Balaji's Thots

I received the biggest surprise in quite some time on Friday when I saw the above photo tweeted by Bharat Bala, director of the upcoming Dhanush film Mariyaan, which has music by A.R.Rahman. Yuvan clarified things when he tweeted that he had recorded a session with ARR and sung a song for the film. Since [...]

As the 2013 movie season gets into high gear, its time to look back for the last few times and wrap up the 2012 recaps. The first Top 10 list, as always, is the list of my favorite song sequences of last year. As always, the selection process is completely subjective and totally [...]

As a longtime fan of Ilaiyaraja, I’ll admit to being a little scared when I read that he would be scoring the music for Neethaane En Ponvasantham. While he has had good albums like Dhoni and Nandhalala recently, the films he served as music director were almost always serious films that required mature soundtracks with [...]

The phrase ‘dawn of a new era’ is thrown around rather carelessly these days as it is used to refer to anything new or different from the norm. But few, if any, will dispute that August 15, 1992 truly marked the beginning of a new era in Tamil film music. That was the day Manirathnam’s [...]

With the Pongal releases and a business trip out of the way, its time to wrap up the 2011 recaps. The first Top 10 list, as always, is the list of my favorite song sequences of last year. Needless to say, the selection process is completely subjective and totally unscientific as the deciding factor [...]

As an actor, Dhanush has greatly leveraged his down-to-earth personality to find success. Barring misfires like Pudhukkottaiyilirundhu Saravanan and Sullaan, he has consistently picked roles that feature him as a casual, easygoing hero who the guys in the audience can easily relate to.  With his average looks and non-muscular physique, he looks, talks and acts [...]

Trailer

Mankatha definitely qualifies as one of the big movies of the year with the double qualifications of being Ajith’s 50th movie and his first teaming with director Venkat Prabhu. So it came as a surprise that the film had such a quiet trailer and audio launch. But now they are out they will do their [...]

The Trailer

The Deiva Thirumagan teaser gives rise to rather conflicting emotions. On one hand, I am glad that Vikram, after Raavanan, has once again chosen a role that exploits his acting talent rather than opting for a masala venture. On the other hand, I’m afraid that he might’ve overacted. Characters like this – a man [...]

Pudhiya Manidhaa… feels like a poetry recital for a while and its only SPB’s entry that gives the song a boost. Its amazing how smooth and youthful he sounds even now. Vairamuthu comes up with some interesting descriptions(aaN petravan aaNmagan, thandhai mozhi) and a sprinkling of philosophy(thandhira manidhan vaazhvadhillai, endhiran veezhvadhillai) as the first stanza [...]

The audio launch of Enthiran, which took place in Malaysia on July 31, was telecast in two parts on Sun TV over the weekend. As befits the film, it was an expensive, elaborate function to officially kick off the Enthiran mania.
The show was hosted by Vivek while Geetha, who was apparently Miss Malaysia but did [...]