Weekend Movies - Cheeni Kum & Satham Podaathey

Have been extremely busy at work, the last couple of weeks and hence the absence of posts here. Watched these 2 movies a long time back and had written this back then, right after watching the movie. So, here goes my 2 cents worth on the 2 movies.

Cheeni Kum - This is one of those rare movies, where as the end credits start rolling, you realize the smile on your lips. That says so much about how much I liked the movie. When you are able to relate to the sensibilities of the lead pair and the kind of conversations they have & the way their relationship grows, it becomes so much easier for you to appreciate the movie. The subtle underlying comedy in most of the conversations between Amitabh and Tabu is just what they are supposed to be - subtle :) I am no big fan of the Big B but I did feel that this is one of those roles where I can not imagine any other Bollywood actor carrying off with the poise with which AB did in this movie. Though I have great regard for Tabu as an actress, there is something about her voice modulation which just does not let me appreciate her effort & her performance fully. This has been the case with all the Tabu movies that I have watched in the past and same happens in this case too. The camera work is just too neat and sets the perfect mood for the entire duration of the movie. Then, there was the Maestro who conducts a mini workshop on how background scores should be done and who also teaches the younger crop of composers that retuning of old classics can be good thing if they were done the right way. I just could not believe myself that I was admiring the re-tuned versions of the songs 'Kuzhaloodhum kannanukku' and 'Mandram vandha thendralukku', bcos these 2 songs are so much close to my heart that any attempt at retuning those songs might have cringed me. But the Maestro proves his stuff (that only legends like him are made of) as he has delightfully re-tuned the songs. There is a freshness in those songs that is just too good. I simply loved everything about the movie, even its ending something that was not liked many of the reviewers. Paresh Rawal was at his usual best and the little kid too did her job commendably well. Usually, characters like that of the little kid tend to go overboard as in Mani Rathnam movies where kids don't behave as kids. But there was something about this little kid and her characterization that did not annoy me a tiny bit. As long as Amitabh chooses to act in movies like these, I would definitely welcome it. A movie that I simply loved.

Satham Podaathey - Rusty is probably the best way to describe Vasanth's effort in this movie. May be it is the long gap between his last movie and this one, or may be he has just lost it, I don't know, but this movie was certainly a disappointment. When a thriller movie just doesn't have your adrenaline flowing and instead makes you check your watch every now & then, then there is something seriously wrong with the movie. Songs picturization is one department where I rank Vasanth very highly but he fails very badly in this one. Yuvan's songs and background were a big plus to the movie. The whole sequence of Padmapriya not finding out the difference between Prithviraj on the phone and Prithviraj in person was a bunch of bull. Some of Vasanth's movies will find a place in my list of all-time favorite movies but then no movie has been added to that list since Rhythm happened close to a decade ago. May be, its time to place Vasanth on the washed-up directors list. But I will be only glad to be proved wrong.

Quotable Quotes

Few weeks back, the subject of the sermon at my church was "Freedom from Financial pain". During the course of his sermon, the pastor provided some quotable quotes and I wanted to share them with you guys here.

Where there is a will, there is a relative.

Lattes are a luxury.

Car payments are killers.

The next purchase will make me happier.

Though each one of them is true in some sense, the last one stood out for me, as the best among the 4. How many times have we thought of this and by the time that 'next purchase' is made, we start longing for our 'next purchase' on our never-ending list.

BTW, my order at Starbucks/ Tully's these days looks like this: Tall brewed coffee with room for cream :)

I Did Not Know This Yesterday - 1

While I was googling for some information a while back, I came across this interesting blog called I did not know this yesterday, that was basically a collection of interesting trivia/ information on topics that we all might have questions about and a cool name to go along with it. More than the content of the blog, it was the name of the blog that captured my attention and inspired me to start this series.

During the course of our day to day life, we certainly come to know of some stuff like that and so I wanted to start my own series. To start the series, here is my first topic: Mule.

I have always known that mule is, though in some way related to horse, is not exactly a horse in its infant stages. But I was not exactly sure about it, at the same time. That was all until last week when I was watching some program in travel channel where they said what a mule was - it is the child of a female horse and a male donkey.

I know I could have started this series with something more interesting that this one but this is what I have for now :) I will be only glad if you can send me such trivia to post here as part of this series.

Kuselan - P.Vasu does not disappoint

Before you guys start pouncing on me for making that statement, let me clear something. This was what I was expecting in the movie, after the experience of watching Chandramukhi and after watching the few scenes in the trailer & few pictures that were released:

1) A drama like feel throughout the film
2) A truck load of character artists and side artists
3) Cheap, third rated comedy
4) Incoherent and messy screenplay
5) Most importantly, bungling the few mins of screen time that Thalaivar allotted for this movie

And P.Vasu delivers on all these fronts without any disappointment, as the movie had all of the above. Even though the stills looked a lot better when they were released, the tone and acting of all the other actors in the movie was like watching a 2 hour long TV mega-serial with a long list of actors present in every single frame of the movie. I could have even stood all that but it is the cheap 3rd rated Vadivelu jokes with the camera focusing on Nayanthara and the other actress Sona at all the wrong places that got me so angry. I mean, a Thalaivar movie is not the place for stupid jokes like that. If someone calls this movie a clean family entertainer, then there can not be a more contradicting statement than that.

I guess most of the blame for this movie should go to Chandramukhi and Shankar (In fact, this was going to be my subject of this post: Kuselan - Blame it on Chandramukhi & Shankar). Why CM? Well, if Chandramukhi had not been this monstrous hit, P. Vasu would not have been directing this movie and dished out another of his messy movies. Why Shankar? Again, a pretty easy to guess reason. Shankar had raised the bar to such unbelievable heights with Sivaji that it is going to be hard for any director to follow. And given the fact that P.Vasu is the director here, the task was doubly difficult and it is no wonder that he faltered, big time.

Among the truck load of comedians, only Livingston, Santhanabarathi (in couple of scenes) and Santhanam worked for me. Except for the 1 scene, Vadivelu was hopeless and his make-up along with his gaudy costumes only made the experience of watching the comedy scenes a real torture. Among others, Pasupathy was not his usual self. It is not the Pasupathy we have seen in movies like Dhool & Virumaandi. That is the power of someone like P.Vasu who can single-handedly bring down the performance of even talented actors (like Pasupathy in this case).

Even the songs picturization were a disappointment. That was something P.Vasu had done decently in Chandramukhi. Every single frame in the Cinema Cinema song comes and goes so fast that you could easily miss so many of the actors who show their heads. I missed Dhanush and there were so many like me who missed others like Surya, GVP, Sneha, Kushboo. Though Thalaivar's costumes were just too good in this song, he appears in each of those get-ups for few fleeting seconds that makes it impossible for fans like us to fully relish them. Om Zaaraare was a tad better with Thalaivar's stylish steps and the setting in the backwaters of Kerala in those long boats but even there one gets a feeling that it could have been done a lot better. This is where the Sivaji factor kicks in. After the songs picturization that Shankar treated us to in Sivaji, everything looks ordinary now. Pre-Sivaji, we might have lapped up Om Zaaraare but not definitely in this post-Sivaji era. Chaaral was a needless number. What I dont understand is that why would someone have a solo song for Nayanthara in a Thalaivar movie. It is not like that the song is in anyway crucial to the flow of the movie. So, why not replace it with another song for Thalaivar which would have satiated the thirst of fans like me. The less said about GVP's background score, the better. It is to his 'credit' that he bungled big time in the one scene where the background music mattered the most.

It was not like there are no positives in the movie. Thalaivar is there. Every single scene involving Thalaivar was a treat to watch (except may be the Chandramukhi-2 scenes). Thalaivar's entry scene was good but the use of too much CG in the scene kind of killed my enthusiasm. (It is during times like this that you start yearning for intro scenes like the one we had in Annamalai) I think having to act as himself presents its own set of challenges, given the fact that it is Thalaivar who is doing it. There were few mannerisms and actions of Thalaivar that looked like they were not even shot for this movie. It could have been Thalaivar on the sets with the camera rolling without his knowledge. They were that authentic and Thalaivar looked so casual in them.

Obviously, the climax. Though I would not go to the extent of saying that it is one of his best performances, it did bring back the memories of the talented actor lying dormant inside him, for the last 15 - 20 years. The fact that inspite of the numerous 'Enna Kodumai Saravanan Idhu' moments throughout the movie, the audience clapped when the movie ended as the saying "நல்ல நண்பர்கள் அமைவதெல்லாம் இறைவன் கொடுத்த வரம்" was flashed on the screen. Many in the theater were indeed in tears as they were walking out. But that didn't include yours truly, who is easily overwhelmed on such scenes in movies. Thalaivar's speech in the school function, before he goes into his nostalgic trip back to his childhood days is the best that I have seen Thalaivar speak. There was so much clarity in his words. And more than the school speech, I liked what transpired at Pasupathy's house after that. Thalaivar's body language in those last moments were exemplary and the way he slapped him on the face before hugging him were just too good.

The whole Chinni jayanth sequence was very entertaining. More than the scene where Chinni Jayanth finally meets Thalaivar, the way the Nari kuravargal group was trying to get the attention of the film crew was quite hilarious. Though Vadivel's performance on the whole was disappointing, the scene where he meets Thalaivar had the whole theater ROTFL. I mean, it looked so authentic bcos anyone of us who adore him so much would react in the same way if we come to face Thalaivar in such an unexpected manner.

Like I had written earlier, even before the movie was released, I loved everything what Thalaivar did in deciding to act in this movie except the fact that P.Vasu is going to be directing it. This guy is so much stuck in the 80s that I I knew this is how he will finally end up giving a movie. Any other director (type in the name of your favorite masala film director in this place) would have done justice to this story which could have been adapted so much better to exploit Thalaivar's cult status among Tamilians across the globe and that is my biggest regret on this movie. And the best part was, this could have been done without spoiling the underlying theme of the movie.

Having said all this, I was really happy to see Thalaivar on the big-screen even though it lasted only a few precious minutes. Thank God for small mercies. Now, the really long wait for Robot stares us in the face. Shankar, please start work on Robot ASAP & keep the hopes of Thalaivar fans afloat and Thalaivaa, sincere request to you - lets ditch this P.Vasu guy once for all from the Tamil film industry. And if that means that this movie flops, then so be it. I know, I just couldn't believe that I just typed the previous statement but that is the result of my anger at Thalaivar for selecting one of the most ridiculous & archaic directors at the helm of this movie which clearly had scope for much larger things.