Rana- Officially confirmed ---- Triple Action by Rajinikanth(thalaaiva)

Eros International and Chennai based-Ocher Studios have joined hands to co-produce Rana, superstar Rajnikanth's next movie in which he plays a triple role.

Rana will be directed by K S Ravikumar who in the past has directed the southern superstar's hits such as Muthu and Padayappa.

Scheduled to go on floor in March this year, Rana will be a live action magnum opus with Rajni playing triple role and will be released in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.

Music would be scored by A R Rahman, Director of Photography would be Ratnavelu, Editing would be done by Antony. The technical and special effects director will be Soundarya Rajnikanth; Charles Darby of Eyeqube Studios -- renowned visual effects luminary and an Emmy award winner -- will be the visual effects supervisor of the film. The film is scheduled to release in early 2012.

Speaking on the development, Sunil Lulla, Managing Director, Eros International Media Ltd said, "Rajni fans will be treated to a triple role essayed by their favourite actor. Rana is going to be far different from any of the recent Rajni films, a complete live action magnum opus with loads of entertainment for his fans."

Soundarya Rajnikanth, Director of Ocher Studios Private Limited, and younger daughter of the filmstar, added, "We are very pleased to announce this partnership with Eros International for Rana. We hope to make a film that will live up to the huge expectations of the movie-goers."

Rajnikanth's last film Robot was a superhit that released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, and grossed more than Rs 400 crore worldwide.

Lindsay Lohan vs Paris Hilton Boxing Match

The two hotties of Hollywood, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, have been offered $500,000 each to take part in a boxing match. Federation promoter, Damon Feldman, has singled out Hilton and Lohan as his next two celeb boxing contenders. Feldman has said he will donate the proceeds to anti-drug and alcohol campaigns and would offer them a huge fees to donate to charity, if the reformed party girls, who both have convictions for driving under the influence agree to step into the ring.

"We're calling it the battle of the bad girls of Hollywood," a web site quoted Feldman as saying.

Anushka Gets Prestigious KalaimaMani Virudhu

Arya, Anushka, Tammannah, music director Bharadwaj, Karunas, ‘Poovilangu Mohan, ‘Metti Oli’ Thirumurugan, Rohini, Chinni Jayanth, Saranya and Revathi Shankaran among others have been selected for the prestigious Kalaimamani awards announced by the Tamil Nadu state government.

The awards for the years 2008, 2009, and 2010 were announced by the government and several noted personalities in arts, literature and drama have been selected.

A grand function has been scheduled to be held at the Valluvar Kottam in Chennai on February 13th, 2011 during which the award winners will be felicitated with a memento and cash prize.

Aadukalam Film Review

Aadukalam - Loser

A loser doesn't know what he'll do if he loses, but talks about what he'll do if he wins, and a winner doesn't talk about what he'll do if he wins, but knows what he'll do if he loses. Aadukalam shows the two sides of a character - happy-go-lucky winner and dare-to-do-anything loser. Vetri gives a pathos end to the lead characters life.

Rathnavelu wants to win the cockfight at least once with his long-time nemesis, Pettaikaaran. Reason - the desire of his mother before she dies. Sadly, he never wins.

Pettaikaaran, a veteran in cock-training who kicks Rathnavelu's butt every time in the challenge, succumbs to his envy and ego, to end as a loser.

Karuppu, who was trained by Pettaikaaran, now the reason for Pettaikaaran's guile is forced to abondon his inhabitant.

Dorai, another understudy of Pettaikaaran loses his loved cocks.

Karuppu's mother wanted to clear the debts on their house passes away before it could happen.

Pettaikaaran's wife, Meena, despit being 25 years younger and madly-in-love with him, abandons because of his mistrust.

So in a way, every character ends with losing their dreams. Vetri gives us an open ending, that can be assumed, they end as losers with only positive being Karupu getting his Anglo-Indian girlfriend, Irene.

Aadukalam - Envy

You can't be envious and happy at the same time. Like Macbeth, to attain credit and victory, characters go to any extreme, thus becoming restless and losing their peace of mind (can be put it as piece of mind too) Rathnavelu kills people, lures members from Pettaikaaran team with lucrative offerings, only to no avail. Karuppu, envy of his success, who when poked 'Afraid of losing eh?' is ready to do anything to show he is a winner personified. Pettaikaaran, jealous of all the fame going to his understudy, couldn’t stand to it and hatches plan to spoil Karuppu's moment so as to get back to his respected days. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed. If Rathnavelu depicts an outright villain in the first half, Pettaikaaran steals the second half with his cunningness and subtle cruelty. To put it in a word - 'Silent Assassin'. We can draw parallels between Rathnavelu and Pettaikaaran, as how covetousness forces people expose their dark side. The Satan shifts from Rathnavelu to Karuppu's godly figure Pettaikaaran and kudos to Vetrimaaran for enfolding these sequences brilliantly.

Aadukalam - Pluses

Dhanush lived and breathed as Karuppu is an understatement. Aadukalam brings Dhanush back to his old acting prowess and he delivers a knock-out performance. Be it love-bug smitten dude, subservient student, blindly trusting his mentor, Dhanush brings out variety of emotions. The stand out scenes are when Dhanush tells Tapsee about his mother when she is no more and on knowing Pettaikaaran deceived him throughout, Dhanush’s body language was amazing. To my surprise, he mouthed Madurai slang quite brilliantly. The good aspect in Dhanush's acting he never cries out loud where it can be a downside giving humour moments for audiences. The tears, coating his eyes, injects you the agony and sorrow, Karuppu going through. Though the initial expections ‘like Kokki Kumar’ were making waves, Dhanush didn’t show any shadow of Kokki Kumar in this movie. Everything is perfect and worked well for Dhanush (including his physique which was a downside in Pudupettai)

Pettaikaaran is one of the best etched out villains in recent times. It is a complete contrast to the complex Brutus characterisation, because he neither killed Caesar for greed, envy nor to preserve his social position. But here, Pettaikaaran is driven by aforementioned forces, painting grey shades to his character.

No separate comedy track and squeezed songs. Both the comedy and songs gels with the movie's flow, not giving any indications of unnecessary scenes.

Editing - Like Polladavan, the movie unfurls into flashback mode after opening sequences and the initial 10 minutes non-linear sequences, that answers what’s and how’s of cockfight is remarkable. Not forget to mention the cock fight before the interval, that holds your interest and actually from where the movie kick-starts, editing is brilliant

Songs were already a rage among audiences and Vetri didn’t spoil the visual expectations.

Cinematography - The shots are pleasant with natural lightings and no extra gimmicks.

Dialogs, Characterisation - Vetri's template is wonderful. He had a story on board and like chess pieces, placed the characters perfectly. Every character has its own motive and moved uniquely. Right from abuses (there are different abuse words, GVM should take a not who always uses 'Otha'), the dialogs are ideal Madurai dialects.

Aadukalam - Minuses

Dorai (Kishore) - It falls between a weakly written and not much scope characterisation. The initial allures with Rathnavelu, makes you sit up expecting a turn around, but it is let loose. Dorai's characterisation lacked penetration

Irene (Tapsee) - God, this girl is bloody beautiful (sundi vitta ratham varum - bloody :P ) but her lip sync is pathetic and stone faced in many sequences. Though she didn’t have much scenes to show her acting ability, she didn’t even attempt to act in the provided scenes. Just like her character, her performance is nothing worth to write off. Though Divya had less scope in Polladavan she was beautiful plus expressive, but Tapsee is beauty and beauty. Dot!

BGM - GV Prakash might be in Polladavan hangover. At many places, you hear Polladavan BGM's and Thalapathy's Chinna Thaai aval pops in few sequences. This guy was promising in Madraspattinam considering his BGM. Aadukalam is a different ball game, accepted, but he didn’t even deliver 50% of Veyil, another rustic village movie that glorified loser.

Pettaikaaran - His moustache at few places acted as a drawback. I couldnt relate to the dialogs and his lip movements, and also his expressions couldnt be captured. The actor didn’t give completeness to the powerful Pettaikaaran, but I am not saying he is worse :) Good for what should be a great one :)

Open Ending- Vetri ended every character losing something for their love, trust and envy. There is no completeness in finely etched characters. Rathnavelu never appears in second half and you keep guessing what happens to Dorai and Meena once the end credits starts rolling.

Bottom-line - It's not life or death it's a game and at the end of the game there is going to be a winner and a loser. Aadukalam lionizes both and Vetri did prove he is not a one film wonder and stamped his long stay in Kollywood's Aadukalam through his Aadukalam.

Siruthai Film Review

Movie: Siruthai
Language: Tamil
Release: 2011 Jan
Cast: Karthi, Thamanna, Sandanam


A remake of ‘Vikramarkudu’ (Telugu), with very slight changes to suit Tamil viewers and Karthi’s mannerism. The Telugu version was tailor made for Ravi Teja and I had enough doubts whether Karthi can give such a performance.
Siruthai – never promised to be perfect, but promised to give wholesome entertainement – lot of fights, songs, dance, sentiments and comedy.
Karthi for the first time in dual roles that too in the very early stage of his career had done it with ease. He plays a local youth and a cop.
Rocket Raja (Karthi) and Kaattupoochi (Santhanam) are small time thieves. Rocket Raja falls in love with a beautiful girl (Tamanna). Things starts to change when a kid comes to him claiming to be his son. And there comes Rathnavel Pandian (Karthi).

Karthi just perfectly fits in as both the characters. His graph is still moving very high and with this movie his dream run is just continuing. His second movie with Tamanna, recreates the magic once again. Tammana as sweet innocent girl is very lovable. And Santhanam is back after his successful character in Boss engira Baskaran.
Music: Is good and hummable. BGM is very similar to the Telugu versions.
Cinematography: is good and adds strength in stunt sequences.
Fight: Action sequences are the backbone of the movie along with comedy. The action is composed in style.
Overall: The movie is a good mass entertainer with right mixture of masalas. First half is very hilarious but second half just falls bit low with excess of violence. Too much of Telugu favor is another thing which will catch you.
BO Prediction: Sure winner.

Kaavalan Film Review

After long time I went to the first day first show of a Vijay movie with a lot of expectations. Before I entered the theater I was surprised to see that many came there for Aadukalam as they were not aware of the release of Kaavalan.
Film started with hero's introduction, and yes they did show that hero was a power full guy. Then his dad, who wants to change the life of his son and also to help his friend in some critical position sends vijay to Rajkiran's hometown to be his bodyguard. Like I said, this film begins with an opening song, Vinnai Kaapan Oruvan, which was really irritating, and because of this I lost my confidence even though but fans enjoyed that song. One thing I have to tell here, usually Vijay performs a long jump but this time it was a high jump. After the song vijay saves Rajkiran from villain's group. In that fight sequence, Rajkiran's performance evoked applause from the audience.

Rajkiran's daughter is Asin. Asin and her family friend study in the same college. Rajkiran sends Vijay as her bodyguard into the college. Also vadivel and his to be wife stay in his guest house. From here on we are treated to some utter waste comedy sequences which happen both inside college and in the guest house. Vijay plays a perfect bodyguard and wears ITI uniform, coolers and a cap. He's is very harsh with the two girls.

Then Asin, who doesn't want him to follow her decides to play a prank, and calls him to say that she likes him. Vijay gets angry in beginning and then he too falls in love with the prank caller not knowing that it is Asin who had called him.

Vijay continues his romance through mobile phone. For a second I thought this could be a remake of T Rajendar's Monisha en monalisha oda.

He tells her that he wants to see her face but she duck his request. Feeling guilty, Asin too falls in love with Vijay. Vadivelu's comedy works to an extent in the second half.

Last half an hour, however, is the best part in this film. I could see Thullatha Manamum Thullum Vijay after a long time. The climax is truly one of the best in the history of Tamil cinema. The bike stunt sequence was asusual laughable like every other Vijay film. The back ground score in the climax tugs at your heart, and makes you remember S A Rajkumar's la le la lalaala. Only a couple of songs stay in your memory, the rest of the songs are merely added to fill the space.

Verdict - Go for it!!!

Verdict - Family entertainer.

My ratings - 3.5/5

Siddique - Real Show stealer in Kaavalan

Kaajal Agarwal's new Technique

Producers seeking a call sheet from Kajal Agarwal seem to be getting a new offer from the actress who is said to be recommending her sister Nisha Agarwal to the producers rather than declining their offers.

Kajal, who is a busy star in Tollywood, wants her sister to make her mark in the tinsel town, especially in Kollywood, and is doing all that she can for it. The actress, without denying any producer who approaches her for a call sheet, diverts their attention to her sister.

Will Nisha rule the roost in the Tamil film industry like her sister in Tollywood?

Jyothika Praises Karthi

Karthi’s performance in his recent release ‘Siruthai’, in which he performed dual role for the first time in his acting career, has won appreciation from his sister-in-law Jyothika.

“Anni said long back that she would watch the film on the first day itself since I am playing a police officer. Sticking to her words, she watched ‘Siruthai’ on the very first day,” Karthi says.

“She thoroughly enjoyed the movie,” the actor says and adds: “She sent me congratulatory messages through mobile even before the show got over. I am overwhelmed.”

On the possibilities of his acting together with his brother Suriya, Karthi says, “I don’t think we would share the screen space in the near future. Because, he is busy for the next two years. And several other factors have also to be considered.”

Competetion Between Vijay and Danush

Both Kaavalan and Aadukalam have been received well in the US. Interestingly, both these films belong to a different genre and audiences are having great time because they can choose their pick and enjoy the films.

There is also a talk that Vijay’s Kaavalan is slightly ahead of Dhanush’s Aadukalam in the US and the main reason attributed for this is Vijay’s presence and the number of prints with which the film was released.

The star power of both these films is making it a hot rage among the audiences, no doubt.

Shriya-show Stopper

Jiiva was set on completing Rowthiram and getting the film released soon but the shooting did not progress as the unit had planned. Shriya, who was signed up to play Jiiva’s pair in Rowthiram, was busy with Don Cheenu and Chikku Bukku and hence could not allot dates for Rowthiram.

The team, however, completed two schedules without the lead actress and waited patiently for her dates. Their patience seemed to have paid off now with Shriya finally joining the Rowthiram team. Sources say that nearly half the film has been shot without the lead actress.

Rajini at Madame Tussauds

Hrithik Roshan is the fifth Bollywood star to have his wax statue at the famous London museum Madame Tussauds. The statue was unveiled on the 20th of January and Hrithik dedicated the honor to his family.

His wife Sussane, two sons, father Rakesh Roshan, mother Pinky and grandfather J Om Prakash were present along with him when the statue was unveiled. Hrithik who is famous for his Greek God looks and acting prowess is next only to stalwarts Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan to have a wax statue at this famous museum.

Kollywood fans are eagerly waiting for the wax replica of Superstar Rajinikanth and Behindwoods.com has been vigorously promoting this request of the fans.

Income Tax officials Make a raid at Katrina's Home

The Bollywood divas, Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif had surprise visitors today at their doorsteps. We are not talking about Shahid Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor but Income Tax officials consisting of 50 members including officers and clerks at their respective premises for suspected tax evasion. The raids started around 7.30 am simultaneously at 12 sites, including the residences of the two actresses in the western suburbs. Priyanka's home in Versova, Andheri West, was raided. Also homes of Priyanka and Katrina’s secretaries, their respective office premises and other locations were raided, the official said. The income tax department had earlier sent several notices to both the actresses, seeking details of their finances but failed to get a satisfactory response. It seems both the actresses were a little too busy to pay their Income Tax.