Making of Chandramukhi / 200th Day Function
Sun TV screened a combined 'Making of Chandramukhi / 200th day function' today morning. The program lasted almost 3 1/2 hrs (9.30 - 1.30 with a half-hour news break) and made for fun viewing.
The 'Making of Chandramukhi' segments offered some interesting peeks into behind-the-scenes action on the sets. They showed the actual shooting of a number of scenes followed immediately by the polished end result that we see on screen for those scenes. Quite a difference. There was nothing groundbreaking shown but the fact that we rarely get such behind-the-scenes glimpses for Tamil films made the sequences interesting. It was fun seeing P.Vasu act out each scene for many of the actors(including Rajni, Jo, Vadivelu, etc.) and then see them give their own spin to it. Ofcourse the shots of the actors relaxing between shots were nice too.
As always, the 200th day function was started off with mini-interviews with many of the attendees. I liked this segment since it highlighted individual contributors and helped me put a face to many performers and technicians(like Thotta Tharani) who I've admired. Also learned a few tidbits. For instance, I didn't know that Raa Raa... was Binni Krishnakumar's first song.
The dances by the troupes for a few of Rajni's old hits were the least interesting part of the show. They were choreographed OK but there were just too many songs. IMO, they should have had just 1 segment with a medley of some of his songs.
All speeches were predictably in praise of Rajni. I didn't feel any of them went on for too long(but I could be biased considering the subject of the speeches :-)
Rajni spoke last and once again proved that not many can give a speech as well as he can. His style was completely casual and his speech was the perfect mix of frankness, praise(for others), philosophy, humor and modest self-deprecation. He had the usual short stories that he used to convey some morals; he frankly clarified his wish to get Aish to act in his movies; he had some real nice things to say about Jo, Vidyasagar and P.Vasu but didn't forget Nayan or the cinematographer either; and he made a few humorous digs at his loss of hair and his white beard.
My favorite lines from his speech:
Thunbam illaama vaazhkaiye illa
Thunbatha thedi pogakkoodaadhu
Aana thunbam vandhaa nondhu poga koodaadhu
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15 Comments:
I also saw the function and enjoyed it. Regarding Rajini's speech,I felt Rajini is one who comes totally unrehearsed and unprepared about what to talk and it is all spontaneity. Though it is good most of the times, I noticed that he struggles for words soemtimes and in excitement he completely forgets what he was talking about. Especially, when it comes to the story tellig part (he does a lot these days, right?). He finishes off the story and makes you wonder if that story was relevant there and he himself wonders what to talk about next after the story.
OTOH, he makes an effort to make sure that everybody involved in the film gets a mention (including Nayatara when everybody else forgot to mention her though her role was hardly memorable). I thought Shankar spoke some sense when he said that 'Rajini doesn't need me' but I could also see some kind of fear in his eyes seeing the kind of success, celebration adn the praise everybody had for Chandramukhi and SuperStar. I am sure he knows what big a task he has in hand.
Another noticeable thing was Rajini lavish in praise for Vidyasagar. He said about asking for atleast 2-3 hit songs and getting all hits in return. And the mention about giving all the songs on time not making any delays and no unnecessary bandha...was he referring to ARR ? (his next MD for Sivaji).
I missed it...I missed it.!! I was in Bonfonte Gardens today.!
I saw the trailors and heard Rajini speak.
I hope we can get the video feed somewhere in the Net.
"not many can give a speech as well as he can."
--> I respect your opinion but I dont agree...my complaints about his speeches are along the lines of maverick's. he does tend to ramble and sometimes get into a free-association sort of mode where he loses his train of thought. but then again, anything you say about Rajni has to be taken with a pinch of salt;)
mav, i know we can never find out but i think rajni IS prepared but his way of talking gives off the impression that it is unrehearsed. thats what i meant when i said 'casual'. like the story about the grandfather telling the story to the grandkid. i just SEEMED to end abruptly but thats cos it had a weak punchline. but the story did make sense at that point(an always-successful life is boring).
yeah i noticed the nayanthara mention too. and like prassanna said, i liked the way he singled out each of the attendees(like vijay).
ARR? maybe... but arr didn't do the bandha/procrastination for 'padaiyappa' or 'baba' did he? so maybe not... :)
narayanan, concert cancel aana udane bonfante poiteengala?!
ram, more than a pinch i would think :)
zero, vikraman/gabbar singh? totally didnt get that...
and most of those lines were to be expected considering the situation. as u said, its just 'convenient'. just sounded good to a rajni fan, thats all :)
priya, u're very welcome :)
Balaji-nice summary. I sat glued to the recentlly installed Sun TV and watched the whole show. Was impressed with Thalaivar's speech and his openness in expressing the reason behind his hair loss and beard. Really cool when he said beard meant some power etc.....
waiting for more info about his Sivaji from you in future blogs.
Good post Balaji.
This is the first time I'm seeing Rajini giving a speech, very down to earth, but everyone else was bending backwards to shower praise on Rajini. It so happens that when people start doing that, it is quite obvious that they are not speaking the truth. Shankar for example was saying Rajini doesn't need a director, which he himself knows is not the case. In addition to that he just took away the credit from P.Vasu after doing a great job. All this to prove that Rajini is a great actor !!??. Dassari was quoted as saying in his 25 years in the industry he has not come up with such a character/story etc., and crediting Rajini for that, which begs the question, why did not anyone talk about Fazil's Manichitratazh, to whom belongs the original story and screenplay.
Now Rajini's speech was down to earth, but is he !!??.
if you watch the end credits of chandramukhi, the "moolakadhai" is credited to "Swargachitra"
thats about all the mention that has been given to Fazil's film...but then again, so many films dont even do that! so, guess i cant complain abt that...!! (a preemptive measure by a Kamal fan;) )
mitr, yeah those comments about his hair and beard were really funny and seemed so open...
will surely have all news about 'sivaji' here :) vera enna velai enakku?!
prem, thanx for stopping by. tamil cinema(actually anything tamil like politics, etc.) is ruled by sycophancy. so praise like what we heard in the function is very common. atleast this was rajni's movie. i remembering everyone praising rajni even at the fuction for 'saami' where he was just the chief guest. konjam over thaan. but rajni singling out everyone for praise during his speech was a nice giveback gesture :) thats what i was referring to when i said he is down-to-earth.
and everyone knows CM is 'manichitrathazhu' with a few changes thrown in. so why they were silent about that i have no idea. but as ram said, idhu tamil cinemakku onnum pudhusu illa :)
ram, didnt know about the 'moolakkadhai' credit. there was something about a case on this and that might've come about after that. andha last comment was very funny :)
rajini had conveyed so much in those last few lines... vazkkaiye thathuvamaa? thathuvame vazkkaiyaa?
damn.. i dont have sun tv here. will see if there is anything available on the net.
thalaivaaa - mannichudunga!.
Some other interesting titbits...
Shankar praised Rajini for the guts and his decision in choosing this story and believing that it would be a hit. Frankly, I felt it wasn't any gutsy to remake a super hit in 2 other languages. Maybe, the film's story is nowhere suited to Rajini's superhero image these days and to do a movie where Rajini is not the only aspect as it has been the case in his other movies, was a gutsy move. Maybe, making BABA was gutsy decision, but a bad one it turned out to be at the end. With all respect to him, I really do not associate superstar with making big, gutsy, intelligent decisions in the recent past, both in movies, politics.
Another interesting one was what Prabhu mentioned. He said that when they were in Turkey for the 'Konja Neram' song shoot, he asked Super* about the lack of punch dialogues, no usual gimmicks and was worried if this would click. But Rajini was pretty confident that this was a movie made for the ladies fraternity (yennoda rasigargaloda manaivi, thaa, sagodharigal kku) and they would love it. Well...that was bang on.
P.Vasu mentioned that CM was hue huge hit among the kids and almost every kid in tamilnadu has seen it.
Shankar paid the biggest compliment to Jothika when he said that his kid wanted to accompany Shankar for the function just to see Superstar. But when he told that Jothika aunty will also be there, the kid was scared and backed off :-)
Another noticeable thing was everybody (Vijay, Prabhu and Rajini himself) recalling what Rajini told in the Chandramukhi audio release function about the movie becoming a super hit and the Yaanai-Kudhirai reference. Sun TV even replayed that part which was almost like a movie scene.
mav, i think CM was a gutsy move right frm having the heroine's name as title and choosing p.vasu as the director.
shankar's whole speech was pretty interesting. and what rajni said during the audio release was such a good soundbite that it was inevitable that it would come up again :)
since u've watched it so well, question for u. the comperers talked about the 3rd guy(after vasu and raamkumar) who said 'repeatu' in the 'devuda devuda' song. but didn't hear them revealing who it was. did they?
They did mention about the third guy who said "rreppeeattu" in the "Devudaa" song. He is Rajini's good old friend Raja Bahadhur. It seems, he worked as Rajini's car driver and still unmarried just because his marriage life may affect his focus towards his association with Rajini’s fan club..It is indeed right time to say "Devudaa" :)
Balaji
Yeah, they did. He was one of Rajini's old friends during his bus conductor days in Bangalore. He even came up on stage to receive an award from Rajini himself and the compere said something like 'Unnai maadhiri friend enakku oruthan kedachaa podhum yaa...'
All the coverages of this function, picts available in our www.rajinifans.com
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