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.
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.
Labels: Weekend Movies
posted by Filbert at 9:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home