AADHAVAN

My Review: Aadhavan



“Aadhavan ” from the combo of K.S.Ravikumar & Suriya , both riding on a successful upward tide has raised expectations right from its beginning. Whether the movie lives up to the expectations is partially in the affirmative. The movie is a routine K.S. Ravikumar formula of a family entertainer with heavy doses of action. What keeps the movie interested is Vadivelu & only him.

First half is racy with rib tickling comedy thanks mainly to Vadivelu & Suriya to some extent & gets over even before you realize . Sadly the second half peters out into a mundane affair without any ingenuity where the director has borrowed heavily from the movies of yesteryears .

Suriya is good in his role of an assassin with a past . But when each & every one time & again compares him with M.G.R., Shivaji , Rajini & Kamalhassan it becomes irritating.

Nayanthara don’t have much to do in a shake- a – leg –wet-the-eyes role.

Vadivelu is the real hero of the movie without whom the movie would have become very much boring. He revels in the role of Banner’ji & he is there onscreen almost throughout the movie. The manner in which he gets caught on camera time & again plotting to kill his boss is a scream.

SarojaDevi is more of a caricature than anything else. Sad to see a legend as she is reduced to such an insipid role.

Movie has a whole loads of supporting actors who do their jobs without any fuss.

In Harris Jayaraj’s music couple of songs are good.

Ra.Ganesh’s Cinematography is stylish.

Movie has K.S.Ravikumar stamp all over it but it gets redundant after a point. His dialogues are funny & lively which keeps the movie going.

On the whole , first half is good but second is tiring.

Bottomline: Vadivelu the saviour.

3/5

PERANMAI

My Review: Peranmai





“Peranmai ” lives up to the reputation of being a S.P.Jhananathan movie.He has once again taken up a topical issue & plotted it well into a story & screenplay (credited to Kalyanakrishnan )and presented in a palatable manner.The movie is high on intentions , adequate on the technology front & making wise .That the movie is devoid of any romantic interludes or duets despite having 5 heroines & a romantic hero is big relief .

Jayam Ravi shines in the role of a young forest officer who belongs to the tribal community.He is restrained in his portrayal & that elevates the impact of his characterization. It is such a surprise to see an action movie without even an iota of heroism , infact the hero is humiliated to the core right through the first half.Also the manner in which his superior officer gain all the accolades & awards bypassing the real person who did all the hard work is shown in a hard hitting manner & realistic to the day to day happenings.

Movie has 5 female leads, chosen more for their acting prowess rather than on their looks have done good jobs. Especially Saranya & Vasundhara shine in their roles.

Ponvannan & Urvashi give ample support while Vadivelu comes in more of a serious role than much comedy.

Much hyped Hollywood actor Roland Kickinger as the antagonist doesn’t live up to the hype in an underwritten role.

Vidhyasagar is the music director & it’s been ages since he gave music of any notice & he continues in that vein here too.

S.R.Sathiskumar’s cinematography is very good & thinking of how much toil he must have undergone in shooting in such inhospitable terrains is a great achievement .The movie is a visual splendour & celebration of nature.

All said & done , where the movie lacks or lags is in the dialogues – which are very crude & B-gradish [almost as crude patriotism as that in “Gadar – the prem katha ”] overdose of patriotism & racial profiling . Lewd dialogues from the mouth of the girls too adding to the hum din [censor have mercilessy butcherd almost 20% of the dialogues..!].

Also the manner in which Ravi takes a lecture before each & every step becomes irritating after a point of time which gives a feel of watching Discovery channel rather than a movie. Ponvannan’s uncalled-for action on the tribals is contrived .

If only Jhana has removed such irritants & reduced the length of the movie to 90 mins or so , “Peranmai ” would have become a “cult” movie of the south. But what we got is a movie high on ideas but dragged down the aisle by the routine commercial considerations or should we say the maker’s indulgence.

Bottomline : Peranmai = 40% Pudhumai + 60% Palamai

3/5

AARUMUGAM

My Review: Aarumugam



When a wannabe superstar , wannabe glamour queen along with outdated music director & director join hands what we will get is a classic called “Aarumugam .” ( the one who invented the term “classic” please forgive me !)

During the times when many old tamil hits are being remade by all & sundry , here is a director who has tried to remake one of his hits “Annamalai” without any changes from the original , if one is ready to overlook certain serious changes like changing the gender of few characters like replacing Radharavi with Ramya Krishnan , Manorama by Ilavarasu ….!

Bharath after having got tired of reprising the “thalapathis ” has now turned towards the bid man himself who is the master guru of all these …one can expect a title change for Bharath in the next movie as “Chinna superstar ”. But one must congratulate the courage on the part of Barath in accepting movies like these one after another without any sense of repentance.

Coming to the next beauty queen of Tamil Cinema Priya Mani who once got a national award for acting……!!!! ( but if anyone happen to watch this movie will certainly question the credibility of such awards … ) Watch out her expressions in the initial reels of the movie where she teases Bharath. ( another award winning performance…!)

Ramya Krishnan tries her best to reprise her Neelambari act ….lesser said about the result the better for the family friendliness of this review.

There is a very long list of caricatures sorry actors – Mahadevan , Saranya Mohan , Abinay, Karunas , Sara , Ilavarasu…..

Technically movie is far better than “Annamalai ” . But comparing with the contemporary movies ….you all would have guessed it by now….!

Suresh Krishna tries his best to come back to mainstream but this one make his previous one “Parattai” looks way better in all aspects .

Even “Annamalai ” spoof in “Lollusabha ” was way better than this one .

Bottomline: Classic (with yet another unconditional apology to the inventor of the word….)

1 / 5

THIRU THIRU THURU THURU

My Review:THIRU THIRU THURU THURU




After a long time one get to feel a sense of satisfaction of having watched a really good comedy movie after watching “Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru ” ( T4 ) written & directed by Nandhini . It is a credible debut for her like that of her mentor Priya.V who did so with equally breezy comedy “Kanda Naal Mudhal “ .

Nandhini has a really good flair for comedy which she has presented in a very natural & casual manner without any scope for disingenuousness or flippancy. There are umpteen laugh out loud (‘lol’) sequences with seamless confluence of the situations & the dialogues adding to the levity. Story is also not your routine “excuse- for-comedy” prosaic type but keeps one guessing right through the length of the movie.

Ajmal Ameer has tried his hands on comedy for the first time which is not easy by any stretch of imagination but he has come out of it credibly. Though in couple of sequences he goes overboard by and large he has dope a neat job of it .

Rupa Majari is the surprise package of the movie. She has acted very well . She is spontaneous & natural in her methods & surely has a lot to offer to the Tamil cinema .

Mouli is an enigma who in spite of his abundant talents is not being properly utilized by the people here in Tamil cinema. He has done well not only in comical portions with his inimitable timing but also in the serious parts as well.

Another one who deserves a special mention is the Baby Dharshan for all his cute expressions at such a tender age.

As in most of the comedy movies here too Manisharma’s music is nothing much to rave about. “Athiri puthiri ” is foot-taping .

Cinematography by Sudhir Chowdary in high-definition digital camera is credible without undue interference in the name of experimentation.

M.S. Suryah’s dieting, sorry, editing is glossy & modern .

Nandhini’s dialogues are as casual as it may get & very funny at numerous occasions. The torture sequence , Mouli’s forgetfulness of people names , the sequence where the lead pair get caught staying together , Rupa’s first attempt at lying to her parents , Rupa placing the mobile near an unknown pregnant lady to add credibility to her lies , …are few of many sequences that stays in one’s mind provoking laughs long after.

On the whole , T4 is a one hell of a fun filled ride .Just hop in without any second thoughts.

Bottomline: Thuru thuru thirullar.

3.5/5

UNNAI POL ORUVAN

My Review : Unnai Pol Oruvan



“Unnai Pol Oruvan ” , a remake of the hindi hit “A Wednesday ” is a well made movie that seeks to interpret how a south Indian “Common man ” & a south Indian Policeman will react in that given situation. In its own way it does justice to that effect. When one have power-packed performers like Kamalhassan & Mohanlal on board it is bound to be a delight for the connoisseurs. The exchanges between them are especially of high quality & heavy-duty.


While Kamalhassan is as subtle as he can get in the role of the common man which he does effortlessly with his characteristic witticism resurfacing now & then Mohanlal is an absolute delight in the role of a dynamic yet vulnerable policeman. One yearns for more from these two masters especially when the movie gets over in less than two hours itself.


Among the supporting cast Lakshmi does a adequate job while others like Ganesh Venkataraman , Poonam Kaur , Anuja Iyer look pleasant onscreen but bring about an aura of artificiality around their performances.


Shruthi Hassan’s re-recording is cool & modern with ample use of silence to elevate certain sequences.


Manoj Soni ‘s cinematography is excellent .


Chakri makes his debut as director with this movie.


Though the movie moves at a serious clip intelligent use of witticism adds spice to the proceedings. Though one expected more powerful dialogues from Kamalhassan’s pen he disappoints . Also unnecessary use of CM’s mimicry voice spoils the seriousness of the sequence.


One thing which is evident from seeing the movie is that the makers have made this movie in a hurried manner so as to release the movie to coincide with the celebrations of Kamalhassan completing 50 years of acting. In that hasty endeavor the quality of the end product has become the casualty.


Bottomline : Hassan & Lal fan’s delight .


3.5/5

EERAM

My Review: Eeram





“Eeram” is a promising attempt from a young team led by Arivazhagan ,who has it in him to become a very good filmmaker (he must certainly work on scripting aspect of it though ) , Mahesh Paramahamsa , yet another talented cinematographer gracing the Tamil Cinema Industry & Thaman.S who has given some excellent tunes & vindicates himself in re-recording too.

The movie is brilliant up to the half way mark with it’s stylish making , tautness of screenplay & chilling suspense maintained throughout the half , but sadly it takes a downward spiral in the second half which is dragging , contrived with no scope for suspense or thrill with some old fashioned screenplay playing the spoilsport .But it will not deny any plaudits the makers will be receiving from the connoisseurs for the attempt in itself in the first place & the high standards of making belying the naivety of the makers .

Aadhi looks dapper & suave as a police officer & has done his part pretty well .His is one of the better attempt at portrayal of a police officer. Nanda may have done better .There is some shallowness in his characterization & he fails to add coldness to his demeanor especially during those couple of important sequences.

Sindhu Menon comes back after a brief hiatus in a unidimensional role where all the scope she has is wailing all the time which she does adequately. Saranya Mohan impresses in a brief role.

Cinematography is excellent .Mahesh Parahamsa deserves all the credits he will receive . The colour tone in itself plays a role in the movie – the greenish blue hue representing the spirit throughout the movie.

Re-recording is important for any thriller , here too Thaman.S succeeds in that aspect but his re-recording in the romantic & sentimental scenes needs some improvement. Songs “Mazhaiye mazhaiye ” , ” Tharai Erangiya ” linger in one’s mind.

Arivazhagan comes across as a youngster with immense potential as a maker & if he brush-up his writing skills he will go a long way .

On the whole , movie is worthy of a watch .

Bottomline : OK.

3.5/5

NINAITHALE INIKUM

My Review: Ninaithale Inikum




“Ninaithale Inikum “ is must watch for all those aspiring film-makers & assistant directors to know :
1) How not to make a remake &
2) How not to make a movie in the first place.
All those who were ridiculing “Jayam ” Raja – Go to hell! Movies like these vindicate the talent Raja has in remaking movies without spoiling the original & successfully at that time & again.

The writing is very pathetic with some juvenile direction adding to the woes. The Malayalam original was as natural as a college campus story can get whereas this Tamil version is as artificial as it may get without even any iota of reality . College campus of “Ninaithale Inikum ” is a straight lift from those the likes of Karthik , Murali & co used to rule.

The screenplay is disjointed with irritatingly placed unwanted songs standing alienated from the proceedings though they are good to hear & beautifully shot . There is no semblance of thrill as the movie moves towards the climax which was very much evident in the Malayalam version . The student politics which was brilliantly portrayed in the original also looks very banal here.

All the actors have put in their sincere efforts while Cinematography & the colour tone used are top class though they are not enough to salvage this half backed attempt. Prithviraj is adequate while Priyamani looks plump .Karthik Kumar , Shakthi & Vishnu Priyan have done a neat job . Anuja Iyer overacts a bit while K.Baghyaraj , Jeeva & Ilavarasu have redundant characterization.

Vijay Anthony’s songs are good especially “Ahagai Pookuthey ” & “Piya Piya ” .He however draws a blank in the rerecording .

Balasubramanyam’s cinematography is the only USP of the movie which stands tall over anything else in the movie.

On the whole , give it a miss & those who have seen the original – Don’t even dare go anywhere near the theaters showing this movie!

Bottomline : Ninaithale Inikum – Parthale kasakum …!!

2/5