The third test between England and South Africa went underway yesterday at Birmingham. England won the toss and elected to bat first. South African bowlers took advantage of the first day conditions and never let England get away. None of the batsmen except for Cook and Bell could really make an impact on the scoreboard. Both Cook and Bell scored half centuries and took their team to a respectable total of 231. South African bowlers made merry with Nel and Kallis getting three each, while Ntini picked up two. South Africa came out to bat and ended the day at 38 for 1. Captain Graeme Smith was the only wicket to fall who was out to the bowling of Flintoff. Opener McKenzie and Night Watchman Paul Harris were in the crease at stumps.
Recently India has been taken aback by a series of blasts. The first of the blasts took place in Bangalore. A series of six blasts took place. All the bombs were low intensity bombs and it was thought that the bombs were mainly to give a warning message. Then as many as 16 blasts took place in Ahmedabad. Now things became serious and all the major cities were put on a red alert. Every major place in the city was thoroughly checked. A few days later live bombs were diffused in Jharkand as well as the Surat area. It has been suspected that the bomb hunts were following a route called "BACK",Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kolkatha. So every person is asked by the government to stay away from public places and there is heavy cheking throughout the country.
The year 2007 saw many good Tamil films and saw films of different genre dominating the box office. One film which had a great impact on the box office was Paruthiveeran. Paruthiveeran deservedly won a lot of accolades at the Filmfare. Ameer won the best director award. Best actor and actress went to Karthi and Priya Mani. Best supporting actor and actress also went to Saravanan and Sujatha from the Paruthiveeran crew. KV Anand won the best cameraman for Sivaji while Rahman won the best music director for Sivaji. Pa. Vijay won the best Lyricist award for Unnale Unnale while SPB won the best male play back singer for his song in Mozhi. Sadhana Sargam won the best female singer for Kreedom. Veteran actor Sivakumar and Jayapradha were presented with the lifetime achievement awards at the function.
The much awaited day in politics had finally ended, but this will go down as one of the black days in Indian politics. UPA goverment wins but there were many instances when the parliament was adjourned or postponed. There was misbehaviour from the MP's of both the parties. The main aim of the discussion was the Nuke deal but the opposition party seemed to be targetting individuals rather than general issues. Moreover, first time in the history of Indian politics did money actually come into picture. One BJP candidate actually claimed that he had been offered money by the opposiion camp. He brought a bag of money into the parliament and show cased it in front of the bench as well as the camera. The BJP candidate also claimed that 2 others were approached apart from him. This was a big issue and couldn't have been handled in a fair motive.
Gopika who made her mark in Kollywood with films like Autograph, Emtan Magan, etc. is all set to tie the knot. She was engaged to Ajilesh, who is an NRI doctor. The engagement took place on the 13th of July. The marriage ceremony took place according to the Christian customs at Ernakulam Kothamangalam Marthoma Church yesterday (17-July-2008) amidst close family and friends.A greand reception will be held at the Avenue centre, which is a five star hotel in Ernakulam on the 20th of July. Many film personalities from Tamil as well as the Malayalam industry are expected to attend the reception.
Silambarasan keeps finding the new comers as his heroines. This time it is Sarath's daughter Varalakhsmi. The Simbu starrer Pooda Poodi will see Sarath's daughter Varalakshmi pairing opposite to Simbu. Varalakshmi holds a post graduation in Business Management from Edinburgh University and took formal training in acting from the Anupam Kher School of acting in Mumbai.She is also a trained ballet and Salsa dancer. Since this is her debut film all eyes will be on her. The film is directed by Vigeshsiva and produced by Shanaya Tele films Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai in association with Gemini Film Circuit.
Whenever any movie has AR Rahman as the music director, there is always great expectations for the music of the movie. There is a small complaint on the part of Rahman that he is recently doing only commercial movies in Tamil. His latest Tamil release is Sakarakatti. This movie has Bhagyaraj's son Shantanu in the lead role. The music has been released on the 11th of July and is already topping the charts. Taxi and Elay are rocking numbers which have a great western feel. It is suspected that Taxi will be the song of the year. Marudhaani is a great melody number. I miss you da is one of the products of Rahman's experimentation. The other two tracks Chinnama and Naan eppodu are the songs from the Hindi album of Rahman, Meenaxi. However a rocking album by Rahman setting some changes in the music charts.
Indian batsmen fail yet again in the final. India were set a target of 273 by the Sri Lankans. Seeing the trend of the series the target was achievable. However there was one man between India and the Asia Cup. The debutant in the series Ajantha Mendis was the hero for the Lankans. He cleaned up the Indian batting line up as he picked up 6 wickets in the match. None of the Indian batsmen could read him. He deservedly bagged the man of the match and the Lankans lifted the Asia Cup in rejoice. This makes the forthcoming Test series interesting.It will be indeed interesting to see how the likes of Sachin, Saurav, Dravid and Laxman play Mendis and Murali.
Recently the audio launch of Saroja took place and many stars including Ameer and Rahman were present for the lauch. After Rahman had left the venue, Ameer took the mike to address the gathering.While speaking at the function he pointed out that Rahman preferred only commercial films and was avoiding emotion-oriented movies of late. He also raised the complaint that Rahman was not ready to compose music for budding directors and composed music only for experienced directors. Will Rahman respond to all these questions? Lets wait and see.
Simran has turned the tides towards her after her entry into TV Serials. Recently her Simran Thirai which is being telecasted from Monday to Friday at 8.30 in Jaya TV has made her popular yet again. She has broken the record of Kamal. Kamal had recently played 10 roles in Dasavatharam. Simran is all set to play fourteen roles in her TV serial Simran Thirai. The title of the story is Navavalli. Navavalli is based on Hindu mythology and Simran plays Amman who is incarnated in many roles. Simran’s roles include, among many others, a florist, snake charmer, astrologer, old woman, auto driver, servant maid, nurse, and a disciple girl. It will be indeed interesting to note how Simran handles all the roles.