Morning Walk!!!

It’s Sunday night 10 o clock and we just returned from Chola Sheraton after having a decent dinner with the gift coupon valid Rs 2000 but we ended paying additional 3200 as the bill amount! Goodness a buffet costs 800 but it had quite a lot menu items. So, I searched for my mobile to keep alarm at 4:30 AM. Everyone at my home was in a shock and the first question was “Are you planning to watch any movie? It’s not even a Friday and what’s special?” I got pissed off! I said ‘I am planning to go for jogging and walking’. Everyone laughed wickedly! This time I didn’t even turn on my monitor because this stupid facebook and orkut always ask me to sit in front of it. So it’s snoring time!

Morning Raaga started to play in my mobile!

Shivah shakthya yukto yadi bhavati shaktah prabhavitum
Na chedevam devo na khalu kusalah spanditumapi
Atas tvam aradhyam Hari-Hara-Virinchadibhir api
Pranantum stotum vaa katham akrta-punyah prabhavati

Now you know why I never turn off or snooze the alarm signal! I took my mobile to the hall and let it play and started to brush my teeth! I went and changed to sporty fit. Citibank round neck Tee, Tracks and the new-born Nike Shoe J with Nike socks. I know I will sweat like a pig even if it’s early morning 4:30 hence I took a handkerchief and I stole 20 rupees from my dad’s wallet! All set ready! I opened the door and I didn’t wake anyone at home and went down! I loved climbing down the stairs and I kept watching my new-born shoes all the way! I open the main gate and something stopped me! I forgot my ‘vappaati’ my mobile! My baby has got an application called Walk mate and it’s quite amazing as it counts the number of steps and sets me a goal for everyday! By default the goal set was 10000 steps a day and I thought it’s quite easy to achieve. So I went back and took my mobile and started Walk Mate! Baba counting starts!!! I just crossed my street walking and I didn’t want to jog because of stray dogs! Counting showed 45. I was calculated 10000 in the mind and I don’t have 45 in my fingers :P. And now the running begun!

Oru sooravali kalambiyadheyyyy

Siva thaandavan thodangiyadheyyyy

I ran, jogged, ran, jogged but never stopped. May be because of the new shoe and I didn’t want to stop and I felt very comfortable and I never looked straight instead my eyes focused my shoes always! I started from 13^th Main road, crossed Karthik Tiffin Center, crossed KFC, still I didn’t stop, crossed Santhosh stores, crossed LKS Jewelers, Crossed Hi Style, Reached Blue star signal, now I am trembling a bit but I didn’t want to stop and I continued, crossed HSB and reached Ayyapan Temple! I know I shouldn’t stand or take rest and hence I continued walking slowly. Let’s see what does the walk mate shows? 857, Holy EFFFFFF!!! Now I valued the walking and I know it’s not an easy thing to achieve 10000. I entered Anna Nagar tower and the time was around 4:50.

Anna nagar tower is not the old one anymore. It has been renovated superbly and they are yet to fully open the park to the public and still some renovation work is going on! Early morning 5:00 had quite a decent crowd and but I couldn’t even see a single youth except me! All I could see fall over 50s and 60s. I never say anyone running or jogging and everyone were walking! So after coming from a long jog I decided to walk for a while! Interesting people! Very interesting people! The surrounding would approximately be around 2kms and I decided to take the longest boundary! I had many company! When people carried a stick in their hand, I carried my mobile and kept seeing the count every now and then! There is levels 2k 4k 6k 8k and you have the goal 10k. I am at 1389. After walking for a while and I decided a jog and the surface was very good to jog as it had a mosaic laid in the pathway. As usual, my eyes started to search for good looking figures but poor thing it was too dark! I checked the time it was quarter passed 5 and I still couldn’t believe why it’s too dark! “Otha specs marandhuta da pannnada” But it’s OK if I had to wear my specs, I would certainly a wiper fixed to my specs. There was an aunty who was walking very briskly. I had a strong feeling that she is walking in a very strange way after getting some advice on how to walk briskly from someone! I laughed and surpassed her! Now I had a company. One uncle with blue tee was jogging and I was confident that people will also jog in the park J but the man who was jogging, people who were walking could easily overtake this man!

I successfully completed one full round and I could make out the path. Now I started to have a feeling as if I am walking here daily. There was an old man who was greeting everyone he surpassed! And he was walking or rather coming in the anti clockwise direction so that he can greet many! He said Morning Sir! Morning Madam! Good Morning Saab! But when I crossed him, he said Welcome! “okkaali ivar aayul kaapteedu pola” When I came to see many greeting each other, I felt I am a new comer! But I wish that way and I never mingle with others and too all oldies J

Now it was almost 6o clock and the crowd has increased. People started groups and there was one bloody group of men who were walking blocking everyone’s way. They were speaking non sense and laughing bull shit and clapping craps. They must belong to the Nitrogen Oxide family in the name of ‘Laughing therapy’. I wanted to over take them so that I can jog for a while! I did and started to jog! I slowly stopped! “iyyyyy Ladies ladies ladies!!!” at last, God is great! I saw someone of my age! ‘Super figure illenaalum oru pakkuvamaana figure’. Now there is no time for slow walking! Come on Vicky! But she didn’t stay even for a round! Wonder where she went so soon! Every time I kept meeting an old man near the gate no 2 and he walks anti clock wise direction and this time I was a bit slow that I met him sooner before gate no 2 came! An old man can walk faster than me!

I completed 4-5 rounds and after which I couldn’t. My walk mate showed 7500 and I know I couldn’t reach the goal. So I decided to call it a day! Came out of the park and stepped inside a tea shop! Ordered for a tea! Near that Tea shop there was a bunk shop where they kept a lot of vessels filled with colorful water. Everyone who was coming out from the park was having the juice and per glass it costs 5 rupees. I was so curious to ask him what it is, but another man overtook me! I came to know they were herbal juices. They had at least 10 different types and you can mix them have it in a single glass as well. But I didn’t want to have so I started back home! I never thought I will wake up so early and I could complete walking approximately 10 km. But in the end, I made it. I came walking all the way home! It was a good show for a debutant and let’s see what’s there for tomorrow onwards!

Crazy Crazy Crazy ALL THE WAY

If there is an expectation or rather an attraction for this movie 'Kola Kolaya Mudhirika', there can be only one man, Crazy Mohan, the story and dialogue writer for this movie. Apart from him, there is absolutely nothing or none from the crew who can attract the audience to watch this movie. The director certainly won't feel good to tag 'From the director of Vallamai Thaarayo' and I feel except for the Crazyest part, the other two namely direction and screenplay are probably amateur and contributed its share to the flip side of the movie.

The story is about a treasure hunt told in a comical way and Crazy has just used all characters on earth to connect the story and make the treasure hunt a valuable one. Of course, the verbal master, the man who contributed a lump some in most of Kamal's movie has yet again proved that he can use his vocabulary skills at the best comical way. But we didn't have a Kamal who literally mastered each and every slang and quite brilliant in dialogue delivery so that it doesn't spoil the actual content. Well, the actors of KKM did a fair job thought I personally felt a few can be replaced with many others.

We had Munnadi Pinnadi Kannadi in Panchathanthiram and we have Theriyaadhu Theriyum here! There are other numerous worthy mention dialogues that play with words. The way how he drags to tell that the 'Kadhal Dhaadha' died because of the fish thorn! It's just amazing and clever play of words. I can't still stop laughing when I think of the conversation.

Avalo periya dhaadha-nu solreenga, oru saadharana mullu kuthi sethi poitaara??
Mulla kaalula kuthalapa thondaila kuthichu!
Edhuku thala keezha nadakkanam?
Saapdumbodhu kuthichipaaa!!!
Edhukku mullu laam saaptaaru?
Iyyo meen saapdumbodhu mullu kuthichu paaa!!

Of course, like this there are numerous witty dialogues and one can discover more such interesting dialogues probably at the second or third watch! So without a second thought, people who love Crazy's work can definitely watch the movie million times as we even see Panchathanthiram thousand and odd times just for the witty dialogues.

Talking about the performance and casting, we have loads. Since the story tend to connect more and more characters. As I said earlier, the lead role done by Karthik could have been given someone else. It doesn't mean that he didn't do his job well but in some areas he over reacted to the scenes. The same holds good for the heroine Shikha. MS Bhaskar utilizes efficiently for the minimal scenes given to him and he has done very effectively. The comical villains Anand Raj, Vaasu Vikram and others did a very good job. Jayaram comes as a cop and his performance needs no explanation as we have already seen him with Crazy's work in Panchathanthiram. There were quite a few guest appearances from Radha Ravi, Sarath Kumar and the man himself Crazy Mohan. No matter how many characters were there, they did a great work and more importantly they didn't spoil the play.

Now we have the area Direction and Screenplay! Probably the only area which is on the other side. We knew the general trend in Tamil Cinema to include songs here and there in the screenplay. There should be at least one of the two conditions to accept this inclusion.
1) There should be a demand for the song in the screenplay.
2) Even if there is no demand, the song should be pleasant to listen.

In KKM, both the conditions are ruled out. There is absolutely no necessary or need for songs and moreover, the songs were seriously horrible! Adding to that, it even spoils the play. Also, it's the director's responsibility to divide the first half and the second half in a sensible way. It took about 90 mins for the interval to come and the second half just went in a flash. The climax, I felt that it was kind of amateurish to finish it like that.

So, where are you crazy fans? Grab it quickly before the ugly Lion starts to roar!

Review posted @ www.clapsandboos.com 

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.

ரெட்டை சுழி - மெகா சீரியல் எவ்வளவோ தேவலை!

படம் பார்க்கும் போது எனக்கு ஏற்பட்ட சந்தேகம் இந்த படத்திற்கு எதற்காக இயக்குனர் சிகரத்தையும் இமயத்தையும் நடிக்க வைத்துள்ளனர்? நல்ல Character artist நடிக்க வைத்திருக்கலாமே!! வீனா போச்சு ரூ 430. இவர்கள் மட்டும் போதாது என்று S Pictures வேற. அப்படி என்ன தான் கதை இதுல? சுமார் கி பி 40 வருடங்களாக தோழர் என்கிற நம்ம பாரதிராஜாவுக்கும் ராமசாமி என்கிற பாலச்சந்தருக்கும் பகை. உங்க வீடு பகை இல்ல எங்க வூட்டு பகை இல்ல அப்படி ஒரு பகை. இந்த வீட்டில் ஒரு பயிங்கிலி அந்த வீட்டில் ஒரு பட்டாலத்தானை லவ்ஸ் பண்றாங்க. அட ஆமாங்க சின்ன வயசுலேந்து லவ்ஸ்! அவங்க சேர்வார்களா இல்லையா?

இதுக்காக படத்த பாருங்கன்னு சொல்ல வரல, கண்டிப்பா சேருவாங்க! படத்தில் ஒன்றாவது சொல்ற அளவிற்கு நல்லா இருக்கும்னு பார்த்தா ஒன்னு கூட தேரல! இயக்குனர் தாமிரா ரொம்ப தந்திரமா யோசிச்சு பெரும் புலிகளுடன் சின்ன வாண்டுகளையும் சேத்து நடிக்க வச்சிருக்கார். ஆனால் பசங்களை வச்சி படம் எடுத்தா பாண்டிராஜ் ஆகமுடியாது சார்.

படம் தான் மொக்கைனு பார்த்தா மியூசிக் டாப் டக்கர். ஒரு பாட்டும் மனசுல நிக்கல. இதுல வேற அவங்களே அவங்களை கலாயக்குறாங்க. படத்தோட Editor பாராட்டணம். ஒரு முழு நீல சீரியல் கொடுதிருகாறு. Camera அது இதுனுலாம் போக வேண்டிய அவசியமே இல்லை. படத்தோட கதை எல்லாத்தையும் மறக்கடிக்க வச்சிடுச்சு. பாலச்சந்தருக்கு ஒரு 4 பக்கம் dialogue. பாரதிராஜாவிற்கு என்ன ஒரு 8 பக்கம் இருக்கும். சின்ன சின்ன வாண்டுகளுக்கு சேர்த்து ஒரு 10 பக்கம் அம்புட்டுத்தான்.


நானும் எத்தனையோ படங்கள் பார்த்திருக்கேன், அவ்வளவு ஏன் கோலங்கள் மெகா சீரியல் கூட பார்த்திருக்கேன் சார்! இப்படி ஒரு காவியத்த என் வாழ்நாளில் பார்த்ததில்லை! மிக்க நன்றி தாமிரா அவர்களே! நீர் வாழ்க! சமீபத்தில் ஒரு புதிய விதிமுறை போட்ருக்காங்க loss ஆனா மறுபடியும் அதே producer கூட இன்னுரு படம் பண்ணிதரனம்னு. எப்போ அது இயக்குனர்களுக்கு தகும்னு தெரியல!

Review posted @ www.clapsandboos.com

Quarter-Quarter-Quarter

FRIDAY, the day in which most of the Tamil movies operate their child to be born in the silver screen. This has become a custom with some actual funda behind it. When a movie hits the silver screen on Friday, which is the last working day in India, the production unit rely on the fact that people tend to approach cinema malls during Friday weekend followed by two weekly holidays. Hence, the production unit tosses the movie on Friday to get good profit immediately in the first three days of the release so that it can act as a psychological advantage to showcase the box office report in the news and media sites. Well this year was quite a boon as it started with FRIDAY, 01-01-2010. But unfortunately not many producers were ready to compete with last year biggies, AVATAR which continued to dominate the box office for nearly 8-10 weeks running at packed houses. All we had was just 3 income tax releases on the opening day of the year, namely, Pugaipadam, Thunichal and Nil Kavani Kadhali. No one even knows that these duds were released on the auspicious day of the year but as usual they did their part not to run more than a week doing justice to their producers.

Now comes the Pongal clash with no movies from the leading stars Ajith and Vijay. It was a peaceful Pongal but we had the Magnum Opus Aayirathil Oruvan, the much-awaited release at last hit the silver screen on Pongal, the Tamil New Year. The movie had mixed reviews from the day it was released and it had also created rich interest amongst the audiences of quality cinema who went a step higher in decoding the nuances in the movie. But in the end, Selva has to re operate his child as the audience failed to understand most of the second half and also chopped a few unnecessary scenes. But the movie made a good show in the business and it was clear winner in the Pongal battle with other movies Kutty, Dhanush starrer failing to do enough business and Porkkalam, which was nothing other than waste of money. The other dark horse in the pongal battle was the Capital Cine Work's Naanayam, which earned decent reviews, but the movie failed to run well because of poor marketing.

Moving to the end of the month, we had close to 5 movies with screens swarming to get the biggies. We had the much-publicized Tamil Padam, a spoof of popular movies. The movie and the marketing strategy has created enough hype to attract the audience with it's pre release interviews and the famous 'Mirchi' Shiva, doing the lead role, which is a in deed quite a controversy role as he had to spoof the most popular heroes of south. But quite surprisingly the team has managed to keep up their expectations and I would say they lived to their expectations. They spoofed in each and every form from the trailers, songs, names and even the newspaper advertisements. Along with Tamil Padam, we had another Production debutant, Soundarya Rajnikanth came with Venkat Prabhu's Holiday 'Goa'. Venkat Prabhu carried the hopes from Chennai 28 and Saroja but this time, it was more close to a spoof and dry humour. The movie didn't do good business in the box office as it lacked in the fundamental story. Not all movies with Prem Ji can fetch you good profit in the box office is what Venkat Prabhu learned from this movie. The movie which created controversy in the internet media, which was leaked in the internet even before the movie hit the silver screen, Jaggubhai, from KSR and Sarath combo with the comedy legend Goundamani getting back to acting also released along with these two movies. When you don't have content, no matter you create as much hype as you can, Tamil audience has been matured enough to place the movie in the garbage when it does not have any content to satisfy their money that they spent. Jaggubhai clears grabs a place in the wastebasket. Now a days, it has become a principle of telecasting trailors imitating Sun Pictures with a few taglines and punch dialogues from the movie. It was 'Vaaaa Daaaaa' with Vettainkaran where Sun Pictures kept shouting in all their channels to promote their production. We had an english version of 'Vaaa Daaaa' with Dhairiyam, P Kumaran starrer shouting 'Come Onnnnnnnnnnn'. Who can answer the following question? Name the list of theatres in which Dhairiyam was released? Hint: No of days the movie ran is equal to the list of theatres the movie was released.

Perfect month February first witnessed Ajith's Aasal. With no major hopes because of the production company and with not much pre release hype, the movie literally bombarded at the box office. The fans and the neutral audience did not have any relieving factor that they can cherish for except for the factor 'Ajithkumar' and his so-called screen presence. Another humorous part of the movie was the promotion that they made or rather the promotion from an actor to a co-director Ajith kumar. Sluggish dry humour, senseless songs, irrelevant fights, not-at-all-necessary screenplay has made the movie to find the next place in the waste basket. With this, I hope the end of Charan can soon come. A quarter without Sun Pictures? Defintely not, this time they had an interesting impossible combo of Vishal playing a play boy character in TVP - Theeratha Vilayaatu Pillai. Once again, Sun Pictures proved and stand strong in claiming that 'We will promote only movies with rubbish masala'. Can someone please show them quality movies please?

Failed to release on the Valentine's Day, Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya was released towards the end of February. With Gautam's magic the movie stood tall and won several critics and also made good money at the box office. The movie, for the first time had Simbhu with a neat acting and has showcased Trisha as a good and hot heroine. The X factor of the movie is that it made the audience to feel their presence in the movie as it was taken in such a manner that it would have happened in every man's life. Not to forget the Oscar Winner's return to Tamil Cinema after a long gap. The songs are still ruling the box office and each and everyone's hello tune.

The month of March, where every producer scared to release their baby because of the violent IPL season 3 also had a few releases. We had Jai starrer 'Aval Peyar Tamizharasi'. The movie was pretty decent and also did arguable money in the business because of the killer IPL that literally made every human being to sit and watch the match. We also had other few duds like Thambikku Endha Ooru, Veerasekaran, Kumarin Pennin Ullathile and Yaadhu Maagi which won the straight seat in the waste basket. With Chennai Super Kings, literally failing in most of the matches, hope started to shift its focus towards cinema again. At the right time was released Vasantha Balan's Angadi Theru. The movie gave a brilliant portrayal of the Angadi Street and it earned excelled reviews from all corners of the world. With the quarter almost getting over, we wish to see more Angadi Therus and more 1000 in 1 movie to come.

Article posted @ http://www.clapsandboos.com/

A Brilliant Portrayal of Angadi Theru

Angadi Theru audience can never have a negative mindset as Vasantha Balan gave a stunner called 'Veyyil' a few years back under Shankar's banner. Now with international recognition with various awards that Veyyil fetched him, he doesn't need the banner anymore. With expectation comes responsibility and the responsibility was held perfect by Vasantha Balan who has portrayed the Angadi Theru. Often, when you give a decent movie, you tend to see shades of the same movie in your upcoming movies as well. But Vasantha Balan stands as an exception in the street of Angadies. I am sure there is tremendous homework behind this attempt. It's not an easy task to portray the inner life of the sales guys working in famous all-in-one shops that too located in the busy bee of Chennai.

The movie is about the life of people working in a Angadi Street (Street that has got only shops). It doesn't focus only on the lead pair but also describes how people live a life managing a business in this street. There are many brilliant scenes to describe both shades of people. The platform shopkeepers, the individual sellers, the cruel supervisors, the physically challenged people and also the policemen who safeguards the public from cheaters and thieves.

The movie would have been a zombie if importance is not give to the casting. Vasantha Balan scores high here. We saw his casting brilliance in Veyyil, especially the flashback episode of choosing the child artists. I am not at all surprised to see the same brilliance in Angadi Theru. If I had to pick someone who was mega brilliant, it would go to the director A. Venkatesh. I was shocked to his stunning performance. The character that he played, the ruggedness that he had and of course the look made it to say that the casting of his character can never be replicated by anybody else. I in fact felt, instead of directing horrible commercial movies, he can do such meaningful character roles. The other significant factor about other cast involved in the movie is that they resembled as if the real sales guys were asked to act. Only odd feel about the cast that I felt was the character Kani played by Anjali. Her glamy look doesn't make her an apt character to play a salesgirl role. But still, she did role to perfection. Also, the typical 'Annatchi kadai' slag was maintained fantastically throughout the movie. One can notice the slang on how it differs when rendered at different emotion.

Paandi, the KKK fame needs some special mention for his humor in the movie. In general, we often see the screen presence occupied by the lead pair of a movie. But here, we could see that more than two cast shares the screen presence throughout the movie. Paandi, in this movie is not meant for filling the comedian role alone. He shares some significant screen space in many scenes. Along with Paandi, there are other casts like Shophie Mary, other supervisor, the Great Annatchi and many others who have done a neat job.

Vasantha Balan has also taken a dig at many real life incidents or rather accidents and cleverly connected to his child, the screenplay. None can forget the accident that caused the life of the platform livers when a lorry overrun on the platform resulting in many lives. Also, another accident in the improper level crossing. He has used these real accidents into the screenplay apt and certainly not to create tragedy like how we had seen in several movies in the past. He has also taken a dig at Saravana Stores describing how cruel they are with poor illiterate people from village and how rude they are to these people. He has also concentrated on describing how people come to a different city to earn for their family, which is entirely dependant on the person for bread and butter. There are quite a few scenes where Vasantha Balan has literally made the audience to move with the screenplay and fantastic dialogues by Jayamohan. When a dwarf worries that his kid was born resembling him with crippled legs and hands, his wife was very much happy with the way the kid was born resembling him. Asked why, she replied, none can question her on her chastity as they live in the streets and moreover her husband is a dwarf. This specific scene took the audience off their seat and got accolades.

Who can take an open challenge to go and shoot with your mobile camera in the Ranganathan Street? I bet, you will immediately delete the video from your mobile on seeing the quality of capture. Imagine the shoot, which took place in the same street with no sets. Normally, when you shoot in public, it will attract the crowd, but you are in a street where you can see 4 people per square meter. These are more than enough challenges for the debutant Richard. Be it the busy Ranganathan Street or the clean drought village, the debutant scores significantly high and claim due credits for his phenomenal work behind the camera.

Music and the background score for the movie did not let the momentum of the movie to go down. In this aspect, both Vijay Antony, who has also handled the background score and G V Prakash has done a decent job with neat songs and rhythmic clear BGM.

Vasantha Balan scripts each and every frame brilliantly. The continuity has been maintained very well with Sreekar Prasad doing a crisp work with his scissors. Vasantha Balan gave valid justification and also did not over bore the audience with too much emotion or too much humor. He is just 3 movies old director and he has got the ability to maintain the pace and calculate the pulse of the audience. You get to see a lot of beggars who can bring soft corner as soon as you see them. But Vasantha Balan did not bring the emotion in just showing them but also used them along with the screenplay to bring in emotion. Overall, the product is a very neat and genuine attempt and a welcome movie for the Tamil Cinema Audience.

Review posted @ http://www.clapsandboos.com/

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