Weekend Movies - Vaaranam Aayiram and Saroja

Vaaranam Aayiram - I have never been a big fan of Gautham Menon (like his style of film-making but not his movies in their entirety) and so it should come as a surprise when I say that this is one Gautham Menon movie that is hard for me to trash. Of his 5 movies, this one easily is his most honest effort, obviously bcos he is trying to pay homage to his deceased father. Yes, the movie was long to the point to boring you at some places and yes, it did not sound like a Tamil movie most of the time (my friend's wife cannot understand Tamil but she was able to understand the movie just fine) and yes, the zillion times that Surya uuters Daddy/ Dad irritated me to no end, but one thing that Gautham cannot be faulted is his noble intention behind this movie. But like we have seen umpteen number of times before, good intentions alone cannot make a great movie.

The problem with a movie like this, whose storyline is more biographical than a sequence of events resulting in a climax, is that unless you relate to the characters in the movie, you just won't be able to appreciate the movie, no matter how good it is. The moment the father Surya calls his son, kiddo, he lost me and the repeated usage of English dialogs only aggravated that aloofness I developed early on in the movie. But at the same time, its not like I could not relate to anything in the movie. The one I can remember right off the top is when the father Surya & Simran go to leave their son at the hostel for the first time. Though my dad did not sputter out dialogs like "You are on your own", the fact that I too cried when my mom & dad left me in the hostel for the first time ever made me go "Yeah, I know that feeling". But then again, those moments came few and far between, for me to completely imbibe or rather understand the feelings that were going through son Surya's mind, as he recalling all important moments of his life.

Loved every minute of the Surya - Sameera Reddy romantic track of the movie. While it lasted, I did not want to end, though I knew that something was going to happen which would cut-short their romance. Sameera Reddy was gorgeous and no wonder when the movie title rolled, her name got more applause than Surya. Romance is something that very few of our directors get it right and Gautham is one of them. The romance in Kaakka Kaakka and Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu are easily some of the best romances that have come out of Tamil movies in the last few years. But again, the same cannot be said of the Divya love angle which looked very forced and just didn't gel with the narrative of the second half.

Coming to performances, to say that Surya has turned in an exemplary performance would be an understatement. The sheer magnitude of the effort he has put into this role is mind boggling and deserves our appreciation just for that. The way he changed his appearance for about every 5 scenes in the movie talks so much about the dedication of this young actor. The only movie where I can recall the hero donning so many get-ups was Hey Ram. Kamal came in so many get-ups in that movie, that I easily lost count of how many such getups he came in. But having said all that, his portrayal of the father character was not very convincing. His body language in particular was, to say the least, artificial and labored. I have to say one thing about his 6 pack though - agreed, it belongs to the 'Owner's pride, neighbour's envy" category. But did Surya have to flaunt it shamelessly in that last scene before the climax fight?

Speaking of the climax, it looked as though it was included just bcos the movie will have climax fight. By then, nobody was interested what was going to happen in Surya's resuce mission or even, what the rescue mission was. But that fight did serve one purpose though - I caught the blink-and-you-will-miss cameo of Gautham Menon. Did anybody else notice?

I was already addicted to Harris Jeyarajs' songs and his BGM was cool in certain scenes. Loved the way the Adiye Kolluthey song was picturized, particularly the guitar strumming dance step and also the steps inside the library. Though the Anjala song comes out of nowhere (Surya suddenly starts saying 'Ava en Anjala-da"), loved the kuthu dance steps of the song.

Comparisons to another dad homage movies, Thavamaai thavam Irundhu, are inevitable and personally, for me, this one just did not have the emotional impact that Thavamaai Thavam irundhu had. Not even close. May be it was the English dialogs or may be, it was the screenplay in the second half that went nowhere or it was the story that was more of a biography than anything, I did not feel the proverbial lump in my throat as I walked out of the theater. And that unfortunately would be my verdict of the movie.

Saroja - This was one of the more eagerly awaited movies for obvious reasons. We all wanted to know if Chennai 600028 was a flash in the pan or if this guy really has the stuff to go a long way. But the unfortunate thing about the movie is that it does not really answer that question that was on our minds. To be very clear at the outset, the movie is a letdown and a half-baked attempt at best. I am going to try my best to compare Venkat Prabhu to a painter who knows only one way to paint. When he attempted his method on a light-hearted canvas like Chennai 600028, everything just magically clicked. But over here, he tries painting a canvas that is far more serious and thus just falls flat mostly. This can be clearly seen as the movie progresses where the fun & jolly scenes that the movie starts with, makes way for more drama in the 2nd half. And when you have Premji Amaran joking around when they were running for their lives, it just did not sit well with me. Having said that, I also have to admit that though most of Premgi Amaran's jokes were complete mokkai, I couldn't help laughing out loud for them. The references to Thalaivar's dialogs in Sivaji was way too funny. Same goes for the scene when he 'discovers' the Marudhanayagam DVD.

My second biggest grouse about the movie is the damn lighting. Most of the the scenes that were shot in that factory like place was just too dark to even figure out who was doing what. Brought me back bad memories from Mani Rathnam's movies from the 80s. The long and drawn out climax was such a yawn and I was screaming "Enough already!"

Yuvan's music was definitely a big plus to the movie. Loved his background score, including the much-panned piece that comes when the van capsizes. Even Yuvan's cameo appearance in the Cheeky Cheeky song was cool. I was expecting something really awkward but Venkat Prabhu just proves to be a cool customer, in the way the song was picturized. The Dosth badaa dosth song was picturized in his own imitable style. When I watched the title song in Om Shanthi Om, I was like 'Wouldn't it be cool if we do the same in Tamil?" And so needless to say, I was excited to see Venkat Prabhu take that idea and spin it in his own unique style by raking in the popular TV stars. Bottom line - this movie looked like a rushed up effort, either to cash in on the huge success of Chennai 600028 or to quell our doubts that he is not a one-hit wonder. It might have succeeded on the first reason but definitely did not provide any answers to the second one.

This is a too much

It is probably to be used in situations like this that the phrase "This is a too much" was probably coined. I mean, how much more ridiculous this can get.

BCCI's complaint over Lloyd's comments

Clive Llyod, while on a private visit to Mumbai, while responding to a question, moots the idea that the ICC should find a way for the IPL and ICL to work together, for the betterment of both the players and the game.

What does the BCCI do? It shoots a complaint saying that the ICC should condone his statement bcos he works for the ICC in some capacity. This is what the BCCI does with the financial clout it enjoys over other ICC countries. All this muscling down of any disagreement , no matter how insignificant it is, is slowly and surely getting to all the constituent countries.

There was a time when I used to feel proud of India's dominance in the world of cricket administration. But more and more the BCCI acts as arrogant dictators who can't the slightest of criticisms, the more exasperating it becomes. What next? Kapil Dev should not comment on Indian cricketers bcos they represent the BCCI?

Flavor of the season - Obama

Loved the mosaic/ collage below, that was made out of the first pages of newspapers from all over the world, after the historic victory. Courtesy - Obama News Mosaic. The size of the version I have uploaded here is around 5 MB while the higher resolution one is 58 MB big. Download it if you are a big-time Obama fan.

The one below is a laugh riot. My friend who came across this poster while traveling in a bus, wrote this and sent it out to us, since he could not get his camera out in time to capture the poster. The important thing to note about this poster is that this was created months before he actually became the President-elect !!

Weekend Movies

Subramaniyapuram - After a year where we have been looking for quality movies with every single hyped-up release and then getting disappointed immensely, here comes a movie, that was almost unannounced and takes us by surprise, a la Sethu in many ways. Realistic movies with a tight screenplay work great, even if the storyline as such is nothing to rave about and Subramaniyapuram is the latest proof for the same. Can easily say that this is the best movie of the year and by many miles, if I might add. There is something about the directors from the Balu Mahendra school of direction that is so unique in the kind of movies they make. The portrayal of the heroine is one of the prime traits. Though the way she keeps looking & shying away at Azhagu kind of gets to us after a while, her performance in the climax scene just rocked and did remind me of Laila's performance in Pithamagan's climax. I loved the nonchalant acting of Sasi Kumar throughout the movie. And when the situation needed it, he brought the kind of expression to his face that was very convincing. Our Vijay look-alike from Chennai 28 was decent enough. Though in no way can be called a great performance, one could see the effort he has put into this performance and he needs all our appreciation. The care that the director has taken to bring the 80s environment was just perfect, down to the way the guys wore their lungis :) I could hardly notice any out of place item in the whole movie. And needless to say, it was an awesome experience noticing all the nuances that the director has brought about ,making sure that the 80s period has been recreated.

The biggest strength to the movie was James vasanthan's music. Ever since I heard the song Kangal Irandaal, I started listening to the other songs in the movie too and each one of them was just so addictive. His background score in the second half of the movie serves the movie brilliantly. The way he had used silence in many of the crucial scenes was just as captivating as any other background score he had produced for the movie. For a more detailed analysis of the background score of the movie, I recommend Suresh's detailed post on the same.

Looks like the path to success in Tamil films has to go through Madurai in some way or the other and nothing can make a Maduraikkaaran like yours truly more happy than that :) After Ameer and Bala, here comes another director who has made an amazing movie and in turn, make us sit up and pay attention. Welcome to the big league, Sasi Kumar.

Sarkar Raj - I have always been a fan of Ram Gopal Verma but I am not so sure if I can call myself one, after watching this movie. It is not that this is the movie that made me decide that way but some of his recent films made me start thinking about my fanship. To call the movie pointless would be a gross understatement. It has something in the form of story but fails to engross us. There are these usual highlights of an RGV directed movie - some cool camera angles, some different lighting. But that alone does not make for great cinema. Abhishek Bachan tries to be the that suave and cold-blooded heir apparent to a Godfather like Amitabh but he fails at it pretty miserable. His body language completely sucked. The gait that is so crucial to carry off a role like his in this movie, is completely missing in this guy and as a result the whole tone of the movie suffers.

Everyone in the movie utters every single dialog with so much seriousness as if that dialog could decide the fate of the universe. I mean, somebody would say something and then there would be this serious background music as though something very important was to be uttered by the next person who would in fact say "Phir?". Speaking of background score, RGV's movies have always had some haunting background scores but it is sadly missing in this one. They said that RGV, though not back to his old form, kind of regained some lost ground with this one, after the terrible RGV ki Aag. I didn't watch that movie but I shudder to think how bad it might have been, given the fact that I did not find this movie remotely entertaining.

Jodhaa Akbar - Finally got around to watching this movie, that I have been planning to for a long time. All the reviews that you might have read for JA would have in one way or the other praised the production quality and the art direction (the grandeur of the sets, costumes by leading actors, etc). But unfortunately for me, nothing of that sort excites me anymore. Add the 3 hour+ running time on top of the genre of the movie that is a turn-off for me, you get a movie that I found completely uninteresting & lengthy. Hrithik is one actor for whom I have very regards. He may not be the most talented actor in Bollywood (say, like a Nana Patekhar or an Aamir Khan) but I can easily vouch for the fact that he is the most sincere of all the actors around. You can almost sense the sincerity he brings to his performances, no matter how stupid his role in that movie might be (Dhoom 2 comes to my mind). But even he could not convincingly portray Akbar in this movie. May be, it has got to do with the fact that we are all used to our own vision/ version of Akbar in our minds and so when someone we know acts as Akbar, it just doesn't gel. That probably could be the biggest reason why I could not bring myself to admire the movie. Well, then there is Aishwarya Rai who is becoming more irritating in every movie of hers. Rahman's songs had some very delightful tunes. Somehow missed hearing the songs when they were released but got hooked to them big time after watching the movie. The way Ashutosh Gowariker had picturized the songs were entertaining and interesting and that is saying a lot considering the fact that this is a period movie. This was movie that did not excite me even by the time the movie was launched. The problem I have with movies like this is I am not sure why a director like AG decides to do a movie like this (the same anguish I had when Farhan Akhthar did Don). May be, the movie offered him directorial challenges that someone like me will not be able to understand. Or may be it was one of his long time wishes to make a movie about Jodhaa Akbar. But like many, I will quickly forget this movie and will look forward to AG's next venture.

I Did Not Know This Yesterday - 2

The 'I did not know this yesterday' series I started a while ago just did not go anywhere. So, wanted to revive it with a new post. So, sometime back, there was this news article that was about a mountain in Wales that was not a hill anymore but a mountain. (The reasons they cite on why this is such a big news are very revealing)

So, that article also had the answer to one of my long time questions - what is the exact difference between a hill and a mountain. After some more googling, I confirmed that the following is the answer:

A mountain is a hill over 2000 feet (609.8m) in height. Anything under that is considered a hill.

The above is from Wiki Answers. Found it really interesting and became a ready-made candidate for a post that can be included in this series.