Weekend Movies - Pallikkoodam & We Are Marshall
I had been to India for a week long trip (separate post on that one later) and hence this absence of posts here. Wanted to watch atleast one Deepavali release movie (especially Kannamoochi Yaenadaa) but the mad rush for tickets over the Deepavali weekend and severe bad word-of-mouth reviews for most reviews put paid to my hopes. So, here I am continuing my regular weekend movies routine, with couple of movies that I watched way back.
Pallikkoodam - I guess Thangar Bachaan is going the Hari way, in that his best is clearly behind him. We all know how Hari remains a one-hit wonder whose every movie subsequent to Saami has been measured against Saami and obviously have failed up to the lofty standards that he set for himself with Saami, both at the box-office and in the quality of the movies. I am afraid we might have already seen the best of Thangar Bachan, with Azhagi to-date remaining the only credible movie he has delivered. The theme which he takes up in Pallikoodam is something that could have been executed so much better, than what he ended up finally doing, bcos the theme is so personal to many of us. May be, the schools that we went to might not be facing the problems that the school in the movie faces but deep down, I am sure all of us wish and long for that one get-together with all the friends from our school days. But like we have seen in so many movies, the intent alone does not make a movie watchable. The distractions along the way in conducting the final alumni get-together for the school dampen our energy when the climax finally comes up and we are already looking at our clocks, as to when this torture will end. Narain is one actor whom I was waiting to pass my judgment on (not that it is going to matter one bit) bcos I really thought that his performance in Chithiram Pesuthadi was average, at best, unlike many others who thought his was a very commendable performance. Now, after Pallikkoodam, I guess its time to pass judgment on him and I will simply and charitably say that he has to go a really LONG way when it comes to emoting. His acting (or non-acting in this case) along with the torture that Thankar Bachan himself serves up with his role, becomes a bit too much to tolerate as the movie progresses. Amidst all this, if there is one shining light, it is Sneha, who is as always so sincere and adequate in her performance. Other than that, the other thing I will carry forward from this movie are those 2 lovely songs by Bharadwaj - Indha nimidam and Manasu marugudhe. I somehow missed out on listening to this album when it was released but the moment I heard them on screen, I was hooked on to it and it would be a surprise if one of these 2 songs, the Manasu marugudhe song in particular, does not find a place in the list of best songs of the year (that is to say that I have already added Manasu marugudhe to my list :)) Thankar Bachan, one sincere piece of advice - If you can redirect the energy you spend on attacking others in the cine industry into your movie-making and give us a more complete product, I would look forward to that, more than such boring stuff that you keep serving up, last with Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy and now with Pallikkoodam.
We are Marshall - You can call me a sucker to sports movies but this is one of those rare movies which just didn't cut it for me. Given the story of the movie, this should have made for some riveting experience, particularly if you are a big sports fan like me and if you are someone who follows Marshall football quite closely. For those who do not know, the story of the movie (based on a real life incident) is this - the Marshall University loses its entire football team (the players, the coaching staff and their patrons) in a tragic plane accident and inspite of such a tragedy, the athletic director wants to put together a team for the very next season and the movie is about how the new head coach (Mathew McCounoghey) puts together a team and get them ready for the next season. The only good thing is that since this is a real life story, the director does not have the liberty of altering the script and so, the results of the newly formed football team are disastrous to say the least and nothing miraculous, which are usually the stuff that sports movies are made of. Instead, the climax of the movie focusses on their first victory of the season (they only won 1 more game after that), which was the only thing I loved. Apart from that, the movie has the entire gamut of cliched scenes that all these sports movies have and so after a point of time, I could clearly see what was coming in every single scene. An average movie that can be missed.
Pallikkoodam - I guess Thangar Bachaan is going the Hari way, in that his best is clearly behind him. We all know how Hari remains a one-hit wonder whose every movie subsequent to Saami has been measured against Saami and obviously have failed up to the lofty standards that he set for himself with Saami, both at the box-office and in the quality of the movies. I am afraid we might have already seen the best of Thangar Bachan, with Azhagi to-date remaining the only credible movie he has delivered. The theme which he takes up in Pallikoodam is something that could have been executed so much better, than what he ended up finally doing, bcos the theme is so personal to many of us. May be, the schools that we went to might not be facing the problems that the school in the movie faces but deep down, I am sure all of us wish and long for that one get-together with all the friends from our school days. But like we have seen in so many movies, the intent alone does not make a movie watchable. The distractions along the way in conducting the final alumni get-together for the school dampen our energy when the climax finally comes up and we are already looking at our clocks, as to when this torture will end. Narain is one actor whom I was waiting to pass my judgment on (not that it is going to matter one bit) bcos I really thought that his performance in Chithiram Pesuthadi was average, at best, unlike many others who thought his was a very commendable performance. Now, after Pallikkoodam, I guess its time to pass judgment on him and I will simply and charitably say that he has to go a really LONG way when it comes to emoting. His acting (or non-acting in this case) along with the torture that Thankar Bachan himself serves up with his role, becomes a bit too much to tolerate as the movie progresses. Amidst all this, if there is one shining light, it is Sneha, who is as always so sincere and adequate in her performance. Other than that, the other thing I will carry forward from this movie are those 2 lovely songs by Bharadwaj - Indha nimidam and Manasu marugudhe. I somehow missed out on listening to this album when it was released but the moment I heard them on screen, I was hooked on to it and it would be a surprise if one of these 2 songs, the Manasu marugudhe song in particular, does not find a place in the list of best songs of the year (that is to say that I have already added Manasu marugudhe to my list :)) Thankar Bachan, one sincere piece of advice - If you can redirect the energy you spend on attacking others in the cine industry into your movie-making and give us a more complete product, I would look forward to that, more than such boring stuff that you keep serving up, last with Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy and now with Pallikkoodam.
We are Marshall - You can call me a sucker to sports movies but this is one of those rare movies which just didn't cut it for me. Given the story of the movie, this should have made for some riveting experience, particularly if you are a big sports fan like me and if you are someone who follows Marshall football quite closely. For those who do not know, the story of the movie (based on a real life incident) is this - the Marshall University loses its entire football team (the players, the coaching staff and their patrons) in a tragic plane accident and inspite of such a tragedy, the athletic director wants to put together a team for the very next season and the movie is about how the new head coach (Mathew McCounoghey) puts together a team and get them ready for the next season. The only good thing is that since this is a real life story, the director does not have the liberty of altering the script and so, the results of the newly formed football team are disastrous to say the least and nothing miraculous, which are usually the stuff that sports movies are made of. Instead, the climax of the movie focusses on their first victory of the season (they only won 1 more game after that), which was the only thing I loved. Apart from that, the movie has the entire gamut of cliched scenes that all these sports movies have and so after a point of time, I could clearly see what was coming in every single scene. An average movie that can be missed.
Labels: Weekend Movies
posted by Filbert at 8:12 PM
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