VOL 01ISSUE 0815-28 FEBRUARY 2013FORTNIGHTLYFREERNI - TNENG05547 / 22 / 1 / 2012-TC

Traditionally charming looks, Lydia loves sarees and enjoys being in front of the camera. A film technician by training, she became an actress by accident. Read more to find out.

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SPOTLIGHT

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WTF FAMESUPER-HIT MOVIE! BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR! Movie makers running their own board and award functions? Here's a look at Tamil movie posters that seem to go beyond reasoning.

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http://www.facebook.com/WtfWhatTheyFeel

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WTF conceptualised byRohit Ramesh (CEO)

Editor-in-chiefLisa Marie

Art Director

Director of Operations & Chief Circulations OfficerNitin Edida

Students coordinatorsSanthanaNihal Kukreja

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It’s time to tell them to WTF!Some stories need to be told and there is always truth behind rumours, some fire behind the smoke!

This issue of WTF we take you through an illustrative journey of some high profile scandals and some not so much. From sports-persons to students, there is always some illicit affair that spurs, some lines that get blurred, some promises that are bro-ken. We give you an expose of one such high-profile affair that did not make it to media, Chennai’s very own secret. After the success of our previ-ous Vishwaroopam Special issue we decided to give you another exciting issue that appeals to you with colour-ful zing and edge. Tell us what you thought of the graphical presentation of the cover story.

WTF FAME, also features two very exciting pieces, one a review of Oscar nominated, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and other a look at Tamil movie posters that are getting preposterous by the day, making tall claims that are hardly ever true. Did you enjoy the special viewing of Vishwaroopam we organ-ised for you? Tell us if there is some other movie you would like to watch, we will make it happen!

Editor-in-Chief

It’s a lazy Saturday afternoon, I got a pint or two or four, I have lost count. I decided to give this writing thing a shot

for WTF. What a funny name, what were they thinking? I love it though. It’s no non-sense. I don’t know how to make this inter-esting. I have never thought of myself as very interesting, but I know that I want to do something different with my life. I am not going to be an engineer or doctor, this arts degree is just going to make my life open, I want to show them that creativity is not dead in this world.

Sure it does not pay but I won’t be a corpo-rate sell out, f*&k that shit. I want to make

When did you start performing magic?

I started when I was 7. Basical-ly, my father is a magician and thus out of curiosity I asked him to teach me. I gave my first per-formance when I was in standard five, on a Children’s day program at Bharath Matriculation. Fol-lowing that, I started performing at various family functions and other similar get-together. Gradu-ally, event organizers spotted my talent and thus my professional show started happening.

Apart from your father, where else did you learn magic?

My dad is so far my only teach-er. These days, a lot of videos are available online for expert level training. I also read a lot of books and perform tricks from them.

Please tell us about some of your special magic tricks.

Magicians generally do not talk while performing tricks. But my uniqueness is that I talk a lot!

Apart from that, in terms of magic, I always enter using a stilt, the long sticks. I use knives and cut my hands, let the blood flow out! I ride a men’s bike blind-folded.

Can you recall some memorable achievements?

I won the Tamil Nadu outstand-ing young girl magician award called the ‘Bala Swarna Jwala’ award from the hands of the TN Governor in 2007.

I recently performed at a show in Kuwait. I have performed at various corporates like Britannia, TVS and many schools across Chennai.

What are the different kinds of magic that you perform?

There are 3 kinds of magic: Conjuring, illusion and close-up magic. I perform the first two. Con-juring includes the basic flower/paper magic tricks and illusion re-quires a larger space to perform.

How do you balance between studies and your shows?

I perform and practice for shows only during the weekends. So, there is not much of trouble balancing the two.

How is the future for independent magicians in the country?

Experts like P.C. Sorcar are well established and hence have tak-en up magic as full time career. I will definitely not take up magic as a full time career, as I cannot earn a living out of it. I will work during weekends and pursue this as a hobby.

Any restrictions for women magi-cians?

I do not find anything in par-ticular. It is just that women magi-cians in general are a rarity!

a mark for myself through writing, poetry or maybe even acting. I am

not sure yet but I know I don’t want a 9 to 5 job where I have no meaning

or direction in life. I know I don’t want to have my life planned out for me. I am sick of people telling me how to live my life. I am sick of being told that money is every-thing, well it may be everything but there is not just one way to get it. What if the world was filled with only doctors and en-gineers then we would be just be clones of each other. Mechanical beings with no heart or soul. Like being in Tron Legacy or some video game. I refuse to do that be part of some chase or game.

I feel like waking up every morning and doing something that really makes me feel. I can’t put on a suit everyday and be that good son and just do as I am told. If I did that I would not be living.

Gaurav

Ever wondered why

you get philosophical when inebriated and are under

the influence, its because our guards are down and our creative juices are

flowing. We spend our sober days being exactly what we’re told to be and then that

moment when our lips kiss a cold chill glass of elixir it realises none of this really matters. WTF-Guzzlers Cue is your chance to find out

if there are things inside of you that needs a little nudge, a little liquid courage to get things going. Come grab a drink with us

and we will let you express yourself in words to share with others who

may find some earth-shattering gyaan or well maybe just

plain funny!

cueGuzzler’sz

Look where a pintor two, can take you

“Magicmade mebold”

A one-of-its-kind college fest with a social cause

Ignite 2k13, the annual inter-collegiate dance event hosted

by the Students’ Union of Loyola College aims to bring together

the best talent from colleges across the country to battle it out on one stage. Cash prizes worth Rs.1,00,000 are awarded to the

top three ranking teams. The proceedings from this event goes

towards a social cause. This mega event which is entering the 6th

edition of its kind is received with a large populace comprising of

city college students,parents,well-wishers and members of the press

and media. Ignite over the years has witnessed the presence and support of celebrities including -

Vijay, Surya, Vikram, Anirudh, Sibi-raj, ‘Jeyam’ Ravi, Parthiban, Vivek and many more from the world of Tamil cinema. The online photog-raphy contest is a new attraction

to the event. Exciting prizes await college students who participate in the event by posting photographs

on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/ignite2k13. Ignite 2k13 is scheduled to be held on

the 5th of March at 6pm in Music Academy with tickets priced at

Rs.200. Teams can register on the Loyola Students’ Union website www.loyolastudentsunion.com/

ignite-2013 . Donor passes worth Rs.2500 are also available. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to be

a part of this power packed show.For tickets contact

Sibi Chakravarthy- 99623 44393

WTF DON’T

MISS EVENTS

Get your game face on and be at these events.

Packed with oodles of fun, exhilaration and entertain-

ment, these are the places to be at this season

In conversation with Srinidhi Vasudevan, magician

Deeptha Sreedhar

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They hide behind a cloak of lies, deceit and falsehood. But ever so often, the truth slips out, an sms, email or trusted friend,

leaks the truth. Exposes the reality. We look at instances where the public remained unaware of the truth.

SPORTS:Everyone knows about this story of deceit but no one really talks about it. WTF decided its time to get this out in the open. We got some crucial information and we want to share it with our student community. Two sports persons belonging to India’s most loved sport are part of one of the most scandalous and twisted stories of all time! Blue guy and Yellow guy were best friends, they did ev-erything together and always hung out. Blue guy got married to a family friend, lovely girl Nikki, she was loved by all the team members. The team would hang out in Blue guy’s house a lot. They would do sheesha, drink and chill out, they also did trips together and during this time, Nikki got close to the Yellow guy. Yellow guy has quite the reputation, he is known to be player. Soon, Nikki and him started having an affair. But the sad thing was everyone knew except the husband, the Blue guy. Trust is such an important thing! The Blue guy really trusted his best friend the Yellow guy. But one day he found an email from the Yellow guy with explicit information linking the two. He was furious. To make things worse, after sometime he found out that his wife was pregnant! Pregnant with his child? Yes, he was sure of it. He was out partying when he heard the news, he and his wife and not met eye to eye in a long time. He was sure of it and soon he decided it was enough, he called quits and divorced her.The team is known to have picked sides for the longest time, some supporting the Blue guy some supporting the Yellow guy. It really messed up the equation!

Yellow guy and Nikki are known to still live in the city togeth-er. But the worst news we got is that, he is still fooling around. He has not learn’t his lesson. Karma is a bitch! It will bite him back sometime, bite hard!

CLASSROOM: Leading engineering college in the city has a professor that likes a certain someone in her class. She is rude to him in front of other students but outside she calls him, sends him text msgs and asks him to come on trips with her. The student is also enjoying the attention and is boasting to his friends that he is going to ace her paper without having to write the exam. He is also telling students intimate details about her marriage and her husband like how she is unsatisfied with him and is seeking pleasure elsewhere.

Cartoon strip of teacher with a red rose and jasmine(must have she wears it everyday to college it seems) texting her student- Why don’t you come home, my husband is out of town for the weekend. We can work on getting your grades better.

CINEWORLDCartoon strip of hot actress stepping out of her car surrounded by press people questioning her about her latest love affairYou can have several voice bubbles-NO COMMENTS...He is just a friend. We were meeting regarding our next movie its not a date. He is like my younger brother.Her thought bubble says- But he gives the worlds best foot rub and more. Similarly hot actor says- NO she is just a sweet girl, we get along really well. She is a very talented actress.But he is really just thinking about her in bed so his thought bubble can say- And is great in bed.

BACK

STABBED!

ILLUSTRATION: PETER GOLTI

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Zero DARK THIRTY

MISLEADING MOVIE POSTERS

Zero Dark Thirty starts earnest enough with more sounds and little sights of 9/11 and its aftermath. The search for perpetrators of widespread terrorism started then and

specifically the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, that this film primarily deals with. The rest of the film may not come across as impassioned and is mostly a mechanical depiction of the detainee program and the clues that led the US to Osama Bin Laden. That’s where the film enters documen-tary territory and its mess of moral problems.

Jessica Chastain plays the role of a CIA officer, part of the investigations in Pakistan. The verac-ity of such a character (in the real investigations behind Osama Bin Laden search) is in question and her name probably alludes to that - Maya. Maya is first shown mildly flinching when her col-league Dan interrogates a detainee, Ammar in ways that were then described as enhanced inter-rogation techniques. This is probably the slightest of remorse shown to be felt by anyone on the US side of affairs in the whole film. Maya comes to terms with it, albeit unconvincingly and quickly to hold her own interrogations once Dan leaves the scene. It doesn’t help that we jump between timelines and are never sure what year it is. There is little in terms of any introspection the characters go through in effect of this beyond stressful actions on their part. It is always fine to give only one side of the story. Steven Spielberg’s Munich did ex-actly that, showing us the Mossad side of events

but it wasn’t one-dimensional like Zero Dark Thirty. It delved into the effects of

the agents’ actions, their fear

and how it impacts personal lives. The film may do a bit of US chest beating but it tries to be as less dramatic about it as possible. That’s one of the good things. We never see an Obama on the screen (except for single news footage on tv). Nor are we shown Osama Bin Laden clearly before his death or after. It’s all kept vague so as to sug-gest the real and more authentic representation of events can never be filmed. The final 20 minutes or so are breathtaking with the Navy SEALs clini-cally going about their business of storming the household in search of Bin Laden. Here is where Kathreyn Bigelow establishes she works better on the field with the army men, bringing those deft touches that she showed throughout The Hurt Locker in building up the adrenaline. In contrast, is the ridiculously staged sequence where Maya’s colleague is looking forward to an Al-Qaeda in-formant in Camp Chapman. The scene is predict-able from the beginning but it also tries too hard to be and too long drawn out to make any real impact.

Zero Dark Thirty’s flagship is the final shootout. In its attempt to showcase that, the film gives a half-hearted account of the entire investigation leaving a lot of moral questions in its wake. If not for its political nature and events affect-ing the entire world, lending it an automat-ic credibility, this wouldn’t have made it to the Academy nominations in any form.

Adithya Shrikrishna

C I N E M A S H A K E N A N D S T I R R E D

“The film may do a bit of US chest beat-ing but it tries

to be as less dra-matic about it as possible.

Heroic, suspense, intensity, gran-

deur, glamour these are some of

the emotions that are generally

expressed in movie posters. What hap-

pens when two or more of these emo-

tions are mixed? Will it be funny? Ex-

actly! Even though some movies claim

to be a laugh riot, they disappoint us

often. At times it makes a movie buff

wonder that the posters are funnier

than the actual movies!

Kollywood is known for idolizing its he-

roes. But sadly, along with the process

of idolizing, the audience compromise

on logic. For instance, army personnel

can sport a moustache and unshaven

look and still the diehard fans would

convince the not-so fancy fans that the

hero is on a vacation! In certain other

cases we spot the heroes with multiple

heroines and looks. It makes us won-

der if it is the same film or multiple films

of the same hero. You guessed it right. I

am referring to Alex Pandian, the Pon-

gal release that sank without a trace.

You might have heard of stars pro-

moting a cause, but the other Pon-

gal release starring Vishal and Trisha

seemed to promote coolers. Although

the title is supposed to mean war or

warrior, the poster hardly had any

signs of the hero struggling with any-

thing/anyone. Movies claim that they

are a huge success within a week of

its release. Some movies however are

a step ahead by making posters which

tell us that the songs are a big hit on

the day of its launch! Kanna music ket-

ka aasaya?

Soon to release movie Singam 2 is the

latest movie to join the bandwagon of

films that have intriguing posters. One

of its posters carried a tagline that says

“An Indian Police”. On looking at it, a

friend of mine retorted, “Was the hero

previously working with the FBI?” Valid

Question, said I. Re-making cult mov-

ies, using yesteryear titles are quite

common in Tamil Cinema. But a recent

trend includes remixing of posters.

Because they title a movie with a cou-

ple of character names of Superstar,

the crew thought that they should use

his iconic pose as well! Rattling your

mind for the movie name? It’s Kedi

Billa Killadi Ranga.

The above mentioned films aren’t the

only ones that provide comic relief

through posters. It is just that they were

recently released/ going to release

movies! Thanks to all leading dailies,

long walls of successful offices and

thousands of other poster walls that

helped us research about the topic!

Deeptha Sreedhar

A look at how Tamil movie posters are making tall claims,

from being Tom Cruise-level awe-

some to being a hit within a week of

their release.

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SPOTLIGHT

Owned and published by Rohit Ramesh, Old no. 7, New no. 15, Parthasarathy Gardens, Alwarpet, Chennai 600018. Editor-in-chief: Lisa Marie. RNI - TNENG05547 / 22 / 1 / 2012-TC

How did you get into modeling?I was studying to be in the film industry as a Technician at ICAT. But when I was there students who were involved in projects for film making and short films they needed female actors and since the college had very few they used to ask me. I finally started liking the expe-rience of being in front of the camera. I have acted for Director Rathi Bala in the Tamil serial Uyirey Thedi.

How did you move from modeling to becoming an actor?In college I worked with director Prab-hu, he is today a very famous ad film maker, he is the one who really made me an actor. Director Prabhu was the first person to put me in front of the camera. Also, Photographer Nandaku-mar helped to being me inside the film industry because he took my profession-al photographs and showed to people in the industry and got many opportu-nities.

What other projects have you been

part of recently?I worked with Vikadan Production in a serial called Azighi, my character was called Apsara and I have also done a lot of modeling projects for brands like Vivel and magazines like Picture Perfect. My next movie is called Deal, where I play a character called Kalpana.

What is your favourite memory as an actor?It has to be my first outdoor shoot at Kodaikanal. We had to be inside the forest for one whole week without a proper production team and no cara-vans. It was just great to be like one big family on the sets.

Who would you like to walk the ramp for in India?I would love to do a campaign with Kalyan Silks, they are great. I love traditional clothes like sarees and they have the best. I would love to wear their sarees.

Meet Ammu Lydia Paul (Screen name Ammu), an actress and model, she loves outdoor shoots and

being dressed in traditional outfits.

Photo: Ashish Jha, Arthita Photography