Posts Tagged ‘Yuvan Shankar Raja’

Trending the new waves

After a debaculous ‘Comali’, ‘Love Today’ was at the top of my must not watch list. Like any guilty pleasure movies, emotions overtake you at the least imaginable moments. ‘Love Today’ was a houseful on a Friday night even after one month of its release and the crowds were enjoying like anything. It was all understandable but the unprecedented success would have dumfounded even the makers I believe. What’s scary is, if youngsters benchmark itself is going to be these “trending” movie, would Atlee become their Godfather.

The first twenty minutes of the movie was hard to digest. The protoganist, Uthaman Pradeep’s (Pradeep Ranganathan), acting was difficult to digest but it in a while, it sets in. The biggest advantage Pradeep had as an actor was his boy next door look. He reminds us of one of the guys, whom you’d not have thought would be in your friends group but he’d have eventually got into it, without no one knowing how. Or he’d have been the funny guy in the next group of friends, whom even though you like, you wouldn’t really feel like talking to him. I saw him in that perspective, more so on the latter. Generally, we think from protagonist’s angle. It didn’t happen here, if it had happened for you, it’d have been lot more enjoyable for you.

He was a surprisingly good actor. His acting works especially for this character where he had to be loud and dramatic. His interviews too were trending for the same reason, as he had this college humor in tact with him. But how long it would last is the question. After ‘Comali’ I thought he wouldn’t exist but he gave a bigger hit with ‘Love Today’ so for now he’s fine.

Obviously between the leads, everyone would vouch for Nikitha’s (Ivana) character for her acting skills. She was beautiful and did a terrific job in romance scenes but generally most of the heroines are good in romantic scenes. It’s the male stars who always falter. But here Pradeep does a fabulous job. Especially the scene where he tries to pin Nikitha’s saree in a scene, he would give even top heroes a run for money.

There were few laughs in the first half and slightly less in the second half but most of it were already the ones which had been trending in Facebook. It wasn’t a full on laugh riot. If Comali took certain cringe factors and used everything together to get 90s kid’s attention, here it takes to another level. Unfortunately it works and that’s the scary part, exactly like how something is very problematic if you start liking Atlee’s film. These are films with absolutely no ambition. They are youngsters who are supposed to take risks and experiment, not showcase something for temporary joy.

Having said all that, it was not an easy task to have just a single concept of phone exchange as crux and move the story forward. Long time I had written a story about two people talking to each other in office chat. Being a fan of dialogues, I had written it, which I wanted to make it a short film. I had no idea how to make these conversations look like they’re not monotonous. Pradeep’s biggest success here was in achieving that. Except for that one scene in bathroom where all the chat windows were given life, there wasn’t any openly “different” way of showing the texts. In fact it was done so well that people don’t feel that they’re reading only the texts.

Pradeep somehow uses elements against Uthaman’s character in the second half and makes it harsh and relatable. But still the film felt like an attack on Nikitha’s character more than Uthaman. Nikitha explaining to her sister and Uthaman explaining to her mother about how the other parties were not so bad was outright cringe. It was just like the rain scene in ‘Comali’. But there is no other way to come to a conclusion. Having good actors proved to be an advantage for these scenes. Post that it was a series of confessions and pep talks. By this time you’re already in the zone and accept what he says.

In the end the film fares better than ‘Comali’ in both the comedy aspects and emotional ones as the former was more fun and relatable and the latter was made acceptable by some intelligent filmmaking and acting. Plus his choice of actors, especially the females were nice. Everyone was pretty (reminded me of Shankar songs extras) and given at least some time to be registered. He wasn’t trying to show only the heroine as goddess and others less superior to her.

P.S: This was the first time three not so famous/trending songs of Vikram had come in a single film as pop culture reference. Ennodu Nee Irundhaal, Chi chi chi, Ithunundu Muthathile. Of course he credited Vijay and not Vikram. All that was understandable.

P.S.S: Don’t tell me he’s a fan of Vikram, I’d be damned!

A Venkat Prabhu Fun Ride

Only a Venkat Prabhu film can guarantee a fun ride like this. An absolute guilty pleasure. I’m not saying this to demean the film because it was a sincere attempt, but nevertheless a great guilty pleasure. Thankfully the film doesn’t go to ‘Tenet’ mode and keeps its food grounded with the fun factor more than anything else. With enough number of puns and funs, the movie not only thrills you but keeps you engaged till the end. It’s like one of the rides in the theme park which gives you an unexpected satisfaction.

The movie begins with a usual big hero gimmick but it can be easy overlooked as it was not irritating. The first twenty minutes of Venkat Prabhu’s films would always be the worst, if it doesn’t pick up after that, it means that it’s a debacle. But movies like ‘Saroja’ and ‘Maanaadu’ pick up post that and give enough satisfaction. So the flight scene, a mandatory glass break, a needless song etc. bores you out, but by now everyone would have got used to Venkat Prabhu’s style of filmmaking so they’d have been okay. The films tension starts as soon as S. J. Surya gets introduced and consequent death/deaths.

We get to know about his reliving post the first death and movie was well shot for those sequences, with these many people. It’s not a movie to knit pick on the missing details but something we’ve to just go with the flow and enjoy. So it was a fairly enjoyable ride. Wish Kalyani Priyadarshan had got some more role rather than just being a dumb heroine. Wonder how if she does the same in Malayalam movie, it works but in Tamil movie it feels dumb. Others were just irritating characters with just no value. The whole film was just a faceoff between S J Suryah and Simbu.

Abdul Khaliq (Silambarasan) is an NRI returning from Dubai for a friend’s marriage. In fact to marry off a friend by abducting the girl for it, but a turn of events makes him realize that he has some bigger purpose and continues reliving the same day. The logic was silly but it’s good that they didn’t delve deep into that except for a short explanation. The whole Hindu-Muslim thing too was absurd and needless. Wish it didn’t try to be of any bigger purpose than it really was. But anyways if we dig deep, it’s our mistake, these needs to be dealt at surface level and washed off. Then you’ll get an enjoyable ride.

Generally in a film like this, after we get to know about the reason of time loop, it becomes redundant but the interval block where it was revealed that DCP V. Dhanushkodi (S. J. Suryah) too loops back in time, it becomes interesting. Kudos to Venkat Prabhu for keeping the audience in hook till the climax. Some tactics like dying many times during fight and coming back to escape from death was handled efficiently. But isn’t it how a normal human would have the death probability. Only because our heroes are super powerful they escape these many deaths naturally.

In all its one of the movies which was fun but could have been a lot more fun if watched with a crowd in theatre.

A film which makes you appreciate life

Gone are the days when Ram made these ferocious loud subject movies, he’s one of the makers with a lot of stuff but often gets carried away due to too much personalization and anger. It worked in ‘Kattradhu Thamizh’ (which I still prefer calling Tamil M. A.) but had an over the top name changing scene. ‘Thanga Meenkal’ was so beautiful but had a bad money borrowing scene, over the top acting and literalism. ‘Taramani’ was almost there but again we could see the protagonist as only another version of Ram himself but look at ‘Peranbu’, it’s a near flawless movie, almost in every aspect. And the fact that it has a good actor, it only manifolds the experience.

It’s one of the films where even his literalism worked. The very first dialogue of the movie is how one should appreciate the life one has. Taking a cue from Avvaiyar, one must appreciate life for everything we have, ‘Peranbu’ talks about life of an individual who’s in close contact with a person with disability. So, it’s not a disability film per se. It’s something more accessible for human beings who are not them. That’s why the movie is so special. Even the suffer suffers less than the one who sees the sufferer suffer. That’s more painful than suffering. Ram beautifully narrates the story in poetic fashion.

Even though the “Maghalkalai petra appakaluku mattum than theriyum, Mutham kamathai sernthathu illai endru” (Only a Father, who has a daughter, would know, that there is nothing sexual about a kiss) words adds a bit of literalism before a beautiful ‘Anandha Yazai’ song, the effect between that and what Amudhavan (Mammooty) says here is drastically different. We see so much anger even in a sweet song there but here it’s so soothing and that first line of the movie sets the tone of the movie and makes us appreciate the movie once it ends. May be even the voice has something to do with it. With Ram, it was a hoarse strict voice but Mammooty is every so calm in his approach. May be even voice of great actors can act.

Not only that, the whole film has a sense of calmness and earthiness because it has Mammooty in it. in ‘Thanga Meenkal’ the desperation would be so evident even though he tried to act calm. It’s an angry man trying to refrain but here Amudhavan is a man who is a near saint, he knows he can’t do anything. In most of the situations all he does is remain calm and accept fate. When he’s threatened to sell his property, when he signs the petition, when he takes his daughters clothes back home. All we see is a calm man, so much so that its irritating to watch. But the same person scolds a naïve Meera (Anjali Ameer) when she sees him at his home. Is it because she’s a transgender, is it because he really thinks as he says, that she and her boss were involved in some sexual act, or is it because she couldn’t talk to her wife about asking her to take care of Pappa, or is it because a culmination of all the above factors or is it just plain powerfulness in front of Meera because he hasn’t felt a surge of power in front of anyone other than her. It’s open to interpretation.

Ram has matured tremendously as an actor. When I heard of him making ‘Taramani’ I was in my worst phase of work so I thought it’d be lovely to watch the film to vent out my anger but how fascinating the movie was. Especially the role of Andrea’s. It’s a dream role of any actress. Peranbu takes in one notch higher with it almost being a perfect film. There were absolutely no scenes with shock value but the entire film makes you heavy. Something totally opposite to how Bala makes. Bala with a subject like this would have totally spoilt it. And only Ram can ridicule a Mundakanni Amman and a Jesus with such ease. And what a lovely scene it was when the room boy in first lodge comes up running to tell them about another lodge. It’s scenes like these which makes the film so life like and attachable.

Like Amudhavanan says, if his daughter could change the pad by herself its equivalent to seeing her climb the mount Everest. How true it is, isn’t it? When you are an affected person, the whole world seems to be against you, the mere posters in the wall, a good-looking guy crossing the road and just about any simple Tamil song. How can a man protect his kith and kin against all these negative routines? That’s where Amduhavanan scores. I’d have hated it if the movie had ended with both of them dying. I still hate him for even making that move, because it looked like the only possible solution. Even though it ends with a cliched feel goodness, it still was lovely, because with a near saint Amudhavanan who’s coupled as a writer, now everything feels romantic.

Oh, and how beautiful Anjali Ameer was… especially when she put her face out of the window in the “Setthu Pocchu Manasu” song. Special mention to Yuvan and Theni Eswar for doing a great job in music and cinematography respectively, without going over the top at any place.

Same old mistake

Why does Selvaraghavan do the same mistake again and again. He builds up a great story, some great moments, then make all his characters a typical Selvaraghavan caricature, end product is a mixed bag of effed up characters not knowing what they’re trying to do. I wonder whether do the characters themselves know what they are doing. Bala was one director who followed the trajectory and ever since his idea has been cracked, his films were disaster. Mysskin is slowly leaning into the category and Selvaraghavan doesn’t seem to be much far aback. Thanks to all the controversies, many movies of his don’t get materialized, otherwise, I guess he’d have been up there competing with Bala.

NGK’s first shot was bad, Suriya was given a typical hero introduction but the scene from there to the point where we see Selvaraghavan’s name was epic. A typical Selva movie. Why doesn’t he make movies like this? It was rhetoric, yet fun filled, an environment which only Selva can create. An environment where his fans could boast how good he is, an environment where the others would detest it as vulgar. The way he goes one step above the traditional romance but one step below the lust of a masala movie is epic. Wish he creates tense scenes like that in a romantic movie. It’s one of the factors which made ‘Yaaradi Nee Mohini work big time because it’s his movie in Telugu.

It’s a brilliant film for Surya. In fact, a dream film. If movies like ‘Ayan’ and ‘24’ are tailor made for him. Movies like ‘Pithamagan’ and ‘NGK’ are the ones which make him a better character. Even ‘Nandha’ is below that because he can easily do a ‘Nandha’, which is close to his real self. Even if he may not be morose like that of his character in the film, he’s at least quiet like that. But in ‘Pithamagan’ he was totally opposite to his self. Unfortunately, he had to compete with Vikram, but look at it as a seperate character, it’s his best work. ‘NGK’ should have been like that. It starts on a positive note. His mom says, “elarukum edhulayavathu paithiyam, ivanuku naatu mela paithiyam”. (everyone is mad about something, but he’s mad about the country) He is a do gooder in his place and quite contrary to other heroes he is a known face who does good as well as incurs the wrath of parents of kids who had left their white colored jobs to do agriculture. That was an interesting prospect. Except for one bad shot of him with MGR in the background. That was too obvious a reference. Anyways we don’t get to see much of it, that phase gets over quite quickly. Guess Selva was more interested in the political aspect of the film.

He gets into politics as an aid to MLA Pandiyan (Ilavarasu). By far the best character in the movie. Bala should take a cue from it. He wants to create a character like this but ends up creating ‘Highness’ instead. Also what an actor Ilavarasu is. One of the most underrated, someone whose name doesn’t pop up as much as it should, when one talks about character artists. Can you imagine it’s the same person who acted as saloon owner in ‘Chennai 28’? Pandiyan makes him do all kind of dirty works with special insistence on cleaning the bathroom, which Kumaran (Suriya) gets hinged to.

The problem starts here. Suriya’s transformation from good to bad looks like a caricature. He overdoes a lot of scenes. It’s a typical mass hero performance which is done to get applause from audience. It’s an opposite of Kokki Kumaru in ideology, who would do anything to survive, whereas NGK would do anything for the country. But when a lean and fragile Kumar hits a gang of men, it’s more believable than a man of muscle, Kumaran fighting the goons. Both the bathroom fight and the climax fight were big yawners. No matter what Suriya does, it still feels like he’s a nice chap.

Coming back to the opening scene, the romance between Kumaran and Geetha Kumari (Sai Pallavi) in front of his mother, looks lovely, even if its uncomfortable. It’s not something which you usually see in a mainstream cinema. That’s why Selvaraghavan is special. But it fizzles out so easily. Except for that one scene where Geetha Kumari says, “po da kanna” there isn’t anything else which she does which is appealing. She becomes a typical Selvaraghavan character in the second half when she starts doubting her husband. So much so that, the way she utters her dialogues, it feels like we are seeing Sonia Agarwal in the disguise of Sai Pallavi. The same with Suriya but the point blank face which Dhanush keeps couldn’t be done by Suriya. Selvaraghavan always ends up wanting actors with whom he’s comfortable with.

Vanathi doubting on Kumaran is actually a good angle where the viewers are not sure whether there was any intimacy between Vanathi (Rakul Preet Singh) and him. That surprise is enticing. It should have been left as such instead of a distressed Kumaran citing that his family has become his casualty on account of him entering the politics.

There were too many make believe sequences in the second half, especially the action sequences. Wonder what was the idea of the maker. If he had at least wanted to make a proper action movie, then it’s understandable but when trying to make something out of the box and resorting to plain old violence with market fights and bathroom battles, it’s annoying. Above all, one question which continues to linger in my mind. What’s such a big deal in the title NGK. Throughout the review I was thinking where I could cite Suriya as NGK but I only ended up typing Kumaran. For me Kumaran doesn’t transform at all into NGK. And the legendary status given to just a name like NGK (may be on the lines of MGR) is nothing but blasphemy.

All heroes can’t be superheroes

It was one of the movies which was pending in my guilty pleasure list. Generally, SK’s movies work for me because it comes out as a whole package where there will be a bit of everything which is good enough to pass time. But off late he has been juggling with too much stuff and trying to balance weight more than what he’s capable off, that’s why he is not able to provide the no nonsense fun which he used to till some time. I guess ‘Velaikkaran’ is where it started. Even though not a great film, the film was reasonable but ever since then everything has been a disaster.

P. S. Mithran has got the superhero formula right, even the way scenes need to be built, the music and the camera and all were done in a manner, it generally would be done in a superhero film but somehow it falls short of expectation. It tries to take superhero genre seriously but the only time it works is when the scene is comical, example the scene where kid tries to test fire in the vest of Hero. That’s where it gets affected because of an actor who couldn’t be taken seriously. He doesn’t take himself seriously at first place, rest all is secondary.

The flashback is strong enough and provides necessary precursor for a man to turn against evil. He rather becomes evil himself before donning the superhero cape. The first act with corrupt colleges and people, worked reasonably well. It strikes the right note. It need not be a cinematic marvel to evoke sympathy from viewers but enough to just touch upon the right instances and that’s what it does. For any super hero, a super villain is necessary. Mahadev (Abhay Deol) plays the perfect foil. In a land where he wants to create educated laborers, I wonder how he became an entrepreneur himself. His method is both vindictive and cruel for anyone to cringe. Making him an ideal character to spit hatred. Also, the way he handles police who comes to raid the college makes us feel he’s invincible.

Meera (Kalyani Priyadarshan) after her balloon act in the opening, doesn’t have anything else to do. They’ve wasted Kalyani Priyadarshan in the role. She’s a decent actress who’s capable of handling powerful roles or at least be a sweet person in the film like she did in ‘Chitralahari’ or ‘Varane Avashyamund’. The film becomes interesting once Mathi’s (Ivana) story picks up pace. Probably the best actor out of the lot. Her chemistry with Sakthi (Sivakarthikeyan) is better than that of Meera’s. The way her face lights up when she explains about the school to Sakthi and later about the project at the expo, is exemplary. Unfortunately to be a superhero movie, someone close to the hero has to die and quite unsurprisingly we know that it’d be Mathi. Even though we know that we still feel happy about how she is at present. That’s where her acting works. Wonder when will this part of screenplay ever be changed, like the “aal maratam” in double action movies. This has been Shankar’s favorite troupe, but he makes super hero movies without saying that he’s a super hero, that’s why it has succeeded, otherwise, films like ‘Anniyan’ or ‘Indian’ too would have died a gentle death like ‘Hero’.

Once Mathi dies, the film gets deep into slumber. Arjun tries hard to lend seriousness but it again fails. The usage of ‘Shaktimaan’ before the video and how Sakti turns ‘Shaktimaan’ and all would have been good on papers for people who had watched a number of superhero movies. But nothing really works. The film becomes worse from bad. It was cringe worthy and simply unsittable. Except for one revving of bike, there were no superhero elements employed. The smoke inducing iron balls and metal scorpion were all effects of tom foolery and laughable. If it had been at least as bad as ‘Kanthaswamy’ people would have trolled it and enjoyed. But the movie tries to take itself seriously and that makes it even more hard to digest.

The climax was the most disgusting of the lot. At no point does Mahadev look weak and the sudden surge in energy of the Hero in the climax doesn’t look as a factor enough to kill Mahadev. The kids joining and creating a superhero out of scrap is a great idea. But the way the kids kill Pycelle in Game of Thrones is how impactful it should have been. But it ends up in the league of ‘orama poi vilayadungada’. For now, lets appreciate the film at least for trying something novel, may be in future we will get a quality product.

Red and follow

It’s probably a movie which no one watched when it released, even though released the same day in YouTube, not many are aware of it. Moreover, I had kept it in dumps for past ten years. Finally, I got to watch this gem of a movie. First thing, anyone would notice while watching the movie is its uncanny resemblance to ‘Vada Chennai’, which is hailed as one of the greatest films in Tamil cinema. It does not feel like a mere coincidence, not even an inspiration but something that looks to have been ripped off from the ‘Striker’

However, what ‘Striker’ does is much more organic and much more earthed when compared to ‘Vada Chennai’. Of course, it cannot me mere coincidence that the protagonist is a carom player, gets mixed up with things in the neighborhood, with local goons etc. That does not stop there, Surya (Siddharth Narayan) and Zaid (Ankur Vikal) even go to a tank top to have a beer, much like how Dhanush takes Aishwarya to tank top in ‘Vada Chennai’. Not all these can be mere coincidence. In addition, the filmmaking is much more earthed and neat when compared to ‘Vada Chennai’ where it is all clumsy with lot of characters and storylines being introduced in first few minutes. The clumsiness was needless. Just because it’s Vetrimaran who is now termed as an intelligent director, not many say anything against his film, that makes us feel stupid. ‘Vada Chennai’ was needless confusing in its storytelling. It could have been far simpler.

But, what I like about ‘Striker’ is that Surya is a commoner and remains so till the end of the movie. The unheroic portrayal is not something we usually see in the cinema. Even though Dhanush is no one and gets constantly ridiculed, even by the heroine, we know that it’s a ticking time bomb, a cracker which is about to fire any time. When he walks out of the hall in the end, there would have been a rapturous welcome and a thunderous response but here Siddharth lets it all go and remains a commoner till the end and even beyond it. Siddharth’s inability to have a great screen presence plays to his advantage here as he is always seen as someone vulnerable and not a don who is about to rise. Something, which Dhanush couldn’t emulate in ‘Vada Chennai’, for we always, know that he’s going to rise, just that we don’t know when. May be people who defend ‘Vada Chennai’ are gonna say that the story is about how he became don but my point is that even if he wanted to make a faithful remake of Striker, ‘Dhanush’ for the sake of better word, couldn’t have played a commoner. He’s still an unsympathetic hero who hides behind the face of a commoner.

Apart from the character arc, what Striker does is, the way it beautifully evolves the story and doesn’t fiddle with the Hindu Muslim sentimentality. It’s shown on the face and thankfully so. And the beauty is, it doesn’t take sides and let us too. Generally when the movie doesn’t take a stand it looks all plasticky but here it’s normal. People are only worried about their immediate problems and not what’s happening outside.

Also the sports template of the film was superbly used. There were various tense moments unlike ‘Vada Chennai’ where only a couple of dialogues and a shot to use in trailer and for hero introduction in the film were used. Here in ‘Striker’ it is a proper carom film. However, it does not take rags to riches story like a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Carrom is a metaphor in the movie. A lot happens around it, with it, but there is not a proper start and conclusion of carrom. As much as Surya is interested in carrom at no point do we see him regretting not playing carrom anymore. It is just a passage of time where he plays, not plays and again plays. It is something he is good at it but does not own his life to. A generic problem which sports films do, where it cries out loud literally, attributing to a specific incident due to which the protagonist stops playing a sport, it could be due his father’s death, sister not getting married, not getting job etc. It is not as simple and definitive in life.

It is a shame that the movie did not get enough recognition. Especially people in Mumbai would have identified the film to be much rooted to the otherwise glamourized account of Dharavi and underworld. Siddharth does a fair jobs but the sidekicks are fabulous, especially Ankur Vikal, it’s because of him the film takes so much twists and turn but luckily the story doesn’t get judgmental on his character and we’re not made to hate him. That is the sheer beauty of it.

Engaging watch amidst disengaging performances

Even though this film was termed as one of the entertaining watches of 2018, I didn’t have much interest in watching. May be because of poker faced actors in the movie. The trailers were okayish but the performances severely hampered my interest to watch the movie. But got a chance now to watch on a day where there wasn’t nothing better to do. I thought that this movie could be categorized under watch-it-when-there-is-nothing-better-to-do but it was much better than that. This movie along with “Suttu Pidikka Utharavu” was some of the decent finds for me.

The movie had an interesting title “Raja Ranguski”. Much like how Baskar (Kalloori Vinoth) reminiscences, it reminds us too of Enthiran Kosu. Ranguski by the way is a byproduct of one of the Sujatha’s characters. Tribute to Sujatha’s work were shown well in the movie. I liked it especially where both the leads were fans of Sujatha.

Much like his book the story revolves around a suspense element. Not really a ‘whodunit’ but a thriller similar to that. The idea of using a lead character as a Beat Officer is commendable but that had no relation to the movie, he could easily have been an IT professional or any other police character. Wish the Beat Officer made some sense because it’s not every day a different character appears in the movie. It only ends up being a gimmick like how an ox was shown in “Mersal” poster. It’s the same here where the designation appears in poster and an uninteresting opening song.

In fact much like his other films, mainly Burma, the songs are such a spoiler for the film. The “Thani Oruvan” kind of song shouldn’t be made with an actor like Shirish Saravanan. Shirish at max can be a part of movie but not someone who could make people watch a movie because of him. I know that I’m harsh on him but that’s the fact. That was the most irritating song of the lot. Next to the songs the actors were the ones who looked out of sorts. All three leads, the hero, heroine and the character actor. The only saving respite was Vinoth who has a knack of humor. He did a great job in “Sketch” as well.

In spite of all the flaws the movie works, much like how “Suttu Pidikka Utharavu” works. It knows its limitation and does the work correctly. Thanks to the low budget, there is nothing flashy in the movie too.

Even though the villi was guessable, the twist which is done in order to reveal was made well. Again bad acting spoilt it. Another film which treads on the same line but gets accentuated due to acting in “Adhe Kangal” where an excellent Sshivada makes us root for her if not for her excessive smirk. Here too Ranguski (Chandini Tamilarasan) tries the same but doesn’t work. It leaves us dizzy faced like Raja (Shirish Saravanan).