Weekend movies - Taxi No 9 2 11 and AIBI
It has been a while since I posted my usual 'Weekend movies' post. I had written these posts long before I went to India, couple of months back. Just now getting the time to post it here.
Taxi No 9 2 11 - Only as I started watching it, it slowly dawned on me that this movie is based on the English movie Changing Lanes, starring Ben Affleck and Samuel Jackson. On googling, I did found out that it is a known fact and it was just that I was unaware of that. The movie is about how 2 people, who are frustrated with their lives due to some nagging personal problem/ conflict, meet with an accident and how they react to it & finally how that accident brings a good turnaround in their lives. And all this during the course of a single day. The movie almost religiously follows the screenplay & narration style of Changing Lanes. So, at a point, I lost interest in watching the movie and was only waiting for the movie to end. As far as performances go, Nana Patekar was awesome, as always. For us, who have been fed with an overdose of the 'Kamal brand of acting', Nana Patekar's natural acting comes as a revelation. At times he makes me think may be this is what acting is all about. Don’t know what to say about John Abraham. He tries his best to emote, falters in some scenes but has done a decent job overall. Sonali Kulkarni (heroine of May Maadham) as Nana Patekar's wife, was very cute and we also have an one-scene appearance at the end by Priyanka Chopra. The narration by Sanjay Dutt was neat. The Mumbai nagariya song was very good and catchy. If you have not watched Changing Lanes, you may like this. Me, did not but still would recommend solely for Nana Patekar's performance. BTW, why is this sudden spurt in the number of Hollywood movies that are being remade in Hindi?
AIBI - This was one movie I had been waiting to watch, mainly bcos of 2 reasons - Cheran has produced it and Yuvan's completely different songs. I kind of started loving the movie, right from when it started. The cute little things that the director had come up with, were so much enjoyable. The cartoons, even given the fact that he went overboard at times, were very refreshing. I even liked the annoying Renuka character (as Bharath's mother). The movie kind of started off like a spoof movie where almost all of the characters & situations were interesting. Like he shows the whole Kaadhal movie cast when the line Kaadhalai pirippethappadi comes in a song. Or when the camera follows and zooms on Bharath in a bike chase, he says to the camera andha pakkam po and the camera duly obliges by veering off somewhere :) You will have to watch the movie twice to absorb all of the innovative stuff that the director has come up with in this movie. But when you see this movie as a whole, it wouldn’t stand the test of scrutiny. But all the 4 lead characters from Bharath to Mallika Kapoor were adorable. The twist in the second half took me by complete surprise and so, once that was revealed I geared myself up for some interesting scenes ahead. But that is where the movie begins to falter and starts to drag with too much melodrama towards the end. Though the director kind of dragged the movie towards the end, the way it ended was pretty cute & different from the usual endings we see in Tamil movies. Yuvan, as always had some very nice background scores throughout the movie. Each and every movie of him only increases my admiration for the young guy. The parody about this movie is that inspite of the so many innovative & enjoyable stuff strewn all over the movie, it is hard to convince myself to say as the bottom line that the movie was good. A very different attempt at film-making definitely but it ultimately falls into the genre of "could have been a lot better, if the director had executed some scenes properly".
AIBI - This was one movie I had been waiting to watch, mainly bcos of 2 reasons - Cheran has produced it and Yuvan's completely different songs. I kind of started loving the movie, right from when it started. The cute little things that the director had come up with, were so much enjoyable. The cartoons, even given the fact that he went overboard at times, were very refreshing. I even liked the annoying Renuka character (as Bharath's mother). The movie kind of started off like a spoof movie where almost all of the characters & situations were interesting. Like he shows the whole Kaadhal movie cast when the line Kaadhalai pirippethappadi comes in a song. Or when the camera follows and zooms on Bharath in a bike chase, he says to the camera andha pakkam po and the camera duly obliges by veering off somewhere :) You will have to watch the movie twice to absorb all of the innovative stuff that the director has come up with in this movie. But when you see this movie as a whole, it wouldn’t stand the test of scrutiny. But all the 4 lead characters from Bharath to Mallika Kapoor were adorable. The twist in the second half took me by complete surprise and so, once that was revealed I geared myself up for some interesting scenes ahead. But that is where the movie begins to falter and starts to drag with too much melodrama towards the end. Though the director kind of dragged the movie towards the end, the way it ended was pretty cute & different from the usual endings we see in Tamil movies. Yuvan, as always had some very nice background scores throughout the movie. Each and every movie of him only increases my admiration for the young guy. The parody about this movie is that inspite of the so many innovative & enjoyable stuff strewn all over the movie, it is hard to convince myself to say as the bottom line that the movie was good. A very different attempt at film-making definitely but it ultimately falls into the genre of "could have been a lot better, if the director had executed some scenes properly".
posted by Filbert at 7:47 AM
8 Comments:
Even i liked the first half very much...so many cute things....as u said...kind of dragged towards the end...
but i liked it a lot...with little more advertisement by Cheran...this would have been a hit :((
Aamaam Bharani, you said it right. With a little bit more marketing, this movie might have been a hit. Glad that you felt the same way about the movie.
Theriyala Andrew, I guess our tastes differ :) Anytime something novel is done in a movie (like the use of cartoons & all those stuff), I love it bcos only if encourage such attempts, we will be richer. That way, I loved the movie. Yuvan had done so much experimentation with the songs in the movie. You should try listening to them again if you get a chance.
//could have been a lot better, if the director had executed some scenes properly//
that is my thot too filbert :-))
Vijay milton missed a chance to utilise it properly.
I was expecting better stuff from the Vijay Milton - Cheran combo. Somehow these cinematographers screw up their directorial ventures (except for Thankar Bachan who gave us Azhagi)
filbert, the film was very different, a great first half and good second half.... though it went meledramatic in the second half, it was more logical, realistic and convincing which didn't make it a vikraman kind-of-stuff though it actually is... Also i liked the way the songs are picturised in broadway musical style...esp the song in which Bharath meets Mallika first....innovative and convincingly handled.... i watched it in Viyay TV... without any expectation and frankly, i was surprised by the quality of the movie....
Almost exactly my thoughts, Suresh. Particularly about the melodrama not belonging to the Vikraman style. I would have been happy if the movie had gone on to become a big hit. But I am sure Vijay Milton's next film will definitely be looked forward to.
Hello Filbert..hope i shud remind u who i am..am brother of saravan babu (MIT)...jus always used to read ur blogs...Now the one on AIBI which i happend to read jus nw is quite amazing..as i agree with each and every point u ve stated..the reason fr stating this is i find very very less people who could appreciate such a cute movie..though not the best movie..couple of points i coulnt agrre more with you is the unexpected and cutely executed twist in the second half and a entirely different genre of music by Yuvan..so howz life goin..?
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