Saturday, February 27, 2010

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya - An Honest Review

After waiting weeks for the audio to release and after weeks of waiting for the movie to release, got a chance to watch VTV today. Ok, Lets make this straight. It's not a movie that is action-packed, has hero delivering punch dialogues, has unconnected and illogical scenes. All said, its not a movie that is an edge-of-the-seat thriller that have you hooked to it. There are times in the movie where you feel you could go and grab a Coke from the canteen or think of your TL advising you for not meeting your expectations. But all said this is one beautiful, sensible, practical love story between Karthik and Jessi.

I've always had my love for Gautam for 2 things, one, even his promotions for his films are classy and two, his take on romance is unbeatable.

Some highlights:
1. I love the initial credits :) and the final ending scene leading up the final credits as well :) Sounds stupid? seriously.. I just love the way the names roll over on the water.. I think Vignesh can take us in detail if he liked it :)

2. Simbhu grabs his role-of-a-lifetime with ease. I have hated him when he does some stupid things with his fingers and I've cursed Gautam for choosing him in this project. But he fits in the bill perfectly. He looks fit and he looks smart(I never thot i would tell this in my life :( ) and plays his role to perfection.

3. Trisha looks stunning in certain scenes and the romance between the two looked so real on the screen. And yeah, they shared a good chemistry, physics, biology, whatever.

4. ARR !! Thalaivar rocks with the BG score and no need to tell about the chartbuster songs.

5. Cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa(of 'Eeram' fame)'s lens captures Chennai, NY, Kerala, Malta as never before. This movie is definitely classy just because of this man whose visuals are a treat.

6. Gautam Menon chooses to have a breezy first half and tries to make a feel-good second half.. The first half has Simbhu and Ganesh going behind Trisha. Ganesh gives the humor quotient and believe me they're so good with no double meanings. The second half staggers a bit and Gautam tries to revive himself with the screenplay at the end. The songs are placed to perfection and you don't feel so bad to sit through them.

This movie is of typical Gautam's style and is definitely not for the B and C centers. People hate Gautam for having English dialogues in Tamil films(and he criticizes himself in the movie with this) and he has chosen to have Malayalam a little bit as well in the movie. Overall, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya is a slow, poignant, sensible love story that may not be considered as Gautam's best. And if you ask did it meet my expectations, the answer is YES !!

Watchable once..

3 out of 5 stars for Gautam's love-story-yet-again Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Tamil Padam - An uniquely cliched story

One of the movies I've been looking forward in 2010 released and I should say it definitely met my expectations, if not exceeded. Making a spoof isn't a difficult task but entertaining people with a spoof is quite a work. During my coll days, we did a spoof of the movie 'Arul'(Can I call that a spoof) and nobody even gave a smile and the judges were hoping(/praying) that we finish it much ahead of the scheduled 10 min slot !!

To understand the nuances of 'Tamizh Padam'(TP) you must have been a movie buff who has watched quite a lot of Tamil blockbusters from the 90s. The movie kick starts with a take on Simbhu. And after that no one is spared from the Tamil industry. From Rajni, Kamal, A R Rahman to Vikram, Vijay, Raghuvaran, Ramarajan, TP leaves no one. The first half runs just over an hour and its a complete interlink of scenes from Thalapathy, Baasha, Ghajini, Run and believe me the spoof of every scene was just bang on.

Some of the highlights of the movie:
1. First half as i said a laugh riot. Each and every scene is a treat to watch.

2. The killing sequence of 'Delhi' Ganesh using the technique of Aboorva Sagotharagal was just amazing. The body language of Shiva is just irreplaceable. Shiva tries a 'Aboorva Sagotharargal' Kamal and uses a marble to kill 'Delhi' Ganesh only to find that his target gets missed each time. And after trying for more than 5 times he goes to 'Delhi' Ganesh and says "enna sir. unaku oru interestey ila. yean ne aadite iruka. oru edathula nillu sir. miss aaite iruku paaru"..

3. The 'Pachcha' song and 'O Maha Zeeya' song are definitely a perfect Tamil movie number. Dont forget to note Shiva's reaction when he sings 'Lalaaku Dol Tabi ma' in the 'O Maha Zeeya' song.

4. The scene where he meets the heroines father and challenges him that he would marry his daughter only after becoming a multi-millionaire. After this dialogue, the heroine's dad asks his servant to bring a cup of coffee. Followed by A song sequence where Shiva becomes a millionaire in 2 mins and comes back to the Heroine's house in a BMW and says "ipo naan unna vida kodeesvaran". The servant brings the coffee and the heroine's dad says "coffee kondu varathukulla epadi da ivan periya aala aanan"

5. The Bharathanatyam sequence by Shiva is yet another highlight. Watch out for the scene and the manner in which this scene ends. 2 words "JUST AWESOME"

Having said all these, there are so many scenes where I had great laugh. Be it the 'Mouna Ragam', 'Run', 'Anniyan' spoof it was an entertaining 2.5 hrs. On the whole, it's a different experience after having seen decades of cliched Tamil movies. The second half of the movie is a lil slow, but I would say its worth it. After all, its a different attempt and Shiva proves to be a revelation.

4 stars out of 5 for TP and a must watch..