Friday, December 26, 2008

Review : Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Spellbound!


Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Drama | Romance | Crime



I was really spellbound the moment i finished watching this movie.I couldn't come up with any better word on describing it either.
So,i am back on being the first in watching and reviewing a movie which i feel i have watched it before a major portion of India could have.I say i'm back because last thursday, just around the same time i wrote the movie review of will smith's Seven Pounds wherein i was the first to watch it before a major portion of people could on a greater and global scale.
I'm really proud on doing this and i'm not at all feeling bad for being over proud too.

Firstly,I would like to thank a ton for the music spearhead of India, A.R.Rahman for his intelligent choosing of composing music for a brilliant and marvellous script.Many of you could hopefully understand what i'm trying to say.

And for the people who have set their anthem as this movie's soundtrack for the past few days just after the news release regarding the announcement of A.R.Rahman's nomination for the Golden globe awards, that the song "Aaj Ki Raat" from the movie Don(2006) is not a lift or copy but is included in the soundtrack because the song(along with the music video featuring the Don movie artists) is showed on the televison in a scene.


So coming back to reviewing the movie,
This movie is a story of a boy named Jamal Malik born and brought up in the slums going on to win '20 million rupees' on India's so called biggest game show "Who wants to be a millionaire?".
As the protagonist says he is not a genius and is not quite worthy of winning the prize money.On the first day of the air,Jamal goes on to win 10 million and show breaks for the day and at the end of which police arrest Jamal on means of cheating for the fact how an uneducated slumdog could answer all the questions.
What follows is the narration of Jamal of his life and how he could possibly answer the questions put forth to him on the game show.There is some luck involved here for him to get all this questions too.

Though the movie is an inspiration from Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A,Danny Boyle has masterfully created and directed a movie that is set to create new standards in world cinema merely for the crisp narration and the jawdropping background score and an eye popping cinematography.Everything is brilliant.This movie should have been given some publicity in India atleast because this is a real entertainer and also pretty much a thought provoker.

Some portions pf the movie was shot using digicam so that the Indian crowd would never know that a movie is being shot so as to create unwanted havoc and commotion but you will never know this thing while you watch the movie.

Coming to the music department, the movie has music composed and produced by the maestro A.R.Rahman, which at very very few places makes you feel that such western music is never required to support that particular scene but in the major other portions one would just wander how ARR only can compose such stuff.

Among the supporting cast,Anil Kapoor has done a fantabulous job in recreating Big B's magic on the small screen to a bigger and broader one.Irrfaan Khan as his name is spelt has also done a great job.

One thing that might disturb the viewer is the fact that everyone speaks english thought they are uneducated,now come on I know it is an english movie but with the backdrop as India it 'just' seems a little odd that's all nothing else.

There are a lot of things shown which happen and happened in real life (like the scene of hindu-muslim riots and Anil Kapoor asking Jamal not to answer the next question) and which are not quite digestable by any viewer but one needs to have a rationalistic thought.Speaking about rationalism,I being both a rationalist and an atheist couldn't quite forget the last words of Jamal's bro Salim while writing this review.He ended his life saying "God is Great!".

There weren't any more clitches than those mentioned above, and on the whole the movie was worth spending 2 hours for just i had said for seven pounds.

All the actors who portrayed the various characters of the movie did extremely well and deserve a special applause.

The movie is an emotional and realistic drama but the last few minutes of the movie seemed like an edge-of-the-seat thriller.One would also have the feeling of watching an Indian romantic movie towards the later half but then there are other things in the movie which makes you to abolish such thoughts from your mind.

So i once again plead you people not to miss this one also because it will really have an impact on you.

Thanks again for reading through this review,i hope you people like both this and the movie and come and share your thoughts and write your comments.




Thursday, December 18, 2008

Review : Seven Pounds (2008)


Will Smith all the way!

Genre : Drama
Rating : 3.5/5

I had the honor of watching this movie through a special personal screening at my home on the eve of the official worldwide release of the movie.When I say honor,i mean it truly because this movie not only changed the lives of its seven characters according to the plot but also my thoughts about English cinema to a great extent.

Any Indian viewer could start wondering why such scripts don't reach Indian directors and any viewer could walk out of the movie (of course after the movie ends) mesmerized by the way Will Smith portrayed his character in the movie and also by the director (Gabriele Muccino) who also directed "The Pursuit Of Happyness" which is again a classic, for making such a wonderful movie.

The Story goes this way , Ben Thomas (Will Smith) is an MIT grad who has a very disturbing secret and to compensate it impersonates as an IRS agent to go on to change the lives of seven worthy and needy people in a way which they themselves wouldn't have imagined.The protagonist then reveals the reason for which he does all this at the end of the movie,till that time the movie goes as a slow paced thriller as the viewer is given enough amount of time to think of the possible reasons.I say this because the run time of this movie is a little over 2 hours and one doesn't feel bored.People might wonder how a drama could hold them on to their seats without losing their patience.

The Director has been successful in making Will Smith do what he is actually good at - "Drama" after the latter gave a try at Action,where he didn't click much and also Comedy,where he failed miserably.

The Cinematography and the background music do their parts perfectly to deliver a well crafted emotional drama.Will Smith made me cry along with him in "Pursuit Of Happyness" and he does it in this movie too.

Coming to the flaws in the movie,nothing big but after sitting through the movie anyone would feel that the time given to Rosario Dawson-Will Smith should have been reduced and all the seven characters should have been introduced properly and also the things which Will Smith does to them should have been shown properly, apart from this one cannot find any major mistakes.

All in all , Seven Pounds is a movie worth spending 2 hours for and will be quite a enormous loss to any ardent movie watcher if missed and also for the people who are very particular in watching good movies, this is the movie for the month.

For the people who watched
the sci-fi drama "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and still survived,this drama is way better than that one.

Also to look out for this month is Jim Carrey's "Yes Man!" which could prove to be a heavy competitor to Seven Pounds for the movie of the month.

Thank You for reading through my review , please post your views also and a big please for "Don't Miss This Movie!".

Friday, November 7, 2008

Review : Quantum Of Solace (2008)




Stylish but unimpressive!



Rating : 3/5
Genre : Action/Adventure/Thriller
Cast :
Daniel Craig,Olga Kurylenko,Mathieu Amalric,Judi Dench


I always wanted this to happen ; Watch a movie first day first show and come home and write the review.Finally, it gets fulfilled with this movie.



Plot:

The Movie picks off from where "Casino Royale" left , Bond captures Mr.White and puts him in the boot of his car.It begins with a well choreographed car chase.After this,bond and M interrogate Mr.White about his organisation , Quantum.M's most trusted bodyguard betrays her and allows White to escape.He then becomes Bond's first victim of his killing spree which you will see throughout the movie.Through forensic investigations involving currency notes from the bodyguard's purse,Bond heads to Haiti to track his contact and kills him.The story then heads to Dominic Greene,the chairperson of Greene Planet,an organisation which is known to the outside world as one which helps maintain ecological balance.Not spoiling the story any further, M is forced to stop Bond's movements and cancels all his passports and credit cards.The way Bond finds the reason behind his ladylove's treachery in casino royale and also stopping Greene from his proposed acquisition of land in a deserted place forms the rest of the story.






The first 45 minutes seems to enthrall you with amazing fight sequences and keeps you wanting for more when the next 45 minutes doesn't turn out what you expected it to be.




The only thing that impresses any viewer would be the stunts and the sound effects.Storywise,you would be disappointed and would have a thought that you have witnessed the same plot in some other movie.



About Craig,right from the first i had a feeling that he wouldn't make a good bond,although he was quite ok with this movie than the previous one.



The scene in the opera where bond captures long distance clear as well as pixeled photos of the villains is a very good advertisement for Sony Ericsson Titanium Silver C902 cybershot.The Phone really looks great.



All in all,the movie is worth watching only once and maybe one can skip all other scenes except the stunt ones and watch it in surround sound.



So give this Marc Forester's bond flick "Quantum Of Solace" a try but better hope that the next is not a sequel again because we want something "NEW!!".

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Review : Saroja (2008)


Slick comedy and a dark thriller!

Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Comedy/Thriller

Cast : Shiva, Premji , SPB Charan , Vaibhav , Prakash Raj , Jayaram , Sampath

This critically as well as audience acclaimed film is written and directed by Venkat Prabhu , the man who gave us "Chennai 6000028" which was a real entertainer and made some of us zealous to watch the movie for a lot many times.Athough , this film is a remake of an english flick "Judgement Night" , it is really worth watching.

The Story revolves around 4 friends and their adventurous journey to a so-called cricket match and which ultimately ends up in a life threatening situation.Ajay Raj(Shiva) , a daily soap opera star ; Ganesh (Premji) , a comical character who falls in love with every woman he sees ; Jagapathi Babu (SPB Charan) , a married man with a six year old daughter and his younger brother Ram Babu (Vaibhav) , decide to go on a road trip to hyderabad to catch a cricket match between India and Pakistan in Ajay's so called "azhagaana" Caravan.Enroute , they get caught in a road block caused by the overturning of an acid tanker lorry.They are now forced to take a short route to hyderabad but they end up in a dark , abandoned area where the real problems start.Meanwhile , we are given glimpses of Viswanath's (Prakash Raj) home where his daughter Saroja is kidnapped.The four friends then get entangled with a rogue Sampath who is responsible for the kidnap.Ajay , Ganesh , Jagapathi and Ram are forced to plot a plan to rescue Saroja and they manage not to lose their sense of humor all the way.


For both younger and older audiences , apt casting, editing ,crispy dialogues and a great background music represented a welcome change from the standard masala Tamil cinema.It has set the cash registers ringing and has assured Venkat Prabhu a second consecutive super hit.The Director has understood the tamil audience well and has evolved into an intelligent and creative director.This will definitely create more hype for his forthcoming projects and people in the tinsel world are already having a close watch on his movements.

The Songs are well composed and fit in perfectly.
The Chase sequences are well planned and executed , hats off to the stunt master.
The Cinematography is brilliant , it makes you get so involved in the movie and keeps you in the edge of your seat.
Most of the cast in the movie Chennai 600028  as well as the whos who of Tamil TV world are given some screen space.
This is a definitely a must watch movie and i advice you people not to miss this one at any cost.

Overall , this movie is well crafted with good proportion of action , comedy ,songs and even after 2 1/2 hours of sheer entertainment , it won't let you leave the theatres.

Bottom Line : Assured 100% entertainment!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Review : A Wednesday (2008)

Not a usual terrorist movie!

Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Thriller

This movie has a very small cast and its story revolves around these 4-5 characters.
Anupam Kher(Prakash Rathod,Commissioner of police) is about to retire and he narrates a case which affected him the most in his career.The story takes place on a wednesday between 2pm to 6pm when a man(Nasseruddin Shah) calls him and tells him that he has planted 5 bombs in the city which are set to blow off at 6.30pm.The only way for the police to know the position of the bomb is to do what the man says.

And that is all I'm going to tell about the story.

Faith is really very powerful.It draws everyone towards it.It is at the core in , A Wednesday.The police is forced to believe what the man says and does it only to find out that...........(sorry no spoilers!!!).

No words will be enough to praise the one man , Nasseruddin Shah who literally carries the movie in his shoulders.He has really churned out to be one of India's finest actors.Any role will fit him perfectly.

Frankly,this movie doesn't have a single song and the background score is just amazing , on par with hollywood action flicks without any sort of plagiarism from the west (This has to be noted).

So good plot , effective dialogues and great performances ensure an above average movie for the debutant writer-director Neeraj Pandey.It has been a trend these days for young directors making their debut to make a film on a terrorist subject (keeping mumbai meri jaan and aamir in mind) and all of them have made the critics awestruck as they keep complaining on the lack of proper directors and script writers.


All in all , this is a very good movie and i sincerely advice ardent movie watchers as well as people looking out for a reason to watch movies to get to the movie theatres and get entertained or as people say get the proper "value for money" because this is a clean , non-masala flick with absolutely no time filling comedy,punch dialogues,intro scenes and no sort of romance.

Bottom Line : A Common man answers the questions putforth to him.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Atheism - A Consciousness Raiser

This thought was in my mind since a long time and also was the thing that i hadn't updated my blog  for a long time now.This article currently sent to our college magazine for publishing is being put on my blog for you people to read.I Hope most of you might be a little hesitant to read this but still , just give it a try.


Atheism

It is important for the readers to be clear about the meaning of the following words before they read the article. 

  • Atheism: “disbelief in the existence of a god or gods”
  • Agnosticism: “a belief that it is not possible to know whether god exists or not”
  • God1 “(in Christianity, Islam and Judaism) the being or spirit that is worshipped and is believed to have created the universe”

         “(in some religions) a being or spirit who is believed to have power over a particular part of nature or who is believed to represent a particular quality” 
     
     
     

There are lots of people out there who have been brought up in some religion or other, are unhappy in it, don't believe it, or are worried about the evils that are done in its name; people who feel unclear desire to leave their parents' religion and wish they could, but just don't realize that leaving is an option and henceforth can carry on their life as an atheist.  

This article is intended to raise consciousness - raise consciousness to the fact that to be an atheist is a realistic objective, and a brave and splendid one. You can be an atheist who is happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled. That is the first of our consciousness-raising messages. We also want to raise consciousness in other ways too, which we'll come on to. We believe that there exists an atheist in every intellectual human and our objective is to uncover that person to thyself. 

Imagine a world without religion, how would it be?

There would be no 9/11 tragedy, no India partition, no godhra train massacre, no ayodhya crisis and many other inhuman acts. 
 
 
 
 

There might also be people who feel that agnosticism is a reasonable position, but that atheism is just as narrow as a religious belief. 

Maybe you think it is obvious that God must exist, for how else could the world have come into being? How else could there be life, in all its rich diversity, with every species looking uncannily as though it had been 'designed'? 

The answers to the above questions are in your intellect but your presumption that a supreme being/power exists obstructs you from reaching a rationalistic conclusion. 

If you feel trapped in the religion of your upbringing, it would be worth asking yourself how this came about. The answer is usually some form of childhood indoctrination. If you are religious at all it is overwhelmingly probable that your religion is that of your parents. If you were born in the U.S. and you think Christianity is true and Islam false, knowing full well that you would think the opposite if you had been born in Afghanistan, you are the victim of childhood indoctrination. 

                          

Being an atheist is nothing to be apologetic about. On the contrary, it is something to be proud of, standing tall to face the far horizon, for atheism nearly always indicates a healthy independence of mind and, indeed, a healthy mind. There are many people who know, in their heart of hearts, that they are atheists, but dare not admit it to their families or even, in some cases, to themselves. Partly, this is because the very word 'atheist' has been assiduously built up as a terrible and frightening label. 

The Atheist view of life is progressive and optimistic, in awe of human potential, living without fear of judgement and death, finding enough purpose and meaning in life, love and leaving a good legacy. 

Truth is very powerful and you may not have the strength to resist it. God is just an intricate delusion. The dictionary supplied with Microsoft Word defines a delusion as 'a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder'. When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion. 
 

The supposed unattainability of knowledge for or against the existence of gods is sometimes seen as indication that atheism requires a leap of faith. Common atheist responses to this argument include that unproven religious propositions deserve as much disbelief as all other unproven propositions, and that the unprovability of a god's existence does not imply equal probability of either possibility. 

It is time to break the shackles of religion or God and ignite our minds with the spark of rationalistic thoughts...

              AWAKE!!!  AROUSE!!!    ACHIEVE!!! 
 

The Riddle of Epicurus* 
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. 
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. 
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? 
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? 

*Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher 
 
 
 
 


FAMOUS ATHEISTS

Scientists

Thomas Edison

Blaise Pascal

Ferdinand Magellan

Annie Wood Besant

Stephen Hawking

Albert Einstein

Charles Darwin

Galileo Galilei 

Writers

Mark Twain

George Bernard Shaw

Oscar Wilde

Andrew Carnegie

Isaac Asimov

Salman Rushdie

Bertrand Russell 


Thursday, June 19, 2008

The 10 Avatars of Kamal in close up shots **New Arrival**

Here are the close up shots of the 10 avatars played by "Universal Hero Padmashri" Kamal Hassan.




Govind , the scientist of the 21st century who discovers this unique virus which could destroy millions of people if it goes into the wrong hands.Kamal is in his natural form of acting for this role.One cannot see anything different in his style.

Rangarajan Nambi , the priest from the 12th century , strong build and looks exactly like a vaishnavaite would be.We aren't shown much of his character but we are shown some of his bones which still existed till the tsunami struck.
Wow , wow ,wow , the funniest character among all is this fellow.He supposedly speaks 5 languages in telugu.His accent is typical to that of an andhra person and his body movements are even more great.The background score for this character is also great.
The American baddy , displaying kamal's depth of language and style even at 50.One of the perfect avatars with no such flaws.
Karate Master , the perfect make-up.One cannot really find out whether its kamal portrayin this character.Only after strong observation will you find some shades of kamal in this character.
Kamal imitates the U.S. President to 100% except for the last dance step in the stage.His body language and voice are perfectly matched to the original.Hats off to Kamal.
Kalifullah , he might seem very stubborn and angry to you but he has been picturised as an innocent fellow with some cliches and hiccups in his language which fitted his character perfectly.
Vincent Poovaragan , well what can we call him , maybe a political activist or something but his body language is superb and one would really feel that a mass' messiah is standing in front of you.He behaves like a "servant to citizens" kinda person.

Man , oh no he is a woman.What a brilliant portrayal!!!!!!I was really dumbstruck seeing this character on screen.Although this 95 year old showed actions wherin she behaved like a teenager,and also that her ears hear things to her pleasure and not most of the things , Kamal has voiced out this character beautifully.This character seemed like "Daler Mehndi" but had no great make up.But , Kamal , man , I just figured out why his fans call him Aandavar.He speaks his punjabi in the perfect accent with no south indian touch to it.He ROCKS!!!!




© Copyright 2008 Behindwoods.com [A Special thanks to this site which really inspired me to write reviews and spread the site to everyone]

Review : Dasavatharam (2008)


A New milestone in tamil cinema


Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Action/Thriller/Classic

Cast :
Kamal Hassan
, Asin, Mallika Sherawat, Jayapradha, Nagesh, Nepolean, Santhana Bharathi, P Vasu.

Note: Please watch the movie very very carefully in order to really understand the storyline.

Aascar Ravichandran , the producer, who changed the spelling of his first name by numerology , has to really thank the numerologist whom he visited because the name change has really done wonders for him.He really has to be appreciated for believing in Kamal's work and providing him full support even though the former failed to hit the bulls eye in his recent own works.

The film opens with the new production house video for oscar films , a frequent tamil movie watcher might find the difference , and right after that we have the world in Kamal's eyes showing his title "Universal Hero".

The first scene travels from the beach to the stadium where a huge crowd is gathered for some function which one cannot find out what it is for and we hear the voice of Govind Ramasamy (The Protagonist , as we can quite rightly say) narrating a series of incidents.Now, every flashback movie has a hitch , one cannot really narrate the jokes and songs through his speech , well no one is so talented in this world who can really grip you to your seats just through his speech.That is when a huge mass of both literate and "not-so literate" people are listening to you.

So, coming back to the story , as he narrates his first story which supposedly takes place in the 12th century , our view dates back to that period where one can see the rift between the saivites and vaishnavites.The fight inside the temple by kamal when the king's soldiers try to move the ranganathar statue could hav been avoided.Maybe the director wanted a hero's introduction to be stunning for the audiences and add some commercial element.But for a fight in the 12th century period , the stunts were a little too much or as some say unbelievable.The song "Kallai Mattum Kandaal" fits in place and its lyrics perfectly match to the visuals.Nambi's muscles has to be given a special appreciation.



Napolean plays role of kulothunga chozhan who orders the removal of the ranganathar statue which is protested by rangaraja nambi (Kamal in his second of the ten roles).He fights and protests but the king wouldn't accept , so he ties him to the statue and decides to throw them into the sea.Although the king throws a deal that if nambi chants "Om Nama Shivaya" instead of "Om Namo Narayanaya" , he would grant him pardon.So , Nambi starts with OM and the audience is really anxious whether he chants it or not.


The movie is centrally based on butterfly effect or the chaos theory which means that
a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. Of course the butterfly cannot literally cause a tornado. The kinetic energy in a tornado is enormously larger than the energy in the turbulence of a butterfly. The kinetic energy of a tornado is ultimately provided by the sun and the butterfly can only influence certain details of weather events in a chaotic manner.The entire story of Dasavatharam is based on this theory and not about bio warfare, 12th century religious clash or tsunami.
So as per the theory,the tsunami is indirectly blamed upon the 12th century this is what one would infer at the end of the story.

Next in the pipeline of his narration is his own flashback where he still is a scientist working in an american laboratory and researching a biological weapon of mass destruction.Kamal's senior official tries to sell this invention and Chris Fletcher (the third of ten played by Kamal) is sent to retrieve the weapon from Ramasamy when he comes to know of his senior and escapes with the weapon to India.



Mallika Sherawat as Fletcher's assistant fails to create an impression on the movie watcher and her role in the movie could have been played by any other actor having cut the "Kaa Karu..." song which was totally unwanted.

So, not spoiling the storyline any further , the other portraits of Kamal which fall into place as the story progresses are CBI Officer Balaram Naidu,Pop Singer Avatar Singh,95-year old Woman , Japanese Karate Master,7-foot tall Kalifullah Khan,US President George Bush and finally a dalit activist Vincent Poovaragan.

All roles played by the maestro are commendable except for some actions of the 95 year old woman which are quite manly and George bush dancing in the end which could have been corrected and avoided respectively.

Asin,who also plays a dual role,creates an amazing impression on the audience with both her characters played perfectly and her voice really fits into her persona.

The Last scene where Chris Fletcher opens the vial and swallows the virus, is gripping as to what will happen to the face of Tamil Nadu but just then Tsunami shows up (sea water contains NaCl which is required to stop the virus from spreading) thereby eliminating the virus action.I couldn't get it while watching the movie, only after i heard from some great brains , it could really register in my brain too.This is no more a flaw to what i thought it was.Logic has been applied perfectly, its only that sometimes people like me won't understand quite simple things.

Coming to the technical aspects of the movie , Cinematographer Ravi Verman has handled the camera really well and needs an applause.
The Tsunami scene,one of India's first shown in movies is not very perfect with transformers being unharmed when water gushes through it destroying everything else beside it, but it really is a very good effort in re-creating the the disaster on the screen.
The graphics could have been better overall but owing to Aascar Ravichandran's bank balance , it surely is an amazing work.

The songs composed for the movie were not that pleasant to hear when the audio released.One thought,for such a big budget movie, the songs aren't that great but then after watching the movie ,one could contradict oneself because the songs fit right in place and the need of the song is not thought into except for the Mallika Sherawat number.
The re-recording work by Devi Shri Prasad is excellent and he is sure to climb more heights in Kollywood.


The Dialogues written by Kamal are surely worth mentioning especially for the tamil he uses in his speech and also the lighter parts of the movie.
The places where the audio was in english or japanese lacked "readable" subtitles and it went too fast and also the dialogues in punjabi did not have subtitles at all.These could have been corrected by the editor but these stand apart while taking his editing brilliance in the movie into consideration.Excellent work ,kudos to him.

Speaking of the director , K.S.Ravi Kumar , signs off the movie in style.He also has to be appreciated for believing in Kamal's script and deciding to direct the movie for him.He has handled all the character's well in accordance to the script.This movie has brought laurels for him as well.

So, all in all , Kamal's exorbitant budget flick "Dasavatharam" hits 100 on the technical aspects and ideologies but fails to deliver an edge-of-the-seat thriller.One was not really satisfied of watching a full movie after the movie ended as it did not have that much of entertainment quotient except for the viewer to gaze at Kamal with his/her mouth open.Some say it was like a hollywood flick but i say no because it had a quite a lot of commercial elements.
Kamal ,an athiest in himself ,through this movie , tests the presence of god in his brain child "Dasavatharam"(For he has written the story , screenplay and dialogues).
The End of the movie is marked by Kamal, showcasing his make up videos for different characters and if one would start counting as to how many characters he has played , he/she would end up with nine and keep thinking what was the last part or as if the last part really weren't there and thereby blaming Kamal for cheating but the last part is of Rangaraja Nambi whose make up video isn't shown.One needs to really watch the movie seriously and not for finding flaws alone.

Trade Talk : Will not be understood in the B and C centres although his fans will surely pour in to catch a glimpse of the so called masterpiece which indirectly will ring the cash registers.

Final Verdict : Don't forget to catch the universal hero in his 10 avatars because its only Kamal , Kamal and Kamal all the way.
Two Thumbs Up!!



Please do comment on my review either to show your disgust or your appreciation.Anything is fine for me.Also,please feel free to point out any mistakes in my language,opinion or the review as a whole.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Review : Kuruvi (2008)


Poor script and direction but Vijay rocks!!!!

Rating : 2/5

Genre: Action/Thriller

Disclaimer:
Well, this is my first review for a Vijay movie.So, people please don't mind if i show any sort of extra appreciation for any normal scenes.All views written in this page about this movie is clearly my personal ideology and any sort of discourage shown to any of the actors is purely unavoidable.

Cast:
Vijay...........................Vetrivel
Suman........................Gocha
Ashish Vidyarthi.......Konda Reddy
Trisha.........................Devi
Vivek..........................Ops
Manivannan..............Singamuthu


This movie is by far the highest budget movie for "Ilayathalapathy" Vijay.Produced by "Red Giant Movies" Udhayanidhi Stalin and directed by the famous Dharani , the movie slams 100 on its entertainment quota.Dharani who gave continuous hits like Dhill , Dhool and Ghilli , fails to make an impression through this one.The story could have been altered and there are few major flaws in the movie which could have been avoided.


Talking about the hero , well , he doesn't need any introduction.He has been given the "Next Superstar" title from the tamil cinema world and he need to keep it up.Well, he makes sure that he gives us a superstar movie and pleases his fans for sure.His fans are ought to go gaga on his performance in the movie as it is the only thing due to which the movie is watchable , so sorry to say this.


Starting from the introduction scene , you can see the hero gushing out from a manhole but what sort of a manhole , is it gutter or some water sump ,the director fails to explain.But this intro stunt is sure to make his fans go up.The hero has shown his interest in racing and made it clear to his rival (Wondering who it would be , eh?).


The Vijay-Vivek combo is sure to enthrall and make the audience laugh.Vijay is at his comedy best.He definitely has shown his worth and experience in this movie, many people say that he cannot act,he has quoted them wrong.

Trisha looks stunning in all her scenes also in dance sequences and not to mention the scene where she goes to Vijay's house to remove her sprain.Her looks in the songs "happy new year" and "thaen thaen" are warming and pleasurable.

One can really argue that some ideas have been copied from sivaji like the one outside the bar in malaysia where Vijay asks Vivek to touch either of his fingers as to what route to take but it is a way to show that the hero is a die-hard fan of the "present" superstar ,nothing wrong.

Also , few may not like the hero performing the stunt where he jumps from a terrace to a bridge situated 200m away but director Dharani has quoted this scene as "If it was the superstar performing the same scene , we would have him reach the train directly but since it was Vijay he had to fall short".
The fight sequences by "Rocky Rajesh" are to be noted because they were really exciting to watch.



There a lot many flaws to the movie wherein you hav a doubt in the experience of the director :
Vijay , Trisha and Vivek board some international flight from Malaysia to Chennai but when they show Chennai airport , they seem to land in a jet airways aircraft.One can also argue that they might have switched flights in between but security check doesn't happen on landing in any airport unless if it is from an international flight.
Trisha tells Vijay that it is her first time in a flight but her engagement took place in cudappah , how did she go there. (* Special Correspondent)
The song " Mozhu Mozhunnu" could have been seriously avoided as there was no sort of need for the song in between a fight sequence.
The fight sequence in cudappah where the hero fights with the cudappah "raja" change places unnecesarily.
Vijay should have been asked to build up some muscles before he could take off his shirt.
There could be no such webcam created in this world with such great picture clarity.
There could be no such laptop created which enters password on its own just by swiping the thumb and that too in the reverse way.

If at all , all these flaws were removed , the movie would sure have reached heights or you can also console yourself by saying that it was the government's move to spend their black money in order to escape from the income tax department.

Finally coming to the main departments which apart from Vijay made the movie watchable , the background music (bgm) and cinematography.Vidyasagar should definitely be applauded for his great work on the bgm although the songs weren't upto the mark.Cinematography was excellent and a real treat to cinema lovers , the scenes in cudappah were shot brilliantly with perfect colour contrast to malaysian and chennai scenes.Hats off to the cinematographer.

All in all , the movie contains Vijay at his best all throughout packed with bad direction and great cinematography.

Trade Talk : Good Opening , Will not survive in the box office for more than 1 month.

Final Verdict : If you are a hardcore Vijay fan , do watch it and applaud but if you are wanting to see it for Dharani , AVOID!!!!!



Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Movies - My Life

It has been quite a lot of time since i have updated my blog.So let me give it a life with the most interesting and important amenity of life.(Movies have the worth and can be rightly called an amenity)
You people might be wondering why i always post a movie review in my blog,the reason is that i am passionate about movies,can't live without it.
I have watched quite a lot of movies and can boast over many people on the account of the number of movies seen.
A movie is quite rightly considered as a director's child where he has to take every care in putting up the right scenes onto the reel and show it before the public.You see,these days the public are also equally intelligent in understanding the basic themes of life and can judge a movie quite rightly so as to whether the movie has some sort of the reality element in it.
I basically watch all kinds of movies.Good quality stuff as well as the bad ones.They cannot be called bad ones as the director has taken lot of pains in delivering his product to us but,yeah sometimes the director is not able to give the right amount of weightage to his script.
I have really suffered watching bad quality stuff and have sat down whole throughout the movie where my friends used to just walk out of the place.People should really learn to admire cinema not just speak something bad about it right on the face.Some people might think of contradicting me on this fact, but then when you are writing a review as a critic then you have all rights to write anything on that.
When i watch movies that interest me, i get a thought as to why not i write some story keeping all the things in mind.Why not take a script and engage people's brain to get some adrenalin rush while reading it.You see there are a lot of movies where you definitely want to know what is going to happen next but there are also movies that piss you off right from the first scene(eg: I am Legend,Sunshine).
I like being a critic and respect others' comments too but there are instances where well-known critics write rubbish on a movie such as "I am legend".The movie basically had nothing in it but still people are fond of it just because of the hero or the cinematography or the futuristic view of the world.The same thing was with "Children Of Men".
Just recently i saw a movie called "Vantage Point",i had gone to the theaters just after reading reviews of it stating that it is an edge-of-the-seat thriller,it was quite a thriller but only till one half of the movie.The other half ,well cannot be quite called a half as it lasted only for 20 minutes,was damn short and movie was not ended properly.
But still i will keep watching movies like that because.........................
....................I am a movie addict and i surely cannot live without them!!!!