Anniyan Watch
Buzz on a movie is supposed to increase as the release date nears. But Anniyan seems to be going the other way with its repeated postponements! There's been no news about the movie since Vikram's mention that it will release either 5/27 or 6/4 and the audio doesn't seem to be doing great shakes either, having sold less than 50,000 cassettes so far.
But the movie's website has been revamped completely. There are a few pictures I haven't seen so far and the backgrounds are very cool with a dark and gothic feel. On the other hand, they've gone overboard with the graphics, which are quite cheesy. And the language could use some grammar checks(He even know the hidden crime of yours??!!)
Balaji's Thots... [Permalink]
Your Thots (19)
19 Comments:
Yeah.. it must have been revamped on thursday. Did you notice that Harris Jayaraj's name was missing in the mainpage which has the main credits? Is it just a mistake on the administrator's part or... the cassette sale story reflected? Narayana...
May be the cassettes sale would pick up after and around the movie release. Shankar's picturization is among the best, right? Anniyan release might be postponed in order for the CM fever to come down a bit and also, may be, the college exams to get over. Shankar's main pull is college crowd, isnt it?
Guys... I am upbeat after seeing Kanakandaen.. Waiting to see AA and Anniyan soooon... Check out the review of KK at my blog and feedback me..
Poor guy, Harris!.. It looks like the film was starting reservations through the IMC 6 website tomorrow. It looks like it's going to keep its 6/4 release date.
Personally, I think the songs will pick up considerably after the film's release. It's not Harris' fault.. after all, I don't think it's even realistic to compare him with ARR.. Harris is much more moody and plays much more favoritism than ARR himself...
Either way, I think you'll see Harris in full form only in Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu.. (not even in Ghajini!)..
Anniyan is going through a bad patch like Titanic did before its release.. It's quite common for films with humungous expectations to fall into these pitfalls often. Personally, both Kanaa Kandaen and Arindhum Ariyaamalum (which released today) have gotten great reviews.. I'd be worried about them holding their ground come June when Anniyan arrives!..
We'll see, if Vikram and Shankar stocks sell in this long hot summer!
I'll retract my words. Looks like they don't have a confirmation on the 6/4 date or any release date at this point! Just found out!
Is Anniyan a Tamilization of Brandon Lee's 'The crow'?
That was the first impression I got when I was browsing the website - The captions (come back from hell, blah blah..), the stygian imagery all have a supernatural slant to them..Even Vikram's menacing bare-bodied still on the homepage is highly reminiscent of Brandon Lee's 'crow' makeup..Anyone else feel the same way?
realised HJ's omission only after you guys pointed it out :) But i'm pretty sure it has to be an oversight on the part of the website designers. really think the movie's team would be so cheap as to show their displeasure in this way??!
sandhya, and i didnt think 'anniyan' audio was bad at all. I think the bad sales is a result of CD ripping and mp3 downloads more than quality of the songs themselves. Comparing it to CM sales is not right since that was a more mass album bought mostly by people with no internet connection :-) 'anniyan' is more a classy album(i can't imagine 'iyengarathu' or even 'nokia' blaring from loudspeakers at auto stands!
vijays, didnt see it earlier but u're right. the long hair, the darkened eyes, the gothic imagery all remind us of 'the crow' pretty strongly.
btw, the trailer can be seen at http://www.anniyan.com/trailer.htm.its all action and so stunts seem to be the highlight of the movie. Surprisingly, there didnt seem to be any scenes from the song sequences, which are the major part of other trailers.
harris jayaraj's name gets top honors on the main page. look under the movie title. :-)
I think the songs are good. well msot of them. the lyrics are a different story of course.
Just watched the trailer...
The opening music (tune) for Oscar (Oscar?) Films is the same as for Twentieth Century Fox. Did 20th CF acquire Oscar Films or something? The fight scenes are straight lifts from The Matrix. Note the scene where Vikram fights all those guys in martial art uniforms and the scene where he lands on top of a car..cheesy :) I also noticed Vikram giving a couple of Antonio Banderas looks. And the background (choral) score is more reminiscent of an epic Hollywood movie. It must be tough making an action movie in Kollywood. So the best part seems to be...SADA!!
Of course, its only the trailer...
Anniyan, I heard(could be a rumour) is a loose remake of "Daredevil" starring Ben Affleck. I checked out the storyline and it seems to make some sense. Ben Affleck plays a blind lawyer by day and at night he is a vigilante hunting down criminals in the dark alleys with batman-like moves. He also has extraordinary 4 other senses to comepensate for his blindness. I am not sure if Vikram is mute or deaf or anything like that in the film, he doesnt appear to be blind. We'll have to wait and see how true this is.
on a slightly tangential note, i think the so-called romance between vikram and sada will be the weakest point of anniyan...shankar doesnt have a clue about man-woman relationships...i mean, doesnt have a clue how to portray them in his movies...his only noteworthy romances have been the arjun-madhubala and the kamal-sukanya portions...then again gentleman was kinda inspired by Mahendran's "Johnny."
People.. there really isn't anything wrong in trying to make a Hollywood film in Kollywood, is there? :-).. Anyway, the trailer looks awesome.. As is the case with all Shankar's movies, the songs are probably fabulously picturized and they want to save that stuff for the big screen..
Obviously, you'll all be going around talking about where he lifted what from, if they showed you the songs on the trailer, right? :-()..
Oh by the way, Harris' name has been added. Look at the top right underneath the "Anniyan" title in the index page..
gopi, yes the stunts do seem to be taken from matrix, especially the 'landing on car' bit. i don't remember shankar copying any scenes for his earlier movies. so this is a bit of a surprise.
vijay, i've heard that too. my guess is shankar is reverting back to his favorite storyline - a man having a personal issue and then using that as a jumping off point for fighting society's evils - in 'anniyan'.
ram, gentleman and johny?? i definitely don't see the connection.
sandya, nothing wrong as long as its done sensibly. problem is tamil film directors blindly copy scenes from hollywood flicks with no regard for whether it fits the situation(my fav in this regard is ajith's fight in 'citizen' which was copied from 'Blade'. the fight made sense in Blade since Snipes was a vampire but looked ridiculous and senseless in 'citizen'). that said, i would still trust Shankar over anyone else to make a grand action flick in Tamil.
a person who has his own reasons for planning his heists...ends that seem to justify his means...and a girl who seems to pine for him despite his 'shadier' side and a comedian in tow for his heists...
i thot of johnny mainly coz the arjun-madhubala scenes reminded me of the rajni-sri devi portions...
sandya, I just mentioned it for information sake..since its sort of something new in Shankar movies. There are no known Hollywood inspirations so far in his movie stories, so this could end up being the first one if true. As to whether what he did was right or wrong, we'll have to wait for the film and then decide :-)
Apart from romance comedy is another weak track for Shankar(as well as Manirathnam, who has realized it and has given it up completely). Kavundamani and vadivelu were mostly irritants in earlier movies with their loud, foul-mouthed dialogues.
Especially seeing someone like Kamal fooling around with Kaundamani was a major turn-off for me.
I hope Vivek cuts out a decent track that somehow merges with the main storyline.
The story of Anniyan is something most of us can identify with: An Indian who has seen how developed the western nations are.. in terms of cleanliness, infrastructure, etc., wondering why India is not like that.. and trying to clean up those elements which prevent India from improving..
Well.. this is something many of us would have discussed among our friends and spouses.. Why is India as messy as it is? Let us see how Shankar approaches this. His 'odd' movies (1,3 &5) have touched upon education, corruption and bad politicians... quite different approaches..
I am planning for quite sometime to add a big blog in my site on the "Spirit of Anniyan". Watch out in the next few days for that..
ram, stretching it a bit there i think :) I would think 'Guru' was a more direct inspiration.
vijay, u took the words outta my mouth! i think comedy, rather than romance, is Shankar's weakest spot. It turns out to be vulgar and crude(Gentleman, Indian, etc.) and drags down the class of the movie as a whole. Have more hope here because its Vivek, but then again, Vivek was in 'Boys' too(though his parts were probably the least vulgar in the film)
gp, yes shankar managed to touch a chord with his topics. but it was his racy screenplay and grandeur that separated his movies from the others(Ramana, Samurai, etc.) with the same theme.
balaji, okay, maybe u r right abt the gentleman-johnny comparison...i'll not argue...
reg. comedy, as long as it makes me laugh, i dont care if its crude or whatever...which is why i even enjoyed Boys!! well maybe its the missus that makes u married guys post stuff like this ...tho my friend was surprised that a married guy posted the discussion on kattais...i corrected him-- u only got us started on it!!!
ram, i agree with u on the first. i enjoy crude or even sex comedy as much as the next person. but i strongly believe 'boys' crossed the line between crude/vulgar and perverted. i didnt the scenes with the prostitute, the sex-laden dialogs among the boys or with their girlfriends or even the hints at some teenage 'activities'. Those fit into the theme of the movie. But the boys targetting middle-aged women was the part that really got to me. The most common rationale i hear is "this happens". But not everything that happens in the world needs to be showcased. And the fact that these acts were by the heroes(rather than the bad guys) seemed like shankar was validating them.
and btw, missus has no part in this blog or on my thots on this particular issue. my feelings on 'boys' r entirely my own :)
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