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Archive for June 2014

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , ,


Vadacurry - Spiceless!



The neo romantic thrillers seem to have a formulaic template that promise to offer a minimum guarantee for the producers and distributors alike. Also the directors, especially the debutantes and relatively new ones feel that it would give them an instant hit. Some of the formulaic films in the recent past include ‘Ivan Vera Maathiri’, ‘Thadayara Thaaka’, ‘Pandiya Nadu’, etc. In all these films, hero would be having a peaceful life in the first half and towards the second half, he would get entangled in the evil cobwebs and would eventually blow them away towards the climax. The intensity and the nature of crimes vary in each of these films while the attitude of the film makers fairly remained the same - to give an instant hit.

Vadacurry also aims at fulfilling this very essence of the mindset that the debutante director Saravana Rajan seems to have borrowed from his peers. Sathish (Jai) is a medical representative and hails from a lower middle-class background from North Chennai. He falls in love with Naveena (Swathi) who is another modified form of a dumb heroine adorning the Kollywood landscape. Sathish gets entangled in a quagmire as he reaches out to upgrade his life by pocketing an iPhone that does not belong to him. He solves the puzzle himself and aces through the setbacks with some run-of-the-mill and not so believable acts that can only be played out on screen with the mass audiences in mind.

The thing which really irked me was the selection of the heroine and her characterization. Swathi has till now done some decent characters in Tamil before this fiasco. This character firmly calls for a Hansika-like female who needn't do anything at all. Maybe Swathi’s attempt at reaching the mass-heroine space has backfired. Ultimately it was one of the major disappointing factors. Jai as the subtle and level balanced boy-next-door has done a good job. But the plot looked stale even though it had some mystery till the end because it was played out on screen so many times in the recent past and there were no prizes for guessing the climax. Another relief was the casting of RJ Balaji as the comedian with the titular name ‘Vadacurry’. His quick wit and repartee upgraded some average scenes into above average ones.

The music is another setback - the song with Sunny Leone was thrust in just to showcase the presence of some extravaganza and also the song that had some graphic sequences to depict Jai’s misery was nothing short of an ‘organized idiosyncrasy’.

Overall the movie can be watched once for its racy screenplay but even if you happen to miss it, it’s not that big a miss!

Verdict: Below Average!

Rating: 2 / 5

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , ,


Queen - A Royal Salute!



Kangana Ranaut, the protagonist of this movie grabbed my attention with an interview for a television channel sometime back. That was the most candid interview I've seen in recent times by a Bollywood diva and that too a fairly successful one. During the course of her interview, she was devoid of starry airs and also did not try to rub her industry rivals on the wrong side. She came across as a matured and sophisticated human being with a touch of class and kept her her cool throughout the interview even while confronting some of the most uncomfortable questions!  Also I've seen her dynamics unleashed in the movie ‘Fashion’ where she essayed the much acclaimed supporting role of a pompous ramp walk model that earned her the coveted national award for the best supporting actress. ‘Queen’ too has garnered a lot of critical acclaim and was classified largely as a ‘breed apart’ from the run-of-the-mill Bollywood ‘adult babysitters’ that have their own bitter battle to breach the ‘100 crore’ mark in the first few days or weeks and that lured me to watch this movie (of course with the aid of English subtitles).

Queen is the story of a small town conservative girl, Rani (Kangana Ranaut) who gets betrayed by her fiance on the eve of her marriage. With her dreams shattered, she sets to go on a honeymoon to her dream destination, Paris and Amsterdam, all by herself. With an excessive emotional baggage, she learns to accept life as it is and even achieves her self-realization through beautiful vignette like experiences.

I also realized that this movie shared a lot of parallels with ‘English Vinglish’ that released almost a year back. Apart from both being a female centric theme, the very core of that of a conservative female opening up to let radical thoughts percolate in and take charge was a common structure on which an engaging screenplay was spun.

Vikas Bahl, the director of Queen has not only planted the very thought that the institution of marriage which is riddled with taboos in the Indian context is more to do with how one perceives it, but also has tried to suggest a solution to counteract it’s misgivings which augered well with the narrative, giving a befitting  reply to the betrayer who called off the marriage at the last minute. The character sketch of Kangana was well etched and it was performed without a blemish by the ace actress. Subtle nuances of the character like a closed body language, a childish ‘small-town’ attitude, her innocence, the helpless manner in which she pleads to her fiance when he decides to call off the wedding at the last minute, her coming to terms with the reality by befriending the same - every detail seems to have been thoroughly worked out on and off screen.

The characters that were cast, be it the selfish fiance (Rajkumar), the concerned parents of Rani, a typical Punjabi would be mother-in-law, the trio of foreign roommates and the slutty waitress (Lisa Hayden) at the Paris hotel were wonderful selections that paid off in terms of an engaging screenplay that made sense.

Another big strength was that the movie relied on music only when it was needed in order to convey the emotions which in turn relied on powerful visuals like the scene where Rani tries to duck the vision of the Eiffel Tower as she walks through the gullies of Paris as she considers it as her past that comes to haunt her every time when she gets to see it. Wonderful work by the late cinematographer Bobby Singh.

Queen can be seen for not only its underlying emotional drama, but also for its timely wits that was peppered throughout the narrative - be it Rani’s rant with a drunken stupor or her innocent dialogs with Vijayalakshmi and her roommates or the episode where Rani’s father and younger brother battle themselves to befriend Vijayalakshmi over Skype - the comic timing has worked out leaving us teary eyed (due to laughter) at times.

The director and the protagonist of Queen deserve nothing short of a royal salute for delivering a brilliantly packaged film that not only made sense but left a lasting impression among the audiences.

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


Mundasupatti - Don’t Say ‘Cheese’



Call it the pulpy 80s - it can easily be dubbed as the renaissance for Kollywood. Be it the rise of Ilayaraja and his mesmerising melodies or the legendary rise of directors like Mani Ratnam and Mahendran infusing the much needed fresh blood into the otherwise stalemate narratives that were considered to be the norms or it can also be something to do with the bell bottoms, multi-colored fancy clothing, broad faced belts and stiff collars that made statements of their own. All together it was a fascinating period of transformation in terms of the attitude and taste for both the audience and the people behind the screens with regards to movie and movie making respectively. This period has also been the fancy of various filmmakers of today, time and again. Sasikumar was the one who took the plunge with his ‘Subramaniapuram’ infusing a violent narrative with grace and impact. Can a comedy story be far away with such an adept ethos was the question asked by the debutante director Ram who made a short film of the same name to win his place in the Kollywood filmdom!

Mundasupatti is a fictional village depicted by the director where people believe in the folklore that clicking a photograph of a person would kill him / her. Thus photography is banned at that place! Only when people die will there be a reason for clicking a photograph! Also the people of the village worship a meteor that falls from the sky as the ‘Vanamuni’ (sky god), whose idol (the meteor itself) is constantly threatened of being abducted by a group who believe that it contains some priceless minerals. Marred by superstitions, the village lives in a timeless period defying radical beliefs which gives away a handsome leeway for a heartfelt laughter. What more can happen when our hero (Vishnu) who is a photographer falls in love with the heroine (Nadita) who is a native of Mundasupatti? Add to that, a fun and frolic bunch of sidekicks in the form of Kaali Venkat, Ramadoss and Anandraj - we get a cocktail of wits with an effervescent kick that lasts for a while!

A clean story with a witty narrative inculcating the superstitious beliefs of the people portrayed on screen was the highlight of the movie. People vanishing with the very appearance of a camera and asking the photographer to click photo of a person whom they dont like were some of the many amusing moments that the movie had. Of the lot, the screen space was dominated by the newbie actor Ramadoss essaying the role of ‘Muniskanth’, an aspiring actor with some peculiar mannerisms that apes the stars of the 80s. He stole the show during the latter half of the movie. Also the episodes with the village saint was hilarious. The romance between the lead pair was nothing special but it was well spun along with the narrative and so the romance sticks and when it triumphs at the end as with many such stories, we feel liberated as we realize our ticket’s worth!!

Music by Sean Roldan did have some highs - ‘Rasa Magarasa’ was a cool folk number that had some similarities with ‘Yelay Keecha’ from Kadal, but it was hummable. The BGM was also relevant enough for the narrative and brought in the 80s appeal.

The placement of songs were largely fine, but some songs in the second half like the break up number could have been avoided.

Kudos to the entire team for pulling a laugh riot dipped in the sugary 80s with a pulpy narrative that allows one to laugh out loud while cerebrate in silence.

Verdict: Good

Rating: 3 / 5

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


Un Samayal Arayil (In your kitchen) - Mini Meals!



Adapting a proven storyline to make sense for the Tamil ethos has always been a challenge even for successful directors. Though I’ve not seen the Malayalam superhit ‘Salt and Pepper’ from which it’s Tamil remake has been dished out, I can clearly make out that ‘director’ Prakash Raj has failed to do justice to not only the story but also to the ‘ethos translation’ part of it as well!

A connoisseur of delicious food, Kalidas (Prakash Raj), right from his childhood believes and lives by the philosophy of George Bernard Shaw,  “There is no sincerer love than the love of food”! An archaeologist by profession and a self sustainable cook by passion, he leads his life as a quaint bachelor with his sidekicks without much qualms. In comes Gowri (Sneha), in the form of a wrong number, thanks to Kalidas’s nephew Naveen (Tejus). Kalidas transforms and tries to kindle the romance. But due to some mistaken identity and false play, Kalidas and Gowri’s romance takes a beating. Did Kalidas and Gowri unite at the end?

The plot was interesting enough for a great sitcom. Food being established as a motif and coming all through the course of the movie was also appreciable, but it’s relevance was not what it should have been. It just allowed the audience to salivate during the opening portions and then somewhere in the middle, but otherwise, I felt it was not a worthy enough motif to leverage upon for a nifty screenplay.

Also what was the drama with the tribal leader about? Is it some sort of a social responsibility message which the director was intending to send out and why would someone order vada pav at an Italian restaurant?

The slowness of the movie was inherent - this is where there was a major lag. So many songs packed within a time span of 120 minutes. At least a couple of them could have easily been chopped.

Acting from the two debutants - Tejus and Samyukhta was atrocious - thanks to an awry lip sync because of the trilingual factor, it looked much worse.

Certain impactful moments like the identity fiasco between the pairs, a garrulous chef trying to save his job (Thambi Ramaiah) and the emotional agony of a spinster were brought out pretty well.

Maestro’s music was atypical and the BGM sounded familiar of his so many yesteryear tunes.

I would prefer to watch the original and dump it’s remake!

Verdict: Avoidable

Rating: 1.5 / 5

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , ,


Poovarasam Pee Pee (PPP) - Little Rascals!



After ‘Pasanga’, a genre for kids in Kollywood has been experiencing a void until a few months back when ‘Goli Soda’ made a mark. But that was more of a teen action drama with commercial elements tucked into its subtext and was expected to play out for the masses. Now that PPP was originally pitched as a film for kids, but the nature of the narrative and story firmly places it in the thriller / adventure genre. A good attempt at taking a risky shot at making a debut by director Halitha Shameem.

It’s a summer holiday. A trio of kids bring evil men to justice with their tricks and unconventional knack of doing things. How do they do it - well it ranges from scaring the evil men with some ghostly tactics to starting an anonymous ham radio station and blowing the trumpets loud and clear to the people in the village of the atrocities of the evil doers. What lacks in here is the basic logic and pace.

The first half takes its own sweet time to unwind, establishing unnecessary details about the kids’ day to day life, their interactions and the likes, which lacked the zing as it was in ‘Pasanga’. The basic flaw lay in the neutral Tamil dialect that was spoken by the kids and some of the other characters in the movie - as a result we don’t get a sense of the place and time the story takes place since we are immediately withdrawn from the narrative. However, the character sketch of the kids - a nerdy one, a goofy one and a budding Romeo have been done diligently. Also the senior who help the kids when in need was a good character to befriend on screen.

Another major drawback were the innumerable songs that were thrust into the narrative without a solid purpose. After a lackluster opening, the screenplay gathered pace during the interval, but then again lost steam, wandered aimlessly, before settling down for a tame and cliched climax which was not exciting in anyway. There was not a single scene that had the potential to garner a clap or a whistle - a plot for a potential edge-of-the-seat thriller has been wasted down the drain mainly because of a careless narrative.

Technically the film was just about fine - certain camera angles by Manoj Paramahamsa, who also happens to be the producer of the film were awe inspiring, but apart from that there was hardly anything which was noteworthy.

The film is a strong contender to be telecast in television in the next few weeks and might be even screened at certain festivals under the kids’ genre, so please watch it only to support such attempts!

Verdict: Below Average!

Rating: 2 / 5