Jigarthada.. Cool customer!!!

 
It is indeed difficult to write a review without a spoiler and if I do it, it will take away the interest in the movie so I refrain from it, deliberately and hence, the review itself is short.
 
It has to be mentioned at the beginning that the first few minutes of this movie does not make good for what comes later. What comes later is just loveable.
 
It is old news that Bobby Simha has done a great job. He is a revelation in the movie. Be it the aggressive scenes, the lighter ones. He excels.
 
A wannabe director, Siddarth, is asked to make a gory gangster movie and he hits on the idea of making a movie of someone alive and not someone who has been. Digs out Assault Sethu as the candidate and goes in search of Sethu and his story to Madurai. What he does next to get his story makes for interesting watch.
 
He chooses 3 sources, one a drunkard, one a x-rated movie fan and one a shop owner who dishes out boring stories. How he gets his story forms part of the movie and what he ends up doing with the story, makes for even more interesting watching.
 
The twist, if we can call it that, comes from the lady lead in the movie. What could have been made sloppy is handled very well by the director. His ingenuity in making even the smallest of roles make a big impact is laudable. Acting teacher Moorthy makes a mark. The sequences are a laugh riot.
 
The movie in itself, which the wannabe director, makes and how it comes out should be watched on screen. Any spoilers will lessen the interest in the movie.
 
Change of heart of Sethu, which is not a spoiler, as you will understand when you watch the 
movie, is notable and how he uses "gibberish" is fantastic. Hats off to Karthik. And "Anbe Sivam", again in gibberish in the back ground? Or is it us the viewer, who is hallucinating there? Such is the impact of the movie.
 
Watch it to understand the last few lines.

Velai Illa Pattadhari - Review

Velai Illa Pattadhari - Review

VIP - A Personal take

Danush matures as a "mass" actor, moped makes a statement, heroine looks like a girl next door, cliche!!

What really transpires is that the director's casting is fab. Screenplay works wonders. Dialogues, under stated, but powerful where it needs to be, funny where it needs to be, carries emotions where it needs to. The underlying pain of an unemployed youth is caputred with grace and not the usual painful way of portraying. Even the comparison scenes are made to evoke a smile, rather than just disgust toward the perpetrator or empathy toward the receiver. The director has balanced them verywell and a kudos to him, else, the whole experience could have ended being a painful watch.

Coming to the performance. Danush underplays and wins. Saranya and Samuthrakani do a good job. Amala Paul, looks pretty, does what is expected, which is little. Amul baby, the villain, looks smart, delivers well. Others, including Vivek, do not deserve mention as they just come and go.

The story line is simple. An unemployed youth, who is focussed on getting an engineers job and nothing else. Uncompromising. An employed brother. Parents who just want their elder, unemployed son to win in life and nothing else, but in their own ways. A love interest. A tragedy. Employment. Challenges and how the youth overcomes those challenges. Sounds simple. The treatment is what matters, proves the director. Each stage of the movie is captivating. Be it the mother-son-father interactions, the romance between the unemployed and the employed heroine, the altercations between the villain and the hero, all have been made interesting. The lengthy dialogue that Danush delivers during one such face off with the villain is sure to capture the imagination of the youngsters. Traces of Rajini's style is very evident in Danush, but you can blame that on my ardent devotion to the Superstar. Even if that is true, it suits Danush and hence no complaints. The flick of the hair, the click of the fingers so to say.

Overall a good watch. Entertained. And yes, Danush proves that Raguvaran, can be a hero, and that too a mass hero!!

Veeram Jilla

adi thadi.. dishum dishum

Usually I write about one movie at a time, but this time and not just because I watched them both back to back, I am trying to move away from that norm and review two movies at the same time.

If Jilla can be classified as an adi thadi movie, then Veeram is dishum dishum. Both lack logic, not that we are expected to. These are commercial masala flicks.

Jilla sent me back to the times when we used to eagerly await a Rajinikanth movie release. Just for style and action, not much for substance. This is Jilla. Mohanlal does the role that would have typically be done by Prabu. And excels, as is usual. Vijay excels in the fight and dance sequence. Not much of emoting for both. Crisp quick climax. Must watch for Vijay fans and action lovers. No one else in the movie need mention.

As a much respected friend of mine recently emapthised, where will these fellows go for new stories to suit mass heroes. So, let us not bother about the story too much. It is all straight forward. Man kills man, watched by the son of the killed. Man dies for man, watched by the son of the dead. Both grow up for the man that is common in both the above. One with respect and other with vengance. The movie is about the growth of the boy with respect, his planned entry in to the police force to dance to his "fathers" tunes, his change of heart and attempts to set right the father while the other with vengeance in his heart trying to wipe out the whole family. Sampath as the man with vengeance filled in his heart is adequate. Mohanlal and Vijay fill their shoes well. Kaajal Agarwal as the heroine does well in the song sequences. Come to think of it, she does nothing else in the movie. The others in the movie either come in and disappear or come in and get beat by Viajy/Mohanlal.

As for Veeram. This is a more complex story, supposedly. 5 brothers. The eldest having raised them from their childhood has sacrificed everything for them. They are an unruly pack and all having immense respect for their eldest brother, who does not like the idea of marriage since it might break the bond they share. Eventually most of the other brothers fall in love and try to somehow kindle an affair between Ajith, the eldest and Tammanah. Ajith tries to dance and fight. During these action sequences, I seriously had a thought that this movie was written with Chiyan Vikram in mind and not Ajith. Without digressing, Ajith makes a few enemies and when he goes to Tamannah's house to ask her hand in marriage the enemies follow him. He trashes everyone, saves the family, job done, only to understand that Tamannah's father has his own flashback and set of enemies who want to eliminate the whole family. In the end, all is well. All the bad boys are beaten and the hero wins the heroine's family's heart.

Both time pass movies makkale. Watch for entertainment value alone.

Viswa - Let Down - Roopam

The way the movie kick starts is all good. The firt 15-20 minutes, till the first action sequence is great. Kamal as the Kathak exponent excels, as usual. His mannerisms, way he walks, talks, all very reflective of the art form he is in love with. His transformation to the blood thirsty assassin/spy is very well captured. The visual effects are out standing. The background is conducive of the happenings on the screen. All is well, till then.

Post the action sequence, the film falls flat on its face. Why would Kamal want to make such a run-off-the-mill spy thriller is very questionable. Why again would he want to involve so much of human emotions is a bigger question.

What starts off as a promising thriller runs on to become a "why war?" documentary and again brings us back to the wafer thin plot of a spy thriller. And keeps doing this again and again. One moment you are in Afghanistan and the next in NYC. Not that this type of story telling is not good cinema. Just that once you are in Afghanistan, it is all about jihad(holy war), children, hapless wives, mothers, mutilated bodies, war torn towns. And once you are in NYC you follow the wafer thin plot of a wannabe spy thriller. And the sequence keeps repeating again and again and again, till you grow weary of it.

Why do film makers and Kamal at this new age think that spy cameras installed in offices, data stored in hard disks and thumb drives and cash kept in lockers in office are a great idea of a film? Why would it interest movie goers to know that the actor Kamal is a realist but then the character in the movie is a devout muslim who has lost his faith in all gods? How many times will we need to bear the "punch" dialogues around Kamal and his "endha kadavul" type cliches. Maybe it is just me. But it was overbearing.

The movie is well shot. Technically brilliant. The BG and overall music is good. Performances are, ahem, nice. But the characters are just wasted, actually, blasted away to non-existence.

How many times would you need to show a boy with innocence written all over his face become a suicide bomber? How many times a good doctor is killed, just for the heck of it? Do we need all this to understand the mindless violence that is called war, holy or not?

Trying to balance between the documentary and the spy thriller, Kamal fails in impressing the audience with either.

What is Andrea doing in the movie? Why an MI6 agent? Too many unanswered equations.

Overall, a nights sleep wasted and belief in big budget, big star movies depleted to the core. Small budget movies like Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanum have made worthy watching than the Billa's, Maatran's, Alex Pandian's and now Viswaroopam joins the let down bandwagon.

Pizza - Each piece a new taste

In one line - A horror-thriller with a fitting climax.

Less said about the movie is better as even explanation of a few scenes can hinder the joy of watching the movie.  Those who watch after reading this, please leave your comment if I was wrong.

A pizza delivery boy, an aspiring fiction author as his lover, 2 friends, one boss, his "possessed" daughter form the crux of the story.

The screenplay is good. The editing is fine. BG is good.Actors have done justice. Vijay Sethupathy looks overboard at time, but the climax justifies it all.

A viewers movie rather than a critics movie for review.

Must watch and enjoy makkale.

Barfi - My take

Barfi - Vedalam sonna kadai (Vikram aur Betal for my non-tamil friends)

Long time ago, there lived a simpleton thief (an oxymoron I guess, if so, intentional) who was deaf and dumb. He chanced to meet the princess of the land and was feel for her beauty. Little did the thief know that the princess was engaged to the lord of the land. The princess without her knowledge begins to like the simpleton thief's way of life and falls for him as well. The queen, the princess's mother, then narrates the story of her love with a commoner and how she had forgone the love to marry the king. The princess goes ahead and marries the lord, while still in love with the simpleton. The heartbroken simpleton, then meets a mentally challenged (apologies if I am not politically correct) and slowly but surely falls in love with her. He even introduces her to the princess, who secretly still pines for him. There creeps jealousy into the mind of the new lover and she runs away to her asylum. The simpleton searches the whole world and finally locates her there. They get married and live happily ever after. The princess, on the other hand, had to leave her lord, since he would not accept her once she stepped out to help the simpleton thief in search for his love. After very many years, the simpleton thief is taken ill and eventually both him and his wife die at the same time. The princess, now a sad old lady, pines for the love and life that she must have actually led, had she married the simpleton thief in the first place.

Now tell me Vikramaditya, whose love was the greatest. The simpleton thief's toward the challenged girl? The challenged girls toward the simpleton thief? or that of the Princess toward the simpleton thief?

Once bitten, twice shy - Billa 2, a critical view.

Once bitten, twice shy - Billa 2.

If you can enjoy Ajith climbing down the stairs with a bazooka blasting away in the background and whistle for the "thala", then do not read on. This movie is a must watch for you.

What starts off promising, whittles away as a less than mediocre fare that is a culmination of many movies. If the "madurai ponnu" song is reminiscent of "naan sirithall deepavali" from Nayagan right down to Ajith's hairstyle and shirt style, the last sequence of the termination of all the "villians" reminds you of the The Godfather's sequence where Michael takes out the heads of all the families. Too many similarities and yet, too little stuff. The story line does not lead anywhere. The punch dialogues are too few and too spaced out to carry any impact. The heroine is wasted. It remains to mystery why Ajit would cry at the death of someone who he hardly had any relationship with or intended to?

The only saving grace of the movie is Abassi (Sudanshu Pandey). The character and the actor leave a lasting impression. A good launch pad for a good actor. All the others are just wasted. Vidyut Jamwal as Dmitri has no scope what so ever. The taleted actor we saw flexing his muscles in Force, the hindi remake of Khakka Khakka does 2 stunt scenes and 1 is with Ajith that he has to loose in. Waste of talent.

Coming to the story. Man lands in India from Sri Lanka, is abused, hits back, is plotted against to trap him in drug smuggling, escapes, joins hands with the dealer, leaves the dealer for larger business, ends up in Goa, helps international arms smuggler retreive is stuff, gets in to the big league, takes deicisions that boss does not like, boss tries to kill him, kills boss, looses his girl friend, goes to some far eastern country and kills the arms smuggler, kills everyone connected and then STARTS his Don days. Straight story. No twists, no turns.

Come to think of it, can not write anything else. Cinematography is excellent. GOod choice of female bodies across the movie. Average music. Average background score.