REPENTANCE - Episode 1

Episode I

The dawn cracked out to a gloomy day in Denver, North America and 28 year old Haritha sat beside the windowpane leisurely sipping coffee from her cup. Her palms wrap the coffee mug with extreme passion to get the cosy feeling tuning the external weather and her doldrums. Gazing at the landscape in front of her, she sits back thinking of the strong decision that she has taken to lay things in the right track. Tears occasionally roll down from her puffy eyes. What is running in her mind? She takes herself 5 years back to remember what made her take this verdict...

‘’Haritha was an Indian, born and brought up in Bangalore city. She was the daughter of Madhu and Keshav, a naval officer. She was the most loved one among all, since the couple made almost a decade’s wait to have her in their arms. Haritha was a very pleasant girl with an admirable character; she grew up with Ashwath who was younger to her by 3 years. She was a loving sister to her sibling and a very obedient daughter. People would always praise Keshav for his efforts in bringing up both children in an elegant way. She graduated from IIT, Bombay and was a consultant by profession.

‘’Madhu, I feel it’s high time we find a guy for Haritha, she’s getting older’’ said Keshav. ‘’Well....., I had always wanted to discuss this with you’’ Madhu replied in a stumpy tone. She kept moving her eyes around with her palms clasped. It felt as if she had been waiting for such a circumstance and there was an instinct from within pushing her to reveal whatever she knew. ‘’She has already made a pick and we aren’t left with a choice now’’ she finally conveyed this and exhaled as tears rolled through her cheeks. Keshav was stunned, he sprang up at once and said ‘’come on Madhu, that cannot happen, stop telling me these usual stories and be sensible, I just can’t tolerate such craziness in my own family’’.

Madhu knew what had happened with her daughter and so she tried to console her husband, but all in vain. He was not interested to listen. All that was running in Keshav’s mind was to get Haritha married to someone and send her off his house civilly.

During college days, Haritha developed an intense friendship with Vimal, a highly proficient boy, who studied with her. As days passed by, the accompaniment turned into acute companionship. Vimal was of her age and from a mediocre family. His dad was a bank employee and had struggled hard to get Vimal educated up to this height. College days had exhausted and it was time to bid adieu. Vimal and Haritha confessed to each other that it was time to focus on their career before sharing talks with families about their marriage. In order to proceed with this decision, they were certain not to make any kind of discussion and decided to wait until they got to see the fruits of success in their career. Shortly, Vimal got placed as a university lecturer in London.

Before even they got a chance to discuss with their parents, Keshav fixed up his daughter’s marriage with Aurav, a software engineer who worked in the US. Events that followed after the confession of her love affair were unstoppable and the marriage arrangements seemed to have happened within the wink of an eye. Haritha was pushed into a situation where Vimal couldn’t get back to India and take her along with him. They were deprived of time and she had no guts to open her mouth and discuss this with her dad. She had always hoped that it wouldn’t be a problem if Vimal had a good job and that was the main reason for making a long wait. Finally, the day came when the wedding between Haritha and Aurav took place as desired by Keshav.

23^rd of February 2003: It was getting dusky outside, and Keshav called out to his daughter, ‘’Dear, are you done with all your packing? Ensure you carry enough woollens, emergency medicines, and yes not to forget your certificates, and ...............................’’. Madhu interrupted ‘’Come on Keshav, She has them all safely packed, Aurav has already prepared a list of all the essentials’’.

‘’Listen Haritha, you got to be very careful as you’re going to lead a new life’’ this time Madhu intended to deliver some valuable advice to her daughter, ‘’ Aurav is a very good person and we wish to see you leading an idyllic life with him.’’ She held Haritha’s hand tight and said ‘’Hope is life and don’t bother yourself with your past’’. On hearing this, Haritha cried out and replied in a shrill tone, ‘’mumma, I have always tried to be honest with you, and all of you have cheated me by getting this marriage done’’.

It was time to leave and the final packing was done. All set to fly. Aurav and Haritha got blessings from both their parents and were about to step out of the house. Madhu wanted to share a few words with her son in law, ‘’Aurav, can you please come here?’’.He stepped into the room and said, ‘’You don’t have to worry about Haritha aunty, I will take care of her..Trust me’’. Madhu’s eyes were filled with tears as she bid adieu to her daughter.

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Click here for Episode 2

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.

Captain does it again and he's back again

Dropping the two key protagonists without any explainations is a risky thing but Rob Marshall was so confident with Jack Sparrow this time and he had cleverly picked Penelope to match the missing adventure. Also, he picked a different novel instead of the famous ones just for casting the characters to perfection. Even if had missed the previous series of the Pirates, Rob often brings back the memories and it's not a mandatory case that you must have watched the previous series.

To give the plot, Jack and Barbossa embark on a quest to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it as well. [Ctrl+c from IMDb]. Jack is in London in search of a ship where he is pursued by the local authorities. There he joins Angelica, our Penelope, from the past without being sure whether it's love to find the fabled Fountain of youth. When she forces him aboard the ship of the Blackbeard, it's there the Captain finds himself on an unexpected adventure where Jack is in a dilemma whom to believe.

It was Depp all the way from the beginning but it was co-opted by the one-legged Barbossa who literally stole the show with his comical one liner and beautiful reaction. Blackbeard on the other hand has been very good enough to be a bad guy. Penelope is gorgeous, excellence screen presence but yet her accent sometimes just kicks us out of an English movie. But still people who love her will love her ;-)

Well, I forgot to say that I saw this movie in 3D. But I somehow feel that the 3D effect knocks the pace of the action sequences. I must try to catch the movie in normal 2D to see if that's the real reason or the factor. Hans background score is needless to mention his power pulling capability. You could see the same flow right from the part one without any diminishing factor.

There is a very less chance to be disappointed if you are fan of POC and Jack.

Vaanam

I had no big expectation on this movie and I didn't know that this one is a remake, neither I have seen Vedham, nor I heard the song Evandi Unna Pethaan prior watching this movie and lastly, I never knew that this is the story of some 5 different people how they were forced to meet in the end.

It's actually a good experience to watch a movie without knowing or having any expectation so that you needn't blame it on the expectation factor. Well, having said about the pre movie facts, the screenplay revealed the story will run in 5 directions with 5 set of characters. It was evident with the motto/situation/requirement/ambition of the individuals in the movie. Situation demanded the old man and the mother to sell the kidney in order to save the boy. Dream led Bharath to do a live-in-concert. Requirement made Simbhu to snatch the jewel. A new life plan made a prostitute to come out. So these coinciding contributors reveals the gist of the movie.

This gives a relief that Simbhu is not major lead in the movie, so one can start having some expectation that there will not be too much dump on Simbhu which can go in either way, VTV was an exception though ;). But still he made a little contribution with the opening scene by having his traditional punch 'Evalo mela ponaalum vida maateengale' and unnecessary pulling of Ajith and Vijay. Well, that end straight there. Then comes a combo Simbhu-Santhanam who will keep the audience engaged.

The journey of the other characters run pretty parallel and the combo will turn into a trio pack with the inclusion of VTV Ganesh. That's when the pace shifts gear and moves swiftly. We had seen them as a combo in VTV but with inclusion of Santhanam, it will never let the audience down.

The main lead characters had contributed equally good. The old man was a perfect choice for the character. The movie should have a heroine!!! Yes, Vaanam too had one. But it's mere waste of money and could have invested on alternate plans. She was neither hot nor worthy candidate :P and I also felt Prakash Raj was a bit over acting to his role.

Yuvan never disappoints Simbhu. Two songs that will eventually become chart busters of the year 'Evan di unna pethan' and 'No Money Honey' has been placed well to match the pace of the screenplay. But, they could have made Bharath's introduction song as the title song which could have minimized irritation.

The director was quite good throughout the movie but in the climax after a tragedy, he made the audience laugh with some dumb scene of mathematical calculation which all of a sudden turned a villian!


A Worthy watch

Azhagar Samiyin Kudhirai

It's been so long since I had watched a 'keep it short and silly' movie. Recollecting such movie is...well forget it! Suseendran, the director of Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu and Naan Mahan Alla, shows some versatility in the genres. It's a good show by an upcoming director not to fall in the same league. In fact, though Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu was good, I was disappointed with the climax as I felt it was forced tragedy. And I had some similar expectation in ASK as well. But I never expected the climax to be so simple and especially the antagonist.

 I can try to make the story much simpler in two lines. A village follows the traditional way of celebrating a festival for rain, God's vaaganam is stolen, a connector comes into the picture via the Protagonist, Climax with a neat finish. Ain't that simple? But I bet you, to make such simpler plot is not that easy because it leaves to the audience's taste. One may hate or love such movies. I mean, it can make someone to feel very bore or it can make someone to glue.

Suseendran has described the characters cleverly depicting them with an introduction and of course following a traditional village life characters. You will have an absolutely nothing president, smart young literate men, love between different caste, mamool Inspector is alone an exception here.

Protagonist, appu kutty, is a smart choice for the character Azhagar Samy and I am very surprised to see Saranya accepting to be pair for appu kutty. Appu Kutty has done his part very well utilizing to the fullest what he can. In fact, the entire casting has been really apt except for the annoying Samiyaar part.

Though the director kept everything simple and smart; including the flashback of Appu Kutty who wanted to get the horse desperately back to his place, the Background score elevates the movie in several places. The scene were Appu Kutty sees Saranya and walks out to talk to the horse, the background score in that place gives us a feel of what the character wants to convey. Photography is another thing which gives a feel green to the movie.

Job neatly done! Go for it!

A Pleasant Journey

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!

ENDHIRAN - MAGNUM OPUS

From almost sticking to a stereotype formula with his core plot, the social awareness director, Shankar has finally come up with a pure Sci-Fi genre with a tag 'Asia's costliest movie' and with the costliest cast. I am not a great fan of the director but most of his movies have provided enough entertainment be it any form. The director was quoted as someone equivalent to KB in yielding the required input for the movie from any potential cast. I was one among the people who had ROTFL for this statement given by Rajnikanth during Sivaji's silver jubilee celebration. But I was awestruck that the director has got that calibre though not to the extent of KB. If one has to do a quick brush up, almost all his movies carried the same core plot but told to us in much more interesting way so that one wouldn't feel it's a replica. So, does the costliest movie in Asia worth the money spent on it? You must have known Shankar on how he spends money lavishly on areas where it's absolutely not worth of, but Endhiran is an exception. The maker didn't invest his bet on unwanted irrelevant sets. Neither had he spent on disco camera for the stupid stunts nor for the roll over camera for songs. Every money spent of animatronics is worth each and every penny.

The name is Rajnikanth

Be it any Rajni movies, one would mostly talk about his screen presence, style, punch dialogues, action stunts but hardly one talks about his acting or the performance. It had been made by the man himself as he chosen the path to comfort his calibre. Forget about the path he choose, there will be a much or major impact because of his screen presence. There were movies which ran just because for the magic man. But hardly a very few directors uses the acting skills in him. In the 80s, we have seen the BAD ASS Rajni in Netrikan, Moondru Mugam, Moodru Mudichi, Avargal etc., Shankar has significantly used his potential and it's where Rajni just took over from the director for a period of 30 mins in the movie with his magnificent performance as a bad ass. Not many carry that villainous wicked look. Many villains require dialogue delivery or voice modulation or aggressive roughness to make them call a Villain. But, the opening scene of the version 2.0 is evident from the wicked look followed by his ultra laughter. It's not just the bad ass role where Rajni outshined. There has been enough hard work from the man. If you observe Chitti throughout the movie, you could make out the way he walks, the way he hugs, the way he talks, the way he moves his body signifies the amount of hard work the man has put. Why Endhiran is different from other Rajni movies? Can you think of any Rajni movies where there is no introduction song with a mass opening scene and sans punch dialogues? Well, watch Endhiran DOT

Shreya was superb. Nayantara was plump. Trisha was sexy. But for some reason, I just HATE Ash to the core. I used to text message during her screen presence in Raavan. But in Endhiran, she didn't even allow me to answer my phone. I am not ashamed to admit that she is indeed a HEART THROB. Good that unlike other heroines of Tamil cinema, she managed her presence to a significant part of the movie. Her lip sync was near perfect and an apt voice selection to dub for her. Though there isn't anything to talk about the chemistry, the pair looked individually great as the movie doesn't demand intimate relationship except for the songs.

Danny as Dr Borra was strictly OK to his role. But the director should have at least helped to work with his lip sync. Except for the dialogues in English, he was having a very tough time with his lip sync. But most of the scenes where kept as a long shot to hide it. There aren’t any special characters to talk about the other cast in the movie. The whole movie was run by Rajni-Ash-Rajni with some mind blowing visuals from the maker.

Creativity Emperor Shankar

I will never call him a great director. Neither I call James Cameron or Andy Wachowski a great director. But these directors are known for their creativity. Of course, it's too early to map Shankar on par with these legends or the benchmark directors. But at least in India, Shankar earns that respect for directing a movie like Endhiran. The story is perfect. Screenplay waves from good to better to worse to best as the movie progresses. Dialogues are simple and smart. Especially the one liners delivered by Chitti is magic. Direction again waves in a similar sinusoidal pattern. But at the end of the day, his creativity stands tall diluting the areas of miss hit. The way he choreographed the stunt sequences in the climax is simply magnificent and top notch. There are enough scenes where there is Shankar's magic touch to speak about his creativity. The scene where Rajni portrays as Amman has a beautiful correlation to the start of the scene where speakers chant Amman song. The way how the Robots manipulates and unites to form different pattern makes one spellbound. The usage of Animatronics is excellent in almost all the scenes and the graphics is something a bonanza for the audience. We had seen a decent CG work in his recent movies and we have seen hardcore desi CG works in many Indian movies as well. The man's strongest power in film making, Visuals, has helped him in Endhiran brilliantly though there was an over dosage it was much appreciated.

What are the SIGHS in Endhiran?

The man behind the camera, Randy has easily the unluckiest guy in the planet, who has wasted the opportunity given to him. After coming from a rich Sivaji (talking with respect to the cinematography) Endhiran is a damp squib. The visuals of the songs were strictly OK with a mind-blowing location carrying more value. The man should try to learn what to show and how to show! Good that he has shown Ash as a beauty prince!

Another master to contribute to the sigh is our renowned Editor Anthony. When every other crew wants Tamil cinema to be taken to the next level, our editor wants to go back a step. There is a pause many places and people are enlightened that there will be a song in another 3 seconds with an abrupt cut. The switch over doesn't really happen in a smooth manner between scenes and this makes the quality diminished.

The long run of the movie is yet another factor to sigh. When you have plenty of visuals towards the end, why not place the song appropriately or leave a few unwanted songs and release it as a separate album? The first 30 minutes where kept for the sake not to miss two songs! When Shankar can understand the strength of Rajni and kept the bad ass character, he could have captivated to run long by shortening other sequences.

Jarring BGM is another pain in the ass. Credit for making an effective audio should goto the sound engineers for making the Robot voice clear with robotic sound. I am strictly against the version 1.0, 2.0 BGM track. Thanks to the Arima song which has moulded quite efficiently for the climax background score. But suprisingly the songs which I thought would be pathetic have come out good. I never expected Boom Boom Robot da to be choreographed well but it ended with a good note. We lost the opening song as it was segmented as the movie required. Irumbile was just OK whereas Arima Arima had massive visuals. Kilimanjaro was saved because of its location.

Verdict - Step inside a theatre to experience a roller coaster ride DOT