You get a ticket to one of the most awaited movies of the year. When you step in to the theater, you are given one of the most complex mazes on the giant screen to solve. How would you feel? Feel like killing the director? But what if you fall in love with the brilliance of the movie maker? Inception is one such rare gem.

Inception is just like its plot. Impossibly awesome, overtly brilliant and challenges you every moment. It’s part heist, part psycho thriller, part James Bondish topped with Kubrick style intelligence. Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) is a mind extractor who can skillfully get in to the minds of people to extract information. Saito (Ken Watanabe) one of the corporate head honcho wants Cobb to incept an idea in to his competitors mind. A idea that will break the biggest energy conglomerate. What Cobb will get is an amnesty to get back in to US and be with his children. Cobb forms his team along with his associate Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt), who researches the subjects before the actual extraction. Ariadne (Ellen Page), a master architect who creates dream spaces, Eames ( Tom Hardy), who can forge as anybody inside the dream and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) who creates compounds thats needed to make people get in to the dream world are the team members. Cobb in between needs to fight his wife Mal (Marion Cottilard) inside the dreams who tries to sabotage the whole plan.

Inception demands your concentration throughout the movie and earns it with respect. Not a single scene is wasted, not a single dialogue is unwanted and never does it lag in pace.   The conceptualisation of dreams, sequences and way its deftly handled shows the mastery of Christopher Nolan in every frame. The way he has handled his dialogues is just mind blowing. The different connotations when the same statements given by 3 different people are just amazing. What an actor Dicaprio has become, the way he eases through Cobb’s character and his interactions with Marion and Ellen Page are brilliantly done. The supporting cast have done their job so perfectly. Hans Zimmer’s background score is one of the strengths of the movie.

Inception is inexplicably good because it challenges the viewer with its smartness. It makes you think every moment. Even a momentary slip would get you confused. It’s unbelievably flawless and a sincere attempt to redefine movies. It’s a very long time that a movie has made you think.

Christopher Nolan has made a good shot at the seat of Stanley Kubrick’s heir. Watch Inception as much as you can provided you have your totem with you. I needed it when i came out of the theater :)

A 4.5/5 and miss it at your own peril.

P.S: I am going to check the movie again in a hope to find a mistake

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Sometimes you just earnestly wish that some movies become classics but those just flatter to deceive you because of a few bad choices. Madrasapattinam is one of that.

From the title slides which have a stark resemblance to the title card sequence of Lagaan, you just get reminded of Titanic  all through the movie but Madrasapattinam’s uniqueness stays with the technical wizardry and the genuine attempt of the actors to present a perfect love story (almost)…

The movie starts with a death of Amy’s husband and she for some reason wants to come back to India. Accompanied by her grand daughter, she lands in chennai in search of Parithi (Arya) with a photo taken 65 years back. You are taken back to 1947 when India is preparing for it’s independence when the young Amy (Amy Jackson), daughter of the governor comes to Chennai to live with her father. She meets Parithi, a dhobi from Washermenpet area in interesting circumstances. After a few interludes, they both fall in love whereas Amy is forcibly engaged to Robert Ellis (Alex O’Neill), the commissioner of Police. Parithi enters in to a conflict with Robert in a land acquisition issue and the conflict ensues. At the brink of India’s independence, the lovers try to elope while the Governor and Robert plot the killing of Parithi. In between the fights, Parithi kills Robert and Amy leaves injured Parithi below the Basin Bridge. Whether Amy finds Parithi after 65 years is told in a interesting but predictable climax.

Pic Courtesy: www.galatta.com

The real heroes of the movie are the trio of Nirav Shah, Antony and Selvakumr. Nirav Shah proves why he is the most wanted lens man in the country (he rejected Endhiran by the way). Extremely different color tones, beautiful lighting of the Central Station and the grandeur of Old Madras creates a beautiful poem in front of your eyes. Antony on the other hand, packing his fast paced cuts in his attic settled down for a more subtle editing techniques. The back and forth time line editing and perfect synching of the timeline is a treat to watch even though the first half seems to be little longer. Selvakumar (remember the broken lighthouse in Iyarkai) wows the audience with remarkable research he has done for the sets. Central Station,  Basin Bridge, Mount Road, Washermenpet, exotic  Chennai Tramways and even Lux ads amaze you in every frame. The CG work of iCube (Mumbai) is so perfect that you can’t say the difference in most of the scenes. If you have seen the movie, the whole top of Central Station is created through CG (Courtesy: Vijay Tv Special Program) – interesting isn’t it?

I thought Arya is going to cakewalk the role while Amy will be the glamdoll of the movie. It actually became the topsy turvy with Arya portraying stoned expressions and Amy giving her best in every scene. In fact in the climax scene where she tries to save Arya below the bridge, she just nominated herself for a few awards. The supporting cast of Nasser, Balasingh, the friends and Vijay’s usual suspects from Poi Solla Porom do their parts perfectly. Alex O’Neill as the menacing Robert  Ellis provides the ample antagonism and evokes sympathy when he asks “Kill Me? Why? For loving you”. Another important mention should be old Amy (Carla), to be true she has acted better than Arya in the movie. Even the smallest characters like the Taxi Driver, the ever sleeping lazy guy, Police Sub Inspector stay in your mind after the movie. Last but not the least, we have lost one of the finest actors, VMC Haneefa and it’s hard to believe that this is his last movie.

Pic Courtesy: www.galatta.com

The real villain of the movie is GV Prakash Kumar. Yes the love theme is so mellifluous and the Pookul Pookum’s orchestration sinks your heart. But why GV you needed 3 Hindi Singers to sing the three most beautiful songs of the movie. While Sonu Nigam scrapes through, Udit Naryanan and Roop Kumar Rathod murder Na.Muthukumar’s lyrics like butchers. It sounds awkward to listen to Udit when he pronounces செந்தமிழ் (Senthamizh) and it took me at least 3 listening to find the word ‘Aaruyire’ in Roop Kumar Rathod’s rendering. ( Can the Tamizh saviors formulate a rule that we need correct pronunciations of the wonderful Tamil Lyrics? It really hurts people like me who love the language). The other important let down in GV’s music was his BGM in the important scenes like the scene where Amy saves Arya  and the climax. The climax scene should leave the audience in tears but the music was so mediocre that it became just another climax scene. GV needs to learn from pros like Ilayaraja and James Horner. He just disappoints. I think GV was Vijay’s only mistake.

Vijay and AGS Cinemas should be congratulated for taking back in times and trying a risky project. Yes the eternal love looks like Titanic sans the painting scene of course but the research and recreation of Madras wows you. Yes there are mistakes like Robert Ellis and the Governor getting to speak Tamil suddenly and bad casting in the old characters. The deft screenplay and grandeur of Madrasapattinam makes it as one of the best movies this year. It just loses the classic status by a whisker.

A 3.5/5 for Nirav Shah, Selvakumar, Antony and Vijay. Don’t miss this wonderful ride to Madharasapattinam to visit the things we miss in Chennai.

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I never like to cry. In fact I hate crying because I feel it shows your weakness but sometimes tears are more meaningful than words. I dunno how many of you saw “Nadodigal”, a Tamil movie which came in 2009. The movie was directed by Samudrakani with Sasikumar in the lead. It’s about 3 friends who help another friend to succeed in love and how it affects their own life. One lady in the movie by the name Abhinaya, who acted as Sasikumar’s sister got rave reviews for her portrayal. She recently won her First award for Best Supporting Actress in the annual Vijay Awards conducted by Vijay TV….When i saw the video, tears rolled down from my eyes instantly… Do you want to know why?

Check the video

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I have the least of expectations when it comes toast Hari’s movie. The last time I saw his movie in theater was Kovil and my respect on his movies was already up in the air.

My friends are in murderous best, as I killed with them Kola Kolaya mundhirikka (the review – next post), they decided to make me pay for it. After a mediocre dinner at Buhari, we were seated exactly on time for the movie. When the movie started with Prakash Raj (antagonist), I just had a spark that Hari has changed his ways. Exactly in the second scene, the spark fizzled out like Yousuf Pathan’s Batting.

This movie is a piece of #%^* (fill up the blanks with whatever four letter bad word you like). A few of my friends argue that it’s masala commercial flick, so you can’t expect more. No I don’t expect more, I just expect it to be a little bit believable and more enjoying. There are 100s of examples for perfect masala flicks, from Sagalakala Vallavan to Murattu Kaalai. Kaakhi Sattai to Baasha - you enjoy every moment of it. The so called masala flicks in the recent years are boring with long recycled dialogues, crappy comedy and extremely over the top hero worshiping.

As for the story of Singam, it’s nothing much to brag about. Durai Singam (Surya) is a upright sub-inspector from Nallur, a small village in Thoothukudi District has a spat with Mayilvaganan (Prakash Raj) when he is ordered by the court to sign in bail in Durai Singam’s station. Mayilvaganan is a dada who controls Chennai and also makes money by kidnapping children of big shots. In between Durai Singam falls in love with Kavya ( Anushka Shetty). Mayilvaganan transfers Durai Singam to Chennai in order to torture him and take his happiness. Eventually Durai Singam comes out victorious at the end.

I dunno why Surya needs such movies in his list when his good movies speak for his talent. He dances well, prances with Anushka, delivers lengthy punch dialogues and stays stylish but if you ask me whether this movie is going to elevate him as an actor – a big “NO”. Prakash Raj is convincing as the baddie but he is there only to get beaten up (of course). Atleast the director was magnanimous enough to give the heroine a scene to inspire the hero to fight when he loses confidence. He was not so magnanimous with Manorama, Nasser and Radha Ravi – why does he need these talents in his movie and waste them? Anushka is as pretty as ever- she even oozes beauty in salwars and Vivek’s comedy track was a dampener – recycling the old movies and dialogues with sexual innuendos in every scene – he has became crappier than ever. Except for one song Devi Sri Prasad is mediocre and the background score is loud, and the lion’s roar every now and then is too much to handle. The camera work (Priyan) is apt and the editor could have used his instruments in the first half (VT Vijayan). The stunt director  (Rocky Rajesh) is the spoiler of the whole movie – overboard with lion’s roar, Ratchagan style fire rising in the hands of the hero, flying cars, pole breaking what not. Uff, get over with it guys…Please

Coming back to the director, Hari had never changed his formula from Saamy, from the title card where his name comes near temple doom he recycles his scenes, dialogues and formulae. Sometimes with the same actors you feel whether we are sitting in one of his old movies ( I think Sumithra has the same red saree from Saamy and Arul days). Abracadabra, you ask for a song you get it, you ask for a fight, you will have it. The story travels in the same old dreaded path and you are forced to sit through a boring roller coaster ride. When the Tamil moviedom is moving to better pastures with new directors and world class movies, it’s painful to see such directors wasting money, time and energy of good actors and technicians. I am not against masala movies as long as I can enjoy those few hours in a movie theater. I would be happy if someone breaks this jinx in Tamil movies and can do a Vishal Bharadwaj (Kaminey) to bring back the golden masala 90s back

PS: On the hind sight, I wouldn’t blame these film makers as I saw one middle aged man sitting behind our seats laughing for all crappy jokes of Vivek and a whole set of youngsters howling at top of their voice. Have we corrupted the movie appreciating capabilities of Tamil audience???\

Cast: Surya Sivakumar, Anuskha Shetty, Prakash Raj, Nasser, Radha Ravi, Manorama, Vijaya Kumar, Bose Venkat

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Cinematographer: Priyan

Story (!), Screenplay (!) and Direction (!!): Hari

Rating : 1/5 – Watch it if you money and time to waste

– Post From My iPhone

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It was a Saturday night and I has decided long back I should settle for Mumbai Indians match. My friends had different ideas though – booking night show for Paiya. I had the least rank for the movie in my expectation meter as I hated Lingusamy’s last 3 movies including the so called hit “Sandakozhi”. I hoped that he satisfy my least expectation but alas he made me to break my head for choosing the movie instead of IPL

The story (was there one?) is about Shiva (Karthi), a happy go lucky, spend thrift who falls in love with Charulatha (Tamannah) at the first sight in a bus stop. He accidentally meets her in Railway Station while waiting to pick up his friend and embarks a journey to Mumbai to free her from the problems she is facing. What continues is a dull, boring drive to Mumbai with a run-of-the mill end

I was awed by Karthi in Paruthiveeran and got convinced in Aayirathil Oruvan that this guy is going to be an actor to reckon with but watching Paiya, I got dejected to the core. Shiva’s character was an urban extension of Paruthiveeran with respect to dialogue delivery and expressions. It looked like he had an extended hangover which he didn’t want to clear off. Dolled up Tamanna, with no space to act – not even sparks of brilliance which was there in Karthi’s acting. A wasted cameo by Milind Soman (how do you look the same from captain Vyom times??) and effective one from “Nandu” Jagan , a host of goons whose only work is to eat biriyani and get bashed up by Karthi now and then

There are only two things that saves the movie – music of Yuvan – Thuli Thuli and En Kadhal lingers in your heart whereas Rajeevan’s art work amazes you in Suthuthe. Even his art work at the climax sequence is apt. With those wonderful technicians, the film is  let down by Lingusamy’s story and screenplay. First of all there was no story, I dunno what those 4 people who were credited for story discussion in this movie. The predictable suspense of why Tamannah is running is revealed exactly after half an hour in the movie and there goes your interest for the movie to a toss. Yes there were a few hilarious scenes and interesting interludes between Tamannah and Karthi but a few good scenes never maketh a movie. The fight sequences are choreographed like a joke. Man, come on if you are hit by iron rods and then the hero bashing up every one without even blood from his head – is he iron man clone or what ? Kanal Kannan needs to have a reality check. If he is so strong , why we need car chases and that intelligent (lame!) umbrella scene in the toll gate – logically idiotic. The second half is a drag and you just wish the movie gets over.

Karthi, choose your movies wisely otherwise you will lose the respect of so many good movie watchers in Tamil Nadu.

Yuvan, please don’t waste your musical talent and give such gems to this crappy stuf.

Mr. Lingusamy, do Tamil movie world a favour “STOP MAKING MOVIES “

1/2 out 5 and Two Rotten Eggs for Lingusamy’s Paiya. Watch it only if you have time and money to waste.

P.S : Why did the name the movie Paiya? Because they haven’t grown up

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After a debacle of Paiya, I thought I should not see Tamil movies for at least a month but I had already made my bookings for this movie. Myself and my friend after a sumptuous lunch at Dindigul Thalapakatti, made our way to Six Degrees in Sathyam for early afternoon show. The movie had a host of new comers with a new director. The only technician o knew was Thaman, the music director and he is as good as new..

So there we were and the movie did surprise me in a positive way. The movie starts with Sanjay retrospecting his life on the banks of Thames. Sanjay is a project manager in an IT company in Chennai living with his Father and younger brother in a posh flat. He starts liking Pooja, a new girl in their flats only to find that she is engaged already. He slowly gets in to friendship with Aarthi (Ekta), a salsa dancer who lives her life in her own terms. She is caricatured as the wrong woman by his friends he finds her independent, sensitive and attractive. He falls in love with her and although she loves him, says she can’t fall in love with him as she doesn’t believe in relationships. In between Sanjay meets Anu (Lizna), a colleague who is similar to what Sanjay expects how his wife should be. Once during a trip to Ooty, Sanjay finds Aarthi has a child and starts avoiding her. In a desperation and anger, he proposes to Anu and she accepts his proposal. Sanjay reveals to his friends about her child and her friends, family banish her. He later finds that the child is not hers but her sister’s illegal child. What happens next is for you to find on screen…

The realism in Tamil movies were only restricted to rural stories or the lower class people of the cities. Mundhinam portrays the realistic life of youth who have a good job,enjoy the weekends, gossip about friends and colleagues, fall in relationships, have painful heart breaks and get to face reality at some point of time. More than the lead actors, the supporting cast score sixes in every scene they are. Sai Prashanth as Dinesh, close buddy of Sanjay, Priya and Shiva ( dunno their names) are very impressive. Especially Sai Prashanth, with his dialogue delivery and expressions tickle your funny bones all through the movie. Having a 5 year old condom to show off to friends, meeting the girl who he chatted with even his introduction scene will make laugh out loud. Priya on the other hand portrays the self-proud girl and who doesn’t care gossiping about friends at office. Shiva, acting as a typical guy from south with an accent kicks ass in the few scenes he is given – especially the one where he expresses his virginity problem.

Of all the 3 lead ladies, Aarthi’s character has a good scope for acting and Ekta pulls it off convincingly. Sanjay is sometimes seems to be less expressive and needs to do an acting and dancing course for sure. May be a better casting would have made the movie more beautiful. I accept that new faces give you the realistic feeling but we do have good new face actors who can do a better job than these people.

Cinematography is eye-catching and Vincent (a PC Sriram product – visuals prove it) has done a fantabulous job especially in song sequences. Antony’s editing is below par while Thaman is impressive in Indre Indre, Pesum Poove and Mundhinan Parthene ( Title Score) but expect more after his Eeram score. His background score accentuates the movie perfectly. But too many songs at the wrong time spoils the pace of the movie.

Magizh Thirumeni, a Gautam Menon product taking the name of the movie from his mentor’s song (like Gautam did) has done a superb job in his debut. The scene conceptualizations, witty sharp one-liners (“yenaku puriyala, naan mattum than ippadiya illa yella pasanga kullayum oru SJ Suryah iruppana” in the lift scene) and simplified direction with no major fuss- refreshing. The movie never treads to over melodramatic scenes nor does it goes overboard with dialogues and scenes in the name of glamor quotient which the director could have done so easily.

Hats off to the realistic attempt but would have been an “Ullam Ketkume” with a good cast and reduction of songs

2.5/5 for Magizh Thirumeni’s Mundhinam Parthene – Watch it for the urban realism.

– Post From My iPhone

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I think 13 became an unlucky number for this series of posts. The last post in this series came in October 2009 (That’s awfully long for a series of posts). But i was so determined to post number 13 and interestingly i have chosen a very different movie for Number 13. Check it out.

Muhammad Bin Tughluq (1971)

Can you name a person in Tamil Nadu who can make a brutal, extremely sarcastic and honest political satire movie?I think there is only one person who made it and even got away with in flying colors (black and white??!)
Cho Ramaswamy, fondly called as Cho is a political analyst, a Tamil Political Magazine Editor and a writer. A lesser known fact is that he started as a playwright and a stage actor. Even his entre into stage was accidental as he puts it. He made his foray in to movies too and he was an instant success. His best movie and play is Muhammad Bin Tughluq (1971), which I would consider arguably the best political satire in India. Don’t ask me how many have come.

Muhammad Bin Tughluq was originally a play written by Cho in 1968 and staged by his troupe Viveka Arts many a times. The same group of people to make the successful play in to a movie in 1971.
Rangachari (Rajagopal aka Ambi) is a well known archeologist, who is on a mission to find the remains of Muhammad Bin Tughluq and identify his real cause of death. Once during the mission, he finds Tughluq (Cho) and Ibn Battuta (Peeli Sivam) alive. They claim that they were alive because of an secret herb. Tughluq enters back to the country with fanfare. Understands the political scene overnight. Participates in elections, becomes the prime minister in his own ridiculous way. Makes some innocuous decisions. But the mystery unravels slowly where Cho and Peeli Sivam are college students who wanted to change the way democracy is being misused in the country. They with the help of their guru impersonate as Tughluq and Battuta to make people understand the real value of democracy. On the day of revealing, the intoxication of power gets in to Cho’s head and he plots the killing of his friend by creating riot against him to stay as prime minister. The cast included Cho, Peeli Sivam, Ambi, Neelu, Manorama, music was scored by MS Viswanathan, produced by Alliance Productions and the story, dialogues and direction were handled by Cho himself.

Why it is so special?

1. The movie from start to end never deviates from the satirical mode and it crticised every decision made by the then governments. The decisions of Cho as Tughlaq has became a reality in later stages of Indian politics – like where he makes all the MPs as deputy PMs – Meghalaya’s 4 CMs? He makes one language for each state as the official language and even suggests Persian as the official language of India. The buying out of MPs, state sponsored riots what not. Although you tend to laugh at the movie, after a particular point in the movie we are hit with the reality of the country we are living in.

2. The sharp dialogues which makes you laugh and think at the same time. Actually if you watch it carefully, the best satirical ones are not given Cho or Peeli Sivam but the supporting cast of Ambi, Neelu and Manorama.

3. The apt cast and most of the actors are from the stage which made them natural. I think Manorama was the only one casted from the cine world and she was brilliant as the “kolgai parappu Seyalalar” (PR) of Tughluq. Casting the stage actors had it’s own flaw of making the movie a more like a drama but it can be overlooked for the brilliance of the movie.

4. For the man by the name “Cho” – the concept and the dialogues – he was just unmatchable. His dialogue deliveries and the slight jump he makes when he walks, lovely. He never smiles in the whole movie and you know how serious were his stupid decisions. He is matched  for every scene by Peeli Sivam as Ibn Battuta – nobody could have done the roles better than them. Cho scores in the final scene when power takes over him and his psychic acting proved that he is better actor than what he is remembered for.

Why it is in the list?

1. Arguably the best political satire to make it to the Indian screens and definitely the most honest portrayal.

2. The relevance of the plot even today. If you watch it tomorrow, you will relate to the current political situation and have a wry smile at the plight of common people like us

3. For the sheer brilliance of Cho and Peeli Sivam

Trivia

1. The drama troupe of Cho was named as Viveka fine arts because they were all graduated from Vivekananda college in Chennai

2. The movie was portrayed as against Muslim community by some political parties but when they saw the movie, they found it is nothing to do with the community. In fact the title song on Allah and sung by MSV is still revered as one of the best songs written in Tamil on Allah.

3. Due to the success of the movie, Cho named his political magazine as Tughluq and it was his another spat with DMK that Thugluq’s circulation went up. I will write about it later.

4. Ambi who acts as Rangachari in the movie and the convener of the drama troupe is the own brother of Cho

5. I think the stage play was in production till 2007 ( am not sure) but  could not continue because of the age factor of Cho. I dunno whether they do special shows. I do have a DVD of the stage play.

6. His famous plays include Judgement Reserved, Sambavami Yuge Yuge, Unmaiye un Vilai Yenna, Iraivan Iranthuvittana and many more. His book Enge Brahamanan ?, one of the definitive literary piece about Brahminism was serialized for Jaya TV recently. The second part is currently running.

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“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

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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.

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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.

The movie starts with one unanswerable question “of all the girls in the world, why did I fell in love with Jessie?” – a pertinent question asked by all the lead characters in the movie to the protoganist (Any guy in love would have asked this question atleast once in his life time). Karthik (Simbu), a mechanical engineer pass out and an aspiring director falls in love with a Malayali Christian girl Jessie ( Trisha), whose house their family stay as a tenant. A love at first sight, Karthik tries to woo Jessie with encouragement from his cameraman friend Ganesh(Ganesh, co-producer of the movie). Although initially the age factor of one year difference (Karthik is younger than Jessie) comes in to fray, the main reason for Jessie not accepting Karthik is the religion. Jessie’s Father ( Babu Antony) a staunch Christian would never accept for it. Jessie even stops her marriage at the altar as she could not decide about Karthik. She accepts his love as she couldn’t resist it. What happens next is shown in a more realistic way (I would not say different as other reviewers claim it)

The chemistry between Simbu and Trisha equals the chemistry of Sharukh and Kajol in DDLJ. It may be an exaggeration but the chemistry between the lead pair levitates the movie to unimaginable levels. An underplayed performance from Simbu speaks lot about his talent and how he has been wasting it so far in craps. Trisha looks like a poem. Gautham has this style where he makes you eventually fall in love with the heroine of his movies. Trisha’s character resembles Madhu of Sujatha’s Pirivom Sandippom a lot. But Gautham hasn’t dealt with the character deeply enough. It’s always tough to understand a girl’s decision when it comes to marriage and a shallow portrayal remains the biggest flaw of the movie.

Ganesh is a casting coup. A very normal but unmatchable dialogue delivery makes the character admirable. Babu Antony and Kitty have helped the movie to move forward. KSR’s cameo is not wasted. The real heroes of the movie are 3 people who were behind the scenes. AR Rahman – I have always been a critic of his background scores but he has graduated to a new level with Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya. The violin piece in the intro scene of Trisha and the wise use of Aaromale in apt places bears testimony to the brilliance of Rahman. The non-linear musical experimentation in the songs with Thamarai’s lyrics is well received by the audience. Hosanna, Mannippaya and Kannukul are a rage in theatres.

The next hero is Manoj Paramhasa, the cinematographer. The color tones, right use of natural lighting and interesting angles is unbelievable for a new comer. Antony hasn’t hampered the movie with his fast multi frame cuts. The third hero is ofcourse Gautham Menon for giving a feel good romance after a long time. He knows where and when to touch the right chords of the viewer. Wonderful one liners and a well written climax dialogue explains the talent of the man.

The biggest and the only flaw I saw in the movie was the shallow portrayal of Jessie’s Character. A girl’s decision on marriage and love depends on innumerable reasons and her character craves for a better treatment. The movie takes a leaf out a lot of real life stories and don’t you know Gautham a girl’s heart is more deeper than what you have shown in Jessie.

What could have been the next Mouna Raagam or the next Kadhalukku Mariyathai, just stays as yet another nice movie

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya – Watch it for the Chemisty, AR Rahman and Gautham – 3.5/5

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