Vadacurry

My review: Vadacurry

Saravana Rajan, erstwhile associate of Venkat Prabhu makes his debut with "Vadacurry", which he has written and directed. A comedy-thriller, movie studiously follows the template let out by his mentor, but unlike Venkat Prabhu's movies, there is less silliness. Saravana Rajan is more pragmatic in his story telling and desists from using undue gimmickry, unlike his mentor. 

Using a common metaphor throughout the movie as a mean of story telling is quiet rare in Tamil cinema. Here Saravanan has used mobile phone as common denominator underlying the happenings in the movie. The song "Ullankaiyil ennai vaithu" is a tribute to the mobile phone addiction and how people are trapped inside the mobile phone (which of-course both literally and figuratively presented in the song ) is wonderfully shot.

Screenplay is crisp, dialogues rollicking funny, story has enough suspense to keep the viewers engrossed till the end. First half is more of a romantic-comedy, with a triangular love, funny misunderstandings and the comical manner in which mobile phone make the protagonist's life miserable. It passes at a break neck speed, without much ado one hour flies. Second half is where the real comedy-thriller and the roller-coaster ride of the protagonist starts. Director manages to maintain the pace throughout. Only grouse which is quiet a major one that has the potential to make or break this movie's outcome is the climax, which is terrible, to say the least. Suddenly movie turns hardcore filmy and the suspense factor when revealed evokes only laugh and ridicule more than  shock. That might be the difference between a hit and a super-duper hit. 

Jai, in spite of his limitations, has acquainted himself well. The innocence in his face which comes to him effortlessly helps. Swathi's character is more of an irritatingly nagging lover which seems intended to be that way. RJ Balaji in the titular role is mixed bag. At quiet a few places his timing dialogues evoke laughter but the unending chatter of his might get into the nerves of many. 

"Nejukulle nee" is a rollicking fun number. The debutant music directors Vivek-Mervin have done a pretty decent job in their background score. Songs could have been better. Venkatesh's cinematography is adequate. Technically movie is good. 

On the whole, "Vadacurry" is entertaining no doubt but a very weak climax may water down the overall positivity.

Bottomline: Spicy masala curry.

3/5

Bangalore Days

My review: Bangalore Days

Most of the times you would want to write a review as soon as you have seen the movie if either you liked it very much or if it is very terrible. Most of the movies will fall into this category. Every now and then comes a movie which is neither good nor bad that you would not get any motivation to write a review for the same. It's been almost 2 weeks since I have watched "Bangalore Days", but only now I am motivated enough to write a review, for the heck of it, more than anything else. 

Written and Directed by Anjali Menon, "Bangalore Days" is too long for starters. The leisurely pace with which it is staged gets tiring after a point. Not that there is something in it for the director to have deliberately chosen this pace. Story about the lives of three cousins (who are more of best buddies) when they are in Bangalore could have made a bit better with lifelike experiences coupled with imaginative characters  rather than the maker taking refuge in the age old cliches of Indian cinema. 

 A conformist, a rebel and an ambivalent, make up the trio of lead characters and they end up confronting what they ought to according to the long laid template of movies of this type. A conformist in the real bad world of ruthless people learns his lessons the hard way before he himself turns a rebel by challenging the traditions that he conformed to all these years by marrying a foreigner, who herself is a rebel having adapted to a foreign culture disowning her own. But still he gets what he wanted, a girl who lives her life extolling the tradition, values and culture of Kerala. Nivin Pauly is brilliant in his portrayal of Krishnan PP aka Kuttan, although it is one of the most ridiculously typecast role you could think of, a Malayalee software engineer form rural Kerala in Bangalore bumbling his way to glory. 

Next template is Dulquer Salman's  Arjun aka Aju. A rebel, who is an impulsive novelty seeker, a byproduct of early parental discord and broken family, he ought to conform once he falls in love. What else can change a rebel, other than our age old love for a timid, innocent girl (who is also physically challenged to milk the lachrymal glands). Only solace is that the director some how managed to avoid the airport climax, albeit for the sake of being different, let have the climax when the lady is about to alight the taxi heading towards airport, so much for the novelty. But again Parvathy shows her class in the "mother of all cliche" role. Dulquer is terrific. 

The third story is as ambivalent as its character, Divya Prakash aka Kunju. Nazriya has done a pretty decent job in this role. As a part conformist- part rebel Divya, who settles for a safe arranged marriage yet has the audacity for a fag right before the nuptial, one gets a bit disappointed with the amount of time she lets herself to get treated like she gets. And Fahad Fasil's Shiva is another set piece, "once bitten twice shy". 

Movie has a wonderful musical score by Gopi Sunder. "Mangalyam" song is an instant hit. Sameer Tahir's cinematography is terrific. And one must appreciate the cinematographer-director duo for refraining from undue gimmickry in the form of using different color tones for the three main characters, an irritant which people are employing regularly these days. 

On the whole, "Bangalore Days" is way too long, especially since the purpose is only eavesdropping on the life of people we have been seeing in movies since time immemorial.

Bottomline: Mundane days. 

2.5/5 

Mundasupatti

My review: Mundasupatti

Ram Kumar seems to be an excellent short film maker. But the problem with his debut feature film "Mundasupatti" is that his fixation with short films in terms of the plot, staging of the story, making style, extracting performances from the actors, has done serious damage to the impact the movie has on its viewers. Problem is what might have looked like a brilliant plot, making style and presentation as a short film, when it gets stretched unduly to make it as a feature film it ends up looking plain silly and juvenile. So the supposedly serious aspects of the movie looks silly while intended comical and silly sequences look irritating. 

Among all the short films which have been made into feature films over the past couple of years, this is the first one which looks forced. The crispness of the narration which was the main reason for all his (and many) short films getting all the accolades is straight away the casualty when it comes to big screen. Even the supposed comical elements which they have used to infuse some life into the narration fails for the timing is too leisurely for them to have any impact whatsoever. And when the timing gets mended, the jokes are far too silly right from the nursery school skits, that only makes one cringe in his seat. 

Not everything about the movie is downhill. Technically it is right up with the most richly made films in any other industry in India. P.V.Sankar's cinematography is excellent, tries his level best to get the period feel right along with the help of the art director. The scene composition and the narrative style is also sleek, at many places on par with any international movie. Ram Kumar gets is right in most of these super-structural aspects of the movie. May be he should move on from his short film mentality, think rich in terms of narrative and the soft skilled aspects of the movie.   

Vishnu Vishal seems to have stuck the right knack in picking up his movies. Each of his movies are different and have some novelty in them. Whether he manages to reap rewards in terms of box-office performance is another matter but his zeal and spirit needs to be applaud. Nadhitha however should be careful when it comes to picking her movies. She is getting typecast. Kaali Venkat is a major draw in this generally pretty ordinary cast. His poker faced one-liners keep the audience going until the last few reels when the real comedy in the movie gets to life.  

"Mundasupatti" is a lesson for all those short film makers. First and foremost one should be sure as to whether they have enough material to convert a short film into a feature film and in that case whether the material is engaging enough. Also one can get away with silliness in the short film as they are primarily made for a restricted audience but when you try to make a feature film try to get more serious. 

On the whole, "Mundasupatti" is silly, juvenile, irritating and boring with laughs here and there. 

Bottomline: Javvu mittai.

2/5

Kochadaiiyaan

My review: Kochadaiiyaan

Touted to be "India's first photo-realistic performance capture film", Soundarya Rajinikanth Ashwin's directorial debut, "Kochadaiiyaan" leaves a lot to be desired. Written by K.S.Ravikumar, movie's script is actually rehash of all the old historical fiction movies right from the days when Tamil movie industry was still in it's infancy. It is yet another attempt at trivializing the intelligence and tolerance levels of an average Tamil movie watcher, both in its content as well as the form. 

The makers have almost conned the viewers with the use of all those glossy gimmicky technical terms. In actuality what one sees on screen is a high definition puppet show where the inflexible dolls goes through the motions brought to life only by the mean of good audio backing. Like success of any puppet show is licked to the voices and the music behind the swaying dolls which keep the audience enthralled, in "Kochadaiiyaan" too the audio part of the movie is what that keeps the audience interested. Actually if the makers have just made it as a audio drama, it would have created wonders. Movie has excellent music, both background as well as the songs, and the magnetic voice of Rajinikanth. So it would have really done exceedingly well if it had got a exclusively audio release. The visuals only dilute the impact the audio alone would have managed to create drastically. 

In addition to the puppet like motion of the animated characters, what make one think about the movie as a puppet show is like in those shows in this movie too, there is a song every 10 minutes. Hence by the time second half starts and songs sprout out few minutes in succession, what ever little patience one might have harbored will vanish. So it was actually a terrifying part in the end when the makers give us a hint of a sequel. Instead of trivializing ourselves with arguments like the makers have made it with so much of hard work in spite of having meager budget unlike their Hollywood counterparts, one must aspire of better quality products. Many down south have already shown that even with meager budgets one can make high quality movies on par with Hollywood. 

On the whole, "Kochadaiiyaan" is best enjoyed by watching with not the 3D glasses but with black patches for both your eyes, for the audio alone is terrific, video terrifying. 

Bottomline: High definition puppet show. 

2/5

Manjapai

My Review: Manjapai

"Manjapai" is throwback to the era of Vikraman and his proteges who regularly used to churn out movies based on familial relationships that used to be crude, brash and on your face. Debutant writer-director N.Ragavan studiously follow the template set by them in the late 80's and 90's without even wondering a bit whether that would have any impact in the current scheme of things. Unabashedly preachy and ostentatious, the makers have literally tried to throttle the viewers begging them to laugh and cry when want them to. 

The characters are cardboard sheet caricatures cut out of unidimensional emotions. The lower class and rural people in the film are angelic and exude crude levels of goodness while the rich and urban characters are nauseatingly bad and selfish demons. The good ones are put through heights of insults by the insensitive bad ones which after a point becomes pointless. The end is most comical of them all, which brings in lots of unintended laughter. It is really astonishing that people are ready to finance movies of such inane writing and pathetic making.

Even Rajkiran's mature performance can't reel out the film from the misery it induces it's viewers to. Though restrained in most parts the veteran do gets unnerving in those scenes where he ought to look naive but ends up looking silly. Vimal, as usual does his part with unnerving casualness. Lakshmi Menon don't have much to do in this movie which is primarily an ode to grandfather-grandson relationship. 

N.R.Raghunathan deserves praise mainly for not indulging himself with the S.A.Rajkumar type of "la la la" chorus in the emotional scenes despite having enough temptations for the same. His songs are however average ones. Movie is shoddily shot, technically tacky. Masani is the cinematographer. 

On the whole, "Manjapai" belongs totally to altogether a different era where overt theatrics, crude melodrama and cartoonish unidimensional characterization ruled the roost. 

Bottomline: Poorer than contemporary television serials.  

2/5 

Manam

My review: Manam

Vikram Kumar known for his intelligent scripting though he has ventured into various genres already in his brief career is at it again with his latest release, "Manam". A heart-warming story that cut across three generations, Vikram has not taken it easy so as to make a feel-good family entertainer but has a backing of a story that is quiet unusual to the Indian cinema. Though we have seen numerous movies that touch upon reincarnation, the interplay of two main plots and few other subplots made with conviction without confusing the viewers is what makes this endeavor an above-par one. 

A story-line that has an inherent danger of seemingly confusing at the outset has got simplified by the intelligent scriptwriter in Vikram Kumar. It is almost impossible for anyone to make this story as simple as they have made it to be. Also the beautiful interplay between the humor and the sentiment make it readily enjoyable for the families. Each of the subplots have their own time period, completion and conviction.    

As the makers proclaim, it is indeed a worthy tribute to the veteran of Telugu cinema, Akkineni Nageswara Rao. Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya perform credibly well. The duo perform exceedingly well in their period avatars better than the contemporary ones. Same goes for the lead ladies, Samantha and Shriya. Especially Samantha in the contemporary role acts retarded in most of the scenes. 

Anoop Rubens melodious numbers are in keeping with the overall mood of the movie while P.S.Vinod's cinematography has a lot of rich visuals, a treat for your eyes.

Overall, "Manam" is an intelligently made feel good movie, that touches both your heart and brain. 

Bottomline: Quiet a few laughs, smiles and tears. 

3.5/5