Apart from Madhavan’s interviews, which did not have anything new or interesting, Ajith’s interviews on Sun TV and Vijay TV were the only other special New Year programmes that I watched.

I really liked Ajith’s Sun TV interview a lot. He spoke so frankly about everything from the supposed competition that exists between him and Vijay, the relationship he shares with his directors, his attitude, his fans, his family, his passion for racing to even the SMSes about him that come on Sun Music! 🙂 I am sure the way he talked so proudly about his fans and their loyalty to him would have made all his true fans very happy. 2007 saw Ajith looking quite handsome in Kireedam and then so stylish in Billa. In this interview too, he looked handsome in a white blazer with a graying beard and a smile on his face about which a lot was discussed. His way of speaking reminded me of Raghuvaran’s. Though he did speak on some more topics, his interview on Vijay TV became somewhat a repetition of the Sun TV one.
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Being a person who hardly watches 4-5 new movies in theatre every year, I generally wait for a movie to be screened on TV to watch it. And that too these days, since all the new Hindi movies are shown on TV within 6-7 months of their release itself, I get to watch those ‘soon’. So after a long time, I watched a ‘new’ Hindi movie on TV last Sunday – Cheeni Kum telecast on Sony. The main reason why I wanted to watch this film even though I knew the story will never appeal to me was the cast and the crew of the film.

What I liked in the movie:

• Tabu, whose acting I have always admired, suited the role so well and as usual has given a wonderful performance. I loved her costumes too.
• P C Sreeram’s cinematography!
• Ilayaraja’s songs and BGM were brilliant! And what with Shreya Goshal singing the songs! I didn’t like Vijay Prakash’s singing (song – Cheeni Kum) though.
• Dialogues were good too here and there.
• The kid acted well too
• The climax when Amitabh repents that he was selfish and didn’t wish for the recovery of the girl

What I didn’t like:

• The second half was dragging and boring.
• This became yet-another-movie with the introduction a kid with a terminal illness. How many times have we been made to sympathize the characters on their deathbed, trying to appear cheerful and as though they are enjoying their lives even though they know their end is nearing soon??
• Tabu telling her father that she will marry Amitabh even if her father kills himself!
• Amitabh’s line of reasoning to Paresh Rawal didn’t appeal to me either.

So how did you all like the movie?

After hearing every other person rave about this movie, I finally watched it some days back. It felt great to watch a good Hindi movie after a long time and it also managed to help me forget the bad experience of watching Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, the last movie of Shahrukh that I saw. That is one movie that I wished I had not watched. It made me lose interest in watching Shahrukh’s movies!

Now, the storyline of Chak De is quite predictable right from the start to finish. You know Shahrukh is going to make the girls team eventually win the World Cup. You see a whole bunch of stereotyped people who are still not willing to believe that women do have a right to succeed in their chosen career and you know that at the end of the day, these very people will come forward and feel proud of the women achieving success. So, what’s there in this movie that makes it special? It’s the moments like the one where Shahrukh tries to make the girls from different regions and diverse backgrounds start playing together as a team, the one where he makes them understand that they are playing for their country and not representing their own states, the one where the girls unite and beat up the men at McDonalds (Those sort of men deserve that 😛 ), the one when Komal passes the ball to Preeti in the final match and lots more! Considering the standard of the current Hindi films, I wish more films like this one were made!

As many of you might know, ‘Anything for Madhavan’ is a contest organized by SS Music on winning which you will get to have dinner with Madhavan. I have not watched any of the similar contests telecast on the channel and have no clue about what the contestants have to do.
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Swades is one of my favourite movies in the recent times. I will write a post on the movie, the music and the lyrics later. For now, here are a couple of my favourite deleted scenes from the movie that were later released in the DVD:
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