Movie Review – Sarpatta Parambarai

A rare, rooted sports drama

For some unknown reason I was never intrigued to watch the movie ever since its release. I was of the opinion, “what differently can be done in a sports drama?” Even though the boxing track was like how any boxing film would be, where you’ll rise from rags, go down a bit and again rise. Pa. Ranjith, the master that he is, the way he blends an almost never heard of boxing circle from yesteryear Madras, with a bit of politics infused as period flick, makes it an intriguing watch.

Unfortunately, due to ‘Raging Bull’, any other film feels meek. Such is its legacy. Plus ‘Raging Bull’ is like a complete package, a man’s journey through his boxing life. None can replicate what Scorsese does with a character and the beauty is almost, if not all, characters end up in a sorry miserable state. After all the highs we experience, it feels like you’re in death bed and the eventual is going to happen. I thought when Arya loses the match, the director would take the film in such a way, but unfortunately, he gets his six pack back in a song and wins the title.

I’m not against a character or the lead finally succeeding in a boxing film. But its much more than a sports/boxing film. The way the characters were build around the lead and the lead not standing out from the rest, rarely happens in such a movie. If Vikram had acted in one such movie, none of the characters would be visible. In a way, Arya’s not so dynamic screen space paves the way to make this a film which we can relate to. There were lot of emotional scenes which could have been better performed. In fact, Arya’s ‘Magamuni’ was better acted than this, one which he’s not known for. But the remaining characters, each one of them were gem. Everyone was highlighting Dancing Rose to have acted incredibly well, may be people were wooed by how his character was written. My favorite would be John Vijay. He was just brilliant as Daddy. In fact, it was superb selection to cast him in that role. Santhosh Prathap too fitted the role to the tee as an opposition sidekick. Wonder how Kalaiyarasan acts so well just in Pa. Ranjith’s film.

Wish Ranjith had taken another step closer to reality and had lean boxers, juts like the end credit shows. For some reason, may be because of the period setting and unfamiliar terrain, I was reminded of ‘Boogie Nights’. Of course, ‘Boogie Nights’ is just perfect, but this film gives that feel. Ranjith doesn’t explore much and get us into the world like ‘Subramaniapuram’ does, by far the best period film in Tamil, still it gives us a feel of an unfamiliar terrain, which was mostly brushed aside. If it had lean boxers and Kabilan (Arya) going down the dumps in the second half, it could have been a far greater movie than this. What a surprise it would have been if it was a first half sports film and second half personal film. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted him to become don and inspire the area but if he had gone down as an unidentified man and had got to live with it, it’d have been a far greater and impactful movie.

Love the way how Mariyamma (Dushara Vijayan) puts things into perspective in Kabilan’s head. About why losing is not such a big deal, how violence is of no use etc. Love the way how Ranjith’s female characters are always strong but not rebellious just for the sake of it. He does it so organically, as if its not a thing. Women don’t coy in Ranjith’s movie but that’s the point that he wants to highlight, it’s just the way he writes. Also, the anti-violence track was superbly handled. Arya looks the weakest when he’s bashing thugs, how beautiful isn’t it.

The film ends in a positive way with everyone uniting. That was done wonderfully as well as organically too. Even though his wife hates him when he’s a goon, it’s not that she always shouts, she smiles when she gets gold. Same with his friend Vetri (Kalaiyarasan), in fact that’s the best character written. He oscillates here and there. He wants to use Kabilan to become big and go against his dad Rangan (Pasupathy) and at the same time doesn’t want to lose Kabilan too. It was a beautifully written love hate relationship. We all have one such friend like him. Even though the film ends up in predictable lines, it does guarantee for a compelling watch.

Movie Review – Ted 2

One, for compulsion

‘Ted 2’ starts exactly where its predecessor ends. Not with John’s (Mark Wahlberg) marriage but with Ted’s (Seth MacFarlane) with Tami (Jessica Barth). Just like how America doesn’t give a fuck, here too the situation repeats, and Ted proves he’s just as human as anyone with the problems with his wife. With Amanda Seyfried instead of Mila Kunis, it’s basically a repeat of the first part in different situation, like how ‘The Hangover 2’ was criticised. Despite the criticism whether ‘Ted 2’ was as funny as ‘The Hangover 2’ was the question.

The film’s story didn’t feel really like a compulsion but the fact that the same question was not raised in part one was what it made the film special. Ted being given a special status, being hallucinated are typical stories which anyone would think of when one starts writing about a lice teddy bear. ‘Ted’ worked because it was stripped off these. That’s the beauty. So, when it starts like this here, it was ‘meh’. Despite the film running on usual lines, it was fairly entertaining with its jokes but wasn’t as wholesome as part one.

Mark Wahlberg was terrific as John. Even though all the concentration was centred around Ted. It was John who makes the film work. He looked tired and gloomy in the film, may be a bit old too but luckily for him, the story’s development can be attributed to this. He’s a man who has tried so much and still lost his wife. Or may be simply they couldn’t get Mila Kunis call sheet.

Another beautiful thing about the movie was that, just like how charming Mila Kunis was in the first movie. Amanda Seyfried does the same in the second movie. For a film, which is largely a boy-guy fantasy movie, it was a welcome change. Maybe it was overdid a little in this part like she smoking pot and playing guitar in the middle of nowhere as if she was born for John. It would have been a bit more realistic if her character had been given a slightly different flavour.

When John says, “Déjà vu” when he gets to know that Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) tries to steal Ted, it was like, what part of the film was not Déjà vu. That’s why there was no thrill around the climax. Worst part was Donny’s kidnap scenes but when John was in bed, it was absolutely clear that he was not going to die, not in this movie. Ted laughing for the joke was more funnier than the entire incident. If it had achieved in making the audience emotional and then broken up to this, it would have been amazing.

The film’s stand out scene would be the ‘cum’ scene, but that’s about it. The first part had many of those laugh out loud scenes which worked like a charm. Here may be the film tried to be nicer or just the director ran out of jokes or worst, I watched the part two too soon and, in a way, unrealistically expected it to be as much funnier as part one. Finally, why Morgan Freeman. He totally didn’t fit the movie. If he had been another guy who’d have had a hilarious interaction with John and Ted, well, that could have been some movie.

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.

Movie Review – Vikram

Once upon a time, there lived a… oh, enough said!

First of all, it’s a great pleasure to see Kamal on screen. Happy about his unkept promise of not planning to act again. It’d have been a bummer if he had not made films any further. Quite curiously, for a Kamal film, the movie generated a lot of hype, first among me because of lot of coincidence like my name, birthday, friends name etc. but even amongst others, there were people wanting to catch the movie desperately, after the first review was out. Having said all that, I didn’t except such a movie from Kamal, it was a shocker, as cliched as it my sound, it was another truly different movie.

After settling to the FDFS ambience, personalized Kasi theatre engagement, papers flying, bouncers shouting, whistles, videos etc. it was finally time for the film to start. For a full-blown action film, a song like that at the start was needless. Don’t know why it was kept. Yea it was fun to see Kamal enjoying himself but was it apt for the film is the question and the song wasn’t done with full conviction. Like my friend pointed out when the song ended midway, “ipo lam pattu podrathukae bayapadranga” (nowadays, people are afraid to keep songs in the film). And he was right, I felt how Lokesh was in two minds when he wanted to both have a song as well as not have it. From that point to the interval, it was a blast, with only one bad scene where the prostitute tells what Kamal does physically to her. It was emotionally cringe.

The first scene of the film where Kamal dies would have been a shocker for many. Even though we all know its not the end of him, the way the director delays the character entry and keeps us in hooks was something no director had done before. When was a hero, let alone a big budget mass action hero, had appeared only during the interval. That’s what makes Kamal different from others and he must be appreciated for that. For a comeback film he appears only in the interval block. With that, he answers the the complaint about how he never gives chance to other actors, in style. The interval scene seriously is a blast. I was telling how it could have been one of the best first parts of the movie if it had been released separately. It would have had a ‘Kill Bill’ kind of impact with the Tamil audience.

The problem starts with second half. I’d rather not say problem but the film fails to elevate the protagonist like it does for other actors. After a brilliant Fahad Fasil show in the first half with menacing Vijay Sethupathi. The scenes with Narain, Tina and everyone of his aid works big time but for Kamal with a couple of punch dialogues and absolutely needless “Nalavara, Ketavara” dialogue, it was only compulsive applause he was getting. May be just like ‘Jigarthanda’, people loved the first half so much so that they couldn’t hate the second half. They were applauding for the Vikram who was in search in the first half rather than the Kamal on screen. I was in fact shocked that the film became such a huge hit. I thought I’d be writing about how it’s a great film which was again misunderstood by audience but I’m doing the opposite. I was proved wrong by the audience who were able to accept the fact that in spite of Kamal being in the film, it was a Lokesh film in which Kamal has acted.

Action sequences could have been definitely better. His mannerisms of shaking his shoulder were done one touch too many. Probably the only action scene that worked was the Tina transformation. Even though I guessed, it was lovely. Also the names of all the agents were displayed at great junctures. Probably the film shouldn’t have been shown with the title at first, rather should have been shown only when the Agent Vikram’s name gets displayed during the climax.

I know it’s wrong to expect an emotional performance in an action film, but I felt it would have been nice if some more time had been given for him with his grandson, their chemistry was lovely (Remember the dad son scene in ‘Uttama Villain’, can it get any better than that). Especially the crying scene which Lokesh repeatedly points out gave us a glimpse of Don Corleone scene with his grandkids in the field. Maybe it was intentional. Whether it was intentional or not, another inspiration definitely seemed to have come with Nolan’s batman series. The interval close up shot of Kamal, the lights off scene from marriage hall, the restaurant scene where the kid looks for his grandfather etc. But the important thing is everyone of this scene worked. In fact, everything did except elevating Kamal as a mass actor.

The climax could have bene brilliant and explosive as Lokesh intended if only had ‘Kaithi’ not come earlier. As soon as we saw guns and drugs in the first scene, we knew what was going to be the climax and cinematically there was nothing new in the climax blow up. It was underwhelming to be honest. With ‘Kaithi’, we got a terrific feel, the silence after the gunshot there was lovely, here it was just a repeat. Even Kamal bringing the barrel to ground, Fahad Fasil rescuing the kid was all cliched.

People fondly call this a Loki Universe, it is nice to see him get all the love. He too calls it his world. It is good to see him doing a connect with his other movies and be proud about it but hope it doesn’t become a template and he yields to a compulsion to connect every movie of his after this.

Movie Review – Mahaan

A pulverizing anti message film

For a Vikram film, which was preposterously titled ‘Mahaan’, this happened to be a quickie. With the first single of the movie too not creating much hype and falling under regular troupe of Santhosh Narayanan’s latest outings, it looked like it was going to be the same old story of any Vikram movie but the real attention started with the teasers and trailers where the film felt appealing. But the puzzle solved itself only after watching the movie. In fact the whole setup was to make audience think of something else and come up with something wholly different.

There is a short, not so appealing flashback at the start with three kids involving in a game of cards. It happens so quick that we don’t get a grasp of it. One of the kid Gandhi Mahaan, ends up to be the forty year old Vikram in the next scene, who has to abide by the rules his family, society has framed/set for him. It was a pleasure to watch Vikram do such a subtle under performance in the beginning but it doesn’t last long as he gets a free license for a day. His wife Nachi (an amazing Simran) and his kid Dadabhai Naoroji leave him because of the incident. From that point to interval it was just a pleasure watching Vikram on screen. Time and again he shows what an actor he is. He is a straight out Hollywood material who could match up with the likes of Al Pacino and De Niro in a Scorsese gangster flick.

The three friends unite together at most interesting points. In fact any character who appears for a scene, reunites at superb juncture. Sathya (Bobby Simha) at gambling, Gnanam (Vettai Muthukumar) when they plan to get a seemingly impossible license for their drink and Manikkam (Ramachandran) at his lone birthday party. In fact its Manikkam’s words which makes a seemingly innocent Gandhi turn into Mahaan. Isn’t it just apt that Gandhi thinks of only Manikkam during his birthday? And the chemistry between all of them with Vikram was fabulous. None looked like lesser known actors. It was great to see so much comfort level on screen.

It was good to see Karthik Subbaraj trying to come out of comfort zone. He could have easily done a normal gangster movie with Vikram and could have gotten away with it as a runaway hit but the path he takes in second half and establishes a lead actor without questioning his morality was brilliant. Pro Gandhian, Pro Alcohol or pro or anti of anything is not easy to establish. But he does it with élan. The scene where Dada (Dhruv) refuses to drink alcohol was such a lively scene. It could have been easily laughed at. If it had been laughed at, the film would have been a failure. Only because the emotions of it could be understood, it makes for a compelling watch.

Karthik had tried to do something different with ‘Iraivi’ and ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ but couldn’t. With ‘Iraivi’ it got too personal and self-righteous and with ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ it got too hollywoodish, so much so that it looked plasticky. But with Mahaan he held his ground even though he had not aced it. There were few brilliant scenes where the emotions were stripped off, like, every time Vikram thinks of family, it doesn’t happen for more than a couple of seconds, he laughs it off with his peers dismissing that his past life was nothing but crap. (Something like Ranbir brushing of Deepika rejecting her proposal in ‘Tamasha’ but that was not as subtle as ‘Mahaan’) Karthik could have easily made those scenes a cry fest and made us empathize with Vikram. But he doesn’t, and that’s the beauty. In one of the scenes he so effortlessly dismisses his wife Nachi from his life. He says something like, “avala epovo thooki potachu, payana than maraka mudila”. It’s so cruel a scene which I’m afraid whether other actors would have done it but it happens so effortlessly in the movie.

Climax is where the entire villainess of Gandhi comes to fore. It was a treat to watch Vikram in full flow. Like my friend commented, Vikram gave an audition for ‘Marudhanayagam’ with his ‘Hey Ram’ caricature. Dhruv who was trying so hard to match with Vikram in the face off scenes had to succumb completely in the climax. In fact he obeying his dad in film felt more real than the remaining scenes. Gandhi calling him a puppy in the call to Gnanam was probably the cruelest scene of the movie. May be the people who couldn’t connect with the movie citing that they couldn’t understand the emotions were actually the ones who couldn’t digest the fact that the lead needn’t always have to be a morally correct person.

The length of the film felt justified. May be it could have explored more about Dada and the flashback sequences. The actors, especially the trio of Vikram, Bobby Simha and Vettai Muthukumar were terrific. Even Sananth as Rocky was brilliant. In fact everyone were, except for Dhruv. May be it’s a miscasting. He was not bad, in fact a lot better than I expected but he was forced with a herculean task to match up with Vikram. Karthik or may be Vikram wanted the character to be macho and tried to add a lot of cool factors like Vikram’s previous mannerisms and dialogues but it was a total put off. May be a cop who hardly talks and generally broody in nature would have appealed more.

Overall it was a superb movie with Vikram and it was like showing the next generation what he’s capable of. People who are newly discovering him (thanks to a series of flops) would have been wondering why was he not in limelight all through the years.