An Open Entertainment Blog

Right from Bharathi Kannamma to Thavamai Thavamirundhu, social responsibility had travelled a long way with Cheran. The director, who raised his voice against caste system in Bharathi Kannamma, stressed the needs of differently-abled persons in Porkalaam. After expressing his desire for good governance in Desiya Geetham, Cheran then portrayed the lives of two young men with foreign dreams in Vetri Kodi Kattu. His film Pandavar Bhoomi talked about the happenings of a family and took audience to their own nostalgic memories.

Of late, Cheran himself became a hero and acted in critically acclaimed movies like Autograph and Thavamai Thavamirundhu. Adding yet another feather to his cap, the actor-director has now come out with Mayakkannadi, reflecting the life of a man who aspires to become rich in a short span. However, focusing more in telling messages, Cheran looses his grip in making the movie a more interesting one. Anyhow, the creator inside Cheran deserves laurels, for his never-ending penchant to give meaningful movies to masses.

Playing a simple character of a hair stylist (Kumar) aspiring for the moon, Cheran finds Navya Nayar (Maheswari), in the same wavelength. Kumar and Maheswari try all means to become rich. Kumar finally decides to try his luck in cinema, but in vain. Losing his job, Kumar lands up in the streets fighting for his survival. Sequence of events (cliched) finds Kumar landing in a job with an entrepreneur dealing in drugs. Behind bars, Kumar realises the hard truth that dreaming big beyond one’s means in an invitation to disaster.

A reformed Kumar comes out of the jail to begin his life afresh. Once his greed vanishes in thin air, he understands the intricacies of life and decides to do what he knows best - the scissor is back in his hand.
Cheran has tried to mirror the aspirations and dreams of the middle-class people living in a metropolis. The message for the youth is to maintain a dignity of labour, develop a passion for work and wait for the results to happen. Navya Nayar, shows her acting talent in each and every frame of the film.

The highlight of the movie is Dwarakanath’s cinematography and Ilayaraja’s catchy background scores. Though clear of his intentions, the lengthy dialogues and the duration of the movie is a hindrance to the pace. Mayakkannadi - True reflections.

Director -Cheran
Producer - Subbu
Music - Ilayaraja
Cast -Cheran, Navya Nayar, Radharavi

Mumbai, Jan 18 (IANS) Quiz shows have now come home. You no longer have to wait for a week for your favourite TV quiz show, and instead of merely viewing it, you can now take part in it sitting at home. Only, there will be no Amitabh Bachchan, or Shah Rukh Khan or Derek O’Brien or Siddharth Basu to host it. Computer-generated game show quiz master Buzz and his assistant Rose will guide you through the show. After the success of Buzz quiz games in most parts of the world, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) introduced in India "Buzz: The Maha Quiz" game with its launch in Mumbai on Thursday. Indian quiz addicts can now recreate the TV game show experience in their living rooms. They will be able to quiz themselves with over 5,000 questions by holding a hand-held buzzer. By plugging in an Eye-Toy USB camera, the players can even get themselves on the screen as they take part in the game show. The contents of "Buzz; The Maha Quiz" are India-centric and the show itself focuses on general knowledge. Forty percent of the Indian content has been developed in collaboration with Derek O’Brien and Associates. "Buzz: The Maha Quiz" has been developed by Relentless Software and promoted in India by SCEE.

Lionsgate and Marvel have agreed interim deals with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), whose members have been staging walkouts since November, crippling the film and TV industry. The temporary truce means work will be able to continue on the studios’ forthcoming projects. A statement from the union confirmed the news: "We are pleased Lionsgate has joined the growing number of companies that have signed interim agreements with the Writers Guild." Representatives from the studio added, "It was an important time to have our writer partners get back to work." Tom Cruise’s studio United Artists, the Weinstein Company and talk-show host David Letterman’s TV company have all recently reached agreements with the WGA to allow production to resume.

Writers and producers resumed talks with the WGA in a desperate bid to end the three-month-long strike, which has seen a variety of movie projects scrapped and TV shows taken off-air.

Himesh Reshammiya’s second outing KARZZZ continues to make news-n-noise, even though director Satish Kaushik and producers Bhushan Kumar and Kishen Kumar have yet to embark on a major shooting schedule of the reincarnation film in South Africa and Kenya. While a lot has been said, spoken and written about the remake of Ghai’s KARZ, here’s something you didn’t know.

The makers of KARZZZ have decided to retain the signature tune of the film, which plays in the background the moment the protagonist remembers his punar janam. “It’s a haunting tune and all of us decided that we should use it in the remake as well,” Satish Kaushik tells me.

While Himesh has already recorded fresh songs for the remake, there’s one song that they’ve decided to retain from the original — ‘Ik Haseena Thi, Ik Deewana Tha’ — which comes at the climax of the film.

While on KARZZZ, Himesh is participating in acting workshops to get the character right. After all, not just the film or its music, even Himesh’s performance will be viewed with a magnifying glass and compared to the power-packed performance that Rishi Kapoor pitched in, in the original.