Three is one and half

Facebook these days plays a vital role in word of mouth for a movie. Usually, I have a habit of not to see any teaser or trailer of any hyped movies before I watch the movie. But I am sure there cannot be a person who has not watched or listened to the song 'Why this Kolaveri di' from the movie 'Three'. I am no exception either but there was a hard hitting factor in the movie called Aishwarya Dhanush, who kept reminding me that it's her movie and have the expectation set properly prior watching the movie. So, the reviews for the movie as I saw them in many wall posts, carried negative reviews but parallel to it there were a bunch of people, who did a voice over or rather forced reviews on behalf of others, saying 'The movie is not bad as others say, but definitely it will not be liked by others but it glued me', 'What a stunning performance by Dhanush', etc., I personally did not carry these reviews when I watched the movie where I have to force my friends to accompany me.


The strange, keep guessing title, THREE, didn't even alarm me what to guess about the tile even after watching the movie. Read some news or others view on the title depicting the three icons of Tamil Cinema industry, namely, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan and Kasthoori Raja. Oh yes, the last name is Kasthoori Raja. Forget about the title, it won't allow you to draw any comparison to the movie either. If someone says, it depicts three phases of one's life; I must ask the person to name the three phases. So, let's not worry about the title unless it's renamed as 3 Idiots, it doesn't make any sense to me.

Before I start, tearing the movie, I wanted to alert the readers, there will definitely be some spoiler alert in my review, so, if you desperately wanted to watch the movie, better go to the verdict and decide or continue reading. To keep the story in two liner, the movie is about a guy called Ram (Dhanush), who suffers from a weird disease called Bipolar disorder and the tale is been explained as a narrative flashback throughout the movie. And there are three important characters in the movie namely Ram, Janani (Shruthi) and Senthil, so another comparison for the title is on the list.

 

To start with, some or rather only positive aspects of the movie which I felt were good and nicely directed will definitely be the first half of the movie which depicts the school life of the lead pair. Dhanush, we don't have to mould him for a school boy character. All he needs to do is just clean shave and a good boy smile. Wear him with any school uniform on top of this shade, he will definitely make the unknowns think he is a real life school going boy. He can even go a step lesser classes if the script demands. Throughout these school-life is interestingly crafted to perfection. The school boy who wants to go in bike instead of car, showing heroism to help a figure who is struggling in the rain to repair the cycle chain, the typical +2 tuition class, a friend who is jealous on scoring higher marks even when you fail, students considering 'Kattipudi Kattipudi da' song as a big thing. These interesting scenes will definitely give you the past life experiences. To make it look more interesting and humor driven, Sivakarthiyen as Kumaran, comes as usual with his usual witty dialogues. A typical hero's friend role has been aptly casted. But on the other hand, Shruthi, though she could make the audience believe that she is a school going girl, her dialogue delivery is a sin for her. I shall discuss in detail in the later part of my review. So these are the only positive feel good aspects of the movie according to me.

 

The transition from a lover boy in the school days to college which is told to us in only one scene and then to a married man is where the movie completely failed and took a pathetic direction. When the movie starts to unfold to find a reason for the death of Dhanush, it becomes practically hard to digest. A person has got Bipolar disorder and how he has handled it and struggled in his life depicts the latter half of the movie. But the reason for the disease is so sick and it's forced just to showcase an actor's caliber. This is where, the character Senthil, starts to reveal the other side of Dhanush. And we were alarmed on how the transition will be with a pathetic picturisation of one of the biggest chartbuster song 'Why this Kolaveri di'. Dhanush, yes he has done justification for the character in the latter half of the movie, but if the reason for being like that becomes vague or ordinary, no matter whatever the performance you put, it will all go in vain.

Whatever that is done very well in the first half has been crafted exactly opposite in the second half. It has started becoming so hard to find patience to sit through the movie when the frame moves on. There are various contributors to the second half which can easily make one leave the theatre or close your VLC player.

 

1. Shruthi Hassan - OK, I have to repeat the same what I said in my review for 7aum arivu. Agreed that you are trying to be odd man out amongst the Tamil cinema heroines by dubbing yourselves, but think! Imagine what happened to a movie called 'Vigneshwar' when Kushbu attempted to dub for her. Imagine what happened to Devayani when she attempted to dub for her in 'Vinnukkum Mannukkum'. Please, for Kamal sake! It's not about the voice; it's about the clarity in speech and the fluency in Tamil. There are awesome dubbing artists in Tamil cinema industry and don't ruin them by ruining us.
2. Aishwarya Dhanush - Firstly, this is a debut movie! You can do wonders with having a nice first half and it could have been taken with some other subject being dealt instead of this weird portrayal. What are you trying here? Do you want to showcase your husband's talent in acting? Madam, he has already done a lot with such similar character. And the rib tickling part of the movie is the climax message stating suicide is not the solution for blah blah...come on!
3. Predictable, repeatitive, irritating dialogues - 'Machi hospital-a admit aagidalaam da', 'appa naan unga kitta pesanam, life matter pa'. The occurances of these two dialogues in the latter half of the movie can be even predicted by your child if they have managed to sit through the movie.

 

Anirudh's music is pretty good for a debutant and the BGM is sort of OK at places but becomes monotonous at times. His songs were very nicely wasted by the director but enough fame he had by releasing the single number prior releasing the movie. I don't want to touch other technical aspects of the movie because; they don't find any special attention here.

 

Verdict - Shruthi Hassan, Aishwarya Dhanush and Bipolar disorder, these THREE ruined 3.

 

58th National Award - Is it justified?

I was at work this morning and my colleagues knew that I am a movie freak and one of them asked a close ended question 'Enna boss Aadukalam super la?' That's when I came to know that 58th National awards were announced and I was in complete shock on seeing Facebook pouring with wall posts that it's a clean sweep for Tamil Cinema.

That's something to feel proud being a Tamilian and all these years we were corned by the Bollywood cine industry, where the preference was primarily given to them be it whatsoever. But, I must say there was a slight increase in the attention to the south film industry in the past couple of years where we had seen Bala, Ilayaraja getting National awards which was long time due. But the key question that I had was about Aadukalam which was released in this year 2011 and obviously had censored last year bagged 4 prestigious awards which includes the main category of Director, actor and screenplay.

I had to refer sites in order to get the statistics as I am not regularly following movies being in a different country. A quick view on the deserving candidates movie wise, I could see very minimum numbers. The names include Angadi Theru, Madarasapattinam and Mynaa. Well, I must say Aadukalam is quite lucky have censored last year because as movie, Aadukalam is definitely a better production than the other possible contenders in Tamil Cinema. Now, let's try focusing on the buttering industry Bollywood. I am not a lover of Hindi films; hence, I had asked my friend to have a look at the list of movies released in 2010 and list the movies which is a worthy bet for National Award. Only two movies which he thought were Udaan and Peeply Live. Moving to the industry which is always a dark horse and wins the primary category hands down, Bengali industry, I have seen the movie Autograph which is a remarkable movie involving the plot of remaking the Master of director Ray's Nayak. That's definitely a worthy contender. And not to forget our closest state Malayalam industry, which had won the award for the best movie 'Adhaminde Magan Abu'. That again is a neat and clear winner. Just like how the award for the Best Actor was shared, I expected the same in the Director and screenplay category as well. The sad part is that if you search for this movie, all you get it the recent details on the National Award that it won and you can't even find the movie poster online.

Dhanush, a national award actor. 50-50 choice to accept to be honest. Leaving aside the tamil industry for the year 2010 as I earlier mentioned the term LUCK factor, there were arguably good performance in other industry. Paresh Rawal, Prasenjit Chatterjee and of course Salim Kumar had an edge over the performance of Dhanush in Aadukalam.

There is a balancing factor that 'Thenmerku Paruva kaatru' was recognized nationally. This movie went unnoticed by many and now you will see leechers and seeders hunting the movie from the torrent portal for sure. On the whole, it's a good sign and clever message to the nation that there is a fantastic talented industry in South when it comes to Film making.

Kutty - Family entertainer

The team Yaaradi Nee Mohini is back with a remake of another blockbuster movie 'Aarya'. I haven't seen Aarya, even if I had, I would have still watched the movie. I was wrong with my assumption and wish before watching the movie as I expected the movie bomb purely on a thought wishing Dhanush to stay away from remakes and masala entertainers and concentrate on feel good quality movies from different directors whom he had worked in the past. Anyway, even this time, the team managed to give a decent family entertainer with of course a few horrible exceptions.
Triangle love forms the basic plot of the story with Dhanush, Shriya and Sameer. Dhanush was portrayed a feel good lovable boy by almost all the characters in the movie except the villains. How Dhanush makes Shriya to feel his love is all about Kutty. The movie had almost all ingredients to make the family audience thoroughly enjoy the movie, though I personally feel the movie is just another run of the mill but definitely a good entertainer.
It was Dhanush all the way, who has carried the pace of the movie. His humor is good in parts but the dialogue delivery especially when he is attempting comedy is something getting stereotype right from Thiruda Thirudi to Thiruvilayadal Aarambam to YNM to Padikaadhavan and Kutty. One example of such dialogue delivery that I could remember was 'unga love sollitu avangalum love panna sonna adhu peru business, that's not love' and likewise 'Uyira koduppean sonna ennoda uyira illa...' Ah enough of such dialogue delivery man!

For more review, please see http://www.clapsandboos.com/user/Vikram