One who was waiting in the bus stop for years for the right bus to come and eventually when the right bus came to the bus stop, he couldn't board the bus on time! But this special bus did not wait for him and made him to wait for another week or so to get the ride. Yes! that was my situation with respect to watching Nandalala. I nearly anticipated the movie to hit the screen much earlier and waited for a long time and eventually, when the movie hit the screens, I was unable to grab the first ride of the movie and at last somehow, I managed to watch this Travelogue.
I went literally overbore in praising Mysskin's earlier works. Chitthiram Pesudhadi didn't unveil in depth before I met Mysskin to speak about Nandalala and Anjadhey during the shoot of Nandalala. Anjadhey, during its release didn't either create a big impression before I completed watching the movie. After its release, it was vice versa on my view about the director. That's how came the hype and expectation for Nandalala in me which made me to wait for years, very eagerly!
Mysskin, here has started to kick off at the very moment the movie starts with the title card itself. As soon as the title rolls, we could see the musical genius name 'Ilayaraja' to indicate the importance of his work in this special movie and the title 'Nandalala' carries equal importance to the subject of the movie. It's about a journey of two children, who wants to meet their mother with two different reasons. I said two children as they both though physically of two leagues, mentally one and the same. Each and every scene until the first 20 mins will have equal ratio distribution for the two lead characters in the movie namely Baskar Mani (mentally ill person residing in an Asylum) and Aggi (10 year old student under the guidance of his grandmother). With the given 20 mins until when the two lead characters meet each other, the director has given a beautiful description about the character and their motto and the reason for the journey and the instances that motivates them to see their mother.
Aggi
* Everyone returns from school with their parents but he is left alone standing in front of the school.
* He never likes to be kissed by others even though it's real love.
* He likes MOTHER, be it whatsoever.
* An incident triggers him to see his mother.
* Excursion in his school gives him a chance.
Basker Mani
* Never likes MOTHER.
* Never likes if someone addresses him as Mental.
* He doesn't like to be in Asylum as he thinks he is alright.
* An incident triggers to him to meet his mother.
* He manages to escape from the Asylum.
This is when the two characters meet each other to take the journey with both being selfish in the beginning to meet their mother but later getting convinced due various incidents that occur during their journey. When their journey becomes difficult because of shortage of money, they decide to walk along to depend on the people who pass by. They eventually meet many people with different personalities and fall under different situations. With almost every strangers being important, there are many who steals our heart. I am not going explain each and every situations as it end by typing the whole story. But the director introduces a prostitute on their journey played by Snigdha, who in turn turns out to be an important character for the movie.
The director has cleverly bisected the movie into perfect halves with routing the screenplay with enough evidences. With incidents that introduce more characters, the director increases the pace of the movie in their journey. I could remember a few clichés in the movie. When the lead meets a physically disabled person who directs them a route, Baskar Mani calls him 'Nondi' which then the person ceases to help them. It's a fantastic scene after which the disabled person goes to help another woman who was in the verge of getting raped by two persons. I also loved the scene when Baskar Mani utters where Aggi's mother is when Aggi urges him to tell where his mother is. The shot was composed beautifully allowing Baskar Mani to think for a while and utters 'Thaaivaasal'. The climax scene needs no explanation which has been composed excellently well. The scene when he kneels down in front of his mother and Aggi runs towards Baskar Mani is simply magnificent. With that scene, he explains how Baskar Mani's mind has changed as his intention on the visit is to slap his mother on not coming to see him during his stay in the Asylum. Also, the boy, who kisses the prostitute on seeing his real mother, is top notch.
The strangers have done pure justice to their role and each one of them has been used in the right scene and their synchronisation is clever, where they were utilized in the later part of the movie. Mysskin as an actor is yet another brilliant debut by a director-actor trend and hope it could continue whenever it's required alone. The boy has got a great calibre and will run places. The item girl, Snigdha who was used for an item song has done good justice for a character role.
Mahesh Muthusami's camerawork continues to speak and stand alone in this Mysskin movie as well. The amount of hard work involved in handling the camera is evident in many scenes where the cameraman literally has to run/walk/crawl/roll along with the lead characters to make it a real look. His closes up shots, semi-shots, long shots were cleverly advised by the director to make it come real. The entire journey wouldn't have been so realistic without his intense work behind the camera.
The journey would be incomplete or rather wouldn't have even started without the Third lead character in the movie, the Musical genius Ilayaraja. One would know in the end, why HIS name came first in the title card with HIS top notch terrific background score. If the scenes were composed by the director, Ilayaraja's music elevates those scenes with his background score to give the audience the feel of the character and the scene. The songs literally give you goose bumps and ideal usage of silence yet again proved the power of silence. As I said, the movie would have looked like a trash without the Maestro's magical work.
Mysskin, as a director, scores again and in every movie, he goes a step ahead and sure to go places with his upcoming movies.
Verdict - Tamil Cinema needs such movies more frequently! Please watch it!
Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa - A Romantic Journey
In order to start a review for this romantic journey of Gautam Vasudev Menon's Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa, I had to go back and refresh during the initial promotions of this movie. It did create a lot of expectations when Gautam interestingly cast his cast with popular romantic movies such as Kandukondain Kandukondain, Alaipaayudhey, Uyire and his own Kaakka Kakka. And the tag after these stills goes as 'A different Romantic Story' AGAIN. Now after watching the movie, if one can recollect these stills and promos made, the tag which said AGAIN was genuinely a ‘A Different Romantic Story’.
Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa??????
So what's Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa? It's romantic journey and the chemistry between Karthik and Jessy. It's so poetic that the feel has been given in the form of narration in the first half where Karthik (Simbhu) explains about the cyclone that hit him in his life and it moves on the same life cycle during the second half. Not often you see concentration on the screenplay in Tamil Cinema or at least in the recent Tamil Cinema. But Gautam disproves the fact that Tamil Cinema is not stereotype. Karthik, the lead character in the movie, is an aspiring movie maker and he makes uses of this lead throughout the movie without any point of discontinuity in the screen play. At the end, he eventually becomes a director, yet another time, when you have a love failure, you tend to be successful in your career.
Simbhu - Keep it up!!!
I was under a complete shock when I heard Simbhu is doing the lead character is Gautam's romantic movie. But he has done exceptionally well for the character. It will be even better if he continues to do the same in other movies as well. The main problem is the mass gimmick, over shadowing these stars thereby making them to do cheap stunts in the movie which will definitely be totally irrelevant. But wonder how many Gautams or Selvas would be needed for our mass heroes??? Even in the stunt scene, clear narration was given to showcase the talent he possesses as a boxer in his school days. More importantly, the stunt scene or rather a threatening scene was actually a real life threatening scene. Simbhu has deviated from his usual roles and has given something which I would say it as a neat and clean role.
Ganesh - Worth-a Worth-illaya??
I should definitely talk about casting and I cannot forget the man, Ganesh, who does the role of a Cinematographer in the movie. The man is known for his ultimate voice which initially was a bit irritating and but later it went hilarious and interesting. People would be able to identify him as the librarian with a peculiar voice informing Simran about Krishnan in the movie Vaaranam Aayiram. Yes, we have the same man here doing a lengthy role as a person who comes along with the lead character throughout the movie. He has even reduced the role for a separate comedian with his interesting sighs and discomfort ness. "Worth-a Worth-illaya" it's simply great to listen and see such dialogues rendered from his voice.
She is beautiful - She is Sexy too!!!
What about the doll 'Trisha' as Jessy? My goodness, I should thank Gautam Menon for making her come in saree 90% of the movie. As Karthik says in the movie, She is beautiful, She is Sexy and of course she is hot. Probably this should be her first film which I can think of where she has really ACTED. All that is needed for the role is a confused state of mind and more importantly a character which one would probably hate for the decision that she takes and the way she confuses and gives reason to Karthik. I think she has got full marks but again, the same principle holds good for Trisha too just like Simbhu. Rather than being a mere doll in all the movies.
Oscar Winner's decent show!
Now comes the Oscar winner ARR. Well, I could probably remember only one director who has effectively utilized ARR for a musical treat. None other than Mani is whom I was talking about. Here, Gautam Menon has used Rahman to at least good if not the best. The songs were clear chartbusters before the movie was released and still ruling the music office. Gautam was reasonably well in picturising the songs though not great. Here, we tend to notice that more or less all the three songs in the first half were picturized in a more similar manner. Poor Rahman failed to create magic in the background score. I agree the BGM was good, but not perfect in many places. Wonder what made Rahman to go for a rock music for the scenes that portrays Trisha's confused state of mind. That piece of note is seriously jarring and irritating to hear that it disturbs the entire scene.
Manoj was brilliant with the camera. Initial scenes, especially in the sets where Karthik tries to meet directors were shot on a hand motion camera is really catchy one. Also the songs were beautifully shot in many locations. Not to forget the close up and out of focus shots were shot really well. Of course, it was directors’ way of thinking and style of making.
Gautam Vasudev Menon
The man behind all the credits, Gautam Vasudev Menon. In the masala times of Tamil Cinema, it's quite a relief factor with people like Gautam Menon, who can give sensible audience respect and quality movies. Courage is needed to mock your own movies. Gautam Menon does that in VTV where Karthik when he says that he wanted to work as an assistant director to Gautam Menon, Ganesh mocks him by saying "Why do you want to make a Tamil movie in English?" Also when he goes to Kerala to search Trisha, he mocks Vaaranam Aayiram mentioning about the travel to the US. The director has done brilliantly well especially the screenplay needs a special mention. I enjoyed the first half narrative style and the current on play technique for the second half. Especially the climax twist is really good. More than that, he has molded the cast to perform what he wanted is stunning. I said stunning because of the lead pair here who doesn't own anything to their credit in the name of acting.
Review posted @ www.clapsandboos.com
Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa??????
So what's Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa? It's romantic journey and the chemistry between Karthik and Jessy. It's so poetic that the feel has been given in the form of narration in the first half where Karthik (Simbhu) explains about the cyclone that hit him in his life and it moves on the same life cycle during the second half. Not often you see concentration on the screenplay in Tamil Cinema or at least in the recent Tamil Cinema. But Gautam disproves the fact that Tamil Cinema is not stereotype. Karthik, the lead character in the movie, is an aspiring movie maker and he makes uses of this lead throughout the movie without any point of discontinuity in the screen play. At the end, he eventually becomes a director, yet another time, when you have a love failure, you tend to be successful in your career.
Simbhu - Keep it up!!!
I was under a complete shock when I heard Simbhu is doing the lead character is Gautam's romantic movie. But he has done exceptionally well for the character. It will be even better if he continues to do the same in other movies as well. The main problem is the mass gimmick, over shadowing these stars thereby making them to do cheap stunts in the movie which will definitely be totally irrelevant. But wonder how many Gautams or Selvas would be needed for our mass heroes??? Even in the stunt scene, clear narration was given to showcase the talent he possesses as a boxer in his school days. More importantly, the stunt scene or rather a threatening scene was actually a real life threatening scene. Simbhu has deviated from his usual roles and has given something which I would say it as a neat and clean role.
Ganesh - Worth-a Worth-illaya??
I should definitely talk about casting and I cannot forget the man, Ganesh, who does the role of a Cinematographer in the movie. The man is known for his ultimate voice which initially was a bit irritating and but later it went hilarious and interesting. People would be able to identify him as the librarian with a peculiar voice informing Simran about Krishnan in the movie Vaaranam Aayiram. Yes, we have the same man here doing a lengthy role as a person who comes along with the lead character throughout the movie. He has even reduced the role for a separate comedian with his interesting sighs and discomfort ness. "Worth-a Worth-illaya" it's simply great to listen and see such dialogues rendered from his voice.
She is beautiful - She is Sexy too!!!
What about the doll 'Trisha' as Jessy? My goodness, I should thank Gautam Menon for making her come in saree 90% of the movie. As Karthik says in the movie, She is beautiful, She is Sexy and of course she is hot. Probably this should be her first film which I can think of where she has really ACTED. All that is needed for the role is a confused state of mind and more importantly a character which one would probably hate for the decision that she takes and the way she confuses and gives reason to Karthik. I think she has got full marks but again, the same principle holds good for Trisha too just like Simbhu. Rather than being a mere doll in all the movies.
Oscar Winner's decent show!
Now comes the Oscar winner ARR. Well, I could probably remember only one director who has effectively utilized ARR for a musical treat. None other than Mani is whom I was talking about. Here, Gautam Menon has used Rahman to at least good if not the best. The songs were clear chartbusters before the movie was released and still ruling the music office. Gautam was reasonably well in picturising the songs though not great. Here, we tend to notice that more or less all the three songs in the first half were picturized in a more similar manner. Poor Rahman failed to create magic in the background score. I agree the BGM was good, but not perfect in many places. Wonder what made Rahman to go for a rock music for the scenes that portrays Trisha's confused state of mind. That piece of note is seriously jarring and irritating to hear that it disturbs the entire scene.
Manoj was brilliant with the camera. Initial scenes, especially in the sets where Karthik tries to meet directors were shot on a hand motion camera is really catchy one. Also the songs were beautifully shot in many locations. Not to forget the close up and out of focus shots were shot really well. Of course, it was directors’ way of thinking and style of making.
Gautam Vasudev Menon
The man behind all the credits, Gautam Vasudev Menon. In the masala times of Tamil Cinema, it's quite a relief factor with people like Gautam Menon, who can give sensible audience respect and quality movies. Courage is needed to mock your own movies. Gautam Menon does that in VTV where Karthik when he says that he wanted to work as an assistant director to Gautam Menon, Ganesh mocks him by saying "Why do you want to make a Tamil movie in English?" Also when he goes to Kerala to search Trisha, he mocks Vaaranam Aayiram mentioning about the travel to the US. The director has done brilliantly well especially the screenplay needs a special mention. I enjoyed the first half narrative style and the current on play technique for the second half. Especially the climax twist is really good. More than that, he has molded the cast to perform what he wanted is stunning. I said stunning because of the lead pair here who doesn't own anything to their credit in the name of acting.
Review posted @ www.clapsandboos.com
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