Review: Kochadaiyaan (2014)

Watching Kochadaiyaan was an experience. Not the movie, the way I reached the theatre. Zooming past peak Bangalore traffic is a thrill in itself and more so if you want to watch a Rajini movie. If a Rajini movie is to be watched in Bangalore, it has to be in Urvashi Theatre and nowhere else. What an electrifying atmosphere. Even people watching the IPL final in the stadium would make so much noise. That's the experience I'm talking about,.

I'm sure that by now most of the reviews would have come out. Or people would be negligent towards reading any for spoilers sake. Anyways, I don't give out the story/plot in my reviews.

I so wished Kochadaiyaan was shot real-time. I'm damn sure it would have turned out to be one amazing movie. More so if a person like Shankar would have directed it.

But you've got to give it to the whole team for trying out something new. Bringing motion capture to Tamil cinema is indeed a welcome effort. But again, so much time and so much money was spent. Was it worth it? Simply put, No!

The animation is so below par that you feel that you're watching cartoon network. But (a lot of "buts" used till now), the very presence of Thalaivar (read. Rajini) is enough to keep you awake. What amazing rendering of dialogues! (far better rendering than the VFX technology used in the movie) His voice is so awesome that it gives you goosebumps. Kudos to the sound engineer for keeping Rajini's voice in tact.

It's a 2 hour movie and all the 7 songs get featured in it. Just imagine. "Medhuvaagathaan" was the only worthy motion capture song in the movie. Some of them could have played in the background instead of computer generated "Robots" dancing.

Overall, the Superstar and the background music from ARR save the day and make "Kochadaiyaan" a watchable fare. If not for them it would have been a disaster. The VFX was never in place. Either the detailing was too good that made you feel there was animation within animation or the background seemed like a picture making you feel like a 1st grade kid. No consistency in the work and the editing could have been improved a lot. The lip sync was never in sync, especially in the song. But (the last one), you can always watch it for the SUPERSTAR!

Rating: 2/5

Kochadaiyaan - An expected "EPIC" fail!

Review: Queen (2014)

Well, I know I'm late. This movie released 2 weeks back. I got to watch it just now and to put it simply, I loved it. 

Queen is another journey which invited me and it amazed me as to how maturely and differently people can think when they make cinema. Cinema was all about entertainment years back, now it still is but people expect more from it. They want to get attached to it and want to feel moved by it. Queen is such a movie. It entertains you, it pains you when it makes you step into the protagonist's shoes and let you think about living it. 

Having expectations is not always a great thing, furthermore having expectations about specific people could lead problems your way. Kangana is one such person whom you'd expect to not "act" but she lets you down for you thought and makes you go "Wow" at her after the movie. Such incredible performance, she's pulled off a very tough role. I mean, how can one act so innocent and yet be so genuine.

Hats off to the director and writer Vikas Bahl. With editing support from Anurag Kashyap, this movie lures you to think and makes you happy with the way it progresses and concludes. Amit Trivedi's music is as captivating as ever. Doesn't let you down at all.

Watch the movie and live it. Queen is definitely something which you shouldn't miss.

Rating: 3.5/5

Queen: Celebrate her womanhood!

Review: Highway (2014)

If you came out of highway and said this movie has a lot of flaws, then you'd be dumb. Not because there aren't any, only because the movie hasn't hit the right side of your head!

Highway is a journey you'd never want to end. You are so immersed in it that you totally hate the projector when the movie is about to end. It carries you in this wonderful path that makes you feel like the protagonist. 

Alia's performance in "Student of the year" left her hopeless in acting but she strikes hard in Highway, so hard that it touches your heart and rebounds leaving you awestruck. One of the performance she'll be remembered in the future. Her co-star Randeep Hooda comes back with a totally different role from where we saw him in Bombay Talkies. Alia wins hands down over anybody in the movie, acting wise.

Highway is a technically brilliant movie. With music from AR Rahman and sound engineering by Resul Pookutty, these two make sure that live sounds of the environment are captured and brought to our ears to make us feel as part of the movie itself. Cinematography is brilliant.

You might find Highway boring (if you like movies like R..Rajkumar and Gunday - just 2 random examples), but my respect is high for Imtiaz Ali for making this dark yet cheerful film which touched my heart and brought out tears. Hats off!

Rating: 3.5/5

Highway: Why did it have to end....

Review: Veeram & Jilla (2014)

The only reason why the title of this post and the images are in that order is that I watched these movies in the same order and not because the first one is better than the second. (Giving it away right here!)

People say these actors and their films shouldn't be compared. I say they should. Why? Not because there was an image on facebook which showed "Veeram and Jilla" similarities (of which of course most of them were not true). It is because both these movies fall in the same genre. Which one? - "Films made purely for monetary purposes"

I know its harsh. I really don't know what made Ajith choose a script like Veeram especially after a series of movies which were more modern and Vijay choose Jilla especially after a series of "right decisions". (Wait for it - I haven't said which is better)

People often have this misconception that if a person likes an actor, his/her viewing angle of the "so-called" opponent is biased. I don't feel so. I'm a Vijay fan forever and I don't hate Ajith. In fact, I don't see them as competition too because I know what each of them is capable of. 

So, starting with Veeram, Ajith chose to do an out and out commercial film which I personally feel is one big mistake. The film's first half rides high and purely because of Santhanam. If it wasn't for him, Ajith's screen presence would not have created this big an impact. The second half is "supposedly" racy but to me I felt like I was watching a telugu flick. There was not one bit of proof for it to have come from a Tamilian's stable. The music director constantly proved my previous line. His background music throughout the movie was lifted directly from his telugu movie scores. In fact, each of his songs in this movie were utter non-sense. If we were to talk about the movie's major negatives, Mr. DSP will be right at the top.

Next comes the editing department - very sloppy indeed. Basically the entire technical department has failed the movie. It looks like the budget was very less - Ajith seems to change his clothes only during the songs to show more of his dancing belly. Overall, I'd give Veeram a miss. The fans term Veeram as the clear winner over Jilla. I don't seem to understand why. Veeram's second half gave me a bad headache. One of my friends (who doesn't favor any side) slept off during some important scene. Such is the treatment.

Jilla, on the other side, clearly is a lot better than what Veeram is. The technical team is the main strength of the movie unlike Veeram. The BGM, editing, stunts and camera work are far far better. (Note the point that I'm only making a comparison here, I'm not terming Jilla to be some world class movie). 30 mins in to the movie and I was like "What the hell! What is wrong with these guys?" and then the story takes shape. (Note: the genres are same but Jilla has a better story. Again, I use the word better). Vijay has done a decent job in all departments - be it action, comedy, singing, dancing. He always carries the movie along with him. Even though his movies have been pretty similar in the past, his performance has always stood out. There is no mainstream comedian required when Vijay is there. He just needs an upcoming sidekick like Soori to help him. Soori has done an awesome job. Mohan Lal's screen presence is bulky because that is how he looks. He speaks tamil in his usual mallu accent and has done a fairly nice job. The star cast is pretty huge. Lots of great artists used in small small places. Good job Neason (Yeah, that's the spelling). Only if the movie was short and the songs were cut, this would have been a great entertainer.

So, here is the bottom line - Jilla is original, Veeram is not! 

Ajith fans might term Veeram the winner.

Vijay fans might think Jilla is 100 times better than Veeram.

Neutral folks will say Jilla is slightly better than Veeram.

Me as a Vijay fan says - "Jilla is good. Veeram is not within comparable range. Basically, I mean Veeram is bad!"

Me as a critic says - Both movies are crap! It is all a conspiracy. It has all happened in the behind to make such bad movies and to win equally.

Jilla's plot had some twists and was engaging, Veeram's plot was blank!

Veeram's director, "Siruthai" Siva has a lot of Tollywood influence. His first movie was a remake. Jilla's director Neason is original and with Jilla he remains original. Although he tries to work in the same genre, the plot was different, the treatment was different. Watch it to believe it!

Both movies are made from the same base formula. Veeram is the answer paper to a TN State Board exam and Jilla is for CBSE!

Rating:

Veeram - 1.5/5 | Jilla - 2.5/5

My Pick for you: Jilla it is...

P.S. There has been a lot of negative reviews flowing in for Jilla. I think that could be one reason which will work in favour of Jilla.

Review: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013 for US, 2014 in India)

Martin Scorcese's The Wolf of Wall Street is a witty and a very "open" take on the life of Jordan Belfort. You can google him up and read up on who he is or probably watch this movie and understand how he shook the US stock market.

Leonardo DiCaprio easily plays out another character with finesse. Amazing portrayal and brilliant acting. 

Jonah Hill accompanies him as his close aide and he doesn't fail either. He too shows the same integrity in playing out his character.

What might work against the movie is its boldness and total narcotic abuse. However, the movie doesn't show it in the positive way, it all ends and leads to a perfect ending of a biography of a man who took his life as a joke.

The print that came to India had a lot of cuts and censored footage but still churned out to be ~3 hours and not a single moment went boring.

Watch the movie for a brilliant piece of art. Trust me this is not one of Scorcese's usuals. Its different!

Rating: 3.5/5

The Wolf of Wall Streets: Testosterone's howling abuse! 

Review: Irandaam Ulagam (2013)

Selvaraghavan's Irandaam Ulagam could have been a path-breaking movie in Kollywood. It did have a great potential to do so. It could have made Hollywood, Bollywood and any other wood turn back at us in awe. It could have proved that innovative film making is possible even in India. It could have made director Selva a legend. 

Enough of could haves, coming to reality, Irandaam Ulagam is a test of patience. Anyone could become restless. The main flaw of the movie is not the pace but the screenplay, not the story but the execution. If you understood all the could haves in the previous paragraph, you would understand why Irandaam Ulagam miserably fails.

It is not a commercial entertainer nor is it a no-brainer, it has immense creativity and this movie would have looked world class on a whiteboard but the way it was shot and the way it was funded has sunk the movie. 

Selvaraghavan is a genius no doubt but he needs someone to teach him "how to make a movie". You can't shoot a movie with a plot straight from a scribble book and expect everyone to like it. Of course, with the current viewing public, all you need to give them is entertainment. With movies grossing in hundreds of crores and new milestones reached, a "different" movie is bound to fail in terms of collections. 

I know many will question my expectations and some self-proclaimed critics will laud the movie for its innovative and bold execution, I would take my own stance. This movie is not worth the treatment. It deserves more. Selva has thought ahead of time, he has imagined something which no one had. Although, he derives a lot of inspiration from Cloud Atlas (in plot) and 300 (in fight sequences), he still has brought a difference. Few months ago, he gave an interview where he lashed upon the current movie makers for succumbing to such poor cinema. He said people look for money rather than making a nice movie. He said he wants to make a movie which others will look up to, His aim is right and he did go in that direction in Irandaam Ulagam but he has failed big time.

Background score by Anirudh was great in the starting but slowly goes back to his "3" hit tune and becomes annoying. Songs by Harris Jeyaraj are nice to hear but are cliched from his own work. (I don't know how long he will survive by repeating the same tunes again and again). The re-recording was abysmal. The graphics, although very amateur, were great for a low budget movie beating Kochadaiyaan by miles (considering its huge budget). The editing is pathetic and the scene-to-scene transitions are abrupt at places.

Irandaam Ulagam is definitely a movie ahead of its times. Too hard for a producer to do justice to the director's amazing imagination. Some learnings from Hollywood can help, George Lucas shot the last 3 parts of Star Wars first because the first 3 demanded resources that were unavailable that time. He waited and made a mark. Irandaam Ulagam is a movie worth an enormous budget. I was imagining this to be shot by James Cameron and this would have won an oscar. Such was the movie's capability.

Usually, I end my review with a line which would help you take a decision on whether to watch a movie or not but with this review I would leave it up to you. Watch it if you want to fund the producer. Spending money here is a lot better than spending it on crappy movies which earn 100+ crores.

If you are looking for entertainment, don't watch this movie. If you are looking for a masterpiece, don't watch this movie. But if you want to appreciate creativity or if you want to test your patience, go watch this movie. Anyone who comes out of this movie without a bit of irritation would have relished the creative and innovative thinking of Selvaraghavan and would be satisfied by that. I was one of them. Were you?

Rating: 2/5 (only for his thought process)

Irandaam Ulagam: Miles short of a masterpiece!

Review: Aarambam (2013)

Probably one of the biggest year end releases in Tamil cinema and with multiple star power Aarambam created sky high hype and to add to it the distributors/theatre owners decided to screen innumerable shows in Chennai. Imagine 91 shows for a movie in just one multiplex. Totally Insane!

Getting straight to the point, as expected, Aarambam did not live up to that hype. The movie had a lot of potential. The first half was very exciting and for a change I thought that I would give a good rating to this movie. But a boring and dull second half left me un-engaged and think of other things during the show.

If I had to point out one best thing in the movie, it would be the cinematography. It was stunning and world class. Om Prakash needs a pat on the back for taking us through some amazing and never before seen visuals and camera angles. Apart from this, if something scored, then it was surely Ajith. He pulls it off with ease and class.

All the other departments failed. Editing was below par, songs were totally unhearable (better to hear just the background music - Young tamizhachi was a good and stylishly shot number but with a straight rip off party prelude), acting by others were passable, graphics were very amateurish.

Arya makes a fun of himself throughout the movie, Nayantara follows his path. Tapasee, on the other hand, was cute in certain areas and her delivery was different from the others. Rana Daggubati was utterly useless. No scope for him.

None of them in the cast knew how to dance. Choreography was like aerobics. 

At a high level, the film looks like a stylish hollywood flick but frequent hiccups in the screenplay, logical fallacies and other minor errors brings down the overall quality of the movie to a level lower than expected.

For a movie of this scale, errors like "using mouse on a non-clicking interface", "tamil dubbing characters starting to talk directly in tamil" and "location errors" should have definitely been avoided. Also, the director could have avoided a lame joke on Ajith's namesake enemy Vijay by not letting a Vijay look-alike come and do some unwanted gimmicks in one of the scenes which involved the character coming out of a theatre playing Rajini's Sivaiji.

To sum it up, I would say Arrambam is not that bad it does have its own ways to work, but the negatives along with a cliched storyline lets down the viewer. After a decent first half, I began to think if this is one of the best Ajith flicks in my list but at the end this thought ends up in the trash.

A swing and a miss is Aarambam but still is definitely better than Billa 2. Watch if you want to have some timepass and definitely watch if you are an Ajith fan.

Rating: 2.5/5

Aarambam: Could have actually made it simple!

Review: Rush & The Lunchbox (2013)

 

It is all about emotions!

 

First, I've been feeling very low about everything around me in recent times. I watched a movie called "Stuck in Love" at home yesterday and couldn't control myself. It was so emotional and touchy.

 

Today, Me and 2 of my roomies decided to watch 2 movies back to back. Both of which we were very sure will turn out to be great entertainers. And we were not mistaken.

 

It started with "Rush", a true story of one of F1 racing's greatest rivalries. The movie was so intense that never did anyone of us felt bored or even looked into the phone (which people usually do). Whatever be the rivalry, there was an emotional connect between the 2 stars. The way they acted was so real. The editing, the music, the cinematography was bang on target. This could easily be one of the year's best movies.

 

Next up was "The Lunchbox" by first timer Ritesh Batra and produced by some heavy weights. The trailer struck a chord with everyone who watched it. Everyone knew that they were going to be treated to some Oscar-worthy cinema. We did get what we expected until the climax. I would agree if it was left open-ended with some vantage point but on the contrary it just ended abruptly. If there is anything that did not please me that would be this thing. There was a lot of scopefor this movie and this could be one of the reasons why "The Lunchbox" is not India's entry to the Foreign Film Category in this year's Academy Awards.

 

The common aspect of both these movies was that both had something to do with human emotions. That is what made them click. That is what made them likeable. While "Rush" was thrilling, "The Lunchbox" was dramatic. Both did not miss out on the smallest details. Both movies would definitely make up anyone's day.

 

Rating: 3.5/5

 

You may think of them as David and Goliath but both won my heart!

 

P.S. This attempt of reviewing is a little different from my usuals. Please let me know your comments.

 

 

Review: Madras Cafe (2013)

Most of the reviews of "Madras Cafe" would start off by saying how this movie is a game changer in bollywood. Yes it is one.

Shoojit Sircar's Madras Cafe is a top notch action thriller that every movie goer should watch. It is so well made that it fails your eyes to catch any flaws. There were some here and there but then I didn't care so much. The intense detail to which the movie conveys the story is one of Shoojit's many plus points. The way he has changed his cards from a movie like "Vicky Donor" to weave Madras Cafe is definitely noteworthy. Prior to Vicky Donor, he also directed "Yahaan" which was again an army based movie but both of them are completely different from each other.

"Madras Cafe" throws light on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination indirectly. One could well connect this to the original happenings. The movie ends logically and throughout the whole of the film there is absolutely no nonsense or any kind of heroism involved. 

Talking about characters, everyone plays an important role and everyone does with brilliance. Shoojit's cast is so relevant to the story that you end up believing that they are the original characters. Siddhartha Basu was a surprise. I mean, his acting was brilliant. His voice is so interesting to the ears (It always was ever since his Mastermind India, a BBC show, days). Nargis Phakri and Rashi Khanna play their parts well. Just wanted to mention their names here. What I also noticed was that most of the characters were taken from tamil movies. This shows how much detail Shoojit wanted on the screen. 

The background score was brilliant. Perhaps, this is one of those very few movies where background score will take special notice as there were no songs at all. Not one bit except till the end when the credits roll out.

Exceptional movie I must say. Please watch it in the theatres. This one is sure to grip you to your seats and captivate your thoughts. I watched it totally with my eye brows forming wrinkles.

Rating: 3.5/5

Madras Cafe: Absolutely Gripping!

Review: Thalaivaa (2013)

Riding high on the success of Nanban and Thuppaki, Vijay and Director Vijay would have expected their latest venture Thalaivaa to do well too but unfortunately, it is yet to see a release in TN and Puducherry with some miscreants playing spoilsport 2 days before the release. However, the movie released elsewhere (rest of India and worldwide) and that gave way to a pirated version circulated over the internet. So now we know that the pirated copies are made outside TN only. 

I obviously had access to the pirated version but I decided to drive to Gurgaon to watch it during my Holiday at Delhi. 

I must say that overall I was disappointed with the movie. There wasn't much to go "Wow" over. The movie started with some comedy sequences and then slowly turning serious and then going the revolutionary way. The plot was simple and the ending could be predicted as the second half started. There wasn't much for the director to take credit except for few brilliantly lit shots with the help of the cinematographer.

Coming to the acting department, Sathyaraj and a lot of his closely connected characters had to underplay from what we'd seen of them. They had done pretty well. Especially Manobala whose dialogues peak the equalizer. The villain and lot of Mumbaikars spoke in tamil with a north Indian touch (which seemed natural because of the plot setup). Santhanam's comedy was good. It brought some smiles often (though not always) and some were scripted totally to make fun of Vijay. It was good of Vijay to have accepted such a comedy track. Vijay was at his usual best. A total freak out character in the first half and a direct opposite type of a character in the second half. The transformation was good. Amala Paul dubbed herself and she did a pretty good job. She looks good too. The character sketch of a lot of artistes kept losing its path midway. 

Music by GV Prakash was great and his background score played well with the pixels too. The intro song choreography was good. Melody "Yaar indha saalai oram" was well thought of while capturing the video and did not require travel to any ice capped mountains or a green garden. The song and dance teams score full marks in this movie.

A lot of technical glitches coupled with a poor storyline and some weak character sketches make "Thalaivaa" an "Arrow missing the bull's eye by a mile". Watch it for Vijay, Santhanam and the songs but watch it in the theatre as the team has already lost a lot of money (It hasn't got released yet + the pirated version is out).

Rating: 2.5/5

Thalaivaa: A Swing and a Miss!