Movie Review – Don (2022)

Tries to do too many things in too little time

When a film like ‘Don’ becomes a blockbuster, we get to know how low Tamil cinema has stooped to. Exactly like how ‘Comali’ had become a hit the previous year. It falls in the same template but may be not as irritating as ‘Comali’, thanks to Sivakarthikeyan’s presence, Anirudh’s numbers and humour. But otherwise, in the hindsight, the movie felt like a a disgrace to what ‘3 Idiots’ could achieve with three veterans. It was all fine till it was treading along the ‘Meesaya Muruku’ line but when it takes itself seriously, that’s when it falters.

The movie begins with a great build-up of him standing in rain in backshot. The build-up was so much that it felt like a spoof, but it ended up being a serious scene about him wanting to go to college for some event the next day. The entire film happens in a flashback mode. The whole of his journey through the forest with rains, elephants and imminent dangers and the director Cibi Chakravarthy thinking that he’s using them as metaphors was so lame. That’s how a third standard kid would write about metaphor as soon as he gets to know the meaning of the word ‘metaphor’ through his teachers.

Chakravarthy (Sivakarthikeyan) hates his father who wants him to always study and during his childhood he had vouched that he’d get better at something apart from studies but just like every kid in the block he’s forced to go to engineering college where he changes everything and gets the acknowledgement of the students, leading to the title ‘Don’. Can it get lamer than this? I think that’s why they were insisting repeatedly during promotions about the title and how it had to be taken in a funny tone as it’s not an action movie. At least if he had suffered for some time and then got to the status it’d have been a nice time pass but he’s always Don and afraid only of his dad.

In reality, Chakravarthy doesn’t stand a chance against Bhoominathan (S. J. Suryah) Even though the movie shouldn’t be analysed for its intricacies, a person like Chakravarthy succeeding against Bhoominathan in an everyday life is farfetched. Especially the Russian university scenes. In fact, in none of the clashes between them, there was a sense of continuity. Bhoomi first says that he’d be lenient and would be strict only against Chakravarthy, then reverses the rule, again fails, again reverses. So, no action of Bhoominathan was gripping. In the similar vein, Virus from ‘3 Idiot’s was a classic example of terror, whom none could break. Here Bhoomi’s character only shouts and tries to push the image of terror amongst us. That’s some weak writing.

Samuthirakani does the usual irritating father character but again doesn’t impact like his character in ‘VIP’ due to poor writing. Don’s sidekicks are of absolutely no use, including Sivaangi, who couldn’t bring her magic from TV to screen. Priyanka Mohan tries to be earnest to her character but like how Sri Divya got puffed up with additional makeup and made to overact from her first film to second film of Sivakarthikeyan , Priyanka Mohan too was made the same way. Got to feel for her. She was brilliant in ‘Doctor’. I in fact liked her in her very first movie, ‘Nani’s Gang Leader’ where she was effervescent.

Even though lengthy, and the film tries to do too much by going here and there, it was a nice sort of guilty pleasure till the climax. The third act was the one which completely spoils the films. The film takes a serious tone out of nowhere, he discovers his passion out of nowhere. Worst is that I don’t know why, when he’s said that he’s a good storyteller, I got reminded of the scene where Ranbir tells a story near a street food shop in ‘Tamasha’. The setting of it, with editing, lighting, is one of the best scenes ever made. Due to that, this scene irritated me even more. Last time it was ‘Hridayam’ and now this. Why does everyone has to pickup a camera.

Everyone whom the protagonist thinks as a villain become a good guy. S J Surya’s acting powers come out from that scene, where he says, “chi po da”. Wish he had gotten a role rather than being an eccentric caricature. Samuthrakani, tries to do Samuthrakani things which was again not convincing. Sivakarthikeyan has improved on his emotional acting skills and somehow it all comes to an end, especially his drive to college. It was taxing. They make a mixture of everything and package it a way and make it an edible dish in the end, somehow tasty too but when we try to concentrate on layers and making, its just a solid mess.

Movie Review – Ted

A Teddy for the grown ups

It was one of the films which was lying for a long time in my HDD where I couldn’t decide to watch or to delete. Of course, it’s not acclaimed but the thought of being an Adult comedy with a Teddy Bear was so enticing. Plus, it had Mark Wahlberg who is generally known for his stoic face and upright stance in an action movie. I was more curious on how he’d have faired in a comedy. Also had Mila Kunis, who fits in a similar profile but such a brilliant and lovely actor.

The film sets the tone from scene one. I thought it’d be an unreliable narrator and Ted was going to be like Calvin and it’d take a serious tone but it didn’t, thankfully so. I immediately got reminded of South Park when the narrator says that it was a time where neighbourhood kids gang up to hit a Jew in Boston. It was lovely when a young John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is asked to fuck off, not only the kids who’re beating up, but by the kid who’s getting beaten up too. It gave me a chuckle.

John receives a present in the form of a Teddy Bear and at a stroke of thunder wishes him to be alive and so does it happen. Till that point where he informs his parents about it, I was of the opinion that Ted would indeed be John’s illusion but it greats broken at that point when his parents too are able to see him having a real life. It was another good scene where the narrator comments about how, after years that no one gives a shit, even if it’s a talking Teddy Bear.

I was constantly trying to gauge, why was the film funny. Because its such a simple idea. A role of a friend, someone like Chris Tucker, done by a Teddy Bear. Why didn’t it occur to anyone that a film like this could be made where a Teddy Bear could be considered a real person. Even if it had been done, it would have been an over-the-top fantasy movie, not as a movie like this where the character is both loved and hated.

Even though the Teddy doesn’t grow in size, it does everything an adult does. I mean everything, in fact more than everything and gets along because he’s a Teddy Bear. How cute is that. There is a dialogue in ‘The Hangover Part II’ where Stu says something like, “A monkey sucking on a dick is funny in any language”. Similarly, a Teddy Bear making out with a hot girl at the back of supermarket is funny at any time. He, getting a promotion for that act, betters it. Like Ted says, “Oh Shit”

I can completely understand why this movie would have become such a rage at the time of release. Men and Teddy Bear and not something you could relate to but with Ted, any man can relate to and relate to like hell. He’s everything a man would want, as opposed to what Lori Collins (Mila Kunis) says, that she wants a boy instead of man.

With the flow of the movie, it was evident that she was going to break up with him, he was going to break up with Ted and Ted would do something cute to get together and she’d finally want both of them in her life. So, it was nothing surprising when it happens but wasn’t boring too because of the predictability. Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) and his kid Robert’s (Aedin Mincks) was actually a little damper for me because it felt forced. As if a character like that has to be present compulsorily to make it a grand climax.

It was one of the movies, again, which would have worked even better for people of the culture. Because the Flash part, as much as it was funny for the Coke scene and breakup due to that, couldn’t be as nostalgic as it could be if it had featured Shaktimaan. That’s a miss one would have to undergo whenever watching a non-native movie.

Anyways the best part of the movie was that it doesn’t take itself too serious at any point. Even at such a serious juncture where the jerk of a boss, Rex (Joel McHale) gets rejected for the umpteenth time, he lets out a fart and becomes relieved. That’s some superb writing. Seth MacFarlane does have a flair for comedies.

Movie Review – Beast

A decent thought process failed due to awful execution

A mall being hijacked is a new concept in Tamil Cinema, may be somewhat similar to ‘Payanam’. Just like ‘Doctor’ it felt like a quirky concept which Nelson could handle. I think even Nelson would have thought like that. But as much as he’d have enjoyed writing it, I guess he’d have not visualized it properly on how it must be made. Because the film didn’t look like uninterested film making but an unimagined film making. It felt like a script which was not planned properly on how to be executed and executed just with available resources. Is it worth taking a risk with such a big star is the question in contention?

The film opens with Vijay planning for an impossible operation single handedly as a RAW agent. It’s not a movie to question logic, that’s understandable but even for that standard, it was tied between making a total masala movie and an action movie. If it’s the former type, one could seamlessly enjoy the movie. When the director’s sensibilities come to fore and he tries to make a movie like the latter, that’s where problem occurs. Vijay’s quirks fairly works but just to be standing there against so many people in guns and shooting the guns with single hand, it doesn’t work for this movie. This could have been okay for a movie like ‘Bairavaa’ but showcasing as an intelligent movie, that was the biggest problem here.

With ‘Doctor’ being the only film, I’ve seen of Nelson, I had become a big fan of him. With Lokesh and Nelson being the trending directors currently. I love both their personality and originality, Lokesh’s seriousness and sincerity and Nelson’s humor, that comes second to none. He’s just an effervescent charm on television. He could make us watch a program just for him. When that kind of director makes a film like ‘Doctor’ I was amazed and happy. That’s my major inspiration for watching ‘Beast’ which I watched despite many people slamming it. Even though it wasn’t in the league of Worst Vijay movies like ‘Madhurey’, ‘Aathi’, it certainly wasn’t good. May be more boring, than bad. That’s why I was affected more. A boring Nelson film is unimaginable.

In ‘Doctor’ he used Sivakarthikeyan wisely. Even though I wasn’t satisfied with his acting, it was a welcome change and good for him. For me, the heroine’s character by Priyanka Mohan was top notch. Superbly done and perfectly acted. I thought the characters here would be like that. But instead of being like it, it was the same people who appeared as repat. Except for Vijay, Pooja Hegde and the new actors, the old actors were from the same universe or were exactly like that, which was irritating. These things when it works, it feels great, when it doesn’t, it’s such a bore. Vijay could have been better utilized for humor. I understand that Nelson doesn’t like traditional comedies to be performed by leads, even wry humor could have been done in a better way. Especially when you have an actor of Vijay’s caliber in the film.

Not sure whether the songs were just added for commercial purpose but he doesn’t make us feel that we missed something by not having songs in the film. Kudos for the that. The action sequences like the opening bit, interval sequence and especially the roller skater scene (worst of all) were the speed breakers of the movie. People who go out for smoking during songs would’ve done it for those sequences, that’s how bad it was. Plus, Vijay’s stoic face was not helping it. The shooting scene in the second half was a total disaster, it could have been made a lot better.

There were couple of interesting scenes. The opening balloon scene. I thought Nelson was going to break Vijay’s image by making him shoot despite the girl being there, but it didn’t happen, so it ended up being a traditional Vijayakanth type scene. But the tension till that point was good. Same was with the scene where he cuts the rope around his wrists. It was superbly handled.

It was quite a coincidence that Pooja Hegde acted in a Tamil movie when I was crushing on her badly. May be that’s one more reason or may be the main reason for me to watch the movie. Especially her wedding dance which I had watched in my soundless phone ‘n’ number of times. I had made a resolution that I’d watch it only along the movie and that I did. Like someone had commented, those few seconds were greater than the entire movie. She looked ravishing alright but didn’t really get a chance to perform or maybe couldn’t perform in the given chance. If there had been one scene which could have been added, she was in her tank top during the last fight but didn’t know when the costume changed. She could have given the shirt to Vijay after his shirt had got bloodied, it would have been a great touch and hot scene. Maybe they had done a scene where she removes shirt but edited it to time constraint, otherwise it wouldn’t have been made evident that she was wearing that tank top inside her shirt. They could have gone without editing it, it would have been a worthy scene to have had.

Movie Review – The 40-Year-Old Virgin

A no nonsense comical

‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’, for the lack of better word was, proper. Even though it’s a great material for comedy, it wasn’t to my complete satisfaction, may be because I watched it tad too late or may be the title was in my mind for quite some time and I imagined all sorts of scenarios that would pop up in the movie. Nevertheless, it was a decent time pass movie or in my words a ‘K TV’ movie which one needn’t put an effort to watch but works reasonably well when watched on the fly.

It’s easy to caricaturise a 40-year-old virgin and they do so in the first few minutes. It would have been better if it had been dealt in any other way apart from him being methodological and organized. Because that need not be the characteristic of a typical “virgin”. But its not a film to complain about this as it serves the purpose. We quickly get introduced to Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) and how he generally is. His friends make a mockery of him after knowing that he’s a virgin, not that they didn’t before knowing about it. But conveniently for them, they get to know about his virginity only the night after movie starts, even though they had worked together for years.

The love-hate relationship between the friends were tremendous. I thought in the end there would be one cheesy dialogue like that of ‘Hangover’ but no they kept the track pure. Most of the laugh out loud jokes worked and happy that they were harsh and unapologetic. I’m sure the dialogue, “do you know how I know that you’re gay” would have got a separate fan following in local culture around the time the movie released. Actually, these are the things one misses in a comedy which is not in their language. It was funny, no complaints about it. But English natives would’ve been able to enjoy the joke as if its something among their peers, instead of watching from an outsider’s view. May be a movie like ‘Saroja’ wouldn’t appeal to others but would work for local audience, because the movie understands the pulse of locals better.

The four friends are typical template characters. A loudmouth black man, a “self-deprecating” loser and a “passionate” man. They’re easyly definable characters. That’s what comic movies of the old do. They don’t invest on deep characters, something like ‘Sideways’ but its more subtle. ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ is not, because the genre is different. That’s why it works too, so no complaints there. My favourite of the four would definitely be the “lovelorn, self-destructive” loser David (Paul Rudd). It was lovely to see him and reminded me a little bit of myself too. Mostly all of scenes worked. But the “gay” scene and the scene where he gives porn to Andy stood out. It was lovely.

As expected, there should be a love track with “matured” women, which was typical but again worked. More than the writing, Catherine Keener as Trish Piedmont, did an excellent job. The short emotional scenes in the comedies are the ones which really make the film work and here too it was the same. I loved the love angle between the two. Especially the twenty-date streak before sex, it was lovely. Of course, there was drama towards the end but we all see it coming right. It would have worked better for locals and theatre audience but to watch a movie from the past on a seemingly innocuous point of view, I had already formed an opinion about the movie by that time.

Anyways it was pleasant feeling to watch a Hollywood movie after years, which I don’t know how it just flew buy. Though not a spellbinding (I didn’t want that) it still was a film to watch on a jolly good evening having tea and biscuits. Even though I enjoyed it, I felt the movie could have been still better and it was stuck somewhere between reckless laugh out loud comedy (which I’d have preferred) and subtle humour. These things happen when you catch up on a movie without knowing what to expect. Most of the time, it’s good because it surprises you in a different way but at times doesn’t satisfy you as much as you’d have expected it to be.

Movie Review – Hridayam

Darshanaaaaaa….

‘Hridhayam’ should be ‘Darshana’ by a fair distance because it is a film all about her and a splendid performance by Darshana. But that takes nothing away from ‘Hridhayam’ being ‘Hridhayam’. There is a reason why it’s a much-loved movie by everyone in recent days. It plays the nostalgia part very well and gives the feel goodness only the Mallus can do. Though it feels like too much of events happening everywhere and it takes the ‘coming of age’ tag a little too generously, it still is one of the best feel-good films of recent days. May be if it had been told from Darshana’s point of view, it could have ended up as a much better film.

There were a couple of films which were constantly coming to my mind while watching ‘Hridhayam’. One is ‘June’ and another one in ‘Tamasha’. Both are unbeatable by a fair distance. The fact that the films is about Arun (Pranav Mohanlal) and his journey in life couldn’t help but make us compare with an Imtiaz Ali film. Though its not a story about a broken man like that of ‘Tamasha’, the loneliness of Deepika in “Heer to badi sad vai” somehow reminded me of Darshana. How mature these ladies are whereas the men just go haywire once they’ve fallen apart.

‘Tamasha’ by fair distance is a better film Hridhayam both for its story as well as film making because none can beat Ranbir when it comes to “coming of age” films. He has absolutely mastered the art of it. That combined with Imtiaz is a firecracker. But luckily or happily, ‘Hridhayam’ trends in an unglamorized ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ way or its much closer companion would be ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’, a film which felt like it was overdone than necessary. I’m sure that Pranav with guitar in railway station would have got many reminded of ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’.

What’s beautiful about Hridhayam is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Especially the clashes amongst the friends. I thought at least one big fight was bound to happen, but it didn’t. Everything was handled in a comical way. Be the scene where the senior walk out from Arun’s room after hearing English, the playboy Kedar Kamalesh (Abishek Joseph George) not fighting seeing Arun etc. Those scenes could have easily given a mass appeal to the hero, but they didn’t, thanks for that. If it had been done, it should have been done in the right way like ‘Premam’ where the action sequences were lit but it immediately changes the tempo to comical one in the next scene. But again ‘Premam’ is a much more serious film when compared in ‘Hridhayam’ because ‘Premam’ was perfect in what it did.

The film stars with a “hero” introduction scene but wasn’t overdone like how sons of Tamil or worse, Telegu stars would get introduced in their debut film, but it still was an “introduction” scene by Malayalam standards. Then there were regular college antics like ragging and stuff. I loved the part where he starts wearing branded clothes back, it was like a statement not only to seniors but for the nation as a whole. From there till the breakup, with Darshana song, was the best part of the movie. The feel goodness just oozing out of movie. My thought was that they’d have a great romance, and the heroine would die in interval and next heroine would soothe him in second half. I knew that Kalyani Priyadarashan was there so expected this to happen but didn’t want it to happen. Thankfully it didn’t.

Following the Darshana part was the one where he loves another girl, becomes violent etc. The worst part of the film but thankfully they don’t justify it, he comes back to normal and when he goes to Maya’s fathers’ death when he was about to patch up with Darshana, it was such a lovely juncture. As much as I didn’t want Maya to be a scapegoat for his problem, I wanted him to reunite with Darshana as well, but the director went one notch higher with that twist. And after his death he breaks up with her too, so it was perfect.

The tamil boy Selva’s (Kalesh Ramanand) part didn’t really attach to the story. It would’ve been good may be as a standalone part but just to have an inspiring part and on top of it make that character die was little farfetched, it didn’t stick to the movie. Just like the search for kid part in ‘Varanam Ayiram’ or may be Malar’s memory loss in ‘Premam’. Both, especially the latter was a very convenient way to end that chapter. But thanks to Nivin Pauly, the crying scene was out of the world so none could complaint on it.

Similarly, the long hair, trekking, photography, food vlogging etc. were like a template which everyone has begun to do nowadays, it was one of the mundane parts of the movie. In fact, the whole second half felt like a different movie. Kalyani didn’t have much to do, except for being nice. Wonder how she even agreed to do the part. I think from that point the director just decided to go the cuter way and make the film enjoyable. Not just does he get another beautiful girl, but they get married, have kids and all. Too many events in such short time, it felt like a YouTube video than a movie. For a movie which started this promising, it shouldn’t have been dealt this way.

And finally coming to Darshana. What a woman! And it’s not just that, how well was her character written. She is not one of the women who’s downright pretty, like a Kalyani in second half but such charm. Look at her transformation from a girl who jumps on her senior after her first night out with boyfriend to a girl who wears saree in front of her ex’s wife. That was some arc. If this movie had been titled ‘Darshana’, it would have ended up being a movie as great as ‘June’ but don’t know whether it was intentionally written the ‘Hridhayam’ way or was it tweaked for a star kid. If it was intentional, I’m not sure what to comment. I can only appreciate giving so much depth for a female lead in a hero centric movie but if its tweaked, it’s still a brilliant tweak instead of like tweaking ‘Manachitradalu’ to be made a Rajni film ‘chandramukhi’. This was done holistically or to put it better way, ‘sweetly’, a the trait which is missing in film nowadays.

Movie Review – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania

The joy of simplicity

What great joy it is to watch a proper Bollywood Rom Com. It’s one of the movies which you don’t want to take effort to watch but would love to watch on TV on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I did the same for the second part of it which I got a chance to watch out of the blue. I was wanting to have the same experience for the first part, but didn’t really get a chance, so thought why not put some effort in watching rather than waiting for it. I am happy that it ended up being a fulfilling experience.

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt are a great combo. In fact, Varun Dhawan is a proper Bollywood hero material. As much as he looks goofy on the outside, he’s able to emote well and get the audience to like his character. ‘Badlapur’ is a different story altogether but one need not demean him by saying that it’s the only good film he has done because he was the same in that when compared to his other movies but Sriram Raghavan’s casting was perfect that he used his commercial element to make people watch the movie. In fact, it’s due to Varun Dhawan people could believe in that character. It made people think that this could happen to even Bollywood heroes. That’s such brilliance. Wish only the final post credits song had been avoided. It’s too great a movie to have such a song.

Here in ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ there is no such complexities. When the movie begins with Humpty (Varun Dhawan) being introduced as a playboy, I thought it was one of the ‘Student of the Year’ type of movies where everything would be big but thankfully it was rooted. Both the Delhi and Ludhiana part. These are the things people miss out in big budget extravaganza. They’d be of an opinion, that a handsome hero and a beautiful heroine would suffice, no matter what the setting is. The director, Shashank Khaitan, deserves the credit to have kept the believability factor in. Except for the opening scene and the scene where they try to mark the groom as gay, every other scene worked like a charm. Thankfully they didn’t include the “gay factor” to close the groom chapter.

For a romcom, the emotions were at check. It was handled in the right way. The plot is as silly as going to a Metro to get a designer lehenga but it’s the authenticity in which it was done makes us believe in the film and get into it. Rather than falling in the template it plays with the template beautifully. SRK BGM, Alia’s off shoulders and lehengas makes us believe that she’s next-door dream, there are a couple of emotional scenes, a kissing scene at right juncture, an amazing song, and the music of that amazing song as BGM in important scenes. In a way it ticks all the boxes in the template and that too without any apology. Kudos for that. Every film need not be a ‘Kapoor and Sons’ where it must be an impactful film in the Bollywood blueprint, but movies can be as simple and enjoyable as this too.

The silliest of emotions work, be it returning the gold jewellery after blackmailing an illicit relationship, be it the friends and father who give money for Kavya’s (Alia Bhatt) Lehenga, she gifting a Celerio. These are scenes written like a college kid in Annual Day play, but it still works. Thanks to the sincerity. The actors too have done their part in really believing in what they’re doing. Wish the naivety stays with them when they become bigger stars.

Finally, Alia Bhatt, can’t she keep a foot wrong when it comes to acting in a proper Bollywood film, can she. She’s a great actor and people appreciate her for ‘Highway’, ‘Raazi’, ‘Udta Punjab’ etc. but on the other hand it’s films like ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’, ‘Two States’ which really make us fall in love with her. She’s epitome of class when it comes to modern urban setting cinema. I intentionally omitted ‘Kapoor and Sons’, ‘Dear Zindagi’ type of films because you can’t hate her in those films. With that one emotional breakdown scene she’d sweep you off your feet. But even without that, with just her lehenga and off shoulders she can still woo you. Not only for the looks but with acting too.

No matter what type of films come, hope the joy of these Big Budget Bollywood films stay relevant and don’t want the makers to take the audience for granted, just because they want to enjoy a happy film.