10 years for Suriya, 2 for Karthi

The audio release function of Karthi-Tamannah starrer Payya was held yesterday (Sunday) at the Sathyam Cineplex in Chennai. The event was expectedly attended by many of the big names from the industry. Payya has been directed and produced by Lingusamy under his banner Tirupathi Brothers with Yuvan Shankar Raja scoring the music.At the event, anchored by director Venkat Prabhu, the first copy of the audio CD was released by director Shankar and was received by Suriya who was obviously there to support his younger brother’s third movie. Speaking at the function Shankar was all praise for Karthi and Tamannah. He said that the way Tamannah was developing fast into a lead heroine makes him feel that she is the right one to take the place that was left behind by Simran. About Yuvan’s music, he said that he had always been a fan of the composer and that Pudupettai and Manmadan were regulars on his play list even today. On Payya’s music, he said that a song reminded him of the freshness that he felt upon listening to the tracks of ‘Idhayathai Thirudathe’.Suriya was very excited about Karthi’s growth within a short time. He said that all the work he had done in ten years was achieved in just a couple of years by his younger brother. He pointed out that he was doing one big film after the other, right from his debut with Ameer, obviously referring to Aayirathil Oruvan and Payya. He said that nowadays directors came to their house to narrate stories and more often than not they wanted to meet Karthi rather than him. "It would not be wrong to say that I feel threatened with the competition from home itself", he added on a humorous note.Two songs and a trailer were screened at the event. The trailer impressed and the rushes suggested that a ‘road’ story with a young couple traveling and having a range of experiences along the way. The songs too caught the eye and the ear. However, the editing of a song by Anthony was perhaps a bit too much on the racy side. Considering that this is the first time in his career that Karthi gets to appear neat and stylish (both his previous movies he looked unkempt and ungroomed), the pace of the editing did not allow images to be registered effectively in the viewers’ minds.Other stars who attended the function were Mysskin, Silambarasan, Balaji Shakthivel, Jayam Ravi, R K Selvamani and Parthiban. Payya will be released for Pongal 2010.