Archive for Movies

Friday Movie Review : Karthik Calling Karthik – Missed Call

// March 12th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Movies, Reviews

“She was very adamant that I should watch this movie as she loves Farhan Akhtar and Deepika. After I said I am going on Tuesday, she got jealous that I am watching this movie without her”

After a ‘Ok’ dinner, we 5 friends barged in to Seasons for Karthik Calling Karthik cracking gay jokes on two of our friends…. Farhan Akhtar as Karthik is a lame construction company employee who is bullied by his boss, peers and even the house owner. A low self esteem and an high self pity even doesn’t allow him to send 1300 odd emails which he had written to his office crush Shonali (Deepika), an architect who doesn’t even know that this guy exists. Everything changes when he gets a call from himself on the morning of his birthday. The voice empowers him, makes his career, gets his girl and changes him for the good. The ruckus starts when he reveals about his voice to Shonali. He loses all what he got as the voice playing havoc in to his life. He takes a blind journey to stop getting calls from the voice. The reason and the ending ends up after a long tedious journey for us.

The biggest problem of KCK is that it is not well defined – a romantic flick, a psycho thriller or romantic thriller? What it is?. You are just as confused as Vijay Lalwani the director. Farhan is awesome. We have seen him flamboyant in his previous movies, here he not even convinces but excels as a loser (in simple terms). Deepika is suave, stylish and sexy too.. (who is the costume designer). The romance in the first of the movie simply takes your heart away. Funny one-liners and interludes bring you smiles.

But when you enter in to the second part of the movie, you are just surprised whether it’s the same director who did the first half. The screen play goes haywire, illogical and the stupid justification which he gives how Karthik is Calling Karthik. Phir bhi Schizophrenia.. Give that psychological disorder a break guys. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy sound great in Hey Ya and Uff Teri Ada. The background score of Medival Punditz and Karsh Kale is perfect for a thriller. The movie seemed to be canned just to prove Farhan as a versatile actor. It proves  but don’t we know it. Farhan make more movies man, you are a better director than those craps running around…

Karthik Calling Karthik – missed call. Give the last half an hour a miss, even then you will understand the movie. 2.5/5

The worst part is after the movie one couple were discussing.

Girl : it’s a chic flick

Guy: nice thriller.

I was like ‘dudes’

PS: If you want a perfect portrayal of schizophrenia, watch a lesser known Tamil movie called Kudaikul Mazhai by Parthiban (if you get a headache, don’t blame me). You can also settle down with a DVD of  A Beautiful Mind :)

Pandora Thaandi Varuvaya

// March 10th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Movies, video

Thursday morning and I was little bit down with tiredness due to the lack of sleep for the past few days. One of my friends has posted this in Facebook and I could not help but to admire this. It brought a hearty smile to my face.

The video credit goes to some one called Shyam… Wonderful work dude.

You could have crossed the Skies..

// March 4th, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Movies, Reviews, video

I don’t remember the last intense romantic movie that I saw in Tamil. I found the fact funny at the start of the review but that’s what the plight of Tamil Movies in the recent past. Get this right, Vinnai Thandi Varuvayava is not a classic but a honest and intense romance which has it’s heart at the right place. (more…)

Movie Review: Aadhavan – The Sun Never Rose

// October 19th, 2009 // 14 Comments » // Movies, Reviews

For the last few years, I have never ended a Deepavali without watching a new release and it’s part and parcel of Deepavali celebrations in Tamil Nadu. This year with all the biggies except Surya opting out, we were left with Aadhavan for our Deepavali movie.

We were left with Mayajaal (Home Theatre, that’s the nickname for the multiplex) as Sathyam opened with red boxes in online booking and Sangam went to the Fans association (!).

When you go to a KS Ravikumar movie, you can be sure of two things – the movie will have pucca masala of songs, dance, comedy, sentiment, action etc and you will not get bored watching the movie. As a producer’s director, he has a success rate of almost 80% of his movies becoming box-office hits. (the one which failed initially was his best)

Aadhavan will not bore you, nor will it interest you. It will be just another Tamil movie with just another big hero with just another borrowed storyline with just another predictable ending. Will it be a just another hit? May be ( That’s for you to decide)

Aadhavan-gallery-5

Aadhavan ( Surya), a hitman working under his foster father (Sayaji Shinde) is hired to kill a judge (Murali) who is investigating an organ trade scam, by Reddy (Rahul Dev). He misses the shot and vouches, that he will kill the judge at any cost. He joins as a household servant through Vadivelu in Judge’s huge family headed by Grand Mother (Saroja Devi).

Aadhavan slowly enters in to the hearts of the family members (yawn $&@?) as he says he is the long lost son (Madhavan) of the Judge, who ran away because of a murder. Thara (Nayanthara), Madhavan’s aunt’s daughter falls in love with Surya. After mix-ups and mash ups, with a predictable Tamil movie climax, all ends well.
Aadhavan is produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin with KS Ravikumar as the Director. The music composed by Harris Jayaraj, cinematography by Ra.Ganesh and edited by Don Max.

Pluses

1. The comedy in the first half. You have guaranteed laugh riot with Vadivelu and Surya. I think only KS Ravikumar can infuse such comic situations in to such movie plots.

2. Surya – he fights, he romances, imitates MGR, Sivaji, Kamal and Rajini, takes daredevil risks, excels excellently in comedy and even emotes well in Senti Scenes.

3. The cinematography – is awesome in songs and fantastic in fight sequences. A visual treat indeed.

4. It was wonderful to see Anand Babu back in screen, dancing as he  is used to ( leaving away his funny hairdo)

Minuses

1. The sagging second half and the big pot holes in the screenplay. The time lines are extremely compensated and at one point you don’t understand where the story is happening (Kolkata or Darjeeling)

2. The music is not even average. I think Harris Jayaraj is running out of commercial loops. Except Hasili Fisliye, others are not interesting and provide bumper speed breakers for the movie. (Does that tribal song “Maasi Maasi” resemble Mayya Mayya from Guru?)

3. The CG in the flash back is a shame to the improving quality of CG in Tamil Movies. If the implementation is bad, any concept goes for a toss. Pathetically implemented and I felt Ramanarayanan’s Amman movies were better

4. Some of the fight sequences could have been made better. I dunno when will they stop using Surya in parkour sequences and this one is a straight lift from Casino Royale ( Dont worry. It’s only for few minutes !!!)

5. You can’t count the number of people in that family. I don’t understand the point. Were the whole bunch cast for “Varayo” Song or vice versa?

6. Did I see a Tata Docomo ad in the paper read by Saroja Devi in the flashback sequence? Wake up Guys, you are in a movie industry where a guy acquired 1940s Anandha Vikatan to authenticate a time line.

In short a movie which was produced by Udhayanidhi, directed by Ravikumar, acted by Surya with the name Aadhavan, it never rose to the expectations.*

A 2 Stars/ 5 just for first half comedy and Surya.

*PS: All have names either of the Sun God or names derived from the Sun God.

– Post From My iPhone

How about What's Your Raashee?

// October 6th, 2009 // 9 Comments » // Movies, Reviews

“How about what’s your Raashee?” asked my friend Hima. I said “No way. I heard it’s too long for romantic comedy. And I can’t tolerate Harman Baweja”. “Hey, you like Ashutosh’s movie right. You even saw his Swades”. “Swades was different. I think it’s a wonderful movie”… ” I heard it’s a nice movie” , joined Chinmaya. I should have thought twice when a guy who doesn’t know hindi and a guy who loves mindless Sharukh movies says it…

“Oh, we already booked and you are coming”. I was like “what?”.. I made up my mind to sleep well as it was a night show and that too you get awesome seats in Seasons (Sathyam). We (Myself, Hima and Chinmaya) were just on time after a simple dinner at Noodle House.

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10 Best Roles of Kamal Hassan

// September 21st, 2009 // 11 Comments » // Movies, Tributes

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The one actor, film maker I adore is Kamal Hassan. I don’t think anybody can be compared or match his acting prowess for years to come. He is unique, a número uno and was born to act. He is celebrating his 50th year in Tamil cinema. He entered in to the hearts of Tamil movie goers as a small child singing “Ammavum Neeye” on August 12, 50 years back.

In his Golden jubilee year, I am revisiting his 10 best roles over these 50 years. The 10 best roles doesn’t mean that these are his 10 best movies but these roles brought out the different faces of this versatile actor.

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50 Tamil Movies to watch before you die-10

// July 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // 50 Tamil Movies to watch before you Die, Movies

Romantic Comedies are a rarity in Tamil Cinema. I believe a perfect Romantic Comedy should have the right proportions of both. How many Tamil movies you have seen with both of these coming in right proportions. I have decided to showcase two romantic comedies in the 40s-70s era which were trend setters for the future. Theses two movies have been diligently (shamelessly) reproduced by some of the later directors with some changes and still became superhits.

Rom Coms can be made in two different ways – one which will have only two lead characters, the story traverses through them and the situations they encounter. And the other type of story, depict more than one couple, their problems and the inter twining of situations etc. The first movie which I am going to show case is of the first genre.

Anbe Vaa (1966)

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50 Tamil Movies to watch before you die-9

// July 10th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // 50 Tamil Movies to watch before you Die, Featured, Ilaiyaraja, Movies, Quiz Reviews

The early Tamil movies had a right mix of movies. There were masala action as there were socio-political movies, there were fairy tales as there were historical fictions. I think one of the most entertaining of all were the stories based on Hindu Gods and mythical characters. Don’t rate the yesteryear mythical classics with the new age graphical so called “Godly” movies. The way the modern movie directors showing Gods is something they should be ashamed of.

Thiruvilayadal (1965)

The first movie that comes to any one’s mind when thinking about mythical movies is Thiruvilayadal. (more…)

50 Tamil Movies to watch before you die – 8

// July 3rd, 2009 // 3 Comments » // 50 Tamil Movies to watch before you Die, Featured, Movies

The world knows Indian movies as wholesome entertainers with songs, dance, action sequences, sentiments and comedy packages. The trend of such entertainment packages or masalas as it is rightly called was originally started by a spectacular production company called ” Modern Theatres”.

Modern Theatres, a big wig production company from small town, Salem owned by TR Sundaram had only one aim – wholesome entertainment with the right dose of action, comedy, cheap thrills and glamour.

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50 Tamil Movies to watch before you die-7

// June 19th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // 50 Tamil Movies to watch before you Die, Featured, Movies

The definition of Anti-Heroism has been misinterpreted in many places referring it to those lead characters which have some Grey shades too. But according to me and even movie analysts, anti-hero is the one differs from the normal notions of an hero. A hero in Tamil movies is usually physically smart, has sharp features, strong, intelligent, suave, stylish, compassionate, girls fall for him naturally and he never does a mistake. The norms were never broken and actors like MGR were very successful proponents of this model.

But every one of these norms were broken in to pieces when a great actor entered this movie world. His name was Nagesh and the movie was Server Sundaram.

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