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Archive for August 2013

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , , , ,


Ainthu Ainthu Ainthu (555) - Brainy, Brawny, Broody!



Well, the tagline of the three B’s above fits actor Bharath who has tried to make a much needed comeback with this supposed-to-be mind thriller directed by one of Kollywood’s demure man, Sasi! He is known for his down-to-earth presentation of love stories that would appeal to the larger audiences. His last film ‘Poo’ was an awesome take on a female’s perspective of love and yearning for her loved one, which was hardly told by directors in the past. With a script like ‘555’ in his kitty, he has attempted to jump into the fray of directors who want to churn out something different somehow. Let’s see how....

It starts with Bharath meeting with a gruesome road accident and further being diagnosed as a psychologically disturbed person who is in constant need to be counseled by a psychiatrist and is taken care by his elder brother (Santhaanam). Both the psychiatrist and his brother try to convince him that he had no love affair in the past as perceived by him and its only his imagination that he should fight with and recover. But Bharath does not get convinced and takes on the mission to find out what really happened to him and his girlfriend (Mirthika), thus unleashing the ‘power of love’.

Mind thrillers in Tamil have been very few. Not sure if its a consequence or coincidence, only a few months back Vishal’s ‘Samar’ had a similar hinge in its storyline. But the similarity stops there and the execution here was somewhat better than the former. The first half was a mixed bag with a lots of hits and misses, but leaves us with some riddles and questions that get solved in the latter half. By the time we approach the climax, we get to know the complete picture of what is in the offing and a cliched climax with the good over evil was a dampener. Had there been a tighter screenplay overall, the movie would have made for an awesome thriller!

Bharath’s role is by far a better one, especially compared to his last few movies. The highlight is the six packs that he developed for this one! Not sure if that is an indispensable one for this role, but has been acting as a marketing gimmick for the movie. He looked fabulous with his six packs but the same cannot be told about his acting. I would still like the humble Bharath that I saw in ‘Veyil’.

Mirthika, as the naive and bubbly girl had an effervescent charm and an inherent innocence that was leveraged to its full potential and worked to the script’s advantage.

Erica Fernandes, the femme fatale, though initially appeared to be a needless addition, made sense in the second half. I am keeping it under wraps as of now.

Santhaanam has been given quite a serious role and if you're expecting any comedy from him, you’re in for some disappointment as he is made to disappear in the middle.

The villain was a newbie North Indian -  again a cliched selection, does an average job.

Editing and Cinematography departments were average as the length of the movie could have been trimmed by chopping some unwanted numbers and the frames did not look as vivid as it should have been for this genre.

Music by another newbie Simon was not anywhere to be mentioned, though the BGM was somewhat engaging, mainly because it was less noisy.

This can be termed as a nice attempt and the twist in the tale has been well etched, but the execution could have been better with a crisper screenplay and richer technicalities.

Verdict: Average

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , , , , ,


Aadhalaal Kadhal Seiveer (So You Should Love) - Love, Marriage, Relationship!



‘Love’ - a very basic of human emotions, has so many forms. Love between two unknown individuals, especially a male and a female has been the subject of contention on almost all platforms. Also the relationship has been the subject of exploit by poets, scientists, politicians, philosophers and so many others since time immemorial. After all, it's the basis for human evolution and perpetuation. Director Suseenthiran has also exploited this very basic emotion in his latest film, AKS, but has treated it with a realistic appeal and made us see through a window that holds water to the current context.

AKS depicts the perception of love by today’s youth, who do not believe in the so called ‘value system’. We are allowed to take a peek at today’s love affairs among the college goers, how their lustful desires in the name of love turns their lives upside down and also the role played by their family and relatives in influencing their decision to get united.

Director Suseenthiran needs a big round of applause in having no qualms of taking a realistic stand and depicting the current situation as is. It comes as a harbinger with many more good movies to follow from his stable (hopefully?) after his forgetful outing with Vikram last time in the form of ‘Rajapattai’.

The newbie, Santosh Ramesh is a typical boy next-door who neither looks impressive nor acts too well. He was convincing in a role where he was supposed to look helpless. The scene where he pursues his friend to act as the husband to his lover in order to meet a doctor was an instance where he scored. Also that scene had a director’s touch as it depicted the reality that a guy who is not even eligible to be passed off as a husband, does so many other things!

Manisha Yadav was brilliant only in her second outing! She performed to the tunes, but looked natural.

The supporting cast played an important part - especially the parents of the lead cast. Jayaprakash, Thulasi, Poornima Jayaram and others including the ones who were cast as friends were pretty much there to hold the story together.

Editing was the savior as the movie had a taut screenplay and the duration was kept under 2 hours without unwanted numbers and scenes.

Music by Yuvan was very average, except the song ‘Alaipaayum Nenjile’ which was hummable in bits and pieces.

The movie is worth a watch with a well conceived story that reflects what we have become as a society without embracing the practicalities of life like inter-cast marriage and beautiful relationship between individuals. Afterall we are being governed by politicians who try to make a name for themselves by leveraging the cast appeal in order to fill their vote banks and also by educationists who promote a gender bias at institutions and do not promote a healthy relationship between opposite genders. As long as this remains, we as a society tend to face such complications even in uunderstanding a very basic emotion like love.

Verdict: Above Average

Rating: 3/5

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , , , , , , , ,


Thalaiva (Leader) - Mash-ups Unlimited!



Tamil Nadu has a strange history of embracing their fond Kollywood heroes as their political leaders mainly because of the sort of charisma that they manage to pull off on screen and playing the underdog’s role to perfection in order to woo the masses. Now that it has become an unwritten rule that an actor who enjoys such a charisma over a certain period of time can aspire to pursue his political dreams! ‘Thalaiva’, directed by A.L.Vijay (ALV) has been made with the intention of having Vijay’s political aspirations firmly tucked up the sleeve! What’s bothering was why it took 3 hours to narrate such a tale that has been time and again used from ‘Nayagan’ days and that too if you have the liberty of lifting off stories from various Tamil movies including Vijay’s own!!

Vishwa (Vijay) leads a cool life in Australia, running his own business and shaking legs with his friends. He meets Meera (Amala Paul), falls in love and they decide to get married. When Meera’s father (Suresh) insists to meet Vishwa’s father (Satyaraj) to get his consent for the marriage, they fly to India and things start getting murkier in Vishwa’s life. As expected, Vishwa takes over the reign by promoting himself up the rank and takes his foes to task almost single handedly.

There was nothing new in the story as it was a mashup of ‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Nayagan’ and ‘Bhagavathi’. Though I did not want to bring in the name of a classy film like ‘Thevar Magan’ while reviewing this movie, I can’t help it because the director has taken the core story from that and has remixed it according to his whims and fancies!!

The director enjoys the reputation of lifting off stories and scenes from so many Hollywood movies in the past, now that this might have been easier for him to execute as he had to lift off from the past Tamil flicks. The topping on this rather cliched and not-so-engaging script was the glory that was mounted on Vijay by each supporting character. Though it was somewhat in check, certain characters were designated to foster Vijay’s political image, leading the brigade would be Y.G.Mahendran!

There were 2 twists in the movie, that was totally unexpected and was sort of a consolation, but still, the script was weak in terms of storyline, dialogue, narrative and editing, almost failing in all the departments.

Vijay’s acting was supposed to be powerful, but I felt he lost the fizz somewhere in the middle and the punch that was felt in his last flick ‘Thuppaki’ went largely missing in this one!!

Amala Paul appeared as the regular upmarket eye-candy, but somewhat managed to get things going in the middle, but after the first half, she was totally forgotten and reminded us that she was still there only towards the climax.

Satyaraj did a calm and composed role of the aged don. But there was nothing special in his performance.

Santhanam, well what to say, rocked the first half; in the second half he did not have much of a leeway to perform!

Abhimanyu Singh, was supposed to be the fearsome villain, but somehow I felt like laughing at him everytime he does meditation quoting Vijay’s name in order to have his revenge :) Really funny!!

Another notable cameo from the newbie Ragini Nandwani, was somewhat refreshing. Though her addition was needless, her emotions appeared to be genuine and her acting was also fine!

Ponvannan, Suresh and others in the supporting role including a cameo from Nasser was below average.

Editing by Anthony was a drag. Though the intention would have been to make it slick, the commercial elements did not allow that sort of a luxury and hence the irony lasted for 3 long hours.

Cinematography by Nirav Shah was awesome, especially the scenes that were shot in Australia.

Music by GV Prakash was average, but the last number ‘Vanganna’ was somewhat impressive and was the pick of the lot!

The movie has been targeted towards Vijay’s fans and strictly adheres to foster his political dreams. ALV has churned out another dampener, after his last ‘Thaandavam’, that would hardly do any good for Vijay’s movie career!

Verdict: Dampener!

Rating: 1.5 / 5

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , , ,


Singam 2 - Shenanigans Reloaded!




Director Hari enjoys the status of a ‘Safe Director’s’ tag in Kollywood, primarily due to his slick and fast storyline and swift wrap-up of shoots without stretching the allotted budget! Hari’s films have always been a make or break at the box office. Right from his Saamy days, he has firmly planted his formula on the audience’s cognizance, that it is not allowing him to drift away from his usual. Like many of his counterparts, he too is a slave to his own formula.


I am purposely delaying my take on Singam 2 as there is nothing much to discuss. The first part was a success and so they wanted to repeat it once again with a sequel! They have repeated the success formula but have they kept the critics in mind is the big question.


The story starts with a cue from the first part where Suriya cleans the bad guys and resigns his job, only to become an undercover cop with some huge responsibilities. He then disguises himself as an NCC master who works in a school! If you pop up the question, then why Hansika when he is married to Anushka, then there is one more twist wherein the director says that there is room for one more duet and so a mass heroine like Hansika can do justice! So what else is new with the sequel - an upgrade in the form of 3 villains including an international one who is always in the ocean and 2 more dumb guys who wait till the end to get crushed by Surya!


Suriya was there in almost all the frames - beats, bangs, dances and roars as the fearsome cop! Every time when he begins mouthing a dialog, once can safely plan our tea or a loo break as it may easily continue for the next 3-5 minutes!!


Anushka was lost in the crowd, appeared for some duets and then vanished promptly! Hansika as the plump school girl was a needless addition.


Santhaanam merely gave an attendance and what was Vivek doing there?


I don't remember the exact count of the supporting cast! Apologies for that!!


Editor VT Viajayan would have had a good time editing a series of images with caricatures making noises in various frequencies.


Cinematography tested our vision with unwanted shakes and dutch angles that were stressful.


Special award has to be given to music director Devi Sri Prasad - with a single tune and a series of beats, he is able to survive across multiple languages! BGM was merely cacophonic.


In a nutshell, if you want to spend some money to enter into a room, get yourself tied and ready to listen to a 100 people from different directions scream close to your eardrums, then Singam 2 undoubtedly is your cup of tea!

Verdict: Nonsense!


Rating: 1/5

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , ,


Ambikapathy (Raanjhnaa) - Love, Love and More Love!!




The Tamil dubbed version of Raanjhnaa is named Ambikapathy only to convey the penchant of the protagonist, Kundan (Dhanush) towards his love of his life, Zoya (Sonam Kapoor). The film traverses through Kundan’s life right from his childhood days where it all starts as a puppy love, turns into an infatuation and then an obsession (only for Dhanush). This one-sided affair takes twists and turns when Zoya’s love interest gets fixated elsewhere (Abhay Deol). The ending is as sweet as in any other run-of-the-mill bollywood romcom.


Though it was a box-office hit in Bollywood, it was hardly able to rake in any sort of critical acclaim in Tamil as the ethos where the story was set (Varanasi) was too difficult for the audiences to connect; even though Dhanush was shown as the son of a Tamil priest, it hardly helped as it was too hard to even recognize who his father was and in what way the supporting cast are related to Dhanush as the director did not have any qualms in leaving those loose ends as they were till the end.


Another problem with the movie was the clichéd portrayal of love that was time and again used in so many Tamil movies (I’m not sure such earthly gestures have been exploited in Bollywood before). Heard the director enjoys the reputation of churning out some heart warming romantic flicks; with this one he has sealed that reputation, but it did not impress me as a Tamil movie at all.


Dhanush, needless to say, has once again grabbed the screen presence with both his charm and acting! Emotions just starts flowing even when he stands still.


Sonam was too cute for the role and was an eye candy, though her character arch in the second half was not well etched out.


Abhay, in an extended cameo was average in his role due to the inherent limitations and scope for his role.


Swara Bhaskar, I have seen this female in commercials; she looked promising as well.


Music by ARR was a let down; not even a single number appealed in their Tamil avatars!


Cinematography was good. In the first half the display of quirkiness on the frames in a rather poignant ambiance like Varanasi was a new color.


Editing was a total drag in the second half.


This appeared to be a half baked North Indian 'thali' served for a South Indian on a fresh plantain leaf!


Verdict: Below Average!!


Rating: 2/5