Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa: All about characters!

Gautham Menon is one film maker who had already established his style of work through movies like melodiously fresh ‘Minnale’, pathbreaking ‘Kakka Kakka’, thrilling ‘Vettayadu Vilayadu’ and national award winning ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’. I would like to forget the unoriginal ‘Pachaikili Muthucharam’, which was a direct lift from ‘Derailed’ – a B grade Hollywood movie.

Gautham’s new venture – Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (VTV) – falls into the genre ‘love story’. We have seen countless love stories, almost everyone coming with a tag ‘different’. So how different is this movie, let us see.
The movie evolves on Karthik (Silambarasan), a 22 year old engineering graduate chasing the dream of becoming a film maker, and Jessie (Thrisha), a 23 year old program analyst by profession. Jessie belongs to an orthodox malayali christian family. She is loved by everyone in her family and has been raised under strict surveillance of her father Joseph (Baby Antony). Karthik’s life transforms when she meets Jessie (and trust me it is a very casual – non cinematic - meeting) and Jessie’s world changes when Karthik confesses his love towards her. With minor twists and turns in their life, their confused minds sail through a confused relationship and wrecks when she finally decides to forget him. Karthik moves on to become a film maker and years later meets Jessie (a very inevitable cinematic meeting). And within minutes the movie comes to an end.

I know the above storyline is no better from any of the love stories we had seen. But this is it! VTV doesn’t bother about its story line – it revolves around the characters. And that is the biggest strength of the movie – the biggest weakness too! Gautham’s new movie is not about incidents, it is about characters. The movie starts, flows and ends with its protagonists.

Simbu has never been this lovable. His acts and mannerisms are natural and have been well captured. Thrisha is beautiful and charming as always, she gets through the ‘confused in love’ Jessie with ease. Ganesh is good and Babu Antony is impressive. Eventhough we have Kitty (Sivakumar – Karthik’s father), Uma Padmanaban, K. S. Ravikumar as himself etc, we really does not care much about them. The story is entirely woven on Karthik and Jessy.

A R Rahman’s tunes for Thamarai’s beautiful Lyrics is passable but background score is harmonious. Of the songs "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa" melodiously sung by Karthik stays back with us. The tracks which comes in the second half does not fit the flow. Maybe an independent session with the tracks might makes them rated better – like most of Rahman’s tunes.

Manoj Paramahamsa’s cinematography and Anthony’s cuts are perfect and adds high value to the seamless narration. Rajeevan’s Art direction is adequate. Nalini Sriram’s costumes are simple, realistic and exquisite. Flexi Stu’s Choreography has got nothing new to offer.

Gautham Menon should be commented for extracting decent and lovable performances from the leads. VTV starts good, lacks pace in the middle, and even though the climax (which portrays the difference between reel life and real life) might strike as a surprise, fails to give a last minute impression. In the end, Gautham has successfully made a watchable movie with a weak storyline and engaging screenplay - thanks to chemistry between Silambarasan and Thrisha.


Recommendation: Nice weekend watch with your friends

Also view സിനിമാക്കാഴ്ച

Labels: Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, Gautham Menon, Cinema, review, തമിഴ് സിനിമ, ദൃശ്യന്‍, വിണ്ണൈത്താണ്ടി വരുവായാ

Vettaikaran: Same old story, retold!

Once upon a time there was a small town boy named Ravi. Friends call him Police Ravi as he is a hardcore worshipper of Devaraj, a courageous police officer. Ravi dreams to become an IPS officer and after successfully completing +2 (after 4 tries), he joins the same college where his hero had studied. During his journey from hometown to college, he meets a beautiful girl named Susheela and manages to be the pet of her family. Thanks to duet songs at beautiful locations, he was able to convince the girl to be his love mate. But good time always has to end. A local gunda named Chella lays eye on Ravi’s friend Uma and Ravi has to fight against him. Furious Ravi sends Chella to hospital and there comes Vedanayagam, Chella’s father, to the front run. Vedanayagam, so-called owner of Chennai city, tells Ravi that it is “fear of Vedanayagam” which made him to win the power and money. Ravi decides to fight against Vedanayagam exploiting the same fear factor. Things become gripping when Devaraj, who has lost his family and eyes – thanks to same goon, also joins Ravi in the fight.

How many movies have told us the same story? I could not count…! AVM Productions’ Vettaikaran, directed by debundant B. Babusivan and starred by Ilaya Dalapati Vijay, also tells the same story, with nothing new to offer in terms of narration.

Vettaikaran is out and out a Vijay movie. And he is the only sparkling element of this movie and thanks to him, the movie doesn’t slips to the boredom mode. Vijay looks the same as in his old movies and delivers the same level of performance. No doubt, Police Ravi will not be remembered for a long time.

Anushka looks okay but lacks on screen chemistry with Vijay. She manages the navel show with numerous other junior artists during the song sequences and, in the end, delivers an unimpressive performance.

Ravishankar is loud and overreactive as the baddie Chella, so is Srihari as Devaraj. Salim Ghouse is good as Vedanayagam. In the midst of deafening characters, his half-smiley face is a relief.

Sayaji Shinde as the good turned bad cop Kattabomman delivers some funny moments. Manobala as the journalist, Sukumari as the grand mother, Sanchitha Padukone as Uma, Srinath and Sathyan as Ravi’s friends makes no impression in this hero centric movie.

Babusivan’s screenplay with many loose ends and cliché’s is fortunately seamless and along with V. T. Vijayan’s editing and Gopinath’s camera lives up to the requirements. Vijay Antony’s scores leave no mark except for 'Puli Urumbudhu' which is an inevitable fast number for the star’s fans.

In a nut shell, Babusivan has made a movie which has marked his arrival as a director and would satisfy bare minimum requirements for Vijay fans, but for a movie lover this one does not deliver anything new or entertaining.

Recommendation: Wait for Vettaikaran’s TV premiere.

Labels: Vettaikaran, Vijay, Cinema, ദൃശ്യന്‍, വേട്ടക്കാരന്‍, വിജയ്, തമിഴ് സിനിമ

Neelathamara - നീലത്താമര

Saw Neelathamara teaser today in Asianet News. A short interview with al Jose was also there.
The Yousafali Kecheri version of Neelathamara was never in the favorite movies list. I personally feel that the screenplay will be placed in the bottom of list of scripts written by the maestro M T. Naturally, the remaking of Neelathamara made my eyebrows rise.

When I heard that the director is Lal Jose and MT will make relevant changes in the script and characterization, I became curious. When I heard the song “Neelavilochananaayi” and saw its sequences, I felt the charm. The song has few beautiful reactions of Archana. Even the posters are also looking impressive. Anyways, let us wait till 27th to see the native girl who prays to see the blossom which is believed to answer the questions from a worried mind – hope Bangalore release is there.

While searching through channels, NDTV Good times gave me a surprise. The program “Picture Perfect” was showing the shooting techniques. The discussions were happening in the sets of “Vaamanan”, a tamil movie directed by I Ahmed. The director and Cameraman Arvind Krishna were discussing on the cinematic challenges, techniques and other related information which I found very useful. For any thorough movie observer or person interested in film making, this program will be a great watch! Looking forward to see much more episodes of the program….

That’s all for the day… good night.

Labels: Neelathamara, Drishyan, Cinema, ദൃശ്യന്‍, നീലത്താമര

Song of Sparrows - In search of hope

Yesterday I reached home late ... I was feeling full, so managed with a sandwich which i took as parcel from office... Home is a bad place without your family... I cannot think it without books or movies either....

Coming to the point... while browsing through channels, I caught up with 'Song of Sparrows' in UTV World movies at 10:30 PM. I'd heard about the movie earlier, but could not manage to watch it. Rarely i get opportunity to watch Iranian movies, the struggle and passion with which they make movies has always fascinated me.... 'The Apple' is one such movie which I’d loved so much, even its screen play has been kept in my personal drive.

The story of “Song of sparrows” is about Karim, a worker in an Ostrich farm. Bad time, one of the Ostriches manages to escape from the farm, making Karim responsible. He searches the bird in deserts, farm lands, vacant lands and where not. Failing in his attempt, Karim gets fired from his job. With his old bike, he goes to the nearby city. In a city where common man use bike taxies for commutation, Karim finds a new way of living. The later part of the story gives glimpses of Karim’s role as a husband and father, and the relationships in and around his family.

The movie directed by Majid Majidi doesn’t have a great story, but it has moments... it has the power to drag you into the mind of the main characters and feel for them... The movie has been filmed beautifully, realistically and the characterization is the winning point. Karim, played by Naji , is the USP of the movie. His eyes and expressions have Karim written all over. See one scene where he dresses like an ostrich and searches for the missed one. And the other scene where he goes to a home to gets back the blue painted door which his wife Narges has donated. One another impressive scene is where Karim's son and other kids tries to put the fishes (which they were longing to posses - their hope) back into a broken bucket.

The movie has several symbols of hope. The ostrich comes out as a symbol of his hope – the hope that Karim can meet his family’s needs… And that is what the movie communicates – search for your hope… one day it will find you! It should be noted that the most of the symbols of hope are related to nature, which gives another layer of hope on man's survival with care for nature.

Worth many watches… given a chance, don’t miss the “Song of sparrows” – I’m sure that it will enchant and embrace you with a smile.

Labels: Song of Sparrows, Drishyan, Cinema, ദൃശ്യന്‍, സോംഗ് ഓഫ് സ്പാരോസ്

Eeram: Where horror meets thrill

Even though his commercially flavoured social movies were all time hits in box office it was since his debut production Muthalvan in 1999 that Sankar become a brand in the film industry. His film production company S Pictures has made many movies, mostly within a moderate budget, which gave importance to ‘cinema’ than ‘stars’. May it be the whacky spoof satire ‘Imsai arasan 23 pulikesi’ or emotionally captivating ‘Veyil’ or well packed nostalgia called ‘Kalloori’ or romantic agony ‘Kathal’, all S Prictures’ movies successfully blended art with commerce. The background for Eeram, the latest venture from S pictures, is different from all these previous movies. For movie lovers who believe that cinema is all about visuals, this film is a treat. But for those who are more interested in the story novelty and the sleek presentation, this film could be a disappointment. Anyways, after Vikram Kumar’s well accepted ‘Yaavarum Nalam’ (13B in Hindi), this is one movie which fairly lacks the horror movie clichés. Despite the similarities with Dark Water (first made in Japanese and then in English) and narrative distractions, Eeram is a very good effort from a debundant director.

The story
At 2:30AM security guard of one of the upper middle class apartments in Chennai finds an unexpected flow from the water outlet. It leads him to a flooded floor and the source - flat of Balakrishnan (Nanda) and Ramya (Sindhu Menon). Balakrishnan is away from home for official reasons and Ramya is found dead in the bath tub from where the water is over flown. Vasudevan (Aadhi) has been approached by his friend/colleague to ensure that it is the same Ramya with who Vasu was in love during college days. There after the narration is interwoven with the past college day romance and the present investigation. When the file was about to get closed as a suicide case, Vasu requests for a thorough investigation. Later what he faces are more deaths in the apartment. Slowly he realizes that all murders have a common factor involved – water! The visible presence of water makes him feel the invisible presence of Ramya. From here onwards Eeram handles the encounter of Vasu’s investigation with fearful logics and illogics on the existence of life after death.

In Front of the Camera
Mrigam had shown us what Aadhi can deliver, Eeram shows another side of this actor. As a lover boy and tough police office he has done justice to his character. But more than the looks and movements he doesn’t leave any mark in our mind with his acting skills. Sindhu Menon is apt as Ramya. Even though she seems to overreact in the scene where Ramya departs with Vasu, Sindhu has the charm and innocence required for Vasu’s lover girl and Balakrishnan’s wife. Moreover she looks simple and beautiful and we can feel why Vasu, after 4 years since her rejection, still feels for her.

Read the 'Eeram' review in Malayalam

Nanda has successfully delivered the emotions and intensity required for a man of multiple faces. His performance is cool, subtle and straight-forward. Saranya Mohan comes as Divya, Ramya’s sister, is perfect. Sreenath (as Vicky, Balakrishnan’s friend) and all others who have come in small roles are flawless.

Behind the Camera
Taman’s tunes to Viveka’s lyrics are blended with the scenes but doesn’t travel with us after the show. The real attraction of Eeram is the technically brilliant shots by manoj Paramahamsa and cuts by Kishor. The presence of water – the cold but warm presence of water – is made felt all through the movie. The proper usage of quality graphics adds to the impact. I really hope if debundant director Arivazhakan would have spent little more time with the paperwork and in front of the editing table. Undoubtedly the movie is 30minutes lengthier than what would have been ideal. The climax, which can be easily guessed, drags drastically. Only the shots which are artistically blended with darkness, with few moments where faces are masked with darkness, keeps us awake; otherwise the last 15-20 minutes made me yawn. Anyways, even with the lack of high-thrill moments or chilling horror sequences or nerve-racking scare sounds, movies like Eeram are commendable as this is not a horror flick where ghosts sings around in white dress or zombies with bleeding faces wander around . Kudos to the debundant director Arivazhakan for making the movie the way he believed in, making us feel the frostiness and warmth of rain, and Sankar to support the creative imagination.

+ Narration style in the first half
+ Technical wing: adequate usage of VFX, cinematography which senses the story pulse, accurate editing


- Predictable narration
- Long drawn out climax


'ഈറം' മലയാളം റിവ്യൂ ഇവിടെ വായിക്കാം

Labels: Eeram, ഈറം, സിനിമാനിരൂപണം, സിനിമ, Movie Review, Tamil Movie, Cinema, Drishyan