Movie Review – Captain Miller

An Eye Sore, Ear Jar, Misfire of a film.

Never in my wildest dreams, did I imagine a film I chose to watch in theatres, out of my own interest, would be this bad. I should have understood by seeing only ten tickets booked for the show. But thinking that it has become a trend to watch films in OTT, I thought I was in for something special. But my first movie experience in theatre for this year ended up to be a debacle. It was nothing but a star vehicle disguised in the form of corny art film, which in the end misses to be both.

The film starts with all guns blazing and ends the same way and gets our ears impaired. I was sitting in the last row of the theatre. Similar to how I was sitting for ‘Oppenheimer’ Being a Nolan film, there were lot of fan boys who were defining where to sit for optimal film viewing, film hearing experience, when to loo, how much your bladder can hold etc. This film didn’t have any such advice. I was excited for the bass at the start of the movie and even was appreciating why it’s always a terrific feel to watch film in theatres but by the end of it, I was dead and tired. I was in the state of, “sugar patient ra naanu”.

Dhanush was getting high praise for his role of Captain Miller. It’s becoming very problematic when non Tamil people judge Dhanush’s acting. They were raving about ‘Raanjhanaa’ at the time of the release. Guess Bollywood is so tuned by its larger than life hero’s that even such a normal realistic acting feels like epitome of acting experience to them. It was the same for Miller. Dhanush does nothing extraordinary.

It was very difficult to understand what the film was trying. Was Arun Matheswaran, kidnapped by Dhanush and at knife point, was made to write an artsy story with commercial elements. The film was boring and bland, for the sake of appropriate adjective. There is Dhanush, who is Analeesan or Eesa who later becomes Miller or Captain Miller. Even a fourth standard student would be able to decode what the director was trying to do with names. He’s Eesan, the great god of destruction, who would come out of myth to save the village and in the journey kills a few thousand people and gets killed a lot of his people. It’s very difficult to understand when would he side with whom, yet he’s showcased as a character with clear motives.

There were a lot of corny dialogues, symbolisms and rapturous music. Hell, even the art direction was elementary. In the end nothing makes sense. It just feels like a loud ‘Maryan’ Dhanush’s choice of heroines are great to see in instagram but they do nothing in the film. In a film where she’s supposed to be strong with arms and words, the only scene Priyanka Mohan feels at home is when she smiles. What a misfit. Velmati (Priyanka Arul Mohan), except for her name was a disaster in all aspects. Truly resonating the fact that she’s nothing but a Melugu Doll.

There were two more interesting peculiar characters, Sengolan (Shiva Rajkumar) and Captain Rafiq (Sundeep Kishan). There is one shot where the three of them join hands and do an ‘Aayutha Ezhuthu’. By that time, I was tired to even criticize. Seriously, when there was so much guns and bombs around, who comes with a sword and bow and arrow to fight. (I could only remember Hawkeye coming with his bow and arrow and making a great scene dumb in the first Avengers movie.) And that was supposed to be heroic. Is this even the guy who made ‘Rocky’. And don’t get me started with the parallels he was trying to show between the two films with the help of ammunition.

Of course action films like these come up with a certain suspension of disbelief but the whole film being so was unacceptable. How was even Dhanush dodging so many bullets in the interval, why were none shooting at Dhanush when he was surrendering? Why were all the characters so one dimensional. Why so much Deus ex machina in a supposedly noncommercial movie. And who was this guy with munda baniyan and sunglasses, who comes out to save all the main characters just in time. But thanks to him, he was the only fun factor in an otherwise dull action movie. And finally that reveal, oh my god, it was truly exhausting. What should have been like the scene where Parthiban raises hand in ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ ends up to be like a total spoof? Is that sculpture supposed to look like Dhanush, or is it just me.

Out of three hours, the only scene which works is, when Eesa is in the army camp, Abdool Lee (Sembatta / Stephen) is criticized by one from the group getting the name. That reaction of Dhanush when he says, “enga ponalum ipdi oruthan vanthuran” was the only natural aspect of the whole film which tries to do so many things, without knowing what.

After ‘Rocky’ I was truly happy for Arun Matheswaran, so much so that, I didn’t want to immediately watch ‘Saani Kaayidham’ and exhaust his filmography. But after ‘Captain Miller’ I seriously doubt whether he has anything in him. More than anything, the film was such a disappointment.

Movie Review – Rocky (2021)

Love thy violence

In what looks like a marriage between ‘Old Boy’ and ‘Super Deluxe’, this looks like a first proper film in the gore genre for Tamil cinema. Something which ‘Boys’ did to Adult film genre in Tamil cinema. The director, Arun Matheshwaran seems to have a strong liking towards violence and it wasn’t used just as a showbiz tool but as a world which he has created. Even though parts of it would definitely remind you of Korean films, it doesn’t come out as a film where the violence gives you a sadistic high but a definitive scare. May be because it’s the first film where this amount of gore had a native flavor to it.

The posters of the film was done brilliantly with all the characters together, Rocky (Vasanth Ravi), Manimaran (Bharathiraja) and co. It gave a Thevar Magan feel with Bharathiraja sitting in front and Rocky standing behind him with a number of associates. It felt like one whole gang who were fighting together against someone but on watching the film we realize it’s the complete opposite. May be the poster was done so intentionally to give a shock or done with the idea of the past of them. Even without the hidden meanings it was brilliant but after we get to know the story, it only becomes better.

As soon as the movie starts we get to know that it has a world of its own, just like ‘Super Deluxe’. The timelines are quite confusing because the film doesn’t take a traditional angle where the hero ages physically. Going by the angle that Manimaran’s son (Rishikanth) killed Rocky’s mother Malli (Rohini) and Rocky avenged him for that and spends time in jail, there was hardly any change physically of Rocky. It’s a kind of film that a question for that shouldn’t be raised. Just like how someone comes out of blue to try to kill Rocky’s Niece Malli (Anisha). Films like these give confidence to young directors to create whatever they like, without the need to stick by the tradition.

But even in a film which tries to be its own, why do you have to have songs. Especially the song when Rocky meets his sister Amudha (Raveena Ravi) spoils both the sequence before it and post it. It was a beautiful long shot to her room and back to road, giving a chill but thanks to the song we get to breathe a sigh of relief, post that we see Amudha dying in front of Rocky. The song could have easily been avoided to have the emotions swinging from tension to sweetness to horror but guess the director wanted to use the song as a tool for sweetness, which only led to relaxation. In fact it was the only point of relaxation in an otherwise solid tense movie.

Quite contrary to other Hitman movies, this film doesn’t feature bulked up people as goons but rather fragile ones actually. The horror is in their action and not looks. Especially Manimaran’s introduction scene where he explains how he was successful in fishery business was lit. Because till then Thanraj (Ashraf Mallisery) looks comic in his act of going front and back in a road roller but only when it looks like a threat we get to know what a horrific villain he was.

It could have been a terrific climax after all the blood and gore, but Lokesh Kanagaraj single handedly has spoilt the entire generation’s expectations by giving a definition an overdose of gun action in Kaithi. That’s why every other film which has similar climax looks meek. But thankfully, an actor with an otherwise average voice modulation, delivers one hell of a punch in the climax, which gives enough climax to watch the film till end with the glee, “Maman thangai magalaana, Mangai unakaaga, Ulagai vilai pesuvaar”

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.