The 90s and tamil movies

The 90s tamil movies with "certified" heroes came in many categories. I was able to make out three distinct ones. The major league players were (and are) the ever-impressive kamal, and the one man powerhouse, Rajni. Next came the crop of 'new' heroes. The marble-garble dialogue hero Karthik, the budding 'thala' Ajith and the ever extended hands (it would have made no difference if they were precast with PoP) of ilayathalavali, er, ilayathalapathy Vijay.

And then, there was the un-tamilistically tall Sathyaraj talking the same dialogue in different dresses and locations, one-dress one-location one-story only RajKiran, and the ever-lover boy Murali.

The third is the special cases. By cases, I mean, real gone cases.
First is the ever angry, always corrupt-free, "pure" minded, sociopathic, i mean, socialistic Vijaykanth; and last, but NEVER EVER the least, (drum roll please) the only colourful hero, everyone's favorite, ultimate action-sequence star, Mr. Pasunesan, who goes by the name of Ramarajan. His vocal affinity towards the bovine fraternity was so much that during one particular sequence of discussion between him and an Ox, he gave a choice between him singing or the Ox giving milk. He won. To this date, the medical field has been flabbergasted into submission over that incident.

Oh, talking of songs. Every hero group had its own set of "hero" song. The major league players doled out advice, the centre crop had a song that discussed the eternal attraction of youth to drinks, two-piece wielding one-song girls, and words that were understood only by the Omaticaya clan. And the special category... well... you know... they sing... song.... around tree barks, in parks, cycle stands, under corporation pumps... well, basically things that inspired Sam Anderson to become a hero, you get the drift, don't you.

Atleast the 'hero' songs of those years had unadulterated crap that the youth generally were prone for. But, soon the stalwarts of tamil moviedom with their ecclesial mission changed all that. All it took was a 7 digit bank balance, and an association with the then ruling party. After that, you have virtually every right in the world to have your own build-up song. A song where you (no matter how teensy weensy your height and brain are) can go all bernard shaw to the un-assuming family who had come to live out the misery.

Yes, the 90s were fun... I miss them...

Tamizh Padam, a Review

Airplane, Top Secret, Hot Shots, Scary Movie,... the list goes on for hollywood. Unfortunately, for tamil movie goers, the list was not even created. Enter C.S Amudhan and Dhyanithi Alagiri. And Tamizh Padam was made. It is the first of its kind movie, a solid hard core spoof movie for the tamil film world. And did they make it well or did they make it well? !!!

Shiva (Chennai 600028, Saroja) was probably the best choice for the role, and he executed perfectly to the T. The spoofs caught everyone and everything that was part of mainstream commercial cinema. Everything from the 80s to the yesterday movie is not spared. From the glamour song (item song) lyrics starting with "i am a homely girl"... to punch dialogues by a just born baby, You name it, its there. And every actor in the field from Rajni, Kamal to Vijay, Surya are poked fun at, or rather their dialogues and movies; in a non-hurting way. And the spoof has been carefully planned and executed to involve a storyline for the actual movie to plough through. But, you don't need a perfect storyline to laugh your heart out. And that, this movie has lots. There are lots of humourous moments, but there are few stomach wrenching laughter scenes. The movie itself is worth watching in a theatre. A highly recommended theatre-watcher.

FIR - Chennai 600 028 - Movie Songs

I am a big fan of Yuvan Shanker Raja. Mainly because of his success although he is not as proficient in the techicalities of western music as his father or his brother. He has come to define the taste and the style of the current generation of youth and music.

A total youth force has come into the team of Chennai 600028. And Yuvan Shanker Raja has done it again here. He has lived upto his reputation of ringing in peppy numbers. With generously interspersed rap-style interludes, most of the song are bound to reach the Nxt-Gen.

Am taking the order of songs listed in the movie's website.

Ulle Vaa - A Hip-hop beat, a rap kick-off and yuvan's voice. Do you need anything more to give a dance song? Instead of musical interludes, a Yogi-B style tamil rap fills the song.


Un Parvaimele - Sung by Vijay Yesudas. Its a bit hard to term this song as a melody, what with the rhythm section making the otherwise melodious tune a funky one. Vijay Yesudas' voice loses its distinctiveness in this song, mainly because of the pitch of the song (pitch compared to vijay's default voice scale). Another good song.

Yaaro (love) - SPB , Chitra. The voice pair which once ruled the tamil industry with innumerable hits come together for this melody tune, again with a peppy beat, though not as peppy as the previous song.

Vazhkaiye yosingada - Ranjith, Tippu, Premji Amaran, Haricharan, Karthik. A fun song with again a peppy rhythm with the harmonium (or is it an accordion) piece the highlight. I guess this to be a song sung by friends.

Oh Oh Ennamo - Sung by anushka, the only song without peppy rhythm. This comes in the category of "vaseegara", "Onra Renda" type of songs. Anushka's voice kneads the lyrics nicely to give the desired "hot" effect. I dont know if this will reach the tamil mass as "vaseegara" or "onra renda" due to its westernized feel. Definitely NOT a "family" song ;-)

Natpukulle - YSR. A full blown YSR song. Lyrics, orchestration and sung by YSR. A typical music director song. A pure melody and like a jingle, the song closes before it ends.

Here, I have to tell; all the songs composed and sung by music directors are ALWAYS a super hit. And most of these songs almost always rely on guitars to enhance the beauty of the song. Here are some of the examples.
ARR - Mustafa in Kadhal Desam, Vellai Pookal in Kannathil Muthamittal, New York in Sillunu Oru Kadhal, etc etc
YSR - Oru Naalil in Pudhupettai, Yeno Kangal in Kalvanyn Kadhali, Kannai vittu in Pattiyal, Yen Kannodu in Arinthum Ariyamalum, etc, etc.
Jassie Gift - Lajjavathiye in 4 students
Baradwaj - Roja Kootam in Roja Kootam

Vazhkaiye yosingada (remix) - As of the original was a melody, this had to be done. Nowadays, remix songs are being done for the sake of remixing. With a heavier rhythm and more synth sound to fill the background, there is nothing more special to update on this song other than being a pub song.

Yaaro (friendship) - This version of the song fares far better than the SPB, chitra starrer, with a more pumpy rhythm and a good tune. Till I see the movie, am going to maintain that YSR just lost interest to compose a new tune for the movie and stuck to the other tune. Atleast he used his own compositions rather than using the xerox machine.


Saroja Saman Nikalo - THE audience song. Its "adra adra adra adra" right from the start. A nice mix of raw tamil rhythm and heavy rock instrumentation. I dont whats with the voice of Shanker Mahadevan, but it just blends into the song and adds to the tempo nicely.

In all, a definite success among youth anywhere. Hats off to YSR.

Joe