Surprise(s)!

- Paheli is India’s entry for the Oscars. I saw only about half hour of the film. So I'm not exactly in the position to comment on its selection. It was definitely original and quite colorful though. But my surprise is more on the other contestants for the entry. The Tamil entries were Kaadhal and Sachein. Sachein??!! What in God’s name did the judges find in Sachein that prompted them to even consider it as an entry for the Oscars?

But looking back on the 2005 releases so far, I realized that I would have a hard time picking even one movie as a nominee for any award. 2005’s not exactly been a good year for Tamil films, has it?

- A Aa is supposedly a hit. Who are these viewers that are going to the movie in enough numbers to make it a hit? I am yet to come across even a single positive review of the movie and the comments to this post mirrored my own opinion of it.

If New’s success prompted SJS to make A Aa, I shudder to think what this success is going to make him come up with next. The good news is that his next directorial venture(Puli) is with Vijay. So after Kalvanin Kaadhali, we may be spared from seeing him on the screen for a while.

- Ghajini’s advance booking is on the same range as the advance bookings for Chandramukhi and Anniyan. It has a hero who hasn’t had a genuine solo hit (I read somewhere that Kakka Kakka was a hit only in the metros), a new heroine and a director who, inspite of two hits, isn’t exactly a household name. So what has contributed to the advance buzz on the movie? Is it the possibilities afforded by the Memento storyline? Is it the slick promos? Or just good PR?

Whatever the reason, I’ve succumbed to the hype too and am eagerly looking forward to it. All that’s left is to show up at the theater on Friday :-)

- Ghajini’s the first of 4 big releases for Asin. But she apparently has no movies signed after these 4 and the Sify article strangely says that none of the 4 heroes would pair up with her again. Why not? Our heroes are not averse to having the same heroine twice (or more) are they? After all, Vijay’s Aadhi will see him with Trisha for the third time.

The competition between Asin and Nayanthara seems to have spilled over to Andhra too though Nayan seems to have the edge there with movies with top heroes.

- Dhoom 2 is really revving up the star power. Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai are gonna play the bad guys! Quite a casting coup. Aish has played a negative character before but I was pleasantly surprised that Hrithik is not succumbing to the image game and is OK with playing a baddie.