Celebrities gather to help cyclone victims
CYCLONE Gaja’s devastating effects are being felt by those living in the Delta areas of Tamil Nadu, among them the towns of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Nagapattinam and Dindigul.
The poor are most affected, many losing all their possessions.
It is heartening to see celebrities from the industry coming together to offer assistance.
As can be expected, the Sivakumar household was the first to respond with Suriya, Karthi, Jyothika and Sivakumar donating about R1 million. Vijay Sethupathi, GV Prakash, Sivakarthikeyan, superstar Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan have all contributed handsomely towards elevating the plight of the victims of Cyclone Gaja.
Lawrence Raghavendra also donated a huge sum towards the relief.
Noted playback singer, Gana Bala, who popularised folk songs in Tamil movies like Aadukalam, Komban and Aranmanai, is attempting to create a Guinness World Record with a programme titled Chennaiyil Oyilattam.
The folk dance has dancers performing rhythmic steps to a special musical accompaniment.
The music will be rendered by Bala Gana and will have about 5 000 dancers.
“We want to bring awareness about our Tamil traditional art form in the world arena through this attempt,” Velmurugan said.
Varalaxmi Sarathkumar is the toast of Kollywood with back-to-back successes in Sandakozhi 2 and Sarkar.
Known for accepting challenging and negative roles, Varu will be seen in yet another story of vengeance in the movie Neeya 2 in which she plays a snakewoman who seeks revenge against those who killed her partner.
The movie is a sequel to the 1979 release Neeya that starred Hassan and Sripriya. Neeya was based on Cornell Woolrich’s novel, The Bride Wore Black and a trendsetter in the horror genre.
Neeya 2 has Jai playing the lead with Catherine Tresa and Raai Laxmi as his romantic pairing.
Sarathkumar’s next film is titled Velvet Nagaram. Since Varalaxmi is known for portraying unusual roles, her character in this movie is also highly anticipated.
Jyothika’s Kaatrin Mozhi has hit the jackpot at the box-office. Jyothika is in a natural portrayal of Viji, a character who strives for independence within her family to allow her to live her dreams.
She has the full support of her loving husband Balakrishna (Vidarth) but is ridiculed by her father and her sisters. Jyothika reprises the role played by Vidya Balan in the Hindi version, Tumhari Sulu (2017). Kaatrin Mozhi is a directorial of Radha Mohan. Jyothika and Mohan had worked together in the hit movie of 2007, Mozhi.
Slated as the most expensive Indian movie to be made to date, the world awaits superstar Rajinikanth’s 2.0. It is a VFX wonder to come out of India using 3D graphics and introducing 4D sound for the first time in Indian cinema.
Over the years, Tamil cinema has reached amazing heights in terms of its technical excellence and 2.0 further raises the benchmark.
South Africa joins in the worldwide release of the movie on November 29. 2.0 will release here in Tamil and Hindi.
However, the movie is also made in Telugu and will be released in 12 other world languages including Japanese.
Rajinikanth has a massive fan following in Japan.
2.0 will also be the first Tamil movie to release in Poland.
The film’s estimated cost has crossed the R1m mark and has an international cast of Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson.
Conceived as a conceptual sequel to the 2010 international blockbuster Ehdhiran, technical crew include the likes of double Oscar winner AR Rahman, Resul Pookutty (Slumdog Millionaire), Nirav Shah (Dhoom 2) and national award-winning editor Anthony.
Lutchmanan is an educator, author and linguistic campaigner. She is also a presenter/producer at Lotus FM. You can hear her on Inisai Mazhai, Fridays from 6pm to 7pm, and The Best of Kodambakkam, Sundays 10am to 1pm.