Best songs of the year - 2009

I know, we are in the 3rd week of 2010 but here I am publishing a post on the best songs of the year, 2009. This is one post that I kind of keep on editing throughout the course of the year and it is precisely for this reason that I do not want to miss out on publishing the same, even though it is coming about a month late.

My self defined 'rules' that I followed in coming up with this list haven't changed form the last 2 years and here they are, one more time:

1) All songs should fit in a 80 min audio CD

2) There shall be no more than 1 song from any given movie

3) The album should have been released in the year 2009.

So, here are the best songs of the year 2009 (in no particular order):

1) Kannil paarvai from Naan Kadavul

2) Mella oorndhu oorndhu from Nandhala

3) Kadaloram from Kunguma Puraavum Konju Puraavum

4) Ragala Kaara from Odippolaamaa

5) Vizhi moodi from Ayan

6) Kooda varuviyaa from Vaalmiki

7) Oru Chinna Thamarai from Vettaikkaaran

8) Rayilin Paadhaiyil from Appaavi

9) Kannil dhaagam from Achamundu Achamundu

10) Aval appadi ondrum from Angaadi Theru

11) Maalai neram from Aayirathil Oruvan

12) Oru vetkkam varudhe from Pasanga

13) Naan Pogiren mele from Naanaiyam

14) Thuli Thuli from Paiyyaa

15) YaarOru yaarO from Yogi

16) Tharai Erangiya from Eeram

17) Yogi theme music (filler)

Honorable mention or the second CD:

1) Onnukkonnu from Nandhala

2) Ading Ading from OdippOlaamaa

3) Oru nimisham from KPKP

4) Oru Kal Oru Kannaadi from SMS

5) Enge povadhu from Vaamanan

6) July maadhathil from Muthirai

7) Poo Sirikkudhu from Valmiki

8) Kadhaigalai pesum from Angaadi Theru

9) Adada Mazhaida from Paiyya

10) Karigaalan from Vettaikkaaran

11) Edho Seigiraai from Vaamanan

12) Latcham vaarthaigal from Modhi Vilaaiyadu

13) Nenje Nenje from Ayan

14) Mazhaiye Mazhaiye from Eeram

15) Nee Thaane from Sarvam

16) Yaaradhu Yaaro from Yaadhumaagi

17) Poove Poove from Sidhu +2 first attempt

Other awards:

Album of the year: Modhi Vilaiyaadu, Sarvam, Eeram, Ayan, KPKP, Aayirathil Oruvan were the contenders for me. My choices for the best songs and the best album usually go hand in hand with the most popular picks in their respective categories. But this time around, my choice might baffle a lot of people as Kunguma Poovum Konju Puraavum is my choice for the best album of the year. There was no other album where I loved almost every single song of the album like KPKP and that includes the 'Naan Dharman-da' song sung by SPB.

Music director of the year: Has to be Yuvan again. Except for KPKP & Sarvam, he didn't have any album that can be called oustanding. But even in the other albums he had (like Muthirai, Vaamanan, Yogi, SIva Manasula Sakthi and Paiyyaa), he had some very hummable & high quality numbers. For that and also for the lack of competition form other music directors (with James Vasanthan being the only one who came even remotely close to being considered), Yuvan is my pick for the music director of the year.

Aadhavan - mediocrity at its best

• Easily the worst movie that I have ever seen, which featured either Surya or KSR
• Seriously, can't understand why an actor who has tried to do something different, signs to do a movie like this.
• Makes you think you are better off watching a Vijay movie, given the fact that one is guaranteed to see some genuine & good looking dance movements that only he can do
• Vadivelu's comedy, to an extent, was the sole saving grace of the movie. But there is only so much he can do, given the movie's mind-numbingly stupid screenplay
• Surya's performance, for all the effort he has seemingly put in, falls flat and after a point, he becomes just unwatchable.
• And Surya can now officially be called Salman Khan of Tamil cinema, as his directors come up with situations just to show off his well-toned body
• We all know that the standard of Tamil cinema's special effects & graphics is just appalling but Aadhavan has done the impossible of pulling it down one notch further below.
• The sheer stupidity of the underlying setup of the movie is mind boggling. Imagine this - a judge is about to submit a crucial report in 10 days but he has come to Kolkota with (literally) a truck load of family because they are on vacation and he wants to spend time with them too. What a boat load of crap?!
• The tortured logic that goes behind the 'Vaaraayo vaaraayo' song will even give the worst director of Tamil cinema, P. Vasu a run for his money.
• Saroja Devi is irritatingly bad and gets on your nerves, right from the get-go. Reminded me of MSV's 'cameo' roles in Kaadhala Kaadhala & Kaadhal Mannan.
• Harris Jeyaraj needs to do something. I mean, how long is he planning to blurt out such songs that seem to have the same age-old template? And what was that English song in the background score all about?
• We all have seen that even the best of directors age not so very aesthetically. And KSR, while cannot even be remotely called great, was a good director who could churn out watchable entertaining masalas in his sleep. But I think the day has come up for him to do some introspection and come up with a watchable movie, even if it takes a while longer for the movie to be made.

Surya takes a huge step backward with this crapfest called Aadhavan.

Khuda Ke Liye - Must-watch movie

Again trying to just list out some thoughts on the movie instead of writing a full-fledged review where I will have to worry about some sort of coherence. So, here you go:

• A movie whose makers should be appreciated for the kind of problem that the movie tries to tackle and the kind of message that it tries to convey.
• A moderate Muslim family in Pakistan with 2 brothers, who love music but decide to go opposite ways, from the perspective of Islam;a Muslim girl born & brought up in London, her father who is apologetic for all that he had done against Islam and is attempting to clean up the mess that he feels he has created; an American girl who falls in love with one of the brothers who comes over to the US to live the American life.
• The film is almost like an appeal by the moderates in the Muslim community to the extremists both inside & outside their religion, as it tries to tackle many of the misconceptions Westerners have about Islam. Most of this explaining though is done in one very long speech by Naseeruddin Shah towards the end of the movie.
• Sheds some light on the kind of paranoid patriotism and panic that engulfed many of the Americans post 9-11 and how that resulted in the Americans compromising on many of the moral values they used to stand for (enhanced interrogation techniques and et al).
• Couple of very hummable songs in the movie but the BGM was so inadequate that I was literally imagining how someone like the Maestro would have scored for a movie like this.
• Apart from the length which could have definitely been much shorter, another thing that stood out to me was the very average acting, that does not get salvaged by a cameo by Naseeruddin Shah at the very end. The casting was great but the acting was bad.
• At 160 mins, a slightly lengthy film but a very good film nevertheless.

If not for anything , this is one of those movies that the 'They hate us for our freedom' crowd must watch.

Unnai Pol Oruvan - A pale imitation

When I heard the news that Kamal is going to remake 'A Wednesday', let me just say that I wasn't too thrilled. I mean, the biggest plus of the Hindi original was the way Naseeruddin Shah's character was shaped & portrayed, as a common man who was just taking out his frustrations on the inaction & indifferent attitude of the government to the specter of terrorist attacks unleashed on his city by terrorists. My biggest concern was this: even given how good an actor Kamal is, he can never be the 'common man' that was so central to the plot of the movie. And the moment I saw him mouth his heavily accented English dialogs in the trailer, I could see my fears coming true. And now after watching the entire movie, surprise, the movie just goes on to prove that my original fears were fully warranted.

I mean, I don't know. May be, I have the advantage of comparing his performance against Naseeruddin Shah's in the original but his heavily accented English & his frequent use of English dialogs only alienated me from the narrative. It's not like he always talks like this. In interviews that he gives to TV channels, his English comes across as more original. But when he starts talking in a movie, that fake desi accent comes into the picture and that irritates the hell out of me. And when it happens to be in a movie like this, it sticks out like a sore thumb even more.

Then in the most crucial scene of the movie a.k.a. the outburst/ justification scene, Kamal HAD to have that scene which was not there in the original, where there is a 60 second sequence of Kamal narrating a gory incident and more importantly, taking that as an opportunity to tell us one more time that 'Look, I can act great'. Well, we do know that you can act (and quite awesome at that) but was it really necessary in this movie? I didn't think so. It is in subtle things like this that UPO loses out to its original, to whom it stayed quite faithful other than these minor wanderings. Same can be said about Kamal's performance too - a rare occasion the actor in Kamal loses out to another great actor.

If you ask me to name 6 differences between the 2 movies, let me give you a couple that should tell you why I felt that the subtlety of the original was lost in this one. The scene in question is this one where Ganesh Venkatraman goes to the house of the informant to beat the constable who was sent for his family's protection but was flirting with the informant's sister. This (YouTube link) is how the scene plays out in the original whereas in UPO, the director HAD to show the sister coming out with a cup of coffee and the constable flirting with her, before Ganesh Venkatraman takes out his rage on the constable.

The second instance is almost similar to this one. This got to do with where Naseeruddin Shah places the bag with the bombs in the original (he places it in a crowded train terminal) whereas this one Kamal places in the same compartment where the wife of the police officer is traveling (& right next to her seat, at that). And just in case we missed it, they make sure to show the bag with the bomb one more time, sitting right above the seat where police officer's wife & kid are sitting

Some of the other issues/ grouses I had with this one:

- I am no big fan of Vijay but did they have to take that potshot at Vijay through that Sreeman character?
- Having someone to mimic Karunanidhi. Again, not a big fan of MK, but did they have to do that?
- Lakshmi. Enuf said.
- What was that all about showing the TV reporter smoking & Mohan Lal's not so subtle poke at the same?
- Mohan Lal's Hindi & Tamil accents, which just didn't sit easy on my ears. I mean, I am big lover of the Tamil accent of Malayalam actors but this one was a tough pill to swallow.

One might ask 'Aren't there anything noteworthy in this movie?' Yes, there definitely are some. Shruthi's BGM was a surprise, as in, she does so much better than expected for a debutant. It fit the mood of the movie, except for the scene where the twist happens. The dry humor in Era Murugan's dialogs were good, but some of them were lost in the confrontational scenes between Mohan Lal & Lakshmi, due to Mohan Lal's horrible Tamil & English accent.

Bottom line - If you have watched the Hindi original and if you are not a fan of Kamal, this is one below-par effort of remaking.

Weekend Movies - Kireedom and Kadamai Kanniyam Kattupaadu

Quick thoughts on these 2 movies that I had written a long time back right after watching these movies. Can't remember many scenes from both the movies but still wanted to post these here.

Kireedom - Well, after watching Kireedom, you just can not feel but sorry for Ajith, for he, as always, puts his everything into the movie but he is letdown big time by the director who in his efforts to appease his fans, spoils the entire show and makes the movie a complete bore. Making a movie like this is like preparing a meal, where if you falter at any point by adding more of the spices or salt, the entire meal becomes inedible and that is precisely what happens here. The director tries hard to make us empathize with the travails that Ajith goes through, but it just doesn't cut it, mainly bcos of all the other ingredients that are added to make the movie more appealing to his fan base. I could not even sit through even the supposedly good scenes in the movie - the scene at Ajith's house where Trisha & Ajith are talking in a water tank. It is hard, not to compare this movie with Dhil, an agmark masala movie which had an almost similar storyline and I can easily say that Dhil was miles ahead of this one. Dhil did not try to be a very serious & to-the-point movie. It had all the ingredients that you would expect in a masala movie but it still stayed faithful to the central theme of the movie - that of Vikram trying to become a sub-inspector of police. But here, the script goes haywire beyond a point and nothing could salvage the movie from that. Ajith, hmm...seeing his performance in movies like Godfather and this one, I would probably go to the extreme of saying that even Vijay, with his limited repertoire of expressions & acting, is eminently watchable than Ajith. I would not haven imagined in my wildest dreams that I would type something like this (bcos as many of you know, I am a big-time hater of the other guy) but Ajith does not do anything to change the opinion of sympathisers like yours truly. But then, Ajith was atleast watchable. If there is one person who is consistently irritating and gets on my nerves in every single movie that she appears in, it has to be Trisha. She is at her usual best - artificial in every single scene. The first 30 mins of the movie when Ajith & Trisha fall in love with each was absolutely unwatchable. Raj Kiran does a decent job, as always and delivers what was expected of him. G.V.Prakash's songs are awesome, easily one of the highlights of the movie. It is only when you see Ajith mangle in movies like these, you seriously wonder what if he had acted in Naan Kadavul as per the original plan. A sense of deja vu sets in, as I think I might have typed the same thing in my Godfather review too but that is what readily comes to my mind, every time I watch an Ajith movie.

Kadamai Kanniyam Kattupaadu - Have been wanting to watch this movie for a while mainly bcos of 2 reasons - 1) Kamal produced it with another actor in the lead and 2) the film is supposed to be the best of the 80s when it came to cop stories. With my dad in the Police department, he usually quotes this movie in our discussions. But afterwatching the movie, though I could kind of understand why Kamal came forward to producing this, the movie was a huge let-down. The only positive thing to take home about the movie is its length (just above 2 hours, I guess) and the fact that the movie had no songs. The most irritating thing about the movie was the number of parallel threads running at any given point of time. After a while, the number of such threads just grew too large that I began wondering how will it all be tied up at the end. And surprisingly, the director does not bother to tie some of the loose ends up. Sathyaraj is OK. One of my uncles always cites Sathyaraj's performance in this movie as one of the best. I did not even remotely think that way. He has performed way better than this in many of his movies and this is one over-the-top performance. Nothing much to write about this below average movie.

Best Songs of the year - 2008

For those of you who don't know, one of the ten commandments for a blogger who writes a lot about Tamil music & movies is this: "Thou shall list the annual post about the best of the year in Tamil film music". So, heeding to that commandment, here is my post.

The usual conditions that I set for such posts do exist:

1) All these songs should fit in a 80-minute audio CD
2) There should be only one song from any given album, no matter how good the album is.
3) The album should have been released in 2008 (that would eliminate albums like Vellithirai and Anjaadhey since they were released in 2007)

1) Endhan vaanamum from Vaazhthukkal - One of Yuvan's stand-out melodies of 2008.
2) Yaaro manadhile from Dhaam Dhoom - Harris Jeyaraj, Bombay Jayashree. Enuf said.
3) Yae unnidam from Chakkara Viyugam - Typical Karthik Raja melody, with his voice reminding us of his illustrious father's voice.
4) Kangal Irandaal from Subramaniyapuram- Will be a crime not to include this song in this list. James, where were you all these days?
5) Taxi Taxi from Sakkarakatti- one of my picks for the song of the year
6) Mazhai nindra pinbum from Raman Thediya Seethai - A standard Vidhyasagar melody but very enjoyable nevertheless
7) Adai Mazhaikkaalam from Jeyam Kondaan - Vidyasagar. Melody. They do go hand in hand, don't they?
8) Dosth Badaa Dosth from Saroja - Breezy song. Absolutely loved this song.
9) Nenjukkul Peidhidum maamazhai from Vaaranam Aayiram - One of the 6 gems from easily my pick for the album of the year.
10) Aavaaram Poo from Poo - A refreshing song by debutant composer S.S. Kumaran
11) Poovinai thirandhu from Aanandha Thaandavam - GVP finally arrives this year with his uncle-like melody.
12) Lesaa parakkudhu from Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu - This melody from another contestant to the album of the year award.
13) Anaikkindra thaagam from Nepaali - Srikanth Deva surprises us with this enchanting number where Bombay Jeyashree's vocals stand out.
14) Siru thoduthalile from Laadam - A song that makes us long for more from this young lad.

Honorable mentions (a.k.a. The Second CD)

1) Machaan machaan from Silambaattam
2) Marudhaani from Sakkarakatti
3) Uyiril edho from Vennila Kabadi kuzhu
4) Theneeril Snehitham from Subramaniyapuram
5) Hey baby baby from Aegan
6) Kodaana Kodi from Saroja
7) Chellame Chellame from Sathyam
8) Kaalathai vendra kalaignan ivan from Uliyin Osai
9) Unmela aasai pattu from Vaazhthukkal
10) Adiye kolludhe from Vaaranam Aayiram
11) Anbe En Anbe from Dhaam Dhoom
12) En idhayatha kaanom from Chakkraviyugam
13) Kallil aadum theeve from Anandha Thandavam
14) Thendralukku nee from Arai En 305-il Kadavul
15) Ippave Ippave from Raman Thediya Seethai

Album of the year - Vaaranam Aayiram
Honorable mentions - Poo, Vennila Kabadi kuzhu, Subramaniyapuram, Arai En 305-il Kadavul

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.

Dasavatharam - A Disaster of Epic Proportions

Let me see where I can start - right when the movie was announced where it was revealed that Kamal will come in 10 roles, I was never even remotely looking forward to this movie. I have never been a big fan of Kamal's make-up adventures. So, naturally, the very thought of Kamal in various prosthetic makeups completely put me off and I had already stopped looking forward to the movie. And when the audio & later the trailer was released a month back, I was like 'Seriously, is this what they could come up with after 2 years of filming?' To say the songs were terrible, would be an understatement. Kamal's movies usually have some pretty good songs and I can't recall the last movie of Kamal that had such awful songs. So, as I entered the movie hall tonight, I was going in with relatively less expectations since IMO, there has not been a perfect Kamal movie since Mahanadhi happened all those years ago.

The movie actually started off in an interesting fashion though one had to read the subtitles to understand what was going on. I couldn't decipher what most of them were talking. But after a few minutes into the movie as the other roles were introduced, it became such a pain to watch Kamal come in every single important role in the movie. Seriously, there was no reason for him to come in this many roles except of course, to fulfill his thirst for wasting another producer's hard-earned money. Plus, the terrible make-ups didn't help either. One had to cringe when some of the make-ups were shown in close-ups. If you thought Indian thaathaa was bad, get ready to face Kamal's version of George Bush & Fletcher. Indian was released more than a decade ago and if a movie that is released all these years later could not even match 50% of the makeup success that was accomplished in Indian, it speaks so badly about the main in charge - Kamal himself.

The biggest problem for me with the movie was that it does not fall under any genre. Is this another full-fledged comedy from the KSR-Kamal combination, much like Thenali & Panchathanthiram? NO. Is this an action thriller that keeps the viewer at the edge of his seat throughout the movie, with a crisp screenplay? NO. Is this some serious movie that conveys some sort of message to us, as to why and whether God exists? NO. Is this a movie that was made to fulfill Kamal's egoistic ambitions to be the first actor to don 10 roles? heck, YES.

The screenplay was terrible, to say the least. Characters and incidents come & go for no reason whatsoever. It looked like Kamal had watched movies like Babel and Crash, one too many times.There were times when there will be a sequence that will evince interest in us and make us look forward to the following scenes. But then, you will be left disappointed bcos Kamal had other important things to do - introduce the next of his 10 useless avathaars. The dialogs were pathetic with the conversation between Kamal & Asin in the climax taking the cake. The Balram Naidu character was the only one that had some funny dialogs but even they were lost in this huge mess that Kamal had created in the name of screenplay. The jokes just did not stick in the overall narrative of the movie. After seeing this, one only hoped that K.S.Ravikumar had been given a free hand in the making of this movie, for one can see Kamal's finger prints in just about anything and everything in the movie.

If this is what Kamal can conjure up after 2 years, there is only 1 conclusion that one can arrive at - he has completely lost it and he has become too egoistic to even put himself in the shoes of the Tamil film watching public. The song 'Ulaganaayagane' was such a turn-off for me with the song's lyrics going to ridiculous levels in praising the actor. I thought this amount of self-praise was only to be seen in Thalaivar's movies. I guess, I am wrong.

He did not have many opportunities to show off his acting skills but in the couple of scenes where he did get them, he did his job. When an actor invests so much energy and time into a movie, that has to be appreciated, no matter who it is. And here, it is pretty clear that he has put in so much effort into this movie but when the output is so bad, it hurts and eventually you start feeling sorry for the guy. As Kamal's make-up procedures were paraded as the end credits rolled, only one thought flashed my mind "All that hard work for this?"

Now to the rest of the cast - there is not much to write about if every freaking role after another is done by Kamal. Asin was plain annoying. When Asin uttered her first dialog as the 12th century Nambi's wife, the whole theater just erupted in laughter. Her voice was ridiculous. But if you thought her modern day avathar will fare better, you were wrong. Her antics became plain irritating as the movie progressed that it was a torture to sit through an already boring & long movie. Napolean, Jayapradha, Mallika Sherawat all came & went in some insignificant roles. Even Kamal's usual favorites like Nagesh, Santhana Bharathi come in miniscule roles that one will miss if you were not paying attention.

Technically, the movie is such a big letdown. That was one aspect I thought the movie will not disappoint, given the budget that went into the making of this movie. And boy, was I wrong. The CGI scenes that all the web sites were hyping about were pukeworthy. There is a scene that comes at the beginning of the movie where Kamal would be tied to Vishnu's idol and would be taken through a backwater into the sea. The backwater in that scene was done through CG and it looked so bad that even a child can make it out that CG had been used. The tsunami scene, that was so much talked about, turned out to be a damp squib. Most of the scenes where more than 1 Kamal was in the screen, they appeared so tacky and made-up. The fights were plain bad and stupid, with people walking out of some terrible car crashes as though nothing had happened. I know, we all have seen this in so many movies but in this movie, it has been taken to a whole new level to the point of making the viewer stupid. In all this mess, one has to point the few positives in the movie - Ravi Varman's camera work and the art direction. They both were really outstanding.

If you are a Thalaivar fan, I would say - go watch it!! Seriously, all those times when during the Thalaivar - Kamal fights, the Kamal fans ridiculed us about the illogical scenes in Thalaivar's movies. Take heart, as this movie has loads and loads of the very same stupid and illogical scenes, that would make even a Vijayakanth film look better. The scene where the bullet takes away the cancerous growth in the Sardar Kamal's throat is the hands down winner and brought the loudest cheers from the audience. So, again, I request you to watch this movie and when you do go, take along a few other Thalaivar fans. I can gaurantee pure fun in the screening, just like me as I went with 3 other Thalaivar fans.

For Kamal fans, I am sure this is one huge embarrassment and its every bit of their worst night mares coming true. I mean, to have waited for this bunch of crap for 2 long years, I am sure every one of his fans will be devastated.

If you thought Aalavandhaan was one of the worst movies of Kamal, wait till you watch this one. It is THAT bad. But unlike many who usually want their money back when a movie disappoints like this, I didn't care one bit, for I had fulsome entertainment ridiculing the movie, which it thoroughly deserves.

Best Songs of the year 2007

The fag end of the year means that everyone comes out with their favorite/ top songs of the year and I do not want to be left out. So, here goes my favorite songs of the year. As always, I prescribe to the following 3 conditions while coming up with the list:

1) All these songs should fit in a 80-minute audio CD
2) There should be only one song from any given movie, no matter how good the album is. (Deepavali, Bheema, Sivaji, Kattradhu tamizh, Mozhi, kannaamoochi yaenadaa are some albums that definitely deserved more than 1 song)
3) The album should have been released in 2007 (that would eliminate albums like Paruthiveeran and Unnaale Unnaale since they were released in 2006)

So, with these conditions set, here are the songs (as always, in no particular order) that I just fell in love during the year that was - 2007

1) Kaadhal vaithu from Deepavali
2) Unn sirippinil from PMC
3) Yaaro yaarukkul ingu from Chennai 600028 (Of course, the SPB - Chithra version)
4) Kaattrin mozhi from Mozhi
5) Sahana saaral thoovudho from Sivaji
6) Akkam pakkam from Kireedom
7) Manasu marugudhe from Pallikoodam
8) Pesugiren pesugiren from Satham Podaathey
9) Enadhuyire enadhuyire from Bheema
10) Sanjaaram veesum from Kannaamoochi Yaenadaa
11) Maayaavi Neeyaa from Sivi
12) Paravaiye engu irukkiraai from Kattradhu Tamizh
13) Valaiyal karangalai from Thottaal Poo Malarum
14) Minnalgal koothaadum from Pollaadhavan
15) Iru vizhiyO siragadikkum from Pirivom SandhippOm

Honorable mention(s):
I usually mention only a few but this year saw more than its usual share of some very good songs. Since this list again has a substantial number of songs, I guess this too can be written in a separate audio CD.

1) Pogaadhe from Deepavali
2) Perunthil Nee Enakku from Pori
3) Unakkul naane from Pachaikkili Muthucharam (The Bombay Jeyashree version)
4) Un parvai mele pattaal from Chennai 600028
5) Pesaa madandhaiye from Mozhi
6) Athiradee from Sivaji
7) Vizhiyil un vizhiyil from Kireedom
8) Arabu naade from Thottaal poo malarum
9) Idhu enna maayam from Oram Po
10) Nee Kavidhai from Naan Avan Illai
11) Indha Nimidam from Pallikkoodam
12) Mudhal mazhai from Bheema
13) Megam megam from Kannamoochi Yaneadaa
14) Oh Nenje from Sivi
15) Para para pattaampoochi from Kattradhu Tamizh
16) Unnarugil varugaiyil from Kalloori

Album of the year - There certainly were so many albums that could have run away with this award (!!). Kattradhu tamizh had such amazingly haunting tunes that just refuse to get out of your mind even after you are done with hearing the songs (& watching the movie). Kannaamoochi Yaenadaa was another delightful album where Yuvan's magic with Priya worked one more time, if not in as good a way as Kanda Naal Mudhal but definitely good enough to deserve mention in this list. Satham podaathey, though failing to live upto the lofty standards of a Vasanth movie album, still would easily rank among the best albums of the year. Sivi was another album in which every single song was amazing and personally for me, it is one album that would probably win the surprise pick of the year award, given the fact that I was no big fan of his debut album Paarijaatham. There was also Pachaikkili Muthucharam which saw the Harris Jeyaraj - Gautham Menon combination work wonders for the 4th straight album. I would not be doing justice if I were not to mention Sivaji in this mix, as it was the album which to me came closest to my pick of the year, for it lived upto the humongous pre-release hype & expectations and satisfied both Thalaivar & Rahman fans alike. Other albums that would also need a mention here would be Bheema, Kireedom, Pirivom Sandhippom and Chennai 600028. Now that I have listed down all my favorite albums of the year, I guess it is time to talk about my pick for the album of the year which would be Mozhi. Trust Vidyasagar to come up with an all-melody album and he delivers big time with Mozhi. Since the album was released at the starting of the year, every time a new album was released through the course of the year, it gave me a chance to compare it against Mozhi and since none of the albums lived upto Mozhi, I guess that will be my pick of the year.

MD of the year - it has to be Yuvan again. Just a mere listing of the films that he has done and the variety that he offered us in 2007 alone should be enough for him to be the MD of the year. Paruthiveeran, Kattradhu Tamizh, Chennai 600028, Satham Podaathey, Kannaamoochi yaneadaa, Billa, Vel, Machakkaaran (Oh yeah, amidst all these albums, he also delivered the thoroughly entertaining AMAV in Telugu with Selva). Save for Vel, that is one impressive list of albums to be delivered over a 2-3 year period, let alone in one calendar year. Great going, Yuvan and keep up the good work, as he has an impressive array of albums lined up 2008 too.

Usual Suspects of the Maestro

Alright, I am not committing a sacrilege here, for coming up with a list of the best songs of the Maestro in a single CD is nothing but that. But I am still committing it, with a silly excuse to justify it. So, picture this scenario - you have your extensive collection of the Maestro CDs in your car. But right now, you are at your friend's place for a long weekend and you have a rental car. You guys are ready to start for a road trip but wait, you do not have a Maestro CD collection in your car. For me, there can never be a road trip without a Maestro CD in my car. So, get where I am going to. This situation is where this list will come in very handy. You got to get started on your trip and only have a few minutes left which means you have time to write only one CD. (It goes without saying that the rental car does not have an auxiliary input which rules out plugging your iPod in) This situation warrants a list like this, which will save the trouble of going through your overwhelming collection of the Maestro's 800+ albums. This is one such list where when each song starts playing, you will start running out of adjectives in praising the genius of the Maestro. And this situation BTW is something that I have faced numerous times (and I am sure some of you might have faced it as well) and that is the very reason I wanted to come up with this list.

As always, I have my own pre-set conditions in arriving at this list.

1) The songs should fit in a 80 min CD.
2) No album can have more than 1 song.
3) The list shall not contain a song from a movie that was released after 1990.
4) The list shall not contain a song from a movie that was released prior to 1980.

En Iniya Pon Nilaave from Moodu Pani
Edho mogam from Kozhi Koovudhu
Idhu Oru ponmaalai from Nizhalgal
Ilaiya Nilaa from Payanangal Mudivadhillai
Keeravaani from Paadum Paravaigal
Kodiyile Malligappoo from Kadalora Kavidhaigal
Mandram vandha from Mouna Raagam
Naan thedum from Dharma Pathini
Pani Vizhum Malarvanam from Ninaivellaam Nithya
Poojaikkketha poovidhu from Neethaana Andha Kuyil
Poove Sempoove from Solla Thudikkudhu Manasu
Raja Raja Chozhan from Rettai Vaal Kuruvi
Thendral vandhu ennai thodum from Thendrale Ennai Thodu
Enna satham indha neram from Punnagai Mannan
Thulli ezhundhadhu paattu from Geethanjali
Pothi vacha malliga mottu from Mann Vaasanai

So, there goes the proverbial drop in the ocean, IMO. How will your drop from the Maestro's ocean look like?

An assorted post

Bheema album- What Harris Jeyaraj has been doing with each album of his is just mind-blowing. Music lovers have differing opinions on songs of different MDs but when it comes to songs tuned in by Harris, there are no two opinions. Inspite of all his shortcomings, nobody can say that they do not like the melodies churned out by Harris Jeyaraj. I am a big fan of Yuvan but I enjoy the songs of Harris Jeyaraj equally bcos of the simple reason - they are instantly catchy, the tunes are very simple and more importantly, all it takes for us to start loving the songs is couple of listenings. Of course his songs draw the usual complaints - they are not innovative, they all sound the same, the tune sounds oh-so familiar but guess what? The songs are so much enjoyable and that is what matters at the end. And Bheema is no different and it was only expected bcos it is Linguswamy who is the director of the movie and who has always been very good when it comes to extracting the best out of his MDs. Every song you hear in Bheema just brings a smile to your lips, as to how this guy can come up with such simple tunes album after album.

The moment you listen to the Ragasiya Kanavugal song, you are instantly hooked on to it. The only thing that is jarring in this song is Madhushree's voice & Tamil pronunciation. The 'irage irage' chorus is just too good. Very soothing tune to go along with some catchy beats. Easily my pick of the album. But equally soothing and melodious, are the Enadhuyire enadhuiyre and Mudhal mazhai songs. Somehow Sadhana Sargam's rendition of the Enadhuyire song was not easy on the ears. Other than that, it was almost a perfect melody. Hariharan is at his best in the mesmerizing Mudhal mazhai number where that female solo humming, though being something we have come to expect in Harris Jeyaraj's songs, is so enchanting. Oru mugamO is a very interesting hero introduction song, sans heavy beats which are usually the trademark of such songs. Naresh Iyer and Karthik just compliment each other well. Siru paarvaiyaale is the typical Harris folk-cum-kuthu song and it is as catchy as any of his previous such songs. And me being a big fan of Harini just makes the job of liking the song much more easier. Rangu rangamma is a decent song and will rank as my least favorite number of the album. Overall, Harris Jeyaraj serves up one more thoroughly enjoyable album.

Sivaji second release - This is too good a news not to share this info with you guys. Last weekend, Sivaji was re-released in Seattle (you know, owing to popular demand :D) and thus also becoming the first movie to do so in Seattle's history of screening Tamil movies. Kireedom that was released couple of weeks drew very average crowds (one of my friends actually co-released the movie and let me just say that he hurts his finances pretty badly) and Arya that was released last weekend (along with Sivaji) fared even worse and had all of 11 people watching it. But guess how many people turned up for Sivaji? 410. That’s just freaking unbelievable. Seriously, when I got the news that Sivaji was going to be released again, though I was excited, I was also apprehensive as to the guy who releases it should not incur any losses. Bcos Tamil movies usually run for 1-2 shows here in Seattle. And Sivaji had already run 9 shows during its first release and now it was releasing again. But The Boss proved his clout at the BO in no small measure and pulled out another near-houseful show at Seattle. Though I was out of town and thus could not increase my count (which still stands at 6), talks are already on to bring the movie back to Seattle to coincide with 100th day of the movie's release. I should increase my count during then :)

2008 Accord - Though the concept car of the 2008 Accord coupe was revealed last year at the Detroit auto show, the sedan was kept under the wraps until it was unveiled yesterday. Being an Accord owner myself, I closely follow the changes that the model go through over the years. One of my friends' friend who works at Honda who had a chance to look at the model ever since last year, had only glowing things to say about the car (like "it will blow your mind away"). But after watching the video yday, I will have to say that it did not exactly do it to me :) It definitely looks more stylish and it just does not blow your mind off, say how the 2007 Camry did to all of us when compared to the 06 version. I feel that the body of the car resembles more like a BMW 5-series and it also looks like the car has much more interior space than its previous versions. Here is the link to the Motor Trend video.

Weekend movies

Karuppasamy Kuthagaithaarar - We all wanted the first Tamil movie we were watching after Sivaji to be good and memorable. Well, KK did take care of the latter part but for all the wrong reasons, as it turned out to be one of most amateurish movies that I have watched in the near past. Even given that the intent of the movie is kind of new to Tamil cinema, it was a pure torture to sit through the movie. Every single actor in the movie (Karan included) just reeks of so much in-acting that it is hard to take it beyond a point. Case in point, the heroine's father who is a complete no show. It got too ridiculous beyond a point that I stopped focusing on the movie and instead started looking at the various Madurai spots that are being shown in the movie. The stage theater group just takes up too much unnecessary screen time. The first few minutes of showing their histrionics was mildly interesting but it soon became an overdose & pointless after a while. If you are from Madurai, if you are like me who is staying away from the city and if you want to watch different places from the Madurai city on the big screen & if you want to see actors speak some authentic Madurai slang, then give this a watch. Or else, stay away would be my suggestion.

12 Angry Men - This is one movie which you can find in the top 50 best movies of all time and a movie which has been in my to-watch list for a long time. Finally, got to watch it last weekend. Well, the movie just proved why it is considered so highly by everyone around. The whole movie is how a jury (of 12 men) deliberates among themselves on whether to convict a man accused of killing his own father. The vote of the jury has to be unanimous. When the discussion starts, save for 1 juror, everyone thinks that the accused should be sentenced to death. The lone crusader basically says that he is neither sure if the accused is innocent nor is he convinced with the evidences that were presented by the attorneys. As the film progresses, the way each one of the 11 jurors start getting convinced the other way around and then how it comes down to the last person whose ego rather than logic makes him disagree with all the other jurors have been beautifully portrayed. When some of the jurors who are shown as highly opinionated & egoistic and who think that the man is guilty, I was wondering how the director is going to manage their changing of opinion. It was very convincingly handled. Overall, a terrific movie and I am glad that I finally got a chance to take it off my to-watch list of movies.

Sivaji (Telugu) - Mainly wanted to watch the Telugu version for the 3 scenes that prelude the Adhiradi song bcos Thalaivar has imitated ANR, NTR and Chiranjeevi in the Telugu version. And needless to say, those 3 scenes did not disappoint and those 3 scenes were applauded the most by the Telugu audience. I personally liked the part where Thalaivar imitated ANR and the fact that the song used had the familiar Mazhaikkaala megam tune helped too. It was a laugh riot. During this watching, I was more into observing the reaction of the Telugu folks rather than myself watching the movie, bcos of 2 reasons - I do not understand Telugu (the obvious one) and secondly, this was my 6th time watching the movie and so almost every single scene in the movie was very familiar to me. One of my friends who watched the movie along with me is quite familiar with Telugu cinema and he was telling me that for them, they do not get this whole Thalaivar factor thing and thus, they either like or dislike the movie purely on the basis of its face value. That was actually a very interesting observation for me. Anyway, I did note that the Telugu folks laughed aloud a lot than what our folks did in a few of the comedy scenes in the first half. Also, wherever Tamil words are shown in the movie, care has been taken to replace them with Telugu words and letters. This was my first time watching a Telugu movie in the theater and I am happy that I did it with Sivaji. One trivia I recently came to know about Nayak and I am sure some of you might be unaware of this. The character name of Anil Kapoor in the movie is, hold your breath, Sivaji Rao Gaekwad :) I was totally surprised on hearing it. That shows how big a fan of Thalaivar Shankar is and that is exactly why we see so much of Thalaivar (than Shankar) in Sivaji. Shankar has put on his Thalaivar fan cap and given us all this memorable feast. My count still stands at 6 and badly want to watch it. Every bit of information about Sivaji that I read makes me want to watch the movie more and more. Looks like the film has been brought back for the second time in cities like Atlanta and Washington DC. We have a huge Thalaivar fan in our area who is doing all his to bring Sivaji back to Seattle in a month or two. I will have to wait till then to increase my count.

Sivaji - The Syle Samraat at his scintillating best

Thursday night's review was the Thalaivar fan in me writing it. So, now that I have seen the movie 4 times, I thought let me try writing a more balanced review, which is almost next to impossible. So, if there is anyone who is here expecting to read a unbiased review, then please do not read further :)

Hype kills is one of the most used phrases associated with anything and everything that is given even a wee bit of hype. This holds good for stars and events across all fields, be it politics or sports or movies. And when the hype surrounding such a thing is as huge as the one that surrounded Sivaji before the release, it becomes almost impossible to live upto the huge expectations. It is in this context that we need to look at what Shankar has accomplished with Sivaji. He has handled that expectations admirably and has given a movie that both Thalaivar fans and neutral fans alike would relish for years to come. Like I had said yday, IMHO this will go down as THE best Thalaivar movie of all time. No doubts about it. I might have gone overboard when I said that the movie is 100 times better than Baashaa but I still would say that this is the best Thalaivar film of all time, even beating Baashaa.

The first thing that stands out in the movie is Thalaivar's looks. Thalaivar looks ravishing throughout the movie. Thalaivar just oozes style all through the movie. I can not recall any movie where Thalaivar's style has been put to such extensive use and that is precisely one reason why I rate this movie so highly, as his best. If we take Annamalai and Baashaa (2 of Thalaivar's power movies in the last 15 years), we all could easily recall a good 3 scenes from each movie as standout scenes, where Thalaivar's style gave us goose bumps. But in Sivaji, there are just so many scenes that you will lose count of such scenes. The one scene which comes right after the interval is just too good and should be placed right up there in the best scenes of all time in a Thalaivar movie. So, if you are someone who spends a lot of time during the intervals in getting something to eat, you better hurry up inside the theater. You would not want to miss out a single second of action from that scene.

His voice is markedly better than what we heard him in Chandramukhi (and of course, Baba). It kind of takes a while for us to get adjusted to the Thalaivar voice that we are so used to during the pre-Baba days. The ganeer kural is back and is simply rocking. Costumes are mind-blowing. Shankar makes Thalaivar wear so many costumes that before we could even admire him in a good costume, he changes to the next awesome one. His suits are amazing with the matching ties adding to the effect.

About Thalaivar's energetic performance - One word to describe that would be Wow. Thalaivar has given his best performance since Baashaa happened more than 15 years ago. He rocks big time. Stupid & jealous politicians can stop Thalaivar from doing his trademark cigarette flip. But Thalaivar's style in this one - the way he tosses the chewing gum from his right hand to his left hand before the gum makes its way to his mouth is just terrific. And the way he does the same in the climax scene on Suman's forehead was simply brilliant. Equally stylish is the way he catches the Saraswathi vedi in his mouth and lights it. His walk in each and every scene is so majestic, particularly in the scene where he sends Suman to jail & walks back to his car. And finally what to say about the shaven head - how many heroes have done that in the history of Tamil cinema? Thalaivar has put all of their efforts to shame and I am sure anyone planning to do so in the future, will have second thoughts on doing the same. Thalaivar simply rocks in that get-up.

Frankly, Chandramukhi was a letdown for Thalaivar fans and no one still knows why the movie ran. Chandramukhi was basically a comeback vehicle for Thalaivar after the Baba debacle. So, Thalaivar has set out to satiate his fans' thirst & hunger with Sivaji and thus it is a feast for all Thalaivar fans. One of the frequently asked questions about Sivaji is "Is it worth the 2 year wait?" I would even wait 5 years for such a movie from Thalaivar. It is that good.

Coming to the picturization of songs - well, Shankar is the best in the business and he proves it again beyond doubt here in Sivaji. Like I had said in my post last night, the Adhiradi song will go down as one of the best ever picturized songs in the history of Tamil cinema. Shankar's imagination runs wild in this one. For many Thalaivar fans, the only silver lining in Baba was the Maaya Maaya song where Thalaivar's dancing was so good that it was actually a revelation for many fans. Reason I am mentioning here is bcos Lawrence who choreographed that song is the one who has done the magic in Adhiradi too. The reason behind why Lawrence alone is able to come up with such awesome steps for Thalaivar is actually quite simple - he is a Thalaivar fan first and a choreographer next. I was simply going crazy during the Adhiradi song, which is pure fantasy portrayed on silver screen. Thalaivar's costumes in this one are mind boggling.

Next comes the Style song. For all those morons who mocked when the Bilbao shooting shot stills were released more than a year ago, this song gives the perfect middle finger. What a grand picturization. Another example of what is possible when Shankar puts his creative thinking cap on. To even conceive the idea for this song, is something that no other director could have done. And then to go on & picturize the song the way it has been done, hats off to
Shankar. The location was awesome and Thalaivar's dance steps in this one are again priceless. Shreya's dancing in this one deserves special mention. After Ballelakka got over, I was having a minor gripe that Shankar did not show Thalaivar's walk enough for us to savor in that song. But that gripe was short-lived as Shankar makes sure that we get enough of Thalaivar's majestic walk in the Sahana song. Thalivar looks so handsome in that song. Thotta Tharani's set in this song and the Vaaji Vaaji song are unbelievable. I was saying to my friends When have we even seen such grandeur in Thalaivar movie before? Vaaji Vaaji song was very entertainingly picturized. Loved the way Shankar had used the dwarfs in the song. Particularly the one time when Thalaivar walks in, as they are dancing and the way he drives them away saying 'Hey'. Again a sincere request to other actors - please refrain from wearing the king/ emperor costumer in the future. No one can look as majestic as Thalaivar in those costumes and wearing those costumes after Sivaji is only going to make them look ridiculous. That leaves us with Ballellakka - easily my disappointment of the movie. The locations were awesome in this song. Shankar does his best to make the song look colorful. Nayanthara was amazing as she dances with all her enthusiasm. So, where does the song go wrong? Thalaivar's dance steps. They are very unconvincing and I wish, somehow they could have come up with better steps, that would have suited Thalaivar more.

In a Thalaivar movie, there is hardly any focus on the heroine and I usually do not write about the heroine. But Shreya was just too good to not write anything about. Shankar again proves why he is one of the best directors. His casting of Shreya is simply a brilliant idea. She is gorgeous and contrary to our fears, does not really look too young for Thalaivar. Her dancing in all the songs was amazing. Her acting was adequate. It is really an achievement if a heroine gets noticed in a Thalaivar movie and Shreya has just accomplished that in Sivaji.

About comedy and Vivek - like I had written in my trailer post, this is how comedy should be in a Thalaivar movie. Very clean and completely enjoyable. This is where Shankar scores. The 'vaanga pazhagalaam' sequence is such an enjoyable one and the very idea brought a smile to my lips. Also, the scenes where Thalaivar tries to become fair have been shot in a very humorous manner. Vivek probably comes up with his best performance yet, in a movie where he does not even have a separate comedy track. His one-liners in so many scenes make the otherwise ordinary scenes to memorable ones. Like when he says Take OK. Camera off, the theater just erupts.

Alright now to the tough part. Some things that I did not like in the movie. Stunt sequences were a let down. It was evident that Peter Heines and his team have put in so much effort into the fight scenes but they go overboard mostly and thus end up being a disappointment. But hey? If folks loved the Matrix style stunts in Anniyan and the getting-below-the-race-car fight in Indian, they will lap this one too. Though the way the drive in theater fight scene ends in a nice way with car going into King Kong's mouth, the way all those cars were flying around was a disappointment. The success of stunt scenes in Thalaivar movies lies in the fact that Thalaivar's face should be shown as he is hitting the bad guys, something that was never done in 2 of the stunts in Sivaji. Shankar has definitely missed a trick there. Thalaivar has put in a lot of hard work in the fight scenes. I only wish that was shown in a more clear way.

As far as the story & screenplay is concerned, Sivaji definitely is not water-tight and surely does not have the punch that we have seen in the Shankar vigilante movies before. But then there is a difference between those movies and this one. Shankar did not have a star big enough or even remotely close to Thalaivar in stature, in any of those movies. So, he had to take extra care in dwelling deep into the issue he took in his hand and spend enough time on that. But on this one, he probably thought that he has Thalaivar with him and so instead of spending a few more scenes on the actual issue at hand, he diverts his focus on some scenes that would satisfy Thalaivar's legion of fans. In every interview that he gave in the lead-up to the movie's release, Shankar kept saying that he has achieved that fine balance between a Superstar movie and a Shankar movie. I think that is an exaggerated claim. It was like saying Oru koodai Thalaivar, Oru Koodai Shankar, Ondraaga sErtha padam thaane Sivaji But after seeing the movie, it should be rather Rendu koodai Thalaivar, Oru koodai Shankar, ondraaga sErthaa padam thaane Sivaji That is the mix that Shankar has gone with. Shankar had a choice to make: He can make a movie in his own style with Thalaivar just playing the role of hero in it or he could make a movie exploiting Thalaivar's superstar image with his directorial specialties taking a back seat. No wonder that he has gone with the latter choice. Given the amount of money that was at stake in this movie, it was only logical that Shankar decided to play to the gallery i.e. the millions of Thalaivar fans across the globe.

The only other disappointment of the movie - ARR's background score, especially in the fight sequences. Except for the Sega fight-aa song (which was not even used fully) and the bit that is used whenever Suman comes on-screen, the re-recording was, to put it mildly, pathetic. May be he was just content that his job was done, after he had come up with a very good album satisfying everyone. He surely could have done so much better in the BGM department, for a movie of this magnitude. Though Thalaivar's mere presence lifted so many scenes where ARR failed, those very scenes could have actually been elevated to Himalayan heights if only ARR had done his job better. There have always been questions about his re-recording capabilities and they are only bound to get louder after his Sivaji bungling. BTW, the secret that Blaaze told me was the rap that comes in the climax when Mottai Boss appears. It was a surprise bcos that rap was not part of the original audio CD. If anybody comes across a link to download that rap, please pass it along.

Alright, so where does this leave me? Let me try answering a few questions.

Is this Shankar's best film ever? No, not by a long way

But, is this Shankar's most challenging movie ever? Oh yeah.

Is this Thalaivar's best film ever? No, Mullum Malarum will always be my pick for that.

But is this Thalaivar's best Superstar film ever? Yes and again, by a long way.

And does it live up to the gargantuan pre-release expectations? Most certainly Yes.

Overall, for non-Thalaivar fans Sivaji is a serving of full meals and for Thalaivar fans, it is a feast which has to be tasted a good 5 times to get the complete taste out of it.

Sivaji - Most complete Thalaivar movie ever

Just got back from watching Sivaji. It is 1 am here and more importantly, Iam just too excited to write a coherent review. So, just penning down my random thoughts before I hopefully get to write a full-fledged review soon:

Thalaivar was wrong. He said that Sivaji is 10 times better than his most favorite film, Baashaa. But I have to disagree with him. Sorry Thalaivaa, Sivaji is 100 times better than Baashaa. With Sivaji, Thalaivar has a new problem at hand. Seriously, there is no way any other director can even think about making a movie that is remotely as electric and powerful as Sivaji. Post-Sivaji, Thalaivar is like a mountaineer who has climbed Mt. Everest. What other peak is there on the face of this earth that could challenge him? And most probably that would excite us watching him undertake that challenge?

The Adhiradi song along is 10 times the worth the price of your ticket. Shankar proves why he is the undisputed king when it comes to songs picturization. If you thought the picturization of Kannum kannum Nokia was mind-blowing, it is safe to say that you are not ready for Adhiradi yet. It will go down as one of the best picturized songs of Tamil cinema.

Thalaivar looks amazing throughout the movie. I loved the second half hairstyle better than the ones he sports in the first half. Mottai boss simply rocks.

I simply loved the first half. Comedy was so enjoyable. Vivek was at his hilarious best.

Shreya has done her role absolutely well. She looks gorgeous.

About Thalaivar - I think it is time the folks at Webster change the meaning of the word Style. What a style…what a power-packed performance. What a screen presence. There are just too many minute things in the movie that you will have to watch the movie a good 10 times to admire each one of them and also to appreciate how much thought Shankar (and his team) have put behind each one of them.

So, where do I place Sivaji? Dare I say it? Yes, I am going to say it. Sivaji is THE BEST Thalaivar film ever. Period. And I am sure there is absolutely no way that there can be a better Thalaivar film than Sivaji (unless of course Shankar decides to cast Thalaivar in)

Weekend Movies - Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam & Pori

Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam - This was another movie that I was so eagerly expecting to watch, mainly bcos of all the good reviews it was getting. The wait for this movie actually ended up stretching to more than 3 months since the movie was released bcos of the fact the movie's DVD was constantly rented out at the local Indian store. This is probably the first movie for which I came back empty-handed atleast a good 10 times. Usually, the demand for a new movie's DVD at the local Indian store is high for the first couple of weeks and after that it should be easily available. But in this case, for some reason, the DVD was unavailable even nearly 5 weeks after it made its way to the Indian store. Anyway, enough of my experiences in trying to rent the DVD.

I found the movie to be very enjoyable. It was a laugh and fun riot. I heard both good and bad reviews about the movie from my friends. There were 2 reasons cited by my friends who did not like the movie - 1) lack of logic and 2) many scenes from Thalaivar's blockbuster movies found their place in this movie. Well, I had some easy arguments to counter both of them. As far as the lack of logic goes, since when did we start looking for logic in masala movies? When I start watching a masala movie, I take it for granted that logic will take a backseat in such a movie and hence I did not look too much into some illogical scenes in the movies. For the second reason for not liking the movie, I would ask "Who better suited to include Thalaivar's scenes than his own son-in-law?" ;) To me, this movie vaguely reminded me of Azhagiya Theeye (I am not committing the blasphemy of saying that this movie is as good as AT) bcos of the presence of funny and enjoyable one-liners sprinkled throughout the movie. Like when Dhanush asks his brother on how he looks while speeding in a bike chasing Shreya, his brother says Azhagaai Irukkiraai. Bayamaai Irukkiradhu. I thought that was cute. Dhanush was vibrant throughout the movie. This was a role tailor-made for him. When Shankar cast Shreya opposite Thalaivar in Sivaji, I was not too much impressed. Among other reasons which include my argument that Why do we even need a heroine in Thalaivar's movies? When we have Thalaivar in the movie, I look for nothing beyond him, I did not find her too attractive. But this is the first movie of her I am watching after Shankar signed her and I instantly liked her & understood why Shankar had signed her. If Boopathi Pandian could make Shreya look so good, I wonder what Shankar, the master director he is, can pull off? Prakash Raj is awesome as always. He brought in the required amount of seriousness and comic timing to his role. His was a role which had to be balanced, so that it is neither taken as a serious one nor as a comic one. I thought that was a fine line and Prakash Raj walked the line admirably. One of the more enjoyable movies I have watched in recent times. A fun movie, nothing more nothing less.

Pori - Rented this one out inspite of reading all the bad reviews it got. Reason being Jeeva and Pooja . He is one actor on whom I have a lot of faith and expectations among the younger crop of actors. But after watching this movie, I simply can't understand why he chose to do this lousy movie. Though he does his job reasonably well, the movie just did not have anything to showcase his talents. The way he utters his dialogs is so cool and natural that I would simply watch any movie starring him just bcos of that one reason. The story is weak and the way it is told is even weaker. Pooja is my favorite among the current set of actresses in Tamil (Asin, Bhavana all come after her). She looked awesome in the movie, though she did not have any meaningful role to play. Karunas was at his irritating best. Couldn't stand him. Nagesh was another saving grace of the movie. It is amazing to see how the veteran performs in even mediocre movies like this. Perunthil nee enakku is a beautiful melody by Dheena and I am sure when the Best Songs of 2007 is brought out at the end of the year, this song will find a place in such lists of most of us. I seriously wonder at times why they make movies like this and why would someone like Jeeva decide to cast himself in such a movie. They say some movies are made just for the sake of escaping from the clutches of paying enormous income tax (basically to convert some black money into legal money). Who knows, this movie is one of them. Got nothing else to write about this listless movie. Skip it, would be my suggestion.

Weekend movies - Pachaikkili Muthucharam and Dhoom 2

Pachaikkili Muthucharam- 4 and counting. 4 is the number of movies that Gautham Menon has provided us as a director and IMO he is yet to produce one completely convincing movie. Obviously, Kaakka kaakka was the one that even came close to be convincing in all the aspects while all the others, including PMC, are half-baked movies at best. He is this wannabe Mani Rathnam and wannabe Bala all rolled into one but unfortunately is none of them. The problem with watching a remade movie after having already watched the original and that too for a suspense movie like this, is that you know what to expect and hence the twist in the story does not bring any surprise to you. So, when I read about Gautham's own new twist, I was really looking forward to it. But as it turned out, the final twist is what makes the movie go one step down from being good to 'not bad'. One more time, Harris Jeyaraj proves that without him, Gautham Menon would find the going very tough. Though he does not remotely provide anything in terms of variety, it is amazing how his songs are instantly catchy and melodious. That is a special talent and I guess Harris Jeyaraj is perfecting the art. But his skills in composing tunes does not translate into the background score department which was pretty ordinary. It could have been a lot better in many scenes. Sarath Kumar is one actor whom I have always thought had decent acting skills whose talent the Tamil film directors did not really fully utilize. So, I was kind of expecting a knock-out performance from him since he was an ideal fit for this character. But somehow, his performance was just OK. May be, I expected more out of him. Jyothika as always overacts and turns in a mediocre performance. I have never been a big fan of her and this movie does nothing to change my opinion. The combination of nose ring and kaajal in her face made the task of watching her up-close a not-so-comfortable experience. What’s up with all the close-up shots throughout the movie? If the 4 lead characters had been good performers, this would have been a good idea. But when you have someone like Andrea who is making her debut and for whom acting is still clearly No-Entry zone, Gautham could have done otherwise. I read in some reviews where they had appreciated the subdued response of Andrea when Sarath reveals the truth to her. But I think otherwise as that she simply didn't know how to react and may be Gautham just let it the way like that, after having tried his best. Milind Soman was the one who impressed me the most but even with him, since his dialogues & mannerisms reminded me so much of the villain characters from GM's earlier movies, started to get on my nerves. More than all these drawbacks, the first thing that stuck like a sore thumb throughout the movie were the dialogues. It is really high time that Gautham finds himself a good dialog writer. Gautham has this affinity towards using dialogues Tamil cinema has hitherto unseen like 'making love' but when Sarath Kumar utters it, it just does not gel. And what's up with Jyothika referring to her husband as en kanavar. I just can't understand how a working woman in Chennai is referring to her husband as kanavar. In fact, the first time she mentions about him, she uses the word husband but from then on, it became kanavar. Wonder why? The theater just went into bouts of laughter whenever stupid dialogues came on the screen. After their scuffle with the auto drivers, when Jyothika asks Sarath Kumar Enakkagava?, there was a muted and controlled laughter. But when she does that again some time later asking him Idhuvum enakkaagavaa?, there was a laugh riot in the theater. Even after watching PMC, I still feel that Gautham Menon has the wherewithal to give us far better movies than his last 2 efforts. Lets see if he provides us better fare with Vaaranam Aayiram.

Dhoom 2 - Hrithik. There is not a single actor in Bollywood who can match him in all-round talent. He acts so well that you can almost feel the sincerity in his performance. He outdoes his peers by miles when it comes to dancing. The first few steps he does when he is introduced in this movie are simply out-of-the-world. I had written a few weeks back how I think our Tamil heroes have caught up with their Bollywood counterparts when it comes to dancing. But here is one Bollywood actor whom we can't even get near. He is just too good. From Kaho naa pyaar hai to Dhoom 2, the one thing he has been very consistent in is his dancing. I am no big Aishwarya fan. It is a known fact that she can't act (may be except in Mani Rathnam movies) and that fact is only confirmed in this movie. She is so pathetic that she can't even kiss passionately (but this might be bcos of the presence of Abhishek in the sets :)). Her efforts to look sexy end up being funny. She was a total misfit in this movie. On the other hand, we have Bipasha Basu who is absolutely gorgeous and is so sexy. Ash can never be sexy like Bipasha and hence can stop trying to be like her. The heists in the movie are not only ridiculous but also completely unbelievable. It is OK to ape Hollywood movies but then there is some semblance of credibility in similar scenes in Hollywood movies but it is completely absent in Dhoom and that is what watching each theft unfold before you such a boring routine. You know somehow Hrithik is going to escape and the way he is going to get that done will be unbelievable. The film just meanders on with one sluggish & boring theft after another and comes to a highly predictable end, something we have seen in umpteen other cop chasing thief movies. Like everyone has said, watch it for Hrithik. Abject bad and listless movie, nevertheless.

Weekend movies - Sivappathigaaram and Children of Men

Sivappathigaaram - Another telling after-effect of the Shankar era in Tamil cinema. This movie faithfully follows what we have seen in each of Shankar's 4 vigilante movie - series of unlawful incidents committed by the hero, he has another personality to the outer world (in this case, the role of a folk songs researcher), a godfather/ mentor who helps the hero focus his anger (Raghuvaran here, in the place of Nambiyar in Gentleman) , a smart police officer investigating the murders (Charan Raj's role in Gentleman/ Nedumudi Venu's role in Indian) and last but not the least, the flashback which justifies the whole revenge seeking that the hero is going about doing. I didn’t really understand the whole folk song research part in the whole movie. At the end of the movie when we get to know what the movie is all about, I kind of felt cheated bcos the whole researching naattuppura paattu veil that they used was completely unnecessary and took up so much of unnecessary screen-time. Vishal is OK. I am not sure very sure if these are the kind of movies he should be casting himself in. There is a certain inhibition in his dialogue delivery that it makes us uncomfortable when he starts lecturing on naattupura paattu. The less said about the heroine, the better. The articifical romance between her and Vishal just gets on our nerves. Raghuvaran as always does his part well, without going overboard at any point and in addition to the music, is the only saving grace of the movie. The way Vishal goes about killing people is actually very funny. He kills the target in broad day-light with a maximum of 20-30 people around the target. He kills the target with a long knife and then walks off coolly with nobody around the target, not even making an effort to see how the target was killed. The director makes sure that one of the best songs of last year finds a place in one of the worst picturized songs of last year, by doing a horrible job of picturizing the Attrai thingal vaanile song. Vidyasagar need not have toiled so hard to come up with the kind of awesome tunes he ultimately did for a pointless movie like this. Though the film crew need to be appreciated for the way they have captured the Madurai Azhagar festival real-time, I hated it at the same time bcos there was completely no need for doing that in the movie. It is only when you watch half-baked movies like these that you realize the true value of Shankar and why he has attained the position he finds himself in. I really expected a lot from the director who gave us Parthiban Kanavu but the director just proves that this kind of a stereo-typical vigilante movie is not really his forte.

Children of Men - I usually do not write reviews for English movies, simply bcos I can't rant and rave about an English movie like the way I do for a Tamil or Hindi movie. But I decided to write about this movie bcos I simply did not understand the movie and I just wanted to write something about my viewing experience. The director continually keeps you in a sense of confusion during the course of the movie. After coming home from watching the movie, I spent a good 2 hours reading the various reviews from the Rotten Tomatoes site to understand fully what the movie means. The Rotten Tomatoes site had given a 91% overall rating which is why we decided to go to this movie in the first place. The good thing we found out after reading all the reviews was even some of the professional reviewers who write reviews for newspapers and websites, had some of the same questions that I had at the end of the movie. The movie is set in England in the year 2027 when the world is in complete shambles and no woman in the whole word has been able to conceive in the last 18 years. So, the youngest baby in the world is 18 years and few months old. The film starts when this baby is killed in a scuffle with the media. Clive Owen, the hero who used to be a revolutionary before resigning to a mundane life, comes across a girl who has become pregnant and the whole film is about how he takes her across the border of England to the neighboring country bcos the girl who gives birth to the baby does not want to be in England. The whole movie is one big cycle of one confusing sequence after another. Nothing is explained as to why something is happening. For example, there is no reasoning given behind the fact that no woman has been able to conceive in the last 18 years. The director leaves everything to our imagination and lets the task of deciphering to us, bcos there are loads and loads of clues throughout the movie. For example, there is a TV news clip which says that the siege of Seattle enters its 1000th day. But he doesn’t care to explain who exactly is laying siege. Same with a newspaper snippet which talks about nuclear bomb in Africa and no explanation once again on what really happened or even a passing reference to the same. The movie is neither racy nor clear and at the end of it all, just leaves you with more questions than answers. Overall, this movie is not even worth watching it on rented DVD.

Maestro random playlist

There are so many things that are hard in life. But if you ask me, what is the hardest thing in life, I would say that it is the hardest to come up with a set of audio CDs of Ilaiyaraja's collections. Seriously, I have tried it so many times in so many different ways and still havent come up with a solid collection of CDs yet. During times like that when I couldn't come to a decision on what I wanted, I would just randomly pick up some songs to burn a CD and even that CD would be like treasure, full of amazing songs.

I have tried to come up with collections like Maestro with different actors, different directors, different kind of movies. But the problem is say, if you try to come up with a CD of Maestro with Thalaivar, there are just too many good songs in the list, that you will probably end up with 3-4 CDs for just that combination.

Anyway, after thinking in vain for a long time, I just decided to come up with a CD of relatively unknown songs from the Maestro. So, I imposed the following conditions for myself:

1) The movies should have been released somewhere between the late 80s and early 90s.
2) The songs should fit into a single 80-min CD
3) The songs shall not be very popular :)
4) The songs shall not be from the following movies:

movies directed by - Mani Rathnam, Balu Mahendra, Bharathiraja, KB, Fazil, R.K.Selvamani, Raj Kiran, P. Vasu, R.V.Udhaya Kumar, Nasser, Priyadharshan
movies starring - Thalaivar, Kamal, Ramarajan
movies - Devadhai, Time, Raasaiyya, Poomani, Poovarasan, Mounam Sammadham

So, here goes my list based on the above conditions:

1) Kungumam manjalukku from Enga Mudhalaali - This song used to be telecast so many times in DD those days, that I vividly remember almost the whole song even now
2) Adho andha nadhiyoram from Ezhai Jaadhi - Besides the fiesty Liakat Ali Khan dialogues & Jayapradha, this movie is also remembered for this awesome song.
3) Manjal poosum from Sakkarai thevan - One obscure Vijayakanth movie where all the songs were popular back then
4) Maane maragathame from Enga Thambi - Another obscure Prashanth movie with super-hit songs.
5) Muthumani muthumani from Adharmam - This movie was actually a good movie but this song is what stood out
6) Ival oru ilankuruvi from Bramma - One of my friends who is a big Ilaiyaraja fan always says that this is one of his most favorite Ilaiyaraja song
7) Kaadhoram lolaakku from Chinna Maappillai - This Sandhanabarathi directed movie is a laugh riot but almost all the songs were hummable
8) Ninaikkindra paadhaiyil from Aathma - Kannaale kaadhal kavidhai from this movie is the more popular song but I love this song equally
9) Oru kola kili sonnadhe from Pon vilangu - Vaguely remember this movie as being good but I have carried this song in my heart ever since
10) Indha maamanoda manasu from Uthama Raasa - A song from one of those umpteen Prabhu-Kushboo starrers but I simply loved this song
11) Ninaitha varum kaettu from Kaadhal Rojaave - I don't even know if this movie was ever released but the songs became hugely popular
12) Vaa Kaathirukka neramillai from Kaathirukka Neramillai - I remember this Karthik movie for Sivaranjani who was the heroine :) Songs were very good, as usual
13) Manikkuyil isaikkudhadi from Thanga Manasukkaaran - this one from the Junior Mike Mohan movie
14) Oru mandhaarappoo from Chinna Jameen - A movie known again for all the wrong reasons but Mottai again had done his job admirably well
15) Mayilaadum thoppil from Chinna Pasanga Naanga -Enna manamulla ponnu innu was the more popular song from the movie but this song is the one which stands out
16) Kaattru poovai from I Love India - This much-hyped Sarath Kumar movie ended up being a dud but again, the songs were awesome.

So, there goes my list. Have I missed out any good song from any good movie during that time? Let me know...