Actors, Stars and Stereotypes

The current crop of actors are a promising lot. Bharat is the latest recruit in that group. I still haven't seen kathal, but the tv reviews and trailers are promising.

Vijay is still in college. What, for the last 15 years or so? :-) But one thing, he does look young compared to the other collegiate wannabe, Ajit. Back to Vijay, he gives new meaning to the phrase "being tongue-tied". I think it would be nice if he talked properly rather than mumbling like a voodoo priest. Or he must be really lazy :-) He doesn't like to change his looks at all, I guess he didn't like what he did in Friends towards the end, with the mottai thalai. But IMHO, that was his best movie.

Moving on to Ajit, he was very promising sometime back. Something happened on the way, or rather many things happened. His want of adventure makes him restless I guess. Well, if he would lose the paunch, tone up a bit and concentrate on good author backed roles, there is hope.

Talking about author backed roles, that is a joke in today's "Formula" movies. Most big actors follow a certain kind of stereotyping. Vijaykant with his oh-so-righteous-I-am-going-to-be-next-CM kind of roles, SharathKumar's double-dose-of-me-with-village-sentoos kinda roles, Rajini with his I-am-a-macho-muscle-less-super-hero kind of roles, Sathyaraj-I-am-still-young-and-can-dance, etc. Kamal wants to stand apart, trying to do different things, but honestly, I feel like he overwhelms everyone, including himself, in doing so. Panchatantram was a good movie, it would have been much better with someone other than Kamal. Why? Because he grew bigger than his role in that movie. And I used to be a die-hard Kamal fan. Still am, for that matter. I think the actor fails when he rises above the character in the same way as when he cannot rise up to the role. These oldies need to give up on such movies and concentrate on NOT playing an under 40 or God forbid an under 30 super hero.

A sema-ragalai song has become the norm in mainstream movies. The rules of that song should be - rhyming lyrics that make no sense, the more double-edged the better, fast music, dance that is more jumping about like monkeys, and an actress who has no compunctions about the lack of good clothes. Dhanush faithfully follows this. But it does help that the twit can dance. Ignore the fact that most heroines are more muscular than him. Vikram too, in his mainstream movies, has such a song, may be more than one. Now that is one talented actor. He was droolably good looking always, right from the tv series where he was a photographer and I think Srividya was in that. He built up his muscles and his acting and put them to good use. Let us hope it doesn't go to his head. He has that potential too :-)

Surya shows a lot of promise. His dedication shines through. Especially his recent movies have shown him in good light.

Ravi is another promising lad. looks, acting talent, dancing, fighting, his road seems smooth enough. Tamil cinema and her fans, always looking for suitable monikers for their screen idols, call him Remake Ravi. Nothing wrong in that, as long as we get to see good movies. None of those vaada poda types please :-)

Who else is left?
Prashant.
What is there to say? :-)
Siddharth.
Who?