Weekend movies - ABCD, Bluffmaster, Pachakudhira & Athadu

ABCD - There is a reason why your credit history is such an essential thing over here in the US. Bcos, it tells a neutral observer how reliable and trustworthy you are. Reason I am mentioning it here - equally critical is the fimography of the director before watching a movie. I did not know that this movie was directed by the same director who directed Citizen. Yes, the same movie which had Ajith compete with himself in a strong fancy dress competition, throughout the movie. The reason I decided to watch this movie is bcos I had a discussion/ argument with a friend as to which movie was worse - Kodambakkam or ABCD. My friend had seen both the movies but since I had not seen ABCD, I decided to watch it (to restore parity in during the discussion). Well, what to say about the movie than the decision that Kodambakkam was definitely better than this crap. The biggest culprit of the movie (apart from the director) is Shaam. He sounded like he was already dead. I mean, in trying to sound humble & soft-spoken, he ended up talking like a drunkard in some places & a dead man at some places. In the movie full of clichéd characters and situations, the one soothing relief was Sneha. Ever smiling and acting appropriately, she saves us from the experience of watching this movie turn into a complete disaster. The director has tried to do a la Azhagan (I know it is a crime to even mention the name of this movie along with Azhagan in the same sentence. But I had to mention it here bcos of the fact that both the movies deal with the story of 3 women falling in love over 1 guy.) But has thrown something called subtlety out of the window and thus has failed miserably. And those songs picturization - will make you go crazy on what went through the director's mind when he decided to do that. Weird. A must-avoid movie.

Bluffmaster - In spite of knowing that this is based on couple of Hollywood movies, I completely enjoyed it. Abhishek has this admirable quality of underplaying his character and I have come to admire this facet of his acting. When I saw him in Sarkar, I thought he was ordinary. But now, after watching Bunty & Babli (the Kajra Re song in that movie is a must-watch, one of the best choreographed songs that I have ever seen) & this one, I have actually become a fan of Abhishek. He has this earthly look to him and the way he carries himself & his body language are just too good. I guess it is probably in the genes. Priyanka Chopra was gorgeous. Nana Patekar was as always amazing. The songs which don’t sound like the usual filmi songs are very interesting (they don’t follow the usual pallavi - charanam pattern) and so is the way they were picturized too. Thoroughly enjoyable stuff, this one.

Pachakudhira - I am a self-confessed fan of Parthiban. In fact, it is Parthiban that I admire the most after Thalaivar. His maverick approach is something that fascinates me. So, whenever Parthiban makes a film, I am all excited and it has continued till Ivan. So, it was with high expectations that I started watching this movie. But by the time the movie ended, I was like Podhum Parthiban, torture thaanga mudiyala. It was such a tortuous movie to sit through. I still can not understand why someone like Parthiban can not come up with a coherent screenplay. The songs would come up in completely unexpected situations and just when you thought that the movie is picking some pace, there would come another scene that will completely put you off. On top of it, the most important aspect of the movie - Parthiban's characterization - was so inconsistent. There is no valid reason provided as to why he changes his direction in life. Parthiban looks bloated and completely out of shape. Namitha was a complete ‘revelation’ (again, pun intended). She has tried her best to act but fails unfortunately. But it is very clear that she has tried. Sleaze is one word every review of this movie would refer to atleast once and let me too throw it here - even in the most innocent of scenes, it takes a Parthiban to fuse some sleaze into it. Though this review is completely negative, there were still some of those typical Parthiban touches at many places in the movie. But even there, he got carried away in trying to do something different - having the kids fight the rowdies was just too much. I was expecting another Ulle Veliye (BTW, I liked Ulle Veliye so much that I watched it thrice in the theater) but was completely disappointed. Parthiban can do much better than this.

Athadu (Telugu) - Watched this movie, after it was recommended to me as a must-watch movie by a Telugu friend of mine. I don’t understand Telugu (I had to use the sub titles to understand the movie) but that did not stop me from appreciating this movie. Except for the hero, who has this wooden expression in many scenes, this movie was highly entertaining. The one thing that caught me by surprise was the high quality production values of the film. It was like watching a Shankar film - great camera work, amazing songs picturization to go on top of some very good songs and the grandeur one would associate with a Shankar movie. I particularly liked the way how during every few scenes, they had that time & place of where the scene takes place, showing up at the bottom. In one scene, it goes like this: Time – don’t know (since clock didn’t work) :) The movie was rich and the fight sequences were shot very well. The credits said the fight master was Peter Haines, our very own stunt master who is the master for Thalaivar's Sivaji. Only irritation of the movie was Trisha. Though she did look very beautiful, the scenes involving her were a drag. I just couldn’t stand her. Even if you are new to Telugu films, this is probably a good film to start off. A very well-made stylish flick.