அசத்தல் அட்வர்டைஸ்மென்ட்7

சிறுவயதில், நாம் எல்லோருக்குமே சாப்பாட்டில் எதாவது ஒரு அயிட்டத்தின் மேல் அலாதி பிரியம் உண்டு. என்னைப் போன்ற சாப்பாட்டு ராமிகளுக்கு சிறுவயது என்றில்லை... ஒரு அயிட்டம் என்றில்லை.. இப்பொழுது கூட.. பற்பல ஃபேவரைட் அயிட்டம்ஸ் உண்டு. என் ஐந்து வயது nephewவிற்கு ஒரு காலத்தில்(!) தோசை என்றால் கொள்ளை ஆசை- காலை, மாலை, இரவு நேரம் பாராமல் சதா "தோசே தோசே" என்பான். பின்பு 'தோசே' ' பாஸ்தா உப்புமாவிற்கு' [சேமியா உப்புமா] விட்டுக்கொடுத்தது. இன்றைய தேதியின் ஃபேவரிட் என்ன என்பது அவனுக்கே வெளிச்சம்.

இந்த அசத்தல் அட்வர்டைஸ்மென்ட் 7 - இன் கான்செப்ட் சின்ன குழந்தைகளின் ஃபேவரிட் ஃபுட் அயிட்டம் இவைகளைக் கொண்டு அமைக்கப்பட்டதுதான்.

ஹார்லிக்ஸ் - பொதுவாக ஹார்லிக்ஸ் என்றாலே ஹாஸ்பிடல், உடல் நலமின்மை, அந்த டப்பா மூடியை வாங்கி வர மனைவிமார்கள் கணவன்மாரை நச்சரிக்கும் மலராத நினைவுகள் மட்டுமல்ல - ஹார்லிக்ஸ் அட்வர்டைஸ்மென்டும்தான் நினைவிற்கு வரும். "குடிக்கவேண்டாம் அப்டியே சாப்பிடுவேன்".. அந்த குட்டிப் பையனின் மழலை டயலாக் நினைவிருக்கிறதா? "மனூ... நான் ரொம்ப பிஸீ...." - அந்த சுட்டிப் பையன் மட்டுமா? அம்மாவாக நடித்த த்ரிஷாவும்தான் ஞாபகத்திற்கு வருகிறார்கள். இப்படி ஹார்லிக்ஸ் விளம்பரங்கள் எல்லாமே நம் நினைவில் நீங்கா இடம்பிடித்துவிட்டன.

ஹார்லிக்ஸைவிட ஜூனியர் ஹார்லிக்ஸ் விளம்பரங்கள் படு பாப்புலர். சாப்பிடப் படுத்தும் சுட்டிப்பையன்களை மையமாக வைத்து படு அமர்க்களமாக, துள்ளலாக இந்த விளம்பரங்கள் தயாரிக்கப்படுகின்றன. லேட்டஸ்டாக தற்போது டிவியில் வந்து கொண்டிருக்கும் ஜூனியர் ஹார்லிக்ஸ் "N for நூடுல்ஸ்" விளம்பரம் மிகப் பிரபலமாகிவிட்டது.

மூன்று வயது சிறுவன் ஒருவன் ஃபரிட்ஜைத் திறந்தவாரே "நூடுல்ஸ் எங்கே?" என்கிறான். வீட்டிலுள்ள கேஸரோல்கள் எல்லாவற்றையும் திறந்து "நூடுல்ஸ் எங்கே?" என்கிறான் அம்மாவை செல்லமாக கோபித்துக் கொண்டே! அம்மா துருவும் சீஸைப் பார்த்து "நூடுல்ஸ்!!" என்கிறான்.அம்மாவின் என்ட்ரி..."மனுவுக்கு இப்ப நூடுல்ஸ் மேல ஆசை வந்தாச்சு..." என்கிறாள். "N for Noodaaals" -இது நம்ம ஹீரோ மனு. ஆரஞ்சு சுளையை உரிக்கிறான்..நூடுல்ஸை தேடி... "இப்படி நூடுல்ஸ் சாப்பிட்டா ஆரோக்கியம் எப்படி கிடைக்கும்? அதனாலதான் ஜூனியர் ஹார்லிக்ஸ்" என்று பிராடக்டைப் பற்றிக் கூறுகிறாள் அம்மா. பின்பு ஜுனியர் ஹார்லிக்ஸில் உள்ள இத்யாதி இத்யாதி போன்றவை விளம்பரப்படுத்தப்படுகின்றன. ஸ்வெட்டர் பின்னும் அம்மா எடுக்கும் உல்லன் நூலைப் பார்த்து "நூடுல்ஸ்!!!!!" என்று ஆரவாரிக்கும் மனுவை அம்மா அணைக்க படம் முடிகிறது.

ஒரு படம் - அது 3 மணி நேரப்படமோ, 30 வினாடி விளம்பரப்படமோ - நாமறிந்த யாரையோ, குறிப்பாக குழந்தைகளை நினைவுறுத்தினால் அது கண்டிப்பாக ஹிட்டுதான். இந்த ஜூனியர் ஹார்லிக்ஸ் விளம்பரம் என்னை என் 'தோசே-பாஸ்தா உப்புமா-cereals' nephew-வை ஞாபகப்படுத்துகிறது. எந்த கருத்தையுமே இன்ட்ரெஸ்டிங் visuals-ஆக சொன்னால்தான் மனதில் நிற்கும். ஒரு குட்டி நாய் ஒரு மொபைல் நிறுவனத்தின் டேக்-ஒவர் - பெயர் மாற்றம் எல்லாவற்றையும் விளம்பரத்தில் பிரமாதப்படுத்திக் கொண்டிருக்கிறது. ஒரு குட்டிப்பையன் ஒரு particular ஃபுட் அயிட்டத்தை மட்டுமே சாப்பிடுவேன் என்று அடம்பிடிக்கிறான். ஆனால் அதையே சாப்பிட்டால் சத்து கிடைக்காதே.. அதனால்... ஜூனியர் ஹார்லிக்ஸ். இந்த ஒரே Beverage- இல் உள்ள பல சத்துக்கள்
குழந்தையின் வளர்ச்சிக்கு உதவும் என்கிற கருத்தை இன்ட்ரெஸ்டிங்காக , குட்டிக் குழந்தையின் சேட்டையுடன் நமக்கு வழங்கியுள்ளனர்.

இந்த விளம்பரத்தை தயாரித்தவர்கள் ப்ளாக் மேஜிக் மோஷன் பிக்சர்ஸ் ப்ரைவேட் லிமிடெட்(BMMP). இயக்கியவர் அவர்களின் ஆஸ்தான இயக்குனர் பெளத்தாயன் முகர்ஜி. BMMP- இல் உதவி இயக்குனராக சேர்ந்து பற்பல விளம்பரங்களில் அபிஜித் சவுத்ரி- அர்ஜுன் கெளரிசாரியா இயக்குனர்களுடன் உதவி இயக்குனராக பணியாற்றி கடந்த சில வருடங்களாக அவருடைய சொந்த பாணியில் பல விளம்பரங்களை தனித்து இயக்கி வருகிறார்.

இந்த விளம்பரத்தின் ஹீரோ - மனுவாக நடித்த ஆரியன் ஃபெர்னான்டஸுக்கு இதுவே முதல் படம். மலேசியாவிலிருந்து இந்தியாவிற்கு அண்மையில் குடிபெயர்ந்தது இந்த மூன்று வயது வாண்டின் குடும்பம் . படப்பிடிப்பிற்கு முன்னரே இயக்குனருடன் இரண்டு வெவ்வேறு நாட்களில் rehearsal செய்தாராம் இந்த குட்டி ஹீரோ. இயக்குனர் வீட்டில் நடந்த ஒரு rehearsal இன் போதுதான், இயக்குனரின் 3 வயது மகள் ஆர்ஷா முகர்ஜியுடன் பயங்கர ஜிகிரியாகிவிட்டார் ஆரியன். அதனால் படப்பிடிப்பின்போது ஆரியனை நல்ல மூடில் வைக்க இயக்குனர் தன் மகள் ஆர்ஷாவையும் செட்டிற்கு அழைத்து வந்து அவனுடன் விளையாட வைத்தார். இப்படப்பிடிப்பு மும்பையின் க்ரீன் கிஃப்ட் பங்களாவில் மூன்று நாட்கள் நடைபெற்றது. மூன்று நாட்களும் ஆரியன் சமர்த்தாக இயக்குனர் சொல்படி கேட்டு அழகாக ஒரு professional-ஐ போல் நடித்துக் கொடுத்தான். இந்த புகழ் ஆரியனுக்கு மட்டுமல்ல டப்பிங் செய்த ஷ்ரே எனும் குட்டிப்பையனையும் சேரும். ஷ்ரேவும் இந்த விளம்பரத்தில் நடிக்க shortlist செய்யப்பட்டவர்களுள் ஒருவன். ஆனால் இறுதியில் நடிக்கும் வாய்ப்பு ஆரியனுக்குக் கிடைத்தத

விளம்பரத்தின் கருத்தாக்கம் : JWT, தில்லி. ஒளிப்பதிவாளர் : கார்த்திக் விஜய். ஆர்ட் டைரக்டர்: ஷேகர் & ரிச்சர்டு. படத்தில் மனுவின் obsession நூடுல்ஸ் என்பதால் சைனீஸ் ஸ்டைலில் இசையமைத்தவர் கனிஷ்கா.

இந்தி, பெங்காலி மொழிகளில் விளம்பரத்தில் வரும் குட்டிப் பையனின் on-screen பெயர் 'தோஜோ' . மேலும் அவனுக்குப் பிடித்த சாப்பாடு அயிட்டம் 'செளமீன்' என்கிற நூடுல்ஸ். தமிழிலும் இன்ன பிற தென்னிந்திய மொழிகளில் செளமீன் என்றால் familiar ஆக இருக்காது என்பதால் அதை N for நூடுல்ஸாக தென்னிந்தியைஸ் செய்துள்ளனர்.

ம்ம்ம்... இந்த விளம்பரத்தின் தமிழ் பிரதி என் இன் - பாக்ஸில் கிடைக்க பல நாட்களாகும் என்பதால், ஜுனியர் ஹார்லிக்ஸின் பெங்காலி விளம்பரம் இங்கு இடம்பெறுகிறது. மலையாள காப்பி இவ்விட . மனுவாக இருந்தால் என்ன, தோஜோவாக இருந்தால் என்ன... குட்டிப்பையனின் கிள்ளை மொழியை ரசிக்க is language a barrier?




ps : விளம்பரத்தின் தமிழ் பிரதி கிடைத்தவுடன் ஒரு update போடுகிறேன்

விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 22

# 10 points to be won
# Email answers to blogeswari[at]gmail[dot]com
# One attempt per person. Only one guess allowed

Ten television advertisements have been posted with sound, muted. Identify them. All these commercials are on esnips which may take time to load.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Results on the next Vilambara vilayaattu
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Answers for விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 21

Picture grid :
Vicks, Rexona, Pampers
Jr.Horlicks, Ariel, Snuggies
Lizol, Parachute, Bru

Audio : Chakra gold... (thangamaana rusi)

Results: It is a tie again! Rajarajeswari Subramaniam and Hamsika Iyer win with 7 out of 10. Congratulations!
Umayal thiagarajan - 6 out of 10 ; Dhivya R - 5 out of 10 ; Manikandan Rajamani - 3 out of 10

ஸ்பைடர் பிள்ளையார்

[ Image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simmermon/480012075/ ]

A Happy birthday song to the dude above, penned by HIS ardent fan - yours truly ...to be sung to the tune of

TV Theme Songs - S...

பிள்ளையார் பிள்ளையார்
பேண்டு போட்ட பிள்ளையார்
கட்டம் போட்ட ட்ரெஸ்ஸ பார்
தெரியுதா பிள்ளையார்
யா....ர்
இவர்தான் பிள்ளையார்

ஆனை முகத்தான் அசத்துறான்
சிலந்தி ட்ரெஸ்ஸுல கலக்குறான்
போசு இவன் குடுக்குறான்
கையில் வித்தை காட்டுறான்
அடுத்த..
சூப்பர் ஸ்டார் வந்துட்டான்

வேண்டியதை வேண்டிக்கோ
வேணுங்கிறதை கேட்டுக்கோ
கேட்டதெல்லாம் தருவார்
நம்ம பிள்ளூ சூப்பர்ஸ்டார்

பிள்ளையார் பிள்ளையார்
மாடர்ன் கடவுள் பிள்ளையார்
கெட்டப்பை மாத்துவார்
கொழுக்கட்டை தின்னுவார்
பிள்ளூஸ்...
யானை முகத்தோட சிரிப்பார்
தெரு முனையில் இருப்பார்
ஹேப்பி பெர்த்டே பிள்ளையா...ர்

Will miss you Pillooos.. See you next year, dude!

Film-making:The Madness -DUBBING

Ah, my favourite topic: Dubbing aka Dupping in Kollywood baashai. I am not talking about films like Aparachitudu, Shivaputrudu, Idhu dhaanda Police which are dubbed from the master language into another. This post will talk about dubbing artistes who dub for actors and actresses in films.

You can't give full credit to an actor whose voice dubbed by another for his/her performance. Their job is probably just 60%. 40% of the effort is put in by the dubbing artiste who scream, shout, cry, laugh, smile, talk infront of the mike.

In a hero dominated industry like ours, no one really cares whether the heroine knows tamizh or not." Ellam dubbing la pathukallam pa" is one term you will hear most often on the sets of a tamizh film when there is a dialogue oriented scene filmed. It means that during a dialogue shot, the usual imports from Mumbai like Payal Agarwals, Pooja Khandelwals and the Neha Mehtas will say 1-2-3 or a-b-c-d if they are convent educated, their voices are later dubbed usually by Savitha Reddy, Priya or Renuka Kadhir. No wonder Simran and Jyothika sounded the same. Real life sisters Radha and Ambika had the same voice too - Durga R. Sundarrajan zindabad! Blame Meena or Kanaka's irritatingly cute cute "poangaa mamaaa" on Uma Bharani. The brief for these dubbing artistes is plain and simple. "Oru love-oda tamizh ponnu madiri pesunggammaaa!" Seriously, listen to Meena in Muthu - yikes! Radha in Mella tirandadu Kadavu - One slap on her face when she kozhanjufyes with Mohan with that over-cute voice. The most irritating of all - Jeya Geetha for Kolangal Devayani saying "Precchaaanai" and "Tollssss". The most popular is Anuradha who is Khushboo's aasthana dubbeee. Khushboo was one of the few actresses who came out in public and gave credit to Anuradha. No dubbing in Kollywood is complete without two mentions. 1. The first family of Kollywood dubbers - Hemamalini who was a queen bee dubber dubbing for most actresses in 80s, her brother M S Bhaskar, their children, grandchildren etc. 2. Average playback singer S N Surendhar's claim to fame was that he dubbed for Mike Mogan. No concert of Ganghei Amaren in the 90s was complete without SNS saying "poranda kuzhanda en teriyuma azhardu..." dialogue from Mouna Ragam. But when Mike Mogan started dubbing himself without SNS, down went his market along with the mike.

Most of the villians like Andhra imported like Kotta Srinivasa Rao or Mumbai irakkumadi Aashish vidyarthi probably say sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni if they have to say "yeeei.. unnaa summma vida maatendaaaa..." and Rajendhar, Sai kumar, Sai ravi etc do the honours for them. Watch the blockbuster film Dhill and see Ashish Vidyarthi's lips saying "ya ya ya ma ma ma ya ya ya" for everything.

Having said that, I must give credit for some film-makers who make an effort to get new voices to dub for the cast. Actress Kaniha dubbed for Sadaa in Anniyan and for Shriya Saran in Sivaji. The sync - less said the better. But I quite liked the voice that matched the face. A whole bunch of people were auditioned to dub for Suman in Sivaji. Finally, Subbu Arunachalam whose voice, in a way sounds similar to Suman's real voice with a nasal tone was used. Deepa Venkat was fantastic for Simran in Kannathil..Singer Chinmayi had dubbed for Bhumika in Sillunnu oru kaadhal, Tanisha in Unnale Unnale and now Padmapriya in Sattham Podathey. I will not bore you guys again talking about the sync in the above films because it was indeed terrible but again a different voice. Yet to watch Sattham... so can't comment on that.

A lot of popular actors and actresses have dubbed for other actresses. Saritha for Naghma in Kaadhalan and other films, Revathi for Kajol in Minsara Kanavu and Tabu in Kandukondein, Banupriya for Urmila Matondkar in Indian and Sripriya for Jayasudha in Alaipayuthey. Rare actors like Jayashree [of thendrale ennai todu fame] dubbed for Geetha in Azhagan, Jyothika in Pachaikili. But when popular character actors dub for other actors, you can't but visualize the dubbing actor's face instead of the one on screen. When I watched Mallu actor Murali, I could only see actor Rajesh who dubbed for him because of his distinct voice... Nasser for Nedumudi Venu in some film - Again it was nasser's nasal voice + nose was what I was thinking of, not Nedumudi+nose. Delhi Ganesh is one lucky fellow. He has dubbed for two big superstars in tamizh films -Kannada actor Vishnuvardhan in Mazhalai pattalangal and Chiranjeevi in 47 naatkal. I always think that Suhasini as Thalapathi's heroine, not Shobhana.. may be it is because I visualize Suhasini automatically whenever I watch Shobhana's scenes in the film. But I was happy to see the hindi film Guru in tamizh visualizing Surya instead of the boring Abhishek Bachchan...he he he. Actress Rohini's voice matched Jyothika in Vettaiyadu better than the usual Savitha Reddy voice. Rohini is one person who has a nice, natural, un-dubbey tone to her voice. Vikram has this distinct credit of dubbing for both Abbas and Prabhudeva in V.I.P.Vikram dubbed for Abbas in Kandukondein as well.

Ah! Gautam Menon and his hitchcock-tanam. Not only does our man show his face in all his films but has also started dubbing for his villians- Jeevan in Kaakha Kaakha and Milind Soman in Pachaikili. Gautam, you are a decent director not dubber. Ditto Bharathiraja. Do you remember Nizhalgal Ravi's face in Vedampudidu or Bharathiraja 's voice? Bharathiraja for Manivannan in Kodi parakkudu was bad.

Kudos to Ameer for letting tamizh-terinja actress Priya mani to dub for herself in Parutthi veeran. I believe they took 22 days to dub but it was worth the effort. It sounded very natural and rustic. I like Asin better than Trisha for the simple reason that Asin dubs herself. Our convent-educated "naa church park la padichen-enakku tameeel teriyadu" Tamizh girl Trisha - Shame on you! I also wonder why Padmapriya did not dub herself in Sattham... Vasanth had to dub lead actor Prithviraj twice for the film (he mentioned this on a Podhigai show) to cut the mallu accent. In that case, why not half the effort for your lead actress as well, Sir?

Guys, isn't it irritating to listen to the same dubbing artistes' voice and most of the times badly dubbed? Why can't film-makers put some effort to sync the dialogues better during dubbing especially for actresses? Why can't they get their heroines to learn their lines by-heart prior to the shoot so that it does not look bad on screen when dubbed later? The heroines' dubbing looks awful on screen with lips saying a-b-c-d and voice saying "enna mannichuddungaaa....",doesn't it? Vasanth, Shankar, Selvaraghavan - are you all listening?

Bollywood is way ahead when it comes to dubbing. Watch Jism and you will never be able to make out the fact that both Bipasha and John Abraham's voices were dubbed by professional voice-over artistes Mona Ghosh and Viraj respectively. I am waiting to watch Om Shanti Om to see how Deepika Padukone's voice has been dubbed by RJ Prachi.

Ps: The funniest of all dubbings - Anita Raj in Thaai veedu. She says all her dialogues in Hindi. yes.. a tamizh film with the lead actress mouthing her dialogues in Hindi with a completely different voice dubbing for her in tamizh. It is hilarious! This DVD is one collector's item. Buy it, watch it .. now!


Updated - Please check the comments for more inputs from the comments

Film-making:The Madness - THE CREDITS

It is a different high seeing one's name on the credits of a feature film. You wait for that one moment when you get to see your name on the credits...on the big screen. In a bit of a perasai, one of the projects that I worked on , I wanted my name to occupy the entire screen - so there was my 7 letter name + my 10 letter surname +my purushan's 6 letter name. Ensured that none who watched the film missed this name with 23 letters!

A close friend worked on this marathon 3 hour film. It was quite an ordeal to sit through the film in the theatre and I did that only to see her name. To my disappointment, the theatre was running against time and hence did not run the entire reel with the end credits. Actually a lot of theatres don't. When I watch Kollywood and Bollywood films, it is my alpa pazhakkam to see the credits till the end and say "Hey, look at XYZ's name on the credits as production boy. He served me suda suda pongal when I went for the shoot to Madras" and pult things like "Oh !they shot on ARRI535??Wow!" types

I was watching Karagaattakaran the other day and was very happy to see not just the names of the technicians but their faces too in the beginning of the film... right from the production driver to the manager to the top actors.











Even Farah Khan's Main Hoo Naa's end credits have the entire crew and cast dancing infront of the camera when their names appear...if not their names, atleast their faces with them holding a placard saying 'Production'.. 'Make up'.. 'assistant directors' etc. Much better than names scrolling upwards against a black background to an empty theatre.

Old films are better in this regard in the sense that the names appeared in the beginning, so there was no chance of the man in-charge at the projector room to shut the machine before the end credits roll. Remember old Tamizh films with credits in the beginning "Sangeetham - Saraswathi stores" " Isai Udavi - Pugazhenthi, Joseph Krishna"?

In most films the assistant directors, production managers, assistant cameraman, assistant art directors - get beginning credits. It is only the pult directors like Maniratnam who give end.. maha end credits to the assistants, like the Hollywood lot. While watching some Mani ratnam film, I felt bad for director Priya [Kanda naal Mudhal, Kannamoochi Yenada], whose name appeared in the end credits. When Mani sir suffered a heart attack during the making of Ayidha ezhuthu, it was his former assistants turned directors like Priya, Shaad Ali and Sivakumar who went to his rescue helping him on the sets. Avangalukkellam front la credit kudutha koranju poiduveengala Mani Sir?

Mumbai cha Raja

The Elephant God takes over the state of Maharashtra and its capital during these 10 days of the Ganpati festival. Ganpati festival in this state is a combination of the festivities of Deepavali, Pongal, Navarathri, Aadi masam, Thai poosam, Akshaya triti etc etc in Tamilnadu. Most Maharashtrians in Mumbai take off for 10 days to visit their deity in their native village and celebrate the festival with their loved ones . Wherever you go, you can hear someone or the other talking about "Keeping Ganpati at home". Similar to our Golu tradition, the Maharashtrians keep Pillayar idol and offer poojai for a couple of days before the Visarjan. It is a season of discount offers, sale at major stores... like the Aadi season in our land. The city wears a festive look for these 10 days and every street, mini street, road, lane, by-lane has a Ganpati mandal with a pretty looking Pillayar idol.

Here are two pictures of our society Ganpati mandal.. Every mandal performs aarti twice a day and offers prasadam for all visitors.

The fun aspects of the festival:

1) Mumbai is at its festive best... there are Ganpati mandals all over the city, well lit, well adorned. It is a treat to watch the well decorated mandals and the effort that goes into it.

2) Visiting Mandals with a variety of themes can be great fun. There are Pillayars made of coconuts, chocolates, groundnuts which attract huge crowds.

3) One gets a day off on the day of Visarjan. You spend the day sleeping at home because all main roads lead to the sea where Visarjan happens are blocked, so there is nothing much that one can do. For maha vettis, there is a live telecast of the Visarjan on the local cable channel that one can watch from noon to midnight.

4)For the advertising gang, the festive season starts with Ganpati and goes on till Christmas time. Since advertisers tend to spend a lot more during these three months for Ganpati, Dussera, Deepavali and Christmas, the ad gang gets to do a lot of work and the smart freelancers [unlike me] tend to make a lot of money.

The moan parts:

1)Adding to the traffic woes are the traffic diversion posts all over the city. On a normal 'Mumbai' day, if it takes you 2 hours to cover a distance of 30 kilometres by road, these 10 days you will probably have to add another half hour of sulking in the car.

2) You will probably have an L R Eswari screaming out of a loudspeaker at only the temples of Madras but in Mumbai almost all building societies compete with one another to be their loudest best. You will probably hear the ever popular "Devaho deva ganpathi deva" and the Gayatri Mantra on repeat-u mode in the mornings and suddenly Mr.DJ - usually called Vicky takes over in the evening to play "Ohhhh..aashiq banayaaaaa.." or "Beedi Jalaileeee" with jing-chak beats.

3) Idols made of Plaster of Paris are a lot more popular than the clay ones. Despite repeated appeals from environmentalists, these idols only add to the environmental pollution mess.

The Lalbaug Cha Raja - a huge Pillayar mandal at the Lalbaug area in Parel attracts huge crowds owing to His wish fulfilling power. This deity is the most popular pillayar in Mumbai.Every year He gets tons of diamond, gold and ofcourse cash offerings at the mandal. These offerings are utilised for numerous social activities. hmm.. He even has his own personal tailor. Get Lalbaug Cha Raja's blessings here.

விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 21

# 10 points to be won
# Email answers to blogeswari[at]gmail[dot]com
# One attempt per person. Only one guess allowed

1. Picture grid:
Identify the ads, starting Row1 L to R. Every correct answer carries one point.














2. Listen to this tune. Identify the product. The correct answer carries one point

Melody.mp3

Answers on Vilambara Vilayattu 22
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Answers for விளம்பர விளையாட்டு 20
1. Picture grid: Clinic, maaza, nokia, max newyork life, splendour bike, emami mentho plus
2. Tanishq
3. Shahrukh & Surya : Himani Navaratna oil, Emami Fair and handsome,Sunfeast, Himani Navaratna talc
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Results [based on your first guesses - only one attempt allowed]:
It is a tie between Umayal and Manikandan - 9 out of 10 - Congratulations!
Ambi 8 out 10 ; Dhivya R - 6 ; Rajarajeswari Subramaniam - 6; The Visitor -5 ; Hamsika- 4
By the way, Hamsi and Ambi - I had asked the COMMON products that both Surya and Shahrukh endorse.

Ganpathi Bappa Morya!

Film-making:The Madness

Film-making-It is more a mad effort than a team effort. Script discussion, budgeting, shot breakdown, Budget approval, financ(ier)es, Crew contracts, Artistes' tantrums, location hunts, Equipment deals, Annoying assistant directors, Patient Production Managers (ahem ahem), Eccentric Executive producers, Demanding directors.. uff!! It is indeed a mad mad mad effort to put together a film.

But it is a super experience to be a part of a shoot crew. Advertising films is jujubee once you are part of the feature film eccentricity. In ads, you shoot for a maximum of 3-4 days with a week's pre-production, post production goes on for yet another 3 days and once your ad film gets approved you are out of it. But feature film is a completely different ball game. You are part of a feature for almost 6-8 months, think, eat, breathe the film for the entire period. If you are in the production, art, costume, direction department you forget your sleep for that period, work round-the-clock, party hard and wait for that one big day when your film releases.

These days Bollywood film-making industry functions very differently from our very own Kollywood. In most Bollywood feature film productions, the crew does not get on floor without a bound script, no last-minute dialogues scribbles on paper, the first assistant director's[a.d] break-down is the bible, he/she calls the shots, treate on-par with the director, second to second assistant director takes care of the artistes and not the director's chai, the last assistant director is the clap guy.. Each department is given clear and specific tasks. Like for instance, the production manager is responsible for the make up van's diesel but if the artiste sitting in the van refuses to come out for the shot, it is the headache of the second second assistant director to get the actor out. The production personnel cannot be blamed for the shoot's delay. Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya, Don, Swades, Honeymoon Travels (P) Ltd are few of the many films whose pre-production went on for a year before they went on floor. With every department handed out a detailed list of requirement for every scene and shot things are made easy with less goof-ups. It is a great boon for the lighting department who, with a bound script and storyboard, can go about with their work instead of waiting for the cinematographer's instructions till the last minute. This saves a lot of time and money.

Unfortunately Kollywood still functions the old way where the assistant director is more the director's assistant taking care of his needs "Director tea kekkaraaaru", "Sir-kku chair eduthupodungaappa" is also what he does apart from sitting for script discussions. A friend of mine worked as an assistant director in Kollywood's # 1 director's production. A schedule was shot in Switzerland and including the 2 main actors they were just about 12 of them flown to Switzerland. She ended up acting as a friend in the film apart from dialogue rehearsal sessions with actors, ironing actors' costumes etc. It was a terrible experience for her. "No budget" was the answer from the producer's front when confronted. But I wonder how that justifies an A.D doubling, tripling, quadrupling as costume assistant, make-up assistant, actor etc. My friend was on her next flight to Bollywood city from Chennai, as soon as the film wrapped.

A mega hit tamizh film is being remade in Hindi with the same director from Kollywood who is used to his way of functioning. In Bollywood, he has been given the first assistant director who calls the shots, is treated on-par with the director and is probably flown business class! Wonder how Mr."devotee-of-Lord-Shiva's-son" is managing with his Bollywood first A.D

But I still go with Kollywood when it comes to artistes. They are punctual, humble and do their homework unlike the Bollywood lot. Having worked with a couple of Khans, some Ka, Ra, Aj, Vi actors in Bollywood, it felt terrible seeing all months of pre-production work on a feature film to start shoot at 9.30 am go down the drain when these characters reported at 10 am for an 8 am reporting call-sheet.. Ennatha seiiya? Ennatha solla?

I came across this website which covers the madness of film-making...blogs by directors, assistant directors, production stills, interviews with cast and crew and so on.

If you are interested in film-making as a process, do visit http://www.silenceonthefloor.com/

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PS : Mani, Ambi , LKS, The Visitor - will post Vilambara Vilayaatu results soon. Have been a bit busy with work

'Aag' and Advertising

RGV ki Aag and Advertising have a great similarity. The former is, I am told a pathetic remake of the cult film Sholay. Whenever the advertising brains run out of ideas, they quickly scribble a few dialogues from Sholay and come up with a script which only they can appreciate. So in that sense a lot of ads, too are Sholay copycats.

From Sanitary Napkin to a Steel plant anything and everything is advertised with a Sholay dialogue... and mostly these are radio spots where the poor client with a limited budget happily gives a go-ahead for a Sholay-ed radio spot presented by the agency 'french beards'.

The most popular ones are on Gabbar Singh who will probably say "Areey Oh Samba, kitne toffees they" and his henchman "Do". Gabbar says " Aur ek dalo.. XYZ toffee.. do ke saath abhi ek muft". Let me admit, even I have been a part of the production of such 'award winning' scripts, but I often wonder how clients are so gullible in approving such pathetic stuff. But with such scripts over flooding the market, guess who is most happy? The voice-overs artistes! The Gabbar, Thakur, Dharmendra imitators are hugely in demand and they charge anywhere between 10-15,000 per radio spot. I once did some radio commercial where there was an old lady voice artiste uttering some Sholay dialogue and I was told that she was a hugely popular character in Sholay. So, if you think you can do a "Basanteeeee... Un kuttonke saamne math naachnaa!" in Dharmendra's voice, or "Chod dho Mujhee" in Hema malini's voice, it is time to do PR with an agency 'aatu daadi'. Good luck!

Meanwhile, here I am, waiting for that one.. any one friend to accompany me to watch the classic RGV ki Aag. If I get the baaghyam of watching the padam, will post review soon.