Jagadam
File:Jagadam poster.jpg
Directed by	Sukumar
Produced by	Aditya Babu
Written by	Sukumar
Starring	Ram Isha Sahani Pradeep Rawat Prakash Raj
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography	R. Rathnavelu
Editing by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Release date(s)	16 March 2007 (2007-03-16)
Country	‹See Tfd› India
Language	Telugu
Budget	14 crores
Box office	10 crores

Jagadam (Telugu: జగడం) is a 2007 Tollywood film in the direction of Sukumar (Arya fame). This film has Ram, Isha Sahani, Pradeep Rawat, and Prakash Raj in important roles. The film was produced by Aditya Babu. The film released on 16 March 2007.

Plot[link]

Seenu (Ram) enjoys fights right from his childhood. He appreciates violence. He wants to be like Manikyam (Pradeep Rawat), who was a goonda, as everyone, including his teacher, is afraid of him. When all the boys wanted to become doctors, engineers, lawyers and other professionals, Seenu wants to become a goonda. Though he behaves like a ruffian, he comes to know that one should have the support of a politician or a big dada. With the help of Laddu (A.S. Ravikumar Chowdary) an associate of Manikyam, Seenu meets the latter and joins his gang. At this juncture, Seenu falls in love with Subbalakshmi (Isha Sahani). As she pleads with Seenu to help her friend's father, Seenu agrees to settle a land deal. But the land was under illegal occupation of Manikyam's gang member.

As he promised to settle the deal, Seenu opposes Manikyam. This makes Seenu a hero, and he also starts doing settlements on his own. Once, Seenu agrees to help an industrialist, whose quarry was occupied by Yadav (Satya Prakash), with the support of Manikyam. As things go out of control, Seenu decides to kill Yadav.

However, he could not kill him but Seenu's young brother, who also likes fighting scenes, takes the gun and kills Yadav. Seenu appeals to the police commissioner (Prakash Raj) to mediate with Manikyam, but his men kill Seenu's brother. This irks Seenu who severely thrashes Manikyam, but spares him. Seenu realizes that violence is not the way to go. When Manikyam attacks him, he kills him in self-defense. The film ends on a happy note, with Seenu leaving all the dadagiri and leads a normal life.

Cast[link]

• Ram ... Seenu
• Isha Sahni ... Subbalakshmi
• Pradeep Rawat ... Manikyam
• Prakash Raj ... Police Officer (Guest role)
• A.S. Ravikumar Chowdary ... Laddu
• Satya Prakash ... Yadav
• Raghu Babu

Music[link]

The film has six songs composed by Devi Sri Prasad. Music got a good response from public.^[1]

• "Violence is a Fashion" - Devi Sri Prasad
• "5 Feet 8 Inches" - Tippu & Priya
• "36-24-36" - Mamta Mohandas
• "Everybody Rock Your Body" - Ranjith
• "Mu Mu Mudhante Chedha" - Raquib Alam
• "36-24-36 (Remix)" - Mamta Mohandas

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jagadam at the Internet Movie Database

Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati(Telugu: విజయలక్ష్మి వడ్లపతి), known popularly as Silk Smitha was an Indian film artiste who worked predominantly in the South Indian languages. She entered the film industry as an extra^[1] actress, and first got noticed for her role as "Silk" in the 1979 Tamil film Vandichakkaram. She became a sought-after 'erotic actress' in the 1980s and in a career spanning 17 years, she appeared in over 450 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages. On September 23, 1996, she was found dead in her apartment in Chennai, apparently having committed suicide.

Early life[link]

Vadlapati Vijayalakshmi was born in a poor family in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. She left school after her fourth standard (in India, at about 8 years of age) due to the family's financial constraints. Her striking looks burdened her with uninvited attention, and her family married her off at a very young age. When she was ill-treated by her husband and in-laws, she ran away to Madras (now known as Chennai) and started living with an aunt.^[2][3]

Career[link]

Vijayalakshmi started as a touch-up artist for a B-grade actor, and soon got a break in small character roles.^[2] Later she was discovered by Tamil director Vinu Chakravarthy at a flour mill. He renamed her Smitha, and took her under his wing: his wife taught her English, and arranged for her to learn dancing from another teacher.^[4] Smitha made her debut in the Malayalam film Inaye Thedi in 1979,^[5] though soon, due to her marked sex appeal, she switched to roles of cabaret dancers and vamps and inevitably found herself type casted.^[2] After garnering much notice and acclaim with her first major role in the Tamil film Vandichakkaram, in 1979, Smitha assumed the screen name "Silk", after her character's name in the movie.^[6][7] However after it became a big hit, she could not escape typecasting, severely limiting her range throughout her career.^[2]

Silk Smitha went on to star in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and a few Hindi films. Her dance numbers, semi-nude scenes and bold performances in films like Moondru Mugam made her the ultimate symbol of sensuality in South Indian cinema. Her item numbers in films like Amaran, Hallimeshtru Kannada were also celebrated at the box office. Some film critics, historians and journalists have referred to her as a "soft porn" actress.^[8] A vast majority of her movies are considered 'softcore' by Indian standards and a common theme is her playing a freakishly strong agent in skimpy bikinis beating up huge thugs. Her acting prowess did not go completely unnoticed and in her rare non-sexual roles, she impressed critics and audiences, such as her portrayal of a wife hurt by her husband's infidelity in Alaigal Oivathillai (1981).^[2] One of her films, Layanam (1989), has earned a cult status in the Indian adult film industry, and was dubbed in numerous languages including, Hindi as Reshma Ki Jawani (2002), which too acquired cult status.^[2][9] Her most respected film is Moondram Pirai by Balu Mahendra, remade in Hindi as Sadma, with much of the top-drawer cast, including Sridevi, Kamal Hassan, and Silk Smitha reprising their roles.^[10]

Such was her audience-drawing power that, at the peak of her career, according to Tamil film historian, Randor Guy, "Films that had lain in cans for years were sold by the simple addition of a Silk Smitha song.”.^[2]

Death[link]

In 1996, Smitha was found dead in her Chennai apartment. In the prior year she had been trying to move her career to become a film producer. Financial problems, a disillusionment in love and an alcohol dependency apparently led to depression. It is suspected that Smitha committed suicide by poisoning herself.

Legacy[link]

In 2011, a biopic on Silk Smitha's life, titled The Dirty Picture, was produced in Hindi by Ekta Kapoor. The movie was directed by Milan Luthria ^[11] and starred Vidya Balan (who later won Best Actress) as Smitha along with Emraan Hashmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Tusshar Kapoor. The movie was released on Smitha's birthday on December 2, 2011 and received favourable reviews.^[2][12] The same day, The Times of India published her top 10 movie scenes in its Top 10 videos.^[13]The Dirty Picture's Telugu dubbed version released in theatres across Andhra Pradesh has broken a 25-year record in box office collections (in dubbed films category). Reports suggest that the family of Silk Smitha, on whom the film is based, is not happy with the movie. Silk Smitha's brother V Naga Vara Prasad claimed the film was made without the family's consent.^[14]

Selected filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, Oxford University Press, 1994 (ISBN 0-85170-669-X)
• Roopa Swaminathan, Star Dust: Vignettes from the Fringes of the Film Industry, Penguin, 2004 (ISBN 0-14-303243-7)
• Suparna Bhaskaran, Made in India: Decolonizations, Queer Sexualities, Trans/National Projects, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 (ISBN 1-4039-6726-1)

External links[link]

• Silk Smitha at the Internet Movie Database

Shankar Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan at the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Night.
Background information
Born	(1967-03-03) March 3, 1967 (age 45) Chembur, Mumbai[1]
Genres	Indian music, playback singing, composer
Occupations	Singer, composer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1998–present
Associated acts	Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy
Notable instruments
Vocals and Veena

Shankar Mahadevan (Tamil: ஷங்கர் மகாதேவன்) is an Indian music composer and singer. He is a part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio team that composes for Indian films and a playback singer.

Early life[link]

Shankar Mahadevan was born and brought up in Chembur, a suburb of Mumbai,^[1] to a Tamil Iyer family from Palakkad, Kerala.^[2] He learned Hindustani classical music and Carnatic music in his childhood and started playing the veena at the age of five. He studied under Srinivas Khale, a well known Marathi music composer. He went to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School in Chembur. He subsequently attended SIES College in Sion and completed his HSC. He graduated in 1988 with a degree in Computer Science Engineering from Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology in Navi Mumbai under the auspices of Mumbai University. He worked as a software engineer on Oracle Version Six.

Career[link]

After working for a while for Leading Edge Systems, Shankar ventured into the field of music.^[3] He earned his first award as a playback singer in a Tamil movie, collaborating with A. R. Rahman and winning a National Film Award for his song in Kandukondain Kandukondain. A prominent star in the Kodambakkam film industry, he gained further recognition upon the release of his first music album, Breathless, in 1998. The title track of the album had been prepared in such a manner that it is sung without any break, so it appears to be sung in one breath and thus the title "breathless". He later got into music direction and became a part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio, composing music for Hindi films.

He has sung in many films for A. R. Rahman, Anu Malik and other music directors, performing songs like "Urvashi Take It Easy" from Humse Hai Muqabla (1995), "I Love You" from Auzaar (1997), "Kay Sera Sera" from Pukar (2000) and many more songs in the nineties. Most of the songs sung by him in Hindi are composed by him (as part of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy). He has sung numerous songs in Tamil for a multitude of composers, ranging from veterans to newcomers. He has also sung in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and other regional languages. In Marathi he has sung for noted composers like Shridhar Phadke and Ajay-Atul.

He enjoyed a successful run with the fusion jazz band SILK with Louis Banks on keyboards, Sivamani on percussion, Sridhar Parthasarathy on mridangam and Karl Peters on bass guitar.

Shankar Mahadevan has also provided vocals for several songs by the band Remember Shakti, which features musicians including ,Musician Chandan Sharma, Musician John McLaughlin, U. Srinivas and V. Selvaganesh. He was music director for the famous "School Chale Hum" song on Doordarshan.

He was a mentor on Zee TV's musical reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009.

He is a team captain, judge, and mentor on Star Plus's musical show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla for the team Shankar's Rockstars; his team won Music Ka Maha Muqqabala 2010.

In March 2009 he performed at Ragam 09, an intercollegiate cultural festival hosted by the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC) in Kerala.

In February 2010 he performed at Kuruksastra 10, an intercollege cultural festival hosted by the SASTRA University, Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.

In September 2010 he performed at PULSE-2010, India's Second largest Inter-college Festival at All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

In March 2011 he started the Shankar Mahadevan Academy. The Academy offers tutorials and virtual vocal courses in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, religious chanting, Indian folk music, and Bollywood songs.^[4]

Shankar was Invited by the UNESCO and the US state Dept to perform at UN general assembly hall for the finale of the International Jazz festival held on 30th April 2012.

Awards[link]

National Film Awards

• 2000: Best Male Playback Singer - "Yenna Solla Pogirai" (Kandukondain Kandukondain)
• 2004: Best Music Direction - Kal Ho Naa Ho (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)
• 2008: Best Male Playback Singer - "Maa" (Taare Zameen Par)

State Film Awards

• 2008: Kerala State Film Award for Best Singer - "Kalyaana Kacheri" (Madampi)
• 2008: Nandi Award for Best Male Playback Singer - Venkatadri

Filmfare Awards

• 2002: Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent for Dil Chahta Hai (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)
• 2003: Best Music Direction for Kal Ho Naa Ho (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)
• 2005: Best Music Direction for Bunty Aur Babli (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)

Filmfare Awards South

• 2005: Best Playback Singer for Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana-Telugu

Star Screen Awards

• 2000: Nominated for Best Background Music for Mission Kashmir (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)
• 2001: Best Music Direction for Dil Chahta Hai (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)
• 2005: Best Music Direction for Bunty aur Babli (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)
• 2009: Nominated for Best Music Direction for Rock On!! (as part of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy)

Other awards

• 2007: Swaralaya-Kairali-Yesudas Award for outstanding contribution to Indian film music
• 2009: Asianet Film Award for Best Male Playback - "Pichavecha Naal" (Puthiya Mukham)
• 2009: Annual Malayalam Movie Awards (Dubai) for Best Male Singer - "Pichavecha Naal" (Puthiya Mukham)
• 2011: Kerala Film Critics Award for Best Male Playback Singer - "Indhumukhi Varumo" (Holidays)^[5]

Filmography[link]

As composer[link]

• Vishwaroopam (2012)
• Don 2: The King is Back (2011)
• Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)
• Game (2011)
• De Ghuma Ke (World Cup 2011 song)
• Patiala House (2011)
• Koochie Koochie Hota Hai (2011)
• Chittagong (2010)
• Tere Bin Laden (2010)
• Housefull (2010)
• Hum Tum Aur Ghost (2010)
• Karthik Calling Karthik (2010)
• Kismat Talkies (2010)
• My Name Is Khan (2010)
• London Dreams (2009)
• Wake Up Sid (2009)
• Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam (Telugu) (2009)
• 13B/Yaavarum Nalam (2009)
• Sikandar (2009)
• Luck By Chance (2009)
• Shortkut (2009)
• Yavarum Nalam (Tamil) (2009)
• Chandni Chowk to China (2009)
• Madambi (Malayalam) (2008)
• Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (2008)
• Rock On!! (2008)
• High School Musical 2 Soundtrack (Hindi Version)
• Taare Zameen Par (2007)
• Johnny Gaddaar (2007)
• Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007)
• Heyy Babyy (2007)
• Marigold: An Adventure in India (2007)
• Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love (2007)
• Don: The Chase Begins Again (2006)
• Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)
• Dus (2005)
• Dil Jo Bhi Kahey... (2005)
• Bunty Aur Babli (2005)
• Vanity Fair (2004)
• Phir Milenge (2004)
• Lakshya (2004)
• Kyun! Ho Gaya Na... (2004)
• Rudraksh (2004)
• Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)
• Kuch Naa Kaho (2003)
• Nayee Padosan (2003)
• Armaan (2003)
• Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (2003)
• Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai? (2002)
• Dil Chahta Hai (2001)
• Aalavandhan (2001) (Tamil)
• Mission Kashmir (2000)
• Dillagi (1999)
• Shool (1999)
• Bhopal Express (1999)
• Rockford (1999)

Discography[link]

• Breathless - Breathless is the album that first gave him fame, containing the song "Breathless", which he seems to sing in one breath.
• Nine - Nine is Shankar's most recent album. Each song is a representation of a mood, including joy, sadness, love, etc.

See also[link]

• Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy
• Shankar Mahadevan Academy

References[link]

External links[link]

• Shankar Mahadevan Official Site
• Shankar Mahadevan Official Facebook Page
• Shankar Mahadevan Official Twitter Page
• Shankar Mahadevan Academy
• Shankar Ehsaan Loy concert at Unmaad
• Shankar Mahadevan at the Internet Movie Database
• Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (official site)
• Biography
• Shankar Mahadevan talks Music, the world record and more!
• Shankar Mahadevan to rock Triveni Mahotsav ?

• Shankar loves to see audiences enjoy his music