With April 14 come and gone, the next big date for Tamil cinema fans is less than a month away. Producer 'Oscar' Ravichandran has confirmed that Shankar's Anniyan, with Vikram and Sada, will be opening worldwide on May 20. The movie is crucial for both participants since Vikram is coming off a flop Arul while Shankar is aiming to recover from the critical and commercial mauling he received for Boys.
The other movie whose participants have a lot riding on it is Godfather. The film is most crucial for ofcourse its hero Ajith who, after the disastrous Ji, now seems to be at another nadir in his wildly-swinging career. Behind the camera is K.S.Ravikumar, who hasn't had a bonafide hit in a while(his last movie was the Madhavan's Edhiri, an average grosser) and recently missed out on chances of directing both Rajnikanth(the now-shelved Jaggubhai) and Kamalhassan(KSR was the first choice for Vasoolraja M.B.B.S, which ultimately went to Charan). Music is by A.R.Rehman, who too has not had any hits since New and plans to once again concentrate on Tamil this year. The film has had some problems but seems to have resolved them and is making brisk progress with release targeted for July 22.
Even the ARR magic may not help in reviving Ajith's career fortunes. Ajit is clearly on the way out. He wants to do action movies (to compete with Vijay), but he is not good at it.
ReplyDeleteGoing by the one dreadful song that is out , Anniyan looks to be a dud.
ReplyDeleteI actually liked boys more than the average critic/moviegoer...I thought the movie was flawed but had its pluses too...but I really couldnt understand all the fuss abt the movie's vulgarity...yep, it did have its share of raunchy sequences but overall, I liked the characterizations...not to mention Shankar's penchant for grandeur...
ReplyDeleteram
Boys might have been an attempt at making a teen flick like the ones churned out regularly in Hollywood. Dhanush's first movie was made along the same lines too. As for Anniyan, strangely I haven't formed any opinions on it yet. I just hope that the song sequences won't stick out like "sore thumbs". Same with Godfather except it should be interesting to find out how much Ajith's voice will take away from that tough role.
ReplyDeleteanon, one song is out? is it available anywhere on the web?
ReplyDeleterajesh/gopi, ajith's voice is definitely not suited for tough roles. but he seems hellbent on making only action movies since he believes that only such movies will be a hit in today's market. and the old man getup doesn't suit him either. i don't have much hopes for 'Godfather' at this point.
definitely looking forward to 'anniyan' a lot more. inspite of 'boys' shankar has a good track record but this is gonna be an acid test. the stills look cool too.
ram, sure there were pluses but they don't take away from the fact that 'boys' was definitely vulgar and all the fuss was well-deserved. I didn't mind the scenes where they teased the girls, the hints at masturbation and premature ejaculation or even the much-maligned scene with the prostitute. IMO, Shankar crossed the line when he showcased the boys' antics with unaware, middle-aged women. Granted this does happen in the real world(which turns me off too) but he needn't have blown it up in such detail! guys who used to indulge in such acts used to be the villains. but here they are the heroes!
Balaji, that one song is 'kadhal yaanai' sung by GV Prakash. You can listen to it at oosai.com.
ReplyDeletethe boy who cried wolf!
ReplyDeleteWell, we will know soon. I hate to see Vikram doing a dud and that's a bit hard to believe too! Bet it is more of a 'dhool' than a 'thirunelvi halwa'. I know, bad pun.
I hate the promotional shots for ‘anniyan’ w/ vikram in the k-mart grim reaper get-up - I hope they spent some good money on the movie b/c they clearly didn’t spend any money on that outfit
ReplyDeleteanyways, I think vikram has to be one of the most overrated actors today
hopefully this film is more action and less acting
victor
vic...ram is not overrated!
ReplyDeleteDo you think vikram is overrated just coz he alternates between classy and commercial cinema? well, let me tactful and say that we're all subject to our own opinions...but call it an uncanny coincidence--I was watching Woody Allen's Manhattan last nite...Diane Keaton and Michael Murphy bitch about people like Ingmar Bergman and Vincent Van Gogh calling them overrated...pat comes the reply from Allen--"what about Mozart? Do you think he's overrated too?!"
just a coincidence, vic! no hard feelings!!
ram, vik is great as an action star, but as a serious actor he is a joke
ReplyDeletethus like I said…
‘hopefully this film is more action and less acting’
but ram, one thing I don’t understand.....
‘he alternates between classy and commercial cinema’
what classy cinema?
victor
More hopes are getting built on Anniyan. Personally, I trust Shankar's perfectionism and believe that he will churn this out also, as a quality one.
ReplyDeleteI never felt any of his movies as boring. Reason, is the interesting storyline & commercial approach. BTW it goes, everything fits in.. He is also talking about some social message, as he did in Gentelman, Indian, Mudhalvan..
hope his new "*****an" series movie also clicks with the same ingredient top actor, commercial story line, social message etc.,
Only missing factor is going to be AR.Rahman.
vic, vikram is overrated? curious about your comments on his performances in sethu, kaasi, pithamagan, etc. (the movies i believe ram refers to as classy movies)
ReplyDeletevic...esp the three movies in balaji's list-- those are vintage Vikram performances in my opinion...esp. Sethu...
ReplyDeleteram we definitely have different definitions of class films
ReplyDeleteas for vik’s performances, I thought he was ok in ‘sethu’, whereas in ‘kaasi’ and ‘pithamagan’ he did enough overacting to make shahrukh khan jealous
but different strokes…
victor
yep, we'll agree to disagree, vic! hopefully we all like anniyan coz shankar's had 2 consecutive big-budgeted flops in Nayak and Boys...
ReplyDeleteVikram was very good in Sethu. I haven't watched Kaasi but I enjoyed Surya's performance better in Pithamagan. It was more natural as if he wanted to seamlessly merge with the rest of the (exceptional) cast.
ReplyDelete"Music is by A.R.Rehman, who too has not had any hits since New and plans to once again concentrate on Tamil this year"
ReplyDeleteIdhu nyaayame illai. ARR did not have a Tamil release after NEW. So where is the question of giving hits. He had 3 releases in Hindi after New and all of them were great albums. Kisna (2 songs), Swades and Bose -The Forgotten hero. Maybe, he did not have a release in TFM in recent times. But ARR has never been gone from TFM.
i absolutely agree with maverick.ARR ALBUM IN TAMIL HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED AFTER NEW.THE SONGS OF SWADES ROCKED AND WERE CHARTBUSTERS.BOSE WAS NOT RELEASED FOR BEING A COMMERCIAL HIT.IT HAD SOULFUL MUSIC.ANNIYAN WOULD HAVE BEEN FAR BETTER IF ARR HAD COMPOSED FOR IT. THAT ANDANGAKKA SONG SUCKS.OTHER SONGS ARE JUST OK AND DONT LIVE UPTO THE EXPECTATIONS.SO WE CAN EXPECT AN ALBUM BETTER THAN ANNIYAN IN GODFATHER.DEFINITELY GODFATHER AND A AA SONGS WOULD BE A TREAT!
ReplyDeletedefinitley arun..arr is the best in the buissness wen it comes 2 music. no doubt. and it vud have been a gr8 gr8 entertainer f anniyan was scored by arr. missed out. harris has scored jus an average music. first let down
ReplyDelete