With Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, is hardly a week away, let’s take a sneak preview into the films that have been lined up for Deepavali.

Uthamaputhiran: The hit combo comes back
This happens to be the first among the many films starring Dhanush at present which was launched much earlier.  In fact, Dhanush has almost completed shooting for films like ‘Aadukalam’ and ‘Maappillai’, films he had committed himself to much after he started work on ‘Uthamaputhiran’.  The Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC) has categorically ruled that ‘Uthamaputhiran’ should be releasing first as this was the film for which Dhanush first started to work.

Mitran Jawahar, who combined with Dhanush in ‘Yaaradi Nee Mohini’ more than three years back and then with ‘Kutti’ early this year, resurfaces for the third time with his (seemingly) favourite hero.  For the first time, Genelia D’Souza gets to pair up opposite Dhanush in this film, which is a remake of the Telugu hit ‘Ready’.  Incidentally, it was Genelia who played the lead role in the Telugu version too.

At first, Genelia reportedly refused to star in the Tamil remake version saying that she didn’t want a ‘repeat performance’ so soon.  The character of Genelia in the film was strong that she called up Mitran suddenly on a particular night and confirmed her decision to star in the Tamil version too.

Looks like the combination of Dhanush and Mitran might just have another combination in their hands.

Tailpiece: It is said that Sun Pictures, producer of superstar Rajni’s ‘Enthiran: The Robot’, tried in vain to take up the distribution rights of the film.  Dhanush is also said to have gone out of his way in allotting ‘bulk dates’ to the director out of the dates he had previously reserved for Sun Pictures!

Mynaa: The surprise package?
Director Prabhu Solomon, who has made films like ‘Lee’, ‘Kokki’ and last year’s ‘Laadam’, is back with his latest offering ‘Mynaa’ starring newcomer Vidharth and Anakha a.k.a. Amala Paul of ‘Sindhu Samaveli’ fame.  The film has had tremendous pre-release hype and expectations, something which is rarely associated with a film starring a newcomer as a hero.

Solomon, known for his sincerity and hardwork in the scripts of his film, had shown the film to producer Michael Royappan who had assured the former that he would take up the film’s distribution.  Even before Royappan would make his next move, the distribution rights had been taken over by Udhayanidhi’s Red Giant Movies and Kalpathi Agoram’s AGS Entertainment jointly.  The film has had great talk going about it among the distributors, who have already started hailing the film as the next ‘Sethu’.

Some reports, however, say that ‘Mynaa’ would be like and have the same impact on the viewers as Karthi’s debut film ‘Paruthiveeran’ had.  Solomon, who has been extremely happy about the pre-release talk about the film, says that “I’m extremely happy that my film is being compared to successful and good films such as ‘Sethu’ and ‘Paruthiveeran’.  This is very morale-boosting indeed; I take it as a honour that my film is being compared to films made by veterans such as Bala and Ameer.”

The film widely expected to do well at the box-office while making the viewers cry and the distributors and theatre-owners smile their way to their respective banks!

Va Quarter Cutting: The fun ride
Producer Durai Dayanidhi, who runs Clould Nine Movies, likes ‘Mirchi’ Siva as Kollywood’s answer to Hollywood’s Jim Carrey.  Though Dayanidhi appear to be going overboard in his comparison, Siva seems to have caught the imagination of the viewers in a big way with films like ‘Chennai 600 028’, ‘Saroja’ and the latest ‘Tamizhpadam’, which was a satire on the way Tamil films have been made over the years.

As Siva’s ‘Tamizhpadam’ was heart-warming to the distributors, they have lapped his next offering ‘Va Quarter Cutting’ at a huge cost.  Unconfirmed reports say that the distribution rights have been sold for an unprecedented sum of Rs.8 crores.

The film, which has Siva and Lekha Washington playing the lead roles, is about the problems and crises faced by a couple of ‘good’ friends who regularly flock to the wine shop around mid-night everyday to quench ‘their thirst’ by sipping a ‘quarter’ of the liquor on sale.

The film also marks a return to action of the husband-wife duo of Pushkar and Gayathri, who were last seen in action with the forgettable Tamil film ‘Oram Po’ staring Aarya and Pooja in the lead.  From the looks of it, it looks like the duo has a winner on its hands!

Ratha Sarithiram: Doubtful entrant 
The Suriya-starrer ‘Ratha Sarithiram’, which has been made in three languages viz., Tamil, Telugu and Hindi by mercurial film-maker Ram Gopal Verma (RGV), has already been released in its Hindi and Telugu version.  Not unexpectedly, the film has raised quite a hue and cry in Andhra Pradesh and in the rest of the country over some of the ‘controversial sequences’ in it.

The Telugu version, which reportedly has some sequences demeaning former chief minister of the State (N.T. Rama Rao, who is still revered as a ‘God’ in many parts of the State), has been facing stiff opposition from the people.  Suriya, the lead actor, has himself gone on record saying that the film can’t be watched by ‘women and children’ for the overtly violent sequences in it.

As the film stars Vivek Oberoi, who had been to Sri Lanka despite Kollywood industry’s diktat not to go there to attend the IIFA awards ceremony in June, it faces ban in Tamil Nadu and can’t be released here.  Cleverly, Suriya has entrusted the job of releasing the film to Durai Dayanidhi (grandson of Kalaignar), who wields considerable ‘political clout’.  Our own Priyamani plays a significant role in the film.

At the audio launch of the film, Maniratnam said that RGV still appeared to be sticking to his ‘old style’ of depicting violence and ‘anger’ as it exists in real life.  A.R. Murugadoss, in a statement which left many confused, said that RGV’s ‘Udhayam’ (which released in the late eighties) actually ‘created’ many rowdies in Tamil Nadu.

We can comment on it only after watching the Tamil preview, isn’t it?