Prometheus - movie review

Why on earth (or the other galaxies) didn't somebody warn me about Prometheus? A simple hint that Ridley is trying to re-claim as the original creator of Alien would have prepared me for (or made me avoid) this nasty experience in 3D. But no, none of the reviews or the social noise did. You will have to wait (if you manage to avoid throwing up) till the very last few frames...literally the flashes after the FADE-OUT to yawn "Ohhhh.....okay, so thats what you were trying to convey".

Goes without saying, every act was more gruesome than the previous. Now, I'm not a great fan of 'creature' movies (PREDATOR is an exception). So if you are, then you might not agree with my views. The very very thin line of story or plot gets completely darkened with the gore you see on screen. Halfway through the movie I decided to feast my eyes only on the size zero Charlize and ignore the rest. No whats the point of getting Guy Pearce if you are gonna hide his whole face with prosthetic ?? I rest my case.

Thadayra thaakka - review

You could say I was waiting for this one. I wanted to see how Magizh Thirumeni graduates in his second venture after Mundhinam Paartheney. And kudos to him for choosing to try his hand at a different genre rather than another romantic comedy. It takes guts to shred one's own feathers and emerge new. Having said that, he's still not able to shred off his mentor's influences on him - a lot of muted words in the dialogues even after a "A" certification by the censor.

Thadaiyara thaakka is not your everyday action flick. What makes it different from the average hero/heroine caught in the wrong place at wrong time with villain movie is the "treatment". Though there were some hits and misses with the narration and screenplay, the treatment of the story is very fresh to Tamil cinema. For instance, my friend felt the movie is very violent whereas there is not a single instance of drop of blood splatting on the screen. That is the "impact" that leaves in your mind letting you fill the gaps rather than showing things explicitly. There are many puzzles for us to solve even in the hero's characterisation...sometimes we even wonder if he is actually in love with the heroine.

Every actor barring Rakul Preet Singh, the newcomer leaves an impact. Arun vijay has waited quite along time for this one and let us hop his underplay works. Vamsi Krishna, for sure, is gonna make some rounds in the coming years. Mamta couldn't have done more justice to a story like this. The Gayathri character would have worked if played by some veteran known face in Tamil....you just can't shove in a new face after 3/4th of the film is over and expect miracles.

Thaman's background has filled in whatever is needed to scare and thrill you. Kelaamale is good but badly shot, I wonder what happend to the melody Kaalangal ? And I won't complain for a needless Poondamalli song at the beginning of the movie - there are many non-creative reasons in Tamil film making that makes this mandatory. Action by Anal Arasu and Cinematorgraphy by  N. Sukumar are "effective" (pun intended). I don't know if it is editing or the dialogues, once the plot is set and the goose chase begins the movie reduces itself to a average goonda film. The too many twists and turns in the second half don't actually work because the screenplay lacks a rhythm for you to follow.

There is a thaakkam (impact) for sure but not thadaiyara (hurdle free) !

Vazhakku Enn 18/9 - review

A lot has been said and written about this movie. It is touted as a major milestone in Tamil cinema history like a Sethu or Subramaniyapuram. Unfortunately, I was not very impressed ! No doubt, it is a neat presentation without any cliches or skin-show for the chosen issue, but it was not a very gripping narration for the genre chosen. The two legs of the narrative does overlap each other but for no reason or impact. For instance, why should the protagonist help the rich boy by pushing his car to start ? What difference would it make if it was some other passerby who pushed the car there ? Nothing. How does showing the guy's past in North-India help this investigation which is the crux of the story ? No way ! The plot is also not completely devoid of holes. There are movies in the same investigative movies (with a dash of romance) in the recent past (read RAAM) which managed to hold the attention of the audience throughout.

Balaji Sakthivel shocked me as an audience with the final quarter of his previous movies whereas the surprise element in this climax is not very effective. There were many incomplete characters which might represent various elements in the society but they do not help the story in any way. Excellent cinematography for sure with a digital still camera. An Ok background score by Prasanna. The "Vaanathaiye" song was good but got annoying when it was repeated so many times ! Karthik's Solo Oru kural was soothing. Very good performances by all the new comers, they did what was told and fit their characters. Editing and art department have done a good job. Not a great case made, but made with a good heart.

Limitless - movie review

Watched Limitless today. It joins the list of movies that I call "don't get me started now..." along with In time, Unknown, Drive etc which equally disappointed me in the recent past.

Margin Call - movie review

Okay this one was a stunner. Probably because many of the academy list did not live up to my expectations. But my first reaction to this movie is - Good ! Kudos to the debut director J.C. Chandor

This movie works for today's corporate world because one could connect to the crux of it - be it being called back to office late nights or all hands working the whole night to save the ship from sinking or getting axed one fine morning and much more - we get a feeling of been there gone through that. If you take off the financial market jargons (thankfully not much of it) it would fit to any other industry. And the director cleverly takes us away from the subjectivity of the issue. The computer screen or the report that reveals the main issue that the whole story revolves around is never shown to the audience ! It is the cast and the performance that makes it so real.

When it comes to performances you don't expect anything less than perfectness from the bunch of Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jermy Irons, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci and you get just that. The surprise packages were of course the two young analysts Zachary Quinto and Pen Badgley. Oh boy...don't we all see a Seth Bregman in our offices? There is an emotional side of the story which I don't personally subscribe to but I loved the choice of montage shots with the wonderful Paul Bettany's voice over for the day's proceedings where the solution to the problem is actually implemented.

Have you been able to make the difference in the pep-talk from your boss when he truly believes in what he is saying and when he does not ? Have you been suddenly called for an unexpected meeting that is way over your pay grade and wonder what the hell is happening ? Have you seen the same problem being viewed from different perspectives by different people up the org-chart ? These are some of the reasons why you should catch this movie.

The academy list...

The Iron lady
The Artist
Ides of March
Drive
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

6 down...4 more to go

The descendants
Hugo
Warhorse
The Help

did I miss something?

MI4- Ghost Protocol - movie review

If you're a lover of the precision of IMF's previous missions, you're not likely to enjoy this movie much. Because, everything goes wrong with the missions of this installment of MI - messages don't self destruct, fake IDs don't get uploaded on time, packages turn up empty, gloves don't work, masks don't get molded and of course (as they mention in the teaser) the whole IMF has been disavowed. But you still have the edge of the seat action sequences and the ever fit Tom Cruise chasing and being chased as usual. Learn how to take your car out of a parking lot from this guy.

Brad Bird, the director, not surprisingly, adds his own comic touch to the action. The director's love for humor can be evidently seen in many sequences especially through Benji 's character. But too much of anything spoils the broth and in the case of this movie it does distract the viewers from the seriousness of the missions. If there is one character that interests you with many shades it is that of Brandt played by the deserving Jeremy Renner ( The Hurt Locker fame). Paula Patton doesn't add much to the plot more than skin and kicks. Tom cruises through his role as Ethan Hunt as usual and the chemistry between him and Simon Pegg in the previous installment has been cleverly extended in this movie. And yeah, we have our own Anil Kapoor playing a very very crucial role that takes your excitement to a completely different level  !!! (pun intended). Ving Rhames does a cameo as Luther Stickell at the end of the movie.

 The real problem with this movie is it does not have a single focused mission (like the Chimera or the Rabbits foot). The normal save-the-world-from-nuclear-destruction plot reduces this to any other action movie. The other big let down was the characterization of the villain. Hendricks ( played by Michael Nyqvist) does not measure up to Owen Davian (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). It was evident that the climax which supposedly happens in India were shot elsewhere in a set. I'm not even gonna start on the loop holes in the plot since nobody seems to be bothered about it. But if you want some adrenaline pumping action from Tom go for it.

Porali - movie review

"...because success is a menace. It fools smart people into thinking they can't lose." - Bill Gates explains in the movie "Pirates of Silcon valley" why a giant IBM would buy anything from a nobody like Microsoft. Perhaps that is what has transpired in the case of Samuthirakani (Nadodigal fame) and M. Sasikumar (Subramaniapuram fame) to make Porali and Eesan respectively. As expected they have cast each other as protagonist in their projects.

Porali starts off with a promising note and a very interesting pan shot of the top viewing camera to capture the typical Chennai housing complex and its residents. The initial comedy tracks are cleverly used to make the audience travel with the main characters Sasi, Ganja karuppu and Allari Naresh (A very commendable comeback to the tamil industry) The first one hour does engage you with interesting developments. The script loosens when Swathi starts falling for Sasikumar. Like many other tamil movies the unemployed youth miraculously finds a way to make a living and succeeds in his life in just one song. Now, it keeps you wondering what the "struggle" is all about.

I really liked the subtle nuances of the director like the Vinayagar coming throughout the film or the prices going up every time he shows the petrol bunk etc. But I couldn't stand the repetitions (one folk song and one song by Shankar Mahadevan) from his previous project and loads of unwanted violence hoping these would save the day. Music director Sundar C babu shines more in re-recording than in the songs. There is a strong contrast between the city and village portions in that give a feeling that these are two different movies !
 
Porali takes too many twists and turns in the treatment that one wonders what exactly the director wants to convey? It was a real struggle for me to figure what Samuthirakani wants to convey? Is this a movie about how gifted children are ill treated, or about Chennai's suburb and its residents or family feuds or a youth struggling to achieve in life or....about Uranium.

Ko- movie review

This was one film I was following during the making itself and was waiting for a long time, because I have to admit I really liked Ayan and Kana Kandein. K.V. Anand, (the ace cinematographer turned director) has the guts to really get to the bottom of any theme around which he winds his projects. Ko is no exception, he has dared to bare some of the well kept secrets of politics and media ( he was a media photographer erstwhile). So it was home ground and he looks like has really sent the balls to box office boundaries. I wasn't able to get tickets till today !

Okay, first things first - the story is NOT a rip from The State of Play. This is much localized political and media drama. The narration bears much similarities to Ayan. I hope the much deserving Jeeva gets into the big league for his portrayal of Ashwin. Ajmal has yet again proved that second roles are nothing second. Pia needs much meaty characters than just 'meat'. Karthika seriously needs to learn Tamil, I can imagine how tough it must've been for Chinmayi to do the dubbing. Kota and Prakash raj are at their usual best. Camera is good (duh !) Harris has to improve a lot both in songs and RR. Songs are shot in Norway and around the world but the chemistry between the leading pair is missing !

Now, the issue with a racy screenplay or fast paced editing or both is not the potholes it leaves on the way, but the absence of beats and pauses. You feel the momentum of an action sequence only when there is a rather slow dull moment before that. If you keep running right from frame 1 you get tired midway. There is a  great main story line which has beautifully woven suspense and knots to untie, but the supporting cast (the editor in chief, Jeeva's parents, friends of Ajmal) do not make an impact. These characters are not etched completely and they utter boring "supporting" dialogues. This in turn makes the main characters look either too noble and unbelievable. So at some point of time in the first half you just start watching the film feel no connection, the way we watch election news !

Kudos to K.V. Anand for saying out loud that media can make or break personalities.

I still like Inception

Okay, I have waited and watched all other contestants - King's speech, Fighter, social network and Black swan - and guess what, Inception remains my favorite. Nolan, you rock !

Payanam - Movie review

I consider Radhamohan as Rajkumar Hirani of the south. As Prakashraj describes very often, Radha looks at the world through a different lens. He has a very subtle and simple way of dealing even emotional and sensitive subjects. Who could forget Mozhi ? He takes the same approach to this hijack subject. But the re is a bit of overdose of humor in payanam that you wonder whats happened to the main story.

As usual the dialogues make you roll on the floor laughing. The passengers are seated as pairs of opposite poles - an atheist and an astrologer, an upcoming movie star and his fan and so on. These present situations for a laugh riot and Radha doesn't miss a beat. The director - actor combo that appear post interval takes the cake off the others for sure. The film also has some emotional points thrown here and there, which makes you feel sorry even for the terrorists. Kudos to Prakashraj for producing a neat and decent movie yet again !

Nagarjuna's underplay and heroism would be the crowd puller for the Telugu version. Prakashraj, M.S. Baskar, Manobala, Brahmanandham, Thalaivaasal Vijay and the other support cast fit like T to their roles.  The special effects department and the set direction could have been better. You could spot  pathetic glitches in these in some frames. A Frontech headphones for the cockpit?? This movies has no songs, but the background score is good. Lighting and camera must have been easy since there were only a few locations.

The film takes off with a great promise and sails the smooth skies till the hijackers take over the plane. (Don't worry about spoilers in this review, there aren't any, because there is no suspense in the movie anyway) Radha has told in his interviews that he wanted to present hijack through the eyes of the passengers, news reporters, terrorists and the commandos. But I'm afraid the  different views shown  here are far from anything real. There was a huge lack of background research. The single emotion  - fear - that  must dominate  the  victims and hence the audience was missing. You have bits and pieces of all emotions.

We are a nation who are "used" to so many forms of terrorist acts and so would expect something more gripping than a laugh riot in a subject like this.

Yuththam Sei - movie review

Mysskin, always insists that he is only a writer and is yet to graduate to a movie director. Well, you do  get a feeling of reading a tamil crime novel (read Rajeshkumar, Subha etc )when you watch his latest flick Yuththam sei. A couple of departments that lift the drama from that level to a celluloid movie are the camera and background score. Only problem here is what works at a crime novel level may not work as a movie. There are more loose ends to tighten in the latter. 

Mysskin joins the now growing bunch of directors ( Gautam Menon, Sasikumar) whose latest offerings depict the horrible crimes against young women. (I'm scared of this becoming the next trend in Tamil cinema after movies based on Madurai, 3m). But I'm sure this would be the one that has tried to limit obscenity as less as possible (Nadunisi naigal is yet to release). As in any typical Mysskin movie there are many strange angled shots, legs of the actors get more importance than their faces, slow panned shots to reveal carton boxes etc. I have to admit these techniques have worked well for this genre than a Nandhalaala. The first thing that hits you about the movie is the background score for sure. Kudos to the new kid around the block K

The reason this movie did not work for me is the fact that there are too many clues and characters that I gave up trying to solve the mystery in an hour. Also, the string connecting these clues - the protagonist CBI officer - is too confused and weak to concentrate on solving the plot for us to follow. The truth that unfolds later in the second half is neither believable or interesting enough. Finally, there are too many unanswered questions which end up as loop holes in the plot when you regurgitate the movie in your mind on the way back home. 

Cheran has done his best to underplay as the disturbed CBI officer. I have no idea why he needs the 2 assistants ( Dipa Shah and the other guy) Chelva has comeback to mainstream cinema with this movie. Jayaprakash, YG Mahendra steal the show. Again, I don't know what would difference it would make to the movie if Yugendran and a couple of guys in his gang are not there. Mysskin has to seriously change the way he visualises action scenes in his movies. Even though dramatic at the moment, the fights are repetitive, boring and not practically believable. Needless to say, Kannitheevu ponna is already a chart buster, but this is exactly where he looses his grip on the audience and everything that follows becomes predictable.

I did like the director's satire in a couple of scenes like - a cop stealing a watermelon. There was little emphasize on the explanation for the title Yuththam sei- which means 'wage a war'. A very few of the audience might wait till the last scene in the beach where Cheran talks to the boy over the phone about purpose of his parent's and his war.

Yeah, for once I do agree with Mysskin's on his ability as a director - this might have worked for me as a novel than a movie

Eesan - movie review

Eesan is your typical M Sasikumar movie. It starts on a slow and steady pace and you come to know what the movie is about only a few minutes before interval ! Then the movie picks up pace and ends in a gory, blood shedding climax. Only in the case of Eesan, everything turns out to be a cliche and little is left to our imagination. Once you watch a couple of scenes post interval, you know how things are going to turn out.

If Subramaniapuram - M.Sasikumar's directorial debut which made him an overnight star - brought out the dangerous shades of south Indian village in which the rural youth is misled, Eesan talks about perils of GenY city dwelling youth. It doesn't spare anything from night life to Internet to mobile phones to fashion to drugs and more. I liked the way the director has made some subtle but bold observations about the health care and law and order situations in the city.

Other than the few pivotal characters who appear only during the later half of the movie, others have not been sketched properly, so leave little scope for performance. The dialogues could have been more interesting rather than making the villain cry out loud repeatedly that nothing will happen in the state without his will. Also, it is a big screenplay blunder that such a powerful man could come up with plot changing actions in couple of scenes only after being advised by his side kick. The scenes were also not powerful and looked liked ripped from Sarkar Raj made by the master of underworld movies RGV. Can't Sasi think of some better lead than a suicide attempt to make a father agree to marry his daughter to her lover? And why on earth is the Karnataka guy cast like Mr.Mallaya look alike?? Samuthirakkani and Abhinaya have given their best. Vaibhav and others have no scope for acting. The new kid on the block who plays Eesan has come up with a good performance. A couple of songs by James Vasanthan were good but don't expect anything like Kangal Irandaal. MS Baskar makes a mark with his voice over. There are many loose ends in the plot which show enough research has not been done. For instance, why would a typical mute village girl want to join Fashion designing? How would geek clever enough to a hacker a mail server get caught by just IP trace? 

This is a rape - revenge story which you might not want to watch with your kids.

Manmadhan Ambu - movie review

I kept wondering what ever happened to the Kamal-Mysskin movie that was planned to go on floors after Unnaippol Oruvan. Kamal started Manmadhan Ambu and Mysskin, Yuththam Sei. Looks like Kamal needed a well deserved vacation in a cruise in Europe and thats exactly what he got !

MA is a typical Kamal movie. Kamalism overshadows in every bit of the movie so much that you even forget the character he is supposed to play - Major Mannar. Agreed, that is partly because he has taken the responsibility of story, screenplay, dialogue (with who else? crazy mohan) and even lyrics. But, the problem is I had to put up with so much of Kamal's own life in every aspect of the movie. Look at the characters for instance - a movie actress who is suspected to have an affair with a co-star, a cancer patient and a divorcee with two kids. Agreed, that in any movie, the protagonist usually voices the opinion of the writer who creates the character. In this case, Major mannar expresses Kamal's ideas of non-violence, ahimsa and political views but only at the wrong time when he is expected to feel sad and angry over the culprits who killed his beloved wife. His idea about "Veeram" has also been heard before in Virumandi ( Manninkka therinjavan....)

Even though the screenplay is just above average and characters had no graph, the performances should be applauded. Very natural and neat acting from Maddy and Trisha. Sangeeetha, Ramesh Arvind and Urvashi were good too. The surprise packages were Usha uthup and the kids. Camera and editing were excellent, felt like a nice Eurotrip. I liked the rendering of poems. It also proves to be a neat entertainer without skin shows, bloodsport and dappanguththu songs.

The best of the movie was of course Neelavanam and the way it has been shot and edited. Kudos to the team for that.

Uh...yeah BTW the director is KS Ravikumar, one of my favorite directors. But since I was not able to give him credit to anything about this movie, I added his picture in this review at least.

Journalism - reality and fictions about it

A lot has been said, written and watched about Bharka Dutt, Vir Sanghvi and Niira Radia.  This made me go think about ethical journalism and check my memory of movies that describe a similar struggle.

The first one that comes to my mind is timeless classic All the President's men in which Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford wonderfully bring out the struggle journalist undergo to collect information and the extent to which they risk their lives to gather evidence before they publish a story. The next one is of course Wag the Dog in which Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman tell us how a manipulated promo and marketing can make or break a country's top leadership positions.

In Tamil, we had Oomai vizhigal an with Jayshankar, the newspaper editor struggles to uncover the mystery behind beach resort murders of chennai. Page3 is another excellent effort from Madhur Bhandakar in the same lines. Then we have the latest offering from Aamir Khan, Peepli live which showcases the brutal realities of today's Media. This list would not be complete without mentioning about Alaigal a TV serial which I watched in my childhood days. Sivakumar is at his best as the publisher of a newspaper in it.

My own post in this blog talks about yet another fictional movie about the same topic. In the edited versions in front of the camera, we see the shows where journos and anchors grill the opponents and we even feel that they go overboard to sensitize the issues. But in reality (and as all the above movies depict) it looks like the politicians, corporates and nay their lobbyists are the ones actually in control of the media !

Drohi - movie review

Drohi (or Betrayer in English)  is one of the movies in Tamil which shoots high but fails to reach anywhere even close to the target. Yet another Maniratnam student Sudha K Prasad has debuted as director in this movie.

There are many interesting twists and turns in the movie and that probably is the only good thing about it. There is a huge lack of sewing these interesting sequences into a good screenplay. Sreekanth and Viishnu have done a commendable job. Pooja does an impressive cameo, wonder why we don't see her more often in screen. But hey Laila was also MIA after Pithaamagan.

In spite of a couple of my friends advise that the movie is full of violence, blood I went ahead and watched Drohi. This movie is definitely not for kids or family viewing. I mean, I can ignore a bit of violence and bloodshed, but Sudha has seriously disappointed and betrayed me for the following reasons.

As mentioned earlier, this has a bad screenplay in spite of the falshbacks being a threaded by a very fresh and interesting sequence. I mean, it defies the basics of screenplay - the narrator cannot narrate incidents of  which he is not part of or he doesn't know ! There is complete lack of continuity in execution. When Viishnu gets on the train to Hyderabad for Police selection, he sports a beard, in the selection room he is clean shaven, the next day, back in Chennai, he is again full bearded ! And what a mean and cheap portrayal of women (except Pooja's Roja) in the movie. One of the heroines is all over a ruffian Srikanth who hates her. So forces him into an intercourse and then asks - "How will you escape now?" Seriously, is she so dumb to understand the regard this baddy might have for her chastity ? In a public market, she catwalks to a totally stranger (Viishnu) kisses him and asks - "Oru kiss thaana, so what? Karpa poidum?" meaning "its just a kiss am I going to loose my chastity in it?" Now, how many Chennai Brahmin girls would do that even if they are around the worst slums? Narayanan's character ( played by Thiyagarajan) is a joke ! He would take revenge at anybody who even dares to hurt his family a bit even if it is a genuine mistake, but forgives his henchman Srikanth who plots and kills his son ( is this not betrayal ? ) He keeps claiming he knows Srikanth's friendship with Viishnu more than anybody else but could not see through the plot by both to kill him.

All said, it is a cat and mouse chase between unworthy ruffians and we have seen a very better version by the guru himself, so you can afford to miss this.

Endhiran - the robot - music review

I took a blogging break since there was a huge pileup of backlog in my to-do list. But I could not resist coming back to write about the Endhiran - The robot album.

Shankar has proved yet again that he is THE 'clever' filmmaker in the Indian movie industry. Just listen to this album and you would know how the person who extracts music out of a creator makes the difference in how the album comes out. Rahman as usual, is at his usual best churning out chart busters. I just can't believe he made these tracks back in 2008 and it sounds so fresh.

I try to do a guessing game of the storyline of the movie when I listen to the songs from the clues in the lyrics. So the following views are my own guesses and nothing more.

Puthiya Manitha: This song is either during the making or when Chitti is done finally and ready. Dr Vasigaran talks about his robot in this. An SPB-Rahman-Rajni number with the typical punch lines, but very very different from Ballelakka or Oruvan Oruvan muthalaali due to the techno accompaniments. And Khatija Rahman sounds good - a mini Rahman in making.

Kadhal Annukkal: A melodious duet number trying to reproduce the magic of Sahaana. Looks like Vijay prakash is making rounds after Hosaana. Shreya's chirpy voice is cool and the Oh babby chorus is the highlight of the song.

Irumbile oru irudhayam: This is the first taste of love for Chitti, the robot. Now, you get one more clue about appearance of Chitti and my guess is it has something to do with how an INSECT looks. And possibly, it falls in love with Aish?? I don't know ! The song is rendered by Rahman himself and he sounds very much similar to Yakkai Thiri.

Chitti Dance: Now, this is gonna be a visual treat. Chitti is doing a Bharatnatyam dance in this sequence. Well, Shankar sir if you can use motion capture all the way back in  1998 for Jeans, I won't be surprised if your Chitti does everything including my morning coffee. And what a fast Jathi rendition in this number?

Arima Arima: Okay, this is where things get serious. This song must probably be placed in the second half of the movie like a Adhiradi of Shivaji or Mudhalvane or Mudhalvan. This must be a struggle between Chitti Rajni and Vasigaran Rajni to win Aish's love? Hariharan rocks !  and what a fanfare and March of the percussions. This undoubtedly is my favorite number of the album if I'm forced to choose one. Silicon Singam..ha ha !

Kilimanjaro: Another duet in the album with a folk and tribal theme. You recognize it is Chinmayi only in the first Ghamaga. Looks like she has made a point to sound different in each song. Ash is described as Pulichcha keera, Aatuchedi, Pasumpull etc in this song. Yeah, this is the one shot in Mohanjedaro, Machupichu etc.

Boom Boom Roboda: This is the last and final song of the album and hopefully in the movie as well, remember the dance sequence at the end of Jeans after all ends well? And yeah, the lyrics goes on to bully Issac Asimov, Issac Newton, Albert Eienstien and what not? Chitti Chitti robo does remind me of Rahman's previous Thala Thala Thala from A..AAAh.

Well, Rahman has not reached new heights with this album but nay, who expected that in this album anyway. Endhiran album blasts the hell out of you ! I love it.

RaavaNNan - review

"A book is the reader's view of the author's narration whereas a movie is a directors view of the director's narration. Whether you like it or not. " - I used to keep debating with a friend of mine who loves reading books as much as I love watching movies. That is exactly what Raavannan ( the Tamil one) is. It would join the list of Avathaaram, by Naaser.

No marks for guessing that Mani excels as usual in his own department - Direction. Wonderful,way of using metaphors to show the 10 shades of the Raavanan. But you've gotto watch closely to observe these - for instance -  Vaiyapuri, who plays an eunuch falls from a boat full of kids and Veera emerges in a flash replacing Vaiyapuri on top of it. This is when the softer and feminine shade of him is revealed  for the first time.

I don't know if it was Peter Hein or Sham Kaushal who did the Sugar-in-diesel-tank action sequence, but that was the only action sequence which was interesting. The other chase and even the climax sequence were not impressive at all. But on retrospect why didn't the STF have any clever action while the Raavanan gang was working almost like a commando force? Ganesh Acharya (who also appears in just a quick flash) could have done some more research on the dance forms of the tribal people rather than doing ballad moves for the songs. That would have been more real.

Much has been written and talked about this being the most beautifully shot movie and so on, well I can't agree more with it. A couple of India's best cinematographers ( Santhosh Sivan and V Manikandan)  are at work, so go and enjoy the six course visual feast. AR Rahman's music is good, but nothing was Wow !

Casting is perfect, the supporting characters gel nicely to the roles. And did you know the now famous Ranjitha plays a cameo in this movie ? To reveal a bit about the charecters, Vikram plays Veera the good guy (yes you read it right), Prithviraj plays Dev the bad guy and Aishwarya plays Ragaini who is typically the viewer you! Notice that Veera is never shown as a decision maker. He is always confused by the ten voices in his head. He often echoes and reflects the personality of the people around him.  - a moment it is Ragini the devoted wife, at times it is Singarayan his elder brother, and in the police tent it is Dev and at times it is you the viewer ! when he questions who decides what is good and evil ! Where the ace director slips is developing the good or bad friction between these characters and the reasons for it. And I think that is what he admits in his synopsis here (The tension between the opposite is too electric that it isolates them from the rest of the world leaving just the two). Now, can you live with that explanation and forgive the absence of character sketches is the question.

Samir Chanda's effort in creating an adobe in the thick jungles deserves special kudos. I'm sure the set for Kodu potta  is gonna be a trend setter for years to come. Production design in excellent, but I wouldn't agree the South Indian wedding sequence taking place in a North Indian temple. Unfortunately the special effects department (was it by PrimeFocus ?) is a big let down. It is high time India ncreative graphic artists turn their ship towards "hiding the art". C'mon, the composition of the climax ladder shots were a joke !

Coming to acting, what a performance by Vikram ? He speaks less and emotes a tonn. Prabhu ,Karthick , Priyamani and the supporting cast do a very neat job. Prithviraj is great in a negative role after a long time. Aishwarya fits the bill for the first half as the graceful woman whose charm spoils Veera's mind. But she is no where close to the changes the character goes through in the second half. Just crying wouldn't work !

Mani lets Vairamuthu's lyrics deliver a lot of backstory, so you'll have to listen carefully. Cheeyan kaatta thondi paaththa semmann oooththu raththam thaan  - Wow ! Suhasini has taken charge of the dialogue department and I kept wondering throughout the movie if I'm in Tamzh Semmozhi Maanaadu. I don't know how a tribal would ask "Prayannam ellam sowgariyama irunthatha??" in forest.

Okay, this is NOT Mani Ratnam's Ramayan. There are as many deviations from the epic as there are similarities. To quote some, in Ramayana, Lakshman is not abducted and his head shaved, Raavanan is not single, Rama does not kill Vibeeshanan when he goes to him seeking asylum. And ofcourse, this Raavayanam does not end the way Ramayan does. Thalapathi was not Mani's Mahabharatha; Nayagan was not Mani's Godfather but we did enjoy them. So why complain now?

Among various things, Mani is most popular for his screenplay. He could make an interesting 2 and half hour movie out of a storyline that is as simple as - 2 terminally ill people falling in love - remember Idhyaththai Thirudaathey? In Raavannan, Mani yet again experiments a different narration and yet another dimension of drama. Whether is works for you or not is something else, as I said in the beginning, this is the director's view of his story. To me it did not work ! There are 2 reasons for it.

One - in spite of great performances, the "need" of the characters and the back stories were not defined clearly. For instance, the song did not convey the depth of love between Dev and Ragini and so I felt like why this all hungama ?

Two - Some great director's cleverly put the viewers in situations of their protagonist so that they can feel the pain and power of the character and connect to it. Remember Momento ? If I assume that Mani tried to do something similar, by keeping us in a jungle of mix and match emotional and action scenes, even then I feel there is too much confusion and too many unanswered questions for me to appreciate the clarity in Raavanan's mind in the climax. And I do feel that Sreekar Prasad's editing is part of the reason behind the damage. 

No, I haven't watched Raavan (hindi)....yet !

Kola Kolaya Munthirikka - review

KKMK is an attempt to make a laughter riot like Panchathanthiram. Edward de Bono suggests that the mind is a pattern-matching machine, and that it works by recognizing stories and behavior and putting them into familiar patterns. When a familiar connection is disrupted and an alternative unexpected new link is made in the brain via a different route than expected, then laughter occurs as the new connection is made. So essentially, you need a conflict for laughter to occur. The only group in KKMK which is fwith situatgoes through situations that have this kind of funny conflicts is a smart Veerappan and his dumb gang. Every other situation has characters with no conflicts or conflicts which are not really making new connections. That is why this movie fails to evoke laughter.

I felt Karthik has been made to overdo a bit in his portrayal of Krish. His strength  lies in naturally underplaying and being realistic in his roles. I don't know why he sounded loud in certain places ! Shika is a great dancer. Her effort to pronounce Tamil dialogues shows (though Suchi has done her dubbing) Anand raj is awesome, he should market himself for different roles like this. Jeyaram has been wasted, trying to do a Pink Panther. So are Pandiarajan  and Delhi ganesh who are known for their talent as comedians. I felt like crying out loud  - "Leave the professionals alone !" Radharavi is at his usual best, I liked his careless take on a dhadha. I don't know why the team tried so hard to keep Sarath Kumar's role under wraps. It would have been a good marketing if it was the other way.

Music by Selvaganesh was good, but the songs were terribly misplaced. I enjoyed the "Oru varam" by S.P.B and Chitra. There must have been a mandatory disclaimer at the beginning of the movie warning viewers to remove their brains. Point is, if I want just Crazy Mohan's dialogs for my laughs then I would go for his famous theater dramas. Movie, is a different beast altogether. Director Madhumita's arrow misses its target by a fairly long distance.

Mundhinam Paatheney ! - review

Five minutes of watching Mundhinam paartheyney I was like, "Oh my god, Another story about a guy desperately looking for the perfect girl !". Must have been the effect of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya, Theeratha Villayaatu Pillai and numerous other recent Tamil releases I watched. But then very quickly, I realized this is going to be fun and different. The movie is fresh and entertaining. I felt like watching numerous episodes of a wonderfully written sitcom. And I missed watching this along with my friends, that would have been a blast. Music is refreshing though the songs slowed the pace of the movie. Special kudos to Thaman and team for the very creative re-recording and background effects. Good performances by almost everybody in the cast except a very few of Sanjay's friends. Sai Ganesh and the girl who played Priya have a promising future.

Magizh Thirumeni, the director, dares to walk along dangerous borders in a couple of scenes like the 12th grade student commenting about a condom in her brother's wallet and so on. He has chosen the narrative style for the movie, but there is too much of narration. Sometimes I wonder if he has forgotten the first rule of screenplay - "Show, don't tell". For instance, when the narration is through the hero's point of view, suddenly emerges a very short sequence of the dancer girl narrating her dreams of buying a house. This jump confuses the viewer. 

No doubts the dialogues are spontaneous and funny. A trick writers use during the "initial setup" phase of a  story is to start the scene in the middle of an event that is happening. For instance, a scene opens up in a staircase with Sai Ganesh refusing something. During the next dialogues we come to know that Sanjay had asked Sai to accompany him for Salsa  class and that is what he is refusing. This makes the audience more attentive and eventually follow the movie more carefully. But this usually this is not followed in the second and third acts of story telling since it would give a feeling of  the audience being left out  of the happenings. Unfortunately, Magizh follows this in-the-middle-of-the-event in almost 80 % of the movie. Something has already happened and you see one character narrating or explaining it to another character. And also, I don't see any need for the whole thing to be a flashback from London if the hero decides not to meet her again.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy a few interesting twists like the train scene and the way the truth behind gossips about a girl are revealed in the story. With a typical feel good movie, Magizh thirumeni shows the promise to be a Sekhar Kammula for Tamil