India trip movies - Thimiru, Uyir & Aran

Thimiru - Was easily the best of the three. Vishal is turning out to fit the role of the next angry young man hero we have so often seen in Tamil cinema. Another movie based in Madurai and Thimiru has been able to continue the trend of films being shot based in Madurai making it big at the BO, following the success of movies like Gilli, Kaadhal and Thavamaai thavam Irundhu. I guess the first thing Vishal books on signing a movie is the stuntman bcos like in Sandaikozhi, the stunts in the movie are a highlight. It helps that he is tall and well-built, so that in scenes where he hits the baddies, it is really very believable. But his expression-less face in some scenes were a big minus. He needs to work on that. His dancing is solid, though. Reema Sen looks jaded and does not have much of a role to play. The scene stealer is of course Shreya Reddy. I am not sure if the role is worth all the praise she is receiving but it is definitely a notable performance. She is supposed to be obnoxious and she delivers just that. Yuvan's songs were perfect for the theme and mood of the film and he has another winner through this movie's box office success. Background score is competent (when has Yuvan failed in that aspect before?) and suits the flow of the movie very well. The Maana madhurai song has been picturized energetically but Kiran has little to do. I don’t understand why directors go in for some popular actress for these one-off item numbers and don’t use them fully. Like in this song, Kiran was completely unnecessary bcos it was Vishal's dancing prowess that was being projected to the core. It was a surprise when I saw that the Goppurane song was allotted for Vadivelu. It was then I realized the choice of Gangai Amaran as the singer of that song. A Vadivelu of the Bharathi Kannamma days would have done much better justice to the song than what he was able do now. Some of the trademark Vadivelu's steps have slowed down over the years, with him putting on too much weight. But the comedy in the first half was very good. The dialogue Mundhi ellaam adippaainga. Ippo ellaam kadikiraainga. Trend maathikitte irukkaangappa dialogue still evokes a laughter from me. In short, if you liked Sandaikozhi, then there is every chance that you will like this one too. But Vishal has to think of doing more different roles after this one. I guess Sivappathigaaram (with Karu Pazhaniappan) might just do that for him. We will have to wait and see.

Uyir - A movie with a controversial theme and expectedly, lots of noise surrounding it. I hear that the movie is a decent hit back in India but this movie would have been a bigger hit if this had been released before that insipid Kalaaba Kaadhalan. Since Kalaaba Kaadhalan was kind of the first movie in its genre (of the woman lusting behind the man), Uyir, it appears, only follows suit. But the theme has been handled way better in this movie. Each of Sangeetha's actions has been thought out pretty well by the director, in that at times it even looks perfectly justifiable to us. But I thought the director went slightly off-track at the very end where he deals more with Srikanth's problems with the heroine than with his troubles with Sangeetha. Even in that, when the movie ends, you are convinced in that the director, apart from handling the adultery theme, also has successfully conveyed a message about suicide not being an option for lovers who face failure. Sangeetha was pretty impressive but I still would not put this performance of her on par with her performance in Pithamagan. Srikanth just goes on to prove my feeling that he is an actor who is good at nothing. Seriously, he looks decent and that is all to him. I am really surprised that someone like him with so much experience (strictly going by the number of movies that he has acted in so far) still finds it hard to emote properly. And the award for killing one of the best songs of the year should go to the director of Uyir. The Aanum pennum song which is easily the pick of the Uyir album has been atrociously picturized by the director. Poor Joshua Sridhar, all his songs have been wasted in the movie. The background score was OK and adequate. Overall, a decent movie, with a controversial theme handled in quite a convincing way.

Aran - I really don’t understand why Mohan Lal chose to act in the movie. Remove Mohan Lal from the film and you have gotten rid of the only point of interest in the movie. When a highly rated actor like him does not do the dubbing for himself, then the role completely loses soul. That is what happened when Aravind Swamy dubbed for SRK in Uyire and that is what happens here where it is worse with Rajeev dubbing for Mohan Lal. The movie completely put me off, right from the beginning with those scenes involving Jeeva and Gopika. Except for a very few scenes which show the director's work experience in the army, most of the scenes have been pathetically shot. I mean, Jeeva is wearing a Nike cap in one of the scenes in the movie while he is on a mission. The comedy and the item number does not do any good to the already sagging pace of the movie. There is just no reason for those 2 in a movie like Aran. Inspite of such an abject bad movie, what is hard to miss is Mohan Lal's performance. There used to be a time when I questioned his acting abilities, asking if the way he acts is really the way a great actor does (basically, fed up with overdose of Kamal). But I simply loved his performance in this one, all this inspite of him not dubbing for himself. Jeeva only strengthens my belief that he is an actor to look out for. He is getting better with each passing movie. Finally, the other thing that I cant understand is why or how Anandha Vikatan gave 42 marks to this good for nothing movie. Just bcos somebody makes a patriotic movie or just bcos the director of the movie is an ex-army man, we should not be blindly handing out the accolades. I would suggest Major Ravi to stick to consulting other film-makers on army related scenes and just stay out of making movies. That way, he can walk with his head held high.