Engeyum Eppodhum - Cute always

We would have heard about different road accidents or perhaps even seen some huge accidents but none would have put us as one of the victims of the accident. That is what the movie is all about. I do not see any message or awareness being promoted in this movie as I read tweets and wall posts from other film viewers who think the movie is telling some message about driving lessons. Yes, to answer the next question, I am completely against the climax message carry over in the movie or the end credits. The way I have seen the movie or rather I understand the movie is to think ourselves as one of the victims of the accident and carry a heavy heart when you leave after the movie.

That's how the movie starts basically with a collision of two buses and the story takes a rewind of 4 hours describing the passengers who were travelling in these two buses and giving the narration of a few lead characters with a flash back. Not just that, the director also makes us feel for the other characters in the movie by showing just glimpses of their whereabouts. I liked this special touch from the director instead of using a physically challenged person or a cute lovely girl dying in the end. So, the narration that happens with the passengers of these buses takes us till the death, sorry the accident.

The director has typically shown a normal life story throughout the movie not exaggerating any scene or situation. Un-crowded bus from the usual movies, change in the share autos (one who has travelled in share autos will know the difference that I am talking about), using the A/C bus, Trailer bus. These things though many wouldn't worry or concentrate much, this doesn't give the audience any stereotype feel when watching the movie. Likewise goes with the other flashback in the movie that talks about the love affair of Jai and Anjali. The worker changing the uniform and more importantly coming to the shift in casual dress of the colour of their lover's costume and getting changed, the auto driver asking Jai 'Is this the first time you are coming in auto'.

Screenplay is simple amazing in this journey. What's the interesting factor is, when the director takes us to a flashback of one pair, he doesn't continue till the end instead, he abruptly stops with a flash and return to the live journey and moves to the other bus to come in a different route. This is actually a clever screenplay that will leave the audience to be keen on what has happened to them and why are they in this bus.

Also the way the director has narrated the flashback scenes makes me to write the caption for my review as 'Cute'. The instances in Ananya and Sharvanand pair are really cute with Ananya behaving. A new girl from village comes to Chennai, not trusting anyone but being supported by a totally unknown stranger and her suspicious character are just cute. If for Ananya, so for Jai in the flashback of Jai and Anjali. I just wanted to stress a few lines and if you have not seen the movie, I bet you will get reminded of these lines while watching the movie. ESPIRIT hospital, Bru coffee, drinking coffee in bulk, these are just awesome.

Often, these days, the directors have improved a lot when it comes to casting the characters. I haven't seen a single misplaced cast in the movie or probably they must be negligible. A Dubai return eager to see his daughter who even has got her voice asking to pick the phone as a ringtone is top notch. Casting of other characters apart from the lead (doesn't mean they are not apt) is ultra.

SPOILER ALERT

Acting becomes so easy when you have a strong screenplay that keeps going with a pace and momentum. Jai and Anjali have especially done their job perfect. Jai's character and his acting will leave everyone enjoyable in the movie and carry a heavy heart in the end. Anjali as a different forecast lover has done very well in the movie. The new comer Sharavanand is also blended nicely to the character who reveals his name at the end. Ananya facial expression is enough to make her look cute and needless to say anything extra.

I never knew 'Govinda Govinda' belongs to this movie. I was excited to see the song in the movie and so as 'Maasama maasama' song. Other songs could have made a bit peppier to make them remember or murmer. CG sequences during the collision are something nice or more like Final destination sort of revealing what exactly an accident means.

First movie for the director, he should be thanking the producers to believe his script as this script if told in the form of storytelling would probably make the producers yawn. All we expect is 'a long way to go and give us more feel good entertainers'.

Verdict - Please do not miss this journey!

Pongala Pongal - A Look Back

We had a good Pongal with Aayirathil Oruvan which was released nearly after 2 years of making. Though it had some mixed reviews in the beginning, later it started to pick up as the movie was trimmed by deleting a few unwanted scenes especially in the second half. Now that, the word of mouth has started to spread and it seems to be really good. But the trade reports however seems to be in favor of Aayirathil Oruvan. Let's see if it continue the same becomes a super hit.

Of the other movies that released along with Aayirathil Oruvan, it looks like Naanayam seems have to positive reviews for the concept and the screenplay. Kutty as well receives decent reviews. One sure shot disaster is Porkkalam which failed to attract the audience which created or rather made the audience to anticipate for the movie with its trailer and the promo stills.

So that's for this year. Can we also rewind back and check what happened for Pongal? We have some good old memories as well.

2006

It was a clash of titans. It was so designed to have their movies clashing most of the time during the Pongal season. And this year it was Aadhi and Paramasivam. Aadhi carried the hopes Vijay-Trisha winning combo from Ghilli and Thirupachi but it went nowhere since the content was empty. So surprisingly it turned out to be one of the worst disaster movies in Vijay's career. Well Paramasivan, it was P Vasu who carried the momentum from Chandramukhi. Expectations were high for this movie but it failed to satisfy the audience completely because of ridiculous script. Though it was not a fully satisfactory movie, it did manage to collect some money.

2007

It was the year, where the term Pongal was rephrased to Pokkiri Pongal. This time, Vijay joined hands with Prabhu Deva in remaking the Telugu blockbuster Pokkiri by Mahesh Babu. The team was able to replicated each and every thing from the telugu movie and with the inclusion of Vadivelu's awesome comedy track, the team was able to give a stunning block buster. We also had an Ajith movie which Ajith would never wanted to get reminded off, Alwar. Except for the lead pair Ajith-Asin, there wasn't any expectation for the movie and the movie turned out to be the best disaster in Ajith's career. But Ajith's Varalaaru which was released 2006 Diwali, still continued to run in major screens. Another movie which turned to be a success along with Vijay's Pokkiri was Thamarabarani. It was Vishal who paired with the new face Bhanu under Hari's direction. The movie also created expectations as Nadiya made a comeback again. The movie turned to be a super hit and ran for more than 100 days.

2008

The year which probably witnessed maximum releases because of the absence of Vijay or Ajith movie which usually share more screens if it had released. But we had Vikram's Bheema which was desperately waiting for years to hit the silver screen. Lingusamy carried his success after Run and the songs were ruling the radio stations pre release time. But the movie was a complete disaster for Lingusamy. Kaalai, the Simbu starrer was another big disaster which had absolutely nothing in the movie other than personal vengeance. Karu Pazhaniyappan's Pirivom Sandhipom had good response and it was actually the only movie which made a good profit of all Pongal releases. Other two movies were Pazhani and Vaazthukal. Pazhani, as usual had a typical Perarasu's story and it made decent money whereas Vaazthukal failed to cross even 10 days.

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