Kuselan and Robot

What good it is to be a Thalaivar fan if I didn't write something about Thalaivar's new upcoming movies, one of which will probably end up as the most expensive Indian movie ever made. So, here are my 2 cents on both these movies:

Kuselan - Simply love what Thalaivar is doing here. He knows Shankar is going to take forever to complete Robot and in the meanwhile, decides to keep the fans interested with a movie that has a role which is tailor made for him. What more? He lets his guru & mentor KB produce the movie and thus doing his something towards helping him out financially. Hires a young music director and gives him an unbelievable chance to compose music for a Superstar film. He makes sure that the film is ready in a matter of few months. Everything until this point is just like a dream come true for a Thalaivar fan. But then comes the only sore point about the movie - P.Vasu directing it. Chandramukhi might have been this monstruous hit (solely bcos of Thalaivar) but I still don't have any respect for this man who clearly is still stuck in the late 80s. But even with him being at the helm, the very prospect of getting to watch Thalaivar on the big screen is good enough for me to place Kuselan as the most looked forward to movie right now. I am also so much excited about the fact that Thalaivar will appear in 20 get-ups in a song, reliving some of his famous roles in his hit movies. That is something I so much love. Actually, when I first heard the lyrics of the Athiradee song in Sivaji, I was hoping that Shankar had done something similar (it is another matter that Shankar made sure I did not even think about this possibility while watching the movie). Anyway, now that the film is almost done and ready to be released sometime between July & September, I just can not wait to see Thalaivar again, as Perinba pechukkaaraa (for starters, that is the starting line of one of the songs in Kuselan)

Robot - To me, Sivaji was like this grand buffet which had everything a Thalaivar fan would like for in a Thalaivar movie. So, having had this sumptuous lunch just now, I don't know how ready I am for another heavy meal a.k.a a Shankar movie with Thalaivar. It is just similar to food - right after you have had just had a good buffet, the very sight of food does not appeal to you and might even repel some. The after effects of the same would last for 1-2 days depending on your digestive system :) Similarly, I am in the after effects period of post-Sivaji (after the original DVD was released last month, I got together with 2 other Thalaivar fans - both of them who have seen the movie atleast a good 8 times and watched the movie again). So, that being the case, Robot just does not interest me, for now. Other than that, there are couple of other things about which I am not too much excited about - 1) what appears to be the genre of the movie, given the title and 2) Aishwarya Rai. I have never been a fan of her and thus can not stand to see her in a Thalaivar movie of this magnitude. I can understand the business reasons why Shankar wants to cast her in the lead role but I am completely against it. I don't know...I mean, if Thalaivar can't pull the crowds to the theater, nobody can. Period. But having said all this, I am sure, after Kuselan releases & the fever subsides down in a matter of 4-5 months, Robot will become the center of attraction for Thalaivar fans like me. And I will channel my thoughts & expectations towards Robot, then.

I know you guys will be wondering why I haven't included Sultan in this list. I don't know but there is something about this effort that just does not suck me in, as any movie featuring Thalaivar would do. Mistake me not, I am all for this first-time-in-the-history-of-Indian-cinema' effort of animating a real life actor and I am so proud that it is Thalaivar's daughter who is doing it (puli-kku pirandhadhu poonai aagumaa?). Also, I sincerely wish and hope that the novel effort will do exceedingly well, given the amount of money that has been channeled in for the movie. But my doubts stem from the fact how will Thalaivar's hard-core first generation fans take to it and also from the not-so-mind-blowing trailer of the movie that was released a while ago. So, I am going to keep my fingers crossed on Sultan. But one thing is for sure - you will definitely find me at the theater screening Sultan, screaming Thalaivaaa when an animated Superstar as Sultan appears on-screen :)

Pardon The Interruption

As many of you who read this blog know by now, the big news was that I got married (and celebrated 100 days of our married life this past weekend) and so I guess that explains the reason for this long hibernation in my blogging. The wedding was on the 1st of Feb in Coimbatore and so was in India for a month. And after we both got back here to Seattle, it has been one hectic time. It is simply unbelievable how getting married completely changes your lifestyle and your priorities (I can see all those single guys among the readers grinning and the married folks nodding their heads in agreement. Anyway, should come up with a separate post on this, I guess).

The wedding was great, well-attended (what else would you expect out of a wedding back in India) and everything went on smoothly. The post-wedding lunches and dinners at both our relatives' places managed to accomplish what they are meant for - put on all the weight that I had so painstakingly lost prior to my wedding :) Since we both were from different cities (she from Coimbatore and me from Madurai), the constant traveling between the 2 cities made sure that we had one busy-like-hell trip. Add the visa procedure that we had to get it completed before our departure so that she could travel with me, it turned out to be the super-busy trip that I had expected fully.

In these few months, there have been just too much to write about, that I don't even know where to start: Thalaivar's new films - Robot & Kuselan, Team India's amazing win in the CB Series (not to forget the commendable showing in the test series), the Patriots's gigantic loss (pun intended) to the Giants at Super Bowl, the Hoganekkal fast, the IPL & the growing addiction of the cricket watching public to it in India, Kobe winning his first ever MVP award & helping the Lakers finish atop the Western conference, the Lakers - Spurs Western conference finals, .... Just like the Democratic primary, the list seems to be never ending.

One other reason for this delay was that I just wasn't sure as to when and where to start.I was like 'OK, let me start writing when this happens or from the first of the next month' and that day/ occasion never came. So, I finally gave up and decided that I will just go ahead and at least start posting before the break gets too long. Then as & when time permits, will try to blog here. I am not sure how often I will be able to post entries here but I will make sure that there is at least one post a week. It is at times like these your admiration for bloggers who are married & have kids go up in leaps & bounds. (Balaji, please take a bow). I mean, I always knew how tough it should be for someone who is married with kids to keep blogging so regularly. But now that I am married, I can clearly see how much motivation one should have to keep blogging at that pace.

Such prolonged breaks are really bad for your writing, for I find it so tough to even put together few paragraphs without thinking long and hard!! So, stopping this 'I am back' post right here. Here is hoping to write some posts as regularly as I have mentioned in the paragraph above!! Wish me good luck, both for our married life and my blogging :)