Weekend Movies - Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam & Pori

Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam - This was another movie that I was so eagerly expecting to watch, mainly bcos of all the good reviews it was getting. The wait for this movie actually ended up stretching to more than 3 months since the movie was released bcos of the fact the movie's DVD was constantly rented out at the local Indian store. This is probably the first movie for which I came back empty-handed atleast a good 10 times. Usually, the demand for a new movie's DVD at the local Indian store is high for the first couple of weeks and after that it should be easily available. But in this case, for some reason, the DVD was unavailable even nearly 5 weeks after it made its way to the Indian store. Anyway, enough of my experiences in trying to rent the DVD.

I found the movie to be very enjoyable. It was a laugh and fun riot. I heard both good and bad reviews about the movie from my friends. There were 2 reasons cited by my friends who did not like the movie - 1) lack of logic and 2) many scenes from Thalaivar's blockbuster movies found their place in this movie. Well, I had some easy arguments to counter both of them. As far as the lack of logic goes, since when did we start looking for logic in masala movies? When I start watching a masala movie, I take it for granted that logic will take a backseat in such a movie and hence I did not look too much into some illogical scenes in the movies. For the second reason for not liking the movie, I would ask "Who better suited to include Thalaivar's scenes than his own son-in-law?" ;) To me, this movie vaguely reminded me of Azhagiya Theeye (I am not committing the blasphemy of saying that this movie is as good as AT) bcos of the presence of funny and enjoyable one-liners sprinkled throughout the movie. Like when Dhanush asks his brother on how he looks while speeding in a bike chasing Shreya, his brother says Azhagaai Irukkiraai. Bayamaai Irukkiradhu. I thought that was cute. Dhanush was vibrant throughout the movie. This was a role tailor-made for him. When Shankar cast Shreya opposite Thalaivar in Sivaji, I was not too much impressed. Among other reasons which include my argument that Why do we even need a heroine in Thalaivar's movies? When we have Thalaivar in the movie, I look for nothing beyond him, I did not find her too attractive. But this is the first movie of her I am watching after Shankar signed her and I instantly liked her & understood why Shankar had signed her. If Boopathi Pandian could make Shreya look so good, I wonder what Shankar, the master director he is, can pull off? Prakash Raj is awesome as always. He brought in the required amount of seriousness and comic timing to his role. His was a role which had to be balanced, so that it is neither taken as a serious one nor as a comic one. I thought that was a fine line and Prakash Raj walked the line admirably. One of the more enjoyable movies I have watched in recent times. A fun movie, nothing more nothing less.

Pori - Rented this one out inspite of reading all the bad reviews it got. Reason being Jeeva and Pooja . He is one actor on whom I have a lot of faith and expectations among the younger crop of actors. But after watching this movie, I simply can't understand why he chose to do this lousy movie. Though he does his job reasonably well, the movie just did not have anything to showcase his talents. The way he utters his dialogs is so cool and natural that I would simply watch any movie starring him just bcos of that one reason. The story is weak and the way it is told is even weaker. Pooja is my favorite among the current set of actresses in Tamil (Asin, Bhavana all come after her). She looked awesome in the movie, though she did not have any meaningful role to play. Karunas was at his irritating best. Couldn't stand him. Nagesh was another saving grace of the movie. It is amazing to see how the veteran performs in even mediocre movies like this. Perunthil nee enakku is a beautiful melody by Dheena and I am sure when the Best Songs of 2007 is brought out at the end of the year, this song will find a place in such lists of most of us. I seriously wonder at times why they make movies like this and why would someone like Jeeva decide to cast himself in such a movie. They say some movies are made just for the sake of escaping from the clutches of paying enormous income tax (basically to convert some black money into legal money). Who knows, this movie is one of them. Got nothing else to write about this listless movie. Skip it, would be my suggestion.