One minute reviews: From Sully to Angamaly Diaries via D16

One minute reviews: From Sully to Angamaly Diaries  

Sully:

"Sully" is yet another real life story that has Tom Hanks playing a real life hero. Based on the autobiography of Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, "Highest Duty" and directed by Clint Eastwood, what would have been a boring docu-drama is made into a engrossing procedural thriller. The screenplay is written in such a nuanced style that it keeps you on the edge of the seat though you would have known the actual story beforehand. An inspiring movie.

Devi: 

"Devi" is an enjoyable horror-comedy which scores higher due to its comedy than the meek horror elements. It is a joy to watch Prabhu Deva dance on screen after a long time and the nod to the "chikku bukku rayile" with his brother was nostalgic.

Kodi:

"Kodi" is a middling political thriller that might have become a better movie with a more powerful antagonist. Danush is adequate while Trisha is too meek to carry out such a powerful character. And the mindless masala turn towards the end further accentuates the decline.

Accham Enbathu Madamayada: 

"Accham Enbathu Madamayada" has a bearable first half, unbearable second half and insane ending indicating that GVM has lost his mojo. Jaded STR and bloated Manjima fail to redeem a poor movie. A.R.Rahman's terrific album wasted. 

Kavalai Vendam :

 Except couple of comical moments which can be seen anyway in the comedy channels there is absolutely nothing in this inane movie. Jiiva's pathetic form continues. 

Saithan:

3/4rth of the movie is a well written thriller that is engaging and keeps you to the edge of the seat. But the problem starts when Vijay Antony's character takes a turn towards masala universe from where the movie nosedives into the abyss which no redemption undoing all that it achieved until that point. 

Chennai 600028 2nd innings:

Though can't compare with the naivety, novelty and audacity of the first innings, 2nd innings does have its moments that are numerous enough to keep you in good spirits. Cricket portions however don't have the punch of the former.  

Bairavaa:

You know movie is terrible when only good part of the movie is the 20 odd minutes of flashback portion that doesn't have Vijay in it. Movie is late by at least a couple of decades. Vijay , what next, a movie directed by S.P. Muthuraman? !

Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru: 

A well written and made thriller with perfect casting and first class acting. It is a fantastic debut by Karthik Naren who seems to have total confidence on his script than anything else, a trait most seasoned directors in the industry seem to have forgotten. 

Dangal:

 Aamir Khan's and wrestling's "Chakde India", more rooted and more cinematic than the former. Amazing performance from Aamir and almost everyone in the cast. One of the well made sports movie in the last few years.

Munthirivallikal thalirkkumbol:

 It is a feel good family entertainer that hovers in the zone between average to above average. It is almost a fairytale where all the potential conflicts getting resolved very conveniently.

Bogan :

Bogan has a good concept on paper that suffers due to poor execution on screen and improper casting. It needed a charismatic protagonist to match the devastating screen presence of Arvind Swamy than the earnest Ravi. And more importantly they could very well would have done away with the mentally retarded female lead character.

 Singam 3:  

Si 3 is injurious to your ear. Still not recovered from hard of hearing, dizziness, nausea, tinnitus and headache. This movie is a perfect example of how one can abuse technology, worst use of Dolby Atmos. All I can remember is the screeching sounds of the cars breaking and flights landing.

Ezra :

A horror movie with high technical finesse but a routine mundane storyline, engaging nonetheless. Movie scores mainly due to its first class casting. Technical finesse they achieve at the budgets they use in Malayalam cinema is astounding. 

Yaman:

Yaman has interesting premise and story but the lackadaisical screenplay tries it's best to shoo away the viewer's interest in the proceedings. Vijay Antony is developing into an actor with terrific screen presence. But please avoid something that you were doing in the name of dance, Bhagyaraj would have felt better seeing that. What could have been a topical and currently relevant engrossing entertainer "Yaman " fails to live up to it.

Kutram 23:

"Kutram 23 " is a thriller sans any thrills. It is predictable throughout and the medical aspects would make you go ROFL. Arun Vijay with totally artificial and stiff body language and trite voice modulation tries his best to sell his cop role but in vain. Making is good but the end product leaves a lot to be desired.

Yakkai :

It is time tamil movie makers learn a lot from their malayalam counterparts about how to make engrossing thrillers. It will be a disservice to the word thriller if anyone calls this inept movie as one. Kreshna's characterization in this movie is " legendary " :P

Managaram: 

An example of solid film making and flawless screenplay writing. Casting is superb but somehow when you leave the theatre you miss that "WOW" factor.

Badrinath ki Dulhania: 

It is a pretty average romcom mainly due to its terrific lead pair. If not for them, the movie would have become a washout. Intentions are good but the execution is below par.

Kavan:

"Kavan" is a mediocre, superficial and focus less movie with a disinterested Vijay Sethupathi and miscast TR further pulling down a already sinking ship.

Angamaly diaries:

It is one of the rawest movies in Indian cinema in the recent past. When you see a good romantic movie you feel lovely, a comedy movie light and a masala movie adrenaline pumping. In the same way this movie elicits disgust, nausea, dizziness, numbess of mind which I feel is the success for the makers of this movie. Pure cinema.

Rekka

My review: Rekka

This seems to be the season for dumb movies. Couple of weeks back I thought "Thodari" would be the dumbest movie of the year, but I din't expect that so quickly there will be a strong contestant vying for the title in "Rekka". Vijay Sethupathy who was on a purple patch seem to have hit a dead end with this insane movie. And the movie answers the reason as to why the director Rathina Siva's debut movie is still sleeping in the cans. 

Some movies can be boring yet you can sit through it with redeeming features coming in the form of bearable comedy or hearable songs. But "Rekka" is a masterpiece that doesn't allow you to relax even for a while. It is a full blown saw slayer. Though couple of songs are melodious, the visuals just make you aversive. When things are already going haywire, the flashback scenes are one of the most dumbest sequence ever. Why should every one beat up Kishore to the extent that he becomes mentally deranged when every one in the village were after that girl. 

Vijay Sethupathy seems to be clearly uncomfortably doing this role. In the action sequences where he just tosses around people like they are five rupee coins, he looks as if he is trying hard to control his laughter. Everything about Lakshmi Menon is terrible in movie, right from her make up to make up of her character or her family's. The villains are comical caricatures that you keep laughing our loud at the effort these unsuspecting individuals are putting in such a poorly written and portrayed roles.

On the whole, "Rekka" with its A-grade cast and B-grade sensibilities is THE dumbest movie of the year beating "Thodari" by miles.

Bottomline: Rekka romba mokka 

0.5/5  

Remo

My review: Remo

"Remo" is 9th film for Sivakarthikeyan as a lead hero but still he has not learnt to act on his own other than in comical portions . A top mimic he is, he only mimics the actions of actors mainly Vijay, with situational mimicry of Rajnikanth, Karthik, Madhavan, Surya, etc as when the scene warrants. Even in the lady get-up what we she is a spoof acting that one can see in the Sivakarthikeyan's most famous TV show of the past, "Adhu Idhu Ethu". He can scrap through with such histrionics in movies like "Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam" and "Rajni Murugan" as emphasis is mainly on comedy in those movies, but when it comes to mass movies like "Kaakki Sattai" and for that matter even "Remo" his efforts can be seen as nothing  but a mimicry of a Vijay wannabe. 

Bakkiyaraj Kannan seems to be content with playing it safe with what he considers as the mandatory ingredients of a commercial entertainer, but only mistake is that all these ingredients are a decade older.  Good for nothing roadside romeo falling for a girl in matter of seconds, stalking a girl in the name of love, misogynist dialogues, female bashing love failure song, child sentiment, etc, etc, etc, have been battered to death in tamil cinema. Hence this movie is so predictable that it  just bores you no ends.

Coming to comedy which is Sivakarthikeyan's forte, this movie boasts of nothing in that regards, except may be couple of scenes in which now in form Yogi Babu enthrals. Keerthi Suresh is getting type cast as a "loosu ponnu" whether her character is a doctor or a makeup assistant. After a neat introduction in "Rajni Murugan", things are going downhill for her. Satish doesn't evoke any laughter anymore. Saranya is terribly typecast.

Movie's only positive is it's cinematography which is awesome. The colour tones are stuff only a legend like P.C.Sreeram can produce. Anirudh's music is only average. "Senjitaale" is a good song but others are letdown. background score is loud and scratchy. 

On the whole, Bakkiyaraj Kannan has wasted a golden opportunity. Touted to be a romantic comedy, "Remo" is neither romantic nor comical, utterly predictable and boring except couple of sequences here and there.

Bottomline: Misogynists' delight 

1.5/5 

Thodari

My review: Thodari

Prabhu Solomon's "Thodari" is one of the most regressive movies of the year. It is shockingly inept and boring that one can only wonder what made the makers support such a half backed attempt. Poor scripting, bad direction and over the top acting makes it a tedious affair to sit through. Prabhu seems to have been caught in no man's land in trying to make a "Speed" like thriller with "elements" which ought to have been mandatory for a "star" movie to keep the commerce of the movie afloat. But precisely these elements along with poorly written cardboardish characterisation that pulls down this movie. 

When was the last time when you had a movie that had the lead actors perilously caught in a speeding train and just after having escaped being burnt alive on a moving train breaking into a song and dance routine "pona usuru vandhudichu ". Yes, "Thodari" is that dumb. Every actors go over the top, starting with Keerthi Suresh. This should be one of the most forgettable performances of her till now including her other language movies. Dhanush just sleep walks through most of the movie with occasional "Sullan"ish recourse. 

Movie's direction is so stupid that most of the CG shots are so manifestly seen on screen and very pathetically done. In the shots where the train is moving forwards, you would expect the hair of the ones standing on train to flow backwards, but in this movie it is just the opposite defying the law of physics. The making is that careless. 

For a thriller of this kind, establishing and sustaining the mood is important. But when you have cartoonish comedy by Thambi Ramaiah and co and idiotic banters between the lead pair that just kills the mood, the end product is such a dumb one.

Bottomline: Dumbest movie of the year.

1/5 

Aandavan Kattalai

My review: Aandavan Kattalai

Manikandan seems to be one of those rare creators who don't know how to make a dishonest movie. In the three films he has made so far none of the movies had anything that can be characterised as contrived, or artificial. He has this knack of taking up a simple knot and weaving a very interesting plot that keeps you hooked to the screen. And another strength of his is the casting and the work he extracts from his cast. In none of his movies do you feel like watching actors act instead you feel like a spectator keeping a voyeuristic view of  real lives unfolding on screen. 

Co-written by Manikandan along with Arul Chezhiyan and Anucharan, "Aandavan Kattalai" is one of the best written movies of the year. A fan of such well written Malayalam movies, this one gave me a feel of watching one of those. That the movie deals with a message that crooked path never succeed, you don't feel even for a second that this message is fed to you. Instead as you leave the theatre you keep ruminating about it and keeps you thinking. And that the whole movie has a breezy, feel good feel with a healthy  undercurrent of humour is a task that even the most established names in the Tamil film industry fail to achieve time and again or never attempt to achieve.  

There are numerous scenes that are gems and keep you cheerful and thinking at the same time. The stretch that deals with finding a house for rent for bachelors in Chennai, the one in the court room where there seems to be more people vying to get divorces that those who are getting married, the casualness with which there seems to be a web of corrupt individuals who cut across various departments who get glued by the brokers or middlemen in dealing with each and everything that seems impossible for a common man to even think of, the list keeps going on and on. 

When was the last time you have a srilankan refugee character portrayed with such dignity and reality without making them a caricature to make political statement. When was the last time you have seen a movie that deals with corruption that doesn't paint these corrupt individuals in black and white. When was the last time you have seen a movie in which the strict straight forward officials portrayed with humanity without compromising on their honesty. When was the last time you have seen amovie that deals with corruption and doesn't end with the protagonist going a long sermon in the end towards the audience. 

Casting is topnotch in this movie in which each and every character is written memorably however minor it may be. The family court judge, the CBI officer, the regional passport officer, the house owner, the old man who fudges signatures, Karmegakuzhali's mom, Sri lankan refugee friend, the fake passport dealer, the counsellors, the advocate and his assistant, the list is endless. Casting for each of these roles are perfect to the Tee and the performances of these actors so effortless and natural. 

Vijay Sethupathy is terrific in an understated role. It has been a long time since one has seen him so casual and natural without having to try prove his acting prowess. Rithika Singh once again vindicates that fact that she is one of the astounding talents to looks out for. Unlike "Iruthi Sutru" this movie doesn't have much for her as far as stimulating her acting prowess is concerned yet she makes her mark in the limited opportunity. Especially watch out for that scene towards the end when Vijay Sethupathy proposes to her and her reactions to that, just terrific. 

Movie gets rounded off with a very supportive back ground score by K and seamless and fluid cinematography by Shanmugasundaram. Manikandan in my view is the next big name to contend with in tamil cinema, who makes pure cinema with content that is both classy and that which strikes a chord with the audience too. I rate him better than other overrated yet talented auteurs like Karthik Subburaj, Vetrimaran, Ram, etc. 

On the whole, "Aandavan Kattalai" is one of the most well made and thoroughly enjoyable movie of the year with a pertinent message for the current society.

Bottomline: Extraordinary cinema

4.5/5 

Iru Mugan

My review: Iru Mugan

Anand Shankar managed to scrap through his debut "Arima Nambi" with the first 60% of the movie being fresh and interesting though the final 40% was a banal affair. That result could have resulted in two outcomes. Either he would have got the criticism in a right perspective and could have made a movie that is 100% fresh and engaging or he would have got carried away by success of that movie in spite of it's banality that he could have thought why break sweat when all that the audience need is some fancy scientific references and a star who can carry any inane movie with his stupendous acting. In "Iru Mugan" Anand Shankar seems to have settled for the latter. 

It is one of the dumbest movies that I must have seen in the recent times. With gaping logical loopholes which come across more glaring due to a sluggish screenplay, "Iru Mugan" is a tough movie to sit through. First half does show some promise but the second half is torturous. Every scene is predictable and the screenplay faithfully follows the tropes of the movies of the 80's that you don't get engaged with the proceeding on the screen. In a movie that is touted to be an action thriller Thambi Ramaiah as a bumbling cop is a major mistake. Even the character of Nithya Menon is grossly under written after a point you don't even notice her on screen, hence when she finally gets killed you don't feel even an itch. I wonder what made her sign this movie in which she just appears as a glorified extr other than a fat pay check and an opportunity to be a part of a mega budget superstar film.

The character of Nayanthara is another carelessly written one. The twists and turns her character undergoes through the movie is straight from the times of Jaishankar's spy movies. And when there is a very serious turn of events is unfolding which leaves the protagonist in danger of being dubbed as a villain of a foreign country, the two lead protagonists ride in a car bantering in a lighter manner which is totally out of place. In one of the most serious stretches of the movie when the life of an important big shot of Malaysia is at stake we have a running gag of the antagonist in a nurse costume and a policemen swooning over him which is plain mockery. Such tonal inconsistencies leave you only exasperated. It seems that the director Anand Shankar seems to have underestimated the taste of the audience. 

And finally the man himself, Vikram seems to have tried a bit too much in his role of "Love". Unlike in his previous movies where he had effortlessly gotten under the skin of the characters he had portrayed as Love, he is very artificial that it gets plain irritating when even that character appears on screen. In a more conventional role of that of the protagonist, Akilan, Vikram is back to his usual fluent best. But it is disheartening see such a hardworking actor being taken for ride time and again by such pathetic projects. 

On the whole, "Iru Mugan" belongs to the days of "Moondru Mugam". 

Bottomline: Cheap thrills. 

2/5 

Kuttrame Thandanai

My review: Kuttrame Thandanai

From the makers of "Kakka Muttai" comes "Kuttrame Thandanai" with M.Manikandan at its helm. The movie is a pure crime thriller with a backdrop of moralistic rumblings without any digressions whatsoever which is rare in Tamil cinema. There are no songs, no comedy tracks, no romantic track. M.Manikandan needs appreciation for the conviction and confidence he has on this script co-written by him along with Anand Annamalai that he has has not lost focus from the plot he is dealing with. 

The movie is not the regular whodunit that deals with the investigation and twists along the way. It is a straight forward crime drama that takes time for it to take off but once it does then it keeps you glued to the screen that you won't feel that 100 minutes has elapsed. The screenplay is so riveting. Only grouse is why can't the movie makers spare the medical community. Here there is a far fetched plot contrivance associated with a dramatic twist towards the end by conveniently and quite unrealistically portraying doctors and hospitals in bad light. Anyone who is familiar with medicine would right way know that a condition like Retinitis Pigmentosa is untreatable, especially in these days of google. 

The movie doesn't have an abstract or an open ending as many are claiming. In my opinion the ending is pretty clear from the fact that the one who commits the crime ends up getting punished, thus justifying the title. 

Movie works majorly due to brilliant cast and their acting. Vidarth is terrific in the lead act as a person who is afflicted by a rare condition of eyes that can lead to progressive loss of vision. Rahman and Nassar are equally effective in their roles. Aishwarya Rajesh is haunting in her role until her final act which kind of ends up being cinematic while Pooja Devariya is excellent. 

Movie's background score is simply superb though at certain places you get reminded of scores from his movies of the yore. Ilayaraja is reliable as ever. Manikandan himself helms the camera as well with elan.

On the whole, "Kuttrame Thandanai" is a riveting crime drama that evokes and sustains your interest throughout though you come out with a feeling of having missed something. 

3.5/5