Thotti Jeya - Quick review
My prayer points to God after watching Thotti Jeya. Dear God, Please get rid of the following malices from the world of Tamil cinema:
1) Pradeep Rawath - seems like the guy who tortured us in Ghajni started his service in this movie
2) Harris Jeyaraj (until the day he stops churning out BGM in the form of some high pitched, completely unfathomable and totally non-sense voices for action sequences)
3) Stunt masters who think that making people crash into vehicles and heads getting hit by tube light frames shows off the intensity of the fight.
In spite of all these drawbacks, the movie was still a good watch. Lot better than the string of movies which were released this year and which could have been very good movies (Anniyan, Ghajni, Ullam Kaettkume, Arindhum Ariyaamalum) but instead ended up being either pretty bad movies (Anniyan & Ghajni) or just OK movies (AA and UK), this movie though not qualifying to be the perfect masala movie, it goes a long way in giving the satisfaction of watching a pretty decently crafted masala flick.
The movie's director whose debut attempt Mugavari is still one among favorites of recent years was one reason why I was looking forward to the movie (and I have been doing that for close to 2.5 months now since it was only last weekend we finally got the DVD of the movie at the local Indian store & I was the first to grab the movie - So, don't be surprised if Lazygeek comes out with a review the next week or so). The other reason I looked forward to the movie was Simbu. Though I was as big a hater of Simbu that you would come across, I started liking him ever since he has stopped all his stupid punch dialogues and finger heroics. His performances in Kovil and Manmathanmade me take note of him (not that the movies were great but they definitely offered glimpses of his all-round potential).
The romantic scenes between Simbu and Gopika in the movie are easily the best I have seen in a Tamil film since the days of Kannathil Muthamittaal (I am sure everyone loves the Simran - Madhavan flashback scenes in KM). That is a huge compliment bcos Mani Rathnam is as good as it gets when it comes to portraying subtle romance on-screen. Though the romance part is not as subtle as in KM, you would be hard pressed not to think "How good it would be if I were in love with someone?". Harris Jeyaraj's background score during these scenes only adds flavor to those scenes. And in this movie, they look all the more cuter bcos Simbu is a rowdy who has no tender feelings whatsoever. All he knows is to hit people if given the needed money. So, when the romance involves a person like him, it is obviously sweeter.
Simbu does that part well with the only grouse being that there were way too many fight scenes in the movie. In my opinion, I think that this is a movie that Simbu should not have done so early in his career. He still looks very young and he is not all that macho. Someone like Vikram would have been perfect fit for this movie but Simbu, notwithstanding his fine performance in the movie, still does not fit the role perfectly. He needs to work on his voice modulation a lot. Lot of scenes in the movie where he tries to be coarse, he actually sounds childish. Other than that, Simbu delivers a solid performance. He did not disappoint me a bit. The one scene where he tells Gopika about himself and why he does not deserved to be loved by anyone, deserves some heavy applause. My respect and admiration for him has definitely increased after seeing this movie. Though I am already looking ahead to his Vallavan, I am also still waiting for that big day when he is roped in by a big-time director like Mani Rathnam or Bala who can make use full use of his talents. Currently, he is like this wild river which is just flowing without any direction. It would take a good director to channelize his talent and deliver that one good quality film he still hasn’t done. Hari tried his best in Kovil but unfortunately for Simbu, since the movie's story was an Alaigal Oyvadhillai rehash, the movie didn’t do well at the box office and his performance went unnoticed.
Coming to the songs, 2 of Harris Jeyaraj's numbers are still on the repeat mode in my iPod. The director has even taken the Kamal route of not using the song fully (something Kamal and Mani Rathnam of late have started doing) - playing the "Uyire En Uyire' song in the background, in bits and pieces. But my other favorite number "Yaaridamum thondravillai" did not even figure in the movie. That was a let down. BTW, right when the movie starts, a slide saying "Thanks to Yuvan Shankar Raja" is shown. What’s up with that? Did Yuvan help out Harris Jeyaraj for this movie bcos of his closeness to Simbu? Any pointers...
The other disappointing thing for me in the movie was that Simbu's dancing skills were not utilized properly. I am a big fan of Simbu's dancing and he is someone, who personally I feel can stand up to Vijay when it comes to dancing, which BTW is Vijay's only forte. And when I heard the 'Thotta power-da' song in the album the very first time, the first thing that stuck my mind was "I should watch Simbu dance to these ready made kuthu beats". But unfortunately, that did not happen and that was one of the disappointments out of the movie.
Overall, definitely one of the better movies of the year and if not for the unwanted number of violent scenes of stuntmen smashing their heads and breaking their hands and villains shouting unnecessarily high pitched dialogues with their badly dubbed voices, this would have been a more decent movie & would have attained widespread appreciation than what it ultimately ended up getting.
Folks in the US, do have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. I will finish this post with an amazing statistic --> Guess what is the average number of calories that an American consumes on Thanksgiving day – an unbelievably whopping 7100 calories. That’s just the average which means there are a whole bunch of people who probably end up eating more than 10000 - 15000 calories. This MSNBC article has more such stats and facts about this turkey eating holiday.
1) Pradeep Rawath - seems like the guy who tortured us in Ghajni started his service in this movie
2) Harris Jeyaraj (until the day he stops churning out BGM in the form of some high pitched, completely unfathomable and totally non-sense voices for action sequences)
3) Stunt masters who think that making people crash into vehicles and heads getting hit by tube light frames shows off the intensity of the fight.
In spite of all these drawbacks, the movie was still a good watch. Lot better than the string of movies which were released this year and which could have been very good movies (Anniyan, Ghajni, Ullam Kaettkume, Arindhum Ariyaamalum) but instead ended up being either pretty bad movies (Anniyan & Ghajni) or just OK movies (AA and UK), this movie though not qualifying to be the perfect masala movie, it goes a long way in giving the satisfaction of watching a pretty decently crafted masala flick.
The movie's director whose debut attempt Mugavari is still one among favorites of recent years was one reason why I was looking forward to the movie (and I have been doing that for close to 2.5 months now since it was only last weekend we finally got the DVD of the movie at the local Indian store & I was the first to grab the movie - So, don't be surprised if Lazygeek comes out with a review the next week or so). The other reason I looked forward to the movie was Simbu. Though I was as big a hater of Simbu that you would come across, I started liking him ever since he has stopped all his stupid punch dialogues and finger heroics. His performances in Kovil and Manmathanmade me take note of him (not that the movies were great but they definitely offered glimpses of his all-round potential).
The romantic scenes between Simbu and Gopika in the movie are easily the best I have seen in a Tamil film since the days of Kannathil Muthamittaal (I am sure everyone loves the Simran - Madhavan flashback scenes in KM). That is a huge compliment bcos Mani Rathnam is as good as it gets when it comes to portraying subtle romance on-screen. Though the romance part is not as subtle as in KM, you would be hard pressed not to think "How good it would be if I were in love with someone?". Harris Jeyaraj's background score during these scenes only adds flavor to those scenes. And in this movie, they look all the more cuter bcos Simbu is a rowdy who has no tender feelings whatsoever. All he knows is to hit people if given the needed money. So, when the romance involves a person like him, it is obviously sweeter.
Simbu does that part well with the only grouse being that there were way too many fight scenes in the movie. In my opinion, I think that this is a movie that Simbu should not have done so early in his career. He still looks very young and he is not all that macho. Someone like Vikram would have been perfect fit for this movie but Simbu, notwithstanding his fine performance in the movie, still does not fit the role perfectly. He needs to work on his voice modulation a lot. Lot of scenes in the movie where he tries to be coarse, he actually sounds childish. Other than that, Simbu delivers a solid performance. He did not disappoint me a bit. The one scene where he tells Gopika about himself and why he does not deserved to be loved by anyone, deserves some heavy applause. My respect and admiration for him has definitely increased after seeing this movie. Though I am already looking ahead to his Vallavan, I am also still waiting for that big day when he is roped in by a big-time director like Mani Rathnam or Bala who can make use full use of his talents. Currently, he is like this wild river which is just flowing without any direction. It would take a good director to channelize his talent and deliver that one good quality film he still hasn’t done. Hari tried his best in Kovil but unfortunately for Simbu, since the movie's story was an Alaigal Oyvadhillai rehash, the movie didn’t do well at the box office and his performance went unnoticed.
Coming to the songs, 2 of Harris Jeyaraj's numbers are still on the repeat mode in my iPod. The director has even taken the Kamal route of not using the song fully (something Kamal and Mani Rathnam of late have started doing) - playing the "Uyire En Uyire' song in the background, in bits and pieces. But my other favorite number "Yaaridamum thondravillai" did not even figure in the movie. That was a let down. BTW, right when the movie starts, a slide saying "Thanks to Yuvan Shankar Raja" is shown. What’s up with that? Did Yuvan help out Harris Jeyaraj for this movie bcos of his closeness to Simbu? Any pointers...
The other disappointing thing for me in the movie was that Simbu's dancing skills were not utilized properly. I am a big fan of Simbu's dancing and he is someone, who personally I feel can stand up to Vijay when it comes to dancing, which BTW is Vijay's only forte. And when I heard the 'Thotta power-da' song in the album the very first time, the first thing that stuck my mind was "I should watch Simbu dance to these ready made kuthu beats". But unfortunately, that did not happen and that was one of the disappointments out of the movie.
Overall, definitely one of the better movies of the year and if not for the unwanted number of violent scenes of stuntmen smashing their heads and breaking their hands and villains shouting unnecessarily high pitched dialogues with their badly dubbed voices, this would have been a more decent movie & would have attained widespread appreciation than what it ultimately ended up getting.
Folks in the US, do have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. I will finish this post with an amazing statistic --> Guess what is the average number of calories that an American consumes on Thanksgiving day – an unbelievably whopping 7100 calories. That’s just the average which means there are a whole bunch of people who probably end up eating more than 10000 - 15000 calories. This MSNBC article has more such stats and facts about this turkey eating holiday.
posted by Filbert at 11:00 AM
2 Comments:
welcome to blogger :) have been a pretty regular reader of your blog on rediff, especially the short reviews of your weekend thalaivar movie pick :)
we pretty much felt the same about TJ. i too felt the romance was 1 of the best in recent times -very subtle, tender and realistic. the 2nd half had too many stunts and was a total letdown after the romance. here's my take.
btw, we had exactly the same thots on 'englishkaaran' too :)
Balaji,
Thanks for the comment. I was pleasantly surprised that you are reading my posts in my Rediff blog. Great to see that.
And I would probably have been one of the first persons to read your TJ review & passed on the same to my friends too. So I guess I do not need a link to the same :)
Post a Comment
<< Home