KOLLYWOOD (Tamil)

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Kamal Haasan honoured by IT


2011-07-26 12:35:12


A day after Mammootty and Mohanlal were raided by Income Tax department Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan, was honoured by them.
Kamal was honoured by Income Tax department in Chennai for being 'a shining example of good citizenship' by paying taxes regularly payer.

Kamal was honoured at a function to celebrate 150 years of Income Tax and the Governor presented a certificate to Kamal.
Kamal was one among the special invitees to the function, which saw the participation of Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala and luminaries from various other fields.

[breakingviews]

‘Direction gives me tension’

…says Prabhu Deva, who is currently shooting for Vedi in Kolkata

Priyanka Dasgupta




Prabhu Deva is in Kolkata shooting for the Vishal-Sameera-starrer Vedi. The director was supposed to shoot the film in Kolkata some months back but unfortunately, the schedule got pushed because of the polls.
This is the first time Prabhu’s in Kolkato to shoot a film. “I wanted to give a new look to Vedi. The film can actually be shot anywhere in India. It is about a Tamil family staying in Kolkata. It is also about the hero, who is in search of somebody. I felt Kolkata has an old-world charm. If I can give that character to the film, it will only make my movie visually more appealing. I also have another reason to shoot in Kolkata. Any Tamil and Telugu film that is shot here is a superhit. For local people, the locations might be common but, for us, the places have a new appeal.”
Ask him about the cast of the film and he says, “Apart from Sameera (who has already shot in Kolkata), the rest, including Vishal and Vivekh, will have a unique first-time shooting experience in the city. However, I will not be choreographing for this movie. There is a separate choreographer who will be working on the songs.”
Meanwhile, Prabhu is also preparing to shoot for Rowdy Rathore with Akshay Kumar “We will begin shooting from August end. That’s an out-and-out action cinema and I’m really excited about it. With this movie, I’m sure the ‘Khiladi’ will be really back with a bang.” How about doing a dance film? “I want to do such a movie but it has to be first written that way. Right now, I only have offers for doing action-packed movies.” Doesn’t he wish to face the camera again? “Oh! no. Direction gives me enough tension. I don’t want to double my tension,” he says.


Sameera, Vishal and Prabhu Deva on the sets of the film



Sameera Reddy

[breakingviews]

Chennai Box- Office- July 22 to 24
Wednesday, 27 July , 2011, 09:45

Vikram and his Deivathirumagal continue their hold in its second week over the CBO.
The film has grossed approximately 2.5 Crore in 10 days from Chennai city, what`s is amazing is that the second weekend is as good as the opening weekend!
In the number two positions is Lawrence`s Kanchana, a horror masala movie which is doing better in single screens and is at number two position.
In the third place is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: 2, followed by Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara which is rock steady in multiplexes. In the fifth place is Venghai.

[breakingviews]

Veppam turns profitable before release!


2011-07-26 12:38:17
Last Updated: 2011-07-27 10:14:52


Gautham Vasudev Menon and his Photon Kathaas Production's Veppam directed by debutant Anjali is already profitable!
Veppam is slated for release this Friday (July 29) and carries an A certificate. It revolves around three friends- two boys and a girl from the slums of North Madras area, played by Telugu actor Nani, Karthik Kumar and Nithya Menen and Bindu Madhavi plays a commercialsex worker. Joshua Sridhar's music is one of the highlights of the film.
As per reports appearing in a stock market site- "Veppam was produced for approximately US$ 550,000; the film's domestic theatrical rights were sold for $600,000, while the television rights, international theatrical rights and the rights to the Telugu dubbed version had been sold for a total of $270,000. Total revenues for this production are now approximately $870,000".

[wayanadan]

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Strict rules for Tamil film ET exemption!


2011-07-27 11:16:07
Last Updated: 2011-07-27 11:20:28


The Jayalalithaa government has cracked the whip.
The Tamil Nadu government has issued stringent norms for feature films with Tamil title to be eligible for entertainment tax.
The 15 % tax exemption for films with Tamil titles was introduced by the earlier DMK government. It was touted as "Karunanidhi gift to Tamil cinema" and his lackeys in the industry went about implementing it for all sorts of films.
Now the new government has modified it and made it very difficult for mass masala movies with Tamil titles to get tax exemption. As per the GO issued by the commercial taxes department, films with only 'U' censor certificate are eligible for tax exemption.
And films which have got 'U' certificate should not depict "excessive violence or obscenity." Most important is that the story-line or plot of the films "should be conducive to the development of Tamil language and culture". Above all the dialogues in the film should be predominantly in Tamil.
The new tax rules has made it almost impossible for any commercial film to get tax exemption. The theatres in Tamil Nadu have been keeping the tax amount (15 % of the gross ticket amount), with them since May 13, the day Jayalalithaa had a landslide win in the assembly elections.
As per the new modification in tax rules, films which had applied for tax exemption like Avan Ivan, Aranayakandam, Kanchana have no chance, as they are all 'A' certificate films! The only film which may be exempted is Deivathirumagal which has an 'U' certificate and has no blood, gore or bad language!

[breakingviews]

Walt Disney to buy out UTV!


2011-07-27 10:43:10
Last Updated: 2011-07-27 10:48:08


One of the world's leading entertainment conglomerates Walt Disney Company is to buy out Mumbai-based UTV Software Communications!
Walt Disney, already owns 50.44% stake in UTV, and has offered Rs 1,000 per share to acquire the outstanding shares, including that of original promoter Ronnie Screwvala and family. The deal is potentially valued at $454 million or Rs 2014 Crore.

This buyout will give Walt Disney control over UTV library of movies it produces and distributes.

It is good news for Tamil cinema as UTV has completed its first deal in Tamil with the distribution of Deivathirumagal.
UTV Motion Pictures has tied up as co-producers for a three film deal with Lingusamy's Thirupathi Brothers.

The films are Balaji Sakthivel directed Vazhakku Enn 18/9, Lingusamy directed Vettai and Prabhu Solomon directed Kumki.

UTV is also producing Mysskin's super hero Jiiva film Mugamoodi.

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A FORTNIGHT OF BROKEN STEREOTYPES!
The last two Fridays have been very interesting for the Tamil cinema buffs. Well, it is not just the last two Fridays. But every Friday since April because of the back to back releases that we have been having from that period. However, the last two should be special for very small and distinct reasons that are generally not part of mainstream cinema. Deivathirumagal and Kanchana have broken stereotypes in the most unlikely of manners and we owe them a big round of applause for doing so.

So, what stereotypes are we talking about? Is it the superhero image of Vikram which was invisible in DT or the fearless attitude of the Tamil hero in general which was broken down in Kanchana?
Prakash Raj

Neither, because we all know that these stereotypes have been broken before, by the same people! Vikram has made it the norm that people expect the unexpected from him. He never repeats himself and never shies away from something challenging and Raghava Lawrence has already done the ‘Courage-The Cowardly hero’ routine in Muni. So, there is not much you can say about stereotypes of both these actors. So, what is the stereotype that we are talking about?

Both the movies have portrayed differently abled or challenged people in a way that Tamil cinema (even Indian cinema) has not dared or willed to do over all these decades. Take for instance Deivathirumagal; the central character is a person suffering from developmental problems of the brain. To broadly put it, the film tries to portray the life of a mentally challenged adult. It is not often in Indian cinema that we get portrayals of mental disability that transcend the realm of the exaggerated and overdone depictions of their problems. Often, the concept of the mental disability or unwellness has been stretched in order to give excuses for showing violence or crass comedy. Think of Anniyan – while still being an entertaining film, it chose to stretch the concepts of multiple personality disorder to make Anniyan and Remo out of Ambi. Or think of the Hindi Krazzy 4, which took four people with different mental complications, put them in one film and created situation after situation where one or the other of them got into trouble (comedy). Instances like these abound and mental disturbances are generally used as tools by the director as a perfect cover for a character to go berserk – like what Fazil did with Shobhana in Manichithrathazhu. But, Deivathirumagal chose to be different from all these. Showing that a mental condition need not mean that a person no longer has hope in life; showing that an affected person need not be as inefficient in judging things as we have so long made out to be in movies; showing that with a little bit of understanding and help, they can lead normal lives. Unfortunately, our cinema has always only chosen to build an image of mentally affected people as unpredictably violent and juvenile in judgment. Kudos to Vijay and through him to the makers of I am Sam.

And about Kanchana! It has broken the decades old stereotype of the transgender. We can perhaps say that this is one stereotype that has endured for the longest in Indian cinema. The one and only thing about transgenders that cinema has chosen to show over the decades are their queer dancing, clapping and cash extortion habits. It is almost as if they do not have another side or life to them. This in spite of the fact that there have been MPs from this section of the population! One need not talk too much about the way they have been shown on screen, everyone who has followed Indian cinema knows only too well that they have been used for nothing more than crassly banal humor or to create a sense of aversion towards a place or character. Mostly, it has been the former; there have been a few cases of the latter, like Prakash Raj’s role in Appu. And, to think of it, the films only reflect the reality in society, because that is the only way that we see transgenders in real life too, perhaps because they are excluded from the mainstream of society. And, cinema has only reinforced such stereotypes. But, Kanchana so bravely went against it. It is surprising that such a bold step was taken in a film that is unapologetically commercial. Kanchana is perhaps the first portrayal of a transgenders in Indian cinema as people with dignity and high aims in life. Perhaps it is a cue for other films to pick up and stop the crass portrayal.

And, a special word to honor the courage of Raghava Lawrence and Sarath Kumar. This must be the bravest casting decision of the decade – Sarath Kumar as an effeminate character! An actor known for his action, his iron man physique, a man who once carried the titles of Superhero and Supreme Star! It is really unbelievable that he showed the gumption to take up the character when it was offered. But, even greater applause is due to Raghava Lawrence for having the vision and courage to approach him with the role. A small error could have toppled the entire film because the character is the key to the plot.

It has been two weeks of good cinema, from opposite ends of the spectrum. But, they both had one thing in common; they chose to break social and cinematic stereotypes.

[breakingviews]

Kanchana- koothara padam, lawrencine okke ente kaiyyil kittiyal, santosh pandit pole undu (Except dance) sarath kumar polichadukki