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.