Whatchamacallit? Call it whatever you want!

Call it writer's block, call it 'Busy, busy, busy', call it that the 'gripe whine' is getting smaller, call it 'LG- life is good', call it just plain lazy, whatever it is, the reality is that I have not been writing recently!

As in previous years, the crescendo of Deepavali celebrations will eventually fade after watching Indian movies. This time, the family watched 'Action Replayy' (Hindi) and 'Enthiran-The Robot'. So, I thought of writing a review of these two new releases.

'Action Replayy' is spelt correctly. Releasing a new film is a major gamble. Many expected and unexpected circumstances can interact to determine its ultimate success at the box office. The emergence of a disgruntled junior writer accusing screenwriters of plagiarism (in the case of 'Enthiran'), politicians seeking publicity making inappropriate statements about the film (such as about Shahrukh Khan's 'My Name is Khan'), or even a freak monsoon storm could all potentially threaten the box office performance. This is where our friendly, resourceful numerologists and priests come into play, and stunts like adding certain letters to the title (for example, ' Singh is KKing') become evident. Director and producer Rakesh Roshan has been naming his movies with the letter 'K' from 1987 onwards [Khudgarz, Khoon Bhari Maang, Kala Bazaar, Kishan Kanhaiya, Khel,King Uncle, Karan Arjun, Koyla, Karoobar, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, Koi Mil Gaya, Krrish, Kaamchor, Krazzy 4, Kites].

And South Indian producers will appease the divine powers by performing prayers on a grand scale over the master reel of films. Rajnikanth, once, had a helicopter sprinkle flowers onto the temple koppuram for blessings.

Talking about 'Action Replay', its storyline was a rip-off of the 'Back to the Future' trilogy. Except, it lacked the believability and excitement of the original. A young adult goes to the past to fix his often squabbling parents and his nerdy father in a matter-of-fact way, without much emotion, does his Cupid work, and then seamlessly returns to the future with the broken-down time machine, which was repaired by the Professor he easily located—and who obliged willingly while he was gone! And there are set dances and musical moments in between! Missing the thrill of finding the right energy mission by Christopher Lloyd, the heart-wrenching, cliff-hanging adrenaline rush of wiring energy from the lightning-struck clock tower at the right moment, and the phone call from Chuck Berry's cousin about finding a tune for his next song, Johnny B. Goode! I remember all of this because 'Back to the Future' remains one of my all-time favourite movies.

'Enthiran' It was a bore for me as well. A Rajnikanth movie without his punch dialogues? No good! Somehow, I went in with too high expectations, comparing it to movies like 'Muthu', 'Ejamaan', 'Padaiappa', and 'Badsha'. It was a bit too long, and the editing leaves much to be desired. Many scenes could have been cut. And the songs all sound alike, with way too many! (Sorry, A.R. Rahman). For the best selection of songs in a single movie, one should listen to the soundtracks of 'Athey Kangal' (1967), with songs ranging from a-go-go ('Ho ho ethanai alagu') to traditional Matalam beats ('Boom boom matthukaran'), and 'Punnagai Mannan' (1986), which boasts Maestro Ilaiyaraaja’s award-winning composition that fused Indian and neo-classical modern rhythms. I was actually yawning, glancing at my watch too often, and even managed a short snooze at the end of the movie! And thus, Deepavali 2010 came to an end! Soi!