Siruthai Film Review

No qualms on formulaic flicks. If the variables are near to nil, the formula renders no use. Oops. Thats too much of math in the review, isn't it?? Well, the art of film-making is a math too. Petty flaws near and far could not just flip the movie, but flop its prospects too. Sadly, 'Siruthai' is one such movie, that comes with a formulaic, yet gripping storyline, that falls prey to a half baked execution. Lets take a sneak peek of where this 'Siruthai' Roars and where it Squeaks.

Roars:

Santhanam: Much inspired from the eminent humorist Goundamani, Santhanam has nothing new to offer for a vintage Tamil spectator. Still, he manages to tickle your rib in most of his attempts during the movie. A helping hand to place the movie from a 'worse' track to a 'bad' track.

Karthi's': The good done by Karthi to the movie stops with a casual, yet catchy performance as 'Rocket' Raja, an easy-go-lucky thief and the differentiations he managed to pull of through his looks and body language from this character of his to the other 'wannabe' powerful character of his.

Tamannah: Doesn't fail to make you drool in spite of a loosely knit love track.

Squeaks:

Screenplay & Editing: The much to be concentrated areas of screenplay and editing were weighed less for more attention to the Karthis, that left him lift the entire burden of the movie. The very essence of a successful movie, particularly commercial ones is that its snags should be overshadowed by its advantages. 'Siruthai' fails in that aspect. The illogical instances were extensively highlighted.

Cop Karthi: At a few places, Karthi as an upright, rough cop was a terror to the villains. At other places, he was almost a terror to the audience. Blame the screenplay, not him! A character that required the aggression of Sivaji Ganesan's SP Chowdhury, got stuck midway between Vadivel's Telex Pandian and Rajnikanth's Alex Pandian. Pity you, Rathnavel Pandian.

Siruthai is a total timepass if and only if you are one who likes Santhanam's flavour of comedy and eager to see Karthi in a larger than life role.

Kollywood fans are prone to keep kidding successful stars when they slide down. Sadly, guess Karthi would be 'that' centric attraction hereon.

Sorry, Karthi.. Jintha tha jintha jintha jintha tha tha... :)

My Verdict: 4/10

Aadukalam Film Review

After fighting an enduring battle outside the theatre to get myself a ticket, I entered the cinema hall, battered and bruised, all set for Aadukalam nevertheless. The ambience was just right; I was watching a movie in a village after a long time as I hadn’t booked tickets in advance. The mood of the people around seemed to be in blissful confluence with the onscreen characters.

The movie starts off with a breezy voiceover by Vetrimaaran, a slide show encapsulating the history of rooster-fighting making up the background. As the title suggests, the movie is about battlefields and the fights that are orchestrated on and off the same. It’s also a tale of pride, ego, confidence, revenge and infidelity.

Rooster fighting forms the backbone of the movie; the movie see-saws through the lives of characters in the heart of Madurai who are solely dependent on the same for livelihood. The resulting possessiveness about the “art”, the honour and pride that comes with it proves to be Aadukalam’s Aadukalam. The characters, their emotions and their actions are chiseled in accordance with the happenings on the battle-field!

Everything that happens as a result of the battlefield endeavors and results make perfect sense; they take the movie towards the rightful destination modeled on realism. But it’s the side-tracks and the romantic interludes that fail to strike a chord. The romance in this movie can be compared to that in “7g”: in both cases, the heroine accepting the hero’s proposal seems impossible just because the female leads in both the movies find their respective pairs repulsive initially; also for the simple reason that their characters are diametrically opposite and so are their family backgrounds. The scenes outlining the lead actress’s disgust for the hero are so strong in both the movies that, though the directors of the respective movies try very hard to make us comprehend to the ensuing battle of love between the two at an emotional level, they fail. But I have to add that Vetri’s effort to fool us with his romantic fantasy has surely met with more success than Selva’s. Acting is reason enough to give this movie a shot. I loved the old man who plays “Pettaikaran” more than Dhanush in this flick. Dhanush’s acting prowess, especially in the movies where he plays the “locallu” guy is well known. To emulate Dhanush and make a mark when Dhanush is playing his favourite character takes a lot of effort and surprisingly, the old man seems to have done it with graceful ease. Having said that, Dhanush himself has come up with a cracker of a performance. He reverberates with oodles of energy scene after scene and after Selva, Dhanush seems to be very comfortable working with Vetri! The partnership is a success again. Kishore is another asset to the team.

GV has come up with beautiful songs for the movie and they have beautifully blended with the mood; the placement of the songs warrant mention. The BGM though, didn’t appeal to me. It seemed very repetitive and monotonous. Editing is one big letdown in this movie: I wonder why our filmmakers are so intent on stretching a movie to 150 minutes and beyond. To make things worse, a lot of scenes have been scissored abruptly. Aadukalam is what it is solely because of its screenplay. The emotions have worked wonderfully well and the innovative engineering of a plethora of reactions around the red-hot core of rooster fighting made for intriguing viewing. The computer generated rooster fights have come out very well and the level of interest here is sure to keep the audience on seat edges. Lighting seems to be another neglected element in the movie, with the director making it difficult for us to differentiate between characters in a few scenes. Apparently, the director has employed this technique to reflect the emotions; but he needn’t have done it to this extent! It also takes the sheen of the otherwise flawless cinematography. One big surprise in Aadukalam was the disappearance of a seemingly important character after the end of the first half, who was apparently used only for the build up.

To sum it up, Aadukalam is refreshingly innovative and deserves applause for Vetrimaran’s eye for excruciating detail and desire for perfection. The movie is not without its set of flaws though. Go enjoy this flick and raise the bar on your expectation meter for Vetrimaran’s next venture! Hope he comes up with such innovative themes devoid of clichés in the future.

Raajneeti Film Review

Raajneeti, writer-director Prakash Jha’s sprawling portrait of a political family, is a mixed bag. The film has moments of ferocious power and just as many flaws.

The narrative has a propulsive movement in the first half but becomes dramatically inert in the second. Jha, who has fought elections in Bihar himself, creates a real sense of the machinations and sordid deals that fuel politics but then hobbles it with outlandish twists and some decidedly ‘filmy’ moments – like a ridiculous love-making scene that is triggered because the characters get wet in the rain.

Apparently getting soaked in Bollywood still equals sex. And, as almost all the female characters in this film find out, having sex even one time, still equals babies.

The performances are strong—especially Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Nana Patekar—but the characters are largely one-note.

There has been much hype about Katrina Kaif learning lengthy Hindi dialogue for the film. She’s clearly worked hard but her luminous looks rather than acting are still her trump card.

Raajneeti is a film with ambition and scale but it works in fits and spurts. Jha’s political epic is too busy and bumpy and never quite fulfils the potential inherent in the story.

Raajneeti sources as much from The Godfather as it does from the Mahabharata. So we have sets of cousins whose rivalry spills into the open as soon as the head of the family suffers a stroke.

The film begins with a back-story of Sooraj Kumar, the Karna-like figure played by Ajay Devgn. Abandoned at birth, Sooraj is adopted by a Dalit family.

In quick succession, so many characters are introduced that Jha uses a voice-over to explain who is connected to whom and what the political affiliations are. It takes a good 15 minutes to take in the details and place the characters but the story-telling is engaging and soon you’re caught up with this Machiavellian family in which the plotting begins even as the father is still being treated by doctors. As the stakes get higher, the moves get bloodier.

Eventually, Samar Pratap, the Michael Corleone figure played by Ranbir Kapoor, the young brother who is working on a PhD on Victorian poetry, gets sucked into the murderous struggle for power.

Until here, Jha and his co-writer Anjum Rajabali tell the story with assurance and flair. But then the momentum dips and the intrigues become less and less interesting. Critically, Samar’s conversion to a ruthless murderer isn’t convincing. One minute he’s the student and the next, he, like everyone else is trigger-happy with bombs and guns.

Jha even borrows The Godfather’s famous severed horse-head scene.

Only here, a politician wakes up to find his male lover’s throat slit. Sadly, the gut-wrenching twist, when Kunti reveals to Karna that he is her son and therefore warring with his own brothers, is not done very effectively.

For the true power and emotion of that moment, watch Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug, in which the Mahabharata is transported to a business milieu. Shashi Kapoor who plays the Karna figure crumples slowly as he becomes aware of his own tragedy.

In its second hour, Raajneeti lets go of logic. We know that politics is an amoral, brutal cesspool but even so, leading politicians themselves murdering their rivals on a street in broad daylight is a bit of a stretch.

In a climactic shoot-out, we even have a perverted version of the Gita sermon in which the Krishna figure, played by Nana Patekar, insists on cold-blooded murder. Come on, finish them, he says.

Of course there is no one to root for in this gallery of rogues but more troublesome is the specious morality of the film. After a few feeble apologies, Samar Pratap finds a semblance of redemption.

Eventually then, Raajneeti is as exhausting as it is compelling.

Raavan Film Review

The low-caste Beera rules the forest in Raavan, Mani Ratnam’s richly atmospheric adaptation of the Indian epic The Ramayana.

Though the film takes place in the present, Mr Ratnam’s forest remains an appropriately primeval place for mythic doings, full of fog and mists and rain and Beera’s mud-painted followers (shades of “Apocalypse Now”).

Raavan (Ravana in Sanskrit), as every Indian knows, is the demon in The Ramayana who kidnaps Sita, the wife of Rama: king, deity and model husband (as Sita is the model wife).

Early on in Ratnam’s film the question is asked: Is Beera (a gleefully hammy Abhishek Bachchan) Robin Hood or Raavan? He’s both — and more a hero in this telling, set on his turf, than is the Rama character, a cop called Dev (Vikram), who matches Beera in brutality and cunning, but not in heart.

Raavan has Bollywood glamour aplenty, with the lovely if occasionally dramatically challenged Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek’s wife, playing the Sita stand-in.

The real star, though, is Ratnam, a talented visual storyteller who directs action crisply and fills the screen with striking images. (One, of Bachchan’s falling body landing gracefully on a tree branch, is so good he uses it three times.)

Artful but not arty, Ratnam, whose films include Dil Se and Guru delivers the goods: There are songs and dances (A R Rahman of Slumdog Millionaire fame did the excellent score), and an eye-popping climactic battle, between the bad-good Beera and the good-bad Dev, on a teetering suspension bridge. And that, folks, is entertainment.

This film has been designated as a Critics' Pick.

Raavanan Film Review

Let’s get this straight. Raavanan is not Mani Ratnam’s attempt to venerate the epic villain whose name the movie is titled after. It’s not also a study on complex human relationships weighed down by trust, conviction or quandary. It’s a pure cinematic retreat spanning across the dense jungles of Southern and Central India with exceptional cinematography (Santosh Sivan and
 
Manikandan), by-now cult songs (A R Rahman) and interesting performances by its lead actors. And the significance of the movie appears in the same order mentioned above.

Mani’s conviction of illustrating an unachievable love story between the two leads (Aishwarya Rai and Vikram) is palpable from the very start of the movie. However, the blossoming of love doesn’t quite form the back bone of Raavanan so much. The movie digresses into other aspects - a man hunt, flash backs, revenge drama and so on and so forth. The man hunts lack dexterity, the revenge drama that is triggered by the death of Vikram’s sister seems engineered and Prithviraj often comes across as stiff – showing unnecessary tautness in the character that is probably designed to defy emotions (may be because he is in his Khakis?).

But all that is absolved, as the movie stunningly unfolds often drenching itself in the monsoonal deluge making you feel rain-soaked. If you have any doubt about Mani’s eternal love affair with rain, Raavanan stands as a remarkable testimony. It rains in the song sequences, in encounters and in emotional scenes. And at other instances, the sky is constantly downcast as if threatening to pour down. And the cinematography captures it all in delightful exuberance.

For the most part, Vikram owns the movie seizing it magnificently even from Mani’s own hands. His love blooms out of astonishment at the outwardly courage displayed by Aishwarya Rai and he makes those scenes persuasive for the viewer. He infuses life into the character and shows no jaggedness, falling for a married woman thus replicating, probably the characters of Raavanan. Suhasini’s profound dialogues come in handy in many places and the viewer is made to read between lines quite often.

Aishwarya Rai’s semblance of the late Padmini is unmistakable, it could be her dialogues or the way she manages her composure attentively even in the hardest of terrains the character puts her through. The lady sure has attempted to reach on par with Vikram in performance in many sequences. Kudos to Mani for a dignified portrayal of his lead woman. There is a refreshing strength in Ragini’s character brought out well by Aishwarya.

Prithvi plays a toughie police officer and somehow his character portrayal leaves a few questions unanswered: for instance, his love for Aishwarya Rai is weighed down by his commitment and that singular fact does not come across convincingly.

Priyamani plays the ill-fated Vennila and leaves a lump in your throat. Karthik in his second innings steals the show. Prabhu and Munna play support roles that ebb and flow with the movie.

Cinematography by Santosh Sivan is brilliant and has rendered the perfect support for Mani. His probing lens takes the audience through the thick jungles, the mighty waterfalls and the rough terrains of India. Music and art direction play equally momentous role in Raavanan as its lead actors. If not for Rahman’s songs and background score, Vikram’s unrequited love wouldn’t have been so painful for us. The songs have already been much debated about and leave no scope for further discussion. One word though: it’s not for nothing “Usure Pogude…” has achieved a cult status. You tend to try hard not to fall in love but fail with the song as Vikram heaves a sigh of relief, having seen Aishwarya Rai breathing and alive after a steep fall.

Sameer Chanda’s art direction complements the ruggedness and splendid beauty of the nature in the jungles so well you refuse to believe anything is man-made.

A major drawback is the lack of ‘Tamil’ feel in the film and its music; it more appears for the audience north of Vindhyas in many places. What Mani loses out is the pace over the later part of the first half; he gains it back with a major twist in the climax. Although you have a few questions about the incidents leading to the finale, those are done away with - thanks to the elegiac climax.

Verdict: Watch Raavanan, it’s visually poetic!

Singam Film Review

Singam - Saamy's alter ego

Everyone in the tinsel world seems to know the sacred mantra - "Discover your winning formula and use it endlessly till you tire your audience out". When stars can follow this animatedly why not directors!! Director Hari has intently executed his working principle and fairly succeeded in his attempt sided with the marketing stalwart Sun Pictures who can package even the worst nightmare to look and feel like your most enticing dream.

Hari can duly be nominated for the best copier award who has managed a flawless remake of his own Blockbuster Saamy with different lead artists and a very few tweaks mostly insignificant to the actual plot and audience. There are too many familiar takes from the real McCoy that it gets very difficult not to see Saamy in every frame when you have actually spent $16 for Singam!!!

Surya, as always looks handsome. There is nothing much to look forward with his acting as he is played his part just fine. With the exception of a few places, when tackling the bad elements where he literally roars in an undesirable high pitch breaking with a croaky effect, he is passable.

The star's forte is his charisma in romantic clippings or at least that was how he came across to a few fans of his like me until he tied the sacred knot. He used to be an on-screen romantic delight with a spectacular co-star chemistry leaving a deeper impact than the movie itself. Of late the star's dancing skills are much better than his romance in the movie.

In Singam, the director has avoided chummy scenes with forethought honoring the obvious height difference which would most likely bring on criticism rather than appreciation. Thus, Anushka's presence is felt only in the few songs where she single handedly entertains the audience with her ample anatomy coupled with sensuous movements.

Comedy has taken a new definition with the so-called comedian Vivek. The scenes where this clown appears evokes every feeling but laughter with annoyance topping the list. All his scenes are a deliberate inclusion on a confirmed drooping mission. The movie would have been better off if VT Vijayan had considered using his "Cut" tool seriously on this buffoon's scenes.

With such a pathetic delivery, the Chinna Kalaivanar was bragging his soul out on the Cassette release function telecasted on Sun Channel a few days ago. His speech was so reassuring that I had my hopes very high only for an awful disappointment. He is the proverbial empty Vessel!

Surya's dance needs a special mention. It is not easy to have forgotten the Aval varuvala stunts by Surya which was called dance in those days. The star has scaled up enormously that he can very well be added to the league of dancer-actors in the industry - my personal favorites being "She stole my heart" and "Kadhal Vandhaale". Music was neither great nor boring..but DSP could have avoided singing in every song. He didnt spare the BGM either!!

I have a great regard for Prakash Raj who has played the anti role. In my opinion, he is one of the few versatile stars this industry has been gifted with. There are movies that I have watched including one starring Sibi Raj in the lead role, only because Prakash Raj was one of the casts. But for Prakash Raj, I wouldn't have cared to watch it even on Sun TV!! But neither was he convincing nor justified in the movie. The Prakash Raj air was completely missing. Looks like he had played the role just to add on to his bank balance!!

If you haven't watched Saamy, which I would think is inconceivable, then you might find Singam terrific. For those of you who are obsessed with Saamy (like me), Singam is yet another movie

Aishwarya rai's first fullfledged Comedy Film

Aishwarya Rai has three very different films coming up this year, but director Vipul Shah says his film Action Replay will bring to the audiences her first full-fledged comedy.

"Of course comedy, which is the hardest genre to do, is not taken seriously at the awards. But in my film, Aishwarya has done comedy for the first time. She may have attempted it here and there earlier. But this is her first full-fledged comedy role. But she's welcome to get the awards for her other two releases...I don't mind," Shah said.

Mani Ratnam's Raavan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish are the other two films she will be doing this year.

While Bhansali's Guzaarish is set to release in November, Raavan and Action Replay, which also stars Akshay Kumar, are due to hit the theatres in quick succession within a month.

While Raavan is slated for a June 18 release, Shah is all set to release his film in July, arguing that the two films are completely different in mood, theme and treatment.

But the filmmaker had a bitter experience last year when his Salman Khan-starrer London Dreams released a month after the actor's home production Main Aur Mrs.Khanna.

Now apparently Shah plans to sit down with Mani Ratnam and figure out a release strategy whereby neither film suffers.

He said: "Raavan and Action Replay are very different films. And I thought I'd release (mine) in July. But I think I'll now discuss it with Aishwarya and Mani Ratnam. We need to work as one big family in this industry.

"Besides, I still have a song to shoot whereas Raavan is complete. I've yet to figure out when I can shoot it because both Aishwarya and Akshay are constantly travelling. We were supposed to shoot it earlier this year in the snow in Manali. Now we may go higher up at the Rohtang Pass or change the location for the song completely," the director added

Up in the Air Film review

Up In The Air is a terrific film. It’s sparkling. It’s sad. It’s deeply engaging and painfully insightful.

George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who fires people for a living. He spends 300-odd days a year on the road but this isn’t a problem. Bingham has turned air travel into high art. He’s happy to call a soulless airport hotel home. But Ryan’s comfortably numb life gets a jolt when he is asked to take a younger colleague on his road show. And he enters a relationship with a woman who seems as happy as him to keep it no-strings-attached. She says: think of me as you with a vagina. But that not as easy as it seems. Ryan discovers that family and relationships are a little more than mere baggage.

Working from a novel by Walter Kirn, director Jason Reitman creates a film that is so poignant and rich, that you actually find yourself sympathizing with Bingham, a man who is a corporate downsizer and gives motivational talks on how to avoid commitment.

Reitman doesn’t sugar-coat the humiliation and sadness of being fired. What Bingham does is brutal and nasty.

At one point, his colleague, played terrifically by Anna Kendrick, eagerly asks: For the love of God, can I fire the next one please! But Reitman expertly and effortlessly mines this material for laughs and emotions that never veer into melodrama or sentimentality.

The centerpiece of the film is of course Clooney’s heart-wrenching performance. Here is a global superstar working his legendary charm. But at the same time, he isn’t afraid of being and looking human, and more than a little frayed at the edges.

Up In The Air will devastate you even as it makes you laugh. If you’re going to see one film this weekend, make it Up In The Air.

Paiyaa Film Review

Paiyaa is the first summer release, which had huge expectations due to promotions and the good looking stills of tamanna. But the end product doesn't look promising as expected. In the trailer, they had mentioned Paiyaa to be from the makers of run, sandakozhi,,, but to be frank, paiyaa doesn't even get close to those blockbuster movies from Lingusamy,

Story Analysis:

Karthi(Siva) an engineer by profession is in search for a job,during that process he end up landing in Mumbai and gets into trouble with Mumbai dada(Miliand Soman). Tamanna (Charu) is an innocent gal, due to some family trouble, she runs out of her home and is also in search for a job in bangalore. As usual villains follow her to bring her back to home, this is where Siva meets her. Siva falls in love with charu at first sight. At certain point, he also gets a chance to take charu to mumbai to drop charu at her grandmother's home. During the journey, siva's love strengthens but he wouldn't get a chance to propose her. As usual again all the baddies land at Mumbai and Siva fights them.The climax is all about how siva save himself as well as charu from the gang & how Siva and Charu join together.

Cast and Crew Analysis:

This is karthi's first commercial film, so at times when he speak some serious dialogues, the audience are at splits. He still has the hangover of 1000 thil oruvan movie. But still, he did his part well. He should improve a lot in dancing and concentrate more on his sense of costumes.Tamanna looked ravishing and cute. She has improved a lot in acting. Special mention should be made about the costumes of tamanna, It really suited her well and color tone of her dress was perfect.

Miliand Soman looked dangerous but didn't impress us in anyway. Apart from him,, there were 'n' villains and all looked alike with huge body and long hair, it was irritating to see them.

Yuvan was the biggest plus for this movie, all songs were catchy, and he scored well with the back ground music, everything was perfect. Editing by anthony was good. Cinematography by madhi was worth mentioning. Few of the stunts looked good and as usual some superman stunts were there.

General Analysis:

I think Lingusamy can't ever come out from the effect of making run/sandakozhi. In the same fashion, there is a fight before interval and a fight in climax.First half was good with some comedies and songs, But the second half was not up the mark. Towards the end, the speed of the screenplay was very slow.

In spite of having 4 choreographer's for the movie, all the visuals for songs were not up to the mark, to put in one word, all songs were wasted on screen. They should have done justice to yuvan's music. karthi should join in some dance school and learn to dance soon, he cant just randomly lift his legs and hands and go around the actress in forth coming movies.

Over all it's a movie which can be seen once for the sake of yuvan's music, tamanna and of course karthi. Apart from it, this movie has got nothing great which is worth mentioning. But tamanna fans don't ever miss this movie.

Expected Days Of Successful Run: 30 Days

My Verdict: Above Average

Bottom Line: Tamanna fans don't ever miss this movie and especially addada mazhai song !..

My Ratings:2.5/5

Angadi Theru Film Review

**The movie starts of with the hero-heroine doing some mischives.Later on it moves to flashback. Jothilingam(Mahesh) comes from a poor family and due to circumstances he works as a sales person in Senthil Murugan stores,a famous textile shop in Ranganathan street,T Nagar,with his friend Pandi,Kana Kanum Kalangal fame Pandi. There he meets Kani(Anjali) and falls in love with her. The way both fall into love has been portrayed quite naturally by the director. The movie is all about how these kind of sales people,are treated in the shop by the concerned authorities. Director A.Venkatesh and my favorite writer Pazha.Karuppayya have acted as villains. Venkatesh,who is called as Karunkaali by the workers,has simply rocked in that role as a ruthless supervisor. Pazha.Karuppayya,the Annachi, resembles a popular shop in T Nagar, especially when he comments about Sneha’s saree, when the ad film was being shot :D.

These villains torture everyone working there and the sales people are treated like slaves. One girl even commits suicide for loving a guy in that shop, due to Karunkaali. That much cruel person he is. So how he troubles the lead pair and how they escape from this shop and what kind of difficulties they face and how they overcome these difficulties is the story precisely.What really keeps us tied with this movie is that the realistic portrayal and excellent dialogues(Kudos to Jayamohan). The best part of the movie is that it shows different kinds of people, suffering in many ways, but still prefers to work and doesn’t beg. For example, one person keeps on asking everyone to give him a job. None responds him, but an old lady gives him some money to buy food. This person refuses to get that money. Instead he gets some water and cleans ugly the public toilet and does some minimal decoration to it. After that he sits outside the toilet and collects money from people for using it. Then he is shown as living a better life. Another excellent scene that got standing ovation from audience is that, a dwarf man gets disappointed when his new born child is also dwarf like him whereas his wife feels happy for it. When questioned she says, “I have been sweeping in this street along this person only,if the child is not dwarf people will question the legitimacy of the fatherhood of this child. But now none will question”. Like there are lot of good scenes in the movie.

Coming to Mahesh,the hero, a new face , he has done an excellent job. His acting doesn’t look like a debutant at all. Great,keep it up :-). And Anjali too has played her girl-next-door kind of role perfectly. Other artistes like Sophiya,Pandi, an old man selling remote covers in platform and even Sneha :D and everyone else has been given equal importance and they have done justice to their roles. There is space for comedy too. The scene in which Lingu narrates his love experience with Ashwini is a hilarious one. Music is good. Aval appadi ondrum azhagillai song is too pleasant to hear and it was also picturized nicely. Un perai Ketkumpothe song is an excellent melody and Shreya Ghosal and Naresh Iyyer’s voices makes it too sweet.BGM is also nice. Vijay Antony and G V Prakash has handled the music,both have done a neat job,though songs composed by Vijay Antony is better than GV. Na.Muthu Kumar again proves that he is the common man’s lyricist. The naïve and innocent lyrics like aval appadi ondrum color illai aanal athu oru kurai illa,aval uduthum udayum pidikkavillai irunthum gavanikka marukka villai, shows what a clean thinker he is.Again in the song Kannil Theriyum Kaalam Kayyil varatha,he stresses on mechanical life of people and the dreams and desires of a common man. One can even say that Muthukumar is the best lyricist in current generation.

Camera man Richard M Nathan deserves a special mention here. We all might have gone to T Nagar. We all know about the kind of rush in Ranganathan Street. It is not easy to even walk. But this man has shot the scenes, that too with hidden cameras. This is no mean task to achieve and his camera work is outstanding in this movie. All said and done,the best thing in this movie is, it has shown the people with lot of negatives(I mean difficulties, due to nature and circumstances) in a positive light. None of the characters loses its confidence and till the end they fight for a decent living. At the same time I was really moved to tears when I realized how difficult is the life of people working in Saravana Stores or Sankarapandiyan Stores. The movie says all the characters and dialogues are fictitious. But it doesn’t look like a fiction. It is a movie about people whom we come across daily but hardly get noticed.

Vasanthabalan stands tall with such versatile movies(though he has done just 3 movies).Vasanthabalan is Kollywood’s Usanthabalan.

Verdict : Exceptionally well made

Rating : 4/5**

Mundhinam partheney film review

Story Analysis:

Sanjay is a guy who works for an IT company, he opens up his mind and speak about the gals whom he have met in his life. Story is all about the three gals whom interfered in Sanjay's life. First gal is pooja,, sanjay tries very hard to impress and correct her. That relationship doesn't last forever,, all of a sudden pooja marries NRI guy and leave to USA. Second gal is arthy, dance master by profession. Again sanjay falls in love on her at first sight & correct her by using his tricks. That relationship too doesn't last for ever due to some reason. Third gal is Anu,, its none other his project mate in the company where he works. The remaining story is about how sanjay and anu join together and marry each other.

Cast & Crew Analysis:

Sanjay being a newcomer, did reasonably well, yet he need to improve in acting. There are three actress in the movie namely pooja, ekta, and lizna. All looked alike,, none acted well. They were showcased as a doll. Serial actor sai prasanth did well, especially few comedy tracks were good. Music by taman is worth mentioning. 3 songs were good and back ground music was cool. Debut director magi thirumeni's way of telling the story was impressive.

General Analysis:

The movie was very slow. The duration of the movie is just two hours, but when seeing it, it was like 20 hours mega serial. Too many songs in the movie, that may be the reason movie was not impressive. Director being an associate of romance legend gautham menon, we can see lot of traces of gautham's trademark scenes like kissing, English dialogues etc.. This movie has got many scenes which can be enjoyed in parts, but on the whole this movie is not up to the mark. I personally feel that, the director made the movie only for A class multiplex audience. So it's totally waste of time to watch this movie in local theaters.

Expected No Days Of successful Run: 20 days

My Verdict: Below Average

Bottom Line: Strictly for multiplex audience

My Ratings:2/5

Love sex aur dhoka film review

During the times when Khans, rom-coms and multi-starrers rule the roost of Hindi cinema, it indeed is a daring effort to make a movie with complete set of new-comers, distinct narrative presentation and handling reality content with a dose of fiction(sans fantasy). LSD has scored full marks in seeing this through and the effort is definitely laudable.Dibakar Banerjee, the ace director who had a nice comedy in Khosla Ka Ghosla and a masterpiece in Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye to his forte now has this dark voyeuristic fiction drama to his helm.

With the title leading to the very perception, Love Sex aur Dhoka is not that regular story about relationship from love to sleaze and hence betrayal and cheating. LSD is a collection of the three hard-hitting short stories and interconnected within each other in a non-linear fashion that puts the logical flow in place in the otherwise three distinct stories(read 'camera-tales') making it one dark packaged presentation. One cant obviously be not reminded of similar narratives or the chapter-titling(a la desi ishtyle though) between the stories as in Pulp Fiction or Sin City. The raw content in LSD overrides this inspiration/reference through the tight storytelling by Dibaker and Kanu Bhel.

The stories are commonly bound by the fact that a camera is the medium of story telling - a hand-held, a security cam and a spy cam. Dibakar portrays innocence, charm and subtle romance in the story of Love, with a film student making his diploma certificate movie, gets romantically struck to the lead girl of the movie. Along with the likable romantic depiction of the lead pairs, this is one piece that evokes quite a few laughs with some mocks on our conventional bollywood love stories. While Sex deals with the social stigma of MMS and internet video scandals, with a loan-burdened security cam guy trying to get some sleaze videos from a super-store and make some money out of it, Dhoka dwells around the dark side of the media industry - casting couch and news sensationalism, with a wannabe music video lady artist trying to avenge a casting couch request coincidentally bumping into a newsman trying to make some sting news for his living.
While these may not be everyday stories of our neighborhoods or our candy-floss Hindi movies, Dibakar has chosen some of the commonly occurring incidents in the society that one may not fail to agree to, again ensuring the fictional part of the movie is atmost taken care of hence not lending a documentary/art/cult touch. What makes these three stories distinctly interesting is the tautness in narration carried out by Dibakar and the fashion in which each story converges into the other with conclusive ends of their own.

A full length movie from the camera's point of view is bound to leave the audience dizzy however cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis ensures that the viewers don't hit the threshold. One may often think this is the easiest part of a low cost movie allowing the camera to take its own route or just stay static, thankfully the shots seem to have been completely planned, designed and executed so very well. The edits by Namrata Rao have also contributed to the crispness and narrative flow of the movie, her part of the job has again been neatly executed. Thankfully again, there are no songs to disrupt the tautness of the movie, but the BGM just goes good with the treatment as needed

Stunning performances from the artists is another big bonus, bringing a sense of realism, never leaves the audience thinking that they are faces that have never been seen before. It sure is a tough task to portray as the characters written out with such finesse and make it appear as though they really are them, kudos to the hard work by the artists here. If you loved the cute guy who is a film student, you empathize with the innocent shopgirl at the store and you sure are to be awestruck with the character of the popstar at his precision in singing and playing instruments and on the other side alluring women as though its his easy daily job.

So whats up with LSD? It may not be the path-breaking differently treated movie. You may have felt a deja-vu with Pulp Fiction or Blair Witch Project, but what stands on top is the conviction with which the it has been made and presented - strong, dark and yet simple. The fact that the face of Hindi cinema is still not just Khans, but sometimes its the Anurags, Vishals and Dibakars who also add that winning flavor is upheld here and Hindi cinema truly deserves more of these new treatments to keep such good work going with the fullest motivation.

Asal Film Review

“Too many cooks spoil the broth” .The proverb is apt for the movie “Aasal” .

“Misnomer” is the appropriate word that best describes the title.

“Waste of time” is the feeling one gets after coming out of the theatre watching this insipid fare.

Watching it one gets a feeling that “Aasal ” might have been made by a person who used to write & direct those infamous Tuesday evening serials in Doordarshan Podhigai backed by a superb cinematographer &producers with lots of money to spend & freedom to film the movie wherever he likes – France , Malaysia , …..even the Moon.

3 persons are credited with Story, Screenplay & dialogues but even if one of them where aware of what they were doing, movie would have come across half decent . I am damn sure Saran has nothing to do with this pathetic writing & “direction”less movie .If he has actually been associated with the movie, then he must have done so in stupor.

Ajithkumar looks suave , stylish , elegant , debonair , classy…..am at loss of adjectives & that is all about him . By shedding his “Ultimate Star” tag AjithKumar has led by example for his peers to follow for which one has to salute the man but when his sobriquet “Thala” is used in each every opportunity , some reasonable but many a times contrived it makes one wonder in future we will have to put up with new usages like- “Thala” constable for ‘ head-constable ‘ , “Thala” light for ‘head-light’ , “Thala” ache for ‘head ache’………in all of his movies.

Sameera Reddy has more scope to perform in a trite role . Is she a cultural attaché of Indian embassy or an item-girl…. Bhavana’s is worse.

Generally acting in the movie is pedestrian with people like Kelly Dorjee & Rajiv Krishna more for comic relief while Yugi Sethu & Suresh are at best plain irritating .

Less said about the Music by Bharadwaj the better. Except “Dusyantha” rest of the songs are pathetic .

Prashanth D. Misale ,the cinematographer is the “Aasal” hero of the movie. His hard work is evident in each & every frame . Cinematography of the movie is on par with any of the international productions. Technically the movie is top grade. If only the brainy part of the movie was on par with it , “Aasal” would have become a cult movie .

On the whole , “Aasal” is anything but it.

Bottomline: Misnomer.

2/5

Goa Film Review

GOA !!! Maybe the name magic does it again. And yes, its Venkat Prabhu's Holiday.

Contains SPOILERS. Read at your own will.

Movie starts with a village panchayat (in Pannaipuram) gathering with our own Vijayakumar (vaibhav,s father role) as the Panchayat Leader. Vaibhav, Premji and Jai are the ones on whom the Panchayat has been called for. Reason ? They ran away from Pannaipuram to the next village for some entertainment .

And one fine day these three decide to run away for a week to Madurai and execute it too. And now the camera shifts to Madurai. Azhagar(character name) , frnd of Jai who marries a foreigner and gets a chance to settle down in london gives these 3 youngsters a clue that even if they can travel to Goa and meet a foreign girl and marry her, their life would be settled forever.

Now the camera shifts to Goa. Meanwhile, Premji steals some amman jewels back from pannaipuram before they left to Madurai. This is the knot Venkat prabhu uses to shoot the climax and the end card.

Sampath and Aravind Akash have done a fantastic job of being Dostana's Danny and Jack respectively own a resort beachside Goa where they Pia is a in-house singer. Jai, vaibhav and Premji join this tamil group and stay in their resort.

premji finds a foreigner for himself while Jai and Vaibhav find Pia and Sneha respectively. Lets not get into explaining how Their love scenes are framed but straight into the climax. let me mention that these love scenes are howvere shot in a nice way without any exaggeration.

Sneha owns India's bigges Casino ship inside which Vaibhav ends up locking the jewels which Premji had stolen from temple in Pannaipuram. By this time Sneha dn Vaibhas have mutually agreed on separation. reason shown for this is pretty loose just like how their loves starts too. So no regrets.

Climax shows how the whole gang of "good guys" get into the ship and recover the jewels. And once thats done, the camera goes back to pannaipuram with all parents and panchayat happily agreeing and approving of all these guys new pair and eventually their marraige.

Prasanna is shown as Sneha's first husband who recommends Vaibhav to get rid of Sneha as she is a Physco :P

Simbu comes in the final reel getting introduced to Sneha as her next husband and the movie ends with Sneha , Simbu hugging each other and the Manmadhan Simbu wiping away blood off his nose.

Yuvan has done a wonderful job , be it the album or the BGM .

Camerawork is excellent with Goa shown right inside your retina.

Overall, Venkat prabhu once again comes up with a NO STORY , mild spoof kinda screenplay which has been very well executed and presented by the whole Goa team.

Please do not encourage Piracy. Watch Goa only in theatres .

Pongal Vasool Analysis

By Elvin Raja – Trade Analyst for C & B

AAYIRATHIL ORUVAN LEADS THE PONGAL ONSLAUGHT

It was no surprise that Selvaraghavan’s magnum opus – Aayirathil Oruvan had cinemas jam packed during the pongal weekend throughout the state. However, the film took a drop from day 2 owing to mixed responses from audience and critics alike. But that could not stop the film from raking in a meaty gross of around 11 crores in week 1.

Selvaraghavan’s protégé Dhanush unfurled his “Kutty” to Tamil audiences during the festive season. It could only muster up a gross of around 5 crores. Disappointing considering the film is a remake of Telugu blockbuster Arya, and has had a favorable response from the family audience.

SPB Charan’s Uber cool ‘Naanayam’ and the action headliner ‘Porkalam’ fetched around 1 crore and 60 lakhs gross across the weekend. ‘Naanayam’ - carrying good reports may just have the legs to finish the race as the winner in the coming weeks.

IDIOTS REIGN SUPREME

Aamir Khan’s idiot brigade continues to set the screens on fire as another 30 odd crores were added to the kitty. The distributor share stand at a whopping 90-94 crores and the trade has already declared that the film is a modern day “Sholay”. The Shahid Kapoor – Genelia dance caper ‘Chance Pe Dance’ had a disappointing outing with the film netting 12 crores.

TALES FROM THE TELUGU LAND

Folks in AP decided to celebrate Sankaranthi with a spate of big releases going head on at the box office. The box office was led by Junior NTR starrer ‘Adhurs’ with a superb gross of around 16 crores, followed by Venkatesh’s ‘Namo Venkatesa’ with a gross of around 12 crores, both have been certified hits. The disappointment was provided by Ravi Teja’s nadodigal remake ‘Shambo Shiva Shambo’ which could only muster 5 crores.

NEW AVATAR

Avatar continues to shatter records and is now officially the biggest Hollywood film in India dethroning 2012. The gross receipt stands at a dazzling 103 crores. Avatar is all set to re – write box office history in next couple of weeks as records continue to tumble.

Salman Khan’s hotly anticipated Period - war film ‘Veer’ was only big release on Friday. The initial reports indicate a good opening across the single screens; however the multiplex business has to be seen as the week progresses.

Elvin Raja has been exhibiting and distributing films for the last 3 years. (Figures mentioned are approximate values only)

Sherlock Holmes film review

Having read various books and short stories of Sherlock Holmes in my childhood days, i was kind of a Holmes fan. But i was in for a shock when i started watching Guy Ritchie's modern interpretation of the super sleuth. It was all the same but totally different. That's how Guy Ritchie works.

The story goes like Lord Blackwood(Mark Strong) returns from the grave after being hanged after being caught by Holmes(RDJ) for a series of murders using black magic. After his return he takes different ways to kill people magically until Holmes with the help of Watson(Jude Law) & Irene Adler(Rachel Mc Adams) prove that “throughout history, every mystery ever solved has turned out to be… not magic!”.

Earlier reviews made me believe Holmes was an action hero, but after watching the movie except for the occasional fistcuffs, he remained effete, proper and most importantly intellectual as ever. Robert Downey Jr. was the best choice for this role and he is having a time of his life post Iron Man and everything he touches is gold.

I loved the way Watson was portrayed in the film rather than the book where he plays second fiddle. Jude Law's Watson is sharp, snappy, intelligent and every bit equal to Holmes on all tasks. This detailing meant that there was less need of explanation.

Mark Strong as Lord Blackwood has to be given credit. He is as dark as his character wanted him to be. I loved him in Rock n Rolla and he has impressed me yet again.

The rest of the characters have very less to do and Rachel McAdams(Irene Adler) was used in this movie just to provide her more space in the sequel where Holmes goes on a mission to get Prof. Moriarty(rumored to be played by Brad Pitt in the Sequel).

The camaraderie between the lead actors is amazing. Some scenes were just too good. The fight scene in the arena where Holmes hits a man for spitting at the back of his head and the scene where they get blown off deserve special mention. Music by Hans Zimmer is awesome and the soundtrack is too good to be forgotten. An Oscar awaits. Guy Ritchie's dialogues are crisp and witty as ever and that to an extent makes this film work wonders.

Overall its a film which presents a all new Holmes like never seen before.

And for all those asking the verdict is "Elementary Mr.Watson, Just go for it!!!"

Up In The Air Review

Watching UP IN THE AIR will teach you the stark reality of life. Ryan Bingham(George Clooney) has a job that leaves him traveling around the country firing people from their jobs. He is an expert in doing the same and really loves what he is doing until his company plans to ground all its workers and implement video conferencing to fire people. This does not go well with Bingham and he wants to teach Natalie Keener(Anna Kendrick),who gives the idea of video conferencing how in reality his job works. So he takes her as his assistant and travels around the country firing people and in the process they learn a thing or two about the lives they live.

George Clooney is charming as ever playing Ryan Bingham, be it him giving the motivational Unpacking your Backpack speech or the scene where in the beginning he tells you what his job his. The film belongs to Clooney, who conveys the life of emptiness of a charming man to a T. This according to me is his best performance ever.

Vera Farmiga has a well constructed role of playing Clooney's friend, which she has delivered without much hiccups. Don't be surprised if she lands an Oscar.

Anna Kendrick portrays the present youth before your eyes. Confused, always questioning and stealing your hearts. Watch out for this girl in the future. The real winner is the script peppered with some wonderful dialogues which are deemed to be the best of the year and an awesome screenplay by Jason Reitman. This is by far Jason's best and let us hope the best is yet to come.

Even after you finish watching the movie the characters stay with you for a long time. UP IN THE AIR is definitely one of the best movies you will ever watch in your lifetime!