What is this guy doing? I mean, seriously. Yeah he had a pop at a tennis career. That bombed. Now, in true blue British sense of the word, he is trying to make a career for him as a celebrity? I mean, what gives?
When I saw him with his family on Family Fortunes last month or so, I thought “what?” but then, the oddest celeb has-beens parade on that show so it wasn’t a big. Or so I assumed.
And now, for the past three weeks, he has been gracing my TV screen every Sunday night, on Dancing On Ice. And it is excruciating to watch. This gangly, seven-feet or so of ungainly man comes on the ice every Sunday, as stiff and ill-suited to a spin on the ice as one could possibly be, with an inane grin fixed on his mug and it is enough to make me scream. Why? Why? Why?
Stop making a fool of yourself, please, Rusedski. Stop trying to carve a life as a celebrity on British telly. I cannot imagine a life worse (for me, that is!) than watching you pop in at random moments grinning like a nutter. This may sound really bizarre, but how about a life away from the limelight? Yeah? Move away from the cameras. No Spouse Swap, Celeb Big Brother or I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here nonsense, ok? Just get yourself out of here. Please!
I flicked open yesterday’s Metro on the way to my morning train and was shocked big time to see news of Heath Ledger‘s death. What a tragedy! I thought he was fantastic in Brokeback Mountain and was really looking forward to Dark Knight. What a waste!
I am a big time fan of Vikram. Having met him once early in his career, soon after his first hit Sethu, I was so charmed by his wit and manners than I have been a staunch fan since. Obviously, then, I have been looking forward to his next release Bheema, after a two-year hiatus.
I got my hands on the songs as soon as they were released and though I felt that Harris Jeyraj has dealt a winner this time around too, I cannot say I am overly pleased with the music directors’ penchant for making non-Tamil singers sing songs in Tamil movies. The song Ragasiya Kanavugal is a case in point. The female singer, instead of singing “azhagiya mirugam” (beautiful beast), sounds like she’s saying “azhugiya mirugam” (rotten beast).
Listen to it yourself and tell me if you agree or not.
Let me state at the outset: I love Jeremy Clarkson and his sense of humour. When British television is full of gay comedians pulling everyone’s legs in the hope of getting a few laughs or stand ups mouthing lines well thought out backstage to canned laughter, this guys is rip roaringly funny purely for being himself. One wouldn’t expect to be rolling along the aisles while watching a motoring show but that is what I seem to do most Sunday nights, when Top Gear is aired. Even my son loves his quirky sense of humour!
Jeremy has never been one to shy away from a controversy or air his views, however non-PC they may be. He just shoots from the hip, no holds barred.
But even I was concerned when he rubbished the public’s fears over their monetary and identity safety after the loss of the HMRC discs. He pooh-poohed claims that any nutter could now do away with their money and being Jeremy, went one step further and made his bank details public, in the column he writes for a National daily.
And one bright johnny decided to let Clarkson know what happens when you shoot yourself in the foot. Said johnny set up a direct debit to transfer £500 every month to a charity. When Jeremy found that £500 of his hard earned cash had gone walkies, he looked in and unearthed this. Arguing with the bank, Jeremy-style, didn’t help him a bit.
So he ate a stringy morsel of crow and admitted the error of his ways in his recent column. At least it is for a good cause, Jeremy and not to fund someone who has a penchant for bathing in quality Moet, like they show in that lovely ad on the telly. And next time, please stick to ribbing Hammond about his hairstyle and James May about everything under the sun.
When did she get married recently? Ol’ Pammy? Was it like three and a half seconds back? Well, the WWW is full of ‘news’ that she is ready to call it quits already.
Apparently she and latest hubby, a.k.a serial social Paris Hilton’s sexmate, decided to go down the ‘irreconcilable differences’ route so dear to the Hollywood types. But for whatever reason decided to stop and rethink. “Sorting things out” is where they are at. Totting up who gets what for sure before they part ways for ever, is what I think! But that didn’t work out, seemingly, as Reuters reported the divorce is back on barely seconds later. Whoo!
Whatever the reason, they notched up some serious column inches. Mission accomplished, I say!
This is the song I cannot stop listening to at the moment. I didn’t quite like the earlier hit of hers – the chorus put me off. I know it exploded in the charts, yadda yadda, but it didn’t do it for me. But this one – the whole rock chick, bad girl, big ass attitude – keep talking, baby! The audio quality in the video is pants but the song so rocks when it is pumping out of an iPod.
In a country like ours, where movie stars enjoy venerated status, they are in a unique position to do something positive, something immensely good to the people, to actually make a change. Some adopt a cause and use their status to do great, charitable things. In some cases, though, their A-list status is enough to publicise a deed, be it good or bad. In that regard, a ‘star’ at the top of his (or her) reign, has to be ultra careful in making sure his movie choices cannot be misconstrued as anything less than stellar.
This was something that Tamil actor Ajith forgot when he signed up for the movie ‘Varalaru’ a.k.a ‘Godfather’. At that time, the man’s career was in the doldrums and since then, he has slowly regained his lost lustre in the eyes of his adoring public. But with ‘Varalaru’, he has lost whatever respect I had for him as a person.
In the movie, Ajith plays the part of the father, the son and the evil villain who also turns out to be his other son – surprise! Daddy dear is a trained bharathnatyam dancer, which for some reason, equates him to a eunuch and all he does is elaborate abhinayam in place of regular expressions. Okay, harmless I hear you say. He is – till the day he is two shakes of a duck’s tail away from being married to this luscious babe – and she dumps him. Why? Only ‘cos he comes across more girly than her! This of course enrages the hero!
So he sets of to prove his manhood. How does he do it? Oh by this easy way of raping her. In her room. With a whole household full of servants and mother hollering away, banging on the door.
Though the girl screeches it at the top of her voice, he has great trouble hearing the word ‘NO’ and calmly proceeds to ‘show’ her that he is a man, after all!
What really takes the biscuit is his explanation to the girl’s mum after he was done. Apparently, he did what he did because the girl was having doubts about his manliness. How else could a bloke to prove he is a man? By raping the said woman, of course!
The cherry on top of this sick icing happens a few scenes later, when the girl’s mum pleads his case to her now pregnant daughter, with the standard “He is a good man, sweetheart” line. Of course he is, if you discount the fact the raped you to prove his manhood. He is so the man!It is movies like this that make me want to gag. Here we have organisations trying to fight crimes against women and then we have movies like this tosh, that make a whole mahatma out of the sod who commits this heinous crime. Even more gaggable fact is that, the adoring public turned up in droves to see this load of crap, shelling out their hard earned money hand over fist to make it a hit. A hit! This &%$#* of a film!
There’s no accounting for taste, is there? Women getting assaulted – well that is no filmy matter, is it? Why would one trivialize it so? What the hell was the Censor Board doing when it deemed this palpable fare?
Two things about such ventures astound me
how could a sane person decide portraying such roles is actually a good thing to do
why an intelligent person would throw good, hard earned money at such claptrap?
It also makes me wonder when the so-called ‘stars’ would actually realise what amazing pull they have and use it to actually do some good, rather than to purely rake in the dosh. Looking cool and setting little girlies’ heart go pitty-pat is all fine and dandy. But to actually pass on sensible message, one that will do some good, for a change, whilst looking cool – well that’s the ult, isn’t it?Any takers? Ajith? Maddy?
ps: Any one who wants to claim ‘oh Daddy Ajith repented what he did and tried to make amends’ and thereby prove this is a worthy film, please, save your breath.
Ok, with this I confirm that I am a first class saddo but I cannot help it! BOYZONE ARE BACK! wahey!!
I know, I know, how childish can one get, yadda yadda yadda. I have always been a Pink Floyd, Eagles, Sting kinda mixed up music fan but mid-teens, I discovered the lads from Dublin. I loved their songs (well, most of them) and their website was so good that I made friends with some really fantastic folks from across the world. The site depended on its fans to keep track of the news so there were ‘correspondents’ reporting from every corner of the world. And I was *ahem* the Indian correspondent.
Yeah yeah why the hell would we need one, you wonder. Well, they made a trip to India – to Bangalore in August 1997 – and I was there in the front lines, er, reporting news as it happened. As you can guess, I sorta went crazy and it was surreal. The best bit about the whole thing was – I fell in love with the whole web technology. Websites, writing content, design etc – I learnt all that during this time and so, I do not mock it one bit.
I had some brilliant ‘e-pals’ from the world over. There was even one in London and we met once, soon after I arrived here. We promised each other that we will go to a live show but that didn’t transpire as the Boyz broke up by then. But now, thanks to Children in Need, they are back with a show next May at the swanky O2 arena. If I get a ticket, I’m thinking of going. Saddo complete eh?
Anyways, here’s the video of their performance last Sat night.
Lots of cringe making opportunities but all worth it, to catch a sight of the gorge Ro! Ee-yeah-oh!
What a bummer of a weekend for England. First, the rugby team loses to the S.Africans at the World Cup. Then Lewis Hamilton, who gave F1 so much mileage, slipped on the last rung and failed to become the first rookie to win the Championship.
The only winner this weekend is ITV – earnings are rumoured to top £16 million! Not bad I say.
When I first came across this above-mentioned statement, I thought it was a joke . A quick glance assured me that it wasn’t April Fool’s day or anything like that. And that was when I started laughing. Really laughing.
I mean, I have nothing against the kid. She’s pretty decent as far as actresses of today go and has made some good career decisions so far. She’s a household name in her native Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which is no mean feat for sure. But does that mean she deserves the two states’ (she earlier won AP’s Nandi award for her role in NVNV) highest acting honours? Hell, no!
The word ‘kalaimamani’ means someone who is a great exponent of art and in this case, acting. Which Trisha sure is not. Sure she can shake her booty with the best of them, looks a peach and all that but that does not make for a fab actress. I am yet to see her essay a brilliant role. Granted that meaty female roles in Indian cinema are few and far between and are def not available for the young ‘uns of today who are roped in more for their eye candy factor than serious acting skills. In that sense, she is no better or worse than anyone else.
In fact, I do applaud her for not letting a director exploit her by making her show more flesh, like some of her contemporaries are doing. She is reputed to have refused to do Simbu’s female lead in Vallavan as it was ‘too glamorous’. Whilst I do think it is admirable that she doesn’t grab every single branch to go higher, I still am at a loss to see how all this totals a great actress.
My idea of a good artiste is perhaps tempered by greats such as Suhasini, Revathy, Shobhana etc. I sat up and cheered with the best when these ladies were awarded their National and regional awards for none deserved the accolade more. Trisha’s problem might just be that she isn’t b eing offered any role that will put her acting skills to test. Maybe that is the way the industry is and I will not blame her for trying to stay in the game.
I would, however, blame every single director who casts a heroine purely for the sake of glamour. Illeana’s role in her recent Telugu movie Aata was purely decorative and the amount of flesh on display was totally unnecessary. That didn’t help the movie’s fortunes at the Box office should send a message to the movie moguls about what the public actually want out of a movie.
But I digress.
Coming back to the so-called acting awards, I feel they are becoming somewhat of a farce, with very few actually deserving the title ‘Kalaimamani’. For example, take a look at this year’s awardees: Silambarasan, Vishal, Jayam Ravi, Jeeva, Vineeth, Venu Aravindh, Kanja Karupu, Trisha, Navya Nair, Deepa Venkat, Aarthy and CID Sakunthala – the list reads like Who’s Who of the Tinseltown. Other than a few like Vineeth, Deepa Venkat and CID Sakunthala, I don’t even think that most of the others can act, leave alone spectacularly so to be named ‘Kalaimamani’.
Probably the powers that be are just making do with whatever talent is available in the pool but when you are scraping the bottom of the barrel to make up the number, it would be prudent to give the title to the deserving few rather than to everyone who to be seen on the screen frequently.
In the meantime, Trisha, congratulations on your twin awards – may you grow into them one of these days!
