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...

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.

Puli varudhu..

I saw the movie on a SUN TV night show. Though initially watched only half heartedly, some how the movie pulled me in as it progressed despite annoying frequency of advertisements.

The hero, Ramesh, on a visit to a village on his friend's marriage gets a morbid dream on the way , where the marriage is marred by an unauspicious event.. the mangal sutra falling into the fire. As his friend and his family rejects the marriage,the hero accept to marry the bride girl and request his other friend Karunaas to get a new mangal sutra. But on the way Karunaas dies of a lorry accident. The bride commits suicide setting herself on fire unable to bear her fate .
To the relief ,in reality, the bride turns to be different from the dream girl and marriage proceeds happily. But to the surprise,the hero happens to see another girl in the marriage proceedings,the heroine(Mallika Kapoor) who resembled exactly the bride girl of his morbid dream. The hero falls in love-on-first-sight with this girl and she too shows her liking . Their parents happily agree .
When Ramesh, his family and Karunaas go to the village next for the betrothal arrangement ,the hero again gets a dream! This time his own marriage gets shattered by his father's heart attack and the heroine commmits suicide in a village well.

Ramesh , obviously is put in dilemma whether to ignore the dream and proceed with or to cancel the marriage. Events more or less resembling his dream adds to his woes. How the hero manages the dilemma is the rest of the story.

Jithan Ramesh, played only a subdued role compared to Karunaas . The movie heavily relies on its unusual theme and humour . Good to see a comedy part which doesn't deviates away from the story . A special appreciation for the hero being spared of heroic loquacity and stunts. (but here is where probably it lost in commercial sheen ! )
Towards the end , comedy and suspense are well balanced. Despite all mis-happenings , since there is always a humor touch , it is well evident "hey relax man. The end is surely a 'smiley' ! " The decision of the hero to 'go ahead' on the marriage is not very convincing considering his father's life at stake. The heroine comes as a chubby chocolate girl and fills the glamour part in song sequences.
The unusual concept and humour is the movies's strength. (Though Azhagiya Thamizh magan is based on the same concept, the movie is much hero oriented)
I liked the movie..that is my unequivocal feel!

Raman Thediya Seedhai

The movie is about a gentle & good natured guy Venu(Cheran) looking for a suitable bride and how he succeeds despite all odds & testing times is the story.

Venu is a well-educated,employed, talented guy with decent looks. He has just one problem of stammering which results in getting him rejected by the brides . Bad luck adds to his woes. At last one bride gets fixed . But at the last moment , the bride runs away before marriage . The hero makes up a show as if he runs away taking the blame thus saving the girl's family the worst humiliation. ( Too gud a guy! Except here , his portrayal of his goodness is okay on most other occasions) .
Personally Venu's spirits are severed and is dejected. He incidentally meets Nedumaran(Pasupathi) , an RJ and also a visually disabled person. Nedumaran's bouyance and his romantic interlude with his die-hard fan Thamizhisai(Gajala) lifts his spirits and resumes his bride search. The eloped girl's father(Manivanan) , decides to help him feeling deeply guilt by his daughters felony . Together they go to see Gayathri(Karthika) , a bride from Nagercoil . Gayathri's 's charm and openness impresses Venu. But on the other side,Gayathri is in dilemma on accepting Venu, since an auto-driver(Nitin Sathya) , previously a petty thief changed for her sake , deeply loves her. Venu who incidentally comes to know the whole story from the auto-driver itself helps Gayathri understand his love . Gayathri is convinced and deeply moved .
Venu in between happens to see Manivannan's eloped daughter who is pregnant and in battered state. He helps her to get admitted to a hospital where he unexpectedly sees Ranjitha (too dramatic here.. ) working as a hospital receptionist , who is the first girl to reject him 3 yrs back . They get to now each other better . Slowly Ranjitha gets moved by Venu's good-nature and falls in love though she reveals only at the end . Venu though has a liking for her, does'nt propose again for marriage as he had already been rejected and proceeds with his bride search.
Next bride he plans to see is inspector Senthamarai(Navya Nair) . But this time , faces the embarassment of beaten up by Inspector Senthamarai itself , mistaking him to be a rebel .Venu's frustation is obvious here. When Venu seeks Ranjitha's help in covincing Senthamarai of his innocence , Ranjitha's emotions breaks down and reveals her love . Venu... yes, accepts her proposal ! ...and they lived happy for ever :)

It is a good visual treat with a flow of beautiful heroines(Vimala Raman , Gajala, Ramya Nambeesan , Navya nair, Karthika ) till the end! In fact that saves the movie commercially . Otherwise movie could have got a "boring" response. Cheran has improved in his acting. Vimala Raman who looks stunningly beautiful in her traditional costumes acts well too. Others girl's impress albeit short screen presence. Cheran's 'Autograph' specs which he wears then and there could have been totally avoided. Pasupathi has done an excellent performance and enlivens the audience . Nithin Sathya's role adds mild humour in his romance sequence .
Could have added more comedy with Karunaas .

and finally the movie has a message ..." one cannot judge a person on the first sight or few minutes of conversation ! "

Good to see a mild movie after a long time indeed . A film without villains, bloodsport,vulgarity, double meaning or punch dialogues is refreshing and deserves appreciation . Soft movie goers will like . Others will not be disappointed either.

Dhaam Dhoom

The hero (Jeyam Ravi) , a Doctor,visits Russia for a conference meeting but gets entangled in a murder charge . How the plot unfolds into a drug pedalling episode behind the murder and how the hero gets out is the story. Though the storyline seems to be a interesting thriller, the way the film is made is really shoddy. The movie is never gripping at any point of time as there is no turn of events in the story and is stagnant for the most part. Too much time is spent in run-chase drama. The drug pedalling episode is never properly focussed. The cops chasing the accused hero and the villain gang's attempt to terminate him wouldn't have bored had the real conspiracy plot too moved in parallel rather than at the end. It is illogical that daughter of Police chief does drug pedalling (... mean she could be a drug addict but not a drug peddlar!). The advocate for the hero,(Lakshmi Rai) has nothing to do other than running around with the hero and a duet.
The villain is quite predictable long before being revealed .The climax sequence is slightly interesting though not great. Lot of redundant shots are filled up . There is a romance flashback too for the hero in which he had been in love with a mischievious village girl(Kankana). Here too scenes are filled up irrelelevant to the main storyline.
Only the camera work is appealing and refreshing as used to be in Jeeva movies.

One more weakness to be mentioned is that it never gives a 'local' feel ,except for Ravi( thanks to M.Kumaran S/o Mahalakshmi, Santhosh subramaniam). Felt like watching a dubbed Telugu movie in the village sequence. Also the foreign land effect makes things worse.

few reasons in nutshell why the movie did'nt click
- irrelevant scenes filled up
- leaving Ravi, nobody else give a 'namma aalu' feel.
- too much of run-chase

SAROJA

SaRoJa , the second movie from director Venkat Prabu after the 'Chennai-68' flick is an modest entertainer especially for the youth and middle age groups . The blend of comedy and crime is an infrequent genre in the Tamil cinema and the attempt by the director is welcome...

The actual plot begins with the four friends (played by Premji, Shiva, S.P Charan & Vaibhav ) starting casually from Chennai for a Cricket match at Hyderabad . Initially everything was normal and fun filled as any of us would leave for a trip with friends chit-chatting ,snacking etc. But soon things didnt move as planned as on the way they were caught in a traffic block caused by a tanker toppled down by an accident . The friends decided to take the short cut route and join the main road to Hyderabad . As they proceeded they lose their way and run into a gang of goons and their leader . The four friends ,of course, have no business there other than just escape from that place. Soon turn of events led Saroja who was kidnapped and trapped in the gang's camp also to join with them in their escape mission . and how they do it is rest of the story ..

Focus is more on the four friends' comraderie, tussle and their 'heroic' endeavours to escape from the gang than on the kidnap episode. The dialogues among the friends and their delivery were natural . Only the addressing each other 'sir.. sir' initially and 'da ..da' later here and there was not so acceptable. Premji, Shiva, S.P Charan and Vaibhav suited their roles and put up a decent show. Premji carried a big responsibility , the comedy part and did it good enough.

The escape sequence happening around the night/midnight dark and the seemingly ruthless villains added ample eerie . Everytime the tension builds up , Ganesh (Premji) comes out with his comedy dialogues and tickles us . Shiva and others too added to the humour . Seems the director never wanted the film to be serious at any point of time . Even in a tense climax , humour is sprinkled . No doubt , comedy is a big strength to the movie as an entertainer . But at times the same were irksome , when we are engrossed in a real thriller mood . Particularly the muscial background of some old movie songs to add comic effect could have been avoided as the plot moved towards the end.

Jayaram comes as a cop to rescue Saroja , his close friend Vishwanathan's (Prakash Raj) daughter, from the kidnap gang. Prakash Raj played only a subdued role .

Camera lightings were perfertly done and especially deserves appreciation in the second half where the story moves mostly in dark . Also hard work is obvious in many of the shots where scenes were projected from different angles . But it also needs mention that many times the camera movements & scene shifts were too quick that it makes the eye coordination with the scene uncomfortable . May be it is a camera technique to project a tense or a eerie situation . But the same too often is not apt .

The villain's love interest Kalyani (played by Nikita Thukral)added steam amidst thrill with the item number "kodana kodi..."

Music..Few songs linger. Also kudos to Yuvan for the background music , especially the beats at critical moments.

Could have saved some budget if the first 40 min was compressed to some 10-15 mins !

To conclude , the movie as mentioned in the beginning is a modest entertainer and fits well in a 'gud , watchable once ' types..