(by SI blog reader Asha Tampa)
It is amazing how, after a period of more than 50 years a movie can continue to enthrall audiences of all ages – perhaps now more so than ever, considering it’s just been released in color.
Having seen Mayabazar umpteen times since my childhood, it was pure pleasure to watch it on the big screen with more life thrown into the characters, if it was possible.
Of course, they could’ve done well without all the make-up that was glaringly obvious in the color version – I liked Ghatotkacha better without lipstick on, and when Lord Krishna was not painted blue.
Ponal Pogattum Poda,
Ponal Pogattum Poda,
Indha Bhoomiyil Nilaiyaay Vaazhndhavar Yaaradaa?
Ponal Pogattum Poda
(Source: Palum Pazhamum)
Don’t be surprised if you see Tamil Film Walker oops movie star Ajith a.k.a Thala wearing a funereal expression, singing a dirge and out in the market shopping for a long rope.
A thickkk, looong rope for our Thala.
You get the point, right.
Nah?
Madayan, Ajith’s latest piece of shit Asal has kissed the dust. The box office dust, that is.
Oh, if you are the finicky, nitpicking kind and insist on specifics, we’re talking UK box office here.
Yes, the box office numbers are out and they yield nothing but ignominy for Ajith, the ghost who walks!
Here are the embarrassing facts for Thala:
* Asal has fared worse than Kanthaswamy (Vikram)
* Asal has fared worse than Aadhavan (Surya)
* Asal has fared worse than Vettaikaran (Vijay)
Stop fretting, Thala. You can still pit yourself against the eli kunjis (baby mice) of Kollywood like Simbhu, Vombhu, Kombhu et al and maybe, just maybe, come up tops.
Well, you are no longer in the 2nd tier of Kollywood and your peers now are Vishal, Trisha, Simbhu, Jeyam Ravi, Jeeva et al.
That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Unimpressive Thala
In the opening weekend (February 5-7, 2010), Asal came in at No-19 at the U.K. box office.
The movie grossed a mere £38,809 in the opening weekend. Not in the least impressive.
Asal’s average gross was lower than Kanthaswamy, Aadhavan and even that nightmare Kuruvi but slightly higher than Vijay’s recent Vettaikaran.
Here’s how Asal fared at the UK box office compared to a few prominent Tamil movies at the UK box office:
By the way, here’s an excerpt from the review of Asal published on the SearchIndia.com blog:
The story itself, despite having that flogged-to-death look about it, could have still been made into a good film had it not been subject to Tamil filmdom’s peculiarities.
(by SI blog reader Racer44)
Asal Box Office – Asingam, Romba Asingam
Asal’s director Saran seems to have taken a few notes from Ajith’s last hit film Billa.
Note 1: A large segment of the audience isn’t bothered about such trivialities like story, screenplay and acting.
Note 2: There’s something mysteriously profound about seeing Thala (Ajith, for all you schmucks) walk back and forth
Note 3: Without designer sun-glasses, Ajith looks like an ass (some say he looks like an ass even with them but let’s be charitable)
Note 4: When the right background score, camera angles and innovative hero-entrances converge, even a tharuthala (good-for-nothing) like Ajith can be shown to be The Thala.
Billa Sequel
Asal is, in spirit, Billa’s sequel.
It is slicker and more stylish, but still does not unduly tax the viewer’s intellect. But thankfully Saran has gotten hold of a more plausible story and infused a bit more logic into the proceedings which is why Asal does not inflict as much damage upon your senses as Billa did.
The story runs along these lines: Jeevanandam (Ajith with white hair, beard) is an international arms dealer based in Paris who sells weapons exclusively to governments around the world. He has three sons: Sam (Sampath Raj) and Vicky (Rajiv Krishna) of his first wife and Shiva (Ajith with black hair, beard) of his mistress.
Sam and Vicky resent Shiva’s presence in their household, and his apparent closeness with their father. When the two elder sons bring to Father Ajith’s attention a lucrative business deal that could be had with a terrorist arms supplier, both senior as well as junior Thalas put their foot down, citing ethical reasons(!!!). So the two elder sons, along with their maternal uncle (Pradeep Rawat), connive to kill father Ajith and cover it up as a natural death. Upon daddy’s death the brothers find that their old man has bequeathed almost all his wealth to Shiva.
Incensed, they hide this information from Shiva while simultaneously taunting and belittling him on the nature of his birth, so that he feels unwelcome in their midst and parts with whatever money and belongings he possesses. Just when they finish investing that money into the contract, Vicky is kidnapped by a rival arms dealer (Brijesh Shetty played by Kelly Dorji) from India who stands to lose if the deal between the terrorists and the brothers comes into effect.
The rest of the film is about how Thala rescues his half-brother from the clutches of Shetty, how he is betrayed by his ungrateful brothers and how, eventually, Thala takes his revenge and vanquishes his foes.
Flogged to Death
The story itself, despite having that flogged-to-death look about it, could have still been made into a good film had it not been subject to Tamil filmdom’s peculiarities.
The need to have half-a-dozen villains so that the hero can be shown more powerful, the requirement to have at least two heroines to offer viewers some eye-candy, the obligatory 5-songs-5-fights routine (which sticks out like a sore thumb here) and an entirely unnecessary and irritating comedy track; all these collude to make the film as unwatchable as possible.
How the Pakistan Chutias View India:
Hinduon ki zahaniyat hi aisi hai.
bagal meN chhuri/ muuNh meN Ram Ram
(Source: Outlook)
Ha ha ha. And this from the whacko, Osama-loving, Taliban kissing, Jihadi nut-jobs who don’t have even a semblance of a government.
How the Bollywood Chutia Shah Rukh Khan Views Pakistan:
It’s a great neighbor to have. We’re great neighbors. They’re good neighbors. Let’s just love each other.
(Source: SRK’s interview with Prannoy Roy on NDTV)
Who’s the Bigger Chutia?
Guess, in the SRK universe our ‘good neighbors’ can come to our soil, massacre us repeatedly and still remain good neighbors.
We don’t know about you schmucks but we think Shahrukh Khan is the bigger Chutia here.
(For SI blog readers unknownvirus, Deepa, Gandhiji, Shadowfax_Arbit et al)
As Dirty Harry once said (in Magnum Force):
A man’s got to know his limitations.
Alas, the folks who put up The Hurt Locker for nine Academy awards do not know theirs. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have heaped nine Oscar nominations on this film.
And we shudder to think what’ll happen on Oscar night.
Ain’t Bad
Make no mistake, schmucks.
The Hurt Locker is not a bad movie.
Actually, it’s a fairly decent movie that has you in its grip for the better part of its playing time.
But it’s just not a film that merits extraordinary encomiums.
Filmed (in Jordan) in the wake of George W.Bush’s unpopular and ill-fated attack on Iraq, Hurt Locker follows a group of ordnance/bomb disposal squad members of the U.S. Army posted in Iraq.
These are the dog days of the war, unlike the present-day, relatively more stable and less violent Iraq.
Life’s hard for the U.S. soldiers in the dusty environs of a hostile country and the clear and present danger.
For these unfortunate ‘trailer trash’ cannon fodder, both black and white, death is a constant companion from the below-ground IEDs, above-ground snipers, on-ground suicide bombers, ambushes and other horrific attacks from a deeply resentful populace.
And Hurt Locker does a good job in showcasing the omnipresent dangers the three-man bomb squad faces in its daily forays outside the Green Zone.
A danger highlighted in the early moments of the movie through the death of an IED-defusing member of the squad (IED, for all ye dodos is the reference to improvised explosive devices, the lethal bombs cunningly buried on roads to kill and maim American servicemen).
Dusty Road to the Oscar
Replacing the dead soldier is Sergeant William James (Jeremy Runner), a gung ho ‘wild’ guy, seemingly mindless to the risks, disdainful of army procedures and, oh yeah, unconventional for sure in his approach to the deadly mission of defusing bombs before they can unleash their horrific effects on the soldiers and bystanders.
As James dons his thick astronaut-like protective gear, helmet and all and clumsily, repeatedly walks down the dusty road toward the implanted IEDs, you are unsure if he’s heedlessly marching toward his death or valiantly marching toward glory.
We don’t know how folks in India go about buying big-ticket consumer electronics items.
But in the U.S. consumers rely a lot on reviews conducted by independent third parties or posted by previous buyers (who are hopefully more knowledgeable than you and are not shills for the products).
Of all the third party reviews, the reviews by Consumer Reports (a monthly, subscription-based magazine) are the most respected and considered most objective.
Ask any one (except the schmucks of course) in the U.S. and he will tell you that Consumer Reports is the Bible for smart consumers in the U.S.
After testing 130+ TVs, Consumer Reports has put out its TV recommendations in the March 2010 issue, just in time for the Super Bowl XLIV on February 7 in Miami.
If you are considering buying an LCD or Plasma TV, you can’t afford to ignore the Consumer Reports recommendations:
Now let’s see the Consumer Report recommendations for Plasma TVs:
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