Manmadhan Ambu

At the moment not having much patience to write a full review, yet wanted to blog-out something after a long time. Jotted down few thought abt the movie...

-  At the juncture where Ambu comes to know of the accident caused by her from Major Mannar itself , the movie reaches the zenith.Till then movie was peppered with mild humour and built up a commendable storyline.The last 1/2 hr was an outright  "dialogue comedies" which did not do full justice to the first half of the movie. The balance gets shifted to humour and gets upperhand over the story.
- Unable to get why Madhanagopal doesn't ask for camera pictures from his spy after he declares that Trisha is moving along with a "secret lover"?

- That Ambu never knew of the accident caused by her is unbelievable ...

- Kamal as usual excelled in acting (especially the poignant scenes where he narrates his past to Trisha and when he feels for his hospitalised friend)

- Movies like "Avvai shanmugi" or "Michael madhana Kama Raj" are definitely movies which take strong support from "dialogue humour", yet suitable fast paced scenes accompany them to evoke laughter. But if one watches the last  minutes of  "Manmadhan Ambu", some 6-7 guys accuse (perhaps with mild humour)  each other standing in the same place leaving much work to the auditory faculty of the audience. (Needless to say , audience are generally not as comfortable with 'hearing' as much as 'watching')

- wondering what for Singer Usha uthup and 'Bajji' Oviya were chosen ...

- The inclusion of Mr and Mrs.Kurup was irksome.

- The song " Neela vaanam.." was heart-rendering .Its back-tracking sequence was a different feel...

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Endhiran

Writing a movie review after a long time...Last time tried to write a review for 'Dasavatharam' but by the time i finished, it was too late to publish .Curious to see the  next-to-next movies,Dasavatharam and Enthiran , donned by the two megastars of Tamil filmdom Kamal Hasan and Rajinikant, were both sci-fiction categories , the stars both played lead characters as 'scientist' and still futher, the stars played more than one character !


        It was a different experience watching a robot movie which is very rare in Indian cinema .Under the prevanlence that indian sci-fi movies are quite under-par and do not fare great among audience, Endhiran is  a bold attempt by Director Shankar.. Kudos!. It was nice treat to see Superstar Rajinikant morphed into a SuperIntelligent robot blending into the role with ease. Since i had previously  watched  James Cameron's Terminator movies quite a number of  times, i was unable to feel Endhiran was very novel or exciting on the action or technical front .. But what appealed most was concept -  'what if a Robot is begins to starts feeling as humans?  or still ...falls in love?! ' . In this context , the movie is well appreciable.
The love-lorn Chitti's attempts to woo Sana(Aishwarya)  to the extent of almost intimidating Dr.Vaseegaran its creator, were amusing. Especially the 'mosquito dialogues' sequence ...out-of-box idea indeed. And when Sana rejects Chitti's love , we too feel sad for Chitti ..
   The train fight stunts looked ok . But does the super-robot fights for too long ? The bad guys come back unscathed even after a heavy thrashing  :( ,  while we expect a single punch should be enough  to lay each of them flat !
 The villain-turned Chitti's mannerisms are the highlights of the movie .The spine-chilling  evil laugh  'eahaahahhahahahahaha...."  echoes resonating a  shiver in the belly!  and "maaaayye" too enthralls ...  None else could have suited and perfected the evil role except Superstar Rajinikant!
 Till the pre-climax the story was well developed and i was quite comfortable and eagerly looking for what's next.But as the climax unfolded ...i could see my concentration slowly drifting. The cloning of robots was the tipping point .But,aftermath, all the stunts with the clones assembling together using some super magnetic-capability and fighting the City army and all atrocities ...."அட போங்கப்பா!" ( comment borrowed from general Anada Vikatan movie reviews..:) )   I was unable to fit anywhere into my logic. ( Actually mildly similar effect i got when watching climax of Terminator-I , where just the robo skeleton does the rampage )
  What could have been improved upon is robot stunts and action .The robot-skeleton mimicking Rajinikant walking-style was exciting. But, when the robot dances,fights etc , it looked  too fast and un-robotic .The car chase sequence  lacked a punching effect and  graphics  sometimes looked comic. The 'graphic effects' were not perfected and  looks explicit rather than subtle .
Aish impressive in songs dance movements. Otherwise a dull show from the beautiful aunty.
As usual of Shankar movies, song visuals and locations were exhilarating .Also, Rajinikanth looked much charming in songs.A.R.Rahman music looked good for me (contrary to general media news i came to know)
A slight disappointment to Rajini fans perhaps could be watching superstar as scientist Dr.Vaseegaran . He is the real human Rajinikant of the movie , playing a  subdued role and uses his guts rather than muscles . May be his fans now look forward for a superstar movie, playing a real human role,  with all those punch-dialogues , stunts , fiery , romance,comedy  etc
 Overall , I liked 'Endhiran' for its different theme , screenplay , visuals and Superstar Rajinikant. At the same time , too dramatic robot stunts in climax and explicitness of graphic effect could have been improved upon...

Rajinikanth...some more 'quotes'

Since Rajinkant 'quotes' (not jokes...)  are becoming ubiquitous everywhere , got a bit excited and churned some more below.  (apparently some are build-ups on existing ones)


-> Rajinikant can chew a diamond like a chewing-gum . He can also blow bubbles out of it.

-> Some say God would not destroy earth by 2010 as Rajinkant has bought a new Laptop with 3yrs
Guarantee.But no one yet aware of the apparent danger that Rajinikant himself would destroy the
world once the guarantee expires.

-> Rajinikant is the only man who know the last number .

->Once Michael Jackson asked Rajinikant proudly "Can you do 'moon walk' like me?".
Rajinikant replied humbly "yeah sure" and he whisked to moon in seconds and walked over there.

-> Everyday early morning Rajinikant goes to Saturn . He goes for 'morning walk' on its rings.

-> Once a dinosaurs saw Rajinikant on its way and tried to run away.Rajinikant shouted 'hey don't  worry ! i'm on fast today"

-> Beema can stop a erupting volcano using his index finger. But Rajinikanth just says
" ey chup ....!"

-> Once God felt tired of managing the universe and asked Rajinikant if he can be his
successor.Rajinikant refused as he was not interested in powers.

-> Once when Rajinikant  was a kid , fell down and lost one of his tooth. He fell from 13th floor

-> Rajinikant can install Ubuntu linux in  3.2 Seconds.

- Rajinikant wanted to participate in 'Shooting' competition in the last Olympics . Olympic authorities refused as Rajinikant opted to 'shoot from home' was against rules.


Cheers!

knock knock ...Conscience!

  Recently,  i received a E-mail  FW depicting how selfish, intriguing and opportunistic Indian policians can be .It was mildly funny with satirical photographs and commented with sarcastic humour. Quite immediately , we received replies criticising and booing the politicians further. As we see often, many of our fellow people show disdain for these politicians and express their hopelessness and anguish on them in common discussions ,debate ,forums etc . Agreed..anguish displayed is well justified.. But,yet,when we blame someone/body,how far we deserve to criticise? Many times these laments look more like a "Lets Satan too chant the bible !" kind of sermon.. Of course, we should do express our disapproval. But,also in parallel,lets  do some introspection. Lets question our conscience how much we care to be responsible to the nation's well being . How many instances we breach the ethical limits ?  Few thing which came to my mind ...how many of us don't jump traffic signals? took care not to litter public places?  refuse to buy pirated dvds/books ?  refused to pay bribe for passport when demanded by the policeman? don't squander public utilities like water/electricity?... and above all , how many of us vote?  Actually the list is quite long if we dig more . Everyone gets caught in more than one ways.
    The so-called 'politician' did not sprang up from no-where . He is from the common man. He is one among us if we just strip the 'politician' tag.  Politicians may be the 'heart' of a country's administration. But common man are the 'genes'. More so valid in a democratic setup like India.
We may not have the power to rout or civilize bad politicians altogether .We may not have the urge or time to foray into politics to clean the political system. But we have the power to change ourselves, our bad habits and 'i dont care' attitude , If we renovate our ourselves now , i guess , within 15yrs from now we can positively see a strong Indian administative setup fuelled by responsible ,earnest and honest politicians .

A friday evening ..at Woody's

  Yesterday evening,  being a friday too , felt some relief after a gruesome week. For a change and to pamper the taste buds thought of  buying home some Curry masala for dinner  .On the way returning from office, visited the Woody's Hotel as it was very close to our residence and partly for its brand.  Got the menu from the  receptionist. Found the cost of menu items quite exhorbidant in comparison with some decent restaurants(though not as well known as Woodys )  around the area. A mild thought of walking out of the hotel came since atleast 2-3 restaurants are available nearby where i could save at least some 40-50 bucks . However i stayed on . After a brief skimming through the menu , ordered for Mushroom manchurian  and a Panner mutter curry . The bearer brought the items after some 10min time . I quickly made the payment and didn't tally the bill  in detail there in an urge to return home. However, after coming home just went through the bill and found that  Rs.4 per item was billed more as parcel charge. What put me back disappointed was that already i was buying items at a cost more than 2-3 times  its actual  value. Also , as a parcel customer , i was not using the hotel table or uternsils, nor they need to clean/wash them and they save water too. Nor was i enjoying hotel ambience ,a/c etc. No bearer required for service .Despite all , i paid more than what an ordinary dining customer pays ! Moreover the plastic dabbas they used for packing would not cost more than 50paise but Rs 4 was billed! I didn't really understand why the hotel management didn't have the simple grace to spare these fringe profits from the customer? .. that too by a well established brand Woody's!
Nothing wrong at all that business houses look for profit on priority , afterall their job is to make money.
But the concern is that, they are ready to compromise the customer's 'feel-good' factor to make short- term bucks .The sustenance of the any business entity on a long-term is the customer's feel-good factor isnt it?

-
  And  me ...would never come back to Woody's any time again atleast as a parcel customer . Would look for better options.




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Basha

Basha ! an iconic movie from the Superstar Rajinikanth which bombed the mass adrenalin with the one-liner "nan oru thadavai sonna....." I happened to see the movie few days back, once more, after watching probably four or five times before.Checked in Wikipedia ...it was released on the year 1995 ..14yrs back! Not surprised that the movie stood the test of time, for a complete movie is watchable even now with the tempo only mildly faded...(though personally surprised by the quick passage of time....!) and perhaps all along the 14yrs time, the Superstar himself could not really come back with one more flick,which could excel the thumping-impact Basha had on his fans.

The plot begins with the apparently gentle auto-driver, Manikkam(RajiniKanth) , living with his step-brother and sisters. He thrives hard to settle them all , his brother as police inspector and one sister admitted to a medical college and other getting married to her love interest. Also in between gets romanced by Priya (Nagma) .Despite an underlying suspense, things move normal untill once the area is sent to rampage by a local rowdy(Anand Raj) . Manikkam's brother who is also a police inspector by now, tries to defend the rowdy in vain and gets empowered. But Manikkam aware of the ruthlessness of the goons concedes on to getting beaten-up tied on to a lamp-post , to get his brother spared. The very next day,Manikkam's brother arrests Anand raj. However, he gets released and in revenge attemps to molest their sister before Manikkam's house. Manikkam who till then seemed a gentle chap , erupts with the redhot anger of his past (...which till then was shown only few glimpses with negative visual background and suspense audio effect.."basha..basha ") . A tempestuous fight sequence follows where Manikkam demolishes the goons with mercurial fury(....also a ever memorarable treat for the Rajnikanth fans!). His friends
join the fray. Ananda Raj, gets beaten up by Manikkam tied to the same lamp-post in retreat.

The shocking belligerence of Manikkam, evokes suspicion on his cop brother and questions him of his past life in Bombay.... From here, the movie cruises back towards past episode of Manikkam at Bombay where he was the underword don, Basha , with the sole motive of eliminating another leading underworld don, Antony(Raghuvaran) . Here in Bombay too Manikkam was an commoner till Antony one day took stronghold of their locality and went on an evacuating spree threatening out the people at gunpoint.Manikkam and his best friend Basha , alone defied his atrocity. Antony's men brutally kill Basha but spares Manikkam as his father was a personal assistant of Antony. Enraged Maanikkam kills Antony's men who had killed his best friend. Soon Manikkam earns public support and trustworthy friends(which includes actor Janakaraj etc) and renames himself MaanikBasha.From then on proceeds towards eliminating Antony.Maanik(alias)Basha grow fast as a don and shrewdly thwarts attempts by Antony to kill him. Antony on the otherhand was losing support from peers and the cops because of Maanik's growing influence and makes desperate attempts to kill him. Soon , Antony falls prey to Maaniks trap and faces police arrest. Before getting arrested , Antony as a last time effort, pawns Manik's father to kill Maanik.Antony fails this time too and could not escape the law either.But in the drama, Manik's father gets killed. Manik moves to Madras as per his father's last wish and lives as auto-driver.

Coming back to the present , it was not the end as Antony escapes from the prison .He takes on to take revenge Manikkam and hatches a trap.Again, Mani triumps with heroic efforts . But,Antony this time faces his dead end as Manikkam's brother shots him down .

The fans should have been excited with the superstar's belligerent Basha act, with his furious philosophical dialogues, flashing costumes, frameless sunglasses etc Moreover,to sustain Basha, Antony was no meek villain and actor Raghuvaran did his part with finesse. It was a fine good-evil contest.Ans still , more exciting are the sequences which charges the audience with the suspense of Manikkam's past ....whether while politely-threatening the rogue college dean to get his sister admitted or putting Nagma's smuggler father shell-shocked while rescuing her or the stunt-sequence thrashing Anandraj co goons !

Thankfully the movie did not have much humour for it could have pulled down the tempo .

The movie however has some logical lapses too, then and there.. say, the high-profile don Antony himself goes and plants the explosives in Basha's collateral instead of sending his men! A former accomplice of Antony turns to be Nagma's father is too coincidental... but all these goes minor considering the 'weight' of the movie as a whole.

Nagma, perhaps was in her peak of glory days lavishes on glamour quotient to the movie .

and songs! each of them was of a variety and relishing.... stylish, glamourous, romantic, philosphical... Kudos Deva music! The philosophical touch of " ra ra ramaiyya... " , the lyrics depicting the different phases of man's life in multiples of 8 is of a unique variety indeed.

For sure , from an entertainment perspective , Basha is a crown piece of all superstar movies .
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and finally ...some of the favourite dialogues i would like to recall...
"இன்னொரு  தடவ  உன்னை  இந்த  பக்கம்  பார்த்தேன் .....பார்த்த  இடத்துலேயே  குழி  தோண்டி  பொதச்சுடுவேன் !"

"மன்னிகிரதுக்கு   நான்  ஒன்னும்  பாட்ஷா   இல்ல .....அன்டோனி!"


"நான்  சொல்லல ?! ஆண்டவன்  நல்லவங்கள  சோதிப்பான்  ஆனா   கைவிட  மாட்டான்   ...கெட்டவங்களுக்கு  நிறைய  கொடுப்பான்  ஆனா  கை விட்டுடுவான் !...பார்த்தியா?! உன்ன  கை  விட்டுட்டான்!"

"வாழ்கையில  பயம் இருக்கலாம் ...ஆனா  பயமே வாழ்க்கை ஆயிடகுடாது "

and of course  " நான்  ஒரு தடவ சொன்னா நூறு  தடவ  சொன்னா மாதிரி !  "

:)

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Subramaniapuram

There is one popular saying in Tamil 'Kathi eduthavan kathiyala thaan saavan!' . The movie in essence is based on this adage .
The story is timed during the 1980s of the Subramanyapuram area of the Madurai town. The friends Alagar(Jai),Parama(Diector SasiKumar),kasi(Ganja Karuppu) and others spend their time loitring around the area. They are jobless ,often pick up quarrel and even beaten up in lockup at times. They have good rapport with the area ex-councillor and his brother Kanakam(Director Samudrakani) . Also Alagar and the ex-councillor's daughter Tulasi(Swati) have a romantic liking for each other though remains subdued.

The ex-councillor and Kanakam who had lost their councillor post were unable to bear the lost powers they enjoyed during their councillorship period. To add to their grudge, they are refused the district head post too and given to Palaniappan ,another politician. Finally,they decide to kill Palaniappan so that they can escalate to power .The wily Kanakam lure the friends to execute the task. The friends oblige and execute the job as a good will gesture since they had often received petty favours from Kanakam . Alagar & Parama surrenders to the police as they are the prime suspects expecting that Kanakam would bail them .Soon they realize they are cheated. Inside the jail they come in contact with a 'dada' who bails them out using his accomplices, but inherently expecting a reciprocation . The friends commit one more murder for the sake of the 'dada' , again in faith and good will . From here on, they decide to take vengeance on Kanakam and his family .Kanakam who comes to know of their release too decides to kill them. A revengeous hide and seek episode follows to eliminate each other .Also Kanakam who comes to know of Alagar's romance with Tulasi hatches up a trap. He convinces Tulasi to lure Alagar to a secluded place, where unarmed Alagar gets brutally killed by Kanakam's men. Alagar's friend Parama , takes no time to revenge the sinister Kanakam. But soon his other close friend Kasi betrays Parama and gives information on his whereabouts for monetary favour. Parama too get eventually killed by the ex-councillor's men. Kasi who gets released after 28yrs in jail,convicted of killing his friends and Kanakam ,too gets finally killed in revenge for his betrayal.

The part where the friends gets carried away to commit the first murder needed more justification. A murder for rapport sake , is not a sufficient reason . And they execute it
like professional killers is clearly unbelievable.

The romance sequence between Alagar and Thulasi is not much developed . They end up doing only a 'see & smile romance' throughout...

The screenplay is clean and is carried forward without much hiccups till the end. On the acting front,though all Jai,SasiKumar,Ganja & others put up a decent show , it is the wily uncle kanakam (Director Samudrakani) does the job with finesse . Especially the
scene where he very poignantly pulls the friends to commit the first murder , gives a real 'vicious' feel to movie.
Ganja Karuppu as Kasi, who makes us laugh and chuckle in the first half ,doing a betrayal act at the end! ...somewhere, it gives a 'misfit' feel.
The madurai tamil dialogues brought into with its natural accent , is appreciable .
The violence depicted is gruesome but the story demands it. The way Alagar gets killed,that too, betrayed by his beloved Thulasi is spine chilling.
The second half is a glim reminder of the fate of many youngsters of the madurai town taking the blood game path.

If you go the wrong way , you have to pay for it sometime or other - is the clear tacit message.