CrossRoads

Thoongavanam

2015-11-19T00:30:00.002+05:30

When Chennai people were craving for rain unable to bear the fiery heat, rains started hitting since diwali. We thought it was a blessing but soon it turned into a nightmare. We have never experienced such high rainfall in few days. When city had become an island and life was getting sober I received a call today afternoon after 2.30PM from a friend asking me why dont we catch up for a movie. With little hesitation I logged in to check availability of tickets and found tickets were available for Thoongavanam. With lots of confusion, I decided to go on. By the time my friend reached theatre it was almost time with excitement and thinking how we made it we settled down to watch the movie.

Thoongavanam, directed by Rajesh M Selva starring Kamalhassan, Prakash Raj , Kishore , Sampath, Trisha and lot more. Rajesh, an associate of Kamal in Viswaroopam, Manmadhan Ambu. Cinematography by Sanu John Varghese (worked on hindi and tamil movies like Viswaroopam I and II etc) . Music by Ghibran (worked in lots of tamil movies like vagai sooda vaa, thirumanam ennum nikkah, papanasam, uttama villian etc). Editing by Shan Mohammad (worked in lot of hindi movies like wake up sid, my friend pinto etc). Movie screenplay and production by Kamalahassan himself. The movie is based on French Thriller Nuit Blanche.

The movie starts in dark with an old song playing in background. Slowly we realise that the shot from car. As the sun rises, the car starts following another car catching up speed. Kamal and Yugi sethu block the car on a flyover, kills the driver and takes away cocaine in sunlight. He also suffers a knife injury. Kishore and Trisha also part of Narcotics bureau starts investigating the crime scene. Divorced Kamal, a workaholic lives with his son suffering to fulfil his personal commitments. By evening his son goes missing. He comes to know that Vittal Rao ( Prakash Raj) has kidnapped him. Prakash Raj a partner with Sampath in cocaine business demands Kamal to return the cocaine bag to return his son. He also runs an extensive night club. Kamal goes to the night club with the bag but hides it in Men's washroom. Trisha who accidently finds Kamal, follows him and find something wrong. She takes the bag and hides in Women's washroom. Trisha finds him guilty. How he saves his son and proves he is not guilty is the story.

Camera, lighting and music is excellent we get the actual feel of a pub. Lights are differentiated clearly right from parking, entrance of the pub, dance floor, restaurants, bar table, restaurant. Stunts with Trisha and Kishore are hardcore. Trisha gets perfect makeover for a Narcotics officer. Kishore again does a neat job. There is no over doing with any of the actors. Kamal's son gives a smart act. The way he shows his disappointments about his father being careless or the way he shows off when he is being rescued are wonderful.

Editing in perfect pace. Continuity of the bleeding in Kamal's shirt is flawless. Every shot, property, character are clearly linked. Right from Soya milk to Uma Riyaz, Kishore car keys to handcuffs , kamal's blazer to his id card etc. Movie gets to the height of reality when Kamal enters the washroom when someone is using it. During the interval block you literally get to the edge of the seat. Felt Prakash Raj, Yuhi and uma riyaz had a very little role to explore their talents or I should say they were over qualified for the roles. Prakash Raj's wardrobe was ultimate .

Film has No masala sequences, no duets, no kuthu songs, no dragging senti emotional dialogues, no exaggerated fights, no punch dialogues, no glamorous heroines showing navel and coming into picture only for songs. A crisp reality action thriller. Yet another best acting by Kamal. Given Kamal any character he makes us forget that we are simply watching a movie. It feels so real be it CKD or Suyambulingam or viswanathan ( the list I m sure is endless)...

Traffic

2011-11-03T17:19:00.007+05:30

It’s been more than a year since I wrote. Friends who used to be around me to argue about a movie are not there with me anymore. All of us are in different parts of the world in different places and time zones. We no longer have time to sit and argue like we used too. Frankly all these arguments had been a big trigger for me to write. Now that it is no longer possible, let me just try to write a decent stuff myself.

I was updating movie news for the website I work for and I came across this article about International Film Festival. This year there are quite a bunch of Malayalam movies gets screened. I should also mention that I am a die hard fan of Malayalam Film Industry.I thought I should catch up with them though I have seen a few already. This movie Traffic is one of them. I didn’t have any idea when I started watching the movie.

Traffic, directed by Rajesh Pillai starts with the narration of Sreenivasan. The casts include Sreenivasan, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Kunchakoban, Asif Ali, Sandhya, Roma, Rahman, Ramya Nambeesan and lots more. It involves lots of characters and how each one is linked and what makes them to meet. The movie gives you mixed emotions anger, fear, sorrow, pain , luv, hate, trust, betryal , shame, fame, friendship, responsibility and lot more.

The director has beautifully carved the characters and the importance of each is realized. The story involves around an accident in Cochin and the injured person (Rahain Played by Vineeth Sreenivasan) is about to die. There is also a Kid in pallakad ailing from heart disease. Doctors wanna do a heart transplantation to save the kid.

Rahain’s parents initially refuse to donate the heart. But later they are convinced by his friends. The pain of the parents to digest their son is no more stays in your mind. On the other end the kid’s father is a super star (Sidharth played by Rahman) in Malayalam industry. The super hero becomes totally incapable to save his daughter and he is incapable to convince Rahain’s parents.

Finally when they are ready to do the transplantation, comes the question of how to transport the heart from Cochin to Pallakad in right time. Due to bad weather they are forced to travel through Road and they have to reach the destination in two hours which seems quite impossible. With the help of police how they achieve it, what problems they encounter on the way and how they solve is story.

A complex story neatly presented. The editing is fantastic in final sequences. Good camera work and logical hurdles while transporting the heart. There is one song in the start which helps in establishing the characters. Background score is excellent. Each and every object gets neat link to the scenes and in the end forms a complete story.

There is also a similar real incident which was done successfully in Chennai. There are also dialogues in the film discussing the same.

Hats off to the crew and director for presenting a good film!

A must watch film!

P.S - I just read that the film is going to be remade in Tamil and Hindi.

Ritu - Seasons change... Do we....

2010-12-16T16:16:00.007+05:30

Ritu is a story of three youngsters grew up together and how their life changes over time and their separation. The film is directed by Shyam Prasad, a promising director with his diverse and excellent stories like agnisakshi, akale, Orae Kadal and Ritu. The director has again proved his versatility in this film…

Sarath, Varsha and Sunny, the inseparable trio grew up together since childhood. All of them have dreams to pursue in life. Sarath wants to write, varsha wants to do voluntary work while sunny’s interest is music. Sarath had to move to US with his brother in law and ends up in a software industry while varsha and sunny also joins a software job in Bangalore. Sunny and varsha moves on with the changes in life. Varsha ends up flirting around with everyone and sunny becomes a gay. Sarath is caged completely with the memories and dreams of friends. Remembering his childhood and his friends, he returns back to india to excel in his passion and work together with friends. While they start working together Sarath realizes the changes with his friends and moves on separating himself both from his childhood memories and his friends.

Rithu is a beautiful film which happens to us or among us. We all commonly have two problems.. Either we stick on to dreams and live n fantasy or in the name of moving on, we forget what we are. Our tradition,our values and even our purpose of lives. Today through an IT job our wallets are full and v don’t realise the value of money. We end up n night outs, pubs, parties and what not… where goes the real talent? Passion? Relationships?values? we search one after the other which is virtual and just end up in depression and frustration.. At the end of the journey we haven’t done anything for benefit ourselves or to the society. Rithu is one such self realization of the characters in the film. An entrepreneur sacrifices her family life for her career. She is proud to achieve billion dollars project. But is life dedicated for professional life or personal life??? A perfect person should ideally balance everything.. profession … personal.. social… there may be ups and downs n the ratio… too much of one thing will always spoil the other…. The film also talks about the homeless and humiliated people when the IT villages are developed in the city outskirts. There are no details on that though. They are left to struggle and survive like in reality.

Rithu is one such film of life… Time to wake up and protect our values, passion and the real talent…

Seasons change.. do we….

Independence Day !!!!

2010-08-15T01:59:00.003+05:30

I am a fan of the director Shekar Kammula. I downloaded one of his recent movies LEADER few months back. Somehow for no reason I couldn’t watch the movie.. This day on the eve of Independence Day I am happy to watch a thoughtful movie like this. Hats off to the director, he has proved it once again. A person really needs guts to openly direct such a movie clearly depicting the critical situation of politics. One of my friends always used to talk about Andhra politics. I used to laugh at him then. But today I understand how serious it is. Now I feel we haven’t got the real independence yet. Our ancestors spilled their blood and life on this earth to protect us for British. But it’s sad that we gave all our independence to the politicians and suffering in their hands for our basic needs. A farmer who cultivates rice and wheat for the nation doesn’t have food to eat. But we have all luxury cars opening showrooms in India saying that India has lots of wealthy people. We have big shopping malls with international brands. We afford to spend so much for our own luxuries while people struggle to have one meal for a day. Are we ashamed of the countries situation?? What is the point in celebrating Independence Day??? Youth of India wake up and protect the country. I know this fire burns at least in few thousand people hearts but what is stopping us from doing it. A small spark of fire burns the wood. Lets all try to change the system ... Find a good leader amongst us to save our nation. Thanks to the director who created a spark in my mind. It must have illuminated a few more like mine. If you guys haven’t watched the movie yet, do watch it. Its not a complete solution or the real situation which our Shankar and Manirathnam had forgotten to discuss in Mudalvan or any other movie. But a different perspective to show how much black money is rotating inside and outside the country. On this Independence Day lets try to take a oath that we will sincerely help the people to get their basic needs however small it is. Lets contribute the best to change.

Angadi theru

2010-04-06T00:18:00.004+05:30

It’s been quite a while since I wrote… Hope I can complete this successfully. First, loads of thanks to Prasanna who actually inspired me to see the movie and write a review on it. This post is dedicated to you Prasanna, I think you are one person who never misses any of my post. Thanks !!!

Angadi theru – Directed by Vasantha Balan starring Mahesh and Anjali is a reality movie. Tamil cinema can be proud of having a handful few directors who really dare to work on such a script. First hats off to the director and thanks to his guru Director Shankar for encouraging his assistants with such films. Veyil from Vasantha Balan under the production of Shankar has given him a break and a new recognition in the film industry after his first debut Album.

The movie is about people working in shops in Ranganathan street, T Nagar and reality around it. Youngsters from remote villages are brought to Chennai to work in these shops. With heaps of desires and compelled by situations to work they come to Chennai as sales persons. To their disappointment, they end up in differnt situation. They are tortured and gals are abused by the supervisors. Employers treat them as slave and black mails them. They are forced to lead life like slaves in a jail. The shop is has lodging place and mess for food. We find they cant even stretch properly and sleep. Staffs mess can never be worst. After the movie I couldn’t eat my lunch without thinking about this mess scene. Wake up alarm is beatings from a supervisor. Amongst all these pressures and worries they start searching for happiness among them. When they fall in love, the situations worsen. Management punishes them and forces them to quit the job when they are caught. Jothi lingam – Hero (Mahesh) and Kani – Heroin (anjali) are one of the staffs in a such shop. They are also not exceptions from these. After distrust they start liking each other and they fall in love. When they are caught. How they face the problems and come over is the story.

Don’t expect our Hero to become a super human to take revenge on Owner of the shop and save all the people. If it’s a commercial movie you can expect such screenplay. But this is a reality movie. It is simply how they escape from the clutches and saves their love.

The story also has few small time sellers in the street who completely depend on this street for the survival.The script actually starts from present and goes back.

The star cast is very neat. Mahesh, Anjali, Black Pandi and A. Venkatesh performance are impressive. Anjali is not like a routine heroin who just plays glamour roles and comes only for songs. She is simply superb. Background score is neatly done. They have not forgotten to even add train sound in bg keeping in mind that Ranganathan street is near Railway station. Cinematography by Richard and edited by Sreekar Prasad.

Vasantha Balan has definitely proved again in this film. I am actually shocked to see the background research made in each every detail in the frame. Though this is not a complete entertainer but this is a film which will be cherished.

Angadi Theru is a must watch for cinema lovers.

I, me, myself and movies

2010-01-21T17:24:00.001+05:30

Movies are something which has been a part of my life. Whether its happiness or sadness I would like to watch a movie. Just like people who find a reason to have a drink. I find a reason to watch a movie. Be it in English or tamil or hindi or telgu or Malayalam or for that matter any foreign language movie, I love watching movies. Movie is a single medium, language is not a bar. While talking about movies I should also accept that I am not too much into Hollywood which any movie buff would love to watch. I don’t even know the famous artist name there.. Still I try to catch up with few of them then and there. That’s one of my biggest drawbacks too… My friend always says,’u r local’ and I haven’t yet enjoyed the global flavor. May be that’s the one of the reasons I get excited with Indian films. Anyways I am writing down my thoughts with a handful of movies I have watched so far and also in a narrowed vision.
Off late I have been seeing quite a few Indian movies which can be classified under different genre. One was technically awesome with a neat screenplay, one had nice script, one had a beautiful making, and one was colorful and what not………. During my college days I did a research thesis on editing in art films and commercial films. For the thesis when I met an editor (I don’t want to mention his name) he said,” According to me there are no classification in films called art and commercial films. For me it is only good and bad films. Editing doesn’t change based on art or commercial it changes based on the biggest factor or hero is the STORY “. At that time I was little shocked to hear this and acknowledge the fact he said because my entire research thesis would go meaningless. Since my final result was based on the facts analyzed from these interviews.
Now after two years, when I think back I realize that what he said was true. When I was watching a few films recently I was engrossed in it completely and was excited. Movies like Dil Bole Hadippa had no logic, still u enjoyed the film. Wakeup Sid story sounded very much similar still u enjoyed. These are a kind of feel good movies. You enjoy while watching and forget it once you move out of the door. Just to while away time or when u wanna relax from a hectic day. If u indulge into the logical or story part u will seriously be disappointed. May be it was even bcoz of cricket. Games always excite you on screen.

Next set of movies or movies which has everything in proper proportion and you really feel happy for watching a good movie. You really appreciate it and preserve it to watch again. I will call it as good movies. 3 idiots, eeram, pasanga, nadodigal etc.
Next are reality movies. These are movies which take a real life situation, draw a story around it. They reflect the culture of the society. Even in reality movies we can split them into two, ones which are raw and ones in which fantasy are mixed to reach the audience. Raw movies don’t reach all class audience. Only a closed set of people watch them and have a taste to appreciate them. These movies are called as art films and new wave films. Movies like page 3, traffic signal, kalloori, nan kadavul, water, mirugaam etc.
Last but not the least some movies you literally wait for the exit door to be opened and rush out of it crying Please leave me alone. I have no comments on these movies.
I personally like reality movies. But considering the audience perceptive it’s a must that we reach max no of audience. So it would be great to watch realistic movies with little story and mixed emotions. This doesn’t hurt your feels and gives the message too. Taarae Zameen Par is one best example I could think off. You feel satisfied for spending 200 bucks for the ticket.
All these are just perceptions of me as an individual. It may be right or wrong. I would be really happy to receive your inputs and comments.

Ninaithalae Inikum…. With moderate sweetness…

2009-09-09T09:26:00.004+05:30

Movie directed by Kumaravelan starring Prithviraj,Bhagyaraj, Sakthi, Priyamani, Evam Karthik and much more is a remake of a blockbuster hit malayalam movie Classmates directed by Lal Jose.
Kumaravelan has taken the crux rather important scenes of classmates and remade it in Tamil relating to Tamil culture and incidents. Movie starts with the reunion of 2000 year pass outs. After 8 years, we travel back with them to their nostalgic college days. Prithiviraj and Sakthi are close friends. Prithviraj always comes first for any problem and tries to solve it by all means be it worst college hostel food or fighting with Karthik for forcing a girl to love him. This develops serious grudges between them. Prthviraj falls in love with Priya Mani, a MLA’s daughter. Students fight for college students union and manage to get permission for the same. Later it so happens that Priya Mani and Prithviraj stand for the same Chairman posts due to various reasons. This leads to a serious of incidents leaving deep grudge and pain in their hearts. This reunion discloses series of mysteries.
Since I had already watched the Malayalam movie I knew the story and I was literally looking out for the differences and similarities between the movies. After a long time u happen to see a movie which is properly remade without damaging the original script and as well suiting it to the different culture and period. It’s a good feel when u see good movie remade properly. Though there were few flaws and I would say it’s negligible. Not to forget the nostalgia it takes you back to your own college days......
Songs are fast and choreography is good. In the flashback the movie was completely colorful which I liked the most… The movie had a style in the making... I really liked the style of the movie… it was colorful. When I saw Love aaj Kal I felt so bad why Tamil films aren’t made that cool and colourful. They had such a simple (not so good) story but there was a style in the movie... you never took off your eyes off the screen. We have wonderful stories and excellent technicians still we fail to reach the style and a grand look on the screen. Grand doesn’t mean Shankar style of movie making.. Grandness comes with simple properties, costumes and location also... Nanbanai pola song had a beautiful locale... Good Work!!!
Sreekar Prasad is the editor, but I don’t feel his touch in the movie… probably one of his assistants did it… there was some prob when it came to mixing the mis en scene portions.
Opening scene in the classmates movie is kept in the interval block which is indeed shocking for the viewers. Azagai pookuthae was the best song…. Each and every song had a diff style and diff feel….
Prithviraj has done a good job.. and one of the best movies for Sakthi so far in his career. Karthik in negative role. After a long time a movie is taken with more than one hero with equal importance to all the characters in the movie. Tamil industry had always problem in taking a movie with more than one hero. In this movie in fact the story is the hero. Heroine doenst come inwantedly. There was no good chemistry. Priyamani can never replace beautiful Kavya Madavan… Her eyes would talk in the entire song to show her love in Kathirunda pennalae song in Classmatees. Prithiviraj has proved he can also dance well…
If I write a few more lines I might reveal the suspense in the story… So I stop here…. I have somewhere lost the touch of writing review… Good or Bad????
Will catch you up soon with yet an other mokkai review of mine…. J
Ninaithalae inikum with moderate sweetness…
Eagerly waiting for Eeram release :D

Kandasamy

2009-08-24T11:07:00.004+05:30

Its been really a long time since I updated my blog.. Today after watching kandasamy I thought its time to do it….

Kandasamy starring Vikram, Shriya, Prabu and lot more is directed by Susi Ganesan. An assistant director of Manirathnam started his directorial debut with Virumbugiraen, five star, thirutu payalae and his recent film being kandasamy. I am not going in detail of the story because that you can catch up with any review in a newspaper or a magazine. This is a typical Robin Hood story, where hero loots money from the riches and distributes it to the poor and the needy. I felt that the director pulled the script from Shankar’s desk and directed it.. The story has shankar’s style of theme in it. Dhanu has depleted his money lavishly in each and every shot. But the producer failed to buy a decent costume for Shriya. She roams around with Bikini kind of costumes the entire film. Vfx and graphics are used in almost every shot but output is not seen effectively on the screen. Very high coloring in the scenes especially the Mexico part is too warm that even the skin tone of the actors are changed. An highly increased level of R in RGB..

Worst editing…. Too much of lag in the movie… U feel bored in the middle of the film and u even get shocked that still even interval block haven't come.
Devi Sri Prasad had composed peppy songs. The cuts don’t go with the beat especially in Alaigra song… too many songs and you get bored of it and visuals are not as expected. If you are going with a family, you better walk out for Meena Kumari song.. too much of vulgarity in the steps and ultimate is the pole dancing of Mukesh Tiwari.. You would laugh out till you roll on the floor. Shriya comes and goes out as a glamour doll the entire film. Vikram looks hotter than shriya in the lady get up.. :P Not to forget the Suchi's voice for Shriya. it doesnt suit her at all..

Vikram has as usual done his role perfectly. His cool attitude and casual style makes you glue with him. The portion where Vadivelu comes is annoying. It would have been much better without him. Prabu plays a role as a police official. Theme of the film is really good and screenplay is also done well except in few parts. But the takings aren’t up to the reach. Maybe it was even because we have always seen these kind of movies with Shankar touch.

In his movies we would love we visualize an India without corruption, in Kandasamy you feel at last the movie got over. Director has tried his best to reach that level but failed badly. With everything available in ample something is badly missing in the film which doesn’t fullfil the hype created among the audience…..

After watching the movie you definitely need a cup of tea to relieve you from headache. In simple words, Mothathil Kandasamy Bandasamy ( Doesn’t fulfill the hype created)....

Bucket List….

2009-04-15T21:56:00.003+05:30

I am still searching for words to describe this movie….. Should I say awesome?? Overwhelming?? Marvelous?? Spectacular??
I don’t have words….. It’s a stunning movie about two aged men suffering from cancer. Having their end date fixed, they find time to love and care each other. Bucket List is list of things these old men wishes to do before they die.

Two protagonists, both old aged men rock the movie, Carter and Edward. They are forced to stay in a same room and undergo treatment for cancer. Carter is a family man who has led a life like any other father in the world, disciplined in nature. Edward is a rich businessman who leads a lonely life. Being put in the same room they become friends without their knowledge. Edward finds carters bucket list and convinces him that they should be doing all these before they die. With the list in hand Edward spends all his money going around the world fulfilling the wishes. Carters loving family demands his presence but feels he has to be away from them. Carter also finds Edwards love towards his daughter who had been separate for years. After roaming all around Carter decides to get back home. He takes Edward to his daughter. But Edward refuses to meet her. While having a feast with his entire family Carter falls sick again. He is taken to hospital and dies there. He laughs out until he cries on his death bed fulfilling his last wish. Carter also forces Edward to visit his daughter. Unable to refuse Carters last words Edward visits his daughter, when he does go there he fulfils his greatest wish to kiss the most beautiful women in the world, his own grandchild. Finally they are buried after death on the top of the month fulfilling all the wishes in their bucket list.

Though the movie is completely centered between the two men you don’t get bored at all and you do know that they both are going to die still you continue to watch the movie. It has an interesting character Tommy, Edward’s assistant. He keeps typing something on his Apple Laptop and receives all sorts of insults from Edward still loves to work for him and does everything for him. Carter’s wife keeps fighting with Edward to leave her husband back to her. You feel her love when she comes to know that he is no more. Accepting the unbelievable fact she silently comes near him and kisses him passionately. Without any words without any one shouting you are in tears without your knowledge.

The movie is absolute.

Every one of us has goals in life. We run behind money, goals and other materialistic things all life without finding time to take care of ourselves and our loved ones. When you realize this and turn back everything is gone. You will not be able to rewind time to redo what you have done. In between your busy schedules, tension, deadlines, recession, meetings, etc just take 5 minutes a day to care for your loved ones. They might need it desperately. When you finish all your work and get back they might be no more. Even the smallest things make a big difference. Life is short enjoy it too the fullest without hurting anyone and disturbing others principles.

I have started writing down my bucket list ;)

Yaavarum Nalam

2009-03-18T21:25:00.004+05:30

Stunning camera work by PC Sriram and splendid editing by Sreekar Prasad which makes the movie complete. This suspense thriller directed by Vikram Kumar starring Madhavan, Neethu Chandra and a lot more. The important highlight of the movie is that we never get to see the ghost. It’s a well scripted thriller. You even have a lot of traces of English horror movies here and there. But not to deny the fact that after a long time tamil industry has come with very good movie.
The story is about how a joint family leaving in a flat comes across various problems with a presence of ghost in their home leads to reveal murder of a family of 8 members in the same location 30 years back. Here the women at home are addicted to TV serials. At a particular time the TV stops in a channel and a new serial is starting. The women start watching it because the serial is also based on horror. But later Maddy finds that all the events happening in the serial are real which is going to happen in his own home and to his family members in minutes. Maddy struggling to save the family, finds the hidden murder 30 years ago. How the ghost take revenge on the murderer and how maddy solves the problem and protects his family is story of Yaavarum Nalam.
This is a bilingual movie also released in Hindi as 13B.Movie does have few continuity errors here and there which are negligible and many won’t even notice it. Mind blowing camera work and lighting without which the movie would be zero. I don’t think anyone else apart from PC could do justice to the movie. Editing is also excellent but only in the climax I felt they could have rearranged a few shots. I also do feel that they had done it knowingly to reveal the assassin and to divert the movie into another direction how Maddy is going to save his family.
First half was really funny and you get pissed off in the intermission asking your neighbor is this a horror movie I came in? But it is worth waiting in the second half which is too good. They could have avoided the duet song between maddy and neethu which broke the pace of the film. This film also has quite a few small screen artists. Guess this would be good opening for them in big screen. But the director could have avoided them because they stick on in our minds when the film gets over. You feel you had a watched a serial because they are much assessable to all of us every day in TV. May be he even wanted it to divert audience mind. If he had used some new faces the impact would have been much stronger.
Do take a break and watch the movie. I am sure you would enjoy it completely though it doesn’t scare you. You would like it. Congrats for the director. Radiantly scripted and offered in a smart package.

Aham Bramhasmi…….

2009-02-21T13:41:00.001+05:30

Nan Kadavul a movie directed Bala casting aarya(Rudran) and pooja(Hamsavalli). The movie starts in kasi. A father goes in search of his son who he had left behind in Kasi 15 years back because the son was considered as a bad omen in the family. First 20 min to 30 min was completely shot in kaasi. The father brings back aarya who has become an agori to malaiyoor in south Tamil Nadu. This is the place where Thandavan also runs a mafia gang. He earns through making the disabled people beg. Malaikovil is where the group of beggars under Murugan begs on routine. Murugan works for Thandavan. Though Murugan forces the disabled to beg, he his kind hearted and a good will for the disabled. He makes tries to keep them happy in a way he knows. Thandavan is completely behind money. He tortures disabled physically and lives on their earnings. Pooja is a blind beggar. She goes around begging in trains. Murugan accidently sees pooja. Using his business tactics he takes away pooja from her original group to the Thandavan gang with the help of a local inspector. Pooja initially fears and struggles to mingle in a new place and group. Kind heart of the other beggars makes her feel comfortable and she starts leading her life. Aarya in turn stays in a cave on the top of the hill moving out of his family. His only routine is to smoke ganja and meditate. He only opens his mouth to say Aham Bramhasmi. His mother tries to convince him to come back home. But he refuses. She realizes that he is no more her son and leaves him behind. Meanwhile a Nair from Kerala comes to meet thandavan for business. He wants buy few of the disabled beggars under him and take them to kerala. Murugans team gets affected here. They all are separated and taken to Kerala.

Nair finds a scary guy to marry pooja. He looks highly scary so he wants to marry a blind who wil serve him lifelong. And he is ready to pay even ten lakh for her. Pooja comes to know this and goes to aarya for help. Aarya being an agori has the capability to different good and evil men. As soon as he sees Nair he identifies him to be evil and kiils him. He is arrested by police and even taken to court. Police inspector a friend of Nair and thadavan fails to find the truth from aarya so he changes his verdict saying that there was no person called Nair. Thandavan literally waits for aarya to be released to kill him but aarya identifies him to be evil and murders him. Pooja realizing the power of aarya request him to kill her. So that she will never have rebirth. Realizing her pain and her in ability to survive aarya kills her and goes back to his guru. Opening shot for Aarya is extremely good (he meditating upside down), which clearly depicts his character. The movie comes to a logical end with the similar shot and later aarya goes back to his guru.

Bala has done his best in bringing the other side of life skillfully on screen. The beggar’s lifestyle gets used to us. So when aarya kills her we neither don’t have an emotional feel nor an anger to ask why she has been killed. I wished he could have concentrated much more on the kasi parts.

Both aarya and pooja have done a splendid performance equally. I liked aarya’s performance. He has followed the body language perfectly. Not even in a single frame he had lost the body language. His eyes don’t show any emotion. His eyes shows only anger when he sees someone evil. Pooja had scope to show various emotions in the movie rather aarya. Also being blind is known character which we have seen many people on screen. Wish they had concentrated more on the kasi portion. When the movie ends we forget to realize their pain. Because we feel that this is their way of life. My colleague also said the beggar story was inspired by the novel Ezavadu ulagaam. Its really a movie worth watching. I really felt somehow I am blessed to be born healthy. If you have been cribbing around just make yourself free to watch the movie.

En arumai tamil makkalae………

2009-01-13T17:35:00.003+05:30

Bommalattam, a suspense thriller directed by veteran director Bharathirajaa starring Nana Patekar, Arjun and Kajal Agarwal. I have to be careful before writing the review because I don’t want to reveal the suspense. Everyone thinks that this movie is no way different from his other movies like kallukul eeram or manvasanai. Bommalattam is an art film or a film about movie making it is what people say. Everyone forgot that he is the man behind Sigappu rojakkal, kaidiyin dairy and tik tik tik which were big hit thrillers.
If you had not seen the movie better stop reading here. The story revolves around the murders happening in the shooting spot of Nana Patekar, a very famous movie director in the movie. Arjun, a CBI officer investigates these murders. His girl friend Kajal Agarwal is a craziest fan of Nana Patekar and she becomes a good friend to him eventually. Arjun hates her going behind Nana Patekar. All the witness proves that Nana Patekar is the murderer. Who is the murderer and how it is proved is the story in short. The story starts from the present and goes to the murders in between as Arjun interrogates Nana Patekar.
I think the flashback travelling to the shooting spot reduces the suspense of the movie. They could have actually gone in a story flow. I also felt the suspense created was broken immediately. In one scene we conceive the evidences and in the very next scene suspense is revealed. It was too quick and fast to digest the facts in the movie. They could have built the real suspense without the flashback. Of course the twist was superb and unimaginable.
There is no big role for arjun. Anyone could have done the same role. No big investigations. How arjun finds the truth is not explained later also. Only if you had watched the film zealously and only if u can pull all those facts you actually understand how Arjun would have found out. Our people really don’t have the patience to think so much to understand. I feel that editor didn’t play his role well. If he had reworked or somehow convinced the director we could have got a better output. Some shots are repeated and you feel jump here and there. I shall put it as no continuity in editing.
When the entire tamil film industry is busy making all masala, action and romantic movies. A thriller like this makes you realize there are also different genres in film making. With last few movies of the director becoming a flop, Bommalattam proves his proficiency in film making. Unfortunately this movie has failed to reach the audience effectively.

Chennai International Film Festival…..

2008-12-29T14:59:00.000+05:30

December is a very special month throughout the world. In west it’s time for celebration, vacation,snow and fun. In Chennai it is the season for arts. You can find all music lovers in some sabha or the other to catch their favorite singers live. Everywhere you can find celebration. For me it was little different because of Chennai International Film Festival. I was so happy and enthusiastic from the month starting. This festival is organized by ICAF, Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation. I went all the way to its office in Parsen Apartments to get passes for the festival. To my surprise they asked me from which college I was. I said I am working… I was very happy still I look like a college student. Later I found out that they had issued free passes for them.
I was so thrilled to watch the films. I got special permission from my reporting manager Prasanna to bunk office now and then to watch films. Thanks Prasanna. But all my thrills and expectations turned out to be a big disappointment. This was the 5th year I had attended the festival, I am sorry to say but this was the worst of all. The standard of movie screened every year is going down drastically. You could say only very few movies were good. Out of 120 movies screened I would say not even 20 movies were worth watching. Though story was horrible few had beautiful cinematography. Retrospective movies of Kim ki duk were good. These movies also fall within those twenty movies I mentioned.
2nd International film Festival was the first festival I attended. It was organized in collaboration with NFDC, National Film Development and Corporation. They got extraordinary movies then. In that period hardly twenty movies were not worth watching. They could never get back the standard again. NFDC didn’t take part in the later festivals.
This year Tamil Nadu government had given 25 lakh for the festival, each delegate had paid 500rs and a member paid 300rs to watch movies. Above all they had got hell a lot of sponsors. With all the fund raised they failed to bring in good movies. Movies from France and Germany dominated the festival. Other countries had hardly 1 movie just for the sake of having the count of the countries. To my surprise only 2 Iranian movies were screened.
Movie screening happened in woodlands and woodlands symphony with a time difference of 15min. digital screening was going on in Film Chamber. First people used to sit for the first movie. Within 15 min they realize it’s not worth imme they move to the second movie. I always tried sit there in the hope to learn something. Most people inside the theatre doze off and you could hear people snoring. When you walk out of theatre after the movie you could see lot people waiting out for the next show. They found the second movie was also a waste. In short people sat outside the theatre hoping to see a good movie than inside watching.
The organizers of the festival apart from enjoying the money they receive. They should also concentrate on movies which are being screened. I don’t know on what basis they select the movies for screening. They can organize a committee to select the movies to be screened. In that way they could increase the standard of the festival as such and also a satisfaction to the viewers. Everyone makes it to the festival in between their hectic schedules with lot of expectations. It’s the duty of the organizers to provide them excellent movies. Hope they at least do something in the coming years. I also found the regular festival goers were missing and the response was very low from the film industry. They had tried to fill the hall by providing free passes to students. In short it was dreadful.

Another unforgettable weekend in the history of EM64...

2008-12-12T16:10:00.000+05:30

It’s the first b’ day month for my blog. I started writing exactly a year before. Initially when I started I wrote only about movies. Movies are my passion and love. Slowly it turned out to sharing my experiences, views and lot more. I would like to thank my very few handful readers who found time to read the crap I scribble and comment on it... Lot of things has changed in my life for the past one year except me and my friends who I have always been proud of.
I am an electronic media student from Anna University. It’s a 5 year course after you finish your 12th and we were the first and biggest batch in the department with 64 members in class. We were always referred as the 64 batch by all the staff members and even juniors. When we completed our course we tagged ourselves as EM64. Like everybody else in the world my happiest days were college days. I used to go to college even if I am not well because I might miss the fun happening there. 1st year of my college life was little dull or standby for me. It was very difficult for me to get used to the new atmosphere, friends and people who were grown in different atmosphere. I had studied in same school from my 5th standard we were in same culture. College was big change. It took a lot of time for me to get used to it. Once I got used those were unforgettable. I changed into a new person.
Our class was like what you see in movies. People used come late and walk straight into the class even when lecturer is standing. When a b’ day boy or gal steps inside the class, the whole class starts singing happy birthday when the lecturer would be lost teaching the subject. It would take a few minutes for him to understand or realize what’s happening. One good thing was we never used to bunk classes to go to a movie. We used to cancel the classes the classes to go to movie. We didn’t have worries, pressure, problems, commitments, duties and money… Still we had the best time sitting on the Anna University pavements, red platform, kutty suvaar, canteen, gallery, gurunath and every other place.
By the time we finished college we were like a family, so attached to each other. We wanted to make sure all of us meet at regular intervals though people moved to different cities and countries for job, studies and few got married also. We meet at least once a month to celebrate b’ days and also when people come down to Chennai from other places. Every 6 months we try to go outing for 3 or 4 days. This weekend was one such occasion.
It was bakrid and our friend Jaheed used to take guys to his home town to erode, he used to avoid taking gals because most of us were veg and he thought we won’t be comfortable when the goat was sacrificed which was important event of the occasion. This time we thought we had to join. So we combined the bakrid celebration with a trip to yercaud over weekend. Monday we go to black thunder and return back to Chennai on Wednesday. We had people coming down from delhi, pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore for the trip.
As usual the trip was excellent, fabulous and it was good to be with friends and to forget every other thing else in life. It was time to fun fun fun and only fun. I was desperately waiting for the trip. I wanted a break from everything.
The trip was actually very very different. We had to walk walk and walk throughout yercaud to visit ladies, gents and children’s viewpoint. Next day we went to kilianur falls. It was like trekking but we climbed a shorter distance. It was adventurous for me. This was the second time I went for trekking. We had to walk down a narrow path similar to othai adi pathai and a small slip we might fall down. At some points it was little tricky too. Few got drenched in the falls happily. After few foto sessions there in falls we decided to get back. We were the only group with gals other people in the falls had come with beer bottles. So our organizers felt it is better to move out soon. We started to climb back.
Once we reached back to the hotel we had lunch and took vans from yercaud to salem bus stand as the buses were full. We wanted to climb down the hill in lorry together for a change. The lorry drivers were shocked and refused to take us. So we didn’t have any option we had to climb down in 3 vans. Van journey was amusing. We were rating the adult content in the songs and argued for the scores each song got out of 10. From salem we boarded bus to erode to reach my friend Jaheed home where we planned to have the bakrid celebration. As soon as we got down we started shouting Jaheed…... Jaheed……. That was the usual trend we follow when we visit one’s house in our class. It is something similar to thanking them and also to show a small trailer for our naughtiness. When we reached his home his entire family was standing out to welcome us. That crowd was literally bigger than us and we ourselves were shocked and silent for few minutes. It’s a nice big joint family with lots of kids to play.
After dinner we spoke to jaheed parents and family members, played lock and key and red letter with the kids. We explored and remembered all the games we played as kids with them... We were very tired and next day we had planned to go to black thunder. So we tried get some sleep. Kumaran had fever and he wanted to go back to his home town somehow we convinced him and took him with us to erode.
By the time we reached erode, jaheed family had got appointment with the doctor for him and they immediately arranged a van for the black thunder trip. We had planned to take the government bus initially. Next day was ultimate in black thunder. We went two times in all the rides. We didn’t know where kumaran’s fever went that day. He was literally in the water whole day. Lazy River was the ultimate. We were floating and playing around pushing everyone for almost an hour. One of the black thunder staff saw it got tensed. He came down into the water and started pushing us to reach the destination. And of course we were the last person to leave the place. Mani and satish were waiting outside for us. They had come down finishing the MBA semester exam in coimbatore Anna University to join us. We retuned back to erode tired and almost drained out. Next day we got up late and found even the youngest kid in the family was neatly dressed for the festival. After fighting laziness and for bathroom we got ready. We had a splendid briyani for lunch. We went around walking and made little shopping trying to digest the food we had. At 8 we left jaheed home with heavy heart and thanking the family members for their hospitality and tolerating our nonsense for the two days. Ashiq and Akila were celebrating their b’day that week. We had a small cake cutting celebration for them. The kids were so attached to us and they came to station with their parents to send us off.
The family was really glad to treat us guest. They were surprised and even jealous to see us all together. They wished they had friends like that too. We were very happy to hear that. We prayed that our friendship should continue forever even though we moved to different parts of the world. We reached Chennai early morning at 4.30 after playing Ass and talking all night.
The trip didn’t end there. Pain of going to office next day struck us hard. Most of them decided to bunk office. I had to go. I had work. That evening they all met in Spencer. I joined them late after finishing my work. Again with a small chat we went back home getting ready for the routine work and hoping that I will join the next trip too…

TOUCH WOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

Is it black because of rain or smoke???

2008-11-27T17:37:00.000+05:30

It’s raining since the day break. I opened my eyes to stop my alarm. Wished it was a holiday for me too. I wanted to sleep all day. In fact I sent an sms to friend Arunsri asking her whether it was a holiday. She said, “ I don’t think so”. She also sent me the shocking news of some terrorist attack in Mumbai and asked me to check the news. I got up from bed in this shock. Just like in a horror movie electricity came all on a sudden as I read the msg. There was a frequent power cut late night due to heavy rain. I asked my dad to switch on the TV and started searching the news channels. I really don’t watch news so I literally had to search. I just catch up with the headlines. I have a very poor memory. I don’t remember any names or places or dates or figures. They don’t stay in my mind. I am a visual person. I can easily visualize things. So I always remember the incidents. They are like reading a story in a book. Whenever I try to recall about some event they come to my mind as montages. Whether it’s an historic event or something on personal life…stays in my mind only because of this nature. Other stuffs just fade off from my memory...
Today as soon as I switched on the TV, I saw the beautiful, magnificent Taj Palace smoking. I still remember the day my classmates planned to take up the last boat from elephanta caves in Mumbai just to see Gateway and Taj in night and in lights.

It was so shocking. Next thing that came into my mind was my friends living there. I called everyone and confirmed that they are safe. They were all at home or in office. Relaxed…I started to get ready for office. It had rained all night in Chennai. The roads were flooded. I didn’t want to take leave also. On the way I heard the news updates in radio.

The office was almost empty. Everyone started coming in only around 11.30 due to heavy rain they all had struck in traffic or their vehicle had stopped because of water. I was not ok. Something was disturbing me. I didn’t know what. I thought may be the shock early morning was the reason. I was not able to concentrate. I opened all the news channels on my desktop and kept reading about the attack and updates. After lunch I found everyone was too engrossed in their own work. Nobody bothered to know what’s happening. No one spoke about the attack or even the rain. They had bug to be checked out, they had issues with connecting to the database, and they were waiting for a client mail to proceed on work. This attitude is even more shocking. Just half an hour back my friend Arun found out that Hexaware Mumbai has also closed down only the corporate marketing team was working.

People are too busy. May be they had watched everything in TV today morning and forgot about it on the way to office. May be that is the idle way of life to lead for any common man. As a media student any crisis we are always on full swing to find out information. We have had arguments, ideas and solutions on all crisis at college. I had grown discussing it in detail. This looks very different for me. May be that’s why I felt odd all day at office. May be they are leading an IDEAL life and I stand somewhere in between not knowing where to jump in…whether I should also be cool or I should do something. If I am not going do something on my own, I will surely play my role at least to change make some difference. This doesn’t mean that you have to jump in and help people. Just do your duty and work for the nation.
In that case you need not worry too much about Obama becoming President of US. It wont affect your bread and butter. Rather you will start worrying about the brothers and sisters who are killed right here in Mumbai for no reason. Everyone wants to sit and comment on police or politicians for being careless and irresponsible. What have you done to nation? What have you done to change yourself?

I do know you alone can’t change everything in front of u. but obviously you can be the change what you want to see. Wish and hope they solve the crisis soon.

Whatever Happens Life has to MOVE ON……

2008-11-24T18:34:00.001+05:30

This word MOVE ON is personally too painful for me... I hate it…. I dont want to hear it again in my life…till my last breath. Vaaranam Aayiraam also insists the same.

I always prefer watching a movie with an open mind. Like a clean black board. May be that’s why I always wanted to rush to a movie soon after it releases. I don’t read any reviews before watching the movie and also before writing the blog. Before I went for this movie I heard only two comments from many people. They said,’ I liked the movie’ and ‘I don’t like the movie’.

Vaaranam Aayiraam simply says whatever happens life has to move… This is a movie about a son who gets inspired by his dad at every stage in his life. The story is narrated by son surya. We actually see his stages in life and how the father surya supported him at each stage. I felt the bond between father and son was not established that deep. Son had in particular grabbed his father’s love story as a greatest inspiration. Importance is given to the son surya, his love, his failure, his difficulties, his expectations, and his disappointments in life.

All most all the songs were with Sameera Reddy. She looks good in jean than in salwar. My friend Arun also said Gautham’s touch was seen only in the scenes taken in United States. I also felt he was right. Simren though she plays a small role she is as always the best... Divya comes just for the sake of having a heroine.

Army scenes and scenes in which Surya goes in search of the kid is fast and Gautham has carved his niche for it as usual.

Brilliant cinematography… The cinematographer Rathinavel has captured beautiful shot in each and every frame... Either its Kashmir or US or even LIC building it was cool. Music by Harris was kind of ok... You feel you had heard some tunes somewhere in his own composition. Still you don’t feel bored. Lyrics by Thamarai was mindblowing I had only heard words like andadi, tharagai and lot more only in tamil literature. She has really given a feast to tamil lovers as always.

Editing… I still don’t believe it was antony who edited the movie. I am a big fan of him. Still at some places I don’t like his fast cuts. If you see a song you can straight away tell that it was edited by him. This movie doesn’t give a feel that it was edited by Anthony himself. You never felt that the movie was edited. All the best for ur directorial debut too Anthony sir.

Vaaranam Aayiraam is a life story of a person. Gautham’s personal story. Surya has taken over the movie completely. It is his own film. Gautham could have avoided English dialogues and too much of daddy in it... It gave an Anglo Indian feel for me.

Though it had many problems and people didn’t like it much. Technically the movie was mind-blowing. For instance, you can actually feel the difference in both the father and son’s physique. If you had noticed keenly you could feel the father is losing his strength and he also loses his weight and looks terribly weak on his death bed… Body language actually showed the difference... The movie is scripted and planned perfectly by Gautham... Bravo…. I really understand how much of home work the movie had taken. If he even misses to take a single shot it would have been a big problem… Continuity, set, co artist placement were all in proper place especially when both the surya come in the same frame… It made me awe mainly because both the characters would have been shot at different periods to match the physiques… We really have to say Hats off for the work and involvement by the crew as such.

I personally found a few messages in the movie. I don’t know how far others understood.

Whatever happens life has to MOVE ON

Love like mad

Do the craziest stuff in the world

Express yourself clearly

Work hard

Whatever you do, give ur hundred percent

Enjoy every moment in your life.

Don’t hurt others

Respect the next person’s feelings

Be sincere

And what not to……… You can also add points to the list…….

Strangely Intimate….

2008-11-10T14:17:00.002+05:30

My colleague Prasanna borrowed a magazine from library. While reading it, I just came across an interesting article. I thought I should type down my thoughts on it. This article is about a women’s personal experience on her love towards her husband. I don’t want to talk about her. But I just wanted to share the crux of the article.

We may not be able to find a life partner with similar thoughts, likes etc. This generation is facing a war between love and arranged marriage. In both we don’t find our partner having similar thoughts in each and everything in life. We can surely learn to love those differences. He may not dance with you, he may not get beautiful flowers for u, he may not be romantic or she may not enjoy watching cricket with u, she may not cook your favorite food deliciously, she may not stop complaining about your mom. Still you patiently listen to her. Still she silently waits for you at door for u to return back from work.

Despite all these differences and clashes you still love each other. Just stop searching yourself within the other…trying to change them the way you like…wanting them to understand what you wish. Because you are gonna fail trying to change. Even if they change, it is just temporary or nam ke vaaste just to pose in front of you. Behind you they continue to remain the same. Instead of forcing yourself to change for others or changing others for you, learn to enjoy the differences. Enjoy the fights. Enjoy the tears. Enjoy the laugh. Only then you are unique, you don’t loose yourself.

Generations back our mothers or our grandmothers sacrificed themselves, their desires to satisfy their husbands need some times in other way around. But now we don’t want to give away our desires and dreams. Everyone wants to fly.

In tamil literature there is a beautiful word called oodaal. Oodaal is anger between the couple which will be solved at any moment. Oodaal is due to love on each other. Fight is something which can’t be solved.

So oodaal is a must in a love and not fight. Oodaal strengthens the bond and fight creates a crack. These cracks don’t join perfectly once it’s broken.

Marriage or love is a three legged race. We have one of our legs tied together and one free. With the one free we must explore our individuality, our uniqueness. And with the one tied together we must realize what intimacy is. To win the race, we need to balance both – our separateness and our togetherness.

We would be happy if we are able to understand individual desires and dreams. Thus we can avoid unnecessary fights and heart breaks. Live and let live. Because most of the problems comes from not wanting to see things as they are.

This not only works for couples but also to any relation existing in this world who is close to your heart.

Meghamalhar

2008-10-20T22:53:00.003+05:30

I am having a Malayalam film festival at home. With a stack of VCD’s and DVD’s piled near my computer my parents wonder whether I have changed my mother tongue. They rarely see me watching tamil movies. Each and every time it is some foreign language or the other. They might have even wondered do they make movies in those countries or even which country the movie belongs to. There is always a gap between us both communication and generation. I simply hope that time would change everything and they really understand my dreams and desires. Now coming back to movies, this weekend I saw few Malayalam movies.

Meghamalhar was close to my heart of the movies I saw. This movie has beautiful songs and excellent background score which are synonymous to the title of the movie. Biju Menon as Rajeevan an advocate and Samyuktha Verma as Nanditha a writer meet each other accidentally and a friendship develops between them. This friendship becomes a strong liking towards each other. Nandita finds that Rajeevan is none other than her childhood friend. They had always had a liking towards each other as kids. Due to unavoidable situations rajeevan had move with his parents and they lost track. After so many years they get back their same liking and affection. So the story moves like how Nandita tells rajeevan that she was his childhood friend and how they decide to move on in their life keeping their families and kids in mind.

It is beautiful poetic love story from the Director Kamal. The movie is edited by my favorite editor Bina Paul. She is one of the best Indian female film editors. As I have always said audience should never feel the movie is being edited. Bina Paul is the best in it. She has a rhythmic and poetic way of cutting her movies in style.

Meghamalhar is an excellent movie and it stays close to your heart. The nostalgic childhood and the attraction portrayed in subtle and powerful than the usual romantic love we see on screen.

Me and Kill Bill

2008-09-25T23:12:00.005+05:30

Kill Bill, an action movie directed by Quentin Tarantino. This movie has two parts vol 1 and 2..

I just finished watching the first part. Yet to watch the second part L... First almost two months back I tried to watch the movie. That time I didn’t have the guts to proceed after 5 min... Action movies are too sickening to watch with a head phone. My speaker had a problem then.

Now after repairing my speakers I had the guts to watch the movie second time. I have always wondered why my best buddy was so fascinated and thrilled while he was talking about kill bill or abt the director. Now after watching the movie I too got thrilled to talk about the movie. Generally I am not comfortable watching action movies. Today I seriously thought I should take the risk. Yes I did it...

Before proceeding further I should clearly tell you guys that I am not gonna type the review of the movie. I don’t deserve to do it. First time I gonna share my experiences while watching a movie in this blog.

My experiences while watching kill bill...

As I said before I don’t have interest in watching action movies. I grew watching tamil movies. When it came to foreign movies I grew watching festivals. So action movies are almost nil in festivals. Even if I find a action movie in festival I pester Navin, my well wisher and my movie companion to shift to another screen to check out the movie screened there. He often used to get irritated still he had to go for me because he knows well that I wont let him watch it peacefully

What a movie!!! Action!!!! Cuts!!! Camera!!! Screenplay!!!! Mind blowing!!!!

The protagonist of the movie Uma Thurman is cool. Even I felt like fighting with someone once I finished watching the movie. Terrorists must probably like the thrill of killing someone. The sword does give you power.

All our kollywood heros always like to be a kunda, fight, fly do everything. They enjoy doing it in movies because it is not be possible for them in real life. Who knows if I was one of them I might also prefer doing action movies.

Coming back to Kill Bill... the movie not only had action it had all emotions. Most violent scenes were shown in black and white and in 2d animation. Straight away showing blood makes you sick after a certain point. The director has easily balanced it. Since you don’t see the red color u r comfortable to watching it.

The director had violence in his movie but u don’t feel it... Rather u like in watching it. That is where the ability of a director stands communicating to the audience what is there in his mind without affecting the principles of the audience watching it.

I was inspired watching the movie... It was technically a excellent movie. As an editor I was completely awestruck at the work. It is the editor who has made the movie successful. I have always felt that a good editor is person who always cheats the audience. He should make the audience realize that he had made a cut. Editor has done his beat… All these fast cuts and ramps doesn’t certify an editor as the best one.. wish tamil industry understands that soon.

Ultimately I was happy watching the movie. I want to buy a beautiful looking Knife.. Guys do let me know where I can get a cool artistic knife… Obviously as a show piece to decorate my home and also to add homage for the love I have for the movie. Waiting to watch the second part...

Saroja

2008-09-16T00:04:00.008+05:30

Saroja, second movie of director Venkat Prabu after a big success Chennai – 600028. This movie is a comedy thriller. You can laugh from the start to the end of the movie. Jagapathi (S.P.B. Charan), Ajay (Shiva) , Vijay (Vaibhav as Charan’s brother) and Ganesh Kumar (Premji Amaran) are all friends. I really don’t know the reason behind why they are addressing each other as sir. I guess thats probably because they were working together.

The movie starts with cheeky cheeky song with the intro of the heroine Saroja (Vega), daughter of a wealthy business man Viswanathan (Prakash Raj).

Introduction of Shiva was hilarious. You wonder what the hell is happening, Shiva is found telling horrible dialogues. Later it happens to be a some stupid mega serial shoot. Shiva is getting engaged to Kajal the same evening and there goes my favorite song in the movie Aja mera soniyae…. The song was not that great as the audio and lyrics is. Too much of fast cuts make u difficult to involve in the song. I really felt they could have avoided too much of fast cut in the songs.

Next day the gang gets ready for a trip to Hyderabad to watch cricket match live in a so called caravan. Another friendship montage song (Dosth bada dosth) from the director after yaaro in Chennai 600028. Till this movie is very slow. On the way the road is blocked by an accident of a chemical tanker. They debate whether they should wait for the traffic jam to get cleared or they should return back to Chennai. Finally they turn back and take a short route to reach Hyderabad in to the back woods. On the way they have all weird discussions about ghost and hit a personby mistake. They get caught in big haunted factory with a gangster, headed by Sampath who had kidnapped Saroja for her money. Jayaram as an asst commissioner who helps his close friend prakash raj to find saroja back. So the climax is how the group of friends escape from the gangster and saves the girl caught by them.

The movie is a serious of events in a night. So mostly it’s darkly lit. Camera man and the art director have done a great job. You really feel the darkness and fear in the movie. Even the shadows of the objects in the factory are neat.There are also funny jokes by premji. The movie is made light with these jokes and the fight amongst themselves. Dialogues like 'nan venumna spare purse tharaen... edu vaa irundalum paesi thithukalam.... evalovo panrom edu panna matoma.... ' make u laugh till your stomatch pains. Premji falls in love almost every girl he sees and angels start singing for him surrounding the girl thamthana namthana namthanna namthana………
He even falls in love with saroja. Lot of famous old songs are used brilliantly in RR by Yuvan.

There are no big fight sequence for the heroes flying and jumping from post to pillar. They neatly use their brain and try to escape from the gangsters. Charan’s failure engineering helps them to escape, nimirindu nil song is inspiring inthe background.
Nikitha comes as Sampath’s girl friend. There is an item song for her ‘kodana kodi’ with a funny step. That step becomes the theme step of the movie. The song reminds me kathala kannala song from the movie anjathey.

Venkat Prabu has actually kept up the expectation of the audience after his first hit movie. Saroja is a neatly packaged thriller comedy and it surely RockzZ!!!!

Jayam Kondaan

2008-09-16T00:01:00.003+05:30

Movie is directed by R. Kannan an assistant of director Manirathnam, starring Vinay, Bhavna, SS music VJ Lekha and many more.

The story is a conflict between a brother and his half sister who fight to get hold of their father’s property to achieve their dreams.

Most of you must have known the story so I will skip the story and move to the analysis part. Vinay has to improve a lot in acting, which was a big minus. Lekha has done excellent job. Bhavna like any other heroine in tamil films comes in and out of the movie in the songs and few scenes. Few songs have been inserted just for the sake of song counts. Songs are picturised in beautiful landscapes still only the first song tune stays in my mind.

The story is neatly screen played and practical. No too much of cinematic scenes and emotions. This was good when the hero and his friend are chased by villain to death. We all would expect that he would be killed and hero starts fighting against villain. But extremely opposite happens. The hero’s friend escapes from the villain luckily. So though the story sounds little usual the screenplay was different and practical.

In short, an orderly movie and we can expect good scripts from the director in future.

Jaane tu ya jaane naa.....

2008-08-20T21:30:00.007+05:30

I had to think twice before writing this post. I guess it is the second time in my life I had reached late to watch the movie. First time it was for vettaiyadu vilaiyadu, I could make only when the song ‘karka karka…’ was about to end. My stupid sister made me wait in our school gates to finish practical exam to join me for the movie. Second was for the last week when I planned to go to jaane tu... I could only make it for the movie last weekend that too late, all because of my best buddy and my stupid editor.

I always feel good only when I watch a movie from the start frame to the end frame. I sit for the rolling credits too. These people also play a major part of the movie. May be I feel the same because my name came twice in the rolling credits. It was the happiest moments in my life. Me and my best friends’ neelan and nithya jumped in joy in theater seeing our names roll on the big screen. Special thanks to Sabu sir and Arun sir, my gurus in editing. Here I should really thank Navin, my uncle who found a spark in me.

I think I better stop uttering non sense and talk about the movie. Truly speaking I don’t deserve to write about the movie as I went in late. Still this movie is close to my heart. Why is a secret…. J so I feel I should really write about the movie.

It’s a feel good movie, a romantic comedy. The movie depicts the life style, love and friendship of this generation. Friendship between parents and children is also neatly portrayed in the movie.

Imran and genelia have done well. Two best friends, loving each other unknowingly finds their true feel only when someone else takes their position in lives. How they realize and express their love is the story. Other characters are tied neatly along the two main characters. Imran is brought up by his mom like any other kid after his late father. This character talks to his wife from his portrait and they keep fighting for everything happening in their day to day life.

Genelia’s brother Amit is an artist is too possessive about his sister and he understands her love towards Imran. He plays with his pet rat and paint all day. He hates Imran as he feels that he took away his sister from him who was his best friend all these years.

They do have a gang of friends, u get confused whose pair is who as they mix and dance on the stage often. The story is actually a narration of these friends to a girl, who claims to be girl friend of one of them in the group at the end of the movie. I am not sure who she is as I missed the first part. The narration reminds me of the tamil movie Azagiya theeyae.

Movie was natural till the climax. Climax you find really stupid. In the flow of the movie you really don’t feel bad as you obviously know that would never happen. You simply laugh about it and forget it. The story has a branded commercial movie climax. The hero and heroine join together at the edge of flight or train departure in an airport or railway station. You obviously know that they will bond and live happily ever after.

In plain I shall say an ideal entertainer movie. Though the movie has lot of fantasy, you laugh out and enjoy.

Cricket... Business and Religion…. The 3 mistakes of my life….

2008-06-26T14:53:00.003+05:30

I have thought twice before typing this blog. Mainly because books are not my core area and I was little worried about my writing style. I very well know its bad and my friends will find many mistakes while reading it. I am happy to tell you all that, I have got an editor for my blog. May be I am the first person to have an editor to blog posts ;)
I know that’s little too much…. Anyways it’s the readers who are going to suffer my English… So I welcome Rakesh and special thanks for joining me ;)

Chetan Bhagat the author of ‘Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center’ and the recent ‘Three Mistakes of My Life’,

His third book is no different from his previous exertions. [My editor feels the three mistakes of his life are reading all 3 novels written by Chetan Bhagat]

Though the stories aren’t different, the handling and treatment of the story is good. It is targeted to a particular group of audience. This book talks about three friends and their passion in life.

Chetan’s shortcomings are blatantly obvious in this particular novel but it is quite difficult to take pot shots at Chetan who “magnanimously” accepts his pedestrian grasping of English.

Like his other books, this one too takes refuge in the first person narrative.
(My wicked Editor also prods me to mention the “co-incidence” of pre-marital “events” occurring in the life of the protagonist)

Govind, Ish and Omi are the friends with different passions in life. Govind wants to be a successful business man, Ish a cricket coach desperately tries to bring the special talents of a kid (Ali). Omi simple wants to be with his friends to avoid becoming a priest. The author describes both the brighter and darker side of his characters.

To put it short, if you had not read his other books you may find interesting to read the book. But at the same time if you had read the other books, better carry on with your work. But the guy makes you complete the story. He keeps the reader lively so you find it difficult to put it down. After you finish of course you think so what’s new in this book?

Same formula doesn’t work always. Now its time to think different!!!

Dasavatharam…..

2008-06-20T23:08:00.003+05:30

I typed the following review of mine last weekend.. Now I am completely confused reading the reviews of several others. Probably I shouldn’t have read before finishing mine… Anyways this is my feel for the movie.

After a big struggle to get tickets I finally got it through my coll mates… Thanks to Balaji (our nattamai) who had arranged for tickets in different locations of the city and maximum people from our class managed to gathered in AVM Rajeswari for the long awaited show. As usual having fun outside the theatre we settled in our seats for the show….

For my surprise our entire bunch screamed only in the opening when Kamal on the screen for the first time. After that everyone was completely engrossed into the movie. Many of us were afraid we might miss something important even if we turn left to give a comment. The movie started with an incident happened in the 12th century. CG was the worst in this sequence. You can feel as if some sticker was pasted over the screen. They should have concentrated on the CG portion here.

Then the story moves to the main plot... Kamal a scientist finds a virus which might kill millions of people easily. His boss tries to sell it. Now Kamal decides to protect his awful invention from affecting the public. The story ends how he destroys the virus and how he uses all his ten avatars in the film. Most of these avatars are introduced just for the sake of the number 10. But I should say they have tried their best to link these characters.

I am not going to talk about the story as you might have heard so much about it. Movie could have been made simpler. I feel it attracts only few targeted audience.

I scored worst in chemistry in my class 12th. I even flunked once or twice in that subject in my school exams. I have never touched a chemistry book in my life after my 12th... you might wonder why the hell I am talking about it. I myself found out NaCl is Sodium chloride and its salt. You find such a big scientist fails to find it. All talk abt NaCl right from bush to corporation worker.

Nothing is told clear may be that is how they wanted to capture the repetitive audience.
Climax CG is good. If they had concentrated little bit on the screenplay rather than the avathars it would have been much better.

Mallika role is short and crisp. Asin irritates you with the core with her perumalae!!!!
Jayapratha just comes and goes. I would have been happy if she had a good dance in the movie.

So in brief, movie can be watched once without ant expectations and removing Kamal from your mind. May be then you might like it to a certain extent.

P.S: The chain mails talking about the movie, comments and reviews in the blogs makes me feel that the guy achieved what he wanted. Everyone should talk about/ it may be positive or negative publicity is always good. No wonder negative publicity always works for him.

Fighting like Mad!!

2008-05-27T10:15:00.000+05:30

Today morning as usual I and my friends, Arun and Nithya, went for coffee and as always the main topic of discussion was movies. We ended up in a terrific argument and I doubt if someone saw us fighting like mad.

The idea of this topic in my blog is just to share our discussion and also to welcome your valuable views about the topic. I will better jump into the topic straight way..

Arun started talking about Salaam Cinema, a movie directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, which he saw in the weekend. Our argument started about the director’s experimental movies. Arun was so excited about these experimental movies. I guess it was inspiring for a budding filmmaker like him. I am first a big fan of movies rather than an editor.

So I started the argument saying that director should reach the audience. Ultimate goal of a movie is to take message to the viewers. If they fail to do it I feel somewhere the director has lost track. I am not against experimental movies. They are inspiring. Still only A class audience watch them.( In cinema, A class audience we call as the highly educated audience, B class are middle class audience and C class are the audience living in every corner of your country and state) People generally say that C class audience are the major viewers of a movie. If not in other countries, in Tamil Nadu it works this way.

Coming back to the topic, I feel that a director should do both commercial and experimental movie. By doing commercial movies he is slowly bringing the audience to watch experimental movies without their knowledge. In a way we are bringing good cinema to them. That is how I feel we can change the audience taste.

How long are we going to give formula movies to them and give a lame excuse that they like only that. Tollywood or Telgu industry had always been commercial with Balakrishna stopping train. But now see the quality of movies they are giving. Aarya, happy days, anand, etc.. (I have watched only few) all these are commercial movies but they are away from the usual commercial movie. When these directors take an experimental movie I feel that audience will surely watch them even though it might not relate to them. Slowly the trend will change, may not drastically or quickly but will surely change in future.

A director has to create that sort of a platform for the budding film makers. It’s easy to convey message to a literate. The challenge lies taking the same challenge to an illiterate. So I think the directors should take that challenge.

I am not sure whether I am right but I welcome your valuable comments to enrich my thoughts. Of course opinion differs.