I am a great fan of Hrithik Roshan. I love his dance very much. Recently his movie Kites has been released on 21st May'10.  I was so much upset with the movie. The movie has a love story which could be picturised more well. The movie does not deserve such a great hype. It has been released with a total of 2300 prints in over 60 countries. Instead of calling it a hindi movie, should be called an indo-anglican movie. The heroine Barbara Moore has done her role perfectly. Even the role and acting of Hrithik Roshan was very good and exciting. Its a challenging role for him to play. Only attraction in the movie is Hrithik. The script of the movie has so many faults. The editing has been done well. But the taking of the movie was not catchy and the audience feel bored of the movie. The music of the movie was OK. The acting of Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Moore has saved the movie from total failure. The director Anurag Basu has succeeded to picturise the movie in rich and beautiful locations but failed in making the story attractive and catchy. In Overall, the film can be seen for only time pass.

My Rating: 2.5

Raavan ( Raavana in Tamil ) is the much awaited movie of Mani ratnam. It is going to be released in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu at the same time. The casting is slightly different in Tamil and Hindu. The audio of this film was released by the end of April. The film is expected to reach the theatres by the mid of June.

This article is reviewing the songs of Raavana ( Tamil ).

Cast : Vikram, Aishwarya Bachchan, Karthik Muthuraman, Prabhu, Prithviraj, Priyamani, Bipasha Basu 
Director: Mani Ratnam
Production: Madras Talkies
Lyricst: Vairamuthu
Music: A.R.Rahman

Singers: A.R.Rahman,Vijay Prakash, Mustafa Kutoane, Keerthi Sagathia,Karthik,Mohammed Irfan, Benny

dayal,
Shankar Mahadevan ,Anuradha Sriram,Shreya Goshal,A. R. Reihana, Tanvi Shah,Bhagyaraj

Usually we won't like the songs of Rahman when we hear it for the first time. If we hear it 3 or 4 times only, we can rate the song. I heard all the songs 2 times before writing this review. To me, no song is that much catchy except Kalvare.May be if hear it 10 times, i may like it :-)

1. Veera Veera
This song is sung by Vijay Prakash, Mustafa Kutoane, Keerthi Sagathia and Rahman himself. This is the shortest song in this album and it lasts for approximately 3 minutes.My rating for this song is 4/10

2. Usire Poghudey
This song is sung by Karthik and Mohammed Irfan and the duration of this song is approximately 6 minutes. The song reminds me of some other song. But i could not recollect which is it.It is a mixture of fast and slow notes.Karthik has done his job well.My rating for this song is 6/10

3. Kodu Potta
This song is sung by Benny dayal and the duration of this song is 4 1/2 minutes.The song starts in high note but that speed is not maintained throughout the song.I liked only the music for the starting lines of this song.My rating for this song is 5/10

4. Kaatu Sirukki
This song is sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Anuradha Sriram. This song losts for approximately 6 minutes. This song is of little fast beat. The music that comes between the stanzas is like that of the music that will be played in films for snakes. I liked that music though it comes only for few seconds.My rating for this song is 7/10

5. Kalvare
This song is sung by Shreya Goshal and the duration of this song is approximately 4 minutes. It is a melodious song with mild music running in the background. Shreya has sung the song well.It is the only melodious song in this album. It is lovely to hear this song with the voice of Shreya.My rating for this song is 8/10.

6. Keda Kari
This song is sung by A. R. Reihana, Tanvi Shah, Benny Dayal & Bhagyaraj and lasts for approximately 5 minutes.This is a little fast song.This song did not attract me that much.My rating for this song is 4/10.

We are a movie-loving nation. We have to be… given that Bollywood is the highest producer of movies in any given year, followed closely by Tollywood. But the question I want to put up here is… are we any good? I mean sure, every weekend I flock to the theatre with my gang to catch a new flick and on the other days of the week I simply watch movies on my laptop. But when it comes to making a choice between a Hollywood movie and a Bollywood flick, I would easily pick up a Hollywood one.

The reason is pretty obvious. Compare our action movies to the Hollywood ones. The thrill, the excitement, the visual and the sound effects…all combine to give a great experience. Now try Bollywood. Most action scenes are…well…plain stupid. Some defy gravity, others defy logic.

Try science fiction. The Hollywood ones are goooooddd….!! But the Bollywood seem so fake that even the ‘all-believing-kids’ have a hard time digesting all the facts.

And let me not even comment on the romance movies. I think I know who will end with whom within the first ten minutes of almost all movies.

I’m not discrediting the efforts of our moviemakers. Every now and then we do manage to produce decent movies. But out of some hundred odd movies being produced in a year, a couple of good ones seems like a fairly small number. Compare this with Hollywood where out of a few movies produced each year, a fairly significant number are good ones.

In the past couple of years, Bollywood has tried to go in a previously unexplored space, where the themes of the movies have become bolder, more unconventional, and which challenge the existing affair of things. But for someone like me who has been a follower of Hollywood and Star World for a long time, Bollywood might still take a few years to make its impact felt.

Cast : Magesh,Anjali,Director A.Venkatesh
Guest Appearance : Sneha
Direction : Vasanthabalan
Music : Vijay Antony & G.V.Prakash kumar
Production : Ayngaran international
Released on : March 2010

Both the hero and heroine are making debut in this film. There are no big actors and actresses in the film, except Sneha who plays a cameo role as Sneha. This film depicts the sufferings of the sales boys and girls working in textile showrooms and supermarkets. May be some things are exaggarated. This film is definitely a good one as compared with normal masala films in Tamil.

This film revolves around a single shop in Ranganathan Street located in T.Nagar, Chennai. Ranganathan Street is in the heart of T.Nagar and it has got so many textile shops. Selva Vinayagam Stores is the popular textile shop in this street run by Annachi. This stores indirectly resembles the popular Saravana Stores in T.Nagar.

The film starts with Jothilingam ( Mahesh ) and Kani ( Anjali ) playing and making fun of each other in night time asking many people "How is the match between us"? They get in to a bus and the song "Kadaigalai pesum" starts.  As they don't have any house, they found a place in street where masonry workers are sleeping. While they were dreaming, a fire engine after colliding with another vehicle completely loses its control comes out of the way and hits the people sleeping in street. The next scene shows the jammed vehicle,blood , crying people and the hospital where jothi is lying in a stretcher with blood all over this body.Policeman were asking jothi "What is your name?Where are you from?". He just murmurs "Kani,Kani....Kani". Now the flashback starts and goes to a village in Tirunelveli.

Jothi is happily playing cricket with this friends as his 12th exams are over and waiting for the results. He is a bright student and always gets good marks. tirunelveli.  His father was working as a mason and he encourages his son to study well and get a good job instead of suffering like him. His wish is to make his  son an engineer.Jothi has two sisters. When things are going smoothly like this, it takes a turn when Jothi's father dies on the spot in an accident while the vehicle in which he is travelling crosses the man-less railway crossing.

Even though Jothi has got first mark in his school, he is forced to quit his studies and look for a job as his father was the only earning member in his family.He and his friend applies for the salesman job in Selva Vinayagam Stores in Chennai. Both of them got selected and boards bus to chennai with lot of dreams.Annachi opens the shop for the day and meets the newly appointed sales persons. He tells them to work well. They the photos and thumb impressions of the employees are taken to give identity card to them. Then they are given uniforms. It is said the uniform cost Rs.250 which can be given in cash or deducted from salary.

Jothi and marimuthu were given job in godown section. Here only the introduction of villain of this film named Karunkali
( A.Venkatesh ) who is working as the main supervisor of the showroom. He brings kani with him and asks Jothi and Marimuthu whether she came here for getting clothes. Kani signals to Jothi through her eyes to say Yes. But they says no. Karunkali beats kani and shouts at her for telling lie. This is the first meeting of Kani and Jothi. Later a colleague warns jothi that this supervisor is a very dangerous man and one has to be very careful with thim.

Like this work goes for Jothi and Marimuthu till afternoon and the lunch break comes. They are told that the duration of lunch is 30 minutes and 1 rupee per minute will be deducted from their salary if they come late. Then Jothi and Marimuthu goes to the mess which runs exclusively for the employees of the showroom. There they see a huge crowd and big line standing for food and there were no free plates. The place is so dirty and food items are scattered on the floor. Seeing this Jothi and Marimuthu were shocked and they don't have the mood to eat. Then Marimuthu tells Jothi that there is no option for them and they have to eat this only for surviving. This is how the first day has finished and they are coming out of the shop. On the way they meets a handicapped person who can't walk and he says that he was once working for the showroom and they utilised all his energy and now he is not able to walk because of standing for long hours. On hearing this Marimuthu was scared and tells Jothi to quit the job. But Jothi says he can't do that because of his family situation.

The next surprise for them is the lodging place where they have to stay. It is just a big hall filled with many people and there is only little space for one to walk. There is no seperate room and only less number of bathrooms are available for so many people. Bathrooms are not even fully closed.There is no privacy for them in that place.In short it is looking like a railway station fully crowded. The same situation prevails for ladies lodging place. These scenes reveal how pathetic is the life of these guys and girls.

One day Jothi and Marimuthu are informed that they are shifted to the 3rd floor.They are very happy as 3rd floor is fully air conditioned. But their happiness does not last for long as they come to know that Karunkali is supervising that floor. Kani and her friends are also working on the same floor. The cruelity of the supervisor is shown in many scenes. One of them is when a girl asks permission from the supervisor to go to rest room.The supervisor shouts at her and gives her 5 minutes time. He also tells her 1 rupee per minute will be deducted from her salary if she comes late. The next scene shows annachi giving money (bribe?) to police inspectors,traffic police,politicians etc.

Like this Jothi's life is going. One day a customer asks a different colour of the saree. Supervisor tells Jothi to bring other colors from godown. Jothi climbs the stairs and gets different colors. He sends Jothi like this so many times. At one stage, Jothi feels very tired and drinks water by sitting in the staircase. Kani informs about this to the supervisor as a vengence for Jothi's previous act. Supervisor scolds and beats Jothi and tells him to quit the job. Jothi pleads the supervisor by touching his legs and finally the supervisor lets him to work. Jothi gets very angry with Kani for her act and expects another chance to give it back. Kani gives money for interest to other people without the knowledge of the supervisor. Jothi tells the supervisor about this and he beats and tries to misbehave with Kani for his act.

Later when Jothi comes to know about the supervisor's behaviour he feels very bad and asks Kani to forgive him. He and Marimuthu makes a big cloth bag to fall on the supervisor's head for his misbehaviour with Kani. This act joins both of them and they start loving each other. Jothi's friend Selvarani loves a guy named Soundarapandi and they both use a doll there for sending messages. They keep the letters in the doll. One day the letter slips out of the doll and reaches the hand of the supervisor. He gets very angry and asks that who wrote this letter. After some time Selvarani agrees that she only writes the letter to Soundarapandi. But soundarapandi,fearing for his job refuses that she did not love selvarani. Selvarani was shocked and hurt to see that the person he loved for so many years is such a coward like this. Unable to bear this, she jumps from the top and commits suicide.

Jothi gets upset about this incident and fears that the same thing will happen for him and Kani. He discusses this with Marimuthu. Unable to see his friend's sufferings, Marimuthu tells Kani to stop talking with Jothi as their love is not good for them. On knowing this, Jothi gets angry and shouts at Marimuthu why he has done like this. Kani is hurt by this and stops talking with Jothi even after Jothi convinces that he truly loves her. Jothi feels very bad and goes to Kani's hostel in the night. He shouts at kani that he is ready to take her away and marry her. He asks her to come with me. Then he explains Kani that as their earning depends on the current job, he wished to maintain distance between them but he still loves her and have the courage to marry her.

One day Kani meets Jothi and tells him that his sister who is working as a servant maid in a house is not feeling well and she doesn't know what to do. She asks Jothi to help him. Both of them goes to the house and finds that her sister has attended the age. Kani feels very bad that she doesn't even has a house to do the age attending function for her sister. Then Jothi goes to a temple and informs a lady there about this. That lady agrees to do the function in the temple itself . This again unites Jothi and Kani after the quarrel.

In the meantime, actress Sneha visits the showroom for the shooting of the advertisement. Marimuthu is a die hard fan of Sneha. He has collected all the pictures of sneha from her childhood and was keeping with him. He was very interested to see sneha. Amidst of the security, he caught sneha's attention and meets her and shows her the album. Sneha is surprised and happy to see the album. She says to Marimuthu that she will keep the album herself. While Jothi and Kani were talking in the showroom, the supervisor comes there. On seeing this, they both hides in the place. Unfortunately the security locks the door of the showroom without knowing this. Kani shouts at Jothi and they don't know what to do. They have to spend the whole night there itself. After some time they are putting the dresses in that room one by one, sings and dances.

Like this they spends the night and the next day morning they goes to their places as if they came only in the morning.Unfortunately the dance by Jothi and Kani got caught in the camera running there for the shooting with Sneha. Annachi sees this and calls the supervisor. Supervisor caughts both Jothi and Kani and beats them. Then the supervisor gives a complaint to the police that Jothi had stolen a costly saree from the shop and the police takes Jothi away. Jothi tells the inspector that he knows all the fraud activities done by annachi. So the inspector calls annachi and advises him to take back the complaint.Otherwise it will be difficult if Jothi tells all these things to media. So Jothi is released from the custody.

Jothi goes to the showroom and threatens the supervisor that if they did not release Kani, he will tell these things to the public there. On hearing this, Annachi orders the supervisor to send Kani with Jothi. They both leave the place and searches for job in all the shops in that street. Finally a blind old aged person who is selling clothes on the platform tells Jothi that he will give commission to them if they help him in selling his clothes. So they starts selling clothes and earns some money for the day. The old man tells him a street where they can safely sleep. They goes to the street and that is the end of flashback.

The camera now points to the hospital where Jothi and Kani are admitted. Jothi regains his consciousness and sees Marimathu there. Marimuthu joined as makeup man to Sneha. Jothi had slight injuries on his head,legs and hands. Jothi asks Marimuthu about Kani. But Marimuthu remains silent. So Jothi himself gets out from his bed irrespective of the injury in his legs and searches to find Kani. He was shocked to see Kani there without legs. She has lost her both legs in the accident. Marimuthu advises Jothi to forget Kani as she cannot do things on her own and she needs someone's help. If Jothi takes care of her, who will earn for his family?

Many things are running in Jothi's mind and finally he decides to marry Jothi. The film ends with the scene showing Kani sitting in the platform selling things and Jothi sells things by walking in the street.

Comments : A good movie depicting the pathetic life of sales people working in textile showrooms and supermarkets. Kudos to director Vasanthabalan for giving a good film !!!