Hello guys!
I am a very favoutite fan of Tamil comedy hero's such as Bhagyaraj, Pandiyarajan and Parthibhan.
Bhagyaraj : The first comedy hero in Tamil films. Who can forget his films such as Mundani mudichi, Pudiya varpugal, chinna veedu, Aararo ariraro,rasukutty etc..

Pandiyarajan : His films Aaan Paavam, Gopala Gopala etc.. were the best.

Pathibhan : Comdey , Sentimental and Double meaning King. Who could forget pudiya paathai , sarigamapathani etc..

Not to offend anyone, but the best of hindi comedy films that i have seen are in NO comparision to the films made by these great comedy hero's. Anil Kapoor has acted in most remakes of Bhagyaraj films and he stands no where near to Bhagyara's timing jokes and his inncocent face.

Sankaracharya and JRF-> I need your thoughts and views regarding these icons..

TK
Disclaimer : Just my views. I attempt to insult or degrade no one. I acknowledge that Rajinikanth has acted in many amithab's remakes and it was super hit in Tamil. I am not suggesting that one is better than the other. It is maybe that i know Tamil and not Hindi taht made me enjoy tamil films more. i may also have a cultural difference between south and north india. The last tamil comedy movie that i watched was in 1998. A lot might have changed since then to the comedy senario across the country.

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

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Not to offend anyone, but the best of hindi comedy films that i have seen are in NO comparision to the films made by these great comedy hero's.

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Anil Kapoor has acted in most remakes of Bhagyaraj films and he stands no where near to Bhagyara's timing jokes and his inncocent face.

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Disclaimer : Just my views. I attempt to insult or degrade no one. I acknowledge that Rajinikanth has acted in many amithab's remakes and it was super hit in Tamil.

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HEllo!
I am sure that Rajinikanth is the undisputed Tamil super star to the Tamils. The main reason why so many Tamilians like him is b'cos of his style, timing jokes and maturity. Of course some of his movies have been total flops but there are best ones too like :
16 vayathinile, mullum malarum, 6 il irunthu aruvathu varai, thillu mullu, mannan, basha, muthu , etc..
He is my best superstar and i have seen none like him.
TK
Disclaimer : Just my views

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

I'm a movie buff and I've been watching all types of movies since 1970's. Today my personal collection of DVD's in all languages cross 250.

I've lived in Chennai, Mumbai and Los Angeles. As a student in the graduate school at University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA which has a strong movie school, I got the opportunity of watching many movies prior to release from big studios in Hollywood,as they would like to make changes prior to release to general public. One of these movies was Pretty Woman.

The biggest difference I find between Hollywood & Bollywood is the Story. In India movies are made with story written on the set. The stars are fixed and the story is written fitting the stars name and fame. While in Hollywood a complete story, with scene by scene narrative with picture frame boards are ready before the movie is made. They spend 2 to 3 years working on the story while they spend about 90 days making the movie. In Bollywood they spend 2 days writing the story and spend 3 years making the movie.

In India Stars have ruled the roost. The names like Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bhachan have been stars. They are good actors but are not the best. If somebody wants to see how a better actor Dilip Kumar was you should see a movie called Shakti( a remake of a tamil movie starring Shivaji Ganesan) which had Dilip Kumar play Sivajis role. In many scenes you would find how a controlled Dilip Kumar acts better than a high volume Amitabh. Again if you want to compare Amitabh in Agnipath, please see Scarface by Al Pacino. You'll find how he has copied the body language, dialogue delivery and many other from Al. Great Actors in Hollywood in the current crop include Al Pacino, Robert Deniro, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson to name a few. While stars are like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Rusell Crow and Mel Gibson. In India great actors were few but really good and to a name a few are Sanjeev Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Naseerudin Shah, Nana Patekar and the new guy whose name I think is Atul Kulkarni. In other languages we had Sivaji Ganesan, Kamal Hassan, Mohan Lal to name a few.

The role which Bhagyaraj has played in India cinema is unparalleled. He brought the concept of Screen Play to the Indian cinema. Most of his movies have been made in Hindi, and many were hits too. This includes wo Saat Din, Masterji , Andha Kanoon to name a few. There are only a few good screen play writers in the Indian cinema like Bhagyaraj.The movies like Chupke Chupke, Golmaal, Khatta Meetha, Shaukeen, Angoor and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Chashme Baddoor & Katha were made by people like Sai Paranjpaye and others in 1970-80's and were called parallel cinema. Most of these movies have been again inspired by English movies. While Chashme Baddoor or Katha have their originality in terms of simple Amar Chitra Katha tales like Hare and the Tortoise. All these movies have been remade in Tamil and most have been super hit in tamil also. The movie Gol maal was remade as Thillu Mullu. All of Amitabh superhits have been remade by Rajnikanth which includes thillu mullu, mannan, basha,. The only movies he did not remake were after Batcha. His Annamalai was a remake of Ajay Devgans movie.

The biggest copy cat of Indian movies is Mani Ratnam. Except his first movie Mouna Ragangal the rest all have been \\\"Inspired\\\" by foreign movies. His thalapati was inspired the Japanese great Akiro Kurusawa. His latest movie called Yuva was inspired by a french movie which gets shown on our own CBC periodically.

Some of the best comedies in Tamil were made by a great director called Bhim Singh in 1960-70's and later by K.Balachander in 1970-80's. Later Bhagyaraj brought in Screen Play concept which is still to be surpassed by anybody else.The best comedy movie made in tamil to date is \\\"Thillana Mohanambal\\\".
If people want to see some classic english director for eg: you could see the direction of Stanley Kuberick. His version of Stephen Kings \\\"The Shining\\\" is unmatchable. You could see God Father Part I, Street Car named Desire or The Last Tango in Paris and see what a great actor Marlon Brando was in those roles.

The reason why Tamils/Telugus/Malayalees/Kannadigas and Japanese love Rajnikanth is that he is Giant Shopping Mall and he caters to all classes of audience. In todays situation Amitabh is the best dresser in the Indian movies with his Armani Suites, Gucci Shoes and Yves Saint Laurent dresses. Try Amitabh in a village role, his UP dialect will be perfect, but his hair style would be the same. Just check out his Aaj Ka Arjun or Mr.Natwarlal. While Rajnikanth will dress like a guy from the village and people will be able to copy him.

I'm currently watching two movies The Forty Year old Virgin and the other Capote.

It is still 6 months for citizenship application and need to pass time doing these labor jobs and the only thing I can request is \"Jaane Bhi Do Yaroo\".

Happy Movie Watching !

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"

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Originally posted by shankaracharya

If somebody wants to see how a better actor Dilip Kumar was you should see a movie called Shakti( a remake of a tamil movie starring Shivaji Ganesan) which had Dilip Kumar play Sivajis role. In many scenes you would find how a controlled Dilip Kumar acts better than a high volume Amitabh.

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Whoooa.!!! this is my favorite subject.
TK, just hang in there.. I am going through some tight schedule.. I take a rain check to revisit this thread and write a good one.
I have a lot of movies/stars to comment about including a lot..

Not specific to serious movies, I feel every actor has done some movies which are unique.
I can never compare who is good, who is bad, best etc.., but every actor/director has
his own talent to impress.

I am one very strong movie buff who watches movies from several languages including English, Tamil, Hindi, Russian, French, Italian (ofcourse with subtitles and CC...),

Al Pacino (Scarface, Insomnia).
Robert De Niro (Untouchables, Heat, The Boys life).
Di Caprio (Catch me if you can)
Tom Hanks (Terminal).
Mel Gibson (Ransom).
Marlon Brando (God Father).
Denzel Washington (Crimson tide, Bone collector, Training Day).
Jude Law (Cold Mountain).
Bruce Willis (Fox).
Roberto Beninji (Life is beautiful)
Adrian Brody (The Pianist).
Edward Norton (Primal Fear, Score).
Michael Douglas (Falling Down).
Ben Aflac (Changing Lines).
Kevin Spacey (American Beauty)
Spielberg (The Duel).
Russel Crowe (The Insider, well his role is better compared to beautiful mind if you take a realistic look).
Tom Cruise (The Firm).
Adam Sandler (Spanglish).
Jack Nicholson (About Schmidt, As good as it gets).
Steve Martin (Father of the Bride).
George Clooney (One Fine day, Perfect Storm).
Keifer Sutherland (Phone Booth)
Mathew Maconohay (A time to kill).
Gene Hackman (Crimson Tide).
Robert Patrick (Terminator II).
Dustin Hoffman (The outbreak).

A lot more about actresses
Nicole Kidman (others).
Melene Griffith,
Rene Zellwager
Helen Hunt
Julia Roberts.


Tamil
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Gulebagavali (Only MGR Movie I like)
Padikkadha Medhai
Motor Sundaram Pillai
Kadhalikka Neramillai
A lot .. A lot..


Hindi
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Recent movies
The D
Pinjar
Satya (the best movie from Ram Gopal Varma).
Amar Akbar Antony
A lot....A lot..

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The cowards never started,
The weak died on the way,
Only the strong arrived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yK1i9cLAMM

Good discussion Shankaracharya.


I do not have favourite actors but just favourite performances. I think actors like all of us have their ups and downs and so an actor may be good in one film but superlative in another.

My top 10 Hollywood performances (in no partcular order) are:


Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman (esp the last scene in the school auditorium)


Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men (the scene which stands out is one where Cruise and Moore go to meet him at the base and Cruise asks him for the landing papers)


Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men (The scene where he calls Moore among the "galactically stupid"


Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny (too bad we don't see more of him)


Tom Hanks in the Green Mile (Which other actor can pull off a southern accent like he can)


Robert Redford in Indecent Proposal (Nobody else can pull off a charming villain like he can)

Edward Norton in Primal Fear. (The scene in the jail where he suddenly transforms to aggressive behaviour)


Demi Moore in Ghost (That haunting look in the Elvis Presley song "I've hungered for your touch"


Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura Pet Detective (the scene where he does the reverse scene - )


Micheal Douglas in Wall Street.



There are probably many others which I liked but these stand out above all others.

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I have only 2 cents to contribute, not a cent more, not a cent less ;-)