Bodhidharma or Vela

Instead of writing two different reviews, I shall try to put both in one review and also, the thought of comparing these stories struck my mind while watching Velayudham. 7aum arivu, the movie which created buzz in the cine industry right from its poster release till the irritating publicity gimmicks by the production house was released a day before the diwali to create more buzz and it was not just the special show, instead almost all the theaters screened the movie continuous shows from matinee to early morning. With all the anxiety, I watched the matinee show of 7aum arivu and after coming back from the movie, '7 aum arivu is samma entertainer' was my status message on my wall. Hmmmm, slightly makes me think if I had over bored a bit with the movie.

Expectation matters certainly! Creating so much expectation on 7aum arivu had a slight disappointment from many whereas, the unusual dark horse Velayudham, with no big publicity and very less expectation, turning out to get positive scribbles. Adding more to the factor is the vengeance on Suriya by both the fans of AJ and VJ. I was surprised to see audience in a C class theater abusing Surya on hearing positive comments from the people who came out of the theater after watching the morning show of Velayudham. 

Ok, now coming to drawing the similarities on these two stories. In 7aum arivu, china wanted to start a bio war in India by means of a virus and connecting that to the 6th century and the concept of triggering the DNA of a person who lived in 6th century. In Velayudham, the usual ordinary formula of Pakistan - India war in the form of terrorist. 7aum arivu had to trigger DNA of Bodhidharma to kill Dong Lee, here; sentiment dialogue is all needed to bring back Velayudham.

First 16 mins gimmick. Before I went to 7aum arivu, all talks were about never miss the first 16 mins, every minute is 1 crore and it is the most important part of the movie. Agreed, it is the most important part of the movie, but 1 minute = 1 crore makes me to think the way to spend money in the most unknown way!! In Velayudham, if I am not wrong, for the first 16 mins will not have Vijay but it tested the patience of his fans longing to celebrate his first screen presence. It also conveyed what the movie is all about in just 16 minutes.

Forget the first 16 mins now and move on. 7aum arivu had sluggish start after that it had the introduction of Suriya with a costly song 'Oh ringa ringa' roping 1000s of artists and dancers, shot with several random cameras in the busiest places of chennai, heavy beats, unknown lyrics, etc., After which, the movie had a dull screenplay until the Villain's entry point. But, Velayudham just had 'sonna puriyathu' with no 1000 dancers, normal camera, awesome dance and a peppy number. The pace of the movie is so swift and smart. Surprisingly, this time, there was some logic in the play.

Pakkuru, Circus, Suriya all tried to bring out laughter but not even a bit had come. Santhanam PERIOD. Vijay PERIOD. I guess these would have answered. Santhanam particularly rocked throughout the movie with his timing sense and witty dialogues. He was given a good company by the hero himself and along with the other artists in the movie.

Munandhi Charal and Emma Emma overtakes Chillax and Maayam Seidhayo as a song but as a visual appeal, everyone should succumb to Hansika. I haven't seen Engeyum Kadhal, but I wanted to watch it immediately. Not just these songs where she scores, overall, in each and every frame, she kills us with her beauty. On a serious note, Shruthy, though I feel she is not a heroine material at all, ARM had given good scope for the heroine role in this movie, but she sounded so artificial in most of the places. I should appreciate that she had dubbed for herself, but sometimes, it makes us feel that they ruining the dubbing artist. On still a serious note, she is neither hot nor sexy.

Post interval, it was quite obvious to have Vijay's usual formula like HIS movies. Praising dialogues from the common people, extra ordinary over reaction from a couple of actors, Oruthan varuvaanda, Velayudham anna da, Avan ungala saagadippan da kinda dialogues disturbs a bit. Also, quite heavy action dosage was added in the second half which was quite bad. Same holds good for 7aum arivu as well. Jonny is the villain roped in from Thailand, the master of Martial arts. Also agreed is that he is capable enough to control others mind. But ARM, you cannot keep throwing away vehicles like this in the name of Nokku Varmam. Learn to use the right talent from right people.

Surya had six packs. The climax triggered the DNA of Bodhidharma and he was reborn as Suriya. It had martial arts. It had some magic. Of course it was good to watch it on screen as well. Vijay on the other hand had no packs, the usual Villain beating hero, but it was more powerful to watch on screen. Pre release of the movie, ARM kept chanting Tamil and it will trigger the DNA of the audience as well which will bring Tamil patriotism, but to be real honest, the play was not so powerful to bring that patriotism. Ramana gave Goosebumps, 7aum arivu failed to do that.

7aum arivu is an OKish entertainer as I initially said I may have to think rewriting what I wrote on my wall. It had brave concept, unsteady screenplay, some wasted talents.

Velayudham is a pakka family masala entertainer which has got all possible elements driving the standard commercial formula of action, comedy, romance and sentiments.

Verdict - 7aum arivu had Six pack suriya, Red Giant Udhayanidhi, Giant promotion, AR Murugadoss, Harris Jeyaraj, Jhonny, Ravi K Chandran. 

Velayudham had VIJAY.

SURA that's rotten to even smell

I have seen many reviews for many movies where there will be a precautionary warning stating SPOILERS AHEAD, but the spoilers are strictly applicable for movies that has something in the name of story or suspense thrillers. But when it comes to Vijay's movies, the term called spoilers rules out based on the following two criteria. Firstly, following the same old story template without deviating any format other than the costume and secondly absolutely no story. Sura falls in the first category of using the perfect story template from his previous 49 movies. I often tend to remind about the story board template in most of the Vijay movies just to set a reminder to all movie buff about the trend or rather the stereotyped stories that's followed in his movies and I have to present the same here as well.


Story Board Template

Title Credits (5 mins being 50th movie) - Hero Introduction with comical scenes - Opening Song with a mass message - Heroine Introduction - Hero's so called Dream project - Villain Introduction - Unnecessary Duet - In between connectionless Comedy - Villain - Hero Clash - A promise to revenge - Intermission (best part in the movie) - Rise of a Phoenix - Another Duet number - In between comedy scenes part 2 - Final battle - At last, THE END.

This time as Vijay quoted in the audio release function, he mentioned about what's different in the movie. The fact he mentioned has got nothing to do with the story but he thought that it's a different story where he fights for a village rather than fighting for his lover/friends/sister etc., Being the 50th movie, there isn't no shortage for punch dialogues and politics aimed dialogues and scenes. As any other Vijay movie, he never fails to entertain us with his comical stunts and illogical scenes. But there are a few scenes that literally beat me to death. I should have seen close to 500 movies in the past 3 years and I never seen such a poor screenplay and illogical scenes in those movies.

There are movies, in fact, loads of movies where love blossoms between Hero and Heroine. In most of the cases, it would be either one of them falling for the others power/courage/smartness/nature/sympathy. I heard love is blind and concluded it after watching this movie. Heroine decides to commit suicide for losing her pet named Ramesh and hero saves her from the suicide attempt. Next day Hero helps a poor man by buying the pens he wanted to sell and that impressed heroine. Come on! Now don't tell me the love blossomed because of helping tendency or the bubbly character of heroine. And pity fact is Tamanna's role as usual is meant only for these cheap and silly romance scenes and of course the Villain has to kidnap her in order to black mail the hero so there comes another presence of Tamanna.

Villain, in the name of a Minister is actually the funniest part of the movie. In Tamil Cinema, we have seen lip mis-sync for heroines and for songs where it usually happens. Here, the villain does the job wherein there is absolutely no lip sync for his powerful dialogues. There is a special package missing here where his movies carry a bunch of different Villains al together. But somehow he managed to pull back a Police Inspector villain, Riyaz Khan towards the end for a revenge attempt situation. Poor guy he has just two scenes in the whole movie. Adding to that, the villain also proved in this movie about his capability and power that he is not a weak guy with his force which is evident from the introduction scene where he identifies a third person in his godown with the help of the perfume which his henchmen doesn't use. Isn't it funny?

Vadivelu, well after a roaring success of Pokkiri, he is back with Vijay in this movie to fill the humour. But the director failed to understand the fact that when a whole movie can deliver a comical stuff why would he need a specialist in the name of Vadivelu to add salt in the wound. But actually, the comedy scenes are enjoyable in bits and pieces but the poor thing is the synchronization of these comedy scenes to the play of the movie. It sometimes connects well if it comes with the combo Vijay-Vadivelu but often it tends to deviate with totally irrelevant sidetrack comedy scenes. A few scenes made me to serious think what made the director to have such irrelevant comedy tracks. With such a tremendous combo, I still enjoy each and every comedy scenes in Pokkiri but it has successfully played havoc in Sura.

This could probably be the only good part in the review as it speaks about the music and choreography. There were many other actors who wanted to showcase themselves as a great dancer by asking their choreographers to give tough movements which literally makes the song to fit in dance reality shows. But the silent man does it so easily. I was stunned with his movements for the song 'Naan Nadandhal Saravedi'. Credits should also be given to the dance master Robert for giving such a beautiful movements and Vijay has danced brilliantly for the song. Another good number in the music is Bommayee song, which is rich with the sets and the catchy hip lift dance movements. But the background score is not that great in the movie. Unlike Pokkiri, though it's a straight lift from the telugu original, it was sensational for the movie and added a great energy to the screenplay. But I bet, if Vijay doesn't possess this skill, he would probably join hands in opening another Jewellery shop storey building along with Top Star Prashanth.

We had 23-am Pulikesi in Pokkiri, we had a Bharathiyar in Villu, we had a Michael Jackson in Vettaikaran. But these are used only for songs. Why the hell we had an Avtar Singh as a customs officer in Sura? Will he not check in the mirror for the so-called get-ups that he pick? And did the director think that the audience are so dumb? Can anyone imagine if a group of henchmen smuggling goods in the ship can mistake a cracker rocket for bullet? Can't they even distinguish between a rocket launcher and an ordinary Sivakasi rocket? It was rib tickling comedy as Vijay's people started firing or rather bursting crackers and that made the smugglers to think that it's customs firing shot guns and rocket launcher. Thank God, Vijay didn't opt for any comical stunts to diffuse the bomb in any other means in the climax.

Now we have to give some respect to the critically acclaimed director SP Raajakumar. Immediate question that came to my mind as soon as I heard about this 50th movie was why did Vijay choose this man to direct his 50th movie? On what basis or on what ground rule he selected or trusted or had faith on this wonderful man. The man has given some movies, which many wouldn’t even, heard about it. Even when a debutant makes mistakes we can excuse him being his first movie or when a critically acclaimed director makes a mistake we can excuse him or blame him to own the result. Upon knowing the success of Azhagar Malai and En Purushan Kozhandai Maadhiri and if you are still adamant to work with him, what should I call you in spite of being your 50th film?

Verdict: SA Chandrasekar trusted on Vijay, Vijay trusted on SP Raajakumar, SP Raajakumar trusted on Sun Pictures. It's up to you whom you should trust, but if you trust me, I can save Rs 100.

Vettaikaran - A jumbo pack of tortures

Every fan of Tamil Cinema would love movies and directors who takes Tamil Cinema to the next generation. But there are a set of respectful artist in the industry who wants to refresh the audience with past memories. One such set is the team Vettaikaran.

Let me also refresh my viewers with the 70s and 80s story board template.

Hero Introduction with an opening song - What the motto of the hero - Heroine Introduction - Obstacles for motto - Life changes - Intermission - Revenge of the hero for the obstacle - One failure from hero's side - Final Fight.
Note : Unwanted song sequences in between is highly encourged.

Our director, Babu Sivan has strictly adhered to this template and has taken the audiences two decades back with this mind boggling movie. And not to forget the mass hero Vijay, who never disappointed the audiences. He started with one benchmark movie in the start of 2009 and he has maintained to deliver another benchmark in the end.

Story - Torture # 1
I have already shared the story board template and I have also mentioned the fact that the director did not deviate the policy. Well, let's not blame on this movie alone, there are quite a lot of inspiration for the movie which the director has cunningly capitalized for a few releases in the recent past. Surprisingly, all the inspiration were real blockbusters and official contenders for oscars. Even if someone had to miss any scenes while returning from the break can easily understand the continuity without troubling fellow viewer. More importantly, Babu Sivan has literally understood what Tamil audience wants and thinks and has brought the same on screen. One can even predict what will be the next dialogue while watching. Who else can better understand the audience mind than the director Babu Sivan???

Dialogues - Torture # 2
Enough!!! Is the word that the audience utters when some character in the movie starts speaking. Usually, the lengthy dialogues are meant for the hero but our director has slightly given chances for other artists in the movie so that they can also shine well in their future movies for the role of an advocate. Lengthly dialogues itself is a terrible pain, what do you say about lengthly dialogue with message and that message has absolutely no relevance to the sequence or the situation or the story or for the movie itself??? He starts telling message in the opening scene and continues till the end even after the climax. Another special mention should go to the punches in the movie. Slowly he started reducing these punches on screen, but now he has started doing that again with this movie.

Logical Screenplay - Torture # 3
I agree that one should not expect any sort of logic in Vijay's movie. The man is known for this and in fact, the audience are even ready to accept him doing a Superman character without the movie being a fantasy. He has given a big impression on the audience and made them to accept it. But I am not talking about that. I am talking about the exceptional logical reasons in the name of screenplay. +2 four attempts and clearing the 5th time like his idol is rib tickling. The villian can recognize Vijay only when he is wearing a scarf around his forehead and he don't even know who he is when he is not wearing the scarf is mind boggling. An assistant commissioner becoming an honest police man because villian took over his *keep* is out of the world. A bomb, I mean a real bomb, explodes and it's specifically designed to explode just the chair with doing no disturbances to the people standing an inch closer to the chair is sensible smart. Targetting the villian with his weak point where doesn't know swim is an exceptional twist. All these scenes can be excused, one can't forget the climax. A clear example for an edge of the seat thriller with an innovative twist is a real thunder.

Direction - Torture # 4
The captain of the movie has miserably failed with his direction as well. Cleverly following the template he also impresses his mentor Dharani in movie making. Most of the scenes you would have a flash that it would have seen a similar scenes elsewhere. A flying sequence before the interval, an item number song towards the end, most of the revenge sequences.. what not??? The so called change over pre and post interval for Vijay and the Devaraj IPS character had come in numerous movies in the past. The casting is another major area where he fails to impress. Funniest part is their character names and it makes us think again who is the director of the movie because there is already an established director who always keep such interesting names to the characters. Unnecessary message, I am not sure if it's the director's idea or whether he was forced to keep such dialogues. We need a rescue team here.

It's seriously high time Vijay should change the style. We never want Vijay to do a Hey Ram or Raam. We would want him to break this stereotype of following the same template in all his movies. This is seriously a miserable situation. Audience are not the same old audience who claps and whistles for everything. The movie has just two positives. One is Vijay Antony who has seriously given splendid numbers. Though they are relevant for the movie or not is a second thought, but he has certainly given good music for a Vijay movie. The another major advantage which overshadows this awful crap is the distributors Sun Pictures. It's quite obvious what the movie will be claimed to be in the near future. But this should not overshadow Vijay and make him to work with him again.
Image Courtesy : Cinesnacks

Villu - A special Review

Sir, padam eppadi?????
Adhukulla climax ketta eppadi?? Have you seen the movie???
No sir, waiting in the queue to get the tickets.
Hmmm, ask someone to stand behalf of you and come out for a fag.
Sure sir, idho varean...
Hmmm, rendu Wills Kodupppa....
Apparam padam paaka poriyaa??
Sir, tell me, how is the movie??
I already told you, you can't ask the climax in the beginning itself...
Okay sir...so tell me, did it meet the expectations?
Hmmm, initially yes, when the first half ends, it was kinda of met the expectation.
Hmmm, super sir, so how are the songs in the movie? Are they picturized well??
Opening song is ok, nothing great, PD comes in that song as he did in Pokkiri..
Yes yes sir....
Hmmm, Daddy Mummy song was brilliantly choreographed and also nice shot.
Kalakkal Sir...Ilathalapathy na dance kekkave vendaam
Wait..wait.....but apart from that, no other songs were good, neither the choreography wasn't that great, it was ordinary.
Enna sir ippadi solliteenga?
Dance seri illenu sonnadhukku ippadinaaa ...
Ok sir...how are the fights?
Did they advertise this as a BOND movie???
Yes sir, eppadi sir, was he good and stylish like a bond?
Hmmmm, I have seen many bond movies, infact the recent ones as well, probably I guess a BOND movie should be shot in much more professional way.
Puriyale sir??? ....
Unbelievable stunts, impossible stunts, illogical stunts, etc stunts wont be there in a BOND movie...
Adhuvum pochaaa???
Camera, editing laam eppadi sir???
Enna thambi film course padikkava pora...anyhow, onnum perusa solra alavukku illa....
Comedy eppadi sir? Vadivelu kalakitaara?
Here there is big competion between Vadivelu and Vijay in the first half. Both have entertained the audience well with a mixture of sensible comedies along with Nayanthara's decent exposure comedies. Perhaps, Vijay is going back to the olden days romantic comedies in a much more stylish way.
Iyyaaayo....
But the comedy is good, enna vidaaaaaama comedy panna, pant-a soriyamaata???
Hmmm correct sir...
How is the screenplay??? Was it fast and racy?
Best adapted screenplay I should say.....
Pochaaaaaaa .... Vijay screen presence eppadi sir???
No much talks, only action, see him in action. He has attempted to romantic roles but it did not come out well.
What about Nayanthara sir???
Hmmmm, .....
Sir, double action-u kelvi patteane sir???? Unmayaa vaaa?
@^%#@%#!@^&^*&^$(%$*&%$^#^%#*()@**%)$#_@_@(&*!*&~&~*#()(#)$&#$^@#
Dai machaan, queueva vittu veliya da, Naan TASMAC la wait panrean....

Verdict : A poor start for this year...

Kuruvi Kuruvi Kuruvi

More than Vijay fans, I expected a lot from Dharani. A dream combo, I should say, Vijay, Dharani, Trisha, Red Giant...so obvi one would expect a double bonanza as Gilli did.

An usual chasing story from Dharani, where Vijay fights the villians to discover his father and his fellowmen. Given such an ordinary script, Dharani can do wonder with his brilliance in screenplay because, Dhool and Gilli's story is another ordinary story but what the screenplay has done matters. Kuruvi, doesnt seem to have that so called racy screenplay from Dharani.
Initial half of the movie was just to attract the family and children. Main contributors for the first half are Vijay's comedy, vivek's comedy to an extent, Trisha's bubbliness and the opening song performance by Vijay. I should appreaciate the risk the actor has taken in performing such steps. Magnificant steps in the opening song. Good treat. However Happy New Year song may sound a visual treat just because of glamourus Trisha, I didnt like the song. So, upto interval there were not much story and just an usual kick go catchy direction for attraction.
"I still had confidence with Dharani" - I was telling this to my friend, who was not satisfied with the first half. But apparantly, the second half kicked off well, with musthi dialogues conversation between Vijay and Suman. But as it goes, the movie loses the power and distracts the audience attention. Unwanted stunts, irrelevant characters being introduced who just drags the story makes the audience itchy.
Aashish Vidhyarthi's performance is good in the second half. Thean thean thean song was good and pleasant to watch however Mozha mozhannu song was horrible but the set was looking attractive.
One big problem was that the story was easily predicatble. I heard people mumering what will happen next and getting vexed. The curiousity or the twist in the screenplay didnt happen.

Positives

Vijay is a big plus for the movie.
Trisha though she doesnt have scope in acting, she has done wat was given to her.
Aashish Vidhyarthi's performance is good.
BGM is really good, but I felt too loud in a few areas.
Songs are just ok, not a biggie.
Editing is smooth.
Violence is also good and neatly picturized with the help of BnW technique

Negatives
Stunts, exceptionally over rated stunts. I can understand it can attract children, but not necessarily you shud do a SPIDERMAN or SUPERMAN.
Screenplay in the second half, very much dragging.
No twist in the story.
Easily predictable.
Dont forget the director Dharani - The Captain of the movie.

Verdict : Purely for die hard fans!
Rate : 2/5