A AA E EE - Movie Review

A AA E EE

Subramaniam, (Prabhu) an Ayurvedic physician is a much respected man in his village. His only daughter Anita (Monica) returns home from Chennai after completing a course in fashion designing. Having lost her mother at a very young age, Anita is close to her father and they share a special bond. Soon Anita’s marriage is fixed with Ilango (Arvind), son of Vedachalam, (Haneefa).

While Vedachalam is a good for nothing, his son is a perfect match. Illango falls in love with Anita. But Anita tells him of her past, about her lover Akash, (Navdeep) who had jilted her after a one night stand. Illango, though shattered meets Akash and tries to unite him with Anita.

And in this attempt, he finds himself falling in love with Anita’s cousin, Eshwari (Saranya Mohan). Now the story is about uniting the two pairs of lovers. And Anita does not want to hurt her father with the knowledge of her past.

Set in a rustic background, the film entertains with its moments of comedy, slapstick albeit. And it talks about a young daughter who is willing to sacrifice her love so that her father is not disappointed, a trait not that often seen in today’s films.

Prabhu as the father is good. Manorama as Illango’s grandmother is at her usual best. Haneefa in his colourful outfits keeps the audience chuckling with his dialogues. While Arvind and Monica are adequate, it is Saranya Mohan who impresses with her acting. Navdeep makes a mark too.

The songs are good. Good camera work with stunning visuals showing nature at her best.

There are moments when the film sags, but if you have a penchant for clean family drama, this one could be straight up your alley.

Poo - Tamil Movie Review

Director Sasi returns with “Poo” (Bloom) after a long hiatus, but has ended up with a bloomer.

The offering has situations similar to mushy hits like “Autograph”, “Thavamaai Thavamirundhu” and “Azhagy”.

POO

The story revolves around a villager-turned-engineer Thangarasu (Srikant) who is unhappily married to a rich woman. He bumps into his old flame Mari (Parvathy), the better half of a tea shop owner. The film deals with their trip down memory lane.

Flashbacks reveal Mari’s crush, her inability to say “yes” at the vital moment and the sacrifices of the protagonist’s father to help him reach an acceptable social status.

Mari’s present sob story and her continued yearning interspersed with her earlier inability to express her love take the film towards its rather insipid climax.

The treacle-like story lacks verve and looks more like a badly made television serial.

Parvathy is the only saving grace thanks to her gallant effort to etch the sad character. Srikant as a bumpkin cuts no ice.

Listless music drags the film down further.

Cinematography by Muthiah is just a wee-bit above average adding some beauty to the village backdrop

Kadhalna Summa Illa - Movie Review

Star-casts: Sarvanand, Ravi Krishna, Kamilini Mukherji, Nasser, Tejashri, MS Bhaskar, Ilavarasu and others.
Banner: Raj Television Network
Direction: Ilangkannan
Music: Vidhyasagar, Manisharma, Moorthy
Cinematography: S.A. Vincent

KADHALNA SUMMA ILLA

An adventure can enlighten a person and indeed consider this term ‘Love itself is enlightenment’. Not sure, whether Radhakrishnan, Director of ‘Gamyam’ was inspired from life of Gautama Buddha who witnessed adventure that led to enlightenment. Remaking such a top-notching flick into Tamil with same casts on lead except Ravi Krishna replacing Allari Naresh has the same results.

‘Kadhalna Summa illa’ directed by Ilangkannan who earlier made ‘Ottran’ deserves good pat for a fine job. But there happens to be a big blunder that he has committed all throughout the film. Any guesses? He hasn’t exactly remade the film but has done cut-copy-paste works of ‘Gamyam’ to this Tamil remake. The scenes doesn’t involve the character of Ravi Krishna have been copied from Telugu version with just dubbing. Only scenes involving Ravi Krishna has been reshot and that are not you call perfection.

Anyways, it’s fine and good until audiences don’t judge the most blatant flaws on continuations.

Kadhalna Summa illa – As the title suggests it’s not at ease the protagonist wins his ladylove.

It’s a journey of Abhiram (Sarvanand), son of a millionaire in search of his lost love Janaki (Kamilini Mukherji). On this travel, he experiences what the real life is that he hasn’t strained to learn earlier. He goes through various encounters of joy, fun, pain, emotions, birth and even death. To get him accomplished of his love, a roadside bike-lifter velu (Ravi Krishna) is on his side.

With our journey not extending more than 120mins, ‘Kadhalna Summa Illa’ is a fantastic flick that offers a touching tale with entertainment for all classes. An act of surprisal from Ravi Krishna who with his ‘Netru Indru Naalai’ had turned the spotlights on him and with this film, he’s over-the-top. Debutant Sarvanand is sure to have big time in Kollywood with his charming looks and performance. Kamilini Mukherji’s decent performance offers enhancement to the script though her role is minimal. Though appearing in one particular sequence, M.S. Bhaskar steals the show while a person enacting the role of Naxalite for couple of scenes is extraordinary.

Background score by Moorthy is close to everyone’s heart while his score on songs ‘Samayame’ would fit Telugu and not Tamil screens. Vidhyasagar has copied his own tunes of ‘Jai Sambho’ from Telugu movie ‘Bagaram’ while Manisharma does it with ‘Ennavo Saidhai Nee’ from Okadu.

Cinematography by S.A. Vincent enriches the visual quality and would have been better if the copy-paste factor was avoided…

On the whole, ‘Kadhalna Summa Illa’ is a film that can be watched for a good-different experience especially for those who were fed up with ‘Villu’ and ‘Padikadhavan’ for this season.

Bottom - Line: Poignant tale of romance

Verdict: Be a part of this journey…

Villu - Tamil Movie Review

Star-casts: Vijay, Nayanthara, Prakash Raj, Vadivelu, Sriman, Manoj K Jayan and many others.
Banner: Ayngaran International Productions
Production: K. Karunamoorthy, C. Arun Pandian
Story, screenplay, Dialogues and Direction: Prabhu Deva
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Cameraman: Ravi Varman
Art Director: Sunil Babu
Stunts: S.Vijayan
Dialogue: Ravi Kumar
Lyrics Writer: Kabilan

As it goes with Spider Man, Superman, Die Hard, Mummy and James Bond series, Actor Vijay has started marking his ventures with same genres. Of course, commercial elements are always welcomed by the masses and especially his style, dialogues bounded with messages, mischief acts and tremendous dance. But when it comes to stories where ‘vengeance’ is the main element, they’re out of audiences’ tastes.

Son seeking vengeance for his father’s death is something that everyone has been viewing on the screens for over 3 decades. And why Vijay does pick up such an empaling speculation on each of his films? Well in Kuruvi, his task was about bumping of the baddies to save his father and here, he’s there on revenge of his father’s death. Precisely, it’s a polished remake of ‘Aboorva Saghodarargal’ and Hindi Movie ‘Soldier’….

The film opens with Pugazh (Vijay) on a secret mission as he receives instructions from senior police officer Joseph (Manoj K Vijayan) to abduct world’s deadly criminal Raaka (Aditya). Sooner, Pugazh makes Jhanvi (Nayanthara) with her as a part of his mission (As James Bond does it for all Bond girls). Perhaps, later its revealed that Jhanvi is none other than daughter of World’s most wanted mafia leader JD (Prakash Raj). Rest of the film is about who actually Pugazh is? What are his intentions?

Vijay does a brilliant job on dance, stunt sequences and overall good justice to his role… But watching him with unbelievable stunts on aircraft is something we say, ‘ludicrous’, ‘Ridiculous’…. Does he assume himself to be James Bond or Die Hard fame Bruce Willis? Its a billion dollar question. The funniest annoying part is where our hero stands amidst of 10 cars getting blasted with bomb and yet not spotted with single cut. Do Vijay and Prabhu Deva think audiences to be fools watching the film? Even, filmmakers of Telugu film industry have transformed and started making good films. ‘Villu’ starts off well in the first half with fun, frolic, songs, action and romance. But none ever expected that Vijay would perform clumsy acts like throwing underwear on Nayan’s face and that’s something female audiences would hate it. Nayanthara can better quit acting and look for Malayalam offers or else continue here in Kollywood with item numbers. All throughout the film, she is involved in skin shows and doesn’t attempt for a better performance. Blame is on the part of Prabhu Deva who doesn’t give her enough scope to perform the role. Vijay’s double action is unnecessary and someone could have played his father’s role. Humble request to Prakash Raj - ‘Sir, Kindly don’t take up offers for money sake’. Devraj, Anand Raj, Sriman live up to expectations. Vadivelu’s humorous tracks are only relief especially, shaking his legs for ‘Kathala Kannale’ and ‘Naaka Mukka’ are over-the-top that’ll cause you stomachache. It’s a decent spell of bull fight though done on CG process and call it ‘good work’. Prakash Raj looks funny with colored wigs on his head (Remember Suman in ‘Kuruvi’ and ‘Aegan’).

Prabhu Deva was quite good on remaking each and every in ‘Pokkiri’ while he fails to pen a gripping screenplay for his own script. The First half moves about with commercial factors and everything’s fine till 10 cars burst during an action sequence with Vijay walking straight through them. Prabhu Deva must understand watching James Bond film is fine and good, but try not applying them for Vijay’s film.

Musical score by Devi Shri Prasad has whole lot of Tollywood traces and fails to impress with his background score. ‘Rama Rama’ picks up the interest of Vijay fans with Kushboo and Prabhu Deva dancing for the number. Well, rest of the songs doesn’t carry on with same credits. Pepsi Vijayan’s stunts are the highlighting factors in the film while rest disappoints us.

On the whole, ‘Villu’ doesn’t carry any specialties like ‘Ghilli’ or ‘Pokkiri’. Overdosed heroisms and loose screenplay fails to hold even Vijay fans in theatres. However, we may point out the exact features, anyway or so Vijay has tactics of getting his film run successfully for more than 200 days. Maybe, more too.

Fine! For ‘Kuruvi’ we had our verdict carrying ‘Refund Your Tickets’ while for this one – ‘Gift the tickets to your enemies’ would be the apt one.

Bottom - Line: Sequel to Kuruvi

Verdict: Ayoo Ramaa…..

Tamil Movie Review Naan Kadavul Movie

Banner: Vasan Visual Venture

Production: KS Srinivasan

Star-casts: Arya, Pooja, Azhagam Thamizhmani and over 175 new faces.

Story, screenplay and Direction: Bala

Dialogues: Jaya Mohan

Music: Ilayaraja

Lyrics: Naan Kadavul

Cinematography: Arthur A Wilson

Art: Krishnamurthy

Stunts: Super Subbarayan

Effects: Raju

Editing: Suresh Urs

Naan Kadavul

Each and every flick he makes has something really bold and beautiful. The unique theme he brims up with offers a stunning surprise for his viewers. Well, it’s more illustrious with his previous ventures of ‘Sedhu’, ‘Nanda’ and ‘Pithamaghan’. These flicks were shot merely within short period while this fourth directorial ‘Naan Kadavul’ took a very long time around 3 years to get completed. His mantra of ‘Slow and steady makes the work perfect’ should have urged him to do.

Finally, shooting for the film has been completed and patch-up works in production works are pending now. Arya and Pooja who had been coming up with clichéd roles as peppy youngsters have something more different here.

Like in his previous films, Bala centres ‘Naan Kadavul’ on emotional quotients of lost love and affection. For spiritual and astrological meliorations, an arrogant father excogitates and sends his son out of the house. The abandoned son (Aarya) grows up in the midst of Saadhus and Sanyasis. Turning one amongst them with long hairs and gory looks he has forgotten everything about world. Meanwhile his father realizing that he had committed blunders goes in search of him now. Getting to see his son in such a state, he is so shocked and decides taking him back.

Rest of the story is about the estranged son getting back to Tamil Nadu and series of events that happens in Vaarnasi after he leaves the place.

The newcomers in the movie include Rajendran, a popular stunt artiste, director Singampuli, producer Azhagam Thamizhmani, an eunuch Keerthana and a physically challenged singer Kovai Krishnamurthy. Keerthana hails from Madurai.

For the first time, we don’t have Bala penning dialogues for his film while Tamil literary composer Jaya Mohan takes on that task.

Actress Pooja for the first time dubs in her own voice and Director Bala wanted her to do with attempts of fetching her National Awards. Lyricist Vaali who had penned lyrics in appraisals of Lord Vishnu in Kamal Haasan’s ‘Dasavatharam’ has composed lyrics in appraisal of Lord Shiva over here.

Super Subbarayan’s stunts would be a stunning highlight in this film and climax fight sequence was shot nearly for 26days. Acharya Ravi, Singam Puli and Rassaiya Kannan have worked along with Bala as associate directors.

Censor Board officials will watch the film on November 30 and plans are to release it on Pongal. Since movies with Digital Interlude (DI) are not considered for National awards, both the cinematographer and the director have not used DI in the film.

Producers would be releasing the film simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu. A total of 450 physically challenged children and elders form part of the movie. Bala was felicitated for his mammoth effort on World Handicapped Day celebrations recently… Over 48 physically challenged persons, who know nothing about cinema had been to Chennai to dub in their own voice. A team of doctors attended them in case of emergency during the shoot.

Musical Maestro was joined by acclaimed Bollywood composer Uttam Singh for re-recording. For the first time, a full-fledged song in Sanskrit feature in the movie

The movie has been shot in Varanasi, Kasi, Kanchipuram and Periyakulam….

Thiruvannamalai - Movie Review

It’s a grand fiesta for all the fans of Perarasu and Action King Arjun. What else can you expect more from this combo other than lots of punch dialogues, Kuthu songs, comedy tracks, unlimited fight sequences, with cameras turning up and down and left and right? Sometimes, it may knockdown you causing nausea if you are seated at the front rows while watching this film. The film has nothing such called an impressive storyline with a kinky theme, but a clichéd commercial masala of hero fighting against baddie and winning the hearts of people.

The film opens with a big clash between Eeswaran (Arjun) and a local MLA (Sai Kumar). Later follows the film involving Eeswaran contesting for elections against the MLA and putting down their evil deeds. Unbearable to his son’s actions, Eeswaran’s mother takes him for a Thiruvannamalai where a Saadhu (Arjun himself) offers him blessings and advice. His statement is about settling down bad things with peaceful approach while Eeswaran has no idea about it. As a matter of fact, both of them agree to interchange their places to experience the different scenarios and rest of the film follows action packed Jyothi where everyone’s seat burn hot…

Arjun with his usual performance on dual roles as a Swamiji and a local cable TV operator. What a directorial by Perarasu? He is worthy bagging the most prestigious awards of ‘Golden Globe’, ‘Oscars’ and what not? Better he can make disclaims at beginning of the film that it’s a pure entertainer for cheap audiences and of towns and villages. It’s very funny with the introduction of Arjun on why he tears cloth where child is laid….

How long will the villains keep yelling at a loud voice like a half drunk gorillas are an unanswerable question. The motif was quite good when Saadhu and a lay man agree to shift their locations for different experiences. But finally, getting to watch Saadhu displaying his Kung Fu and stunning fights are ridiculous. What does he want to convey for the audiences? Is it only through bad force of action and evil that a person can put an end to evil forces?

Musical score by Srikanth Deva is again a great torture for the audiences. Can’t this man score music at least a song favorable for audiences? None of these songs in the recent venture including this one is really nice. Ditto to his background score where he uses ‘Danda Danda’ as the background music. Even for the most patriotic song like ‘Sare Jahan Se Accha’, this brainless musician blends them with a fast beat Kuthu rock while Arjun shows the pictures of Mahatma, MGR, and Rajnikanth to Pooja Gandhi.Cinematography by Padmesh doesn’t work more and of course you expect more than such work for a commercial film.

On the whole, it’s a ridiculous film to watch for miniscule audiences who are fond of watching avant-garde filmmakers. While for other centres, it’s a great commercial Panchamirutham…

Bottom - Line: Cold-cocking your brains