. He rightfully belongs in the Malayalam industry.
And yes, he would have been a better choice.

alwarpet_andavan

From: sanjay on Wed Jun 15 5:28:35 2005.

alwarpet,

Understand. For every anbe sivam _ U have VRMBBS, kuruthipunal, vetri vizha,hey ram etc., etc.,

Exceptions cannot become the rule.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 5:31:56 2005.

sanjay wrote:

well said, poornima.

"about VR, prabhu was miscast. as simple as that. i read somewhere that saran wanted kalabhavan mani in the role, but kamal had reservations because he thought mani, with his crowd-pleasing style, could walk away with the honours"

If I say he same thing, kamal fans fight with me.

In fact during the casting K.mani was to have played the role but for the reasons mentioned above by U, he was replaced by prabhu.

Seriously speaking I would like to record one incident her. (I know kamal fans will not like it)

A friend of mine happened to be kamal's secretary for some time (during the thevar magan days). Among the many plus points & minus points which he used to tell me, he told me that insecurity was one of kamal's biggest weakness. At first even I did not believe it. But seeing his track record of chopping other's roles, I have come to realise that it is true.

Do not know why a supremely talented person like kamal should have such fears, but that is the way it is.

Of course he has lots of plusses which I will reveal in due course. It is not something that U have/will read in the press. I can assure U that.

Sanjay,
Naanga (Kamal Fans) Anbe Sivam ennum thathuvathai kadaipidikka virumbaravanga. Aana appappo naangale vekkappadumpadi sandaila eedupaduvadhum undu. Thanippatta thaakkudhal (personal attack enbaargal aangilathil) nadakkaama inimelavadhu pathukka muyarchippom. Aaga, neengal sollum karuthai edirpathu sandai aagadhu.

FYI,
Kamal's office was previously in my father's "maami" i.e aunt's place in T.T.K Road, right opposite to Ethiraj Kalyana mandapam. And to this day, my father's aunt is a Kamal fan (she fights with my mom/dad who don't like Kamal movies these days). I would say that he doesn't have the insecurity you are talking about. Well, the two views are just yours and mine, and the real fact might prove me/you wrong.. who knows?????

alwarpet_andavan

From: Poornima on Wed Jun 15 5:38:08 2005.

haven't seen the english patient but i thought michael ondaatje's book from where it was adapted, was brilliant.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 5:48:00 2005.

Poornima wrote:

haven't seen the english patient but i thought michael ondaatje's book from where it was adapted, was brilliant.

It's German, right? There was an article in the Sunday Magazine (The Hindu) on Kajuraho. The columnist mentioned that this book was available in one of the stalls.

The reason i mentioned this movie is firstly because it reminded me of HR, but also because had it been a more commercial, typical (if you will) Hollywood movie, our makkal would have included it in the Kamal's Hollywood Copies list, which is quite unfair.

And here's a site where you can find the screenplays for many English movies (including The English Patient).
http://www.dailyscript.com/movie.html

alwarpet_andavan
From: sanjay on Wed Jun 15 6:08:16 2005.

andavare,

Oru kelvi.

Tamuizha kamalhaasan rasigar narpani iyyakam oda thalamai office TTk roadla irundadhu. Ippo illiye.

Enga irrukku? Yen matthitheenga?
From: Poornima on Wed Jun 15 6:10:24 2005.

the book is in english. and as far as i know, ondaatje is sri lankan. he has also written good stuff like "running in the family" and "anil's ghost".

since i haven't seen the movie, can't bring myself to comment on the HR connection.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 15 6:12:37 2005.

sanjay wrote:

andavare,

Oru kelvi.

Tamuizha kamalhaasan rasigar narpani iyyakam oda thalamai office TTk roadla irundadhu. Ippo illiye.

Enga irrukku? Yen matthitheenga?

Theriyalaye Sanjay.....
I've been a Kamal fan from age 4 but somehow i never joined his narpani iyakkam. I will do that soon..........

alwarpet_andavan

From: Girish11 on Thu Jun 16 0:45:52 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

sanjay wrote:

Everything rightly pointed out A-A, Thenali is another big example
for what you said. In Thenali Jayaram's role is given equal
importance with Kamal's role. Also in Panchathantiram, his
friends group play an important part in the movie

all these examples just contradict with what Sanjay has mentioned

From: sanjay on Thu Jun 16 0:56:37 2005.

Girish,

I have already given the following reply :

For every anbe sivam _ U have VRMBBS, kuruthipunal, vetri vizha,hey ram etc., etc.,

Exceptions cannot become the rule.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Jun 16 1:32:13 2005.

Sanjay,
A character's weightage depends entirely on the script. A mouse cannot be given 30 minutes screentime just to prove that Kamal doesn't dominate. The characters will get the weightage befitting their role in the script.
In that context, there was absolutely nothing wrong if Kamal dominates the screen in Hey Ram - that movie was Saket Ram's journey.
About VR MBBS, i still maintain Kamal had nothing to do with Prabhu's truncated role, but that's just my opinion.
What about Sathi Leelavathy? Can you imagine any hero pairing up with Kovai Sarala? Kamal sure didn't dominate by coming in all the frames.
What about thenali, as Girish said?
What about Virumaandi - Kothalathevar got more accolades than Kamal for his performance. so much for dominating!
You can say the same for MX.

Above all, for all the talking we do here, actors know better. In an interview to KTV sometime back, Nasser categorically states that this particular allegation is totally baseless. Kamal narrates the entire script to most of the actors/actresses, even if they are not the main ones, and also to the technicians. Nasser said he enjoys working with Kamal mainly because of this reason - they get ample space while working with Kamal.
Pasupathy virtually echoed these same words in another interview.
Madhavan said the same after Anbe Sivam. Basically all of them addressed the "dominating" point and refuted it emphatically.
How dare they contradict your opinion

He's an actor's actor.

alwarpet_andavan
From: sanjay on Thu Jun 16 2:02:17 2005.

Hey ram - I agree that it was saket's journey. BUt the other characters were not ven given breathing space. Probably only vali did. SRK grumbled that his role was cut.

VRMBBS - If U say, kamal did not shortcut prabhu's role, U must be dreaming. same with vetri vizha.

Kuruthipunal - discussed in detail already.

Nasser is a jalra of kamal. So, he can only be expected to praise him.

As for madhavan in AS, he himself said that everyone has warned him before he took up the role. He was plain lucky.

Ok, let us go back a bit further.

Ennakkul oruvan was a remake of karz. If U have seen karz, U will know that the murderer was a woman.

But kamal totally changed the 2nd half, took up a double role & the end result - a resounding flop. I am not saying it flopped b'cos of that, but flop it was.

In panchathantiram, only yugi sethu had a few punch lines. Jayaram & others were baggages, that's all.

tenali, VR & AS - I agree with U, but others?

Take abbas' case. He was promised a good role in PKS, but we all saw what he got. Of course, he has no market, but still he could have been given what was promised.

sathi - it was clearly stated that kamal's was a guest role (that it later turned out to be more than one is a different matter. Knowing kamal, I am not surprised)
From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Jun 16 2:14:50 2005.

Sanjay,
Idhukku mela argue panna enakku thembu illa pa......

Reminds me of a line from Thiruvilayadal.
Nagesh says "Paadi per vaangum pulavargalai pathirukkiren. Aanaal kutram kandupidithe per vaangum pulavarai ingu thaan paarkiren"

alwarpet_andavan
From: breadpuli on Thu Jun 16 2:20:40 2005.

alwarpet_andavan,
yes no point in debating with such people.
If some one gets good role in Kamal movie, it is because he is jalra otherwise Kamal's insecurity !!! Pity.

From: rachel on Thu Jun 16 2:22:38 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Sanjay,
Idhukku mela argue panna enakku thembu illa pa......

Reminds me of a line from Thiruvilayadal.
Nagesh says "Paadi per vaangum pulavargalai pathirukkiren. Aanaal kutram kandupidithe per vaangum pulavarai ingu thaan paarkiren"

Smile

alwarpet_andavan

From: sanjay on Thu Jun 16 2:30:53 2005.

ok, kamal fans. I also do not wish to argue further.

Kamal is perfect in all aspects. He has no apparent weaknesses.

Happy?

I thot kamal fans were given to constructive criticism & were not blind followers like rajini fans.

I guess I am wrong.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Jun 16 2:39:39 2005.

Sanjay,
Tension agadheenga boss......

<Digression>
Last night i watched "Insomnia" starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams and funnily didn't sleep a wink the whole night (not because of the movie.. i generally have this prob) and came straight to office.
Aaga, innikku ennala heavy-a pesa mudiyadhu nu ninaikkaren..............

BTW, the movie was good - co-produced by George Clooney and steven Sodherburg
</Digression>

alwarpet_andavan
From: sanjay on Thu Jun 16 3:02:16 2005.

no tension, andavare.

Kamal fans ellam samma tension pannitene.

athtuthaan namakku venum.

ha ha
From: breadpuli on Thu Jun 16 3:13:07 2005.

alwarpet,
Insomnia - a nice performance by Al Pacino
Hope your problem is not the impact of the movie, then do not watch Red Rose

sanjay,
mobody is perfect, except may be you and me
most of us debate frequently about Kamal's drawbacks.
But some arguments are childish so we argue
From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Jun 16 6:43:52 2005.

<digression>
Breadpuli,
TBI release-ku enna plan vechirukkeenga? BTW, are you a member of the Ilayaraaja Yahoo group fan club?
</Digression>

alwarpet_andavan
From: breadpuli on Thu Jun 16 6:56:24 2005.

hi alwarpet_andavan,
yahoo groups are blocked in my company
So obviously I am not a member.
I am not in town now and so asked my friend to buy/book one CD for me. I got a personal message from one Mr. Kumar saying that there is a combined offer. So asked my friend to go for that.

From: Girish11 on Fri Jun 17 21:49:22 2005.

sanjay wrote:

Hey ram - I agree that it was saket's journey. BUt the other characters were not ven given breathing space. Probably only vali did. SRK grumbled that his role was cut.

VRMBBS - If U say, kamal did not shortcut prabhu's role, U must be dreaming. same with vetri vizha.

Kuruthipunal - discussed in detail already.

Nasser is a jalra of kamal. So, he can only be expected to praise him.

As for madhavan in AS, he himself said that everyone has warned him before he took up the role. He was plain lucky.

Ok, let us go back a bit further.

Ennakkul oruvan was a remake of karz. If U have seen karz, U will know that the murderer was a woman.

But kamal totally changed the 2nd half, took up a double role & the end result - a resounding flop. I am not saying it flopped b'cos of that, but flop it was.

In panchathantiram, only yugi sethu had a few punch lines. Jayaram & others were baggages, that's all.

tenali, VR & AS - I agree with U, but others?

Take abbas' case. He was promised a good role in PKS, but we all saw what he got. Of course, he has no market, but still he could have been given what was promised.

sathi - it was clearly stated that kamal's was a guest role (that it later turned out to be more than one is a different matter. Knowing kamal, I am not surprised)

Sanjay,

Kamal changed the Karz story for remake Yenakkul oruvan??
Where did you get this from? Any reliable source? To my
knowledge, those days, he was purely very busy acting
in heaps of movies and not participating in the making of
the movie, story line changes/finalizations, etc. I dont buy this.

Re Sathi leelavathy, yes, Kamal's role was planned to be more
shorter, but it was not Kamal but B.Mahendra who extended it
and for sure, that is one of the main reasons for the success
of SL.

You seem to insinuate that if any movie focusses a lot on Kamal's
charecter, he is dominating, he is chopping others roles.....
There are lots of Hollywood movies focussing throught the movie
on the hero, many Indian movies too, it does not mean the
main actor is making the decision behind the screen making
all the changes.

He does give space to the other actors in the movie, it is just
that many times his perfomance has a big impact which
overshadows the other actors, that cannot be helped.

Sometimes the other actors too miss out on the oppurtunity
to create some impact as in the case of PR in VRMBBS. Had he
done a good job like the actor in Hindi version, he could have
been appreciated as well as Jayaram in Thenali.

For a change, Sanjay, you had posted that you will be writing
some plus points which you got thru sources who are close
to Kamal and what you write will be some new things never
heard of before. Why dont you start writing those things?

Regards.

From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Sat Jun 18 1:45:47 2005.

even thou i know this thread long time i now feel that this kind of topic fits only for kamal bcos even assuming he is the highest rated copier, no other artist in india has catered this much number of holly-inspired movies in india!!! ...........In that way kamal brings hollywood ideas in indian plot and he also inserts many of his own ideolegies....in that way this topic,by itself, is an uniq pride fro Dr.Haasan

if he is a copier in ur point of view, let his copying continue.well all kows that u need to be intellect even to do this, like kamal.

So can any kamal fan list thalaiver's all movies and its "to be quoted" original\s in a single list?

From: ramsri on Sun Jun 19 7:37:44 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Ramsri,
Guna, more than anything else, had this bottom line: Sanity and insanity are relative and the society at large is sometimes more insane than the people whom we call "insane".

AA,
completely agree with that assessment ... 'Guna' was a much better movie than most people would be willing to admit. but i want to make a small point in general here regarding such characters in cinema. not talking about Guna in particular, just a broader comment.
this is my personal viewpoint, but i somehow have a problem digesting the kind of scenes that use the supposed "innocence" of mentally challenged characters to get across messages about what's sane and what's insane, and what's good and bad about our society. all films with such characters have their moments of genius, where life's simple lessons are learnt ... moments which somehow do not suit the character's mental abilities. you know the kind of films where one moment, the "retarded" character is used to convey some lasting philosophy about life, and the next moment the person is struggling to remember his own name or eat his own food. classic examples are films like 'Forrest Gump' and 'Rain Man' ... make no mistake, i liked both films, but in both of them, as in 'Guna', i found some of these introspection-into-life-in-general moments to be too shallow.
having said that, one would have to concede that while it is easy to sit back and comment about the films themselves, the effort that goes into conceptualizing, characterizing and rendering such complex themes on screen needs to be whole-heartedly applauded.

and of course, more often than not, the results themselves are worthy of applause too ... so long live the likes of gump, guna et al and may their tribe increase!

From: sanjay on Mon Jun 20 2:29:06 2005.

girish,

Have U seen karz? See it & then U will know how the entire 2nd half has been changed in enakkul oruvan. Reg. Prabhu, with the very limited opportunity that he ad in VRMBBS, how do U expect him to capitalize? if u have seen arshad warshi's role in the hindi version, U will understand.

coming to the plus poins, yes. I will post those.

1.kamal maintains a very good team comprising crazy, rakki rangarajan, sujatha from whom he gets valuable inputs. Also, during the story discussions he contributes his bit.

2.His interest in computers. At one point he was taking classes from computer point.

3. He owns a fantastic gym with all the latest equipments & works out regularly.

Unfortunately my friend who worked as his sec. (as I told U before) had a very bitter experience with kamal, even though he was full of admiration for his abilities. As a person, he falls short.

But since this will hurt kamal fans, I am hesitant to post further.

As a kamal admirer, even I felt pained to listen to some of the incidents encounted.
From: sanjay on Mon Jun 20 2:32:59 2005.

In an interview to The week, kamal had the following to say about Guna :

"he turns to religion in a mood of self flagellation. This movie may well trun people away from seeing religion as a source of escape."

But Guna is shown as a mentally deranged person which defeats the very purpose of the character.

can kamal fans explain?

For the record, I maintain that kamal's best ever performances were in Guna & nayakan.
From: Cinefan on Mon Jun 20 2:40:06 2005.

Sanjay,Whatever you have heard about Kamal as a person is from your friend.Since there is no chance of getting Kamal's side of the story&we are all ppl who admire kamal for his talents&don't know him personally,I suggest we desist from getting into personal likes,dislikes,characteristics of him&stick just to discussing his films,talents etc.

From: Cinefan on Mon Jun 20 2:43:04 2005.

sanjay wrote:

In an interview to The week, kamal had the following to say about Guna :

"he turns to religion in a mood of self flagellation. This movie may well trun people away from seeing religion as a source of escape."

But Guna is shown as a mentally deranged person which defeats the very purpose of the character.

What are you trying to ask,I didn't understand.Can you explain furthur?

From: sanjay on Mon Jun 20 2:54:06 2005.

what I am asking is kamal says that through the guna character, he is sending a message that religion is NOT a panacea for all ills.

But Guna does not seem to sending across that message.

From: Cinefan on Mon Jun 20 2:59:20 2005.

sanjay wrote:

what I am asking is kamal says that through the guna character, he is sending a message that religion is NOT a panacea for all ills.

But Guna does not seem to sending across that message.

I have not read the complete interview but if at all kamal said something like that I agree the message did not come across.In fact Guna is a brilliant film thats it.if at all there is an underlaying message it is that so called sane ppl are more mad than the ones who are branded insane.

BTW,I don't share Kamal's thoughts on religion,GOD etc but what the hell I still like him

From: alwarpet_andavan on Mon Jun 20 4:22:40 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Sanjay,Whatever you have heard about Kamal as a person is from your friend.Since there is no chance of getting Kamal's side of the story&we are all ppl who admire kamal for his talents&don't know him personally,I suggest we desist from getting into personal likes,dislikes,characteristics of him&stick just to discussing his films,talents etc.

Bulls eye!

In fact, apart from many other things this is what Virumaandi was about

alwarpet_andavan

From: alwarpet_andavan on Mon Jun 20 4:26:05 2005.

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/06/18/stories/2005061802990100.htm

This is a touching piece by a father of an autistic child (Pervasive Development Disorder of which autism is the most common form)

The article talks about the extraordinary IQ of the child, which stunningly resembles the character of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.

BTW, Guna also had the message that society has little or no tolerance for people who are not like the majority.

alwarpet_andavan
From: ramsri on Fri Sep 30 13:46:39 2005.

came across this thread after a long time and was shocked to find
it languishing on page 4 of the archives!

maybe this thread has reached its saturation point (though i don't see how that could possibly happen especially with the likes PR, cinefan, roshan, kumar & AA contributing regularly), but considering the quality of discussions we've had here, it would be a pity to see this one get buried along with so many other topics ... ideas for a revival, anyone?
From: Kumar on Fri Sep 30 23:33:24 2005.

Well, one idea is to discuss the films that Kamal can adapt. For example, I always thought that if Kamal made a version of the classic 7 Samurai (with a stellar cast), it would take off really well.

From: Prabhu Ram on Sat Oct 1 7:04:28 2005.

First of all, thanks ramsri for the revival, nothing like Collective Narcissism.

Kumar wrote:

Well, one idea is to discuss the films that Kamal can adapt. For example, I always thought that if Kamal made a version of the classic 7 Samurai (with a stellar cast), it would take off really well.

This sounds nice ! 'What ifs' definitely make wonderful discussions.
I'll get blasphemous before anyone gets ideas. Kamal should NOT play Kikuchiyo. (How about Surya ?) What say you ?

From: ramsri on Sat Oct 1 12:58:14 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kamal should NOT play Kikuchiyo. (How about Surya ?) What say you ?

Kikuchiyo? someone help me out here ... is that the character played by toshiro mifune in the original? or was that the Kyuzo character?
From: ramsri on Sat Oct 1 13:03:50 2005.

talking of What If-s, here's another one ... what about kamal remaking a 'Rain Man', giving himself the ray babbitt character (immortalized by dustin hoffman in the original) and letting one of these younger actors play the tom cruise role. i know i'm picking off from PR's thoughts here , but surya might not be a bad choice for the part ... madhavan could probably do it, but it'll end up looking too much like 'Anbe Sivam'. what say?

From: Prabhu Ram on Sun Oct 2 5:45:41 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kamal should NOT play Kikuchiyo. (How about Surya ?) What say you ?

Kikuchiyo? someone help me out here ... is that the character played by toshiro mifune in the original? or was that the Kyuzo character?

Kikuchiyo is the role played by Toshiro Mifune.
I can already see Surya pulling off that scene with the bandit gunman

Kyuzo.....well how about Arjun ? His track record in dignified powerful man roles has been good. (Think Kurudhippunal Abbas, Rhythm Karthikeyan, Kicha of the pre-interval Gentleman).
I also saw SooriyaPaarvai in bits and pieces a few weeks ago. It is one of those movies that you know would have been a good screenplay to read. Fast paced,no vala-vala dialogues, the fights didn't look too choreographed but something was missing. Just can't place my finger on it.

Coming back, Arjun played a similar role in that movie and did a very decent job. And of course he is 'Action King'

PS: Ramsri, I have (still) not seen Rain-Man hence this re-direction.

From: lancelot on Sun Oct 2 6:09:37 2005.

has anyone seent he Natural Born Killers????? i think the riot in the movie Virumandi has somthing to do with it.... very little, but somthing... IMO
hehe

From: Kumar on Sun Oct 2 7:44:47 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

ramsri wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kamal should NOT play Kikuchiyo. (How about Surya ?) What say you ?

Kikuchiyo? someone help me out here ... is that the character played by toshiro mifune in the original? or was that the Kyuzo character?

Kikuchiyo is the role played by Toshiro Mifune.
I can already see Surya pulling off that scene with the bandit gunman Smile

PS: Ramsri, I have (still) not seen Rain-Man hence this re-direction. Mr. Green

Not bad, so far. I think Arjun can pull off the quiet & confident Kyozu.

Kamal would be good as Kambei.

Kikochiyo in the film was the mad cap clown. In the film, he was represented as a triangle on the flag (the other 6 were circles). Surya can pull it off.

Now the other 4 can include guys like Nasser, Pasupathi (perhaps. Not sure if he would be good as the leader of the raiders). Kamal also has a knack of using some theatre actors- perhaps guys like Thenavan (from Virumaandi) would be good. I can also see a 'mid-range' actor (for lack of a better phrase), who under good direction can shine as 1 of the seven. E.g. I liked Napolean under Kamal's direction as Nalamma Naiker. Perhaps Napolean, or Rajkiran, or even Prabhu (treading on dangerous grounds here).

Leader of the raiders. What about resurrecting the career of an older actor?

From: Prabhu Ram on Mon Oct 3 14:30:14 2005.

So far,
Kambei: Kamal (itching to contest that and make Kamal only director but later)
Kikuchiyo: Surya (case becomes stronger as I jus came back from Gajini)
Kyuzo: Arjun

Gorobei (who takes up the job as he finds Kambei's friendship): I am tempted to go for Delhi Ganesh or Janakaraj thanks to nayagan. I really loved Santhanabarathi in MMKR and he is a decent actor. But I'm knocking all these chaps because........well it's an action movie after all.

I think Sathyaraj would make a good Gorobei. He can play the smiling man who balances talent and reverence. A good fighter, a trustworthy man who doesn't have a harsh word. A man who is more talented than he admits.

The problem is he is going to tower over our Kambei as he is nearly a foot taller. So it is going to be quite a task getting the awe across ( see I'm already making a case for Kamal's removal !). But what the heck if Pankaj kapoor can be a menacing Abbaji in Maqbool, Kamal can command respect twice over.

From: Kumar on Mon Oct 3 18:32:19 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

So far,
Kambei: Kamal (itching to contest that and make Kamal only director but later)
Kikuchiyo: Surya (case becomes stronger as I jus came back from Gajini)
Kyuzo: Arjun

Gorobei (who takes up the job as he finds Kambei's friendship): I am tempted to go for Delhi Ganesh or Janakaraj thanks to nayagan. I really loved Santhanabarathi in MMKR and he is a decent actor. But I'm knocking all these chaps because........well it's an action movie after all.

I think Sathyaraj would make a good Gorobei. He can play the smiling man who balances talent and reverence. A good fighter, a trustworthy man who doesn't have a harsh word. A man who is more talented than he admits.

The problem is he is going to tower over our Kambei as he is nearly a foot taller. So it is going to be quite a task getting the awe across ( see I'm already making a case for Kamal's removal !). But what the heck if Pankaj kapoor can be a menacing Abbaji in Maqbool, Kamal can command respect twice over.

Sathyaraj may be a good choice after all. If height is an issue, then I say place him about 2 feet behind Kamal in every possible shot.

And as for canvassing for Kamal�s removal�.geez, you�re a brave lad aren�t you?

Actually I must say that eventually, this will have to happen as far as Kamal�s career in the movie industry goes. But, I thought that in the case of this movie, big names, and to a certain extent, larger than life characters are needed. I think this made 7 Samurais (and perhaps the Magnificent 7) top movies. Kamal and the others mentioned above, can deliver this.

From: Cinefan on Tue Oct 4 6:45:08 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kikuchiyo: Surya (case becomes stronger as I jus came back from Gajini)

PR,
How about a review for 'Ghazini'in the appropriate thread?

Am Sorry.Unable to participate in the discussion you are having as I have not seen '7 Samurai'
From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Oct 4 7:09:05 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Am Sorry.Unable to participate in the discussion you are having as I have not seen '7 Samurai'

Adhe adhe.....ingeyum adhe..
And M$ Windoze en system-layum velaya kaattiduchu.. had to reinstall the OS....DVD s/w need to be re-installed...So 7 Samurai will have to wait for a day or two...
From: j.chenkalvarayan on Tue Oct 4 7:11:13 2005.

actually i have seen 7 samurai. there's nothing great about that movie.

From: Prabhu Ram on Tue Oct 4 14:25:04 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Kikuchiyo: Surya (case becomes stronger as I jus came back from Gajini)

PR,
How about a review for 'Ghazini'in the appropriate thread?

Here it is:

http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?p=226957#226957

It reads like a 'readers recommens' though Smile

From: Cinefan on Wed Oct 5 1:25:01 2005.

Good review PR.Thanks.I am planning to watch the movie sometime this week.Such reviews help,you know

I have not watched(No,No-could not watch.None of the libraries near my place have heard of such a movie)Memento.So I might just enjoy it more.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Oct 5 6:34:52 2005.

Cinefan,
Try in Cinema Paradiso in Koramangala [JNC rd or 80 ft road].....
From: Cinefan on Wed Oct 5 6:45:26 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Cinefan,
Try in Cinema Paradiso in Koramangala [JNC rd or 80 ft road].....

The one being run by Shalini's brother Richard right?It was inagurated by Kamal same time last year.But does it not require a membership?Let me find out.THANKS for reminding me about it.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Oct 5 6:52:07 2005.

Yes it was inaugurated by Sir and/or Mani Ratnam, if i'm not wrong...

It does require a membership.......
From: Cinefan on Wed Oct 5 6:56:57 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Yes it was inaugurated by Sir and/or Mani Ratnam, if i'm not wrong...

It does require a membership.......

Nah,Mani did the honours for the Chennai branch while Kamal did the same here.Ramesh Arvind&Pooja(JJ fame)accompanied him.His presence created a mini jam in K'mangala.

I hope they don't charge a bomb as membership fees.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Oct 5 6:59:18 2005.

In RIC videos Chennai, they charge Rs.2000 (1000 refundable) as the deposit and for the DVD's they charge Rs.60-70.
I believe the rental in Cinema Paradiso is Rs.50 but dunno about the deposit.
From: Cinefan on Wed Oct 5 7:02:18 2005.

I remember reading somewhere that deposit is 3000/-.it might have gone up now.Let me find out.
From: ramsri on Thu Oct 6 12:43:50 2005.

yes ... nice review for a good film. frankly, though, i felt a little let-down with 'Ghajini', prob'ly because i somehow expected a lot more from the film. make no mistake, i still think it's a good movie ... maybe i expected the end result to be a lot more 'Memento'ish than it turned out. my mistake, of course!

anyway, getting back to the topic on hand ... i think we've quite finished putting together our ensemble cast for the '7 Samurai' remake. somehow not too sure about Arjun for the role of Kyuzo ... i'm not a big fan of the guy, but i can see PR's point ... that he's probably the right person for the strong-silent type of role, but still apprehensive. what about vikram for the same role?
surya would make a good Kikuchiyo ... i think janakaraj in his 'Nayagan' days would've been ideal for the Gorobei character. nasser is probably the better choice. leader of the raiders ... hmm, tough one - from among the options given by kumar, i'm tempted to vote for napoleon. the guy really does have screen presence and can look much more imposing than prabhu or rajkiran.
it's very difficult to leave an actor like pasupathi out of the team, but i really don't see where he could fit in.
unfortunately we don't have tamil equivalents for naseeruddin shah, om puri and girish karnad ... evergreen actors whom you can fit in anywhere you like!
From: ssanjinika on Thu Oct 6 12:53:36 2005.

ramsri wrote:

it's very difficult to leave an actor like pasupathi out of the team

**Digression***

Who is Pasupathi??Someone to shed any light on this person?

***End Digression**
From: ramsri on Thu Oct 6 13:04:00 2005.

ssanjinika wrote:

**Digression***

Who is Pasupathi??Someone to shed any light on this person?

***End Digression**

the guy who played Kothala Devar (kamal's arch-rival) in 'Virumandi' - he also had a substantial role in 'Mumbai Express', though the name of his character in that film escapes my memory. i only remember the code-name as it was used for the most part - 'B'! (or was it 'A'?!! there i go again ...!)
From: Kumar on Thu Oct 6 17:57:28 2005.

ssanjinika,
here's an article of Pasupathi:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004050701420100.htm&date=2004/05/07/&prd=fr&

ramsri, would you consider Deli Ganesh close to Om Puri? Just a thought. I'm if-fy about this only because Ganesh is a good actor but perhaps not as renowned as Om Puri or Naseerudin Shah. Either way, I think D Ganesh should be given a role in 'our' movie.

From: Prabhu Ram on Fri Oct 7 0:25:04 2005.

Kumar wrote:

ssanjinika,
here's an article of Pasupathi:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004050701420100.htm&date=2004/05/07/&prd=fr&

ramsri, would you consider Deli Ganesh close to Om Puri? Just a thought. I'm if-fy about this only because Ganesh is a good actor but perhaps not as renowned as Om Puri or Naseerudin Shah. Either way, I think D Ganesh should be given a role in 'our' movie.

Delhi Ganesh ! Make no mistake I really like the guy. But I am not quite imaginative enough to cast him anywhere in the zone of action. The only role perhaps is that of Yori (the timid scared villager bullied by all whose last words to Kikuchiyo are "I guarded the gate"). But we need someone who has the look of someone who has lost the battle even before he fought it: Poornam Visvanathan ?

We have two nominees for Kyuzo, fair enough.

Here is my nominee for Katsushiharo (Kambei's disciple) : Prasanna of Azagiya TheeyE fame (?). I'll defend him shortly

From: Kumar on Fri Oct 7 3:09:54 2005.

I suppose Prasanna can pass off as the younf disciple of Kambei. After all the character is meant to be from a well to do background, and Prasanna does have this 'pretty boy' thing happening. But is this a ploy to bring in the younger audience?? We're starting to think like producers, aren't we?
From: ssanjinika on Fri Oct 7 9:55:34 2005.

Kumar wrote:

ssanjinika,
here's an article of Pasupathi:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004050701420100.htm&date=2004/05/07/&prd=fr&

Thanks Kumar!
I like this guy.Hes a good actor!
From: Prabhu Ram on Sat Oct 8 2:56:43 2005.

Quote:

But is this a ploy to bring in the younger audience??

Prasanna is going to be flattered that you think he can pull in the young audience.

Quote:

We're starting to think like producers, aren't we?

Hm... then we are just away from making a couple of duets between Prasanna and Yori's daughter (who ?). We can transport them to Switzerland. Or be really naughty and set the duet in rural Japan. And market the movie as "Youth subject"
Now. that would be producerthink.

Am guessing we shouldn't dwell on this further. Let's move to a broader topic so that everyone joins in.
From: ramsri on Sat Oct 8 6:34:58 2005.

Kumar wrote:

ssanjinika,
ramsri, would you consider Deli Ganesh close to Om Puri?

on an absolute basis, no ... i think om puri's body of work has been far more versatile. but DG does share one important attribute with om puri viz. the ability to slip into just about any role (however insignificant) with surprising ease. i guess one could consider putting DG in the Yori role as suggested by PR ... but it would probably be a waste, giving a hardly-noticeable part to an actor of his obvious talents. you somehow feel the need to utilize him more effectively.

Quote:

Am guessing we shouldn't dwell on this further. Let's move to a broader topic so that everyone joins in.

agree ... ideas, anyone? kumar, what's your stand on the 'Rain Man' remake?
From: Prabhu Ram on Sat Oct 8 11:52:24 2005.

ramsri wrote:

one could consider putting DG in the Yori role as suggested by PR ... but it would probably be a waste, giving a hardly-noticeable part to an actor of his obvious talents

I am breaking my own rule by restarting the topic here. Maybe the confusion is because I said Yori when I meant Yohei

Yohei the man who rushes to cut the hair of his daugher when the samurai are coming. The man who wants all and gives little (with the conviction that he can't give much). That is a major part. That is what I meant.
From: Kumar on Tue Oct 11 6:33:54 2005.

ramsri wrote:

agree ... ideas, anyone? kumar, what's your stand on the 'Rain Man' remake?

Sorry for the late reply. I suppose I can see this being re-made; but probably in a different setting and context. I can see Kamal take the role of an autistic man. But what needs to be avoided is a scene for scene re-make.
Digression:
The relationship between Surya and Vikram comes to mind for some reason. Maybe this is how I see a Tamil re-make of Rain Man being done; not necessarily a story about add siblings, but maybe a quirky relationship that somehow works.
From: Kumar on Tue Oct 11 6:39:00 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Am guessing we shouldn't dwell on this further. Let's move to a broader topic so that everyone joins in.

Did you mean not dwell on the Seven Samurai re-make, or the possible song scene? Because my next question was going to be about the era, or setting for the Tamil 7 Samurai.

Or shall we move on......

From: ramsri on Thu Oct 13 11:14:57 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Did you mean not dwell on the Seven Samurai re-make, or the possible song scene? Because my next question was going to be about the era, or setting for the Tamil 7 Samurai.

Or shall we move on......

i think this thread is getting too specific for its own good. we should probably move on, lest we scare people away from the discussion

kumar, PR - it might make sense to "bookmark" the 7 samurai topic, so we can carry on the discussion at a later point (should we run out of ideas on the thread). what say?

From: Kumar on Mon Oct 17 23:52:46 2005.

Guys,just a query. Does anyone know the story of VV? Just wondering if the story may be based on another movie. I know that technically, this is a Gautham movie;but since Kamal is starring in this, I thought it would be relevant. I also took my cue from Khaaka Khaaka; some have been comparing bits and pieces of it to Se7en. (I haven�t seen KK yet; so thanks very much to those who spoiled the climax for me be mentioning Jyothika�s death in the movie!)
From: rachel on Tue Oct 18 6:24:29 2005.

Quote:

(I haven’t seen KK yet; so thanks very much to those who spoiled the climax for me be mentioning Jyothika’s death in the movie!)

From: ramsri on Sat Oct 29 3:34:20 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Guys,just a query. Does anyone know the story of VV? Just wondering if the story may be based on another movie. I know that technically, this is a Gautham movie;but since Kamal is starring in this, I thought it would be relevant. I also took my cue from Khaaka Khaaka; some have been comparing bits and pieces of it to Se7en. (I haven�t seen KK yet; so thanks very much to those who spoiled the climax for me be mentioning Jyothika�s death in the movie!)

maybe you should check the thread dedicated to that movie ... cinefan & co. might be able to enlighten you!
reg. KK ... yes, i've heard from many that the climax is a straight lift from 'Seven', but not having seen the "original"

, am unable to make a comparison.

but have we talked about this before? bcos this somehow reminds me of a discussion we had previously regarding "copied" films and "inspired" films and whether or not there is a distinction to be made therein.

From: Prabhu Ram on Sun Oct 30 1:41:01 2005.

The similarity between the KK climax and Se7en is not so much about the story but the feel of it. You just have to watch it to see how the the visuals are strikingly similar.

You haven't seen Se7en ! (okay I still haven't seen Rainman so I won't overdo this).
But do see Se7en.

Talking about lifting scenes, the latest i saw was Gajini. Murugadas lifted a scene straight from Amelie (where Asin crosses a blind man across the road telling him each and every detail she sees). Of course anybody who has seen the original would see how the Gajini scene sags. But I felt it was okay, something is better than nothing. I saw it more like a translation from another language (though 'paraphrasing poetry' would be a better allegory).

I'm more forgiving nowadays. Ageing
From: ramsri on Sun Oct 30 7:16:14 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

I'm more forgiving nowadays. Ageing

yeah, i kind of guessed that after reading your review on 'Ghajini' - you somehow don't expect someone who's seen 'Memento' (and liked it) to be so kind to its desi rehash. in fact, talking of lifting scenes, 'Ghajini' would probably have turned out even better if murugadoss had indeed lifted some parts straight out of the original.
okay, i'm straying from the topic here ... let's get back on track

From: njv on Sun Oct 30 12:00:33 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

I'm more forgiving nowadays. Ageing Smile

yeah, i kind of guessed that after reading your review on 'Ghajini' - you somehow don't expect someone who's seen 'Memento' (and liked it) to be so kind to its desi rehash. in fact, talking of lifting scenes, 'Ghajini' would probably have turned out even better if murugadoss had indeed lifted some parts straight out of the original.
okay, i'm straying from the topic here ... let's get back on track

Yesterday in SunTV they were comparing Gajini with VetriVizha.

Gajni - rehased momento
VetriVizha - Bourne Identity

Gajni = VetriVizha
Memonto - Bourne Identity
Gajni -= Bourne Identity

Hah Hah Hahhhh

From: Cinefan on Thu Nov 3 8:36:59 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

You haven't seen Se7en ! (okay I still haven't seen Rainman so I won't overdo this).
But do see Se7en.

Don't worry,you are in exalted company

I saw Rain man for the first time the previous Saturday.Interesting movie but somehow I liked Tom Cruise more than Dustin Hoffman&it ended kind of abruptly.

A tamil remake of this one with Kamal&Surya-NO. I would not be interested.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Nov 3 9:48:10 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Don't worry,you are in exalted company Very Happy

I saw Rain man for the first time the previous Saturday.Interesting movie but somehow I liked Tom Cruise more than Dustin Hoffman&it ended kind of abruptly.

A tamil remake of this one with Kamal&Surya-NO. I would not be interested.

<Digression>
Cinefan,
Did you manage to get your membership at Cinema Paradiso? What abt their charges n all??
Also, what about Rama Shyama release??? If its this weekend, i'll be damned 'cos i'm working. Hope its the next weekend. Heard that no one can hold a candle to Bangalore Kamal fans (headed by one Mr.Velu) when it comes to fanfare and galatta during movie releases....
</Digression>

From: Girish11 on Thu Nov 10 19:29:40 2005.

ramsri wrote:

talking of What If-s, here's another one ... what about kamal remaking a 'Rain Man', giving himself the ray babbitt character (immortalized by dustin hoffman in the original) and letting one of these younger actors play the tom cruise role. i know i'm picking off from PR's thoughts here Smile

, but surya might not be a bad choice for the part ... madhavan could probably do it, but it'll end up looking too much like 'Anbe Sivam'. what say?

First of all a bigggggggggg Hi to the Kamal fans PR/AA/RR/Kumar/
Sakala/Ramsri/Roshan/nilavu/Cinefan and others.

Have been away for too long from the hub, have been reading
the posts and catching up last 2 days. Found this topic intersting,
since the remake ideas of 7 Samurai/Rainman have already
been discussed, wanted to bring a few more which, when I
watched the movies, I felt will be very nice to remake with Kamal
in it.

1-Central Do Brazil : This is a portuguese (Brazilian) movie, an
oscar winner, the story revolves around an
old woman and a small boy who is lost.
I dont remember the story very well but
from what I recollect, it is about a woman
in her late fifties/early sixties who earns
her bread by writing letters for uneducated
people and posting them to their relatives.
She runs into a small boy who is lost, she
then helps him reach his family. A very nice
touching movie. The old woman role should
be replaced by an old man which should be
played by Kamal.

2-Man without a face : Saw this one over 10 years back, directed
by Mel Gibson, he plays the lead role in
this one too, a school teacher who is
wrongfully accused of child abuse and
neglected by the community befriens a
a young boy and inspires him into shaping
up a good future for himself. MG to be
replaced by Kamal.

3-Between the devil and the Deep blue sea:

A movie involving a sailor (Stephen Rea - He was the lead actor
in the movie "The Crying Game") and a small Chinese
girl. A touching movie. BTW, this guy, Stephen Rea is an
actor who is very good but hardly recognized. Any comments
about him/his works anybody??

4-A perfect world : Again involving a burglar in the run and a
small boy starring Kevin costner as the burglar
and Clint Eastwood the director of the movie
plays the cop chasing the burglar.

Strangely, after writing this post, I realized, all the movies I
mentioned involves stories showing a strong relation between
and adult and a youngster. Of course to make all 4 with
Kamal would become repetetive, we can choose one and
make it

There are many others which I felt will be great
movies if remade in Tamil with Kamal but dont remember of
those movies now.

If you guys have not seen above movies, try to see them
and give your feedbacks.

Digression:

Anyone seen First 50 dates? Wouldn't it be nice to remake
this in Indian langauage? Any ideas about starcast etc?

From: njv on Thu Nov 10 23:18:09 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

Anyone seen First 50 dates? Wouldn't it be nice to remake
this in Indian langauage? Any ideas about starcast etc?

Do you mean Fifty first date? If so, yes it would definitely be a nice "copy" for tamil, but we need to give a gap since Gajini just came (though not similar in anyway the mere fact that people loose their memory would be considered as "same" in our world! - like CM multiple personality syndrome is considered as similar to Anniyan syndrome!).

Its a heroine story, and I can definitely think of Jo/Asin/Trisha. For male artist you want someone who is charm and has good sense of humor, so ... hmm... Surya again. I can even think of Ajith for this role.

5 years before I would have choosed KH, but now I want KH to do more matured role (like Anbe Sivam). I watched As good as it gets yesterday and was thinking how KH didnt do thi. Well my wish is that Kamal does movies like this.

From: Roshan on Fri Nov 11 0:17:48 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Don't worry,you are in exalted company Very Happy

I saw Rain Man last Monday. As Cinefan said I too liked Tom Cruise more that Dustin Hoffman. And again yes, the ending was abrupt and was kind of incomplete.

I was just thinking of all the discussions here about a Tamil remake of Rain Man and I would not welcome the idea because, our so called Tamil audience would immediately connect it with Anbe Sivam and to some extent Guna

( like trying to connect CM split personality with Anniyan

).

Assuming it is re made - I am confident that - Kamal would do a better job than Dustin. For the other role Madhavan would be ideal - but again it would remind Anbe Sivam. No doubt Surya is talented but my choice would be Ajith.

Screenplay would need modification with some more emotional touch to match the expectation of our audience and the ending too will have to be changed.

From: Roshan on Fri Nov 11 0:20:22 2005.

Girish,

Out of your list I have seen only "Man without a face". I shall get back to you on that after a while.

From: Alien on Fri Nov 11 1:21:21 2005.

njv wrote:

Do you mean Fifty first date? If so, yes it would definitely be a nice "copy" for tamil, but we need to give a gap since Gajini just came (though not similar in anyway the mere fact that people loose their memory would be considered as "same" in our world! - like CM multiple personality syndrome is considered as similar to Anniyan syndrome!).

Its a heroine story, and I can definitely think of Jo/Asin/Trisha. For male artist you want someone who is charm and has good sense of humor, so ... hmm... Surya again. I can even think of Ajith for this role. Cool

Mm...yeah, It would be very nice to see such movies remade in Tamil. A very welcome change in an exhausted cine field.

From: Justice on Fri Nov 11 7:34:40 2005.

super selection, Ajith will rock

njv wrote:

I can even think of Ajith for this role.
.
From: nilavupriyan on Fri Nov 11 10:29:03 2005.

girish11 wrote:

Anyone seen First 50 dates? Wouldn't it be nice to remake
this in Indian langauage? Any ideas about starcast etc?

i would select jyothika for drew barrymore.....

but noone can do that role like drew barrymore ...im sure....she have did it exceedingly well.....

as for as hero...i would select madhavan...a romantic hero.. he have good sense of humour as well....

From: Justice on Fri Nov 11 13:24:56 2005.

nilavu, I'd select you since you have good sense of humour Laughing

nilavupriyan wrote:

i would select jyothika for drew barrymore.....

but noone can do that role like drew barrymore ...im sure....she have did it exceedingly well.....

as for as hero...i would select [b]madhavan[/b[b]]...[/b]a romantic hero.. Wink

he have good sense of humour as well....

From: nilavupriyan on Fri Nov 11 14:00:57 2005.

let the heroine be kareena kapoor

justice wrote:

nilavu, I'd select you since you have good sense of humour Laughing

nilavupriyan wrote:

he have good sense of humour as well....

From: njv on Fri Nov 11 14:26:14 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

as for as hero...i would select madhavan...a romantic hero.. he have good sense of humour as well....

Yep, Madhavan will be a better choice than surya/ajith.
From: Prabhu Ram on Fri Nov 11 16:33:23 2005.

Have seen none of the movies in your list. A recent old man young man movie that seems possible is 'Finding Forrester'

Girish11 wrote:

BTW, this guy, Stephen Rea is an
actor who is very good but hardly recognized.
I saw one HBO Original Movie called Citizen X. It is a dark and slow movie with Stephen Rea playing the lead. He did an exceedingly good job. In fact the mocie irself was pretty well made. Haven't seen any other movie of his though.
From: stranger on Fri Nov 11 19:46:36 2005.

Quote:

I saw Rain man for the first time the previous Saturday.Interesting movie but somehow I liked Tom Cruise more than Dustin Hoffman&it ended kind of abruptly.

Dustin Hoffman EARNED an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095953/awards

Tom Cruise is not even nominated for "best supporting actor"!

When it comes acting Tom Cruise is one of the LEAST-rated actors. And anybody can do the role he did IMHO. TC cant do Dustin's role even in his dreams!

Well, who says Oscar committee always knows better than some of us???

We can always have our own opinion after all

From: Alien on Fri Nov 11 20:34:28 2005.

njv wrote:

nilavupriyan wrote:

as for as hero...i would select madhavan...a romantic hero.. Wink

he have good sense of humour as well....

Yep, Madhavan will be a better choice than surya/ajith.

Madhavan would be kinda repetitive ! I would go for either Ajith/Surya . That'll be refreshing !
And 4 heroine, strictly no Jothika

(As if this movie is gonna be made 4 sure

)

And one more thing, V could even have a separate thread 4 these kinda discussions like, potential foreign movies that could be remade in tamil..... Coz after the initial few pages of this thread, Anti-Kamals stopped coming here

and it has been hijacked by Kamal fans, though thats the reason this thread is running smoothly with nice discussions

From: Justice on Fri Nov 11 23:04:14 2005.

did you just join any political party?

enna pA, ipidi ellam edakku modakka kathakiringa

muthala Ajith thaan venum endinga, ippo madavan venum enringo

njv wrote:

Yep, Madhavan will be a better choice than surya/ajith.

From: Roshan on Sat Nov 12 1:00:14 2005.

stranger wrote:

Dustin Hoffman EARNED an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095953/awards

Tom Cruise is not even nominated for "best supporting actor"!

When it comes acting Tom Cruise is one of the LEAST-rated actors. And anybody can do the role he did IMHO. TC cant do Dustin's role even in his dreams! Wink

Well, who says Oscar committee always knows better than some of us??? Rolling Eyes

We can always have our own opinion after all Rolling Eyes

You got it wrong. Cinefan ( and me too) said he liked Tom Cruise more than Dustin.That does not necessarily mean Tom was better than Dustin.

From: ramsri on Sat Nov 12 12:48:47 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

4-A perfect world : Again involving a burglar in the run and a
small boy starring Kevin costner as the burglar
and Clint Eastwood the director of the movie
plays the cop chasing the burglar.

very interesting post, girish. welcome back! plenty of food for thought from that message of yours. you've thrown up lots of points for the forum, but the one i will touch on now is regarding 'A Perfect World' - easily one of clint eastwood's best works with a mindblowing performance from kevin costner as the escaped convict (always thought he should've won an oscar for this, i think he lost out that year to the more popular choice of tom hanks for 'Philadelphia', anyway...)
remake in tamil? hmmm, i'm not sure i can see kamal playing the costner character. he's probably better suited for the role played by eastwood himself - the texas ranger who follows the convict's trail. then again, the costner part is the main protagonist after all, and i don't see any tamil actor having the ability to carry the role. madhavan may be a decent choice, vikram would actually be a good choice, but the fact that he's never done roles with such subtle shades makes it difficult to imagine him in a film like this.
anyway, it's still a good choice for a remake. kamal could probably consider directing a film like this.

more on the other films you've mentioned, later...

From: njv on Sat Nov 12 18:19:12 2005.

justice wrote:

did you just join any political party?

enna pA, ipidi ellam edakku modakka kathakiringa

muthala Ajith thaan venum endinga, ippo madavan venum enringo

Thumbs Up!

njv wrote:

Yep, Madhavan will be a better choice than surya/ajith.

one more u turn for you

Ajith-Asin

From: Justice on Sat Nov 12 19:48:17 2005.

I dont' want you to make another U turn
maybe an O turn

njv wrote:

one more u turn for you

Ajith-Asin
From: Alien on Sat Nov 12 22:37:34 2005.

Hey how about another romance remake ?
"Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" ??
Ofcourse Kamal not in Jim carrey's role, but Kamal could direct the movie and also must do that Dr.Howard's role which has a quite interesting extension than just the founder of that memory erasing process.! (His secretary girl's crush Kamal will suit well )
It could be made more colourful so that it can be watched by tamil audience
But I highly doubt the film doing well ! (I think it didn't fare well in h'wood either) needless to say our audience would find it outrageous(the whole memory mapping & erasing process)

But really one hell of a movie, with such a deeper meaning and impact ! It moves u to think more One of my alltime fav

From: Prabhu Ram on Sat Nov 12 23:54:55 2005.

vasanth_luv wrote:

Hey how about another romance remake ?
"Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" ??
Ofcourse Kamal not in Jim carrey's role, but Kamal could direct the movie and also must do that Dr.Howard's role which has a quite interesting extension than just the founder of that memory erasing process.! (His secretary girl's crush Razz

Kamal will suit well Razz

)
It could be made more colourful so that it can be watched by tamil audience Wink

But I highly doubt the film doing well ! (I think it didn't fare well in h'wood either) needless to say our audience would find it outrageous(the whole memory mapping & erasing process)
Laughing

But really one hell of a movie, with such a deeper meaning and impact ! It moves u to think more Razz

One of my alltime fav Razz

Charlie Kaufman is King

Outrageous brilliance is the mark of the man. After losing the oscar twice before, he finally got it this time. I never tire of Adaptation.

But I am not sure about the ESOTSM remake. Tom Wilkinson's role was interesting but it did not have the gutsy challenge that Jim Carrey's did. IMO we need to think from casting the female lead first. Kate Winslet really surprised me there. Who do you think can manage that ! ?

From: njv on Sun Nov 13 11:51:54 2005.

I was watching 44 minutes the other day and suddenly thought why not make similar movie - we had the parliament incident, so we can make a better movie and will be well received by all folks.

I cant think of anyone but KH and Arjun cuz of Kuruthipunal effect!

From: Alien on Sun Nov 13 22:11:50 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Charlie Kaufman is King Not Worthy

Outrageous brilliance is the mark of the man. After losing the oscar twice before, he finally got it this time. I never tire of Adaptation.

I haven't seen the Adaptation or Being John Malkovich yet

I must see soon

Prabhu Ram wrote:

But I am not sure about the ESOTSM remake. Tom Wilkinson's role was interesting but it did not have the gutsy challenge that Jim Carrey's did. IMO we need to think from casting the female lead first. Kate Winslet really surprised me there. Who do you think can manage that ! ?

I can't really replace Kate with a tamil heroine. Sadly our actresses never get to act naturally in movies . The best choice for me seems Genelia(Boys,Sachin) or Asin !!

Who could u think for that role?

And for KH, his age is the culprit. Jim carrey's role needs to be done by a younger hero. IMO A Kamal of "Guna" age and similar looks is the next best choice for Jim carrey's role after Jim carrey.

(Ok, among indian heroes)
Only such a Kamal could emote that distress, anguish with perfection !
Among the younger heroes Madhavan or Surya

From: Cinefan on Mon Nov 14 2:21:51 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Cinefan wrote:

Don't worry,you are in exalted company Very Happy

Sorry for the late reply,was on a tour of Mysore with family.

I haven't signed up with Cinema paradiso still.

Don't know the status of RSB.The producer had given out an ad on Kamal's birthday with a 'Viraivil'for the film.Don't know when that 'Viraivil'will come.

From: Prabhu Ram on Mon Nov 14 12:21:38 2005.

vasanth_luv wrote:

I can't really replace Kate with a tamil heroine. Sadly our actresses never get to act naturally in movies . The best choice for me seems Genelia(Boys,Sachin) or Asin !! Rolling Eyes Who could u think for that role?

And for KH, his age is the culprit. Jim carrey's role needs to be done by a younger hero. IMO A Kamal of "Guna" age and similar looks is the next best choice for Jim carrey's role after Jim carrey. Cool (Ok, among indian heroes)
Only such a Kamal could emote that distress, anguish with perfection !
Among the younger heroes Madhavan or Surya Rolling Eyes

Genelia ....how about Genelia for Kirsten Dunst ?
My suggestion for Clementine: Preity Zinta
My suggestion for Joel Barrish: .........................give him a couple of months and Kamal will knocj off the kilos and get someone to redo his face. Noone else can, I say

From: stranger on Mon Nov 14 15:30:46 2005.

R : I have seen people getting annoyed and irritated when someone says "I liked RK over Kh in 16-vayadhinilE". I think I sort of "felt" somewhat like that here and over-reacted, may be. Becuase I personally dont like Tom Cruise and I think is just a cocky jerk!

From: Girish11 on Mon Nov 14 17:29:29 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Girish11 wrote:

4-A perfect world : Again involving a burglar in the run and a
small boy starring Kevin costner as the burglar
and Clint Eastwood the director of the movie
plays the cop chasing the burglar.

Hi Ramsri,

True, considering Kamal's present age, it is little difficult to
imagine Kamal in that role. I had seen this one during its release
approx 10 years back, I kept pondering over a remake of this
movie in Kamal at that time for days

The same with Man without
a face. Waiting Roshan's and others feedback on this one.

I made a mistake in my earlier post, the movies I mentoned dont
involve main charecter with a youngster but a small boy or a
girl less approx ageing 10.

I dont know of any movie which has been made using the
2 principal charecters as a grown up and a 10 year old (except
Masoom), surely there may be other but I dont know.

It would really be nice to see a Kamal movie in which the main
charecters are just Kamal and a small boy/girl - A kind of movie
in which Kamal is still to act.

From: Girish11 on Mon Nov 14 17:33:24 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Have seen none of the movies in your list. A recent old man young man movie that seems possible is 'Finding Forrester'

Girish11 wrote:

BTW, this guy, Stephen Rea is an
actor who is very good but hardly recognized.

I saw one HBO Original Movie called Citizen X. It is a dark and slow movie with Stephen Rea playing the lead. He did an exceedingly good job. In fact the mocie irself was pretty well made. Haven't seen any other movie of his though.

I have not seen both the movies mentioned by you

Have noted them down, going to try and get them along with
Eternal sunshine......

From: Girish11 on Mon Nov 14 17:39:39 2005.

njv wrote:

Girish11 wrote:

Anyone seen First 50 dates? Wouldn't it be nice to remake
this in Indian langauage? Any ideas about starcast etc?

5 years before I would have choosed KH, but now I want KH to do more matured role (like Anbe Sivam). I watched As good as it gets yesterday and was thinking how KH didnt do thi. Well my wish is that Kamal does movies like this.

Hi njv/Vasanth_luv.

Yes, it is 50 first dates. Sorry for the wrong title. Saw this
one twice and both the times kept thinking about an Indian
rehash of this one. I am actually surprised it has not been
remade considering how quick our people are in grabbing
this type of movies.

My choice for male lead Surya/Madhavan/Prasanna
Female lead : ......... a slightly younger Simran, cannot think of
anyone else who can play it convincingly from present actresses.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Nov 15 3:36:19 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

Sachein, padam patheengala????????

From: Kumar on Tue Nov 15 7:14:20 2005.

Man Without a Face; probably a realistic choice, compared to Eternal...Mind. Apart for the match up of characters for the latter movie, the story would be a bit unconventional, I would say. But Man W/out a Face has a subject that can reach out to an audience. (Bring back Gouthami for this one.)

From: njv on Tue Nov 15 7:38:35 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

My choice for male lead Surya/Madhavan/Prasanna
Female lead : ......... a slightly younger Simran, cannot think of
anyone else who can play it convincingly from present actresses.

Hope justice is in jamaica and not reading this post. For hero, my choice would be

madhavan
surya
ajith (in case if justice read - keep him happy)

heroines

laila - will be a perfect fit given her past history - i mean movie history
asin - she rocked in gajini. kewl gal
jo - ra ra....

Alternatively we cane make it a mass movie with Vijay and Nayanthara. How abt that

From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Nov 15 9:33:31 2005.

IM(not so humble)O, a Naidu-hall mannequin would be economically more feasible than Laila, considering that performance-wise, there is little to choose between the two
From: Prabhu Ram on Tue Nov 15 11:11:57 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

IM(not so humble)O, a Naidu-hall mannequin would be economically more feasible than Laila, considering that performance-wise, there is little to choose between the two

But that's unfair. She is usually typecast into moronic roles:

Allithandha Vaanam, Dheena,Nandhaa, Pithaamgan, Ullam kEtkumE

But you will be able to see a couple of scenes where she does pull a nice act.

1)The street corner scene in Pithaamagan when Surya comes out of prison.
2) The scene in the prison when she is giving Surya's intense glares when her father is apologizing ("Loosaappa Nee ?")
2)The scene after the Arya's wedding with the college gang and Shaam in U.K

From: Roshan on Tue Nov 15 12:57:51 2005.

Kumar wrote:

Man Without a Face; probably a realistic choice, compared to Eternal...Mind. Apart for the match up of characters for the latter movie, the story would be a bit unconventional, I would say. But Man W/out a Face has a subject that can reach out to an audience. (Bring back Gouthami for this one.)

But wouldn't it slightly remind "Nammavar" if you bring back Gauthami here ? Again I am not in favour of remaking - cause the story will not attract the masses (though it is a beautiful story). Even if it is re-made I would prefer to have some one like Mammutty instead Kamal.

From: Roshan on Tue Nov 15 12:59:58 2005.

stranger wrote:

R : I have seen people getting annoyed and irritated when someone says "I liked RK over Kh in 16-vayadhinilE". I think I sort of "felt" somewhat like that here and over-reacted, may be. Becuase I personally dont like Tom Cruise and I think is just a cocky jerk! Smile

vida mAtteengaLE !!!!

From: stranger on Tue Nov 15 13:03:30 2005.

From: ranjit_g on Tue Nov 15 15:30:39 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

IM(not so humble)O, a Naidu-hall mannequin would be economically more feasible than Laila, considering that performance-wise, there is little to choose between the two

But that's unfair. She is usually typecast into moronic roles:

Allithandha Vaanam, Dheena,Nandhaa, Pithaamgan, Ullam kEtkumE

But you will be able to see a couple of scenes where she does pull a nice act.

1)The street corner scene in Pithaamagan when Surya comes out of prison.
2) The scene in the prison when she is giving Surya's intense glares when her father is apologizing ("Loosaappa Nee ?")
2)The scene after the Arya's wedding with the college gang and Shaam in U.K

laila is terrrrrrrrrrible.she cant act.except in nanda and pithamagan-both bala movies-i havent seen her performing any role well.she is so irritating

From: Miss Chennai on Tue Nov 15 15:44:48 2005.

ranjit_g wrote:

laila is terrrrrrrrrrible.she cant act.i havent seen her performing any role well.she is so irritating

Didn't she perform well in Dhil?

Didn't she perform well in Dheena?

Didn't she perform well in Ullam Ketkume?

She is easily one of the very few "performance" oriented heroines in Tamil cinema after Simran & Sneha who doesn't get enough chances because she is not willing to do galmourous roles.

On any day, Laila is way better than "Over acting Queen" Jyothika or the "lousy mud-pot" Trisha.

Haven't seen any Asin movies yet except "M.Kumaran...". Hope she is also be a "performance" oriented heroine vs. some "junk actress" capable of only doing some crappy "kuthu" songs.

Oh! Btw, To Others - Sorry for the digression
From: Girish11 on Tue Nov 15 19:12:29 2005.

Hey Guys, how about a remake of "The scent
of a Woman" with our Kamal? What do you
guys think?

I am very eager to see Kamal in such a role
and also eager to see Kamal performing serious roles of a doctor
and a lawyer which I think he has not done.

Patch adams in another movie which I thought
will be nice to remake with Kamal but just
realized VRMBBS is having similar story line.
I feel a version closer to Patch Adams would
have been better than the remake of
Munnabhai MBBS.

From: Alien on Wed Nov 16 8:22:40 2005.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

It�s a wonderful choice. It�s again a wonderful choice.

(I saw �I am Sam� again yesterday

).
Preity Zinta is the best actress to do that role of that beautiful Kate

. I couldn�t think of her first, bcos I set my mindset on a tamil actress..And Genelia 4 Kirsten Dunst also looks excellent !

I wish Kamal was younger ! How would have it been !!

Anyway as u guys said this movie seems not a very realistic choice

From: Alien on Wed Nov 16 8:31:05 2005.

njv wrote:

Hope justice is in jamaica and not reading this post.

njv wrote:

For hero, my choice would be

madhavan
surya
ajith (in case if justice read - keep him happy)

heroines

laila - will be a perfect fit given her past history - i mean movie history
asin - she rocked in gajini. kewl gal
jo - ra ra....

My choice 4 the hero would be different. I don't prefer Madhavan, he often does those kinda roles, so wouldn't be very interesting...I would prefer Surya/Ajith! If Ajith could manage to bring some humour with ease, then it would be "interesting" to see him

And for heroine the perfect choice would again be Preity Zinta

Her chubby face and pleasant smiles

she cam simply replace Drew barrymore

I somehow can't stand Laila ever

She's the worst .....She drives me crazy

njv wrote:

Alternatively we cane make it a mass movie with Vijay and Nayanthara. How abt that Laughing

From: nilavupriyan on Wed Nov 16 9:18:35 2005.

heyy....they have been trying with godfather always...

what about "scarface"?

but with a little change ofcourse?
From: ramsri on Wed Nov 16 13:05:57 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

Hey Guys, how about a remake of "The scent
of a Woman" with our Kamal? What do you
guys think?

hmmm ... who'll play chris o'donnell? see the problem with such plots is that it brings us back to the same problem of getting a younger actor to play the foil to kamal. i think we've discussed at least half a dozen films here where every possible combination has been worked out ... kamal-madhavan, kamal-surya, kamal-vikram ... we've even gone to extremes, suggesting ajth as a possible co-star but i don't see any of those possibilities realistically working out. maybe we should stop speculation along these lines and consider only films where there's a single protagonist at the heart of the plot, with the rest of the cast assembled around him. someone suggested "Scarface" - now that, to me, is a role he can really have a shot at playing. what say?
From: Justice on Thu Nov 17 23:32:22 2005.

yes, I didn't read your post

njv wrote:

Hope justice is in jamaica and not reading this post. For hero, my choice would be

madhavan
surya
ajith (in case if justice read - keep him happy)

From: njv on Fri Nov 18 0:48:51 2005.

justice wrote:

yes, I didn't read your post Evil or Very Mad

njv wrote:

Hope justice is in jamaica and not reading this post. For hero, my choice would be

madhavan
surya
ajith (in case if justice read - keep him happy)

justice

i listed thala's name also. in vijay's pani yaar name mothalla irukkungarathu mukkiyam illai. kadasiya yaar name mothalla irukkungarathuthaan mukkiyam.

From: Justice on Fri Nov 18 0:50:17 2005.

you are one of the few person to impress me here

but en vaarthai kadal vatri vitathe

njv wrote:

justice

i listed thala's name also. in vijay's pani yaar name mothalla irukkungarathu mukkiyam illai. kadasiya yaar name mothalla irukkungarathuthaan mukkiyam.
From: r_un2001 on Mon Nov 21 8:13:39 2005.

Recently i saw spielberg's "The terminal" it is similar with
vasoolraja MBBS in many scenes.
From: ssanjinika on Mon Nov 21 10:23:09 2005.

Vasoolraja MBBS is loosely based on Robin Williams movie Patch Adams!
From: njv on Tue Nov 22 23:55:35 2005.

r_un2001 wrote:

Recently i saw spielberg's "The terminal" it is similar with
vasoolraja MBBS in many scenes.

not even 1/10000000th. Terminal is a differernt movie and yes, a potential remake for KH, but who like movies like Terminal in Tamil anyways.
From: Sinthiya on Wed Nov 23 2:21:33 2005.

The Terminal is not at all like VR MBBS....it's possible to remake in Tamil...with a different flavour of course...

it'd be interesting...Kamal can definitely take on Tom Hank's role...

From: nilavupriyan on Wed Nov 23 7:12:03 2005.

Sinthiya wrote:

The Terminal is not at all like VR MBBS....it's possible to remake in Tamil...with a different flavour of course...

it'd be interesting...Kamal can definitely take on Tom Hank's role...

who will do the role of "mottai thalai" air port head?

1)prakash raj?
2)naasar?
3)jeyaram?

From: Sinthiya on Wed Nov 23 16:13:27 2005.

hmm...maybe Prakash Raj...or Jeyaram...

more importantly, who can play the role of Catherine Zeta Jones? She was so simple, yet sophisticated...

maybe Simran?

From: Girish11 on Wed Nov 23 20:10:15 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Girish11 wrote:

Hey Guys, how about a remake of "The scent
of a Woman" with our Kamal? What do you
guys think?

hmmm ... who'll play chris o'donnell? see the problem with such plots is that it brings us back to the same problem of getting a younger actor to play the foil to kamal. i think we've discussed at least half a dozen films here where every possible combination has been worked out ... kamal-madhavan, kamal-surya, kamal-vikram ... we've even gone to extremes, suggesting ajth as a possible co-star Smile

but i don't see any of those possibilities realistically working out. maybe we should stop speculation along these lines and consider only films where there's a single protagonist at the heart of the plot, with the rest of the cast assembled around him. someone suggested "Scarface" - now that, to me, is a role he can really have a shot at playing. what say?

Surprisingly, I have not been receiving post notifications from the
hub last few days, thought there were no new posts and logged
in to check out today, indeed there are new posts. Hope the
problem has been fixed.

In reply to your comments, it is not neccessary for a known/popular
actor to play the role of Chris O'Donnel in my opinion, even
COD in my opinion was a rookie when he acted in this movie I
think. The role he plays is of a teenager, so any talented newbie
is good enough for that role. But damn! Al Pacino's role is
definately tailor made for Kamal. If only they do it

From: nilavupriyan on Thu Nov 24 0:17:53 2005.

Sinthiya wrote:

hmm...maybe Prakash Raj...or Jeyaram...

more importantly, who can play the role of Catherine Zeta Jones? She was so simple, yet sophisticated...

maybe Simran?

no way!...may be ....noone comes to mind!
From: Sinthiya on Thu Nov 24 0:22:15 2005.

i couldn't think of anyone for that role either...Simran was the only person who i thought would do justice to the role...i think...
From: njv on Thu Nov 24 7:41:24 2005.

Sinthiya wrote:

i couldn't think of anyone for that role either...Simran was the only person who i thought would do justice to the role...i think...

how abt asin i started liking her after watching gajini
From: Sinthiya on Sun Nov 27 23:41:04 2005.

asin is a good choice as well...

I've seen I am Sam xx number of times and I always thought Kamal could do the role of Sean Penn...Sean Penn was simply superb...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277027/

Kamal will be great...i wonder if there are any tamil movies that is similar to this...
From: Justice on Sun Nov 27 23:48:24 2005.

Asin with Kamal
From: nilavupriyan on Sun Nov 27 23:49:51 2005.

justice wrote:

Asin with Kamal

why are u shocked?.....
From: Justice on Sun Nov 27 23:52:40 2005.

is she gona act as his daughter?

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

Asin with Kamal

why are u shocked?.....
From: nilavupriyan on Sun Nov 27 23:56:39 2005.

i shall tell u after watching godfather.... i also have the same doubt

justice wrote:

is she gona act as his daughter?

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

Asin with Kamal

why are u shocked?.....
From: Justice on Sun Nov 27 23:57:40 2005.

Kamal acting in Godfather?
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:00:13 2005.

adada ....onnume theriyadha maadhiri mulikkiruye!

btw.... that guy who is acting in godfather is ajith.....a tamil hero!..for ur info

justice wrote:

Kamal acting in Godfather?

From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:02:43 2005.

He's stylish. Asin will look elder sister to him Razz

. By the way is Kamal acting as Asin's dad?

nilavupriyan wrote:

adada ....onnume theriyadha maadhiri mulikkiruye!

btw.... that guy who is acting in godfather is ajith.....a tamil hero!..for ur info

justice wrote:

Kamal acting in Godfather? Rolling Eyes

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:04:14 2005.

but kamal needs makeup like indian to act as her dad!.... Wink

justice wrote:

He's stylish. Asin will look elder sister to him Razz

. By the way is Kamal acting as Asin's dad?

nilavupriyan wrote:

adada ....onnume theriyadha maadhiri mulikkiruye!

btw.... that guy who is acting in godfather is ajith.....a tamil hero!..for ur info

justice wrote:

Kamal acting in Godfather? Rolling Eyes

From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:07:12 2005.

why? because he looks ugly?
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:19:40 2005.

nilavu, ena escapa?
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:20:48 2005.

but surely better than thirupathi ajith!

i believe in another 5 years ajith can act as grand father of asin without make-up!

justice wrote:

why? because he looks ugly?
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:21:36 2005.

brushing!...so a bit late!

unakku andha prachanaye illaye
From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:23:25 2005.

asin doesn't want to act with kamal at first.

every actresses want to act with rajini..but not with kamal? why?
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:24:36 2005.

rachel wrote:

asin doesn't want to act with kamal at first.

every actresses want to act with rajini..but not with kamal? why?

oh!...adhan aishvarya rai odi vandhu nadichaangala?

btw...justice kooptana?
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:24:41 2005.

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/m/Events/brindhawedssivakumar1305/69003.html

this face will act as a hero even in his 70s
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:25:43 2005.

even surya looks older to Ajith, then Kamal

my plan is Ajith and Surya, double hero subject.

Asin and Trisha as heroines

Kamal as grandfather

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:26:05 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

but surely better than thirupathi ajith!

i believe in another 5 years ajith can act as grand father of asin without make-up!

justice wrote:

why? because he looks ugly? Rolling Eyes

in 5 years asin'd act as ajith's anni...

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:26:12 2005.

justice wrote:

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/m/Events/brindhawedssivakumar1305/69003.html

this face will act as a hero even in his 70s

yes...he must have acted in 1970's ....now its too late!..he looks too old!

btw...whats his age?....60?

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:27:40 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

rachel wrote:

asin doesn't want to act with kamal at first. Rolling Eyes

every actresses want to act with rajini..but not with kamal? why? Confused

oh!...adhan aishvarya rai odi vandhu nadichaangala? Laughing

btw...justice kooptana? Laughing

aish is busy.

...

From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:27:47 2005.

he wasn't born in 1970
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:28:09 2005.

justice wrote:

even surya looks older to Ajith, then Kamal

my plan is Ajith and Surya, double hero subject.

Asin and Trisha as heroines

Kamal as grandfather

adhellam sari.....kamal kooda vandhu nadikkum bothu ...."adhu" "kidhu" nu sound vuda koodathu!

surya can manage...he can act a bit!...
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:28:22 2005.

Kamal vanthu, heroinoda settai vida kodathu
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:28:41 2005.

justice wrote:

he wasn't born in 1970

apdiya......
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:30:05 2005.

isn't Kamal in his 60s?
From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:30:38 2005.

justice wrote:

Kamal vanthu, heroinoda settai vida kodathu
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:31:01 2005.

justice wrote:

isn't Kamal in his 60s?

yeah.....ajith and kamal both looks to be in 60's
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:31:55 2005.

I think your left eye got a problem, your right eye was correct in predicting Kamal's age

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

isn't Kamal in his 60s?

yeah.....ajith and kamal both looks to be in 60's
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:34:04 2005.

rachel wrote:

justice wrote:

Kamal vanthu, heroinoda settai vida kodathu

kamal settaiya vavadhu paathanga neraya padathula.

ajith mandaya sorinju ,kaiya idhuppula vechu, punchu dialogue viduradha ellam 2 naal kooda yaarum paakala pola...
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:34:05 2005.

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/m/Events/kamal_pm190705/48512.html

this is Kamal

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:35:20 2005.

justice wrote:

I think your left eye got a problem, your right eye was correct in predicting Kamal's age Laughing

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

isn't Kamal in his 60s? Rolling Eyes

yeah.....ajith and kamal both looks to be in 60's

yeah ...i must have predicted ajith's age as 70!..sorry!

From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:35:33 2005.

I think more people watched Red than MX which was utter floppppppppppp
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:36:54 2005.

if Ajith is 70 then his dady in the film Kamal must be 140
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:37:19 2005.

justice wrote:

I think more people watched Red than MX which was utter floppppppppppp

yeah...more people laughed while watching red though mx was a comedy movie

sema comedy!

adhu!

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:37:53 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

rachel wrote:

justice wrote:

Kamal vanthu, heroinoda settai vida kodathu Laughing

kamal settaiya vavadhu paathanga neraya padathula.

ajith mandaya sorinju ,kaiya idhuppula vechu, punchu dialogue viduradha ellam 2 naal kooda yaarum paakala pola..

From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:38:33 2005.

Red was intended for comedy and well received
MX was inteded for comedy which was a lullaby ROTFL

I just watched 15 minutes of it and slept very well. really had a good sleep. never before like that.

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

I think more people watched Red than MX which was utter floppppppppppp Laughing

yeah...more people laughed while watching red though mx was a comedy movie Laughing

sema comedy!

adhu!

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:39:00 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

I think more people watched Red than MX which was utter floppppppppppp Laughing

yeah...more people laughed while watching red though mx was a comedy movie Laughing

sema comedy!

adhu!

but nobody laughed when they watched MX

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:40:10 2005.

yeah...red was the best comedy movie ever taken....... Laughing

justice wrote:

Red was intended for comedy and well received
MX was inteded for comedy which was a lullaby ROTFL

I just watched 15 minutes of it and slept very well. really had a good sleep. never before like that.

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

I think more people watched Red than MX which was utter floppppppppppp Laughing

yeah...more people laughed while watching red though mx was a comedy movie Laughing

sema comedy!

adhu!

From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:40:41 2005.

and the serious movie is MX I cried at Kamal's inability to bring a laughter in me

nilavupriyan wrote:

yeah...red was the best comedy movie ever taken.......

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:40:48 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

I think your left eye got a problem, your right eye was correct in predicting Kamal's age Laughing

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

isn't Kamal in his 60s? Rolling Eyes

yeah.....ajith and kamal both looks to be in 60's

yeah ...i must have predicted ajith's age as 70!..sorry!

Arasiyalla idellaam saadhaaranamappa

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:41:15 2005.

rachel wrote:

nilavupriyan wrote:

justice wrote:

I think more people watched Red than MX which was utter floppppppppppp Laughing

yeah...more people laughed while watching red though mx was a comedy movie Laughing

sema comedy!

adhu!

but nobody laughed when they watched MX Crying or Very sad

but everybody laughed when they watched red

From: Sinthiya on Mon Nov 28 0:41:29 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

ajith mandaya sorinju ,kaiya idhuppula vechu, punchu dialogue viduradha ellam 2 naal kooda yaarum paakala pola...

...

aiyoo...now no one will read my post about I am Sam and Kamal's potential to do Sean Penn's role...

continue spamming...
From: Alien on Mon Nov 28 0:41:51 2005.

Enuf digressions !
Please don't bring actors who can't act, to this thread !
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:42:43 2005.

I think Red was better than MX which I couldn't watch more than 5 minutes

sinthiya, sorry

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:42:44 2005.

then go and watch avvai shanmugi or mmkr!

dont ask me to watch jana or anjaneya plz....ive laughed enogh by watching red

justice wrote:

and the serious movie is MX ROTFL

I cried at Kamal's inability to bring a laughter in me ROTFL

nilavupriyan wrote:

yeah...red was the best comedy movie ever taken....... Laughing

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:42:50 2005.

priyan
will you look like your avatar now?
sorry...don't get angry...
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:43:31 2005.

nilavu brought other best actors in this thread, not me.

I asked him if Asin is gona act as his daughter, I had no clue but nilavu went wild

vasanth_luv wrote:

Enuf digressions !
Please don't bring actors who can't act, to this thread !
From: Sinthiya on Mon Nov 28 0:45:04 2005.

vasanth_luv wrote:

Enuf digressions !
Please don't bring actors who can't act, to this thread !

thank you
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:45:10 2005.

dai!.....mudhalla digressiona aarampichadhu nee!

ok...lets stop it!

im gonna eat now

justice wrote:

nilavu brought other best actors in this thread, not me.

vasanth_luv wrote:

Enuf digressions !
Please don't bring actors who can't act, to this thread !

From: Alien on Mon Nov 28 0:45:16 2005.

Sinthiya wrote:

asin is a good choice as well...

I've seen I am Sam xx number of times and I always thought Kamal could do the role of Sean Penn...Sean Penn was simply superb...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277027/

Kamal will be great...i wonder if there are any tamil movies that is similar to this... Rolling Eyes

No worries, Here is ur post Sinthiya

I saw "I am Sam" last week again

Its a touching movie

But I don't think it'll be received by tamil audience well

Kamal will again have to end up losing

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:46:44 2005.

Quote:

then go and watch avvai shanmugi or mmkr!

is that avvai kamal?

From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:47:59 2005.

justice wrote:

nilavu brought other best actors in this thread, not me.

I asked him if Asin is gona act as his daughter, I had no clue but nilavu went wild ROTFL

vasanth_luv wrote:

Enuf digressions !
Please don't bring actors who can't act, to this thread !
Evil or Very Mad

From: Alien on Mon Nov 28 0:48:41 2005.

I would like to ask these Aseethu kids to leave this thread
Please !! There are no of useless threads on Ajith, Vijay and etc. Go there
From: rachel on Mon Nov 28 0:50:45 2005.

vasanth_luv wrote:

I would like to ask these Aseethu kids to leave this thread
Please !! There are no of useless threads on Ajith, Vijay and etc. Go there

don't say useless jana,
they are future stars...
his nama is ajith.
what's wrong with your tongue
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 0:50:48 2005.

vasanth_luv,

sorry to reply here but if you go back, you can figure out that nilavu brought others into this kaaaMMMaaaaaaal's thread.

bye from this undeserving thread
From: Sinthiya on Mon Nov 28 0:53:02 2005.

I agree Jana...I doubt it as well...if a movie like Gajini is well received by the tamil audience (short term memory loss concept), I believe there is a potential for this movie to hit tamil screens with a tamil flavour...maybe...

Yes, the movie is very sad...i've seen it many times...and still...every time i watch the movie, i cry...

Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeipher(sp.) and Dakota Fanning (the little girl)....they were all great...

one of my favourite movies of all time...
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 0:55:25 2005.

gajini is an action movie with love!...the best combination for tamil audience

From: Alien on Mon Nov 28 1:22:37 2005.

rachel wrote:

vasanth_luv wrote:

I would like to ask these Aseethu kids to leave this thread
Please !! There are no of useless threads on Ajith, Vijay and etc. Go there

don't say useless jana,
they are future stars...
his nama is ajith.
what's wrong with your tongue Confused

Nothing is wrong with me rachel

I just saw that u & justice were hell bent on spamming , like u guys usually do in other threads ! I thought, why can't u guys spare atleast some threads with ur spamming responses at post something interesting ! Anyways abt ur future stars, let them stay in the industry 4 another 5 years & lets see then

Sinthiya ,
I would love to see Kamal doing that role of Sean penn. It was sooo touching & the girl acted as his daughter was sooooooo cute, lovely !! It would be really interesting to see such movies in Tamil !

Kamal played a similar character, mentally slow, low IQ in Sippikkul muthu , though the plots r entirely different !

From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 1:25:57 2005.

sikipikul muthu, I watched it and is one of my Kamal's favourite.

Budham saranam kachami, thanam tharmam kachami

@vasanth, not just us but nilavu also was doing it
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 1:28:22 2005.

justice wrote:

sikipikul muthu, I watched it and is one of my Kamal's favourite.

Budham saranam kachami, thanam tharmam kachami

@vasanth, not just us but nilavu also was doing it

doing what? ...tell me in chat thread
From: Alien on Mon Nov 28 1:28:56 2005.

justice wrote:

@vasanth, not just us but nilavu also was doing it

who started it ?! justice
From: Justice on Mon Nov 28 1:30:40 2005.

bottom of page 29 and 30 will give good answers

nilavu matikitaru

vasanth_luv wrote:

justice wrote:

@vasanth, not just us but nilavu also was doing it

who started it ?! justice
From: Sinthiya on Mon Nov 28 1:33:24 2005.

vasanth_luv wrote:

Kamal played a similar character, mentally slow, low IQ in Sippikkul muthu , though the plots r entirely different !

I recently saw the last hour of Sippikkul muthu while my sisters were watching it...I had never seen the movie until then...still haven't seen the beginning ...but I really like the song 'Thulli Thulli'...very nice...

Kamal looked good in that movie...
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 1:33:28 2005.

justice...goto 29 and 30th page bottoms....and find whats there?

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Nov 28 1:35:03 2005.

Sinthiya wrote:

vasanth_luv wrote:

Kamal played a similar character, mentally slow, low IQ in Sippikkul muthu , though the plots r entirely different !

I recently saw the last hour of Sippikkul muthu while my sisters were watching it...I had never seen the movie until then...still haven't seen the beginning Confused

...but I really like the song 'Thulli Thulli'...very nice...

Kamal looked good in that movie...

i guess he got best asian actor award for it!

is it for swathi muthyam or salangai oli!

From: Alien on Mon Nov 28 1:36:12 2005.

Nilavu maattavillai ! U only posted "Is asin gonna act as Kamal's daughter?", when u r supposed to know on what context ppl here are talking and for what role asin is being suggested ! If u wasn't aware, then u should have read the earlier posts or simply left the thread ....So there........Shall v stop digressing atleast now???

From: Alien on Mon Nov 28 1:41:41 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

Sinthiya wrote:

vasanth_luv wrote:

Kamal played a similar character, mentally slow, low IQ in Sippikkul muthu , though the plots r entirely different !

I recently saw the last hour of Sippikkul muthu while my sisters were watching it...I had never seen the movie until then...still haven't seen the beginning Confused

...but I really like the song 'Thulli Thulli'...very nice...

Kamal looked good in that movie...

i guess he got best asian actor award for it!

is it for swathi muthyam or salangai oli!

He got Asian best actor awards for both films !!

@ Sinthiya , I too felt a lot of difference in Kamal's face in that film compared to his mid 80's films !! His face was literally radiating, glowing

...I think it synchronised with the character well and the title(pearl) !!!!
U should watch the whole film !! Its really a classic !!! So pleasant realistic film !

From: ssanjinika on Mon Dec 5 11:08:30 2005.

Guys..I happened to watch a movie called "She Devil" this weekend.Some time into the movie I realised that the story was similer to that of our very own "Sati Leelavathi".This movie was released in 1989 so I guess Sati Leelavati was "inspired" from this one?
From: nilavupriyan on Mon Dec 5 11:18:10 2005.

yeah........
From: stranger on Fri Jan 13 19:41:00 2006.

For the attention of Mr. MaaRan!

From: great on Fri Jan 13 22:37:52 2006.

ssanjinika wrote:

Guys..I happened to watch a movie called "She Devil" this weekend.Some time into the movie I realised that the story was similer to that of our very own "Sati Leelavathi".This movie was released in 1989 so I guess Sati Leelavati was "inspired" from this one?

I havent seen she devil,but Sati leelavathi resemebles a french movie...forgot the movie name

From: Thirumaran on Wed Jan 18 18:22:39 2006.

ssanjinika wrote:

I have not seen the English movie. But the movie is somehow similiar to the movies

1. Rettai vaal kuruvi
2. Marubadiyum

By the way in these 3 movies the solution was different.

all these 3 movies are by BaluMahendra itself.

From: stranger on Thu Jan 19 19:08:39 2006.

ssanjinika wrote:

I think it had been mentioned by a hubber in this thread long ago. As you two are coming with the same conclusion independently, I tend to think that Sathileelawathy must be "inspired" from She Devil.

From: NTR on Thu Jan 19 22:15:51 2006.

Was Salangai Oli dubbed from Telugu, or straight,
I knoe the heroine was like goddess in Andhra..
From: Alien on Thu Jan 19 23:32:21 2006.

NTR wrote:

Was Salangai Oli dubbed from Telugu, or straight,
I knoe the heroine was like goddess in Andhra..

yeah, dubbed from telugu "Sagara Sangamam"
From: NTR on Thu Jan 19 23:38:48 2006.

I tought Salangai Oli was original..
I know the director K Viswanath..
From: Alien on Thu Jan 19 23:43:18 2006.

Nope, its only a dubbing ....The film was made in Telugu as "Sagara sangamam", then got dubbed into tamil later......
So was Kamal/K.Viswanath combo "Sippikkul Muthu" ! It was first made in Telugu as "Swathy Mutyum", the got dubbed to tamil.......
Kamal won, Asian films best actor award, for both films !!!
From: NTR on Thu Jan 19 23:44:45 2006.

But i think these were only telugu dubbed movies become superhits in Tamil..
From: Alien on Thu Jan 19 23:47:39 2006.

Probably......
Kamal's Indran chandiran, Paasa valai (K.Viswanath) were also telugu dubbed films..... I think they didn't do well in tamil.... Indiran Chandiran original was a silver jubilee there.......
From: NTR on Thu Jan 19 23:49:08 2006.

Kamal's dubbed Nayagan also hit in Telugu
From: Alien on Thu Jan 19 23:51:06 2006.

NTR wrote:

Kamal's dubbed Nayagan also hit in Telugu

Oh,ok ......But I think there were many Kamal movies bcame hit in Andhra (direct/dubbing) like Aboorva Sagodharargal,................Isn't it?
From: NTR on Thu Jan 19 23:53:31 2006.

Ya
Last couple movies starting from Aalvandan didnt do well
But Thenali and Satileelavathy were big hits..
From: Alien on Thu Jan 19 23:56:10 2006.

Mmmm........ ....cool......
From: NTR on Thu Jan 19 23:58:26 2006.

I think he also got Nandi Award for Salangai Oli
From: Alien on Fri Jan 20 0:00:15 2006.

NTR wrote:

I think he also got Nandi Award for Salangai Oli

What is that award?
From: NTR on Fri Jan 20 0:01:14 2006.

Prestigous award for film performers in Andhra..
From: NTR on Fri Jan 20 0:02:01 2006.

Kamal also got 16 Filmfare Awards, which ultimatley Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevi takes as an inspiration..
From: Alien on Fri Jan 20 0:04:58 2006.

NTR wrote:

Prestigous award for film performers in Andhra..

Oh, ok ......
I think 18 filmfare awards .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamal_Haasan
wikipedia says so, I read it elsewhere too
From: great on Fri Jan 20 0:05:53 2006.

was paasa valai hit ....i meant the telugu version....
From: NTR on Fri Jan 20 0:09:11 2006.

I dont think so, great...
From: Alien on Fri Jan 20 0:10:24 2006.

I think K.Viswanath also acted in it.... I donno if it was a hit, but It wasn't raved about, as much as their previous 2 films .... Their previous 2 were 2 gems of films
From: NTR on Fri Jan 20 0:16:09 2006.

Salangai Oli is father of all Classical dance Movies..
From: great on Fri Jan 20 0:17:33 2006.

i liked the movie paasa valai ...2 songs were really gud
From: NTR on Fri Jan 20 0:19:22 2006.

Amni, wife of one man tarkolai padai Gaja Maideen, was the heroine

From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Jan 20 4:17:46 2006.

vasanth_luv wrote:

Probably......
Kamal's Indran chandiran, Paasa valai (K.Viswanath) were also telugu dubbed films..... I think they didn't do well in tamil.... Indiran Chandiran original was a silver jubilee there.......

IC thamizh-la 100 days......

From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Jan 20 4:22:02 2006.

vasanth_luv wrote:

NTR wrote:

Kamal's dubbed Nayagan also hit in Telugu

Oh,ok

......But I think there were many Kamal movies bcame hit in Andhra (direct/dubbing) like Aboorva Sagodharargal,................Isn't it? Smile

Many of Aandavar's thamizh movies dubbed into Telugu have been hits [not many know that Sathi Leelavathi's dubbed version was a hit in AP, or Drohi....Kurudhippunal is a semi-bilingual, semi-dubbed version of Drohi, which was a hit in AP]. Vikram has been going around giving interviews as though Anniyan is the first movie which is a hit in Andhra and a market for Tamil movies dubbed into Telugu never existed before. ROTFL

From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Jan 20 4:27:37 2006.

In fact there's one Telugu movie Sommakodithi Sogakodithi dubbed into Thamizh as Iru Nilavugal. Of all people, YG Mahendran dubbed for Aandavar in Thamizh. This is the only Thamizh movie [and a dubbed one at that!] to run for 100 days in Midland and Leo theatres in Chennai. Midland is now called Jayapradha and Leo as Raj.
From: great on Fri Jan 20 4:42:37 2006.

neerai kudam thalumbathu....but its not the case with vijay and vikram...
From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Jan 20 4:45:44 2006.

NTR wrote:

But i think these were only telugu dubbed movies become superhits in Tamil..

Marocharitra [original version of Ek Dhuje Keliye in Telugu] was a superhit here.... it was not even dubbed into Thamizh!
From: Prabhu Ram on Fri Jan 20 6:12:49 2006.

AA wrote:

Marocharitra [original version of Ek Dhuje Keliye in Telugu] was a superhit here.... it was not even dubbed into Thamizh!

Obvious reasons
From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Jan 20 6:23:40 2006.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

AA wrote:

Marocharitra [original version of Ek Dhuje Keliye in Telugu] was a superhit here.... it was not even dubbed into Thamizh!

Obvious reasons

Obvious reasons for it being a superhit or for not being dubbed into thamizh or both??

From: Rajkumar_mj on Fri Jan 20 6:30:30 2006.

One of my friend said this movie also ran one year in Alankar Theater.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Prabhu Ram wrote:

AA wrote:

Marocharitra [original version of Ek Dhuje Keliye in Telugu] was a superhit here.... it was not even dubbed into Thamizh!

Obvious reasons Rolling Eyes

Obvious reasons for it being a superhit or for not being dubbed into thamizh or both?? Smile

From: Alien on Fri Jan 20 6:38:20 2006.

Thanks for the infos A_A & Rajkumar
"Nirai kudam thazhumbaathu"....Thats Kamal .....
I always heard that Andhra, Kerala r his citadels

Obvious reason, PR meant , would be the cross-over love which makes it impossible to dub . Isn't it?
From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Jan 20 7:56:39 2006.

vasanth_luv wrote:

I always heard that Andhra, Kerala r his citadels

Obvious reason, PR meant , would be the cross-over love which makes it impossible to dub . Isn't it?

Danks!

What about Karnataka? He'd set many BO records there too. Most of the movies we've been talkin about were hits in Karnataka too...
His last "Kannada"(?) film Pushpak was a mega hit. Aboorva Sagodharargal set a record in Bangalore [equalling or beating Ulagam Sutrum Valiban's].

Aandavar also acted in a Bengali film Kabita, which was also a hit. Aandavar is the ONLY actor who has given HITS in six languages.

Indha record podhuma innum konjam venuma? [All repeat in chorus]

Unfortunately, the hype-factory was not up and running during those days. Otherwise, public memory wouldn't be as short as it is today.....

Don't forget Sri Lanka, where Guru ran like gangbusters (not sure how many days exactly). As was the case with Tenali....

Infact, it was during Tenali that KSR coined the term Ulaganayagan in deference to Aandavar's overseas record.

Well, well well... have i been digressing or what???
From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Jan 20 7:59:41 2006.

Rajkumar_mj wrote:

One of my friend said this movie also ran one year in Alankar Theater.

Wasn't it Saffire? [or Saffire also?]
From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Fri Jan 20 8:01:36 2006.

Hi all,

ten
vanthutten
meendum vanthutten
appuram meendum vanthutten
naalaikku appuram meendum vanthutten
romba naalaikku appuram meendum vanthutten

ini Sakalai Ragalai aarambam
viraivil Vallavar Vettai Aarambam

From: Alien on Fri Jan 20 8:19:11 2006.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

What about Karnataka? He'd set many BO records there too. Most of the movies we've been talkin about were hits in Karnataka too...
His last "Kannada"(?) film Pushpak was a mega hit. Aboorva Sagodharargal set a record in Bangalore [equalling or beating Ulagam Sutrum Valiban's].
Aandavar also acted in a Bengali film Kabita, which was also a hit. Aandavar is the ONLY actor who has given HITS in six languages.

Talent always runs an extra mile(here light years

)

I learnt abt Ulaga Nayagan's hold in Karnataka too.....

..
I learnt that keralites & telugus used to address him as "our Kamal"

BTW Guru was the biggest ever in Sri lanka ...It ran some 400 odd days ....KH has always been the crowd puller there ...Rajni's only decent movie hit was Chandramukhi.........
......Even Guna took a massive opening & was a hit there(I don't think thalabathy was even released there)............

Sakala welcome back

From: selvakumar on Fri Jan 20 8:20:40 2006.

vaanga sakalai.. ivalavu naal engae poirundeergal??
From: Rajkumar_mj on Fri Jan 20 9:29:04 2006.

AA

Sorry it was Saffire not Alankar

Is Tenali the Biggest Block buster for Kamal ?

I heard that it collected nearly 30 crores.
From: Prabhu Ram on Fri Jan 20 14:57:16 2006.

vasanth_luv wrote:

Obvious reason, PR meant , would be the cross-over love which makes it impossible to dub . Isn't it?
Yep
From: Prabhu Ram on Fri Jan 20 15:00:22 2006.

AA wrote:

Don't forget Sri Lanka, where Guru ran like gangbusters (not sure how many days exactly).
Whenever I hear about this movie I am reminding of the theme music. IMHO it is quite an ordinary movie which Kamal should bury in his resume. But whenever it comes on TV I hang around for a while hoping to hear the theme music.
From: kannannn on Fri Jan 20 15:57:06 2006.

The (only?!) best thing about 'Guru' is 'Perai Sollava?' I just cant get enough of that song.

From: Girish11 on Tue Jan 24 17:12:06 2006.

vasanth_luv wrote:

There is one more, "Hare Radha Hare Krishna" dubbed from
Telugu original "Oka Radha Oka Kirshna", this is a movie in which
Kamal and Sridevi acted together after a long gap (after Sadma)
after she went to Bollywood and probably her only appearance
in a South Indian movie after she went to Bollywood, also the
last movie in which Kamal and Sridevi acted together.

This is a real good entertainer, did very well in Telugu but not
so well in Tamil which I guess is due to Tamil audience having
lesser interest in dubbed movies those days, but a good movie
to watch, great songs, do watch it if you can.

It was released under Rajkamal banner in Tamil.

From: NTR on Tue Jan 24 22:57:08 2006.

Kamal's Unnal Mudiyum Thambi remade by KB as Rudra Veena with Chiranjeevi...
Chiru still saying that was hie best movie...
I wonder if Kamal says the same
From: Shakthiprabha on Sat Mar 11 13:24:37 2006.

Munnabhai mbbs

or

vasool raja mbbs

is an inspiration of which movie?

NAME THE MOVIE PLZ
From: Navin on Sat Mar 11 13:25:40 2006.

patch adams and another 1 too
From: Shakthiprabha on Sat Mar 11 13:35:09 2006.

I thought

patch adams

another one? which is that?

is it

BILLY MADISON?
From: Shakthiprabha on Sun Mar 12 6:25:09 2006.

ding dong!

does anyone know?
From: selvakumar on Sun Mar 12 6:26:05 2006.

Shakthiprabha wrote:

ding dong!

does anyone know?

Wait for "Great" machi to arrive ! He is very strong in this area.
From: Ramakrishna on Sun Mar 12 6:27:02 2006.

Shakthiprabha wrote:

ding dong!

does anyone know?

ding dong kovil mani kovil mani naan kettaen.
From: Shakthiprabha on Sun Mar 12 7:10:13 2006.

rk
From: Shakthiprabha on Mon Mar 13 7:59:40 2006.

:knockety knock:
From: joe on Mon Mar 13 8:39:16 2006.

great wrote:

was paasa valai hit ....i meant the telugu version....

Ofcourse,Pasavalai telugu version was super hit ,whereas tamil version didn't fare well.

Even salaingai oli tamil version was not superhit like telugu when it was released first time ..But it got great responses in later year releases ..In 91,it was released in sona theatre trichy,just like a released movie and ran 40 days with 30 days packed house..college students celebrated the movie like anything .

From: nilavupriyan on Mon Mar 13 13:20:14 2006.

Prabhu Ram wrote:

AA wrote:

Don't forget Sri Lanka, where Guru ran like gangbusters (not sure how many days exactly).

Whenever I hear about this movie I am reminding of the theme music. IMHO it is quite an ordinary movie which Kamal should bury in his resume. But whenever it comes on TV I hang around for a while hoping to hear the theme music.

the whistle theme!...a very good theme... the theme and kamal in horse..nice combination

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