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The 13th Chennai International Film Festival originally scheduled in December 2015 had to be postponed due to the floods in Chennai and it was finally held between 6th and 13th of January 2016, across seven screens within the city
Visaaranai gives hope – The hope that there still are film-makers who can genuinely make you think a lot about films & how you actually are part of the stories some of them make.
2015 kicked off with the Pongal releases & right in the middle of the mix was Shankar’s Vikram starrer I – arguably, the most expected film of the year that received mixed reviews but performed well at the box-office with Vikram receiving unanimous praise for the toils he had taken for the role! GV Prakash’s litmus test as an actor came in the form of Darling & the maverick SJ Suryah got back after a hiatus through his Isai that focused on a fictitous rivalry between Raja and Rahman.
The final quarter of the year started off with the much-expected experimental Vijay film Puli which tamed timidly. A flurry of small releases over the next few weeks meant the weekend that saw the release of Naanum Rowdydhaan & 10 Endrathukulla a prominent one. While NRD got a positive verdict, the Vikram starrer failed to arouse the Box office. Then came the traditional Deepavali festival weekend which saw Kamal‘s Thoonga Vanam & Ajith‘s Vedalam release both catering to its own set of target audiences. Towards the end of the year, the films that created the buzz were small ones big in heart and ambition – 3 of which make it to our picks for the quarter. The year ended though with the jaded and uninventive Thanga Magan, an unpleasant reminder that Tamil Films have not completely come of age. Let’s look forward to a nice 2016.
An excerpt from the book, The Art of Movies, by Nicolae Sfetcu states, “In film, a Remake is a newer version of a previously released film or a newer version of the source (play, novel, story, etc.) of a previously made film. The term “remake” is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source.” (P.S. Without delving in to adaptations of novels and comics here, let’s just restrict this to remakes of movies alone).
The third quarter of 2015 began with reassurance to the industry & the hero of Papanasam, the remake of the popular Malayalam film Drishyam, which turned out to be a wholesome treat. Close on its heels came SS Rajmouli's epic Baahubali (whose Tamil version was more of a remake than a mundane dub!). With the two films setting the quarter engine revving, there had to be a few big duds to bring the heat down and those came in the form of the drab trio of Maari, Vaalu & VSOP. Then came the surprise film of the year - Thani Oruvan - which helped Jayam Ravi wash away the sins of his other pedestrian outing & we can't thank Raja enough for getting us the ever-so-charming Arvind Swami back in an uber cool villainous avatar. The quarter ended on a sound note with critics lapping up the National Award winning Kuttram Kadithal & the fans giving their thumbs-up to the awkwardly titled adult comedy Trisha Illanaa Nayantara whose whopping collection would have surprised its hero GV Prakash himself!
After the phenomenal critical appreciation for Kuttram Kadithal, the first question that needs to be asked is “Where did you come from? We could not find anything on you in the Internet!” Excerpts from Bramma's discussion on Kuttram Kadithal & his journey into film-making is presented as a two-parts series. [Part 1 can be found here.]
Bramma’s journey into film making came across through his participation in the Inter-collegiate South Zone Culturals events during his stint of pursuing a B.Sc. degree in Physics from Loyola and his entry into Kollywood Mainstream Cinema is even more fascinating. On a day in 2012 when he resigned a job, he was asked the question, “What next?” at a Tea Shop by his friend Christy, for which he did not have a clear answer. When asked if he could make a film at a low budget, he replied in the affirmative without hesitating one bit. That was how Kuttram Kadithal, the National Award winning film, up for release next week, was born!
If you have a Twitter account and have the habit of checking it regularly, you would have experienced seeing trending topics on the likes of #23YearsOfAjithism, #Celebrating3YearsofVelayudham, #MasssSuriyaBiggestHeroInSouthIndia. The names of actors & even the context of such crazy hashtags would change based on the trending geography you have chosen to see. When you attempt to analyse the very source of such trends, you will get to see some fanatics having a concrete plan to make these work! They create groups and accounts, which will decide and propagate the exact ‘Hashtag’ that the fans are instructed to make a trend of.
While watching Woody Allen’s Radio Days, in spite of the language being English, I found myself increasingly unable to relate to the American radio scene of 1930s & 1940s. All I could map on to were the songs I used to record on to an Audio cassette from Akashvani) radio during my school days & with the ascent of Satellite TV (M TV, Channel V), the custom-made cassettes that I got recorded by paying Rs. 60 per cassette to ‘Magnum Audio’ consisting of songs from America to Caribbean to Indipop to Bollywood to Raja-Rahman and the like.
