Weekend movies - Saravana, Water & Aalavandhaan

Saravana - It is really amazing how K. S. Ravi Kumar can keep making masala movies without any great storyline but still make them look decent. Mistake me not, Saravana is not a good movie, but as typical as a KSR movie one can get. Mainly wanted to see how Simbu has performed in this movie. He acts OK, dances great and jokes around pretty well. The only problem with him is he is loud-mouthing his dialogues just too much. He should probably cut down on that. Watching Simbu act is like seeing a small boy who is just enthusiastic and carefree. It is still hard for me to take him as a serious actor. He just clowns around too much. Jyothika looked OK in this movie. Given Simbhu's boyish behavior, Jyothika looked too old for him. Though the quality of the songs tuned in by Srikanth Deva were of pretty bad quality, they still were hummable. I have in fact come to like this song kaadhal vandhu very much. But KSR didn’t have a clue as to where to place them and as a result, songs just come out at the most unexpected of places. Vivek's jokes weren't anything to carry home, though the one which he starts off with kitta thatta ladies maadhiriye irukkeengale, neenga ellaam yaaru? still brings a laugh or two to me. Watchable once but like many felt, a lot better than Paramasivan that was released along with it.

Water - Despite high controversies surrounding the making of the movie, Deepa Mehta somehow managed to shoot the movie and release it. I only knew about that there is some controversy surrounding the movie but I didn’t know what the controversy was all about. Or in other words, I didn’t know what the movie dealt with. Apparently, Deepa Mehta shot the whole film in Sri Lanka and that too in disguise - she let everyone know that she was shooting for another movie, whereas in reality she was shooting Water. The movie starts off with some amazing background score and I am like Wait a sec. It has music by ARR and how come we have such a good BGM. My question was answered in a few minutes when the credits rolled where it was revealed to me that only the songs were composed by ARR whereas somebody else had composed the background score. That behind my back, I started watching the movie. The moment you realize what this movie is about, the enormity of the task at hand for Deepa Mehta dawns on you. The film just shakes you to no ends. The crudeness will jolt you. It looks at the life of widows in the 1930s through the eyes of a 8-year old, who too is condemned to the ashram of widows. But the movie had a feel-good climax which will warm you. The casting was perfect, except for Lisa Ray. Somehow it was hard for me to picture her as a widow. Everything else about the movie - the cinematography, background score and performances - were just too good. The small girl should definitely win a national award for her performance. She was so cute & she makes you cry when she cries & laugh when she laughs. There were some really poignant moments in the movie which will move you. There is this scene where the little girl brings laddu to a very old widow who hasn’t had a laddu for years bcos widows are not supposed to eat fried food items. That scene was just too overwhelming. Gandhiji also appears in a scene at the very end of the movie. That scene was shot extremely well. The way how the whole town reacts to Gandhiji's stop-over & his short speech at their place really made me think that it was how it would have been during those days when the Mahatma was around & how well he was received in the villages. Totally gripping movie.

Aalavandhaan - I never wanted to watch this movie since even the best of Kamal fans came running out of the theater while watching it (please note it is 'while' and not 'after' watching the movie). But now, I understand their plight...poor fellows, you can not blame them. Aalavandhaan is to Kamal, what Baba was to Thalaivar. Like Baba, Aalavandhaan was one movie which came amidst dizzying expectations but flopped miserably (atleast the disaster of Baba did not bite the distributors' hands bcos of Thalaivar's magnanimity whereas what this movie's failure did to Thaanu is part of folklore). Anyway, one word to describe this movie would be terrible. This movie is probably the best example of what can happen due to Kamal's overindulgence in almost all the aspects of film-making. Recently in a blog there was this statement that this movie was technically superior (that was why I watched this movie in first place). Well, what can I say about that than just laugh about it. There were too many ridiculous scenes in the movie where the use of graphics was glaring to the eye. I mean, even the most amateur of movie-goers will easily spot the use of graphics in so many scenes. Particularly, the most technically challenging scenes where 2 Kamals shared the screen, it was almost very clear to my eyes that something has been done to show them that way. Each and every single scene involving graphics was pathetically done. To add to our woes, the film is 2 hours 50 mins long. The last 20 mins were completely unwatchable, with Kamal entering the 'full overboard' zone. Then, we had Manisha - completely bloated up and didn’t know what she was doing in the movie. Also, I have to say something about Raveena Tandon as the news anchor of Star Vijay. That would make you think that the Sun TV anchors are as good as Prannoy Roy. Pathetic Tamil. I do not understand why they had to show her as someone who reads Tamil news. They could have had her stick to reading English news, since the whole movie is based in Delhi. But then this is one such movie, with full of mis-steps like this. The only saving grace of an otherwise crappy movie is some of the tunes composed by the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy combination. The Un azhagukku thaai poruppu song is one of my all-time favorites. This film deserved what it got as a response from the audience in terms of Box office verdict. And I am happy about it bcos if this movie had become a hit, we would have seen more of such stupid stuff from Kamal. It is when you watch movies like this, you realize how we all miss the Kamal from the Mahanadhi & Devar Magan days. He is long gone and I don’t think we will ever get to see him again.