{mosimage}This weekend when merrily watching the old hits (not B/W but of 7-8 years old) in Surya TV, the collection had more of Shalini's songs - i.e Mrs. Ajith Kumar. At that time I was a crazy crazy....crazy about her, especially with the movies she had done in Malayalam. Not many knew that she did more Malayalam movies than Tamil movies and loved to do movies in Gods Own Contry then. There were gossips romantically linking her with on screen hero Kunchacko Boban (God, then I wished the rumours should turn TRUE, such a beautiful pairing) but she seemed never to care about it. I wanted to write about the co-incidence in her debut and last movies.

{mosimage}இது சுஜாதா எழுதிய 'அனிதாவின் காதல்கள்'ஐ விட சுவாரசியமானது. பரபரப்பும் மீரா ஜாஸ்மினும் இரட்டை பிறவிகள். மீராவின் நடிப்புத்திறமையைவிட அந்தரங்க வாழ்க்கையே அதிகம் விவாதிக்கப்பட்டது. பல நேரங்களில் மீராவே இந்த சர்ச்சைகளுக்கு தீனிபோட்டதாகவும் கிசுகிசுக்கப்படுவதுண்டு. 'சூத்ரதாரன்' படம் மூலம் மலையாளத்தில் லோகிததாஸ் அறிமுகம் செய்த இந்த நடிப்பு புயலுக்கு பெரிதாக எதிர்பார்ப்பு இருந்தது. இதே லோகிததாஸ் அறிமுகம் செய்த மஞ்சு வாரியர் மலையாள திரையுலகின் இளவரசியாக வலம் வந்ததும், சத்யன் அந்திகாடுடன் இணைந்து அறிமுகம் செய்த சம்யுக்தா வர்மா கோலோச்சியதும், அதே இயக்குனரின் அறிமுகம் என்பது மட்டுமல்ல இந்த எதிர்பார்ப்பின் காரணம். அறிமுகமாகும் ஃபாசிலின் மகனோடு நடிக்க ஃபாசில் மீராவை அணுகியதாகவும், அதற்கு மீரா அவரிடமே கதை கேட்டதாகவும் மலையாள பத்திரிகைகள் எழுதியது. அதே சமயம் அனைத்து மலையாள பத்திரிகைகளுக்கும் ஒரு தபால் கார்டில் 'குறிப்பிட்ட தினத்தன்று மேற்படி ஹோட்டலில் லோகிததாஸ்' உடன் மீரா இருந்ததாகவும், வேண்டுமானால் சோதித்துக்கொள்ளுங்கள் என்று செய்தி வந்தது. இது போதாதா மஞ்சள் பத்திரிகைகளுக்கு. இதை அனுப்பியது மீராவின் முதல் காதலன் என்றும், மீரா ஜாஸ்மின் நடிப்பது பிடிக்காததால் செய்ததாக சொல்லப்பட்டது.

{mosimage}Everybody tears the calendar leaves in forward direction while some do it in the reverse fashion. They get better and beautiful with the passage of time. They win over the time as it couldn't leave any impact over them physically. Cute, petite Bhumika a.k.a Bhumika Chawla in Bollywood is one such person who grows in reverse fashion. I liked her in Telugu movies but didn't have much of opinion about her until I rediscovered her in "Sillunnu Oru Kadhal / Nuvvu Nenu Prema". I should thank Asin for rediscovering Bhumika thatshe stepped in as a last minute replacement for Asin, who walked out saying that the role didn't enthuse her much. Admitted the role / character in the question has no great shakes, but Bhumika's charismatic presence made the role special. Sometimes we may keep seeing a person for long but one fine moment they look better we chose to like them more, Bhumika falls in the same category. Even though I had been seeing her for past 6 years, I fell in love with her after I saw "Sillunnu Oru Kadhal".

{mosimage}3 years old career, 19 movies, millions of fans but a fondful remeberance even after so many years ever since she quit, - this just summarises the immortality of Manju Warrier. The very mention of name itself lits up the malayalam movie goers across the world. Very few are blessed by the God to be respected and loved by the fans as if the artiste is their home member and Manju happens to be one among them. Manju Warrier is still a demi goddess when it comes to the Malayalam cinema, even though she never appeared on screen or even on TV after her self imposed retirement. Reams of papers had been written, millions of hearts stolen, yet nobody complained.

{mosimage}Some might have liked Padmapriya while some might have not, but this dusky beauty can't be ignored. Simple, the reason being she comes across as an actress who came to this medium with passion rather than being drafted into it. Else how can you term this actor who had not only done an MBA from Kirloskar Institute but also had worked with GE as Risk consultant in Bangalore & Gurgaon. It was that advertisement for Fair & Lovely what got us a lovely actress who graces the screens in Tamilnadu & Kerala. Asked about her unusual choice of choosing films as career despite having a wonderful management degree and a job at GE normally every youngster dreams for, Padmapriya retorts "why do we believe that education isn't reqd for films, its so complex to make films it covers math, physics philosophy history psyhology music dance"

{mosimage}Preetha was the first person to whom I commented about the new girl which Kerala media was raving as next Manju Warrier, the latest sensation Navya Nair. This happened about five years back at the time of her debut "Ishtam". It was the time the throne of Manju Warrier was vacant. Samyukta Varma was rapidly making strides yet that one milestone role was eluding her. The school girl Navya was refreshing but I said to Preetha that this girl is too ordinary looking and not with that magnetic appeal like Manju Warrier. An year later I saw the promos of "Nandhanam" and thought that this girl has something in her. Unfortunately "Nandhanam" despite carrying rave reviews was stuck in cans due to some problems. When finally "Nandhanam" was released, it was lapped up by the critics and masses instantly and I was clean bowled by the sweeping talent of Navya Nair.

{mosimage}Meera Jasmine:- Simply amazing in the movie, I loved her in the second half. Wish she had dubbed for herself, the dubbing didn't gel with the performance. (Somebody should ban Malayalam directors directing the Tamil versions of their movie, that naturality in original is missing). With her expressions changing in a fraction of second like laser strobes in a disco, Meera is definitely in the leagues of veterans like Savitri, Revathy, Shobana and Manju Warrier. This girl is doing a blunder. Rather than being extremely choosy about the roles, she should do more commercial movies to establish a commercial clout and use the same to carry off more heroine oriented movies. I feel the National award in the very second year of her career proved detrimental.

{mosimage}I just saw "Parineeta" and more than the movie I was impressed by the girl who carried the movie on her shoulders with style and grace - Vidya Balan. I am happy that this Tamil Brahmin girl from Ottappalam, Palakkad has got a big break atlast. Very few of you know that she was a jinx at south. Her first movie as Vidya Iyer, was in Malayalam with my favourite director Kamal's "Chakram" along with Mohanlal and Dileep. But midway through Kamal and Mohanlal had a fall out with the script and the project was shelved. Then Linguswamy spotted her and launched "Run" along with Madhavan. But destiny had other plans, she was dropped and Meera Jasmine was brought in.

When Sathyan Anthicaud introduced a new heroine opposite to Kunchacko Boban in his 2001 Vishu release "Narendran Magan Jayakanthan Vaga", he wouldn't have expected that he is going to contribute majorly to Tamil & Telugu cinema with his protegee. The cute starlet was Asin ( Jollu:- Asin means "impeccable", but logically she must have been named as Haseen, which means beautiful in Hindi), but it was Samyukta Varma with an author backed role of a village president who walked away with all accolades leaving Asin in despair. Fortunately metro brought up Asin was quick enough to realise that she has no place in Malayalam film industry where there is an unwritten law that the heroines must be too docile. Asin went on to do modelling for AVT Tea replacing Heera Rajagopal in "vaangittengala..vaangitteengala..?", Aircell and Hayagreeva Silks (How does he know that I like this colour?...... with Vijay Adhiraj).

Do you all remember a song "One plus one.." I was raving about, for that my sister had taken the revenge too.... hope you all remember it now. That movie called "Kasthurimaan" was released in Coimbatore after it finished its 100 days run in Kerala. Do you know what its posters read? Meera Jasmine's "Kastoorimaan". I can't stop feeling sorry for all the brains and hardwork that went behind the screen. What if the director happens to be the No.1 screenplay writer of Malayalam cinema & mentor of Meera Jasmine, what if the cameraman is "Minsara Kanavu" fame Venu, what if the editor happens to be the national award winner Sreekar Prasad, who cares two hoots for them... All we wanted is M..E..E..R..A, the one & only meera.